Disclaimer: I own pretty much everything…that you don't recognise.

Author's note: Thank you very much for your reviews. It's nice to see some people appreciate my rewrite and my apologies again for having a dramatic moment and deciding I didn't like the previous version. I'm sorry it took so long to update. I've been ill…being ill sucks. I have mocks in like a month, and considering they could determine whether I get into the college I want, it's fair to say you can't really expect to see a lot of me over the next few weeks.

Kimauri626: I agree…emo Johnny is not very nice but unfortunately he is necessary. Anyway, SG stands for Stalker Guy (yes, Johnny did come up with that). He is Sue's stalker…it's all in my other fic Friend or Foe. You should read it when you have the time otherwise this story probably won't make a lot of sense.

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The woman stared in awe at the skyline of New York City. She had been told the buildings were big but in Latveria any building with six floors was considered to be a skyscraper. Well at least in the secluded villages. She'd never visited the country's capital, Hassenstadt. In fact she had never left her village until now.

Her name was Katrina Pederichie. They said she had the gift. She wasn't psychic as many who heard those words assumed; she could do something different, something dangerous. When she discovered her gift at the age of nine the people had revered her. She was a special, a miracle child. When she hit sixteen things changed, things happened; her hormones and emotions got the better of her and suddenly the nasty side of her gift reared its ugly head.

Katrina resisted a smirk. It was funny how the villagers had all turned on her. Now she was a devil child, something she was still being called never mind the fact that she was pushing 23. Her family had disowned her, her friends rejected her and her neighbours spat at he feet. The authorities caught wind of the accident and decided she was a liability. They imprisoned her in a small, isolated house on the very outskirts of Latveria on the grounds that she was a danger to everyone, including herself. Occasionally they would pull her out of the house to parade her through the village, to show the children what happens to one who is possessed by Satan himself.

Back then she had believed they were right. She was trouble; she did not deserve to live. Sometimes she wondered why no one had yet tried to kill her or why she did not do the deed herself. The villagers had sent her on a downwards-spiralling path to self-destruction; she had almost reached the bottom when her saviour appeared.

She had been surprised to see him, it was not everyday she got a visitor who had not come to give her abuse or try and get her to use the gift. Her Saviour had shown her the gift was a blessing, not a curse. He had lifted her from her hellhole and now she was indebt to him.

The helicopter she was riding in came to a stop. Katrina sat silently as the blades slowed down. She looked at the man opposite her expectantly. His attention was completely on his PDA. She was about to ask him what to do next when the door to the helicopter was thrust open. Her heart leapt to her throat as a familiar, metallic face loomed in the doorway. Katrina knew that underneath the mask of metal he was smiling, she could see it in his warm, powerful and hypnotic eyes. Katrina threw herself down to the floor of the helicopter and gave a low bow.

"My saviour…" she whispered as she trembled with excitement. "I am here to serve."

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"Please Ben! Just this once," Reed begged.

"I have to get back to the hospital," Ben growled as he pushed past his friend. Reed followed him to the stairwell.

"Just this once Ben…please!"

"Look stretch, any other time you know I'd be happy to baby sit but Alicia needs me. If she wakes up I need to be there for her," Ben replied.

"Two hours Ben. I swear, just two hours. We just need some alone time out of the house. It's been so long since Sue and I had some time together and you know we can't leave Franklin with Johnny, not after last time" Reed explained. Ben paused, two hours didn't sound too bad and the last time Johnny had been left to baby sit Franklin had conveniently been kidnapped.

"Just two?" he asked sceptically.

"I just wanted us to go for a meal and then maybe a quick walk."

"And you won't loose track of time?"

"If we're not back within two hours you can go straight to the hospital."

"And leave the baby with Johnny?"

"Erm…okay you can call us and we'll come right back."

"Aright fine…what time do you want me?" Ben said after a short pause.

"Seven…is that okay?" Reed asked unable to hide his triumphant smile.

"It's fine…I'm gonna go to the hospital," Ben said with a sigh and trudged out the room.

He headed to the stairwell and began the lengthy descent to the bottom floor. He found himself wondering why Reed had the time to do unnecessary experiments and build things because he was bored but not to reinforce the lift so Ben would not have to take the stairs every time he wanted to go out. Normally no one took the stairs in the Baxter Building, they didn't have the same luxurious atmosphere as the lifts and they were pretty steep. Whenever Johnny took the stairs, which was incredibly rare and usually only when he wanted something from Ben, he spent most of the journey moaning about how much his legs hurt. So you can imagine his surprise when as he neared the ground floor he found Johnny curled up in the corner. A shopping bag lay discarded a few steps away.

"Tired already? You're not even halfway yet," Ben joked. When Johnny didn't give him a witty reply Ben stooped down to Johnny's level.

"You okay kid?" he asked. Johnny still didn't reply. He sat with his knees pulled up to his chest with his hands on his head. He stared at his knees, a look of pure horror on his face.

"Johnny! Johnny what's wrong? What happened? Is it the press again? They still on about-" Ben stopped mid-sentence as Johnny began to talk.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered. Ben let out a confused grunt.

"I didn't mean it…I didn't mean any of it. I just got a bit annoyed. Please forgive me," Johnny pleaded.

"For what?" Ben asked and then added suspiciously. "What did you do?"

But Johnny ignored him and continued to talk.

"You don't belong in hell and you shouldn't go there! You are innocent and you are hard-working."

"What are you talking about? What happened?" Ben continued to probe Johnny for some sort of information but the superhero just stared at his knees.

"I…I-I…I," Johnny began to say. He flinched suddenly and his hands automatically flew to his ears. Ben regarded the boy in front of him with a confused expression on his face. He hadn't heard anything.

"I murdered you," Johnny mumbled as he released his ears and put his hands on his forehead. Ben knew it was now impossible for his eyebrows to get any closer together.

"I, Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm, am….am….am a cold-blooded killer…and…and I m-murdered…y-you…Sofia Wallace," Johnny stuttered.

Ben stared at Johnny. He had been wrong; his eyebrows were even closer together they were practically overlapping. Johnny had admitted he regretted some of the decisions he had made at VDTI (aka killing Sofia) but Ben had obviously missed out on the slightly unusual signs of what he could only guess was post-traumatic stress. Ben became aware that Johnny was perhaps in a trance. It was as Ben was wondering how exactly to break this trance that Johnny 'woke up'.

Johnny let out a girlish yell as he looked up and saw Ben staring back at him.

"Jeez pebbles! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Johnny exclaimed as he clutched his chest dramatically. Ben gave Johnny a sceptical look, suddenly remembering every remark on Ben's inability to sneak up on people. Johnny seemed to remember too because he looked away from Ben and hastily stood up, brushing off his jeans. Ben watched as Johnny scrambled for his shopping as he stood up.

"That must have been some…daydream. I was there for a while," Ben said slyly. Johnny froze, one arm reached out for the milk that had taken a short tumble to the bottom of the steps. Slowly Johnny retracted his arm and stood up.

"How long?" Johnny asked quietly.

"Long enough," Ben said curtly and then added in a much more sensitive voice, "wanna tell me what's going on?"

Johnny stared at him for a moment; Ben could see his brain calculating the pros and cons of spilling his guts.

"Everything's fine," Johnny lied and picked up the milk. He avoided Ben's gaze as he headed towards the lobby, Ben followed.

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" Ben asked.

"Well you always were the suspicious one," Johnny replied over his shoulder. Ben chuckled. He watched the younger man enter the lift.

"Johnny?"

"What?" Johnny asked not bothering to hide his annoyance. His finger hovered over the button labelled 35.

"You're not a cold blooded killer," Ben said in the tone of voice he usually used when he spoke to Alicia: sincere and oddly soothing.

Johnny stared at Ben for a few seconds before he pressed the button. He could see the disappointment on Ben's face as the doors slid shut. When the doors shut Johnny released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding and slumped against the wall closest to him. He closed his eyes and sighed quietly.

"Yes I am," he whispered.

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"We're going out tonight."

"We are?"

Reed laughed at his wife's confusion.

"Yes. We are," he confirmed as he wrapped his arms around her waist. The couple stood, in the kitchen, in a comfortable silence for a while. Reed stiffened suddenly.

"You're not going out or something are you?" he asked worriedly, suddenly remembering the times he had arranged a 'surprise' date for Sue and she had been planning to have a night out with her girlfriends.

"No," Sue said with a giggle and turned around to face him. "I just so happen to be free tonight."

"Excellent."

"Indeed...but what about-" Sue began but Reed cut her off, he knew exactly what she was going to say.

"Already taken care of," Reed said breezily. Sue raised one eyebrow.

"I managed to convince Ben to watch Franklin for a couple of hours," Reed explained in a somewhat proud tone. Sue grinned.

"I love you," she murmured.

"And I love you too," Reed replied. Sue's smile widened and she stood on her tiptoes to give Reed a kiss.

A loud bang sounded through the room and the couple jumped apart. Sue glared at the perpetrator. Johnny stood a few feet away from them.

"What have I told you about slamming the cupboards like that?" she whined. Johnny stared at her blankly for a few moments, grabbed his 'freshly-prepared' cereal and left the room without a word.

Sue let out an aggravated grunt and threw her hands up in the air.

"What is wrong with him? Why does he always have to do that?" she moaned. Reed was at her side in an instant. He wrapped an arm around her soothingly.

"He's just being Johnny," Reed said calmly.

"Well just for once I wish he'd be someone else," Sue grumbled, sinking into Reed's embrace.

Johnny stood outside the kitchen, still clutching his cereal. Sue always said things like that, most of them were in the heat of the moment, but at that moment in time it was the last thing he wanted to hear. Mainly because he wished he was someone else too. Although Sue's comment hurt, something else hurt more.

Reed asked Ben to baby sit.

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A/N: Okay so maybe this chapter made no sense. Yes, Johnny was talking to Sofia during the whole 'Johnny has post-traumatic stress' thing. And no, he does not have post-traumatic stress because last time I checked (five minutes ago) seeing ghosts isn't a symptom.

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