oOoOo
Dire disappointment and frustrated resignation pulled on Rhodes's features as he stared upward at the blocked egress. His shoulders drooped as he shook his head. He squeezed the still active phone in his hand then pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand.
"It's gonna be like that, huh?" he huffed as he glared at the latest obstacle then turned his eyes to Tony. "Man, I know this isn't your fault, but somehow I only end up in these situations when you're around."
As he spoke, he attempted to jostle Tony into the small enclosure as Wanda could be heard muttering rapidly somewhere in the smoky room behind them.
"So you're saying your life is dull without me," Tony said. "You should find better ways to thank me than this. Why are you still trying to drag me into the electrical relay closet? We can't get out through here unless…"
"Unless you can figure out how to get us past the laser barrier, so get inside and figure it out," Rhodes grunted as he shoved Tony inside. "Can you short-circuit the laser grid or bypass them somehow?"
"With what, the mighty paper printer you were extolling earlier?" Tony shot back. "Actually, I think Wanda turned that into Lego pieces so we don't even have that. We've got nothing here to… to…"
He paused and looked up, surveying the pulsing lines of light as they flared through the smoke wafting to the ceiling. His eyes burned from the fumes and lack of sleep. His thoughts felt sluggish and clumsy. His heart was hammering, making his head pound, and the bitter taste in his mouth told him what he already suspected: He was on the verge of a panic attack. He forced a deep breath as his mind began flicking images and ideas at him like a fast moving strobe. He blinked, trying to focus on any of them to gain his bearings.
"Is that array just a sensor or is it an active defense?" he asked quickly as a thought arced across his mind.
Rhodes was about to admit he didn't know when Tony grabbed his friend's wrist and stripped off his watch with quick but fumbling fingers. He then tossed the timepiece upward into the laser array only to have it spark and refract, sending a pulse of burning light into the wall. Both men yelped in surprise and leaped out of the way of the sparks as the incinerated watch fell to the ground half melted.
"Okay, it's active," Tony said unnecessarily.
"No, really?" Rhodes scoffed sarcastically as he looked dismally at his destroyed timepiece. "You know, that was an $8,000 watch."
"I know," Tony replied as he squinted into the space above them. "I gave it to you, but don't worry if we don't get dead out of this I'll replace it."
"You could have tossed anything up there," Rhodes said. "Why take my watch?"
"I don't know," Tony frowned. "I'm tired and a little stressed. I was looking up there and something in my head said use the watch."
"Genius got any other bright ideas?" he asked.
"Not skipping my weekend plans to do you and Super Spy a favor ever again is topping my list right now," Tony remarked.
oOoOo
Control Room
Fury listened to the chatter from the trapped men and looked at the time in the corner of the monitor broadcasting static. It hadn't been 10 minutes since they determined Wanda had entered the computer core, but he felt like he'd been presiding over a siege of his base for a week. He sighed forcefully as he straightened his shoulders then addressed the room.
"We need a plan, people," he said angrily. "I'm still waiting for ideas. Someone start talking. Now!"
The answer came from someone not on his staff.
"Bargain with her," Howard suggested with an intense desperation that drew many stares. "You've got contact with her location. Use Rhodes's phone to talk to her. Ask her what she wants and then give it to her."
"You suddenly want to essentially negotiate with a terrorist?" Fury asked.
"I want Tony out of there," he shot back anxiously. "You want this over. You asked for ideas on how to do that. Well, I just gave you one. You said she can change the trajectory of a bullet. That means conventional weapons are off the table. So, unless you've got someone else who can do what she can, a physical approach by ground forces is pointless. You can't hit that building with ordinance. It'll be obliterated and kill everyone in it and probably everyone in here too given the proximity. Look, if she's one of your operatives, then you know her and she knows you. That's your in and your advantage. Use it. If she's one of a kind for whatever she is (and I kind of hope to hell she seeing how she's short circuited like this), then anyone who can do what she can do is an asset you shouldn't lose—let her know you believe that. It'll tell her your serious and want to deal. You just need to get her under control. Nick, the only solution your brain-trusts in here have given you kills everyone. Make annihilating that place your last choice. Try something else first. Try anything else. I'm saying buy her off. It works."
"Buy her?" Fury shook his head. "I don't think she wants money."
"Money isn't the only thing of value, Nick," he argued. "Find out what she wants then give it to her."
From the back of the room Hope spoke up as more of her own hazy memories continued to sharpen.
"What she wants is to kill your son, Mr. Stark," she said.
oOoOo
Exterior—Computer Core
Thor swiped his brow after making several hefty swings at the dome of concrete. Cap stood beside him with a tense expression, offering the Asgardian encouragement that he just needed to strike the barrier a bit harder the next time. As he offered his encouragement, Peter arrived, skidding to a halt beside them.
"Are you nearly through?" Peter asked, retracting his mask. "You have to hurry."
"Why?" Cap asked. "Are they running out of air? Is there a fire?"
"There's smoke, but mostly there's Wanda," Peter answered desperately.
"Wanda?" Thor asked, halting mid-chop. "Is Wanda inside? Is she hurt?"
"She's the one hurting people," Peter explained. "Something's wrong with her, and she's trying to kill Tony. She attacked Agent Barton and then went after Sergeant Barnes. No one can see what's going on inside. You have to hurry. Um, Captain Rogers, where's James? I thought he was with you."
Cap explained his decision to turn the boy over to Valkyrie. Peter's arched eyebrows and silence were a not so subtle commentary the student's belief that the soldier made the wrong decision. It was apparent he thought Valkyrie a better choice for warrior in this battle and the old man a more rational option for babysitter. On its face, that appeared to be true, but Cap simply could not let go of the desire to make sure his friend was okay. He also knew Valkyrie was not specifically loyal to the Avengers. He trusted her to see that James came to no harm (and dismantle and disable anyone who attempted to do so), but he couldn't be sure she would be as caring toward everyone in the computer core. Having learned that Wanda was somehow at the center of the problem, Cap felt an obligation to her well-being as much as that of Tony and Rhodes.
"I need to be here," Cap assured Peter, who nodded but not all that confidently.
"Okay," he said.
A mighty crack appeared in the concrete wall keeping them from gaining entrance to the computer complex. A rush of hot, smoky air escaped as the whole building began to tremble. Thor took the sign as one of greater urgency and resumed his chopping efforts with new vigor.
"Man, we could really use Scott Lang right now," Peter shook his head as he looked at the fissure in the stone. "He could shrink up and get in there then go all gargantuan and break this apart from the inside."
"Well, Mr. Lang obviously isn't available," Cap said with a worry knot forming in his stomach.
If Tony died, their chances of retrieving Lang and Pym were nearly zero. They would remain trapped in the past. Conversely, with no solution for the time travel problem, Howard would be trapped in the future. Tony might have learned years earlier how to navigate the world without his father in it, but Howard had never lived as a father without his son. He had years of single life and a few of marriage before Tony came along, but the man had never had both his wife and only child taken from him. He'd never had to live in a world without both of them after they were a part of his life. Knowing what he did about Howard's life from the many years of Peggy relating her tales of their mutual friend, Cap was certain Howard would not do well being stripped of the only family he knew.
Cap suddenly felt immensely guilty for all the things he felt he should have told Tony in the previous two years about what Peggy told him regarding Howard and how much he cared about his son. He always resisted raising the subject because he felt Tony had closure. He worried telling him that the man just kept his distance due to his own fears and personal drive to combat the evils so few in the world knew about would not be helpful to Tony, but faced with losing him Cap began to worry he had repeated his mistake of trying to protect Tony by withholding information again. Guilt tugged heavily on his shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Peter asked and received a nod. "I'm sorry if I sounded like I was questioning whether you're okay to help out here. I just…"
"Peter, you said nothing wrong," Cap assured him.
Peter nodded, not certain he believed that, so he sidestepped to the question of James as he waited for Thor's next blow to crumble the wall enough for him to crawl through.
"So James is with Valkyrie?" Peter offered for lack of anything better to say. "She can watch him, right? Like, she knows how to do that? Not that it's difficult, but he's not from Asgard and I don't know how kids there behave because he… well, he sometimes doesn't."
"She was a mighty warrior and defender of Asgard, so watching him shouldn't pose a huge challenge," Thor strained as he swung Stormbreaker again. "He should be no trouble."
"I suppose you're right," Peter hemmed. "He's tired so as long as he doesn't start crying, he'll probably just smile a lot and sort of flirt with her. I heard that's what he does when Carol Danvers visits Colonel Rhodes and they go to the Stark's house."
"Oh," Thor remarked then grimaced as he paused in his efforts. "Crying followed by flirting? Valkyrie might not like that."
"Which one?" Peter wondered.
"Likely both but one more than the other," Thor said readjusting his swing. "It's best we get inside quickly and end this so he can be given back to his father."
With that, he swung Stormbreaker at the structure with enough power that Peter felt the circuits in his suit begin to absorb the charge as he struck his cleaving blow.
oOoOo
Control Room
Hope's assessment hung heavily on the air and made all other sound cease. Fury stared at her. Coulson's mouth pressed tightly. Howard whirled on her and glared.
"What did you say?" he demanded. "Give her Tony? No."
"But that's what Wanda wants," Hope repeated. "She wants Tony dead."
"Okay, does she have a second request that's worth honoring?" Howard asked angrily. "And who the hell are you?"
She briefly introduced herself and explained how she was involved. She got a shocked look as Howard again was reminded he was 30 years in his future. The woman before him was just a little girl in his recollection. Of course, his mind then quickly pivoted to her father, the man who put him in this predicament of finding out he was going to die once he got home (possibly just after watching a mad woman murder his son).
"So you and Hank had personal time with the Wicked Witch of the East?" Howard snapped. "Tell us what the hell her problem is."
Hope pressed her mouth together at the implied accusation but decided to let it slide. Instead, she tilted her head and assessed what she knew.
"She's not well," she offered.
"Yeah, I gathered she's off her rocker," Howard grumbled. "Putting that tidbit in the not helpful pile. Thanks."
"No, I mean, well, yes, that, but there's more," Hope shook her head then addressed Fury. "I don't recall all of it, but she's not herself, Director. I vaguely recall hearing her talking to my father when she came to the house. When I think about it now, I think she might have been hallucinating, which is what it sounds like she's doing right now. She also talked about a fire in her head and seemed to have a side conversation with someone who wasn't there. She got her enhanced abilities after Hydra's scientific experimentation, right?"
Coulson nodded and joined the discussion and offered up the detail that Baron vonStryker originally experimented on Wanda and her brother using the Mind Stone.
"And the power of an Infinity Stone can kill with just a touch, right?" Hope recalled. "Wanda's powers are from the residual energy she possess from the Mind Stone. She was in Wakanda when Captain Rogers and the team tried to destroy that stone, wasn't she?"
Coulson agreed and remarked that Wanda actually destroyed the stone originally in an attempt to keep it from Thanos only to have it reconstituted when he altered time and rolled it backward briefly. Hope nodded as that detail added validity to her theory.
"What if this behavior is a side effect to all of that exposure to the power of the Mind Stone?" she suggested. "She's enhanced, but she's human. The human body isn't meant to absorb that kind of energy and radiation without repercussions. Look what half as much Gamma radiation did to Dr. Banner? What's happening to Wanda could be damage to her synapses, chemical imbalances, or even a brain tumor. What if something organic is messing with her mind and she doesn't realize it and can't control it?"
"Could she have something like that all this time and we didn't notice?" Coulson asked sounding a bit doubtful.
Guilt-riddled expressions ringed the room as everyone swiftly looked down and away. Wanda was an Avenger. They were thought to be more than formidable; they were believed impervious to something as common and human as a cancer, yet they all realized the folly in that fantasy. Holding onto it as though it was a fact was no different than believing the mighty heroes didn't suffer from the jobs they did, whether physical or mental. Tony himself threw the door open to the world on how very human they could be when he confessed in a highly public speech his struggles with trauma reactions.
"Well?" Howard scoffed as he watched them all react rather than answer as he focused on Coulson. "Mr. Calmness there said she's not always this homicidal—by the way, that's not remotely reassuring. What it tells me though is that what she's doing now isn't typical for her. Nick, you got anyone here who knows about brain tumors and how they effect people? If this behavior is a sudden change, it seems like a pretty extreme and violent one. She might not have much time left if it's been growing for a while and reached a critical point now that she's losing her grip on reality. What do you know about these Infinity Stone things? Anyone else been harmed by contact with one of one? What happened to them?"
Everyone in the room looked at him with tense and awkward expressions. Howard stared back wondering what obvious mistake or oversight he made with his statement, but no explanation was given to correct him.
"Director," Coulson said focusing on the immediate issue, "if what Ms. Pym theorize is true, then then Miss Maximoff isn't to blame for what's been happening. More importantly right now, she's not in control of her powers right and is apparently unable to be rational. We have no means to subdue her."
"You can still try reasoning with her," Howard insisted. "It's easy. You tell a crazy person exactly what they want to hear to get them to do what you want them to do!"
"How is that reasoning?" Coulson wondered.
"It's not," he replied. "It's manipulating, but it gets the job done if you're convincing enough. Nick, you run a spy network. You've gotta have some of the best shine artists on the planet at your fingertips. Find one. Get him or her on the phone to that woman. Trust me. Hysterical people can be brought to reasonable action if the discussion is done properly, or so my butler told me years ago after dealing with several of female friends on my behalf."
Fury shook head and sighed heavily although in the back of his mind, he was quickly running through his catalog of silver tongues on staff to see who might be able to pull off a nice shine job. Sadly, his best was no longer among them. No one ever matched Natasha Romanoff's ability to convince a foe she was vulnerable or on their side then turn and strike at the right moment to seize the advantage.
"This isn't a scorned actress," Fury noted.
"No, but I know a thing or two about high strung women with short fuses, which is essentially what you've got here," Howard added and received a flat stare. "Don't give me the look. You didn't know Peg Carter during the war. She pulled a gun on Steve and shot at him once. I'll grant you, this situation with your witch girl seems to be exponentially inflated by comparison. Still, you're telling me that woman is human. Humans can be cajoled, convinced, or manipulated, whatever you want to call it. You get her on that phone now, and you tell her she can have anything she wants… Except Tony."
Hope cocked her head to the side and began shaking her head as another solution popped into her head.
"Actually, that's not entirely true," she said. "You can give her Tony. I think you have to."
Fury turned around and glared with his one good eye as he shook his head.
"Surrender and sacrifice has it's time and place," he firmly refused Hope's suggestion, "but that time isn't now and the place isn't here. Tony can be a Class-A migraine when he puts his shoulder into it and a pain in the ass without much effort at any other time, but we aren't sacrificing him. We don't do that to our people."
"He's the innocent and vulnerable one now," Coulson reminded her. "Those are the people we're supposed to protect. The rests of the world might never forgive us if we didn't do our best to save him."
The statement caught Howard off guard and found him staring with narrowed eyes as others in the room looked down in guilt and nodded.
"Why would the rest of the world care?" Howard asked. "He's a covert agent for you but the world knows who he is? How does that even work?"
"As with many things involving your son," Coulson said mildly, "it's complicated."
Hope didn't allow that discussion to go any further. She was not feeling quite so sentimental. Nor was she feeling vindictive as she stuck to her guns.
"I don't mean we let her kill him," she said as he felt Howard's hard glare shift back to him. "Just let her have her say to him. She's in a lot of pain—physical and emotional. She had a lot to say when she was with my father. I barely remember most of it and what I do doesn't all make sense. There was a lot of rambling, but I do recall that the longer she talked, the less agitated she seemed. So let her talk and get some of it out of her system. It buys you time to come up with a solution and might lessen her anger. That'll defuse her a bit and give Thor time to get inside."
"Who is Thor?" Howard demanded.
"He's a demi-god from another planet," Hope snapped. "You can catch up on the cast list later. Right now, listen to me. I want Tony to make it out of this, too. I need him to get out of this. He's the only chance we've got to get my father and my fiancé back. Besides, it's not like we have another choice that doesn't end in body bags."
All eyes fell on Fury. He closed his eye, shook his head, then exhaled heavily. He lifted the mute and spoke to Rhodes.
"Rhodes, take me off speaker," the director order and got an affirmative response. Once assured only Rhodes could hear him, he proceeded. The rest of the command center held its breath. "Thor is just outside. He should be with you any minute. Until he is, you've got to stall. I need you to stand down on your defense and escape attempts."
"Surrender?" Rhodes whispered back harshly. "No way. We don't have much to combat her with but…"
"Do what I say," Fury commanded. "We're working on getting in there, but for now we need everyone in there to calm down."
"Not an option," the answer burned down the line.
"It's the only option," Fury replied. "No aggressive maneuvers. Don't try to flee. Throw up a white flag and stall. She's not interested in you, so I need you to play the peacekeeper, got that? Be the neutral party. Get her talking. We have reason to believe she's not in her right mind."
"What was your first clue?" he snarled.
"I get that it's not an ideal situation," Fury insisted. "But we're banking on the real Wanda being in there somewhere. We've got to give her the avenue to come out and tell us what she wants."
"Death to the House of Stark seems to be her order, sir," he said, his voice sounding ominous in its prediction as it boomed in the control room.
Howard shook his head and grabbed the knot that formed instantly in his neck. He leaned heavily on the console in front of him and considered praying to a God he didn't actually believe in. He lifted his pleading eyes to Fury.
"You're Switzerland, Colonel," Fury said. "Tell her you're not going to fight her and that Tony's not going anywhere. Let her know this is her chance to tell him whatever she needs to say. Tell her that you are going to make sure no one hurts her as long as she's just talking, then you've got to get Tony to listen to her. He has to find out what she wants. Tell him no cute stuff, no sarcasm. No arguing. Tell him to just ask her what she wants then he has to shut up and listen to her."
"She wants him dead," Rhodes said. "I'm not giving her the satisfaction."
"It won't come to that if you stay calm," Fury said and felt it was more of a wish than fact. "Think of this like diffusing a bomb. When she gets out whatever she's holding back, we think she'll calm down."
"Calm?" he repeated. "I'm not sure calm is in anyone's vocabulary today."
"Find it," Fury ordered. "I don't care if he's gotta channel Dr. Freud, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Feelgood. Whoever. Have him do it."
"You want Tony shut up and conduct therapy to save us?" Rhodes groaned. "Great. We're gonna die."
oOoOo
Computer Core—Interior
After receiving what the thought were the worst mission orders he'd ever received, Rhodes took a deep breath and turned to Tony. His friend was exhausted and agitated. He was also without any external protection, which surely was not helping keep him calm and focused. It certainly wouldn't keep him in a mild frame of mind or reign in the sharpness of his tongue when he spoke. He lowered the phone and looked firmly into his friend's eyes.
Around them the walls seemed to shake and the floor trembled. Tony's eyes widened as each wave rippled through the concrete around them.
"That's Thor," Rhodes said encouragingly. "He and his ax are going to be in here any minute."
"That's good," Tony nodded with relief. "Don't get jealous if I kiss him."
Rhodes ignored the momentary euphoria and moved to the difficult part of the next step.
"While he does his thing to get in here and help out, we've got to do something and by 'we' I mean you," he said. "Fury told me it's time for Plan B, which means you've got to talk her."
Tony shirked at the suggestion as he heard Rhodes shout to Wanda in the outer room that they were coming out without weapons and that Tony wanted to speak with her. For his part, Tony was shaking his head that he definitely did not want to do that but found himself grabbed by the arm and yanked into the smoky room where Wanda's silhouette could be seen growing more distinct as she walked toward them through the debris field.
"This is Plan B?" Tony questioned. "Seems more like Plan F, as in we are completely fu…"
"Just do it," Rhodes cut him off but stood in front of him. "Stay behind me. They've got an idea for what's wrong with her and… Look, she's not going to hurt me."
"Well, good for you," Tony scoffed.
"They think," Rhodes plowed onward, "that she'll calm down if she can vent a little to you… or at you. Fury thinks it'll work."
The urge to offer a tart remark on what Fury could do with his thoughts was building in Tony's throat, but he swallowed it. No sarcasm was going to get him out of this. No cutting remark was going to make the moment less terrifying. His therapist was firm over the last two and a half years that fear was not a bad thing and feeling it wasn't fatal. Respecting it, understanding its root, and reasonably facing it was the only means to truly defeat it. He pulled a shaky breath then nodded to his friend as they proceeded into the smoky room.
"Wanda, Tony's listening," Rhodes began. "We're not going to do anything but listen, okay? Whatever you've got to say, say it now."
She appeared within 10 feet of them. Her eyes were narrowed to angry slits. Her hair was drenched and mangled like she'd already been through a battle. Her hands glowed a fierce red and she shook like she as unclothed in the middle of a January blizzard.
"Words mean nothing," she fumed.
"Then maybe try a few rude emojis," Tony offered.
He found his voice surprisingly even and strong as he spoke despite the terror foaming in his chest. Rhodes shot his elbow backward in reprimand for Tony's comment and as a reminder not to instigate. Wires sparked and burned around them. The chairs and computer stations were shattered like a million pieces of broken toys. The acrid air made eyes itch and lungs seize.
"You are death," Wanda said.
"I'm deaf?" Tony cocked is head to the side in confusion. "Is this a hearing thing? Or did you mean I'm dead? Neither is true, by the way."
"Tony," Rhodes hissed through clenched jaws.
"You brought death to my world," she said. "You are the Iron Reaper. You took everything from me starting with my parents."
Tony saw the pain in her expression and heard the tremor in her words. Both were rank and fresh, as though the painful losses were recent. Expressing empathy was not usually one of his fortes. He certainly could feel it for others, but he was not the type of people typically turned to for easing of pain… unless it was one of his children. Neither Morgan nor James ever hesitated from bringing the aches, woes, or fears to him to soothe and solve.
"I know how that feels, to lose your parents long before you're ready," Tony said.
"No, you don't," she shouted with a pulse of energy rebounding off her that pushed both men back a step. "You have everything. You have your family!"
"Wanda, Tony got orphaned, too," Rhodes began. "Look, everybody loses people. I get it. It hurts, but that's life. Wallowing in your pain doesn't help you. I know you can't replace people, but we find new ones. You lost your brother, but you met Vision. Tony helped create Vision. A lot of what you loved about him was basically JARVIS, which is Tony's contributions to Vision's matrix. It was Vision's... personality."
Tony winced as his friends spoke. He tossed Rhodes a suffering look as he felt the air ripple dangerously while the woman's eyes flared.
"Vision died as well!" she shrieked as she pressed a hand to her temple.
She then swatted her hand to the side, flinging Rhodes effortlessly across the room. He dropped his phone in midair then collided with the nearby wall. The thump of his impact was heard clearly in the control room as the voices were distant and barely audible. Wanda kept her eyes on the now-exposed Tony.
"Pietro says you could have saved him," she accused.
"Saved Vision?" Tony questioned with confusion. "I wasn't even on the planet."
"You should have killed Thanos when you faced him, but you failed," she continued. "Because you failed, Vision died. So now it's your turn. You must die so Vision can live again…. And so can Pietro."
She tilted her head then pressed one hand to her ear as though there was a loud noise. Her face scrunched in a wince and she began to shake. Tony shot a glance at Rhodes and was relieved to see him struggling to his feet amid the debris.
"How?" Tony shook his head as he stalled and the continual thump of Thor's ax reverberated in the room. "Killing me doesn't bring them back. Wanda, resurrections aren't possible."
"You are here!" she screamed, charging the air with a surge that snatched his breath like he'd been gut punched. "You died! I saw it. I watched them carry your body from the field, but then you were brought back. You have the technology to do that, but you refuse to help us. Everyone helped you, but no one will help me."
Tony shook his head. He wasn't going to argue the merits or reasoning behind his apparent resurrection, which wasn't so much being raised from the dead as being alive in two places at the same time and only one of him dying. Instead, he stuck to basic science.
"The help you need isn't from me," Tony said. "You need the Quantum Plane, which is basically broken—and I didn't do that. I don't control it; no one does. And speaking of control, you don't have any of that right now, I'm guessing. Wanda, whoever is talking to you is just in your head. It's not your brother. Something or someone is messing with you. You're smart enough to know whatever you're hearing, it's not him."
"And you know that whatever that voice is asking you to do isn't right," Rhodes offered with a groan as he got to his feet.
"Tony Stark never cares about what's right," she glared. "You care only about what you want. No one matters but you in your world."
"That's not true," he said.
"It is," she insisted. "You will do only what makes you happy. Only what you want. Only fulfill your wishes. Your ego is your entire focus. You make the world do your bidding to get what you want. You don't care who gets hurt in the process."
Tony scoffed and pointed in Rhodes's direction
"You just threw Rhodey into the wall because you can and because you're both pissed and frankly a little nuts," Tony argued. "So the hypocrisy of accusing me of egomaniacal abuse of power is a little hard to swallow."
He heard Rhodes order him to zip his lips, but the specifics of the order was lost on him as Wanda thrust her palm forward. Tony felt his feet leave the ground. In less than a blink, his back struck the wall as the unseen energy held him firmly in place. A cruel grin tugged on her lips as she began nodding and muttered the word yes softly and repeatedly as though answering a question. She approached him, where he stood paralyzed against the wall.
"You are the reason I have nothing," she said. "Your selfishness took everything from me and your arrogance refuses to make amends."
Tony considered mentioning that Stark Industries' legitimate contracts with recognized governments adhering to the U.N. guidelines were legal and that he wasn't personally to blame for how the weapons were used after someone else possessed them. He knew that argument wouldn't fly or get him free. He didn't even buy it entirely himself. He'd let Obadiah Stane push him and his father's company almost fully into the weapons business after his parents' deaths. Tony had, arrogantly, taken over the company when he was too young to care about larger repercussions. He'd foolishly trusted the man he considered his father's closest friend and let the man guide him steering the company. Tony didn't design every weapon they made, but he also didn't care to consider if weapon production was the best choice for the company. His father was the Defense Department's leading contractor; he thought furthering that legacy was his way to catch up to the old man's ghost and do what he would have wanted since Tony never figured out how to do that when the man was alive.
Life and experience proved much of that wrong. Thus arguing with her was not worth it. He caught Rhodes's eye and saw the man's desperate expression for him not to fight back. However, his own desire not to die was equally as strong.
"I know it feels like to lose your family," Tony rasped as the invisible pressure she exerted on his chest continued making drawing breaths difficult. "A whole lot of evil and insanity took my parents from me. I thought I lost everyone that night, but I was wrong. I wasn't actually alone. I was just hurt and scared and lost. I decided nothing mattered but how I was feeling, and I hated how I felt. So I found anyway I could to not feel it. I focused all my time looking for the next jolt to keep me going so I didn't have to think about anything that had happened, whether it was making a new weapon or throwing myself into the next hedonistic escapade, I did everything I could keep distracted from the thought that I had this gaping hole in my life and no idea how to fill it. So, I did whatever I wanted because no one was going to stop me—kind of like you right now. The only difference I see between us is that I was scared and you're just angry."
She pressed her hands forward, compressing his chest and making his ribs ache as though they were on the verge of splintering.
"I am not you," she said tightly.
"No," he gasped, "but we've got that basic 'lost everything and didn't process it well' piece in common." He dragged in a painful breath as his heart rate increased and pounded loudly in his ears. The familiar sensation of panic flooded his veins and rippled along is muscles. "We should have a secret handshake. Oh, and like you, I was wrong when I thought I lost everyone. See, I wasn't alone. I had people who cared about me right there the whole time, but like you I couldn't see it."
He rambled quickly about a best friend who always had his back no matter what. He also mentioned Happy who literally protected him from everything except himself.
"At the time I couldn't see it," he continued breathlessly, "but I also had someone even closer to me who I could turn to for anything—and frequently did. For years, I was so wrapped up in my own world that I couldn't see she was the best thing that ever happened to me. None of that made me a great person, but it also didn't change the fact that there were good people around me who cared about me and never left me. You're no different, Wanda."
She hissed at him angrily, but tears blistered in her eyes as she shook her head.
"I have no one," she said darkly.
Tony scoffed as his head began to swim with the difficulty breathing, but he forged onward with his argument as she began to shake. As she did, he thought he felt the slightest relief in the pressure she was exerting on him
"Barton," he eked out the name as he disagreed with her proclamation of being alone. "Clint's always been on your side. You think he doesn't know what you're feeling? He lost his whole family, and just when he got them back, he lost the best friend he ever had. Romanoff literally slipped through his fingers and died. You think he doesn't understand your pain?"
"I killed Clint when he said he would stop me," she shrieked as the first tears pooled in her eyelids. "He cared more for you! He was doing it to protect you! The same with Barnes. They both died for you. There's more blood on your hands."
Tony's jaw dropped. He looked at her as his face drained of all color. The thought that anyone could kill the super soldier or the king of precision would not compute for him. He blinked and decided he would just file those details as something he needed to process later. His therapist might not like that approach, but he didn't think this was the ideal moment to explore his feelings on losing yet another teammate (or even Bucky) possibly because the men foolishly tried to protect him.
"What about Cap?" he asked in a forcefully controlled voice. "You think our righteous Super Grandpa wouldn't be there for you if you just let him know he was needed? Steve would crawl through broken glass naked in a blizzard to help any of us if he even just suspected one of us needed him. Here's another one: If you're worried about feeling like a freak because you've made some pretty extreme choices that sent you out of control, that sounds like a great topic to discuss with Bruce. Trust me, he's has been there."
Her lips trembled and she squinted hard as tears squeezed from her eyes. She began to shake more violently and her force on Tony slackened enough that he was able to take a deep breath and pull his shoulders from the wall, but her scowl remained.
"And you?" she snarled. "I suppose you would help me too?"
"Uh, no," Tony shook his head, knowing the lying was not his strong suit and was best avoided even when it was wise. "I think you need help far beyond anything I could offer. I also think that we need to go separate ways. Mostly, that's because I don't want you to kill Rhodey or me. Besides, let's be honest. I'm not the choice to help anyone who's messed up. I barely can help myself somedays. My therapist probably needs her own shrink from dealing with me. I'll offer you this advice though: Get to a good psychiatrist. I give competent therapy five stars; highly recommend."
She growled then shrieked at him while whipping her hand to the side. The motion sent him streaking across the room into the adjacent wall. He heard more than felt his head hit the wall as everything went black.
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