There was a loud metallic thud as a red and gold fist connected with the Hydra agent's jaw, allowing Rachel to slip from his grasp and onto the ground. "Yeah, not your standard brass knuckles, but you guys broke my stuff so this is what I've got." Tony had been able to sneak up as the situation unfolded, discarding the full suit and making use of the metal gloves and forearms of his armor.
"You should have taken the hint and gotten out of here." Eric wiped the excess blood from his lip, annoyed.
"What is not understood about Hulk? I thought that was pretty self explanatory. You're out of your league." Tony gestured in the direction of the splintered and broken trees, "You've got maybe a minute or two before the Big Guy comes stomping back this way looking for someone to smash."
"You're wrong, he's weak and Madman's got the upper hand."
"He's also very angry now, so…minute forty five, forty four…" Tony looked to his imaginary watch.
"Well then just in case, I've got a little over a minute to deal with you." With that he stepped over Rachel's body, unaffected by what he'd just tried to do.
The irritation managed to get under Tony's skin, making its way out in another burst of sarcasm, "Yes, I would like to hit you in the face again. Thank you." He allowed his voice to come out in a light and deceitfully pleasant way. Despite the attitude he'd taken on, he was concerned for the unmoving form on the ground, eyes lingering until he was sure he'd seen her take a breath.
Eric was the first to strike, his arm meeting metal as his attack was parried and side stepped. Behind the confidence, the genius was well aware that he had to be careful going against someone with superhuman strength. Given the extra weight, he figured he could get a few good hits in before his muscles began to burn. His reactions were slowed, but he managed to keep up with the injured agent and remain true to his word of getting in another good hit to the face which unfortunately set him up for a throw in the end.
As if on cue they heard the Hulk roar, followed by approaching footsteps. "Time's up. 'You should have taken the hint and gotten out of here'." Tony mocked.
The agent smirked, "It's over for now, but it's never that easy." He began to retreat in search of the scientist he'd traveled with, deciding to cut his losses.
Bruce sighed heavily with his head in his hands. It felt like the weight of everything was finally sinking in and he simply didn't know what to do. They were finally back in the tower and it did nothing to put him at ease. There was a new enemy, they didn't know how many people had been mutated or experimented on, they had no idea where they were located, they didn't know what else they were capable of, and to top it off in another completely complicated category was Rachel in the next room over.
A medical doctor had been by to look over everyone, but they'd talked it over and decided there wouldn't be a safer place than the tower for Rachel at the moment. SHIELD was gone, not that there weren't reasons to be suspicious of that considering they were still trying to figure out how many had been Hydra agents, and a normal hospital ran the risk of her running away or being attacked in some way. For now, she remained in the next room while recovering.
"This is all because of you." He could still see the face of his father although it had only been a copy of the man. That had cut somewhere deep, even while the Hulk had been present he'd heard it loud and clear. It wasn't true, but there was still a part of him that believed it was.
"Bruce." It was Tony, "You've been sitting out here for an hour now,"
Looking up, he shook his head, "Things were so much easier while on the run." He paused, "Sure, I lived in fear of being found, but it was only my life to worry about. Now, it's mine and anyone who might mean anything to me ever."
"Even if that weren't a warped way of seeing it, you can't go back now." Tony made quick work of debunking his pessimistic theories, "We can take care of ourselves, but we're also a team now. Bad things happen, they don't always have a logical reason, it sucks, but we've still got to move on."
"I don't know where to start." Bruce admitted.
"Sometimes there isn't a plan; you've got to take it one step at a time." He held out a hand, prompting his friend to get up. "We're all in this. You're not shouldering this alone."
Nodding slowly, Bruce reached forward and stood up, "Thank you." After taking a deep breath he entered the room and allowed the door to swing shut behind him.
Rachel's head shot up from the pillow as she eyed him warily. Her breathing quickened to a rate Bruce was sure was causing pain along her fractured ribs. He stopped by the door, managing to keep his composure as the anger bubbled up, not towards her, but at the people who'd made her so afraid. It hurt to see her actually scared of him. She'd never once feared him until that day and he knew it wasn't really him that she feared but whatever had happened over the last two years.
"Rachel, I'm not going to hurt you. None of us would do that." He sighed, knowing she had no reason to take his word for it, but feeling as though he had to say it anyway.
After a long silence her breathing evened out, "Then why are you here?" She didn't believe him, "Why did you bring me here?"
"I came to see how you were doing." Bruce began slowly, "And we brought you here to keep you safe."
"Safe…" She repeated, considering the word and shaking her head, "After what I did?"
He frowned, not knowing how to explain it. There was another lull as he tried to think of something, anything to say. Everything he wanted to say would be overwhelming or unbelievable to someone who didn't remember you.
"Dr. Banner." She spoke up after a while.
He looked up, cringing inwardly at the formality, but surprised she'd been the one to break the silence.
"I'm not sure it means anything coming from me, but I feel bad for what I've done." She matched his frown, "I've been so confused about everything. I don't know what's right anymore."
It was a sad truth that left a heaviness in his heart, but it was a start. This could have gone worse. She could have broken down or completely tuned the world out, but she didn't.
"She's waking up."
My body felt like it was made out of lead, only allowing very small movements as I came to. I blinked to clear my vision as a blonde man came closer, looking down at me. His mouth moved with words that slurred together and didn't quite make it through my fuzzy brain and after a moment he repeated himself, "How are you feeling?"
I tried to speak and nothing came out. He turned away, retrieving a cup of water and passing it to me. "Thank you." I sighed after taking a large gulp of it.
I paused, surveying my surroundings. This wasn't the hospital room I'd been in and he wasn't a doctor or nurse I'd seen before, but I did recognize the man standing behind him as a nurse. "Was I moved?"
The man closest to me turned to address the nurse, "Good work. She does seem fine after all. Now to erase everything and start over."
My eyes flew open, showing me that this time I was back in reality. After a quick glance everything came back to me. I was in Stark Tower, confined to a recovery room. As I relaxed, my eyes grew heavy once more. I'd been put on a good amount of pain medication that was making it difficult to stay up.
I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, looking for the nearest escape route as I stared at the array of knives neatly arranged in a row along the table. There was no way I could do this. It was only my second lesson involving knives and the first time we'd used training weapons. These were very real.
"Are you going to pick one sometime today? The only one you should worry about is the one I'm holding." Eric was waiting for me in the open area, watching as I wrung my hands behind my back, "The one on the far right is one of my favorites." He offered. It didn't make me feel any better.
I glanced over my shoulder, gulping as he carelessly tossed his blade into the air, catching it by the handle and then by the sides of the metal as though he'd made a game of playing with knives. Returning my attention to the table, I grabbed one that seemed to be of medium length. It looked long enough to wield decently and yet not long enough where I was in constant danger of accidentally poking my eye out.
"Do you remember some of the stuff we went over yesterday?" He caught his own weapon, holding it in a less threatening manner.
I took a moment to think back, racking my brain for everything that I could. "I think so, most of it."
He nodded, "Alright, we'll go over a few disarms and then we'll move into attacks and counters."
After the first few examples, I began to relax as we moved through the material. At some point I suspected he was growing annoyed with how slowly I moved through a technique or by my hesitation to either attack or approach while he held a blade at the ready. By the end of the lesson he was obviously frustrated, doing nothing to hide his disappointment.
"I want you to show me what you've learned and really attack me." He was straight faced, but I furrowed my brow at the request regardless.
"Like actually try to hurt you?"
"Yes. You haven't been taking this as seriously as you should so I'd like to know just how much sunk in."
"What if I actually get you though? I'm not trained in any sort of first aid." My eyes widened at the thought.
"Worry about yourself. I'll be coming for you too." That made my blood run cold and I had to study his face once more just to be sure I'd heard him right. "Ready?" He placed his hand over the blade he'd tucked away.
I froze, my mind throwing out everything in a panic. He moved forward and only the one counter we'd gone over the most came to mind. I held in a tense breath and began to move, stepping out of reach for the first swipe and then moving in quickly. To my horror the strike that was supposed to stun him wasn't hard enough and he continued through it.
I didn't feel the blade pierce my skin, but in a split second we were face to face and I was terrified to look down and see what damage had been done. He frowned, glancing down just as I did to my shoulder. I could see the blade protruding from the area as blood began to seep from the wound. Someone was coming towards us, raising their voice, but all I could focus on was the widening circle of blood.
He placed his free hand behind my back, keeping the other on the handle as my knees wobbled. Once I was sitting down, beginning to panic, he let go and stood up, "Don't pull that out." He turned to face an exasperated looking Dr. Sterns.
"She just got well enough to start training, could you not try to kill her in the first couple of weeks?" The blonde looked between us.
"I need for her to remember next time we're going over material. I want her to train like she is actually fighting for her life."
"Have you ever thought of, oh I don't know, repetitions?"
"Pain is a very good teaching tool. It's how things are done here." Eric argued. "Look, if it had been anyone else, it could have been worse."
Dr. Sterns didn't look any less annoyed, "Well I need you both, mission ready and all. Try and find another way." He shook his head, "I'll be lucky if she won't need to forget this to continue."
My heart was in a panic and my vision was going dark around the edges as the shock came over me. My brain was trying to reason that I hadn't been fatally wounded, but the look and smell of the blood was telling my senses otherwise.
This time I woke with a start, my heart racing just as it was in that last dream. I pulled at the fabric of my shirt, stretching the collar until I could see the scar that had been left by the wound. It was a bad dream, or in this case a memory.
The door to the room opened and Dr. Banner entered. He approached the bed, pausing when he noticed I'd leaned away. "Are you okay? Jarvis said your heart rate and blood pressure went up suddenly." He took a step closer, "A nightmare?" He observed.
"I'm fine." I looked away in an attempt to hide how disturbed I'd been, "Thank you."
He lingered for a moment before he sighed to himself and began to back away. "Do you need anything?"
I shook my head. I wanted to be alone so I could process this on my own. He looked concerned, but nodded and let me be. Once he was gone I allowed myself to slump back against the pillows. It was only my first night here and I was already loosing it.
Dr. Banner stopped by over the next two weeks, always asking if it was alright with me before getting comfortable and taking a seat. This time he came by with two travel cups of hot chocolate, offering one to me as he took a seat. I'd accepted, taking a sip and smiling to myself.
"Thank you."
He nodded, "No problem-" Stopping there, he offered a small smile of his own instead. I'd asked him not to call me anything for now. Rachel, I didn't know or couldn't remember and with that in mind I'd begun to doubt the name Dawn as well.
"Do you mind if I ask you for something?" I hesitated once the question was in the air. Since I'd been here we'd avoided anything that could really count as a decent conversation. I wasn't sure if I could trust him or anyone else for that matter. I'd spent two years with Hydra believing these people were the enemy and in the end the ones I trusted ended up turning on me. They kept things from me and molded me for this plan, but they were all I had to go on. I wasn't sure what to think, but I needed to start somewhere if I wanted to stop being a heap of mixed emotions.
"Sure, what is it?" He asked gently.
"Dr. Sterns sort of hinted that I knew you at one point and Agent Romanoff said we'd been close before I was with Hydra…" I paused, trying to gauge how strange everything sounded.
He nodded carefully, either agreeing or waiting for me to continue.
"Is there anything left? Are there pictures or something?" There had been too many coincidences over the last two weeks. He'd brought foods I didn't know I'd liked so much, books I had a hard time putting down, and even a sketch book. I'd left it untouched so far, unsure if I could trust my expressions to be on paper, but somehow he'd known I would have appreciated it at one point.
"Yes." His eyebrows rose, but he nodded again, "Jarvis, will you pull up a few pictures for me?"
"Of course." The observation window to the room lit up with a projection, showing various files to choose from.
"Thank you."
"Anytime, sir." The AI left the projection up as Dr. Banner stood and crossed over towards it.
I paused, unsure what to make of the security system here, but I followed Dr. Banner across the room at a slower pace. My ribs and back were healing quickly, but I didn't want to push it too much just yet.
By the time I'd gotten there, he'd tapped the glass to open some of the files and brought up three images. There we were, the dates going back just over two years ago with the scenery changing in each of the pictures. I almost didn't recognize myself. It was me, but beyond the physical differences it just seemed like I was, lighter, happier almost. I didn't recognize that look on myself.
"Are you okay?" He was watching me, "I can close them if you'd like?"
"No, I-" I needed to see this. "Are there more?"
"There's a good amount, swipe through them if you'd like." He sipped his drink, backing away to give me space.
I ended up looking at each picture, trying to imagine myself in those shoes. It was hard to explain, but some of them just stood out to me. I'm not sure why they did out of the others, but it was something. "What's going on in this one?" I indicated one of the pictures dating back the furthest.
He looked at the picture, a faint smile making its way across his face, "We were in the Rockefeller Observatory. It was the first time you decided to bring a camera along."
"This one?"
"Another ferry boat ride. There was a little joke about it going back to the first one."
I went through a few more of them and he continued to elaborate besides the obvious with a little back story that went along with the picture. "Where is this place?" I was looking at the one that was calling for my attention the most.
"You actually showed me that place just after I met you and we went back that time. It's the High Line. You said it was one of your favorite places." He was looking at the picture too now.
We were standing on the tracks that had long since been overgrown. Through the progression of photos it seemed he'd become increasingly comfortable until finally in this one he was smiling as he was saying something, his arm over my shoulders while I smiled a little too animatedly into the camera with a slight blush to my face. There was nothing to explain my reaction, but I'd looked happy here too. I didn't know him well, or at least couldn't remember, but at least now he seemed like the quiet type. Judging by the older pictures he'd been the same way for the most part two years ago as well. Maybe I'd been caught off guard by his willingness to take this photo.
There were so many questions now, but I turned away from the pictures and made my way back into the bed. With a quick gesture, he cleared the screen and took up his original seat. I wasn't sure what to say so I simply let it sink in for now, clutching my travel mug in both hands now. Now I had proof. Pictures could be faked, sure, but I didn't think these were. It was making sense, all of the coincidences. Still, I didn't remember. It was going to take a lot of time for me to get everything back if I ever did. For now, he didn't push for me to talk more about it. I needed more time to work through this and he seemed to pick up on it. For that, I was thankful.