I stood as still as I could, my hands held out in front of me as tendrils of ire crept along my palms and forearm. My heart was pounding hard against my chest and the adrenaline rushing through me made my muscles tense and hands slightly shaky. The bushes where my attacker lay rustled and I readied my stance, drawing up more flames in case they decided to try and attack me. There was a groan from the bushes and I swallowed nervously, fisting my hands more.

"Emily." The voice groaned. "It's me." I immediately recognised it as Steve's voice and I dropped my hands, rushing over to him as he slowly sat up from the bushes, slowly putting out my flames and sliding on my bracelets just to be cautious. I knelt down next to him and immediately noticed a massive burn mark straight through the shirt he was wearing and onto the skin underneath.

"Oh my God." I whispered, my eyes wide. "I'm so sorry." He lifted up the shirt a little, exposing some serious muscles with I tried not to look at, and gently touched the wound, wincing. Guilt coursed through me and I bit my lip, tears welling in my eyes. He had been nothing but kind to me, and this is how I repaid him.

"It's okay." He shook his head, letting his shirt fall back down. He slowly began to stand up, wincing, and looked down at his shirt that was now being soaked with blood. He looked back up at the Barton house in the distance and took a couple of steps towards is, before wobbling unsteadily. I rushed forward and put his arm over my shoulder, staggering slightly as he put the majority of his weight on me.

"You know, you probably win for taking me down the easiest." He chuckled weakly before wincing. I swallowed tightly and didn't say anything, letting him lean on me as we walked towards the house. Guilt twisted in my stomach and it made me feel like I wanted to throw up, especially when he kept wincing. Blood dribbled through his shirt, but it thankfully seemed to be lessening the closer we got to the house.

"I'm sorry." I said again, unable to help myself. "I shouldn't have reacted like that." A single tear slipped from my eye and I hastily wiped it away.

"No, you made the right move." Steve shook his head, looking down at his wound and then back up at the house. "I probably would have done the same." I looked away from him and swallowed back the lump in my throat.

We eventually made it back to the house and I opened the door with my spare hand that wasn't wrapped around Steve to support him. I pushed it open with the rest of my body weight and stumbled into the lounge room, where Nat and Wanda were still sitting on the beds talking, everyone else in the kitchen. Nat, who didn't have her back to the door, spotted us first and jumped up as Steve almost slipped out of my hands. He had become paler and the burn was not looking any better, if anything it was becoming worse. What scared me most though was how close my flame had gone to his heart.

"Stark!" Nat called out, a decent tone of fear in her voice I hadn't heard before. Tony clearly heard it too because he appeared in no time, his eyes widening in shock. Everyone hesitantly followed Tony as he quite literally ran out of the kitchen. Their eyes widened and the lounge room became very crowded. I helped Steve lay on one of the mattresses and Tony grabbed the little scanner from his bag that I was very familiar with.

"Where the hell is Reindeer Games?" Tony demanded, turning on the scanner and projections filled the air. "Someone go find him." Nobody moved, in shock at how helpless and weak Steve looked.

"Now!" Nat yelled and several of them sprung into action, running around the house to try and find Loki. I hovered nervously in the corner of the room, watching as Bruce and Tony tried to clean up his wound as best as they could. Bruce whispered something into Tony's ear, and he froze before slowly looking over his shoulder at me.

"You did this?" Tony demanded and I immediately shrunk backwards, my back hitting against the backwall. Something similar to regret flashed in Tony's eyes.

"It was a misunderstanding." Steve spoke up hoarsely. "I scared her. Really, its nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothing." Nat folded her arms as she looked down at him. "You're bleeding."

"Barely." Steve winced slightly as Bruce wiped the wound with some sort of sterile wipe. No one said anything else and Tony cursed as he looked back down at the wound.

"Has anyone found Reindeer Games yet?" He yelled out and there was a chorus of no's. I began to bite my lip nervously, Steve wasn't looking any better. We needed Loki soon, Bruce and Tony couldn't heal the wound enough without Loki. They did the best they could with bandages, but the wound was still painfully sore and Steve looked like he was trying to stay awake.

Then, by some sort of miracle, Loki walked through the front door, his hair windswept and eyes looking like he hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep.

"Reindeer Games!" Tony called out, causing Loki's eyes to dart to him and narrow slightly. "Where the hell have you been? Get your ass in here." Loki clenched his jaw slightly but walked over, finally spotting Steve laying on the mattress. His eyes widened slightly and as Bruce began to unwrap the bandage, his eyes darted to me. I flinched away from his gaze and looked down at my hands. I couldn't imagine what they all thought of me now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Loki's green power, and very slowly, Steve's skin began to slowly stitch itself back together, my stomach squirming with guilt again. When it was completely healed, Steve slowly stood up and walked over to me, my eyes darting from the scorch mark in his shirt and then up to his face.

"See?" He smiled comfortingly. "It's okay." I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded before he went to his bag to get a new shirt. Slowly, everyone went back to what they were doing, though some of them still watched me out of the corner of their eye. When Laura announced that breakfast was ready, I couldn't help but notice how Steve chose to stand close to me like he wanted to show everyone that he wasn't affected by what had happened.

Laura had set up all of the plates around the kitchen bench, kind of like a buffet style. At the very start of the kitchen, there was a big pile of plates and cutlery and everyone grabbed some, piling whatever food they wanted onto their plates. I stood behind Thor and in front of Steve, biting my lip nervously as I tried to force all thoughts of Steve's wound out of my mind. My thoughts instead drifted back to the metal disk in the back of my neck and as I waited for Thor to finish putting the mini sausages on his plate, I gently touched it and the same zap went through my body.

There was someone in front of me, dressed in the familiar white Lab coats of the HYDRA scientists. They were staring at me with a steady expression through a white mask with black holes for eyes. There was a needle in their hand filled with the not-normal purple sedative, and they began to walk towards me. They were tall and broad-shouldered, their build quite intimidating. I stepped back and hit someone else behind me, who spun me around with a strong grip. Their face was covered by a mask too, like I was an infectious disease or something. The second scientist stepped towards me and I stepped backwards, only to run back into the first scientist.

"Emily." A voice cut through the memory and I quite literally fell back into the present. Someone was already clutching my shoulders and as I blinked rapidly through the tears forming in my eyes, I saw Thor and Wanda, who was in front of him, turning around and looking at me. I pulled away from the hands gripping my shoulders, my heart pounding, to see that it was Steve. I blinked rapidly and spun back around to see Wanda cautiously making her way towards me, her red power pouring from her hand and surrounding the plate of food I had been holding that was now tipped sideways in the air.

"What's happening in there?" Called out Tony voice and I looked shakily over my shoulder to see him peeking around the wall from the lounge room. "Are you okay Emily?" I couldn't reply, a lump in my throat as I clenched my shaky hands. My legs felt like jelly and I don't know how I managed to stay standing. I stumbled back slightly as my vision wavering, the experimenting room at HYDRA flashing briefly in front of my eyes. Something green flash in front of me and I flinched, only to realize that a couple of seconds later that it was Loki. His green eyes were lit with worry and he carefully reached out with his hand, not wanting to scare me, to touch my forehead gently. It immediately sent a wave of calm though me and a breath of air escaped my lungs as I felt all of my muscles immediately loosen up.

"What happened?" Bruce asked as Loki pulled away.

"She had a nightmare." Loki replied quietly, his green eyes holding my gaze as I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat.

"But she was awake?" Thor asked, puzzled.

"It's that damn disk isn't it?" Tony stood next to Loki. "I need to get rid of it. We can't have it continually giving you nightmares, even when you are awake. And if they can control you through it, there is so reason as to why they can't turn you into some sort of... killing machine within a couple of seconds. I doubt any of us would want that. Give me about twenty minutes after breakfast to set everything up, and then I can get it out." I swallowed again and nodded, Wanda floating my plate of food back into my hand, everything rearranged on it, and I gave her a weak smile. Loki gave me a comforting smile before straightening and disappearing to the lounge room again in a flash of green.

"You okay now?" Steve asked me gently and I nodded, focusing my attention on getting food onto my plate, trying to block out any thought of HYDRA. When I went back into the lounge room, several gazes shot up to me, but I ignored them and walked over to my bed in the corner. I sat down in silence and began eating, even though I didn't have a appetite. I looked up every now and then at everyone else, and almost every time, Tony was looking at me, like he thought I was suddenly going to loose control and burst into flame.

I wouldn't cross that out completely from happening through