[as she explains, wanda can't help but think that she makes the most perfect sense. in conjunction with the memory that she saw from julie's past, the tale she tells is one that's quite terrifying. a world that is dying, and the words she says to describe it—mankind's dying gasp—are enough to make the hairs on her arms raise.

it's a terrifying though.

in a world where the only promise you can be certain of is that the world will reach its end in your lifetime and you would be devoid of magic, it would truly not be worth going back to it.

after julie's done talking, wanda stands, ushers the other woman to scoot on her seat to allow wanda space to join her. they never talked about what the memory had shown them so many weeks ago—of a young julie looking after the corpses of her mother and father, of how much she cried, of how much she tried. she wraps an arm around julie and puts her head down against her shoulder.]

Pietro and I lost our parents when we were ten. A bomb crashed into our apartment, killing them. I couldn't wrap my head around it—they had been sitting on the couch watching television with us, and when I looked again they were dead. We hid for two days, afraid of the second bomb on top of them exploding. The cold kept their bodies, but we could hear and smell the changes.

[she pulls away a touch.]

I had Pietro back then. He was my rock. But you were... by yourself. I'm so sorry, Julie.