Mando/Ava
I understand. It's hard to know what can be used against you.
It's a complicated story, but it requires the whole thing to make sense. My father was involved in some very advanced and specialized quantum research. The sort that doesn't get published. Because in the wrong hands... But things went wrong. My father was trying to get my mother and me to evacuate, but I didn't listen and I couldn't leave him when he looked so scared. The explosion killed both of them, but left me... like this. Intangible. I was five. One of my father's former colleagues and friends, Dr. Foster, they worked together for a government organization called SHIELD. He tracked me down to an orphanage in a country way down south, Argentina. Took me back, wanted to help me recover from the accident, was teaching me methods on how to cope and focus so I could touch and hold things again. It wasn't an easy process.
But SHIELD had other plans for me, took me away from him. One, I was the result of proprietary research. And the only known... specimen. They did a lot of experiments, trying to understand how I worked, how to replicate it and apply it to other things. But also to weaponize me. They built me a suit to help me better control the phasing. Taught me to steal and kill and spy for them. Promised me they'd cure me in exchange, except... it was just a lie to keep me compliant. They kept me secret because the things they had me do were not exactly things to be proud of. And they didn't want anyone knowing what kind of weapon they possessed. But I think, also to isolate me. Not allow me other options.
But SHIELD also had a lot of other secrets. Mostly that they were being infiltrated and run by the remnants of a fascist regime. They got exposed and I escaped. But after that I kept myself secret, to avoid recapture. The government doesn't give up its property that easily. And now there are laws in place, and prisons built to contain our kind. The ones that refuse to obey.