Date: January 14th, 2024, time=unknown.
Location: Unknown Bunker; Executive Sector, Earth-1.
POV: Y/N Stark,
"You are a worm through time. The thunder song distorts you. Happiness comes. White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye. — Through a mirror, the inverted is made right. Leave your insides by the door. Push your fingers through the surface into the wet. You've always been the new you. YOU want this to be true. We stand around you while you dream,"
A pounding headache woke me up from my slumber. I open my eyes, only to be met with a white light blinding me, worsening the pounding headache I already had. A sharp pain lingering in my ears.
As I peek through my eyelashes, I recognize Wanda sitting on a stool next to me. Next to her is a bucket of water, its contents reddened with blood.
With a towel, Wanda is cleaning my ears and face. She hasn't noticed that I'm awake yet.
I try to move, but a stinging pain in my back makes me scrap that terrible plan.
"Hey, hey, hey. Don't move, you'll only make it worse," Wanda says calmly in a muted tone.
"W-What- What happened?" I try to sit up, but Wanda places her hand on my shoulder, holding down my weakened body with ease.
"Please don't move. I had to knock you out. You- you starting chanting the same stuff as those bodies. I- I thought I lost you..."
What the hell happened. Wanda looks tired. How long was I out? I close my eyes in an attempt to lessen my headache. I try to remember what happened. The executive office. The chanting;
Wanda's warm arms are enveloping my body. Her magic supporting my head while she is running. With each little vibration of my body, the electric pain behind my eyes builds up. I hear the chanting of something like a poem in my mind. It echoes. Resonates.
Through a mirror, the inverted is made right. Leave your insides by the door. Push your fingers through the surface into the wet
An excruciating pain radiates through my entire body. My mind is cloudy. Fuzzy. Unclear. I try to open my eyes. Empty. Just... Endless nothingness.
The word that describes this is REDACTED. Repeat. The. Word. The name of the sound. It resonates in your house.
A warm trail of liquid rolls over my face and neck. Is that blood? "We're almost there Y/N, please hold on." Wanda. She's here. I almost forgot. Wanda. Wait, where are we? I groan as I try to move. Try to do anything. Nothing.
"Please. Please. Stay with me, alright. Malyshka, please"
After the song, time for applause. We build you till nothing remains
Wanda grabs my hand, "No. No. No. This can't be happening. Y/N stay with me, please." I can hear her quick, shallow breaths while she's running. She's panicking. Her hand squeezes mine. I try to squeeze back. Did it work?
Under the conceptual reality behind this reality, you must want these waves to drag you away. After the song, time for applause.
Abruptly Wanda turns a corner, making my body jounce. Involuntarily, I screech out in pain. I hear her gasp, "We're almost there, come on malyshka"
This cliché is death out of time, breaking the first, the second, the third, the fourth wall, the fifth wall, floor; no floor: you fall! How do you say 'insane'? Hurts to be happy.
My body and mind are becoming weaker and weaker. With each little movement, the last of my energy is drained.
A copy of a copy of a copy. Orange peel. The picture is you holding the picture. When you hear this, you will know you're in new you.
The shattering of glass refocusses me on Wanda's voice. "We're here. We're here."
You want to listen
Wanda lays me down on some kind of fabric. I shiver at the loss of contact. Goosebumps rise from the chill temperature.
You want to dream
Her hands cover my temples, and a warm buzz radiates through my mind. Her magic calming down the pain. "It's going to be alright, Y/N. We're safe now."
"This might sting a little," I feel her magic surging through my body, looking for a reason my body is reacting this way. She removes her hands from my head and walks away from me. No. No. No, come back, please. Where are you going?
You want to smile
Sounds of cabinets being opened and closed are coming from behind me. Medical supplies. What did she find? What happened? After some time, I hear footsteps come towards me again. She's coming back.
You want to hurt
I sense her presence next to me again and hear- water? A wet fabric touches my ear. Fuck, that hurts. I cry out in pain again. She quickly removes the fabric and now tries again, but softer. Stop. Please. Stop.
You don't want to be
I try to stop her from doing whatever the fuck she's doing, but I can't move; paralyzed by the pain through my chest and head.
"W-What happened? Where are we?" I take a deep breath to calm myself down; I groan when I feel the pain it causes.
"You passed out from the pain. We're in the medical wing right now."
Wanda is looking at her hands, fidgeting with her rings, before looking up at me again. She's hiding something.
"What are you not telling me?"
She hesitates before answering, "I had to bring you here. Blood started coming out of your ears and you were screaming out in pain, but I couldn't see what caused it, and then your eyes started bleeding as well and-" I interrupt her rambling.
"Wands, what is it?"
"The medical wing is in the Containment Sector," she blurted out.
"What!? We're in the middle of a lockdown because of a containment breach!" I wince in pain from my own yelling. Fuck, I regret that. I shouldn't have said that so loud.
"I know alright, but I just- freaked out and followed the signs to the medical wing. Only afterwards did I realize I ran straight through the decontamination room... Which in my defense was inactive, by the way."
Back up for a bit. I was bleeding? The liquid over my face was my blood... Coming out of my eyes? I lift my arm and try to touch my face. Wanda grabs my wrists and stops me, "Don't- please."
"At least tell me we didn't get infected or something like that."
She looks at her feet and says nothing.
"Wanda... Why are you staying quiet?"
"We ran past the contamination rooms. I- I don't... Uhm, some of them were opened."
"Some of the doors were opened? Did you see anything inside?"
"Yes, I didn't have much time to check them out while running, but they were those like heavy-duty doors that you can't just open by hand."
"Could that be the containment breach?... Whatever was inside could have escaped."
"Possibly. I locked us inside the medical wing for now, and it's clear except for some kind of cryo-pods. The monitors above them show they are alive, but I can't feel them with my magic."
I'm still laying on my back on top of a flimsy medical transport stretcher. My head feels much clearer now, but a throbbing pain lingers behind my eyes. A migraine on the verge of exploding. My body still weak. I regained some energy from resting, but far too little. I need blood.
"Ugh- Uhm alright, my head is killing me right now. Can you help me up, please?" I try to lean up again, this time instead of her hand stopping me. She supports my back and helps me up. My legs now dangling on the side of the stretcher.
"Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
I need blood. My body is too weak right now. I must have lost quite a bit for me to feel this shaky. With my hand, I pat down my pocket to find my flask, only to be met with nothing. "My flask. Where's my flask". I empty the inside of my pockets, but I can't find it.
"We must have lost it earlier at that pyramid hall."
"Oh, fuck."
"Here," Wanda holds out her arm in front of me.
"Wands, I can't. You know that," I know for a fact that I'm weak right now and the moment I taste her blood, I won't be able to control my impulses. I can't risk it.
"I think this makes an exception. We're in dangerous territory right now. You need your strength." She looks at me worryingly and rubs her eyebrow.
"We're in a medical wing. There should be blood here. I won't be able to control myself if I drink yours- and I don't want to hurt you." I look at her with pleading eyes. I really don't want to take the chance here.
"Alright, I'll go look for it. Stay here."
My eyes follow Wanda as she steps over debris to get to another, smaller, room, just next to the main entrance.
I must be in some kind of triage hall. Several bloodied transport stretchers are scattered in the room, along with tables, cabinets, and more debris. Two large metal cabinets block the entrance. A faint light fills the room through metal grates that cover the entire upper parts of the concrete walls.
Through the grates in the window, I observe Wanda rummaging through the room, looking for anything to help me.
Further into the room, I notice 3 pods, arranged in a semi-circle. They are surrounding what looks like a table. Probably a control panel of some sort. Those must be the cryo-pods Wanda was talking about. If she can't feel people inside them, they must have no life source, but if so, how can they have proper vital signs. I make a mental note to check those out later.
The door of the cryo-pod room opens back up and I see Wanda walking through it, on her way back to me with 2 blood bags in her hands.
"There was an emergency stack next to the cryo pods. I think this is all that is left in the entire wing, so we got to make it count."
"I'll have to drink them both since I don't have my flask to keep it from congealing,"
Wanda nods and hands me the first blood bag after opening it partially for me.
The smell of blood instantly hits me like a brick wall. Overcome with the smell, my fangs protrude. I bite into the blood bag, pulling the blood into my mouth with gulps. God, I needed that. After emptying the first bag, Wanda immediately hands me the second one. When they were both empty, I slowly feel my energy returning.
"Better?" Wanda spoke.
"Much, thank you," I smile at her.
The last time I've had this much human blood made me swear to never again lose control. If the team wasn't there to stop me, I don't think I would have been able to stop. I almost killed Wanda.
Never again. Yet here I am drinking human blood once more. Luckily, it has been a year and I've got much more restraint. It also helps that the blood isn't from a witch, which makes it less intense for me. As I'm processing the blood gain in my system, I feel much stronger than I've been in a long time.
I try standing up again. My legs are still wobbly, but I manage to recover quickly and walk over to one of the tables for support. Wanda is right behind me, following my lead.
"Can you show me these cryo-pods?" If they are dangerous, they would have kept them in a more secure area, such as the Containment Sector, right? Perhaps they are personnel? Wanda said that she didn't feel any life source in any of the pods, but the computer said that their vital signs were fine. Let's just check it out.
"They are right there. Here, let me help you." She walks over to me and offers her arm for support. I ignore her arm and stubbornly try to walk on my own, but I almost stumble over some debris. I gulp when I notice Wanda glaring at me. She tilts her head slightly, but before she can open her mouth, I quickly grab her arm for support and follow her to the cryo-pods. Sorry dad! I gotta listen to the girlfriend for today.
We went into the smaller room where she got the blood bags from. When walking past the barricaded door, I notice an undetailed map etched on the wall. Wanda notices it as well, and with her magic, dusts off the wall.
On the top left is an arrow with the text; 'Medical Wing'. We are right there...
"Wands, what path did you take? Where were those opened doors?"
Wanda walks up to the map and studies it.
"Well, I think we were are the central executive room right here. So I think the containment rooms were here," Wanda points to a large circular room with a name tag next to it; 'Panopticon'. Sure that would make sense. Historically, a panopticon is a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well from which guards could observe prisoners.
"So I think I went through the panopticon and then via the security center into the medical wing," with my finger I trace the path she describes and I spot another room, just above the panopticon.
"What is this room? 'P6 CELL'? Its name is colored in red-"
"Hmm... I think I recognize that name. Yeah, there were signs leading towards the medical wing that went to the right, but there was another one to the left named P6, which lead to a closed bulkhead."
"Let's first check out those pods, then we can figure out what that is."
When we get in the room, I notice the three cryo-pods arranged in a semi-circle. In the center, I now identify the table as a large control screen. On the screen are three panels, each showing information about one of the pods. Each panel gives some of its inhabitant's primary vital signs; body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, and some more medical stuff I don't know shit about.
I tap the glass and a holo screen with controls pops up. Two buttons immediately stand out,
Eject Terminate
"Do we want to open one of the pods?"