Guardian

"What the hell happened!?" Director Fury yelled the moment he stepped into the medical room.

His two best agents were busy trying to stitch each other up. Natasha kept her focus on the needle in her hand, trying to be as delicate as she could while she threaded stitch after stitch into the gash on Clint's arm. In turn, he was working on disinfecting the scratches on her leg. Occasionally Natasha would hiss and jump at the stinging of alcohol on a particularly sensitive scratch, causing the needled to dig deeper into Clint's skin. The two agents were used to pain, and normally stitching each other up wouldn't leave them so jumpy. With the impending doom of their failed mission approaching them, they couldn't help but be a little anxious. It only resulted in both of them groaning and cursing.

Upon the director's arrival they were forced to tear their attention away from the wounds to look up shamefully at Director Fury. It was honestly the first mission either of them had failed. An argument could be made for Clint's mission to eliminate Natasha Romanoff, but SHIELD chose to sweep that one under the rug. The partners' lucky streak had reached its end. All at once the missions they spent all over the world didn't seem to matter anymore. It didn't matter anymore, because none of those missions had been as important as this one.

It should have been an easy in and out. The backup agents were only there to frighten the tenants of the school into cooperating in handing the girl over. The first failure had been when a rookie agent fired off the first shot as soon as the alarm sounded, resulting in utter chaos. SHIELD was now responsible for wounding six and killing three.

The causalities honestly could have been forgiven. Fury would have let it slide and it would have been added to the long list of accidents the Wondertwins had made but still went unnoticed. There were plenty of deaths on their hands that they chose to ignore, and SHIELD accepted that as long as they completed their mission. However, that wasn't the case this time. Instead they had wounded six, killed three, and lost the most important girl SHIELD was going to encounter in the 21st Century.

"We were ambushed," Natasha stated lowly as she finished tying up the stitches in Clint's arm. She dropped the needle, wiping his blood off her hands before she turned to her director, "The Winter Soldier was there."

Fury sighed deeply, "I thought we had concluded that the Winter Soldier was no longer active."

It was difficult enough that the Soldier could never be traced, nor could they find out who his actual employer was. The search for him started with the KGB, but that trail had since gone cold. His assassinations had been littering history for a good fifty-something years before the trail went cold again. There had been big pauses between each assassination, and that was easy to understand. With the discovery of Captain America surviving on seventy years worth of ice, it wasn't hard to piece together that the Winter Soldier was taking breaks within the ice between missions.

When the agents stormed the mansion in upstate New York to retrieve the girl that was technically property of SHIELD, the last thing they expected was running into the Winter Soldier.

"Well, turns out he's active again. And he's not exactly a walk in the park, either," Barton replied, grabbing a handful of photos from the table beside him and tossing them over to to the director.

Fury looked down at the black and white images that were handed to him. The images were a little blurry from the lack of quality, but he could still see what Clint and Natasha wanted him to.

The man was a menacing six feet tall, his body completely covered in black armor save for the metal arm that went uncovered. It was like a beacon to warn anyone within a mile of him. Not that it mattered, because he could have taken out the entire agency if he really wanted to. There was no trace of a logo or distinct feature that could point towards an employer. The only noticeable thing about his plain armor was the red star on the arm. That pointed to the KGB, but they had already been down that road before and found nothing. The long mop of hair that hung over his eyes made it difficult for any facial recognition. Not that it mattered because even beneath the tangled brunette locks that were in desperate need of a comb, a thick black mask covered everything but his eyes and forehead.

SHIELD was advanced, but there was no sort of forehead recognition system known to man that could track the Winter Soldier's true identity. It almost made Fury want to fund a department to create such a program, just so they could be one step closer to finding out who he was.

"One man took my entire strike team out?" Fury asked lowly.

"He's quick and he's powerful," Natasha stood up, "He's nothing like I've ever seen before. He stormed in the moment she started screaming for him."

"Excuse me?" Fury asked and the agents sighed, knowing they'd have to explain that one as well. They both knew Fury wasn't going to like what they had to say, "She screamed for him?"

"When I was carrying her out she started screaming 'Soldier' over and over again. I didn't think anything of it until he showed up," Barton explained.

"She went with him willingly," Natasha added, "Even helped him out along the way."

"She's not supposed to be able to use her powers," Fury reminded the two of them as if were the hardest thing in the world to forget, "Charles Xavier had made that very clear to me."

It was no secret that SHIELD had gone through great lengths to make sure Mara couldn't use her powers while at Xavier's school. It seemed the only one who didn't know this was Mara herself.

"She did with me," Barton answered, "I had an arrow going straight for his head and she shot it right out of the sky before it could reach him."

Fury looked down at the pictures again, seeing the girl holding on to his hand for dear life. The girl was only sixteen with an adolescent face and a pair of big brown eyes similar to the man Fury knew to be her father. The light brown hair however resembled the woman who had brought Mara into SHIELD in the first place. There was no doubt that the girl was a perfect combination of her parents. It was too bad she never got to know either of them.

"Why would a super-assassin be watching over her?" Fury questioned, looking up at his team, "I didn't think that would be in his job description."

"You said it before, Sir," Natasha started, "If people found out who she is, they'd be interested in using her against us."

"The purpose of putting Mara into that school was to keep her identity away from the public and from her father as well," Fury reminded her, "No one is supposed to know who she is."

"Then someone knows," Clint stated, "They know about her and her father, and they probably know she's a powerful mutant when she's not being held back. I can think of a few good reasons to want her on my team."

Fury frowned. This mission was supposed to be simple. Their job was to let Mara live a normal life after her incident which involved eight school children. The girl was to go to the school so she could get a break from her powers. Once she turned sixteen, Romanoff and Barton were to bring her back into SHIELD so they could introduce her to her father before adapting her to the outside world. In return, SHIELD would be able to study Mara and possibly use her in future assignments. Director Fury wasn't expecting the X-Men to hold back on their end of the deal, forcing his team to storm the school like they had been the enemy.

The double-cross had resulted in SHIELD losing the daughter of the most important man in the world, putting Director Fury in a very tight position he didn't like to be in.

"How are we with the search?" Fury inquired.

"We're searching every intelligence agency on the planet for clues. Half of them don't even believe the Winter Soldier exists," Natasha replied, "The other half don't recognize the name Mara Hammond."

"Well at least we know her existence is still known to only a limited amount. We need to keep it that way," Fury instructed.

"What would you like us to do now, Sir?" Clint questioned.

"Try harder and get me Xavier. Have him explain to me why a highly skilled assassin was on his campus last night," Fury ordered, tossing the pictures aside before he turned, ready to take his leave out the door. He had paperwork to fill out and people to yell at.

-

When Director Fury had called for Charles Xavier to come to his office, he wasn't expecting his whole fleet of misfits to join him as well. Then again, when you send an elite task force into a school like it was some sort of military operation, you have to expect them to be a little on the defensive side. Sure enough, Charles Xavier rolled into Fury's office with four other X-Men behind him.

They looked like they had come to start a fight, but Fury knew that was far from the truth. The X-Men, as much as he hated to admit it, were actually pretty smart. They had avoided conflict with SHIELD before, knowing they were outmatched. They wouldn't dare instigate a fight within SHIELD when they knew they were outnumbered. The looks on their faces though, were cold enough to send anyone straight to hell. Fury wasn't surprised, though. His team did just kill three of their innocent students. He wouldn't be surprised if the X-Men actually declared war on his organization.

"I told you from the beginning, Nick," Charles started, "The girl would have been safer without SHIELD."

"And I told you there would be a time we would come for her," Fury walked around the front of his desk to face them, leaning against the wood as he crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn't about to let some outcasted freaks walk into his territory and talk him down like he had done something wrong. Despite his completely failed mission, he was going to act like he had done everything right.

A man with jeans and a leather jacket stepped forward. Fury didn't miss his slight resemblance to some sort of wild animal. There was something chaotic in the man's eyes and he wondered if these were the kind of people who were supposed to guide Mara into a normal life. Fury certainly didn't expect some guy in a pair of outdated jeans and a peeling leather jacket to be some sort of teacher, but he knew that's exactly what he was.

"Your team killed three of our students. You expect us to believe you're supposed to be some kind of savior?" He demanded.

He even spoke like an animal, and Fury knew right away this had to be the Wolverine he had heard so much about. SHIELD tried to keep their nose away from mutants, but someone with a history like his was bound to end up on their radar sooner or later.

"Logan," Charles put a hand up to him, urging him to calm down. The Wolverine, like the obedient animal he was, took a step back without argument. Despite the obvious tension in his shoulders, he seemed to calm down immediately when near the professor.

"Our team was responding to a hostage situation, because your professor decided to not play by the rules," Fury stated, "We had an agreement, Professor. When Mara turned sixteen, we would come back to retrieve her."

"You didn't have to do it with a hundred of your agents, Director," Logan spat, ignoring the professor's orders to keep quiet.

"Actually, we did it with only two agents at first. You remember my agents that visited you a week ago, requesting to bring Mara in. They weren't exactly happy to come back to SHIELD empty-handed," Fury reminded him, "It's just unfortunate for you that they don't like to fail."

"I felt that she needed more time," Charles confessed, "She's not ready to be out on her own yet."

"I told you eight years was enough time to adjust her to a normal life as a mutant."

"No offense, Director," The man with the dark-tinted sunglasses spoke. Fury almost wanted to demand he take them off, as it was disrespectful to wear them indoors. But he knew if the man was wearing them, it was for a reason. He had to be Scott Summers, otherwise known as Cyclops. SHIELD had an extensive file on him as well, but nowhere near as long as Wolverine's.

"There was nothing normal about that girl," Scott explained "She didn't respond like the other students did. She held back. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen her use her powers before. I don't know what makes her so special."

"Xavier should have an answer to that for you," Fury nodded to the professor.

Charles sighed and turned to Scott, "I had a block on her mind. Her potential was too powerful for any of us to try to control. Fury told me to keep her safe and keep her powers limited until SHIELD came for her. The power was always inside her, but she was never able to release it. At least, not until the fighting broke out. She became so strong that she was able to break my hold."

"If you had just given her to us nicely, we wouldn't have had to destroy your school, Professor," Fury stated, "How did you come to know the Winter Soldier?"

"Pardon me?" Charles asked.

"The Winter Soldier was the big guy who took down all my best agents before running off with the girl. Now I'm going to ask you again, how did you get him on your campus?"

"That's just a myth," Logan cut in, "I've been around for a long time, Bub, and I've never seen him. Big guys with metal arms and that kind of strength just don't exist."

"Really?" Fury asked as he handed the pictures Clint had given him earlier over to Xavier. The team all peered over his shoulder, looking through the pictures of the assassin in the halls of their school.

Xavier shook his head, "I've never seen him before in my life."

"Wait a second," Scott took the pictures, "You call this guy the Winter Soldier?" He question as he flipped through the pictures, "When Mara was twelve we had a minor incident with her."

"That's right," Charles nodded, a look of recognition flashing across his face, "Mara was missing for a few hours after curfew. We searched everywhere for her, fearing the worst. We finally found her in her bed, safe and sound as if she had never left. When we asked her what had happened, she claimed some sort of soldier had saved her."

"We thought she was delusional," Scott added, "Mara always had an active imagination. We didn't think anything of it."

"We couldn't get the entire story out of her," Charles added, "She claimed she was in trouble and a soldier came to help her. She wouldn't give us a real name or description. We don't even know what kind of trouble she was even in."

"And you didn't think to do your little mind trick to find out who he was or what happened to her?" Fury snatched the pictures back.

"I can only do so much with her mind at once, Nick. If I have the hold on her powers and try to extract her memories all at once, her mind could break. The outcome would be catastrophic. I can't put her or the students around her in danger," Charles explained.

Nick Fury sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He never expected the situation to spiral out of control like this. He was screwed in more ways than one. Not only was he arguing with the people he had trusted Mara to, he had to figure out how to get her back without her father finding out anything about the situation.

"SHIELD has complete control over this situation now. The X-Men are done caring for Mara Hammond. Get in my way again, Professor, and you're not going to like what I'll do," Fury threatened.

"We will comply," Charles stated, "But listen to me carefully, Nick. Mara is powerful and she will be the end to herself and everything around her if you don't get her under control. I hope you don't get to her too late."

Fury watched as Charles exited the room, followed by his other companions before the doors shut again. He sighed, sitting back down in his chair as he pulled up the file he had saved on the girl who should have been in SHIELD custody by then.

This is why SHIELD never dealt with mutants. In fact, if she wasn't so important, SHIELD would have never put her in protective custody to begin with. After the stunt Mara pulled to end up in SHIELD, she would have been locked away forever. They put a lot of effort into making sure Mara remained clueless as to what was happening around her. They hid a lot from her, including the identity of her father and the truth behind her mother's death.

"Sir?" Agent Hill poked her head inside the room.

"Come in," He sighed and she stepped in, shutting the door behind him, "What is it?"

"We did some digging. We went back to all of the supposed appearances of the Winter Soldier over the years. We found a few interesting things," She placed a file on his desk.

"What did you find?" He questioned.

"He's active on and off for the past sixty years. The assassinations took place every couple of years, and usually they happened one after the other before they stop. Another couple of years passed, and there's another series of assassinations," She stated, "The pattern never falters."

"What does this have to do with Mara?" Fury asked.

"In 2001 everything just stops," Maria answered, "No assassinations or sightings were seen at all. For the past eight years he's been completely silent as far as his work goes. It's extremely unusual given the pattern he's been displaying before then."

"So he could be out of work," Fury crossed his arms over his chest.

"Maybe," Hill shrugged, "But don't you find it odd that he stopped all of his missions the same year we put Mara Hammond at Xavier's School?"

Realization crossed Fury's face as he sat up, "If this is true, then he's been watching her for a while. He's been waiting for us."

"Why would an assassin just watch a girl at a school?" Maria asked, "That doesn't make any sense."

"Whoever he works for knows who Mara is, and knows what we're trying to protect," Fury sighed, "They sent in their biggest guns to make sure nothing could get in their way."

Maria frowned deeply, "Do you think they know who her father is?"

"They have to. People don't invest that much time into mutants, no matter how powerful they are," He explained, "But why would he take so long to grab her? Why wouldn't he take her when he had the chance? Why wait eight years?"

"Maybe he wasn't supposed to take her yet," Maria suggested, "Maybe he only did it because we showed up."

"Get me Romanoff and Barton. I want them to start at the school and try to backtrack where she could have gone. I want them looking for heat signatures, flight records, anything to get us back on track," Fury ordered.

"Yes, Sir," Maria nodded.

"I want full forces going to find this girl, Agent Hill. I want every satellite scanning for any potential hostile organizations and any where that could be a potential base," He stated darkly.

"Yes, Sir," She nodded before walking off. She stopped just before the doors, though, turning around once again, "Can I make a suggestion, Sir?" Hill asked tentatively, almost afraid to bring up the question at all.

"What suggestion?" He asked wearily.

She licked her lips, struggling to find her words before she sighed, looking directly at him, "Stark has the resources we could use to track her down. With the development of the Iron Man suit, I honestly think we'd have her back in a month at the longest."

"I don't want Stark knowing about our project yet," Fury stated.

"Sir, I thought the whole point of bringing Mara here was to tell her and Stark the truth," She replied quickly.

"I need you to make sure him and none of our other consultants know what we're dealing with. There's already too many people who know about Mara, and we need to keep everything quiet until we can figure out a solid solution."

Maria sighed, "With all due respect, Sir, wasn't the whole point of bringing Mara here so we could gain Stark's trust? How are we supposed to do that if we continue to keep all of these secrets from him?"

"Stark has just gotten back from a terrifying rendezvous in Afghanistan. He may be considered a superhero now, but I think he has enough on his plate at the moment."

Hill shook her head with disappointment, "I just don't think this is the route we should take."

Fury glared at her, "Do you want to be the one to tell Tony Stark that he has a daughter he's never known about?" He snapped quickly.

"But-"

"After you break that news to him, you call tell him that she's only sixteen years old and was just kidnapped by an organization we don't even know about. Let me know how that works out for you."

Maria sighed, "I just think this is all going to end very badly for both sides, Sir."

He turned to her, a dark look in his eye, "Tony Stark cannot know about Mara for as long as she's in a hostile's hands," He sighed deeply, "He's lost enough family as it is," He added sadly.

Agent Hill's frown was deep but her eyes were understanding, giving him a final confirmation before heading out the door to find the other agents.

Fury turned back to his desk, looking down at the file he had on the girl. He had dug himself into a deeper hole than he had intended. A part of him wanted to feel guilty for keeping so many secrets from the billionaire, especially given his grave family history. Tony Stark should know that he's not the last remaining person to his father's name. Telling him wouldn't make things any better though, would it? It would only raise panic, and if their enemies panicked it could result tragically for Mara. His gut instinct told him this was the right thing to do.