Warning: Rated M for explicit language, violence and dark themes. This story is canon divergent. For all FAQs and info, seek my profile.

A/N: This is a series of one-shots with a linear timeline that leads to an overarching story. This idea sort of came out of nowhere, but nothing represents Wanda better than Mania itself. It'll technically tackle WandaVision, so here's hoping I don't accidentally spoil anything.

Cheers x

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the MCU.

Wanda Maximoff's Apartment
Seattle, Washington

Raindrops trickled across the pane of the window - a storm had been brewing for some time overhead, but it seemed like it was finally making a decision on whether or not it wanted to fall on the inhabitants below. Dark gray clouds were large and covering the skies; the sun had been blocked from view, like it often was in Seattle.

The streets below the clouds were alive with traffic as no rain in Seattle would ever stop the inhabitants from doing what needed to be done for the day. Most threw a jacket on or pulled out an umbrella while carrying on with what needed to be done. Strangers passed strangers, no one intruding on the lives of others.

With so much time passing since the Blip, one would think they would all be affected by the way life had changed in five years, but getting adjusted to the flow of things was never the hard part. The hardest part for everyone was the way some people aged; toddlers becoming children, children becoming teens, adults becoming elders, it was a bizarre experience.

The experience was not any less bizarre for her either.

Wanda Maximoff was sitting in the window seat of her living room in the apartment she'd been living in for months since the final battle with Thanos - since everything she came to know was fractured. The Avengers Compound was utterly destroyed - her bedroom, her belongings, anything she had to remind her of her brother, Pietro and her lover, Vision. She hadn't exactly brought her important belongings with her when the team traveled to Wakanda.

She stared outside at the clouds, almost as if she was admiring the beauty of them, but the reality was that she was looking beyond them with her mind running a million miles per minute. She'd been going over everything that had happened to her in the past year - something she often did when the rain would fall.

Losing Tony, Natasha, and Steve to the results of the havoc Thanos had caused was an enormous blow to her heart. Her mind had, of course, processed it - as the mind would do, but her heart was in agony. She'd lost three of her friends, her family and the losses of the three wasn't the most painful blow. Losing the love of her life was the hardest thing she'd had to comprehend since Pietro died.

Losing Vis had left her in a state of numbness, something the Avengers had began to notice before the event that lead to her resignation from the team.

Shuri shook her head as she stared at the cold, gray body that was once Wanda's lover. "I'm sorry, Wanda, there isn't anything I can do for him," she had said with remorse in her tone.

Wanda's sight blurred, like she'd been hit with great force in the stomach and was about to collapse. "What?" It was the only word that would escape her lips.

"I've looked over everything I could - looking into his programming and algorithm to see if I could possibly replicate the memories and personality he had gained from the Mind Stone, but once Thanos took it from his head, it seems like everything was completely wiped and altered." Shuri explained to the best of her ability without making it too complicated. "There's nothing left of him that you know - what I was attempting to do before the Blip wasn't completed far enough for me to put at least a portion of him into a different body."

"So what you're saying is... Is that he's gone? There's nothing you can do?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Shuri heard every word.

T'Challa's sister shook her head, "I've contacted Banner to see if he had any means to recover anything, but there isn't."

"I understand."

Wanda had told Shuri that she understood, but the reality is that she didn't. No part of her understood the technology talk that the scientists used. No amount of dumbing it down would help her comprehend that the love of her life was dead, and not because he has died in the human way, but because everything he was had been erased when Thanos destroyed him.

Once Shuri had informed her that there was no way to recover Vis, Wanda returned back to New York and submitted her resignation to Rhodey - who was the acting leader of the Avengers while they determined who would be the best to lead since Steve had retired. Rhodey didn't understand, but Wanda didn't expect him to. Nobody would comprehend the pain she was experiencing.

None of them had to kill the love of their life, watch him be revived, and die before their eyes again while being powerless to stop it.

After her resignation, she took the emergency credit card that Tony had given her, and set out to somewhere that was far away from the places she had lost everything. Washington wasn't the place she thought she'd end up, but once she stepped foot in Seattle, she knew she wanted to stay. Wanda could afford the lease of an apartment so she got a studio apartment.

It had become more of a home than she thought it would be, but part of her attributed it to a trick she'd learned about her powers. If she concentrated hard enough, she could conjure up something she thought about. It had become a form of therapy for her; she knew it wasn't real - it would fade away when she lost concentration - but the means of holding onto something that she was once real helped ease the pain.

When she couldn't sleep, she'd conjure the bracelet around her wrist and play with it until she ran out of energy to keep it going, prompting her to fall asleep. The small joy she would get from a little bracelet often eased her from the pain that prolonged inside of her.

Thunder cracked against the sky, startling Wanda from her thoughts.

She took a breath and focused on the rain instead of her thoughts. A reason she'd chosen Seattle was because of the way it would often rain. The rain reminded her of the time she'd spent with Vis before in Edinburgh. If she closed her eyes and listened to the rain, she could almost imagine his voice pushing through the rainfall.

If she closed her eyes and concentrated enough, she could almost picture him holding her.

If she closed her eyes and concentrated enough...

She could bring him back.

Just for a little while.

Reviews are always welcome x

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