BOOM!
The explosion was deafening. The entire villa shuddered.
Tony never had a chance to react. The shockwave picked him up and hurled him across the room like a ragdoll, slammed him into the wall, and dropped him to the floor with a sickening thud.
"Cough, cough..."
He tried to push himself up. His vision went black. He nearly passed out again.
At the same moment, two transparent shields snapped into existence in front of Hermione and Pepper, locking them safely inside. Maya Hansen had been standing close enough to Pepper that the shields caught her too.
The blast wave hit. Debris rattled against the barrier like hail. Nothing got through.
The dust settled slowly. Maya looked down at herself , not a scratch , then up at the shield still hovering intact around them. Her face went blank.
She opened her mouth. Her throat was too dry to make a sound.
What just happened?
Had she been hit by a missile?
A close-range missile strike?
Then why was she completely fine?
She turned instinctively toward Hermione and Pepper, her expression shocked and confused.
BOOM!
The second wave hit. The villa became a wall of fire.
Hermione grabbed Pepper with her left hand and Maya with her right, casually dragged the Mark 42 to Tony's side, and all three of them vanished.
The next instant, they were standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.
The ocean wind hit Maya's face. Her stomach lurched.
"Blergh—"
She couldn't hold it. She grabbed the nearest rock and heaved, vomiting hard over the cliff's edge.
"Everyone reacts like that their first time Apparating," Hermione said. "You'll get used to it."
Casual. Breezy. As if the last thirty seconds hadn't been a matter of life and death.
Then she raised her wand, aimed it at the helicopter still circling in the distance, and gave her wrist a slow, deliberate twist.
The helicopter crumpled. An invisible hand closed around its frame and squeezed. The metal screamed , a high, teeth-grinding shriek , as the fuselage visibly buckled and warped. The rotor snapped first. Then the cockpit caved. Then the whole aircraft twisted into a ball of scrap, blood seeping through the gaps in thin red threads.
BOOM. BOOM.
Two fireballs bloomed over the water.
Maya's face was white. The nausea hadn't fully passed. She clung to the rock, breathing in ragged pulls, and stared at Hermione, her mind struggling to process what she was seeing.
Instant teleportation. Shields from nowhere. A helicopter crushed like a tin can.
All of it beyond anything she had a framework for.
Questions piled up faster than she could sort them. Then something clicked. "You're the Witch. The Witch from the Battle of New York?!"
Not really a question. More like the only explanation that fit.
Who else could do all this? The legendary Witch who'd turned the tide at New York, who'd wiped out an entire alien army single-handed , who else?
Hermione glanced at her. Didn't deny it.
"I'll go check if Tony's still breathing."
She Apparated again, her figure twisting out of existence.
Seconds stretched. Maya still couldn't fully come back to herself. Pepper stood with her lips pressed tight, face pale.
Then Hermione reappeared, and both of them snapped back to the present.
"Well?" Pepper asked immediately. "Tony — what about Tony?"
Hermione shook her head. "Couldn't find him. But he's alive. I didn't sense any death aura. The armor's automatic defense mode probably pulled him out."
Maya said nothing.
She had come here today to ask Tony for help , to find a way to fix the instability in Extremis before it killed anyone else. But now she couldn't bring herself to say a word about it. Couldn't even think about telling Pepper that the recent string of explosions had all been Killian's doing.
She was scared.
She'd seen the video online. That senator, thrown out of the sky like a piece of garbage. She'd known then that this Witch wasn't someone you wanted to cross.
The last person who'd thrown missiles at her was already a pile of minced meat.
If Hermione found out that Maya worked for the man who'd just tried to blow her up... what if she was in a bad mood? What if she didn't feel like listening to an explanation? Maya would be dead before she finished the first sentence.
That ice. That lightning. The fire. The green light.
Any one of them would be enough to kill an ordinary person like her a hundred times over.
"What do we do, little Hermione?" Pepper's voice was tight with worry. "Tony, he..."
"Relax, Sister Pepper." Hermione patted the back of her hand, tone steady and certain. "Tony's not going to die. I'll fish him back."
Something in those words settled Pepper down. She exhaled, pulled in a slow breath, and made herself stand straight.
"I'll head back and contact S.H.I.E.L.D., get them involved. You be careful too, little Hermione."
...
Hermione didn't rush off to find Tony. One Killian wasn't enough to finish him , not even close. And she had something more pressing to deal with first.
She Apparated directly to Kamar-Taj.
The familiar courtyard. The familiar bald head.
"Hey, Master Ancient One. Long time no see."
Hermione strolled in with a grin, easy as if she were walking into her own living room.
The Ancient One looked exactly as she always did. Unruffled. Unhurried. She set down her teacup and gave Hermione a measured glance.
"You're not going to save Tony Stark. So what are you doing here?"
"Heh, I just missed you. That's all."
Sure enough. Still spying, you old woman. Hermione settled in beside her and cheerfully poured her a fresh cup of tea.
"So. When are you planning to die?"
The Ancient One said nothing. She simply looked at her.
"No, no — I mean, when are you planning to ascend?" Hermione caught the weight of that gaze and corrected herself quickly. "Peacefully. Gracefully. Into the great beyond."
The Ancient One glanced at her, the faintest trace of amusement in her eyes.
"What, getting impatient?"
"Not at all. I'm just looking out for you. Getting a head start on the arrangements."
Hermione's expression was the picture of sincerity.
The Ancient One picked up her tea and took a quiet sip.
"You want the Time Stone."
One sentence, and Hermione's whole act collapsed.
"Yes! Yes yes yes!" She nodded rapidly.
"That's not impossible."
The Ancient One spoke without hurry.
Hermione's eyes lit up. There's an opening.
"However..." The Ancient One let the pause stretch deliberately. "Either you wait until I've left this universe."
Hermione pressed her lips together.
Obviously. You think I'd dare take it while you're still here?
"Or..." Another pause. "You do two things for me."
"What things?" Hermione's expression soured. Knew you wouldn't make it easy, old woman.
The Ancient One set down her cup, her gaze calm and level. "First. Help me find a worthy candidate to inherit the title of Sorcerer Supreme."
"Huh?" Hermione blinked. She gestured at the courtyard around them. "You've got an entire school full of people here. Not enough to choose from?"
➤ Next: Modifying the Time-Turner
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