Over the next weeks, Tony was basically non-existed. I barely saw him other than for a few moments at a time. JARVIS said he was working on something important but would never tell me exactly what it was. There was also something else strange that I started noticing. Every time I went anywhere, there seemed to always be the same man following me. I didn't know who it was and every time I tried to confront him, he disappeared. And though I wanted to tell someone about the stranger, I didn't actually see anyone else. The heroes had all disappeared. The only people I ever saw was the stranger and every so often I caught a glimpse of a boy who couldn't be older than a high schooler. He would skirt around corners and into rooms faster than I could follow him and try to get his attention. This went of for weeks until I felt like I was ready to go crazy.
I felt like I was an intruder in someone's house as I got ready for bed alone, in Tony's room. It was the fifth night in a row of going to bed without Tony. When I'd asked JARVIS to ask Tony to come up to bed, all he'd said was "goodnight sweetheart" in Tony's voice. I sighed and pulled one of Tony's sweaters over my head and closed the closet door. I crawled into the giant bed and lay lonely in the center. JARVIS flipped the lights off and I was thrown into darkness. I started up at the dark ceiling, the feeling of loneliness gnawing at my stomach. I curled myself into a tight ball and buried my nose in the sweater. It wasn't the same as falling asleep with Tony, but it was all I've got. I closed my eyes and forced my mind clear to try and fall asleep.
The hallway I stood in was long and narrow. There were no side doors or turns to this hallway. Disks of light fell on certain parts of the floor, leaving portions of the hallway still dark. Far down the hallway, there was a door. As I began down the hallway, I got an uneasy feeling that something bad was waiting for me on the other side of the door. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever as I tried to make it to the door. When I finally reached the door, it felt like I'd been walking for hours. I pulled the door open and came face-to-face with a faceless figure. It hulked over me, dwarfing me in size. I staggered back from the figure and stumbled to turn away. I tried to run back down the hallway but every light in front of me began switching off. I ran blindly down the hallway, attempting to cry out for help but my voice was lost. Fingers bit into my shoulders and I screamed.
I forced myself out of the nightmare painfully, pushing myself upright in bed.
"Miss, please calm down. Your heart rate is dangerously high and you're screaming," JARVIS's calm voice broke through. It wasn't until he pointed it out that my throat felt scratchy. I clenched my jaw to stop screaming and struggled to calm my breathing. The fear in my chest was thick and wouldn't go away. In every dark doorway, I was scared the faceless man would appear. As the fear sat heavy in my chest, the same high pitched ring from before filled my ears. Suddenly it was like I was in a trance. The fear was still present but pushed down further. A foreign calm replaced the fear in my chest. Again, this trance felt like I was watching a movie through my own eyes and I had no control over my own body anymore. I pushed the blanket away from my legs. I slide out of bed and made my way toward the door.
"Miss, can I ask where you are going?" JARVIS asked. I pushed the door open and entered into the stairwell that led down. I peered over the ledge and down through the space that led all the way down. I smiled and pushed myself away from the railing.
"I am going to find Mr. Stark, I think is how you refer to him," I said trotting down the stairs rather quickly.
"I can get him for you miss-"
"That is not necessary JARVIS. I can find Anthony all on my own," I said, passing the door with the number 97 on it.
"But miss-"
"Do not worry so much JARVIS. Everything will work out fine," I said, plopping down on the landing for the 95th floor. I pushed the door open and entered the familiar lab. I skipped through the glass doors and into the lab. It was eerily quiet, but I knew it would be empty before I entered. The din in my head grew louder and felt more like a vibration behind my eyes. As I scanned the room, the vibration seemed to get stronger when I faced the glassed off room where I used to keep my work. I started toward the room quickly
"Miss, what are you doing? Mr. Stark isn't here," JARVIS said.
"Oh, I know. I just had to make a pit stop first," I said entering the glass room. On the center of one of the metal tables sat the stone. I smiled and reached out for it. As soon as my hand closed around the stone, the familiar warmth flowed up through my fingers and through my entire body.
"Miss! Mr. Stark doesn't want you messing with that!" JARVIS said, his voice slightly frantic.
"Mr. Stark cannot rule over what is not his," I said, turning and making my way to the elevator.
"I think I should alert Mr. Stark now," JARVIS said as I stepped into the waiting elevator. I pressed the button for a letter 'RA' on it. I leaned back against the back wall. The elevator started up but soon after jerked to a halt. A smirk played on my lips, "I cannot let you continue," he said. I pushed myself forward and started pressing the numbers in a special order.
"That only works if I do not have the override. But seeing as I do," I trailed off as I finished the sequence of numbers. The elevator jerked to a start again and started up.
"How did you know that! Mr. Stark never tells anyone his override," JARVIS said but didn't stop the elevator again. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
"When will you mortals stop doubting me. I know everything," I whispered. The elevator dinged and the doors slide open. I exited the elevator into a small room. The room was only big enough for the elevator bay and nothing else.
"Miss, I alerted the others. They are on their way," JARVIS said as I pushed my way out of the room and onto the open air roof. The cold, New York night air smacked me in the face. I smiled lightly.
"Good, let them come. Let them see," I said, walking toward the opposite edge of the roof. I knew the ground was freezing under my feet but I couldn't feel it. Every feeling in my body was numbed by the stone. I reached the edge of the roof and my toes curled around the edge. I looked down at the distance to the ground. The logical side of my brain knew this height should make me sick. The pit of my stomach should be in knots just looking down at the hundreds of feet to the ground. Instead of feeling terrified, all I felt was peace. The wind caught the fabric of my sweater and pressed it against my body.
"Lucy!" Tony's voice echoed over the swell of the wind that rushed around me. I smiled before turning. Tony stood in the front of the heroes. Tony's face was contorted in utter terror. The heroes behind him shared his fear and all moved toward me.
"Stop!" I demanded, dangling my foot back over the edge. They all froze in place, no one daring to move. I've never seen Tony's face twisted in so much horror and panic. His chest was rising and falling so rapidly it sounded like he was going to hyperventilate. Steve, James, and Sam were all frozen in their stride, each one looking at the other to try and get an answer on what to do. Natasha stood next to Banner and they both looked shockingly at a loss for what to do. Thor's grip tightened on his hammer as he shifted his weight awkwardly from foot to foot. Clint's bow was held tight in his hand with an arrow held tight against the string. The only person I didn't know was a young boy who was standing immediately to Tony's left. After a few seconds, I realized it was the boy that I'd seen skirting around the corners of the tower recently. In the back of my mind, I felt his name surface but I ignored it. The boy glanced up at Tony for a moment before kneeling down slowly to a squat and eyed me carefully.
"Lucy, wh-what are you doing?" Tony's voice quivered as he raised his hand carefully. I raised my chin and looked down my nose at him. I didn't answer just looked down at the stone in my hand. It wasn't until that moment that I realized the stone was glowing through my fingers and vibrating slightly against my palm.
"Why do you have that stone Dr. Scaffer?" Steve asked carefully from behind Tony.
"Dr. Scaffer is gone," I said, my voice was low and deep in my throat. I looked back at the heroes slowly. Tony's eyes widened and he shifted forward slightly. As he took his step forward, I stepped back.
"Lucy!" he shrieked and the heroes shot forward toward me. A devilish smirk curled up my mouth and I took another step. Instead of plunging toward the street below, I stood there; hovering in midair like some invisible platform was under me. All the heroes stared at me in a mix of shock, amazement, and fear.
"Sjæl, what are you doing?" Thor asked cautiously. I looked down at him with a blank expression.
"I am protecting my mortal Odinson."
"Protecting! By hanging her off a hundred story building!" Tony's voice was frantic and high in his throat. I turned my head toward him sharply. Anger inflated in my chest and took every space inside me.
"How dare you talk to me about protection Anthony!" I roared. My chest ached with anger as I struggled to keep a handle on the sudden rage that erupted inside me. "I am the only one protecting her!"
"From what?" Tony asked, almost hysterical.
"What do you care, Anthony. You haven't seen her in days. You've been too busy trying to understand something when the answer was staring you in the face all along," I paused for a moment and narrowed my eyes at Tony. "Dr. Lucinda Margarett Scaffer," my name felt foreign in my mouth. Like it was a stranger's and not mine. "Also affectionately known as Lucy."
"What does she have to do with anything?" Tony asked, knitting his eyebrows together confused. Another devilish smirk pulled at my mouth and shook my head.
"For such a genius, you're not very observant," I hissed. Tony's jaw flexed but he said nothing. The boy next to him shifted slightly and rested his elbow on his knee. I laughed once, "I thought you would have caught on the first time. The first time we ever touched when she found me; but then again, she was overwhelmed by everything so I overlooked that one. And the second time she broke through rather quickly without contact; but again, no one noticed. Then I thought for sure you would get it when she was levitating. I thought there was no way you could overlook the connection but you did. And now we're here and you're still oblivious," I shook my head.
"Tell me what I've been missing. Please," Tony begged.
"Her emotions," I said flatly. Tony stared back at me completely shocked. I rolled my eyes at him and flexed my jaw. "Every time that I have been in contact with her, she has been in a hyper-emotional state. Her emotions call to me when they are strong enough to leak into the atmosphere," I said.
"That doesn't make any sense. What emotion could be that strong?" Tony asked. I rolled my eyes again, tired of this same conversation. I suppressed the groan that clawed at my throat to get out.
"Fear." The word hung thick in the air. The boy shifted his eyes to look up at Tony, his face showing his obvious confusion and concern. Tony's expression froze as he looked at me. The rest of the heroes studied me to see if I was lying.
"Fear," Tony whispered.
"My god Anthony, do you not realize when the woman you love is scared?" he said nothing, just swallowed hard. "Every time I have been woken, she has been in a state of extreme fear. The first time, she was scared from the pain of the fire. The second time, she was scared for you. The third time her annoyance was a mask of her fear of the unknown," I said, my voice dripping with annoyance at his ignorance. The air was heavy with my admission and no one wanted to say what they all were thinking.
"And this time?" Steve finally broke the silence with the question on everyone's mind. My eyes never left Tony's. His pain was clear on his face at the realization of what he'd been overlooking.
"You should have come to bed Anthony," I said quietly. His jaw flexed as he took a deep breath.
"Sjæl, let the Midgardian go. She is safe now. We will make sure that nothing happens to her," Thor said. I shifted my gaze away from Tony finally and looked at Thor.
"Because you all have been doing such a good job up until now," I said flatly.
"Please, Lucy. I know you can hear me," Tony's voice was quiet and broken. I looked back down at him. He was shifting closer to me, his hand outstretched to me. I reeled back.
"Stop! Do not come any closer to me!" I yelped. This fuzzy feeling behind my eyes started acting up. The trance I was in lessening slightly. Tony didn't stop. He continued to make his way closer to me slowly.
"Lucy, I know you can hear me," Tony whispered. He reached the edge of the roof and held his hand to me. His fingers were shaking with anxiety, his other hand curled around the hem of his shirt to keep that one from trembling as well. I forced my mouth open and tried to force out my own voice but the intruder in my head beat me to it.
"She cannot! I will not let you neglect her again!" I roared. Tony swallowed hard.
"Lucy, I'm so sorry that I didn't see how scared you are. I didn't realize-" he trailed off. "Please come back to me and I will make sure nothing happens to you again. Please come down," Tony said. With an immense amount of effort, I managed to force my own voice out for the first time.
"Tony," my voice shook with the effort and fear. I forced my hand out toward Tony's, our fingers millimeters apart. I could feel the force holding me up faltering. "Tony, I'm scared."
"I know you are sweetheart. Come to me and I'll keep you safe," Tony promised. Before I could say anything, the force holding me completely disappeared. I forced my hand into Tony's and closed my hand around his. He pulled me toward him but because he was so close to the edge, he started to tip over the edge with me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I buried my face in his shoulder. I closed my eyes against the fear in my throat. But before we could fall any further, Tony was yanked back onto the roof. He landed on his back, cushioning my fall. The fall knocked the breath out of Tony and he gasped under me.
"Nice work Parker," Steve said quietly. I leaned up from the Tony and looked down at him.
"Tony are you okay?" I asked. Tony swallowed the gasp in his throat and looked up at me. His fingers still shook as he brough them up to my face. He brought his arms around me tightly, holding me against him as close as possible. He forced his breathing to slow.
"I'm fine now," he murmured into my hair.
"Dr. Scaffer, can you release the stone?" Banner asked quietly. I forced myself away from Tony to reach out my hand. The stone was still clutched in my hand, the stone burning into my palm. Banner held out the hem of his shirt wrapped around his hand. He closed his fingers around it and stepped back. He and the rest of the heroes disappeared back downstairs. I looked back down at Tony, his hand was still tight around my wrist.
"Why don't we go back down too," I suggested, standing up from the ground. Tony nodded and I helped him stand up from the ground. Tony nodded and I helped him stand up. "Will you come to bed Tony?" I asked.
"I will do anything for you," he muttered. The dull tremble from his fingers remained as I laced my fingers through his. He followed close behind as I led him toward the elevator.