conquer • wanda maximoff

「 FIVE 」

Steve too looked shaken as he sat down heavily in a corner, placing his shield on the floor in defeat. Natasha looked dazed, and Bruce sat wrapped in a blanket on the floor, his face heavy with regret as he was tortured by the memory of whatever Wanda had put inside his head.

Ayana had vaguely heard Tony say something about him rampaging on the city close by, and there was inevitably going to be hell to pay for that.

"The news is loving you guys. No-one else is," came the voice of Maria Hill from a screen at the front of the quinjet. "There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."

Bruce curled further into the blanket he held.

"Stark Relief Foundation?"

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

"Everyone's..." Tony turned to glance around at them in concern. "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."

"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here," Maria advised him.

"So run and hide?"

A shiver went down Ayana's spine as she pulled her legs to her chest.

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer."

"Neither do we," Tony admitted. With that, the call ended and he turned to Clint, who was flying the jet. "Hey, you wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out."

"A few hours out from...where?"

"Safe house."

"You good?" Clint asked Ayana as the quinjet landed a while later. She nodded shakily, finding that she still stumbled on her feet a little when she walked.

"What is this place?" Thor asked as they left the plane, and began the walk up to a building.

"Safe house?" Tony suggested.

"Let's hope," Clint replied. With the hand which wasn't holding on to Natasha, he pushed open the front door to the farmhouse. "Honey? I'm home," he called.

Ayana, Tony, Steve, Thor and Bruce looked on in confusion as a heavily pregnant brunette woman entered the room.

"Hey. Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead," Clint greeted her.

"Hey," she smiled warily, accepting a kiss from him.

"This is an agent of some kind," Tony muttered to Thor.

"Everyone, this is Laura," Clint introduced her to the team. She gave a shy wave.

"I know all your names," Laura told them. Tony raised a hand in greeting as the others looked on awkwardly.

"Whoa, incoming," Clint announced as the sound of feet pounding down the staircase could be heard. A little boy and a younger girl hurtled into the room, both of them looking over the moon to see him.

"Dad!" Lila exclaimed.

"Hey, sweetie!" Clint greeted her, scooping her up into his arms. "How're you guys doing? Look at your face, oh my goodness."

"These are...smaller agents," Tony concluded as they watched on in surprise.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" Lila asked her dad shyly.

A smile grew on Natasha's face as she moved forward and into the little girl's line of sight. "Why don't you hug her and find out?"

Ayana watched in silence, feeling more out of place with every passing second. She gazed around at the toys and family photos scattered around the room, reminding her of what she never had, and never would. She shifted uncomfortably where she stood.

"Sorry for barging in on you," Steve apologized.

"Yeah. We would've called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed," Tony gave Clint a pointed look.

"Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figured it's a good place to lay low."

There was a crunching sound from beside Ayana and she and Tony turned to see that Thor had stepped on a LEGO structure, crushing it. She watched as he brushed it under a chair with his foot, his expression clearly telling them to keep this is a secret.

"Ana, what did you do?"

Wanda's voice sent a shiver down her spine. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to rid herself of the vision of her mother being torn apart in front of her, but it wouldn't fade. It seemed to Ayana that it never would.

Thor was apparently still being tortured by the images that Wanda had fixed into his mind, too. He turned and left the room suddenly, leaving Steve to follow. Ayana went after them a moment later, feeling the watchful eyes of the room on her.

She arrived just in time to see Thor spin Mjolnir around rapidly, before taking off into the sky.

"Ayana," said Steve as she moved past him out of the front door. "You're going too?"

"I can't stay here, Steve. You know I need to find her," she said pleadingly. "I can make her see what's right."

"Because that worked out so well the last time," he said coldly. "Were you not there when she played with our minds? Or did that just bounce off of you like everything else does?"

Ayana shook her head with a frown, not wanting to argue with him.

"I'm sorry," she told him. Steve simply watched, unable to do anything, as she backed away a few steps, then disappeared in a flash of light.