Bruce and Darcy were in the latter's lab sketching diagrams on a whiteboard while Jane Foster sat at a computer looking up pertinent metrics and functions.

"Can I just say how much I've missed computers?" Jane said.

"How could you miss them when you forgot they existed?" Darcy quipped.

"My subconscious mind never forgot them. I've had so many dreams about laptops over the last twenty years."

" At least you got to dream," Dracy replied, "thanks to S.W.O.R.D. Handcuffing me before i got sucked in i was turned into a statue"

Bruce chuckled.

"I had a lot of time on my hands."

"Did you date anyone while you were in Westview?" Darcy asked teasingly.

"None of your business. I'll tell you later."

"I'll hold you to that."

Bruce glanced over his shoulder at her, trying to look like he hadn't already been thinking about a solution to that. "Yeah, that's definitely a concern." He spotted Nat in the back of the room. "Nat? How long have you been here?"

Jane and Darcy looked toward her in surprise.

Nat smiled. "A few minutes. I was enjoying listening to the three of you nerd out."

"You could have jumped in," Jane said. "I remember how knowledgeable you are about physics from that Fourth of July party at the park."

She shrugged. "I know a lot about explosives, not so much astrophysics, or quantum physics, or string theory, or whatever else this is."

"It's a little bit of everything. There's still so much we have to figure out about how Wanda was able to create the bubble dimension," Bruce explained. "There's some neuroscience and psychology thrown in there."

Nat nodded. "Hey Bruce, can I borrow you for a minute?"

"Of course. I was just about to call it a day anyway. If that's okay?" he asked Jane and Darcy.

"Of course. See you tomorrow, Dr. Banner," Jane said.

He followed Nat outside. "I haven't seen you all day. You been busy?"

"Helping with the evacuation," she said. "I've been locating people, getting people in touch with family members and neighbors, acting as a liaison between S.W.O.R.D. and the city council, convincing a few hold-outs to leave their houses. Apparently I'm a pillar of the community."

"Sounds like important work."

"Not quite figuring out the science behind what happened, but I feel like I'm doing my part. Do you know anything about what S.W.O.R.D. plans to do with Wanda?"

"I haven't heard."

"So you helped them bring her in without assurances that she wouldn't be locked up?"

He shrugged. "I'm sure they wouldn't do that. She didn't mean to do anything wrong."

Nat looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Listen, Wanda's going to be staying here on the Chimera according to Tony that ok with you?"

It startled him, the reminder that Nat was a master spy who could spot a lie a mile away.

She noticed his response. "I'll take that as a yes"

He sighed. She looked at him smuggly.

Wanda looked up when she heard a knock on the door of her room. She looked questioningly at Vision, who rose and went to the door.

"Who is there?" he asked.

"It's just me," Bruce answered.

Vision opened the door.

Wanda hadn't seen Bruce since A-day, and before that their few interactions had been not entirely positive. She was nervous at his presence.

"Good evening, Doctor Banner," Vision said.

"Good evening Vision, Wanda."

"What can we do for you?" Vision inquired.

"I actually just need to have a word with Wanda for a minute."

"You can talk to me in front of Vision," Wanda said.

Vision had insisted he would stay with her every moment until they found out what S.W.O.R.D. intended to do with her.

"Okay." Bruce said. He brought up a teleconference window on his computer screen and dialed someone. Wanda waited nervously and curiously.

Doctor Strange appeared on the screen.

"Strange?" Wanda said in surprise.

"Nice to see you again, Wanda. We need to talk."

"Who is this?" Vision asked.

"This is Doctor Strange," Wanda explained.

"Ah yes. Doctor Banner told us about you. I presume Agnes was working for you?"

Wanda looked sharply at Vision. "Agnes?"

"That's right," Strange confirmed. "I've been keeping a close eye on your situation. Wanda, I have a favor to ask you."

"Sure thing," she guessed.

"Yes. But there's something more than that. Let me cut to the chase. Ms. Maximoff, right now there's a being of unfathomable power plotting to destroy our world. It's called Dormammu. I was able to turn him back once before using the Time Stone. This time he has brought an army of demons. They're preparing to invade our dimension. But we've discovered those demons aren't following him of their own free will; they're being mind controlled. With your powers, I believe you would be able to break that mind control, free them, and stop Dormammu."

She could barely breathe. What he was saying sounded too huge, too terrifying. "I...I don't know how. I can't control the way I alter people's minds."

"Of course you can't control it; you haven't practiced it. I can train you, help you master your psychic powers. Once you learn how to do it on purpose, you'll also be able to choose not to do it. You won't need to wear that thing on your head anymore."

That was tempting. She hated the thought of controlling other people's minds. She wished more than anything that she could choose when to turn it on and turn it off.

But she wasn't sure she could.

"I won't lie to you, it will be incredibly dangerous," Strange continued. "But if Dormammu gets here, he will destroy everything and everyone on Earth. This time, you may be the only one who can stop him."

Vision put his hand on her shoulder. He locked eyes with her, silently begging her not to go.

He would risk his own life to save the world in a heartbeat, but not hers.

She looked back at Doctor Strange. "Can I have some time to discuss this with Vision and recover?"

He looked at his watch. "In three hours, midnight in your time zone, I'm going to open a portal connecting your room on the Chimera. I'll discuss it more with you then ok."

He hung up.

Bruce closed his laptop. He seemed shaken by what he'd just heard. "That's the message I came here to give you. Agnes is a sorceress; she's been investigating Westview and reporting to Doctor Strange since the beginning, I won't tell S.W.O.R.D. where you've gone. It will be like you just disappeared. If you decide to take his offer. It's up to you."

"Thank you," Wanda said, surprised that Bruce Banner was willing to help her escape.

"I'd better go. I'm sure you've got a lot to talk about."

The moment Bruce left, Vision turned to her. "I don't want you to go," he stated.

"I have to. If the world's in danger, I have to do what I can to help. Besides, I owe Doctor Strange."

"Then I will come with you. I will help you fight this Dormammu."

Wanda slowly walked onto the Command Deck. "I'm going to be going away for a while," she said.

"Are they arresting you?" Khamala asked.

"I'm not being arrested. Vision took up Dr. Strange's offer for me, so I'll be on the team for now. If you'll have me?"

Nat hugged her. "Of course."

Later that night, Wanda returned to her room. She wrapped her arms around him. "You're the love of my life too, you know."

At first he only kissed the top of her head, but then she kissed his cheek, then he kissed her lips, then she kissed his neck, and he noted they still had over an hour before her appointment with Doctor Strange.

They made love with an odd blend of deliberation and desperation, both knowing without wanting to acknowledge that it might be their last time. After they dressed, they lay on the bed together, holding each other, until the glowing numbers on the bedside alarm clock flicked to 12:00 and, seconds later, a glowing gold portal appeared in the room.

"That's my cue," Vision said quietly.

He stopped before stepping through and turned to look at her.

He took her hand.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you," he replied.

He let her fingers slide out of his. She stepped through the portal. It closed behind her.

With yesterday's snow, Westview finally joined the rest of New Jersey in winter.

The only footprints visible in the fresh snow in this part of town were the ones Hayward and Monica left behind them.

"So Wanda Maximoff just disappeared in the middle of the night without telling anyone where she was going?" Hayward asked incredulously, S.W.O.R.D. Had lost Wanda.

" Wakanda," Monica replied in a lightly facetious tone. "To tell you the truth, other than Wanda not going to work for S.W.O.R.D., this might be the best outcome we could've hoped for. It saves a lot of people some inconvenient questions."

" Terrorist won " Hayward sneered

"I'd been hoping once we figured out the Westview situation that the old team would get back together: Romanov, Banner, Stark, Maximoff, Vision... But that might be thinking too small." Monica replied.

Over head a Quin jet took off and flew into the sky.