Months went by and the Fantastic Five's living areas, lab, hell even there gym got an upgrade. Each mission they went on kept the lights on. Reed's lab had the most advance technology known to man, they purchased more floors and remodelled them for their needs. Johnny and Elena now living across the hall from each other while Reed and Sue had a room of their own. Ben and Alicia moved in together. Even when they had the means to have their own floors, the team stayed together and liked the closeness.

Each person was able to master their powers exponentially. Johnny could control his fire better, Reed's stretching abilities made his work on gadgets easier, Sue was able to expand her strength with her forcefields and invisibility, Ben grew even stronger, and Elena was able to master controlling her hot wind. Her diamond form never became little diamonds since the Victor attack, she was one solid piece of diamond now and she was able to easily make other things in diamond form to hold them down, mostly crooks who were trying to get away. Reading minds became easier, but it only worked perfectly when both were in diamond form.

The relationships in the group seemed steady. Ben and Alicia were annoyingly so in love that it hurt, Sue and Reed were planing their wedding, but Elena and Johnny were still tip toeing around each other. Elena barely slept and Johnny usually woke up when she wondered out of her room and the two fell asleep on the couch. He just didn't know, he never felt feelings besides lust before and it made him hesitant, sure he still acted like a playboy, but it was loosing its shine. Johnny thought Elena would never open up her heart to someone like him because it seemed so easy for him to mess it up. She went on a couple dates but nothing seemed to stick, so she preferred her singleness and made the most of it. But one thing changed, she hardly danced, ever. Since their house arrest was lifted, Johnny was gone the entire time, Ben went out with Alicia and the couple of the year were either out on a date or creating something. She felt no passion for it again, there was a lose in the factor.

Elena was off, mentally, she thought she was subtle about it, but someone noticed.

"Last night, the FAA was forced to ground all it's aircrafts," as the Tv screen played the news in the rather busy airport, two viewers watched carefully, sharing concerned glances, "In other news! The much anticipated wedding of a FANTASTIC couple, Reed Richards and Susan Storm, will take place this Saturday." the concern of the previous matter vanished.

The blonde woman sighed as she gave her soon-to-be-husband an astonished glance. Reed gave her a glance as he turned his attention to the article he had been reading. He rolled his eyes as he saw an ad on the corner of the page.

"Scientist or celebrity? Scientist, of course.' Reed frowned as he shook his head. It sometimes baffled him. The media had come down to that? What happened to when news talked about serious issues and informed people about things that were important? Now it was all about what was entertaining and what people wanted to hear, which was clearly all about The Fantastic Five members. Mr. Fantastic was disappointed to say the least, it shouldn't be like this.

"Unbelievable," he huffed, "Bizarre anomalies occurring all over the world," he roughly closed the newspaper, "And all the media wants to know is what china pattern we picked out."

"Hey, which one did you pick?" the couple looked up at the sound of the curious, deep voice, "The blue ones with the little flowers? Cause I really liked them," Ben said with a grin on his face. Reed chuckled as he shook his head while Susan smiled weakly at her friend. But before Ben could really engage himself in the conversation with the two, an older woman approached the rock man with a request in mind. Susan watched as the woman dragged Ben towards her song and frowned as the thoughts, worries and concerns she had pushed aside for their latest mission came creeping back to her.

"It's happening again, isn't it?" she sighed making Reed raise an eyebrow as he looked over to his beautiful fiancé. He shook his head as he saw the look of disappointment and defeat on Sue's face.

"No," he stated firmly, "We're not postponing anything! Not this time," he assured as Sue stared at the ground, not sure if she could believe that man, "This is going to be the wedding you've always dreamed of, and I am not going to let anything get in the way of that," he said with a soft smile, "Not even the mysterious transformation of matter at the subatomic level."

Susan smiled as her heart filled up with happiness before leaning into Reed, "That's the most romantic thing you've ever said to me," she said quietly as she smiled more which Reed returned with a loving expression as he leaned in and kissed Sue's lips softly.

"That's really pathetic, if you think about it."

The two looked over at Sue's little brother as they rolled their eyes at the chuckling man. He enjoyed the moment before noticing the lack of another sarcastic comment from a certain fair haired girl. Glancing down his eyes softened.

"Is she actually sleeping?" The Human Torch looked up at his older sister as she left with Reed to deal with some business with the airport. The Storm siblings frowned while watching Elena sleep, her head almost in Johnny's lap, "Do you know what's been keeping her up?" Johnny thought for a moment before he shook his head and glanced up at his worried sister, who softly sighed before turning her attention to her fiancé.

To be honest, Johnny had no idea what was going through Elena's mind lately. For two years, he's been trying to keep up, but his ideas were always shattered when he heard those cut off screams at night. Each time worse and worse, then there was the fact that when she thought he couldn't see her, he saw the looks of complete worry go through her eyes while she glanced over at him. It was subtle, but it was to be expected from a woman like Elena. Smart, graceful and poised.

Deciding that it was time to board, Johnny gently shook Elena's shoulder, "C'mon, Glow, you need to wake up," he said playfully as he shook her shoulders, but Elena simply sighed and buried herself deeper into her arms. Johnny sighed and rolled his eyes, "I forgot you and Ben were related," he muttered.

He raised a brow when he stopped his shaking and removed his hand, listening Elena's muttering, "Victor…please…stop…" Johnny's eyes widened as Elena flinched, her skin around her neck becoming diamond, "No…" her voice sounded like a soft cry, "Johnny…."

Johnny quickly grabbed her a bit more roughly, desperate to break the nightmare, "Elena! Get up," he said sternly. Her eyes snapped open, her diamond neck vanishing as she blinked up at Johnny. He sighed as he gave her a worried smile, "Thought you were never gonna wake up," he said as Elena sat up rubbing her neck before looking over at Johnny.

"Uh, thanks."

This caught his attention, Elena always knew what to say, "Come on, we don't want to miss our flight," he said noticing the troubled look etching onto her face. Wanting her to smile, the flame thrower smirked, "But, I can understand why you were asleep."

Her eyes slightly widened, "You do?"

"Yeah, I'd like to sleep too if I was dreaming about me," this made her shoot him an annoyed face before a smile twitched on her lips.

"Don't get your hopes up because you're not in my dreams."

"But you do think about me, so I take it," she couldn't help but laugh at that with a shake of her head, their eyes locked onto each others and her face softened, a smile of relief on her full lips.

"Hey guys," Reed said breaking their long gaze into each others eyes, Johnny immediately missing the way her eyes sparkled, "Looks like we're flying coach."

Elena was putting her bag next to Sue's when her ears caught something, "I don't fly coach," she watched as Johnny left the plane and Sue sent her a pleading look.

"Fine, I'll go with him," she rolled her eyes before quickly following Johnny out of the plane. They both flamed on and got up in the air, level with the plane. Elena watched as Johnny flew next to her uncle's window, flying on his back as he enjoyed the day's breeze she saw her uncle move to close his blind but Elena mustard up some hot wind to knock Johnny out of his relaxed pose.

"Hey!" he called out as Elena waved happily to her uncle, but what he didn't see and only Johnny did was that the smile never reached her eyes. He flew up next to her as she saw her look sadly ahead of them, "Glow," she glanced over at him before slightly moving ahead and away from him.

She had been acting strange. It was almost unnoticeable, but those who could read Elena well, knew better. The first person to catch it was Johnny, who evidently, she was acting the most strange towards. He thought at first it was her mood, but then when he noticed her mood was permanent he focused at bit more. She had been slowly distancing herself from the rest of the group, spending hours in the gym sitting in the middle of the room listening to songs that she would never dance to. There were some nights that when she woke up half screaming, she would sit on the terrace and sob to herself, she didn't know that Johnny saw it and heard it. All the other rooms were too far to. The two hardly ever hung out together like they used to and her contagious laugh was rarely heard. They still bantered with each other, but everything seemed different. More importantly she never spoke of what Victor did to her when she was taken.

"The snowfall came with no warning and no temperature change. It covered the pyramids in two inches of snow!"

Elena and Reed sat in The Fantastic Five lab, one half-listening to the report while the other typed rapidly on his palm pilot. Elena was simply doodling, her mind sometimes flashing back to that night but she just kept doodling. Reed still didn't like her being by a computer by herself when he saw what she did to Victor when they were on the space station, "Reed, if Sue finds out you've been working on this stuff on your wedding week, she's gonna kill you," Elena warned as she glanced up at him, who was practically and uncle to her.

"Don't worry, this won't get in the way of anything, I swear!" Reed promised as he turned his attention to his palm pilot making her glare at him, he was addicted.

"Don't make a promise you can't keep," she whispered before going back to her doodle.

"Hey, honey?" Susan called out as she walked into the lab, she spotted Elena and smiled, happy she was spending time with someone instead of being alone, "The city's trying to fine us for three squad cars we destroyed," Elena thought back to it, "But I only remember two."

"Johnny did it," Elena stated without even thinking or looking up. Sue glanced over to the white haired girl before chuckling as she turned to her future husband. Finding him not listening and playing with his toy.

She frowned as her irritation level began to rise, "Reed?" no answer, she glanced over at the toy and made it invisible.

"Alright, alright. I'm listening," Reed said with a playful smile on his face as he set his invisible palm pilot on the table. He looked over at his frustrated fiancee and his eyes softened when he saw the stress on Sue's face visible, "You were saying?"

"I have a fitting in a half an hour, the musician's after that," the Invisible Woman began to name her list of things to do, the happy look on her face disappeared and was replaced with nerves and anxiety.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Reed said comfortingly, "I'm sure between the two of us, we'll get it all done."

"And, what exactly were you doing when I just walked in?"

"I was just inputting my to-do list."

"Really?" Sue asked suspiciously as Reed smiled, holding his right hand up.

"Scout's honor."

Elena's head shot up, "Were you even a Boy Scout?"

"Hey, guys," the three looked back at the entrance to the lab and watched Johnny walk in, holding a strange version of the Fantastic Five uniform, "New uniforms just came in. What do you think?" he asked as he held it up. The dark navy and black colored uniform was covered in different labels of companies and brands, not very flattering to look at. Sue looked at the outset with disgust in her eyes as she shook her head, walking past her brother.

"I think there's no way we're wearing that, Johnny," she said as she exited the lab.

"Yeah, I'm with her," Elena said as she grimaced at the uniform, "It's fugly."

"What do you have against capitalism?" he shouted after his sister as he shook his head, tossed the uniform on the table before turning his attention to Reed which made him notice a covered contraption in front of Reed's desk and raised a brow, "What's this?" he asked curiously as Reed smiled, feeling proud of his work.

"It's a little hobby of mine.

"Yeah, hobby sure," Elena scoffed,

"Yeah?" Would it make a good toy or is it something uh…" he thought for a second, "Sciencey?" he asked as he looked at Reed then Elena.

"It's a little bit of both," Mr. Fantastic said as he typed in a few last things into his pilot really quickly. Johnny watched, not knowing whether to be impressed or vomit by the movement of his thumbs. Elena finally had enough of the noise and changed the pilot into diamonds, not shattering it, just making it out of commission, "Hey, Johnny," Reed started realized he was typing too much and stood from his desk to main control desk of the lab where Elena was, "Keep this quiet," he said as he typed a few things in the computer, "Elena and I crossed referenced and analyzed the global disturbances," he said as Johnny followed him and sat in the wheelie chair beside Reed's, "They were caused by cosmic radiation, unlike the one's that gave us our powers."

"Wow, that sounds really boring," Johnny said, not even bothering to pretend to be interested as Elena snorted.

"That's what I said," she smirked still doodling, it helped clear her head.

"So, listen," Johnny began as he around at the knick-knacks in the room, "I have a very important wedding issue I have to talk to you about."

"Yeah, of course."

Johnny smirked, trying to picture the face Reed was about o make, "Your bachelor party," he was rewarded by a funny face from Reed and a confused glanced from Elena.

"No," Reed stated as he pushed himself to the other side of the round table, "Seriously, Johnny."

"John," Reed raised a brow as he looked over at Johnny, the boy was leaning back in his chair eyes focused on Elena, "Tests showed that Johnny skewed to sound a little young."

Elena snorted and shook her head as Reed rolled his eyes, ignoring the comment and returning the conversation at hand, "Johnny, no bachelor party, it's not my kind of thing," Reed insisted as Johnny shook his head with determination in his eyes. He pushed his way across the area and stopped right beside the man.

"Do it for Ben," Reed shook his head, trying to zone out Johnny's words, "It means a lot to the big guy, you're gonna break his heart," Johnny said as a playful expression appeared on his face, "He's got some sort of rock-like heart, doesn't he?"

"I've got too much to do before the wedding," Reed reasoned as Johnny shook his head.

"Yeah, so much to do," Elena mocked, "You would still be on that thing if I didn't stop that annoying typing sound."

"Sue might have a problem with it," Reed pointed out to the two. Johnny sighed, knowing he didn't really want to pull this card, but, oh well.

"You know what I think Sue would have a problem with?" Johnny asked as Reed hesitantly looked over at his younger teammate, "If somebody told her, that you were actually investigating global disturbances and cosmic radiation instead of actually focussing on the wedding, like you promised," as the young man pretending to think everything he said over, he smirked in his head, knowing he won this argument and hearing Elena's soft giggles.

Reed shook his head as he rolled his chair next to Johnny's admitting defeat. He and Johnny stared at each other for a moment before the scientist let a smile spread across his face, "A bachelor party could be fun."

"YES!"

"But no exotic dancers," Reed declared as Johnny shook his head, thinking for a moment. He held his hand out as Reed chuckled, shaking it with his own.

"Deal."

Elena laughed before standing up and looked over at the two, "I can just tell that this is no where near the bachelorette party," she dropped her pen on her doodle.

"Why's that?" Johnny asked with a smirk on his face.

"Not telling!" she called out.

"Elena has to come though!" Reed argued making Elena stop walking and look at Reed, "Wait, you don't have that date tonight, right?"

Elena thought for a moment and turned towards the two, "Nah, Danny's meeting me here for the wedding, said he had some business," she shrugged, "I'll be happy to come."

Johnny's smiled dropped and he stood up to follow Elena out to the kitchen, "Wait, Danny?"

Elena looked back at him, "Yeah, he's an Army Officer, a Captain, actually," she didn't have that lovesick look on her face that most would think her to have, she barely even looked happy, "He's my date to the wedding."

"He's a chump," Johnny retorted leaning against the counter as she got herself a bottle of water.

"He is not," Elena snapped as Johnny shook his head. She looked at her friend and she gave him a look.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked as Elena sadly sighed.

"Explain, please."

"He's a mooch!"

"Really, Johnny?" Elena groaned.

"He's a total loser."

"He's an Army Captain, not following."

"He's a complete nobody," Johnny smirked.

"Why would I want to see someone who's amazing and famous like you, idiot, cause you're just a player."

Johnny sighed and shook his head, "Try to see it from my point of view."

"Why?"

"Okay fine. You see a smart, courageous, smart, funny, hot no beautiful girl with extraordinary powers and she goes out with someone she barely gets."

"I've known him almost as long as I've known Sue."

"He hasn't been around."

"He enlisted after the dare!"

"He's poor," Elena rolled her eyes, "Wait…he enlisted after your dare?"

Elena nodded, "Yeah," she glanced at him before sighing, "He was the one who dared me."

"Well it's obvious then that he's using you," Johnny stated.

"If you seriously think that I can't find a guy who wants me for me, then obviously you're wrong," she growled, hurt was rising in her eyes.

"This wouldn't be a problem if—"

"If what?" She asked but her sparkling grey eyes made him freeze, "That's what I thought," she whispered before turning around and walking down to her room, but Johnny jogged after her.

"You could do so much better, you know," he said gently throwing her off guard. She glanced back at him with wide eyes before pressing her hands on her eyes. Johnny realized she was crying, she only did that when she was about to cry.

"You still don't get it, do you?" she muttered with a sob etching on her voice before opening her door and slamming it shut, "Still don't get that you've changed everything," she whispered glancing at the door before letting herself fall to the floor in tears.

As the world continued to spin, the humans inhabiting it continued on with their days and nights. For the ignorant and unknowing, feeling everything was completely fine but was something was going to change that.

In the sky hovering above the country, Latvia, a silver shadow flew through the air at an almost unthinkable speed. As it passed over a dark castle, something hidden inside began to tire. Eyes snapped open before glancing around his metal cage, glaring through the front glass as a small smirk came to his lips as he felt his strength and energy gathering.

AN: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUNNNNNN. I don't know, it seemed so fine and okay. Okay, so what do you think happened to Elena while captured? And come on Johnny! You're being an idiot!

Please leave a review and no FLAMES!

Xoxo - Scar