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By all logic, as hostages meant to leverage Hawk, Pietro and his family should have been under strict lockdown.
But reality proved otherwise.
In this Hydra installation anchored to the ocean floor, Pietro and his sister Wanda enjoyed surprisingly few restrictions on their movements.
Apart from certain high-security areas, they could roam freely throughout the facility.
This wasn't merely because they'd volunteered for Hydra's superhuman experiments.
The real reason was simpler: Strucker wasn't worried about them escaping.
Because Jean, Billy, and Tommy each had genetic kill-switches encoded into their base DNA.
One press of a button—and all three children would die instantly.
Whether this was true, Pietro and Wanda had no way of knowing. Strucker claimed it was. And they didn't dare call his bluff.
Well...
Wanda didn't dare. After all, she'd carried these three children for nine months each.
Hawk might be indifferent to their existence.
But Wanda cared deeply.
Motherhood transforms the meek into warriors.
And beyond that—
Pietro, Wanda, Jean, Billy, and Tommy weren't treated like prisoners in this facility. Their accommodations weren't quite top-tier, but they matched Strucker's own standard of living.
Strucker had even provided private tutors and a full childcare staff.
Billy and Tommy were barely a year old, but Jean had already begun her education.
Put it this way.
At three years old, Jean was already fluent in Sokovian, English, and German. No one knew whose learning aptitude she'd inherited.
Pietro was certain it wasn't his sister's.
Soon.
Lost in thoughts about the word "Son" he'd overheard when leaving the office, Pietro arrived at their quarters within the underwater base.
Yes.
Quarters.
Home.
From the corridor, it looked unremarkable. But once you stepped through the door, it was like entering another world.
One sentence summed it up.
The interior was practically a replica of 521A Palm Street's layout before its sale to Hawk.
Not identical—but clearly cast from the same mold.
An electronic fireplace crackled with simulated flames in the living room.
A woman with flowing red hair—ends curling softly—sat cross-legged on the carpet before the hearth, chin propped on one hand. She looked about twenty-six. This was Wanda, smiling warmly as she watched her eldest daughter Jean excitedly recount her adventure.
Jean was gesturing animatedly, telling her mommy how Daddy Hawk had absolutely crushed Uncle Pietro.
Just then.
Pietro stepped through the door.
Wanda looked up from her daughter's tale, her gaze settling on her brother.
Jean spun around too. Her eyes lit up. She ran to Pietro, grabbed his fingers, and dragged him toward the living room. "Uncle! Tell Mommy that your speed is nothing compared to Daddy's! She doesn't believe me!"
Wanda smiled, looking at Pietro.
Pietro met his sister's gaze and nodded.
Only then did Wanda's smile falter slightly.
At this point, Wanda wasn't yet the Scarlet Witch. In her worldview, Pietro's speed was the absolute pinnacle of known velocity.
But now—
Pietro lifted Jean into his arms, then looked at Wanda. "He's powerful. Unbelievably powerful. I could feel it—if he'd wanted to kill me, I wouldn't have had the slightest chance to resist."
He remembered entering the Speed Force, thinking himself untouchable—only to find Hawk's gaze already locked onto him, lips curving into that supremely dismissive, almost mocking smile.
Wanda heard this and instinctively rose from the carpet.
"You actually met him?"
"Yeah."
Pietro refocused. His eyes brightened as he looked at Wanda. "Oh—and he's nothing like we imagined. He's not old at all. Young. And handsome."
Jean—still in Pietro's arms—chimed in, looking at Wanda. "See, Mommy? Daddy really is handsome! He used to visit me every month. But it's so strange—why couldn't you ever see him?"
The three-year-old looked genuinely puzzled.
She'd ventured out this time because Hawk had once told her: if he ever failed to visit, all she had to do was think of Daddy, and she'd find him. And once she found him on her own, their whole family could finally be together.
This month, Hawk hadn't come.
So—
Jean had been thrilled to go find him.
Wanda knew about this.
Even Strucker knew. But before Jean's disappearance, both Wanda and Strucker had dismissed it as childish fantasy.
Until now.
Wanda listened to Jean's words again. She looked at her eldest daughter. "Jean, the first time you saw him—"
Jean corrected her immediately.
"Mommy, he's not 'him.' He's Daddy."
"...Alright."
Wanda laughed softly. "Do you remember when you first met your daddy?"
Jean thought about it. "I don't remember exactly. But Daddy said he was there when we were still in that castle. Oh—and he was there when I was born too."
Pietro—still holding Jean—sucked in a sharp breath.
Wanda exchanged a glance with her brother.
"He can travel through time too?"
"No idea." Wanda shook her head. "But if what Jean says is true, we can confirm one thing."
Jean declared loudly, "I'm not lying!"
Pietro looked at Wanda.
"Confirm what?"
"He has no ill will toward us... toward Jean, Billy, and Tommy."
"That's true."
Pietro considered his sister's reasoning and nodded. "My speed was nothing to him—like watching a snail. And he had every opportunity to kill me. But he didn't."
Hawk hadn't exactly let him leave with Jean.
But on the journey back, Pietro had worked something out.
Hawk hadn't released him—but he hadn't stopped him from leaving either.
Pietro was certain that given the speed Hawk had demonstrated, there was no way he could have escaped with Jean if Hawk had truly wanted to stop him.
Still—
Pietro pinched Jean's cheek and told her to go upstairs and check on her little brothers Billy and Tommy.
Once Jean had left, Pietro turned to Wanda and lowered his voice.
"But Strucker plans to use Jean, Billy, and Tommy as leverage against him."
"I know."
After Jean's departure, a hint of worry crept into the corners of Wanda's smile.
True, she'd initially agreed to Strucker's experiments so that she and her brother could grow stronger—gain extraordinary power while suffering less torment.
But after Jean was born, certain feelings had inevitably changed.
Once more.
Motherhood transforms the meek into warriors.
To Hawk, Jean, Billy, and Tommy were products of a Hydra experiment. To Wanda, they were her children.
Pietro noticed the shadow of worry in his sister's eyes. Something occurred to him. His lips moved silently. When Wanda noticed, he gave her a meaningful look.
Wanda saw and smiled. "Relax. I cast an illusion the moment you walked in. All they're seeing is a normal conversation."
Creating false projections.
This was something she'd slowly figured out after the Mind Scepter had activated her mental abilities.
Wanda sensed she was capable of far more—that her power shouldn't be limited to just one room.
But for now, blanketing a single room with a convincing illusion was her limit.
She'd never told Strucker about this ability.
Because—
She no longer had just her brother to protect. She had her three children too.
Pietro heard his sister's words and nodded. Then he reached into his jacket and produced the Andromeda Cloth necklace, handing it to Wanda.
Unlike the pure gold it had been when Hawk first placed it around Gwen's neck.
Because Gwen had used it once, time had shifted its color from pure gold to something closer to rose gold.
Wanda looked at the necklace Pietro was offering. She took it instinctively.
The moment she accepted it and opened her mouth to speak—
THRUM.
From somewhere within a vast, infinite cosmos, a presence stirred. A phoenix whose gaze encompassed an entire universe—simultaneously blazing and frozen—opened its eyes and fixed upon her.
The next second.
The illusion shattered.
Wanda's pupils contracted violently. She clutched her chest and collapsed onto the couch behind her, gasping for breath.
Pietro started in alarm, rushing forward.
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
Wanda recalled that brief, overwhelming vision. She shook her head, studying the Andromeda necklace in her hand, then looked at Pietro.
"What is this?"
"His fiancée gave it."
"What?"
Wanda heard this. Her eyes went wide. She stared at Pietro, mouth opening and closing, words catching in her throat.
"She... gave this because?"
"She said it's for Billy and Tommy. That it will protect them."
Pietro relayed Gwen's words faithfully.
Wanda frowned at the necklace in her hand. Then something occurred to her. She looked up at her brother.
"Wait—didn't they search you when you came back?"
"Heh."
Pietro heard Wanda's question. His lips curved as he looked at her. "Against him, my speed might be pathetic. But to everyone else? I'm fast enough that they can't even tell I've moved."
He'd planted the necklace on a Hydra operative the moment he'd drunk that knockout juice.
Then, when the submarine had docked at the base—in the instant they'd carried him toward Strucker's office—he'd used his speed advantage to retrieve it.
As for how he'd timed it so precisely?
Simple.
He hadn't actually drunk a single drop of that knockout juice.
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