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[indent][color=#c0c0c0]Dawn crept in slowly, bleeding pale light across the apartment.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Wanda hadn’t slept. She’d tried - curled on the thin mattress with her back to the wall, facing the door as though it might open again if she let her guard down. Every creak of the building, every distant siren had pulled her halfway back to waking and by the time the sky outside shifted from black to gray, she’d stopped pretending rest was possible.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Across the room, Pietro was equally still. Not sleeping either - just lying with his hands behind his head, staring at the water-stained ceiling. Wanda could tell by the way his foot tapped against the floorboards that his mind was moving as fast as his body normally could. The silence between them was heavy, stretched thin by everything they hadn’t said in the hours since Strange left.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]He’d made them an offer.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]An invitation, delivered with quiet certainty as though chaos were simply another problem to be solved with the right tools and enough patience. He hadn’t crossed the threshold. Hadn’t raised his voice or made any threats. Hadn’t even insisted they come with him. He’d simply left them with the weight of the choice and the knowledge that waiting carried its own consequences.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]The Sanctum, he’d called it - a place that sounded more like a concept than a building. Somewhere safe. Somewhere that promised answers Wanda wasn’t sure she wanted, and control she wasn’t convinced she even deserved.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]In the quiet of morning, the offer felt heavier than it had the night before. Less theoretical and easy to dismiss. The darkness had softened it, made it feel like just another encounter in a long line of chance meetings. Daylight stripped that illusion away and in the wash of dawn, the choice sat between them, solid and immovable.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Wanda drew a slow breath through her nose and let it out just as carefully, sitting up. She drew her knees to her chest and rubbed her palms together, trying to chase away the chill that had nothing to do with the morning air. Her fingertips tingled with the faintest static - she hadn’t used her magic since Strange left, afraid to so much as breathe wrong for fear of someone else showing up uninvited at their door.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Pietro sat up as well, turning his head and glancing at his twin.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]After a few moments, the quiet finally broke.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“We’re not going.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Wanda blinked, not entirely surprised by his opinion, but certainly taken back by how definitive he made it sound.[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“We’re not,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]The brunette agreed softly, but the words didn’t settle. They seemed to float in the space between them, hollow around the edges. Pietro heard the uncertainty in her voice and turned his head sharply toward her.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“Wanda,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]She kept her gaze directed toward the floor.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“Ne možeš biti ozbiljna.”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He scoffed,[/color] [color=#698caf]“Čak ga ni ne poznaješ.”[/color]
[i][color=#698caf]You can’t be serious.[/color][/i]			[i][color=#698caf]You don’t even know him.[/color][/i]

[color=#cd3241]“What if I am?”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]Her eyes met Pietro’s, and he stared at her as though he hadn’t heard correctly. She didn’t repeat herself, and that somehow made it worse.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“Ne - listen to yourself. You’re considering going with - with that man? A complete stranger? He could be anyone, Wanda.”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]Her continued silence only unsettled him further.[/color] [color=#698caf]“Tell me why you’re even thinking about this. Tell me what he said that made you believe he’s any different from the last person who promised to help us.”[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“Plašim se, Pietro.”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]The words slipped out before she could swallow them back, small and raw and horribly honest.[/color]

[i][color=#cd3241]I’m scared, Pietro.[/color][/i]

[color=#698caf]“I know.”[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“I can feel it getting worse,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]She whispered.[/color] [color=#cd3241]“The magic. It’s louder. Every day, and I don’t know how to quiet it. I don’t know how to stop it.”[/color]

[color=#698caf]“I know,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He repeated, louder this time, frustrated - not at her, but at how helpless he truly felt. [/color][color=#698caf]“But we’ll figure it out together. We don't need him.”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]She shook her head.[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“You can’t fix this, Pietro.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]His mouth opened to reply but closed again, because he knew she was right. He couldn’t outrun it for her. Couldn’t shield her from herself.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“We trusted Sinister, and look where that got us.”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]Pietro’s voice was low, trembling with the anger he was still harboring.[/color] [color=#698caf]“We’re not doing that again,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He insisted, exhaling shakily,[/color] [color=#698caf]“I’m not letting us walk into something blind because someone sounds like they know what they’re talking about.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]She lifted her chin, meeting his eyes with a steadiness that made his heart sink.[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“But doing nothing, staying here, pretending we’re fine… [/color][color=#cd3241][i]I’m [/i][/color][color=#cd3241]fine… feels exactly like the same mistake all over again.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Her voice softened, but it didn’t waver.[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“Strange seems capable, and right now I don’t know anyone else who is.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]The room fell silent again.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Pietro broke eye contact first, jaw tight, eyes becoming fixed on the far wall for a beat. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, stripped of its edge.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“If we do this,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He stated,[/color] [color=#698caf]“We do it together.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Wanda didn’t hesitate.[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“Always.” [/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Pietro let out a slow breath, the fight draining from his shoulders. [/color]

[color=#698caf]“And if I sense something is off,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He added, glancing back at her,[/color] [color=#698caf]“We leave, no questions asked.”[/color]

[color=#cd3241]“We’ll leave,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]She agreed,[/color] [color=#cd3241]“I promise.”[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]The city outside was fully awake now - voices drifting up through the cracked window, car horns blaring somewhere below. Life moved on, uncaring, as it always did. Pietro stood a moment later, rising to his feet. He took one last look around the room, committing the details to memory - the peeling paint, the bare floor, the place that had kept them hidden when nothing else could.[/color]

[color=#c0c0c0]Then he nodded once, decision made.[/color]

[color=#698caf]“Alright,”[/color] [color=#c0c0c0]He said quietly.[/color] [color=#698caf]“Idemo.”[/color]

[i][color=#698caf]Let’s go.[/color][/i][/indent]