Thirteen
WANDA
"That was odd," Vision said.
"A little more than odd," Wanda said. Vision's eyes were fixed on the place Loki had last been. It seemed almost like Vision wanted to follow him into whatever void he'd gone.
Wanda lobbed a ball of energy at the spot. Nothing was there to stop it, so it went onto the lake and fizzled out on the surface of the water.
"I don't think we should have let him go like that," Wanda said. What she meant was, Vision shouldn't have let him go like that. It didn't make sense, letting someone that dangerous trapse off to who knows where to do who knows what.
"He wasn't hurting anyone," Vision said.
"Maybe not at that exact moment, but that doesn't mean he won't later," Wanda said. She turned her back because she was frustrated and angry and tears were forming in her eyes even though she didn't want them there.
"You can't punish someone for something he hasn't done," Vision said. "That's not the hero thing to do. We are still heroes, aren't we?"
"I have no idea what we are," Wanda said.
Vision came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He said, "Maybe we ought to have a cup of tea. Or, you should have a tea. I'd have one if I could. I've heard tea is very soothing."
Wanda had often wondered how Vision had gotten to be so British when he wasn't really from Britain, or from anywhere at all. The thought amused her now, just enough to pull her from the well of self-pity into which she'd begun to slip. She wiped her eyes, turned around and smiled up at Vision.
"I don't need tea," she said. "I just need to know – do you think Loki was telling the truth about there being another Mind Stone?"
Vision said, very seriously, "I do."
"Well," Wanda said, "Should we try to go find it?"
"It'd be dangerous," Vision said.
"Nothing we can't handle together," Wanda said.
"You don't even really believe it's out there, do you?"
She didn't, really, but she wouldn't take away Vision's hope. She said, "if you believe, I believe. Stranger things have happened. Besides, everyone else got to go space while we were gone. We should get to have some fun, too, right?"
Vision kissed her hand and very nearly smiled. She pulled him back, under her little dome of safety. He smiled in earnest then, in all his vibrant colors.
"First thing's first, I suppose," Vision said. "What is the Time Variance Authority, and how do we find it?"
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Wanda, deep in the throws of the multiverse, was aware that Vision was watching her. She had not often catapulted herself so far in Vision's presence; she was, on some level, embarrassed by her cosmic search of unreachable places – perhaps because of what she was usually looking for. This time, though, she was fulfilling Vision's request. And, it seemed, she was coming up empty.
"I'm not finding anything out there called the Time Variance Authority," Wanda said, snapping back out of the void, just enough to really and truly make eye contact with Vision. He looked dismayed, but also supremely curious. And… "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
"I don't think I noticed before, but you look ravishing like that."
She glanced idly at her scarlet armor. Putting it on when she worked was second nature now.
"Ravishing, huh?" Wanda said, rolling her eyes just a little.
"The crown especially suits you," Vision said.
"Thank you," Wanda said, "But it's what's supposed to be on your head that worries me."
Vision murmured, turning back to his own thoughts. He saw a lot when he looked at her, but he still could not see all she could with the assistance of Agatha's book: the workings of the universe laid bare, time layered over itself like a dozen translucent slides, and futures, or pasts, somewhere where they were never apart. The laughter of their children broke across the abyss and Wanda pulled back again.
"Loki called the Time Variance Authority a place then took it back. He said that wasn't the right way to describe it."
Wanda shook off an unsettled feeling. "If I'm not looking for a place, what am I looking for?"
"A time, maybe?" Vision suggested.
"We can't get to a time without being in a place," Wanda said.
"What about something," Vision suggested, "That exists everywhere, always."
"Are you getting philosophical on me again?"
He looked like he was considering it, then shook his head. "I mean, I don't know, can you look for something that doesn't change no matter where or when you look?"
Wanda wasn't sure if something like that could even exist, but she tried anyway, slipping back into ethereal place between all things. She closed her eyes and listened to the echoes, worlds forming, suns burning, happenings so much larger than herself – and there it was: something fuzzy and permeant around the edges.
She opened her eyes. "I think I've got it."
