"Wand?" Pietro asked in concern.

CRASH!

Wanda screamed as the pounding in her head escalated to an unbearable level. There seemed to be some kind of explosion in the room and before she knew it, Wanda had thrown an already battered Pietro across the room, slamming him against the wall as his head cracked the glass of a closed window. And through pain-glazed eyes, she watched in horror as he slid down to the floor in a lifeless heap.

-

Wanda sank to her knees and groaned, still clutching her head. She willed the pain away and forced herself to focus, like Agatha had taught her. Clearing her head, she looked up and saw her brother slumped on the ground, not moving. Wanda staggered up and ran to Pietro's side.

She gently turned her brother's prone body to her and looked at him. He was bleeding slightly, but his face looked peaceful in sleep, a lock of silver-white hair coming over one of his closed eyes. Wanda checked him over, panic threatening to overtake her. He was obviously beat up. She resisted the urge to shake him and instead checked frantically for a pulse, but her own heart was beating so fast it was impossible to tell anything. She couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

No, no, no, please, oh God, no! Wanda thought as she pulled her brother into her lap, repeating his name over and over again. Panic over-riding common sense and any form of medical training she had over the years, she started shaking him. "Pietro, Pietro wake up! Pietro, please, can't you hear me? Pietro!"

This got no reaction out of him, which only made the Scarlet Witch choke on fear and worry that she hadn't felt in years. Wanda cradled him to her chest and called out to him again, shaking his body harder. "Pietro, Pietro, come on bro, wake up! Please Pie, for me! Pietro!"

No, oh no. Don't do this to me! Not now, not after all this! Wanda thought, desperation threatening to overtake her. Suddenly, she had an idea. Her hex bolts had an undercurrent of electricity in them, she knew that much. Maybe if she shocked him...

-

Pietro was knocked out. In his semi-conscious state, all he could think about was that he hurt, a lot. But oddly enough, he felt kind of good, almost safe. He felt warm too, and he thought he was being held. That was odd; he hadn't been held by anyone in years. Yes, he thought, that definitely felt good, now if only they would stop shaking him like that. He wanted to sleep! Then, he thought he heard someone calling out his name. Who? Just as he was thinking about opening his eyes from his current haze and trying to answer back, he felt a shock run through him.

"YEOWWW!" Pietro yelped as his eyes flew open and his body jerked with the jolt.

"Pietro!" Wanda exclaimed. With that, Pietro found himself suffocating as his sister pulled him into her arms and squeezed the living daylights out of him.

Pietro's first instinct was to struggle and get away, but then he realized that he was being hugged, not attacked. Then he realized that Wanda was the one hugging him, which made him figure he must be dreaming or something. Of course, he was then faced with a bigger problem, seeing as how he was turning blue from oxygen deprivation.

"Wanda," he managed to choke out, "can't...breathe!"

"What? Oh, sorry," Wanda said and quickly released her brother; letting him sit up and gasp for air.

"S'okay," Pietro managed to rasp out as he sat up and concentrated on getting much needed air into his lungs. After the blessed oxygen started circulating through his body again, memory came flooding back and Pietro became aware of his surroundings. He was extremely aware of the fact that he was in pain, but even more so that he was sitting on the ground and was in very close proximity to his sister. His angry, powerful, homicidal sister who for some reason didn't seem to be trying to kill him. Pietro looked at her and saw that she seemed slightly distressed.

"You okay?" Pietro asked gently, though prepared to receive a cutting retort.

Wanda looked up at her brother and away again, hesitating. "I, I thought I had killed you for a moment," she said, her head bowed in shame and her voice barely above a whisper.

Pietro, for once, was speechless. He stared in shock at his twin's bent head and then started to grin. "Naa, I'm pretty hard to kill, which is a good thing considering who I'm related to...but I would appreciate it if you didn't try again, at least not immediately," he said, stating the last part quickly.

Wanda snapped her head up to look at Pietro's grinning face. She recovered from her shock at his words rather quickly, and to both of their amazements, gave a slightly trembling smile. It completely disarmed Pietro. It had been years since he had seen her smile, and even after she came back, he had given up hope of seeing one on her face again, let alone one directed at him.

All he could do right then was stare at her. Wanda always did have the most beautiful smile in the world, and for a second, it was like Pietro had his lovely little sister back; the one who would giggle at all his jokes, kick his ass in a fight, and smile and play with him, and make him feel better when he was down.

However, all this happened in about two seconds, and the smile went as quickly as it came, and Wanda looked away again. Pietro frowned, disappointment obvious on his face, but Wanda couldn't see it with her head turned away from his.

"So...you meant all that stuff, from before?" Wanda asked, still not looking at him.

"Uh, well, yeah," Pietro said, a little embarrassed at his earlier outburst. He never got emotional.

"Oh," Wanda replied, and an extremely awkward silence filled the room. The twins were still sitting on the ground next to each other. Wanda tucked her legs against her chest and wrapped her arms around them protectively.

"Actually," Pietro said after a while, "I kind of thought you might be dead or something."

Wanda stared at him.

"I mean, I knew you weren't really. I figured I'd know if anything had happened to you, but Magneto told me to forget about you and said you were gone. I didn't really know what to take from that. He never told me where the place you were at was either. Punished me when I got too inquisitive," Pietro said, shrugging nonchalantly. Then he tilted his head at her with a small smile, "But I'm glad you're not though, dead I mean. Believe it or not, I'm really glad you're here."

"Why?" Wanda spat out vehemently.

"Huh?"

"Why the hell are you glad to see me? I tried to kill you! Repeatedly! And now you tell me what's happened to you, and none of this was your fault, and how the hell can you stand to be near me?" Wanda asked, her voice filled with self disgust.

Pietro stared at his sister in astonishment. "Wanda, I deserved it! You're right; I should have tried harder to keep you from being taken away. I was supposed to protect you, and I didn't. I was a horrible brother, Wand." He looked down in shame.

"It's not your fault, Pie. I'm starting to realize that now. It's just, I tried to keep up hope for so long that you would come for me; for some reason I never really thought that he would. But after a few years...I just started to blame you along with that, that miserable excuse we have for a Father. Thought you'd abandoned me too. I couldn't help it. There was nothing else I could do in that place, and my anger was the only thing that kept me from going completely insane."

"I never wanted to leave you. I just didn't know what to do; I could hardly use my powers at the time. I was just a little kid then; a stupid little kid," Pietro said, shaking his head regretfully. "But I'll be damned if I ever let anyone take you away or hurt you ever again. I won't let it happen! It never should have happened in the first place; you didn't deserve it! Maybe I did, but not you, never you. And this time, I swear I can keep my promise," Pietro told her forcefully, and with complete honesty.

Wanda looked at her brother, an odd burning behind her eyes. "You mean you still care about me?" She asked, suddenly seeming like a small, insecure child.

Pietro smiled at his sister; a warm, genuine smile that he hadn't bestowed upon anyone in years beyond count. "I never stopped caring Wandi," he said, using her extremely annoying child-hood nick name.

Her usually infuriating pet name filled Wanda with nostalgia. Her brother's words and everything that had just happened brought tears to the Scarlet Witch's eyes. I have my brother back>, she thought, hardly daring to believe it, and for the first time since she was locked up, Wanda Maximoff cried. She cried and Pietro's arms went around her, and neither knew anything more perfect in the world. Pietro buried his face into Wanda's hair and breathed in her sweet scent with one blissful thought in mind, I have my sister back…>

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Heartsyhawk: It was pretty emotional, wasn't it? Glad it got the desired reaction.

bant: I'm glad you're enjoying this. I think you've reviewed every chapter so far. Thanks!

evo-lover: Yeah, I'm pretty proud of the blackmail bit myself; seems in character.

SpeedDemonrox: lol, Pietro's pretty much my all-time fav too. Not to use this as a promotional story or anything…oh, who am I kidding? I'm a glutton for reviews. If you love Pietro I'm pretty sure you'll love my other stories. I have quite a few speedy-centric fics already up and finished, as well as ones that concentrate solely on the twins. Feel free to check them out, after you review this chapter of course. :)