A/N: Another SHIELD I've had sitting on my computer just waiting to be published. In honor of the new year and my recent word milestone, I'm posting this story and several other stories over the next couple days. Hope you Agents enjoy.

Summary: Agents Melinda May and Phil Coulson are put on a new assignment to look after an object of unknown origin, an 0-8-4. The only catch is this 0-8-4 is a person. A fourteen year old girl who's spent her life in the foster system is now in more danger than ever. A man beast is hunting her and SHIELD has to make sure that it doesn't get close to her. AU

Chapter One

Monday August 29, 2011 23:37

The world in front of her was as dark as the back of her eyelids, only empty blackness seemed to be there. How long had she been in here? Had it been hours? Days? Harold had come back twice, each time with a small cup of water. Couldn't have her die of dehydration, now could he? that would raise too many questions. She wished someone would help her, desperately she wished someone would. Only there were no heroes in this world, no one would come for her. No one would save her. She brought her dirt covered hands to her bare shoulders and begin to rub her arms absent-mindedly as shivers raced through her spine. She released a shaky breath.

"Hey, are you awake in there," a timid voice whispered through the darkness.

When she didn't answer, a pocket-sized flashlight came to life,allowing her glimpses of the room- no cell-she was trapped in. The light shined in her face, and she blinked rapidly, not appreciating the bright glow in her eyes.

"Sorry," said the owner of the flashlight, "Did I wake you?"

He pointed the flashlight down so not to bother her, but still enough to see a little bit/ways in front of her. She didn't answer him. He was another foster kid here, about a year or two older than she was, with blonde hair that looked like sand. Miles. Yesterday-she assumed she had been in here since yesterday-had been the mark of his sixth week here.

She scooted closer to the little locked door where Miles was kneeling to look through the rectangular hole with bars. It could only be opened from the outside, like the door itself. She had tried to push it open, to let some light, but it had been no use. Her only source of light had been from the laser pointer in her pocket. She rested her fingers on the bottom of the mail slot and looked into the teen's eyes.

"Miles," she whispered, "What day is it and what are you doing here? You do know he won't hesitate to hit you, or throw you in here right."

Miles shrugged in reply, "Monday, almost midnight. Here, I brought you some bread."

She did the math, twenty four hours had passed since he brought her here. He had locked her in here late Sunday night when she came home after the curfew he set. Harold wasn't particularly violent, but he did have fits of anger. He didn't hit the girls as often as he did the boys. However, it wasn't a rare occurrence for him to hit them. Most of the time, he would simply lock the kids in the basement. It was his version of a time out. Miles folded the piece of bread so he could fit it through the bars.

"You're going to get us in trouble," she whispered, taking the offered bread in her shaking hand.

It was freezing and she barely had any clothes on her back. Not to mention her head was killing her, most likely from the lack of food. In this moment she was grateful Miles had come down here. He was the only one she would accept this kind of treatment from. After he helped her out of a sticky situation, she felt as if she owed him and said as much to him. However all he asked for was her friendship.

A bit reluctantly, she agreed and was grateful that she had. If anyone else would have offered her this, she would have told them to keep it or not responded to them at all. Miles was someone she made an exception for. Only this time though, she couldn't afford to care about anyone because she knew she would lose them anyway. Besides, it's not like she really trusted him. She could never trust anyone, never again. In the dim light of the flashlight, he smiled at her.

"You needed to eat. Oh! That reminds me. I got you a water bottle."

He slipped the water bottle through the opening between the bars, she took it without hesitating and began to drink greedily. When she had finished the bread and downed nearly half of the water bottle, she released a sigh.

"Thank you," she said gently.

"It was the least I could," Miles told her, "He should let you out before the sunrise. Stay strong okay?"

She didn't reply. Only looked at the floor, she didn't look up until the light had clicked off and she heard his retreating footsteps. She pressed her hand on the wall to help guide her over to the corner on the opposite end of this cell. This used to be a small wine cellar, used during the Prohibition Era of the 1920's to smuggle alcohol. The only reason she knew this was because he had shouted it at her the first time she was brought in here. Hot tears slipped down her cold cheeks when she made it back to the corner.

It was torture being left down here, without anyway to get out or tell how much time had passed. At least it wasn't as painful as the beatings he usually he gave out the way Oprah gave away prizes. Wrapping her arms around her sore stomach, she leaned back against the cold stone and shut her eyes. Maybe she could forget her troubles for a little while if she slept, a big chance on the if.

Wednesday August 31, 2011 08:16 HOURS

"You wanted to see me sir," Agent Hill said closing his office door behind her.

Director Fury stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking out the glass wall down at the city below, his one eye studying the world below him.

The Director answered the agent, "Yes."

Fury turned around to face the young woman, he was always an intimidating man, especially with the eyepatch and his extensive track record. Hill had been borderline terrified the first time she met him, but nowadays he didn't scare, unless he hadn't had his coffee in the early hours. Standing with her back straight and eyes ahead, Hill watched the Director come to stand behind his desk in front of her.

"I have a small assignment I need you to do some work on," Fury explained, his eye trained on her.

Hill nodded, "What do you need?"

Fury reached down, pressed his thumb on the drawer knob. A click filled the quiet office, followed by the sound of a hiss.

"I've never really believed in coincidences," Fury said lifting up a black folder with 0-8-4 printed on the front in large silver ink, "Explain to me how someone with sensitive information is killed not forty-eight hours before something we're hiding nearly gets taken?"

"The person spilled," Hill stated simply.

Fury nodded, "Yes. The person gave up information then an unknown decides to show up at a random location, that we are monitoring, only to injure four people and cause damage."

Hill wasn't certain where her boss was going with this, but she would wait until he was done before asking. He always worked in a roundabout way, this would be no different. Fury smirked at her.

He stretched out the folder to Hill, "We had an 0-8-4 in that house. The woman who was keeping this 0-8-4 was killed two nights ago. Yesterday, early morning, the new location where the girl was held is compromised. It seems obvious to me that this suspect nearly had her."

Hill raised an eyebrow, "Her? You mean the 0-8-4 is a person? A girl?"

"Last I checked, yes," replied Fury, "Roughly thirteen years ago, a group of SHIELD agents went to the Hunan province to investigate a potential 0-8-4."

"It says here they went MIA," Hill commented, her eyes still skimming the document.

Fury nodded, not that she could see with her focus on the document. She had never heard of this report before or anything involving a possible 0-8-4, let alone an 0-8-4 that was a human child. The idea still seemed a bit strange to her. Yet she had to remind herself that the world she lived in was a strange one. Hill paused at the backup team's report. When the backup team arrived, the entire village save for one old woman and an infant girl had been killed.

The agents questioned the woman, she said a man beast had come raging through the streets looking for the little girl and everyone in that village died to protect her. Tests had been done on the girl but the she was for intents and purposes human. As far as Hill could tell, she was a healthy few month old child. The girl had been under SHIELD custody the following weeks, but soon the agents who had been in the province were getting crossed off. Their heads bashed in or cut off. Strangled to death, burned alive or cut open across their bodies. The images of the dead agents was enough to get her fair skin to pale. Noticing the reaction, Fury knew she had made it the agents. She looked at Fury.

"This case is too dangerous for me to give to just any team," Fury told her, "Keep reading."

Hill turned the page in the file where she spotted Agent Avery. Though she had never personally met the woman, Hill did recognize her. Agent Avery, one of the original agents involved, set up a nearly invisible protocol to hide the child in the foster system before she was killed like the others. Hill looked over the structure of the protocol. Despite it's simple build up, it was definitely hard to find. Yet according the most recent report, someone had figured it out and was closing in on the 0-8-4.

In the last seven months five people who knew the girl had been killed in the same brutal ways as the villagers and agents. Because of this, Hill noted that there was a new picture of the girl every week. Hill lifted the most recent one. If Hill hadn't known her age, she would have thought the girl was younger than fourteen. Her skin was a shade lighter than olive. She had waved mocha brown hair that cut off at her shoulders. In the picture she looked like the average Asian-American teen. Hill looked to Fury again.

"I trust few people Maria," stated Fury, "I need you to take on this case."

Hill blinked twice before coming with an appropriate response, "And do what exactly sir?"

Fury answered, "Whatever you feel is necessary to keep her hidden."

Hill thought about it for a moment before replying, "Well there are number of things we could do. We could move her out of the state. Use her to draw out this… man beast the report called it? Or send her to a remote location with round the clock agents."

"You tell me," Fury said as he walked around his desk to sit in his chair.

Hill thought over her previous suggestions. Sending her away to a SHIELD location will only push off the inevitable, so will moving her out of state. Using her as bait would be too much of a risk. Until they learn more about this hunter, they can't take the chance of him catching her.

"Okay," Hill said with a nod, "Well she is a foster kid. What if we send two agents undercover as foster parents to watch her while we speed up the search for this man beast?"

"Explain," Fury prompted a little intrigued by the agent's suggestion.

"If we have her stay with two agents, they would always be close by in case the threat grew larger and they would be able to monitor her and see if she shows any abilities," Hill explained, "The file doesn't list anything about them, but it could change if two agents were constantly watching her and not just doing check ups."

Fury hummed over the idea. If the girl was enhanced, then he would have no choice but to leave her with agents or put her on the Index list for her protection and for those around her. However he knew he would have to focus on that another day, for the time being the priority was finding out who was after her and why. What did they know that SHIELD didn't?

"Okay, I'll bite," Fury replied, "What agents did you have in mind unless you're volunteering?"

Hill rolled her crystal eyes, "Definitely not. Too much work to be done here. The agents would need to be trained for combat and experience with enhanced people."

Fury had a few agents in mind who would be up to the task. However he knew he would need them for other pressing matters, not to mention whatever agent would be tasked with this assignment needed to be decent with kids and able to manage a teenager. There was a rather large difference between commanding young agents and being in charge of a young girl.

"What about Agent May," Hill proposed, even if it was a long shot.

Fury raised the eyebrow over his good eye, "Are you smoking something?"

"No," Hill replied with slightly narrowed eyes, "Hear me out Fury. Agent May is one of the most capable agents we have and would not be called out to field work."

"She hasn't so much as looked at combat work for three years," Fury pointed out to her.

Hill went on, "Yes, but this is not a combat operation. The only reason she would even need to use combat was if the man beast did find the girl. Her skills would be better utilized protecting an 0-8-4 than filing papers."

"How were her last psych evals," Fury questioned.

Hill licked her lips, "Don't know. I'd have to look at them."

"I don't like it Hill, I don't think she can handle it yet," Fury responded taking a seat in his leather chair.

Hill sighed, lowering her arms to her sides she said, "What if Coulson was with her?"

Fury raised both eyebrows at that, "Not only do you want to put a retired on an assignment, but you also want to take one of my best agents out of the field?"

"Yes," Hill acknowledged, "May would stay close to the girl along with Coulson because he can keep May grounded and he's good with these kinds of situations. If Coulson was needed in the field, then we could call him out while May remained with the girl."

Fury brought his hand to his chin. For a moment, Hill was worried he would say no to both of the people she had suggested, even though in her mind they seemed like the best choices. The two of them had history together which allowed them to work incredibly well together. Not to long ago, they had been the best pair in all of SHIELD history, practically in sync with each other in battle. Ever since Bahrain, Hill knew her former mentor had lost a large piece of herself and only Coulson had been able to help her. Now May shut everyone out, but perhaps this would give her a chance to open up again, to get out in the world again. Not to mention Hill knew Coulson would take this assignment in a heartbeat. Helping people in need was his calling, right now this girl needed someone like him in her life.

"Okay," Fury said leaning back.

Hill didn't bother to hide the surprise she felt, "Okay? That's it?"

Fury ordered with a decisive nod, "This is your case Hill. You think they're the best choice, then they are. If May refuses, I think I could convince her."

"And if Coulson refuses," Hill said fighting a smile.

Fury scoffed, "Like he would turn this down. Go to May. Once that's done, start working on the documents. In the meantime I'm going to send Agent 13 to see how the girl is doing."

"Out of curiosity and paperwork, where is the girl now," Hill questioned.

"New York, Children's Hospital," Fury said without blinking his eye.

Hill blinked twice, "Why was she in the hospital?"

Fury answered her as he put the black folder away, "Whoever was coming for her nearly burned down her house. The fire spread and she was trapped inside a cellar in the basement. The interesting thing about it were reports on the ground shaking."

"Why is that interesting," Hill asked, one eyebrow raised.

Fury shrugged, "It just is. After you've spoken with May and Coulson, send them to me."

Hill nodded, "Yes sir."