"I see you are thinking about Pietro." Stated the humanoid computer simply. His voice calm and steady as it always was, however a hint of worry was tied to every word this time, his tone becoming softer at the late Maximoff's name. The lines in his perfectly crafted face that were supposed to represent eye brows, knitted up with unease.
The sad women broke her blank stare into oblivion and looked up at Vision from where she sat on top her neatly made bed. Vision's much taller frame leaned carefully on the wooden frame of her bedroom door, trying to mimic the "casual" attitude of Tony. He was matching the physical stance of a care-free man rather easily, those long burgundy colored fingers were loosely tangled in each other's relaxed grip in front of him, those powerful shoulders that were always perfectly aligned and straight were tilted and his right one was hitched up as he put all his weight onto it, leaning. Even his feet, that were sporting freshly polished Oxfords, were crossed at his ankle, the very epitome of cool and lax. He looked expensive and new, all dressed up in Tony's fine cashmere sweaters and white pressed collared shirts poking from under it, and black slacks. He looked like he fitted perfectly into Tony Stark's home of amazing electronics and weird yet interesting art decor.
However, the feeling of his overwhelming calculated worry and screamingly silent anxiety was enough to make the very powerful mutant women start grinding her teeth. Instead, Wanda's head tilted to the side, eyes narrowing up at the man. If that's even what "he" was. Ultron claimed to be a man too, no a God. No, something better, something higher and more powerful than a God because of, well, the list of reasons the machine gave back then was long and unimportant. It mattered little what you claimed to be when you were utterly vaporized by something like The Vision, a computer, no, something that was above that, artificial intelligence? No, he, "it", was half Gem Stone, half plastic, part Tony? No, part Ultron? Who was part Tony already?…Oh this all made Wanda's head spin more than usual. It was all so confusing, and so many English words still got lost in her vast Sokovia's vocabulary that she didn't quite understand what Vision exactly was. Besides currently observing her with in his quite manner in the doorframe, that is.
He was correct though, as he always was, she had been thinking of her beloved twin Pietro. But it unnerved her how he knew. She was not aware that Vision was a telepath. Or had he always been and nobody told her? Could she not have picked it up on her own, being a telepath in her own manner? She frowned a bit. Did they, the rest of the Avengers, not tell her because she not fully trusted among them? Why should she be? It had only been a few months since she tried to help a corrupt piece of advanced machinery burn down all of civilization to ash.
"How do you know?" She said, her o's long and touched with a foreign accent. Long strands of brown hair fell to the side of her face when she quizzically stared at him. Vision untangled his fingers and pointed at her.
"You are crying. An easy tell." He said sadly, almost in a whisper, like he didn't want to share this information in a completely empty mansion.
Wanda's hand flew up to her damp cheeks, the tips of her fingers touching the wet streaks left behind when fat little tears must have fallen without her feeling them roll down her own flesh. He was right, her constantly troubled thoughts had drifted to her dearest dead brother, as they did from time to time, every day without fail, but this past week Pietro's youthful face and hidden smile that he only used to allow Wanda to see had plagued her more and more. The remaining Maximoff had been adjusting to this "normal" life in slow, even strides. This normal life that which Tony Stark had provided without sparing another second thinking about it. One of the most powerful men in the world, one of the most richest, Iron Man himself, had been spoiling her silly without him even really registering (or caring) the fact that Wanda was used to a life of being locked in a windowless cell in HYDRA, going days without eating (to see if starvation would have any effect on her mysterious mutant powers), or her incredibly simple and frugal childhood life in Sokovia. Tony Stark had given her a huge room, with the biggest bed she had ever had privilege to touch, let alone sleep in, complete with a giant television that was almost comical in size with a remote that she only understood how to push the "power" button on and off. She could walk into the lavish kitchen at any time of day or night and always find the massive refrigerator filled with fresh fruits, meats and brands of foods she had seen in advertisements. It shamed her when Tony got upset over the mystery person who left the coffee grounds in the sink. There didn't seem to be a trash of any sort in the whole place. Even though she was technically under "house arrest", something that Tony tried to explain to her gently and carefully, like telling the family pet that were about to go to the vet for the very last time, so not to rouse her into a paranoid frenzy, she was still allowed to live the life that only a few people in the whole world could dream of. She still was allowed to wonder wherever she liked, the Olympic sized swimming pools, the private spas and baths, or to go lounge in the garden in the back (which she heard rumored wasn't for Tony, or even for Pepper, but for the MIA Dr. Banter, with all of Bruce's favorite types of planets that were imported from India and Finland). God, before the house arrest Tony had even granted her permission to drive any of his insanely expensive cars or use a private jet or two. Even though she had never driven anything with an engine in her entire life.
He threw a pair of car keys at her for an untouched model of a blue Lamborghini that wasn't even in production yet, and gave her a wink. "You and Nate should go shopping. Go do something girly, something fun, yeah? Get your hair done together, maybe nails? I see yours are a little chipped. Hell, take the jet. Go shopping in Italy. Tell Gucci that Tony sent you."
Having all of this made her feel like an empress. It wasn't "hers" though, and it wasn't really FOR her either. She understood it was really just for Tony, this big and extravagant gesture of friendship. It was the only way Tony knew how to express his sorrow, a sort of asking for forgiveness with all he tried to amend for his doings and undoings. For Ultron. For Sokovia. For Pietro. But Tony seemed to forget that she was at fault here too, to some degree as well. Had she not agreed to help Ultron, Pietro would maybe still be by her side now, enjoying all of Tony's gifts and bounty. But then again she wouldn't have helped Ultron if HYDRA had never gotten their hands on her or her brother. But they wouldn't have ended up at HYDRA if Stark Industries hadn't destroyed everything they knew and loved. And round and round the blame game went. In another life maybe it all could have been played out differently. In another life she dreamed she wore a crown of blood red rubies, with a long cape that swirled behind her in elegance and magistracy. In this life nobody feared her, she had a large family, true kind friends and kings of other lands would seek out her hand in marriage and she lived happily every after.
Then it would dawn on her in stages, the truth of it all, and she would realize that she was alone now. Truly alone. Her home decimated to rubble. Family, what little friends she had, crushed under tons of concrete and steel, maybe even exploded in the rain of fire by Ultron's drones. Pietro was not here to share this gluttony of comfort with her, these first class meals, these mindless shopping trips where not just hundreds were thrown out but thousands. A thousand dollars on a single pair of shoes, who would have thought it. It shamed her when Natasha told her NOT to feel ashamed, it's just how the world is. It's just how America works. It's just how Tony works too and Tony was in America and America was part of the world and Wanda was currently in all three. But Wanda couldn't help but feel sick about it afterwards when Natasha pressured her to get them, that they would make her feel better and take her mind off things. Wanda liked Natasha, she really did. She wanted to think of themselves as friends, two women who were transplanted into this little Avengers family, with messy pasts that were forever stained with someone's blood that wasn't their own. The very serious S.H.I.E.L.D agent told her they were cute shoes, which sounded forced and strained coming from those red stained lips of Black Widow. Natasha told her it will take her some time to get used to "life style", everyone always had to adjust when they became "friends" with Tony Stark. When Wanda returned to her room, she threw those useless heels into the back of the closet. Maybe if Pietro was here, he would have awed at a thousand dollar pair of sneakers, running on the finest footwear the world had to offer. Running three, four times the speed of when he wore his adoptive father's hand me down loafers that didn't fit him, or HYDRA's clumsy and old army boots. But that was all moot thinking.
Pietro would never run again.
Wanda's sight blurred and Vision's soft mesh fabric fingers wiped away a tear that had again, escaped Wanda's over flowing eyes without her even realizing it. One moment she was thinking about forced shopping sprees, then next, a very real vision of Pietro's bullet riddled bloody body on the broken ground. Vision looked down at her as Wanda snapped her head up, surprised that he was no longer lingering at the edge of her room, but was just inches away from her, without her noticing.
"May I sit down?" He gestured with his other hand to the vast bed she sat on. She nodded, wiping at her face, feeling embarrassed that she was crying. She thought she had lost all her tears decades ago. She never wanted to waste her time crying ever again, and she certainly didn't want to ever cry in front of anyone. And here she was, crying like a child in front of a perfect-God-like being that must have thought her to be silly and weak. Maybe a little pathetic, too. She leaned away from his comforting touch.
"What happened to your brother wasn't your fault." He said. She hadn't noticed him sitting down, as the mattress hadn't shifted under his weight, for he shifted his weight to be nonexistent. What a strange creature he was...But so was she. More so a monster than a creature.
He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and gave it two awkward pats in a "there-there" motion. She opened her mouth to argue his point, and allow herself be swept up in self-pity so that she could justify her crying and mourning. Vision went on, cutting her chance to raise an argument.
"If you trail it far back enough, you should blame me." Wanda's confusion was plain on her fair features, again she tried to protest, and again Vision denied her and continued his explanation.
"I was the one that first noticed when Ultron had manifested into being self-aware, and yet I failed to contain him within the main computer's system, which lead him to gain all the information the Avengers had to offer and whatever else that turned him into this hate fueled thing, this concept of Ultron."
There was that tricky English again that Wanda tried to understand, but some words escaped her. She never did find out just how Ultron came to their church in Sokovia that faithful day, just what she picked up from the news and what others tried to tell her. Tony had made Ultron, like a computer game, but one that could help people. That was why Ultron wanted to start humanity over? To help them? And then Tony told Ultron to listen to him, and Ultron said no and that was when she and her brother had joined the fight. It was when Ultron promised them a place at his side when he started the world over and it sounded wonderful. Ultron was so kind to them, to her especially, that they almost ended up following him blindly. The Maximoff's twins understood even less back then, in the grand scheme of things, and they didn't care. They were out of HYDRA, they were together and that was all that mattered. A metal God offered them revenge, and they took it without asking too many questions. And when they did ask, Ultron would smile at them warmly, and tell them as simple humans, gifted yes, but still simple, they wouldn't understand. Wanda accepted the fact that she was just not smart enough to understand the situation and that it was better to not question the living computer who didn't seem to like humans all that much.
Vision detected her self-conscious state, the turned down chin, her right hand fidgeting with her left long sleeved cuff, her red swollen eyes avoiding his clear ones as he spoke, and tried to reword his explanation. He had no intention of making the human girl feel less worthy or adding more confusion to her current mood.
"Ultron over powered me." Vision saw Wanda flick her eyes over to him. Good, a sign of understanding perhaps? Maybe a connection of experiences was beginning to form between their linked stories? These were all good sighs that Vision was making note of.
"When I was just a string of data, he was a string as well. But within seconds he became a tangled ball, of yarn, if you will, and I was too weak to continue holding him. Tony had built him decades after he had a chance to study me, and even I was very advanced for the time. Ultron was a fancier A.I." Vision smiled a little. It was a sad attempt at humor. Wanda didn't understand it, and he wasn't ask quirky as he thought he was. How did Tony do it so effortlessly?
"I turned the tables on him, so to speak, and when I did I was the one that deleted him so he could never harm another human ever again."
"But now I am something more than just a yarn ball of tangled electric string living outside a complex set of microchips and circuits." He pointed to that brilliant gold gem in the middle of his flawlessly symmetrical face and forehead and then smoothly pointed to the television screen in her room that was on, but mute. The colored images of the news streamed in an endless loop of destroyed buildings, dead bodies, and aerial shots of the range of damage caused by the Avengers in Wakanda, the smoking building that had brought this whole registration mess up.
"And you, are more than just someone who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You are far more than just an experimented on test subject."
Wanda watched the screen and realized all over again that she was the spark that ignited all that was currently happening right now. She was the torch that brought it to life to all this chaos.
"You saved Steve." Vision stated if not a little happily, a little proudly for Wanda's sake.
"And before you raise an argument, please, if I may," It annoyed her how polite he was at times, or maybe she just wasn't used to it yet after a life time of having people either bark orders at you in disgust, or scream at you out of fear. Vision went on, "Yes, I think I am aware the numbers in your head are not matching up. You think by saving the Captain, in such a hasty manner, in such a hostel moment, I might add, you saved one life in exchange of taking away ten. That is not true." Those disked lensed eyes looked at her kindly, they moved slowly around her face, capturing her features in them and committing them to his internal memory.
"I have watched the footage over and over and analyzed it to a fine point. Had that mercenary detonated that bomb in the street, on Captain's shield, as was his intent, the casualty number would have been higher. AND Captain America would either had been severely injured or even dead."
Wanda did not believe the great Captain America would have been killed so easily after all he had been through. Vision explained how her force filed had absorbed 58% of the blast when the bomb went off, and the building's concert walls she threw him into absorbed another 24.5%. A blast that was meant to be for 3 miles, with enough force to kill 25 or 30 people (INCLUDING Steve Rogers) only managed travel 27.47 feet and only killed 10. Only was an ugly word and Wanda didn't like it. Vision's gentle British mimicked voice explained that it was only a matter of time that this registration act was going to emerge and the Avengers were the perfect target to be blamed for the destroyed properties and dead civilians around the world. There would never be a clean record, not when organizations like HYDRA and the other hundreds of terrorist groups like them around the world were involved in causing pain and were content with watching the world burn for personal gain.
"I hope that puts your troubled mind at ease a little."
It did. It greatly did and she told him so. How was one to compare the deaths of a few to a few dozen? Was Tony Stark even capable of sleep anymore after dropping a city of hundreds of thousands to their dooms? None of that would have mattered, however, had Ultron ended up victorious. Then billions would have been obliterated. Did Steve think about all those dead in the alien invasion in New York? Was there a line to be drawn in the sand or would the mark be blown away in the wind regardless of how deep it was. Wanda didn't even want to think about Thor, a true God, who was beyond age and who must have been in and seen countless wars. How many deaths were upon him? She shook her head free of those answerless questions and focused again on Vision beside her.
Vision lips tugged up into a smile once more at her. For her. A simple gesture that the others did not do for her. Tony's smirk didn't count. She tucked some hair behind her ear, and aimlessly wiped at her face again even though it was already drying. If Vison listened to his readings, right now would have been a perfect time to wrap his arms around her shoulders, carefully bring her into his chest, hold her close for approximately 36 seconds; longer if she did not pull away and remained still in his embrace, perhaps even run one hand up and down her arm or perhaps her back in a modest motion and their friendship bound would be stronger for it. Vision thought and analyzed about it too long, and his hesitation made Wanda squirm under his intense gaze, so instead she spoke again, ruining the quite moment they could have shared. He would never know how Wanda desperately hoped that he would have indeed embraced her, letting her know that even though she was alone in the world she wasn't completely on your own.
"I miss him." She said and gazed back to the soundless images of death and distraction and men in suites standing in front of podiums.
"I fear that is something you will feel for the rest of your life." He touched the top of her hand running his digits over the many silver and black ringers that decorated her own fingers. The intricate design of the rings resembling the patterns on his face in a slight manner.
"But you are far stronger than you think you are, than any of us think you are. You'll get through this. As will the rest of the Avengers. And I will be here with you as well."
She watched his fingers dance and glide over hers. Those fingers of hers were technically the source of her power, as she weaved the mutated magic within her body between her palms and knuckles, rotating the strange and unexplainable red energy in and around them. She felt his own energy crawl on her skin, his very form being the extension of his own mystifying power. She flushed. Or maybe she blushed? How strange it felt to have a man touch her so gently. Even though he really wasn't a man, but she wasn't going to let that spoil how he still made her stomach warm up when he was near, or how she just couldn't fight her cheeks beginning to glow whenever he laid a hand on her arm, or shoulder, or now, with his fingers exploring her hand so care-free and innocently.
Wanda looked back up at Vision, his eyes darted from their hands and up to her as well. He threw a quick look at the TV behind her and cursed himself for doing so, just as she decided to lean in a little closer to him. Instead of indulging in another close moment with Wanda, something Vision was beginning to enjoy more and more and come up with excuses in order to do so, such as hover around her open door and poke his head in to say hello to a fellow team "prison bound" member but was greeted with a weeping witch instead. Instead he witnessed the news broadcast the emergency situation that was currently happening at the UN…
Wanda's faint shy grin faded away when Vision's eyes were trained hard on what was happening behind her. She began to turn and quickly Vision said "Polksin?" and she turned back to face him.
"Polksin?" She parroted back, a little smile on her dark colored lips. She always liked it when Vision said words from her motherland. It sounded flawless on his electrical tongue.
"You know how to play?" She said. She hadn't played Polksin since she was in grade school. She had no doubt that Tony Stark had gold covered playing cards somewhere in this house.
Vision stood up, efficiently putting his body between Wanda and the literal bad news. He was going to try to spare her the horrible situation of the world, if only for a few more hours while they played an old Sokovia card game. She would find out eventually, certainly, but was it wrong to delay the information if she wouldn't be able to leave the house in order to help or do anything about it. Vision was already calibrating all the facts that whoever or whatever was behind this dreadful bombing at a UN meeting, of all places, was already being investigated. The King and Prince of Wakanda were there after all, as well as Black Widow. The investigation was already underfoot, unquestionably. Captain America and Falcon were in the area as well. There was little for Wanda to do besides have more things to worry over events she could not control. For now, it was best to take Wanda out of this cramped room (even though "cramped" was the opposite of what it was) and make their way to one of Tony's many parlor room to play some cards.
"But go easy on me. I may get distracted with remembering all the rules. You'll have to remind me."
"Ha, I haven't played since my hair vas in pigtails. Iz that even possible? You getting distracted, that iz?"
"I'm starting to wonder that myself." He said good naturedly, keeping instep with Wanda by her side as they walked down the long hallways of Tony's massive home. Vision pondered if he shouldn't perhaps attempt to cook her dinner afterwards.
/Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter: Spiderling and Tony talk shop while Peter is suited up with his new digs at Tony's place./