Wanda could barely sleep. She had been having the same nightmare for a few weeks now, and she knew it would be difficult to sleep any more for the rest of the night.
She headed to the living room, sitting on the couch in front of the big TV. Maybe a little TV would clear her head a bit.
Fortunately, Tony had put the kibosh on the availability of shows in the facility. She could watch all the reruns of her favorite sitcoms with a click.
The witch was sitting cross-legged on the couch, simultaneously in her thoughts and watching the show.
"Are you awake?" Said a voice softly from the hallway. Startled, Wanda turned to see Hayden in his casual night clothes.
"You scared me!" She laughed, which made her fellow Avenger and friend laugh.
"Sorry. I have a knack for doing that. Are you okay?" Said Hayden as he walked over to the couch.
"Can't sleep." Replied Wanda as she patted the cushion next to her, which Hayden sat on.
"Nightmares?" He asked.
"The same one...every night." Wanda replied, looking down at the floor.
It was always from Pietro. She still felt guilty for helping Ultron. He used them as pawns to carry out his ultimate plan, and in turn, Pietro died by his hand. She always thought about how things could have gone differently.
Hayden didn't know the extent of her nightmares, but understood that they were about her past and her late brother.
Wanda had no family left and Hayden was sympathetic. He remembered how he had felt when his people were decimated.
Hayden wanted Wanda to feel as comfortable as possible. He wanted her to know that the Avengers were there for her...that he was there.
They were all a family.
"What are you doing awake?" Wanda asked, snapping Hayden out of his thoughts.
"I was thirsty." Hayden replied nonchalantly, looking at the fridge in the kitchen.
"Is the bottle of Coke in the fridge yours?" Wanda asked, remembering what she had seen last night.
"I plead guilty, your honor." Hayden replied, raising his hands slightly.
The Time Lord looked at the television, seeing the program she was watching. It was a rerun of Malcolm in The Middle.
"Oh, cool. Brian Cranston is funny as hell on this show." Hayden remarked. "Did they have that in Sokovia?"
"We weren't savages." Replied Wanda with an amused smile.
"I never claimed otherwise." Hayden retorted.
Wanda crossed her arms.
"Dad used to bring home DVDs of old sitcoms when I was little. We had TV nights." She explained.
"That's pretty cool. So have you seen shows like... The Brady Bunch?" Hayden asked, leaning in and resting his elbows and knees.
"That and more." Replied Wanda.
"Have you ever watched Scrubs?" Hayden asked, turning to her.
"That's one I haven't actually seen." She replied.
"You're missing out. It's one of the best shows with absurd humor." Hayden chuckled.
"Really? How good?"
"To the point where at one moment you follow a patient who sees everything that happens to her like a musical."
That made the redhead laugh. Hayden was glad they were getting along, something the young Avenger had been trying to do since last month after the battle with Ultron.
"Want to check it out?" Hayden asked, pointing to the television.
Wanda smiled and, unbeknownst to Hayden, decided to look in her head as well. All she could hear inside was his voice, practically practicing.
"Please say yes. It would be awkward if she said no after trying to joke around." Hayden thought.
Wanda thought that was kind of cute and nodded.
"Sure."
Hayden smiled and grabbed the remote.
"Don't worry. I won't force you to watch all nine seasons..." Said Hayden as he pressed the buttons on the remote. "...Like I did with Clint."
The two started watching the sitcom together, until they started to fall back asleep.
Captain America landed a jab that Hayden quickly parried. The young Avenger tried to counterattack, but the veteran expected the move and avoided his swing.
Rogers grabbed his arm and began a takedown, flipping him onto his back. The soldier blocked Hayden's leg, and he submitted by slapping the mat.
"You may have the advantage with weapons or your Screwdrivers, but when it comes to hand-to-hand combat..." Said Steve as he helped Hayden to his feet.
"Yeah... needs a little work on it." Replied Hayden as he dusted himself off.
They walked to the side and met Sam, who was drinking from his sports bottle. Hayden leaned over and grabbed his own drink as well to replenish his supply.
"You've been a little soft on him, Cap." Sam remarked.
"I don't want to hurt the kid's feelings." Retorted Steve.
"You almost gave me a black eye yesterday. What makes it different?" Sam retorted.
Hayden finished drinking from his thermos.
"I'm right here, guys. And even taking into account your birth date, I'm older than you, Steve." Hayden pointed out.
Nearby, the grunts of two fighters could be heard. Hayden looked over and saw Wanda and Natasha sparing each other as well. The older redhead took it upon herself to mentor the younger one, as she had virtually no hand-to-hand combat experience.
Steve and Sam noticed Hayden looking at Wanda as he fiddled with his thermos.
"Shut your mouth next time you decide to stare, dude." Sam chuckled.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Sam." Said Hayden.
Earlier in the morning, Natasha stumbled upon Hayden and Wanda asleep on the couch after their night of sitcom reruns. She didn't hesitate to tell Sam and Steve about it, thinking it was adorable.
"Don't hide your feelings. You'll regret it if you ever get stuck in the mirror for 66 years." Said Steve, placing a hand on his shoulder before letting out a laugh.
"Very funny, Cap."
After training, Hayden went to the living room of the complex and turned on the TV, sitting on the couch, followed by Wanda, with whom they were going to watch a few episodes of a series.
The first thing the TV showed was a news flash showing an old man who looked to be in his late 70s, holding a press conference.
"The details are top secret... Tonight I will demonstrate a device... that will redefine the world. With the push of a button, I will change the definition of a human being.
"He said he was going to change the definition of human being?" Hayden asked, very intrigued.
"Do you think he's talking about Optimizing people?" Asked Wanda.
"No idea, but there's only one way to find out."
As night fell, Hayden and Wanda walked down the street, each wearing evening wear. Earlier in the day they had told Steve about their concern and he offered to crash the party with the rest of the team outside to help out if needed.
Sam joked that they were going to use their cover to go on a date. Which they neither denied nor confirmed.
As they walked, Hayden fussed with the cuffs of his shirt.
"Oh, a bow tie. Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens." Hayden complained.
"It's not the outfit, it's just you." Wanda joked. "Anyway, it looks great on you. You look like James Bond."
"James Bond?" Said Hayden derisively before glancing at Wanda. "Really?"
Wanda laughed as they approached the impressive entrance to Lazarus Laboratories. Inside the main reception room, guests mingled. The room was dominated by a large round white cabinet surrounded by four pillars that curved slightly at the top. Hayden grabbed some hors d'oeuvres from a tray that passed by them.
Hayden: "Oh, look, they have hors d'oeuvres! I love hors d'oeuvres!" He said as Wanda smiled at seeing Hayden act like this.
He almost seemed a little more eccentric. Like when he was talking science with Tony and Bruce according to Natasha.
Across the street from the labs, outside a bar, Natasha, Steve and Sam were drinking a drink at a table while Vision watched from the top of a building to get a bird's eye view. Everyone was listening to what was going on at the party through headphones, which Hayden and Wanda were doing.
"Hey Steve, don't you remember what he looked like when he introduced us to the TARDIS? That slightly eccentric side." Natasha asked.
"Yeah. It's a change from the seriousness he displays on missions. And yet it is." Steve noted.
"Maybe he's mistaking the mission for a date with Wanda." Sam joked. "At least until it gets out of hand."
"If it does, Sam. I'll give you five dollars." Joked Steve.
Back in the Lazarus Laboratory room, Hayden tossed an entire hors d'oeuvre into his mouth.
"Do you know what this is?" Wanda asked, pointing to the large device dominating the room.
"It looks like it could be a sonic microfield manipulator." Said Hayden. "It's too bad he was vague about the press conference. I could have determined what it would be used for."
"I hope we're wrong about the Human Optimization."
"We all hope so, Wanda. Especially since if we're not wrong and someone gets their hands on his research and makes the wrong people profit from it, we're going to be a little overwhelmed in the long run." Said Hayden.
Their conversation was cut short by a tapping on a glass, a signal that an announcement was about to be made.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the greatest breakthrough since Rutherford split the atom, the greatest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight you will watch and marvel. Tomorrow, you will wake up to a world that will be changed forever." Said Professor Lazarus.
Lazarus walked into the office. Two technicians were starting the machinery from a bench of instruments behind the cabinet. There was a high-pitched whirring sound and a bright blue light as the four pillars began to spin individually. An energy field is created. They begin to spin around the cabinet, going faster and faster. A warning horn goes off.
"Something's wrong. It's overloaded." Says Hayden worrying Wanda and the other Avengers.
"Do you want us to intervene?" Asked Steve from the earpiece.
"No, we wouldn't have time to get everyone out." Said Hayden.
The technicians tried to stop him, but some of the panels exploded, causing sparks to fly. Hayden jumped over the low desk and pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at the controls while doing some manipulation.
"Somebody stop him! Get him away from those controls!" Ordered an old woman.
"If that thing blows, it'll take the whole building with it. Is that what you want?" Hayden asked as he pulled one of the main cables that connected to the cabinet.
The cabinet slowly stopped spinning. Wanda ran to the door at the same time as Hayden.
They opened the door and watched through the smoke as Lazarus emerged, 40 years younger. The photographers moved away as Wanda and Hayden watched in wonder. Lazarus touched his face, realizing that it had worked. He came out completely and stood in front of his machine.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old and I am reborn!" He shouted, raising his arms in triumph as everyone applauded.
"He did it. He actually did it." Said the old woman who had earlier tried to stop Hayden.
People took the opportunity to have their picture taken with Lazarus. Wanda watched Hayden study the machine.
"That can't be the same guy. It can't be. It has to be a trick." Said Wanda in disbelief.
"It's not a trick. I wish it was." Said Hayden, completely shocked by what he had just seen.
"What the hell happened? You can hardly see anything from where we are." Sam asked from the earpiece.
"Lazarus has gotten at least forty years younger. But that's not possible, what happened?" Wanda replied as Hayden had just finished getting over his shock.
"He changed the definition of being human." Hayden replied as he glared at Lazarus.
The old woman walked over to where Lazarus was talking with guests.
"Excuse me. This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Look at you!" She said.
"This is only the beginning. We're not just making history, we're shaping the future too." Boasted Lazarus.
"Think of the money we will make! People will sell their souls to be transformed like this. And I'll be on the front lines!" Said the old woman.
Lazarus cracked his neck as if in pain and gasps. A waiter passed by with a tray of appetizers and Lazarus took it all, putting them one after another in his mouth. This surprised the old woman.
"Sorry, I'm starving." He says.
Hayden and Wanda were walking behind them.
"Energy deficit. It always happens with this kind of process." Hayden told him.
"You talk like you see this every day, Mister... ?" Said Lazarus, a little taken aback by Hayden's statement.
"Hayden." Introduced the Time Lord. "Well, no, not every day, but I do have some experience in this kind of transformation."
"That's not possible." Refuted Lazarus.
"Using hyper sonic sound to create resonance? That's... that's ingenious." Said Hayden.
"You know that theory, then." Said Lazarus, surprised.
"Enough to know that you couldn't have accounted for all the variables." Added Hayden.
"No experiment is entirely without risk." Lazarus retorted.
"Usually I agree, but that thing almost exploded! You might as well have gone into a blender!" Hayden challenged.
"You're not qualified to comment." Said the old woman trying to disparage Hayden.
Wanda didn't appreciate her talking to him like that. She even wanted to use her powers to make her pay. But she quickly brushed that thought aside, wondering why she had such a disproportionate reaction.
"If I hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded." Said Hayden, anger rising in him at the old woman's attitude.
"Then I thank you, Hayden. But it's a simple matter of engineering. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. Nothing more, nothing less." Said Lazarus in an inconsistent tone.
"You have no way of knowing that until you perform the proper tests." Said Wanda, remembering the time she spent in Strucker's lab and the experiments done on her and Pietro.
"Look at me!" Lazarus laughed. "Look what happened. I am the proof."
"The device will be properly certified before we market it." Added the old woman.
"Commercialize it?!" Wanda asked, shocked. "You're kidding! It's going to be chaos."
"Not chaos. Change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve." Lazarus retorted.
"It's not about improvement, it's about extending the life of you and your clients a little longer." Hayden grumbled with disgust.
"Not a little longer, Hayden, a lot longer. Maybe indefinitely." Corrected Lazarus.
"Richard, we have some things to talk about. Upstairs." Said the old woman as she walked away.
"Goodbye, Hayden. In a few years you'll look back and laugh at your mistake." Says Lazarus before reaching out and taking Wanda's hand, kissing the back before leaving.
"Ooh, he's out of his depth. No idea how much damage he could have done." Said the Time Lord, a little more angered by Lazarus' action before leaving.
Was it jealousy? He wasn't sure.
"So what do we do now?" Wanda asked.
"Now... well, this building must be full of labs. How about we do our own testing." Offered Hayden.
"Good thing I just got a DNA sample, right?" Wanda smiled as she held up her hand.
"Oh, Wanda, you're awesome." Said Hayden before quietly leaving the room, followed by Wanda who blushed at his statement.
"You want to bet, on how long it will take them to end up as a couple?" Sam asked.
The proposition made Natasha smile.
"I'll bet five dollars over a month." She said.
"Me on two weeks." Smiled Sam. "And you Steve."
"I'm in no position to make those kinds of bets." Said Steve, shrugging his shoulders before returning to the main topic. "Anything new, Vision?"
"No, Captain. The street was clear." Vision replied. "To be honest, I don't think a rejuvenation tank is going to attract criminals."
"I think so. But given Hayden's reaction, I'm a little worried." Says Steve.
"Yep, a machine that allows you to become forty years younger, that's not nothing." Sam commented.
At the top of the building, Lazarus and the old woman were sipping a scotch, looking out the window at the city.
"Remember when we lived in the UK? I lived in a small apartment above a butcher shop." Said Lazarus, admiring the view.
"There will be a blue plaque soon. 'Richard Lazarus lived here'." Says the old woman.
"Destroyed in the war. The bombing." Added Lazarus.
"Of course." Said the old woman.
"1940. Do you remember that? Night after night... Explosions. Gunshots. Fires." Lazarus clarified.
"My parents had sent me to the country. " Said the old woman without much interest by this period of their lives.
"When the sirens sounded, we went to the cathedral. People would hide in the crypt. The survivors, cowering among the dead." Said Lazarus.
"But look what you've built now. You've founded an empire. An empire we can rule together." Said the old woman, before pulling Lazarus down for a kiss. Lazarus pulled away from the kiss and exhaled sharply.
"What's wrong?" Asked the old woman.
Lazarus wiped his lips with his hand and laughed. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at her reflection in the window.
"Look at you, woman." He said contemptuously.
She pushed his hand away and paced behind Lazarus as he looked out the window.
"I'm the one who made this all possible. This is my triumph, and I will not be denied it. Not for you. Not after all I've done." Shouted the old woman.
"You backed me because you saw the benefit. Your interest was only financial." Lazarus retorted.
"Well! You want the money as much as I do. We had a plan." Said the old woman.
Lazarus closed his eyes as his body "snapped" again.
"When the device is ready, I'll be younger too. We could be rich and young and together!" Said the old woman.
"You think I'll ruin another existence for you?" Said Lazarus, still in his contemptuous tone.
"Has this process made you even more cruel? " Asked the old woman.
"No, my love. That I learned from you. You have a gift for it." Lazarus retorted before groaning in pain as the cracking of his body worsened.
The old woman began to worry as Lazarus began to convulse on the floor.
He screamed and bones began to break through the back of his suit. Grunts from Lazarus and screams from the old woman followed. A tail with a scorpion-like stinger hit her.
Meanwhile Wanda and Hayden were in a lab and looking at the DNA test results on a computer screen.
"Amazing." Said Hayden.
"What?" Wanda asked.
"Lazarus' DNA." Replied the Time Lord.
"I don't see anything different. Wanda noted before seeing sections of the DNA change. "Is that normal?"
"No. And those are two impossible things we saw tonight. Don't you love it when that happens?" Hayden asked. "To put it simply. It means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns."
"What do you mean?" Steve asked from their earpiece.
"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilize the cell structure and then a mutagenic program to manipulate the coding in the protein strands. Basically, he hacked his own genes and told them to rejuvenate themselves." Hayden explained.
"But his genes keep mutating." Wanda noted.
"Because he forgot something. Something in his DNA has been activated and will prevent him from stabilizing. Something is trying to change him." Said Hayden.
"Change him into what?" Asked Natasha into the earpiece.
"I don't know but I think we need to find out." Replied Hayden.
"That woman said they were going up." Realized Wanda.
Without wasting any time, the duo left the lab.
Hayden and Wanda exited the elevator and entered Lazarus' office and turned on the lights.
"Where is he?" Hayden wondered.
Looking further behind the desk, Wanda spotted a pair of skeletal bones, wearing high heels. They rushed over to see the desiccated remains of the old woman.
"Is that her?" Wanda asked.
"That was her. Now she's just a shell, she's been drained of all her life energy. Like squeezing the juice out of an orange." Explained Hayden as he examined the body.
"Lazarus?" Wanda asked. "He's already changed."
"Not necessarily. You saw the DNA. It was fluctuating. The process must require energy. It might not have been enough." Said the Time Lord.
"So he could do it again?" Said Wanda in an alarmed tone.
"It's possible." Hayden confirmed.
"We're going to evacuate everyone." Said Steve as outside, the rest of the team immediately began evacuating civilians, claiming that something dangerous was brewing in the building.
Hayden and Wanda rushed to the elevators. But that's when it opened, revealing Lazarus with a young woman.
"So, Lazarus. Taking advantage of young women?" Hayden joked as Lazarus and the young woman stepped forward. "Unless you're too busy defying the laws of nature."
"A life has been too short for me not to try to make it longer. How much more could I make in two, three, or four years?" Lazarus asked complacently.
"It doesn't work that way. Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It's not the time that counts, it's the person." Says Hayden.
"But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be." Retorted Lazarus.
"Or what a curse. Look what you've done to yourself." Said Hayden in a... compassionate... tone.
He felt sorry for Lazarus. Wanda could feel it.
"Who are you to judge me?" Lazarus asked as Wanda discreetly used her powers to bewitch the young woman and send her off to be evacuated with the others.
Suddenly, Lazarus had another attack and the two Avengers could see the monster for the first time. It looked like a cross between a human skeleton and a scorpion.
"Let's get out of here!" Hayden shouted as he and Wanda rushed up the fire escape.
"Why aren't we taking the elevator?!" Asked the witch.
"What do you think happens if he manages to scrub the door and cut the rods or make the car go up?" Asked Hayden.
"Okay, I withdraw my question." Wanda said as a red aura surrounded her hands. "But instead of taking them down..."
Without saying anything more. Wanda used her powers to levitate them both down through the center of the stairwell.
"Clever." Said Hayden before looking up to see that Lazarus was about to do the same thing. "But he had the same idea!"
The duo ran as fast as they could to the reception room where the rest of the team was waiting for them in their superhero outfits.
"Where is Lazarus?" Steve asked.
"In the stairwell." Wanda replied.
"What do we do then?" Natasha asked.
"I have an idea but it's very risky. Hayden offered.
A minute later, Hayden was alone in the reception room with the rest of the Avengers watching what was going on from the bay window that serves as a wall. Wanda began to worry that something would happen to Hayden.
Lazarus finally entered, almost completely destroying the wall of the emergency exit.
"You're very kind, Hayden, for staying and offering me your energy. Lazarus said, his voice distorted by his new condition.
"Look at you Lazarus. Can't you control it? The mutation is too powerful?" Hayden warned. "You are a fool. You thought you could defy nature. Only nature took over, didn't it? You're a failure!" Said Hayden before dodging Lazarus' sting and running to the only thing in the room the monster wouldn't destroy: the box that gave him back his youth.
Lazarus walked around the outside of the capsule. For his part Hayden pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and bent down to open a panel fiddling with the chamber from the inside.
"What are you going to do with this?" Natasha asked.
"I don't understand where this thing came from. Is it an alien?" Asked Steve into his earpiece.
"No. This time it's strictly human, originally." Replied Hayden as he used the Sonic Screwdriver on the wires attached to the panel.
"Human? How can it be human?" Sam asked.
"Probably from dormant genes in the Lazarus DNA. The energy field in this thing must have reactivated them. And it looks like they're becoming dominant."
"So it's a rejection. An option that evolution rejected millions of years ago. But the potential is still there. Imprisoned in the genes of humans, forgotten, until Lazarus mistakenly released it. Like Pandora's box." Vision deduced.
"Exactly." Haydene confirmed as she continued to work on the wires.
Lazarus moved to the controls and pressed the red button to start the process. A blue light filled the capsule.
"Hayden, he turned on the machine." Wanda warned.
"I was hoping it would take a little longer, before the thought crossed his mind." Said Hayden as the machine began to run.
"Maybe I can stop it." Offered Wanda.
"No, that's part of the plan. I'm almost done." Hayden predicted.
"What exactly are you doing?" Sam asked as he tried to calm the crowd that was panicking from the monster's arrival.
"I'm trying to get the capsule to reflect the energy rather than receive it." Hayden explained.
"Will it kill it?" Steve asked.
"When it transforms, it's three times its size, cell triplication, so it'll repel it. And that's it." Said the Time Lord as the energy field shifted, coming out of the capsule, knocking Lazarus over.
Hayden opened the door and stepped out.
Lazarus lay in human form, naked, on the floor.
Medical services arrived to retrieve the body, carrying it on a stretcher in a bag. The Avengers watched the scene from the steps.
"For a first mission, I think we did pretty well." Hayden commented.
"You say that because you did all the work." Sam smiled.
"Tony and Bruce are no longer on the team, so we need another genius to take care of the situation." Hayden joked, earning a friendly nudge from Wanda.
"Then I guess we can go." Natasha commented.
But the universe seemed to prove her wrong as a crash was heard. The group ran in the direction of the accident while Vision flew in.
Once at the scene, they could see the ambulance, the doors open and the doctors unseal.
"Lazarus, back from the dead. I should have seen that coming." Hayden noted as he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver.
"What are you doing?" Steve asked.
"In the lab, I calibrated the Sonic Screwdriver so that it could track Lazarus' DNA. It's like he's wearing a tracker right now." He explained.
"And where did he go?" Wanda asked.
"Around here. The cathedral." Hayden replied, pointing to the building next to them.
Once inside the cathedral, they walked up the nave, Hayden in front with the sonic screwdriver held out in front of him.
"Do you think he's here?" Sam asked, but instead it was Steve who answered the question.
"Where would you go if you were seeking refuge?" He said, ready to use his shield.
The group walked through the empty cathedral to the open space behind the altar and under the bell tower. Lazarus sat there, panting, a red ambulance blanket wrapped around him.
Hayden motioned for the group to stay where they were before he approached the rejuvenated old man. The latter did not seem to pay attention to the person accompanying Hayden.
"I've been to a place like this before. There's a life. I thought I was going to die... In fact, I was sure I was. I sat there, I was just a kid...the sound of planes and bombs outside." Said Lazarus.
"The Blitz." Resumed Hayden.
"You read about it." Lazarus deduced.
"I was there." Hayden revealed.
"You're too young." Lazarus scoffed.
"So are you now." Hayden retorted.
This response made Lazarus laugh, but that quickly turned into gasps of pain as he fought the mutation.
"By morning, the fires were dead, and I was still alive. I swore I would never face death like that again. So defenseless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it." Lazarus explained.
Hayden walked slowly around Lazarus, looking up at the bell tower. Wanda looked at Hayden, and began to read his thoughts to see what he was planning.
But he didn't have a plan. He was just chatting with Lazarus, she could feel the same thing in her mind as earlier: pain.
"Is that what you were trying to do today." Hayden finally asked, to which Lazarus nodded. "What about the other people who died?"
"They were nothing. I changed the course of history." Said Lazarus inconsistently.
"Anyone could have done it too. You think history is all about equations? Facing death is part of being human. You can't change that." Said Hayden.
"No, Hayden. Avoiding death is what being human is all about. It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with all our soul. I'm only doing what others before me have tried to do. I've simply been... better." Lazarus retorted before groaning in pain as his body tried to change.
"Look at you. You're mutating. You have no control over that. You call that a success?" Hayden criticized.
"I call it progress. I am more now than I was. More than just an ordinary human." Lazarus retorted.
"There is no such thing as an ordinary human." Said Hayden.
"He'll change again any minute." Vision realized.
The synthesoid remembered what he had said during his first conversation with the Avengers. He was on the side of life. But now he was facing someone who just wanted to live longer no matter what the cost.
And unfortunately, he knew how this could end.
"You are so sentimental, Doctor. Perhaps you are older than you look." Said Lazarus.
"I'm old enough to know that a long life isn't always the best. In the end, you're just tired. Tired of struggling. Tired of losing loved ones. Tired of watching everything end up in dust." Said Hayden as he crouched down next to Lazarus. "If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you will die alone."
Wanda could see the sincerity in his eyes, it pained her. She could see that Hayden identified in some way with Lazarus.
"It's a price worth paying." Said Lazarus.
"Really?" Asked Hayden.
Lazarus felt the change again.
"I'll be feeding soon." Said he.
"I won't let that happen." Said Hayden, his Laser Screwdriver in hand.
"You haven't been able to stop me so far." Said Lazarus with some arrogance.
Hayden placed the three barrels of the Laser Screwdriver on Lazarus' forehead and prepared to press the button.
"I am truly sorry, Lazarus." He said.
But he didn't have time to kill him. The transformation began at that moment and Wanda quickly pulled Hayden back before falling victim to the sting of the monster they would have to face.
Hayden, Sam, Steve and Natasha took it upon themselves to provide a distraction, while Wanda and Vision tried to hold the world back, to prevent it from attacking.
Hayden was hit in the hip by one of Lazarus' "arms" as he tried to move away and hit the stinger with his Laser Screwdriver.
This was difficult as the monster did damage to the cathedral. A piece of debris fell on Wanda's head, knocking her out as she tried to keep Lazarus still.
When he realized he was free, he ignored the attack on him and turned his gaze to Wanda, contemplating the meal before him.
Hayden noticed this and rushed towards Wanda and placed himself between her and Lazarus who was about to attack.
But Vision reacted quickly and shot a laser beam that cut Lazarus in half.
The group was shocked for a few seconds as they saw the two pieces of the monster's severed body become the old man he was.
Back at the Avengers compound, Hayden could see Vision sitting on the kitchen table, staring blankly at the table.
"Are you okay?" Hayden asked as he sat down next to him.
"How are you doing?" Asked Vision.
"How do I do what?" Asked Hayden.
"Kill your opponents without feeling remorse. Vision clarified.
"Oh that... actually I don't." The Time Lord replied.
Vision turned his gaze to Hayden.
"I feel remorse every time I kill. I'm just really good at not showing it." Said Hayden as he pulled his Laser Screwdriver from his coat. "I convince myself that I couldn't do otherwise because they are soldiers or henchmen. And that therefore, they won't stop because they're kind of paid to. But I know that's just an excuse."
"And you manage to live with that?" Said Vision, admiring Hayden.
"To get there, I relate to the fact that the trick is not to kill and easily get over it. It's living with it and making sure you do it because you have no other choice."
With that Hayden stood up and left the room, leaving Vision to learn whatever lesson he wanted from their discussion.