Stephen noted Loki was even more conscious about checking the hallways for approaching guards after that little encounter. Luckily for him, the only other interesting encounter they had was when they got to the section of the "prison" with the glass fronts and passed by one of Wanda's old friends.

Thankfully he'd never had to meet this particular friend.

Ultron.

They'd been walking past, nice and casually, trying to ignore the stares from the weird-looking robots (it was weird how many AIs existed outside of Earth) when one rapped on the glass and demanded attention. Stephen and Scott nearly jumped out of their skin (not that they'd admit it) and even Wanda and Loki looked a little startled. However, the shock just turned to confusion when Wanda started talking to the demented android.

"Hello, Ultron," Wanda said, crossing her arms and facing the AI. "Fancy seeing you here. In a Robot Heaven."

"Oh, I assure you, this place ain't a heaven," Ultron said, in a surprisingly normal voice, Stephen thought. He looked at Scott, and then at Loki (who was obviously still not actual Loki). Both just shrugged at him.

"Do you know this guy?" Loki asked, and only then did Stephen remember that he might not have known who Ultron was.

"He killed Pietro," Wanda answered, and Loki's face cleared.

"And then you killed me, and confined me to this place, so we're even," Ultron shrugged, side-eyeing Loki suspiciously before looking back to Wanda. "Why are you here anyway? You're a human. Did they send you to the wrong afterlife?" His face lit up... well, as much as a robot could. "OMG-" (yes, he said the letters) "-are you dead?"

"No," Wanda said, and Ultron's face dropped (kinda). "And we've gotta go. See you around."

Stephen and Scott looked at each other, before shrugging and following Wanda and Loki out. When they were almost out of sight of Ultron though, Wanda backtracked and asked, "Oh, and, have you seen Vision anywhere?"

Ultron's face contorted into an expression of... anger? Or maybe like he was just about to throw up. Stephen couldn't tell. "That little... what's the word..." He hit his forehead, making a loud clank with the metal upon metal. "Uh... bastions. No. Custard? A mix of the two?"

Everyone blinked. Stephen truly had no clue what the hell he was going on about.

"Do you mean bastard?" Loki offered, confused.

"Yes! Yes, that's it," Ultron grinned. "Forgot the word there." He cleared his throat and went back to a more threatening tone. "That little bastard? Nope, haven't seen him."

"OK, well, nice catching up," Wanda said, and off they continued down the next corridor. "Not nice," she mumbled.

"He seems like a prick," Scott said, matter-of-factly.

"More than a prick," Wanda muttered.

"He's a real custard then," Scott rectified, and a little laugh actually escaped Wanda's mouth. That was the first laugh.

"Yep, total custard," Wanda nodded. "But now we really need to find him."

"I'm doing my best," Loki told her, frowning. "There are over a million corridors in this place, remember?"

"No... that was just Mephisto exaggerating, right?" Scott asked, and his eyes looked very wide through his helmet's eyepieces. Loki just shrugged. "Crap."

"Well, can we at least speed up?" Wanda pleaded. After that, they did speed up somewhat, not quite jogging, but certainly speed-walking.

Though it wasn't even a single corridor later before they found him.

Stephen would've carried straight on if Loki hadn't stopped right in front of him. Wanda had stopped and walked right up to one of the glass-fronted cells, inside of which was a red and silver humanoid figure whom he vaguely recognised from photos. When he realised Wanda was at the window, he made his way over to the glass and the two of them put their hands together, with only the glass separating them.

Stephen looked away and let the two of them have their moment. It was sweet, but love was a kinda awkward topic for him. And Loki apparently, because he wasn't looking too comfortable either. Well, that was another similarity they both had.

Scott shrunk to his teeny size and jumped into the lock of Vision's door, breaking it open from the inside so the door swung open and Wanda wasted no time in hugging her husband. They didn't need to speak to one another to show how happy they both were.

Scott stood back with Stephen and Loki, then mumbled, "It's ridiculously easy to break locks in here."

"Most people who come in here can't shrink to the size of an insect," Loki pointed out.

"But still, the security here is almost non-existent," Scott muttered, concernedly. "They could practically just walk out and go back among the living. So why don't they?"

Stephen frowned in thought. That was a good point. "I suppose there's nowhere to go when they escape unless there's a visitor's ship to hijack or something."

"No, they just can't leave," Loki said, and both Stephen and Scott looked at him. He pushed his green hair out his face, which he'd been doing a lot since he'd become the emo guard guy, looking over at Wanda and Vision. "And Wanda knows this. So I'm not sure what her plan is here, exactly."

"She knows this isn't going to work, and she's still going ahead with it?" Scott asked, eyebrows raised. "Why?"

"Just said I don't know why," Loki hissed back. "But there's some kind of forcefield around the building which means, once you're admitted, you never leave. That'll probably explain why the security is shit."

And Stephen was pleased to tell himself that he didn't need to ask how, because he now knew him so well he knew it was telepathy without even asking.

It was quite weird how him and Loki had formed this kind of friendship. Back when they first met, for those thirty seconds or so all those years ago, Loki was the last person he could think of who he'd become friends with. Even Peter Parker had actually seemed like a more plausible option at the time.

Anyway, back to the present.

Wanda and Vision broke apart after a long time, with Wanda taking Vision by the hand immediately after. She really looked happy, genuinely happy, for probably the first time since they'd seen her today slash the last few days. But if she knew this wasn't going to work...

"Are we ready?" Loki asked, and everyone nodded. "Then lets get the hell out of here."

They started to speed-walk onwards through the prison, back the way they came, in silence until Vision decided to speak. "Aren't you the guard who told me I, of all of us here, would never leave this place? Because you would see to it personally?"

Loki turned his head to face him with a frown. "Wow, this guy seems like a bit of an ass." Obviously this just confused Vision (so AIs could be confused). Sensing his confusion, Loki continued, "Let's just say I'm not who I appear to be."

"Then what happened to your voice?" Vision asked, still confused, as they rounded the corner.

"He's not the guard," Wanda explained. "It's our friend Loki, in disguise. I don't believe you two have ever met?"

Loki and Vision shared a glance that Stephen couldn't quite fathom. "Not in person," Vision said, frowning.

"Huh?" asked Scott.

"I'm indirectly responsible for his existence," Loki shrugged, as the entrance which they'd come in through came into view.

"Indirectly responsible?" Scott asked, eyebrows furrowed. Then they shot up. "Oh my god, is he your kid?!"

"What? No!" Loki responded, while Stephen cracked up. "I just bought the mind stone to Midgard which was the reason Stark started to make Ultron which is where he comes in."

"Oh," Scott said, nodding slowly. "I'm somewhat relieved to hear that."

Loki rolled his eyes, then attempted to push open the door. It was locked. Using the card he'd swiped from the real guard, he scanned the card on the scanner (wow, description skills) and it clicked open. Stephen realised this might've been the first time he'd witnessed Loki open a locked door without kicking it down.

"Ah, and, uh, where are we going?" Vision asked, to change the subject.

"We're getting you out of here," Wanda smiled, tightening the grip on her husband's hand.

Vision furrowed his non-existent eyebrows, but as he opened his mouth to speak, they heard a now-familiar voice speak up, confusedly. "Cooper?" asked Kris's voice.

Stephen looked up to see Kris hunched over the real Cooper's still-unconscious body, looking up at Loki in confusion. Then, four heads turned to see Loki's reaction in unison.

"Ah," was all he said to start off with. "Well. Shit. That's my cover blown." There was a flash as he changed back into himself.

Kris's eyes widened even more, if that was possible. He fumbled for his gun. "Oh, damn, it's you!"

Loki looked like he wanted to kick himself. "Double shit. I'm a fugitive here." He pulled out his own gun and electrified Kris, knocking him unconscious, before he had the chance to do the same thing to them. "Sorry, dude. I almost feel bad about this."

Judging by the fact he had no second thoughts about taking Kris's weapon though, Stephen suspected he didn't feel that bad about it.

"I don't like this," he muttered to Loki as they walked down the weird gravity-flipping steps together.

"Don't like what?"

Stephen looked up at him, frowning. "You're taller than me again."

Loki rolled his eyes. He'd clearly been expecting something a bit more serious than that. "Oh, get over it. There's two inches between us."

"Well, I don't like it either," Scott said, joining in with the conversation, walking on his tip-toes. "You're both, like, six feet plus, and it's so unfair."

"Can't you be whatever size you want?" Loki pointed out.

"That's not the point."

"Vis?" Wanda's voice said behind them, worriedly. The three turned around. "Vis? What's wrong?"

Wanda was just behind them, but Vision hadn't even made it to the stairs yet. He wouldn't go any further.

Or couldn't...

"Wanda," Vision said, but he clearly couldn't think of anything else to say. He put his hand out to try to reach her, but seemed to be stopped by an invisible force. "I think you know I can't come with you."

"No," Wanda said, vaguely, holding her hand out too reach his. "I know you can't. I just had to try." She walked forwards then collapsed into his arms to hug him. "I just had to convince myself there was no way I could get you back, even if I tried. I'll never have you back again, but that's OK. I need to move on. But I'll visit every single day."

Stephen felt something on his cheek, and only realised after a couple of moments that it was a tear. He hurriedly wiped it off. Dammit, why was he getting emotional?