I'm spoiling you guys, aren't I? Or maybe not because things just keep getting worse for Haven. I know you guys miss Bucky, but just hold on. He'll kinda be back in two chapters. Gotta get through all the actual plot stuff first (gross). But I do love writing her friendship with Wanda. Figured it was time for some girl power time. Anyway, let me hear your comments, thoughts, random things that don't even relate!
While orange admittedly was one of the more flattering colors on my skin, it did little to compliment the angry red hue to Wanda's cheeks. Hugh was unconscious somewhere else in the compound, kept sedated by enough drugs to kill a full grown elephant. I had glimpsed the solitary medical unit while being escorted to my own cell block.
"One phone call. That's all I ask. What do I get? Smacked on the wrist for speaking," Wanda complained, voice elevating on the last bit so that the guard who wronged her would undoubtedly hear. Now the red danced into her eyes dangerously, magic swirling beneath the surface, threatening to get out.
I stuck my hand through the prison bars, beckoning her and her relentless pacing over. She collapsed on the floor beside my bed, head resting on the metal bars that separated our cells. She took my hand briefly before reclaiming it and combing her hair away from her face. She grunted and leaned to rest her chin on her fists.
"This was stupid. I know. I'm sorry. But I saw the gunshot and an opening and I panicked. You need to get that shoulder bullet proofed, by the way."
"Fucking tell me about it," I grumbled.
A faint smile pulled at her lips, warding off the dark thoughts that spun above her on angry clouds. I leaned my head against the cool bars now too, sweat tickling a path between my breast and down my back. It was hot enough without thick slabs of concrete walls to seal the heat in even further. I considered stripping off the prison suit entirely, filling the sink up with water and just curling my body into it.
"In Sokovia, our hottest summer would still require tights and a jacket."
"I have no excuse. I grew up with Christmases toastier than this. California made me weaker."
"You are the strongest person I know," she murmured.
"I don't know, I think Nat could beat me in arm wrestling."
Wanda sighed, crossing her legs and letting her head thump back against the wall, eyes staring unfocused up at the ceiling. "Strong of will. You know what you want and you push for it even if it might be wrong."
"That ended me up in prison. Twice now, actually. I don't think that strategy is faring very well for me. Though, I will give Tony's prison props for decoration and entertainment."
A wry smile picked at her lips. "If help does not come by tonight, then one of us must go get it. The Raft is located west not east and it is only a short boat ride away. 40 knots out directly from the port we entered in. You have to go find Menzel. You must get the cure from her."
"You know she can control me right? You'd be the safer bet for this journey. And if I stay, at least I stand a chance against…Yeah. And he kept calling me that weird name and frankly I think I mean something to him. So as much as I would enjoy putting an ocean between me and that bipolar bastard…"
"Yeah." Wanda finished, licking her chapped lips. She swallowed and continued with a scraggly voice. "So, we're decided?"
I dipped a nod and flinched as our neighbor started up some racket about his favorite radio station not being broadcasted over the speakers. In the absence of her daily late night talk show, I turned to Wanda with an impish grin on my lips.
"Say, Delilah?" I asked.
"Yes, dear?" she replied instantly in the soft, sing song voice of the radio host.
"I'd like to request a song for my grandma this evening. She's celebrating her newly refurbished house, doilies included and I just want to let her know how much I love her."
"Well of course. And I'm sure she knows. This one goes out to Haven's nana." She cleared her throat and hit the next note she belted rather expertly. "And I-eeeee-I will always love you!" I backed her up with the appropriate ohs and ahs and our appreciative listener even chimed in with her own set of harmonies.
A sharp wrap of a baton against my door abruptly ended the chorus of voices and a series of boos from the other cellmates picked up. The guard scowled at us, pulling her fingers across her lips in a silencing motion before marching away. I collapsed back onto my mattress, more spring than padding, and allowed laughter to strip away the misery that previous threatened to swallow me whole. Wanda was doubled over, hysterical and wiping tears from her eyes as the brief moment of carelessness blocked out everything else.
I did not realize silence had lapsed until it rammed into my ears like the loud screech of sechatas. Wanda glanced over, once against solemn, though hope now clung to the rims of her pale green eyes. "You miss him," she stated.
"I'm gonna pretend I don't know who you're referencing," I clipped.
"I know you fought. The night before we were taken. I felt the tension between you two. But I also know you say his name in your sleep."
"That's weird. I've been dreaming about Channing Tatum," I grumbled.
She rolled to her knees, grabbing the bars and glaring down at me through the slits. "You love him," she said.
"So?"
"Don't try to deny this, Haven. I can read emotions. You know that. And you…so?" she repeated. I shrugged as a triumphant grin plastered her dimples into her cheeks. "So, you faced your fear?" she said.
"Yeah. It was a blast. Like jumping into a volcano and hoping I didn't get burned. Love sucks."
"And you love me," she continued.
"Fine! Ok. You're my friend. Bucky is my boyfriend. Excuse me for using my heart."
"Stop being so dramatic. It's a good thing. It'll stabilize your powers. Just…no more offering yourself up as sacrifice. We get it. You don't value your own life. No need to keep proving it. Getting shot by those police was, what, the third time in the past few weeks?"
"Can't help it. Near death gets me off."
Wanda frowned at the deadpanned humor just as an animalistic howl cut through the sparsely occupied hallways, sending prisoners cowering in the far corners of their cells and police officers froze in their patrols. The young guard who had swatted Wanda and silenced them appeared with trembling in her knees and an ignorant determination in the set of her young brow. Her back was to her charges and her gun wavered in the air she was more likely to hit one of her commanding officers than the source of the horrendous noise.
I knew what had made it, however. No matter what human medicines they put into Hugh, he was beyond mortal reach. And now he was awake and livid.
"Rosa!" I hissed, throwing myself against the bars to warn her off, to tell her to run while she could.
She barked at me to get away, sweat dribbling off her cheek to fall on the badge where I had read her name.
"He will kill you!" Wanda put in.
As if summoned by the mere mention of him, Hugh lumbered down the hallway, feet dragging with him a bloody trail. The darkness of his eyes seeped into every crevice of his body and seemed to drip off his fingertips like living shadows; he was lost in the void and moments away from taking every living soul down with him.
"Hey," I said, voice wavering like a boat on the rocky waters he'd created. "You're ok. We're ok. You want to find Joy? We can go do that. We don't have to hurt anyone, ok?"
He blinked at me, body trembling as he fought for control. "You look so much like your mother, Mercy," he mumbled, the soft tinge to his voice leaking through the obsidian surface.
Mother? There was that name again. Was Mercy his daughter? Did he think I was his daughter?
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stand down," Rosa instructed. Though her English was clear, she was pale enough to pass for the dead herself.
Her voice broke my calming influence on Hugh and a current of air thrust Rosa back against the cell bars. Wanda snatched her in that same moment, using her powers to hurl the girl down an adjacent hall and out of immediate danger. The air crackled with energy, hers clashing against Hugh's as the bars to her cell bent out of his way. "You set me up," he whispered. "You sent that email. You tried to kill me."
"Fuck," Wanda said, lashing out in defense. Her blows staggered her more than him.
"Hugh stop!" I screamed, clawing at my own cell, willing the metal to yield for me like it had him.
"I'm sorry, Mercy. I know she was your friend." Hugh's hand curled around Wanda's jaw, her breath fleeing from her, leaving veins buldging in her temples. She was dying. My friend was slowly suffocating the way I had. Unlike me however, she would not be waking up if her eyes shut.
There was a scream that made the edges of my vision blur just slightly. Only afterwards did I realize it was the wind, cutting clean through the metal divider, barreling into Hugh with the full force of a category five hurricane. He was knocked backwards one step and the exertion on my part left me doubled over and wheezing for breath of my own. Now blackness danced in and out of my vision, and my muscles refused to acknowledge the orders of my brain.
"I know where the prison is. Wanda told me a few minutes ago. We don't need her we can go get Men…mother ourselves. We can be a family again." Lying had always come far too easily to me.
The current plan was to get him away from as many people as possible, then somehow manage to incapacitate him. Maybe sink him to the bottom of the ocean and pray the lack of air down there would be enough to keep him unconscious for a few centuries. Hugh touched my cheek tenderly and it took every smidge of my remaining self-control not to recoil. I glanced to Wanda's limp form, her barely focused gaze. The plan we had made was already going to hell, why not take a little vacation there myself?
"Family," Hugh repeated, scooping me in his arms and flying us clean through the weak ceiling.
Wanda would throw a fit when she woke up and remembered I had traded myself for her. She would skin my ass if I managed to keep this shit from hitting the fan. But she had been right. She was my friend and I could do something to save her so I did.