Leave Me Behind [Winter Soldier] III

Choice [Chapter 18]

"True love is many things and can survive the strongest and most painful of times. When love comes out the other side of a fire, it may be scarred forever, but this bruised love is somehow only greater for having survived the pain."

John Carter Cash

After correcting the mismatched grave markers, Sam had arrived and was talking to Bucky about his new role as Captain America. Wanda and Ophelia took this moment to separate from the two of them, and when Ophelia had apologized over and over to Wanda, they fell into a quiet. It was a peaceful moment, as though they were silently mourning the dead, accepting the confusion of being alive, when previously both of them had been considered dead.

"Sometimes I wish I was never brought back," Wanda said to Ophelia. "My life has never been easy, I found comfort in my brother, and after he died, comfort in Vis."

Ophelia just nodded. At the end of the day, she had never really met Vision, she had only been seen as an opponent to him. At the airport in Germany, he had tried to stop her from escaping with Bucky and Steve. Looking back at it now, perhaps that would have kept her alive. The way one small change in the past could have altered everything in the future, it made Ophelia's head spin a little bit.

"And Vis... He didn't die like the others."

"Tell me," Ophelia said, reaching out and gently touching Wanda's wrist. She felt a connection between the two of them, Ophelia always had since Wanda opened her up to her full potential. The two of them were similar in so many ways, like sisters from different times. Ophelia realized that she longed for a friend like Wanda, someone who understood the horrors of the world, the losses and the hard choices that had to be made. There was no one who understood all that quite like Wanda.

"We knew that the stone had to be destroyed, only it was a part of him. He knew it had to be done, and if I hadn't been so stubborn, all of this could have been prevented. But I waited too long... Have you ever had to kill someone you love?" Tears made her eyes glitter like diamonds.

Ophelia shook her head. She thought of the times she faced Bucky, she remembered the Hellicarrier when Steve was choking the life out of his best friend. It pained her, but she had known at the time it had to happen. Everything had worked out back then, Ophelia lived two amazing years with Bucky.

"I did," Wanda said solemnly. "Then Thanos took even that from me. He took my choice. He took Vision's choice."

Her voice grew deeper, her accent somewhat stronger as her anger came out. Then, just as quickly as she put herself in a rage, it dispersed. "I'm still trying to find something to live for, I think it will take some time, but I can no longer put it in individuals."

"I..." Ophelia stopped, facing Wanda. Wanda's auburn hair hung in perfect waves down her shoulders, cascading flawlessly. "That's not what I'm trying... I've only really ever had Bucky. Just like you only had your brother, and Vision."

"That's where I was wrong, Ophelia," Wanda explained. "I had so much more to my life than just them. And so do you. So does Bucky. He is struggling with you being here, he is struggling with what's going on in his head, because he's used you as an anchor for so long."

Ophelia thought back to her conversation with Cebisa and M'Baku, how she wanted to be known as more than a HYDRA weapon, and Bucky's girl. She wanted to be known as someone who loved to learn, someone who enjoyed reading, someone who had opinions and thoughts. These were the things she wanted to uplift herself, and Bucky was the support she needed to have those things.

Wanda smiled wanly. "It's not you I'm worried about, Ophelia. It's Bucky. Sam and I were talking on the way here, we think Bucky should rejoin familiar territory, at some point."