OUR LIFETIME « Pietro Maximoff

23 /| a coward, no

*.•*[chapter twenty-three]

BRUCE BANNER WAS ALIVE, and it's not as if she thought him dead, but it felt like she had to make note of it. His hair was graying and cut shorter than it was the last time she saw him. He looked the same otherwise, though. He gave her a timid smile that she nearly failed at returning.

Tony was looking at her expectantly, but Savannah looked at the other two men in the room one taller than the other. The man in the red cape looked at her, unimpressed. "You brought me here," she said. It wasn't a question, and he didn't deny it.

"Vitality. Dr. Stephen Strange," he replied in greeting. He pointed to the dark haired man next to him. "This is Wong."

The man, Wong, gave her one grave nod that she returned, before turning back to Tony once more. "Why am I here?"

Bruce answered for him. "Because he's coming Savannah. Thanos is coming, and we need you to tell us everything you know."

Her blood ran cold, and she took a step back, her shoe sliding over the floor of the building, a Sanctum she presumed. "Where did you hear that name?" She whispered.

"Does it matter?" The doctor asked, gaining her attention. "He's collecting the stones— I'm assuming you know what those are?"

She rolled her eyes, but her heart began to sink. "You've got one around your neck." She pointed to the eye shaped pendant hanging at his torso. She could feel the thing pulsating with power. Savannah looked at Tony. "Pietro told you then?"

"He didn't say much else, but yeah, he did."

Her slight feelings of betrayal fell at that. She spoke to them all then. "I know that I knew Thanos, but I do not know him. And I know that he wanted me dead because I refused to give up the location of a stone. I know that he wanted me to be a part of his godforsaken family."

"Thanos has a family?" Asked Wong.

Savannah almost laughed at her own misuse of the word in this situation. "Thanos has his children, and it's the closest thing he'll ever have to a family. Doesn't love them, though, doesn't love anything or anyone really."

Dr. Strange stood up straighter. "You say you know the location of a stone. He has two already, power and space. Was it either of those?"

Savannah felt sick, so she moved to take a seat on the last step of the splintered staircase. She didn't answer the question. "You should run," she told Strange, even though she knew the effort would most likely be futile. She placed her suit aside and ran her hand over her forehead. "No one can stop him now, not even me. His energy is too intertwined with the stones now, and I can't manipulate that."

"I can't run," the man said, a hint of disbelief in his flat voice. Savannah stared at him.

"He will get the stone then." It wasn't a question. She then turned to Bruce. "How is he harnessing them?"

"A glove—" He seemed to search for the right word, "—a gauntlet." So Thanos had gotten the tool he'd dreamed of. It made Savannah sick to think of the lives he'd most likely taken to attain it. "What about the stone you're hiding?" Bruce asked, gaining her attention. He looked confused, but that was to be expected. Savannah angled her face to the hole in the glass roof for a second, the sky clear and visible.

She almost said that there was no chance of him ever finding it, but she stopped herself. "It'll be hard to find but not impossible. Too many people know where it is."

Wong raised his brows. "How many?"

"Including me?" She paused and he nodded. "Two."

"You told Pietro?" Tony asked incredulously, from where he massaged his temples.

"I love him, so no," Savannah said through tight lips. "The man can't keep a secret for the life of him."

Tony's brown eyes softened at that. "Then who?"

"Doesn't matter. You don't know them." She stood, dusting off her tights. "We've got to protect the stones we have here, including that one." She pointed at Strange again.

"We were just having this conversation," Tony murmured. "The doctor here wants to use it in the fight against Thanos." His voice was sour now.

Savannah let out a short burst of laughter. "Fight? There won't be a fight, only a massacre. I don't know how clearly you people remember the Battle of New York, but his army never stops coming."

"You're starting to sound like a coward," Dr. Strange said flatly.

Savannah's hands burned for a moment, and she clenched her teeth. "I never said I wouldn't help, but you wanted to know all you could, and that is part of it."

"I didn't bring you here for a fight," Tony said softly.

He didn't bring her here at all if she was being technical, but she didn't point this out. She pursed her lips. "But that's what it'll be, Tony. Should I call Steve or will you?"

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a burner phone. They all watched as the man stared at the phone, but when he looked up, something beside her caught his eye.

After a pause he said, "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?

Savannah looked at the man in question to see that the lone piece of hair hanging onto his forehead was fluttering in a nonexistent wind. "Not at the moment, no."

Savannah felt it then, and a chill rose on her skin. She looked up at the hole in the roof. Something flew ominously above, defying the laws of gravity, and the faint sound of screams began. The men moved to the door and Savannah took the time to hurriedly slide her suit over her clothes. She'd begun running into the street, her hand zipping the kevlar up.

Savannah gasped as she was met with total and utter chaos.

•••