"What the hell happened here ?!"

A black-haired man in his forties, dressed in an elegant and extremely expensive suit, with a stylishly trimmed beard and glasses with brown lenses, entered first the devastated house. All around him in the air floated dust and ashes ; stones and bricks were scattered on what had been a light pink ceramic flooring ; the walls, formerly happily colored, were now uniformly grey and burnt. What remained of the ceiling were about three or four broken beams and the furniture was totally destroyed or missing.

"It's as if there has been a war", answered thoughtfully a red-haired woman, while walking in through the smashed door. "But I must admit that I didn't exactly expect a war here, in Westview…

"Damn, how perceptive !" the man in a suit said ironically.

"The question is", a third person intervened loudly, "who attacked Vision and his children and what happened to them ?"

This voice belonged to a black man with an eye-patch, wearing a long leather coat. The two others turned to him : he was slowly walking in the ruins, carefully examining the debris all around him.

"Fury", said the woman. "Do you know anything about all of this…

"…about all of this shit ?" added the man, visibly enjoying the possibility to say unnecessary vulgarities.

The so-called 'Fury' took a deep sigh, then shook his head.

"Nah, nothing Mr. Stark. All of this was totally… unpredictable, even for the S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Good blood", muttered Stark in exhaustion.

There was really nothing, in this damn destroyed house. He made a few long steps, barely paying attention to the concerned looks Fury and Romanov addressed him.

Fuck, if someone finds attacking Vision funny, then we are all up to our necks in crap, he though darkly. Vision was the most powerful remaining hero on the Earth after the war against Thanos : Thor, a man named Dr Strange (Stark met him only once) and Wanda Maximoff – Vision's wife and mother of the twin boys Thomas and William – lost their life while fighting against the mad titan. Even if their sacrifice brought them victory, their death was a high tribute to pay…

Anyway, there was no time for fruitless tergiversations : they had to investigate and find some clues quickly, before the madman that fought and kidnapped Vision's family decided to do something even worse… There must be somethingthat would give them the slightest piece of information, the slightest lead to follow…

"Let's search the ruins", he proposed quietly. "It's our duty to find out what happened to Wanda and Vision's family…"

OoOoO

They eventually found him – buried under almost twenty centimeters of dusty beams and broken bricks.

Myshkin was in a coma. The intense use of his powers, the travel through universes and finally the unexpected battle which started a few seconds after their arrival – all of this, far above a tolerable threshold of pain, deeply shook his nerves and ended up by definitely knock him out. They transported him unconscious to the Avengers headquarters, where he was solidly handcuffed to a prison infirmary bed in order to be questioned later.

When he eventually regained consciousness, even before having fully the time understand where he was, he met a pair of sad black eyes staring back at him.

OoOoO

Tony Stark was not exactly a man deeply interested in people or in relationships. His world was inhabited by robots and machines, his dreams filled with calculations – and also some bad memories which he tried to avoid by drowning them in alcohol. Although Vision was his creation, he had never been very close to him – neither from him nor from Wanda Maximoff. And despite the painful guilt he felt because of the Witch's death, he had never been able to consider Vision and his children as an extension of his own family – he had never been able to even build his own family, thus condemning himself to solitude and loneliness.

Strangely, the unknown man found under the house's ruins became fascinating when the Avengers discovered, thanks to a facial recognition AI, his identity : it was a certain Milo Myshkin, a new-yorker bookseller – with no criminal record and absolutely not linked to Vision. Disturbing revelations continued when Natasha Romanov, the spy of the team, found out that this Milo Myshkin was still in New York, peacefully working in his shop, while a man with exactly the same face was lying unconscious on an infirmary bed. Romanov went so far as to take a sample of the bookseller's DNA - by collecting a few hairs – and once again, the results seemed to be a matter of fantasy : genetically speaking, their prisoner was Milo Myshkin.

However, other medical examinations revealed that the man had a very uncommon intern morphology – in particular in his nervous and sensory system : his skin – especially his hands – was riddled of receptors and, even more strange, of a very specific and uncommon kind of axonal endings which were directly exposed to the open air. Moreover, a mark on his wrists clearly indicated that the man probably used to be on a drip : these two medical findings suggested that his unusual nerve structure required some kind of treatment – but which one, impossible to say. The Avengers had only to hope that this 'clone', or mutant, or whatever he might be, would wake up from his coma to answer the many questions that his presence in the ruins raised.

It was almost nighttime when it unexpectedly happened. By chance, Tony Stark was there at this moment, sitting in an armchair next to the window, thoughtfully looking at the nursing bed, mentally elaborating theories to try to resolve all this haunting mystery. At first, when the 'prisoner' slowly and groggily opened his eyes, the billionaire thought he must have started hallucinating because of a lack of sleep ; however, when two seconds later the stranger gave a muffled groan of pain, Stark stood up and leaned over the bed to stare at Myshkin with curiosity and expectation. Their gazes met for a brief moment.

"Who are you ?" Tony started bluntly. "Why were you in Vision's house, what happened to him and his family ? What are you, exactly ?"

Myshkin's eyes rolled back in pain and he only managed to say : "Morphine…", before an uncontrollable spasm shook all his body.

Stark remained confused and indecisive for a few seconds : should he immediately accede to the prisoner's request, or should he, on the contrary, take advantage of the man's suffering to try to extract information from him ? The dilemma didn't last very long, since Tony's conscience quickly took over : he rushed to the painkiller's drawer and administered himself the dose to Myshkin.

With a slight relieved moan, Myshkin's face relaxed and he fell almost instantly asleep – just after having whispered : "Thank you".

OoOoO

The second time the prisoner opened his eyes, the whole team stood facing him – or at least, all the remaining members of the Avengers living in USA, which meant Natasha Romanov, Nick Furry and obviously Tony Stark. The others were either dead or gone – or just too young to be involved, as Peter Parker for example.

There was no brutal or aggressive reactions : the stranger in the nursing bed remained calm and pacific, so the trio relaxed a bit. Natasha was the first to approach the bed and ask quietly but firmly :

"Can you speak ? Who are you ? Who send you – or from where did you get in Vision's house ? What happened to Vision and his family ?"

For a moment, Myshkin only managed to open his mouth without making a single sound, before closing it again. It was only when Nick Furry took a step forward that he eventually took a deep breath and started his explanation in a tight voice :

"I… I know who you are. I've seen you in the news and I know what you did – what you sacrificed – for us, for the inhabitants of the Earth."

Stark bowed his head, intrigued by what the man was talking about : when he articulated the word 'sacrificed', he gave him a long, meaningful gaze. There was something strange about the way he stared at them all, especially at the billionaire – as if he was looking at a ghost.

"My name is Milo Myshkin and I was never supposed to get here, but she… shetook me with her…

"Who took you ? Where were you supposed to be ?" Furry asked in a loud, impatient voice.

A lonely tear was rolling down Myshkin's cheek when he answered silently :

"I know that Wanda Maximoff is dead here, in your Universe… but you have to believe me : she is here, now, and I think she definitely lost her mind…"

And, like a little child, he began to sob – before quickly becoming almost delirious. They got nothing more out of him.

OoOoO

In the evening, Myshkin had woken up for a second time : he was clearly feverish and not fully aware of where he was, but in a sufficient conscious state to be able to give them several explanations ; thus, the Avengers discovered that he was – or at least, claimed to be – from another universe, that Wanda Maximoff – which didn't die in his home world – brought him here, that she was desperately searching for her family and ready to do anything to retrieve it and that he only saw her shortly argue with Vision before a blinding explosion and a complete blackout.

Was he totally insane or did he really tell them the truth ? Impossible to say at this point… After almost an hour of exhausting questioning, they finally let him be and left the nursing room, exchanging indecisive glances.

OoOoO

"You asked the nurse for a higher morphine dose… d'you know it'll eventually kill you ?"

It was two o'clock in the morning ; still, Tony Stark was leaning for about two minutes against a wall near the door of the infirmary, thoughtfully observing the man held captive in the room.

Myshkin woke up a few minutes ago and was now carefully handling the drip in his left arm, as if trying to increase the amount of morphine passing through the perf – restricted in his movements by the presence of handcuffs which kept him tied to the bed. He didn't hear Stark enter, all his senses still fuzzy and his attention focused on his task.

When the billionaire spoke, he abruptly turned his head towards him and the captors showed the acceleration of his heartbeat due to the surprise, before slowing down. This reaction was a good indicator to reveal that he has been exposed to a close danger during at least the past few days : if he had been in normal conditions, he would never have overreacted like this.

With a polite but embarrassed smile, the man watched Tony Stark approaching at a leisurely pace the window behind his bed, then take a chair at his left side where he settled down comfortably before pulling out a flask of whiskey from his vest.

"I know what I need", he finally answered in a soft voice, "in the same way as youseemingly know what you need."

He pointed out the whiskey flask, from which Stark just took a large sip.

"With all of this high-tech medical equipment, I bet you've already figured out my little… impairment", he added in a whisper while designating with a wave of his free hand the whole infirmary room – indeed filled with the newest medical equipment.

Tony Stark swallowed his sip.

"By the word 'impairment', you mean… your alien nervous system ?

"Yes. It's not alien actually, it's… just…

"A sort of screwed up science experiment, I guess ?"

Myshkin was taken aback for a few seconds.

"How… how did you know ?"

Stark took a deep sight before answering frankly :

"It was either that, or you were an alien. According to the fact you seem to have some medical knowledge, I assumed it's your own work – instead of you having been kidnapped and used as a test subject, but maybe am I wrong…

"No, no, your hypothesis is true… I… I used to be a doctor. A neuroscientist." Myshkin explained in a rather shaking voice.

"I see… and then, at a certain point, you wanted to impress your crush slash your colleagues slash the entire Earth population, and you performed a mad science experiment in very very bad safety conditions which obviously went wrong, and you ended up with a destroyed health, a messed-up self-esteem and probably more alone than before…"

Myshkin was now very uneased by Stark's words – not so much because he could recognize himself in his words, but mostly because he intuitively felt that they mainly referred to Tony's own life experience. It was quite unsettling to see so clearly the man's obvious souring sadness and almost depressed condition, without being able to help in any way. What Stark endured in this universe, Myshkin didn't dare to imagine. But from Wanda's snippets of memories he caught at the time she unconsciously contacted him, the neuroscientist could say that Stark was not emotionally spared even in his home world before sacrificing himself heroically, far from it…

"Of us, you are the one who suffers the most", he only managed to whisper empathically.

He reached out with a sincere desire to show his concern for the broken superhero.

Tony examined the hand with a falsely wry smile, trying to avoid showing his surprise. The prisoner could not be trusted yet ; however, when his gaze met Myshkin's one, brown, warm, filled with kindness and sympathy, he no longer resisted and instinctively grasped the outstretched hand in a wave of sincere relief and gratitude.

Pain.

The man – ironically called Iron Man – was overwhelmed with pain and a deep sorrow. Most of the physical suffering came from his chest, in which was transplanted a toxic compound – the one which provided energy to Iron Man's armours.

But his gift was also an uninterrupted pain.

Myshkin acted instinctively, without considering the possible consequences of his action : he put the most overflowed nerves to sleep and rearranged Stark's nervous system to make his pain disappear. This single hand-contact was more than sufficient for him to do that.

But of course, Stark did not perceive things in the same way :

"Wha… WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME ?!" he yelled, panicked, at the second his pain mysteriously vanished. "You… you were taking control of my body !"

He took several leaps backwards as if he just was burned.

"I'm not… it's just…" Myshkin could not articulate a coherent sentence, frightened by this sudden reaction.

"I'm calling security", Stark simply said, then he pulled the dedicated red button on the side wall.

OoOoO

"So… he doesn't represent an immediate danger ?

"For what we know, no, indeed. However, he's not to underestimate : he can easily make you blind, or deaf, or paralyzed – or even all this at once. At least, that's the information we obtained after having cautiously scanned and interrogated him."

The specialist in medical analysis stood in front of the Avengers, supporting their inquisitive gazes without being intimidated, while she spoke. Stark told Nick and Natasha what happened last night : they've immediately carried out extensive research in order to determine whether or not Myshkin was a threat – by analyzing in depth the structure of his body and its supranatural abilities. Thankfully, the conclusion of the lab was quite reassuring : the prisoner didn't have the capacity to manipulate someone, mentally or physically, so Stark had nothing to worry about. On the contrary, it seemed that the ex-neuroscientist helped him, by reducing the pain caused by his ARC reactor.

It was far better than alcohol's effects.

Eventually, the team decided to pay another visit to their prisoner, mostly in order to see if they could safely release him or not. Except for the event with Stark, he made no attempt to interfere with the doctors and nurses or compromise their work – he remained mostly silent but was polite whenever they spoke to him. Moreover, the information he gave them about Wanda who allegedly kidnapped her own family finally didn't seem so absurd : indeed, who else could have face Vision ? Plus, numerous eyewitness accounts across the country confirmed that strange and unknown waves of dark red energy manifested themselves in the sky and sometimes on the ground or the water. At last, many geological and astrophysical observatories postponed an odd activity of some physical phenomenon – as if reality itself was somehow shifted. The Avengers didn't pay attention to these signs before Myshkin's testimony, but now they had the 'Wanda-from-another-Universe theory' in mind, it became impossible to miss.

When they entered the room in which Myshkin was – for the moment – held prisoner, he was curled up on his bed, half-sleeping and breathing heavily : although the doctors released him from his handcuffs, they also diminished the morphine dose of his perfusion – which was much higher than the maximum recommended dose according to his weight. Nick Furry stepped forward and loudly cleared his throat in order to wake him up.

"Hehem… So, Mr. Myshkin, we finally have come to the conclusion that your words deserve serious consideration : we will release you on parole, provided you help us find Vision and his family."

Myshkin straightened up on his bed with obvious difficulty to sit down when Furry started to talk, then blank confusedly as he glared at Nick with the surprised and absent look of someone who has just emerged from sleep. But when the information finally came up to his brain, a bright smile lit up his emaciated face.

"Oh… oh, thank you very much, Mr. Furry, really ! I highly appreciate your confidence in me…

"Let me make it clear", Natasha Romanov intervened gloomily. "If you make the slightest suspicious move, you'll have to deal with me… and it'll not be a pleasure, trust me."

Indeed, the way she leaned against the back wall, in her black leather clothes and the guns in her belt, didn't really make her look convenient.

Strangely, it didn't disturb Myshkin any more than that, as he simply gave her a radiant smile while nodding vehemently.

"Of course, of course, I understand ! And I'll try to help you as I can… however, you should know the complete story before we start anything."

And, in a slightly hoarse voice, he told them everything : he explained precisely what had happened in his own Universe – his first testimony had been much more confused, incomplete and erratic – and what Wanda was capable of. They listened blankly, shocked by the revelation that Wanda, the little and insecure Wanda Maximoff they personally knew, and which sacrificed herself against Thanos in order to save her world and her family, became such a terrifying creature, capable to seed chaos across the Multiverse, in a world in which Vision died instead of her. Was their Wanda different from this one, or was it her true nature ? Surprisingly, during his narrative, Myshkin showed unexpected leniency towards her actions and clearly empathized with her, although he was one of her victims : he had already forgiven her everything.

As a conclusion, he simply said :

"Please, trust me : there is no need to try to hurt or fight against her – she would win in any case. If we find her, promise me… promise me to remain diplomatic at all costs. Facing Wanda, not only your lives will be at stake."

She was powerful enough to wipe an entire planet out of existence with a snap of fingers.

Tony Stark stared at him carefully : the man was tired, sick and probably enduring the painful consequences of his mutated body, but his primary concern seemed to be Wanda's wellness and safety. What a devoted pawn, the Red Witch had…

OoOoO

A few weeks passed : Myshkin was now almost working as a member of the – diminished – Avengers team. If he earned Nick Furry's respect and trust, and developed a kind of complicit friendship with Natasha – both of them enjoyed having conversations in Russian –, he really became quite close with Tony Stark. The billionaire especially enjoyed the ex-neuroscientist's rare ability to link together scientific fields that had nothing in common on the surface – as he mostly made with neurology and physics of Multiverse : he was not particularly smart or brilliant – for Stark's standards – but had an amazing intuition and was very perceptive and meticulous in his reasonings. It was a real pleasure to share some scholarly discussions with him : he had often an innovative way to solve a problem – due to his training as a biologist instead of a mathematician or a physicist – and was always enthusiastic about Stark's ideas and theories. Together, they started to develop a conceptual model of the interrelation of the universes – or, in other words, they explored the theoretical means of travelling in the Multiverse – based on physical phenomena accessible to the sensory structures of living beings.

Myshkin, for his part, enjoyed these moments of work because he could forget his physical pain for a few hours while thinking about something else ; moreover, understanding better the potential range of his powers filled him with hope and optimism concerning Wanda : he couldn't travel by himself – only Wanda had the ability to shift reality – but if he could convince the Witch and bring her back to the path of reason, perhaps… perhaps she would stop this whole madness, release the kidnapped – her kidnapped – family and go back with him to their former Universe.

Yes, because it turned out that Wanda's presence here slowly disintegrated the very frame of reality : she did not belonged to this world and held too much power – and probably used it profusely, which fastened the process. Nothing was absolutely sure yet ; however, when he'll find the Witch, Myshkin shall seriously discuss it with her – he knew perfectly well that even if he wanted to, he couldn't force her to do something against her own will, so the decision would have to be fully hers.

And he also knew it wouldn't be easy, far from it.