Age Of Miracles | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Seven: Keep Denying It Or Do Something About It

Music is "Halo Canticles" by Kazuma Jinnouchi from the Halo 5: Guardians OST.

Picture is Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as Wanda Maximoff and Vision.

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Recommendation: "Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers One-Shots" by @colorfulxtears.

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"Knowing it's real means you gotta make a decision: One, keep denying it, or two, do something about it."

- Jessica Jones

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The cancer started in her bones. The doctor had given her a few months to live. After a little while of chemotherapy, she regained her strength, and the cancer mysteriously went into remission. It disappeared after she got back in touch with Bex and I. That was 2021, five years ago.

It was gone for a a year or so. After we took down Magneto and moved to Sokovia, she went to her doctor once again. After several tests, and hours of blood work, they found the thing that she dreaded all along.

The cancer was back. It had not only returned, but it spread like a wildfire to her lungs. From there, it went to her entire body. The chemotherapy she was getting from Sofia was the only thing allowing her to hold off telling us. Because of it, she had the blackout that caused the crash in the market. This time, there's nothing we can do.

"How long do you have?" I had asked, in that hospital room, eyes full with tears.

"Months. Maybe a year at the very most."

I still haven't stopped crying. She said that they're not sure why it came back in the first place. Maybe it was the radiation from Asteroid M. Maybe it was being in outer space. Maybe it was nothing at all, something terribly and ordinarily human, but this time it's going to take her with it.

Two days after the accident, Mom is cleared by the doctors and given the okay to go home. And while everyone is over at her home, getting everything as comfortable as they can for her and Bex in their recovery, I deviate and head back to my house. I haven't been there since the day we hopped back from Paris. The need to be by myself for a few moments is growing inside me, so with a nod to Pietro - an unspoken conversation between husband and wife - I get into my car and drive home to our little house on a hill.

Parking the car, I step from the automobile, standing on the pebbles of our driveway. The sky is dark, the hour almost midnight. The lights in town are darkening, everyone finding solace in their dreams. I guess I'm the only one who's staring up at the stars like they might have some answers.

I close my eyes as I gaze at the Milky Way, breathing in the cold chill of October. "I need some help," I mumble, maybe to God, maybe to Aspen, maybe to my guardian angels. "Whoever is listening, I need some help. I can't... I can't lose Mom. I just can't." I shake my head, tears falling. "She and Bex are my only blood family left. I can't lose them. Not like this. Not in such a painful and human way."

I look up towards the sky as the drops fall down my cheeks. I fold my arms to protect myself from the cold, and lean back against the car. "I'm supposed to be the sister who has it all figured out. I'm the confident one. I'm the brave one. Bex leans on me; Mom, too. The others look to me for guidance... but I have none. This time, I'm the weak one. I can't be the strong one this time, Aspen. I can't. So please, if you're looking down on me from Heaven or Summerland or wherever you've ended up, give me a sign that help is coming. Please."