Agony (Wanda Maximoff)

Chapter 24

||"She feared the unknown, but it never stopped her from backing down."||

"I'm hungry."

"Shhh, Wanda, I know." The young twins held each other, closely, quietly. The Stark bomb sat in front of them, and the young children held faltered breaths. One move, and the bomb would go off. Or so they thought. 

"I want to go," Wanda's small voice echoed throughout their ruined home, and she pushed herself closer to her brother for warmth. It had been two days since the bomb fell into their home, and they didn't know if it was going to go off, or just stay motionless in front of their faces. Eventually, Pietro made the decision to crawl out from under the bed and take Wanda far from the bomb. 

"We are alone," Wanda whispered as they made it out of the rubble. Their clothes were stained in dust and stone powder, and the air was tainted in death. Everything around them was destroyed; their home was gone. 

"No. We have each other," her brother said, and she held onto his hand. The twins walked through the jagged roads together, their bare feet treading through splintered rocks and stone. They made their way into the woods, where they knew they'd find shelter. "We will always have each other."

His words brought her out of her sleep, guiding her back into reality. She sat up in the bed, and found that Steve wasn't beside her. She climbed off and walked over to the window, where she peeked out through the curtains and saw the light from the barn still on. She knew he'd be in there, but she decided to let him be. 

But when she heard the clatter of something hard against the old wood of the barn, she ran out of the house quicker than she anticipated. Her feet padded against the ground in a hurry, but when she heard another voice in the barn, she halted. It was a woman's voice; Natasha's voice. Wanda pressed herself against the barn, her hot skin sticking to the warm wood. 

"I'm not breaking, Natasha. I'm tired of lying and I'm tired of telling myself I can protect her when in reality..." Wanda furrowed her brows when Steve's words slipped through the cracks of the barn. She felt bad for listening in, but what he said peeked her interest. "I don't want to lie anymore."

Wanda kept her ear close to the barn, but the longer she listened, the more worried she became. 

"If she finds out now, then you'll really be putting her in danger, and the outcome will be out of our hands. She's safe right now, and that's all that matters." 

"You seem incredibly optimistic." 

"That's because I trust this team, and I trust that we can do this. Don't you? We can beat them, and secure the twin's safety. There is always a loophole." 

"A loophole?" 

"Everyone and everything has a weakness."

Wanda moved away from the barn. She didn't know what they were talking about, and why they were talking about her and Pietro. She wanted to barge in and demand to know what was going on, but she couldn't move. Her body felt stiff, and she worried that if she did try to move, she'd fall. 

So she stood there, staring at the barn and contemplating whether or not what she heard was right. Why were they discussing her safety? And why say "twins" when they knew very well Pietro was dead. It didn't make any sense to Wanda, and her head began to flush with visions of her brother. 

"Wanda?," Natasha's voice dragged Wanda out of her head, and she turned to face her. "Hey, come here, I've missed you," Natasha walked up to Wanda and brought her in for a hug. Wanda hugged her back, but Natasha's words burned deeply into her skin.