Agony (Wanda Maximoff)

Chapter 5

||"I love you more than I love myself."||

Vision flew Wanda back to the Stark tower shortly after. As they soared threw the night sky, Wanda watched as the moon followed them all the way back, and it's bright comforting light made her even sleepier than she already was, but she kept her eyes open, afraid to fall asleep while a hundred feet up in the air.

They landed smoothly on the balcony, and when Wanda surveyed the living room, she saw Steve sitting at Tony's desk. A smile appeared on his face when he looked up at her, and she instinctively brought her hand up to scratch her cheek, which felt warm against her fingertips.

Visions hands released Wanda carefully, and he walked by her side as she moved through Tony's apartment and towards Steve.

"Perfect night to fly," he remarked, and she looked up to Vision and he gazed down at her with those interestingly beautiful eyes.

"You did not have to wait up for me," Wanda said to Steve in a light voice, and she stretched her arms up above her head and yawned. She was exhausted, and the longing for her bed made her eyes itch.

"I just wanted to make sure you got home safe. But you're obviously tired, so you should go head to bed. You've had a long day," Steve gave Wanda's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and then she turned to Vision and blinked up at him, half expecting him to say something to her before she left to bed. But he simply kept his gaze on her, and she walked over to the elevator and stepped inside. The doors shut in front of her and she leaned against the elevator wall and closed her eyes. The doors opened seconds later, and Wanda pushed herself off of the wall and stepped out and headed down the hall to her room.

She peeled off the headband Steve gave her and placed it on the desk near the door. The second she saw her bed she felt her knees give out, and she stumbled over and threw herself onto the comfy mattress. Her room was cool like a winter's night, and she kicked off her shoes and brought her legs up to her chest.

The day had been great, there was no denying that, but it still didn't change the fact that Pietro wasn't there to enjoy it with her.

Growing up with a twin was like growing up with a best-friend, and now Wanda was left to explore the world on her own.

With the thought of her brother swimming through her mind, Wanda closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but a nagging pain on her side forced her to sit up. She gasped when she pulled up her shirt and saw blood spilling slowly down her side. Before she could stand, another sharp pain split through her arm and she screamed to loudly that the glass on her desk shattered.

Then, unexpectedly, she fell back onto her bed with a thud.

___

"Do you have any idea why her brother's body was sent to Dr. Cho?" Steve asked Vision curiously. The question had been bothering him since he noticed the information on Tony's computer, and for some reason he figured Vision, out of all people, would know. "Because I really don't understand why she would need his body."

"It was sent there to be inspected," Vision answered calmly. "And also to be resurrected." Steve's head shot up and he stepped back, as if the words pushed him away.

"What?" he sounded astonished, but mostly incredulous. "Resurrected?"

"The boy was not meant to die, and Wanda's conscious needed strengthening. Dr. Cho was meant to bring him back, but stronger and faster than ever." Vision walked over near the desk and pressed the space-bar on the keyboard. The screen lit up with Pietro's file, and Vision leaned forward, as if processing every single word on the screen. "But Wanda mustn't know, or else there will be fatal consequences. Bruce is with Pietro and will keep him busy for the next three months until this passes."

"I've watched that girl sulk in sadness for three months, and you expect me to not tell her that her brother may or may not be alive?"

"The boy is alive, and he's doing very well. Bruce is currently checking his vitals and Dr. Cho is making a quick incision on his side and on his arm, just to scrape out some dead bacteria that has begun to take form. He will live, and he will live a very long time."

Just as Steve was about to speak, a loud scream roared through the tower. The high-pitched scream was as sharp as a knife, and Steve covered his ears and fell to the floor. Vision didn't seem phased, but he looked confused, and then quickly ran to the balcony and jumped off. Steve stumbled onto his feet and ran to the elevator. It opened up immediately and he pressed the floor number in which Wanda's room was located.

The last time he heard her scream like that was when she realized her brother was dead.

The elevator doors opened and Steve ran out, and when he reached her door, Natasha was by his side in seconds.

"What the hell was that?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he said, then pushed Wanda's door open and they both bolted in and to Wanda's still body on the bed. Steve picked her up slowly, and felt the warm liquid that was dripping through her shirt: blood.

"Take her to the medical room, I'll call Tony," Natasha ran out of Wanda's room and down the hall, and Steve adjusted Wanda's body in his arms and proceeded to jog down the hallway to the elevator.

As he waited for the elevator to arrive to the medical floor, he stared at Wanda's pale face. He made sure his hands steered clear from the cut on her side, not wanting to cause her any pain.

"You're going to be fine. We're gonna fix you right up," he whispered to her, and the elevator doors finally opened up to the medical floor and he jogged down the corridor towards any empty room he could spot first. When he walked by two nurses, he told them to follow him, and they complied and jogged right behind him.

Finally, he found an empty room and placed Wanda on the high-posted bed.

"What happened to her?" the young nurse asked him as she slipped on a pair of gloves.

"I-I don't know," he said, and as he watched the two nurses tear open Wanda's shirt, he noticed another wound on her arm.

"She's suffering from the incisions that her brother is currently undergoing." Vision appeared beside Steve like a ghost, and the nurses took a quick second to look at him, before going back to trying to get the bleeding to stop. "I had a feeling this would happen," he said, mainly to himself.

"I'm calling Bruce," Steve said, and he stomped over to the phone in the corner and picked it up. Natasha ran into the room and stood adjacent to Vision, her eyes blurred with tears.

"Tony's on his way," she said, and then she crossed her arms over her chest and kept a close eye on the nurses as they worked on Wanda. They worked quickly, applying pressure on both cuts and cleaning up any fresh blood that escaped. The younger nurse filled a needle with some liquid and tapped the tube lightly. "What is that?" Natasha asked.

"It's an anesthetic," the young nurse answered, and then she injected it right near the cut on Wanda's side. A small gasp slipped out of Wanda's mouth, but she remained still and unconscious.

"If she's unconscious, why does she need anesthesia? Won't she not feel a thing?" Natasha asked the younger nurse.

"She may look unconscious, but it doesn't mean she can't feel pain. I'm just trying to make this process less painful for her." The older nurse began to weave the needle through the cut on Wanda's side, and the younger nurse stood by with a cotton ball in her hands, ready to clean up any blood that dripped away.

Steve slammed the phone down and cursed quietly to himself.

"He's not answering," he said, and then joined Natasha and Vision near the bed where the two nurses were stitching up Wanda. Steve didn't like seeing her in pain, and the fact that he couldn't do anything about the situation bothered him. All he wanted was for the nurses to finish up so he could bring Wanda back up to her room and put her to bed so she could rest. "The second they're done, you're going to Dr. Cho's lab and you're going to make her stop working on Pietro."

Natasha glanced over at Steve with wide eyes.

"Yes. I know what's going on here," he said in a flat tone, and Natasha's mouth set in a hard line, but she didn't say a word. They all just stood quiet as the nurses fixed Wanda.