Chapter 9
Rachel sent off the alarm through Widow Compound at two AM, waking every occupant, including Nela who Wanda had just got settled from a nightmare and Becca who was showing her early dedication to her sister by crying until Nela went back to sleep and then decided she was hungry since she was already up.
Wanda placed Becca in her crib next door and started whispering to Nela that everything was going to be okay. The little girl moved towards Bucky who was rising from the bed.
“Babe, hold Nela while I check if we are needed. They need one of us in bed with them.”
Bucky didn’t argue, laying back and taking both the girls in his arms who snuggled into either of his sides. The three were quickly back asleep. Wanda put on a robe and teleported to the situation room.
The room was filling up with Widows, some who had obviously been awake and others who were half awake or still half asleep.
“What is going on?” Yelena asked.
Rachel pointed to the screen. “Rowan and Chloe’s teams were ready to intercept the cargo ship with the girls when it reached shore. The problem is the ship isn’t going to make it to dock. They changed course to an alternate dock and the idiots sailed right into a category four storm. I sent a drone into the storm and scanned the ship. We lost the drone, but I got what I needed. Over one hundred humans inside the cargo hold. The ships integrity is at 40%. The computer estimates seven minutes before it breaks apart, assuming a wave doesn’t capsize it.”
Yelena shook her head. “I should have ordered an attack on the ship at sea instead of waiting for landfall.”
“You made the right call.” Ava assured her. “Too much could go wrong at sea.”
“We don’t have a choice now.” Yelena pointed out. “Damn it! Reapers in the air! Teams one through six, load up. We have over one hundred girls to get to safety in six jets in the storm.”
“Stay here. Go to the back forty acres where we were going to clear those trees. Prepare for an assault.” Wanda told her. “We can’t get that many girls off the ship. I’ll bring the ship here. Crew number?”
“Likely ten.” Rachel told them. “Conditions are horrible there, Wanda.”
“Get the children down here now.” Wanda ordered, ignoring the forecast. “Tell Bucky. All teams prepare for an assault on a very large cargo ship about to appear on our ground with a lot of water with it. You have a five minutes to prepare.”
Yelena began giving orders as Widow ran to their lockers and activated their nanotech suits. Meg rushed through the house grabbing the youngest. Everett ran to the hangar and launched into the sky in a Sable Jet, hovering over the forest with guns at the ready. Bucky rushed out of the house, regrouping with his team outside while Yelena and Ingrid began setting their teams up. Despite the complete surprise and lack of planning, the operation was running smoothly.
“Girls, we are in position. Everett you have aggressive air support. Reapers, only hover the ship for widows to descend. The rest go up the side with cables. It will tilt so be aware of movements, especially using explosives. Naomi the explosives are yours on the port side cargo hold near the stern. If you can, punch a hole in the side and then rush the hold to the girls.” Yelena ordered. “Enter on the side that isn’t tilting.
The girls settled down, prepared to go into action, setting a trap for a massive ship that was about to clear out many trees in front of the southernmost mountain making up their valley.
Wanda had arrived in the howling wind over a large ship that was being tossed up and down by over one-hundred-foot waves.
She had underestimated her height and found the great ship rising up. The deck rose swiftly, and her feet were suddenly on it, slamming her down. It dipped again and she fell with it. Trying to gain some control she began flying, just before the ship hit the bottom of the wave. She shot into the sky only to be blown by the 120 mile an hour wind, tossing her into the sea. She plunged beneath the dark surface, and was stunned, unsure of what was up or down.
Wanda had learned many skills on the streets of Sokovia, but her experience swimming was a few summer lessons when she was ten years old by her father and floating around the pool at Widow Mansion.
In her panic, she formed a magic red bubble around her body, pushing out the water. Despite that, she had no air to breath.
Then the massive pressure struck her magic shield as the ship she had been below crashed down onto her, pushing her farther underwater. Her ears began to bleed as she fell deeper and deeper.
Her shield failed and Wanda screamed with the last of her air into the water and let her anger overcome her panic. An explosion of chaos magic burst from the seabed and the Scarlet Witch rode it into the sky, free of the crushing depths and gasping for breath. She saw the outline of the darkened ship into the pitch-black sky and flew towards it, opening a massive doorway in front of it. She flew behind the ship and followed it into the door crashing onto the deck. She tried to stand but a pain in her leg prevented her. Her entire body felt on fire. Blood covered her eyes, and she couldn’t see. Her breath was coming in gasps, her lungs felt strange and the sharp pain where her nose was every time she tried to breathe.
Wanda tried to summon her power to help with the assault, but it was useless. She couldn’t feel her body. The world turned upside down and she crashed into the deck, her body broken as darkness overtook her.
Despite knowing what to expect, nothing could have prepared the widows for a large red hole in the air, with massive amounts of storm water rushing out and a giant groaning ship behind it. Despite the distance given it was obvious some widows were in danger of being knocked down by a torrent of sea water.
“Back up! Ground assault is no go.” Yelena’s team advanced towards the bridge while Bucky navigated through the waterlogged terrain, wading through knee-deep water before successfully leaping to the top of the hull in a single bound.
“Reapers let’s get on that ship!”
Yelena led her team onto the tilted deck, dropping from the quinjet. The crew that had been working on the ship were on the bridge high above the deck. Ava’s team assaulted the bridge Bucky and Ingrid met up and began laying down cover fire for Ava. The water rescinded and Yelena ordered the ground attack.
Explosives were set in the hull, and gunfire broke out on the bridge.
“Take the girls and get them off this ship.” Yelena ordered. “Zarola, lead the team to the tween decks. Bea, take deck three. Alpha team is converging. Where the hell is Wanda?”
No one spoke up. Only brief gunfire could be heard on the line and a small explosion that led to widows rushing to the cargo hold.
“The girls are secure.” Bucky reported. “All hostiles dead. Where the hell is my wife?”
“Wanda, come in.” Yelena said. “Rachel did her com get knocked out again. Is it still in the hurricane?”
“Her com went offline as soon as she arrived over the ship.” Rachel told her.
“Yelena, I have her. She is down!” Everett called out, hovering over the vessel with a flood light. “She is lying on the deck near the stern between two crates! Send medical! She isn’t moving!”
Yelena and Bucky raced up to the deck level and towards the back. Bucky got their first. Yelena found him kneeling on the deck with Wanda in his arms. Her body was limp, and her face was covered in blood. Her nose was crushed and there was a large gash on her forehead. She was breathing but her breaths were shallow, and her ears were bleeding. She was also bleeding from the back of her head. Bucky felt gently and found a depression in her skull.
“Someone call Strange now! Wanda is down! Unconscious, multiple injuries and major head injuries. Oksana, prep surgical room. The scene is secure so make sure the children are out of the bunker and won’t see her when we come inside. She isn’t pretty.” Yelena called out, trying to keep calm.
“Her knee is dislocated, Bucky. Her shin is snapped. I think her arm is broken. She could have a neck injury. We need to wait for Strange to move her.” Yelena said, trying to maintain calm because Bucky was about to lose his. Wanda looked like she had been hit by a…giant cargo ship.
Bucky patted her on the cheek. “Doll, wake up. Come on, baby. What did you do this time?”
Wanda in her unconscious state and ragged breathing coughed up blood and water. He rolled her on her side as blood and seawater poured out her mouth.
Stange stepped out of a portal and wrapped a magic barried board around her. He opened another portal straight into the bunker, just outside of the surgical suite. He lay her on an actual board and wasted no time wheeling her in.
“Why is there a giant container ship on your land?”
“Long story.” Oksana told him.
“Make it short. I suspect that was the monster that did this to her.”
“The cargo freighter was carrying at least a hundred trafficked women.” Oksana told him. “We had planned to strike it when it made landfall in Italy. It got caught up on the hurricane and was about to break up. Wanda went to the ship. She was supposed to open a door in front of the ship and bring it here where we could take control. It should have been easy. She opened a door onto Titan to bring a massive army across the universe. Bringing a ship out of the ocean onto our land…”
Strange shook his head. “You all thought it was a good idea for a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound woman to suddenly try to fly in hurricane force winds and play catch the boat with a massive metal structure bouncing up and down one-hundred-foot waves? Check her oxygen. Blood vessels in her eyes are blown, her ears are bleeding, her nose is broken. Gashes on the head and broken leg and arm bones tell me she hit the ship or more like the ship hit her. I suspect more though. Get me three IVs set up now and prepare for surgery.”
Strange began examining her.
“Fluid in her lungs. She was defintely underwater. Cracked skull…
“Her magic should have protect her, right?” Yelena asked.
Strange didn’t look at her, continuing to focus on Wanda. “Decompression sickness Yelena,. If she was thrown deeply underwater… Strange pulled a hair from Wanda’s head and an image lit up the room. Water, waves, thunder and a big black shadow closing down on her. A red glow appeared just before the shadow then… the sight was gone.
“She got hit by a damn cargo ship landing on top of her and throwing her under. I can’t tell how deep she went but if she were pushed farther than one hundred and thirty feet that would make a very bad situation even worse. I can’t treat her here. Somebody call Shuri.”
Minutes later, a portal opened in the most advanced hospital in the world. A team of Wakandan surgeons and nurses along with technicians who operated medical equipment few had access to, were ready when Stephen Strange rolled her through a portal and into the surgical suite.
The widows who had been holding the IVs had to be pulled away.
“Out.” He told Bucky and Yelena.
“No…” Yelena began to protest.
“Out! She isn’t giving birth now; this is major surgery! I have to scrub! Everything and everyone has to be sterilized. Out!”
Shuri guided them out of the suite. Stephen gave orders to the doctors and nurses while him and Oksana scrubbed in.
When they were ready Wakandan technicians had her surrounded by scanners, showing three dimensional images of her body above her.
“Broken skull in two places, Brasel fracture and a depressed fracture, pressing against the Occipital lobe. Water in lungs, undergoing secondary drowning.” A surgeon told him calmly. “Definite decompression sickness and tissue damage. Two vertebra cracked and multiple bone fractures. How is she still alive?” one of the technicians asked.
Stephen prepared to open her skull. “I ask myself that every day. She is a survivor.”
“Who is she?” he asked.
Stephen thought it was an idiotic question until he really looked at Wanda. With her soaking wet hair dark, her nose broken, her face swollen and covered in blood, she really was unrecognizable.
Shuri walked up, scrubbed and holding a scanner. “This is Wanda Maximoff. I’m going to be monitoring her energy levels. It looks like the storm of chaos magic usually flowing through her system…oh wow.”
“What?” Stephen asked, detaching himself from his patient so he wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that he was cutting into the skull of a girl he loved like a daughter.
“It’s barely there.”
“It’s there. It doesn’t just go away.” Strange argued.
“Agreed. I’m just saying it isn’t a torrent like usual. Wanda often spends her life controlling the magic that rages through her. It looks like even the magic is worn out from keeping her alive. Agatha would give her magical boosts when this happened after she used particularly strong magic to start the flow again. Now the magical energy is hiding from my scanner. My instruments read the intensity of the flow, not the source of the power.” Shuri told him. “How bad is it?”
Stephen said nothing telling Shuri all she needed to know.
“I know she looks bad, but this is Wanda. She fought Thanos. She healed herself during that battle.” Shuri said to herself.
“And she will heal herself from this one if I can keep her alive long enough to do it. There could be brain damage, there could be… quiet! Let me work!” Stephen snapped.
Shuri looked at the surgeons around her who were observing and ready to step in.
“Collapsed lung. Someone deal with that please.” Stephen told the other surgeons as he began fixing her skull, gently moving pieces of her skull away from her brain, knowing if she were awake she would likely be experiencing blindness. A Wakandan surgeon cut the side of Wanda’s torso to use a Fianchietto rib retractor and broke two of her ribs to open her up, giving her access to her lungs.
“Don’t break her ribs! Have you never used this before?! If anyone in this room has not performed trauma surgery get out.”
“Massive internal bleeding. We need more blood.” One of the surgeons told the nurses.
“I’m showing nitrogen bubbles in her blood. It looks like decompression illness.”
“Water in the lungs, give me suction.” another surgeon said.
Not for the first time, Strange wished he had the power to heal or at least Wanda’s aptitude for it. Even Wanda had difficulty healing Kate Bishop from severe injuries and needed Agatha’s help. Healing was more of a witchcraft skill. Ironic considering he was a doctor. He could use magic to steady his hands, but surgery was the extent of what he was able to do.
Over the next three hours Wanda’s heart stopped three times before she was finally stabilized.
Stephen had Shuri make a call and stepped into the scrub room.
When she gave the word, he opened up a portal and Dr. Christine Palmer stepped out.
“Thank you for coming.” He told her. “I need help and I don’t trust any surgeons here with the complexities of the brain and spine.”
“Of course. Who is…where are we? Who is…”
Christine looked out into the surgical suite. Despite her unrecognizable face, the tube in her mouth, her swollen eyes, broken nose, red hair and the fact that Stephen was performing this surgery told her all she needed to know.
“The world cannot lose her, Christine.” He said. “I can’t lose her. Her husband, her family, her kids…”
“Tell me the situation.” She said as she immediately began scrubbing in.
The surgery continued.
Strange had forgotten what it felt like to perform a major surgery. While the other surgeons treated her heart and lung problems, Stephen and Christine focused on her brain and spinal cord, which was more damaged than he thought. When Wanda eventually woke up she would likely be blind and unable to move below the waist. He would attempt to bring her astral form out of her body before he woke her so they could talk on the astral plane, and she would not panic when she woke.
Fifteen hours later, Stephen walked out of the surgery suite leaving Wanda being monitored by a dozen doctors, nurses and Christine. The large waiting room was filled with widows and their extended family. Yelena’s parents were holding her. Kate and Eleanor Bishop had arrived. Rogers, Romanoff and Barton were there as well.
Barnes was sitting on a bench feeding his infant daughter a bottle while the twins sat next to him, silent tears streaming down their faces. T’Challa was pacing the room with Everett Ross.
All conversations quieted as soon as Stephen walked in. Not a sound could be heard.
“She is alive.” he started. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give an update sooner, but it was touch and go and I couldn’t afford anyone leaving. I won’t sugarcoat this. She is in very bad shape. I think the drowning symptoms are taken care of but the damage to her lungs remains. I repaired the damage to her skull but there were injuries to the brain and spine. Her spinal column was severely damaged. There will likely be brain damage, but I won’t know the degree until she wakes. Until she can heal herself she will likely be blind and unable to move below her waist. She is in very bad shape. The good news is her brain is still active.
“I heard alarms.” Bucky said. He had been listening to everything as Steve had been. Steve and T’Challa had held Bucky from the surgical suite when Wanda’s heart stopped multiple times.
Stephen nodded. “It was touch and go. She is a survivor though. You know that. As I said she has lung damage and isn’t breathing on her own for the moment, but I suspect that will improve and her heart will become stronger.”
Bucky nodded. “When can I see her?”
“She is in a coma right now.” Stephen said. “She is going to post op. You can see her, but you can’t stay long. If she survives the next…”
Strange stopped talking, realizing what he had said.
“After twenty-four hours you will be able to be in an intensive care room with her. She won’t know you are there, but your presence may soothe her. She will feel nothing below her waist and be in incredible pain in her torso and head when she wakes. She will also be very confused and don’t be surprised if she has a small degree of amnesia. I will put up wards around the surgical suite to dampen her power if it returns. Right now, the magic in her is calm as is the energy she absorbed from the Mind Stone. If it should suddenly increase without her aware enough to control it, I don’t have to tell any of you the dangers. The wards will be similar to the ones over the birthing room.”
Yelena crossed her arms and squeezed herself tightly. “How long will you keep her in a coma? You put her in a coma to heal, right?”
Strange shook his head. “I was going to but the oxygen deprivation, the skull fragments pressing against her brain and the swelling…she is in a coma because of these factors. I won’t know the extent of the damage until she wakes up. I can’t tell you when that will be, but the best Wakandan technology is monitoring her every second. To be honest…it is a miracle she was able to open that door and land on the deck. Although it seemed unlikely, Wanda managed to achieve it. She will get through this as well.”
Yelena scowled. “You don’t know that do you? I can read you, Stephen. I know your expressions you hide behind your irritating calm façade. You don’t know if she will live. Go back in there until you are sure!”
Ava looked over at the wide-eyed twins. “Yelena, not here.” she whispered.
“Is Mama gonna die?” Nadeja asked, panic in her voice. Bucky handed Becca off to Eleanor and hugged Nadeja, reassuring her that it would be okay even if he knew it might not be.
Yelena ran.
She ran wildly through the hospital until she found the exit into the Golden City. She tried to find her way out of the city, hoping to find solace in the countryside where she could scream and unleash her rage.
She was tackled by Sonia. Yelena didn’t fight back. She just lay in the dirt, crying, breaking down like she hadn’t done since she was first freed form mind control.
“Stupid. I am always so stupid! I should have ordered the attack on the ship sooner! I should never have let her go into that storm! Stupid! I’m an idiot! No one should follow me! Who am I?! She is going to die…again! I swore I would always protect her! I swore to Pietro, and she nearly dies all the time!”
“Yelena I’m going to pull you up. Don’t run.” Sonia told her.
“The Red Room almost killed her, Thanos did kill her, now this. She is supposed to be loving her baby, and she is fighting demons in Avenger’s front yard. Damn it! I swore to protect her, and I didn’t.”
Sonia pulled her up and Kate wrapped her arms around her, running her hands through Yelena’s hair. Ingrid and Nat were there as well, and Yelena fell into Nat’s arms.
Yelena looked too Ingrid and grabbed her hand.
“Please take care of rescued girls at compound. Do something with them.”
Ingrid nodded. “We already have. Many are injured. Broken bones, tossed into walls… we thought Wanda would… we are triaging them. Charlize is handling them, but we need Oksana now that she is free from the surgery.”
“Thank you.” Yelena told her, pulling away from Nat and trying to regain calm. “I scared the twins.”
“They are fine.” Dima said. Yelena had not seen him, but he was breathing hard, likely from running after her and being quite a bit slower. “Bucky has them calm. You need to be calm. Wanda is a tough girl. She will be fine, she will wake up and heal herself and be back on her feet a minute later, annoyed with herself, saying she is a bad mother for taking a nap. You know how critical she is of herself. Why don’t you talk to Imi? She is here.” He told her in Russian.
Yelena shook her head and began walking back to the hospital. Citizens of the Golden City watched her and the other widows making their way down the streets, giving them plenty of space. Seeing Red Widows in Wakanda wasn’t unusual. Seeing them in their black uniforms breaking down on the ground in public was very unusual.
Yelena had only felt this amount of dread a few times in her life. The first was seeing Wanda bleeding out on the Red Room hallway floor. The second was seeing Kate for the first time after her brutal assault. The third was watching Wanda die on Titan until Agatha saved the tiniest spark of life that remained by giving her life force.
Now once again, Wanda was hovering over the brink of life and death.
“There was no way, you were going to stop her, Yelena.” Sonia told her.
Yelena walked into the waiting room and pulled out a knife. She began cutting her hair in chunks.
“Yelena!” Bea called out, moving to stop her.
“Stay back! Agatha used her hair. I will find a witch to use my hair and heal her. I will take her injuries.”
Bea took the knife from her. Yelena let her cut hair drop to the floor.
“Keep my hair. I will go find a witch. There must be other witches in the world. One will heal her, or we will kill her and find another.”
Yelena’s mother grabbed her. “She will heal herself when she wakes up.”
“How?! How can she have brain damage and heal herself?! Ask Strange! Ask him if she will be okay! How can she do spells if she can’t think?!”
Kate grabbed her and whispered in her ear. “You are scaring the hell out of the twins again! Calm down and stop cutting your hair.” she whispered. “Pull it together. If you are ever needed it is now. One of their two leaders is down, and they are all scared. The kids are scared and so are the widows. C’mon Baby. Calm down and be their leader.”
Yelena took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“I apologize. We will get through this, no matter what.”
Yelena walked to the twins and knelt in front of them.
“I am sorry. I am upset because I make a stupid decision. Your mama will be okay. She always is. Just think happy thoughts.”
Nela wiped her eyes but said nothing, cuddling closer into Bucky. Nadeja had a blank look on her face, devoid of emotion, nearly catatonic. She said nothing and Yelena hated to see that look on her pretty face.
Staci and Aino were on the floor, leaning against a wall and inconsolable. The older widows were trying but having no luck.
Yelena had never missed Antonia and Antha more than now and that was saying a lot considering she mourned for them every day.
Kate had walked over to her mother who was in the back of the room after handing off Becca to Meg. Eleanor still had a shocked look on her face. Despite the long hours the surgery took, she still seemed as if she hadn’t come to grips with what she was experiencing.
“Don’t tell me she will be okay, Kate.” Eleanor said.
Kate nodded and pulled her mother in for a hug.
“I should have told you both sooner.” Eleanor said. “I shouldn’t have kept it from either of you. I told her she was as close as a daughter. I became involved in her life, and she let me. Wanda doesn’t trust easily. She never has. She had begun trusting me and I broke it.”
Kate sighed. She had been upset at first but came to understand, especially after learning that Jack was a pretty decent guy. Wanda was another story. Eleanor was right. Wanda did not trust easily.
“She told me to stay away from the children. She said I was no grandmother, and I was confusing them. During the last conversation we had she screamed at me. I told her to talk to me, to say what she was feeling, and she did. She told me exactly what she was feeling.”
Katr cringed. She knew the argument they had was bad and it was mostly one-sided. She had also been on the receiving end of Wanda’s anger, and hurtful, even cruel words. Kate loved Wanda but she wasn’t blind to her faults. The others thought she could do no wrong, Yelena included. If there was one thing Kate had learned since she met Yelena it was this. No one was perfect. Everyone was flawed, herself included.
Kate shook her head. This was Wanda. Wanda was tough. She could survive anything. She would be good as new soon.
“She was hurt but she will be okay. You know Wanda. She explodes when she is angry or feels slighted. How many times has she come close to wiping Nat from existence? Nat is still here. Tony Stark is still here.”
Eleanor shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
“It is the same. You will see. She will wake up and everything will be okay. There won’t be any paralysis or blindness, or brain damage. I survived without brain damage. So will she.”
Eleanor looked at her sadly. “You survived because of Wanda and Agatha. Agatha is dead and Wanda is close to dead.”
Kate looked back at the door leading to the surgical suite. She saw Stannic crying in Nat’s arms. Clint Barton looked devastated. Aino and Staci were comforted by Sasha and Sonia.
Bucky and the twins were devastated. Nadeja and Nela were curled into his side.
Behind the door the superhero they all believed in lay severely damaged in a coma after getting hit by a container ship, thrown underwater and having the ship land on her and push her deep underwater.
How did she open a large door to get the ship through to Widow Compound?
Because she was Wanda. Wanda always found a way. She would find a way out of this as well.
Looking at the devastated people around her and her own gut feeling, Kate wasn’t so certain. She went back to Yelena and held her, running her fingers through her hacked hair and feeling her hot tears soaking her shirt.
“I need to find a witch.” Yelena whispered.
“We have a witch. Lets give her a chance to wake up.” Kate told her.
Four days later
Over the past four days, over one hundred women had been treated and dropped off in London after being flown around the world to ensure they could give authorities no timeline of the flight. They had been kept in the bunker since they washed up on Widow land. It had been dark when they arrived, and they were rushed into the Bunker. They saw the Mansion, but the surrounding countryside was obscure to them. When the Reapers had launched from the bunker they were kept in the back with no vision outside so they were unable to see the mountains or describe the trees, the flowers, anything that would give away the country the Widows resided in.
The women had sworn they would never say a word, but Yelena had ordered the rules regardless.
A large, rusted container ship still sat at the edge of their land, a strange sight in the French countryside. It was eerie and reminded that Wanda wasn’t here to destroy it. The widows had taken the bodies of the human traffickers and dumped them into the Atlantic ocean two days ago.
In Wakanda, many widows stayed in the waiting room. Over fifty would stay there while fifty conducted operations then they would change at nighttime. Yelena never left. Bucky never left. At his insistence he had stayed in her room, holding her hand and complaining that she was too cold every other hour. Yelena and Bucky took turns holding Becca and Meg stayed with the twins at the hospital.
Nothing had changed in Wanda’s condition. Strange slept at the hospital, checking her condition hourly. Her brain activity continued to slow, and he was at a loss how to stop it. He had gone to the waypoint and taken the Book of Vishanti, studied the healing spells Wanda had perfected but had no luck. He could channel enough magic to steady his hands in surgery but not enough to keep her alive indefinitely. He had ordered the rest of the Masters of the Mystic Arts to conduct research. His best so-called healers were no good. They could heal the broken bones, perhaps her spinal column but the nerves were still destroyed. Her brain would not stop swelling and the extent of the brain injuries were beyond his best sorcerers.
So far, Wanda’s injury had been kept secret. Rumors had spread over Wakanda, but the world at large was not aware, even the President of Sokovia. If it were known that she was in the condition she was in, the country would panic and Sokovia’s enemies would rejoice. Natasha and Wanda were closest in build and hair color. A static veil had already been prepared. In another week, Wanda would have to make an appearance in Novi Grad, even if just seen laying flowers on her brother and parents grave. Natasha Romanoff was already listening to recordings of Wanda to imitate her voice and trying to learn Sokovian as quickly as possible.
Stephen had tried multiple times to use his astral form to contact Wanda’s form, but she was not there. She didn’t seem to be anywhere.
Eleanor and Everett were also constants. Neither would leave the hospital. Eleanor did her best to comfort the twins and get them to eat. Bucky allowed Meg to take care of Becca more but when he was alone, rather than taking a walk or a nap, he sat by Wanda’s bed with his head on her mattress, holding her hand. She still had a tube in her mouth helping her breathe but Strange was hopeful it could be pulled in a day or two.
“C’mon Doll. We need you. We are a team. Have been since you rescued me from a crazy robot at an airport. You can’t leave me with the girls. I need you. We need you. I never wanted your powers. I knew what they felt like when we were in each other’s heads. I know the struggle you deal with every day. Today I would give almost anything to have your power. I’d give both my arms. I’d give my life just to wake you up.”
Bucky wasn’t answered. The day turned into the next and the next.
Latveria
Sable stood in front of Doom, having no other choice. She knew he had an interest in Wanda but wasn’t sure if that interest was academic or he had another purpose. Victor was a friend, but she was not blind to his obsessions, especially the one involving a certain demon.
“I want her blood. Just a vial.”
Sable turned red. “No. You are going to help her because I am asking you to.”
“And you were going to introduce me to her because we were friends. You knew I needed her blood. I could have talked to her and explained myself, gotten her permission, even her advice. You refused.”
“I didn’t refuse. She has a newborn. She should have been resting. Instead she fought one of Mephisto’s minions and then saved a giant ship…”
Doom raised his hand. “I am aware of what she has done. You want her to be healed. I want a vial of her blood.”
Sable stepped up to the tall, armored man. “Don’t forget who protects this country from getting swallowed up by your large neighbors who would love to annex Latveria for their minerals and gold.”
“You believe I need you and your band of mercenaries? You do not think I can protect this country myself? Protect my home?”
“I think you love your home, and you don’t have the best track record protecting what you love.” Sable shot back. “I owe her Victor. I wouldn’t have my daughter without her. I owe her my life. She needs a healer and you know every witch in the world, at least where they are.”
Doom stood still looking down on her for a few moments, not breaking eye contact.
He finally spoke. “You will tell her I helped?”
“Yes.”
“The witch you seek goes by Topaz. I have been watching her for a while now. She is young, twenty-one and raised by a mystic, imbued with great potential. She is similar to Wanda, but she is much less powerful. She doesn’t have chaos magic but does have telepathic and telekinetic abilities. She can magnify or diminish emotions and imbue life forces. She can heal but I do not know the extent. She has been living with another witch named Jenifer Kale, learning from her. You can find her in Citrusville, Florida.”
“Thank you.” Sable told him. “You are an asshole for making this so difficult but thank you.”
“I expect that meeting, Sable. Also make it clear to Strange…he loves her life his own daughter. He owes me as well. There is a large magical world that the Sorcerer Supreme does not know about. I want to meet him.”
“Done. I have my people pulling up Kale’s address. I have to make a 21-year-old girl very, very rich.”
Doom watched Sable go, happy this had happened. He had thought he would have to offer Maximoff as a sacrifice only to save her at the last minute when Mephisto fell into his trap. The foolish girl had gotten hit by a boat of all things and was on the brink of brain death. It offered him a great opportunity. He could convince Strange to go with him, causing Maximoff to follow in Mephisto’s realm.
While Topaz was healing Maximoff, Jennifer Kale would be weakened without the young witch watching her back. She was strong but she could not stop him. Not alone.
Kale’s death was necessary. He would have the Tome of Zhered-Na and all the power he needed to destroy Mephisto’s realm and free his mother’s soul. The Sorcerer Supreme, the Scarlet Witch and one of the few powerful spell books not kept by the Masters of the Mystic Arts. His plan was coming together. If some had to die for him to succeed it didn’t matter. Strange, Maximoff, Kale, their lives were nothing compared to freeing his mother’s soul.