The safehouse in Prague smelled like cigarettes and paranoia.
Alexei sat across from me, Ghost Network's best infiltrator, looking like he'd aged a decade in six months. Hollow eyes. Nervous hands. The thousand-yard stare of someone who'd seen things they couldn't unsee.
"Sokovia," he said in Russian, accent thick. "Baron Strucker's primary facility. Underground complex outside Novi Grad, built into abandoned Soviet-era bunker system."
I pulled up holographic displays showing the region. Yelena stood behind me, silent and watchful.
"What did you find?" I asked.
"Volunteers. War orphans seeking revenge." He pulled encrypted files from his jacket, hands shaking slightly. "Strucker's recruiting sixteen-year-olds who lost parents to Western weapons. Promises them power. Promises them vengeance. And they believe him because they have nothing left."
"Numbers?"
"Forty-three initial recruits. Most washed out during psychological screening or preliminary exposure. But two..." He pulled up photos. "Twins. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Age sixteen. Both demonstrated latent abilities before enhancement program began."
The photos showed two kids—dark-haired, sharp-featured, eyes carrying weight no teenager should bear. Pietro's face held restless energy. Wanda's showed haunted calculation.
"Latent abilities?" Yelena asked.
"Pietro experiences precognitive flashes. Seconds of future sight during stress. Wanda makes objects move during emotional distress—small things, unconscious control, but measurable." Alexei pulled up test footage showing Wanda's stuffed toy floating during nightmare, crashing down when she woke. "Strucker believes exposure to Loki's scepter will amplify these abilities exponentially."
I felt cold spread through my chest. The Mind Stone. HYDRA had recovered it after the Battle of New York and was using it for enhancement experiments. In the original timeline, the Maximoffs would survive exposure and gain incredible powers—super speed and reality manipulation. They'd join Ultron, fight the Avengers, eventually switch sides.
But that timeline assumed I didn't interfere.
"Timeline for enhancement?" I asked.
"Six months. Maybe less. Strucker's waiting for twins to complete psychological conditioning—wants them properly motivated before exposure." Alexei met my eyes. "They hate Tony Stark with passion that borders on religious fervor. Stark Industries weapons killed their parents in 1999 Sokovia conflict. They watched their apartment collapse. Watched their parents die. Spent two days trapped under rubble staring at unexploded Stark missile."
The void marks pulsed beneath my shirt. I remembered this from the movies—Pietro and Wanda's origin story. Trauma forged into purpose. Pain weaponized into power.
"Current location?" Yelena asked.
"Underground facility. Twenty-seven guards, twelve HYDRA scientists, forty-three potential subjects down to eight who passed initial screening." Alexei pulled up facility layouts. "Security is moderate—Strucker considers this low-priority research compared to Insight project and Winter Soldier program. We could extract targets with proper planning."
"And then what?" I asked. "We kidnap traumatized sixteen-year-olds, tell them HYDRA is evil, and hope they believe us instead of seeing us as another enemy stealing their chance for revenge?"
"Better than letting HYDRA complete enhancement," Yelena countered.
"Is it? We extract them now, they're powerless targets with HYDRA hunting them. They'll spend lives running instead of becoming something powerful enough to stand on their own."
"You want to let HYDRA enhance them?"
"I want to extract them after enhancement but before Strucker fully controls them. Narrow window, but it gives them power while removing HYDRA's influence."
Yelena's jaw clenched. "That's gambling with children's lives."
"Everything's gambling when the stakes are this high." I turned to Alexei. "Maintain surveillance. Document enhancement timeline. Report any acceleration or changes. But no extraction until I give explicit authorization."
He nodded, collected his files, and left silently.
Yelena waited until the door closed. "You're playing god with those kids."
"I'm making impossible choices with incomplete information. There's a difference."
"Is there? Because from where I'm standing, you're deciding their fate without asking what they want."
"They're sixteen years old and traumatized. They want revenge against Tony Stark for weapons that killed their parents. That's not informed decision-making—that's pain seeking outlet." I pulled up Stark Industries records. "AEGIS, confirm: Sokovia weapon sales, 1999."
"Confirmed. Stark Industries sold missile systems to U.S. military under legitimate contract. Weapons were subsequently diverted by intermediary to Sokovia conflict zone without company knowledge or approval."
"So Tony didn't know his weapons reached civilians."
"Correct. Diversion occurred three levels down supply chain. Stark Industries conducted internal investigation after discovering irregularities but never connected specific incidents to Maximoff family deaths."
I stared at the photos. Two kids destroyed by weapons sold legally but diverted illegally. Tony Stark had no idea his technology killed their parents. The twins had no idea their target was ignorant of the crime.
"We could tell them," Yelena said quietly. "Extract them now, show them truth about weapons diversion. Remove their motivation for enhancement."
"They wouldn't believe us. We're strangers offering convenient excuses for why they shouldn't hate the man whose name was on missiles that killed their parents. Truth wouldn't matter—trauma is louder than facts."
"Then what's your plan?"
"Surveillance until enhancement. Extraction immediately after. Then rehabilitation—deprogram HYDRA's conditioning, provide therapy, offer them choice about what comes next." I met her eyes. "But the key word is 'choice.' They get powers, they get freedom from HYDRA, they get information about Tony's ignorance. Then they decide whether revenge still matters."
"And if they choose revenge?"
"Then I position myself between them and Tony, and we have very unpleasant conversation about consequences." I closed the displays. "But my bet? Once they have power and freedom, revenge stops looking appealing compared to building lives that aren't defined by pain."
Yelena studied me. "You sound like you're describing yourself."
"Maybe. I died angry. Got second chance. Discovered revenge isn't satisfying compared to actually accomplishing things." I pulled up global threat assessments. "The Maximoffs will be powerful. Reality-warping powerful. I'd rather they become allies than enemies."
"So this is strategic recruitment."
"This is preventing tragedy while giving kids a chance at something better than HYDRA's version of their future." I showed her the timeline. "Six months until enhancement. Then narrow extraction window—maybe three weeks before Strucker's conditioning fully takes hold. We miss that window, extraction becomes combat operation against enhanced targets."
"Risky."
"Everything's risky. Question is whether risk serves purpose." I pulled up Strucker's file. "Also, this gives us intelligence on HYDRA's enhancement programs. Scepter experiments. Mind Stone research. All useful for understanding threats before they mature."
"You're using sixteen-year-olds as intelligence sources."
"I'm using HYDRA's stupidity against them while preparing to save victims of that stupidity. Different thing."
Yelena shook her head. "Sometimes I can't tell if you're hero or villain wearing hero's mask."
"Neither. I'm just someone trying to save as many people as possible before time runs out."
Late that night, I reviewed Maximoff files in my private office.
Pietro Maximoff: age sixteen, precognitive flashes suggesting quantum perception or temporal awareness. Post-enhancement, he'd have super speed—potentially approaching Mach 3 with proper training. Psychological profile showed protective instincts toward sister, impulsive decision-making, and barely controlled rage directed at Tony Stark.
Wanda Maximoff: age sixteen, spontaneous telekinesis suggesting reality manipulation or psionic potential. Post-enhancement, she'd have probability alteration, telepathy, and eventually reality-warping that could rival cosmic entities. Psychological profile showed trauma-induced dissociation, fierce loyalty to brother, and cold hatred toward Stark that bordered on obsessive.
Two kids. Incredible power. Terrible pain.
And me, sitting in Manhattan deciding their fate without their knowledge or consent.
Am I doing the right thing?
The void marks pulsed. Nine percent corruption. Four years remaining. And so many people to save or fail to save.
"Sir," AEGIS said quietly. "Probability analysis suggests Maximoff extraction attempt carries sixty-two percent success rate assuming optimal timing. However, failure scenarios include twin casualties, HYDRA retaliation, and accelerated enhancement programs for remaining subjects."
"I know."
"Additionally, allowing enhancement creates powered individuals whose loyalty is uncertain. They may become allies or adversaries depending on rehabilitation effectiveness."
"I know that too."
"Then why proceed with high-risk strategy when immediate extraction represents lower-risk alternative?"
I stared at the twins' photos. "Because immediate extraction leaves them powerless. And in a world with Chitauri invasions and void-corrupted weapons dealers and literal gods, being powerless is its own death sentence. At least with power, they have a chance."
"That logic applies to yourself as well. You collect powers despite corruption risk because powerlessness represents greater danger than transformation."
"Yeah. Guess I'm projecting my survival strategy onto traumatized teenagers. That's probably not healthy."
"Arguably, understanding their perspective through personal experience increases probability of successful rehabilitation post-extraction."
"Or I'm justifying dangerous decisions with rationalizations."
"Both can be simultaneously true."
I closed the files. Six months until the Maximoffs gained powers that could reshape reality. Six months to prepare extraction protocols, rehabilitation programs, and contingencies for when everything went wrong.
The void marks glowed faintly in the darkness.
So many threads. So many people whose fates balanced on decisions I made alone in offices while they lived their lives unknowing.
Ivan was right. I do collect people like weapons.
But maybe that was okay. As long as I remembered they were people first, weapons second, and gave them choice about what they became.
The Maximoffs would get their powers. Then they'd get their choice.
And whatever they decided, I'd be ready.
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