Last Time on BPoT:

"Know any magic dudes or dudetts?" Tony plops down on the immaculate couch. "Xavier says his only bet is too underage."

"Jean would be."

Great, even Agent knows who this is.

"So?" he prompts, waving a hand. "Anyone?"

"Perhaps..." Phil shakes his head. "No."

"Agent?"

"I thought maybe Merlin, but it's nearly impossible to find him when you want."

"Wait...Merlin, Merlin?" Tony slumps. "Any other ancient myths I should know about? Loch Ness. Big Foot. Maritans."

"No."

"...So, no Merlin?"

"I doubt it." Phil rests his chin on his fist. "Strange is out, of course."

"Hippie."

The eyebrow of Doom turns into the Volcano of Wrath.

Tony is unrepentant (mostly). "Btw, Clint is kinda messed up from seeing Loki all freaked out."

"We talked."

"He good?"

The volcano goes back to a simmer.

Tony is unmoved (a little).

"Go research, Stark," Phil says. "I'll see if I can dig up anyone on Shield's end."

"You're a dream!"

Phil snorts.

Again, with the snorting! Tony's going to start a tally.

But for now, on to the books about unicorns and my little ponies!

And now:

It's the second time Wanda's felt the old man's presence in her mind.

The first, was when she and Pietro had naïvely allied themselves with Magneto – to repay a debt to him, Eric told them. Lies, all of it. He only wanted their power for his 'cause'. Wanda sighs. So many years lost to that madness, so many lives ended by her hands alone. It keeps her up some nights, wondering how to wash that blood off. The screams of those that begged echo forever in her memories.

Then they'd gone to worse. HYDRA. Which is probably why the old man is contacting her now. To deal with the fallout of their kidnapping Loki.

She relaxes her shields enough to let Charles Xavier in.

"Impressive," the image of a bald man says.

"What do you want?"

"Your powers."

Blunt. She likes it. "And why should I give them to you? Your cause is as bloody as Magneto's."

He winces at that. "I know you have been misused."

Understatement of the century. She and her brother have been hunted, tortured, nearly killed, and then exploited. Misused is not how she'd describe it.

"Misused," she tosses the word around in her mind. "A quaint word for so much terror."

"Please, Miss Maximoff, there is little time. I have a young man who desperately needs your aid."

"Indeed." She presses for the information locked in his mind. His shields are strong, but they drop the instant she touches them. She pulls back. No one opens their mind to a stranger like this. Charles sends out calm.

"Take it."

She retreats further.

How can this man not know that it was she and her brother who made Loki this way?

"Miss Maximoff, I know you will never trust when I say 'it will be forgiven eventually'. Perhaps not soon, perhaps not ever by some. But you are our best hope for healing Loki." The man's illusion takes a breath. "Therefore, I invite you to take this information from me."

"And should I take more than that?"

The man's smile becomes razor sharp. "I shall decide if you need whatever else you…poke at. Understand, Miss Maximoff, I give you many allowances. You've had a hard life, but I will not just let you mind-rape me. There are certain things you are not privileged to know yet."

"How convenient."

"Take it, or ask me, but stop this grandstanding."

She hesitates again, a brief blip of a second, before she reaches out.

Memories not her own, not even Charles', assault her. Centuries of loneliness with a golden brother, eons of trying to please a court that fears his power, years of battling the madness of jealousy. And then she's falling, falling onto a loud world of pain, terror, and blue. A giant telling of plans to destroy the universe, of tortures too horrible to describe when she refuses to aid him. Slowly, her mind leaves her, retreats into the black safety of her own mind, as Thanos clenches his control over him.

She blinks as it stops. "So much suffering."

And she added to it.

Unknowingly, but still she and Pietro made it worse.

"Indeed."

"I might not be able to heal all that," She shakes her mind clean of the residual horror that Loki's memories hold on her. "It is extensive."

"I have explained that even you might not be able to fix everything. Thor is…disappointed, but open to the idea."

She scoffs at that. "Open."

"Miss Maximoff…"

"Enough." She starts her journey back to the real world. "I shall be there in two days. Make sure Shield knows I will not be turning myself or my brother over to them."

"I have already spoken to Fury."

She pauses. "Thank you."

"Will Pietro be joining you?"

She grins. "As if I could stop him from a chance to annoy Clint. No, my brother will be there as well. He…dislikes leaving me alone with humans."

"Of course." Charles starts to fade. "Until Thursday, then, Miss Maximoff."

She peels open her eyes, the corners dry. Pietro is at their hotel window, his left foot rapidly tapping the floor. The smell of mildew wafts over. She rustles enough to let him know she's returned.

"You were gone a while," he says, never looking back. "Doctor Strange?"

"No, Charles." She stands. "We're needed in New York."

I'm SOOO sorry its taken this long for an update, and that it's short. I...well, to be honest, I almost died. Not kidding. I had an allergic reaction and was rushed to the hospital on Aug. 5th. But I'm better now. Got epipens and stuff. For all you who are wondering, it was cinnamon that did me in. Who'da thunk?

Anyhow, I hope you like this filler. Hopefully, my muse will hit me sooner and I'll give you a ice long update in a few weeks.