Wraith [MARVEL x Invincible Crossover]

Chapter One

The last thing she remembered was that she had a killer headache. The lights above her moved or were it her that was moving, nonetheless, the fluorescent lights were too bright for her liking and were blinding her. There were muffled voices, all coming from the men wearing white robes, all talking in a different language, she understood them but her headache was too much for her to fully understand what they meant. She tried moving her arms but her body was too heavy to move, just moving her fingers already exerted so much effort; she managed to reach out to one of the doctors but her hands were restrained. She tried again, but the restraints were keeping her in place.

One of them spoke, it was in Russian. "She's gaining consciousness! Get her to the lab, now!"

Her chest was feeling heavy, and her breathing turned shallow, she could hear her heartbeat all the way to her brain, it was heavy – not fast, not slow. Heavy. The bed she was on slammed to some kind of door, she felt the impact of it, the vibrations made her jerk, and the headache just got worse. They finally stopped the bed under an awfully bright light. The people that crowded her earlier disappeared, but for one. The man looked down at her, he had a cold and distant gaze, and though she was blinded by the light, she could still make out the color of his eyes. Pale blue.

She remembered those eyes.

She felt immense pain at her inner elbows, it was as if the needle was thrust into her arm harshly, she wanted to cry but whatever they were injecting made her light-headed. Turning to the blue-eyed man, she willed all her strength and said the first word that came to her, "James."

The blue-eyed man blinked, his brows knitted as if he snapped out of his trance, then suddenly he turned to her, his eyes showed recognition. The people in the lab tried calling of him "Soldat, Soldat," they repeated over and over, but then the Soldier grabbed one of them by the throat and slammed his face to the raining of her bed. Everything was in chaos. The drug was already taking its toll on her, but through the blurry sight, she could see the Soldier – James – coming to her side, he reached for her restraints and yanked the first one off of her wrist, but just as he was to get the next, someone spoke a word. Silence came to the room and the Soldier fell to the ground immediately.

"Put him back under!" One of the surviving men commanded.

There were people shuffling, and with the last of her energy to keep her eyes open, she saw the Soldier being dragged away by two soldiers and tailing after him was a man with a beret. Eventually, she couldn't fight her drowsiness, and the last thing she heard was, "Prepare her for surgery, and make sure the device is ready."

After that, everything came as a blur, there were flashes of memories that would come and go, she didn't know if they were dreams or if they were actually happening. It felt like they were happening, but it was all too... incoherent. Most of her memories involved being strapped down to the bed, and it was either the group of male scientists or the female doctor looming over her, it didn't matter though, because all of them were stabbing her with needles, and each time it either burned her insides or made her very sleepy. But of all the dreams she got, there was one consistent face. Every face she has met was a blur, but the man with the metal arm was burned to the back of her head. She may not remember his name, but she would always remember his face. He was always there, in the cage, in the room, in the woods, the roof, even when everything was in chaos, he was there, and then in the room with blue wallpaper, and red floors, he stood there with his rifle pointed at her, ready to pull the trigger.

This time though, it wasn't a dream – she wasn't quite sure about it. The man with the metal arm was standing before her, and for some reason, she was falling. Before she could land on the ground, the man caught her in his arms and effortlessly lifted her off the ground, and carried her in his arms. This isn't a dream, she thought. She tried to force her eyes to open but she only managed to make a small slit so she could have a peek into what was happening outside. It was still wasn't enough to give her the idea of what was happening other than she was moving, and that everything was too loud for her that it made her ears and headache. She tried lifting her arms to cover her ears but they felt too heavy for her to do something so simple and instinctive.