Chapter Text
I don't know how it happened, it happened so quickly. I was trudging through the forest,we all were, I supposed. We got into another fight, just like at the airport, and almost as bad.
I was mostly fine, except for my right leg. I was trying to run from one of Thanos's minions, those flying dirtbags, but I fell off of a small hill and sprained my ankle, or mabye I broke it, I don't know. I was sure after that I lost the alien but I kept going because I thought Natasha was hot on my trail, tracking me, I honestly thought she was right behind me. That might not have been the best idea.
It hurt so bad I thought I was going to collapse, I thought my legs would give out on me, and I was suprised they didn't by then. And I knew that once I did fall, I wouldn't have the strength to pick myself back up. I knew that I would be deserted and no one would've been there to save me, except Pietro, but he had his hands full helping cap fight Stark off. And he'd never get here in time anyway, I thought, despite all the time he had.
It hurt so bad I hoped the cold would get to it, numb it, so I wouldn't have to feel that hot, sharp pain everytime I set that foot on the ground. I would have used my powers to hover but I didn't think I had it in me. I was too exhausted. Also, I wanted to try and make as little noise as possible. And draw as little attention as possible, but that was pretty hard to do since every time I felt that pain I wanted to scream. Not even that, everywhere around me leaves were crunching, sticks were snapping, that proved it is extremly hard to stay quiet in the woods.
I was about to give up. I was so tired, so cold, so in pain, I wanted to quit. I wanted to lie down on the soft moss and close my eyes. That sounded so good, it seemed so tempting to stop. But I knew if I did I'd never have a chance. Then I thought, "You're never gonna make it, anyways. You're lost, stupid, can't you see? Wait, no, you can't can you? You know why? It's so dark, the only light you have is the moon, and that's barely coming in through the trees. You'll never make it, you'll never get out of here, and you'll never find your brother, at least, not in time. Just face it, you've been beat by death. Just give up, rest, award yourself mercy for failing. Lie down and go to sleep. And don't worry, they'll find your dead body eventually". And I almost listened, too. But then--
It grabbed me by the shoulder, so swift, and so powerful I was suprised it didn't dislocate it. I fell to the ground instantly, and it dragged me backwards, whatever it was. It happened so quickly I hardly had time to process. I tried to scream, but then I noticed something covering my mouth-- a hand?? We didn't go far, mabye ten feet. It dragged me into this hollow tree. There was a space underneath as well where the roots circled around you, enclosing you, protecting you from the outside. The space in height was considerably tall, you could sit up on your knees in it, you couldn't stand in it, though. The space in width was not as large, unfortunatly. It really only had enough room for one person to fit comfortably.
Nevertheless we both squeezed in. It pulled me back as much as it could, as far away from the enterance as possible. I wondered why. Was it scared? Was it planning on using me as a shield? I knew none of my people would be in this area. I honestly thought it was alien, that it was trying to kidnap me, or kill me.
A second passed after we both got in. I was still trying to scream, but by now nothing came out. My throat was starting to burn. I was so scared. I knew I wouldn't be able to defend myself if it attacked. But... it never did. That second I heard something I wasn't expecting to hear at all:
"Shhh. It's okay, it's okay. It's me. I'm here."
I was shocked. I gasped. I recognized that voice. "Vizh?"
"Yes. Now don't make a sound when it passes us."
"When what passes us?"
BOOM. BOOM. Footsteps. BOOM. They stopped. Right in front of us. It was so big. I don't know what it was. It looked like a huge robot killing machine. It was as tall as the trees and carried an oversized assault rifle. It also had what looked like laser blasters on each shoulder.
It was scary. It scared me. And it scared me even more to think that Vision might actually be afraid of it. I shut my eyes closed and leaned back. Vision had his arms around me. I did as he said and made no noise at all. Then I saw a bright light through my closed eyelids.
My first thought was that it was a searchlight. I was right. It was. I didn't like that I was right. In fact, I hated that I was right, because that scared me even more. It wasn't running away from us. It was looking for us. It wasn't scared of us. And that was frightening.
I thought it would find us. I thought we were dead. I knew we were dead. At least, I knew I was dead.
But no. I wasn't. Because then the light went off. And BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, boom, boom. It left. I could still hear its footsteps but they got quieter, and quieter, until I couldn't hear them at all. I sighed a sigh of relief, but it sounded more like a shaky exhale. I opened my eyes. "Thank you," I said, "you didn't have to save me."
"Of course I did. I saw you, just, standing there, and, then I saw that thing coming, so... What were you doing, anyway?"
"Oh, just... uh...thinking."
"Oh. Well, anyways, I saw you there so I grabbed you and brought you here. I couldn't just leave you there to die. I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't do anything to help you. And, I'm sorry I just grabbed you and dragged you like that. We just didn't have the time to chat before that thing saw us. Did I hurt you? Are you okay?"
"No, not really. But it's not you. I tripped and fell before. I hurt my ankle."
"When?"
"I don't know... sundown I think."
"You realize it's almost dawn, right?"
I shook my head. I must've lost track of time. I thought I just fell an hour ago.
"Have you been walking on it all this time?"
I nodded.
"I don't think that was a good idea, Wanda."
"I know."
"Can I take a look?"
"Yeah. It's my right leg."
He got out and examined my ankle. I thought now might be a good time to ask. "What was that thing?"
He looked up at me. "I have no idea. But, whatever it is, it's strong. And determined."
"To do what?"
"I think it's trying to find us, all of us."
"Why?"
"I don't know about you, but, I don't really have any desire to find out."
I chuckled, "Yeah, you might have a point."
He smiled at me, then turned back. "On a scale of 1-10 how bad is the pain? 10 being unbearable," he asked without looking back up.
"Right now? I'd give it a solid five."
He lightly touched it, just barely in fact, but it felt like it was being stabbed with a knife. "Ahhh-hh" I tried not to scream but I couldn't help it. "Ten, Ten!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--" I very faintly saw his face in the little light that we had, but I noticed it was etched with worry.
"No. It's okay. I'm fine," I lied. I was doing a bad job at it, though. I was breathing really hard, tears were coming from my eyes, I definently did not look "fine". I was glad you could barely see out there, or I would be busted.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," I breathed.
"You need to rest, Wanda"
I nodded.
He got back in the tree and sat down behind me, just like before. He spread out his long legs and I sat in the space between them. That was about the only position we could be in at all in there. I sat back and let my head rest on his shoulder. I closed my eyes and relaxed. He wrapped his arms around me, I think he could sense that I was cold. I fell asleep.
xxxxxx
"Wanda, Wanda, wake up," Vision whispered. He shook me.
"No, five more minutes, Pietro..." I groaned.
He shook me again. "Wanda, come on."
I tried to get up. I forgot about the pain in my foot.
"No, no Wanda, don't--"
"Ahhh!" I gasped. I looked down at it, my ankle. It was purple and blue and black. It looked horrible. But it hurt even worse. More than before. I screamed.
Vizh put his hand over my mouth. I screamed one more time. The pain was excrutiating. "Shhh. I don't know if they're still out there," Vizh whispered. I nodded and he took his hand off. I started to cry, and put my own hand over my mouth. All I could hear were my muffled whimperings. All I could feel was the pain.
When I finally got control over myself a couple minutes had passed by. Vision wiped the tears from my face. "What time is it?" I asked.
"It's just dawn. I'm sorry I woke you up so early. It's just... I figured we ought to get going. Even though you've only had about an hour to rest."
"It's ok. I can't walk, Vizh."
"I'll carry you, then."
"Where would we even be going?"
"To find the others. To get to safety. And to get you help. Your ankle looks bad."
"Yes, I'm aware."
He picked me up and we started walking towards the last place we saw them. We agreed to head East, toward the sunrise, because that's the direction the parking lot's in, and the parking lot's the last time we both saw them fighting.
"I want to find Pietro," I said after we had been walking for a few minutes.
He noddded. "You will."
"Hold on..." I said.
Vision stopped.
"Why don't you just fly up, see if we're actually headed the right way?"
"Tired already?" he joked, as he sat me down on a nearby log.
"I'm serious, Vision," I scolded.
He sighed, "It's probably best to stay low. I'm not sure if that thing's still out there."
"Right." I thought a bit about last night. "Are you actually afraid of it?"
"Well, I'm afraid if it spots me it'll find us and I'll have to fight. And that could cause a wildfire. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize to you, of course," he paused, "or any wildlife in the area. Or any other life forms close by." He cleared his throat.
I chuckled. "We should probably get going."
He nodded and reached down to pick me back up. I stopped him. "Let me see if I can stand up."
"Are you sure?"
I nodded. He took a step back but made sure to stay close, just in case.
It was hard for me to get up. I placed both hands on each side of me and exhaled. I pushed on the log. It took me a while to actually get up though. I had to gather my strength to even think about standing. But I did, after, like, seven attempts. I felt wobbly, though and had to shift all of my weight to my left leg. Then I tried to walk. Bad idea. As soon as I tried to step down with that foot... let's just say, at that time, it was pretty impossible to step down with that foot. I fell. And almost hit the ground, but, Vision caught me.
He sighed and sat me back down on the log. "You okay?" he asked.
"I don't know," I replied, "I don't know, Vizh. I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, and in desperate need of a pain pill. So no, I don't know if I'm okay."
He stared at me. I hated when he did that. It made me feel small. He sighed.
So did I. "I'm sorry, it's just... It hurts so much."
"I know, I know." He tried to calm me down, to comfort me. I appreciated that. He was a good guy, always nice to me. And We were good friends. And we'd never really hurt each other in the battlefield. I'd never wanted to hurt him, and never felt any desire to. Apparently neither had he, or I would be dead by now. "Come on, I think we're almost there."
And we started East again.
It was getting a little lighter out, which was good. At least now we could see twenty feet in front of us.
Soon, we got to the parking lot, and Vizh set me down on another log so he could go check to see if it was safe. I could see the cement in the parking lot beween the trees, but, not much else in that direction. Vizh walked up to the parking lot and turned his head left. He smiled. Then he turned back to me and held up his index finger to tell me to wait a minute. Then he ran to the left. I waited.
xxxxxxx
"Hey, Vizh! We were about to leave without you, buddy," Stark yelled at him. He gestured for Vision to hurry and get in the quinjet.
Vizh went up to him, "Wait, Tony. Where's Cap and his team?"
"They already left, the cowards. Too afraid to help us take on that thing, or whatever."
"You destroyed it?"
"No. We had a hard time. It got away. We also have some casualties, so... we've got to go. Come on," he walked in the quinet via ramp.
"Stark!" Vision called after him.
He turned around. "What?"
"Is there space on the quinjet for another person?" he asked.
Stark sighed and walked back down the ramp. "It depends on who it is."
"Wanda," Vision replied.
"She hurt?"
Vision nodded.
"Bad?"
He nodded again.
Stark nodded and headed back in the quinjet. "Go ahead and bring her aboard," he said, "we'll wait."
Vizh flew off towards me.
Stark came aboard. In front of him was Natasha... that's it. Since Rhodes was still in rehab and T'Challa was in Wakanda for the month, it was just those three: Vizh, Stark, and Nat.
She was sitting on a gurney, complaining about sitting on a gurney. "Is this really necessary? I feel fine."
"Yes, it's necessary. You could have a concussion. And I told you to lie down."
"Come on, Tony. I told you I feel fine. I didn't even hit my head that hard. And you said you could use help flying back."
"Yes, you did hit your head hard. Very hard in fact, and the only reason why you're not telling me how much it hurts now is because you took, like, three of the strongest painkillers I had aboard at the same time. And I can just get Friday to help me."
Nat grumbled.
"Oh, and by the way, we have a guest coming so I expect you to be on your best behaviour, okay?"
"Haha, funny. Wait, are you serious?"
"Yeah, Maximoff girl. Vizh says she's hurt pretty bad. Team's abandoned her. Except for her brother, I didn't see him get on their quinjet, so, mabye he's searching the woods looking for her."
"Oh, yeah. Probably, huh?"
Stark just nodded.
xxxxxx
Vizh flew up to me. "Safe?" I asked him.
"Yeah," he replied, "safe, but..."
"But what?"
"You're gonna have to trust us, okay?"
"'Us'? What do you mean 'us'?"
"Your team's gone, Wanda. Stark said they left awhile ago. I'm sorry."
"Vizh, I know my brother. He wouldn't leave me."
"I know he wouldn't. He's probably looking for you."
"Then I have to find him."
"No, Wanda. Look, your brother will be fine, I'm sure. We need to go. I convinced Stark to wait for us."
"I'm not going to leave him here," I said sternly.
"Wanda, please."
She sighed. "Fine. But just because I have to. My ankle is killing me."
"I hope you don't mean literally," he chuckled as he picked me back up.
xxxxxxxx
When we got into the quinjet Stark was waiting to help us. I was suprised he cared enough to even wait for us to get on board. Nat was standing by him. He reluctantly let her. And I used the gurney she did before.
"Okay, let's set some things established, here," he said to me.
I turned to him. I was sitting on the gurney with my legs straight out, and my back rested on the wall behind me.
"We're not going to hurt you," he said, gesturing to the three of them, "and you can't hurt us, deal?"
I nodded. Even if I wanted to hurt them, which I don't, I doubt I'd have the strength to do it.
We headed for the Avengers Facility, which was now more like the place Stark and his team stayed. We, on the other hand, stayed in Wakanda. It was hot there.
It didn't take us long to get there. Stark parked it on the roof and we all got out. They took me immediatly to the medstation where some doctors took a look at my ankle and made sure Romanoff didn't have a concussion, like Stark was worried about.
They took x-rays and someone got me some water and a burger from Shwarma. After an hour of waiting they finally came back in to see me and said my ankle was broken. They advised I agree to have surgery on it right then. So, I said sure and the last thing I remember is counting down from ten.
xxxxxxx
"So, where did you even find her?" Stark asked. He and Vizh were roaming the halls, waiting to hear back from the doctors.
"Well, I was in the forest, trying to track it down, to see where it lead me, and I just saw her standing there. Then, I saw that thing coming and that she was conveniently in its line of fire so I grabbed her, and we hid in a hollow tree until it passed."
"Huh. Well, I hope she's all right."
"Yeah, me too."