The first thing Lilith saw was light. Bright, blinding whiteness that seemed to consume the universe. There was light, and then there was cold. Lilith woke up enough to realize that she was handcuffed to a chair, and register the throbbing sensation in her head.

"Lilith Adams?" A calm yet strangely threatening voice broke the deafening silence.

Lilith tilted her head forwards to stare at the stranger through matted blonde hair. She glanced around the brightly-lit interrogation room before returning her gaze to the middle aged man seated across from her.

"Wha-what?" Lilith's young voice cracked from lack of use. She didn't know what she was doing here, or what had happened to her team. All she seemed to know was this white room and the man with the piercing grey eyes sitting across from her.

"Just answer the question. Is your name Lilith Adams?" Perhaps it was the man's calm and stoic manner that frightened Lilith the most, but she wasn't going to be answering this bastard's questions; he was going to be answering hers.

"Who wants to know?" Lilith tried to sound stubborn and challenging but all that came out was the high pitched squeak of an eight year old.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. Or SHIELD for short."

"Why?"

The man smirked and sat back in his chair. "We're very interested in you, Lilith. And seeing as you haven't corrected me yet, I believe that is your name."

"And why the hell am I here?" Lilith was getting frustrated. She hadn't heard of SHIELD before, but in the past her team had busted her out of many a scary-looking office. What was taking them so long?

"Oh, I think you know why, Miss Adams. Multiple accounts of murder, assault, theft, and the bank robbery this morning for starters." The man ticked all the charges off on his fingers.

Lilith yanked at the handcuffs as she began to panic. She didn't think the government knew her real name, let alone a list of the crimes she'd committed.

The man continued, "I think the real question, Lilith, is what is an eight-year-old doing in a criminal gang?"

Lilith felt her patience snap and decided to let loose, "'Criminal gang'. You use that term so condescendingly, but do you have any idea how structured we really are?" There was venom in Lilith's voice as she spat the words at the man sitting calmly across from her.

"We didn't just take you this morning, Lilith. We took down everyone on the robbery. And when I say they were taken down, I'm putting it gently."

Lilith's heart stopped. Taken down? He couldn't have meant… No, there was no way. Her tiny frame trembled under her tattered clothes and oversized leather jacket, her most prized possession. "Dead?" Lilith asked quietly.

The man nodded but continued to study her unflinchingly. "The agent that grabbed you took them out without any civilian casualties."

Lilith remembered her now; the woman with the fiery hair and the cold, calculating eyes. The robbery had been flawless, and they were almost finished, but then she came. It had seemed like she appeared out of nowhere, guns blazing. Lilith had watched as her closest friend was gunned down, seen the life leave his young eyes.

She felt her mouth twist with rage and disgust at the memory before she shrieked every obscenity she could think of, tugging at her handcuffs to the point of making her wrists bleed.

When Lilith had finally run out of the rage she needed to continue shouting, the man walked over to her and harshly moved her head so that his grey eyes could stare into her bright blue ones. "Have you finished your little tantrum yet?" He asked, his tone calm but deadly. "All your friends, family and anyone you've ever known in the world are dead, so you can work with us, or you can get a bullet in your brain. The choice is yours."

Lilith sighed. She wouldn't think of her best and only friend, not now. She knew she would find time to grieve later. He would have wanted her to live, Lilith realized. "I'll work with you," she said firmly, as if it would change the fact that she had lost everybody that meant something to her. "I'll cooperate, I promise."

"Good." The man smiled, making Lilith temporarily forget that he had just threatened to have her killed. "You'll stay here until we figure out what to do with you. I'm Agent Coulson."

Then he was gone. Lilith was left to battle her thoughts, strapped to a chair in a white room.