Eye of the Storm (ScarletVision fanfic)

Chapter One

"Never go too long without watching a sunset."

(Wanda POV)

King T'challa's home is gigantic, like a mansion, or a castle, but I suppose he is a king. Everything appears to be very sparsely decorated, with the occasional panther figure appearing every once in a while against the white walls.

My room is fairly comfortable, and I'm happy enough. But it feels wrong to be here instead of at the Avengers Mansion, with Stark, Nat, and especially Vis. I miss how he would step through the walls at random times and startle me. I miss his limited knowledge of common things. I miss his terrible cooking.

And sometimes I find myself thinking of the days I spent in the Raft. The days I spent silent, because any word would bring pain with it. The days I spent still, because any movement could be seen as a threat. I find my hand drifting to my throat, where I can still feel the ghost of the collar. When I was in there, the only comfort I had was a voice that I heard. A faraway voice that comforted me, a voice that sounded almost like my brother.

I don't know what to think, about anything. So I don't think at all.

For most of every day, I find myself in the training yard, where I punch away my troubles and distract myself from my thoughts. I practice my hand-to-hand combat. I practice my abilities. I've been learning how to not only enter someone's mind, but also control their actions from within it.

So I wake up another morning, scarf down my breakfast, and head out, wearing simple maroon and gray exercise clothes provided by T'challa. When I get there, Clint is already training, trading punches with one of the Dora Milaje. She is obviously beating him. The Milaje are professionals at close combat.

As I watch, she knocks him off his feet and pins him down, fist raised.

He laughs. "Man, I gotta work on that."

She steps back and helps him up, then dips her head and walks off.

I walk towards him, smiling. "They are skilled, aren't they?"

"Yeah," he says, turning. "I don't know how they do it."

"Practice, I'm sure," I reply. "Up for a spar?"

"With you? Anytime," he replies. "I won't use my arrows if you don't use your powers."

"Deal," I reply. We take up our positions and we're off. Strike, block, dodge, strike, strike. I like fighting Clint because he doesn't go easy on me, and I don't often win. That means there's a lot he can teach me.

He starts backing me up, no pause in his blows. I still block most of them, but I'm being driven back. I can't keep track of everything he does. Then out of nowhere I'm on the ground. I have no idea how I got here.

He smiles and holds out a hand to help me up. I take it. "Well," I say. "There's certainly... room for improvement."

"You're getting better, though," he says. "Just be sure not to leave yourself open when you block my hits."

I nod. "Again?"

Before he can answer, a familiar voice cuts in. "I'll have a go."

We both turn and see Nat standing there. The Team Stark double agent. She's wearing jeans and a leather jacket instead of her usual Black Widow suit. She's changed her hair yet again, to a full pixie cut. It suits her.

She shrugs. "I got tired of avoiding arrest on my own. Thought I may as well do it with you all, here in Wakanda." She looks around. "In luxury," she adds.

Clint nods, smiles. "We can always use another sparring partner. Good to have you back, Nat."

"Not too bad to see you either, Barton," she replies.

I smile. We've got our Widow back.

*

The next morning I get up and head down to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Morning," Clint says when I walk in. He's got his arrows next to him on the counter. I swear he loves those things.

"Morning." I take a bagel from the bag on the counter and spread strawberry cream cheese on it. "Where are the others?" I take a bite.

"Nat went training early. Scott's not awake yet. I haven't seen Cap or Sam."

It hits me again that we're the only Avengers here. It feels wrong to be without the others. 

Then Cap walks in, fully dressed and ready. He starts to peel an orange. "You ready for training today, kid?"

I smile. "Yes, sir," I say jokingly.

"Great. I've got something good planned."

After we finish eating and I've changed into my exercise clothes, we go out to the place he likes to train, which is a smaller, grassy corner of the training yard. "Right, Wanda. I've been thinking about your abilities. I thought, you can lift me. You held up that tower at the battle for a while. How much can you lift?"

"I've never tested it," I reply.

"Let's do that. I have some weights here." He lifts a metal box with effort and motions to others at our feet. "So start with the lighter ones, and work your way up."

I nod and raise my hands, sending trails of red through the air towards the first cube. I lift it easily, heft it in the air, and set it down. "Good," he says.

I lift the next. I can feel the weight of it, not on my arms, but on my mind. This one is still not difficult to lift. I move to the next. The next. It takes a few more before I can't lift the cube at all. It's like trying to lift Thor's hammer, but all of the pressure is on my mind.

"Wow," Cap says. "Do you realize how much you just lifted?"

"A lot?" I laugh. I rub my forehead. I have a slight headache.

"That's an understatement. You lifted maybe 100 times your body weight just now. That's more than Scott can lift in his Ant-man suit."

I notice he doesn't mention Tony, who can lift more than Scott. But I don't mention it. The others are still a sore subject. "So..."

"We should expand this, train you to be able to lift more," he says, almost to himself.

"Yeah, I...." Suddenly I feel faint. I stumble. The pressure on my mind increases instead of decreasing.

"Wanda?" Cap asks. He steps forward.

My head spins. Everything is blurry. I can't hear. I feel myself hit the ground and then I'm out cold.

A/N sorry for the short chapters