Three months later

Cobalt energy filled Ira's vision. A great cloud of midnight mist that swirled around her in a great vortex. She shaped it with her hands, molding it like clay until it formed a great sphere of pulsing blue energy. She sent a quick glance towards the five armed men that still knew the brightly-lit hallway before slamming her hand down onto the hard metal floor of the base.

The energy traveled through the floor, sending shockwaves that knocked the men off their feet. She straightened up, rising from the crouch as the men still scrambled to get up. One hastily turned his rifle towards her, shooting a volley of bullets that cut through the air.

But Ira simply swept her hand to the side, energy following the movement and flinging the bullets away. She advanced towards the men that remained standing; two having been struck down and another becoming victim to a stray bullet that rebounded off Ira's shield.

They held up their guns, but she was ready; sending the rifles flying out of their hands with a flick of her wrist. And with another wave of her hand the two men were sent flying, crashing into the walls and slumping to the floor.

"Level Two, Quadrant One is secure," she announced into the communication device nestled in the curve of her ear.

"Copy," came the reply, Steve's voice echoing clearly in her ear. "Regroup and return to Level One."

"Got it," Ira affirmed, before heading out of the hallway and into the main room. What had once been a control room was now a mess of broken monitors and shattered screens, littered with papers strewn about from the that had occurred. Crushed filing cabinets and toppled desks creating obstacles that Ira avoided as she watched for Emilia.

Ira looked around, scanning the debris to see if Emilia had returned from clearing Quadrant Two. But the blonde did not appear, so Ira was forced to roam the destroyed room, hands glowing with energy in case of a surprise attack.

She strolled through the interior, carefully avoiding the bodies strewn about and the glass littering the floor. A glimmer of light caught her eye as she walked through the room. A small silver key glinted in the slot of a crushed desk drawer. Ira gent down, her fingers grasping at the key and turning. The lock clicked open.

"Now what was so important that it had to be locked away...?" She murmured to herself, as she pulled open the draw. A pile of folders and files greeted her, and her lips curved in a small smile. She grabbed the files and began leafing through them, studying the names imprinted on the tabs of the files.

"Project Metamorphosis," she read aloud, cocking her head to the side as she looked over the file.

"What's that?" A new voice entered the room, smooth and confident. Ira stood up, turning to see Emilia appear at the doorway, a hand resting on her hip and a smirk stretched across her lips.

"Some files I found," Ira replied, holding up said documents as Emilia picked her way over the rubble to her side. "We can look at them later. Come on."

With Emilia on her heels, Ira made her way through the halls of the base until they reached the staircase. They quickly ran down, reaching the first floor just as Steve's voice echoed through their ears.

"Where are you?" He questioned as Ira and Emilia walked through the doorway. Steve stood in the center of the room, his shield gripped in one hand and his other pressed to the comm link in his ear as he scanned the room for them. Natasha stood next to him, both of her hands clasping guns as she calmly surveyed the room.

"We got sidetracked," She replied, and he turned. She raised the files in the air and he nodded, recognition flashing briefly across his face before his attention was snatched by the loud slamming of a door.

The four occupants of the empty room turned, following the jarring sound to see Wanda step out from a door, her hands glowing bright scarlet as she entered the room. Behind her came Pietro, speeding to catch up with his sister in a blur of light.

They stood over by Emilia and Ira, waiting for instructions from Steve and Natasha. "Where are Rhodey and Sam?" Natasha asked, a slight hint of impatience in her voice as she watched for the two men.

"Here," a voice called, and Ira turned to see Rhodey, decked out in his War Machine suit, stride through the door followed by Sam, whose mechanical wings were folded against his back.

"Any trouble?" Steve asked, but they shook their heads.

"It was quiet," Sam replied. "We only ran into a few guards."

"Same here," Emilia offered, and Wanda nodded, showing they, too, hadn't encountered many soldiers.

"Are the floors clear?" Natasha asked, and the teams nodded.

"Alright then. Let's move," Steve commanded. He and Natasha led the way, leaving the base with the others trailing behind them, still on high alert. Overhead, the inky night sky twinkled with stars, casting a dim glow over the ground below. They made their way towards the small Quinjet that they had parked behind a copse of trees, trudging through the small wood without saying a word. The silence was broken by twigs cracking and the intermittent crunching of dried leaves, but Ira found it quite peaceful.

They soon saw the Quinjet, with its chrome-plated sides glinting like a beacon through the trees. They broke through the tree line, and Steve ushered them to the jet. He opened the doors, and they filed inside, with Emilia bringing up the rear and closing the doors behind them.

Ira sat down next to Pietro, leaning her head up against the edge of her seat. She suddenly realized how tired she was; her bones ached and her head was pounding. She slumped in her seat and her eyes fluttering closed before snapping back open as she struggled to remain awake.

Looking around, she could see that everyone else was similarly yawning and trying to stay alert. Even Steve was rubbing his eyes tiredly. Only Natasha remained fully awake, her green eyes glinting sharply as she sat in the cockpit of the jet. "Ready for takeoff," she announced, and Steve nodded. Natasha flipped a few switches and the jet rose into the air before speeding through the starry night sky.

"Well done on the mission," Steve congratulated the team members once the jet had settled into a comfortable speed. Ira attempted a smile, but all she could manage was an exhausted grimace. "We'll have a briefing tomorrow," he told them. "So when we land, get some rest."

They nodded, and Ira settled back in her seat, her eyes closing slowly. Soon she was fast asleep, her hand still gripping the files. Her head slumped against the edge of her seat, slowly slipping down to rest on Pietro's shoulder. He had similarly fallen asleep, and that's how the two dozing Avengers found themselves when the Quinjet landed back at the compound.

*****

Ira awoke as the first rays of sunlight pierced through her window and glanced across her face. She rolled over from her previous position slumped face-first on her bed, turning to stare up at the white-painted ceiling. She blinked blearily, rubbing a hand across her face and stifling a yawn as she tried to clear the morning fog from her head.

Thoughts of the night before ran through her head; of taking down the HYDRA base, finding the files, and falling asleep on the jet. But here is where she grew puzzled, for she couldn't remember getting off of the jet. And even more peculiar, looking down at herself now, she could see that she was still wearing the clothes from the mission; dark pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue jacket.
Ira sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her dangling feet striking against her ankle boots that she had worn, carefully placed beside her bed.

She stood, walking across the soft rug beneath her bed to her dresser across the room and to the right of the door. Secured to the wall above the dresser sat a shiny new TV, courtesy of Tony. To the left of the door stood a bookshelf, already filled with a few books that Ira had bought. On the left wall was a door leading into the closet, and a door to the bathroom was placed against the back wall, near her bed. The walls were painted cream, creating a warm glow that made the room feel cozy.

Ira looked at the clock which sat on the dresser, proudly proclaiming the time in bright red letters. 5:42 a.m. She sighed, longing to go back to her bed and sleep for hours. But she knew that Steve would want to talk about the mission briefing, and so she walked to her closet, grabbing the first clothes she saw and changing quickly.

When she appeared form the doorway, she wore a simple white blouse and black pants. She briskly combed her platinum blonde hair, tying it back as she walked out of the door. She shut it behind her and made her way through the halls of the Avengers' living quarters.

Her feet padded softly over the wood floors as she walked towards the kitchen and living room. She passed by the training room, where the faint sounds of grunting and fighting could be heard. Ira kept walking, knowing that it was just Natasha, training at the break of dawn as she usually did.

She soon reached the kitchen, which sat in a large open room that also contained the living room. She made her way straight to a cupboard, grabbing a loaf of bread and putting two slices in the toaster. Ira put the bread away and leaned against the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen. She sighed, closing her eyes and wishing that she was back in her bed.

Even with daydreams swirling through her head, Ira still managed to hear the creak of a floorboard behind her. Her eyes flung open and she whirled around, energy already pooling in her palms.

But it was just Steve walking into the kitchen. He put his hands up in defense. "I see Nat's been training you to always be alert," he noted, sending a glance towards the glowing blue mist wrapped around her palms.

She grinned sheepishly and shrugged, lowering her hands from an attack position. "Can't be too careful."

It was true that Natasha had trained her to be incredibly careful and alert at all times. Along with the caution, the red-headed spy had been training the Enhanced in espionage, covert surveillance, and also tactical strategy. This, coupled with Steve's hand-to-hand combat training, had prepared them to defeat any problem that they came up against.

And the problems were many.

"Are you ready for the briefing today?" Steve asked, snapping Ira out of her day dreams as he set a water bottle down on the counter. Ira nodded, and a thought popped into her head.

"Wait, where are the files I found last night?" She asked him. She was sure that she hadn't seen them in her room, and she knew for certain that she had had them on the Quinjet. So where were they?

"Pietro gave them to me," Steve told her. "He said that you were sleeping and he didn't want to wake you, so he just grabbed the files and brought them to me. I've looked over them, and-" A loud pop cut him off, and Ira turned to see that her toast was done. Steve sighed. "I'll go over it at the meeting," he told her.

Ira nodded distractedly, her thoughts more focused on what Steve had just told her as she walked to grab her breakfast. Had Pietro been the one who had brought her back from the jet? For some reason, her cheeks flushed scarlet at the thought.

Still lost in thought, she grabbed the slices of toast from the toaster. She swiftly slathered them in butter, and sat at the island to eat. While Ira munched on her toast, the others slowly trickled out into the kitchen. First Natasha, then Wanda, Emilia, Pietro, Sam, Rhodey, and so on, until everyone had made their way to the living room.

With everyone who had been on the mission ready, Steve called the team to the briefing room. They followed him through the halls until they reached the briefing room, a large open room with glass windows as walls. A long wooden table took up the center of the room, and it was here that the six Avengers sat, while Steve and Natasha stood at the front of the room.

"Yesterday, the plan was to destroy a HYDRA base in New Jersey that was selling weapons to warlords," Steve recapped. "And this plan went successfully. The base is destroyed, and some HYDRA agents have been captured. While infiltrating the base, files were found by Ira," he said, nodding towards her and holding up the files that had been found earlier. "And-" he sighed, looking seriously down at the thin manila envelopes grasped in his hand.

"We've looked at the files," Natasha continued. "This isn't going to be easy to hear, but..." She took a quick breath that lasted a few seconds, but to Ira it felt like an eternity. Her fingernails dug crescents into her palm, and she bit her lip so hard that she drew blood. What was Natasha going to say? "HYDRA has started the human experimentation back up," Natasha finished.

The world blurred around her. Her heart seemed to stop. "What?" Was all she managed to breathe out.

"In the files, it detailed experiments done in multiple bases on more 'volunteers'. Dozens of them," Natasha continued, and Ira looked on, numb to the world around her. All that she could focus on were those horrible words spewing from Natasha's ruby lips.

"Why would the base be so low-security if they had information of that importance kept there?" Sam asked, and this time Steve responded.

"We think that it was a front. If the base appeared small and low-security, we wouldn't think that there was anything of value there," he informed them.

He continued talking, but Ira didn't listen. She looked behind her at Pietro and Wanda. They looked scared, horrified and worried. She knew that those emotions were probably displayed on her face as well. Looking across from her to Emilia, Ira studied her features. There was fear there, and horror too. But there was something else. Something that had barely manifested itself in a slight furrow of Emilia's brow and a minuscule tilt of her head.

Ira couldn't decipher the emotion, but it unnerved her slightly. But she shook the thoughts out of her head, and focused on the most pressing matter at hand. The human experimentation.

"How many Enhanced are there?" She piped up.

"We counted fifty-two names," Natasha informed her. "We don't know if any of them are dead or alive, but we'll keep digging. Because currently, HYDRA has an army that well outnumbers us. We need to plan and figure out what to do, or," her mouth set into a grim line. "This could be the end of the Avengers."

*****

Ira was laying in her bed later that day, staring distractedly at the ceiling. Her blonde hair was splayed on the pillow beneath her in a golden halo, as she absently swirled her fingers through the air, creating streams of cobalt energy that twirled through the air in a delicate dance.

On the outside, she appeared relatively composed; a serene mask of calm secured to her face. But on the inside, her stomach roiled in turmoil. Thoughts and fears whirled through her head in a tornado of chaos.

HYDRA had restarted the human experimentation.

This was the thought that plagued her the most. Here was an example of history repeating itself, of a power-hungry organization dead-set on world domination. And to achieve this horrific goal, they had taken people from their homes and lives, and twisted them into something that they were not, forging them into weapons.

Their minds had been corrupted with lies, just as Ira's had been only months ago, when she had still believed in the integrity of HYDRA. And now, an army of powerful people, whose minds had been destroyed and remolded to serve HYDRA, who probably didn't even know that they were on the wrong side of the war, these people were coming to destroy them.

Anger grew in her belly, festering and growing until her whole being pulsed with rage. Her movements became quick and sharp, the energy no longer spiraling delicately through the air, but cutting through it in sharp jagged movements.

Why had HYDRA done this? Why had they taken these people from their lives? All to take over the world? Were they so blinded by their cause that they didn't think, didn't care, about the people whose lives they were uprooting?

The sad answer was that they were. They would do anything to achieve their goal, including launching army after army at the Avengers, trying to finally extinguish them once and for all.

And Ira had to stop it. All of it. Everything that HYDRA had ever done.

She had sworn to that duty when she had become an Avenger; to protect people at all costs. But what if these people didn't want to be protected? What if, instead of shielding and protecting them, she would be the one who needed to be protected?

What if this was a war that they couldn't win?

*****

Yes, I used the girl-falls-asleep-on-her-love-interest's-shoulder cliché.

No, I won't apologize.