The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

A reading

Her pant still dragged heavily from her breath, while her hand remained clutching her chest to get as close to her heart as possible. She didn't know what the feeling was, but she sensed that her powers weren't exactly helping. She'd sat herself down against the first structure she could once she made it out of the building and remained gasping for her breath to return to her lungs.

The fact that she was so vulnerable in such an open space only made the racing in her heart worse and the shaking in her hands get faster. She trapped one hand tightly and tensely between her thighs to stop the shaking, while the other changed between covering her mouth to quieten her panicked gasps, or holding her chest to suppress the rapid beating of her heart.

Luckily, there weren't many people outside of the building who could've noticed her and, therefore, unintentionally made it worse for her. However, over in the landing zone was a quinjet that arrived moments before y/n left the building in a rush. Two girls occupied the jet, but only one of them left it first with the intent to enter the building and brief the others.

While the first girl left the jet and made her way round to the building's doors, the other girl stayed inside of it in the quiet. So, as the first girl turned the corner and saw the entrance of the building, she also saw the girl who was trying to force herself to an unreachable state of calmness.

The closer she got, the sooner she realised who it was, and when she finally figured out exactly who the girl was, she began running over to her. She slid on the gravel and dropped to a crouch as she did to instantly place a comforting hand on the knee of y/n.

Without anything else to support her, y/n's hands instantly gripped the arm of the one who helped her, which instantly allowed her to understand who it was. When she felt the mechanical feel to the life-like arms that aided her, some of the panic was lifted from her.

Y/n leant forward as the woman encased her in her arms to gently rock her back and forth, quietly whispering affirmations in her ear to assure her that she'd be alright. Slowly but surely, her breath began returning to a normal pace, and the shaking shrunk down to a manageable pace.

Once she'd composed herself enough, she leant backwards and brushed her hair out of her face to look at who helped her, even though she already knew who it was.

"What's wrong, y/n? Are you okay enough to tell me that?" Elena Rodriguez - or, Yoyo, as the team called her - asked.

"I just-..." she sighed, still adjusting to having her breath back again, "I don't know what that was." She shook her head repetitively as she calmed down.

"Y/n, I think you were having a panic attack." She noticed, her hand remaining in a comforting grip on her leg.

Y/n lifted her head from her hands and looked down at yoyo, "no- I don't... I don't get panic attacks."

Yoyo's eyes sympathetically scanned y/n's clearly tired face, but she didn't try to force the conversation any longer. "Let's get you back inside." She began helping her up, "we'll let Mack know that you're getting stressed and-."

As y/n pulled herself to a stand using the arm of her friend as help, "no." She blurted, "You can't tell him about this or he won't let go on the mission."

She shrugged, "maybe that's for the best."

"I don't care if it's for the best, I'm going on the mission. I'm going on every mission that might lead to wanda." Y/n shut her down as they made their way through the doors.

The closer they got to the room, the more independent y/n became. She didn't want to seem weak by leaning on yoyo once they entered the room in case anyone would've held her back from the mission that she desperately wanted, and needed, to go on.

Then, once they finally made it to the room, y/n detached herself from yoyo completely and pushed the door open to get in ahead of her. The team, who had all clearly been waiting for her, turned at the sound of the door opening.

"Look who I found." Y/n jokingly muttered as she furthered into the room, allowing yoyo to walk in behind her.

"Yoyo" Jemma smiled with a radiant brightness as she noticed her, which brought a smile out of elena.

Everyone else in the room had either continued to plan or notice the arrival of the two girls, but Mack didn't do either. Instead of appreciating the fact that y/n returned, he couldn't help but look down at her face with wonder and confusion.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." She lied, looking up at him while nodding her head, "like I said I just needed some air."

Yoyo gently placed a tightened grip on y/n's shoulder as if to make sure she was okay, then she let go to briefly greet her old friends in the room. While yoyo went to greet friends or introduce herself, y/n quietly cleared her throat to prepare to be back with everyone else again. Although her breaths had returned and she'd calmed down, her thoughts were still darting around her head in every direction, highlighting every possibility and outcome which, of course, brought bad feelings to her.

The rest of the team seemed to pour back into a conversation until Jemma's eye was caught by the screen, causing her to break up the shared mutters.

"Woah- woah, guys-." She blurted as she practically dived over to the screen that captured her attention instantly, "we've got something."

Y/n's head shot up the moment she heard, "you have? What is it, do you think it could be wanda?"

"It's an energy reading in a park." She furrowed her eyebrows as she read from the screen, "it's not that far from here."

"Alright, let's go." Bucky announced before y/n could even process what Jemma told everyone.

While the rest of the team all began leaving with a rush of hope after Bucky's order, mack lingered at the back of the bunch where y/n was, still trying to compose herself so she didn't get her hopes up.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" Mack asked again, studying her with a more effective look this time.

"Yeah." Y/n nodded through her lies, "nothings gonna stop me from getting to wanda."