No Good Deed
Wanda was at the mansion, nursing the babies while her robot husband saved the world.
The children were about six months old, and she still needed to be a full-time mom, so her husband helped the Avengers until she could re-join them. She enjoyed this – the unconditional love of a child to its mother. She needed that love just as much – maybe more – than she needed Viz's love.
Then she heard the alarm – the emergency one. Her face went pale. The mission. If something happened…
Gathering the babies with her, she ran for the med-lab.
VISION!
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen
She ran straight through the doors – and gasped for sheer horror. Her husband lay before her – stripped down to his robot components. "NO! That – that can't be you!"
Wanda turned to Iron Man and Giant-Man, who were making notes on a paper. "You can fix him, right?"
They looked at her sadly, not saying anything. That look they gave her was worse than any lie, any agreement, any broken promise.
Let his armor not be torn
Let his oil leave no stain
When they beat him
Let him feel no pain
Let his force never break
And however they try
To destroy him
Let him never die:
Let him never die
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka: eleka:
What good is this chanting?
I don't even know what I'm reading!
I don't even know what trick I ought to try
Vision, where are you?
Already dead, or bleeding?
One more disaster I can add to my
Generous supply?
While the doctors worked frantically to save her husband, Wanda brought out herbs and symbols given to her by Agatha Harkness and chanted spells, trying to save him. She knew it may even worsen the condition – magic and science didn't mix. But to do nothing for him was to have torn him to pieces herself.
Then, as if an angel had come, she saw him – in white all over. Running up, she kissed him – but he didn't respond. She backed off, weary. "Husband…"
Hank and Tony came through the door, faces crumpled. "We brought him back Wanda…but he can't feel anything. His emotional capacity is gone. What you see before you…isn't even your husband."
That's when she cracked.
No good deed goes unpunished
No act of charity goes unresented
No good deed goes unpunished
That's my new creed
My road of good intentions
Led where such roads always lead
No good deed
Goes unpunished!
Fragments. Fragments of consciousness. She couldn't remember exactly what she did, or at least whole pieces of it. She saw pieces of herself putting on her old costume and rejoining her friends before departing in chaos and glorifying in it. She saw herself destroying the Avengers – everything they had worked to build. She saw herself killing that shell that called itself her husband…
And she swam in the memories. Feeling so betrayed.
Nothing she ever did for good ever went well. No good deed goes unpunished.
Father
The Brotherhood
Pietro
VISION!
One question haunts and hurts
Too much, too much to mention:
Was I really seeking good
Or just seeking attention?
Is that all good deeds are
When looked at with an ice-cold eye?
If that's all good deeds are
Maybe that's the reason why
She asked herself if she had been any better than the Brotherhood, in the end. If all she had done was for attention and glory. If all anyone had done 'for good' was for that. If that was the reason, than the whole thing was so much more graspable.
No good deed goes unpunished
All helpful urges should be circumvented
No good deed goes unpunished
Sure, I meant well -
Well, look at what well-meant did:
All right, enough - so be it
So be it, then:
Let all be agreed
I'm wicked through and through
Since I cannot succeed
Vision, saving you
I promise no good deed
Will I attempt to do again
Ever again
No good deed
Will I do again!
Then she, remembering her boys, grasped at her soul, and pieced it together again.
The Avengers were disbanded. Some amongst them wanted to kill her, some wanted to lock her up. All she asked was that they leave her be.
A house in New Jersey. A new start. For herself and her children. The only last connections to this world she had.
AN: That's the chapter! This one was going to be very difficult, as I always intended a very specific thing to happen.
Next Up: Wanda hangs up her costume, and remembers how it changed her For Good!