Fire and Smoke - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Chapter 25

Nat and I stop dead in our tracks, the unmoving Clint still hoisted between us. My body is slightly shaking from the effort it takes to uphold the steady flow of energy to keep everything frozen and from holding up the not-so-light Clint. The air fogs up in front of our faces as we breathe. All is silent and unmoving, except for Wanda, Nat, and me.

We stare at each other.

"Wanda, what are you-" I begin, my surprise in seeing her making me forget she most probably has no idea who I am -we haven't met yet.

"Who are you?" She asks me unsurprisingly, in a thick accent, much thicker than the one she has when I know her. Her eyes are glowing red and wisps of red are twirling around her hands. Seeing her again makes me feel oddly relieved somehow, like I'm not really in this weird unknown world anymore now that she's in it too. Albeit not the her I know. But it's still Wanda.

"Liv, we better-" Nat quietly warns me, and I feel her shift uncomfortably.

"How are you not frozen?" I ask the virtual stranger in front of me, ignoring Nat.

Wanda cocks her head and the red whisps around her hands turn into glowing balls of scarlet electricity. I feel Nat shift slightly uneasily.

"Freeze her." She whispers.

"I don't think that'll be a good idea..." I say, not taking my eyes off Wanda.

"Try, there's nothing else we can do." Nat urgently says and I nod ever so slightly.

I begin pulling the energy back into my hands, my brow sweating despite the frigid temperature around me. I feel the energy warm my hands and I make an enormous effort as I soften my knees and feel like I'm lifting a very heavy sack as I bring my arm up and throw the energy towards Wanda. The energy zooms towards her, but she reacts faster, not being tired from fighting like me, and sends off her own burst of red energy to meet my silvery one. The forces meet in front of Wanda and explode in mid-air, the shock blast sending all of us tumbling over. My head is pounding like mad now, the dark spots in my vision returning and I know I'm close to losing consciousness. I force myself up to standing again as Nat has already bounced back up, and is running towards Wanda who is just getting up herself.

"Nat! Don't-" Is all I have the time to say before Wanda sends a red ball flying towards Nat, who despite her insane reaction speed doesn't have time to duck and is hit flat in the chest. She comes flying back towards me, landing with a thud on her back.

"Who are you?" I look back up at Wanda who is now slowly walking towards me, her right hand toying with her magic.

"Wanda, please listen to me-" I begin, but she cuts me off.

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm a friend." I tell her slowly raising my hands in the air to show her that I'm not a threat.

"A friend to the Avengers." She hisses, her face obscured by rage.

It is now my turn to react as she throws the hissing red orb towards me. I lift my hands up to shield my face and hope that the mist will somehow appear and quite possibly stop Wanda's magic like it stopped the cab back in New York. I feel significantly more drained and stagger backward. The magic never hits me. It's left angrily buzzing in mid-air where I've frozen it in place. Wanda looks for a second as if this is of concern, but masks that expression as soon as she sees me observing her.

This time, I'm not as lucky as before. I'm way too tired to react whatsoever as she flings another spell of scarlet towards me. I feel it hit my chest with the force of a brick wall before I feel my back hit the frozen ground and everything goes black.