The trip back was not as quiet as the trip there, but you could still hear a pin drop. Captain Rogers was the only one who got severely hurt, and it was just a grazed bullet in his side. Of course he still got an ear full from Nat and Mr. Stark, but Mr. Stark was mostly just trying to get his anger out.

He still wasn't very happy about 'Wanda letting me free', and he couldn't shoot anything in the jet without it leading to us falling, so he settled for yelling at the injured Captain. Nat was yelling because Captain Rogers was one of her friends and was saying, and I quote, "you absolute moron" about half the time. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

We got back to the tower and Wanda walked with me back to the room I was staying in. Or at least tried to. Mr. Stark caught Wanda by her elbow before we could get too far from the hanger. "We should talk...alone," Mr. Stark said, his gaze moving to me when he said the last word.

I looked at Wanda and nodded, starting to walk away. "It's fine. I'll find Agent Lambert and we'll head back to my room," I said. Before I was able to here Wanda's response, I just walked away.  Mr. Stark was more important than I was, so she needed to talk to him. More likely than not it would be about how she claimed to have let me out of my restraints. And then more likely than not she'd come to me right after to ask me how I actually got out.

Back in my room, there really wasn't much to do. I didn't want to just lay down, nor did I want to try and explore. Director Fury and Agent Lambert would never let that happen. My mind and my eyes drifted over to the nightstand where the journal was.

"Now's the best time," I muttered to myself. So, with the help of my crutches, I walked over to the nightstand and went through the process of grabbing the journal. I just threw it onto the bed so I could walk around and place it on the bed easier.

Once I sat on the bed, journal in front of me, I let out a sharp breath. My mind opened up to the possibilities of this being found and read out, my secrets being discovered, and any chance of gaining the teams' trust being tossed out the damn window.

I shook my head. No, they would never do that. They may not like me, but they should at least respect me and what little privacy I have. Or, more likely, Wanda and Nat would hold the team back.

Whatever. I opened the journal to the next open page and grabbed the pencil on the desk. God, where to start.

Day 2

Chére Journal,

Today was...well, interesting? I guess that's a good word to use.

To start my day, I got up at 4:30 and decided to go to the gym to work out. There was nothing better for me to do, so why not? That's how I found out that I had a babysitter/agent named Lambert. Very French. He had French relatives, so I guess that's good to know. We might be able to have small talk now.

After the Director gave me access to the gym, I was able to work on my arm and ab strength. As I finished Captain Rogers came in...we had an awkward run in but I just left. If I'm being honest, I'm terrified of him and Mr. Stark. It's not just them and what they can do, it's just the fact that they have so much power over me.

Well, after my run in with the Captain, I was told the team had to go out on a mission. And of course, nobody trusted me to be out and "free" in the tower. Mr. Stark wanted to keep me locked in a cell, while Wanda and Nat trusted me to be in my room. In the end I was brought along and chained into the jet.

Well maybe not 'chained', but sort of. Captain Rogers had strapped me in and restrained my ankles, and then after a small argument between him and Wanda, Mr. Stark ended up also restraining my hands. He was hesitant at first, getting near me and everything, but I just looked at the ground and let him.

Then they all left and I was fine, I even tried a nap. At least, that was until a Hydra agent got into the jet. In order to stop him from killing me or ransacking the jet, I used my powers to kill him. That was the first time in years I had used my powers in my right mind. It made me feel like a monster. But that wasn't my only problem. I had to figure out a cover story in order to keep my powers a secret.

Using my powers again I got out of my restraints and found a gun belonging to Nat. With that, I screamed (to gain the team's attention) and shot the agent in the head. That's how the team found me, and Wanda took the blame for me and claimed she let me go.

Of course she tried to talk to me later, but Mr. Stark pulled her away before she could talk to me...and that's where this brings me. I have honestly no idea what to do about all of this. I'm terrified of them finding out about who I am, and of the team giving me back to Hydra somehow.

I desperately hope-

The bedroom door opened up and my head shot up from the journal before me. My hands worked quicker than my brain, thank god, and shut the journal before I was even able to see who it was.

"Wanda. I see Mr. Stark is done talking to you," I greeted quietly, and I moved the journal to the corner of the desk temporarily. She walked all the way in and closed the door quietly, then moved to sit on the bed. I got up and made my way over to the bed to sit as well. After I set my crutches down, Wanda started speaking.

"Rey, I know for a fact that I did not free you from your restraints before we all left the jet. I covered for you with Tony, but I just...I want to know the truth. Please." We looked at each other and she placed her hand closest to me on my shoulder.

I let out a breath and relaxed. I had to tell her, and I was going to right now. "Wanda, I've tried to tell you a couple times but then we get interrupted. But Hydra didn't just give me a new arm, or a persona who follows orders. They gave me powers, very similar to yours in fact.

"Hydra's goal was to combine the good of the Winter Soldier and the good of you into one person. My powers are newer, because they gave them to me after you escaped and stuff." I saw a sad expression cross Wanda's face, and immediately back tracked. "No no it's not your fault! Wanda, please. It's not your fault that Hydra decided to ruin my life. You had no choice," I said to her, attempting to get rid of any self blaming she had.

She bit her lip and held her hand up, signaling me to stop from adding anything else. "I appreciate you trying to ease my pain, but it is my fault they did that to you."

"How?" Wanda stopped and looked at me shocked. To be fair, this was the first time I had really snapped or anything. "How is it your fault that Hydra decided to torture either of us? That they some how managed to make some sort of freakish idea come true? You had no idea any of this happened, and I certainly don't blame you for getting away from it all. Please don't beat yourself up over it. I'm fine, I just don't use my powers and everything is okay. Only in dire situations do I even think about it. Like on the jet."

We sat in silence for a while, but it was comfortable. Over on the desk I could see the journal, and decided to go ahead and put it away since I was worried I'd forget and someone would find it. I got up and hobbled on over to it, grabbed it, hobbled on back to the nightstand, made sure Wanda's view was skewed and she couldn't see me, then put the journal away.

I looked back up and saw her looking at me confused. "What was that?" she asked. To answer I hobbled on back over to where she was sitting and sat back down. "What did you put away?"

"Um...okay, you're not allowed to make fun of me," I said. Wanda promised. "It's a journal. After watching all those movies with them and you and Nat telling me what they were, I decided to give it a shot. There was a journal on the desk with some pens, so I decided to use it."

Wanda was silent for a minute, and I feared she would start to laugh at me. What I got was, "That's totally normal. I had a little diary for a long time when I was young, and would write in it maybe everyday?" She took a moment to remember, and laughed a bit. "I remember Pietro would always come into my room and sneak around trying to find it. Then I'd chase him right back out." We both laughed at that, and Wanda looked happier than I'd ever seen her.

I thought for a second, trying to see if I ever learned who Pietro was. Maybe a name mention here and there, but nothing much besides that. "If you don't mind me asking, who's Pietro?"

She took a moment before responding. "He was my brother. Hydra experimented on him too, and he got super speed. We were so close. He was my only family I had left, but I guess even that couldn't last forever," she said. Her voice wobbled near the end, and I knew that I had just brought up a really touchy subject. Now I felt bad. "We fought together against the Avengers at first, but then once we realized what Ultron was planning for the planet, we switched sides.

"It was during the Battle of Sokovia. God, I will never forget that feeling. The feeling of him just...disappearing. My mind went blank, my vision went red, and I pulled Ultron's heart out with my powers. He killed my brother, so I killed him." There was a sniff, and I finally realized that Wanda was crying.

I instantly felt bad, and pulled her into a hug. "Oh my god I am so sorry I even brought it up Wanda. I didn't mean to push you into anything! Foutaise I didn't mean to make you cry," I apologized while hugging her.

"No, no it's not your fault. You asked a question and I chose to tell you. I chose to talk about it. If anything, it helped me. It's been difficult to talk about him, so this is good for me," she said. I felt a little bit better, but not very much. I mean, I just made her cry. That's not really ideal. "By the way, 'foutaise'?" I laughed, unable to keep it back.

I shook my head slightly and stopped my laughter. "Sorry, I just use French for words I don't know very well in English. I think the English word is something like 'crap' maybe? I believe that's right," I explained to her, also trying to just remember English in general. "I'm not the best at the language."

"Well I think you're great at it," Wanda said, and I smiled slightly. It just felt nice and natural to talk to her, like she was a best friend. After watching all of those movies, I had always wanted one.

"Are we...best friends? Like in those teen movies?" I asked her suddenly, hoping that her answer would be yes. It was already tearing me up inside that I even asked the question. It just seemed so awkward to ask, but I wanted to know.

Wanda opened her mouth to answer, but a very strange noise came from her stomach. It scared me, but it merely surprised her. She started to laugh while I looked at her confused. "It looks like I'm hungry. Let's go get some food."

Now I was full on confused. "We can just...get food? You don't have anyone who comes around to feed you or anything?" I asked her with wide eyes. She looked so confused at my question, her mouth was even slightly agape. "Sorry," I apologized again. "I guess I'm still not really used to being out of captivity."

"Well that's not acceptable. Come on; you haven't eaten a thing since you've been here and that's not very healthy. You're going to be working out a lot more and going out on missions, so energy is necessary." Wanda grabbed my hand and we got off my bed.

By accident, I put normal pressure on my injured leg. "Wait!" Wanda said as I went to walk like normal. My body froze, unsure of what the problem was, until I saw myself walking without my crutches. "Does it hurt?" she then asked.

I thought for a moment and focused on my leg, then shook my head. "No. It feels...normal." The two of us sat there thinking for a moment. "Should we go to Doctor Banner?" Wanda nodded and we left, bringing the crutches with us.

~~

"Miraculous. Your leg is completely healed except for the scarring process. I have no idea how this happened..." Doctor Banner said as he looked over my leg and things on his computer next to him. "What was your theory again?"

I cleared my throat and sat up more. "I think Hydra may have done something to me in many different ways. For example, I have extraordinary hearing, and I'm pretty strong. Also I don't have odor which Nat commented on the other time," I said. Doctor Banner nodded and took everything in. "I just stood up and walked like normal when Wanda stopped me and we realized I wasn't feeling pain."

Doctor Banner wrote everything I said down on the clipboard, then looked back up. "Well, I think you're right. Some other time I'll schedule an hour or two with you so we can look further into all of this. Understanding exactly everything Hydra did to you can help me understand what to do to help you in case things happen."

Wanda thanked Doctor Banner (who insisted I call him Bruce) and we left to go to the kitchen and continue our original plan of getting food.

The kitchen was huge, with two refrigerators, a huge counter thing in the middle, and so many cool appliances. Wanda saw my wide-eyes and laughed. "So, I guess you're not used to this, huh?" she asked with a smile on her face. I shook my head and Wanda laughed again. "Well, this is the community kitchen. Please feel free to grab anything that looks good and you are up for trying."

Wanda moved around the kitchen, familiar and comfortable with where all the food was. "Why do you know where everything is?" I asked. Back in the Hydra facilities, everything was routinely moved around, including myself; they wanted to make sure I never got used to the layout of the building. To their benefit, I never did.

"Oh, I just come in here to grab snacks a lot. Most everything has definite homes and stuff. For example," she turns to me holding a brightly colored bag. "These Lays chips are exclusively mine, as I paid for them myself, so they are always in a certain spot that I have kept them in." She opens the bad and starts to eat the food- chips, as she called them.

I nodded along, taking in everything she was saying. "May I try one?" I asked, unsure if I was able to have some of her chips. She nodded happily, then walked over to let me grab one from the bag. I reached inside and grabbed a pretty big one. It was a little oily or greasy or something like that. I took a bit out of it and chewed it. This whole experience was kind of weird, and how the chip was crunchy but turned into mush in my mouth. It tasted good though.

"Do you like them?" Wanda asked, and I nodded eagerly. She smiled and went to grab something else: a bowl? Once it was down on the counter, Wanda started to pour some more chips into the bowl. Then she slid it on over towards me. "There's your bowl. Now you don't have to ask to have some; you can just eat some out of your bowl." I nodded and ate some more chips from the bowl. "Let's try some more food."

Over the next half hour, Wanda had me try a bunch of what she called "junk food". My babysitter was over my the entrance to the kitchen, but not overbearing. I tried ice cream (DO NOT BITE INTO IT), toast with some blackberry jelly (jelly was made by Wanda, and it was amazing!), a pop tart (really good, better warmed up to me), and a 3 Musketeers bar (I liked that it wasn't sticky). Wanda was getting ready for me to try a pickle, when Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers came into the kitchen. The Captain was in his uniform, and that made Wanda and I get up quick.

"What's going on?" Wanda asked. Mr. Stark looked over at me and looked ready to kill, so I stood behind Wanda. "Do we have a mission?"

The Captain walked forward, and I scooted even further behind Wanda. She placed a hand on my arm to let me know I was alright. Captain Rogers held a folder out to Wanda and she took it, opened it up, and nearly dropped everything in it. "A-another human experiment based base?"

My whole body stiffened and I looked at the file in Wanda's hands. I was only able to see the location of the base before Captain Rogers took the folder out of her hands. "This is classified." Wanda let out a groan and squared up to Captain Rogers.

"Are you being serious? She has information that could be valuable about this base. Do you not remember Rey explaining how she was moved around a lot? She might- Rey, did you see anything useful?" Wanda turned to face me, and now everyone was facing me.

I cleared my throat before speaking. "Well, the location said Hoia Baciu, Romania right? That's a city that's mostly really creepy forest. It's perfect for a Hydra base, especially to do more human experimenting. I remember some little snippets, one of them being that the base is a maze. It's hard to make it through without knowing the place like the back of your hand."

"FRIDAY, do you have the building layout yet?" Mr. Stark asked up to the ceiling. A sudden hologram appeared in the middle of the kitchen's island. It was the blueprint for the base, and my memories were confirmed. Zigzags, secret tunnels, multi leveled rooms, and some a few chambers with seemingly no way out littered the blueprint. "Jesus," Mr. Stark mumbled under his breath.

Captain Rogers sighed and looked at Wanda. "We better bring her." Then he looked at me. "And you better be ready to fight with us. One wrong move, and you're going to end up like the other Hydra agents."