Smoke and Mirrors- Chapter 1
A/N: Here’s the first chapter of my new series, I hope you all enjoy.
Warnings: major spoilers for WandaVision, we’re starting on episode 5, if you haven’t seen it don’t read this.
Hayward walked into the small gathered crowd to begin his morning brief on the growing situation surrounding the Westview Anomaly. “We are now assessing a clear picture of this crisis. And thanks to Captain Rambeau, we now have first-person intel from inside the Westview Anomaly.”
The director looked around at the gathered personnel as he stood at the head of the table. “Our initial theory had Wanda Maximoff as one of the many victims. We now know she is the principal victimizer.” He looked to Agent Woo and gave a slight nod. “Jimmy.”
Jimmy Woo stepped forward, taking Hayward’s place at the head of the table. “Quick history on our subject. Born in Sokovia in 1989 to Irina and Oleg Maximoff, both killed during an air raid when Maximoff and her twin brother, Pietro, were ten.”
Everyone diverted their attention to the tabletop which now displayed newspapers, articles, and broadcasts of the airstrike aftermath.
“The twins were subsequently radicalized, volunteering at HYDRA.” Hayward cut in as videos of Wanda and Pietro at protests began to play. “It’s an oversimplification of events, but, yes,” Woo added in a softer tone.
“An oversimplification to say the least.”
Hayward’s eyes snapped to the woman who was making her approach. “Who authorized you to be here?” You found his tone to be moderately amusing. You came to stop at the bottom of the stairs, your eyes meeting the man standing directly across from you. “Cute,” came your humorlessly dry remark.
Hayward narrowed his eyes at you, pairing his glare with a strained smile. “You’re not supposed to be here.” You crossed your arms over your chest and tilted your nose up at him a bit. “And just who is going to see me out?” Hayward’s smile dropped, his jaw tightening as he watched your eyes scan the room around you. Your hardened gaze found the director’s again soon enough, the two of you locking into a cold glare. “Exactly,” you remarked before flicking your eyes to Woo before giving him a nod to continue.
Woo looked between you two before nervously clearing his throat and continuing. “After unspecified experimentation with the Mind Stone, Maximoff gained telekinetic and telepathic abilities.”
“Back up, Jimmy. Does Maximoff have an alias? Like our Siren, here?” Hayward asked while gesturing to you. Jimmy opened his mouth to reply you cut him off. “No. No, it’s just Wanda.” You gave the agent an apologetic look for interrupting.
Hayward eyed you with a look that you couldn’t quite decipher. “And earliest tracking had her use her powers against the Avengers. Is that correct?” Again his question wasn’t directed at you, but you answered. “Yes because she had been brainwashed into thinking we were the enemy. Where is this line of questioning leading exactly, Director?”
Giving you another tight-lipped smile, he shrugged slightly. “Just trying to get the facts.” You had to fight the urge to roll your eyes. “Ask better questions then,” you said dryly before looking at the people around you. “Yes, Wanda and Pietro did initially use their powers against us seeing as both HYDRA and Ultron lied to them. But let there be no mistake. They soon learned the truth and fought alongside us.”
“Sorry,” You said softly to Woo once you looked at him again. The man merely smiled and shook his head. “Not a problem Agent L/N.” He looked back out to his fellow agents. “But yes, she was an Avenger herself-”
“Yes, Lagos and Germany, we all know how that turned out.” Shaking your head you let out a harsh and cynical laugh. “Are you trying to say that both instances were completely her fault? Lagos was a tragic miscalculation on her part when she was trying to save Captain America.”
You didn’t waver in the heated glare Hayward was giving you and met it with one of your own. “As for Germany, it...that wasn’t solely her fault and involved almost every Avenger. I’d greatly appreciate it if you spoke the whole truth or didn’t speak at all, Hayward.”
A tense moment of silence fell over both of you as neither was willing to back down. Sensing he was losing this fight, Hayward tore his eyes away from yours and looked to Agent Woo. “Thanks, Jimmy.” He said dismissively before looking at everyone else. Jimmy gave a sigh and a nod before walking over to a stand beside a shorter dark-haired woman.
“I try not to speak ill of people,” His statement was finished by the woman, “Then allow me. Hayward’s a dic-”
“Terrorists.” Hayward’s choice word snapped you back to him. “Terrorist” was something you had been labeled many a time by many different people and governments, it was a name you were familiar with and similarly, was a name that left a sour taste in your mouth.
“Wanda’s not a terrorist,” You turned to look at the dark-haired woman beside you and smiled. You hadn’t seen Monica in quite some time but it was still good to see that she was one of the only people in the room with some sense.
“By your own account, you described the experience of being under her mind-control as,” Hayward opened the file in his hands and began to read off Monica statement. “ “excruciating, terrifying, a violation.” As if on cue a clip of Monica speaking with Wanda in person began to play on the screens around you.
Your eyebrows drew together in confusion. “What’s this?” Hayward opened his mouth prompting you to raise your hand dismissively. “Not you, I’m tired of hearing your voice.” You turned to look at Monica. “Explain, please.”
Monica sucked in a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh. “Wanda seems to have created her own pocket reality of sorts in this small town. She’s holding about 3,000 people, hostage, in doing so. Even so, I don’t believe this was a calculated political attack-”
“You don’t?” Hayward cut in causing your eye to twitch a bit. “Bring up the visual,” he ordered. You turned to once again face the screens seeing they were now playing security footage. “This morning, I received authorization to share this highly sensitive material from SWORD headquarters.” You watched the footage intently as Wanda matched into the facility, only half-listening to Hayward.
“Up until very recently, it was the top-secret location of the Vision’s corpse.” Something struck you as odd about the footage, it just didn’t seem right. “Play that back.” You ordered. The agent rewound the tape back a few seconds before playing it again.
“There.” You say while pointing to the screen. “Play that back again.” On the third run-through of the Monica began to catch on. You looked over at her and nodded. “You see it too right?” with a nod, she walked closer and shook her head. “Why isn’t anyone reacting?”
Hayward looked between the two of you, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “What?” Your eyes flicked from each camera angle and none of it was making sense. “You would think with an angry Avenger barging into the facility some sort of alarm would be set off but there’s nothing.”
“Huh,” Agent Woo huffed thoughtfully. “You’re right. You would think there would be running or at least some sort of panic. They’re just going about their normal day.” The dark-haired woman beside him nodded in agreement. “It’s as if she’s not even there.” She concluded.
“If Maximoff can hold over 3,000 people hostage with her mind alone I’m sure she could have controlled these people’s minds so that they didn’t react.” Hayward’s rushed and almost hostile tone didn’t fall short on you. You looked at the man for a moment before silently nodding. He was hiding something and cornering him like this would do nothing to help your current situation. You’d deal with him later.
“Nine days ago Maximoff stormed our facility, stole the Vision’s body, and resurrected him.” Hayward kept a pointed look on you, though you paid him no mind. Far too many things weren’t adding up with the story Hayward was presenting you with and the Wanda Maximoff you knew; it just didn’t make sense.
As if he were the telepath in the room, Jimmy Woo spoke up. “But that’s in direct violation of Section 36 B of the Sokovia Accords.” You let out a soft chuckle and shook your head. “We uh, we never agreed to those accords, or at least most of us didn’t.”
Hayward shrugged his shoulders, clearly growing more and more frustrated with your comments and remarks. “Doesn’t matter, she went against the Vision’s own will anyways. In her grief, she disregarded his wishes.”
He looked around to see if anyone else had anything to say before wrapping up the meeting. “Alright, that’s it for now. Let’s work the problem, people. Dismissed.” You watched as the agents around you went back to their assignments, soft chatter filling the room.
Hayward gave you a hard stare for a few moments before moving to walk past you. You reached out and took hold of his arm. “We’ll talk later.” You whispered lowly before letting go. The man’s jaw set before he brushed past you and walked up the stairs.
Taking a deep breath you turned to face the three you had already decided would be your allies in this. The smile that rose on your face was warm as you met Monica’s gaze. “Captain, it’s been a while.” Monica returned your smile and nodded.
“Longer for you than it has been for me.” She teased earning a soft laugh from you. Unspoken condolences were hanging in the air that both of you knew the other would gladly give under different circumstances.
To keep the moment from growing awkward you directed your gaze to Jimmy. “Agent Jimmy Woo, a pleasure.” The man beamed at you bright enough to rival the sun. “And it's a pleasure to meet you, two ma’am. I’m a big fan.” Chuckling you gently shook your head. “No need to be so formal, just call me Y/N. It’s easier.”
You then looked to the dark-haired woman and smiled. “And you must be the famous Dr.Darcy Lewis, Thor has told me much about you.” Darcy smiled and nodded, her hands folding in front of her. “That would be me,” she laughed. “How is the big guy anyway?”
A bittersweet smile crossed your face. “He’s gotten much better after the second snap. The first one was hard for him, as it was for all of us,” When your smile began to dwindle a bit you cleared your throat. “He’s off-world as usual. He travels with a group called the “Guardians of the Galaxy.” it’s a bit corny if you ask me but they’re nice people.”
Darcy smiled and nodded which was your cue to end this small talk. “Now,” you said, getting serious. “Tell me everything I need to know up until this point.”
It didn’t take very long to get you caught up to speed on everything they had discovered and on Monica’s first-hand account. You could easily conclude that things had gone to complete shit.
Pinching the bridge of your nose to try and stop your oncoming headache you sighed. “You know when I received word that Wanda had gone missing I never expected to find her like this.” You had only been gone for about a week when Sam called to let you know that Wanda had disappeared seemingly without a trace from the compound.
Jimmy offered you a sympathetic look before sighing. “I don’t think anyone would expect anything like this to even be possible.” You had to give him that, coming back to find someone who had become like a younger sister to you had locked herself, her dead lover, 3,000 people, and now her two children away in a pocket reality that she controlled to present itself as different sitcoms through different eras certainly never crossed your mind.
“You would think after spending the better part of the last 5 years speaking to a talking raccoon, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore,” You muttered to yourself earning an odd from Darcy who shook her head before looking over at what Monica was writing on the whiteboard.
“So you think you’ll be able to figure out how to safely get back into the Hex?” She asked while looking at the complicated equations scrawled on the board. “Hex? Like magic?” Your question caused the Doctor’s eyes to light up. “I was calling it that because of the hexagonal shape but your reason is sooooo much better.”
Monica laughed while taking a step back to look at the problems she had worked out so far. “It’s something...but we’ve got a long way to go,” She turned to look at the three of you. “Anyone wanna go on a coffee run?”
“On it,” Jimmy called while hopping off of the table he was sitting on. ‘Any particular way ya’ll like your coffee?” He asked a he made his way to the door. “Two creams and sugar.” You all said in unison, surprising yourselves. Jimmy gave a quick nod before making his way out.
“While he’s out I’m going to check out this Hex of ours,” You stood up from your chair and made your way to the door, it was about time you saw this thing up close and personal. “Keep me posted.” You called before leaving.
The Hex itself was massive, you had to say you were impressed with what Wan had pulled off. The field radiated energy like nothing you had experienced before, even when HYDRA did their experiments on you, nothing compared to this.
Reaching out your hand, you gently ran your fingertips over the Hex, watching as it turned almost like TV static. Pulling your hand back you rubbed your finger together, noticing a slight tingling feeling.
Your eyes trailed back up to the Hex before you reached your hands out again. This time you allowed your power to flow through you causing a soft purple light to emit from your hand. Gently, you pressed your palm to the force field and watched as your power reacted against it. It was a pushing and pulling sensation. The Hex was actively fighting to pull you in while your power was keeping you right where you were.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” A sigh left your lips at the sound of the approaching voice. You closed your fist and retracted your hand, letting it fall to your side. “The last agent that got too close was sucked in.”
A huff was the only noise of acknowledgment you granted Hayward. You kept your eyes trained on the Hex as the man came to stand beside you. He let out a breath and clapped his hands together. “Impressive isn’t it? I didn’t something like this would be even remotely plausible,” He looked down at you and chuckled. “If she can do this, imagine what you can do.”
“Why didn’t you call me, or any Avenger for that matter?” Your question hung heavy in the air for a moment before Hayward let out a deep sigh. “This didn’t seem like something that we wouldn’t be able to handle and thus we saw no need to bother any Avengers.”
“You didn’t see a need to call an Avenger when another Avenger has taken a small town captive?” Raising an eyebrow, you looked at the man out of the corner of your eye. Hayward kept his gaze set dead ahead of the two of you. “We have things under control.”
You scoff, “Clearly.” You look back to the Hex and shake your head. “You aim to villainize her.” Hayward’s expression hardened, though he still wouldn’t look at you. “I aim to treat her as what she has presented herself as, a threat.”
“She has a hell of a way of showing it.” He scoffed. Turning to you, Hayward looked you over with a hard gaze. “I can tell you’re going to let your emotions get in the way of this case, not that I blame you. I’d assume you and Maximoff are close due to the time you spent together and that relationship you’ve built could also get in the way of this entire investigation.” When you remained silent and still wouldn’t face him, he continued. “On top of that, you’re definitely in a raw emotional state. Not that I blame you. If I lost what you lost I would-”
He cut off and let out a soft strangled noise. His hand went to his throat, gently pawing at the invisible force there. You slowly turned to face him, your eyes glowing a bit purple when they met his wide ones. “You do not get to talk about those who gave everything for you and those you love to be here today. You don’t get to talk about what I’ve lost.”
Your tone grew increasingly darker as you spoke as the grip around his throat tightened. Hayward let out a noise kin to a whimper as his hands desperately grasped at his neck. “You try my patience Hayward. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.” You realized him causing him to double over a bit and wheeze, desperately sucking in the air you withheld from him. You watched him struggle and resisted the urge to scoff. He stumbled to his feet while adjusting his tie. “I should have you arrested for that.”
“But you won’t.” He truly wouldn’t. It was true that you weren’t exactly in a very peaceful headspace at the moment so it would be stupid on his part to send agents after you. Folding your hands behind you, you tilted your head. “You know, keeping things from me won’t end well for you. We telepaths have a way of getting the information we want.”
Hayward watched you turn back to the Hex before doing so himself. He reached up and fixed his collar. Shaking his head he said, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was a threat.”
Your question hung in the air for a moment before Hayward gave you a confused look. “Do I what?” A smirk rose on your face as you turned your head to face him a bit. “Know better.”
The man opened his mouth to reply but instead turned to face the sound of fast-approaching footsteps. “Siren, Sir, we think we found a way in.” You and Hayward shared one last look before following the agent back inside.
You wanted the monitor before you intently as Monica did her best to keep the drone steady. Your eyes scanned the crappy footage with slight annoyance, it was like watching something recorded on a toaster. Your annoyance was contagious.
“I know this is tech from the 80s, but can we sharpen the visuals.” You were beginning to hate this guy. It took everything in you not to make some sharp remark about Hayward’s patience, luckily Monica was a faster talker than you.
“Working on it.” Monica piloted the drone right up to the house you had seen in Wanda’s little show. “Maximoff located,” Monica announced in a tone that was prematurely cheery in your opinion.
“Well done.” Hayward praised earning a soft sigh from you.
“It’s not over yet.” You leaned in further trying to see if you could make out anything on the screen in finer detail. “We can’t see the drone on the broadcast,” Jimmy informed you. “ Wanda’s framing it out of the shot.”
“Just like the jump cuts,” Darcy cuts in. “Wanda decides what makes it onto the show and what doesn’t.” Your eyebrows draw together in a like of confusion. “But why,” you think to yourself. “Who is she framing it out for? Who else could be watching?” None of this was making sense to you. Why did she have to frame everything as some sort of sitcom? If Darcy was able to get the showup and running on her software then it remained to be seen if anyone else could or already had. Maybe this entire thing was meant to be seen by someone but who?
“Disregard. Take the shot.” Drew you out of your thoughts. Your head snapped to Hayward’s before they went to the screen. “You armed it? Her kids are right there.” Monica shook her head. “No, the drone isn’t armed.” The uncertainty in her voice did nothing to soothe you.
“Take the shot,” Hayward ordered causing you to spring towards the agent. “No!” You exclaimed, but it was too late. The missile was fired just before the drone went dark. You rounded on Hayward and in a flash of purple the man was thrown up into the air.
“What did you do?” Your eyes were wild with anger as the power built-in between your hands. You raised your hand to take your shot but paused when an alarm sounded. “There's been a breach!” called one agent, prompting you to drop Hayward to the floor. The purple glow in your eyes disappeared as you swiftly left the room and headed to the Hex, Monica, Jimmy, and darcy hot on your heels.
You stopped short when you got to the multiple cars that the soldiers had arrived in. Wanda would be angry with all that was going on and you felt it would be best if she didn’t see you right away, it could send her emotions reeling.
Monica ran right into the front lines with Hayward right behind her. The man was still shaken from what you had done back there, he was almost certain you would have killed him at that moment.
All eyes and guns were trained on the figure approaching the Hex. The closer she got the more you could feel her and she was livid. You had to prepare yourself for the possible fight the two of you would have to go through. Before all of this, you would have been sure you could easily subdue her but now, with all she had created and the emotions coming off her in waves you weren’t sure. You weren’t exactly in tip-top shape either.
You felt the air was sucked from your lungs at the sight of Wanda. You hadn’t seen her even remotely this angry since Thanos. “This yours?” She called out before tossing the beaten and broken drone at Hayward’s feet.
The man nervously looked to the drone before looking back up at Wanda. “The missile was just a precaution.” You wanted to be surprised that that was the best excuse he could come up with but then reminded yourself that Hayward was never a smooth talker. “You can hardly blame us, Wanda.”
“Oh, I think I can.” Her eyes bore angry holes into Hayward. “This will be your only warning.” The shakiness and her accented voice did not fall short on you. You hadn’t heard her accent in some time and in a way it was comforting to hear, even given the circumstances. “Stay out of my home,” She demanded. “You don’t bother me. I won’t bother you.”
“You know we can’t do that Wan.” The redhead's eyes snapped to yours, a look of shock taking its place on her face. You had stepped out from behind the cars and began to make your way to the front. “There are 3,000 people in there Wanda. You have to let them go.” Your tone was calm and soothing, you didn’t need this situation to escalate any further.
You came to stop about three yards in front of Hayward. Wanda blinked and shook her head. “What...what are you doing here? I thought you were in Russia.” Looking down sadly you nodded. “I was until Pepper called,” You looked back up to Wanda. “She said you had gone missing and that no one knew where you were so I came back as soon as I could.”
You dared to take another step forward which resulted in Wanda taking one step back. She was conflicted, that much was clear. With your arrival you could tell that she wanted to give in to anything you would tell her, she wanted you to resolve this. At the same time, she wasn’t ready to lose what she had here.
“Wanda, you’re in control here,” Monica called out causing Wanda’s eyes to flick from yours to hers and then back to yours. “You’re still here.” Wanda’s expression darkened, her power beginning to pool at her fingertips.
Monica continued to walk forward, much to your dismay. “Wanda, I didn’t know the drones were armed. But you know that, don’t you?” Wanda tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “Wanda, you’re keener on looking into other’s heads than I. You know deep down Monica is not a threat.” You tried to reason.
Wanda continued to look between you and Monica but she did not stop channeling her power. You didn’t want to do anything just yet that could set Wanda off, this could still end peacefully.
“I wanna help you.” Monica declared. Wanda shook her head. “How? What could you possibly have to offer me.” The slight break in her voice broke your heart. “Wanda, we can go home.” her eyes met yours once more. You peered into them, taking in all the anger and pain, as well as the small bit of hope that resided there. It was gone all too soon, however, and with a shake of her head, Wanda stepped back.
“This is my home,” Her expression darkened as her attention turned to Hayward. “And no one will ever take it from me again.” She raised her hand, now fully charged before turning and flicking her wrist.
Hayward let out a panicked cry as the soldiers turned their attention to him. You turned around to see she had them hold him at gunpoint. Whipping back around you watched Wanda’s retreating form and resisted the urge to run after her. “Wanda!” You called out but she paid you no mind.
She paused at the Hex and raised her hand, a familiar red glow emitting from them before they were placed against the Hex. You hadn’t a clue what she was doing but once it was done she stepped back through the barrier and was gone.
“You’re a fucking idiot Hayward.” You slammed your hand down on the table in front of you causing Darcy to jump, you’d have to apologize for that later. Right now you were debating the pros and cons of snapping Hayward's neck. The pros were winning.
“I did what needed to be done.” He defended.
“Yeah? Was pissing her off even more what needed to be fucking done? Last I checked we were trying to get her out of there not make it harder for u to get in.” You pushed off the table and began to pace the floor. “This was avoidable. If you wouldn’t have armed that damn drone we might have gotten somewhere with her.”
You looked over at Hayward. “So what now. I hope you have a damn good plan to fix this.” Sighing Hayward shook his head. “We’ll just have to monitor the anomaly and go from there.” You scoffed. “To think they let you take over. A five-year-old could handle this better.”
“She’s not wrong…” Darcy muttered earning a glare from Hayward. You looked to Monica and Jimmy who were both still silent. “Back to square one then.” You looked directly at Monica. “What happened when you first entered the Hex? What did you feel?”
She paused before taking a breath and shrugging. “I uh...everything was black until I woke up and I wasn’t myself. It was painful to try and fight her, hell it was painful to just be under her control.” You took in all the information and nodded. “Well let’s just hope I can fight it.”
Darcy looked at you in alarm. “Wait, you don’t actually plan on going in there do you?” Jimmy shook his head at you. “Do you really think that’s a wise choice?”
“Right now, it’s our only choice.”
Hayward shook his head. “No, absolutely not. I will not have you going in there.” You laughed dryly. “Ordering me around is above your paygrade.” And with that, you turned and left the room. It took them a minute but soon everyone was hot on your tail trying to talk you out of it.
You wouldn’t listen. If you were going to get Wanda and the others out of this you were going to have to take matters into your own hands. The only possible way to do that was to go to Wanda because she certainly wasn’t going to come to you.
The shouts around you barely registered as you approached the Hex. It was as if you had tunnel vision and the Hex was your only goal. It was technically the only thing standing between you and your family members.
Their cries fell deaf on your ears as you reached the Hex. You mentally prepped yourself and put up as many blocks as you could before taking a deep breath and pushing in. And then, there was nothing.
The morning sun poured into the room, gently landing on your face. The light stirred you out of your peaceful rest and slowly you began to open your eyes. Your E/C eyes tiredly scanned the comfortable bedroom you were in.
It was simple with a picture frame or two scattered around on the dresser that also held multiple jewelry boxes. Your eyes trailed to the alarm clock on your nightstand. 7:07 am is what it read, your alarm wouldn’t go off for another 20 minutes.
Sighing you plopped back against your pillow and were about to allow yourself to drift back to sleep when movement behind you caught your attention. Groggily, you flipped around to meet the culprit of the disturbance.
“Good morning.” She said.
