Chapter 1
Wanda hadn’t been very active since she and Pietro had been recruited to Strucker’s lab. Her days were spent in either a small cell or a contained common area, but nothing she could really stretch out in. Pietro was the one they let go for runs…
She was paying for that now. Her body was so unprepared for the sudden running that she barely got off the main base before she felt herself out of breath. Still, she kept up a light jog and tried to ignore the artillery and bullets flying around her. It was loud and her lungs burned while her sides ached, but she kept pushing herself until there was at least some distance between her and the soldiers.
Wanda screamed for Pietro, though not out loud. That would be suicide given that the forest was overrun with men and guns. No matter how far she reached out she found only silence. She knew he wasn’t dead. No, she would have felt that. But he was far, so very far that she couldn’t pick up on his mind as she had been able to her entire life.
Her shoes weren’t meant for the snow and in one deep patch of the cold, she nearly lost her slippers. She stumbled, quick to stay grounded and not collapse but equally wobbly in her footing.
Pietro! Pietro, where are you? Please, I’m not fast enough.
But her mind echoed lonely in a way she wasn’t accustomed to. She heard a rustling and people coming, and so despite her exhaustion and the freezing cold she was not adequately dressed for, she started to run again. She focused on quieting her steps and using the trees as cover as she went deeper into the woods. It was the furthest she’d gone from the base and supervision in… well it had been years.
Pietro! She called out again when she heard the snapping and crunch of snow and twigs. Please, I don’t have much longer.
She couldn’t outrun them. Whoever they were, they were about to catch her.
Wanda stopped abruptly and grounded herself, keeping her feet firmly planted to the ground as she tried to draw the energy to her palms as she had done in Strucker’s lab. The energy flowed and answered to the tips of her fingers. An impressive glowing of red that gave her a brief feeling of hope. Taking one more deep breath, she turned just as the black clad soldiers emerged from the trees. Four of them, all with their guns drawn and pointed at her. They were yelling in English. She understood the language but it took her a moment to catch on to the words.
“Put your hands up!”
“Her hands are red!”
“What do we do?”
Before they could answer their comrade, Wanda struck. She released her power onto the biggest of the men and watched satisfied as he flew backwards. She had to move quickly after that as the others began to shoot. Her shield was small and barely covered her head when she cast it out.
Her physical strength left much to be desired, so she tried to keep them at bay for as long as she could. Pietro, Pietro, Pietro. She called for her brother over and over, desperate for a rescue. He must have been too far, though. A blessing or a curse, they’d never been separated before but she hoped that would mean he lived through this day safely.
Her red energy was still fairly new to her and her attacks, while surprising, were not lethal. Each time she threw somebody down, all they need do was get back up. Four against one, she never stood a chance. One pulled a gun, and while it was different from the ones earlier, it was equally frightening to see a clear aim at herself.
He pulled the trigger and before she could raise her arms in defense, the little electrodes latched on to her chest and belly. She screamed as she collapsed, her muscles shaking from the surge of energy shooting into her body.
“Her head, her head! Hit her, quickly.”
Her body was struggling against the spasms but she looked up just long enough to see the butt of a rifle coming directly at her.
What followed next were a few hours in and out of conscience. She had enough sense to realize she was strapped down. She kept her breathing shallow and her eye lids resting naturally each time she woke. As long as they thought she was resting, the more opportunity there would be to gather information on her captors or location. The English words she grew used to hearing but she did have to translate in her possibly concussed head. Not easy, but she did her best for the sake of not being caught off guard later.
“That Triskelion mess I hear they’re still cleaning up after. Will be years before the Potomac is cleared of debris.”
“And we got to lay low this whole time? So, a couple of bad seeds are in SHIELD. Shit happens, ya’ know?”
“Well yeah, but everybody has to go under review.”
Wanda drifted off sometime after this, her body sore and numbed but she knew she would need to be rested and well for the fight ahead.
Except there was no fight.
Unless Wanda against her restraints counted, and in that she failed miserably.
It was so cold when the back of the vehicle opened that she snapped out of her sleeping daze and bucked against the straps holding her down when the wind hit her exposed skin.
“Easy! Just cooperate and we’ll be inside in no time.” One of the men above her said. He had a beard and wore googles along with all of his tactical gear, so she doubted he realized just how cold it was.
“She probably doesn’t understand English,” another man, equally bundled, told his companion.
“Please…ugh….don’t… do not… ugh… struggle?” he said in broken Sokovian.
She did not acknowledge anybody as she was taken from the vehicle. A black van, she realized when she was brought to the ground. She thought she might have been strapped to a gurney or some sort of board, but she was mistaken when the surface she’d been lying on was folded into a makeshift wheelchair.
It was dark out but they were in some sort of parking lot. There was a large building that appeared to be a warehouse with orange lights illuminating the snow on the ground. A path had been dug out so that they could wheel her inside. Wanda tested her restraints just a bit and was sour to find them just as tight as they had been when she’d been lying down.
She tried to keep her cool when they brought her inside where it was blessedly much warmer. She didn’t show her relief at this but felt a sharp and acute fear that she wouldn’t be leaving this building anytime soon.
Long hallway. Five standard doors and one garage door. Possible escape? Right turn and three more doors before going down small ramp. Through storage area and then through the small door in the corner. She would remember their directions just in case… if she could just get away and make another run for it…
The room she was brought to was nothing like she expected. The warehouse was full of boxes and things covered by large tarps. The smell of dust and stale air had been present since the moment they left the cold. Their final destination, where her wheelchair was parked, was much more modern with computers on nearly every surface and cords bundled together and lining the walls. There were screens on the walls and maps of the world. Satellite images and camera feeds all flickered one after another. Front and center was a man wearing all black from his boots to the hood on his head. When he turned to look at her, she couldn’t help but be startled that he would wear sunglasses inside, especially in a room lit only by the screens of his setup.
“What’s this?” The strange man asked.
“She was in the Sokovian lab, sir. We believe she is one of Strucker’s experiments.”
“Any sign of the scepter?”
“No. He must have gotten away with it.”
“Leave us.”
Wanda turned to look just in time to see the door close and she was left with the man in charge. He was watching her and she just knew that he was making assessments of her. Taking a subtle breath, she relaxed and did as she had only practiced a few times. Careful not to let any red mist slip out, she reached for his mind. Pietro’s thoughts would always come as easily as her own, but the others from the lab took a lot more effort and strength. Despite her tiredness, she managed to get a light grip on the man in front of her. Hopefully, without his notice.
He was done evaluating her physicality and deduced she wasn’t much of a fighter. She thought she even picked up on the word ‘malnourished.’
Next, he tried to calculate her age but took into account that she hadn’t had enough to eat in her lifetime and the possible toll of the experimentation. He though sixteen and she was nearly tempted to tell him twenty. Wanda saw a blurry image of a young girl with red hair in his mind before he pushed it away. His thoughts were quick and not easy to stay caught up on.
“What’s your name?” He finally asked. “I’m Nick Fury.”
Wanda pressed her lips together but did another scan of his mind. Truth.
“Wanda Maximoff.”
“Miss. Maximoff, what were you doing in that lab?”
She looked at the image on one of the big screens and wrinkled her nose. The Avengers.
He turned and saw the source of her disgust. “Not a fan?”
“Not really, no.”
He gave her a tight smile. Fake.
“Miss. Maximoff you and I are in a very peculiar situation. Will you allow me to explain it to you?”
She lost her grip on his thoughts for a minute but licked her chapped lips and gave as much of a shrug as she could manage around her bindings. “Go on.”
“You see, I was director of an organization known as SHIELD. Up until a little over a month ago, at which time it was discovered that the agency had been invaded by a group called HYDRA. Since then, I have been on the run and doing what I can to get the real SHIELD back into play.”
Wanda was frozen in her chair. She had thought… no… no he had to be lying. When she managed to get back inside his head, she saw the ugly truth of it. He was telling her the truth and that might mean…
She had been working for HYDRA.
HYDRA was infamous for their past as Nazi members and their role in the Second World War. Nazi’s and her long dead family had a bad history.
Fury continued though, despite her sudden terror.
“During my time here in Europe I have discovered several facilities that I was always led to believe were SHIELD, only to discover that they have long been taken over by HYDRA and using SHIELD as their cover. I believe my men found you today in one such facility.”
He was waiting for a response, but Wanda could say nothing in that moment but stare past him and to the screens that continued to change. What appeared on them, she had no idea.
“Wolfgang Von Strucker was the one in charge of your facility, correct?”
Things were so chaotic in Wanda’s own head that it was impossible for her to clear the feelings out and focus on Fury. The truth slipped out before she could get a real read on him. “Yes.”
She hated how meek her voice was, but it was too late. He had pity for her and thought she needed help. No, no Wanda was dangerous. She’d wielded more power in her palms than any human should have been capable of. She had to force herself to push these feelings away. The straps around her were still too tight and it would not serve her to reveal her power just yet.
“There have been reports I’ve come across during my time here,” Fury continued, “of human experimentation. Most of which happened under Strucker’s direct order and supervision. In all cases I have found, those under his research died. I believe, Miss. Maximoff, that you were kept off these reports and that you are a survivor of his foray into human enhancement. Am I close to the truth with this?”
Wanda didn’t answer. She also pulled away from his mind and sat limp in her chair. She wouldn’t have much time to weigh her options or come up with a plan. What she needed to consider was that Pietro had likely gotten away, as she caught no glimpse of her brother in Fury’s thoughts. Strucker would probably be with him, then. It was possible Pietro was also alone, but it wasn’t worth the risk to tell Fury anything about this.
Former Directors of SHIELD didn’t just sit back and let a rogue get away. He could very well order a bombing and she would be responsible for the death of her brother, doomed to die same as their parents.
He was still waiting for an answer though, and Wanda belatedly realized she would need to at least keep up some sort of farce until she could find a way to reconnect with her twin.
“There were experiments.”
“And were they successful?”
“I’m alive, Director.”
She reeled in her emotions before she lost control. Wanda carefully wormed her way back into Fury’s head without him noticing.
He was thinking his options over, the simplest being to simply shoot her now before she became a potential problem. She flinched at this, though was not surprised.
The image of the young red head was back in his thoughts, a girl who might have been similar to Wanda that he had taken a chance on. He was comparing them but stopped when he remembered his bias to the red head.
“What enhancements did he give you?”
Well he had thought of shooting her, and so a little cooperation might get her out of all of this alive, Wanda decided.
“I don’t know how to describe it and it’s still so new but….”
Where her arms were strapped down she managed to lift her index finger and point at the pencil holder on one of the desks. It shook for a second before falling to the ground and spilling its contents around the floor, a soft red haze dissipating when Wanda dropped her finger back down.
She felt his moment of terror and then the fascination.
“Telekinesis.” She spoke in Sokovian when she forgot the English word for it. Fury understood though, and she read the translation in his mind and repeated it over to herself so she would remember.
“Strucker will not just let you be taken, then.” Fury spoke calmly, but once again she felt the racing of his thoughts as he considered every angle. His thoughts were in such rapid fire and in multiples that she couldn’t keep up. He could have trained years to think in such a way, or the use of mind reading was still too new for her to maintain so long and subtly with him. At least she didn’t pick up on anymore notions on the simplicity of killing her. She was useful.
“Did you ever see a scepter in Strucker’s possession?”
“I- a scepter?”
“Pull up image of item cataloged Loki’s Scepter.”
The large screens behind him went white before a very familiar weapon was on screen.
“That’s what gave me my powers.” Wanda admitted after deliberating on whether or not to share.
“When did you last see it?”
“Before your men arrived.”
She hadn’t cared about the scepter, only Pietro.
“It gave you your powers but it was also responsible for the attacks on New York two years ago.”
Fury took one last long look at the screens before giving a wave and the default images reappeared. He was gearing up for something, but she couldn’t be sure what. She suspected she did have a concussion, as her head pulsated with a dull pain. Her grasp on mind reading was fading and she caught only single words and the barest of images he thought of.
He finally took his sun glasses off and she flinched at the mutilated blind eye looking down at her. “Do you have any fidelity to Strucker?”
“No.”
He had lied to her and when he had brought her and Pietro into the lab. SHIELD or HYDRA, he had promised them justice. She wanted to destroy the Avengers and make things right, make a better world. The bombs had stopped falling on Sokovia by then, what was left was a city of ashes that never quite recovered. The goal was still there, but the means and resources Strucker had offered she buried. She would have to find another way to seek justice, but for now everything would come down to finding Pietro and regrouping.
“But you can’t kill him, not yet.” Wanda was firm in this.
“Why not?”
“Because…” she took a deep breath, whatever it took to save Pietro. “My brother is with him. Pietro, he didn’t know about HYDRA either, but Strucker will keep him close as protection. If you attack Strucker and my brother is killed, Director Fury, I will never forgive you or SHIELD.”
“Is your brother like you?”
“Yes,” her voice was sharp but it would do no good to lie if this information could possibly save Pietro later. “He’s got speed. He runs so fast that he cannot be seen. If your men find him, please ask that they don’t harm him.”
“Alright. If we are able to make contact I will have the message passed along that you’re safe. But you can’t stay here, Miss. Maximoff.”
“Why not?” Her eyes snapped up from where she’d been looking down. “I’ve never left Sokovia before.”
“We’re actually in Poland right now.”
“Oh.” So, she had slept longer than intended when they caught her, “but where would you send me? I can help you find Pietro, that will bring you to Strucker and this scepter.”
But he wasn’t having any of it.
“It’s too dangerous.” And I don’t trust you. She could pick up on that much at least.
“I’d like to bring you to the United States, all off the books of course. Strucker wouldn’t dare go there for you. You have my word that as soon as the opportunity presents itself, we will separate your brother from him and have you reunited.”
He didn’t say what would happen after that, and Wanda knew it would all depend on her behavior and what damage Pietro might cause before he could promise anything.
With disdain and some indignation, she calmed herself before her eyes turned red as they had when she became volatile more recently. “He won’t believe you. He’ll think you’ve got me prisoner and he’ll attack you. I should stay and help.”
Or, she should stay just long enough to get to Pietro and they could run away together. Away from HYDRA and away from SHIELD.
“No. These are the terms that will result in the most likely success, Miss. Maximoff. In America I can be reasonably sure that you’re safe and continue this search with better information. You will not be a prisoner and I assure you that only those who need to know about you will know. I will personally escort you to the States and all I ask for is your cooperation and a little trust.”
“If I’m not a prisoner,” here she gave a pointed tug on her multiple restraints, “what am I?”
“A refugee, as far as I’m concerned.” Fury walked behind her, and she felt the straps loosen before they fell away entirely. She managed to catch the uncertainty he felt, her powers coming back defensively when he got too close.
“Trust goes both ways, though.” He seemed to amend when he helped her stand for the first time in hours.
She let go of his hand as soon as she regained her balance. She stretched out her arms and felt a satisfactory pop.
She didn’t want to leave Pietro behind and go someplace foreign. She really didn’t. But he was right, Strucker wouldn’t go to America for her, and Fury had the resources to find her brother and keep him safe. She sighed and thought of protesting a bit more before following logic rather than sentiment.
“Okay. Okay I’ll go the States.”