Flickers | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 21

Karina watched silently, as she sat on a yoga mat, as Wanda weaved around 100 pound weights with her red web of energy.

Karina was purposefully being quiet as she observed Wanda concentrate on the tasks before her. Wanda, however, was trying to initiate conversation as she wanted to be able to multitask and master her skills.

Karina realized her friend had set very high standards to herself. Wanda seemed to forget that she wasn't born with the powers that were given to her. Learning to master something was going to take time and patience. She knew the brunette witch was still being hard on herself for the incident in Lagos. She still carried the weight of the guilt of the collateral damage of the bomb Rumlow set off that caused civilian causalities. And she could understand Wanda's guilt as everyone in the world was calling her a weapon of mass destruction as if she wasn't just a simple human being.

Karina, knowing what she saw on the news, could see the argument that if someone like Wanda was going on missions maybe she needed to be a little more skilled – confident – with her abilities.

However, she did not blame Wanda for the deaths of those innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. Rumlow was going to detonate that bomb from the start and if she hadn't been there the fatalities would have been much higher. She knew that for a fact. It was a fact of the situation and the damage was going to be a lot worse of Wanda or any of the Avengers weren't there. Rumlow had a biological weapon and Karina was sure that they didn't even know who the buyer even was.

However, like most things in life – especially with the Avengers- everything was shaded in grey. Arguments could be made on both sides and there would never be an agreeable conclusion that would satisfy everyone for the most part. Nonetheless Karina believed they needed people like the Avengers to help fight battles that ordinary humans weren't equipped to deal with.

This was why Karina never took an interest into politics. It was messy and people always had their own agenda, which usually had to do with filling their pockets. Plus with her unwanted entanglements with Hydra she was fine with not dealing with anymore politicians.

Some days, Karina missed the days where she needed to read 200 page chapters for classes in a two day span and write a paper on what she read, while simultaneously working in a lab and an actual job.

She wasn't going to complain about her lot in life when people were far off worse than her and she was on a first name basis and friends with people who were former Avengers.

As she mulled in her thoughts, with her empty water bottle in her hand, she watched Wanda's energy seep out into other objects as she formed shields and various structures. She knew Wanda's main concern was being able to handle a large amount of stimuli. When Karina thought about the potential of Wanda's power, it did slightly scare her. It wasn't for fear of Wanda, but for her. The responsibility of that power was something she couldn't ever imagine living with and she would never want that burden. Despite Karina never being one for church, she prayed for Wanda as she did every night for Bucky and all of them in Wakanda.

Looking at her container, Karina slowly brought it up and threw it in Wanda's direction. The bottle had reached a little to the half way point before it was encased in red webbing. Karina did notice some of the weights Wanda was levitating faltered as she became aware of the water bottle.

The water bottle came back to her, as Wanda gently placed the items she was manipulating back on the ground, with a frustrated growl.

Karina stayed silent as Wanda looked down at her hands where a red ball was dancing between her fingers before it vanished, like a flame was being smothered.

"All it took was a harmless water bottle to break my concentration." The witch muttered despondently before she took a seat next to Karina.

"Rome didn't get built in a day, Wanda." Karina appeased.