Welcome to my continuation of Family is a Strange Thing...
Please comment to let me know your thoughts, I do not own Marvel, and my grammar sucks. I know. Also sorry for kind jumpiness of ideas...
Alexa opened the grate with her telekinetics. She slowly lowered her self into the gym behind Clint. He was wearing headphones and Alexa was quieter than a mouse anyways. Reaching her hand up she tapped on his shoulder. Surprised he whipped around throwing out a punch where Alexa had been. She had of course known he would do that and took a step back. He realized who it was and let his guard down.
"Dinner," she told him.
"One minute," he responded in Russian. Alexa's eyes turned a deep grey. Clint immediately realized the eye change. Natasha had them once in while. The eye change thing was more frequent when he had first met her. It had something to do with trigger words or phrases Red Room made. When the words or phrases are said the person turns into a dark abusive version of themselves. He had learned early on that a good smack to the head got them clear minded and erased the trigger word that had been used. Clint called it Cognitive Recalibration. Alexa began to advance on him. She threw a punch at him and it hit him. Hard. He had not fought with her since before all her new training. And she was better, stronger, and faster than she had been before. She was dancing around him landing punches and kicks one after another. He couldn't even land one. Clint grabbed her next kick. Then he sent one of his legs crashing into her knee on the leg she was standing on. She fell backwards in surprised and cracked her head on the ground. Her eyes grew watery and they switched back to bright blue. Alexa sat up and didn't say anything she just looked away in regret. Some tears gently slide down her cheeks. Clint squatted down and looked at her. He wiped away her tears with his hand.
"Natasha has them to. No need to cry," he told her gently.
"What if it wasn't you that said the word?" she asked him in fright,"What if it was someone who didn't know about it? Or Emma was there?"
"Little Archer. You can't worry about that. We can tell everyone about it. Or the basis of it. Alright? But this is obviously more than that. So what aren't you telling me? You always tell me everything," Alexa looked at him the same way she looked at him the first night he had witnessed on of her nightmares. A scared child who was guilty of something.
"I hear his voice in my head. Talking to me, telling me to harm people and how to do it. It makes me go hazy. Like when I hit my head. I black in and out. And it terrifies me that I may hurt someone," she whispered. Clint looked at her and hugged her.
"I promised myself to protect you like my own daughter. Because that's what you are Little Archer. My daughter. And it's a fathers job to protect their child from the horrors they are afraid of. You have nothing to be afraid of. Not when I am near. Or anyone else who lives in this tower," Alexa snorted. Clint smiled at her, "And you need to train with me more often so I can actually beat you," he winked. She snorted again and showed one of her rare smiles. He stood up and offered a hand, "They are going to kill us if we are not up there soon,"
"Just wait. That kick to the knee did some damage," she sat for a minute and held her hands out to heal herself then she took his hand. They went to the dining room. They heard voices merrily talking from outside the door. Once they walked in everyone turned to look at them. The fight they had been in showed now. Clint had a busted lip and many other bruises. Alexa's clothes were rugged and her hair was everywhere.
"What happened?!" Natasha asked standing up to go look at them more closely she brought the wine glass she was drinking out of with her.
"Later," Alexa told her in Latin. Concerned Natasha furrowed her brow. Everybody turned back to talking.
"Now," Natasha replied darkly. Clint sighed and looked at Alexa. Natasha turned to look at the teenager,"What happened?"
"Red Room put triggers in her," he told her in Russian. Natasha dropped her glass. It shattered everywhere. The voices stopped again and everyone turned. She didn't pay attention towards anything and pulled Alexa into a tight hug. They stood like that for a minute before Natasha pulled back and looked at her 'daughter'.
"Did he teach you Cognitive Recalibration?" Natasha asked in Russian to make the mood a little lighter. Alexa instinctively put her hand to her head and nodded.
"It was quite difficult. Luckily she had no weapons and neglected to use her powers," Clint added in Russian, "It will be quite nice for me to be able to have you to fight instead of me having to get into the ring," he said in Russian. Alexa and Natasha gave each other a look that Clint could not decipher. Natasha's lip quivered into one of her smiles. Clint grew worried at that, as he knew that the two of them teamed up could be quite devious.
"Out of curiosity could we begin eating the meal that Alexa prepared for us?" Tony asked loudly. Alexa nodded and the three of them carefully walked around the broken glass to sit down, "Care to enlighten us on what all just happened?"
"Considering how many I had. They need to know," Natasha told Alexa.
"I, I, know," she stood up,"In the time I spent in Red Room I suffered much abuse. They did this thing to my head so when I here certain words or phrases I go into kill mode. My eyes turn a dark grey and I won't be persuaded to go back to me unless I am hit rather hard on the head," Alexa explained, "Skye may have them as well, but I don't know," she looked at her sister.
"I don't know maybe. I didn't have the same training as you," Skye replied.
"Don't worry Alexa. Jarvis can help tell us when it's happening so we can give youP a good knock on the head," Tony told her. Pepper swatted him on the head.
"Nice way to put it Tony," she said. Everyone smiled at her and went back to eating and conversing. So she sat back down and stared at her food then at her family. She didn't touch her food. Instead she made her spoon stir her food in circles with her powers. At one point she used her powers to imagine all the broken glass in a container on the table. It worked and all the glass was cleaned up. Even after everyone was done eating they were still socializing. Natasha noticed something was wrong with Alexa. She dismissed it for now and put it in her notes for later. Alexa and Skye combined their powers to take all the dishes and put them in the kitchen. Even with the high tech machinery to wash all the dishes Alexa liked to them herself. It was some kind of security thing. Before she started she whistled. Willow padded into the kitchen. Alexa scooped some extra hobo diner into the dogs bowl and set it on the floor.
"She is such a spoiled dog," Skye commented. Alexa's lip twitched.
"Yeah she is. Hey did Tony and Bruce tell you what they want to do to her?" Alexa asked Skye. Skye shook her head in confusion,"They want to make a serum for her. So she can be my sidekick. And prevent accidents from happening" Alexa said referring to their capture,"I told them that we can go to a shelter. And find a dog that we can get all healthy and obedient that they can do safe experiments on. And if the experiments work then they can make my dog super," Alexa told her. Skye smiled. She began drying the dishes Alexa was washing.
"Wanna pull some pranks tonight? I need something to do," Skye asked while raising an eyebrow.
"Sure. And you know. Everyone gets nightmares Skye," she looked at her older sister knowingly," Natasha has them bad when Clint's not around. Clint has them all the time he just goes to the basement to shoot. I have them as well. So did May," Alexa looked at Skye earnestly.
"I have been seeing training sessions in my dreams since we were rescued," Skye admitted.
"I haven't really slept either. When I was injured I was still plagued by nightmares. So sure, I'll do some pranks," Alexa answered,"What's the plan,"
"Meet me in the shaft above training at 10," Skye told her as they finished the last dish. Alexa lips twitched in her small smile and the two of them walked back to the dining room. Everyone was still conversing. Skye went to go sit back down but Alexa walked over to Emma. She looked at her little sister. Emma gurgled and smiled.
"Hey little sis," Alexa said to the little girl. She whistled to call Willow. Willow came in and went to her master,"Sit. Stay. Guard," she told her loyal dog. Willow sat, stayed and guarded as Alexa went back to her seat. Natasha switched chairs with Clint to be closer to Alexa.
"Why didn't you eat?" Natasha asked her in Latin. This had been Alexa's first real meal since over a month ago and Natasha was wondering why she didn't dig in.
"I don't have to eat anymore. Ivan gave me something so I can run without it. When I eat real food it's like eating while full. And it hurts. He prevented me to be able to do other stuff to. I don't sleep anymore unless knocked out with drugs or to weak to make myself move. And I don't get cold or warm. I am always at the perfect temp," she whispered in Latin. Alexa's eyes were a little wet.