The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

A tense wait

"How are you doing this?" Mack asked.

"I don't know, I was hoping to just..." she tried to think, "I just thought she'd instantly come out."

"We didn't think this through, did we?" Daisy asked.

"Not as much as we could've." Bucky shrugged.

While y/n occupied the middle of an empty room, the rest of the team ducked behind an old cluster of rocks and rubble. They needed to make sure that when agatha came out from the other universe, they'd be able to stay hidden and use their discretion as an advantage. However, that did mean that the team had to sit back and offer suggestions to the confused witch in the middle of the room.

Some of the suggestions were helpful, but most of them were useless comments from deke. They hoped that the moment they were to enter the building, y/n would be able to feel a presence or know how to call one out, but she knew nothing.

Mack and Sam - who were the leaders of their little group for the time being - were at the end of the divide. Daisy slumped against a few piled up sandbags and kept her head above the rocks, Bucky rested on his knees and leant against the rocks to make sure he'd be able to see the centre of the room whilst also having a level of secrecy, and deke slumped against the tallest of the stack.

While humming a small tune to herself, y/n spent the first few moments twirling magic around in her fingers as if it would signal agatha. She replayed memories in the palm of her hands, and sprinkled blue dust in hopes that she'd be able to feel agatha's hunger for power.

Soon - when she'd gone a while with no feeling of her presence - she decided to use slightly bigger magic. She twirled it around her arms, watching the way it snaked down her wrists and to her hands in a soft and graceful way, but stopped when she didnt feel that it was working.

"This is ridiculous." She dropped her arms and sighed.

"It might've been working." Mack told her.

"I can assure you, it wasn't." She gave him an annoyed look.

Daisy joined in, "this is okay, we can try something else."

"Like what?"

Instead of offering a suggestion, daisy went silent, and y/n sighed while getting impatient with standing in the middle of the room doing nothing. She kicked the few rocks by her feet with her boots until someone decided to give an idea, which caused her to raise her head.

"Just... offer yourself as bait." Bucky suggested from where he stood, hiding himself behind the stack of rocks.

"How does one do that, Bucky?" She sarcastically asked as she turned to him, "please, explain to me."

He shrugged and dropped back behind the rock, "It was just a suggestion."

"Are you trying to lure her?" Mack asked.

"I DONT KNOW WHAT-." She sighed deeply to calm down, "how do I lure a witch, whose stuck in another universe, back into the one shes meant to be in?"

That question left a pause. Everyone remained in silence and confusion until deke gathered the confidence to give a suggestion.

"Maybe she's not meant to be in this one."

She paused, "thank you. That's helpful."

"Alright, everyone stop stressing her out." Sam stood up and ordered. "We've got to put ideas together and think of what we can do."

"None of us are educated in this." Deke shrugged from where he leant.

"What?" Mack sighed in annoyance.

Realising that the group wanted to hear more from him, he pushed himself up and brushed the few bits of gravel and dust off of himself. "We've never dealt with something like this before, how can we just throw out ideas? There's literally endless possibilities as to what can happen."

"Where are you going with this?" Y/n asked him.

"If any one of us knows something about how to do this, it's you." He told her. "We don't have what you have."

"But I don't understand this, deke, I never learned how to rip into another universe."

"But you have the power, you'll figure it out. None of us know what it's like to hold the power you have, we can't give you suggestions."

"So what can she do?" Sam asked.

"Okay- don't put all your trust in me because this is just an idea." He warned them.

"Don't worry about that, deke, we'll never put all our trust in you." Daisy mumbled.

He sighed, "right, do you wanna hear my idea or not?"

"Yeah, guys, let's... hear him out." Y/n announced, which took everyone by surprise.

"Your powers are to do with your emotions, right?" He began while y/n listened thoroughly, "like, that's what I've heard people saying- they have some connection with your emotions. When you get angry, or sad, you get stronger."

"That's... right."

"I know it sucks, but if you just think about something that'll make you angry or sad... maybe your powers will just do the work for you. That witch wont just come here for a few blue sparkles, she'll want what you've got. If your anger makes that much power, she wont be able to resist it." He finished explaining with a shrug, "just a suggestion."

Bucky paused as he turned to everyone else, "did he just come up with a helpful idea?"

Y/n squinted at him, "yeah. He did."

"Or we could just sit and wait, whatever you guys think." He shrugged and turned away to aimlessly wander.

"Okay, he's back." Daisy sighed in relief, "i was worried we brought the wrong person along."

"Are you gonna be okay doing that, y/n?" Sam asked, "because we can find another way, you don't have to do what deke suggested."

"No, he's right." She assured him - and herself. "I mean, he's absolutely fucking stupid, but he's right. If i can make myself summon that much energy, Agatha wont have any choice but to come crawling."

"Do you know what you're gonna think of?" Bucky joined in, "it has to be enough to make you use a lot of your powers."

Once the thought entered her mind, she took a breath of preparation and nodded to them, "i think I've got that covered."