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How did they find us?

The massive theatre suddenly felt too small, too exposed. At any moment, Pietro expected the roof to come crashing down upon them and HYDRA agents to swarm the room. There would be nothing they could do, and nowhere they could run. He shifted nervously, trying to get Wanda's attention. "Look up."

Surreptitiously, she glanced toward the balcony and shivered. "Who are they?"

"HYDRA. Do you know them?"

He expected to be met with confusion and a blank stare; instead, her eyes seemed to turn a few shades darker. "Yes. They've been trailing me since Ireland-and maybe even before that.""

"What do you mean?"

"For the past couple of weeks, I've felt this…presence. It never strays too far and it always stays close to the shadows-but I know that whoever they are, they're bad people. They're looking for me-maybe even for both of us. When we came to the base, I didn't sense them as much. I thought that things had changed. I didn't sense…them as much. But now…" She was already moving to gather up her belongings. "We have to leave. We're putting all these people in danger just be being here."

Pietro was inclined to agree. Muttering apologies to the people around them, he worked his way through the crowded rows of seats to the nearest aisle. If they could just get out without putting any innocent theatregoers at risk, he could grab the car and be on the highway in five minutes flat. They got a lot of odd looks as they passed, but he didn't care. This is for your own good.

Once they reached the vestibule, he pulled out his cell and punched in Steve's number. Wherever the team leader had ended up was a loud and perhaps rowdy place; Pietro could hear loud music and people shouting encouragement to someone or something-most likely Rhodey, on one of his fool's dares. "Hey kid. Did you find your seats all right?"

"Yes, yes. That part went fine. But we have another problem."

There was a long pause and a cheer from the crowd went up as Rhodey swallowed an entire tablespoon of cinnamon. "What do you mean?"

"HYDRA is here."

"Do they know where you are?"

He looked up at the balcony. Empty. "I don't know. We're leaving the play now."

"All right. Get back to the base as soon as you can. Don't use the main roads and be sure you aren't followed."

"Don't worry. We'll be careful." He hung up quickly. Wanda was already halfway to the exit, waiting impatiently for him to catch up. And yet he still kept asking himself the same question, over and over. How did they find us? They weren't super popular, like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers-who everyone recognized on sight. In fact, they hadn't even gotten one backwards glance the entire day. No, it hadn't been coincidence…HYDRA had known, somehow. They'd been prepared.

He took a deep breath, trying to block out the roaring in his head, and poured on the speed. Within seconds, he was at Wanda's side. "Do you see anyone?" he asked.

"No. Not in the vicinity." He could read between the lines. That doesn't mean they aren't close.

He was just about to take off running with Wanda in tow when the world exploded.

Pietro felt himself being thrown backwards, hitting the ground so hard he blacked out for a few seconds. When he came to again at first he didn't know what was going on-he was looking up into the sky, at a night full of stars. But he shouldn't have been able to see the sky. He was still in the theatre…

And that was about the time he realized that the roof of the theatre had been completely blown off. The once lavish foyer was in shambles. Debris was scattered everywhere; scratches of ash marred pristine white marble and the concession stand was just a pile of dust. His clothes were covered in a white, chalk like substance; it hung in the air like a toxic fog that coated his throat and nose, making breathing painful and almost impossible. His eyes watered painfully and there was a deep gash and his arm-but it would heal with time. He just had to find Wanda and get out.

Speaking of which…

He glanced around the collapsed foyer in a panic, looking for his sister. For a minute he couldn't see her-and of course he thought the worst. Then he felt a hand close around his wrist and someone pulled him to his feet. "Can you stand?" Wanda asked in her thick Sokovian accent.

He nodded, trying to get his footing on the broken tile. "Are you all right?"

"I think so." She seemed to have been spared the worst of the damage; she was covered in powder, just like him, but Pietro didn't see any blood.

"What about all the people in the theatre?"

Wanda glanced across the wasteland of carpet and merchandising stands lying overturned and broken in the dim glow cast by a ring of nearby streetlights. People were emerging from the wreckage of the theatre; some were cradling injuries, others were almost crawling out of the debris field, and still others were being carried out on stretchers.

They weren't moving.

Pietro thought he was going to be violently ill. All this destruction-all this death-was because of him and Wanda. If they'd stayed at the base like everyone else, things would be very different. Lives might be saved.

There wasn't a shadow of doubt in his mind that the bomb had been meant for them.

He heard sirens in the distance, growing ever closer. Wanda led the way back to the car and slid into the driver's seat. "The police will be here at any minute. We should go before they arrive-I don't know how we're going to explain this to them. And if they know that we're Avengers…"

Pietro understood. It wouldn't be good for them or for the team. He could barely see straight; black spots kept dancing across his vision, but he didn't know if that was a result of an injury or just from shock. He shook his head to clear it. Wanda glanced at him every so often in concern. "Stay with me, Pietro." she said.

"They were trying to kill us-"

"I know. We'll find whoever did this-and they will pay dearly. I swear it. But right now we are outnumbered and outgunned-not to mention we're being hunted by invisible enemies. We have to tell SHIELD."

"We're a danger to everyone around us."

"I know." She was clutching the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles had turned white. "Should we leave?"

"What do you mean?"

"Leave now. We can take a back way out of the city-and we'll never have to go back to the base. We can drive out of town-maybe find a deserted forest or something, far away from the city and anyone who knows us. We can stay off the radar-that way, if anyone does come looking for us, the fight will just be between us. No innocents will have to be involved."

"You know we can't do something like that. We have nothing-barely any money, not many worldly possessions, certainly not enough to find our own place. We wouldn't survive for long." Still, it was an idea-and a good one to boot.

They drove in silence, without even the radio to fill the car with mindless chatter. Even when the city was long in the distance, Pietro never looked back. Every time he closed his eyes he could hear the screams and feel the explosion throwing him backwards…killing who knew how many people on sight.

And it was their fault. They had drawn HYDRA agents like moths to a flame.

After a while, Pietro's phone began to ring. Steve was calling back-and he didn't sound happy about being hung up on. "Where are you?"

"Forty miles from the base." Pietro said, checking his GPS. "Why?"

"Get here as soon as you can. Were either of you injured?"

"We're fine-just shaken up and covered in roofing dust. Did you hear about what happened?"

"It's all over the news. No one knows who to blame-terrorists, extremists, or possibly a third party."

"It was HYDRA. How many casualties are there?" The question had been on Pietro's mind since he'd gotten on the phone, but he hadn't wanted to ask. He hadn't wanted to know the answer-because he knew that whatever the number was he probably wouldn't like it.

"It's not a definite number-"

"Steve, how many casualties?"

"Twenty three-and climbing."

Pietro felt numb. "We should have helped. We should have done something."

"No, you did the right thing. If HYDRA wants you, as we both seem to think they do, they would have stopped at nothing until they had you-and that could have meant more people getting hurt. Stark is sending the Stark Relief Agency to help out, but you and Wanda are SHIELD's biggest priorities at the moment. We'll talk about this when you get back to the base."

"We're on our way." He clicked off the phone and put it away calmly, even though he was having a hard time thinking clearly. "Twenty three people are dead, Wanda-and that number is going up."

She looked like she wanted to reply, but just then a car pulled up next to them-complete with flashing lights and a siren that made Pietro think his ears were bleeding. A cop got out and walked over to them, scribbling something in a small black notebook. "Can I see some ID?"

"What did we do wrong?" Wanda asked as another car cruised to a stop on their other side. She gently nudged Pietro and nodded imperceptibly for him to open his door. Something wasn't right.

The cop was holding a gun.

He seemed to know his cover had been blown because he shut his notebook with a snap and said two words: "Hail HYDRA."

Pietro was out of the car in approximately half a second, only to find the barrel of a gun pressed to his temple. "Don't try anything fishy." the gun's owner said. "And keep your hands where I can see them." People in black were climbing out of three more cars parked on the shoulder of the roadway, surrounding them completely. On the other side of the car, Petro see that Wanda was in the same position as he was himself-but he wasn't just going to let this happen. He tried to catch her eye, as if to say Should we attack yet?

Wanda shook her head. Wait.

A man wearing a black sweatshirt and a pair of sunglasses (at night) came forward and began to speak. "You gave us quite a little chase, Maximoffs. I suppose you thought that SHIELD could protect you-that their petty technology would be enough to stop us. By now I expect you realize that you were so very wrong. You can't hide forever-not when the nets we cast are longer and more far reaching than you can possibly imagine. We've been looking for you since Sokovia. And when we finally did have you again, you somehow managed to slip through the fingers of some of our best commanding officers. Would you like to tell us how you managed it?"

"What are you talking about?" Pietro asked. When had they been taken after Sokovia? Even with being in a coma and all of that, he was pretty sure he'd be able to recall something that important.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Maximoff, that Korean doctor managed to stay under our radar. You were 'out of commission', let's say, for close to a year. While that wasn't optimal, it turned out to be all right in the end-because we managed to recruit your sister instead."

Pietro stiffened. What the man was saying couldn't possibly be true…and yet pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place. The bar code, the vanishing act…of course there had been a reason for all of it. Pietro had just never thought about too closely because there were too many other problems on hand. It made sense-but sense was really the last thing he was in the mood for.

Or perhaps he had known it all along but just hadn't wanted to acknowledge it.

Wanda shook her head. "You're lying."

"Am I? Don't tell me you've forgotten all the fun we had. You seemed to enjoy yourself-when you weren't bleeding out, that is."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't-but is the memory loss truly our fault? Or is it due to your own unwillingness to remember? Yes, we did terrible things-but they were necessary. They were all necessary."

"Stop it." Her pupils were starting to turn red; if the man knew what was good for him, he would stop right there and hope to God he hadn't gone too far.

Luckily, HYDRA thugs weren't known for their intelligence-only their strategy.

"You signed up for the experiments. And as it happens, the experiments aren't finished yet." Pietro could feel the adrenaline pulsing through his veins as he waited for Wanda's signal. He wouldn't just kill this man-he would destroy him. The head thug gestured to one of Pietro's guards. Come on. The boss will be expecting us."

"I don't think so." Pietro knocked the gun out of the man's hand at the same moment Wanda sent a wave of red magic radiating through the ranks of HYDRA members surrounding her. They all fell to the ground-unconscious or dead, Pietro didn't care much either way. The quick distraction was enough; while the soldiers tried to regroup, shooting off guns in all sorts of random directions, he was able to get to a car and hotwire it (growing up on the streets had taught him a few things). There wasn't time to deal with the head agent, but his time would come.

Just not tonight.

Wanda got in the passenger's side as the windshield was peppered with tiny bullets the size of hailstones. "Let's go."

"Do I have your permission to break the speed limit?"

"Go as fast as you need to-just get us out of here."

Pietro smiled for the first time since this whole dream had turned into a nightmare. "Now that I can do."

He could hear the leader screaming behind them. "This is only the beginning! We will be back. You volunteered to join HYDRA. You belong to us!"

"Not anymore." Pietro floored the accelerator and the car shot forward. It wasn't as nice as the car they'd been forced to give up, but it would work well enough for their needs and purposes.

Soon the agents were far behind them. Pietro doubled back a few times and drove for miles on a couple back roads before they reached the base, just to be safe, but they didn't see any other cars or people.

Finally he stopped the car at the turn they would take to lead them back to the base. "We have to talk."

"About what?" Wanda asked. She was fingering her bar code and wouldn't meet his eyes.

"That."

"Like I said, there is nothing to talk about. I can't remember where I got it."

"Are you sure? Are you truly not able to, or do you just not want to?"

"Pietro-"

"Tell me the truth. I think you owe me at least that much."

"Fine. Yes, I remember some things from after the Battle. Not everything. I can't give you names, places, or even faces. But yes, there are a few things I know about-a few unpleasant experiences I remember with surprisingly vivid clarity."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"You didn't need to know. It was irrelevant then-and it's still irrelevant now."

"Well, what exactly do you remember?"

She didn't answer. By this point, she wouldn't even look in his general direction.

"Wanda?" he tried again. "What happened last year? Did HYDRA find you again? Is what that agent was saying true?"

"Yes. I don't want to talk about it."

"How much do you remember?"

"…Enough. That's all I'm telling you about the matter."

"But what about-"

"Enough, Pietro. Just drive. Please."
Reluctantly he nodded and turned up the gravel drive that led to the new Avengers base.

~V102~

"There you are! We were starting to worry." Sam said as soon as they walked inside.

"We got…sidetracked." Pietro answered.

"No offense, but you both look terrible. Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"We're fine." Wanda said. "I'm going upstairs. Please don't bother me unless it's an absolute emergency." She walked up the stairs that led to her bedroom without even a backward glance. Pietro very nearly swore in frustration. He knew he'd treaded on forbidden territory. He really needed to work on that-though it would help if he knew exactly what 'forbidden territory' comprised. His brain felt like it was working on autopilot, shot through with numbness and new information. Now there were memories his sister wasn't telling him about? His whole life had been a mess ever since he'd woken up. Just when he thought he was in the clear, something had to happen that shook his entire world to its core.

"What happened out there?" Sam asked as he poured cups of coffee for himself and Pietro. "We got a call from Maria Hill saying there had been an incident on Broadway-at first we thought you two were dead. Everyone else is in meetings right now, trying to figure out what to do." He looked at the way Pietro was stirring his coffee aimlessly. "You know, you can tell me what happened. It might feel good to get it all of your chest."

Pietro sighed. He'd just wanted this to be a nice night he could share with Wanda-and instead it had ended terribly. People were dead, they were on HYDRA's hit list, and now his sister was upset with him because he'd crossed into forbidden territory he hadn't even known was forbidden.

Perfect.

Before he knew it he was telling Sam the full story. "We ran into some members of HYDRA in the middle of the first act. It didn't go well…"

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