Month Four (April)

It was a hard month. Definitely harder than last month. We started working on my teleportation powers. HYDRA wanted to utilize them in every possible way. I was pushed to my limit over and over again until I threw up, or passed out, usually both. One of the worse days I had was working on dodging using my teleportation. Beanbag guns were used and, although they weren't lethal, they hurt like a bitch. I dodged them as best I could, but they were coming from multiple angles and I kept messing up and getting hit. I could feel the bruises forming and knew they looked terrible.

My instructor wouldn't let me have a break. If I even slowed down, I was shot with another beanbag. When I got hit for the sixth time, I started begging for a break. I was so tired! But all my instructor did was raise the gun and fire at me. I raised my hands up to protect my face and froze, ready for the impact. When it never came I slowly opened my eyes. There was a shimmering barrier in front of me and a pile of ash laying next to where I was sitting.

I stared at it in confusion as the barrier fell and my brain went wild. I thought that I might have dreamt the few minutes I had with Loki. Tears escaped my eyes as I was pulled to my feet by two guards and pulled away.

I was brought to the lab for testing. I was scared. I thought I messed everything up. I basically handed them another infinity stone. It wasn't until the scientists did their tests that I realized that wasn't the case. I realized that it felt different, that I felt different. I couldn't feel the Aether buzzing under my skin anymore. There wasn't a general power in my veins that I could call on. When I used the barrier this time, it was instinct. It was survival.

The scientists ran so many experiments to test my new found power. They wanted to know how they could use me, every way they could use me. Some tests were painful, some not. At the end of the day I was too tired to hold my head up. Everything hurt, but they didn't care. All they cared about were the results.

Month Five (May)

The fifth month was just as hard as the last. I apparently inherited a few abilities from the Aether. HYDRA focused on developing my new power first. So far, I could create barriers and shift small parts of reality. The parts of reality I could shift had to be directly around me and my range was very small. My range was about six feet in any direction and that was after the training HYDRA put me through.

After my shifting abilities came to a stand still, we worked on my teleportation again. I was focusing on teleporting at a faster rate. The recharge time between teleporting needed to be shorter. It was only about two and a half seconds, but it was still too long.

I also worked on teleporting without visualizing where I was going. Good news was that I figured out what happened if I accidentally teleported into something. It was not pretty... it actually hurt like a bitch. HYDRA would blindfold me and put me into a room. I would have to navigate my way through the room by teleportation alone. One of the first times I did it, I teleported into a table. The molecules in my body and the molecules in the table repelled each other, so I ended up being thrown across the room. I also got a nasty abrasion on my thigh where my molecules were ripped apart by the table.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop my training. After I was stitched up, I went straight back to training. Soon they added attackers and I had to avoid getting my ass handed to me while blindfolded. It never ended well for me.

Month Six (June)

Most of June was working on evasion. It was a lot of running and learning how to slip in and blend with a crowd. It was about not getting captured. It was also the first time I was allowed off base.

I was taken to a mall and told to stay hidden within the crowd. If the HYDRA agents found me within an hour, I would need to find a way to escape and evade capture. If they didn't find me within the hour, I won. I still needed to get out of the mall without anyone seeing me though and I wasn't allowed to use my teleportation until the hour was up, but with how hard I'd been training, it was going to be easy... or so I thought.

As soon as I walked into the mall, I changed my clothes. I put my hair up in a bun and changed into shorts and a tank top, blending in this the hundreds of teenagers around me. I also had a watch on that told me how much time I had before I could leave the mall. I found the food court after that. I grabbed something small to eat and a drink then found a table to sit at. There was a group of teenagers sitting and talking and I walked up to them, channeling my best teenager.

"Hi, do you mind if I sit with you? I just don't feel comfortable sitting by myself." I asked and pretended to look shy and a bit frightened.

"Oh, ya, of course." A sweet blonde girl told me and moved her bag from the seat next to her. "You can sit next to me. It's not a problem." She smiled.

"Thank you." I smiled back and took a seat.

"So, what's your name?" A brunette girl across from me asked.

"Maggie." I lied quickly.

"I'm Shay." The brunette introduced herself.

"I'm Angela." The blonde next to her said.

"And I'm Lea." The Blonde next to me told me and gestured to herself. "Do you go to school around here, Maggie?" She asked.

"No, I'm homeschooled." I told her.

We all fell into easy conversation after that. They were sweet girls and I missed talking to normal people. I missed talking to people in general. I would mostly listen to them and smile as they talked. I made sure to keep an eye on my surroundings. I answered questions when I was asked, but that was about it. I quickly figured out something was wrong when I saw a familiar face.

"Shit..." I said under my breath as I watched my old friend scan the food court from the second floor. It was then I realized that my test wasn't evading HYDRA agents, it was avoiding S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Maggie, you ok?" Shay asked when she saw my expression. I blinked and looked back to her.

"Ya, I think my ride is here. That's all." I gave a tight smile. "Thank you for letting me sit with you." I said and stood from my seat.

"Oh, well it was nice meeting you, Maggie. Hopefully we'll see you around." Lea told me with a smile. I nodded before glancing back up to the second floor... big mistake.

As soon as I looked up, my eyes connected with Steve Rogers.