Authors Note:
Hey everyone! First off thanks for reading!! If you made it this far then you have noticed some AU changes. Ultron never happened. Wanda and Pietro are both locked up at the Avengers tower. No one except Steve, Sam and Ana know about Bucky being Winter Soldier. SHIELD is back again after weeding out HYDRA agents. Enjoy the story!
"She's too unpredictable to have here."
"She just needs to learn her powers. This is all new to her."
"Allow me to take her to Asgard. My mother may be able to train her."
"Fury won't allow that."
I begin to gain consciousness and hear the faint beeping in the room. I keep my eyes closed and try to hear more of the hushed conversation above me.
"I took a few more blood tests and the foreign cells are multiplying at an alarming rate." Bruce informed the room and I heard a few loud exhales.
"How did she go almost her entire life normally and then this happens? Something triggered this." Nat is closest to me and I feel her hand run through my hair lightly.
"Maybe this had something to do with it. It's a very sophisticated piece of technology." Bruce says.
"Well let's hack into it." Tony says and I hear everyone shuffle out of the room.
I lay there and the beeping of machines in the room start to lull me back to sleep. My mind is drifting off again when I feel a soft touch on my arm. I open my eyes slightly and see blue eyes.
"S-Steve."
"Hey Ana. How do you feel?" His warm smile is everything I need.
"Tired. You look tired." I notice dark circles under his eyes and his hair is a mess.
"I've been keeping an eye on you. Haven't slept in a while but I'm fine."
"Is he really gone?" He nods and I'm strangely relieved. One less threat. "Caleb was one of them. HYDRA."
"We know." I look at him surprised. Had they been there for the conversation? "We watched the footage. He provoked you. He wanted you to kill him."
"Will HYDRA come looking for him?"
"I don't think so. We are pretty sure he became a rogue agent." Steve removes his hand from my arm to brush a strand of hair from my face. "I can't blame him."
"W-what?" I try to adjust myself in the bed but I'm tethered down by several different wires and tubes.
"I can't blame Caleb for becoming rogue." I shake my head at the absurdity of his words. "If I was given orders to hurt you or put you in danger... I wouldn't."
Steve's blue eyes are intensely staring into mine and as much as I want to break the contact, I can't. I bring my left hand up, with an attached IV, to hold his face. His hand hasn't left my hair and his face is slowly making its way to mine.
"Steve I-" The steady sound from the machine next to me suddenly starts beeping loudly and a shrill alarm begins. Steve jumps up and we look to the machine. I'm instantly embarrassed to see that my heart rate had skyrocketed causing the alarms to sound. Steve laughs and I throw my hand over my face to hide my blush.
"Don't be embarrassed." I hear Steve sit back down and he gently takes my hand away from my face. "I feel the same way." He puts it up to his chest so that I can feel the fast beat of his heart. I smile and then a sudden realization hit me.
"The static! It's gone! I don't even hear a hum anymore!" The ever constant static between us is missing and it feels so odd.
"Yeah..." Steve bring up a hand and shyly tuba the back of his neck. "They did some tests while you were knocked out and there was a device at the base of your skull. They removed it and it felt different after."
"Strange." I pull my hand away from his chest and lightly touch where he said the device had been. I can feel two stitches on my neck. "I don't understand what all this means. How did it get there? What was it doing exactly?" I lower my hand and fiddle with the IV, wanting it out.
"I don't know. Ana, things are about to really change. Everyone is going to push you to train now and control yourself. We won't get much time to talk privately." He quickly looks around the room and back to me. "The robot thing Stark is making is some sort of new technology that Banner is helping him bring to life. They promised me it had nothing to do with you."
"Do you trust that? Caleb said it was being made to kill me."
"He was just trying to turn you against us. That's what HYDRA wants. I don't trust Stark completely so I will keep an eye on him."
"Thank you."
"Ana... the Winter Soldier." Steve stops and takes in a deep breath.
"Sam told me."
"I figured. He likes you and doesn't like to keep secrets." I smile. I'm glad to have some friends here. "Bucky was under HYDRA control."
"Was? I thought HYDRA sent him to kill me?"
"No. He tried to fight me and I wouldn't. There was a moment... He could have killed me but he fought it. Bucky came back and then saved me. He ran off the grid afterwards."
"So why did Fury say he was coming to kill me?"
"Because they aren't sure why he has come back to the U.S. and... broke into your mom's house."
"He what?! Why am I just now hearing about this?"
"It was just a few weeks ago. Your mom was sleeping and all he did was rummage through some of your stuff."
"Odd." Steve nods.
*
The next few days went by fast. I spent almost all daylight hours in a training room with Nat. We didn't have much time to talk but when we did she told me about how she was trained years ago. A trained assassin turned good even though she hated being labeled as anything other than a murderer. Nat felt so much anger and resentment towards her past but I tried to reassure her that her past doesn't define her.
Nat taught me basic hand to hand defensive maneuvers the first day. That seemed to come pretty easy but the next day was stealth. We figured out pretty quickly that someone would have to be blind and deaf for me to ever sneak up on them. I was covered in bruises after many attempts to sneak up on Clint and being thrown around like a rag doll.
The third day I was taught the art of knives and basic gun handling. Knives are not my thing. The act of stabbing or slicing at someone was way to intimate so after a few lessons on kill jabs we moved to shooting. Nat and I were both surprised that I was actually a natural at handling a pistol. My accuracy was good and the distance between me and the potential person felt more comfortable.
The fourth day Thor and Tony, in his suit, took me to a different training room with no windows. We were way below in the tower somewhere below the basement garage. Tony assured me that this was a safe place to practice my powers. Thor tried to tell me about how he channels lightening through his hammer and how his brother, Loki, uses his magic. They were trying to help me learn how to summon my own powers.
This is where I am now, on the floor of the basement training room. Sweat is running down my body and my breath is ragged. Tony had just sent a nonlethal blast in my direction that I had to fling myself to the ground to keep from getting hit.
"Come on Skywalker! Are you even trying?" I grit my teeth at Tony's annoying voice.
"Lady Ana try to pull the power from your toes through your body, to your hands." Thor suggests leaned back against a wall eating pizza.
I stand back up and glare at the shiny Ironman suit in front of me. Oh I wish I could at least scratch the nice paint on it. After all he had been scratching and bruising me for at least an hour now.
"Tony. I might need a break. I'm getting tired." I wipe the sweat from my head and wipe it on my T-shirt.
"We take a break when your little blue flames show up." I huff in annoyance but mutter a 'fine'.
I close my eyes and try to summon my powers when a sharp pain hit my left arm. I open my eyes angrily and narrow them at Tony. He shrugs in the metal suit as a 'what are you going to do about it?'
I close my eyes again and another sharp pant hits my body. My anger rises and I try to use my emotions to get something to happen. A few more hits to my body and I yell.
"Tony. I think she needs a break." Thor says quietly.
"Not until-" Tony is interrupted by the door opening loudly. I open my eyes to see Steve.
We haven't seen each other since I woke up from the incident. His eyebrows are pulled together in a concerned way as his eyes take in my current state. I stand up straighter and tighten my ponytail in hopes to look a little more presentable.
"Hey Tony! I'm taking Ana for a bite to eat. You can have her after lunch."
"Fine." Tony dismissed me with a wave of his hand and the suit opens letting him step out of it.
"Masochist." I whisper as I brush past him to leave the room. He laughs and I walk behind Steve to get in the elevator. "Thanks for getting me."
"We were watching the cams and decided to stop it."
"We?" I throw him a questioning glance as he pushes a button in the elevator. It's still a basement floor though.
"Bruce and I. He's really worried about how your powers will affect him if..." He stops himself as the elevator does.
"If I can't control them. I know." Steve throws me a boyish smile to ease the tension.
We step out of the elevator to find a room with large glass rooms like you would find at an aquarium or zoo. Cages. This is what Caleb was talking about. The twins are here and if he was telling the truth then it was my potential housing unit as well.
"What are we doing here?" I whisper and take a small step back. Steve quickly spins to grab both of my arms and leans down so our noses are almost touching.
"I think Wanda is the only one who can help you. You both have similar powers." He must have noticed the fear in my eyes because he quickly added, "I'm not imprisoning you Ana. Trust me."