A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Pietro POV!

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The last thing Pietro Maximoff remembers is dying. Not exactly a sentence that most people would ever even think plausible, especially when the death in question was from a high caliber bullet to the brain. Unfortunately for Pietro, he was not most people.

No, Pietro was faster than most people. Faster than pretty much everyone, in fact. And in the case of his death, that speed had turned into his greatest curse.

By the time he'd woken up, the bullet had already burrowed its way into his skull. The pressure had been what made him come to consciousness, after all. Unfortunately, at that point it was too late. He couldn't react. He couldn't move. All he could do was die.

On the outside, it would have all been less than a second. But from Pietro's perspective, it took a relative eternity of pain and agony, of feeling every second of the bullet lodging itself further and further into his brain. Burning hot. Still spinning. And finally, breaking apart to make sure there was no hope of survival.

He'd died in his bed, but he hadn't been asleep when the true end came. No, he'd been very, very awake.

… Which is why he's quite surprised to open his eyes again. For a moment, he screams, the memory creating a ghost of agony in his skull, making it feel like the bullet was still in his head making a mess of his grey matter. His hands come up to claw at his scalp, as if he can drag it out now even though he couldn't before.

"-ietro! Pietro, it's okay! You're alive! You're safe!"

His sister's voice brings him back though. Wanda… it shouldn't have been possible. They hadn't been on speaking terms before the end. So why was she here now? Was this some sort of afterlife? Some sort of dream?

The phantom pain fades away, thankfully. His piercing headache clears up so he can think. And once he can think… Pietro moves. He's always done better on his feet, moving faster than everything around him. He's always been better. No wonder they had to kill him in his sleep.

Flicking to his feet and taking a step back, Pietro Maximoff stares at the scene he finds himself in, more than a little baffled by it all as he looks around, moving faster than anyone else in the room seems capable of perceiving or processing.

There's Wanda, of course… and it really is Wanda. She looks a little different perhaps, a little wearier and more tired, but it's his sister for all intents and purposes. From the look of things, she'd been standing in a circle holding hands with two others surrounding where he'd… woken up, though when he started screaming she'd broken free of them to start crouching down as she called his name.

The other two are still holding each other's hands and their empty hands are still outstretched towards Wanda for the moment. Their faces look surprised and concerned, but Pietro doesn't see anything malicious in the incredibly slow moving expressions.

He recognizes one of them. Not-So-Little Anna Marie… or rather, Rogue wasn't it? Mystique's girl, wasn't she? But Mystique is nowhere to be seen and they appear to be in a college dorm room for some reason.

The other one, the man… Pietro doesn't know him one bit. He's extremely tall, extremely broad shouldered, and looks like the most stereotypical meathead that Pietro has ever laid eyes on. Blond, blue eyed, and a jaw just as chiseled as the rest of his body.

Pietro doesn't like it, if he's being honest. No… take a moment. Stretch it into infinite. Acknowledge the truth. It's not that he doesn't like it, but rather he simply doesn't understand it. He needs more information.

With that in mind, he blurs out of the room, moving fast as can be and taking in the sights. There are people in the rest of the building, which is itself clearly a dormitory. Every single one is a woman, Pietro notices. A woman's dormitory, at a college… no, a university. He blurs outside and finds the sign easily enough. Empire State University. So he's in New York.

Blurring back inside, he eyes some of the women in the dormitory a bit more. He doesn't go in any of their rooms or anything like that, he's not a creep… he just needs to know this isn't a trap.

Then again, if it was some sort of setup, they would have had contingencies for his powers, wouldn't they? Nothing has stopped him yet. Nothing has so much as hindered him. Two entire seconds have passed since Pietro opened his eyes after waking up to taking a bullet to the brain. In the end, he's forced to acknowledge the truth… any answers to what's happened lie back in the dorm room.

He blurs back to where his sister, Rogue, and the unknown man all await him, barely even having time to start to react to his disappearance from their midst, let alone his disappearance from the room in general. Looking around the room, he considers a bout of flippancy such as lounging on the bed for a moment… but his heart isn't in it.

Especially since the last time he was laying in bed… no, best not to think about it. Focus on the present. Focus on what's happening. Stay standing.

He finally stops moving and lets the rest of the world catch up for a moment, slowing himself down to interact with his surroundings 'properly'. To their credit, it takes only a few more seconds for them to realize where he's gone, standing outside of their little circle on the other side of the room.

The male's eyes widen ever so slightly and he tenses up… but it looks protective to Pietro's gaze. Rogue is much the same, stiffening in a defensive manner. Wanda though… Wanda whips towards him, eyes filling with tears, hands trembling as she walks in his direction like she's seeing a ghost.

"P-Pietro… Pietro please… it… it IS you, yes?"

Pietro frowns at that, but he doesn't shy away from his sister's touch. He also doesn't know how to answer her. When he says nothing, the man he doesn't know speaks for him.

"It's him, Wanda. There was a chance of something else trying to take his place, but with all three of us working together, we were able to handle such risks. He's come back himself. Completely and wholly him."

That just leaves Pietro with so many more questions, but first he has to deal with a sobbing sister as Wanda launches herself at him, hugging him around the waist and burying her face in his chest. Through the tears, Pietro hears her say how much she missed him, how sorry she is that she let him die, how glad she is that she has him back now.

It paints… a disturbing picture. But before he asks the question he's dreading, Pietro focuses on gathering information about his immediate present. Hugging his sister back, he looks between the other two people in the room, giving Rogue a cursory nod before focusing on the man.

"Her I know. But who are you?"

The blond meathead (though admittedly he didn't SOUND like a meathead when he'd spoken up a few seconds ago) grunts.

"Thaddeus, though you can call me Thad if you want."

Pietro frowns and shakes his head.

"That is your name… but that is not who you are. Who are you? To my sister? To me?"

Thaddeus looks away for a moment, glancing to Rogue… who just shrugs in turn. With a low huff, the big man shrugs as well.

"No one special. Just one of the people who brought you back to life. Your sister did the heavy lifting though. Couldn't have done it without her."

Hm. Pietro knows people well enough to know when someone is trying to downplay themselves. Something Wanda confirms a moment later when she pulls her face out of his chest to look back with a scowl.

"D-Don't be… ridiculous. Without your help, who knows what I would have done! I-I might have brought back something else entirely… someone else entirely!"

Pietro licks his lips to wet them.

"But you didn't. You brought me back… to life? You… resurrected me from the dead?"

Looking up at him rather fragilely, Wanda nods with wide eyes… and a growing smile.

"We did, Pietro. Together, we were able to do more with my powers than I ever managed before! We rewrote reality itself!"

… Oh. That was… well, that was a lot. Pietro had always known his sister's mutation to be stronger than his own. Sure, he had a spectacularly strong ability. It was one of those things that was powerful enough to be both a blessing and a curse. He could do a lot with super speed… but it also made interacting with the rest of the world difficult sometimes because nobody could ever move at his pace.

Still, Wanda's powers… well, they'd always been as worrying as they were enigmatic, at least to Pietro. He knew his limits. He didn't know Wanda's… and he had always wondered if she did either. Now though, it sounded like they'd done more than just bring him back to life. A lot more.

But that wasn't important right now. He'd put it off long enough to get his head on straight, but now… Pietro needed to focus.

"How long? How long was I dead?"

Wanda looks stricken for a moment before answering.

"M-Months… only months, Pietro!"

But that's not good enough. Not by a long shot. He squeezes his sister a little tighter. Not enough to hurt her, only to convey the seriousness of the situation.

"How long? Exactly."

Shuddering, Wanda looks like she doesn't even want to think about it. But finally, she answers him in a quiet voice.

"Six… six months. T-Two days."

Half a year. It hits Pietro like a truck to the chest… or maybe like a fucking sniper round to the brain. He gently but firmly extricates himself from his sister's arms even as Wanda makes a noise of protest, setting her apart from him.

"I have to go."

"What?! Why?! Where?! Please Pietro! I just got you back!"

But he shakes his head.

"I'm sorry sister, but I can't stay still. I have to go."

She wouldn't understand. She didn't before, she won't know. He has to leave, he has to go, he has to-

But when Pietro tries to blur out of the room, when he tries to dash through the door again… something strange happens. He exits out through the dorm room door just like last time, but instead of finding himself in the hallway outside, he finds himself entering right back into the room he'd just left.

Wanda looks as baffled as he feels and Rogue looks startled. But the man… Thad… he looks determined.

Pietro narrows his eyes and tries one more time just to confirm it, but the same thing happens. He tries to exit the room, only to find himself entering it instead. With a huff, he pauses and glares at this 'Thaddeus' fellow.

"What exactly is the meaning of this?"

"I could ask you the same thing. The three of us just brought you back to life. But none of us know why you were killed in the first place or by who. And we certainly don't know what you're planning to do with a second lease on life either. Now, I was happy to help Wanda, but I'm not about to let you go off and do whatever you want without at least talking things through with her first. Anything you do now… is as much on our heads as it is yours, after all."

Okay, so not a meathead. Even if he was rapidly becoming a massive thorn in Pietro's side. And apparently, he could do the reality warping thing just like Wanda could. Was he an energy drainer like Rogue? That was how the three of them worked together to bring Pietro back, presumably…

"Pietro… please

."

Fuck. Wanda's broken voice, her tear streaked face… Pietro's shoulders slumped. This was precisely why he'd needed to go as soon as possible. Before Wanda could entangle him too much in her… Wanda-ness.

"You don't understand. If it's been six months… who knows what else they've done? Is he even still alive?"

Thaddeus frowns, but it's Wanda who Pietro directs that last question at. She furrows her brow in confusion.

"Who?"

Of course. Even his death wouldn't have caused reconciliation, he supposed.

"Our father, Wanda. Is our father still alive?"

Blinking rapidly, Wanda looks even more confused… and maybe a little upset. Which yeah, Pietro had expected. After all, it was their feelings for their father that had driven a wedge between them both in the first place.

"Last… last I heard, yes. I'm sure it would have been all over the news if he was dead. He's still in custody, Pietro. Why?"

Pietro huffs, tempted to try to make another run for it. After all, running was what he was good at. Talking? That was much harder. But… he's not getting out of this room without the permission of its inhabitants, apparently. Being brought back to life came with strings attached. The most frustrating part is that take almost seems reasonable, all things considered.

"I'm sure it wouldn't have been all over the news at all, actually. You want to know who killed me, Wanda? You want to know why I was silenced?"

Shaking a bit with anger as he remembers, Pietro's hands curl into fists at his sides, his jaw clenching.

"… There's only one group who could have assassinated me like that and had the motive to silence me. Only one institution that knew I had discovered the truth and was getting closer and closer to uncovering more. It was the feds that murdered me, Wanda. Because I found out what they've been doing. I found out they'd been experimenting on and torturing our father."

One could hear a pin drop in the wake of that particular declaration. Pietro doesn't derive any pleasure from it though. The last thing he wanted to do was involve his sister in this mess…

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The Vote:

[ ] Stick with Pietro's POV - 26%

[X] Switch back to Thaddeus' POV - 74%

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