RED SPARKS
CHAPTER 6: RED SPARKS
Wanda woke up the next morning a smile on her face. She was actually content with the idea of getting up. And so she did. She woke up, the Avengers were all waiting for her by the time she made it out of her room and of course, Wanda's smile didn't go unnoticed by Natasha. Everyone headed downstairs for breakfast and Natasha decided to stay back with Wanda and walk a slower pace to be out of earshot.
“So what's up?” Natasha started casually.
“Nothing why?” Wanda asked. She wasn't used to this kind of questions, Natasha was a pretty direct woman especially with her.
“You're smiling a lot this morning.”
“I smile often.” Wanda said pretending to be offended but Natasha gave her a knowing look clearly saying: no you don't but she didn't push. She knew Wanda would talk eventually.
After breakfast, they did as usual: They trained. First together then Natasha and Wanda and they decided to stop around 3pm so that they could watch a movie like they used to. And they watched another one until they decided to take a break before the third one. It was around seven and dark would be there in a few hours. Wanda was on tea duty of course because she was the only one who was drinking it so she went to the kitchen and said she would bring snacks because, obviously, they weren't gonna eat a real meal tonight. Of course it was when she was thinking she hadn't seen Ellie all day that she decided to show up, same as last night, standing against the kitchen door.
“There you are, I was looking for you.” Ellie said but it seemed like she had been running to find her.
“Why is that? Missing me already?” Wanda smirked, she didn't know where that confidence came from but she certainly wasn't complaining. Pietro used to tell her to just chill and put on a confidence mask whenever she felt to shy to do something.
“Maybe.” Ellie smirked right back at her and hers was actually the definition of confidence. “Busy?”
“Maybe.” and the game was starting to change the atmosphere of the room. “What do you have in mind?” Wanda asked genuinely curious about the answer.
“I may have something to help you clear your mind, maybe sleeping will be easier if you do.” Ellie said a bit unsure but excited enough so Wanda couldn't say no obviously.
“Okay, give me five minutes.” Wanda said. She made a plate with snacks and brought it to the Avengers but told them she wasn't staying for the third movie because something else came up. They all nodded and Natasha smiled at her knowingly but she ignored it and went back to the kitchen to find Ellie. The latest was still against the door waiting for Wanda when she finally came back.
“Okay, what do you have in mind?” Her voice sounding cheerful even though she didn't know why.
“Come with me.” And Ellie made sure Wanda was following her.
They walked for about fifteen minutes more like ran really. Because of course Ellie had decided to race Wanda who was a terrible runner but decided to agree anyway. Of course she lost and they were both left laughing while trying to catch their breaths when they arrived. Ellie had led them to a far spot a little before the forest where a lot of trees where down and the ground looked as if a fire had just been stopped.
“Where are we?” Wanda asked not recognizing the place and clearly wondering why they were here.
“My personal training spot.” Ellie said proudly. “I train here so I can lash out without hurting anyone and this is exactly why we're here.” She said with a smile on her lips.
“To lash out?” Wanda asked incredulously.
“Yes Red, to lash out. I told you to clear your mind. To do so you need to allow yourself to actually feel what you're feeling right now. I saw you train with Natasha, you use a part of your emotions and you use it with precision on a single object which is good in combat but I'd like you to really acknoledge them right now. I want you to just feel them and let your powers speak for you.” Ellie explained.
Wanda looked really unsure right now so Ellie decided to add something.
“It's safe Red. I promise you won't hurt anyone.” She said putting a delicate hand on Wanda's shoulder and gave her a sweet smile she never gave anyone.
“I could hurt you.” Wanda said unable to meet Ellie's gaze.
“No you won't. I'll be behind you, safe distance I promise”. The last thing Ellie wanted was for Wanda to be scared. After all, the whole point of this was to make sure she felt better and more comfortable.
Wanda was scared. There was no point in denying that but she felt like she should at least try given how much she actually needed it.
“Okay.” It was quiet and a bit unsure but Ellie would take what was given so she smiled at Wanda and backed off.
“You got this Red! Just...feel.” Ellie said from afar.
Wanda focused and faced the opposite direction Ellie was, meaning she was standing in front of still intact trees. Ellie was watching her. Wanda breathed and decided to take it slow. Ellie had become quiet. For Wanda to focus on her feelings, she figured it would be better if she acted as if she wasn't there at all.
Wanda tried. She didn't want to feel the pain but she figured she had to at some point. Her mind went back to the picture in the lab two days after they had arrived there and the reminder it was. She remembered feeling sadness because she never knew there was a place where she and Pietro could have gone after Striker. She felt sadness for the kids that were captured and she went deeper. She felt pain when she focused on what exactly those kids had to endure. What she had to endure. Red magic started coming out of her fingers, slowly, forming red swirls of energy but having her eyes closed she didn't see it, she just...let it happen. Then she wasn't just remembering she was living it again: The experiment. The shock collar they had put on her. She felt the electricity in her bones every time she even blinked the wrong way because her captors, those government agents, were afraid of her every move. Then she remembered why it all came to this. Tony had made them choose a side and locked her up, fearing she would go against him. She hadn't at first because she figured with political control she wouldn't hurt anyone again. Hurt someone. She saw them, the faces of these people after the explosion in Lagos that she felt responsible for, she saw the dust that was left after the destruction of Sokovia, her home land. Red swirls had become erratic at this point and Wanda was not only letting her powers out, she was letting her tears, her emotions. The ground as much as the trees started to tremble.
She remembered the face of her parents before Tony's missile hit their home and took them away from her. And then she saw him. Pietro. She felt him fall to the ground. She felt him die. She felt a part of herself die with him. The only family she had left, the only person on earth who always stood by her. He had made her promise to be careful and to come back. She never thought of making him promise the same thing because he always did, no matter what, Pietro always came back to her running. But he wasn't running anymore. He wasn't breathing anymore. As she pictured his dead body in her mind. She lashed out. She lashed out in sadness, in anger, like the day she had lost him except that today she was grieving everything else that had happened. She screamed in pain and let go of everything she had inside. Everything she was feeling create such a powerful wave of red energy that fractures created themselves on the ground and all the trees she could see were destroyed by the impact. Everything around her screamed pain, she was letting the earth itself feel her pain and feeling that power, feeling the emotions as if they were a living thing through her powers lifted a weight inside of her.
Ellie had backed off seeing how powerful the impact would be. But she watched from afar. She watched as red swirls were forming. She watched as they were getting erratic. She watched as Wanda was letting herself feel what must have been buried inside for a long time, red energy all around and with a power that she had never seen before and she couldn't help but be mesmerized by it. Wanda wasn't all smiles and sun, she was pain but she was trying to improve the world, she felt compassion for others, she feared but she was brave. And even though red swirls of energy began to destroy, all she could think of was that Wanda was just beautiful.
Wanda, remembering Ellie's presence, stopped the red energy so that it would come back to her. Afterward, she turned and looked at Ellie who was looking right back at her with so much intensity but wasn't saying a word which worried the scarlet witch.
“Did I hurt you?” Fear was evident in Wanda's voice.
Ellie came back to reality at the sound of these words.
“What?” She asked incredulously. “Of course you didn't, I was just...nevermind. How are you feeling?”
“Better.” She didn't know how to express how much better she was feeling right now, she felt sort of in a hype that she still hadn't come down of yet.
Ellie smiled at her. “Good.” she said and it was obvious that she meant it.
“Your turn now.” Wanda said smile spreading.
“What? Why?” Ellie asked. After all the main point of this was so that Wanda would let go of her pain not her. She didn't need it. Plus, it was getting dark, it must have been an hour since they left the mansion, people would worry. At least Wanda's people would.
“Because I want you to feel too.” The request was plain, quiet in a way, personal. Probably too personal if it wasn't Wanda asking. She had asked the girl to show her her deepest emotions, emotions she hadn't let anyone see, of course she couldn't say no when the same thing was asked of her. So she got up, Wanda smiled at her and suddenly, Wanda was the one watching from afar and Ellie was the one facing what was left of the trees. Of course she didn't need to focus as much as Wanda because she had always had her powers but she wanted this to be fair so she did.
She brought her fists in front of her face and she focused. She didn't have as much as Wanda going on but the last few weeks had taken a toll on her. Her confusion about her sexuality and her coming out had just reminded her that she didn't really have anyone to come out to. She didn't have a family, she didn't have parents who cared for her. All she had was Colossus and despite her behavior, she was grateful to have him. And then there was Yukio. She had felt something for the girl and had thought it was love when mainly, it was a strong friendship and she felt like she had lost it by trying to see it in a different way. She had had Yukio as a best friend for so long that when she started questioning, she started questioning her friendship too and they had tried to make it work but it wasn't meant to be. Both of them had realized that they had made a mistake. Of course they cared deeply for one another, even now, being each other's first and having behaved like a family for so long before it all changed but it just made it worst. Now Ellie felt like she had lost the closest thing she had had to a family and she felt alone all the time. Now she was letting go, her eyes turning a bright orange and flames coming out of her entire body. She lashed out too. She detonated the area around herself and flames flew everywhere creating a line in the sky between what was the dark of the night and what was fire. What was Ellie.
Wanda was standing there, mouth agape as she was lost in the beauty of it all. She didn't know what was in Ellie's mind but as Ellie calmed down and turned to face her and came to her, eyes still bright orange, she couldn't stop herself. Her eyes turned bright red at the sight, she felt them turn but she couldn't care less.
“That was...I mean you're...” She said in a low voice, stumbling on her words yet never loosing eye contact with the girl in front of her.
“Yeah...So are you.” Ellie simply said, smile on her lips and cheeks red. None of them breaking eye contact and as Ellie came closer to Wanda, the ground fractured. The fracture wasn't that big but it was enough to cause both girls to run back to the mansion. Once there, Wanda didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to feel or say but luckily for her, Ellie spoke up.
“Night Red.” and with such a smile on her lips, Wanda was at a loss for words.
“Night Sparky.” They both smiled at each other before going in their respective rooms for the night.