Onyx

[Chapter 3]

     Urgent whispers surrounded Quinn, stealing her from her silent pain. 

     "Banner, are you alright?" Steve.

     "No Code Green is needed. I'm okay, considering I'm not the one bleeding all over the floor." Bruce. Had he almost lost control?

     There was the crunch of glass as footsteps approached where she lay on the soiled floor sticky with champagne and her own blood, the iron tang bitter on her tongue.

     "Quinn? Quinn!"

     The Phantom blinked hard to clear her vision. Blood trickled over her eyebrow and into her eye as she was gently pulled into a sitting position, her back against the wall. Bruce examined her as Stark barked orders at JARVIS to secure the Avengers Tower and get a Stark Industries representative to speak to the guests of the party and ensure everyone was alright.

     "Steve, could you get someone from medical?" Banner questioned the Captain, who was still frozen in shock. "We need to get Quinn an x-ray, and-"

     "Don't touch me," she snapped, shakily rising and backing away from Bruce. She tried to keep her knees from buckling. "I'm fine."

     "Fine?" Clint laughed, incredulous. "You were dead! You shouldn't be here!"

     Shouldn't be here. The words echoed in Quinn's mind as she leaned against the bar, the chrome counter top sparkling with broken glass. Thor's eyes narrowed at Hawkeye. 

      "Are you not glad Lady Quinn is alive?" Thor challenged. "We should be rejoicing that she has returned."

     "What we should be doing is figuring out what the hell happened," Tony interjected sharply. "Welcome back, Twinkletoes. We'll haze you later for your initiation into the Avengers. Right now, though, we need to know how that creep Silas is alive and how you are, too."

     Banner coughed and wrung his hands. "But first and foremost, we need to make sure Quinn's okay."

     "That, too," added Iron Man.

      "Should we take her to Dr. Cho?" Rogers asked, his gaze laden with worry resting on Quinn.

     "What we should be doing is talk like I'm actually in the room," muttered the Phantom with an exhausted sigh.

     "Right," Rogers apologized with a wince.

     Quinn half listened to the conversation of the Avengers, and it soon faded to her ears as she slid down the side of the bar to sit on the ground. Silver eyes, their vision bleary, watched lips move and talk, whisper and protest, their words replaced with an incessant ringing. Her injuries only throbbed dully, the images of Silas' grotesque face seared into her mind distracting Quinn from her broken wrist and battered frame.

     How is he alive? she whispered repeatedly in her thoughts. I watched him be dragged into the Irritum Animam's cage of demons. His soul should be gone-

     "Quinn?" Natasha asked, voice gentle.

     The Phantom slowly opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them.

     "We're going to take you to the medical wing now. If you want, we have a stretcher ready for-"

     "I can walk," snapped Quinn, using the bar as support as she slowly stood. "My wrist is broken, not my legs. Or wings either, for that matter."

     Expression impassive, Romanoff nodded and escorted her to the elevator, where she was joined by Banner. Too exhausted to care about her claustrophobia, Quinn leaned against the glass wall, and her eyes met Steve's.