A/N: Hello and welcome to my second Steve x OC fic, featuring my OC Seren Soul. If you're brand new, you might want to go back and read the first fic 'Darkest Before Dawn' to get a better sense of the background/context of everything! This story will cover the entire WS plot with some original plots thrown into it. This story will also feature my second OC Chloe Winters (who also debuts in the previous fic). This is an eventual StevexSeren fic ;)

Seren's face claim is the actress Mariluz Bermúdez with green eyes and short ginger hair.

Chloe's face claim is the actress Riley Voelkel.

Los Angeles, 2006.

"C'mon Chloe! We're going out for burgers!" A teenage girl with short brunette hair waved the tall blonde over to their group.

Her blonde tresses bounced with her as she crossed a football field still crowded with several other cheerleaders and football players. Practice had been going strong even when the sun was set to go down in a few hours. Chloe Winters was no stranger to long practice hours, though. Even as her friends begged her to come with them to get those burgers—their favorites—Chloe reminded them that she still had to meet her gymnast trainor.

"C'mon, you're still going to practice after everything we just did?" Her best friend Ally Gale whined ever-so-dramatically. If her hair was longer, she would've flipped it to accompany the effect.

Chloe smiled. "It's my schedule, what can I do about it?"

"Drop it, maybe?" Ally rolled her eyes. "You're already a cheerleader—and a good one at that—so why do you have to pair it up with this nonsense?"

"Because I have plans, Ally," Chloe reached for a duffel bag on the bleachers. "We're graduating in a couple months and I need to be at my best when that happens. So…" She wiggled her fingers goodbye and started backtracking away.

"You know Max is going to be asking for you, right?"

Chloe smirked. "He better. That's what boyfriends should do." She turned all around and headed off. She reached for her cellphone inside her bag once she was on the sidewalk. She was a little late and knowing her trainer, she would be flipping over. She sent a quick text notifying her that she was on her way. She was almost reaching the pedestrian light when she heard a loud clang from a building behind her. She stopped, frozen, and waited to hear something else. A few seconds later, she did.

Chloe was overly curious. She always was. It was deemed by her friends as something adorable — her boyfriend thought it was quite so — but her parents often expressed their concern. 'It'll get you into trouble one day if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong,' her father would say constantly.

"I'm not an idiot," she muttered as if she was still having that conversation right now. She turned around with a new sense of determination, especially when she heard something new. Running footsteps. She stopped in front of the building and inspected it as much as a 17 year old girl could. No one had come out and all the windows were as dusty and old as they always were each time she walked by.

She finally stepped inside and found it to be as old and dirty as its exterior was. It seemed like an abandoned office space of some sort. There were various buildings around the neighborhood in similar states. Only none of them ever made noises. That's why they were abandoned.

"Hello?" she quietly called, hoping that she wasn't going to get an answer. Whatever made the noise was probably gone. She saw an open backdoor as she crossed the bullpen. She had her phone in her hand again, just in case some creep tried to sneak up on her.

But so far, no creep was in sight.

Chloe continued past the bullpen into an old hallway. Each room was open and solitary, until she heard an odd buzzing noise. She backtracked to the specific room and approached the doorway. She poked her head inside and was relieved to see no one inside. Whatever the buzzing noise was, it wasn't' a person. A thing, she beamed. She could definitely work with 'a thing'. Contrary to the popular belief about blonde cheerleaders, she wasn't dumb and she most certainly didn't hate science. That's why each time she was curious about something, she followed the lead. Who knew what she could discover?

She crept into the room and soon spotted a faint blue glow behind a grimy desk. Her duffel bag slipped off her arm before she reached the desk. Her tongue slipped out to her top lip as she curiously bent over the desk to try and get a peek of what was glowing. She was mighty surprised to find a small, almost dainty-like, silvertech piece as the responsible culprit.

Ideas buzzed in her head. What if it was a technological advance just waiting to happen!? She loved dreaming big and maybe this was finally going to be it! She rushed around the desk and dropped to her knees in front of the device. She leaned down close to it. She pushed her hair to the side to keep it out of her face.

"What are you…?" she whispered. She noticed some of the ground around it was missing, almost like someone pulled it off. Who could be strong enough to do that?

The device continued to glow and buzz. Chloe bit her lip as her hand reached for it. Maybe she could take it home and study it, maybe even use her school's lab to figure what it was. But the moment she touched it, something sparked and forced her hand away.

"Ow!" she stuck her index finger into her mouth. That would definitely leave a burn mark. Her eyes narrowed on the device. "What the hell are you?" she demanded and went again to grab it. This time there was no spark but the buzzing got stronger the more time it spent on her palm. Even the glow got stronger. "What is — ah!" Chloe yelped when she felt something pricking her skin right underneath the tech piece. "What's...are you…!?"

The tech piece was sinking into her flesh. It was like a cut getting wider and deeper for the entire piece to disappear underneath her skin. Chloe screamed in terror as blue glowing streaks flourished up her arm and soon spread around the rest of her body. She fell back and scooted away until her back hit the wall.

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" she cried. She desperately tried pulling the piece from her palm but it had already disappeared. The buzzing noise she had heard was now coming from within her. She could feel it in her head, along with another overwhelming load she couldn't understand yet. Voices were talking all at once, not all of them English, and she was seeing things. Flashes of places she didn't know of, creatures that only made her scream stronger were filling her mind. She clapped her hands to her head and snapped her eyes shut. "STOP! STOP! STOP!"

She was going to die, she could feel it. Whatever was now inside of her wasn't leaving anytime soon. But, just like that, everything stopped. Her body, exhausted, fell lump against the wall. Chloe's eyes briefly flickered open to shine blue that she wouldn't catch until later.

~ 0 ~

New York, 2013.

"So why am I here?" Chloe disinterestedly walked through a room under construction, or renovations as Tony had put it.

The man himself was watching her attentively from his desk. "Because I finally figured you out, Megamind."

At this point, Chloe was too tired to argue with him about the stupid nickname he had appropriated on her in their fight against the Chitauri last year. She focused on the thing that sounded slightly more interesting. "Oh really, and what have you found out?"

"You, yourself," Tony motioned her to come forwards. She did, but not without rolling her eyes. "You have barely any record of your work at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I like to redact many things. Consider me the Ron Swanson of S.H.I.E.L.D." At Tony's look, she sighed. "Parks and Recreation? No? Whatever. Point is, I like my information to stay within a specific circle...me."

"Right, really just you. And maybe Fury. Because not even Twinkle Star knows why you don't have a record. She swears she's made some in the past years. She thinks they're still there."

Chloe didn't like that Tony had such vast information like that. She made a good job so that her best friend, Seren Soul, would have no idea about what was really happening with her. "It probably has, probably got lost somewhere."

"All of them?"

"Probably."

Tony commended Chloe for keeping such a straight, stoic face throughout the conversation. Anyone else would be shifting or stammering, but not Chloe. She was good. A good liar, and perhaps a good runner. "Do you know what I think?"

"No, but I'm sure I'm about to hear it. Let me make myself comfortable." Chloe grabbed an empty chair to sit on, crossing her legs like the conversation was as casual as a simple talk about the weather.

"I think that there's secrets you don't want to let out - that you can't. That's not safe."

"Really?" A slight smile formed on Chloe's face.

"Cheerleading and gymnastics, sound familiar?"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah. I did both in high school."

"You were a popular girl, Winters. That little cheerleading video on the internet has how many hits again? Million? Two? And then suddenly it all went away, all of it. To say, you didn't even graduate." Tony watched as a slight twitch marked Chloe's face. There it was.

"Yes I did," she said, muttered.

"No, you didn't. The little graduation diploma S.H.I.E.L.D. on record? False," Tony came around the desk and leaned against it beside Chloe's chair. "You did not graduate from high school, much less go to college."

"Stark, you want to make a point here?" Chloe shook her head at him. "Lots of people don't graduate from school, so what?"

"Why lie about it?"

"Because it would look bad for S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

"Next," Tony leaned away from the desk. "You were at the top of your game in high school. I know, I checked."

"Stalker."

"Interested," Tony corrected. "I like prodigies working for me, but I like to know who I work around with. You had a scholarship for gymnastics, you were good at it. You were also good with tech. It's uncommon for the cheerleaders to have any role in science."

"That's a stereotype," Chloe said flatly.

"But then you stopped. Born and raised in Los Angeles, you suddenly got up and left at 17…2 months before you were to graduate."

Chloe was glaring daggers at him by that point. "Things change," she spat.

"Clearly," Tony tapped the side of his head specifically. It just made a blue vein quiet noticeable on her forehead. "You were off the grid until you resurfaced with S.H.I.E.L.D. but your dear old folks never got over your sudden upleaving, huh? Never contacted them?"

"Is there a fucking point to this?" Chloe's voice had dropped to a low mutter. She was getting angry and that was exactly what Tony had been hoping to see. If she was angry then it meant he was right, and if he was right...she needed help. "I don't get along with my parents, big deal. Lots of people have that. Seren has that."

"Yeah but Seren's like our Golden Boy - she's as transparent as possible. You're not. You had everything in the world - you liked what you had, and then you disappeared," Tony moved beside Chloe's chair, lowering down to her level and meeting her daggering eyes. "You don't have a record with S.H.I.E.L.D. and you keep moving around. You're running."

"Am not," Chloe said on automatic, more than enough proof Tony was on the right track.

"Are too. Nobody does what you do unless you're running. So, who are you running from?"

Chloe smiled and shook her head, trying to give the indication that she was more amused than anything but Tony saw right through it. She was trying to deflect. Smart move but it would fail.

"C'mon Winters. In all of S.H.I.E.L.D., you are the most interesting person there!"

"Am I supposed to be flattered?"

Tony was no longer playful. He straightened up, looking down at her earnestly. "No, you're supposed to take the hand I'm offering you. A lifeline, if you prefer."

"I don't need your help."

"Ah, giving me the answer that you do need some help."

Chloe looked away. "I can't believe I'm listening to all this. Why are you even going on about this?"

"You know I've talked to Rogers about this place," Tony made a quick gesture to the room. "My proposal still stands and since you've been running for God knows how many years, I would think that you'd be more inclined to take me seriously here. I'm not playing games here. I know something's wrong when I see it. Believe me, I've learned the hard way."

"What's it to you, Stark?" Chloe snapped, her head flipping in his direction. "It's my business."

"And your business is going to get you killed, or maybe your family." Chloe remained silent. "I know you have family in Queens. You visit them sometimes, but never more than once in a few months. They're the only ones you're brave enough to see. Wouldn't you like to change that?"

Chloe bit her lower lip, looking at him like she was trying to find his game, the angle he was playing at. "Why are you so interested in me?" She finally asked, her voice softer than he'd ever heard.

"Because I've had people try to kill me too, people that I've known my entire life. Plus, like I said, you're the most interesting person at S.H.I.E.L.D. So, c'mon, tell me, who are you running from?"

Chloe seemed to breathe in, like she was taking a final moment to consider the benefits and downfalls of telling him. In the end, it seemed like the benefits - or perhaps simple tiredness - won. "It's not just 'who', it's also a 'what'."

Tony's eyebrows raised together. "Really," he moved around his desk to take his seat again. "What is it?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Chloe's eyes followed him to his seat.

Tony plopped down across her, a smirk crossing his face. "Try me."

A/N:

So if anyone's noticed, this fic will also expand on Chloe's story since she will eventually have a bigger role in this universe (AoU, CA:CW, Endgame, etc.). She and Seren share the spotlight in this fic basically.

P.S. As always, I have an AO3/Wattpad account under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)