Novi Grad, Sokovia

Spring 2015

The entire facility felt like it was on edge, the base buzzing with unease that was quickly swelling to fear. Something was happening outside the base, and Pietro was seriously considering popping outside himself to see what was going on. The exasperated eye-roll his twin gave him held off that decision, though. But that didn't stop him from flitting around the base a bit, looking for any hint of what was going on.

At first he was skeptical of the whispers. But as the whispers grew and became warnings then calls to arms, excitement overtook anticipation.

They were here. It was the Avengers, including Iron Man.

Pietro grinned at the news, his pulse beginning to thrum in anticipation as an eager prickle seemed to race across his skin. This was their chance. It was what he and Wanda had been waiting for, what they had endured so much for. It was going to be the first true test of their new abilities. Now they could see if they could hold their own against the Avengers.

Nearly bursting with excitement at what was happening outside the base, he dashed off in search of Wanda. He wasn't sure if Strucker even knew yet what was going on. But once the German scientist did, he'd be sure to send them out to face the attackers. It wasn't arrogance to think that Strucker's soldiers would be no match for the Avengers, no matter their numbers or the technology at their disposal. But Pietro and Wanda? Pietro had no doubt that they could handle them.

When Pietro found Wanda, she was in the Lab, perched on a stool rolled up next to the examination table where the slight blonde girl was still restrained. Eying the lab tech slumped in the corner, eyes distant and glazed and movements sluggish from Wanda's manipulation, Pietro cautiously slipped into the Lab himself. He couldn't help but feel his excitement at the arrival of the Avengers dimming as he noticed how Wanda was watching the other girl with distant, troubled eyes. It was enough to slow him down to a far more sedate speed, one that would be restrained even for a regular person. The blonde was sleeping fitfully, her skin coated in a sickly sheen of sweat, her pretty face drawn with discomfort even as her cheeks held a fevered flush. As he came to a stop at his sister's side, he noticed Wanda's hand kept twitching, alternatively shifting closer to the younger girl's trembling fingers and pulling irritably back.

Instantly he understood why; she wanted to comfort the other girl, to assure her through touch that she wasn't completely alone in this place. It was something they did with each other; touch a way of proving beyond doubt that they weren't alone. But Wanda knew all too well that just now, even the slightest breath of air against the blonde girl's skin was likely to be agonizing. So the pressure of another person's grip, no matter how light or gentle, would be excruciating.

Wanda hadn't even looked up as he approached, but he knew she knew he was there before he'd even reached her side. She'd always known when he was near. One might think it was a side-effect of her new powers, but Pietro knew better. Perhaps her powers had made her that much more sensitive to him then she had been before, but she'd always been able to do that, just as he had with her.

It was a twin thing, he supposed.

"Her name is Nina, and I think her body is going to accept the Sceptre's energy," Wanda finally said softly, "she's going to survive, and I think she's going to be like us..." Her voice was laden with too many emotions to decipher. But Pietro understood anyway.

He could tell Wanda was fairly certain she was right, that this girl—Nina—was going to survive Strucker's experiments just as they had...but there was still a flicker of doubt, a fear that the Sceptre's power would still be too much for the young blonde's body to bear. They didn't even know the girl, and yet Pietro knew Wanda had found herself becoming attached to her...just as he was. It likely came out of the fact that here she was, enduring everything they had gone through, all alone without the choice that they'd had. It had inspired a sense of protectiveness in them both, especially Wanda. They both knew what it was like to be alone, to have no one to protect them from the harsh realities of the world. But even then, they'd still always had each other.

But here was Nina, taken and experimented on against her will. It was just this sort of thing they had volunteered to endure in order to be able to prevent. And the fact that they had just let it happen? Well, it was probably another part of why they both felt the growing need to be there for her...to look out for her; not only were they likely to be two of the very few people on the planet who would understand what she was experiencing, but they felt—in part—responsible for what had been done to her.

It was a powerful motivation.

But then Wanda glanced up to Pietro, her eyes going wide. For a split-second he was bewildered until he realized what had just happened.

He hadn't had to say a word.

She now knew the Avengers were attacking the base.

Pietro's grin reappeared as the flutter of anticipation returned. Slowly his twin stood, her eyes growing bright as her excitement began growing too. Pietro held out his hand, gesturing for her to take it so he could whisk them off to the base's control room; that's where Strucker would inevitably appear, if he wasn't there already.

And they wanted to be there so he could unleash them on the Avengers.

Her own grin appearing to match Pietro's, Wanda stepped toward him, only to hesitate for a moment. With a final glance down at Nina, Wanda leaned over, brushing a few pale strands back from where they clung to the younger girl's sticky forehead. Then, satisfied as she could be with Nina's condition, she grabbed her twin's hand. Quicker than a blink, Pietro had her in his arms and was racing to the base's command centre.

Only for List to urge them to wait for Strucker to arrive...

...and then for Strucker to all but declare they weren't ready when he finally appeared.

Well, Pietro, for one, was no longer interested in standing idly by. This was their big chance, and he fully intended to take advantage of the opportunity to, well, stretch his legs. But as he glanced to Wanda, he couldn't miss the caution in her eyes.

It was then that a woman approached Strucker and List. Vaguely, Pietro recognized her; she'd been in and out of the base sporadically over the last several weeks, not that he and Wanda had had any real interaction with her.

"It's been confirmed that all the Avengers are present, Sir," she said as soon as she stopped next to Strucker and List, her voice holding a trace of a Russian accent. Strucker shot her an impatient look before turning away.

"We anticipated as much. They're after—"

"They brought Rykova with them." Strucker paused midsentence as the woman interrupted, his brow furrowing with thought at this apparently unexpected development as he turned back to her. Next to Pietro, Wanda tensed, her expression growing faintly perplexed. But before Pietro could do much more than squeeze his twin's hand, the dark-eyed woman had pressed on, her face lighting up with an unsettling eagerness.

"We don't need her anymore. You have the girl. Let me take out Rykova." Pietro glanced to Wanda in confusion, expecting to see a similar lack of understanding on her face. But his incomprehension only grew at the sight of a different brand of bewilderment, hers shadowed with alarm.

"And you think you can take her out?" The woman's dark eyes flashed with indignant fury, but Strucker merely turned away again. "You are no match for her, Katerina. Perhaps before her Enhancement, you could have managed to kill her, but certainly not anymore. And you are still too valuable to waste on such a foolish vendetta. No. Leave her alone for now."

Without a second glance, he turned away from the woman to address those scattered throughout the base's almost chaotic control-centre, drawing the attention of everyone still dashing and scurrying around in an effort to coordinate their force's countermeasures against the Avengers. Pietro paid him little attention, especially when he noticed that everyone in the room, List included, were focused solely on the German Baron's bolstering speech.

This time, when he glanced to his twin, there was no hesitation. With the barest of nods, he was whisking them away. He only slowed down when Wanda's arms tightened around his neck. Gently, he set his twin down once he'd ducked down an abandoned corridor on one of the middle levels of the base, the bottom floor of the upper fortress; the main keep, if it were to still be considered in a castle's terms. Not that it really resembled a true castle at all, anymore, save for its most cursory appearance.

A thoughtful look on her face, Wanda turned to Pietro before moving closer to one of the corridor's windows. Flashes of blue seemed to arc and glint through the tree cover down below them. There was definitely a fight going on down there. The faint, muffled sound of it was just barely able to make it up to the main buildings of the old fortress where the Twins stood. The ground shook sporadically as the huge energy-cannon embankments that littered the hillside and the base's causeway fired at the distant flying shape circling and swooping around the base. Pietro felt himself tense in recognition: Iron Man.

Stark really was here.

Pietro was practically bouncing, he was so eager to escape the confines of the base. But he hesitated. He didn't want to leave Wanda, and he could tell from the way she held back that she didn't feel ready for an outright fight, not like he was. And neither did she want to leave the base, not yet. His suspicions as to why were confirmed at the unconscious glance she sent in the direction of the labs.

She didn't feel right leaving the other girl undefended; it seemed neither of them held much faith in Strucker or his men anymore. Without having to say a word he nodded his understanding to her, fighting back a mischievous grin at the way she relaxed minutely. But it didn't ease the sudden shadow of worry in her eyes.

"Be careful," she ordered, her expression perfectly serious. Pietro couldn't help but roll his eyes. Really, she should know by now... "You will be careful, Pietro," she insisted, exasperation making its way into her tone. Enjoying himself too much in the wake of his anticipation to get out into the fray, he gave an exaggerated sigh. Of course, his twin saw through it in an instant, a glimmer of fond amusement surfacing in her blue-green eyes.

"Am I ever not?" She scoffed at his bluster, her hands fluttering at her sides in a helpless gesture.

"You are too reckless sometimes, Pietro," she scolded, "you act without thinking!" He shrugged, grinning impishly back at her this time.

"No. I think over everything. It doesn't look it, I know, but I do. I can't help it if I can think faster than everyone else." Wanda scoffed again at his brash arrogance, but her eyes were still glimmering happily even as a trace of a laughing grin played about her lips. Smiling, Pietro ducked in to wrap her in a one-armed hug as he placed a kiss just above her ear even as she hugged him lightly back, her shoulders trembling with suppressed laughter. Then, fighting to hide her affectionate expression behind one of exasperation, she pushed at his side, purposefully tickling at his ribs as she did so.

"Go, or the fighting's going to be over before you get out there." Obeying her silent and voiced prompting, he stepped back toward to main corridor.

"And there I would have thought you'd be okay with that," he threw back at her with mock exasperation of his own.

"Yes, only then I'd have to put up with you pouting about missing your fun," she teased back. Pulling out an exaggerated affronted look, Pietro only scoffed in response. Then, with a final reassuring grin to answer the re-emerging look of concern on his twin's face, he was off.

And did he ever enjoy himself. Far more than he anticipated. And he had anticipated enjoying himself a great deal.

Getting under the archer's skin had been entirely too satisfying, and Pietro hadn't been able to hold in his sense of accomplishment and pride at how easy it had been to get a good hit in on Captain America. True, he'd taken the legendary soldier by surprise and the older Enhanced had recovered easily enough...but still.

But it wasn't long at all before it was obviously time to go. Pietro felt like he'd barely made it out into the fight before Strucker's soldiers were surrendering and the Avengers had made their way inside the base. Even as Pietro raced back inside the fortress, there was no sign of Strucker anywhere, his own men wondering where he was, what to do next before simply surrendering.

Pietro felt nothing as he passed the beaten and incapacitated soldiers strewn throughout the corridors—evidence that Strucker's force was soundly beaten—save a small flicker of vindication. He had admired the man's sense of conviction and the gifts the man's vision had given him and his sister. He was grateful for what the Baron had done for him and Wanda, but that admiration had faded and the gratitude diminished the instant Nina had been dragged in against her will to be experimented on.

That had rubbed the young Sokovian the wrong way.

No, he felt nothing at the realization that the Baron was done for and destined to be locked up for the rest of his life...if he survived the attack at all.

Taking full advantage of his gift, Pietro dashed through the base, intent on finding Wanda and getting them both away from there. If the Avengers got their hands on either of them, neither Pietro nor Wanda would ever see the light of day again. Of that, Pietro was absolutely certain. And he was not at all interested in being locked away 'for public safety' or worse, becoming a lab rat for Avenger scientists to pick apart. And he knew Wanda felt the same way. Their quest for vengeance would be over if that were to happen. The Avengers and their allies would only see them both as a threat...which, admittedly, they were.

But Pietro was brought up short in his race through the base to find Wanda as he passed through the primary lab areas of the base. The Avengers hadn't made it that deep enough into the base, yet, so it was still virtually untouched, though abandoned.

Completely abandoned, as in, he didn't see anyone...

...including one blonde girl who had been restrained on one now very unoccupied exam table.

Pietro felt his throat threaten to close up with dread.

There were two possible explanations that immediately burst into his head.

Possibility one: Wanda had been wrong and Nina had—he didn't want to think about the likelihood of that option, but he couldn't help it.

Possibility two, and the far less likely one: the Avengers had made it this far into the base and she'd been taken away already.

As he slipped into the primary lab, the one he and Wanda knew intimately, he abruptly realized he didn't know which possibility was worse...

It was then that he caught a glimpse of blonde across the lab, and Pietro's heart nearly stopped.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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