It was a rainy night in Prague. Couples were on romantic strolls down silent pathways. Taxi cabs drove slowly by on the cobblestoned streets. Lampposts colored the city in an eerie amber glow that accentuated the foggy evening.
Wanda Maximoff was having a pleasant walk, passing the breathtaking churches whose bells tolled hypnotically at the strike of midnight. She stopped before one such church, gazing upward at its towering steeple. The last time she stood before this very church her brother Pietro had been right beside her. At the time their freedom from HYDRA’s torment had been fresh in their minds and they hadn’t known what to do other than weep silent tears of joy.
Now, seeing this church, his absence struck her like a heavy stone. She sighed before moving on, adjusting the hood covering her head. As she continued her stroll down the sidewalk, her hands thrust in her pockets and white vapor seeping from her mouth, she noticed two individuals walking on the other side of the street nearly half a block ahead of her. At first glance, they looked like a simple pair of lovers enjoying a romantic time together but to Wanda, she knew what people with evil intentions looked like. And then she heard a cacophony of jovial chatter up ahead.