The Witch's Shadow (Wanda Maximoff x Girl)

Twenty-Four

The next morning I call a meeting in the spare room where we've set up all our intel. As I look at the very little intel we have, I know I was making the right decision.

When everyone was seated, I take a breath, "I'm going to call the Red Room emergency number and surrender." All eyes turn to me, Wanda's are confused but Natasha and Yelena's are pissed. There's a silence before they all start yelling at once. I let them get it out of their system for thirty seconds before yelling, "shut up!" And for once, they do what I tell them. "Look," I start. "It's the only way to find him. He's gone to ground and unless we want to lose him for good, I need to get them to take me to him."

"But then we lose you too," Wanda says quietly.

"Yeah," Natasha agrees. "How are we supposed to find you when we can't even find him?"

"Shit," Yelena mumbles as I look over at her. "Would it even reach that far?"

"There's been no limit so far," I remind her.

Natasha smacks the table, "what are you talking about?"

"Her mind voodoo," Yelena answers.

"It's a bit more than that," I answer slowly. "I can give a piece of my powers, a piece of a a shadow, to someone and it connects us. It lets us communicate in our minds across vast distances."

"Yeah," Yelena adds. "Mind voodoo."

Shaking my head I continue, "it's like an internal undetectable coms system. And, more importantly, it pulls you towards that person if you think about them hard enough. It's how I knew exactly where Yelena was during her recon fire fight."

"But wouldn't that only pull you to them?" Natasha's asks. "Not them to you?"

"It works both ways," I explain. "It would just take you guys a little longer to get to me then it would take me to get to you."

"Then Yelena should go," Wanda says firmly.

"No," I tell her.

"Absolutely not," Natasha tells her.

"Ok," Yelena agrees.

"Shut up," I snap at Yelena. "I'm doing this. I'm the only one who can, and no offense, but he wants me more than either of you and I have more at stake here."

"Rude," Yelena mutters.

I look at the three of them, "I'm sorry. I just.. I'm so tired of feeling useless. Of feeling like no matter how hard we look or how hard we try, that we will never find him. That well never find her.. and that she'll grow up in that place, just like we did. That she'll be controlled and used and abused just like we were. And I can't.. I just.." I groan in frustration and stand up. "I need to do something. I need to do this. And I am doing this, with or without you guys. But I'd really appreciate the backup."

Wanda stands up and comes over to me, taking my hand gently, "you'll always have us."

"We haven't left yet," Yelena adds. "Why would we start now when it's just getting good?"

We all look to Natasha who was sitting and staring at her hands, an unreadable expression on her face. "Nat." I say her name softly, almost pleading with her. I could do this without her, without all of them, but I really didn't want to. They were my family, for better or worse, and this was definitely a worse case scenario.

Eventually her eyes raise up and meet mine, and for a moment it's like we are back in the Red Room. Her eyes are cold and guarded, like she's locked all her emotions away. She gives me a single nod, "fine. But you're giving all of us this mind voodoo thing. And before you even pick up a phone to call him, we are going to practice and come up with a plan, and a backup plan, and a backup for the backup plan."

She sounds so much like Red Room Natasha that Yelena and I immediately reply, "yes ma'am."

Wanda looks between the three of us, her confusion written all over her face. "Wait.. that's it?" She asks. "You're just going to let her do this? It's suicide!"

"She knows," Natasha tells her in a hard voice. "She's already made plans for that scenario."

"Nat," I warn. "Don't."

"Don't what, Ray?" She snaps. "Don't tell them what you've really got planned? Don't tell them that despite all your talk about a future after this that you don't actually intend to be here for it? Or maybe, you don't want me to tell them that you asked me, begged me, to leave you behind and to let you die!"

"You did what?" Wanda gasps softly.

"It's the only way," I whisper. Whether I'm telling it to them or to myself, I didn't know in that moment. Louder I say, "we all know that we might not make it back from this. If it comes to it, I'd die for any of you. If giving my life means that you guys get to keep living yours, then so be it. I'll make that trade any day."

"And how are you gonna do that?" Natasha argues as she stands up. "Are you going to let them kill you? Let them imprison you and experiment on you until you eventually die? Or maybe you're going to swallow another bottle of pills the first chance you get!"

All I can do is stare at her in shock. She knows why I took those pills the first time, why I'd tried to take my life. In all these years, she's never once thrown it back in my face like this. Even Yelena was speechless and that was a hard thing to do.

"That's low Nat," I tell her, trying to keep the hurt from my voice.

"So is making me promise to let you die," she tells me.

"That was wrong of me," I admit. "I shouldn't have asked that of you." I let my shadows swirl around me and pass one to Wanda before I say, "I'm sorry. I won't ask anything of you again. Any of you."

I drop Wanda's hand and then I'm gone.