An Incomplete Homecoming

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Who: Wanda Maximoff
Broadcast: Yes; Network-wide
Action: Starstruck
When: Now


[The scene that appears as the communicator's video feed clicks on is that of a dimly lit bunkroom aboard one of the fleet ships. The crew of the Starstruck, and any of Wanda's friends who have visited her room, will recognize the space rather quickly as the young Maximoff girl's own. What may be surprising, however, is that, what had been an empty room for over a month, now contained someone sleeping on the cot. Wherever Wanda had gone, it had been clear that the Atroma had not exactly sent her home and out of the fleet. All of her belongings had remained in her room, and her name never left the Starstruck's or Fleet's registry. Still, she'd been absent for some time, seemingly having vanished into thin air. But now, the communicator's feed was showing her asleep in her room as if nothing had changed at all.]

[However, it soon becomes clear that something has indeed changed about Wanda. As she begins to stir, the young woman sits slowly up in bed, stretching her arms overhead as she starts to awaken fully. Her eyes spread wide in a look of first confusion that begins to seem more panicked. She looks about her own bunk room as if she's never seen it before. The note of fear in her eyes makes her seem not like someone who has spent over a year in the fleet. Instead, she seems more like --]

This... this is not where I-- What- what is this place? Did the Avengers... did they move me here in my sleep? But how could they have...

[Her voice is quiet, believing she is only speaking to herself. She seems unaware of the communicator recording all of this. Though, it is now rather clear that Wanda does not recognize where she is at all.]

[She swings her legs out over the edge of the cot, slowly getting up, and measuring the size of the room. As she studies the small interior, her eyes stop on the occasional picture or keepsake hanging on the walls. Various trinkets she's collected from the planets visited during her time in the fleet. There's a look to her eyes as if each item kindles a flicker of recognition that is then almost immediately snuffed out. Each time leaving her looking more and more bewildered and frustrated.]

[She shakes her head. Whatever was happening clearly was proving to be a lot to process. She then spies the communicator out of the corner of her eye. She takes a step over and picks the device up. Holding it out in front of her now, she stares at the screen for a moment. She looks as if this is her very first time ever handling the device. But then, in an instant, she seems to suddenly recognize what exactly it is that she's holding. She then addresses the screen with a calm, yet slightly edged tone.]

Whoever is watching this, I do not appreciate being toyed with. I did not think the Avengers were ones for such games. If this is some kind of test, I expect an explanation. Now.

Comments

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[exothermia]

[Wanda's broadcast catches Erik's attention. He watches her evident confusion with a frown, and come to think of it, he hasn't seen her in a while... that isn't unusual for him, given his less social habits. Still, this isn't the kind of reaction he would expect from her. She looks almost like a fresh arrival. Another trick of the Fleet?

Old habit takes over, and his response is measured.]

The Atroma are the responsible ones. Does that name mean anything to you?

Video

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[There's a weird moment, lasting for maybe only half a second, where Wanda stares blankly at Erik's face on the communicator screen. It's as if her brain is trying to recognize who it is she's speaking to -- like it knows they've interacted before, yet the connections are just not forming correctly. Wanda shakes her head again, this time closing her yes and furrowing her brow.]

[What was it with this place and this weird feeling about it?]

[When she looks back up at the screen again, she looks more frustrated before, and her tone has a bit more edge to it. However, she is still tries to sound somewhat calm and measured.]

Nothing. The name means nothing to me. You claim to know these "Atroma" are responsible, and yet you have yet to even identify yourself. Why should I trust what you have to say?

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[exothermia]

[There's no recognition there. His brow creases with concern, before he settles back into a more neutral expression. Wanda forgetting him is... worrying, but her concerns are of a higher priority right now.]

My name is Erik Lehnsherr. I asked you because I needed to know what you knew about this place. It can affect your memory.

And you shouldn't trust me if you don't see a reason to.

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[notmutantbutmiracle]

What I knew about this place? You speak as though I should know where I am.

[Wanda raises an eyebrow.]

"I shouldn't trust you if I don't see a reason to..." How am I to trust anyone right now? I've been brought someplace I know not where, and no one has yet explained to me what exactly is happening.

video;

[lightbends]

Wanda? Hey... it's alright. You're safe. Did something happen?

[Why was she acting like she didn't remember?]

Video

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[For a second, Wanda's face brightens and there's a flicker of a grin on her face. But the moment passes in an instant, her expression now replaced with a somewhat perplexed look.]

[Why did I just--]

How- how do you know my name?

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[lightbends]

We're friends. Or- we're supposed to be.

[Korra is willing to be patient and help her remember. She knew how scary it was to lose memories. She'd washed ashore on an island a few years ago back home, only for her memories of her life as the Avatar to be erased. It had taken some deep digging to find herself again.]

Video

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Friends? I don't...

I'm sorry, Korra, but I don't remember --

[She immediately stops. Her eyes going wide in both shock and concern. How-- how do I know this girl's name is Korra?]

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[outstandingbalance]

Not a test. [Natasha takes in Wanda's reaction neutrally. The way she rouses like that—Natasha considers it with concern. New? But she's waking up on Starstruck, not the Marsiva.

Augment glitch, then? Natasha has recently been shown just how plausible that is.]

What do you remember?

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[notmutantbutmiracle]

The Black Widow. Agent Romanoff.

[She says in a very sarcastic, "I knew it" style of tone. Her expression maintains its severe look.]

Not a test, and yet here come the questions.

[She looks peeved by all this. But... perhaps this was some sort of weird, Avengers initiation ritual? Did they still feel the need to test her after she had fought alongside them against Ultron? She supposes that her actions before the battle of Sokovia did warrant some distrust, but... she had chosen to follow them after her city's destruction. And she... she had lost so much in the battle... her city, her brother... Theses thoughts begin to anger her more.]

daži nervu.

[She mutters in her native tongue. Her brow creases, and she seems to be debating with herself whether or not to answer Natasha's question. As if answering it means that she's giving in to playing this irritating game they're playing. However, she seems to resign herself to going along with whatever was happening, letting out an exasperated sigh.]

The last thing I remember... we fought Ultron. The people of Sokovia were evacuated with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help, but the city- my city fell.

[She looks more pained now. She leaves out the death of her twin brother. Fearing that saying it out loud will only further salt that still fresh wound. The way she is reacting... it's as if all this had just happened to her yesterday. All over again.]

I chose to follow you and the rest of the Avengers.

[Not like I had much choice otherwise... but, I did want to redeem what I'd done -- the part I played in bringing about Sokovia's destruction by assisting Ultron. I want to protect the innocent. No one should have to go through what I and all of Sokovia did. All of this goes unsaid, but perhaps the famous Natasha Romanoff might be able to discern what is happening behind the young Maximoff's eyes.]

We flew back to your base. I was given a room. And that's it. That's all I remember before this- whatever this is, started.

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[outstandingbalance]

Then you woke up here.

[Lovely. No way for this to start getting messy. At least she remembers being on their side, but that's not much comfort.]

Sorry. I know what that's like.

[Not her favorite.]

Sorry to say, still isn't a test. You're not going to like what it is all that much, either.

Video

[notmutantbutmiracle]

You know what what's like? Waking up someplace unknown? Being left in confusion without a straight answer? Feeling like you're being toyed with by the very people who you thought allies? Or perhaps all the above?

[Wanda's temper clearly flaring now. She's not keen on all this circumspect, dancing around the subject talk.]

If this is not a test and you or the other Avengers are not responsible, then what is this?

[axiomed]

[ That's unsettling. He could guess what happened, but Charles didn't have to like it. ]

I do not believe the Avengers engineered this for you.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Oh? And who are you to claim to know what is and is not their work?

[The sarcastic edge in her voice very evident. However, something odd happens in the second after she spits the words out. Her brows tilt slightly upward, her lower lip pouts ever slightly upward. A micro-expression of guilt and apology that vanishes in an instant. Whether or not she's aware she even made such an expression, Wanda does not show.]

[axiomed]

I know them. Though I suppose I can't say I know all of them personally. I used to talk to Vision a fair deal.

My names is Charles Xavier. I run a school for gifted children. Children with powers.

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[pain_train]

[Okay, Wanda is sounding a little weird, but a lot of people are super disoriented after waking up, for various reasons. The important thing is that she's awake again!]

Wanda! I hope you're feeling better. Um. I don't think anyone's moved you around, but I'm not on your ship.

But. Um. Kind of sad news. Vision went home. I'm ....sorry.

Video

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[There's a moment, after Wrath states that Vision has gone home and that she's sorry, where Wanda seems to freeze. There's almost no emotion on her face, just a sort of look of dull surprise. It's like, her body knows she is supposed to be reacting to this in some way, but the connections are just not being made in her head as to how to process this. Her eyes drift away from the communicator screen and over to a camera, she just now feels like she's noticing, sitting on a trunk at the edge of her bed. Her gaze lingers on it a moment, and then it drifts down to a necklace she's wearing -- yet doesn't remember ever putting on -- that has a yellow, gem stone ring hanging from it. Wanda delicately reaches up with one hand to touch it. When she does, tears start flowing down her face of their own volition. The rest of her expression is that of confusion. She doesn't seem to understand why she's crying. Her mouth sort of just opens and closes. She's failing to come to an appropriate response or explanation as to what is happening.]

I- I don't know why... why I'm crying. I- I don't even know... who you are or how you know my name or how you know Vision or...

[The expression on Wanda's face starts to look more panicked and scared.]

What's- what's happening to me?

Re: Video

[pain_train]

[Oh. Shit.]

Um. I'm really sorry.

Maybe you forgot some things. But even when they try to erase stuff, it never goes all the way away, I don't think. I remember weird stuff that's not really connected to other things sometimes, and it's confusing.

[But why do that to Wanda? She thought they didn't do that here. Oh god.]

Um. I'm Wrath. Vision was my captain for a while. And since you were friends with Vision, we at least knew each other? You were really nice to me.

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[uprightness]

Wanda -

[ there's a frown on his face, immediate concern sneaking into his features. she seems disoriented, confused. She speaks of the Avengers as a thing in the present, as if they were never disbanded, as if they are still in training. a test, she says and steve is on his feet, already. in his mind, this situation is parallel to another, to waking him, disoriented, in a room that was designed to look like any other in the 40s, a nurse with dark curls and dark lipstick and a game her already knew on the radio.

He had reacted to it and not well. She might do the same if she's frightened. ]

Wanda, hey - listen to me. This isn't a test, we're all here. I can explain. Let me come see you, I'm two doors down.

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[notmutantbutmiracle]

Rogers.

[She says his last name so curtly, sounding very different from the Wanda that Steve had consoled in the Starstruck's shuttle bay a month ago.]

[At first, she doesn't respond right away to his request to talk in person. Instead, she appears to be mulling it over. Out of all the Avengers though, Steve was the one she was most willing to talk with face-to-face. He'd been the first to extend a hand to her and Pietro and offer an alliance, albeit the situation had left him with little choice at the time -- training derailing and crashing through the busy market streets of South Korea. Yet, he had trusted them enough to take her and Pietro back with him to Avengers tower -- even after their fight against one another in Africa. So, with an exasperated sigh, Wanda nods.]

Captain America... two doors down... this should be interesting.

[The last bits are more muttered to herself, but, considering the proximity of the communicator, Steve likely heard it.]

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[uprightness]

[ something's wrong.

not awful as she doesn't lash out or attack so whatever's the atroma did this time, it's not the same as what happened with Bucky. A good thing, too, Steve isn't sure what are their chances against a hostile Wanda here.

Carefully, gently, he asks - ]

Do you want to come over and see for yourself or should I walk over to you?

action;;

[silvercast]

[ The broadcast comes as a surprise, and he doesn't finish listening to it before he is barging into his sister's room. Her voice had been more than enough to spur him into action, her presence a bit stronger in his head. Not the strength as it would be back home, but it's something.

He's been anxious- worried to death over his sister's fate and she's here and safe, and that's all that matters to Pietro. He barges through the door and is at her bedside a moment after, touching her face. ]

Wanda.. You're awake.. [ He almost can't believe it. ]

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[notmutantbutmiracle]

[At the sound of someone barging into her room, Wanda whips around expecting a fight. Her eyes and hands flare with scarlet, kinetic energy as she readies a condensed bolt to fire at --]

[And immediately, like flipping a switch, her powers deactivate. The red luminescence around her hands blinks out and the tinge of color in her eyes fades back to normal. Her mouth and eyes go wide with shock. She covers her mouth with her hand. She can't believe it. Pietro?! But he-- she had felt him in those last moments. Felt his pain and his fading presence from her mind, leaving a gaping hole in her heart. Yet, here he was! How was that poss--]

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[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Yet, before she can even finish the thought, he's walked up to her, reassuringly touching her face. He was real. This was real. Suddenly, out of all the mental haze and disarray she'd been experiencing, a clarity comes in the rekindling of a familiar presence in her mind. Their mental connection, their bond, re-established, and thus confirming that this was undoubtedly her brother and not some elaborate trick.]

[She throws her arms around him and wraps him a tight embrace. She starts sobbing as she buries her head into his chest. To have him here with her again, for them to be reconnected like this in such a strange place... the relief far outweighs the questions in her mind.]

[After a moment, she finally is able to mutter, barely audibly with her face still pressed against his chest.]

You're here. You're really here.

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[silvercast]

[ He wraps his arms around his sister, one hand going to the back of her neck, his fingers tangling in her long hair. She hugs him like they've parted-- the same way she'd hugged him when he first arrived.. Pietro is furious that the Atroma are once again tormenting his sister. Who do they think they are that they play god in this way?

He doesn't let her go, simply being there for her, shushing her in their mother tongue. ]

I'm still here. Big brother isn't going anywhere.