A/N: Hey people, again thank you so much for all the interest in this story, and especially to StarStreamtheKeeper for the review it really gives me the motivation to keep on writing!
I've got a favour to ask you all though, I'm looking for a threatening but believable name for a villain (male) who will appear later in the story. If anyone has any ideas could you leave them in a review or PM me, it would be really appreciated!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers (I wish...) only my OCs and their plot line.
As always enjoy the chapter!
Lucksby xx

Oh fair warning, there is some mild bad language in this chapter so please just bleep it out in your head if that offends you... However the situation calls for it I think.

CHAPTER 6

Ren had never been happier to be back in London. After the fiasco in New York with her Father's dedication speech of the Avengers tower to her, she had become more paranoid than she had been in years. She had explained away her actions that day to her teachers as feeling very ill, and her shaking, emotionally unstable state had corroborated her story. All in all she was glad to be back on home turf where she felt a much higher degree of safety, and had managed to shake the feeling that she was being watched like back in NYC.

She was currently in the room she shared with Celine slogging through an essay on The Crucible, with music pounding through her headphones, blocking out the world. Her best friend was still at a rehearsal for the school's production of Hairspray, and would be for some time, much to Ren's pleasure. She loved Celine to pieces, but the French girl had been treating Ren as if she were made of glass ever since they had got back from the States, and Ren was more than a little sick of it. She just wanted to move on with life; the speech changed nothing.

It was the loud music that caused her to miss the knock on the door, and she remained glued to her laptop, fingers flying over the keys as a wave of inspiration hit her. It was no wonder then, that she was so surprised when she looked up five minutes later to find a strange man in a foreboding black suit standing in the middle of the room.

"Shit!" Ren flew about a foot in the air, dropping her laptop onto the bed as she scuttled back as far as possible. "Who the fuck are you? And how did you get in here?"
"Astute questions Miss Ashmore, or would you prefer Miss Stark?" Her whole body became rigid, an expression of utter terror painted on her face.
"I assure you that there is nothing to fear Miss Stark", the man continued, Ren noting his American accent, "I am Agent Coulson from the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division, and I am here to talk to you about your father, Antony Stark. As for how I got in, the door was unlocked."

Ren took a moment to digest everything that he had said. It wasn't as bad as she had feared, still bad, but she would probably survive the encounter if he was an American government agent, so it could have been worse.
She wryly replied "You really need a new name for that you know, it's rather a mouthful."
"So I've been told. We call ourselves SHIELD now."
Ren nodded, stalling; she was sure that whatever Agent Coulson had to say wouldn't be anything that she wanted to hear. I mean, come on, teenage girls, even fugitive daughters of billionaires don't get visits from top secret government agencies just because they want to say hi…

"What about my father do you want to talk about?" There was no point denying it.
"I think his continuing lack of knowledge about your survival would be a good place to start. May I?" He asked gesturing to the wheelie chair by Celine's desk.
Ren nodded, relaxing her tense posture slightly. "Please."
"As I'm sure you are probably aware Miss Stark, SHIELD and the Avengers go hand in hand, and we had people watching the square during Mr Stark's speech, your behaviour was unmissable and made you stand out rather, I'm afraid. You weren't hard to track down, I must say, I was impressed at the high quality forgeries you possess. I wouldn't have thought that a lone teenage girl would have been able to lay her hands on them, even if she was the daughter of Iron Man." He paused, " However what interests me most is this; why hide in the first place?"
Ren remained silent while the man spoke, and then gave herself a minute to compose an answer to his questions. "Firstly, yeah, New York was a fiasco and I had no idea that we were going to watch that speech beforehand. Two, thanks, but no thanks, how I came by all of my documents isn't something I'm willing to share, sorry." She paused. "And why I hide from him, from the world? Really it's simple; it's for his own good."

It was Coulson who now looked perplexed, "Own good? I happen to know Stark well and I don't really see how believing that his only daughter is dead could do him any good."
"Don't you?" Ren gave him a hard look, "Remember what he was like before Afghanistan? A narcissistic, egotistical jerk, that's what he was. But before I went missing he was even worse; he had zero morals, rather than just very few, he might have had a living daughter, but he hardly knew her. But now? He actually knows what it is to regret things, what it is to lose. He said himself he no longer takes things for granted, and that, Agent Coulson, has made him a better person, after all what would an Avenger be without something to avenge? I might sound a little big headed here, but losing me changed him from the 'Merchant of Death' into the man who had the courage to become Iron Man."

Her agitation had grown as she spoke, and with it his respect for her. What she had done for her father defied so much logic, and yet her actions were so noble. She had sacrificed the possibility of a childhood to give him a reason not to abuse the power that his fame and fortune had given him.

However there was still one obvious question; and Coulson decided to attack it head on.

"Just one final question Miss Stark, how did a thirteen year old acquire the resources to pull of the disappearing act you did? You see I don't believe for a second that you did it on your own, as good a computer hacker as I suspect you are it is simply impossible. SHIELD looked for you for years, I'm not sure if you are aware of that, and to evade discovery by us for as long as you did is a feat greater than you could have achieved at the time. No offense."

The internal war that waged within Ren was colossal, to tell him or not to tell him? That was the proverbial question. What's the worst that could happen? He'll ruin this life you've made for yourself that's what! Or he'll allow you to live without the constant fear that they'll come for you and do even worse! He'll tell Tony. Is that a bad thing though? If he rounded them all up you could go back to being Carenza Stark, you could leave Seren in the past. But is that what you want?

Coulson could see the conflict within the girl, she was clearly hiding something huge, and he just hoped the part of her that obviously wanted to spill to him won out.

"Ok…" She paused, "If I tell you I need you to promise me something. I need you to promise not to tell Tony I'm alive."
"Miss Stark…"
"I also need you to call me Ren." Coulson weighed his options, her information for his discretion. Whilst he regarded Stark as something of a friend, the choice was easy.
"You've got yourself a deal Ren."
"Thank you." Ren nodded to the American. "This is probably going to be hard to believe though."
At this Coulson smiled. "Try me."