A/N: So I view this as being a dream that Natalie had later, though it does not have to just be a dream. That's just how I view it. *shrug*

It was a very big, empty place that this little girl found herself in, and she knew that she'd been in it for a very long time, and knew that she had been crying there for even longer. She wasn't sure why she was crying. She wasn't entirely sure why her chest hurt so badly, why her heart felt so painful. It had never felt like this before. But she knew she was lonely. Mommy, daddy… they were gone, as was little brother, and she couldn't find them. She'd been looking for them before she came here, but now she could not find them, and she was very, very scared, and very, very lonely…

She sniffled as she ran the back of her hand across her eyes, then wiped her nose. Her tiny hands were pale, with tiny fingernails that were sharp and had something beneath them. She didn't know what that black substance on her fingertips was, but it made her feel very cold every time she looked at it. She was pretty certain it had belonged to her brother. That she had taken it from him. 'Spilled' it, seemed to be the proper description.

But it wasn't just her brother's… there was so much from so many places, all beneath her fingernails, some of it rust-red and some dark green, some pale or deep blue, a rainbow of hues spilled from a thousand worlds…she knew what it was. She knew what she'd become. And she hated it. She curled into a ball and started rocking back and forth, trying to stop the tears with no success.

"What's up, kiddo?" A voice said, piercing the emptiness abruptly. A figure sat down next to the little girl, plopping down in an undignified and extraordinarily casual way. She looked up, startled; no one could talk to her. Not here. Not in the emptiness. The newcomer smiled at her as she stared, looking at her, taking her in. She had dark black hair, like the child did, though no one's hair was that dark. Her eyes sparkled like twin jewels, emerald in shade and bright in their hue, and the smile on her face was large and almost wild.

"You look lost," she went on, her words dancing. She leaned back on her hands as she looked at the child, and the child looked back at her, her own pitch-black eyes wide and round.

"Wh… Who?" the child asked quietly.

"April Blackthorn. You?"

The little girl swallowed. "Fraye," she answered quietly.

"Got a last name?"

"Just Fraye," the child looked down, wiping her eyes again. April looked down at her, chewing on the corner of her lip as she did so, her brilliant green eyes seeming to assess the child. After a moment, she pulled her black sweater sleeve up to her hand, holding it in her fingers and swiping it gently over Fraye's cheeks, wiping away the tears.

"Come on, kiddo, there's no use in tears if you don't tell anyone what they're about." She told her, almost sternly. "And no use in crying about anything you can't fix." She pulled her hand back, lifting the little girl's chin up so that she was forced to meet her eyes. The little girl stared at her, her black eyes round and innocent.

"So what's the problem?" April asked, keeping one hand tucked under Fraye's chin and leaning back against the other one. Fraye swallowed back the gunk in her throat, looking down at her tiny fists, clenched in her lap.

Her voice abruptly grew very sugary, and she flashed a dangerously, syrupy sweet grin at April. As she clutched her fists tighter, the blood beneath her fingernails, in all of its Technicolor hues from Technicolor worlds, began to dribble out between her fingers, staining her black clothes. "I'm going to kill you," she said sweetly. "Because I kill everyone I see. That's what I am now. Don't you get that?"

April appeared entirely unfazed, undaunted. In fact, she reached out and ruffled Fraye's hair. "Ah, come on, Shadow-Breath, I know you're smarter than that." She said, flicking black strands of hair aside as she pulled her hand back again. "You know why you can't kill me, right?"

Fraye looked at her for a long time. The blood stopped flowing. The smile died down. Her eyes lost whatever sheen they had. She turned away again. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Well, yeah. But don't take it too hard; s'not so bad once you get used to it."

Fraye closed her eyes, clenching her fists even tighter. Her eyes squeezed shut, blocking out the world. Tears entangled in her eyelashes again. She buried her hands in her fists; she would have sobbed into her palms, but her hands were clenched so tightly that she couldn't tear them apart. "I'm going to see them again, aren't I?" She wailed, rocking back and forth in her little crouch. "Mommy an' daddy an' baby brother… I'm gonna see them again, they're gonna see me like this!" She shrieked out the last word, and as she did so, the blood of a thousand people from a thousand worlds coated her, stained her, soaked her. It pooled around her, everywhere, the liquid colors blending and meshing until there was nothing but black around her, black shadow blood that was not just theirs but hers as well…

April's hand fell on her shoulder. Fraye looked up at her, still covered in blood, with nothing but her shining black eyes to show through her past deeds, which covered her skin and dripped down from her entire form. April's head tilted to the side, and she smiled sadly.

"You're scared," She reasoned in a soft tone.

"Wouldn't you be?" The little girl curled into a ball, rocking back and forth. "They left me alone… they left me alone in the world, and all I could do was listen to that screaming, to that song… I wasn't strong enough to die with them. I wasn't strong enough to stop myself."

"Well, yeah, that's true," April said amicably. As Fraye looked to her in despair, she shrugged. "What do you want me to say, kiddo? You did some seriously bad shit." She knocked gently on the side of Fraye's head, rapping her knuckles against her temple. "But I really don't think that you were entirely in your head at the time, you know what I'm saying?"

As Fraye looked away again, April said, in a slightly kinder tone, "They're your family. Your world. A planet that knew absolutely everything about you. Do you really think that, if this was who you really were, they would have loved you as much as they did for all of that time? Frankly, if you were really this inside, and they knew all about it, I think you would've scared the crap outta them." She grinned swiftly.

Fraye looked up to her. "It was still all my fault," She whispered. "I… I killed my little brother. I killed so many worlds…"

"A disease killed your brother. And an emptiness in your brain killed those worlds." She nudged her gently. "And I think you owe it to your friends and family to not be this person when you see them. I think you owe it to them to be who you really are inside." She tapped the little girl's forehead with her index finger; and abruptly, the blood vanished, clearing away. April smiled crookedly.

"See?" She asked. "Much better."

Fraye looked up to her and sniffled. April stood, extending a hand out to the little girl. "You ready to see your family now?"

Fraye studied the hand for a moment, before turning her big, jewel-black eyes up to April's face. "What if they don't love me anymore?" She whispered. "I mean…" She looked down. "They shouldn't. It'd make sense if they didn't."

"Make sense?" April raised an eyebrow. "Kid, let me clue you in on a little secret about exactly how much 'sense' love makes." She leaned in close to whisper in Fraye's ear, "Precisely Jack shit. That's how much." April leaned back again, beaming, still holding her hand out. "And maybe it would make sense for them to forget what you were and focus on what you are now… but life wouldn't be much fun if everyone did that; and death even less so."

Fraye stared at her. She had the vague impression that, in life, this girl had been a human. A mortal. But here… well, they were all 'mortal' here, weren't they?

Carefully, slowly, Fraye accepted her hand. April pulled her to her feet. "Come on," She said. "Let's get you back home."

The two were walking for a few moments, with Fraye silently linking her hand in April's, when another newcomer stepped up beside them. This one was a man in a suit; he eyed the pair before looking to April. "One of the Avengers'?" He asked.

"Yeah," she answered, smiling kindly down at the child. "Take the night off, Phil. I got this one."

"Night off," he repeated tonelessly. "Good one."

She grinned at him, batting her eyelashes a few times. "I thought so."

Despite her insistence that the suited man-'Phil'- leave her to handle things, he followed the two of them regardless, until they reached a place somewhere bright. Somewhere filled with life and wonder. A world now lost and dead, a world Fraye knew… her little heart began to speed up. It was her world. Her home.

And that little boy standing so close to its edge… that was her brother.

She swallowed, shaking. Phil crouched down beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this," he said, in a tone that was all at once professional and oddly reassuring. "Not right away."

Fraye looked him in the eye for a long moment, before turning back to the world of life and laughter. Her jewel-black eyes hard set and determined, she nodded once. "Yes," she said quietly. "I do."

She walked towards those that waited for her. April and Phil stepped back.

"Think she'll be all right?" Phil asked.

"I know she will be," April answered breezily. She looked to Phil and punched him in the shoulder. "Come on, Coulson. We've got some superheroes to babysit."

She turned away, black hair bouncing about in its ponytail as she turned. Coulson shook his head wearily and followed a moment later, sparing only a single glance at the little girl walking steadily towards the people she'd loved in life.

The little boy saw her first. Carefully tugging on his mother's pant leg, he cried, "Hey… Hey, it's Fraye! Mommy, it's Fraye! She's here!"

His mother turned. His father turned soon after that. A few others looked in the same direction, curiously, and then smiles lit on faces and brightened eyes as they saw her approaching. Fraye stopped a few feet away from them, shaking…

But her brother threw himself past the few feet that separated them, throwing his arms around her so violently that the two spun in circles for a moment. "You're back, you're back, you're back!" He crowed. "It's really, really you!"

Tears streamed down Fraye's face as, with a voice that should never have been as old as hers was, she whispered, "Yeah, baby brother. I'm back. It's really me."

A crowd gathered around her, and her mother swept her off her feet, holding her in her arms and crying… a thousand voices swept into Fraye's mind, a thousand heartbeats behind hers… soon made into a million… billions… a planet of thoughts and voices and words and songs, singing a thousand times louder than her Melody of Ruin ever had, and she was crying, crying into the arms of her friends and family, crying to her world and with them once again, with them forever…

April and Coulson stood from a respectful distance, not having left when they'd intended. "She'll be fine," April said firmly. Her smile was more toned down now, but it also appeared more honest.

"Of course she will," Phil agreed.

And the two turned away, leaving the little girl, leaving the world: both of which having now been made whole.

A/N: END OF BOOK TWO.

The first chapter of The Avenging of Natalie Laufeyson is now up and can be found in my profile! See you there!

(Also Agents of SHIELD is not a part of this universe ergo Coulson is really dead okay bye)