Bloody Red ~ Avengers/Alice In Wonderland ~

3.3

Chapter Thirteen:

Emblym made a face as she picked up the strange burrito full of chicken. Everyone else plowed through the food as if it were their last day alive ― which in all fairness, it nearly was. "What. . . is shawarma again?" She asked curiously.

"Meat," Clint growled through a full mouth. Emblym nodded, and tried a bite of it. Suddenly, her stomach twisted and she realized how little she has eaten in the last few days. Deciding to follow everyone else's leads, she inhaled the food quickly. She realized how tired she was ― she was covered in sticky, alien blood which was beginning to stink. Emblym ate a few more burrito-meat sacks before leaning back to breathe.

She summoned her knife and began to twirl it in her fingers. Tony saw the shiny, red knife began to speak. "What is that?" He asked, and Emblym rose an eyebrow at him. "The knife," He clarified. "What is it made out of?"

"I dunno, supposedly the souls of the dead," Emblym shrugged. "That was what Blondie said, at least."

"'Souls of the dead'?" Tony scoffed, but Emblym ― for once ― wasn't laughing.

"Yep," She nodded, and she had also somehow caught the attention of Captain America as well.

"It's not cutting you," He commented, intrigued. Emblym glanced at the knife, the lethally sharp end was being balanced on the tip of her finger. Emblym pulled her finger away, and nodded. He was right. She never noticed that.

"Magic," Emblym grinned, wiggling her filfthy fingers.

"I thought that hat was magic," He said, raising an eyebrow.

"They're both magic," Emblym assured.

"Where did you get it from?" Bruce asked, now also invested in the conversation of interrogating Emblym.

She huffed, slightly annoyed, "It came with the voices."

They all seemed to decide that 'the voices' was not a topic they wanted to broach at the moment. Instead, Tony asked, "How is it magic?"

Emblym ― who was admittedly a bit of a diva and liked showing off ― showed her knife to Tony. Then, she tossed it across the room harmlessly. She raised her hand, calling her knife back to her and it materialized in her grip.

Tony's eyes knit together and she could see him trying to figure out how that was remotely possible. Bruce, however, looked fascinated, like a child shown a magic trick ― which, was kind of what it was.

"Her soul is tied to the blade," Thor explained. "Anyone who wields the Blade of Wonder's soul is damned."

Emblym made a face, but didn't comment on that. Despite the obvious questioned that Thor's statement drew to the table, nobody decided to ask anything. They finished their food and Tony graciously paid for it. Tony, who must have given a very generous tip, made the manager's eyes go wide and his jaw slacking.

They began to file out of the restaurant. Emblym, glanced around, her arms crossed and suddenly feeling tense. Steve came behind her, looking a bit concerened, "Is everything alright?" He asked her, and Emblym swallowed hard, but nodded.

"Just. . . thinking," Emblym murmured. She didn't know what to do now. Fury destroyed her home, killed the only people she's ever truly cared about. Her only job was to help the Loki situation, and her records would be expunged, so. . . now what? Was he going to send her back to the institute? Was she even allowed to live in society?

Emblym glanced at Thor, who was speaking with Tony. Tony was trying to make arrangements to have them picked up, and taken back to the helicarrier where they had dropped Loki off about an hour before.