The Invisible Coder (Natasha x OC)

Chapter 6- The Maximoffs

I don't know how long I sat in that cell, waiting, praying, crying, wishing, despairing.

"Please come back for me, Natasha, please," I prayed to nobody in particular. "Please, somebody, anybody, please come back... Tony... Steve... Nat... Bruce... Clint... Thor... Ava... Rhodes... Sam... somebody... don't leave me here, please..."

I didn't expect a reply to my hushed prayers. I didn't receive one.

Instead, I received an idea.

I searched around my tiny, empty cell for something I could use as a lock pick. I wasn't experienced with capture, but I might be able to pick the lock to the door.

I searched around my cell for something thin and sharp... there! BINGO! A thin abandoned wire. I grabbed it and slipped my hand through the bars of the cell. Then, I readied the wire and felt around for a lock on the door, shoving the wire inside and searching for a point that felt right. I couldn't find one. 

I retracted my arm and tried to think. 

This is like... encrypted code. Just gotta find the unprotected area.

I went back to jabbing the wire into the lock. This time, it opened with a loud click.

Overjoyed, I pushed open the door. It creaked loudly, but nobody responded. I cautiously but quickly made my way through the large place, pocketing the wire. I took a quick look at the stuff inside of the rusty brown room, but nothing stood out to me as dangerous. 

It looked like a giant warehouse. I scanned the room for an exit, a door, and I found one across the room, past some large machinery. I started for it, quickly, before Ultron got back. 

I heard a gust of wind and froze. Suddenly, the world was spinning, and I was back in my cell, the door closed and locked. A young man with white hair stood in front of me, his arms crossed.

To my horror, Ultron walked up from behind him.

"Well done," Ultron said to the young man. From behind Ultron came a girl with brunette hair. She stood beside the young man, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Tried to escape, now, didn't you?" Ultron asked. "There has to be some way to keep you here,"

The girl stepped forward. "May I?" she asked.

"Exploit her fear?" Ultron responded. "It's worth a shot," 

I backed as far away from them as I could, but the girl's hands glowed a dark scarlet before I felt the scenery change. 

Now, Loki stood in front of me, his wicked scepter in his hand. I was kneeling to him. Why?

I turned and saw my friends, all of them dead, their blood pooling around them. Cap's shield was demolished. Thor's hammer was shattered. Tony's suit was sparking and ruined. Clint's bow was snapped in half. Natasha's pistols were smashed. Bruce, in the form of the Hulk, was severely cut up and bruised.

I gasped and stood, overcome with horror.

For a minute, I couldn't speak.

Then I turned back to Loki, glowering as though there was no tomorrow at him.

"YOU," I hissed. "YOU DESPICABLE, MURDERING-"

"I'm afraid you're speaking to the wrong person, Bryce," he smirked. "This-" he waved towards my dead friends. "-was all you,"

I stared at them, shaking my head in denial. 

"No," I whispered. "No, no, no, no-"

"You could've stopped it," Loki continued, placing his hand on my shoulder. I violently shrugged him off. "Had you been more aware of what was going on around you. Had you stopped me. But no... your fear got the best of you, as it always will,"

I was about ready to scream. 

"I just wanted to make sure you knew... that you remembered... before becoming my subject,"

His scepter tapped my chest before I could stop it, and everything went black.

I gasped for air and sat upright. I had fallen, apparently, because I was now sitting on the cell's floor.

"What did you see, Wanda?" the young man asked.

"She's afraid of many things," the girl, presumably Wanda, replied. "She's afraid of the scepter,"

"The scepter?" asked the young man.

"Who are you?" I growled, flattening my back against the wall.

"Oh, I'm sorry for the late introductions," Ultron piped up. "These are the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro,"

I took it that the young man with white hair was Pietro since I already knew that the girl was Wanda.

"What do you want with me?" I snarled. 

"Only to hold you here. Unless you want to support the cause?" Ultron suggested.

"Look, little brother," I started, standing up. "I may not be Tony's real kid, but at least he wanted me. I'm not going to stand against him or any of the Avengers,"

"You're one of Stark's?" Wanda demanded, seeming almost angry.

"I only found out today," I responded. "He adopted me without my knowledge,"

"How does that work?" Pietro asked.

"I don't know, he's Tony Stark!" I exclaimed angrily. "He probably forged my signature on everything or something,"

"Actually, that's exactly what he did," Ultron informed me. "He used JARVIS to find all your SHIELD contracts and used the signatures you put there,"

I let out a frustrated sigh. "I have no problem with it, I just wish he would've asked me for consent,"

"You hold more of a grudge than that," Wanda told me. "You wished that people would stop looking out for you and trying to protect you from your nightmares. You wish that people would give you a chance to prove yourself,"

I sucked in a breath.

"Let us help you do just that," she opened the door to the cell. Pietro reached out for her, but she shrugged him off.

Wanda Maximoff took a couple of steps toward me. I eyed her suspiciously. 

"Please," she offered her hand. "I've seen your fear. You can save everyone. You can protect the world,"

I considered her words. "Perhaps you didn't see it clearly enough," I said in a rough voice. "I feared being the reason for the Avenger's deaths. For my friend's deaths. I'm not going to help you kill them. That is my final answer," 

Wanda was silent for a moment before lowering her hand and stepping out of the cell, sliding it closed.

"Wait," Ultron told her. He opened the cell door again and grabbed something from beside him. "If she isn't going to help us directly, then she will help us in other ways. As a lure. As bait,"

I backed up. "NO," I said firmly.

"That isn't a choice you can make anymore, Bryce," he told me, grabbing my arm and yanking me towards him. He pulled out the thing he had grabbed- a chain and some metal cuffs. 

"Pietro?" he summoned, and with a gust of wind, I tied to a chair. My midsection was tied to the back of the chair, my upper arms and wrists were bound to the chair's back legs, and my legs were secured to the chair's front legs. I yanked at my bonds in vain. I was completely immobile. 

"That's better. No more escaping for you," Ultron said, exiting the cell. He closed the cell door and locked it securely behind him. "In the meantime, we have some work to do,"