Chapter Thirteen;

Delaney remembered the first time she had learnt about her power.

She much preferred to think of the time it was broken to her by Natasha and Clint; to think of her parents was almost unbearable.

It had been a few days after she'd been taken to S.H.I.E.L.D., when she'd mostly recovered from the shock of waking up to having all of her memories wiped. It had been Clint who told her what she could do.

It had terrified Delaney. To know she could control the actions and thoughts of a person merely by speaking a few words made her chest constrict and her world spin. It seemed almost immoral, to take over someone like that without giving them a choice. She'd hated it – and that hate, over the years, had never truly gone away. She'd learned how to tolerate her power, to accept it as part of her, but she still didn't like it.

Initially, she'd refused to learn how to use it. But Clint had argued against it. "You're going to have to learn to control it," he'd said. "Otherwise, you could use it without thought. And that could be disastrous."

Delaney had cringed at the thought of a few odd comments that, if her power applied to the words, could end up with horrific consequences.

So she'd agreed. Her practices were quiet, and shared only between Clint, Natasha, and two other agents: Evan Wilde and Cristina Wood. Both were tolerant and patient, and over the course of time Delaney found herself growing closer to both of them. Both were encouraging and grew to trust Delaney more over time, when she made them do nothing more than raise their hands or sing a line of a song.

She mastered control of one person quickly, but controlling multiple people at once – Delaney couldn't do it. She couldn't even get Evan and Cristina to do anything simultaneously. Instead only the person whom she'd focused on first would react to her instruction.

"Maybe," Natasha said, "You can't control more than one person at a time. We'll try this for another few days but if we still don't get a result, we'll conclude you can only affect the actions of one person."

The days passed, and Delaney found that she, as Natasha theorised, she could only control one person at a time. She tried to hide how much of a relief that was for her, but the others appeared to understand that at once.

From that point onward, Delaney had been sent on mission, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s weapon. Hypnosis, she'd been called in code.

She hadn't lost a battle.

+++

Now, after two years, Delaney found Hypnosis rising once again, ready to fling into action.

Her gaze at the Winter Soldier narrowed, and she realised he was holding a grenade launcher. Delaney gasped and grabbed Natasha's hand, yanking her friend to the ground. Steve raised his shield and was hit full on by the bullet. He wasn't injured, but the momentum sent him flying off the bridge.

"Steve!" Delaney screamed, but there was no chance to look back as the sound of rapid gunfire ripped through the air. Delaney gasped and scrambled after Natasha, bent double. Blood pounded in her ears as she sprinted for cover – she found herself heading in the same direction as Sam.

"Lane!" Sam reached out and pulled her behind the car he was using as cover.

Delaney flashed him a grin before her eyes narrowed. "Sam, cover me for a second!"

If Sam gave her an answer, Delaney didn't hear it. She closed her eyes, the sounds of the firefight still ringing in her ears as she got her head into the mind space necessary to use her power. She had discovered early on in her first mission with S.H.I.E.L.D. that if she was panicked, fearful, or just overwhelmed with emotion, she couldn't use her power. To control someone else's mind, she'd discovered, her own needed to be calm. She needed to be in control of herself first, so she could think clearly, and give direct instructions without the noise of an overwhelmed mind.

When she felt her mind enter the right headspace she whipped around. Natasha was nowhere in sight, nor was the Winter Soldier. Delaney cursed. He'd been the one she'd hoped to control. The other agents were all that were left now – securing grappling hooks into the metal of cars. Delaney narrowed her eyes as she saw one of them, holding a machine gun – no doubt they were about to corner Steve.

"No you don't!" Delaney ducked out from behind her cover, Sam right beside her. "Freeze!"

The man froze. Whipping out two of her knives, Delaney sprinted forward and flung them both. Each found their mark, buried in the man's chest. Out of the corner of her eye, Delaney saw Sam take out one of the other agents who had yet jumped to the road below.

Delaney wrenched her knives out of the man's chest and surveyed the scene below. Steve had ran out of a bus, under fire from the other agents, his shield in hand. Delaney leapt off the bridge and on to the road below, charging at the nearest agent. "Steve, go, we've got this!" she yelled as Steve took down one of the men – the man she'd been targeting spun around but was too late to react as Delaney jumped, her legs wrapping around the man's neck in a choke hold. Using her momentum, Delaney flung him to the ground and stabbed her knife into his throat.

Thanks for the lesson, Nat. Delaney grinned as she righted herself. While she'd been busy with him, Sam had taken out the other two agents nearby and was now strapping on his Falcon suit.

"You need a lift?" he asked.

Delaney shook her head. "Just go, Sam! I'll just be excess weight slowing down. Steve and Nat might need you."

"Okay. Don't be too slow!"

"Wilson!" Sam grinned before he took off, his wings propelling him through the air. Delaney shook her head and blew several strands of hair out of her eyes before she was running again, her arms pumping furiously at her sides and her feet flying over the road. She was suddenly glad for all the running she'd done during her years of hiding as even after a battle and use of her power, her endurance was high as she pushed her way through the screaming and panicking groups of people. The sounds of gunfire no longer met her years and Delaney increased her pace, breathing hard.

Sirens met her ears, and loud shouts. Delaney skidded around a corner and gasped, crouching behind the hood of a car as her eyes widened.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, all dressed in black (she guessed these were more undercover H.Y.D.R.A. agents), surrounded Steve, Natasha, and Sam, forcing them to surrender. Delaney slapped a hand to her mouth to muffle her cry as she watched an agent cuff Steve's hands.

"Shoot." Delaney slowly lowered her hand and found it was shaking. Frantically she looked around, trying to find a weak link in the formation of agents, but there were none. Think Delaney, think, get to them! A dozen plans filtered through Delaney's head – all of them as impossible to carry out as the other. She groaned as she stared hard at her friends, as though they'd have the answers.

Natasha glanced up as though she felt Delaney's gaze, their eyes met. Delaney clambered to her feet but Natasha shook her head fervently. "Stay away," she mouthed, eyes blazing fiercely. "Run!"

Delaney clenched her hands into fists. "I can't leave you!" She'd never, ever forgive herself. For once, Delaney cursed the fact her power couldn't touch more than one mind simultaneously. If she did she could make everyone freeze, and she could grab Steve, Nat, and Sam and drag them out as the agents were helpless to do anything. But she couldn't and if she did it only individually, they'd begin to notice something was wrong until they found her, and rushed at her too quickly for her to take them all out. She needed a better plan.

Natasha, however, didn't see her words: an agent had pulled her to her feet and was dragging her toward one of several vans. Delaney pounded her fist against the car door, screaming internally as her three friends were taken into captivity.

"Where's the fourth? Where's Esquivel?" the man who'd grabbed Steve barked. Delaney's heart seized as the other agents swivelled around. She had no choice now but to move – she'd be caught otherwise.

Her heart tore in two as she used the cover of cars to sprint away from the scene as other agents began to search for her, however, she kept her friends in sight. She couldn't abandon them but, at the same time, never before had she felt so helpless. What could she do? Nothing. She'd only get herself captured and then she'd really be helpless.

There's got to be something I can do. Delaney bit her lip as her friends were hauled into a van – the one at the back of the convoy. A plan began to hatch in her head. If she could execute it...

She wasn't sure if she could do it, but still, there was one thing she was absolutely sure of.

There was no way she was leaving her three friends in the clutches of H.Y.D.R.A. – not while she was still free, and could do something about it.