New Identity ~ MCU/SWCW Story

//Chapter Twenty-Seven//

"Did you hit your head in your sleep?" Wanda scoffed, the soft tone in her voice drying once more into something callous. "My eyes are blue, always have been, with the exception of red flares when my powers are in use."

Ashley blinked slowly to verify that her eyes weren't failing her due to just awakening. However, as her lids cleared away the haze of sleep from her vision, Wanda's irises still lacked the color Ashley once admired in them. "They are certainly grey now. I am not seeing things."

"Unlikely," Wanda rolled her eyes, turning away from Ashley and peering down the hallway grimly. "Get yourself together. They should be here soon to collect us for the daily procedures."

Ashley hesitated to respond, slightly hurt by the apathy from the brunette, though she was growing miffed now. Why couldn't Wanda see that there was no reason to antagonize her? They were going through the exact same situation: misguided teenage girls who joined to protect the people they loved, but instead were slapped with betrayal and pain beyond words. Why couldn't Wanda just see this and realize that they could work through this hell together?

Still, nothing explained why she could no longer see the blue in Wanda eyes. Had something occurred to the brunette overnight? Perhaps as a residual effect from Ashley's outbursts last night? Or was the discrepancy on Ashley's end?

The latter option made little to no sense. It was near impossible to acquire a color blindness overnight, even at a facility as dangerous and unbecoming as this one. Especially if the only difference she had noticed yet was the color in Wanda's irises.

To verify that statement, Ashley spared a glance around her confinement cell. To her disgruntlement, she noticed at streak of some sort of ash and dust coating her exposed legs. The same sediment dirtying her legs was also splotched on the concrete around her, causing Ashley to scowl at the unhygienic conditions they were exposing her to. Of course, they also didn't even bother to provide her with disinfectant and antibiotics for any of her wounds, so she couldn't exactly say she was surprised.

Despite the protests from her sore and bruised arms, she lifted them enough to brush off the grime from her skin. She knew it wouldn't make circumstances much better, but she couldn't stand the sight of contaminants caked on top of her open injuries. She really didn't feel like having the life sucked from her due to infection again.

However, as the pads of her fingers and palms ran across her bare legs, a wave of realization and horror crashed into her still-drowsy mind. Whatever she was trying to rid her skin of was certainly not dust, dirt, or ash.

It was blood.

Grey blood.

A scream, which was nearly muted by her damaged and dry vocal chords, bubbled up her throat as she stared at the grey liquid dripping from her hands. While the top layer had dried out, giving off the appearance of dust or ash, there were still a multitude places where she was bleeding from. Agitating the wounds by trying to clean the 'sediment' from them only made it worse.

Though, the fact that she was still actively bleeding hardly bothered her. She was merely terrified by the color of the fluid that trickled from her legs and across her hands.

"Why the hell is it grey," Ashley shrieked, turning to Wanda with wild eyes. The brunette, who had just recently turned back to face the younger girl, had been studying Ashley's reaction to the blood on her hands curiously. Once Ashley's words registered in Wanda's mind, she made eye contact with the girl and rose an eyebrow.

"That's red," Wanda negated, eyeing the girl suspiciously and gauging her reaction. She had no clue what had caused Ashley to lose the ability to see the color in her eyes or blood, but if it was even slightly correlated to whatever happened the night prior, she had no interest in being involved.