Agony (Wanda Maximoff)

Chapter 6

||"They're the very yin-and-yang in that twin sense. In his power, he's physical, and she's psychological."||

"You cannot run faster than me!" Pietro shouted as he ran by Wanda, his short legs skipping by her as he sped down the streets of Sokovia. Wanda was close behind him, her breath hitching as she jumped over a large rock. They were running home to make it in time for dinner, and they agreed that whoever made it home first would get the biggest piece of bread.

"Yes I can!" Wanda took a short cut, weaving through some markets that were selling fruit, and as she passed by a fruit stand, she snatched an apple and ran faster. The clerk behind the stand noticed, but smiled when he realized it was just a little girl. Wanda cut down an alley and back onto the street, where she was about ten feet ahead of her brother.

"Hey! You are cheating!" he called out after her, but all she could do was laugh. Wanda raced up the steps of her home and ran inside, nearly stumbling onto the floor when she jumped on her chair. Wanda looked curiously around her kitchen, but realized that her parents were not there. Without much thought, she stared at the front door, waiting for her brother to run in so she could gloat about how she won. But as the minutes passed she began to wonder where he was.

With a push, she got off of her chair and walked to the front door. When she opened the door, she saw that her once beautiful country had been destroyed, and her brother's lifeless body lay in the middle of the rubble. His body was covered in blood and she felt her heart crumble to tiny pieces. In an instant, the young Wanda bolted down the steps and towards her brother.

"Pietro!" Wanda screamed loudly, jolting herself awake, and Natasha was by her side in seconds.

"Shhh, it's ok, you're ok," Wanda's cheeks were stained with fresh tears and she suddenly realized that she had been dreaming. She looked up at Natasha and put her arms around her, startling Natasha. Reluctantly, she put her arms around Wanda and let the young girl cry some more. Wanda's dream was a memory, of her and Pietro running through the streets of their country. Those were good days, but they were only memories.

"What happened?" Wanda asked quietly, and she took the time to look around the room she was in. They were still in the Stark tower, but they were on a floor that Wanda had never been on. "Where am I?"

"You're on the medic floor, that's why there's all these machines and gloves." Natasha sat back down on the chair that was beside the bed, and Wanda fell back against the bed gently. She felt soreness on her side and on her arm, and naturally, she reached down and touched the aching skin. "Don't. You have stitches there and it's best you let them heal." Wanda looked down at her arm and realized that Natasha was right; the stitches were healing properly, but they looked just a couple of days old.

"How long have I been in here?" Wanda asked nervously.

"Three days. You've been asleep, and the nurses concluded that your mental state was in some type of purgatory, and it was either going to take you a few days to find your way back to reality, or a few weeks. Luckily...you've found your way back." Wanda swallowed hard, realizing that her throat was incredibly dry, and that she was famished. Three days with no food or water? How did she manage to not wake up from starvation?

"Can I have some food?"

"Of course you can. Stay right here and I'll go order some Chinese food for you from that place you love. Does that sound good?" With a quick approving nod from Wanda, Natasha rushed out of the room and down the hall, leaving Wanda to her thoughts.

___

"Ten minutes? I'll have someone pick it up for me, thank you." Natasha put her phone down and leaned against the wall. She had gone up to Tony's floor and made the call, but immediately regretted it when she saw Steve sitting on the couch. "Have you been dying to get me alone?" she asked him mockingly, and he stood, taking long strides towards her.

"You've been lying to her for three months, even though you knew how badly she was suffering. Why?"

"Her brother wasn't supposed to die, and we needed someone like Wanda on our team. You know how powerful she is and how much help she's been to us on our missions. Vision told us that Pietro would need to stay away for six months, without Wanda knowing he was alive. We figured that we'd keep her here for the six months and put her to use. With all the bottled up rage inside of her she'd be one hell of a tool in the field."

Steve let out a disgusted sigh. The Natasha that was in front of him, the one who spoke of Wanda as a "tool" made him rethink his place on the team.

"She isn't an object, Natasha, she's just a girl who thinks her brother is dead and who's been struggling to hold it together for three months. She's our friend, and you, Bruce and Tony decided that it'd be a great idea to lie to her and make her believe that her brother was dead so that she could have a better performance on the field?"

"Wanda couldn't know that her brother was alive, or else it would have put them both in danger. Don't you understand that?" Steve turned and walked over to the bar, grabbing a hold of a bottle of Rum and taking a long swig.

"Why would it have been dangerous for her to know her brother was alive? What's the bigger picture?" The sharp taste of Rum burned Steve's throat as he swallowed, and he pushed the bottle away and wiped his mouth.

"I don't know. Vision never said, but he did say it was important to keep Wanda away from him, or else they'd both die." The elevator doors opened up, making both Steve and Natasha turn. It was Tony and Pepper, both in the process of talking when they noticed Steve and Natasha. "Did you figure out why Wanda suffered the same cuts that her brother did?" She asked.

"Uh-no, but I did manage to get Bruce on the phone and have him make sure that Dr. Cho doesn't perform anymore procedures. Oh, hey Cap." Tony walked over to his computers and sat down in his chair. Pepper took a seat beside Natasha at the bar and poured herself a glass of cranberry juice. "Is she still sleeping?" Tony asked.

"No, she woke up not too long ago. I ordered food for her, she was starving. She did wake up screaming her brother's name, though, which makes me worry. I know deep down she's starting to wonder."

"Then maybe we should tell her," Steve interrupted, clearly still angry. He didn't understand why they had to keep it a secret from Wanda, it just didn't make sense to him. "If she finds out on her own, god only knows how she'll react."

"Well, then we'll just have to not tell her." Tony swiveled around his chair and toyed around with a steel pen in his hands. Although he didn't look it, he was terrified of what actually might happen if things didn't go as planned.