A million and one thank yous again. I really appreciate you all sticking with me. I know it's been a rough ride. (Though no less rough than the actual show. And I'm mean to Daisy? Have you seen what they've done to her?)

Chapter 15

When Daisy woke up, the first thing she was aware of where the cool binders around her wrists. For a moment she thought she was back in the warehouse, back to being conditioned to comply, but then she saw her dad sitting on the other side of the room, looking at her with more fear in his eyes than she knew was possible. "Dad? Dad what's going on? Where am I?"

Tony blinked. Daisy sounded so young and scared and good. How could everything he was being told be true? How could everything he'd seen for himself been true. "You're being held at a S.H.I.E.L.D facility. Daisy, you tried to kill Natasha."

"Is she okay?" Daisy asked, her heart beating. Natasha was fine right? God she couldn't stand the idea of Natasha not being fine and yet… and yet she'd been the one to pull the trigger. "Oh Dad I'm so, so sorry. I had to do it I had to."

Everyone had told him it was dangerous, but Tony moved to her side. Besides, Daisy was restrained by cuffs; there wasn't much she could do. And he needed to be near her, brushing the stray hairs from her face. "Daisy, while you were out we ran some tests. The decision making part of your brain is basically off. Someone else made the decision to kill the Avengers, right? And you were just following through?"

"I had to comply."

Comply: Daisy said the word so easily, so robotically, that Tony knew it wasn't her own. Self hatred oozed throughout him. What kind of terrible father let their daughter be kidnapped and brainwashed? What kind of asshole didn't notice for months?

"And do you know who tell you to comply?"

Of course she did. Daisy wasn't such a fool as to not know who she was working for. But telling was not complying. "Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell anyone. I can't."

Tony wanted to push, demand answers, but he didn't want to push her. He didn't want to break his daughter any more than she'd already been broken. I'm going to kill them all. I don't care whether or not that's right, I want them all dead.

"Okay honey, that's okay. I'll… I'll be back soon, okay? Try to go back to sleep, it's the middle of the night."

Whatever drug Clint had hit her with was still very much in Daisy's system, so it wasn't hard for her to obey and drift back into the safe world of sleep.

"So she's been brainwashed to kill the Avengers and do God knows what else," Tony finally sighed, flopping down besides Pepper and the other Avengers. Pepper placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Tony just felt stupid. He should have known. Better yet he should have kept Daisy, his daughter, safe. She shouldn't have ever been in danger in the first place. They only wanted her because Daisy was his daughter, the Avengers' friend. This was all his fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. "Now what the Hell do we do to fix her?"

Tony looked among his friends, but found no answer. They'd stopped Daisy, or at least her compliance, but they didn't know how to fix it. She still felt the need to kill them, just as much as she felt overwhelming love for them.

"There may be a way." Fury had been sulking in the shadows, but when he spoke the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D moved towards them. "If Daisy was to forget getting taken she'd forget what they told her to do."

It sounded brilliant, and so everyone knew there had to be a catch.

"But she'd have to forget all her targets as well, or at least her emotional connection to them."

Tony was much shorter than Fury, but when he stood next to the Director no one could be white sure who was looming over whom. "What do you mean? How could she just forget us?"

"We could wipe her memories of everything that's happen since you adopted her and instead give her a fake life, the life she probably would have had should she never have found you."

"No way!" Tony bellowed, horrified that Fury could even say such a thing. Sure, the man wasn't a father but even he had to realize that just wiping Daisy's memories wasn't a good idea. Tony wasn't about to make her forget her family, everything that had happened. He wasn't going to let Daisy live on the streets with no family or future like many former foster-kids did. No way! "No. You can't just do that. You can't take my daughter away from me."

"Either I do or Daisy stays locked up forever, trying to kill you every chance she gets," Fury never got mad, but the way he emphasized the end of the sentence drove it into all of them. They didn't have any ither options. Either they locked up Daisy or they destroyed Daisy, sending her back to a life of nothing and no one.

The choice hung in the air, until Tony finally choked out an answer, "How can I even make that choice?"

"Maybe you don't have to," Steve finally spoke up, not meeting Tony's eyes. "Daisy is still herself, except for when it comes to killing us, right? Why don't you ask her what she wants? Let her make the decision."

Tony hated the idea simply because it was Steve's but it made sense. Yet was Daisy really capable of making such a big decision. Brainwashing aside Daisy was so young. She could make the wrong choice. Or she could make the right choice and leave him…

"I'll go talk to her," he finally sighed, getting up before the matter could be discussed anymore. He was her father. It was his decision up until the moment it was hers. After all, Daisy was an adult. He could only do so much for her, and even then he'd never managed to do all of that.