Sorry for it being quite short. I had a nice long migraine this week and couldn't do as much as I would've liked. Hopefully, I'm back to our regularly scheduled programming by next week.

The first thing he's aware of is that his ears are ringing. He realizes this might be an understatement as it sounds more like someone might be playing a John Phillip Souza march in his ears. He opens his eyes again but all he can see is a huge cloud of dust floating down around him amidst the chaos of giant chunks of concrete strewn throughout the hallway where they'd just been moments ago. Another large piece of wall the size of a boulder has come through the concrete just to his other side. He feels Hanna still beneath him and he squeezes gently where his hands are already clutching her shoulders. "Hanna?" His voice sounds hollow and tinny in his ears. "Hanna!"

When she doesn't move or respond he shifts to the side and turns her over. She's unconscious and has a large gash across her forehead that's still bleeding freely. He resists the urge to gag and puts his bare hand over the wound to try and staunch the flow.

"Christ!" he cries in shock as she suddenly takes hold of his wrist. All his little hairs prickle and stand on end while his whole body flinches in surprise.

"Ugh, what happened?" she asks, evidently too dazed to notice his startled response as she tries to blink away her confusion.

He takes a calming breath. "Ehm…your dad threw the Bus at us?" he says, realizing how insensitive it is the moment it leaves his lips. "I, eh, mean…"

But instead of the hurt he expects to see in her face, she belts out a startling laugh. "Yes! He threw a fucking C-17 at us! He crushed it up like a goddamn beer can!" She continues to laugh and it seems to border on hysteria. He thinks she might be in shock.

He pats her shoulder trying to think what to do and how to calm her. He thinks he remembers you need blankets for shock.

Hunter, Bobbi and May with a small tac team burst in through a door behind them that leads deeper into the base.

To his embarrassment, he jumps again and fumbles to pull out the modified ICER from his waistband before he realizes that it's them.

"Holy shit! You're okay!" Hunter cries jubilantly. He waves to one of the tac team members who comes over with a small med kit and starts to put a temporary dressing on Hanna's forehead. Fitz looks at the blood left on his hand and, swallowing down the extra saliva that fills his mouth, he wipes as much of it as he can off on his jeans.

May is already setting up some sort of perimeter among the concrete boulders with the other members of the tac team, giving them quiet but firm orders.

Bobbi looks around at the debris and whistles. "Looks like you just barely made it. You're lucky you got behind this wall."

"It wasn't luck," Hanna says sharply, her eyes still a bit unfocused as she pushes the medic's hands away. "It was Fitz."

Bobbi gives Hanna an inscrutable look, her lips are tense but her eyes seem almost sympathetic. She then turns her gaze on Fitz and he finds himself wanting to squirm in place.

Then an awful squeal of metal is heard from the other side of the rubble. May calls out a few more last minute orders.

Hunter gives him a wide-eyed look and says, "We're takin' you back to Coulson. Come on." He holds out his hand and Fitz takes it for counterbalance to haul himself to his feet.

Hanna gives him an odd, hopeful look as he reaches his hand out to help her up. Her face is so innocent looking in that moment, but then she leaps to her feet and, with a bit of a wobble to her step, heads for the earsplitting sound of metal being wrenched free. He sees May getting worriedly to her feet from the corner of his eye as he heads after her.

"No, no, no," Fitz says, taking her by the elbow and trying to redirect her toward the door leading deeper into the base. "This way. We are going this way."

He looks to Hunter and he nods, quickly taking the lead with Bobbi as Fitz walks Hanna forward.

"Tatusiu!" she calls over her shoulder and Fitz hears tears in her voice though there are none on her face.

"Your daddy's not listening right now, sweetie," Bobbi says over her shoulder to Hanna. She doesn't look back, too preoccupied with looking around for potential danger as they pass through the double doors into the hallway. "Coulson's setting up another perimeter this way," she says to Fitz.

Hanna's head hangs down as he leads her but she's not fighting him. He has one arm around her shoulders and the other extended with the modified ICER aimed and ready to fire.

"S'okay," he attempts to reassure her even as he tries to check for potential threats. She looks up to meet his eyes and he smiles encouragingly. Then he notices that her head—which was cleaned by the medic but she hadn't allowed to be bandaged—seems better, not as deep as it was. "Hanna…your head?"

She reaches up to touch the wound then and her face slowly splits into a grin. She nods several times. "It's back. Not all the way but…getting there." She stops short and closes her eyes.

He waves and mumbles something to Hunter and Bobbi who stop as well. He actually sees the moment it begins, as the skin quickly starts to knit back together visibly. "Holy hell," he mutters in awe.

She groans and shudders as the wound finishes closing. She wipes the remaining blood away with her sleeve. "Better?" she asks.

He can see no sign of the wound now and he nods. Wish I had that right now, he thinks.

"Me, too," she says smiling.

"What?" he asks, dumbfounded. He feels Hunter and Bobbi's eyes on them but he can't be bothered. They seem to be dividing their attention between guard duty and watching the two of them.

"I wish you had it, too," she says, her face faltering as she realizes something is wrong.

"I—Hanna—I did not say that out loud," he explains, taking hold of her shoulders in his shock. "How…how did…"

"But…What? I heard you," she says, her brows drawing down in disbelief.

"You said…you couldn't…" he starts.

"I can't!" she says immediately. "I swear. I've never…"

"Well, obviously, you can!" he splutters.

She looks at Bobbi and Hunter for a moment. "No," she says. "No…it's–it's just you. I can't…I can only feel their emotions."

"You can really hear what I'm thinkin'?" he asks with wonder.

She looks at him for a moment and then says, "Really? Now? Pancakes?"

"Bloody hell."

"Much as I hate to rush you," Bobbi says. "We've gotta move on here. If we're lucky, maybe your new party trick'll come in handy during the rest of the battle we're currently in the middle of?"

"Right," Fitz says and starts to walk again. "Can you, um, not listen to what I'm thinkin' maybe?"

When he looks at her for an answer, she shrugs. "I'll, uh, try?"

They round the next corner and Coulson is there firing Bambino at incoming Hydra agents and it's not very pretty. (Not that he can find it in himself to feel too bad for them.)

"They're going to be trying to get behind us," Bobbi yells to Coulson as they wait just around the corner for an opportunity to make a run for it. "May might need reinforcements."

There's a zig zagging line of storage crates all along the hallway where they've made their stand. Hydra agents are attempting to break through in squads. So far they haven't been a match for Bambino it seems.

"Mack," Coulson calls, "take a team down to help reinforce May's position!"

The agents and mercs along the hallway begin to lay down a cover fire as Fitz, Hanna, Bobbi and Hunter cross the hall to join Coulson while Mack and his team head back the way they'd come from.

Mack claps him on the shoulder as he passes by. "Take care, Turbo."

"Stay safe," Fitz tells him with a nod.

The he hears Coulson shout, "Incoming!"

Fitz ducks behind a crate clutching the ICER to his chest.

Hanna dives down behind him and furiously whispers, "It's them! She's coming! Peter's already gone. But Wanda! She's coming." Fitz holds up the ICER and Hanna shakes her head, whispering more quietly, "You'll never get her. Wanda…is sneaky."

Shite, he thinks and Hanna's lips curve slightly. He glares and she immediately shrugs, looking apologetic. He wonders why now she's suddenly gained the ability to hear his thoughts. It seems odd timing and when he sees Hanna nodding at him, he glares again.

Her mouth quirks and then there's a sudden loud onslaught of bullets. Fitz looks over the crate and sees a Hydra agent come out from his cover to hurl three dendrotoxin grenades which fly into the midst of his friends and allies. He seems to have three more in his other hand but Bobbi takes him out before he can get them launched.

Coulson grabs one and throws it back, one of the mercs kicks another away and the one that lands near Hunter just sits there as he stares at it. The timer ticks down, it's beeping growing more shrill until Hanna stands and gives it a hard kick, sending it skittering over the floor back toward the Hydra agents. One of whom throws a splinter bomb at Hanna. Fitz hears the whistle before it hits her just below the disc of the EM shield. It falls to the floor with a harmless clatter.

"Good to know it works for certain," he says, grabbing her wrist, intending to pull her down so they don't have to test it any further. But just as he tugs, he hears a gunshot.

He feels the spray of blood as it hits his face. Hears her body fall next to him. He's still holding her wrist.

He can't quite bring himself to look at her immediately. She's okay, he thinks. She's got to be okay. Her powers are back, she'll be fine. It was quick before, she did it really quickly. It'll just be a moment and then she'll be fine.

He vaguely hears the reports of many more gunshots as the battle rages on around him. Finally, he looks. He sees the red smear across her face and the little bullet hole. It looks insignificant somehow. Like it couldn't really cause someone's death, not something so small. But he knows the real damage is inside. Her brain torn and rent. He checks for a pulse and finds none. This isn't right, he thinks. Her powers are back. She should be fine. But her brain, he realizes, might not be so easily healed. Perhaps that was her weakness. He's forced to admit that he doesn't really know.

Then she's there next to him. A girl with long brown hair and the same green eyes as Hanna's even though they're glassy and filled with tears. They overflow and run down her cheeks, the droplets falling onto her sister's corpse. He only has a moment to think but even in his horror, it's enough as he raises the ICER and fires.

The look of shock on her face is almost enough to make him feel sorry if it weren't for the bit of red energy that sparks from her hands and then fades into the air. He thinks perhaps she'd been about to kill him before the formula took effect. Wanda looks down at her hands and then, raising her face to the heavens, screams.

Please comment/review. I'd love to know if you're enjoying the fic! Thank you for reading.