Chaos (Sequel to Agony)

Chapter 46

||"I found heaven in his eyes and angels in his smile, but he hid hell in his mind and demons in his heart."||

When another week passed, Wanda began to wonder if Markus was ever going to show.

What was taking him so long? What was he planning? Where was he hiding?

The questions echoed in Wanda's head as she laced her boots up.

"Ready?" Nik asked from the doorway, his curly hair flopping over his forehead. Wanda grabbed her gloves and stood, following Nik down the hall up to the roof. "I really do think the ground would be a much safer to train," he said, holding the door open for her. "Though, I will admit, the sky looks stunning today."

"A storm is actually headed our way," Wanda stated, pulling her gloves on. "So we've got a few hours of clear skies before the dark clouds roll in."

Nik pulled out his notepad from his back pocket and flipped through the worn-out pages. His brows furrowed as he skimmed through his written words, and Wanda stretched her arms and waited for his instruction.

"We've done quite a lot these last few weeks," he muttered, scratching his head. "The build up of your stamina and strength is keeping your powers at bay, and luckily you've been stress-free, so that's helping."

"We haven't worked on memory," Wanda said, turning away from Nik. "I haven't done much of that since I erased some of Bucky's memories."

"You're not ready for that, at least not at the full capacity of it."

"We don't have to work at the full capacity, we can take our time," she turned back to him, watching as he kept flipping through his notepad. "I think I can at least try—"

"That's a very risky part of your powers, Wanda. Erasing memories and seeing them is already a very tricky thing to do, but accessing them? Sifting through a person's mind trying to find something that they can't even remember? That's not something I feel comfortable exploring with you, not now at least."

Nik let his notepad drop, and he brushed his curly bangs out of his eyes and stared at her.

"But...if you want to work on that today, then that's what we'll work on."

He shrugged off his jacket and placed it down at his feet, creating a soft cushion for himself to sit on. Ritually, he rolled his shoulders back and took a deep breath in, inhaling the sweet smell of summer, and Wanda's fingers twitched with irritation.

Her power bloomed in her belly, just like it always did when she felt herself grow angry, and she stepped away from Nik discreetly, turning away from him.

Never had she felt this way toward him; never had her power threatened to lash out on him.

It scared her.

"Wanda?" Nik asked, and she scrunched up her gloved hands and turned back to him. Though she knew he couldn't see what she was feeling, having his eyes on her like that made her want to crawl away. With Nik, she always felt like he could see right through her—every tendon and bone.

"We can practice memory another time," she said, kneeling down in front of him. "My powers need a release...now."

It didn't take long for Nik to sift through his notepad, and after a precious minute, he set it back down.

"Shielding," he said, and she felt her head shake.

"I've done enough shielding. Jean and I practice it every time I go to the school."

"No, not that kind of shielding. We don't have robots here shooting blasts at you. I want you to stretch your shield. Let's see how far you can go."