"Right, so, Wanda, tell me what is up with you and Vision?" I asked.
"Nothing." She mumbled.
We were camping out in Kathmandu, Nepal, where the Stone was located. The room where we stayed for that moment was cramped and dirty, and I swear there was a chalk outline of someone's body on the floor.
I finally had time to learn more about Scarlet Witch's feelings, since they give us fuck all in the movies. Like one moment they were eye sexing, then in Infinity War they were shown hiding out in the UK, openly snogging each other. Like where was my romantic tension that I paid for. You know that I had to get that from reading fanfiction says something. Like I want some short movie retelling the adventures after Civil War with exclusively Wanda and Vis. But it has to be happy because I am so sick of this death/angsty bull that we have been dished lately.
"God please, save it for someone naïve. Remember, I literally know what is going to happen to you guys in about three years. So, I need some emotional story about how you became so attracted to him."
Wanda's face turned a bright red. Like it is not a hard question, seriously. I need something to sedate my soul, and give me some new ammo for writing the perfect ship.
She just turned her head and looked out the window into the distance. That was if she could see out of it in the first place. Dirt caked the windows like a young child took a mud pie and smeared it against the window.
She barely gave me a second glance. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Really? Seriously? It looked like I was to spur the conversation.
"Right, fine. Let me give you a few sentences and you grunt once for yes and twice for no, alright?"
No answer.
"Great!" I grinned. "Ok, so in Age of Ultron, when your beau first emerged from the table, you had a look of satisfaction. Or was it when you saw Thor and Vision talking and you looked dreamily at him, or was it…"
"Oh, my God, Mace, give the poor girl a rest." Nat cut me off. She cocked her gun and slipped it into her boot. "Can't you see that she is a little upset about the fact that you practically revealed her feelings to everyone. Look, it is awesome that you know all of this shit and been able to stop us from dying, but you are way to invested into our lives. In your world, we may just be fictional characters who can throw theories about like we are celebrities, but here, we are people. We want to be treated like human beings. Ok?"
I was taken aback. I never thought about it before, that these characters are actually real. They, in this world, are meant to be vigilante superheroes, well beside Tony Stark who is openly a crimefighter, but the rest don't want their personal lives to be inspected under a glass.
"Ok, but before I shut up, please may I ask one more thing?"
Black Widow shot me a dark look, but she knew that I would keep bugging her until she ultimately relented under my persuasion.
"Fine, but only one thing, and I have the right to answer it or not."
I nodded.
"So, what happened in Budapest? With you and Hawkeye?"
A slight smile pulled at her lips as she distantly stared into space. Through her eyes I could see her watching her memories like it were a movie. It was like we did not exist at all. Even Scarlet was enamoured by her, giggling now and again, I suppose because she could read Nat's mind.
"That is a question and a half," she said absentmindedly, "but one for another day. You should ask Clint when you met him. He tells the story better."
"Are you sure he will want to come out of his hidey-hole to help us? I mean he loves his family too much."
"Well, I suppose if you managed to drag half of the universe to this fight, I pretty sure he would not miss the fight. Especially if it means that his family is threatened."
Mental note: when back in America, ask Barton to join us. I can't believe I could miss him out.
The way she said that showed all the feeling that I needed to know. If anything about forced love stories have told me, that no matter how much the author forces them together, they will never fit. It was not her fault that Hawkeye was not into her as much she was to him.
Yeah, unfortunately this was the one ship I could never fix. Sorry y'all.
XXX
After our heart-to-heart chat about love, life and everything else, I thought it might have been a good idea to do what we really came there for: getting the Infinity Stone.
"Look, I have no idea where in this sanctum they have it, since it most probably had moved from where I saw it in the movie, which is why I brought you ladies along instead of just popping over for a quick steal and back again. So, we need a plan of action before we barge in there with God knows how many soldiers marching around."
"Maybe we should go separate ways so we can cover more ground…"
"No!" I cut her off, "I have seen horror movies and nothing good ever comes out from 'covering more ground'. The only thing that covers more ground is your blood spilling out from your body."
Wanda and Nat gave each other the 'look'. The 'she is just a bit psychotic' look that every crazy person gets in their life.
I cleared my throat, and in a calm manner I continued. "What I mean is that it is a terrible idea to get separated because it is a huge place and I am the only one who can portal us out of there if I need to. You try and find the exit when a bunch of deadly alien people charge at you from all sides."
"You then make one yourself." Natasha crossed her arms.
"In the middle of building that is surrounded by strong magic with ancient Portal Weavers whose job in life is to stop you from finding a way out. Huh, good luck with that then."
"Well it is going to take forever your way."
"Maybe," Wanda interrupted us, "I could just read the mind of one of the guards and that is how we pinpoint the Stone?"
Yeah, for as smart as I am, I really did not think about one of the most obvious choices: use the mind reading powers, ya know, for mind reading.
"Well, that is sorted out quickly…maybe we should start the mission then?"
XXX
The problem with portals is that one never knows exactly is going to pop up on the other side. I could be going somewhere that I think is safe, for example a small abandoned shed at the edge of the local farm that the owner kindly let me use, and then popping back to realise that it has changed into a kinky sex dungeon (I don't want to talk about it). So when I thought of the first place that appeared in my mind, the library, I did not realise they had got the notice on the noise volumes that are appropriate in such a place.
Before you walk into a portal, you can only see a small swirled image of what the place looks like, unless you are a bunch of Vanaardians who apparently can do cool magic shit that I would never accomplish. Anyway, no noise can be heard, which kind of sucks because it would be the best device to eavesdrop on people without your head being stuck in the same place as said people. Thus was the reason that I nearly had a heart attack when I cropped up in a known quiet location to find out they were having a party. The worst part of it all was that they were not even playing good music; it was as if they pulled up a list of the most disliked music videos on YouTube and gradually went up the list.
I mean it was literally sounding like a tween girl in 2010…basically Justin Bieber songs. (I really could not resist that.)
Basically what had happened was that we portalled through to the library to find the Others using it as their own private disco. Lights were flashing, stereos where pumping and the Dark Side Vanaardians were throwing books about the place and bopping to the screeches of a pre-pubescent Bieber.
"What is going on!" I shouted, and even with the shouting I couldn't get anyone's attention. The only thing I could do was to grab the sleeve of Wanda and pull her and Natasha both back into the room where we started.
"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS GOING ON?!"
"God, Mace, you are not in the library any more, there is no reason for you to shout." I could barely hear Widow say.
"What in God's name is going on?" I lowered my voice, but to be fair, I'm not too sure that I said that, since I was partially deaf and the only thing I could hear was the pulse of blood through my ears.
Wanda rubbed her face. "As far as I can understand, it is that they have taken over the Kamar-Taj as their new headquarters. All sorcerers have either been banished or killed, except some Being called the Ancient One, who has been missing since the amulet had been stolen. The are digging through the library to see if there was anything good. If not, then, the books will burn."
"Any reason for the awful music?" I asked.
"Nothing, except that they enjoy it."
"They really must be evil incarnate if they can like the music." I mumbled. "Anyway, any news on where the Stone would be?"
"Um…" Wanda squeezed her eyes. "I think that there was something about a congregation in the courtyard where they would do some celebration. Everyone, and everything, will be there."
"Uh, crap. So we must blend in, but how the hell are we suppose to do that when we are not giant blobs of goo?"
Natasha had a smile growing on her face. An idea seemed to pop in her head.
"I know a guy who knows a guy. Let's just say that he is not one to look conspicuous amongst the bugs to the human eye."
It took me way to long to see where she was going with this train of thought. There is only one person who could be able to blend into crowds perfectly without a second thought. Such a pity that she was right, it would have been a kickass mission if we did it ourselves without any help from the male gender, but then again, Scott Lang is an awesome dad who can do no wrong in my eyes.
XXX
Sorry, it has been too long. I have been having a hard time lately, but that is no excuse. If, like usual, you have an idea or something that you will think would add some spice to this story, please tell me. I will do the best I can to have a happy reader.