THE APPRENTICE III

21

She followed the instructions written on the book and the ground beneath her began to shake. Sounds of groaning and wailing echoed around the halls as bony hands stuck up from the ground. Undead, gaunt, zombie-like creatures began to crawl from the floor and Hazel huffed in satisfaction.

She pointed to the woman and the army came to attack her, giving her time to catch up with the rest. She caught Stephen unlocking the gate with his watch and she climbed down the stairs.

"Hey, I'm here!" She announced. As if on queue, one of the undead creatures lunged at her, it's decaying teeth so close to her face it could've bitten her nose off. "Holy fucking shit!,"

"What is that?!," America screamed

"Undead— it's a spell, my spell! But I guess it backfired!," she explained as she bashed its head into a pole.

"You didn't think to secure the spell?" Stephen's voice was filled with judgement as he kicked the door to the book open. "You're against the Scarlet Witch, for Christ's sake!"

"I...no." She admitted as he stomped his way to her, making a few hand gestures and sending about a handful of them flying back. She opened the book again and held out her hand. "I can fix this,"

"No, you've done enough." He shook his head and pushed her back a little more roughly than he intended to.

Hazel brought her arms from the ground and the undead began to sink back down onto the floor. He shot her a look and she cocked her head to the door to the book of Vishanti.

They entered it, flying down to a colorful array of lights and clouds, into what seemed like a portion of the galaxy and a platform holding the book. Hazel held out her hand, Palmer and Chavez came floating down gently to the floor.

"Anyone hurt?" Hazel checked and they all shook their heads.

"This is the gap junction, the space between universes." Christine told them as the drifted towards its casing. Hazel inches closer to Strange.

"Are you mad at me?" She began as he looked around the junction in fascination.

"What?" He briefly looked at her and shook his head dismissively. Why does she care now? What's she up to? "We'll talk later,"

"That sounds like you're mad, for some reason. You seem mad." She thought out loud and placed her hands on her hips. "Can you just tell me?,"

"Fine." He looked up in annoyance for a second. "You've been careless, and your sloppy mistakes have been putting us all at risk. It's unprofessional, really— you're acting like an amateur."

Hazel gulped at his words and swallowed whatever she had to say in response. He reached for the book and held it with the upmost care.

"Fine, I'm sorry." She forced out with a slight bitterness.

"Is that an attitude, I'm sensing?," he cocked his brow.

"What? I said I was sorry, what do you want from me?!" She scratched her head in irritation and the man let out a humorless laugh.

"You know what? You-"

He was stopped when a red energy wrapped around Chavez's hair, pulling her back to the Scarlet Witch. She let out a scream and Hazel brought out her hand. A golden light came beaming to the woman, but Wanda redirected it with her own blast. It sent her flying through the air, and she slid down the ground, her body falling off the platform that went down to space.

"No!" Stephen cried as he reached for her.

"Get Chavez! Get the book!" She yelled out as she grabbed onto the platform for dear life. "Leave me!"

There was a golden and black, swirled light that thwipped below Hazel. It gave her feet a boost and helped her safely get up on the platform. It sounded a bit like hissing and a mix of female humming. She thanked it and wiped her sweaty hands.

Stephen ran to the girl and sent out a blast, Wanda's counter spell making bursts of energy fly out. The book of vishanti caught this power and slowly burned to ash. All the light behind his eyes faded as his heart sank.

A red light held Hazel, Stephen, and Christine up and flying. She tried to fight it off with her own magic, but was interrupted when a portal to another universe opened. They were sucked into it at a rapid speed and the three let out a scream, the hissing and humming sound following her ears.

*

"Oh, no. Oh, crap!" Stephen hissed as they walked through the back of the building they started in New York. The universe was bleak, dark, and fading away from what she could gather was an incursion.

"It's like the reality collapsed in on itself." Christine observed as Hazel caught up with them.

"That's what happened." She confirmed and headed for the sanctum. "We need to find us. They can help. America doesn't have long,"

"There might be another...other us, and it's our best shot at getting back to her." Stephen continued.

Water began to puddle beneath them and the streets folded and twisted. Chills travelled down her spine.

"That spell you used, it was dark." Stephen began and called her out. She was pulled back from her wandering gaze and directed her attention to him. Why does everything she do, anger him?

"It was the first one I could find." She defended and kept the book away for safe keeping. "Plus, it wasn't directly from the dark dimension, it was dubious,"

"And that makes it okay? You're proud of that?" He scratched his head. Christine almost missed the bantering the two always shared— almost.

"Did I say I was proud?" She finally sassed back. He leaned back a little in offense at her rashness. "So I casted a spell and it backfired— so what? You don't mess up? You messed up a while ago,"

"I don't cast high-risk spells against high-risk opponents, there's a difference. I'm not that careless." He responded with a small scoff.

"Well, then good for you. You must be so proud of yourself for being good at everything." There was sarcasm dripping down her voice when she said that.

She shot him a tight smile while clapping. Stephen gripped her wrists impatiently.

"Well, whatever happened, this universe's versions of the both of you didn't do their best to stop an incursion." Christine shut down the argument as they approached the sanctum. The two were left speechless and bitter.

They stood before the sanctum at its rotting, decaying state. The energy around it was so heavy and ominous, it made their rings heat up. Hazel rubbed her arm subconsciously for comfort.

"I'll tell them you said that." Stephen remarked as he headed for the doors.