Amazed

Chapter 44: Stop hiding

"This is Dr. Stephen Strange," Steve answered as he gestured for him to come over to meet her.

Yelena looked between him and Stephen, "Okay, but that doesn't explain the cape," She said as she looked over it with the same confused and slightly repulsed face, "I mean what the hell is that collar?"

Steve coughed to cover the laugh that had come up just as Stephen shot a look over at him, "It's actually a cloak," He scoffed, "It acts almost like an assistant in the midst of fighting."

The confusion didn't leave her face, but she shrugged her shoulders and watched him walk over anyways. As he made his way to Y/N's bedside, he could begin to tell why Bruce thought it was a good idea for him to come. 

Stephen lifted Y/N's head gently by their chin so that he could see how their eyes were reacting this morning. He proceeded the same way that Bruce had by taking a small light and checking their pupils.

"Still responsive, which is good. The scans I saw before I came in showed normal activity as well," He stated as he tilted his head while scanning their body with his eyes.

Yelena, though happy to hear things were normal, was annoyed as she was waiting for him to tell them what was actually going on. Before she could ask again though, he began panning the room looking at every inch, "Bruce told me that Wanda had been digging around in their mind trying to bring memories forward."

He continued walking around the room in search of something that he was not telling Steve or Yelena about, "Which in theory sounds like a great idea, but Wanda is not fully in tune with her powers. She doesn't understand them the way that she should, which caused this to happen."

"Caused what to happen?" Steve asked as he followed him around the room with his eyes.

Before Stephen could respond, he peered around where Yelena was sitting and into the corner just behind her, "This," He answered as he made his way over to the corner, kneeling next to what he had found.

At this point, Yelena was beginning to think that this man was a joke that someone had brought in to try and lift her mood because he wasn't making any sense to her. While he was kneeling, Steve and Yelena looked at each other completely puzzled. 

"You're okay," they heard Stephen say, "It's okay."

"What the hell are you doing, Strange?" The three heard Tony call from the doorway, "We brought you in to help and you're talking to a wall. Tell me what I pay you for?"

"You don't pay me, Mr. Stark," He said as he stood from where he was, "and I found them."

Tony looked at both Yelena and Steve trying to figure out if he'd been this vague the entire time he'd been here, "What do you mean you found them? They're sitting right here on the bed, genius."

Stephen laughed as he made his way back over to Y/N's bedside. The three had no idea that Stephen was in fact the perfect person to call for this issue, "Can you get Wanda down here so that I can speak with her about this while I explain it to you all?"

Obliging, Tony rolled his eyes before asking FRIDAY to get in contact with Wanda and send her to the med bay immediately. The four sat in silence with Y/N as they waited a few minutes for her to arrive.

Once she stepped through, Stephen greeted her warmly, "Wanda, it's so nice to finally meet you. My name is Dr. Stephen Strange. I wanted to talk with you about what happened so that I can explain the circumstances a bit better." She swallowed hard, nervous to find out what her powers had done to Y/N. 

"So tell me exactly what you were doing just before this happened," He asked.

Wanda stood a bit straighter and shook her head so that she could focus, "I had seen what looked like one of their brightest memories and when I replayed it for them, they gasped out for air."

"I need more, Wanda. What exactly were you doing and what can you remember?" He asked again.

Confused, she tilted her head as she looked at him, "That is what happened. That's what I did, what do you mean?"

He let out a deep breath as he tried to work through the best way to get her to realize what happened, "When you played that memory, did you see anything else outside of it?"

She looked around the room as she tried to recall what she'd seen when it all happened. The whole incident happened so fast that she really didn't have time to focus on that specific memory.

"Take yourself back to it. I know you can. Then tell us what you saw," He stated.

This wasn't something Wanda had done before, but she figured if she could sift through someone else's memories that she could do it to her own. With this, she blew out a long breath as she closed her eyes and searched for the memory.

It didn't take long for her to find it, replaying it in her mind. This was odd for her, watching herself watch someone else's memory. It felt like an illusion, but she tried her best to focus on it.

"What do you see, Wanda?" He asked, knowing she was close.

As she looked around, she peered off to the side of their memory, seeing Y/N standing there in their own mind, "I see... Y/N. I see them."

Hearing this caused Steve, Tony, and Yelena to sit back in shock. What did she mean she could see them?

"That must be how they were watching the memories... but they look terrified," She said.

It was nearing the end of the memory now, just before Y/N flipped the switch. Wanda saw their eyes open wide as their inner self screamed. Just as they had, she watched them blow out of their own mind. The small version of them inside their head, gone.

Her eyes shot open as she herself gasped for breath, "What the fuck? What happened? Where did they go?" She asked as she searched Stephen's face for answers.

"What you saw," He started as he looked around to everyone with a small smile, "was Y/N leaving their physical form and entering the Astral Dimension."