PURE AND TAINTED ( wanda maximoff )

thirty-two → 'cause the dude's ancient

PURE AND TAINTED
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
( 'cause the dude's ancient )

ONCE THEY WERE SITUATED in the Quinjet, Aline happily snuggled up in her new suit, she gave a subtle nod to Steve. He could tell that whatever it was that had happened back in the African shipyard and what Aline had seen had royally messed her up, but her small gesture seemed to tell him that she was okay. Or, at least, okay enough where she'd be fine to do this mission.

"Don't you worry, Steve." Aline gave his upper arm a gentle pat, and she gave him a close-lipped smile. "You and I both know it's gonna take a lot tougher than to take a tribrid like me down. You've seen me have a hole the size of my fist taken out of my stomach, and I healed just fine." To prove her point, she patted her abdomen.

Steve grinned, then nodded towards Wanda. The Sokovian girl was currently talking with her brother, speaking in hushed tones. "Does she know?" he asked. "About you, I mean?"

"Sorta." The tribrid shrugged. She tossed one of her hands up in the air. "I didn't go too much into detail, but I told her that I'd tell her the full story once this is over." She leaned against the wall, chewing absentmindedly on the inside of her cheek. Aline tossed a glance over to Clint, who was currently piloting. "You don't... think she'll run away screaming, do you?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Steve," Aline spoke in a somewhat condescending tone,  "I'm older than everyone in this ship combined. Besides Thor, 'cause that dude's ancient. I'm, like, a thousand years old." She made sure to lower her voice at that part, making sure Wanda and Pietro did not hear. "And I mean, when Madelaine found out, she didn't talk to me for a week straight. Ouch, by the way, but I understood what she was struggling to understand. I'm this... I don't know, weird thing that shouldn't exist."

The blond gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "She'll love you," he whispered to Aline, causing her face to go red. Steve nearly laughed at seeing his friend turn three shades redder than usual. It was rather entertaining to see Aline swoon and fall for someone 一 it was a different side of Aline Ashford that none of them had seen before. He looked over and saw that the others in the cabin were putting the comms in their ears, both of the Maximoff twins looking at them with slight hesitance.

"Ultron knows we're coming." Steve spoke louder, which gained everyone else's attention. "Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out." He looked around the Quinjet, looking softly at his team. He had almost forgotten that despite how mature the twins looked, Wanda and Pietro were still young and lost to the world. "All they want is to live their lives in peace and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron things we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world." Aline could feel Steve gaze at the side of her head for a moment before looking out at the rest of the team. "This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

In the hour that had passed, they had eventually landed in Novi Grad in the middle of an open area. The ramp lowered and almost immediately, the twins stepped out. Aline walked out as well, playing with the zipper of her suit, then smirking when she caught sight of the wall of graffiti. It was Steve's face, with his Captain America helmet on, with the word FASISTA spray painted in red words. Someone had also covered both of his eyes were two red dots.

"I give it an eight," Aline commented, chuckling as Steve tossed his helmet back into the Quinjet. "They didn't quite get your eyes right."

"The bridge is the main route out," Wanda said, gesturing with her hand.

"We can cover the others," Pietro said, nodding his head.

"Wake everyone up," Steve said and the twins nodded before walking off.

"Not bad," Clint said and Aline gave the captain a pat on the back.

___

Aline watched on the sidelines as people poured out of their homes, carrying suitcases and bags with them as they walked down the streets and hurried with their families. A little girl in front of her tripped, dropping her small doll, and Aline hurried forward. She picked up the doll, a small and dirty thing, before handing it back to the thankful girl. She smiled at Aline and quickly ran back to catch up with her parents.

"Please be safe," Aline whispered, pursing her lips. She looked over at Wanda, who was helping people across the bridge. They made eye contact for a second before they both looked away.

Out of the corner of her eye, Aline could suddenly spot something shine in the early morning sun. She turned and heard the mechanical whining of robots as they pried themselves from the ground. They sprouted out of the cracks in the ground, their hands reaching out to grasp at the air. Aline whipped around to Wanda. "Get them out, now!" she shouted and turned back the robots. Each of them held their red-eyed glares at the tribrid.

She jutted both of her hands out, muttering a spell in the process. The three closest robots started to compress, their arms going in strange directions, and when Aline suddenly raised her arms, they fell to pieces on the ground. A robot launched itself at her and she struggled against it, but quickly took it out as she ripped out its power source. She tossed the body into the river below and looked back to Wanda.

The Sokovian seemed to be having some difficulty as well. She had raised a large red shield to cover both herself and the others behind her. "Get off the bridge!" she shouted at them. "Run!"

A blast sent her tumbling to the ground with a shout, the shield disappearing.

Aline quickly jumped towards her, taking a harsh blast to the arm in the process. She hissed in pain as she looked down at her arm, seeing already that her skin was starting to knit itself back together. She glared at the two robots still on the bridge. "That hurt, ow!" she yelled at them. Her hands lunged out. "Le specto tre colo ves bestia!" The spell flew from her mouth as fast as she could, and watched with satisfaction as the two robots started to spasm. They shook until finally, they collapsed as their hearts (or the power sources looking in the shape of hearts) flew from their chests and into her hands.

She dropped the hearts with a metallic thud and she kneeled in front of Wanda. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Wanda panted, pushing herself up. However, after immediately doing so, Wanda tightly held onto Aline as the ground below them shook violently.

They could see cracks had started to form in the streets and even in the buildings, like the tectonic plates below them were hitting each other with such power. Aline witnessed as the bridge in front of them looked like it had snapped it half, as one side of it completely broke off and started to disappear from view.

Aline slowly advanced towards the edge, looking over.

Sokovia was flying.