Chapter Fifteen:
Emblym woke up, looking around wildly. She didn't recognize where she was. She summoned her knife, and sat up straight, her heart pounding and head thrumming. The voices were screaming, upset for being ignored for so long, and it wasn't helping her panic. Someone must've injected her with something to make her sleep, she never slept. Where was she?
Emblym looked around. There was a small dresser, a window, and two separate doors at the end of her room. "Miss Emblym," Emblym jumped, looking around for whatever spoke. "It seems you have awoken. Would you like me to contact Master Stark?"
"What?" She said, confused and angry. Master Stark?
Then, it clicked. Steve brought her away from the asylum. She must've been in the Tower, then. Okay... Yeah, that made sense, okay...
"Oh..." She breathed, leaning back on the bed. "Yeah... Okay... Sure, go ahead, disembodied voice."
"Alright." Then, the room was silent, which only accented the voices in her head.
How dare you forget about us!?
Die! Die! Blood! Kill!!
Off with your head!
So hot! I want to die! Kill me! Kill me!
Embylm groaned, moving to stand up. She summoned her knife and began to throw it, bring it back just before it reached the wall. "Please, quiet down," She said calmly, but the dead queens were relentless.
'You leave us here to suffer! To die!! How dare you!' They accused, angrily.
"You didn't help me when I was being tortured!" Emblym snapped back, angrily, and the voices quieted, thinking about this. Emblym curled her lip, disgusted. "Yeah, uh-huh, you know you're wrong." She threw the knife a but harsher.
'The blood! We loved the blood,' They said and Emblym scoffed.
"And if I died, what would happen!?" Emblym snapped angrily. "Huh!?" Nobody responded to her anger and she huffed, crossing her arms, summoning her knife back. "Look, we have to work together, alright? Now that Hatter is gone, what happens it I die? Is it over? I want to save Wonderland, just like he wanted us to. So, we have to work together in order to do so."
Emblym began throwing her knife again, and just as she did, the bedroom door opened. Emblym's knife was mere inches from Tony's face before she summoned it back to her hand.
Tony jumped, his eyes wide and panicked. "Sorry," Emblym said and put her knife away.
"Can you not throw that thing around like that!?" Tony snapped, furious. "What if you took out my eye?!"
"Then, you can get an eyepatch," Emblym replied, twisting her knife. "Anything I can help you with?"
"JARVIS told me you were awake. I came up to see if you wanted some food. But, it looks like you'd rather eat my eyeball than some pancakes." Embylm rolled her eyes, and he watched her hands. "You hands are fully healed, then?"
"Well," Emblym stretched her fingers, twisting them carefully. "I'm still sore, but they work, so that's good. The hat did its trick."
Tony rose an eyebrow, "The hat?" Emblym nodded, summoning the hat and placing it on her head. "Where does that thing even go?"
"Don't know," Emblym replied honestly. "Maybe it has the same functions as my knife."
"Speaking of your knife," Tony said, leaning forward and smiling. "While you're here, so you mind if I take a look at your knife? Try it against a few things, you know?"
"I do mind, since I won't be here long," Emblym said, crossing her arms and Tony stood straight, frowning. "I'll eat your pancakes and leave."
"What are you talking about?" Tony said with a small laugh. "If you take a step outside that door, Fury will be on your ass in a minute. He's already mad we broke you out of that asylum. You staying here is pretty much your sanctuary, for now. Until we can clear things up with Fury and everyone else."
Emblym stared at him, the words sinking in. She heard the voices laugh at her as they too realized what was happening. Emblym gritted her teeth, letting out a small swear.
"Sorry," Tony shrugged. "But that's how it is right now. In the mean time, do you want some pancakes?"
•♠️♣️♥️♦️•
Embylm angrily ate her food, glaring down at the ruined marble countertop. Tony neglected in getting it fixed, obviously. But, considering that it had only been less than a month since the Battle of New York --- that's what the news was calling it, at least --- it was pretty reasonable.
Emblym rolled her eyes, grabbing her plate and spinning around in the barstool chair. Tony was on the couch, apparently not trusting her to eat pancakes by herself.
"Don't you got shit to do?" Emblym asked between a mouthful of pancake triangle slices.
Tony made a face and put his legs up on the coffee table. "No," he said, probably lying.
Emblym scowled and swallowed her pancakes. "What exactly am I supposed to do here, Mister Tony Stark?"
"Not get into trouble, I presume," Tony replied. "It shouldn't be that hard --- there's plenty to do here."
"Okay..." Emblym looked around, waiting. "What am I supposed to do?"
"What do you usually do?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Scream. And murder," Emblym said, adding the latter as almost an after thought. Tony frowned, disconcertingly, and Emblym laughed. "I'm joking. Oh! I like to do that! What else... Uhm..." Emblym frowned, pursing her lips. She really didn't know.
Before Hatter came, she spent the previous four years in an insane asylum screaming and being generally mad. Then, Hatter came and actually gave her a purpose, a motivation for her to at least try to be better --- do better. And, maybe liberate a nation as a side effect. But, now he was dead, and she was given a different task: find a glowing blue cube and possibly save the world, which wasn't that hard. And yet, after saving the world and retrieving the cube, she was sent back to square one! Emblym didn't know what she liked, her entire childhood was cut off when she was fourteen!
Emblym leaned back, her brow furrowed as she seriously pondered her lack of hobbies. Now that she was out of her literal prisons, what would she do? What could she do? She knew she couldn't leave the Tower, but if she could, where would she go? Back to her parents, the same people who rebuked her after she had gone mad? Back to Kansas where the friends she had made, however few they were, were dead?
Could Emblym stay here? These people weren't dead yet --- not necessarily --- and they didn't all together hate her. Hell, they even took the effort to rescue her from her tormentors!
Emblym looked down at her plate, drowned in pancakes. It hasn't even been five years, and yet her entire mindset --- her entire being --- changed from a child to a seasoned adult who has seen the darkest corner of this world. There was no coming back for her now. Emblym would have no choice but to stay this way, a hollowed out excuse of what potential she had.
Emblym had no home, she had no family. When she died, her soul would be trapped in this godforsaken blade and she would be condemned to literally the worse kind of hell. That is, if there were any more Red Queens. If she were the last one. What would she do? What could she do?
Emblym knew she would know if Hatter were here. If Hatter were still alive, he would scold her for being 'silly' and then clear everything up. If Hatter were here, he'd know exactly what she would have to do in order to make everything perfect again.
But for now it was just her and her voices. And, although Emblym hoped, she didn't know if she could take these things Hatter left her, these vague instructions and a dream, and make it into a reality. Emblym didn't know if she wanted to if she could. She didn't want to condemn herself to hell of she failed. There was so much weight on her shoulders and she didn't think she could carry it all.
"Hey, there?" Tony spoke and Emblym's head snapped up. "You okay? You look a little sick."
"I..." The voices raged in between her ears and her head was pounding. "Yeah, I'm good."
"You sure?" Emblym nodded and Tony stared at her.
"I'm... Not hungry anymore," Embylm admitted, putting the plate behind her.
"I think you should eat anyway," Tony said. "You haven't had a full meal in weeks."
Emblym shook her head, gritting her teeth and rubbing her temples. They were so loud! "Shut up!" Emblym hissed, squeezing her eyes shut, but they didn't lower their volume.
"Are you alright?" Tony asked seriously. "Emblym?"
Emblym tried to move off the stool, but her legs were like jelly. She caught herself on the counter, trying to keep herself up. They were never this loud, they were never this angry! What was going on!?
Emblym tipped on the counter, her knees giving out and her eyes rolling back in her head. Tony caught her by the shoulders before she could fall down.
Emblym jolted back to life at the touch. The man was in front of her, shaking her awake. "Where's Wonderland!? Tell me where it is!!"
Emblym summoned her knife and stumbled away, "I don't know! I don't know! I don't know!" She cried, her hand shaking. They were going to flip the switch if she didn't tell them anything else. She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't do this. She wanted to die. She couldn't die. That was too much. They were screaming.
No no no no no no---
"Hey, Emblym, look at me," Tony said, but he sounded so far away. She didn't want anyone close to her. Close was how they died. Close was how Hatter died. "C'mon, kid. I know you can hear me. Listen to me. Look at me." Emblym slowly looked up, "Breathe for me. One... Two... Three. Okay? C'mon, one... Two... Three. One... Two... Three."
Emblym focused on copying what he was saying, trying to force the screaming voices away. After a few minutes and Emblym had begun to breathe at a slightly better rate, Tony spoke. "You good?"
"... Yeah," Emblym said after a hesitant moment. "I'm fine."
"What was that?" Tony asked, reaching out a hand to help her. Emblym got up by herself, stepping away from Tony. Crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her mouth pressed into a thin line.
"I dunno," she said quickly, swallowing hard. Emblym hadn't had one of those since when the voices first came. When she was initially sent away, she had freak outs like that all the time! The voices were overwhelming and all of her senses seemed to be amplified by the tenth power.
After four years, Emblym had a better hold of her ability. She had forgotten what it felt like to have an attack like that. She had gotten used to feeling... Normal.
"---eat still?" Emblym blinked, turning around. Had he been talking?
"Sorry, can you repeat that?" Emblym asked, confused.
"I asked are you going to eat still," Tony said. "I hope you do, you really need to eat something."
"I'm fine," Emblym said with a wave of her hand. If the voices were going to be this active, she might need to get moving --- do something.
"I could order a pizza, if you want? I mean, it's like 10 AM, but---"
"Drop it!" Emblym snapped, and Tony went silent. Emblym rubbed her face, sighing. "Whatever. It's been a long day."
"It's 10 AM."
"And?" Emblym began to walk out of the room and down the hall, looking around the tower. As she suspected, Tony followed close behind. "Do you seriously have nothing better to do?"
"Sorry if I don't trust you enough to go stalking around my building," Tony scoffed. "My bad."
"Yeah, your bad. I'll have you know I am a very reliable person." He didn't say anything, but Emblym suspected that he had sardonically rolled his eyes. "Is there anything else we can do?" Emblym turned around to looked at him, now walking backwards.
"What do teenagers like you like?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Video games? Movies? Parties?"
"How about exercising rooms?" Emblym asked curiously. "I could blow off some steam."
"'Could'?" He scoffed.
Emblym rolled her eyes and turned to walk correctly and just nearly ran into someone. Emblym stopped abruptly as did the person in front of her.
"Sorry," they apologized and Emblym realized that it had been Bruce. He gave her a half smile and turned to Tony. "I was looking for you?"
"What's up?" Tony asked, knitting his eyebrows.
"I just needed to check with you. I didn't know if we were going to, uh..." He frowned, biting the inside of his cheek and looked suggestively at Tony.
Suddenly, Tony made a face, his eyebrows raising. "Oh, uh," he looked at Ekblym. "That's going to be a no."
"What's going to be a no?" Emblym asked.
Bruce glanced at Tony, as if asking if he could tell Emblym the secret, and Tony shrugged. "Well... We were going to do tests on your knife, but it looks like that'll be a no."
"And what do these 'tests' entail exactly?" Embylm asked, putting her hands on her hips.
This time, Tony spoke, probably thinking he could persuade her. "Durablilty, density, tensile strength, hardness, and the like."
"You're talking to a high school dropout," Emblym reminded him dully.
"We're going to test it like rocks are tested," Tony revised. "Seeing what could cut through it, what can't, if it can melt, et cetera. Well, we were," he said, adding the last part after a best second.
Embylm huffed, looking skeptically at Tony. "I get to go to the gym for at least an hour."
"Perfect!" He clapped his hands, grinning. "The gym is just a floor down! The faster you finish, the faster we get to have fun!"