𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱

"How did she know my name?" Madison repeated to herself for the hundredth time that night.

Tony and Peter had brought her home after they couldn't find Nemesis, and they could clearly see that Madison was shaken. The whole ride home had been silent, except for Madison mumbling questions to herself. The girl was rocking back and forth in the seat at first. She just couldn't seem to sit still. Eventually Peter pulled her into a hug, carefully making sure she wouldn't freak out at her touch. She accepted it and once they got home Peter even carried her inside.

Madison looked at Peter who was sitting on the couch next to her; he was staring with her with so much worry Madison would have thought she was the Tesseract. Pepper and Rhodey were across form her and Tony was on the other side of her, sharing the exact same look as Peter.

"Princess, what are you talking about?" Tony asked.

The girl started to fiddle with her hands, "She knew my name. My real name."

"Who? Nemesis?" her father questioned, and Madison nodded her head.

At the silent response Madison felt Tony stiffen. The girl looked at her father, "What is it?"

Tony took in a big breath as he grabbed Madison's hands, "I wasn't sure it was her."

"Sure it was who?" Madison questioned, not sure what her father was exactly talking about.

"You're mother," Tony replied, sighing as he did so.

Madison's face scrunched up in confusion, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"A few years back when we first met Wanda, I wasn't sure she had also survived the experiments," Tony explained, "I wasn't even sure it was even her, and when I tried to look into it no files popped up on her. Not even your birth."

"What are you saying? Nemesis is my birth mother?" Madison asked. She couldn't believe a word she was hearing.

Tony gave a small nod, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I know you're probably angry-"

"I'm not angry," Madison cut in, "I'm just confused. I... I need to think."

And with that Madison weakly stood up and began to walk to her room. She could feel everyone's stares as she left. Once she made it into her room she locked her door and sat on her bed. Even though Madison didn't want to cry, she couldn't help it.

All these years she had thought the best of her birth mom, content that she was never going to meet her and that it was for the best. But, yet, Madison had just met her real mother tonight, and the woman had tried to kill her. Or at least hurt her a lot.

So tears did start to fall as the girl thought about the words her mom had said. The fact that her mother admitted to wanting her dead. Madison wondered why she was such a problem for her mother, why she wanted her dead.

Madison understood getting an abortion, she understood giving her up because she didn't want her or couldn't take care of her. Madison understood that, but what she didn't understand is why Nemesis had started to cause terror, why she tried to go after Madison now. It didn't make sense. Madison couldn't wrap her head around what she had ever done to that woman. And it made her cry.

Tears fell down Madison's cheeks as she silently cried to herself. She didn't want anyone in the house to know that she was crying; the girl didn't want them to worry about her. However that didn't stop people from knocking on her door.

"Princess?" Tony called out.

Madison lifted her head off of her pillow and sat up, "I'm fine."