Quiver | Pietro Maximoff ✔

Chapter Twenty Three

~Pietro's POV~

I stabbed the salad leaf again. I was surrounded by a handful of the Avengers, all wearing awkward and sympathetic smiles. Wanda was recovering from Loki's experiment, and Raven had made sure she was the one who was by her side, day and night.

I could feel myself becoming unbearable, so was giving Eliza a little more space than I initially wanted. She appreciated it, and would find me mid morning to check I was okay before we spent the afternoon together.

But I had woken up in a foul mood, as Raven had left her room at the same time I did. She had looked embarrassed at being seen, and had hurriedly made breakfast and run back to her room, where Wanda was staying.

"Just give her time."

I stared at Steve. "What... what do you think I'm doing?"

"What about Eliza? Is she okay?" Peter stirred his orange juice with a bendy straw. "She's been kind of quiet recently."

"She's okay." I mumbled.

"She's tired." Bruce added, "everyone is. We all need rest, and the girls need to recover. You too Pietro," he pointed his look at me when I went to argue. "You went through surgery on your back, you didn't recover properly."

"I mean..."

Someone screamed. Loud.

The room fell apart, everyone jumping into action as we tried to see where the noise was coming from.

"Pietro!"

It was Eliza.

I threw the door open, sprinting into the fields behind the facility as I heard the wailing growing louder. It wobbled and cried, a fierce pitch of terror punctuating her scream.

Everyone ran after me, until we rounded a corner. Lit up in front of us was a huge screen, with a flickering image of Eliza screaming on it. Her body was contorted, twisting and clenching as her skin rose with lumps of green, pain and anguish scorched in her eyes as she wailed for help.

"She was in her room." Bruce spun around, manically staring at all of us in turn. "She's in her room, right?"

"I don't think she's here anymore-" Bucky's voice was soft, but Bruce roared over him.

"Is this live?"

"Pietro-" my name turned silent as her head ripped back, eyes squeezing shut as she twisted over the crooked wooden chair she was falling off.

A figure walked out from under the screen, a human at first, but their shoulders started growing thicker, wider. The clothes over their torso ripped and stretched as the figure grew larger, approaching us. A wave of green rolled over their features, the dark shades painted thick on their skin like wax.

"Where's Josh?" I muttered. "He's still inside?"

"That's not Josh." Bruce's voice wobbled. "Is that-?"

"So you're the boy who's taken my daughter from me? You're the people who think you can keep her here?"

I gulped.

The Hulk in front of me was Eliza's father.

"That's not-"

He glared at Bruce. "I took my daughter back, right from under your nose. Did you really think you'd be able to keep her? This is live, idiots."

I shook my head, "She's inside-" I turned to glance over my shoulder, when thundering noises clapped from the other side of the facility. "What's that?"