"Now I see. The demon is me."
Lisa May Stark is so much more than the child she used to be when she and her father were kidnapped in Afghanistan five years ago. She's Iron Man's daughter, she's the Red Raven, she's, well, you know who she is...
you gotta be tough if you wanna survive they'll chew you up and they'll eat you alive unclear ─── kodaline
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avengers facility, new york june 5, 2016
I stand out on the landing pad with my arms crossed over my chest and a sad expression marking my features. The black quinjet slowly pulls around the blue sky, carrying an aura of sadness with it as it carefully lands down onto the concrete. My hair is blown over my shoulders when the bomb bay doors stretch open and the team that I had tried to warn slowly exits.
God, I wish I hadn't been right.
Sam and Natasha come out first, offering me solemn half smiles while they pass in silence. There's a long pause before a familiar brunette girl emerges from the darkness of the quinjet. She swallows thickly, glancing around and twisting her lips while she comes closer.
"Wanda..."
The other girl stops a few feet from me. She takes in a deep breath as she looks at the sky and then to the side and then to me, all the while trying to fight tears. The other twenty year old quickly walks into an embrace and we hug each other tightly. I close my eyes and shake my head as I hear her catch her breath, trying not to cry.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper, trying to comfort her as she comforted me in the days following the incident.
Wanda nods quickly, too choked up to speak, before I wrap my arm with hers and we both slowly walk into the facility. She goes into the bathroom to change and I sit on her bed in silence, still feeling a bit uneasy from this morning. I can never be sure about my feelings anymore. Sometimes I think it's the next vision lurking up on me like with Lagos and then sometimes it's just, well, something else. I wish I had been able to figure it out sooner and maybe done something more than just a meager warning.
When Wanda exits the bathroom and sits down beside me, we both take in deep breaths while she turns on the TV. News of the Lagos destruction erupts in bright flashes of color and loud voices that I wish would just leave us all alone. I tug on the sleeves of my sweatshirt, burying my elbows on my kneecaps.
"How bad was it?"
"Very bad. There was so much screaming and I..." Wanda's eyes shine and she glances down at the top of her foot as it rests on her bed, "It reminded me of Sokovia all over again, Lisa."
I fold my legs underneath myself and comfortingly rest my hand on her shoulder. She glances at me out of the corner of her eye before her gaze quickly dances back to the TV that sits by her wall. A frown graces my features a little as my own eyes follow hers back to the news reports that show us video after video of the decimated building and crying people in Lagos. I don't say anything back to her just yet, imagining she has more to say before I reply.
