'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word count: 2,011)
~ A day later, with Fury, Hill, Wanda and Pietro, in Fury's office ~
"Uh, is he always like this?" Pietro asked aloud, which earned him a pointed stare from Fury. "He's scary," Pietro said, softer than his earlier comment. Pietro, along with Wanda and Hill had landed at the SHIELD headquarters just a moment ago and was now currently standing in Fury's office.
To Fury's surprise, as Wanda walked into the room, Fury had seen the familiar black-gold diary in Wanda's grasp. 'It appears that Wanda is aware of the contents within the diary. Looking at the way she is clutching the diary, she seems to hold on to it as something precious to her. Why?' Choosing not to reveal anything, Fury sat still in his chair, wondering what he should do with the new piece of information that he had learned. 'She doesn't need to know that others know. I will inform Natasha so that she can monitor Wanda as well. With Stark Industries close by to where I would be sending the Maximoff siblings temporarily, it would be a shame for her to do something we wouldn't want her to do.'
Staring at the siblings in contemplation, this had unfortunately, or fortunately in Fury's case, made him seem like a scary, eye-patch wearing hidden boss, giving both Wanda and Pietro a first impression that they would likely not forget.
Finishing his thoughts a few minutes later, Fury finally began, "Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twin siblings born to Iryna and Olek Maximoff, orphaned at the age of 7 due to the misfortune of the Novi Grad Bombings." At Fury's introduction of their information, both Wanda and Pietro raised their guard, although unsurprised since they had known that the man in front of them had specifically asked for them to be brought back to him. "Do you know why I had one of my top agents to personally set out to find and bring you here to me?" Fury asked.
To Pietro's credit, he had immediately and subtly grabbed Wanda's hand, in preparation to make a run for it should they need to as he replied, "No, we don't even know you. Ice Queen over here didn't say anything else except that you wanted to see us." This had gotten a reaction from Hill, who raised her eyebrows at the name Pietro had used to refer to her. 'Ice Queen? It's called being a professional. Kids these days.' Hill thought to herself.
Amused, Fury finally stated why he had wanted to see them. "Truth be told, this was all just a whim."
"A whim? You flew us all the way here from Sokovia, just on a whim?" Wanda repeated, surprised to hear the reason why she and Pietro had been saved from their captors. "You could have saved anyone from that shit hole, yet you chose us. Why?"
"Did I need a grand explanation? Can't a man in high places act on his whims from time to time?" Fury said. To Pietro and Wanda's credit, they had sensed that the man in front of them was hiding something from them, however they could not sense any hostility coming from him. Living in the orphanage for almost a decade, where they were constantly subjected to the hostile gazes of the residents of the orphanage every day, had allowed them to develop a sort of sixth sense for matters like these.
Seeing that they were currently dumbfounded and speechless, Fury continued, "Alright, Agent Hill will start setting you set up here in New York. In the meantime, I'm going to send you to Los Angeles. Why? Call it another whim. Take this time in LA to get used to your surroundings. Once everything's ready, we'll get you back here."
Confused at the location hopping, Pietro had to ask, "Wait, why can't we just stay here or just stay at this Los Angeles? Is there a reason we need to move places?"
Fury, listening to Pietro's enquiry, only gave him another pointed stare, which made Pietro subconsciously take a step backwards. "Like I said, call it a whim. Something interesting might happen and that's all you need to know. Also, I've read your files," turning to look at Wanda and wanting to test her, "I know what you desire, so I should let you know first. Tony Stark has been kidnapped."
"WHAT?!" Pietro shouted. At this point, Wanda had made a mistake. As she was a diary holder, she already knew what happened to Tony. However, she failed to recognize that she shouldn't have known about it. At her silence on the matter, Pietro was the one who was most shocked. 'Why isn't she reacting to this? Between the both of us, she's been the one who had held Tony responsible the most for our parent's death. She had always sought his death in return. She's been acting strange these days. What happened to her?'
Smirking internally at having caught Wanda's blunder, Fury spoke, "Ms Maximoff. Judging from the way your brother reacted, this should have been a piece of world news that the both of you should not have known about. And yet you look like you've known about it for awhile now. Care to tell the room why?" This was the true test, Fury had wanted to see how she would have reacted to Tony's kidnapping to test her mental psyche as Fury knew from the diary that Wanda had wanted to kill Tony the most, going as far as joining someone called "Ultron" in order to do so.
Having been put in the spotlight, under the stares of Fury, Hill and her own brother, Wanda's mind went into overdrive to think of a way to get herself out of the situation. "Is this so surprising? All of Sokovia holds Tony Stark accountable for the Novi Grad Bombing. It's only natural for Sokovians to hear of this news when it happens. If anything, I'd say he deserves this. As for how I knew about it, I overheard one of the staff working at where we were staying previously talking about it."
"Wait, then why didn't you tell me this? Wanda, you've been wanting to kill Tony since. . . And what was that about the thing you told me that Tony was still alive and would live a happy life in the future? Did you hear about the kidnapping at that time?" Pietro, unaware of the growing anger Wanda had for him, started asking questions. This was the first time that Wanda had kept something from him, more importantly, it was a subject regarding Tony Stark.
"SHUT UP PIETRO!" Wanda shouted at her brother, angry that he could not read the room. They were in a room with two unknown strangers, Wanda had been put into a tough spot, and somehow Pietro had dug her grave deeper. If they made it out of this alive, Wanda promised to herself that she would teach Pietro when to open his mouth and when to keep it shut.
Recoiling at being shouted at, Pietro could only take a step back while remaining confused at the entire situation.
Fury, who had been watching the scene play out, was silently evaluating Wanda through her response. 'Her tone when talking about Stark does not seem to be as venomous and filled with hatred as the diary had mentioned. Has she not had enough time to grow this hatred for Tony?' Fury pondered. It was a possibility. According to the diary, it would not be for another few years until Wanda had officially revealed herself standing beside Ultron, her desire for revenge on Tony evident. However, Fury had pulled her out of wherever she was much earlier, added to the fact that Wanda is also a diary holder, which meant that her perception of Tony would be affected by the words of Luke. 'Interesting.'
After letting Wanda and Pietro suffer in silence for a while longer, Fury finally alleviated the tension, "Whatever. Since you already know about it, then that's all there is to it. Agent Hill," fury turned to address Hill, "Could you please direct our guests to a guest room while we prepare for their trip to Los Angeles."
At that, Hill had escorted the twins out of the office, leaving Wanda confused at how easy she was let off. She was almost certain that the man would continue to press for her secrets.
A few moments later, Hill had returned to the office to seek some answers for her unanswered questions. Walking into the office, she had stopped in front of Fury's table. Knowing that Fury had already activated the secrecy feature since before she brought the siblings in, Hill decided to ask her question aloud, "So? Care to fill me in on what exactly is going on here? Don't think I'll buy your 'just a whim' excuse, in fact, I don't think the siblings bought your excuse either."
"Well, that's all they're going to get." Fury replied off-handedly as he continued reading different reports. Sensing that Hill was still staring at him, Fury sighed and decided to tell her a few things. "Fine." Taking out a report from the hidden compartment in his desk, Fury handed it over to Hill. "Read this and tell me what you think."
The report Fury handed over was the one he had compiled on Luke. "This should be impossible sir. No matter how hard a person tries, there's always a footprint, digital or not, that would be left behind by them. If this file is true, then aside from the last two months, it's almost as if this person never existed." Looking astounded at the file she was handed, Hill looked up for confirmation from Fury.
"It is exactly as it is written. This target has been an anomaly since I had come across him. As of this moment, only me, Agent Romanoff and yourself are aware of his existence, and I intend to keep it that way." Fury stated. Receiving a nod from Hill, Fury then continued, "I believe that Ms Wanda may have a potential connection with the target. It's a gut feeling."
Hill knew that there was something more than just a 'gut feeling', but she also knew that this was the best that she would get from Fury as an explanation. "Now then, Agent Hill. Report." With this, Hill had given her report on her latest mission.
- End of Chapter 29 -
Next time in C30 - Are you asking me out on a Date?
Thinking of how he could easily win, Luke challenged Natasha. "I know I'm new to shooting and that you're a member here and you've probably had plenty of practice, but how about a bet?"
Tomorrow's chapter is uploaded today because I could use the 3 day long weekend to not worry about Webnovel uploads! The shift work is killing me along with the heightened security all around TT