Siren
By, SilentTaboo
Chapter 1: A Light in the Dark
Melody lay curled in a ball on top of the army cot the Council had allowed her, staring unblinkingly through the dark where she knew the door was.
Why hadn't anyone come yet?
In the three years she had been there someone had come almost every day to check on her. Usually it was Phil, sometimes it was Clint, and on a rare (and often awkward) occasion Fury would come. Usually they would stay about half an hour and do everything from evaluating her health to telling her about the world outside.
That was one thing Melody really missed from her time outside of the SHIELD organization.
Talking.
The shock collar the Council had forced on her prohibited such things now. Sure they had forced her to learn sign language, and she got by, but she was starting to forget what she sounded like. Even what she remembered was probably changed by now. She was thirteen after all, and honestly three years was long enough for anyone's voice to change.
On occasion she would get desperate, and attempt to talk in spite of the collar. She would receive a shock before she finished forming a word, and all she could say for that was she knew what her scream sounded like: panicked, frightened, often mixed with the sounds of Phil trying to calm her before the prolonged voltage from prolonged use of her vocal box made her pass out.
But her voice… she knew nothing accurate about it anymore.
Well, besides the fact that people (excluding the three that would visit her) feared it. That her voice was the reason she was sitting in a metal cell in the dark, because her voice made her a monster in their eyes.
Before her parents were killed by order of the Council, her parents told Melody that her voice made her special. Her ability to able to control elements with words on purpose or on accident meant that she was meant for great things. Wonderful things.
They neglected to tell her about the cage, and the dark, and the fear that the council would decide keeping Melody alive was too risky and she would go the way of her parents.
Which is why she was staring at the door, six meals had come, been eaten, and taken away, and no one had come in. No Phil. No Clint. Not even Fury.
The only logical possibility her mind could form was that they no longer needed to visit the girl behind the iron door. She wasn't going to be there much longer. One less thing to worry about right?
Melody's eyes started to water as she shook violently. At this point she wasn't entire sure if her reaction was more from the prospect of dying or-
The room echoed with the familiar sound of a large lock creaking out of place. Instinctively her arms pushed her up into a half seated position as adrenaline was pushed through her body.
As the door was pushed open the pain from the light forced tears to roll down her pale white face as her eyes adjusted. In the door way was Phil. This caused more tears and a concerned look on Phil's face as he closed to door back and pulled out a flashlight.
"Melody what's wrong?" He asked sitting down on the cot putting one hand on her thin arm before pulling her to him.
It wasn't often Phil came in to see Melody shaking and paler than usual, but it never meant anything good. The last time this happened a new agent in the Siren Division had brought Melody her food and tormented her believing the rumors that went around about the witch in the iron cell that had demolished towns with one word and laughed as the residence screamed.
Fury turned a blind eye when Phil sicked Barton on him and said agent disappeared into thin air.
Melody's shaking hands sloppily signed out 'Six meals went by and no one came. I thought the Council was going to kill me.'
Phil immediately felt guilty. In his excitement they had forgotten to make sure Melody's schedule was kept up. That schedule was one of the few comforts the Council had allowed her, and he had for two days unintentionally taken that away from her.
"I'm so sorry Melody. There's been so much going on in the last few days that I guess I forgot to make sure someone checked up on you. I've got so much to tell you, and if you accept I have some fantastic news for you." Melody leaned away from him looking up expectantly. "You remember how Agent Barton went on that mission to find Captain America two years back?" Melody nodded. "He found something else while he was searching the ocean. It's called the Tesseract. Essentially it's a self sustaining energy source that can potentially destroy the world if in the wrong hands."
Melody's eyes grew wide. This sounded way above classified. Was Phil's brain fried? Last she checked anything about his work that didn't have to do with her and a few that did couldn't be told to her unless she needed to know. What would she need to know in an iron cell?
Despite her mildly frightened look Phil continued. "A few days ago, it started acting funny. It was during that time when I had one of the people that bring you your meals talk to you remember?" Melody nodded looking mildly confused. What did 'acting funny' mean when talking about a potentially deadly energy source? "It opened a portal allowing a very dangerous man through. He killed quite a few people and took over one of the scientist's minds as well as…" Phil sighed he didn't know how she would take this. "… as well as Agent Barton." She gasped, quickly regretting it.
Pain pulsed blue through her. She screamed through her teeth trying to quiet herself as fast as possible. The more noise she made the worse it would be. She felt Phil's jacket surround her shoulders before Phil pulled her into a tight embrace making sure to not touch her skin and in turn be electrocuted as well.
She braced herself against Phil; her entire body shaking and tense. Phil hated this almost as much as she did. He hated seeing the girl he'd been caring for be put through pain for making any sound and in turn forced to scream until she couldn't anymore.
He would be glad when the retched thing was off her, and thought of ways to brutally destroy the thing as he helped her ride through the shocks.
It was a minute or two before her focus was broken enough from her attempt to stay quite to notice Phil had been whispering comforts and promises to her as she screamed. "Shh, calm down. I promise it will be off soon. I'm going to get you out of here, and you'll never have to wear one of those things again. Calm down, calm down."
Melody lay limp in his arms panting and shaking sore from her most recent electrocution. She raised her hands, her shaking making her signing almost unintelligible in the little light the flashlight provided as it rested on the cot. 'What do you mean… it will be off soon? The Council told me directly it would… never come off. They wouldn't… allow it.'
"I was getting to that." Phil said softly still trying to sooth the shaking out of her. "I know you don't know much about the world outside, just the things that I have told you, but the world is filled with people kind of like you. They have powers as well, of different kinds, and some the Council tried to capture as well, but their differences were noticed or created after they became old enough to fight back. Director Fury and I have been working on enlisting a lot of these people into a team called the Avengers so that the world can be protected by people with better means to protect it when SHIELD can't.
"Director Fury convinced the Council that you should be on that team. They have signed over full, well they called it ownership, of you to Director Fury. As long as you agree to be on the team, Director Fury will enroll you as a temporary agent until this crisis is over. After that you can choose what you want to do with your life. If you find you want to remain an agent you will be allowed to do that. If you decide you want to live with someone and be adopted into a family you will be allowed to do that too. If you agree, I can actually bring you out of here right now."
Melody looked at him with disbelief at first, and then a grin spread across her face, before settling into slight worry. 'Will I see you again if I agree?'
Phil smiled at that. "Melody, I have been your care taker for three years. Do you really think I would let you getting released stop me from seeing you?"
Melody smiled again before signing, 'How could I refuse?'
Phil smile widened as he stood up helping Melody to her feet, still shaking from minutes before. "Let's go get that infernal thing off then shall we? Unfortunately, Fury's the only one that knows how to take it off, and he's on the helicarrier at the moment. We'll be going there immediately. The team should be there by the time we get there anyway."
Phil opened up the door holding Melody around the shoulders to steady her, before walking her into the light for the first time in three years.
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