Do you wonder why you hate?
Are you still too weak to survive your mistakes?
- Sweet Sacrifice by Evanescence

Hey guys! Here's an extremely long chapter 6...

There's a major Stellie scene in the next chapter. Stellie as in Steve and Ellie for all you slow kids in the back.

Don't forget; I'm always up for feedback, good or bad. If you have any tips or suggestions, please don't hesitate.

By the way, how are you finding Ellie? I hope she's not boring you to death. You'll find out more about her past in this chapter.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Nobody reads this anyway.

Enjoy (for those of you who are actually reading this)

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The crying girl looked straight up into the camera and tilted her head. Her blurry brown eyes narrowed as she starred at it. A second later, she stood up; dressed in nothing but a white dress that ended just below her knees.

"I know you're watching me," she whispered, "Please let me go. I'm sorry, okay?" she cried, moving closer and closer toward the camera."Where's my mother?"

The video skipped over some footage and stopped after a couple of months.

The girl's black hair had grown quickly. Her skin had nearly turned a snowy, sickly white. She sat with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up against her chest.

"Do you want me to move something?" she asked, then effortlessly laughed at herself. She held out her hand and balled it into a fist before spreading out her fingers, creating an exploding sign with her hand. "BOOM!" she hissed, letting out another cackle.

Tony paused the video and zoomed in on her arm, or more precisely –her wrists, which had thin lines stripped across them. He hesitated for a while before counting the possibilities in his head.

"Thinking what I'm thinking?" Bruce asked, noticing Tony's change of expression. It went from thinking, then directly to a shocked and horrified look. He made a quick note of it before fast-forwarding to a few more months later.

"PLEASE LET ME OUT!" the girl screamed, holding her head and once again crying.

She began banging on the door, eventually trying to ram it down with her shoulder, but it was no use. She started sobbing uncontrollably as she sunk onto the ground and kicked her legs.

"LET ME GO!" she gasped frantically. "LET ME OUT OF THIS GODDAMN ROOM, FOR FUCK SAKE!"

Tony skipped one more month. The more he and Bruce watched, the more they started feeling sorry for her, especially Bruce, since he knew how it felt to be someone's lab rat. It was hard to believe that the Ellie they knew was the same Ellie, who was going insane, in the videos.

"Elizabeth Dixon, subject 2, please nod once if you can hear me," a man's voice said over the footage. The girl was seated at a small table in a small room. On the table were a few building blocks. The girl nodded once.

"Elizabeth Dixon, subject 2, please move one of the blocks using your telekinesis."

She shook her head. "I –I can't. I don't know how. That's impossible," the girl responded. She was still dressed in the long white clinic gown.

The man's voice repeated itself. "Elizabeth Dixon, subject 2, please move one of the blocks using your telekinesis."

Tony skipped yet another month. The next month's footage was different, though. It wasn't from an observational camera; it was from a security one. The screen was split into four –two of the hallways, one of the front desk and one of around the entrance of the facility. He watched closely.

Somehow, the girl had managed to escape. She sprinted down the corridor, avoiding every person she passed. Doctors, nurses and security guards went after her and even managed to corner her at one stage.

"Elizabeth Dixon, do not resist," the doctor advised her. She wanted to run out the front door, but they were able to lock down the entire building as soon as they heard that she of all patients had escaped. She looked back through the glass door and saw many things; cars, people, the sky and most of all –freedom. A second later, one of the doctors dived in to capture her, but she disappeared without even realizing it. When she opened her eyes again, she was outside. Without even looking back with a hint of regret, she made a run for it.

"That was intense," Tony mumbled, taking down notes. "She teleported when she needed to the most. She could've easily escaped long before she did, but she couldn't."

Bruce nodded and jotted something down on his notepad. "I see. So whenever she's physically threatened, her powers suddenly 'turn on', if you will. That would explain how they worked against Doom last week. She's been training with Clint lately and he said that when he shot an arrow at her, it stopped in midair before hitting her. That's interesting," he went on.

"Right," Stark agreed, "so she didn't teleport on command that night with Doom?"

Banner shook his head. "Unless she's been secretly practicing in her room, I highly doubt it. But she got so sick. It's hard to make that assumption."

"So maybe if she concentrated enough, she'd be able to use her telekinesis whenever she felt like it," Tony said, "Jarvis, get Ellie down here, would you?"

"Certainly, sir."

…

The Living Room

"Well it's a good thing you have us. We are going to show you everything you missed," Ellie said, sitting down opposite Steve at the table. "We'll do music during the day and movies at night. Don't even try to get out of it."

He wiped his mouth and snorted, looking between her, Clint and Thor. He knew that it was too late to make excuses. She wouldn't rest until she got her way. "Alright. I have nothing else to do anyway," he agreed, getting up. Ellie trotted after him and jumped on top of the counter while he stuck his plate into the dishwasher. Clint and Thor followed.

"Great. Were you alive in the 50's?" Clint asked with a big smirk. Ellie concealed her laugh as much as she could.

Steve thought about it for a second and shook his head. "No. Well I was in a coma."

"The ice-block. Right," he huffed. Steve leaned against the opposite counter and folded his arms. He wanted to hear them out.

"So, I don't know much about the 50's, so we'll just watch Grease and listen to Elvis. For the 60's, we'll listen to the Bee Gees and Santana and watch something like –," Ellie began.

Clint interrupted. "You forgot the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. We could watch Night of the Living Dead," he suggested.

Ellie nodded in agreement. "Right, and Rosemary's Baby, shit that was freaky."

She took a deep breath before rambling on. "Oh my God, the 70's. We are so going to watch the Exorcist. I love that movie."

"You know I've never even watched that movie," Natasha intervened, entering the kitchen. She jumped on top of one of the other counters and joined the conversation.

Ellie's face dropped. "No fucking way," she whispered and shook her head in disappointment. A curl flopped out of her ponytail as she moved her head. "There is no way in hell that you haven't watched one of the greatest fucking horror movies ever made. Nat, that's really just plain laughable. It's sick. An outrage!"

Nat laughed and shrugged. "Being a part-time S.H.I.E.L.D and an Avenger really eats up one's time. I bet Clint hasn't watched it either," she said, looking at him and crossing her legs, "right?"

"Right."

"Well, then I say tonight we sit our asses down and watch the damn movie," Ellie stubbornly huffed. She crossed her arms and puckered her eyebrow. Nobody was getting out of it. Thor and Steve remained silent.

"Anyway, we could also see Jaws and Star Wars and the Godfather. We could listen to the Who and Black Sabbath," Clint continued.

Ellie quickly took over. "And for the 80's –oh shit…," she breathed, "That was my favorite decade. I don't even know what we're going to do for that one, honestly. We'll have to figure something out."

"So the Exorcist tonight?" Nat asked, just to confirm. She had always enjoyed horror movies –she wanted to see how far she could test herself.

Thor nodded, finally contributing to the conversation. "Would it be acceptable to invite Jane Foster?" he asked them. The last time he saw her was at the party.

"Yeah," Natasha shrugged, "It would be nice, I guess."

"Miss Dixon," Jarvis's robotic voice suddenly burst into the room. "Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner would like to see you alone in the lab now, please."

Everybody looked at her, expecting some kind of explanation or comment, but she seemed just as confused as they were. She hopped off the counter.

"Yeah?" she responded uneasily. It was like being called to the principal's office. She didn't know whether she should feel worried or not. "Sure. I'll be right down," she consented and turned back. "I'll tell them about tonight."

All of them nodded and mumbled something she couldn't quite make out. As she made her way to the elevator, she couldn't help but think about why Stark and Banner needed her so suddenly and so urgently. What had they been doing all that time in their lab? She re-styled her hair as she looked at herself in the mirrored wall of the elevator shaft.

"Don't be a coward," she whispered to herself. It was probably nothing anyway. When the lift reached the floor of the labs, she slowly strolled out. The lab was huge. It was an entire floor just dedicated to studying, experimenting and building Tony's Iron Man suits.

Banner and Stark were on the far side –close to a bunch of computers. They were talking to each other in a hushed voice –arguing about something apparently.

Ellie gulped and stepped closer, making her presence known. The last thing she wanted to do was get caught eavesdropping. "Hey," she greeted softly, looking around at the machinery. She looked at Butterfingers and smiled. "You made all of this, Stark?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah."

"That's so fucking awesome," she muttered under her breath and finally found herself at the computer, where Tony and Bruce were positioned. "Whatcha doing?" she questioned, standing on the tips of her toes to see past Tony. Her face immediately dropped when she saw what they had been watching. It was the footage. The footage Nick Fury swore to her would never get out to anybody. Anger piled up inside of her. She didn't even know who to be angry with. Tony and Bruce for sticking their noses into her business or Nick Fury, for handing the tapes over.

"Where the hell did you get this from?" she growled, her face twisting into a dark glare.

Bruce took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Ellie. Fury gave it to us. He asked Stark and me to analyze it," he tried to explain and tried his hardest to get her away from the computer.

She thinned her eyes. "Fury had no right to give it to you!" she yelled. Her anger increased rapidly as she stood there. "Is this what joining this team is about? Digging into each other's pasts?!"

"Ellie, calm down," Tony calmly advised her, "only the two of us have seen it and we're not planning on posting it on YouTube or anything. We needed it to see how your powers have developed over time," he told her, grabbing a chair for her to sit down.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "When I joined S.H.I.E.L.D, they told me that nobody would ever see that or know about what happened," she said softly and opened her eyes. She took a sudden step toward Tony and frowned. "Swear to me that you won't tell anybody and I'll cooperate."

"Good news. We're not forcing you to do this. You can walk away right now if you want. We want to help you. You're part of this team now and that's the way it's going to be. But we are not going to stick you in a cell and force you to do anything, alright?" Bruce responded, nodding his head once.

She broke eye contact and eventually nodded. "Okay. I'll do this, but on one condition –you never ever ever bring those videos up. What you saw stays between the three of us."

Tony and Bruce exchanged looks.

"Agreed."

She held out her fist. A small, weak smile took over her frown. "Fist pump," she whispered and both men responded. Finally, she sat down. Tony and Bruce pulled two office chairs and sat opposite her.

"Alright. Have you ever actually moved an object on purpose?" Bruce began while Tony set up the camera.

She nodded uneasily. "Kind of. If it's really quiet and I concentrate hard I can. But that's a recent project."

"Go ahead and show us."

She looked around for something small and relatively light. There was an old Arc Reactor on the table nearby and she decided to move that. She closed her eyes and took some deep breaths. Bruce and Stark went silent as they watched her every move. She blocked the two of them out, pretending they weren't scrutinizing her.

Focus Ellie. You can fucking do it.

Alright.

Here I go.

She inhaled a hefty amount of air and as she exhaled, she imagined the thing move inside her head. In reality, it didn't even flinch. She narrowed her eyes and thought hard, more intent on moving the damn thing. Nothing. She closed her eyes.

You can do it. You've done it before. Just move the fucking thing.

She took another breath and opened her eyes. Her body leaned in. Her head ached, but she was determined to show them that she could do it. Tony and Bruce both jotted more things down, without her even noticing. She slit her eyes again and her breathing slowed down.

The arc-reactor finally moved.

Her eyes guided it to move further up, toward the ceiling. Banner and Stark both held their breath to see how long she could hold it for. It wobbled slightly, but was still within her control. The longer she held it with her mind, the less she concentrated. Eventually, it dropped and hit the table again. Pepper had entered the room, chattering away on the phone. She looked at Stark and raised her eyebrows, obviously annoyed at something he had done or was doing.

"Oh God," he sighed, knowing that she'd probably want to talk to him about something, "duty calls. Ellie, that was good. We'll pick it up again tomorrow. Bruce, d'you mind finishing up here and concealing those videos? Thanks."

He jogged all the way to Pepper, who was right on the other side of the lab. She got off the phone and started reprimanding him in a hushed tone. Ellie watched them from a distance and tried to hear what they were saying.

"That was remarkable, Ellie," Bruce said, distracting her as he worked on the computer.

She half-smiled. "Thanks."

"Can we pick this up tomorrow, say …at the same time?"

"Yeah. Sure," she nodded and stood up.

"We're done. You probably have better things to do than hanging around down here," he joked, chuckling at himself. Ellie's laugh came out as a snort. She turned around to leave, but then remembered to tell him about that night and what they had planned.

She bit her lip. "We're watching the Exorcist tonight. Me and the others. Could you tell Tony and Pepper? And of course, you're most welcome to come."

He nodded. "Yeah sure. Sounds fun. See you tonight?"

"Yeah."

"Alright."

"See you then..."

…

"This isn't even scary!" Clint complained before feeling an elbow jam into his ribs. He looked to the side, to see Nat frowning and holding her fingers to her lips. He sighed and looked back at the TV. They were finally watching the Exorcist. It turned out that Jane was in town and available. She and Thor took up one half of the couch. She was sitting right next to him, with a packet of lightly salted crisps in her hands. Over few minutes, Thor would grab a messy fistful and thrust it into his mouth.

They were about a half hour into the movie; Bruce barged into the living room, looking for something in the kitchen. Tony paused the movie as they all watched and tried to hear what he was saying over the phone.

"Betty... Betty where are you now?...Alright, I'll be right there…Just stay where you are."

He hung up the phone and grabbed his car keys from the kitchen counter.

"Bruce?" Nat asked, pausing the movie, "you alright?"

He shook his head without taking his eyes away from his phone. "No, I, uh, my, uh, I'll be right back," he stuttered and stormed to the lift. The doors closed before any of them could find something worth saying to make him feel a bit more at ease with whatever was happening. They all looked at each other.

"Ooh –kaay," Clint broke the silence. "What's up with him?"

Natasha sighed. "It's none of our business. Especially yours. Let's just watch the movie and when he comes back, we'll talk to him," she said, laying down and resting her head on Clint's lap. Everybody seemed to agree with that and Tony instructed Jarvis to play the movie.

"Move up," Pepper whispered to Tony as she down next to him with a bowl of popcorn. He put his arm on the back of the couch, inviting her to move closer. She rested her head on his shoulder as he grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it in his mouth.

Ellie sat next to Steve, wrapped within her fluffy grey blanket, while he sat up straight with his legs crossed. There was a half-full small bowl of gummy-bears between them. Ellie had already eaten all the yellow and red ones, while Steve had the purple and green. All that was left were the orange ones. The movie had just about the halfway point and everybody was still wide awake, watching closely. Every few minutes, Thor would ask Jane what they were talking about and she'd have to whisper a quick explanation.

Bruce was still missing in action. He didn't call or anything either.

By the time the movie ended, Tony suggested that they watch another, since no one was tired enough to go to bed. They all agreed to watch the original 'Carrie' movie, but about forty minutes into the movie, everybody had fallen asleep...