Chapter Text
Wanda sensed an imposing presence just a few hours after she had retreated to her room in the Avengers compound. It was a strange feeling that raised the hairs on her arms and sent bumps forming on the back of her neck. The air became thicker and the young witch soon found it unbearable as objects encased in red began to float around her room from the disturbance in her personal energy. Was Tony experimenting with a stone? Was there someone similar to her in the building?
Wanda’s room remained quiet though it was quickly becoming eerie rather than peaceful. The moon casted shadows on the floor in the shapes of the items on her desk while the rest of the space remained plunged in darkness until Wanda realized the lamp in the corner may ease her sense of dread. She flicked it on without moving from her spot in her queen sized bed stationed in the center of her room.
A subtle bang from the ceiling had her tilting her head up and furrowing her brows. The vents were tightly shut and it wasn’t uncommon for a certain Avenger to venture up there from time to time but the noise sounded different compared to the past. It was quick and light, as if it was just the compound creaking with age. Wanda took a shaky breath and began to raise her hand as if red energy would light up the room momentarily, unscrewing the screws in the vent slowly.
“Wanda?” The knock on her door caused a small blast of energy to shoot out instead, denting the metal of the vent in the corner. “Are you alright? I detected something strange; it felt similar to your ability. Did you have a nightmare?” She recognized the voice as Vision’s and used her limbs to physically unlock the door rather than mindlessly flicking her wrist. He appeared as worried as a humanoid robot could be and she stepped aside to allow him into her bedroom.
Before closing the door Wanda peeked outside to find the hallway just as dark and silent as it was 3 hours ago. The door latched shut with a gentle click and she turned to face vision with her back pressed against it. “You said you felt my energy?”
Vision was now sitting on her bed as stiff as he always would. Usually she would find comfort in his habits but the night simply felt off. She couldn’t shake the disturbing feeling of being stalked—her family being stalked, rather. “Yes,” Vision responded, “although it did not feel exactly the same.” He noticed the slight heaviness of her Sokovian accent that had begun to disappear throughout the years thanks to Natasha. It usually came back when she was particularly nervous or upset. “It was almost thicker.”
“I think there’s someone in the compound who should not be here.” Vision tilted his head slightly and stared at the woman. She was picking at her nails and fidgeting with her hair while not leaving the wall. He had not seen her in such a state of distress since her brother had left them and even then she remained mostly composed unless alone. Such outward signs of anxiety meant that she was feeling more than he could have imagined, something darker and less welcoming.
“It feels almost like a spirit,” her accent mimicked the same thickness she possessed when she first joined the Avengers, “not an inviting one. I feel them all the time, but this one… is different.”
Vision stood and approached her. “Perhaps you are being paranoid?” Her eyes went wide as she stared at him as if she was testing if he would say more to discredit her feelings. It wasn’t connected to her emotions, it was such a dense feeling of energy that Wanda thought it might physically manifest before her eyes any second, and it wouldn’t be the vibrant red that hers presented as.
Wanda called upon FRIDAY to alert the other Avengers of the issue happening on her floor. Vision was standing behind her as she reached for the door knob, urging her to stop and think about if there really was someone or something on the floor. Her fingertips began to glow and pulse with energy as she pushed him aside and carefully turned the knob anyway.
She took slow steps into the hallway so as to not raise suspicion and didn’t see anything on either end the first time she scanned. Her energy began to dim as Wanda fully stepped out into the hallway. “There is no one…” she cut her statement short when a tall figure that wasn’t previously standing at the entrance of the hall was now backlit by the moon coming in from the tall windows in the living area.
It took Wanda’s eyes a moment to adjust and in that time Vision stepped a bit in front of her. The figure didn’t move aside from the slight tilt up of its head. Wanda’s hands glowed brighter as her energy travelled up her arms to her elbows and small balls of red formed in her palms. The figure seemed to be wearing a bolero hat and the moon gave a slight distinction between the top half of their clothing and the bottom.
From what Wanda could make out, the top of the outfit reminded her of a tailcoat paired with simple black pants and heavyweight boots. The light caught the person’s (thing?) face and she could make out what appeared to be the bottom half of a skull. Wanda’s breath caught in her throat and for an unknown reason she found herself hesitating to attack them.
Black mist swirled around them and they tilted their head almost like a confused puppy. “Wanda…” Vision started, obviously stiffer than the android usually was. The figure shot a hand out and a giant blast of energy nearly identical to Wanda’s struck the Avengers directly. They were thrown back to the end of the hallway and into the metal wall. Vision recovered quickly and attempted to send out an alarm signal to the rest of the compound.
The sickening thump of the figure’s boots stalking toward them made Wanda’s heart sink to her stomach. “N’ayez pas peur,” the woman said, “Vous serez bientôt mort.” She shot another blast that was countered by the young witch’s red. The black mist was still a bit more powerful but Wanda’s defense was able to throw it off the woman’s intended course.
Vision stepped in front of Wanda as she struggled to her feet, her eyes now stricken with vengeance. “Back away and surrender. There are others who have no intention of showing you mercy on the way.” To their surprise, she stopped halfway down the hallway and stood with the same confusing stiffness as before.
The android helped Wanda steady herself and mentally searched for the emergency escape latch that would send them to the panic room on the floor below. “What do you want?” Wanda muttered. The best plan was to stall until the others made it to the floor which, by Vision’s calculations, would be any second. The assassin was clearly more powerful than the witch whose powers were given to her via infinity stone and Vision knew that his stone would most likely be easily yanked out of his head with her mist.
The door of the floor blasted off and Wanda used her abilities to open the trap door where the two fell onto the floor below. As she fell, Wanda was able to catch a glimpse of the top half of the woman’s face which she thought was rather ordinary though the whites of her eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.
“You’re seriously making me erase the whiteboard back to 0? We had the highest streak we’ve ever had for no breaches,” Stark said with the partial version of his suit. He blasted a shot at the mystery standing in the hallway, still unmoving, but she turned swiftly and chucked a knife at his head which he dodged by mere centimeters.
Now facing Stark she almost failed to notice the other man that had appeared behind her. The voice in her ear whispered her surroundings and those ready to target her. Stark sent another blast her way and the other man threw his heavy metal shield at her head. She managed to only slow the blast while completely stopping the shield; the vibranium took far more effort to stop.
She could feel the prickling dampness of her bandages under her sleeve and in her gloves as black liquid no doubt began to ooze from her skin. Steve saw an opportunity to engage her in hand to hand combat which she shockingly obliged to though not without a weapon. Two curved knives looped around her first fingers then held in her palms reminded Steve of a scorpion’s stinger.
Stark took this time to completely lock down the floor and order the others to get her potential confinements ready. The woman was very well trained with the knives and made sharp, swift attempted cuts. She was able to dodge his shield the entire time, eventually using her abilities to yank it off of Captain America’s arm. She swept his legs with his own shield and kneeled over his back while holding his head up and positioning one of the knives on his neck.
Tony helped Wanda up from where she had been hiding and nodded his head as if to say ‘you know what to do’. The woman saw a brief flicker of a memory in her mind; she had been in this exact position before. Yet, she could not remember the context and the voice whispered, coaxing her to finish the job. Despite the opportunity, the woman hesitated.
Her hesitation allowed Wanda to creep up behind her, the voice screaming in the woman’s head to turn around or give it control to protect her body. Wanda put her hands by the intruder’s head and strands of red connected to her temples. The woman dropped the knives and seized up as dozens of unfamiliar memories resurfaced, all flashing quickly and leaving before she could even think about deciphering it.
Wanda saw slight accounts of what was happening in her head but most of it was too horrific for her to watch. What confused her the most was how little of a fight she put up. The memory recall did not happen until a few moments after the witch invaded her mind and if her mental reflexes were anything like her physical power, she should’ve had Wanda pinned to the ground in Steve’s place.
The lights flickered on every light bulb shattered, black mist seeming to release when they cracked. The woman’s head tilted so far back that her hat fell off and the young witch could now fully see her glazed over eyes and the top half of her face. Ringlets of jet black hair stuck to her forehead and right above her right eyebrow was a long, jagged scar that seemed to run through the right eye and disappeared under the mask.
The damaged iris was completely white, like she had suffered from a cataract, but the left was a dull grey that was flickering between its natural color and a fully black sclera. Eventually, the memories became too much and Wanda released the now unconscious woman who fell back onto her. Steve shuffled out from under the dead weight and helped get her off of the youngest Avenger.
Tony cuffed her wrists with a carefully designed set of handcuffs that restricted abilities, making an expression of disgust when his fingers grew damp from the contact with whatever sleeves she was wearing under the getup. Steve threw her over his shoulder with a good riddance and they all rode the elevator down to one of the basement floors, one that was painfully familiar to Banner.
The rest of the Avengers who either made it to the compound in time or were staying were already gathered in front of the glass confinement. Steve set her on the floor more gentle than he should have, he admits, and they swiftly closed and locked the door. Banner looked more distraught about seeing the container again, Natasha was as cold as ever, Sam had his arms crossed and his brows furrowed, and Bucky looked as if he swallowed a lump and saw a ghost all at the same time—a look that did not go unnoticed by Steve.
“She said something before you all came.”
Vision piped in, “It was French. Based on her accent I theorize that she is a native speaker. What she said translated to: Do not be afraid. You will be dead soon.” Bucky felt his knees begin to go weak and his sweat started to form in beads on his forehead around his hairline.
Steve approached his friend, leaving his shield leaning against the glass. “You alright, Buck?” The man, still not quite used to all the people around him, looked at Steve in alarm then directed his attention back to the thin figure lying on the floor in the confinement.
He would recognize that mask anywhere though it was a bit odd seeing the top half of her face, almost like it had been forbidden. Bucky himself had never exactly come into direct contact with her but she was somewhat a legend among Hydra. They said she was less than human, that the skull mask was hiding horrible disfigurement and exposed bone. They said she could slaughter a room full of people with the flick of her finger without so much as batting her eyes. The eyes that some would whisper about being black voids of absence where a soul once was.
Yet as she lay on the ground limp, the woman looked extraordinarily… human. Albeit ghastly pale and with kohl around her eyes covering the dark circles that never seemed to go away. Steve noticed Bucky’s gaze pinned to the container and his shoulders dropped in the realization that the Hydra logo embroidered on the shoulder of her uniform indicated that he might be aware of who she is.
“Do you recognize her?” It was so silent a pin could’ve dropped and the entire room would’ve looked to find the source. He sighed heavily before speaking.
Bucky clenched his metal fist and swallowed. “That’s Ankoù… Hydra’s deadliest.”