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i.
They never pass by Saw Gerrera, but they pass under his shadow. They near him but never approach him, and find safety in the vast shade he casts behind him. When Imperials find them - the Crimson Witch of the Sith and her loyal-as-a-dog Jedi brother - waiting in Gerrera’s shadow, they assume they are there for the same reasons they are: to hunt, to track down, to kill.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
ii.
This is how they learned that the order had been passed: a clone came over to them, and asked Wanda if she wished to kill Pietro or if they should.
Even then the red of her blade was useful; as the Sith had grown, all but the most dedicated of the Jedi grew certain that Wanda was of the Dark of the Force, and that any moment she would turn on them.
They had shared a glance, shared thoughts. Wanda’s fingers raked through the clone’s mind and found the order.
“To threaten my brother,” she told the clone, “is to threaten me. Besides, Pietro would never do me harm.”
“The order-” the clone stated.
“Can be overridden by a Sith.” Wanda waved her scarlet blade before him. “What else do you think I am?”
iii.
It used to frighten Pietro, how well Wanda could play at being Sith. Even now it is hard for him to admit how, back when he had found her on Strucker, he had almost thought her a true traitor, had almost believed she truly would betray him even as he spoke in opposite.
But Wanda never would betray him, and she has proven this as many times as he has proved he would never turn on her.
No one else ever understands, and that is their protection. They see him follow Wanda, act to protect her, and see her scarlet blade, her crimson mask and assume she is a Sith and, somehow, he is bound in her service.
In a way, perhaps he is. In a way, perhaps their trauma has bound them together far more strongly than the Force ever could. Perhaps, perhaps.
It does not matter to Pietro, so long as they stay safe.
iv.
Jedha is a kind of safety. There are Kyber Crystals there, and many Imperials gift their smallest hidden shards to Wanda in hope of gaining safety from the wrath of the Sith. Wanda stores them up, makes them into amulets, gifts them to those the Force steers her to.
One day she gives a bag of them to a blind monk, and is given a single perfect crystal in turn.
“For when yours fails,” he tells her, as though it is inevitable.
The crystal is purple and pink, streaks of blue and gold hidden in it’s shimmers. Wanda folds it into her palm, bows her head, lets him pronounce a blessing.
“I am Wanda Maximoff,” she tells him. “My brother is Pietro. If we can ever offer you safety, you have only to ask us.”
v.
They never do get a chance to offer them safety. Pietro wakes one morning with a headache, Wanda wakes with images of destruction in her mind, the silhouette of Saw Gerrera watching Jedha fall.
“We must leave,” she says when she shares these images with Pietro.
They have no choice but, not if they are to live.
For when yours fails, the monk had said, passing her a Kyber Crystal of a perfect size for her ‘sabre. Kyber Crystals carry the Force in their hearts, and even the least Force-senstive can feel it. She does not doubt that her ‘sabre will fail in her hand, and knows that they must live to see it.
vi.
They see Jedha implode from orbit. They feel as the shadow under which they sheltered is burned away to nothing.
“This is only the start,” Pietro says.
(They know wars and resistances and battle. They had been pulled from the wreckage after the rising Sith had killed their parents.)
(They know how essential it is to fight.)
They decide, at last, to seek out the Rebellion.