Stars Dance

A Retelling

We had put her through the same battery tests before but she had been unconscious or violent for most of them. Her blood as expected still didn't respond to any of the tests seeing as it was purely acid. How she was even alive was a surprise to the Doctor's. Acid in your veins isn't the healthiest thing in the world. They did CAT scans, scans of her brain. X-ray upon x-ray. They tested everything in her body and everything that came out. The results were minimal or nonexistent. We never heard much back. Astella sat on the white medical table swinging her bare legs as she sat in a hospital gown. "Tell us everything you remember." Doctor Banner said getting out a clipboard, pen, and paper. Astella bit her lip thoughtfully. This was the longest she had lasted without her mental health collapsing. We wanted to know as much as we could before she snapped again.

"Well a lot of it.. It's fuzzy. Those months i spent in the insane asylum. When i would actually come to and be myself for a little while i was so scared. I didn't know where i was, and i would scream and scream for them to let me out and obviously that didn't help. Half the people in there were shouting that." she laughs despite everything. The rest of us manage strained smiles but Astella gets a real one out of me. She looks directly at me continuing to smile. I can't help it. "But I remember everything leading up to the explosion." Astella scratches her head and furrows her brow. I wonder what she's thinking about.

"Well why don't you tell us what happened?" Dr. Banner asks pen ready. Astella nods.

"Well after I saved Barton's life, you're welcome by the way." Clint salutes her, a small smile on his lips. "I fought along side Steve for a bit. I was shouting at him, sorry, and I left." She says meekly.

"Just keep going." Natasha said, motioning for her to get the show on the road.

"I flew into the mothership. It was really dark. There was this entire story on the walls of the ship about how the Overlords and the ones before him killed their predecessors because that's how it works for them." We all nod. Some things were clicking in our heads now. What Astella had said before everything went wrong. "I kept moving down the corridor and it looked like there were Slyvarian in hibernation. It was weird. They were encased in something. I left. I didn't want to find out what would happen if I stayed too long. Then everything opened up. There were cages with those weird mechanical dogs." Astella shakes her head like she is trying to rid herself of the memory. "And a hanger with a bunch of ships and Slyvarian. They were preparing to board and head down to Earth. I stopped them. Killed them all." Astella looked really upset now and her hands were trembling.

"Hey, hey it's okay they were trying to kill us, you. To take over the Earth." I said softly rubbing her arm. "Don't, don't loose yourself right now." Astella looked up at me her eyes flashing yellow before returning to brown. Astella shook her head and whimpered a bit.

"I have a splitting headache." She murmured. I leaned against the medical table and put my arm around her shoulders. Kissing her temple I whispered in her ear to stay with me. "I feel like I have split personality disorder or something." Astella said managing a small laugh. "I'm good I'm good. I've got this." Astella says kissing my cheek. I blush and move away from her feeling everyone's eyes on us. Astella clears her throat then starts again. "Okay well one of them got the jump on me. Sprayed something in my face. I passed out and woke up in, well the Doctor said it was, an extraction tube. For my powers you know." She looked at us all in turn.

"How about that anyways, do you have new ones?" Dr. Banner asked.

"Umm I believe so yes. I still have the languages, the images, super hearing, electricity, telekinesis, but I also can use fire." Demonstrating she opened her palm, and in it a small flame flickered in the center of her open hand. She closed her fist tightly. "And this." She squeezed her eyes shut and at first nothing happened but slowly she transformed. From head to toe she turned into, someone else. When she opened her eyes before us stood another, Natasha Romanoff.