WARNING!
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SOME DARKER THEMES!
PLEASE USE DISCRETION!
Chapter Nine
In Which There's Some Light in the Darkness
"Where's Pietro?" Wanda says. Clint winces, and he looks at Natasha. Wanda is becoming frantic. "Clint, where is Pietro? Where is my big brother?"
Natasha reaches out to put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Wanda…"
"They took him." Clint blurts it out all at once.
Wanda's eyes widen, and she steps back, slowly shaking her head. "What? No… How?" Red energy is flaring and sparking around her. "No. No, he said he'd come back!"
"They came from everywhere." Clint says. "We couldn't do anything. They told him they'd let us go if he came with them. They said they'd take him to Sonya."
Wanda is still shaking, the lights in the tower flicker, the other's wincing as pain shoots through their heads. "No. No, no, no." She slumps to the ground, face in her hands, everyone dives for cover as blood red energy explodes from her.
Wanda doesn't even notice. She's reaching out with her mind, searching for him, trying to find her brother. She can't feel his mind. She can't feel his mind! This is wrong, it's so wrong! He should be here, next to her! What will she do without him? She can't lose him! Not after the scare with Ultron! Where is he?! Where is he?! WHERE IS HE?!
"Miss Wanda." The Vision's calm voice breaks through the cacophony in her mind. Suddenly, she's aware of her surroundings, she's on her hands and knees, her friends are taking shelter, hiding, from her! This is even worse.
She leaps to her feet and careens out of the room. 'No. No, no, no!' She screams in her mind. "No! Pietro, NO!'
It becomes a routine. A terrible, painful routine. Sonya feels herself getting closer and closer to breaking the more they hurt Pietro. It just gets worse.
"This sucks." Pietro says one day, perfectly summing up everything in those two words. He's staring at the ceiling, counting bricks or something, Sonya isn't sure.
"Yeah, but at least we aren't alone." She replies.
"You're really grasping at straws here." He tells her.
"I know."
But she's not completely wrong. They both know, despite how they try to deny it, that they'd probably go crazy without each other. They learn things about each other, too.
"Wanda's all I really have left." Pietro tells her. "For a long time, it was just the two of us against the world. I don't think either of us would be here without the other."
"Well, you certainly wouldn't be trapped in a cell."
"I'm not so sure about that." There's an awkward silence after that statement. Pietro lets out an awkward chuckle. "Well, anyway… What's your favorite book?"
Sonya stares at him for a moment. "Huh?"
"I'm trying to lighten the mood."
"Oh!" She nods, then grins. "You asked me about books."
"Yeah, so?"
"Nobody asks me about books!" Her grin turns in to a momentary frown. "Granted, asking such a question is actually quite perilous."
Pietro snorts. "Why do you even talk like that?! Who says 'perilous' anymore?"
Sonya sniffs, giving him a haughty look. "Intelligent people."
"No, weird people."
"I'm eccentric, thank you very much. Idiosyncratic, if you will. Not weird."
He reaches out and pats her head. "Keep telling yourself that.
"Miss Wanda?" Wanda doesn't react, she's curled in a corner of her room, her arms on her knees, head buried in her arms. Vision shifts a little uncomfortably in the doorway. "May I come in?"
"Yeah." It's muffled, but audible. He moves over and sits down next to her.
"I am sorry. About your brother."
Wanda's head flies up, all of a sudden, and she throws herself into his arms.
"Uhm… Miss Wanda."
"It's called a hug, and just call me Wanda."
The android nods a little, and hugs her back.
"I was serious, you know." Pietro says the next day, when Sonya's running her hands over a bad bruise on his chest.
"About what?" She doesn't even look up, wholly focused on her task, a corner of her tongue peeking out between her lips. "This goes pretty deep."
"About wanting to know your favorite book."
"Oh. I see." She moves her hands to his ribs, scooting his arm out of the way. "Take a deep breath."
He does so, and they wince in unison as pain jets through him.
"You have at least one broken rib." She's biting her lip now, face screwed up.
"Hey, you okay?"
Sonya blinks a couple times, glancing up at him. "What? Yeah, I'm fine." She turns her attention back to his aching ribs, poking them gently. "I was wrong, you have two broken ribs." Her hands begin glowing, and her runs her middle and forefinger along the curve of the bone, letting out a breath in unison with her powers. Pietro relaxes as the pain fades.
"Howl's Moving Castle." She says when she's finished.
"Huh?"
"You asked what my favorite book was. It's Howl's Moving Castle." Sonya squints at the crescent shaped scars in his palms. These were self-inflicted. She doesn't have to watch all the torturing to know. They're from Pietro digging his fingernails in to his hands in an attempt to draw his mind off the pain. She blinks, hard, feeling tears prickle her eyes.
"Isn't that a movie?"
"It was a book, first. Written by Diana Wynne Jones. It's about a young girl named Sophie who is cursed to become old, courtesy of the Witch of the Waste. So, she goes on a trip to seek her fortune. Sort of. She actually forces herself on the Wizard Howl as his cleaning lady because she makes a deal with Howl's fire demon Calcifer. The story is about her adventures with Howl and Calcifer, and Michael, Howl's apprentice." Her fingers are gently stroking over his palms, the cuts closing up.
"Do you like the movie or the book better?" Pietro asks.
"Well, the book and the movie are actually very different, so I can safely say that I like them both equally, but for different reasons. Of course, I may be a tad biased towards the book." Her voice cracks just then, and Pietro notices the tears on her cheek.
"Sonya?" he reaches out with his free hand, this one as beat up as the other, and puts his palm on her cheek. He immediately jerks away as one of the tears drips on to his hand, glowing, as it sinks into his skin. Seconds later, the cuts are gone. "I didn't know you could do that." He blurts.
She peers at his hand, and she's smiling a little through her tears. "Me either!" She sobs and presses her forehead against his knuckles. "Me either."
Things at the tower are solemn.
"We should have never let him go out with us." Clint says. "We should have known he'd go off and try to do something heroic."
"He would have gone anyway." Wanda replies.
"You can't get a sense of either of them?"
"No. It's like they're hidden from me."
"Keep trying."
"Can't you see that I am?!"
It's always a relief to Sonya and Pietro when the guards shove them in the cell, and they're left alone. It was worse today, though. They just lie there for a moment, both racked with pain. Sonya clenches her fists and stares up at the ceiling, and counts to ten, shoving the pain away with each number. By ten, it's faded to just a faint ache. She sits up then, and scoots closer to Pietro. He's unconscious, lying on his face. She gently turns him over, her hand flying to her mouth at the state of his face. They hadn't touched his head or neck before, but they've seemed to have moved on.
Sonya hates it, but she's starting to see a pattern. Astoria was trying to figure out how the pain translated itself in to Sonya, by investigating it part by part. Yesterday was the chest and stomach, the day before that, the arms, and so on.
"Damn you, Astoria." She mumbles, brushing Pietro's silvery hair off his forehead. His nose twitches a little, and she grins. Her fingers trail down his face, and she impulsively leans forward and presses a kiss to his forehead. The spot where her lips touched glows when she pulls back, and the wounds on his face fade away.
Pietro gasps and sits up, shooting Sonya a quizzical look. She's leaning close to him, eyes wondering. "What's up?"
"I found another way to heal."
"What? Again? What is it?"
She flips over his hand and kisses his palm.
Tony careens up from his lab, letting out a cackle that seems wrong in the oppressive quiet in the Tower. "I have it!"
"Have what?"
"A way to find Sonya and Pietro!"
"I don't think what we're doing to your friend is effecting you anymore, Sonya." Astoria muses. "Also, I wonder how your powers react in a psychologically stressful situation."
Sonya eyes her warily. "What are you going to do?"
"I think…" The blonde taps her chin with one manicured finger. "I think… We're going to make you watch this time."
Sonya stiffens, her eyes widening. "No…"
Astoria smiles. "What? You don't want to watch what you're doing to him? Like if you can't see it, it'll all go away?"
"No! No, no, no!"
"Too bad!"
Sonya is lead to a glass window. She looks through in horror. Pietro is strapped to a chair, shirtless, a group of Astoria's minions crowding around him like a horde of vultures. She doesn't try to pull away as Vox attaches the scanner to her head.
"You may begin." Astoria says. Pietro glances towards the window, and his eyes widen in horror. Sonya suddenly realizes he can see her just as clearly as she can see him, and somehow, the horror suddenly increases.
Sonya doesn't want to watch, she tries to look away, tries to shut her eyes, but Vox lets out a snicker. "You can't even watch? This is your fault."
And Sonya knows she has to watch, because she can't turn away from him. It's not fair, it's not fair!
But Pietro's looking at her pleadingly. 'Look away!' He begs her mentally. 'Please don't' force yourself to watch this! Please, Sonya, please! Don't do this. Don't do this!' She seems to see his desperation in his face, and shakes her head. No.
'She can't look away, not this time, because she thinks it's her fault, she blames herself!' He realizes all at once. "Oh, no! Sonya, no! It's not your fault!' He's screaming out loud, because it hurts, everything, so much, and he can hear, over the ringing in his ears, Sonya screaming, too.
"Stop it!" Sonya shrieks, begging. "Stop! Please! Don't hurt him!" She's screaming and crying, because Pietro's hurting, and tears are leaking out of his eyes, and she hurts! So much! "Stop it! Stop it! No! No, no, no, no!" She repeats that word over and over, falling to her knees. "Pietro! No! NO! Stop it! Stop hurting him! Please!"
The two of them fall unconscious at the same time, the darkness embracing them like an old friend.
Sonya comes awake all at once, whimpering and shaking, still hiccupping from crying. She sits up and crawls over to Pietro, he's curled in the fetal position, bruised and bleeding, and for one horrible, terrible minute, she can't feel him. She can't tell if he's alive.
Then he gasps and straightens out, flicking his eyes towards her. Sonya throws herself on him, despite the pain wracking both their bodies. She slams her mouth against his, and Pietro nearly falls over at the shock, because, Holy SHIT! Sonya is kissing him!
They're suddenly surrounded in a purple glow, and Pietro sighs as warmth flows through his body down from his lips to the top of his head to the very tips of his toes. It's a healing warmth, the one he's learned to associate with Sonya's powers, and the pain vanishes all at once.
Sonya pulls back, blushing, but Pietro tugs her back towards him, kissing her back. And, Oh, man! He hadn't realized how much he wanted to do this before. Warmth is swirling through him, even though Sonya isn't actively healing him. He figures it's coming from her, because when he tilts his head and runs his tongue against her lips, the warmth swirls faster and settles in his belly like butterflies.
"What brought this on?" He murmurs when they pull apart to breathe.
"I'm just glad you aren't dead." She mumbles.
"Was there a moment of doubt?" He asks, concerned.
Sonya chokes out a laugh, and Pietro wipes a tear off her cheek. "This is all my fault." She blurts out.
"No, It's not." He tells her.
"It is! You're here because of me! You're hurting, and it's all my fault! I'm sorry! Pietro, I'm so sor-!"
He doesn't let her finish, and kisses her again. "Shut up." He growls when she's adequately hushed. "Don't you dare say that. I don't blame you, this was my choice, and we're gonna get thorough this together, understand?"
"Pietro…"
"Understand?" He's practically glaring at her, and she gives him a watery smile.
"Okay. I understand."
The rest of the Avengers pull to a stop outside a clean, official looking building. "This is it?" Steve asks.
Tony nods. "Yeah. Sonya and Pietro are in there."
Steve glances back at the others, they're all so ready to fight, and honestly, he can't wait do pummel whoever took Sonya and Pietro. Thor even showed up for this event.
The god of thunder shoots Steve a terrifying grin. "Come, comrades-in-arms, let us engage this enemy! To arms!"
"No! NO!" Sonya shakes him. "PIETRO!" What did they do to him! What have they done? Why isn't he breathing! He isn't breathing! "PIETRO!"
"You overdid it!" Astoria screams to her henchmen.
Sonya doesn't even react. She keeps shaking him. "No. No, no, NO! Pietro! Pietro, please!" She bangs on his chest, sending bolts of energy in to his heart. "Wake up! Wake up!" His heart shudders, and it's beating again. Sonya whimpers with relief, tipping his chin back, shaking her hair out of her face, blowing air into his lungs.
"C'mon. C'mon." Wake up Pietro. Wake up! You can't die! You said we were gonna get through this together!
Commotion whirls around her. She doesn't register the panicked yells. "It's the Avengers!" Someone shrieks.
"We're doomed!"
Astoria's screaming for order, and someone tries to drag Sonya and Pietro apart, but the purple-haired girl throws up a shield around them. Pietro starts breathing on his own just then, coughing and gasping. He awakens, frowning at her tears, and she clings to him when Tony and Steve burst through the dust.
A/N: SUCH ROMANCE! So much Pietro/Sonya! Also, I couldn't resist a little Scarlet Vision, because, why not? Also, longest chapter yet! FYI: I'm planning on a chapter-a-week update schedule, but I'm putting this up early because I'm gonna be gone this weekend! Enjoy!
PLEASE REVIEW FOR THIS POOR STARVED AUTHOR!