Good things happened today. My exams are now officially over (yay!) and I just finished writing the final chapter of this fic. I just need to edit a few things here and there. this is kind of a celebration update in that regard.

So...I'm going to update more regularly now that it's finished. Instead of every week, look out for an update every 2-3 days.

18 chapters in total. I have loved this and will continue to.

Announcement at the end of the chapter!

. . .

All of them could see it.

A new energy seemed to have over-taken their younger sister in the following days. She threw herself into her training - both with her abilities and other physical training – like she never had before. She didn't get as drained of energy anymore and her teleporting was becoming more and more accurate, even if on the odd occasion she still over-shot a bit. (And wasn't that just hilarious when Tony had to go pick her up from Hong freaking Kong that one time.)

Movie nights were much more entertaining when she was throwing popcorn at the screen and scolding characters that couldn't possibly hear her.

Mariana Hadley was back in business and for the first time in a while the Avengers had hope that maybe she would stay that way.

. . .

It was quickly becoming clear to Mariana that Natasha Romanov was too damn right all of the time.

Matt and Foggy had been at court when the teleporter finally kicked her ass in to gear and considered going to see them. In a way she was glad, not having wanted to bother them in such a state as she was, bordering on self-loathing. Instead, she figured an intense work-out would do just fine to relieve a little of her stress.

No one interrupted her, only glad that she had finally extracted herself from her room and shown her face elsewhere in the tower. Even Thor, who had returned the previous day, was smart enough to give the young woman some space though. So no one interrupted her until two hours later when Mariana sauntered into the kitchen with a grin and demanded that Steve help her make "the best Goddamn lasagne this side of Italy".

She gave everything she had to her training after that conversation with Nat and when it came to getting down to the nitty gritty important stuff like her personal feelings and experiences – even beyond her recent bout with HYDRA and extending to her childhood and time in foster care - her sessions with Sam were getting easier. Her determination was pushing her to be better than she ever had been before.

She got Steve to start cooking with her at least twice a week. Although that particular feat took very little persuasion on her part if the instant grin on the soldier's face was any indication.

Bucky was all over her fire-arms training, even going as far as to offer tips for knife-fighting which - although she already felt far too intimate with the weapons - he insisted would benefit her since she apparently seemed intent on getting up close and personal with her adversaries.

Bruce tentatively invited her to join him in meditation again and she had agreed eagerly, incorporating some of the techniques she had picked up from Matt's during some of her short visits. Bruce was at first surprised by this but quickly left any thought on it behind because good Lord he felt more in control than ever after the first session alone.

She, Clint, Tony and even Sam – who insisted that cast or not he would not be left out of the fun – were quickly getting wrapped up in a prank war that had not only Steve but Pepper too trying to wrangle the four children in their care.

Thor, on more than one occasion, had been cornered for more tales of his Asgardian battles and was more than happy to comply. Tony might have gotten a picture or two of the young teleporter curled up to the Norse God's side as said God continued to tell his story with a small smile to the sleeping girl.

Natasha had resumed Mariana's hand-to-hand training when the young woman insisted on clocking more hours at the training room but almost sprained her ankle by landing wrong from a practiced spin-kick without a partner.

Pepper, well, Pepper took her out. They went to a spa, shopped for a few hours and ate lunch at a disgustingly greasy diner before returning to the tower just in time for movie night where they demanded everybody watched a cheesy rom-com.

Essentially, things were going back to normal.

All because Natasha had been right.

As always.

Despite all of these improvements in both her mental and physical condition as well as her attitude, when the team got called out on a mission Mariana was told in no uncertain terms to stay in the tower under the watchful eyes of JARVIS, Sam and Pepper. She agreed, albeit begrudgingly, and watched as the team fought off yet another onslaught of knock-off bots – more humanoid in shape this time but with the exact same weakness – from JARVIS' monitoring system.

The fight was easily won with minimal injuries except dammit Clint, you're the furthest from the fighting how the hell do you manage it? Regardless, it was quickly discovered that HYDRA was once more behind the attack, which effectively ruined everyone's good mood and increased Mariana's determination to get back in the saddle tenfold.

"They're obviously trying to perfect a design here," Steve said as they all re-watched footage of the fight in the conference room later. "There were fewer…bots this time but whatever they were made of was stronger."

"Same weak point though and I wasn't exactly discreet in my discovery of that the last time," Tony pointed out. "We know HYDRA was there last time so they likely know that we know. You would think they would improve something like that first but then again, they aren't exactly the smartest cookies, are they?"

"Stark has a point. Why make them more durable but still just a vulnerable?" Natasha asked.

"Maximise destruction? They're all about order through chaos, right?"

"Still, it doesn't make sense."

"None of it makes sense." Everyone turned to look at Bucky and he shrugged but his eyes had a hard edge. "This isn't HYDRA's style. They do things quietly, I mean, they used me for years and I was a ghost story. They don't do flashy. This all feels wrong."

"What if they aren't working alone?" Bruce proposed.

Steve considered it. "They haven't been known to collaborate in the past."

"They haven't been known to be in this kind of situation before."

"Clint?"

The archer sighed. "It's just, well, they were always secret. I mean, it the 40s, you guys knew and were after them like a dog after a bone but to the public at large, the existence of HYDRA only became common knowledge after the fact; when they were assumed dead and buried. Then they strived within SHIELD, completely secretly still. Not many opportunities for collaboration anyway. But now, they're in the open."

He glanced at Mariana briefly and flashed an apologetic smile before returning his attention to Steve. "They're in the open and not only have two high-profile prisoners escaped but one of them has access to one of their larger bases whether they can get there or not."

"They've also gotta be dwindling in numbers at this point. I've lost count of how many of their bases we've destroyed or operations we've brought down," Tony added.

"They're getting desperate," Natasha was nodding as if it all made sense.

"Okay," Steve agreed. "Solid theory, but who could they be working with? What organisations are there, past or present, that could be their co-conspirators?"

"These attacks weren't necessarily aimed at us though, we just happened to respond first. This could have been aimed at the Fantastic Four, the X-men, hell even an individual hero. Spider-man, Daredevil, anyone. It could be any of our enemies," Mariana groaned.

"Then we consider all of them," Steve stated calmly.

"The Brotherhood," Bruce suggested.

"Assholes give mutants a real bad image but I don't see them having the resources for this," Sam interjected.

"Doom."

Tony gave an exaggerated shiver of disgust and countered with "AIM and/or AID."

"The Hand."

Clint cringed. "Hate those stupid ninjas."

"…Mari?" Sam leaned forward, peering past Natasha, and addressed the youngest who was staring at nothing in particular with a glazed look in her eyes. "You in there?"

"Oh my God," she whispered, almost to herself, then: "Oh my God! AID!" She swivelled to Tony on her left and demanded to know what it was.

He shrugged cautiously. "A branch of AIM, Advanced Idea Mechanics. AID, which stands for Advanced Ideas in Destruction is essentially their little brother who deals more so in weapons. Why?"

But she was already mumbling to herself. "I never even thought, never paid it any attention. I thought they meant help." Then she looked up at the rest of them. "I thought they meant help. They meant AID. A.I.D."

"Mariana, talk to us," Steve pressed.

"Shit, yeah, sorry."

"It's okay, breathe."

"Right. So HYDRA operatives were always talking while I was around, I guess they assumed I would never be able to make heads or tails of any of it and by and largely they were right. But there was this one time, one of the operatives asked if AID was ready. At the time I thought it was weird they didn't say 'the aid', just 'AID' but admittedly I was a little…distracted. But it was mentioned a lot. Never help, always AID. I didn't know AID existed so I never made the connection."

"They only really cropped up recently. We think they were responsible for the Super Adaptoid we fought a while back." Tony nodded absently. "JARVIS, pull up everything we have on them and look for a connection to HYDRA. Any connection at all. Run it in the background and notify us when you get something."

"Sir."

Mariana may have been grinning by the end of the meeting because she had remembered something important. She may not be using her abilities but she finally felt useful again.

Finally.

. . .

Mariana was running trials in the training room when Clint found her.

Bruce had given her the all clear not long before to practice without supervision so long as she kept the tracker on her at all times so she was using her abilities to bounce around the room after she had already cleared the course Tony programmed for her twice.

"Hey, Mar. You want to take a break and spend some time with lil' old me?"

She appeared sitting at the edge of the boxing ring and tapped the spot beside her as she gulped down some water. The archer easily jogged over and hopped up beside her, good-naturedly snatching the half-empty water bottle and taking a few gulps himself. She glared at him with no heat behind it and knocked his elbow while he was drinking, causing some to spill.

"Whadda ya need?"

Clint chuckled as he wiped at his face. "Nothing. Can't I just want to spend some time with my little sister?"

She appeared to think about it. "Hmm. I guess."

"So, how've you been? We haven't exactly gotten the chance to sit down and talk like we used to recently." The since you've been back really went unsaid by both of them. Mariana sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I know. I'm sorry, I've missed you."

Clint looped an arm around her shoulders. "Me too, Mar." He pressed his lips to her hair gently. "Me too."

"I feel like something big is coming," Mariana whispered after a few minutes of silence.

Clint's grip on her shoulders tightened. They had all learnt a long time ago to trust each other's instincts. "I won't let them take you again. None of us will."

Mariana give a humourless laugh. "That's not what I meant. This…thing…HYDRA and AID working together. We have no idea what their goals are, who they're targeting – if anybody! I don't like it. We're flying blind and this isn't some alien army we can fight as we go, this is a strict, organised group of twisted individuals that don't exactly think logically. This could have been in the works for years for all we know."

"We'll pull through. We always come out on top. We're the Avengers."

She smiled. It faded quickly. "I don't want any of you to get hurt. I need to get back in the field."

"Steve's just worried about you, we all know your powers are essentially back to normal at this point. Just a little more work and you'll be right out there beside us in a few weeks."

Mariana huffed out a breath and jumped down from their perch. "HYDRA could attack tomorrow, Clint! And we have no information! I need to get this bullshit sorted, get to that damned base and see if there is any salvageable information. I need my abilities working yesterday. Not a few weeks from now."

"Hey, calm down." Clint jumped down and approached her, reaching out to place his hands on the shaking shoulders of the teleporter. "No one expects…"

Two sets of eyes widened as they both felt a familiar tingling sensation and their surroundings changed in the blink of an eye.

"Did you…?"

"I think I did…"

"Can you take us back?"

"Uh, sure, I guess."

"Wait, you have that tracker on you, right?"

"Never leave home without it."

"Okay, we need to talk to the others."

"Communal?"

"Definitely."

With that the two were standing in front of the television screen causing Tony to startle from where he was sat on the couch fiddling with a gauntlet. Steve set his sketchpad aside and raised an eyebrow while Bucky and Sam both made a swiping motion with their hands as if they could brush the intruders out of the way.

"Guys," Mariana started, buzzing with energy.

"Big news," Clint finished with a grin as he leisurely threw an arm around Mariana's shoulders while she crossed her arms with a smug smile.

"Do tell," Bucky drawls as he leant to the left to see around them.

"I did it. I found the base. Well, I guess I didn't find it but I can go there now! I don't know why now or what the hell triggered it but I had the tracker with me so the location should be recorded on JARVIS' system and I did it!"

Bucky raised an eyebrow and slowly slid to the right until he was sitting upright again, whatever was on the television completely forgotten. Sam and Steve were suddenly much more alert and Tony was already pulling up various screens and starting surveillance on the area indicated by the tracker.

The ball was officially rolling.

. . .

Knock. Knock knock.

Mariana rolled off of her couch at eleven pm and stumbled towards the apartment door. She was tired but she couldn't get to sleep, too much energy, so she had decided to watch re-runs of some trashy reality show until her eyes rolled back in her head. However, someone had decided to interrupt these plans and she couldn't exactly say she wasn't grateful.

The door opened to reveal one metal-armed war hero dressed in black cargo pants and a long-sleeved black t-shirt that seemed to have an extra layer of protection underneath. Mariana could make out the pistols strapped to both thighs and knew that countless other weapons were bound to be hidden on his person.

He presented a very dangerous picture at first but upon closer inspection, his eyes were twinkling with equal amounts of mischief and defiance. A combination which at the same time promised both fun and a reprimand. She felt fairly underdressed in her dinosaur pyjamas and fluffy socks.

"Uh…"

"Fancy sneaking into a supposedly abandoned HYDRA base with me?"

"Um, but, Steve, uh, Steve told us to wait until JARVIS finishes the surveillance."

Bucky nodded. "Which could take days and will only give us a picture of the exterior facility. After which we'll have to wait for Stevie to make a plan to infiltrate said facility. Look, I know you want to check this place out as much as I do and with your abilities and my particular…skill set, we can clock the facility and be back here within a few hours at the most. Stevie is being cautious because he's worried about you. He trusts you, but he's worried this might be too much too soon."

"You're not?"

"We get into trouble; I trust you to get us out if I can't."

"Someone is bound to notice we are gone."

"I talked to Natasha."

"How do you plan to collect the information, if there is any."

Bucky grinned and held up a small container. "You wear these. SI bio-tech. It's new but it works. You put the contacts in and they record everything you see onto a separate hard drive." He held up a small white box with a blinking blue light and pointed to it. "Everything you see, gets saved on this so we can share with everyone else later."

"You've really thought this through."

"I'm good at planning."

"Steve'll be pissed."

"I'll deal with the punk and you are grasping at straws right now."

Mariana paused and then grinned. "What should I wear?" Truth be told, she'd been sold on whatever ridiculous plan the super soldier had concocted the moment she'd seen that glint in his eyes.

Bucky handed her a bag that had been sitting on the floor at his feet. "Everyone will be notified if you take out your usual gear so Tasha put this together for you."

The outfit was very similar to his own but in a smaller size and there was also a black, army-style jacket with a hood. She changed quickly and he supplied her with a pistol and two knives, just in case, and with that she teleported them into the forest surrounding the facility.

. . .

The two had been crouched behind a collection of rocks for several minutes before Bucky announced the exterior of the facility was unprotected and allowed them to move forward. Mariana couldn't help the muttered "at last" that escaped under her breath as the ex-assassin asked her to bring them just inside the gates.

From there, Bucky insisted they move on foot to their entry point instead of teleporting, claiming to be killing two birds with one stone by teaching her "a little thing called stealth."

Mariana was highly unamused.

She thought he would have them sneak through a window or repel down an elevator shaft or something but apparently he had decided that the front door was the best option in this particular scenario. Huge let-down buddy.

Inside, the building appeared to be empty. The hallways were silent and all of the doors to different rooms were wide open. There were three floors altogether, two above ground and one below and Bucky insisted they clear every room before they even thought of looking for any information.

Mariana only recognised a few of the rooms and all were on the floor below ground. She stiffened up outside the room that had been her prison for almost a year and point-blank refused to enter the room in which she came into contact with Markus the most often.

Bucky didn't comment and didn't linger.

The facility was cleared and Mariana returned them to the computer station they had found along the way but Bucky remained on guard the entire time while she searched for anything salvageable.

"They've wiped everything, Bucky. There is nothing we can use here." She felt like hitting something in her frustration.

He shook his head. "Anything important is likely encrypted and hidden in other files." He inserted a small USB into a port and a download instantly began. It worked quickly and within seconds everything had been copied. "Stark may not like this 'ancient technology' but SI makes some very handy little gadgets."

"Jesus, Bucky. What the hell else did you steal?"

He mirrored her grin. "That's classified. Now, we should probably get out of here before HYDRA shows up."

"I'll admit, the place gives me the creeps but it's obviously abandoned Bucky."

"Except we tripped an alarm the second we turned on those computers." As if they heard him speak, there was the sudden sound of a jet landing very nearby and Mariana's eyes widened almost comically.

"Fuck, why didn't you tell me?"

"I just did."

"Not what I meant, Bucky! Ugh, let's just go." With that she grabbed his arm, snatched the USB out of the port and teleported them both back to her apartment in the tower.

Her apartment where Natasha was lounging on the couch studying her nails and Steve was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at the two of them. Bucky muttered something unpleasant and Russian-sounding under his breath and Mariana breathed what she assumed was the English equivalent.

"Fuck."

"Which one of you want to explain?"

There was a beat of silence before Mariana took a large step to her right and pointed at Bucky.

"Traitor."

"Sorry."

"Sit down. Both of you."

"Actually, you know, it's late. And I'm tired." Mariana made a show of yawning loudly. "I think the best idea is for us all to just sleep on it and talk in the morning."

Steve's expression didn't change, Bucky looked skyward and Natasha smirked. Mariana slowly lowered herself into the armchair.

"Or, y'know, not."

. . .

Turns out, the Captain-America-is-disappointed-in-you lecture wasn't even worth it as very little on the drive was usable. They did, however, gain the location of another base. A smaller one but that didn't exactly matter.

They learned nothing new about HYDRA's plans, if they were definitely working with AID, not even any basic schematics for any of the robots that had appeared so far. Mariana did get a kick-ass jacket out of the whole experience though, even if that wasn't compensation enough for the lack of information.

At this point, Mariana just hoped there were no more nasty surprises coming their way for a while. Maybe, life would cut them some slack. Maybe they could have a break. Maybe they could have some time to re-group and plan with what little information they had about HYDRA's plans. Maybe they could have some time to prepare.

Sam was still out of commission and would be for several more weeks.

Clint was still nursing his cracked ribs from the last robot attack.

Mariana still wasn't yet cleared for active field duty.

If Mariana was completely honest with, things did not look good.

And she still felt like something bad was coming their way.

She still felt like this was just the calm everyone always talked about.

. . .

I totally think Bucky would be using his assassin skills to be a devious little shit like this though. It is my headcanon and you cannot take it from me.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

I'm not ready to let Mariana go. No Sir. So I'm wondering if there are any scenes you guys wish could have been in this fic? Anyone you want to see Mariana meet?

Anyway, love you guys! :)