ONE WEEK LATER
★ ★ ★
Marlena had spent the past week doing nothing but mental evaluations and working on controlling her abilities. It was an agonizing process for her, but Tony was very helpful in regards to everything that was happening inside her head, as well as the rest of her body. She was a quick learner when it came to her abilities, though, and that was something Tony noticed about her almost immediately. Though he believed her abilities to be dangerously powerful and very unpredictable, after a bit of tinkering and concentration, Marlena seemed to be able to control them without much effort. To Tony, the progress she was making was exceedingly impressive, and it was because of that he knew exactly why Hydra gave her the alias of Prodigy; it was unusual for someone to grasp such an ability so quickly, so effortlessly.
Marlena was most certainly not without flaw, though. Her emotions were a very important and very crucial aspect of her abilities, and if she were to lose control of them, she would lose control of herself, and that particular issue was something Tony had been working his ass off to help prevent. It would be awhile before Marlena was ever completely in control of her powers, but Tony was determined to make sure it happened regardless.
Although Marlena spent most of her time in the lab with Tony and Bruce during her stay at the tower, she would always find some time to head down to the training center to work out with one of the Avengers or Bucky. Because of them, she enjoyed staying at the tower much more than she originally anticipated she would. Over the course of the seven days she had spent at the tower, she had become particularly close with the members of the Avengers.
Clint was quite possibly her favorite Avenger, aside from Steve, Sam, and Natasha. He reminded her of her father, and because of that she found it fairly easy to bond with him. He was the one who always volunteered to work out and spar with her, even though he knew she would defeat him every single time.
Thor was her next favorite. His remarks never failed to make her laugh, and he was always the one to step up and defend her whenever Tony made some snide remark. That is, of course, if Bucky or Steve were absent.
She couldn't exactly classify Bruce and Tony, though. As of right now, Marlena didn't see them as Avengers; she saw them as her caretakers. She absolutely adored Bruce, and although Tony could be a bit calloused and arrogant sometimes, she adored him just as much. They were both doing everything he could to help her control and assess her abilities, and because of that she was thankful.
Currently, Marlena was in the training center with Natasha. The two had been sparring with each other for the past forty-five minutes. Natasha had been teaching her "mini-me" some of her signature moves, some of which Marlena had already acclaimed, which, by the way, surprised the living hell out of Natasha. The moves she didn't know, however, were much more complex, but Marlena was able to learn them quickly.
Marlena was still just as skilled in hand-to-hand combat as she had been while at the Hydra facility in Russia, but sparring with Natasha and the rest of the Avengers bettered those skills, and Natasha was definitely one who could attest to that, as were Bucky and Steve. She was lethal, and although she was definitely not lethal enough to defeat Natasha in hand-to-hand combat just yet, the abilities she acquired from the mentality serum most certainly made up for that.
Natasha kicked her foot into the air, attempting to connect it with Marlena's face, but she reacted quickly. She grabbed Natasha's foot and twisted her ankle, shoving her back onto the floor. Natasha used her gesture as leverage, though. She twisted her body around in midair, once again aiming for Marlena's face, only this time with the opposite foot. This time, her foot connected with a very unprepared-Marlena's face. Marlena stumbled backward in shock and pressed a hand to the side of her face. The blow didn't necessarily hurt Marlena, per se, as Natasha was only wearing a pair of socks to prevent from hurting her, but she was still shocked, not to mention very impressed. Natasha was still the one Avenger she had yet to beat while sparring (aside from Thor, given that she had never once fought with Thor), and she highly doubted she ever would. Natasha was just too much of a. . .badass. . .to be beaten. There was a reason she was the highest ranked assassin in the world, next to the Winter Soldier, of course.
"Damn, Natasha," Marlena chuckled, rubbing her cheek.
Natasha smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. "Can't take the heat, Claire?"
Marlena scoffed and shook her head before picking up her water bottle. "Not enough heat to bother me, Romanoff."
"Ouch," Natasha laughed, turning around to grab her water bottle.
As Marlena threw her water bottle back down to the floor, a hand latched onto her wrist. On instinct, Marlena turned around, her fist automatically shooting out to defend herself from whoever had snuck up on her. Rather than making contact with skin, it made contact with metal, eliciting a string of curse words to fall from Marlena's mouth. Bucky had grabbed her fist before it could make contact with his face, and in doing so he had harmed her. Rather than worrying about it, he actually laughed.
"You alright?" he chuckled, finally letting go of her hand.
She let out a sigh and cracked her knuckles before wrapping her arms around his torso. "You could've just let me punch you; it would've hurt less."
Bucky only shrugged and hugged her back.
"Alright, lovebirds," Natasha chimed. "I'm gonna leave you two to whatever it is you do."
"Are we still on for tomorrow?" Marlena asked.
Natasha nodded. "Of course we are. Be ready by four."
"Got it."
Natasha only smiled and hurried out of the training center.
"What's still on for tomorrow?" Bucky asked, grabbing a pair of gloves.
"We're going to eat and then we're going to go shopping with Stark's credit card," Marlena chuckled, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "Nat said something about how being the only female on the team was really annoying sometimes; she said she needed an escape from all of the testosterone, and apparently I'm that escape."
Bucky threw a punch at Marlena, one of which she dodged easily. "A bit melodramatic."
"Not at all," Marlena replied, kicking him in the sternum. "I honestly can't wait to be away from you blockheads either."
"Including me?"
Bucky grabbed her now-extended arm and twisted her around, pulling her to his chest in a chokehold.
"Yes, including you," she answered, attempting to remove herself from his grasp.
Bucky squeezed her tighter, but not tight enough to inflict unnecessary pain. "Wow, Mar. I thought you loved me."
"I do love you," she chuckled, finally maneuvering herself out of his chokehold. "Just not that much."
He narrowed his eyes at her and pulled her to him once more. "I highly doubt that, Marlena."
She only smiled in response, and Bucky wasted no time at all in pressing his lips to hers. It was ridiculous just how much he craved her, but he couldn't bring himself to care, nor could she. This was the way it was supposed to be between them; this was the way it was going to stay between them.
"Hey!" Tony called from the training center door, catching the attention of both Bucky and Marlena. "I know I told you that you could do whatever you wanted while you were here, but I did not mean each other."
Marlena shook her head in amusement and moved away from Bucky to grab her water bottle off the floor again. "What do you want Stark?" she asked, taking a drink of her water.
"You," he answered, making his way further into the room.
Marlena nearly choked on her water, while Bucky stood there, unsure of what to say.
"What?" Marlena coughed.
"Not like that, you idiot," he retorted. "You could be my daughter. And anyway, I prefer strawberry blondes—not whatever you are."
Marlena rolled her eyes. "I'm a brunette. Now, would you care to clarify what you want me for?"
"Someone wants to talk to you about something very important," he said.
Marlena raised a brow. "Who?"
"C'mon—I'll show you," he told her, turning around and heading back towards the door. "Metallica needs to come too."
Marlena and Bucky exchanged glances with one another. Bucky removed his gloves from his hands and threw them to the floor before grabbing Marlena's wrist and pulling her along with him. He seemed to be more eager than she was, but Marlena decided not to comment about it. Instead, she allowed him to pull her up the flight of stairs that Tony was slowly making his way up.
The three of them soon made it to a large door, and Tony pushed it open. He gestured the two inside before following behind them. The room was some sort of conference room from what Marlena could make of it. The room was occupied only by an enormous table, as well as one man who sat at the end of that table. Marlena knew who he was without the assistance of her powers; the eye patch was a dead give away.
"Nick Fury," she said.
"Lovely to meet you, Miss Claire," he said, glancing over at Bucky. "You too, Sergeant Barnes."
Bucky only nodded in response. He was a bit shocked to see Nick Fury, as the last time he had seen him was when he was trying to kill him. He was also supposed to be somewhere in Europe, according to Sam and Steve, so him being here only made it all the more shocking for him.
Marlena and Bucky both sat down, followed shortly by Tony. Marlena wasn't exactly sure what Nick Fury could possibly have to talk to her about, but she was sure he'd tell her.
"Now that we've made it through all the formalities, care to tell my little flower here what it is you wanted to talk to her about?" Tony said, sitting back in his seat.
Nick shot him a look before focusing his attention on Marlena and Bucky. "First, I'd like to start with you, Sergeant Barnes—"
"Please call me Bucky," Bucky interrupted.
"Okay," Nick continued. "Bucky, I would like to tell you that your Winter Soldier issue has been compromised—at least for the time being it has been. I'm well aware you were not at fault for any of your actions while under the control of Hydra, so I've elected to take care of the situation myself. I would still keep a low profile, however."
Bucky gave a nod. "Noted. Thank you, sir."
"Now, for you, Marlena; I've heard quite a lot about you, and it got to the point where I flew from Europe just to meet you for myself," Nick said to her. "From what I've been told, you have a very specific skill set, do you not?"
"I do," she nodded.
"Your combatant skills far exceed that of even the most skilled human beings. Stark showed me footage of you sparring with Barton, Rogers, Romanoff, and Barnes, and I have to say that I am more than impressed," Nick praised. "It's not every day I'm allowed the opportunity to meet such a gifted person."
Marlena shrugged. "I'm not really anything special, to be honest with you."
Nick leaned forward in his seat. "That's where you're wrong, Miss Claire. You have three months worth of combatant experience, yet you managed to defeat someone with fifty years worth of combatant experience."
"Fifty? Who the hell have I fought with fifty years of combatant experience?" Marlena questioned with wide eyes.
Nick gestured to Bucky, and Marlena looked at him with a raised brow. "Really?"
Bucky only shrugged in response.
"He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years," Nick continued. "Let's not forget that he was a sergeant in World War Two."
"The title of sergeant doesn't mean anything in regards to his combatant skills," Marlena chuckled.
"Excuse you," Bucky remarked.
Marlena laughed and turned her attention to Nick. "Anyway, you were saying?"
"What I'm saying is that someone with your amount of experience should not have been able defeat him, let alone stand against him," Nick said. "It surprises me that you're even able to hold your own against Romanoff."
Marlena sighed. "It's what happens when you spend fourteen grueling hours a day for three months doing nothing but learning how to be one of Hydra's greatest assassins."
Nick shook his head. "You don't see it, Marlena Claire, but there's something special about you. No human being should be able to do what you can do after only three months of captivity. You're a prodigy of some sort."
"HA!" Tony exclaimed. "Are you gonna use your telekinesis to throw a chair across the room in anger and further damage my property? You already owe me fifteen-hundred for the control panel you destroyed upstairs."
"Here we go," Marlena murmured to herself.
"Ah," Nick chimed. "Your mental abilities. I've been informed about those as well, and those only make you all the more lethal."
Marlena shook her head, trying to understand exactly why the hell she was still here. "I don't understand what you're getting at, sir."
"Just cut to the chase, boss. Kids these days have short attention spans," Tony remarked.
Marlena rolled her eyes at her caretaker and threw her right hand towards Tony, jerking it to the left. His chair hit the wall with enough momentum to knock him out of it. His body hit the floor with a thud. Nick only stared at Marlena with a surprised expression on his face, while Bucky had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud; Marlena sat in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. She swore to herself she would never use her abilities on anyone unless absolutely necessary for fear of hurting them, but she had more control over her telekinesis than anything else, and Tony had been asking for it since day one. She just couldn't hold out any longer.
"That was rude," Tony grunted as he pulled himself off the ground.
"So is your existence," Marlena smirked.
She was only teasing him, and he knew that, but he refrained from saying anything else due to his lingering fear of being slammed into the wall. Marlena had barely touched him with her powers, yet he still felt the overwhelming amount of strength they held. He did not want to be anywhere near the end of a full on blow, and he even feared for anyone who managed to find themselves there.
"As I was saying," Nick continued. "And I'm just going to cut to the chase, but how would you feel about being a part of the team, Marlena?"
Marlena's eyebrows fell in confusion. "What team?"
"The Avengers," he answered. "They could use someone with your abilities. I would ask you, too, Barnes, but I'm not exactly sure how people would feel about it."
"Once again—noted," Bucky said.
"You want me to join the Avengers?" Marlena questioned. Her face held a very surprised expression. This was not at all what she had been expecting him to say to her.
"That's what he said, sunshine," Tony spoke. "It was originally my idea, but he had to be the one to officially ask you."
Marlena sat back in her chair, unsure of how she should react. She knew being an Avenger would be the greatest honor in the world, and she loved that she was being granted the opportunity to have such an honor, but she wasn't so sure she was cut out to be an Avenger just yet. Sure she had the skills and the powers that could obtain almost anyone a position on the team, but Marlena just could not bring herself to accept Nick's offer, no matter how much she wanted to.
"I'd love to accept your offer, really, but I can't," she said. "I have a family to take care—a little brother to take care of—and, believe it or not, I have Bucky to take care of."
"No you don't," Bucky snorted.
Marlena shot him a look. "Do you really wanna go there, Mr. Still-Doesn't-Know-How-To-Use-A-Microwave?"
Bucky clamped his mouth shut and sat back in his seat.
"That's what I thought," Marlena chuckled, turning back towards Nick. "But yeah. I wish I could accept your offer, but my life at the moment will not permit me to do so. Plus, all of my powers still have yet to settle, so I'm half useless."
"That's perfectly okay," Nick assured her. "When you're ready, they'll be here waiting for you."
"Hell yeah we will," Tony exclaimed. "You're one of a kind, Marlena Claire. It'd suck to lose ya."
"You're holding me captive in your tower," she retorted. "I highly doubt you'll be losing me any time soon. Also, you better be sending my mom a check for all the work she's had to miss just so she could stay home with my brother."
"I sent her fifteen grand like three days ago," Tony shrugged. "Don't fret, little one."
Marlena shook her head. "Oh my gosh."
"Anyway," Nick said as he stood up. "I should be heading back to Europe. If you do change your mind, just talk to Stark and he'll get everything set up for you."
Marlena nodded. "Thank you, sir."
He gave both Bucky and Tony a nod before heading out of the room.
The three sat in silence for a few moments before Tony finally broke it.
"You guys wanna go to Shawarma?"
Bucky's eyebrows fell in confusion. "What's a Shawarma?"
Marlena sighed and stood up. "And you say I don't need to take care of you, you poor, detached little soul. You're so lucky I love you."
Marlena grabbed his hand and pulled him from his seat.
"You have no idea," Bucky smiled.
Tony groaned loudly, clearly not enjoying their little exchange. "Are we going to Shawarma or am I going to have to sit here and watch you two ogle over each other for the next century and a half?"
"The door's over there," Marlena said, gesturing to. . .well, the door. "You don't have to watch us if you don't want to."
Bucky laughed but quickly buried his head in Marlena's neck to counteract it.
Tony only rolled his eyes and stood up, heading over to the door. "I'll be downstairs working in the lab whenever you two decide to stop being assholes and go to Shawarma with me."
Marlena only laughed as she watched Tony's retreating figure. If she were to ever actually accept the offer of becoming an Avenger, she knew because of him, as well as the others on the team, that she would definitely not regret it.