Welcome to my first multi-chapter story. This is a Wanda/Vision fic, (they're my OTP.) Takes place after Infinity War, but before Endgame. I really wanted Vision and Wanda to stay together, so this helps me answer that. This'll probably be 3-4 chapters, I'm not going to make this too long. I will not update this regularly, so you are going to have to be patient, just a warning. I may change the title of this later on as well. And the summary, because I kind of suck at those, to be honest. So yea, hope you enjoy this.

Takes place post-IW (and AMaTW.)

Words: 2,292

Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters. I wish I did, (they're awesome characters) but I unfortunately do not.

Chapter Rating: K

Published: 4/11/2019

Vision woke up in a field of green grass with the occasional wildflower, in quite a daze. It must have been around sunset, as there was a certain orange glow in the sky. He tried to shake his confusion and recall the last thing that had happened to him. As he stood up with difficulty, he had successfully recalled the memory (if the android could even call it that): Being destroyed once at the hand of the love of his existence, Wanda Maximoff, in an attempt to destroy the mind stone. He was.. At peace, he thought. Even if Stark (whose whereabouts he did not know of,) Banner, and Princess Shuri were not able to recreate him without the stone, he knew that at the very least Thanos would never be able to commit mass genocide. He felt his forehead crack open, and he lost his senses a split second before his body was presumably torn apart. The last thing he saw was Wanda's melancholy face and Thanos coming behind her.

What seemed like both mere seconds and an eternity later, Vision felt his body getting pieced back together. He thought it was a very odd and unnatural feeling, as if time was reversing to before Wanda obliterated him. He knew that he only had a small fraction of his senses at that point. The scene continued in his head. Once he regained consciousness, he was very confused, but internally dismayed upon seeing Thanos' face in front of him. He heard Wanda shout "No!" and tried attacking Thanos, only to be swatted aside like a mere gnat. If an android could choke, then Vision most definitely did when Thanos wrapped the cursed gauntlet around his throat. He could hear himself screaming in agony as Thanos pulled away his precious source of his consciousness: the yellow mind stone seemingly glued to his forehead. He heard a sickening crunch that brought him the most pain of all, then that same odd feeling of peace flowed through his body as he lost his senses once more, seeming to replace his life smoothly and quickly.

Why am I alive? Where am I? Did Wanda bring me here perhaps? Vision deliberated as he began to walk around the strange field. The first thing he noticed was that the dull orange glow was constant all around him. The sun much higher in the sky than it would be for a sunset. It was very peculiar that it would act like that.

The field had minor hills and valleys, and since Vision was standing in one of those basins, he couldn't see much in front of him. When he looked to his sides, he saw the field level out, with a tree line about a 2-3 minutes human walk away from him. Vision's elbow then grazed the place where Thanos' minion impaled him with a spear, negating both his phasing and disguise ability. To his surprise it felt… gone. Not even stitched up or replaced with extra vibranium, but just like the spot was before Vision got impaled. He then walked near one of the hills, and confidently decided to try phasing through it. He speed walked towards the hill, and kept his footing on the hill just like he remembered. But as Vision tried to activate his phasing, he found with dismay that is didn't activate as he tripped and fell on his knees. It would have been quite embarrassing if any humans (especially Mr. Stark) had seen.

That's odd. It was almost as if my programming prevented me from phasing, not just an external injury, Vision thought as he got up and brushed the dirt off of his bare white feet. He looked at them with curiousness and surprise. Especially since I currently have my human form. That led him to test his other powers on the hill before finding other life. After all, if Vision found someone who reacted aggressively to him, it'd be useful to know if he had a power before he tried to use it on them. He did not seem to be able to increase his density, but he seemed to be able to decrease his density, as he was able to float off the ground for a few seconds. But again, it seemed like his code prevented him from increasing his density, and while it felt like his code let him decrease his density and fly, the code for that seemed separate from what it used to be. It was almost as if someone rewired him. Vision pushed the absurd thought out of his head.

Then he felt his forehead (why didn't he think to do that before?) and became somewhat concerned. The mind stone was missing. It was almost as if it was never there. He mentally crossed off the ability to harness the mind stone's energy on his list of powers and abilities he still had.

How did Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner manage to bring me to life without the mind stone? It's unlikely Thor's new hammer could have helped, presuming he is even still alive, Vision thought. He then decided to attempted to shape-shift into his normal, red-skinned, armored self. And he succeeded, albeit with great difficulty. He lost his human disguise, but he couldn't generate his armor and cape, so he got stuck in a green cardigan over top a white button down, and khakis. Vision then got an idea to try and disguise himself to look like Bruce Banner. He had succeeded with it in the past. But after five minutes, he realized he could only toggle between his two forms, and his human form was his default.

At this point Vision decided to take a look at his code and hardware himself. He found that his code was just as he thought it was: changed, inhibiting certain abilities. He also found that his code was… quiet, being no other words to describe it well at the moment. It was as if it wasn't even half of what gave him consciousness. His code was like that prior to the battle, but the mind stone (and it's odd neurological system) connected with his code, working with it to create Vision. There was nothing on Vision to replace the mind stone, but yet his code was still somehow off, hiding in the background like something else was doing most of the work. Vision kept all of his intellect and logic, but he could not figure out a logical explanation for how his code was able to function only as part of him (a minor part of him at that) if the mind stone (or a suitable substitute) was not with him. In any case, the only substitute Vision could think of is possibly Wanda, and she was nowhere in site.

My love couldn't have abandoned me, right? Vision thought erratically.

At this point, Vision was sitting on the side of the hill, still utterly befuddled at his predicament. He reviewed the facts: Vision had "died", his cold body probably tossed aside mercilessly by that purple villain called Thanos. Yet, he emerged perfectly fine, his wounds seemingly disappeared, as if they didn't even exist. Shuri didn't succeed in rewiring Vision, or else Wanda would not of had to destroy him. No one at the battle was to be found. Same with all other humans.

Once Thanos collected the mind stone from my head, Vision thought. He would've combined its power with the other stones and wiped out half of all life. Let me see, what did Bruce say on the ride to Wakanda? There was mind, space, time, soul… Vision paused at the word soul. He recognized it from somewhere. He brought up the word in his mind, trying to find the probably extensive amount of data he had on it. Instead of it popping up like a google search, he had to almost backtrack and… think hard. Finally he recalled a conversation between Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff (Vision began to wonder for a second where she was) and himself. It was about 3 weeks after Sokovia, where he asked their opinions on what would remain different between him and human beings in terms of what humans called "character" and "personality," among other things besides his powers and what he's made out of (vibranium and code versus flesh and neurons.) He heard Steve whisper something, so faint even he couldn't hear it.

"What was that, Rogers?" Tony asked, curiously but almost mockingly.

"Nothing," Steve quickly announced.

"Oh really? No, it's just I thought I heard you saying something that may be of use to Vision," Tony continued.

"Tony, I don't know if you know what I said, but whether you heard it or not, it's not something a robot would like to know. He'd probably get offended," Steve assured.

"It's new knowledge for him, Steve. We need to teach him about humanity, ya know," Tony insisted.

"Tony, just pretend I didn't say anything. In any case, I know what you think about this and I'd rather not start an argument. I doubt Wanda would want to be forced to argue over something in the first month of her being with us. Just drop it," Steve enforced, his tone hinting at anger.

Right before it got to almost the boiling point, Bruce cut in. "Guys, guys. Stop fighting. Let's just tell Vision that he's different from us 'cause he most likely doesn't have a soul and I'm sure he'll appreciate our honesty. J.A.R.V.I.S. appreciated honesty, and I hardly get offended when I'm not green, so I'm sure he'll be fine!"

Everyone was staring at Bruce. Steve was in the sort of, What the heck, man? You shouldn't of said that stature, whereas Tony was staring at him like, Did you seriously just suggest that? Wanda's eyes were calmer, more understanding, interested in what Bruce had to say. Vision couldn't see his own face, obviously, but he recalled he scrunched it up and lowered his eyebrows, the way many people did when they were confused, which is what he felt like.

After a hard, long silence, Vision spoke. "What is this… soul you mention? My database shows no recollection of the word."

After another, smaller silence, Tony spoke. "Are you serious, guys?" He said. "Souls don't even exist, and even if they did, a robot semi-created by yours truly would be the absolute last thing in the world to want to be educated about them, nonetheless have one." He smiled for a second before continuing. "It's almost funny, really. The fact that you guys want to teach Vision about something that doesn't even exist, I mean, haha, am I right? Besides, what else would that teach Vision about humans other than the fact that we have… interesting imaginations and hopes?" The apparently soulless android simply watched, dumbfounded and confused.

"You're forgetting that Vision is my creation, too," Bruce pointed out. "And I think he should know about this sort of thing. High school students learn about this in history class, and in a way, Vision is an avid, curious high schooler." Wanda nodded at the notion, and the four Avengers silently agreed to teach Vision about souls.

"Also, Tony," Steve said in a menacing tone, "Souls do exist, so don't go around trying to bash peoples beliefs with your own. Many people won't be as tolerant of that as I am."

"Jeez, Saint Steven," Tony remarked. "Let's just get on with this lesson, okay?"

And so they did. Vision was taught new concepts like religion, karma, atheist (as well as to associate the word with Tony, at least according to Steve) and (perhaps most importantly) Heaven, among many other things. It was essentially what humans would call a crash course in world religion.

He also got a basic answer to his question: "While not proven to exist or not exist," Banner said before going into a coughing fit while saying "Steve" and "Tony" in a negative manner. He then continued, "The soul is believed to be an immortal part of a person, and that, once the body dies, the soul remains 'alive,' so to speak, and goes elsewhere, sometimes believed to be an afterlife, sometimes believed to be a new, different body."

Vision got out of his own mind and moved back to the hilly field. Souls definitely exist, and that soul could go to an afterlife, he thought. That puts a new idea into perspective. He went over the possibility for a solid minute, then realized the one flaw that voids everything: Vision is an android. He does not "live" like most beings do. He does not require oxygen to function, he does not have neurons like humans, he computes things in an equation rather than think rationally (and occasionally irrationally) like humans do. He could never, ever, have offspring of his own. Therefore, even though he can show emotion, and has a lover, and has earthly, very human desires, Vision could not be defined as a living being, so he most certainly could not have a soul.

But then why is he still able to function? How did certain powers get reprogrammed but not others? Why is his mind a little bit slower? If he isn't dead, then what could have happened? Why does he feel so… different?

Vision couldn't answer that question, but he wasn't going to stand around to wait for an answer. Making sure he was in his default form (as he now liked to call it) he began to trudge up the hill that he tested his powers on. Maybe he could see if there was anyone on the other side. Maybe Wanda's looking for me on the other side.