If there had been any new developments in S.W.O.R.D.'s investigation of the Westview Event, they hadn't shared it with the Avengers begrudgingly they were allowed to monitor the situation.

The Avengers knew that Fury had told the scientists Wanda might be causing the phenomenon. They'd interrogated Bruce for hours about what he knew of Wanda's powers.

They were taking a coffee break in their field tent, looking out through the plastic window at the weird ripples in the air that marked the city limits of Westview.

"You're being even quieter than usual," Tony noted. "Is it making you nervous being around secret organization types?"

Bruce shrugged. "It's not really that. I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts, I guess."

"Want to talk it out?"

Bruce flashed him a smile, appreciating the consideration. Despite their rocky start, the two former enemies had gradually become friends over the course of the past year. "You know if anyone knows how it feels to be brainwashed its Bucky"

"Too bad he's not here."

Khamala frowned. "If we're right that Wanda's behind this, she cut a whole town off from the rest of the world. She's altering people's minds. How can that be good?"

"She's making the people around her feel happy. Making them be kind. True, she's doing it by altering their minds, but everything is mind-altering: good food, sunshine, friendship. Whether it's a bad thing is a question worth asking. I loved how I felt when we were visiting her. But I thought about it and decided stopping her, if we can, is the right thing to do." Natasha said

"What led you to that conclusion?" Tony asked curiously.

"Feelings like sadness, boredom, and anger are good in the right doses. Necessary even. They let you know you need to change something, try something new, move beyond the way things are. Those are the feelings that lead to progress, improvement, creation. Being happy all the time is stagnant. And if you have no choice but to feel happy, you'll never realize it if something needs to change. Have you ever had a thought pop into your head that you don't want to think? Like if you're, on a tall building and you suddenly start to wonder what if you just jumped off for no reason? Or throw your phone off the edge or something?"

"Yeah. That's called intrusive thoughts. Most people have them. What does it have to do with brainwashing?"

"I think maybe that's your brain reminding you that you always have choices. Even if those choices are terrible, they're always there. The call of the void is a sign that your mind is free. When you choose not to do that dumb thing your brain just thought of, you're exercising that freedom. And sometimes—maybe almost never, but once in a while—that freedom of thought might lead you to realize something you need to do that you never would have thought of otherwise. I bet no one's having thoughts like that in Westview right now."

Tony stared out toward where the town should be. "I bet you're right."

Bruce poured himself more coffee.

"Do you think Fury's right that she could be causing this?"

"All we know is Wanda was here. We don't know if she was still here when the Westview Event happened, but we have no reason to believe she wasn't," Tony answered.

Bruce raised an enormous eyebrow. "Really?"

"I don't think she meant to be doing it," Tony quickly added. "I don't think she even knew what she was doing."

Bruce nodded. "Well, she's...she's powerful."

"But I've never seen her do anything even remotely like this," Sam added, gesturing to the wall of energy visible out the window.

Bruce looked out at it and nodded to himself. "You're worried about her."

"Yeah, I am. I'm worried about everyone else in Westview, too. Wanda would never purposely hurt innocent people..." At Bruce's incredulous look, Natasha added, "...anymore. But after everything that's happened, everything she's been through..."

"Who knows what she might do without meaning to," Khamala finished for her.

" Can we save her?"

" We are going to try"