Life | Steve Rogers.

five.

"What did you see?" Steve asked. He knew it was an awful thing to do, but seeing Hazel's dreams could have probably helped them to understand her more.

"It was... bad. They almost looked like mine, but the guiltiness in hers was way stronger than mine. She experienced the loss of someone really close to her, probably the only person she cared about. And I fear it was because of her powers. She was definitely enhanced by someone who wanted to create... a soldier? I don't know, the powers she has don't really make her a soldier, but it definitely looked like one," Wanda said, flinching at the memory of Hazel's dream. It was distressing.

"Do you think she killed that person because she couldn't control her powers?" Steve asked, rubbing the hint of stubble growing on his cheeks.

"Most likely, yeah," Wanda answered.

"I bet all my guns that she feels responsible for it," Natasha said ironically.

"I wouldn't blame her," Wanda said, still looking down. "Do you think we should inform the others?"

Steve shook his head, "We haven't found anything that could affect the way we see her, or at least we're not sure about what we have found. I would say we don't."

Natasha nodded, "I agree."

They all remained silent for a while, then Natasha stood up to get ready for her training with Hazel –even if Steve wasn't sure she would actually do it after what had happened- and Wanda remained on the couch, her mind wandering in places Steve couldn't reach.

"What are you thinking?" he asked her, instead. He would do that a lot, when he realised Wanda would get lost in her mind for too long.

"I'm trying to understand what she can possibly feel. Her dream was so... real, so painful. Not even I have ever had such a dream," she said, visibly confused.

"Can- can I see it?" Steve knew what he was heading towards, but if he wanted to help Hazel, he had to understand her more.

Wanda hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the hand Steve was offering her and closed her eyes, red hex joining their hands as memories flowed towards him. Steve's breath faltered for a moment when the dream appeared in his mind and, once it was over, he slowly opened his eyes with a terrified expression on his face.

"I know," was all Wanda said, before standing up and walking away, leaving Steve alone.

He was almost out of breath. Even if the dream itself was really confused, since everything he could see was Hazel's desperation and not her surroundings, the feelings were maybe too clear. The confusion, the helplessness, the pain, the anger, the delusion... he felt as if he had experienced all these things on his own skin, went through them and tried his best to move on, without success. He was starting to understand what Hazel probably was going through every day, and he was speechless.

-

As much as she tried to gain some more sleep, the feelings the dream had caused her were so vivid for her to attempt to drift into unconsciousness. It had never been so intense since she was little and the thought wasn't necessarily exciting her.

Hazel opted for going to take some fresh air, and realized she had never visited the roof of the tower. Being such a tall building, it was probably towering over the whole of New York, and the view was supposed to be breathtaking.

She wore a sweater to avoid the cold and paced towards the elevator, pressing the last button in hope it was the one that would have brought her to the roof. Once the doors opened, she stepped out in an empty waiting room and walked towards an iron door that, once opened, let the cold wind from outside sneak inside the room and gently tug at Hazel's hair. A small smile plastered on her face as she walked outside, breathing heavily as the sensation of not being oppressed by four walls made her feel immediately better.