Chapter 16

"Uh, Master Kaecilius. This is… unexpected," I said awkwardly. I glanced between the sorcerer and Captain America and hesitated, eyes wide. Mentally, I was torn between trying to work out how I was going to navigate this conversation—of all the things that could have happened, this hadn't even been on my radar—and being surprisingly annoyed that I'd just done an off-the-cuff awesome dynamic superhero team thing with Captain America and it had fizzled like a wet fart.

While I vacillated, Kaecilius took in Steve and his shield. "You keep interesting company, Ms Maximoff. You're out of uniform, but you are Captain America, are you not? One of the Avengers."

"I am. It seems you have me at a disadvantage, Mr… Kaecilius, was it?"

The sorcerer inclined his head. "Please, Master Kaecilius. My rank was fairly earned and I ask that you respect it, captain." As he spoke, Kaecilius slipped his sling ring off his fingers and attached it to the loop at his belt with a practiced motion.

I winced internally and my eyes flicked back toward Steve in time to see him track the movement. He glanced back up at me and our eyes met for a brief moment. He'd seen it, I'd seen he'd seen it, and he'd seen I'd seen he'd seen it. I was pretty sure he'd noticed me take my own ring off to tuck it into my pocket after we'd arrived at Bucky's apartment, though I'd tried to do it discreetly. I'd been hoping that the Avengers would continue to assume the portals were just another aspect of my power for at least a while longer, but at this stage Steve was more than capable of connecting the dots, even if he didn't really understand the true nature of the rings or magic involved.

"Of course. Master Kaecilius, my apologies."

The sorcerer's eyes wandered over to where Bucky was still pinned to the wall by my magic. "I'm terribly sorry, I appear to have interrupted something?"

"It's fine," I said, shaking my head, "but how did you find me, exactly? I'm warded."

"I gave you a beacon, keyed to me. It allowed me to reach out and find you. My apologies for not being clearer about its function—as you'll recall, we were pressed for time."

"Oh, so that's what it was. I thought it might have been a communicator of some kind."

"Or a bomb," Steve added unhelpfully, watching the sorcerer's reaction carefully. "You thought it might have been a bomb."

The corners of Kaecilius's mouth quirked up in a smile and I shrugged with a bit of forced nonchalance. "We met in stressful circumstances. I didn't really know what your angle was."

"Understandable."

"What circumstances were those?" Steve asked.

"Not important," I said hastily.

"Really? Because the way that you said that makes me think they might be important."

The sorcerer gave me a barely perceptible nod of acknowledgement. "No, Ms Maximoff is correct. The past is the past and cannot be changed. I am more concerned now with the future."

"The future?"

"The Masters of the Mystic Arts are not as united as we may appear. There are many of us who are unhappy with the way the Ancient One pursues her agenda and we seek to forge our own path."

"The Ancient One?" Steve asked.

"Not important."

"Sounds like they might be important."

I made a small, frustrated noise in the back of my throat and turned to face my companion. "Steve, look, this is an incredibly complicated situation and I wasn't prepared to have this conversation right now. I will fill you in when I can, but please let me deal with this for now."

He held my gaze for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay."

"Okay," I sighed, turning back to Kaecilius. "Sorry about that. You were saying?"

"You came to Kamar-taj as a supplicant, seeking aid and knowledge, just as I once did. The Ancient One instead scorned and threatened you, and you were forced to flee."

I very pointedly did not look at Steve while he very pointedly did not ask more questions. "Yes, I recall, I was there."

"The Ancient One is still nursing her injuries from your battle and Kamar‑taj is distracted. We will raid the monastery's library soon. If you join us, you can take your pick of whichever texts you desire. I know of several treatises on witchcraft that may be of particular interest to you."

I bit my lip. I could feel Steve looking at me at the mention of witchcraft, but Kaecilius's sudden schedule change was extremely concerning. He'd moved up his plans because the Ancient One had gotten hurt and now it was happening too soon. I wasn't sure of the exact timeline, but I was fairly sure we were definitely ages away from when the events of Doctor Strange should be happening. "That does sound tempting. You want something in return, I'd imagine."

"Only your support in the raid. We may encounter resistance and you have already proven quite skilled at evading sorcerous pursuit. After, I would also quite like the opportunity to discuss further collaboration. If you are interested in continuing to work together, we could forge a partnership that benefits us both." The sorcerer held out his hands. "The Ancient One is not what she professes to be. Join with me and together we will gain the power to destroy she who has betrayed us. She who has betrayed the world."

"A compelling offer, however—" I gestured, sending wisps of chaos magic toward Kaecilius before he could react. The sorcerer's eyes widened in surprise as they snaked around his wrists and ankles, twisting his arms behind his back, then a flick of my fingers jerked him upward. He floated in mid-air, a foot off the ground, bound hand and foot by threads of my power. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline."

"Wanda?" There was a note of alarm in Steve's voice.

"Let's stop playing around," I said, continuing to ignore Steve and stepping closer to Kaecilius. "I know what your real plan is. I know about Dormammu, the Dark Dimension, everything."

There was a brief pause as the sorcerer processed this, then he nodded. "I see. Then you know the truth. The Ancient One is a hypocrite. She hoards her knowledge and power."

"She is. I don't know her specific reasons, but I know enough to trust her motives. I also know enough about Dormammu to know that I can't let you go ahead with what you plan to do."

"You can't stop it. It's the end and the beginning. The many becoming the few becoming the One."

"What are you talking about?" Steve interjected again, forehead creased with concern. "Wanda, what is all this?"

"It's nothing," I said, waving a hand dismissively. "Just the mad ramblings of a broken man. Nothing worth listening to."

Kaecilius was undeterred, a feverish intensity lighting up his eyes that made me vaguely uncomfortable. "All things age, all things die. In the end our sun burns out and our universe grows cold and perishes. But the Dark Dimension is a place beyond time. This world doesn't have to die. It can take its rightful place alongside so many others as part of the One. The great and beautiful One. We can all live forever. People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything."

"Nice pitch, but I think the giant extra-dimensional demon that wants to destroy the world is actually the true enemy of us all."

"We don't seek to destroy this world; we seek to save it. Dormammu will give to me the power to overthrow the Ancient One and tear her Sanctums down. To let the Dark Dimension in. Because what the Ancient One hoards, Dormammu gives freely. Life, everlasting. He's not the destroyer of worlds. He is the saviour of worlds." The sorcerer turned his head as he monologued, fixing Steve with a steady gaze. "The man out of time. You, more than anyone else, should understand. The world is not what it ought to be. Humanity longs for the eternal. For a world beyond time, because time is what enslaves us. Time is an insult. Death is an insult."

Reaching out, I retrieved Kaecilius's sling ring from his waist, then stepped back as I slipped it onto my fingers. "Okay. I really wish this had played out differently, but you're not really leaving me with any other options here."

Gesturing, I conjured a small portal in the air next to me, only an inch or two across, and one of the vibranium spears that I'd left behind in the hotel room in Albany dropped through it, haft-first. I caught it easily in an outstretched hand and dismissed the portal.

"Wanda." Steve had stepped forward, almost but not quite interposing himself between Kaecilius and myself.

"Okay. So, this really wasn't something I was expecting to happen just yet, but we need to stop him." I couldn't afford to let Kaecilius start his assault early—in the original timeline, he'd killed the Ancient One, successfully destroyed two of the Sanctums and would have destroyed the third if not for Dr Strange's intervention. Even then, he'd still successfully breached reality and allowed the Dark Dimension to invade. If Strange wasn't around and I didn't do anything, Kaecilius would almost certainly win and the world would be destroyed.

"Stop him?" He eyed the spear in my hand. "Or kill him?"

"He's left me no choice. Kaecilius isn't someone we can just arrest and lock up. He can't be held conventionally. And the only place that might be able to contain him is hunting me as well, so I can't exactly go drop him off and explain the situation."

"I can't just let you murder an unarmed man. I don't even know what's going on."

I made a frustrated noise. "If I don't, he's literally going to end the world. I've seen it. I know what's going to happen."

"What do you mean you've seen it?"

Fuck. Okay, I guess we're doing this now. "This is what I meant when I said there were things that you wouldn't believe me about. I've seen the future. The literal, actual future. It's why I abandoned HYDRA and why I didn't hand the sceptre over to you. It's why I know you're a good guy. It's how I knew about Bucky. This guy," I tilted the spear in my hand toward Kaecilius, "is just one of the massive, apocalyptic threats that are coming. They all get stopped in the end, but a lot of people die, Steve. Or worse. A lot of people that don't need to. What I've done so far has already saved thousands of lives. Please let me save more."

Steve raised his free hand in a conciliatory gesture. "Slow down, you're contradicting yourself. They all get stopped, right? He's not going to end the world. We can talk this through."

"Butterflies."

"Butterflies?"

"Ripples in time," Kaecilius answered for me, sounding thoughtful. "A small change is made and it impacts all around it. You injured the Ancient One, threw Kamar-taj into an uproar, and I brought forward my plans."

"Exactly."

"You want to kill me because the proper order of events no longer aligns. Whatever circumstance is required to stop us is not currently present."

"See? He gets it."

"Excellent."

I paused, my brain catching up with the conversation. "Wait, that's not what I—"

The window next to me exploded into the apartment in a shower of glass shards and splintering wood. Without thinking, I twisted to shield the front of my body, catching the worst of it across my back as I hit the ground. A combination of surprise and sudden pain made me drop my spear, its sharp head narrowly missing slicing down on the back of my other hand as I landed heavily on my hands and knees.

There was a flurry of motion behind me as Steve exploded into action and I swore under my breath as I realised that I'd lost concentration on Kaecilius's bindings as well. Now that I understood how, I really needed to get into the habit of tying off those effects so they could last for a while without my concentration. Problems for later.

Freed, Kaecilius rushed me as I turned toward him, burning sorcerous energy spreading in concentric bands across his wrists. I pushed off the floor with one hand to move out of the way, my enhanced strength bringing me straight to my feet, but realised too late that I wasn't his target. Kaecilius sped past me, diving toward Bucky. I tried to quickly reverse my movement to catch him, but I was a moment too late. The sorcerer gestured and the red magic pinning Bucky to the wall dispersed. I slammed my fist into Kaecilius's ribs and he was sent skidding across the room to slam into the kitchen cabinets—it was a solid hit, so hopefully I'd broken something—but then a cold metal hand clamped down on my shoulder.

I glanced back and saw Steve fending off the attacks of a pair of red-robed sorcerers. That explained the window. Of course Kaecilius hadn't come to meet us alone—it was stupid of me not to think that he'd have backup nearby. I let out an indignant yelp as the Winter Soldier hoisted me into the air one-handed. Without waiting to see what he was going to do next, I seized wildly at the magic bubbling up inside me and thrust my hands toward him in a burst of red energy. We went flying in opposite directions, my shoulder feeling almost like it was being wrenched out of its socket as he lost his grip on me.

Landing heavily on Bucky's bed, I bounced off the mattress and then the wall. Rolling off, I landed on the floor on my hands and knees again, mildly disoriented from my own blast. A red-robed zealot tried to take advantage, lunging toward me with a blade formed of crystalline air. I rolled my body as I scrambled to my feet, narrowly avoiding a series of wild slashes. The sorcerer lunged toward me and I moved again, bringing a hand up to catch his wrist, stopping him cold. I let out a slightly delirious, involuntary laugh, then dashed him to the ground with a vicious backhand across the face. He didn't get back up—presumably either unconscious or with a snapped neck—I didn't care which. It felt good to be this strong and this fast.

Across from me, Steve knocked out another of the zealots using the edge of his shield as a bludgeon. We exchanged a glance and I flashed him a toothy smile, then looked over to where Kaecilius and the Winter Soldier had also recovered themselves.

All four of us moved at the same time. Steve and Bucky dove at each other, vibranium shield deflecting metal forearm as they launched into another rapid-fire exchange of blows and counterblows. I gathered bolts of raw chaos magic in my hands and threw them toward Kaecilius, but he spun his hands in a rotating gesture that caused my magic to fizzle through a fractal, crystalline barrier that I recognised as a passage to the Mirror Dimension, conjured across the apartment in such a way that it blocked him and the front door off from the rest of us. The sorcerer smirked and turned toward the door. Frustrated, I noticed my spear lying on his side of the barrier and raised a hand toward it. Red energy flared up around the weapon and I thrust my hand toward the retreating back of the sorcerer.

Kaecilius wrenched the door to the apartment open, the motion causing him to just barely twist out of the way of the spear as it perforated the wooden frame. A second later and he was out of sight, but I was already moving, ducking behind Steve and leaping out the hole in the wall where the window had been. Lashing out with chaos magic, I telekinetically grabbed the exterior wall of the building and pulled myself along it, dropping down onto Bucky's neighbour's balcony. I tore through the apartment at a dead sprint, smashing doors aside with curt gestures of my hand until I crashed out into the central stairwell. Bending almost double over the railing, I craned my neck, looking up and down, seeking my prey.

Hearing something below me, I took a gamble and vaulted the rail, cushioning my fall with a downward thrust of magic that bounced me back into the level directly below where I'd been standing. I was just in time to see Kaecilius smirking at me again as the portal he was escaping through closed.

I grinned back wickedly, baring my teeth. He thought he'd gotten away, but he didn't know I had a way of tracking people without using portals. I grabbed the pendant holding the Mind Stone in one hand, closed my eyes and focused on my target, fixing a mental picture of Kaecilius in my mind's eye. Casting the stone's power out, I searched for him, looking for a spark in my perception that matched. When I didn't find anything in the first few seconds, I started to worry—it had been incredibly easy when I'd found Steve using this technique, why would Kaecilius be any more difficult?

…Unless the anti-portal wards were messing with it, or there were more powerful spells that a sorcerer could use to obfuscate their location, which of course there would be. I searched for a little bit longer, casting my senses out wider, trying to catch any hint of Kaecilius's location, but it seemed like he really had managed to give me the slip. Swearing under my breath again, I turned and ran back up the stairs to Bucky's apartment, hoping that Steve had managed to pull off a win after I'd left.

As I entered, I immediately dived at the ground, narrowly avoiding being seriously inconvenienced by Captain America's shield as it ricocheted out the open doorway. I rolled back to my feet as Bucky kicked one of Steve's legs out from under him then caught him with a heavy blow to the face with his metal fist. Steve went down, staggered, and the Winter Soldier bore down on him.

Without thinking, I flung myself forward and tackled him around the waist. My blood was up and, despite the frustration of Kaecilius escaping, I was actually enjoying getting the chance to exercise my new physical enhancements. Despite the severe difference in weight class, my new strength was enough to take his feet out from under him and we rolled across the floorboards, each struggling to assert control. I managed to get my leg over his and pinned him to the ground, straddling his waist.

Bucky's metal arm came up to smash me across the face, but I caught his wrist with a fistful of chaos magic, slamming it back down to the ground hard enough to splinter the wooden floorboards. At the same time, my free hand snaked up to palm his face, sending tendrils of chaos magic spearing into his mind. I clenched my eyes shut and leaned forward into him as his irises flashed red, pressing my forehead against his temple. "Stop," I hissed in his ear and his entire body slackened as I submerged myself in his mind.

I threw myself into him, his mindscape swiftly resolving into the same maze of passageways as before. This time, the omnipresent diffuse glow was gone and the facility was lit solely by the red emergency lights that lined the walls. The loudspeakers were still crackling, Russian trigger words spoken in an endless litany as I stormed down the corridor, flinging my hand left and right to systematically wrench open each door to glance inside as I strode past it. Wisps of chaos magic penetrated the locks, finessing the mechanisms.

It didn't take me long to find the Winter Soldier, or perhaps my lack of subtlety this time allowed him to find me. He raised what looked like an AK-47 as we saw each other, but I didn't stop, continuing toward him as I threw up a corridor-wide shield with a wave of my hand to deflect the hail of bullets. He backpedalled as he continued to fire, the sound of spent bullet casings ringing across the concrete floor almost as loud as the retort of the gun.

Reaching out with telekinetic red energy, I wrenched the weapon from his hands then clenched my fist—crushing it in midair—before letting the ruined thing fall to the ground. He turned to retreat but I snagged him next, a web of magic hoisting him in the air.

"Alright, so, how do I get this place back to normal?" I asked conversationally, not really expecting a response. The Winter Soldier remained predictably silent, choosing to glower at me malevolently. I looked up at the loudspeaker mounted on the wall nearest to me, taking note of the series of cables running from it to the next further down the hall. "That has to be coming from somewhere, right?"

I flexed my fingers and red wisps of energy retrieved the Winter Soldier's oversized combat knife from its holster. Several slashing motions later and I'd severed the loudspeaker from the network and was listening carefully. There was a gap to one side, now—an area where the Russian words were no longer being broadcast. I turned and headed in the opposite direction, carrying the Winter Soldier through the air in front of me as I followed the cables.

It didn't take long. If I had to speculate, I would guess that the layout of the mindscape wasn't fixed. If I'd just wandered at random, I could have done so almost forever, but having a specific goal in mind, and deliberately moving toward it, meant the corridors would resolve in such a manner that I'd get to where I was going.

The room I found was split into separate halves by a thin wall inset with a simple door and large, one-way mirror. One half contained a device that looked a bit like a giant metal test tube, mounted on the wall in such a way that it loomed over a semi-upright operating table surrounded by a variety of unpleasant-looking surgical instruments and medical apparatuses. The other half was an observation room of some kind, with the cables from the loudspeaker system leading directly to a workstation topped with a condenser microphone on a metal stand. It was empty, despite the fact that the words were still being broadcast over the system.

I stepped up to the workstation, not quite sure what to do. The microphone was plugged into an oversized, boxy audio interface system, with a bunch of lights, dials and switches on it. I had a lot of options here, but it would probably be best to start simple and work my way up. Reaching down, I unplugged the microphone.

The effect was immediate, with the loudspeakers crackling one last time before falling silent. The emergency lighting was still on, everything around cast in a hellish red light. I 'hmm'ed to myself, looking around the room for a moment before my eyes fell on a suspicious-looking lever switch mounted on the wall next to a warning sign marked with an exclamation mark. I flipped the switch and the air flickered, emergency lights turning off and plunging us into darkness for a moment before the omnipresent diffuse light I'd originally been greeted with the first time I was here returned.

I carried the Winter Soldier back into the other half of the room, floating him over to the operating table. He started struggling as I laid him out on it, but I was capable of restraining far stronger foes than him and kept him steady with ease. A flick of my fingers sent a series of leather straps weaving around his limbs, securing him in place, but I did not release my hold on him.

Instead, I focused and started peeling away layers of magic, tightening and refining the bindings into something that could still hold him, but required much less power than the brute, overwhelming force I'd initially applied. This was something I needed to practice if I wanted to create more ongoing enchantments—I needed to weave my magic into power-efficient forms that used the minimum amount of energy that the effect I wanted required, rather than just blasting something with brute force and calling it a day.

Several long minutes passed and when I was satisfied, I tied off the magic, mirroring the way Mordo had secured the wards on Pietro and I. Next time I was with Pietro, I'd need to take a closer look at the battery enchantment so I could replicate it properly. In the interim, this one would sustain itself on Bucky's lifeforce. According to what Mordo had said, it wasn't too dangerous to set something up like this unless I left it on him without feeding it magic for a long time. In the meantime, he'd feel fatigued and tire more easily, but I figured that that was fine for the short-term.

"Comfortable?" I asked sweetly. The Winter Soldier glared furiously but impotently at me in response. "Good. Now, don't go anywhere, okay?" I gestured, red wisps infiltrating the mechanisms of the giant metal tube device and pulling it down, sealing him inside. There was a narrow glass window in the metal, letting him see out, but it otherwise seemed pretty secure on its own. I didn't know what it represented, exactly, but I figured that it and the straps couldn't hurt as additional precautions. I took one last look around, then took a deep breath and returned to my body, opening my eyes.

I carefully straightened up, releasing my grip on Bucky's face and sitting back. He blinked and looked around, seemingly a little disoriented. "You good?" I asked tentatively.

"Uh… yeah. I think so."

"Bucky?" Steve was kneeling on the floor next to us, watching his friend intently.

"It's me. I'm not… whatever she did worked. I think."

Steve visibly relaxed, a massive amount of tension leaving his shoulders. He looked at me and nodded. "Thank you."

I looked around. "Kaecilius's friends?"

"They got away. Portals."

Of course. Suddenly, Bucky yanked his hand away from me like he'd touched a hot stove. Looking down, I realised that my dress had ripped and ridden up during our struggle, and up until a second ago his hand had been resting on my upper thigh. I picked at the hem of my dress in a mildly unsuccessful attempt to pull it down and cover my exposed underwear. Note to self: bike pants were probably more sensible if I'm going to keep wearing dresses in fights.

Glancing back at Bucky, I could see in real-time as he realised that I was still straddling him. "…you gonna move?" he asked awkwardly.

I smirked. "I dunno," I said, wiggling slightly. "I'm pretty comfortable, actually."

His hands immediately clamped down on my hips to stop the motion, then pushed upwards, gently but insistently, his cheeks colouring. I pouted but cooperated—catching a glimpse of Steve out of the corner of my eye, shaking his head—and clambered to my feet. Sparing a brief second to straighten my dress a bit more, I offered Bucky a hand. He hesitated for a brief moment before taking it and letting me help him up.

The three of us looked at each other awkwardly for a few moments before Steve broke the silence. "Okay. Let's… reassess. Buck, how are you feeling?"

"Good," the other man said, then looked at me. "Did you…?"

I nodded. "I'm pretty sure the Winter Soldier isn't coming back anytime soon. I'll need to go back in a bit later on to tidy some stuff up and make sure it's all secure, but you should be good."

His eyes dropped to the ground. "I can't thank you enough."

"You don't need to. Like I said, I wanted to help."

"No, he's right," said Steve firmly. "You put yourself at risk here, more than once. I won't forget it. You said there are things you wanted to tell me, but it could backfire if I didn't believe you? I think you've earned yourself the benefit of the doubt."

I closed my eyes, unable to stop the relieved sigh and smile. "Okay. Good. Thank you."

"When I get back, I'll talk to the rest of the team. The offer's open for you and your brother to come too, if you want. No strings, no pressure. You can leave anytime you want."

I bit my lip. Pietro was going to be pissed, but I couldn't turn this down. It was too important. I'd finally found a way to get the Avengers on-side and I might need their help to stop Kaecilius. Not only that, but I could start making actual headway against Thanos and the other long-term threats.

"That sounds great. I'll talk to Pietro. But…" I sighed, a heavy weight settling in my stomach. "Kaecilius is moving now. I might be able to stop him before he can get started. I need to go to Kamar-taj."