"Monster"
By darthelwig
*** I don't own anything. I'm just having fun. ***
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confucius
Wanda understood now, why her power was red. The color of the Devil. The color of blood. She should've come to understand this after what happened with Ultron, but it was only now that she had truly begun to see.
She was as responsible for Ultron as Tony Stark. Maybe more so. They had both had a hand in his creation, but Stark had not been able to help himself. Hadn't she known that? She had. It's what she had counted on. He was going to do whatever it took to create a shield around the world. To protect what he cared about. And she had known it would destroy him in the end. It's why she had let him take the scepter to begin with.
So he had done what she had set him up to do. He created his ultimate protector of the world, and in his arrogance, he had nearly destroyed what he held so dear.
But it all happened because of her. Her decision. Her choice. Pietro followed her lead, but she was the one who had sent them down this path. The path that eventually killed him.
His blood was on her hands. She understood that. The knowledge made everything worse. Pietro would be alive if not for her. He would be laughing and teasing her, and probably flirting with every girl he saw. Everything would be as it was meant to be.
But he wasn't the only one she had killed.
She had become overconfident in the year since his death. Too sure of her powers, her strength. Maybe if she had trained harder, tried harder, she could have contained the explosion in Lagos. Maybe innocent people wouldn't have died. She should've made more of on effort to learn control. People were right to fear her. She had been sloppy, and lax, and the people around her had paid the price.
But wasn't that always the way? Pietro was the one who paid the price of her hubris in Sokovia. She had sent Stark on the path to creating Ultron, and the people of her homeland were the ones who died. She had ordered Pietro away from her during the last battle, though he had wanted to stay, and he died. It was through her choice to desert her post after Pietro's death that Ultron nearly achieved his goal of destruction.
She had followed her thirst for vengeance, and had nearly caused the deaths of millions. It was Stark who saved the day. It was Stark who fixed things. Fucking Stark.
She should have died that day. She was a killer, destroying everything she touched, causing chaos and pain. It wasn't fair that she was alive and Pietro was not. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right, and she would give anything to take it all back, but that wasn't how the world worked. Nothing could ever make right what she had done.
Not even her time as an Avenger could even begin to atone for her sins. Her soul was damned, and everyone could sense it. They feared her because they should. As much as she absolutely detested the man, Tony Stark has been right to lock her away. At least he had been kind about it. It was more, better, than she deserved.
She swallowed hard against the collar at her throat and accepted her prison. As miserable as she was bound and caged, it was better this way. Safer. For everyone. She knew the truth. Ultron may have been evil, but she was the true monster.