time lapse ⇒pietro maximoff

II

Eden

We arrived at a new location in a land that was mildly familiar to me after a few hours of flight. The entire journey was uncomfortable to me, to say the least. After that groupthink, everyone relegated me into the front passenger seat of the jet's cockpit so they could keep an eye on me. I didn't give a single word of protest- I understood where they were coming from. I could be a threat. 

The location we arrived at was exploding with life- buildings that nearly broke through the atmosphere littered the earth. Sprouting from the ground, inorganic spires shaped the land, none complementing each other. Not a single patch of green to be found- all but one. Central Park. Tony said that New Yorkers liked it this way. Bruce called it the concrete jungle. I found myself wanting to touch the ground, and connect with the earth. I couldn't feel it's life pulse beneath my feet in the tower. 

Steve was polite enough to lead me out of the jet and into the reception area of the tower and did his best to explain everything to me. All of the sounds, sights, and unfamiliarity of the whole situation was overstimulating and I was beginning to cave into myself to escape from it all.

"The Avengers tower is where most of us reside in. We all have our own respective floors and there are several different floors that are dedicated to training, technology and other Avengers business. Since you're new here, I'm sure Tony will fix up your own floor as soon as he can." Steve said kindly to me as he showed me around the lab that was on the third to top floor of the tower. After walking around for a bit and marveling at Tony's many lab fixtures and pieces of equipment, we both took a seat on the grey couch situated in the central part of the floor. I chose to sit close to Steve out of pure comfort- he made me feel safe and toned down the anxiety that was brewing within me. 

Steve didn't give any reaction that would imply that he didn't like that I was so close, so I settled on the couch with my head resting on his shoulder. His body was tensed beneath my head. I assume that no one else was familiar with him in this regard. He gave no objection to my head laying on his shoulder. In fact, I'm almost positive he hummed in consent when I sighed at the comfort it imbued me. 

I don't think I was allowed to touch another person, let alone be comfortable with them in this manner for a long time. It sent waves of indescribable loneliness into the very center of me - to feel as if this were the first time I was able to just be human with another human was unlike any other emotion I'd ever felt. So very lonely, was I. 

I could feel the rising tide of emotion begin to push at the dam in my mind that I'd so expertly placed from the moment I woke up merely hours ago. If I were a betting woman, I'd bet the farm that I was always a compartmentalizer. I might as well have been born yesterday- because I don't remember the past 20 or so years I'd lived prior to waking up this morning. Steve and Tony think I'm about 20 years old, but Bruce would have to conduct laboratory tests on me to accurately confirm that. 

What I do know is that I'm an enhanced individual with certain psychic abilities and a pair of wings that were invisible to everyone save Steve and Thor. Apparently I'm not the only enhanced that came from Strucker's lab either. There were two others, a boy and a girl. One as fast as a whip of lightning and the other seductive in the nightmarish capacity.

"I hope you don't mind being the guest of curiosity at Thor's going away party, Eden. You don't have to attend. There's a guest room on the floor you can stay in to feel more comfortable! That is until I get your own room squared away."Tony said to me, and I shifted my weight on the slightly uncomfortable couch next to Steve, who'd remained mostly quiet since after our short tour of the lab had concluded. Natasha and the man who was on the stretcher, Clint, were in the lab with a doctor and Bruce who was observing the woman heal Clint.