One small team comes back after a few days, empty-handed like I had expected. So now, on top of Barnes, I have the Maximoff twins, Captain America, and Bruce Banner back at the Avenger Tower with me.

I haven't felt up to causing trouble, and I'm rewarded for my unusually good behavior. I'm still chaperoned though, with everyone taking turns. Barnes is the one who escorts me to the kitchen, where there are sparse Avengers getting something to eat.

Wanda Maximoff regards me carefully, like she's ready to blast me into the nearest wall or knock me out, or mess with my head. Her brother is beside her, making nanosecond movements: brushing his platinum blond hair; cracking stiff joints. I hear his foot thump like a rabbit's against the floor.

"Got jitters there, Thumper?" I ask him as I break away from Barnes to help myself to generic brand cereal. I hear his foot stop. "Wow, rough crowd this morning," I mumble. "So, remind me again where the others are?"

"A few went to Canada to check out a lead," says Bruce from behind his newspaper he's got in front of him. Who even reads the paper anymore? "The rest are picking up a lead in Guam. Your friends are pretty spread out, Aurora."

I sniff noncommittally, chewing my slowly-sogging cereal in thought. So far, one team has been unsuccessful. I wonder who they tried to nab. Clearly, whoever it was, they didn't do any damage. None that I can see anyway.

There's no chance of the Avengers lying about coming back empty-handed. They don't seem like the type, but I've been wrong before. My parents had deceived me, and I thought they always told me everything.

"And you say you have no idea what they're up to?" Captain America asks me, though right now, he's just Steve Rogers, not donning the spangled outfit.

"No idea," I confirm. "I wasn't valued enough to learn all of their plans. Even if I was, I wouldn't tell you."

"You are putting loyalty to the wrong people," Wanda Maximoff comments softly.

"So you think I should join you and act like you guys didn't abduct me? Like you didn't knock me out against a tree?" I look at her accusingly. "Sweetheart, I hold grudges."

"It isn't wise to hold them," says Wanda's brother. "You have something against my sister, then you have something against me too."

I roll my eyes. "I'm not afraid of either of you."

Bruce's tablet on the table starts beeping, and we get our daily lives interrupted.

"We struck out," says Black Widow. "They got away. I'm assuming you guys struck out too?"

"Hydra two, Avengers zero," I whisper under my breath.

"Did you lose them?" asks Rogers.

"Yeah, they took out their chip once they realized how we found them. We might lose that one for good. We'll be at the tower in a few hours. How's our snow queen doing?"

"Not you too," I groan. "First Stark, and now you."

"So we have no clues, no enhanced people to get information from," Bruce says slowly. "We're striking out."

"Strike three, and it's game over," I sing.

"No, this isn't stopping at strike three," says Black Widow. "We're going to find them. We just need to approach this in a better manner."

"Yeah, that would be backing off."

"If there are potential global threats running around, letting them run free is the last thing that we want to do. Once we regroup, we'll come up with a better approach."

"Oh, I'd love to sit in on that, just to see how stupid your ideas are."

"She's getting comfortable, isn't she?"

"A lot more than expected."

"Well, continue to be on your 'best behavior' until the rest of us come back. See you all later."

I roll my eyes. I hate being treated like a child here. But I have a view, something that I didn't have before. I have proper food. Not the best company. Not the same company. Not family.

And, lately, I haven't thought about being retrieved.

It hurts me, that my parents could let this happen. I'm their only daughter! But do they see me as that, with the tests I've undergone? If anyone was to, it'd be Dad. Mother had a switch turned in her when I became a test subject.

"Want to get some more training in, kid?" Barnes asks me.

"I'm not a kid, I'm twenty-eight."

He chuckles hollowly. "You're a kid to me, just like the Maximoffs are. Come on."

Reluctantly, I follow Barnes to one of the training rooms. This one's different from the last one I'd been in. It feels more advanced.

"What are we doing here?"

He goes to a panel, pressing buttons. I watch as the room transforms through holograms. He thumbs through a few different locations before settling on a post-apocalyptic scene. "Let's see how you fare."

"How does this work, exactly?" I cross my arms. Everything looks very authentic even though I know that's not the case.

"You survive by any means necessary." Barnes crosses to me, handing me some sort of wristwatch. "Since you'll have people trying to kill you, when you get hit, you'll feel a small shock through your system. But that's only for weapons. Normal combat wise, you'll feel an ache through your body. Tries to make it as real as possible for you."

"How can I hit the enemy if they're holograms?"

"That's the thing about this technology. If you get a hit, the holograms react like how real people would. I'll admit it's kinda cool. I've always been fascinated with things like this."

"Ah, so you're a tech geek?"

Barnes rolls his eyes. "Strap this on and get ready, Taylor."

"I don't like being called that."

"Oh, you're doing this training with her," comes Steve Rogers' voice as he enters the room. "Mind if I join?"

"Go ahead," says Barnes. "Let's see how she fares out in the real world."

"Hologram world," I cough into my hand. "Did the others not want a piece of this?"

"Training isn't Bruce's thing, he's working on your other enhanced friends," reports Rogers. "The Maximoffs are helping him in the search."

"Is this to distract me from what you're failing to do?" I ask.

"It's not," Barnes speaks up. "It's to see what we're dealing with."

"Gee, if that doesn't make me sound like a monster or an experiment, then I don't know what does."

"Alright, Taylor. Time to put up or shut up."

Barnes pushes a few last buttons, and he and Rogers strap on their wristwatches. I lick my lips as I pull mine on.

We fan out in different places of the hologram, no weapons at all. So, this is just hand-to-hand. Okay. Don't know why we need all the theatrics when I can just kick their asses on my own. I don't need to hurt holograms to prove myself. Even though it's just holograms, I try and treat this like it's real.

They come, a slew of armed people, men and women, raining hologram gunfire over us. My instinct is to duck. I watch as Barnes and Rogers do the same, but slowly move forward, taking one gunman out at a time.

I snort. He never said I couldn't use my powers.

I fling a shot of ice at a female gunman. It's a direct hit, and almost as though it's real, she goes off her feet, landing on the ground. I smirk, but then cry out as I feel a small shock to my system. What was that for?!

"Oh, yeah, no powers allowed," Barnes calls from another area of the fight. "Got to keep it fair for them."

"How is that fair for me?!"

"Like I told Maximoff," I watch as a hologram gets knocked aside near him, "don't become dependent on your powers."

"I'm not dependent on them!"

"Says the girl who actually has powers."

I receive another shock to my system. In my quip with Barnes, I've had a holographic bullet hit me. The sting jars me.

The training goes on for a solid forty-five minutes before the simulation is over. I know I fare the worst out of the three of us. My body is twitching, I received the most shocks to my system. I'm not surprised, though, because Rogers and Barnes have done this before. They've adapted.

I can't deny I'm pissed at myself for being so careless. But that's what happens when my powers are restricted

"If these had a passcode, we'd probably keep yours on you," Barnes says seriously.

"Afraid I'll freeze you in two-thousand and fifteen, Barnes?" I say wisely as I hand over my wristwatch.

Something makes him flinch, I'm not quite sure what.

I get these two as my personal bodyguards, and I find myself following them. I don't know where we go, not until we find Bruce Banner among a multitude of computer screens.

"Any luck?" asks Rogers.

I lick my lips, eyes glancing over each computer screen. Names of my fellow prison mates. Genevieve. Kyle. Ruby. Others that I've never met before.

"None, but I might have something in a few hours," Bruce reports, rubbing his face out of exhaustion.

"Where are the children you're supposed to babysit?" I snicker.

"They took a break."

"Have you not taken a break, Bruce?" asks Rogers.

"Can't really when you've got people like her running around the world."

"How original," I deadpan. "If you need me, I'll be dying of boredom in my room."

"Hold on a second, Aurora." Bruce turns to me. "I know you don't want to help, but, would you know any preferred places any of your fellow enhanced would be?"

"We didn't discuss travel plans, Banner," I say sharply. "The only thing we bonded over was the mutual hatred for the Avengers." On that blunt note, I leave before the three men can stop me.