Avengers No Road Home #5

Omnipotence City, where Nyx, Queen of the Night holds up one of the missing shards of her soul, which sparkles above her. Her daughter, Oizys, slithers around her, holding Voyager prisoner, while the heroes Hercules, Monica Rambeau a.k.a. Spectrum, the Vision and Wanda Maximoff the Scarlet Witch are trapped inside a bubble of darkness. Wanda thinks to herself that the darkness draws ever closer now and that they are helpless to stop it. Wanda knows that Hercules' legendary rage threatens to boil over, but that it has nowhere to go. 'Damn you, Nyx! I will avenge the Olympians and see you slain!' Hercules booms, while Wanda realizes that Nyx is in control, as she and her children dispatched them with ease, and now that she has a piece of power, she will become even stronger.

Nyx looks closely at the shard in her hand, recalling how Zeus created them to diminish her power, she wonders how she accesses the power once more – shatter it, ingest it? 'It's a strange sort of puzzle, isn't it?' she remarks to herself, while inside the bubble, Spectrum glows with energy, energy that she cannot release as there is nowhere for it to go. Wanda knows that outside the bubble, Oizys is still coiled around Voyager, controlling her by feeding her messages that she is numb and that her mind is weak, while back in the bubble, Wanda knows that the Vision is dying, his system riddled with malfunctions and his body battered. 'And me? Nyx took my sight and used me to help find her shard' Wanda reminds herself. She looks out of the bubble, all she can “see” is Nyx's power, and that growing darkness.

The blind Wanda looks down at her hands, she knows a spell that might break these bonds, but without her eyes, she can't trace the sigils needed to activate it. No one else can see what Wanda sees, before she turns to Monica, who utters 'Wanda, please tell me you have a brilliant plan'. 'Have you ever wanted to be a witch?' Wanda responds.

Meanwhile, in Nightmare's Realm, Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye fights alongside Rocket Raccoon, firing an arrow, he tells Rocket that he isn't saying he ever wanted this, and asks if it is a bad thing that he is kind of enjoying himself. 'I don't know, Barton. Maybe?' Rocket responds as he fires his machine gun into the sleeping army before them, while the Immortal Hulk rides the dark steed called Dreamstalker, smashing his way through Hypnos' slumbering forces with great speed. Hypnos sees this, and tells his army to keep the green demon busy while he bravely fetches the Shard of Night from inside Nightmare's castle. 'Yeah, you better run, Hynpos' the Hulk grins as he watches Hypnos enter Nightmare's castle.

Hawkeye tells Rocket that it is like they are in a dream, so he can cut loose and not hurt anybody. 'Feels kinda like Space Invaders' he adds. 'Space Invaders? What's that? Some Earth thing?' Rocket mutters as he continues to fire his gun. Hawkeye readies another arrow as he explains that it is an old video game, that you have to kill all the space aliens before they set foot on Earth soil. 'Present company excluded, I mean...' Clint adds. 'Oh, thank you. I feel so, so welcome in your neighborhood' Rocket scowls, before telling Hawkeye that this is why the whole galaxy thinks he sucks. 'Look, I didn't come up with the -' Hawkeye begins, before he goes wide-eyed as he sees something, or someone, up ahead. 'Barton?' Rocket asks. 'Holy flark -' Rocket begins, as Kate Bishop, also called Hawkeye, appears, leaping at Clint, she kicks him in the face and knocks him back. 'It's the real Hawkeye!' Rocket calls out.

'Z' the younger Hawkeye, whose face is covered by a soldier's helmet, exclaims. Clint rubs his face and calls out to Kate, he tells her to wake up, before asking her if she is sleeping with her clothes on, as it is past noon. 'What time did you get in last night -' Clint begins, before Kate's boot once again strikes his face. 'Z' Kate Bishop declares. 'She's literally beating me in her sleep' Clint mutters, before reaching into his back pocket, he decides that it is time for the ace-in-the-hole Goliath serum. 'Take me away -' Clint begins, but his hand comes back empty, the serum is gone. 'I had it right here – where did it -' Clint begins, before a powerful blast of energy slams into Kate, knocking her backwards. 'You – you shot her -' Clint utters. 'What? You said this wasn't real -' Rocket replies. 'What if I'm wrong?' Clint wonders. Looking down over the battlefield, littered with bodies, Rocket tells Clint that if he's wrong, then they're all sons of Krutkas, before he asks where the Hulk has gone.

Inside Nightmare's castle, Hypnos reaches for the shard called the Night That May Yet Be. It glows in his hand as he declares that the task is done. 'The battle is ended – and I have won! I've won, do you hear?' Hypnos calls out, when suddenly, the Hulk smashes his way into the castle, large sword in hand as Dreamstalker moves him towards Hypnos, who turns and runs in fear. 'That means you have to stop!' Hypnos calls out to the Hulk. 'Mother! Mother, where are you?' Hypnos cries out.

Back in Omnipotence City, 'She's concentrating on her shard, so we've got a moment' Wanda tells Monica, before remarking that she heard about the trick Monica used when she fought Shuma-Gorath, and explains that she can guide her this time. 'The glyphs? I can shape my light form, yes, but I can't work off just a description, can I?' Monica replies. 'Nor can I draw such exacting shapes blind. But if you transform into neural electricity -' Wanda begins, as Spectrum shifts to an energy form, '- maybe I can enter your mind and see your thoughts?' Monica concludes, before telling Wanda to brace herself, as this may hurt. Wanda screams as Monica's energy form enters her mind, and Wanda decides that “hurt” is an understatement – it is a seizure. Then, she hears Monica's voice in her head, calling out to her, as sigils light up with Monica's energy form. Wanda explains to Monica that she needs to copy the sigils she is picturing – copy them precisely.

Wanda remarks that this is a complex spell, requiring certain visual components, and she will only have a moment to cast it. Wanda tells the Vision and Hercules to be ready. Wanda is intrigued by Spectrum's new levels of power, and she knows the Vision well enough to guess what he is thinking – because he has wrestled with something similar the whole time she has known him: “If being like Spectrum can change form as easily as a thought...if one can leave flesh and blood behind...then how mich of their original humanity is left” Wanda quotes, deciding that this is a question for later, as she casts the spell thanks to the sigils being illuminated by Spectrum. 'By blood and bone of Ostrum... 'gainst enemy of night... turn black to gray, turn gray to gold... turn darkness into light!' Wanda exclaims, her spell works, as the dark bubble trapping the heroes vanishes. 'Forget Mother Night! Concentrate on her kids! Trust me!' Wanda tells her friends, as Spectrum emerges from Wanda's mind and speeds forward towards the Children of the Night.

The Vision blasts an energy beam towards Dolos, while Hercules rushes towards Oizys, and slams his fist into her, knocking the slithering creature across the room and into a bookcase, freeing Voyager from her grasp in the process. 'Apate, was it? Nasty work those knives. I imagine you and Dolos there are awfully formidable -' Spectrum begins as she flies towards Apate, dodging her knives. '- as long as you can lay a hand on your opponents!' the Vision points out as he grabs Dolos by his throat, Dolos tries to blow some mist-like substance at the Vision. 'Kill. Them' Nyx snarls as she turns to the chaos around her, while Hercules helps Voyager to stand, 'Friend Voyager, are you injured?' Hercules asks. Voyager coughs as she stands and tells Hercules that she is just shaken, before warning him to look out, as Oizys returns, and places her hands on Hercules' head, telling him to surrender, as he cannot win. 'Succumb' Oizys utters, as she pulls away from Hercules, whose muscular body shakes as he tells Oizys 'You traffic in – in despair – do you -? THEN YOU ARE A FOOL TO FACE A MAN WITH NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE!' Hercules roars as he grabs Oizys by her throat, and slams her into the ground, which shatters upon the force of the impact.

Because Wanda's blindness is linked to Nyx, she and her offspring are not altogether hidden from Wanda, who imagines the frustration Apate feels fighting Spectrum, an immaterial woman, who darts around Apate, who cannot touch her. She feels the solar energy that Vision, tapping dangerously deep into his reserve of power, unleashes against Dolos. Wanda believes that this is working, and that there is a reason she told the others to attack not Nyx but her children – they are providing any magician's greatest advantage – misdirection. Nyx holds the shard in her hand, while Wanda releases a hex, which causes the shard to slip from Nyx's grasp. 'NO!' Nyx utters, as Wanda rushes forward, she has no plan, only certainty that Nyx cannot have that which she seeks – and hope that Voyager is watching. 'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?' Nyx shouts at Wanda, who dives for the shard, and catches it in her hand. 'Wanda! The shard!' Voyager exclaims, before opening a portal and telling Wanda to keep the shard safe, as Wanda leaps through the portal, who experiences a moment of weightlessness, then she feels herself falling, while Nyx reaches down to punch Wanda, only she misses, as Wanda has vanished.

'You odious little insect!' Nyx shrieks, turning to Voyager, shaking her fists, but before Nyx can harm Voyager, Oizys wraps herself around Voyager once more, and tells her mother that Voyager must tell them where she sent the fragment. Nyx looks away as she telepathically communicates with Hypnos, informing him that his siblings have failed her, that he must come to her, as she must have his shard now. 'Do you understand me? Come to me at once so that we may – HYPNOS!' Nyx gasps, wide-eyed, as her link to her son reveals to her that Hypnos has been captured by the Hulk, who holds a powerful arm around Hypnos' neck. 'Mother – I – I'm sorry. I – I tried -' Hypnos utters, while Dreamstalker stands behind the Hulk, green energy glowing around the mighty steed, as the Hulk mutters 'Yeah. You had a big day, little man. Now go to sleep' as he smiles and easily breaks Hypnos' neck.

'HYPNOSSSS!' Nyx screams. 'Enough of this' she utters, turning to the Vision, who still holds Dolos by his throat, while Hercules knocks Apate through the air. 'Mortals – you've no concept of how merciful I have been thus far!' Nyx calls out to the heroes, before telling them that this is their lesson, as she casts a shadow over Hercules and Vision, turning them to sand, they crumble to the ground as Voyager looks on, shocked. 'Oh...oh no...' Voyager utters.

Meantime: 'Where am – who? Stay back!' the Scarlet Witch calls out, hex energy darting around her hands, before someone throws a stone at her head, 'Ahh!' Wanda screams as her headpiece falls from her head. 'Beautiful and foolish' someone remarks, before someone else notices that she has some kind of crystal. 'I bet this'll be worth fair silver in the market!' someone seclares as they reach down into the sand and pick up the shard. Wanda rubs her headas several men gather around her, she tells them that they don't understand, and that she is lost. The sky above glows yellow as one of the men warns Wanda that she is lost and dead, now. 'Better luck in the next life!' another man calls out, when suddenly, 'Robbing a helpless wench? You Zamoran scum are all the same – yipping dogs looking for an easy meal!' a voice calls out. The men look over, and suddenly they find themselves fighting a new arrival.

Wanda crawls across the sand, she detects that the air is hot and humid. 'Feast on this, mongrel!' Wanda's savior declares as he smacks one of the men over. Wanda feels the sand between her fingers, and the choking sounds of violence. The stench of metal and sweat fills Wanda's senses, as the men are slammed to the ground, defeated. Wanda's head is ringing, while two remaining men turn and run for their lives across the sand. 'He can't catch us all!' one of them points out, while Wanda runs her hands through the sand, knowing she has to find the shard – suddenly, a figure stands in front of her. 'Rest now, woman. I will carry you... this Cimmerian has enough strength for both of us' Wanda's rescuer, Conan, boasts as he helps Wanda to her feet and pulls her next to his muscular body as his sword is raised, ready for battle, gleaming under the yellow sky....