Author's Note: I've had the idea for this story for awhile, and I'm happy to finally to be writing it! This doesn't really have many pairings (probably) in it, I'm not that interested in romance honestly. I'm more interested in exploring a father daughter relationship between Steve Rogers and my OC. She won't have a major effect on the main plot of the MCU or anything, just think of her as a side story or something.

I'll try an update around twice a week, but no promises!

/ Part 1 \\

Rolling Through the Blackout

Undisclosed base on Nunivak Island, Alaska

2012

The girl could be no older than ten, but looked nothing like the average ten year old. She was standing stock still, although her skinny frame was shaking ever-so-slightly, either from cold or from fear or from both. Her soaking wet black hair stuck to her sepia-coloured skin and there were still drops of ice-cold water dripping from her nose and eyelashes. The clothes she was wearing did nothing to warm her up. The black t-shirt and leggings were also equally as drenched as the rest of her, leaving her to shudder in her boots.

The room she was standing in had no central heating or anyway to warm up her at all. It was located a couple feet below the surface and was a musky grey-green colour that smelt like damp constantly as well being filled with the constant noise of water dripping from rusting drain pipes.

Despite the unwelcoming atmosphere of the base, it was filled with ten or so other people, excluding the girl. Five of those people were men dressed in military uniform, holding guns and were attentively looking around, cautious of the slightest, unwanted movement. Two more of the men also had guns, but they were wedged in their belts, and they were instead tightly gripping the shoulders of the little girl so she couldn't move.

One of the men was holding a clipboard and wearing a white coat, and was dressed similarly but was taking notes on something that the girl didn't care about. Another man was carrying a white bag with contents that seemed to unnerve the ten-year-old, as she would constantly glance back at it with a look of apprehension and fear.

Finally, the last man in the room was obviously the one in charge. He also wore military uniform, but had plenty of important looking badges pinned on his chest, as well as not being armed. His brown hair was neatly styled and put into place and his pale complexion made his brown eyes seem to pop out of his skull in a strange way, and he looked down at the girl with a distastful look.

"Get the girl a coat," he snarled to one of the armed guards, "she looks pathetic."

One of the armed soldiers nodded and marched down the corridor.

"Do you know why I'm here, Eden?" He asked her.

The little girl nodded but did not speak.

"I am very, very disappointed in this. I thought we were done with these times, you are not a child anymore." He shook his head.

His statement didn't make much sense, considering she was a child, but it was not Eden's place to correct him.

"I'm sorry, sir," she whispered, though her surprisingly thick New Yorkian accent slipped through.

"Did I give you permission to talk?" He snapped, "you're job was to infiltrate the base and steal the files, why was that so difficult for you to do?"

She hung her head and said nothing more, knowing her place.

"Now, thanks to you, I have one hell of a mess to cover up," he shook his head, "what went wrong? Had you learnt the layout of the building?"

She nodded.

"And the positions of each guard?"

She nodded again.

"And you knew exactly where the plans were?"

She nodded for the third time.

"Then why did I have to fly all the way over to this crappy island to find out that our top asset had failed her mission," he glowered down at her, "if I had half a brain I would call your step-father over here so he could deal with you."

The man let the threat hand there, getting a strange sort of satisfaction to see the fear in the girl's muddy-green eyes increase at the mention of her step-father.

"Colonel Ivanov," said the soldier who he had sent away earlier to get the girl a coat.

He was holding a brown, oversized jacket and the colonel took it off of him. He then chucked it at the girl, who caught it and put it on but did not look grateful.

"This failure had left me with no choice, Eden," he sighed, "we will have to inject you, it seems the effects are wearing off."

Eden ceased up and began shaking her head, "no, no, no, please. I'll do better next time, I'll never mess again, sir, I promise."

The colonel shook his head, "I'm afraid it's too late, you're lucky we don't put you through weekly injections." He began to walk down the corridor, the two guards roughly shoving Eden along with them.

One white-coated scientist was muttering something to another and the other nodded. Eden didn't hear what they had said, she hadn't been listening either.

"Aliens are falling from the sky, Eden," said the Colonel just before they entered the lab, "we're seeing wormholes into space and big green men smashing up buildings. The world his changing, everyone is more confused and more scared then ever. It's time the government showed them that there's nothing to fear, and you, Eden, are going to help us with that."

Stark Tower, New York

2012

"The clear-up seems to be going well," mused the man, "and the repair work on the tower is almost complete, I see."

He was a middle-aged man with blonde hair that was greying around the hairline. Despite his pale complexion, he had very dark eyes and wore a completely black suit accompanied with a black tie. He sat in the office, his posture stiff and stern.

"Though, I suspect it won't be long until some unwanted parties get their hand on that tech," he glanced to the side.

The man who sat opposite him seemed a lot more relaxed, and had his feet propped up on the table in front of him as he spoke.

"We've ensured that all outside parties had no contribution to the clean-up," the words sounded intelligent, but the man saying them seemed to be far too easy-going, "if they've got their hand on the tech, then they don't have much."

"I'd be wary, Mr Stark," the man shook his head, "you never know."

Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man by the general public, shook his head as though he were amused by it all. "Do you have kids, Mr Secretary?"

Secretary of Defense, Robert Riley, nodded, "I have a kid, why do you ask?"

"You strike me as the fatherly type, bet your kid loves you."

Secretary Riley smiled to himself, as though this were a hilariously ridiculous statement. "I don't see her very often, work keeps me busy."

"Well then why are we here having this conversation?" Tony stood up at the same time as Riley, and slung an arm around him. "You're wasting time talking about the clean-up, which I know you and your people don't care about. So, why are we here when I could be working on my suits and you could be spending time with that daughter of yours."

Still, Riley's face remained humoured whenever Stark brought up his daughter. Not that Tony could see what was so funny about it, the secretary was a secretive man.

"I was sent here by the president himself, actually," Riley said to Tony, "he had a few qualms with the scepter being placed into the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D, he doesn't believe it's safe there."

Tony looked at him, "I don't have a say in what goes on at S.H.I.E.L.D. I may be an Avenger, but I've also got Stark Industries and the New York clean-up to deal with. The scepter and whatever Fury wants to do with is none of my business."

"But you're curious," pointed out Riley.

"Of course I'm curious," Tony snorted, "I'm Tony Stark, I stick my nose into everyone's business. So, tell me," he patted the secretary's shoulder, "why is the president worried about the scepter?"

"He believes that there is a research division that would be better dedicated to researching it than S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Oh, yeah?"

When Riley didn't say anything else, Tony prompted him.

"Who is this 'research division?' Why does the president trust them more than he trusts S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"I'm afraid I can't disclose that information to you, Mr Stark."

"Then why bother to ask?" He sounded annoyed.

"All we wanted to know is whether you knew the location of the scepter and what S.H.I.E.L.D is doing with it."

"Shouldn't you know this?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D had refused to give us any information until they come up with more conclusive results."

"Right," said Stark, taking out his tablet and swiping through it, a way of making himself look more occupied, "well, I can't help you. I've got bigger things to worry about."

"Well, I'm sorry to bore you with this business," Secretary Riley said, "I'll be on my way now."

Just at that moment, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out, glancing at the caller I.D. He sighed and shook his head, picking up the call. The man down the phone told him something, and he nodded. Stark watched in a vague sort of interest as the frustrated look on Riley's face grew as the phone call continued. When he was done, he let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.

"Well, thank you for informing me, Colonel," he said to the man down the line, "I'll be there in a bit."

"Trouble at work?" Asked Tony.

"I'm afraid so," Riley patted him on the back, "it was good to see you, Tony."

"It was good to see you too, Rob," grinned the Stark.

The two friends split off and, once he was sure Tony was out of earshot, Robert Riley picked up the phone again and muttered something to Colonel Ivanov down the line.

"I'll be there in five hours."

"Secretary Riley," greeted the colonel, "I trust your meeting with Stark went well?"

The secretary of defense snorted in amusement, "not at all, he had no idea where the damn scepter is. Turns out that S.H.I.E.L.D is too damn cryptic with everyone these days. The president's not too happy with all of this."

"We'll figure it out," assured Ivanov, "there are only so many shield bases."

Riley looked doubtful and chose to change the topic.

"And what of the asset?" He asked the colonel, "did she fail the mission?"

"She was caught by the Russians, stupid girl," he shook his head, "we weren't able to get the codes, so it's another failure. Girl was lucky when the Russian guards decided she was just some harmless brat, otherwise the entire operation would've been blown."

Riley frowned, "have you re-injected her yet?"

"The doctors are preparing her now," he told him, "the procedure should begin in a few moments. We were just waiting for your arrival."

The two began to walk down the long, dingy, badly lit corridor, but the conversation still continued.

"This is the first time she's failed a mission in two years," Ivanov went on, "the abilities the serum gave her aren't wearing off but the side effects have almost completely disappeared."

"We already know that the side effects completely wear off after around a year," Riley shook his head, "are you worried she's becoming too emotional?"

"I'm thinking that we should start doing monthly injection," Ivanov said.

"We don't have enough serum or the budget to do that," Riley pointed out.

"Then we start injecting others. Forget the girl, she's only a child, she's always going to be weaker than any one she ever goes up against, no matter how many skills we teach her."

"Her body is the only one that has accepted the serum without-" he looked for the words, "unfortunate consequences… This research division is small enough as it is, we can afford to lose more men to the serum."

Ivanov sighed, "then we'll just have to hope that this failure is the last one she makes."

Riley nodded and the two of them reached a metal door at the end of the corridor. Ivanov punched the code into the keypad beside it, and the heavy door slowly opened by itself, allowing both of the men inside.

This room was of great contrast to the room outside. It was almost completely white, with blinding lights that glared down at the floor. It had several desks along with several, large computer screens, each with a picture of the seal of the United States as the desktop. Scientists, doctors and soldiers littered the room, each busying themselves with different tasks. The sounds of keyboard taps and footsteps made the room seem very crowded and noisy, but Riley did not seem to take much notice. There were plenty of chairs and monitoring screens showing medically significant things, like heart rate that Riley ignored. Instead, he walked towards a window made from one way glass, meaning whoever was on the other side couldn't see Riley or Colonel Ivanov.

On the other side seemed something that was more like a lab. There were monitoring screens in there too, along with tables that were overflowing with different chemical substances and scientific equipment. There were two scientists in there too, each with a surgical mask covering their mouth as they hurried away preparing something or another.

The girl was in there too. Eden had been cleaned up, her hair was now dry and she was back wearing warm clothes. But the anxious face still remained, her back pressed against the wall as she watched them work through frantic expression in her muddy-green eyes.

The first doctor stood up straight and began signalling to a guard standing in the corner of the room, saying something that Riley couldn't hear.

"Turn on the sound," he ordered, "I want to hear what's going on in there."

Surely enough, someone turned on the sound and the noise coming from across the glass was audible. They could hear the sounds of footsteps as the soldiers went to grab Eden, who attempted to flinch away from them, but didn't put up much fight.

"Hold her head still," said one of the doctors, brandishing a needle, "make sure her neck doesn't move."

One of the soldiers adjusted their hold on the girl, who they easily dwarfed in terms of both height and weight, she could hardly do anything to them.

However, once they had twisted her neck and the doctor was approaching her, something surprising happened.

Eden maneuvered her hand so she was gripping one of the soldier's wrist. Then, with one hand, she violently twisted it in an action that was so violent that the soldier let out a cry of pain and let go of her.

Instantly, she squeezed away from him and kicked him in the back of the knees so he fell to the ground. The other soldier made a lunge for her, but she seemed to know exactly what he was going to do before he had even moved, and charged straight into him with all her might, elbowing him in the stomach and brutally landing a solid kick in the gut that the man doubled over and fell to the ground.

At this point, the first soldier had gotten to his feet but was met with a tiny fist in his face that didn't make much of an impact but gave Eden a sufficient amount of time so she could move out of the reach of the soldiers and the doctor.

"Get backup in there, now!" Snapped Colonel Ivanov to several other guards in the room.

Secretary Riley continued to watch, still slightly impressed at the girl's skills. It was apparent that, even though she hadn't been re-injected in over six months, the abilities the serum had given her were still there.

As more guys poured into the room, Eden's terror only seemed to increase, and Riley wasn't sure if that made her less or more dangerous. As five more guards crowded around her, she dropped to the floor and kicked the legs of two of the soldiers, causing them to trip. Other hands attempted to grab her, but she grabbed them and bent back the fingers on some of them, not stopping until she heard a satisfying crack.

However, in all the confusion, what she didn't seem to pick up was a soldier behind her, suddenly grabbing her by the ear and jabbing the needle the doctor was holding earlier into her neck.

The girl let out a high pitched scream of pain before collapsing to the ground, shuddering and shaking in a seizure-like manner. She had stopped screeching, but her mouth still formed an 'o' shape as she seemed to let out a long, silent screen whilst her body contorted in strange, awful ways.

Then, she fell still and silent. She wasn't unconscious or dead; she was fully awake. She was breathing heavily, staring up at the ceiling with wide, unseeing eyes, her eyes on either side of her, palms pressing down of the floor as though she were trying to break it.

She stayed like that for a couple of minutes as doctor's ushered away injured soldiers and got themselves sorted. One of them carelessly lifted Eden onto a nearby table, but she did not move or fight back.

Finally, Riley moved, heading towards the door; Colonel Ivanov was only a couple steps in front of him.

"Eden," said the Colonel.

Instantly, the girl shot up into a sitting position on the table and turned to look at the Colonel.

All sense of fear, pain and anger in the girl's eyes had vanished, replaced by an almost expressionless face that looked around the room idly, taking a moment to get her bearings.

"How are you feeling?" The Colonel asked.

Eden did not reply, she just nodded, as though it were an appropriate answer to the question. Ivanov accepted it anyway.

"Do you feel the same?" He asked.

"My abilities are the same, sir," came the girl's shockingly monotonous reply, though the strong New Yorkian accent remained.

"I mean emotionally," Ivanov explained.

"I don't feel, sir," she said, looking at him with no hint or bitterness as she said the words. The blank, expressionless look on her face would've looked strange enough on an adult, but it looked even worse on a ten-year-old.

"Good," he grinned, "your stepfather is here to see you."

Riley stepped out into the light, "Eden," he greeted, "I heard of you're failed mission."

The girl did not reply, nor did she show any signs of any sort of emotion. Earlier, when the Colonel had mentioned her father, she had shown great fear. Now, she showed nothing but a blank face and glassy, detached eyes.

"However, I do believe your performance will be more enhanced after this re-injection. I know how much you hate it, but you need to learn to cooperate with us more."

"I am no longer emotionally compromised," said the girl, "I will cooperate, sir."

"Good, that's what I like to hear," Riley grinned, a twisted grin, "now, I have a new mission for you in the morning. It will involve you travelling to Jura Mountain Range to a S.H.I.E.L.D research station, I trust your french is good?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, unblinking and uncaring.

"Good, now get some rest, you've got a busy few months."

A/N: Haha, I'm not sure if I like this first chapter or not but whatever. I've been looking forward to writing this story. Just to let you know, after this we're gonna be skipping ahead to the period just after Winter Soldier and Iron Man 3 and all those movies, but before Age of Ultron. We'll follow Eden's story through there and, well, we'll see what happens. I think I do want to be sticking to canon mainly, this story is gonna be more of character exploration as well as giving me a chance to write unconventional father-daughter relationships, because that's the sort of stuff that keeps me interested.

Please review! It's always helpful!