The sky was the most beautiful shade of blue. Sunlight streamed in through the car windows and shone in Lilith's eyes. There was laughter from the man and woman in the driver and passenger seats, and their joyous faces almost made Lilith smile. Suddenly, three gunshots, the squeal of car tires, a falling sensation and the cool embrace of water. Lilith could see the man and woman, still strapped to their seats, with black holes in their foreheads that leaked red. Lilith kicked and tried to scream but the water pulled her away from the sinking car. Lilith surfaced and breathed in blue sky before a flash of metal caught her eye, but all she could make out was a glimpse of brown hair and a red star. Then there was falling.

Lilith screamed as she abruptly sat up in bed, dizzy, disorientated and short of breath. "Just a dream," she breathed, "just a dream, just a dream." Lilith held up a shaking hand to study it, taking in the scarred skin, raw cuticles and closely-bitten nails. Her waist-length hair covered her face like a scruffy curtain, the split ends brushing her bed sheets.

Lilith hated that dream. Out of all of her nightmares it was one of the most common, but the dream itself never changed. And she knew it never changed because it wasn't just a dream, it was a memory. Sighing, Lilith quickly dressed herself in her usual attire; a black top and pants, combat boots and her prized leather jacket, which she was finally starting to grow into. She stuffed her blonde locks into a black beanie and left her apartment.

Walking briskly out of the Triskelion, Lilith basked in the early morning sunlight as the golden rays hit her face and lit up the building behind her. "Today's important," she muttered, hugging her jacket closer to her body. "Today's the funeral."

Lilith sat unmoving in the tree as she observed the three gravestones. She was practically invisible to anyone on the ground, so she was content to stay there and watch the gathering of people around two of the gravestones. The third one, however, was ignored.

The sun began its long journey into the sky as more people left flowers at the feet of the two gravestones. Lilith's heart ached numbly as she thought of the two people being mourned. They'd been the agents that looked after Lilith after she was taken in by SHIELD. Once the few weeks of questioning was over, Coulson had cleared Lilith to be trained in espionage and hand-to-hand combat by the high-ranking agent Clint Barton for five years. After that, she was officially the youngest agent SHIELD had to offer.

Lilith was ready to head back to the Triskelion, where she was currently living, when a hooded figure approached the third gravestone. It was dusk, and all the other people had left. The man left a single lily at the foot of the grave and lightly rested his fingers on the headstone. Seeing this, Lilith shrugged further into her leather jacket; she knew the name the gravestone carried was her own.

The jacket-clad man straightened up and glanced at the surrounding trees, "I know you're there, Lilith." He called out softly.

Lilith felt guilt pool in her stomach and, against her better judgement, jumped from the tree and landed softly in the grass. "I didn't expect to see you here, Clint." Lilith greeted the man with a stiff nod and he responded with a friendly pat on the back. At least it wasn't a hug. God, Lilith hated hugs.

"Couldn't miss your funeral," Clint smirked happily, "and I'm guessing you wouldn't miss it either."

Lilith shrugged, "I honestly thought I had more friends in the world."

"Eh, who needs friends anyway?"

They stood in comfortable silence for a few minutes and watched the sun set. Clint turned to Lilith slowly, as if any fast movements would make her bolt like a wild animal.

"So, what next? I mean, now that you're officially dead, I guess you can do whatever you want, right?"

Lilith shoved her hands in her pockets and stared at the ground, "I wish. I'm more useful to SHIELD if I'm dead, so I guess it's just more missions until I get killed. That's really all there is to it."

Clint tried to catch Lilith's gaze, but she ignored him. "Look, Lilith, I get that this is really hard for you. Those two were like your family, but-"

Lilith's anger boiled over, and she threw a lazy fist at Clint, who easily caught it and held on tightly.

"Don't you dare try to treat me like some kid! I watched them get shot and die and there was nothing I could do about it! Hell, I was meant to die with them, and now the rest of the world thinks I'm dead because stupid SHIELD wants it that way! I don't see how any of this is okay!"

"Hey- hey, it's okay!" Clint quickly caught Lilith as she slumped to the ground, exhausted from yelling and fighting off her demons. Lilith curled up into a ball in Clint's arms as he gently stroked her hair, the last light of the day turning the blonde locks sticking out of her beanie golden. "It's going to be okay, I promise. We're going to find whoever killed them."

"There was one thing that I saw," Lilith sniffled into his shirt. "There was metal and a red star."

Clint hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then tapped Lilith on the nose playfully. He helped her to her feet and they strolled out of the cemetery. "I haven't heard of any super-assassins associated with a red star. It sounds interesting, though. I'll ask Natasha about it."

Lilith looked at Clint curiously, "I've heard so much about this mysterious Natasha, but I've never met her in the five years I've known you. She'd probably be freaked out by how much you've told me!"

Clint just laughed. "One day, maybe, you'll meet her."

Author's Note: Hello my lovely followers! Sorry it took so long to update, school is a bitch at the moment. I should probably explain why this chapter has no Winter Soldier in it. Because this is going to be a fairly long series, we won't meet the Winter Soldier for a couple more chapters. I feel really uneasy about this chapter because we've skipped so much of Lilith's training, but there will be more about that in future chapters. Feedback would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
- WinterNight7