I would like to apologize for not updating in so long. I have been going through some stuff and sometimes it gets hard to write, or do anything really. My hope is that I can get back into the grind of writing for you guys and gals.

Also, Wanda and Pietro are only 18 in this fic. Just thought i'd throw that out there and then remind all comers that this is an (AU story). It means that i have a lot of leeway when it comes to what happens.

Plus, who knows what the pairing is going to be. For all you guys know, it could turn into some weird incest thing. Or even a slash fic.

Moral of the story, don't make any conclusions yet. It is way to early in the story for that to be happening.

Thanks.

Disclaimer: I do not own. I do not own. I do not own. I do not own.


Chapter 8: Age of Ultron Part Two


Wanda Maximoff was questioning a lot about her life. Many of her choices being sent to the forefront of her mind, forcing her to review them.

She looked over her life in an almost cold detachment. A third-person view to every single action she has taken.

It could be said that with her eighteen years of life, that she has seen more than she wished too. She has seen more of the bad, then the good. The experiments that gave her such enhanced powers, being at the top of the worse things she has experienced.

The pain of having being changed at a cellular level and torn apart, was unsettling. She can still remember feeling as if her entire being was torn to shreds multiple times. Barely having time to recover from the previous pain.

Wolfgang von Strucker had changed her. He had torn down the girl who was normal, and made her super. Her powers where a boon.

The powers he gave her, made her into something better. For that, she was somewhat grateful to the man. He had given her an advantage in life that very few ever had.

And while she was thankful to the man, she was also pleased by his death. The man was an unemotional science drone, who sucked out the life of those around him. Using his twisted mind to perverse the very fabric of her being.

For, while her powers are useful, they also have downsides that she is still finding.

Being able to hear every person's thoughts is one of those. The mind in often an unfiltered muse that all people have. Every observation, thought, and other random things, all put on a pedestal for only her to see. She hears every lust filled glance, every babbled nonsense, and every bad joke the world has to offer.

Wanda also feels every emotion, multiplied by twice the normal human. She feels the joy when someone laughs. The pain when someone cries. The deep heartbreak when another dies.

And because of that, she has closed off her heart, so only Pietro can see. Many often mistake her coldness to others as prudishness. They believe that she thinks they are not worth their time. And more often than not, that keeps them at a distance.

It is not like she wants others to get close. But, she also doesn't do anything to change their opinions.

The truth of the matter, is that she doesn't care about them. In the end, they are merely nuisances to the bigger picture. They don't matter to her, so she mostly ignores them.

Sure, she would like to have more people she could trust, but she was fine with only having Pietro.

She was weary of Ultron. His plans for the future seemed too big, too insane, for her to feel comfortable with. And while she couldn't read his mind, she knew that he was a misguided soul. His picture of an ideal world, marred by the discrepancies of not being able to understand humility.

That would ultimately be his downfall. He lacked the humanity to truly fulfill his own expectations.

He wanted a world where he ruled as a god. And if he kept up his current plans, his wanted subjects would eventually revolt against him.

That was what made humans so unique. They had a sense of self-preservation and justice, that wouldn't let them be ruled. Dictators where a thing of the past. Because, the only way to rule with a dictatorship, was through fear.

Dictatorships often fall. It is the machinations of their leaders that lead to their ends. Man was not meant to have one ruler. They would never allow their needs to be in the hands of a single person.

A person who would most likely fall into the hunger that power brings. They would get addicted. Believing themselves better than all others, when in reality, they are most often worse.

One of the reasons the Roman Empire had fallen, was because they let an emperor dictate them. Allowing someone who grew up with power to continue lording it over the common people. They got too power hungry and made decisions that cost them lives.

Wanda guesses that she had grown complacent as well. She had believed others and fallen into her own self-importance.

But, she was given a wake up call that others hadn't been.

Her's was because she had looked into the mind of one person. She had delved into his mind in order to learn more about him. His aura had interested her, so she dug deeper. Tearing up the layers upon layers that made Peter Parker, revealed more to her than she has ever seen.

The fourteen year old had also changed her. Given her a different perspective. One that had opened her eyes to a bigger picture.

With only a few minutes of searching, his memories had changed her on a psychological level.

The sorrow had melted the armor encasing her heart. The pain had stung sharply under her skin. Chilling her bones in an almost melancholic despair.

Peter Parker was different. He was a soul that made her want to know more. Naturally drawing her in with a childish curiosity.

His heart was pure, and beautiful. And she couldn't stop herself from sitting outside his cell to watch him. Even in the dark, she could see his soul through his eyes. Their almost emerald green so expressive, that she wonders how nobody has seen his inner pain yet.

She felt a connection to the teen. While he may only be a few years younger than her, she wished she could be closer to him.

It was almost like an obsession. She was drawn to him, and kept coming back for more. Wanda didn't know if it was her mutated DNA that was making her do so, but she didn't really care.

He was so fundamentally good, that it blocked out all the bad in her.

Nobody knows, the trouble I've seen,

Nobody knows, but Jesus.

And as she sat outside his cell. A small smile on her lips. She realized that he had many qualities that she liked. He was kind hearted.

Nobody knows,

She was connected to him through their pains. She naturally gravitated towards him.

The trouble I've seen….

He was also a very amusing person. Humor was a second language for him.

Glory Hallelujah!

And oddly enough, he was also a bass!

How his voice was so low when singing, confounded her. Most teenagers cannot stay on a single octave for too long without cracking.

She stayed outside his cell for awhile. Idly listening to him sing about his sorrows, his complaints about no music available coming up more than once.

"I'm giving you a bad review on Yelp when I get out of here!"

He was not taking the unveiling of his parentage well. So he covered up his inner turmoil with sarcasm,

Admittedly, she was enjoying his attempts at humor, but could feel his worries. They filled the room in tense air. Making most uncomfortable if there was more than robots to check up on him.

He had a lot on his mind, dragging him down. There was a slump to his shoulders and shake in his hands. Peter was having trouble accepting the facts that had been laid before him. And as she had seen inside his mind multiple times, she realized that the events were catching up to him. He was wondering why his mother hadn't found him when they'd been so close.

A few minutes later, she was interrupted by Pietro telling her it was time to go. They had to be in Seoul, Korea soon. Ultron was meeting them there for something involving his plan.

She was beginning to get a little leary about his grand plan. He was more destructive than she had hoped for. And, she was starting to think that the robot had a few screws loose.

He was made by Tony Stark. So it wouldn't be uncommon if he'd been an oddity.

Wanda did not like how he was doing things. Ultron was ruthless when confronted, never allowing himself to have a weakness.

She was only trying to get back at Tony Stark, make him pay for her loss of innocence. Not take over the world as Ultron was planning. What would happen to her and her brother when Ultron succeeded?

Would they be cast aside again? Left to the anonymity that she was forced into for the longest time.

That was something she did not want to happen. And Ultron, in his narcissism, threatened to do just that. It was unsettling, not being able to read him. To be able to prevent anything from happening to the last of her family.

She was scared of what would happen. Just as she was scared of getting too attached to Peter Parker. They were weaknesses that she couldn't afford to be exploited.

Peter was a weakness that she accidentally acquired. It was a rare side effect that she didn't see coming. She let her emotions get the best of her, and it was the fault of her powers.

Wanda had the urge to protect the teenager. An instinct that was not her own. But, it was a powerful instinct, one which could not be ignored.

All she could do was allow the feelings to run their course, so that once they were done, she could move on.

It's not like anything will come of them. Right?


Being kidnapped sucked.

First you are taken from your comfort zones and stripped of your free rights. The threat upon one's self is a constant looming presence. Always a chance of being right around the corner. Never knowing what the future holds.

Your life is in the hands of somebody crazy enough to risk hell, just to have you under their thumb. At their mercy.

Most people often had family that they could worry about. A thought they could focus on to make the situation less bothersome.

Peter didn't have that. He was completely alone. Only his sorrow to keep him company. Insecurities that could otherwise be ignored, running rampant inside his mind. Worsening his already poor state of mind.

Trying to ignore the pain, only made it worse. He was stuck in a loop of never ending struggle.

The revelation of his parentage not helping any. There were so many broken thoughts and deep feelings, that it was hard to accept.

His mother was the Black Widow.

She was on a whole different level than him. The gap between them was so large that he would've never guessed, in a million years, that she was his mother.

Before, she was just another face on tv. A shield in which the world hid behind. She cast a giant shadow.

Would he ever get out from behind that shadow? Would she even want him around?

The woman had saved the world. Possibly multiple times. All he did was stop local crime.

And that was not even getting into the emotional problems that the situation rose. Peter had lost all the family he has ever known, He wasn't sure if he was ready to try a family again any time soon.

Or maybe he was. And that was why he had been searching so hard to find her. To know the woman who protected him. Who birthed him and loved him.

Love was something he was lacking lately. It felt as if he would never love again. That he would never be loved.

It was a cold truth.

He could feel his heart slowly numbing and hardening. Freezing over in a deep chill. Blocking out all the things he used to enjoy, making them seem pointless.

That, more than anything, scared him. He didn't want to be so cold hearted. To be a darker version of himself. He was struggling to keep the dark thoughts at bay, and adding more onto them would only break him.

He refused to be broken. The teen had made it this far, only a few cracks shining through the tinted windows of his soul. And he wouldn't allow himself to fall, because that fall would surely be fatal.

Fatal to himself or others, he didn't know.

At the moment though, he was struggling to keep it together, more than ever. Trying to keep his emotions locked down.

Why you might ask?

Well, that's because somebody forgot to tell him that a kidnappee has a lot of downtime.

Peter had been sitting in that cell for ages. He barely had any real contact, with anything. And to top it off, he was so bored.

It was agonizing. Sitting there in the dark with nothing to do but think. No music to ease the time. No books or computers to pass the time.

Nothing.

He had tried singing earlier, just to get rid of the silence. When that didn't help, he tried to break down the door.

That only gave him a sore shoulder for his efforts.

Everything he tried, only ended up spluttering out into a depressing failure.

His spider sense had been buzzing before. Like it did when he was being watched by something he couldn't see. Then, a few hours ago it cut off and hadn't popped up again. He didn't know whether to be comforted or worried because of it.

It wasn't like he was going to find out. He was at the mercy of his kidnapper. The crazy robot was sure to rant at him sometime. It was only a matter of when it would happen.

All villains ranted at their captives. That was just one of the indisputable facts that supervillains carried around with them. A stigma, if you will.

Peter often wonders what being a supervillain is like. The idea of them is so cliche that he doesn't want to try. But sometimes, the idea crops up and mingles in the back of his mind.

Being a villain must be so much easier than being a hero. All the free time that they had to scheme their dastardly plans. They had almost no worries about the world in general. Often, they are trying to take it over.

Most only doing so because they had the chance to do so.

It sometimes makes him dream about taking it over. Oftenly after he had just finished a long night being beat up for free.

But then he remembers that he was a fourteen year old hero - not superhero, just hero - and he couldn't wake up before 10am most days. That, and he had trouble keeping his rooms clean.

He paused.

He'd forgotten about the place he'd been staying at. It was a one bedroom apartment that was closer to manhattan than his old house had been. He was sure that Nick Fury had something to do with him gaining his independence so early. Peter was sure he would have to wait until he was a bit older.

Yet, somehow he was living on his own.

It was like another one of those bad fanfiction situations. Only this time, he was getting the brunt of it.

His life was so…..eventful. Almost plot worthy, really.

Peter snorted. As if his life was a story. Just entertainment for someone to watch while he was down there struggling. Probably laughing at him as well.

He sighed, that's so depressing.

Was he breaking the fourth wall right now? Or was it the fifth wall? Cause he was pretty sure only fictional characters broke the fourth one. Did that mean there was more walls that just the first four or not?

Because he was sure that houses had more than four walls.

He snorted, chuckling under his breath, "...hehe, dad jokes.."

No he was not going insane, he already was apparently. Though, it has been a while since he'd heard the mysterious voice that once corrupted his thoughts. Maybe he was getting better?

Nah, I was just on vacation. Watching you is depressing, so I needed a break from all your doom and gloom.

He obviously spoke too soon. Crazy was attached to him and would take a fight of epic proportions to conquer. That, and the voice was more annoying than the old Tony Stark. And that was on a good day.

Somehow, his crazy had it's own emotions. Something was definitely wrong with him.

There was no way that his crazy could end up separated into its own sentience. It just wasn't possible.

Fanfiction or not.

Or maybe it was, and he was a part of the fanfic that such a thing happened.

He shook his head, "...nah."

He was crazy, not psychotically inept to such a tremendous degree. And yes, such intelligent words were quintessential to elucidate the preponderance of his asseveration.

Peter smirked crookedly, now he was just enjoying himself.

That sounded wrong. It must be the hormones.

The teen could only sigh despondently, he'd forgotten how corrupt the voice could be. Twisting his thoughts into a darker version than they were meant to be.

Kinda like a devil on his shoulder if he was being honest. Only out to cause havoc for its enjoyment. The sad part, was that he sometimes looked forward to that mischief.

It was entertaining to watch the chaos unfold. People had the oddest expressions when they see something different. Most of them are funny to watch, so he secretly enjoys it.

Think like that too much and I'll start to think you are a closet pervert. Just denying it for the sake of doing so.

He sighed again, wishing that Ultron would come distract him with the expected raving. It would be nice to not be the only lunatic in the room for once. But, maybe it was better this way. It was already starting to get far too crowded as it was.

All he could do was sit in the pitch black room and wait for an opportunity to escape. It wasn't like he had anywhere to be, And, he'd been doing the same thing for his entire captivity time.

Peter sat there for what felt like hours, until finally something changed. There was some arguing going on outside his cell. A woman if he had to guess by her more feminine tone. It was almost husky from where he was.

Whoever it was, they were arguing with the big baddie. He could hear Ultron grunt and snap as he tried to get her to comply. The teen couldn't make out any words, but the woman sounded pissed and was making sure the robot knew it.

He was content to ignore it until his cell door was thrown inwards and the light blinded him. When he finally got his eyes adjusted, a woman was thrown in and Ultron stood in the doorway, looking menacing once more.

"Maybe some time in here will help you cool down." Ultron growled and Peter could see the new dent that sat upon his face plate. Obviously the woman was angry at being kidnapped as well. Peter wasn't even spared a glance as Ultron slammed the door and the darkness returned.

His eyes where going to hurt later with all this darkness, he just knew it. It was silent for a few seconds until the woman started to bang on the door. The sound of flesh hitting metal repeatedly echoing through his ears.

After a minute on the sound not stopping, he'd had enough. "Will you cut that out! I already tried that and unless you have a hulk, you're not getting through!"

For a few blissful seconds, all was still. Only the sound of their breaths ringing throughout the room.

"Who's there?" the question was softly asked. Almost barely reaching his ears. He would've rolled his eyes if she could see him - well, he did it anyways, but who cares.

"Your conscious." he snarked. Hoping that he could pass the time quicker after having missed his window of escape.

"I didn't realize that my conscious sounded like a prepubescent boy." she quipped back and he grinned. The first one in a long time it seemed. He might just enjoy this.

"Not all of us can be traveling monkeys now, can we? Although there was that one guy I know…." he muttered. Accidently slipping into French at the end.

Peter found out that he sometimes slipped into different languages when speaking. A most annoying habit.

"You know somebody with a circus monkey for a conscious?" she asked back, easily changing languages with him. And wasn't that just convenient. It was starting make him paranoid.

He was sure she was distracting him. And did her voice sound closer than before? He could only shake his head and curl up further into himself. The wall at his back prevented him from moving to much.

And it wasn't like he could really fight her off if he had to. He'd been stuck in captivity forever and still hasn't gotten a good rest. All of his senses where off and his strength wasn't at its peak either. Bt if he absolutely had too, he could probably get away.

As long as she wasn't a super=spy/assassin that was trained her entire life for that sort of thing…...or something.

"Do you happen to be a super powered assassin?" he found himself asking, purely out of dark curiosity. It was silent for a few moments and he could feel the awkward expression that she held. He could feel it in the air and the tension changed drastically.

Like killer-intent blanketing the room, the temperature dropping immensely and a weight holding him down. The blackness of the room taking on a horrifying twist. Every sound becoming suspenseful in their origin.

All in all, it was a terrifying situation. Was he scared as he rightfully should have been?

No. Not even a little.

"Neat trick," he whistled appreciatively. "Mind sharing the technique? I've always wanted to learn that, but it seems harder than it probably is."

Self-preservation, what's that?

"Моя жизнь безумна." [1]

"Not as bad as mine, I promise." he paused before glaring accusingly into the darkness. "Another thing to add to the list." he muttered petulantly.

It was almost as if there were similarities between them. What did that say about his character that he could identify with a fellow kidnappee inside a super-villain's 'Evil Lair of Doom'? Said kidnappee also being a super ninja.

Okay, so he still had some of his humor at least. There is a punchline somewhere in there, he just knew it.

Stop it! Focus, ninja spy still in the same room as him. In fact she has probably gotten closer that before.

"What list?" came the haunting whisper from inside his place of death. He could feel it in his bones, winter was coming.

Still didn't stop him though.

"The List." he felt an idle part of his brain spring to life and take on the appearance of a long blonde haired, blue-eyed gruff warrior. Who fought valiantly for the true sons and daughters of Skyrim and was now set for a trip to Sovngarde. His ruggedly handsome face twisting into a distasteful grimace.

The Empire loves their damned lists. [2]

He shook himself out of that sight as fast as he could. Now wasn't a time to be cracking jokes that 50% of the readers wouldn't understand.

Fourth wall breaks: 2.

"And what does that list consist of?" she was terribly close now. It felt like he could reach out and touch her.

"Of why a good dose of paranoia will probably save my life later on, if it doesn't end prematurely inside this room that is." was his dry response. Entities everywhere where laughing at his struggles, probably already had a betting pool going to see how long it was before he was tragically murdered.

He didn't hear anything until he felt her sit down next to him. Apparently harmless teenager settled even the scariest people's nerves. It wasn't like he was planning to say anything about it, the act was keeping him alive as far as he knew.

"Yeah, I'd reckon that it would help you out." he felt her sag lightly into the wall. Exhausting that was being carefully covered, slipping through her mask of infallibility. He could understand that, he'd been dealing with it since he'd woken up from his abrupt bout of unconsciousness.

It was moments like this that he remembered that he was human, and there was a good chance that everyone he met was going to be humane in some way or another. Being super only goes so far, before only the humanity remains. The scar that adorned his wrist was a testament to that.

Those are just instances of what makes humanity so unique. They were very emotional and primal creatures in nature. Most had to feel those emotions to survive.

He was like that, and it was only by luck that he was still alive.

"So, you get kidnapped often?"


[1] "My life is insane". I don't know if it is totally correct. Google translate is sometimes unreliable.

[2] Ralof of Riverwood, skyrim.