Becoming a Maximoff

Chapter 22: Vents have ears

Pov y/n

I look in horror down into the room. What is Cole doing here? How is he engaged in this?

The other men shut up when my father walks closer and they look to him. My stomach starts to feel a little sick as I continue to watch him.

"For today that's it. I wanna see all of you tomorrow at 8 am back here, so we can talk about how we proceed with Maximoff." He says, his voice more authoritarian than when he talked to me. Well, except for when he yelled at me. His posture is straight and the look on his face is serious. What is going on right now?

The other men nod before leaving the room. He follows them and switches off the light, leaving me in the dark as well. I still try to understand what just happened.
What is my father doing here?
And why are all those people listening to him?

There probably is an explanation for that but my brain is so overwhelmed right now, that I can't think at all. The thoughts just spinning inside my head, not forming any logical sentences. But I know one thing for sure, I have to listen to whatever they are talking about tomorrow.

I look through the vent and crawl a little away from the grid that's pointed into the room. There is quite some space here and I silently get out the blanket and lay it onto the ground so it's at least a little bit softer. I try to get comfortable but it's hard and together with my spinning mind, I have trouble falling asleep, even though my body is exhausted. Eventually, my eyes close though and my thoughts drift off, my mind finally shuts off.

The night is very uncalm and I wake up multiple times. I also notice that I should have thought about bathroom breaks when planning this. That's the part you don't see in movies I guess, human needs.

My light slumber is interrupted by noises from beneath me and I need a few seconds to remember where I am. My body feels heavy and hurts from the uncomfortable position I slept it.
But I don't have time to complain about it and quickly stuff the blanket back into the backpack before scooting closer to the grid, so I am able to hear and see a bit more.

The same men as yesterday walk in and sit around the round table, apparently waiting for someone and I have a feeling who that someone is.

To prove my point, Cole steps inside a few moments later and the more I see him, the more I start to get angry at him. What kinds of games is he playing here? Does he only pretend to be bad to get Wanda out of here?

"You all know why we're here. Maximoff has been here for almost three days and the treatments seem to slowly start working." He starts and I frown. Which treatments?

"It also seems that she is afraid of our guns, so we will continue to set you up with some when you encounter with her." He continues and starts to slowly pace up and down, his hands behind his back. Wanda isn't afraid of guns, not that I know of at least but depending on how many people surround her, she's gonna have a hard time fighting so many.

"We will try our experiment this afternoon. The last time it was tried, multiple people didn't survive but Maximoff did and she got strong through it. We should expect something similar today. It is a different stone though, so the outcome will be different as well. But she shouldn't attack us, we took care of that. If everything goes as planned, we'll soon have a very powerful weapon on our hands and there will be nothing stopping us anymore." He says and stops to look at the men who applause him, seeming very satisfied with his words.

"The power stone won't be taken out until shortly before the experiment. If one of you disobeys that order, he will end up being Maximoff's first fight." He threatens and I see a few of the men shaking their head in fear.