Bruce made me promise not to tell anyone else until after he was able to confirm his theory. I agreed quickly. If Bruce wanted this to stay quiet, then that means the other Avengers probably wouldn't like this revelation.

He genuinely did not let me leave the room until I said allowed, "I promise not to disclose this information with anyone just yet." Bruce seemed to be a very paranoid man. Judging by his life and events from it, I could understand where the paranoia came from. I had similar paranoia with my life too. As we were getting ready to leave, I had to ask Bruce a question. "Will I be able to access the presentation in my room? Or at all?"

Bruce hesitated as he thought. Then replied, "Not in your room, and nowhere else is truly secure. The only place would be here and I have high doubts that Fury will let you in here without probable cause like one of our tests." I nodded in understanding and thanked Bruce for showing me this.

We exited the room at the same time, after the entire presentation was away and FRIDAY ensured no one else would be able to see it unless it was me or Bruce. Outside the room, Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers were still there, but now so was Agent Lambert. He heard the door open and angrily walked towards us.

"What the hell Doctor Banner? You understand the regulations and the fact that you two need to set an appointment in order to see each other, and that's if the Director even allows it." My eyes widened and I looked between the SHIELD agent and the Avenger. I wanted to see how Bruce would take to Agent Lambert speaking to him like that. Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe I'm just used to seeing punishment ensue back at Hydra if you were dumb enough to challenge a superior.

Bruce took in a deep breath before answering. "I understand she needs an appointment. This meeting was an emergency about her health and abilities, and I didn't want to wait for director approval over something that may be bad." He then turned to me and smiled. "She's alright through, thank goodness," he said. Then he turned back to Agent Lambert. "I'd advise you not to yell at me like that again, because the Big Guy can be easy to provoke." With that, Bruce walked away and went over to a different spot to start working on something. I could only assume it had to do with me.

"Come on," Lambert huffed. He pulled my arm and took me back down to my room. Neither of us spoke the entire walk and saw no one else on our journey. I figured they all had better things to do. However, once we passed a window, I realized why nobody may be around. It was nearly pitch black outside, the only source of light being the city lights. The window passed but I still thought about the outside world. I couldn't even remember the last time I had a moment to just enjoy the cool nighttime air.

We got to the common room area and I stopped walking. Agent Lambert turned to me frustrated. "What?" he asked in an annoyed huff.

"Can I have a moment to just stand out on the balcony?" I asked him. Something shifted in Lambert's eyes, and he simply nodded and let go of my arm. He let me walk over to the balcony on my own and go out there. I went out and stood at the edge. Lambert must've stayed inside, as I couldn't sense his presence near me.

There was a slight cool breeze, and I just sat there and enjoyed the fresh air of New York City. Maybe it wasn't the freshest air ever, but it was still better than the same air inside the tower, of the reek of sadness and death of Hydra facilities.

I closed my eyes and just allowed my senses to enjoy.

~~

Stark and Steve had been talking about who knows what at this point. Stark couldn't remember. He only remembers seeing Bruce hurriedly drag Rey into the private conference room, then turn on the opaque windows, then the two of them coming out a while later. Of course Stark thought dirty things at first, thinking his buddy scored, but when he remembered who went in there with his friend, Stark immediately struck that image out of his mind. Besides, there was no moaning or anything coming from that room. So what the hell was Banner hiding?

He kept thinking about this when he left the lab and followed after the pissed off babysitter and the person he was babysitting. It made the most sense that he'd take Rey back to her room, so that's the direction Stark went. As he got closer to the common room, he heard a couple voices and then a door opening and closing. It was then that he paused and realized, "What am I doing? Why am I following them? If I want to know what she and Bruce talked about, I'd ask Bruce."

Yet for some unknown reason, Stark started walking again and made it to the common room. In there he saw Agent Lambert standing by the door to the balcony with Rey outside, seemingly standing there and enjoying the wind. Stark's eyebrows furrowed and he walked up to the agent.

"Agent Lambert," he greeted. The other man simply nodded back and continued to stand in the same position; his body and face were facing away from the balcony, his eyes staring straight in front of him. "What's she up to out there?" Stark asked.

The other man turned and looked at Rey for a moment, then back to Stark. "She's enjoying the outside air." There was a brief silence, and Lambert felt the need to explain himself a bit more than that. "I realize she's probably never had the chance to experience little things like this, so I figured this would be fine. Besides, we're too high up for her to escape in anyway."

Stark nodded and turned to walk away. He stopped and looked out at Rey once more, and saw her standing in the same position that he saw her in when he walked over. At first he thought she might be sleeping and standing at the same time or something weird like that, but then she took in a deep breath and leaned her head back. Stark left without another word.

~~

I stayed out on the balcony for what felt like not long enough, but when Lambert tapped on the door and showed me the time, I realized it was a good time to go to my room. It had been nearly two hours of me sitting out on the balcony enjoying the breeze. The entire time, I could only think of two things: me possibly being linked to an infinity stone, and man I'm hungry.

"Agent Lambert?" I called out as we started to pass the kitchen. He stopped an turned to face me. "Can I grab some food? I haven't eaten in a bit..." I trailed off. In my head I was so worried; I was afraid he'd laugh in my face and say that 'food is a privilege' like they did at Hydra. With the way they had experimented on me, I wouldn't be surprised if I could survive without food longer than the average human. But I had to get into habits, so I figured starting to have actual meals would be a step in the right direction.

I bit my lip and waited for his response. "Yes, but nothing much." I smiled and hurried over to the cabinet filled with food. I saw the bag of chips and got them out. Over in another cabinet there were some small bowls, and after a few attempts, I found the right one. There were a few different sizes, and I decided the smallest one would be the best option. I knew enough about humans to know that I couldn't gorge myself on so much food in such a short amount of time. After pouring my little bowl and eating it, I put the chips away and sat there holding the bowl.

"Is there a problem?" Agent Lambert asked me. I looked up at him and back down at the bowl. Of course I was going to feel like an idiot, but I really had no clue what the hell I was supposed to do with the dirty bowl. I didn't think it went back with the others, but I didn't know where else it could go.

"I uhm...I-I don't know where to put this," I said quietly.

"The bowl would be fine in the sink," another female voice suddenly said. I looked up and around but saw nobody else with us. Then something clicked. She spoke again, saying, "It should be right behind you."

I turned and saw the giant sink she was referring to. I carefully set the bowl in the sink and turned back around to look at the ceiling. My mind raced around as I tried to remember if I heard anyone say the name I needed. "Thank you FRIDAY," I said.

Agent Lambert looked a bit confused until the artificial intelligence spoke back. "Of course," she said. I looked at Lambert and shrugged. We both moved to walk back to my room, which is when I thought about something.

"Agent, where do you go at night and I'm in my room?" I asked in a whisper, as we were near other people's rooms now. We got to mine and I stopped in front of the door while Lambert stopped by the walk next to it.

He shrugged and said, "I don't see how that's relevant." I sighed at that and opened the door and walked inside. Carefully, I closed the door and turned on the lights. When I looked at my clothes, I realized I hadn't changed out of the outfit Wanda had given me for my first official-ish mission. I also realized I didn't exactly know what happened to my pajamas that I had been wearing beforehand. Taking a look around the room, there was one option: the closet. I opened the door and walked in and the light turned on as soon as my foot crossed the threshold. There were some drawers inside but I didn't need to look in them. On the shelf closest to the door was where my pajamas from Nat laid. I smiled and grabbed them, then went to change. After I got dressed I put the dress and jacket and separate hangers.

With a big yawn, I crashed into bed and snuggled up under the covers. My evening out on the balcony had put me in a better, calmer mood, and I fell asleep rather quickly.

~

"Soldat!" The yell caused me to jump up to my feet quicker than I should've. My head spun around from the kick I received and it took a lot of self control not to pass out on the mat. Last time I did they decided to experiment on me even more. "You are better than this!" the man yelled once again.

I shook off the spinning vision and hurting head, and got back into a fighting stance. Across from me was another recruit. We were being forced to fight each recruit until one was left, and they would be face off against the Winter Soldier. Nobody wanted to, as almost everybody had been killed by him during the fight. I was determined to be different. I was determined to survive.

Without waiting for the signal, I launched myself at my opponent and took him out. Along with my element of surprise, I jumped to where my legs wrapped around his shoulders/neck, and twisted his head quickly. As we both fell (him backwards, me forwards technically) I heard the satisfying snap that let me know he was dead and rolled off him and up to my feet. It had barely been three seconds.

The Hydra officer came over and handcuffed me while simultaneously congratulating me on this win. "Bravo soldat. You will have your final face off in an hour." He took me away, back to my cell most likely, and he signaled for someone else to take care of the body.

Without warning, I was suddenly standing in a much larger area with many Hydra officers and higher-ups around me. I looked across from me and saw the Winter Soldier. Panic set into me and I started to breath faster and more shallow. He's going to kill me. I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die-

"Fight!" someone shouted out, and the Soldier stalked towards me. I got more and more freaked out and tried to find a way out. He was getting closer and I finally decided I just had to fight.

We fought for what felt like an eternity before he had a hold on me and was choking on me. Except, nobody was calling for him to stop. This isn't how the memory goes. I felt the air leaving me and my windpipe being crushed by the Soldier's metal arm. My brain went into panic mode and suddenly my arms were flailing around and my hands were clawing unsuccessfully at the metal hand around my neck.

"Fight! Fight like your life depends on it!" I heard someone yell in the back of my mind. But all thoughts of fighting were fleeting and I just clawed uselessly at the hand around my throat.

"WAKE UP!"

My body flew forwards from my bed and I stared ahead of me wide-eyes. There was an orange glow surrounding my vision, but I didn't focus on it. Instead, I focused on trying to just breathe normally. Once I had a moment to breathe, I remembered where I was and that I wasn't in Hydra's grasp anymore. I calmed down and the orange glow in my vision died down. "Rey?"

The voice made me gasp and jump to a defensive stance. Well, as close as I could to it while laying down. My arms went down when I saw who it was. "I'm so sorry Wanda. Did I hurt you at all?" I asked. I couldn't stand it if one of my friends got hurt by my hand.

"No you didn't. This time you just put up a sort of forcefield around yourself," Wanda said. I still looked over her and made sure she wasn't lying to me. She noticed too. "I promise I'm fine Rey. I wouldn't lie to you about this." I nodded and decided to get up and move around. The feelings of my nightmare still clung to me and I really just wanted them to go away.

I took in some shakes breaths and paced around. "Hey hey hey are you okay?" Wanda asked, but still gave me space. There was a moment of silence between us as I tried to pace around and calm down. "Do you want to talk about it or distract yourself from it?" she asked next.

"Distract please," I answered quietly. She nodded and thought for a minute.

"Umm we can watch some TV? I know some pretty funny shows that we can watch on Netflix?" Wanda suggested. I nodded and she led me out. When I got into the hallway and closed the door, I noticed that Agent Lambert wasn't there. "Let's go out to the common room and watch in there okay?" I nodded and we walked over to the couches and sat down on the one that faced the TV the best.

It was silent as Wanda got the remote thing from the table and the TV turned on. I still didn't know exactly what it all was and how it worked, and I hoped that one day someone would tell me. I watched as the screen changed and an image with multiple little pictures with names under them came up.

"What is this screen?" I asked her. I took a closer look at the names and couldn't recognize a single one of them. "What are these names?"

Wanda looked at the screen. "Well, these are all different profiles. Each profile is for one person at the tower. The reason you don't know the names is because Tony made all of them nicknames. Like Thor, who you have yet to meet, is Point Break. I'm Witchling, Clint is Legolas, Steve is Capsicle, he's Billionaire Playboy, and Sam is Bird #2." I tried and failed to hold in all of my laughter from some of the nicknames I heard. They all seemed quite funny, and made me wonder if he spent a lot of thought into them or if they were all just "on the fly" as I've heard Americans say. "I'll try and help you set an account up one day. Right now, let's just watch some fun stuff."

Wanda went onto her account and went to her 'Recently Watched' and picked a show, and went and found one of the many parts of the show we could watch. "This is my favorite show," she said, selecting the thing that said 'Pilot'. "I'm going to start you from the beginning. Welcome to Friends!"

The show started and I was a bit confused with some of the references and the reason Wanda clapped four times, but I still found the show quite funny. Wanda also told me about how TV shows are divided into 'seasons' and each season has 'episodes'. Once the 'Pilot' was over, Wanda paused it and tried to help explain some small things to me, including the stuff about how TV shows are laid out.

She started with the setting. The show was set in New York City back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and it was set then because that's the time the show was made. She helped to explain the relationship between the characters too: Monica and Ross are siblings, Chandler was friends with Ross in college, Joey is Chandler's roommate, and Rachel was friends with Monica in high school.

"Alright, do you want to watch another one?" she asked. I nodded and we watched the second episode, "The One with the Sonogram at the End", then the third episode, then the fourth, and the fifth. It was close to 5 am and we finished the entire first season of the show.

Wanda grabbed the remote and exited out of the show. "But Wanda! I want to know what happens next!" I whined like a small child.

This made Wanda laugh loudly, and she threw her head back and covered her mouth with her hand. "Rey, that's the fun of it! We can come back and watch more at a different time, but right now we both need to rest. Neither of us got much sleep last night and that's not a good habit," Wanda said as she turned the TV completely off and put the remote away somewhere. "I promise we can watch more another day. Maybe not an entire season in one sitting, but a few episodes."

"Why though? I can stay up for days without a wink of sleep and still function. I've had to many times," I said. I sort of said it as a joke, but the statement was entirely true. Wanda knew that it was true too, and her joyful expression faded slightly.

After realizing I damped the mood, I figured I should get up and go. "Rey," Wanda started, causing me to halt. "I know you did a lot of things with Hydra that trained you to be, in their eyes, the perfect soldier. But now you're here with us, and you need to start getting into healthier habits to allow your body to act more human again. Once you put yourself in a good routine and get proper amounts of sleep you'll feel a lot healthier." I looked to my hands and acted as though I was wiping some dirt off my metal one. "So, it's off to bed with you. In a couple hours I'll come in to wake you back up okay?"

We were silent as Wanda waited for an okay I wasn't entirely willing to give. It felt like forever had passed before I thought I should say something preferably about why I didn't want to go back to bed. "I just..." I trialed off and put the words together in my head. "Every time I voluntarily go to sleep I get nightmares. When I pass out from pain or when you make me fall asleep they escape me. But I could never ask you to do that every night because that'd be selfish of me. And I certainly can't pass out from pain or exhaustion every night." It was really quiet now.

Sudden footsteps coming towards this room brought us both out of our little worlds, and Wanda and I looked over to see who was joining us this morning. There stood Mr. Stark, looking very awkward. I sighed and decided to just go back and try to get some sort of rest. Maybe by some miracle I could get a nap in without getting terrorized by my memories.

I closed the door softly and flopped onto the bed. Everything swam around in my head and I couldn't stop thinking about what my nightmare was about. It started as a memory, the first time I had met the Winter Soldier. But the way my nightmare ended wasn't what happened...one of the Hydra agents had called for the Winter Soldier to stop, which was unheard of at that base; no one had ever survived against the Soldier and nobody had ever stopped the fight like that. And yet, that's how it happened. That's also when I got my metal arm. I unconsciously reached my right hand over to touch my left arm and I felt the hard metal under my sleeve. No matter how much time passes, my arm will forever be seen in my head as a weapon and never a true piece of me. Never.

The world faded slowly as my eyes fought to stay open. I did not want to sleep right now, especially after thinking about my nightmare. But no matter how hard I fought to stay awake, my eyes closed all the way and I fell asleep.

Little did I know that Wanda was right outside my door. She had been sensing the large amount of activity in my head and decided to use her powers to give me a chance at a good nap without interruptions like nightmares.

"Is she asleep?" Wanda whispered up to the AI so she could be sure.

"Yes," FRIDAY whispered back. Wanda nodded to no one in particular and turned to walk towards her own room to catch some more sleep.