Loosely set after Spider-man: Homecoming. AU where Rhodey wasn't hurt. Peter is part of the Avengers, and Tony, Thor, and Clint are still part of it. They are in the tower. This is just a pilot - if it does well, I'll continue.

Chapter 1

A little girl was screaming.

That's what it sounded like.

A scream.

And it was a scream, and it was a little girl.

Her name is Aeria Winters and she just turned three on May 4th. She is a wonderful child, with a bright smile and vibrant blue eyes and pale skin and unusually white hair. She never cried when she was a baby. She is innocent, pure.

Sorry.

Was.

Aeria Winters was screaming.

The sound was nothing a child should make. It was brutal, blood-curdling, loud yet quiet. It was like a silent cry, a desperate weeping. It was a scream of a little girl with blood on her clothes and pain in her mind.

Her name is Aeria Winters. She just turned five on May 4th. She was a quiet child, with a frown and dull eyes and matted white hair. Her body was riddled with scratches and places where needles were stuck in. She is still innocent, still pure.

Sorry.

Not so much.

Aeria Winters was whimpering.

It was almost a cry, but not really. More like pain bound up and let loose, like a thread, being led out through a hole, spilling out slowly, like a leak in a dam. Not all at once, not at all.

Her name is Aeria Winters. She just turned 10 on May 4th, but she didn't know it. She was a silent child, with a blank face and blank eyes and dirty, matted, long white hair, though it didn't seem that white anymore. Her body was riddled with scars and open wounds and bruises, her face red, her arms and legs bound in tight, painful, burning cuffs. She didn't talk, because if she did she would be hurt. She didn't move, because if she did she would be hurt. She didn't even dare to use her powers, because if she did she would be hurt. Being taken to the White Room became a routine for her. Experiments. Tests. Needles, radiation. Pain. Pain was always there. She is still innocent, still pure, still happy.

Sorry.

That's wrong.

Her name is Aeria. She just turned… what was it? 12? 13? 14? 13, right? She counted the scratches around her, on her arms. 13. What day was it? She counted the scratches on her legs, the floor, the walls. May 4th. 2017. How many years ago was she taken? She was three. It was 2007. 10 years.

Aeria tried to remember why, when, where she was taken.

Slow it down, Aeria thought, closing her eyes. It only became darker. Take it slow. Come on, A. Think.

Why.

She didn't know why, exactly. Why she was found. She knew it was because of her powers - her powers of winter; ice and wind and snow. But how was she found? I lived with my parents before, Aeria remembered, smiling softly to herself. Her parents were distant memories, their names and faces faded. But there were still traces. Scents. (Lemon and vanilla. Aeria knew that she smelled like lemon and vanilla too, as one of the guards informed her after grabbed her arm and sniffing her hair. She didn't think she smelled anything other than dirt, blood, and chemicals.) The touch of soft fingers against her face.

She knew that she was taken to be tested in a lab, in a prison. She knew that she wasn't normal.

When.

Aeria knew she was taken a couple weeks after she turned three - in the middle of May, at the end of the week. It was raining. No, storming. She remembered the bright flashes of lightning illuminating the darkness and the roaring thunder that made her flinch. She remembered the wind whipping against her face.

Where.

Where was she when she was taken? Where was she now?

Aeria distinctly remembered the scent of pine trees and the comfort of a warm, crackling fire. A cabin, then. In the woods somewhere in someplace in some country. But where was she now? Where was the lab?

No, not lab. Prison. A prison specifically designed for her. A lab where they could extract blood and stick needles in her skin and cut out flesh. She never saw any other prisoners - just her. She had been moved from cell to cell throughout the years and had settled one with white walls and white floors and invisible lights overhead. A way of torture was switching off all the lights for days and days. No one would visit her, no one would talk. She would be in complete isolation for weeks on end, sitting there, in the dark. She always wore special chains around her feet and hands and arms and legs, along with a collar on her neck, to keep her from using her powers or doing anything suspicious.

Aeria had learned not to move around that much - sometimes not move around at all - for fear of being hurt. Shocked, stabbed, whatever else the guards had in mind. Anything else.

She learned not to talk. For five years, her only words had been No, thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

If she talked without permission, she would be hurt. She would let them do anything they'd like. Torture her for fun. Torture her for science.

Her name is Aeria. She is broken. Damaged. Sad. Silent.

Sorry.

But it's true.

"Hey, Tony," said Rogers, his voice quiet. "Do we have a plan?"

"A plan?" came Tony Stark's voice, slightly mechanicalized from him being in his suit. "Uh. Yeah. Of course, we do. Why wouldn't we." A beat of silence. "Natasha, do we have a plan?"

"It's always me cleaning up your messes," Natasha grumbled. "Sam, you're with Cap. Go left. I'm with Tony and Wanda. We're going right. Rhodes, you're with Thor and Clint. Straight."

"You heard her," Tony said, chuckling slightly. "Let's go."

He flew overhead, Natasha and Wanda running beneath. It was snowing heavily, the air gray and thick with flakes, making it hard to see. Ice clung on to trees like claws. They were deep in Canada's wilderness, thousands of miles from civilization. And yet Fury sent them here. Wanda seemed to read Tony's mind.

"Why did Fury send us here?" she asked, leaping over a fallen tree branch. Tony frowned, dodging a pine.

"He said that there was some activity going on in a compound here."

"What compound?" Wanda asked.

"Didn't say," Tony replied with a scowl. "He did say, though, that we're going to pick something up."

"I'm guessing he didn't say what," came Rhodey's voice over the intercom.

"Nope."

Tony, Natasha, and Wanda slowed as they came to the edge of a cliff. So far, they had avoided any sort of security - no guards, no soldiers. Nothing. I don't like this, Tony thought to himself, narrowing his eyes. A building came into view.

"JARVIS, scan for life forms."

"Scanning." A visual appeared in Tony's vision of colorful bodies patrolling the grounds and inside the compound. "It's heavily guarded," Tony said. "Even though there weren't any in the forest."

"Which is weird," said Rogers.

"What are we doing then?" Wanda said, inching forward. "Let's go."

"We do need a solid plan," Natasha muttered. "We can't just run in guns blazing. You know what happens when we do."

"Usually it works out in the end," Tony contemplated.

"Not with a number of casualties."

Tony grimaced.

Buildings falling.

Children screaming.

Blood.

Dirt.

Darkness.

Oh, Yinsen. I'm sorry.

"Good point," he said lightheartedly. "It's heavily guarded."

"From what I can see, there are three points of entry," said Thor. "Not including if Tony smashes through the wall."

"Which is highly likely." Tony grinned.

"We'll take the front," Natasha said. "Cap, you guys got the side, and Thor, Clint, and Rhodes?"

"We'll get the back," Clint confirmed.

"Ready?" Tony asked, smirking. "Let's go."

Natasha and Wanda skidded down the rock face, along with Clint and Rogers, while the rest flew down - and caught the guards' attention, and they opened fire.

"Hey, Tony," Steve Rogers said, blocking a swarm of bullets with his shield, "Where's that kid you recruited? Uh, Peter Parker?"

"He's still in the tower," Tony replied. "I made him catch up on some homework."

"He still goes to school?" Natasha said, taking control of one of the tanks. "Does he even have time?"

"I make him have time," said Tony with a grin. A missile fired in his direction and he shot it down, kicking a couple soldiers to the ground and blasting a tank to pieces.

"JARVIS, what are we looking for?" Tony asked the AI.

"Director Fury said to look for anything out of the ordinary."

"You mean a compound in the middle of the Canadian wilderness?"

"I don't know, sir. He said to look for the girl."

"The girl. Alright guys," Tony said, raising his voice. "We're looking for the girl."

"What girl?" Clint grumbled. "I bet there are tons of girls here. Is there any specific girl we're looking for? Brown hair, maybe? Six feet tall? What girl?"

"Like always, Fury -"

"Didn't say," everyone finished in unison.

They broke past the first wave of security and penetrated the entrances. Tony blasted through a group of men in white coats while Natasha and Wanda took out the guards.

"Keep going!" Tony shouted, kicking back a soldier and punching another in the jaw. Natasha grabbed one of the white coats and pulled him close to her, her fist hovering in front of his nose.

"Where is she?" she snapped. "What is this place?"

"Where's who?" the man whimpered. "I don't - I-I work in tech. I don't know! P-P-Please don't kill me."

"What is this place?" Natasha growled. The man stayed silent. After a few more moments, Natasha smashed her fist against his face and he collapsed.

"Fan out," Tony said, knocking out a few more guards. "We have to find a girl."

"Why, exactly?" Wanda muttered.

"I'd think you would've learned enough to know that there's no point in asking questions," Natasha said, leaping onto a scientist's back and twisting around, using him to knock four more to the ground. Tony grabbed hold a guard whose face was already thick with dark blood.

"Where. Is. The. Girl?"

The guard grinned, blood running over his teeth.

"She'll kill you," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "She's a monster. A monster."

"Where is she?"

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," said the man. Tony punched him once - "Where-" again - "Is-" and again - "The-" and again - "Girl?"

"Tony!" Natasha shouted. "Stop! He's not going to tell."

"A monster," the man repeated before his eyes closed and he crumpled to the ground.

"Tony!" Rogers yelled, coming into Tony's view. He was down the hall, fighting back a swarm of guards. "We found something!"

It was an elevator.

An elevator.

"What floor?" Tony asked once they had all piled in. Clint cleared his throat.

"Bottom, please."

"Yessir."

It took five minutes to get to the bottom floor. Then the doors dinged and slid open, and chaos erupted.

"Find her!" Tony shouted as he was hit by at least a dozen different bullets. "Sam, Cap, and Wanda stay in the back. The rest, go!"

They made it through metal corridors, dozens of layers of security, down three flights of stairs, until they came upon…

yet another elevator.

Again, Tony asked what floor.

"Negative 1, please," said Clint.

"You got it."

And when the doors slid open, it revealed- well, nothing. Nothing but what seemed like one long, endless hall, the floor and ceiling white.

"What is this place?" Natasha breathed out. Thor led the way forward.

Halfway down the corridor, they came across a covered glass window, at least thirty feet across and fifteen feet up, with a control panel to the side. Tony hesitantly pressed a green button labeled open black, and the black cover disappeared.

"Oh my God," Clint whispered.

It was a girl.

The girl, apparently.

Huddled in the corner, her amazingly blue eyes wide and quivering and bloodshot. Her arms and legs were wrapped in glowing, humming white chains, along with a collar around her neck. She was wearing gray rags, revealing her pale, scarred skin. Or maybe the rags were white, once, and were turned gray by blood and dirt over the years. Because she was bleeding.

Her long white hair was matted with blood and grime, her face and skin smeared with it. Many wounds were still yet to close. Her wrists were wrapped in white, bloody gauze, as well as her ankles and other parts of her limbs.

"They said she's a monster," Tony whispered.

"She's a girl," Clint said numbly. "A child."

"Look," Thor said, pointing at a label beside the window.

"God, it's like she's an exhibit," Wanda murmured.

"Aeria Alexander Winters," read Sam. "Born May 4th, 2004. Thirteen years old. Height: 5 foot 3 inches. Acquired: Friday the 19th, 2007. Reasons: Displays ice, wind, snow powers. Chart -" Sam paused, holding a hand to his mouth.

"Wilson?" Tony said quietly. "What is it?"

"Monday," Sam continued, "Monday. 8:00 AM. Shock therapy. 9:00 AM. Extract blood. 9:30 AM. Inject. 10:30 AM. Extract flesh. 11:45 AM. Shock therapy. 1:00 PM. Guard torture."

"Stop reading," Steve said. "Stop."

Sam flipped through the file on the wall. "April 2017," he read. "Subject has been in pitch black isolation for two weeks. We slide one piece of bread and cup of water in morning, a cup of soup at night. Subject is yet to speak. If it does, we will emit burning radiation through walls. June 2017. Subject is unconscious after radiation. It's head -"

"Sam, shut up," Natasha growled. The girl slowly moved her head and looked up at them.

"She sees us," Clint murmured. "Someone open the door."

Silence.

"Open the goddamn door!" Clint shouted. Tony pressed another button and the window disappeared entirely. The girl flinched and shrank back into a ball.

"We're scaring her," Natasha said. "Guys, put your weapons away. Tony, show your face. She doesn't know who we are."

"I know."

Their heads all snapped to the girl, whose head was raised. Dried flakes of blood fell to the ground as she moved her lips. Her voice was hoarse, quiet like it hadn't been used in years. It probably hadn't.

"I know you," she whispered. "They let me watch news. Once. Once a week." She drew in a shaky, raspy breath. "You are the Avengers."

"That's right," Tony said softly, kneeling down. "We're here to save you."

Aeria shook her head. "No," she said and coughed. "No. I can't be saved. I can't. I can't - I'm a monster. Stop, get away. I'm a monster."

"No, you're not," Wanda said, smiling. "You're not a monster."

"They'll hurt me," Aeria whimpered as Tony moved forward to undo her chains. "No. Stop, please. They'll hurt me. They'll kill me. They'll hurt you."

"You're safe now," Rogers said. "We promise. They can't hurt you anymore."

The collar buzzed as Tony moved to take it off, indicating it had emitted a shock. Aeria didn't even whimper.

Eventually, they got the restraints of her and she collapsed into Tony's arms, shivering and shaking and weak.

"We got you," Tony said, holding the little girl close. "We got you."

Thanks for reading! Please review - it motivates me to continue.