Red Widow

17. Solutions, not problems

Wanda looked around herself, not recognizing where she was, but she was pretty sure that it was a prison cell; there were no windows to enlighten the dark space, only a small amount of light passed through a little open hatch in the metal door; the walls, ceiling and pavement were all made of stone. She was aware that she had to be dreaming, the last thing she remembered was falling asleep on Pietro's shoulder on the Quinjet, but this didn't reassure her. She had a lot of nightmares in her past, but usually she was at least familiar with her surroundings.

On the opposite corner of where she was standing there was an old bed with on it a curled up person covered by a blanket. She took a step forward, the sound of her shoes reverberated in the small room and the form tensed, probably awake. She stopped carefully, trying to see if they would move.

"I can hear you." Said the unknown person with a female voice. "What do you want this time?"

Wanda didn't know if there was a right answer. "Nothing. I don't even know why I'm here."

The woman moved, turning towards her and sitting, but keeping the blanket on her shoulders. "You know why. It's not like it's the first time. Do your thing so I can wake up, cry, fall asleep and we can start all over again."

Some light hit the other face and Wanda recognized Red; her face was pale and bruised and dark circles adorned her eyes. "I really don't know what you're talking about. Where are we?"

The blonde seemed confused. "Come on, let's just do this. Insult me, hit me, the regular, no? Don't ask me questions, there is nothing that I could tell you that you don't already know."

"I don't really know much about you. Just the things tha Pietro told me, so..."

"What?" Said Red. "You're part of my mind, of course you know me."

"Your mind? I think it is quite the opposite, since you're in my dreams."

Red laughed. "Your dream? Oh damn, I'm really going crazy now." She shook her head. "Please. Just stab me or burn me or whatever other sick thing my guilty mind could muster, I'm not really good at talking."

"I would never do something like that, not willingly. I've had nightmares in my past, but I never wanted to hurt someone in any of them." Said Wanda, looking horrified at her.

Red stood up, letting the blanket fall on the bed, and took some slow steps towards her, frowning. "Why do you keep speaking like you're a real person? You never did this."

"I don't know how else to tell you that I'm real, this is my dream and you're a part of it!" Exclaimed Wanda.

"So we both believe to be real and to be dreaming? This is really the strangest thing that I ever came up with." Red seemed confused almost as much as she was. "Do you think that it is possible that we're both... real?"

Wanda thought about it and as crazy as it may seem it was a possibility. "I still don't know the real extent of my powers and it would not be the first time that I do something unconsciously. And since I'm able to do things that revolve around minds, then yes, it could be. Maybe I connected our minds in some way."

"You must be pretty powerful to do it from how far you are." Red seemed impressed.

Wanda blushed. "Thank you, but we're not that far anymore. When I fell asleep we were almost halfway to your position."

"You found me? Oh my.. it really worked? I was scared that I used too much energy to reactivate the sensor and fried it. Damn!" Said Red, sounding elated.

"Don't pop the champagne yet. We know where you are approximately, but we still need to find the exact position of the Red Room base or how to enter it."