Special Needs: A Bruce and Natasha FanFic

Chapter 64: Broken, Blue, and Missing You

Summary: The story picks up on Nix with people we've heard about but not met before. Natasha gets Bruce to air some of his anxieties. Adam and Tony are busy cleaning up and playing detective. Beginning of the flashbacks that lead to the get-together at the Lake. Lots of feels and hot wings!
Notes: Thank you to Autumn_Froste and Emilygracie for Beta duties. Any mistakes are mine. Yes, we earn our mature rating. Childhood trauma is mentioned. Sherlock Holmes and Die Hard references are made. Expect a flashback within a flashback.

This was definitely the most unnerving thing that had ever happened to Gordanna Na in her adult life, but she was doing her best not to let it show in front of General Rigelus Ariadne who was seated opposite her in the small ship's passenger compartment. Brown-haired, dark-eyed, tall, and soft-spoken she stood out in a crowd, not just because she was physically a bit unusual, but because most of her planet's society considered her "disabled". She still lived at home with her parents because the stigma of her condition had narrowed her options for education and employment. The fact that they lived in a sparsely populated agricultural region and she was an artist hadn't helped. Marriage might have been a way out of her parents' was certainly mature enough to set up a partnered household, but it wasn't something she cared to consider. She'd rather live with her parents in peace and work out her own path to independence. Her projects were selling, but she wasn't using her full name or meeting clients face-to-face for consignments nor commissions. Most patrons seemed to just write it off as an artist being eccentric or quirky. She'd take that any day over the sad looks, rudeness, and condescension she sometimes encountered. Gordanna even preferred the occasional superstitious evil eye and fearful recoils over the well-meant saccharine.

Most Nixians were psychic to some degree. The ruling class were usually highly-trained and naturally gifted mind readers who could pick through an unschooled head like a database or a video library (Rigelus was one of these) while most other people could at least detect emotions and share basic ideas without regarding it as anything unusual. Generally, children on Nix were born mentally "open," broadcasting their thoughts and feelings with no clue how to focus and protect their minds from the psychic challenges and bombardment they would soon encounter in public spaces. If control and protective defense didn't come naturally in a few months, it meant yoking the child with an adult, usually a parent or older sibling, till the child matured enough to find the "on and off switch." If they remained "open" and unable to control the thoughts and emotions they broadcast for others to detect, it was considered a handicap.

There were devices to dampen "openness" to socially acceptable levels, but no amount of training could correct the opposite condition. A child whose mind could not be read or who could not communicate psychically was referred to as a "blank" when a mind was fused tight. Neither magic nor science had found an effective "cure" for the condition. To complicate the situation, Nix had a sad history of training blanks as assassins because they could blindside psychics and empaths as well. Though that had been over two hundred years in the past, blanks were still regarded with suspicion on one hand and patronizing contempt for their perceived weakness on the other. Gordanna Na was a blank.

The day after the invitation and the follow-up video call, the official ship had arrived with a much more auspicious chaperon than she or her mother and father had anticipated. General Rigelus had been very kind when he spoke to her parents, but the royal was rather noncommittal about why their handicapped daughter above all citizens was needed by Queen Nyxianna. Yes, Gordanna was educated and an unusually talented artist, but why was she needed in the capital? The polite conversation out loud between her mother and Rigelus had carried on for a good half hour over confections and drinks. Gorna could only guess about the mental one flying back and forth between the crown's surrogate and her protective parents. Still, they'd eventually let her go with Rigelus after he gave his word and a personal guarantee she would be respected and safe. Once she'd met with Queen Nyxianna, their daughter would be free to come back if that was her choice. Gordanna agreed and that was that. It would be her honor to serve her sovereign.