[1] Skipping Stones - Pietro Maximoff

Chapter: 9 [Edited]

Volher's POV

"V, where are you going?" I turned my head and Laura popped out from the kitchen with a fresh bottle of milk in her hand.

"I'm just going out to the pond for a little bit, I'll be back in about an hour," I say over my shoulder and walk out the front door, ignoring the worried look on her face. I stopped going to the pond after I heard about Willow's death, hell, I stopped going anywhere. I stayed home and barely talked to anyone until recently, and that was only because I was starting to scare Cooper. Walking to the pond was always so relaxing but now since Willow and Farron aren't here to walk with me I'm trapped in my own mind.

Laura has been there for me like no other since Clint has been at work more and more often even though Lila was just born. He's determined to find Farron and he's thrown himself into everything that he can find she's involved with. So it's just Laura and the kids and I taking care of the farm. I stopped going to school after I heard about Willow and decided just having access to the internet was enough to learn what I needed to know. Not that I didn't already know a lot. I stopped searching for Farron. I stopped trying to figure out how Willow died, I just checked out of that department.

Willow's dead and I don't know how it happened, what if I could have saved her or helped her in some way and I just wasn't there? Farron won't come home, why wouldn't she want to come home? I'm her last family and she's staying away. What did I do to make her stay away? I could protect her. We could be a family again. It's thoughts like these that keep me from thinking about them a lot, but now I have the urge to go to the pond and that brings up a lot of memories.

Seeing the pond through the tree line I quickened my pace, but before I could get there I could hear rustling above my head. When I looked up there was a crystal floating in the air, white wisps floating around it. It slowly came to eye level with me and my eyes widened in shock, it was a Terrigen Crystal. My first instinct was to reach out and grab it but I didn't and the air shifted around me, the crystal cracked and then shattered.

I gasped and a grey mist surrounded me until it disappeared into my skin. By now panic was starting to kick in, what do I do? What will Clint think, how do I tell him? Crackling drew my attention to my feet, stone was morphing up my legs and beginning to envelop my entire body. I tried to move my legs but they were stuck there. I gasped desperately as the liquid stone finally engulfed my entire body.

It was quiet and cold until I finally heard something and it wasn't the cracking of the stone I was trapped inside. You need protection when I'm not with you, and I think she would want you to have this, the voice said and my confusion deepened. It was familiar but I couldn't figure out why. Be safe, we'll see each other again someday.

Then it hit me, it was Farron. I cried out desperately in my head but she was gone and I was alone again. Only then did I hear the cracking of the stone. It slowly fell off of my body and I was left in the woods staring out at the pond.

With shaky breathing I looked down at my hands, they were normal but I could feel power beneath the surface of my skin and all I had to do was wake it. I don't know what I was expecting but when my body suddenly started floating in the air I kind of panicked. Not only was I floating but so was the water from the pond and the leaves on the ground

I felt relaxed for the first time in six years and for some reason I felt like Willow and Farron were here with me. I could hear Willow in the background making fun of me when she pushed me into the pond when we were really little. I could hear her arguing with me about who was Farron's favorite sibling when she was first born, and I remember her racing with me all the time. I was always faster but I knew that she would be faster than me when we got older. She was here with me and that made me feel at peace. I remember Farron crawling into bed with me at nights to comfort her when she had a bad dream. Most of all though, I remember the three of us, just together. It was something I thought I had long forgotten.