Final Night Alive

Summary: Instead of dying to the Snap, Wanda wakes up in an alleyway in America and promptly meets a boy in a school uniform.

AKA: The fic where Five and Wanda strike a deal that benefits them both, and get to know each other along the way.

A/N: Not beta read so I apologise for any typos or errors.

Chapter One:

When Thanos snapped his fingers with all of the Infinity Stones, Wanda had the despairing thought that everything had been for nothing. All of the death and destruction; killing Vision to destroy the mind stone.

It had all been for nothing because Thanos had only turned back time on Vision and the stone, and taken it anyway.

Wanda may as well have saved herself the pain of killing her closest friend to destroy the stone and let Thanos do it himself. He was going to anyway.

Wanda only felt guilt and the pain of constant loss after loss when Thanos snapped his fingers.

She watched, broken, as one after the other, people started disappearing. Turning to dust and dispersing into the air. First Bucky, then T'Challa and Groot.

And then, she, herself, began to disappear. She felt weird, like her stomach had just dropped to the ground as she leant on Vision's dull body.

Then, all too soon, as she accepted her fate with open arms, wanting the pain to stop, and the remaining Avengers called out for her and the others who'd been snapped away by Thanos, she was gone.

Wanda had accepted her death with open arms, her grief too strong to live with anymore. She'd lost her parents at a young age, her twin a few years ago, and then her best friend mere moments ago. She was truly alone in the world now and she only wanted to know peace.

So she hadn't even tried to resist or call out for help when she began to disappear with the others. She simply leant on Vision's body and waited.

It didn't take long and soon enough, she felt nothing. She saw nothing. Heard nothing. She no longer had any thoughts or feelings.

She was nothing.

Until she was again when she opened her eyes and she saw. She saw an alley, a sun in the sky, cars driving by and people walking passed the mouth of the alley.

Though confusion enveloped her mind, her first and immediate thought was no.

Why was she alive? How was she alive? Had the Avengers fixed everything and brought everyone back, somehow? Had they killed Thanos?

How?

How could she be here? Where even was here?

After these questions had surfaced in her mind, she shut down with the memory of Thanos defeating the Avengers effortlessly and ultimately tearing the stone out of Vision's skull. She slumped where she knelt on the ground of the alley and cried.

Sobs and wails escaped her as she clawed at her arms and chest, wanting to tear the pain out like Thanos had torn the mind stone from Vision's head.

Decades worth of pain and suffering surfaced in Wanda's mind as she cried, and she could barely gain control of her mind enough to stop her powers from escaping her and causing more destruction than they already had.

She couldn't get rid of the memory of her magic seeping into Vision as she destroyed the mind stone, only for Thanos to reverse all of that and kill Vision himself.

Her pain was so great that she felt it on a physical level. She almost couldn't breathe around her sobs. Her face was burning with the gentle wind against her multitude of tears.

Suddenly, a warping noise startled her and she whipped her head up, terrified to see Thanos towering above her, and not entirely ready to fight though she still raised her glowing hands.

Instead of Thanos, however, she saw a boy with a manic look in his eye, dressed in a school uniform. He was casting a look back over his shoulder like he was expecting to find someone there following him.

When he looked ahead of him again, Wanda locked eyes with him and drew in a shaky breath, willing herself to stop the tears that were still falling. She tucked her hands under her arms and calmed her racing heart which, in turn, allowed her hands to stop glowing. She wasn't in danger, she didn't think. Not now.

The boy didn't look at her for long, however, looking over her head and behind her. Wanda followed his line of sight and saw, hiding in a building, a shadow hidden behind curtains that were still moving.

Someone had been watching her.

She turned back to the boy to see him frowning at her now.

Somehow, his stare almost rivalled that of Natasha's and she practically shrank under it. The thought of Natasha, her lover (though their relationship was still fairly new after what happened in Lagos and at the airport, and then the Raft), almost set her tears off again.

"Are you crying?" The kid asked.

His accent was American so she deduced that she was now most likely in America rather than Wakanda where she had last been. It was some distance.

"No," Wanda denied, sniffing and wiping the tears from her face.

She made an attempt to stand, but nausea quickly grabbed her and dragged her back down. She breathed heavily through her nose, eyes closed.

"I'm fine," she continued when she no longer felt like she was going to throw up.

She opened her eyes and saw the kid narrowing his eyes again at the window of the building behind her.

"You'll forgive me if I'm not too quick to believe that," the boy responded sarcastically, looking back to her, "you've got blood on you. Are you injured?"

Wanda looked down and realised he was right. She had red and blue blood staining her clothes and hands. She didn't know whose it was, but she knew it didn't belong to her.

"It's not mine," she mumbled.

She made an attempt to stand again, deciding to give it one last try. Thankfully, this time she managed to rise to her feet as the boy watched her with pursed lips and a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Whose is it, then?" He asked when she was finally on her feet.

"The enemy's, most likely," she grimaced at the thought.

"The enemy? And who would that be?" The boy pressed.

He was full of questions, Wanda concluded. But as she observed him, she realised there was no child-like glee to his eyes or his expression; no amusement or humour.

Just questions and a seriousness that shouldn't be on a child's face. It was similar to hers and Pietro's expressions when they'd been living on the streets of Sokovia and then as they'd joined HYDRA (or SHIELD, as they'd been led to believe at the time).

The kid was wearing a school uniform and looked too well-kempt to be homeless, though.

"It doesn't matter," Wanda sighed, "it is probably over now. The Captain and the Avengers will have defeated Thanos by now. Maybe. I don't know how long it's been since..."

"I don't seem to follow. Who's Thanos? What are the Avengers?"

Wanda looked at the kid with her own furrowed brows and confusion. She was sure everyone knew of the Avengers by now. Maybe even Thanos too, depending on how long it had been since the titan snapped half the universe away.

But then again, the boy was young. Perhaps he hadn't heard of the Avengers or Thanos yet. Maybe that was a good thing, she thought bitterly.

"It doesn't matter. Not anymore. Half of them are gone," Wanda swallowed.

She felt like just lying down on the concrete and staying there until she eventually died, but she couldn't. Not in front of the kid.

"Tell you what," the boy said, "you don't have anywhere to go right now so why don't we strike a deal?"

"A deal?" Wanda scoffed, mildly amused. Who even was this kid? "And who says I don't have anywhere to go?"

"Just a guess," the boy's eyes ran over her as he shrugged. "So, about that deal?"

"What do you want?" Wanda asked, running a hand down her face. Her nerves were already fried. She didn't have time for this. She needed to get back to the Avengers, somehow.

But... she was an Avenger too and if this kid needed help, it was her job to provide that help. Depending on what he wanted, of course. The kid had some kind of crazed look in his eye that unnerved even Wanda.

"You help me find my siblings, and I'll help you get back to these Avengers. Deal?"

Wanda looked at the kid and mulled it over. Beside that crazed look in his eye that she had noticed a moment ago, there seemed to be something else lingering there. Hidden. It looked almost like hope.

He'd lost his siblings like she'd lost the Avengers when Thanos had snapped his fingers wearing a seemingly omnipotent gauntlet.

As she mulled it over, she came to a decision. She wanted to help. Of course she did (she wasn't completely cruel). But she also had to get back to the Avengers and she didn't have time to help this boy find his siblings.

Besides, she was no detective despite her training from Natasha back at the compound. Her heart ached at the thought of Natasha. The last she'd seen her girlfriend, the woman had been trapped, pinned to the ground by stone courtesy of Thanos.

Wanda prayed that Natasha was still alive.

"I can get back to them by myself," Wanda turned from the boy and began to walk away.

Before she could make it even ten steps, the boy reappeared in front of her with a flash of light. Wanda startled and yelped, flinching at the light.

The brief illumination of the alleyway reminded her of her imprisonment in The Raft where they'd electrocuted her for merely breathing.

But she pushed those memories away as she looked at the boy who'd just teleported in front of her.

"How..." she trailed off.

"Look, I need your help," the boy said, his face a mixture between a frown and a grimace. "You have powers, I saw them when I appeared in this alleyway."

"So do you," Wanda noted, unperturbed.

"Yes. And I need to find my siblings but there's a high chance that the people who are after us could have gotten to them already," the boy explained hastily, "I need your help finding them and possibly protecting them so we stop the apocalypse from ever happening."

"Too late for that," Wanda scoffed, throat tightening, "Thanos already wiped out half of the universe. We lost. I'm sorry."

The boy pulled back, as if stricken. His face fell into an expression of confusion and what looked mildly like despair, before it switched and became a look of understanding and relief.

He grinned like a madman and Wanda was briefly reminded of Strucker.

"Ah," the boy said, "oh, I see. It makes sense now. You're not from this universe, are you? Somehow, you made it from your universe to ours."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Wanda with a confused frown.

"You keep going on about this Thanos and the Avengers. I haven't heard anything about them, and, trust me, I'd know if I had. And you're saying this Thanos wipes out half the universe? But that didn't happen," the kid rambled.

"I don't understand," Wanda shook her head slightly.

"It didn't happen. Not in this universe," the boy explained. "We're from different universes and somehow, you crossed over the barrier from your universe to ours."

"But... how? I can't - I was... I haven't done anything," Wanda's brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of everything. "Wait, how can you be certain?"

"It's the only explanation given everything you've just told me. Unless, of course, you're crazy."

"I'm not crazy."

"Ah, that sounds like something a crazy person would say. Either way, I'm guessing these Avengers you keep mentioning are back in your own universe?"

"If what you're saying is true, then yes," Wanda nodded.

"So what if I told you I had a way to get you back to your universe? Back to the Avengers?" The boy proposed.

"You're lying," Wanda said.

"I'm not," he put his hand on his chest, "I promise. All I need is for you to help me find my siblings. And then you can get back to the Avengers and it'll be like no time passed at all. Like you were never even gone."

"How is that possible?"

"Like I said, I have my ways. So, do we have a deal?" The boy held out a hand.

Wanda stared at it mistrustfully. Was she really going to put all of her trust in a child? Just because he had powers and he seemed to know what he was talking about?

Yes, she was stuck in America, a country she hadn't really known all that well even after joining the Avengers. And, yes, she was alone, with no idea what had become of Natasha and the other Avengers.

But was it wise to trust this boy? When she still didn't even know his name.

She looked away from his hand to meet his eyes again.

"What's your name?" She asked him.

"My name is Number Five," he introduced himself.

"Real name, not code name," Wanda huffed slightly.

"That is my real name," Five rose an eyebrow and Wanda frowned. What kind of name was that? "What's yours?"

"Wanda," Wanda answered.

"Okay, Wanda," Five straightened his arm pointedly, perhaps a little impatiently, "do we have a deal?"

Wanda reluctantly took hold of his hand and shook it.

"Yes."