Chapter 2: Flare
The strange structure in Antarctica the U.N. had sent the Avengers to investigate turned out to be an old Hydra base. It had been abandoned for years. They'd found diagrams for experimental weapons and the grisly remains of hybridization experiments. It appeared the base had been abruptly locked down when some of those experiments had escaped, but they only had skeletons to reconstruct the sequence of events with.
What had troubled Vision more than the remains had been the experiments themselved. His mind had involuntarily drifted to Wanda, to thoughts of what horrors had been visited upon her at the hands of Hydra.
It had been one hundred and sixteen days since the escape from the Raft. Vision still thought about Wanda every day. He wondered if she was safe. He hoped she was happy.
In the meantime, the remaining Avengers had missions to occupy them, and training nearly every day they didn't have a mission. The trainings were always somber for Vision; the team never felt whole.
Having just returned from a mission, there was no training today. Vision usually filled his downtime with reading, researching, staring out windows, contemplating the world, flying through clouds and over various countrysides, and occasionally shutting down to allow his vibranium-cellular matrix to realign.
He was in his room reading a book of poetry when there was a knock on his door.
"Come in," he said.
Tony entered. "Hey."
"Mr. Stark, I'm surprised to see you. After our mission, I would have expected you would want to rest."
"Yeah. Something came up." He took out his phone and projected an image of smoke rising from a collapsed building. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. just alerted me to a fire at an old apartment building in Cottbus, Germany. There were eighteen people in the building at the time. Miraculously, firefighters were able to get everyone out alive right before the building collapsed. Some eyewitnesses report a whirlwind that extinguished the fire on the first floor, clearing the way to evacuate the building, and a red glow around the walls."
Vision rose slowly. His book forgotten. "She was there."
"Maybe. The firefighters didn't report anything unusual. But one of us should check it out, just in case."
"Cappuccino for Verena?"
Wanda was still getting used to her latest alias. She realized this was the second time the barista had called it.
"Thank you," she said as she took her coffee and sat back at her table.
She liked going to a coffee shop after work. She tried not to go to the same coffee shop more than once every couple of weeks; Natasha had warned her against falling into predictable patterns.
It was snowing. The snow was not so much falling as drifting lazily through the air in a generally earthward manner. She watched it as she sipped her coffee. But a conversation behind her suddenly grabbed her attention.
"An Avenger here in our own city. I wouldn't have believed it, but I saw the videos."
"What would the Avengers be doing here? Nothing ever happpens here."
Wanda downed the rest of her coffee, pulled on her coat, tugging the hood tight to conceal her face, and left quickly.
Had she been seen at the fire that morning? She knew it had been a risk. If she'd been identified, she'd need to leave the city, move on to the next hideout.
At the nearest library she did a search online for Avenger sightings in Cottbus. Several videos had been posted, none earlier than mid-afternoon. She watched the one that had the most views.
She recognized the street. It wasn't far from where the fire had been. Her pulse quickened.
It was Vision, floating several meters above the crowd, turning in a slow circle, then rising and floating away. He was clearly looking for something.
He was looking for her.
She should probably leave the city, or lay low for a while, she thought to herself even as she made her way to the roof of the library building. The door to the rooftop was locked, but with her power turning a standard lock was about as easy as turning a handle.
Powdery snow a few inches deep covered the flat roof. The clouds were a dark gray-blue except for a pink glow in the west. She stood at the edge of the roof looking out over the city.
She didn't see him.
Was Vision still here? Was he here alone, or were there others looking for her?
She shouldn't risk it. She was a wanted fugitive; his job was to apprehend her. She never wanted to spend another day in a cell as long as she lived.
But the way he'd held her after the battle at the airport, the way he'd looked at her... She couldn't forget that. She couldn't believe he would truly try to arrest her. Especially since he knew she would fight him if he tried. Besides, he was probably already gone.
She hated that thought. She wanted to see him so much it hurt.
She took a deep breath, stretched out her fingers, and entered the world of her power. It almost felt like slipping on gloves, but gloves made of energy tied by threads to everything around her. She could feel the threads, feel the strings of matter and mind. She could pluck them, play them, move the world around her. Her mind. Her matter.
Her fingers twitched, tugged the ether. She grasped the snow, danced it into the air, reaching toward the sky. She'd missed this: exercising her powers, focusing her mind on something complex and challenging.
The snow swirled into the air, glowing toward the sky, a beacon that might summon her heart's desire, or disappointment, or doom.