When they reach there, Hermione requests to enter Lukas's cell. Steve hesitates, gives Hermione a side glance with a suspicion look. Sure, Hermione said they don't have any place to go, but she could be lying. She's an assassin. She's trained to lie more or less. Even though Hermione sounded nice while they talked, but he can't believe her a hundred percent.

Without waiting for Steve's answer, Hermione orders the guard to open the door for her. The guard glances at Steve as if asking, "Can we trust her?" After Steve gave him a nod of approval, the guard unlocks the door and Hermione enters with no word of thanks.

The cold, icy environment greets Hermione again, shaking her slightly. It reminds her her own experience being locked down in the alike dungoen somewhere in her many missions. She shoves her hands inside her jeans while walking towards a blond boy who is sitting in the middle of the room, a table sets in front of him.

Hermione didn't smile when Lukas looks up to her. "Hey," she greets him in a low, gentle voice. She drags an extra chair opposite Lukas and lowers her bum on it.

Lukas returns Hermione's look with a blank stare. "Hm."

After a few seconds, Hermione speaks up again. "You're okay?" she asks in concern.

"You want me to lie or you want me to tell the truth?" Lukas looks at Hermione with an eyebrow raised.

"Lie to me." Hermione shrugs.

"Well," Lukas sighs, leaning back against his seat and crossing his arms on his chest. "I've never been better, haven't I?" he says. "Never been so relaxed before."

Hermione softly chuckles. "Should've known you'll answer that," she states lowly.

Lukas smiles hearing Hermione's laugh. Although he's supposed to be distressed with his current sotuation but hearing Hermione's soft laughter makes him forget where he actually is.

But then, his sparkling eyes change to a sad one when he asks Hermione a question. "What about you? You must be mourning over Aaron's death, aren't you?"

The girl smiles bitterly. "Don't we?" She tilts her head. Her usual mischievous eyes is replaced with a hurt ones, where the last time Lukas saw was when Arnold died. "He's... pretty much the only person we need."

"Yeah." Lukas nods in agreement. His eyes gaze away from Hermione's, looking down at the table.

While enjoying the silence, suddenly Lukas's laugh echoes in the stony empty room. It sounded strange in Hermione's ears, somehow. She never heard that kind of laugh caiming from Lukas's throat before.

Hermione looks at him with a curious look.

"I swear to God, I'm going to kill the person who killed Aaron," he says with such determination. His eyes burn with hatred.

Hermione stiffens in her seat and gasps in shock. Her instantly heart, she feels as if it stops, falls out of her rib cage and explodes like a volcano uppn listening to Lukas's words. Even if she didn't look at Lukas's eyes, she knows her friend was not playing around.

She stoops her head down, looking everywhere on the plain table as if searching for answer.

"Too bad I wasn't there when it happened," Lukas mutters. He then looks up at the girl in front of him. "You know who killed him?"

Hermione stares at Lukas for a second. "No," she says, but realising how low and gruff, her voice sounded that made her look as if she hesitated, Hermione clears her throat. "No," she repeats louder and clearer and this time more confident to cover her mistake. "You think he's someone we know?"

"Yes," he answers firmly.

"How do you know?" Hermione has to ask. She's afraid that Lukas would find out Aaron's murderer. "The person could be someone random from S.H.I.E.L.D agent."

Lukas shakes his head. "I won't believe if it's someone random who killed him. Think about it: A sergeant fights with sergeant. You don't want to fight with weaklings."

"Sergeant?" Hermione raises one of her eyesbrows.

"Whatever!" Lukas rolls his eyes. "It's just an example."

Laughing, Hermione nods her head. Yes, she agrees with Lukas. She'd even thought about it before, but she pretends not seeing it; she pretends she didn't know anything.

A few seconds of silence passed where Lukas occupies the spare time thinking who could possibly killed Aaron Rooster. He wasn't there like he said. When the alarm buzzed off, he went out to find Aaron for further orders. As soon as Aaron told him to cover the Newborns, he didn't see Aaron anymore although he could guess he went straight away up to his office, where Lukas sat before the SOS alarm went off. Then, he didn't know what happened. He received the news of death of Aaron when he'd already locked up.

Opposite of him, Hermione thinks all the possible ways to avoid Lukas from suspecting Tony Stark. At the moment, she still hates her father yet she didn't want him to be killed. After all those people she cared about, Tony Stark is definitely not the last person Hermione wants to loose.

"You have any idea who killed him, Hermione?" Lukas was oblivious with the anxious look on Hermione.

The Stark's daughter shivers. For the first time, she feels uneasy with the thought of someone wants to kill her Dad. For the first time, she feels the need to protect her father from being accused although she knows the truth. She hated Tony for killing Aaron but she can't except if Lukas wants to kill him.

"Even if I knew I don't think I'm right," Hermione says.

Lukas looks at his friend with hope. "Tell me." He leans towards the table, looking suddenly interested, which scares Hermione even more. "Tell me who that motherfucker!"

Instantly, Hermione glares at Lukas. "You're not allowed to say that word!"

The boy can't see the reason, but as he looks at Hermione with curiosity and with an eyebrow raised, he feels odd. "Why, if I may ask?"

Hermione clenches her jaws and fists under the table, holding herself from telling the truth like what her heart wants. But her mind knows better. "Can't say," she says.

"Hem? Do you know something, Hermione?"

She's aware that she has changes her mood because of Tony, but even though she tried to dig back her actual didn't-care-about-the-world personatily at the moment she can't. Because she's blunt. She's afraid that when she's too happy she'll tell Lukas everything.

After thinking, Hermione sighs. "Look," she begins seriously, "I didn't know who killed Aaron, at least for now. But I promise you as soon as I know, I'll kill him myself." Truth is, she has killed Tony even before he killed Aaron.

Lukas shakes his head, disagreeing with his friend. "I want to make him suffer at first." With that line, it squeezes Hermione's heart. "I want to make him feel how all of us feel when you lost the star of your life," Lukas continues. "What's important now is you, Hermione. I know it just breaks you when Aaron died, like how it breaks you when Arnold died. Those two were your men. I'm going to take revenge for you."

"What, no," Hermione protests even Lukas haven't finished his line. "I can't let you do that," she says, trying to maintain the cold tone in her voice. "What past is past. I don't want to remember."

Lukas can't help to look at Hermione with a confused look and laugh as if Hermione is insane. "What are you talking about, Hermione?"

"I am saying that I don't want you to hunt that killer of Aaron and torture him and I don't want you to do anything for me. I'm fine, okay. I don't want anything from anyone."

"Are you planning to live here, Hem? Apply to be one of their agents?" Lukas's eyebrows knitted on his temple. "You think they're going to accept you as easy like that? They're going to think that you're planning on betraying them, Hermione. They're going to think that you're here for an advantage."

Lukas stays his gaze on Hermione, who is now looking everywhere in the room to avoid his flaming eyes. He notices how Hermione has been so defensive with S.H.I.E.L.D the past couple of minutes, and he feels so stupid for not noticing it soon. That girl has mastered up how to look neutral on her feature that Lukas didn't think how Hermione acted in the first place was real. Until then.

"You don't have anyone you know in this building, do you?" Lukas asks. He may suspected the answer to be a yes, but when Hermione jerks her head towards him, her warming eyes that fall on him looks so troubled, he's shocked.

"What the fuck, Hermione?!" Lukas bursts, standing up abruptly, throwing his chair a few inches away from him, falling on the floor with a loud thud.

"Lukas, please, listen to me." Hermione gestures her hand in a way to tell him to calm down.

"Don't tell me that because of her you don't want me to kill Aaron's murderer." He points her finger directly in front of the girl's face.

It hurts Hermione when Lukas starts to tall bad about Tony even though he didn't know. With a sigh, reluctantly Hermione replies, "Him."

"WHAT?"

Hermione stands up. "I'm sorry, Lukas," she whispers. Right now, she feels so stupid for not telling Lukas, her best friend, about her family history. "He's all I have now. I can't risk his life only for Aaron."

"Are you kidding me, Hem? Are you kidding me?" Lukas is furious, that if you give him his rifle, he'd be happy to kill anyone on his sight. "Aaron was ours! He was what we had. And now because of... that someone that you know, we can't do anything for Aaron? I can't believe how fast you change your mind, Hermione." He shakes his head in disappointment.

"He's my father," she answers too proudly, that even herself didn't believe it was her who said it.

"Your father is Arnold." Lukas finds himself starting to hate Hermione.

"My... father... is...," Hermione once again clenches her jaws and fists. Unfortunately, she didn't trust Lukas to tell her secret; but it's too late now, isn't it?

She takes a deep breath as if to encourage herself to do it. "My father is Tony," she emphasises on his name, making it clear on Lukas's ears.

"Excuse me?" Lukas can't believe that her best friend, whom he knows hated her father so much for leaving her when she was young, now is claiming him back.

"You heard me, Lukas," Hermione says. "My father is Tony Stark. And my name is not Hermione, it's Helen. I changed my name to Hermione because I didn't want anyone who knows me as Stark's daughter. I was mad at him, so I changed my name with no specific last name. Arnold agreed with it. He understood. I called him Dad because I missed my real Dad so much and he didn't protest it either. He taught me how to shoot and stuffs for my self-defence but I insisted him to allow me to be an assassin. Not because he forced me to."

Lukas stares at Hermione is full of shock and disappointed. Although he looks pale, but the look in his eyes, makes someone believes that he can still do whatever he wants to even if he's frozen.

"Are you shitting me, Hermione? Because, trust me, I-"

"I am telling the truth, Lukas," she says with such tense on every word. "The next only person who knows this is Aaron. And he even said to me himself that if one day if I want to get back to my real Dad, he allows me."

"But he's dead now," Lukas quickly reponds. "And your so-called real Dad killed him!"

"Don't think I am fine with it, Lukas!" Hermione yells back. "You didn't know anything about me or him. So please. Don't do anything to him. Don't harm him. Or at least, let me do it. Believe me, I've been doing it since we met when I was kidnapped. And he was all dejected and clueless to handle me."

Lukas looks at Hermione for a second. "So you're telling me you're not what you are? That for the past years was act?" Lukas laughs at himself. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! I can't believe that I've been fooled with Hermione!" He states like a crazy guy.

"Don't say like that, Lukas. We're best friends. I don't have any reasons to act in front of you. I am always me when I am with you."

"Shut it."

"Lukas-"

"Shut it!"

Lukas is panting. His heart is pounding heavily in his chest as he paces back and forth in the room while running his fingers through his blond hair repeatedly. Muttering words Hermione couldn't understand, he keeps her eyes down on the stony floor, didn't dare to look up at Hermione. He hates to look at Hermione now. He hates her.

How can she still defend Aaron's murder when he'd totally done a crime? How can she act so cool when he'd killed their hope? How can she be fine when Aaron's dead and now they have nowhere to go?

The relationship he built with Hermione for four years, seems to him now has broken up. She can find a new best friend in the headquarter later when she becomes a S.H.I.E.L.D agent because that's what she wants. It's not his concern anymore. What he cares now is the boys they keep somewhere in the cells a few blocks away. How to free them? How to free himself?

Tons and tons of thoughts are running inside Lukas's mind, that for a second he thought he could go crazy because of it.

While Hermione watches her best friend pacing with a worried expression, someone opens the door. Lukas stops. Both of them turn towards the door.

"It seems that both of you are having problems with... among youselves," states the person at the door, who Director Nick Fury.

Lukas and Hermione glance at each other.

"Well, I don't care what you were talking about, but now I need both of you to follow me," Fury says with his nature-calmed voice.