I gasped awake. Birds were singing from the nearby trees. The sun was shining. And I was standing—in a place I'd never been. An orchard, it looked like. The sky was blue, and the trees were heavy with fruit.
"What the hell is this?" I asked. But there was no answer. Chaos couldn't create memories from nothing. She could manipulate things I'd already seen but never create something new. And I was certain I'd never been to this place before. "Chaos?"
"She's not here," a voice said. I turned toward it, finding Wanda standing beneath one of the trees. She looked at peace, a gardener tending to her orchard. Not a witch. Not the woman who'd violently tortured my mind until I couldn't tell the difference between dreams and reality.
Until I shot my own father.
"How is she not here?"
"There isn't enough of her to fight me now. I called you here."
"Where is here?"
"Here is wherever you imagine it to be." I took a step toward her.
"Why?"
"I've been trying to reach you for weeks, you know? Months even. If you count the times you were still in your chamber."
"I do. But that doesn't answer my question." She looked me up and down, studying me as if she was seeing me for the first time.
"You have no idea what you are, do you?" I stopped.
"What do you mean?"
"She's lying to you. The Chaos. I brought you here where she couldn't reach you because she won't let me tell you the truth."
"But you built a bridge."
"I built a bridge, which she immediately claimed for herself. She allowed Barnes through. But not me. Any time I got close enough to speak to you, she shoved me back out. When I realized what she was and what she really wanted, I left. They've been dealing with an illusion of me for weeks."
"How was she able to shove you out? If she couldn't before. When we were both with Hydra."
"Because there wasn't enough of her then." The sun dimmed, and she looked up. The sky was darkening. Much too quickly to be real. "She knows you're here, and I've found you," she said."We're limited on time. So I'll get right to the point."
"Which is?"
"Beata Frindt didn't just create the perfect Vessel. She already was the perfect Vessel. Why do you think she hid her family away? Why do you think she hid you away? Why do you think she used her own blood to make the enhancements?"
"Genetics." She smiled as if I was stupid, and she was only placating me.
"Beata had a certain gene, yes. The same gene I have."
"Which is?"
"Beata had magic in her blood."
"Magic—like what you can do?"
"Or something like it. I had magic in my blood too. But it wasn't until I was exposed to an infinity stone that I learned to wield it. To become what I am. You had that potential in you too. But it wasn't until they put Chaos in you that you learned to wield it."
"So what does that have to do with anything?"
"The Darkness. It's not a byproduct of Chaos. It's yours. Your magic. It always has been. Chaos just woke it up. Learned how to use it to her own gain."
"Protecting me."
"Protecting her Vessel, yes. But you turned it on Barnes, didn't you? And why isn't he dead?"
"Because I called it back."
"Exactly. Because it answers to you. Chaos couldn't exist inside another body unless that body already had magic in it. Which means..." It took me a moment to make sense of what she was telling me.
"Bucky doesn't have magic in him," I realized. She nodded slowly.
"Chaos is an infection, Johanna. She consumes to expand. And she only knows how to expand."
"But she wouldn't—she loves him."
"Does she? Or does it just want you to believe that?"
"Why would she go after him? She could kill without having to do all this."
"Chaos always goes for the strongest target. She used your Darkness to kill strangers when she needed to feed. People who were a threat to you. Because you wouldn't fight back. But when she turned your Darkness against what she truly wanted, power, you could call it back. Remember what Hydra intended to use Chaos for in the first place."
"The Avengers."
"Yes. But she knew that if she turned you against them, you'd be powerful enough to call the Darkness back and stop her from feeding. So she waited. Planted the right seeds to make you think this was for the best. She wanted you to give him to her willingly."
"How do I stop her? How do I get rid of her?" The sky was growing even darker now. Almost turning into night.
"You take back control of your Darkness. It belongs to you now. And she knows she's running out of time. That's why she chose to go after him now. Chaos expands. She needs to expand. And she doesn't just dissipate into the atmosphere when she feeds. She finds her way back to you. That's why you suffer after every death. That's why it feels harder to control the more she consumes. The part of it in Barnes will return to you once it's consumed him. And with as much power as he has, you won't be able to fight her anymore.
"But she's temporarily weak. And remember that you control the dreams and the memories. She can recall them, but you make them. You can stop her from taking control."
"She's killing me. I don't have time to learn how to control it."
"All you have to do is take. Him. Back." She stepped closer to me. I knew this was an illusion the moment I saw her. And part of me would never fully trust her. But I was certain she was showing me her real face. Her real fear. She was telling me this because Chaos was a threat to her too. "Regain control," she said slowly. "Or you'll lose everything you love."
Sorry if this chapter is a bit confusing. I originally planned for Wanda to have a bigger part, but Doctor Strange kinda threw a wrench into things. I'm pretty sure there's a chapter coming up that goes into more detail about what's happening here.