It happened in a second. No one heard what Eve said over the sound of a Chitauri firing. All they saw was the small child pushing Loki out of the way, then a flash of blue hit her. Then a scream. The Avengers' didn't even have time to catch her before she fell sideways, hitting the ground with a sickeningly loud thud.

"Evening/Eve!" Multiple people shouted, rushing forward with shocked looks on their faces. Even Loki looked shocked and angry. He wheeled around and used his magic to blast the alien into oblivion. Then he turned to the bleeding girl.

"You stupid child!" He snapped, "Why would you do that?!" Eve smiled at him, as blood ran out of her mouth. There was a hole straight through her upper chest, and her hand rested over it.

"You were going to get hurt," Her voice was horse and tears welled in her eyes from the pain. She had heard the tiny crack in his voice, and saw the saddness in his soul. She saw the differeance in soul from when he was under the staff's power, and just knew. She reached out her hand to the god, and he knelt down next to her.

The hole was too big, too deep for her powers to heal. The wound was drawing too much of her power towards itself, too fast. She felt her life slip from her as her body tried helplessly to heal itself. She knew she was going to die.

"Stupid mortal," Loki said, his voice filled with sadness and bitter humor, "You are too much like your father..." Still... The god took her tiny hand. Eve smiled at him, the looked to her father.

"T-Tony?" Her voice cracked with fear, "I did good today, right?" She saw the pain in his face as she asked the question. Tears brimmed in his eyes.

"Yeah sweetheart," He said, "You were the best Avenger." She smiled as a tear ran down her face. She turned to the others, seeing the tears in their eyes. She saw how Grim was smiling sadly down at her, pulling his cloak over his shoulders.

"You'll take my body to Hel, won't you?" She asked, remembering the promise he made when they met. Grim nodded, and flicked his hood up. She smiled. "Thank you..." The world started to fade, and she felt her best friend lift her up.

"I love you... Daddy," Eve said as the last bit of life left her.

-2 month earlier-

An hour ago, Tony hadn't been father. Well, he had, he just didn't know it. Hell, Tony had been a father for 8 years and hadn't know a thing about it. Shield though, was a different story. They seemed to know everything about this situation. The fact that they managed to keep this from him, even though he regularly hacked Shield, was both impressive and infuriating. Impressive because they hid it from him, the Tony Stark. It was infuriating because he actually had the right to know this time!

He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he glared at Agent Coulson from across the coffee table. Next to Agent, curled up like a cat was the sleeping form of his 8 year old daughter.

She didn't look like him, or anyone Tony remembered sleeping with - and believe him, even if he had been drunk, Tony would remember someone who looked like that. It wasn't that the kid was ugly or anything, in fact, she was adorable. A bit bruised, and worse for the wear - not to mention wearing a Shield uniform like a baggy dress - but as adorable as any other kid. The media and Pepper would eat her up. She just look a bit... Strange.

She had long hair that was silky, and a bit on the fluffy side. It was the color of fresh, undisturbed snow, and curled at its tips. Her skin was milky, and almost matched her hair in color, except for several scars and bruises. Her facial features were sharp, and elvish, with high cheekbones and a sharp jaw. Her noes was a small, button noes, though, and had a light dusting of freckles that were only a shade darker then her normal skin tone - sort of gray in color. On her left cheek was her most notably and strangest feature; A large, black tattoo.

It had been the first thing about the girl that he had noticed, what with the contrast between the dark marking and the girl's light skin and hair. The black marking covered about a fourth of her face, going from her left eye, to her jawline. Two diagonal lines, each attached to a horizontal line at it's end. It looked almost like a lightning bolt, but at the same time it didn't. It immediately made him wonder who, exactly, would tattoo a little kid's face?

"Explain this to me again," Tony demanded. He wanted to be sure he got this right.

Agent sighed, and pointed to his daughter. "This," He said, "Is your daughter, Eve Stark. She has recently been removed from her mother's home, she was an ex of yours named Danielle Lumres, due to it being unsafe for her. Her stepfather said that he didn't want Eve, and to just get rid of her."

"Shield, who has been watching Eve for years, decided to step in and make sure that she wasn't sent to an orphanage. Fury decided it was time for you to be informed of her, and hopefully raise her. So he sent me, and now we are here."

"First off, why was Shield following a kid?" Tony asked, looking at the girl in incredulously.

"We protect our interests," Agent said cryptically. Tony didn't know whether or not he like liked the fact that his young daughter was a Shield interest. Probably not.

"Secondly, what if I don't want her?" Not that he didn't. If this all turned out to be true, and Eve was his daughter, then there was no way in hell that Tony would ever turn her away.

Agent smiled an almost evil smile. "Agent Romanoff has agreed to become Eve's handler, if that's the case. Eve will become the youngest ever Shield recruit, and train to become an assassin." He said.

"Like hell!" Tony shouted. Daughter or not, he wasn't going to hand some kid off to shield knowing full well that she would be turned into a weapon. Agent smirked at him, and he knew this was what the man wanted.

Unfortunately, his shouts seemed to wake up Eve. She blinked slowly, and sat up, looking around. Much to his disappointment, she didn't had his eyes either. Eve had eyes like pale blue glass, unlike his brown ones. They were wide, but didn't have that innocent look that children's eyes should have. They looked like the eyes of old men who had seen too much. They didn't fit on the face of a child.

"Mr. Coulson?" Eve asked, looking slightly confused and apprehensive.

"You fell asleep on the car ride to your father's," Agent said, "Eve, say hello to Anthony Edward Stark, your biological father." The white-haired girl turned to Tony, and scanned him with her eyes. He could almost see the gears turning in her head as she analyzed him.

"Um," Tony said dumbly, "Hi?" The corners of Eve's lips turned up, and she rearranged herself so her feet dangled off the couch.

"'Ello," She said, smiling at him. It didn't touch her eyes.

Tony turned to Agent again. "So do I have to sign something or do I just... Keep her?" He asked, and Eve snorted.

"Shield will send you the paper work," Agent said, then turned to Eve. "Be good for your father," He said, patting her head, "Agent Barton or Director Fury will come check on you in a few weeks, and make sure you like it here" The young girl nodded.

"Yes Mr. Coulson," The girl replied, slightly sad.

Agent stood, and began to walk towards the elevator. "Remember Stark," He said as the elevator opened, "No matter how weird things get, Eve is your daughter." Then the doors closed, leaving the little family alone.

Tony glanced at Eve out of the corner of his eye. What had Agent Coulson meant by that warning? Could Eve's strangeness go further then just looks? She seemed harmless enough, but then again, he had just met her. How would he know?

At the edge of Tony's vision, a shadowy form flickered. His head snapped towards it, but nothing was there. Eve tilted her head to the side, and looked to were Tony was looking. A small, smirk-like smile formed on her face. It was full of knowing, and also mischievousness.

"You saw him," She stated, rather then asked, "And so soon. You must have had a serious brush with death."

"What?" Tony asked, shock clear in his voice.

Eve's smile turned sweet again. "Nothing," She said, waving her hand. Tony thought that maybe this was what Agent meant by 'weird'. He decided that he would leave it be till Pepper got home and could give him some advice. Standing, he looked down at his new daughter.

"We have four hours till Pepper gets home," Tony stated, "Do you want Chinese food, because I want Chinese food." Eve jumped off the couch, and Tony realized how tiny she was. She was less then four feet tall, and the Shield uniform hung to below her knees. A piece of string was tied around her waist, helping keep it on. Tony made a mental note to buy her some clothes.

"Who is Pepper?" Eve asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

"Pepper is my personal assistant, and girlfriend," Tony said, "Don't worry about her, let's just order some food." She nodded and quickly followed as he left the room. Tony, glancing at her once more, could almost imagine his daughter as a puppy, tail wagging happily. Curiosity burned in her eyes.

Tony sighed, he was going to have a lot to explain to Pepper when she got home...

0oO0oO

Eve liked this man. She had many reasons to like Tony, and not many to dislike him. He was her father, first off, and had agreed to take her in. He bought her deciduous food, and let her watch him build things in a cool lab. Most of all, he had a nice soul, and could even see Grim. Well, Tony could almost see Grim, and over time, he may be able to see him fully.

As for his soul, it was a funny thing. It was large, and full of life and energy. It reached out and seemed to encase everything around him. It had a pretty mix of colors to it, too, one Eve didn't see too often. There was a lot of bright red, with a thin layer of yellow-orange outlining it. It had specks of lavender in it, along with the tinniest bit of dark blue and emerald green. An even smaller bit of his soul, right over his heart, was a dot of gold. It was nice, and comforting.

Eve watched as her father worked with this red and gold gauntlet-thing. It had a blue circle on the palm, and she wondered what it did. She wonder whether or not it had something to do with that Iron man thing Mr. Barton and Miss Romanoff had mentioned. That though made her wonder if the suit was actually here, in the tower. Eating a bite of chow mei, she glanced at her only friend.

His name was Grim, and he was both a friend and a protector. The first thing people noticed was that he was tall, and lithe, like a ballerina. He had messy, shoulder-length black hair, that hung like shaggy curtains. His skin was pale, with the same symbol on his right cheek as there was on her left on. His eyes were narrow, hawk-like, and dark black in color with flecks of red.

Grim was also translucent to Eve, and invisible to everyone else, unless they had had a brush with death. Even those people couldn't physically touch him, only she could do that. Sure, he could pick things up an move them around, but most people would just walk straight through Grim. Eve on the other hand, could hug him, braid his hair, and even play board games.

Grim glanced at her, and smiling at her kindly. She smiled back, and looked at her father's back. He was still working with the gauntlet-thing. It made her thoughts drift back to the suit, and, in turn, the tower.

'Grimmy,' She thought, pointing her thoughts towards her friend.

'Yes Evening?' He replied, looking at her.

'Could you look around the tower for me?' She asked him, 'Just so that you can make sure I don't get lost later.' Grim smiled, and gave a little bow.

"Yes, Mistress," Before Eve knew it, he had disappeared from sight.

"Did you say something kiddo?" Tony asked, putting down his work and looking at her. Her head snapped back towards him, and smiled.

"I just asked if there was something wrong with your heart," She asked, diverting his attention. His eyes widened slightly, and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. A circular machine that glowed blue was protruding slightly from his chest.

Eve's eyes widened as well. It was just like the Tesseract, the cube, as she called it - otherwise known as the thing that Shield had let her play with at the base. Only this was small, more compacted, and not quite as... Whole... As the cube had been. It was as if the thing in his chest was an incomplete replica of the cube. Still, the fact that anyone could come so close to rebuilding it amazed her.

"How did you replicate the Tesseract so closely?" She asked, her eyes still wide. Tony, who had picked up his coke, dropped it, and managed to choke at the same time.

"Shit!" He coughed out, "JARVIS, please clean that up!" Jarvis, who Eve had found out was an AI that controlled Stark tower, quickly got to work as Tony turned to her.

"Mr. Tony?" Eve asked shyly, worried that she did something wrong.

"How do you," He asked slowly, "Know about the Tesseract?" Eve tried to smile it off, and gave an awkward giggle. "Eve..."

"Shield let me play with it while I was staying with them," She said, forging innocence.

It happened within seconds, and Eve saw it coming. His soul didn't seem to change much, but did indicated his spiked curiosity. Tony picked something up off a counter, and tried to discreetly walk towards her. Her eyes widened as she saw it was some kind of needle. Immediately, images and memories flashed in front of her eyes. Images of her mother, The School, the cold metal tables, the straps holding her body down...

A scream ripped from her throat as she scrambled to get away. She ran for the stairs, knowing that the elevator would take too long. Tony, of course, was running after her, still holding the long needle.

She ran up the tower's steep stairs. Her feet pounded out a constant, panicked rhythm, echoed by Tony's. She had no idea where she was heading, all she knew was that she had to get away from the needle.

She turn a corner, and throw open a door. It was the floor Mr. Coulson had first brought her to. She rand past a posted plant, and then bumped into a pair of legs, landing on the floor with a thud. Tony came to a stop right behind her. She felt a quick jab on her arm and yelped.

"Ha!" Tony said triumphantly, drawing some blood from her arm. Eve looked up at Tony, eyes wide. He just wanted her blood? He didn't inject her with anything? Why didn't he just say so?

"Tony Edward Stark," A sharp voice said, "What are you doing?" Both Stark's turned to look at the source of the voice. It was a tall, shapely, strawberry blonde, with a serious look on his face. Tony actually looked scared.

"Hay Pepper," He said sheepishly, "You weren't supposed to be home for a mother few hours."