Wanda regained consciousness late that afternoon, shortly after Peter returned home from school.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
A strange ceiling.
Soft bedding.
Clean air.
No smoke. No dust. No sound of distant artillery.
She sat up abruptly.
This was not Sokovia.
Pietro.
Panic surged through her chest.
Wanda slipped from the bed and hurried barefoot to the door. She moved down the stairs, heart pounding, until she saw him—
Pietro lay sleeping on the sofa.
Her shoulders relaxed instantly.
"You're awake?"
May had just stepped out of the kitchen when she saw Wanda standing halfway down the stairs.
Wanda froze, unsure.
"Yes… we… were rescued?" she asked cautiously. "Where is this?"
May approached slowly, her voice warm and calm.
"This is Queens, New York. My name is May. The man who saved you is Karl. Are you hurt anywhere?"
Wanda's brows knit.
"New York…?"
Even at her young age, she knew Sokovia was an ocean away.
"How did we get here?"
May smiled gently.
"Karl brought you here. I can't explain the details without his permission, but you're safe now. That's what matters."
There was unmistakable pride in her tone when she spoke Karl's name.
Wanda studied her carefully.
She sensed sincerity.
And something else—
a feeling of safety she had not known in days.
A groan came from the sofa.
Pietro jerked awake.
"Where am I?! Wanda?! WANDA!"
"I'm here!" Wanda called quickly. "Stop shouting — we're not home."
Relief flooded Pietro's face when he saw her.
"I thought… I thought…"
He turned toward May and immediately straightened.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. Thank you for saving us."
May smiled.
"It wasn't me. It was Karl. He should be back soon. But first, you both need to eat."
She guided them to the table and returned to the kitchen.
Moments later she brought warm porridge, apple pie slices, and sandwiches.
Pietro stared at the food with undisguised hunger.
"…Thank you," he said, already reaching for the spoon.
Outside the City — The Farm
Karl hovered several meters above the ground, wings of crystallized ice extending from his back.
Frost spiraled through the air beneath him.
He was testing control.
Refining precision.
His mastery of the Ice-Ice Fruit had grown significantly since his battle with Kingpin.
Now, with a thought alone, he could freeze matter instantly.
A thin layer of frost spread across the grass below him — then vanished as he willed the temperature to rise.
He focused again.
Lower.
Colder.
Denser.
He was attempting something far beyond ordinary cryokinesis:
approaching absolute zero.
At −273.15°C, molecular motion theoretically ceases. Energy states collapse. Vibrations stop.
In theory.
In practice, even reaching a fraction of that threshold would place his power beyond conventional physics.
Karl exhaled slowly.
To reach such extremes, he suspected he would need to push the Logia nature of the Ice-Ice Fruit to its conceptual limit.
In One Piece canon, Logia users do not undergo a defined "awakening" like Paramecia types; instead, their mastery expands through control, scale, and environmental dominance.
Aokiji froze an ocean.
Karl intended to surpass even that.
For now, development mattered more than speculation.
He dismissed the ice.
Shadow ninjas immediately moved to restore the farm grounds.
Karl entered his Lamborghini and drove toward New York.
Inside the Farmhouse
Wanda sat quietly with May, asking careful questions.
She learned:
she had only been unconscious a few hours,
they were safe,
the man named Karl had carried them across the world,
and this place was protected.
Protected.
The word settled into her chest like warmth.
Nearby, Pietro had already recovered enough to challenge Peter to a video game match.
Their laughter filled the room.
For the first time in days, the house felt alive.
A deep engine rumble echoed outside.
May smiled.
"He's back."
Wanda followed her to the door.
A sleek black sports car pulled into the yard and stopped.
Wanda stared.
She had never seen such a vehicle outside television.
The door opened.
A tall man stepped out — nearly six-foot-three — wearing a white-gold shirt, black trousers, and polished shoes. His posture was relaxed, but an intangible presence surrounded him.
His blue eyes seemed impossibly clear.
He walked toward them.
May met him halfway, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him.
Wanda's eyes widened.
She covered her mouth in surprise.
May was older — graceful, mature — yet this man was unmistakably younger.
She had not expected that.
May returned, still holding his arm.
"Wanda, this is Karl — the one who rescued you and Pietro."
Wanda immediately bowed deeply.
"Thank you… for saving us. Thank you so much."
Karl studied her quietly.
Even exhausted, dust-stained, and pale, there was something unmistakable about her presence.
A subtle distortion in the air.
A faint tremor in probability itself.
Chaos Magic.
Dormant.
Waiting.
Karl smiled gently.
"You're safe now."