Wanda was pissed.
And maybe she had a right to be. We, meaning I, hadn't even thought about taking her along when we'd left to play rescue heroes. We'd been gone three days and had only left when serious UN assistance had arrived along with reporters, lots of them. The need to keep a low profile had outweighed what little we could continue to do to help. Those coming in had the resources we lacked and would take good care of those displaced by the disaster.
Even in the midst of a tragedy such as we had witnessed videos got out, some of them showing me performing feats that no ordinary human could do, no matter how desperate the situation. Wouldn't be difficult to put two and two together and figure out the man covered in black from head to to toe was the former Avenger known as Captain America. Especially with Sam flying around. Most of those shots had been blurry, but there weren't too many of those EXO suits lying about in Africa.
I'd cleaned up and scored a few hours of sleep before heading to a debriefing with T'Challa when I'd been intercepted on the way there by one angry scarlet witch. I hadn't seen her, just found myself stopped dead with glowing lines of energy wrapped about me.
I didn't fight it, just turned my head to look at her, eyes narrowed and jaw set in stubborn anger.
"Why did you leave me behind?" she asked, accent thicker than usual in her ire.
I shook my head. "I didn't."
She cocked her head to the left, fingers twitching and tightening the tendrils about me for a moment.
"Ow," I said, not because it actually hurt, but because sometimes, much like me, she did not realize her own strength. I knew what she could do, and, yes, she could hurt me with what would probably be a minimal effort of will.
The angry red energy dissipated instantly, but she did not apologize. "Why then?"
I scratched the back of my head, and tried not to yawn. I wanted to sleep for another seventy years or so I felt so worn. "At the risk of you getting angrier... we forgot?"
For an instant the red energy appeared about her hands, then faded as my words sank in. "You forgot me?"
I nodded and spread my hands wide in apology. "T'Challa asked, we geared up and left. Took maybe thirty minutes to get in the air."
"I would have helped," she said, sounding sad, defeated and maybe lonely.
I walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder. "I know you could have. In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm not perfect."
"Oh, I've known that all along," she snarked, a tiny grin appearing on her lips. "Next time I am going with you, you are not the only one who needs to prove they are not..." She came to a confused halt, not certain what words to end her statement with.
"Dangerous? Evil?" I filled in when she couldn't decide.
She nodded. "And more. My mistake is what led to this, I need... want to do everything I can to show them I can be more."
"You don't need to prove your worth to anyone," I argued, but she shook her head.
"Of course we do. We're supposed to be better than all of them. Heroes... Superheroes and all they can see is the damage we caused, not the sacrifices we made to save as many as we could." She looked up at me her words gaining a plaintive note, "Why is that?"
"People distrust what they don't understand," I offered up by way of an explanation, though in truth I didn't understand it either. During the war, no one had questioned what I and the Howling Commandos could do, just thanked us and sent us out to try and get killed some more. But that's what we did, we took on the hard jobs that no one else could do and, yeah, we sacrificed to do it, sometimes blood, friendship, time, love and, occasionally, lives.
She sighed heavily. An adequate response, I supposed.
"What will we do now? We are not Avengers, the world does not want us any longer." She seemed so lost, more so than after Sokovia and the loss of her brother and I realized I'd been an idiot to leave her alone. Instead of healing she'd felt abandoned, unsure where she stood with herself, much less the world at large.
Not that I felt much different. It had taken this mission for me to find some solid fotting to stand upon once again.
"What do you think we should do?" I asked, wondering if she had any idea what she wanted to do with her life.
"Do?" she echoed. "Everything I can. Help people. We don't have to be fighting aliens or robots to save people, do we?"
And that's why she had been so angry. We had left her behind to go save a comparatively tiny corner of the world without realizing she might want to do her part as well. And while it wouldn't have been pretty, and could have gotten her killed, that would always be her choice to make, not mine.
Earning the right to be an Avenger had earned her the same right to choose for herself. Little wonder she'd rebelled when Tony and Vison had confined her to the compound.
When I didn't react quickly enough she added, "What? Do you think I'm going to get a job as a secretary or something? And you, are you going to get an ordinary day job and just fade into obscurity? Or maybe join your friend in cryo-stasis, let the world go to hell while hoping you wake up to a better one?" Anger and frustration could easily be heard in her tone. She had begun as a Hydra experiment, taken her place as an Avenger and then thrown it all away to stand by my side.
And she was right. we could not go back to being ordinary people, the hero thing was in our blood, our souls, but I had to admit it would be nice to just be me for a while. Sadly, I didn't know who that was. Even before the serum I'd just wanted to help, which is why I'd tried to join the Army so many times. I couldn't not do something when needed.
I felt kind of bad that Wanda had caught the same annoying bug. Least I was in good company.
"I can't say another situation like this will come up," I finally said to her.
"It will and we will do what we can to help, yes?"
I nodded, feeling a sense of pride for her and all she had accomplished. "Yes. Now, want to sit in on a boring meeting, see and hear about all the fun you missed?"
"I would like that very much."
Together we walked towards the conference room.