Cosmic Collision | Wanda X OC

Chapter Sixteen ☆

"Sometimes I forget that unsaid sentences do not mean unfelt emotions."
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Wanda's POV

"What legal authority does an enhanced individual like Wanda Maximoff have to operate in Nige-"

The TV shut off, the screen no longer showing the damage they'd left behind. The damage she'd left behind. Wanda didn't need to look to know it was Steve who'd switched it off. She spoke before he could. "It's my fault."

"That's not true."

"Turn the TV back on. They're being very specific." She did look back at him now, feeling tired. Steve was rested against her doorway but now moved off to walk in.

"I should've clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it." He also looked like someone whose mind had been weighing heavy. "Rumlow said "Bucky" and... all of a sudden I was a sixteen year old kid in Brooklyn." He sat, eyes showing he was thinking deeply. "And people died." His head bowed. "It's on me."

Wanda looked away a little. "It's on both of us." The whole team was being criticized and dragged all over the media. Nyxa was, too, but not nearly as much as her. They were both "enhanced individuals" but she was the only one truly being blamed.  She supposed that's what happened when your powers killed others.

"This job..." He sighed. "We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes it doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that... then next time, maybe nobody gets saved."

She thought his words over, trying hard to take them on. There was a noise from the left side of her room, Wanda automatically leaning away before she saw it was Vision moving through her wall. "Vis! We talked about this." Her tone was lightly scolding because he normally listened just fine. Vision looked like a child caught doing something wrong.

"Yes, but the door was open so I assumed that..." His arm fell away from where it had been pointing to the door and he gave up on an explanation. "Captain Rogers wished to know when Mr. Stark was arriving." Steve immediately nodded as he heard.

"Thank you. We'll be right down."

"I'll use the door," Vision pointed. He got all the way there when he was speaking again. "Oh, and apparently he's brought a guest."

This made her frown. She hadn't thought of Tony Stark as someone who had friends.

"We know who it is?" Steve asked. Vision gave them a look that she immediately knew meant it wasn't good.

"The secretary of state." Vision left and Wanda looked down, knowing these were the consequences they would have to face.

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Secretary Ross was giving a story on the time he'd had a heart attack. They were all seated around a conference table watching him. Wanda sat in the chair closest to where he was standing, her arms crossed. She viewed Nyxa out of the corner of her eye, directly across from her and next to Rhodey. Wanda found it strange that Nyxa's shadow wasn't moving like usual. It was normal, like everyone else's- and with her hair like that it was almost impossible to tell it had an iridescent quality. She wondered why Nyxa felt the need to get rid of almost all signs of her power.

"Perspective," Ross declared softly, making her refocus on him as his story and what he'd learned from it concluded. "The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives... but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who would prefer the word "vigilantes"."