When she woke up, he was gone.

  She searched for him everywhere, he wasn't in the house, he wasn't in the woods, she called for him but there was no response.

  He had just left. She couldn't try and find a "missing person" because the police would think she was crazy if she told them about a magician in green and gold armour who fell from the sky.

  Besides, he would've gone on his own accord, anyway. She felt her heart ache as she sat down on the sofa, as the very idea of being alone suddenly hurt when she had done it for so many years.

  For the first time, she had found someone she might almost call her friend. Someone who, given time, she might have loved. And he was gone without a trace.

*

"We're calling in the Avengers Initiative," Fury stated.

  Agent Hill nodded. "Yes, sir."

  "All of them."

  She paused, momentarily confused. "Sir?"

  Fury sighed. "Winters."

  "But, sir," Hill began, the look on her face changing to uncertainty. "We promised her mother never."

  "I think the world is worth breaking a few promises, don't you?" Hill didn't respond. "Have Romanoff get her, after Banner."

  "We don't know if she knows about her gift," she warned, "or if she can control it. As far as we know, Ystella Winters is possibly mentally unstable."

  "Then she'd better learn fast - and we'll figure it out. This world needs heroes, and quickly."