Always Mine (An MCU Fanfiction)

35. The Message Home

I don't own this GIF. The entire credit goes to the original creator.

I imagined Brenda Song as Erin Takahashi, an enhanced human who briefly met Casey during the Battle of New York, works for Stephen Strange, and tells Casey of everything that happened on Earth, later informing Peyton and the others.

Eventually, Thor and I arrived in Greenwich and at the address, right after getting directions from several confused pedestrians.

"Nice neighborhood," I mumbled as we approached the address.

Compared to Asgard, it looked ordinary. Compared to the places I'd been trapped in during the last four years, it looked comforting.

Thor knocked on the front door. The instant his knuckles touched the wood, the world vanished.

One second we were outside. The next, we stood in a dark corridor illuminated by dim golden light.

I immediately stepped closer to Thor. A familiar knot formed in my stomach.

Ever since my transformation and the curse that had once turned me into a sparrow, strange magical situations tended to end badly for me.

"Thor Odinson," a man's voice said from the darkness. "And Casey Farrah Armstrong."

I froze. Not even SHIELD files usually included my middle name. My parents had named me after a Charlie's Angels character. Hearing a complete stranger say it made my skin crawl.

Thor raised Mjolnir defensively. I instinctively moved behind him.

A cloaked figure drifted toward us.

"God of Thunder. The famed and missing Sparrow."

That single word hit me harder than I expected. Missing. Not dead. Not forgotten. Missing. Somehow, hearing somebody acknowledge that I'd existed all this time made my chest ache.

The stranger looked at Thor. "You can put down the umbrella."

Thor cautiously placed Mjolnir into an umbrella holder.

The second he did, everything shifted again. I barely suppressed a yelp. Not again.

Moments later we appeared inside a larger room. A young Asian woman stood nearby. For some reason she looked familiar.

Thor casually picked something up from what looked like a tower table model and turned to the stranger. "So, Earth has, uh, wizards now?" he wondered.

"No frickin' way," I muttered in disbelief.

The woman laughed.

"The preferred term is 'Master of the Mystic Arts,'" the cloaked man corrected.

Thor picked up part of a model and accidentally knocked it over. The crash made me jump.

The young woman winced. "I'll get that later."

"All right, wizard. Who are you? Why should I care?" Thor asked.

"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, and I have some questions for you," the stranger replied with a straightforward expression. "Take a seat."

The room disappeared again.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

When the world returned, I was seated in a chair. My stomach wasn't thrilled about it.

"I know. Weird." The young woman smiled at me. "I'm Erin Takahashi, by the way. I work for the Doc."

She jerked her thumb toward Strange.