CHAPTER NINE:
TOTALLY OFF THE GRID

AVERY BARTON PULLED UP TO the Avengers facility, glancing over towards the file that was laying in the passengers seat of her car. It was everything that Calliope could find on this so called Beth woman that Wanda had told her about. The brunette grabbed the file before exiting the car, entering the facility and glancing around at the many people before entering the elevator and going up to the third floor.

She walked out of the elevator, glancing around at the rooms as she passed by, including that of the training room where Natasha and her girlfriend Willow were. She gently smiled upon noticing the playful attitude coming from Willow as the brunette bounced side by side with her fist up and a smile on her lips. Natasha was standing there with her arms crossed, raising an eyebrow at the girl, though the smallest of smiles were pulling at the corners of her lips.

     "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Avery turned her head towards the voice of Tony Stark. She gave the man a sheepish smile as she shrugged her shoulders.

     "I've come baring information on a missing persons." Avery answered the man as the duo continued down the hallway.

     "I thought I told Peter to specifically keep you from skipping school. Your mother will have my ass if she finds out, and your mother is scary." Tony told the female.

     "She's not that scary." Avery shrugged her shoulders.

     "Not to you. You're her kid." Tony spoke, rolling his eyes.

     "Hey, I said she wasn't that scary. I never said she wasn't scary in general." Avery told the man. "Anyways, do you knw where I can find Wanda?"

     "No clue."

     "Then what good are you?" Avery questioned, giving the man a blank look.

     "Get back to school." He told the female as she walked away from him.

     "I'm just missing my last class, so it's not like I'm skipping the entire day!" Avery called back to the man before turning the corner. The teenager kept walking down the halls before spotting Wanda sitting in a conference room by herself, staring blankly at the wall in front of her with her hands interwoven with one another. Avery bit her lip, frowning slightly.

     "Avery?" Avery turned her head at the sound of a familiar blonde's voice. Liliya made her way towards the girl, noticing the file in her hands which made her pace quicken. "Is that it?"

     Avery nodded her head. "Everything Calliope could get her hands on. Which, if I'm being honest, wasn't all that much." She held the file out towards Liliya who grabbed it before flipping it open. "There wasn't so much as a picture of her besides when she was six. This woman is totally off the grid, and she knew how to keep hidden."

     "We have to help Wanda get this woman back somehow." Liliya softly spoke, glancing towards Wanda who was in the room in front of them. The blonde crossed her arms over her chest before looking down at the teenager.

     "How do we know that what Wanda say wasn't just a dream and nothing more?" Avery questioned, frowning. "This woman could've died when she was six. There wasn't so much as a missing persons report on her, Liliya."

     "And there wasn't a body found either." Liliya pointed out. "Look, we just have to trust Wanda on this, alright?"

     With a sigh, Avery nodded her head. "Alright." Liliya glanced at the younger female one last time before grabbing the door handle and pushing the door open.

     "Wanda?"

The said female blinked, tearing her eyes away from the wall to look at Liliya and Avery as the two females entered the room. Avery closed the door behind her before she and Liliya moved to stand on the other side of the table in front of Wanda. Liliya placed the file on the table, sliding it towards Wanda. The witch glanced up towards Liliya before grabbing the file and opening it up.

     "That's everything that Calliope found." Avery told Wanda the same thing that she told Liliya. placing her hands on the table as she looked at Wanda with a small frown. "Wanda, I have no clue how we're going to find her. Or hell, if we'll even be able to."

     "We have to find her." Wanda spoke, her jaw clenching as she read the very minimum information about the woman that she had seen in her dreams. "I know that you think it was all in my head. But it wasn't. I felt her. She is real. And she needs us. We are her only chance at living."

     "You can't exactly hunt down a ghost." Avery pointed out to the woman.

     "Normally." Liliya spoke, grabbing both of their attention.

     "What are you talking about?" Avery frowned.

     "I'm talking about your mom." Liliya spoke. "Theo can see ghosts right?"

     "Not exactly." Avery mumbled. "She can touch something and see things that took place."

     "Exactly." Liliya nodded. "What if, when she was taken, something of hers was left behind?"

     "We could find that item, and hopefully your mom can see something that we can't." Wanda quickly caught on, standing up from her chair as she looked between them both.

     "Okay, but we still have to know where she was last." Avery spoke. But just as she said the words, her phone started ringing. The teenager furrowed her eyebrows before pulling out her phone only to see a text message from Calliope. "Hey, I think Calliope found something."

     "What?" Wanda quickly asked.

     Avery pressed on the image that was sent before showing it to the two women. "Beth's latest whereabouts."