Avengers: A Darker Shade of Scarlet

White Magic

"What do you mean you can't see them now?" Thor demanded.

Xavier shut his eyes, equally frustrated with the sudden severed connection. "I don't know," he muttered. "I was with them throughout everything. The connection was tenuous but it was there. And now it's not."

Bruce started to speak the fear that was on everyone's mind. "Does that mean they could be..."

"No," Thor snapped. "They are not dead." He turned to Xavier. "Try again."

Xavier opened his eyes and looked at Thor and his sadness and fear were equally palpable. "I tried, Thor. God, did I try. I can't feel them. But..."

"But?" Steve asked.

Xavier shook his head. "Before the connection was lost, I felt something. My head is still trying to process it. There was a massive surge of power. Something I don't believe I have ever seen before. But it resonated from Dean's psyche." He groped for the right words and failed. "I don't know what it was," he finally muttered. "It was...incomprehensible."

Thor felt no better after hearing this. "Rest your mind, Xavier," he said in a voice he forced to sound calm. "Then, you must try again."

Dean opened his eyes and saw only white. At first he thought perhaps his eyes needed to adjust, but his surroundings remained that same, endless white.

"Are we dead?" Kyle groaned from beside him. "Please tell me we aren't dead."

"I don't think we're dead," Dean said in a comforting voice. He squeezed Kyle's hand.

"How do you know that?" Kyle asked.

Dean shrugged. "I just...know."

"Where are we? Why is everything white?"

Dean knelt and touched where he was standing and felt nothing. The space they occupied was formless. There was no way of knowing how large it was, how far it went. "I don't know."

"But I think you brought us here," Kyle said. "You looked right at me and told me not to be afraid. Then we came here."

Dean frowned. "I don't remember that."

"I'll never forget it," Kyle said. "It was like you were possessed or something. Your eyes were solid white and your voice was like...it was like dozens of you were talking at once."

Dean tried to ignore his concerns about what had happened, thinking instead about what to do next. "We have to keep moving," he said. "If we stop and try to figure out what's going on we'll just drive ourselves crazy."

"I think I'm already there."

Dean could feel Kyle's fear and anxiety seeping from his psyche. He reached for his friend and embraced him. "We're going to figure this out. Okay?"

Kyle's expression softened a fraction and he nodded. "Okay."

Together, they began to walk through the white.

"This is creepy," Kyle said as he tapped his feet. "I don't feel anything under my feet."

A strange sensation touched Dean and he stopped walking. "Something is here with us," he whispered to Kyle.

"That's not at all creepy."

"Your fears are misplaced," a gentle but powerful voice, like a gust of wind, washed over them.

"Who are you?" Dean asked.

"And where are we?" Kyle added.

"You are not ready for the answers to these questions."