WANDA MAXIMOFF + ALICIA SPINNET
CHARACTER DEATHS | COMPLETE
Everyone was gone. They were all gone, and there hadn’t been anything that Wanda had been able to do about it. Natasha. Clint. Clarke. And now Steve had been killed right in front of her. The defensive hex she’d managed right as the blast hit had kept her alive, but it wasn’t enough for Ellana who had received a direct hit. It hadn’t been enough for Steve who had been in front of Wanda.
Steve Rogers was dead.
She barely remembered crawling over to his body to check on him. She barely remembered screaming his name to force him to wake up and come back. He couldn’t be dead. She’d been so far gone that she didn’t hear the sound of a familiar voice calling out her name until she was right there and practically pulling her the rest of the way out of the cage.
As she walked with Alicia, Wanda couldn’t help but wonder if she could choose to go home. Even while being in these games if she could make the conscious decision to leave. At home, she wouldn’t remember any of this because she wouldn’t remember anything. She’d simply be nothing which meant nothing else could hurt her. Wouldn’t that be easier than this? It was the squeeze of Alicia’s hand in hers as her friend helped her through the jungle reminded her that she couldn’t allow herself to think that way. As Steve had told her after Natasha death after the hopelessness began to set in: they could sure put up one hell of a fight.
The force of the blow back into the bars had broken a couple ribs and a bone in her upper arm, and she had a few scratches on her arms and face. Her body ached, but there wasn’t much she could do about it right now. She and Alicia gathered some food and water, and they hunkered down for the night. When they woke up the next morning, Wanda winced as she sat up. Alicia was already awake, and Wanda rested back against one of the trees.
“Were you able to get any sleep?”
How much more could they be put through? Alicia sat with her legs curled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her. She’d watched Clarke go under the water and couldn’t save her and now she was watching Wanda wondering how much longer they could manage through all of this. By her calculations, there were about maybe 9 or 10 of them left. She didn’t know where Peggy Carter was or James Rhodes in this hideous jungle.
Her mind kept replaying the last couple of days, the water, the sound of horror from Wanda, seeing Steve and Ellana gone, it was hard getting Wanda away, she didn’t know if she was going to be able to, she didn’t trust herself in that moment to fix her arm, but she knew once Wanda woke up she could do it. They’d eaten, found water, they were stronger.
Watching Wanda wake, she shrugged at the question. “I’ve got one of those freeze-dried foods here,” she said nodding to the fire she’d built that was cooking one of the packages from one of the packs she’d gotten from the start. She’d been careful not to eat too much of anything and find food where they could, but this morning they need something with proper calories.
“Do you want me to heal your arm?”
Wanda nodded and felt her stomach start to rumble at the mention of food. She, Ellana, and Steve had wandered into the jungle in search for food and a water source, but it hadn’t been long after they started that they’d been trapped inside the cage. It had been a while since she’d eaten anything of substance. Looking down at her arm, Wanda could see the bruising on her skin from the break, but thankfully the bone hadn’t broken through.
She nodded again and sat up to help give Alicia better access for the healing. A part of her wanted to say no, that she didn’t need her arm healed since it reminded her of what happened to Steve right in front of her, but she knew he would have lectured her and stated exactly how idiotic that would have been. Plus, logically, she knew that she needed to be stronger so that she could take care of herself, Alicia, and anyone else who was left.
“Have you seen any of the others? I haven’t, except for…- I haven’t since we left the water.”
Alicia nodded focusing herself, calming and using her wand quickly to heal Wanda’s arm. It wasn’t a huge spell but they were all so exhausted and freaked out but Alicia did a good job of it and looked back to Wanda when she was done.
“No, I landed in a tree when I got here and didn’t even really hear anyone,” in the Water World, Alicia had somehow ended up alone on a raft and couldn’t do much to help anyone, it still haunted her.
“Here, eat,” she said handing over the food to Wanda, Alicia had eaten, well enough to be okay, she figured Wanda hadn’t really eaten anything to fill her in a while.
It was hard to describe what it felt like to have her arm healed but once Alicia was finished, the throbbing and the bruising were both gone, and Wanda didn’t feel pain as she tried moving it around. She smiled a little at her friend. “Thank you.”
The meal that had been warmed up wasn’t terribly big, but it was enough to ease the grumbling in her stomach. There was still some left when she handed it back over to Alicia. Wanda gave her a look when she acted as if she would insist that she didn’t need anything. “Eat.”
After a moment, she sighed and leaned back against the tree. “I wonder how long the rest of us have,” she said quietly. They weren’t killing each other, but the arena was doing a good job of that all by itself.
Alicia didn’t argue, mostly to avoid a needless argument, even though she wanted to insist that Wanda ate more, she took a few bites and handed it back.
“Hey,” Alicia said. “We’ll figure it out,” she didn’t know if they would or wouldn’t but she wasn’t going to give up hope. She knew seeing Steve’s dead body was a sign of the end in a weird way but Alicia didn’t give up.
“If we need to build a shelter and figure out wards against anything else and live in the jungle forever, we will.”
A part of Wanda wanted to believe that they’d figure out how to get out of the arena or that somehow Atlantis would find them, but any hope of making it out of this alive that she’d been holding onto was mostly blown to pieces while begging Steve’s lifeless body to wake up. She offered Alicia a small smile but one that wasn’t very heartfelt. Maybe she was right, they would figure this out, but she wasn’t counting on it.
“Live in the jungle forever?” That did earn perhaps a more genuine smile. “I expect we’ll be in the tundra before too much longer since I doubt they’ll keep us in this place for very long if the other locations are anything to go by.”
She finished up as much of the meal as she could manage to stomach and passed what was left back to Alicia. “But I guess we should try to find some of the others.” She sighed. Wandering around this jungle was one of the last things that Wanda wanted to do, but sitting here in one spot wasn’t the smart move. As she started to stand, there was a chime that sounded like it could have been off in the distance but somehow also close by. “Did you hear that?”
“Maybe we can figure out a hex or ward that keeps here and break,” she waved her hand around. “Whatever it is they’ve got working here.” It was a long shot but she was not going to lose hope, she couldn’t afford to. “Besides you never dreamed of what it’d be like to live in a jungle?” Alicia asked. “Yeah, neither have I,” she smiled with a shrug.
Alicia nodded, Wanda was right, sitting around wasn’t going to do either of them any good, she used her wand with a spell to clean up and started to pack away the stove and things when Wanda spoke. She blinked, she thought at first it was something she’d done, hitting the stove on something. Standing slowly she looked around with a nod, but it seemed to be gone.
“Whatever that was, I doubt it’s good, can you tell what direction it came from?” Alicia couldn’t.
“No, I can’t. It sounds like it could be coming from anywhere - and everywhere.” The chime wasn’t especially loud, no more than the announcements that played each and every night, but she’d never heard the chimes before today. It was another item on the long list of worries that they had in this place.
“But you’re right. Let’s see if we can find some of the others and work on understanding any of the magic they may be using.” They were packed up within a few minutes and started back towards the clearings where they all had initially arrived the last time around. After a few moments, Wanda looked up to see a couple packages floating down from the sky that landed a few feet away from them. She exchanged a look with Alicia.
“I’m not sure… Do you think we should open them?”
Frowning she nodded, that was her problem, she couldn’t pinpoint a direction. She had a bad feeling that this was the arenas way of trying to use psychological torture on them as well. “Seems like there aren’t many of us left, magic users,” she commented with a frown. She wondered if the arena was trying to get rid of them quicker but didn’t mention it.
Looking at the two boxes she frowned. “I,” she paused. “Well, we either get something useful or die.” Came out of her mouth before she could think of something better to say.
“So, gamble?”
The right answer should have probably been ‘absolutely not’ and to keep walking right on by the boxes that had killed so many of their friends already, but Wanda couldn’t help but wonder why not. After Steve was killed, she didn’t have the highest of hopes that she was going to make it out of this place alive, so why not take the chance and see what happened? She looked back down at the box and stared at it for a moment before turning back to Alicia and gave her a firm nod.
“Yes. Gamble.” She considered using her magic to create a field around the box, and Alicia could possibly open them with a spell of her own, but if her magic hadn’t helped save Steve and Ellana why did she think it would work now?
Bending down, Wanda took a breath and reached out for the box and waited for until Alicia was in position with her. They were both ready, and together began to open up their boxes. Before it had even hit her, Wanda felt a huge surge of energy coming towards her and before she realized what happened, there was nothing.
The heat, the power, the moment of pain washed over Alicia, she didn’t even have a chance to think when the world went black.