"Normal is a relative term; I have yet to meet this "normal" person."
Ken Poirot
When they finally pulled into the airport parkade, Ophelia watched as Clint Barton stepped out of the white van. She had never met him, but of course she had seen him on the television after the incident with Sokovia. There was very little on him, the news loved to talk more about the people who had abilities beyond their wildest dreams. Sam and Steve quickly stepped out of the car, and Bucky climbed out as well. While the other two walked over to greet Clint and Wanda- who had just stepped out of the passenger seat- Bucky remained on the opposite side of the vehicle. Still distrust in himself and those around him who weren't Ophelia and Steve, he showed in subtle ways that only Ophelia might notice.
Having been sitting behind Steve, Ophelia was on the opposite side of the car, and when she got out, she was standing behind Sam. Glancing over her shoulder, she locked eyes with Bucky briefly, and turned back to the new people in front of her. Wanda, with her long brown hair and her unique style, looked over at Ophelia, the only other woman in the group. Offering a gentle smile, Ophelia held her gaze for just a moment. There was something about her that she couldn't pin point in that moment, her head dizzy from everything that was going on, what was coming their way, and the blurred memories she had remembered during her nap.
"How about our other recruit?" Steve asked.
"He's rarin' to go. Put a little coffee in 'im," Clint replied, yanking open the sliding door of the van. Inside a man jolted awake, his hands raised above his head as though he were in trouble, and then he realized where he was.
Sort of.
"What time zone is this?" he asked as he crawled out of the back of the van, squinting slightly at the light.
Clint nudged him along. "Come on."
His eyes widened as he realized that he was standing directly in front of Captain America; Scott Lang walked over and reached out his hand. Steve returned the gesture politely, shaking his hand as was expected from him. But Scott didn't let go. "Captain America..."
"Mr. Lang," Steve replied sternly, still shaking his hand.
Ophelia narrowed her eyes and tried not to laugh; there was no doubt that their day needed this little giggle, but she raised her hand to her mouth to cover her smile. This really wasn't the time to be smiling, but once again, she decided it was best to savour the moment. She could feel the others around her raising their eyebrows as they watched Scott apologize for shaking Captain America's hand for too long. Steve nodded when Scott commented on their uncomfortably long hand shake, and they released hands at last.
"Wow. This is awesome." Scott turned around, looked at Wanda. "Captain America. I know you too. You're great."
A sigh came from Scott's lips, but he wasn't done there. He was still baffled that he was standing before Captain America, and saw no reason in hiding his excitement. His hands reached out and grabbed Steve's large arms, impressed as he could be. Ophelia could have sworn she heard Bucky scoff. "Jeez. Look I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so thinks for thanking of me."
Steve nodded, but that was all he had time for before Scott was at it again.
"Hey man." Scott nodded at Sam.
"What's up, Tic Tac?" Sam asked, arms crossed tight.
"Ah... good to see you. Look, about last time..."
"Was a great audition." Sam laughed. "But it'll never happen again."
Steve finally got things moving again. "They tell you what we're up against?"
"Something about some... psycho assassins?"
"We're outside the law on this one, so if you come with us, you're a wanted man."
"Yeah, well... What else is new," Scott replied sourly.
"I've got a chopper lined up," Clint stated then.
"We should get going," Bucky announced, already uncomfortable being around so many people and in one place for so long.
Overhead a loud, booming clear voice came through the speakers. It was in German, but both Bucky and Ophelia were able to understand it clearly, and it just meant that things were taking yet another turn. Ophelia looked over the car and studied Bucky's expression, which had been oddly serene and was now twisted into distaste. The calm before the storm, that was what his previous expression had been, but now the storm had come to them it seemed. The entire airport was being evacuated, and there was not a doubt in any of their minds that this was for good reason.
"They're evacuating the airport," Bucky announced, a sigh transparent in his voice.
"Stark," Steve confirmed.
"Stark?!" Scott exclaimed.
Ophelia grimaced, she did not want to see that man. Though she had never really spoken to him, from what she grasped about the accords, he was making everything more difficult. Sam and Steve had earlier mentioned that Stark wouldn't believe that Bucky had been framed, and they wanted his head on a silver platter. No one here was willing to let Tony Stark or anyone else have it; they had a bigger fight to face, and this was just going to slow them down. A sense of anger and rage began to pulse within Ophelia, and when she focused in on her surroundings, she saw that Wanda Maximoff was looking right at her, head cocked to the side.
"Suit up!" Steve's voice was stern, strong, and everything Captain America's voice should be. He was everything Captain America should be, and despite being outside the law, he was fighting for what he knew was right. Laws didn't always show what was right or wrong, it took people to really see that clearly. He walked around to the back of the car and opened up the small trunk, everyone who had gear confiscated from the CIA reached in and gathered what they had. Steve closed the trunk. "We have half an hour, Tony will be here soon. I don't want a fight, I don't want anyone to get hurt, but there are worse things we have to face. I plan to get Tony to see that, but if I can't..."
Ophelia spoke up, "We'll stand with you."
Steve nodded at her, a placid smile on his face. "We work together, we work smart."
Ophelia had nothing more to say, as Steve had covered it all. Turning to glance at Bucky, she was stopped midway when Wanda put her hand around Ophelia's wrist. The woman still had her head cocked to the side and her face appeared perplexed. But it was her eyes that showed she was intrigued by Ophelia, and Ophelia was completely unsure how to respond to such attention. The woman had a backpack around one shoulder and she pulled Ophelia along.
"Before you go." Sam stopped Ophelia, knowing that her and Wanda were headed to the washrooms in order to change. Ophelia was already in her gear, though. Sam handed her a small bag. "This was from Sharon."
Ophelia took a moment to peer inside of it. Like a goody bag given at the end of children's parties, there were tons of little things inside that surprised Ophelia. But that was all the time she had before Wanda began pulling her along again. Casting one more look at Bucky, who had an eyebrow raised as he watched O being pulled along by Wanda, she offered a smile and that was it. Wanda said nothing to Ophelia as they walked up their stairs to the main floor of the airport; everything was disturbingly empty, there was too much silence in such a huge building. Inside the washrooms, Ophelia finally pulled from Wanda. "I'm Ophelia, by the way."
"I know," the woman replied, her accent smooth and sharp all at once. "You are like me."
Ophelia stared at her, she'd only really been like one other person before, and that was Bucky. Their main commonality was that they had both been weapons to HYDRA. Then Ophelia remembered what Bucky had told her about Wanda and her brother back when Ultron was trying to destroy the very planet. He had said that her power was HYDRA's doing. Suddenly, Ophelia's shoulders dropped as she felt a great swell of sympathy for Wanda.
"They spoke of you," Wanda told Ophelia.
"What...?"
"When they..." She swirled her hands and a beautiful red smoke-like substance emerged from her very finger tips. It was beautiful, and Ophelia was entranced. It was the exact same substance that Ophelia had seen in her dream, her memory. She realized that it was Wanda she saw in her dream. "When they created what I am, they spoke of a weapon they once had, and how they could not control her powers. They wanted me to have those same powers, or similar I think... The Mind Stone gave me my powers, but they spoke of yours when they trained me."
Ophelia thought back to the vague memory she had recently remembered, still questioning if it was real or not, but leaning more towards the former. After hearing Wanda's words, Ophelia began to wonder if she really did have more potential. If she did, there was no better time than now to discover them. There was a fight on its way, whether it was with Tony or the Death Squad. She had felt useless her entire life, with only small moments of satisfaction that she had done something great. Her biggest achievement, however, was bringing Bucky back.
Wanda continued, "At first, I wasn't sure if it was you. I did not imagine you to be so young, but after HYDRA's fall in Washington, they spoke of you, and of the Winter Soldier."
"Bucky," Ophelia corrected out of habit, and was almost beginning to pace because she was eager to hear what Wanda had to say. There was a strong combination of fear -fear of the unknown- and excitement to learn that maybe she wasn't just a name and a power. Maybe she was more than that, maybe HYDRA had stripped her of everything in order to keep her compliant.
Wanda nodded. "Bucky. Because I willingly joined HYDRA -I changed my mind later- they gave me the power to look inside the mind, to warp the mind."
"Are you saying... That I have the ability to warp the mind?" Ophelia asked.
"I don't know, not exactly. But I saw you, in my head." Wanda narrowed her eyes. Ophelia knew that they had somehow shared a dream of sorts, because Ophelia was positive that she had seen Wanda's power in her head and Wanda herself. When Wanda had first looked at her as if she knew Ophelia from somewhere. "If I could look inside your head, I could find out, maybe."
"Please..." Ophelia felt her breath leave her mouth in a shudder; so many years of feeling utterly useless and maybe this was her chance to be greater. She looked into Wanda's eyes, and decided to tell her of her memory. She told her everything she could recall about it with the hopes that more would come back as she talked about it, but no more managed to break through whatever was stopping her from remembering. It was so many years ago, she wasn't surprised that it was a blurry memory, but there was something else in her head stopping her from remembering.
Wanda brought her hands over Ophelia's temples, her soft green eyes closed and her lips parted. The red, translucent substance coming from her hands warped around Ophelia's head and Wanda was inside her mind. Ophelia could feel her in there, just as she could feel other people's minds' when she linked with them. There was an outstanding similarity between their powers, the way Wanda could get inside of her head and pry, dig, search, and release those shut out memories that were stored so deep inside Ophelia's own head that she hadn't even known they were there. Wanda gasped and pulled back, stepping back from Ophelia suddenly. Not in fear, but what appeared to be her getting forced out of Ophelia's head.
"I want you to try something," Wanda suggested after she recovered, without telling Ophelia what she had actually found in her head. "I want you to access my mind -find a memory so powerful, and focus on the emotion that went with it."
"Are... are you sure?" Ophelia thought back to her memory, the way she had lost a portion of it, but when she could focus in again, everyone around her in that HYDRA base had been on their knees in sheer agony. She knew this was part of what she was truly capable of, and while she wanted to understand it and be able to use it, she did not want to cause any harm to someone on her side. But Wanda nodded, and Ophelia closed her eyes in order to create a flawless mental bridge with her. She dug through Wanda's head, and could feel her presence in there with her. As she accessed the deepest parts of her mind, Ophelia was struck with a memory so strong that it caused a pain in her chest. Still, she clung onto the thought, and located the memory in full.
She felt the pain, the twisting, gut-wrenching feeling of experiencing death. Death was nothing new to Ophelia, she had been so close to it countless times, she had seen it all around her throughout her entire life. But this, this was something different entirely. Wanda had felt her brother die, despite not being there to see it. She didn't see his body become riddled with bullets as he dashed in front of Clint and a child in order to save their lives. She felt each bullet rip through his body, the pain that he felt but also the pride that he felt for what he had done. That itself was the most painful part of it, the sacrifice that Pietro Maximoff had made, and the agony that Wanda had to suffer because of it. Ophelia wanted to scream, she wanted out, she didn't want to feel this.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Wanda knelt on the ground, her hand clutching onto the sink. Her other hand was up against her head and she was wincing in the same agony that Ophelia had been feeling. Quickly ripping herself out of Wanda's head, she stopped the pain she was causing and dropped down to assist Wanda. "I'm so sorry, Wanda... I... I didn't mean..."
Wanda opened her eyes in a flash, looking at Ophelia. Though there was a pool of dread in her eyes, she smiled with her lips. "I was right."
"What did I do?" Ophelia didn't even understand her own mind.
"You accessed my memories, and brought back the pain that I felt when my brother died." She groaned as if she were in physical pain as she stood up with Ophelia's help. "You are so much more powerful than you know."