Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 2 - An Uninvited Guest

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac." Coulson said as people buzzed around them, packing down whatever they could into secure cases.

Of course, Keira understood that it would be a shame to lose the research, but was everything that was still here really that important? Didn't they value their lives more than this? Was it worth risking their lives to secure whatever it was that they were packing? But on the other hand, this was SHIELD she was talking about. So obviously, the scientists would do everything in their power to save their research.

"How long until everyone's out?" Keira asked, her stomach churning unpleasantly as she looked at Coulson. Nothing she had heard so far had done anything to settle her nerves. If anything, her stress had only increased.

"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."

"Do better." Fury looked at Coulson, who gave a short nod and turned back to where they came from. How on Earth was he was supposed to accelerate the evacuation? A magic spell or something maybe?

Looking over her shoulder, she watched Coulson disappear. Of all the things she had heard so far, she still couldn't place what her role was in all this. As she had no scientific input to offer, she was of no use in regard to the Tesseract. So that was definitely not the reason as to why she was here. Maybe they simply just wanted an extra pair of hands in case something weird happened?

Being a mutant had its perks, and despite everything she had endured with HYDRA, they had helped her to develop her abilities. Not only did she have enhanced speed and strength, but she could also turn her skin into diamond, making her practically impervious to harm.

Her ability had first shown itself when she had just turned six years old as a boy had tried to hit her. When she had shielded her face with her arms, she had seen her skin transform before her very eyes. The boy, however, had missed it and had punched her anyway. She could still remember how loudly he had wailed after he broke his hand. It served him right though, in her opinion. However, due to her parents' inability to handle the fact that their daughter was different, it was this incident that led them to look for someone, anyone, who would take her.

So, they had given her away to people they thought would be able to take care of her. Or at least, that's what she hoped had happened. She hoped that her parents truly believed that the man who had collected her would be able to help and take care of her, and not that there had been another agenda behind it. Because she knew that HYDRA sometimes bought their assets and she just prayed that it wasn't the case with her.

Hopefully, her parents had not been aware of the pain they were submitting her to for the years to come. Keira had never bothered to look them up after she was freed from HYDRA's grasp. They had made it pretty clear that they wanted nothing to do with their daughter, so who was she to force her company on them?

Truth be told, she had no idea if they were even still alive. The bombings of Novi Grad had started shortly after she had been taken, and even before that, the city had been in a state of unrest. And from what she had gathered by the limited amount of info that she had been able to lay her hands on, the situation had only worsened after that. And as if the bombings themselves weren't enough, a civil war had erupted afterward.

Keira was too caught up in old memories to notice the sloping staircase leading even further down into the facility, which caused her to trip on the step. But she was saved from the embarrassment of a fall due to Maria catching her quickly, the woman's spy reflexes on point. "Trying to get killed already, Nowak?" The brunette asked as she helped Keira back on her feet again.

"Hah, you wish, Hill. Don't worry, you can still plan my funeral together with Romanoff." Keira answered, smiling weakly in embarrassment. When she was stable on her feet again, she trotted after Maria and Fury down the winding stairs. The fact that she had some stamina was a blessing because otherwise she would've died going down those stairs. Because the staircase was long, like way too long.