Two of a Kind | Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 5: Loss

From beside her, Lily heard Wanda let out a little painful gasp. Lily's immediate instinct was that Wanda had been shot, and as she examined her body for bullet wounds, she became confused. Wanda stared off into the distance, her eyes wide and her mouth hung in shock. More robots swarmed, coming from every direction, all coming for the core. But Lily wasn't worried about them.

"Wanda? Wanda, what is? Talk to me, what hurts?" Lily tried to get the girl to talk to her, but instead Wanda's legs wobbled and she fell to her knees and let out an ear-piercing scream. It was filled with so much pain that Lily felt it deep in her core. Uncontrolled red energy flew from the grieving girl and obliterated any nearby robots. Lily knelt down besides Wanda and took the girl back into her arms. Wanda was full-on sobbing now, her tears turning her green eyes red.

Lily didn't understand what had caused this sudden change in the girl, but she was there to comfort her. Wanda allowed herself to fall into Lily's embrace and accepted her comfort, though it did little to help her. She had felt it; she felt her brother die. Her twin, her other half, her only family left. She felt him die. She felt each and every bullet enter his body. She felt him choke out enough energy to speak his annoying catchphrase, "You didn't see that coming?" She felt his heart stop as he fell to the cold hard ground. She felt it all, but the most painful thing she felt was the regret of sending him away from her and her guilt for not being able to protect him. But there was one other thing she felt; she felt angry. She knew that Ultron was responsible for her brother's death and she hated him more she ever thought she could.

Wanda's sobbing stopped. She lifted her head and wiped the remaining tears away. Her eyes glowed red as her magic twirled around her fingers. Lily looked into her eyes and saw nothing but anger. Wanda stood up from the dusty ground of the church, Lily's arms falling from her rigid body. Wanda exited the church, ignoring Lily's pleas and cries. She needed to find Ultron. She needed to make him pay for what he did to her.

After spending multiple minutes searching for the evil robot, Wanda finally found him, laying in a broken bus. She entered the bus and took slow and steady movements. She wanted to relish this. She stalked her brother's murderer, moving her magic around her fingers. Her breathing was heavy and became heavier the more she looked at the metal menace. Upon hearing her delicate footsteps, Ultron turned his head towards his ex-partner. He looked at her with sympathy. He didn't mean to kill Pietro, and maybe he felt a sense of...remorse...for his actions, but Wanda didn't care if he had meant to do it or not.

Kneeling next to the broken robot, she stared into his glowing red eyes that she was sure mirrored her own.

"Wanda," his robotic voice whispered. "If you stay here, you'll die." Wanda held her tongue to keep her from saying how she didn't care for his sympathy.

"I just did. Do you know how it felt?" Wanda asked the robot but didn't wait for a response. She brought up her hand and maneuvered the red energy into Ultron's damaged body, looking for his heart. No, he didn't have a heart. Her hex wrapped itself around Ultron's core, and when he felt Wanda's magic tugging on the core, he let out a soft grunt of pain, right before the small metal sphere came flying out of his chest, right into Wanda's hand. Oil leaked from the core and sparks fired from it, missing the entity that it was bonded to. Wanda glanced at the ball before turning her attention back to the dying robot. "It felt like that." Wanda didn't stay with his dying body.

Exiting the bus, Wanda stood beside a stable looking building. Leaning against its wall, Wanda once again broke down in tears, trying to rid herself of her anger and pain. At that moment, the entire ground shook as the city started to fall from the sky.

"Wanda!" Wanda glanced up and saw Lily running towards her. They needed to get to a boat, and fast. With each second Sokovia fell faster and faster, preparing itself to collide with the earth. Under the pressure of the intense earthquake that was caused by the descension of the city, the building that Wanda was standing against began to crack and fall. Lily ran faster, hoping to save the girl from her fate. Jemma's words played on repeat in her mind; the future is not written in stone. It can always be changed. Change it.

Wanda instinctively caught the falling building with her powers and tried to stop it from falling, but Lily could see that it was too heavy for the young girl to hold much longer. More pieces of the building began to crumble and fall, adding to the weight that Wanda bore. Wanda cried out in pain as she the pressure on her mind grew stronger. She focused hard on her powers, trying to keep the building from falling on her, but she couldn't hold it any longer. No matter how hard she concentrated, she felt her magic slipping. Pieces of debris fell around her, scaring her. She didn't want to die, not here, not like this.

Wanda's grasp on the falling debris slipped altogether, and Wanda closed her eyes, anticipating the pain of her death, but instead she felt a strong force knock her away. Her body hit the concrete hard, but she didn't care. She opened her eyes and saw that she was laying a couple of feet away from the building that had fully collapsed. Wanda looked around. She didn't see the mysterious woman who was running at her only moments before. Realization hit her hard; the woman pushed her out of the way. Wanda ran back over the collapsed building and started moving debris. There, laying in the rubble was the body of the mysterious woman, who was always there for Wanda.

Lily weakly opened her eyes, lifted her head, and looked at the brunette. She sent her a weak smile as Wanda stared down at her with fresh tears in her eyes. She had saved her. She saved Wanda. She changed her vision.

"Why?" Wanda croaked out as she started to cry over this woman who gave her life for a girl she didn't even know.

"Y-you...remind me...of h-her." Lily sighed. Her breathing was ragged and pained. She thought her last thought; Jemma. The one person she loved more than anyone in the world. She thought of the smell of her hair after she just stepped foot out of the shower. She thought of the way that she would stick her tongue out whenever she was deeply concentrating. She thought of how she would always talk to Griffon in a baby voice whenever she would hold him, and how cute the both of them looked. She thought of how beautiful she looked on the day that they got married, and how their first date was a total flop, but she still gave Lily another chance. She thought of how she would always get so frustrated whenever she couldn't come up with a good idea for her dream novel. She hoped that the perfect idea would come to her someday. She wished she could keep her promise to come back. At least she'll be taken care of. She wished she could see her one last time, to hold her one last time, to kiss her one last time, to hear her laugh one last time. But, she'll have to settle for the memories.

Wanda stayed besideher, not wanting to leave. She held her head in her lap, smoothing the littlebit of black hair that had come out of its braid behind her ear, much like shehad done for her hours before. Lily looked up at Wanda, her blue eyes meetingher red-rimmed green ones one last time. She was glad she wasn't alone. Shegave Wanda a big smile, relief flooding her face; she didn't feel that painanymore. Her eyes lost the familiar shine as they stared into Wanda's. Wandacried harder as she held onto the lifeless woman's head. Two arms came aroundWanda from behind. She looked up through her tears and met the eyes of theandroid, Vision. He delicately picked her up in his arms and flew the two ofthem away from the city, right before a blast of lightning flooded through thefamiliar streets. Wanda looked down, trying to get one more look of the womanwho saved her life, but she was gone. In more ways than one.