Gale-force winds tore at the shredded curtains, and the clouds over all of Brooklyn churned into a vast scarlet vortex.
The air reeked of pungent ozone and charred wood. Wanda hovered in midair, her long hair swept high by violent currents of energy. A brutality bent on destroying everything flickered deep in her pupils as her fingers closed like iron pincers around something in the distance.
Twelve hundred meters away, the sound of twisting metal on the Clock Tower's top floor carried clearly back to the safe house through the magic's resonance. The Winter Soldier's titanium alloy left arm was being flattened bit by bit by an invisible, immense force, sending sparks and hydraulic fluid flying.
If Wanda tightened her fingers even another half inch, Hydra's most perfect weapon would be crushed into a pulp mixed with metal fragments.
He couldn't be allowed to die.
Lynn's mind reached the most rational judgment within a tenth of a second. Bucky Barnes was the only bait that could tug at the nerve called "attachment" in Steve Rogers. If Bucky died here, Steve's fury toward Hydra would lose its sharpest spearhead, greatly undermining Lynn's subsequent plans to kill through another's hand.
But against a Skyfather-level witch in an utterly berserk state, whose only thought was to tear apart the insect that had hurt her man, any forceful command or attempt at reason would only backfire.
The only weapon against a yandere was her own utterly twisted love.
Ignoring the magical turbulence around him that could tear an ordinary person apart, Lynn forced himself a step forward and seized Wanda's casting wrist.
"Lynn?" Wanda's movements paused for a microsecond. She turned her head slightly, intense murderous intent still lingering at the corners of her eyes.
Lynn said nothing. He secretly activated the Chaos Magic Affinity Physique he had only recently integrated, forcibly reversing a sliver of energy flow. A genuine, wrenching pain immediately shot through his organs. He grunted and bit through the tip of his tongue, letting a trickle of blood spill from the corner of his mouth.
Then he let all the strength drain from his legs, and his tall frame fell straight toward Wanda like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Forget about him..." Lynn buried his head in the crook of Wanda's neck, his voice so weak it seemed a breath of wind could scatter it. Yet his hands clutched her red leather jacket tightly, his knuckles turning bluish from the force. "Don't let go of me... Wanda, I'm so cold."
Those words were more lethal than any magic.
The churning scarlet storm in Wanda's eyes collapsed the instant she caught sight of the blood at the corner of Lynn's mouth.
"Lynn!"
Hydra's assassin, the insect twelve hundred meters away-she forgot them all in that instant. Wanda let out a panicked cry and wrapped her arms tightly around Lynn's slipping body.
The scarlet light filling the sky instantly receded like an ebbing tide. The gale stopped abruptly, and the rubble and broken furniture suspended in midair lost their support, crashing onto the wreckage-strewn floor.
Twelve hundred meters away.
Freed from the magical restraints, the Winter Soldier slammed down onto the Clock Tower's concrete floor. He gasped for breath, his lungs making a ragged sound like pumping bellows. His costly mechanical left arm was completely warped, several severed cables exposed and occasionally spitting clusters of eerie blue sparks.
Without a moment's hesitation, the killing machine scrambled over the railing on instinct and disappeared into the dark alley below, leaving behind only a Barrett Sniper Rifle with its barrel crushed out of shape.
Washington, D.C., seven levels beneath the Triskelion.
The high-heat energy signature on the monitoring screen finally faded. Pierce slumped into his leather chair, his shirt completely soaked with cold sweat and clinging tightly to his back.
The technician swallowed, his voice trembling. "Sir... the asset's vital signs have stabilized. He... he escaped. That witch stopped."
Pierce said nothing. He stared fixedly at the blurry satellite image on the main screen.
In the image, the Scarlet Witch, who possessed the power to destroy the world, was kneeling on the rubble-covered floor of the safe house. Like a fragile girl who had lost her whole world, she held that low-ranking agent tightly in her arms. Her red energy was no longer violent, instead becoming an exceptionally gentle halo that seeped into the man's body little by little.
This scene chilled Pierce even more than the witch crushing the Helicarrier with her bare hands had earlier.
He had always thought Lynn was merely lucky and had acquired some command phrase or item that could barely soothe the witch. Hydra's leadership had even theorized that once Lynn was killed, the witch would be left without an owner and could be brainwashed anew and controlled.
But now, Pierce's understanding was utterly shattered.
That agent named Lynn was no handler holding a leash. He was the witch's anchor, the sole switch between her sanity and madness! With nothing more than a single feeble movement, he could make a deity about to destroy half of New York instantly retract her fangs and turn into an obedient cat wagging its tail.
"Monsters... they're both monsters." Pierce's lips trembled, and genuine fear finally showed in his eyes.
Not only had he failed to probe the witch's limits, he had exposed Hydra's intent to kill to Lynn instead. Worse still, Bucky wasn't dead. Once Steve Rogers started following that lead...
Brooklyn, the safe house.
"Lynn, look at me. Don't close your eyes!" Wanda cupped Lynn's cheeks in both hands, her voice thick with tears.
She summoned the purest chaos energy within her, carefully guiding it throughout Lynn's limbs and body, trying to find "internal injuries" that did not exist. When she sensed a faint reverse flow of energy inside him, she could no longer hold back her tears. Large drops fell onto the side of Lynn's face.
"It's all my fault... I lost control of my energy just now and hurt you." Wanda pressed her forehead to Lynn's, her cool fingertips brushing the blood at the corner of his mouth, her gaze filled with suffocating obsession. "I shouldn't have left your side for even a moment... I should hide you away, somewhere no one can find you, with only the two of us..."
Listening to those extremely dangerous yandere remarks, Lynn sighed inwardly, but an exceptionally tender smile appeared on his face.
He raised a hand and gently stroked Wanda's long chestnut hair.
"Silly girl, I'm fine, aren't I?" Lynn's voice carried just the right amount of rasp, each word striking precisely at Wanda's most tender nerve. "As long as you're by my side, I'm not afraid of anything. For a moment there, I thought you were going off to fight again. I was afraid you'd get hurt, so I..."
"I'm not going! I'm not going anywhere!" Wanda interrupted him immediately, tightening her arms again as though she wanted to meld Lynn into her own flesh and bones. "I only want you."
Feeling the burning-hot, delicate body in his arms gradually relax, Lynn lowered his eyelids slightly, concealing the cold calculation deep in his eyes.
Well done.
He had not only preserved Bucky's life and given Pierce a warning along the way, but also taken the opportunity to deepen Wanda's dependence on him. He had exploited this sniper attack from over a thousand meters away to the fullest.
Lynn patted Wanda's back. As he rose, he looked through the shattered window toward Washington, D.C.
Pierce, did you think these were tonight's only surprises?
Judging by the time, Steve should have received that "special gift" by now. With Captain America's sense of justice and readiness to act, the countdown to Hydra's demise was about to begin.
Just as Lynn was about to carry Wanda back to the bedroom and put a final end to tonight's farce.
Washington, D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Nick Fury had just returned to the Director's Office from the underground hangar, and his lone eye was fixed on the Encrypted Communicator on his desk.
On the communicator, a code transmitted through a channel with the highest level of encryption kept flashing. It was a direct line he had established ten years ago. Apart from himself, only one person knew the channel existed.
Fury pressed the decryption key, and a short message appeared.
[Fury, I've uncovered the underlying logic of the Zola Algorithm. Project Insight isn't targeting terrorists. It's targeting anyone who might threaten Hydra. Tony Stark is on the list, Bruce Banner too, and... that agent named Lynn. -Steve Rogers.]
Fury's remaining eye abruptly contracted to a pinprick.
How had Captain America obtained top-secret data that even he, the director, could not access?
And why was Lynn on the list? How could that low-ranking agent who controlled the witch and had just been making a deal with Pierce possibly be on Hydra's kill list?
Fury suddenly felt a bone-deep chill shoot up his back. He realized he had been wrong about one thing from the very beginning.
Lynn was no Hydra pawn, nor was he a problem for S.H.I.E.L.D.
That young man was using every force on the entire chessboard to weave an all-devouring web for himself!
Just as Fury was about to contact Captain America immediately, the office door was kicked open without warning.
"Sir," Crossbones, Rumlow, said, leading a squad of fully armed Special Operations Troopers with their guns aimed straight at Fury behind the desk, a cold smile on his face, "Secretary Pierce would like you to join him for coffee on sublevel seven."
Fury's finger hovered over the communicator. Looking at the dark gun barrels, he discovered another fact that shattered his understanding.
Project Insight had launched ahead of schedule.
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