In Hydra you understood that you may never see the ones you call friends again—it was the life of an experiment to never know when your next experiment would be your last.

In SHIELD, I was only friendly with Coulson, Clint and Natasha so I wasn't all that upset for being shuffled off to Xavier's.

But at Xavier's, I had friends and felt at home, like I was part of a family again and now I was being forced to say goodbye.

Trying to pack with several kids attempting to hid her stuff and unpack her bags was annoying, but strangely endearing as it showed they didn't want her to go. In the end Logan had to glower at them so she could finish packing though Hope bet that Logan wished to do the same as them.

Despite the fact that she could easily carry all three of her bags—a feat that she would never have been able to do if her first life as she had problems carrying one stuffed duffle bag—Logan acted like a gentlemen and took them from her.

"You're trying to get rid of me quickly?" she attempted to joke which fell flat as Logan gave her a look that could have stopped a raging rhino. "Yeah, bad joke."

"The others are ready to make a distraction long enough for you to get away," Logan told her in an undertone as they began to walk towards the front hall. "One of Slim's cars is waiting for you in the back-road."

"Scott's helping?" she asked in surprise as her heart warmed.

"You're one of us," Logan said simply as they reached the stairs and she glanced downwards.

One of Rogue's hands were bare and she was standing close to Coulson with Bobby next to her, Peter was looming at the bottom of the steps with Kitty standing at the mid-way point—obviously ready to help Hope phase through anything in her escape—and Hank leaned against the other side of the bottom step.

Xavier kept the lower-half of his face covered by his hands as his blue eyes stared at Coulson with Storm and Scott flanking him. Jean's hand was entwined with Scott's and she was actively glaring at Coulson.

These people were her friends, her family, and they were ready to fight against SHIELD to help her run away. She had to swallow thickly before she turned to Logan.

"No I'm not," she said before pressing a kiss to his rough cheek and taking her bags from him.

She determinedly didn't let any tears fall as she began to descend down the stairs, leaving Logan staring at her back with clenched fists.

Kitty reached out, her face scrunched up to stop tears, and wrapped her slender arms around her neck with a muffled sob.

"We'll help you," she whispered and Hope closed her eyes in pain as she rested her head against Kitty's, different lengths of dark strands tangling together. "Let us,"

"I can't," Hope told her, her voice breaking.

Kitty pulled back as Hank reached them and took her bags with a sad smile, briefly pausing to mess up Hope's short locks, and Hope surged forward to give Kitty a proper hug, rocking slightly as she felt hot tears damp her vest, before pulling away and continuing her descend.

Peter swept her up in a large hug, lifting her feet off the ground, and she wrapped her arms around his neck—it wasn't a long hug like the one she had with Kitty, but it was held the same meaning and emotion.

Hope looked at Rogue and held out her arms. They hugged for a long while, long enough that Bobby decided to join in and wrap his cool arms around them both.

Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting. J.M Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, said that.

But even though I was saying goodbye, I knew I wouldn't forget these people that had won a place in my heart despite me going away—I couldn't forget them, I wouldn't forget them. They were family, and you never forget family.

Hope gazed out of the darkened window as Coulson drove, mismatched eyes reflecting back.

"I am sorry," he told her after a while. "But the Director would never let you stay there."

"Because SHIELD owns me?" she asked.

"Because SHIELD can't let an unknown girl—who was experimented on to became a new breed of Super-Soldier—out into the world to do what she wants," Coulson corrected her. "We're doing this not just for the safety of everyone else, but of you too. We don't want whoever did this to you to get a hold of you, and if you stayed at Xavier's they could come after you and hurt those kids, you know that right?"

"I do," she glanced over at him. "Why do you think I've come with you? It's not because Fury said come back, it's for them."

"I'm sorry," he repeated though this time he actually sounded like he meant it.

"I know," she said simply. "I am too."

The car-ride was spent in silence after that as Coulson drove Hope to the New York SHIELD barracks where she would be living from now on.

My room in Xavier's was just that, it was my room and people could tell when they walked in because of the pictures framed on the set of drawers and night-stand, the sticker covered ice-blue DS balanced on a stack of pokémon games, the pair of discarded jeans thrown over my desk chair, rumbled sheets on the bed that I never truly made, the sticker covered laptop half-hidden under the covers, and the towers of DVDs and books.

My room in SHIELD was different though. Tiled floor, metal-framed bed, single set of drawers and wardrobe with adjoining bathroom—it reminded me of a classier, cleaner, version of my cell in Hydra.

It wasn't really a room so I didn't attempt to make it one. I tucked my frame photos and drawn pictures from Xavier's into my underwear draw—I didn't want SHIELD to easily see those pictures.

I stacked my games, books and DVDs on the top of the drawers and stuffed my clothes in the wardrobe and the drawers. My laptop and DS rested beside my bed—plugged into the kindly placed sockets which was probably going add a bit to the electric bill.

She wasn't a mutant, just an experimental new super-soldier, but Xavier's had taken her in, craved a place into her heart and she honestly cared for the mutants and wanted to help them. Her being around had pushed the timeline off key, soon she knew Jean's 'death', the Cure, Scott's death, Xavier's death and Dark Phoenix would happen—Magneto and Mystique had been strangely quiet during her time at the School—though she was glad that it didn't happen when she was there and she wasn't forced to watch it happen—to quote Hermione Granger 'Bad things happen to those that mess with time,'

Part of her wanted to go and get Jimmy—Leech—who was still being experimented on as a cure was created. She hated the thought of leaving any kid to face experiments, but she had too if she didn't want to screw up the timeline more than she already had.

But she could do something about Camp X-ray—how the Americans couldn't see they were acting like Nazis when it came to mutants, she would never understand—and officially she wasn't yet a SHIELD agent so Fury couldn't say she was putting SHIELD in danger because of her stunt.

She was going to free Bishop and whoever else she found.

Finding Bishop was rather easy—I just had to get past the guards and such which was kind of easy as I wasn't a mutant so none of the sensors had gone off—but finding Blink with Warpath protecting her had been something that made me pause as I stared at them.

They were kids and they were here because they were 'dangerous' when really it was because they were different and that scared most humans.

Perhaps I would have once been one of those scared humans, a person that thought it was cool to have powers as long as it was in movies and not real-life, but I had been thrown into hell, had done things I never thought I would ever have to do—I had killed people, something that made thinking about Mum hard as I was now a murderer, I have learnt to fight something that could have helped me with I was young and being bullied—and I had lived through horrible experiments that had made me wish I was dead and Death was what I always thought it would be—the end of everything.

The only reason Blink and Warpath was there was because Blink didn't know how to control her powers as of yet as they had only started coming in though she was already locked up because of the X-gene that she carried and the guards kept them as downtrodden as possible so they didn't attempt to escape—Hydra had used a mixture of being kind and being cruel to their prisoners so they didn't attempt to escape.

The only reason I got their trust was by defending them from a guard and showing off my metal hand.

I carried Blink with Warpath holding my metal hand as Bishop led a small uprising against the guards and they escaped in the chaos.

"Take them and go to Charles Xavier," I had told him as I passed Blink—her real name was Clarice—into his arms and pressed Warpath's—his name was James—hand into Bishops'.

Bishop nodded and fled with the two children while I went to get picked up by Clint—Fury still wasn't impressed with what I had done.

"Why do you always bring me up here?" Hope attempted to growl at Clint but was too busy making sure she wouldn't fall from the rafters to really put her heart in it.

"I'm helping you get over your stupid fear of heights," Clint lounged casually on one the rafters and let one leg dangle.

"It's not stupid!" Hope snapped quietly. "A lot of people are afraid of heights, people die falling from heights or get brain-damaged or break their bones."

"All of which you can't do," he retorted.

"We don't know that," she hissed at him. "I've never tried to leap to my death before."

"Want to try now?" Clint teasingly reached for her and she slapped his hands away with a scowl.

"Fuck you!" she snapped. "Damn Bird-brain."

"If you're attempting to be stealthy," Fury called up from the ground. "Then you two dumbasses need more training."

"It's her fault," Clint immediately blamed with a smirk.

"Hope!" Fury called. "You've got a mission so get your tiny ass down here!"

"What mission?" she called back as she grimaced at the height she would have to climb down.

"Helping Coulson get a meeting with Stark," Fury scowled. "The little bastard keeps brushing us off."

Hope blinked, Stark? Was in the events of Ironman already? Shit, she really should keep a closer eye on the calendar that Natasha gave her or she would continue to be blind-sided like she was now.

My luck sucked and Fate had decided to make me her bitch—that's my only reason for the fuckery that was my life now as I was followed Pepper Potts with a small group of agents with Coulson leading the charge to face the Iron Monger with the cheerful thought that I would be the one doing the most fighting until Stark showed up.

"Lady, screaming is so over-rated," Hope grunted as she had to pull her flesh back in place so the rather large wound to her chest would heal. "It doesn't help anyone, just annoys the people that are attempting to help you."

"He nearly fired a hole through your chest," Pepper had long lost her calm as she stared at Hope with wide eyes while Tony Stark was off fighting his pseudo-uncle—Hope honestly couldn't understand why people actually wanted to save people when all they seemed to do was scream in fear and/or run.

"Well I'm still alive and you don't see me screaming from this, do you?" Hope asked as she grimaced down at her chest as it finished healing—she would be flashing people her small breasts as her healing didn't extend to her clothing, it was lucky that she had no real shame when it came to her body as that something Hydra quickly got rid of and something she didn't really have in her first life. "This is just perfect."

She glanced up at the older woman that was still scared and panicked.

"Oi, can we go inside and attempt to find something to help your boss?" she asked because she didn't appreciate the cool wind brushing against her bare chest.

Coulson handed me his blazer so I was covered as we went up to see if Stark had survived. He had, barely though, but I wasn't surprised by his stunt.

Tony Stark always had a suicidal disregard when it came to his life—anyone who had watched the movies would agree with me.

I found I liked Stark as much in real-life as I did when I just watched the movies and reading the comics.

Pepper was still too overwhelmed to banter with the man as his new/old reactor was shoved into his chest and he was completely fascinated by my metal-arm—babbling on about how he would make another arm for me as my arm was completely out-of-date and he could totally make it better.

I challenged him to make me an arm that I could unleash a knife/sword like Edward Elric, he smirked from a pale face as he accepted the challenge.

"You didn't really think he would keep to the script?" Hope snorted as she glanced at Fury as he gritted his teeth in annoyance. "You should fire the person that wrote that shit, it was flimsy at best and people aren't completely stupid. They would realise that Tony Stark and Ironman was one and the same sooner or later, probably."

"Your faith in your fellow humans is astounding," Fury drawled out as he glanced down to where she was casually lounging on Stark's couch like she owned it—despite the fact it probably cost as much as her laptop and DS cost added together.

"You couldn't have believed he would stick to the script since we are here," she pointed out. "I think you've been a little harsh on Jarvis."

"It's an A.I," he shot back.

"He was created by Tony Stark which meant he probably has emotions of his own and you've just raped him to get inside his home," she frowned up at him as he glared down at her.

"It's," he stressed. "Is not human."

"He's still probably Stark's baby and he'll get you for this," she glared at him when he snorted. "Am I the only one that sees that he could destroy you without his new suit? He's a billionaire that can probably hack the pentagon and has the ear of the whole American press as soon as he leaves his home, he could out you to the world, destroy your credit rating and give you a criminal record a mile long—though it wouldn't be far from the truth really."

Fury crossed his arms across his broad chest and glowered down at her.

Fury and I had a complex relationship with little-to-no-trust between us. Without Fury, without SHIELD, I would be no-one with not even a penny to my name and would probably still be under Duerr's hands and owned almost everything I claimed as my own—they basically owned me too.

They did shady dealings I didn't care for and would have done without being part of, catered too much to the bastards that were the World Council, had the cancer of Hydra deep in its heart and brain and didn't do enough to help my family—the mutants of the Xavier's.

Fury was a spy so I distrusted him for that alone.

He didn't trust me because I had spent two years with Hydra—despite the fact he knew I hated them and would help him destroy them when he decided the time had come—and I was one of the few things that could kill him as I wouldn't stop even he placed a bullet into my head—or as far as the metal that was my skull would let it. I was too compromised by my relationships with various mutants, had no real loyalty for SHIELD and was too unpredictable for him to really feel comfortable around.

But we would work together because of our mutually hatred of Hydra, our determination for their destruction, our respect for being survivors and my respect for his determination to actually protect people and his respect for how far I would go to protect myself and those I cared about.

He respected how self-serving I could be—Katherine Pierce from Vampire Dairies had a good motto 'better you than me'—and I could respect that despite all the shit he had seen and been through, he still wanted to protect people and world.

I could appreciate his secrets and he could appreciate my own—though he would always be miffed by the fact that he couldn't find out my secrets.