Pitch black. Raining. The only light came from the half-concealed moon through the thick, relentless sheets of water pouring onto the European roads and turning sodden fields into swamps. So much different to the winter wonderland of San Francisco, which seemed like an age ago, although it was only two days. Or three? It had to be the early hours of the morning now.

They'd been bundled into the back of this truck, Stephen at one window, Scott at the other, Loki in the middle, with a dark screen separating them from the driver, for at least five hours, without a stop. As far as they knew, they were in the middle of nowhere. Stephen had had his face pressed against the chilled window so long he couldn't even feel the cold anymore, staring out into the darkness, watching the swampy countryside pass them, thinking about anything and nothing. The silence between the three of them was uninterrupted – they'd had too much time to talk, and there was nothing left to distract them from what had happened, and what was to happen when they made it.

Not kidnapped, of course. The combined powers of the three of them could never allow chance for that to happen. But that didn't stop Stephen from feeling like it.

Lifting his eyes to the glowing, partly concealed moon, Stephen allowed his mind to replay the events on the cliff again in his mind...

"Wanda Maximoff's come back onto the radar. And she wants to speak to you," Hope said, watching their reactions unfold hesitantly.

He'd heard Scott swear, but Stephen simply stared at her, face empty of expression aside from a small frown, as the words sank in. Wanda. Wanda Maximoff was one of their friends, a friend who'd disappeared without a trace, apparently vanished off the face of the planet. Until now, it seemed. And she'd made a squadron of soldiers disappear, and it was unclear what had happened with them. But she was willing to speak to them. Not some government. Not some Avengers representatives. Them.

And he had no clue why.

Why now? Why vanish for five months and ignore all his texts and then suddenly re-emerge in such a dramatic way?

Scott was the only one of the three that seemed to be able to find his words, for he managed to stutter out a few curse words that didn't really mean anything. But eventually he asked, "Wanda Maximoff... wait, in Sokovia? And there's energy spikes and stuff? World-destroying power? What, is she trying to make the world explode or something?"

Stephen managed to meet Loki's eye, who was looking just as shocked as he felt, a surprise in itself, because he was normally so good at concealing his emotions, and extremely pale. He was unusually pale anyway, but if possible, he looked even paler, unless it was just the light from the firework illusions, which he waved his hand to stop, and they were in darkness, aside from the moonlight, again. It was Loki's behaviour, or lack thereof, more than anything else, that assured him that whatever was happening with Wanda was something to worry about. Loki was kind of like his threat level judge – if Loki thought a situation was worth worrying about, or even remotely challenging, then Stephen automatically internally freaked out about it. And now he was looking shocked.

As the fireworks subsided, Scott noticed the way the two of them were looking – Stephen assumed he must be pulling a similar face to Loki – and said, in the most joking voice he could muster, "I feel like I've under-reacted."

"Or overreacted," Stephen offered, failing to pull off a carefree voice. He sounded weirdly strained, even to himself. Ignoring the looks Scott and even Loki gave him, he turned to Hank and Hope to request more details, but they couldn't give them much else.

"There is nothing else we know," Hank said, frowning, or maybe that was just his normal face. Stephen definitely hadn't seen him do much else other than frown. "Only that she is a magical individual of immense power, and these energy levels have the significance to be regarded as highly dangerous. Plus, the very fact that the people sent in haven't returned could suggest possible hostile intentions."

"Woah," Scott said, his eyes widening as he looked between Loki and Stephen. "Wanda's a lot of things, but there is no way she's mixed up in that. She's not the type to... I don't know, keep people hostage to get attention, or abuse her magic to blow up the universe." He looked at the two of them for reassurance, but still, neither of them seemed to be able to find words, and Scott's confidence faltered. "She wouldn't, right? Am I missing something here?"

"I don't know," Stephen confided, shrugging, which seemed way too nonchalant for how he was actually feeling, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. Really, he was just waiting for Loki to explain why he was acting weird, but he didn't seem too keen to share his thoughts either, and kept uncharacteristically quiet. "But I don't think she's capable of hurting a fly, let alone people."

Scott smiled, convinced by his words, but Loki just smiled bitterly and shook his head, then spoke for the first time. "Oh, honestly, I don't think any of us fully know what Wanda's capable of," he said, somewhat darkly, and Stephen got the feeling he was missing something – and from the look on the others' faces, he wasn't the only one who felt like that – but Loki didn't seem in the mood for elaboration.

Then it had been an awkward goodbye for Scott and his family (Stephen felt sorry for Cassie – the way her face fell when he said they were leaving for goodness knows how long was sad, even for him) and, despite all his and Loki's complaints, the government agent dudes still insisted that, no, you're not using a portal, no, you're not using teleportation powers, no, it doesn't matter how much faster it will be, you're not going any other way apart from the official, approved transportation they had organised that would take them quite safely without the aid of magic.

This broke them both out of their shocked states anyway. Both Loki and Stephen hated the idea of spending a couple of days travelling – both of them could travel wherever they wanted instantaneously, and neither of them could see why it was necessary, until they found out it was because they wanted to give them trackers.

This idea might have annoyed Stephen, but it actually angered Loki. He hated the idea of someone knowing where he was and tracking his every move – it made sense, with his past and just the general way he was – and they'd been about to flat-out refuse going at all until Scott became king of compromise and managed to stop things becoming a whole war.

Stephen and Scott had (reluctantly) accepted a tracker, but the deal was that Loki didn't have to have one if they did. They still had to go by the arranged transport, but Stephen eventually agreed because, no matter what the conditions were, they all desperately wanted to talk to Wanda after these months of silence. He suspected Loki had similar reasons for calming down as well.

Bless Scott and his clearheaded-ness and sensible thinking. He never let his emotions get in the way of a situation. Where would they be without him?

Back in the car, Stephen fiddled with his tracker wristband absently as he stared across the empty countryside, forehead against the frozen window. Most of this didn't make much sense to him – why people were so invested in finding out what was up with Wanda, why she had only just chosen now to make her presence known, why she only wanted to speak to them, what she wanted to speak to them about, what Hank and Hope had to do with the government agent dudes, whoever they were. The annoyingly recurring question was why they couldn't have a more comfortable car.

Stephen looked down at his watch. Just as he had thought, it was around four in the morning, so that meant it was now the 28th of December, meaning they'd been travelling to Sokovia for two full days, plus the late hours of Christmas and the early hours of today. A long time.

Like, c'mon Wanda. If you're going to disappear to a remote location, at least make it less hassle to get to. Or meet halfway.

Stephen glanced sideways at his companions, who he could just barely see in the dim moonlight. Scott had his head between the headrest and the window, and was asleep, mouth wide open, but thankfully he didn't actually snore. Next to him, Loki was definitely awake, apparently deep in thought, staring down at his hands, an unreadable expression on his face. He hadn't spoken in at least a day, but that was just because there was nothing to speak about. In fact, Stephen didn't think he himself had spoken for ages either.

He removed his head from the uncomfortable position on the window and sat up, resting against the back of the seat, realising that now he was going to ache from sitting in that position for so long. But oh well.

His movement seemed to attract Loki's attention, who looked sideways at him before looking back at his hands.

"Thought you were asleep," Loki said, his voice quiet from the disuse.

Stephen started to speak, but all that came out was a croak, so he cleared his throat. "No, just thinking."

"About what?" Loki asked, just trying to make conversation, though he kept his voice quiet as to not wake Scott.

"Nothing," Stephen shrugged, adjusting himself in the car seat to be more comfortable, stretching his legs out as much as possible. The car may have been an SUV, but it still wasn't big enough to be comfortable in. "Just all the usual."

"The usual. You mean how our Christmas was cut short from a message from a witch living off the radar in some remote mountain which could be anywhere, which we've only discovered because of Scott's girlfriend's dad who thinks she's a hostile psycho of some kind?" Loki guessed.

Spot on, like usual. "Damn, you're a good guesser," Stephen nodded.

"Nah, I was just thinking about it myself," Loki replied, relaxing against the seat like Stephen, then propping his boots up against the screen that separated them from the driver. "You know what, I think I'm starting to develop a serious dislike for cars."

"Honestly, same," Stephen said, frankly. It wasn't like he'd had many good experiences in vehicles recently. If at all. "Being stuck in this one for five hours hasn't exactly given me a new appreciation for them either."

"Wouldn't be too bad if we had Scott's van," Loki said, referring to their adventures earlier in the year. Stephen remembered it too – Scott had a big science-y themed Mercedes van they'd used in another dimensional Vegas that could shrink and fit in his pocket. It seemed like the biggest thing in the world compared to this.

"You know we could just sling portal or teleport out the car, right?" Stephen said, although he wasn't actually suggesting they do that. "They haven't even made it magic-proof."

"Nah, because you and Scott have trackers and they know I'm not going to leave you," Loki said. Stephen started nodding, then realised what a strange thing to say that was for Loki. Before he could fully dwell on the thought, though, he changed the subject. "How does he sleep while travelling?"

Stephen looked to see Loki was watching Scott, sleeping quite peacefully. He didn't think Scott had done much else on their journey – while he hadn't slept for more than half hour naps at a time (Loki hadn't managed any sleep at all), Scott seemed to spend over half the day sleeping. "Maybe he's got more magic than he lets on," he shrugged.

"Maybe," Loki mused, but he didn't say anything else. Not that there was anything else to say.

They fell into silence again. Stephen turned his head towards the window and saw his faint reflection staring back at him. Scott might not have magic, but he sure had the ability to remain calm. For that, Stephen would be forever envious. His heart must have reached 200BPM not long back, and although it had dropped dramatically since, his senses were still heightened, making him jump at every bump in the road, every slight sound from the driver in front. He could tell Loki wasn't much better. But Scott just didn't care.

For some reason, memories from the cliff came back to him again. And suddenly Stephen couldn't help but speak again. "Hey, you know when we were on the cliff... you said I don't think any of us know what Wanda's fully capable of. Why did you say it?"

He waited, but Loki didn't seem keen to answer. "Loki?"