Disclaimer: I do not own anything as usual

IMPORTANT A/N: This is not a happy chapter for Norah, it reveals something bad about her past, there aren't any explicit details or anyhting like that so no one will have to read it but I am warning you about it ahead of time jsut in case

Chapter Eight

It was his sister that made Norah remember the worst time….the worst day of her teenage life. It was her that made her remember in explicit detail what had happened to her, what had been done to her, she….Wanda, made her remember how trusting she was, how naïve she had been and how innocent she was back then. Wanda made her remember St. Louis, Missouri, a place that Norah refused to ever set one single toe into for the rest of her life. It was in St. Louis that Norah lost her innocent and it was there that she had lost a part of herself for a very, very long time. St. Louis was a story that no one but professor Xavier, her therapist and Kitty knew about. Even though Norah loved Tony and as far as she was concerned he was her father, she hasn't told him about what happened to her but he did know that something bad had happened, something unbelievably horrible but he didn't know the gory details. Of course Tony wanted to know but he cared more for Norah than to sating his curiosity so he didn't push her, he didn't want to bring back those memories that she's tried to forget about and he didn't want her to pull away from him and Pepper or lock herself up in her mind.

Wanda with her abilities made Norah remember that.

St. Louis, Missouri: Norah age 15

"That was delicious!" fifteen year old Norah said as she bounced on her feet with a big grin on her face and walked down the street and away from the restaurant that she just ate at.

Jason Herschel, a man in his early thirties who volunteered twice a week at soup kitchen's in St. Louis had invited her after he saw her sitting in her car in some apartment's parking lot – she has taken to apartment complexes and just crawling into the back of her SUV and sleeping. Jason had told her that he recognized her from the soup kitchen and that he knew almost every homeless person from St. Louis because of volunteering there and taking the time to get to know the people and sit with them when they came in but he didn't recognize her and knew that she wasn't from their parts, he introduced himself to her and told her that he wanted to take her out to dinner to have an actual meal rather than whatever sad excuse of food she's been having lately.

At first Norah hesitated, sure he seemed like a nice guy who just wanted to help her out but she didn't know him and wasn't sure if she should trust him, he could be some sort of killer after all. He managed to convince her though after he told her about his wife and two daughters and even showed her a picture of them, so Norah decided that he was trustworthy. The man had a family after all.

"Good." Jason said as he moved his shaggy blonde hair behind one of his ears. "I'm glad. Can't have a kid like you starving, my wife would have my hide." He joked, his green eyes sparkling in amusement.

Norah smiled over at him as they were walking down the sidewalk where there were only a few other people out walking as well, "Yes, it was amazing! Thank you! Thank you! I really, really appreciate it." She told him sincerely. "I would have been happy with fast food."

At that Jason gave a scoff, "Fast food? Really? Come on, you haven't had a decent meal in who knows how long I wasn't going to just settle for fast food. You needed an actual meal." He told her and gave her an unbelievable look for her saying fast food would have been fine with her. "I wasn't about to let you settle for fast food like McDonald's or something. Most of that is processed fake shit anyways." He said to her as they made their way further down the sidewalk.

"Whatever," Norah said with a shake of her head. "It's food that didn't come out of a can!" she said in excitement and a look of happiness on her face. "I don't care!"

Looking up at the night sky Norah saw that it was dark out, it must have been getting late already. Norah didn't think that she and Jason had been sitting at the restaurant and eating and talking for that long but apparently they had been without even realizing it, but in her defense the food was amazing, the dessert was delectable and Jason was really easy to talk to. He made her not have to think about her problems and she wondered if this was what it was like to have a father who actually cared.

"This is a nice city, I like it." Norah said as she breathed in the crisp night air.

Jason looked over at Norah curiously, "Are you planning on staying here? Settling down in a sense?" he asked as he studied the younger blonde haired girl.

At that Norah thought for a moment before she shook her head, "No." she said with a definite shake of the head. "No. I like this place but it's not for me, I'm gonna have to leave soon." She told him as she tightened the ponytail that was keeping her thick and curly hair in place.

"Oh?" he questioned with a raised brow. "Where you going to head to next?"

Norah gave a shrug, "All I know is that I want to go south, that's about it at the moment." She revealed to him.

Hearing that Jason suddenly gave a grin and looked around where they were walking, there was an elderly couple walking on the opposite side of the street with their arms intertwined with one and another and there was a girl that was jogging in the same direction as he and Norah with her earphones in and it was then that Jason decided to make his move. As they slowly made their way past an alleyway Jason Shoved Norah as hard as he could into it making her fall and hit the ground quite painfully, before she had the chance to open her mouth and ask and/or yell at Jason he wrapped his hand around her mouth so that she couldn't make a noise and then grabbed her by the collar of her shirt with his other hand and then dragged her further into the dark alley.

With wide eyes Norah grasped at his arm and tried to push it away and finally after a few tried managed to pry it away from her mouth and she attempted to scream but before she had the chance to he wrapped his hand around her neck and squeezed tightly.

"W..what..ar…are you…do..doing?" Norah gasped out painfully trying to kick at this man who she had thought was nice, charming and was only wanting to help her, but now it seemed that he wasn't like that at all. "Pl…please."

When she said that Jason instead looked down at her coldly and grinned a sadistic smile, "I've been watching you for a week dear little Norah, you've come to the soup kitchen almost every day, you've been staying in the same neighborhood for the same amount of time and didn't even think to change up your routine. You're a cute little thing." He told her as she ran a hand down her chest making sure to get a good feel of it and down her stomach and to her sides where he harshly pinched her.

"W..why?" Norah asked desperately and tried to Blink herself out of the situation but something was wrong, something was very, very wrong at the moment, her power wasn't working. "Please just let me go." Norah begged as tears began to form in her eyes because of the situation she was in and because her powers weren't working and weren't getting her out of there like she needed them to, this was not happening, this could not be happening.

He grinned down at her and leaned closer to where she was laying on the ground, "Because I can." He answered her simply as his eyes slowly traveled down her body, memorizing it.

"Wha…what about your wife, your kids?" Norah asked desperately, trying to find anything that will distract Jason from doing what he was intending. "Won't they th-"

Jason cut her off, "I don't have a wife or any kids." He told her and then pressed his nose into the side of her neck and inhaled deeply, Norah squirmed where she was and once again tried to Blink out of that alley and out of the situation she just found herself in but nothing happened. "I only told you that to gain your trust. You shouldn't trust people so easily, it'll get you killed one day." He told her and then laughed in amusement.

Norah tried to kick at him, to punch him and she tried to scratch at him, she did anything and everything that she could to try and escape his clutches, to get away from this man who is showing his true colors as a horrible person who preys on the weak. God, Norah fought as hard as she possibly could but Norah was a fifteen year old who's never worked out much in her life and who also has barely any muscles; the fight to get away from him was over before it even began.

"Now, now that wasn't very nice." Jason said as he hovered above her, a dark smirk on his face as he looked down into her much younger one. "Now there are a few rules, don't scream, don't kick and don't fight it. It'll be over before you know it if you listen to those rules." He said to her as he slowly reached down towards her clothes and started to tug on the buttons of the simple green button down shirt she was wearing.

When he started doing that Norah began to panic more and tears began to flow more freely from her eyes, he told her to not fight or kick or basically do anything that would make this hard on him but Norah wouldn't do as he said. He was the one doing something horrible to her, he was the one who was deciding to do…..this to a fifteen year old girl and Norah may be scared out of her mind right now and wish shew as anywhere but there but she was not going to make this easy for him. She was going to fight him with everything she was since her power….since her power was out of sorts.

"NO!" Norah said and attempted to head butt him but he moved deftly out of the way before that could happen. "No! Please! Don't!" Norah said while kicking and making as much noise as she could but he was still adamantly pulling at her clothes.

She tried to stop him. She tried to get away from him. She tried to use her power but there was something wrong with it in that instance. Norah tried to fight tooth and nail to get away from Jason but it was no use. He left her laying there in the alley after he had finished. Norah was broken.

Norah shook her head and tried to wipe those memories from her mind, those were memories that Norah tried her best to not think about. Those memories affected her deeply for years after the….incident had happened, she couldn't go around men without giving them a wide berth and even if she knew that she could trust them and that they genuinely cared about her (Xavier, Scott and Wolverine) Norah couldn't bear to be around them because of her fear that they will do what Jason had done to her. He had showed her that he cared for her and had said that all he wanted to do was get her at least one warm meal while in St. Louis and that didn't exactly end up going well. Norah was raped, there was no getting around that and it took a lot of tears, of pain and suffering, of yelling and screaming on her part at her therapists and people who tried to help her, it took a lot of willpower for Norah to be able to come to terms with what happened and move on with her life. To live a healthy life after she had overcome what had happened.

Wanda though, Wanda dragged up those old memories that Norah had worked so hard to forget about and push into a little part of her mind where she wouldn't dare to go near again and made all of those memories come rushing to the forefront of Norah's mind and made her relive what had happened that night in St. Louis. Every single horrific moment that had passed, every single glance, every touch that he had graced her with, every threat and the deed itself, Norah relieved it.

With shaky hands Norah ran clutched at the side of her head, fingers in her hair and tried to steady her breathing into a normal rate. "You're not there anymore Norah. You're not there, he's not able to touch or hurt you anymore. You're fine, you're fine, you're fine. You are." She repeated to herself like a mantra, as if it was a life line.

Stumbling into a standing position Norah leaned up against the wall that she had collapsed against after Wanda had messed with her head and made her remember the horrific….incident that had happened to her when she was much too young to have had to go through something like that. Digging her nails into the flesh of her palm to steady herself and to keep herself grounded Norah nodded to herself, she wouldn't let herself get lost in self-pity, in her memories and wallow and get lost in the pain that those memories brought back and she definitely will not let herself become a shell of herself. Norah was getting out of this damn rusted ship and was going to find Wanda and let her know exactly what she thought of what she just did to her – it was safe to say that she was pissed at the female Sokovian.

Cracking her neck Norah pushed herself away from the wall and stalked her way down the hallways until she found a way to get out and was hoping that the Maximoff's were still within walking distance.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Pietro & Wanda ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

After the archer had used some sort of arrow with a device on the end on his sister Pietro had grabbed her and raced her outside and sat her down on some rubble that was just outside near where the ship was. He sat down near his sister and looked at her in concern, he would kill for her if she asked it of him.

"Are you all right?" Pietro asked Wanda as he held her hands and looked into her face with worry.

"It hurts." Wanda cringed as she gently rubbed at where the archer had connected the device to her forehead before she had the chance to get into his mind and mess with it a bit.

Hearing that Pietro gave a glare and made to stand up, "I'm going to kill him. Wait here." He said to her but before he had the chance to leave and do just that Wanda had grabbed his arm to stop him and looked up at him with her dark colored eyes. "It was not him that made my mind hurt." She answered.

At that Pietro sat back down beside his sister and looked at her in confusion, "If it was not the archer, who was it?" he asked.

For a moment Wanda hesitated, she saw what she made the girl see in her mind….what she had made her remember and as not certain if she should reveal it to her brother who had an obsession with her. "That girl. I made her see things from past, made her remember bad things that happened to her. Something happened that should not have happen to a girl or any female. She was young, I cannot tell how old she was but she was very young Pietro and I made her remember. I know she is Avenger but that was something that shouldn't have been messed with. I-"

Wanda was about to continue but the sound of angry stomps were heard, both Pietro and Wanda looked up and saw the girl that they were just talking about – Norah.

"How dare you!" Norah yelled once she got in eyesight of both Wand and Pietro; she could have Blinked over to them but she was angry and wanted them to see how angry she was at what Wanda had done to her. "How fucking dare you do that to me, how dare you make me remember that." She yelled and stopped when she was five or so feet away from where Pietro and Wanda were. "Did you enjoy doing that to me? Do you like making me remember that part of my life?"

Wanda stood up and held her hands up in a pacifying motion, "I…I know. I'm sorry. I am so sorry for making you remember memories of that." Wanda said to her feeling truly horrible and sorry for what she made Norah go through once again. "I shouldn't have made you remember that, I should not have m-"

Once again Norah interrupted Wanda as Pietro stood up to stand beside his sister and watched the interaction that was going on between the two, "Do you want to know how old I was when he did that to me? Do you want to know how he convinced me to go with him and get dinner?" she asked Wanda rhetorically and continued on talking without giving Wanda a chance to answer her questions. "I was fifteen years old, had only been fifteen for a few months at that time and I ended up getting raped by a man I thought only wanted to get a poor little homeless girl an actual meal because he was worried and because he cared. Boy was I wrong." She said with a sardonic laugh that sounded much too harsh for a girl as pretty as she was. "I had my powers then but you know what, what the funny…or rather unfair thing was. It was that my powers weren't working, I couldn't get myself out of that situation because at that moment they were nowhere to be scene. My professors said it was fear, fear kept me from using my powers to protect myself and get myself out of that situation. That my emotions went haywire and couldn't get a good enough grip on them to escape. Funny how that works."

When Pietro heard the words rape uttered by Norah he understood what was going on now and why Wanda had begun to regret messing with the blondes head and why she had started to have a bit of a breakdown, Norah had been raped when she had been a young teenager and Wanda had made her relive that horrible experience in full detail. Hearing Norah say that she was raped and only being able to imagine what she had been forced to endure made Pietro's blood boil with a deep seeded anger and he didn't know why he felt so much anger and hatred for what happened to Norah, he has only known the girl for a few days if you call being chased by her in the woods and then making out in an abandoned room knowing one and another. But Pietro did know that he hated that Norah had to go through that and now he was feeling protective and angry when he knew that he definitely should not be feeling those things for her. She was an Avenger.

"I was stupid then," Norah said as she glared at Wanda hatefully for what she made her recall. "Innocent. Thought I would be fine running away from home at fifteen and that I would be able to handle myself. I was wrong and I was taken advantage of because of that." She said with a downcast expression and wished that there was a way to go back in time and warn her younger self from making the same mistake that she did. "And you," she said louder and pointed accusingly at Wanda who had regret in her eyes. "You made me remember it. I've worked hard to forget about what happened, to not think about that night, about that stupid mistake of mine that I made as a teenager. I was messed up for a long time and hated being around males for a good long time after that and almost decided to never get married or get in a relationship because of that but I didn't, I refused to let that moment in my life define me and define what I want to do with myself." She told her passionately, fire in her eyes.

"I am sorry," Wanda said once again but she knew that it was not enough and would not make up for what she made Norah experience in her mind. "It won't fix what I did but I am sorry." She told her with remorse and looked at Norah for a few moments and smiled internally, she could see why her brother felt drawn to this girl that was with the Avengers. "You must leave."

When she said that Norah kept the glare on her face and crossed her arms under her chest, "No. I don't think I will be. They'll be here soon and they are so not going to be happy with you two." She said and then looked over at Pietro with a shrug. "Sorry, you're hot and all and are really good kisser but you guys are with Ultron and trying to kill the people who I see as a family. No offense."

"Ahh Norah," Pietro said as he walked closer to her and looked into her dark eyes and scratched at his chin which was covered with facial hair. "You see, that is something that we cannot have happen. We try and hide from them you see, and you being here and able to contact if you wish does not help us stay away from their notice. I am sorry moj mali bik. This I cannot allow." He said to her with a playful smirk on his face.

Before Norah had the chance to Blink away from their eyesight and back into the ship where the rest of the Avengers were Pietro had run at her, grabbed her around her full waist and then covered her eyes with his hand before running off. Pietro had a vague idea that Norah needed to be able to see to Blink from one place to another, she needed to see or have seen the place that she was Blinking to in order to transport herself there from another location and as much as Pietro felt an intense attraction for the girl he cared more for his sister and what their mission was, what they needed to do. So Pietro ran with Norah in his arms to as far away as he could get with her and where he knew that she would not attempt to try and follow after them and stop them from doing whatever it was that Ultron asked of them.

"Hey!" Norah yelled in annoyance and tried to pry Pietro's hand from around her eyes but she didn't have much luck and as much as she was attempted to use her power a bit she would rather not accidentally blow one of his limbs off or something along those lines. "Let me go Pietro! By whatever gods exist, let me go!" she yelled at him and tried to swing one of her arms at him but before she was able to hit her target he had let her fall unceremoniously to the hard and dirt covered ground.

Looking around Norah did notice that they were still in the dried up shipyard but she didn't recognize which ship she had been at nor did she see Wanda so Norah figured it was safe to assume Pietro ran her off a good distance. Giving a huff of annoyance Norah propped herself up and stood up to her height of five foot four and glared up at Pietro who was around six foot.

"You are amusing." Pietro said as he looked down at her with a smirk. "You glare does not scare me. Now, I must return to my sister. I will be seeing you." He said to her and quickly leaned forward and pressed a hard kiss to her lips before running off back in the direction that he had come from.

At that Norah looked at his retreating figure in a mixture of amusement and annoyance, he seemed to be having a blonde moment and forgot that she knew what the outside and the inside of the ship that they had been fighting in looked like and could easily Blink over there in a blink of an eye. Men. So with that thought in mind Norah Blinked herself over to the ship once again but her eyes widened the moment she arrived because she heard a great roar come over from where they had landed the Quinjet, slowly turned she saw the Hulk freaking out and making a run for it in the direction of the city.

"Fuck." Norah said eloquently as she stared after Hulk, reaching up to her ear comm she pressed a small button. "Umm guys, I don't want to worry anyone but Hulk is kinda heading towards the city where there are people and well, I think someone needs to head on after him." She said as she looked after where the Hulk had run off into, Bruce was going to be beating himself up when he came to and was himself once again.

"Already on it Norah." Tony answered as he flew out of the ship and barely missed hitting her on top of her head and few towards the city where the Hulk was more than likely going to wreak havoc.

Rather than bothering to head back into the ship Norah just let herself fall onto her butt on the ground and splayed her legs out in front of her, god was she tired. Norah couldn't wait for this whole Ultron business to get over with so that she could have a good night of getting shit face drunk and then sleep until noon at the least, as far as she was concerned she deserved it after all of this shit that was going on. And a spa day with Natasha and Pepper, she felt as if she deserved that as well.

Sighing heavily Norah laid back on the ground and decided to not move for a while and that she really didn't care about how dirty and muddy the ground was or if there were bugs crawling up her legs and into her hair, she simply didn't care at this point. All she was trying to do right now was not think about what Wanda had forced her to remember about her past, about St. Louis. That memory and that place was better left untouched and unmentioned. Simple as that.

"Norah?" Clint asked as he made his way out of the ship with Natasha's arm thrown over his neck and his arm wrapped around her waist to steady her as they made their way towards where Norah was laying down. "You all right?" he questioned as he looked her up and down to see if there were any obvious injuries on her person.

At that Norah gave a small hollow laugh, "No. No I'm not." She answered truthfully and then looked at Natasha and saw that she wasn't all there right now; it seemed that she saw something equally as horrifying as Norah did. "Though, if you're asking about any injuries, no, the worst I have are bruises."

"Norah," Clint said looking at her in concern. "Yo-"

Norah sat up abruptly and gave him a withering look, "I'm fine. Promise." She said giving him a look that meant for him to drop it and not bother her about it. "Let's get to the Jet." She said as she stood up on her boot clad feet and hastily made her way towards where they had left the quinjet.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ On the quinjet ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The quinjet was silent; no one dared to speak a word other than when they had asked where they were going and Clint responding with a safe house that was a handful of hours away from where they were and that was all Clint was willing to say on the subject. Natasha was sitting in a seat along the wall looking down at her hands but Norah knew that on the inside Natasha was going through a whirlwind amount of emotions right now after the female Sokovian brought those memories back to her, Thor was oddly quiet and subdued and was instead sitting in one of the far corners by himself, Bruce was sitting on the floor with a blanket wrapped around him looking very much like a lost child, Steve was standing with his arms crossed looking very much like the leader he was and was lost in his own head wondering if there was anything he and the others could have said to Pietro and Wanda to make them see reason. Tony was out of his Iron Man suit and was muttering about Klaw and Ultron and what they needed to do now.

And Norah, well Norah was sitting across from Natasha on a bench and had her brown eyes closed and her legs crossed and was doing everything that she could to keep herself calm and to not think about those memories that Wanda had brought back with a vengeance. No matter how much Norah tried she will always remember what had happened when she was fifteen years old, no amount of drugs, therapy or alcohol will ever be able to erase those horrific memories. But that didn't mean that she had to think about it every moment of every single day, no that would drive her completely mad but there were techniques she could use to help lessen the memories and the intensity of them and the fear and pain that it made her remember when they managed to slip through the cracks.

It had been Professor Xavier who had taught her these techniques as well as Doctor Hank McCoy, they had only offered to show her these techniques after she had properly dealt with what had happened and was a semblance of a happy and healthy teenage Mutant.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ Author's Ntoe ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Well there you have it, sorry it's kinda sad and depressing chapter but it is needed i think to make the characters more human and to see into Norah and what she has been through in her life. What she has been through before she joined Tony and became a daughter to him.

Quotes:

"Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart."

― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

"One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside."

― John Lennon