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Agent Jimmy Woo sat in front of a small array of monitors. Most of them were showing the broadcast of the sitcom world Wanda had created, but that’s not what he was focused on. Instead, he was watching the video of Wanda confronting Director Hayward, Monica and a team of SWORD agents about the drone they’d sent into the anomaly. Or rather, he was rewatching it. He wasn’t sure how many times he’d seen it, but it was still pretty intense. He began to feel, not for the first time since this whole thing started, that he was out of his depth.
“Pretty intense stuff, huh?”
He jumped at the voice, spilling lukewarm coffee from the cup he’d been holding for the past half hour. Muttering a curse at his own clumsiness, he turned to see Darcy Lewis standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder.
“Yeah,” he said in answer to her question. “How...how long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see you watch that same five minutes of footage twice,” she replied. “Sorry about your coffee, though.”
“It’s fine,” he said, wiping his hand on his pants. “It’s cold now anyway.” He turned off the monitor and sat back with a small sigh. “Are there any new updates?”
“Not since the bombshell plot twist that her brother’s back with a different face,” Darcy replied, pulling over a nearby chair and sitting down. “Things seem to have gone dark for now, leaving us to go back to pondering what it all means.”
“Great,” Jimmy said with a small nod. “I mean, it’s not great, but...well, no one’s being mind controlled to point guns at anyone so that’s a plus.” He cleared his throat and quickly tried to change the subject. “I don’t suppose anyone has any new theories or plans?” he asked.
Darcy shrugged. “Not that they’ve shared with me,” she said. “I’ve been running every test or scan I can think of in hopes of finding a breakthrough. When I’m not watching the show, of course.”
Jimmy glanced at the other monitors, which were currently rerunning the latest episode. It had just gotten to the part where the twins aged themselves up for the second time in order to keep the dog they’d found. He slowly became aware that Darcy wasn’t watching the monitors. She was watching him.
“Are you alright?” she asked after a moment.
“Yeah. Why do you ask?
“Because you kind of look like a guy who’s locked into the world’s scariest roller coaster as it’s climbing up the first hill and you’re realizing it’s bigger than you thought it was.”
Jimmy let out a small laugh at her description before giving a simple shrug “I guess I’m just tired. I’m not really used to dealing with people with powers, let alone someone as powerful as Wanda Maximoff.” He let out a small sigh. “It’s...it’s been an interesting few days to say the least.” He lapsed into silence for a moment, then stood. “I think I’m going to go for a walk. Try to clear my head.” He got to his feet and walked toward the door.
“Can I ask you something?”
He stopped and turned around, giving a small nod in response.
“Why are you here?” Darcy asked.
He frowned in confusion. “I...I was just watching the video of --”
“Not what I meant,” she interrupted. “Why are you here ? Why did you stick around after SWORD and the military showed up or after we found out Wanda was behind all of this? I mean, I like you, but you’re the lone FBI agent in the middle of this mess, and I’m pretty sure stopping a rogue Avenger is way above even your director’s pay grade. So...why are you here?”
He stared at her for a moment, realizing that he’d been asking himself that question for the better part of the past few hours. “I...I don’t know,” he said with a small sigh. His eyes wandered around the room, taking in the various monitors and boards filled with notes and photos, eventually settling on the one that held the identities of everyone inside the anomaly. As he looked from one photo to the next, something clicked. “I guess...I guess I’m here for them,” he said, pointing to the board. “I mean...this started as a missing persons case, and it still technically is, since everyone these people knew has forgotten they even existed.”
He stood and started walking toward the board, taking in all of the faces. “These people...they’re victims. Hostages, essentially. And that’s well within my wheelhouse.” He turned and looked back toward Darcy, then past her to the monitors, taking in the final shot of the episode with this new Pietro Maximoff standing in the doorway.
“Besides...there’s just too much about this whole situation that doesn’t make sense,” he continued. “Every answer we do get just raises more questions.” He began pacing, rattling off all of the questions that had been flying around his head since he’d first gotten the call about his missing witness. “I mean...why the sitcom schtick? Why would Wanda take Vision’s body, then come to West View, New Jersey to wipe it off the map and create this little sitcom world? Where the hell did this new Pietro come from? Why pull Monica into it, only to kick her back out again a few days later? Why -- ?” He stopped mid sentence as he noticed Darcy was watching him and grinning from ear to ear. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
“Because you finally got there,” she replied. She stood and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You care about people, Agent Woo. And that’s not a bad thing. And you’re right -- there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense here. But stopping whatever is happening out there is going to take more than throwing bombs around, no matter what Director Douche thinks. Figuring out what is happening here, and why it’s happening...that’s going to help us do that.”
Jimmy let out a small sigh. “Do you really think I’m going to be able to help with that?” he asked.
“I do,” Darcy said. “That’s what the FBI does, right?. You investigate crimes, get inside people’s heads, figure out what makes them tick. And, at the end of the day, Wanda Maximoff is a person. She’s a person who nearly took out Thanos single-handedly and can get inside your head and rewrite your perception of reality, and, if this current mess is any indication, can rewrite reality itself --"
"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" Jimmy interrupted. "Because it's not."
Darcy rolled her eyes a little before continuing. "My point is that whatever else Wanda is, she’s still got all of the same emotions as you and me. I might be able to work out how she's doing this, given enough time and the right equipment, but I couldn't tell you why. That’s the angle you can figure out.
“Besides,” she continued, giving him a knowing smirk, “are you really telling me you don’t want to see this through? I mean, even if Hayward came in here right now and told you to leave, that SWORD’s got this under control, or if you got a call from your boss telling you to pack up and head back to Quantico...would you really want to go?”
He didn’t have to think about his answer. “No, I wouldn’t,” he said. “I’ve started this thing, and I want to be here when it ends. No matter what.” He gave a small shrug and stuck his hands into the pockets of his FBI windbreaker “Besides...there’s nothing even close to this interesting happening in Quantico right now. Nothing that they’d need me for, anyway.”
Darcy nodded, her smile somehow getting bigger. “Good,” she said. “So, since you’re sticking around, why don’t you make yourself useful and go get us some fresh cups of coffee and a couple bags of chips and we’ll take another run at this thing. See if we can’t get some actual answers.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jimmy said, a small smile creeping over his face. He turned to leave, but hesitated. “And...thank you, Doctor Lewis.”
“Oh, please,” she said, giving a dismissive wave of her hand. “Call me Darcy. I mean, I’ve shared potato chips with you and we kind of just had a moment, so I think we’re at the point we can be on a first name basis.”
“Right. Darcy.” He smiled, feeling a bit more relaxed than he did ten minutes ago. “I’ll go get us those coffees,” he said, starting toward the exit.
“And the chips, Jimmy” Darcy called after him. “Don’t forget the chips.”
Jimmy let out a small laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied.