Loki's Little Witch [en]

chapter 10. embracing the new reality

Wanda looked up, scanning the enormous hall of the Sanctum Sanctorioum. It hadn't been long since she last set foot there, but that time, she barely looked around as her mind was much more focused on hurting her father, the same man who was now leading her down a hallway to the left, one who she had never walked before.

Two doors suddenly opened as they reached them, revealing a dark room whose only light source came from a glowing dome which held a stone and golden Orb in its center.

It definitely wasn't the place she pictured when Stephen had told her dad they were going for a stroll.

"Are you telling me yet what we're doing?" she questioned, causing her dad to stop his steps.

"I thought you knew it since we left the house."

Wanda couldn't help but grin at him, "you have always been the toughest one to read, but, I'm trying not to anymore. I just need quietness for a change."

Stephen nodded, letting go a mouthful of air as he clasped his hands together, "I believe Loki told you the truth," Wanda couldn't help but frown at his words, "twelve years ago, an anonymous letter appeared here," he looked down, unable to look her at the eye any longer, "it said that a young girl had displayed a glimpse of Chaos Magic, the oldest and first form of magic in the cosmos, a magic so powerful that it was thought to be non-existent. And it was believed that the only being capable of wielding in the entire universe was the one destined to become the Scarlet Witch. A being prophesied to either rule or annihilate the cosmos," he found enough strength to gaze at her again, "at that her name was Wanda Maximoff."

Wanda's frown faded as she heard her dad say her name, it definitely had been a while since the last time she had heard it. And she definitely knew the story, both Loki and Mordo had told her, just filled with different lies each time.

"As Sorcerer Supreme I had no choice but to follow that lead," he continued, "and just seeing that pair of sweet and innocent eyes was enough for us to know you weren't the myth that was written in those ancient books. You were just a little girl," he tried his best to hide a smile, "but we knew the risk, and decided to spend some time with you to see what you were capable of, but there was no doubt since that first day we meet you at the orphanage that we would do anything to protect you, because you won our hearts that day," his eyes crystallized at the memory of that day, the same one that came to Wanda's mind, "not everyone was on board with us at first, but they soon saw in you the same thing we did that day... that you were nothing more than our daughter."

"So everyone knows about me?"

Stephen nodded, "we asked them not to tell you. I wish to say we just wanted to spare you from an ugly truth, but the truth is we wanted to avoid seeing you as anything more than our little girl," he swallowed, taking a step closer to her, "I swear to you, regardless of what either of them told you, that we never did anything to you, nothing to take away your powers, I swear to you honey. We just... we just choose to believe that everything was just life's twisted way of bringing you to us, to be our daughter, like it was meant to be."

A hardly perceptible grin was drawn on Wanda's face, "I know."

She simply answered, unable to say something else. She knew he was telling the truth, not only because she had read him before, but because she trusted him, because he was her dad, but still, it didn't hurt her any less that they hadn't told her truth before.

"Trust me, nothing makes me feel worse than knowing I can turn back time and prevent everything that happened from happening. But I can't. So all we have left is to face it."

Wanda was barely able to frown before Stephen took another step making both of them teleport at the entrance of a big hall leading to some stairs into an outside square, with two big bells at its sides and a view of a whole city surrounded by mountains. The bewilderment that the sensation of that trick caused in her quickly became replaced by the view her eyes caught.