Chapter 139 - First Instalment

Chapter 139: Chapter 139 - First Instalment

Wanda had chosen the roof because it offered four exits and enough open space for Pietro to run.

Lucius found her there anyway.

The office building stood several streets from U-GIN, close enough for the smoke over the laboratory to remain visible between the towers. Pietro had gone to find clothes that did not smell of machine oil and betrayal. Wanda suspected he was also stealing food, which he would insist counted as requisitioning because they had recently changed sides.

She felt Lucius before she saw him. His mind pressed against her awareness like a locked door floating through an empty house, absurdly large, offensively calm and impossible to open without first admitting that she wanted to know what waited behind it.

He descended in front of her, still wearing that demonic armour. The horned skull withdrew from his head and folded into the collar, revealing black hair, turquoise eyes and a smile that made retreat feel sensible.

Wanda did not retreat.

"What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"I prefer hunted. It sounds more romantic."

"It sounds like something the police would write down."

"They have written worse."

Lucius began circling her at an easy pace. It was not necessary for any power he possessed. He simply enjoyed the way her attention followed him and the slight red gathering around her fingers whenever he passed behind her.

"Your brother is not here," he observed.

"That is why you came close."

"No, babe. Your brother is fast, and I am still me."

Wanda turned with him, refusing to offer her back. "And what exactly are you?"

"Currently curious."

She had seen enough of him to distrust that word. He had stood inside a HYDRA base while soldiers died around him, protected Stark and Thor with fields she could barely feel, stolen something from the sceptre without touching it, and watched her enter Stark’s mind as if granting permission in his own house. In Seoul, his power had torn through half the road and carried the Cradle as though weight were a rumour.

That strange energy field had covered her too this time.

The moment Lucius landed, a dark-gold field had closed around the roof and passed over every inch of her body. Wanda had found no danger inside it, only the quiet certainty that Ultron’s machines would need Lucius’s permission to reach her. Warmth was not the right word for the sensation. The shield had no temperature, yet her skin remembered the pressure.

His smile widened.

Wanda narrowed her eyes. "Stay out of my head."

"You were thinking loudly."

Red light curled from her fingertips and reached for him.

Lucius let it touch.

The spell slipped towards his mind, found the Veil of Fate wrapped around him, and scattered along a surface Wanda could neither measure nor enter. She changed the angle, adding Telepathy beneath the crimson pressure. For an instant she caught amusement, hunger and something older than this body, then a wall closed with almost insulting gentleness.

"You invited me in before," she said.

"I allowed you to knock. There is a difference."

"Stop messing with me!" She demanded. Yet the shit-eating grin on his face was clear as day.

"You enjoy this."

"Immensely."

Lucius completed another slow circle. Wanda should have hated the inspection. Some part of her did. Another part noticed that he had not once looked away when the red around her hands thickened, nor had he treated her like a frightened experiment now that Ultron’s lie was exposed.

He looked at her as though she were dangerous and attractive in equal measure, and neither quality required curing.

"You knew what Ultron wanted," Wanda accused.

"I knew he was a metal bastard with Tony’s anxiety and none of his better habits. Extinction was merely the ambitious end of the diagnosis."

"And the body?"

"Tony rescued it, Thor rescued the truck, and Rogers rescued himself eventually. I rescued the bargaining position. Everyone contributed."

She almost smiled. Lucius noticed, which killed the attempt.

"You are pleased with yourself."

"I received an entire face of Stark Tower. Equal letters and lighting. Contractual protection from Tony’s little greedy hands. Today has been excellent."

"People nearly died."

"People nearly die every day. Very few improve the skyline while doing it."

Wanda pushed into his mind again, less forcefully this time. The Veil turned her aside, but Lucius stepped closer instead of punishing the attempt. One pace erased half the distance. Another made her lift her chin to meet his eyes.

He was more than a foot taller even without the horns. At this range, the armour seemed less like clothing and more like a sealed piece of night, black metal broken by narrow dark-red lines. Wanda felt her magic test its surface without instruction.

Lucius glanced down at the red touching his chest. "If you wanted to feel the armour, you could have asked."

"I was looking for a weakness."

"That is what I said."

She drove a sharper probe at him.

The Veil swallowed it.

His hand closed around her chin.

Wanda’s power surged, enough to stain the rooftop red, but she did not throw him away. The decision irritated her almost as much as the satisfaction in his turquoise eyes. His thumb brushed the corner of her mouth and her lower lip. Heat climbed from the exposed line of her chest into her neck and cheeks.

"You are very certain I won’t hurt you," she said.

"No. I am certain you cannot do it. The distinction is exciting."

He had given her an opening, perhaps deliberately. Wanda pushed through the contact, trying to catch the desire sitting close to the surface and use it against him. Lucius’s mental shield held. What returned through the link was not control but the clear awareness that he knew exactly what she was attempting.

Then he leaned down.

The kiss was light and brief. It stole none of the choice left after the first heartbeat. Wanda could have burned him, struck him, or stepped away. Instead, her cheek pressed into his palm before pride caught up with the rest of her.

Lucius drew back with the expression of a cat pleased to discover the canary was tasty and worth the chase.

"Consider that the first instalment of your debt, little one."

"My debt?"

"I let you frighten Tony into inventing something terrible. The least you can do is make the consequences entertaining."

He released her, turned and walked towards the roof’s edge.

"You are leaving?" The question escaped before Wanda could strangle it.

Lucius looked over one shoulder. "Your brother has returned with three bags of food and the mistaken belief that I cannot hear him threatening me from the stairwell. I prefer our second instalment without commentary."

The access door burst open.

Pietro crossed the roof and stopped between them, groceries held against his chest with one arm. "Touch her again, and I break every finger."

Lucius considered him. "I like you. Optimism at that speed should be studied."

"Pietro," Wanda warned.

"He was circling you."

"I noticed."

Lucius stepped off the roof and remained standing in the air. "The Avengers are returning to New York with Ultron’s unfinished body. You may continue hiding here, where the homicidal machine already knows to search, or accept a ride from the people currently trying to stop him."

Pietro’s mouth tightened. "We are not Avengers."

"Neither am I. Yet, their standards are not entirely broken."

"Why help us?" Wanda asked.

"Because you owe me. Dead debtors are disappointing, and Ultron intends to make that condition a glove."

Lucius flew away before Pietro could answer.

The groceries shifted in his grip. "I hate him."

Wanda touched her lower lip. "You hate everyone who speaks to me."

"Not everyone. Only men."

"A generous distinction."

Below them, the Quinjet banked around the building on damaged engines. Sam stood in the open loading bay with one wing folded and waved them towards the roof.

Pietro looked from the aircraft to Wanda. "We help them stop Ultron. After that, we leave."

"Of course."

He narrowed his eyes at her, then at the distance where Lucius had vanished. "What debt?"

Wanda took one of the food bags and walked towards the approaching jet. "A private one."

Pietro muttered something in Sokovian that made Sam wisely pretend the engines were louder than they were.

By the time the team reached Stark Tower, the first letter had already been bolted to the south face.

The enormous black N hung level with the STARK sign around the corner. Its crimson edge caught the evening light while a suspended work platform carried the next letter into place. Tony stopped inside the landing bay and stared through the glass.

"He called ahead," Steve said.

"Of course he called ahead. He probably had the letters waiting on the yacht."

Lucius stood beside the window with his armour withdrawn into a black ring around one finger, smiling at the installation. "Preparedness is the foundation of heroism."

"You hired people before I agreed."

"Faith, Tony. I knew there was decency beneath your jealousy. Very deep beneath it, admittedly."

Thor clapped Tony across the back hard enough to move him a step. "A bargain between shield-brothers should be honoured swiftly. The letters are handsome."

"There are going to be six of them."

The Cradle passed behind them on a magnetic platform, escorted by Bruce and three repair drones. The counterfeit gem shone through the transparent cover. Lucius gave it less attention than the workers aligning the letter O outside.

Steve noticed. "That body was built for Ultron."

"The lettering was built for me. We all have priorities."

Wanda and Pietro entered last. Tony looked at them, then at the Cradle, then at Lucius’s satisfaction with the south face.

"I have several objections and not enough sober adults."

"Banner is sober," Lucius said.

Bruce watched a repair drone nearly collide with the doorframe. "I am reconsidering it."

Tony turned towards the laboratory. "Then let’s make one useful decision before Rogers starts a committee."

"We destroy it," Steve said.

The Cradle continued down the corridor.

Tony walked after it. "Excellent first proposal, and rejected."

Lucius remained by the glass until the O settled beside the N. Only then did he follow, wearing the contented expression of a man whose faith in humanity had survived almost twelve minutes.