#we’ve been waiting for this woman to explode since 2014

[stoat-party]

ECHO’S HAVING A PRETTY GOOD DAY

[sapphiremoonlighttoo]

Captain America: The Scarlet Winter

Summary: What if instead of Natasha, Steve’s partner in crime during the events of The Winter Soldier was young S.H.I.E.L.D agent Wanda Maximoff? AU where after the attack where she lost her parents, Wanda was rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D agents. 

Characters/Pairing: Steve Rogers/Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, Nick Fury, Bucky Barnes, Maria Hill

Word Count: 18.5k

Warnings: Canon typical violence, mild language

Notes: POV Wanda Maximoff, Follows the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well as the life of Wanda Maximoff. For the sake of this story, Stark Industries did not supply the weapons used for the attacks on Sokovia. *this is my first time posting a fic on tumblr so please bear with me*

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Prologue

[1999, Sokovia]

For a moment, there was nothing but the ringing in Wanda’s ears to remind her that she was still alive. The smoke was so thick, she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed. She wanted nothing more than to let it swallow her, to simply lay down and dream away the sweltering heat and the sounds of blasts that were slowly returning with her hearing. As the smoke cleared, she saw her home reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble, her parents nowhere to be seen. Although deep down she knew it was a futile thought, she imagined that her parents had made it out alive, that somehow they knew what was coming for them and would soon return to their children.

“Wanda! Wanda!”

Wanda’s trance was broken as Pietro pulled her away and under their parents' bed. Before she had time to react, a second bomb fell into the rubble only a few feet from the bed, causing her and her brother to jump. She braced for the impact of another explosion, holding on to Pietro as tight as she could. Pietro tried to convince Wanda to flee, but she knew there was no hope; eventually the bomb would go off.

For two days, the twins waited for the shell to explode. They whispered stories to each other, desperately trying to get their minds somewhere better, happier. Wanda knew that if they did not make a move, they would die here anyway with dry mouths and empty bellies.

“Over here! I think we’ve got survivors!” 

Wanda nudged her brother awake from his troubled sleep, as she saw the movement of several pairs of boots trudging around to the rubble, to the twins’ shelter. 

“Here! Here!” Wanda called out, using what little english she knew.

“I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay,” she heard a woman’s voice call out and she was pulled out from under the bed. She made sure her brother was safe before wrapping her arms around the stranger’s neck and drifting off into an uneasy sleep, tears still streaming their way down her face.

---

[2013, Sokovia]

Wanda knew what this mission was really for. It was a test of not only her tactical skills in the field, but a test of her emotional strength as well. She knew the dangers of becoming too emotionally involved in a mission, the way it made you a risk to yourself and others. She also knew this was why Fury had decided to grant her and Pietro this assignment. It was supposed to be a simple mission to gather intel. The problem was that this mission took place in her home country, where she and her brother had not been since they had been rescued from the fallout of the attack that killed her parents. S.H.I.E.L.D had been following rumors regarding the location of Loki’s lost Scepter as well as whispers of unethical human experimentation. 

As much as she had wanted to prove her strength, in the days approaching the mission she was overcome with anxiety and flooded with nightmares. However, when the time came to fly out to Sokovia, both her and Pietro had felt their training kick in and it became like any other assignment. Yet, this was not any other assignment. When the twins had arrived along with the rest of their S.H.I.E.L.D team, the group was swiftly outnumbered and the twins were separated from the team. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, the twins had officially been reported missing and many assumed them to be dead.

When they discovered a facility hidden deep in the woods, Wanda and Pietro believed that they were going to go back to Fury presenting their discoveries and finally be awarded the trust they deserved as well as the chance to take on more serious assignments. 

“Something seems wrong about this,” Wanda tried to warn Pietro as they walked deeper into what appeared to be an abandoned laboratory. Suddenly, a scream tore through the silence and Wanda immediately ran towards the sound. Wanda watched in horror as several scientists observed a woman collapse to the ground after coming in contact with what she recognized as the Scepter. The last thing she saw was the woman’s lifeless body before she was struck suddenly with a sharp pain and her vision went black.

---

“You can’t do this!” Wanda screamed as she banged her hands helplessly on the glass. 

“Touch the sample, or watch your brother die. We will have you, one way or another” One of the scientists spat back as a large guard held a gun to Pietro’s head.

She slowly stepped towards the Scepter, shaking with fear. The cerulean stone shot out of its place in the Scepter suddenly and seemed to flow to her like a magnet. She reached only a finger out to touch the stone and when she came in contact with it, it burst into a bright yellow flare in which she saw a vision of an unknown figure who overwhelmed her with their power, which she could feel coursing through her own body. 

---

Wanda’s eyes opened gradually. She could see several agents that she recognized, including Director Fury. She felt the slight shake of the familiar S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft.

“You’re safe, Wanda,” Fury said in a whisper, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. Wanda had never known Fury to be a comforting presence, or to speak so softly as this. Shouldn’t she be reprimanded for the way the mission had gone so wrong? Hadn’t she and Pietro failed Fury?

Pietro.

Wanda bolted up suddenly, a pit forming in her stomach and she stumbled around looking for any sign of her twin.

“Pietro!” She called out, her chest heaving, desperately searching for him. Wanda’s knees buckled and she fell to the cold metal floor of the plane. “How could you?” she cried out at Fury. If Pietro wasn’t with her, right beside her, then she realized that he was still there in the hands of those wretched men.

“We did what we could. There was no way we could get both of you out.”

“Is he alive?” Wanda demanded, hanging on to hope.

“Yes, but I’m afraid we have no idea where he is now. Another team was sent to do recon on the facility after we were able to rescue you. The lab was cleared out. All that was left were bodies.”

Wanda sensed the anger rising in her and at once a blast of energy left her body knocking down several crates of weapons and supplies as well as knocking out several other passengers. Wanda looked on in alarm and the damage she had caused and collapsed in burning sobs.

“It’s going to be okay, Wanda. It’s going to be okay.”

Chapter 1 - The Lemurian Star

[March 2014, Washington D.C]

Wanda woke suddenly, clutching her heaving chest and trying desperately to catch her breath. In her panic she had unintentionally blasted the framed photos and art prints off the walls of her apartment as well as cracking the vanity mirror of her nightstand. She had had the nightmare again. She was back in the rubble and destruction of her childhood home, except this time she was alone, trembling under that bed all by herself. She called out for her brother but it was no use; Pietro was nowhere to be found.

Wanda wrapped her arms around herself in a tight hug and patted both her shoulders lightly with her hands, taking deep breaths to calm herself as she had been taught to do. When she found herself to be focused she released her grip on her body and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She took in the mess that she had made of her bedroom and used the opportunity as a chance to practice her powers, which she had been training as part of her rehabilitation from the failed Sokovia mission. She focused her mind on a framed picture of her and Pietro that had fallen from the wall near her bedroom door, willing it to return to its home on the wall and guiding it with her hands. She marveled at her precision, returning each decoration and keepsake back to its spot. Not much good had come into her life in the past few months, with Pietro still missing and the endless stream of nightmares that kept her awake into the late hours of the night, but the powers. Wanda had never felt so powerful and capable and the constant training needed to fully wield her powers gave her something to take her mind off things, something to be proud of.

Wanda pulled herself out of bed and to the bathroom to get herself ready for the long day ahead. It was the day of her first mission since Pietro had gone missing. If Wanda could prove to Fury that she was prepared to be out in the field and that she could keep her powers in check, then she could take the search for Pietro into her own hands.

--- 

Wanda sat at her kitchen table sipping her tea as she went through the day’s itinerary. Her first objective was to pick up Steve Rogers and brief him on the night’s mission. Too inexperienced to take part in the battle for New York, she had only heard of the man through stories and gossip. The Living Legend, The Man Out of Time, Captain America. Although it wasn’t technically part of Fury’s directive, Wanda figured making Steve’s acquaintance would be a mission on all its own. She herself hadn’t had much experience in the way of social interaction lately and if she was really being honest she wasn’t the warmest of company before Pietro went missing. Now she was expected to make small talk with a man who spent 70 years frozen in the arctic. 

Wanda went back to her bedroom to gather her tactical gear, making sure she had everything prepared for the mission. If anything was to go wrong with the assignment, it would not be due to her sloppy preparation. She tried her best to steady her shaking hands as she placed weapons in their carriers. She headed to the front door of the apartment, taking a deep breath before carefully turning the knob and stepping out.

---

 Wanda took in the view of the city as she drove down the busy streets in her S.H.I.E.L.D appointed vehicle. The jet black corvette was a bit too flashy for her taste. It wasn’t hard for her to spot Steve along the path of the monument with his height and bulk overshadowing his companion. She pulled up next to the tree where the two men conversed in the shade.

“Mr. Rogers,” Wanda called out, “I’m Wanda Maximoff. I’m your ride.”

“Well isn’t it a wonderful day in our neighborhood, Mr. Rogers,” the other man chuckled, looking up at Steve from the base of the tree. Wanda laughed along weakly, her cheeks burning red.

“It is nice out today, now that you mention it,” Steve replied, missing the exchange between Wanda and the other man.

“I guess you do have quite a lot to catch up on,” the man remarked.

“Pleasure to meet you Wanda,” Steve said, meeting Wanda’s eyes for the first time. After a brief pause Steve continued,“Well, I guess we better get going. Thanks for the run, Sam.”

“Anytime you’re in the neighborhood, Rogers,” the man, Sam, said, giving Steve a small salute.

---

The gentle hum of the radio in the background was the only thing that kept Wanda from feeling the need to break the silence between her and Steve. After she explained the mission plan and objective, the two fell silent as they drove along steadily toward the rendezvous point. Wanda glanced over at Steve as he flipped through a small black notebook. Curiosity got the best of her, and she asked what it was for.

“There’s a lot you miss when you spend decades in the ice,” Steve chuckled lightly. “I’m trying to use this to keep up with all the recommendations I’ve been getting.”

“I see. Well I recommend you watch the Dick Van Dyke show. It’s black and white so it shouldn’t be too big of a shock for you. You’ve missed a lot of great TV sit-coms since you’ve been under,” Wanda explained, hoping that she hadn’t overstepped. She watched as Steve pulled a pencil from his pocket and carefully added the show to his list. Reassured by this, she continued, “I...I used to watch them with my family.”

“Used to? Not anymore?”

“Well...my parents passed a long time ago and a few months back my brother went missing after a failed mission,” Wanda explained, surprised by her willingness to share. She knew of course that he was a good man. He was America’s Golden Boy after all, but for the first time in a long while she felt comfortable in another person’s presence. She couldn’t remember the last time she had even mentioned her parents aloud to someone. 

“I’m sorry,” Steve put simply and Wanda knew that he truly meant it.

“They’re not as fun to watch alone anyways,” Wanda said with a timid smile.

“Maybe you could show them to me sometime...I haven’t really figured out the whole...technology thing yet. I’ve gotten used to people taking care of those things for me. I haven’t exactly had much time to learn.”

“Maybe I could,” Wanda replied, unable to conceal her smile.

---

“Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star.”

Wanda tried to stay focused on the mission ahead, attempting to dismiss the significance of it. As part of rehabilitation, she agreed not to use her powers until higher-ups in S.H.I.E.L.D were completely satisfied with her training. The world was changing faster than anyone could imagine and S.H.I.E.L.D was adapting to the world of the enhanced. She herself had been adapting to it too.

“So it’s not off course. It’s trespassing,” Wanada heard Steve remark, turning to look at her. He was clearly still wary of taking orders from S.H.I.E.L.D and although she owed her life to the organization, she understood. She couldn’t imagine it would be easy to take orders from just anyone, especially after war and the Battle of New York following that. After seeing the evils of this world, the evils outside this world, it must be hard to trust anyone.

“I’m sure they had a good reason,” Wanda said looking up at Steve. He simply nodded, turning back to Rumlow who was explaining the details of the assignment. She listened as Steve distributed his instructions to the team. He told her to stall the ship and wait for further instruction. Although she wanted him to trust her, she had been with S.H.I.E.L.D far longer than he had and she was given her own objective. Fury had sent her with this team to collect and download intel and that’s what she would do even if it went against Captain America’s orders. She couldn’t risk jeopardizing her chance of continuing field work. Not this time.

As the carrier reached the drop zone, the team secured communications and Wanda watched in awe as Steve jumped off into the cloudy night sky without a parachute. She put on her gear, took a deep breath and followed after him, with a parachute. Shortly after, Wanda landed near Steve, who had seemingly taken care of many of the pirates already, at the stern of the ship. She headed to the engine room, following Steve’s command. She may have had Fury’s directive to follow, but she wouldn’t risk the lives of the hostages or her team by keeping this ship running any longer. She took out several men, with the instinct and precision that could only come from years of practice. Although she had dreaded this mission, she had to admit that nothing was as exhilarating as being out in the field. She reached the ground floor of the engine room, hurrying over to shut it off so she could move on to the command center where the navigation systems would be; where the computers would be.

Wanda, what’s your status?...Status, Wanda.

A few more of the ship's crew cut her off before she could reach the engine controls. She stunned several of the men with electric batons which she pulled from her tool belt and took care of the rest with brute force. “Engine room secure,” Wanda replied over the comms. She weaved her way from the stern of the ship to the heart, finding the port to the command center through trial and error.

Wanda, Batroc’s on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages. Wanda.

Wanda paused for a moment and the thought of turning around briefly crossed her mind. She wondered if she was doing the right thing. If she completed this mission as Fury requested, gathering intel without Steve’s knowledge, she’d be able to take a huge step forward in the search for Pietro. She could be trusted again. But could Romlow protect the hostages on his own? She reasoned that, from what she could remember, the agent was competent enough and he did have the STRIKE team covering his tail. She connected the hard drive that she had been given to the ship's computer system and began to backup the data.

“What are you doing?”

Wanda jumped at the sound of Steve’s voice. She had been caught. She cursed under her breath and looked up from her station. 

“Backing up the hard drive,” she said, hoping that they could drop the conversation there.

“Rumlow needed your help,” Steve declared,”What the hell are you doing here?”

Wanda was taken aback by his tone. She’d only know this man for a few hours and in her book he hadn’t earned the right to reprimand her like a child. She was following orders and she knew what she was doing. She ignored him and continued in her task, knowing she wouldn’t be able to contain her irritation if she responded.

“You’re saving S.H.I.E.L.D intel,” he realized.

“Whatever I can.”

“Our mission is to rescue hostages!” Steve exclaimed.

“No, that’s your mission,” Wanda bit back, disconnecting the drive from the port. Her irritation turned to pure anger. She had spent years dedicating her life to becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, had spent the past few long months training in rehabilitation just to get back to the field and she was not going to be scolded by a man who joined the ranks like it was nothing, barking orders at people. She stood up tall, her face only a few inches from his. “You may be a captain, but you’re not mine.”

Wanda began to storm off when Steve grabbed her by the arm roughly.

“You just jeopardized this whole operation.”

Wanda pulled her arm from his hand and continued on. Suddenly Bartoc came to and hurtled what appeared to be a bomb in their direction. Steve immediately deflected the weapon with his shield, grabbing Wanda by the waist and launching them both through a window into one of the room’s offices. Wanda felt the heat of the explosion and the burst of glass behind them as they hit the ground. She groaned in pain, straightening her back against the wall of the office. Steve glanced over at her, both of them trying to catch their breath.

“That one’s on me,” Wanda conceded, feeling slightly guilty for only minutes ago insulting the man who had just saved her life.

“You’re damn right,” Steve replied, rushing off, leaving Wanda sitting on the floor. In a quick rush of rage exasperation, Wanda set off a blast of energy sending glass shards flying in different directions, knowing that no one would know she had used her power.

Chapter 2 - Trust No One

Wanda stepped into Fury’s office, taking in the view of D.C. It’d been a while since Wanda had been taking daily trips to the Triskelion and for the first time she had truly noticed the beauty of the structure. She walked over to Fury’s desk, where he sat turned toward the many windows, and placed the harddrive from the Lemurian Star onto it. She remained standing, gazing out the windows and wondering if she could one day earn one of the offices on this floor.

“You really got the old man’s star-spangled britches in a twist, Maximoff,” Fury scoffed.

“I was following orders,” Wanda returned.

“Apparently not his. Sit Maximoff, you’re making me tired.” Wanda took a seat in one of the chairs across from him. She looked at Fury with expectant eyes. “I know from experience that you have a problem with authority, but Rogers isn’t going anywhere anytime soon so you better make up or suck it up.” Wanda merely rolled her eyes, feeling the heat in her cheeks. She bit her tongue. She didn’t want to get into it with Fury; she just wanted to know if she had earned her spot back as a field agent.

“About the mission…” Wanda began.

“I know you want to join the search for your brother but frankly I don’t think you’re ready.”

“Is this about what Steve said because I promise you-”

“Maximoff, you and I both know you’ve had a rough couple of months. You can’t expect me to put complete faith in you after one mission, what with the powers and let’s not even start about this temper you’ve developed lately,” Fury answered.

“Sir, you know damn well I’m one of the best agents you’ve got. You’re the one who put me through half of my training!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Fury exclaimed, slamming his palms against his desk. “You’ve scared me half to death these past few months, Wanda. I won’t lose one of my best agents by putting you into the field before I’m absolutely certain you’re ready. And that’s all I have to say about that.”

Wanda turned to walk away before Fury could see the hot tears brimming to her eyes.

“We’re going to find Pietro, Wanda but I won’t risk your life too.”

---

The sun was starting to set in waves of reds and orange as the evening continued on. After leaving the Triskelion, Wanda had planned on going home. She had gotten all the way to her parking spot when she decided she just wasn’t ready to sit in the silence of her lonely apartment. The past few months had been a huge culture shock for Wanda. Despite the tragedy that she had faced, Wanda had always believed that she would never be alone. She wasn’t born alone after all. She was missing a piece of her puzzle. She was incomplete. She often found herself missing those nights when Pietro would come back to their two-bedroom apartment, trying to sneak in some girl as if Wanda wouldn’t be able to figure out what they were doing if only he opened the door oh so carefully, if only he tiptoed through their kitchenette and living room to the back hallway. She missed the times when Pietro would enlist her help to try and win over a girl by having her cook for their date, him pretending that it was all his expert skill. She missed the times when Pietro somehow sensed that she felt homesick for a time that hadn’t been their life for many years, when they would take out her box sets of her favorite sitcoms and stay up until they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer. Wanda wasn’t built to be alone.

Instead of heading up to her apartment, Wanda grabbed a sweater and her worn out jean jacket from the back seat of the car and nearly started to leave before slipping her S.H.I.E.L.D-issued handgun into an inside pocket of her sweater, just in case. She started her walk, not sure when and where it would end. She felt comfort looking in at the world from the outside. She walked by coffee shops and restaurants, watching the people through the windows. Their warmth radiated out to her as they held their warm drinks and chatted with each other from across tables, sharing stories and complaining about their days.

She stayed in the National Mall area as she continued her walk, watching tourists exiting the museum and admiring the monuments in the warm glow of sundown. She finally grew tired of walking and found a solitary spot under a large oak outside the National Museum of American History. For the first time in a long time, she let her tears flow freely, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees. 

The worst part of it all was that she knew Fury was right. Leading any team to search for Pietro was a risk on her part. There was no way that she would be able to separate herself from these emotions that had weighed her down for so long and she hated herself for it. She didn’t know how but she knew with everything she had that Pietro was still out there. But alive doesn’t always mean safe and if he was in good condition on his own somewhere, he would’ve already reached out to her. The more she thought about what Pietro's life might’ve been like the last few months, the more she imagined how hurt he would be when he is finally rescued and the first face that he sees isn’t hers. 

Within her pocket, Wanda’s phone began to buzz. She wiped her eyes with the rough sleeve of her jean jacket and pulled out her phone. With her reflection staring back at her from the dark screen, she realized that it wasn’t her personal phone but a backup burner phone that Fury had given her for emergencies only. Immediately she shot up onto her feet, searching the perimeter for any sign of danger, even looking up to the sky just in case. Never once had Fury used the emergency contact but she carried it with her everywhere, deciding not to risk the chances of one day missing a life or death message. She hadn’t expected that day to be today. Typing in the password, Wanda opened the burner finding only a text with coordinates plainly signed “-F”

--

It looked like any other apartment building on the blocks of D.C, but Wanda knew better. This was the apartment S.H.I.E.L.D had set Steve up in after the Battle of New York. She recognized it from Steve’s file which she had managed to get off Fury a few days prior to the Lemurian Star mission. In Wanda’s book, the building was perfectly nondescript for hiding a famed super-soldier. If only she could remember what damn floor he lived on. 3? 4? Any extra moment spent deliberating could mean life or death. Wanda decided on 4 and set into a sprint up the stairs from the lobby. She hoped that Steve was safe. She couldn’t live with herself if the last words she said to the man were in anger. 

As she approached the fourth floor, she heard the crack of bullets ring out above her. Pulling her handgun from the inside pocket of her sweater, Wanda exited the stairwell on the fourth floor. She headed straight for the apartment she believed the commotion had come from, kicking down the door.

“Mr. Rogers?” Wanda called, holding her gun in Weaver Stance, prepared to fire at a moment's notice. Before she had the chance to listen for a response, her knees buckled beneath her as she laid eyes on a wounded Fury. “Fury, Fury...Nick!”

“Wanda,” Steve started.

“Foxtrot is down, he’s unresponsive. I need EMTS,” Wanda spoke into her phone before Steve could finish, simultaneously checking Fury’s pulse. 

“Do we have a 20 on the shooter?” the agent on the phone responded.

“Tell him I’m in pursuit,” Steve called out, already moving before Wanda had the chance to think. Wanda placed her gun on the floor, abandoning protocol and placing pressure on Fury’s wounds with her hands. 

“It’s going to be okay, Nick. It’s going to be okay.”

--

Wrapping her arms tight around herself, Wanda stood frozen in shock looking through the window to the operating room as surgeons stitched together the man who she had looked up to for more than half of her life. She didn’t move, didn’t even shift her eyes from Fury as she felt a figure come to stand beside her.

“Is he going to make it?” Steve asked, nearly out of breath.

“I..I don’t...I don’t know,” Wanda replied, looking up into Steve’s eyes, feeling the tears starting to brim on her own. She glanced away quickly, shifting her eyes to the floor. Wanda felt the hesitant touch of Steve’s strong hand as he placed it on her shoulder, squeezing lightly.

“Tell me about the shooter,” she said flatly, looking up once again.

“He’s fast. Strong. Had a metal arm.”

“A metal arm…” Wanda murmured under her breath, Steve’s comment striking a nerve. Another set of footsteps began to approach and Wanda broke her stare to see Commander Maria Hill. “Ballistics?” Wanda asked her immediately, maintaining her monotone, trying her best not to break.

“Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable.”

“Soviet-made,” Wanda replied, recognizing the eerie pattern. 

Suddenly, the monitors within the operating room began their alarm. Wanda stood speechless, gripping onto the edge of the viewing window so hard her knuckles were white. 

Don’t do this to me, Nick

’Pulse? Negative!

Don’t do this to me, Nick. Don’t do this to me.

Time of death, 1:03a.m 

Chapter 3 - On the Run

Wanda stood silently, staring down at her mentor, her leader, her family. A cool numbness radiated throughout her body. She knew better than anyone how life could change in a matter of minutes. Still, it seemed like her heart continued to split into more and more pieces. From her grief, anger began to rise, directing itself at the presence behind her. Steve had been the last person to see Fury alive. If Fury knew he was in danger then why had he gone to Steve and not her? 

“I need to take him.”

Wanda jumped at the sound of Maria’s voice, breaking the whirlpool of her thoughts. She gripped the metal of the gurney tightly, bending over to take a deep breath before placing her hand lightly on Fury’s forehead. Keeping her composure, Wanda took a final look at Fury’s face.

“Wanda,” Steve called lightly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Resentment rose within her again, and Wanda stormed off, shrugging away from Steve’s touch.

“Wanda!” Steve repeated, falling her into the hall.

“Why was Fury in your apartment?” Wanda bit back.

“I don’t know.”

After years of training and increased intuition from her powers, Wanda recognized a liar faster than any agent she knew but she wouldn’t need any of that to recognize that Steve was hiding something, something big. Maybe she hadn’t given him much reason to trust her, but if it had something to do with Fury then it had everything to do with her. Before she could respond, Wanda saw Agent Rumlow approaching from down the hall. 

“Cap, they want you back at S.H.I.E.L.D,” Rumlow interjected.

“Yeah, give me a second.”

“They want you now.”

“Okay,” Steve responded sharply, turning back to Wanda expectantly. 

“You’re a terrible liar,” Wanda sneered, letting her tears flow freely and tilting her head indignantly up at him. “Why don’t you go save the day and leave me alone.” 

Before she reached the end of the hallway where the elevator was, Wanda felt her phone ping inside her pocket and stopped against the nearest wall to check. She didn’t get a chance to check the message before something caught her. Down the hall where she had been only moments before, Steve was messing with a vending machine that had seemingly been under repair. To make sure he hadn’t seen her watching him, Wanda ducked down the nearest hallway waiting until she figured Steve had continued on. Peeking her head back into the main hallway, she saw Steve turning at the other end of the hall. She walked all the way back down, stopping in front of the vending machine. 

It took her a moment before she caught what was out of place. Hidden behind two packs of bubblegum, the silver edge of a thumb drive peeked through. Looking around first to make sure she wasn’t seen, Wanda focused her mind on the thumb drive guarding it out of it’s spot with the swipe of her hands in the air and knocking the packs of gum to the bottom of the machine in the process. She pocketed both the drive and the gum, spotting a bench down the hall where she could wait for Steve’s return.

---

It hadn’t been long before Wanda was woken from a light sleep with a constant vibration of her phone. She pulled it from her pocket and opened it to see an active alert from S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, was now a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. Wanda had had her fair share of issues with the man within the past few days but he was hardly a criminal. Although it was hard for her to accept, Fury had clearly trusted Steve in his final moments. From her peripheral, Wanda spotted a tall figure sneaking down the hall in a dark blue hoodie. She stood up, placing her phone back in her pocket as the figure approached the vending machine. 

“You look rough,” Wanda remarked from behind Steve, chewing a piece of gum. Steve turned to face her. Wanda expected him to ask about the drive but suddenly he grabbed onto her arm roughly, for a second time in two days, and dragged her into what she assumed was a break room, letting her back hit the wall painfully.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded.

“Safe.”

“Do better,” he challenged.

“Where did you get it?” Wanda pushed.

“Why would I tell you?”

Wanda scoffed. “Fury gave it to you. Why?” she questioned, barely trying to conceal her hurt.

“What’s on it?”

“I don’t know,” Wanda huffed.

“Stop lying!” Steve yelled, shaking her with a tight grip on both of her arms.

“You wanna talk to me about lying? You’re the fugitive!” she cried in disbelief. She was many things but she wasn’t a liar. He wanted the truth and she had given it. Plus, she hadn’t had any time to check the drive anyway. She didn’t want to risk missing him come back for it.

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn’t you?”

“We’re still on that?” Wanda jeered. “Well...it makes sense! The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you.”

“I’m not gonna ask you again!” Steve threatened, pushing her into the wall once more.

“I know who killed Fury,” Wanda confessed, knowing it would shut him up. It had clicked for her back at the operating room. The soviet slugs, the metal arm. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists,” Wanda continued. “The ones who do call him the Winter soldier...he’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years.”

“So he’s a ghost story,” Steve retorted, finally letting up.

“Five years ago, one of my first missions, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went strong over a cliff,” Wanda recalled shakily, Steve’s stare boring into her. “I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him, straight through me.” She finished, pulling up the edge of her shirt to show Steve the wound. “Soviet slug. No rifling. Just like Maria said. Bye Bye Bikinis.”

“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.”

Wanda couldn’t help but blush, hiding it with a smirk. So that’s how it was.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know, I’ve tried,” she added. “Like you said, he’s a ghost story.” Wanda finished, handing Steve the drive. She figured the two of them were finally on common ground. Although, she wasn’t about to let him out of her sight. He grabbed in lightly from her hand, missing all the force he had used only moments ago.

“Well, let’s find out what the ghost wants.”

---

After a quick stop back at Wanda’s apartment to pick up some other disguise pieces, Wanda guided Steve through the mall in a brisk walk heading towards the electronics outlet. It was a strange feeling for her to be running away from S.H.I.E.L.D rather than towards it. Grabbing him by the arm, Wanda directed Steve into the store and headed straight for the laptop.

“The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D will know exactly where we are,” Wanda explained, feeling the urgency tighten in her chest. She’d never confess it but even after all her time in the agency, working under time constraints made her nauseous.

“How much time will we have?” Steve questioned, keeping a consistent scan on their perimeter.

“About nine minutes from...now,” Wanda replied, plugging the drive into the laptop she had been fiddling with. She scanned through the files until ‘Lemurian Star’ caught her eye. The file brought the satellite intel that she had downloaded off the ship. “Fury was right about that ship,” Wanda declared, trying to keep her voice steady. “Somebody’s trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands.”

“Can you override it?”

“The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me,” Wanda confessed, playing tug-of-war with the system. “Slightly.” She knew it couldn't be more than a few minutes before a whole team would be making their way towards the store. Typing faster, she tried her best to pick up the speed, her heartbeat doing the same. “I’m going to try running a tracer.” When Steve gave her a confused glance she continued, “This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D developed to track hostile malware, so if we can’t read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from.”

“Can I help you guys with anything?”

Wanda jumped, quickly straightening herself back up again when she realized it was only an employee, not a STRIKE agent. They would need a cover. She glanced at Steve who had taken on a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Cursing herself silently, she went with the first thing that came to mind.

“Oh, no. My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations,” Wanda explained, putting on her best airhead voice and giving Steve an affectionate shake of the shoulders. 

“Right...we’re getting married,” Steve added with a goofy smile. Wanda concealed a laugh. He may have been a good fighter, but he wasn’t much of an actor. She returned back to the laptop, trying to get a read on the location of the file.

“Congratulations,” the employee beamed, “Where are you guys thinking about going?” Wanda grimaced as Steve looked over her shoulder at the location.

“New Jersey,” he replied.

“Oh,” the employee nodded, clearly trying to hide his confusion. Nothing says romance like spray tans and hoagies. There was a brief pause and Wanda looked up at the pair of men. The employee was staring at Steve now, seemingly deep in thought. Shit. They did not need to be slowed down by a Captain America fanboy.

“I have the exact same glasses,” he finally added. Wanda released the breath she had been holding.

“Wow, you two are practically twins,” she remarked, returning her focus to the screen.

“Yeah, I wish,” the man said, admiring Steve. “Specimen,” he added. “If you guys need anything, I’ve been Aaron.”

“Thank you.” As Aaron walked away, Steve checked his watch. “You said nine minutes, come on,” he urged.

“Relax,” she cooed, trying not to feed off his nerves. She almost had everything they needed anyway. “Got it.” Steve leaned in as the location narrowed itself. “You know it?” Wanda asked, picking up on his surprise.

“I used to,” he replied grimly. “Let’s go.” He grabbed the drive from the port and started walking quickly. Now that they had the location, she felt oddly safe. Maybe Steve was worth having around. Even if he had been upset with her, Wanda knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. 

They returned to their brisk walking pace as Steve tried to covertly get a run down of what they were facing. Wanda had noticed the darkly dressed men and women who were trying a little too hard to blend in. It was ironic how only days ago they had been her allies but now her enemies. 

“Standard tac team,” Steve analyzed. “Two behind, two across and two coming right at us. If they make us, I’ll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro.” Wanda’s eyes widened. She had a distraction in mind but she didn’t appreciate where her instincts were taking her today.

“Shut up and put your arm around me. Laugh at something I said,” Wanda commanded curtly.

“What?”

“Do it,” she pressed. He put a warm arm around her, letting out a chuckle. She tried not to take note of it, but after months of being alone, the gentle contact made her feel content, if only for a moment. Steve wasn’t such terrible company. When she saw the dark boots of the agent pass by, she lifted her head once again, watching for the next threat. Steve kept his arm around as he scanned. They rounded a corner and took the escalator heading downward to the lower floor. Wanda spotted Rumlow heading up the escalator opposite to them and immediately spun around to face Steve. She gulped as a pit formed in her stomach. If they didn’t want to get caught she would have to act quickly but at this point she was probably crossing a line. She’d rather be embarrassed and alive than comfortable and dead.

“Kiss me,” Wanda demanded.

“What?”

“Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable,” she explained, calling back to her training.

“Yes, they do,” Steve pressed. Quickly, she grabbed the sides of his face with her hands and pressed her lips to his. They didn’t have any more time to deliberate. Steve placed his hands on her waist in response and she figured that they looked like any other couple being a little too touchy in the mall. Wanda held their position until she felt the other escalator had traveled far enough ahead for Rumlow to be heading through the next floor. She let go of Steve and turned to take the next few steps down the escalator, hiding a blush. 

--- 

They were travelling down a rural road, when Wanda caught sight of the bright blue signing welcoming them to the state of New Jersey. She was fairly surprised at the scenery the state had to offer. It was the Garden State after all, but she hadn’t been away from the city well, ever. In all the years since her and Pietro had been taken to New York, she hadn’t even really considered leaving. It’s not like she’d had many vacations growing up with her parents working to stay afloat but the thought still surprised her. It may not have been much but she wished Pietro was here now to see it. 

Wanda glanced over at Steve in the driver’s seat. They hadn’t said much since getting out of the mall. They had made their way out and into the corresponding garage, where Steve had hotwired the blue pickup they were now travelling in.

“Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” she said, breaking the silence and her stare at the forest outside. 

“Nazi Germany,” he replied with a smirk. She gave a little hum, remembering that the man sitting beside her was technically old enough to be her grandfather. “And we’re borrowing,” he added. Wanda’s mind returned to the mall.

“Look...I, um, hope I didn’t cross any lines back there,” she alluded, looking down at her hands in her lap. Steve merely kept his gaze on the road ahead. “I mean with uh, kissing you and stuff,” she continued, grimacing but unable to bring herself back. “In training we’re taught to-”

“It’s okay Wanda, really,” Steve returned kindly. He gave her a forgiving look and although she would still be embarrassed she at least felt at ease.

“Was that...was that your first kiss since 1945?” she couldn’t help but ask, biting back a laugh.

“That bad, huh?”

“I didn’t say that!” she giggled.

“Well, it kinda sounds like that’s what you’re saying,” he insisted teasingly. 

“No, I didn’t. I just wondered how much...practice you’ve had,” she said, full on laughing.

“You don’t need practice!”

“Everybody needs practice.”

“It was not my first kiss since 1945. I’m 95, I’m not dead,” he conceded. A comfortable silence returned for a moment.

“Nobody special, though?” she asked, realizing for the first time just how lonely he must be. He scoffed.

“Believe it or not, it’s kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience.”

Wanda didn’t know what to say to that. Since she met him all she could think about was Captain America, the hero but she hadn’t really thought about Steve Rogers. When he went home at the end of the day, he was alone. The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D, they couldn’t be family to him. His family was long gone. Just like hers. Maybe they had more in common than she’d thought. What without word from Pietro and Fury gone, who did she have? She regretted being so rude to Steve. It was selfish, really. She had been so mad at him because he had no idea what she was fighting for, what she was going through, when all the time she hadn’t even considered what had happened to him. They were both just two lonely people, left with so much power and yet no one left to fight for.

“I’m sorry,” Wanda said simply, “for the way I acted. You didn’t deserve it.”

“You know, it’s kind of hard to trust someone, when you don’t know who that someone really is.”

“Who do you want me to be?” she considered.

“How about a friend?” he replied, looking deep into her eyes.

“I could do that,” she said nodding, unable to help the tears that were welling in her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Chapter 4 -  Out of Time

It wasn’t long before they arrived at a decrepit, seemingly abandoned military base camp. Wanda stepped out of the car with her tracker, trying to make sure this was the right place. The camp was enclosed by a rusty wire fence, the structures inside crumbling with their last coat of paint  peeling away. It was difficult for her to imagine Steve being there back when the place was still in its prime. It was hard to imagine the place ever being in good shape.

“This is it,” Steve acknowledged, though not confidently.

“The file came from these coordinates,” Wanda replied, shrugging.

“So did I.”

Next to several faded stop signs posted on the front gate, there was a sign disclosing the name of the camp. Camp Leigh, U.S. Army Restricted Area. The place was giving Wanda the creeps. It wasn’t a large camp but she never understood how people could just abandon places.

As they explored the camp, Wanda scanned for the source of the file, it grew dark and a cool breeze passed through the night air. The sounds of animals in the surrounding forest only made the eerie atmosphere all the more frightening. 

“This camp is where I trained,” Steve had explained. The concerned look on Steve’s face made Wanda feel even more uneasy. It startled her how quickly he had become a foundation for her and if he was taken aback by this place then he must have felt the same as her. Not to mention this place had once been all he knew.

“Change much?” Wanda inquired, unable to hide the chill running through her. Steve peeled off his jacket and tossed it over to her gently. 

“A little,” he replied wearily. She wasn’t sure if he was frightened or just sad, but it looked as if he was seeing a ghost. Wanda pulled on his jacket, feeling ridiculous about how large it was on her. She kept in good shape but not enough to keep up with a super-soldier. Wrapping her arms around herself, Wanda gave Steve some space and circled back to some of the buildings they had already scanned through. A little while later, Wanda caught back up with Steve who had taken a seat on the steps leading up to one of the barracks, staring down at his feet.

“This is a dead end,” Wanda called out, putting away the scanner and taking a seat next to Steve on the steps, “Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off.” He merely nodded, looking up from the step where he was fiddling with a few pebbles. As he looked up he seemed to catch on to something in the distance. 

“What is it?” Wanda asked. Steve stood up, offering her his hand to help her. Once she was on her feet, he began walking quickly towards a bunker she had been past on her last walkthrough. 

“Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 feet of the barracks,” Steve explained, “This building’s in the wrong place.” If they hadn’t been together, Wanda would have given up. He was useful, she’d give him that. With his shield, Steve smashed the padlock on the entrance to the bunker, allowing them passage. The entrance led straight to a flight of stairs heading downward. When they reached what appeared to be the main floor, Wanda dragged her hand along the walls searching for a power switch. She assumed that because the file had come from the bunker recently enough to get a location, that there would still be electricity down there. Only a few minutes later, Wanda found a switch and when she flipped it, the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling sputtered to life revealing a S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem adorned on the far wall.

“This is S.H.I.E.L.D,” Wanda gaped.

“Maybe where it started,” Steve returned, taking in the office set up around them. Wanda strided over to the main wall and traced the eagle logo with a few of her fingers. To be part of something like S.H.I.E.L.D meant more to her than she could ever express to another human being, even Pietro. She was part of something bigger than herself, something important. Looking over at Steve, she hoped that one day she’d be remembered for all the good that she had done, just like him. A hero.

Side by side, they entered what was once, Wanda assumed, the mail room for the HQ.

“Tony Stark’s father,” Wanda marveled at the framed black and white portraits sitting crooked on the wall still after all those years.

“Howard.”

 Another man and woman adorned the opposite sides of Howard Stark.

“Who’s the girl?” asked Wanda. She watched Steve eye the portrait thoughtfully, waiting for his answer but instead, with one last glance, he moved on. Not wanting to push, Wanda did the same.

“If you’re already working in a secret office,” Steve called out, beginning to pull on one of the mail shelves, “why do you need to hide the elevator?” Wanda stared forward at the steel double doors. Working with S.H.I.E.L.D for years meant that Wanda had seen a lot of odd things, but somehow this seemed like something out of an old spy movie. She supposed those tropes had to have come from somewhere. Next to the double doors, she noticed a keypad. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the scanner which then identified the most used keys until they could configure a pattern. Carefully, hoping there wasn’t a failsafe, Wanda entered the codes until the elevator doors glided open with a ding. Steve gave her a brief reassuring glance before leading the way into the elevator.

When they reached the bottom floor, they were met with complete darkness. As they cautiously walked forward, the elevator doors shut behind them. It didn’t look to Wanda like there was any going back now. The unnerving atmosphere she had felt outside seemed to walk in with them. For a brief moment, she considered using her powers to shine some light, a trick she learned one night during a big storm, when the power had been knocked out in her apartment building. It seemed like every few weeks she discovered a new hidden talent. But she wasn’t sure if it was the right time to share it with Steve. It was a secret she hadn’t realized she was keeping but it almost felt wrong to reveal it. Plus, she wasn’t completely sure how much more helpful she could be. Or how much more harmful she could be for that matter.

The only source of light in the room seemed to be coming from several computers at the center of it and as they approached, overhead lights groaned to life above them. Something knew they were there, Wanda realized. With the lights fully on, she could see they were surrounded by various outdated computer systems. Several of the monitors almost seemed to be staring.

“This can’t be the data point,” Wanda said in disbelief. “This technology is ancient.” She glanced back at Steve, giving an uncertain chuckle. Before she could suggest they find a way out of there, Wanda noticed a port fit for USBs, which stuck out like a fish out of water amongst the other machines. She hesitated, holding the drive Fury had protected above the dock. Giving a glance back to Steve, she inserted the drive and the machines around them flickered. More overhead lights revealed rows and rows of ancient computers.

‘Initiate System?’ a robotic voice called out to them. Steve looked just as scared as Wanda felt, so she took the lead for the both of them and stepped up to the main monitor. She typed out yes and took a step back, waiting. The noise of the systems firing around them filled the room. Bright green pixels snaked across the main monitor, forming what was unmistakably some sort of face.

‘Rogers, Steven,’ it spoke in an accented voice, ‘Born 1918.’ They both watched as a camera traced a path from Steve to Wanda. ‘Maximoff, Wanda, born 1989.’

   “It’s some kind of recording,” Wanda mumbled, fiddling with her hands. She didn’t like how it was watching them. It was too uncanny.

‘I am not a recording, Fraeulein,’ the computer called back, causing Wanda to jump. So it was listening too. 

‘I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am.’

She looked at the face presented at the screen and then back at Steve. Wanda wanted to leave more and more by the second.

“Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years,” Steve explained, snaking around the system.

‘First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving, on 200 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain.”

“How did you get here?” Steve demanded.

‘Invited.’

Wanda didn’t like the sound of that. Pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together in her brain. She thought back to what she had learned about S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course there was no S.H.I.E.L.D history 101, but she had listened to Fury’s retelling of early S.H.I.E.L.D operations more than Pietro ever had. It almost became like a game for her, to see how much Fury was willing to tell.

“It was Operation Paperclip after World War II,” Wanda recalled, “S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic value.” Although this wasn’t what she had envisioned when Fury had described it to her. The operation seemed noble, like an outreach between countries but this, this seemed malignant.

‘They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.’ The pit in Wanda’s stomach grew as Zola continued on.

“Hydra died with the Red Skull,” Steve asserted. Another story Wanda had only ever overheard. But that seemed ancient and now, it was happening right in front of her. There was no way anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D had known about this. They would've torn down this place years ago.

‘Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.’

“Prove it,” Steve challenged.

‘Accessing archive’

Wanda watched in horror at the presentation that Zola had splayed across the screen. He, it continued its explanation on Hydra and its revival within S.H.I.E.L.D. With every new piece of information Wanda shook her head more. She couldn’t possibly believe that something like this could’ve caused this much destruction, this much pain, and gone on for so long under the nose of the organization she owed her life to.

“That’s impossible! S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you!” Wanda cried as images of the Winter Soldier splashed across the screen.

‘Accidents will happen.’

At the sight of a news article depicting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths and the following image of Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D identification photos with the word “deceased” crudely written across it, Wanda turned suddenly clutching her stomach. She was going to be sick. Everything that she had known, everything she had done, was only a stepping stone for the evils of this world to take over. 

‘Once the purification process is complete, Hydra’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum.’

At that, Steve launchd his bare fist against the monitor, shattering the screen to pieces. Immediately, Zola formed again on a smaller monitor.

“What’s on this drive?” Steve roared, slipping a protective arm around Wanda to keep her steady. The room was beginning to spin around her. She could barely hear Zola now over the pounding of her heart in her ears.

‘Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear.’

Wanda’s head snapped up to Steve as panic fully filled her. Heavy metal doors closed shut around the elevator they had entered from. Steve tried and failed to keep them open by throwing his shield which simply ricocheted back towards them. A steady beeping began to sound from Wanda’s pocket and she pulled out her scanner.

“Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops,” Wanda stammered, trying to steady herself. Think Wanda, think.

“Who fired it?” he implored.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.”

‘I’m afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it. It’s better this way. We are, both of us, out of time.’

Wanda snatched the drive out of the dock and ran over to Steve as he pulled a grate out of the floor. As Steve grabbed her around the waist, she faced the opposite direction, imagined it and created a force field of wispy scarlet energy around them. Steve dragged both of them down below the floors as the blast went off, crumbling the building to bits around them and Wanda held on with all her force to keep them from getting crushed. The ricochet of debris off the power field subsided as Wanda’s vision went black.

‘Wanda, Wanda! It’s going to go off, we have to go! It’ll kill us, Wanda! Sestra!’

Chapter 5 - Stitches

When Wanda woke, kicking and screaming, she found herself enveloped tightly in Steve’s arms. 

“We’re out Wanda! You’re okay!” Steve consoled her, “We’re almost back to the car. You’re going to be okay.”

It took her a few moments to remember where they were; what they had learned. When the darkness hit her, she could’ve sworn she was back in that smoldering apartment building, clutching onto her brother. She may have lived it night after night for many years but every time the terror filled her like it was brand new. And maybe it was. Maybe it did only get worse. 

“Breathe Wanda, breathe,” Steve murmured. Wanda looked up at him, his face covered in soot. He looked weathered and beaten down. She could only imagine how she looked. There was a warm feeling travelling towards her left eye and as she reached to touch she found dark rivulets of blood coming from her forehead. Wanda reached up to grip Steve’s shoulder and nestled herself further into his chest.

When they reached the car, Steve placed Wanda carefully into the passenger seat, taking off what was left of his hoodie to ball it up and press it to her forehead. As he started to leave, Wanda grabbed on to his hand. She didn’t know what she could say or what to think, she just gripped his hand tightly, not wanting to let go, to be alone. He crouched down by the side of the car, wrapping his other hand around both of theirs and squeezing gently.

“Where will we go?” Wanda quavered, her tears creating lines on her ash covered face. There was a brief silence as the wind travelled through the night air, filling the space between them.

“We’ve got a friend.”

---

By the time they reached Sam’s front door, daylight had broken again. Steve knocked while Wanda kept herself steady against him. They drove straight through the rest of the night, not knowing how closely they might be tracked. Steve had told Wanda about the jets and the team of agents that had come looking for them as he carried her from what was left of the bunker.

“Hey, man,” Sam greeted cautiously.

“I’m sorry about this,” Steve confessed, “We need a place to lay low.”

“Everyone we know is trying to kill us,” Wanda added grimly.

“Not everyone.”

---

Wanda stepped out of the shower, steam swirling around her as she covered her goosebump-ridden skin with a clean, fluffy towel. Sam was kind enough to let both her and Steve get themselves cleaned up. Steve had taken the shower in Sam’s en suite bathroom while she had taken the one connected to the small guest bedroom. Taking the showerhead from its position on the wall, Wanda rinsed the rest of the ash and blood down the drain, making sure not to leave Sam’s bathroom dirty. She walked over to the mirror, wiped the steam off with a towel and stared at her reflection, specifically eyeing the large wound on her forehead. Sam was also kind enough to provide her with everything she needed for a stitch job, sterilized needle at all. She picked up the needle, spun it around in her hand and placed it back down into the medical kit.

It was on those warm October nights that her mother had taught her to sew. Even though she was coming home from long hours of work, she would come through the door presenting whatever fabric she was able to get from surplus to Wanda. They sat together under the warm lamp light and sewed small dresses or blouses. Sometimes, when she was able to get her hands on it, her mother would bring home felt and cotton to make little dolls or stuffed animals. Long gone now, Wanda could still remember all the names she had given to the toys they made together. She swore she could still smell the scent of her mother’s lavender perfume.

Bracing herself, Wanda picked up the needle once more, hesitating at the edge of the wound before pushing the needle into her skin. When the wound was sutured shut, she carefully placed a long, thin bandage over it, cleaned up and packaged the kit. After returning the kit to the medicine cabinet where she had watched Sam grab it from, she stood in front of the mirror once again, her hands gripping the counter, her upper body leaned toward the mirror.

She knew that there was no point in fighting her emotions. She knew that there were just times that you couldn’t help but react the way you did. She knew that anyone would be absolutely terrified to nearly be blown to pieces. But still, she was ashamed. And she was ashamed that she was ashamed. She hadn’t wanted Steve to see her like that. She hadn’t ever wanted anyone to see her like that. 

And now her secret was out. There was no denying that her power had managed to keep them alive but she didn’t know if she could even do it again. Even though it had saved their lives, now more than ever she wished that she could just be normal. Surely she was tough enough to fight her way through without any special help.

And what were they going to do now? The ground had crumbled from beneath her feet once again. Everything she had known for more than a decade was a lie. She supposed at least if there was anything she knew how to do, it was to adapt.

Wanda pulled on her wrinkled black tank and dust covered jeans and made her way out of the bathroom. Looking up from drying her hair with a towel, she was startled to see Steve sitting there on the twin bed. She turned to head back into the bathroom when Steve called out to her.

“You okay?” he asked, a look of pity in his eyes. She felt her cheeks burn and she almost snapped at him. She didn’t want anybody's pity. But they had been through more in the past few days together than she had been through with anyone but Pietro. Maybe it wasn’t pity but empathy. And so what if he had seen her break down? She had saved their lives after all and if that wasn’t tough then she didn’t know what was. But maybe, just maybe, she didn’t have to be tough for him.

“Sit,” he said, gesturing to the twin bed across from him. Wanda walked over to the bed and sat, looking down at the towel she gripped tightly in her arms. “What’s going on?” Steve asked, seeing through her. He leaned closer to her, looking into her eyes.

“It’s just that...S.H.I.E.L.D...they saved me. I don’t understand how this could be real,” she confessed, flicking her eyes up to meet his gaze. He nodded and when he didn’t respond, Wanda continued, “When I was younger, my parents were killed in a bombing. It nearly took out our whole apartment building but my twin brother, Pietro and I were able to make it out after S.H.I.E.L.D agents came to inspect the incident,” she explained. The rest continued to pour out, her life in a foster care system connected to S.H.I.E.L.D, her training, her time as an agent, even up to the Sokovia mission and her powers. Whenever she hesitated, he simply nodded reassuringly, waiting for her to continue and when he was confused, he asked her to explain and then gave her the space to continue. A weight was finally lifted from Wanda’s shoulders. She had never told anyone else all that she had told Steve.

“I owe you. For pulling me out of there,” Wanda vowed.

“It’s okay. Plus, I couldn’t have pulled you out if you hadn’t saved me first. I’d say we’re even on that,” he replied with a light chuckle.

“Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing,” Wanda remarked, hoping she had given him the space to talk if he needed.

“Well I guess I just like to know who I’m fighting,” Steve answered, leaning back against the wall with a smirk. They held each other's eyes for a moment, until Wanda broke their stare.

“I made breakfast,” Sam called, entering the doorway, “If you guys eat that sort of thing.”

---

“So, the question is, who at S.H.I.E.L.D could launch a domestic missile strike?” Wanda posed as Sam scraped scrambled eggs onto her plate. “By any chance, do you happen to have some paprika?” she whispered to Sam. He placed a bottle of the spice on the table and gave her a wink. She closed her hands together in a silent thank you.

“Pierce,” Steve answered.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Wanda groaned in between a bite of toast. Steve chuckled at her crumb-covered face and she blushed.

“But he’s not working alone,” Steve continued, “Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.”

“So was Jasper Sitwell,” Wanda recognized, recalling his name from the list of hostages. Steve looked over to her, seeming to make the connection.

“So, the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a S.H.I.E.L.D officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t,” Sam replied, walking over to place something in front of them on the table.

“What’s this?” Steve inquired.

“Call it a resume,” Sam answered. Steve grabbed the file off the table and Wanda stood from her chair to look at it over Steve’s shoulder.

“Is this Bakhmala?” Wanda wondered, “The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you? You didn’t tell me he was a pararescue.” 

“Is this Riley?”

“Yeah,” Sam said, looking down at his feet.

“I heard they couldn’t bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use? A stealth chute?”

“No. These,” Sam stated, handing Steve another file.

“I thought you said you were a pilot,” Steve countered.

“I never said pilot.”

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam,” Steve insisted, “You got out for a good reason.”

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.”

“Where can we get our hands on one of these things?”

“The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates and a 12-inch steel wall.” Steve glanced at Wanda and Wanda shrugged.

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You know I think we’re going to need a team name,” Sam called after them as they went to grab their gear. “I don’t know I’m feeling like...Captain America and the Lonely Hearts Club Band or something. The Star Spangled Gang? Nah? Nothing...alright.”

Chapter 6 - The Winter Soldier

Steve and Wanda waited on a deserted rooftop for Sam to catch Sitwell alone. Wanda stood ready, holding a sniper rifle. It was just a threat, but she knew how to use it if she needed to. When she heard Sitwell pick up the phone over Sam’s comm, she aimed her target right at his chest, the red light from her rifle indicating that she was ready to fire. A few minutes later, Sam gave them the cue that he had Sitwell and was heading towards the rendezvous.

“So what exactly can you do with those powers of yours?” Steve questioned playfully as they sat, waiting. 

“To be completely honest, I’m not even really sure,” Wanda admitted. “I can move things with my mind.” She demonstrated, lifting a crate in the air and dropping it down in front of them. 

“You’ve got that force field too.”

“That’s true. That’s all I can really do right now, though and I can’t even do it that well,” Wanda scoffed, looking down at her hands and kicking around some gravel at her feet.

“Seems like you’re doing pretty well to me,” Steve said with a kind smile, grabbing Wanda’s gaze. She couldn’t help but smile back before looking back down at the ground, trying to hide her blush.

“I wanted to apologize…”

“No more apologizing,” Steve cut her off, waving a hand.

“No, seriously. I probably could’ve helped us earlier with my powers but...I was just afraid.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t know...I guess...what you would think of me,” Wanda confessed. “Plus, I made a promise to Fury that I wouldn’t use them until we knew what they could do and...well, I guess I just wanted to keep it.”

“It’s okay,” Steve comforted, grabbing Wanda’s hand. She looked up at him and it looked as though he wasn’t sure what else to say. Neither did she.

“I’m dropping off the package,” Sam informed over the comm, “I’ll be waiting outside with the wings.”

“Thanks, Sam,” Steve called out, dropping his grip on Wanda’s hand. “You stay here and watch for any trouble. I’ll be right back.”

Wanda shook herself back to focus and surveyed the surrounding buildings as well as the streets down below. Through the scope on her rifle, she could see Sam waiting in an alleyway nearby. It wasn’t long before the rooftop door was kicked open, Sitwell thrown roughly to the ground. She rested her weapon carefully on the ground and joined Steve, leering above Sitwell.

“Tell me about Zola’s algorithm,” Steve demanded.

“Never heard of it,” Sitwell replied, getting to his feet then slowly trailing backwards as Wanda and Steve walked towards him.

“What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?” Steve pressed.

“I was throwing up. I get seasick.” Sitwell gasped as he reached the building’s edge, nearly falling right off. Steve grabbed him by his suit coat roughly and hoisted him in the air. “Is this little display supposed to insinuate that you’re going to throw me off the roof?” Sitwell smirked, “because that’s really not your style, Rogers.”

“You’re right,” Steve conceded, grinning. “It’s not,” he added, placing Sitwell back on the roof’s edge and smoothing his coat. “It’s hers.”

At that, Steve moved aside and Wanda reared back and kicked Sitwell square in the gut, sending him hurtling off the side of the building.

“You’re sure we can’t just let him go?” Wanda quipped, the sound of the falling man’s screams filling the air. Steve shook his head and chuckled. The screams got louder as Sam deposited Sitwell back onto the rooftop, landing nearby.

“Zola’s algorithm is a program,” Sitwell began, holding his hands up in surrender as Steve and Wanda approached, “for choosing Insight’s targets.”

“What targets?”

“You...a TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange...anyone who’s a threat to HYDRA...now or in the future.”

“In the future? How could it know?”

Sitwell laughed darkly as he continued to explain. The program was able to identify potential threats to HYDRA’s agenda through compiling information, even minute details, scattered across Internet databases and using it to predict future actions. Then, the helicarriers developed for Project Insight, which Fury had told Wanda were meant to protect from serious threats, would eliminate those people. Millions of people could be executed all at once to create HYDRA’s future.

Steve looked over at Wanda grimly, seemingly unsure of their next move. Wanda grabbed Sitwell by the arm and dragged him towards the door.

“C’mon, fellas. We’ve got a package to deliver.”

---

They were piled into the car, Sam driving them down the highway heading towards the Triskelion. Wanda sat in the backseat, her arms crossed against her chest, glaring at Sitwell next to her. He inched closer towards the car door. 

“HYDRA doesn’t like leaks,” Sitwell called out like an impatient child forced to be on a long car ride. 

“Why don’t you try sticking a cork in it?” Sam replied, eyeing him in the rearview mirror.

“Insights launching in 16 hours. We’re cutting it a little bit close here,” Wanda cut in, leaning forward so Steve and Sam could hear.

“I know. We’ll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly.” Wanda sat back, satisfied.

“What? Are you crazy?” Sitwell exclaimed, “That is a terrible, terrible idea!” Suddenly, there was a loud thud from the top of the car and a deafening crash as the window parallel to Sitwell was shattered. Before any of them could react, an arm reached through the window and grabbed the man, hurtling him across the highway and straight into a fast moving truck. 

Wanda gaped as she saw the metal arm slink back through the window, gun in hand. She leaped through the front seat directly into Steve’s lap, just as the assailant began shooting through the roof of the car. Holding tight onto Wanda with his other arm, Steve engaged the emergency brake, throwing the man off the car and out onto the road ahead. The attacker stood slowly, and Wanda recognized him immediately. The Winter Soldier. 

Wanda pulled a handgun from leg holster but before she could fire, they were suddenly shot forward as something rammed into them from behind. She glanced over her shoulder to see the large military grade truck that had crushed the back of the car as it continued to accelerate, pushing them forward. The attacker was nearly hit by their car but before he was struck, he managed to flip back on top of the car. Wanda grabbed helplessly for her gun, which had fallen somewhere below the seat, as Sam slammed the brakes. The windshield smashed to pieces with a blaring crash and the steering wheel was ripped straight out of Sam’s hands and lost somewhere to the street outside. Sam cursed as Wanda managed to get a hold of the gun and fire ahead at the soldier.

The truck behind them rammed into the  car once more, knocking it into the guard rails and nearly flipping it over.

“Hold on!” Steve commanded as he placed his S.H.I.E.L.D against the car door. Wanda wrapped her arms around him and Steve pulled Sam from the driver's seat as the car door was ripped from its hinges, sending them scraping across the road. Wanda created the best forcefield that she could manage and tried to slow them down but Sam slipped out of her grasp and rolled back on the road behind them. She screamed but, as the car door stopped it’s travel, she was able to look back and confirm that he was safe, if at least a bit banged up.

Steve stood up and Wanda followed his lead, stepping behind his shield and aiming her gun at the man. Another agent stepped out of the large van and handed the soldier a weapon. Wanda realized what it was and, as a small grenade shot through the air towards them, she tried to stop it but Steve pushed her out of the way before she had the chance. She fell behind a van as Sam managed to catch up with her. She signaled for him to take safety behind another car before beginning to fire at the agents beyond them. As they shot at her, she jumped over the median into the other lanes. The impact of another grenade sent her flying off the elevated highway to the road below. 

She braced for impact before she realized that she was suspended in the air. Wanda opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by scarlet wisps of her own power. She laughed in surprise and tried to imagine herself slowly floating to the ground, just like she had done with many everyday objects before. Reminding herself to celebrate that victory later, she ran towards the shadow of the shooter that was casted on the ground in front of her. 

Pulling a second gun from the opposite holster, she managed to at least deter the man from taking out an overturned bus, where she could only assume Steve had landed. He disappeared behind the guard rail for a few moments and Wanda took the opportunity to take cover behind a large truck. When he snapped back up suddenly, he shot straight down where she had been standing before. She was glad she had moved.

Wanda shot back at him, noticing his goggles had been removed. It was scary enough to see him with them on but looking into his eyes made him more horrifying, more human. She continued to weave through the parked cars, hoping to draw him away from Steve. Briefly glancing through windows, windshields and side mirrors, she was able to confirm that he was following. An idea struck and she quickly pulled her work phone from her pocket, turning on a pre-recorded message that could be used as a distraction. She set it near a sedan parked by the curb and took cover across the street, waiting for his attack. 

Without warning, there was a thunderous explosion and she took it as her cue to catch him off guard, using another car as leverage to leap out at him. They tusseled, her legs around his shoulders and garrote around his neck before he threw her to the ground. His gun was aimed at her and in instinct of self defense, she shot out a blast of crimson energy that caused him to drop his weapon. She took the opportunity to run, crying out to pedestrians to clear the way. 

The sound of a bullet cracked through the air and it took Wanda a moment to register that she had been hit. A sort of numbness was replaced by a fiery pain that spread throughout her shoulder. Her heart beating erratically, Wanda took shelter behind a car, applying pressure to her wound. Out of nowhere, the soldier returned and she could’ve sworn she was done for when Steve came charging at him. An intense ringing sound filled the air as the man’s metal fist connected with Steve’s shield.

Steve nearly lost as they fought, leverage being juggled back and forth between them. Sam entered the fight unannounced, knocking Steve’s opponent down with the force of his wings. She couldn’t help with her powers now, not with her shoulder out on commission. Suddenly, her eyes landed on the grenade launcher that the soldier had abandoned and she crawled over to it. She waited for the right opportunity and when the man’s gun was aimed at Steve, she fired.

The sound of sirens filled the air as the three of them were outnumbered by S.H.I.E.L.D emergency vehicles. They put their hands up in surrender as officers approached from every direction.

--- 

“It was him. He looked right at me like he didn’t even know me.”

They were in a prison transport van, handcuffed and surveillanced by guards.

“How is that possible? It was, like, 70 years ago.”

The conversation moved in and out of Wanda’s focus. Her breath was labored and her vision was blurry. Her head lulled from side to side. 

“Zola. Bucky’s whole unit was captured in ‘43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. The must of found him and...”

“None of that’s your fault, Steve,” Wanda chimed in, in a moment of coherence. She leaned back, letting her heavy eyelids shut.

“Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky.”

“We need to get a doctor here. If we don’t put pressure on that wound, she’s gonna bleed out in the truck.”

The crackle of a taser startled Wanda back to focus. She tensed, waiting for the guard to attack. Instead, out her peripheral, she saw the guard attack the one sitting opposite, knocking them out. For a moment, she figured she may be hallucinating until the guard removed their helmet.

“Ah, that was squeezing my brain,” Maria Hill quipped looking at the crew in front of her. Wanda smiled weakly, letting her head fall back once more.

“Who’s this guy?” Maria called out, gesturing towards Sam.

--- 

Steve helped Wanda step down from the back of their escape van and the four of them walked together towards the underground facility, Steve and Sam continuing to guide Wanda through the entrance. 

“GSW. She’s lost at least a pint!”

“Maybe two.”

“Let me take her.”

“She’ll want to see him first.”

The last bit of the conversation caught Wanda’s attention. Him? They walked to the end of the tunnel, into a new passageway and down a small flight of stairs. Both Sam and Steve protested delaying her treatment but as Maria moved aside a plastic barrier, she understood why.

“Fury!” Wanda exclaimed.

“About damn time.”

Chapter 7 - Parasite

“Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver and one hell of a headache,” Fury listed out his injuries while Dr. Fine applied pressure to Wanda’s wound.

“Don’t forget your collapsed lung,” the doctor chimed in.

“Let’s not forget that...otherwise, I’m good.”

“They cut you open! Your heart stopped!” Wanda countered. Ten minutes ago she was barely conscious and now she was flooded with emotion. Shock of course, with first being shot and then laying eyes on Fury again, alive no less. Relief to be in safe hands once more and out of the constant danger that they had been in since Fury’s “death.” Exhaustion for the same reason. But most of all, anger. Everywhere she turned she was faced with lies, especially from those she had trusted most in the world.

“Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat per minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn’t work so great for him but we found a use for it. And I see your temper doesn’t die with me, Maximoff,” Fury retorted. Steve glanced over at Wanda, meeting her glare.

“Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?” Steve demanded.

“Any attempt on the director’s life had to look successful,” Maria explained.

“Can’t kill you if you’re already dead,” Fury groaned, “Besides, I wasn’t sure who to trust.” Wanda burst out of her chair, taking the bandage for her wound with her, and stormed off.

“Wanda!” Steve called out from behind her. She ignored him and continued her way down the passage but she was slowed by her loss of blood and Steve managed to catch up to her quickly. “Wanda,” he said again, grabbing her hand. Wanda looked down at her hand in his for a moment before he slowly released it. “What’s going on?”

“I….I-” She wanted to scream and release everything that had been going on in the matter of just a few days. She wanted to run away from all of it, leaving someone else to clean up the mess. She wanted things to be the way they were before. She wanted to be the strong person that she thought she was before the past few days, past few months, took over. If it had been anyone else standing there before her, she may have let it all drown her but Steve moved towards her, minding her shoulder, and wrapped his arms gently around her body. Wanda hesitated for a moment before leaning into the embrace. 

“He didn’t know me, Wanda. He didn’t even know.”

When Wanda let go, she saw the tears streaming down his face. She reached up and wiped them away, settling into his embrace once more.

--- 

“This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize,” Fury recalled, holding up a picture of Pierce, “He said peace wasn’t an achievement, it was a responsibility.” He tossed the picture onto the table. “See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues.”

“We have to stop the launch,’’ Wanda cut in, looking over to Steve.

“I don’t think the council’s accepting my calls anymore,” Fury remarked, opening a suitcase with three large computer chips.

“What’s that?”

Maria and Fury updated them on the plan to take out the helicarriers by replacing one of the carrier’s targeting blades with their own. It would be integral for them to replace the chips on each of the carriers or millions of people could die. The plan seemed far too simple for Wanda.

“And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what’s left…”

“We’re not salvaging anything,” Steve interjected Fury’s explanation. Steve looked over at Wanda and she nodded lightly. “We’re not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We’re taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D had nothing to do with this.”

“You gave me this mission,” Steve berated, “This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D’s been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed!”

“Why do you think we’re meeting in this cave? I noticed,” Fury retorted with a scoff. 

“How many paid the price before you did?”

“Look, I didn’t know about Barnes,” Fury admitted.

“Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D, HYDRA, it all goes.” Fury looked to Wanda, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, gently rubbing her shoulder.

“Wanda?”

“He’s right, Nick. It’s over. They both have to go, the parasite and the host. Though, I’m not sure which is which,” Wanda responded, bowing her head. Fury looked over at Maria and she nodded in confirmation. Finally, Fury’s eyes moved to Sam.

“Don’t look at me. I do what he does, just slower,” Sam shook his head.

“Well...it looks like you’re giving the orders now, Captain.”

--- 

Wanda nodded at Sam as he passed and he gave her a supportive pat on the back. She approached Steve, who was leaning on the rail of the bridge, deep in thought. Stopping beside him, she mimicked his position.

“So who was he? The Winter Soldier, I mean,” Wanda asked, fiddling with her hands.

“Bucky he was...well, he was my best friend,” Steve recalled, some distant memory seemingly putting a small smile on his face. “He always had my back. Always.” Wanda nodded; she knew the feeling. “I don’t know if you know this about me but I wasn’t always good at winning fights,” he chuckled, “Although, I was good at picking them.” 

“So, what’s changed?” Wanda teased, giving him a playful shove. He gave a shove back before leaning forward and looking out towards the scenery. There was a silence between them as Wanda’s stomach churned. She looked down again picking at the peeling paint of the rails.

“What is it?” Steve questioned, recognizing the shift in her demeanor. She squinted out at the horizon.

“I know we have to do this...I know that, but with S.H.I.E.L.D gone, even HYDRA, how will I ever find my, my...Pietro,” Wanda faltered, turning away.

“Hey,” Steve started, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “When all this is over...I’m not going to leave you here. Not after all this.” Wanda kept her gaze on her hands, twisting a ring on her finger. Steve grabbed both of her hands, catching her attention. “We’re going to find him, Wanda.”

“We?”

“You and me. You and me and Sam. We’re a team now. We’re friends, remember?” She smiled, unclasping their hands.

“Are you going to be taking down HYDRA in that get up?” Wanda quipped.

“No, ma’am. If you’re going to fight a war, you have to wear a uniform.”

Chapter 8 - Not the Only One

The plan was simple enough. Steve, Sam and Maria would break into the Triskelion, inform the other agents on the HYDRA breach, warn them against Project Insight and head to the hangar to replace the carrier’s tracking chips. Wanda would pose as Councilwoman Hawley of the World Security Council with the use of a Photostatic Veil and infiltrate the Council’s meeting. From there, she could upload and release whatever S.H.I.E.L.D/HYDRA files she could get her hands on, if everything went to plan, with Fury’s authorization. 

Wanda stood in the lobby, fiddling with the gold buttons on her navy dress suit. They had sent an agent by the name of May, someone Wanda had known for years, to pick Hawley up from the airport to delay her arrival, giving Wanda a window to get in. She felt naked standing there out in the open but of course not one passerby was able to pick up anything strange, not with the Veil. 

“Councilwoman Hawley, it’s good to see you.” Wanda’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Pierce. He stood in front of her, the other council members trailing a few feet behind and chatting away.

“Same to you of course, Secretary Pierce,” she replied, avoiding a kiss on the cheek by extending her hand to him. The group began to move once more and Wanda strolled along, trying not to stand out. 

“And how was your flight?”

“Lovely,” Wanda responded, clutching her purse, “The ride from the airport, less so.”

“Sadly, S.H.I.E.L.D can’t control everything.” Apparently not. There were a million things Wanda could say to that, but she held her tongue. 

“Including Captain America,” another councilman chimed in. Pierce grimaced but the remark was quickly forgotten as another agent approached.

“This facility is biometrically controlled,” Pierce explained, grabbing a briefcase from the agent. “And these will give you unrestricted access.” Wanda cautiously picked up the tag that Pierce offered. She pinned it on her suit, noticing Pierce watching her carefully. They moved on to the elevators, travelling up to the top floor, where Pierce’s office and the main conference room were located. When they arrived, Pierce poured glasses of champagne and handed them out before starting a toast.

“I know the road hasn’t exactly been smooth, and some of you would have gladly kicked me out of the car along the way. Finally, we’re here. And the world should be grateful.” With the raise of his glass, a voice cut Pierce off from over the building’s intercoms, echoing throughout the immense space.

“Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D agents, this is Steve Rogers. You’ve heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it’s time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D is not what we thought it was. It’s been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader.”

Pierce paced the room, snaking his way through the council people, who turned to face him and raised his eyebrows at the accusation. 

“The S.T.R.I.K.E and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don’t know how many more, but I know they’re in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control.”

He pulled out his phone, beginning to type. Wanda gazed through the windows separating them from the other offices in the hallway, waiting.

“They shot Nick Fury. And it won’t end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I’m asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it’s a price I’m willing to pay. And if I’m the only one, then so be it. But I’m willing to bet I’m not.”

Wanda stood a little taller, more ready than she had ever been. The S.T.R.I.K.E team marched into the room, surrounding the council.

“You smug son of a bitch,” one of the councilmen exclaimed. “Arrest him,” he demanded, gesturing towards Pierce. The nearest agent raised his gun in the direction of the councilman, silencing him.

“I guess I’ve got the floor,” Pierce smirked, placing his hands in his suit pockets. Wanda waited for the right opportunity to intervene as alarms began to sound out near the hangar. Gunfire reverberated hauntingly throughout the building. The harsh sound of metal against metal filled the air as the enormous bay doors ground open outside. Insight’s helicarriers were launching.

“Let me ask you a question,” Pierce began, stepping away from the windows, where there was a staggering view of the commotion erupting outside. “What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow and you knew that they were going to drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution, and you could stop it with a flick of the switch. Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you all?” he questioned, eyeing them.

“Not if it was your switch,” the councilman replied, throwing his glass of champagne, the shatter cutting through the silence. Pierce simply chuckled darkly as the lead agent handed him a gun. He raised it to the man’s head and it was the perfect opportunity for Wanda to step in. She shoved the councilman away from danger, striking her fist square to Pierce’s face and disarmed him. Getting a hold of his gun, Wanda hurtled it into the nearest agent and moved onto the next, taking him out with a knee to the groin and a strike to the head. As another agent moved to aim his gun at her, she used her height advantage to pound his head against the marble flooring. For the rest, she simply blasted the guns out of their hands with her power, pitching them across the room after guiding one into her hand. She kept the handgun aimed at Pierce as she disengaged the Photostatic Veil.

“I’m sorry,” she said, feigning a pout, “did I step on your moment?” Wanda handed the gun to the nearest councilman, walked over to the control system and began typing her way through the program. 

“What are you doing?” one of the other men asked.

“She’s disabling security protocols and dumping all the secrets onto the Internet,” Pierce cut in.

“Including HYDRA’s,” Wanda replied, not bothering to look up from her work.

“And S.H.I.E.L.D’s. You won’t be able to keep those powers a secret anymore, Wanda.” She continued working, though she felt the beat of her heart pick up its pace. “And what about your brother?” Wanda froze, fingers hovering over the keys. “You really think I couldn’t find him if I wanted to?” 

“What are you saying?” 

“I’m saying…” he began, taking a step towards her, “I know where to find your brother, Wanda. We could help each other, you and I.”

“You’re bluffing,” she spat, beginning to type again.

“Oh Wanda, you really are just as naive as you’ve always been.” She clenched her fists, preparing to step over and take a hit at him. Instead she stopped, letting the anger dissipate. He was stalling, and she wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction of getting to her.

“I don’t want your help and I don’t need your help,” she bit back, returning at full speed to the uploading process. With any luck, Sam and Steve would nearly be done replacing the helicarrier’s chips. Minutes later, Wanda reached a roadblock. To move any further, she would need to break down the higher level encryptions. He needs to get here, now.

Pierce scoffed as he watched the authorization warning pop up on the large screen. “Disabling the encryption is an executive order. It takes two Alpha Level members.”

“Don’t worry. Company’s coming.” It wasn’t long before a helicopter touched down on the floor’s landing pad outside the window. The sound of the chopper shook the room as Fury stepped out of the helicopter and into the entrance outside the office door.

“Did you get my flowers?” Pierce remarked as Fury stalked towards him. “I’m glad you’re here, Nick.”

“Really? Because I thought you had me killed.”

“You know how the game works.”

“So why make me head of S.H.I.E.L.D?”

“Because you were the best, and most ruthless person I ever met.”

Wanda opened up the authorization program, letting Fury have his moment.

“I did what I did to protect people.”

“Our enemies are your enemies, Nick,” Pierce explained. “Disorder. War. It’s just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Sokovia or an EMP fries Chicago.” Wanda felt heat pulsing through her veins. “Diplomacy? A holding action, Nick. A band-aid. And you know where I learned that.” Pierce’s bargaining was helpless, Wanda knew. Fury wouldn’t change his mind. Ever. Still, it made her nauseous to think that such evil existed in the world. And even more so that she had helped it thrive.

Fury cut the conversation short and pulled Pierce over to the screen.

Retinal scanner active.

Wanda took the gun from the councilman, walked over to Pierce and held it only inches from his temple, unflinching. 

“You don’t think we’ve wiped your clearance from the system?” he leered.

“I know you erased my password...probably deleted my retinal scan. But if you want to stay ahead of me, Mr. Secretary, you need to keep both eyes open.” Fury lifted his eyepatch, revealing his mutilated eye and leaned into the screen. 

Alpha Level confirmed. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed.

An alarm began to blare through the inside of the building, the evacuation alert finally activated. Wanda felt the tension within her chest release as the confirmation alert crossed the screen. She pulled out her phone to find the news already flooded. Suddenly, the council members began to groan in pain as the full access pins that Pierce had provided them disintegrated, burning a gaping hole into their chests. Both Wanda and Fury moved their guns to point at Pierce once more.

“Unless you want a two inch-hole in your sternum, I’d put that gun down. That was armed the moment you pinned it on.” They lowered their guns in defeat. Wanda felt dizzy but kept her gaze firm on Pierce.

From outside, there was a thunderous blast as the three helicarriers, which could be seen hovering in a triangular formation from the expanse of windows, terminated each other. Wanda couldn’t conceal her smile. Sam and Steve were successful. They won.  As much as Wanda wanted Pierce to see justice for what he had done, they hadn’t lost. If she were to die, at least she knew that she had been on the right side of the battle. 

“What a waste,” Pierce hissed. “Time to go, councilwoman. This way. Come on.” He stepped over and grabbed Wanda roughly by the arm. “You’re going to fly me out of here,” he explained, leading her in the direction of the landing pad outside. 

“You know, there was a time I would’ve taken a bullet for you,” Fury sneered.

“You already did,” Pierce snickered. As his attention was turned to Fury, Wanda felt through her pocket, where she recalled stashing some last minute provisions. Her fingers hit a metal disk and she cursed. She knew what she had to do but she didn’t know how badly it might go. To her, having Pierce captured was worth the risk. At least she hoped the distraction may give Fury enough time to attack. Pulling the disk out, she pressed it between her fingers, causing it to release a strong electric current. She felt the intense shake of her body as she struck the ground. The painful spasms rocked through her and there was nothing but a blaring ring in her ears.

“Wanda? Wanda, c’mon!”

She opened her eyes slowly, some feeling starting to return to her limbs. Fury helped her up onto her trembling legs. Wanda nearly tripped over Pierce who was lying on the floor, wounded and muttering incoherently to himself. Fury guided her out the office door, around the corner and out onto the launch pad, where the helicopter sat intact, in spite of all the commotion both outside the building and within. Once they were in, Wanda grabbed a nearby water bottle, half-chugging it, half pouring it into her hands to wipe her face. The cool water on her skin woke her up and they took off, connecting the chopper’s comm system to Steve, Sam and Maria.

Wanda cursed as they watched one of the fallen helicarriers crash into the Triskelion.

“Please tell me you got that chopper in the air,” Sam’s voice broke out of the radio system. 

“Sam, where are you?” Wanda called into the mic.

“41st floor! Northwest corner!”

“We’re on it! Stay where you are!” 

“Not an option!” Seconds later, Wanda caught sight of Sam leaping from one the building’s many windows and out into the air. In response, Fury turned the chopper onto its side and a gust of wind rushed at Wanda as Sam fell into one side of the helicopter and right out the other. She screamed as she felt his hand slip through hers and without a thought, her power casted out to Sam, holding him in place in the air. 

“Get me in! Get me in!” 

Wanda swiftly guided him back to the cabin and he clutched onto her arms tightly.

“41st floor! 41st!”

“It’s not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!”

“God, I could’ve used your magic tricks a little bit sooner,” Sam remarked wearily with heavy breath. She let out a relieved laugh and patted him on the shoulder. With the shock of Sam's fall, she nearly forgot.

“Maria! Where’s Steve? You got a location?” Wanda exclaimed into the mic over the sound of the chopper’s blades and the gradual collapse of the building. Her heartbeat escalated, unable to see any sign of Steve throughout the wreckage. Sam grabbed Wanda’s arm once more and they huddled together in wait.

---

Wanda was awoken by a soft shake of her shoulder. She stretched out her stiff back and rubbed her eyes.

“You’ve been here too long. You need food. You need some real sleep,” Sam urged, handing her a bottle of water. She opened it and took a swig which eased her dry mouth.

“I’m fine,” she replied lightly, running her hands through her hair. “Thank you.” He pulled up a chair next to hers and sat down, beginning to thumb through a magazine. She pulled her phone from her pocket, scrolling through the news. A few moments passed before they were both startled away from their activity. 

“Hey, friend.”

“Steve,” Wanda gasped. 

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Rogers,” chuckled Sam, “back from the dead. A beautiful day indeed.” 

---

A slight breeze blew lightly through the branches of an old oak tree as birds chirped contently. The sizable tree cast a nice shade that protected from the day’s heat. Sam, Steve, Fury and Wanda gathered around Fury’s freshly dug grave. 

“So, you’ve experienced this sort of thing before, Rogers,” Fury mused.

“You get used to it,” Steve smirked. Wanda looked over at him. His golden hair glinted under the light of day and it was refreshing to see him healed; no more stitches.

“We’ve been data mining HYDRA’s files,” Fury explained. “Looks like a lot of rats didn’t go down with the ship. I’m headed to Europe tonight. Wanted to ask if you’d come.”

“There’s something I gotta do first.”

“How about you, Wilson? Could use a man of your abilities.”

“I’m more of a soldier than a spy,” Sam shrugged.

“And Wanda?” 

“Well, uh, I’ve got team duties to attend to now,” Wanda grinned, eyeing Sam and Steve. Fury nodded, a small smile escaping him.

“Alright, then.” Fury gave the two men handshakes before opening his arms to Wanda for a hug. “You keep these boys in line, Maximoff.”

“Will do,” Wanda replied, savoring the embrace.

“If anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me, right here.” He strolled away and was soon out of sight.

Wanda reached into her messenger bag which sat at her hip. She ruffled through a few papers until she found what she was looking for.

“I almost forgot,” Wanda spoke. “That thing you asked for.” She handed Steve a thick, worn out file. He flipped it open and Sam moved closer to see over his shoulder.

“You’re going after him,” Sam sighed.

“You don’t have to come with me,” Steve replied solemnly, looking first at Sam, then towards Wanda.

“I know…When do we start?”

---

They sat in the grass, leaning their backs up against the trunk of the oak. Wanda had kept Steve company as he skimmed through the file. He had long since placed the file on the ground but they sat in a comfortable silence, breathing in the fresh air.

“You know, when I was uploading that intel, Pierce said he knew something...something about Pietro.”

“You think he was telling the truth?” Steve asked, brows furrowed.

“I mean I guess it makes sense. If HYDRA was still alive all this time, who’s to say they weren’t the ones who captured us back in Sokovia?”

“Why keep him hidden then?”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Wanda sighed, head in her hands. 

“We’ll find him. You and me and Sam,” Steve replied, wrapping his arm around Wanda. “We’ll find Pietro and we’ll find Bucky.” Wanda nodded, leaning her head on Steve’s shoulder. They sat for a few moments like that, listening to the sounds of the wind, letting their heavy eyes open and close. Wanda sat up and Steve removed his arm, looking up at her curiously. She learned over and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you...just, thank you.”

He smiled at her then looked down at his hands in his lap. Wanda got to her feet, brushed off her pants and offered a hand to help him up.

“C’mon, Captain. We’ve got a lot to catch you up on.”

[thefaeriequeenofthewest]

The Lies I Told

A/N: This is a revision of a story I started on Wattpad back in 2014. I abandoned it, but decided to bring it back. Please let me know if I should continue. This would be a multiple chapter story! I will rely on feedback as to whether this would continue or not.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Trigger warnings: murder, sexual assault.

“Obviously the Elder Wand would be the best Hallow to own.” I turned my head to look at the man to my left, eyebrows raising in a challenge. “Unless you have a compelling argument as to why it wouldn’t be?”

SSA Dr. Spencer Reid furrowed his brow in thought. His curly brown hair brushed the wrinkles on his forehead, his lips puckering as he contemplated. “Sure, the Elder Wand supplies it’s master with an admirable amount of power, but also brings an guaranteed death sentence with it. Why risk it all just to be drunk on power for such a short amount of time?” He met my gaze. “Obviously, the best Hallow to own would be the cloak. I mean, escape Death himself? Why not?”

I chuckled lightly, reaching over to ruffle his hair. Spencer’s eyes lit up with surprise and a slight hesitation. Coughing, he leaned back into his chair and turned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk.

Things had been strange between Spencer and I for a while now. We had joined the BAU together out of the academy. I was no genius like Boy Wonder was, but my scores were good and my determination caught Jason Gideon’s interest. We’d been best friends for a while. Until things changed. Feelings emerged that were completely unexpected, and I acted on them shortly after Spencer went and got anthrax. I confessed that I thought I was in love with him, that almost losing him made me realize even if he never felt anything for me, I had to tell him. He had looked surprised, and his mouth kept opening and closing. For a few moments, he said nothing. Then he took a tentative step forward, reaching to cup my cheek. And then his lips met mine.

We were together for two years. Two wonderful years. And then I ended it. I had my reasons, but they were reasons I couldn’t tell to Spencer. I still couldn’t.

He was crushed. We didn’t speak for weeks, months even, unless it was case related. It was during this time that Spencer met Maeve. When I found out about her, I was furious. I know I had no right to be but...I was. Our relationship grew hostile. It took Hotch and Rossi throwing us in a room and demanding we work our shit out before we were able to speak openly with each other.

He demanded to know why I was mad when I was the one who left him. I told him I didn’t know. He demanded the reason I left him. I told him I still couldn’t tell him, but that I was tired of fighting. That I missed him. That I missed my best friend more than anything.

We agreed to a truce. And to a tentative friendship.

A few weeks later, that friendship was put to the test when Maeve was abducted. When Spencer found out, he showed up at my apartment frantic and begging for aid. We went to the team and even though we exhausted all our efforts...

Diane killed Maeve. In front of Reid. I caught him as he crumpled to the ground before her dead body, his sobs rattling my bones as I held him. As I watched him fall apart all over again.

While our friendship had strengthed in the wake of her death, in the nights he stayed on my couch because he was afraid of being alone with his nightmares, some acts of affection still caught us both off guard. We were learning to trust and depend on each other again.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, heat rising to my cheeks as I turned my attention back to my monitor. Spencer muttered a response I couldn’t hear before pushing up from his chair and heading to the coffee machine in the break room.

“It’ll get better.” I turned my attention to the agent behind me. Derek flashed a smile. “It’s only been five months since Maeve’s death and you two had a rocky relationship for a few months there. Just wait.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you think I’m waiting for?”

Derek chuckled, his eyes gleaming knowingly as he sat down at his desk.

“Ah, sweetheart, gonna need you to get back up and come with me to the conference room.” Garcia pushed her glasses up her nose, looking down into the bullpen from the walkway. “We’ve got a case.”

______________________________________________

“Yesterday morning, a body was discovered in Wilmington, North Carolina on the banks of the Capr Fear River.” Garcia pulled up the images. “Her name was Callie Ryder, age 28, married and no kids.” The victim appeared to be average height and build, with brunette hair and blue eyes. “The unsub dressed her in a police costume and there is evidence of sexual assault.” Garcia shuddered. “As if that’s not bad enough, the numbers 11 12 02 were carved into the back of her neck postmortem.”

“Obviously the guys got something against someone in law enforcement.” JJ tapped her fingers on the table. “Maybe he feels spited by a woman in law enforcement?”

“Any significance in the numbers?” Hotch looked up from his tablet. Garcia shook her head.

“Not that we know of yet. Another body, Shelia Finnigan, was found this morning as well. Same age, not married, same build and basic appearance. Also dressed in a police uniform and same evidence of sexual assault and the numbers as well.”

“Any connection between the victims?” Alex Blake lifted her head. JJ was twisting her hair in her fingers, listening intently.

“Yes.” The word croaked out of my throat. It had taken me a moment, but I knew these women. “The Wilmington area is where I grew up. They went to school with me at Cedar Hollow High.” I met Hotch’s gaze. “They never hung out in the same circle though. Their attendance at the school is the only thing I can think of to link them.”

“There was one other thing.” Garcia pulled up another image.

And then the world froze. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the image on the screen. My heart felt like it was going to explode.

“This same symbol was carved into the victims right hip.” A bloody, poorly done flower.

“So obviously these women aren’t the targets. He’s dressing them up and altering their appearance to match that of the object of his rage.” Rossi crossed his arms. “They’re practice runs until he works up the courage to pursue his ultimate goal.”

“So the flower could be a tattoo that the target has.” Derek leaned back in his chair. “Doesn’t help us much, unless we can figure out the specific type of flower or—“

“Plumeria.” Spencer’s voice was quiet, shaking lightly. His whiskey eyes raised to meet mine across the table. “Could it..”

The team turned their attention to me curiously.

I couldn’t speak. The flower, the date, the location. Everything clicked. I nodded, palms sweating.

Spencer’s face crumbled with worry. “It’s Y/N. The tattoo is a plumeria. It’s on her right hip. I-I’ve seen it.” He bit his lip. “But, Y/N, the numbers.....does it mean something?”

It meant everything.

I took a shaky breath, my teams eyes locked on me intently. “The target is me.” I lifted my head to meet Spencer’s anxious eyes.

“And I think I know who our prime suspect is.”

[weekendwarriorblog]

THE WEEKEND WARRIOR 4/2/21: GODZILLA VS. KONG, THE UNHOLY, OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL

I’m really not sure how I feel about doing the Weekend Warrior at quite the level I was doing last year. Even though the box office is slowly coming back, it’s still very frustrating to write about, and honestly, the Disney announcement last week about all the movies being delayed or dumped to Disney+ kinda brought me down. It just tells me that many studios are giving up on theatrical just as people have gotten so used to watching stuff at home, they don’t care about going out and being in rooms with other people, especially strangers. I guess I can understand that, but all the negativity that pervaded the narrative in 2020 is finally doing its damage as theaters reopen and some may have trouble even filling 25% capacity for some movies.

Then again, I’ve just come back from a weekend at the Oxford Film Festival, which became one of the first American film festivals to go in-person, although it is doing a bit of a hybrid in-person with virtual, so locals and a few out-of-of-towners (mainly me) were able to see all of this year’s great programming at one of the outdoor (and then indoor due to weather) venues. I was on the feature doc jury and got to see 11 terrific documentaries, some of which hopefully will get distribution and get out there, but why wait? While most of the movies are geoblocked to the United States (and some to Mississippi), there’s so much great programming to check out over the next month, and you can do so via OxFilm’s virtual cinema, which includes many great features and shorts. As far as the juries, I can highly recommend the Jury Prize winners, In a DIfferent Key, a fantastic film about autism directed by Caren Zucker & John Donvan, and the runner-up, Patrick O’Connor’s Look Away, Look Away, an amazing bi-partisan look at the fight to keep the Confederate-created flag of MIssissippi or change it, depending on your side of the fight. It’s a doc that really needs to be seen in other parts of the country. (Unfortunately, those are both geoblocked to Mississippi, as is Chelsea Christie’s Bleeding Audio, which tells the tragic story of the rise and fall of San Francisco’s The Matches and won for Music Documentary.) There are movies available everywhere in the United States though, and you can check out the full line-up of movies here.

Anyway, OxFilm gives me hope that there’s a future for theatrical moviegoing and as far as the box office, that hope comes in the form of the first holiday weekend since NYC and L.A. reopened as the Good Friday day off for most schools and Easter Monday that continues the vacation for others might persuade people to check out what’s happening in theaters, and fortunately, it’s a movie that’s so easy to market based on the fact that it has two of the biggest movie monsters facing off for the first time since 1963.

That’s right -- opening on Wednesday is the anticipated GODZILLA VS. KING KONG, starring… well, does it really matter who it stars other than Zilla and Kong? Probably not. The fourth movie in the Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Monsterverse takes the star of 2017’s Kong: Skull Island ($168 million at domestic box office) and pits him against the title character of 2014’s Godzilla ($200 million) and 2019’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters ($110.5 million). MInd you, I just include those domestic grosses for reference, because even if we take into account that scary dip from Godzilla and its direct sequel, it won’t really matter when you take into consideration a little thing called…. COVID! We’ve already seen movies gross more than $50 million since everything shutdown

I already reviewed this over at Below the Line, so I don’t have much more to say in that regard. It’s good if you like giant monster fights but isn’t much beyond its amazing monster battles, which is why I won’t even mention the actors that appear in it or any of the characters.

Godzilla vs. Kong is probably going to be the widest release since COVID hit with 2,600 theaters on Wednesday and then expanded to 3,000 on Friday when Regal reopens many (but not all) of its theaters. While I expect it to do fine on Weds and Thursday, making probably $4 or 5 million, it should really explode on Good Friday, which should allow it to make somewhere between $18 and 20 million over the three-day holiday weekend, so let’s say $25 to 26 million before Monday.

Also opening theatrically, this one on Friday is the Screen Gems horror movie THE UNHOLY from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, the directorial debut by Evan Spiliotopoulos (writer of Disney’s mega-blockbuster Beauty and the Beast live action movie and the Rock’s Hercules ), who adapted the story from James Herbert’s novel “Shrine.” The movie stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan as disgrace journalist Gerry Fenn who is trying to get stories for a supernatural tabloid when he comes upon a deaf teenager named Alice (Cricket Brown) seemingly praying at an oak tree in a rural community in Massachusetts. When she seemingly gets her hearing back and is able to talk, word quickly spreads that she’s able to communicate with a benevolent Virgin Mary-like spirit that gives her the powers to heal. Since this is a horror movie, you can probably guess that things quickly get ugly and scary. THe movie also stars the wonderful Katie Aselton as a local doctor, who doesn’t do very many doctor-y things.

Before we get to my review -- and I’ll blame the review embargo on it for this week’s column being so late -- let’s talk about the movie’s box office potential, because religious horror-thrillers have quite a significant draw over a certain audience going straight back to the ‘70s with movies like The Exorcist and The Omen (the latter one of my all-time favorites) and The Unholy does dip into the toe of both of those. It’s been a long since there’s been one of those which might make this a draw for audiences into theaters, especially over Easter weekend -- that may be meant as irony -- but there’s also a little movie called Godzilla vs. Kong, which is just way more of a draw even with it being on HBO Max, but also because it’s likely to get better reviews. I’m not sure how many theaters Sony is getting this into, but I expect it’s somewhere around 2,000 or so, and that might be enough for the movie to make around $4 to 5 million this weekend, but probably VERY frontloaded to Friday.

Now let’s get to that review…

The Unholy begins with a flashback scene to “February 31, 1845” with a scene right out of the Salem Witch Trials of a woman being mutilated and strung up to a tree. This plays a very important role in a story that involves a fairly ludicrous premise that mostly involves Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character finding something called a Kern Baby, essentially a porcelain doll wrapped in chains that he decides to smash in order to create a fake supernatural story about how smashing the doll causes crops to fail. In fact, smashing it releases the spirit of the woman we saw in that opening scene possessing a deaf teen girl named Alice who starts to heal everyone in her rural community, while also releasing the evil that had that woman’s spirit bound into the doll in the first place.

There isn’t that much more to say about the plot to a stupid horror premise so full of religious hokum as more characters get involved with trying to figure out if Alice is actually healing people or not. This includes the benevolent local priest Father Hagan, played by William Sadler, and a Bishop (really) played by Cary Elwes, who is using such a bizarre accent, kind of like a cross between the Bronx and a heavy Irish brogue, that it’s impossible to take his character very seriously.

Just knowing what studio garbage Spiliotopoulos has written did not make me very hopeful for his directorial debut, which is just all over the place in terms of tone and pacing, dragging at times and then throwing the type of cheap jump scares and schlocky CG horror creatures at the viewer with very little of it actually being very scary. " (The creature version of "Mary" just looks silly.) Besides being highly derivative, ripping off almost every religious horror movie, both bad and good, some aspects of the movie are so laughably bad that it’s hard to take much of it seriously. Worst of all, it ends with just a really horrible climax that reverses any good will the movie might have created with the casual young horror fans that usually like this thing. Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s another one of those unrare “F” CinemaScores we see whenever a studio horror film doesn’t bother matching up to the quality of something like The Witch or Hereditary. Horror fans definitely want more than the usual these days, and The Unholy just seems like a lazy waste of time.

A movie that I’ve been looking forward to seeing and just haven't had time to watch is Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY (Utopia) that stars Rachel Sennott as 20-something Danielle who runs into her sugar daddy (Danny Deferrari) at a shiva with his wife (Dianna Agron) and their baby, as well as her parents (Fred Melamed and Pollyw Draper) and Molly Gordon as Danielle’s ex-girlfriend. It’s actually playing at the newly reopened Quad Cinema, so who knows? Actually I did watch Shiva Baby and was kind of disappointed. It seemed very twee and precious, and Sennott's character seems like the type of spoiled Millennial white girl that I hate in indie movies like this. I also just didn't find it particularly funny. Oh, well.

Streaming Friday on Netflix is Ricky Staub’s CONCRETE COWBOY, starring Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin and Lorraine Toussiant with McLaughlin being a teenager who moves in with his estranged father (Elba) in North Philadelphia where he learns about his passion for urban horseback riding.

Opening in New York (at the Angelika and Village East) on Friday and in L.A.and other cities on April 9 is the Oscar-nominated International Feature THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN (Samuel Goldwyn Films), written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, and starring Yahya Mahyni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw and Monica Bellucci. Tunisia’s submission is the story of Sam Ali, a Syrian who leaves his country for Lebanon to escape the war with hopes of travelling to Europe to be with the love of his life. To fulfill that dream, he allows his back to be tattooed by a contemporary artist that actually brings more trouble to the poor young man.

Hulu will debut the doc WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (Hulu), which I still haven’t gotten around to watching but seems like an interesting subject for a doc.

A little closer to home at the still-closed Metrograph, they’re playing Claire Dennis’ 2004 film L’Intrus through April 8, and on Friday will open Sky Hopinka’s experimental debut maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Grasshopper Films) which follows Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier as they wander around the Pacific Northwest, mostly speaking in the Chinuk Wawa language. The latter is free to digital members ($5/month, $50 a year!) and $12 for non-members… pretty easy decision there, huh? Ms. Dennis’ film is also available to members.

Not only that, but New York’s Film Forum is also reopening this Friday with the double feature of Almodovar’s remastered Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and his new short The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton; the fantastic doc The Truffle Hunters; as well as his Fellini’s masterful Oscar winner La Strada (Janus Films, 1954), starring Anthony Queen and the wonderful Giulietta Masina! (That’s what I’ll be seeing this Sunday!) On top of that, Film Forum will continue its fantastic Virtual Cinema programming, which will launch Eric Roehmer’s A Tale of Winter (1992) this Friday with Roehmer’s A Tale of Summer (1996) joining the Virtual Cinema starting Friday April 9.

Got exciting news that Film at Lincoln Center will be reopening on April 16, but this week, they’ll be launching the latest edition of Neighboring Scenes, its annual series of Latin American films done in conjunction with Cinema Tropical. It’s 10 films that you can watch with an all-access pass for the low price of $80, and it usually has some good movies in the program.

A couple others out this week, including Funny Face and Every Breath You Take (Vertical), which I don’t even have time to look up what they’re about. Sorry!

That’s it for this week. Next week, Neil Burger’s sci-fi coming-of-age thriller, VOYAGERS, will hit theaters.

[beastsoulsauthor-blog]

Beast Souls Volume 1

‎9/‎5/‎2014                                                                                      

Aaron McCoy 

Beast Souls

(Scene: California redwood forest, an advanced style tree house centered at the top of the middle one in the shot. Blaze; a fiery haired shaggy young man with a half hoodie, "fireball" necklace, and swim trunks with flame print. Sits beside a huge Fu dog style statuesque figure made of fire with glowing green eyes "Ember". They're leaning against the tree looking over a sheet in Blazes hand)

Blaze: "Man, look at this sad list!"

Ember: "Sad?"

Blaze: "Yeah! None of these bounties are over $500!?"

Ember: "Isn't their bounty directly related to their class and skill?"

Blaze: "Yes? What's your point?"

Ember: "My point IS; are you really MAD there aren't MORE dangerous people in the area?"

Blaze: "Not EXACTLY, it's just, we got bills to pay! Plus we need to eat! On top of that class ones are boring now, they're not even challenging anymore. We'll never get stronger at this rate."

Ember: "Hmmm...I guess you have a point. That IS the amateur list though. It’s not like we're proud souls."

Blaze: "AH! Proud Souls. Now THAT's the life! Hunting hardcore baddies for big pay and privileges."

Ember: "Seeing as its invite only guess we'll stick with the small fry for now"

Blaze (annoyed face): "I guess so. Hmm. How about this guy? Bounties $500, highest on the sheet, says has been mugging young rich ladies in the market."

Ember: "What despicable behavior! We should teach him better manners!"

Blaze (serious face): Yes.....yes we should."

(Scene point: Last shot in scene is bounty page with picture of a man’s face and the names Fig and Twig at the top with a bounty of $500)

(End scene 1)

(Scene: Blaze narrates a flashback accompanied with coinciding pictures of the places mentioned, him running away from a house, under a tree, etc.)

Blaze (narrating): "I've been living day by day this way since the very beginning. The day I first met Ember, my very own beast soul.

I had ran away from a bad home in the middle of winter before a terrible snowstorm. Guess that wasn't the brightest idea.

I finally found shelter inside a huge hole in a tree. Only problem was the hole was so big that snow was blowing in making it almost impossible to start a fire. Notice I said almost? I had found rocks to serve as flint, but were getting wet from the snow, and I was getting colder."

Child Blaze: "COME ON! Light already! If you don't light....ILL DIE!"

(Scene: as child Blaze slams the two pieces of flint together in one last ditch effort they explode into sparks and the small explosion becomes a puppy made of fire)

Child Blaze: "WOAH!? What.....ARE you!?"

Blaze (narrating): "I was in complete shock. The puppy seemed to be made of fire but it didn't burn me when I got near it or touched it. It kept me warm. I thought at first I was hallucinating until..."

Ember (puppy): "I'm.....Ember."

Child Blaze: “HEY! I hear you in my head!?"

Ember (puppy): "Yes, I'm here because of you! I'm here to help you survive."

Blaze (narrating): "I didn't understand then completely what I had done. It was only when I made it to the city and a man named Argyl appeared before me with a certain letter that I truly understood."

(Scene: Now in a big city back alley with child blaze and a man in a black/blue suit with open lapel and lacey undershirt tucked back collars and red shoes, strong dark hair and eyes (hair of below shoulder length) Argyl )

Argyl: "You unlocked your potential and summoned your Beast Soul"

Child Blaze: “Beast...Soul?"

Argyl: "Yes, An amazing creature summoned forth to exist by using a sliver of your soul! It's part of you!"

Child Blaze: "Wow! COOL! But......how did I do it?"

Argyl: "None know for sure WHY some have this strange ability, BUT what IS known is that it's been around for a VERY long time, and only extreme circumstances, instincts, and large releases of adrenaline can cause a potential soul to fracture."

Child Blaze: "Wait.....so you're saying I summoned it because I thought I’d die from the cold!?"

Argyl: "In your case, yes, it would appear that way. As a result Ember is made of pure heat. Many of these beast souls have powers; How you use them is up to you, however, you should read this letter very carefully first."

(Scene: Argyl stops pacing and hands Blaze a letter, blaze looks down at the letter)

Child Blaze: "Okay, but I still don't get why....."

(Scene: Blaze looks up to notice that Argyl has already disappeared)

Child Blaze: "HEY! Where'd he go.....? Hmmm..."

(Scene: Blaze looks down at the letter again then opens it carefully, its contents now fully displayed. The letter reads as follows; "Dear Blaze, Congratulations on your recent awakening and welcome to the world of Beast Souls! We are The Society of Myth, a government of sorts for Users like yourself. Do what you will with your newfound powers; but know this, we WILL be watching. If you commit evil deeds or disrupt the world in any way we WILL find you. You have been warned. Sincerely, Mr. Koji P.S. This is your ONLY warning!" after this blaze continues to narrate with pictures of him through the years hunting, cooking, and finally some shots of him handing over Rouges to Argyl)

Blaze (narrating): "Naturally as a young boy the letter had terrified me. I definitely DIDN'T want the Society after me. I ended up using my powers mostly just for hunting and cooking.

Eventually, once I was old enough, I was informed of the Amateur List and Bounties (a list of low level trouble makers other users can catch for money). So I decided that's how I and Ember would make a living.

We've been fighting ever since."

(Scene 2 "flashback sequence" End)

(Scene opens to current day a California local marketplace where The List said Fig would be. Blaze walking around the high end of the market)

Blaze: "Man! Sure is busy today!"

Ember: “It IS Saturday you know”

Blaze: “Good that means lots of Richie teen girls will be out shopping. Perfect bait for our bounty!”

Ember: “That’s….not necessarily a “happy” thought.”

Blaze: “Don’t worry Ember. I won’t let anyone get hurt, we’ll be ever vigilant!”

(Saying this Blaze does a comical hand above eyes back and forth scan?)

Ember: “Blaze, look over there!”

Blaze: “WOAH! She’s obviously the richest girl here!”

(In the distance a women with nice clothing, expensive jewelry, and even a servant carrying many bags.)

Ember: “Yes, but if WE noticed her that easily, then that means….”

Blaze: “Our bounty might too!”

(Scene: after tailing the girl only a couple of minutes they notices a shadowy figure wearing sunglasses staring and following her intently)

Blaze: “Hey, looks like that guys watching her too!”

Ember: “Yes, and its way too cloudy for sunglasses.”

Blaze: “Definitely, looks like we’re on to something.”

(Scene: They keep following the young girl as they do the man follows also)

Blaze: “Looks like he’s our man!”

Ember: “We can’t be sure until he makes his move, harming civilians with our powers is against the rules. We have to be sure he’s Fig”

Blaze: “I know, don’t worry, we’re reaching the end of the market if he’s planning on making a move he’ll have to do it soon!”

(Scene: They finally end up in a more deserted area of shops. Closed or out of business signs dot the windows. They overhear the woman)

Woman: “Oh my, it appears we’ve come too far James”

James: “Yes madam, we should find our way back immediately. This place looks unsavory.”

Woman: “I think the main market is this way?”

(Scene: Just then the dark figured man steps forward)

Man: “I can show you the way back miss.”

Woman: “Why thank you kind sir”

Man (smiling intently): “My pleasure!”

(Scene: saying this the man leads them instead down a back alley”

Blaze: “Here it comes!”

Ember: “Don’t go down there until he reveals himself!”

James: “Hmmm. This doesn’t look right at all”

Man: “You’re right. That’s because, IT’S NOT!”

(Scene: saying this the man discards the jacket and sunglasses revealing the face of Fig from the wanted poster)

Blaze: “IT IS HIM! I KNEW IT”

Ember: “Alright LET’S GO!”

(Scene: Racing in Blaze steps in front of the lady)

Blaze: “You might want to get out of here lady, it might get ugly.”

(Scene: Saying this Blaze throws out his hand wide as an explosion occurs summoning Ember into existence)

Woman: “OH MY GOD! WHAT IS THAT?”

James: “My lady we need to leave NOW!”

(Scene: Saying this the man and woman drop their bags and high-tail it from the alley)

Fig (scowling): “YOU BASTARD! I don’t know who you are but that was my catch of the day, and you scared her off! You won’t get away with this.”

Blaze: “Sorry. I never did have good luck with the ladies. Ha ha ha.”

Fig: “ARGH! You think this is FUNNY!? I’ll show you the PUNCHLINE!”

(Scene: Fig claps his hands together. As he pulls them apart a long smooth brown object materializes between them. A giant stick bug creature is revealed.)

Fig: “Meet Twig, my faithful companion. The most powerful stick in the world!”

(Scene: Seeing this Blaze and Ember look at each other. Then back to him. After which they burst into teary-eyed laughter.)

Blaze: “OH MY GOD! That’s got to be the worst Beast Soul I’ve EVER seen!”

Fig: “Yes, I suppose he doesn’t look very impressive eh? But I assure you looks can be deceiving.”

Twig: “Yes my good sirs, do not count me among the trash just yet!”

Blaze: “HUH? You talk silly too!?”

Twig: “Yes, I suppose to a barbaric simpleton such as you my linguistics are quite strange.”

Blaze: “Barbaric simpleton!? That’s an insult……right Ember?”

Ember: “Yes, but you’re not exactly helping your case.”

Blaze: “Ugh, whatever let’s just fight already. Then I will SHOW you “barbaric””

Fig: “As you wish!”

(Scene: saying this they step forward Ember growling at Blaze’s side and Fig brandishing Twig as a wooden sword)

Blaze (smirking): “Your move stick boy”

Fig: “Indeed”

(Scene: Fig rushes forward jumping over Ember and coming down with a heavy strike toward Blaze, Blaze then rolls back and stands as Twig slams the ground breaking it up a little)

Blaze: “Ember GO!”

(Scene: Ember jumps toward Fig spinning into a giant fireball slamming Fig right in the chest and up against the alley walls)

Fig: “I see you are well practiced.”

Blaze: “Oh, you have no idea pal!”

(Scene: Fig and Twig stand quickly back to ready stance)

Twig: “We should enlighten them to our true power sir”

Fig: “Yes, I believe you’re right Twig!”

(Scene: They rush Blaze again jumping over Ember they swipe at Blaze’s feet as he jumps Twig changes direction and grows in length until Blaze is slammed against the opposite wall)

Blaze: “Argh! Damn! What was that?”

Ember: “HE STRETCHED!?”

Fig: “Very observant, Twig can stretch himself to any length without reducing strength in blows or structural integrity.”

Twig: “Now you see don’t you!? You’ll not be getting close to us again, and my reach is ABSOLUTE!”

Blaze (shrugging): “So!? You think a parlor trick like that is gonna scare me? Ember…..Time to get serious”

Ember: “Good, I was getting bored hanging back”

(Scene: Blaze stretches out his left hand fingers apart palm to the sky. Ember becomes a flame tunnel racing down Blazes arm. When he reaches the end Ember transforms into a glowing sun-shaped ball)

Blaze (jumping): “Blazing SHOT!”

(Scene: Blaze strikes the growing glowing sun-shaped sphere of fire with his free hand. HARD. This sends it spinning, flaming, and flying toward Fig and Twig)

Fig: “ARGGHH!”

(Scene: Fig uses Twig to try and block the shot. It overwhelms them. When it clears they are on the ground and Blaze is facing away from them.”

Blaze: “Alright, let’s call Argyl.”

(Scene: Even while saying this the bloodied Fig and Twig start to stand)

Fig: “Don’t count me out yet!”

(Scene: Saying this Blaze turns as Fig pulls a hidden sword from twig and it grows into and through his shoulder pinning him to the brick wall)

Blaze: “NOT AGAIN!?”

Ember: “A sword!?”

Twig: “I’m actually a SHEETH”

(Scene: Blaze grabs the blade with both hands, the blades cut his skin)

Blaze: “I’m SICK of playing your GAMES!”

(Scene: Saying this with gritted teeth he pushes the blade out and Fig and Twig away.)

Fig and Twig together: “NO IMPOSSIBLE!”

Ember: “USE IT!”

Blaze: “Yeah. Let’s finish this!”

(Scene: Fig grows the blade swinging at Blaze. Blaze jumps dodging the blade as it slices the brick wall clean. As Blaze lands he outstretches both hands together into a “Gun” Shape. Embers flame tunnel goes through him over shoulders down arms and to his fingertips glowing like a red star.)

Blaze: “Fire-Gun Finger”

(Scene: A giant white hot beam is shot from his fingertips)

Fig and Twig together: “NOOOOO”

(Scene: Blaze and Ember looking down over the charred scratched up body of Fig. Twig now gone because of Fig being passed out.)

Ember: “Well, he was certainly a handful”

Blaze: “He was annoying.”

Ember: “Yes, He’s out now for sure though.”

Blaze: “Good let’s call Argyl for real this time”

(Scene: Pulling a black feather from his pocket and holding close to his head closing his eyes)

Blaze: “Yo Argyl we got Fig here.”

(Scene: In a whoosh of feathers and flapping Argyl and his raven Nevermore appear. Seeing the condition of Blaze’s Shoulder.)

Argyl: “Hmmm……that’s the first injury you’ve had in a while.”

Blaze: “Yeah, he surprised me because I didn’t take him seriously. That WON’T happen again!”

Argyl: “Let’s hope not. Especially if you plan on accepting this!”

(Scene: Argyl then hands Blaze a letter with the society seal, a dragon around an eye gem.)

Blaze: “Well, this takes me back!”

Argyl: “Just open it.”

(Scene: The opened letter reads: “Dear Blaze, I’ve noticed great potential within you as you’ve hunted down these amateurs. Yet, you lack structure and discipline. Sometimes the only way to force these traits is dropping a great responsibility in one’s lap. Such as, an invitation to become a Proud Soul. Not just a regular but a leader of a Souls Unit. It would honor me for you to accept.

Sincerely, Mr. Koji)

Blaze: “Is this…..is this for real!?”

Argyl: “Yes, it’s quite real. The Seeing Souls have monitored your progress for some time now. From the reports Koji thinks the position is perfect for you.”

Blaze: “It’s just, I’ve been dreaming of this for a while now, and…..now that I’m actually faced with the decision it’s a lot to consider.”

Argyl: “Understandable. The Rouge Souls you’d be hunting as a Proud Soul are two times or more strong than you currently hunt. Also you’d be uprooted from your current home to a more secure home of our choosing. Finally any and all monetary needs would be met by the Society.”

Blaze: “That last bit sounds nice, but….leaving my home, and having others depend on me sounds tough.”

Argyl: “You’d be a fool not to give it some thought. Know this however, Mr. Koji has personally vouched for you. This hardly ever happens, but when it does you can be sure it’s with good reason. Mr. Koji Never acts without thinking out every possible consequence first. You have until tomorrow.”

(Scene: Saying this he vanishes with Fig in a cloud of feathers.)

Ember: “Lets head home for now. We can think about it there.”

Blaze: “Yeah, you’re right.”

(Scene: In Mister Koji’s office now: Argyl appears knelt before a big desk where Koji sits, his face obscured by dark the figure of a dragon sleeping behind him against a wall of windows behind the desk.)

Argyl: “I’ve delivered the invitation”

Koji: “Very good. His brash nature and blind bravery are a front to how truly unsure he is of himself. That may be the cause of his arrogance. Regardless he will accept…..and he will grow immensely.”

Argyl: “Either way he only has till tomorrow, but you’ve never been wrong before.”

Koji: “Perfect. You are dismissed. Go find his first teammate.”

Argyl: “Yes sir”

(Scene: bowing deeply he disappears again. Koji turns toward the dragon his face still being cut off, he looks down)

Koji: “His growth will be most interesting to watch eh, Thaimat?”

Thaimat: “*grunt*”

(Scene: Back at Blaze’s treehouse home)

Blaze: “I can’t believe it, The Proud Souls! Head of my own unit….”

Ember: “You were just complaining about these amateur lists being too easy”

Blaze: “Yeah, but a LEADER? Me? A loner maybe, sure! But I’m no leader.”

Ember: “You know we haven’t seen much of the world, perhaps you underestimate yourself?”

Blaze: “Maybe……we have been alone a long time.”

Ember: “Familiarity however comfortable will never beget change. Only change causes growth.”

Blaze: “I DO want to become stronger….”

Ember: “Then accept the offer. We’ll see new places, meet new friends, and possibly gain new strength.”

Blaze: “A-+ND have all our bills paid FOR us” (snickering)

Ember (laughing): “Yes there IS that too I suppose.”

Blaze: “I’ll get to travel, make friends, and help the world? Who could say no to that job?”

Ember: “Good. We should pack.”

Blaze: “Yes, I think we should. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

(Scene: Blaze and Ember stand on the deck of their treehouse home fondly admiring it they turn bags and luggage at their heels to see Argyl appear)

Argyl: “So. Have you given it some thought?”

Blaze: “Yeah, a lot. I’ve decided to do it. I want to see what else there is out there, and how strong I am. Plus, it would be rude to mister Koji having placed his faith in me.”

Argyl: “I’m glad to hear that you feel that way. I’ve known you since you were a boy you’ll make The Society proud.”

Blaze: “Aw shucks! Don’t go soft on me!”

Argyl (chuckling): “My apologies…….Now; I will explain how it all works and take you to your new home.”

Blaze: “Explain how what works?

Argyl: “Yes. Well you see there are 3 major divisions of The Society of Myth. The Seeing Souls which monitor the world for news of Rouge Souls, and who also do our spying. They are the ones who watched your progress and reported it to Koji”

Blaze: “I was being watched!?”

Argyl: “Don’t feel bad most users are monitored somewhat to make sure the world stays balanced. At any rate, the next group is the Inquisitive Souls. These are our scientists, mechanics, inventors, and all around researchers. They also keep our lore dating back to the dawn of mankind. Finally, there are the Proud Souls, which your are now a member of. These users risk their lives in teams called “units” in order to guarantee peace in the world. Despite those Rouge Souls who wish to abuse their gift. These Units get assignments from handlers around twice a month.”

Blaze: “A MONTH!?

Argyl: “Yes, many of these tasks will take days, even weeks to complete. You must realize this is no amateur list these Rouges know how to hide their presence and they do it well.”

Blaze: “Ah, ok. Then I have a question. Which of the branches are you and Mr. Koji?”

Argyl: “Good question. We along with one other user are called the Cerberus. The “Three-heads of The Society”. We lead the Seeing Souls. Us along with the head of the Inquisitive Souls, and the top ranking Proud Soul leaders, make up the Societies governing body.”

Blaze: “So what rank will I be?”

Argyl: “You well start at Novice, as you gain notability and new members you will be given harder tasks. Complete a difficult task or show great promise, and we will reward you a new rank. All the way up to Master Souls. Master Souls help run the Society and insure the safety of the entire world, their powers are immense. Right now there are only two. That’s how rare the position is given. Now that that’s explained shall we go?”

Blaze: “That’s a lot to take in, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Yeah, we can go.”

(Scene: Taking one last somber look back at their home Ember and Blaze disappear with Argyl. Reappearing outside a rural apartment in Japan)

Argyl: “Welcome home.”

Blaze: “What!? This whole place!?”

Argyl: “Of course. You won’t be alone long. You’ll have a team remember?”

Blaze: “Oh yeah! So…..where are my teammates?”

Argyl: “Most Proud Souls pick their own unit by hand out of friends or through hiring channels. But, since you have lived as a loner for most your life your options are low. Which is why me and Koji have picked your first teammate and Co-Captain for you.”

Blaze: “Whoa REALLY!? Is he strong?”

Argyl: “Oh yes, most likely in ways you might not understand. Look this over and I’ll go fetch him”

(Scene: Argyl hands Blaze a Seer’s Sheet a page with information on a User collected by the Society)

Blaze: “My first teammate…..”

(Scene: The last shot is a black outline of a body and the name Eugene at the top of the page)

[paranoidwino]

Life is Unfair

Darcy/Wanda Fanfiction Rated T for Language.

Link to AO3 in case you wanted to give it some love (juuust because!) 

Novigrad was no more, and this, this was a tragedy. "Just put the bodies into bags, they're identified and there's nothing for you to do here. We'll ship them off as soon as it's morning," they had told her. Darcy swallowed another lump in her throat as she signed 'Tanja Ivanovna Milkovich' on the tiny label. This was so unfair.

As she got to the next body, she froze. This was Pietro Maximoff. This body was not supposed to be here. Shouldn't he be with his sister? Oh God, did his sister even know his body was in a godforsaken morgue in DC instead of an Avenger facility or something?

As she got closer, the lump in Darcy’s throat became tears. He was so young! So young and handsome and this was not the end a hero deserved: in a tiny body bag, all covered in blood and soot.

She made quick work of the other 17 bodies in the morgue, glad that other people were responsible for copying down other names in other morgues. She signed off on seventy nine, which was terrible enough on its own.

She sighed and approached the body of Pietro Maximoff with dejected determination. This was so not in her job description (Thank you, Agent Zombie!), but she was determined to give the young man the proper sendoff he deserved. So she got some tools and started, with the patience and the procedures they had taught her at SHIELD, to extract the last bullets from his body, so that she could clean him a bit and maybe dress him in something decent before signing him off.

However, as she was getting the last of the bullets out, a soft moan interrupted her. She jerked, and looked around. She then stared at the body in her hands. "....Was it you? Pietro?"

She scoffed, it was ridiculous. It could only be a postmortem sound he'd made. Rats were known to continue screaming for hours after you decapitated them.

She shook her head and proceeded with the last extraction.

"...Wan... da"

She jerked again and stared at Pietro intently. Oh. My. God.

The body was breathing.

This man was alive.

"Doctors, doctors, Help!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She looked at Pietro's face, forced one eye open and said, "You stay with me, got that? Stay with me!"

But he didn't hear her. His eye was wide and unseeing.

The next few hours were  a flurry of doctors and nurses going in and out of the operation room, while Darcy filed the admission forms for ‘Mikhail Petrovich,’  a civilian of Sokovia who was alive god knew how.

Darcy thanked Thor that she hadn't signed anything on Pietro Maximoff’s body bag before starting to clean him up.  Revealing an ex-Hydra operative, newly-reformed Avenger, to a well-meaning but definitely not secure Hospital was like asking for the Dark Elves by parading the Aether in their face.

Not smart, not useful.

What she did need, however, was time, so she filled all of Pietro’s data on someone else's bag and switched their names, in case anyone was tempted to check.

“Miss Lewis?” A tired looking doctor came out of the operation room.

Darcy paled. Oh dear, please no.

“We’ve managed to stabilize him,” and just like that, Darcy felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

She wouldn't have been able to forgive herself had she been unable to contact the other Maximoff twin before he died.

“For now,” the doctor added. “Frankly, it's a miracle he made it this far, and he's still critical. Does he have family?”

“Ah yes, I think so.” She made a show of checking Petrovich's information. “A sister, I think.” Inside, she was choking. Critical was bad, very bad.

“She'll need to be informed, we don't know how long the boy has.” The doctor sighed. “What happened today is tragic, and this boy's luck is running out.”

Darcy's hands flew to her mouth in horror without her realizing it.

The girl. She had to reach the Maximoff girl right away

“I'm sorry, Miss Lewis.” The stupidly patient voice of the secretary interrupted her again. She didn't sound sorry, at all. “The Avengers are very busy at the moment and they're not available for comment.” The woman hung up.

Darcy stared, open mouthed, at the tiny phone in the hall.

How dare she!

She quickly redialed the number she'd been given from SHIELD to contact the Avengers in case of emergency, so long ago it felt unreal.

“Avengers Tower.” It was the detached secretary again.

“Yes,” she bit out, trying to compose herself. “I'm Darcy Lewis, I'm calling because-”

“I'm sorry, Miss Lewis.” The woman interrupted her without an ounce of remorse. “The Avengers are very busy and-”

“I KNOW!” She exploded, and the woman shut up in surprise. Darcy charged on, trying to use the shock to her advantage. “Look,  we're all busy, and if you could just take a second to shut up and listen, I need to speak to Wanda Maximoff. It's imperative that I talk to her and-” “Miss Maximoff is unavailable for comment--” this woman, seriously, this woman. "--and Mr Stark would like to add that SHIELD is not welcome to use this channel of contact anymore. Thank you."

"What? NO!" But it was too late, the infuriating woman had hung up.

Darcy wanted to cry, so bad.

She once again swallowed her rage and dialed Jane's number. It was ten in the morning in London, Jane was bound to be up or doing Science! with Ian and Erik, anyway.

"...And I've tried and tried and Jane you can't believe that new assistant is like, so ... It's like Coulson secretly had a daughter and didn't tell anyone." Jane was up, but wasn't being as helpful and sympathetic as Darcy would have liked.

"...Who? Friday?" Huh?

"...Who calls their daughter Friday? Really, Jane?"

"Well, she's Stark's new AI, Darcy, not a real person." This actually explained so much.

"....Oh. Well, JARVIS was so much better, and I mean it. I've tried to get in touch with Maximoff for three days, I haven't slept a wink and the coffee here tastes disgusting, and this new AI is literally blocking me!"

"Why do you need to speak to Wanda, anyways?" Jane looked confused.

Darcy swallowed. She had no qualms about calling the Avengers from the landline at the hospital, she was pretty damn sure the line at Stark Tower was secure. However, Jane and her tiny phone were not protected. She couldn't risk it, not with Jane.

"It's a matter of life and death, Janey, it's super duper important that I contact her yesterday!" she made up on the spot. It was the truth, if a bit stretched.

"O...kay" Jane said slowly. "Wait a minute."

"Jane? Where are you going? Jane! You're not sciencing, are you? Jane?"

"...Who is this?" a pitiful, crying, tiny voice answered instead of Jane.

It was Wanda Maximoff.

Darcy fought the tears of relief and tried to collect her thoughts. "Wanda Maximoff? I'm Darcy Lewis, I don't know if you rem-"

"You work with SHIELD." Wanda said. What was it with people interrupting her lately, huh?

"What? No. Well, no, I mean, yes technically, I did, before the Triskelion in 2014 anyways, but that's not why I'm calling you!" She was talking a mile a minute but this was her chance and she would not be stopped. She took a big breath.

"....Why?" Wanda sounded suspicious and skeptical and okay, weren't Darcy in such a hurry and weren't the matter so time sensitive, she would have understood.

"Listen, it's about your brother."

"You found his body!"  The voice was filled  with hope and desperation at the same time, and Darcy's heart broke just a tiny bit.

"No, I've found him!" she said forcefully. "Wanda, your brother is alive!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"Wanda? Wanda?"

"...That is not funny," she said at last.

"Funny? Wha- No! Please, listen, I'm in DC and your brother needs you here, he's in critical condition!"

"Is this a ploy?" Wanda's voice was quickly escalated in pitch.

But Darcy had had enough.

She strode into Pietro's room, ignoring the nurse's indignant cries , and pressed the video call button while pointing her phone in Pietro's direction.

“Is anyone in the fucking Tower going to listen for one second?!”

She knew she shouldn't have screamed (and the nurse's evil eye promised pain, so much pain), but the shocked gasp on the other end and the crashing sounds coming from the phone told her that she'd reached her objective.

“Where? Where?” Wanda's voice was full of a different kind of urgency now.

“We're at the Holy Mary's Heart Hospital, in DC, and he's critical, Wanda, like, really bad and it's been three days since I started calling and I don't know how long he has left...” Darcy hesitated. Wanda was keeping quiet, holding her breath and Darcy--

The young man was probably not going to make it, and telling the distraught sister that Pietro had been asking for her, even if for only a second? Yeah, no. She was not going there until the girl was here.

“If you can,” she choked in the end, “please come.”

And apparently Maximoff didn't need any further convincing, because she dropped the phone and the next thing Darcy knew, it was Janey on the line.

“Honestly,” Jane huffed. “You could have just told me what it was all about.”

“Jane, I had no idea your line was secure, or that you lived at the Tower! Speaking of! Why? How could you not tell me that?”

“I thought you knew!” Jane defended immediately. “I must have told you... maybe.”

“No Janey, you didn't.” Darcy sighed. No matter, her job was done.

She looked at the still form of Pietro, hooked to so many machines it made her nauseated. The steady beep of one of them didn't reassure her in the slightest: it was supposed to go much, much faster, or at least so she'd been told.

And yet, she couldn't tell anyone, for fear of putting her improbable charge in danger.

She watched him for hours, at a loss, as he slept on thanks to the chemicals in his system.

Life wasn't fair. This man was so young.

The doors of the ICU burst open and Darcy's hand went automatically to her weapon holster. Her trusty taser was charged and ready.

In the back of her mind, she realized she'd fallen asleep on the job. Rookie mistake, and if this went south Coulson would have her head. Possibly detached from her body, too. Damn.

She made herself as tiny as possible from her corner in the room: while the odds of a confrontation were small, she wasn't about to dismiss a threat.

She relaxed, however, when she recognized Agent Barton, because damn, those arms. She didn't let go of her weapon, she knew better.

Behind Barton was the Scarlet Witch.

Darcy's heart sank.

The young woman looked to be on the verge of collapse, or an emotional breakdown, or possibly both; that was possible too. She looked so tiny and alone, wrapped in a red leather jacket that obviously didn't belong to her. She was darting her red, teary eyes all over the ward, scanning room after room in the frantic search of a familiar name, or face.

And aww hell, there was no way Darcy couldn't see the genuine desperation on that cute face; so she made a show of slowly removing the weapon she had kept trained on Barton, but kept it in her hands just in case,  and plastered herself in front of the right door.

Barton's eyes narrowed on her in a second, but to his credit his body didn't twitch. No abortive movement, nothing, he was that good.

“Wanda Maximoff?” Darcy tried really hard to keep her voice low and professional, but the cold tone lasted for like a second before it became an excited whisper; blast it. “He's in there,” she nodded at the door behind her. “He's not awake, now, but when I found him... he was saying your name.”

The woman didn't need further incentive and slid into the room, not caring of the tense atmosphere, but Agent (or was it ex-agent, now?) Barton stayed fixated on her.

They stated at each other for a long time, but in the end it was Darcy who relaxed first. She pocketed her taser and tried to look nonthreatening. All very professional, until she sneezed.

Barton's lips twitched, and Darcy blushed. What did they expect? She wasn't an agent, nope.

“Sorry,” she mumbled sleepily. “It's been a rough couple of days.” Not to mention the lack of sleep, the terrible assistant slash AI and the depressing atmosphere of the hospital ward. And the food sucked. She felt tired and grimy and not at all strong or impressive at the moment.

He snorted, leaning against the wall. “Sounds like it. I’m surprised to see you here, though. What are you doing in here, so far from Foster?”

Darcy drew herself up. “I haven't been with Jane since London, she's got a real  minion now. And to answer your question, I was sent to aid in the Evacuation of Sokovia.  But then they decided to split us to the hospitals to help with the ID of the bodies....”

“Uh uh. Sounds above what you signed for, kid.”

Darcy deflated. “Yes, it so is! I mean, I was all for the helping and even if the training sucked, you have no idea of how much they made us ru.. wait, no you do, but really, Son of Coul gives impressive recruitment speeches,” at this Barton snorted and rolled his eyes, “but seriously, I've had to catalog so many dead bodies and the eyes, man the eyes... Poor people.”

Hawkeye nodded, sympathetic.

He opened his mouth to say something more, but suddenly Darcy's arms were full of tiny and shaking human. She stared bewildered at the thick brown hair under her chin as pale arms squeezed her harder than she would have deemed comfortable.

“Thank you. Thank you,” Wanda babbled. Or at least Darcy thought that’s what she was saying; the girl was very...overwhelmed.

She alternated between shooting looks down at the woman in her arms and at Barton, who despite his exhaustion was trying to suppress laughter. Very carefully, she returned the hug. Wanda leaned into the touch immediately and cried harder. No matter how many calming noises Darcy made, the woman just held on and cried harder.

“Kid, it's going to be alright, you hear?” Bless Agent Arms and his reassuring presence. After a while, Wanda nodded and released her. Darcy made a point of squeezing her shoulder and to smile at her encouragingly.

“Ms...Petrovich?” The head nurse came over, having finally noticed them, with her patented 'I'm a professional' look. She blatantly ignored Darcy. Seriously? She gives a tiny scream in the ward and suddenly she's branded a monster? Really?

Wanda looked very confused, but Barton quickly cottoned on. “Yes, this is her. Sorry, it's been a long flight. We came as soon as we received Ms Lewis's message.” And cue in the awkward smile.

The nurse nodded in understanding and made all the correct noises, but still managed to shoot a venomous look at Darcy.

“I'm sure you'll want to see the Doctor? He'll be here shortly in case you have any questions”, and with that coaxed Wanda towards Pietro's room once again.

“Petrovich?��� Barton whispered as soon as they were out of earshot.

“The first name I could think of, Agent Barton.” She hissed back.

“Yeah, I got that. But good job, quick thinking.” Darcy preened at the praise. “And please, Clint is fine,” he grinned.

In the end, call-me-Clint was completely different from the Agent Barton the rookies whispered about at the training facility, but Darcy supposed it was normal, outside of a mission; he was human after all.

They talked about nothings for a while, aware of the comings and goings of the ICU. The Doctor had gone by and so had four different nurses.

Wanda came back almost an hour later. “The doctor said they don't think he's going to make it,” she whispered. “And it's impossible to move him anywhere.” And Darcy could feel the moment her heart broke for the fifth time in six hours. Finding out your brother's alive only to lose him again was a terrible thing. She spread her arms wide and Wanda almost flung herself at her.

Clint muffled a curse. “I'm calling the guys to say I'm going back later, Wanda. I can’t leave you like this, kid--I'll stay here with you a bit longer.” Bless you, Clint Barton, you amazing father figure.

But Wanda shook her head. “No, Clint, you go. They need you at home. I can stay here, with...”

“Darcy,” she supplied helpfully. The girl smiled hesitantly at her and her stomach flopped a bit.

Clint seemed very unhappy with that idea, but after a long conversation that involved a lot more Sokovian words that Darcy could understand (seriously, how many languages could a single person speak, anyway?), he relented and agreed to go back to NYC, with the compromise that Wanda would call every six hours and speak personally to one of the Avengers.

In the end, there was just them, sitting on two tiny chairs in the ICU ward.

Days passed like a blur, but at least Darcy could now take naps, time off to shower and change. They shared a room at a hotel close to the hospital, but Wanda hardly ever used it.

They spent most of their day sitting in the ward, staring at the beeping machines. After a while,  Darcy would initiate small conversation. Wanda never replied.

“You should eat something.” Wanda reached for a cracker, absentmindedly. “No, no, Wanda, more than crackers.” Darcy sighed, and put an apple in her hands. Wanda bit into it mechanically, then noticed It wasn't the usual dry bread thing she used to eat. She didn't complain, though, and finished the rest of her meal in silence.

She then made herself more comfortable on the chair, and shifted a bit closer to Darcy.

Darcy wasn't surprised; she had noticed Wanda was very touch starved. Considering her powers and her past, she wondered if Wanda’s brother and to some extent Clint had been the only ones to hug her and hold her recently.

She resolved to remedy the situation, if a chance presented itself.

The chance presented itself a few minutes later, when Wanda fell asleep right on Darcy's shoulder.

Darcy huffed a laugh and brushed Wanda's hair back from her face. She idly noticed that Wanda had really long lashes and that while sleeping she looked even younger than she was. Darcy pressed a kiss to her forehead and covered her with the stupid black standard issue jacket.

The episode would repeat itself for a few days, and then Wanda started opening up.

She had a very soft voice, and spoke with very broken English, but the accent was pleasant and she was very outspoken about what she believed in. Under the tears burned a low fire and Darcy could see why she and her brother had joined the rebellion, with that kind of determination.  She accompanied her words with wide gestures, and would reach for Darcy every time she tried to explain something she couldn't translate properly.

And then, with the realization that maybe maybe she could see herself and Wanda become something more (and that had come out of nowhere when Wanda had smiled at her her first real smile), Darcy felt extremely guilty.  The woman was losing her brother, literally latching onto whatever kindness Wanda was shown. She was a horrible person for even thinking it.

“And they come, and try to get us, but Pietro is too fast and they run and we run and we escape.” Wanda murmured, talking about an escapade she and Pietro survived when they were just kids.

Darcy smiled. “He sounds like a cool guy.”

Wanda's smile was watery this time. “Yes, the coolest.”

And her face was close, and they were already hugging, side by side on these chair, and Darcy was fighting her guilt--

--and the monitors roared and beeped and alarms sounded from Pietro's room. His heartbeat, which had kept steady for the last five weeks, accelerated quickly and his breathing skyrocketed.

Wanda was at his bedside in a second, and Darcy felt like a horrible, horrible human being for having thought 'Not now!'

But instead of dying, Pietro's eyes opened.

He focused on the crying face of his sister, and smiled. He fell asleep a second later.

In a flash doctors and nurses were in the room and they were pushing the two women out. They bustled and prodded and then looked very seriously at each other. Then, they happily declared it a miracle.

“We have no idea of how this is even possible, Ms Petrovich,” the doctor was all smiles, now that an actual miracle had happened in his ward. “But this sleep is a very good sign. He'll recover, if nothing changes. Spectacularly so, if I may be so bold!”

Wanda's good mood was infectious, and Darcy realized that her facial muscles may never recover from all the smiling. Pietro was extremely good company, too. A bit less serious than her sister, but equally as passionate and protective. She tried to ignore the knowing looks he'd started sending her, because he was clearly still recuperating and it really didn't mean anything.

It was then, as soon as Pietro was declared fit to be moved, that Tony Stark waltzed into the ward and arranged for the young man to be moved to the newly renovated Avengers Training Facility for rehab, and so Darcy's responsibilities were over.

Coulson had been trying to send her somewhere else for a while, and with the excuse to linger around the Maximoff twins now gone, Darcy watched with disappointment as her maybe-more-than-a-crush doggedly followed her brother out of the tiny hospital and disappeared.

“You're moving me? Again?” She wanted to punch something, or tase it, so bad. So, so, bad.

“Yes, Miss Lewis. We've been asked for help and you're the most qualified asset we have for the job.” Coulson was as unflappable as ever.

“Okaaaay, no, wait, it's not okay. I'm not a Field Agent and yet you sent me to Nicaragua and then to Russia and I just got back! Do I need to wave my passport to you?”

“This is a long-term assignment, Ms Lewis, you'll be able to rest there.”

“Excuse me while I can't fathom how you could think long term assignment could be considered a vacation, ever.”

“I'm sure you'll manage. Your flight leaves in four hours.”

The world was unfair, and life was unfair too, Darcy thought as she boarded the plane.

Apparently she was going back to the States. And she even had scored a first class ticket for the trip, which was a first.

She slid in her first class seat, determined to take a quick nap before they left.

And her neighbour for the trip arrived at that precise moment, sitting down and promptly occupying the armrest. Darcy cracked open one eye, ready to fight for the armrest (wasn't this supposed to be first class?) and then the other one, surprised.

Okay, life was unfair, Darcy amended, as Wanda Maximoff squeezed her hand and hooked her arm with hers, but this time, this time, it wasn't so bad.