Okay! It gets a little brutal in this one, so prepare yourselves. I wouldn't be me if I didn't torture them a lot.

Dez10d2Rite: I'm sorry! I got a good idea, and couldn't stop! But thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Hannah: Don't worry, I don't mind repetitive! I'm glad you're liking it! And yes, Sam lives at the tower. I was going to have him live elsewhere, but that got a little too complicated. So he lives at the tower.

Tiphanie: Yes, and you'll be seeing more of them! HYDRA did treat her badly. You'll see more of that in the coming chapters. Actually, probably through the whole story, knowing me. And you could never hide my laptop, I will find it. I'm like a bloodhound when you take my child from me!

Gilyflower: Yay! I'm glad!

Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967: I'm glad!

Enjoy!

Bucky dreamed of her that night. He was curled up against Steve's chest, but his mind was elsewhere. He was fighting her, beating her to a pulp. She wouldn't hit him back, wouldn't fight him. He wanted to yell at her to hit him, defend herself, but she took every punch. Every hit. Even when he threw her against the wall, denting the drywall with her body. He stood over her, watching her cough up blood, too weak to move. He raised his foot, ready to deliver what would have been the final blow, before he jolted awake, tearing from Steve's arms. He leaned over the bed, coughing and dry heaving. Steve was there, rubbing his back, comforting him. But he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't just a dream. That he had met her before, and beat her to a pulp, nearly killing her.

He thought of confronting her the next day, but talked himself out of it. She was fairly shaken up, and seemed almost mad at herself for showing such weakness in front of them. It resonated with him deeper than he had expected. Being afraid to show emotions because of HYDRA's programming. Having that inner knowing that showing emotion meant more torture. More pain. He didn't tell Steve, knowing Steve would get hard headed and would confront her about it. He could have just imagined the whole thing. Or it could have just been something shifting back into place after she'd dug around in his arm. But also, part of him knew it wasn't that simple. Nothing was simple with HYDRA involved.

Anna spent most of the day in her room anyways. Tony had finally gotten one put together, and she'd moved her few belongings in. Tony had gone a little overboard later, ordering her things, making sure his new assistant would have everything she needed. Anna looked uncomfortable, standing by the genius whose mind worked at a mile a minute. She looked a little overwhelmed, something Clint had observed, choosing that moment to drop from the vent in the hallway, nearly giving Anna a heart attack. Clint could have sworn he saw her hands glowing for a second, but he didn't say anything about it, instead apologizing for scaring the bejesus out of the girl Tony was terrorizing.

"What do you want, Barton?" Tony asked, not bothering to look up from his tablet.

"Well, no one bothered to introduce me, so I thought I'd do it myself."

"Well, we haven't had time for that." Tony said. "She just kind of snuck into our lives."

"I'm Clint." He said, holding his hand out to Anna, ignoring Tony.

Clint Barton, codename: Hawkeye. Target level six. SHIELD Agent, level 7. He'd been her target once. But she'd been called back, something about New Mexico. Her fingers started tingling as she stared at him, wide eyed. She closed her fists, moving her hands like she was going to hide them behind her back.

Clint dropped his hand, noticing her tense posture. Tony finally looked up, watching the two analyze each other. He noted Anna's defensive posture, the way her hands were hidden behind her back.

"Barton, stop terrorizing my new assistant."

"New assistant? When did that happen?" Barton asked, looking between the two.

"Night before last, when she got here. Did you know she managed to scale the building, break into Frostbite's room and make it down to the labs without JARVIS noticing?" He pointed his stylus at Clint's chest. "Can you scale the building from the outside?"

"A little spider, huh?" He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at Anna. "I'll have to watch my vents now."

"Get out, Barton and let us work." Tony said, pushing him to the door. He closed it, giving them some privacy. Anna was still tense, hiding her hands as she eyed the door. "I can open it back up. But I can't guarantee that Barton is gone."

"I was supposed to kill him, once." She said quietly, still eyeing the door. "He got too close to HYDRA intell on a SHIELD mission. They wanted me to take him out, but he got called away on a different mission."

Tony looked from Anna, to the door, then back. "Well, I'm sure lots of people have tried to kill him. Just as long as you don't try again…" He gave her a look.

She seemed to snap out of whatever phase she'd been in. "I don't do that anymore." She shook her head. "I left HYDRA for a reason." She stared down at her hands.

"Hey, you'll be okay, kiddo." He said, offering her a smile. "You're in one of the safest buildings in the world. You've got nothing to worry about."

She wished she could return the smile. She wished she could believe him. But she learned a long time ago not to trust a hope. Not to have hope.

1972

Her head was pounding. She could feel the blood rushing from her broken nose, taste the blood as it slid along her lips, gravity pulling it down towards her chin to drip on her shirt. Or maybe it was coming from her mouth. Her face was slowly going numb with every punch, but she could feel the cold metal as it wrapped around her throat, lifting her off the ground. Her back hit the wall behind her, knocking the wind from her lungs. She choked around the hand, kicking at the body, and scratching at the metal forearm, but nothing phased him.

The guard outside the room moved to open the doors, call the soldier off, but he was stopped by the doctor. They shared a look, before turning back to watch the pair. She was getting weaker, the oxygen deprivation getting to her brain. The two men watched as her hands started to glow, yellow light enveloping the skin, before she reared back, hitting the soldier in the center of the chest.

He released her, flying back across the room. Anna hit the floor on her hands and knees, choking and coughing as air rushed back into her lungs. She didn't look at the soldier where he writhed and clawed at the ground, pain rushing through his very nerve endings. It was like he was getting wiped again, white hot pain surging through his head, and the rest of his body. His arm felt like lead, the skin attached to the metal at his shoulder burning.

Anna sobbed, tears and bloody snot dripping from her nose as she listened to him scream in agony. She didn't want to hurt anyone. The doctor came in, flanked by the guards. The guards split, one following the doctor to the soldier, the other approaching Anna. He pulled out his stun baton, hitting her in the side with it, making her scream as it electrocuted her.

"Get up." The guard spat, watching her writhe pitifully on the floor. "I said, get up." He kicked her in the side, making her nearly vomit from the pain.

Anna rolled to her hands and knees, using the wall to stand, her arm wrapped around her stomach, hand holding her side. She stumbled from the room, using the wall to hold herself up. Apparently she wasn't moving quick enough, the guard pushing her from behind. She lost her footing, falling to the floor again. The guard cursed at her, kicking her in the side, screaming at her to get up. She couldn't in far too much pain to move at all.

The guard grumbled something, grabbing a fistful of her hair and dragging her along towards her cell. She cried out, trying to get her feet under her, but she couldn't. She reached up, grabbing his wrist, her hand glowing. The guard stopped, releasing her as burning pain ripped through him. He cried out, screaming as his body burned, blood pouring from his ears, nose and from his eyes. He choked, blood spewing from his mouth as his skin started to bubble. He was seizing, a final scream leaving his lips before his body exploded, painting the halls, and Anna, with blood.

Guards ran at her from all sides, tackling her, forcing the collar around her neck, electrocuting her as her powers still corsed through her body. She screamed, writhing as hands gripped her arms, dragging her from the mess of blood and organs in the hallway. Tears fell down her cheeks, leaving trails in the blood as she stared at what she'd done, the image implanted in her mind as the guards turned the corner, taking her away to more pain.