Chapter 6: What Now?

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(General P.O.V)

A man was walking across the barren landscape of a desert.

The heat of the naked sun glared down on the dry terrain.

Nothing but sand and rock stretched out for miles.

No life. No activity. Not snakes, dung beetles, scorpions or lizards known for living in such harsh conditions.

For all intents and purposes, he was the only living thing within this entire region.

A region that was meant to be his personal hell. For it brought forth memories that he wished to forget.

And yet, it was those same memories that pushed him on. To where? He had no idea.

But adversity was something he had faced time and time again. And above all things, above the billions, above the women, above the armor, Tony Stark's true arsenal lay in his mind and spirit.

And so he forged onwards, through the hunger, through the thirst. Only stopping to sleep when necessary before continuing on his seemingly never ending journey.

The sun had set over the horizon and risen a number of times now.

Yet he stayed the course. Up until his body ate away at his muscles. Up until it depleted his stores of fat.

And still he walked, only stopping to affix the damaged arc reactor that was the only thing that had survived the trip, onto his body.

Fueling it's energy through his biological system in a last ditch attempt to stay alive.

And somehow, someway, he actually succeeded. So intimate he was with his invention, that his ingenuity was able to pull it off.

And so he walked. His soles turned raw and scabbed over. His hair grew long enough to cover his face and reach his back.

His clothes were mere shreds of fabric by now. But he walked. Sometimes even through the night, the fading light of the Arc Reactor lighting his path.

He walked until the Arc Reactor's energy dimmed. The ingenious way he was using it being too inefficient. Too wasteful.

And so he crawled, on and on. His pride had disappeared, his spirit exhausted.

The only thing that kept him moving was her face. Wanda. Wanda did this.

Instead of a quick but nasty death like the others, she had decided to punish him in the worst possible way, by throwing him into a barren world filled with nothing.

Because she knew he wouldn't quit. Because she knew he would die indignant.

Finally, her wish seemed to come true as Tony Stark, now a gaunt and skeletal shell of his former self, fell onto the ground face first, his abused body refusing to move anymore.

Death had come for him.

He could even hear her footsteps. And despite the situation, Tony couldn't help but form a smile on his cracked lips.

How long had it been since he sensed someone else's presence?

Even if it was Death herself, the former billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, was only happy that during the end, he wasn't alone.

"Jesus, Tony you look like shit."

Captain America, coming to stop before his friend commented.

"Let's get you home, buddy."

-Locke-

5 days had passed.

5 days after the Avengers soundly lost.

5 days in which I've been stuck in a cold and dark cell with deplorable conditions.

Only allowed a loaf of bread and a glass of water a day.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As soon as Wanda used her powers and corrupted the Mind Stone on Vision's head, the Android had lost its will and been turned into her slave.

The first thing that she ordered it to do was to never let me out of its sight.

I became her prisoner, held in Vision's tight grip as we flew away from the destroyed Avengers building.

I had watched with horror at the smoke as it rose to the sky over Vision's shoulder.

The Darkhold was tightly held to my chest, being the only assurance that Wanda wouldn't kill me like she did Iron Man and the others. Not without having it in her possession first.

But not dying didn't mean I was in for a good time either. By now it was pretty obvious what had happened.

In this world Wanda had turned evil. And somehow I had gotten caught up in the mess she had created.

The fact that she came straight for the book suggested she was probably the last owner and could sense it in some way.

She had also seemed surprised to see me, so I can infer that my presence was not something expected.

Nor was the Darkhold choosing me as it's owner. Something that revoked her own claim to it and as a result, she could only sense it, not take it for herself.

So as long as I had the book and was the only one who could see it(maybe even use it?), she was probably not going to outright kill me. Not without ensuring that it would fall into her hands.

All these thoughts passed through my mind as we left New York behind and unexpectedly, flew across the ocean.

"Where are we going?"

I took a chance and asked her.

She hadn't bothered to answer me before, so I wasn't confident that she would now.

So imagine my surprise when she responded a few seconds later.

"An acquittance of mine owes me a favor. We're paying them a visit."

She said, slowing down to fly next to Vision.

"What are you planning to do to me?"

I took another risk and asked.

Wanda turned to stare at me, a cold light in her eyes.

"Torture you until I find out where you're keeping the Darkhold."

I gulped.

"You don't have to go that far."

I answered hastily. Torture doesn't sound fun.

"If we can come to an...arrangement, you can have it."

She stopped in the air, prompting Vision to do the same.

"That would be something I'm open to."

Saying that, she held out her hands, beckoningly.

"Hand it over. You were never part of this anyway. You can still walk away."

I swallowed. Here goes nothing.

"Can you guarantee that you will let me go, unharmed, in a safe place with the promise that even if you do conquer the world or whatever evil plans you have, I'll be left out of it?"

That was my condition.

Her lips stretched into a beautiful smile.

"I swear it on my brother."

I shook my head with a wry smile. She killed her friends. I would be dumb to accept that at face value. No, it needed to be a concrete promise.

"Not enough. Swear it on your magic."

Instantly, the smile on her face thinned, and I realized I had made the right move.

"I swear on my magic, that if you hand over the Darkhold right now, I shall let you go, unharmed and will not pursue you in any sort of way afterwards."

Holding up a single hand, she pledged.

The sky suddenly rumbled and flashes of red lightning streaked overhead, surprising the two of us.

Wanda looked as if she had bitten into something sour.

"I have made the vow. If I break it, I shall lose my powers. Now it's your turn to keep the end of the bargain. Give me the Darkhold."

Was I potentially putting the world in danger to save my own skin? You bet your ass. I'm no hero. And besides, this wasn't my world. It wasn't even the real world!

I was a normal dude, what hope do I have to deny her what she wants when even the freaking Avengers failed? So call me a coward, call me a wimp, but I don't care.

"Here."

I stretched out my hands, the Darkhold in my grip. With a purple shimmer, it materialized into being, somehow responding to my intention.

Wanda's eyes widened, as an hungry expression took hold of her.

"The Darkhold. Finally...its within my grasp."

She wasted no time in reaching for it, only for Vision to jerk away unexpectedly, spinning us both as his forehead lit up and a red beam of energy shot out.

An instant later, it made contact with an object in the sky behind us and a massive explosion rippled out.

"What?!"

Wanda, who had been on the verge of turning the Android to scrap due to the interruption, turned to face our back.

With a barely audible drone, a formation of 6 modern looking jets were speeding towards us from the mainland.

What Vision had destroyed was a missile that had been targeting us. Okay, rude. Can't they see I'm a hostage!!

"Excuse me for a second."

Wanda growled, her body lighting up with a red aura.

"I have a few pests to get rid of."

Okay. This is actually good! If they manage to shoot her down, I'm free! I doubt even Wanda can survive a missile to the face. One of Iron Man's blast was enough to knock her through a wall after all.

"Good luck!"

I called out after her.

With a smooth takeoff, she blasted off towards the jets, already charging a bolt of chaos energy that made my heart thrum in a strange way.

"Shit."

My heart sank as she released it and pandemonium took over. The sky itself was torn apart in it's path. And with every split second, the sphere was growing in size as it got closer to the aircrafts.

The jets tried to evade it's path, some strafing to the sides while others pulled up.

But like a black hole, the chaos sphere pulled all 6 jets in, shredding the metal apart and tearing chunks of them apart.

The pilots that managed to eject were also pulled in by the sphere, which had ballooned to a massive size that it briefly blocked the sun.

Just as it seemed ready to burst apart in a massive explosion, the sphere collapsed upon itself, imploding. Space around it twisted into a red vortex as a sudden calm blanketed the atmosphere.

Even the wind stilled. A bad feeling took over me.

Wanda turned around and started flying towards us.

Behind her, the vortex suddenly released a massive shockwave that spewed out metal debris and flames into the air, preceded by a loud soundwave that almost burst my eardrums.

I felt a familiar sensation of weightlessness spread across my body, just as the debris shower reached us, and we phased through them.

When everything had stopped shaking, I was left gaping. All the clouds around us had disappeared, and in an area of 100 meters, the sky was torn apart, revealing the night sky.

She...used one attack. Just one.

With her shield shimmering around her, Wanda arrived, her eyes set on mine expectantly.

"Now, where were we?"

And suddenly, despite being a coward, I didn't want to hand over the Darkhold anymore.

If she could output such levels of destruction without it, what could she do with it?

Shit. I just realized she might really torture me now.