Wanda and Amanda

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

After hitting multiple dead ends, Wanda and Amanda come up with one idea. It's time to go hunting.



It was dark in Granada. Again. But this was the natural onset of darkness with lights from the city piercing through the night sky and not the unnatural blackout that had crippled the city for several hours early that evening. It was still dark enough for a person to slip through the shadows unnoticed and unharrassed until they reached the relative safety of a hotel that had only a few lights left on. With the lobby empty of both guests and employees for the moment, there was no hesitation in the walk through to the stairs; hesitation set in when she reached her floor but she kept going up, heading for the roof.

There was no surprise for Wanda when she exited on top of the hotel to find that she wasn't alone. After all, one could see a good chunk of the neighboring city from the perch.

"Anything?" Wanda called softly as she padded across the darkened roof, her voice sounding harsh to her own ears.

"Nothing." The responding voice was flat and emotionless - Amanda's grief had poured out of her the previous night, leaving only a shell of the bright, laughing girl of only a few days before. "I tried the location spell until I threw up. There's nothing. Pete's gone." She looked up from where she was sitting huddled at the edge of the roof, expression empty. "You?"

The older woman waited to respond until she'd come out a little further so she could settle on the edge of the roof. The light played off a few new bruises on her face and her hands looked to be a mess. "Not a damned thing from any of my contacts, here or back home, though a few had some choice words regarding the matter. Those came to regret their poor decision." She dropped her head into her heads and rubbed at her temples, feeling empty now that she was back with nothing to report.

"Fuck." Amanda looked away again, hands clenching around her knees. "Do we go back, then? To New York?"

Missing in action sometimes meant as good as dead in some cases but if Wanda let go of that slim thread of hope, she was going to do something worse than force a couple of smarmy informants to eat their words. They could go home and sit with the rest or...

"How do you feel about a hunting trip?"

That sparked a reaction, a glint entering Amanda's eyes. "Keep on as we have, only this time we're looking for those cunts?" she asked. She barely paused before answering her own question. "Count me in. Someone needs to pay for this, even if we have to turn Europe upside down to do it."

Wanda grinned, a flash of white teeth against the night sky. "Remy put out the word for all hands on deck but I think we can be excused if we find word that the Brotherhood is in Europe somewhere. Or any word on them."

"Mystique knows her way around Germany. We can start there." Amanda's hands tightened on her knees again, this time keeping the fury in check - she couldn't afford to lose control again. They needed her to be calm, collected. "You're got access to the X-Men's comms still, don't you? We should keep an eye on those, see what they dig up themselves."

"I can only imagine that those comms will be jumping, just the same as ours," came the response as Wanda tapped sharply on her knees. "Can you hunt down Marie-Ange and fill her in on the plan? I will do the same with Farouk - if he still wants to hang around, we can continue what we were doing previously while we hunt down answers for Pete."

Wanda's chest squeezed tightly. And Garrison. She could still vividly remember watching as he fought for his life as she watched helplessly. He might not have been one of hers but she considered him a good friend and someone who had helped to save her life.

"I'll go do that now." If saying Pete's name had provoked any emotion in his 'family', Amanda didn't show it. Her expression was just as bleak as it had been when Wanda had arrived. With no further word, she climbed to her feet and headed for the door, the light over it flickering as she passed.

With a sigh, Wanda let herself slump backwards until she was flat on the roof, staring up into the night sky. The sight of the stars would normally have been a calming sight but that night...

"One of these days, father," she murmured, "I will take great pleasure in shoving the laundry list of crimes down your throat."