GenderqueerWriter- I know right! Wanda's reaction is dramatic, her world has been shaken to the core.

KnowInsight- He didn't think that Wanda would believe him and Tony only found this out after Pietro died. The belief that Tony was Satan was the only thing she had left at that point, he was being very selfless in not taking that away from her too.

Wolftattoo – I agree Wanda isn't a kid Spiderman is and Wanda, Steve and Clint will wake up… eventually.

Alfedrigo – thank you :-D


"It- it can't be true." Vehemently, Wanda shook her head to try and dislodge the doubt that had settled and grown like weeds from infecting the rest of her mind. "It just can't be."

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Screeched, Peter as he vibrated with barely contained outrage, "how can you still deny the truth between you and Mr Stark when it is staring you in the face?!" Personally, he considered it a miracle that he had held back this anger at her constant bashing of his father figure and friend until now but nearly always the others had beaten him to the punch.

"Then why did I never see it in his mind?!" Wanda retorted, she leapt to her feet whilst her hands crackled with small scarlet fireworks. Peter's defiant angry body posture didn't lessen, she turned to the others who were watching her warily. "Why did I never see it in Strucker's after I got my powers? All I saw is that we had a common goal. At the time- Pietro and I wanted Stark and his friends dead, how we got to that goal didn't matter… even if it meant becoming lab rats."

"And Stark?" Natasha raised a cool eyebrow in her direction, her vibrant green eyes had iced over.

"He is a manipulative, lying piece of work that enjoys pushing your buttons to test you. He doesn't trust anyone and he uses his talents as a way to endear himself to you because he can see like me that there is nothing else you all would like. He is a twisted murderer. He is the real danger to the team and to himself." Wanda crossed her arms across her chest.

Thor frowned deeply at her words which sounded nothing like the man he had grown to know and like. Surely the mind stone's power should have given her a more accurate view of friend Anthony. Could Witch of Scarlet have been subconsciously projecting this view on to my other SHIELD siblings? "Vision, do you see this as truth about friend Anthony?"

"Wanda's conclusion is based on truth but she fails to see the good qualities that Mr Stark possesses because of her own irrational grievance against him. Her powers do have the power to see him as he really is, as mine does. Subconsciously she did not wish to see it so her powers blocked any evidence that would contradict her previous conclusion."

That is when it hit her like a freight train.

Tony Stark had indirectly saved our lives…

And in response Pietro and I had worked for the man and the organisation that gave the order to kill my parents.

Wanda's hands snaked into her scalp and pulled at her hair harshly.

Stumbling backwards, Wanda's back hit the wall by a bookshelf to the side of the mindscape.

We wait two days for Tony Stark to kill us. Wanda's words to Ultron echoed in her head with startling clarity, her hands shook violently and sparked to life with iridescent vermillion twirls.

Her eyes widened when she noticed them.

For the first time in her life she wanted them gone, they were a mark of what she'd let Strucker do to her. They represented all of her mistakes and the hatred that had governed her for the majority of her life.

All the procedures.

All the pain.

So I would have the chance to torture and murder Tony Stark for taking away my parents when he really saved our lives.

We just saw Stark's name on the bomb and took it as proof of his guilt.

All our decisions from when Pietro and I were eight onwards rested on that fact and, it – was – a – lie.

"NOOO!" At this tormented scream her powers exploded, lashing out blindly.

Everyone but Vision jumped away from her, they stared in awe and horror at the intimidating red bubble rushing towards them and her surroundings but then the unthinkable happened.

It stopped.

Amazed they looked to Vision whose eyes and gem were glowing an iridescent gold, Vision lifted his arms and the iridescent red bubble withdrew and disappeared back into her chest.

Clint felt almost as if the air had vanished from his lungs and a horrible feeling of guilt mixed with amazement at what he saw. What was Wanda thinking letting her powers explode out of her like that?! Hang on, if Vision contained Wanda's magic here then that means…

"Why didn't you stop us before when we broke out of the compound?" Clint asked as he watched Vision float over to Wanda who had looked up from where she had been almost hyperventilating on the floor.

"Vi-is?" Wanda turned to him and twisted her trembling hand around his. "How did you do that?"

"Your powers came from the mindstone Wanda, it would be illogical to assume that you are stronger than me. I could repress your power if I wish, I always could but I did not want to risk harming you."

Wanda gaped at him, unable to tear her eyes away as he moved to kneel beside her. "I – I am so sorry Vis."

"Apology accepted. I hope in time that we can rebuild the trust that we once had but I need time to learn to trust you again."

Wanda's mouth shut, she choked on a silent sob and nodded.

The others watched Vision steadfastly supporting Wanda, they were silent for a moment before they began digesting what they saw themselves.

Steve and Clint gravitated towards her and offered their support. Steve knelt down by Clint next to Wanda's other shoulder, it felt wrong to him to see such a powerful young girl distraught like this.

Poor kid, her world had been shaken up. I'm amazed more of the others aren't offering her support.

Pointedly, Steve turned and gave the rest of the group a severe look over his shoulder.

Scott sent a sad almost pitying look in her direction, although Steve saw by his widened eyes and the way he had pressed himself against one of the desks in Tony's mindscape that he was scared of her.

Although he understood Scott's fear, her powers had unintentionally lashed out at them all, she had just seen something the shook her to the core.

Despite the mishap in Lagos two years ago, she normally had better control over her powers, Scott should know this, they had been working and living together in Wakanda for two years.

He shook his head as his gaze switched to Sam, who was next to Scott and the other Avengers, talking to Rhodey and Bucky about Wanda in harsh, unsympathetic tones.

How could they be so cold?

Hearing what they were saying, she shivered and curled in on herself tighter.

Clint glared at them but was unwilling to move from his position beside the poor girl so Steve immediately jumped up from where he had been kneeling and turned on them.

"I don't know what has gotten into the rest of you but you need to cut it out. Now. Wanda has been through enough. For goodness sake Buck," Steve's voice softened, "can't you see that she is a victim of Hydra like you? Or how she is like me because she wanted to make her country get better by allowing a German scientist to experiment on her?"

Bucky snarled so viciously, that Steve could be forgiven in thinking that Winter had taken control again.

"She is not like me. She volunteered for Hydra and to have them experiment on her, not to make her country better or to serve it like you, she chose to do for revenge. She is not a victim, she was not brainwashed like me, in fact she is the one who worked everyone's head before she even got in this team. What makes it worse is that she was of sound mind when she did it and when she agreed." Bucky broke off and looked away, trying and failing to make his hoarse voice stronger. "I can't believe you would even make that comparison, Stevie."

Wanda lifted her head to the others and looked at them through teary glistening lashes. "Sargent Barnes, don't hold my past against me. I was young, manipulated…and," She took a shuddering breath in and paused for a moment, "Yes, I did work everyone's mind but I did this based on the belief that Stark was responsible for my parents dying. I wanted justice for my parents, you get that, don't you?"

Bucky was about to retort a comparison with how Tony had dealt with him after they had reunited post-Civil War when he found that he had been magically silenced, instead of drawing attention to this he settled for giving her a rather nasty glare as Sam spoke up.

"No, what you did is you preyed on someone who you thought was connected to your parent's deaths, even then it was indirectly. Hell, from what I've seen about Stark, I know that he wouldn't send his weapons there to be used on civilians. -"

"We are talking about the person who was nicknamed 'The Merchant of Death'-" Clint bit out, as he shot Sam a vitriolic glare. He felt bad for insulting Tony, but he was no saint and it was wrong to use him to rip Wanda apart when she was already emotionally vulnerable.

"And if you were paying attention," Bruce growled through gritted teeth, "you would've seen how undeserved that nickname was. Stop talking before you lower the IQ of everyone in this mindscape."

Bruce's vibrant green eyes glared back at Clint with a surprising intensity before switching his gaze to Wanda. "If you had actually tracked down the person who fired this weapon and took your anger out where it belonged, you wouldn't be feeling like this. You knew Tony was mentally ill, I can see it all over your face, and I'm willing to bet you hit every trigger you could to get revenge. Don't try and excuse that. There is no excuse for that."

Then Bruce rubbed his temples as the Hulk pounded against the magic the Being had placed to stop him from emerging; with Steve, Clint and Wanda's tirades however the Hulks struggle was becoming more violent and painful.

Wanda was about to retort when an unfamiliar voice interrupted her.

"Maximoff your story is not unique or special. The route you took was your decision and yours alone to bear the guilt of. It is unjust to continually try to push that on Stark."

They turned towards the sound, to see an old bespeckled Indian Man wearing a white cloth shirt that was stained extensively with what looked like bullet holes, he was transparent and a thin silver light lined his form.

"What is your name transparent one?" Thor smiled jovially at the ghost but approached him cautiously. "I believe you are not of this realm, the illuminate must have brought you to Friend Anthony's mindscape for a reason."

"My name is Ho Yinsen," Yinsen smiled back at him and looked to the others with varying degrees of warmth until they completely iced over when their gaze lingered on Wanda. "I'm not surprised Stark didn't tell anyone about me after all we did meet under some less than pleasant circumstances. The illuminate brought me here, Prince Odinson so that Maximoff would realise the injustice of her actions and to do so they brought me here to tell my story."

"It is an honour to meet you Ho of Yinsen." Thor went to clap him on the shoulder but he stopped at the last minuite and instead guided him to the centre of the group. "Did the illuminate tell tales of my commrades and I or did you watch over Friend Anthony from Valhalla?"

"Of course, I watched over him, I have done ever since my death." Those words were delievered very softly before Yinsen seemed to internally shake himself, the ghost straightened and he grimaced slightly. "But I'm getting off track, I was taken here to share my story with you all and that is what I intend to do."

Intrigued, the Avengers gathered closer to the unfamiliar ghost like group of moths longing the warmth of a flame but they were aware that his next words could burn.

Yinsen levelled Wanda with an intense stare before directing his next words to the rest of the group.

"When I was alive, I lived in a town called Gulmara with my wife Sara and my children Ahmed and Asha. My wife and I ran a small doctors practise caring for the locals while our children walked to the next town over to gain their education like I did, it was nice." Yinsens wistful nostalgic smile flickered before dying completely; Steve, Rhodey and Sam recognised it intimately as one that they'd often see in traumatised men returning home from war, shutting all their emotions away so that they could cope. "However, a terrorist group called the Ten Rings had been gaining strength in Afghanistan, Sara and I had to stop sending the kids to school, we did all we could to stay out of their way. It wasn't enough."

Yinsen paused and moved so that he could see each of the others, his voice became steely. "The Ten Rings came a month after that, armed heavily with SI weapons. Originally, they were looking for more troops, they were systematically breaking down each house and forcing us into two groups. It was no point trying to run to family members or run away, those that tried were killed on sight. That was how my eldest died… Ahmed, he wouldn't let me go so they shot him in the head."

"Jesus fucking Christ." Clint muttered under his breath, he swallowed and tore his gaze from Wanda to Yinsen who stared back at him, "I'm sorry man no one deserves to lose a child. Especially not like that."

Unseen by Yinsen, Scott blanched and nodded in agreement with Clint.

If that had been Cassie, I don't know how I would have coped.

Yinsen gave a half nod Clint's way, in a non-verbal agreement and swallowed heavily. "They kicked his body to half way between the two groups as a warning- a promise to what would happen to those who disobeyed. All the young men and me because I was a doctor were loaded on to the back of their trucks. Then we were forced to watch as they filled our families with lead. After that they tried to ingrain into us that 'the Ten Rings are the only family you will serve, and that you shall fight for.'"

Natasha swallowed, becoming very aware of the similar styles of indoctrination used by the Ten Rings in comparison to the Red Room. She felt a heightened respect for the man before her.

How strong must Yinsen be to resist the strength of an indoctrination that strong and not to lose himself in hate?

"Imagine my surprise when one day the Ten Rings brought in none other than Tony Stark, the manufacturer of the weapons that killed my family, and told me to save his life." He turned and directed a loaded look at Wanda who stared back at Yinsen as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing or seeing . "I didn't hesitate to do so. My anger is with the Ten Rings not with Stark, they are the ones who killed my family."

"I-I don't get it; how can you not be angry? He-He made those weapons-"Wanda's confusion was etched boldly across her face.

"If he didn't somebody else would have done so and my family still would have been dead." Yinsen sighed and surveyed her sadly as he watched that visibly sink in for Wanda; she buried her head in her hands while her powers flickered sporadically for a moment then disappearing.

He moved and crouched down in front of her, "You still have time to make things right." She slowly lifted her eyes up to meet Yinsen's, in that moment she truly appreciated how wise and kind the man before her was. He had dealt with a situation worse than hers- where actual Stark weapons were used and yet he saved Starks life.

"How would I do that?"

"To forgive, both yourself- for your past and your mistakes and Stark for his. If you can't do either of those two things, then there is no point because your heart won't be in it." Yinsen replied softly before straightening up, he looked behind the group and nodded, it was only then that a few of them turned to see the Being there.

The Illuminates hands glowed with clusters of white stars, they mirrored the position of the larger ones appearing around Yinsen, the ghost grew more transparent and smiled at them one last time before disappearing completely.

All of them waited for a moment for Wanda to collect herself, she leant heavily on Clint and Vision as they pulled her to her feet.

Seeing that his support was no longer needed, Steve moved around to where he was standing by Bucky, he smiled reassuringly at Wanda before turning to the Being.

"I think we are ready to continue."

The Illuminate's hands glowed gold, but its eyes creased in concern. "Before we do, I need to warn you that this next selection of memories will be emotionally painful for you to watch, Mr Rogers."

Steve's smile dropped.

"What- "

However, their world had begun to spin once more and their world had vanished into shimmering swirls of colour.