A figure appeared.
"You..."
Everyone stared blankly at Hermione, who had appeared out of nowhere, unable to process what they were seeing.
"Hermione?!"
Natasha was the first to react, undisguised delight spreading across her face. "What are you doing here!"
At her words, Tony turned his head with difficulty and finally saw the girl he hadn't seen in so long.
"Hermione?"
His voice was a little hoarse, tinged with disbelief.
"Are you all right?" Hermione asked Tony.
"I'll live."
Tony's voice was a little hoarse. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? Where... have you been this past year? Pepper and I... we've both been worried about you."
"We can talk about that later." Hermione waved a hand, landed inside, and surveyed the battered group. "Don't you think everything that happened today has been strange, from beginning to end?"
They exchanged glances.
Tony struggled to sit up, and Peter and Rhodey hurried over to support him.
"What do you mean?" Steve frowned.
"This is a setup." Hermione's gaze swept over everyone present. "Someone went to a great deal of trouble to lure you here, step by step, with the sole aim of wiping you out."
Tony leaned against the wall, his mind racing.
The truth about his parents' deaths had clouded his judgment earlier. Now that he had calmed down a little, he went over the whole sequence of events and immediately realized something was wrong.
"It was the Dark Lord," Tony said through gritted teeth. "He orchestrated all of this from behind the scenes."
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "And that so-called Dark Lord is here right now."
Her words caused an immediate uproar.
How was that possible!
The mastermind was among them?!
Steve demanded outright:
"Who!"
Hermione didn't answer. Instead, she slowly turned around.
Her gaze passed over the others and