The Other Symbiote

Raft Detention Facility

Raiva turned quietly and looked up at the stars, seeing her Aquarius birth sign at an angle of 36.6 degrees. She held her Widow blankie in her hands, clutched tightly like a child's grip.

"What is it, Wanda?" She huffed, trying to numb her feelings and the urge to run and kiss her.

"What, no 'thank you' for making Nat go and find your bracelet?" Wanda shot back.

"I'll thank her the next time I see her." Raiva growled.

"Good." Wanda sat down next to her, sighing deeply before beginning the hard talk they both knew they needed. But before Wanda could speak, Raiva shot in a quip.

"So, fucking with the robot now, are you?" Her tone was harsh, but it was better than a balling mess of confession.

"Excuse me?"

"What?" Raiva's voice was slightly muffled as her face was cupping the blanket.

"I mourned your death for over a year, Rai."

"You do not get to call me that." Raiva spat. She truly loved the witch, more than anything, but she couldn't show it. Not when she knew Wanda was with another.

"Fine. Raiva, I mourned you, I grieved for you. I didn't leave your room for a solid three months!"

"I know, Nat told me." Raiva spoke nonchalantly.

"Then you should also know that she had Steve to lean on. Thor had Jane, Kara had Lena, Peter had May. I had nobody! Nobody wanted to give me support but Vision."

"I'm sorry, but Nat fed you for those three months you self-isolated. She made sure you showered, made sure you ate and drank enough every day."

"Because she knew what pain I was in! A pain you could never feel!" Wanda's hands became tinged with red and Raiva growled, Nemesis surfacing and replacing her phantom limb.

"Seriously, Wanda? A pain I could never feel? Every day I was away from you, every moment I looked up at the moon, I felt pain. I heard your screams echo through the hallways, the smashing of batons vibrating through the metal."

"I felt something I had never wanted to feel again. I felt hopeless - utterly drained of any strength to save you from them." Raiva was breathing heavily, both host and symbiote trying to keep themselves under control.

Wanda's face grew with slight confusion before she shook her head. She looked at the clawed hand of Nemesis and gulped deeply, Raiva noticing and pulling her symbiote back in.

"It's his fault that I don't have my arm. It's his fault that I can't be with you anymore." Raiva fiddled with the ring that sat in her pocket.

"Not everything is Vision's fault, Raiva. You were the one repeating 'Always and Forever'. You were the one that said we would always be together, and then you went and died on me!" Wanda's voice broke, Raiva's face morphing in slight disgust.

"You think I wanted to die?"

"Well, you were pretty suicidal the days prior to the airport." Wanda scoffed, looking at Raiva's emotionless face.

"Of course I was. I wanted to kill the part of me that thought I was a monster, and that was a pretty big part. But during the Raft, during that hellish torture... Well, you saw." she lifted her shirt and showed the blood-soaked bandage.

"I didn't want to die. That 'monstrous' part of me died long ago inside that prison. Every day I felt the cancers coming back - I couldn't speak without coughing, I couldn't sing along to any of the Arcturus shanties."