Sokovia

Getting from place to place was easy, now. Her new, skyclad-inducing powers let her effortlessly make a crimson equivalent of the sing-ring portals that the sorcerers used. Nervously, Wanda stepped out from the now-desolate, chill mountain peak, and ended up in a slightly warmer climate.

It was one of those spaces that was half-abandoned, half-built-over, a fairly clear road stretched out over overgrown empty shacks and fields and paths. Wanda quickly looked around, squeaked, and dived into one of those old buildings. The doors had long-since fallen off, but she could wave away the weeds that would make crouching barefoot uncomfortable, and shelter behind the decrepit walls.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Wanda clutched her arms tightly against herself, trying to adjust to the feeling of being naked out in the open air - this was nothing she’d expected to deal with, especially not now!

She could keep the air a comfortable temperature, that was easy, but that did nothing to erase the knowledge of how exposed she was. If anything, she felt more so by how easy it ought to be to fix it.

Everything she tried, though, just didn’t work.

But she wasn’t going to sit on the mountaintop forever, Wanda told herself. She wanted to change things, that was why she’d gone through with all of this, she just had to start with something that maybe didn’t involve meeting anyone in person.

Still flushed, Wanda poked her head out of the empty doorway to look up and down the empty road. Down one end was rubble - when Ultron had destroyed Sokovia, so little had been left over, but no one had bothered to clear it away. There was a memorial somewhere behind some of the remains, in the one place swept clean enough for photo ops.

Wanda closed her eyes, slid her bare back down the wall until she sat half a metre above the ground, and floated, arms crossed, and summoned the near-limitless magic now at her command.

A red cloud poured out over the landscape. It billowed, and surged, and fell like a wave across the quiet land. Patchy grass, dusty roads, tumbledown stone, all consumed in the dark sea.

And when the wave passed, the land had been remade. It was far from a paradise, but Sokovia was intact again. Rows and rows of cheap houses, aging walls and cracked town squares, posters to long-since passed events, a town that the world had forgotten back in the world.

Empty, for now. Wanda took a deep breath and stepped out from her primitive cover. She could deal with the people, she just didn’t want to be outside for that.

She looked around again, face burning, and made another futile attempt to conjure some outfit or illusion.

Then, giving up, Wanda slowly started to make her way down the worn road, jumpily looking around in case someone had appeared out of nowhere. She bit her lip, the familiarity of her surroundings somehow making the walk more disconcerting.

The world had adjusted to over three billion people coming back to life. It could handle one town.

She quickened her pace, not wanting to stay outside any longer than she had to. Even with her skill at controlling the temperature, the air still made goosebumps rise on her skin just from the fact that she could feel it.

Even though it had been so long, she still remembered the streets. She’d walked this way so many times before - now, she darted to the front of an apartment building, and ducked inside, legs shaking. She didn’t stop until she’d made it up the stairs, and to where she used to live, breathless.

She couldn’t help replaying all the other times she’d been here, all the other neighbours she used to know and run into. She took a breath, firmly closed her front door, and then sat down again.

Well, she’d be alone in this room anyway. It was a start towards regaining everything she’d lost.

Restoring all the people wasn’t that different to making the city anew. She’d learned more since making the Hex, and with her new abilities didn’t need to confine the whole thing within a barrier. Technically everything was a magical construct, but her magic worked by manipulating reality - on a practical level, there was no difference between her creations and a real thing.

A scarlet cloud fell over Sokovia again, and where it passed, the fallen people of the city re-appeared, ostensibly unaware that anything was amiss. It might be a shock when they found out the date, but after the blip, Wanda knew people could handle it.

Though when she heard muted voices on the other side of her thin walls, she almost fell out of her trance. Slowly, Wanda dropped down to the slightly scratchy bed, rather unsurprised when her attempt to wrap the cover around herself just saw it fade to phase through her, leaving her as bare as when she started.

She’d brought back her home, Wanda told herself. That was a good thing. She’d done a good thing, she’d made a difference.

Though staring at the flimsy door that divided her room from the rest of the apartment building, it suddenly seemed all too inadequate as all she had to prevent anyone from catching her.