Work Text:
Peggy entering those two massive doors with a concerned look on her face is never a good sign.
“Can’t find the boss,” she says in a hurry, grabbing her shield from her seat.
Black Bolt made a point of showing his discomfort, signing, “Surely… she could not have neutralized the Professor?”
Anthony smirks in response to that.
“If she did, it’ll give us a hell of a challenge,” he shrugs. “I’m all for it myself. No one’s more powerful than an Infinity Stone, much less three . It’s been kinda boring since I’ve not been able to use them-”
“We get it,” Namor groans, “you like those things. You do realize the laws of every universe are different, right?”
“So?” Anthony says, leaning back in his chair. “Let her come. Let her face the Illuminati head on. See how she likes fighting as a woman against me.”
Monica adjusted her collar; why Charles chose this variant of Tony was still beyond her. “I… don’t think you wanna do that, Stark.”
“Monica, Blackatar,” Peggy said, putting her shield on her forearm. “You’re with me; we’re gonna go see if Charles needs our help. Anthony, Namor, you two stay here. Under no circumstances does anyone enter or leave these doors without the Professor’s or my clearance.”
“Understood, Maggie,” saluted Anthony.
Namor rolled his eyes. “We will keep the room secure until you return, Captain Carter.”
“Thank you,” Peggy nods. “Let’s go, guys.”
Captain Marvel and the King of Attilan followed Captain Carter out of the room, and the Sub-Mariner stayed behind with the billionaire.
They already didn’t like each other.
The fact that they were now forced to share a room was bad enough, not even to mention Charles’ status being a “what if?” for all they knew.
Anthony is already sick of the awkwardness.
He may not like Namor, but he dislikes boredom even more.
“What kinda movies do you like?”
Namor chuckled in response to the question. “Strong female leads are a must if I’m to watch.”
“Oh, you’d say that, wouldn’t you,” Anthony mutters with a scoff.
“Sorry my taste is too decently humane for your liking,” Namor says. “It’s bad enough you were a piece of shit before you got here. When Captain Carter got promoted to Charles’ second in command, it just made you tenfold more unbearable.”
“Oh, I’m unbearable?” Anthony asks indignantly. “Says the jackass who should’ve stayed a fish instead of deciding to give me the middle finger from across the multiverse.”
“When the Professor returns, you will be-”
Namor didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.
The right door flew off in a burst of red wind, knocking him unconscious - maybe even killing him. Anthony really doesn’t care about his status, only that the door was hella expensive and would be a bitch to replace…
“Charlie, I know you’re one for a dramatic entrance,” Anthony rolled his eyes, “but this is not-”
His breath hitched in his throat.
There she was…
The Scarlet Witch.
He was going to keep his cool.
He is going to keep his cool.
He’s going to…
Shit.
Wanda began to step forward into the room, her high heels making every noise announcing her next footstep fierce and blood-chilling. Her fingers danced, laced with red and rage… anger. Loss. Pain. Her eyes stood soulless in a cloud of scarlet; gone were the soft, tender pupils her children would look into before bedtime every night.
Have you ever heard the old saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”?
Add being a mom to that.
And then, add Wanda Maximoff to that.
“Hmm,” Anthony mutters, taking a sip of his coffee cup - the nanotech infused into his right arm kept it from trembling. “I expected more. The whole ‘evil demon queen’ shtick just isn’t doing it for me.”
“I’ve told others they would not tell me who I am,” Wanda says emotionlessly. “You are the least of them all.”
Anthony chuckles in response to that. “Coffee? I made it, can you believe it? Yeah, apparently I was asking Monica for too many cups every day. That’s just another thing she’s stopped returning…”
“Monica is sleeping right now,” Wanda says calmly.
Anthony smirks. “Wish it was next to me instead of wherever you got her laid up.”
“Blackagar Boltagon is sleeping right now,” Wanda says calmly.
That makes Anthony’s brows raise.
“Pretty sure you’re gonna have to duct tape his mouth if he’s sleeping, sweetheart,” Anthony says, awkwardly chuckling to pretend he’s not scared shitless right now. “You know he can’t-”
“Margaret Carter is sleeping right now,” Wanda says calmly.
Okay.
This woman definitely put a spell on them, or killed them.
And Anthony’s not exactly sure which one is worse.
“Look,” he says, standing up. “You’re… somewhat pretty. You seem at least half-witted. You’re decently strong… so I’ll give you a chance to walk out those doors, and leave me to do my business. Leave the hard work to the strong ones, hmm?”
Wanda tilted her head in response.
“I don’t wanna have to do this,” he mutters, the stones on his right wrist beginning to glow.
“Namor McKinzie is sleeping right now,” Wanda points out calmly.
Shit.
His entire team is absolutely dead.
“I’d almost thank you,” Anthony chuckles, trying to stave off this inevitable bloody confrontation as long as he can. “You know, he was a real pain in my-”
Wanda’s fingers slowly rise.
“Anthony Stark will be dead soon.”
Anthony knew now was the last chance he’d get.
He fires off a blast of energy from his wrist gauntlet - Wanda deflected it immediately. Like it was nothing; like it couldn’t melt a Chitauri leviathan’s armor, or pierce the skin of a mad titan.
It could.
But it couldn’t even dent the fury of the Scarlet Witch.
He shot another blast from his arc reactor, trying to give himself a second to heat up the Infinity Stones on his wrist.
Again, Wanda neutralized the attack, screaming and sending a blast of energy from her throat that sent Anthony flying through the table corner and nearly piercing his armor.
I have a bad back anyway, this isn’t healthy for me… he thought.
“Okay, playtime’s OVER!” Anthony bellows.
He charged up a beam from the Mind Stone, and shot it directly at Wanda’s heart…
She just absorbed it.
It literally encapsulated her form, cresting its golden streaks across her patterned lining of her suit. Her eyes briefly lit up with a flash of yellow, before returning to their now-set red default.
She looked at Anthony’s wrist… at the yellow gem right in between his middle knuckles.
“I want that.”
Anthony smirks. “You’d never be mentally strong enough to even hold it, much less wield it.”
And then, Wanda smirks.
Terror shoots through Anthony’s veins.
Then…
She laughs.
“I didn’t come here just to bargain with a piece of shit like you, motherfucker,” Wanda smiles.
Anthony yells out in rage, drawing his nanotech sword from thin air to finally end the witch’s reign of terror… the Illuminati wouldn’t be taken down by some crackheaded woman. No way.
Anthony Stark has faced titans, aliens, gods among men…
One witch shouldn’t have been this much of a problem in the first place.
But as he went to drive the stake through her heart…
She caught it.
Then, she broke it.
Then, she twisted it.
Then, she returned to sender.
Anthony gasps as his arc reactor shuts off instantaneously; as if his shrapnel wasn’t one of his main concerns already… but it probably wouldn’t have time to be a concern anymore.
Not since his heart’s been staked right through.
Anthony coughs, blood spilling onto his armor and Wanda’s suit. She isn’t even flinching.
“Know this,” Wanda whispers coolly into his ear. “You are the farthest thing from Tony Stark this world has ever seen…”
Anthony’s dying breath was spent pondering Wanda’s words.
He didn’t come to a conclusion.
He came down to the floor.
With a loud thud, the Iron Man of Earth-MI6007 fell to the floor.
Wanda adjusted herself.
She brushes out her skirt cloth, making sure it didn’t get wrinkled during the fight. With a soft moan, she liked her lips clean of the sweat that had trickled off of her brow and cheek, sighing contently that the ones keeping her children from her are now no longer in the way.
It was tough putting some of them to rest; even if it would be just long enough so she and Stephen’s mission could continue.
Speaking of Stephen, he came running into the room at that very moment, with Wong and America in tow…
To say he was horrified would be an understatement.
“W-Wanda…” Stephen mutters.
Wanda turns to face Stephen; she knows it’s not the blood on her shoulder that’s got him scared right now.
“He tried to hurt me,” Wanda says. “He was not Tony Stark. I did not see my leader when he uttered those… awful, horrible things.”
“Then… who was he?” asks Stephen.
Wanda shrugs. “A fake… A piece of shit.”
“Hey, language,” Stephen says.
Wanda chuckled. “Ms. Chavez is staring at a corpse right now, and you’re concerned about my language?”
“No, she’s not,” Stephen corrects. “Wong covered her eyes when we first walked in.”
“I’ve seen worse in movies,” America observed.
“No young one, this is pretty rough,” Wong mutters.
Wanda sighs. “I’m… I’m sorry, Stephen. But he was no hero. The rest of them… they have good hearts. Just unfortunate positions. He’s… just a bad man. Undeserving.”
A pause from the sorcerer filled the room with silence.
“You said he tried to hurt you,” Stephen observed. “Did he?”
Wanda looked down at her hip…
Before she broke off the sword, it must’ve pierced her.
“He tried to kill me,” Wanda recalls. “I just showed him how he could have done better.”
“By... doing what?” Stephen asks.
“Finish the job.”