8701/Saved: The Day Josh Foley Died

Saved: The Day Josh Foley Died
Date of Scene:	08 August 2019
Location:	Williamsburg, New York
Synopsis:	Elixir is confronted by his past. Scarlet Witch loses something precious to her. Both witness a miracle.
Thanks to:	Scarlet Witch
Cast of Characters:	Elixir, Scarlet Witch
Tinyplot:	Saved

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Elixir has posed:
Josh is in the basement of the Avengers Mansion in medical working on a series of experiments with animal models. He is joking with Dr. Inuzuka Rumina, one of the staff doctors, as they work. She has been one of the people working most closely with Josh and is a patient, thorough mentor, supervisor and teacher. The short, middle-aged Japanese woman wears casual office wear under her lab jacket. Josh, much taller and blond, is in a Giants jersey and jeans. They make an odd looking pair, but they seem to work well together.

When Josh's phone rings, he ignores it at first. The phone rings immediately after the first call, and that gets Josh's attention.

"I should check," he says apologetically to Dr. Inuzuka. He carefully puts the white rat in his hands back into its cage and locks it. Then he picks up his phone and answers.

"Hello?"

"Josh? Thank god," comes a female voice. It takes Josh a moment, but he recognizes it. Susan, an EMT.

"We need you, there's an industrial accident," Susan says quickly. She sounds stressed. "A bunch of people are hurt inside the Kollor Metal Works in Williamsburg. They were decommissiong it and something happened."

"Okay, I'll get there, are you there, how many people?" Josh asks.

"We're not there yet, Josh, you /have/ to go," Susan says. The young woman sounds almost on the verge of tears.

"Yeah, I'm going, don't worry, I'll see you there," Josh says. The line clicks dead without anything else from Susan.

"Dr. Inuzuka, I need to go, there's been an accident," Josh says apologetically. He is already heading for the door. "I'll clean everything up when I get back!"

Josh runs upstairs and heads for the library. Wanda said she would be studying to prepare for the protective spell at Xavier's school. The young man bursts into the library at full tilt. The librarian startles slightly and gives Josh an odd look.

"Wanda?" Josh calls.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda is going over her notes for the umpteenth time. This kind of magic, to last so long and over such a huge area, will not be easy. And it has to protect against so many different forms of spying, the sheer variety of magics being employed in the protective circle are themselves prohibitive.

She's walking through everything in her mind's eye when she hears the footsteps running down the hall. Not Pietro. Those she wouldn't hear until after he'd arrived. No, she senses who is coming, and also something of his alarm. Wanda swivels in her seat to look towards the open doorway as Josh rushes through.

Wanda hops up, "Yes, what is it Josh?" she asks, voice displaying her concern. She closes up her notes and looks to the librarian member of the staff, who nods and comes over to take the things away for Wanda as the auburn-haired woman looks back to Josh.

Elixir has posed:
"Hey," Josh says, breathing a little hard from his run. His voice is urgent.

"There's been an accident at a factory they're taking apart in Williamsburg. Ah, Kollor something, " Josh says and snaps his fingers. "Kollor Metal Works. Bunch of people hurt, can you get me there? EMTs aren't even there yet. Sounds bad."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda moves over to Josh, listening as he explains about the accident. "Jarvis, can you bring up Kollor Metal Works?" she asks. Wanda rests a hand on Josh's back and nods with her head for him to move with her, over nearer to a monitor.

Jarvis responds, "I have the location right here," as the monitor brings up a split screen with a map of the location on one half, and a zoomed in satellite feed on the other. "Is this sufficient?" Jarvis asks. "I am trying to access cameras in the area now."

Wanda waves a hand briefly as she studies the map. "This should be enough Jarvis, thank you." She turns to look towards Josh and gives him a nod of her head. "Ready?" she asks, and gives him a chance to respond before she begins gathering her magic.

The red glow gathers about them near the ground and then rises like a cylinder, shutting out the view of them from the rest of the library. Then the glowing red light drops back to the floor, and they are gone.

"I don't find any records of calls for first responders to the area, Wanda," Jarvis' voice adds, a second or two late.

Elixir has posed:
Josh nods to Wanda and takes a breath.

When the red light clears, Wanda and Josh are in a poorly lit factory. The high windows they can see on one wall are grimy and yellowed. There air cool and smells of rust and damp concrete. The blast furnaces are dark. There are no voices or sounds. The dirt and dust on the floor is thick and undisturbed.

"Where are they?" Josh says to Wanda.

"Hello?" he calls and starts further in, toward a partially opened large steel sliding door. There is a clang of metal hitting the ground, like a heavy tool. "Hey, we're coming!"

Josh looks to Wanda and keeps going. There is just more empty factory.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
After Wanda's chaos magic has deposited them in the factory, she turns to look about the area. "It doesn't look in very good condition," Wanda says quietly, though foregoing inspection of the building to aid Josh in looking about for the people in need. "What was it they said was happening? What kind of accident?" she asks.

Wanda is looking one way while Josh heads in the other. Leaving them separated by a bit of distance by the time he is nearing the door and that resounding clang draws both of their attention.

As Josh starts forward for the door, Wanda takes a few quick steps, not quite catching up, but keeping Josh's pace as she glances about, but heads for the door, intent on following the golden-haired mutant to find the people in distress.

Elixir has posed:
"I dunno," Josh calls over his shoulder. "Susan just said industrial accident. Some people trying to decommission this place?"

Josh peeks around the corner and there is another noise. He breaks into a jog and disappears around to the other side of the metal door.

"What the /fuck/?" Wanda hears Josh exclaim. All Wanda feels is shock through their bond.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda is taking slightly more time, looking around and making sure they didn't miss anyone in need. But generally she is following along behind Josh. The sight of a rat scurrying across the floor across the room brings a slight wrinkling of Wanda's nose, but her attention swings back to Josh as the second noise is heard.

As he hurries forward, Wanda quickens her step as well, temporarily losing sight of him. The sunlight in this room is coming in through the windows up near to the ceiling. Dust motes seem to float in the sunbeams, as if not even that bit of cleansing sun will be allowed to be untouched by the disrepair of the factory.

She hears Josh's exclamation, and feels his shock. Wanda hurries forward finally, rushing towards the corner that Josh just disappeared around, and rounding it to see what he is reacting to.

Elixir has posed:
Josh is standing stock still not far from the door. Not twenty feet ahead of him is another man, about the same age as Josh. This man has short dark hair and glowing, LED bright red eyes. He is taller than Josh, more heavily built. He stands there with a sneer, looking at Josh, arms crossed and dressed in black fatigues and boots.

"Richie?!" Josh breathes in shock. He takes a couple of steps toward the man who had been his friend and stops. "Oh my god.... What are you doing here? What did they do to you?"

The face is unfamiliar to Wanda, but not the name. Josh had told her about Richie. A boyhood friend he went all through school with, went to church with. Joined the Reavers with. Who Josh healed when their attempt to assassinate Andrea Jackson went wrong. Richie who beat Josh bloody, threw him out of a moving van, and told Josh's parents their son was a mutant.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda rounds the corner, her boots sliding to a stop as she sees Josh is standing there a bit ahead of her. She looks past Josh, seeing the man that is before Josh. Wanda's gaze focuses on Richie's glowing eyes and then dart to Josh. "Josh," she says softly. "I don't think you should go near," she says, taking another step forward.

That Josh seems familiar with him takes away Wanda's immediate worry that it might be some kind of Sentinel. But knowing Josh's past, that leaves plenty of options that are very worrisome to Wanda.

The Scarlet Witch moves slowly closer, not wanting to cause something to happen by moving too quickly. She holds her hands down to either side to draw on her magic. The feeling of turmoil coming through the bond adds to her own, and for a moment nothing comes to her.

Elixir has posed:
"Ah, you stay there," Richie snaps at Wanda and levels a finger at the Avenger. He tenses visibly at her presence. "You do anything and the chick that called him dies," Richie warns.

"What the fuck, Richie?! She's just a paramedic, she's /human/! Let her go!"

"I don't even know where she is," Richie says with a smirk. "I hear she caved right away. You're not important to her or any of them, Foley. Just a useful freak."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Anger clouds the bond as Wanda hears Richie. She looks about, darting her glance this way and that, but not really expecting to find that the paramedic is in the area. "Why are you so willing to hurt people? Even this girl who did nothing to you, who just tries to save people?" Wanda says, shaking her head.

She feels the magic within her again finally, though doesn't draw those visible signs of it yet. Wanda walks slowly, off to the side rather than at Richie. Giving herself a clear shot at him, making sure that Josh is not in the way.

Wanda slips a hand into a pocket, turning on her communicator so the conversation will start making it out to Jarvis.

Elixir has posed:
"Because he couldn't just fucking disappear!" Richie shouts back at Wanda. He stalks toward Josh.

"I should've killed you in that goddamn van!" Richie snarls at Josh. "You should've disappeared when I gave you the chance. "You humiliated me! Your family can't even go to church. Because you think you're some kind of messiah?!"

Josh holds up a hand toward Wanda. She can feel the tension radiating from him, and the hurt.

"Richie... I'm just helping people, humans, too..." Josh says, trying to placate the dark haired Reaver. "Jesus, you let them make you a /borg/? Richie... Just let Susan go, you got me here. Wanda won't do anything, I swear."

"You swear? You want me to take the word of a mutie?" Richie asks quietly. "Know what I think of your word?"

The motion is superhumanly fast. Josh does not even see it coming. His mouth is half open when Richie springs a blade from his right fist and rams it open under Josh's chin. Richie's face is twisted in hate and triumph.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda doesn't remember drawing the magic, or doing anything to make her will happen. Just one moment Richie is there plunging the blade up into the bottom of Josh's chin, and the next he's sailed away, smashing against the wall of the factory with bone-, even metal-, crushing force.

She doesn't remember traveling the space between herself and Josh. All she remembers is the feeling through the bond they share. "NO!" she says as she catches Josh, watching blood pouring out of the wound. "No," she says again, her voice cracking as she sinks to her knees, holding his body and cradling it to her chest. She turns his face up to her, seeing the wound is too great for her healing, "Josh, heal yourself," she croaks hoarsely, her eyes filled with tears. "Heal yourself," she says, taking his hand and guiding it up to his head to where the blade went upwards towards his brain.

Elixir has posed:
Richie's body falls to the ground, mangled and crumpled. He leaks blood and other more cybernetic fluids onto the floor. The red eyes flicker and go out.

Josh stares ahead unseeing in Wanda's arms. His body twitches and spasms. Blood pours out of the wound, down his chest, onto Wanda and the floor. He does not even try to breathe.

The young blond mutant's hand is limp in Wanda's hand. For just a moment there is a flash of recognition in his blue eyes.

And then Wanda feels nothing. No fear or shock. No pain. No worry or hope or love. No presence. Just a yawning absence where there used to be another spirit. The twitching stops and does not start again.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's voice is tiny. "Josh," she says, her cheeks running with tears that fall one after another. "Josh," she says hoarsely, her hands starting to shake. She reaches her hands up to his head then when he doesn't do anything. Her hands draw energy that radiates red as it gathers about her fingers and about Josh's head. She wants to tremble but tries to hold steady, to pour what healing she can do into him. But his heart doesn't pump and his lungs do not breathe.

"Josh. Josh don't leave me," she says, tears spilling to drip on his face. Wanda tries to smooth them as if they've marred him, but her hands are covered with his blood, only making matters worse.

And then there is nothing. No emotion. No pain. No love. The bond. It is dead.

He is dead.

And her world explodes.

A dome of of red energy engulfs the factory, so bright it leaves an after image that fades only slowly from the eyes of those who saw it. The scarlet energy burns bright and then it rushes into the ground with a tremendous noise of destruction.

The noise of Wanda Maximoff's pain. There is nothing left of the factory, of anything, anywhere within the radius of her magic. The ground is perfectly flat to within a millimeter. Anything that was within that magic is compressed flat into the ground. Anything, but Wanda, and Josh's body. Alone they remain. Wanda crying, her head sunk over the man she loved as she cradles him to her body.

Elixir has posed:
Nothing moves in that space. Everything is stilled by Wanda's grief. With the building gone, the outside air sweeps through and tugs at the Avenger's hair.

The sounds of the city are out there, but seem far away and dimmed. Without the building around them, the shadows are gone. The blood, the vacant look in Josh's eyes, the smears on his cheeks are all there in stark, unavoidable relief. Plain as day. No smile or smirk, just a rapidly greying pallor.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda Maximoff's shoulders shake, her body shuddering. With her head down it is the only sign of her crying. Her heart feels split apart. She can't stop hugging his body. Can't stop holding him. The faintest of whispers. "Josh. No." Her arms tighten around his body and then she lets out an agonized cry.

The staccato sound of a helicopter in the distance can be heard. Lights on police cars stand out at great distance, responding to calls about a massive light. Surely it was an explosion.

None of it is noticed by Wanda. The center of her world is gone. She closes her eyes and the magic comes. Swirling about the two of them chaotically as the police cars pull up and the helicopter reaches the site. Swirling and then vanishing. Leaving the police to stare at that perfect, circular clear space, where even the concrete was obliterated to leave only dirt behind.

Atop Wundragore Mountain...

The Scarlet Witch did not consciously choose this place. But the vortex of her magic left her here. Kneeling on a rocky promontory atop the Transian mountain. Look out not just over her homeland, but from near to her birthplace in the complex atop the mountain not far away.

She holds Josh close in her arms, cradling him and just looking out towards the horizon. She's jumped them from mid day, to near sunset. The sky starting to turn the most beautiful of colors. But it is all lost on Wanda. The world is grey and dark, and the light has gone out of it. She holds him. Time passes. And she holds him. Nothing else matters but not letting Josh free from her arms.

Elixir has posed:
The setting sun draws its crimson colours in the lady Avenger's hair. It lays lengthening shadows behind Wanda. And as the sun gets lower, the light catches Josh's skin and sparkles tears left on Josh's face. Then here and there. On Josh's faces. His hands.

It is the sort of thing that creeps in so gradually that it is hard to tell when it began. But inexorably, Josh's skin changes from pale grey to dull bronze. Then slowly to a sparkling, metallic golden shine. The light weakens further, but the sparkle from Josh does not. The glow is too faint to see until the sun is nearly set, but then Wanda sees it clearly.

The whole of Josh's body is glowing gold in Wanda's arms.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Leaden emotions numb Wanda's sense. Even the magic sense that might have noticed the change that is happening literally before her eyes. She sits quietly. Slowly rocking and staring with red-rimmed eyes at a world that has grown dark for her.

The wind stirs her hair, blowing tendrils in front of her eyes and finally causing her to reach up to brush it aside. Her eyes fall back on Josh-

Wanda's head turns seeing the slight sparkle. Here, and there.

She touches his skin with her hand, the blood having most dried in the time that has passed. He always sparkled like that to her. Didn't he? Wanda's grasp on the moment may not be at her best. More time passes, the hue of his skin changing and finally Wanda starts see clearly again.

She moves, her head turning to gaze down his body, her arms moving out of her own way in seeing him better. Though she keeps him there, resting across her lap, his face towards her.

"Josh," she whispers. Her hands tremble as they move to his body and she opens herself to her magic senses. Chaos energy gathers around her hands and she sends it gently probing through him as she once did before.

Elixir has posed:
There is little to feel at first. Slowly though, Wanda feels... Lifeforce. It grows and creeps out of the center of the being in front of Wanda. It spreads into every fibre and cell.

In the dark now, lit only by the golden glow, Wanda sees the wound under Josh's chin knit shut. Smooth over with the metallic gold skin that feels normal to the touch, but shimmers.

Everything comes together in a flash of golden light that is almost blinding. It fades away and Wanda feels Josh's body arch suddenly.

Josh gasps and his eyes flare open, unfocused and not yet seeing. Startled, confused and scared he looks back and forth, almost panicked.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda Maximoff's voice is hoarse. Cracking as if with the worst case of laryngitis from hours spent quietly sobbing. "Josh," she whispers, her normal soft, pleasing accent broken by her voice. "Josh..." she whispers again, reaching her hand to cup his cheek. To stroke his face as she watches the wound closing. You would think she could hope it closed for the way Wanda's being clings to the sight of his body healing.

Josh's eyes flutter open and Wanda's breath explodes from her in a strangled cry. "Josh!" she says, her arms going about him to hug him. "You're ok," she manages in her hoarse voice. "You're with me. You came back to me," she tells him. She's so overwhelmed she hasn't notice the lack of feeling through the bond.

If she had, it wouldn't matter. He's alive.

Elixir has posed:
"Wanda?" Josh asks, confused at first.

"Oh thank God," Josh gets out. His arms close around Wanda and he holds her desperately as though one or both of them might suddenly slip away. "I couldn't find you, you were gone," Josh says, his voice cracking with emotion. "I kept looking... Thank God."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's arms are wrapped around him, curling up towards his shoulders from below as she tightly hugs his sturdy form to her. "I was here," she says to him, trying to speak normally but the worst a hoarse whisper. "I was here. And you came back to me," she tells him.

Her red eyes fill with tears again. She'd thought herself all cried out of every last bit of moisture. But even as she cries she's smiling and smoothing her hand over his face. "How do you feel? We can go to medical," she tells him. Her fingers move down below his chin, feeling at the wound, but gently as if afraid the wrong touch could somehow unknit the healing.

Elixir has posed:
"I did, and you're here," Josh whispers. "We're okay, we're together."

Josh catches Wanda's hand and brings it back up from under his chin to his cheek. He turns and kisses her palm.

"I'm fine now, I don't need medical. Just you," he says. The golden-skinned mutant sits up, cups Wanda's face in his hands and kisses her.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda Maximoff has seen her share of wonders. But none has affected her like this one. She cannot stop touching Josh as he sits up. As if every sense is needed to confirm that this is real. That she hasn't fallen asleep while holding him and is just dreaming this.

As his lips come to hers, she kisses him back. Kissing him deeply, the touching of lips fueled by great emotion, if not as much of it the passion he would normally inspire. Something is different about the kiss. Wanda finally notices the lack of emotions that normally echo back and forth between them via the bond until Wanda cannot tell what parts are her love for him, and which are Josh's love for her.

She realizes the bond is gone, but it is just a minor thought.

Josh is alive. That is all that matters.

Elixir has posed:
When their lips part, the two sit with their foreheads touching. There is a hollowness to being so close to each other but not feeling as close as they did. It tinges the relief of being reunited and makes it bittersweet. Death severed the magic that joined their spirits. But not the feeling that once sustained that magic.

The moon rises over the two mutants. They sit holding one another, not willing to let each other go or given in to the cool mountain.

The crunch of boots on gravel not far away breaks the reverie. Neither of the lovers are prepared to share each other with anyone else. There is a flash a gold and crimson lights intertwined that lights up where the pair sat. When the light dies out the night enshrouds the empty lookout once more.