AN: I'm back! Thanks to all of the supporters of the story and to my Beta MegaDiary123. Hope you like the chapter.
All rights go to Marvel
Skye's POV
Not that I was surprised but Pepper turned out to be a great person. She would make a remark whenever she could and wouldn't hesitate to tell her opinion on any matter.
After all these years alone I had only stumbled upon one person on my self/power discovery journey. And the truth was that he was struggling just as much as I did at the time and so we had helped each other. But that was it. And though I did keep tags on all of my family, and Jemma of course, and had also started talking with Natasha again but it wasn't the same as having someone physically there to talk to.
I made the mistake to go to bed while full of those thoughts. It turned out not to be a very smart move.
I walked throught the corridors of the Academy. My memory didn't fail me as I walked from the gym to the room that I shared with Jemma.
There was this nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. As I reached my destination and stood outside the room I realised what was bothering me during this whole time. The whole Academy was deadly quiet and also practically empty since I didn't bump into anyone. Carefully I twisted the handle to enter and found Jemma at her desk studying. It was an image that I had so clear in my head and this time it was no different. No sooner had I stepped inside than Jemma's gaze snapped to my direction. Once her eyes really focused on mine, I saw a flame there that I had never seen before.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice dripped with what could only be described as hate.
I took a step back, almost hitting my back on the now closed door. This was not the Jemma that I remembered. "What… I… why would you…?" I was at complete loss of words.
"Why would I what?" She snapped at me once more, interrupting the little conference of thoughts that I had managed to master. "Why would I what, Skye?" She repeated putting emphasis on my name. I was cornered at the door with no way out as she angrily came and stood just a few centimetres from my face. "Why would I say that? Or why would I say it like that? The sweet Jemma that you knew died the day when you disappeared without saying anything other than leaving this damn letter behind" and with that she threw the object, which was roughly folded into a ball.
"I did that to protect you" I whispered because I was unable to master a louder voice.
"You did that to protect yourself, because you are selfish" she countered. "You always kept secrets. Ever since the beginning and I was starting to break your walls down and you got scared. That's what happened"
"You have no idea what you are talking about" I tried. I opened my mouth to speak again but then someone else interrupted me.
"Oh, she doesn't?" The recognition came just before I spotted the red hair and green eyes. "I know you Skye. Hell, I raised you!"
When Natasha came into the picture with her deadly assassin gaze, she was followed by the rest of my family. I wanted to curl myself in a tiny ball and disappear when I noticed their sad and angry faces. The second part was impossible to happen, so I did what I could and found myself in the corner with my hands wrapped around my bended knees on the floor.
"Did we hurt your feelings by speaking the truth, kid?" Followed Clint's remark.
"Aw, see… she's gonna cry" Phil's voice was the next to echo.
"Stop" I whispered as I felt the ground shaking. Please… please. Not now. Not again! I mentally screamed.
"Why would we stop? Did you stop to think how your disappearance would affect us?" May replied as she, and all the others, closed in and towered over me.
I thought I saw the rest of the room darken while their faces lightened up. The shaking peaked up and all I could do was repeat "I'm sorry" over and over again. That was while trying to get my rapid breathing under control.
It was Jemma's turn to, once again, say something but instead she lowered to my level. My head was still ducked between my knees and so I had no idea what she was going to do. The action that followed took me by surprise as she touched my shoulder and I flinched, but her hand never lost its contact with my body.
"Skye" she said more softly than expected, but with a sense of emergency in her voice. "Skye, wake up. You need to wake up"
I blinked and was back on my bed at the Stark Tower with Pepper standing over me and looking with a concerned, yet urgent expression on her face.
"What's going on? What are you doing here?" I asked, maybe a little bit more harshly than I should, and my hoarse voice didn't help the situation. But I had just woken up from a nightmare to find the woman there, whereas one of my conditions for accepting this job was that no-one would enter my personal room, or floor in this case as Stark was quite generous with my accommodation and payment.
My question didn't seem to surprise or phase Pepper who must have expected such a reaction from my part. "There is an earthquake going on and we are evacuating the building. J.A.R.V.I.S. informed me that you were still at your room and not responding to any of his calls. So I figured that it would be best if I came to get you out instead of some personnel. His protocols are overridden in case of an emergency so he didn't have any choice in letting me in" she said in a hurry and I could see the all she wanted to do was grab me and urge me out of the building. However she hadn't moved an inch since I woke up and she just observed, waiting for any kind of reaction.
It took me a few seconds for her words to really register. Since the shaking occurred in my dream as well, and let's face it I was used to the feeling by now, I hadn't realised the earthquake that I could feel was happening because of me.
I jumped out of the bed in a hurry and pointed at the door. "You should get out of here, I have some stuff to grab and I'll meet you outside"
"I'm not leaving you here! Forget about your stuff, you have to come out. Nothing is worth that much" she said. The tone similar to the one she used when she dealt with Stark and it meant all business.
"Please, go" I softly begged.
What I got was a simple shake of her head. "I'm not leaving unless you're coming with me"
"Fine!" I said as I looked around for a place to hide. I knew the drill that I had to follow, by heart. I spotted the room-closet that I had, which was practically empty since I only had a few clothes with me. "You can stay if you want to, but I'm not leaving" and with that I bolted towards the closet and locked the door behind me before Pepper had a chance to stop me.
No sooner had I closed the door than I heard Pepper knock hard on its surface and playing with the lock in a futile attempt to unlock it. "Skye! Come on! Get out of there. The earthquake is getting worse by the minute"
I know it and this is why I have to do it now, I wanted to tell her but only thought about it.
I could faintly hear Pepper speaking, trying to get me to leave the Tower with her. I quickly switched the lights off and went to sit to a dark corner in a lotus position. With my hands gripping my knees hard, I focused until everything became a noise in the background. The only things that I felt or heard we're my even breathing and the vibration shaking the room by coming off my body in waves.
I closed my eyes and only saw darkness. I created a mental image of the feeling that I got from the vibration and how the waves were moving. It took some time, but with a lot of effort I managed to stop them.
And just as the quake subsided, the purple lines from the fractures in my arms grew larger. I couldn't hold the grip on my knees any longer because the pain started to spread through the rest of my body as my arms were unable to hold all the pressure from my powers. I collapsed, with my back hitting the wall as the adrenaline started to leave my body. Though the pain tolerance had increased greatly during the last year, I was still heavily affected by episodes as big as this one was.
I tried to think back to the last time when something in a similar scale occurred because of me. It had been at least half a year and I had been confident enough that I wouldn't have another incident, especially since my birthday were a few weeks back. The nights full of terror came and went without as much of a tremor. So I had made the mistake to relax and this, in combination with the bad track that I had about changing environments, must have been the reason for the earthquake that had just finished.
"Hey Skye? The earthquake seemed to have stopped but we still have to get out for the proper checks before we can come in again. Can you come out of there now, please?" I faintly heard Pepper's voice as it was muffled from the door separating us.
Now with my thoughts shuttered, I had to find a way to deal with Pepper as well. Damn it. Why couldn't I just get a break?
I made a move to get up, having forgotten the pain for a second as my arms had grown numb. However the feeling didn't last long because the moment I touched the floor to get up, my arms gave out in protest and I fell on the floor.
"Crap!" I cursed and wanted to say much more but eventually just gritted my teeth. I mustn't have spoken the word loud enough for Pepper to hear as I had a feeling that she would be worried and asking if everything was okay. And she was the only one in close proximity to help me out in the situation that I had found myself in. "Jar, could you please allow Pepper to enter the room?" I kindly asked.
"As you wish Ms. Skye"came the A.I.'s reply.
"Hey Jar, let me ask you something before you do that. Why couldn't she enter before?" I asked while realisation hit me. Or it could be the weird-like-floating feeling that I was having due to the pain.
"What do you mean?"
"Pepper said that your protocols are overridden when in an emergency. This was how she managed to get in the room in the first place, correct?" I asked, a bit out of breath and got the affirmative reply from J.A.R.V.I.S. soon. "Since she could open the door to my room, why could she not open the door to the closet?"
"In the first case that you mentioned, I was directly instructed to unlock the door of your apartment and room from Ms. Potts. In the second, I received no such command from Ms. Potts though she did ask you repeatedly to unlock the door. Since the request was never directed to me, I had no obligation to open the door. This is your floor and by extension I would have only unlocked the door without your commanded had I picked up that you were in great danger" I hummed in response as I digested the information I had just received. "However, I do detect elevated heart rate, rapid breathing and you seem to be in distress and pain. Unless you wish for me to alert authorised and medically trained personnel, should I let Ms. Potts in now?"
"Sure… thing" I said in between batted breaths and by grunting.
I hadn't even finished my sentence when the door of the closest whooshed open and Pepper came running to my direction. "Let's get out of here" she repeated once more and stopped a few feet away. When she saw that I wasn't moving at all to follow her instruction she came in closer. "Skye, are you okay?" She asked as she lowered to my level, hands on her knees.
"Help me up?" I asked and tried to sit up with no success.
She eagerly nodded and moved to do what she can for me to move. First she supported my back so that it was on the wall and that I wasn't lying on the floor. "Come on, up we go" and she got my arm to throw it over her shoulder. As soon as her hand wrapped around my lower arm, I hissed and greeted my teeth. She was alerted immediately and moved a little back, worrying that she hurt me somehow. Her eyes fell on the purple lines on my arms and she looked closer, examining them. "Skye, what happened?"
I cursed mentally for the lack of wraps around my arms and hands. I usually wore them all day long, both to hide the purple marks and as it helped ease the pain that sometimes coursed through them. But, during the night and with the security that my personal space would remain personal, I let them breathe a little bit before they ended up wrapped up again the next day.
"If I told you that I fell from the quake and hurt myself would you believe it?" I asked though I knew what the answer would be. For a slight surprise I got a deathly glare from her and not a vocal reprimand. "Fair enough"
She helped me out of the room. "I have a first aid kit under the bed, if you would be so kind as to get it for me" I tried to change the subject though I knew I couldn't avoid it forever.
"No" she said and there was no room for argument. "We are going to sit and you are going to tell me everything. Then we are going to a doctor to check you out because I want to make sure that your injuries will be properly treated" and with that she eased me on my bed.
"Promise me that whatever I tell you, you won't tell anyone" I said sternly. She made a move to nod and I raised a shaking hand to stop her. "Not even Stark" I explained and saw her hesitate for a second before nodding reluctantly. I let out a sigh at that and smiled slightly. For some reason I believed her and it felt good to share my secret with someone. "Where should I begin?"
"How about the beginning?" And do I begun, while trying to think of the excuse that we were going to use to Stark when we saw him.
