Trial and Triumph (A winterwitch story)

The First Attempt

She had been standing there for what felt like ages but for what was only a minute. It was the early afternoon and they had spent the morning in physical training. Steve let everyone go early under the pretense that "They deserved a break" but Wanda knew he wanted her and Bucky to get started. She finally took a big breath and knocked on the door to his room. "Bucky," she called, "Do you want to get started? I've been thinking about it for a while and I think I've got a method." The door opened, and suddenly she was staring at his dark blue shirt, he had just showered and smelled clean. She lifted her head to meet his eyes "Ready?" She asked softly. "Yeah." he mumbled. He lead her over to the window where he had positioned two chairs opposite each other. "Alright, so I think this is how its going to work," she said, making sure to speak calmly and clearly to ease his nerves. "Its going to get very personal. I'm going to have to sift through your memories to find find the exact moment they took your mind." He could only nod in response. "Bucky, this means that I'm going to see everything you saw for the last several years, ok?" "I don't think that's a good idea," Bucky said, he still couldn't get that image of her sobbing on the forest floor out of his mind and he worried about how she would handle everything. He also didn't want her to look at him like a monster, like everyone did, like Stark did when they first met. She sensed he was worried and grabbed his hand, "Hey, hey its ok, I've seen enough to not be scarred by you." He nodded again. "Alright, I'm going to get started then," She reached out and grabbed his head, gently pulling pulling it towards her own, she pressed her forehead against his and let the energy flow between them. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again she was strapped to a chair. Everything was hazy and then she felt it. Dozens of watts of electricity pushed into her body - she let out a bloodcurdling scream but it only intensified. Then immediately it stopped. She closed her eyes and willed herself out of this place, clearly this was too recent because the memory was so vivid. Next she was holding a gun to a man's forehead. "Please," he sobbed, "My wife, my kids, please," she tried to put the gun down, she tried to say sorry or show some sign that she didn't mean it but then she pulled pulled the trigger there and she was left in the silence with his blood pooling at her feet. She fell in and out of memories like Alice through the rabbit hole, until she landed somewhere special. This was it, this was the moment. She had arrived but she didn't know what to do now. She looked around and saw that she was in a room with no doors or windows, she let her energy go, searching for an exit or entrance. The room was soon full of the strange red energy, pulsating and floating around suddenly it tensed and exploded. The room shattered and she was jolted back to reality.

"What...what happened?" She said. The first thing she realized was that she was being carried. She looked around and Bucky was holding her in his arms. The metal arm didn't feel cold, instead it felt warm. He laid her on his bed sat down on the edge. "Where am I?" she asked again. "After you did the forehead thing," he blushed, just thinking about how close he had been to her made him feel all warm and nervous, "you sorta passed out, after a couple minutes I picked you up and carried you here. After you woke up, something happened, its like part of me is waking up, like I'm free. I think you did it Wanda." He looked at her with such joy in his face, he was so happy. She explained what happened in the gray room. "Bucky, I saw everything, I saw what you went through," He turned away. "You don't have to always be so strong, you know. I - I know how hard it can be, I know it hurts and most of all I know what its like to be alone." With that she looked up at him and saw that he was shaking, she crawled over and put her hand on his shoulder, not realizing that it was his metal one. She wrapped her arms around him and for the first time in ages she was strong, for him, she was strong.