Chapter 6
When Bucky went into the common area at six in the morning, he was expecting to make himself a nice cup of coffee and settle in his favorite armchair to watch the sunrise, as he did every morning. What he didn’t expect to see was a teenage boy sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a flurry of papers and a variety of writing utensils.
Stiles didn’t even look as Bucky stepped into the living room, his coffee steaming in his hold. He was staring intensely at the paper in his hand, his forehead crinkled in concentration. He was definitely in his own little world.
“Hey, kid,” He tapped his foot a few times, “What the fuck are you doing?”
Stiles didn’t even seem startled by his presence, blinking lazily up at him. “Oh hey.” He greeted dismissively before turning his attention back to his paper.
“Morning Buck,” Steve’s voice came from behind him, his best friend stopping beside him at the opening of the living room, “Morning Stiles?”
“S’up,” This time, the kid didn’t even look up to grace Steve with his partial attention.
“What’re you doing?” Steve questioned, peering over Stiles’ shoulder as best as he could without disrupting any of the papers surrounded him. “Is that the deadpool?”
Bucky’s eyes widened, “Deadpool?” His tone was incredulous because what. the. fuck.
“No, Tony wouldn’t give it back to me. These are just some theories.” Stiles shrugged, his tongue sticking out slightly before he picked up a pen, scribbling wildly.
“I’m sorry, can we go back to the fact that you apparently had a deadpool?” Bucky once again chimed in.
This time, Stiles actually looked at him, “Hey, I didn’t write it.” He said with a dirty look, like he was offended at the insinuation.
Bucky blinked once at Stiles and again at Steve. “Right.” He said slowly. “‘Course you didn’t.”
Truth be told, he wasn’t sure why he continued to be surprised in this new world. With his head finally cleared and two months in the bag since he fought a literal alien and his army, he should be used to weird shit happening. But two kids showing up out of literally nowhere? From a different universe? Yeah, he was perplexed.
Stiles squinted at him. “Bucky.” He stated before nodding, turning his attention back to his papers.
Goddamn were these kids weird. From the moment they showed up (literally only a few days ago,) Bucky had this… this weird feeling. He had chalked it up to his instincts telling him that because they were unfamiliar, they could pose a threat. Well, that was until he found out one of them was a literal werewolf.
“Hmm,” Steve was looking at Stiles with an expression that Bucky swore was similar to his own, “How long have you been up?”
“What time is it?” Stiles asked thoughtfully.
“6 am.”
“Oh. Then I never went to bed,” His tone was so casual, as if this was a normal thing.
“Stiles,” Steve sounded exasperated as he raised a hand to his forehead.
“You’re kind of interrupting my thought process right now so I’d really appreciate it if you stopped talking.”
Bucky couldn’t help but let out a bark of laughter. The kid was funny, he’d give him that. The soldier took a moment to glance at the papers scattered around the teen, the handwriting nearly illegible and almost all of the papers were filled completely.
He bent down, picking one up as Stiles remained oblivious to his snooping. His eyebrows furrowed as he scanned the paper, making out different words such as La Iglesia and Berserker. The words did nothing to hint at what Stiles was theorizing about, if anything it was making him more confused.
“Is Scott alright?” Steve spoke up again, carefully stepping around the papers to sit on the couch.
Stiles looked over at him, an odd expression on his face. Bucky could see the bags under his eyes more clearly. “Uh, yeah, he’s alright.” He bit his lip, glancing between the two older men, “Sorry for…what happened.”
“Neither of you need to apologize,” Steve said curtly, “I don’t know what brought that on from Wanda. Neither of you should have been put through that.”
Surprisingly enough, Stiles let out a dry laugh, “Trust me, we’ve been through much worse. What Wanda said was entirely mild compared to…to literally everything else. It’s just a sensitive topic.” He groaned, rubbing his head, “A really sensitive topic.”
Steve frowned, looking at Bucky. They were sharing the same thought; did they want to know what Stiles was alluding to? It didn’t matter anyways as they didn’t have a chance to question him further when Tony walked into the kitchenette, peering at them over the breakfast bar.
“Which one of you was messing with my espresso machine?” He questioned, not bothering to bid any of them a good morning.
“I was not messing with the espresso machine.” Stiles grumbled.
Tony looked at the boy, scanning the mess surrounding him. “Right, and how many shots did you have?”
“Only three.”
Steve’s jaw dropped, “Only three? No wonder you didn’t get any sleep!” He exclaimed, disapproval evident in his tone.
“For your information, I’m a raging insomniac. It happens.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “You’re pretty judgey, ya know?”
Steve gawked as Tony laughed. Bucky stayed quiet, sipping at his coffee.
“How’s the wrist doing, kiddo?” Tony questioned.
Stiles didn’t even look up, “Fine.” It was obvious that his focus was solely on whatever he was writing.
“Hmm, what’s all this about?” Tony gestured at the mess of papers, “Pep’s going to be here soon, I’m gonna need this cleaned up before then.”
“Pep?” Stiles questioned, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.
“Oh, right. Obviously you don’t know her. Pepper Potts, my wife.” He had a dazzling smile as he said this and honestly, it made Bucky’s lip quirk up a little bit. After all they have been through, it was nice to see Tony happy. “Anyways, I had to tell her about the whole explosion thing before she caught wind of it from the media and of course, she’s rushing back. The thing is, she doesn’t exactly know that I have taken in two strays and I would prefer that when she does find out, she finds out that it's two tidy strays.”
Stiles just hummed in response; however, to his credit, he did start collecting some of his papers. Bucky watched as he gathered them up in a specific order, obviously having some type of organization to the chaos around him and he was slightly intrigued.
“Boss, Mr. McCall requested that I inform you that he is on his way to the common area.”
The four occupants shared identical expressions of furrowed eyebrows and Stiles slapped a hand to his forehead, “Jesus, Scott.” He mumbled to himself.
“He knows he doesn’t have to do that, right?” Steve asked.
“You get used to his self-deprecation.” The teen shrugged, “He feels…bad, about…well, you know.”
The sheepish boy in question walked into view and Bucky didn’t have to be an expert in reading body language to know he was nervous.
“There he is, in all his uneven-jaw glory.” Stiles announced.
“Stiles!” Scott groaned, some of his nerves seemingly melting away.
“Huh,” Tony said, squinting his eyes. “It is a little uneven.”
Instead of dignifying the engineer with a response, Scott looked towards his friend and fixed him with a dirty look, “I hate you.”
Before they could dissolve into any argument, Steve offered a small smile to the teenage boy, “Good morning, Scott.”
Scott smiled timidly, nodding his head towards the super soldier, “Good morning.”
“Bro, I told you that it wasn’t a big deal. They’re not mad at you.” Stiles said from the floor, the boy sprawling out on his back against the nice carpet.
His shoulders relaxing, the teenager slumped forward a bit, “I think I’m allowed to be worried,” Scott said with a frown, glancing over apprehensively at Bucky.
“You’re right,” Bucky and Steve both looked towards Tony only to find that the man didn’t seem to be teasing, instead he had a soft and sympathetic expression. “I get why you’re worried but here’s the thing, you didn’t hurt anyone and you didn’t look like you were going to either.” He said seriously, followed by a small sip of his espresso.
“Uh,” Scott looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thank you, Tony.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Stiles made a show of adjusting so his hands were crossed behind his head, “You guys are taking this whole werewolf thing surprisingly well.” He commented. “Like surprisingly well.”
“How did you expect us to act?” Steve questioned.
“I dunno,” Scott was the one to respond. “I mean my mom didn’t talk to me for like, a week when she found out.”
“Yeah and my dad didn’t even believe me, which I guess is the realistic response.”
“To be fair, I didn’t believe you when you said it.” Tony pointed out.
Steve nodded in agreement, “Yeah, neither did I.”
“Okay, well you didn’t ask any questions. Which is weird because people usually ask a million questions.” Scott said, Stiles nodding along.
“You want us to ask questions?” This time it was Bucky who spoke, raising his eyebrow questioningly at the two teenage boys.
Scott ducked his head, smiling sheepishly, “Well…not like right this second but…”
“Well, when we have them, we’ll be sure to ask.” Bucky could have rolled his eyes at the Captain America-esque smile that Steve fixed the two with.
It was relatively quiet after that, with everyone doing their own thing, save for Scott and Tony, with the latter helping the boy whip up something to eat. It seemed that werewolves had a metabolism that rivaled two super soldiers, and honestly, even Peter’s. Stiles stayed on the ground, stretched out along the carpet with his stack of papers carefully resting on his chest. It was evident that while he gave off a goofy demeanor, the kid was tired. And it wasn’t going unnoticed.
“Dude, did you get any sleep?” Scott asked and Bucky watched as he sniffed the goddamn air, “You reek of exhaustion.”
Stiles turned his head, his nose crinkled, “This is why people have questions, Scotty, cuz’ you say shit like that.” He sat up, looking at Bucky and Steve with a “you see what I deal with” kind of expression.
Scott, however, was unphased by his sass, “C’mon man, I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” Stiles scoffed, standing up, “What do my chemosignals say now, huh?” He grinned, holding up two middle fingers.
“Chemosignals?” Steve raised an eyebrow.
“There’s the questions.” Stiles said in a sing-song voice, walking into the kitchenette.
“Because of you!” Scott exclaimed, running a hand over his face, “Basically I can like…smell emotions?”
Steve’s face remained blank and honestly, Bucky didn’t blame him. Because what the fuck.
“See, there’s the reaction I was expecting!” Stiles grinned however it quickly fell as he reached for the espresso machine and Tony smacked his hand.
“No more espresso.” The man stated, offering the kid a sickly sweet smile.
“Yeah, you don’t need anymore.” Scott said, flicking the back of his best friend’s head.
Stiles looked towards the two soldiers, his eyes pleading but he had no allies there. They both just stared back at him as he pouted. “You guys suck.” He mumbled, falling dramatically into one of the chairs at the table.
It was peaceful for the next few hours as people slowly trickled into the common area. Scott and Stiles remained seated at the table, only looking up to greet those who greeted them first as the two conversed in hushed whispers, looking over the mound of papers. They only really acknowledged Peter, all three boys exchanging bright grins as the other teen joined them.
It was interesting to Bucky how Scott and Stiles seemed to just…fit in. It was almost comical how they mentioned that it was odd that they hadn’t been bombarded with questions but in Bucky’s eyes, he was thinking the same thing about them. Despite the initial panic, it seemed like they were taking this multiversal travel thing in stride. Hell, they took a fucking explosion in stride. Looking at them now, you would never know that Peter and Stiles were stuck under the rubble of a building if it weren’t for the bandages on Stiles’ head and wrist.
Stiles’ words from earlier echoed in his head; “entirely mild compared to…to literally everything else.” What was everything else? These were kids and the idea that they had gone through things that made ending up in another universe easy to take in made him feel uncomfortable.
He glanced over at them, watching the three boys interact. Peter had been through the ringer too, from even before he had been brought into the fight. Bucky had only really gotten to know the kid since they had defeated Thanos but in the two months, he could recognize the pain and sadness that reflected in his eyes. It was the same thing he saw in Scott and Stiles and the same thing he saw in the mirror.
“They seem to be awfully chummy.” Tony observed, having moved from espresso to a simple cup of coffee. As if on cue, the boys erupted into laughter, talking animatedly with one another.
“Near death experiences will do that to you,” Clint shrugged, leaning back against the couch.
“Not funny,” Stark said sharply, glaring at the archer. Even if Bucky wasn’t there to witness everything, he knew that the whole incident had freaked Tony out. It was painfully obvious how much he cared about Peter and he often wondered if the man had ever outright said it to the kid.
As Clint raised his arms in surrender, Natasha began to speak, “I walked past them playing lacrosse last night,” She said. “I think it’s easy for teenage boys to get along. Maybe you guys could take some notes."
“Hey, I thought we were working past that,” Steve said, growing a bit tense.
“Which means we can joke about it.” She retorted, rolling her eyes.
Tony clicked his tongue, “Y’know, Miss Rushman,” She scoffed at his choice of name, “You had a hand in things too.”
“I don’t think this is the best topic of conversation right now,” Sam placated, looking between Tony and Bucky warily.
“Oh please, you guys are so dramatic,” Natasha threw her head back with a laugh, “Give Tony some credit,” She patted his shoulder.
In truth, Bucky thought that Tony had every right to hate him, however his therapist had been working with him in understanding that holding onto guilt for things he did while under HYDRA’s control was only stunting his emotional growth. Which he supposed was true but yet whenever he saw Tony’s face, he was bombarded with the memory of what he did.
“Yeah, give me some credit,” The man said, an easy smile on his face. “Besides, children are the future, maybe Nat has a point.”
“Oh yeah, let’s learn from the werewolves,” Clint snickered.
“His powers are fascinating in my opinion,” Bruce started, leaning back and crossing his legs, “Or at least, the transformation part.”
“The only time I’ve seen something like that is with the Big Guy,” Rhodey agreed. “You know, the whole eye color and claws thing.” He swirled his hand in a circle to emphasize.
“Hulk doesn’t have claws,”
“You get the point.”
Bruce waved him off, “You mentioned enhanced speed? And strength?”
“And healing,” Steve added, “The cuts on his face literally mended themselves back together, I watched it.”
“Holy shit, Pete doesn’t even heal that fast. “ Sam’s eyes widened, “Damn.” He whistled.
“He also has enhanced hearing!” Stiles called from the table. “Which is pretty damn good!”
“We know way too many kids with enhanced hearing.” Clint shook his head.
“Right now, it’s only two.”
“Too many.”
“Boss, my sensors are picking up on high energy levels in the quad. I believe Thor and Loki are making their arrival.” FRIDAY’s voice interrupted their conversation.
Everyone looked up in anticipation at the announcement. Thor and Loki arriving meant that they would be one step closer to getting answers on how Scott and Stiles managed to wind up in a different universe. That they would figure out how chaos magic played into everything.
“Dude, we’re meeting a Norse god!” Bucky heard Stiles squeal to Scott.
“Thank you for letting us know, sweetheart, bring them up once they’re steady.” Tony said loudly, “Keep a special eye on Loki for me.”
It was silent as they awaited the Asgardians' arrival. No one made a move to get up, instead they all sat staring at the elevator in suspense.
“Fuck.” Stiles deadpanned as Thor and Loki stepped in from the elevator, both adorned in their usual Asgardian dress.
Bucky had the same reaction when he was informed that Norse gods were real.
“My friends!” Thor grinned, clapping his hands together. “The wizard has informed me that you have received some visitors.”
Bucky glanced over to the boys, both standing with their jaws dropped. Visitors were one way to put it.
“It’s good to see you, buddy,” Steve stood, greeting them with a smile. “Loki,” He nodded his head towards the demi-god. While Loki had proven himself during the battle with Thanos, it was still taking some time for the Avengers to warm up to him.
“Steven,” Loki replied, scanning the room. “Strange mentioned something about chaos magic as well?” He looked around the room, his gaze setting on Scott and Stiles. “Hmm.”
The adults all seemed to stand up at once as the Asgardian scrutinized the two boys, strutting across the common area to stand beside the table. Under the demi-god’s gaze, the boys didn’t seem to waver.
“Hello Mr. Loki,” Peter said with a small smile. “Mr. Thor.”
“Ah, hello young spider.” Thor cheered, following his brother. “I see these are our visitors.” He gestured towards Scott and Stiles.
“Isaac so owes me twenty bucks.” Stiles mumbled to Scott, knocking his shoulder with his own.
“Yes, these are our little multiversal trespassers,” Tony stood next to Peter, gesturing to the two, “Scott, Stiles, this is Thor and Loki. Our resident Asgardians.” “Hey,” Scott wiggled his fingers in greeting, Stiles following suit.
Loki narrowed his eyes at the boy, everyone now gathered around the large table. “A lycan, how fascinating.”
“How did you-?” Confusion clouded both their faces. Bucky’s interest was also piqued as Loki seemed to figure out what Scott was right away.
“Ah, lycans exist throughout Asgard…or well, they did.” Thor trailed off slightly, longing evident in his brown and blue eyes. “They have a distinct kind of…well…”
“Aura.” Loki supplied. “Of the soul.”
At his words, both boys stiffened and Bucky wasn’t the only one to catch it. Peter was staring at them, the kid’s eyes analyzing his new friends. From their posture and the looks on their face, they seemed like they were holding something back.
“Maybe we should sit,” Natasha spoke, “FRIDAY, run another pot of coffee please.”
“Of course Agent Romanoff.”
“Don’t tell my AI what to do,” Stark said offhandedly, taking his seat beside Peter.
Nat just rolled her eyes in response as the rest of them took the remaining seats at the table. The last time they had sat around a table with Scott and Stiles, it felt more like an interrogation as they occupied one side while the Avengers sat on the other. This time, they were merged with the group, with Peter and Tony beside Scott and Sam beside Stiles.
Loki kept his eyes on the two, “I think it’s best that we begin. Stark, you mentioned there was dark matter present along with the chaos magic?”
Tony nodded, “That would be correct.”
“Why is your face doing that?” Clint questioned. “Why do you look confused?”
Thor glanced at his brother, seemingly reading his expression, “Dark matter and chaos magic are not common to come across. Only in certain situations.”
“Chaos magic is not easily contained, only incredibly powerful beings can handle its power.” Loki said.
“Wait, wait,” Stiles interrupted, his astonishment over being in the presence of the two obviously worn off. “Beings? Like somebody brought us here?”
“Somebody,” Loki nodded. “Or perhaps, something.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Steve shook his head, “What purpose would bringing them here have?”
“Strange said that magic isn’t capable of transporting between universes.” Bruce said. Everyone shared puzzled expressions at the information.
“It may be that his magic is not capable of doing so, but as I’ve mentioned, chaos magic is quite powerful. There are simply no parameters as to what it is capable of. However, what I’m interested in specifically is the presence of dark matter.”
Natasha leaned forward, fixing him with a curious stare, “Why is that?”
“An energy surrounds Yggdrasill, similar to what you Midgardians call dark matter. Around Yggdrasill exists all else, including different worlds.” Thor explained, “Its roots extend throughout every universe."
“I’m sorry, did you say roots?” Scott asked, his voice shaken.
“Yes, young lycan, Yggdrasill is the central sacred tree.”
Bucky watched as Scott and Stiles’ faces drained of color, realization overcoming their features. It was obvious that they knew more about this than they had previously thought.
“Care to share with the class, kiddies?” Tony asked. His tone remained light but it was evident that his question was serious.
Stiles swallowed hard, looking between all of them, his eyes falling lastly onto his papers. Everyone remained silent as they awaited his response, watching as he scattered through them, foregoing his earlier organization. Finally, he slid a paper across the table towards the two gods, however it was in everyone’s line of sight.
It was a drawing. Sharp, thick lines extended across the paper, fluid and purposeful. It was a tree.
Scott and Stiles shared a look before the latter slowly turned the paper upside down, the branches extending downwards instead of up.
“How do-” Loki trailed off and it was interesting to see the god at loss for words, “This should not be possible.”
“What does that mean?” Peter asked. It seemed the only ones who had a semblance of what was going on were the two Asgardians, Scott, and Stiles.
“This-this is a branch of Yggdrasill.” Thor said, his voice astonished.
“The Nemeton.” Stiles whispered.
“That is…correct.” Loki nodded at the teen. “The Nemeta are the branches of Yggdrasill, they are the connections between the universes.”
The words hung for a moment before Bruce spoke, “Loki, what shouldn’t be possible?”
The god actually seemed frazzled, looking between the two teenage boys, “The Nemeta are hidden and remain asleep until they are awakened.. It should not be possible for anyone, let alone mortals, to locate them. Unless…”
Bucky watched Scott and Stiles, their faces growing more pale. They looked horrified.
“Unless what?” Clint demanded. “What is he talking about?” He directed the question at the boys.
They stayed silent, staring hard at Loki.
“You guys found it.” Rhodey stated to them. “And something tells me that a magic tree isn’t just something you happen to stumble upon. So how?”
Stiles let out a laugh and to Bucky’s ears it sounded wet, “You know, we kind of did-”
“-we just didn’t realize.” Scott finished.
Thor and Loki looked horrified.
“We’re going to need more than just cryptic words if we’re going to figure out what’s going on,” Tony said easily, looking at the rest of his teammates.
“Mr. Stark, I think they already have.” Peter kept his gaze locked on the two shaken boys.
“You guys woke up the Nemeton.” Natasha deduced.
“Hey, we didn’t have a choice,” Scott snapped defensively. For a moment, Bucky thought his eyes would flash red.
“We knew what the consequences were,” Stiles said, “Maybe not this specifically but we knew what we were doing.”
“What did you do?” Bucky asked.
They stayed quiet, their heads low. Scott’s shoulders were shaking slightly however for once, Stiles was still. He looked back up, his eyes watery but otherwise his expression was stony. “We sacrificed ourselves.”
“You what?” Rhodey choked out.
“I recognized that darkness.” Loki said.
Stiles tensed at his words, although he continued on, “The five-fold knot,” He flipped the drawing of the Nemeton, grabbing a pencil as he began to draw out a complicated symbol. “Virgins, warriors, healers, philosophers,” He wrote each word in the empty spaces, however the middle remained blank.
“Guardians.” Scott concluded, finally looking up. He looked wrecked. “The Darach was taking sacrifices, the three-fold death. She was trying to give power to the Nemeton to get revenge. She took them in groups of three. The final ones were the Guardians, she-” He broke off as his voice cracked.
“She took our parents.” Stiles said softly.
“You sacrificed yourselves for them.” God, the more he learned about these kids, the worse it seemed to get.
“We were the surrogate sacrifices. We did it to take their place and to find them, which I guess awoke the Nemeton too.”
“Ir gave power back to it.” Scott continued on, “It was either us or our parents.”
“You guys…died?” Peter asked carefully.
Scott and Stiles' lack of response was all they needed, their faces solemn.
“By awakening the Nemeton in your world, it must have caught the attention of someone here.” Loki said. “They brought you here for a reason.”
“The explosion.” Steve said suddenly, “It was planned. A kidnapping attempt, for them.” He pointed at the two.
“Wait,” Clint held his hands up. “You said the sacrifices were done in three. If you guys were the surrogate sacrifices, who was the third one?”
“Allison.”