Never Alone Again |N.R|

Would I?

Steve asked JARVIS to tell Tony and Bruce to come to Rue's room. He'd moved me away from the door and now he was listening to her. Tony and Bruce arrived after a couple of minutes, both wondering what this was about.

"We think those people who took Rue were HYDRA. They've planted something in her, like they did to Bucky, and her target is Nat." Steve spoke for the both of us, and I gulped when everyone's eyes turned to me.

"Nat, you shouldn't be here if she's trying to hurt you." I shook my head. I needed to be here.

"No, I'm not going anywhere. I can't leave here." They seemed to accept my answer, having probably expected me to refuse to leave. Tony and Bruce now shifted their focus back to Steve, waiting for him to explain his plan.

"As far as I can tell she's barricaded the door to try and keep herself in. She's fighting the thoughts, but I think she's hurting herself. So I suggest that  we ram this door until there's enough room to fit through, and then we need to knock her out. Bruce, have you got anything for that?" Bruce thought for a moment.

"Yes I do. Give me two minutes and I'll be back." Those two minutes felt like forever, but he eventually returned panting for air. He had two syringes in his hand.

"I doubt we'll even need all of one of these, let alone two of them, but it's best to be safe." We all nodded in agreement, and with one final nod of confirmation Steve and Tony started barging the door. I could hear Rue now.

"No don't! Go away! I don't want to hurt you." My heart ached at those words. But I was too afraid to speak, to comfort her.
It didn't take them long to barge the door open enough and the four of us filed in, with me keeping to the very back. The scene we were met with was gut wrenching. Rue was talking to herself still, but in an effort to block out the intrusive thoughts she was bashing her head against the floor. She'd split the skin, with a small pool of blood forming beneath her. The other three wasted no time in stopping her. Steve and Tony worked together to hold her up so that she couldn't hurt herself anymore, whilst Bruce injected her with the first syringe. She slowed slightly but she was still fighting their efforts. He had no choice but to inject her with the second, and after a few moments she finally went limp.

Steve picked her up and we all followed him as he carried her to the Med Bay. When we reached the bed, Bruce wasted no time in strapping her arms and legs down. I was going to protest this at first, but then I realised that it was a good idea. It would stop her from hurting herself, or anyone else. I busied myself with cleaning the cut on her head, attempting to block out what Bruce was saying but also eager to know what was wrong. The cut was fairly deep but I didn't think it needed stitches, so I wiped all of the blood away before carefully placing a plaster over it. Rue was out cold but I was terrified to hurt her, both because I cared so deeply for her but also because I was afraid of who she'd be when she woke up. Would she be her normal self, or would she be the tortured girl whose mind was being controlled by HYDRA? Bruce began to explain what was wrong, although some of it was hard to understand.

"The scans show that she has something implanted in the base of her skull. It looks like a remotely controlled system. My guess is that they can trigger it from as far away as they want, and Rue is instantly under their control." We all just stood there in utter disbelief.

"So the people that took her, they must've been HYDRA?" Steve was curious, especially since he'd gone through this with Bucky.

"I'd guess so. Has she spoken about them much? The people that took her?" It took me a moment to realise that the question was directed at me.

"Oh um, no. Wanda retrieved her memories a few hours ago but not long after that she fell asleep. I stepped out for a little while to get some work done and when I came back, she was gone."