PURE AND TAINTED ( wanda maximoff )

thirty-five → the wound on her heart

PURE AND TAINTED
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
( the wound on her heart )

THE PAIN WASN'T REAL, but she could feel something piercing her body. It hurt her all over, dotting across her legs and abdomen and arms. She could feel her muscles tighten around the foreign objects, the phantom wounds aching all across her body. It felt like she had been holding onto the strings of life and then in an instant 一 snap!

Pietro.

Aline.

She had realized it until her knees crashed against the ground, the scream leaving her lips and echoing in the ruins of the church. Wanda screamed as loud as she could, using all the oxygen from her lungs, and as each second passed by, she could hear herself a bit more. It sounded so heartbroken, so wrecked beyond repair, that to anyone passing by would have felt hurt just hearing it. But they'd never know what she felt like, the pain she was going through.

Her twin brother 一 her rock, her family 一 was gone. Her soulmate 一 her other half, her love 一 was gone.

Red psionic energy blasted from her, creating a large dome-like shape around her. She hadn't realized that the robots had pounced at her until it was too late, for the moment her powers hit them, they were obliterated. Reduced to nothing but metal shards. Even when they were dead and destroyed, her magic protected her, but it could not protect her heart.

Wanda stopped screaming, sobs now wracking her body. She hunched over, hands shaking as they held her up and preventing her from collapsing against the stairs of the church. She wanted to scream again, to cry louder and louder as if doing so would bring back her loved ones. Shaking her head, she pressed a hand to her mouth. Both of her parents had died, leaving her orphaned at ten, but at least she had her brother. Then this whole Ultron thing happened and she found her soulmate, someone she never ever expected to find in her lifetime, but there she was. But now this 一 they're dead. Perhaps she's cursed... only allowed to love and lose.

Is this how she's going to live her life? Constantly terrified to love someone, only to have them ripped from her life?

Lifting her head, a whimper fell past her lips as she spotted a trail of smoke from the sky lead to something in the rubble. Wanda pushed herself up on shaky legs, eyes rimmed red with tears, and she abandoned the church.

Ultron lay among the wreckage, smoldering in a train car not fifty feet away. Sparks flew from his body and his red eyes faltered. He looked like a broken husk of machinery but he didn't deserve her pity. Wanda kneeled before him, her eyes turning the same scarlet as his.

"Wanda," he said softly, his voice still holding the eerily mechanical tone to it, "if you stay here, you'll die." There was something about his voice that made her feel like he was trying to beg her for something.

"I just did." She let out a breath as she spoke. Her voice sounded so cold. "Do you know how it felt?"

No, he did not. He could not feel how her heart throbbed like a crying child, refusing to rest unless it was paid attention to. He could never know her pain, losing everyone she had ever cared and loved for. She saw a flash of Pietro and Aline's face in her mind, and she scowled. Wanda would never again hear Pietro's lighthearted laughter again or see Aline's beautiful smile again because of him. She'd never hug her brother or kiss her soulmate because of him. And suddenly, Wanda heard the captain's words echo in her mind.

You get hurt, hurt 'em back.

She did not allow Ultron to reply as she raised her hand, red wisps wrapping around her fingers she made them look as if they were claws. He doesn't deserve this, she thought. In her mind, if she had the time, Wanda would make Ultron endure this pain tenfold. She'd make him suffer a million times worse than she did today. Death is but a mercy to something like you.

Yet she continued to do so, watching as her magic pried apart Ultron's chest apart from the inside, and she caught the thing quickly. Wanda turned it over in her hand, examining the foul machine. It looked as if it resembled a heart, but she was nearly appalled by the idea. This monster 一 he could not have a heart.

Wanda leaned closer to him, his heart still in hand, and watched as the life faded from his eyes. Her voice was just above a whisper. "It felt like that."

But it did not feel like that. It couldn't, for her to describe her pain was impossible. What she made Ultron feel was a merely inkling to her inner turmoil.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her seemed to disappear and her body floated up. It was then that she remembered the drill 一 yet another thing she failed to protect. Tears streaked her face, faint mascara streaks covering her porcelain cheeks, as she was lifted into the air. Wanda felt arms hold her and for a moment she almost called out Pietro or Aline's name, but when she turned her head she saw it was only Vision. He held her and instantly flew off, leaving her now broken home to explode into millions of pieces of rubble.

___

Clint tightly hugged Wanda once she and Vision had gotten onto the helicarrier. "Are you okay, kid?" he asked, but immediately regret his question. It was more than obvious that she knew about her brother's death, and Aline's death/hospitalization/situation (after the many times Clint had gone through this, he still had yet to give it a name).

Begrudgingly, she answered honestly. "No," she whimpered and shook her head. "Pietro... moy brot..." Tears instantly pricked her eyes and she quickly cupped her eyes, covering her tears.

Clint paused, trying to search for the right words. But what could he say to her? "You should know... he... he..." The archer paused, still unsure of what to say as Wanda looked back up at him. "He died a hero."

She gave him a weak smile but she still continued to cry. "That's all he ever wanted to be," she sniffled, rubbing her eyes. "And Aline..."

He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "She hasn't woken up yet, but I'm not surprised. It'll take her the rest of today and maybe even tomorrow for her to fully heal. But then again, I'm not an expert."

"What?" Wanda gaped at him, eyes wide and confused. "What are you talking about? I-I felt her die. Aline, she died."

"She didn't tell you everything?" Clint sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he saw Wanda staring up at him with hopeful eyes. "Aline's... different. But she's going to be okay."

Wanda's heart lifted. Aline 一 her soulmate, her new beginning 一 was still alive.

A/N: wow wattpad's doing
this SUUUPER cool thing
where it's deleting my hard
work 😎 so glad i have it
saved somewhere else