Wither Wings (An Avengers Crossover)

Phase 6: The Deal

Hey everyone! I had a huge burst of inspiration and whipped out this chapter as well as the trailer above. Check it out!

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Max awoke in a room that was such a stark white that she had to shield her eyes in order to acclimate herself to the environment. She stood on a pair of shaky legs, still in the ACDC t-shirt from Tony and the pair of yoga pants Pepper had deigned to lend her. It was cold, an unseen wind whistling through the room in which she stood.

There were no windows and there were no doors, just a long expanse of white stretching from wall to wall. The floor was made of some sort of tile that chilled her bare feet. Max thought about hovering so they wouldn't go numb, but for some reason her wings wouldn't extend.

Then, she saw them. 

They stood on the opposite side of the room, arranged in a loose V that reminded her even more that they were all alone in their own right. They were like ghosts to her, shivering against the brightness of her imagination. Her family. Her babies. Her flock.

Max didn't dare reach out and touch them. She didn't want to confirm what she already knew.

It was Nudge that stepped forward first. She did nothing except stare at Max with large, glassy eyes. They looked so empty of everything that it pushed the air out of Max's lungs and she doubled over, a choked sob escaping her lips.

The others flickered once more and faded as Nudge took another step forward.

Save us.

Max's head jerked upwards in time to see Nudge morph into Iggy, in all of his paleness. His mouth moved, but the words were delayed.

Save us.

Max began backing up, stumbling over her own feet in an effort to get away from the monster that advanced upon her, but there was nothing save for a smooth, white wall to greet her.

Iggy's face melted and shifted into Gazzy's, then into Fang's. The hair on Fang's head was lit aflame and began singeing his flesh. He reached up with a wicked grin to peel back his skin, revealing the skeleton underneath, until his entire body was on the floor like the wrapping paper from a present. The voices began overlapping each other until they became a deafening roar in Max's ears.

Save us. Save us. Save us.

Max sank to the floor with her eyes covered, the experience becoming too much for her to handle.

Just make it stop, she screamed in her mind.

Save us.

The voices died down and Max slowly took her hands off of her face. There, in a dress so spotless she was sure she hadn't bought it, was Angel. Her perfect, perfect Angel. She leaned down to Max's ear and whispered.

You can't.

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Max awoke gasping, tearing at her clothes as if that would allow her to take in more air. Her hair was stuck to her face in clumps and she quickly pushed it back from her forehead, moist with sweat.

Clammy, she thought as she opened and closed her hands, touching her shaking palms.

God, she hated that word. The double 'm,' the way it sounds on her tongue, the flushed feeling of embarrassment when someone touches her and knows. They just know she was terrified. No one should ever get to see into her mind like that.

Except one.

Max threw the bed covers off of her legs and stood. It had been a long, boring week and the room she'd been given in the tower was larger than she was used to, but smaller than she thought Tony's opulent wealth could afford. Considering that most of the building was practically his playground, she thought guest quarters would be more than a double bed with a chest of drawers and a small ensuite bathroom. Max didn't doubt that there were fifteen rooms that looked exactly the same, from the mirror affixed behind the door to the small bottles of shampoo in the bathroom.