"Wanda, please," Clint continued, his arrow still drawn back, "come on."

By now Tony and Steve had rejoined the four of you, with a shield and a suit to help them, pushing their way in between Wanda and Wade to try to break the connection. Tony's body jolted and FRIDAY began to fail under the intense power and the suit began to immediately falter around him. "(Y/N), get outta here!"

"I can't," you answered painfully, your body barely back under your own control. "I'm too weak."

"I've got you, (Y/N)," Wade struggled, with hardly enough strength to move himself, much less you, but he managed to lift you to him and push you both towards the door.

"Wanda, listen to me," Steve tried, once he felt you were clear of danger, "I know that your heart won't let you understand this, but you know that it wasn't her. It wasn't Brooke. They would never do that to Vision, you have to realize that you know this." He held his breath and pushed forward, taking a stand to protect Tony with his shield in front of him to keep her waves of power away from each of you left behind. He took one step closer, and then another, and another, until he had pushed his way to within a mere foot of her; the deep red glow was bouncing from the Vibranium, but it wasn't all contained, and he began to feel his own muscles begin to sting and ache under the strain. "You're not alone in this."

"He was...my person..." she answered softly, wavering in her resolve to fight, "he was the one. I am alone now, Steve. You know how this feels."

"We won't let you be alone...I promise you. I promised him that a long time ago, too."

She knew better than to look back over her shoulder, to where Vision was lying motionless and vacant, but it happened anyway, and the sight of him shattered her. To know that Vision had gone to Steve and that conversation had taken place was too much. It left her hollow and dark where her heart used to beat for him, and the pain she felt was like nothing that she had endured since the loss of her brother. When she turned back to face her Captain again, she finally allowed her powers to abate and fade away, the collective sigh of relief echoing throughout the room. Scott appeared at the doorway at just the right moment, his arms open for her to run to, which she did readily with her sobs wetting his shirt.

"Steve's right, Wanda," he whispered against her hair, "don't forget, it's not just you anymore."

~~~

The next day would bring news from around the world that disasters were happening one by one, in both major cities and small countries with no pattern that anyone could discern. No one wanted to jump to the immediate and likely obvious conclusion that this was the doing of Thanos and his Black Order to signal the start of the war, but it wasn't far from anyone's minds. The events were too disastrous and vile, cruel in their intent and execution, and it had to be them just by that virtue.

Wade was staying with the team only until you were up and moving, which was later that very first day despite the orders to stay in bed for at least another two. He knew full well that trying to keep you down was a pointless endeavor, so he decided that he would at least be at your side if nothing else, but of course, you had other plans for him back at the compound.

"We're at the drop zone, Cap," Sam called out from the front of the jet. "T-minus sixty seconds to target."

"You good?" Steve asked, looking down at you cautiously. He reached up a hand to help when your own fingers weren't cooperating enough to secure the final latch of your parachute. "I'm okay with you sitting this out."

"Open the door, Sam," you called out instead, turning away from Steve as if he had said absolutely nothing. You didn't have anything to prove, and you could have stayed behind, but if you were asked to give the truth about why you were there, you'd have to face it yourself; being with your kids would only put the rest of your team in danger, and one, if not two of them were already dead since no one had yet to hear from Thor. This was keeping a safe distance for everyone's sake but your own.

"Okay," Steve sighed, knowing his defeat. "Sam, any word on the other teams?"

"Barton, Strange, and Rhodes are just coming in over China, Nat, Scott and Stark have been in Alaska on recovery for about three hours now, and I've just got word that Barnes and Parker are on their way back from D.C. already."

"Anyone seeing patterns?"

"Yeah," Sam answered flatly as he spun the pilot seat to face you both, "people are dying by the thousands, Cap. That's about as blatant of a pattern as they come."

~~~

Wanda would have been in on these missions if she had the drive to do anything more than sit on the floor in a crumbled pile of despair and apathy; she couldn't bring herself to leave Vision's side, even though she knew that there was nothing to be gained in staying there for so long. She kept trying to drive her mind towards action, and thinking of how he could find life again without the mind stone, but every time she felt as if she were on the cusp of enough energy, she faltered.

It didn't help at all that she was just at the beginning of feeling a connection to the little one growing inside of her, only making her suffering that much more apparent, and her fears of being alone so overwhelming. Scott had done his best to promise her that he would be there at her side, but she only felt that to be a burden to him and she wouldn't hear of it.

As if all of that weren't enough, Wanda swore that she was on the brink of insanity, hearing voices that weren't there, and seeing Vision move just out of her periphery when she knew completely that he was gone. Not only did she know it, but she felt it, her chest a black cavern that would never hold that kind of love again; even now as she raised her hand to let the powers within her dance over her tremulous fingers, the glow wasn't that vibrant, enraged shade of red any longer, but rather a hazy and black smoke that matched her mood perfectly.

She was of no use to anyone like this, even herself, so to keep her own team safe from the damage that she could do with a swipe of her hand, she stayed here. She sat in a nearly black room with a corpse, feeling as empty as the shell that he had left behind.

~~~

"Grant, I'm gonna need you to focus, bud," Johnny called out as he ducked from a massive ball of fire that the young man had lost control of, leaving Wade to run frantically across the lawn with an extinguisher to put it out. "I'm not getting paid enough for this, alright?"

"Sorry, sir, I'm just...I'm distracted," Grant sighed, dropping his hands to his sides, "I hate when they're both gone at the same time, and now..."

"It seems that much worse."

"Right."

Johnny furrowed his brow as he thought, exchanging glances with a panting though clearly entertained Wade; you and Steve had asked the duo to work with the kids during your absence to sharpen their skills, but that plan was going nowhere fast. "Wilson," he called out to his partner quietly, tilting his head to draw him closer. "We need to make this interesting enough to pull them outta this funk they're in. You got any ideas? The last time that I thought I had a good one, I taught Grant how to fly and no one's been happy about that yet."

"Shit, for real?" Wade gasped, turning to your son. "Hey, Fireball! You can fly?"

"Sorta, yeah," he shrugged with a lazy smirk. "For a short distance, anyway."

"Hmm, okay," he whispered, bringing a hand to his chin thoughtfully, "so, sister can toss us around like a sack of potatoes, and Brain-trust over there can make us cry like little bitches at the drop of a hat."

"Um," Anthony interrupted, a hand up sheepishly, "I can also force energy to push objects away, and we can all travel by portal."

Johnny turned back to Wade expectantly, as did each of the kids, the group now standing around him to eagerly hear what he had come up with for them. Storm was right, they couldn't focus at all on their training with both of their parents and their grandfather all gone at the same time, knowing that the end of the world could drop at any second. "What you thinkin', White Wilson?"

"I don't know about you kiddies, but I think we've got the most epic game of tag ever fuckin' created."

~~~

When your feet landed in the center of Paris, it was chaos and bedlam like you had never seen. The city was a shell of what you had known it to be, beautiful buildings that you had spent hours in, filled with ornate decoration and one-of-a-kind art were just gone. The city was in ruins, it's citizens no longer having the will to run anymore; they walked the streets in a blind stupor, their steps without purpose. The sounds of destruction were deafening, and the voices of civilians rushing to meet you was too much to take in at once. They were nothing more than a jumble of voices that couldn't be distinguished, even with your fluency in language.

"Steve, what do we do?" you gasped, looking across the growing crowd in front of you. "Where do we even start?"

"We're always one step behind," he mumbled, waving to Sam to come out and join you. "Every time we get a team on site, it's already over."

"There isn't even a reason for him to do this. There's nothing here that he wants. This is just cruelty and spite."

Steve nodded along as you spoke, allowing a few crying victims to take his hands as they spoke to him. He wanted to help them, more than they could know, but you were right; where would any of you even begin? The battle was done, and that was your specialty, fighting back and protecting civilians. Now all he needed to do was call in rescue teams to take your place so that you could go to the next site and just hope that you would be able to get home before-

"Son of a bitch," he snapped at his own revelation, "he's leading us away from home. He knows that we'll chase him around the planet to stop him, and now he's just playing us. Come on, we need to get back. Sam, call everyone in."