(Content warning: Aurora and Kade talk about Trauma but it's not graphic or anything just them talking about how it works and stuff-)

When she came too again, she was in the tower med bay once more, her back wrapped and stitched up.

"Welcome back." Kade greeted her.

Her mouth felt dry, and she could tell she was back at the tower. It wasn't as unpleasant as when she had been there last. "Ouch." She grumbled.

"Yeah, you had a pretty bad knife jammed in your back. Nothing potentially fatal this time thankfully but pretty close to some important nerves." Kade told her.

"Figures as much. Not lucky enough to keep from being stabbed, but lucky enough not to get permanent damage." Aurora laughed dryly.

"Thankfully. It was pretty close though." She noted. "You need to take it slow for a bit while your body works to heal that and the traces of electrocution?? And the blood loss."

"Mm. Sounds like the usual." Aurora glanced over at the doctor. "How's Tony? Did they do anything to him?"

"Not that he's let me see at least." She replied. "He seemed a bit worn out but seemingly fine otherwise."

"Oh, that's good." Aurora nodded, going to push herself up. She was about to say something when a realization hit her. "Oh my god I haven't texted Peter since I got to the apartment-"

"Yeah- He's a bit frantic in the other room-" She noted. "We moved him to his guest room once he got stable enough. He still needs a lot of rest though."

"Crap." She ran a hand down her face. She had totally forgotten to keep him updated, and now it was very possible the corporation knew who he was. "Looks like we'll both be out of commission for a bit then?"

"Correct. And from what it looks like they did the same thing they did to Peter's throat to your back and arm here..."

"Oh, that's fantastic." She muttered in exasperation. If both of them were down for the count, who'd be watching their territories? That, and she was wanting to help with figuring out a solution for Kasey...

"If you're careful, I can take you to see him." She offered.

That cheered her up a bit. "Really?" She mentally checked over herself, to see if she thought she'd be able to move decently. "I think I'd like that."

"Yeah." Kade stood up and offered her hand. "Here. I'll help you down there."

Aurora took Kade's hand and stood up carefully. She found that it was easier without the blade in her back, but it still was a pain. "Thanks."

"Of course." She led her down to Peter's room and knocked on the door and peeked in.

He looked up from the bed and look relieved when he saw Aurora.

"Here," she let Aurora sit in the nearest chair.

Aurora sat down, relieved to lean back in the chair. This sucked. "Sorry I didn't update you Peter, I.." She paused, not knowing if she was allowed to say everything yet. "A lot happened."

"You look like hell. What happened?" He signed at her.

"Long story short, Tony and I went back to the Blackout corps to try and find something to help Kasey." She groaned as she thought about what she'd say next. "They unmasked me, electrocuted me, crushed my arm, sent me through a long ass maze before throwing me into a room where they threw knives at me."

His eyes widened in horror. "They wh-?!" He coughed when he spoke covering his mouth for a minute as it calmed back down and he signed. "Are you okay?!?!?"

Aurora waited for him to settle back down. "Dr. Kade said they used the same kind of technique on the blade that went into my back, that they used on your neck. Same with the arm." She shrugged. "I'm okay I guess. But they know who I am. They might know who you are."

He paled at that. "Oh shit... I'm glad May is staying here then..." He signed with a sigh. "They recognize you or-?"

"They remembered me from when they kidnapped us the first time." She sighed out. "On a lighter note, I destroyed a huge, expensive looking piece of machinery of theirs."

Peter chuckled softly. "Is that why they beat you up?"

Aurora laughed. "Maybe. Probably. But it probably didn't help that I was also a pain in their rear the whole time. Insulted the knife guy a good amount too."

"Him again?! Are you sure you're okay??" Peter asked, concerned.

She frowned lightly. "He was the one that shot that knife into my back. I can't walk too well on my own without hurting, but I think I'm okay otherwise."

"Nothing vital though?" He asked, watching her with worry in his eyes.

"No, I'm pretty sure Dr. Kade said it didn't hit anything vital." She assured him. "You really don't have to be worried about me, you should worry about your own wounds."

"Okay, okay... what about Kasey? How is she?"

Aurora had to admit, it was nice to be worried over. "Well..." She really didn't want to hide anything from him, not wanting him to feel the way she had. "She's not doing great, she's still.. recovering."

"Will she be okay? What's wrong? How bad is it?"

"I don't know if I'm even supposed to be telling you all of this but..." She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to find a good place to start. "She's... glitching? There's a lot to explain, but from what I heard, the blackout corporation didn't just pick her up off the street. They pulled her out of another universe."

His eyes widened in shock. "Wh-what?" He whispered softly. "She... what?"

"I don't understand a whole lot of it myself. But she's destabilizing. That's why we went back, to find something to cure the destabilization." Aurora explained. "I think the machine I took down was a portal or something. Looked like a huge ring."

"Holy shit..." He whispered softly. "So... that's why Tony's been acting the way he has..." He signed.

"Yeah. His actions made sense when I figured out what was going on." Aurora said. She felt bad for being so angry at Tony, but he didn't really make it easy to understand anything.

"Still... why didn't he tell us?" Peter frowned a bit.

"I think he was keeping a promise he made to Kasey, and Kasey was afraid we'd treat her differently." Aura explained, watching his expressions.

Peter looked down at that, frowning softly. "I guess I get it but it still hurts..."

Aurora didn't want to describe the glitching to him just yet. It was a frightening thing to see, and she didn't want to dump all of that on him right now. "I know. But hopefully things can go back to normal, and she can stabilize."

He nodded at that. "But to think... a whole other universe?" He frowned deeper. "...He wanted to send her home... Aura... we would probably never have seen her again..."

"I know, I know." Aurora sighed out. "It's a lot to take in and even more to wrap your head around. But I think Tony's gotten off the 'send her back' track."

Peter sighed in relief. "Good. Cause I don't think she wanted that..."

"Yeah, I'm sure she was very adamant about it." Aurora said simply. "How about you? Does your throat feel much better? At all?"

"Uh... kind of?" He shrugged. "Not much changed. Less pain but probably due to the meds Dr. Lee gave me."

"That's good, I think." She nodded slightly. She felt like things weren't going to get any better from there, considering the corporation knew who they were now. "I just hope Pepper got those blood vials.."

"Wait- They have your blood?!" Peter signed at her frantically.

Oops. She had forgotten to mention that part in her opening spiel. "I forgot to say that, didn't I?" She sighed before explaining what had happened.

"First off, they used some sort of paralyzing agent to keep me still. Then they went in and took some blood vials."

"What the hell?!" He signed. "That's horrible!" He looked distressed. "Aura, they could've continued to do horrible shit to you and I-" Tears brimmed his eyes, his hands shaking a bit.

"Shit-" Aurora sat forward in the chair, pushing past the pain in her back. She reached out, taking his hands in hers. She hated seeing him so distressed. "I'm sorry. I should've kept you updated, at least told you we were going back. It's just... everything went so fast."

He gripped her hands as tears spilled down his face. "W-What i-if- What if t-they had killed you-?" He whispered faintly, still shaking. "Aura- I wouldn't have known!" He cried.

That broke her heart. "Peter be careful-" She didn't want him to hurt his throat more, but it felt wrong to focus on that. So instead, she stood up and climbed onto the bed, pulling him into a warm embrace. "I'm really, truly sorry Peter. I should've told you."

Peter clung to her, his whole body shaking as he carefully held her.

"I promise, no more splitting up, and no more keeping stuff from you." Aurora promised quietly, just holding onto him. She just hoped all of this would be over soon enough, and that they could all go back to their semi-normal lives.

Peter nodded as he sat with her. "N-No more secrets..." He mumbled weakly.

"No more secrets." She agreed. Once Kasey was better, Aurora would fill her in as well. Although, she wasn't quite feeling safe enough to leave the tower again.

Peter held her a bit longer before finally pulling back and looking at her. "I should let you go rest." He signed.

"Alright, but you rest up too, okay?" She asked, slipping off of the bed. She was careful to lean on the chair after she stood up again.

Peter nodded. "I will." He agreed. "Text me if you wanna chat, okay?"

Aurora grew a soft smile, and she nodded. "Of course, same goes for you." She wanted to make sure he didn't bottle anything up. It was odd really. She was worried her friends would do all the things she herself did.

He nodded again, giving her a small smile. "I will. Promise."

Aurora gave a short wave and headed out the door. She didn't know if she was supposed to go to her guest room or back to the med bay, so she chose the latter and headed in that direction.

Kade was working on something inside when she came in and looked up. "Oh, welcome back. How are you feeling?"

Aurora came over to the bed she had previously occupied, sitting down tiredly. "Physically? Still hurting. Emotionally? A little better. We talked some stuff over."

"Good. Is there anything worse than it was or about the same? Better?" She asked.

She made a vague motion towards her back. "It still hurts, but I don't know if that's just because of the anti-healing issue or whatnot."

"Probably the anti-healing but I'll take a look." She came over and undid the bandaging and recleaned the area, made sure the stitches were secure and rewrapped it. "I can give you some medicine that might help take off the edge if you want?"

"Oh, sure." She didn't see the harm in it, if it would help. "Thanks."

"Of course." Kade went over and grabbed some meds and brought her a cup of water. "Here, it should last a few hours."

She took the meds and washed them down, making a sour face. Pills were never an easy thing for her. "Thanks."

"No problem. Let me know if you need anything else, alright?" She told her before going back to what she was working on.

"I will, thanks." She watched her for a moment before laying on her side on the bed. She pulled out her phone, how it ended up there she didn't know, and began to look over the file photos she had taken.

She had read most of the information already but any mention of 13211220922518195, she now knew stood for Multiverse.

It was all a lot easier to read now that she had some context behind certain mentions. She read over the files some more, before eventually busting herself by looking into the corporation.

There wasn't much on the web about them at all. Just what Friday had found. A place to research preventing blackouts and other helpful research.

"They cover their tracks too well.." Aura muttered to no one in particular. She wondered why they had chosen that topic as a cover.

The internet held no answers to any of her questions.

She groaned and shut her phone off in frustration. This whole thing sucked. Honestly, she didn't even know if she processed everything yet. She had been unmasked, hurt again, and so much more, but she didn't really... feel anything about it?

Kade glanced over and noticed her slight change in body language and sighed softly, rolling her chair over. "Do you want to talk?" She asked softly.

She jumped slightly, having expected the doctor to still be working. "Sorry, I was just... spacing out. Peter reacted so differently than me when I told him everything."

"Well he's been worried about you since you stopped updating him." She pointed out.

"I know, and I feel awful about that, but..." She didn't know how to explain it, something just felt off. "Shouldn't I be the one freaking out?"

"You're probably still in shock." Kade explained. "That's completely normal considering everything you've been through."

"That makes more sense. Everything sounds like it was a made up nightmare anyway." Aurora sighed out.

"But it wasn't." Kade gently replied. "It, unfortunately, did happen..."

Aura frowned at that. "I know." It was a cold, simple response.

"You may know that. But you haven't processed it fully yet. Your brain may even try to convince you that it didn't. It's a trauma response. To be in denial over it happening or making you feel like it was all just a dream."

"Trauma? I don't-" She shook her head lightly. "I don't get trauma. I'm not supposed to get trauma." She was the hero. Heroes didn't get trauma. They got back up again and went straight back into the fight.

Kade sighed softly. "Aurora. You're still human. You may be able to sustain more physical damage than most people but you are just as vulnerable mentally and emotionally as the rest of us. Same with Peter. A common trauma response is denial about it. And I'm sure Tony could tell you this too, but trauma is bound to come with a job like yours."

She listened to what Kade had to say, but that didn't mean she liked any of it. She sat up from where she was laying, and ran a hand down her face. "Please don't tell Tony about this."

"Why not? He could help you, you know..."

"He's trying to build something for Kasey. I really can't bother him with this right now. Plus, maybe the whole trauma thing will be over by then, right?"

"Aurora... Trauma doesn't just... go away." She told her. "It... It'll always be a part of you. That's not to say it'll always haunt you and cause problems all the time. There are ways to overcome it. But it won't just... go away either. And it's not a fast, snap of your fingers, fix. It can take weeks, to months, to possibly years and even then it never fully goes away." Kade explained to her.

Oh. That revelation stung. Not only did she have to deal with it now, but it'd be there for the rest of her life? "Never?"

Kade shook her head. "With time and work it can become much easier to deal with and it can be like it isn't even there. But it requires a lot of work and some traumas may not be capable of being that way like others can."

So they had not only given her physical scars, but mental ones as well. Great. Fantastic. She didn't even react when she felt a wetness run down her cheeks. "I hate this."

Kade placed a hand on her knee. "I know..." She replied softly. "But I promise you... There are ways to make it better. It's just not fast or easy..."

"How? How do you make something like this any better?" She couldn't see any solution to this. It felt like all of them were stuck in a hellish loop, like some sort of limbo that she couldn't break out of.

"With time and patience." She replied. "And a lot of support. But it's not going to be easy to see how it'll help but I promise, it will."

She sucked in a shaky breath and nodded. "Okay." She didn't know how any of that would play out, but she'd try.

"You know we'll do our best to help you every step of the way. But for now, you should try to rest, okay?"

Aurora used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, and laid back down on the bed. "Okay, I'll try." She spoke softly.

"Let me know if you need anything, okay? I'll be right here." She promised her with a small smile. "You're not alone in this. I promise. We're here to help you if you'll let us."

"Yeah, I'll be sure to. Thank you." She responded quietly, wanting to curl in on herself.

Kade nodded and quietly rolled back to her desk, keeping an eye on her as she rested.

It took her quite a while, but she was eventually able to fall asleep.