"Pietro!"
She ran through the broken woods, screaming as the arrow shot towards her brother. He looked up just in time to see the round barrel aiming right at the space between his eyes.
"Run!" She yelled with all her soft voice could muster.
He sped off into the burning trees as quick as a sound. Leaving the arrow to hit an already deceased tree and causing it to burst into flames. Must have been some advanced arrow, she thought.
Wanda heard a hushed curse in the trees above her. She had a feeling this archer was not used to missing his target and she let out a small snarl under her breath in vengeful anger.
He would pay for almost killing her brother, the only person in the world she loved. Pietro had disappeared into the burning forest, leaving her to deal with this man herself. He had a habit of running to far and not remembering how to get back. But this worried her little, he had a knack of getting into the heat of a danger he couldn't fight.
"Why don't you come down archer? Or will you cower in the trees like a frightened dove?" She taunted to the canopy above, they were somewhere in southern Germany or Austria. She couldn't remember. But this archer had ambushed them a few miles back and it was taking a bit longer then usual to loose this particular agent.
A figure thudded to the ground not ten feet away from her.
"Come quietly and I won't hurt you."
She scoffed angrily at the bowman. "You can't hurt me, fool."
"And I won't hurt your brother." He smiled at seeing her face fall into despair, and worry at the thought of her brother and another one of his arrows.
Her soft features crunched harshly into a contorted anger. "That will be the last time you threaten my brother."
Wanda's eyes started to glow a deep red, radiating from within her mind. She snapped her fingers and her hands became surrounded with deep red energy, which caused her arms to clench and her skin to vibrate with utter power. She felt the energy within her core shutter through her limbs as she prepared to strike. The power of manipulation rang songs in her mind, but she had yet to learn complete control of her great ability, the trees around her burst into blue flames and the ground shook beneath her feet. All the thoughts and sensations she had as the preparation to strike built lasted only a few seconds and she used her gathered energy to blast her hex upon the archer in front of her. Before he could even think to pull an arrow from his quiver the hex blast hit him fully driving him back into a burning tree. He yelled a name that Wanda couldn't hear and fell limp at the base.
She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "Wanda, calm down. It's done."
Her hands faded of color and she restored her full sight, clasping to her brother's arm as the energy left her worn body.
"There, there, I've got you." Pietro whispered to his broken sister.
"Is he dead?" She whimpered. The man lay face down about twenty feet from them, his uniform burnt and smoldering. She had lost control in her heated rage, she didn't mean to kill him.
"I would guess." Pietro said unemotionally. She looked up into her brother's eyes, seeing what he saw. That the archer was simply a man who attacked them and it was completely reasonable to slaughter him. But Wanda couldn't help hoping he survived, she had lashed out in anger and she didn't need any more blood on her hands.
"Let me see." She started to get up, the exertion had worn off mostly and she felt more like herself again. She snapped her fingers on her right hand and it glowed with the witch like energy that had just been so deadly. "Come here, you're hurt." She put out her hand and placed it on her brother's upper arm, an ugly scratch was cut into the flesh. Her hex energy glowed bright red for a moment and then faded and the cut was gone.
"Thank you." He sighed as the pain eased. "Come, we must be moving on."
"We can't just leave him." Right? She couldn't just leave this man to die. But the protector inside her forced her to turn the other direction with her brother. Pietro had always understood that people die everyday, he was the one with a stone heart. She had always thought that Magneto had a major effect on him and his persona, that Magneto had taught him to be cold and calculating, to hate everything that wasn't mutant. In a way Magneto had changed them both. She was a scared little gypsy girl before he saved them from that mob, but after three years of dealing with The Brotherhood, and Mastermind, Wanda had become a strong and powerful, if resilient young woman. And Pietro had become a cold, protective young man.
But they had left that life behind.
Mystique, Magneto's closest ally, had run multiple tests on Wanda, for Magneto wanted to know the full extent of her mutation. But he kept most of the research from her, not telling her the true power she possessed. He did tell her that 20% of the time her powers wouldn't work the way she wanted them and he was a perfectionist, so one could imagine that this cause problems. Wanda was forced to fight with them against anyone who acted against mutant kind, and whenever she made a mistake Magneto would punish her. She had countless scars from his tactics of discipline. One day when Mystique, who other than Pietro was Wanda's only friend, witnessed the abuse by Magneto on Wanda she told the girl of the full extent of her mutation and all that Magneto had kept from her. Pietro was also informed of the abuse that day and that night the twins fled from the stronghold of the Brotherhood. That night was their first night on the run.
About six months later they discovered themselves being cased by agents of an organization they didn't know.
"Here, let me check. You stay over here." Pietro sped over to the limp man and Wanda watched intently as he pressed his fingers to the man's neck.
He looked up and shook his head.
Wanda knew this man had tried to kill them, but she couldn't help but feel terrible for what she had done. She had killed a man. That was more blood on her hands, and she already had so much from her time with the Brotherhood.
"Come on, we must move." Pietro pulled her arm and she reluctantly turned to follow her brother. "Look at this," he showed her a file he had pulled from the man's jacket. It was a profile of them.
Quicksilver- Level 3 Mutant, 5'9, Silver Hair, Blue eyes- Dangerous Speed
Scarlet Witch- Level 5 Mutant, 5'3, Auburn Hair, Blue eyes- Dangerous energy power, hex power, manipulation of probability and reality. Warning! Extremely unstable. Rest of power unknown.
It also had candid pictures of them and more stats on their appearance. She looked back at the man who she killed. Who sent you? She thought.
A slight tear escaped her eye and she reached up to catch it before Pietro noticed.
She had to be strong if she was going to survive, but is true strength being able to kill without remorse? She hoped not. For she felt every life she took, she remembered every face.
And Wanda would never forget the face of that archer.