You Didn't See That Coming? ~Hawksilver~ #Wattys2015

Deathstone Part 4

Pietro's POV

Hastily, we got out of the Quinjet and started following the radar Clint had on his mini-tablet.

"This is a tracker," he explained, "one meant to track the location of Deathstone. May I ask, what did you do to this woman and why is she trying to kill you?"

"She isn't trying to kill us, that we know of," Wanda said.

"Then why is she killing people like crazy?"

"The same reason we joined Ultron," she told him, and he nodded understandingly. "March would never do this...March was the one to allow us freedom in HYDRA. She's a good person, a misunderstood young girl. Promise me we won't hurt her."

"Not unless we really need to, Wanda. I can't guarantee we won't have to take her forcibly into custody." She bit her lip and I felt my eyes and eyebrows twist a little, pitifully, afraid of what might have happened to the young girl we knew so long ago. "Here, it's just ahead..." Wanda gasped, and I looked where she looked. I froze in my tracks.

"March," Wanda muttered, and I stared into horrific glowing eyes. In the dark, it looked like three eyes because of the stone.

"W-Who's there?" Deathstone asked from a while away.

"It's me," Wanda said, "Wanda. Wanda Maximoff. You-you remember me?"

"Come closer so I can see you." Wanda started to walk towards her, and I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"She's a friend," my sister told me, "Stay here with Clint."

"I will come with you," I said. She slowly moved forward, me following a few feet behind her.

"So it is you," Deathstone said in an echoey voice.

"Come with us, March, we do not wish to hurt you," Wanda said.

"Um, Wanda?" I asked quietly, in fear, as the stone started to glow.

"Try to kill me. I dare you, Pietro. I dare you Quicksilver. That is what they call you now, right? Well guess what. You can try, but it won't work." She laughed insanely. "My name isn't March. I am Deathstone, and you will kneel or you will be ripped apart!" Her stone glowed to its blinding maximum and suddenly we let out an inhuman scream of pain; I felt like my mind had just been ripped out of me.

An arrow shot past us and the glowing stopped. The pain didn't. Wanda and I dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Clint knelt down next to us.

"Are you okay?" He asked, putting one hand on my shoulder and one on hers. I stared off shaking violently, my vision and thoughts blurred. There were noises in my head. Screams and thoughts and things that were never there before. With blurred vision, I looked over and saw Wanda frozen in terror on the ground.

YOU LEFT ME

I looked around for Deathstone. I had heard her voice but she was nowhere in sight.

DIDNT THING STRUCKER WOULD REPLACE YOU WITH ME, DID YOU? WITH HIS EXPERIMENTS. THE ONES HE USED TO TORTURE YOU. WHAT HE CALLED "ENHANCING." YOU LEFT ME IN HYDRA AND I WILL KILL YOU WITH THE GUILT OF IT

Wanda whimpered and I felt Clint shift me and Wanda both over into open his arms on the dirt.

"Hey, shh, what's going on? Did the glowy thingy hurt you? Don't tell me she hurt you with the glowy thingy. Where is she? Is she dead? Did I kill her with my arrow?" I blinked, and my vision became clear again. I exhaled deeply with relief, reaching over and touching my hand gently to Wanda's shoulder.

"Wanda?" I asked, and my voice cracked. "Wanda, wake up, snap out of it, she's just playing mind games. That's all." No response. It was like she wasn't even present. The pain came back to my head like a searing fire, and I winced, but it went away again.

"Pietro? What's going on?" Clint asked.

"Get Wanda to the Quinjet and come back for me. I need to deal with this, but I can't do it alone, not all of it. The most I can do is stall for a while."

"Shouldn't we just abandon mission?" I snorted at his question.

"Not happening. We are Avengers. We don't abandon missions. No, get Wanda to safety." He handed her over to my arms for a while, and I kissed her head. "It's not real, she's trying to scare us. I'll stop her from hurting you more."

"Um...you okay?...I mean, earlier you were just like she was..."

"Clint Barton, are you worried for me?" I teased, amused, with a grin. He rolled his eyes.

"If you need anything, just meet me halfway there. I shouldn't be long."

"You'd better not be. She's an impatient, cruel one. But get Wanda away from here. She can't hurt me, only Wanda."

"But she can't hurt you anymore, is what you're implying? How'd she affect you earlier?" I bit my lip.

"Clint, get Wanda out of here. Not the right time to explain." I handed Wanda over to Clint's arms like a child and he left with her. I looked around through the gnarled branches on trees. "Okay, Deathstone. What do you want and how did you do that?" She reappeared as the young, fourteen-year-old we knew her as.

"Strucker's experiments only worked on you," she said, tears streaming down her pale cheeks, "but there were plenty others. And many other enhanced, as well, by different things. Mine was a Chitauri thing. Once given my stone, he experimented on me and-and-" she let out a pitiful, defeated sob, "and all the dead bodies of failed experiments...stood up from their deathbeds and walked towards me." I looked at her with eyes as Ultron did when I told him about the death of my parents. "I told them they could kneel to me or I would steal their minds. None knelt, so I stole their thoughts. Collected them into my stone. I did the same thing with Strucker's dead body when he was killed. When I found out you and Wanda had forgotten about me, I sought nothing more than to steal you two back."

"How come it didn't work? Taking away our consciousness?"

"Because, in case you haven't already figured out, you are a survivor, Pietro Maximoff. And I hate, hate, hate you for leaving me behind!"

"Will Wanda be alright?" I asked, worriedly. She snorted.

"I hope she never snaps out of that trance. I had to put her to sleep, Pietro, sorry. I had to put her mind to sleep. I didn't realize...I didn't think she would be powerful enough to hold every last consciousness I have in this stone for so long..."

"What did you say?" I felt the worry boil into anger in three seconds.

"Ding dong," she said with a smirk, "the wicked Witch is dead." Deathstone disappeared giggling, just as Clint came running over to me.

"She should be fine, I think she's just been stunned by Deathstone and the crazy light thing," he said, and he frowned seeing my facial expression. "Something wrong? Don't worry, we'll find Deathstone."

"I already found her," I said, shakily, "she..."

"What?" Clint looked at me with worry. I took a step back, almost falling over, pain striking me.

"...she said she put Wanda's mind to sleep. She said she killed my sister."