Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 13

A cool breeze blows through the trees as me and Katniss climb over a large boulder. The sun above us shimes brighter than yestserday as we reach a lake and Katniss fills up the water bottles. After she's finished, we continue walking further through the arena in search of the rest of the team. Awkward silence hangs in the air as I look down at the ground, areful not to trip on one of the tree roots.

"So..." Katniss turns to look at me as we continue to walk across the large boulders next to the lake. "Where exactly are you from?" A smirk tugs at the corner of my lips as I look at her. Oh, if only she knew the truth about who I am.

"I'm from a different reality." I explain, missing out the details of which one. If she knew the truth about it then she'd run from here screaming. She nods, looking down at the ground as the awkward silence invades our conversation again.

"So if I'm right..." Katniss looks up at me again, her eyebrows furrowing as her forehead creases. "You came here to get this tesseract thing from your evil sister before she messes up the universe?" Looking down at the ground, I shake my head and chuckle to myself. When she puts it that way, it sounds stupid.

"Yeah, pretty much." I lie, avoiding eye contact. If anyone found out the real reason why I'd agreed to help with this mission and not just leave it to the others then I'd probably be dead. "Me and the avengers, well some of them anyway."

"Okay." mumbles Katniss as she slips, her foot dangling into the lake. Grabbing her arm, I stop her from falling any further and place her back on two firm feet. "Thanks." she smiles at me and I smile weakly back before walking infront of her. "So how many of you are there exactly?"

"About nine of us I think." looking behind me, I notice that Katniss is a fair few feet away, struggling to keep up with my pace. Sighing audibly, I stop where I am, waiting for her small human legs to catch up with me. Why is it that mortals are so slow?

"Then why are you alone then?" she shouts as she stumbles once again, her foot dropping into the water so that her shoes are drenched. And why are mortals so clumsy?

"I'm different to them." I shout back at her, rolling my eyes as she pulls herself out of the water and onto the dry surface. "They use their powers to help people and me," I pause chuckling to myself as I remember everything I've ever used my powers for. "I use them to create chaos."

"So you all have powers then?" she asks when she finally catches up to me and we continue to walk again. Nodding, I look away from her, scanning the woods for some sign of life but for the third day in a row being unsuccessful. "What can you all do?"

"Well..." I pause, taking a deep breath as we both stop and I turn to face her. "Pietro has super speed, if you think I run quickly you should see him." I chuckle to myself, remembering when I made the mistake of racing against him. I was humiliated. "Thor is the God of thunder and Loki the god of mischief. The kid is practically a monkey. He shoots webs out of his hands and he can really swin from tree to tree. Tony has a high tech suit that's full of gadgets and weapons. Wanda's thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Katniss stares at me blankly, her eyes filled with confusion. "Basically, she's weird. I don't really know what Vision can do, all I know is he has one of the six infinity stones in his head." Once again, Katniss stares at me blankly as though I'm talking a load of gibberish. I keep forgetting she's got no clue what I'm on about. "I'll explain some other time." Nodding her head, Katniss smiles at me as I continue. "And then there's Stephen. He's a master of the mystic arts and protector of the time stone as well as our reality."

"And what about you?" asks Katniss as I finish, her eyes focused on mine. Sighing, I turn away from her and look into the forest, avoiding eye contact. I don't really fancy sharing what my powers are with someone who I barely know. I haven't even told Stephen everything. "What can you do?" asks Katniss again as she pushes for me to answer.

"I can track objects but not people. I can see future dangers and reality shift." her eyees widen with every word I say, her mortal mind fascinated by my power. It quite satisying to see this reaction from someone other than the kid. "Oh, and over the years, I've managed to master a lot of mind related powers." Katniss stares at me, urging me to explain further. "Memory manipulation, telepathic communication, letting people in and out of my head, mind exchanging or as others like to call it possession and telepathic dilation. So I can basically weaken my opponents powers and leave them vulnerable."

"Wow." whispers a shocked Katniss as we begin walking again. "You must be a pretty strong team then." she mumbles as I chuckle to myself, raising my eyebrows. You'd think so wouldnt you. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No it's just that we aren't that strong of a team." she stares at me as confusion fills her face again. "Most of us barely know each other so don't trust one another or we hate each other. Me, I don't trust a single one of them." Except Stephen and Loki. But I'm not admitting that out loud.

Nodding, Katniss looks away from me, her eyes widening as she stops in her tracks. Her eyes are fixated on the ground in front of us as I look at her. Her whole body is barely moving as her breathing begins speeding up. Following her gaze, I notice a large red patch in the centre of the rock in front of me. My chest fills with panic at the though of it being one of the teams blood.

"Is that blood?" I ask as Katniss finally moves again, crouching down and touching the pool on the ground. When she lifts her finger back up, they're stained red and sticky. Her eyes fly up, locking with mine as panic invades the both of us.

My powers take over and before I know it, I'm scanning the area for a sign of life. As my mind scans the far side of the opening, a group of thoughts invade my head. Five different thoughts yet all of them the same. Katniss.

"Katniss we need to move." I mumble as I begin wlaking backwards, my eyes fixed on the far side of the opening, my mind reading their thoughts. With each passing second, their thoughs grow louder as they grow nearer.

"What?" Katniss looks up at me, standing up as she stands still, completely unaware of the danger advancing. "Why do we need to move?"

Suddenly, a group of five people burst into the opening and Katniss turns to look at them. Three boys and two girls howl as they step into the light, their eyes landing on Katniss who is frozen in terror. Grabbing her arm, I pull her backwards and away from them as we begin sprinting into the shelter of the tree's with them trailing behing us.

"That's why." I shout as we run, our legs carrying us faster than they ever have done before. My heart pounds in my chest as I scan their thoughts again, trying to figure out what their tactics are but they're all thinking the same thing.

Kill Katniss.