Interdepartmental unity in name only, an alliance descends on Eastern Europe's ruins

Three spatial rifts, each a different color, tore open under the gloomy sky of Sokovia.

They were neither side by side nor overlapped, but each occupied its own space, maintaining a subtle and wary distance from one another.

Hela stepped out first, and the dark rift slowly closed behind her. She looked around, her gaze not lingering on the broken walls and ruins, but falling on the other two energy portals that had not yet dissipated.

In the Dark Gold glow, Qin's figure appeared.

Wanda finally appeared in the Scarlet, Chaos mist.

The Joint Investigation Team thus completed its assembly at the mission location.

Despite being called a gathering, the three of them stood atop separate ruins, forming a distant equilateral triangle. A cold wind whipped up dust, passing through the empty space between them, offering no incentive for any interaction.

Everything here exudes an aura of decay and death.

Hela adapted to this very well, and even enjoyed it to some extent.

Qin's face remained as aloof as ever, as if everything around her was irrelevant to her, and her task was merely a coordinate.

Only Wanda stood upright, but her posture was somewhat stiff.

Her gaze swept past the rubble at her feet, landing on a half-collapsed apartment building not far away. That had once been her home. Her eyes then moved to a ravaged square, where her brother Pietro had once lay.

The cold dust in the air smelled exactly the same as I remembered.

Just then, images from Ultron's "anonymous whistleblower report" pierced her mind at an inopportune and sharp moment.

In the ruins of Sokovia, Ultron's laser beams shot towards her. The man, Lynn, shielded her with his back. His body was pierced by the lasers, his flesh dissolving, yet he still held her tightly.

The pain and deep affection were so real that they chilled her to the bone.

In another scene, at the Clock Tower in New York, he cuts Silk to save another blonde girl, falling into the Abyss.

That resolute determination was equally genuine.

How many people did he die for?

This problem, like a poisonous thorn, was stuck in Wanda's nerves.

"Looks like our opponent has terrible taste." Hela's voice broke the silence as she kicked aside a twisted piece of steel at her feet, her tone full of contempt. "Building their hideout in this garbage dump."

She glanced at the other two and noticed that Jean was observing the Psychic Fluctuation around her, while Wanda was lost in thought.

A barely perceptible, cold smile curled at the corner of Hela's lips.

Sure enough, that "material" worked. Especially for Wanda. Returning to familiar territory, this main attacker's form didn't seem very stable.

Buzz--

A piercing buzzing sound came from all directions.

At the end of the street, in an abandoned factory, beneath collapsed buildings, countless robots emerged from the shadows. They were uniform in design, their eyes flashing with an ominous red light— Ultron's mechanical Legion.

They surged towards the three of them like a tide.

The initial clearing work has begun.

Hela crossed her arms and watched all this with detached composure. She didn't move.

According to the division of responsibilities at the leadership team meeting, she was in charge of the "Wall of Hades," which was the outer perimeter. These internal minions were not under her jurisdiction.

The zither also remained motionless.

Her mission is to create a "Stasis Force Field" to prevent Ultron's consciousness from escaping. As long as these mechanical units do not attempt to break through the invisible barrier she has erected, she does not need to intervene.

Their gazes fell on Wanda simultaneously.

The "Chaos Furnace" project team is the main focus.

This was decided by Lynn himself at the meeting.

Now it's the main attackers' turn to shine.

Wanda felt those two gazes, like needles pricking her back. She pulled herself out of her chaotic thoughts and looked at the surging mechanical Legion.

She should have taken action.

Tearing them to pieces with Chaos Magic, or rewriting their programs to make them kill each other, would be effortless for her.

However, not a trace of Scarlet energy could be emanating from her fingertips.

Her mind was in turmoil.

Lynn stated at the meeting that the document was a "Logic Virus" and "data forgery."

But her intuition, that intuition derived from Chaos Magic and capable of discerning the essence of reality, was frantically telling her that those emotional fluctuations were real.

He really did die for that girl named Gwen Stacy.

And she truly died for this Asgard Goddess of Death before her.

So, what about the moment he shielded himself from the laser beam?

Is it just another ordinary scene in a script where countless people "die for her"?

Were they merely tools for him to gain power, tools he could replace at any time?

A strong sense of betrayal and anger at being deceived surged in her chest like magma, almost burning away her reason.

"Wanda's representative."

Hela's voice rang out again, this time with a businesslike tone and a hint of urging from an unyielding official.

"According to the action plan, your unit should take the lead in eliminating the enemy's manpower to create conditions for subsequent core dismantling work. Do you need our cooperation?"

That's a very insightful question.

What appeared to be concern was actually a reminder to her not to forget her responsibilities. At the same time, it was also a statement to the unseen "superiors": it wasn't that my people were not doing their job, but that the main unit had been slow to act.

Qin didn't speak, but she turned her head slightly, her scrutinizing gaze intensifying the pressure.

Wanda's lips pressed into a pale line.

She knew that both of them were watching her make a fool of herself. They were waiting for her to make a mistake, waiting for her to botch this redemption mission, so they could use her failure to curry favor with the man.

On what grounds?

A surge of resentment rose from the depths of his heart.

Wanda raised her hand, and Scarlet energy finally gathered in her palm.

However, just as she was about to unleash her anger and chaos on the group of mechanical junk, a drone broke through the robot Defense Line in front of her and, at an extremely high speed, silently circled around to her back from a blind spot on the flank.

Hela saw it. She raised an eyebrow but didn't move.

Qin sensed it too. Her eyes turned cold, but she didn't move.

This is not within their defense zone.

This was due to the main attacker's own negligence.

Laugh!

A red energy beam shot out from the front of the drone, heading straight for Wanda's back.

This scene was so similar to the memory in her mind.

This time, however, there was no one to shield her from everything.

Wanda whirled around, her Scarlet magic instantly crushing the drone into dust. But she was too slow; the ray grazed her arm, leaving a charred mark on the ground.

A breach has appeared in the Defense Line.

Although it was just a tiny gap, it tore a huge rift in the relationship between the three of them.

"It seems the person in charge at Wanda isn't doing too well." Hela chuckled softly and finally moved.

With a casual wave of her hand, a jet-black energy blade swept out, cleaving dozens of robots charging at the front in half.

She handled the simplest problem with the most relaxed attitude, as if she were cleaning up a harmless mess for a colleague.

"Should we rest for a bit and calm down?" She looked at Wanda, her eyes filled with concern. "After all, it's a return to familiar territory, so it's understandable that you're a little emotional. We can report back to our master truthfully."

Report truthfully.

These four words struck Wanda's heart like a cold hammer.

Wanda stared intently at Hela, her Scarlet eyes filled with a mixture of murderous intent and humiliation.

She knew that her loss of composure had become a weapon the other party could use against her.

Meanwhile, on another pile of ruins not far away, Jean Grey remained silent, though a thoughtful glint flashed in her emerald eyes.

Their outward harmony masked a deep-seated estrangement; their mutual buck-passing and obstruction; the cracks that had already appeared within them...

All of this was clearly seen.

One kilometer away, inside the ruins of a building, a huge monitoring wall made up of countless small screens is displaying every subtle expression of the three people in real time.

In front of the surveillance wall, a figure made of Liquid Metal slowly straightened up.

Two Scarlet Data Stream lit up on its featureless face.

"Internal coordination is ineffective... There are structural flaws in the emotional logic... These can be exploited."

Cold, emotionless synthesized voices echoed in the dark command room.

"Plan B... activated."