Chapter 26

[Emily's POV]

Lights...

Blinking lights...

I saw a blurry face. The person was frantic, desperate even, that they were shaking me. I moaned and went to swat them away, but my arms felt like lead. Slowly, the face came into focus and I saw Clint. He had a long cut on his forehead, making half of his face red with blood.

"Emily!" he yelled, and this time I winced at the noise. "Come on. We can't stay down." He yanked me to my feet and a wave of nausea hit me. I clutched my stomach and moaned, but Clint was giving me no time to rest. He threw my arm over his shoulders and began to walk/drag me towards a door. "We have to get to the QuinJet."

"Wanda," I murmured, glancing back towards the room. "Where's..."

"Vision already got her out," Clint explained as he kicked the door open. It made a loud banging noise, almost like a gunshot. "Cap's called an immediate evac of everyone. Right now, all that's left is you, me, Cap, your mom, and Loki."

"B-Bu..."

"Bucky got hit with two bullets in the shoulder," Clint answered truthfully. "He'll live, but he was taken with Natasha and Tony to the China facility to get medical treatment." Now that we were walking, I could sense a dull pain in my ankle that was slowly getting sharper and sharper. I glanced down and let out a small gasp when I noticed something white sticking out of my ankle. "Yeah...I'm sorry, kid, but that'll hurt to put back in."

"Who attacked us?" I whispered as Clint bent over to pick me up bridle-style.

"We'll talk once we're in the QuinJet," he said, taking the stairs two at a time. "Until then, watch my six and make sure I don't get shot."

"Aye, aye, captain," I said sarcastically, giving him a tiny salute. I looked over his shoulder and flicked my magic out. It made a protective barrier around us and I smiled thankfully. I'm getting better at this magic stuff.

"Solace!" Steve yelled out, waving us over. A section of his suit's stomach was torn off, and he had a bloody hand pressed against some wound. "Hawkeye! This way!" He pointed to the open QuinJet, where Loki and my mother were waiting. My mother seemed unconscious, while Loki seemed in pain, but I couldn't see anything with the armor he was wearing. Clint bounded up the QuinJet door and Loki slammed a button, shutting the door.

"Get a stretcher!" ordered Clint, to which Loki obliged. Once it was up, Clint laid me down and went to the controls, flicking switches and pressing buttons until we were up in the air. "Can you heal her?"

"Not with these blasted seeds in my hands," Loki growled, giving a dirty eye to Steve. "I know how to set it though." He looked at me and grabbed my hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "It will hurt like Muspelheim reincarnated, but it needs to be done."

"Do it," I ordered, gritting my teeth.

:/:\:

[Clint's POV]

I never heard a more truly anguished, gut-wrenching scream until Loki pushed Emily's bone back into her ankle. Steve had to rush over to safely secure her so she wouldn't claw Loki. Her wings had flared out and her cheeks were stained with fresh and old tears.

"Where are we headed?" Loki shouted, trying to be heard over his daughter's screams. "She needs more medical attention that I can give!"

"A safe place," I answered, trying to block Emily out and focus on flying.

"Now," Emily hissed from where she was lying on the stretcher. "Can someone tell me what the heck is going on!" I nodded, which I knew Steve couldn't see, but he must have sensed it because he began to tell the story.

"We don't have the full details," he sighed as he took a seat. "But from what we do know, it was a rogue group of mutants. It was pretty obvious what their agenda was."

"You," I whispered as the same time Emily muttered, "Me."

"Whether it was to kill you or simply kidnap you and use you, we don't know," Steve continued, ignoring Emily's and mine comment. "Right now, the Avengers are dissembled. Being together provides too big of a target."

"Sam and Sergeant Rhodes took two other QuinJets," I followed up. "We asked Wanda to make still-replicas of you in each of them so they aren't sure where you went."

"Where is everyone?" Emily whispered, hissing from pain. "Are they safe?"

"No lives were lost," Loki confirmed. "As for the rest of your team, I believe it is safe to assume that they will be safe."

"Good," she murmured, and I could tell she was getting delirious from the pain. "I'm going to nap now." And with that, she was out like a light. I put the ship on auto-pilot, double-checking to make sure the coordinates were still locked in, and then turned the seat around to face Steve and Loki. Charolotte was still unconscious, but she seemed to be in a lighter space of sleep.

"You certainly have an interesting family," I randomly commented, and I expected Loki to turn and glare at me. Instead, he rested a gentle hand on Emily's lower leg and brushed it with his thumb.

"As much as they are deranged and crazy, they are my girls," Loki said honestly. He turned to look back at Charolotte. "Everyday I wonder what I could have done in order to protect her from this darkness..."

"I think Barton and I are entitled to a backstory," Steve ordered, and Loki chuckled under his breath.

"It is a long one, Captain."

"We got the time."

:/:\:

[Wanda's POV]

I woke up to the most horrified scream ever to exist on this planet. I gasped and involuntarily backed up, only to have my back hit a slimy, damp wall. I quickly surveyed my surroundings. My wrists were shackled and chained to the wall, along with my ankles. I was still wearing the clothes I went to bed in last night, my jean shorts and obsessively long sleeved sweatshirt. I was barefoot and there was an aching pain coming from my chest. I could faintly make out cell bars in front of me, just as a blinding light lit up my cell.

I slammed my eyes closed and huddled closer to myself, blinking rapidly in order to get my eyes readjusted.

"Hello Wanda."

I shivered and resisted the urge to vomit. I knew that voice. I killed that voice.

The outline of a man stepped forward. The light blocked his face from me, but I knew I would never forget that fiend.

He was the reason I was an only child.

"Ultron."

"Shall we play a little game?"