The trip through the tunnel of light was different this time. No circles, no memories merging back and forth, just a long straight shot. Steve didn't know where he got the idea but he knew this was about distance, not time, not reality.
They came to a full stop. He was conscious of Bucky snatching his hand away. They landed in a large room, with a high ceiling, the walls a curious color of golden brown. The color of leaves in autumn. There was no obvious source of light, but somewhere something was glowing, casting light but making no shadows, causing it to be light and dark at the same time. Something was familiar about it, something Steve couldn't place. Peter was alone.
"Captain, you made it! Are you feeling ok? I mean it's a little weird at first but I wouldn't mind doing it again, now I that I know you can live through it! So Bucky, you ok?" He asked. Steve thought Peter would start bouncing around with excitement.
Bucky was on his knees, staring at the floor. Steve went to one side, Peter the other, helped him up. Peter held onto the metal arm for longer than necessary, staring at it. Looking up, he saw Bucky's intense stare so he let go.
"I'm sorry. I've not seen your new one up close before. It's awesome!"
"Thanks," Bucky said, his face softening. "So where are we and why are we here?" He didn't wait for an answer but walked around the room, feeling the walls, staring up at the high ceiling. "There's some kind of environmental controls. Here's a vent." He knelt down to examine it and put his ear up against it. "There don't seem to be any doors."
"This is just a holding area. You, we... we 're all kind of dangerous. They asked me to come first because I'm young and they thought a young person would be less threatening…" Peter said, getting ahead of himself, as usual.
"How did you know about...where I first met Peter Parker?" Steve asked.
"They showed me. It was like a window into another world. It was cool. They said that was the only way to convince you that I was real because you would remember it. Or they hoped you would remember it because you went into that coma, like Mr. Stark which is why I went to see Doctor Strange but he wasn't there…"
"Peter, slow down."
"Sorry. So why were you fighting Mr. Stark? And Bucky looked really rough...why…"
"I don't want to talk about that right now," Steve said, making his voice sound as authoritarian as he could without snapping, his tone distracting Bucky from his reconnaissance. The thought of looking into his other life set him on edge. He'd done his best to bury it and he didn't like the idea that someone could bring it up again.
Peter was subdued for a very brief moment. "I guess all that's gone now, huh? Mr. Stark told me about it, or as much as he could before he went to sleep. Awesome story! I couldn't believe it but…" Steve held up a hand, something that Peter apparently accepted as a signal for him to focus. "Anyway, I went looking for Doctor Strange and I could swear I heard his voice and followed it...and I met these guys. They hoped that would convince you it was safe to come here. I guess it worked. They asked you two to come because you're the next step in the process, both of you."
"Process? What process?"
"Ok, I'm going to show you something, but please don't freak out. It looks worse than what it is."
With his words, a dark corner of the room became lighter to expose Bruce, Wanda, and T'Challa standing absolutely still.
"They're in a kind of suspended animation," Parker said as they walked over to them. "They didn't know how they would react so they need you, Cap, to talk to Doctor Banner and Agent Maximoff so they won't, you know, do their thing, you know, calm them down. And if you," he said, directing his attention to Bucky, "if you could do the same with T'Challa, he would listen to you, that would be great. Then they'll, the guys who brought us here, will tell you everything you need to know!'
"It sounds like they, whoever they are, have been planning this for a while if they know this much about us," Bucky said.
"Well, they have, and they haven't. Just the basics, but they're not bad people. Honest, they're not!"
As if by magic Bruce Banner blinked and looked around. "Steve," he said with the voice of someone who had just woke up. "I heard someone call my name. Bucky, Parker, what are you doing here? What is this place? Where...did we reality jump again? They didn't send us back did they?" The uncertainty in Banner's eyes was familiar.
"No, nothing like that. We've been taken on a trip, apparently by friendly aliens. We don't know why but right now, you need to stay calm. Is that clear?" Steve spoke the word slowly and deliberately as if speaking to a child.
"Friendly aliens? Who the hell do they think they are, snatching us like that..." he said as he paced around the room. The clenched fist was a bad sign.
"I don't know, Bruce, what I know is they brought me here first specifically to talk to you, so I could let you know so far, nothing's happened. You've got to stay calm..."
Banner unclenched his fist and took a deep breath. He looked around the room and then at his companions. "Spent two years on a different planet, Thanos, merging realities and now this? When's it going to end?" No one moved. Steve was half afraid Parker's mouth would start up again but for once the young man kept silent. After several long minutes of obvious internal struggle, Bruce finally spoke. "I'll be ok. You can relax. I'll be ok, Steve."
At his words, a long sigh came from Wanda and she immediately put up her hands.
"Wanda, no!" Steve's long strides took him to her side before she could do anything. "I don't know where we are or why they brought us here, but we're not in any immediate danger. Peter here assures us that the people who brought us here have no ill intentions," he said.
Wanda stared at him and then at Peter She raised one finger, and a spark came out of it, entering the young man. He stood still for a moment and then the spark returned to her hand.
"That was weird!" He exclaimed. "I didn't know you could do that!"
"Forgive me," she said. "I had to assure myself that he was real. He is, and as far as he knows, they have told him the truth, but I could not see everything. Something is being withheld..."
"White Wolf! What has happened?" T'Challa came alive. He stared around the room and almost went into one of his catlike attack poses. Bucky was beside him in an instant.
"I'm not really sure. I just took the same weird trip you did, but whoever brought us here could have killed us long before now if they wanted to. Peter tells us they need our help and, according to Wanda, he's telling the truth," Bucky said. T'Challa said nothing for a moment. He relaxed, then stood there and stared at Bucky.
"I'm not averse to giving help when needed, but I wish they had asked first," T'Challa said. Steve thought he was being amazingly calm about it.
"Forgive us," A feminine voice came from a dark corner. The whole room flooded with light and everyone except Peter took on their own unique defense posture. "It was impossible for us to ask first, as we could not travel to you. If we could have done this by some other method, we would have. This was the only way." The speaker wore a long white dress with a large gold belt. A long dark braid hung over her right shoulder. She appeared human. Behind her was a man, gold hair, who wore a white tunic of the same material with a smaller gold belt, reminding Steve of pictures he had seen of ancient Greece. They were a handsome couple. Wanda relaxed and the rest of the group followed her lead.
"Your young friend has been most...helpful," she continued. "We are not in the habit of kidnapping people but this was the only path we could take. I am speaking through a translator implant so forgive me if my answers do not come as... as they should. It is still learning." Her voice had a slight hesitating pattern to it, similar to people who had suffered minor brain injuries. "I believe my name, in your common language, would be Regina."
"Regina, Queen," Bruce said. Steve hoped to hell Bruce speaking out like that wasn't some kind of cultural no-no but Regina took no offense.
"You are correct, and this is Regulus."
"Regulus. Prince. Son of the King." Bruce added.
"Yes, He is the son of the Ruler of a nearby realm and someday that will be his kingdom but until then he is my... Prince Consort." The man nodded to them. "Who speaks for you?" She asked. "I know you have a King among you."
Steve wanted to ask how she knew that but decided now was not the time to question their captors. He and T'Challa exchanged glances.
"I do not speak for your people," T'Challa said.
Steve turned back to Regina. "I guess I do," he said.
"First, you are asking, why of all the people on your world? Why this group? You were the only ones strong enough to make the journey. Some of you have already made similar excursions."
"We were strong enough to make the journey because we are all enhanced," Wanda said. Everyone else in the group glanced around at their companions as if at that moment they realized what they had in common. Wanda moved closer to the Queen, her eyes focused hard on her. "You are not what you seem." Her voice was almost accusatory.
"You are correct. What you see before you is not our... true image. This is an illusion. We wished to present ourselves as something familiar to you. Perhaps, in time you will see us as we are."
"The people we left behind..." Steve began. "They'll worry about us...look for us…"
"As you saw, we can... put people in a state of... suspended animation. We were able... to do that to your world. Time is standing still for them. They will not suffer from your absence." Regina moved closer to them, Regulus following close behind. 'As long as we are able to control the passages, they will come to no harm. I cannot translate the name of our system to you. It is... Sacred? Sanctioned," she appeared to be fumbling for words.
"A place set apart," supplied T'Challa.
"Yes, that's it. A pace set apart. Sanctuary. Generations ago a plague-infested our system. We are isolated. Quarantined. No one can come here, but we have a window on the cosmos."
"You can see out," Bruce said. "You can't leave, but you can bring people here."
"Yes, and it was difficult. We knew the journey would be strenuous. Had we not found you, your kind, we might have given up hope of ever reaching you. After years of fruitless research, our scientists and.. wise women... were close, very close to ending the plague and then some of them, were gone. Vanished. We searched for an answer out there and saw a great disturbance. Before our eyes, we saw it happen. It must have been what took them. Then we saw another upheaval undoing the first, but it did not reach here. We searched again until we found the... origin point. Your world. We have brought you here to ask, that whatever you did, however, you brought your people back, to do it here. Bring our people back and end our suffering and our isolation."
A heavy silence fell on the group.
"What you are asking, is impossible. I wish we could help, I honestly do, but we did nothing," Steve said.
"You mean this was... natural?" Regulus asked, speaking for the first time.
"No, I mean, it was the work of Sorcerers," Steve replied. "Magic."
"Wizards?" He asked, his voice full of incredulity.
"Yeah, Mr. Stark told me. Wong and Doctor Strange, sorcerers. Wong did something that fixed things," Peter spoke up. He acted as if he would continue, but Steve held up a hand, stopping him.
Regina let out a loud cry and turned away from the group. Regulus put a hand on her shoulder. Steve recognized the look on his face. This was the look of a man used to being able to handle any situation only to discover something out of his control.
"This is distressing news, but I can tell you are being honest," he said, still trying to comfort Regina. "There have are no wizards here. No sorcerers. They used to be among us but, they left us, a long time ago. They are gone."