"In days of old..."
HYDRA Research Base, Sokovia, Eastern Europe
She was at her house, reading a book on the sofa while munching on fresh cut carrots that her mother had just bought. She distantly heard her brother enter the kitchen asking their mother what she was cooking. She didn't hear her mother's answer, as before she could even open her mouth, there was a large boom over their heads that shook the whole house, and a second later, the roof caved in. Screams were deafened by the sound of bombs going off all around them.
Wanda jolted awake. She was drenched in sweat, from head to toe. Her fingers were already tingling, and so she rubbed them on her bedsheets to calm it down. She inched her head, which was pounding against her skull, to the nightstand. 3:07 a.m. Wanda briefly closed her eyes and sighed, running a hand through wet matted dark brown hair. She laid back down on her twin-sized bed and stared at the grey plastered ceiling above her.
Doctor List had told her over and over again that her memories were not safe. That she shouldn't give her brain any reason to remember. It was better not to, he had said. It wasn't worth the pain. She had nearly died and been reborn for a much greater purpose. She had been given a second chance at life, along with cosmic powers unlike anything ever seen before.
It wasn't worth to remember anything.
Wanda shook her head and turned on her side, arm slipping under her pillow. She was stronger, she reminded herself. What had happened, happened, and now things were much different. She was primed to become the face of Hydra's new program. She couldn't risk having any weaknesses. She wouldn't have any weaknesses.
<<------------------------------->>
Wanda and her twin brother Pietro were waiting in the training center, both in irritable moods. They had been yanked from their sleep at an early hour and told to change immediately into newly designed workout clothing. Apparently, Baron von Strucker had hurried up the process of combat instruction by some weeks as he felt compelled to head start the program in light of the recent activity by the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Sokovian siblings were standing by the wall, eyes occasionally wandering around the center. Wanda's light brown mane was pulled back into a ponytail and her skin was rather pale that morning, which worried Pietro. She hadn't been eating again. Pietro shook his head in disappointment. He knew that Wanda was still being haunted by nightmares, but he couldn't understand why it had to interfere with her health. She needed to remain physically durable, if not her sake then for his.
Wanda's feet shifted, having heard Pietro's thinking. She glared at him, her irises instantaneously turning bright red.
"I am fine," she muttered in their native tongue.
Pietro huffed under his breath. "Yes, keep telling yourself that."
Wanda rolled her eyes and faced the entryway of the center where there were four heavily armed agents on either side of it. A few seconds later, Doctor List and Strucker came through the door. So finally they were going to actually train. The two men stood in the middle of the large window-less room.
As Doctor List tried organizing the slips of paper in his hand into a folder, Strucker spoke.
"I know that I had previously stated that all three of you wouldn't begin combat engagement for another month or so, but after seeing progress in each of your control of your respective abilities, I feel it is imperative that we move along to the next step in your training: how to defend yourself."
The twins slowly looked at each other. They were intrigued yet frightened. It was true that each of them had grown in developing their powers and how to discipline them, but they were still very cautious. The last thing they wanted was to hurt someone, or worse, one another.
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in days of yore » winterwitch
FanfictionYore, meaning "a time long ago", has a sentimental or nostalgic tone to it. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are being built as the next wave of HYDRA super weapons. The Winter Soldier is reawakened and brought in to train the future assassins. Thus commen...