The Sokovian Shadow

Chapter 6

TW:
- Mentions of death
- Souls
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I woke up, wings spread and knives out. When I realized I was alone, my wings relaxed, and my knives melted. I wiped my eyes, try to remove the vestiges of the memory. They came away wet. I stared at the water on my fingers for a few seconds in shock, then registered the wetness trailing down my cheeks. I was... crying? How is this possible? I exclaimed in shock. I'm not supposed to be able to cry! I'm a Wraith, I'm... I'm dead...

Alita... Celes tried to make me feel better, but couldn't calm down.

No. I can't. I can't fail again. If I do, I will have failed them twice. I-

Alita! Celes said again, more firmly this time. That day was out of your control. You were 10, for crying out loud, yet you sent three bombs careening into the ocean and made the fourth a dud.

And I redirected the fifth into an apartment full of innocents. Children died because of me. Celes! Children were made orphans because of my failures.

And you've been letting it weigh you down for the past 6 years. Celes' voice was firm, but gentle, and I calmed down slightly. For 6 years, you've been thinking of what you could have done differently that would have saved those people. For 6 years I've been telling you that there was nothing you could have done. You'd only been using your wings and your soul fire for 2 years. It's no wonder you were exhausted. If those missiles fired now, you could destroy them all merely by tracing your fingers over them. But they weren't. They were fired then. And you did more than any other wraith could. If it had been any other Wraith, the Reaper would have punished them, then let them back into the world with a warning. But he didn't for you.

Why? I asked.

My guess, he knows you did your best, which is more than every other Wraith your age combined, but he's disgusted by your... differences, so he only told you that you didn't do enough. He was trying to get you down. He was... how do you put this... he was trying to mess with your head. Wraiths are trained from death to respect the Reaper and fear his disappointment.

By being disappointed in me, he was trying to make me fear him. If not for you still being part of me, what do you think I would have done? I was almost afraid of her answer.

Most likely cut off your wings, just to please him. To try to be "normal". I froze in fear. Would I have done that? To please the Reaper, would I have cut off my wings? It would have been like cutting off my arms. I wouldn't be able to bring myself to... right? Celes sensed my fear and started reassuring me. It's alright, Fledgling, I'm here. And I'm not leaving anytime soon.

I raised my hand to my chest, and when I pulled it away, a glowing ball of blue-infused white light was floating in my palm. My skin and hair returned to their normal colours and though I couldn't see them, I knew my eyes were green again. the ball of light shaped itself into Celes had I not killed her that day, and for a moment, we maintained eye contact. After a few seconds, I held her to my chest and wrapped my left arm around her gently. She spread her wings and wrapped them around my sides in the falcon version of a hug.

After a few minutes, she dissolved into my body again, and my white skin, tattoo, and black hair and eyes returned. I took a deep breath and looked around more carefully. There were no signs of a scuffle, which could mean one of three things. The first option was that they were taken while they slept, but I quickly ruled that out because they would have had to have been victims of nightmares, if not light sleepers, meaning that one or both would have woken up.

The second option would be tranquilizers, which I also ruled out as there would have been broken glass on the floor. The third option was the twins went willingly. I was quick to accept this as what had happened, but I couldn't think of a reason why. Was it bribery? Choice beforehand? Then I remembered the soul I found with the twins before I left for the Reaper, as well as the conversation between the two Hydra people on the roof before I came here. The twins were the two that said yes, and they went willingly with the Hydra people before I came here.

I just had to find them and make sure they were safe before I could rest easy.

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It's almost dawn and I still haven't found anything. I shifted into my falcon form a few hours after I started searching. I used the wind currents to speed my flight, but they could only get me so far. There were sections of Sokovian forest that I hadn't searched yet, but before I went any further, I landed in a nearby tree. I shifted back into my Wraith form and sent out my soul sense, further than I ever had before. I curved it around Sokovia, not wanting a massive migraine when I pulled it back in. After a few hours of slowly expanding my soul sense, I found them. I pulled my soul sense back in, expecting a migraine from how far I'd sent it, but nothing. I was surprised but sure as hell not complaining.

I jumped off the tree and took off flying straight up, then froze and flipped over backward, twisting in mid-air. I arrowed straight for tree cover and as I broke through, I snapped my wings open. I wove through the trees at top speeds, weaving through tree trunks and branches. A grin spread across my face. This was my favourite thing to do other than freefall. And both were useful tactics in a fight. I chuckled to myself. As if that would ever happen.

Don't get too confident. The world's changing. If you ever face Stark, he'll try to attack you from above. Celes warned me.

Keyword being "try". The sky is my domain. Especially when I'm out to kill. I reminded her.

I know. But at least try taking him captive first. The twins deserve to decide the fate of the man who killed their parents. I acknowledged her point and continued flying. After about ten minutes, I arrived at the Hydra base. I perched on a nearby tree to watch. I sent my soul out of my physical form, once again trusting Celes to keep my physical form safe as I explored the base.

I recognized the two men I had seen on the rooftop and followed them

'HYDRA, SHIELD, two sides of a coin that is no longer currency. What we have is worth more than any of them ever knew. We've only scratched the surface and already... There are other facilities doing HYDRA's good work around the world. We'll feed them to Captain America and his colourful friends. Keep them off our scent.'

'What about the volunteers?' The doctor asked.

'The dead will be buried so deep their own ghosts won't be able to find them.' I was so close to laughing at that.

'And the survivors?'

'The twins.' I looked at what they were looking at and gasped. Wanda and Pietro were in one-way glass containment cells. Pietro was sitting on the edge of his bed, but when I blinked, he was in the nearest corner, then he was in the opposite corner. He was breathing hard, his hair was silver now, and there was a haze of light blue wherever he went. I turned my attention to Wanda and was memorized. He hair colour had stayed the same, unlike her brothers, but her eyes were glowing red as wisps of similarly coloured mist flowed from her hands. She was sitting in the corner of her cell lifting wooden cubes with the mist. I turned my attention back to what Strucker was saying.

'This is an age of miracles, doctor. There's nothing more horrifying than a miracle.'

I turned back to Wanda in time to see her use the red mist to smash the wooden cubes together.