Chapter 2: The Witch and her Captives
Chapter Text
999 AD
Tibet
Six Months Ago
The Ancient One sat cross legged in the middle of the stone lined courtyard of Kamar Taj, deep in a meditative trance. Around her the gentle spring breeze caused the leaves of the courtyard tree to shake and her orange robes to be ruffled. She sighed in contentment feeling at peace with herself and one with the world. 'Okay…' she said softly to herself, "let's try this".
She slowly lifted her hands up to her chest, so they hovered right before the Eye of Agamotto which hung around her neck.
She made the hand seal that unlocked the medallion and sure enough there was distinct whirring sound as the 'eye lids' of the Eye of Agamotto peeled back to reveal the emerald colored gem hidden within it.
The Time stone. One of the six infinity stones and the Sorcerer Supremes' greatest weapon against the threats to this reality. The Ancient One felt a small thrill of nervous excitement run through her as she felt the unsuppressed power it emitted. She was still new to using it, only having become Sorcerer Supreme a few months ago and thus gaining unfettered access to all powerful relics within Kamar Taj's vaults.
But so far she had quickly mastered most of the basic spells the time stone could cast such as time stop, localize time reversal and localized time acceleration. Now she felt confident enough to try something a bit more advance spells, specifically future gazing a spell pioneered by her former master Cagliostro. She briefly opened one of her eyes to skim a page of the opened Tome of Cagliostro before her.
Satisfied that she appeared be on the right track so far, she closed her eyes once more to continue the spell. She muttered the short incantation that activated the spell and channeled some magic into the eye.
For a long while nothing happened, making her worry she had made a mistake somehow. Cagliostro always did tell her this spell could be more difficult than it initially appeared. She began to move in order to restart the process for casting this spell when she was suddenly hit by a series rapid visions all at once.
The visions came at her too fast so most were undecipherable to her and it didn't help that rest of them were almost identical to each other with only the minutest of differences.
All manner of possible realities flashed through her mind, each one feeling just as real as the next. But one image in particular stood out among the others. It showed an orbital view off the earth as darkness spewed from a single point on each of Earth's continent before spreading across the earth and merging together into one thick mass. Then, red cracks began to cut across the Earth causing it to swell and eventually explode. Just before the vision ended she got a glimpse of five individuals doing something she couldn't quite make out but seemingly at the heart of this darkness. And with that the visions completely ended and she crashed back to reality, literally.
At some point during the spell she had unconsciously levitated a few feet off the grounds so coming out of her trance abruptly, had meant falling painfully onto the hard stone floor. However, her mind was still reeling from the visions to be phased by the pain of the fall. "Ancient One!" cried Wong, a young male Asian sorcerer who served as her apprentice and closes' confidant. He came from a long line of male sorcerer's who took up the name Wong and served as a loyal aides to each new generation of Sorcerer Supreme.
Still in shock, she barely felt the worried pat down she receive from Wong as he searched for any injury or bruise,
"What happened?" he questioned
"I saw a vision of the possible future" she said in a far off voice clearly still dazed. "Darkness spread across the Earth from all continents off the planet. Then the entire world was razed down to nothing. And five people were at the center of it all"
Wong frowned upon hearing all this, "How likely is this to be real?"
This finally brought the Ancient One out of her fugue state "It's just a possible reality" she admitted
"But…the outcome it foretells is too dangerous to risk happening". With that the Ancient slowly got back on to her feet. "What are you going to do? " Wong asked as he helped onto her feet.
"Stop those five individuals" she said resolutely.
Flabbergasted Wong exclaimed "But we don't even know if those five people you saw will do what you think you saw. It's just a possible future after all. Not to mention they way you describe the vision everything sounded way to vague so you don't even know who those five individuals truly are"
She began to walk away from the courtyard, seemingly ignoring Wong's protest at first.
"I actually have my suspicions on who those five might be" she said at last before marching into the interior of Kamar Taj.
1000 AD
Wenwu barely managed to contain a bored yawn as the next dignitary presented their tribute. "Seven thousands of our finest horses, eight hundred yaks, six hundred silk garments….' Wenwu began to zone out the words of the Dignitary from the Dao, as the man continued to prattle on about the gifts he had brought Wenwu.
He was one of many other dignitaries from vassal states captured by the ten rings and forced to pledged undying loyalty and respect to him. Neither Wenwu nor the dignitary were under any illusion that oath of fealty was being said or done in earnest.
It was very much just a formality to appease the common folk, scared and desperate for some semblance of peace. But those at the top knew their words here about loyalty were empty and untrue.
Things might not have changed too drastically for common folk, but the chiefs and elders who once rules already chafed under Wenwu's rule. And were eager to usurp him and regain their independence if given the slightest chance.
Arguably the Chieftain most eager to do this was ironically enough the man supposed be Wenwu's right hand Genghis Khan. A low level warlord who upon his disastrous defeat at the hands of Wenwu had managed to work his way into his good graces.
But even then he was only bidding time for an opening to take down his master, something which Wenwu was well aware of but ultimately indifferent to. For now Genghis was effective and reliable and that's all that Wenwu cared about.
Politely cleared Genghis' cleared his throat bringing Wenwu out of his day dream. This made Wenwu frown but refocus once more on the dignitary. Apparently, the man had finally finished and was awkwardly waiting for Wenwu to dismiss him and call in the next dignitary.
Wenwu sighed and dismissed the man with a careless hand wave. The dignitary bowed deeply and quickly retreated out of the large yurt which served as Wenwu's greeting hall. Wenwu began to massage his tired eyes as he begrudgingly asked Genghis "How many more of these must I endure?".
Genghis smiled sheepishly "Three hundred more I'm afraid". Wenwu swore under his breathe "Damn it, what I would give to hand over all the tedious politicking of ruler ship to you and focus on the actual conquering" Wenwu bemoaned in exasperation.
Genghis didn't say anything, afraid that he would say something that would reveal how appealing that idea sounded to him. The power he was given the better.
Instead he politely said "Let's just take this one at a time" Genghis glanced down at the parchment which listed the names of the waiting dignitaries, preparing to be call in next. He frowned at the name that followed the dignitary from Dao. No province name was listed just a title and it was quite the odd title.
He shrugged indifferently and called out "Presenting the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, the Ancient One". The flap of the yurt immediately opened and a hooded figure in orange robes strutted in like they owned the place. The figure looked around taking in the only two occupants of yurt aside from her well as taking in her surroundings such the fire lit in the centre of the yurt and the fur lined area ladened with gifts. Seemingly satisfied with what she saw, pulled down her hood to reveal her face.
Immediately, Wenwu's interest was piqued as he stared at the ambassador. He didn't recall conquering any European settlement but here was a clearly European women before him. With her tall figure, sharp features, close cropped yellow hair and a blue tattoo across one cheek, she was one of most unique females Wenwu had seen in his many years in this Earth.
"Are you Xu Wenwu, leader of the ten rings?" she asked bluntly. Genghis puffed up in irritation on behalf of Wenwu and said snidely
"Are you daft wench? Who else could he possibly be?"
Wenwu himself just quietly watched her with unsure yet what to make of her.
The woman seemed un-bothered by Khan's rudeness and began to speak
"I had to be sure. You tend to move around a lot, making you the hardest of the five to find."
Perplexed Wenwu finally spoke up "The five?"
"Yes, the five individuals I saw in my vision….I think" she said. 'You think?" Khan asked.
"Vision?" asked Wenwu instead. "So you are some sort of seer?" he said skeptically.
"Among other things" she replied.
"Enough of this, if you aren't here to present tributes, leave my presence"
Wenwu declared, his curiosity for this strange woman fading and being replaced with irritation at her vague answers.
"I'm not here to give you tributes….I'm here to capture you" she stated matter of fact.
There was a brief pause as all three occupants of the yurt fell silent, before Genghis burst into loud boisterously laughter.
"Capture him?, you truly are a daft wench?" Genghis said in between snickers. "What for?" said Wenwu sensing that for absurd as her claim was, there was something dangerous about this woman.
"I told you already, I believe you are part of five I saw in my vision" she said calmly.
"Uh huh.." Wenwu said skeptical.
"Listen here, woman" Wenwu began but he was cut off by her correcting him "Ancient One"
Wenwu scowled at that, "I'm not calling you that"
"Fine, you can call me by given name Boudicca of the Iceni. Or just Boudicca "
"Fine, listen here Boudicca.." began Wenwu "You seem to be quite confused as to who I am. I am Wenwu, leader of the ten rings and great conqueror of the East. I have decimated entire armies by myself and destroyed cities. So unless you have an army greater than any I have ever seen outside these tent walls, I highly doubt you alone will be taking me captive. But you are free to try"
He punctuated his speech by activating the five rings of metal on each his arms, causing them glow purple with power.
Instinctively, Khan scouted away from Wenwu, past trauma teaching him never to any where close to those accursed rings when powered up.
Boudicca for her part, seemed completely unimpressed by the display and merely titled her head slightly to oneside.
"I don't have an army but I am quite confident I can take you" she said without any malice just blunt honesty.
Wenwu growled at her and decided enough was enough.
He leapt into action fully intending on crush this disrespectful woman.
But before he could even reach her there was flash off orange sparks and Wenwu was sent flying into a concrete wall that wasn't there originally.
His fist clashed against the wall but instead of hitting and cracking concrete a strange orange glyph glowed briefly at the point of contact.
Wenwu quickly spun around trying to make sense of what was happening.
Gone was his yurt and it's place a damp and dark window less cell.
Three of it's enclosed walls appeared to made from thick blocks with the remaining wall was empty.
Wenwu moved to exit through that empty wall only to collide with an invisible barrier.
Confused, he tapped on this hard barrier to ensure he wasn't hallucinating. And with each touch a brief image of orange sigils appeared briefly before disappearing.
"Witchcraft" Wenwu growled in frustration before he began to angrily lash out at the cell.
Attacking every square inch of this place with his rings but to no avail.
"Don't bother" said the Boudicca as she stepped out from an orange spark lined portal. Behind her, was the Yurt and the flabbergasted Genghis.
As soon as she stepped out the portal swirled into nothingness and with it Wenwu's only possible means of escape.
"I made each these cells specifically to house each of you" she continued.
As she spoke she began to pace around the area, revealing to Wenwu his cell was just one of four others.
All five cells were ringed around a circle in which the Ancient One stood in. Each cell had the same basic design as Wenwu's, including a seemingly absent fourth wall that exposed them to view.
"What is the meaning of this" demanded Wenwu.
The Ancient One made a full lap around the area, passing by each cell before settling in front of Wenwu and looking directly at him. Wenwu couldn't help but notice the woman was an infuriating, three or more inches taller than him. Meaning she had to bend her neck down slightly to meet his gaze.
"This is a prison, housing each of greatest threats I could find on each continent"
"And I am keeping you all here so the vision I foresaw does not come to pass".
With that she turned a made circular motion with her hand, causing a new portal to spark to life which she immediately stepped through. Before the portal closed completely though she turned to say to Wenwu
"I suggest you get comfortable. You'll be here for awhile"
With that the portal vanished. Leaving Wenwu stunned and confused.
