I looked to the Avengers in shock.

"I – I don't – I don't know how... how I-"

"You were with Hydra?" Steve asked.

I looked to all of the Avengers in slight fear. Wanda had her magic ready at her sides, but her face was distraught. Bucky had his hand on a gun, and Pietro was looking at me in disbelief.

"It's – it's not like that-"

"So you're not infiltrating the tower and giving them information?" Natasha asked.

I shook my head quickly.

"I can explain-"

"Why didn't you explain when I first hired you?" Tony asked.

"I – I didn't think you'd believe me-"

"Well, if you moved something with your mind, I'm pretty sure he would have believed you," Natasha spat.

"I couldn't do that before!" I yelled. "It was the extreme conditions!"

The Avengers looked to each other in confusion and I looked down to my hands.

"What do you mean?" Pietro asked, finally speaking.

I took a deep breath, preparing to explain.

"When... when my mother was pregnant with me, she and my father joined Hydra," I said. "They – they thought that they were going to change the world. Hydra experimented on my mother in hopes that I would be born as some sort of super human. And I was. I have a perfect mind. I can remember everything I've ever seen, heard, thought, or said, and I learn new skills almost instantly. I was able to begin speaking at only four months old."

I took a deep breath before continuing.

"After I'd reached five years of age, they started putting me in what they called 'extreme conditions'. They'd drown me, they'd set me on fire, they'd torture me, all to see if my powers would manifest. They never did, and my parents decided that they didn't want their little girl to be treated like that anymore."

I wiped a tear from my cheek before continuing.

"In 2014, my parents figured out how to escape. They erased all of the data about us from the data base and took me and ran. Three days later, all of Hydra's files were dumped onto the internet, but ours were still missing."

I rubbed my arms and closed my eyes briefly. This was the worst part of the story.

"When I was seventeen, Hydra found us again. They... my parents figured out that they were coming five minutes before they reached our home. I – my parents, they... they bought me time to run."

My voice turned into a hoarse whisper.

"And I – I knew that I couldn't let them find me. I – I did an online university course and I was able to convince them to let me take the final exams, and so I got my two degrees. But I ended up working in a shitty diner because no one wanted me without experience... until I got here. And then... I guessed that being around you guys would stop them from hurting me."

I looked down to the ground shamefully. Now they knew everything. They all knew that I'd been lying to their faces this entire time.

"So you've got a perfect mind and telekinesis," Tony said slowly. "Did the experiments accomplish anything else?"

I shook my head as Wanda said, "Yes."

I looked over to her in confusion and she sighed.

"Sometimes I can't get into your mind," she said. "It's like you have a shield. Whenever I tried to look at your past, it was like there was a wall that was stopping me from looking. I assumed that perhaps you had bad trauma and you were repressing it..."

Everyone looked back to me and I shrugged.

"I didn't know I could do that," I said quietly. "Can you see everything now?"

Wanda cocked her head and was silent for a moment before nodding.

"There aren't any walls anymore," she said. "Maybe it was because you were keeping it a secret."

I nodded uncertainly.

What was going to happen now? Were they going to kick me out? I doubted they would let me stay – I had lied to them.

"I am sorry," I said softly. "I – I didn't want to lie to you."

I looked back up to see them all looking at each other. I looked to Pietro who was staring at me with an unreadable look on his face. I quickly glanced away.

Tony sighed and I looked up to him.

"We forgive you," he said. "Can't stay mad at our assistant, now, can we?"

"Dude," Clint said. "She's our manager."

Tony waved him off and grinned at me. I smiled back hesitantly.

"How do we know we can trust her?" Pietro asked.

Even though I understood why he was asking that, it still hurt.

"We can trust her," Wanda said confidently. "I can see everything."

I looked away awkwardly. I didn't really want Wanda seeing everything that went on in my head. I looked back to the witch to see her grinning at me.

"Well, now that you can move shit with your mind, you can become an Avenger," Clint said, walking over to a couch and sitting down.

"Clint, you don't have the authority to do that," Steve said.

Clint rolled his eyes.

"Y/n has promise," Clint said. "And the last candidate did too."

"Clint, your last candidate was a pigeon," Steve said.

Clint rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"I don't remember Sam being the last candidate," Bucky said.

"You know what-" Sam said before lunging towards the super soldier.

Bucky dodged and tried to trip Sam over, but Sam jumped over his leg.

"Alright you two!" Natasha yelled. "Enough!"

Bucky and Sam stopped fighting and Steve shook his head at the pair.

"But I really think that Y/n should be an Avenger," Clint said. "I mean, so far we only have one person who can move things with their mind..."

The other Avengers started talking about it. Wanda walked up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder comfortingly, and I leaned into her touch.

"Well, she is really valuable..."

"She's our friend goddammit-"

"She lied-"

"To protect herself!"

I glanced to Pietro at his outburst. The others seemed slightly surprised as well, seeing as he had been silent for most of the discussion.

"Listen, I get that being lied to isn't great, but if Wanda trusts her, I trust her," he said. "And... she's Y/n. We know her."

He said the last part while looking at me, and I turned away from his attention. I felt really bad for lying to them all, but I felt worse for lying to him.

"Y/n, what do you think about becoming an Avenger?" Tony asked.

I blinked in surprise and shook my head.

"I mean, it would be an honour," I said. "I'd obviously have to work on my telekinesis, and I can memorise battle strategies and base layouts-"

"Already calculating," Tony said. "Does your brain ever stop working?"

I thought back to the times when I was close to Pietro and it felt like my brain had lagged and stopped working.

"Only when emotions take over," I said.

I glanced briefly to Pietro before looking away. Wanda nudged me softly and I knew that she knew what I was talking about.

"Well, you'll have to undergo some serious Avenger training," Tony said. "We'll have to notify Fury as well."

I nodded quickly. This was going much better than expected.

"Well, I think that's enough excitement for one night," Steve said. "Off to bed, all of you."