(MCU) Forged Reality: Chapter 14 - Hidden opportunity

Chapter 14 - Hidden opportunity

Summary: A quiet walk, a suspicious offer, and a choice that could change everything—Wanda sees more than she lets on.

Wanda was walking down the road into the main Compound building where their rooms were; next to her, Pietro was walking with his hands behind his neck, without a care in the world.

She looked around as the sun was setting over the green fields around the compound complex, illuminating the ground and reflecting off the building. Wanda took a moment to consider its design, as well as the design of the tower and his suits.

A small smile twitched on her lips as Wanda thought to herself that being a genius apparently gave Tony a good eye for design.

Thinking about the man brought a little blush to her face. Even to her, it's hard to believe how the past few weeks changed her view of him.

She went from cursing the man's name with every breath she took to considering him a friend, a kindred soul even.

Tony knew how it felt to lose your entire world in a single moment. He knew how it felt to drown your sorrow with delusion and false pretenses. And still, after so many years of being lost and all alone, he found his way back to his real self.

Well, sort of, at least. She didn't exactly feel it, but with her powers, some of her senses sharpened themselves naturally; one of them is her intuition, which after the reveal of List's betrayal, she decided would be wise to listen to.

Her intuition was telling her that there was still something holding Tony back, as if there was some barrier stopping him from going any further than he had reached, even though he still had room to. But it also felt to her like the barrier was partly self-enforced, like he didn't want to go past it for some reason.

One of the prime examples of that is his dependence on the Avengers. Why the hell did someone like Tony Stark have to answer to people like Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff while at the same time he was the one that provided them with a place to live, money for food, and basically everything else?

In the time she spent with the Avengers, with the exception of Rhodes and Wilson, the rest of them just walked around the compound as if they owned the place, talking about some plan or other while wasting Tony's money.

Though she guessed she wasn't much better in that regard. If the Avengers weren't deployed somewhere, she didn't exactly have anything else to do, and with her probation in place, it's not like she could go and work for some money even if she wanted to.

Still, she would have to think about how she and Pietro could return the favor for Tony. There was no good excuse to use the man's money without any care, even if they were friends now.

"Thinking about Tony, are you?" Her brother's voice drew her back to the present.

She turned her head to see her brother watching her from the corner of his eye with a teasing smirk on his face. He was still walking casually with his arms behind his neck.

Wanda tried to act as innocently as possible and deny whatever it was her twin was getting at. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Pietro chuckled a little before pointing out, "The blush on your face is saying otherwise, or are you into older men and planning how to steal Clint from Laura?"

Ignoring the comment about the blush—she was sure he was exaggerating anyway—she frowned and tried to correct her brother. "You know Tony is about the same age as us, right?"

Pietro shrugged the comment off and retorted, "Is he? Because by all accounts, he is about our age; the only different thing is that he has more memories."

Wanda considered it for a long moment; her brother had a very good point. For all purposes, Tony Stark was in his 20s right now, albeit with far more life experience than the average 20-year-old. Then again, she and her twin could say the same thing.

Maybe her brother had a point, but she would take her time to think about it; after all, just today she and Tony reached friendly status, and pushing it wouldn't do any good to either of them.

And to be honest, she still wasn't sure how he felt about her. He might be friendly and nice to her, but still, she did a lot of awful things to him specifically, so she could understand if this was the best she could hope for from him.

Pietro's smirk was starting to agitate her, and she was about to say something when they reached the entrance to the building, but the words caught in her throat when she noticed a familiar figure standing there, obviously waiting for them.

The moment he noticed them, his face twisted in disapproval, and he said, "You two shouldn't leave the compound without telling me; it's very irresponsible of you."

Wanda had to bite her tongue to not lash out at the blonde oaf. They weren't kids! They were adults that could make their own choices, and Rogers's attitude was annoying her to hell.

Pietro, on the other hand, didn't even try to hide his annoyance. He kept his relaxed posture, but his eyes were narrow and his lips twisted downward as he bit back at the American idol, "You are not our parole officer; we don't have to inform you of every step that we take, so lay off."

Rogers's face darkened, and his voice was calm, but Wanda could sense the anger the man felt at being disrespected. "This attitude is not fitting for someone on Earth's mightiest hero team."

Wanda could feel her twin's annoyance double; she tried to stop him even though she knew it was already too late. Pietro let out a mocking laugh and said in his snarking voice, "No Iron Man, no Hulk, and no Thor—looks like all the mightiest actually left the team."

Rogers glared at Pietro with pure resentment and rage. Wanda didn't want her brother to humiliate the blonde meathead and screw up their probation, so she chose that moment to intervene. "You wanted to talk with us... Captain."

She had to force herself to add the title, and even that was as an afterthought. But it did the trick and mollified Rogers enough to take a deep breath and return his smile to his face as he spoke, "Actually, I was looking to have a private word with you, Wanda."

If it was a request, then Wanda would find an excuse and get out of there as soon as possible, but knowing Rogers was basically issuing a command right now, she could only nod her acceptance.

The fool's smile grew even wider as he turned and called to her, "Great. Follow me."

Pietro gave her a concerned look; Wanda waved him away and said, "I can take care of myself; you go on. I'll catch up as soon as I'm done with him."

Her brother looked reluctant but nodded his agreement and left, leaving Wanda to follow Rogers into a random meeting room down the hall of the same floor.

Once they entered, Rogers turned to her with a bright smile and asked, "So Wanda, you understand why I was worried about you and your brother leaving without telling me—kids like you can get into a lot of trouble without knowing it."

Why the hell could she feel a wave of nostalgia washing over him? And that aside, this man was really irritating her, and she had to once again bite her lip from snapping at him about the "kids" comment. Tony survived torture for three months; she could stand this oaf for a couple of years until they could quit the team too.

Instead, Wanda decided to go with tilting her head innocently and ask, "Is that what you wanted to talk with me about, Captain?"

For a moment, she could feel the man's frustration at her avoiding the question again, before it was gone, and he shook his head. His smile faded a little, and he asked in a serious voice, "Can we talk if you promise to not repeat anything you hear here to anyone, even your brother?"

Wanda was about to refuse on instinct—she was not in the habit of hiding things from Pietro—when she froze. Tony said Rogers was planning something, and he wished he could get a better idea, but doing so would cause him more trouble than it would be worth.

Maybe this was a way for Wanda to help him back a little. If Rogers told her something worth mentioning to Tony, she could pass it along with Pietro; after all, a promise to a man without any sense of real honor didn't matter much to begin with, and if she had to lie to someone, she would much prefer to lie to the blonde across from her rather than her brother or Tony.

So she gave Rogers a curt nod, showing him she was willing to accept the condition without verbally confirming it.

She could feel the relief washing over the fool as his smile widened. "Great. I want you to be a part of my team."

Wanda frowned. "Aren't I already part of the Avengers?"

There was an uncomfortable feeling in the air for a moment before Rogers forced a small smile on his face and started explaining, "You see, I have a little personal mission of my own that I have been running that shouldn't involve the Avengers."

But you have no issue using their money and resources for it, Wanda thought to herself bitterly. After all, thanks to his spending record, Tony already figured as much that Rogers was running his own side operation here; what she needed to know was what it was.

Wanda gave the impression she considered his words before speaking slowly, "I need to know what we are doing before I agree."

Rogers seemed to buy her act as he felt encouraged to go on. "You see, I had a best friend before I was frozen; he was my entire family. I thought he died during the war, but during our victory over Hydra, I found out he is still alive, and Hydra was controlling him. He saved my life when the helicarrier fell and then disappeared; we've been looking for him all this time."

Wanda thought she remembered something about a brainwashed soldier captive Hydra was using as an assassin. What was his name... The Winter Soldier. So that guy was a friend of Rogers's, and he wanted to find and help him. That sounded fine enough, so why did she have a bad feeling about the whole thing?

That was a lot of new information Tony would sure find interesting, but she could still get more, so with a confused tone, she asked, "We?"

Rogers puffed his chest, seemingly proud of the team he had gathered. "Me, Natasha, and Sam."

Wanda cringed on the inside. So basically, what they had was a spy, a fanboy, and a super soldier that, if rumors were right, repeatedly lost to the man he was looking for. That was a shit show waiting to happen, something to tell Tony for sure. Though she felt like there was something else that all of them shared, something that Rogers thought she shared too, and that's why he was inviting her.

Still, Wanda put on a small smile on her face and said as enthusiastically as she could manage to fake, "I would love to join you."

Wanda almost laughed out loud when she felt the amount of joy that filled the stupid American idol after she accepted.

She decided to take a chance and draw one last piece of information from the oaf for today. She tried to look as innocent as possible and asked, "Why not tell Stark..." And it was ironic how hard she found it now to put even that little venom to the name. "He would be able to find your friend pretty quickly."

Wanda almost choked on the dread coming out of the man; it almost felt like he could kill her for just suggesting the idea. He tried to force himself to speak calmly, though she could still hear the edge of panic there. "Stark can't know about it. No matter what, he can't find out."

And that's when she realized what else there was that united Rogers's team—they were all against Tony in one way or another. Oh, yeah, this was surely something he needed to know.

Wanda would play the spy. She would fake her hatred of Tony again, this time to help him. But when the time came and she would have to choose a team, she already knew where she would stand.