"Tony, why does the compound look like a World War Two Captain America campaign?" I asked as I stepped out into the living room. Red, white, and blue decorations were everywhere.

"It was seventy years ago! Let it go!" Steve yelled from the kitchen.

"In your dreams, Spangles!" I yelled back.

"What do you mean, why?" Tony asked as he walked in from around the corner. His voice was slightly muffled by the spoon of peanut butter in his mouth. "It's July fourth tomorrow." He told me.

"Ok?" I still looked at him like he was fucking crazy. Tony raised his eyebrows like he was expecting a realization. "So?"

"Forth of July? The party? Ringing any bells?"

"You were serious about that?" My voice was a little louder than I meant it to be.

"Hey, I never joke about a party!" Tony told me. "It's your own fault for not taking it seriously."

I shook my head at him.

"You made a drunken joke about me dressing up as a 'sexy Aunt Sam'. Then said we should throw a party and charge admission fee's so the public could also enjoy it... Of course I didn't take you seriously!" I half yelled.

"I stand by the outfit choice." Tony said with a shrug. I rolled my eyes and decided to let the issue of the outfit go. There was no winning with him. "It's also Caps close to one hundredth birthday." Tony mentioned.

"Didn't he tell you 'no parties'?" I questioned with a disapproving look.

"I did!" Steve replied, still from within the kitchen.

"Isn't that, like, a major security breach?" I asked instead.

"That's what I said." A new voice said from behind me. I turned around and immediately broke into a smile.

"James Rhodes, you sneaky bastard. Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" I asked and wrapped him in a tight hug. I hadn't talked to him since our meeting about the possibility of the comics timeline mixing in with the MCU a few weeks ago.

"Then it wouldn't have been a surprise." He said as he pulled back from the hug. "Surprise!" Rhodey added with lazy jazz hands, making me laugh. "Where's your evil boyfriend?" He teased. Rhodes knew that Loki wasn't evil, and they actually got along pretty well, but he still liked to poke Loki with a stick every once in a while.

"Ah-" I started and held up my left hand, wiggling my fingers.

"Sorry, sorry, where's your evil fiancé?" Rhodey corrected.

"Wishing he stayed in the library." Loki said as he walked into the room to greet Rhodey. "Colonel Rhodes."

"What's with the weird ring? Are diamonds beneath you, now?" Rhodey asked him.

"Hey," I interrupted and pointed a finger into his chest, "I'm fine with you teasing him, but leave my ring out of it." I scolded. Rhodey looked down at me before raising his hands in mock surrender.

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded. My eyes narrowed before I clicked my tongue and backed off.

"The ring ranks higher than your fiancé?" Loki questioned me, narrowing his eyes as well. I froze for a second, deer-in-headlights style.

"Oh, would you look at the time. I've got to go get my ass mentally kicked by Wanda. Bye!" I didn't wait for an answer as I teleported to the training room. I gasped when I almost teleported into Vision. "Oh, shit!" I yelped and stumbled back.

"Hello, Ms. Smith." Vision greeted me, not understanding the situation. I took a breath and tried to calm my racing heart. It was not the first time that'd almost happened. I gave Vis a tight lipped smiled and nodded.

"FRIDAY?" I called out and looked up at the ceiling. "Can you replay the footage of me teleporting into the gym to Tony?" I asked.

"Certainly." FRIDAY responded.

"Why did you ask FRIDAY to reply footage to Tony?" Pietro asked me. He was in the gym along with Vision and Wanda.

"Give it a second." I sighed. Not even two seconds went by before Tony's voice came over the speakers.

"Again?" He asked.

"Damn, I'm good." I said to myself before answering him. "Yep. We need to figure something out. I don't want to know what would happen if I teleported into someone." I told him.

"Alright," I heard him sigh heavily, "I'll start brainstorming."

"Meet you in the lab when I'm done with whatever torture Wanda has for me today." I said before turning back to Pietro's shocked look.

"I never even thought about that." He told me, looking curious and only slightly horrified.

"Well, given the Van Der Waals radius, atoms would repel other atoms if they got too close. So, if you were to teleport into another material, including living beings, you and whatever you teleport into would be ripped apart by the atoms themselves." Vision explained and I watched Wanda grimace.

"Yes, Vision, thank you for the science lesson." I sarcastically said. I, unfortunately, forgot who I was talking to.

"My pleasure." Vision nodded in acceptance of my thanks. I pat his shoulder with a sigh.

"I can't wait for you to start understanding the difference between different tones and words said." I told him while Wanda laughed softly behind her hand.

"I can wait, but I would also like that." Vision responded, causing me and Wanda to start losing it.

"Is that why you have so many scars on your arms and legs?" Pietro asked. "Teleporting into things?"

"Pietro!" Wanda gasped and smacked his arm.

"Ah-what? It's a question! What, am I not allowed to ask a question?" Pietro responded while rubbing his arm. I wasn't ashamed or self conscious about my scars. They made me who I was.

"It's ok, Wanda." I laughed. "Ya, some of them are from teleporting too close to things. But, most of them are just from HYDRA training." I explained. Their shoulders immediately dropped, a small frown on their faces at the mention of HYDRA.

"We weren't trained like that." Wanda told me. "I mean, they were hard on us, and we had to stick to a pretty strict schedule, but..."

"They didn't beat the hell out of us." Pietro finished for her.

"I bet the tests with the scepter hurt, though." I mentioned to them. I didn't want them to think they had it easy at HYDRA, because they didn't.

"Ya, but that was what we signed up for." Pietro said.

"I signed up for it, too." I shrugged like the decision wasn't the hardest thing I ever had to do.

"What?" Wanda asked, confused by my answer.

"...I... signed up?" I questioned before realizing that nobody had told them. "No one told you this yet, huh?"

"I guess we assumed they just took you." Wanda told me, a slight bite to her voice.

Once the twins found out what HYDRA was really about, they quickly spilled everything they knew about them, which unfortunately wasn't much. They wanted to right their wrong and eradicate HYDRA.

"You knew what they were doing from the beginning and you still joined them?" Wanda asked. "How could you do that?"

"It sounds bad out of context, but even with the reason I had, it was still the hardest decision I've ever made." I told her seriously.

"What was your reason?" Pietro asked.

"Bucky Barnes." I answered. I still felt a pain in my chest every time I said or heard his name.

Pietro tilted his head at the name.

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

My eyes widened and I bit my lip to keep from laughing hysterically.

"That's what he said- well, not in this world. In this world he said somethin' like 'how do you know me' or 'you know me', I don't know. It was all very dramatic." I rushed through my words a bit too fast and Wanda and Pietro took a second to process what I said.

"Ya, I don't know what that means." Pietro said and shook his head.

"Long story short, Bucky is Steve's best friend from the forties. HYDRA got ahold of him, made him a super soldier and wiped his memories, so he'd be a mindless drone/assassin. Every time he'd get some of his memories back, they'd wipe him again. I went undercover at HYDRA to try and get to Bucky and help bring his memories back slowly instead of all at once, so that when we broke free of HYDRA he wouldn't run." I explained to the twins.

"So, where is he now?" Wanda asked me. I stayed quiet for a second or two and dropped my gaze to the floor.

"He-uh, he still ran. Just for a different reason." I told her. When no one else said anything, I looked back up at them. Wanda was looking at me with a sad frown. "What?" I asked.

"You put yourself through hell to help one man." Pietro said for her. It wasn't a question, it was fact.

"Well, I also did it because I knew they'd teach me how to fight." I said and smiled to try and lighten the mood. "So, one thing worked out, I guess." I shrugged.

"I feel like that's worse then HYDRA just... kidnapping you." Pietro told me. I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue. "You knew what it would be like, but went anyway to help a man you'd never met." Pietro said with a shrug of his shoulders. "In my opinion, having to make a choice like that is harder than being forced into it."

"It-" I was starting to feel really uncomfortable with the conversation. "I made it out alive, that's all that matters. Let's just... start today's lesson."