I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I have fixed Chapter 6 and 7! Thank you to the reviewer who pointed that out! Enjoy!
"I'm not gonna lie," Sam began, standing before a long flight of steps that lead up to the arched doorway of a rather unassuming tenement. "I thought this place would be a little more…"
"Mystic?" Bucky supplied, looking down at the wrinkled slip of paper he held in his hand. Sam's voice sounded as foolish as Bucky felt. He swiped a thumb over the messy text scrawled across the paper. "As far as I can tell. This should be it."
Bucky flashed the words at Sam, who shrugged. "Well, I guess there is only one way to find out."
The men fell into step beside each other, climbing steadily toward the doorway.
"Who exactly is it that lives here again?" Miranda asked from behind them.
"The Sorcerer Supreme."
Two rather astonishing things occurred simultaneously. The first was that a swirl of sparks revealed a slim girl in dark robes at the top of the steps. And the second was that Miranda tripped. Both men stopped, Bucky nearly midstep, to stare back at her. Both were at a loss for words.
"Are you...okay?" Sam asked slowly, reaching down to grasp her arm to help her to her feet. "Are you having a stroke?"
For a moment she remained there on the steps cradling her shin. Bucky could see her shoulders expand with a deep breath. Then she pushed up off the concrete steps, tearing her arm from Sam's grasp. Her face was ashen, her expression acidic. "Neither of you felt the need to share this information with me?"
"Why does it matter?" Bucky asked, descending another step closer to her.
"You told me you were following up on a lead," Miranda spat.
"This is the lead."
"Yeah," Sam chimed in. "I got talking to Bruce about the dead girl last night. He suggested we talk to Strange, since all this pentagram shit is in his wheelhouse."
Miranda retreated one step down the stairs, then another. "You guys really don't need me here then."
"You were the one that saw that thing." Bucky followed her down step for step. "You are the best one to talk to him about what you saw."
Her eyes were on the girl at the top of the stairs. When Bucky looked back over his shoulder, the dark haired girl remained still, quietly watching the scene unfold before her.
"What's wrong with you?" Sam asked, bewildered.
"Me and psychics don't really get along."
Air rushed around them and the sound of thick, heavy fabric rustled in their ears. Miranda took another step back and thumped into the chest of a man who winked into existence.
"Maybe that's because you have yet to meet me?"
Every muscle in her body grew tense, her fingers flexing at her side. "I highly doubt that."
"Dr. Strange," Sam waved a greeting from his perch on the steps above them. "Good to see you again."
Dr. Steven Strange moved slowly past Miranda, his eyes traveling down her as he passed. When he had circled around to face her, the expression on her features was dark and bitter.
"You are just going to tell me the same thing every other hack has told me before. And I'm sick of hearing it."
His eyes searched her face as though there was more written there than the rest of them could see. Bucky rocked up on his toes, curious of what the sorcerer saw there. Interacting with Miranda was like paddling around the edge of an iceberg. Each jutting, frigid spike was carefully placed to distract you from what lurked beneath the surface of the dark water. Miranda raised her chin and squared her shoulders.
But Steven said nothing to her. Instead, he turned to Bucky. Bucky blinked. Miranda had not expected to be snubbed. Her brows twitched upwards just ever so slightly, and if he had not been watching her, he would not have noticed.
"You came here with a purpose. Please, why don't we step inside and we can talk." Dr. Strange swung his hand toward the entrance in a long, smooth motion. His cape billowed down the length of his arm, emphasizing the movement.
Bucky opened his mouth to agree, and then everything slanted. His body rocked hard against its will. The ground was not beneath him, his stomach dropping to his toes, and then it was. And everything was right side again. But they were inside. He took an unsteady step. Blinking rapidly as his eyes worked to adjust to the dim lighting.
Miranda seemed to be the only one unaffected by the change of scenery. She looked far less amused than he had ever seen her. Sam groaned, sticking out his hand to grasp the railing of a wide, sweeping staircase.
"I forgot how much I hate that." He said.
"Come with me," Dr. Strange swept past them and down the hall. "Odessa, please tell Ellestrad to meet us in the library."
The girl who had appeared on the steps bowed her head to him then turned to leave. Her dark eyes slid to Miranda, holding there for a second too long, and then she disappeared into a hall to their right.
It was a pattern that Bucky noticed as they followed the sorcerer deeper and deeper into the residence. Every person they passed paused in what they were doing to watch Miranda pass, as though her presence was like a beacon in the night. Some would lean over to their companions and whisper. Each set of eyes seem to set Miranda further and further on edge.
"I am assuming you know why we are here?"
"Yes. Your intentions weigh heavy on you. It is difficult to ignore." Dr. Strange approached a set of heavy wooden doors. They opened at his approach, swinging open like servants bowing to a king. "I took the liberty of gathering some books that I thought might assist us with your inquiry."
Hundreds of volumes lined the shelves of the dim room, their spines scarred and weathered with age. They crowded the bookcases as though each volume was struggling for its domain, desperate not to be pushed from its place. Bucky reached out and ran his finger on the ridges that lined a particularly thick volume. The air felt heavy, weighted with the extent of knowledge contained in this room.
Several books were scattered over the surface of a long table. Dr. Strange moved around it, clearly searching for one in particular. The books were a variety of sizes. Some pages were stark white and fresh, while others were yellowed and torn. Some looked as though their pages had been hand cut. And some weren't even books at all, but scrolls wrapped in leather and carefully tied.
"Would you like to see the photos?" Bucky asked, offering him the folder.
Dr. Strange did not look up. He simply reached out a hand and the folder settled into his fingers. Bucky had felt little more than a breeze before looking down at his own, now empty hand. His tricks and illusions made him uncomfortable.
Sam and Miranda drifted around the table. Miranda ran her fingers across the pages of the books, her expression distant and almost...wistful. Her finger paused over one book in particular. She tilted her head in an attempt to get a better look at it. Recognition flashed across her features, and she stiffened. He watched her glance up furtively, looking toward the doctor but not noticing Bucky observing her.
The book that held her attention so raptly was rather small. It was backed in leather the color of blood. Something had been tooled into its cover, but he was too far to see exactly what. The edges of the pages had been smudged black, like they had been dipped in ink. Unease settled in his stomach, though he could not entirely say why.
"The language is most definitely demonic."
Bucky looked back at Steven. "Demonic?"
"Like as in demons? Satan?" Sam asked, skepticism plain as day in his voice.
"You walk among gods, and do not think that there might be a devil?" Dr. Strange inquired over the open book in his hand.
Miranda snorted from the corner of the table. Again, Dr. Strange settled an unnerving gaze on Miranda. She stared unblinkingly back at him. His eyes narrowed slightly. There was something of an unspoken challenge between them. A dare in her eyes. But once again, he did not speak, simply looked back at the pages of the book in his hand.
"There are similarities to the symbols in this book, in many of these books, but never exact imagery."
Sam picked up a book at the far end of the table. "The Macrocosm of Necromancy and Other Dark Arts." He looked up at them. "What the hell is all this?"
"All of these books deal with the Dark Arts," Steven explained. "A practice that has been banned for centuries. Necromancy, for example. I do not think you would argue with me as to why it is frowned upon to animate a corpse."
The flash of Miranda's smile caught Bucky's eye. She was absently flipping the pages of a thick volume across from them. While she was not giving them her full attention, she was clearly still listening.
Bucky moved to stand beside him, studying the symbols he pointed out. "You can see the similarity of the curve in this one to the symbol on her thigh. And this one." A book rose from the table, startling Miranda, and snapped across the table and into the sorcerer's open hand. "Look how much it resembles this one, but yet not quite."
"Which means what exactly?" Bucky asked.
"I think that the languages in these books here were influenced by the ones found on this woman's body. I think that what we are dealing with here is very old."
"Like centuries?" Sam asked.
"Like eons."
Sam whistled an exclamation.
"Do you think you would be able to use the fragments that you are finding in these other languages to help decipher what exactly the runes on our victim mean?" Bucky asked.
"I should think we might be able to put something together. But it will take some time. I will pull in some of my best minds to help me on this."
"We aren't even really sure if this is something to be concerned about yet." Bucky said, "I'm not sure you need to make this your top priority."
"If someone is messing around with black magic that shouldn't be, that is of great concern to us."
"Can you not see it coming?"
All eyes shifted to Miranda.
"What?" Steven asked.
"If something bad is coming, can you see it?" Miranda asked. There was a seriousness to her tone that Bucky had never heard before.
"It's hard to say. There are thousands of pathways, thousands of outcomes that hinge on the seemingly insignificant decisions of the populous. Hundreds of catastrophic events that are sidestepped by the divergence of a single person."
"So I take that as a no?" Miranda said, crossing her arms.
"It's difficult to tell which hypothetical pathway will become a certain future."
"Why would you even ask that question?" Sam asked, exasperated.
"Call it morbid curiosity," Miranda said, smirking, her typical guile falling back into place as she flipped shut the book in front of her.
"I would like to not call it anything," Sam said. "What I would really like is for people to not ask questions we don't want answers to."
Dr. Strange laughed. "Sometimes, we don't get that choice."
He lifted his hands, his fingers drawing circles in the air. The atmosphere of the room shifted, crackling with electricity. Sparks lit the dark space between two bookshelves before swirling wider. A shaft of daylight warmed the cool room. Bucky could see the common room of the Avengers complex through the portal.
"We will keep looking into this," Steven said. "I will let you know when we have anything significant."
Bucky nodded and turned to follow his companions, who had already stepped through the portal.
"Mr. Barnes."
Bucky paused, looking back. "Yes?"
"I just want to be sure you understand the company you are keeping." Dr. Strange was looking past him, over his shoulder. Bucky followed his gaze to Miranda, who stood on the other side of the portal, laughing at something Sam said.
"Who. Miranda?"
"Are you sure that is her true identity?
"She's a soldier. Vetted by SHIELD. Considering past events, I think they take recruitment pretty seriously these days."
"I see a great darkness in her. She's been touched by death in a way I've never seen."
"She served as a sniper. Credited with hundreds of kills. Anyone who ends a life carries that darkness with them."
Steven did not look away from her. Something in his face made Bucky uneasy. There was a truth the doctor was keeping from him.
"You've seen something haven't you?"
"I can't be sure of what I've seen. Without the time stone, things are far less clear." Finally, his eyes settled back on Bucky, his intensity unnerving. "Just be careful. People aren't always what they seem."