SOFIA WAS FROZEN. She's been staring at James Barnes for the past thirty seconds. It's a wonder how no one's noticed it yet. This was not supposed to be happening. What if he remembers her face? She was only supposed to interact with him from behind a mask, but now she has to be friendly.

Sofia forced her breathing back to neutral. She would not let herself panic in front of them. Her ego would not allow it. She blinked and blinked again. She moved her fingers from their frozen state. Sofia was making herself calm down.

She even forced a few words out as she felt a pinch of sweat dripping back her neck. "Hello, I'm Valentina," she swallowed, "Apex." This was the first time in years that Sofia has felt scared. She had no idea how to proceed from here.

Natasha came up to her first, still a cautious glint in her eye. "You're a lot younger than Tony described."

Sofia made a chuckle come out. Tony threw his hands up, "I told you she was sixteen!"

Now it was James' turn.

His metal arm was wrapped around the same place Sofia shot a bullet at him. It seems that even with super strength and fast healing, wounds still take a bit to heal. With his other hand- his human hand- he extended it out for Sofia to take. "Hi, I'm Bucky."

Any sign of resentment or hesitation could end this entire rouse so Sofia had to comply. "Val," she replied, taking his hand.

He looked back up at Tony, "I still don't know why you let a kid on to the team like that Spider kid," Bucky shook his head.

Now Sofia was mad. Not only was he a disgrace to be in the same room with, but he's also questioning her own skills?! "I'm capable of everything you are," she snapped back, not meaning to.

Her eyes widened instantly. She did not think before saying that. She just screwed herself over.

Natasha was the first to react. She crossed her arms with a subtle smirk and amused expression, "Oh I like her much better than the Spider kid already."

"Great, another kid with attitude problems," Bucky sighed. Kids were obviously not his forte. He just didn't understand them at all. They're much weirder than the kids from the 40s.

Sofia was glad to know she could have an attitude around them.

Her heart rate had finally calmed down and her eyes relaxed. She was no longer in a fixed position but felt confident enough to move her limbs around. Seeing Bucky was a shock, a nasty one at that, but it would not slow her down. If anything, it made her mission easier to complete.

She thought of all the ways she could kill him without blinking an eye. What would it be? Poison in his food? Accident while training? Burn him alive while he's sleeping?

Sofia knew that both Barnes and Romanoff were skeptical of her, but the best way to hurt them would be to gain their trust and then backstab them. She just hadn't planned on gaining Bucky's trust at all.

The first drop of doubt poured into her head. It was the first time she doubted herself in ages.

If breathing was hard around Barnes, how was she supposed to be friendly?

Sofia brought her hand up, making it seem like she was awkwardly rubbing her neck when in reality she was drying away the anxious sweat. Then, she held both of her hands in order to stop them from visibly shaking.

The nerves were hitting her, hard.

"Steve, why don't you take him to our medical center? There we can wrap him up better than you did at his apartment," Tony said, leading the way. Sofia decided to go directly after him, not wanting to be anywhere near James Barnes.

With a small nod, both Steve and Bucky left the room. Sofia subconsciously let out a quiet and relaxed exhale.

Natasha who was standing right behind the girl eyed her weirdly, "You seem stressed."

Sofia bit her tongue. She hadn't realized her mistake. She quickly thought of a response. "Oh, it's just that I grew up watching you guys on TV, and seeing you all in person is...heavy. I guess I'm just anxious, is all."

Dumb response, but it was all she had at the moment.

Natasha only seemed partially convinced. She, to some degree, understood what it was like to meet your heroes, but something more seemed to be going on with Sofia. Or maybe it was just her trust issues. Natasha didn't know.

"Stop patronizing the kid," Tony rolled his eyes, opening the door to the training room. When he had first showed Sofia this room, she had gotten so excited to use it one day. "Val, today we wanted to test your skills."

He paused. "You'll be fighting against Nat."

Sofia hid the smile that wanted to creep onto her face. She has studied every single public footage of Natasha's fighting techniques and memorized them. Sofia knew her attacks, defenses, and even distraction methods.

The two girls walked up to the weapons stand. Each was able to grab a weapon of their choice.

"And since both of you enjoy the use of handguns, I specially designed these to be completely harmless for training moments like these," Tony handed the two of them a gun. "Basically, they're like nerf guns."

"Really?" Sofia allowed herself to ask.

"Yes, you're welcome."

She loaded the fake gun, "And can I use my powers?" By 'powers' she meant her contact lenses.

Tony looked at Natasha knowing she was the only one who could answer that question. She shrugged her shoulders, "Have at it, I've faced worse."

Sofia smirked, "I promise I'll try not to kill you." Oh, she wanted to kill her, badly. Sofia brushed her hair back behind her ears since she didn't have a hair tie, and brought her fists up to a fighting stance position. One of them protected her face and the other her gut. In her holster, she had put the gun on the left side of her hip. Sofia had also decided not to take off her boots as they could serve to her advantage in kicking.

"Thanks, means a lot." Natasha blew a piece of blonde hair away from her eyes.

Natasha was wearing jeans and a regular top- an outfit much more casual than Sofia's. "Is it fair that I have to fight in a skirt?"

"No, but fights will never be fair. Point is to learn how to level the playing field," the blonde shared her first words of wisdom with the younger girl.

Sofia swung first, aiming for Natasha's side. The Avenger easily dodged, grabbed her arm, and twisted it. This was exactly what Sofia wanted, to distract her opponent. While Natasha was busy grabbing Sofia's arm, she used that point of a second to use her elbow and strike Nat's neck.

Natasha barely felt the punch, having felt much worse. With her arm still holding onto Sofia's, she dragged her down and wrapped her legs around Sofia's neck. With that momentum, Natasha was able to slam her to the floor.

Classic Black Widow move, Sofia thought. And, she had learned how to perfectly recover from it.

Without hesitation, Sofia continued the roll and directed her legs to swiftly hit Natasha out of the chokehold. Sofia recovered and swept her leg under Nat's. The blonde managed to anticipate the move and jumped over it.

Sofia grumbled softly. She placed a foot onto Natasha's bent leg and used it to propel her other leg up, shoving it into Nat's face.

"You're good, kid," Natasha shook her head. Just when Sofia thought the fight had ended, Natasha bashed her head against the brunette's making Sofia lose balance. She ducked the response right hook and kicked her gut.

Sofia was not happy anymore. It seemed that with no matter how much you study Natasha Romanoff, there was no guessing her moves. Sofia was trying to play nice and not use her powers, but decided it was time for a change.

Sofia jumped up and into a roundhouse kick, knowing Natasha would take the bait. She stopped the kick, as predicted, but this time Sofia sent a mild laser beam to her chest. It would not kill her, all it felt like was a little sting. She then finished it off by whipping out her nerf gun and aiming it at her. When she fired, a little toy bullet flew out.

The two of them were panting. Natasha spoke first. "Nice use of baiting, you caught me a few times."

"Thanks," Sofia breathed heavily. She took great pride in haven beat the infamous Black Widow, even if she had been going a tad easy on Sofia.

The brunette decided to show good sportsmanship and not brag- even though she wanted to. They both walked over to Tony who began clapping his hands. "I told you she was good," he said, speaking mostly to Natasha.

Sofia loved getting praised. She loved the attention and loved it when people talked about her positively. Call me a narcissist and egotistic, I don't care, she mentally shrugged her shoulders.

"With training, I bet you could become a great asset to the team." Tony finished, handing them both a cold bottle of water. "And that is why I spoke to Natasha about her being the one to train you with combat."

Sofia's jaw almost flew open. She did not want to spend any more time with that pessimistic blonde-haired assassin. Besides, the more time she spends with her, the more likely it is she'd figure out Sofia's entire con.

"I told Tony that we'd test you today and see where in the combat level skill you were at. I'm surprised to say it's pretty high," Natasha crossed her arms.

Sofia forced a happy and excited expression. "That sounds- awesome!"

"I just wanted to let you know that I won't be going easy on you. We could spend hours in this room working until you get it right, understand? This won't be simple and you have to be prepared for anything I throw toward you," Natasha grew serious for a second, explaining the deal to the teenager.

"Okay," Sofia nodded, "I can do that."

Tony clapped his hands together, "Alright then, I think it's time to check on where the two old fossils are at."

As they were walking to some other room, Sofia began noticing that she was getting a lot more than what she signed up for. She was not prepared enough for this, but there was no backing out now. Nor did she want to.

The trio walked into the medical center Bucky was getting treated at. Dozens of Agents swarmed the area holding tablets and taking Barnes' vitals. He sat uncomfortably on a table with bandages and needles poking into his skin.

"Steve, is this really necessary?" Bucky complained to his best friend.

Steve was leaning on the doorframe watching the doctors pocking all sorts of things into Bucky. "Yes. You were stabbed and shot at multiple times."

Natasha then added, "Not to mention your third-degree burns."

Bucky let out an annoyed sigh. "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Capsicle's right," Tony walked into the room, agreeing with Steve. "We also need you to tell us anything possible about your attacker. Anything at all."

Bucky stood quiet for a second, trying to recall last night. So much happened that he doesn't even know how to start. "Well I was watching television and then my arm got shot. I stood up and tried looking for the shooter which only ended up with me getting shot again. Fast forward a few seconds and this person in a red and black suit is attacking me. It sounded like a girl."

Sofia was not phased at all. She took care of all possible problems. Her face was covered, she wore boots to elevate her height, and she even used a slight voice changer. Sofia was confident was Barnes would not be able to recognize her.

Bucky continued, "She had fire powers which hurt, a lot. The only thing she said was that she knew who I was," he paused, seeming ashamed of himself, "a killer."

Sofia squinted her eyes in disgust. Now he was pretending to have morals and to be ashamed of who he is. Bullshit.

Steve folded his arms, "Sam's looking for any sort of evidence from where she was shooting from. Fingerprints, bullets, or anything."

You won't find anything, pendejo. Sofia almost scoffed. Felicia and I wiped that place clean.

Natasha's phone suddenly began ringing. She grabbed it and checked who was calling. Her face dropped subtly and then excused herself out of the room. Sofia wondered what that was about. She'll probably just ask Felicia to hack into it later.

Steve watched as she left the room, a hint of concern on his face.

Oh, now Sofia was curious.

"Oh Val, we have a visitor coming today," Tony turned to face the brunette, "He's very eager to meet you."

Sofia momentarily forgot her new name was Val and didn't quite catch what Stark had just said. She immediately wanted to hit herself for being caught off guard. "Hm?" Sofia only hoped that he'd take that as a sign of curiosity and not lack of attention.

"Spider-Man's stopping by for a bit today. There's something I need to tell him so you might as well meet him," he responded while putting out his phone, "Though I'm not sure he'd give away his identity so easily. That's something he treasures deeply."

Sofia shrugged her shoulders, "I understand."

Bucky just groaned at hearing the conversation, "Another kid is coming here? Today?'

Sofia bit back a snarky remark. Tony, on the other hand, didn't. "Alright frosty, if you find more adults with extraordinary abilities please, let me know, and we can get rid of the kids," he sarcastically replied.

Bucky gave no verbal response but simply glared at Stark with his eyes partially squinted. He remained there for what seemed forever as the conversation carried on.

"Tony," Steve voiced, "can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Oh god Steve, what did I do now?" Tony exasperatedly sighed. He was so used to having talks with Steve and they were all just him reprimanding the billionaire for a few minutes straight. Steve shook his head as the two of them walked out of the room.

Sofia felt her heart in her throat. It was just the two of them in the room now. Just her and Bucky. She could feel her anxiety rushing again.

It seems that no matter how hard she tries to deny it, some memories just won't go away.

"Have I seen you before?" Bucky started the conversation. He kept cautiously staring at the girl not knowing if he'd recognized her or not. She reminded him of something buried in the back of his mind- something that he could not reach.

"What?" Sofia tried to level her breathing, "No- you haven't," she said not realizing it came a little harsh. "I would have remembered you if I had."

Oh, she remembered him alright. She remembers everything. It was him that didn't remember, just as he probably didn't remember the countless other victims that died by his hand.

"Still, there's something...familiar," he paused, "Are you sure?"

Sofia's jaw clenched with anger, "I'm sure."

She could not take it anymore. She had to get out of that room. If she didn't, Sofia would either kill the man or have a panic attack- both of which were not good. "I have to use the bathroom. Lady problems," she faked a lie. Without another second allowing to pass, the girl had bolted out of the room and back into the kitchen.

She had to build back her composure.

Why did this happen? It's never happened before. Sofia has never been so thrown off balance, it was like a shock to her bone. It was like the switch was trying to flip and Sofia was struggling against it. She needed a nice reset.

Sofia lit her right hand on fire and pressed it roughly onto her left arm. Her immediate reaction was to cry out in pain, but Sofia bit it down, leaving her teeth imprinted on her lip. With her eyes shut, she sat there for minutes and fully welcomed the pain. The pain made her angry. The fire made her remember why she had those powers in the first place. Sofia hated remembering.

The pain kept her motivated and washed away any arising feelings of distress or anxiety. They washed away all feelings. Having Barnes in the building would not be a setback, no it would be a reminder to accomplish her mission.

Her own fire does not affect her long-term, but it hurts like hell at the moment. Sofia would always burn herself knowing it would not leave a permanent mark. It was a win-win.

Suddenly, Tony's voice came from the hallway. "Val, Spider-Man's here!"

Sofia ceased the fire and opened her eyes, a new sense of confidence flowing through her. she dusted off her arm as if nothing had ever happened. She was like a robot now, only showing fake and artificial feelings. The ends of her mouth lifted into the shell of a smile. "Coming!"

a/n:

Sofia's first anxiety attack and training with Nat! The next chapter will have a lot of spidey so get ready ;)