Chapter 9: Denial

Her mind lives in a quiet room,

A narrow room, and tall,

With pretty lamps to quench the gloom

And mottoes on the wall.

...

There all the things are waxen neat

And set in decorous lines;

And there are posies, round and sweet,

And little, straightened vines.

...

Her mind lives tidily, apart

From cold and noise and pain,

And bolts the door against her heart,

Out wailing in the rain.

~Dorothy Parker, "Interior"

Flashback

July 6th

1 day before Westview Event

Something was coming. Wanda felt it deep. Her power swirled restlessly inside her.

Just like before.

She tried to ignore it, tried to tell herself everything was fine. She had the television on. This was one of her favorite episodes.

But it kept getting stronger. She could feel the energy building, feel it approach a breaking point.

She felt the focal point moving. She worried it would get stronger if she approached it, but if there was another explosion, she had to try to stop it.

And so she ventured out into the night.

Around the block, she saw a woman out walking, frequently glancing at her phone screen like she was looking for an address or something.

Wanda trailed behind her for a few minutes. The woman was heading toward Old Mill Park.

The sense of cosmic instability grew, an impending catastrophe.

Wanda speed walked to catch up. "Nice night for a walk," she called.

The woman turned, looking startled. "Yeah, it is."

"I haven't seen you around. Are you new?" Wanda asked.

"I'm just visiting." The woman glanced at the device in her hand. From up close, Wanda saw it wasn't a cellphone, it had a long antenna and a dark green screen with moving zigzag lines.

"What's that?" Wanda asked, trying to sound conversationally curious.

"It detects quantum ripples. I'm a physicist. Doctor Foster."

"Doctor Foster..." The name sounded familiar, but it took her a moment to remember some of the other Avengers talking about an astrophysicist by that name. "Jane Foster?"

"That's me," she confirmed.

"You were Thor's girlfriend."

"Yep, that's my claim to fame," she said tightly.

"I've heard you're a really good astrophysicist," Wanda assured her.

"Thanks."

"I'm...Virginia." She'd almost told her real name, but worried it might make Jane more likely to recognize her, so she gave the pseudonym she'd come up with for her Etsy shop: Virginia Scarlet.

"Nice to meet you."

"You too. So what brings you to Westview, Doctor Foster?"

"There are some quantum anomalies in the area. Don't worry; it's nothing dangerous."

She had no idea how much danger she was in, Wanda realized. But she didn't know how to warn her, how to explain what she felt in her bones: that the universe was tilting out of balance, more and more with each minute.

And this time it wasn't because of her. Not directly.

"Will it still be there in the morning? It's almost midnight. Do you have a place to stay?"

Dr. Foster yawned, as if the mention of the time made her realize she was tired. "Yeah. I've got a bed in my van."

"Where is your van?"

"I parked it on Marigold Lane."

"Great," Wanda smiled. That was in the opposite direction from the park. "I'll walk you there."

"Thanks. I'm honestly a little turned around."

"No problem. It's not far." Wanda pointed the direction and they started walking. "If you don't mind my asking, why did you and Thor break up?"

"The long-distance thing was just too hard to keep up."

"I can't imagine." It seemed like an appropriate thing to say. She didn't let her mind dwell on her own experience.

"How long have you lived in Westview?" Dr. Foster inquired.

"A few months. About half a year. I'm pretty new here."

"You like it?"

"Yeah. It's nice. Really friendly."

"I've noticed that. It's got a good vibe." Dr. Foster suddenly stopped in her tracks, staring at her detector. She shifted it back and forth, then looked up, frowning at Wanda.

It was too late.

"Come on. We've got to get away from houses." Wanda grabbed her arm and pulled her toward a deserted intersection.

"What's going on?"

Even as she spoke, a red glow began materializing around her.

The instability was increasing exponentially.

"Get down!" Wanda summoned her power, forming a barrier around the gathering break in the universe, pulling it away from the other woman.

"Oh my God."

"Run!" Wanda ordered. It was coming. There was no way to stop it. All she could do was try to contain it, to keep it from hurting anyone. She formed a double sphere around the focal point, one to slow the blast and one to create a vacuum to muffle it. She braced her power against an explosive force, absorbing the energy that could have obliterated a city block.

Dr. Foster hadn't run. She'd drawn back, taking partial cover behind a lamp post, but still recording the occurence with her detector.

Wanda had contained the explosion, and local space had returned to a dynamic equilibrium, but with a new anchor point. Even contained within her energy, Wanda could feel it, absorbing her power, feeding on and mingling with it. She knew what it was. She didn't know which one it was, but she knew it was ineffably dangerous, too dangerous for anyone to know of its existence.

Summoning a renewed reserve of power, she forced it into the ground, pushed it down deep, burying it in bedrock far beneath the town. Hiding it, like the others.

"You're Wanda Maximoff, aren't you?" Dr. Foster asked.

Wanda couldn't answer. She had used every last ounce of her energy. She fell to her knees, then slumped to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Dr. Foster ran to her.

Wanda nodded, gasping for breath.

She didn't know what to do about Dr. Foster. Clint had fainted, that woman downtown whose face had seemed so familiar hadn't clearly seen what happened, and hadn't recognized Wanda. But Dr. Foster had.

She fought off a wave of panic and forced herself to calm down.

It would be nice if she could just forget.

"Are you hurt?"

"No," Wanda managed to say. "I'm fine. It's going to be fine."

"What happened?"

Wanda pulled herself up unsteadily. "What does your machine say?"

She looked down at the screen. "It's broken."

"What do you remember seeing?" Wanda asked.

"An explosion. There was some kind of explosion. Did you cause that?"

"I don't think so. Not really."

Wanda was relieved that Dr. Foster didn't seem to have a clue what it really was.

"Will you be okay?"

Wanda nodded. "I'm pretty tired. But my house is just a couple of blocks from here."

"My van's closer. I'll give you a lift. You sure you'll be okay?"

Wanda smiled reassuringly. "I always am."

By the time Dr. Foster dropped her off, she seemed to not remember what had happened. That was for the best, Wanda told herself, suppressing a twinge of regret that she wouldn't have someone to share the burden of knowledge with, someone to help her decide what to do.

It was better to forget. She wished she could forget it, herself.

As she made herself some peppermint tea and got ready for bed, it began to rain. Which was strange; it had been clear enough to see stars just a few minutes ago.