"Hey, magic dude?"

Stephen bit back a groan, slowing to a stop in the hallway with his steaming cup of coffee clutched in his hands like a lifeline.

Was five minutes of peace too much to ask…?

It had already been almost an hour since their battle was interrupted, and he was quickly losing what little time he had to work out how to fix this before Thanos snapped out of whatever stupor he was in and turned around to come after them.

And aside from arguing around Loki's incessant questions, he hadn't truly gotten to confer with Dr. Foster about the portal yet.

He couldn't afford to waste any more time with petty squabbles.

"Yes, Mister Quill…?" he asked slowly, turning around to find the man approaching him with the other Guardians trailing at his back.

"I wanted to talk to you for a minute."

"Okay," he drawled, crossing his arms over his chest and using the opportunity to take a quick swig of his coffee.

"You see, I had a thought."

"Well, I certainly do hope you didn't injure yourself in the process," Stephen muttered, aware that he really had no reason to be this caustic with the man, but unable to quite help himself.

It had been a long day.

The raccoon snickered at his comment, and the green girl did her best to hide a smirk behind her hand as she faked a cough. Star Lord, to his credit, didn't let it faze him.

"You said that you can kinda feel the witch girl on the other side of that barrier, but you aren't sure how to get in there yet, right?"

"Yes," Stephen nodded slowly, his attention piqued as Peter Quill waved his bug-looking companion to the front of the group.

"Well, Mantis here can read emotions, and she can reach out to directly touch people's minds. If we have Mantis connect to the witch girl's mind through the barrier, she can try to tell her to cut it out and bring everyone back," Peter Quill suggested.

Stephen blinked back at him for a long second over the rim of his coffee cup.

Huh.

Maybe there was a brain in his head after all...

"It's a decent idea," Strange allowed. "The only problem is that Maximoff may be on the lookout for Thanos trying to break through. Anyone she does not recognize as being friendly may be at risk of her lashing out at them."

"So then we would need to have Mantis connect to someone she recognizes as friendly on this end," Peter prompted. "Right?"

But Stephen shook his head.

"It would need to be someone who was fairly close to her, so she knew it was not a trick," he sighed. "Someone who knows enough about her that they couldn't possibly be an enemy pretending to be someone she knew. And unfortunately, it seems like she took everyone that she was close to along with her into the other world."

"Not everyone."

They all looked up at the sound of the new voice, and Strange was surprised to find Colonel Rhodes making his way down the hall towards them, the man leaning heavily on his braces.

"You were close to her?" Peter Quill asked.

The other man offered an awkward shrug as he came to a stop beside them, looking away.

"We trained together for the better portion of a year. Natasha and Steve and Sam handled most of it, but I helped run her through some flight maneuvers, and had dinner with the team a night or two every week. Out of everyone you have left, I probably know her best."

"If you were close to her, why didn't you get brought along when she took everyone else?" the green woman asked with a cautious frown.

The crippled man gave an almost guilty shrug.

"Probably cause I'm the reason she wound up at the Raft following our fight, instead of safe on the jet with Steve."

Strange tilted his head in question, and a moment later Rhody elaborated with a sigh.

"I-… I shot her in the back at the airport," he admitted. "It made her lose her concentration on her powers, and almost made her crush Steve and Barnes with some rubble she'd been holding up. She hadn't said a word to me since she and the others got back, so I'd figured she was still upset with me for that," he shrugged. "And she's probably upset with me telling Vision to shoot Sam down, as well. I'd be willing to bet that's why she didn't take me with her."

"That...is not promising," Stephen winced, remembering the way that Tony had refused to so much as call Steve with a warning after the fallout, even when the lives of half of the universe were on the line - they'd wound up having to take the phone from the man by force. "What makes you think she would not treat you as an enemy after that? That she would talk to you now, when she did not before?"

"Look...I did a lot of shit at that fight that I'm not proud of," Rhody admitted. "I made some really bad calls, and I don't blame her for being upset with me still, cause it probably hurt her the most out of all of them. But Wanda's a sweet girl, and she's not one to hold grudges. If I reach out to her, she'll reply. Especially if the others might be in danger."

"I can't work on gut feelings, Mr. Rhodes," Stephen started, but the older man was shaking his head.

"It's not a gut feeling - it's a fact. She's put shit like that behind her before. Back when she found out that Ultron was trying to destroy Sokovia, she dropped the bastard cold, and came to work with the people she blamed for her parents' death so she could stop him. She's not going to let hard feelings endanger anyone. She's not that kind of girl."

"Are you absolutely certain?" he asked the Colonel.

"Absolutely."

"Willing to bet your life on it?" Stephen pressed. "Because with her power level, if she lashes out at you, you may not survive it."

Rhody paused for a second, looking down at his feet in thought, before lifting his head to meet Strange's gaze.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am."