MAGIC AND CROWNS ; loki

viii. sokovia and the dead

"THOR, THROW THE HAMMER AT ULTRON PLEASE!" The god did as Cora said and immediately after that she sent a wisp of magic to the rest of the robots to bring them down

"Okay, now that that's done, Stark, Banner, I think you owe us an explanation"

"Yeah, what Nat said" Everyone agreed except Cora who was too busy eyeing everyone closely as if she was trying to read what would happen next

- - -

The next week was a mess, everything revolved around Ultron, the team barely slept and they were all on edge the whole time. They had a tip about a deal that was supposed to go down, involving vibranium and Ultron, they couldn't stop it, but at least they got back the scepter and a weird regeneration cradle with a body inside it, which brought us to our current scene.

Everyone was yelling, arguing, telling the others to shut down the machine, Tony saying they shouldn't, Steve calling him names, Pietro tearing some wires off, a bullet going off and Thor storming into the room at the last moment powering the turned-off cradle with his lightning

There was a big moment where everyone just paused and stayed quiet, watching the body jumping and floating.

No one moved, the body flew towards the window in an almost melancholic way, Cora was the first to make her way so as to approach it, but before she could speak the floating body spoke

"Cora Francis, interesting, is that your full name?" The voice of the man? Not a man? Sounded a great deal like the AI Ultron had 'killed' that night at the party

"No, no it's not. Are you Jarvis?" She replied firmly, not harshly, but determined on not showing any kind of intimidation she might or might not had been feeling at the moment

"I'm Vision, but I remember all of you... I did appreciate your manners, miss Cora" He had now floated back and stood in front of her

"OH, really?! Thanks!" She recomposed herself quickly, trying to stay serious for once, the rest of the team were just warily watching the whole interaction from afar "Sorry, Vision, but are you... like Ultron? What he wanted you to be" She finished not finding another way to word her question

"No."

"Well, that's good enough for me, welcome to the team buddy" She pat the android's shoulder and made her way to the bar on the other side of the room

The rest of the team looked at her in disbelief but she just shrugged and took a long swig of scotch before giving them all her signature smile

- - -

"PIETRO! NO!"

Cora immediately ran to the man lying on the ground, multiple bullet holes piercing through his stomach and chest, his breath was hitched and forced

"C-Cora... Please, tell... tell Wanda I love her" He let out his final breath and Cora sensed the burst of griefing energy the younger twin had emitted the second Pietro's heart stopped, killing the remaining of Ultron's army with it.

Cora got her friend's lifeless body to one of the helicarriers Fury had brought to evacuate the city

"I'll bring you back, Pietro, I swear, I just have to save this city and i'll be right with you" With that she appeared back in the middle of the floating city and started surrounding it with her powers

"Avengers, in thirty seconds the city will be restored to its space, it will look as if nothing ever happened, but you need to get to the helicarriers, the debris and dust could be deadly." She informed the team through comms "Wands, if you're hearing, Ultron is on a train wagon, barely still alive, go and rip its artificial heart" Cora added, and hoping the witch had heard her she started descending the city.

She wasn't used to this, her magic flooded through her veins, like her blood, and right now, with Novi Grad on her shoulders it felt as though that magic was flowing out of her like a heavy nosebleed. The pull on her magic felt as if it were only her bare arms that were holding the city from crashing down. Cora was getting tired which for her was a foreign concept. After half a minute, just like she'd said, the city was back to where it should be. She ignored the heaving on her chest and used more of her power to restore everything to how it had been before the battle, in a usual day she could've done that in a second, but this was no usual day, so, after 15 long minutes, everything was back in its place, from the biggest buildings to the graffitti filled alleyways, the only proof of what had happened in Sokovia that day was the dissipating dust storm and the poor traumatised citizens of the european country.

At long last, peace. Well, almost, she still had one last thing to do

"WHERE'S PIETRO?!" She yelled at no one in particlar as she got to the helicarrier she had put him in, she looked for him and found him with his sister kneeled beside him. She slowly approached the two, Wanda didn't even glance her way, she was entranced, saying a prayer in sokovian for her departed brother

Cora knew this was going to be taxing on herself later, but she couldn't and wouldn't let the poor woman she had grown to call a friend, mourn the loss of someone who was not completely lost yet

She didn't want to interrupt Wanda, so she worked on her magic a few feet away from them, sending threads of green and purple energy towards the speedster. After a minute the whole team was standing next to where the silver-eyed woman was working her magic, heads hung low in grief for their teammate and friend, oblivious to the woman's attempts at bringing him back

Cora had done everything she could and the scarlet witch still had her eyes closed and her hands on her lap, tears rolling down her cheek as she kept muttering over and over the same prayer

Then suddenly they heard a gasp

"Let me tell you, being dead sucks, guys, don't try it"

Everyone erupted in questions and cheers, Wanda started crying even more, punching his brother for being a 'careless idiot' and Cora watched from where she stood with a big smile on her face

"I don't understand, you were dead, what happened?" Pietro pointed his finger to Cora, the rest of the heroes looked at her with wide eyes.

Wanda stood from besides her brother and walked towards the woman until she was in front of her "thank you, you're an angel, thank you" The witch engulfed the woman in the tightest hug she had ever been given, not letting go until there was a cough behind them

Cora stepped away from Wanda to see Pietro next to her "Thanks, princessa" He said with his usual playful tone, but still with clear thankfulness 'Huh, regarding titles, I think that's the first one who gets it almost right' She thought and laughed to herself while hugging the older twin.

"You're welcome Speedy Gonzales"

The rest of the team welcomed Pietro to the land of the living and also thanked Cora for everything she had done, even if they didn't even understand much, after some more celebrating she abruptly slid down the wall she was standing against, clutching her head in pain

"Guys..." Nothing "Guys! hey..." Now they had turned around and when they saw her they rushed to her side

Her face showed exhaustion and pain, she had overworked herself and now she was dealing with the consequences. Everyone panicked, Cora looked sick, her breath was erratic and she couldn't stand up

"I'm about to pass out, happens if I drain myself, looks like saving a city and bringing someone back to life takes a toll even on me" She said with a strained laugh, but this time no one was eased by her attempt on lightening the mood as they usually were

"No, don't look so panicked, it's okay, i'm just gonna sleep for a bit..."

And with that she went out cold.

Just being dramatic, she woke up the next day with what could only be described as athe worst hangover ever, and if she wasn't eating she was back in bed napping, but other than that she was just fine, back to fighting aliens, Hydra, other bad people and whatnot

- - -

a/n: let me just say i'm 100% sure there was one possibility where the guardians, tony, peter and strange wouldve beat thanos, if starass had kept his cool. strange only saw a couple millions of possible outcomes, there are infinite, hell there must have been one where wade broke the fourth wall, came in and killed him or something