Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Flashback

"She's my Auntie Nat." Lily again whispered as she shared up at the television. She glanced back to a Rumlow as fear began to creep up inside her. "I think she buys me ice cream." She bit her lip as she glanced back at the television; he obviously wasn't paying any attention to her.

"Pizza Mania." Rumlow began. "That sounds promising." He glanced over at Lily. "If I buy this, you'll eat it, right?"

Lily glanced back and slowly nodded. Pizza. She wasn't sure about a lot of things right now, but she was pretty confident that she liked pizza.

"You better eat it." Rumlow muttered under his breath. "They put me with the kid, and I'm suddenly all soft and caring." He continued to murmur. "You." His voice grew louder making Lily jump. "You do not repeat to anyone that I'm buying you pizza. Understand?"

Her eyes grew large as she quickly nodded. "No pizza. No Oreos."  She glanced back at the television.

"Exactly." Rumlow nodded; he was sufficiently convinced that his small charge would not be spreading any rumors about him becoming a compassionate mercenary.  "Now I'll be back shortly." He grabbed the television remote and quickly changed the channel. "You stay here and watch Mickey Mouse."

"I met Mickey Mouse." She slowly began. "I went to his house." Her face pinched up as she desperately tried to focus on any details surrounding that event. Someone important had taken her.

"Yeah. Yeah." He frowned as he leaned down to her eye level. "They messed with your brain. Things are going to seem fuzzy for a while." He gruffly tossled her tangled hair. "After pizza, I'll take you home."

Lily nodded and meekly watched him leave. Home. He was taking her home. Did home even really exist anymore?

The red haired woman, Natasha Romanoff, she had been there. So had the blonde haired man. Captain America. He had been at the apartment with the man she had killed.

"Uncle Steve."  She whispered to herself. "He's my Uncle Steve."

Lily held back a cry as she hugged her knees tightly to her chest. She had killed her uncle's friend. But the more that she thought back on it, she knew she had killed others too. Miss Mary had even been her friend. What kind of person kills their friends?

She was a murderer. Her aunt and uncle were both brave. They saved good people from evil people. They saved people from someone like her.

Lily began to tremble. Not even the craziest escapades of Donald Duck could eliminate the growing fear that was arising from the pit of her stomach. What if they didn't want her anymore? She was a bad person now wasn't she?

They fought people like her. Tears began to stream down her face. All she wanted was to go home and for everything to be the way it was before. But nothing could ever erase what she had done.

Her trembling increased as more memories came pouring back. Aunt Natasha. Uncle Steve. Her big sister. Her daddy.

Little Lily trembled as the noisy wind howled outside her window. She could be brave just like her big sissy who was fast asleep in the room next door. A loud gust made the little girl jump. She quickly pulled her fluffy purple blanket over her head. If the monster outside couldn't see her, maybe it wouldn't eat her.

"Daddy!" She frantically screamed as the monster grew louder.

Seconds later the lights all came on and she could feel someone shoving the blankets off her and pulling her into their comforting embrace. "Hey, sweetheart. What's wrong?"

Lily glanced up from tear stained eyes to see her daddy had come to protect her. "There's a monster outside my window." She whispered as she snuggled closer to him.

"A monster?" His eyes twinkled as he glanced outside at the tree branches that were scratching against her window. "It's a good thing you have an Avenger here to protect you."

Lily nodded as she hid her face in his chest as the wind again grew louder.

"It's alright." A big smile spread across his face as he pulled her into a tighter hug. "I'm here, pop tart."

"I'm scared."  She began to cry as a deafening roar grew around them. "I don't like this."

"Hey." He gently released her from his tight embrace and kneeled down to look at her. "Lily, what do we do when we're scared?"

"We." Her voice stuttered. "We sing."

He smiled. "That's right. We can sing and we won't even hear the monster."

She gritted her teeth tightly together in an effort to appear as brave as her daddy.

"Always remember." He softly whispered as he pulled her back into a tight hug. "No matter what happens, you're my brave little Nightingale."

"I'm not brave." Lily whispered to herself as the room grew blurry from her tears. "I'll never be brave enough." Tears were now freely flowing down her cheeks. "I just want to go home. I want it to be like before." Her voice grew higher. "Before I became a monster."

Her sobs echoed around the room. How could her daddy want her now? She was a monster, and he was an Avenger.

The lights in the room began to flicker, but she didn't notice. All she knew was that she wanted her life from before, and that was the one thing she knew she could never have again.

A strange buzzing feeling pulled her back to her present reality. She brushed the warm tears off her cheeks and stared down at her hands. She could have sworn that for a split second a bright blue spark had come from them.

She shrugged to herself. It must be static electricity. But as she continued to stare at her hands sapphire and violet sparks began to appear.

Lily let out a panicked gasp. This couldn't be happening. She shouldn't be doing this. "No. No. No. No!" She jumped to her feet. She had to stop this. She wasn't suppose to do this. If this ever happened, she was suppose to find her daddy right away. But he wasn't here.

Tears began to stream down her face again as she frantically stared at her glowing hands. "Daddy!" She screamed as the sparks grew larger. Her panicked calls grew louder, but they did nothing to stop the power that was flowing out of her.

An overwhelming buzzing feeling filled her. She had to hold it inside. Somehow, she knew if she let it go, something very bad would immediately follow.

But the pain inside her was growing immensely. She couldn't hold it back any louder. She let out a panicked scream as the world around her exploded into blue and purple shreds.