i've had this idea cooking in my head for a long ass time so here i am, bringing it to the internet.

hopefully it makes someone happy. i ram very happy to be writing this out, so maybe it can reach others too!

i don't own basically anything that's gonna be shown in this story. everything belongs to marvel. except the character i created to be in wanda's body.

also: in this story, wanda and pietro are in early 20's (like 20/21), mostly because i actually thought they were actual teenagers when i first saw age of ultron. so i'm going to use that age.

the title is metempsychosis which means: after death, the soul begins a new cycle of existence in another human body.

"Sometimes you have to kind of die inside in order to rise from your own ashes and believe in yourself and love yourself to become a new person."

I was twenty one when I died.

It's also not a particularly interesting or heroic story. I had been in the apartment I shared with my closest friends. There wasn't anything really important about the night either; we were all just enjoying ourselves, having some drinks and having dinner, when because of a joke, I choked on a laugh and on a piece of chicken.

None of my friends knew how to perform CPR safely and I slowly died, on the floor of my T3 in the time it took for help to come.

It wasn't what I expected; dying. It was fast and slow at the same time, darkness and shapes being the only thing I became aware of when my heart stopped beating. I didn't have a body, I wasn't even a soul anymore. I was nothing.

Everything that once made me me was just . . . gone.

Now, I was just . . . something that I couldn't understand. Floating around in nothingness, feeling nothing, seeing nothing. Perhaps I should say that I was nothing, instead dof something.

And then a pull.

Even though I didn't have a body, it pulled me across the nothing. Maybe to give me a new purpose, a new life, but that was something I never truly believed in. Rebirth and seconds chances at living were fiction. There has been some sort of clues about it being true throughout the years, but never anything conclusive. And I was never one to pay attention to it.

But still, it pulled and pulled some more, across shapes and sensations that I wasn't sure I was supposed to be feeling when I don't have a body.

And then there was a yellow light, blinding and strong and it pulled me towards that same light, perhaps wanting me to go through it.

But did I?

I don't even know what any of this is. Is this one of those things that people experience and can't possibly comprehend and explain in real life?

And what do I have to lose?

I reach out for it.

The door closes with a loud bang behind her, but she does not flinch. She's nervous, but this is what she chose, what they chose, and they'll see it through the end. The room is a large one, but empty. There's nothing in it, except it. The staff draws her attention like a lamp does to a moth and she can't take her eyes away.

The blue energy, the orb, is captivating and she takes a step forward, suddenly feeling the need to get close to it. The nervousness dwells in her chest again, but she easily makes it go away. This is for their parents, for them.

Wanda takes another step forward towards the staff and stops. The thing trembles once as if alive and right before her eyes, the blue orb floats out of it and towards her.

And it seems to sing. There's an unnatural hum as it gets closer and closer and she is still drawn to it, hand out and another step forward.

And just as her finger is about to touch it, the orb splits itself apart and then, yellow everywhere.

The humming gets louder and there's this wave of energy that explodes everything away from the small yellow gem, but Wanda remains, eyes narrowed so she can still keep them on it and hand still reaching outwards for it.

Come closer, it seems to say and she does it.

She reaches out again. Her finger lightly brushes against it and then, there's something within her that expands and course through her body. It's not foreign, no. It feels exactly like what she used to feel whenever she was a little kid and could make small things happen around her that a normal kid wouldn't be able to. But now, it's stronger and it's getting stronger and stronger.

And she reaches out even more-

My hand grasps another.

I don't think think any of this is happening real time, but the fingers touching mine seem real enough. I'm not real. I don't know what I am at this point, but I do know that if this is it, if this is the second chance that many other people believe it to be, I want to grasp it.

I want to live again.

The hand in mine tries to pull away and fear strikes me. No no nononono. I need this. Don't go away please. Let me just-

I tighten my grip and when it tries to pull away, it pulls me along with it.

Yes yesyesyesyesyes.

Let me go, it seems to say, but I don't pay attention to it.

Call it survival instincts of the body I do not have, but it just spurs me to fight even harder. I'm not losing. I'm keeping this chance.

I'm going to live again.

Wanda tries and tries, but the whatever thing holding onto her doesn't give up. It doesn't let go. She can't even see the yellow stone anymore. She's not even where she once was in that empty room either.

Let me go, she pleads with it, I have to go back to my brother. He's all alone. Please.

But it doesn't seem to care. It just tightens its hold even more and the feeling in her hand travels across her arm and onto her chest and up to her head and there's pain. So much pain.

Wanda screams louder than she ever had in her life, but no one is around to listen to in this nothingness that she was brought to.

The pain is excruciating. It's like she's being ripped apart, limb from limb and her head is exploding inwards. Flashes of people she has never met seem to flood in, of places and feelings for those people and she just wants it to stopstopstopstopstopSTOP

And it's over. And Wanda is no more.

The being fighting me is no more.

I can feel it. And instead, in their place, stands me. And I can breathe. I can breathe. Unable to stop myself, I laugh and laugh because I'm alive.

I'm aliveI'malivei'malivei'malive

I look down at my hands. They seem a shade lighter than my normal skin tone, but maybe it's just my imagination. I don't recognize the room I'm in. Glass windows ahead of me and I can almost make two people on the other side of it. And the only thing inside this room with me is this staff with a blue glowing orb that seems to be singing and humming pleasantly.

I walk towards it. Raise my hand and grasp it in my hand and the gem seems to glow brighter. I can feel something coursing in my arms and it feels good.

I take a breath and another laugh sneaks out of my lips.

Perhaps the thought of having taken someone else's body should've come up. Or the fact that I most likely killed said person, but at the moment I could only focus on the air filling my lungs, on the floor beneath my bare feet and the sheer happiness coursing everywhere right now.

And there's also something else. Something almost foreign right beneath my skin, one call away from coming forward and I can't help but be curious and wanting it to show itself.

But as I reach for it, everything goes black.

i thought it seemed fitting to have wanda and the oc fight for possession of the body. and since this is pre-scarlet witch powers wanda, she didn't win. i'm sorry wanda :( i love you very much, but i needed it to be like this.

this was actually quite fun for me to right. it's different and the MCU universe has been one of my favorites for the longest time so i'm over the moon right now.

hopefully someone else will find it as enjoyable as i did writing it.