Instead of rejoining the scene of abuse between his sisters and stepfather, he found himself in a brightly lit hallway. Sterling squinted his eyes, the transition between the dark room and the blinding light burning his retinas for a moment. He was back in SHIELD. The original NY base. Yelling and gunfire echoing in the distance told him exactly what day he had stumbled upon.
Void Sterling was standing with his gun pointed down at an injured man. His younger self stood defiantly on the man's injured leg, pressing his dress shoe harder down onto the gunshot wound to punctuate his question.
"W-Wha-AHH!" The injured man cried.
"How long have you been HYDRA, Stevens?"
"I suggest you answer the man." Agent Penelope Morgan said, pulling her blade out of another man's sternum and pointing her gun at the man as well.
"S-Seven ye-AHH!" The man cried out again as Void Sterling pressed his foot harder into his leg and gritted his teeth.
Real Sterling stood watching the scene, knowing it was a formative moment for him. This day was the reason he stopped using guns and switched to ICERs instead. It's why he insisted his entire team do the same. This entire scene left a bad taste in his mouth. The man wasn't quick to anger but that day had shattered him in ways he'd never recover.
“Agent Sterling. We can’t stay here much longer,” Penelope sighed, shaking her head, “We have to move.”
Sterling watched as Void Sterling's gun hand trembled. He watched the gears turning. The hesitation. The internal struggle as he tried to decide if he could kill this man. He remembered this moment. His first kill. A friend. Or so he thought. He hadn't wanted to look weak in front of Pen and he didn't know what else to do with this traitor but to put him down. There was no time. He was just a level four. He wasn't a field agent. He wasn't trained to do this. Sterling realized he never really talked about this day much. No one ever seemed to want to. It was the darkest day in SHIELD history and those that survived had done terrible things in order to make it out alive.
He was different now but this moment flooded him with regret.
Sterling turned as the gun went off and the blood of Agent Robert Stevens sprayed, surprising him in the fact that he felt it hit his face. So, he could manipulate this landscape. He could feel it. As the scene restarted Sterling watched his void self curiously. When he was about to pull the trigger Sterling whispered gently to him, trying to place a hand on his arm to lower the gun.
"You don't have to do this."
Void Sterling suddenly turned his head to look at his older self, startling Sterling into recoiling away.
"What is SHIELD?" Void Sterling insisted, stepping closer to him, referencing the words Merc had asked him in the warehouse. Sterling was so taken aback by the sudden reaction he stumbled backwards down the hallway and fell through an open door.
