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chapter one
LAGOS
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Rayna bit into her turkey sandwich, gazing over the brim of her sunglasses at the surrounding cars driving down the road.
"Alright, what do you see?" Steve's voice came through her comms.
"Standard beat cops," replied Wanda Maximoff. This would be her first real mission with the team since Ultron.
Steve was obviously testing her to see how sharp her skills were.
"Small station," Wanda continued. "Quiet street."
Rayna stared at her sandwich, narrowing her eyes at the sight of a bit of brown on her lettuce. She tore it off before taking another bite.
"It's a good target," Wanda stated.
"There's an ATM in the south corner, which means.." Steve spoke through the radio.
"Cameras," Maximoff finished.
"Both cross streets are one way," Steve continued, speaking his thoughts aloud.
"So, compromised escape routes," Wanda added, finishing his words.
"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen, he isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
Rayna turned in the direction Steve had said and spotted the car.
"Yeah, the red one?" Wanda turned while sipping from a mug. "It's cute."
Natasha, who was sitting a few tables in front of Rayna, began to speak through comms while raising coffee to her lips.
"It's also bulletproof, which means more private security."
"Which means more guns," Rayna joined in softly, covering her mouth in a fake yawn. "Which means more pew pew and more headaches for somebody. Probably us."
"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda asked.
"And I can move things...physically..." Rayna muttered.
Natasha advised them, "looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature."
Her gaze fell on Rayna as she turned her head, or at least that's what Rayna thought. She couldn't actually see Nat's eyes because of the sunglasses she wore.
"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam asked through comms.
Rayna scoffed.
"Not to my face," Natasha replied casually. "Why? Did you hear something?"
"No," Rayna mumbled, her mouth filled with food. "But I did see something. This beautiful turkey and lettuce and tomato sandwich is glorious beyond explanation."
Steve cleared his throat. "Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him."
"Don't worry, Cap," Rayna said a little too loudly. "We'll get him."
A few people looked toward her and she pretended to be drunk.
"If he sees us coming that won't be a problem," Sam pointed out with an edge to his voice. "He kind of hates us."
A few distant shouts rang through the air followed by honking. Rayna turned to look down the road but couldn't see anything.
"Sam.." Steve ordered. "See that garbage truck? Tag it."
A small triangular drone flew over Rayna's head. She smiled to herself at Sam's new tech he made.
"That truck's loaded for max weight," he informed them. "And the driver's armed."
"It's a battering ram," Nat said.
"Go now," Steve ordered.
Rayna jerked, her half-eaten sandwich hanging out of her mouth.
"What?" Wanda shared her concern.
"I'm not finished with my sandwich!" Rayna complained, causing several more people to turn toward them. She smiled at them and exclaimed in an overly excited voice, "hi!!"
Nat shook her head.
"Harper, what we discussed." Steve's voice was serious and tense. "He's not hitting the police."
Wanda and Nat rose from their seats casually, but their movements were hurried. Sam flew overhead, heading toward a large building where the truck was going.
Rayna took one last bite of her sandwich before leaping into action. She passed her teammates, strutting quickly down the sidewalk.
The commotion was coming from a large building where a truck was driving full speed toward it.
She didn't know how long she was supposed to stay undercover, because her mind was urging her to fly and stop that truck.
Rayna flung her glasses off and watched them fall to the ground.
Whoever finds that is a lucky person. Free souvenir of Electrica.
Her Hogwarts baseball cap also came off and she threw it into the street for someone to grab.
Rayna watched as the truck increasingly gained speed and was about to hit the building. The sign was now in view, and it read: Institute for Infectious Diseases
Great.
"Cap, can I engage the truck?" Rayna asked impatiently.
"No. Stay down. Let Rumlow think he's in control," came Steve's hurried reply.
She groaned as she saw people running out of the way of the truck that was about to smash into the barrier, knowing she could stop it.
Rayna picked up her pace, now jogging as if she were going for a run.
The concrete wall that served as the building perimeter was broken and fell down onto the road.
Almost immediately, two yellow moving trucks arrived and drove into the parking lot. Many armed men came out, firing rapidly and running into a formation.
Muttering to herself in impatience, Rayna began sprinting toward the men. She wanted to use her powers so desperately and stop the whole attack, but orders came first.
They shot what seemed to be large grenades through the windows of the building, but nothing exploded. Instead, clouds of green-tinted gas began to fill the inside.
Several men marched into the building and Rayna caught a glimpse of their masks.
They're poisoning the people inside...
A familiar shield flung through the air followed by Steve charging toward a group of men, knocking out all of them. Rayna took that as her cue to engage and began propelling herself forward with energy.
"Body armor," Steve said. "AR-15's. I make seven hostiles."
Rayna flew over Steve's head and spotted several more soldiers on the other side of the building.
They saw her coming, but she blocked their gunfire with an energy shield and melted the bullets.
She positioned her body into a dive and rocketed toward them like a meteor. The men continued firing but to no avail.
Rayna crashed into one of the soldiers, knocking him against the concrete before turning to face the two others.
Energy coursed through her hands and shot out like lightning, catching both of the soldiers off guard and electrocuting them.
When they all lay still, Rayna tapped her earpiece. "I make four."
"One," Sam said.
After checking to see there were no other soldiers, Rayna flew back to the main entrance. She saw Wanda toss the last remaining opponent to Sam who knocked him out with his wings.
"Zero." He finished.
Steve joined them as Sam scanned the building with his drone. "Rumlow's on the third floor," he informed them.
Rayna peered through the building and teleported herself there. Quickly, she formed a shield around herself and counted.
"At least ten more hostiles inside," she said once she teleported back to her teammates.
Steve strutted toward them and said, "Wanda, just like we practiced."
"What about the gas?" She replied.
Steve ran on top of a car. "Get it out."
He was lifted up in a ball of red and flung into the building.
Several more soldiers approached them from behind, to which Sam decided to take care of.
Rayna shot balls of energy toward the cars that the men were hiding behind, turning them over and exposing the soldiers.
She was waiting for Wanda to control the gas so she could enter the facility. The windows broke with a shatter, and a tornado of green smoke pillowed out.
Sam eliminated the remaining soldiers with a large explosion while Wanda controlled the gas and forced it up into the air above them.
Rayna boosted herself into the building, breaking the glass with energy right before she hit it. There were no soldiers to be found, only bodies.
With a sad sigh, she began teleporting herself to every corner of the building, hoping to catch the remaining men.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon," Steve told them.
"I'm on it," came Natasha's voice. Rayna was glad to have an extra pair of hands on her side.
She was about to make her way back to Sam and Wanda when Steve came running from around the corner. He froze at the sight of her and raised his shield to his face before realizing who it was.
"Don't recognize your own girlfriend?" Rayna muttered, pretending to be annoyed.
"I'm a little on edge," Steve huffed before opening the nearest door. She followed him and looked around for any soldiers.
Steve's eyes widened in fear and Rayna turned to follow his gaze. A heavily armored man raised a large gun at them and fired.
In a split second, Steve's arms wrapped around her waist and he put the shield in front of her, taking the worst of the hit and being flown back into the building.
Rayna rose from the ground shakily, her head throbbing from the impact. The shield lay on top of her, protecting her face from any debris.
She tried to see Steve through the smoke and ash, but couldn't find him.
Suddenly, a hand grasped her arm and she was hauled forward.
"We gotta go," Steve's panicked voice said. He grabbed the shield and held it in front of her as he sprinted toward the nearest window.
Rayna followed as quickly as she could, squinting her eyes as another blast was fired at them. They narrowly avoided it; if they were a second slower it would have been deadly. She thought she had never run faster in her life, but even so, Steve was obviously slowing to help protect her.
She couldn't imagine how fast he would be without her.
Everything was a blur as she stumbled, tripping over debris and struggling to keep up. Steve's shield was still held over her head, leaving him unprotected.
The blast of another shot was heard a second before everything exploded. They were so close to the window. Too close. Her vision went black and everything fell into chaos.
Concrete and metal slammed into her as she felt the force of the explosion sent her flying into the glass.
Rayna instinctually surrounded herself with energy, hoping Steve was near enough to also be engulfed. She didn't dare open her eyes, but just let herself fall, knowing the energy would cushion her landing.
Light danced around in front of her eyelids as she felt herself fall. Her body slammed against something hard before flipping like a rag doll. Evidently her powers were not controlled when she was panicking.
The impact knocked the breath out of her, causing her energy to diminish fully.
The next thing she knew her back fell against the side of something and she was bent backward.
Searing pain shot up her spine before she crumbled and smashed to the ground. A pain-filled groan escaped her lips as she tried to move.
Another agonized voice reached her ears.
"Sam," Steve huffed, gasping in pain. "He's in an AFV heading north."
Rayna opened her scrunched eyes, blinking repeatedly from the light. She had fallen three stories, crashing into the roof that stuck out from the building and into a truck.
Steve lay beside her, struggling to his feet. He walked over and kneeled beside her. "You okay?" He asked in concern.
His face was blackened with soot and a large cut ran across his cheek. Rayna remembered how he shielded her face instead of his own. She grimaced and nodded. "I think so, but my back is killing me."
"Walk it off," he said as he offered her a hand.
Rayna took it and groaned as she was lifted up. She shook herself and concluded that it was just bruised.
"Teleport?" Steve asked. She closed her eyes and nodded before grabbing his wrist. "S.T.A.I.S?" Rayna said to her suit A.I. "Give me an image of Sam's location."
"Loading..." answered the female voice. "Complete."
Rayna tapped the chest piece of her suit and it projected a small market. She pictured the location in her head and teleported to it.
"I've got four, they're splitting up," Sam said.
Rayna and Steve landed in the center of the marketplace, surrounded by people. An empty armored truck was in front of them.
"I've got the two on the left," Natasha said.
Steve took off, running on top of cars, while Rayna scanned the area. She began teleporting to different areas to see if she could intercept the soldiers.
"They ditched their gear," Steve told them. "It's a shell game, now. One of them has the payload."
An explosion sounded nearby Rayna. She turned to see a detonated bomb in the air. "What's that?" She asked. "Everyone okay?"
Screams came from the same area. Rayna teleported herself to the roofs above the scene.
She watched a broad, heavily armored man smash into Steve. Taken off guard, he struggled to get up as the soldier stalked toward him, activating a weapon on his arm.
"There you are you son of a b**ch," came the gruff voice of the man.
Steve huffed and looked up at his opponent.
"I've been waiting for this!" The man wound up, his metal fist about to attack.
Rumlow.. she realized.
Just before he could smash into Steve's face, Rayna jumped down and blocked him with an energy field. She tilted her head with a small smile. "Sorry," she snarled. "That's my boyfriend."
Rayna gathered a strong ball of energy and blasted Rumlow away. It melted through part of his armor, exposing his shoulders and neck. He appeared, however, unaffected, and immediately stood back up.
"Daughter?" Rumlow rasped, looking intently at her.
Rayna furrowed her brows in confusion. "What?" She asked, thinking she misheard him.
Steve got to his feet, fists at the ready, unaware of the situation taking place.
"Rayna," Rumlow chuckled, "oh how much you've grown, my little gi-"
He was cut off as Steve slammed into him.
Furious fists were drilled into Rumlow's face.
Rayna was frozen to the ground, shocked and confused.
Daughter? I'm not his daughter... that's impossible. He must be trying to trick me and catch me off guard.
Rumlow and Steve were in an intense fight, dodging and blocking and punching continuously. Rayna charged forward and electrocuted their Rumlow with energy. Steve froze for a second, expecting his opponent to spasm with electric shock, but instead, he smashed straight into Steve's nose and flung him backward.
Shocked, Rayna backed away. No one had ever reacted to her powers like that.
Rumlow turned to face her, a glint in his eye.
"I'm not affected by that anymore," he growled.
She fired another blast at him, and he accepted it willingly. It absorbed into his body and disappeared.
A scared gasp pushed past her lips and she stumbled backward.
"You know," he said as he barreled into her, "I'm disappointed." Another fist flew into her face. "I thought you would have better taste."
He jerked his head at Steve before drilling punches into her stomach.
Rayna toppled over, retching and gasping for air. Rumlow whirled around to face Steve, engaging him in hand-to-hand combat.
"Come on!" He snarled, banging his head into Cap.
He fights as if he feels no pain... Rayna shivered.
She hauled herself up, trying to remember her training with Nat. If they could distract him long enough with punches, then she could read his mind.
Curiosity was nagging at her, desperate to find out the truth. Why was he calling her his daughter? Of course, it made no sense...but there was a part of her that doubted.
Steve was forcefully smashed into a shelf of food and he struggled to regain his position. Rumlow swung at him, but he dodged. Fists flew through the air, each person focused and determined to mark each hit with precision.
Rayna approached Rumlow slowly, trying not to draw attention to herself. Blood was running down her face and her head throbbed, but she forced her lips shut.
Steve glanced at her for a second. That one glance made him lose concentration, and Rumlow knocked him to the ground. He kicked down hard, but Steve rolled out of the way.
Cap knocked into a table which was shattered a second later by Rumlow's fists. Steve staggered to his feet and tried to punch his opponent again, but his fist was caught.
His eyes widened as Rumlow shoved him against a wall and shot a long blade out of his weaponized arm.
"This is for dropping a building on my face," he growled and shot the blade forward. Steve dodged out of the way but still remained in Rumlow's grasp.
Dizziness came over Rayna, slowing her down and causing black dots to dance at the ends of her vision.
She put a hand to her head and shook herself.
The wall crumbled where the blade had pierced it, and now, Steve was gaining control again as he freed himself from Rumlow and drilled him with perfectly aimed punches.
He kicked the man back, tearing off his metal fist and throwing it to the ground.
Rayna then sprang on top of Rumlow and put her hands to his head. She entered his mind, scared of what she might find.
Memories floated in and out of view, most clouded by dark smoke and blurred scenes. Screams echoed in her ears as a crumbling building fell on top of her. Rayna searched his mind while whispering in his ear "who is your daughter? Who is your daughter?"
Then it clicked. A dark ally opened up in front of her, illuminated by only a few flickering street lights.
Young men, all raggedly dressed and looking to be about twenty or so years old appeared from the shadows.
She was looking through Rumlow's eyes at his past.
One of the men called out to him, "Brock!"
She turned, gazing at a person who was covered in tattoos. "I'll join the gang."
Everything blurred and the scene switched to men getting tattoos of the same logo, over and over. There was darkness, broken by small flickers of light that showed Rumlow fighting and vandalizing.
Then a small figure appeared in the alley. A young woman, no older than fifteen who was looking nervously around. Her shaking voice echoed, asking to join Rumlow's gang.
Time froze again as dark smoke swirled around, clouding Rayna's gaze. Rumlow's arm grasped the girl and dragged her into a dark street. She cried out for him to stop as he shoved her against the wall and took advantage of her.
Screams echoed in his mind, shifting from those of the teenager to those of a baby crying.
Rumlow, now wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, was charging toward a house. It seemed to be a few years later than the previous memories. He broke the door down and ran up the stairs, gun cocked. The same young woman screamed when she saw him and called out for her parents.
She ran into a room and shut the door, but Rumlow burst through and shot her dead.
A young toddler cried out, seeming to be about four or five years old. Rumlow grabbed the child and walked back into the hallway. The lights flickered, and an image of the alley took its place. A man and a woman, the murdered girl's parents, gasped and screamed, begging for mercy.
Two gunshots echoed in the dark.
Alexander Pierce came into view, leading Rumlow into a dark, cold room. Armed men and doctors surrounded a wailing figure. A child was strapped to a metal chair; a rubber clamp shoved in her mouth and tears were streaming down her face.
"Start the procedure," Pierce ordered, flashing an eye toward Rumlow.
He nodded and watched as doctors began operating on the girl. Metal talons clasped around the child's head as she screamed. A large needle was injected into her before doctors blocked Rumlow's view.
The screaming didn't stop. It was agonizing and screeching, begging for the pain to end, but Rumlow showed no emotion as he watched the girl be tortured.
Everything returned to darkness again; echoing voices were swimming in her ears.
She blinked and the same room appeared, but now with a large pod enclosing the girl. Pierce opened it and revealed the child, covered in frost, and un-aged, even though it had been a few years.
Rumlow watched emotionlessly as the doctors injected the child with large needles and set her body onto a platform. They strapped her down before running tests and operations.
The scene shifted to a later time where the girl was woken up. Electric sparks shot out of her hands and blasted the nearest doctors. They let out exclamations of shock and excitement. The procedure had worked.
Once again, the suffocating black void returned, and it cleared to show a very small room. The girl lay curled in a ball, her hands gripping her tangled hair, sobbing and crying. Pierce and Rumlow watched from outside, their eyes fixed on security cameras.
The girl sent out waves of electric sparks every minute or so, but they were weak and uncontrolled. She would teleport and crash against the sides of the walls, crying in pain.
Her hair was matted and tangled, growing long and untamed. Every course of energy sent agonizing pain through the girl's body.
She would teleport randomly, but could not travel far because of the enclosure. Instead, her body would crash against the walls and fall back down.
"She can't control herself. She's too weak," Pierce concluded. "Test subject 57 failed."
Rumlow bowed his head and waited for Pierce to leave the room. He then crashed an angry fist into the wall.
The next scene showed a desperate Rumlow and Pierce facing opposite each other, the girl strapped to the metal chair beside them.
"Please, don't kill her," Rumlow said, trying to hide the concern in his voice. "She could be used later. Maybe when she's older, she can control it."
"No," Pierce said loudly. "Terminate her."
One of the doctors reached for a gun, but Rumlow snatched it from him and aimed it at Pierce. "Don't do this, please," he begged. "Hide her powers, but don't kill her."
Pierce glared at him and said slowly in a dangerous tone, "lower the gun, Rumlow."
Shaking, he obeyed and tossed it to the ground.
"I'll let her live," Pierce said, "we might need her later, you're right, but you're not to see her until she returns. She will have no memory of you, and you of her."
Rumlow dipped his head and added softly, "give her to a family far away from us, then."
Pierce looked at him. "There is no place far away from Hydra."
"Then wipe her, and start over." Rumlow turned away, erasing the child from his mind and trying to ignore her desperate and bone-chilling screams.
Rayna jerked back to reality. She stumbled away, barely feeling the ground beneath her feet. Her legs felt like jelly, but she didn't really feel them at all.
Steve called her name but it didn't register. She fell to the ground, gasping, and staring at nothing.
Rayna found the urge to run away to be almost unbearable. The desire to flee from this moment, this city, this world was overwhelming, but her legs were rooted to the ground.
She couldn't bring herself to stand, or walk, or even move. It was as if the shock had driven a peg through her body and stuck her in the earth. Her face was blank as the adrenaline rush and pure disbelief remained in control. Then, as those feelings faded, everything crashed down at once.
Her eyes filled with tears as her brows furrowed into a pained expression. The bottom of her lip began to tremble and her tongue was too dry to swallow. She didn't try to stop the tears running down her face or close her hanging mouth.
The realization hit her harder than any fist could have, and the sword that slashed through her heart shattered her more than any other pain could.
All those years my family treated me like trash...that was because they weren't my family. Probably forced by Hydra to take me...
The reason they would never let me kill myself...was because I was a weapon that could still be used...
The whole time I believed that I was on this earth for a reason...thinking that at least I had some purpose here...
No...I was just a mistake. I wasn't even meant to be born. My existence was a huge mistake. I was born out of a treacherous and evil act. Born out of a crime.
Rayna squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. The wave of pain crashed like a large wave against a cliff. She reached her hands up to her head and clenched her hair in tight fists.
It felt like her jaw would snap at any moment, crushed from the intense pressure that her teeth were inflicting upon each other.
Her muscles quivered from being held back like a tight spring. Everything screamed at her to let go, but she wasn't sure she wanted to.
Letting go would mean she had to accept that all she had ever known was a lie.
She always questioned why her earliest memory was when she was twelve years old...everything else was clouded and forgotten. Because she had no memory. The first eleven years of her life were taken from her by Hydra. By Rumlow.
By dad.
The name sounded so foreign in her head. Dad?
It was sickening. And her mother, who she would never know. Oh, how she wanted to feel wanted. All her life, she just wanted to be loved, to feel the emotion that warmed her so deeply.
And she had found it in Steve, but only in him. The Avengers loved her too, she knew, and she was grateful, but there wasn't a sense of belonging.
Rayna often questioned her position as an Avenger. Something just didn't seem right. Maybe it was her own self-doubt, but she didn't feel like she belonged. They grew on her, though, and she was thankful for having such good friends, but there was always a small voice in the back of her head telling her she wasn't one of them.
It was a small pebble in her shoe that would irritate you so slightly, not enough for you to take your shoe off, but enough for you to be annoyed with it.
There was a constant sense of doubt in the back of her head which she normally pushed away, but now it had grown and reappeared.
If the others found out about her past..how would they see her? A monster? A threat? A mistake?
Would Steve still love her? Knowing that the woman he was dating was the daughter of his enemy? The daughter of Hydra?
He forgave Bucky...but would he forgive me? Would he love me? Does he love me?
She tried to reassure herself that it wasn't her fault, but the voice overpowered her.
You're a weapon, born out of crime. Created only to be a tool at the hands of evil...
Tears slipped down her cheeks. It took every ounce of her will to not let go and scream.
She just wanted to scream. To be heard. To have someone understand what she was going through.
But then, she wondered, would anyone stop to listen? Would anyone care?
Does anyone care?
Rayna let go. Her jaw relaxed and she let out a choking sob instead of a scream. She tried to control her rapid breathing, but her mind was too crazed to focus on anything.
Her red eyes turned to see Rumlow at the hands of Steve with a removed helmet. His face was deformed, discolored, and sickening. Skin stretched in unnatural ways, leaving wrinkles and odd lines in places they weren't supposed to be.
His ear was hardly an ear at all, folded over and smushed into the side of his head.
As Rayna let her gaze travel over Rumlow, she felt her stomach plummet. This was her father. The man who made her exist.
A sickening feeling washed over her; she was disgusted by this man's actions and deeds, horrified that someone could be so cruel, and terrified that she was his daughter.
How could she continue fighting for good knowing that such an evil man was her father?
Would anyone accept her for who she was after knowing her past?
Do I even know who I am?
Not anymore...I didn't know who I was to begin with. Everything I was told was a lie.
My name isn't even Rayna Harper...it's-
Her chest tightened at the thought. Rumlow was now talking to Steve, but his words just floated in the back of her mind.
Rayna Rumlow...
"Rayna," a gasping voice said as if they read her thoughts.
She turned to see Rumlow's gaze on her.
"I wish you could have joined me. I'm sorry. We could have been great, as father and daughter."
Steve's grip on Rumlow's collar tightened.
A sly smile stretched across the deformed man's face. "But you already know that don't you?"
Then he turned back to Steve, whose eyes were alight with a furious flame, and rasped, "Bucky said to me, 'please tell Rogers. When you gotta go, you gotta go."
Rumlow's smile faded and his gaze burned intensely into Steve's eyes. "And you're coming with me."
His finger reached for something in his hand, a button clicked, and the next second he was surrounded by a wall of flame.
The explosion halted as if time had frozen, and Rayna saw Wanda preventing the blast from continuing to detonate.
Rayna looked upon her father's face, tears swimming in her eyes, and saw his lips move in the slightest.
"I'm sorry." He mouthed.
She put a hand to her mouth and closed her eyes, not wanting to see what happened.
Rumlow's scream of pain was prolonged into agonizing seconds while Wanda struggled to control the blast.
Then she let out her own yell and sent the explosion flying up into the sky. There was a loud bang, followed by the breaking of glass.
Rayna opened her eyes to see smoke pillowing into the air and fire swarming through a tall building. The explosion's force spread through multiple stories, shattering glass and filling the area with smoke.
Rayna gasped in disbelief and turned to look at Wanda. She was on the verge of tears, a trembling hand raised to cover her mouth.
"Oh my.." Steve breathed.. "we need...fire and rescue...on the south side of the building."
He began to jog off. "We gotta get up there."
Wanda fell to her knees and looked around in horror. Rayna stumbled toward her, knowing exactly how she felt. No words were needed to be spoken.
Her legs gave out, both from physical pain and shock. Rayna stumbled to the ground beside Wanda and wrapped her arms around her.
She felt that Wanda knew something was wrong with her. They had a deeper understanding, a connection that could not separate them. There was an awareness that each had of the other. Wanda knew something had happened because she sensed that Rayna shared her grief.
There was some sort of tie between their minds that connected them, and each could communicate without words.
Wanda reached out with her thoughts, asking permission for Rayna to let her in.
With a quivering sigh, Rayna closed her eyes and allowed Wanda to enter her mind.
If it were any other person, she would not have been ready to show them the monster she truly was, but there was something about Wanda, this bridge between their minds, perhaps, that lead her to believe Wanda felt the same about herself too.
We both think we're monsters...but only one of us is right.
A moment later, Rayna felt Wanda's presence slip from her mind, and she was hugged tighter.
"I'm sorry," Wanda whispered.
"I am too."
a/n
plot...TWIST!!
This explains why her family was so awful to her and why her powers were pretty confusing in the first chapter. Like there's not really a big explanation on how she got her powers, right?
Well..Hydra gave them to her!
Rayna Rumlow sounds kinda badass ngl.
Poor girl goes through so much identity trauma 😂
But imagine finding out your dad was a Hydra agent, literally r@ped a teenager and that's how you were born, then finding out he gave you to Hydra for them to experiment on you, only for that not to work, so you go through years of suffering and then he abandons you. You get your mind wiped, sent to an abusive family who hates you and then sees your dad after he's been a terrorist, murdering hundreds of people, only to see him try to kill your boyfriend and commit suicide.
Wham bam that's a lot of trauma ma'am
Also for anyone interested, the concept of Rumlow being a gang leader and r@ping a teenager was actually in the comics. Just look up Crossbones for comics and read about him.
Pretty cool!
Hope you enjoyed!