I've been fighting the same Old war
Against a disease without a cure
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The light makes me come out of such a heavy sleep, but I don't want to open my eyes. I feel a tart smell, peculiar only to hospital wards.
The painful tingling in the fingertips finally makes me believe that I didn't die. Yes, and it would be stupid if I died from a shot in the shoulder and side. But isn't death senseless?
A throat tickled in my throat, and a loud cough erupted from my mouth. Finally, I open my eyes, and immediately the light blinds me. I try to turn my neck at least and see precisely where I am but I was sick, so any movements were just unbearable.
''Friday?'' The voice is heard poorly, but I still hope that Stark's assistant heard me.
''Yes, Miss Y/l/n?'' How glad I was to hear at least someone's voice.
''Where am I?''
"You're in the Avengers tower, ma'am."
''Who is in the building now?"
'' Mr Stark, Mr and Miss Maximoff, Miss Potts and Miss Hill."
''Call the one who is the closest.'' Oh my Thor, I'm fed up with everything already. I want to move and drink. I want pancakes.
''Yes, ma'am.''
It remains to hope that this person will not linger. The seconds flowed for a long time, lazily folding in a few minutes when the glass door opened silently, and Wanda entered.
''Hi, Y/n,'' she sat on the chair next to me and lightly squeezed my hand.
''Hi,'' I honestly tried to smile, but it turned out. ''Could you, please, slightly raise the headboard. Otherwise, I'm not comfortable at all.''
"Of course," she pressed a button on the side, and the back began to rise. But so sharply that I already hit. ''Oh no, I'm sorry. It wasn't on purpose.''
"That's fine, don't worry," in fact, the needle in my hand shifted slightly and caused me just hellish pain. But how can I offend such a sweet creature? "What happened after they shot me?"
"Pietro took you to the plane and made Stark fly away. You were covered in blood, and I was frightened.'' Wanda squeezed my hand harder.
It was ... unusual for me. I have already lost the habit of saying that someone cares about me.
Tony rarely showed that he did not care.
''The wound isn't that terrible,'' I even blushed.
''But you lost a lot of blood and lay unconscious for 24 hours. You looked so much like Pietro after the battle with Ultron. This is so strange,'' - she grinned. ''Then I showed the Avengers their worst nightmares, and mine almost came true."
It seemed to me that I was not worthy of such revelations. Mainly because I still did not open to them. Clenching my will into a fist, I decided to tell everything.
''Friday, call Pietro.''
''Yes, ma'am.''
Wanda looked at me blankly.
"Since you two are now Avengers, I will tell you all about my past and abilities."
Previously, it seemed to me that my revelations would be like torture, but I have long needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with someone. Although whom I am deceiving, it's never the most painful to say. The door opened quietly, and Wanda's brother appeared in it.
"Good morning," Pietro looked at the clock in the corner of the room. ''Sorry, I mean evening. How do you feel?''
"Not bad, thanks," I point to the second chair next to Wanda. ''Sit down.''
The twins looked at me in surprise and in general, did not seem to understand what was happening. I took a deep breath and began: "Since now you are also in the Avengers, you as well as others need to know everything about me so that there is no mutual misunderstanding." Pietro wanted to interrupt me, but I motioned him not to do it. ''And do not interrupt me, please.''
The day after our acquaintance, Wanda showed me her gift and called it right: I was born in Upper Franconia, and my parents kept a brewery in the suburb of Coburg.
The business of our family flourished, and we always lived in prosperity.
The week before Oktoberfest was tense, and my father regularly disappeared, making deals and being in search of the most delicious beer. But that fateful evening, we were all together, unfortunately.
At first, the twins did not listen very attentively, but with these words, they both pricked their ears. At that time, only three months had passed since I was ten years old. We all sat by the fireplace and grilled the famous Bavarian sausages.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. We instantly fell silent and froze. Dad went to open the door, and for some reason, my mother pressed me harder. "It's still too early, right, Y/d/n?'' I still remember my mother's words.
"They could not find out; we were too careful." My father only wet his forehead with a handkerchief, on which I embroidered his initials, and opened the door without even looking into the peephole as if he knew who was on the other side.
Then I didn't understand that if you hide a mutant, you pay with your own life.
I didn't see with whom the parents spoke. I just heard my mother sobbing. A little later they left, having kissed me goodbye, and they never returned.
I was always told that they had an accident, but I never believed, even after visiting their grave.
For about a month I lived with my grandmother, who very soon abandoned me. I don't blame her - she was very old, and she could not bring me up.
Then I was assigned to the 'Zwölf Föhren' guesthouse.
''What?'' Wanda asked.
"Twelve pines." It was located in an old estate, of which there is a surplus in Germany.
The pupils were few, but all were orphans with the heavy baggage of the past. There were very few mutants: three or four, including me.
Frieda Gerstacker, an old German woman without any feelings and with a heavy hand, ruled over us. She demanded all of us perfect obedience and discipline, which was never worth waiting for me.
If I tried to trim to someone, I always did everything in my way. I was often beaten for this, but I was always very emotional and restless. But the old witch still managed to break me, and at the age of fifteen, I became ill with anorexia.
From such strong emotional pressure and tension, I was just unable to keep the food inside my body. One day she saw how I bleated in the toilet in the next attack, and pulled me by the hair and whipped me in front of everyone.
Then I was scared to look at myself: my legs became just like sticks, my hair thinned and fell out, and my nails turned yellow. My eyes sank inward, cheekbones were sharpened, and even a month of such a life and my teeth would start to fall out. It was then that I became close with my chemistry teacher.
Isabel Bleich was not afraid to contradict Frieda Gerstacker, as other teachers did. She helped me cope with my illness because anorexia is a mental illness.
She cooked broth for me, which she fed me for a month until I could eat soft cereals and mashed potatoes.
Then I became interested in chemistry, and then in biology.
I began to make remarkable progress in these two areas. Isabel Bleich sent my projects to various universities and colleges in secret because Frieda Gerstacker did not allow anyone to leave the guesthouse.
Through the efforts of my dear guardian angel after coming of age, I waited in many rather prestigious universities in the country. But in parallel, we were taught not only the exact sciences.
I was a little distracted to drink water and looked at the twins. They were terrified. We sat motionlessly, but everything was evident in the eyes. I wonder how I could survive all this.
''I can finish on this if you don't like it,'' I put the glass in place and, with my eyes downcast.
''No, go on. ''
"Good," I nod and clear my throat.
In ordinary schools are lessons such as physical education. We also had a semblance of this lesson but in a slightly different direction. The invited masters taught us such arts as karate, aikido, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, sambo, savate.
We were set off against each other, like predators, but it never reached the killings. For the time being, of course.
A few months after the start of the training, we began to notice abrasions, bruises and wounds. We got up from our beds exhausted as if we hadn't slept all night. As it turned out later, it was so.
As I said, I rarely obeyed the order there. And once the magical super potion that knocked our memory all night didn't work, and I woke up when I was ready to shoot the little boy and his family.
Right, then I still fell into oblivion, but these two minutes were quite enough. We used as the most real cannon fodder, so as not to lose adults and experienced agents.
"How did you get to the Avengers?" Despite my request, Pietro still interrupted me.
''It was pure coincidence. Tony was then in Germany for some particularly important matters and was passing quite close to our guesthouse. His car broke down, there was no one around, and terrible rain poured. Everyone came running down to look at the uninvited guest. At first, Frieda Gerstacker didn't want to take in the "Twelve Pines" a misguided guest left without communication due to the storm, but then she nevertheless took him to his room.
I don't remember why Stark stayed with us for another week, but one day he found us together with Isabel Bleich at work on a new project and gave some tips. Since then, we became friends with him, and almost every day we stayed up with something new. He recognised the potential in me and brought me out of this terrible place and provided me with a home in Harvard itself, and then took it here.''
For a while, we were all silent.
I crumpled the edge of the blanket with excitement and feared the reaction of the brother and sister, even though I knew that I couldn't judge a person for the past.
"You never told us about your abilities. We have seen in Egypt what you are capable of, but what exactly do you own?'' Wanda leaned back in her chair and poured water now to herself.
''Only this interests you?'' I chuckled. ''If I put a lot of negative emotions in my voice, I can create such sound vibrations, which blow the brain. Once I was forced to sing a lullaby when I was eight, and the whole class was cut off for half an hour. And after they did not remember anything.''
''Did you become such as a result of an experiment or something else?'' Pietro, on the contrary, moved closer and folded his hands with the lock.
"No, I was born that way," I look straight into his eyes. ''And I would give a lot to get rid of this curse.''
There was an awkward silence.
I do not know whether to regret that I laid them all clean. Maximoff was probably wondering why I told them everything.
The answer is simple and extremely naive: I believe that if every member of the team is honest, then we will all work better.
I do not demand revelations from Wanda and Pietro — I already know everything that one can know about them.
All of us were saved from this fresh embarrassment by the incoming nurse, who announced that I needed to change the dressings and asked everyone to leave. So the twins did, going with a perplexed look. I hope that I really will not regret that I told them everything.