Reborn From The Void

Chapter 25 - Visit from Wanda

(Your POV):
It took only a week for the doctors to allow me to leave their constant care. Still, it felt like an eternity of being cooped up with nowhere to go. I did have plenty of company, I was almost always being visited by at least one of the Avengers. I was grateful for them, otherwise I probably would have gone insane from extreme boredom.

There was still a lingering awkwardness whenever Peter came to visit, but we were sorting things out the best we could. No one told me that a relationship could get this messy. It wasn't the way people were portrayed on TV where they were always head over heels in love and never once fought. It was hard work, but it was worth it to be with Peter. I loved him far too much to give up on what we had.

Now that I was finally being released, I wanted to spoil Peter, to try to make up for everything that I had put him through. I had already requested that he meet me on my floor after dinner, which he seemed excited for and now I had to get ready for our date. The first step was making another pie, hoping that he would actually eat this one.

As I was gathering the ingredients, F.R.I.D.A.Y. alerted me to the fact that Wanda was headed up to see me. I thanked her for the notice, but continued in my task and hoped that Wanda would not mind me baking while she told me whatever it was that she was visiting me for. Besides, she enjoyed baking as well so perhaps she would want to join me.

"(Y/N)?" She called out as she stepped onto my floor, her voice traveling effortlessly to where I stood.

"I'm in the kitchen!"

She appeared a moment later, holding a paper bag in her hands. "I brought you a present since you're finally out of the med bay. Peter told me that you like them."

Curiously I took the bag from her hands and peered inside to find a few apple strudels from the bakery Peter would sometime take me too. A smile spread across my face as their heavenly scent wafted up to my nose.

"Thanks, Wanda, this is just what I needed." I reached into the bag and pulled one out, unable to deny myself one of the sugary treats. "You really didn't need to do this, you know. Not that I'm complaining, but you've all been so great to me and now you're just spoiling me."

She fidgeted nervously as she replied, "well it was the least that I could do."

"What do you mean?"

"It's my fault that you had to be in the med bay in the first place, it's my fault that you almost died."

I suddenly realized how much my poisoning was weighing on her and my heart began to break slightly. "Wanda, I-"

"No, I know that you are going to try to deny it, that's what everyone does. But the truth is that I was entrusted to make sure that the gas didn't hurt anyone. That was my job. And I wasn't fast enough to keep it from infecting you. Every time I am tasked with helping out, I always seem to cause more pain. I almost killed you, (Y/N)." I could see Wanda desperately trying to keep her emotions in check, but the shake of her lip as she bit it, trying to fight back the tears, informed me of how much she was suffering.

"Wanda, you listen to me carefully, ok? This wasn't your fault, you are not the one responsible. If we are to place the blame on anyone, it is Alfred. If you want to take it one step further then you can blame my parents. They knew exactly what buttons he had to push to elicit an emotional response from me and he executed it perfectly. If you hadn't been there, if you hadn't done what you did, the Avengers would all be dead right now except for maybe Rhodes, Vision, and Tony. I should have given you some sort of a warning before I moved, I was trying to catch your eye. But when they went after Peter- I just lost it, and that's on me. You protected everyone else, despite my recklessness. So don't you dare let me hear you blaming yourself for what happened, ok?"

My tone was strict, surprising Wanda slightly, but it got her to listen to what I was saying. I wasn't sure she agreed with everything I said, but she did seem somewhat assured. Still, I knew that she was going to continue at least partially blaming herself for what happened to me.

"Here, do you want one of these, they're literally the most delicious thing I have ever tasted," I offered her one of the strudels, my voice growing kinder and a smile plastered to my face. "It seems cruel that you went all the way to Queens to get them and you don't even get to taste how heavenly they are."

She hesitated, but a small smile reached her lips and she reached into the bag, "you know, you are far too forgiving for an ex-H.A.M.M.E.R. agent."

"I believe the key part of that sentence is that I am an ex-H.A.M.M.E.R agent," I grinned, taking another bite of my strudel and letting the sweet flavor with a touch of tang fill my senses.

We ate in a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Wanda asked, "is it strange knowing that it is all gone? I mean you served H.A.M.M.E.R. for years, it was all you knew, and now it's been wiped out. That must be an odd sensation for you."

I shrugged, "I mean, I'm glad that it is gone, but yeah it's a little weird. I mean that's what I grew up on, those were the ideals that I was taught to believe. And then I joined you guys, whether I really had the choice to or not and suddenly I had to do a complete 180. But now I don't have to worry about looking over my shoulder everywhere I go, afraid that I'll run into someone who used to serve my parents. And most of all I don't have to worry about that enhanced, which is a relief to say the least."

After they had encased me in ice, Peter and Tony had flown me back to the tower so that I could get hooked up to machines that would monitor my vitals and they could begin working on a cure. The rest of the team, however, stayed behind to scour the base that I had discovered. Data had been deleted in a hurry but was easily retrieved with some computer magic. The Avengers had access to names, places, everything they needed to finally wipe H.A.M.M.E.R. from the map. Not to mention they had agents that they could interrogate, the survivors from the battle. So while Bruce, Tony, and Peter developed a cure, the other Avengers hunted down the last members of H.A.M.M.E.R. so that they could be certain it would not rise again.

"I know how difficult it can be to discover those that you once thought were your enemies aren't actually the monsters you thought. When I first met the Avengers, I was working for H.Y.D.R.A., having been promised the opportunity to kill Tony Stark, the man who killed my people- my family. The Avengers let my brother and I change sides to protect humanity and after the battle in Sokovia, I found adjusting rather difficult, especially since I no longer had my brother to help me through it. I've been impressed by how well you've handled the transition."

"Well, it helped that I was having doubts about everything that H.A.M.M.E.R. had told me to believe and everything it stood for. Not to mention, I had become familiar with you guys and understood that you weren't as power-hungry as my parents made you out to be. It still felt like a betrayal though and I had to choose between the two different versions of me that I had created. But I think that I have chosen correctly, so now I am trying to make up for all of the wrongs I did while thinking I was making the world a better place."

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(A/N): Have a little heart to heart with Wanda on this fine Sunday evening (it is Sunday, right? It's proving quite difficult to keep track of the days during quarantine lol). I hope you enjoyed it!