Rising from the Ashes

Home?

Ash POV

Darkness... Then lights... Four colorful lights: red, blue, purple, and yellow, before they were joined by two more colors: orange and green. Swirling around in my line of sight before they all converged into one and disappeared into a vast background of inky darkness with pinpricks of little lights... Then... more darkness as my mind started to wake up...

What was that...?

When I started to come to the first thing I felt was that my head felt like it was made of cement and the vision I had just seen left me with a lingering feeling of uncertainty and confusion for what it meant and why it felt like it was only one part that was missing its other half.

What was that...? I thought to myself as I finally mustered up enough strength to open my eyes.

The first thing I saw was that I was in the medbay of the new Avengers facility Tony had been talking about for a while, still dressed in my battered suit and the first thing I noticed was that a super long straw was in my mouth and, when I looked to my side, I saw that it was attached to a vial that was half-filled with some kind of glowing, rainbow-colored liquid.

"Wubat thub?" I spoke with my mouth still holding the straw before slurping some of the juice up, noting the familiar sweetly sour taste, and suddenly feeling more awake after a long sip.

"Woah..." I got up from the medical cot I had been laying in and stretched, feeling like I hadn't just been through a battle that could've killed me.

"Zua elixir." I looked toward the source of the voice and saw Zaruk standing there with Dr. Miller next to them.

"I was skeptical in giving it to you, but it seems like it's fully restored your strength and accelerated your natural ability to heal." Dr. Miller admitted with a sheepish smile as she walked over to me to remove the monitor stickers that had been attached to me.

"How long have I been out?" I asked confused.

"A couple of days. Your physical superficial injuries were healed fairly quickly, but your body needed rest after exerting yourself way past your normal limits a few times in the span of a day." Dr. Miller answered before she whispered to me,

"You have another visitor waiting for you outside."

I already had a feeling of who it was so I quickly walked outside the room leaving Zaruk to talk with Dr. Miller.

When I got to the hallway, I saw Xay sitting on a chair with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. As soon as my footsteps made a squeaking sound against the tiled floor, he lifted his head up and bolted to his feet with tears welling up in our eyes as I declared,

"Told you you could never lose me."

"Lumna!" He cried out before he ran over to me and we hugged each other tightly, not wanting to let go. When we finally released each other, Xay looked at me in concern,

"What's wrong?"

"It's just weird to hear my birth name when I've been using a different one all these years."

"Ash is a nice name."

"Yeah... Bruce gave it to me to make me feel less dangerous than I really was after I was given this terrible burden," I looked down at my hands where new radiation tags were put into place before I continued, "I managed to control it today in the name of saving people, but now... it might not be so easy to do next time it happens."

"Maybe you could if you come back with us?"

"What...?" I questioned with uncertainty before Xay smiled and explained excitedly,