Two chapters at once, because I love you!

Wanda fell back into the pilot's seat, hand in her hair, as the tops of skyscrapers whizzed by. Finally. They're all going to be safe. She looked back at the city in the pre-dawn light, guilt dragging her down like a weight tied to a balloon. This isn't a good idea. Of course she can't kill him. Turn around right now and go back for Vision, if he comes, she won't stand a chance... She had to stop wrapping Vision in cotton wool, it wasn't fair on him, and this mission would be suicide alone -

"I'll kill him." Josephine sneered in the back of her mind, and Wanda pushed down the accelerator to fly faster.

I have to protect him. He's safe in Wakanda, and that's my only concern. She had been waiting for the opportunity to slip away all night, but Vision wasn't naive - he had picked up on her behaviour and uncertainty and hadn't left her side since they flew back from the valley. A peep into his mind confirmed that he was suspicious she might sneak off without him. Of course there was no way she would let him come with her - Josephine's goal was to hurt her, and she knew the ultimate way to do that would be to kill Vision.

As long as there was breath in her body, she wasn't going to let that happen. He had come so far, the eye of the storm passing for him - the way out was in sight, so close he could almost touch it. A scientist with a grudge was not about to take all that away from him... and this was about Wanda, too. Almost every hour, she would heal a little more. The dead thing within was finally being touched by sunlight, and plants were beginning to grow again. Being with him again, she was so close to escaping the darkness. Of all people, Josephine wasn't going to be the one to drag her back there.

The holographic screen flashed with an incoming call from Okoye; guilty, Wanda denied it. I can apologize and explain when I come back. If I come back. She placed her forehead in her hands, imagining Pietro watching her now and having a fit at her terrible plan. She could practically hear what he was saying.

"If your plan was a ship, it would be the Titanic! What are you thinking?"

"I've got this, P. It's just her and..." That mutant abomination. It's teeth had been so close to her face, saliva dripping off each jagged tooth. It was probably the last thing Luke ever saw... Wanda shivered, a wave of nausea washing over her. It was surreal, to think that she had just been back to the very city where it all ended, where Josephine's love story became a horror novel. I know this story.

The ship AI began speaking, making her jump. "231 missed messages", it said, in it's evenly toned, soothing voice.

"231?" Wanda echoed, in shock.

The realisation crashed down on her like a pile of bricks. Our friends. It's nearly been two days! She opened the message folder, to find a never-ending column of missed text messages, hologram calls, and voice recordings from almost everyone she knew. "Oh, god." She muttered, pulling on her hair. The only people who hadn't sent some kind of message were those in space - the news was Earth bound for now. Wanda went to close the folder, knowing she couldn't open them all - but there was one that caught her eye.

Voice recording; from Clint Barton.

He sounded like he was having a meltdown. "Are you alright? Are you safe, are you alive? They said you were hurt, I saw the news, there was blood all over the grass – please tell me it wasn't all yours. Whenever you get this message, call me back -" She closed it, unable to listen to his frantic voice anymore. She had to send a message, they had to know she was okay.

After some confused button pressing, she figured out how to send a recorded message to everyone in the contact list.

"Hi, everyone. I'm alive, and I'm fine. I - I definitely should have written this down. I'm going to keep this short, but I won't say where I'm going or where I've been, in case this is seen by the wrong eyes. All you need to know for now is that I'm okay - and I'm going to track down the real person behind the explosion, and after that, hopefully the authorities will stop chasing me and leave you all alone. I'll explain everything when it's safe." She chuckled at the ridiculousness of it all. "I know this all sounds really vague, but it will make sense soon, and you'll understand why we never told you. Be careful out there. And I'm sorry." She slammed her hand down on the button and the recording ceased. "They're all going to kill me when they find out the truth."

"They wouldn't go that far."

Wanda screamed and spun round, hands raised to attack as Vision's torso phased through the opposite wall of the ship. "Vision? - how long have you been - get in here!" She leapt out of the pilot's seat as he stepped inside. "For God's sake, what are you doing here?"

Vision held up her hastily scrawled note, creased from being clenched in his fist. His eyes were glimmering slightly with a mixture of confused anger and hurt. "Did you ever consider letting me come with you at all?"

Wanda felt both awful and irritated. "I didn't want to lie to you - but you can't come with me, it's too dangerous!"

"Not dangerous enough for you but too dangerous for us both?"

"You know why! I can't let her hurt you again!" Wakanda disappeared behind the jet as they passed through the barrier, the illusion of the rainforest taking it's place. "Five years ago Josephine found someone to blame and she's latched onto that for far too long to let it go. All that stuff she made you do, it's all been to hurt me, and you've been caught in the middle of it, it's not fair. This should be my fight. It's my fault. Please just go..."

"It doesn't matter what should or shouldn't be. You matter."

"I need you to trust me. I can do this."

"I do trust you, and I don't doubt your capability to handle it. But I can't let you -"

"You trust me? Prove it. Phase out of here right now and go!" Vision didn't move, slightly shaking his head. Wanda felt like throwing him off the ship; her powers automatically responded to this subconscious thought, beginning to glow faintly. "Go back, Vizh." She said, voice hardening a fraction as she stepped closer. His eyes flashed to her hands and he took a step back, accidentally backing into the counter. He knew he could phase through it, but having her this close to him, he forgot how to do it.

"What will you do?" He cautioned. "It won't stop me from following you. I will fly the entire way to the states if I must." She looked a little scary sometimes, and this was one of those moments. Her fingers were curved slightly, almost like claws as they summoned her magic, and the red light was slowly trickling into her eyes. She didn't just look frightening – she looked powerful. Beautiful. Like a goddess, even in Shuri's lilac oversized shirt. His gaze flickered to her lips before returning to her eyes.

"Don't make me do something I'll regret. I - I'll make you leave." Her eyes betrayed her. While her stance was trying to be threatening, her eyes showed nothing but fear and almost sorrow. She didn't have it in her to forcibly push him off the ship or control his mind to make him go – the seeming anger and threat was a desperate last-ditch attempt to get him to leave.

"Wanda..."

Her powers faded away within seconds as her arms dropped loosely to her sides, dropping the illusion. "I'm trying my hardest to keep you safe. If she hurts you... I'll kill her. I don't care. I will kill her."

"I'm not made of glass. I'm not weak."

"I know you're not weak. It's just -"

"I can't lose you either." The jet rocked slightly, the quiet murmur of the engines preventing true silence. Wanda watched his mouth form the words; she had almost forgotten how human like his lips were, with tiny, imperfect indents and lines... she couldn't remember how soft they felt. Every voice inside was crying out for her to kiss him, but she knew she didn't have the right to steal a kiss - that had to come from him.

"You won't lose me."

"What if you don't come back?" His soft, broken voice shook with fear. She followed his haunted gaze to the bench on her right. Bucky's sweater was still draped over it, stiff and stained a dark rust colour. The bench had dried lines of almost-black where her blood had trickled down the side of it. "What am I going to do without you?"

What does that mean..? Wanda fixated on the dried blood. The hazy memory came back, of laying on that bench in complete agony for that brutal hour, feeling as though her stomach were filled with broken glass. The pressure of Vision's hands on her wound, the image of her blood staining his sleeves. Talking constantly to keep her awake about things he half-remembered. His hands would not be there to stem the blood flow this time, and she wouldn't be able to drift off to the sound of his voice. Her mangled body would be laying in a dark corridor somewhere, never to be found... and Vision, wandering the compound, alone, despairing, never knowing what happened to her.

Wanda slowly shook her head and made a feeble sound low in her throat. "Just stay close to me."