AN: Version #2 of how the Pietro-is-a-ghost storyline could have gone.
AU VI: Age of Miracles (brought back to life)
'—So this guy can see me and maybe hear me, huh?' Pietro said with a quick gesture at Vision, though his gaze was directed at Wanda, and he smiled teasingly. 'Good thing to know I'm not just in your head, sister, and that I actually do have some form, this is not so bad, actually, but good luck trying to get any of the others to believe this, they will probably think you've corrupted Vision with your insanity or used your powers to alter his mind into believing that I exist, they will probably think I am just in your head and in the head of anyone else you cause to see your hallucinations—'
"I assure you," Vision broke in, "that you do have temperature and form, even if you are no longer alive and have very little mass."
Pietro very clearly existed, but he had no heartbeat, no breath, and there seemed to be holes in his form where he'd been struck by the bullets, which Vision found curious. Suddenly he had a feeling he knew what Wanda was asking about back inside at the table when she'd asked the air: Does it hurt?
"Does it hurt?" Vision asked curiously, nodding at the bullet wounds, because he might have heard Wanda's question but he hadn't heard Pietro's answer.
Pietro looked at him for a moment. 'A little bit?' he said doubtfully, like he was guessing. Then he shrugged. 'It is not that bad.'
A moment of silence, and then Vision blinked. "If you'll excuse me," he said with a gracious inclination of his head even as he started turning back toward the doors leading inside the Helicarrier, "I need to check something."
"Okay," Wanda said, distracted as she giggled at Pietro spinning around in the air like he was sitting in a desk chair, waving his arms and legs and shrieking for her to stop making it spin, while she insisted that it wasn't her and that he was doing it all himself.
A moment later and he staggered off the spinning, invisible chair, and stumbled toward her dizzily, trying to catch himself on her shoulder only to fall through her and up somersaulting several times in the air before ending up sprawled flat half-submerged in the landing pad.
Stilling her giggles, Wanda walked over and offered him a hand up.
It took them several tries before Pietro was able to become tangible enough to grab her hand while remaining intangible enough to get up out of the ground.
'This is very weird,' Pietro remarked as he stood up and Wanda hugged him, one of her arms slipping through his translucent blue chest.
Vision watched them thoughtfully for another moment before heading back inside. If what he suspected was correct...
Vision slipped incorporeally into the medical room that Pietro's body was contained in, before becoming solid again and walking over to the table.
What he suspected had indeed been correct.
Pietro's body, which, hours after its death, should have been bloated and discolored like any other hours-old corpse, was in pristine condition.
Aside from the bullet holes and blood-soaked clothes, Pietro could have been sleeping.
Except that the body's heart wasn't beating, and it wasn't breathing. It certainly wasn't alive—and yet, it wasn't quite dead, either.
Pietro wasn't dead. His soul was still alive, and felt pain from his injuries, which should not have been possible unless he was still linked to his body, somehow. Because if he was truly dead and had been completely cut off from his body, he shouldn't be feeling anything.
Not to mention the fact that his body wasn't behaving the way a dead body should.
And then there was a single heartbeat, before the body flatlined again.
"Tony Stark will want to see this," Vision said.
Tony Stark was drunk.
No, not just drunk—he was utterly, completely inebriated.
He'd just attempted to drunkenly kiss Steve and gotten pushed away (apparently Steve was only slightly tipsy and not nearly drunk enough to kiss drunk teammates who were suddenly feeling overly-happy and overly-sentimental), which, with his alcohol-enhanced reflexes and depth perception, had resulted in him falling fantastically to face-plant on the floor, when Jarvis's voice spoke up.
"Stark?"
"Jarvis, m'boy!" Tony slurred, rolling onto his back and toasting the ceiling with an empty beer bottle. "You hacked into the SHIELD helicarrier?"
"I'm not Jarvis," said Jarvis's voice, and Tony found himself looking up into a red and green face with remarkably human-looking blue eyes.
"Then what are you?" Tony said, pushing himself into a sitting position and trying to drink from the empty bottle, only to bring it back down and frown at it when realized that it was, well, empty.
"I am Vision," the synthezoid said patiently.
"Vision?" Tony asked, brown crinkling. "Tha's a stupid name. Could ya really not think of anything better'n that? You do realize that visions tend t'be deluded, right?"
"You are drunk, Stark," came Jarvis's voice, but it wasn't Jarvis. Not anymore.
Jarvis. Ultron's Vision. Ultron. Floating cities. A war-torn country his weapons had helped to tear apart. Robots everywhere. A stupid kid dead because he was fast enough to do something but not fast enough to survive it.
Tony lurched to his feet and threw himself at the counter, reaching for another alcoholic drink—it didn't matter what kind—any kind—but there was a strangely cold, green hand on his arm, pulling him away.
"I think you've had enough," came Jarvis's voice.
"'S not fair, Jarv," Tony slurred as he stumbled again, catching himself on the table and letting himself sink back down to the floor, his vision blurring. "'S not fair."
"I beg your pardon?" came Jarvis's voice.
"Y'know, you used to just lock all the liquor cupboards," Tony mumbled. His shirt was getting wet. Was someone dumping a cup of water on him?
"If you would allow me to help you back to your sleeping quarters," came Jarvis's voice, and hard, Christmas-themed arms helped him up, tried to help him start walking.
But Tony just clutched him and started grossly sobbing, mumbling, "I'm sorry," over and over again.
Tony woke up in an uncomfortable bunk bed with a killer hangover.
Fortunately enough, he was lying on one of the lower bunk beds, or else, when he fell onto the floor trying to get up, it would have hurt a whole lot more than it did.
"Fuck," Tony groaned, eyes clenched shut as he just lay there for several moments on the hard floor in the (blissfully) dark room.
After what could have been several minutes he pushed himself up and stumbled out into the bright hallway, hissing at the light and shielding his eyes.
"Coffee..." he mumbled like a zombie, shuffling out into the hall towards where he thought he remember the kitchen was. "Need... coffee..."
Thor was pounding on the insides of his skull with Mjolnir. "Rude..." Tony groaned. "Really rude..."
"Maybe this will help," came Jarvis's voice, and Tony squinted out from behind his hand to see Vision standing there, holding out a large cup of water and couple aspirins.
Tony swallowed them and drank them down with water, wiping his mouth with a sleeve. "Thanks," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Dammit, should've brought my sunglasses..."
"Here," Vision said, handing him a napkin that contained a bagel with blackberry jam. "This will help stabilize your blood sugar levels while remaining easy on your liver."
Tony took the bagel and bit into it, taking a large bite and, still chewing, asked, "Okay, so, what do you want from me?"
"I need to show you something," Vision said.
"What kind of 'something'?" Tony asked through another mouthful of bagel with jam.
"A medical anomaly," Vision stated, waiting for Stark to finish chewing so he wouldn't have the chance to choke on the bagel. "Concerning one Pietro Maximoff."
As it was, Tony nearly choked on air.
Tony stared at the comatose, bullethole-riddled body of Pietro Maximoff.
"And you say that Pietro's spirit is... not in his body?" Tony asked Vision and Wanda, turning to them with an eyebrow raised.
"Yes," Wanda nodded, her fingers interlacing with the fingers of a hand that wasn't there.
"If you get your Iron Man helmet, I should be able to program it to perceive him," Vision offered.
"Right," Tony nodded, making a beckoning gesture with one hand. "I'll give you the benefit of a doubt, then."
Vision's fingers on either side of Tony's helmet, and his vision through the faceplate went staticky for a moment before it cleared, and there was a ghostly blue apparition of Pietro holding Wanda's hand.
"There," Vision said, stepping back. "Can you see him?"
"You mean the blue ghost over there?" Tony asked, nodding over at Pietro. "Yeah, I can see him. You didn't mention that he was blue... what is now, an Avatar?"
'How many fingers am I holding up?' Pietro asked, raising an eyebrow as he raised his hand.
"Four fingers and a thumb," Tony answered. "Wait, did the biologists and physiologists ever decide whether the thumb actually counted as a finger or not? I don't pay too much attention to those branches of science. So if we're going to try to do what you're suggesting," he looked at Vision, " then we're going to need Helen Cho."
"I've already contacted her," Vision said. "She said that she'll be there when we arrive and that the Cradle will be ready."
"Good," Tony nodded, before pausing for a moment. "We might also want to contact Bruce Banner..."
Bruce Banner was walking along a beach in Fiji in tattered pants that were now shorts (though he wasn't too out of place what with all the other men walking around shirtless in swimming shorts and the women in bikinis), when a man near him answered his phone.
"Uh, hello? ...Who is this? ...Ermahgerd, this is so awesome! ...Have I seen him? Hell yeah, I see him, he's like five feet away from me right now! Do you want to talk to him...?"
Bruce went rigid.
The man—tall, muscular like a martial artist, bald, strange scars covering his skin, wearing red and black swim shorts—walked over to him and handed him the phone. "Guy on the phone says his name is Tony Stark," the guy said in a deep, gravelly voice that sounded kind of like Demi Moore, "and that he called my phone in order to talk to you, which is just kind of awesome that he can do that!"
Bruce took the phone from the strange man, not taking his eyes off him to make sure the guy wasn't going to attack him, even as he put the phone to his ear.
The bald, scarred guy didn't appear to be a threat, just turning eagerly to the brunette guy in the green and yellow shorts next to him, talking excitedly about how Tony Stark had called his cellphone ermahgerd how fucking cool was that?! He was never going to wash that phone ever again! This was the best vacation ever—wasn't that right, Bob?
"How did you find me, Tony?" Bruce bit out.
"I utilized my stunning feminine wiles," Tony quipped. "Now I need you to get your ass over here—"
"I can't," Bruce interjected. "I won't. The Hulk, he's—he's too dangerous—"
"This isn't about the Hulk," Tony said.
"If it's about Natasha, I can't—" Bruce started.
"It's not about Natasha, either," Tony cut him off. "It's about Pietro Maximoff."
Bruce's gut twisted. "Isn't he dead?"
"No, he's not," Tony said. "He's just very, very comatose. And his life essence has been removed from his body and is, for lack of a better term, a 'ghost.'"
"What do you need me for?" Bruce asked around a strange obstruction in his throat.
Tony answered, "Because we might have a way to bring him back to life. But we're going to need your expertise. If you recall, this isn't exactly my area of expertise. And Helen Cho can fix Pietro's body with the Cradle, but we could really use some help figuring out how to get Pietro's 'life essence' back into his, well, his body. After we do that, you can leave, nobody will try to stop you. Promise!"
Bruce was silent for a minute. "I'll be on the next flight to New York," he said finally.
"I knew I could count on you, Bruce!" Tony said, sounding ecstatic. "You're the best! You do realize that this is going to be like the medical miracle of the decade, right?"
"See you later, Tony," Bruce said, hanging up.
He walked back over to the two men, handing the martial artist back his phone. "Here," he said rather awkwardly.
"No problem!" the man grinned, slipping the phone back into a pocket of his shorts, which, Bruce now saw, were black with outlined red circles with a red line through the center and white half-circles on either side of the red line.
The man's scars were worse up close. They looked painful. Not that Bruce hadn't seen worse. Hell, he turned huge and green—a bit of scar tissue didn't disturb him in the least.
"Say, what did Tony Stark want, huh?" the man asked, raising his... well, where his eyebrows would have been, anyway, had he had any.
Bruce met the man's blue gaze. "I left my shoes at his house," he said after a moment. "He wants me to go pick them up, or he's going to throw them away."
The man looked down at Bruce's bare feet and chortled. "Well, good luck getting on the airport without your shoes, mister!"
"Thanks," Bruce said dryly, turning to leave.
"Oh, and hey," the man added.
Bruce glanced back at him.
"Nobody in the private sector is stupid enough to go after you," the man said, suddenly looking serious. "I can't say anything about any governments, but. You won't have to worry about a price on your head."
Bruce blinked. Okay, so the guy had to be a secret agent for SHIELD or something. That would make sense for how and why Tony had called him. Though why SHIELD had a secret agent in Fiji...
"Thanks," Bruce said uncertainly.
The guy grinned and saluted—with the the wrong hand. "Anytime, man!"
Bruce nodded, feeling slightly unsettled as he turned and walked away.
Behind him, the brunette turned to the bald man and whispered, "Mr. Wilson, was that...?"
"The alter-ego of the Big Green Smashing Machine?" the scarred man grinned. "You bet your green and yellow heinie it was! And say, aren't you glad I kidnapped you from the Hydra base before the Avengers got there?"
The smaller man nodded vehemently. "So very much so, sir!"
Pietro and Wanda watched as the Cradle fixed Pietro's body, the bullet wounds being closed up before their eyes.
'I think I am having an out-of-body experience,' Pietro remarked.
Tony, who was wearing his Iron Men helmet so that he could see and hear Pietro, snorted in amusement. "Literally and figuratively," he agreed, gesturing at the ghost with a finger.
"Pietro, look," Wanda said, facing him, running her fingers over his intangible chest, her hazel eyes wide as she met his gaze. "The bullet wounds in your soul are closing up."
Pietro glanced down at his chest, leg and arm, noticing that the holes in his incorporeal form were indeed closing up. 'Well, that would explain why I hurt less,' he said.
Wanda beamed at him, then looked back at his body in the Cradle, resting a hand on the surface. "This is amazing," she said, glancing between her brother and Stark. "We are really going to be able to bring him back to life."
'Technically, I am still alive right now,' Pietro pointed out rather sullenly, though when Wanda raised her eyebrow and Tony swiveled his helmeted head to look at him, he amended with a shrug and a simper: 'Well, kind of.'
Tony Stark came over and knocked on the glass of the cradle, saying, "Fixing your body is the easy part. The hard part is going to be getting you back into your body."
"How will you do that?" Wanda asked him curiously, attentively.
"That," Tony said, raising a hand in a 'wait for it' gesture, "is where my friend Brucie comes in."
"Where's Tony?" Steve asked, crossing his arms as he stood in front of the archer.
"Uh, why are you asking me?" Clint said, glancing around as if Steve could possibly be asking someone behind him he didn't see, before looking back up at the supersoldier with a 'how the hell should I know?' expression.
"Because you keep an eye on things, even when it's not required of you," Steve informed him frankly.
Clint shrugged, going back to his project of making trick arrows, various supplies scattered all over the table. "I think he's working on something in the lab or somethin', why?"
"Not creating another artificial intelligence, I hope," Steve remarked dryly.
"Um, no," Clint said, fiddling around with some explosives that made Steve take a step back in case they, you know, randomly went off. You never knew sometimes, with Clint. "I think it's actually more of a medical project, that'll save at least one life. Or somethin'. I don't know anything."
Steve gave him a flat look. "It sure sounds like you don't."
"Aww, fuck it," Clint said in exasperation (Steve raised an eyebrow and gave him a Look), raising his hands in the air, one of which was holding an arrow shaft while the other held a pair of needle-nose pliers. "I'm trying to concentrate on some delicate projects here and you're distracting me! If you need to talk to Tony and finally ask him out on that date that one of you really needs to suck up your pride and get to asking because the sexual tension is killing us all, then just go find him and ask him! It just might not be the best time, is what I'm sayin'!"
Steve frowned at him, but was immediately distracted by Bruce Banner hurrying past them, hurriedly pulling on a white lab coat over his bare chest and tattered pants.
Steve stared after him.
"Yeahhhh," Clint said, looking after the scientist as well. "Tony and Bruce in the same lab together? When has that ever resulted in anything good for anyone, right?" He turned his head back to look at Steve, saying, "No, seriously, it'll be fine. Stop worrying so much, man! You're gonna get wrinkles like a 70-year-old man, and nobody wants that."
Steve just stared at him unamusedly, before turning to leave.
Natasha was hitting a punching bag when her phone pinged.
She ignored it.
Fwump! Fwump! Fwump! Fwump fwump fwump fwump!
She kept punching, twisting and whirling and placing a few hard kicks against the punching bag's surface that resounded through the room.
Her phone, all the way in her bag at the side of the room, pinged again.
More whirling kicks and punches, more phone pinging.
With a frustrated growl she delivered one last, hard punch, before stalking over to her phone and taking it out of her bag, unlocking it. She should have just turned the damn thing off...
She opened the screen to see that she had 12 messages from Clint.
PURPLEHAWKEYE: bruce is here u kno
PURPLEHAWKEYE: he's kinda busy rite now
PURPLEHAWKEYE: but if u want 2 talk 2 him after
PURPLEHAWKEYE: he's in the lab w/ tony
PURPLEHAWKEYE: don't tell any1 I told u
PURPLEHAWKEYE: nat?
PURPLEHAWKEYE: naaaaaaaaaaat?
PURPLEHAWKEYE: don't just go barge in or anything i'm serius
PURPLEHAWKEYE: they're helping a displaced soul return 2 its body
PURPLEHAWKEYE: 4 realz
PURPLEHAWKEYE: so
PURPLEHAWKEYE: what do u think about boomerang arrows?
Natasha sighed, before texting back.
ME: why boomerangs?
Hardly a moment later:
PURPLEHAWKEYE: bcuz...
PURPLEHAWKEYE: boomerangs...
"I'm here!" Bruce exclaimed, hurrying into the lab, looking flurried, curly hair sticking everywhere.
"You're lab coat's on inside-out," Tony greeted him, still wearing the Iron Man helmet. It probably said a lot about both of them Bruce didn't even blinked at that fact.
Bruce glanced down at his lab coat to see that Tony was telling the truth, but as he started pulling it off to put it on the right way, a spare Iron Man helmet was jammed over his head.
Or at least, Tony tried to jam the other Iron Man helmet over Bruce's head.
"Tony!" Bruce said in frustrating, batting the billionaire away. "What the hell?"
"Put on the helmet," Tony instructed in his mechanized Iron Man voice, handing him the helmet. "And then look over there." He pointed at where Wanda was standing near the wall, watching them.
"Has anybody ever told you that you're bossy?" Bruce asked, sweeping back some stray curls before putting the helmet on.
"No, Pepper's the bossy one," Tony said, even as he turned and walked back over to the screen he'd been working at. "Pepper is, literally, the boss."
Iron Helmet now covering his face, Bruce turned to look at Wanda, and—and Pietro, who was standing there, blue and translucent, looking at him and flipping him off.
"That's... rude," Bruce said, his voice sounding strange through the faceplate.
Pietro smirked at him and put his hand down. 'Just making sure you can actually see me.'
"Right," Bruce said, "because flipping me off is the only thing you could do to make sure I can see you."
Pietro shrugged. 'At least you know now that this is no trick.'
Wanda wrapped her arms around Pietro's ghostly waist, looking at Bruce with an apologetic expression. "I am sorry for my brother," she said softly. "Being killed, waking up as a ghost, watching his dead body get healed... it is all very strange for him. And me." Pietro wrapped his arms around her, and shel leaned against his chest, continuing softly, "You can understand if our nerves a little strained right now."
"Uh, yes, that seems... stressful," Bruce said, rolling up his lab coat sleeves, having now completely forgotten that it was inside-out. "So, what are we doing...?"
Not even glancing up from the screen, Tony beckoned for Bruce to come over. "C'mere and take a look at this."
Thor walked through the new Avengers base, a frown on his face.
The SHIELD agents gave him a wide birth.
"Friend Steve!" bellowed Thor with a grin as he spotted the other Avenger, making his way over and clapping the supersoldier on the shoulder. "There you are! Where might all our comrades be, do you know? I would like to say my goodbyes to you all before I leave Midgard."
"Tony and Bruce are in the lab, apparently," Steve said, continuing walking, Thor easily keeping step with him. "I was heading there now, actually."
"Friend Bruce has returned?" Thor asked, raising his blond eyebrows in surprise.
"Apparently," Steve said. "It must be some special project. Clint wouldn't tell me what it was, though I'm certain he knows. I really wish my teammates would tell me things."
Thor patted the supersoldier on the shoulder. "Do not worry, I am sure Tony and Bruce have learned their lesson from last time are not trying to create another artificial being that will try to destroy the world."
Steve sighed, sounding more tired and exasperated than anything else. "Thanks, Thor."
"This is amazing," Bruce said as he stood over the Cradle, hands held out slightly as he glanced back down between Pietro's healing body and Pietro's ghost, still wearing the Iron Man helmet. "Your body is still alive and your base brain functions or still active, it's only your higher consciousness that was somehow separated. Do you have any idea how that happened?"
Pietro shook his head. ' felt like I blacked out after getting shot, and then I just... woke up. And when I stood, I left my body on the table.'
"Fascinating," Bruce said, before checking the progress of the Cradle. "It looks like your body is almost repaired. As soon as it is, we can begin the reintegration process."
"How will that work?" Wanda asked, coming over to the scientist, holding her brother's hand and pulling him with her.
"We might have to try a few different things," Bruce said, turning to flick around some information on a screen behind him, "but I think we should try the simplest one first. Wanda, you're going to need to help."
Wanda nodded determinedly.
'This is going to be very strange,' Pietro remarked.
"If this works," Tony said as he came over, patting Bruce on the back and nodding his helmeted head at the speedster's ghost, "you are going to be a medical miracle."
"We already are," Wanda pointed out softly, hazel eyes glowing scarlet for a moment.
'Well,' Pietro said, nudging her with a translucent blue elbow, smirking slightly, 'guess I'll just be a medical miracle squared.'
Bruce beckoned for Wanda to come over, and began pointing things out on the screen. "Alright, Wanda, so this is what you're going to need to do..."
When Steve and Thor got to the lab doors, they found them locked.
"Your clearance won't be enough to get you in," said a smooth, female voice from behind them, and they turned to see Natasha standing there, arms crossed. "I already tried."
Steve and Thor looked at her, then back at the lab doors.
"Wait!" Clint said, dropping down from an air vent in the ceiling, holding up his hands. "Don't do anything! Just... just wait. They're busy."
The three others glared at him.
"Clint," Steve said, leveling his gaze at the archer. "What is going on?"
"Uh," Clint said, tilting his head to scratch the back of his neck. "It's kinda complicated."
"Clint," Natasha said, narrowing her eyes at him, shifting her stance.
"And it kinda revolves around the fact that Pietro isn't actually dead," Clint added quickly.
Natasha relaxed slightly, Steve's brows furrowed, and Thor grinned.
"Well, if that's all it is!" Thor said with a laugh, as the three others just stared at him. "I couldn't tell how much of it was because of the ale at the time, but I thought that I saw Pietro's wraith walking around last night!"
The Cradle was open, Pietro's body healed, as he stepped inside and lay down within himself.
Not even a second later his ghost sat up, his body still lying there. 'I do not think this is going to work,' Pietro said doubtfully. 'This feels weird, because having to lie down inside my own body is very weird, but I do not feel like anything is actually going to happen.'
"Lie back down," Wanda said as she walked over to his head, putting her hands on either side of his body's face as his ghost did what she said.
"Just stay calm," Wanda said quietly, hazel eyes glowing scarlet, scarlet light dancing between her fingers and around her brother's head. "This might be slightly uncomfortable."
Bruce and Tony watched, both still wearing matching Iron Man helmets.
Bruce was wringing his hands. Tony crossed his fingers behind his back.
Natasha, Clint, and Steve were still staring at Thor when Vision walked up, carrying a couple flower bouquets.
Everyone's gaze turned to the synthezoid and the flowers in his arms.
"Uh, what are the flowers for?" Clint spoke up.
Vision blinked, looked down at the flowers, then back up at his fellow Avengers. "I was under the impression that it was popular custom to bring flowers to those who have been sick or injured," he said, suddenly sounding uncertain. "As well as to their families. I believe it is a show of compassion?"
"That is what I have heard as well!" Thor declared brightly, before furrowing his brow in consideration. "Perhaps I should go acquire flowers as well?"
Vision smiled. "Here," he said, offering one of his two bouquets to the thunderer. "I brought extra. You may give these to the Maximoffs."
Thor beamed as he took the flowers, nodding at Vision. "You are an honorable and worthy man, Friend Vision."
"Thank you," Vision said.
Natasha, Steve, and Clint just stared at the synthezoid and god.
"Anyone else suddenly feeling one-upped?" Clint asked Natasha and Steve quietly.
With a sharp gasp, Pietro sat up, the world whirling around him. "Did it work?" he asked, putting a hand to his head as if that would stop the world spinning.
Wanda's hands were suddenly there to steady him. A warm hand was placed against his cheek. "How do you feel?" she asked.
Pietro blinked as his sight started clearing, and he could make out his sister's smiling face.
Glancing down, Pietro saw hands of flesh, that flexed and straightened at his command.
Getting up out of the Cradle and standing up, Pietro looked around the lab, did a quick, superspeed lap around it, then grinned at Wanda. "I feel very much alive."
Wanda beamed and through her arms around him, burying her face in his warm shoulder. "I am so glad you are back," she whispered.
"It is good to be back," Pietro said softly, brushing his fingers through her dark hair, smiling. "Even though I never actually left." He paused for a moment. "Well, I guess I left my body, but I never left you."
There was a cough from behind them, and Pietro and Wanda turned to see Tony and Bruce standing there.
Bruce had taken off the Iron Man helmet and set it down on the counter beside him. He was smiling.
Tony was still wearing his helmet—he'd probably forgotten that he was wearing it—and he was fiddling with a stylus between his fingers.
"I..." Pietro started, then closed his mouth.
"We are both very grateful to you for this," Wanda said, hugging her brother again as she smiled at the two scientists. "Thank you for doing this. Thank you."
"Of course," Bruce said, seeming completely calm and at peace. "And there's no need to thank us. It was the least we could do."
"Uh, yeah, what he said," Tony nodded, picking up his phone and flicking around the screen. "Hey, nobody minds if I text Pepper and brag about this, right? It's not everyday you get to bring someone back to life, after all."
When the four of them came out of the lab, the rest of the Avengers were waiting there for him.
"It is good to see you back in full health!" Thor declared with a booming voice and huge grin, shoving a bouquet of flowers into Pietro's hands.
Pietro blinked. "Okay?"
Thor laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Do not looks so surprised, young warrior! We are all relieved and glad to see you alive and walking after sustaining such gravely mortal wounds! We shall be proud to have you and your sister fight beside us in future battles!"
Meanwhile, Vision had approached Wanda, handing her his bouquet. "Technically these should probably go to Pietro, as he was the one who was injured," Vision said, "but I believe that you'll end up with them anyway."
Smiling, Wanda took the flowers, before laughing as Pietro quickly and surreptitiously hand her the flowers that Thor had given him as well.
"May I introduce to you: Pietro Maximoff, back from the dead!" Tony said, bowing slightly and gesturing at the speedster proudly. He was still wearing the Iron Man mask.
Bruce swallowed uncomfortably as Natasha approached, slow and calculated like a cat on the prowl.
"We need to talk," Natasha said.
"Uh, yeah," Bruce said, looking away.
Natasha took his arm and dragged him into the lab, shutting the door behind them.
Clint pushed past Thor so he could talk to Pietro.
"Here," Clint blurted, handing Pietro something. "Thank you for saving me and the kid and I'm glad you're alive and all that."
Pietro glanced at the arrow in his hands. "An arrow?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, lips twisting up in a smirk.
"An arrow is so much better than flowers!" Clint defended, throwing up his hands almost exasperatedly. "And that arrow is special. It's a Stun-Arrow. So, y'know, it has an electric charge and you can use it to stun people."
Pietro spun the arrow over between his fingers, examining it. "This is the kind of arrow you used on Wanda on the ship in Africa?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah," Clint said rather awkwardly.
"I appreciate that you did not actually hurt her," Pietro said, looking at him.
"Well, I get the feeling you would have killed me if I'd hurt her, so..." Clint shrugged. He looked at Pietro for a moment before blurting: "So, I'd like you to meet some people who are very special to me. And it's a bit of a long flight, but..."
"We'd love to come over," said Wanda, appearing beside her brother with her arms full of flowers and a small smile on her face.
"Okay, then," Pietro shrugged, handing Wanda the arrow, which she took with a snort.
Steve came over. "I'd like to formally invite you to join the Avengers," he stated to both of them.
Pietro glanced at Wanda.
Wanda met her brother's gaze for a moment, before she looked back at Steve, nodding. "We accept," she said.
"Apparently we accept," Pietro added.
Steve nodded, a smile in his eyes as he shook both their hands, though the rest of his face remained serious, his lips twitching upwards only very slightly. "Training starts tomorrow morning," he said.
"Oh, good," Pietro said with a rather cocky smirk. "I won't have too much time to get bored, then."
Wanda hugged him.
Steve wandered away to talk to Tony, and as Wanda turned to talk to Vision, Pietro turned to Thor.
"You're pretty fast when you fly with your hammer," Pietro said, nodding at the Thunder God.
"Aye," Thor agreed.
"I want to race you," Pietro said frankly.
Thor laughed. "Very well, then! If you are well enough, we can race."
Pietro was practically vibrating. "Oh believe me, I am well enough."
~Epilogue~
The next morning...
"Where are we racing to?" Thor asked, twirling his hammer languidly.
Pietro nodded at the top of a hill the horizon. "Here to there, and then back."
"Very well," Thor said, beginning to twirl his hammer above his head in earnest.
Pietro crouched down like a sprinter, bracing himself for action.
Wanda, Steve, and Tony were all standing there to act as referees.
"On your mark," Wanda said.
"Get set," Tony added.
The two of them looked at Steve.
"Go," Steve sighed.
And just like that, Thor and Pietro were off, Thor launching into the sky while Pietro took off across the ground, trailing blue streaks of energy.
Pietro got back first, collapsing onto the ground and sprawling out on his back, panting.
Thor landed hardly a moment later.
"I... won..." Pietro gasped out, chest heaving as he threw a limp arm over his eyes to block out the sun.
"Pietro won," Tony nodded.
Wanda knelt down beside her brother, putting a hand over his forehead. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah..." Pietro panted. "More than... alright..."
"Your speed is impressive," Thor grinned, bending down to offer the speedster a hand up, pulling the smaller man to his feet.
"I know..." Pietro grinned slightly, not completely steady on his feet.
"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard," Wanda told him, putting an arm around his waist to help support him.
"I'll be fine," Pietro said, already starting to catch his breath. "Just... give me a few... more minutes..."
Thor said his goodbyes and left in a brilliant flash of rainbow light.
"That man has no respect for lawn maintenance," Tony remarked with a shake of his head.
Steve walked the billionaire over to his bright orange car. They said their goodbyes, and Tony sped away.
Steve walked back over to the twins.
"Well," he said. "Are you two ready to begin training?"
Wanda nodded firmly.
"Can I just... skip the first part of the training session?" Pietro asked, his hands on his knees as he bent over slightly, still breathing heavily, sweat trickling down his face. "Thor is... pretty fast..."
"You might feel better by the time we walk over there," Steve said, starting to walk back towards the building.
Wanda and Pietro followed him.
"This is so exciting!" Wanda whispered to her brother, eyes bright. "We're Avengers!"
"It's not that hard to believe," Pietro shrugged. "What I'm really have trouble reconciling with is the fact that we don't completely hate Stark any more."
"After everything we've been though, I think things are finally starting to get better," Wanda murmured, sounding almost in awe as she gripped his hand, squeezing slightly.
They entered back inside the building, following Captain America down the halls.
"We'll still be putting ourselves in almost constant danger," Pietro pointed out, squeezing her hand back.
"Yes, but that's what we signed up for," Wanda said, meeting his hazel gaze. "And now we have a chance to be heroes."
"We already are heroes," Pietro snorted. "We helped out against Ultron, remember?"
"I meant officially," Wanda said with a roll of her eyes, lips twitching.
"So," Pietro mused quietly as they entered the training room, where the Vision, Falcon, and War Machine were already waiting, "do you think we get our own costumes and codenames?"
AN: Yes, Deadpool and Hydra Bob made a cameo appearance. I just couldn't help myself :P