Hello everybody! Once again, I must apologize for being late on my update this past week but I was on a little vacation and couldn't find the time to write any good content. So as we dive into the last month of this year, I think I'll also be trying to wind up this fanfic as well. I'm always looking for advice and suggestions on what you guys would like to see next, but I'm thinking of going back to Ghostbusters next. But working on this story has also been fun working with the Avengers so...ideas anyone? :)
"We've made it personal now…" Dan said from my left as I literally almost heaved up what little I had eaten since arriving at the Sanctum.
"Cull Obsidian was just defeated upstairs," Grayson reported from behind us. I turned quickly along with Wong to see that the dark haired sorcerer was covered in what looked like black blood, having just conjured a portal from up on the second story by the library. "But there is no sign of Thanos yet."
"We must finish off Proxima Midnight and then maybe he will make his appearance." Wong said simply, turning back to face the sunken hallway across the room from us. I stared at Grayson for a moment longer, taking in the vengeful look in his eyes as he nodded at Wong's comment. He noticed me looking at him and he turned away quickly, making a show of dissolving his portal and cracking his hands in preparation for yet another battle.
"Finish her off? Who could've survived that?" Peter asked, gesturing at the warped wooden doorframe. As soon as he spoke there was a sharp crack that sounded from it.
"She's not human, remember?" I answered him sarcastically.
"Don't know how I could forget…" Peter trailed off, and I noticed that his masked white eyes drifted down towards her brother's arm on the ground at our feet. I tore my own gaze away from the gross chunk of tentacle and body parts, conjuring up my golden dagger-tipped shields in preparation for Proxima Midnight's reemergence. If we had taken down Corvus Glaive so easily, maybe his sister wouldn't be much more difficult.
"Now, Alex I want you to listen to me." Wong said, turning to me with a sincere look on his face. "The real threat is not with her. Thanos is coming."
"Yeah, I know…" I started but he flashed me a look that made me shut up abruptly.
"I'm going to trust that whatever bit of himself that Strange entrusted to you will allow us to see this through. What do you feel we should do?" Wong said. I stared at him in disbelief.
"You're…you're asking me?"
Wong's face was instantly cynical once again as he shook his head. Then he stopped and closed his eyes as if he were listening to something. Another crack reverberated from the wall across the room in front of us and I could visibly see the wood splintering as Proxima Midnight tried to break out of her warped prison.
"I got that!" Peter shouted as he leapt forward and shot enormous amounts of synthetic web to hold the wood together.
"Should we run? Should we fight? What do we do, Alex?" Dan asked when Wong stayed in his meditative stance for another few seconds. I looked past him and around at the large mansion's foyer, destroyed from its natural elegance with a gaping hole where the front window had been. I looked for the place where we had left Casey struggling for her last breaths but she was no longer there. Glass, wood and bits of ruined carpets were strewn about and the twisted, disgusting bodies of the alien dog-beasts were piled up among the rest of the debris. There were only about half a dozen sorcerers left with enough energy to help back us up, the rest had either been transported back to one of the other Sanctums for healing or moved to safeguard other damaged parts of the building that might allow entrance to Thanos.
"Alexander?"
I looked up as Wong's use of my full name brought me to my senses. I closed my eyes to the room around me, knowing that Peter had the doorway in front of us literally covered for the moment.
I attempted one last time to push my mind outward in search of an answer for Wong. Some insight that sounded like nothing I myself would come up with at random. I felt my hand slowly wrap protectively around the Time Stone where I had replaced it around my neck and its heat somehow sapped the panic rising within me.
"We don't have time for this…" I heard Grayson's voice mutter from where he stood beside Wong.
Keeping my eyes closed, I took my hand off of the golden pendant and moved my hands into position to unlock the Eye. As I opened my eyes slowly, I found the glowing green band floating softly around my right wrist like it had before. I glanced to my right and could see that Grayson was eyeing my skeptically while beside him Wong had a hand up telling the younger sorcerer to wait. On my left stood Dan with a hopeful half smile on his face and Peter with his back to us a few feet away, watching the web-covered door across the room. The room was silent with everyone and everything frozen in the time halt I had produced.
"Alright, Midnight. Since we don't have time to really deal with you until your dad comes, let's go ahead and take care of you while I'm waiting." I said under my breath, my voice the only sound in the silent space. I moved my wrist towards the left as I faced the door and the webbing shot back across the room towards Peter, exposing the warped and cracked doorway. Rotating my wrist even further to the left, the doorway rose back into its normal position and Proxima Midnight was left standing frozen in midstride on her way down the hallway again. Her left shoulder sloped downward from where she was dragging the chunk of tentacle and Corvus Glaive's severed arm. Her triple pointed staff was in her other hand, trailing along on the already ruined floor. Her gleaming eyes were frozen over my shoulder to where the others stood waiting and she didn't see me heading straight for her.
"What's going on now? Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?"
"Don't knock it…there's no telling what they're up to out there…"
I stopped about a yard away from the statuesque Proxima Midnight as the hushed ghostly voices broke through the frozen Sanctum. I looked around and listened intently as I moved and loosened the warrior woman's fist from around her beloved weapon.
"Can you ghost people hear me?" I called when the hushed voices grew undistinguishable. There was a beat of silence as whatever spirits that resided in the Sanctum seemed to consider whether to answer me or not. When I had retrieved Proxima Midnight's triple-bladed spear from her, I turned around with it and slowly started to take it back to the small group huddled around Wong.
"We hear you, apprentice."
"Don't speak to him! If we ignore them, maybe they'll leave us alone…"
I paused on my way back across the room and turned again in the direction I had heard the response come from. I smirked in relief as I quickly thought through a plan and turned back to continue my way towards Wong, Dan and Peter.
"So…I have a favor to ask of you guys..." I said slowly to the voices once I'd reached my destination with the heavy spear. I noticed Peter's outstretched hands, frozen in the position he'd been shooting webs at the doorway. I hurriedly shoved the spear into his grasp, curling his gloved fingers around its staff so that when I restarted time again, he wouldn't drop it.
"Of us?"
I jogged back across the room towards where Proxima Midnight still stood, her face drawn down in a permanent sneer. I stopped in front of her once more, trying to consider what exactly I would do.
"Yeah…um…I'm just curious…and since you're apparently not affected by this Time Stone thingy here…would you be interested in trying to help me out? Provided you even can, that is?" I asked the voices awkwardly. When they took a long moment to respond, I felt even stupider for asking.
"Perhaps. What did you have in mind?"
"I'm not quite sure yet. I'm more of a last-second planner in case you haven't noticed." I said light-heartedly. "But I just want to know if you can see what's going on around here and if you'd be willing to help if need be."
The green band still hung suspended and glowing around my wrist and I forced it to stay frozen as I swirled a golden portal into view in the right wall of the hallway. I directed it to open up on the second floor of the building and I found that the hall upstairs was in even worse shape than I'd expected it would be.
"We may provide assistance if needed."
"And to answer your question, we can indeed sense everything that occurs in this Sanctum."
"Cool." I said absently as I stepped even closer to the frozen Proxima Midnight and moved the portal over us so that we were suddenly transported to the upper level of the mansion. Huge gaping holes riddled the hallway around me and several of the doors lining the hall had even been blown off their hinges. Scorch marks and deep gouges lined the walls and floor, where some hulking person had fought Grayson and the other sorcerers with an unfairly larger weapon in an earlier battle.
"We must warn you, apprentice, that what you're trying to do may prove difficult on your own."
"Yeah? And what is it that I'm trying to do?" I asked as I hesitantly reached out and touched Proxima Midnight's upper arm. Afraid that there would be some reaction from the alien woman, I jerked my hand away but she didn't move. "Cuz I'd really like to know."
"You're attempting to use the magic of this Sanctum against the enemy."
"And that doesn't always come without a price."
I touched the alien woman's arm once more and lifted it up to see if I could move her at all. When her right arm lifted easily, I bit my lip and looked toward the end of the hallway hopefully.
"I'm sure there's a price…but we don't really have much of a choice here…" I said quietly to the voices which sounded slightly closer. "Things seem to be going alright so far…"
"…So far."
I crossed the hallway and stopped as I passed a room where the door had been smashed in, likely from someone or something being thrown into it. I peered inside the dimly-lit room, still conscious of the green band glowing around my wrist. The antique furniture that had previously decorated the room had all but been destroyed, each chair or table or mirror scattered haphazardly on the floor in disrepair. The velvety curtains that had lined the windows of the room were shredded and the glass shattered, causing the breeze from outside the building to pull the ruined drapes out the window and back in as if the house was struggling to breathe. Part of me wanted to use the Time Stone to repair the damage done to the beautiful Sanctum, but I realized that there literally would be no point for it.
I turned to make my way out of the room, and spotted the tilted picture where it miraculously still hung on the wall of the hallway despite the destruction all around it. I gave the statue of Proxima Midnight a cautious glance before I turned my back on her to straighten the frame like Peter had done just an hour or so before. The loud click sounded and I turned towards the opposite end of the hall where the secret passage opened slowly. I breathed a quick sigh of relief, as having the time halt in place didn't seem to affect the passageway's ability to appear.
The oddly familiar sound of cannon fire sounded from somewhere behind me and I jumped as a whoosh of cool air flew past me and slammed through a closed door further down the hall. I stood frozen in place for a moment, looking hurriedly to the unmoving form of Proxima Midnight still standing intimidatingly a few feet away from me. I stared back at the door ahead of me, narrowing my gaze at it suspiciously.
"Was that…you, spirits?" I asked hopefully. I swirled another portal over Proxima Midnight and myself, teleporting us further down the hall and closer to the revealed secret passage.
"You know you're not skilled enough to make your own way out of there, apprentice."
I hesitated as the voices struck a chord in my head. I hadn't thought through my hastily put together plan this far and I glanced back down in the other direction of the hallway towards the staircase as I began to rethink. Proxima Midnight's beady eyes gleamed darkly straight ahead and I bit my lip indecisively as I threw my gaze down at the glowing green band hovering patiently on my wrist.
"Doctor Strange entrusted me…" I began, my voice breaking off as I sensed the spirits listening intently on the other side of the door to my left. I looped my right elbow with Proxima Midnight's left one, blanching at how easily her frozen limb contorted to my arm. I hesitated just outside of the waiting secret doorway, closing my eyes to try and summon some spell unknown to me that would aid me to see at least a little bit in the darkness of the passageway. "…I can do this."
"It's unwise to go alone, boy."
"Best let your friends know where you've gone..."
"I know…but this will only take a minute."
I took a deep breath and, without opening my eyes, I stepped through the doorway dragging the unmoving Proxima Midnight with me.
Two things happened at once.
The first was the small click and the retreat of the powerful burn of the Time Stone where it rested on my chest.
The second was the swift jerk of Proxima Midnight's arm away from mine and a furious kick aimed straight into my stomach.
I leapt back up to my feet, noticing that my hopeful pleading of a miraculous bestowing of night vision had indeed not happened. I could hear Proxima Midnight's confused and frantic breaths a few feet ahead of me in the darkness and I struggled to silently back away from her into the wall behind me.
"What have you done to me, human?!"
I heard her swipe forward with her powerful arms and the rush of displaced air right in front of me signaled how close to me she was. I edged further along the wall to my right, still focusing on stilling my terrified breathing and heart rate.
"You've – you've blinded me!"
I bit my lip as I carefully continued along the wall, stiffening when I reached a curve in the darkness. I heard Proxima Midnight shuffling uneasily on her feet a ways in front of me, and as I followed the wall I made a point to keep her in front of me. I glanced down to where my chest would be in the pitch blackness and I shook my head at my own stupidity. Of course the time halt would have ceased once we'd entered the secret passageway – Peter himself had been able to figure out it was warded against magic. I looked back up as Proxima Midnight's movements started to sound slightly closer.
"I don't know how you were able to do this, child, but you won't be able to perturb me that easily."
My foot caught slightly on the floor and I stumbled, trying to muffle the quiet sound I had made. Proxima Midnight made a thoughtful murmur and I heard her swiftly and quietly make her way towards me.
"Your sorcery doesn't work here, does it? I could sense the Time Stone's use and upon entering here, it was taken away. Is that why you're avoiding me, Alexander?" Her voice was taunting and edgy as she tried to provoke me into giving away my presence. I stood frozen against the wall, afraid to move, knowing that her lifetime of battle instincts would greatly outnumber my few evasive movements Wong had attempted to teach me and Dan amongst our training.
"You're right." I finally said simply from my place against the wall. I heard her dart forward and quickly sidestepped so she would hit the wall in her attack. I rushed forward carefully, keeping one hand tracing along the wall in my retreat in the darkness. I stopped after hearing her frustrated grunt as she ricocheted off the solid wall where I had previously stood. "But I've got other tricks up my sleeve…and they don't involve my amateur magic."
I heard an angered growl of acknowledgement before I felt Proxima Midnight's strong hand slam painfully into my injured shoulder from where she had silently made her way to me unexpectedly. I tried to back away like I'd planned, but her abrupt apprehension of the front of my shirt took me by surprise.
"Idiot." She breathed in my face. I cringed as I felt her drag me closer towards her. Even in the total darkness I could almost clearly picture her cold, dark eyes. I felt her other hand prod towards my chest, but in the darkness, she ended up hitting me in the gut for the second time in five minutes. Before she could think to reach higher up to my chest for the Time Stone, I hastily latched my left hand around the pendant and as silently as I could, lifted it from around my neck. Proxima Midnight felt my unexpected movement and she quickly latched her other hand on my left shoulder to still me, giving me a warning shake.
"You're scared too." I realized quietly. Her fingers tightened and my already injured shoulder burned with white hot pain as my stab wound clearly reopened under her pressure.
"I've seen far worse things than what you killed my brother with just now." She said lowly. "Do not think that you can intimidate me. Now give me the Stone, I've had enough of your stalling…"
"I don't have it, I told you." I lied calmly, my fingers curling around the dangling pendant in my palm by my side. I chanced leaning to the side slowly, feeling around hopefully with the heels of my slippered feet.
"You lie! You think I'm stupid?!" She screamed in my face once more and shoving me roughly in her fury in the direction I was leaning towards. I continued feeling around and edging along the wall as far as her hold would allow.
"…Do you really want me to answer that?" I asked, enticing her to strike me once more. This time she hit me squarely in my jaw, like she'd been able to see perfectly well in the dark. I grimaced as I stumbled backward a few more steps, and the hand she had released to deliver the blow to my face suddenly clamped firmly around my neck.
"You either give me the Stone now or I kill you." Proxima Midnight hissed, her grip tightening intensely to emphasize how very real her threat was. My windpipe was already crushed beneath her ridiculously strong grip and my eyes were watering as I raised the hand that didn't hold the Time Stone to grip her wrist where she held me.
"I know…" I choked out, my hand pawing at her arm to release me even though I knew that she wouldn't. I fumbled to keep my hold on the pendant still in my other palm, knowing that if I did drop it, we would never be able to find it in the pitch blackness of the secret passageway.
"I won't wait." She growled again warningly, her fingertips digging even further into the tendons of my neck. I winced as I felt like my head was going to split from the lack of air and tension she was causing to build up in my brain. I worked to move my mouth again to reply but my voice wouldn't come to me. The fingers of the hand by my side were rapidly losing function and I struggled to make them move like I wanted. I hurried to shove the pendant into the small pocket in my robes, not caring if the chain hung out. I was only worried about getting the Eye in the folds of the robes deep enough that it wouldn't fall out.
"Okay…" I squeaked as I raised my now-free hand to join the other one around Proxima Midnight's wrist. Upon feeling that both of my hands were empty and that she wasn't going to get the Stone that she knew I had, she twisted her wrist and I suddenly found that I was being slammed backwards several feet and onto the ground. My heart jerked painfully as the alien woman's grip shifted only slightly from around my neck, allowing me to take the shortest of breaths before she shoved her hand against my chest and held me heavily against the ground.
My head was ringing and fuzzy from colliding with the solid floor beneath me. My eyes were squeezed shut against the blackness in front of me, and I forced myself to go limp under Proxima Midnight's hold. I felt her boot slam roughly down on my left thigh and I cried out in pain as she removed her hand from around my throat and took her foot off of my leg only to kick me across the floor and into a wall opposite where we'd just been.
"T-That…was dumb…" I muttered as I struggled to inhale through the pounding of my head now that my airways were once more clear. I reached out to my side to brace against the floor so I could pull myself up to my feet and my heart skipped a beat as my hand fell through an eerily familiar space of nothingness. Proxima Midnight's boots scraped heavily and intimidatingly as she walked towards me in the darkness, knowing where I was from my choking coughs and scrambling to position myself in front of the makeshift doorway behind me.
"Oh?" Her voice rasped from just in front of me. I nodded at her through the stifling blackness in preparation as I lay crumpled on the ground in front of the doorway, hearing the long haired alien woman stop right at my feet. I held my hand over the pocket where the Time Stone still rested and kicked my foot into her left ankle to cause her to stumble off balance suddenly.
"Yeah. Because now you're going to be falling for a long time…" I muttered darkly. Proxima Midnight let out a final growl and lunged forward, her hands missing their target of my neck and instead grabbing onto the front of my robes. Before she could get a good grip of me, I aimed a double footed kick straight up into her torso and grabbed her long arms in return. I did a backwards somersault on the floor, holding on to the alien woman as tightly as I could as I flipped us both over and down into the inescapable elevator shaft behind me