Chapter 3:

Avengers' Tower

Elena's POV

I woke up in a prison cell. Trapped… again. Although this time, I didn't know who was out there.

I looked around. There wasn't much. A cot. White walls on three sides and glass on the fourth. A lot like my old accommodations. I guess the main difference were the handcuffs, I look at them. Very technologically advanced. Probably also gave shocks.

"Welcome, sleeping beauty." A gruff voice says. I look at the glass. There's a man there now. He has dark skin and an eyepatch. A woman stands to the side of him. "Now, I'm going to take you into the interrogation room. As you may have noticed the cuffs will give you an electric shock, similar to what you experienced earlier, so I wouldn't try anything."

I don't say anything, but he must seem confident in his threat because the next thing I know the door is opening. I get up and walk towards him. He turns his back on me. I look to the woman and she motions for me to follow him as she trails behind.

They take me to a small room. There's a table with a chair on either side. The walls are blank besides a mirror on one side. Probably a one-way window. The eyepatch guy motions for me to sit. I do.

"Put your hands on the table." He orders.

I obey, something that I'm unfortunately good at. Before I set my hands down, they get pulled. The handcuffs and table must be magnetized. I try to pull my hands back up, testing the strength. Even with all my strength it doesn't budge.

"As you can see, you're not going anywhere." The eyepatch man says as he sits down. The woman stands, maybe due to the fact that there are no more seats. She doesn't say anything; eye patch man keeps taking. "So, I suggest you answer are questions."

"Elena Petrova is you name?"

"не е твоя работа," (pronounced: Ne e tvoya rabota) I say in my native tongue. "Няма да отговарям на въпроси" (Prononced: Nyama da otgovaryam na vŭprosi)

He looks at the woman. "Do you know what language that is?"

"I'm looking up the translation." She replies and then a moment later. "It's Bulgarian, sir. She says 'none of your business. I will not answer your questions'."

I brace for the pain. That was the usual consequence of disobedience.

It doesn't come, instead he just looks at me, annoyed. "We got lots of files and it won't take long for us to know exactly who you are." He says, getting up and leaving with the woman following. I was left alone in the interrogation room.

Clint's POV

The team is sitting around the conference table. Fury had called them in, possibly with another Hydra base to raid. It's been frustrating for all of them. Besides the girl, they had found nothing. No scepter, no Bucky.

There were Hydra prisoners. They were less than helpful, refusing to talk in any way.

Fury walked in with a folder and, of course, Tony was the first to talk. "Is this information about another Hydra base or about the information we found at the last Hydra base? So far, these excursions have been less than stellar."

Fury ignored him and got on the computer. He was pulling up files, when Steve asked, "how's the girl we found doing?"

I laughed, "the one that kicked you in the face?" His concern for others was both honorable and stupid.

"Yes," Tony joined in. "How is the warrior princess?"

Fury continued to look at the monitor. He gave an almost unperceivable glance at Tony. Not one of annoyance, but of concern. One that only me and Natasha probably saw. I looked at her and our eyes met. Yep, we both wondered about that.

"This is about what we found at the last Hydra base and about the girl." Fury said. "The interrogation earlier today did not yield results, but we went through the files found at the last base."

For all this time I've know him, I've never seen this side of him; nervous. It, like the glance, was too unnoticeable to the others, but I was trained to notice things and besides, I knew Fury.

"Was there any information on the scepter?" Thor's voice boomed as he spoke and stood.

"No." Fury answered.

"Then there are more bases to go through, it is our top priority."

"Come on, Thor," I said. "You've got to be curious."

He sat down, knowing that I was right. "Fine, tell us about this lady Petrova."

"There's not much in her file." He says as he pulls the document up on the screen. The picture on the screen was the girl we found, but younger- maybe 7 or 8.

"Her name was the truth. Elena Petrova. Born in Bulgaria. She's 17." Fury paused, looking at Tony. "Her mother's name is Nadia Petrova." Tony tensed when he heard the name. "And, congratulations it's a girl, Tony." Fury finished, sending the folder he was carrying in front of Tony.

Tony looked ill and I felt bad for him. The room was dead silent, all of us processing the information. Tony didn't reach for the file, saying, "you picked a bad time to try and be funny, Fury."

"I'm not joking, Stark."

Tony swallowed hard. "Well, what does Hydra know? They're evil, which means liars."

"That's where the folder comes in. We took some blood while she was unconscious. Then, we verified the information."

Tony finally reached for the folder. He opened it.

After a moment, he closed it and tossed it across the table, "It's impossible. I don't believe it, there must be a mistake."

Bruce picked up and opened the folder from where it landed in front of him. "Looking at this, it looks pretty true. Do you recognize the mother?"

Tony said nothing for a moment. Then, put his head in his hands.

"I would take that as a yes." I said.

There was more silence the tension building. Tony was staring at the picture of the younger version of the girl we had met.

Finally, Steve spoke up, "how do you know her mother?" He was sitting next to Tony and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, clearly romantically." I said with a slight chuckle before I could stop myself. Natasha kicked me under the table. "Ow."

Tony sighed. "We met at MIT. She was an international student- from Bulgaria. We were dating when my parents died. We mutually decided to break up. She would have mentioned a kid."

"Well…." Natasha started.

"What?!" Tony snapped.

She didn't back down, "From what I've heard, you weren't in a good place when your parents died. Drinking, partying, maybe she thought she was protecting you from a burden."

Tony looked like he wanted to argue for a moment, but then didn't.

"Do you want to talk to her?" Steve inquired.

"No." He replied, looking down.

"Okay, then I will." Steve said.

Fury stepped in at this point, "No, you will not. She is a threat and SHIELD will be interrogating her."

"Last thing I remember there was no SHIELD." Steve argued. "Besides, she may talk to me."

Fury assessed Steve for a moment. "Fine, but I will be watching."

"I think, at this point, we all will be." I joke. "I'll bring the popcorn."