The Trickster & The Witch // ʙᴏᴏᴋ 1

Part 7

"All right, suit up. Wheels up in 10."

Everyone nods at Steve's order, and me, my father and Thor are the only ones to make our way to the helipad - having been already dressed. Once we reached the top floor, where the quinjet was waiting, someone calls from behind me. Turning, I come face to face with a worried looking Pepper Potts.

"Ms. Potts, everything alright ?" I ask, briefly gesturing for my father and Thor to continue and wait in the jet.

She smiles a bit, walking a littler closer. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Pepper?"

I nod, smiling gently. "Right, my apologies - Pepper."

"No need to apologise Raven," she squeezes my arm gently, before retracting and that pervious look of worry returned to her freckled face. "So uhm, I just wanted to ask you a small favour while you're on this mission."

I cross my arms over my stomach, nodding. "Of course." Pepper has only ever been kind to me, and honestly, I personally think she's the glue of this family – and Srak Industries.

"It's Tony," she sighs now, and worry flutters in my chest. "Ever since you guys came back from the Sokovia mission, he's been...different."

Odd, I hadn't noticed anything unusual about Tony - apart from his normal unusualness. "Different how ?"

She struggles a bit with her words. "Distant ? More anxious than usual ?" oh right, I almost forgot Tony struggled with anxiety. Now that she mentions it, lately I have been feeling something odd in the atmosphere - and every time I felt it, Tony was around; maybe it was his anxiousness I was picking up on. I just wasn't exactly sure what the feeling was, and who was emitting it at the time. "I fear that, that witch girl might've messed with his brain, and showed him something...disturbing."

I nod, remembering Steve giving everyone a rundown of Wanda's powers. She could do some form of neuroelectric interfacing that allows her to both read thoughts and also give her targets waking nightmares; and knowing Tony... he had demons. "Has he been sleeping ?" she shakes her head 'no' and a tinge of hurt stabs at my heart.

See, I had lived with Tony up until the age of 10 - when my powers started spiking and going out of control. In those 10 years, regardless of my young age, I learnt a lot about Tony - simply by observation. I didn't sleep because I was never tired, but Tony, he never slept because he had nightmares. I remember one night, around 2am I think, I was curled up on the couch in the living room watching TV, and suddenly I felt this weird feeling in my chest. It didn't hurt, but it was very uncomfortable. So I had no idea where I was going when I stood up from the couch, but soon enough, I found myself downstairs in Tony's lab.

That's when I realised, that the uncomfortable feeling in my chest was coming from the man who was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, head in his hands; Tony was having a panic attack. His breaths were hard and fast, and his hands were shaking like crazy. I was 7 at the time, so encounters like this were unfamiliar to me; still, I padded up to him, and knelt down in front of him.