It was all just a massive mess. The Accords, Germany... Siberia... Everything.

Guilt was something Steve had been used to feeling for the majority of his life. During the War when Bucky had died, when he woke up in 2011 and found that everyone he knew had either died or grown old and he hadn't, during the fight in New York when Tony had risked his life after Steve accused him of being a selfish prick, in Washington after the HYDRA ordeal prior to finding out Bucky was alive and he hadn't gone to search for him, then finding out HYDRA had killed Tony's parents, and so many more.

And now, he felt guilt for not telling Tony sooner. And he felt guilt because now his best friend was back in cryo-stasis while the rest of his team were locked away in a maximum security prison.

After leaving Bucky behind in Wakanda, thanks to T'Challa's help, Steve had begun to seek out help to try and locate the Raft, but was coming up empty handed. That was until Natasha reached out from under the radar and sent him coordinates to where the Raft was located, a virus to set into play in their security system in order to gain access, and also the coordinates to her safe house for 'got his shit together and decided he wanted to be friends again'. He had to admit, it was nice having Natasha back at his side. He'd gotten so used to her always having his back for things like this since Washington and it was nice to feel something familiar in a time like this.

And that's how the super soldier ended up where he was now, flying the stolen Quinjet him and Bucky had taken from Leipzig to the Raft Prison, Natasha by his side after they met up at an undisclosed area somewhere in South Guam.

When the pair arrived at the Raft, it was already up and out of the water. Steve assumed Natasha had activated her virus to have the people inside believe it was Tony's or any of the other non-rogue Avengers.

But, it seemed that as soon as they landed inside, their welcome had worn out. Red lights all around the Raft began to go off and the entrance sealed shut. Beside the soldier, Natasha glanced at a non-existent watch on her wrist as she remarked, "Took them long enough to realize it was us. You'd think a maximum security prison housing Rogue Avengers would be more secure."

Steve didn't respond to her lighthearted jokes, too focused in getting his team out in one piece. "Remember the plan: we both go in through the front, you bypass their emergency security measures to get us into the main operating room. Aim to incapacitate – not kill. These men are just following orders and doing their jobs," he listed off as him and Natasha began to load their weapons from the miniature armory in the rear of the jet. "We locate the team, break them out, and get out before anybody who's calling for back up right now has the chance to catch us in the act."

"Roger that," the redhead replied, pushing her to pistols into place on either side of her hips along with a belt of magazines. This gave her more flexibility to be able to pick up one of the larger rifles, a taser, and two non-lethal explosives and one canister of tear gas. Steve, feeling nake without his shield, simply brandished the only real fire arm he was comfortable with: the pistol.

After suiting up, the soldier made his way out of his jet and towards the main door that was vaulted shut. Natasha was quick to follow up behind him in order to reach the keypad beside the door, wasting no time in typing away. "Thank you for this," Steve eventually spoke to pass the time as she worked.

Natasha, too busy to meet his eyes, shrugged. "I needed to clear the red from my ledger after everything," she said simply.

"It wasn't your fault," the blonde soldier assured her just as the large metal doors shifted and began to pull open.

"It wasn't yours either," she told him with sincerity.

"Hault!" A loud shout from inside caught both of their attentions. Inside the main room were multiple guards, their guns trained on the pair in front of them. "Drop your weapons and get down in the ground!" One of the men ordered them.

Natasha and Steve exchanged looks before the soldier rammed into her, knocking them both to the side and out of the way before the shots were fired off, round after round. None of which hit either of them.

"Your plan has a flaw," Natasha told the soldier bitterly as she turned the safety off on her rifle. "You forgot to include the factor that they are shooting to kill." Before Steve could reply, Natasha was already throwing one of the non-lethal explosives along with the canister of tear gas around the corner.

"Gas!" A cry from around the corner echoed through the room and Steve felt like he was back in the War again, listening to his fellow comrades cry out the exact same word, watching as everyone scrambled either out of the way or to the nearest gas mask.

The soldier was brought bad to the present when Natasha abruptly spring from her spot behind the wall and began to do what Natasha always did: fight. Steve immediately followed after, watching her back and taking on any stragglers that were out of her reach as she was able to take down three guards with the simple swing of her leg and a few shots to the legs.

Once she landed back onto the ground, she turned to Steve and shouted, "Go to the main operating room! Find the team, I'll take care of the rest of them."

Steve hesitated as he punched one of the guards off the ground and pummeling into a wall nearby. "You sure?"

The red head glared at him before raising her gun from behind her and firing off two shots, hitting a guard behind her in the knees. She gave him a deadpan look. That answered his question fairly quickly.

And with that, the soldier was off.

When Steve reached the main room, he found it partially empty. Three men behind screens and computers turned to face him once he entered the room. Within seconds, Steve had it cleared, all three men knocked out all across the room. After that, it didn't take too long to locate the team being held in sub-level B.

He dashed down to the level and entered a small hallway that housed six cells, four of which had to be housing his team. The first person he spotted was Sam, standing vigil in his cell. The soldier slowly made his way towards the glass with a smile on his face. Sam responded with a knowing smirk of his own. It was like he'd been waiting for him to break them out because like hell he'd ever leave any of his team behind. His family.

Steve took the small USB Natasha had gifted him and plugged it into the panel beside the cell. The screen blinked red and glitches a bit, fighting off the virus before finally succumbing. The cell began to open slowly with a loud hissing sound echoing throughout the hall.

"About damn time," the pilot remarked as he walked out. "Clint, Scott, and Wanda are in the others. Haven't seen them since they shoved me into the back of some van."

Steve nodded. "Here," he produced a second USB from Natasha and handed it to his friend. "You get Lang, I've got the other two."

Sam nodded, taking the hard drive in his hand before jogging over to the cell beside his where Scott was getting a bit impatient, whooping and hollering about getting out of jail... again.

While Sam was letting Scott out, Steve was busy unlocking Clint's cell, and the moment the archer was out, he spared no time and rushing over to Wanda's cell across the hall. "Get it open," he called out just as Scott was released from his own cell.

Steve and Sam exchanged uneasy glances before helping Clint open up the cell. The door was only half-way open when the archer was rushing inside. Steve, Sam, and Scott suddenly understood why. Huddled up in the back of the cell wearing a blue straight jacket and brandishing a white shock collar around her neck was a rather pale looking Wanda.

Clint, Steve, and Sam all dashed inside, Wanda wincing as Clint hesitated to try to remove the collar. "Those sons of bitches..." Clint muttered as he studied her. "This thing ain't coming off without a fight. Steve!"

The soldier nodded before taking a step towards the enhanced young woman. He placed his fingers in the crooks, feeling the electricity in the collar begin to spark, before yanking it off like it was nothing.

Wanda cried out in relief, slumping forward slightly just as Clint caught her. "Hey, hey, take it easy, kid." Sam and Steve wasted no time at all unfastening the straight jacket, ripping some of the latches off to set her free.

"Mm," she moaned, shaking her head frantically and holding onto his arms as if they were a lifeline to her. "D... Da..."

"No, no, no, ssh," Clint soothed her. "Save your voice. You've been through a lot, but don't worry. We're gonna get you out of here-"

"No," Wanda abruptly shouted. "No," she reiterated with a sigh. "We have to get... We have to get– GAH!" The brunette suddenly doubled over, her eyes slammed shut as her hands found her head, squeezing in pain.

"Wanda? Hey! Wanda, talk to me," Clint shouted over her cries of pain, trying desperately to figure out what was happening that was causing her to act like this. "What's wrong?"

Soon after the abrupt wave of pain, Wanda managed to choke out a single word: "Danielle..."

Steve felt his body go cold. He hadn't even thought about Danielle, hadn't even considered the fact that Tony or Jack had let Ross lock her up here. She was a kid for Christ's sake. Maybe they didn't know... No, they had to have. Tony had said something about Sam telling him where to find him and Bucky, meaning he paid a visit here. Surely, he knew she was here. So, why didn't he get her out?

Not that it mattered much, she was here. And Steve couldn't imagine what she was going through right now. A fourteen year old in a locked cell in a maximum security prison with a shock collar... the shock collar, oh, God...

Before Steve even realized it, he was dashing to one of the last remaining cells in the hall, scrambling to get them both opened. But, once he did, he discovered they were empty, both of them.

"Where is she?" Sam wondered aloud as he ran up beside Steve, glancing in the empty cell.

That's exactly what Steve wanted to know... "Wanda," the soldier called back. "Where is she?"

Wanda, who was being held up by Clint, one arm slung over his shoulder as he carried her up and out of the cell, looked up at him with half-lidded eyes. "I... I don't know. I just... I just feel her... her pain," she said, her voice cracking on the last word.

Steve felt the panic in his chest grow larger and larger the longer they couldn't find Danielle. "Nat," the Captain shouted into his earpiece, hoping to God Natasha could help, and fast. "Natasha, where are you?"

"Control room, grabbing everyone's gear," she responded. "Why? What's wrong? Is everyone okay?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Steve replied. "Can you try and find where Danielle is being held?"

Steve knew Natasha was probably reflecting on the fact that Tony hadn't gotten the kid out of the Raft by now, but most likely pushed it aside to try and figure out where she was. Soon enough, her reponse came back, "Sub-level E, third hall on the right, cell number 68."

Steve felt his breath hitch slightly. He recomposed himself before glancing over at his team of jail breakers. "Clint, get Wanda to the jet. Nat will be there waiting for you," he instructed the archer before turning to the remaining pair of men. "Lang, Sam, with me."

The trio of men dashed their way all the way to the E-Level of the Raft, passing by small cells until they reached the third hall on the right, just like Natasha had said. Something was off from the moment they arrived at the third hall. The main thing was the fact that unlike all the other halls, this one seemed to have a large, heavy-duty steel door blocking off the entrance.

Steve hoped the virus would work.

Sure enough, a few seconds after inserting the drive into the panel on the side of the door, it shifted before beginning to open.

Once the opening between the ground and the rising door was large enough, Steve, Sam, and Scott slipped inside. What they found was brutal.

"What the hell..." Sam breathed in shock in awe as the trio took it all in.

Inside the hall was a single large cell labeled 'E68'. But, it was different from all the others. Unlike the small cells Scott, Sam, Wanda, and Clint had been kept in, it was an enormous metal box, bars protecting what was inside all around, no inside view of what was inside.

Steve hesitated for a moment before remembering who exactly was inside. He rushed over to the panel and found it was locked. They must've really wanted her locked up.

The soldier wasn't sure who he wanted to punch more – Ross for locking up a fourteen year old girl in a cell like this, alone, or Tony for allowing him to. Either way, the Captain used his rage to fuel his swing he took at the locked panel, successfully breaking it open so he could insert the drive and unlock enormous cell.

One by one, the two sets of bars came undone, then came the large metal wall. Once they were all open, the box finally revealed its contents.

"Danielle," Steve breathed in both relief and horror as he stared back at her motionless body sprawled out onto the cold, hard ground. She was wearing an all grey jumpsuit with a complimentary shock collar around her neck, just like Wanda.

The soldier and the pilot ran towards the girl, both dropping to their knees. Steve wasted no time in ripping the shock collar off the teenage girl's neck, but the moment he did, a strangled gasp escaped his throat. Underneath the shock collar was something even more horrific than Steve, or Sam, or Scott ever could've imagined. Underneath the collar was the massive amount of burns it left all around Danielle's already small neck. It was so burnt and charred it had burnt through a few layers of skin, blood seeping out along with the smell of burnt flesh.

Behind them, Scott gagged slightly.

Sam quickly pressed his fingers to the girl's boney wrist. "There's a pulse," the pilot exclaimed, igniting a spark of hope within the soldier and the ex-con behind him. "A weak one, but one nonetheless."

"We gotta get her out of here," Steve stated, getting back into his full Captain-mode. "Lang, your shirt." Scott immediately stripped off his blue shirt and handed it to the Captain, watching intently as he ripped it up to wrap it around Danielle's neck as carefully as he could, Sam holding her head up as he did so.

Once the shirt was tied loose enough that it wouldn't hurt her, but hard enough that it wouldn't fall off, Steve lifted Danielle up bridal style. Making sure to be careful with her as if she were made of glass, the super soldier, ex-con, and para-rescue pilot all started back out to the landing pad where the jet waited for them.

"What the hell happened to her?" Natasha demanded as soon as they were on board. Clint cleared the small table for wounded in the middle of the jet for Steve to lay Danielle down on as Sam ran to the cockpit, starting up the engines for their imminent escape from the Raft.

"Dani?" Wanda croaked from where she was slumped along one of the jet's seats.

"Wanda, stay down. Don't worry, we've got her," Clint reassured the other enhanced young woman before turning back to Danielle, slowly unwrapping the mangle shirt around her neck to take a peek. He winced once he caught sight of the wounds around the girl's neck. "Oh my God..."

"She needs medical attention. Now," Steve stated, though it sounded more like a demand.

Natasha sighed before quickly walking towards the cockpit, taking a seat beside Sam. She began typing in some kind of coordinates into the jet's navigation system while Sam pulled the plane up and out of Raft, the aircraft now out and above the open ocean. "Uh, where are you taking us?" Scott asked from where he stood vigil beside the unconscious Danielle.

"To get her help... hopefully," she replied, the last word a quick after thought as she began to type something on a nearby screen. The jet jolted for a moment before it lurched forward, signaling that they were off and in route.

Wanda then took this moment to pull herself to her feet, despite the sudden wave of nausea that hit her as she did so, and walk over to her little sister's side. She looked so pale. Clint had covered up the makeshift bandage over her neck again, saving Wanda the sight of her sister's wounds. But, she still looked so hurt, so weak and in silent pain. The brunette placed a small hand on Danielle's cheek. And it was at that moment that Wanda realized that something was wrong... Something big... Something deadly...

It was dark... No, not dark. Dark implied that there was a lack of light, but that wasn't it. Yes, there was no light, but... with the darkness came not only the lack of light but the lack of anything really. It was just a black abyss of nothingness. It was cold, barren, deserted... empty.

When Danielle opened her eyes, she knew she wasn't really awake. This wasn't a place she recognized. This was... something else. It was foreign, yet she somehow knew it. She'd never been here before, but she knew that there was no getting out of it... Not in one piece.

So, where was 'here'? In this sea of endless black night? In this empty box of nothingness? In this dark cell of never ending abyss?

"Welcome, Danielle."

The teenage girl suddenly jumped in fright in this unrecognizable setting. She spun around, searching for a source to the smooth and familiar voice speaking to her. She found nothing, again.

"It's been quite a long time, hasn't it?"

Danielle continued to search for who was speaking to her, but it seemed like they hadn't manifested themselves yet, whoever it was. But, something told her deep within her gut that she already knew who it was.

"Who's there?" Danielle called out, though it came out as more of a strangled question that she so desperately wanted answers to. After all, the last thing she remembered was being detained at the airport after being threatened with a shock collar around her neck, then a shock in her side that knocked her out. Everything else was just... blurry.

There's a maniacal laugh that echoed throughout the dark area around her, sending shivers down Danielle's spine and promoting hairs to rise all across her body. "You really don't recognize me? Even after all this time together?"

Suddenly, everything clicked. All the scattered pieces of a mysterious puzzle she'd been trying to put together finally fell into their places, creating the big picture, clear as day. She now understood who she was with in this dark abyss, or rather, what she was with.

"Eris..." she breathed in horror.

This prompted another round of small chuckles. "Is that what you call me? It's sweet to try and give me a name... So, sentimental. So, unusual. So... human," the voice drawled onto the word like a curse. "You always were a little soft in the heart, Danielle. Something I always tried to... push out of you. Like a cancer cell ruining the body. A weakness in the system, breaking down the rest of the protocol... You were the virus in my perfect host."

Danielle fell speechless. She wasn't sure what to say. She'd never interacted with the alter-ego living within her, she always just saw videos or heard stories from Wanda, Pietro, and her brother's accounts when they were still with HYDRA. She'd never actually gotten to... speak with Eris – or, whoever this apparently was.

"Who... Who are you?"

There was a soft sigh that sounded a lot closer than the rest of the words Danielle had previously heard from her mysterious parasite within her. "You'll learn soon enough. Everyone will," the voice replied ominously.

"What do you want from me?" Danielle wasn't sure if she really wanted the answer to that question. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to pay the price of whatever Eris was asking of her.

Then, something shifted. Something within the abyss moved and turned and spun to form a coherent shape, an image. The spitting image of Danielle that was, only this wasn't Danielle. She found herself staring at a reflection of herself, only it wasn't her. This version of herself wasn't wearing her casual black skirt, graphic tee, Vans, and navy blue hoodie with her brown natural waves hanging just at her shoulders.

This was a young woman wearing an all black dress that almost blended in with the background surrounding them. And she didn't have brown natural waves, she had long blonde curls that looked far more untamed than Danielle's. Her skin was more sun-kissed and her cheekbones were more prominent. Her posture was straight and her body language made it seem like she demanded attention. She was everything Danielle wasn't, yet they shared the same face, the same body. This was... Her.

"What I want," she repeated. "I want the virus removed from my host."

Danielle shuddered.

"But... I'm not going to hurt you, Danielle." The girl finally understood why that voice sounded so familiar and soothing to her. It was her own. "Why would I hurt you? There is no me without you. I'd only be hurting myself by trying to terminate you, and we don't want that..."

Danielle remained silent, afraid that if she tried to do much of anything she'd provoke this monster staring back at her.

"What I do want, however, is your body," she explained. "I want you to just... Give me the reigns, to stop fighting me, locking me away. No matter how much you try, you can't get rid of me, and I can't get rid of you." She took a step forward and Danielle tried to stumble back. But, it was like for every one step Danielle staggered backwards, She somehow floated forwards five more until they were only a foot away from each other. "We are one in the same... together."

Danielle began to shake her head frantically. "No," she muttered. "I'm not like you. You... You hurt people– kill people. I'm nothing like you."

The young woman across from her scoffed. "Danielle, do you ever get those little sensory overloads? The ones where you suddenly just explode and things break, glass shatters... people get hurt?" Danielle tried not to let it show, but she felt recognition at all the things she had listed off. "That's not me... Or your powers... It's you, Danielle. It was always you."

"You have to understand, I didn't make you unstable... You just are," she stated. "But, I can take that all away. I can help you become... whole again. You can finally just be, without hurting people you love or getting hurt by people you care about."

The teenage girl lifted her head up slightly at her proposition. "What do you... What are you talking about?"

"I can take away all your pain," she concluded with a sadistic-like smile. "All you have to do... is give up the fight."

"We're here," Natasha announced from the cockpit of the Quinjet as it prepared to land just above what looked to be some kind of building on the outskirts of the shining city along the horizon in the background just outside the large windshield.

"Um... where is 'here'?" Scott asked from the back of the jet, clearly going into a panic triggered by his sensory overload of being broken out of a maximum security prison in the middle of the ocean by the Avengers. This had to be the craziest night of his life, by far.

"Seoul," Natasha answered as her and Sam began to cut the engines of the jet.

Steve – who had previously been watching as Clint and Sam helped hook Danielle up to an IV for fluids – snapped his head up at her response. "Wait... You don't mean...?" He trailed off.

"I'm lost," Sam remarked. "What's in Seoul that's going to help us out here?"

The redhead stood up from her seat and walked over towards where he was beside Danielle. "I may have called up a friend of ours to meet us here on the down low to help us out. She agreed to meet at an undisclosed location close to home," she explained.

"Who?" Wanda asked skeptically as she rose to her feet.

She got her answer a lot sooner than expected when the group of the world's most wanted criminals walked off the jet and into the building where they were met with a team of what seemed to be highly trained doctors. In no time at all, the doctors were scooping up Danielle from out of Steve's arms onto a stretcher, quickly ushering her into a room that looked like a makeshift hospital room. Next thing the team knew, they were watching these doctors begin to connect machines and sensors to the petite brunette.

"Who are all these people?" Clint wondered aloud as they watched from a relative distance.

"My team." All of the group spun around to find Dr. Helen Cho entering, a clip board in hand, a stethoscope around her neck, and her hair in one of her signature buns atop her head. "Don't worry, Captain Rogers, they've all been briefed and sworn to secrecy not to discuss anything that happens here tonight," she explained after seeing the momentary panic that set in on the Captain's face. "I trust them all with my life."

Natasha nodded as she approached the doctor. "Thank you for agreeing to this."

"It's the least I could do," the doctor replied simply. "Now, let me get a look at that wound around her neck." Dr. Cho walked past the group of rogue Avengers and moved to stand alongside her team of doctors to examine the makeshift bandage around Danielle's neck. Very carefully, she began to unravel it. Once it was all the was off, revealing the wound as a whole, she grimaced and sighed, as did most of the team behind her.

"Can you help her?" Wanda asked, breaking the tense silence.

Cho turned back around. She spoke a few words in Korean to a few members of her team, sending them away to seemingly grab tools from nearby carts, before turning back to face Wanda and the rest of the worried group. "We're going to try and sew together what we can to close the wound before it gets infected. But... there's not much we can salvage from her skin. We may need to use the Cradle, but since it's back at the Lab, it wouldn't be possible tonight. And frankly, we don't have the time."

Everyone in the group obviously defated at her explanation.

Cho let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "But... that doesn't mean we can't try and cheat a bit."

"What do you mean?" Steve spoke up for the first time since arriving.

Instead of answering, Dr. Cho turned to face Wanda. "Your powers... you're able to create, mold, and move things with your power... I have a hypothesis that if you can move and shift and reshape flesh and tissue in Danielle's neck, then maybe we don't need to sew together and try and salvage what's left because we can substitute it with whatever your power creates." Wanda blinked back in surprise, as did the rest of the group. "Can you do that?"

Wanda was silent for a moment, thinking it all over. "You're asking me to create tissue to close the gap of the burnt tissue?"

"Yes," Cho answered. "Not a permanent fix, but it'll help in the long run when she begins to heal."

Wanda crossed her arms over her chest, a crease between her eyebrows forming as she turned to face where her unconscious little sister laid on the hospital bed. She looked so weak, so hurt, so... broken. Wanda had seen what her sister had gone through, thick and thin. She's seen her highs, her lows, her ends, her beginnings, her firsts, her lasts... She so desperately wanted to fix everything for Danielle, but she wondered if she had the capacity to...

"You... You want me to just... stop living?" Danielle asked, cleary confused as to what this sentient being inside of her was talking about. One minute she was saying she didn't want to hurt her, but now she wanted Danielle to just give up rights to her body? And do what? Die? Was that how that worked?

Danielle's sadistic reflection only chuckled and shook her head. "It's a lot more complex than that," she began to explain. "The reason I can only take hold when you lose control out there is because you fight for the control of your mind and body, pushing me away. Now, I'll give you this, you're strong when you're stubborn. But, Danielle, it's time the head of house shifted. It's time for someone else to take the reigns. Aren't you tired of being here?"

The teenager then took this time to glance around at her surroundings. They were still in this sort of abyss and Danielle wondered, was this her mind? If so, why was it so dark? "Where... where are we?"

"Inside your mind," her reflection replied. "We can be wherever you want to be really."

Suddenly, the black background disappeared. Danielle found herself standing in the middle of the Compound common room. The setting changed, but she was still standing in place, and her reflection was still standing a few feet away.

The Compound room didn't stay too long either, shifting into her old room back at her and Sharon's apartment. Then, it was her room at the Compound. Then, it was what she recognized as her school's locker room. The school library, the Compound training room, the cells in Sokovia where she used to be kept, the back of the Quinjet, the school bleachers, the back of the subway train, Delmar's, and finally the Rhode Island house she shared with her mother.

"Ah," the blonde reflection of herself signed as she glanced around the large house. "The Newport family house... Good times. Though, we both know what dear old mother was trying to recreate here, don't we?" She turned, raising an eyebrow just before the Rhode Island house vanished, only for the surroundings to change into another familiar setting. "You know, if there's one thing to know about remakes... You don't mess with the original."

When Danielle looked around at her surroundings, it took her only a moment realize where she was inside her head. Her old family home in Zilina, the one she shared with Jack, her Mom, and her Dad. It was her real home before... everything. It was always a bitter-sweet memory in her mind, but here now... It was like she had never left.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Danielle turned back around to face the blonde beside her. "Being back home, not having any responsibilities to anyone but yourself and your old life. Getting relive the best times of your life for as long as you'd like. It's like being in Heaven, but without the death part," she explained with a bright smile.

"I don't know what... what you're talking about," Danielle mumbled.

The blonde scoffed lightly. "Well, let me show you then." She abruptly raised a hand and snapped. Danielle expected the scenery around her change, but nothing did. Everything seemed to stay the same. The furniture, the photos on the walls, the dishes in the kitchen, the room. Nothing changed. So, what had she meant when she said she was going to show-

"Danielle?"

The brunette froze, her eyes widening, glued to the blonde's across from her. She hadn't... had she? The blonde merely smiled in response, jerking her head in the direction at which the familiar voice had come from. Danielle wanted so desperately to turn around, but was too terrified.

"Danielle, we're home," the voice called out again, followed by the sound of keys jingling and doors closing. As the sounds of footsteps slowy approached, Danielle couldn't help it. She turned around, coming face-to-face with her mother.

The same mother who had died half a year prior, the same mother who tried to kill Steve, the same mother who had sold her out to be kidnapped and tortured, the same mother who was trained to be an assassin by HYDRA, the same mother that had left her children for dead, the same mother that cared for her, fed her, loved her, and tucked her in every night. The mother that she loved more than life itself, but hated more than anything in the world. The mother that was the most contradicting thing in Danielle's life, yet she couldn't help but miss her so much.

She just smiled back at her as if she were oblivious to the tears threatening to pour over her child's face as she stared back at her with bright brown eyes. "We just got back from Jack's guitar lesson. Your Dad's on his way home, so I'm about to start dinner now," she explained, pressing a chaste kiss on Danielle's forehead before making her way behind the kitchen counter where the blonde reflection of Danielle had been a few moments prior, now nowhere to be seen.

What was going on? Was Danielle reliving a memory? If so, which one? She didn't remember this, any of it. Well, her reflection had said that this was like Heaven, but without the death. Maybe this was her mother's actual Heaven and she just so happened to stop in for a visit. But, Danielle had to keep asking herself, was this even real?

"'Sup, Dani," a new voice chimed as it came walking up behind her. This voice made Danielle actually jump as she spun around to find her older brother walking towards the living roo, a clear smile on his face. She didn't remember the last time she'd ever seen Jack this happy before. She loved it, plain and simple. "You okay?" He stopped to ask. "You look like you're about to explode."

Danielle wondered if maybe they could sense her emotions or actually see her facial expressions of shock and disbelief. Wait – could they actually speak to her?! To test out the theory, Dani immediately shook her head and answered her brother's question, "I'm fine. I just... had a weird day."

"Cool," Jack shrugged simply. "Mom, I'll be in the living room watching TV!" Jack called t the kitchen, their mom giving a muffled response over her shoulder. Danielle watched with joy as Jack gave her a brief smile before walking to the living room and plopping himself on the couch.

So, this was exactly like Heaven without death, Danielle concluded. It couldn't have gotten any better... That was until the final cherry on top was placed atop her enormous loaded happiness when the front door opened and closed.

"Honey? Jack? Dani?"

Danielle could physically feel her heart break. She didn't need to turn around to see who it was. "Dad," she felt her voice crack when she finally did turn to face where he stood beside the front door. And when she met his familiar gaze, or was like staring back I'm time to a place she wanted to stay in for the rest of all eternity.

"Danielle," he spoke as he walked over. "Hello, my dear," he greeted her, placing a big kiss to her temple as he pulled her in for a bone-crushing hug. She remembered that about him very clearly. He have the best hugs and kisses. It was the most she remembered about him, aside from a few things here and there. It felt so surreal seeing him. She'd never even dreamt or thought about him much since after Mm was revealed to still be alive. She had always been so torn between hating him and loving him too after finding out he was apart of the organization that ruined her and so many others' lives.

When her dad finally let her go, Danielle felt a sense of emptiness, like it was too short, but, she let him go anyway and watched him as he went to the kitchen to greet his fie and Jack. Kisses and hugs all around and it all just flt too good to be true. Why was her reflection showing her this? What was the point? Did she want to trap her here forever? Of so, where was 'here'? This couldn't have been Heaven, Jack wasn't dead. This couldn't have been Hell, her Dad didn't belong there. Was it all inside her head? Was this all a lie to make her give up?

"Danielle, are you alright?" Her mother asked, clearly concerned.

Dani shook her head. Reminding herself, it wasn't real. It was a trick. It was a lie.

"Danielle?"

"Stop it," the teen ground out through clenched teeth as she pressed the palms of her hands forcefully aginst her temples, trying to push herself back into reality. It wasn't real. It was a trick. It was a lie.

"Dani? What's wrong?"

"Stop." It wasn't real. It was a trick. It was a lie.

"Sweetie, talk to us."

"No." It wasn't real. It was a trick. It was a lie.

"Dani-"

"Stop!" It wasn't real! It was a trick! It was a lie!

"Honey-"

"I said stop!" It wasn't real! It was a trick! It was a lie!

Finally, the voices stopped, the noises stopped. And when Danielle opened her eyes, she was back in the old living room, only it was empty. No Mom, no Jack, no Dad. No one, but her... and her blonde reflection standing a few feet away again.

The blonde let out a heavy sigh. "I don't understand you, Danielle," she remarked. "You're so weak, yet so stubborn. So much potential, yet so little driving passion. With just a push in the right direction, you'd be perfect. But... you're just not. And now, you're my problem."

"Then leave," Danielle retorted through her clenched and gritted teeth. "Because I'm not going to stop fighting you." The blonde raised an eyebrow, and she kept going. "You kill people, and cause chaos, and hurt innocent people. All this time, you tried convincing me to let you win, but it was pointless. You will never win. Because I will never give up my mind for you."

The brunette watched her blonde reflection clench her jaw, her glare and frown deepening and she could've sworn she saw a flash of gold spark in her eyes for a brief moment. It all see,d to happen so fast. "Fine," the blonde replied simply. Danielle hadn't noticed it, but she was taking small steps towards her. "Oh, Danielle... Why did you have to be so stubborn?" Then, before the brunette could process it, the blonde swing a backhand across Danielle's face, sending her falling to the floor with an oomph!

Danielle gasped the moment she hit the floor, no expecting such a hard blow from a petite figure identical to her own. Was she really going to fight her for her own mind? Was this happening? What was happening?

She didn't exactly get an answer when the blonde reflection of herself tried to kick her while she was down. Luckily, Natasha's training hadn't gone completely useless. Danielle made a quick escape by rolling out of the way and popping back up onto her feet. Se tried to remember the basics like the redheaded assassin had taught her. Feet placed firmly on the ground, shoulder-length apart. Hands in fists, but not clenched too hard to make sure not to break anything when throwing a punch. Fists held in front of the face, but not blocking the view of the target or attacker. And whatever you do, don't give up.

Danielle took one big breath of fresh air before pulling her right arm back and throwing a solid punch to the blonde's pale face. She watched as her parrellel's head swung to the left, a small red mark still left on her cheek from where Danielle had punched. But, it faded quickly and she went back to trying to attack her again, putting Danielle back on defense.

Dani found herself fighting for her life against the psycho blonde, having to spin to dodge kicks, slide to dodge slaps, and duck out of the way to barely miss being punched. Danielle thought she was a good fighter because she was partially trained by Natasha, but this thing... She was better, a lot better. She was quick, agile, and knew her way around a fight. But, luckily for her, so did Danielle... somewhat.

And so their deadly dance began.

"Wanda," Dr. Cho's voice broke into the psychic's concentrated mindset. "Are you willing to go through with this?"

The brunette crossed her arms and pursed her lips. She didn't want to mess this up and risk Danielle getting hurt more than she already was. Even the slightest movement could hurt her and Wanda barely had control over her own powers, and especially after being held in the Raft for so long, not to mention the Lagos incident... She just didn't have enough faith in herself-

"Cho!" One of the doctor's on Helen's team called out, cutting into Wanda's conflicted thoughts.

Dr. Cho spun around to face him and began to walk over when he beckoned her over where he stood above Danielle, examining her neck. The rest of the group hung behind, watching in confusion as Cho and the other doctor's studied whatever anomaly was occurring in Danielle's injury.

"What is it?" Natasha asked when she saw Cho's expression turned from calculating to confused.

"I... Her wounds," the doctor answered, unsure of how to explain what was happening. "They're... They're beginning to heal. The tissue is growing back, the dead skin is shedding..."

The group of jail breakers all exchanged glances of confusion before Scott turned back and asked, "Isn't that... a good thing?"

"I'm not sure," Cho replied honestly. "I've seen Danielle's healing enhancement up close, but this... this is different. Normally, her regeneration ability would be 10 percent faster than an average human's. But this... This is healing at least 60 percent faster. Faster than even yours, Captain," she explained, turning to Steve with a look of shock and awe.

"What does that mean for her?" Clint questioned.

"Like I said, I don't know."

Wanda, who was silently studying Danielle's unconscious figure, began to slowly walk towards her. Something was off. Something had always been off. She saw it at the airport, she felt it in the Raft, she could feel it in the jet, and it was beginning to resurface again in the makeshift operating room. The small feeling in the back of the psychic's brain that filled her with a sense of dread and horror, like something horrible was brewing.

The signs were all starting to show now. The yellow light and explosion back at the airport. The feeling as though her brain was being crushed like a can of soda during the waves of shock at the Raft. That feeling she sensed when trying to get a read in Danielle's head on the jet. And now, the faster healing than usual... That feeling wasn't just in Wanda's head, it was in Danielle's.

It was all beginning to click in Wanda's head when she finally reached her little sister's bed side. She so desperately wanted her conclusion to be wrong. But, she needed to be sure. She needed to know.

Slowly, Wanda brought a tentative hand against Danielle's right side of her face. Her palm began to illuminate a soft scarlet light as her powers connected with her sister's mind. And once she was inside... she felt a piece of her crack and die.

"Oh, God..."

"Wanda?" Steve moved to walk to her side as she stated out into space with a terrified expression, like she was looking into a war zone as her hand was placed on Danielle's head. What was she seeing? "Wanda, what's wrong?"

"It's her," the brunette stated vaguely.

"Who? Danielle?" Sam asked.

"Wanda, what's going on?" Clint added.

"Danielle, her mind..." Wanda's breathing started to escalate as a small panic attack threatened to overtake the young psychic's mind. The brunette tried to hold it together, her mind on Danielle's as she struggled with how to process whatever was happening right now. This couldn't be happening right now. It couldn't be.

"What can't be happening right now?" Steve's voice broke into her troubling thoughts and Wanda began to wonder if she had said that out loud.

"I... I..." she stammered.

"Wanda," the soldier spoke in a firm tone as he took a step forward, looking her dead in the eye as he exclaimed, "You need to tell us what's wrong with her so we can help. If you don't, she could get hurt even more. Talk to us. What's happening in her head?"

Wanda let out a heavy sigh, taking deep breaths in and out, just like Sam had taught her back in her early days at the Compound when she used to have night terrors on an everyday basis. Once she was most settled down, she glanced back up at the soldier and the rest of the group as she delivered her bad news.

"The cage is broken," she explained. "Eris is released."

Back inside Danielle's mind, thins weren't going as well as Danielle thought they would. Going hand-to-hand with her own personal homicidal God-like parasite inside her head wasn't the best idea, but she was managing... And not very well either.

Danielle now found herself being thrown across the room of her childhood home's living room, her back making a loud crash into the wall, knocking over a few pictures, coffee tables, and bases before she fell to the floor. The brunette glanced back up just in time to see her blonde reflection striding towards her to try and finish the job.

Despite the groaning in her joints, muscles and bones, Danielle pulled herself to her feet and caught the blonde's punch inside her own hand – a move Steve had taught her – and twisted her arm. The blonde then attempted to use her other hand to fight Danielle, but the teen grabbed that one as well and pushed it against the blonde's chest before throwing her head back and ramming it into her reflection's forehead.

She stumbled back a bit, but was back at trying to punch and kick Danielle within the second. Danielle dodged a punch, blocked a kick, and fell to the floor to avoid some kind of karate chop. While on the ground, Danielle found a piece of glass from one of the bases she'd shattered while being thrown across the room. She grabbed hold of it – ignoring the way it pierced her skin slightly – gripped it tight, and swing it up at the homicidal blonde's face.

Danielle watched as the glass pierced her skin and left a small cut on her left cheek. Crimson red liquid began to pool at the wound and leak down her cheek. But, just as her skin had been scratched, the wound began to close and the blood dried away leaving behind nothing but perfectly clear skin once again as if Danielle hadn't even touched her.

The blonde chuckled. "You think you can hurt me?" Suddenly, a sharp pain began to form on Danielle's left cheek. She hissed and yelped in pain as she slowly moved her hand up to the source of the pain, but when she pulled her hand back, she found blood staining her finger tips as if she had been... scratched.

Danielle glanced between her bloody hand back up to the blonde before she was punched in the face and thrown back to the ground, dropping the piece of glass in her hand.

"Oh, please," she heard the homicidal blonde scoff before a hand came to wrap around her shirt's sleeve, pulling the brunette back up. She came face-to-face with her reflection before she was rammed into the wall with brute force. "Where do you think you get your little healing power, huh? You can barely catch a common cold out in the real world, why do you think that is, Danielle? Not because of a stupid HYDRA experiment, not because of a dumb Sceptre. It was me, all along!"

Suddenly, the blonde's hand shot out to wrap around Danielle's neck.

The brunette made a choking noise as the blonde began to raise Danielle up by her throat. Her airways were blocked and she could feel herself losing her breath as She held tightly to her neck, choking and choking until she could feel her face begin to turn blue and her vision start to grow blurry.

"... please..." she managed to choke out as both her hands made weak attempts to try and unwrap Her hands from around her neck. But it was no use; She was too strong... Danielle was too weak.

"If I can't convince you to give up," the blonde growled as her eyes slowly began to glow a bright, blinding gold, unlike Danielle had ever seen in her own irises. "I'll make you..." Just then, the hand around her throat tightened and tightened and tightened. Danielle could feel her last few breaths escape her mouth as she struggle to just stay awake, the pain in her throat growing with each clench of the blonde's hand. It felt like a boa constricter suffocating her.

And she felt like she was falling and falling and falling...

And dying and dying and dying...

And all she could see was darkness...

"What do you mean she's released?" Steve demanded, staring back at Wanda with wide eyes. "How can she... No, this can't be possible-"

"It is," Wanda stated. "I can feel her. She's... she's fighting against Danielle."

"Is she winning?" Clint asked, a grim look on his face as if he were scared for the answer. That fear grew even more when the brunette psychic glanced up at him with an uneasy expression. It wasn't very comforting...

Steve set aside that weary feeling and turned back to Wanda with a new determination. "Can you put her back in that cage?"

Wanda shook her head. "The last time I tried, I nearly got Danielle and myself killed. The last time I even went up against Eris, she got into my head," she explained.

"It's too much of a risk," Natasha told the soldier with a look of regret.

"No," the soldier ground out forcefully. "No, we can't give up on her."

"Nobody's giving up on her, Steve," Sam assured his friend.

"Then fight for her," the blonde retorted. "Wanda, get in there and help her fight Eris-"

"Cap, that's too much of a risk – like Nat said-"

"–she can save her–"

"–Wanda could get hurt–"

"– we can't just let her go on this way!"

"Steve, you have to look at other options-"

"There are no other options!" Steve shouted.

Just then, Sam gave him a knowing glance, his arms crossed across his chest as he bowed his head. "Steve-"

"Sam," the soldier tried to stop his friend from saying what he was about to suggest. He didn't need to hear the rest. Or maybe he did and he just didn't want to.

"-you know what happened last time."

"-stop-"

"We had a deal-"

"- no-"

"-you promised her-"

"I'm not letting Danielle die!"

Everyone in the room fell silent, the only sound coming from the machines attached to Danielle, her pace going slightly fast and the beeping filled the tense atmosphere. The team glanced between each other, but mostly at the soldier who had just snapped and nearly broke down.

They watched as he slowly moved beside the bed where the teenage girl laid, still unconscious. He bent down slightly and took her hand in his. It was so petite compared to his large one, but the size wasn't the only difference the soldier saw each time he looked at them. He saw the hands of a pure soul who was capable of bringing joy to the world. He saw the hands of a person who had been through Hell and back and still managed to have a smile on her face when the sun came up. He saw the hands of a child that still had a long way in her journey to go. He saw the hands of a hero that had blood on her hands, some of which was her own. But most of all, he saw the hands of a little girl he had taken on the responsibility of caring for and failed at doing the one thing he'd promise himself he'd do: keep her safe.

And now... She was on her deathbed with a powerful force set free in her own head. He wasn't even sure if the girl he was next to was the one he knew before. But, if she was in there, he prayed she would wake up so he could at least apologize. Tell her that he was sorry he ever got her into this mess. Sorry that he couldn't keep her safe. Sorry that she was ever involved in this life. And sorry that he was too selfish to ever realize that what was right for her was to be far away from him and the life that him and the rest of the team led. But, he couldn't... and that broke his heart.

Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder. He didn't bother to look up to see who it was. "Nobody's letting her die, Steve," Natasha assured the soldier in the most sincere voice he'd ever heard her use. "This was Danielle's choice. She wanted this."

"She also wanted to come along to Siberia, Nat," he retorted from over his shoulder. "She doesn't know what's right for her-"

"And your judgement is too clouded to know what's right for her either," the redhead countered. The blonde soldier fell silent, his eyes still trained on Danielle. Wanda was beside her, her eyes full of tears as her fingers brushed through the hair on the sides of her sister's pale face. She was probably wondering how long it would be before she was dead, or would be dead, because apparently that was the only option now.

Steve couldn't do it. He knew he couldn't. He'd already lost so much over the course of a few days; Peggy, his old team, his freedom, his best friend... he couldn't lose the closest thing he had to a daughter. He couldn't lose Danielle.

The soldier fiercely shook his head, sniffling as he wiped away the excess tears from his eyes. "There has to be another way. We can't kill her."

"Steve," Clint spoke this time. "If she tries to get inside her head-" he gestured to Wanda. "-she would be risking her life and mind, too. We can't ask her to do that–"

"I can do it."

All heads spun around to face the brunette psychic standing above Danielle's head, her fingers still mindlessly caressing her little's sisters face and the crown of hair around it. She slowly looked up at the rest of the team, her eyes full of sorrow and determination. Steve knew at that moment that she was probably thinking the same thing as him; they couldn't lose her. Not like this.

Sam let out a sigh, "If you do this, you're risking hurting both yourself and your sister. You know that, right?"

Wanda took a deep breath and nodded. "I can't not do anything," she stated, glancing back down at the girl in front of her. "She's my sister... I already lost Pietro, Jack is..." she sniffled a bit, trying to hold back a sob. "I can't lose her. I can't."

Steve pursed his lips. He stood up and laid a hand on hers, giving it a squeeze as he met her eyes. "Be careful."

She nodded. "I will."

Then, she went to work. She let go of the soldier's hand to be able to bend down, pressing a soft kiss to Danielle's forehead before laying both her hands on either side of her head, each palm lining up with each of the girl's temples. The psychic took a deep breath in and let a shuddered breath out.

The rest of the team watched anxiously as Wanda closed her eyes. Once her eyelids were shut, a scarlet mist began to appear at the center of each of her palms. The mist slowly moved from her to Danielle's temples. Unlike most of her movements while using her powers, her scarlet light was moving agonizingly slow before finally attaching to the teenage girl's temples.

The room was still and silent. No one could breath as they watched in anticipation. They waited for a sign, a signal, an omen– something that would tell them whether or not Wanda had succeeded in entering the younger girl's mind. They eventually got their sign when Wanda gasped, her eyes snapping open and glowing a bright red color. She was in. And what she saw was horrific...

Danielle could feel her consciousness giving out. The darkness that clouded her vision was slowly beginning to overcome her. The feeling of her windpipes being crushed by the blonde reflection of herself still relentlessly suffocating her. She didn't want to give up, she wanted to keep fighting, but she just wasn't strong enough. She couldn't do it. She was too weak...

It was all about to end, right here and right now. She wouldn't die, the Entity wouldn't let her. Instead, she would be force to suffer for the rest of all eternity as the girl who couldn't fight.

The girl who was too weak.

The girl who was too human.

The girl who couldn't...

That was until something shifted. Something changed. Something... burned.

There was a light. A bright, glowing, burning, searing... scarlet light. It shined all throughout the the room, growing brighter and brighter, and hotter and hotter. Suddenly, Danielle found herself falling to the ground, landing on her hands and knees as she began gasping for air, her throat finally free and her windpipes open. She started to regain consciousness and awareness of her surrounds. The teenage girl glanced up to the Entity, finding the blonde spinning around, glaring up at the walls and roof of the makeshift living room made up inside her head. She found they were all glowing a scarlet red. But, not just glowing light, it was... mist. It was... familiar.

The Entity let out a condescending chuckle as an evil grin spread across her face. "Nice to see you again, Wanda," she spat at the red light boring down on her. Danielle felt her breath catch in her throat again at the mention of her older sister. She couldn't believe it. Wanda had somehow gotten into her head to try and fight the blonde again. What? Why? How? What was she doing? "It's nice that your loyalty still remains unbreakable when it comes to Danielle. But, I'm afraid it's a bit misplaced."

Danielle was trying to interpret what the blonde was talking about when her thoughts were cut short. Just then, the blonde Entity began to raise her arms. Following the motion, the room began to shake. Furniture rose at least a foot into the air, glass started to shatter from the windows, back doors, and dishes in the kitchen. The tiles on the floor were rattling off their hinges and the boards in the wall and roof were snapping off their nails, screws and bolts. When the Entity opened her eyes, they were a glowing bright gold.

Slowly, the Entity turned her hands outward towards the scarlet force. Danielle was trying to understand what she was doing when suddenly a bright golden light came shooting out of the palms of her hands. Unlike Wanda's red mist, her power came out in bright golden rays. Rays disguised as sharp swords as they fought back against the scarlet plasma. But instead of pushing them back out, the Entity pulled them in. Danielle could only watch in horror as Wanda's red light came funneling back into the Entity's body being turned into gold light. She wasn't just eating away at Wanda's powers, she was taking control of all of Wanda's light... her power... her mind. Oh dear God...

Danielle had to do something. She couldn't let Wanda fight against her demons, this was her fight, this was her burden. She couldn't let her sister get hurt over her mistakes.

Frantically, the brunette began to search for a way to fight back. Something – ANYTHING. She was desperate. Think, Danielle. Think! She concentrated long on hard, not focusing on her older sister getting slowly overtaken by the blonde Entity in her head. What could stop Her?

"Why would I hurt you?" Danielle tried to focus on the Entity's past words in her head through all the chaos going on around her. "There is no me without you," the blonde had explained. "I'd only be hurting myself by trying to terminate you, and we don't want that..." Danielle gasped. That was it. Maybe – she wasn't entirely certain about this solution. Then again, it wasn't like she had much of a choice, her sister was in danger and the Entity was slowly beginning to decimate her through her own powers. She had to act quickly.

Danielle recalled a memory a long time ago (at least it felt that way). It was during one of her and Peter's study sessions on the school football field bleachers... back when they still talked. They were going over something in Chemistry and the conversation had veered mildly off topic. She remembered trying to point out to her friend that they had to stay on topic in order for either of them to pass the upcoming test they were studying for when Peter had countered with the fact that the subject matter of whether or not copious amounts of elephant tranquilizers could knock out Thor for longer than ten minutes was perfectly on topic when it came to Chemistry. When she'd asked him how, he'd answered: "Easy: Chemistry is science and every good scientist has to come up with a Hypothesis before conducting an experiment to prove their perfectly scientific theory."

"I don't think finding out if tranquilizers work on a Norse God counts as 'scientific study'," Danielle chuckled in response.

"What? Of course it is," Peter rebutted. "If someone like Thor – take Loki for example – came back to try and take over the world again, wouldn't you want to know whether or not your tranquilizers could take them out?" Danielle pursed her lips, and before she could even open her mouth to respond, Peter slapped a hand against his knee. "Exactly," he exclaimed triumphantly.

Danielle gave her friend an incredulous look to which he merely ignored and continued on with his argument. "Anyway, to start the scientific method, we need a hypothesis. Mine is: if you shoot Thor with a relative amount of elephant tranquilizers, it would knock him out for a good amount of time. Or at least enough to tie him up or something."

"Why would we want to shoot Thor with tranquilizers, again?" Danielle asked in confusion.

"Oh my God..." the teenage boy groaned sending Danielle into a fit of giggles and laughs. She missed those days, when everything was simpler. Black and white. Not so complicated as it was right now. Right now as she was trapped in her own head, a Sentient Entity trying to take control while her psychic sister tried to fight with her own set of powers. This was going terribly and Danielle now had a something to kick off her scientific study... somewhat.

There was the presumption that if the Entity and Danielle were somehow connected, each time Danielle hurt Her it would hurt herself. So, she couldn't directly hurt the Entity. But, what if she reversed it?

Hypothesis: if Danielle killed herself, it would kill the Entity.

It was a big risk. Killing herself wasn't exactly the most ideal situation, but she saw no other real solutions, and – once again – she was on a clock and had limited supplies to work with. So, this was the only real choice to go with. Now, on to the harder part: actually finding a way to kill herself...

There were no guns in her old living room house, her parents were peaceful people (a lot good that did them). But, there were, however, knives in the kitchen. And just her luck, the Entity's standoff with Wanda was scattering all the dishes from the kitchen into the living room, pushing one lone steak knife only a few feet from where Danielle was crouched. She stared it as she slowly began to crawl towards it. This was was how it ended this was how she would prove herself. This was her burden to bear, and this was her problem to solve. Not Wanda, not Jack, not Steve – no one. Nobody.

Inch by inch felt like mile by mile as she crawled across the few feet of distance between her and the steak knife. Until, finally, her finger tips came in contact with the handle and slowly wrapped around. Once it was in her hand, she lifted it up. Her hand was shaking. She figured it was normal for that to happen, she was, after all, about to kill herself to stop some Sentient Being from taking over her mind and going on a killing rampage. She just hoped she was strong enough...

A few yards away from her in the middle of the living room was the Entity. She was floating about three feet in the air, a golden rim of light shining off of her and a large array of furniture surrounding her like a field of meteorites surrounding a planet. Her eyes were glowing an identical gold to the rays of light being shot out and entrapping Wanda Maximoff's red powers that invaded Danielle's mind.

The Entity felt the Maximoff's power coursing through her, but it wasn't enough. Her strength and power was far more consequential than hers. But, she had to give it to the girl, she was quite powerful. But the power was limited. It was why, in the end, the Entity chose Danielle as her host instead of Wanda. The potential was the key, and Danielle had it in spades. It was just so... untapped, misused, malnourished. The Entity would change all of that. She just needed control, full control, of Danielle's mind. And she wouldn't get that by having the Maximoff girl get in the way.

She had tried this once and failed, now the Entity would have to stop her again... This time, for good.

The Entity warped her powers and rendered them useless, but still using the, as a gateway inside of Wanda's on mind. She was stronger from since she was last inside her head, so it was harder for the Entity to take control like she had the last time. Wanda's powers had grown exponentially since she was last inside her head. A lot had changed. Like, for one, Wanda was managing to keep her out. But, not completely.

She could hear her thoughts, but it was like listening in through a closed door. They weren't very useful, she just kept repeating the name 'Danielle' over and over again as if the teenage girl she'd trapped in her own mind could hear her. But, one thing the Entity did find useful inside Wanda's head was the view she got through her own eyes. Yes, it looked as though she were viewing the girl's world through a blurry glass pane, but it was the first good look of the outside world the Entity had gotten since the Maximoff girl and Danielle shoved her into their little makeshift Cage of theirs.

She took a good look at everything going on in Wanda's world. They were in a hospital of sorts... Around them were people, people the Entity found vaguely familiar through memories of Danielle's. She knew the redheaded woman was who she called 'Nat'. The dark-skimmed man with a small goatee was the one named 'Sam'. The lighter skinned man with the spiky hair-do was 'Clint'. She wasn't quite sure who the other pale-face and dark-haired man behind him was. The darker-skinned woman in the blue scrubs was 'Dr. Cho', the Entity remembered hearing all about her after a torture session and having to go through surgery with her (fun times). And finally, the man of the hour, the blonde and buff man with the tree trunks as arms, 'Steve'. Eh, the Entity expected a bit more for someone who meant so much to her little host. But, then again, she found Danielle's life somewhat pathetic.

Oh, She was going to have fun tearing it all apart-

She abruptly froze. Her thoughts haulted when she felt a sharp pain forming in her abdomen. Something was wrong. This wasn't a gut feeling, this was a physical sensation. She was... hurting. Something was hurting her. What was hurting her?!

The Entity pulled up and out of Wanda's mind and found herself back inside of Danielle's head. Slowly, her arms began to fall and her hold on Wanda Maximoff was dropped. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Why was she feeling pain?

Eventually, the Entity glanced down at where the pain was coming from in her lower abdomen. Sure enough, creating a large stain in her black dress, was crimson liquid pouring out from her stomach. The Entity pressed her fingers lightly to the wound, and when she pulled them back they were stained with blood. HER blood. Why was she bleeding? Why wasn't wound healing? How could this be possible-?!

Danielle...

The Entity slowly turned around, eventually coming face-to-face with Danielle Harper. In her shaking hands, plunged into her bleeding abdomen, was a steak knife she had stabbed herself with. Her eyes shining with both tears of pain and burning determination to destroy Her.

The Entity glared at her, fury and rage building up. "You think you can kill me?!" She shrieked, the room shaking from the exert of power that sprouted from her anger.

Danielle drew in a shaky breath, her entire body screamed at her to stop, to pull the knife out, stop the bleeding, and save herself. But her heart, mind, and soul told her that she had to stop the Entity. She had to save her family, even if it meant sacrificing herself.

Danielle didn't answer the blonde. Instead, she slowly and painfully pulled the knife out of her stomach. Her nerve endings were going wild, her stomach felt as though it was burning a million fires and she had to restrain herself from dropping the knife and covering it up. She had to do this, she had to save the people she loved from the Entity.

She began to raise the knife again, the Entity's glare hardened. "Don't you dare!" She growled, but Danielle didn't listen. In fact, she used the Entity's anger to fuel her determination and defiance. She rammed the knife back into her stomach in a different place, once again gasping from the pain and letting out a small sob.

"Stop it!"

She removed the knife and raised it again. Stab!

For Wanda.

Stab!

For Jack.

Stab!

For Steve.

Stab!

For Sharon.

Stab!

For Liz.

Stab!

For Peter.

"STOP IT!"

It was too late. Danielle was already dying. Se had lost so much blood and her body was taking so much pain that it was just going numb. She felt herself fall to the ground, the bloody knife dropping a few inches away from her blood-soaked hands. The last thing Danielle saw while trapped in her own mind was the Entity screaming out in bloody murder as she exploded in a blinding, gold light.

Back in actual reality, Wanda was sobbing, her body shaking relentlessly as her hands wobbled on either side of the teenager's head. "No, no, no, no, no..." she mumbled over and over again, her pores still intact in Danielle's mind. She saw everything, felt everything.

"Wanda," Steve spoke. "What's happening? What's going on?"

Wanda suddenly froze, her shaking abruptly stopping and her tear-stained eyes widening as she looked up at the anxiously watching group around her. Before anyone could ask what was wrong, she jerked away from Danielle just in time.

Suddenly, the unconscious teenager sat upright in her bed. Her fists were clenched, her body stiff, and her eyes glowing a blinding gold. It wasn't like it usually was, where it was just her irises glowing gold, it was all of her eye sockets as if they were a spotlight. One moment she had been knocked out, and the next she was throwing her head back and letting out a blood curdling shriek.

Everyone in the room, the group of doctors included, fell to the ground as a small earthquake ensued within the room. Furniture flying everywhere, floor tiles rattling, windows shattering, eardrums aching, the machines attached to her beeping at an accelerated rate. But, overall, her shriek was the only thing anyone could hear.

But just as quickly as it came, it left just as fast. She was up and then suddenly she was right back to falling unconscious on the bed once again. Only, this time, the only noise in the room was the sound of the machines beeping due to the fact that her heart rate had fallen to a straight line on the monitor... It hadn't clicked in Steve's head in the exact moment it happened, but it was around the moment he was being yanked and pushed out of the room by his fellow teammates and a few of Dr. Cho's crew that it finally dawned on him that Danielle was dying.

"No..." he breathed in horror as he watched from afar; the group of doctors working hastily around her.

Cho shouting out orders just before a pair of doctors brought her mother piece of equipment that somehow managed to survive the blast Danielle had just released. Cho started up the machine and picked HO both of the small metal pieces attached to it by wire. She rubbed them together, shouted, and pressed them to Danielle's chest. Her motionless body jolted up, but she remained unconscious and the line in the machine stayed flat. So, Cho tried again.

She rubbed the pieces together, shouted, and pressed it on Danielle's chest. Her body jolted, but once again, the line was flat.

"Come on," Natasha muttered beneath her breath as she stood beside the rest of her team and Steve. Beside her was Clint, his arms wrapped around Wanda as they both watched in horror. Scott was close behind them, his expression a mixture of confusion and terror. And Sam's breath caught in his throat as he watched anxiously.

Steve turned back to the room and watched as Cho tried yet again to get that line up. She rubbed the pieces together, shouted, and pressed them to Danielle's chest. She jolted, but didn't move. After a few moments, the flat line suddenly had a bump... then another... and another... and another...

She was alive.

A/N: Well, would you look at that. It only took me two chapters to break my record of longest chapter I've ever written. WHAT. THE ACTUAL. FUCK?! This literally took me a week to finish and I hate myself for that fact that I letting get this long and detailed. But, it is a very crucial part of the story, and more importantly, Danielle's story. So, yeah. Any questions, feel free to leave a review because I know this is a very confusing and very hidden-meaning-like chapter.

Also, all these new Endgame trailers are just hitting me and I don't know how to feel. Honestly, I've got so much to write until we get there but I have a general idea of how I want my story to adapt Endgame and Infinity War and the planned movies after that. But, I also have another spin-off story for this one I'm working on and I think in about two chapters I may have to go on a minor hiatus to write a decent amount of chapters for that one before I upload it. But, in the mean time, let me know what you guys think of this chapter.

Summary? Fuck it, I've worked long enough on this chapter. Leave me alone, I'm lazy.

Chapter song(s)? Just two, I'm too lazy to try and find anymore than just the three: Your God Is Dead by Really Slow Motion and In The End covered by Tommee Profitt ft. Jung Youth and Fluerie

Reviews:

fairyblue1132: Well... close enough, right? Lol.

RoseAmeliaSarahNoblePond: I love your username and want my first child to be named this. Lol, thanks. Glad you enjoy the story.

emmagnetised: Lol, yes. I love writing the Incorrect Quotes. Full credit for the idea of adding them goes to scrapingskies.

Hyraeth: I will be doing Homecoming arc, but if I told you what would happen it would be a spoiler... So maybe they team up... Maybe they don't... Something to look forward to when we get there. ;)

Twizzler200: All of it? In one day? Color me impressed. Glad you like it!

Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:

Steve: What do you want for your birthday?

Dani: Nothing because everything ends up sucking.

Dani: For example, for my first birthday my Mom gave me my life. I liked it at first when it was shiny and brand new.

Dani: Now it fucking sucks. I wish she would take it back.

Steve: ...