Look What You Made Me Do (Wanda-SI/OC)

Eliza gestured and three diamond-shaped images appeared floating in midair in front of them. The AI had almost entirely stopped using her Iron Man suit in favour of her new vibranium nanotech form—the Wanda-alike illusion dropped as soon as Scott Lang had left in favour of the mechanical physical avatar she’d designed. Presumably, the images she had conjured were being displayed via the projectors built into her body, each showing what Agatha presumed was a live camera feed of a building in a different city. She had never actually seen Kamar-taj before, but none of them looked particularly monastery-like.

“What are we looking at?” Ava asked.

The assassin had just finished her evening energy treatment in her glass-panelled chamber and was dressed down in a simple grey tracksuit. She, Eliza and Agatha were standing together on the opposite side of the warehouse from Beck’s workstation. Beck himself had returned from wherever Eliza had stashed him during Scott Lang’s short visit, along with his Hand test subjects, but he had quickly been put back to work.

Agatha wasn’t completely sure—Eliza tended to play her cards close to her chest—but from the way Beck was treated she got the feeling that Eliza didn’t really place much value on the scientist as a resource. He was just a tool to be used and likely discarded at some point, much as she intended with the Hand. Ava, on the other hand, seemed to be someone the AI was genuinely sympathetic toward and wanted to do right by. The bomb collar around Agatha’s neck was a constant reminder that she had started closer to the former category than the latter, though she felt like her efforts to bind Eliza more closely to her were beginning to pay off.

“New York. London. Hong Kong.” Eliza pointed to each of the camera feeds in turn. “These are the sanctums of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, built thousands of years ago at the intersections of cosmic energy currents. Presumably they’ve been refurbished once or twice since then.”

Agatha took a moment to look more closely at the images, interested. They were all relatively nice buildings, old, but not particularly visually noteworthy. Nondescript, almost, except that each building had a large, rounded window on the top floor, each one enclosed with a glyph. The designs were unique for each of them and didn’t correspond to any particular sorcerous workings Agatha was aware of—then again, they were rather ostentatiously displayed, and Agatha thought that even the sorcerers weren’t quite so arrogant as to put, say, a key defensive ward in such a prominently visible position. They were probably just decorative. Probably.

Eliza had paused, a frown on her face. “Actually, how does that work? London and Hong Kong, okay, fair enough, but New York isn’t really that old, as far as cities go. Was that one located elsewhere, originally? Or was it always there, pre-dating the city? Hm,” she wondered aloud.

Ava rolled her eyes and made an impatient gesture with her hand. “What’s our target? Are we hitting all three of these places, or…?”

“No, no need. I know I haven’t really spoken much about Kaecilius,” Eliza said. As she spoke, she gestured and another image appeared, this one of a man with striking, finely-chiselled features wearing sorcerous robes. “The Big K. Mads, if I’m feeling cheeky. Just to reiterate: he and those that follow him are going to try to cause the end of the world, probably in a few months’ time. These three places will be their primary targets. If they fall… well. Game over. I’ve gone ahead and bought out buildings at each of these locations—across the road or next door—and I’m setting up banks of Iron Legion drones ready to deploy the instant something happens, but I’m not optimistic that response times will be quick enough to intervene in the event of an attack. Portals are tricky to beat. Hopefully, though, that won’t matter.”

“Because we’ll have already solved the problem ahead of time,” Agatha said. She gestured to the images of the sanctums, a questioning look on her face. “Shouldn’t we be looking at Kamar-taj itself? That’s where you’re going, right?”

“Where we’re going, yes.”

“Ah. Um,” Agatha frowned, a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Not that I’m not keen to help avoid the end of the world and all, but I really don’t think me going to Kamar-taj is a good idea.”

The AI cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”

Agatha grinned awkwardly. “I’m sort of on their most wanted list. Notorious, in fact. The Ancient One has been trying to secure the Darkhold for quite some time.”

“I see. That might have been helpful to know a bit earlier.”

The witch shrugged. “It’s not a problem. You two can head in, get what we need, and I’ll wait nearby with a secure exit so we can escape through the Ways.”

Eliza sighed. “As far as I know, their library isn’t particularly secure unless they actively turn on the defences, but we might end up having to fight our way out and I need a magical expert on hand in case we run into trouble. I don’t want to end up losing this body because it was sent to the Mirror Dimension, and I honestly don’t even know what would happen if they tried to send Ava there.”

Agatha bit her lip, weighing up the risks. She really didn’t want to go to Kamar-taj, but this sort of thing was literally the reason Eliza was keeping her around in the first place. With a bomb around her neck she couldn’t exactly say no in any case, and if Eliza felt like she needed to threaten her to get her to cooperate that would set her back a bit when it came to the connection she’d been cultivating between them. A quick in-and-out might be feasible. “I suppose it is nice to feel needed…” she said with a grimace, deliberately fishing for a particular response.

Eliza turned to face her more fully. “I need you with me on this, Agatha. Please.”

The witch grinned. Easy. “Well, I suppose if you ask that nicely, how can I say no?”

The AI was quiet for a moment, a pensive expression on her face. “Can you disguise yourself? Use an illusion of some kind?”

“I could, but not something that’s likely to hold up.” Agatha screwed up her nose. Illusions she could do, but that sort of thing was of much more use against mundane foes than it was against sorcerers. “Kamar-taj’s masters are quite adept at seeing through and dispelling illusions.”

“BARF it is, then,” Eliza said.

The AI stepped over to the almost-empty vat of vibranium nanites, reaching in and scooping up an amorphous lump that rippled and shifted as she held it. There were a few moments of silence as she worked, then she turned and offered the lump to Agatha. Vigilant for any further jump scares, the witch cautiously reached out and took it. It writhed in her hand almost like a living thing, its texture changing and shifting before it started to move. Agatha stifling a yelp as it lengthened, sending a long noodle up her arm to snake its way around her body. It looped around her, splitting to wind around her shoulders and hips, then flatted itself out as a dozen small lenses emerged from its surface, arrayed around her body in a similar pattern to the ones build into Eliza’s avatar.

“This is the same sort of system I’ve rigged up for myself. It’s a little less useful than the bigger projectors, but it works well enough to conceal a single person. Power’s a problem—you don’t have an arc reactor and I’m not going to give you one—but it should be able to run for an hour or so at a time without any issues.”

Agatha examined the metal straps that had been woven around her then glanced back at Eliza. “Any excuse to strap me up in a harness again, hm?” she teased. “I hope all of this isn’t touch sensitive.”

“Ugh. That’s not going to go away anytime soon, is it?”

“Nope. But I mean… I wasn’t complaining, just asking,” the witch said with a wink.

Eliza paused for a moment before she grinned. “If you’re not careful I’ll gag you as well.”

Agatha sighed airily. “Promises, promises…”

“Are you two done flirting?” Ava asked lightly, rolling her eyes.

“I mean… no. But fine,” Eliza said, turning to gesture to the empty air beside Agatha. Another hologram appeared—a free-standing mirror in a simple wooden frame, giving Agatha a good view of herself. A moment later, the corners of Agatha’s vision shimmered slightly and her appearance in the mirror shifted.

“Ah! That’s quite clever,” Agatha said, examining her new appearance with surprise.

“Thanks. I thought so, too.”

Peering back at Agatha from the surface of the mirror was Madame Gao’s little pet witch. The young Chinese woman’s expression was neutral—Agatha tested it by pulling a face, but it didn’t match up, which she found slightly gratifying. The quality of these holograms easily matched that of her illusion spells, but the fact that they weren’t reactive and had to be manually controlled meant that magic was still generally superior. The hologram dropped, leaving Agatha sticking her tongue out at herself for a moment before she sheepishly retracted it. Eliza grinned again as the floating images of the sorcerers’ sanctums moved over to join them.

“Okay, so. Kamar-taj. Going through the front door or over the walls would be risky and difficult. There’s a lot of ground to go through between the entrance and the library, and the defences I know about are nasty if they’re activated. There’s also Wong to contend with… the librarian. He’s one of the stronger sorcerers. Not to be trifled with.” Eliza gestured at the screens. “However, at the back of the library, literally right next to our target, there are magical doors that lead directly to each of the sanctums.”

Ava nodded slowly. “So we infiltrate a sanctum and use it to go in the back door.” She cocked her head to the side questioningly. “If you already have drones in place near the sanctums, why not use them?”

“They’re currently my last line of defence against Kaecilius if we still can’t locate him after this. I really don’t want the sorcerers to see the drones as enemies. Worst case, they could notice the response teams I’m setting up and pre‑emptively act against them. Sabotage their own defence.”

“Which sanctum should we use, then?” Agatha asked. “New York is closest. I can get us back there in less than an hour.”

“Yeah, New York is our target—I know a bit of the building’s layout. If we’re lucky, only the resident Master will be there: Daniel Drumm. I actually don’t know much about him apart from his name and a rough idea of what he looks like.”

Ava whistled. “Huh. Something you don’t actually know. Now there’s a rare and precious thing.”

Eliza shot her an exasperated look. “We probably want it to be the middle of the night in Kamar-taj to minimise chances of running into anyone, which means we should infiltrate the New York sanctum at like three or four in the afternoon.”

“So… tomorrow, then?” Agatha asked.

Eliza nodded and looked over at Ava. “Both of you rest up and get ready to move out tomorrow morning. We’ll go in quick and quiet, get the book and get out. If we encounter resistance, we’ll defend ourselves, but the absolute last thing we want is for an actual fight to break out.”

 

--

 

“There you are,” T’Challa said, walking down the ramp to Shuri’s personal lab. His sister was standing near one of the pale blue screens at the back of the room, looking pensive. “I expected you to be with the others, arguing about what our best approach was for the next virus.”

“I’ll head back up shortly,” she said, absorbed in whatever data she was looking at. There was an odd inflection in her tone that gave T’Challa pause, and he sped his pace slightly to reach her a little quicker. She didn’t look at him as he arrived, so he stood next to her and looked over the data that she had pulled up on her screen.

“The Red Woman’s portals?” he asked, mildly surprised. It looked like Shuri had surreptitiously taken rather comprehensive scans of the gateways while the Avengers used them to make contact with their friends and family.

“Mm.” Shuri made a noncommittal noise.

“Have you worked out how they function?”

“Not yet. A lot of the readings don’t make any sense. I’m not sure it’s even possible to replicate them without… ugh. Magic. Whatever they want to call it. The source of her powers.” Again, something about his sister’s tone seemed off. A mystery and challenge like this would normally spark something eager and hungry within her, but she was being unusually subdued. She tore her eyes away from the screen for a moment to look at him. “How’s your side?”

“Completely healed. How are you feeling?”

Shuri bit her lip instead of responding, looking at him as she weighed something in her mind. After a moment, she sighed and gestured for him to follow her. Walking back to the middle of the lab, where the central spiralling ramp wound around a deep scan chamber, she headed toward the examination table in the centre. Turning briefly, she hopped up on it and lay down. The hexagonal computers near her head automatically started projecting a holographic interface displaying her baseline readings and she held up her hands to activate her Kimiyo beads. A quick flick of her wrist brought up a holographic real-time topological scan of her body in the air just above where she was lying. Shuri gestured silently a few more times, adjusting the resolution and colouration, then waited silently.

T’Challa cast his eye over the scan, taking a moment to process what he was seeing. He was quiet for a minute, then frowned, his brow creased with concern. “The Heart-Shaped Herb was not able to purge the gamma radiation from your system.”

“No. It wasn’t.”

“…What does that mean?” he asked gently.

“The Herb is a natural panacea. It is able to repair and reinforce virtually every part of the human body.” Shuri gestured a few more times as she spoke, flicking through analyses of her body. “It could not purge the radiation, so it developed a workaround. Instead of getting rid of it, it’s synthesizing the gamma radiation into… something else.”

A lead weight seemed to settle in the pit of T’Challa’s stomach. “Into what?”

“I don’t know,” his sister said quietly.

He took a few moments to go over the data displays, trying to piece together some hint of whatever the Herb was doing to his sister’s physiology. “Whatever it’s doing… what would happen if we stopped it? If we removed Bast’s blessing?”

Shuri shook her head slightly. “I already thought about that, but the radiation is bonding the vibranium to my cells in a way we’ve never seen before. I’m not sure it can be removed. At least, not without killing me.”

After a few more moments of silence, T’Challa looked down at her. “We need Dr Banner to look at this. No one in the world knows gamma radiation like that man.”

“No!” Shuri said quickly, urgency filling her tone. “No. Not yet. Please. I just… I need some time to look over everything first. I need to understand what’s happening.”

T’Challa frowned again. “Dr Banner—”

“Dr Banner isn’t as smart as me,” she snapped, cutting him off.

“Asking for help when you need it is smart,” he said gently.

Shuri rolled her eyes, hopping up and off of the examination table in a single, smooth motion and dismissing the holograms. “I don’t need your condescension, brother. It doesn’t matter right now in any case. Our highest priority is still the AI. This can wait.”

T’Challa sighed heavily, his brow still knitted together in concern. “Shuri…”

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said, annoyed. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”

 

--

 

The atmosphere in the Great Mound had shifted dramatically in the wake of Eliza’s attack. When I’d been stuck in my cell, observing the facility in astral form, I’d been struck by the fact that, despite the different culture and advanced technology, a lot of it had felt much the same as any other workplace I’d ever been in. Many of the scientists were obviously good friends and they seemed to take a lot of pride in their work—as you might expect for a team of the brightest minds in the most technologically advanced nation on Earth.

Now, though, you could cut the tension with a knife. There were fewer people. That was obvious. I didn’t know how many people had died during the attack. The AI had attacked after most of the facility’s regular staff had gone home for the day, so hopefully not that many, but the number of scientists that had actually come into work had seemingly halved. Even with the reduced number of staff, it was exceedingly quiet. People seemed to barely talk to each other unless it was absolutely necessary, and when they did talk it was in urgent, low tones.

The broken glass and equipment on the main computer science level had been mostly cleaned up and a grey fabric barrier had been stretched over the smashed window, leaving the uneven cracks in the floor as the most obvious reminder of what had happened. Shuri had run some scans and it looked as though, while the cracks were superficially quite bad-looking, the actual structural damage was minimal—she was confident there wasn’t any real risk of the building collapsing or falling into the mine or anything.

I hovered nearby while Tony, Bruce and Killmonger were talking through some technical details—far enough away to not be included in the conversation but close enough to hear what was going on. Shuri and T’Challa were normally part of these sort of high-level discussions, but I wasn’t sure where they were. Steve had taken most of the others topside. He was keen to run through some sparring and training exercises, specifically looking at what could be learned from Eliza’s attack and coming up with strategies that could be used against BARF and the Hand. I’d chosen to slip away from the group, ditching them in favour of coming down here.

I waited until the brains trust had finished, giving them plenty of time to get absorbed in their work, before I started wandering restlessly around the room, seemingly aimlessly. Eventually, I happened to end up close to where Killmonger was working, glancing at his screen as he rapidly assembled lines of code.

“Can we talk? Privately?” I murmured, keeping my voice low enough that only he would hear me.

He didn’t respond right away, seemingly completely ignoring my presence as he continued to work. I took another few steps around his workstation, keeping up the appearance of idly wandering around. After a minute he paused, touching his chin and frowning at his screen. “Fifteen minutes. Corridor next to the elevator,” he said, his voice barely audible, seemingly just talking to himself.

I spent the next five minutes continuing my restless circuit of the room, briefly stopping by where Bruce was working. He glanced in my direction and shot me a tight smile. “You alright?” he asked.

“Sorry. Just… out of sorts.”

Bruce nodded. “Bit of that going around, yeah. You should head up with the others. Get some fresh air.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” I lied. “I’ll come back down a little later on and see how you guys are going.”

With that, I moved purposefully toward the back of the room. The Dora Milaje stationed near the elevator watched me carefully as I paused and circled around to the adjacent corridor. The washroom was just past where we were meeting, so I headed inside and wasted some time before judging that I should head back. I stepped back into the short corridor next to the elevator and fidgeted nervously while I waited.

Less than a minute later, Killmonger turned the corner. He glanced around a little, checking to make sure we didn’t have anyone physically observing us, then walked up to me. “We’ve got about two minutes.” Though his expression was guarded, there was a slight curve to his lips that was almost indescribably smug.

I took a deep breath, tamping down on my annoyance. “I’ve thought more about what you said.”

“And?”

“And…” I closed my eyes for a moment. I knew that lying wasn’t my strong suit, but I really needed this to sound sincere. Opening them again, I met Killmonger’s gaze evenly. “I’m in. You’re right. T’Challa’s going to come for us the second Eliza’s dealt with and the Avengers aren’t a safe haven for us anymore.”

Killmonger nodded, his eyes searching my features for a moment before his grin became more pronounced. “I knew you’d get it. It’s the smartest move you two can make right now.”

“First, though,” I said, chewing at my lip nervously. “There’s something I need from you.”

His expression shifted in an instant, the smugness gone and replaced with suspicion. “Oh? And what’s that?”

“I need access to an isolated system. A workstation… something.”

I wasn’t being subtle, here. There was only one reason I could possibly be looking for something like that. This was risky, but Killmonger had seemed in favour of the idea and approaching him like this meant he wasn’t going to go blabbing to anyone else if it turned out he wasn’t interested in following through.

Realisation flashed across his face. “You want to just go for it. Another AI.”

“…Yeah.”

“You’re hoping, what, if you go ahead and create it, everyone will just go ‘well, it’s here now, so we might as well’?”

I set my jaw and nodded. “Basically, yeah. Tony was already on board, for the most part. I think he’ll be pragmatic about it once it’s no longer just theoretical. Shuri didn’t actually speak out against the idea and, when it comes down to it, those are the only two whose opinion really matters here. If you can get your cousins on board…”

Killmonger nodded slowly. “I do think something like this might be our best shot. A gamechanger.” He looked at me consideringly. “You know doing it like this is going to piss everyone else off, though, right? Even if Stark’s in favour of it, he’s not going to be happy with you just acting on your own, either.”

“I know. I don’t care—why should I? It’s not like they’re happy with me anyway. If we don’t do it like this, it’s not going to get done at all,” I said, looking at him seriously. “It’s like you said… everyone else here only sees what they want to see. You and me? We’re the only ones that really get it.”

He let out a small snort of disbelief and shook his head, the corner of his mouth tugging up. “You’re a little bit of a crazy bitch, you know that?”

I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m going to be your crazy bitch, then, isn’t it?”

Killmonger gave me an appraising look that made me want to set myself on fire a little bit before his expression turned serious again. “You’re absolutely sure? If you’re going to be asking this new AI to probably die taking down Eliza, you need to be damn sure she’ll be willing to.”

I took a deep breath and nodded, forcing myself to meet his eyes again. “I’m sure. It’s to protect the people I care about. I’d die for that.”

There was a moment of silence, then he nodded back. “Alright. I’m in. We’ll do it tonight.”