"More and more like me everyday."

"No I'm not. You're not even here. You're just my imagination."

"Then why are you talking to me? You'd be reinforcing your own delusion. I have to be here."

"No...no I would know."

"You've been sure before."

"You died."

"So did you. Over. And over. And over again. I killed you for days and days and days."

"I'm...I'm not dead. I'm in control."

"Then why are you making my choices? You know I'm still here, Toy."

==NM2==

"MORGAN!"

I screamed, leaping up from where I was. My foot slipped, sending me towards the ground. Something grabbed my arm. I screamed again, lashing out with my other hand.

"Could you not scratch me!?" A voice scolded.

Nikki, my mind supplied. Darcy.

I relaxed. My arm stopped lashing. It gripped onto Dar- Nikki's outstretched arm. She pulled me back to my feet, regarding me with a calculating stare.

On my feet I panted as I focused on my heart beat. It was thumping in an erratic rhythm, but it was beating.

"Where are you right now?" Nikki prompted.

"Marvel." I panted. Swallowing, I tried to get my breathing to a normal pace. "LA. Tony's lab."

As my mind came back from panic, I could see the lab more clearly. Holographic displays were hovering on the walls. Nikki's completed suit was on a mannequin. Her weapons were on the table beside it.

"When?" Nikki prompted.

"Iron Man 2, June 1st. Fucking Tuesday's." I answered. "Afternoon?"

"How?" Nikki asked.

"Teleported back from SI." Blowing out a slow breath, I leaned back to sit on the desk. "Had...had to get ready...for when...for when." I looked around, worried someone was listening.

"I told JARVIS to butt out." Nikki excused. "How are you here?"

"...MCU?"

"Talk, Spencer." Nikki scolded, impatient.

I stood straighter. My eyes stared straight ahead. "I had just left OUAT-"

"Not how you pronounce it." Nikki mumbled.

"-stayed Home for a month. You wanted to meet superheroes, have superpowers. So that's where I planned for us to go." I recalled. A relieved breath came out from my mouth.

"How old are you?"

"177." I answered, feeling more secure in my own head. "And you're 29. I'm feeling better now. Honest."

Nikki seemed to relax too. "Did you stop sleeping again?"

"What? No."

"Stop eating? You do that sometimes." Nikki explained.

"I have been eating, and I've been sleeping." I argued.

"Enough?" Nikki tossed back. "Cause carrots and those tiny cheese wheels don't count. Neither does a nap that lasts for an hour."

"Those are food and I'm sleeping." I pointed out.

"Yeah but they're not meals." Nikki countered. "And you take those kindergarten naps, you start hallucinate. Just like you did at the Bouvier house. You were convinced She was in every reflection."

I winced. That had been a bad month in foster care, she was right. The Bouviers had a lot of mirrors in the house. Though when I checked, they were the ones where vampires could be seen so they weren't reliable for checks. So I stopped sleeping to try and catch Her in the act. I was convinced I was spotting her sometimes. Darcy had said it was my own face.

Darcy eventually knocked me out with a well timed hit on the head. I slept for a whole day.

"You've been on your own for six months." Nikki let out a huffed breath. "For how many of them did you stop sleeping?"

"You can stop asking questions." I requested. Hopping off the table, I walked over to my work station. There were things for SI that I needed to finish up...yeah that's totally true. "54. Danger lies in protecting that which needs no protection."

Nikki grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the desk. "56. The person who avoids a battle ends up fighting a war." She spun me around so I was looking at her face. Jokes on her, I can avoid eye contact. "How long have you not been sleeping?"

"I've been sleeping."

"Then how long have you been having nightmares?" Nikki pressed. I said nothing. "It's bad, dumbass. You just had a standing-up nightmare. It's hard enough when you're lying down. You're standing up ones are scary. You could've hit your head."

"Advanced healing."

"Dumbass." Nikki shook her head. "You shouldn't go out tonight."

I gawked at her. "Try and stop me."

"All I have to do is wait for you to take a nap." Nikki popped her lips. "You'll be sleeping until Thor lands in New Mexico."

My eyes narrowed on her. "I'll punch your face."

Nikki smirked in a challenge accepted. "I'll dodge- 36- then kick your legs out."

"Teleport behind you, go for a back hit." I countered, my teeth starting to clench in annoyance.

"Spin kick to the gut." Nikki replied. "You'll dodge it so I'll hit you with one of the butt end of a knife. Your reflexes are weak from the lack of sleep and proper diet, so you'll go down like a rock."

My eyes narrowed further. My lips curled back in a snarl. How dare she. This wasn't a time for us to fight. There was more important things to be done. She was challenging me, on today of all days? She would regret-

Nikki put her hand on my shoulder, holding my arm. She squeezed both hands. "Stop what you're thinking." She walked closer to get a better way to make sure I was looking in her eyes. "Would you really hurt me?" She pouted her bottom lip.

My eyes widened. The rage and fury chilling inside me. Had...had that just been...had I seen what I think-

The pout left. She beamed.

"No. Do that again." I ordered, pointing at her mouth.

Nikki raised an eyebrow. Her smile faded into a confused frown. It was an almost pout, not enough to see it again. "Huh?"

"Pout again."

"Well not if you're gonna punch me, you look focused now-"

"Do it!" I snapped quickly.

Nikki pouted her lips.

My eyes widened again. Sure enough my eyes had not deceived me. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my Starkphone. Pulling out the camera feature I flipped it around so Nikki could see what I was seeing.

Now Nikki's eyes were wide. She looked up at me then the camera screen. She reached up to pull her lip down. "'he shi' is hiss?"

On her bottom lip, in the gums below her teeth, there was something. It looked a lot like tattoos, which couldn't be right because who tattoos the inside of their mouth? Furthermore, who tattoos the inside of their mouth with glowing purple ink? In a language I couldn't read?

"Why are we getting on my case for six months, what the hell were you up to?" I started.

Nikki let go of her lip, pushing the phone into my hands. "Does your mouth have it?"

"I would've noticed if my mouth glowed!" I countered. "That means it's not an alien thing."

Nikki scoffed. She rubbed her thumb along her bottom lip. "What the hell was Nikki up to?" She poked her chin, rubbing it to search for the tattoo on the other side. "Or her dad. Author's Prick-"

"It's Author's Pen-" I corrected, rubbing my forehead.

"Penis. I can't stop messing with it." She dragged her lip over her teeth. "I can't even feel it. There's no indent, or bumps. It's-" She rubbed her tongue there too.

"What the HELL are you doing?" I asked.

"Tasting my lip to see if it tastes different." She admitted.

"You idiot."

Nikki paused. She gave me a curious look. "Do you wanna taste it?"

"No I don't! Not even for Science!" I dismissed.

"For magic?" Nikki tried.

"...nope!"

"Ugh. Fine I got it." She let go of her mouth, lowering her hands to her hips. She poked her cheek with her tongue.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Comparing the taste of my lip to my cheek, like comparing a cock to the ballsack." Nikki answered. She poked it again. "There's no difference."

"How are we related?"

"In this dimension, I think it's because our mom is a whore."

"My father is too. How am I the normal one in a family of whores?"

"You call yourself 'Mistress'. You're not normal either. You've just been holding back your sexy side." Nikki teased.

"Never call it that again." I scolded, feeling the days of exhaustion more so now than ever. My hand rubbed on my head, trying to rub away the exhaustion. Frustrated breaths pushed out from my nose. "Nope...too late. It's too late. The words are in my head now..."

Nikki bumped my arm. Her expression less confused, more cautious. "Hey, M?"

"What."

"...think when I get powers, they'll be better than your's? Dad's side clearly has some shit to hide."

"I'm going to murder you and I will make it funny."

Nikki just laughed. She looked up at the ceiling. "Hey, Mister Jay, any word on the tin can?"

"Sir is in fact pulling into the driveway one minute ago." JARVIS reported. "I was about to interrupt your conversation for that sake."

"Lies." I countered, pressing at an irritated spot on my head. Funny how I can be healed from (probably) everything except headaches. "Might as well get everything ready before I have to leave." Standing myself upright, I fixed my clothes from the wrinkles. "You good, Nik?"

"You, M?" Nikki prompted. I gave her a side eye. She continued giving me a hard stare. "Need to clock out?"

"No. Just gotta make it one more day." I conceded. Nikki accepted this bargain.

"Sir is approaching the lab now, Miss Becky." JARVIS reported.

Tony hopped down the stairs. The lab doors opened for him. He gave Nikki and I confused looks. "Are you two just gonna sit on your butts all day? Let's get to work."

"Nah...I like being lazy." Nikki teased. I hit her arm. "I mean...work. Yay."

==NM2==

After a few teleportations, Nikki and I had the entire display down into the lab. Tony and I set it up properly. Nikki was getting to know ASSASSIN again.

"JARVIS, could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulatable projection." Tony requested.

A blue light scanned over the display. It created a holographic copy over the display.

1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, Sir."

Tony grabbed the holographic display. He moved it away from the real one, walking it over to an empty air space. I moved to sit at a desk, watching. Nikki sat on the desk, tapping her nails along the top. "How many buildings are there?"

"Am I to include the Belgium waffle stands?" JARVIS snarked.

"That was rhetorical. Just show me." Tony instructed.

"You never said they had Belgium waffles." Nikki complained.

I flicked her leg.

Tony flicked his wrist. The display tilted so it was sideways. The buildings of the display glowed brighter than the rest of it.

"What does that look like to you, Becks?" Tony asked.

I snorted, shaking my head in disbelief. "It looks like an atom, Dad."

Tony tapped his hands together. "In which case the nucleus would be here." He tapped the center of the display. "Highlight the unisphere." The globe at the center glowed. Tony pulled it up, stretching it out. "Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them."

"What is it you're trying to achieve, sir?" JARVIS asked.

"I'm discovering- Correction. I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe." Tony admitted. I leaned forward in the chair, watching it all with the same awe I did the first time back Home. "Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees." He waved the things away. "Parking lots, exits, entrances. Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework. Dad."

Tony stretched out the remainders of the display. It lit up brightly, stretching out into an orb with tiny atom bulbs around it. I stood up, 'touching' one. Nikki tried but she hadn't quite gotten the hang of the holograms yet.

Dead for almost twenty years, and still taking me to school." Tony mused. He snapped. The holographic orb leapt out my hands to shrink into Tony's. He held the small atom in his hands.

"This is going to work. Right? It has to work." I stated.

"The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium."

"Yes!" I cheered loudly, jumping in the air. Nikki clapped on the desk.

"Thank Dad." Tony mused to himself.

"Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesise." JARVIS

"Do not kill my buzz!" I chided the AI. "I'll take your impossible and kick it where it hurts!"

"Yeah, that's good." Tony turned to me. "Ready to remodel?"

"I always thought the lab needed a sunroof." I noted.

Tony grinned. "Get ready for a major remodel, fellas." He noted to Dummy and JARVIS. "We're back in hardware mode."

I walked over to Nikki. "Ready to break stuff?"

"But I just cleaned it!" Nikki whined.

"You get to break different stuff than the fixed stuff."

"Then I no longer have a moral dilemma." Nikki cheered.

I barked out a laugh. "You never have moral dilemmas."

"Why would I?" Nikki questioned, looking honestly perplexed at the suggestion.

So, the three of us proceeded to build a life saving element.

And I didn't hear one peep from my mind. Not even the faintest whisper. It made me feel a lot better to smash stuff.

==NM2==

AN: Sorry for lateness- but I'm done with classes this year so yes I can finally breathe.