Lady Dahlia | Loki Odinson

Chapter 40 - Infinity War

"Where are you going?" Bruce calls after Wong steps through the portal. Dahlia stands and moves towards his voice. Wong helps her through the portal as he responds.

"The Time Stone's been taken. The Sanctum remains unguarded." He replies. "What will you do?"

"I'm gonna make a call." He answers. Wong closes the portal and Dahlia grabs Bruce's arm.

"What happened?" She asks. He quickly explains what happened and she seems to finally snap out of it completely. "Tony's gone?" She asks.

"I'll call Steve. He'll be able to help." He assures her. She nods, clutching tighter to his arm as he snaps open the flip phone.

***

"Come on. The others are here." Bruce says, pulling Dahlia to her feet. She clutches tightly to his arm as they walk into the other room, joining Rhodey, Steve, Sam, Nat, Vision, and Wanda. "I think you look great." He tells them, joining their conversation.

"Bruce. Dahlia." Nat says, shocked.

"Yeah, uh, I'm back." He replies. They move into the other room and tell Bruce what had happened while he was gone. Then they each explain what happened to bring them here.

"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodey asks.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda adds.

"We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Bruce asks.

"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families. They're on house arrest." Nat explains.

"Who's Scott?" He asks.

"Ant-Man." Steve answers.

"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" He asks. Rhodey nods. "Okay, look. Thanos has the biggest army in the universe."

"Thanos killed half my people without even trying. He killed..." Dahlia says, speaking up for the first time. She trails off, shaking her head. "He killed my father, Thor, and Loki."

 "He is not gonna stop until he gets...Vision's Stone." He tells them.

"Then we have to protect it." Nat replies.

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision announces. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head. About its nature. But also its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature, perhaps, its molecular integrity could fail." He explains, moving to stand in front of Wanda.

"Yeah, and you with it. We're not having this conversation." She tells him.

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it." He argues.

"That's too high a price." She replies. He cups her face.

"Only you have the power to pay it." Vision says. She walks away from him. "Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"Men. Always so dramatic." Dahlia mutters, rolling her eyes.

"But it should. We don't trade lives, Vision." Steve tells him.

"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me, why is this any different?" He asks.

"Because you might have a choice." Bruce answers. "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the stone. All of them mixed together, all of them learning from one another."