Sorry for the insanely long wait but I've been having some writers block so I have been writing random chapters. so I have like half of chapter 45 etc.
My chapters may come out a bit more frequently now that I'm back at uni and looking for ways to procrastinate and if I get enough reviews to put it high on my to do list.
Chapter 40
Her head spun fast enough to give a normal person whiplash as she dropped through an open portal in the ground just before Pietro could mount a sneak attack. The twins were especially in sync today, forcing Elvira to constantly remain on her toes. She hadn't stayed in one area of the training room for more than 10 seconds and it was tiring her out. It was never the distance of her space folding abilities that wore on her stamina. It was the amount of times she had to rip through space to step through the fold she had made in it. Every time she held one open to absorb Wanda's hurling of debris, Pietro would try and swoop her feet out for under her. She was getting irritated.
The second she shot out of the portal a dumbbell slammed into her shoulder. From the poorly hidden look of shock on Wanda's face, Elvira knew she had expected her to dodge it or at least not have taken such a direct impact. She grunted in pain grasping her shoulder, nostrils flaring with frustration bubbling into anger.
Her mind lost reason for a few seconds. But those seconds was all it took for her to sprint at Wanda and hurled her body over Elvira's head. Pietro witnessing his sister collide with the ground in slow motion, darted to her. Elvira's head twitched to his approach. Quicker than he had ever seen her move her hand dipped into a small portal as something wrapped tightly around his ankle.
His yell was torn from him as all the speed he had built up twisted through the fragile muscles that made up his ankle. He collapsed on the floor, sharp pain spiking up his ankle with every tiny jostle. He looked down at the damage to see a hand retreat from his ankle and back through a blue vortex he had come to know as Elvira's signature portal.
Pressure pushed down on his throat. Pinning him to the ground. Blocking his airway. Pietro's pale eyes frantically darted to Elvira. She perched above him watching him grunt under the pressure with distant eyes.
The coldness drained from Elvira's face, replaced by horror. She scrambled away from him, fearing what damage she would do if he remained in reach. Wanda's call to her brother was muffled in Elvira's ears. Her head overrun with panic and fear of herself. She hurt Pietro on purpose. She knew could have killed him. He hadn't even started to gasp for breath but just the action of her hand wrapped around his neck had her wanting to rip off the offending part of her body.
"No no no no no no," She could vaguely hear falling from her mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head in her hands, trying to clear her scrambled brain. It was hollow and chaotic at the same time. So many things swimming around with no semblance of order or control. She desperately tried to grasp at something, to find something solid of who she was. It was only a moment she dropped to the weapon they wanted but a moment was too long. It couldn't happen again.
It was a blur of medical aid taking Pietro to the infirmary and her and Wanda being pushed to their cell. She couldn't hold onto any events or places as she desperately tried to collect her head. To find some foundation of who she was.
The resonant snap of the closed door made her flinch. "I knew you were dangerous," Wanda sneered, her accent twisting the vowels. She rubbed her sore arm.
Elvira's face contorted showing her internal conflict. "No, no. I-I didn't mean to."
Wanda snapped her head to Elvira showing her glowing red eyes. Warping red waves wrapped around Elvira's body and thrust her roughly against the cell wall. "I saw you. You were going to kill-"
"No, I-I didn't mean to hurt him. I'm not a weapon. I'm not a weapon!" she wrenched her eyes closed taking deep breaths, "I just lost myself in my head."
"You wrapped your hand around his neck and looked at Pietro like killing him would mean nothing!" Wanda sneered, sick of Elvira's chaotic muttering.
Elvira's body under Wanda's force fell limp. Wanda felt a wave of sorrow and helplessness radiate towards her. Elvira's eyes dropped to the ground, "Kill me if you want to. I'm tired of trying to keep them out of my head. Tired of trying to hold onto someone I can't remember being."
She was dropped to the ground. But she remained on her hands and knees, staring blankly at the textured floor.
She could hear Wanda sigh, "When I was young, my town was bombed. The ground shook as they rained from the sky. The screams from the street below echo in my head. The ceiling erupted in flames as I was pulled under the table. I watched the burnt bodies of my parents drop to the floor. Then another bomb came and dropped right in front of my nose. But it didn't go off." Her accent thick with the emotion in her voice," It just sat there. I was suffocating as I waited for it to go off. I watched it as every explosion rattled it. With every pull of debris to save us it shifted. At times I thought it would be better for it to just go off and be done with it. Anything was better than the waiting."
She heard Wanda's back slide down the wall beside her as she collapsed by Elvira's side. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm still waiting. If I ever really escaped it. It's the reason for my whole life. The reason I am here, the reason for my powers, it's probably who I am."
"I guess we're both broken then," Elvira smirked sadly.
"No one gets here without being broken inside."
They sat on the floor against the wall for hours. Siting in shared brokenness. Not fixed but not alone.
BBB
Pietro glanced in his peripheral vision at Wanda. She had been different ever since he had gotten out of the infirmary. She was less cautious and hostile with Elvira. He had even caught her flash Elvira a light smile. Wanda caught his look and he quickly turned his head to his feet.
Pietro hated the slow tap of his feet on the cobble stone floor. He preferred the deep drum of his feet hungrily eat up the ground beneath him. Where the sound of the next foot hitting the floor sounded in his eardrums before the last had even finished. Wanda and he continued their slow trip to the eating hall of the HYDRA facility the had volunteered to call home for the past year. There was a customary HYDRA agent guiding them, although this was more of a formality. Due to the twins voluntary acceptance of the experiments, they had access to most of the facility despite the last few weeks intense security measures.
Pietro then realised that they were in an area they rarely passed through. He wondered why the guard had taken a different route and from a glance at Wanda, he knew that she had already noticed. This confusion was stripped from Pietro's mind the second a piercing scream tore through the hallway.
He was already at the source of the sound before anyone else could react. But the sight before him had him stock still. His icy blue eyes frozen in a mix of shock and fear. A large empty room with white tiles spread out before him. Despite the size, the only things occupying the room are a control panel and a mechanical chair. Another screech ripped through the throat of the chair's occupant. Pietro watched as Elvira withers in pain, strapped to the chair. The wired helmet attaching the chair to her head sending spasms down her entire body. White knuckles dug into the metal chair arms almost to the point of denting, only to let go to dangerously wrench at her shackles.
Control of his muscles returned with the light pressure of Wanda's hand on his shoulder. Pietro was beside Elvira in an instant, heaving helplessly at her shackles the next. If he weren't so frenzied he would've realised that even the continuous strain of Elvira's enhanced strength had no effect.
Dr. List, who until this moment Pietro had not noticed, shouted, "You have to let the process finish! She may suffer brain damage if it stops prematurely."
Dr. List was suddenly yanked off the ground by his lab coat. "Turn it off," Pietro barked up at him.
"I already told you I can't. She might come out a vegetable!"
Pietro's hatred of both options fuelled his frustration. At Wanda's call and the sound of a dozen guns trained on him being cocked, he dropped Dr. List whose legs gave out on impact.
Wanda tightly gripped his hand, squeezing his hand, not only for his comfort, but for her own; as they witness scream after agonising scream for 2 minutes.
As the machine gave the distinctive sound of powering down, Pietro raced to move the helmet off her head. As the shackles were released by Dr. List, Pietro heaved Elvira up into his arms away from the machine. The room tensed as 10 guards, stood ready around the wall of the room. They seemed unsure whether to take her from him or let him carry her. She seemed in too much pain to be much of a threat in that moment so they stood down.
"What were you doing to her?" Wanda questioned Dr. List with a dark undertone.
Dr. List cowered under her interrogation, "Strucker insists on Project Fusion's memory being wiped."
Wanda and Pietro share a look of horror. Wanda hesitantly asks, afraid of the answer, "How many times have you done this?"
"5."
Pietro sees his sister's hands tense at her sides. This was never a good sign. The air of the room thickens as the guards become aware of the pulsing red energy from her fists.
"This is the last time." Wanda lifts her hands to tear apart the chair. Sparks burst from the rip as parts scatter from within the chair, twisted and unfixable. The large clang of the chair dropping echoes through the cavernous room. Wanda, eyes glowing red, storms out the door with Pietro still holding Elvira following her. Guards follow from a safe distance until they are in their cell and the door is locked.
They sit for what feels like hours watching Elvira twist in Pietro's arms, spouting incoherent mutterings. Finally still, Pietro noticed that her closed eyes still leaked tears that streaked her cheeks. They finally knew why she knew nothing when they had meet. Not even her name.
Her eyes suddenly snapped open and thrashed in his arms. "Let go!" she shrieked, fear dominating her voice. Pietro released her as he saw Wanda clutch her head.
"Wanda! What's wrong?" he moved to his sister's side.
"You need to calm her down, her fear is overwhelming," Wanda grunted through clenched teeth. The telepath really wished she had not spent so much effort trying to become attuned to Elvira's emotional fluctuations.
Pietro approached Elvira like one would a wild animal. Steady with his hands raised and knees bent to appear less threatening. She sunk into the wall as he did so.
He tried to make his voice as soft and gentle, "It's ok. We're not going to hurt you," he inched closer, "You lost your memories. We call you Elvira. Elvira, you need to calm down." By the end of the last sentence he was right in front of her. His hands slowly reach to cup her cheeks, "We are going to protect you but you have to trust us."
She nodded weakly murmuring, "m-my head. I can't think. I can't hold onto anything." Her body shakes, "I can feel it all being swept away. I feel empty. Alone."
Wanda sighs in relief behind him. Pietro gently leans Elvira into his chest picks her up to cradle her. "You're not alone," he mutters back softly. He returns to beside Wanda and she gives him a curious glance.
Wanda sighs with a smile twitching the side of her lip, "You want to adopt her don't you?"
Pietro grins widely, "I'm not the one who destroyed a chair for hurting her."
Elvira's body gave out to exhaustion as Wanda rubbed her knee. "You're one of us."
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