Song: A Complete List of Fears Age 5-28 (Approx) (by The Yellow Dress)

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"Who are you and what are you doing here?" they harshly spat.

I could easily break out of their hold, but then I would be questioned on how I was able to do that and that was not a question that I was willing to answer. So instead I put my one hand that isn't holding the coffees, which is actually my prosthetic arm that I used an illusion to disguise to appear to be a normal arm in order to draw as little attention as possible, up in surrender and slowly and awkwardly crouch down to set the coffees on the floor.

"I asked you a question, I suggest that you answer," she says almost causing me to shiver from the coldness that laces her voice.

I start to slowly reach for the phone in my pocket so that I can use the text-to-speech app to hopefully sort this all out. But, before I am even able to make it halfway to my pocket she yanks my arm pulling it into a lock, tightens her hold on me, and pushes the blade deeper into my throat.

"That was the wrong move." She says, probably assuming that I was reaching for a weapon, as she shifts her hold and within a second I am pinned up against the wall as she stares deep into my eyes.

For the Norns' sake, it's Natasha Romanoff. No, of course it is, why not, this day is already going just great. Note the sarcasm.

"Now who are you and what do you want?!"

I sigh and give her a look that screams 'are you fucking kidding me?'

I decide that I have had enough and it is getting nowhere so I quickly and expertly twist one of my hands out of her hold, push her hand holding the knife away from the throat, and hastily point to my chest, making a 'can't' motion across my neck, and bring my hand to my mouth and then pull it away. I also then aggressively sign [I'm mute] by pointing to my chest and tapping a fist over my mouth twice.

Her eyes go wide and look over to the coffee on the floor and I see it finally click. "Oh shit," she mutters as she drops her hands from my side, although she still keeps the knife in her hand.

I stand up and brush off the nonexistent dust as I walk over and pick up the coffee from the ground acting as if nothing happened.

"Uh, I know ASL. Do you know where you are going?" she says as she signs along and then points to the coffee.

[I was just told it was on this floor, but I have been wandering around for 8 minutes and can't find anyone.] I sigh and shift on my feet.

"Follow me, I can show you where they are."

I respond with a curt nod. I just want to get out of here as soon as possible.

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We walk in silence for a few minutes until we reach a door that I hear voices behind. Natasha opens the door to what I now see as a very expensive and excessive-looking lab, one that I am drooling over being an engineer and aspiring scientist myself.

Before I can even fully walk through the door, someone yells "Thank god! coffee!" and quickly rushes over to me hastily grabbing one of the coffees out of my hand. I look up and recognize him as Tony Stark. Again, of course, why not, let's just introduce ourselves to all the avengers at this point, the people that I have been trying to avoid for years.

"I found her wandering around the floor, she got lost trying to find you," Natasha informs Tony and the several other people standing around the lab.

I try to hide my grimace at the use of 'she' and 'her.' However, I didn't correct her, especially since I would never see them again, hopefully.

"Oh, sorry about that, Thor was supposed to go meet you by the elevator," Tony speaks.

I freeze at even the mention of his name. Well, thank the Norns that didn't happen. I silently thank every god in existence that was avoided.

I quickly evaluate the room and make sure that Thor isn't here because then we would have a whole new problem. Scattered around the lab I see Bruce Banner working on a project, Steve Rogers hovering over his soldier, The Vision messing with a disassembled toaster for who knows why, and Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, and Bucky Barnes huddled in a corner together in some heated debate.

I have studied these people for years in order to learn as much about them as I could, even hacking into SHIELD to get information once, so it was odd to see them in person for the first time being so domestic.

I turn back to Tony and nod. I then set the coffee down on the nearest table and turn to leave trying to get out of there as quickly as I can. However, as soon as I turn around and start walking out the door I instantly smack directly into a very solid wall, a very... muscular? wall?

I soon realize that this is not actually a wall and bring my head up, my eyes go wider than I thought possible, and my face drains of all color when I look up to meet a very familiar face.

Fuck.

Of course this happens, of course! Why not?! This is just great! Just perfect! Because why would I not meet the one person here on Midgard that I have been trying to avoid for over 800 years?!

I stumble back from Thor quickly bringing my head down desperately praying to every deity that he will not recognize me.

"I am very sorry little Midgardian, I was not watching where I was going!" he says cheerfully as he grasps my biceps trying to stabilize me.

I have never been more relieved by Thor's ignorance in my life.

"Oh- not so little for a Midgardian... and very strong; you would make a great warrior from where I come from!" he yells awkwardly squeezing my biceps sizing me up and then roughly patting my back, a gesture that would definitely cause anyone else to at least stumble, but I held my ground.

It takes everything in me to contain my eye roll. Seriously, how dense can he be? Of course, I have changed my appearance somewhat, mainly just cutting my hair shorter and obviously aging, but you would think that he would still be able to recognize the person that he spent most of his childhood with.

Nevertheless, I curtly nod and grasp my hands to try and hide the shaking. I need to get out of here. I see Natasha narrow her eyes and give me a suspicious look, no doubt she noticed my uncomfortable nature. From what I learned, she has an observance almost enough to rival mine.

"Why don't we walk you to the elevator? Can't have you getting lost again. We need to go to training anyway." Natasha says suddenly.

"Actually, I'm just going to stay here, I'm so close to finishing this... never mind... Who is sparing first?!" Tony quickly changes his statement when Natasha sends him a powerful threatening glare.

I take a deep breath and still my shaking hands, trying to reassure myself that Thor is an idiot and will not recognize me. But to be honest, his recognizing me is not the only thing that was bothering me. It hurt a lot more than I expected to even just see him again. I mean, he and Loki were my best friends, they meant everything to me, and not only does it hurt to have not seen my best friends, the people I grew up with, in over 800 years, but knowing that they absolutely despise me and think of me as a monster still destroys me to this day. Seeing him again is only reminding me of what I threw away. I have tried to block out my past as much as I can, but there are just some things that I will never be able to forget. One of those was the way that Thor and Loki looked at me with unbearable amounts of hurt and hatred. Every ounce of which I know I deserve.

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The large group walks through the halls talking amongst themselves and I stay near the back trying to avoid everyone. Natasha keeps looking back at me every now and then with a questioning look in her eyes. I am sure that she is suspicious of me, so I try to make myself appear calmer than I am certainly feeling and don't dare make eye contact with her. If they found out who and what I was, let alone even without Thor here, it would be chaos and I would most likely be locked away more than I have already locked myself away. People seem to fear what they do not understand, especially when they can not control it. Plus, it's not like Thor would back me up with a good word if my identity did get out.

Finally, after an awkward walk and trying to make myself as small as possible, we make it to the elevator. However, before we can make it in, it opens and someone else steps out.

He is a delivery man and he has a box that is oddly completely unlabeled. He also has a very strange and odd air to him, it instantly makes me weary. I have always been a good judge of character, even within seconds of meeting someone, and I am definitely not getting a good read on this guy.

He looks tense, he also keeps looking at the stairway, windows, doors, and any exits, something that I definitely pick up on him doing. I quickly glance over at Natasha, not wanting to keep my eyes off of the man for too long, but I see that she also seems to notice something is off about this guy as she narrows her eyes and scrunches her eyebrows slightly.

"I have a delivery, they said to bring it up to this floor." his gravelly voice speaks.

"Ah, thank you, kind messenger, I will take that from you." Thor booms excitedly.

I see the man almost try to hold back a smirk as he nods and turns away.

"Alright, who ordered something with my money again? How many times do I have to tell you to stop stealing my credit cards?" Tony said sarcastically.

I still keep my eyes glued on the man as he walks away. However, he doesn't turn back to the elevator, instead, he goes to the stairs. We are over 80 floors up, why would he take the stairs?

Just as he walks through the door to the stairway, he turns around and instantly meets my eyes. He then wildly smirks and as he continues to hold my eyes he slowly takes out something from his pocket. It looks like a small thin remote of some kind and my eyes instantly go wide.

He flips the remote around in his hand a few times and I see him silently chuckle, looking like a complete madman, but I am already running directly toward Thor.

My natural instincts kick in and without thinking I basically launch across the room with only one thought on my mind. I need to protect Thor, I can't fail him again.

Everything is going so fast, but unlike last time my mind is not swirling with many thoughts, instead, it can only focus on one, and it is that I need to keep Thor safe no matter what. I need to do my duty.

It all happens within the span of only three seconds.

I get over to Thor and instantly grab the box, which is now quietly beeping at a very fast rate, and throw it across the room. As the box is still in the air, only halfway to the other side of the room, it explodes in a vicious display. I shove Thor against the wall and onto the floor opposite the way I threw the bomb. I jump on top of him, partly being thrown by the initial blast of the explosion, my wings instinctually unsheathing themselves in an effort to protect Thor. My back bones crack and pop from my wings unfolding for the first time in many years. They curl around myself and Thor, trying to shield him. We are shoved against the wall that is now partly crumbling to the floor by the blast and I am instantly hit with an excruciating pain in my back and wings that I know will certainly be even worse when the adrenaline wears off. I can feel the burns on my back and wings, which withers away many of my feathers, and shrapnel pierced through my back and wings.

The explosion ends after only a few seconds and the walls continue to crumble, but surprisingly hold themselves mostly up. As the debris starts to gradually settle I fall away from Thor and onto the floor, not able to hold myself up anymore. The pain now starts to fully take effect and I start to breathe shallowly crumpled on the floor with my wings, which were definitely very broken and bent at a weird angle, laying at my side.

I slowly turn my head to the side and see the rest of the avengers huddled in the corner with Natasha in front of them, who most likely also realized what was happening very soon after me and pushed them away.

My vision starts to slowly become blocked by black spots filling it, but I bring my eyes up to Thor praying that he is alright. I can't hurt them again, I can't let another one of them die. I see his eyes widen as he starts to quickly make his way over to me looking frantic. But, when he is only halfway to where I am laying on the ground with blood pooling around me, he suddenly freezes. Through my now mostly clouded vision, I see his eyes travel to the rest of my body for the first time, more specifically my wings. He looks back to my face and I see the moment he realizes and he goes pale.

The last thing I hear as the pain becomes too much and my vision goes completely dark is Thor's shaky and hoarse voice.

"Ellery?..."

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