The night wind of Sokovia blew through the ruins, bringing with it the scent of charcoal and dust.
Behind a collapsed residential building, Wanda Maximoff stopped under an old tree.
Her brother, Pietro, lowered the old man he was carrying on his shoulders to the ground. The body lay motionless on the cold earth, as if the breath of life had already departed.
"Right here," Wanda said softly, her voice slightly weak, a fact even she didn't notice.
"Sister?" Pietro was somewhat puzzled. "Aren't we taking him... to find Stark for revenge? He was killed by Stark!"
"With what would we take revenge?" Wanda's gaze shifted from Lin Huai's body to her own hands, which were glowing with a red light. Her eyes were somewhat hollow. "We almost actually killed him."
Tony Stark's words, "A life for a life," and the sight of Steve Rogers stepping forward had shaken the resolve she had built upon hatred.
She had always felt that revenge was only natural. Stark Industries' weapons had killed her parents, so she wanted to make Tony Stark taste the feeling of losing everything as well.
But when that man actually stood calmly before her, prepared to use his own life to repay the blood debt, Wanda hesitated. This wasn't how she imagined it would be.
Wanda shook her head, trying to cast aside these messy thoughts. She looked at the innocently deceased old man on the ground, feeling a tightness in her chest.
"Let's bury him," she said. "He was just an ordinary person who wanted to protect his home; he shouldn't be left here like this."
Pietro didn't understand why his sister had suddenly changed her mind, but he always listened to her. He nodded, his hands vibrating rapidly, and he soon dug a pit in the ground.
Lying on the ground pretending to be dead, Lin Huai was already cursing up a storm in his heart.
The acting was a disaster!
His original plan was to let the old man's death become a catalyst, allowing this pair of siblings blinded by hatred to calm down and sit at the negotiating table. Even if the talks failed, Tony could have used a fake death to escape.
As it turned out, Tony didn't die, but he—the director and actor—was about to be buried alive instead.
What kind of situation was this?
Just as Pietro was about to drag him into the pit, Lin Huai felt he couldn't wait any longer.
"Cough... cough cough..."
He let out a weak cough, trying to make the performance look a bit more realistic.
Pietro's movements instantly froze. Both he and Wanda looked as if they had seen a ghost, staring fixedly at the old man on the ground who was supposed to be dead.
Lin Huai slowly opened his eyes, his eyelids still trembling. He first looked around blankly, then fixed his gaze on Wanda, his voice very weak and tinged with a bit of reproach:
"You... children... is this how you treat an old man who almost died for you?"
Wanda and Pietro both froze in place, their minds going blank. Red energy flickered uncontrollably at her fingertips, an instinctive reaction to the shock.
Lin Huai didn't give them time to react.
The two watched him in horror as an even stranger change occurred to him.
The wrinkles covering his face vanished, and his sagging skin tightened once more. His head of white hair quickly turned black starting from the roots. His originally hunched body also slowly straightened, and his scrawny limbs became slender and powerful.
In just a few seconds, a dying Sokovian old man had transformed into an Eastern youth with black hair and black eyes. He was quite handsome, with a faint, indiscernible smile at the corner of his mouth.
Lin Huai sat up, patted the dirt off himself, and stood up unhurriedly.
"A wonderful performance, wasn't it?" He looked at the dumbfounded siblings and smiled. "It almost fooled everyone, including myself."
Pietro finally reacted with a roar, his figure disappearing instantly.
In the next second, he was already in front of Lin Huai, his fist rushing toward Lin Huai's face with the sound of wind.
Lin Huai didn't even lift an eyelid.
He simply raised his right hand.
In his field of vision, countless invisible, illusory threads extended from Pietro's body. These Spirit Thread connected to Pietro's limbs, body, and even his spirit.
Lin Huai's fingers gave a light pluck in the air.
Pietro, who was swinging his fist at high speed, suddenly stiffened. He felt an invisible force tugging at his right leg. His rapidly moving body instantly lost its balance.
THUD!
Pietro took a nasty fall, his face smashing into the ground. He slid quite a distance, getting a mouthful of dirt.
He struggled to get up, his face filled with anger and anxiety, unable to figure out what had just happened. In that moment, he felt as if his body had completely stopped obeying him!
"Who exactly are you?" Wanda's voice was trembling. She finally realized that the man before them was far more dangerous than they had thought. This wasn't a normal ability at all, but a strange power that could directly control the body.
"Me?" Lin Huai straightened his collar and said leisurely, "I'm more like a director. It's a real pity to see such good actors as yourselves working with such a rotten script."
He looked at Wanda, his gaze becoming sharp.
"Your hatred and your anger are very real. Unfortunately, you've targeted the wrong person for revenge and joined the wrong side."
"What do you mean?" Wanda asked warily.
"It means you are just pawns," Lin Huai's voice wasn't loud, but it reached their ears clearly. "That shell that blew up your home indeed bore the Stark Industries logo. But have you ever wondered why a small conflict would involve Stark Industries' most advanced weapons of that time?"
"Who authorized their use? And who transported them here? Who made a fortune from the war, only to shift all the blame onto Tony Stark alone in the end?"
Every word from Lin Huai made Wanda's heart sink further.
"You think Tony Stark destroyed your home?"
"No."
Lin Huai shook his head.
"It was HYDRA."
"They instigated the war, sold the weapons, destroyed Sokovia, and turned you into what you are now."
"And Tony Stark is actually a victim just like you. Just like that Winter Soldier who was brainwashed by HYDRA for seventy years and turned into a killing tool, they are all pitiful people being manipulated."
"Shut up! I don't believe you!" Wanda became agitated, scarlet energy surging once more.
"Whether you believe it or not isn't important." Lin Huai spread his hands, an inscrutable smile appearing on his face. "Now, it's time for you to make your own choice. Stop being led by the nose by hatred and go find the real enemy."
Having said that, Lin Huai stopped looking at the two. A burst of orange-red flames ignited out of thin air around his body.
"A word of advice."
The figure within the flames began to blur.
"Don't let hatred become the blade someone else hands to you."
As the words fell, the flames vanished, and Lin Huai's figure disappeared along with them.
Leaving only Wanda and Pietro standing there, staring at the empty pit on the ground and the words echoing in the night wind, silent for a long time... Sokovia Temporary Base.
Lin Huai's figure appeared out of thin air, giving Tony, who was lying on a hospital bed arguing with Steve, a start.
"You!" Tony pointed at him, both angry and surprised. "You bastard! You're still alive? Where the hell did you go?"
"You have the nerve to say that, Tony." Lin Huai waved his hand with a look of speechlessness. "What was the script I gave you? The Captain is one thing—he's a sentimental guy—but you freaking improvised on me too! I almost died in my own script. I've really lost face for the Seer Sequence."
He walked to the command console and pulled up the map of Sokovia.
"The good news is, I've probably made them understand who the real enemy is."
He looked at Tony and Steve and smiled.
"The bad news is... next, you might get a nasty hit from those twins at any time. Oh, wait, that's only bad news for you."