Chapter 6
Wanda was watering the few house plants she bought for Steve’s apartment when she felt something was wrong.
“You’re drowning it,” he pulled her from her trance when he came out of his room.
“Someone’s coming,” she told him, setting the pitcher down and watching the door nervously.
“Wanda?”
“He really doesn’t like you.”
She felt this man coming up the elevator and walking confidently down the hall. Steve went over to the door and looked out the peephole before pulling away and motioning Wanda to go.
“Stay in your room and don’t let him know you’re here. This guy hated Nick.”
“And you,” she whispered, grabbing her bag and making sure there was nothing else that might reveal her presence. She was closing her door as quietly as possible when the knocking started. For the first time since Fury left, Wanda muted the phone but kept it within sight. She stayed close to the door, her ear pressed against it and her powers just barely contained as she listened to the false sincerity in the visitor’s voice.
“Rogers, good to see you again!”
“Senator Cortes, how are you doing?”
“Busy, very busy after that Triskelion mess. Still cleaning up, overseeing the reviews of every single agent. You wouldn’t believe the paperwork.”
“Can’t imagine.”
“Well, you might be able to. The investigation into Fury’s death was stalled by everything that happened after. We’ll need your official statement soon… put that mess to bed, am I right?”
“Sure, when?”
They started setting something up when Wanda finally gathered enough courage and extended her powers out. She kept a tight control and had to be precise when she nudged against the Senator’s mind. Patience and subtlety was what it took as she got the barest hints.
Good news was that he didn’t know anything about her presence, though he did suspect that Fury was alive and that Steve knew. Not good, but manageable. She dug a little deeper and to her disgust, felt the man’s feeling of power over Steve. She didn’t understand it, only seeing flashes of a small cabin in the woods that appeared to be long abandoned. They were still talking but it became mute to her as she clawed at the fuzzy image in the Senator’s memory.
“-Tuesday work?”
The cabin had been off satellite imaging and that was there first clue when they searched out in the woods.
It was old KGB but later used by the occasional SHIELD agents now suspected to by HYDRA.
It was a temporary hideout with enough supplies to clean up and prepare a filling meal, but it had long fallen in disrepair.
Wanda groaned, losing her focus and slid down the wall as a headache crippled her. She landed with a soft thump and despite the pain she froze herself and tried to pick up on if she’d given her existence away. When she reached out again it was to no avail, she didn’t have the focus anymore.
She pressed her ear to the door again but the soft murmur of conversation was still going, uninterrupted by her fall.
“Stark and his legion, now that’s something.”
“I hear they’ve done a lot.”
“A lot? That man and his little robots might just put you out of business someday!”
“We could only hope so.”
Time passed and they wrapped things up but before she lost this opportunity, she was back in his mind despite the pain it caused her.
The cabin’s location was in New York, deep in the woods. The Winter Soldier had been there but that was classified, and it made the Senator happy to know he knew something Captain America was no longer privy to. Things were changing, power shifting. SHIELD and Fury were gone and that left open seats that needed filling…
Wanda let go, holding back her groan. She’d actually found something about Barnes that might be useful. That made her as gleeful as it did frightened. She’d never gone that far into somebody’s thoughts. Even Pietro she only listened to the surface of things, though she never did have reason to try to dig.
She was so tired after her success that she scooted away from the door and rested her head against the solid wall. Just a few minutes, she just needed a few minutes of sleep.
She got it, because even though she heard the faint sound of a door shutting and the footsteps coming towards her, she could barely open her eyes with the pain
All she could do when he knocked on the door was grunt and move her legs so he could open the door without resistance.
“Hey, are you okay?”
When Wanda managed to get her eyes open, Steve was right there in front of her.
“Wanda, what happened?”
“I saw,” she had to lick her lips and try to get her bearings, “please will you bring me a map of New York?”
“I don’t want to leave you, you look like you’ll pass out any second.”
“I just might, but will you bring me that map first?”
His face scrunched up but he took off to the living room and returned seconds later, book in hand. “Will this work?”
It was an old atlas and she flipped to the page she would need that had two pages dedicated to New York state. She tried to be specific, did her best to remember what she saw in the Senator’s head when she pointed to the north of the state where someplace in the green shading and borders there was a small cabin tucked away. “There’s a safe house out there that’s been abandoned, but the Winter Soldier was there at some point before leaving the country.”
Wanda slept hard after that. She got up a few times but after doing the most basic things like eating or going to the bathroom the fatigue hit her and she was crawling back into bed. She knew it would take time to grow her powers, to grow accustomed and be able to control them. Right now, though, it just wiped her out.
Steve was always there, checking on her and asking if she were okay. Sleep was all she would need though, and she got plenty of that. Except when he knocked at her door late in the evening. He had a glass of water but her heart stuttered when she saw him leaning against the door frame, just as he had in her fantasy. Her face heated up and she was grateful for the cold drink when she finally got the words out.
It was early the next morning when Wanda felt more like herself. After cleaning up she went to the kitchen to gather up some breakfast but put her plans on hold when she felt Steve getting ready to go.
Not on his usual run. There was no sign of Sam and when the Captain stepped out he was dressed casually.
“You’re going to New York, aren’t you?”
“I know they probably searched the place, but I just got to see for myself.”
“I understand,” Wanda set her mug down.
“Thank you. Sharon’s next door if you need anything and I’ll be back- “
“And that’s why I’m going.”
“Wanda, no. You could barely move yesterday.”
“My powers are still new to me. I just need more practice. Besides, I might be able to pick up more than you can if we can even find this cabin.”
He was going to shoot her down again but she rolled her eyes. His consideration was admirable but she knew wouldn’t be left behind. Practice and patience, that’s all she would need in order to use her abilities to the fullest. What better place to start than a possible lead on his friend, and perhaps soon a lead on her brother.
“So, are we taking your bike?”
He glared out the windows before letting go of his arguments and grabbing his shield. “No, got a car for this one.”
Wanda was quick when she had thrown together a bag of things she might need for the outing, and then they were off. It took a while to get out of the city traffic and actually get going, but she sat back in the passenger seat and enjoyed the scenery outside. So much was happening when she made the trip with Fury that she hadn’t been able to take it all in.
The radio played quietly and the only time they stopped was to grab some greasy fast food. Steve was an easy guy to be around, and their small talk and comfortable silence made the trip pass fast enough despite the long distance.
They didn’t stop in New York city, but she could feel Steve’s nostalgia and longing as though it were her own.
“Where’s Brooklyn?” she asked when she remembered that little tidbit from the museum, eyes focused on the famous city.
He smiled and pointed, “way over there. Not far, but with traffic it’s hours.”
“Have you been able to see it much since you woke up?”
“Not really. My old apartment is gone, and it’s changed a lot. But home is home.”
She nodded, though struggled with the sentiment. Sokovia was her home, and her old apartment gone too, though it was the tomb for her parents. It had been, at least. She imagined they eventually cleaned the rubble up, bones and any traces of the Maximoff parents swept away.
“It’s beautiful,” she admitted, watching the city pass by them sluggishly, the traffic giving her plenty of time to admire it all.
Maybe someday she would go back to her home and be able to do some good for it. That had been the goal, anyway. How everything had spiraled since then.
It was early evening when they hit the woods, the city left far behind them and nothing but the wild ahead. When she reached out all she could feel were the animals. She stretched further out and felt structures that weren’t occupied and areas that might be used for camp sites.
“Try this way,” she pointed to a little dirt road that was an off shoot of the main highway they’d been on.
“It would have to be tucked away good.” She told Steve, catching the red of her eyes in the windows reflection and trusting her gut and powers that this was the right way.
“Will you know it if you see it?”
“Yeah, I think so. I might even be able to pick up on something from it but I’m not sure yet.”
The sun set, but they kept going.
“I think we’ll need to go on foot from here,” Steve parked the car at the end of the dirt road, a small little clearing that could be backed up on but surrounded by trees to thick to drive further.
There were a few paths that Wanda eyed while Steve brought out his shield and passed her a flashlight and jacket, “here.”
“Thanks,” she put it on. Another one of his that was a little too big on her but she was grateful for as the area cooled down. “Let’s try that one,” she pointed to one of the dirt paths leading deep into the woods. She felt something on the other end and figured it would be worth a shot.
“Alright,” Steve took the lead. He didn’t say it out loud, but she could feel his gratitude that she had come, unsure where he would have ended up without her powers.
She just hoped she was right about this.
They left the sight of the car, flashlights out as the only source of light in the dark forest.
“If Pietro were here, this would be so much easier,” Wanda lamented.
“Is he really that fast of a runner?”
“He’s a blur when he goes at his full speed. He’d have gone all the way to this cabin already and be back to the car to tell us if it were right or not. Could probably search these entire woods in an hour, too.”
“The two of you make quite a team.”
“We always have. My mother eventually started to punish us together, because if one of us were in trouble than the other was probably up to no good. It seemed unfair at the time, but I think I get it now.”
Steve gave a soft laugh, nothing to loud but certainly prominent in the quiet woods against the chirping of the bugs. “I was always sick so my mom was happy when Buck and I became friends and she knew I wouldn’t be alone when she left for work. Then, when we got older and started getting into trouble she’d usually try to keep us in the apartment, or at least in the neighborhood.”
“What did you get in trouble for?” Wanda asked, because she couldn’t imagine what the American poster boy could have been up to back then.
“Well, when Bucky got us into trouble. He never treated me like others did. I may have been sick a lot, but we still ended up being stupid kids.”
It was a whole other world she felt from him. The thrill of a roller coaster and the sickness that came after. Hitchhiking and spending the day in different parts of the city. The two of them always together, always having each other’s backs. Steve getting beat up and Barns either jumping in or finding him after and helping him clean up.
She smiled, true but sad as she thought about the life she led before the bombings really started up.
“Pietro and I were always together, too. I don’t think it was just because we're twins either. I think I’ve always been able to read his thoughts and, in some ways, he can read mine. I can’t… we… we’re connected. To be honest, my biggest fear since I moved into your apartment is that I will feel that connection snap and know I’ve lost him.”
Steve paused ahead of her and turned to hold her at the shoulders, his flashlight digging unpainfully between his palm and her arms. “Hey, we’re going to find them. Any leads on Bucky or Pietro, you and I will chase them. We’ll bring them home, both of them.”
Wanda felt herself smiling and her eyes well up. She was quick to push the tears away but nodded in agreement, “we’ll drag them if we have to.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Come on, Captain, our first real lead isn’t much further.”
They finally made it to the cabin a few minutes later. It was an old thing, but just as she saw it in the senator’s memories. In the dark it was straight from a horror movie, but she remembered it looked very quaint in the daytime.
“There’s nobody in there now.” She stretched her senses before they got to close.
“Keep an eye out, could be rigged.”
Wanda nodded and stayed close behind him when they knocked the door in. They used their flashlights to take a look around the small space.
It was an open room with a little kitchen against one wall, an old table with mismatched chairs, and a couch that had seen far better days. There was a small closed off area she assumed was the bathroom but other than that there wasn’t much.
Cautious of any wiring or possible traps, Wanda moved against one wall and Steve the other as they searched for any clues. She ran her hand against the walls and tried to use her powers to feel anything that might be there. Her precession still needed work, but she felt the faint pull of something. Maybe not related to Barnes, though, given how old this place was.
She paused in one corner, noting it wasn’t nearly as dusty as the rest of the place. Dropping to her knees, she pressed her hands against one of the clearer spots and tried to focus. She couldn’t no matter how hard she tried. It was like studying for a test and seeing exactly what she had repeated to herself over and over to just hours before but being unable to remember when the paper was in front of her. She grabbed onto any string, any whiff of what was once where her hands were now. But she just didn’t have the grasp.
“Wanda, are you okay?”
She opened her eyes and saw the bright red glow of her hands against the wooden floor. She exhaled and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“How long?”
“A few minutes. Are you hurt?”
“No, no. I’m fine, I just can’t get this. Will you come over here please?”
Steve joined her, squatting beside her and looking down at the empty corner. “What do you need?”
“I don’t know… I need to concentrate, but I just can’t seem to grab onto whatever’s here.” She thought for a minute and then figured it couldn’t hurt to try something. “Will you put your hand on my shoulder?”
Steve did, like he had in the woods. It was a firm grip and she focused on that when she reached out again. Her fingers pressed against the floor and behind her closed eyelids she saw the red glow. His hands were like an anchor and she felt safe to let herself go to the flash of images that hit her.
The cabin was old but she only needed to see the occupant from a weeks ago. Shifting and shifting with no sense of how much time was passing, she finally saw a man with long dark hair and bright blue eyes stumble into this place. His clothes were a little too big but he felt comfortable in them, glad to be rid of the mask and googles he always wore. He had a bag of stolen goods and a sleeping bag he unrolled in this corner where her hands were now. He stared at the roof and woke up with a throat raw from screaming. He ran outside one night to punch a tree when more memories returned and Wanda knew if she looked out there now she’d see the fallen timber. He had a notebook and in it he wrote… he wrote about a man on the bridge. That man was Steve, she could see that now. Chaos and so much pain… Barnes knew he had to get out of the country… had to go somewhere he couldn’t be found and to stay hidden while his memories returned. There was a map of Europe he traced his fingers across, from Sokovia to Ukraine but she felt the way his eyes lingered on Romania…
She couldn’t pull away at first and had to focus on Steve’s hands still squeezing her shoulder. His mind was right there, and she held onto that feeling as her hands pulled off of the wooden floor and she could escape back into her own head.
“I think… I think I know where he went.”