When I woke the next morning it was 4:30 am according to the clock next to the bed I was in. Early, but I've been up and moving earlier back with Hydra. Ever so carefully, I got up out of bed and retrieved my crutches from their post. I went over to my closet to see if I could find any sort of training gear.

Because today I would be active. Today I wouldn't be a slug, hiding away in my room. Besides, nearly everyone would be asleep at this hour. Mr. Stark is most likely passed out or in his lab, Captain Rogers and Nat might be up and training, but I assume everyone else would be sleeping.

I was able to find a Nike long sleeve shirt and leggings, as well as some socks and tennis shoes and my gloves. I grabbed all of it and threw it onto my bed, and was about to start changing when the door to my room opened. The action took me by surprise and I nearly fell off of my crutches.

"What are you doing?" an agent asked me. Clearly, and not surprisingly, Director Fury stationed a guard at the door to my room, and they heard me get up and move around.

Shaking off the initial shock, I responded. "Just thought I should get up and work out a little bit this morning rather than sit in my room and become a slug," I said back to them, and the door shut a couple seconds later. For privacy, I decided to change in the bathroom.

It was a tough feat, but when I was dressed, I carefully opened the bedroom door in case the agent was standing right in front of it. Instead I found them across the hall. And I also found out they were a him. Good to know. I fully opened the door and started to walk out, but the agent stopped me.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"I have to come with you, but I also don't have any sort of clearance from Director Fury to allow you in the gym area." I sighed and leaned up against the wall while we waited for clearance. It took about 4 minutes but we got it. So I was casually escorted to the gym by my great new personal babysitter. How. Wonderful.

The gym was a couple floors down, so the two of us shared an awkward elevator ride together. I tried to break the ice with a simple question. "What's your name?"

He stared at the elevator doors as he responded. "You don't have any need to know that information," he said, his response cold.

I huffed and tried again. "Would you like me to call you Mr. Babysitter?" I asked him, and there was a small pause before I was able to pull out a real response.

"Agent Lambert will work just fine," he finally said, and I smirked to myself. I thought of his name for a second and made a quick and easy connection.

I noticed we were close to our destination, so I hurried our conversation up. "Lambert, eh? Which side of you family is French?" I asked him, making sure to accentuate my French accent on his last name. I barely saw him glance towards me.

"Mother. She moved to the US when her position at SHIELD changed. Met my father there while undercover. He wasn't an agent at the time, but was later recruited after they got married," he explained. I nodded along as he spoke, genuinely listening. "They retired a couple years back and moved over to Paris."

"That sounds like a wonderful life," I said quietly, thinking back on how my life has been pretty...well, crappy so far. Neither of us spoke for the rest of the ride. Our blanket of silence was interrupted when the FRIDAY spoke up and told us we had arrived. The doors opened and I quickly left the awkward silence and got to the gym doors. I, however couldn't open the doors on my crutches. I tried, but nearly fell off. Agent Lambert came over and opened the doors for me.

Mumbling a little, "Merci," I hobbled into the gym and looked around for something. There were some bars on the far walls for pull-ups and those arm related things, there were weight machines that I could lay on and work my arms out, or there were open mats for floor ab exercises. So, mostly arms.

I hobbled over to the weight machines, and found a good looking bench press. Getting the weights onto the bar was a challenge, but I managed to get the weight up to 130 pounds. "Start off small," I mumbled to myself, and got the bar onto the holders so I could lay down and get ready. Agent Lambert was standing behind me, far enough to where he wasn't invading, but close enough to grab the bar if anything happens. I doubt anything will, with my arm and all, but I do need to work out my flesh arm.

When I was ready to go, I let out one more breath and lifted the bar. I hadn't worked out in weeks, which is strange compared to my usual Hydra schedule, so it took a couple reps for my human arm to get into the groove again.

I barely had broken a sweat by the time I got to 130 reps. I had set the bar back up on the little holder things and sat myself up. Agent Lambert was still standing behind me, staring straight ahead. That's fair.

Over the next two hours, I added more and more weight to the bar, eventually getting to 200. I only stopped when the gym doors opened, and Captain Rogers walked in with Nat behind him. They were talking, but their conversation stopped when Captain Rogers caught sight of me. Nat tried to keep talking to him, but he just glared in my direction. That's when I knew my time in the gym was over.

I sat up and used the bottom of my shirt to wipe my face. I was careful, because there were scars littering my abdomen. Agent Lambert walked over to me and handed me my crutches, and I took them with a small smile as a thanks. My flesh arm felt a bit sore as I used my crutches, but I ignored it. I just wanted to get out of there.

As I was on my way out, however, Nat had other plans. "Hey Rey. Getting along with your crutches okay?" she asked me. I turned around and nodded, smiling to make it seem less hostile and fake. Again, I really wanted to get out of there. But then again, Nat had a little plan formulating in her head.

"Look, if you need training buddies, we're all available," Nat said, finishing her offer with a small smile. It was a nice gesture, and I was about to respond, but Captain Rogers beat me to it.

"She doesn't have clearance for this room unless Fury's feeling nice. With her, I doubt that this was a more than once kinda thing." I looked to the super soldier, and we had a staring contest for a few seconds.

I rolled my eyes slightly and started to turn. "Allez vous faire foutre," I mumbled under my breath, making 100% sure that Agent Lambert didn't hear me. I had no idea how much French he knew, and I certainly didn't want to test that. Next I looked to Nat. "I'm alright Nat, I can't do much except lift weights right now," I said, gesturing towards the bench press I was just using. "Thanks for the offer anyways."

I was finally able to exit the gym, this time with FRIDAY getting the doors. "Merci," I said quietly to the artificial intelligence.

"Da rien," FRIDAY said back, startling me. Sometimes I forget she's basically human, except for the part where she doesn't have a body. But that's not that point. She's sarcastic and I've heard others talking to her a couple times before just to talk with her. I wonder if I could access her from my room.

The ride up the elevator was silent, the only noise being my breathing. Agent Lambert was quiet. He was probably trained to be stealthy and quiet for any sort of SHIELD missions. My eyes focused on the doors in front of me, and I was ready to speed out of the elevator. Now that it was a bit later in the morning, more people would be awake, and I really didn't want to see anyone.

Once the doors opened, I got out of the small moving room and surveyed the room. There were some Avengers lounging around and eating food. Dr. Banner, Falcon, Agent Barton, and Wanda were a few of the people in the room. Falcon was the first to see me, and he gave me a smile and a nod. I returned the smile, and my attention was brought to Wanda. She was making her way over to me and Agent Lambert.

At first, she was smiling at me, but then she saw the agent and her smile disappeared. "Who are you?" Wanda asked, and I could see a faint red glow around her hands. It somewhat comforted me that Wanda was being protective.

Agent Lambert, however, barely flinched at Wanda's hostility. "Agent Lambert. I'm-"

I cut the agent off. "He's basically my babysitter," I said, finishing Agent Lambert's sentence. This made Wanda roll her eyes. At first I thought it was because she was mad at me, but her next sentence said otherwise.

"Why would Fury send out an agent to follow you around? It's ridiculous!" Slowly, I noticed her hands were creating more of a red glow, and when I looked to her face, her eyes were glowing as well.

I was scared, but I placed my flesh hand gently on her arm and caught her attention. "It's fine, Wanda. They just don't trust me. I don't blame them. I wouldn't trust myself either," I said, and then left before Wanda could say much more.

Agent Lambert was kind enough to leave me in my room to my thoughts, but he still stood outside the door. I laid on the bed and stared up to the ceiling, taking in all of the details. The ceiling was a gray color, so it wasn't a blinding white nor a soul-sucking black. Just...plain.

I let out probably my 400th sigh of the day and rolled over carefully (so I wouldn't anger my wound) and tried to sleep. There wasn't much I could do here except work my arms and try to sleep. Socializing was definitely off the table, and it's not like I could just explore the tower. Director Fury has most likely restricted my access to where I can only be in this room, the kitchen, and possibly now the gym area.

My mind drifted to my thoughts, and I started to think about Hydra again. The day they gave me my arm, my orders, the soldier in me, the powers. It was all very painful, but I couldn't help but think about it. It all defines me now; there's no escaping it. There's no escaping the soldier that Hydra cut and molded me into. "The consequences follow me around," I whispered to the empty room. My metal hand instinctively went to my right shoulder.

There was a small knock at my door that had me sitting up quickly. "Come in," I said, and the door opened up. Wanda came in and shut the door behind her.

"I came to apologize about everything." She sat next to me carefully, testing the waters, before completely sinking into the bed. "Fury is out of order by not trusting you or us to make sure everything okay. An agent that has to follow you around? Sounds annoying," she sighed.

I simply shrugged. "It's not your fault. It's mine for attacking Mr. Stark and nearly killing him. Besides, Agent Lambert is half French. That's...something," I said, trailing off towards the end. The two of us sat in silence for a while before I spoke up again. "Where will I go?"

The question caught Wanda off guard, and she turned to look at me. My gaze, however, was focused on my left hand. "What do you mean?" she asked me, her voice lowering.

"You know, you just don't want to admit it. You know Director Fury is going to send me away somewhere. You know I'm too dangerous for normal living around civilians, so where would I go?" I asked her, repeating the original question. Wanda took a minute to collect her thoughts, then answered.

"You're not going anywhere. You are staying in this room- your room. The team will come around I swear. It's mainly Steve, Tony, and Fury that are a bit cautious around you. They have to come around to you."

I wanted to jump up from the bed and yell. "They're the three biggest people related to the team! They're the leaders, and they make most of the tough calls, except I'm not a tough call. It's obvious what they think and what they want. Hell, I haven't seen Mr. Stark since...you know. He'll never be able to forgive a monster like me. I'm surprised anyone else can," I said, and a lone tear broke free. I was quick to wipe it away, and turned away from Wanda's stare.

"Rey, I don't care how many times I'll tell you this. One mistake won't define you on this team." I was out to interrupt her but she held up a finger. "Before you go off on your whole spiel, I need you to know my mistake on this team.
I was tasked to tear the team apart, and I almost did. I showed each of them their biggest fears, their nightmares. I felt, no I feel awful about it. I set Bruce off as the Hulk on this rampage. But I'm here, aren't I? I have made so many mistakes before I became and Avenger. Even as an Avenger. But they don't classify me by my mistakes, they won't to you."

I looked at her, my eyes watery. "How are you certain?"

"Because I'm like you. And you're like a little sister to me. I won't let anything happen to you. And as one of the most powerful Avengers, they won't mess with me." We both laughed, and I realized I've never felt closer to someone. I also realized this was my chance to truly trust someone, and to possibly have Wanda trust me.

As the laughter died down, I took my moment."Wanda, there's something I need to tell you." Immediately the playfulness left her eyes, and she looked over to me. There was concern in her expression, caused by the tone of my voice. "I already told you about my arm and the soldier inside of me, but there's more."

Wanda looked at me, seemingly angry. "What more did those bastards do to you?" she hissed trough a clenched jaw. I grabbed her hand to calm her down, and she seemed to calm a bit. She took in a deep breath and allowed me to continue.

"Hydra's goal with me was to create a whole new soldier, with the best parts of the Winter soldier, and including things that would advanced me, I guess is a way to put it. They added his metal arm, his willingness to be commanded, and..." I trailed off. This scared me the most, to come clean about my mind powers.

Wanda's hand squeezed mine. "It's okay, Rey. You can trust me," she said. My breathing hitched at the word "trust". I have no reason not to, so why don't I?

My mouth opened up again, but so did the bedroom door. Our heads snapped up to see the intruder and found Captain Rogers standing there, full uniform. "Wanda, we have to go. Get ready." As quickly as he was there, he was gone. Wanda looked at me apologetically and stood, hurrying to her room to change out of her lounge wear.

I was so close. If he had just been a couple more minutes, Wanda would know. But now I have to wait. Letting out a dramatic sigh, I fell backwards onto the bed and laid there. Wanda popped back into my room and told me goodbye. I responded by waving, and I heard her footsteps hurry away from the room.

For about two minutes I sat there, staring at the ceiling. That was interrupted by some raised voices I heard down the hallway, and I listened in.

"No, she's staying here in a cell! I don't trust her to be able to just walk around and get into our stuff!" That was very obviously Mr. Stark.

The responder's voice was one I heard not long ago; Wanda. "That's ridiculous! She's fine in her room. Besides, in case you didn't notice, she now has a personal babysitter. We can trust her Tony, she's not going to do anything."

"Why would she anyways? We're her shelter. You guys saved her from a Hydra base and watched as she defied her superior. She really has nowhere else to go, so I doubt she'd try to mess this up." That voice was harder to figure out, but it sounded like Sam Wilson, or the Falcon.

They all got quieter, but I could still hear them talking in normal tones. I shrugged and closed my eyes, waiting for them to either leave, or for Agent Lambert and Mr. Stark to escort me to a cell to stay in. That would end in flashbacks and painful memories, but I wouldn't protest. I couldn't.

"Écoute, obéis, tout ira bien," I said. It was what we were always told back at Hydra. If we listened and obeyed, we would be okay. That last part was...relative, but their 'okay' was better than what would happened if you ignored the first two thirds of that saying.

I was starting to drift off, tired after doing...nothing really, but I'm tired. My eyes slowly closed and I was laying on the bed peacefully for a full 10 seconds. I was jolted back to consciousness when someone pulled me up from the bed.

"You're coming with us," they said, and I noticed it was Captain Rogers. I grabbed my crutches and hurried out of the room, him following behind me. Probably to make sure I didn't make a run for it, but I was smart enough to understand that I shouldn't dare try to run in this secure of a place.

The rest of the team was waiting, all in full uniform. There was a small part in me that wanted to just sit there and marvel at them, but this was not the time nor place. "Alright, Rey you have to come with us apparently," Nat said as she walked over to you. She adjusted her wrists, and I realized it was her Widow's Bite weapon.

I nodded in response and I was taken to the jet hanger with the rest of the group. It was a huge space, and I saw the jet sitting there, facing the vast sky, ready for take off. The back of it was open, ready for the heroes to step inside. I was brought in, somewhat forcefully, by the Captain and put in a seat. For "extra protection" he strapped me in and handcuffed my ankles to the jet itself.

"Merci," I mumbled, a bit sarcastically too. Captain Rogers gave me a glare, then made his way to the front of the jet. He was going to fly it seems, although I wouldn't really want to trust him. He doesn't particularly have the best record with flying aircraft...

Everyone was inside the jet, and I realized that I was sitting in the prisoners area. I looked to the other seats and found they all had restraints for bad guys...like Hydra men...like me. Wanda looked over at me, and groaned when she saw that Captain Rogers restrained my ankles.

"What the hell Steve! She's not just going to get up and kill us! There's no need to have her chained up to the seat like some sort of..." Wanda trailed off, trying to find the right word to use in the situation.

"Criminal?" I said, finishing her sentence. She looked at me shocked, but I shrugged. "I was part of Hydra. I guess that's criminal enough." Wanda scoffed and was about to go off on Captain Rogers, but Mr. Stark interrupted.

"She's a criminal. She's a threat. We can't trust her, so we're not going to. Personally I'm glad she can't move. Wait, Cap you forgot to restrain her hands," Tony said as he pointed at my hands. He came over and was hesitant at first. I looked down at the ground and let him restrain my hands as well.

I had fallen asleep at some point during the journey, and was jostled awake by the jet. My eyes opened faster than they ever before and I caught the heroes scrambling around to get ready. This was clearly an attack on the jet, which explains the plane getting bumped around like a volleyball.

"Get ready for an emergency landing!" Hawkeye yelled. I looked over to see him in the pilot's seat, and came to the conclusion he and Captain Rogers switched. Wanda came into my view, and my mind went back to the situation at hand. She came over and crouched in front of me.

"You're gonna have to stay in the jet while we go out, okay? Anything happens, just scream as loud as you can and I will come. I promise," she whispered. The rest of the team was too busy to be listening to us, but you never know. I nodded back to her, and she stood up.

The jet landed hastily, nearly giving me whiplash in my sad little seat. I took in a couple deep breaths and heard the back of the jet open up. I watched as everyone left, Wanda making sure to be the last person. She looked over at me and said, "Remember." Then she was gone.

Wherever the hell we were, it was really quiet. There were no chirping birds, the trees didn't rustle, there were no sounds of critters running through the forests, nothing. It all seemed very strange to me, sitting in the silence. At least at Hydra you could hear the stomping of guards' boots patrolling your cell and the screams of the other prisoners Hydra thought to torture. While it wasn't comforting, it was noise.

I let out a sigh and leaned back into the seat, trying to get some more sleep. The quiet could at least serve as something to lull me to sleep. My eyes shut and I focused on nothing, letting my mind drift. There it was; sleep was so close.

Then a hand wrapped around my throat.

My eyes shot open with terror and I was going to scream, but the hand squeezed my throat and my air supply was cut off. The Hydra Agent in front of me was wearing a mask, so their face was obscured, but there was no doubt they were staring into my eyes as they killed me. Or at least, tried to. I channeled my powers and used them to throw the man off of me, letting out a sort of battle cry with it. The agent flew back and hit the side of the jet opposite to where I was.

I took deep breaths for several seconds, before finally realizing I killed them. When the Avengers get back and just see a dead body, no sign of anything relating to how they died, they'd point accusing fingers at me.

"Merde," I said, quite loud too. My metal arm flexed and tried to break the cuff off of that wrist. With a really forceful pull, I tore the cuff off my wrist, and I tore the other off my right hand and off my ankles.

"Okay, quick. Find a gun or something to shoot this guy with," I thought to myself. Under a seat was a handgun, and I snatched it off the ground quickly. The gun was already loaded, so I just aimed at the agent's head. "Wait," I said aloud. I should probably scream so Wanda knows that something happened.

I let out a screech, waited about 3 seconds, and fired the gun. Now I had a good cover story for how this guy died. What I didn't really plan for was the fact that I was out of my seat that I had previously been heavily restrained it. I didn't think about that yet, as I was in shock. I couldn't remember the last time I had shot someone in my right mind, or even kill someone with my powers like this. The gun was still pointed at the same spot on the agent's head, the spot that was currently bleeding out.

I was brought out of my trance when I heard people running over to the jet. "Rey!" I heard Wanda yell. She came to a halt right outside the jet, soon joined by Nat, Hawkeye, and Mr. Stark in his Iron Man glory. They all stared at me as I stared at the gun in my hand.

Finally something clicked in my head, and I dropped the weapon to the ground. It clattered loudly, but that didn't make me flinch. I am a soldier, I've been trained to stay still even if I've been shot.

"Rey...what happened?" Nat asked me, and she made her way to the jet where I was standing. She got to me and rubbed a hand on my shoulder, getting me to relax slightly.

Iron Man stepped forward. "I have a better question: how the hell did you get out of your restraints?" Mr. Stark asked me, and I realized that I had no story to cover up how I did that. My mouth opened to stutter through some sort of reply, but a voice that wasn't my own stopped me.

"I let her out," Wanda confessed, and she stepped forwards towards Mr. Stark. "I made sure I was last out of the jet so I could let her out. She doesn't deserve to just sit in a seat for god knows how long!" Wanda said, yelling towards the end for emphasis. It was like she really believed that she let me out. Which I was totally fine with at the moment, I'd just have to talk to her later.

Mr. Stark and Wanda argued for a second while Nat took me back to a seat to calm down. "Hey are you okay? You seem really shaken up," Nat said. It felt nice that she was concerned for me, but I was focused on the fact that I was in shock. Sure, it isn't pretty to murder someone (twice-ish), but I had done it before. It was as the soldier, but a couple times I had to kill someone in my right state of mind. So why was killing this Hydra agent so...weird?