The Broken Ballerina | Wanda Maximoff [slow updates]

chapter sixteen

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Sam and Rhodey were arguing about the accords. The pair were back and forth as the rest of us sat and watched. 

"A hundred and seventeen countries want to sign this. A hundred and seventeen, Sam, and you're just like, 'no, that's cool, we got it'," Rhodey exclaimed. 

"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam challenged. 

Vision spoke up, "I have an equation."

Sam gestured to him, "Oh, this will clear it up."

"In the eight years since Mr Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve questioned. 

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight... oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand," Vision answered. 

"Boom," Rhodey commented. 

I rolled my eyes, "Don't boom so soon. Correlation is not always causation. You say the number of world-ending events has increased but have you considered that perhaps those world-ending events would have just ended the world if we didn't exist. We may not be the cause but we are the solution."

"Tony. You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal," Natasha voiced, looking to the man who was lying on the sofa.

"It's because he's already made up his mind," Steve revealed. 

"Boy, you know me so well." Tony winced as he sat up. He began walking into the kitchen. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort." He looked into the sink. "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

Tony put his phone down, allowing it to project an image of a young man. 

I leant forward as he began speaking once more.

"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia."

I leant back, Wanda's hand finding mine. 

"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." Tony used his coffee to take a painkiller. "There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up," Steve argued. 

"Who said we're giving up?"

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames," Steve reasoned. 

"I'm sorry. Steve. That - that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA," Rhodey fought. 

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change."

Tony walked back over to the group, "That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stop manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own," Steve concluded. 

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty," Tony voiced. 

Wanda stared ahead of her, "You're saying they'll come for me and Anya."

"I can't have someone controlling me, not again," I muttered, only loud enough for Wanda to hear. Her grip on my hand tightened. 

"We would protect you," Vision assured. 

"Maybe Tony's right," Nat told. Tony turned to her in surprise, as did I. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-"

Sam interrupted her, "Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?"

"I'm just...  I'm reading the terrain. We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back," she explained. "Anya, you understand, don't you?"

My head snapped towards her, "I don't know. I just don't-"

Tony seemed to notice my distress at being put on the spot as I was, "Focus up. I'm sorry, did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?"

Natasha's attention turned back to Tony, "Oh, I want to take it back now." 

"No, no, no. You can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented."

Steve's phone buzzed, taking my attention away from Tony as I watched his face drop. He had told me only a few days before that Peggy was dying. My guess was that the text had something to do with that. 

"I have to go," Steve announced as he left the room quickly. 

It was definitely bad news. 

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Wanda and I were the only two who were to be decided on signing the accords. On the one hand, the idea of someone controlling me again stressed me out, causing endless panic attacks. On the other hand, Nat signed. If Nat signed it must be the right thing to do.

It was while we were at the compound that we both heard about the explosion in Vienna. Bucky Barnes was the culprit, apparently. I wanted to believe he was innocent, for Steve's sake and sanity. 

But it also didn't matter what I wanted to believe. 

Steve was Steve and he was going to protect Bucky no matter what. Which meant he was going to do something stupid in typical Steve fashion.

And that meant I was going to get dragged into it, just like I did when HYDRA took over SHIELD.