Disappeared- {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 27

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Pietro asked, following Alex out of the room.

"No," she admitted, "but we have to try. How many children have been raised like us? Don't they deserve the chance we got?"

"They're not getting that chance though. Setting them free just leaves them vulnerable and puts the rest of the world in danger from hundreds of superhumans."

"Then what do you want us to do? Because no matter what happens next, I'm getting those trapped kids out of there."

"I want you to think about this. Kore said there was nearly a thousand Panfortis—"

"Don't use that word, I hate that word."

"—and you're just going to unleash them on the world? They've only been trained to hurt."

"Kore—"

"Is by some miracle, a good person. If she wasn't your friend then she probably would have hurt us. She was going to attack you until she saw it was you."

"And if we leave those kids there, it will only grow their hatred. From Kore, we can see that most of them stay with Alastair because they owe him, so if we wipe him out, we can save them, as I did with you after H.Y.D.R.A.."

"C.R.Y.P.T. is like H.Y.D.R.A., in that killing one person doesn't shut the whole thing down. Me and Wanda weren't miraculously healed from their brainwashing after we left, it took the threat of the end of the world to make us realise we were wrong."

"But you did realise. And I'm here, I can help them after it's over."

"How? Aside from the fact we need to track them all down as they only keep around twenty at the secret bases and more are just living in the world, we have nowhere to put them. We have no access to ways to help them."

"I'll talk to them."

"It's not that easy."

"Well, it's not as complicated as you're making it."

"Yes, it is. You can't save them all."

"But shouldn't we try?"

Pietro let out a frustrated groan, "These people are dangerous."

"Even more so if we keep them in their cages. I was at my most deadly when I first escaped from home because no one was there for me."

"No one is there for them now!"

"I am."

"You are just one person. And I know you have the hero complex, but you can't save them all."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try."

"Yes, it does. More people will only get hurt."

"No, more people will get hurt if we just leave them."

"They're not hurting anyone."

"They're in pain themselves."

"Which we can't stop. It's safer—"

"You mean it's easier to ignore them."

"Not everyone is worth saving!"

"You damn well weren't!"

Silence rippled through the room after Alex's shout. She wasn't looking at him, passionate gaze burning into the ground at her feet,

"But I did it anyway. And if I could go back, I'd do it again. And no matter how many universes, how many people telling me not to, I would save you every time. So don't you dare tell me not to do the same for these people."

"Alessandra," the name was said gently, testing the room, "I understand. Please, I understand but I'm not saying we shouldn't save them, I'm saying that we can't. Yet. They're dangerous and we have nowhere to take them where we could make them safe."

"We'll find their families and return them."

He couldn't look at her, not at her scrunched up face trying to hold back tears. He turned, looking out of the window, "You know as well as I do that that's a bad idea."

"I can't leave them, Pietro."

"We don't have another choice."

"I'll find one," Alex teleported in front of him and took his hand. Her voice didn't shake, she wasn't pleading with him, she was merely asking him and that made it so much worse for Pietro, "Help me find one."

"I want to. But Alex, you don't remember what it's like in those places. I do. All those 'volunteers', I carry them still with me. Ana, Codrin, Petros, more I never knew or forgot the names of. There was Castor. Yeah, Castor was a sweet one. Four years old, he wouldn't leave Wanda and me alone. She held his hand for as long as she could when they tried to take him away. I just remember him crying for us to come with him. Wanda begged to take his place and when the guard agreed, I tried to attack him and they took me instead. After I survived, I watched them take Castor from my cell. Four years old and he never came back."

"Pietro, I'm sorry."

He cut his hand swiftly through the air, "I'm not telling you this for your sympathy. It's because I need you to know that our experiences were very different. And that me trying to be responsible, which, by the way, I don't enjoy being, is not because I don't care. Because I also know who I was. There's no way of telling what poison is in these peoples minds and we can't help them unless we're prepared."

"You're right. Well, we both are, you just slightly more so."

"Slightly?"

Alex dropped his hand and brought her index finger close to her thumb, "This much."

Pietro laughed, the tension in his chest releasing, "I'll take it. Come on, you should be the one to call Adelaide."

"Okay. I'm not done here though, I want to help the others."

"I know. And I know you won't stop until you do, you're incredible like that. Let's just get the next twenty four hours done first."