Universal Chaos

Chapter 25

The earth shook, as if in response to Sutton's suggestion. The concrete walls grumbled and dirt fell from the ceiling. Nat, Loki, and Steve stared at her.

"Are you joking?" Asked Steve after the shaking stopped. "Khan?"

His flat tone cut Sutton straight to her core, despite knowing they wouldn't approve. He didn't look in the mood for jokes anymore than she did, and even less humoring.

"What other choice do we have? We- we need someone who can hold their own at least long enough to buy us time."

To be honest she didn't know why she was even suggesting this. Even ready to push for it. There was a pressure at her knee, a shiver up her arm and a brush over her knuckles. It just felt like something she had to say.

Nat shook her head and her jaw shifted to the side as she briefly tensed in thought.

"It won't work," she said. "Besides, Thor is stronger."

Sutton stiffened at the reminder of Thor and the friends they'd left behind in the city. At the reminder of that explosion and the uncertainty it forced on them. Loki stilled as well at the mention of his brother. He didn't look eager to volunteer Thor as a distraction for Thanos, and it made Sutton briefly wonder how much of the familial hatred was a show.

"He is." Sutton allotted. "He's definitely stronger. But-" She hesitated. "But we don't know where they are now."

"And finding Khan would be easier?"

Sutton tensed her jaw, feeling more and more that her resolve and conviction were crumbling. They thought her plan was stupid. And they were right, but it hurt to have so much doubt cast on her regardless. Even if she'd earned it.

The team. The rest of them. She didn't know- she didn't know if- Well, she couldn't think about it. She didn't want to go looking.

Khan was a safer bet. Khan was disposable.

No! That was a horrible thing to think; how could she think that?

The pressure on her knee grew.

"If he's alive, he'll still be looking for me," she finally said.

Her voice was small and rough and the dust from the tunnel made her words taste dirty. Everything was wrong and awful and messed up.

Nat crossed her arms over her knees. She looked exhausted.

"He won't help regardless; it'd be a waste of time."

"Unless he thought he was going to get something out of it?"

It came out more like a question than she'd intended. Her plan lost steam the more they talked and she felt more tired and more idiotic the longer they discussed it.

"We could lie if we had to."

Her voice was nearly a whisper and pathetically uncertain, and Steve lowered himself next to her. He searched her face, as if checking her over for signs of insanity or a concussion. Sutton frowned, unappreciative. She couldn't think about how much she just wanted to sit with him. Let him hold her.

If she did that she might not want to get back up, not want to push for her stupid split second plan, and they couldn't afford to lose momentum.

She had to keep moving. Keep trying plans no matter how crazy they seemed. Without movement there was no hope and without hope she'd be a sniveling mess in the corner and the world was doomed.

"We shouldn't stay in one spot too long," Steve said.

Sutton wondered if he didn't mean they could be tracked more than he meant she started thinking stupid things when sitting for more than ten minutes.