Vanished {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 17

Alex was trapped. She couldn't see, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. She tried moving her hands, but they were like solid bricks. She tried moving her legs, her head, every part of her body, but she stayed there unmoving.

She tried to shout, to scream, but she couldn't open her mouth.

"Please be quiet." a young voice came from behind Alex. Alex twisted around only to find herself faced with a young girl whose loosely curled hair, light brown skin and hazel eyes looked incredibly familiar.

"I know you." Alex's voice was one of a child's, as high and clear as the other girls. Now able to look down, Alex saw her body was small and skinny, in clothes that were ragged and dirty. She was not in her body, at least not her current adult body.

"He's here."

Almost as though he'd been waiting to create dramatic tension, the door slid into the wall to reveal a young man stood there. The girl next to Alex cowered and so did she, unable to help herself.

"Come." the tone was friendly, the voice soft and caring and yet the way the man gripped Alex's arm was anything but that.

"I won't." Her voice was high and shaking but she still managed to show some authority. "I will not come with you."

"You will come with me. You love me." He paused and ran a finger down her cheek, laughing when Alex shuddered at his ice cold touch.

"Do not touch her." whispered the girl next to Alex. The next moment, she was begging for mercy as the man had turned and yanked the ends of her hair.

"She is my sister. I can do what I want to her." the man growled, banging the girls head on the wall before letting her go to catch hold of Alex again. "Are you going to come quietly?"

"I'll kill you."

"You don't hurt family. Come on now, stop acting so silly." From a pocket, he withdrew a needle which he gently eased into Alex's arm. Her head began to swim, the cries from the girl next to her growing fainter.

"Don't worry Alessandra, this won't hurt too much."

<~~>

Alex stood in Tony's empty lab, trying to lift weights with the crook of her elbow. Apparently, it was meant to keep her left arm strong, all it felt like it was doing was causing her pain. Her physiotherapy was going incredibly well, or at least Tony said, and yet Alex couldn't see much difference. She was nowhere near as stable with her hands as she used to he and her residual arm couldn't bear much more weight than what she was currently lifting.

"Do you have to be any louder?"

Alex spun around, losing her balance slightly. The sight of Pietro, for some reason, left Alex feeling annoyed even though he avoided her most days unless she wanted something from him.

"What do you want?"

"To know what's wrong with you," answered Pietro, carefully stepping forward.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Wanda taught me that when a girl says she's fine, she's asking for help."

"It's not as though you could help me anyway if I even wanted you too. Families are overrated."

"Well, of course, you would say that."

"Meaning?"

"It's your fault that you don't have a family."

The weight fell to the floor, barely missing Alex's feet. "What did you say?"

Pietro didn't have the decency to even look apologetic. The casual smile on his face did vanish when he noticed how Alex had reacted but even then his voice was light as he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"No, no, I'm sorry." Alex's voice was hard, she was looking at Pietro like he was the enemy again. "What other way could you possibly mean something like that."

"It's not a bad thing you don't have your first family and since you killed them, it's your fault they're dead. You say you don't have a family now, but you do and it's your fault if you won't accept that."

"I don't need you judging the things I say. You know nothing of my life, you may have read those files on me but they show nothing of who I really am."

"I know enough about how these people have taken you in, two of them even adopted you and you're treating them like an ungrateful brat."

"Fuck off." Shouted Alex, "I've been so damn grateful for everything they've done, constantly. I'm entitled to feel pissed at them every once in a while, especially when they exclude me. I'm the one who made them my family in the first place, I can call them what I damn well like."

"That's why you're a brat!" Pietro responded, his anger making Alex take a step back. She recovered quickly and Pietro's tone softened. "You only think about yourself, not how other people might feel. You're not the only one in this tower who has lost a family, who left everything and everyone they've ever loved."

Alex had gradually approached Pietro, him moving back until he could no more, pressed against the wall. He was refusing to fight Alex, to properly taunt her and something about that made Alex dislike him even more,

"Why do you even care, they're not your family, they don't even like you. What did you think was going to happen after this is all over? You'll just be forgiven and live here and take my family."

"I don't want your family, Alessandra. You are lucky to have them, not many people get that second chance. It would be nice if you could appreciate them, rather than disowning them every time something doesn't go your way or you're not told something because, correctly, they think you're too emotional and young to handle it."

"Get out!" Alex's voice cracked.

"I'm sorry for saying it like that, but you also know I'm right."

"I want you out of my home tomorrow morning."

"Oh, so now it's your home. You don't have the power to do that anyway."

"I have the power to kick your ass."

"I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"Well shit, do you realise that saying stuff like it's my fault I don't have a family hurts me? Or is that allowed because you don't think words hurt."

"I know they hurt. I didn't mean it to sound so harsh nor did I realise it would actually hurt you." As the door closed behind Pietro, Alex dropped to the floor. The scream she'd been holding in the entire time was let out, muffled by her hand clasped over her mouth.

The fight had come out of nowhere, just like yesterday and now she was alone, Alex felt a lot calmer. Alex had a faint memory of a similar thing happening a while ago too, on the helicarrier as she and the Avengers prepared to face Loki.

How did she not guess it yesterday? The mind stone was part of the scepter and had caused one of the few arguments she'd witnessed the Avengers having. Today, she hadn't been feeling any strong feelings until she'd encountered someone.

"Pietro was wrong with what he said but I wonder... If I hadn't been so upset because of the dream and if you weren't here, would that have gone better?"

The stone didn't answer, not that Alex had really expected it too.

"It's the mind stone that messes with your mind. I thought was while you were under Loki but no, you're just a little dick in general."

The stone glowed.

"I don't like you."