It had been 2 weeks, 2 weeks since I came back and things have been hectic. This....power, It's getting harder to control it. Let's just say they seem to be growing day by day
Fury is the one most concerned, I didn't blame him since he was right to be worried about everyone's safety. But that wasn't the only problem, HYDRA was still out there and Fury suspected they might be planning to snap back for a payback. He said he would try to dig more into SHIELD records for evidence against them.
"no!" I exclaimed hearing that.
He was a little surprised by my sudden response that was rather loud and frowned,
"I mean...not now. These guys have their eyes everywhere, they're growing inside SHIELD like parasites and they won't hesitate to eliminate you if they doubt even a little."
"so you want me to sit back and let them do as they please?" he replied raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
"no...yes, not really but yes I mean just...I don't know, this is not the right time."
"you do realize we just attacked one of their bases, they won't let it slide. They're sharpening their knifes as we're talking right now."
"I realize that but I don't know what to do anymore..." I reply before signing.
"perhaps if I was informed earlier we wouldn't be in this situation." He said looking outside.
" I didn't say anything because I didn't want to mess things in this world." I answered looking away.
"maybe you were wrong." He turned to looking at me.
"maybe." I whispered.
"it's still not too late, tell me everything I should know and we can handle this."
"I can't...I'm sorry."I looked at his direction again.
He signed before changing the topic,
"Brandon Hawking."
My ears perked up hearing that,
"sounds familiar to you?"
"I know nothing about him, saw him for the first time at that base." I replied honestly.
"that's all we got on him..." he handed me a tab with his photo and history, "...joined SHIELD after losing his family, him and his wife had been working on their multiverse theory but got rejected from everywhere..." He told me as I kept reading from the tab as his family picture showed up, he looked the same except he didn't have that scar on his face, I wonder how he got that, "...his daughter, Lily hawking, killed in robbery." I glanced at Fury before looking at her face again, she looked a bit like me, same hair and eyes, come to think of it she looked very similar to the way I looked when I was her age except the pale white skin.
"HYDRA grew an interest in him and his theory we suppose." Fury continued.
"well, he wasn't wrong on that." I replied handing him back his tab.
"that man has nothing to lose anymore."
"so am I supposed to feel bad for him now?"
"no, but this is a reason that makes him dangerous, he won't stop until he gets what he wants. That's why we won't stop either." He said and started walking out but stopped midway and turned to me,
"I'm all ears in case you change your mind..." he said as he handed me a card, "contact me directly."
"I'll keep in mind."
"just don't make a decision you'd regret." He replied without looking back as he was walking out.
Telling me to not take a decision I'd regret is too much to ask for, specially now because I have stopped thinking straight.
These nightmares aren't helping either. I would wake up in middle of a night from nightmares about that white chamber, every single night I find it hard to go back to sleep. Every night it's the same nightmare. It made me not wanting to go to sleep at all but I couldn't stay awake either, I had no other option but to live with it and wait for it to come back again.
Surrounded by the same white color everywhere, with no way out, with no hope of being saved, with no voice, it's intimidating and silent then without a warning that horrible noise would break out. It would feel so real, so scary like I was back at HYDRA again. I would find myself wake up gasping or screaming accidentally activating my ability. Everyone around me were on edge as well, they wanted to help me but I kept my distance.
I basically pulled an Elsa and locked myself in this room. I would only come out to eat making sure no one was around me. the Avengers were also worried because they couldn't help in this situation. They had no idea how to deal with this mainly because they didn't know what were they dealing with here.
Well, but there is this assumption that Mr. Stark and doc came up with through the footage they got from Strucker's entry. They made a theory that when I touched the scepter my bracelet got in the way somehow and it reacted with scepter's power and got me this weird ability to materialize diamonds, they weren't sure it was diamond because it was much stronger but it looked similar.
Agent Coulson said there is a way out of everything but I don't see how. Nothing was in my control.
Today is the start of 3rd week, woke up with the same nightmare and no sleep afterwards, I just took a shower and stayed awake trying to keep myself occupied as much as I could with limited items I had. I was trying to paint something sitting on my desk, it was a calmer day today, no accidental crystal spike-
I heard a knock on the door all of a sudden making me flinch as spikes raised around me as I signed in frustration. Great.
I stood up and looked around me panicking and raised my hands a little before pushing them downwards rapidly thinking about de materializing these spikes but it didn't work making me repeat the process multiple times,
The door slowly opened as Ms. Pepper peeked inside before stepping inside carefully watching me move my move my arms weirdly as if I was angrily smashing piano keys, she was taken back by this scene and scared or rather worried for me,
"go away." I whisper yelled before kicking one of the spike in anger.
"Diya?" she made her presence known.
I looked behind in surprise as I forgot someone knocked on the door,
"Ms. Pepper? I uhh I was just..." I quickly hid my arms behind me and looked around before signing, "...painting."
She gave me a smile before walking inside closer, "I'd love to take a look." She tried to go with it instead of talking about the elephant in the room.
"it's not finished yet." I said backing away.
"it's alright with me."
"no just..." she paused in her tracks as her smile faded a little, "...later, I'll show it later."
"as you wish..." She smiled again, I wasn't sure if it was genuine or not, "...lunch time is getting near so I was wondering if you'd like to join."
"I'm not really hungry, I'll eat later."
"you sure?"
"mhmm." I nodded my head.
"that's sad, me and Tony got used to your home cooked food actually."
"that's umm" I rubbed my forehead and looked around trying to find a way to reply, it didn't take long for her to understand I wasn't going to find any,
"why don't you spend some time with everyone else?" she came straight to the point,
"I am doing fine on my own." I tried to laugh sarcastically.
"you need people around you." she walked closed to me as I walked backwards more,
"I don't, I mean look at this..." I pointed at the scene around me before walking towards my bed and sitting on it with crossed arms on my stomach while my hands were clenching my hoodie from sides trying to restrict any hand movement, "...I can't go out like this."
She carefully walked towards bed and sat down with me but keeping a distance between us to keep me at ease,
"or are you just angry at Tony for making you say those lines that night." she asked smirking,
I turned to her with dropped jaw with embarrassment, "He..he told you?"
"oh trust me when I say he's going to hold it against you for the rest of his life." she said laughing.
I bring my knees to my chest and rest my head against it covering my red face with my hands, "thinking who else know." I said cringing.
"everyone probably."
Great.
That's why I don't speak. Should have made that jump. I will hold it against agent Coulson.
"better get used to it."
I didn't reply anything to that, she didn't say anything further, we were just sitting in silence but it wasn't comfortable like it usually would, there was awkward tension filling the room for lack of conversation.
"kid...when you go home...will you continue being like this?" she started.
I raised my head and looked at her frowning in confusion as she elaborated,
"trapped in your room forever?"
"that's what I've been doing my whole life, wouldn't make a difference to anyone." I answer.
"what about your college? You would have to go out for that, wouldn't you? then what? There will be people around you, you will have to go in front of your parents eventually, from everything I've heard from you I know they love you unconditionally, trust me they will notice a difference. Will you not tell them what happened?"
I thought about it for a moment,
"I...don't live with them, I mean I was when that thing happened and I came here but...it was just for few days because they came to spend some time with me, I actually live with my grandparents. I moved in with them for college..." I started as she was listening to my words making me continue, "...You know? They just always understood if I was sad somehow, like this one time I had a terrible day and they called me at night and I didn't say much about anything but they just understood from my voice that something was off." I finished with a light chuckle.
She was smiling at me sympathetically but it just made me feel guilty because I didn't want to dump her with this talk to gain some sympathy but I couldn't help it, she is very easy talk to as if I was speaking to my moth-
Snap out of it. My real mother is in another world waiting for me.
"sorry I just went off subject there it's just..yes they would notice a difference and I never kept a secret from them, but how do I even explain this all to them I mean..I would be sent to some mental asylum, they would never believe me what happened or worse, what if they start seeing me differently, I have become something else."I said frowning as it would be a nightmare if that were to actually happen.
"Diya, I don't have a child of my own but if I had one..i would always be by their side no matter the cost, I could never see them as anything other than my kid who is the biggest part of my life and I'm not saying it only to make you feel better, I actually mean it." She said making me remember her future, a smile made it's way on my face. Ms. Pepper thought I was smiling because of her words but little she know what it actually was. It took me few minutes to notice that the diamonds were dematerializing as I was feeling relaxed again. She also noticed it and smiled in relief.
If only she knew.
Come to think of it I wouldn't be able to meet Morgan. Damn it.
"well then, if you're not joining then I'll take my leave." She said signing and got up before walking her way out. my eyes didn't leave her figure until she closed the door leaving me alone. I'd admit it was miserable, I wanted her to stay but I also wanted her to be safe from me, I really wanted to stop her and run to her for a hug but at the same time I had to keep my distance.
I wanted to join her for lunch with Mr. Stark.
Now I was thinking about my home even more. Even if I go back would I do if something goes wrong with this ability? I didn't have a answer to that, what would I do? What if I hurt my paren-
Stop.
what do I do then? If I can't get rid of it then I have to learn to control it, but how? This was time to actually do something about it, I can no longer avoid it, I'd have to go back one day and I'd have to live with it somehow,
"if you can't get rid of it then you have to learn to live with it. Learn to control it."
Agent Coulson's words came in my mind again, how do I control it? , Even the avengers don't know what they're dealing with.
I got up from bed and started pacing around trying to think of something, how do I learn to control, what is even this?
Think
Think
Think
You know about this world vividly, there are so many places that these people don't even know about but you do, there must be someone or something which could help me.
Alright think about it, does anyone has similar situation to you? multiverse traveling? No. Used by HYDRA for human enhancement? Yes.
Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.
Super speed? No. Chaos magic? no.
I sign in frustration and fall on my bed closing my eyes for some peace, Magic? Witches? Wizards? Dr. Strange? Kamar taj? The ancient one?
I open my eyes all of a sudden and get up to sit straight,
"shit."
.
"did Fury send any new message?" Clint asked.
"no, everything's quiet for now. HYDRA haven't been showing any signs of fighting back and that exactly what worries me." Steve answered.
"we are looking at calm before the real storm." Thor added.
"more nap time for us I guess."
"have you talked with your father?" Steve asked Thor,
"he is getting impatient day by day, we need to hurry to find the cube. I cannot lead two realms to a war."
The tension in the tower was rising as they were stuck in this void of problems by all directions, somehow everything was calm which was more concerning than any enemy activity because it meant the opposition was planning something big against them.
"how's the little one doing?" Thor asked followed by footsteps of someone approaching them,
"speak of the devil." Clint answered referring to the girl who was now surprisingly out of her room and coming towards them, more like running,
Diya reached their side but didn't get too close to them as she caught her breath from running,
"kid you okay?" Steve asked with a worried tone,
"yeah I just...have i- do you- am-"
"kid, calm down take a deep breath, alright and tell us what happened?" Steve got up and said trying to reach her.
I tried to calm my nerves down and inhaled sharply before composing myself and standing straight before speaking again,
"I think I know someone who can help me control this ability."
.
"how did it go?" Natasha asked referring to Pepper's conversation with the teenager.
"no luck this time either." Tony replied before signing before turning around back to his work to find the scepter or the cube.
"she misses her home." Natasha said,
"oh wow, why didn't I think of that before?"
"Tony." She said sternly.
"Don't Tony me, I'm trying my best here, we can't force our way in."
"I'm not saying of forcing our way but maybe I should go and try again to talk to her."
"good idea, how did it go last time?" Tony answered remembering last time Natasha tried talking to the girl but she didn't even open the door.
Speaking of which, the door to lab burst open revealing the teenager who seemed to be in a hurry as she ran to them followed by other avengers,
"alright, Mr. Stark sorry to rush like that but there is something I have to share." She started.
.
"tell me her name again?" Tony asked.
"the ancient one." Diya answered.
"is that her real name?"
"no, that's not important right now, she is well...she is a sorcerer. She knows magic and there is this whole place where people go to learn magic and stuff and trust me it's worth a try."
"so you think this is magic that you do?" Steve asked raising his eyebrow,
"I don't know honestly, but if there is one person who knows what is going on is her, if she knows what this ability is I think she can teach me to control it."
"just when I thought I had seen everything." Clint said.
"so we just have to call her and she can fix this situation? Cool, how do we contact her?" Tony asked,
"no, we can't call her, we have to go to her, all I know is her address." I said as the room fell in a silence as everyone were looking at each other sharing a look,
"kiddo, going outside isn't the best option right now." Natasha told me.
"okay I know all the risks, I know HYDRA is out there and is possibly looking for me everywhere but it's a risk worth taking. I have a chance to control this thing inside me, if I don't learn how to do it then I would bring more damage to people around me..." I started, "...think about it, if I let it loose again, and that incident from HYDRA happens again, I could hurt civilians too."
I tried to convince everyone with all I had, they thought about it for a moment before turning to me,
"please."