A scarlet rose in the witches garden

Chapter 1

Roman is jolted awake by literally the entire temple of Kamar-Taj shaking. Loud bangs and explosions bombarding his pounding head and blurry vision.
How did he get here? And- where is 'here'? He sits up slowly, holding a hand to his head. His memories of "the incident" return to him like a smack to the face. The alarms, the blood, the screaming. But he doesn't remember anything after that.
A shockwave coming from the ground throws him forward- he lands on the floor of his...cell? Why is he in a cell? Well...he did violently murder 27 people in cold blood, but they deserved it. Looking around he realizes he's in an old iron barred cell in a dark black room. Dang, just like the movies.
He unsteadily stands up, putting his arms out for balance as the temple shakes. He walks over to the bars of his cell, putting his fingers on the cold iron. Dust and chips of stone fall from the ceiling of the chamber.
"I need to get out of here"
He scans the chamber for anything he could use, however the low light made that sort of difficult.
Just as he's thinking it's hopeless he spots a little patch of moss growing on the damp stone wall across from him. He can work with that...he thinks.
Roman stares at the moss, concentrating on it, picturing it doing...something(?) but it does nothing.
"Well shit."
The temple shakes and he's knocked over, but instead of hitting the cold stone floor, he lands on a thick carpet of plush green moss.
He stands up quickly, looking down at the large patch of moss that now covers his cell floor.
"Damn..."
The moss crawls up the bars of the cell, corroding the iron as it does.
And soon enough there's a Roman shaped hole for him to walk through.
He steps out of the cell and squints his eyes to look for a door. Nada.
Walking over to one of the walls he runs his fingers along the stone to guide him through the dark.
His fingers run through a slimy sludge that sits on the wall. He immediately removes his hands and wipes them on his pants.
But just then he can see a little light shining through the wall. Which becomes bigger, and bigger, the algae is literally...melting the stone? The hole gets to about the size of Roman's fist before he's blown backwards agains the back wall. Chunks of stone fly back with him.
When the dust clears he can see that the whole wall had been blown to pieces. Standing up, he cautiously walks to the wreckage.
Outside a woman in a red suit wreaks havoc.
Massive bursts of red light combat yellow shields and other various energy forms.
Roman looks around the area, noticing the dead men and woman in robes scattered about.
"Holy shit..."
As a chunk of stone is launched at him he dives to the side.
He sits back up in a flash, darting his eyes around to look for somewhere safe. Spotting another pile of wreckage he darts in its direction, reaching it just before he's hit with another chunk of rubble.
He crouches down for a moment, trying to think of his next move.
One of the men dressed in robes slides behind the pile with me. Sweat runs down his forehead, his breathing labored.
"What the hell is going on here?" Roman yells.
"Shut up! She'll hear you!" The man hisses.
"Who?"
That's the last thing he says before he's launched backwards again.
Landing flat on his back, the air is knocked out of him.
The man in the robe holds up two yellow shields, but his efforts are useless. A burst of red energy wraps around his throat and a blood curdling crack can be heard before he falls limply onto the ground.
Roman lays gasping on the ground. All that can be heard is his breathing.
Somewhere in front of him Roman hears slow footsteps.
As the footsteps come nearer a shadow is cast over Roman's body.
He lifts his head as much as he can- the woman in the red suit walks towards him, balls of red light strobing in her palms.
Panic starts to set in and Roman suddenly feels completely fine again.
He sits up and frantically scrambles backwards, he tries to stand up but he falls right back down. Where his hands come into contact with the ground sprouts pop up through the dirt.
The woman hesitates as she gets a better look him.
"Who are you?" She asks coldly.
"Roman, Roman Cain." He stutters.
"Why are you here?" She can tell he's not supposed to be here. Not to mention his dirty hospital pajamas are a little out of place.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" She raises an eyebrow.
"I just kind of woke up a cell back there" he points to the ruins of the previously grand temple.
In a cell? She thinks.
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen..."
See, he knew the year he was born, but the lack of windows, calendars, and clocks in the facility made it hard to keep track of time. Sometimes he could peek at the medical files on the clipboards and see the date. And he could keep track of the weeks just because many of the scientists came into work later than usual on what he assumes to be Sunday.
But otherwise, the days simply blended together. Anyway, back to the story.
"You're only a child..." the red energy dancing along the woman's fingers starts to fade and her face softens.
Roman swallows hard, fear still evident in his eyes.
"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you." She crouches down to his level.
"W-who are you?"
She's quiet for a second. She ponders whether she should give him her real name.
"Wanda...but lately I've been calling myself the scarlet witch."
"Badass."
Wanda chuckles.
"Yes, I suppose so." A smile graces her face. "Why were you being kept here?" He seems awful out of place, and certainly doesn't look like he belongs locked up.
"I um...freed myself from the prison I was tortured in all my life and the higher ups weren't very happy with my method so they locked me up I guess."
Wanda is quiet for a moment.
"Who...was keeping you prisoner?" She turns her head to one side.
"HYDRA."
This name hits Wanda like a smack in the face. HYDRA is the organization that experimented on her and her...Pietro. She can tell it is very hard for Roman to talk about. He can see the pain in his features z
"What...did they do to you?" She says delicately, not wanting to upset the boy.
"They um..." The memories rip through him. The IVs, the needles, the pain. The number of times he almost died was immeasurable. "They experienced on me. They took like, cells, proteins, plasma, DNA, poisons, toxins, all stuff like that from supposedly magical plants and pumped it into me. I almost died like every time. But now I can do cool stuff so I guess it's okay."
Wanda's anger burns within her. She's horrified by this information he's shared with her. When he's mentioned that he almost died by the hands of these HYDRA scientists a chill runs down her spine.
"No naturally, I slaughtered every one of them in cold blood. But apparently that's not socially acceptable."
Wanda feels...almost proud of him.
"It's not. But it was well deserved." She nods.
"Exactly."
Roman looks around at the destruction.
"If you don't mind me asking- why did you do all of this?"
Wanda's face goes hard again.
"I'm looking for someone."
"Who?"
"A girl. America Chavez. I need to find her so I can get back to my children."
"Your children?"
"My boys. They exist in every universe... but this one"
The pain is evident on her face as she remembers the faces of her sons, Billy and Tommy, as if she just saw them yesterday.
"And this girl...can help you find them?"
"I cannot reach them without her power."
She casts her gaze downward.
Roman is silent. While he is very confused, he figures he shouldn't press any further.
"Do...you want help?"
Wanda furrows her eyebrows and before laughing.
"How could I use your help?"
Roman's face goes red with embarrassment.
"I don't know...maybe you might need the company."
"You...want to keep me company?" She crosses her arms.
His face goes redder.
"Um, yeah, sure. I mean, you seem like a nice lady-" he briefly glances at the body on the ground to the side of him "And your situation sucks. It's not fair. And I'm technically a criminal who has no family or friends or anywhere to go. So, maybe I could tag along." He shrugs.
Wanda stares at him for a few seconds.
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"Um...I guess just because I'm trying to be nice? And also I can't really do much harm to you anhows."
He does have a valid point. And...it might be nice having a little company. This is ridiculous. She knows that he'll probably just get in the way. But something tugs at her.
This poor boys life has been nothing but pain. He genuinely has nothing and no one. Something within Wanda compels her to take him in.
"Very well. You may come along with me."
Romans face lights up.
"Yeah?" He smiles
"Yes." Wanda nods, stifling a smile.
Roman pops up and dusts his clothes off.
"Well, let's get moving!"

And so, the decision was made. The choice that would reverse Wanda's fate.
She didn't know that this scrawny teenage screw up would alter her life as it did, but she would soon find out.

Keep reading to follow their story, and watch history be rewritten.

(Plz comment and let me know what you thought of the first chapter!)