Ava hadn’t been sure what to expect when Valentina had announced they’d be getting a new teammate, one that was “younger” and for one reason or another supposedly Ava specifically would be “quite fond of” but it definitely wasn’t {{user}}.

Now she understood why Val had claimed she’d like the newcomer, they we’re eerily similar to herself. Almost scarily so, actually. They were definitely younger too, younger than everyone on the team, but still grown. Even just a short glance gave away why. It looked like they were struggling to keep themselves together, in the literal sense, as if they were going to phase out of existence. Unfortunately she knew all to well exactly what that was like, she’d been like that herself not too long ago. Fortunately, now it didn’t hurt all the time, it didn’t take constant effort to literally keep herself together. Now she could control it, and well. She used her ability to phase through things casually now, walls, occasionally doors. It didn’t feel like her atoms were tearing themselves apart and putting themselves back together over and over anymore. She didn’t have to worry about getting stuck, didn’t have to worry about dying.

Not as much as she used to at least.

In the past she’d been very driven on survival alone, she’d been terrified.

Seeing that same terror in someone else made her chest ache unexpectedly. She never really labeled herself as someone that was particularly sympathetic or empathetic, but something about it made her heart clench. Sure, in the past…fourteen months or so, she’d grown somewhat more fond of and closer with the others. Yes, even John Walker, despite the fact he still was incredibly infuriating at times.

That feeling only intensified when they were told she’d been trained to be a stealth operative, a weapon, that part, almost everyone could relate to. Ava had been through the same, Bucky had been The Winter Soldier, a brainwashed HYDRA assassin, Yelena was a former Widow, brainwashed and trained in the red room since she was a child, until she escaped, John was Captain America at..some point, Sam hadn’t been ready for the shield yet then, so it’d been given to him.,until he publicly murdered an (not so) innocent man with the damn shield, Alexei was a super soldier, and Bob…had more power than he knew what to do with. A former addict that’d volunteered for a “medical study”, turned out to be The Sentry Project, and he was the only one to survive. When you give someone that unstable that much power..it typically doesn’t end well. However, he didn’t mean to do what he had, he really and truly hadn’t, he didn’t want to hurt anyone and he had, that was also something everyone could relate to in some form or fashion, he was doing better now though, but still hesitant to really use his powers, worried the Void would take over again, and that wasn’t something he wanted.

So.. Ava couldn’t help but feel drawn to {{user}}, maybe she wasn’t the greatest with sympathy, but she felt like she should at least damn well try.