Trepidation || Wanda Maximoff

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Riley's POV
Looking around the murky water, I try and find anything that I can use to float. The lake is large and cold, making my limbs seize up and feel numb. I work hard to stay at the surface but I can feel my energy slowly draining. I cough out the water that was in my lungs and beat my hands to try and stay on the surface. I try to get on my back so I can lay there but a large wave swoops over me, knocking me back under the water. It is like there is a weight on my foot because as soon as I am covered by the water I am dragged down. I look around and see a hand on my foot pulling me down.

I follow the hand to see an arm and a should and my eyes finally land on the face. I scream as I try to get away. There are many bodies in the water. Some have snapped necks, some have swords still handing out of them, some have bullet holes, some have gigantic wounds that spread across their body and some have missing limbs.

I know all of these faces.

These were people in Hydra, I killed them all. The wounds they have are from me. All of them from me. Tears fill my eyes as I realise how many people I hurt. I watch as the water bubbles rise to the surface. I keep struggling trying to get back up. More hands appear on my leg dragging me down as I begin to rip the hands off me legs and try and kick to get to the surface.

Eventually I manage to swim to the surface and make it across the lake to the bank. There are still corpses following me but I manage to keep some distance between us.

I clamber out of the water and try to run as far away as possible. I turn my head to try and see if anyone is following me and to my relief no one seems to be. As I turn to look back my body collides with something. I take a step back to have a look at what I have ran into. Another body looks me right in the eye, I watch as more bodies appear behind the one I ran into. They walk forwards surrounding me, speaking to me.

"You killed us" one of them says "we were innocent and you destroyed our lived" another adds "I had family to get back to, my daughter will grow up without a father" another reveals.

"I'm Sorry!" I scream "I didn't want to kill you, Please, I'm sorry" I say.

General Albrecht appears along with Madame Dietrich "You are the monster we created you to be, you killed all those people without fighting us, we have done what we needed to do. You belong with Hydra, you are a killer, a fighter, a creature that belongs to Hydra" general Albrecht laughs coldly as he speaks, pausing after veery sentence.

"We will never forgive you, you don't deserve it. You allowed yourself to be trained, we watched from afar as you grew stronger and killed more and more of us" One of the tells me. Tears are streaming down my face.

I take steps back as they take more steps forwards, eventually I am on the edge of the water. The bodies run at me and push me under, more bodies come and drag me into the he deepest part of the lake, pushing me deeper. I watch as my last breath rises to the surface in bubbles. I don't fight anyone, I deserve this. My eyes close as my mind goes foggy and blank, along with my limbs going weak.

My eyes blast open as I try to breathe. My hands go to my chest feeling it tight and burning. My hands shake and tears blur my vision. I seem to wake someone as I can hear shuffling, but who stays in my cell, There is only me in my cell. Someone grabs my hands causing me to flinch and try to get away. This causes me to fall off something and onto a hard floor. I sit in the corner of the room and try to breathe, trying to block the nightmare from my mind.

My ears are ringing and everything around me seems so loud yet so quiet, it's overwhelming. I manage to hear a gentle voice whisper through the muffling "Riley, you are okay, you are safe" I recognise that voice but can't place it.

Under my breath I begin to count from ten, or try to. I need to regulate my breathing, I tap my fingers against my thumb as I count, It helps me to bring myself back by feeling something. I have done this lots in the time i have been at Hydra, I would get panic attacks multiple times a day. If I ever had a panic attack in front of the guards or anywhere apart from my cell I would get punished, I don't want to get punished. I close my eyes as the panic attack ends not wanting to face the reality of being in Hydra.

"Riley" that voice whispers again, I come to recognise it as Wanda's. In Hydra, Wanda? It must be another trick, I open my eyes and look around, I am in my room. In the compound, with Wanda. I look up and my eyes meet Wanda's, I look down. Wanda gently places two fingers on my chin and lift my head so our eyes meet again. "You can look me in the eyes Riley" She tells me, as she places a gentle kiss on my cheek. I offer her a small smile. "Are you alright?" She asks, I nod, wiping my tears.

Wanda stands up, she walks over to a draw and grabs something before sitting back next to me. She hands me my phone, earphones and headphones. I smile gratefully as a way of thanking her. I put my headphones to the side wanting to listen to some music later.

"I love you" I whisper quietly "I missed you so much" I add, tears pooling in my eyes again.

Wanda hugs me, tears in her eyes, and whisper "I love you too, and I am glad you are back home" she tells me. I lean in and kiss her gently, her soft lips meet my rough ones. They explore each other, tentatively, nervously having not met for a long time. The kiss was broken and our eyes met once again. "I missed that too" Wanda says, a light smile present. A small chuckle escapes my lips and I nod my head.

"How long was I gone?" I question nervously, meals were so inconsistent along with sleep so i could never tell the date, time or distance between anything.

"Just over two months. Today is the 20th of January" Wanda whispers. I nod slowly. Slowly processing the information.

"It's been so long" I respond, I know owe Wanda another date, its long overdue but I don't think I am ready to do something like that just yet.

"I know" Wanda nods her voice quiet, tears form in her eyes but she blinks them away quickly.

I stand and offer my hand to Wanda, helping her up. She smiles and hugs me gently. "Riley, I want you to remember that you are not in Hydra anymore" Wanda tells me, "You don't have to follow whatever rules they told you, I know it will be hard to adjust but we are all here for you" she adds, I nod and we get back onto the bed to watch another movie, cuddled into one another.

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Hello readers, I know it might seem that Riley has kind of gone back to 'how she was' before Hydra with Wanda but she is just more comfortable around Wanda having being closest to her the most. She is also kinda having a moment of forgetting everything and just enjoying being around Wanda :) i don't know if that makes sense but I can answer any questions in the comments

Riley will also hide more, she will face her emotions behind closed doors, not wanting the Avengers to see her as 'weaker' even though they will not think that. If you have been reading from earlier on. In chapter 20 something I know Riley had a panic attack at school and Mj helped her. I changed it to 30 minutes, I don't know why I had it as longer before. I probably wasn't very focused or something. And I don't really proof read, I don't have the attention span for that, :)