Chapter 12

Elena's POV

It was dark coming back to the tower. Tony and Steve were talking, probably giving me some space. I walked a few steps in front of them. In front, probably so they make sure they can keep an eye on me. I haven't earned complete trust, which I do understand. I feel the same way about them.

We start to walk past this alley. I hear a noise and look over, then I hear a scream. Steve and Tony run towards the sound without a second's notice. I follow behind them. There's a group of six guys looking like they are going to hurt these two young women.

"Hey!" Steve shouts, getting their attention.

The all look back. One steps up, "Aw, looks like we got some heroes here." The others chuckle. They seem to be confident in this six to three ratio. It was amusing.

He, and two of the others, pull out guns. Steve tackles the main guy and Tony blasts the guy on the left with his—Iron hand? Guess he didn't have the whole suit.

Tony goes to blast the guy on the right, but he's a hair too slow. He manages to blast the guy, but a loose bullet hits his shoulder. That'll put him down for now.

Steve is up, having knocked the main guy unconscious. But one of the three left has managed to get him into a chokehold.

I'm sure he can handle himself, but I know I should help. So, I go up and put my training into action. Luckily no one suspect the teen girl to be able to fight, at least, that's what Hydra always said. No one pays attention to me as I go and kick one of the guys in the back of the knee, he goes down easily. Now the attention is on me from guy number 2. He punches and I easily dodge, he clearly has no training, believing that his brute strength would be enough.

Grabbing his wrist, I keep his arm extended and pull my leg up to kick his elbow, breaking his arm. He screams in pain. Now guy number one is getting up. Using guy number two, I grab his neck and twirl him, so he lands on number one. Number one doesn't take this as a hint to stay down. Instead he reaches for the gun that the main guy had. I step on his wrist, crushing it as I pick up the gun.

I point it at guy number one, since number two is still sobbing and clutching his arm, and I'm ready to shoot.

"Elena!" Steve shouts. He has taken care of guy number three and is over checking out Tony's shoulder. "Don't!"

I instinctively listen to the order given and don't shoot.

I glance around the alleyway, all six guys are scattered around. The women are gone, probably ran when they had the chance. Smart.

I walk over to Steve and Tony. Steve had leaned him against the building. "How bad is it?"

"Just a scratch." Tony jokes, but winces instantly.

"It's bleeding a lot." Steve says seriously. "the police and ambulance are on their way. They're 10 minutes out."

I can help. I think to myself.

No. Don't. My common sense counters.

I should, though. It's bleeding pretty bad. It probably nicked an artery.

I grab Tony's hand.

"Thanks for the comfort, kid." Tony said sarcastically, but too tired to pull away.

I close my eyes as a wave a dizziness comes over me.

"Are you okay?" Steve asks, confused.

I open my eyes and Steve looks taken aback.

"I think I lost a lot of blood, cause it looks like her eyes are gold." Tony says.

I don't say anything, mostly because if I do, I may vomit. My veins on my hands turn gold and I lean against the wall next to Tony. I haven't healed a lot of people, this would be my third time, but I remember it getting worse, not better.

Tony's veins on the hand I'm holding turn gold.

"What- what are you doing?" Steve asks, still shocked.

I swallow and try to answer. I don't want him to think I'm trying to murder Tony quicker. I choke out a word, "healing." I pull my knees up towards my body and lean my head on it. Healing people sucks.

Tony has gotten quiet. Possibly passed out. It's been about two and a half minutes. I pull myself together and use my available hand to check the wound. It means getting my hand passed the blood, but that's not a big deal. I touch where the wound would be. It's closed.

I let go of Tony's hand. I can see the gold disappear from our hands so I can only assume my eyes are brown again. I lay my head back down on my knees, trying not to pass out. I did that my first-time healing, Hydra did not like that. I mean, they already thought this power was useless.

"Tony?" Steve shakes him.

Tony blinks his eyes open.

"You good?" Steve asks him.

"Actually, I feel pretty good." He replies. Turning to me, "thanks, kid. Although, this means you have some explaining to do."

My head still hurts, but I nod. Steve looks at me with what looks to be concern. It makes me unsettled.

A few minutes pass before Steve pulls Tony to his feet. I get up too, but I have to use the wall for support.

"Are you okay?" Steve asks.

"Yeah." I answer, inwardly hating myself for doing what I had just done.

Happy picks us up after Steve and Tony talk to the police.

Tony says a few things to Happy that I don't hear, but soon we're all in the back of this really big car, potentially small limo. Happy sits in the driver's seat and put the partition up.

"How long were you going to keep superpowers a secret?" Tony asked.

Steve elbowed him.

"What?" Tony reacted. "We get her out of Hydra. We let her live in the tower. And she was never going to tell us?"

Steve gave him a look, but didn't argue.

I didn't say anything. What would I say? I wasn't ever going to tell them. Even now, I wish they didn't know.

Steve asked an easier question. "How long have you been enhanced?"

"It's been about 6 months."

"Did you see how they did it? We've been looking for a scepter," Steve starts. "Tony- show her the picture."

Tony reaches for his phone.

"I know what it looks like." I say. "That is the power source they used to do experiments."

"Was there anyone else, enhanced, like you?"

"As far as I know, no one else has survived the experiments."

We weren't far from the tower, so Happy was already pulling to the front of the building.

Happy announces that we're here, but no one moves.

Steve asks another question, "When you healed, you looked sick, does healing others hurt you?"

I sigh, "yeah. It- it's just like my strength gets put into the other person."

"Can you heal yourself?"

"Yes."

"Does that hurt?"

I swallowed hard, wondering if they would test my ability or run experiments. "I feel fine most of the time. Sometimes if bones are shifting or bullets are coming out, that'll hurt."

Tony ends the conversation there, "let's go inside."

We get out of the car and head towards the building. We almost reach the door, when Steve stops me.

"Tony, why don't you head up and get Bruce to give you a checkup?" He says.

"Sure." Tony says, walking to the front door. "I'm gonna get a drink, first."

Steve rolls his eyes.

When Tony is gone, Steve leads me to sit on the bench outside the Avengers Tower.

He asks me solemnly, "would you have killed them, if I hadn't stopped you?"

I was surprised by the question. I answered, "yes."

"That's not how we do things." Steve said sternly.

"They were the enemy." It wasn't really a question or an argument. It was just a fact. They were the enemy. I was trained to kill the enemy.

"That's not how we do things here." Steve repeated. "We don't kill people. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"It's a line we can't cross. I know things worked differently in Hydra, but you're not with them anymore."

"I understand."