AN: Tumblr prompt: Could you do a fic with void!Danny/nocturne!danny meets the avengers? Maybe he tries to keep them asleep like that one ep and they have to fight back? I'd love to see that in your writings

Also, trigger warning for child abuse? Nothing to detailed I think, but it's in Clint's section, which comes directly after Natasha's. If you want to skip that here is your heads up.

Drabble 70-In Your Dreams

Danny had died from fear.

It was little known how the dream reaper came to be. Only that whatever he perished from had terrified him more than anything. In those last moments of life he had, he had vowed to make others suffer like he had. When his soul finally made it to the Ghost Zone he took on a new name. When he heard it in worried whispers he couldn't help but smile to himself. After all, those who were brave enough to mutter the name Nocturn were the most fun to tear down.

Now he lived for fear.

It was a very rare experience for him to leave his lair, but a ghost has to do what a ghost has to do. And for him it was stupidly easy. After all these years they still hadn't forced any sort of restriction against him leaving to the mortal plane. Yes, it was against the riles, bit nobody ever told him what to do, for fear of...Well, fear itself.

Danny gave a toothy grin as he stepped out if his portal, his green, pupil-less eyes a beacon in the night. He took a big whiff of air, noticing the arid pollution he just inhaled, an sighed in contentment. Oh, this was going to be fun

It didn't take him ling to go through a large chunk of the Big Apple, sneaking into peoples dreams and feeding off of their nightmares. From room to room he traveled, not having a specific path in mind. When he fed off of the nightmare from a small boy, he finally took a second to breathe, relishing in his new power. It felt good to be back.

And then he saw it.

There, in the middle of the city was a glowing beacon. A tall tower with the letter A stood proud and tall, beckoning the nightmare ghost to it. Danny wasted no time sinking into the shadows, laughing maniacally as he did so.

He grinned as he rose from the floor, detaching himself from the shadows that his stark white hair contrasted with greatly. The room was dark and empty, nut he could sense the presence of reams on the building. In fact, there were two just on this floor...

He rushed to on of the doors, easily going throughout and finding a fine specimen indeed. He was big, blonde, and turned on his side, asleep. Danny licked his lips as he crept forward until he was towering over him, his hands around his head. He gasped at what he saw. The blonde was there, dancing with a pretty brunette in a dark red dress with eyeliner so sharp it could kill. They swished this way and that, the woman giggling and muttering loving things with her rich accent.

Danny twisted his clawed hand, closing his fingers slightly, and the dream shifted. Now the blonde was on a speeding train, reaching for someone who was hanging off the side of it. The stranger fell, and with him so did the blonde. Not enough. It wasn't enough, Danny needed more to feed off of. He twisted his hand again, his hand half way to being a fist. It was the blonde again, only this time he was dressed nicely in a suit from the forties. People were celebrating around him, but everything was silent save for every loud pop and bang that happened throughout the room, making the blonde flinch every time. Ah, yes. Now Danny was getting somewhere.

The noises started becoming more frequent, more loud, until it eventually drowned out everything. even the blonde's thoughts. Danny grinned as he watched he hyperventilating figure drop to his knees, covering his ears and curling in on himself, somehow making his large body look small. Flashes came from the blonde's head, now. It wasn't anything Danny had manipulated. Oh, this was getting so interesting.

It was the blonde, dressed as the American flag with the iconic shield strapped to his back as be ran through a war zone, dodging bullets left and right.

The blonde's physical body was coated in a sheen of sweat, and he was starting to thrash around. It was always a curious experience to see people hyperventilating in their sleep, gasping for air from something they could never escape.

Danny dropped his hands, letting the blonde suffer in silence aw he left to the other person on this floor, which just so happened to be a few doors down.

This time it was a dark skinned man in a gray sweater that had ARMY written across it in big, bland letters. So he was a veteran as well. There was nothing quite like the taste of PTSD. It was certainly one of Danny's favorite. Especially if mixed with some self doubt or a side of failure. Like this young fellow.

From the looks of his pinched face, he was a,ready experiencing something unpleasant in his own head. Danny placed his hands around the man's head like he did with the blonde and hum,ed.

This man was more than just in the army. He had been a free bird, rescuing people from the war zones the blonde had been to busy running through. There was another person flying next to him, smiling a big toothy grin. His goggles were crooked and his hair was everywhere, and Danny could tell the man was held at such a high regard form his little birdy. Everything went south without Danny having to do anything. The grinning, dark haired boy was still smiling as bullets ripped through his body. He was still smiling when he fell to the ground, and he was still smiling when his body made a sickening splat sound.

Danny breathed in the chaos, relishing in it, really. His hand closed ever so slightly.

Now it was his little bird flying high over the city, looking down at the American blonde in his arms as he carried him. Danny could guess what happened next without even watching. But he did anyway, because where was the fun in turning away a show with his dinner?

It started slowly. First the wing malfunctioned, dropping them down and down, until finally they hit the ground. Birdy had twisted his body so that he took the brunt of the force, but when he took his wings away from the blonde, he was riddled with bullet holes, his neck snapped and his glazed eyes blaming his little birdy. It was truly horrifying. If all the dreams in this building were like this he should come back more often.

The man was gripping the sheets, mumbling in his sleep and rolling this way and that. Danny couldn't help but feel proud of his handy work as he lifted to the next floor, finding only one on this floor.

He effortlessly crept into the room through the shadows and peered down at the red head. Her face showed no emotion. When Danny placed his hands around her head, it was a dark nothingness. Danny grinned. Blank canvases were his favorite.

He tapped her skull ans everything appeared all at once, making her face scrunch up in protest. There were bright lights and painful torture. There were hands cuffed to the bed, and there was sharp pains everywhere. Danny almost laughed at how delicious this one was. After all, it's not often you get someone with a tortured past like this. The kind where they were never really a child in the first place. Danny clenched his fist, and it didn't seem to shift. No, instead her dream moved forward full throttle. There was a blonde man, a different one then the one he had already visited. He had a bow and arrow, and was approaching her like one would a scared animal.

The red head lunged forward, knocking the bow away. She straddled him, punching him in the face and over until it was a bloody, unrecognizable mess with half his teeth missing, before taking one of the arrows from his quiver and plunging it through his chest.

"Natasha..." The blonde whispered. But his host, Natasha just stood up and walked away, completely void of emotion.

Just like her training.

Danny released her, noting how her whole body was stiff and her knuckles white as she clenched her fists. It was hard enough to cause a tiny bit of blood to leak from her palm.

Danny moved on.

And boy oh boy, he was gonna have fun with this one. He had stumbled upon the blonde from Natasha's dream, sleeping under a mountain of covers and cuddling with a giant stuffed dog. Oh, this would he to easy.

This man didn't fear much, Danny was quick to realize. But that only made it easier to pick out which one was the worst. He was faced with a large, tall blonde putting a heavy grip on the small shoulder of the host and shoved him to the ground, swinging as hard as he could. The stench of alcohol wafted from his breath, and Danny almost moaned at the taste of every punch that connected with the child's face.

Then he let the dream shift willingly, following this person into the depths of his mind.

It was dark at first, but when it became bright again, Clint was standing in a room full of people. All of his friends and people he considered family were in there, all to crowded. The lights turned off, casting the room in pitch black darkness before turning back on again. The pain in Clint's eyes was as much as the pain in his heart when he realized someone had disappeared from the room.

This process repeated over and over until finally only the Avengers were left.

"Bruce," hos host whispered, pleading. He was on his knees, looking up at the curly haired man. The lights shut off. When they came back on Brice was gone.

"Listen, Thor, I'll teach you more Midgardian slang, please just don't-"

Again, and Thor was gone.

"Tony...I know I'm a pain in the ass but-"

Tony left.

"Steve, come on, old man, you're the only one who's-"

Steve disappeared.

Tears were streaming down his host's face now as he looked up, silently begging for Natasha to stay. She spat on the ground in front of him. The lights turned off.

He was completely alone.

Danny let go slowly, savoring every last drop from this one. He was special. Danny was almost tempted to take him into the Zone with him so he could have a never ending supply of nightmares to feed off of, but thought against it. He didn't need the observants on his ass.

He exited the room quietly, not looking back at Clint's crying figure as he stayed in his dreamscape. He inhaled deeply, finding a new scent. It was way down below, in the basement. He smelled PTSD, neglect, attachment issues...Much like the archer he had just left. Danny grinned as he began slipping through the floor.

He was maybe half way through when something hard hit him in the back, knocking him forward and out of the floor. Danny growled and turned around, only to see Thor and the others he had haunted. Danny smirked.

"Back for more?" He taunted, straightening up. He was smaller than every single one of them, scrawny and pale, but he had more strength in his pinky finger than they did in their whole bodies. Especially after feeding off of their nightmares.

Off t the side, the archer's door slid open, revealing a groggy Clint rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Whas goin' on?" he mumbled.

"Clint, back up," Natasha spoke. It was like a switch went off. Clint was immediately more or less awake as he began walking towards his friends. Oh, but Danny had a better idea. After all, he couldn't just let this one get away from him.

Danny lunged forward, grabbing Clint by the waist and pulling him back. Danny held his arms to his side with one arm, the other one reaching around his throat. He gave the lucid Avengers a wicked grin, tracing his claws down Clint's Adam's apple, feeling the nervous swallow.

"One wrong move," he said. He didn't need to finish the thought. Steve immediately put his shield down, leaning it against the wall, and his friend, the birdy, had placed his gun next to it. Thor dropped his hammer, and Natasha held her hands up in surrender. Clint couldn't have felt more ashamed that this was happening, all because he had been to slow. Why did he have to be such a dummy?

Suddenly the hand around his throat left, gesturing as he spoke to the others. Clint didn't hear a word he said. At least he had been able to read Nat's lips when she told him to move his ass, but now he was completely out of luck.

And then it came back. The thing holding onto him let go, screeching in pain, and Clint immediately scrambled over to Tony, who was decked out in the Iron Man armor, holding up his bow and arrow in the hand that wasn't smoking. Clint grinned at him, signing a quick thank you before grabbing an arrow and pulling the string tight, aiming right for those blazing, unearthly green eyes.

"You mortals won't win," he taunted. He moved again, and man, wasn't that a trip. It was strange seeing space be his body, but it wasn't moving with him. Like a bad cartoon, except with a cooler pattern.

"Be gone. drauger!" Thor bellowed, swinging his hammer around. Lightning started to collect around it, and the 'drauger' sneered.

"I'll come for you next, Odinson," it hissed. And then it melted into the shadows.

There was a sort of blanket that lifted off of them. It was completely unnoticeable until the thing had left, and with it the bad energy. But he had left his mark on them, had looked into most of their deepest fears that they never told anybody. This...This would have lasting effects.

"Thank you, Thor," Steve said, gripping the god's shoulder tightly. His face was pale and his blue eyes were hard, but he gave his friend a weak smile nonetheless.

"I will happily smite any drauger that lays a and on you, my friends. They are vile creatures that do not deserve the afterlife." Thor sounded pissed, but calm somehow. They all nodded with him, different levels of distress across their faces. But all heads swiveled to Iron Man when he cleared his throat for everybody's attention.

"Anybody want a drink?" he asked, gesturing to the elevator behind him.

Nobody protested.