Weeks of paying as keen attention as possible to her surroundings made navigating the compound manageable, but it certainly didn't help Ashley with locating two specific individuals. Her brow furrowed as she turned down yet another hallway, where she once more crept along doorways and timidly peered through each window. The painfully-bland fluorescent lights made low hums as Ashley passed, some even lightly flickering.

She had no shoes, which was useful in the moment. With careful movements and a slight limp, she was able to traverse the halls without much of a noise disturbance. Although, she knew that when it came to her grand escape, she would wish she had shoes later.

She was acutely aware of each camera she passed. If she wasn't able to naturally dodge its trajectory, she would manipulate its direction and video feed with her powers. It appeared to have worked so far, as she had yet to experience an entourage of disgruntled Hydra soldiers storming after her. She knew that she didn't have long before her luck would run out.

With the exception of the distant clacking of heels from Hydra guards several halls down, the compound was eerily silent. So much so, that Ashley found herself wondering how she had never noticed before. A bit of contemplation led her to the conclusion that she had been so lost in the chaotic and strident state of her mind. With a plan in mind now, however, her head was unusually collected and quiet.

Though, as Ashley passed another set of doors, the silence was broken. Muffled voices seeped through the heavy metal frame, which filled Ashley with anxious hope. With her fingers mentally crossed, the teenager pressed herself up against the adjacent wall and crept toward the door.

"We don't have a choice, Jemma! Do you know what they would do to us if Strucker found out we were hiding results?" A familiar Scottish voice filtered through the cracks. Ashley let out a breath of anticipation that she wasn't aware she had been holding.

"These things can be hidden, Fitz," Jemma, which Ashley presumed to be Simmons' first name, retorted. "But we can't be selfish. If we gave this information to Strucker, who knows what they would do to her? Sure, we are being controlled and manipulated, but she is the real victim here. You've seen how badly they've hurt her. You know just how terrible those sicknesses they forced is to concoct were. She is going to snap eventually. Do you want to be responsible for her death? To have the blood of an innocent teenager on your hands?"

Ashley's eyes widened as she soaked in everything that Jemma was saying. This exchange confirmed everything that she had suspected. No, Fitzsimmons were not simply a pair of atypically-nice Hydra operatives. They were just like her: trapped against their will. Suddenly, the past 15 minutes she'd seemingly wasted searching the compound for the pair no longer felt so meaningless.

Without giving Fitz much of an opportunity to respond, Ashley manipulated the lock on the door and slowly swung it open. Before she could even see the British and Scottish scientists, she heard yelps of surprise and fear sound from them.

"Shh!! It's okay. It's just me." Ashley softly closed the door behind her and was mindful to set the lock back in place. "We're getting out of here."

"Ashley!" Fitz exclaimed, half from surprise, and half from relief. "What... what are you doing here? How are you here?"

"I escaped," she responded blankly. "What does it look like?"

"Yes, yes, we get that you escaped," Jemma quipped back, "but how? You should be out cold right now. Even then, without your powers, there's no way you should've made it this far."

Ashley raised a white brow at this comment. A soft smile tugged at her lips as she extended an arm, then lined her palm up with an empty vial resting in a stand across the room. In seconds, the glass vial levitated several inches above the stand, mirroring the movements of Ashley's hand. Then, with a sharp movement, the teenager clenched her fist shut, and the vial exploded into thousands of glass shards.

"Who said I didn't have my powers?"

Both scientists stared at her in shock for several moments, but quickly regathered their composure.

"Okay, so, powers are back somehow," Fitz coughed out. "Not going to ask how. Well then, Miss Escapist, how do you propose we get out of here?"

"You're going to just have to trust me."

«

Although this wasn't Peter's first time in Ashley's room, it certainly felt weird to be standing there as him. No spider costume, no pain killers or treats in hand, just his dorky brown-haired self. Thankfully, there was no need to fake surprise or curiosity in his surroundings, as Bethany had decided to leave him to his devices as she started preparing dinner.

May would be coming over soon, so that the three could enjoy a probably awkward meal together as they discussed the disappearance of Ashley. Given that May couldn't be made aware of Ashley's unique capabilities, Peter had settled on coming over early, which would give him a chance to examine Ashley's room for any missed clues, and then regroup and ponder theories with Bethany.

The boy attempted to maintain as much composure as he could muster as he trailed across her room. Emotions threatened to bubble over as he remembered how much he missed his female best friend and crush. Peter wished that he could go back in time and relive those moments when he would bring Ashley back here as Spider-Man and engage in deep talks or playful banter.

Then, knowing what he did now, he'd finally know enough... and be enough... to protect her. He'd keep her close and never let her go.

His forlorn thoughts were jostled by echoes of caution bouncing throughout his head. In their notorious, unusual, and unpredictable fashion, his spidey senses were alerting him of some anomaly. This occasion was different, however. There was no one else in the room currently, and there was certainly not going to be anyone entering for a while. The tingling in his mind didn't feel like it was warning him of something to come, but rather, something that was already in the present. A bewildered expression washed over Peter's face, but he soon replaced it with keen curiosity.

Peter felt guilt creep up as he began rummaging through drawers, and he flashed a brief prayer to God that he wouldn't stumble across something Ashley wouldn't have wanted him to have seen. He knew that this was a serious breach of her privacy, but he'd rather ask for her forgiveness in person than at her grave if he didn't work to save her.

The teenager made quick work of scavenging each area, though to his credit, he did try to leave things as tidy as he could. There weren't a whole lot of objects to scour through, seeing that most drawers and cabinets still laid barren. She must have not brought much with her when she moved in with Bethany.

Peter's search was beginning to feel like a waste of time as he continued. So far, he hadn't come across anything that struck him as peculiar. The drawers mostly housed mundane objects, like school stationary equipment, socks, undergarments (his face turned quite a brilliant shade of red for that drawer), small gadgets and toys, chargers, and the like. After such fruitless searches, he normally would've brushed off the vibrations in his mind as a false alarm. While it was a rare occurrence, it did happen occasionally. However, the pulsing sensation was as present as ever, as though it was demanding full and unrelenting attention from its host. A scowl tugged at Peter's lips in frustration. He had one side of her desk left, but his optimism was running low.

The top drawer of the right side of her desk housed a calculator, ruler, pack of gum, and pencil sharpener. Nothing out of the ordinary. He slid open the second drawer to reveal a black leather binder, which he was initially going to ignore, but a familiar symbol caught his gaze.

"That's not a math binder..." Peter muttered, grasping the binder by its spine and slipping it out of the drawer. A SHIELD logo was stamped into the cover, with letters underneath spelling 'Agent Tanner'.

"Damn, I'm good." He had guessed it. Ashley was in fact an agent under Fury: that's why he already knew her name and seemed so concerned with her absence. He was looking forward to gloating about his excellent intuition to Ned. Hesitation initially crossed him as his hand hovered above the binder, but his curiosity got the better of him. Peter's fingers brushed along the side of the binder and pushed aside the cover. He paged along several sheets, browsing the information that was presented so neatly. Nothing was terribly incriminating or important, which was reasonable, considering data like that would have to be stored in a more secure method. Ashley seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't leave important things that simply laying around. The a cluster of biographies and images revealed to Peter that Ashley had also been appointed the leader of some kind of team. After further inspection, the teenager noted that these people were all members of a unit called S.T.R.I.K.E. Interesting.

As much as this binder intrigued Peter, he knew that its contents were not related to his spidey senses. With an unvoiced plan to study the files more later, Peter closed the binder and slipped it back into its respective drawer. He made quick work of scouring through the other sections, but to his great disappointment, he came up short. Whatever was in the room had been hidden with some thought. Perhaps this was something Peter should regard with concern.

With a deep sigh, Peter straightened his posture and closed his eyes. His brows furrowed deeply with concentration as he tried to single out the pulsing in his mind. He wasn't sure he had ever focused this hard on his senses. However, he could tell that it was working. What was once a mess of aimless, reverberating ricochets slowly simmered down to a defined pattern. He could only describe the feeling as some form of mental compass, with an incessant urge to travel in a certain direction.

That direction led Peter directly to Ashley's bed. He first checked under her comforter, then flat sheet, and then fitted sheet. He even emptied out her pillow cases and peered behind her headboard. When he found nothing there, he knelt and twisted his torso down so that he had a clear view of underneath her bed frame. He had to brush aside the creme-colored bed skirt to get a proper glance at the area.

"You've got to be kidding me." Peter scowled, growing increasingly frustrated with his lack of findings. The unabating tension in his mind was developing into a full-fledged headache at this point. However, he had one last idea. The brunet wedged his left hand underneath the mattress and lifted, and at last, let out a sigh of relief. A small satchel laid upon the material of the bedskirt that spanned the bed frame, now uncovered as Peter held the offending mattress up on its side. He quickly stooped down and snatched the satchel by its leather straps and allowed the mattress to gently return to its former state. While the tension in his mind had certainly eased, it had not yet fully dissipated. It wanted to be sure that Peter inspected whatever peculiar object was concealed inside of the vessel.

About damn time. 

Peter grew keen of a definite and hard surface. His attention turned back to the desk he had been rummaging through moments prior, where he used his free arm to sweep away any remaining items on the wooden plane. Without further thought, Peter quickly overturned the satchel above the desk. A gleaming light tumbled from the bag, effectively demanding his gaze. His hearing soon followed suit as the entity clattered against the desktop. 

His body was entirely paralyzed and rigid in place. Not a single one of his muscles twitched--not even an eyelid. He knew what that was. Or... at least... he knew exactly what it looked like. 

"Oh... my... G-"

"Peter! Your Aunt May just knocked! Why don't you take a break from your detective work and come eat with us?" Bethany called out, interrupting Peter's dialogue and freeing his body from its captive state. The teenager opened his mouth to speak, but for several moments, he was incapable of delivering more than unintelligible stammers. His thick lashes fluttered up and down repeatedly, which was trailed by a deep inhale and shaky exhale. 

"Right! Uh... yeah yeah yeah. No problem. I'll be out in just a sec,"  he hastily responded while making tentative advancements to the illuminated object. He wanted nothing more than to harvest the item from its current resting place and grasp it tightly within his palm, but Peter knew better.

Kyber crystals were meant to be handled with extreme care. 

"I mean, I feel like all the evidence is screaming JEDI, but maybe I'm just crazy. That's plausible. My friend has Force-like abilities and harbors a glowing crystal underneath her bed just because. Definitely not because she's from a fictional universe," Peter rambled in a craze, raking a hand through his hair nervously. 

Before he could act irrationally, Peter quickly blanketed the crystal with the satchel and anxiously backed out of Ashley's room. A sharp breath tumbled from his mouth as he pulled the door shut, then turned around and leaned against its wooden frame.

"This is happening. This is really happening. I can not believe this is happening," Peter jabbered. While he had been fairly certain of his assumptions regarding Ashley's origins, the physical proof of the Kyber crystal made everything finally feel so real. Fictitious imaginations were seeping into actuality in a way that made the teenager's head spin. 

"Peter, are you alright? I've been calling you for several minutes."

The aforementioned boy snapped his head up to sheepishly meet Bethany's gaze. While her face held exasperation on the surface, a slightly quirked brow exposed the concern hidden within. 

"Yes! Yeah, I'm great! My bad!" Peter responded, certainly too fast. He flurried past Bethany before she could further interrogate him. The woman's mouth opened slightly to respond, but seeing the futility in such action, she quickly closed it back and shook her head before trailing Peter to the dining room.

"Hey Peter!" May chirped, too engrossed in portioning the carbonara across everyone's plates to notice the peculiarity in the distraught teenager's actions. 

"Hey Aunt May," Peter dutifully responded, taking care to resume his usual bubbly personality. He didn't need two nosy women prodding his actions. "This looks great, Ms. Everglade. Thanks for having us over."

Bethany raised an eyebrow at his manners, but nonetheless, accepted the compliment with a nod and upturn of her lips. She took a seat across from May and trailed Peter's actions with her gaze as he sat next to his maternal figure. She didn't need her decades of spy training to know that he was hiding something. However, with company afoot, she resolved herself in refraining from interrogations until dinner was over.

-- --

"Cough it up."

Peter twisted his hands in his lap as he writhed underneath Bethany's intense scrutiny. May's leave marked the absence of a safeguard between his knowledge and Bethany's inquisition. He now sat uncomfortably on an ironically plush couch with the aforementioned woman standing before him. 

"I have even more reason to believe that Ashley is a Jedi. Physical evidence. How much do you know about Star Wars?"

Peter almost missed the soft smile that flashed across Bethany's face. It was nostalgic and tender, but just as soon as it had arrived, it was absent. "Enough. An old friend of mine insisted on watching movies during downtime between our jobs."

"Then you know what kyber crystals are, right?"

Bethany scrunched her face lightly in thought before nodding. "Yes, they power lightsabers."

"Well, they do a little bit more than that... but yes. That is what they do. Have you ever wanted to see one in person?"

A scoff left the woman's lips before she retorted, "Yeah, just as much as I've thought about going to see Harry Potter's wand..." she trailed off upon noticing a lack of humor in Peter's eyes. "Oh. You were serious."

Without further exchange, Peter stood and led Bethany back to Ashley's room. They stood before the otherwise unassuming desk, then with minor apprehension, Peter withdrew the satchel from atop the crystal. 

To an unaware bystander, it could easily pass as a mere prop. Something about its unassuming presence atop casual furniture resonated innocence and superficiality. It no longer called out to Peter, and unlike what he had half-expected, it had not burned a hole through the desk and slipped into an alternative hellish reality. Aside from a faint glow, nothing external of the kyber crystal would ever indicate the foreign and great power it harnessed within, and certainly nothing otherwise revealed its prominence of uncovering the materiality of another living galaxy. Most importantly, however, it was the one stepping stone needed to reach the truth behind Ashley's past. 

"This is a kyber crystal? Are you sure?"

Peter couldn't blame Bethany for her uncertainty. If his senses hadn't alerted him of the crystal's presence, he too would've questioned its legitimacy. Instead, he conjured as much sincerity and confidence as he could muster and bore a certain look toward the woman. 

"Yes. This is the physical evidence we needed. Ashley is Force-sensitive, and has somehow been misplaced from the Star Wars timeline. Now all that's left is... well... Ashley."

Bethany couldn't help but dryly chuckle at the irony of the situation. "I guess this crystal clears some things up, but it doesn't get us any closer to finding her."

Peter grimaced slightly, although, a stray thought wandered across his mind. His eyes lit up briefly, though he calmed himself before speaking. "It just might."

I have a surprise for y'all in the next chapter :)