It was the next day when Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho finally decided to release Emma from the room. She seemed to be more than healthy without any bruises or marks on her left from the fight with Clint and Natasha. The same couldn't be said for the former Shield agents. The only suggestion that Bruce had for Emma was for Steve to make sure that she ate much more since her metabolism was so fast. It wasn't something unusual to the super soldier since Steve also had a fast metabolism due to his enhancements. It was a tough couple of days for Steve as he eagerly waited to hear whether or not Emma was doing okay but Bruce and Dr. Cho assured him that she was.
He had visited Emma a couple of times during her time spent in the make-shift hospital room inside the tower but she had been quiet…alarmingly so. They mostly just kept each other company while Emma ate and Steve read some files that Stark had sent him on his Stark Industries issued tablet. It was obvious that Emma was still coming to terms with being away from Hydra. It had only been a couple of days, after all.
Emma still watched Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho with suspicion whenever they entered the room but she seemed a little more trusting of Steve and Natasha but that didn't mean she completely trusted them. With her spending so much time confined to the hospital room, Emma hadn't even met the other Avengers yet. Tony and Thor had seemed to be really curious about the teenager but Steve told them it was best that they didn't come to visit. Emma was still getting use to just him and Natasha as it was. Clint pretended to still be bitter about his broken bow but Steve knew that the archer was deeply concerned for Emma deep down.
"They're finally letting you out of this place." Steve announced as he walked into the room. Emma looked up from her book at him. She was currently reading the second Harry Potter book after finishing the one from last night. It appeared that she was becoming quite the fan of the series and Steve was glad to see that something was bringing her some comfort. Steve had a bag of clothing in his hand that he proceeded to place on her bed. Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend, had been a little too eager to go shopping for Emma. Something about shopping for a teenager had really appealed to the strawberry blonde. Emma raised an eyebrow at the bag.
"Pepper, Tony's girlfriend, was nice enough to go shopping for you. She got your measurements from Jarvis." Steve explained.
"I'm not going to comment on how creepy it is that a computer took my measurements." Emma replied and Steve raised his eyebrows at her comment. Was that a joke? It was perhaps the first non hostile comment that Emma had made since Steve had met her a few days ago. Steve found himself smiling at the young blonde.
"I felt the same exact way when I first came here." Steve told her and Emma didn't smile but her eyes didn't look cold or calculating either. What had changed? "Jarvis is pretty handy though when it comes to locating missing items so I can't complain."
"I resent that remark, Captain Rogers." The British voice said and they both glanced up at the ceiling. A soft musical sounding laughter escaped Emma and Steve grinned at her. The laughter seemed to brighten up her face, making her look exactly like the thirteen year old girl she was. It only lasted a moment because as soon as her laughter entered the room, it faded. She seemed a bit confused by what she had just done but she didn't glare or frown at him but she didn't smile again either. Steve didn't care. It was enough to know that they were getting somewhere.
"What's on the agenda today then?" Emma asked offhandedly as she looked inside the bag, taking a peek at the articles of clothing. Emma was a bit confused by the clothing which she had seen other teenage girls wear but they were things that she had never worn herself. A pair of bell bottom jeans, a popular fashion trend that was a throwback to the seventies, a floral printed blouse that looked expensive and looked like it came from a designer store. There was also a pair of silver flats to complete the whole outfit and Emma had never in her life been tasked to wear something so girly. Well, maybe when she was very small and lived with her parents but that was a long time ago.
"Do you not like it?" Steve asked as he noticed the odd expression on Emma's face as she looked through the contents of her bag. He wasn't really a leading expert on women's fashion so he didn't know if that was something that young women wore now a days. He knew back in his day that women didn't wear jeans but the times had changed.
"No, it's perfect." Emma said honestly, a small smile gracing her lips. She also noticed a pair of simple looking panties and a padded bra in the bag although she made sure that Steve didn't see those. Not that Emma cared but Steve seemed like the kind of person that got easily shy or bashful. The bra made her a bit hesitant since Emma was only used to the sport's bras that Hydra had reluctantly given her. It wasn't like her breasts were big or anything. She was thirteen and she barely had any…no, she was almost as flat chested as a boy and something told Emma that it wasn't likely that her breasts would grow that much more in the near future.
"So…I know this might be hard for you but the others are insistent that you be debriefed." Steve told her with a more serious expression on his face. "I told them that the time isn't right but they wouldn't listen."
"It's fine, Steve." Emma told him without looking the slightest bit fazed. "I'll go talk with them and tell them what I know. I don't really care…it's not like I was actually loyal to Hydra."
"Are you sure?" Steve inquired. "Because you don't have to. I'll just tell them that you're not feeling up to it and they'll understand." His eyes softened as he looked at her. "You've been through a lot, after all."
"No, I'll go. Just to get it all over with." Emma told him without backing down. She just wanted to tell the Avengers what she knew so that they could all move on and Emma might finally get a full night of rest. Steve nodded at her. She seemed pretty much set on going to the debriefing so he wasn't going to force her not to go.
"Well, okay then. I'll let you take a shower and get ready." Steve told her before nodding to a door in the back of the room. "There's a bathroom in there that should have everything you need. If there's something else you need then just let me know." Emma didn't answer but instead nodded silently as she waited for him to leave the room. She let out an exhausted sigh the moment he left and wondered if this was really going to be her life now. Dressing up like a teenager and living in a tower with a bunch of superheroes.
After taking a nice, warm shower Emma exited the bathroom. She couldn't believe the various options of shampoos and conditioners that Stark had in the bathroom. Emma briefly wondered if all his bathrooms had that many options. Emma sincerely hoped not because it would just become too confusing to take a shower by that point. She left the bathroom after drying her hair with a blow drier which she was surprised she could figure out how to use since she had never seen one in her life much less used one. Her hair smelled faintly of coconuts which was the shampoo that Emma had ultimately decided on using. The teenager looked herself over in the mirror for the first since arriving at the tower and was surprised by how different she looked.
While she still had faint purple shadows under her eyes from a lack of sleep, her eyes didn't look quite so tired. Her skin was normally a very pale, almost sickly color but had since obtained a healthy looking glow to it. Her hair had always looked flat and limp but from her shower with the expensive shampoo and conditioner(and let's not forget about the blow drier), her hair appeared be a lot more healthy looking even though it was still just as straight and flat as ever.
Emma was almost in shock at just how much her new clothes made her look like a normal teenager. She looked like she was ready for a history or drama class just by the way she was dressed. Could she do this? Emma questioned. Could she look and act like she was an ordinary teenage girl? The others seemed to want to treat her that way but Emma had always been treated like an adult. She shook her head, trying to dismiss those thoughts, as she headed for the door of the room. Steve was waiting just outside and they didn't really have time for Emma to ponder over her state of mind.
The Avengers weren't sure what to expect when Emma Rogers, AKA The Viper Assassin, walked into the room. Bruce and Clint only knew her as a damaged girl, not too different from an abused animal. Bruce and Clint actually liked to think that they had seen the worst side of the teenager but something told them that they hadn't seen her worst side yet. Steve and Natasha were the only ones who had seen her for the young girl that she was. Truthfully, she looked like a child to all of them but Steve and Natasha were the only ones to see that there was something buried down underneath her cold and calculating demeanor. Tony and Thor had yet to meet Emma but were eagerly anticipating the meeting. Thor because she was the Captain's relation and Tony because…well, Tony just wanted to continue to tease Steve about being a grandpa because he really was one now. There was another reason Tony was eager as well but he was perfectly content with keeping the reason buried deep within himself. Tony and Thor briefly caught a few glimpses the young girl when she was passed out in the Quinjet but their curiosity was only increasing the longer they waited.
When she walked into the room, gone was the suspicious look that most of the Avengers had remembered seeing on her face. If she was still suspicious, she didn't show it as she stayed close to Steve's side but not too close. It was a little hard to believe that the girl standing in the room was claimed to have carried out twenty six assassinations. It was probably just a small fraction of the amount of deaths that all of them were responsible for. Still…Emma just looked like a regular teenage girl. There was nothing that screamed "killer" at them but maybe that was what made her so effective. She was tall for a thirteen year old, they noted, standing at about 5'7.
"Ah, Mini Cap!" Tony announced with a huge grin on his face, trying to break the tension in the room. For once in Steve's life, he didn't feel annoyed by the billionaire's misplaced sense of humor. "You've finally arrived. And here I thought we would be waiting all day for the belle of the ball to arrive."
"I'm sorry Tony's a little…enthusiastic." Steve explained to her and Tony fake glared at him.
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, Capsicle." Tony told him before looking back at Emma. She looked over at the older man, noticing that he looked just as he did in all the pictures she had seen of him except for that fact that he was much shorter. He was a man in his mid forties but she knew he was the man child type. His eyes were a chocolate brown but they glinted with a certain amount of mischief and humor. Stark's hair was articulately styled to look tousled but Emma could tell he spent a lot of time and care styling it. The thing that struck Emma as the most odd about the billionaire was the fact he had the weirdest looking goatee she had ever seen and she had grown up around a lot of middle aged men in her time. However, he still seemed familiar to Emma but she didn't have any clue why. She then dismissed the feeling as her seeing him in the papers or on the television screen at the Hydra base. Tony Stark was incredibly famous, after all.
"Tony Stark," He introduced, holding out his hand to shake. "Just call me Tony though. I'll throw you out of this tower if you call me Mr. Stark. It reminds me too much of my father and he was a cold bastard."
"Stark." Steve warned and Tony rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I won't actually throw you out of the tower but just don't call me Mr. Stark." Tony said and Emma eyed his hand cautiously like it was some sort of explosive rather than a plain old hand.
"I know I have nice hands but your staring is getting a little creepy." Tony joked and Emma looked up at him. He was a little taken back by how she didn't even blush in embarrassment like Steve would do in her situation. The girl stared at him, looking as if she were searching for something in his eyes. Tony cleared his throat awkwardly as she stared at him with Cap's eyes but with all the coldness and calculation of someone completely different. Reluctantly Emma shook his hand much to everyone else's disbelief. It was no secret that the girl was very against anyone initiating contact with her but she seemed to deem Tony safe enough. Emma remembered what Natasha told her…to give everyone a chance.
"Emma." She introduced and it felt odd to introduce herself by her birth name. She was so used to being addressed as the Viper Assassin, Viper, or Asset that Emma still felt weird to her.
"We all know who you are, Mini Cap." He said and Emma wanted to know why he kept calling her that. "I just want to say how spontaneously cool it is to meet a teenage ninja assassin. I mean teenage mutant ninja turtles are one thing…" The reference was lost on both Emma and Steve. At least they have another thing in common, Tony noted as he glanced back at the others in the room.
"Allow me to introduce you to the rest of the team here." Tony said as he began to make more introductions. He led both her and Steve over to the long table in the conference room where everyone was seated. "I know you've already met Legolas and Kill Bill over here." He gestured to a curious looking Clint and an annoyed looking Natasha. Emma assumed Natasha was annoyed at the nickname Stark gave her but she wasn't completely sure what the nicknames were in reference to. She had spent the majority of her life living in a Hydra base, only learning what Hydra permitted her to learn.
"Barton's super pissed about you breaking his favorite toy by the way." Tony told her but Barton didn't look as angry as Tony suggested. She was surprised by how kind the older man looked as he gave her a small smile. He almost seemed like the fatherly sort. Emma thought he would be more angry since she had broken his weapon and knocked him unconscious. If she did something like that to Karpov or Rumlow, it would've earned her a couple weeks worth of beatings just so that they could test the speed of her healing factor.
"No, it's all history now…I hope." Clint told her. "I know it was a shitty move stabbing you with those tranquilizers." Steve looked like he wanted to scold Clint for his bad language but relented when he saw that this was an opportunity for Emma to be friendly with his teammates. Emma offered him a small smile even though it looked incredibly forced. He could tell that she was trying to appear nice or at least pleasant at the very least.
"Consider it forgotten. Hopefully this makes us even? I also knocked you unconscious in case you've forgotten." Emma said and Clint just grinned.
"No, trust me…I didn't forget. You sure pack one hell of a punch, kid." Clint complimented and she nodded at him before Tony brought her over to three other individuals seated at the table. One of which she recognized as Dr. Banner. He was a doctor so she still didn't trust him but she had to admit he was a kind man. It frightened her, more than she would ever admit, to know that he was the Hulk but she supposed that might be as dark as his darker side got to be which was good to know.
One of the other men was African American, his eyes seemingly kind but Emma couldn't be sure. He looked to be about Stark's age but his face was a lot more serious looking than Tony. The third man was also African American but his dark eyes were playful and full of humor. He seemed closer to Steve's age than the other man was and was slightly more muscular than him as well. Emma deduced that this man looked a lot more approachable to her than the others who she was still unsure of.
"Okay, Mini Cap, so you've already met Banner and you'll never guess how hard I laughed at the recording of you pointing a scalpel at his face. Seriously…you've got some guts." Tony told her. Dr. Banner rolled his eyes at his friend but gave Emma a kind smile before she glanced over at the man sitting next to him. "This is Rhodey…my Rhodey and formerly known as the Iron Patriot." Rhodey joined Dr. Banner in on rolling his eyes at his good friend.
"I thought we talked about never mentioning the Iron Patriot again." Rhodey complained and Tony just shrugged.
"It's your fault for going along with it in the first place." Rhodey then turned to face Emma with a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Emma."
"You too." She replied but that was where both Tony and Rhodey were cut off by the man sitting next to Rhodey. The man that looked the most approachable out of all the people she had met so far. He grinned at her, his dark eyes lighting up with happiness. Usually someone who smiled that wide gave Emma some uneasiness but something about this man was oddly comforting.
"Sam Wilson." Sam introduced, holding out his hand for her to shake. Emma was slightly less hesitant about shaking his hand than she was with Tony but that was probably because she was slowly easing into this new situation. She nodded and shook his hand before quickly letting go just like she had done with Tony.
"Emma." She introduced. Emma never remembered having to meet this many people all at once. It was a little bit overwhelming for the teenager but she figured a lot of people came in and out of this tower so it was just something she would have to adjust to.
"I know…I think everyone knows that." He told her. "I don't know if you know this but I'm a good friend of your old gramps over here." Emma raised an eyebrow at that as Steve glared at Sam playfully. Sam just smirked smugly at his friend.
"Who are you calling old, Wilson? I can run laps around you any day." Steve told him jokingly, causing Sam to laugh. Emma glanced between them, amusement in her eyes. Was that what it was like to have a friend? Her father and her had started out as friends before developing a familial sort of relationship but they never joked around like that. They never laughed at each other. No, they bonded over training and killing. Emma wondered if it would ever be possible for herself to have a friend like that. She doubted it…people like her didn't have friends.
"Is this Lady Emma? The fair maiden that everyone has been talking about?" A loud, booming voice said. Emma winced from the loudness of his voice and turned only to see an all too good looking man standing next to them with a huge smile on his face. Thor. She could see why he was called a God. The man was very handsome with chiseled features and a hard looking muscular body. His eyes were a brighter blue than her own, his hair long and blonde. He was dressed in more casual clothes than she remembered seeing in any footage from the battle of New York. He was wearing a simple gray t-shirt with a pair of blue jeans which oddly suited him. Emma didn't imagine there was anything the blonde haired god could look bad in.
"Yes, Thor, this is Emma." Steve told him in amusement.
"Valhalla has blessed your family very much, Captain, your granddaughter is one of the most beautiful maidens in all the nine realms. Her beauty even rivals that of my beautiful Lady Jane but not too much of course. Lady Jane really is an exquisite beauty as well as a woman of science." Emma stared at him in bewilderment before she decided that he wasn't flirting with her. No, she had the feeling that Thor was always this charming especially since Steve didn't seem disturbed by what Thor just told her. This just must've been what Thor was like.
Thor reached his hand out to her and Emma cautiously placed her hand in his, thinking he was going to shake her hand. Emma was taken by surprise, however, when Thor leaned down and pressed his lips against the back of her hand. Surprised by his sudden action, Emma immediately yanked her hand away. Steve, Sam, and Thor looked at her in concern as she tried to steady her breathing. She forced away unpleasant memories before she looked back up at Thor, giving him a small but forced smile.
"I'm sorry, Thor, I just don't like being touched. It has nothing to do with you." She told him quietly but Thor just smiled in understanding.
"That is quite alright, Lady Emma, you have been through a truly horrendous ordeal." Thor told her. "Your beauty is truly one of a kind but you have a warrior's heart…that much I can tell." Before Emma could respond to his odd remark, everyone's attention was brought to the task at hand when a woman entered the room. She was a tall and slender looking woman with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. When she walked into the room everyone really noticed. She just had that sort of presence.
"Okay… let's start this debriefing before dinner so I can have a full eight hours of rest without any of you bothering me." The woman stated as she looked at each and every one of them.
"That's Maria Hill." Sam whispered, probably seeing the confused look on Emma's face. "She's kind of in charge around here. Technically she's the babysitter of the Avengers and she's damn good at her job too." Emma nodded as she took in that new piece of information. This woman was in charge of a group of superheroes? She's braver than she looks, Emma thought to herself. Everyone then began to take a seat at the long table and Steve politely pulled out a seat for her. She stared at him in surprise for a moment before she sat down. The seat was in between Steve and Sam.
"So you guys raided Argentina's Hydra base?" Maria inquired as she looked down at the table of superheroes.
"Yes, it was located in Patagonia…The Andes." Natasha responded, causing Maria to nod as she typed in the information into her Stark Industries issued tablet.
"And it was located underground, right? Underneath an old Shield science station?" She asked, hinting for confirmation.
"Yes." Natasha confirmed.
"What did you you find in the base?" Tony snorted from his place at the other end of the table. He raised an eyebrow at Maria with his usual smug look.
"Besides Mini Cap? Nothing. The place was a real dump too." He commented. "I don't know how Mini Cap lived there." Emma had put up with Stark's annoying comments so far but he was really starting to get on her nerves. It wasn't like she had much choice in where she got to go. She didn't request to be put in a dirty, run down Hydra base in Argentina.
"So that's a no go on the scepter?" Maria inquired further and all the Avengers simultaneously nodded.
"My brother's scepter was not found at the location." Thor answered and Emma wondered what they were talking about. Scepter? Wait…did they want something else from Hydra too? Emma decided to keep that piece of information for later. Now wasn't the time to be asking questions.
"How many Hydra agents were at the base?"
"Jarvis said there was only about thirty three agents at the base." Tony told her.
"It was a really small base." Clint added. "Stark's right. It was run down and poorly armed with weapons. We were in and out within an hour." Maria nodded as she took in the information Clint was telling her. It was then that she turned to Emma, giving the blonde her full attention.
"Now that we've got all that out of the way…let's start move on to Miss Rogers." Maria eyed Steve questioningly. "Is she ready, Cap?" Before Steve could reply Emma answered with her head held up high. She stared Maria Hill in the eyes, unblinkingly, refusing to let her calm expression waver.
"I'm ready." Emma told her. Maria stared at her for another minute before she looked back at her tablet. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything." Maria told her, looking back up at her. Emma gritted her teeth at Maria's request, causing Maria to sigh. "Not every single detail but a brief summary would suffice." Maria said and Emma supposed that wasn't completely bad. There was definitely some things that were best left unsaid.
"Alright." She agreed, sending relief through the room. It was clear that she was reluctant to talk about what happened to her but it was good to see that she was at least willing to talk a little. Maria felt a wave of relief wash over her that she would be able to get some information at the very least. From what she heard about the teenager, she knew that Emma wasn't going to open up easily.
"Just start from the beginning." Maria told her with a reassuring smile. Emma swallowed, trying to hide her nerves as everyone's attention focused on her. It wasn't like she was going to divulge her whole life's story to them. Just little snippets here and there. She would be the one to decide what she would and wouldn't tell them. She glanced at Steve who gave her an encouraging smile and suddenly Emma felt a lot less nervous.
"Well, I suppose it started the day my parents were murdered." Emma told them. "I was four."
"Who killed them?" Maria asked and Emma bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to disguise her anger. It was clear to everyone in the room that whoever this person was, they were hated passionately by Emma. Her eyes clouding over with anger was proof enough of that.
"A man named Rumlow." A good majority of the room tensed when she spoke his name. She glanced at them curiously. It became apparent to her, through their reactions, that they were also quite familiar with Rumlow. "He was the one who took me from my home."
"They took me to a Hydra base not long after that. I wouldn't know where it was located for years but it was in Siberia as I would eventually find out. All I knew at the time was that it was incredibly cold and there was no sunlight. I didn't see the sun for years." Emma told them with a distant look in her eyes. Steve tried not to feel angry at what he was hearing but he couldn't help it. The inhumane torture his granddaughter had gone through was almost too much for him to even think about. He calmed himself down because he knew Emma's story was only going to get worse.
"They didn't train me at first. For a year all I did was study." Emma remembered, going over those early memories from when she was only four years old. She had been such a scared, fragile little thing back then. It was almost hard to believe that so much had happened since then.
"Who taught you? Rumlow?" Maria inquired but Emma shook her head.
"No, Rumlow was only around for the first couple weeks I was there. Those first couple of weeks were filled with me being in the lab while they stuck me with needles and studied me. Colonel Karpov was the person who gave me my lessons." Emma stated and Bruce looked down at the table with a guilty expression. He now understood why she had been so scared of him and Dr. Cho. If only they had approached her with better caution instead of just showing up out of nowhere. It made him sick to know that a bunch of scientists were studying her like a lab experiment when she was only four.
"Does this Colonel Karpov have a first name?" Maria asked and Emma nodded.
"His first name is Vasily. I think he worked for the Russian Armed Forces officially." Emma told her. "He taught me things about different countries. He discussed a lot of geography with me…economics, different environments, chemical warfare, nuclear warfare, and languages. Just anything that could prepare me for missions."
"I was fluent in Russian within the first year. He used to get so angry when I would speak in English." Emma remembered all the beatings she received from Karpov before she moved on from the topic. She didn't really want to get into that today. "I was at the base for a year when he introduced me to the Winter Soldier."
That seemed to capture everyone's attention. Bucky Barnes had become a major topic of discussion within the past month and even more so when he sent them a flash drive of Emma's file and location. Everyone wondered why the Winter Soldier, a cold and calculating killer, had enough heart to send them to Emma's rescue.
"And why did he introduce you to the Winter Soldier?" Maria questioned, a genuinely curious look on her face.
"They introduced me to him because he was going to be my trainer." Emma said seriously as she recalled how frightened she had been of her father when they first met. She had watched him kill a man, after all. "We didn't spar during that time…not at first. He would just show me different moves and techniques, making me mimic his movements when he was finished."
"He trained me for six months before he disappeared." This caused everyone to give Emma confused looks.
"Why did he disappear for so long?" Maria asked and Emma shrugged.
"It was always like that with him. He would disappear for large amounts of time before reappearing. I learned later that this was because of the Cyro-Chamber." Emma said which caused Steve to clench his jaw at the thought of his best friend being subjected to a Cyro-Chamber. "When he disappeared the first time I didn't see him for a year. Rumlow took over my training and he wasn't as gentle as the Winter Soldier."
"When I turned seven they experimented on me with the serum." Emma said, changing the subject from the Winter Soldier. "That was the first time I ever saw Pierce. He was watching it all happen when they injected me with the serum."
"After the injection…I became more enhanced. According to Pierce I was already technically enhanced because I still had what was leftover of Captain America's super soldier serum in my body but it wasn't potent enough, hence why they injected me with a new serum." Emma continued, coldness returning to her eyes as she thought more about Pierce. "Apparently there were other super soldiers before me but they never took to the serum successfully."
"Where are these super soldiers? Do you know?" Maria asked rapidly, worried whether or not there were other super soldiers like the Winter Soldier running around out there. Emma shook her head but seemed unsure.
"I can't be sure since I was never told whether or not they had died. I always assumed they had because Pierce said that their bodies didn't accept the serum like mine did." Emma answered.
"Were you treated just like the Winter Soldier was?" Emma gave the dark haired woman a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
"The Winter Soldier had his memory wiped. Did Hydra do the same to you?" She asked her plainly but Emma wasn't offended despite the warning look Steve sent in Maria's general direction.
"What? Brainwash me? No, they didn't have to." She admitted and everyone looked at her in shock except for Natasha. Emma felt a bit uncomfortable being under everyone's close scrutiny but she didn't let the emotion show.
"They didn't have to?" Maria pressed, trying to get a straight answer out of her. The young girl sighed tiredly.
"Look, I never liked killing…it wasn't something I ever enjoyed but I did it because I had to." She explained. "What do you think they would do to me the second I proved that I no longer served a purpose? What they would do to him." Maria raised a brow.
"Him?" Emma nodded.
"Yes, my father." Everyone looked just as equally confused. Especially Steve who was trying to understand what Emma was saying. What did she mean her father? Her father was dead. Steve looked down at the table sadly as he thought about his son. It was hard for Steve to call Emma's father his son. The thought that he never got to know his son haunted him.
"I'm sorry…I thought you said your father died." Maria said and Emma just nodded. She didn't seem to think anything of the statement she had just made.
"My biological father did but Winter is my father in everything but blood. He practically raised me." Emma told them although a sad expression reached her eyes as she did so. It was apparent that Emma and Bucky were quite close. Especially if they were so close that Emma referred to him as her father. Steve furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he thought long and hard about this. He didn't have much time to think about the topic as Emma continued speaking. "Hydra used that against us."
"They knew how close we were and they used it to their advantage. They didn't have to wipe my memories or brainwash me because they used my father as leverage. If I ever ran away I would always come back because they would have him in their possession." Emma said sadly. "They used me against him in the same way although I think they liked wiping his memories too much to stop. They knew that if one of us were ever to defect or leave, we'd always come back for the other…always." The haunted expression on Emma's face was enough to make Maria decide to wrap up the debriefing. She already knew the gory details of all the assassinations Emma had committed while under Hydra's control. There was no point in questioning the teenager about that.
"Is it true?" Emma asked abruptly, looking directly at Maria as she changed the subject. "Is Pierce really dead?" Maria gave the blonde a long look before she answered. It was clear to her that Pierce was one of the people that was most responsible for what happened to Emma at the base in Siberia.
"Yes, Pierce is dead. He died during the fall of Shield. Romanoff was there. She can confirm it if you don't believe me." Maria suggested and Emma turned to look at Natasha. The redhead gave her a small smirk as she revealed the details of Pierce's death. She knew the blonde well enough to know that Emma would enjoy hearing this piece of information
"Pierce took a couple of gun shots to the chest and bled out as he watched Project Insight be destroyed right before his very eyes." Natasha told her with a certain smugness to her tone. Steve glared at her for being so descriptive but Emma preferred it. It was nice to see how much Natasha seemed to understand. Knowing exactly how Pierce died was all the more reassuring to someone like her. Knowing that he had suffered just as he made her suffer all those years gave her a peace of mind. Maybe she and Natasha really were a lot alike. Emma nodded in satisfaction as she took in Natasha's recollection of Pierce's death.
"Good riddance." She muttered under her breath, causing Steve to look at her. He glanced curiously over his newly found family member. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more than the ability to read minds…to know what was going on in her head because she was the single most complicated person Steve thought he had ever met and he had only known her for a few days. He thought Peggy was someone he couldn't figure out but Emma was even more confusing.
"I think we've said all that we can." Maria announced, shutting off her tablet as she looked around the table. "You're all dismissed. Go eat and don't bother me."
"I think you're forgetting just who you work for, Hill." Tony said with a snarky tone. Maria just smirked at him as she stood up from the table.
"No, I don't believe I have. I work for Pepper Potts." Maria told him before she turned around and left the room. Tony stuck his tongue out at her while her back was turned, making him look much younger than his forty odd years of age. Emma decided right then at that moment that her time at Avenger's tower would prove to be interesting. She just wanted to know if she could handle it and be a part of this weird group of people like Steve and Natasha seemingly wanted her to be.
Time would tell.