"Valen?" Tony looked at the girl in disbelief. Part of him was on guard, the other was confused.
Valen didn't know what to say so she said the first thing that came out of her mouth. "Hello."
"Surprise!" Peter smiled, excited that this is finally happening.
"What are you doing here?" Tony fixed himself of his seat. He was slightly on edge, not knowing what her intentions were.
"Peter said he thought it would be best if I came back here."
"Peter?" He looked at the boy who was nodding his head. "How did you come into contact with Peter?"
"She broke into my school and called me." Peter answered for Valen.
"You didn't have to add breaking into the school. Could've just said I called you." Valen looked at him with daggers shooting out of her eyes. She didn't want Tony to think badly of her. Not when this was their first encounter of her return.
"Yeah, but he wouldn't have known how you got my number in the first place."
"When did this happen?" Tony interrupted the two while pointing back and forth at them.
"What, like five days ago?" Peter looked at Valen for confirmation.
"I think so." She shrugged her shoulders.
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
Tony asked.
"I didn't want anyone to know right away." Valen admitted. She rubbed her arm to comfort herself, not liking Tony's confrontational tone.
Steve walked into Tony's lab with his head down as he read some papers that were in his hands. Something in Valen snapped as she looked behind her and saw who it was. So many emotions washed over her as memories flooded her thoughts.
She stomped her way over to him and pushed him hard. "You son of a bitch!"
Steve took a step back, thoroughly confused about what was going on. It took him a second to realize who just hit him. "Valen?"
Valen hit him again. She continued pushing him back until Steve grabbed both of her wrists to stop her. "You promised me! You said they were gone!"
Steve held on tighter, but not enough to hurt her as she continued struggling to get free. "What are you talking about?"
"HYDRA!" Valen yelled as tears pricked her eyes. "You said Hydra was no more that you were sure of it. You fucking liar."
Valen froze her arms to make Steve let go of her. She charged at him, ready to fight to let all her frustrations out on him, but something pricked her neck. A tiny, sharp needle pierced her skin to get her to calm out. Tony shushed her as he held onto her so when she fell, she wouldn't hurt herself.
Steve stared at the girl who was now laying on the ground, fighting the injection to stay awake. He felt bad as he thought about that promise he made her months ago. He was sure they were gone, but yet they weren't. Valen had to suffer those consequences.
"We need to put her somewhere where everyone will be safe. Just to be careful." Steve said.
"You're not suggesting..." Peter took a step forward. "No! She's fine! I've been with her for five days. She's not going to hurt anyone. She just wants to remember who she was."
"She just tried to attack me."
"I would too if you told me a group who experiment on me, hurt me, punished me were officially wiped off the planet but were still ongoing. She had to relive all of that again. She's hurt by you."
"What about the timing then? She can't just show up after trying to kill all of us barely a week ago. We don't know anything about this. She could be playing you, Peter. This could be another mission to infiltrate the compound and get information on us to take back to Hydra."
Peter scuffed. "That's insane. She wouldn't do that."
"You don't know that." Steve tried to reason with him.
"No, I do know that! She wouldn't have come to me first and- and told me the things that she did! She wouldn't burn her suit to get away from the memories! She wouldn't be beating up a mirror because she hates her own reflection." He said the last sentence calmly but mixed with so much venom from the anger he was feeling against Steve for suggesting to put Valen in a cell.
Steve was taken aback by Peter's reaction. He had never seen him so angry before. Tony looked down at Valen's hands, just now noticing how badly cut up and red there were.
"Are you done?" Tony asked. Peter let out some air and nodded his head, still ready to go off on Steve again if he had to. "I won't put her in a cell-"
"But-" Steve tried to cut in.
Stark put a finger in the air to stop Steve from talking. "I won't put her in a cell. Bruce can sew her hands up and we'll put her in her old room. I'll make sure someone is in there when she wakes up."
-
"Peter, watch out for the wall behind you." Tony instructed as Peter walked backward holding Valen's legs who was still passed out. Tony was holding her under her arms.
"What is going on?" Bruce asked as he watched Peter's back approach him.
"Table, now." Tony quickly sidestepped to put Valen on the medical table.
"Valen?" Bruce asked.
"Yep. Can you sew her knuckles? I have to go now to go do something. Bye." Tony left without further explanation, leaving Peter alone with Bruce to explain what was going on.
Bruce pointed at the unconscious girl as he went to go sit beside her on a stool. He started stitching her up. "Where did she come from? What happened to her knuckles?"
"She contacted me a few days ago. She's been with me, but we both decided it was time for her to come here. The knuckles, she uh, smashed a mirror."
Bruce tilted his glasses up as he looked at Peter, but he didn't ask any more questions after seeing his face. "How has she been?"
"She's been good for the most part. She's been remembering a lot, but I don't think she has it all yet."
Bruce nodded tying the first stitch together. Bucky came running down the hall. He almost ran past the room, but he grabbed onto the frame of the door to pull himself to a stop. "Valen?"
"She's asleep right now." Peter scratched the back of his head, not knowing how Bucky would take to Tony injecting her with a sleep serum.
"What did you do?" Bucky took two steps before standing over Peter, a murderous glare in his eye.
"She lost it over Steve. She was screaming and hitting him. Mr. Stark gave her something that would put her to sleep for a few hours. I'm going to put her in her room after she gets stitched up."
"I'll do it." Bucky sat at the other side of Valen.
"No disrespect, but I don't know if she remembers you. She might try to attack you when she wakes up."
"I can take her. It wouldn't be the first time." He never took his eyes off of Valen. "You have school tomorrow anyway. I'll stay with her until she wakes up."
"I'm going to stay here for a little bit. I can study here. Just in case she wakes up soon." Peter sat down in the corner and waited for Bruce to finish.
"When did she contact you?" Bucky sounded almost hurt as he spoke softly to Peter.
"Five days ago."
He nodded his head as he held onto Valen's hand. "I'm glad she had you."
Peter wanted to say something back, something comforting, but he didn't have the words to speak. Bruce continued his job quietly. He knew it must be hard on Bucky that she didn't go to him first when they were the ones who grew up together.
"I'm all done. You can take the wheelchair up to her room. I don't want another show of what was going on when you brought her in here." Bruce looked at Peter specifically.
"I could've just carried her myself, but Mr. Stark was the one who didn't trust me." He defended himself.
Bucky picked up Valen and placed her in the wheelchair. Her body slumped over as she was in a peaceful dream. Her arm hung off to the side as her head rested on the armrest. He rolled her up to her room, passing people with nosy looks.
When Peter and Tony took Valen to Bruce, Steve had told Wanda, Vision, Sam, Bucky, and Clint that Valen was back. He said that there was a complication, but that was it. Nat was on a mission, and Thor and Loki were off-world. They didn't know about her return yet.
Wanda was waiting in Valen's room when she heard the news. She didn't care if there was a problem, she just wanted to see her. Bucky walked in with Peter behind him. He gently laid Valen on her bed and put the covers over her.
Peter sat in a chair he pulled up to the side of her bed to study. Bucky had left to go make her some food in case she woke up soon. He didn't want her to be hungry. If she didn't eat it, he would save it for later.
Wanda got in bed with Valen. She was crying with happiness to finally have her back. She loved Valen deeply as if they were family. She cradled the girl's head and kissed her on the top. She then laid beside her and turned on the tv. She wasn't going anywhere until Valen woke up.
As it started to get late, Wanda and Peter fell asleep where they were. Bucky was still awake watching the show Wanda had put on. He copied Peter by pulling up a chair to the side of her bed, but he was on Wanda's side.
Valen groggily blinked a couple of times, trying to force herself to wake up. She looked up at the ceiling she didn't recognize and created knives in her hand, ready to fight whoever had her. She noticed someone was cuddling her arm, freaking her out a little bit.
"Valen? Calm down, you're okay." A voice she recognized but couldn't put a name to was trying to soothe her. The voice was whispering and wasn't the one who had a hold on her.
She moved her head to see a man with long brown hair and a metal arm slowly raise out of his seat. "Bucky?"
He smiled as he walked around to her side. He sat beside her and put his head on her shoulder. "I thought I lost you."
She removed her knives. Tears started to fill her eyes when memories came back to when she lived here with him after the first time she was rescued from Hydra. She wrapped her free arm around his back and held on tightly.
He sniffed while hugging her back. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry."
"Bucky, you didn't do anything."
"I should've gone to get ice cream with you. I should've searched harder for you. You were gone for too long. I don't know what they did to you, but I can only imagine."
"I'm back now. It's over. We won."
"я люблю тебя, сестра." (I love you, sister)
"я люблю тебя, брат." (I love you, brother)
Peter woke up to the soft words that were being spoken. He barely moved his head to see Valen and Bucky holding each other while sniffling as if they were crying. He smiled to himself and closed his eyes to not disturb their moment.