Vanished {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 13

They had been played. The whole time, Ultron had just been manipulating them.

Wanda collapsed back against Pietro, pushing into his mind the image she had just seen in Ultron's consciousness. It was nothing as complex as she'd shown him from other people; no conflicting thoughts, no bad memories. No, there was just one thing:

An explosion— one that would destroy the entire world.

Pietro hated the world. This world, that had never shown him kindness or let him have a childhood. Even before their parents had died, Pietro had been looking after Wanda— protecting her from the people who bullied her and drying her tears because no one else had the time to give a damn about her.
Pietro knew he was too much for their parents to handle, to the point where they ignored Wanda the 'easy child' to deal with him.

But as much as Pietro hated everything in the world, he knew it wasn't worth destroying. Change was possible, there was no way everyone on Earth deserved to pay for the crimes of a few. Ultron had declared himself like a god, trying to wield power over life and Pietro knew he couldn't let that happen.

Wanda was still clutching onto him and Pietro pressed a kiss to her head. It felt like he only lived to protect her some days, and there was no way in hell he was going to let some bastard tin man make her unhappy.

|Alex| Wanda's voice spoke in his head, calm even as she trembled outwardly, confronting Ultron about what she'd seen.

"I love you." He whispered in return, placing his hand on the back of Wanda's neck to avoid whiplash. His fingers fidgeted by his side, impatient to be moving again.

|now|

Pietro ran.

He dropped Wanda off outside Alex's cell and ran off again.

|where are you going?|

Pietro ignored Wanda's question, he'd never enjoyed speaking to her in his head and wherever he went, Wanda knew he would always return to her.

They hadn't brought much with them; didn't have much left after all the lost homes they'd had. Ultron hadn't even cared enough to give them a bed each, they'd spent the past week back-to-back like when they were children. Pietro wasn't complaining too much, at least their cell had a bed and they were free to do anything.

Everything important, Pietro gathered quickly. He didn't have time to hesitate, he had to get Wanda out of here. If she didn't have Alex ready, they'd just have to leave her and hope for the best.

There was a flash of purple in the corner of his eye— Alex's suit. Pietro grabbed it, putting the knife he stole from Alex into one of the many pockets.

He could always steal it back when they were safe.

The door swung shut and Pietro was already back to Alex's.

<~~>

Alex had assumed she was dreaming when her door burst open and Wanda stormed towards her, unchaining Alex's hands with a wave.

"Am I dead?" Alex's arms were so tired that they fell straight down to her side and she was unable to raise them.

Wanda gripped one of her arms and dragged her up, "I'm sorry. Me and Pietro, we both are. What Ultron's plans were...Alessandra, please, we didn't know."