Arvika: The Collected Cosmos

A Wish coming true

Akshara smiled when she opened her eyes, it must be a nice dream if Tony Stark was looking directly at her in his ironman suit. Wait we aren't supposed to be aware that we are dreaming while dreaming, was this a lucid dream?

'Who are you and how did you come here?' Dream Tony asked sternly. Weird. She didn't answer though simply because - mood. 'Listen here Moana you have five seconds to answer my questions before I blast you' he said irritated. 'That's not very nice of you' Akshara replied frowning. 'Not the Moana part of course, that's flattering but the part where you threatened to blast me in my own dream.' 'In your what?' He said.

'In my- forget it what are you doing here?' 'This is literally my tower' 'Oh, cool' 'Oh cOoL? Wha- who are you?' 'As you said I am Moana.' 'No you're not, Rhodey showed me a picture of her she is a cartoon character.' 'Animation' 'You!' 'Me!'

'What's going on?' asked a feminine voice. 'Oh hey Miss Potts' Akshara greeted, 'Um, hello?' She replied looking at a very annoyed Dream Tony. 'Tony what's going on?' She asked. 'Do I look like I have an idea? Just leave please' Tony snapped at her. 'Do NOT use that tone with me it's not my fault a kid ended up on your roof somehow' she replied glaring at him.

They continued talking- arguing? Well they were certainly not being all lovey-dovey but Akshara stopped paying attention to them, instead she focused on something more important, the stars. The night sky here was quite different compared to the sky her waking eyes had seen, here it was a full moon night, the last time she had only seen stars, even the stars were different here they didn't look as distant as they did when she was awake, that was most probably her brain trying to bring her closer to the most beautiful things that existed in the entire multiverse.

Yeah, she was a strong advocate of the multiverse theory, she didn't even know why she so passionately believed in the existence of the multiverse or the extraterrestrial lives out there but she did. She didn't have any solid proof as a scientist herself ( well technically she didn't have a degree but who cares? ) but she had a faith so strong it scared her, because she was ready to not only deny any evidences against her theory but she also wouldn't shy away from becoming a full on crazy-does-not-eat-or-sleep-is-always-in-her-workspace kinda scientist. She knew from experience that having such blind faith in anything or anyone could prove to be deadly, and so she was scared.

She jolted up straight from her lying position the next instant because she felt a pull towards something, not exactly a pull more like something or someone was trying to convince her or literally begging her to touch them, hold them, consume them. She came out of that weird state of trance when she heard a gasp coming from behind her, she turned around and saw Vision like the vision he was touching his forehead where the mind stone was supposed to be. The mind stone. That was calling her.

Suddenly it didn't feel like a dream, suddenly it felt real.

'Hey, hey Vision talk to me what's going on?' Dream Tony, Tony said. 'It-It's the stone, it's attracted to her. Like it's with Wanda except when I am with Wanda I get attracted to her too, with this-this girl it's just the stone-the stone it feels like it wants to leave me and go to her. It's-it's... Tony I am scared' he whispered the last part but Akshara heard him alright and it broke her heart, for her Vision was one of the best parts of MCU he made everything so much better and here he was scared of her.

Tony, no not Tony, the person she called Tony was fictional and this felt too real. This was Mr. Stark a man who was very real, a man she wasn't familiar with. She felt her broken heart being squeezed to death when she realized that this Mr Stark was not the same Tony she adored so much. Mr. Stark's next words made her feel literal, physical pain in her heart. 'Vision, Pep go back, Fri activate protocol Pericolo.' She knew enough italian to know it meant danger and had enough common sense to understand that she was the danger.

Pov change

The moment Vision said he was scared Tony lost it. Had the situation been different he would've been overjoyed that Vision was feeling an emotion he hadn't felt before, that he was evolving even more but his fear in this situation only made Tony anxious. Vision was not supposed to be scared of a girl who didn't look older than 18 or 19, nor was the stone supposed to want to abandon him, the worst part? He didn't have time to look for answers.

The girl looked shocked, sad and scared at him activating the protocol but Tony wasn't going to be fooled by expressions on the face of a girl who had randomly popped up at his place. His instinct told him to try to be gentle and not intimidate a girl who clearly looked like she had seen a ghost but he knew better.

After the whole Ultron fiasco Natasha had been much more sensitive and gentle towards him and when he confronted her about it she had said " I know what it's like to be overwhelmed and paranoid Tony, to feel like nothing you do will be enough, that you and your loved ones are in constant danger, I don't support or agree with you on Ultron, but I understand you. "  That conversation had changed their relationship forever because no matter how much they fought and hurt each other in the end they also understood each other. This conversation had also started Tony's especial training with Natasha.

The training had been more mental than physical and it was in this training that Natasha made him realize that age didn't matter at times, they had opened up to each other Tony about his mental health and Nat about her past. She explained to him how the Red Room had made her an assassin at an age when little girls liked to play with dolls and pretend to be a disney princess. She told him how she killed a fellow widow in training before she even had her first period. In short little scared looking girls could also be deadly assassins.

'Who are you?' He asked trying to control his heartbeat 'Akshara Jha' she replied in a small voice, at least that question was answered. 'How did you come here?' 'I don't know' she whispered. 'What do you mean you don't know?' 'I- the last thing I remember is-is that I was at my terrace and a.. shooting star? Yeah I wished upon a shooting star to be-to be here and then I opened my eyes and I saw you so I thought it was a dream, but you aren't supposed to know when you're dreaming right? So I thought it was a lucid dream which is weird cause I've never had a lucid dream before but I thought that was the best and only explanation for the situation so I thought that-' 'Alright stop!' Tony interrupted her rambling, teenagers tsk, 'say that again slowly but the short version.'

'Wished upon a shooting star woke up here' she replied looking at him. Before he could say something she spoke again 'I am really sorry for rambling earlier, I mean I know you must be really busy not that I know you but still I mean you're Tony Stark so it's pretty obvious that you would have a lot of stuff to do like SI stuff and then you're also Iron-' 'You're rambling again' Tony pointed out and she looked horrified. 'I-I am sorry, I didn't-I I am just- just gonna shut up.. yeah yeah won't disturb you I'll just shut up' she spoke looking so terrified that it broke his heart. That's NOT what a kid should look like.

'Hey why don't we do this, I'll ask you questions and you just give me answers ok? Nothing more nothing less.' She nodded at that, still looking at the ground.

'Your name's Akshara Jha?' Tony was 200% sure he mispronounced her name but Moana, bless her heart, didn't point it out and only nodded. 'How old are you?' '18' answered a voice so low he alnost didn't hear her. 'You're not American are you? Or at least you weren't born here?' 'Yeah, I-I am Indian' she whispered, Tony didn't know who he preferred the nervous rambling girl or the terrified whispering girl. 'You don't know how you ended up at my tower?' She shook her head. 'Do you know what you did to Vision?' This time she had tears in her eyes as she whispered a no.

'Okay let's get you downstairs hmm?' She looked up at that looking more afraid than before. 'No no no you can’t do that! I'll hurt him you can’t-can't do that' she was positively crying now. 'Ok ok hey listen to me, Vision's gonna be safe ok? Just come with me' Tony replied ignoring the tears rolling down her cheeks because honestly what are you supposed to do when someone's crying?