Strange Nights ( Dr Strange #1)

Chapter 25 : Something More

When Y/N returned, feeling tired and frenzy, the house, though empty, was welcoming with its warm glow on the dark island. Passing by the kitchen, she halted in the living room, staring in bafflement at the disarray of papers and scrolls until the murmur of voices caught her attention. She stepped into the bedroom and peeped through the open portal.

Tony's house was foaming with a red glow. Loki was hurdled over Wanda, struggling to keep his feet while Stephen was hunched with his hands pressed to her forehead. Y/N felt her stomach clench at the sight of the rest of the members scattered over the floor, lying stiff, plaited with the red energy. Her hands were clenched into fists when she inched towards the corner.

Loki caught the little movement and hissed helplessly.

"What is-," Y/N swallowed. She stopped, shaking with horror when she caught a glimpse of Wanda's face, her mouth slightly agape.

"Get out," he said through his clenched teeth. Half-desperately he looked at Stephen before glaring back at Y/N. The fool girl was going to lay waste to all their efforts.

Y/N took a step back when Wanda's eyelids fluttered. Her face was strange and inhuman. And something looked at her out of those eyes. She shivered horribly before dashing out of the room.

"If I were you I wouldn't allow anyone in a ten-mile radius of her...," Loki trailed off examining their surroundings vaguely. He poked his brother with his foot but Thor lay motionlessly. The chaos was gone but none of them was going to wake up in the next two hours at least.

Stephen sat in silence. With all the darkholds destroyed across the multiverse, he hadn't considered any scarlet witch powerful enough to dreamwalk again. "She might try again," he whispered, stirring up the reverie of the thoughts he had gone through all the while trying to break the spell.

"And about the thing earlier," Loki slumped next to him on the floor, tired from all the effort, "That seems utterly impossible." Before the dream walking incident, Stephen had desperately tried to reach him, looking for any sort of explanation for Y/N's presence not messing up their reality.

Stephen shook his head. "The variance energy is not nil, but the curve is steady, below the danger line and the detection line." He had checked it across three different devices. Even Tony was surprised when the machine gave the same result after rewiring it. They had been on a call with Loki when Wanda had gone rogue.

"Nothing makes sense unless she somehow managed to shift the nexus point from Wanda to herself," Loki said with irritation.

Stephen opened his mouth but catching a glimpse of Y/N across the still-open portal, he scrambled to his feet. "You're right. Nobody should be allowed around Y/N. I'll try getting to the others tomorrow," he said and abruptly left.

"Could you send me back," she swallowed the lump in her throat, "to where I came from?"

"Why," he almost cried out. He couldn't understand what he had done wrong now.

"That," her lips trembled as her fingers pointed to where the portal had been seconds ago, "was because of me, wasn't it?"

He shook his head. Dropping to his knees, he reached out slowly, holding her shoulders, "It wasn't because of you."

Y/N tried to hold herself steady and looked down at Stephen - the very face that had been left untouched by time except for a few lines now seemed battered with confusion, fear, tiredness and uncertainty. Being away was going to be undoubtedly difficult but having recalled every damned memory of her actions over years - she flinched. The pain was better than grief. "I have caused you enough trouble Stephen, this has to end. I should leave before you end up in a grave."