Even though the normal allotted time for training for her team was over, Wanda had stayed back a while to get a little extra time in before heading back home. The recent departure list had hit her harder than maybe expected. She’d gotten to know T’Challa over the last couple of months, but it had been their time together in the alternate reality of Breckentale that was still weighing on her more heavily. Memories that lingered and stuck around even after they returned to Atlantis and were their normal selves again.
She’d told Alicia and Oliver that she was fine and only needed to gather up a few things before she was going to leave, but that hadn’t been entirely true. Her bag was still sitting open on one of the chairs against the wall, and Wanda was still standing in the middle of the floor. Some of the spells she and Alicia had been working on were still fresh in her mind and expelling some of her energy might be good to ease the tension she’d been feeling. She hoped, anyway.
Holding her hands together, Wanda summoned the ball of energy between her palms and slowly but surely widened the plane until her arms were outstretched. There was a cinder block on the other side of the room that had been left behind from their previous training session. Although she knew that the magical effect wouldn’t be the same without the additional blast of Alicia’s magic, Wanda twisted her hands a bit and tried shifting the energy. She then threw her hands forward and cast the ball towards the block.
Instead of it smashing into bits like normal, the block split into two equal pieces. The pieces each moved sharply to the left and the right while engulfed in Indian red balls of magic rather than the normal scarlet red color of her magic. The pieces hit the pads against the wall and shot up into the air. With a quick movement, she clenched her fingers into fists and the two block pieces immediately combusted and disappeared. She smiled slightly to herself but then had the feeling that someone else in the room. She half expected it to be Alicia or Oliver coming back to check on her, but when she turned around she saw a man she didn’t really know but slightly recognized.
“Oh, hello,” she started. “We finished our training session, but I stayed behind. I’m sorry if you were scheduled to train with your team.”
Sirius had arrived to training early for once. He'd expected to find the room empty, but he was pleasantly surprised to find another magic user there. He'd never seen the sort of magic -- for surely that's what it was -- that the young woman could do. Not wanting to interrupt her concentration, he watched as the block split, combusted, and disappeared.
"S'alright," he said, stepping further into the room. "I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you might've been one of my team, but obviously…" He let that thought trail off towards its obvious conclusion, and instead offered her a slight smile. He didn't know the woman well at all, but he had seen her here and there around the base. He figured it wouldn't hurt to make small talk while they were in the same room together. "Where did you learn that style of magic?"
Wanda smiled a little. “Who else is on your team?” She asked him. There had been such an influx of new faces lately that she didn’t know everyone, but there was a chance he’d been placed on one of the established teams that had openings after others had left. Her team with Alicia and Oliver had been one of the lucky ones that had kept the same teammates ever since they all arrived.
“This magic….” She trailed off as she thought how to explain. “It was given to me a few years ago by a very powerful stone. Since then I’ve done what I can to learn how to control and master it.” She certainly had learned more control since those first few months. She considered herself to be in control of her powers before coming to Atlantis, but training so regularly and learning more how to use the hexes combined with Alicia’s magic had given her even more control.
“I’m Wanda.” She studied him for a moment sensed something familiar about him. “You wield magic too, don’t you?”
"It used to be Peter Pevensie, Han Solo, and me, but Han left not that long ago. Figure it's just Peter and me now," said Sirius. He knew that he hadn't been here long enough to be attached to his teammates, but he had to admit that he missed the idea of fighting alongside Han Solo.
"Sirius," he added, introducing himself. He'd never heard of magic like hers, but he'd been in Atlantis long enough to know that people came from all sorts of places. "I've magic, but a different sort than yours. I come from a long line of wizards, probably the most stuck up people you'll ever meet. Not that they'd ever end up here. I figure if they did, they'd be on the first portkey out of here."
Wanda nodded. Peter was a friend, and she had heard of Han Solo of course, but they hadn’t known each other. “That happens, unfortunately. People leaving. Some make the choice to leave, but we don’t always know why others leave when they do.” Pietro had been in Atlantis very briefly, and she knew he never would have left her willingly. It had been some sort of mistake that he left.
Pushing all that aside, Wanda smiled. “You practice wand magic?” She asked, mostly just looking for a confirmation. “Alicia Spinnet and I are friends and teammates. We practice combining our magic together. I’ve seen other types of… well, I guess magic is the right word. But there were those with abilities at home, too. It wasn’t until coming here that I saw your type of magic.”
Her pale green bag was over against the wall, so she walked over and reached for her water bottle for a drink. “How do you like Atlantis so far?”
Sirius didn't know what to make of a world where people could choose to come and go at will. He'd never personally be able to choose leaving Atlantis, not knowing what he did now of his future or the future of his friends. He knew that if he went back that knowledge would be lost to him, that the future would progress as it always had.
"I know Alicia," he said, leaving his own bag on the floor near the wall. Being that his team consisted of a non-magic user and himself, he figured they'd be working on physical as much as magical combat. It was that combination that he enjoyed about field work. "She's from my world, but much, much later. She's a good witch to have around, especially in a fight."
As he said this, he considered Wanda's last question. "I've got to admit that I'm happier than I've been in a long time. Knowing what happens back home...this is a welcome respite for me. What about you? How long have you been here?"
“She is,” Wanda agreed. “And an even better friend.” She and Alicia had hit it off shortly after they began working together as teammates and developing their magical combination spells together. She didn’t know what she would do if Alicia wasn’t here. She’d become one of her closest friends in this world or any other.
“I’m glad you’re happy here.” She said with a smile and then thought about his next question of how long she’d been in Atlantis. “About two years?” She answered. “Maybe a little more than that now. When I first arrived, I did not want to return home either. Circumstances had become quite complicated at home, so my staying here was easier and safer.” And after receiving the new memories from home of the battle in Wakanda, it wasn’t possible for her to go back anymore. Thanks to Thanos, she no longer existed.
“Atlantis has its quirks and even its hard times, but I’m glad to be here. It’s become home.”
"Merlin," he swore, surprised, "I can't imagine being here that long." He looked around the room, painted in the ivory-colored lights from above. Could this be his home? Even if he were happy here, didn't he owe it to the people back in England to go back? He knew that some part of him continued on there, that the fate that awaited all of them could not be prevented, but he had never actually considered staying in Atlantis permanently.
"Not," he added with a slight shrug, setting aside his wand and running shoes, "that I reckon I have a home to return to. My circumstances are perhaps equally complicated. And Atlantis has other benefits. People I'd never have met without being here. If we go back, do we simply forget all of that? I don't know if I'd want that, not now at least."
“I couldn’t either at first, but so much has happened that it doesn’t seem like it’s been two years.” Even if she could go back, Wanda wasn’t sure if she would. Not unless there was a specific reason she needed to return. The people she cared about from home who were still alive were mostly all here, and then there were those she’d met and had grown close to in Atlantis. She wasn’t sure when she would ever go back unless she was sent back without warning.
Wanda frowned a bit in thought after hoisting her bag up on her shoulder. “I’m not sure. There have been people to leave and come back with no memory of ever being here, but a few who’ve left and later returned have remembered. I do know that we’ve been told if we leave, we’ll return to the exact moment that we left, so no one will know that we’re gone. For most people, I think that’s a comfort.” Just not for her or any of her friends from home after Thanos.
“I suppose that if we don’t remember Atlantis then we at least wouldn’t know that we’d want to come back.” She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, though.
"I suppose," he agreed. He didn't know if that was something he'd be able to accept, not that he'd have much say in the matter. He'd already learned that Atlantis had its own way of doing things. "I'd rather leave and have no memory of being here, even if…" He didn't want to say it, to say even if I end up in Azkaban again, because that made it a reality. So instead, he said, "...even if it doesn't change anything. It's got to be better than knowing what will happen and not being able to do anything about it."
He looked over at her. "Not that it has to be the same for everyone. I should probably get started before Peter gets here." He smiled slightly, thinking of his teammate. "The fellow's much more disciplined than I am."
“Maybe.” Wanda wasn’t sure what she would prefer. It would be easier not knowing, but she hated the idea of leaving her new friends that had become like family behind and never knowing they existed. Not that it even mattered anymore thanks to Thanos.
Adjusting her bag, Wanda nodded. “Yes, I ought to get going and headed back.” She was meeting Alicia for dinner after they were able to shower and get cleaned up from practice. “It was nice meeting you, Sirius. I hope to see you around soon.” She gave him a small wave and a smile before turning towards the door and heading out into the hall to leave.