No-One But You (The Mystic Consultant) - Part 1
Chapter 43: By The Way (Part 3)
In order for us to get going on wrapping up the story, let's do a headcount. Tony, Steve, Natasha, and Bucky were busy chatting over the rooftops of Brooklyn.
Victor Strange decided to leave Ezekiel's house after a while. He didn't respond to Barton's text message at that point either, and he decided to return to his old bedroom in Greenwich Village.
Victor snuck into the Sanctorum unnoticed, luckily, because he wasn't in the mood for any of Wong's shit. His brother Stephen was navigating his family issues over in the Dark Dimension.
Victor didn't know anything about that tho. His mind was focused on what Ezekiel told him, and the message that he received from his friendly roommate.
Field "agent" Clint Barton simply wrote that he didn't think he was horrible. His text message was pretty brief.
[Don't be sorry, and you're not horrible.]
Victor tried to hold out and ignore the message entirely. Ezekiel's dismissive behavior changed his mood, and his grand plan also made the baby Strange alter what he wanted to do for the rest of the evening.
He sent the archer a response, but it took him a while. Victor wasn't sure where he was going with the message, but the impulse to throw the phone arrived as soon as the message was sent.
Clint Barton was back in his room at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Natasha tried to talk to him before she left, but the archer didn't say much.
He had a pile of laundry to organise, but Clint tried to sleep more than anything. His plan wasn't working out, because the baby archer had too much on his mind.
He looked at his phone for no specific reason, and he was pretty surprised to eventually see a message.
He looked it over a few times. Victor apologized for not responding right away. The words were negative again, and they seemed a little down.
[Sorry again. It took me a year to respond. Staying at the Sanctorum for a while. I officially suck.]
The message confused his friendly roommate right off the bat. He wasn't sure why Victor told him that he was staying at the Sanctorum.
Also, the way his message was written began to affect Clint, but he didn't know how to respond. The archer didn't agree with what Victor said about himself at the end of the message, but he was unable to come up with a response.
Wasn't he with Ezekiel again?
Clint started thinking about how Victor's smug boyfriend was supposedly back in the picture again. He felt bothered about it, so he turned his phone off instead.
The archer rolled over where he was. The bed was small and uncomfortable. Also the rooms that they had at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base were dull, terrible, and they had horrible lighting.
No complaining tho. The archer gave a short sigh then he quickly closed his eyes. He was trying his best to get some sleep, while the final person in the headcount opened up the door to a dark home.
Ezekiel didn't say anything after Victor left. His quiet world seemed to change for him after the two of them went their separate ways.
Ezekiel changed his clothes as Victor disappeared. He didn't do anything about it either, and he finally allowed Nick Fury to enter the home.
The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. told a handful of agents to enter the house that belonged to Ezekiel's father. It was off the grid, but packed with some useful information.
The White Jackal did share that house with Victor Strange, but distractions like that needed to come to an end. He tried to be in a relationship with him, and turn what they had into some sort of home.
One can only try, but the truth came out pretty quickly. Ezekiel realized that he couldn't manage. He couldn't live there.
He could still smell the cigars where he stood in that moment, and it always brought him back...
The Jackal finally let the agents that worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. collect whatever they wanted from the house. They even searched his father's old car. It was a beige Mercedes. Parked out front.
Ezekiel watched it all from outside the home. He waited silently until Fury told him that they got everything that they needed. Those words meant that Ezekiel was clear to do something that he had been wanting to do for a long time.
Fire was very purifying, and he felt ready to say goodbye to his father. Ezekiel torched the home, and he watched it burn. He knew that burning the house down was going to be hard for Victor to understand, but ultimately Ezekiel felt nothing.
Nick Fury started thinking that Ezekiel was standing a bit too close to the flames. He touched his shoulder gently, but that "Jackal" hardly responded.
He just kept staring at the house. The flames were roaring up toward the roof, and the smoke
started stretching up toward the moon. He felt better about it, after a short while.
"I'll have to burn myself as well. Figuratively speaking.."
It all had to go. He stepped back from the burning home, then he started following Nick Fury back to one of the vehicles.
He didn't feel paraded around any longer. Normally Ezekiel would have been handcuffed, and escorted around like a chained dog.
The mere notion of that was insulting. The Jackal gave the burning house one final look, and then he quietly moved on.
Chapter: END
Thanks for reading.