||Everything I need I get from you.||
Wanda kicked off her blankets, feeling way too hot for sleep. After dinner, Pietro insisted she get some rest, but she was only able to sleep for a few hours before wanting to check on Katarina. The memory kept appearing in her head--of Sapphire and of what might have happened to her. It was obvious Trask had something to do with it, but she couldn't imagine what he might have done with her.
On the floor, Pietro stirred, and Wanda got up to pull the blanket over him. She wanted him to sleep in his own room, but he didn't want to leave her alone.
Quietly, Wanda left the warm room, and made her way towards Katarina. The last Wanda checked, Emma stayed with the girl, but it had been hours, and she was sure that Emma had gone back upstairs to get some rest as well.
The two Agents standing guard in front of the hall that led to Katarina spotted Wanda immediately, but she was in no mood to use her magic on them. "May I see her?" she asked them kindly, and they looked at each other for a moment before stepping aside to let her in. When they opened the door, she was surprised to see Steve sitting down in the hall in front of Katarina's room. His head was resting against the wall, and he looked as though he was asleep.
Tentatively, she walked over to him, kneeling down beside him. She watched as his eyes moved around in his sleep, and she wondered what he was dreaming about.
Wanda brought her hand up to touch his face, and she ran her finger down his cheek, admiring his soft, warm skin. She knew he hadn't slept in days; he was too busy trying to come up with a plan of attack, but he kept hitting a wall. And it wasn't his fault, it wasn't his job to secure everyone's safety--he chooses to do that, out of the goodness in his heart. And Steve was always so worried about everyone else, that he sometimes forgot about himself.
Without disturbing him, Wanda cuddled up beside him, putting his arm around her so that she was nuzzled up against his warm body.
On the other side of the glass, Katarina was asleep. Her body curled up in the corner of the room, with embers scattered across the floor around her. From where Wanda was sitting, they looked like individual stars, all surrounding her with light and warmth.
"Hi," his deep voice caught her attention, and when she lifted her head, Steve was staring down at her, his eyes still glossy with sleep.
"Go back to sleep," she whispered, and he grinned.
"Is that an order?"
"Yes," she answered, and he closed his eyes. Wanda watched him, and she knew he wasn't asleep, because his beautiful smile soon took over, and he just pulled her in closer to him. "What are you doing down here?" she asked him, resting her head on his chest. Beneath the sweater he wore, she could hear the steadiness of his heartbeat, and she closed her eyes and waited for his answer.
"I don't really know," he said candidly. "I thought I came down here to talk to her, but, she was sleeping." He began to rub her arm slowly, relaxing her even more. "Is there any hope of helping her?"
Wanda shifted against him, placing her hand on his stomach as she got comfortable. "There is always hope," she said to him. "We just have guide her, and she will find that control eventually. I just don't want her father getting in the way. Who knows what he would do to her."
"If there's anyone who can help her, I think it's you."
She smiled, wrapping her arm around his waist. "What happened between you and Bucky?" she asked him randomly, and she could feel his body go rigid beneath her. Wanda lifted her head to meet his eyes, but he just looked away. "You don't have to answer that," she immediately said, feeling as though she had crossed a line she wasn't supposed to cross.
Her eyes stayed focused on his face, and after minutes of not saying a word, he spoke. "I thought he was dead." A familiar feeling welled up inside of Wanda; a feeling of agony and despair twisted together, making a home inside of her heart. She had begun to forget the feeling, but his words reminded her of the soul she thought was taken away from her--Pietro.
"Hydra ruined him, and things just haven't been the same since." He finally looked at her, and she felt the air in her throat slip through her lips as his eyes stared deeply into hers. "I'll tell you all about it when this is all over."
"Only if you want to," she said, reassuring him that he didn't owe her any sort of explanation.
"I want to."
Without saying anything more, Steve moved Wanda so that she was sitting on his lap, and he cupped her face, kissing her.
___
The lab had grown quiet over the hours, but Tony proceeded to work. He read through the files that he downloaded from Trask's computer, trying to find what he was using on Katarina to suppress her mutant abilities. From the top of his head, he couldn't think of any drug or medication that would hold back such powerful gifts. In the files that he had, Trask didn't name the medication he was giving her, he just called them pills.
With a groan, Tony stood from the computer and walked over to the coffee machine in the corner. It was four in the morning, but he wasn't going to sleep. With any luck, he'd finish reading through Trask's files by morning, and then maybe he'd get some sleep. But for the time being, he was going to need some energy to finish.
The lab doors opened, and in walked Thor. Tony was surprised, but glad someone was around to talk to.
"It's the god!," he exclaimed, and Thor placed his hammer gently on one of the tables. "The god doesn't look happy."
"Trask is getting curious about his men and where they might be. I know they are here, but if we keep stalling, he is going to figure out that they are here as well. You are basically leading him straight to you."
"Well that doesn't sound good," Tony swallowed down some coffee and walked back over to the desk lined with computers. "We can't let those men go, because once we do, they're going to start spilling their guts out."
"Why would they do such a thing?" Thor asked, utterly confused.
"No, not literally. It's an idiom... look, we can't let them go."
Tony grabbed his phone out of his pocket and sent a message for the team to meet up in the lab. Tony had hoped that Katarina would return home with Trask for the weekend, buying them more time, but now that she was staying, he worried that Trask would move forward with his Sentinels.
Thor and Tony waited five minutes, then, one by one, the team began to pile into the lab. They all looked exhausted, but this couldn't wait until morning. They needed to know now.
"We have a bit of a problem," Tony said.
"What is it?" Steve asked, taking a seat next to the twins. "Trask?"
"Yup, and he's starting to wonder where his men are. What are we going to do?"
No one spoke up, and Tony fiddled with his phone, hoping Steve would stand up to sort out some game plan. "We release them," Wanda said, and Tony scrunched up his face in confusion.
"Um, yeah, no. That is a terrible idea," he commented, and she looked over at Steve for some reason. "Okay listen, if we let them go, they will tell Trask where we are, and it's useless to pick up and leave. If we keep them here and stay under the radar, then we can squeeze in a little time to figure out what the hell we're going to do."
"Thor, how many Sentinels sit outside of Trask's bunker?" Steve asked.
"Four or five, depending. But he keeps them off."
"What are you thinking, Cap?" Clint asked, and Tony sat down on the seat behind him and watched as Steve's eyes fell to the floor as he thought.
"With all of us, plus Emma's army, we can ambush the bunker. If Trask keeps the self-controlled Sentinels off, then that's good news for us. It'll be better if we catch him by surprise instead of having him anticipate it." Everyone looked at Steve and took in what he just said, but the only one who seemed to agree with him was Wanda.
"That's a tricky plan, Rogers. The moment he realizes he's being attacked, he's going to turn on those robots, and it won't be pretty for us." Natasha was right, but Tony found himself siding with Steve on his plan to ambush Trask.
"What other choice do we have?" Steve said to her, and Natasha looked away. "We've been sitting around doing nothing for weeks. What exactly are we waiting for? With every passing day that goes by, Trask gets one step closer to finalizing the Sentinels. That's one step closer to them being in danger," he pointed to the twins, and Pietro clenched his fists. The boy had some major anger issues.
"We end this soon," Thor told them. "My people need me, and I can't stay for much longer. We have the numbers and a purpose to take him down--I say we do it."
Tony raised his hand, and everyone looked towards him and waited for him to speak.
"I say we take the girl with us."
"Katarina?" Wanda asked.
"She's his weakness, even if she is what she is, he still loves her. He had her take that medication so that he could pretend she wasn't a mutant. But if he see's her in her true form, if he see's what she really is, then it will break him. She is our weapon against him."
___
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw blue flames, and it seemed to ease her pain.
No one felt safe around her, and she hated that. She hated being so dangerous to the point where they had to keep her locked up. It was only a few weeks ago that she was standing on the other side of the glass, bringing food and medication to Pietro.
Katarina got up from the floor and headed into the bathroom. The moment she turned on the lights, she was greeted with her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were glowing gold, and her hair had turned from dark brown to a golden blond shade, which made her look five years younger.
She stepped forward and held up her hands. With a little concentration, she was able to ignite her flames. It hurt, a lot, and it felt like her skin was being pricked with a million needles. But the pain would subside after a few minutes, and all that was left were her gold flames dancing on her skin like some sort of magic trick.
Was it magic? Katarina wondered if she was some sort of witch or an alien. What other possibility was there? Had she been experimented on? She had no idea, but she felt some deep connection to the woman in her dreams--the woman with blue flames.
Ever since she had her first encounter with her flames, she saw the woman everywhere. Katarina was sure she was going crazy, but she refused to allow herself to believe that. She studied psychology, she worked tirelessly to understand the human mind, but for some reason she couldn't find a logical answer as to why this was happening to her and why she was seeing things.
Katarina grabbed clean clothes from the closet in the bathroom and turned on the shower. She turned on the water and climbed in, feeling refreshed as the hot water washed over her. She could hear her skin sizzling as the water touched her skin, but she decided to ignore it. Whatever she was, whatever the Avengers weren't telling her, she was going to have to deal with it. Because crying about it wasn't going to change anything.
As much as she loved her dad, she knew that siding with him was never an option. She wanted to help them take him down, it's what felt right to her. Deep inside of her she knew that her dad had the wrong idea in his head about mutants and about people different than him.
She must have been in the shower for a while, because the water got cold, and she was forced to get out. As she dressed herself, she kept thinking of the woman in her dreams. Who was she? It was driving her insane, and all she wanted was answers. But when she went back out into the room, she saw no one sitting down in the hall. She was alone.
The gold embers on the floor glowed brighter as she neared them, and with each step she took, they made space for her. It made her feel weird and crazy, but she tried not to think too much on it. So she sat back down on the floor and decided she'd go back to sleep. Because in her sleep, she was met with the woman in blue, and since she wasn't going to get any answers while awake, then maybe she'd get them in her dreams.
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A/N: 5 days till Christmas!!!!
Guys I'm becoming super obsessed with Star Wars! Help me!