Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 28

Hela stands in front of the group, the green portal behind her fading as she smiles at each one of us, her gaze lingering on Stephen and Vision. The forest has returned to darkness as the glow from her portal fades, the only light sources being the moon, Tony's arc reactor, Visions mind stone, and the glow of mine and Wanda's powers.

"So Abi, do your new friends know your little secret?" asks Hela, her voice lower than it used to be as she brushes her long dark hair from out of her eyes. You know, sometimes I think it's Thor who's the adopted one.

"What secret?" asks Thor as he steps forward, turning to look at me as he grips Mjölnir tightly, ready to fight if he needs to. Swallowing hard, I look down at the ground in an attempt to avoid eye contact with everyone. A chuckle comes from Helas throat as I take a deep breath and feel Stephen squeeze my shoulder reassuringly.

"Oh come one, you can't keep it hidden forever." she warns, a smirk forming on her pale face as she stares at me, my eyes still fixed on the ground at my feet. I can't. They'll turn on me if they know. I can't let that happen. I can't lose Stephen. "So, are you going to tell them or shall I?"

"Will someone just tell us already." complains Tony, his voice laced with annoyance at all the secrecy.

"I'm not who you think you are." I admit, looking up from the ground to meet several pairs of confused eyes. Stephen's grip on my shoulder loosens as he looks down at me, his brows drawing together to form a frown line at the top of his nose.

"Oh come on Abi. You're going to have to be more specific than that." chuckles Hela as she rolls her eyes.

"What do you mean? You're our sister." reminds Loki, the frown line on his forehead growing larger with each passing word. Looking up, I lock eyes with him, shaking my head without saying a word as he opens his mouth to say something only for nothing to come out. After taking a deep breath and looking away, Loki looks back at me. "But I have memories of us."

"The past 30 years are real but the rest aren't." I explain resulting in a confused glance from everyone in the group. They really do lack knowledge of magic.

"Memory manipulation." concludes Wanda, stepping forwards as her eyes remain fixed on me. I'm glad someone knows what it is. "That's one of your specialties isn't it." she says as I nod once, Stephen looking away from me as he shakes his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"She's been working for me the whole time." admits Hela, her voice calmer than before as she watches the team turn on me, one by one. "She brought me the infinity stones." she explains causing the whole team to turn to her, their eyes wide with panic. "Time," she points at the eye of Agamotto that hangs around Stephen's neck and contains the time stone. "Mind" everyone turns to where Vision stands protectively in front of Wanda, the mind stone glowing a bright yellow in his head. "and Space." she concludes, raising her hand to reveal the tesseract.

"And the others?" asks Pietro, his jaw locked as he steps forward, rolling his shoulders and preparing himself for an attack. It's not going to come though, Hela's too distracted by the drama unfolding within the team.

"On their way." she says, her voice calmer than it should naturally be as she looks me directly in the eyes, her own full of chaos and mischief.

"Why would you lie to everyone?" asks Katniss as she looks me directly in the eye, her face displaying clear disappointment as she shakes her head in disbelief.

"Hela promised to help me find my real brother." I admit as everyone around me gasps audibly. Anyone would think this was a courtroom drama or that I'd just revealed I'd killed someone. "She knows where he is and promised that if I brought her the stones then she'd tell me."