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Chapter 26 – Disarray
Ophelia knew the feeling of breathlessness intimately.
She felt it in the vacuum of space.
She felt it in the grip of a Mad Titan.
She felt it every time a nightmare seized her in a panic.
And the youngest Delacour felt it now, watching with bated breath as silver and red blurs disappeared in the thick cover of trees. Her heart in her throat, pounding vigorously with the faint remnants of adrenaline coursing through her veins.
Confusion and pure want waged a war inside Ophelia's brain. The image of her wonderstruck gaze burnt itself in her mind's eye. Who was she? Why has she been sensing her presence for the last few months?
And why did the mere sight of this girl cause an eruption of emotion in her stomach?
"Ophelia? Come in." Tony's voice appeared on the comms; panic flooded his body when she didn't respond. "Ophelia?!"
"Yeah um...yeah I can hear you." Ophelia snapped herself out of her reprieve, clearing her throat to rid herself of the hoarse voice.
But even if she was gone, she wasn't really gone. The light fluttering of turbulent emotion still inched at the corner of the brawler's mind. A churning collision of yearning and terror was all Ophelia could pick up from her as she ran away. A want, a need, a burning desire for something that neither girl could put their finger on.
"I've got the sceptre." He continued, still worried at the distracted tone of her voice. "We're retreating to the jet, is everything okay?"
"Remember that female enhanced?" Ophelia asked, leaping into the air and flying at a casual speed. "I met her."
"And?" Tony impatiently asked.
"Are heart palpitations normal after a first meeting?" Ophelia inquired curiously while Tony lightly chuckled to himself, an exasperated huff on his lips.
"Nothing you do is normal, kid." Tony sighed fondly, breaking out of the devastating vision Wanda had shown him.
The images circled through his mind like a never-ending picture reel. Hulk lying beaten and bruised as he took his final breaths. Natasha's empty eyes looking back at him with hidden reproach, her blood as crimson as her hair. Clint's bow slipping from his fingers as he sat in eternal silence, a toppled god lying at his feet with Mjolnir cast aside. Cap's unbreakable shield, broken beside a deathly still Steve Rogers.
And Ophelia, Tony could even bear to look at her laying on her back. A gaping hole in her chest ran thick with blood, pooling under her body as her painful gasps echoed in his head.
"You could have saved us." The vision of Ophelia choked out as more blood spilling from her lips. Tony remembered collapsing at her side, holding her to his chest as she took her final moments in agonising pain.
