The Scarlet Apprentice

Invasion

Innocently and flooded with distraction, wanda made her way over to the front door. After her ears received the knocking sound, no other movement was made from the guest. There was no rustle on the grass, no creaking on the steps, and certainly no more knocking on the door.

So, the maximoff twin didn't think too much of it as her hand loosely rested upon the handle of the small wooden door. She took a short inhale - even though she wasn't particularly worried about who it could've been. Her mind surrendered its full attention to y/n the second her eyes shut, and Wanda knew it would never release it until the moment y/n's eyes opened once again.

She gently pulled the door handle down and turned her face out to see whoever had greeted her. Of course, by now, the cause of the knock had made their way back down to the grass to stand with everyone else they'd brought along with them.

The second wanda's eyes locked with the visitor, her attention was finally and unwillingly lifted from y/n, and put on him. Tyler Hayward - director of sword - stood proudly on the grass in front of her house, surrounded by three quinjets and a group of agents.

The sight before her caused a rage to boil even in the darkest depths of her soul. He was finally standing in front of her, she could finally take down the man who had caused her nothing but endless pain.

He stood tall and still - too still. Within seconds, wanda maximoff was marching down the steps of her lonesome cabin with a rage burning in her eyes that could be seen from where hayward and his team were standing, but he wasn't moving. He didn't flinch, he didn't defend himself, he didn't even argue as he watched wanda approach him.

However, of course, he wasn't unprepared. He predicted that the shock of seeing him again would send wanda straight into a pit of rage - and it did - so he prepared for that exact outcome.

While wanda charged across the grass, another fleet of guards emerged from where they hid, pressed against the shadowed sides of the cabin. They rushed in from behind wanda, using her rage-caused obliviousness to their own advantage.

Each held a stick in their hand; a stick long enough to carry out their plan without needing to be dangerously close to the witch. All at once, the ends of their sticks thundered in an electric cackle and sent shocks towards wanda's path, each hitting her in the back.

Although she dropped to her knees at the unexpected shock, wanda remained putting up a fight. With the rage only being amplified, she summoned as much magic as she could within her hold as an attempt to take down every guard standing in front of her.

But, again, hayward came prepared. Just as wanda was about to release the magic from her hold, hayward himself stepped forward and tapped a cuff on each of her wrists, watching the way they locked around and dug into her skin.

With a satisfied smile, he stepped back and straightened his posture as he looked down at wanda in pain, "nice to see you again, miss maximoff."

She ignored him. She was still solely focused on trying to get rid of sword, but no matter how hard she pushed, no energy was able to make it past the restraints that dug into her arms.

"What the hell are these?" Wanda looked up at him with a harsh scowl.

"Oh, you don't like them?" He sarcastically asked, a smirk cocked on the corner of his mouth, "think of them as a gift from sword. They're designed by the smartest people I could find in the short time I had, and they're personalised just for you. Good luck trying to use your powers with them on."

"You're a psychopath." She spat, still attempting to figure out a way to relieve her arms of the painful restraints digging into them.

He hummed, "out of the two people standing here, which one took over an entire town of people with their magic?" He asked, and when he received no answer, he huffed a laugh and made his way over to the helpless witch. "Is she here?" He asked, towering above and looking down at her.

She became adamant, protective, and cautious, even if it was going to endanger her, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't bullshit me, maximoff," he crouched down to be at the same level as her, "where is y/n?"

Fuelled by the amount of anger surging through her veins, her eyes shone a deep red until the restraints pierced deeper into her skin, causing her to stop and groan out in pain.

"Don't bother trying to use your magic to get out of those, it won't work. Like I said, they were made by geniuses the second we saw what you'd done in west view, they're purpose is to stop you from using your magic." He explained, once again, "it'll only hurt you."

"Why are you here?" She asked with a scowl, "I've moved miles away from civilisation, I'm learning to control my powers, I'm not going to hurt anyone again, what more could you want from me?"

"Well, wanda, that's the thing. We're not actually here for you." He told her, watching the way her face slightly scrunched in confusion, "you're protecting a potentially very dangerous person."

"She's only dangerous to you." Wanda harshly stared at him.

"You'd be surprised. And- you clearly know who I'm talking about now... so I'll ask you again. Where the hell is y/n?" He asked, already predicting the response his question would garner.

"She left. Ages ago, I haven't seen her in weeks." She insisted with a shrug, her mind only focused on trying to protect y/n while she wasn't able to protect herself.

"Is that so?" He sarcastically asked, "so the body cam footage of y/n fighting 5 of my agents right inside that little cabin 4 days ago must be edited then, yeah?"

Looking down into the grass by his feet, wanda clenched her jaw and bit back the urge to try and attack him, only because she knew it would hurt her more. Hayward's eyes glossed over her once more as he finally realised she wasn't going to give in, so he sighed to himself.

"Okay, have it your way." He stood up straight and looked down at her once more before turning to his fleet of guards, "start looking."

After the command left his mouth, the guards began marching forwards past wanda and towards the door of the cabin. Even though she knew it was going to hurt her, wanda couldn't let any agent make their way into the cabin.

She clenched her fists and her jaw as she slammed her arms down in a harsh jolt, sending a spring of energy through the entire area beside her. The energy simply phased through each agent - but that was her intention. It's route stopped once it surrounded the cabin in a strong, crimson, ball. It was impenetrable from every angle - even hayward knew that - but, it didn't stop the agents from trying to make their way through.

"Find another way in." Hayward shouted to the agents, "she won't be able to keep this barrier up for too long."