The Soulguard, A Dragon Who Can See Spirits

Chapter 19

Wanda wakes up to a trembling dragon laying beside her. A particularly harsh shake of Noku's body and a pained whine cause the Sokovian to sit up. She reaches a hand to softly pat Noku's neck, waking the dragon from her slumber. With a pain filled whimper, Noku wakes up and turns her head to Wanda, who frowns at the glazed over eyes. "What's going on?" 'It hurts.' Wanda runs her hand across Noku's flank, letting her powers seep into the dragon, letting her feel Noku's feelings while also comforting her. "Where does it hurt?" Wanda asks, being able to feel the pain but not able to locate it. 'Everywhere, it hurts everywhere, Ayraith.' Wanda frowns. Could these be part of the side effect Natasha was talking about? Most likely. Wanda starts massaging Noku's muscles that had tensed at some point before the Sokovian woke up. She continues until she can feel the dragon relaxing and the pain leaving Noku. "Is this better, Little One?" Wanda asks, never stopping the massage. 'It is, it helps with the pain.' Wanda nods to herself, focusing some of her power to enhance the effects of the massage. The Sokovian gets so focused on the action that she doesn't notice how the night sky makes room for the first rays of sunshine to paint the horizon shades of pink and orange, the sun slowly casting a soft glow over the two. The door opens quietly and a head peeks in. The green feathers of Haduwig shimmer in the early morning sun as he makes his way to Wanda and Noku, tilting his head in worry at the sight of Noku trembling slightly. He coo's softly as if asking what is wrong with his sister. Wanda turns her head to Haduwig, scratching the underside of his beak before continuing to massage Noku's front legs. "She is just a bit sick, Hadu, nothing to worry about." Wanda says, moving slightly so she can reach Noku's flank better. Haduwig watches the Sokovian for a second before he climbs on top of the dragon and settles down, occasionally chirping and snuggling closer to Noku.

A couple of hours later Clint pushes the door to Noku's room open, having wondered why the door was slightly ajar but not having seen the dragon or Wanda anywhere. "Hey, have you three eaten anything?" The man asks, startling the room's occupants without meaning to do that. "No, no we haven't... What time is it?" Wanda says, reaching for her phone that she had tossed somewhere behind her after waking up in the middle of the night because it was digging into her uncomfortably. "A bit after 9AM... How long have you been awake? Because- Actually, never mind." Clint shakes his head. "There is breakfast in the kitchen, everyone else has eaten already." Natasha nods to Clint, her hunger making itself known when her stomach growls. "Thank you, we will be down soon." "Alright, you should probably visit Bruce with Noku, just to see if she has any side effects." Clint says, already walking down the hall. Wanda shakes her head with a small smile. Noku does have side effects, but if the only one is this pain in her muscles, everything should be fine. Right? Wanda taps Noku's cheek to get her attention. The dragoness huffs but moves to stand despite her aching muscles, causing Haduwig to jump to the ground. "Take it easy, Little One, we are in no hurry." Wanda says softly and picks Haduwig up, lifting the bird on her shoulder. Haduwig chirps to the Sokovian, grateful that he has not been forgotten and starts a conversation with Noku. The three make their way to the kitchen slowly, stopping occasionally when Noku almost loses her footing. When they reach the kitchen, Wanda places Haduwig on the counter and watches that Noku gets to the dining table alright before making their breakfast. Placing Noku's assortment of fruits in front of the dragoness and a platter of insects for Haduwig, Wanda strokes their head slightly. Now that she has given food for Noku and Haduwig, she gets her own from the countertop. Someone had covered her breakfast so that it stayed a bit warmer and she appreciated that. The three take their time eating before they head to the labs to find Bruce, unknowing of the conversation taking place in the labs while they were eating.

Clint was on his way to the armory to get started on some new trick arrows after visiting Wanda when he saw Natasha heading to the labs. "Nat? You going to the labs?" He asks the redhead who stops hearing her friend. "Yeah, I wanted to ask Tony and Bruce more about the substance they found and the possible side effects Squish could have." "Ah, I just saw Wanda with Noku and Haduwig, told them to get some food in their systems." The archer starts before nodding towards Natasha. "Noku seems to be in some kind of pain, Wanda was massaging her, so that could be good to tell them." "I will, thank you Clint." Natasha thanks the man and continues her way, soon reaching the labs. She practically throws the door open, not caring if she startled the men working inside. "Tony, tell me about the substance that you two found in Noku's bloodstream." Natasha orders, not stopping before she is standing right next to the man she addressed. "You want to know more about Hydrodoflium?" Tony asks, raising his eyebrow in question. Natasha stares at the man for a second. "Is that the name of it?" "Yes, I-" "We, Tony, we." "-We named it such. It is because-" "I don't care why, I care about what it did." Natasha raises one of her hands to stop the man. "Tell me more about what the- whatever the name of the thing was, was doing to her." Tony glances somewhere behind Natasha and the Russian has a strong feeling that Tony is silently asking help from Bruce. "Well," The man starts. "I think we should speak about what Hydrodoflium was not doing. That would be easier." Natasha stays silent but the expression on her face tells the man to continue. "You already know that it was supposed to be destroying Noku's cells, but for some reason it didn't do that, it also didn't mess with her bodily functions too badly, but that is pretty much all it didn't do." "I am sorry, 'didn't mess with her bodily functions too badly'? What is that supposed to mean?" Natasha's tone of voice borders on alarmed and Tony raises his eyebrows at that. He decides not to mention it as he likes his face too much. "What I mean by that, is that the substance altered her chemical balance. We need to do a couple of tests to see if they return to normal or not but I wouldn't be too worried as she seemed more or less herself yesterday." Natasha nods and relaxes her tensed muscles slightly before going back to the fact that the- whatever the substance's name was, should have killed the dragoness. "Okay... So what about the 'it was supposed to kill Noku'? What can you tell me about that?" The Russian can hear a shuffle from behind her and she turns her head to see Bruce looking uncomfortable. A sigh makes her return her attention to Tony, waiting for an explanation from the man. "Ah, I had hoped that nobody remembered that..." A sharp glare from Natasha makes Tony sigh again. "We don't exactly know how the whole thing works but while figuring out the antidote we made some experiments with Noku's blood-" When Tony mentioned experimenting Natasha tenses and Tony cuts off his sentence. She knows that the two men noticed and a noise of papers being gathered from behind her tells that Bruce is about to escape the labs. "I have to go..." Bruce says. "I remembered that I have a- a meeting with Dr. Cho..." The tone of his voice is less than convincing as he scrambles out of the room, leaving Tony alone with Natasha. "Look," Tony starts again. "I was curious as to why Hydrodoflium affected Noku but didn't really do anything to her cells, so I compared the blood sample with the substance to a sample without. The substance was clearly trying to penetrate the cell walls but was unable to, so I compared it to, you know, human blood to see what it would do and that is why I know that it should have killed her." Tony stands up from his seat and goes around the lab gathering items while Natasha stands still and follows the man with her gaze. "This still doesn't explain much, Tony..." "I know, I know, that is why I am going to show you what I discovered. Just wait for a second."

Soon there is an expensive looking microscope and few blood samples on a table in front of the two. "Okay, so if you look at the first sample, the one without Hydrodoflium, you see nothing, right?" True to Tony's words she doesn't see anything strange. Swapping the sample, Tony speaks again. "But if you look at this one, you can see that the walls of the cells are being strained, like something is trying to destroy them." Natasha looks at the sample, noticing a slight difference. She wouldn't have noticed it if Tony hadn't told her to look for it. "Right, but what made you think that this substance should have killed Noku? I don't see why this-" Natasha motions to the sample. "would warrant a conclusion of that sort." Tony takes out a few more glass panels for samples. Natasha raises an eyebrow in question when she sees Tony prick his finger and drops a drop of blood on the glass. He places it under a microscope and motions Natasha to look. She does so, and turns to Tony. Without words, Tony drops another drop of blood on another glass panel and adds a drop of Noku's blood on it. "Have a look now." Natasha does so but turns to Tony unimpressed. "There is nothing strange." "That is because that was the blood without the substance in it. This next one is interesting." Another sample is placed under the microscope but this one is different from the others. Natasha can clearly see how some of the cells are being annihilated before her eyes. She stares at the sample and speaks to the man beside her. "It is attacking your blood? What is causing this?" Tony shrugs, not really sure about it himself. "Honestly? I don't really know why it isn't affecting Noku's cells the same way. The substance is highly toxic and will destroy any other cells without a problem. I also don't know if it is the mix of Noku's blood with Hydrodoflium that causes this or not because we were not able to extract the pure form of the substance from the samples. What we do know is that something is protecting the overgrown lizard." Natasha nods before scrunching her eyebrows, not understanding one vital thing about all of this. "But why would they kill her? Wasn't the Hydra member saying something about a plan? It doesn't make sense..." The two stay quiet for a while, both going over the information about the substance and before they know it Wanda's voice can be heard talking with her two companions.

As Wanda steps in the room her eyes spot Natasha and Tony quickly. "Nat, Tony, hey! Is Bruce here somewhere?" Her eyes wander around the room but she is unable to spot the man she is looking for. "No, he left a second ago. Said that he has a meeting with Helen." Tony says and motions for the company of three to enter the room further. "Is something wrong? Any side effects making themselves known?" He questions, pulling out a pile of unfinished research papers from a drawer on his desk. He grabs a pen and looks at the Sokovian expectantly. "Yeah, she has some muscle pain, I have been massaging her aching muscles for the morning but she still has some pain remaining. I don't know if there is anything else, not yet anyway." Tony writes down what Wanda tells him, before he starts asking more questions. "How bad was, slash, is her pain? How about-" "The pain was bad enough that she had a hard time staying up, she still has." Wanda interrupts Tony and the man nods. "Okay, okay." While Tony continues writing to the documents, Wanda turns to Noku and Haduwig, only to find Natasha showering them with affection. She smiles a bit, glad that the dragoness is feeling like herself again. "Noku, can I ask you something?" She asks the dragoness, wanting to know if Noku herself had noticed any other side effects. 'What is it, Ayraith?' "Besides the ache and pain in your muscles, do you notice anything else? Anything 'stange'?" Noku tilts her head, thinking, before she answers the Sokovian. 'My head feels kinda funny. Like there is someone else in there.'

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Remember to rest, eat and drink enough! <3