The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

8

He stood there for what might have been close to a minute, staring at the place Wanda had disappeared as though it might bring her back. Back from whatever timeline she was hoping to find her children in. Back from her venture which could easily cause the multiverse to fall into disarray...

Of course it would. It was fate. How hadn't he seen this sooner? Her outfit was the Scarlet Witch's outfit. She'd become the Scarlet Witch. The Scarlet Witch was destined to rule or annihilate the multiverse. And right now, she certainly seemed on track for the latter.

All of a sudden, a new emotion overtook him. Anger.

But not at Wanda. And not at himself. At a third person who might have been able to help stop this far sooner.

If Loki had told him what Wanda had been studying sooner, he might've been able to do something about it. He wasn't an idiot – surely he must have realised something was wrong?

Stephen turned to Loki, feeling his fists clench automatically. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?" he demanded. To his annoyance, Loki was pulling that expressionless face again, the one that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking. Did he even care? "You know if you'd told me when you first found out I could have done something about it. Or at the very least I could've been prepared for it! Do you even know how serious this is?"

Stephen didn't wait for an answer, and just started pacing up and down the tiny sitting room, the cloak nervously following him as though concerned. "I suppose it doesn't matter now though, huh? Because somehow we'll magically make things better because we always do." The sarcasm in his voice was reaching an all-time high. Then again, he'd never had much cause to be so mad at someone before. Not like this. "Even if Wanda had made you promise this, you still should have found a way to warn me, at least. She's on track to destroy the multiverse and it's too late to convince her out of it."

He flopped down onto his armchair again, sighing. What did it matter now anyway? There was only one thing they could do now, and that was force her to stop before she became an even bigger danger than she already was. There wasn't another choice.

And still, Loki didn't take the situation seriously. "Are you done?" he asked, flatly.

Stephen glared over at him. "What do you think?"

Annoyingly, Stephen saw, Loki didn't get angry back at him. In a way, he wanted him to. Because then he'd be much easier to stay angry at. But he wasn't rising up a defence, and that left him conflicted whether to let his anger dissipate or not. And confused. This wasn't like him.

Well, it wasn't like him to be this angry either.

"You look like you're done for now," Loki replied, and though there wasn't any of his usual sarcasm in his words, Stephen still couldn't help the scowl on his face deepening.

"Yeah. I guess I'm done for now," Stephen begrudgingly admitted. He wasn't. He didn't think he'd said enough. Not in the slightest.

"Cool," Loki said after a while. No, it wasn't cool, and even he knew it.

"Um," another voice started, timidly, and both of them turned to face Scott. Stephen had almost forgotten he was still here, if he was completely honest. The residual anger must still have lingered on his face, because Scott gulped and he looked at Loki instead. "So... what just happened, exactly?"

"What just happened as in what happened with Wanda or what just happened in terms of why Strange is so mad at me?" Loki asked, surprisingly calmly. How the hell could he possibly be calm about this?

"Uh, both I suppose?" Scott asked, quietly, his gaze flitting between the two of them.

"Well, Scott, what just happened was that we found out that Wanda is channelling dark magic through the most corrupted magical artefact there is out there and this idiot-" he purposely glared at Loki "-didn't think to warn us and now here we are having a tea party while she's out destroying the multiverse," Stephen said, feeling a twinge of guilt at calling Loki an idiot but quickly overriding it.

Scott nodded slowly. Had he not been so blind-sided by his anger, Stephen might have a bit more patience to explain further, but unfortunately, it seemed he wasn't finished after all. "How didn't you realise what she was meddling with?" he demanded of Loki.

Loki took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. "Look, I didn't know what the Darkhold was, and I wanted to ask you, but Wanda made sure I didn't. And then, when I was in space, there was too much on my mind to even spare Wanda a thought, much less find time to research into that book."

Well... Stephen supposed that wasn't wrong. "Well then, at what point did you realise something was up?"

"Too late," Loki replied, his mouth practically a straight line. "As soon as we got here. Even earlier this year, her mind was unusually clouded, but I didn't think of it as anything weird at the time, since telepaths can hide certain thoughts from other telepaths, but as soon as we got here-"

He broke off there, and Stephen got the point. The Wanda they knew was gone. Corrupted and reckless. Willing to do anything for the kids she didn't even have. "She's gone," he said aloud, as though it would bring closure. It didn't. The anger threatened to boil up again. "And if you'd just told us-"

"Stephen," Scott interrupted, easily cutting him off, catching him in surprise. "This isn't his fault."

Bam. There it was.

Only Scott could make something sound completely undeniable with such a simple statement. And he was right. This wasn't Loki's fault.

At least not all his fault.

But that didn't stop him being in his bad books.

Scott cleared his throat, though there wasn't much need since they weren't speaking. "So what's the plan now? We have to go find her right?"

No one spoke. Weirdly, not even Loki. Stephen cursed his lack of telepathy – if he did have it, things would be so much simpler. He'd have known both Wanda's thoughts and Loki's now. But then he found himself looking at Scott, who didn't have any magic. And yet, he was still here. And he was the only one even trying to make a plan. And in a way, he had the most to lose out of the three of them.

He was right. They needed to get to Wanda now.

Stephen stood up, the cloak automatically returning to his shoulders without him even grabbing it. Now he understood why it never liked Wanda – it always found her suspicious. It was amazing how much this cloak could pick up on. "You're right Scott. And we're going to find her now."