Make You Feel My Love
~Book III~

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers nor do I own the plot of Age of Ultron. All rights go to Marvel.
All I do own are my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 34~
Father Daughter Time

"Identification," sighed the woman behind the desk, not even looking up at Maria as she spoke, her bored voice telling Maria more than well that she was done with simply sitting behind that desk.

"Uh," began Maria, unsure of what to show the woman.

Maria had a passport somewhere in her bag filled with belongings, though she would have to search through the entire thing which she was not quite happy about. She had no driver's license to show to the woman nor did she have her Avenger's ID left. It had gotten lost during the battle in Sokovia and seeing as she had left the team, she never asked for a new one.

The woman looked up at her from the computer screen she had been staring at, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of Maria. Startled, the woman stood up, running her hand through her hair to make it look more presentable before tugging nervously at the clothes she was wearing.

"Miss Dalton, please, come with me," said the woman, rounding the desk.

"Oh, okay," said Maria, unsure of what was happening.

After she had left the Avengers HQ, she had suddenly found herself in the position of not knowing where to go at all. After all, there was no home for her to go to and no friends who could help her, apart from Matt who she was thinking about disturbing later that evening for a place to sleep. However, she then remembered Wanda's words to her the evening before; how her father had wanted to talk to Maria. After some phone calls to Tony and Pepper, she finally managed to get a hold on the address of the prison Erik had been sent to, finding out it was an old SHIELD driven prison which Tony had taken over for the Avengers after the collapse of SHIELD. She wondered what other people could be sent to that prison briefly though decided against asking that, not wanting to know what other awful people there were out there.

"Mr Stark told me you would arrive," she said. "He explained it all."

"Uh, explained what?" Maria might have asked where the prison was, though she had never truly told Tony what she was going to do there.

"How you are going to take over the prison-"

"Oh, no, no," said Maria, quickly stopped which caused the woman to turn around with a wondering look on her face. "I-I'm not taking over anything."

"But Mr Stark-"

"Yeah, I bet that was his way of making me stay," sighed Maria. "You can tell him, your boss, that I'm not taking over anything. I'm here to see Erik Dalton."

The woman looked at Maria for a while, her eyes suddenly turning cold and bored again, making Maria wonder if her kind attitude towards her had only been because she had thought Maria would become her new boss. Had she actually taken the offer, she would most certainly have fired the rude woman.

"Great…" mumbled the woman, turning around and beginning to walk down a hallway. "This way!"

Leading Maria, the woman led Maria past several bolted up doors and stairways leading either up or down. Maria wanted to ask why the doors were all obviously locked, though she did not feel like talking to the woman. Turning a corner, they were met with yet another hallway, however this time, the woman led Maria inside one of the doors, which was the only one that was not bolted. The woman used a key-card on the lock before passing through it and Maria found herself once more in yet another hallway, which caused her to sigh.

Though it was different from the other hallways. The floor seemed to be leaning downwards slightly as Maria felt significantly more pressure on her knees while walking down that hallway, then the previous one. Also, the hallway was not simply a boring one that looked as though it could have come straight out from any ordinary hospital, with boring beige colors. No, the hallway Maria and the cold woman were walking through had walls made out of steel, fancy marble floors and a dark ceiling; so dark it reminded Maria of the night sky, if not even darker. The lights were sprawled out like tiny bulbs all hanging from the ceiling which, with the dark ceiling, made them look like stars on the night-sky. It was beautiful, and strange.

The doors in the hallway were also different. They were present, though they were all made out of glass with only a small, metal handle on them meant for opening and closing. Next to each of the doors were the same locks as from earlier, all requiring a card and a code (check this). Seeing as the doors were see-through, Maria could easily deduce what was behind each door; a cell.

This was a prison and Maria figured that they were now in the hallway which was the secret holding place of super-criminals. So far, however, there was only Erik in there. Though she knew that, with time, more criminals would be held in there. Both those who were strong and powerful, and those who were less dangerous – Erik might fall into the latter category seeing as the Avengers were now a couple of members stronger.

As they had reached approximately halfway down the hallway, the cold woman stopped walking and turned to her right, looking at one of the cell-doors with narrowed eyes.

"Lunch-time already, my dear?"

The voice sent shivers up Maria's spine and she briefly wanted to turn and run away. Though she did not know why. She did not fear her father, especially not now that he was behind glass door which Stark himself had made sure could hold him and his powers. How, she did not know.

"You have a visitor, Mr Dalton."

Perhaps it was the fact that she now was going to face what she truly was. She had inheritated her father's powers and when she looked at him, she actually looked at an image of herself. An image of what she could become should she choose the wrong path, at least.

"Really?" his voice sounded intrigued and as she stepped forward so he could see her, his smile seemed to falter slightly before it turned into the brightest of smiles. "Maria! How nice of you to show!"

"Last time you saw me, I was laying dead in the sand," said Maria, narrowing her eyes.

"Please, I always knew you were coming back," he said, waving her words off. "One can't kill off a Dalton that easily."

"You wanted to talk to me," sighed Maria, placing her hands behind her back.

"I'll let you two talk. You have ten minutes," said the agent, nodding her head at Maria and giving Erik one last, rather mean, look before leaving back down the hallway again.

"Yes, good, Miss Maximoff told you," said Erik, standing up and walking over to the glass door.

Maria backed up, earning a soft chuckle from Erik.

"Well, I'm hurt!" he said, placing a hand on his chest, mockingly giving her a hurt look as well. "We just saved the world side by side and you still don't believe that I don't want to hurt you?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

Maria narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't think I'll ever trust you again. But we're not here to talk about trust. We're here to talk about whatever you wanted to talk about."

"You're right," said Erik with a sigh. "I wanted to talk to you about it after the mission. I knew you or someone else would take me in. My original plan was to actually run for it the moment we got Ultron but seeing as he lifted the entire city up in the air, things got a bit complicated."

"And then I died."

"Yes, that did delay things as well," he agreed, nodding his head. "But I had no problem waiting. After all, I knew you would come back."

"Cut to the chase," said Maria plainly, earning a scoff from Erik.

"I left behind some men in Hell's Kitchen," he said. "I want you to take over."

"Take over what?"

"Them," said Erik as though it was an obvious thing for her to understand immediately. "They can't make it on their own. They need a leader and, well, I'm not really available at the moment."

"You're kidding, right?" asked Maria before sputtering out a laugh. "I'm not taking over a Hydra base!"

"Not Hydra," spat Erik. "For God's sake, woman, do you really think I'm pure evil!?"

Maria quieted down at his shouting, looking at him with a surprised look on her face.

"I've already told you a thousand times that I did not want to go with Hydra!" he said, taking another step forwards, the tip of his nose nearly touching the glass. "I did it to keep you safe. They wanted our powers and you were the perfect little guinea pig for them. They would conduct tests on you and train you into becoming their soldier. I didn't want that for you so… I agreed to take your place. On the condition that I would conduct the tests on my own. So, I did and I found our weakness and I found our strength. I suppose you were there by Captain Roger's side last year when SHIELD's little corruption was found out?"

"I was," she said, nodding her head. "What of it?"

"The Hydrus Acidulus. It was all me. They knew of your weakness because of me," he said, his voice wavering slightly between pride and regret. "Now everyone knows. Stark used it on the door. Neither of us can even touch the handle. And up there – those vents – they're ready to spill out the Hydrus Acidulus in gas form should I even use my powers in here."

"Which are?" asked Maria quietly, her eyes going up to the vents, wondering where Tony got that idea from.

"The ones you saw," said Erik. "The ones you harbor but don't use."

"I can move things with my mind then," said Maria sarcastically. "Yeah, right."

"You can. You just need to trust in yourself and your new powers," said Erik. "I can help you with that-"

"You're not getting out of here," spat Maria, causing him to raise his hands in surrender, a smug smile on his face.

"It was worth a shot," he said, lowering his hands again. "About those men – They're good men, Maria. Good men with a little bit of a twist to them. They like killing the ones that cause trouble."

"Great…" sighed Maria. "So, they're criminals-"

"But not Hydra," he said, pointing a finger at her. "You're with that Captain for a reason. I know you won't pass on the opportunity to make these men better. They can help, Maria. They're not that bad."

"Maybe not… But I've left that life behind. I don't do that anymore. I suppose you just have to find someone else to babysit them for you until you get out."

"Please, we both know I'm not getting out of here," said Erik, turning around, pacing his cell. "Those men need someone, Maria. They're outsiders of society in need of something to do. I gave them the opportunity to work for me for a good cause and they might not have had a great mentor in Artur-"

"Artur? Yeah, that's just great. Now I'm getting his mess as well? I'm sorry, dad, but this won't happen."

With that said, Maria turned and began walking down the hallway with a fast pace. She looked serious and rather annoyed, though in reality she was feeling a bit torn. Torn between choosing the life she had chosen those years ago when Stark had offered her a place with the Avengers, and choosing the safe way away from her fears.

Boring little chapter though the interesting stuff is coming. I hope. Also, I have a huge surprise coming for everyone who is going to read the next 'book'. Super excited about writing about that for you guys :D