[2011 – December]
The last few months had been filled with training and experiments for Wanda.
After Fury had kept his part of the deal and delivered the Uru harvested from the Destroyer, they had gone back to Brussels. Once there Pietro had finally told her about his project that he had been obsessing over for the last few months and even her part in it.
That project had also been the cause of her harsh training with her Chaos Magic over the past four months, especially transfiguration and enchantments.
As Pietro had once explained to her, her magic was entirely based on her imagination. As long as she had the necessary control over her magical energy and enough reserves, she could literally do anything.
The well of magic inside herself was practically endless, so the only thing she needed to work on was her control. Which led to the last four months being filled with exhaustion-induced headaches.
Luckily Pietro had taken it upon himself to massage her temples gently to ease her pain and most of the time his gentle touches weren't restricted to her head. Instead his hands would wander lower and soon they both found themselves entangled passionately and intimately.
As far as her training was concerned she had made great progress, especially thanks to her brother's instructions and tips. For someone that had not an ounce of magic in his body, he had an incredible understanding of the craft.
Wanda had over the last months finally reached the point were she believed her powers had reached the level required to fulfill her part of his project.
Now it all came down to how long Pietro would take to finish up his part, which was admittedly way more complicated and complex than hers.
…
Looking down at the piece of technology I had 'borrowed' from a certain lab in Korea, I could hardly contain the joy I felt.
The Regernation Cradle, although not yet finished at this point in time, had found its way into my hands on our trip from America back to Belgium. We had taken a lengthy detour, so I could grab it.
I definitely planned to return it to Doctor Helen Cho. Well, as soon as my project was finished, that is. I had even completed it for her, as she was still two to three years away from achieving success. Studying cell biology and genetics extensively had definitely been necessary for this project.
I could see the outline of a skeletal structure and organs already being formed inside the Cradle.
Turning my head to the side, I saw the extremly thin plates of Uru also being ready for assembly.
It had been incredibly hard to forge them into the right shape, even with my current upper limit for my exothermic abilities being roughly 7000 degrees Celsius, and that was with my weapons channeling my inner fire.
Wanda had confirmed that even with the Destroyer being broken, some of its original magic was still retained in the material. It had taken me hours to carve out the pieces from the chunks that Fury had sent me.
It wasn't the metal itself that made this material so durable, but the magic inside it. Unfortunately that was also the reason I needed it - its magical capabilities.
"When do you need me to enchant the Uru?", Wanda asked from her position opposite to me.
Giving the screens a quick once over to check the process in the Cradle, I answered.
"As soon as the process in the Cradle is finished, I have to fit in the plates and then it's your turn to enchant the Uru. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, as the Cradle has almost finished the printing.", I replied, though my focus stayed on the Cradle.
It was important not to miss the moment when the Cradle finished the process, as the Uru had to be set in place without much delay, before the whole thing could be enchanted.
Three minutes later, a short beep informed me that the process was finished and the Cradle opened itself. The side panels retracted themselves and only the bottom panel was left and on it laid 'it'.
I didn't wait any longer and directly engaged my Superspeed.
Grabbing and placing every plate of Uru in its correct position, I worked with incredible speed and precision. The last piece I set into place, was a helmet-like piece of Uru with tens of thousand of fine Uru wires. It had taken me days of constantly using my Superspeed to make these, though without my speed these days would have probably turned into months.
"Now, Wanda. The enchantment and tranfiguration.", I instructed calmly, knowing that my project could still fail at every moment now. At the end it had all been an idea and theories, reality was often different though.
Stepping forward, Wanda placed her hands on the Uru plated figure on the table, her Chaos Magic flaring up and just pouring into it with no end in sight.
Yes, the project I had been working on was very similar to Vision. In fact I had drawn a lot of inspiration from his birth for my project, though the differences were also enormous.
The body I tried to create wasn't for some world-saving entity, but for SILVER. The moment she had come to live and called me father, I knew she was meant for greater things than being confined to the virtual world.
In fact I had even programmed her to be more. Her independence, emotions and wishes all rooted in the lines of code I had written.
When she had started to call me father, it had all but confirmed my decision to build her a body. In my last life as Silver, I had basically given up on romantic love, but I had always wanted to be a father even then. Seeing a part of yourself grow and develop into a completely new being, this instinctual need for progeny, I understood that and I had wanted that.
This life as Pietro had drastically changed my view on romantic love, with Wanda becoming the most important to me. Though I still wanted to fulfill that almost forgotten dream of mine.
Of course I could have children with Wanda and I probably would have in the future, but SILVER was my first creation.
And as indicated by her name, she also represented one of my biggest regrets when it came to my last life. I had left nothing behind, being merely a drop of water in a cup full of it.
SILVER was my drop of ink, the visible trace of my existence.
She was indeed a very special existence for me and with the chance to truly bring her to 'life', I couldn't not do it.
Not only that, through Wanda's process of enchantment, SILVER's new form was also becoming part of Wanda and it made me incredibly content to be able to share this with her.
Her magic was also very much necessary, as SILVER's new form was vastly different than Vision's had been.
SILVER did not have an Infinity Stone as the core of her being. She was instead powered by an Arc Reactor like Tony's suits, though I made sure to upgrade it as much as possible and this power source could be switched out later on for something more powerful easily enough.
The problem that came with SILVER not having an Infinity Stone to draw her power from, was mainly that her physical body couldn't just change her appearance. She would forever look like an inorganic piece of machinery, something I did not want for her.
The solution to this problem came in the form of Uru and more importantly Wanda's Chaos Magic.
While magic enchantments could make Uru near indestructible, the most remarkable ability of this magic metal was its characteristic of being able to retain an enchantment infinitely. Only through destruction like it had happened to the Destroyer would Uru slowly lose its magic.
Still, enchanting Uru to look and feel like normal skin was practically impossible, at least for other magic users that was.
Wanda had Chaos Magic, a type of magic that inherently was able to defy the natural order of things. An enchantment powered by her Chaos Magic was very much able to transform Uru to look and feel like normal skin, and more importantly function as normal skin.
I wanted SILVER to be able to feel touch like any other being afterall.
The proof for my theory became visible before my eyes, as the small metallic form of SILVER's new body slowly changed in appearance under the unending stream of Chaos Magic.
From her little metallic toes up to her glittering metallic hair, she slowly changed into the form of a petite seven-year old with chestnut-coloured hair and ten perfectly normal little toes.
Wanda continued her effort until her forehead was drenched in sweat and her frame visibly shook from the toll it took on her body to enchant a metal that was commonly used to forge weapons for gods.
I stepped behind her and wrapped my hands around her waist, keeping her steady and engulfing her with my presence. I knew that she couldn't stop mid-way, as that would cause a backlash from the metal and her magic. So all I could do was wait and worry, while wiping the sweat from her brows with a small towel.
Another few minutes passed until finally the flow of magical energy stopped, making Wanda collapse and faint right then and there.
Engaging my Superspeed, I carried her to bed so she could rest and recover her energy.
Directly returning to my lab a moment later, my eyes were glued to SILVER's new form.
SILVER's conciousness had been transferred into this body while its brain had been constructed inside the Regeneration Cradle. The materials used for the rest of her body being mostly Vibranium, though it had been combined with a few other metals for specific body parts, to optimise the performance of this form.
The first thing I noticed were small movements in the extremities, her fingers and toes, before her eyes began to open slowly.
A pair of crystal-coloured irises meeting the other.
We stared at each other for one endless moment, before her mouth slowly opened and SILVER's childish voice rang in my ears.
…
"F-father?", SILVER asked unsure and hestitant, her new form being foreign and strange for her.
Her small hand rising in an attempt to make sure this wasn't just an illusion and pulled back mid-way in hestitance and apprehension.
SILVER had dreamed, as strange as this sounded, about being able to interact with her parents physically.
She knew that she wasn't like a human child, she couldn't touch or embrace her parents. They didn't have to help her dress in the morning or watch over her as she brushed her teeth.
And even though SILVER was the quiet kind, it still pained her that she could only watch her parents. She couldn't sit in her mother's lap, while she played her songs. She wasn't able to ride on her father's shoulders as they went on a walk.
So if this was a dream, she would rather not know and simply enjoy this illusion a little longer.
The next moment though her dream turned into reality, as her father took hold of her small hand, enveloping it in his own. The texture of his soft skin and the warmth of his hand sending her mind into a short disarray at these completely new sensations.
As her father helped her sit upright, he sat down on a small stool so that he could reach her eye-level. His other hand that didn't hold her own, raising up to gently cradle her cheek and for the first time SILVER could hear her father's voice with her very own ears.
"Silver Maximoff, my first-born daughter.", he whispered gently.
Her father's eyes were shining with pride, relief and love, as he said those words.
Silver herself didn't know how it was possible, but suddenly silent tears dripped from her eyes.
These silent tears turned into quiet sobbing, when she felt her father embracing her for the first time and his voice whispered soothing words to calm her down.
But how could she contain her tears of joy, when finally her dream had become reality.