Fire and Smoke - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Chapter 54

Maximoff stays silent, it's like she was never in my head, but still, I can't calm myself down. My jaw clamps down and my hands are shaking, I'm trying so hard to cling on but my body is just too confused. Then suddenly there's a soft click! and from the corner of my eye, I see the glass which has been holding me captive slide away silently.

Still breathing shallowly, but now distracted, I turn to watch where the glass wall used to be, finding nothing. I slowly and cautiously walk forward, my hands outstretched, waiting to bump into the glass. But it isn't there.

I've been let out! Somehow Stark's machinery has misfunctioned and let me out. I curiously exit the cell and find myself on the other side. I still feel the underlying panic attack rippling through me, but now it feels like I can finally breathe. I look around, wondering what to do next.

The Winter Soldier! I need to find him, free him, and then we can finally finish our mission getting to Maximoff. I look around again, this time looking for any clues as to where they could be keeping him. Obviously, I find none.

I silently tiptoe out of the cold room and by pushing a heavy door, I walk into an empty, shiny hallway. I push aside comparing this hallway with the cold ones I've been dragged through too many times to count or remember back at Hydra's base. Focus.

I start walking down one end of the corridor, catching a reflection of myself as I pass a shiny door. I look tired, pale, sporting an ugly bruise on the side of my temple. My hair is still up in a now rather disheveled-looking ponytail. I look away. Focus.

I rather aimlessly walk for a little while, weirdly enough not coming into contact with anyone. It seems as though this level is deserted. After peering through a few more doors, I finally hit the jackpot.

I swing the door open and am met with a similar room and cell as the one I was in, except this one is occupied by the Winter Soldier. I close the door carefully behind me and approach silently.

As silent as I am, his enhancements make him look up. He's been stripped of his mask. What's more concerning though, is the way his metal arm has been yanked up behind him at a weird angle, the metal plates tightly held in place by a machine looking like a giant clamp, forcing him to kneel on the ground. How long has he been forced to stay like this?

I approach silently, his pale eyes following my movements closely, no emotion on his face at me being here. He looks much more beaten down compared to just last night when we were talking in the warehouse before the fighting. And when I say beaten down I don't mean physically. There's tiredness behind his eyes which wasn't there before.

"How do I get you out?" I ask him.

"I don't know. How did you get out?" He replies in a similar curt tone as me.

"I don't know." I confess.

We fall silent, him just staring at me and me trying to look around to see if there's any way of opening the doors. There's a keypad that I assume would do the trick if I only knew the code.

"Are you alright?" The Winter Soldier suddenly asks, making me look up, surprised by his tone of voice.

"I -yes." I reply, slightly uncertainly. He frowns, looking at me like he isn't quite believing me. "The mission?"

He blinks a couple of times, and then he's blank again, cold. I watch him confused. What is going on? Did the Avengers' mind tricks work on him? Surely not.

"Finish it." He finally says.

"But you-" I begin, but am cut off.

"We are expendable, remember? We serve a purpose, and when we can't do that, we're expendable. I can't serve a purpose here." He says, indicating his cell. "You," He nods at me. "Can."