Steve frowned. “Kaecilius said that Kamar-taj—this Ancient One person—attacked you?”

“Yeah, but she’s a good guy. She just… has opinions about me.”

“I’ll come with you,” said Bucky abruptly, glancing toward Steve, who nodded back at him. “It’s the least we can do.”

I nodded gratefully, looking around. Kaecilius’s sling ring had slipped off my hand at some point during the fight, but didn’t seem to be lying on the floor anywhere. The zealots must have grabbed it when they retrieved their fellows. That was a bit disappointing—losing my ring would be absolutely devastating, so I’d hoped to snag a backup. Stepping over to where my jacket lay on the floor, I picked it up and slipped it back on before rifling through the pockets. Steve side-eyed the ring as I put it on, but said nothing.

Holding out a hand, I sent searching tendrils of red magic out of the apartment and into the central stairwell. A few moments later, Captain America’s shield and my vibranium spear floated back through the open door toward us. Steve plucked his shield out of the air with a nod of thanks, but I left the spear hovering in the air just behind me.

“Give me a moment,” I said, touching the pendant at my neck and closing my eyes.

Fixing Pietro in my mind, I called on the power of the Mind Stone to find him. Several seconds crawled by without me finding a spark matching his and, after what had just happened with Kaecilius, I began to worry that I’d somehow lost my ability to find people with the Stone completely. I concentrated, focusing in on my mental picture of Pietro and shoring it up with whatever I could. I thought about our relationship, the way we looked out for each other, even the guilt that I felt at lying to him—everything that connected us.

A thin thread came into focus in my perception, leading away from me, and I followed it. It led me to a tiny ember, barely noticeable against the mental background noise of the world, and I reached toward it hesitantly. There was a moment’s resistance before it flared up brightly in my perception, as though I’d moved past a barrier that was keeping it hidden. This was completely different to when I’d reached out to Steve.

I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but from context it seemed like the sorcerers’ anti-portal wards did also obscure them from other methods of scrying, like the Mind Stone—no additional spells required. If I hadn’t had that thread of connection with Pietro… huh. Was that the missing element that had prevented me from reaching out across space? If I had a connection to trace… Questions for later.

I pushed myself toward Pietro, projecting myself to his location, took a quick look around to get a good mental image, then retreated back to my body and opened my eyes. Recalling the place I’d just been, I fed magic into my sling ring and gestured.

Music spilled forth from the portal as I summoned it, followed closely by a series of shouts and exclamations. On the other side, Pietro had leapt to his feet from a stool in front of a long bar, behind which stood an attractive younger woman with blonde hair and heavily tanned skin, her mouth hanging open in surprise. Pietro turned back to her and said something I missed, then stepped through the gateway. I closed it behind him and he looked around, shoulders instantly tensing and his body falling into a ready stance when he noticed I wasn’t alone. Steve held up his hands nonthreateningly, and Bucky hesitantly raised a hand in a partial wave.

“Wanda? What’s going on?”

“Uh, hey. Everything’s fine. Yes, that is Captain America, but he’s cool. We’re all cool,” I looked at him, gauging his condition. “You’ve been drinking?” He didn’t seem unsteady at all, so he probably wasn’t drunk, but still, I’d have preferred him completely sober for this.

“I had a couple,” he said defensively. “You said we were safe for a while.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s fine. Look, we need to go to Kamar-taj. Kaecilius paid me a visit—that orb he gave me was some kind of tracker. He’s moved up his plans and we need to warn them.”

“After they attacked us? Why? Let them deal with it themselves.”

“Look, I’m not keen on it either but I told you what Kaecilius’s thing was, right? It’s happening too early. If he moves now, I think he’ll win unless we do something.”

Pietro didn’t look completely convinced. He looked over at Bucky, his gaze lingering on the man’s metal arm. “Who’s this guy?”

“Bucky. Captain America’s best friend from back in the day. HYDRA had him, turned him into a super soldier super assassin. He was… brainwashed? Hypnotised? I dunno how to describe it. I’m managing it for him. It’s complicated.”

“It’s not complicated at all. Your sister’s helping me,” Bucky said. “I want to help her back. Both of us do.”

“Wanda hasn’t explained everything just yet, but we do need to move,” Steve said, then looked at me. “Kaecilius said he was planning a raid, and if he thinks you’ll try to stop him he’ll move quickly.”

Pietro stared at them for a moment, then grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me over to the far side of the room. “You went to the Avengers behind my back?” he whispered accusingly—not actually quiet enough to not be heard, but Steve and Bucky very politely pretended to be paying attention to literally anything else.

“No, I… yes.”

“Unbelievable. We’re supposed to be a team. How am I supposed to look out for you if you do this the second I turn my back?”

“Your breath smells like beer.”

“Be serious.”

“Fine, but we really do need to go like… now. You can yell at me later. Stop embarrassing me in front of the super soldiers.”

Pietro let out a huff of annoyance. “Fine, but I will be yelling at you later.”

“Deal.” I turned back to the room’s other occupants. “Are you two ready to go?”

Bucky stepped forward, kneeling down, then punched the floorboards with his metal arm. His fist smashed straight through the flimsy wood and when he pulled out his hand it was holding a slim go bag. “Ready,” he affirmed. Steve just nodded.

Letting out a long sigh, I considered our destination for a moment. Opening a portal to Kathmandu, outside of the monastery proper, and knocking on the front door was least likely to put the sorcerers’ noses out of joint, but would take longer and distract attention away from the library until we could get in, if they’d even let us inside. The main courtyard, I decided, under the ancient tree growing in the corner. I focused and spun up a portal.

Bucky was closest to the mystical gateway and he visibly hesitated for a moment before stepping through, being careful to avoid the simmering red edges of the hole in space. As he moved, I realised I could tie off a portal the same way I had other effects and went ahead and did so. Huh. My mind went back to New Delhi, to the moment when Black Widow had almost inadvertently decapitated me with my own closing portal. Yeah, tying it off until we were done with it was much safer than what I’d been doing so far. Hazards of being self-taught. I wondered if Kamar-taj had safety lectures about proper positioning and use of portals.

Steve followed closely behind Bucky, then Pietro shot me another annoyed look before heading after them. Finally, I stepped through and unravelled the portal, letting it close safely behind me. The sky above Kamar-taj was dark, the edges of the monastery courtyard lit by burnished lamps. A pair of acolytes in sleeveless red robes on the opposite side, a man and a woman, were looking over at us curiously.

I hesitated, trying to decide how to proceed, as everyone looked to me for guidance. Pietro started to speak, “Where do we go? Do we just—”

He was cut off as a bell began to ring, harsh and desperate—an alarm of some kind. I sighed. Of course. The two acolytes across the courtyard perked up in surprise for a moment, then jogged out into the middle of the space, looking around. A few moments later, they were joined by several other sorcerers, hurriedly making their way out from the cluster of buildings into the central area as the bell continued to ring. We were shot a few inquisitive looks, but no one seemed overly focused on us, which was surprising.

It wasn’t until a sorcerer I vaguely recognised, a severe-looking Asian woman, bustled out of the entrance we were standing near that anyone really reacted to our presence. She did a double-take as she started past us, recoiling and hissing under her breath as she wove a pair of burning defensive mandalas. The reaction from the gathered crowd was almost immediate—as she fell into a tense martial stance others noticed and did the same, some conjuring eldritch whips, others readying staffs and other weapons.

My group mirrored the action. Steve moved slightly in front, shield raised protectively, and Bucky narrowed his profile, flexing his metal arm. I conjured wisps of red chaos magic around my hands, the spear hovering behind me lifting slightly, ready to lash out if I needed it to. Pietro was up on the balls of his feet, leaning forward slightly as he prepared to move.

Dawning looks of realisation and recognition flitted across some of the sorcerers’ faces as they fanned out in a rough semi-circle around us, muttered questions and whispers spreading through the group. I caught a fragment of a sentence “…attacked the Ancient One…” from one nearest to me and rolled my eyes.

“Stand down!” A familiar voice rang out across the courtyard and the crowd of sorcerers parted as Mordo swept through them toward us. He was wearing a thin cotton tunic rather than his full set of elaborate robes and held his relic staff loosely at the ready. An angry frown creased his face as he strode up to us, but he didn’t immediately attack, which was nice at least. “You. What are you doing here?”

“Kaecilius has betrayed you, he—”

“We know,” he interrupted.

I paused for a moment, nonplussed. “…you know?”

“Suspected,” he amended, scowling. Looking around, he sliced his arm through the air in a silencing gesture and the other sorcerers reluctantly lowered their weapons. “The library was attacked. The Ancient One, Master Kaecilius, and others are missing.”

“Oh. The alarm wasn’t because of us?”

“No.” The sorcerer eyed me, his brow furrowed, weighing something up in his mind for a moment before coming to a decision. “You’re here because you want to help. Foolish and reckless, but admirable nonetheless.” He exhaled sharply, halfway between a sigh and a huff of annoyance. “Fine. Come with me.”

He led us back through the parted crowd toward one of the main buildings, speaking to several of the gathered sorcerers in low tones as we walked. I ignored the dark looks that several of the robed practitioners shot us as we passed them, and we soon found ourselves in the monastery’s library. Dark, intricately carved wooden shelves held row after row of books and furled scrolls—most of the tomes were ancient-looking, with spines weathered by time and use, but there were a few newer-looking texts that jumped out at me as my eyes scanned the shelves. The space was much darker than a modern library would be, lit with a scattered assortment of lamps that gave it a warm, secretive atmosphere.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

We passed through the main stacks and Mordo led us down a side passage toward an open doorway where a large man in dark red robes, his head shaved, stood seemingly on guard. My face lit up as I recognised him. “Wongers! I was wondering when I’d see you.” Wong blinked at the greeting and Mordo paused, his forehead creasing slightly. Pietro shot me an odd look. “What? Everyone loves Wong.”

Wong cleared his throat and exchanged a significant glance with Mordo before nodding and letting us proceed, falling into step a pace behind the other man. The two of them led us into a room lined with books bound to hexagonal frameworks and I faltered slightly as a familiar coppery tang hit my nose. A headless corpse lay splayed on the tiles, a wide pool of blood leaking from the stump of its neck. I looked away from it, gorge slightly rising in my throat, the phantom sound of soggy meat squelching as it hit the ground in my ears.

“What happened?” Steve asked.

“It seems like you might be able to answer that question better than I can,” Mordo said, tempering his tone.

Aware of several sets of eyes on me, I slowly walked forward, trying not to look directly at the body of the unfortunate librarian. I replayed the scene at the beginning of Doctor Strange when Kaecilius had killed him in my mind—it looked like something similar had happened here, not very long ago at all. The zealots must have come here pretty much directly after fleeing Bucharest. If I’d been a bit quicker—if I hadn’t had to spend time reining in the Winter Soldier, if I hadn’t dicked around talking to Pietro—would we have arrived in time to save him? I didn’t know his name. Was he even named in the movie? Or was he just ‘Kamar-taj Librarian’? Would it be weird if I asked what his name was?

At the far end, I could see that the room opened up into an older-looking stone chamber. In the centre of it was a pedestal with a bronze amulet perched on it—the Eye of Agamotto—surrounded by three doors emblazoned with mystic sigils, leading to the sorcerers’ Sanctums around the world. My eyes focused on a book lying discarded on the floor nearby, a faint orange energy glimmering in the circular design on the cover. I stooped down and picked it up, my finger idly tracing the edge of the sorcerous sigil. I didn’t need to open the tome to know that several pages had been torn from it.

A portal sparked into existence at the far end of the room, in front of the Eye’s pedestal, and the Ancient One stepped through, golden hood lowered over her head. One long sleeve hung loose, and I could see her hand poking out of the middle of her robe, held braced against her body in a black, padded sling.

Mordo started to say something but was silenced by a shake of her head. The Sorcerer Supreme took in our presence for a few moments, then reached up with her free hand and pulled back her hood as she stepped toward us. “You’ve returned.” It was a simple statement, but her tone was frustrated.

“Uh, yeah. We came to warn you that Kaecilius was betraying you and going to raid your library,” I said lamely.

She nodded and gestured behind me, toward the body. “The sentiment is appreciated, though comes perhaps a bit too late for Master Khan.”

A tense silence stretched between us for a few moments before Steve stepped forward. “Ma’am, I’m Captain Steve Rogers. I know you’ve had some issues with Wanda in the past but we’re hoping you can see past them and let us help deal with the current situation.”

“Captain Rogers,” she said, inclined her head in acknowledgement. “While your offer is appreciated, there is nothing that you are capable of aiding us with, nor do you truly understand the nature of the person who has brought you here.”

“With respect, ma’am, I think I might have a better understanding of Wanda than you do.”

The Ancient One exhaled sharply through her nose and took several more steps toward me. I felt myself reflexively start to back away and suppressed the instinct, keeping myself firm in the face of her advance. Approaching close enough that she could reach out and touch me if she tried, the sorcerer peered into my eyes, head tilted to one side questioningly. “Who are you?”

Pietro was beside me suddenly. “You know who she is,” he said challengingly. “You knew who we were when we first came here.”

“Pietro…” Her tone softened slightly as she glanced at him. “She isn’t what you think. She—”

“Please don’t,” I said in a small voice.

She paused, assessing, then looked back at me. “Are you Wanda Maximoff?”

I blinked, the question taking me slightly off-guard. “What?”

The Ancient One continued to stare at me, her bright green eyes seeming to bore into my soul. “When we first met, I was certain that you weren’t. But I’ve seen your soul in astral form and, if you’re not, you’re doing a flawless impersonation of her.”

I started to speak, but stopped when I realised that I had no idea what to say to that. That was… huh. I hadn’t been sure that my astral form was the same thing as my ‘soul’, but the Ancient One’s words seemed to definitively confirm that that was the case. But that didn’t make any sense, did it? I wasn’t Wanda, I was someone else. I had memories from my original life. I remembered growing up, my old family, my home, my job.

But I never really thought about them anymore, did I? Why not? I had a pet cat. A sister. Parents. Why didn’t I miss them? I didn’t really feel any connection to my old name… these days, I just thought of myself as Wanda. I looked down, flexing my fingers in front of me. It didn’t feel like I was in someone else’s body. It just felt like mine.

“…what are you talking about?” Pietro asked as I went internal, his annoyance now tinged with a hint of trepidation.

“You don’t believe you’re her, at least. Or you didn’t back then.” The sorcerer prompted me but I didn’t respond—still thinking, still not really sure what to say. “You believe you’re from elsewhere, a stray from another universe. That explanation fits with the sheer damage you’ve done but, even if it is true, I don't know where you're from or how you got here. Last time we met, you said that you wanted to help people—to make things better. You understand why I can’t just take you at your word on that?” She paused again as I shot a furtive glance at Pietro. He was looking at me, a perturbed expression on his face. “All I can do is observe what you’ve done. Intended or not, you are the reason that Kaecilius has chosen this moment to act, among many other things. You’ve done immeasurable damage in an incredibly short amount of time.”

“Hold on, you can’t blame her for that,” Steve interjected. “The man was already planning on betraying you.”

“And would have done so at a time and place when a plan was in place to stop him,” she snapped back at him, frustration blooming into outright anger, her tone hard and clipped. “I have spent centuries cultivating a single thread of possibility through an incomprehensibly narrow needle. Your presence tore down all my work in a matter of days. You have no understanding of how far-reaching the consequences of your actions have been.”

“You knew about Kaecilius?” Mordo spoke up, his forehead creasing for a moment before his eyes widened in understanding. “The Eye.”

“And you didn’t do anything about it?” Bucky asked.

“Attempting to deal with Kaecilius too soon would have had disastrous consequences.”

“Wait,” Steve sounded puzzled as he glanced toward me. “You’re talking like you’ve seen the future. Wanda said that she’s seen it as well.”

The Ancient One paused for a moment, weighing her words, then sighed. “I view possibilities and tilt the scales toward favourable outcomes, interceding where necessary to ensure that the world continues on. The whole of the future cannot be seen; the branches of probability are too numerous. Whatever Wanda believes she saw, it was a possible future, not the future.”

“Maybe,” I muttered, only half paying attention. “The Eye of Agamotto has limitations.”

“And you don’t? Tell me, then, did you foresee how our initial meeting would go? Did you know that Kaecilius would shift his schedule in response to your actions?”

“…touché.”

“You appearing at Kamar-taj was never among the possibilities I had seen, not in all the times I had used the Eye. Then I looked through it the day before you arrived and the carefully balanced future I had tilted probability toward was gone completely. Billions, trillions of new possibilities were in its place, and each day I looked ahead the complexity compounded exponentially. You are a massively chaotic element and I’ve had no time to sift through everything. It would take weeks to scratch the surface. When we first met, I’d had less than a day to work with and your presence had already had several extremely dangerous consequences that demanded my attention.”

“Oh,” I said. It was all I could say, really. No wonder she’d just wanted me gone.

“If I had the time to do so, I would spend the next few months sequestered with the Eye, but I do not have that luxury. There are other matters I must attend to, thanks to you. Things more dangerous in the immediate than Kaecilius.”

“We could help, I—”

“You have already done enough. Why can’t you see that?”

Steve stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If you’re busy with other things, maybe we can at least help with Kaecilius. What did he take from the library?”

I hefted the book in my hand. “He tore out a handful of pages from this. That’s all, I think.”

“The Book of Cagliostro…” Mordo said, concern evident in his voice. “A study of time. That is an extremely advanced text, beyond the skill of any current Master bar the Ancient One to properly understand.”

“He didn’t even take the whole thing?” Bucky asked.

“He was after something in particular. A ritual,” I said quietly.

“…like a magic ritual?”

I turned my head and shot him a slightly annoyed look. “Buck, look, I know this is a lot to take in, but this is an ancient monastery full of sorcerers. Yes, a magic ritual.”

“What does the ritual do?” Steve pushed gently.

“It’ll let him contact an entity from another dimension and bargain for some of its power.” I looked toward Mordo and Wong. “Dormammu. He’ll grant him the power to fold space and matter.”

Both sorcerers reacted as I said the name, straightening up, eyes wide. Mordo let out a hiss of alarm. “Insanity. He would dare?”

“Folding space?” the Ancient One asked sharply. “Outside of the Mirror Dimension, in the real world?”

I nodded. “Yes. So can we focus on the real problem here?”

She stared at me for a moment before sighing. “What would you propose?”

“I… I don’t know,” I said. “Um. We’ve got some time. It was months before Kaecilius made another move after stealing the ritual in the timeline I saw.”

“He’ll need time to decipher and properly understand the ritual before he attempts it.”

Steve glanced between the two of us. “Okay, that’s something. How can we find him?”

It was my turn to sigh. “Steve,” I said patiently. “I don’t think you’re getting the scope of what we’re dealing with here. This morning you stepped from New York to Australia, from Australia to Romania, and from there to Nepal. How do you find someone capable of that, if they don’t want to be found? They can create portals anywhere in the world. Honestly, I have no idea where we’d even start looking.”

“Enough,” the Ancient One said, shaking her head. “This does not concern you, captain. We will wait and we will prepare. Kaecilius and his zealots are warded and cannot be located, and will stay that way until they are ready to act. Kamar‑taj will be ready for them when they do.”

“He’ll attack the Sanctums,” I offered. “His goal will be to destroy the barrier they create so that Dormammu can invade.”

Mordo made another strangled sound. “That’s his goal? He’s a madman.”

“He’s delusional. Broken. He thinks that the timelessness of the Dark Dimension, the twisted immortality that it will bring, is worth the cost of surrendering everything to Dormammu.”

“‘Life everlasting, for all mankind’. That’s what he said.” Steve quoted. “Ma’am, please. We can help.”

The Ancient One smiled tightly, a degree of annoyance still evident in her tone. “As I’ve already said: no, you can’t. I appreciate the offer, but this is not a problem the Avengers can deal with.” She turned to me and held out her hand expectantly. It took an embarrassingly long second to realise that I was still holding the Book of Cagliostro before I hastily returned it to her.

Bucky grunted. “So what, we came here for nothing?”

“I told you we shouldn’t have bothered,” Pietro muttered, still staring at me. It was hard to meet his gaze.

“Not nothing.” The Ancient One looked at me. “Wanda… please. Before anything else goes wrong.”

I set my jaw. “No.”

“Wanda…”

“Are you going to try to stop me from leaving?”

“Will you truly make me?” she asked softly.

I looked around. Mordo and Wong hadn’t made any sudden moves in response to the challenge, but I could see them leaning back slightly, ready to drop into combat stances at a moment’s notice. I wasn’t the only one that noticed, either—Steve was playing it cool, but Bucky and Pietro had visibly tensed up as well. Closing my eyes for a moment, I took a deep breath, trying to calm the spike of panic that had risen in my stomach. We’d win if it came to a fight, I felt pretty confident, but I couldn’t keep doing this again and again.

“I’m not going to make you do anything. I’ll ask you to bend the rules for me. Compromise,” I said, turning back to the Ancient One. “It wouldn’t be the first time. I can provide examples. Maybe you’d like to discuss some of the other choices you’ve made, right now, in front of everyone.” It was a bluff. Outing her dealings with Dormammu right now would completely undermine her and weaken Kamar-taj right when it needed to be strongest. I wouldn’t actually do it. I couldn’t, not with the world on the line… but she didn’t know that.

There was a moment of silence as she held my gaze. “You’re making a mistake,” she said finally. She almost sounded sad.

“Maybe. But it’s mine to make.” I glanced at Steve. “Let’s go.”

Mordo took a step toward me as I made to leave, but the Ancient One held out a hand to stop him. “We have other, more pressing matters to attend to,” she told him before her eyes flicked back to me. “This is not over.”

“I know,” I said, turning away from her.