Chapter 8
Natasha followed Pietro through the rubble. The boy was awkward in Natasha’s shoes that were several sizes too big, but his feet had been shredded to ribbons when she had found him. She was unable to stop him as he searched frantically through the wreckage calling out his sister’s name.
“Wanda! Wanda! Wanda!” he yelled, his voice rough and worn. “Wanda! Wanda! Wanda!”
“Stark” the assassin called through the com line. “Can you get a scan of the area and look for any signs of life?”
“Negative” Tony replied with an urged tone. “But you better get out of there.”
“Why?”
“Whatever took out the facility has reactivated” he responded, “There’s a huge energy signal coming from the epicenter of the destruction.”
Natasha looked up and gasped as she saw a red glow over the horizon. It was getting big and brighter. The ground began to shake and she could hear the debris around her strange as if some invisible force was ripping it apart..
“Stop!” she yelled, but just as she was about to move towards Pietro the red energy forced the ground open and separated her from him.
“Wanda,” Pietro muttered.
“No, don’t” she cried, jumping over the gorge and grabbing the boy’s hand. “We’ve got to go.”
“But that’s Wanda,” he said, “That’s my sister.”
“She did all this?”
Pietro nodded shyly, “Please don’t hurt her. She’s not a danger. She’s just scared. They hurt us. They hurt her.”
Natasha felt her heart drop. She looked back to where the light was and if she squinted, could make out the silhouette of a frail girl curled into a fetal position. Reality smashed into the assassin and a sense of dread filled her. Peitro tried to escape her grip but he was too malnutritioned to break free.
“We’ll get her” Natasha promised him, kneeling down and embracing the trembling boy. “But I’m going to need you to trust me, okay?”
Chunks of concrete and metal began to fly through the air as the red energy got more erratic. Pietro looked at Natasha and back to the light. He held his hand out as if he could grab her before falling into the woman's arms. His breath was heavy and the fatigue was clearly catching up to the young boy.
“Okay” he whispered.
The storm of debris got worse. Natasha picked up the boy and tried her best to avoid the flying wreckage and keep him safe but she could feel herself getting tired. The ground continued to be forced apart making the leaps from one to another more draining and the debris that was being thrown was getting larger, faster, and harder to avoid. A thick metal support beam was hurled at them just as the assassin had jumped onto a small pit of land. The surrounding ground had been forced out of reach of her. She closed her eyes and turned her back, covering as much as the boy as she could.
“I’m sorry, Yelena,” she whispered.
Her body screamed as she felt the cold metal come in contact with her back but to her surprise, it stopped.
“Tata?” Pietro whispered.
Natasha looked up to see Magneto, hands outstretched stopping the beam, looking at them was a face of disbelief.
“Pietro?” he said, landing next to them and gingerly cradling the boy’s face.
Pietro broke free of Natasha and ran into the mutant’s arms with tears in his eyes.
“Tata, is that you?” he asked, snuggling as close into the man as he could.
“I’m here, boy,” Erik promised, “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
Pietro pulled away and looked back to the light in the distance.
“Wanda,” he said, pointing to the near-invisible silhouette. “T-They hurt her, Tata, they hurt her.”
A somber and enraged expression painted Erik’s face.
“Watch my boy,” he said to Natasha before flying off.
Pain, agony, fear, that was all Wanda could feel. Destruction, death, ruin, that was all she could see. It was all that she was. Her powers, for the first time since she had been taken, were free. They responded to her mind, her will, her emotions. They manifest her storm of emotions, of all the pain and suffering she endured, that ripped the place she hated so much. Distantly she could sense there were people around and she tried to keep herself from hurting them but she didn’t care who they were.
All she could care about was her babies. What happened to them? Did she kill them? She tried to sense the lives that had been growing within her for the past months but couldn’t. They hadn’t known anything but the coldness of the facility or the rough hands of the scarred man and doctor. The thought made her feel as if she had been slashed with a knife and like her emotions, her powers made deep scars to the Earth around her.
“Wanda” , a voice that sounded so distant, broke through to her.
She looked up to see a man with the same silver hair as her brother fly towards her. Was this her son? Was this what she did to him? Where was the other?
The energy around her solidified to keep him from her. She didn’t want to face what she had done. She wanted a few more moments without the knowledge that she had taken her son’s childhood. She wished, more than anything, that she could give them the childhood that had been so cruelly taken from her and Pietro. Oh, Pietro, she could feel the energy around her ripple and burst.
“I’m sorry” she wailed, “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry”
But no apology would be enough. No apology will bring back her brother. The silver haired man managed to manipulate her energy and create a pathway to her. He landed a few meters away from her and looked at her with sincerity and fear.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Erik,” the man responded.
Named after her father who was forced to leave to protect them. She had long since given up hope that he could return and save them; and as much as she didn’t want to, loved the many she had no memory of.
“W-Where you loved?” she asked, fearing the answer.
“You have your mother’s eyes” the man said, dazed.
Wanda felt confusion overtake her and the energy around her halt.
“You know my mother?” she asked.
She only had a vague shadow of her mother that she held close to her heart. She remembered being loved and a sweet and loving voice singing to her and her brother.
The man- Erik stepped slowly towards her looking at her with care. It was so much like Pietro. Her son was so much like his uncle.
“W-Where…” she tried to ask him about his brother but couldn’t. “Who raised you?”
“I had a friend,” Erik said with a smile. “He was- is the best man I know. He never gave up on me no matter how far I fell.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yes”
Wanda cried. She felt the energy fall and dissipate as her tears streamed down her face. She didn’t know if it was from the sadness of losing and taking so much, the fear she had for someone else taking her, or the exhaustion from never being able to truly relax but whatever it was brought her to her knees. Erik caught her before she could hit the ground and lifted her up, holding her in his warm arms. She nuzzled into his embrace when she felt something, memories.
“Erik,” a woman giggled as a younger vision of him placed a gentle hand on her belly.
“I love you” Erik smiled, planting a kiss on the woman’s stomach and then on her lips.
The two were out outside a meadow just outside of Sokovia. The sun was bright in the sky and birds sung a melodious melody that brightened the atmosphere. Erik gently weaved beautiful wildflowers into the woman’s rich brown hair and rocked her as she rubbed her belly.
“Do you think that they’re going to be a girl or a boy?” the woman asked.
Erik thought for a moment before saying, “A girl that is as beautiful and kind as you.”
The woman laughed and kissed him on the check before saying, “I think it’s going to be a boy with your strength and tenacity.”
The sky faded and a rush of exhilaration and fear filled Wanda.
“You’re going to be okay” Erik comforted the brown haired woman.
The woman was laying down in a quint yet cozy cottage, panting in pain. Tears welled up in her eyes but despite the discomfort there was a smile across her face.
“You worry too much, Erik,” she laughed before taking a sharp breath and clutching her stomach. “I was right. This child does have your eagerness. He’s two weeks early.”
Erik flew around frantically, getting a tub of warm water and trying to make his wife comfortable. He propped her up and helped her drink some water as she endured the pain of labor.
“I’m sorry” he apologized, using a towel to wipe the sweat from her brow.
“For what?” the woman grunted, her time coming quickly. “This is the happiest moment of my life. This miracle is a blessing that I could only dream of before you.”
“No,” the man pressed his forehead against her. “You’re the greatest thing to ever be.”
The woman cried out in pain and spread her legs. She pushed with all her might as she felt the head of her baby drop low into her pelvis. A fiery agony engulfed her body but she was not deterred. She continued to push until her muscles shook with fatigue and black spots covered her vision. She felt her every nerve yell out as she forced her body to split apart to allow her little one out. The baby came fast. The cry of an infant filled the room.
“He’s beautiful, my love” Erik choked with emotion as he washed the baby quickly before placing him on the woman’s breast. “You were right.”
The woman went to speak but another wave of pain overtook her and she let out a scream.
“What’s wrong?” Erik asked frantically, his face paled as he saw the bloodstain on the sheets continue.
The woman gripped her stomach as she felt another large mass enter the birth canal. It wasn’t soft like what a placenta should be. It had curves and bumps that no mother could mistake.
“There’s another,” she cried out.
She bared down one more, the second one easy then the first; and soon enough another was welcomed to the world. Erik washed the young one, who cried but was quickly quiet when she was placed at her mother’s other breast.
“We were both right,” he said.
The imagination once again faded as did the joy and gentleness. A burning rage and terror overcame Wanda and she struggled to keep them from hurting her son.
The cottage that the two had lived in was on fire. The woman coughed violently as she stumbled to get to the nursery. She could hear her babies crying for her and their father to come as the smoke burned their lungs. The woman bashed the door open and rushed to the bassinets and pulled her children to her chest.
“Don’t worry,” she hushed as she made her way to the window. “Mommy’s going to protect you.”
The woman took a deep breath before smashing the window and jumping out. The glass scratched her body drawing blood but she had curled around the children to protect them. She landed on her back. The wind was knocked out of her and she laid there unable to move. Her baby’s continued to cry and she used every bit of strength she had left to hold them close to her.
Unbeknownst to her, a mob of men approached her. They carried torches and various farm equipment that they were using to destroy the house and garden that had supported the family. When they spotted the woman, they ripped her babies from her grasp.
“Please” she begged, “Don’t hurt them. They’re just babies.”
The man threw her to the side and she screamed with agony. SHe tried to drag herself to her babies but her limbs were too injured and weak to pull her across the gravel that bit into her skin. The men through her wailing babies on the ground.
“Stop,” she cried, “I’ll give you anything, please, just don’t hurt my babies.”
The men did not listen to her.
“We never did anything to you! Why are you doing this?”
“They’re freaks,” one of the men said, kicking her daughter.
The woman screeched with horror.
“They’re abominations”
“They don’t belong here”
One man lifted up his pitchfork and the woman could only watch as it descended; but before there was bloodshot, something stopped it.
“Get away from my family!” Erik yelled, hovering over the mob.
They looked in horror at him. Several of them tried to shoot him but the bullets were stopped and redirected killing the shooters immediately. The metal heads of the pitchforks and other tools exploded and the shards of metal danced around them, slicing them to bits until each one of them fell.
“Magda” Erik rushed to the woman and held her tightly.
“O-Our children” she shuttered, reaching for them.
Erik carefully picked her up and went to the children. Madga was too weak to hold them but gave a sob of relief seeing that they were fine.
“Hold them for me,” she said weakly.
Erik laid her down gently and picked up the two children. He examined them and his wife and gently traced their wounds with his fingers. Anger boiled within him as well as a deep dread.
“I’m sorry” he hung his head in shame.
“What for?” Magda asked, “You save us.”
“I should have never brought them into this world”
“What? Don’t say that! They’re the best thing that could ever happen.”
“I should have never married you”
Magda looked at Erik with betrayal in her eyes.
“I did this to you” Erik said, “You would have been safer without me but I was selfish and loved you back. This world hates people like me, like them.”
“Erik” Magda said softly, “Erik, none of this is your fault.”
“I have to leave”
There was a heavy silence that filled the night. The couple looked at each other with tears in their eyes. Magda wanted to protest. She looked at it at every possible angle she could but she knew he was right. Erik placed the two children by her side and floated off. He didn’t look back, knowing that if he did he would not be able to leave.
Wanda looked up at the man as they slowly flew through the air.
“Tata” she smiled softly, knowing for the first time in a long time she was safe.