You know, I got the idea for this plot from a review, so it's only fair that I completely change it in response to numerous reviews. For more explanation, see the end review.

Chapter 16

Daisy was still asleep when he went in, which made it easier. It gave him time to try to find the words. How do you tell someone that they've been brainwashed? How do you tell her daughter she either has to spend the rest of her life locked up, or forget everyone and everything she loved?

"Hey."

Tony hadn't even realized she was awake until Daisy spoke. She looked at peace, comfortable, despite the cuffs. Would it really be so terrible to leave her like that? Surely with time her conditioning would wear off and she could be released… Surely there were more options. "Hey honey. How are you feeling?"

"Restless," Daisy admitted, sitting up so the cuffs clacked against the bars of the bed. "It's weird. I don't want you to die, you know that right? But I just… I just have to kill you so… so I think I'm glad I'm locked up. But I hate it. I hate every second of it. I just want to go and live and…"

Her words were like 23 daggers in Tony's chest. "Daisy. Fury knows of a way that you can be free and not hurt those you love." The girl's eyes lit up, despite the conditioning in her that said this was a very bad thing. "But there's a price. We… You… You'd have to forget me Dais. We'd have to give you a new life. You'd be who you would have been, had you not found that letter."

Daisy wasn't exceptional. She, like everyone else, had spent many nights imagining what her life had been like if one thing had been different, if she'd never found that letter. It had always seemed like a simpler life, if not a better one, but she never wanted that life. She liked her life, even when it was crazy and horrible and painful. But she loved her dad. She loved Steve and Clint and Natasha. She didn't want them dead (but they have to die). But at the same time… she couldn't just forget her life! That would hurt them more than death.

"No," Daisy declared, sitting up the best her restraints would allow. "No. There has to be another way. Call Fitzsimmons or any scientist they can find another way. Maybe… maybe just make me forget the recent stuff. That can happen can't it? I don't want to lose you, not by forgetting you, not by killing you. There has to be another way!"
Tony was crying, but he wiped away the tear from his little girl's eyes. "You're never going to lose me Daisy. Even if you don't know you have me you still will. You're my daughter. I love you."

"I want to know I have you please, find another way. I don't care if it's risky or… just find another way. Please, Dad, please."

The look in Daisy's eye was so broken that Tony wanted to throw a chair, or everything in the room really. Daisy was right there had to be another way. He couldn't do this, not to her. He could let her go, because he loved her, but he couldn't make her have to let him go. It was just wrong so wrong.

"Find another way. Even if it means erasing the last three months, but not the last five years. Fury, I can't lose my daughter," Tony told the head of Shield as he stormed from Daisy's room. This was ridiculous. Sure, his life was always ridiculous, but this was a new level. They could not just ask him to do this. They could not just ask Daisy to do this. "If you've done this before, don't tell me you haven't only erased certain memories. I know you Fury, you will have tried."

The Director of Shield pursed his lips and looked away from the distraught father. It was true, he had only erased certain memories. All the other Tahiti patients had been wiped completely, but Coulson… Fury couldn't bring himself to lose Phil Coulson. It was wrong of him to ever think the Avengers could lose Daisy.

But there were risks. Coulson had been resurrected for months now, and they still had him under observation. They would probably be adjusting his memories for another year more before ever letting him return to duty. Fury still didn't know if it work would, not completely, or if Coulson was going to go rogue like the others and tear everything down. But Nick had taken the risk, for an Avenger.

Daisy was more of an Avenger than Phil damn it, and Fury owed it to her to try. "There may be a way… but it's risky. Really risky, and I can't tell you it will work. We could adjust her memories, make her forget getting kidnapped and everything after. But she'd need to stay under observation, constant supervision by someone who is not one of her targets… someone who could stop her if the memories were to return. Pepper would be okay, I'd suggest having Hill on hand as well, but I'd hate to have to spare her. And Daisy couldn't be an agent, not until we know for sure it's stuck."

Fury called those downsides, but they just sounded like choirs of angels to Tony. He was so thrilled by the fact that he could keep Daisy that it never even crossed his mind to be angry at Fury for not presenting this offer in the first place. In a few months, maybe a few weeks, he'd probably be angry, but in that moment Tony had his world returned to him.

"Anyone, anything. She'll hate it, being stuck at home, but… but she'd be home, and she'll be herself. Right? She'll still be Daisy."

Nick Fury nodded and went to make the proper calls. Damn it he'd probably regret this, but he didn't have any other option. It was for the best.

When Daisy woke up, she was in a hospital bed. She jerked up, expecting stabbing pain in her shoulder where the bullet cut through, but found only an old ache. Pulling her shirt off Daisy discovered that there was no fresh wound there, but a healing scar.

She wracked her brain, but nothing made sense. Okay, some things made sense, like the husband and wife passed out in chairs by her bedside, but other things… Daisy understood why she might be in a Shield hospital. She'd been attacked because…

"Pierce is Hydra!"

Her scream awoke her sleeping parents just as Daisy was climbing from the bed. Tony jumped to his feet to grab her, unsure what was going on in her head after the treatment, and the wideness of Daisy's eyes struck him. She was terrified. "Daisy, it's okay. You're safe."

"No, no! No one's safe Pierce… Pierce is Hydra!"

Tony used his larger body to sit Daisy back down, and he held her hands tight. On the bright side she wasn't trying to kill him. On the downside… well she was hysterical. "Daisy, it's been a month. You've been unconscious for a month, it's only natural for you to be confused."

A month? Her father's words stopped Daisy in her tracks. She remembered being attacked and everything going dark but… "A month? I… I don't understand." That just didn't seem right. Daisy's legs should be jelly if she'd been in a coma for a month, but she felt fine.

"When you were attacked you got shot and then hit your head," Tony told the girl, mentally hating himself for the lie, but knowing it was truly in her best interest. He'd never gotten a chance to tell his daughter lies about Santa and the Easter bunny, but he could lie to her about this to keep her in a world of fantasy. "I've been really worried."

Daisy lifted her hands to cup her head, trying to sort through the words. None of it made sense, but she didn't have time to think on it. "I'm not confused Dad, Secretary Pierce is Hydra. That's why he sent someone to attack me; he wanted me to join Hydra."

Tony once again went to brush it off as a side effect of the treatment, but then he realized it was a viable possibility. Fury had said they were going to wipe everything since Daisy was kidnapped… if she'd found out the truth before she was kidnapped. "Daisy, are you absolutely sure?"

"One hundred percent, he told me himself."

Looking at the desperation on her face, Tony realized it was true. Secretary Pierce was actually a Nazi, and he was the one who'd done this to Daisy. He was going to pay. Quickly he pulled out his phone, and sent a simple message in the Avengers Group Chat: Daisy is awake and knows who did this. Avengers Assemble.

I'll admit, I was going to have Daisy's mind wiped and then the story ends with her waking up as Skye. It was really, really, really depressing, but I was doing it, because I felt that was what the story needed. Then yesterday I hinted at that, and you all, for lack of a better word, flipped shit. I've never seen so many people upset at the prospect of something, and it actually just reassured my inner feeling that something was wrong. So, I changed it. If you wanted the other plotline... I'm sorry. If you were one of the people who wanted something else, well I hope this suits you better, because it certainly does me.

I'm going to mark this story as complete, but to be honest I'm not sure it is actually done. I always planned on writing one more part, but now I need to change what I wrote completely, and I don't know if it's going to sit better as a separate story or if I'm just going to go back to updating on this. I need to write it, see it's length, see it's plot, and then I'll know. So keep a lookout and I'll no matter what make one more update on this fic to let you know what's happening.

With that being said, I'm swamped with work at the moment. I'm taking my NEWTS next week (definitely NEWTS, not AP tests), and my musical is right after them, and then I should be able to breathe. But changing this chapter is the most writing I've done in over 2 weeks, because I simply haven't had any time. As soon as I do I'll write the end/ sequel to this story, and have it posted. I'm hoping June 1st will be around when you see the next update, but I honestly don't know.

I do know that I really appreciate everyone who read this story, and I'll appreciate even more everyone who doesn't hate me for changing things last minute. I do feel like this will be better (or at least happier) in the end. Not to say there still isn't some tragedy left, because there is, but there is more hope this way. Anyway, I'm going to stop rambling and go to bed. Thank you, for everything.