Stars Dance

Inside the Mind Of

I race for the elevator and make a painstakingly slow journey up to the living quarters for the men. When i arrive Natasha, Maria, Pepper, Tony, Clint, and Bruce are already assembled. They turn and stare at me as i walk in. "I assume you had a dream where we were fighting in the desert." Natasha says in a bored tone.

"Yeah well more like a vision i guess since i was awake.." i murmur glancing around the room looking for Astella.

"She's here." Maria says pointing at the couch in front of her. I step closer and spot her brown hair. I move quickly to her side and push back her hair stroking her cheek.

"What do you think happened?" i murmur staring down at her.

"She must have linked us up somehow." Bruce deduces. I arch an eyebrow but don't turn to look at him. Astella shivers and i taker her hand in mine squeezing it tightly. "

What do you mean?" Pepper questions.

"Well what if she doesn't just see memories what if that's just the beginning of that power. What if she could fully control your mind, read your mind, implant visions or memories of things that have never happened before." Bruce continues gesturing out towards her with his hand.

"She just gets scarier by the minute." Tony murmurs. "I like it." he amends with a nod of his head. I roll my eyes at him and huff.

"Well how did Hydra know about it then?" i ask turning and looking at them. As i do so my shoe crushes something into the carpet. Furrowing my eyebrows i lift my foot up and glance down at hte shining pieces of metal. It looks exactly like the ear piece Astella smashed in her dream, but did i do the deed right now or did she?

"Maybe Astella found out while she was there and then they simply made her.. Forget." Bruce shrugs.

"She was at that insane asylum for four months." i state looking up at my friends.

"Your point?" Natasha asked.

"My point is that something must have happened. She escaped Hyrda." I stand up slowly pushing her hair back out of her face as I do.

"Or they let her go." Maria counters. I send her a look and she shrugs. "It's just as likely as her escaping." Point taken but I didn't want them to know I was doubting myself.

"In the vision dream thing whatever. Astella pulled this out of her ear and crushed it." I said picking up the broken pieces and setting them on the coffee table. "Do you think she did that on her own or is it just another trick?" I don't know why I'm asking for their opinion. I should make up my own mind about it, but I can't. It's been so back and forth lately with her maybe I am having doubts, about everything.

"Trick." Natasha and Maria said at the same time.

"Maria." I said a bit dejectedly.

"I'm sorry Steve. I know you're in love with her but I still don't think we can trust her. Not right now." I look to Pepper, Tony, Clint and Bruce.

"I.. Have to side with the ladies on this one." Bruce admitted finally which shocked me a bit. "Sorry." He said meekly with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well I'm with you on this one Steve." Clint said staring at me with his arms crossed. I breathed a sigh of relief that someone was on my side.

"Clint!" Natasha cried out indignantly.

"She's part of our team Natasha." Clint said slowly in a tired voice.

"For two weeks. Then she died, allied with Hyrda, deceived us, and now this!" She exclaimed pointing at Astella's limp form.

"So we should forget those two weeks, where she saved the world I might add, for the past eight months of trickery and lies?" Tony questioned which made me wonder which side he was on.