"Have you been seeing them again, Andromeda? Have you been hearing those voices?"

Seven-year-old Andi stood before her father as he sat on the couch in front of the fireplace. Her eyes were cast to the floor, and she was scared to lift them as she shook her head no.

But her father knew better. He knew she was lying because Andi had been speaking to them. He would not have summoned her otherwise, and she had impulsively lied. Now she would be punished even more than if she had said yes.

"There is darkness in you, Andromeda," her father said in a calm voice, moving to stand up. Andi still kept her gaze on the floor, not daring to move. "It needs to be cast out."

Usually, there were many ways to do that, but her father was trying something else today. Out of the corner of her eye, Andi watched her father walk to the fireplace and pull out one of the pokers. This one was different. Not pointy, instead having the shape of a cross at the end. A cross that now glowed orange because of how hot it was.

Knowing what was coming, Andi shut her eyes tight. Tears were forced out the sides of her eyes, and she braced herself for what was to come. At first, her shoulder felt almost numb as her father pulled aside her loose T-shirt and pressed the heated cross to her skin. But then the burning came, and with it, the smell of burning flesh, and Andi cried out in pain. She screamed till she couldn't any more.

Andi jerked upright in bed, panting. It was dark, and the windows were covered, compared to how they had been when she went to sleep. She wasn't sure if that meant someone had come in, or if this so called Jarvis had taken care of it.

Andi only then realised that her shirt clung to her skin because of cold sweat, and her hair, that had been damp before she fell asleep, was now still damp in places, because of the sweat. And it was a curly mess.

She tried to smooth it down as much as she could as she swung her legs out of bed and glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table. 10:00 PM. She'd slept through most of the day. While she had hoped it would be undisturbed sleep, she knew better than to hope that she could ever sleep without having nightmares. And this one was a recurring one. Nothing knew. Just an old memory.

Sighing softly, Andi got down onto the floor, and she shivered a little as her bare feet came into contact with the cold, hardwood floor. She padded over to the vanity and pulled open the drawer so she could rummage around, and fortunately, she found a hoodie that read Stark Industries. No wonder Tony Stark paid for everything.

Putting it on, Andi looked around and tried something. "Jarvis?"

It took only a moment for a voice to respond, seemingly coming from nowhere. "Yes, Miss Katsifaras?"

Andi was surprised. "You know my full name," she pointed out, still looking around the room, as though she could find the source of the voice.

"I do," Jarvis responded, and she could picture a man nodding as he replied to her. "I was the one to look you up, along with the Maximoff twins, to give Agent Maria Hill your details."

Andi recalled the woman from the landing deck, giving information to Steve. That made sense. "Are you a person?"

"Not exactly," Jarvis responded. "I'm a user-interface. What you might call artificial intelligence. I help Mister Stark with his business and with the protection of this tower."

Andi nodded slowly. "Pretty cool," she murmured to herself. "Where is Mister Stark right now?"

"You'll find him in the top most floor. That's where his laboratory has been set up," Jarvis explained. "Is there something you need?"

Andi thought for a moment and then shook her head before replying. "No. I'm just going to go explore a little." And with that, she pressed the button for the elevator and got on. Instead of going to the topmost floor, however, she went to the floor where she had come from, when the jet landed.

It was quiet all around, as she stepped off the elevator. Andi had shoved her hands into the pockets of the hoodie she had on, and she walked along the corridor, getting a peek at a few rooms, since they mostly had glass walls.

She passed one room and would have walked right past, had a voice not called out to her. "Looking for something?"

Andi stopped and backtracked, peering into the room only to see one of the members of the Avengers, sitting on a glass table. She got the impression that he was meant to be laying down, because Andi remembered that Clint was the one that had been hurt. Right now though, his torso was bandaged, and he was sitting up, though with some effort, by the looks of it.

"Just exploring," Andi answered him softly before stepping into the room and glancing around. Nobody else seemed to be there, which told Andi that Clint was supposed to be recovering here, till morning perhaps. "Is that really a good idea?" She asked him, nodding to his injury that had just been healed. She was quite sure putting strain on an injury like that couldn't be good for him.

"No, probably not," Clint admitted. "But then again, I've never really been a stickler for rules."

Andi could understand that. She wasn't so fond of rules either, but in her case it was obey or be brutally punished, and after being subject to so much pain, she would rather not inflict it on herself even more.

"Nat told me about you. She said you came from Strucker's facility," Clint explained, and it took Andi a moment to realise that he was referring to Natasha, the redhead. Something told Andi that he already knew the gist of what had happened to her while she was in the labs, if he had already spoken to Natasha about it. He continued, and further confirmed her assumptions. "The twins were given names — Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Yours was Persephone."

Andi understood that he was just stating things and not really asking, so she didn't say anything in return. She just nodded, to confirm that what he was saying was right.

"That name was given to you because of your... abilities. Abilities that came through experimenting."

Again, Andi nodded.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Clint nodded, but a different expression masked his face. She couldn't read it but she guessed it was either surprise, or disappointment that she had been an experiment for Hydra for so long. He looked at her long and hard before speaking again. "I guess it's a good thing we stormed that place then," he said, cracking a small smile.

Andi managed a bit of a smile as well. "Yeah, I guess so." She glanced around a bit more before looking back to Clint. "All of you stay here in the tower all the time?"

Clint shook his head. "Some of us do. Not all of us," he pursed his lips, making her feel like he was hiding something, but it wasn't her place to ask. "I'm sure you know you can stay for as long as you need. You'd be safe from Hydra here."

Andi bit down on her lower lip and nodded. "I'm not looking for protection," she informed him. "I've been through a lot. I can stand on my own. What I really want is to put an end to Hydra and people like them."

Clint regarded her for a moment. "You want to be an Avenger."

Andi hadn't thought of it that way. Nor did she think they would so readily accept her that way. But the prospect didn't sound like a bad one. "I don't know. All I've ever wanted was freedom, but that's never going to be a possibility as long as Hydra lives. I don't need to be a part of a team to try and take them down."

Clint chuckled softly. "Okay," he nodded. "But you're fourteen years old. And taking down an organisation that we've been after for years isn't what most fourteen years olds do, on a daily basis," he told her softly. "You could take a shot at having a normal life. Trust me, you'll want it."

Andi looked at Clint. "Is that something you regret, Mister...?" Andi realised she knew only his first name, and therefore wasn't sure how to address him.

"Call me Clint," he said before tilting his head to the side a bit while he thought of an answer to her question. "Yes and no. It's complicated. But you're young and you have your whole life ahead of you. Don't throw that away for vengeance. And I know you don't want to hear it, but you're also way too young to be taking part in fights like this."

He was right, Andi didn't want to hear it, but she knew someone was bound to say that to her sooner or later. Clint was the first to say it and she didn't doubt that there would be others to say the same thing.

Clint hopped off the table and winced, causing Andi to step forward in case he needed help. "The Avengers could always use help. And I know you're a lot more powerful than you let on, I saw your file. Maybe there's a way to do both? Just think about it. You've gotten out of Hydra's clutches. That shouldn't be for nothing."

Andi kept his words in her mind. He was right.

But it also got her wondering if there was a way to do both.