The idea that she might be the reason why something was happening to Strange scared her. And at that moment, she knew she couldn’t take it anymore. She needed a break more than anything. Without saying a word, she left the room immediately.
Oh, God, yes. I need a break. And that should help me get myself together. But where are you going to find a place that’s still open at this hour? -SS
My house. Duh. I’ll send you the address. -IS
Blythe practically pounced on the older version of herself. "Tell me everything!"
"Slow down, Mini-Me. I'm 20 years older than you guys. I don't want to reveal anything that's gonna happen in the near future. Though I suppose I could give a few clues, just with no context. Papa, invert the Mobius Strip. You and Dad, don't blame yourself for what happens to me. It destroyed both of you. And Peter? Don't trust Beck. He's bad news. Just…don't."
She sighed as she left the building and looked at her phone as it pinged with the address. She quickly took a look at it and started walking down the streets of New York. It was around the middle of the night, and Stephanie noticed that she wasn’t one bit sleepy. She was a bit nervous as she reached the apartment where the sender of the text lived. She knocked on the door nervously and took a step back.
The door opened, and a girl around the same age-range as Stephanie, stood in front of her. She had bright blue eyes, black-brown hair, pale skin and was dressed in a white t-shirt and pajama pants. The girl smiled and let Stephanie in. Once inside, Stephanie turned to face the girl. “Hello. . .” Stephanie trailed off.
“Irene.” The girl finished for her. “I’m done with Iris. Well, at least for today.” She said with a shrug as she walked to the kitchen.
Stephanie smiled and followed her. “I assume Irene is here to stay for a while? I really don’t want to deal with Iris. Not after what she did tonight.”
Irene smiled sheepishly. “Sorry about that. Sometimes, it’s hard acting like to different people. But, yeah. Irene is here to stay for a while.”
"I don't think you're here to warn us over the future, Mrs Parker," Fury said quickly, interrupted.
"God, please don't call me that. Sounds strange. But you're right." She looked around. "Where the fuck did Stephanie go? I need her here. She's the main reason I'm here."
Irene started making some tea and told Stephanie to go sit on the couch while it was ready. Moments later, she returned with two cups and handed one to Stephanie. Stephanie took it gladly and took a sip of it.
“So how’s life’s treating you?” Irene asked.
“Horrible. I don’t want to stay here any longer, but I don’t have any choice. I can’t find a way to return. I’ve been working on this device that’s supposed to help me, but I can’t make it work.” Stephanie said with a sigh.
“Can’t you use The Wand of Watoomb? If I remember right, It opens dimensional portals.”
“Yes, but without knowing what universe we lived in, it’s hopeless.” She turned to Irene. “I have a question. Why are you here?”
“Papa and Dad sent me. They wanted me to find you. As you can see, I did. But I have no way to communicate with them.” Irene put down her cup of tea on the table and left the room. Seconds later, she returned with a pajama and handed them to Stephanie. “Go and change into this. You’re probably freezing in that dress. And don’t give me your It-won’t-fit excuse because I’m only one year older than you. It’ll be a bit big, but it’ll work. You can stay here for the night if you want.”
Stephanie smiled, put her cup of tea on the table, grabbed the pajamas and stood up. “Thank you, Irene.”
“No problem. Bathroom is to the left.” She said with a smile. She watched as Stephanie disappeared further into the apartment.
(i'm gonna call the older blythe just b to differentiate)
"I didn't see her go…" Peter said.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" B's suit appeared, covering her body. It was more advanced and detailed than the one she'd had as a teenager, thanks to Tony's future suits. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. scan the city for Stephanie. I need to find her."
"Whoa, that's cool," Tony marveled over her suit. "That's brilliant."
"Of course. You made it."
When Stephanie returned, there was some food on the living room table. She looked at Irene quizzically, who only shrugged. She sat down on the floor and Stephanie did the same. “I thought you’d be hungry, so I fished out some left overs I had in the fridge. Nothing fancy. Just some sushi rolls, spider rolls, Chow mein, some cream cheese kimbaps and a can of banana milkis for you and a can of strawberry milkis for me.”
“So, technically, a little bit of China, a bit of Japan and a bit of Korea?” Stephanie said with a grin as she took the chopsticks and started eating the kimbaps.
Irene chuckled and also started eating. “Yes. And I remembered how much you loved the kimbap and the milkis, so I looked around in my fridge to see if I had any. Luckily, I had take-out Korean food for breakfast.”
F.R.I.D.A.Y. pinpointed the address, showing it on B's helmet screen. "I have to go find Stephanie. But I don't think all of us should go. Peter, Mini-Me. You guys come. Hill, I'll get F.R.I.D.A.Y. to connect my comms to yours."
"You're so cool," Blythe said in awe, staring up at the only centimetres taller B.
"Well, I do have like 30 years of experience with this kind of stuff, 20 of those years being in the field."
Stephanie chuckled and ate silently. After long moments of silence she sighed. “So, how’s the family?”
“They’re all worried. They’ve been helping dad and papa create a device to, y’know, locate you. Uncle Bruce been helping papa with the device. Dad had been. . .eating less than usual. It came to a point where Papa didn’t know what to do and had to phone Uncle Everett. And you know how those two aren’t really in good terms.” Stephanie nodded, telling Irene to continue. “When I last saw dad and papa, Uncle Everett was staying with them.”
“Why?” Stephanie asked.
“Papa asked him to stay. He literally begged him. He said Uncle Everett was the only one who could make dad to eat without dad getting mad. I assume you know dad and Uncle Everett’s history.”
Stephanie did. Of course, no one told her that her dad and her uncle had some sort of history. She had figured it herself that time when her uncle gave her some cool Wakandian technology for her tenth birthday.
“Either way, this was a surprise to everyone, but after a while, our lovely uncle agreed. And that’s a good thing too, because I’m sure papa would’ve have driven himself insane if he didn’t have some help with dad.” Irene said with a slight chuckle.
B began to fly out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, not looking back to see if Blythe or Peter were following her.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. connect my comms to Hill's. Give me directions to Stephanie."
She glanced behind to see Blythe swinging a few metres behind, Peter level with her.
Stephanie nodded and finished her food in silence. She was happy that she could spend time with Irene, because usually, Irene would be running away from the good guys, so she never really got the chance to hang out with her. Irene finished and picked up the plates and took them to the kitchen. Stephanie sighed and rubbed her eyes.
On her helmet screen, F.R.I.D.A.Y. was pinpointing exactly where Stephanie was.
B landed, standing outside. "She better be in here, F.R.I.D.A.Y."
B knocked on the door, still in full armour.
Irene had finished watching the dishes, and ran into the living room, stopping Stephanie who was about to get up. “Don’t. Did anyone follow you?” Stephanie shook her head. “You sure, Steph?”
“I’m sure. They were all arguing when I left.”
Irene wondered who was they, but instead of asking her, she left the living room and went to the front of the house. She opened the door and frowned when she saw a person in armour. “Can I help you?”
"Stephanie," B said simply. Blythe and Peter landed behind her. "I'm here to talk to Stephanie. I know she's here."
Irene groaned inwardly the minute Peter landed. From this, she could make out that Stephanie had left something very important. She kept her expression neutral and looked at the superheroes.
"I don't know who Stephanie is." Irene said as she crossed her arms. "Now, if you lovely superheroes," Irene started as she started to close the door. Her face twisted in disgust as she said the word superheroes. "would be so kind to leave, that would be greatly appreciated."
"Listen," B said. Her helmet disappeared, revealing an annoyed expression. "I don't care who you are. I don't care what you do. But Stephanie is the whole reason I'm here. She's the reason Strange sent me from my world. I just want to fucking talk. And I am not here to mess around."
“Like I said, I don’t know who Stephanie is. I don’t give a fuck if Strange, whoever Strange is, sent you from your world because of this Stephanie.” Irene said as she slammed the door shut. She huffed and walked back to the living room.
“They’re looking for you, y’know.” Irene said without looking at Stephanie.
“They can go jump off a cliff for all I care.”
Irene just shook her head and sat down on the couch.
"They wanna do that, huh?" B asked herself. She was stronger than she used to be, and her suit amplified her strength. She lifted her leg and kicked the door in, walking in after.
"I'll pay for your door. But I'm not here to fuck around."
Irene was about to get up, but Stephanie stopped her. “Don’t. I’ll handle this. And don’t even dare interfere. You’ll get seriously hurt.”
“Don’t tell me you’ll break every single bone in their body while naming them if they hurt me?” Irene asked.
Stephanie didn’t respond, giving Irene her answer. Stephanie stood up and walked over to the intruders, and Irene was right behind her.
B's helmet retreated, and now she just looked…sad. "Listen, Stephanie. I don't want to hurt you. I really don't. And I'm not going to. I just want to talk. My world is getting messed up and I'm sure it's because of you. Wong thinks so. Strange thinks so. You don't exist in my world. And my world and this world are identical in every way but Mini-Me and Mini-Peter having switched powers. You just don't exist. And I've known Strange since I was a little girl. If you existed you would be my age. I just need to know what's going on. If you're stuck here, maybe I can help you."
Irene looked at Stephanie and dragged her about two feet away from the others. “Callista, look at me.” Stephanie turned to look at her. “Can you trust her?” Irene whispered.
Stephanie looked up at Irene and sighed. “She’s Blythe. You know I trust Blythe.”
“You trust everybody. Which isn’t a good thing.”
“I know, but still. She’s offering help. You don’t know how badly I want to see everyone again.” Stephanie said.
“She said that maybe she could help. Don’t get your hopes up, sister.”
Stephanie bit her lip and returned back to the others. “You want to know what’s happening, then?”
"I don't want to know. I need to know. I'm 48, OK? I've lived a lot of my life. I've had a lot happen to me. I was almost raped multiple times as a teenager. I had to catch up on five years of my life because some giant purple dude got rid of half the population. I lost my aunt while I was gone and my Papa the moment I got back. I suddenly had to be a sister to a girl who was born in the five years I was gone. I almost lost my husband when I was 22 and a few months pregnant with our eldest kid. I might have lived a life but my four kids haven't. I mean my youngest is 13. I don't want her to suddenly not have a world."
Irene leaned on the wall and looked at Stephanie. Stephanie just stared at Irene. “Well, go on. Tell them everything. Well, maybe not everything. Just the parts that are important to them, okay?”
Stephanie nodded and turned back to B. “It happened four years ago. I was doing. . .I have no idea what I was doing, but I was doing something. One moment I was in my universe, the next moment I was in this universe. To me, everything looked the same, but at the same time it wasn’t. The only thing that made me realise that I was no longer in my universe was the year. I found a newspaper lying around. 2014, it said.
It was two years after Loki attacked New York. It was one year before Ultron went haywire, two years before the whole Team Captain America vs Team Iron Man situation. And probably a couple months after the attack on S.H.I.E.L.D. that made Black Widow, the Falcon and Captain America join forces. And yes, I am stuck here. I’ve been stuck here in this hell hole for the past four years. While she,” she pointed over at Irene. “Has been stuck here for less than a year.”
“Desparte, they were. Sent me here to find her. Thought it would be quick. Locate her, grab her, take her back home, everybody became happy, etc. Only, it proved more difficult than they thought it would. They didn’t really think what would’ve happened if their plan backfired.” Irene added.
“They being my parents. No, they’re not dead. And yes, I’ve been lying to you two. . . no, everybody for the last four years. Do I feel guilty about it? Yes, yes I do. Is there anything I can do to make that guilt go away? No.” Stephanie said without looking at them.
“It is what it is.” Irene simply said.
B took in the information, not saying anything or interrupting. "Do you know what universe you're from? Like Hill said, this is Earth-19999. I'm from Earth-1999999. There's Earth-199999, where there's no Blythe. Everything is different. I went there for research once and it is wild. Anyway. I think I could help you get back, but I can't do anything if I don't know what universe you're from."
Stephanie thought for a bit and then looked at Irene. “Earth-199999, perhaps?”
“It would make the most sense. Blythe doesn’t exist there, and it is pretty wild. Strange, even.” Irene replied with a grin.
“Don’t. Please don’t. You know how much I hate it when you do that,” She paused. “I wonder why she doesn’t exist.”
“Oh, don’t act stupid. You know why.” Irene replied with a stern gaze.
Stephanie didn’t reply and instead she just nodded.