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

Modifications - Pietro

I feel shame rise to my throat as the soldiers carry my sister away from me. 

I hear shouting to my left and turn to see Clint trying to reach her, yelling. Two more soldiers grab his arms, keeping him back. The man who could be my father turns to his attention to me instead, yelling, swearing, spitting. I turn away. 

The last thing I hear before he's dragged inside after Wanda is, "She trusted you!"

I close my eyes and let a single tear fall. 

A hand lowers onto my shoulder and I look up.

"You did the right thing," Vision says.

Anger takes over the shame and, a second later, the toaster is hanging upside down by his ankle from a sparking wire several feet away. 

"You're mad at me," he notes, phasing easily through the wire. "I understand." He flies away without another word.

I keep staring at the door into which my sister vanished, as though expecting her to burst out in a red haze. She doesn't.

After a minute or two, Romanoff appears next to me. 

"How do you do it?" I ask. "Get close to someone, knowing you'll have to turn on them soon?"

I notice she flinches slightly, but I pretend not to. 

"It's hard sometimes," she replies after a second. "Normally, I just tell myself it's all fake while I'm getting to know them." She glances at the door, too. 

"That's not going to work now."

"No. It's not."

We stand in silence for a moment, then she says, "We should go. There's a quinjet ready."

I nod and follow her to the plane. 

On the way to the facility, I ask in a low voice, "What'll happen to them?"

Romanoff sighs. "I suspect they'll be taken to some maximum security prison somewhere."

"No prison will hold Wanda," I warn.

"Her cell will probably have... modifications."

"Modifications?"

"Something to stop her from using her powers. I don't know what."

A couple of days later, at the facility, I'm sitting in the otherwise deserted meeting room, a tablet in hand. Stark was given clearance to go talk to the others, and he managed to convince someone to let me check in on my sister while he's there. 

I take a deep breath and turn on the tablet. The screen fills with four different feeds. One each for Clint, Wilson, Lang and Wanda. I click on Wanda's and suck in a gasp. She's curled up in a corner of her cell, a straight jacket around her arms and a shock collar around her throat. 

What is this?! Are these the modifications Romanoff was talking about? Restraining her? Torturing her? Anger races through me, just as the door opens behind me. 

I turn to see Romanoff standing in the doorway, staring at the screen. 

"Did you know?" I whisper, my voice trembling. 

"No."

"Bull. Did you know?!"

"I didn't, I promise. I thought they'd just use thick walls or something. Something she couldn't break through. I didn't think it would be... this." She gestures to the screen.

There's a moment of silence, then I notice the bag over her shoulder. "Going somewhere?"

"I may have helped Rogers and Barnes get away. Princes T'Challa will probably have told Ross by now, so I've got to et out of here for a bit, just until things cool down."

I nod, and she steps forward and grabs my hand, transferring something into it. A piece of paper. "You know what you need to do, don't you?" She nods at the tablet lying on the table. 

"Yeah."

"Then you'll know where to find me if you need me."

I don't ask how. There's probably cameras in here, which is why she isn't saying anything more. And I'm guessing the fact that she handed the paper over so discreetly means no one else can know about it. 

"I'll see you around, kid," she says, before letting go of my hand, turning and leaving. 

I take a second to stare after her, then look back down at the screen. A second later, it goes black - Stark's meeting must be over - but not before I see a single tear slide down my sister's cheek. 

If I didn't know what I have to do before, I do now. Because that single tear breaks my heart more than anything else. And I know I will do anything to stop that single tear from making an appearance ever again. 

She doesn't deserve this. She doesn't deserve any of this. All she's ever done is her best, and what did she get for it? A shock collar. A straight jacket. A cell. I should have been there for her. I should have supported her. Instead, I pushed her away, betrayed her, made her think I hated her. I tried to help her, did what I thought was best, and where did it get her? She would have been better off had I left well enough alone.

I may never be able to forgive myself, but there is one thing that might help.

I'm going to get her out of there, or die trying. 

Word count: 835

Hey guys!

I just have a quick question before moving on to the net chapter: Do you prefer longer chapters like the last one, or short ones like this one? Cause I can work with whichever you like. I just like to have them more or less the same length. It's my little OCD. XD

Happy reading! :)

-Ashlley