The Compound had two training areas. The first one, and incidentally the smallest one, was designed for the squishy human aspect of the Avengers Initiative. It was, for all intents and purposes, a super high tech gym with every gadget and machine on the planet. By comparison, the sparring area was borderline archaic, nothing more than a wide expanse of Zebra mats at varying elevations, interspersed with training dummies of various styles and strengths. The centerpiece was a massive caged ring, dubbed "The Arena", usually used by the highest level field agents to practice fighting in an enclosed space (or by the recruits for MMA style cage matches that they definitely didn't bet on). Overall, it was a decently large space- definitely larger than any regular training area.

The Enhanced training area made it look like a Gold's Gym.

Tony had probably dedicated half of the budget for the Compound to building the "Avenger's Play Place", outfitting it with machines specially designed for super soldier strength and endurance. While the machines were expensive, the real money went towards the SIM room. The SIM room was a 100 percent adjustable space, the floors and walls shifting and adjusting for a nearly limitless number of terrains. This was further augmented by a small army of drones, all outfitted with state of the art holographic tech allowing them to turn the space into any scenario the user could think of.

Rose privately thought that it was cool as fuck- she'd been tempted, on numerous occasions, to ask Tony if she could play with it. There were so many places that she'd love to visit- places that didn't exist in the real world, that she could just magic into existence. The USS Enterprise? The Citadel? Val Royeaux? Fucking Rivendell? If it wouldn't waste thousands upon thousands of dollars, she would have gladly given her left tit to see any of them.

As it was, she wasn't seeing much of anything.

Except for the sparring mats.

Well, she wasn't so much as seeing them as she was being forced to taste them.

She had fully gone into Tony's "testing" with the foolish hope that he would be shoving her into the SIM room- maybe having her fight some crazy monster or go up against a bunch of goons. Surely he wouldn't actually make her fight her friend? Her tiny, comparatively fragile friend?

She had been (painfully) disavowed of this notion when Sammy met her in the smaller gym and then proceeded to literally drop kick her into the Arena- something that had also taught her that she could still, in fact, feel pain. She was, admittedly, unharmed, but still got to enjoy the sensation of having the wind completely knocked out of her. Once she got over the indignity of being fucking yeeted, Rose got to her feet and shot the red head an irritated glare, absently fixing hairs that had escaped the tight bun she'd just barely managed to get her hair into.

"Hey, Sammy? What the actual fuck was that?" The red head gave her a sharp grin, more a baring of teeth than an actual smile.

"That, my little Goose," Rose squinted at her, silently mouthing the word "goose" as if it had personally offended her, "was my definition of 'testing'. Or, more accurately, training." The blonde huffed, crossing her arms and fiddling with the sports bra and athletic shorts Darcy had suggested (read: forced) her to wear.

"'Training' me? You just ambushed me and kicked my ass- literally. You kicked me right in the ass cheek." She winced, rubbing the abused muscle. "I feel like I might actually bruise." Sammy scoffed at her.

"Don't be a baby, Rosie. I know for a fact you've gotten hit harder than that." Rose huffed again, her voice distinctly whiny when she responded.

"That's not the point, Sammy! How does kicking my ass help me? And, if it does, why isn't Darcy or, I don't know, Athena doing it?" She bit her lip, anxiously tugging at her too-short shorts. "You know, someone less breakable?" The red head snickered, stepping into the cage and shutting the gate behind her.

"Rose, we have zero idea how your powers work- how can you be sure that not kicking your ass will help? Who knows, maybe it's a defense mechanism or something? Also, if you haven't noticed, Athena and Darcy are a little busy running entire departments. I mean, I run a department too, but I have a whole host of trained monkeys who can handle to day-to-day work." Rose opened her mouth to restate her final concern, but was cut off by Sammy. "Besides all of that, I seriously doubt you'll be able to hurt me." She shot her a blood thirsty grin, distractedly adjusting the wraps on her hands. "After all, I've kicked your boyfriends' ass on numerous occasions." The blonde gave her a startled look, hands ceasing their fiddling to drop limply at her sides.

"'Boyfriend's'? Which boyfriend? Who did you-?" Before she could finish her questioning, Rose found herself twirled around in a confused pile of limbs and then suplexed face first into the mats. Her breath slammed out of her in a drawn out wheeze, eyes watering from the force of the hit, the taste of copper and stale body odor filling her mouth as she desperately tried to breathe. Perched cheekily on her back, Sammy gave her a sharp smack on the ass, ignoring her yelp in order to respond to her interrupted inquiry.

"I said 'boyfriends''- as in both of them." Sammy gave her bottom another stinging slap and then lazily got to her feet, winking at the writhing mass that was Rose attempting to stand back up. "I definitely don't win every time, but I win enough that I'm pretty confidant I can take a 5'4" all but un-trained super soldier/goddess." Finally managing to stand, Rose scowled at the now bouncing redhead, attempting to push down her rising dread with limited success.

"I get the feeling that you're enjoying this way too much." Sammy playfully snapped her teeth at her, bouncing in place while lifting up her hands defensively.

"I'd deny it, but I'd be lying." She licked her lips, cinnamon colored eyes glinting manically. "Now, in your own immortal words- 'Fight. Me. Asshole'." Rose groaned, rolling her shoulders in an attempt to shake off the pain of having her ass handed to her (again) before half-heartedly raising her own hands up, the self-defense classes she'd taken and her penchant for fighting making the movement a practiced one.

I was right. I definitely wish she could kill me.

Yeah, that would have been far too merciful. Pain appears to be the order of the day.

Maybe I'll get lucky and unlock my super-secret ninja powers on the first day?

-_-_-_-Page-Break-_-_-_-

Rose was not, in fact, lucky. She didn't discover her "powers" that day, or the day after that, or the day after that. She spent three full days getting her ass beat, only ever managing to accidentally hit Sammy in return once- namely when she tripped over her own feet and took the red head out with her.

Tony took great personal joy in replaying the surveillance footage for her.

Incidentally, that was also about the only time she saw the billionaire in person. She'd hoped that the man would at least come and see her on that first day- if for no other reason than to laugh at her misfortune.

He could apparently do that without having to step foot in the gymnasium.

The fact that she missed his terrible jokes was a testament to how off she felt. Since she apparently had a ticking time bomb nesting in her brain, Tony and Director Hill had made the decision to have her focus on her training as opposed to going to work, lest she accidentally almost rip the arm off of someone undeserving. As she shared both of their concerns, Rose had enthusiastically agreed with them. She had gone in with the naive hope that she would master whatever ability had manifested itself in a couple of hours, and then return to her regular day-to-day. When that definitely didn't happen, a couple of issues started to make themselves known.

The first, and probably the most apparent issue, was her nightmares.

Rose was no stranger to night terrors. When she was younger, they'd taken the form of some insidious monster, something dark and amorphous that hunted her down and ate her from the inside out, leaving nothing but a withered husk behind. Then, after the closet, her monster had finally developed a face, leaving her broken and bleeding and terribly, terribly small. She'd used to have the same dream every night, but time and space had reduced the frequency (but not the severity) of her nightmares to a couple a month. She used to wake up in a panic, turning on every light in her room before distracting herself with a terrible romance novel until the sun rose, too terrified to try and sleep again.

Steve and Bucky had changed that.

At first, when they were still only friends, she would text them. Neither of her boys tended to get much sleep, partially because they didn't need it and partially because they had their own demons to fight at night. She could usually count on one of them being awake and more than happy to talk with her. Then, once they'd started dating, it wasn't uncommon for them to end up passed out on each other's couches, curled up around each other under a pile of blankets. She'd end up with a crick in her neck, but an otherwise peaceful sleep.

Looking back, she thinks that was probably the first sign that she was in love with them.

After all, what was love but a shield from all of the terrible things in life? It might not be able to heal our physical wounds, but it did it's best to protect us from everything else, soothing our hurts and sealing the cracks that time and pain had dealt our souls.

"Cracked" was how she felt right now.

She had done her best to compartmentalize her attack, doing her best to revel in the fact that she'd finally been able to protect herself- but it just wasn't working. She had been beaten before, but never like that. He'd wanted to possess her so violently- she could still feel his hands on her, feel his intent groping at her, greasy and gelatinous, like spoiled meat pressed up against her skin. She feels like he'd left a stain on her, something no shower could wipe off. He hadn't gotten far, but it had shaken her none the less, the violence cracking her open enough that her nightmares had gotten a foothold again. She'd been waking up every night, panic tearing a scream from her throat, her skin chilled but damp with sweat, hands reaching for the comfort she'd become so accustomed to, only to come up empty.

There was no going back to sleep after that.

She could function on about four hours of sleep now- but she probably had only slept an hour over the last four days. The exhaustion and the constant physical strain had made her painfully aware of her other issue.

She missed them.

She always missed them when they were gone, though it was usually somewhat manageable, like she was missing a limb- something important but not vital to life. Now, as unsteady and exhausted as she was, the pain had become acute, a knife lodged in her ribs and slowly making its way to her heart. The fact that she only really saw Sammy every day further compounded her loneliness, chipping away at her in terrible, hollow pieces.

While the red head was her friend, her current job (namely as her "trainer"), had pushed that aspect of their relationship to the wayside. It wasn't completely gone- she was definitely more playful with her than she was with her other "recruits"- but the casual touches and abrasive fondness had all but vanished. As everyone else was apparently too busy to come and see her, Sammy was her only source of support and companionship- and it wasn't enough.

She was so fucking tired.

So tired, in fact, that when Sammy body slammed her again, she just stayed down. She had every intention of lying there for the next decade, but had her plans thwarted by a sharp, metallic kick to her ribs.

"Up and at em', Goose. We're not done yet." Wincing at the hit (Sammy's punches never left marks, but her kicks sure as shit did), Rose shot her the gimlet eye, pointedly not moving.

"No, Sammy. I'm done. This clearly isn't working." Sammy scoffed, jabbing at Rose with her foot again.

"Stop bitching and get on your feet, Goose." Rose let out an angry hiss in response, smacking the mat before jerkily rising to her feet, irritation quickly replacing her exhaustion.

"I said no, Sammy." The blonde began to make her way to the cage door, furiously fixing her hair as she moved. "I'm done. This isn't working and I'm sick of getting the crap kicked out of me for no fucking reason." Sammy scowled at her, darting forward to cut her off.

"I didn't peg you as a god damn quitter, Goose. Just because it hasn't worked yet doesn't mean it won't work." Rose attempted to go around her but found herself blocked again, the red head deliberately invading her space as her own anger skyrocketed. "We're clearly just missing something- look, I get that you're frustrated, but getting pissed and leaving isn't going to help…." Sammy trailed off, cinnamon colored eyes sharpening as an idea hit her. Licking her lips, the red head forced herself to relax, a shark-like smile appearing on her face as she eyed the blonde fuming in front of her. "Unless…do you have somewhere you have to be, Goose? Got a hot date?" Rose furrowed her brows, confusion joining her irritation.

"What? Of course I don't- Steve and Bucky aren't back yet. How would I-?" The Marine scoffed at her, arms crossed as she sneered.

"Like that would stop you. I've heard the rumors. Don't act innocent with me." Completely thrown off by the way her friend was speaking, Rose puffed up defensively, hands spastically clenching at her sides.

"I'm not acting anything! I don't know what the fuck you're talking about!" Silently begging for Rose to forgive her, Sammy pushed on, face twisted in disgust.

"Bull shit, Rosie. Everyone knows how much of a slut you are. The way everyone has been talking, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd fucked half of the Compound." The red head pushed into her space, deliberately crowding the other woman as aggressively as she could. The sudden hostility tugged at Rose's mind, her anxiety pushing forward the other times someone had been in her space like this- tall and sharp and wrongsowrongdon'ttouchme—

Heart galloping in her chest, Rose back peddled, frantically putting as much space between herself and the woman so closely echoing her nightmares. Rather than leave her be, Sammy pushed onward, doggedly pursuing the rapidly paling woman.

"Come on, Rosie- you don't have to lie. Two super soldiers not enough for you? I thought they were before, but you're hot shit now, aren't you? I've seen the way the guys around here look at you." Steps nearly feline in their predatory smoothness, the red head cornered her in the cage, eyes slowly scanning Rose's trembling body. "Can't say I blame them. After all….you look so much better now."

Just like that, her panic disappears, her rage returning with a nearly explosive intensity.

She feels that same 'click' in her mind, a sudden burst of knowledge filling her head, and then she's moving. This time, though, she realizes she isn't being controlled- she never has been. The way her limbs move, her muscles coiling and stretching as she blocks and hits, power and grace radiating outwards as she throws a flurry of strikes at the rapidly retreating redhead- it's not an "ability".

It's memory.

More specifically, it's muscle memory.

She's so distracted by the revelation that she almost misses the feel of Sammy smacking at her leg, desperately trying to tap out so as the escape the iron grip Rose currently has around her throat. More than a little shocked, Rose quickly releases her, arms dropping down to her sides so she can gape at the now laughing red head.

"I fucking knew it! It's not a defense mechanism. You fucking Hulk out!" Rose scowled at her, hands flexing subtly at her sides.

"I don't 'Hulk out'." She froze, eyes widening as she shoots the red head an incredulous look. "Wait- did you piss me off on purpose? I could have killed you!" Sammy waved her off, her characteristic sharp smile appearing on her face.

"You wouldn't have- admittedly I was a little worried you'd clock me in the mouth, but I was 90 percent sure you wouldn't beat me to death with my own arms." The smile melted off of her face, an apologetic expression taking its place. "Not that I wouldn't have deserved either of those things. I'm sorry about what I said, Rosie- I didn't actually mean any of it, but it was still some pretty shitty stuff. Can you forgive me?" Rose sighed, running a tired hand through the stray hairs that had escaped her pony tail.

"I'm not going to say it was okay- because it wasn't." Before the red head could look too depressed, Rose continued. "But I can understand that you were just trying to help me unlock my 'powers' or whatever. This time, I'll forgive you." Sammy nodded, her shark-like grin making its way back onto her face.

"Excellent. Now that that's out of the way- you think you can summon your ability again?" Rose anxiously bit her lip, arms crossing over her chest.

"That's just it- I don't think it is an ability, Sammy. I think…I think it's a memory. More specifically, I think its Aphrodite's memory." Sammy raised an intrigued brow, unconsciously shadowing the blonde and crossing her arms as well.

"You're going to have to clarify that a little bit, Grey." The blonde sighed before responding, trying to figure out the best way to explain what she'd discovered. Conscious of the other ears in the gym, her voice is deliberately quiet when she explains.

"Hades said that the necklace wasn't just Aphrodite's 'powers'- it was her memories too. I'm guessing that also included her memories on fighting- which makes sense if you think about it. I wouldn't be a very good 'defender' if I had to relearn how to fight." Sammy hummed, arms dropping down to rest on her hips, head tilted as she considered the woman standing across from her.

"So, what? You're 'remembering' how to kick ass? And, if it is 'muscle memory' or some shit, why did getting pissed off activate it? Why didn't it happen earlier?" When Rose just shrugged in response, Sammy let out a sigh, forcefully pushing back her other questions in order to focus on the most pertinent one. "Can you 'remember' again? Or do I need to try and piss you off?" The blonde exhaled, focusing inward as she responded to her friend's question.

"I don't think you'll need to- I think it's just kind of there now. Like, I couldn't tell you what I know- I just know it." She tapped the side of her head, eyes scanning Sammy's face as she elaborated. "My head feels…fuller? Like I finished reading a book and my brain is filing away the information." The redhead grinned in response, cinnamon colored eyes looking nearly scarlet in the fluorescent lights of the gym.

"So what you're saying, is that I don't have to hold back any more?"

She was holding back before?

We aren't dead, are we?

touché.

She'd just opened her mouth to respond when Sammy was suddenly in her space, her tiny, metallic foot rushing towards her head. Rose's arm was moving before her brain was even aware of it, her left arm simultaneously blocking the hit and latching on to her leg, locking the red head in place. Unconcerned by the blonde's enhanced reflexes, Sammy let out a gleeful cackle, eyes glittering madly.

"Fuck yes- today just got so much more fun!" Swallowing down her lingering anxiety over accidentally hurting the other woman, Rose felt an unwilling smile appear on her face, the beginnings of excitement bubbling up in her chest.

Hades had insisted they were protectors- and she was finally starting to believe that she could be one. She'd never been afraid of getting into fights, even when she'd known she probably wouldn't win them. Her increased speed and strength had increased her confidence, but her forced helplessness curbed the increase, painfully reminding her just how weak she could be. Now though? Now she was starting to feel powerful- and that was god damn amazing. Not because she suddenly craved power, but because of all of the possibilities it opened up for her. She definitely wasn't ready to go out in the field, but the possibility that she could was an intoxicating one.

Maybe, someday, she'd be able to join her boys.

Maybe, someday, she wouldn't have to miss them because she'd be right there with them.

Maybe, someday, she'd finally get to fight for who she loved.

Love, after all, was a shield- one her boys wielded for her more times than she could count. Now, she thinks, she might get to finally repay that favor.

-_-_-_-Page-Break-_-_-_-

Later, Rose finds herself in the unusual position of actually pinning Sammy down, her friend sweating and just as red as her hair as she tries to escape the choke hold the blonde has managed to pin her in. Deliberately tightening her hold, Rose brings up the issue that had been nagging at her, voice nonchalant.

"Hey, Sammy?" The red head wheezed, eyes watering as she glanced up at the other woman. Satisfied she had her attention, the nonchalance drops out of her tone, steel replacing it. "If you ever call me a slut or say I was asking for it again, fake or no, friend or no- I will rip off your arms and beat you to death with them. Are we clear?" Rather than be shocked or offended, Sammy gave her a proud grin, eyes watering as she continued to struggle. After a moment she managed to give herself enough room to speak, her voice a breathless gasp.

"Yes….ma'am….."