Variation - W.M.

Chapter 16 - November 8, 2016

In theory, my plan to leave the facility, borrow a car, and get back before anyone noticed was extremely flawed for two main reasons.

The first being that I had chosen to do it at noon and the second being that JARVIS was an unbelievable tattletale.

"Snitches end up in ditches with stitches" I hissed at the AI as I slunk around the corner, the door to the garage in my sights.

"It's quite impossible for me to end up in a ditch or have stitches" he answered and I dragged a hand down my face.

"You fucking told Tony I was trying to leave, didn't you?"

"Apologies, Ollie, but he wanted to be updated on what you did."

I scoffed and looked around, catching sight of a door leading outside. "It's like a prison" I muttered as I ran out. It was times like this that I wished I had Pietro's super speed. I could just blink and I'd be...at the sancturary.

I was at the sanctuary.

I looked around wildly at the bustling New York City streets, my brain trying to process how I had gotten here. Teleportation? I was jogging away from the facility one second and the next I was here in front of the sanctuary, the oddly entrancing circle announcing it as the location I had visited once while in my own timeline.

I shook off my confusion, cautiously making my way up the couple steps and knocking on the door. The door opened, a man with a shadow of a beard narrowing his eyes at me. "Can I help you?"

"Hi, you don't know me but we've met before." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "No, that sounds weird. I'm looking for Dr. Strange. I need him to use the time stone-"

I was cut off when an orange tinged portal opened beneath me. I yelped as I fell through, landing in a chair in what looked to be a monastery. I looked around with wide eyes, catching sight of a bald woman in a white robe-like outfit. She watched me closely, her hands behind her back. When she didn't say anything, I took the initiative.

"I'm just looking for-"

"Strange, and the time stone" she finished. I gulped and nodded, following her with my eyes as she walked around me. "Who are you?"

I quickly stood, wiping my growingly damp hands on my pants before sticking one out. "I'm Ollie. It's, uh, short for Olivia. Attwood." When the woman didn't make a move to shake my hand I let it fall to my side and cleared my throat. "I'm just trying to get home."

"Home?"

"I'm from another timeline. It was an accident, but the thing that brought me here can't take me home."

Baldy, as I decided to call her, broke her stride and turned to face me, wonder plastered on her face. "The multiverse is a reality once more?"

I nodded, my hand finding its way to my hair once more. "Yeah, a Loki variant killed the main guy, so everything went to shit. It happened right as I went through a time door so I got caught on a branch."

The woman nodded a little, although it seemed as though the response was to her own thoughts instead of what I was saying. After a few moments she turned to me, a frown on her face. "Unfortunately, we can't help you."

I felt myself freeze, my stomach filling with dread as I scrambled to say anything that would change the words. "No, you misunderstand. I'm looking for Stephen Strange. He's really powerful and he has the time stone and since this is time related-"

"Stephen Strange is destined to be the most powerful of us, yes" she began, her tone alerting me to the fact that I definitely wouldn't like the rest of what she had to say. "But he is still in training at the moment."

"I can go through time! I'll just go up a year or two and then-"

"I'm sorry, you misunderstand. The time stone does not possess enough power to return you to your own timeline."

There it was again; that word. It was becoming my least favorite word. Everything had to do with power; not having enough and needing more of it.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that, barring a miracle, you aren't going back to your timeline."