Disappeared- {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 1

"How's my favourite variant?"

"Lousy. How's my favourite asshole?"

"I am mildly sore, actually."

Alex scrutinised the face of the Mind Stone, looking for any signs of humour in it. Finding none, she simply remarked, "You've spent too much time around me."

"You have spent too much time inside me, I believe you mean."

Tapping her fingers against each other and taking a deep breath, Alex said, "You know, it's ironic you mentioned that because I want to leave here."

Theundruk looked at her, glowing eyes emotionless as disapproving crept into Alex's mind. She thought against it, pushing the feeling of doubt back towards the stone.

"I want to leave, Theundruk." She reiterated.

"You are safe here. Why leave?"

"Thanos is coming. You said yourself that I was chosen to protect you against him—"

"That was before I realised I was in the wrong universe and you decided to disrupt the flow of time."

"Exactly. Time has fractured, this universe isn't following the path it's meant to which means—maybe—Thanos can be beaten. Yes, that may not be what's on the timeline but I've already proven that it can be broken without the TVA appearing and fixing it. Hell, if I get close to Thanos then I could just teleport him to the moon and he'd be done."

"The Time Variance Authority has not found you because you are not in their world. You do not exist in this place, you simply are an extension of me."

"Why keep me then, if you never wanted for me to go back."

"There is no need for you to know."

Alex raised her prosthetic to scratch her face, realised her mistake, and switched to her right hand, "If you let me return, will you stay with me?"

"Be a waste of training if I didn't. I can't go back anyway, this is my universe and death is my curse to bear."

"So morose. You've been draining me of happiness for like five months, why aren't you more positive?"

"It's been three months, seven days. I hope being back in the real world will quell your exaggeration slightly."

Alex gave Theundruk a moment to correct their wording before asking, "Does that mean you're letting me go?"

"Yes."

Alex ran forwards and embraced the stone. It was not pleasant, Theundruk was cold and solid, but it was the first physical contact Alex had had with someone in months.

After a long moment, Theundruk must have realised Alex wasn't letting go without some response and quickly patted her head,

"They will not stop until they have found you."

"Good. I'd hate to have an easy life." It wasn't relief Alex felt, more a sense of belonging. Once again she had been stripped from her home but this time she was returning to it. To Natasha and Steve and Bruce and Tony and Thor. Maybe Wanda was still there, if anyone understood grief and could help her, it was Steve.

"This is no laughing matter, Alex, if that is what you were trying to do. I have no power in the TVA, all magic is nullified. They get you and you become one of them."

"So I'd escape. I don't need to snap to teleport anymore, I have no weakness to my power that they can exploit." Alex teleported away from Theundruk as a demonstration, twirling as she landed and throwing her hands in the air, "See."

"You know as well as I do that there are other ways to control someone. The TVA enjoy their memory wipes as much as C.R.Y.P.T. did."

"And there! Another reason for me to go back— I don't know why I'm like this or what truly happened with my mother but I should." Alex held up a hand to stop Theundruk from speaking, "You've forced memories on me but they don't help— they belong to other people, like my mother, but they're not mine and they're not much.

"You may not like what you find."

"Or it may help me." Retorted Alex. Since teleporting, she had been pushing into Theundruk's mind— using the landing flourish as a distraction to ease her way into the mind of the Mind Stone. There was little emotion to manipulate into something else, but the constant fear lurking in Theundruk's mind suddenly revealed itself long enough for Alex to grab hold of it and wrangle it into simple nerves.

Theundruk inclined their head, submitting to Alex but she still felt their doubt in her mind, "If you wish. Wanda Maximoff has the ability to make individuals enter their past, you would do well to speak to her."

"Couldn't you just do it?"

"I do not want to."

"Bitch," Alex scoffed, only to have the stone turn on her with blue eyes glowing darker, "But thank you. Thank you, Theundruk."

"I hope we never have to meet again." The stone said, "Come here."

Alex obeyed, although her legs shook as she walked forwards. The previous happiness warming her stomach had been replaced by a churning. As a rule, Alex did not feel nervous but as she approached Theundruk, she felt even sicker. Theundruk attempted a smile, the corners of their mouth turning up and mouth opening to show some teeth, but the lack of anything in their blue eyes made the action look awkward.

Once they were face to face, Theundruk took Alex's face in their hands. Her heart began to beat faster until it was felt like it was about to burst out of her chest.

"Close your eyes and relax." Alex did so and her heart eased slightly. Theundruk had begun humming and gently pushing Alex back and forth until they were rocking in unison.

The negative emotions pulling at Alex ceased— in fact, all emotions did. She felt weightless and without a single thought in her mind.

"Oh Alex, there is one last thing you should know." Their voice was coasting on a breeze, soft and gentle. Theundruk had stopped humming but the noise continued, weaving its way through Alex's mind as she slipped further and further away.

"Yes?" She replied but her own voice was floating away.

"Pietro, he's alive."

"What!"