Chapter 11
By midnight, the team had watched the first two Rush Hour films and were contemplating starting the third, but half the room had fallen asleep. After Ashley had woken up, she had made a conscious effort not to fall asleep again. The fact that she was mildly terrified certainly helped and gave her a good incentive to stay awake. Clint had been the first to go, head lolling onto Bucky’s left shoulder. It didn’t take long for Bruce to take up Bucky’s other shoulder, glasses askew as he snored softly. Even Peter had fallen asleep, his head resting on the sofa behind him while his hair lightly tickled Pepper’s bare legs. Tony looked like he was close to crashing as his chin dropped to his chest a few times, but he abruptly lifted his head each time, eyes shooting wide open before he proceeded to do it again. In all fairness, he had been up for the last thirty-six hours, possibly longer.
“Okay, I’m calling it,” Pepper announced as she turned off the TV.
Bucky stood up, laughing as Clint and Bruce both fell sideways, headbutting each other. The two groaned at the rude wake-up but got up and slinked towards the elevator, murmuring goodnight to the team on their way. Bucky, Steve and Sam were next to leave. Ashley stood up, gently placing her left foot on the floor and helped Wanda gather the blankets and cushions that had been left strewn about. Vision, Peter and Natasha cleared away the remains of the take-out, while Pepper shooed Tony off to bed.
“Ashley, seeing as it’s quite late, why don’t you stay here tonight? We have some guest rooms downstairs and I don’t really want to wake up Happy if I’m being honest. He’ll just be crabby in the morning.”
Ashley looked up at Pepper with a startled expression. “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly Ms Potts! I can walk home anyway. It isn’t far.”
Pepper placed a hand on Ashley’s shoulder as soon as she started moving towards the elevator. “I definitely wouldn’t be happy with that. If you’d like, I can speak to your parents and okay it with them?”
Ashley nearly snorted at that comment. Fat chance of that happening. Instead, she chose to accept the offer. It would be nice to sleep in a bed for one night. Well, if she actually could get any sleep. She had to admit, the past eight hours she had spent in the tower had certainly put her more at ease. She felt safe, and maybe it was down to the fact that she was surrounded by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but she couldn’t deny the feeling – whatever the reasoning was behind it. “It’s fine, Ms Potts. They’ll be okay with it. Thank you.”
Pepper beamed widely. “I think the room next to Wanda’s is free. I’m sure she can show you and make sure you’re comfortable.” With that, Pepper bid goodnight to everyone and headed towards her bedroom, where Tony was probably already passed out on the bed, still fully dressed.
Peter, Vision and Natasha piled into the elevator along with Wanda and Ashley, all of them getting out a couple of floors below. The floor was split into two. Wanda pointed out that to the right was where most of the boys slept. To the left was Natasha’s, Wanda’s and Peter’s rooms along with a bedroom set aside for Thor and a few spares. Vision usually either wandered the corridors, watched TV in a spare room or stayed with Wanda and watched her sleep – in a non-creepy way of course. Peter stumbled sleepily to the room at the very end of the corridor. There was a grumble that had been roughly interpreted as ‘goodnight’ before the door shut behind him. Natasha smirked before disappearing into her own room across the hall from where Wanda and Ashley were currently standing. Wanda led Ashely inside the room. It was rather simple. The walls were painted a pale blue and there was a large double bed in the middle of the room, dressed in navy, satin sheets. There was a modest-sized closet in one corner and a bedside table to the left of the bed, a metal lamp stood on the top. Facing into the room, there was another door to the left, which Wanda indicated was an en-suite bathroom.
“There’s extra pillows and blankets in the wardrobe if you need them. There should be towels in the bathroom on the side as well. If you want to borrow any shampoo or anything in the morning, just come and knock on my door. I’m usually up early anyway.” Wanda paused in the doorway for a moment, debating what to say next. “If you need anything, no matter what time, come knock on my door. Even if you just want some company.”
Ashley smiled softly. It was one of the first smiles that had genuinely reached her eyes all evening and Wanda couldn’t help but find herself smiling too. “Thanks, Wanda.” The pair bid goodnight before Wanda disappeared into her own room. Ashley closed the door and toed off her shoes. She shrugged off her hoodie and hung it up on the door before peeking into the bathroom. She couldn’t help but be nosy. The bathroom was large, with a toilet, large vanity sink unit and a large shower cubicle. Mounted on the wall was a towel heater, with several large towels hung on it. Ashley ran her fingers over the soft cotton, and she didn’t think she’d encountered anything so fluffy before.
She decided to wash her face before climbing into bed, being mindful not to prod the bruise too much. Catching her reflection in the mirror, Ashley was finally starting to realise all the fuss everyone had been making. There was certainly no hiding the ugly, purple blemish. It took up most of the right side of her face. She was already dreading meeting Matt, Foggy and Karen the next day (or was it later that day?) They would certainly give her hell for it.
The satin sheets on the bed were as soft and welcoming as they looked. Ashley felt as though her head was melting between the pillows. It was honestly the most comforting feeling in the world. The soft sheets had been enough to lull her to sleep in less than an hour. She slept peacefully for the first couple of hours, but before long her sleep was plagued by more nightmares. The same images had kept her up the previous night. She was surrounded by bodies, their unseeing eyes fixed on her, seemingly following her around the room she was in. It vaguely resembled her school hall, but there were shadows closing in from every corner, serving as a reminder that these people could potentially get to her at any time. The nearest bodies belonged to Matt, Foggy and Karen. Blood stained Karen’s blouse and Foggy’s tweed jacket. Matt was decked out in his Daredevil suit, the masked pulled up. For a second, she thought that just maybe he was still alive, but his face didn’t so much as twitch. The growing pool of blood below him the only other evidence that he was dead.
She moved further into the room and was met by more bodies. Her parents, Frank and Eleanor were once again propped up against a wall, but this time their arms were limply strewn across Lucas’ small body. There was blood in the boy’s sandy locks and a thick, dark purple bruise around his neck, and a rope resting across his legs. Ashley tore her eyes away from the scene and fell to her knees.
She crawled away from them, only stopping when she came across a familiar blue and red suit. Her eyes travelled up the suit, which appeared to be in tact until her eyes rested on the neck, which had been severed. The metallic smell of the blood was now clogging her nose and she wanted nothing more than to vomit. Her lungs were restricting; she couldn’t breathe – her body’s defence against the coppery stench. Spider-Man’s head was nowhere to be found, but Ashley was rather glad her mind hadn’t conjured that image.
Ashley crawled the last few steps to the stage at the front of the room. She didn’t want to see but her body moved of it’s own accord. There were six figures presented on the stage. At one end, Ned and Peter were draped over each other. Both of them had had their throats slit and there was blood soaking down the front of one of Peter’s recognisable science pun t-shirts. To the left of them, MJ was sprawled out on her back, her left arm outstretched towards Ashley. Her other arm was completely missing, save for a bloody stump that had been crudely hacked off at the shoulder. Ashley gagged at the sight, and she could vaguely register screams in the distance somewhere. But her eyes continued to survey the final three figures on the stage.
The first one she came across was Tony Stark. His arc reactor had been ripped out of his chest, the blue light no longer pulsing brightly. Slumped over Tony’s body was Pepper, a large knife protruding from her back. The final figure was Wanda. Ashley couldn’t see what had killed her, but the image of blood dripping from her mouth was enough to send Ashley over the edge…
With one final scream, Ashley woke up. She jolted up from the bed, blindly rushing for the bathroom. She hadn’t noticed the presence in the room with her until after she began spilling her stomach contents into the en-suite toilet. Whoever was in the room with her gently combed her hair back as she retched and heaved into the porcelain bowl. Tears and snot both fell freely, mixing with the mess in the toilet as a comforting hand rubbed her back up and down. Her cries dissolved into hiccups as she tried to draw in breath, and she listened to the voice whispering close by.
“It’s okay, you’re okay. Everyone’s okay. Everybody’s safe.” It was Wanda’s voice. Ashley found it soothing and after a few minutes, she found herself leaning back against the chestnut-haired Avenger as her body seemed to give up, too tired to hold herself up any longer. Wanda continued to speak as Ashley calmed down, her rapidly rising chest, slowing back down to a more normal rate. “Peter is fast asleep down the hall, probably dreaming about Lego or Star Wars, Tony and Pepper are asleep upstairs and I’m right here with you. MJ and Ned are fine too, tucked up in their beds at home.” Ashley’s eyelids fluttered as she let out a deep sigh, her chest aching from the exertion. “You feeling better now?” Wanda kept her voice low. It was a technique she had often used with Peter when he suffered from nightmares. If she was too loud, it could send him back into a panic.
Not trusting her voice, Ashley nodded. She tried to untangle herself from Wanda’s arms, but she was exhausted. Her mouth tasted of bile and burnt like someone had poured a vial of acid down her throat. She grunted in displeasure, which Wanda was somehow able to interpret correctly. She turned around and spoke to someone who had apparently been perched against the door frame after hearing the same screams that Wanda did from the other side of the floor. “Hey, can you help me? She’ll want to brush her teeth before we get her back to bed.”
A pair of arms encased around Ashley’s middle. She vaguely registered in her dazed state that one of the arms was much colder and felt more solid as it brushed against her skin. She shivered at the touch and was met with a low response of “Sorry, doll.” The thick, Brooklyn accent helped her place the voice – Bucky. He lifted her up effortlessly and sat her down on the now closed toilet lid, while Wanda fished out a new toothbrush from under the sink. She squirted some toothpaste onto the brush and passed it to Ashley, who gratefully took it from her, having just enough energy to brush her teeth. There was no way she was going to let someone else do it. Despite having clearly embarrassed herself enough for one night, she had to draw the line somewhere.
Once she finished, she slumped forward, Bucky barely having enough time to catch her before she pitched head-first towards the sink. Her eyes drooped tiredly, but she desperately tried to fight the urge to fall asleep. She couldn’t see those horrible images again. Bucky lifted her up carefully, his flesh arm wrapping underneath her knees while his metal arm supported her back and arms. Not really believing that the Winter Soldier was currently carrying her back to bed, Ashley decided to indulge in the warm safety provided, leaning her head into his broad chest. As he gently placed her back on the bed, Wanda pulled the satin sheets over Ashley, folding the cover down over her neck and shoulders. She started to lean back when Ashley let out a faint whisper.
“Stay… please…” There was a part of Ashley that wanted to tell them to go, to run far from her as possible. She was a curse. But the selfish, more vulnerable part of her brain took over, demanding comfort and safety. “I’m scared.”
Without hesitation, Wanda climbed under the sheets, pressing herself against Ashley’s back as she hugged the girl tight, much like her brother used to do for her after one of her nightmares back in Sokovia. She gently carded her fingers through the tangled locks of hair, humming an old Sokovian lullaby softly.
Bucky watched the pair for a moment before leaving the room, satisfied that all was calm again. When he had first heard the screams, he was quick to pounce from his room, sprinting down the corridor to find Wanda. He was surprised that Wanda’s bedroom door was wide open and that she was in fact in the room next door, trying to sooth a crying Ashley, who was bent over the toilet. Screams were not an uncommon occurrence in the Avengers’ Tower, with Bucky himself occasionally being responsible for some of the nightly wails that echoed across the floor.
As he slowly crept back to his room, he listened carefully to Wanda as she continued to hum softly. He was almost back at his room, when a small voice piped up, almost too quiet for him to hear, even with his enhanced senses.
“Have you ever felt like everyone you love is in danger because of you?” Ashley had asked. Her tone wavered slightly as she spoke, an indicator of a fresh round of tears. Bucky’s step faltered slightly because yes, he did know what that felt like. It was the single most painful feeling in the world. He had spent so long, too long in fact, running from himself, desperate not to get close to Steve or anyone else because he was afraid he would hurt them or get them killed. All because of what Hydra had made him.
But why on Earth did a fifteen-year-old girl feel such a way?
As Bucky approached his door, the door directly across from his opened, Steve’s head sticking out. “Wanda?” he asked simply.
Bucky shook his head. “No, it was Ashley.” Bucky watched the furrow in Steve’s brow. “Wanda’s keeping her company, but we should probably tell Stark and Pepper in the morning.” Steve simply nodded before retreating inside his room, closing the door again. Bucky climbed into his own bed, tuning his ears in to the room halfway down the corridor, listening to Wanda’s soft hums and Ashley’s light snores before succumbing to sleep himself.
***
Breakfast was a rather quiet affair the next morning. Tony had decided to invite everyone for a team breakfast. Bruce, Sam and Clint were the only ones who had managed to sleep well the previous night, so they set to work preparing a fry up for everyone. Bruce and Sam were the ones actually cooking, whereas Clint was on toast duty with the warning that if he set fire to the toaster, he was forever banned from the kitchen. Bucky and Steve had been on a run together that morning and had run a full circuit of Manhattan before returning to the tower just before nine. They both took quick showers and changed, seeing as they didn’t want to be ridiculed for smelling like a couple of sweaty teenagers and joined the others upstairs. The dining table had been moved towards the centre of the room and extended out to make room for everyone. Wanda, Peter and Ashley were all sat together round one end of the table, all looking desperately like they were trying not to fall asleep in their seats, while Pepper and Natasha set the table. If anyone had noticed the way Ashley clung to Wanda's arm, they certainly didn’t say anything.
Bucky took a seat beside Wanda, Steve taking his other side as Bruce, Sam and Clint brought forward plates piled high with toast, bacon, sausages, hash browns and a bowl full of scrambled eggs. Peter finally woke up as Tony sat down next to him and was reaching across the table for the plate full of bacon, but his mentor quickly seized hold of his arm before his fork could come into contact with the plate.
“You know the rules. Normal people first; hungry hungry hippos after.” There was a twinkle in Tony's eye as he grinned at Peter. Peter nodded solemnly, his stomach growling loudly in protest. Tony just chuckled as Peter sulked in his chair, helping himself to sausages and bacon. Pepper, Bruce, Natasha, Wanda, Sam and Clint began to load food onto their plates, while Bucky, Steve and Peter watched hungrily until everyone had finished taking their share. Wanda glanced at the empty plate in front of Ashley before picking up a slice of toast, spreading some butter on it and then placing it down in front of her.
Ashley sent Wanda a small, grateful smile and nibbled on the slice of toast as she watched Peter, Steve and Bucky make a mad scramble for food. Their plates were piled twice as high as anyone else's and Ashley was marvelling at the idea that they could eat so much.
Once everyone had food, silence fell once more with only the noises of forks scraping plates to fill the quiet. Tony was one of the first to finish, standing up to clear his plate before disappearing silently off down the hall to the lab. Apparently, this was fairly normal behaviour, as no-one batted an eyelid. What was more out of character was when he re-emerged a few minutes later, a large black box in his hand as he sat back down at the table beside Pepper. He placed the box down in front of Ashley, who had been chewing the same bite of her toast for the past five minutes. It must have turned to mush, which probably wasn’t helping the girl’s obvious lack of appetite.
Ashley swallowed and sent Tony a questioning look. “I need you to be a guinea pig for me.” Ashley’s eyebrows rose suddenly at the statement. The term ‘guinea pig’ made it sound like he was going to turn her into some kind of science experiment. Tony simply took the lid off the box, revealing a sleek, black phone. It had a large screen and looked too big to fit in her jeans pocket safely. The phone could not have been thicker than a sheet of cardboard. “This is the latest model of Stark Phone and I think you’re the best person to test it.”
“Why me?” Ashley asked.
“Because I want to know if it’s easy for someone to pick up who has been using a phone that predates the Jurassic Era,” Tony replied, a smug smile resting on his face. “It’s already got pretty much everyone’s phone numbers.” He gestured to the table and was met by further raised eyebrows. “So, if you ever need one of us, you can get hold of us on that.”
“I can’t take this Mr Stark. It’s too much. Everything you’ve done already, it’s too much…” Ashley tried to push the box back towards Tony, but he stopped her easily.
“Part of your internship includes test running both the dumb and genius inventions I come up with. So, this is part of your job. It’s already loaded with a fully paid sim – unlimited texts, calls, data – the whole shebang.”
“Thank you, Mr Stark.”
Tony simply waved his hand in the air nonchalantly, already getting up from his seat to disappear into his lab for a few hours. “Don’t worry about it kid. Take care of yourself and don’t forget the lab is always open to you.”
Once Tony was in the lab, he picked up the web-shooters. They were still in the early phases and Peter had mentioned about them being uncomfortable. He hadn’t been wearing his suit, so the shooters rubbed against his wrists for the half hour he wore them – not a great design. So he set to work trying to figure out how to build them for both functionality and comfort. After an hour, Ashley had popped into the lab to pick up her school bag and the new supplies from Tony, once again stuttering out a string of thank-yous before rushing off to meet some friends. That was when Tony’s mind started reeling.
Throughout the meal, he had noticed Ashley’s hand never left its perch on Wanda's arm. That should have been the first sign that something was wrong. Casting his mind back to earlier that morning, the second sign should have come in the form of a series of stares that had been exchanged between Wanda and Bucky, which Tony couldn’t interpret. The third had been Ashley’s eagerness to leave to meet up with her friends. Friends that Tony knew were not Peter, Ned or MJ. Peter was spending the day in the tower and in the afternoon, Ned and MJ were going to join him for an afternoon of snacks and study time, as winter exams were starting the following week.
Tony picked up his Stark Pad and scrolled through a list of silent notifications that FRIDAY had alerted him to. Most of it were simple things such as windows being opened, which he often used to track Peter’s comings and goings, and an alert that Clint was using his kitchen. That notification had actually greeted him with a warning beep, as the situation often had the potential to lead to fires breaking out. But there was one particular notification that stuck out. It was one he was quite used to and had been subject to it a few times himself. It was an almost daily (or nightly) occurrence for the Dreamcatcher Protocol to be activated – alerting himself, or Pepper if he had activated it, of a member of the team suffering from night terrors. FRIDAY had learnt to enact the protocol when one of FRIDAY’s ‘authorised persons’ was displaying symptoms of a nightmare, including restlessness, crying, screaming etc. If the protocol was ongoing for more than two minutes, a further alarm was activated under the Freddy Krueger Protocol, which would wake up or alert designated person(s) to diffuse the situation. For example, for Tony, FRIDAY would wake up Pepper and Rhodey, for Peter it would be Tony, Nat and Wanda, for Wanda it was Vision, Bucky and Clint and so on.
So, whilst the team were clearing up from breakfast, Tony decided to confront Wanda and Bucky on the matter.
“So, I noticed the Dreamcatcher Protocol was activated last night.” Tony didn’t miss how Wanda and Bucky both froze on the spot. He also didn’t miss the sudden tensing of Steve’s shoulders beside him. “Red Riding Hood was it you?” Wanda shook her head, so Tony turned to Bucky and Steve. “Barnes and Noble?”
“No,” Bucky answered. “It wasn’t any of us.”
Tony's gaze fell back to Wanda, his eyes taking on a darker expression. “Ashley?” Both Wanda and Bucky nodded, confirming his suspicions. “What happened?”
“She started screaming in her sleep… I went into her room to try to calm her down. I had to wake her up Tony.” Wanda’s eyes were pleading. Begging Tony not to be angry with her. He knew of course the weight of Wanda’s words. She had to go inside the girl’s head. “She was sick as soon as she woke up. I nearly was too…Bucky helped me settle her and get her back to bed. I stayed with her through the night, but I don’t think she slept much. She’s afraid.”
Tony was glad Peter wasn’t in the room, having gone down to Bruce’s lab to work on an equation the elder had been stuck on for some time. He didn’t think that the young teen would react too well to this conversation. Especially given the look on Wanda’s face – it was one that no-one in that room except Clint had seen – a look of terror and despair.
“What did you see Wanda?” Pepper asked, her voice calm. Her eyes betrayed her fear, brimming with unshed tears. There was no denying the affection Pepper had for the sweet young girl, after just spending a few hours with her. Pepper, just like most in the room, was too scared to hear the answer.
“We were all dead,” Wanda stated calmly. “It was just a room full of bodies, maybe a theatre or a hall. I didn’t see all of them, but I remember a couple of adults – middle aged – and they were holding a dead child. He couldn’t have been older than twelve. Then…” Wanda paused; her eyes were closed as she tried to remember the dream she had walked into. Her brows furrowed in confusion for a moment before she opened her eyes. “Spider-Man was there. In his suit, but he was missing his head.”
Tony visibly paled. He felt the warmth and the colour drain from his face at the thought of Peter being… decapitated. He almost didn’t hear as Wanda continued. “But Peter was there too. Separate, as if they were two different people. She knows Peter and she knows Spider-Man, but I don’t think she knows they are the same.”
Things were slowly starting to add up in Tony’s mind. He made a mental note to ask Peter later if he had ever met Ashley as Spider-Man, but he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew the answer. It wasn’t an answer he was going to like very much, he bargained.
“Their other friends, Ned and MJ were there too. I know seeing MJ dead was particularly hard for her. And then, there was Pepper and Tony.” Tony’s head snapped up, gaze meeting Wanda’s for the first time in the last few minutes. “You were holding your arc reactor in your hand. It looked like you had pulled it out of your chest. And then… there was me. But I didn’t want to see, so I forced her to wake-up.”
Silence fell for a moment as Wanda let her tears fall. Vision came up and wrapped an arm around her. Sam broke the silence with a low whistle. “So, this kid has got some serious issues…”
“Hang on,” Natasha started, drawing the room’s attention. “If FRIDAY activated the protocol, that means she's down as an authorised person. You’ve barely known this girl five minutes.” Natasha quirked an eyebrow in Tony's direction.
“Well, she is my intern...” Natasha's eyebrow didn’t move from its raised position. “What do you want me to say Nat? I like the kid, okay.”
Nat simply grinned in response, Beside her, Clint was pulling twenty dollars out of his pocket, which he begrudgingly placed in Nat's outstretched palm. Clint mumbled something under his breath about how Nat was going to bankrupt him one day.
“You bet on the kid?” Tony asked incredulously.
“No, we bet on you.”
“Honestly, you lot are more childish than the actual teenagers that are going to be visiting the tower this afternoon.”
There were a few sniggers from the group, which is when Tony decided to take his leave for the lab. Pepper was hot on his heels, leaving the rest of the Avengers to gossip in the kitchen. Tony already had his Stark Pad out when Pepper joined him, looking through FRIDAY's code and making a few alterations to the Freddy Krueger Protocol. For a moment, Pepper was content to watch him, until he looked up at her with a pained expression.
“Nat's right... I barely know this kid.”
Pepper stood behind Tony, wrapping her arms around his waist as she rested her chin on his shoulder. “But you want to help her.” Pepper sighed deeply, hugging Tony just a fraction tighter. “I feel it too Tony. She needs our help. So put me down as one of her designated persons on the protocol; Wanda too.”
Tony smiled and leaned up to kiss Pepper briefly before adding the alterations. The protocol would now alert Tony, Pepper and Wanda if triggered by Ashley. Although, Tony had a sneaking suspicion there would be more names added to the list before long. Maybe Tony should have been scared that this young girl was worming her way into the Avengers' hearts so easily, but then he remembered when he had first really gotten to know Peter. Once he’d opened up, that boy became the centre of his world and it was looking likely that he wouldn’t be on his own in that little bubble for very long.
Tony was definitely going soft in his old age.