Where your loyalties lie (Two New Bartons book 2) (completed)

Losing her - Pietro

Maybe we need someone to control us. Someone who can stop incidents like Lagos from happening.

I realise my mistake straight away, even before I've finished expressing the thought. Wanda pulls away, tears already flooding her eyes.

I start to apologize, but my words hit a wall. She's blocked me!

"Wanda," I say out loud, "I'm sorry, I didn't think."

No reaction. I reach out, stroke her hair over her shoulder like our mother used to do when she was upset. She doesn't even raise her head.

"Wanda, please! I'm sorry! Please, look at me."

She doesn't.

"What happened?" Clint asks.

"I made a mistake," I whisper, horrified at what I said. "I- I was trying to convince her to sign."

"Oh no. What did you say?"

I can feel tears in my own eyes now. I don't cry. Ever. But now, my sister, my best friend, my family, is mad at me. She's crying. She maybe even hates me. I'm all she's got. At least I have Clint and Laura and the kids. She doesn't even have them. She doesn't have the Vision anymore, either. And now she thinks she's lost me, too.

"I- I said if she signed, maybe- maybe we could avoid things like- like Lagos."

Clint makes a sound between a sigh and a groan. "Pietro-" He doesn't finish.

I turn back to Wanda. I can see the tears falling down her face in the reflection in the window, each one glowing red. Her eyes are staring into the distance, unseeing. They're already red rimmed, although it's hard to tell if it's from the tears or her powers. I try to blink my own tears away to see better, and then her eyes are actually red.

That's bad. When Wanda's eyes go red, she's lost control. Her powers start to lash out, and even I'm not safe, even I have trouble reining them back in. 

I unbuckle my seat belt and scoot closer to her. "Wanda, please calm down. I'm really sorry. Please, look at me."

But she doesn't react to my voice. I get the impression she can't hear me.

"What's going on back there?" Clint calls.

"She's not responding, she's losing control!" I say, starting to panic.

"What do I need to do?"

"Turn off as soon as possible, get us away from people."

"Got it."

I turn my attention back to my sister, grabbing her shoulders, trying to turn her around, force her to look at me - I can calm her down then - but she's as solid as a boulder. She won't budge. 

And then she does. But not the way I want her to. She shoves open the door with her powers, nearly knocking it off its hinges, and get out, right into the road. 

"Wanda!" I scream over the sound of traffic.

Cars swerve to avoid her. At least, that's what I think. Then I look closer and see that most of them are pushed away in a red glow. If any get within three metres of her, the drivers lose all control. 

My twin launches into the air, and flies off, my screams not reaching her. 

I don't think. I just run after her. It takes a couple of minutes before I realise I've stopped time. It takes almost half an hour for me to find her, suspended in the air above a field, moving at a snail's pace. 

I speed time back up, and almost instantly regret it. Wanda's moving so fast, she's about a kilometre away in a second. I slow time again, and run a long way ahead of her, before stopping. 

She catches sight of me and changes direction, but I speed in front of her again. This happens twice more before she finally lands and I'm able to grab her arms.

"Hey," I say, "Hey look at me." She doesn't, but I keep talking anyway. "I'm sorry, okay. I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean it. I'm really, really sorry."

She still won't look at me, but I can see the red glow in her eyes. I need to stop it.

"Wanda, please. I can't lose you! Please, look at me." Still nothing. "At least say something," I whisper.

"What would you like me to say?" she asks finally. Her eyes don't move or change. 

"I don't know, something. Anything."

"How about this? You hurt me, Pietro." She doesn't yell. Her voice is low but shaking. It's worse than if she started screaming at me. "Lagos was my fault. I know it. You don't have to remind me. But I also know that way more people would have died if I hadn't done what I did."

"I know, Wanda," I say gently, but, again, it's almost as if she doesn't hear me. She keeps talking, like she's trying to convince herself as much as me.

"I saved lives. Tons of them. Only eleven died, rather than hundreds. I did the right thing."

"You did," I assure her. Still, her eyes stay red.

"But they're still trying to restrict me. They want to control me. Like Hydra did." Finally, she looks me, but there's not love or forgiveness or happiness in her red eyes. Just anger. Hate. "And you want to let them."

The reality of what she's saying, what she's feeling, hits me, and I realise. I've lost my sister. Completely. Maybe forever. 

Before I can say anything else, her eyes flash brighter, redder, and she launches into the air. I blink, and she's gone.

Word count: 902