Wakanda - Villa
After Leaving Medical

"How are you doing?" Sam asked her as they walked back up the staircase to the main living floor.

They had just left the medical room after she had received the four shots from Kilani. They had not been painful, or at least as painful as some of the others she had received through the years. According to the doctor, she would feel a bit of tingling in her limbs for the next few hours as the vibranium-infused serum began to bond with her weakened bones and muscles to help strengthen and heal them. She didn't care what it was as long as the pain stopped.

"At least I didn't freak out on them like I did yesterday," she tried to joke with him.

"I'm sure they appreciated it," he told her as they reached the top.

"So what is exactly going to happen?" she asked walking into the den and finding it empty.

"With what?" Sam asked her.

"Tomorrow," she replied.

They both took seats on one of the large couches overlooking the luscious patio and waterfall area.

"We'll be taking the Quinjet, in stealth mode, out of Wakanda and back to America. Most of the group will be heading to Clint's place, our first drop off. Then we'll take Scott back home to San Francisco. After that, we will head off to one of Nat's safe houses for a stay."

"How long of a stay?"

"Depends on what happens," he told her. "On the short side, it could be a few weeks, but if we're lucky, and thanks to Nat we should be, we're hoping be able to stay there for quite a few months."

"And what about me?" she came right out and asked.

"You're going to get the charming companionship of the most handsome ex-Avenger for a while," he joked with her.

Not being able to resist, with a smile and a sigh, she responded, "Steve is nice to look at."

"That hurts," Sam put his hand over his heart as if wounded.

She couldn't help but give a laugh at the funny simple flirt from Sam. It had been so long since she had been able to talk with someone normally. And thanks to Keeling, she knew that there was a good chance that she would never have a real relationship again.

"Teagan, just so you fully understand," Sam's voice sounded a bit hesitant, as if he was worried about this talk, "Natasha is currently looking for your Hydra project file on the internet. Now that we know your and its name, searching the dumped files will be much easier than whatever Ross tried to do."

"What happens when she finds it? Do I get locked up for what I did?"

Sam began to quickly and profusely abate that fear.

"Never. They kidnapped you. We all know that with the torture you endured that anything you did, including taking out any agents, was the only way for you to ensure your own survival."

"What about the people who I forced to give up information? They never would have done anything like that if it hadn't been for me," she pointed out.

"Do you know if there are still people passing information along to Hydra?" he asked her.

"I don't know," she told him. "If they still work where they used to, then the commands I gave would still be going. With how the commands were worded, there was no end time for them to stop after any length of time."

"Well, we are not going to hold any of that against you, just like we don't blame Bucky for what Hydra made him do."

Hearing that was very reassuring coming from him. They may have told her as such yesterday but she had feared last night that with them now getting a bit of down time with which to consider her actions that they would change their minds.

"But when Nat finds the file, she can see if there's any secret spies that the government needs to know about. If so, we'll pass along the story of what happened to them so that they will hopefully not be held accountable. More than likely they'll be moved to less secure positions. There's a very good chance that Steve might also want to look through the file trying to find out what else Hydra had been working on that needed your abilities. And, I would also like to look through it too, but for a different reason," Sam solemnly told her.

"What reason?" she was a lot more nervous again.

"Before all of this started, and even before meeting Steve, I used to work with military veterans in D.C. who needed help readjusting to normal life after coming back from a war zone."

"But I didn't…" she started, not understanding his comment.

"No, but you were held captive for over a decade. That took a big mental toll on you, even if it hasn't started getting to you yet. But over the next few weeks, I'm expecting you to start having nightmares about being recaptured or about what happened to you during your time with Hydra. I've noticed how you sometimes can quickly grow agitated, especially when Hydra and Keeling, in particular, are mentioned."

She couldn't help but bristle at just hearing that name aloud.

"See what I mean," Sam told her with a bit of a jovial voice trying to distract her. "And since you'll be with me and Steve, I don't want you to try and keep any problems you encounter all to yourself. Steve's been to a real war zone and also had some problem readjusting when he was first woken up. Talk with either of us and we'll make sure that you get any help you need."

"I'll try," she told him. "For the past two days, this is the most that I've spoken to anyone in years."

"Well you'll be getting a lot more practice with the two of us," he told her as Bucky and Steve appeared, coming towards them from the path leading down to the large pools at the base of the waterfalls. Nodding his head towards the two, "Steve loves to talk about Bucky and Brooklyn so those are always easy topics with him. Out of curiosity, what did you used to enjoy before…"

She knew what he was trying to say without upsetting her.

"My Hydra holiday?" she decided to joke with him.

"That's one way to look at it."

"I used to work at my aunt and uncle pub on the weekends but I was also one of the entertainers."

"So you're a musician? Any particular instrument?"

"The bodhran and a fiddle," she told him letting her accent out and smiling at remembering how she used to love playing. Practicing the fingers' positioning for all the songs she could remember had been one of her only forms of entertainment. She would sit and just listen to the music in her head for hours.

"What's a bodhran?"

"A large hand held drum that you beat with a double-ended knucklebone. It's used to help keep the beat."

"And you would play at the pub?"

"Yes. There was a group of us that would gather every weekend and just play anything we felt like. It would last for hours while others drank, sang along, and listened to us," she told him as Steve and Bucky finally opened the den's door.

Spotting them, they came over close to where they sat.

"Mind if we joining the two of you?" Steve asked.

Steve looked over at her, letting her make the decision if they wanted company.

"Not at all," she easily told them so they took up seats across to join them. They were an easy group to get along with, she was figuring out.

"Steve's parents were actually born in Ireland," Sam told her looking over at Steve.

"I know," she gave a sly smile.

"Really?" Steve answered a bit shocked. "Most people don't know that."

"They may not teach it in the American history books, but we Irish are a proud lot when it comes to our own. The fact that someone of pure Irish descent is now considered America's greatest hero was...is?...an amusing fact to us," she couldn't stop grinning at seeing Steve turn a bit red in embarrassment.

"Well, after the past few weeks, I have a feeling that their image of me might be a bit swayed in the other direction," Steve told her.

"That's just the Irish stubbornness coming out, I'm sure," she told him, getting Bucky to laugh a bit.

"So that's it...I always wondered where his moxie came from," Bucky stated.

"Teagan," Steve then got her attention, "I've noticed how your accent seems to come and go. Is there a reason for that?"

Taking a heavy breath, she then told them, "Keeling wanted to make sure that when I had to question anyone that there would not be any mistaking what I was asking, especially once they had to hold a gun to their own head. So for a long time he had me…doing a type of dialect training to get rid of the accent. Now, after so long of having to do so, when talking with anyone, I'll keep my speech plain, but there are times when my accent does come back."

Sam gave a bit of a frown, probably guessing the truth that there was more to her statement. But they didn't really want to know about the shock treatments or beatings she'd endured as part of that dialect training.

"It reminds me of your mom," Bucky then solemnly told Steve with a sad smile. "Soft spoken most of the time until we would push her too far, and then it would appear."

"It's nice to hear, especially without being in trouble," Steve then told her, making her blush a bit with the comment.

For so long, she'd be beaten if it accidentally slip through. Ross hadn't cared if it was there one way or another just as long as she answered his questions. Was he ever disappointed.

Over the next hour as the four of them continued to talk, one by one the rest of the strange group that had found her slowly made their way into the room and began to regale her with a few of their outlandish talks of heroism.

At first she wanted to believe that they were lying just to amuse her but when it came to a few of the stranger items, Sam would use a nearby tablet to pull up pictures to prove the story true. It had been so long since anyone had been so open and honest with her without the use of her powers.

Teagan really liked that. But would it stay that way?

"Wanda, I was telling Teagan earlier that you might be willing to do a trick for her, so that she could see your powers," Sam commented across the way.

"Sam told me that you had some kind of magic power but never explained what kind?" she let her know.

"Who has a good suggestion?" Wanda then asked the others.

"I left a book out on the patio," Nat stated. "Care to get it for me?"

Wanda began to gesture with her hands, a red glow emerging from nowhere. Sam nudged her arms and nodded towards the outside for her to look. Teagan glanced out of the window and spotted the book resting on the outdoor sofa. Suddenly, the same glowing red mist enveloped it before the book began to rise into the air. Her eyes were wide as she watched it float towards the closed door, pausing mid-flight once reaching the barrier. Then another mist formed over the door's handle as it opened, allowing the book to continue on until it came to a rest in Natasha's open hands. The door then was closed by Wanda's powers.

"That was...was...brilliant," she managed to say as Wanda smiled at her. Glancing at the others, they didn't seem as impressed, but they had probably seen her powers many times. "Can you lift a lot?"

"She once stopped a derailed subway train skidding down a street," Natasha told her.

"Really?"

"Yes," Wanda answered appearing a bit shy with the attention. "I can also use it to levitate myself or others."

"So you can fly? That sounds so cool," she told her.

"You know that I can fly also, right?" Sam pointed out to her.

Bucky then chimed in, "Raise your hand if Wanda's powers are way better than Sam's toy wings."

All of the group then had a hand in the air and a smile on their face as they picked on Sam. Teagan could see that they all were a friendly group and it reminded her so much of her family and friends back home, teasing each other if given the chance.

"I still hate you," Sam looked right at Bucky, who only chuckled at the comment, not getting angry at all.

"So is Wanda the only one with special powers?" she asked them.

A few of them glanced over at Clint who took on a look of innocence.

"What?" he asked gesturing with raised hands.

"There is no way that you could make some of your shots without having some kind of enhancement," Scott pointed out.

"Nope, all my talent is purely natural training," he firmly stated.

"There's no way," Scott told him.

"Unfortunately, he's telling the truth," Natasha informed them. "Unless there's something that I never found out about."

"As if I could hide anything from you," Clint rolled his eyes. "You are horrible to deal with at Christmastime. I gave up years ago with trying to hide presents from you."

"So what do you do?" she asked Scott, only knowing his nickname as Ant-Man.

"I have to show you," Scott madly grinned before hopping up and running out the room.

"Is that strange for him?" she asked.

"No," Sam, Clint, and Wanda all answered.

Sam then got her attention, stating, "Steve's enhanced but I'm sure that you know all about that."

"By primary school," she told him, but then turned to look at Bucky, recalling something he said much earlier. "But how would you know Steve's mom. That's not possible."

She hesitated to actually state they were lying to her, hoping that they weren't.

"Because I grew up with little Stevie here," Bucky elbowed Steve in the side.

"That's a..." but then she stopped herself from actually saying the word 'lie'. Everyone around her knew what she wanted to accuse him of, but they probably also knew the truth, and if Bucky had been lying, she would hope that they would stop him. So, instead she asked, "How is that possible?"

"Do you remember anything about how during the war I worked with the Howling Commandos?" Steve asked her.

"Not much," she admitted. "It's been a while for me since I sat in history class."

Steve nodded since he understood.

"Bucky was my friend growing up, and then later on during the war when the Commandos were formed, he was one of us. There was an accident and he was captured by Hydra in 1945. Over the past seventy years, they used the cryo-freeze technology on him which prevented him from aging."

She did seem to recall that there had been only one fatality with the Commandos besides Steve's plane going down.

"So how old are you?" she asked.

"Technically, I'm ninety-nine years old, but physically you can see I'm still somewhere in my early thirties," he told her.

"Truthfully?" she had to ask.

"Yes," Steve answered for him. "We are not going to lie to you about anything."

"That would be a nice change," she mumbled, knowing that at least Sam sitting next to her could hear her.

"Alright, ready to be impressed?" Scott then asked as he stepped into the room wearing a unusual black and red outfit.

"Is that some kind of motorcycle helmet?" she asked.

"Nope," he grinned standing across the coffee table from her.

Holding out his fist, she watched as he made a fist before disappearing in front of her.

"What the bloody hell?" she asked looking around.

"It's not what you think," Sam told her before pointing down at the coffee table.

On the smooth, shiny metal surface, she noticed something very small hopping towards her. Scooting to the edge of the sofa, she finally managed to focus in on a small man standing there waving up at her.

"Is that..." she could only point down at him.

"Yep, that's Tic-Tac," Sam told her. "Anyone got a rolled up newspaper?"

Suddenly the little man jumped back high into the air, growing back to normal size during his rotation before landing on his feet.

"Not funny," Scott said opening the face mask back up.

"Since you shrink to the size of an ant, that's how you got your name," she stated.

Getting a smug grin, Scott then told her, "Well, it also has to do with the fact that I can control ants."

"Control ants?" she asked, knowing she sounded skeptical.

"My own little army. Oh, and not only that, but I can get grow in size too," he told her with a grin, reaching up again for his helmet.

"Not in here," most of the group shouted with a few waving their arms to stop him.

"Just kidding," he grinned taking the helmet off and sitting back down. "So what about your power? Can you really make anyone do anything? Even embarrassing stuff like clucking like a chicken?"

"Yes," she managed to say after a laugh. "Hydra had me tested in numerous ways, trying to see my limitations."

"You mentioned yesterday something about 'the truth as you know it'," Sam asked her. "What did you mean?"

"It was to see if someone was told a lie if they would repeat it as the truth," Teagan decided to explain. "If someone told you a code word, but it was a lie, if I asked for the code word, you would say what you believed it to be."

"That seems like something that would be a given," Natasha stated.

"Yes, but when questioning agents and officials, if they had the wrong information, that was what would be given as an answer, not the real truth."

"So someone can't answer what they don't really know," Clint commented. "The power doesn't make them suddenly know an answer."

"Exactly, which they found very disappointing," she admitted. "Also, if they don't already know how to do something, if they've heard of the skill, they'll try to perform it. But if they have never heard of it, they can't do anything."

"Like what?" Scott asked.

"I can't command Sam to hack into a government's computer if he doesn't have the skill. But if I told you to knit a scarf, you'd at least pick up the tools and try."

"Can you make someone not be able to use an existing skill?" Natasha had a sly smile on her face.

"Yes..."

Turning to Clint, she asked him, "Want to have a small test?"

Shaking his head, "I'm not having anyone in my mind again."

"It's not your mind, just your skills," Natasha told him. "Say a test of tossing small stones into a can, and then being told to miss."

"Absolutely not," he crossed his arms. "I never miss."

"Conceited much?" Scott jokingly asked.

"Just the truth," he told him before looking right at her, "which I know you'll appreciate."

"Only if you're not lying," she pointed out. "I've never seen any proof that you any good, only a bit 'o braggin'."

Clint then dug into his pant's pocket and pulled out a small piece of metal that looked like an arrowhead. Looking around the room, he focused on a empty vase on a table at the far wall.

"There's no way," she told him seeing him lining up his toss.

Seconds later, the arrowhead flew through the air to make a pinging sound reaching the bottom, falling inside without even touching the rim of the vase.

"Showoff," Wanda told him.

"Really, my favorite witch?" he grinned. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"What about if someone wants to do something?" Scott then asked. "Could you powers help them to do it? Like stop smoking? Or lose weight?"

"Yes, as long as it's worded right. They tested getting rid of an addiction...and...also..." her words slowly trailed off and she found that she couldn't finish.

Teagan's mind began to drift back to the one test that had haunted her for a long time.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, startling her from the memory. "Was it something that happened during a test?"

She nodded her head, and worriedly looked over at the others, wondering what they would think about what had happened.

"Do you want to tell us?" Natasha asked, not sounding judgemental at all. Her voice sounded a bit sad, like she almost knew what she would say.

If this group was really going to let her stay with them, then they needed to understand exactly what she could do. Telling them about this incident would go along way with seeing how much they actually trusted her to be free. Once this was out, she would know if they considered her a danger to them.

"It was another test, to see if someone could override my command," she slowly began to explain, hoping that it was not a mistake. "An agent that had failed a mission was brought in and they had me command him to refuse to eat or drink ever again."

Sam's soft, calm voice asked her, "What happened?"

"They moved me from my normal cell, which was down a hall all by itself, to the area where prisoners to be questioned were kept. They locked him in a cell right across the hall from me with all sorts of stuff to eat and drink. For however long it took, he stayed in there screaming at me to release him from the command. I know it was days, but I'm not sure how long, before he finally starved to death."

They were all quiet as they sat there, probably trying to decide if they needed to lock her up.

"Even with the food in front of him, he wouldn't touch it?" Bucky then asked her.

"Technically, he could touch it, just not eat it. He'd shove food into his mouth but the command prevented him from chewing or swallowing it. Sometimes he would throw items through the small window on the door in my direction while cursing me. Every meal, Keeling made sure that the guard stopped by my cell so I could see and smell the nice, hot meal he was being offered. Hours later, he would eventually toss it against the wall in frustration of not being able to eat."

"Why would Keeling do something like that to you?" Steve asked her.

"He used any opportunity he could to remind me that I was under his control. The feeding tube was in place so that I couldn't eat solid food. My arms were secured how Keeling normally had them, along with the gag being in place. He wanted to make sure that I could not somehow release the command verbally, even though that's not how my powers work," she told them all. "Forcing me to smell real meals, something I hadn't had in so long, was just another happy form of torture for him. And they made sure to bring in some of the agent's favorite dishes as an incentive to break free of the command."

"So he was just tormenting you because of how much of a monkey's uncle he was," Clint tried to lighten the mood.

"Monkey's uncle?" Scott looked over accusingly at him with the childish phrase.

"If I get into a habit of cursing and then do it in front of the kids, I'll be sleeping in the dog house," he pointed out. Turning back to her, "If I ever get the chance, I'll make sure to put an arrow in Keeling keester for you. He'll never sit properly again."

"I'd much rather you aim for his heart," she honestly told him, hoping that it somehow came true. With as much of a grin as she could, "I know it's a small, probably impossible, target to find, even for you."

To get back to more light-heartedness, the others then began with more tales of other achievements, each trying to outdo the others. Not a one of them acted worried about her still being free. She was sure that after hearing about her killing the man with a simple command that one of them would point out how much of a danger she was to them. But none of them did. After a while, Teagan realized that maybe she really didn't have anything to fear from them.

Throughout the day, she had slowly become more comfortable being around the sharing, teasing group. As they began to join them one by one, she noticed a slight nervousness at first which quickly went away. She was now surrounded by eight extraordinary people, all of them with powers or talents she never thought would exist.

For so long, she had always believe that she was the only one out there, and that was why Hydra had kept her. Even hearing about Project Winter Soldier, she'd had no knowledge of the individual behind it she now knew as Bucky.

Teagan was glad that Hydra never went after the others for whatever reason they may have had. With her powers, and the correct wording of the command, they could have easily had her to command them to obey Hydra without a hint of disloyalty.

She doubted they understood just how lucky they were.