A/N Finally it is finished!!! Thank you for all of the reads and I'm really excited for you to read this, I had hoped it would be out before Halloween but alas it is not. Enjoy none the less.

Evelyn POV

Mordo grasped me by the arm and the illusion dissipated. I shrugged off his grip and spun on him, "How?" I demanded, "How did you come to know this?"

He clasped his hands behind his back and offered me a bland expression, "I had vested interest in what had happened to Strange. Demons can travel amidst the shadows as my spies."

I gave him a guarded look, "So what do you think you can accomplish by taking the Stones then? Besides my death."

He turned his back on me opening a portal as he did so, "I have no interest in your death."

He took a step closer to the portal, "Wait," I called out, "Don't leave me in here again." The thought of being alone even amongst my enemies didn't hold a great appeal to me.

"Oh," he turned and grinned devilishly down at me, "I hadn't intended on it."

With that he stepped through the portal and once on the other side he extended a hand, "Well, are you coming?"

I looked down to his open palm. Nearly every part of me screamed not to follow, but a small part of me was eager to be rid of this cell. I pondered for a moment as I took his hand if I was getting into bed with the enemy.

Once through the portal I looked around to get a bearing on my surroundings only to find I was in an altogether foreign place. Yet it was oddly familiar. "What is this place?" I asked, my voice taking on a slightly breathless tone.

"So full of questions?" I could hear the grin on his face as I took in my surroundings.

The air smelt of sulfur and brimstone, the sky was an unearthly shade of burnt yellow, there was no sun painted in the sky, only dark black clouds of smoke smattered the horizon. The red earthen ground was dry and crumbling beneath my bare feet, and the heat of it warmed my icy toes. There were tall spires of the same umber coloured stone that ripped into the sky cutting into the smoky black clouds. A terrifying cry called out in the distance rending the air and echoing off the spires.

The flap of large leathery wings caught my attention and I spun to where the portal had just been as one of the bat-like creatures I'd previously encountered swooped down towards my head. With a surprised yelp I ducked out of the way only to be met with a deep chortling laugh from Mordo. I spun back on him to find the creature had landed on his extended arm. The ugly demon face of the creature bent towards his ear, the clicking raspy sound of its voice spoke to him in a language I had never heard before, but he nodded sagely once before the demon took off again.

"Welcome to the Demon realm my darling," he grinned, "I'm sure you have been to worse places than this."

How the hell was I going to get out of here?

Plans for an escape started to try and form in my head but I was at a complete and utter loss in how to actually do any of them. "What now?" I looked around fear another demon would come barreling from the sky down upon me.

"I rather thought you would like to have some more appropriate attire." He raised a brow looking down at the oversized t-shirt I had been wearing since I'd arrived.

Steve's t-shirt.

A shock of pain and longing for Steve shot through me, and I couldn't help but tug the t-shirt down if only an inch. Not ashamed of my body ashamed I'd momentarily forgotten my state of undress. Schooling my features I narrowed my eyes at him, "If you think you can butter me up to further your plans, you'll have another thing coming to you." Part of me wondered if he was offering me these things to ease my temper over being abducted. "I'd rather stay like this if it means I'm taking anything from you." I countered his offer.

He grinned and shook his head, "Not my intentions at all."

I continued to narrow my eyes at him as he walked away venomous words on the tip of my tongue.

He looked over his shoulder when he was about fifteen paces away, "Are you coming, or do you plan on becoming demon fetor?"

Hastily I moved forward following him, mumbling death threats under my breath the whole time. All of which he just laughed off knowing I would be taking his offer from clean clothes no matter what I said to him.

Steve POV

I followed Wong into the depths of the sanctum.

He was silent.

I was silent.

There was endless silence.

I was eager to get to Strange, eager to get some answers.

Eager to find anything I could about Evelyn.

Wong stopped outside of a grand set of doors and clasped his hands in front of himself as he turned to me, "He's in there." He gestured through the doors, "I don't know if he will be able to help you, but maybe you will be able to convince him what he is trying to do is fruitless."

My mouth was dry, and I merely nodded before I entered into the room. It was dark, lit only by the dim glowing sconces on the wall. I found Strange seated at a desk at the centre of the room surrounded by numerous ancient tombs. Candles illuminated the look of concentration on his face in an eerie flicker of fire. The room itself looked as though it was straight out of some horror film, there were books chained to shelves with complicated locks, books that lined the walls and even books in glass cases that were too fragile to touch. A lick of fear coursed through me.

"What can I do for you Captain?" Strange's voice interrupted my survey of the space.

I stepped closer as I squared my shoulders, "You know what I want Strange." I came to a stop beside the table, my eyes scanning the papers littered there. He looked up to me, his eyes were shadowed, his hair dishevelled and there was the strong scent of body odour surrounding him. He had indeed been holed up in this room since we'd last met. "You know what I want." I said again my own exhaustion hitting me like a hammer.

He sighed and placed his hands flat on the table beside the book he was studying. "I've been trying to find the answers you need." He paused wetting his lips before he continued, "The answers I need, but there are still so many that are left unanswered. Answers to questions that only Evelyn can give us."

I folded my arms across my chest and looked down at the book, the language completely foreign, "what have you found so far?" I asked.

He tipped his head towards the stack of books beside him, "There has never been a recorded case of a second set of stones, and for that matter there is very little information on any other stone except for the time stone in this library." He reached for a glass beside him and drained the last of the amber liquid, "As for what I had done, calling to the time stone, it seems like we discovered that no matter if the stone comes from another place in the multiverse, the eye of Agamotto can call to it."

I had a tough time keeping the annoyance out of my voice as I spoke my shoulders taught, "So the only answers you've been able to find are the ones we already had answers too."

He tilted his head to meet my eye irritation filtered across them, "The only other thing that I have found is that she should not be able to house a stone at all. The power of them should tear her to shreds unless she is a powerful being of some kind."

I frowned, "Could the serum have anything to do with that?" I said referring to the super soldier serum in her blood.

He paused pondering my words, "It might," he took a long-exaggerated breath, "especially if she doesn't house a complete stone..." I could practically see him thinking as he spoke.

I shook my head, "I don't think she does. The Thanos from her world was still able to use the stones. If she had a complete one, he wouldn't have been able to snap."

His face went solemn. "If that is the case..." his words trailed off.

"What?" I urged.

"I don't think she has just the time stone within her. If she did, when we called to the time stone it might not have affected her as much as it did. I think she must have shards of all of the stones within her."

My lips thinned wishing that I had pressed her for more information about what had happened in her world rather that pressing myself against her. I squeezed my eyes closed exhaustion burning brightly in my muscles.

Strange looked up to me unable to read my expression, "Did she tell you anything about the wound?"

I shook my head, "I only know what Bucky told me and he said she kept it pretty vague, but she did explain that It happened on Titan and that the wound should have killed her. No one could explain how she was still alive."

Strange chortled, "The most likely reason for that would be the stones." He paused for a moment, "I'm surprised they didn't show up on the scans." His brows came together, and his eyes seemed to come into laser focus as they pinned to my own, "Unless they did, and they kept it from her."

I swore under my breath.

"Toni Stark." I said as he continued to stare at me, "Her Toni would have kept that I secret from Evelyn, they hated each other."

I wouldn't be surprised at all.

I knew that she'd had a contemptuous relationship with the Toni Stark from her world, and with everything that she had said, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had kept it from her on purpose just to spite her.

"Damn it!" Strange suddenly shouted breaking me from my contemplation, "How the hell are we supposed to find the answers to these questions if the questions themselves are incomplete."

"I'm kicking myself for not planting a homing device on that woman.' I said with clenched teeth Strange's irritation bleeding into me.

His head shot in my direction his eyes wide, "That's it!"

Evelyn POV

I bathed and dressed in Mordo's demon palace. I wore something similar to what he did.  I found the woolen fabric endlessly itchy around my neck and I pulled at it as I stood before the full-length mirror in my room. The room Mordo had brought me to. Clothes had appeared on the bed as I had bathed in a bath that had already been poured from me when I entered the bathing room. There appeared to be no other humans in this place, other than Mordo and myself. Invisible hands delivered the things we needed as we needed them, and I had learned already not to ask any questions about them because Mordo would only offer me a silent haughty look. There was no hope in asking for any help to escape, because there appeared to be no one that I could muscle onto my side. The demons that strode about scared me shitless and I felt completely and utterly hopeless.

Time seemed to move differently here, days I soon came to realize were short and only signalled by the changing colour of the sky. The blazing yellow would swiftly turn into a deep murky purple. The room I had been given was large and not one befitting of a prisoner. It was filled with dark furniture made from a black twisting wood, the walls were a deep red and the large bed in the centre of the room loomed over me as I sat contemplating my escape.

Mordo was smart, he wouldn't leave me unattended like he had in this place if he thought there was a possibility of my escape and yet that is what he did. When he had left me in the room, he had explained that I had free reign to explore the palace but that it would be in my best interest not to wander outside of the walls. The demons outside were feral and not all of them where under his control. A shiver had slid up my spine when he had closed the door behind him, leaving me alone. Oddly I felt more like I was imprisoned then when I had been in that windowless cell.

I remained in that room for an entire day, regretting every decision that I had ever made that had gotten me here. It had been weeks since I had lain in Steve's warm embrace, and it felt like much longer than that. The fog had lifted in my mind from my encounter with James. I recalled that the pain within me had pushed me into those terrible memories of Thanos. Recalling that I had mistaken him for my enemy.

Once the deep purple had ebbed from the sky outside the window of my room, I wandered the palace in an attempt to learn my surroundings. To find an escape only the realize that the corridors were like a twisting maze. The walls were made up of the same umber coloured stone that covered the entirety of this place. The walls, the stairs and even the floors felt warm to the touch as though fire burnt within them. It was disconcerting to realize that I was perhaps imprisoned within hell itself.

After a few days I came to realize that Mordo always knew where I was within the walls of this place even if I did not and he seemed confident that I would not find anything to harbour my escape. At the end of each day, he found me to gloat and offer a meal with me to which at first, I rudely refused. I didn't trust myself not to stab him with my dinner knife only to have a horde of angry demons to come chasing after me. I merely sat with him at the large rectangular table while he smirked at me from behind his wine glass.

"Evelyn my dear," he began the second evening, "You will need to eat to maintain your strength."

I folded my arms across my chest lifting my chin in defiance.

"This is your home now," he placed his palms down on the table and though I wasn't looking in his direction I could feel the weight of his heavy gaze. "You will give in eventually."

"You think you know me?" I spat, "You're wrong Mordo, this will never be my home." My heart pinched, "no matter what evil you have planned for me, no matter what you think I can do for you. I will never let it happen."

He sighed and shook his head going back to his meal, "Would it be better if I sent you back to that cell, to slowly lose your mind?"

I grit my teeth my head snapping to his, "Oh yes, threats again, this is more like it Mordo." I slammed my hands down on the table sending my full wine glass sideways tipping the wine to spill across the table like blood. "Threats I can deal with, the attempt at civility is something else entirely."

His eyes flashed, dark whisps of demonic energy started to swirl around him, "I have yet to threaten you Thaw," he spat the moniker at me like an insult, "You will know when I do." One of the hulking demons began to materialize at his side looming over the table its black twisted horns grazing the high ceiling of the dining hall.

I swallowed thickly and sat down ashamed of the fear that coursed through me.

He smiled pleasantly when my ass hit the chair and he picked up his wine glass, "You should have given the wine a chance, it is a good vintage."

I clenched my fists on my lap for the remainder of the meal refusing to budge until after he left the room. The demon had remained, it's gaze still pinned on me from its dozens of beady black eyes.

In the days that followed I wandered as much of the grounds as I could. The palace was enormous, there were demons everywhere and for the most part after that meal they ignored my existence. The only time they seemed to notice my presence was when I came close to places that I was not permitted.

One afternoon I'd opened a heavy set of carved stone doors that revealed a room that was filled with vials and beakers, like that of some sort of mad scientists chamber. The scent emanating from the tables was off putting even with the incessant smell of sulphur that lingered in the air. There were splayed bodied of demons, the cavities of their bodies spread open, organs filling jars and dishes, as though this were an experiment left half hazarded. My feet moved over the smooth stone of the floor as I entered my eyes devouring everything I saw, hoping that I should I not find an opportunity to escape that I could at least find out what it was that he was trying to do here. No sooner than I had taken those half a dozen steps into the room, then that large black demon with beady black eyes seemed to materialize from the shadows roaring loudly in my direction. I felt that sound in my soul, my fingers and toes tingled with fear as it moved towards me with furious intent.

My heart leaped in my chest but as soon as I hastily backed out of the door it dissipated back into the shadows as though it were made of dust. My breath hitched in my chest, and I jumped an audible shriek fell from my lips when Mordo spoke from behind me. For the first time I saw anger clearly in his eyes.

"You are testing my hospitality, Evelyn." He hissed.

Trying to shake the terror filing me was proving difficult but because of this the anger within me was quick to rise, "You are the one who gave me free reign over this hellscape." I countered my voice strained.

His jaw clenched.

I continued moving away from the door and attempted to move around him trying to put as much distance between that room and myself as I could. His arm darted out grasping me around the bicep. I thought about shaking off his grasp but my fear of the demon returning proved too much to do so.

"Don't try my patience." His voice was low his dark eyes on mine.

I remained silent and after a moment he dropped his grip and strode past me and into the room I'd just exited. The doors slammed closed with a definite click of a heavy lock. Over the next few days, I found that there were a handful of other rooms where the same thing happened. The large terrifying creature would always appear rage barely contained beneath its black leather flesh as it looked upon me. I quickly learned what rooms to avoid giving them wide berth.

As time continued moved onwards, I had nearly exhausted my search of the palace, and with each day my heart fell farther and farther into my guts. Hopelessness filling me to the brim. Still each evening when the sky turned that dark purple colour, I was ushered towards an ostentatious dining hall by a small bat like demon that snapped at the back of my neck with its needle like fangs. There where I was then forced to sit with Mordo, who continued to speak endlessly to me as though I were a visitor here by choice.

By this time, my hunger had outweighed my stubbornness, and though the strange food that was placed in front of me was often grotesque looking, and bland it was the sustenance I needed to maintain my strength.

I chewed on a rubbery piece of meat that took all of the spit in my mouth with it as I swallowed when he spoke, "I've heard your explorations of my palace have been quite thorough," he said to me as he cut into the dark meat on his plate. He slipped a bit of it between his teeth and chewed thoughtfully as he observed me.

I pushed around the food on my own plate leery of eating anything else I did not recognize. I watched him carefully as he watched me and I placed my cutlery down on my plate before I spoke, "Why am I here?"

He grinned and placed another fork full of food into his mouth chewing slowly and swallowing before he replied, "We have gone over this."

"Have we?" I couldn't help the forcefulness in my voice. "I have been here for days and other than this meal, you have barely uttered more than a few dozen words to me."

He sighed, "You have what I want Evelyn, and until I find a way to remove the stones, you will just have to stay here."

I pushed my plate away and folded my arms across my chest, "You said that the stones are the only thing that's keeping me alive. How do you suppose you will find a way to remove them?" I frowned deeply rage building inside, "It's not like you have other stones to practice this with." I paused for a beat. Bells ringing in the back of my mind, "Is that what all those dissected demons are about?" I huffed sardonically, "Beings that they are all dead I suppose that doesn't bode well for me, does it?"

He put his knife and fork down roughly, the metal clanking loudly against the table. He exhaled deeply from his nostrils his eyes falling upon me his gaze pinning me to the spot. My breath caught fear that he would call his demons, the darkness in his eyes sent a chill of terror down my spine, "Perhaps I am trying to find a way for you to become complacent Evelyn," his tone was harsh, but he brushed at some invisible speck of dust on his sleeve before he spoke, his voice thoughtful, "Perhaps, the hope is you will realize there is nothing else for you to do but cooperate."

I scoffed unable to stop the words from tumbling from my lips fear of a demon or not, "That is not going to happen."

He only offered me a patient smile picking up his cutlery once again, "Oh, I have a feeling that once you see what I have up my sleeve you will be more than eager to comply to our wishes."

Our?

I narrowed my eyes at him, "If you want me to cooperate, maybe you should be completely transparent Mordo."

He grinned, "What is the fun in that?"

I pushed my chair back and stood from my place at the table it dragged harshly against the floor, "I'm not hungry," I had truly lost any appetite I may have had worry now coursing through my veins like acid.

"Goodnight Evelyn," he cooed, "Sleep well."

I all but ran from the room, unable to quell the dread that rose up within me.

I made it back to my room but found that anxious dread filled me.

"...eager to comply to our wishes..."

Up until this point Mordo had always spoken of his plans, nothing that had ever spoken of anyone else's.

Who could this other be?

I paced the length of my room, the little food that I had eaten boiled in my guts like acid. I had to discover his plans, I had to discover who this other was. My mind leaped. Could he be working with Thanos, could that be why he was so invested in the stones?

Invested in me.

I paused my pacing and stood before the window looking out upon the demon scape beyond. I had never felt so hopeless, not even when I had been under Hydra's thumb. At least then I had known all of the players. I had known what was expected of me. Now...

Now I felt like I was moments away from having the proverbial rug ripped out from beneath me. There was no way that I would let that happen. I knew Mordo needed me alive, or at least that's what he had intoned in his words. He needed me compliant.

I however needed to figure out what exactly he needed me to comply to.

I laid down upon the luxurious coverings of my bed listening to the noises that surrounded me. The palace was quiet, but the noises from beyond were chilling. The terrifying call of beasts beyond the walls were endless when the sky was the dank purple colour. The stone walls muffled most of the noise but often in the night I would be woken from sleep by the cacophony of cries beyond.

I waited, waited until the darkest hour of night to sneak from my room and back down to the Laboratory I had discovered. Perhaps with Mordo asleep the demons would be too, perhaps they would not be defending his secrets. It was the barest hope that I clung to that I could discover something, anything that would give me the answers I so deeply desired.

I opened my door a crack and slipped into the darkened corridor dressing in nothing but my nightgown and bare feet. I retraced my steps my feet padding noiselessly against the cool floor finding the path I'd taken earlier to find the Laboratory. The twisting cavernous corridors were like a maze and for a moment I felt hopeless that I wouldn't find it. But I did stumble down the dark hall to stop before the heavy familiar stone doors.

I pressed myself into the wall just beyond the entrance when I saw that there was golden light that peaked from beneath the doors. The room was not empty.

Thankful for the enhanced hearing I held my breath and listened to what I heard beyond.

"The subject had expired after testing," Mordo's tone was stern, it sounded as though he were annotating his discoveries, "Upon first inspection, the power was still maintained within the crystals but once extraction began, they quickly lost all resonance." Something slammed down heavily, and I heard a cry of frustration leave his lips. For a moment I was taken aback because I'd never heard anything other than calm arrogance leave his lips.

I pressed myself further back into the shadows hoping I would stay that way for as long as possible before I was discovered. There was the earth-shattering sound of glass filling my ears with a cacophony of ear-splitting noise. Mordo loosed a loud cry of frustration as a yet even louder crash filled the room. It sounded as though he had toppled one of the large metal work tables sending everything upon it crashing to the ground.

There was a light feminine laugh that made my brows pull together, but Mordo's loud tone interrupted any words from the other person in the room, "I don't want to hear any I told you so's!" His voice was filled with menacing rage.

I stepped closer to the door hoping that I might catch a glimpse of his visitor through the small crack between the two large doors. I cursed myself when my foot knocked into the door in my haste to see what lay beyond the entryway. The door rattled on the hinges making everything in the surrounding area to still, myself included. Holding my breath, I began to move, afraid I might not make it back into the shadows.

No noise stained the air, except for my near silent breathing.  My heart thudded so loudly that I was certain it echoed off the stone walls and back into my ears.

Slow like the tendrils of smoke I felt the dark power fill the corridor and I took a slow step back from the door. The black smoke-like substance erupted from the spaces around the double doors replacing the space where the light had previously shone. Darting for me like a viper the smoke coiled swift and tight around my arms and legs. Another thicker tendril wrapped solidly around my waist and held me fast. The acrid smell of sulphur and brimstone filled my nostrils, and I felt the body of the enormous demon turn corporeal behind me. Lumps and spikes and dozens upon dozens of eyes surrounding me large black wings filling the corridor. In less than a blink of an eye I felt my body being slammed into the wall of the passage, my cheek bruised at the sudden brutal connection to the stone.  My breath huffed from my chest painfully as the demon held me there a phantom hand pressing my face further into the rough stone and holding it there.

The smooth words that melted off of Mordo's lips sank into my flesh with dread, "I have been nothing but hospitable Mrs.Rogers." His tone was filled with condemnation, "Is this how you repay that hospitality, hmm?" He stepped close to my side barring any view of the room I might have had when he exited.

Somehow, I managed to spit on his boots my eyes never leaving his. I had the pleasure of seeing his rage for an instant before he smoothed his features, "Good night, Evelyn." He purred a cruel look painted upon his features before pain shot through me and everything went dark.

It had been a week, an entire week since the incident outside of Mordo's lab and he had mostly left me to my own after that. A surprising tactic since I had woken in the morning with a large black bruise on my cheek and a hollowness in my head that made my stomach twist whenever I attempted to stand. It left me another week alone amongst my enemy, but at least I knew where I stood. I was a guest in his palace so as long as I didn't bend the unspoken rules he had laid out before me.

Do not go where you are not welcome.

Do not disobey me.

Do not attempt an escape.

I was not his guest but a prisoner with a prettier prison.

There was nothing I could do to save myself and that pissed me off more than anything, I was no damsel in distress, I never was. Each night however continued on the same way. We would dine together on what I could only imagine was demon fodder and he taunted me with his secrets, my body shaking with either rage or fear by the time I'd push myself back from the table and retire to my room.

A beautiful prison that was meant to give me a false sense of freedom.

On the seventh day partway through the afternoon after forcing myself to leave my room, dressed in the black clothing he'd offered to me. I slid to soft leather boots onto my feet and slipped from my room. I found exploring the palace came in moments that became few and far between. Whether it be fear of running into a demon or Mordo I couldn't say for sure. However, the days that had passed after the demon bound me outside of his labs, I had become increasingly more and more curious about the feminine laugh I'd heard.

Who else was being kept here?

Who had become close enough to Mordo that he shared his private lab?

With my mind a flurry as I wandered, I suddenly found myself in a part of the palace that I did not recognize. Turning around on my heel I huffed a dark laugh when I noticed a statue carved in smooth black stone of none other than Mordo himself.

I walked up to it letting my fingers skate over the smooth coldness of the stone. Although it was an awful thing it was carved beautifully. It was easily twice my size, over the top and completely grandiose. It was perfectly Karl Mordo, arrogant, self-fulfilling, egomaniacal and narcissistic. As I studied the statue my eyes caught on something that was hidden in the shadows behind it. I pulled my brows together and squeezed my body into the small space between the statue and the wall. I gasped when I seemingly passed through the stone wall and stumbled into a hidden corridor. A whoosh of magic smacked me in the face stealing my breath. I blinked at the sensation, the scent of amber and sandalwood assaulting my nose.  I pulled my lips between my teeth the smell so familiar, yet I could not place it.  I stood dusting myself off and through the solid black door opposite the magical wall. 

It was quiet and I waited for that large black demon to appear from the shadows, but nothing came.

The room that opened up beyond the hidden door had shelves lining every wall, all of which were filled with books and scrolls. The books were written in every language, yet despite being able to read some of the titles I could make no sense of any of them. The pages were filled with diagrams and pictures, depicting what I could only assume were spells and demonology. I expected the books of spells had been collected from various realms by Mordo, but I could not figure out why they were hidden or why no demon had appeared to warn me away. Some of the books expelled the feeling of terror and altogether wrongness and I was leery of even brushing my fingers against them. They caused an awful dread to slip up my spine. The room was large, and very dusty, as though it had been a significant amount of time since anyone had been here, and the more I moved through the room, the more curious I became. It was like an unknown force was moving me foreword because the dread within me certainly grew but I could not stop one foot from moving in front of the other.  I stumbled quite literally across a table that was only about ten inches off the floor, three books littered its surface only one of them open.

I blinked.

I recognized this book.

Strange carried this book with him wherever he went. I didn't know what it was called, but it was the same book that had the Seraphim shield spell he had taught me. My heart galloped in my chest. I fell to my knees before the table the dust from the floor clinging to my pants. I flipped through the pages trying to decipher anything that I could find that might be able to help me.

Could Strange have been here?

Had he survived the last attack with Thanos?

Was he captured and taken here as well.

I turned back to the book eager to find what might be hidden amongst the pages.

Most of the book was written in a language that no matter which way a flipped the book, didn't look much like words. However, it was the notations in the columns that saved me the headache of trying to decipher it.

They were in Strange's handwriting.

I flipped through the book carefully, mindful of the fragile pages. There was a section of the book were I found that the parchment seemed to be stuck together. I ran my fingers along the edges of the paper hoping to pry them apart, my heart throbbing like a drum. Something in me telling me what I needed to know what was held within these pages. Urging me forward, ushering me to hurry like there was not much time.

How did Mordo get this book?

Had he taken it from Strange?

Had he found it after he had been destroyed? Had he seen him die?

Had he even died or was he brought here like I was?

A sharp sting of pain shot through me. I had cut myself, a paper cut from the thick yellowed parchment of the pages. Blood immediately bloomed to the surface, but before I even had the opportunity to cry out and pull my finger into my mouth the pages began to hum. My pulse raced faster. My blood stained the parchment, a glow emanated from the pages as the book itself seemed to warm beneath my fingers.

I could almost feel the sensation of relief emanate off of the book almost as though it were alive and when I flipped the newly released pages a letter slid from between them.

Power resonated in my ears as it fell into my lap.

Hastily I grasped the paper and unfolded the page with shaky hands. It was written in Stephen Strange's beautiful spidery scrawl.

Evelyn,

I hope this letter finds you eventually and though I wish I had the time for a sincere apology I know you wouldn't want to hear it.  When you find this, I know you will be in the hands of the enemy and that there is nothing that I can physically do to help you right now. So, I bound this book to you. Your blood as you may have already guessed is the key. I showed you what I could while I was with you in our world and though I did tell you that we would be coming with you through the portal I knew that was a lie. However, I did always know that it would not be the last time you heard from me. 

It is true that I saw only one ending in which we could defeat Thanos and also very true that we were unable to do so. You know this better than anyone, We failed. I have however found a way to rid our universe of our enemy completely and in order to do so we had to send you to the other Universe.

I had always been vague about how I came back to you and Steve after the snap, and I fear that I don't have the time to explain it to you now. Just know that everything has been leading up to this moment.  In the pages of this book, you will find your way to escape. I need you to draw the spell from the pages that I slipped this letter. Draw it on your body in blood and it will take you back to where you need to be. Once you have escaped find my counterpart and give him this book. Only then will you learn everything.

Evelyn, be safe, you are in more danger than you could possibly imagine.

-Doctor Stephen Strange.

The words Hurry were emblazoned on the bottom of the page underlined at least three times.

I turned my attention back to the book finding a complex spell drawn upon one entire page, a note from Strange scrawled in the corner. My heart thundered as my mine erupted with a thousand questions.

Use blood.

Taking my lip between my teeth I did just as he had instructed, ripping at the flesh of my finger that had just healed from the paper cut. Even if this was a trap there was a small chance that it may not be, and I would take it if it meant my escape. Somehow Stephen had seen that I would need his help and he had thought enough to leave these instructions for me.

Who was I to question a Sorcerer, especially one that had already seen this outcome.

The process was painstaking, and though I tried to rush I needed to be careful that I did not make any mistakes, it could mean the difference from my escape or my final doom. I had rolled up my sleeve and began drawing the spell onto my forearm. I had to repeatedly reopen the wound on my finger because it kept healing. The flesh there was tender, and the pain was becoming more and more unbearable the more I had to tear at the skin there. I tried to be as meticulous as possible remembering Stephen's instructions all that time ago, but I was unable to push aside the tingle of dread that slid down my spine that was urging me to hurry.

I feared that at any moment Mordo would come to find me.

That a demon would find me.

That I would not be able to finish the spell before I was caught and thrown into a cell.

Unfortunately, my fears soon became reality.

There was only one mark left to draw upon my flesh when the heavy hidden door to the library slammed open and a furious Mordo entered two hulking black demons at his back, their eyes like obsidian gateways, drenching me in cold fear. Yet it was Mordo's infuriated eyes that pulsed fear into me like nothing else.

"Stop!" he shouted. His eyes falling to the mark on my arm then to the book I had tucked under it as soon as the door swung back. They went wide with realization, and he rushed towards me, the demons in tow.

"Sorry," I nodded to him my face set in grim determination, "I've got somewhere to be." I closed my eyes tucking the book and the letter under my arm and braced for impact as I placed the last mark upon my flesh. The ground beneath my feet lurched and I felt like the entire world was pressing in on me and pulling me apart lol at the same time.

I couldn't see.

Endless dark.

I couldn't hear.

Endless silence.

I couldn't breathe.

Endless, just completely endless nothing.

Just when I thought that I would pass out from lack of oxygen the world was solid again beneath my feet. I took a gasping breath filling my greedy lungs. I stumbled. I held the book within my shaking hands and turned my eyes scanning the room in hopes to decipher where the hell I was.

I spun, my breath stuttering in my chest and in an instant, I launched myself forward. Warm welcoming arms wrapped around me.

"Evie?" James's voice was incredulous, "How?"

I looked up at him and before he could even say another word, I pressed my mouth to his, drowning his questions with my lips. I had never recalled being so happy to see someone in my entire life, everything in the past weeks had made very little sense, it was like living in some sort of nightmare, and strangely my escape, seemed nearly too easy. Yet to see James again made me throw all caution to the wind and as soon as his mouth fell on mine returning my kiss, I knew I was truly back home.

Bucky POV

Steve and Strange had left me alone in the entryway of the sanctum for what felt like ages and after some time I had been led by a stoic male into another room. I was surrounded by glass display cases filled with all sorts of oddities. None of which could keep my attention because all I could think about was Evelyn, making sure she was safe, bringing her home. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms and tell her that I loved her, that I really did love her with the entirety of my black heart. I wanted to tell her that I didn't care if she loved Steve, I didn't care as long as she could say that she loved me too.

I grit my teeth. This was taking too long.

It had been like this for going on two weeks, we would come here day after day and Steve would follow strange up those stairs and they would disappear for hours, and every day Steve would come down those stairs with an even bleaker look on his face then he had the day before. I'd never seen him so singleminded on anything since we were kids, and he was trying to enlist into the army. It was bordering on an obsession but how the hell was I to judge anyone on that.

I was obsessed too.

I found myself like I did every day, leaning against the wall giving me vantage over the entire room, and whoever might enter the wide doors. I didn't trust these wizards not to be up to something.

I had to have been standing alone in that room like a statue for at least an hour or more before the air in the room seemed to compress around itself. My chest felt like it was caving in then with a great cracking snap a body appeared from nowhere, a portal sparking open and closing just as quickly.

First appearances I knew it was female that had fallen from the vibrant swirl of magic, and I thought it was one of the many wizards that roamed the halls of this place, but her clothes were different, too different to be one of the wizards here. They were all black rather than the bright shades of red and blue that the others wore, and I planted my feet ready for an attack. When she pulled herself to her feet and swung around at the noise of my movement all the air was stolen from my lungs.

Evelyn.

My eyes were wide, unbelieving, I must be still in my bed dreaming of her return.

I was frozen to the spot afraid if I moved the mirage would disappear.

She moved to me, and I could see the tears that had built in the corners of her eyes before she buried her face into my shoulder and I held on fast, "Evie." I whispered the words barely wrangled out of my throat. I had never been so relieved in my life, and I could feel my own rampant emotion warring itself up in my chest, "How?" I managed in a strangled tone.

Rather than answering she pressed her lips against mine and I knew that everything would be right again now that she was here.

She was here with me.

She was in my arms.

And I would never let her out of my sight ever, ever again.

I would follow her into the toilet if I had to. There was no way I would let anything happen to her ever again.

I wrapped myself completely around her, touching and tasting everywhere unbelieving that I was seeing and feeling her in front of me. The gentle quiet sobs that erupted from her as she kissed me back fervently. It broke my heart when I felt her sob into my mouth, and I wanted nothing more than to hold her and protect her from whatever it was that had happened.

She smelt of spicy incense, sulphur, and brimstone. An odd combination.

Evelyn pulled back and her eyes met with mine and I couldn't help but reaching down to cup her face in my hands, her flesh felt sticky with sweat, but she tilted her head into my touch, "James." My name left her lips in a reverent whisper, and I felt my blood rushing through my veins properly for the first time since she'd left "I've missed you." Her brows pulled together, "I-I have so much to tell you."

I shook my head, "I wanted nothing more than to make sure that you came back to us." I licked my lips, they felt dry all of the sudden, so did my mouth, "Just give me a second to look at you," I let my thumb run over her bottom lip freeing it as she had taken it between her teeth when I spoke, "Let me touch you to make sure you are really here." Her breath hitched and her chest rose and fell rapidly at my words.

Just like mine.

I let my metal arm wrap around her waist and pull her closer to me. Every part of her pressed so tightly against me, molded against me like that was where she was meant to be.

Because she was.

Her hands were fisted at my chest, and she had the fabric of my shirt there balled within her grip. Her head was tipped up to keep her eyes on mine but let my own eyes trial all over her devouring every part of her to know that she was truly here, to check if anything was different. To see if she had been hurt.

She had dark shadows beneath her eyes, she must not have been sleeping, but who was I kidding neither was I. The shadow of a bruise across her cheek, yellow barely there but I knew it, I'd had my share of bruises in the past. My heart clenched, "Where were you?" I asked tipping her face to mine and bending my face closer to hers. I let my lips brush over her own as I spoke, "We have been looking everywhere." My eyes didn't leave hers.

She spoke into my lips, her eyes falling from mine, her dark lashes fanned prettily across her cheeks, "Mordo took me to the demon realm."

I pulled back a bit my brows shooting nearly to my hairline in surprise, "What?"

She turned her head resting against my chest as she spoke, "The demon realm." She said it again making my anger and hatred for Mordo grow tenfold. I'd never heard of the place before her, but if it was like any hell, I could imagine I feared for what might have happened there. She continued speaking, "the same place we had seen before when he had sent the demons after me."

My muscles spasmed eager to fight for her because I didn't feel like we had not done enough, like I had done enough. I pressed her into me just holding her close when her body went rigid, and she cried out.

I stepped back still holding her in my grasp afraid I might have held her too tight. Her eyes were pinched closed, and her back arched in pain.

"Evie, what's going on are you ok?".

No this was something different.

She shook her head unable to speak because the intensity of the pain that coursed through her.

Her hand went to my metal arm to brace herself, to keep from falling to her knees. "I- I- have to move." She said and I followed her as she staggered out of the room leaning heavily onto me.

Evelyn POV

The pain shot through me like a bullet, tearing open wells of agony within me. It was like there was a string tied around my heart urging me forward   I was afraid that if I didn't move my heart might be torn from my chest. What was this now? I had only returned and again I was met with that familiar all incumbent pain.

"James," I grasped at my chest clawing the burning ache beneath my breast, "I need to move." I staggered from the room my legs felt like jelly and I hoped against all hope that I was not being lead right back to Mordo and this was some trick. That the spell that was still singed into my forearm beneath my clothes wasn't some sort of trap rather than my key to freedom.

I stumbled over my feet a few more times before James swept me up in his arms, "tell me which way to go Evie," he said his voice was strained and it boomed from his chest with command. One that I didn't want to disobey, even were I not in agony.

I lifted my arm weakly and pointed to the direction I needed him to go rather than speaking it because I feared that should I open my mouth a scream or vomit or both would escape rather than words. Pressing his lips tightly together he followed my directions. The sorcerers that passed us flashed us alarmed looks but didn't do anything to stop us. Up and up, we moved, further and further into the sanctuary we moved, and I found the further we moved the closer we came to where I needed to be the more the pained ebbed within me.

"Hurry," I choked out as another rush of pain stabbed through me, this pain more urgent than before. My eyes watered and it was hard to breathe. We arrived as a set of heavy wooden doors and without a second thought James kicked the doors open and we entered the room.

There was a sharp inhale when we entered and the pain suddenly stopped as swiftly as it came on and I gasped with relief. My hands and feet tingled with the sudden ease of pain my head curled into James's shoulder as I took a shaking breath. He held me close to his chest and angry words hissed from his lips, a tone I wasn't sure I'd heard in a very, very long time.  "I should have fucking known."

I looked up tilting my chin to peer at him then following his gaze. There I found Steve and Doctor Strange standing over a glowing Eye of Agamotto.