The therapist's office was on the far east side of The Triskelion, SHIELD Headquarters. It was a medium sized room and looked like any other counseling office. There was a desk that faced the door, on it was a computer, and little knick knacks like a Rubik's Cube, a snow globe of the Washington Monument, a coffee mug that held pens and pencils, and a few papers here and there. Behind the desk was a window, it provided most of the light in the room aside from a tall lamp in the corner of the room, and another desk lamp at the coffee table that was placed in between two arm chairs that sat across from each other. There was another table near the window that held a coffee maker with paper cups.

Connie, my therapist, sat at the desk when I walked in. She looked up from her computer and smiled. 

"Hi, Ellie. I got your text, sit down." She looked at her computer screen and finished up something before standing up. I walked over to the arm chair and sat down, crossing my legs and waiting for Connie to take her seat.

"Would you like some coffee?" She gestured to the coffee maker. 

"No, thank you." I shook my head.

Connie sat down and folded her hands in her lap. "So, you told me that something happened during your mission last night?" 

"Yes." I nodded. 

"Could you describe to me what happened?" She asked. 

I told Connie about the mission as vaguely as I could. I wasn't necessarily supposed to tell anyone other than intel or mission report the details. The only thing I went in detail about was the incident in the hall. I did my best to explain what exactly my ice did, but even I didn't quite understand it. I ran my hand through my hair and propped my elbow on the arm rest. 

"I've never been able to do that with ice before, control it from another location, it's always been directly from my hands."

Connie nodded, she looked like she was trying to understand, but there was no way anyone really could. 

"The amount of stress that you were put under must have disabled the mental wall that you have built to keep you from using your abilities," she said. The obvious. Connie continued. "It's PTSD, as I have told you, past experiences that you have gone through trigger memories that take over the present. You almost go into a trance, rendering you defenseless. When you have your nightmares you tend to wake up with frost on your bed. Perhaps when you are awake, the side effects are more severe."

I lifted my arm from the chair. "I want to know why I was able to kill those hostiles, I didn't know their exact location, all I knew was that they were behind me, I could have hit Rollins." I said. Then I paused and furrowed my brows.  "I'm not psychic, am I?"

Connie laughed. "In this day and age, with people like you in the world, who knows?" 

"It's true." I nodded. Wouldn't that be interesting to know? Psychic abilities and I have cold hands. 

"What about your nightmares?" Connie asked. "Are they getting better? Worse?" 

"Unfortunately, I'd say worse." I answered. "There's a new one." 

Connie furrowed her brow. "A new one?" 

"Another nightmare or memory, I guess, except I don't remember it?" I scratched my head. "I find myself in this... Cage or cell and I can hear someone's screams, a man. I have this urge to try and get to them, but I can't get out of this cell." 

"Do you recognize the screams?" Connie asked. 

"I think? I don't know." I looked down.

"What else happens?" Connie asked. 

"I feel this pain throughout my body, it sort of ripples through in waves, then all at once and I wake up." I explained. The screams faintly echoed in my head and I shivered. "There's also words... in a different language." 

Connie raised her head and leaned forward to take her notebook from the coffee table. She opened it and clicked her pen. I blinked at the notebook. 

"Words?" She repeated. 

Yeah..." I replied, watching as she scribbled on the paper. "I don't know what they are but they scare me." 

Connie glanced up from her notebook. "Do you know what language?" 

I leaned back in my seat as I thought. The string of words echoed in my head and I focused on the rough sound of them. The intonation of each syllable was foreign to me, yet familiar. I scowled and shook my head. 

"It beats me, but if I were to guess I'd say Russian... something European," I said. 

Connie nodded slowly and closed her notebook. It was always for the strangest things that she brought out the notebook. Then again, I'm no therapist and I don't know what she is thinking. 

"Let's circle back to what the dream started with, to dream that you are in a cage indicates that you are feeling powerless in some areas of your life. Do you feel that you are experiencing this?" Connie said. 

"No, I mean, I like my job here at SHIELD, I have my apartment with Steve, he is in no way confining me to anything." I replied. 

"Were you scared?" Connie asked, I nodded. "You may have feelings of self-doubt, lack of control. Maybe changing up your routine can give you a sense of control." 

I nodded. "What about the screams?" I asked. 

"Often times when you hear someone screaming in a dream, it could mean that some friend or family member is in need of your help." Connie answered. 

I was silent for a moment, thinking of the possibilities. Steve isn't in danger, I don't think. "Well, all of my immediate family members are dead. Steve doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger." I said. 

"And you don't have any memories of being in a cage?" Connie asked. 

"No." I shook my head. "Connie, ever since I came back from Cryo it's never been back to normal. I never expected it to ever be normal, but, I just didn't expect to be going to therapy."

A knock came to the door and I turned my head. The door opened and Steve stuck his head in.

"Are you almost finished?" He asked. 

I looked back at Connie and she shrugged. "If you are needed you may leave." 

I looked back at Steve. "Fury wants to show us something." 

I nodded and stood up before turning to Connie. "Thanks for the talk, Connie."

"I'm always here." Connie smiled and we shook hands before Steve and I left.

~

Nick Fury was waiting in front of an elevator. He pressed the down button and stepped into the compartment, Steve and I followed. 

"Insight bay." Fury spoke aloud.

The elevator had voice recognition for levels, certain Agents had certain clearance for levels. 

"Captain Rogers and Agent Flint do not have clearance for Project Insight." A robotic voice came from a small screen next to the elevator door and displayed our ID photos. 

"Director Override. Fury, Nicholas J." Fury said. 

"Confirmed." The robotic voice replied and the elevator began to move down.

I looked out the window at the view of DC, it was always a nice view to look at. We stood in an awkward silence before Steve spoke up. 

"You know, they used to play music." He referred to old elevators. I smiled, thinking about the little tunes that would play. 

"Yeah," Fury nodded. "My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years." 

"Sounds like a cheerful job." I said. 

"He worked in a nice building, got good tips." Fury continued his story. "He'd walk home every night with a roll of Ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'Hi', people would say 'Hi' back. Time went on and the neighborhood got rougher. He'd say 'Hi', they'd say 'Keep on stepping.' Grandad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter." 

"He ever get mugged?" Steve asked and Fury chuckled. 

"Every now and then some punk would say 'What's in the bag?'" 

"What did he do?" I asked. 

"He'd show em'." Fury looked at Steve and I. "A bunch of crumpled Ones and a loaded '22 Magnum."

The elevator passed ground level and for a second there was concrete on the other side of the window, then we arrived at the basement. 

"Yeah, grandad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much." Fury finished. 

Steve and I looked out the window, the entire basement was lit up from the ceiling and floor. Three helicarriers were lined up, each of them carried cannons on the sides. Even larger ones were placed on the roof.

"Jesus." I mumbled moving closer to the glass to observe the large vehicles. 

These carriers didn't show up over night, that was obvious. With how many there were I could only guess that this had been here for more than a year. Right below the Triskelion and Steve and I didn't know it. 

"Yeah I know, they're a little bigger than a '22." Fury said. 

"A little?" I looked at him.

The elevator stopped and the three of us got out and began walking along side the huge vessels.

"This is Project Insight," Fury said as we walked. "Three next generation helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from the Lumerian Star," Steve deduced. 

"Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down." Fury continued. "Continuous suborbital flight, courtesy of our new repulser engines."

We looked up at the rounded engines that no longer were powered by propellors.

"Let me guess, Stark?" I inquired. 

"He had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines." Fury replied. We walked under the carriers to look that the rows of guns that hung down from the bottom of the vessel. "These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist DNA before he steps outside a spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

We stood on a platform that began to move horizontally past the helicarriers. 

"You guys really out did yourselves in the process." I said, staring up at the guns. Which was true, it looked like the whole idea behind Project Insight had been over looked. 

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime." Steve said. 

"We can't afford to wait that long." Fury replied. 

"Who's we?" Steve asked. 

"After New York I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge and threat analysis." Fury answered. "For once we're way ahead of the curve." 

"By holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection." Steve said. 

"You know I read those SSR files. Greatest Generation? You guys did some nasty stuff." Fury said, and I didn't want to admit it, but he had a point. 

"Yeah, we compromised." Steve turned to face Fury. "Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well, but we did it so that people could be free." He pointed up to the carriers. "This isn't freedom, this is fear." 

I looked up at the carriers, then back at Fury. 

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be." Fury asserted. "It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

I looked at the carriers and spoke. "Steve, maybe he's right." Steve looked at me, almost shocked. "You weren't here when attacks were brought on our country." I explained, looking back at Steve. "When 9/11 happened, no one was prepared, no one knew what was coming. There was no warning what so ever." I pointed up at the carriers. "With these, attacks could be stopped."

Steve looked at Fury in silence.

"Don't hold your breath." He turned away and began walking. "C'mon, Ellie."

I glanced at Fury before following Steve to the elevator. We stepped inside and I spoke out loud. 

"Main floor." I said. 

The elevator began moving up and we stood in silence. I looked at Steve, he stood still, gazing forward at the door. 

"I'm going to change out of my suit, then we'll leave. I've got some plans for the day, you should come with." He said. 

"Okay." I nodded.