Chapter 20 On the Mend

The portal closed behind us as Wanda and I fell to the ground, looking around as we got up.

"Are you alright?" Wanda asked me as she noticed I was slow to get up.

I nodded. "Yea, I'm fine," I replied, when in reality I was trying to keep my energy levels up. In order to give me a little boost, I decreased the energy usage in the thermal area and redirected it to the storage energy. It was temporary, but it was better than nothing.

We started to look around for the others, finding the cube on the ground from where Rhodey had dropped it.

"Something did happen," I whispered as I picked it up. "Switching to thermal energy readings to find the trail of the others."

I saw a trail appear of the thermal energy.

"What do you see?" Wanda said.

"They were here recently," I reported. "Come on."

We followed the trail until we saw Vision, who was slowly following the thermal trail, but he looked seriously injured.

"Vision!" I exclaimed, racing to him and catching him as he stumbled, falling to the ground.

"Rose, is that the real you?" Vision asked dazedly, looking up at me and then at Wanda. "Wanda? You both look different."

"We had to change to make sure to not be mistaken," I said. "What happened to the others?"

"Wanda, she messed with their minds," Vision said. "It didn't work on me and when I tried to free them, she had them all gang up on me. I've been trying to follow them, but I'm having difficulties doing that."

"We'll go, Vision," Wanda said. "You rest. You need it."

Vision shook his head. "No," he said. "I have to get to them. You two won't be able to take them all on alone."

"We won't be going in alone," I said. "Wanda's gonna help us out."

"Clint realized something before she took his mind over," Vision said. "This Rose, she's older than you, and she knows her powers more than you do. Even though she's not an android, she's stronger than all of us. She's the reason I'm hurt so bad."

"How did he found out that?" I asked.

"He noticed that she looked older, closer to his age, way older than you would look even if you aged," Vision replied. "I was able to perform a quick scan before they attacked. It's true. There's only two years difference between them."

"We'll be careful," I said. "Why haven't your self repairs kicked in yet? Have you been forcing it away?"

Vision nodded, and I could tell he struggling more and more to keep awake.

"Stop fighting it," I said. "It'll only take longer for it to finish."

"Rose! Vision!" Wanda suddenly exclaimed, tackling me and Vision to the ground as an arrow exploded above us.

We turned and saw our Clint standing there, another arrow notched and ready to shoot.

"Look who finally decided to join the party," he commented. "A bit late, Rosalina? Wanda? Vision?"

"I'll distract him," I said.

Wanda stayed back while I shot a stunning arrow. When Clint moved out of the way, I flew to him and grabbed his bow, pulling it out of his grasp and letting it fall to the ground.

Clint threw a punch at me, catching me off guard and causing me to take a step back. He came in for an elbow but I ducked and threw a punch into his side, grabbing his arm and pinning it behind his back.

"Wanda, do it!" I said.

Wanda came forward and removed the control from his mind, causing him to ease up.

"Rose? Wanda?" he asked after a groan. "What happened? And why do you have me, Rose?"

"You were under mind control," I said as I let him go. "You attacked us and I had to make sure you wouldn't do that while Wanda freed you."

"I hate mind control," Clint growled, picking up his bow. Then he remembered something. "They sent others after me. I saw them."

"Who?" Wanda said.

"Rhodey, Simon, our Pietro, and Bonita," Clint said.

Something suddenly sped past us, knocking us down.

"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro asked. He was about to run off when I jumped at him, grabbing his legs and knocking him down.

Clint jumped up and placed his foot on Pietro's chest so that he couldn't get me. "You didn't see that coming?" he mocked.

Pietro glared at the two of us, not noticing Wanda as she went to his blind side and broke the hold over him. He blinked a few times, rubbing his eyes.

I motioned to Clint to step back as I let go of his legs.

"Never again," Pietro said, rolling onto his side and getting to his feet.

"There's still three others coming," I said. "We have to get ready for them."

"Vision's out," Wanda said.

I turned and saw that he had let his self repairs take over, laying on the ground. I went to him and placed him in a comfortable position, kissing his forehead.

"I remember him getting hit with a plasma ball and hex bolt before my mind was taken over," Pietro said.

We heard footsteps and got ready to fight.

"Who's there?!" I called, an arrow ready to shoot, since I had to keep from using too much magic or else I wouldn't be able to open the portal to get us through.

Missiles suddenly shot out at us but Wanda put up a shield to keep us from getting hit.

Clint shot an arrow that short-circuited Rhodey's armor as he came into view, causing the armored Avenger to fall to the ground.

Wanda rushed to him as Simon and Bonita came into view.

Pietro ran to Simon, hitting him with a flurry of fists as I shot a water-tipped arrow at Bonita before she could use fire, causing water to explode all over her, drenching her.

Wanda went to Simon next, Pietro racing to Bonita to grab her arms, locking them behind her back, as I went to check on Rhodey.

When Wanda moved to Bonita, Pietro went to go check out Simon.

"Remind me to not get on your bad side, Wanda," Rhodey commented as he, Simon, and Bonita came out of the mind control.

"We still have Tigra and Bobbi left," I said. "They must be with the others. One of you, make sure they don't get to Vision. Take him back to where we were going to open the portal. We'll return with the others."

"Bonita and I will watch over him," Simon said as he went to Vision, picking him up.

"You guys go," Bonita added. "Let us know when you're on the way if possible."

The rest of us nodded and continued to follow the trail to where the others were.

We went behind some rocks as we saw a HYDRA jet.

"Guys, act like you've captured us," I said quietly. "Then we'll spring an attack."

"Don't go easy on us," Wanda added. "We can take a few hits."

Clint grabbed me as Pietro got Wanda, they and Rhodey taking us onto the jet.

"We found these two," Clint said, he and Pietro shoving the two of us to the ground roughly.

"And the android?" HYDRA Pietro asked.

"We couldn't find him," Rhodey said.

"You tried to save your precious friends?" HYDRA Rose taunted as she walked to me, grabbing my chin and lifting my head to lock eyes with her.

I jerked my head from her grasp and looked down.

"You two failed terribly," HYDRA Wanda commented, stepping up to Wanda.

Wanda didn't reply, looking away from her.

"Why do you not say anything? Too embarrassed?" HYDRA Rose said.

A moment too late for me to react, she had slapped me, causing me to wince but bite down on my tongue to keep from making any noise. I glared up at her, a hand on where my cheek was now starting to bruise.

Next to me, I heard Wanda let out a gasp of pain, seeing that HYDRA Wanda had kicked her in the stomach. She clutched her stomach, doubling over.

Behind me, I saw that even though they kept straight faces, Clint, Pietro, and Rhodey wanted to help us so bad.

"Wanda," I whispered, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder.

"You're not going to heal her," Clint growled, kicking at me and nailing my wrist.

I let out a quick cry of pain, pulling my arm away, gripping my wrist.

"Tigra, Bobbi, tie them up," HYDRA Clint said.

Tigra and Bobbi came to us but Wanda and I were suddenly on our feet, Wanda immediately turning to Bobbi and freeing her mind before having me shove Tigra to her and doing the same to her.

Rhodey shot his missiles at the four as Clint and Pietro grabbed the two and pulled them out of the jet, the rest of us following.

"Go" Clint exclaimed as we ran, shooting a smoke arrow behind us at they tried to follow us.

"Simon, Bonita, we're on the way," I said in my communicator.

"We're here," Simon said.

"Vision is still knocked out," Bonita added.

"We'll get him treated once we're back," I said before breaking connection.

"They're gaining on us!" Bobbi said.

"Everyone grab hands!" I ordered, grabbing Wanda's and Clint's hands. As soon as everyone had done that, I froze time and we continued to run.

I let time move again once we made it to the ruins of the conference room.

Wanda and I opened the portal.

"Hurry!" Wanda said, breathing heavily.

The others went through the portal and Wanda and I followed, quickly closing it behind us.

We all took a deep breath.

"Please tell me that's over with," Rhodey said, slumping into a chair.

"You all are on our side, right?" Bonita asked to Clint, Wanda, Pietro, and I.

"Avengers assemble against evil," we all said, meaning that we were the real ones.

"I'm going to take Vision to the infirmary," Simon said, who still had Vision in his arms.

"I'm coming with," I said, walking with him to the infirmary.

Simon laid Vision on one of the beds. "He hasn't moved at all since you guys left," he said as I started to attend to Vision's injuries, even though I knew I needed to rest.

"He was seriously hurt," I said, starting to clean his wounds that hadn't closed yet.

"Do you need any help?" Simon asked. "You look pretty fatigued, yourself."

I shook my head slowly. "No, no, I'm-" I began, but my energy usage caught up to me and I passed out.

XXX

When I woke up, I was in one of the beds. In a bed next to me, Vision was still sleeping, his wounds healed. In a bed on me other side was Wanda, a hand over where she was kicked. I was able to tell that she had a wrap around her, making me think that she had a broken rib.

Slowly, I sat up, but Clint was right there, gently pushing me down.

"Easy there," he said softly. "You used up a lot of energy in the past couple days. You have to rest." He grabbed an ice bag that was next to my bed and placed it on my cheek over the bruise. "I know, I know, it's cold," he added when I winced. "There's not much I can do about that."

I noticed my wrist was wrapped up. "A bit too much, maybe," I commented.

"I realized that as soon as I hit you," Clint replied. "I felt the bone give slightly."

"That part is metal," I said. "The joints."

"Then that makes me feel even worse," Clint said, frowning.

"It's alright, Clint," I said. "You had to do that to make it look believable." I hug him. "It'll heal. If you not doing that resorted in them killing us, then it wouldn't have been alright."

Clint returned the hug. "I know, but it doesn't stop me from feeling bad," he said. "I made a promise to you to keep you safe, and I was the one inflicting pain."

"By doing that, you saved all of us," I protested, pulling away and taking the ice bag from him, placing it on my bruise. Wanting to change the subject, I said, "What happened with Wanda?"

"Rib kicked in, bruising her lung," Clint said. "Any harder and it would've punctured her lung. She was complaining to Pietro after you and Simon left that it was painful to breath. She couldn't get any sleep after we wrapped her so we had to choice but to sedate her for a little bit in order to let her rest."

"How long will the twins be staying?" I said.

"As long as it takes for her to recover," Clint said. "Then they'll head back to take care of Lucas and Lucy."

I nodded, starting to feel the ache from my wrist but not saying anything because I didn't want Clint to feel even worse than he already was.

"Are you hungry?" Clint said. "I could get you some food."

"I wouldn't be able to stomach it," I said. "But could you get me my book from my nightstand?"

"Sure," Clint said. "I'll be back." He kissed my forehead and walked out.

A couple minutes after he was gone, Wanda started to wake up, groaning and her face contorted in pain. She rolled onto her side that wasn't so bad, seeing that I was awake. "Rose?" she said. "Are you" she paused, wincing as she adjusted slightly, "alright? When I came in, Simon was putting you into a bed and Clint was working on you."

"For the most part, yea," I replied, moving some hair from my face, but by habit, I used the one with the bad wrist.

"Your wrist," Wanda said immediately, sitting up quickly but gasping in pain as she falls down again.

"Don't move," I said. "You'll only hurt yourself. And this was when Clint kicked me when I was reaching out to you."

"That bad?" Wanda said.

I nodded. "Yea, but it'll heal," I said. "I've forgiven him. We could've died if he didn't do that."

"That's true," Wanda said.

"How are you feeling?" I said.

"Like I can't breath well," Wanda said. "If I want more rest, they'll have to sedate me again."

I nodded.

"That bruise looks pretty bad," Wanda pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure she used magic to make that stronger," I said. "Because I'm pretty sure that was on par to Vision's strength, though he always goes easy on me in training despite me saying he doesn't need to do that."

"And Vision is strong," Wanda added, looking past me to him. "You're the only one he goes completely easy on. Even for Clint, he holds back only about half-way. Has he woken up yet?"

"Not that I know of," I replied, looking over at him.

Pietro came into the room. "I thought I heard your voices," he said, coming to me and Wanda. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged while Wanda said, "Horrible."

Pietro frowned and kissed her forehead. "It's expecting to be a long recovery time," he said. "There's not much we can do except to give you painkillers and sedate you so that you can rest."

"Can you do that please?" Wanda said. "I need to get more rest. I don't even wanna try eating until I feel at least part-way better."

"Alright," Pietro said, helping Wanda roll onto her back and then giving the two medications to her.

Slowly, Wanda started to doze off again and she looked at peace again.

"I hate that I couldn't do anything to help her," Pietro sighed, turning to me. "Or for you. Do you need anything?"

"I didn't want to tell Clint because I didn't want to make him feel worse, but my wrist is really starting to hurt now," I said. "Tony and Bruce created a special serum that needs to be added to whatever you'll give me that'll work for me and Vision, since we can't use a regular medicine like you guys."

"Already have the medicine ready," Pietro said, also giving me the medicine. "It'll take a little bit to kick in."

I nodded. "Thanks Pietro," I said.

"He felt really bad about hitting you," Pietro said. "When I brought Wanda in, Simon had already told Clint that you fainted and he was in, wrapping your wrist. He looked close to tears, even."

"He said that he felt really bad," I said. "And knowing him, I don't doubt it. He's never been the one to lie to me."

Clint walked back into the room, my book in his hand. "Here's your book, Rosie," he said, handing it to me. "How's Wanda?" he added to Pietro.

"She was awake and talking, but she's still in a lot of pain," Pietro replied. "I sedated her again."

Clint nodded.

"Has Vision woken up at all?" I said.

The two shook their heads.

"He's resting peacefully, though," Clint added when I looked over at him. "We've been checking on him, always getting better, always resting."

"He didn't rest at all while we were there," Pietro put in. "While we were sleeping, he was taking watch. And he took some really strong hits. It doesn't surprise me that he's still asleep."

"I just hope he wakes up soon," I said. "It'll make me feel so much better."

"We know, Rosie," Clint said. "We'll leave you in peace." He and Pietro gave me a quick hug and then left…

I opened my book and started to read, occasionally glancing at Wanda and Vision.

After awhile, when I was beginning to doze off, I heard Vision finally begin to stir.

Immediately, my drowsiness was gone as I looked at him.

He slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked around and saw me. "Rose? Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, just a bit battered from getting the others," I said, making sure that for the moment, he didn't see my wrist.

"I can see that," Vision said, noticing my cheek.

"I'm going to recover," I promised. "I just wasted a lot of energy today so I just need some extra down-time."

Vision nodded slowly. "Alright," he said, though I could tell he wasn't entirely convinced.

"How are you feeling, Vision?" I said.

"I'm definitely better," Vision said. "Other than a bit of soreness, I'm back to normal."

"That's great," I said.

"You look like you haven't had something to eat for awhile," Vision said. "Do you want me to get you something?"

"Now that you're awake, I think I could eat," I said.

Vision slowly got to his feet, making sure he wasn't dizzy or anything before attempting to walk. He came to me and hugged me, me careful to make sure that he can't feel the brace around my wrist. "I'll get you something to eat," he said, giving me a quick kiss before leaving the room.

I smiled as he left, sighing contently. "What did I do to deserve you?" I whispered, continuing to read.

When Vision returned, he handed me a plate of food, but he noticed my wrist. "What happened?" he said, placing a gentle hand on it.

"It's nothing major," I said. "I got hit while getting the others. It'll take a little bit for it to recover."

"Does it hurt?" Vision said.

"It did, but I took something for the pain," I said. "It isn't serious, Vision. I swear."

"I'll take your word for it," Vision said after a pause. "Go ahead and eat. You need it."

"Aren't you going to eat, as well?" I said.

"I will in a little bit," Vision promised me. "I need to check my circuits and processors to make sure the stuff that wasn't working was only because it was damaged temporarily and not permanently."

"Let me know what's going on," I said.

"I will," Vision said. He kissed my forehead and walked out of the room.

I set my book down and started to eat, deep in thought.

When I finished, I felt my eyelids grow heavy again and before I knew it, I was asleep again.

XXX

First thing I was aware of when I was awake again was that Vision was hugging me. I didn't know how long he had been there, but I wasn't complaining. Also, I wasn't in the infirmary, but in our room.

He was asleep, his arms around me in a protective manner.

A smile touched me lips as I slowly turned around in his arms so that I was facing him, one arm draping over him and the other resting against his chest, gently resting my forehead on his.

I was quite content to stay like this, closing my eyes as I silently let out a joyful sigh.

I didn't go back to sleep, but I stayed in my position, deep in thought, until he started to wake up.

When he started to move, I opened my eyes, my emerald eyes locking with his cyber-blue eyes.

Vision smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. "Feeling better?" he asked, neither of us feeling any motivation at the moment to actually get up.

"I am," I said. "Are you?"

"Luckily, everything that was damaged was temporary, so yes, I am feeling better," Vision said.

"Good," I said.

Vision rolled onto his back, pulling me with him so that I was halfway on him, halfway off, one arm curled against my back and the other resting on his chest. "Can we just stay like this for awhile?" he said.

"I see no reason why we can't," I said. "After all, we're recovering right now."

We did just that, staying in our positions, listening to each other's breathing, the music playing softly in the hallway, and the occasional footsteps.

In all the chaos that had gone on the past few days, I was glad to finally get some peace.