Variation - W.M.

Chapter 76 - January 21, 2017

The journey down into the depths of the compound was silent aside from our footsteps and JARVIS' voice over the speakers announcing what floor we landed on. The basement of the compound was brightly lit and strangely well organized, shelves of things I had no hope in understanding lined against walls and through the large room.

"I'll go retrieve it" Wanda said, breaking the silence and I nodded, watching her walk away before turning my attention to Strange, who looked utterly uninterested by everything around us.

"So, how are you" I started awkwardly, desperate to keep us from falling back into the void of silence. Strange's gaze drifted to me, and he eyed me curiously.

"For someone who travelled through the multiverse you are not what I expected."

"Ouch" I mumbled, shoving my hands in my pockets. "It wasn't a choice. I just ended up here and now I'm stuck for who knows how long until I can find some miracle to get me back to where I need to be."

Strange simply hummed with a nod, turning his attention back to Wanda, who appeared with the scepter in hand. The blue light of the rock looked so unfamiliar when compared to the stone that had been embedded into Vision's forehead that it was hard for me to believe that they were the same thing.

At her appearance Strange turned around, beginning to move his arm in a circle before a portal appeared in front of him, the fields of Wakanda on the other side. The three of us stepped through and I glanced at the portal as it closed, the orange sparks fizzling out.

The rest of the avengers didn't arrive for another few hours, although when they landed they had three more people in tow than they had originally. The first two were Clint and Peter, both of which I pulled into a small hug when I saw them. The last addition was a man I wasn't familiar with.

"I'm Scott Lang. Ant man" the man introduced, wiping his hand on his pants before sticking it out to the three of us, although the person it was directed to wasn't very clear.

"I don't think I knew there was an Ant man, so nice to meet you" I said with a small smile, shaking his hand before moving to look at Steve. "Okay, so we're here. We spoke to the king when we got here and I explained as much as I knew, so they are getting their warriors prepared. Shuri is putting the last touches on an arm for Bucky and Bruce should be joining us soon."

"We need to figure out what to do with that" Steve added, pointing to the scepter in Wanda's hand. "Do they have a box we can put it in? Can we use it as a weapon to help us?"

I hummed, brow furrowing in thought as I looked around our group, a lightbulb going off in my head as I caught sight of the uninterested god beside Thor. "What about Loki? He knows how to use it."

"Loki? Are you kidding? The last time he had that thing he put me under mind control and tried to take control of New York" Clint scoffed, eyes narrowing at the god.

"I was trying to take over the world, actually" Loki corrected and Thor jabbed him in the side, making the raven haired man bend over in pain.

"My brother was being controlled by the stone. He is very sorry for his actions to control Midgard."

"That'd be a lot more comforting to hear it from him" Nat answered lowly, hand tightening on her gun.

"Okay, let's not do this now" I broke in, stepping between them. "My point was that Loki knows how to use the scepter and it would have been useful to have it's power fighting with us, but given his past with it we'll just skip that and maybe just let Wanda carry it around. It would probably be the safest with her."

"I didn't want it anyway" Loki muttered under his breath, looking away from the group with annoyance. I suppressed the desire to scream in frustration and instead looked around at everyone, all of which nodded in agreement. A few of them still eyed Loki in fury and distrust but there wasn't much to do about that.

"Alright, now that we have that figured out I'm going to check with the king on the status of his warriors. Everyone else, get ready."

We all let out shouts of confirmation at his orders, the nervous buzz of the upcoming battle creating a fog over us all. Conversations were kept to a minimum as the hours passed, more and more people gathering on the field in preparation for the war we were about to fight.

But no matter how much we prepared, nobody truly felt ready when the first ship crashed onto the forcefield above us.