Honeybee | Wanda Maximoff {AU}

Chapter Twenty-One: Terrestris

Music is "Rainbow" by Sia.

Picture is Claudia Doumit as Sarai.

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Bombus Terrestris

Commonly referred to as the buff-tailed bumblebee or the large earth bumblebee, Bombus Terrestris is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in Europe, the main species used in greenhouse pollination, and can be found in many countries where it is not native. B. Terrestris is a eusocial species with a monandrous queen, which means she mates with only one male. They are extremely clever bees and are able to learn flower colors.

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Chapter Twenty-One: Terrestris

He told me to run, but there's nowhere to go. No doors, no windows, no crawlspaces of any kind. The room is in darkness, and the magical, spherical cage hums with power. Stephen and Loki slam against the interior, trying to fight their way out, but it's no use.

Rurik Maximoff has us all.

I run towards the wall with the door, trying with everything I have to open it before something even worse happens. No matter how hard I try, it doesn't budge at all. My breathing hikes, and I feel anxiety overwhelm me.

I have to get out. I have to find Wanda. We'll come back, save the boys, and defeat Max. I need to escape.

I step back and close my eyes, trying to connect with the heritage from my grandmother. I can feel the power coursing through my veins, but it's being blocked by Max's dark magic. I fight harder, pushing through it. I won't let him win, not this time.

I break through the magical wall with a feverish determination. My mind connects instantly with the nearest hive of bees, and in a split second, I feel them on their way. They're not the bees back at the occult shop, nor are they honeybees at all. These species are exactly what I need right now.

Carpenter bees.

A moment later, I feel them swarming, burrowing into the walls like the bees that they are. Carpenter bees are famous for building nests in hard materials, like wood or trees or even the ground. Not much can stop them, and I'm counting on that determination now.

The wall facing the side of the building is where I sense them coming. When I place my hand against the surface, I feel the material rippling and crumbling from the outside. I back up, knowing that the carpenter bees are close.

They burst through, digging a hole that grows by the second. Tens of thousands of them fill the room, and ten thousand more are on the outside, continuing to burrow in. This nest doesn't know me, and yet they came to help me all the same. I owe them my life.

The door to the lab opens, and Max stands at the entrance. From the firm and grim look on his face, he's not at all the man I've known as my professor for the past two months. I turn to the hole, getting a running start. My feet leave the safety of the building just in time to dodge a blast of dark magic.

As I fall through the air, I realize that I'm going to fall over a thousand feet without anything to break it. The ground is coming closer all too quickly, and even the carpenter bees that swarm around me aren't strong enough to stop gravity.

"Your Majesty!" they shout in unison, but they know there's nothing they can do.

But something that my grandmother told me rings in my memory. "You can fly," Vai said, "if you really wanted to."