With the time passing quickly and being here for weeks, even getting to know the twins as if we've known them forever it's taking a long time to adjust, which is normal. I need clarification almost every other day from Archie that we're going to be okay so I don't freak out. I of course believe him, neither of us actually knowing that things will pan out as we hope but the reassurance from my best friend helps. However on this particular night about a week later I'm a mess, trying to sleep but I can't because I feel drained out and hopeless. My mind races, I feel everyone's emotions now that I'm out of the bracelet permanently and it's affecting me more than usual.

I'm so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open as Archie holds onto me for support. It's not quite early, but not super late either as everyone seems to still be awake at this time, tonight being different from the others because I'm not able to fall asleep as fast as I usually do with everything swarming me at once. I'm shivering under my covers from how cold I am yet I'm dripping in sweat as if I have a fever.

"I got you, Mads." Archie whispers in my ear, my arms wrapped around him for dear life with my head resting on his chest.

"Madison?" The voice of Wanda's Sokovian accent echoes into my ears at an alarming amount of noise, knowing she's standing at the door. She must have sensed me.

I have my eyes closed, trying to calm down because the emotions and voices are worse than they've been in the past, not only because a few days ago Strucker finally seemed satisfied to not have to rely on the bracelets anymore to keep us obedient, but because I'm stressed out than normal so it's allowing me to project all of the soldiers' emotions at a higher rate. I'm obviously used to hearing and feeling everything at once, being hard to get around sometimes but it hasn't overwhelmed me this badly in a while.

"I.. can't today, Wanda." I say through gritted teeth, needing her to go away. "It...hurts." Indicating that I have a migraine that's progressively getting more noticeable, and now that both her and Archie are here the sick feeling I have is worse. "I feel it all."

I can faintly hear her steps as she comes in now, "Breathe." She says gently, her voice soothing and calm. "This is the first time you've had your powers fully projected more than hours at a time for over a month. It's flooding back at once and you need to get used to it again."

I take a hard breath, one of my hands now pressing against my head like my skull is going to crack. "Make it stop."

"It will once you remember how to control it." She says and I feel a slight indent when the bed goes down a bit.

I jump slightly from the sudden shift in my movement, but I feel Archie grip onto me a little more with reassuring words, then I open my eyes finally and see that she's kneeling on the floor beside my bed with her arms resting on the mattress and her face close to mine with concern in her eyes. "No...I need you to make it stop." I'm practically begging now.

She takes a soft breath, her hand shifting to my head and rubs my hair gently. "If I do that you won't learn."

I groan loudly from the pain now, my fingers digging into my scalp. "Wanda...please?"

Her eyes are sad, still rubbing my head. "Okay." She says in a hushed voice, almost sounding heartbroken even. "Just relax."

My teeth chatter a bit from freezing but I nod to her words, watching her with tearful eyes as her free hand gently comes to my forehead, placing her thumb to it and I see her hand starting to glow with a warmth that fills around my head where my brain is. That's when I feel the headache slowly seeping away till it's just a soft throb, and the voices subside to a whisper.

She pulls her hand away now and sets it onto my arm, seeming to notice the difference as I pull my own hand away from my head and I sigh gently. "Better?"

I take a deep breath and nod, my eyes droopy from being drained. "Much."

She smiles softly and rubs my head. She shifts her eyes to Archie for a second before going back to me, concerned but some relief behind them. "You can't rely on me to do that everytime you get overwhelmed, okay? It won't help you make progress."

I nod slowly, my body slacking a bit now. "I know. It's just… I couldn't handle it."

"You can though. The universe wouldn't have given you these powers if you weren't able to."

I close my eyes, no longer able to keep them open. "The universe has some cruel way of making me suffer."

She doesn't say anything and I'm slightly worried that I said something wrong. But then I hear her humming in a soft tone and realize that she's trying to help me sleep. I won't lie, this does help because the next thing I know I'm drifting off and the world goes quiet.

...

A few days pass and I'm in the training room one night with the boys and Wanda. The twins figured it would be better to train on our terms when it's late knowing that Strucker and the other soldiers wouldn't be around to distract us or tell us what to do. So they basically dragged us out of our rooms and into training at 10pm, being aware of the times the soldiers tend to do their rounds. I'm very unfocused from being tired but don't argue, knowing we wouldn't get much freedom like this often because the majority of the time Strucker's team have a close eye on myself and Archie for obvious reasons of not fully trusting us yet, even if Strucker does. So right now Pietro and Archie are working on his freezing power again while I'm with Wanda trying to focus on blocking her out of my mind.

The other night helped us get closer, as if it was possible to be anymore than we already were. But her constant help with my powers and being protective of me has me know she has my back and I can trust her more than anyone outside of Archie. Which I'll admit is a refreshing thing to know that I have someone to turn to when Archie isn't around.

As we train she eventually tells me that she has something in mind to help me expand more. Not only does she want to train me for blocking someone out of my head but she wants me to be able to read someone's mind from a distance. I can hear thoughts from close range, 15 feet is usually my max, but if I keep backing away and ending up farther I can try to adapt myself to read minds from more than that. After I learn these last steps to my magic I should have full control of my powers.

"Breathe." Wanda's Sokovian accent travels to my mind from where she's sitting on the couch 15 feet away with her eyes on me.

I take a breath, staring back with skepticism. "Fifteen feet seems like a good distance to hear people, Wanda. It's rare to need it for further."

"I know." She smiles at me, "But it doesn't hurt to practice longer distances. You never know when you might need it."

It's so late by this point that I feel like I'm crashing, however I nod because she's not wrong. "Okay."

She smiles at me and then tells me to take a decent extra step back from where I am and try to read her mind.

I nod and do as she asks, pressing my lips together for a second before I close my eyes and focus my power on her. I keep breathing to relax, willing myself to sense her. For a split second I hear her voice in my head, telling me to breathe and concentrate. But then it fades away in the middle of her sentence on how she knows I can do it.

I feel a soft throb of pain to my head as I lose her voice, "Damn it." I whisper to myself as I open my eyes and I shake my head at her when I stare her way.

"It's okay." She says in my mind because she's more advanced enough to still talk to me Telepathically from where she's sitting. "We'll try again in the morning."

I groan and rub my forehead from another headache, this one a little more noticeable. This tends to happen whenever I overuse my power, or in this case since my brain isn't equipped to take in thoughts from that far yet it hurts. "Mm... Wanda…" I physically say to her painfully.

"I'm sorry." She says, a hint of worry in her voice. "I forgot."

I take a breath from the pain, a split second of blurry vision before I sigh and walk over to her. When I get to the couch I slump onto the cushion beside her.

She gives me a sad look and rubs my head gently in another apology. "I didn't mean to give you a headache."

I lean into her touch and take a breath, "It's your job to teach me. It just feels useless." I rub my forehead again from the aftermath.

She pouts then switches her hand to my forehead and rubs in between my eyebrows with her thumb, feeling a surge of her power seep into my head a bit.

I close my eyes when she does this, the headache somewhat going away. "Thanks." I smile at her, "Your powers are amazing."

She smiles back at me and then pulls her hand away, "It's a gift... literally."

I laugh softly at her joke and then notice Pietro is walking over, so I look at him. "Hey."

He smiles at me and stands in front of us, "You look like hell."

I shake my head and laugh a bit, "I'm exhausted. Can't get my power to go past fifteen feet."

"Learning something new is always going to take time, Maddie. You don't pick things up overnight."

"You guys practically did. You've had powers in less time than me and Archie have and you guys are able to control it better."

Pietro smiles at me before plopping on my other side as he wipes sweat off of his face with a towel, "That's what we make you believe, but it's really not that simple."

I smile back at him, "So you're acting cool, calm and collected?"

Now he laughs and shrugs a bit, "Possibly."

"Plus, you said it yourself." Wanda chimes in now, "You grew up in a coven where you were mostly reading about your powers rather than using them. That takes away from the experience of growth."

"Wise words, Maximoffs." Archie walks over now, his shirt soaked in sweat. "Wise words."

The twins both smile at him, "It's bound to happen on occasion." Pietro says playfully.

"Well considering you guys have been teaching us practically on your own since day one, being wise is definitely more than occasional." I add.

Pietro stares at me and smiles before rubbing my head, "I appreciate the confidence."

I smile a bit to his hand on my head, feeling the same comfort I do when Archie does it. Plus it helps with the headache that is still lingering. "Just stating a fact."

Now Archie squeezes himself next to Wanda so that all four of us are on the couch, then he stares around. "I wish we were able to leave the compound though. I'm bored just training."

"Now you know why we ran off the day we met." Wanda says as she looks beside her to him, resting her elbow onto his shoulder. "Seventeen year olds doing nothing but training? Not ideal for teens."

He nods in agreement, "I can't argue with that. Us being nineteen is no different."

She brings her elbow off of his shoulder and stares over at her brother. There's mischief in her eyes and I'm convinced they are having their own twin conversation as they look at both of us now.

"Wanna raise hell before we go to bed?" Pietro asks, smirking.

"Oh I'm afraid to even know what you're going to say." I half laugh as I look at him with a raised eyebrow.

He laughs and waves a hand, "Just a prank on Commander Strucker is all."

Now my heart sinks, "That sounds like a horrible idea."

"But we're in." Archie adds with a gleeful smirk.

...

Let's just say that the prank on Strucker was not anything huge, just something to pass the time and have some fun. Pietro snuck into Strucker's room with a few rolls of toilet paper and teepeed the whole space while Archie sprayed some whipped cream on his hand. I added to the mix by drawing a sharpie mustache with a curl at the ends while Wanda added a circle around the eye he doesn't use the monocle glasses and basically added a face for whenever he'd close his eye. Not very creative, but hey, we're kids and bored.

Strucker knew right away it was us when he woke up and saw all the insanity in his room in the morning. He practically had us pulled out of bed and now we are sitting in his office, trying not to laugh at his markerstache. "So this is the way you act when we're trying to train you all into our military?" He says in a stern tone, but it's hard to take him seriously with the drawings on his face. What once was one eye covered in a circle from the monocle turned into two circles since Wanda drew on the other one.

We all look at each other as he paces back and forth in front of us, his arms behind his back. Then I press my lips together and stare back at him, "We're sorry."

"Sorry? You know how hard it is to get the soldiers to take children seriously?"

"Ever thought that maybe we just want to be kids every once in a while?"

He glares at me a bit, making me slump in my seat. "There's no room for errors here, Madison. Any of us getting free time isn't on the cards when America keeps expanding their army with people like the Avengers."

Obviously this is a soft spot for me and Archie since we are American, but we know better than to argue. We know what our country put this one through and we have no right to protest against their beliefs when we caused it.

"And you two." He stares at the twins, "You've never done anything like this before. You've always taken the cause seriously."

I look at the twins now and see their faces drop slightly, as if they know he's right.

"We're just bored, Baron." Archie gets in now, "Training for hours a day with nothing else to do for all this time is bound to give us an itch up our butts for something different."

He looks at my best friend for a few long seconds before a slight smile comes to his face and sets his arms to his sides, which surprises us. "I understand."

I raise an eyebrow, confused. He's the boss of the compound but is being way too calm about it. We get that he feels we are like his kids but he also treats us like equals and gives the same aspect to us as he would his other soldiers, so this is odd. "You do?"

He nods and pats his chin a bit, "You're teenagers, it's understandable to not be totally focused."

I'm almost positive he's pulling our legs now, this isn't a typical commander move. I feel a consequence coming.

"When you're not training with each other you'll be on duty with the soldiers until dinner time. But you have to do what they say no matter what."

Oh God that sounds worse than training, but we all nod in agreement knowing we could have had a bigger punishment. "Yes, sir." We all say at the same time.

"You're dismissed." He says now, staring at himself in a mirror with a slight snarl on his face. He does look heated and if it had been anyone else I think we would have been in bigger trouble. "Report to Raphael and Mischa."

We get to our feet and stand straight like soldiers with a nod and then leave his office. Archie is the last one out as he closes the door behind him and then we all walk down the hall in silence. I turn my gaze to Archie who's now walking beside me and he stares back, his brown eyes twinkling with a tight smile on his face as if he's trying not to lose it. This makes me have to turn away from him otherwise I'll end up laughing. What a priceless situation.

...

While in the middle of our "punishment" with Raphael and Mischa I hear Wanda in my head. Her and Pietro ended up with Mischa to make sure all the weapons are where they should be while me and Archie are doing rounds around the compound. We are obviously not in the same room, which confuses me as I notice she's singing and my mouth slightly drops. I realize quickly that I'm reading her mind without trying, making progress without meaning to. But like the night before I get the same throbbing pain in my head.

Wanda being farther away the headache is worse than it had been while training with her last night and even a louder ringing echoes. It feels like it's surrounding me as I grasp my ears from how loud it is and end up leaning onto the wall beside me, closing my eyes from the pain.

A hand grabs onto my arm as if trying to make sure I don't fall and I faintly hear someone calling my name. The ringing in my ears is so loud that I can't completely hear who is talking until I open my eyes to see that it's Raphael. Then Archie pops up beside me and I take a hard breath just as Wanda's voice goes away and the ringing subsides.

Once the sounds are gone I pull my hands away from my ears, panting slightly. "I think I did it." I say in pain.

Archie shakes his head in confusion as he stares into my eyes with worry, "Did what?"

"I read Wanda's mind from here."

He blinks slowly then smiles, "Wait. You were practicing?"

I half laugh and shake my head, which hurts for a second since the headache hasn't gone away. "No. I think the fact I wasn't trying so hard had my power connect on its own."

Raphael let's go of me now and sets his hand to my shoulder. "That's how you react to hearing people in your mind?" He asks in his deep Sokovian accent, concerned that this is normal.

I half laugh and take a breath, "Only when the person I'm receiving thoughts from is farther than fifteen feet."

"And Wanda is well beyond that right now." Archie adds, rubbing my head now in comfort.

"But it's progress." I take another breath and get off of the wall, "Which is a start."

Archie softly smiles, "I think you need a drink" he laughs a bit.

I laugh back and nod slowly, "And an Advil."

Raphael watches us both for a few seconds before grunting a bit, the way most of the soldiers do when they are in charge. "One more floor and you both can go." He still sounds concerned, so I'm sure he's trying to help.

We both nod to him in unison, "Thank you, sir."

He nods back to us and then walks ahead of us down the hallway.

"We gotta tell your parents that you did it." Archie whispers as we follow behind him now.

I nod in agreement, "I'll call them tonight."