The Avenger's Daughters

The Avengers Get Avenging

" We have to find them," Tony stated firmly.
Everyone in the avengers mansion had been looking for days, but they hadn't found Kee or Artemis. They were all exhausted from lack of sleep, Bruce especially, who'd been worried sick about the girls since they'd been taken.
" We know, but where would Fury take them?" Natasha asked wearily.
" Some place we wouldn't look," Clint mumbled angrily.
" Actually, what if they're in the most obvious place, and we've been thinking too much in to this," Steve asked curiously.
" Where's somewhere obvious?" Asked Thor.
" THE HELLICARRIER!" Bruce and Tony said at the same time, excitedly.

Kee and Artemis were exhausted. Both had been pushed to the limit for a whole week, with minimum food and water to strengthen them for another day of testing. They'd fought worse beasts and monsters, even agents, now. Neither of them lost hope, instead, every night they lay awake praying that Bruce and the avengers would find them and bring them home. Or maybe Nick and his agents would get over the mind control and let them out. Unlikely. Yet every day they hoped.
Artemis cried until she fell asleep from exhaustion every night. Kee refused to cry, or scream, or beg, or wail for mercy, she was done being a kid, in her opinion they'd broken the child inside of her. She was a warrior now, not a little girl of thirteen.
" Hey Kee, it's our birthday today," murmured Artemis sadly as they were woken that morning with an electrical shock.
" When we get out of here I'll bake us both that cake you love, with the chocolate icing, and take you to the movies f of my gift," Kee promised.
Artemis smiled sadly.
" Chocolate iced cake, sounds better than stale bread," Artemis murmured longingly as she chewed awkwardly on her only meal of the day.
Kee mumbled in agreement as she chewed on the disgusting crust that to her, tasted like heaven itself.

That day was the hardest, they both were shoved in to the same cell at the end of working together to fight a huge dragon like monster with many heads and poison spit. Artemis was sobbing uncontrollably as she held Kee's hand in the dark. Kee had been bitten by one of the heads as she'd protected a dazed Artemis from being eaten alive. The poison has in her bloodstream now and she was shaking with fever. Thank fully it was a slow acting poison, so there was still time.
" Don't die Keebee, I can't be alone," Artemis sobbed.
" I'll be fine okay, just stay strong for me Arty, as long as you're okay, I'll be fine," Kee said through clenched teeth, sweat dripping down her forehead as she fidgeted in her fever filled state. Her wounded back stung crazily as she sat, propped against the wall on the cell. If only the avengers would come!

" Hawkeye, do you have visual on the girls?" Whispered Natasha as she cried through the corridors of the hellicarrier.
Tony, Thor and Bruce as the Hulk were keeping the agents busy, while she, Clint, and Steve searched for the girls. They hadn't found them yet but they'd seen their work on the countless villains and beasts in the cells they'd passed. Animal bites and various burns and broken bones had heralded the powers of wth girls. So they knew they were close by.
" No, still haven't found them," Hawkeye's voice said over the comms.
Steve grabbed her arm and pointed towards a heavily locked section of the hallway. She nodded and the two of them managed to pry open the door. Inside, there was pitch blackness but the light of the hallway was enough light for Natasha to locate her phone, which had a torch app on it. Using the app she scanned the room to see cells like dog crates piled all through the room with various beasts in each one.
" Artemis?Kee?" Called Steve in a hushed voice.
A small sobbing sound made them both tense up. They made their way towards the noise as beasts growled and gave them the evil eye on the way past.
" Artemis, Kee, is that you girls?" Natasha asked in to the dark.
After a moment of silence and a louder sob of excitement they got their answer.
" Natasha that you?" Asked a tentative, scratchy voice.
" Artemis! Keep talking, let Steve and I follow your voice!" Called Natasha excitedly.
" Clint, we found them, go help the others," Natasha said in to her comm.
She heard Clint exclaim in excitement at her words and then turned to hear Artemis better.
" I can't believe you found us! Kee told me you'd come, she knew it all along!" Artemis sobbed.
" That's it, keep talking," Steve crooned.
Artemis couldn't, so she just sobbed and they ol lower the sound of her crying, even though the sobs and words broke their hearts. Natasha and Steve both felt themselves becoming sad, their tears falling down their cheeks as they knew the girls were alive.
Finally they found the cell. Shining the light in they noticed Artemis crouched in the dark, looking incredibly thin and pale, covered in scratches and dirt. Her hair was messy and matted with blood and her bright eyes were haunted and surrounded by dark circles from lack of sleep and hits to the face. There was a big cut on her lip too. Tears streamed freely down her bony face and the arms that waved to them were half the thickness that they'd been a week ago.
" Artemis, it's okay now. Where's your twin? where's Kee?" Steve soothed in a raw voice as he cried to see her like this.
" She's here," Artemis cried as she moved to the side to show Kee.
The girl was even paler than Artemis, her ribs easily visible through her tattered, blood smeared shirt. Her neck and most of yet body was covered in blood and a large, deep bite mark  had ripped the sleeve of her shirt. Sweat dripped down her face and she stressed and turned, muttering incoherently the whole time.
" She won't wake up, please help her!" Artemis whispered fearfully, still through all of it, holding on to her sister's hand.
Steve tried to bend the bars but was thrown backwards by the force of electricity surging through him.
" The bars are electric, sorry," Apoligised Artemis dejectedly.
Natasha just cried as she tapped away on the lock, until finally she found the right number combination and the door rolled open. Instantly she and Steve were at Artemis and Kee's side.
" Can you walk, Artemis?" Natasha asked.
" No, they broke my left leg and cut the other," Artemis mumbled awkwardly, ashamed to be seen like this in front of her family.
Natasha pulled her in to a hug and picked her up easily, surprised by the light weight of the starved, short girl. She made sure thatArtemis wasn't in to much pain, as she gasped when Natasha accidentally hurt her.
" What about Kee?" Artemis asked.
" It's okay Artemis, I've got Kee," Murmured Steve as he easily picked up the feverish child.
Kee was even lighter than Artemis, and more thin and gaunt form the starvation.
Steve held her tightly even as she groaned from pain. Removing one hand that wars behind her back he grimaced at the sticky blood all over it. He felt furious that Nick would ever do this to a child. To their children.
" Let's get out of here," Natasha commanded.
The two of them ran awkwardly, the two girls in their arms. Every step hurt Artemis and Kee but only Artemis had the strength to weep and gasp in pain. Natasha couldn't help it, but she did her best to make her gate smooth for her passenger.

When they made it to the main deck, they saw the other avengers finishing off the last of the agents, making sure they didn't kill any of them though. Nick Fury was there but he was out cold.
" Let's go, we got them!" Steve yelled at the top of his lungs.
The avengers raced towards their plane and tumbled in, Bruce had calmed himself down as soon as he'd seen Steve and Natasha carrying his nieces.
When they got on the plane and took off, Artemis was crushed by a huge hug from Thor, who'd missed his major fan greatly.
" Artemis, thou art safe now," Thor crooned as she wept in to his shoulder.
" I'm not sure I'm ever going to feel safe again," Artemis whispered, completely shattered at the thought of losing Kee and what she'd just faced in that week of imprisonment.
She cried and cried as the rest of the avengers worked to assist Bruce in keeping Kee alive, as the girl was becoming weaker and weaker. Bruce tried to move her but she stuck to the long bench seat. As he pulled again and wrenched her off the seat he noticed why she had been stuck, half drying blood was all over the seat and her back from deep claw marks.
When he'd moved her so her head was on Steve's lap and her body was slumped across Natasha and Clint, so that he and Tony could grab the first aid supplies to fix both girls, Kee opened her eyes slightly. She gazed up at the worried, tear streaked face of Steve and confusion feared across her face, finally turning in to a defeated look.
" You, caught, too?" She managed to croak sadly, the effort weakening her further.
At the sound of her voice everyone stared at her, Bruce and Tony rushed over and knelt beside her head. Bruce turned her head to face him and her eyes shined slightly with hope.
" No, no, they didn't catch us Keebee, we've rescued you okay, you'll be fine now," Bruce whispered, tears forming in his eyes.
" Thank you, my family," Kee thanked weakly.
" Just hold on Kee, we are almost back to get you some help. Fury won't be able to get you there, either of you," Tony stated heartbrokenly.
" It wasn't his fault," Kee whispered before she blacked out and lay limply, her breathing shallow but steady now that she was in her feverish sleep again.