With this high-pitched alarm blaring repeatedly, these violent shaking, members of the base personnel running in all directions, Mathias had the impression of being plunged into a real apocalypse movie. No one paid any attention to him, not even the guards, one of whom involuntarily jostled him and left without even looking back. Mathias quickly stood up and continued his desperate search for Wanda.

_"General alert! General alert! The prisoner Wanda Maximoff is escaping! To all security teams, neutralize her by all means!" a man's voice shouted over the loudspeakers scattered throughout the base.

_"WANDA!" Mathias called out in the middle of the chaos to try to hear a response from him, but nothing.

With his heart pounding, he continued to search tirelessly, looking into every room, looking at the faces of everyone he passed. Anxious, he prayed inwardly that nothing had happened to her.

But when he had just crossed several corridors, the young man jumped in fear upon hearing a series of brutal explosions, screams and the sound of gunfire not far away. Fearing the worst, Mathias ran towards the source of the noises, but quickly fell backwards when the wall not far from him to his right shattered, debris being thrown at full speed. The bloody and dislocated corpses of several guards lay in the rubble, the latter having clearly been thrown through the wall by a prodigious force. Mathias looked at this with horror, but quickly saw scientists, then other guards, pass through the gap in the wall and flee at full speed as if they were being chased by the devil himself.

_"We can't kill her!" one of them shouted while running. "Retreat! Retreat!"

But as they rushed over the debris of the breach to escape, two of the guards were grabbed and lifted into the air by a scarlet energy that enveloped them and suddenly, their bodies broke in two at the level of the spinal column, like twigs, before falling lifeless to the ground. Mathias, shocked, peeked through the gap and what he saw left him speechless, his eyes wide.

Blood everywhere, repainting the floor, walls and even the ceiling. Tables, chairs and desks overturned and broken. Bodies of men and women from SHIELD, lying dead everywhere, their bodies torn apart, dismembered, with dislocated limbs, broken necks, some having been thrown and shattered against the walls... A real carnage. Mathias had to restrain himself from vomiting as the smell of blood, death and the sight of all these massacred and bloody bodies were so unbearable. Then, in the middle of the room, in the middle of this massacre, he saw her...

Wanda, standing, face closed, dark and menacing. Her face, hands and civilian clothes were stained with the blood of her many victims. The irises of her eyes glowed with this scarlet magic that she possessed, which made her truly terrifying. This same energy surrounded her hands and forearms. Before her was a man in a white coat, frightened and trembling, held in mid-air by Wanda's magic. She looked at him with a macabre coldness, as if he meant nothing to her.

_"I... I beg you, have mercy... I have a wife and kids..." cried the scientist.

_"Does a human being have mercy for the ant he crushes under his boot?" Wanda then replied grimly.

Quickly understanding the witch's strange question, the man shook even more with fright and he began to scream in pain when Wanda, unmoved, gently clenched her fist, the scarlet magic slowly but surely beginning to compress the man to shrink him into mush.

For Mathias, it was too much, he could not let this cruel execution happen before his eyes.

_"WANDA! STOP!" he shouted as he burst into the room through the gap.

Alerted by the voice, Wanda was distracted and her spell canceled, the freed scientist falling heavily to the ground, and seeing that the witch had diverted her attention from him, he took the opportunity to flee through the emergency door. Mathias and Wanda faced each other, separated by only ten meters. Wanda tilted her head slightly to the side, as if examining the young man.

_"I know you..." she said macabrely.

_"Wanda, listen to me..."

But suddenly, with a single step, Wanda teleported in a flash right in front of Mathias who had a start of fear and took a step back, feeling crushed by the scarlet gaze of the young woman who kept staring at him.

_"I'm not Wanda." she said firmly. "I am... The Scarlet Witch."

Mathias gasped in horror and confusion, Wanda's voice sounding very dark, very macabre, but also very ethereal, as if someone else was speaking with her voice. With a simple gesture of her head, she invoked her scarlet magic which surrounded Mathias, lifting him from the ground as if he weighed nothing and threw him backwards, pinning his back against a wall. Mathias tried to fight, but in vain, he had the impression that thousands of very powerful invisible hands were holding him all over his body and preventing him from moving. Still using her magic, Wanda, or rather this Scarlet Witch who possessed her, made sharp, levitating knives materializing in the air all around her and pointed them at Mathias, who felt his blood run cold with fear and swallowed seeing all these blades aimed at him. It only took a gesture or a thought for the witch to send these knives in a deadly rain that would end the young man's life. Walking slowly but confidently, Wanda approached Mathias, completely at her mercy while she was standing right in front of him. He expected her to kill him like she did all those SHIELD members, but she didn't. Instead, she observed the young man for long minutes, coming to touch his hair, his cheeks, with her hands. She then kept her hand on his chest, as if she was listening his heart beating.

_"Hmm, I now understand why Wanda is interested in you... You have such strength within you, that you are not even aware of..." she commented coldly. "And all this veil of mystery that surrounds your past, this pain, this loneliness, I feel it... Such wasted potential is heartbreaking."

_"But... what are you talking about? I don't understand anything!" Mathias replied despite the fear and looking the witch in the eyes. "Let Wanda go!"

Suddenly, Wanda's lips, expressed by the witch, formed a smile that was both charming and evil as she brought her face a little closer to Mathias', even going so far as to caress his cheek with her fingertips.

_"Could this be affection that I perceive in the tone of your voice, in the spark that I see in your eye, and in the determination that animates the beat of your heart?" said the witch. "Or is it more than that...Is it love? Do you love Wanda?"

Mathias blushed softly at these words and internally fought against the witch's perfidious game of wanting to seduce him, but she insisted greatly, almost amused to see him like this.

_"Wanda can't bring you anything, she is weak, broken, like you... a solitary being, abandoned by everyone, without a past, without a future..." the witch continued, forcing Mathias to look at her, as if to try to hypnotize him. "But I... I can give you absolute power. I can make you a king, no... a god. And I will become your queen. Together we can accomplish anything, reshape reality as we wish, not just in this universe, but in all universes."

As she spoke, the witch continued to use her mental magic to penetrate and assault the mind of Mathias who tried to fight not to succumb to the spell. It's true, he couldn't hide his sensitivity to Wanda's beauty, but he refused to become the puppet of this creature who possessed her.

_"No... I... I must not give in..." Mathias growled through clenched teeth, feeling an increasingly strong pain in his skull and brain.

_"You are strong, but the more you resist, the more the pain will increase." said the witch with a sinister smile. "Why resist? Leave it to me, let me take care of you..."

Slowly, she approached her lips imbued with her scarlet magic, ready to place them on those of Mathias and infect him even more with her mental spell. Their lips were only a few centimeters apart, and at the slightest touch, she knew, he would be entirely hers. Mathias was really in too much pain and finding it increasingly difficult to resist Wanda's fatal beauty...

But suddenly, one of the walls of the room shattered with extreme violence, so much so that the resulting wave threw Wanda and Mathias backwards several meters, thus breaking the mind control spell. Mathias had rolled across the floor, hitting an overturned table while Wanda had gone through a bay window. Rubbing his aching head, Mathias came to his senses and then found himself faced with another vision that paralyzed him.

From the still smoking breach of the wall that had just been destroyed, came a colossal creature, almost three meters high. A very muscular body, green skin, shreds of shirt still hanging on one shoulder and part of the collar and simple shorts as clothing. Monstrously huge hands and feet and a square humanoid head, with short black hair, glowing green eyes and a bestial fury in his expression. Breathing like a raging bull, the enormous creature then emitted a monstrous roar filled with rage, so powerful that the air shook and Mathias had to cover his ears to avoid going deaf.

But his heart leapt with fear when he saw the huge green monster looking at him and growl ferociously at him.

_"Oh no..." breathed Mathias who expected the worst.

_"Hulk...Smash!" roared the monster, raising his two enormous fists above him and preparing to crush Mathias with them.

But suddenly, a powerful projection of scarlet magic appeared and hit Hulk who was propelled through several tables, then the wall. Mathias then stepped back, heart pounding and horrified, and then saw Wanda, still possessed, levitating back into the room, surrounded by her chaos magic and showing a very dark and displeased face. The pile of debris erupted, Hulk emerging from it and roaring once again, made even more furious by the attack he had received. Mathias backed up again to the gap, his terrified gaze staring at the two supernatural beings who were now facing each other, looking at each other with the same flame of anger in their eyes. Hulk roared, making the veins in his muscles grow while Scarlet Witch surrounded herself with an increasingly intense halo of chaotic magic, as if charging a powerful spell. The walls and air in the room began to shake under the influence of this power.

Feeling that the confrontation that was going to ensue was going to become violent beyond imaginable, Mathias left the room through the emergency exit, towards the outside. Then, the Hulk struck in front of him powerfully with his fists, causing the ground to shatter in a devastating seismic wave, but the Scarlet Witch reacted and projected a powerful wave of chaotic magic in front of her which collided directly with the Hulk's seismic wave, having the effect to create an even more powerful explosion which destroyed half of the building.

From outside, Mathias had seen the explosion and was even thrown to the ground by the shock wave. But when he got up, he saw Wanda and Hulk, in the middle of the ruins of the building, both having not moved from their positions and intact, Hulk having been protected by his thick skin and Wanda by her magic which surrounded her. The base was in the middle of a barren desert, and night had already fallen. But in which country they were, there was no way of knowing and for the moment it was not the primary concern. As SHIELD continued to evacuate the base, the confrontation between the two supernatural beings resumed. Hulk jumped forward in rage and tried to crush Scarlet Witch who avoided him by levitating at high speed to one side, Hulk causing the ground to explode on impact. The green giant then grabbed some debris from the building's walls and threw it towards his opponent, but the Red Witch effortlessly vaporized the debris with her magic before they reached her.

Deciding to counterattack, the witch lifted Hulk telekinetically, then sent him violently and multiple times hitting the ground as well as several rock formations nearby. Crushing the green giant against the ground once again, the Scarlet Witch then telekinetically lifted a huge boulder and sent it crashing into Hulk. But the smoke had barely cleared when the pile of rock debris burst, Hulk leaping out, without a scratch and even more furious than before. The Scarlet Witch frowned, showing growing frustration but in no way worried, and continued the fight. But as she was about to cast a new spell, Hulk took her by surprise by slamming his hands together, creating a massive shockwave that hit the witch head-on and threw her backwards, causing her to hit the side of a rocky cliff, but she had managed to cushion the shock by surrounding herself with her veil of scarlet magic.

Quickly regaining her senses and seeing Hulk charging towards her, the Scarlet Witch, annoyed, decided to move up a gear and accentuated the effect of her magic, the halo of energy around her becoming thicker. By her simple thought and a gesture of her hands, she managed to tear off and lift an enormous piece of the cliff by telekinesis, under the dumbfounded eyes of Mathias who, having remained behind, observed the fight and felt truly powerless to be able to help Wanda.

Undaunted by the huge piece of cliff that was about to fall on him, Hulk concentrated all his strength and with a powerful blow from both fists, pulverized the rock into thousands of fragments which were scattered across the area. Mathias was stunned by the physical power of this monster, but the Scarlet Witch remained unperturbed, as if expecting this result and even showed a hint of a smile. When the dust and smoke cleared, Hulk noticed that around ten spheres of unstable chaotic energy materialized by the witch, completely surrounded him. With a simple thought, she made them all explode, the green giant finding himself engulfed in a huge explosion of energy which devastated the area for tens of meters and forced Mathias to take cover so as not to be torn apart by the shock wave.

The Scarlet Witch slowly levitated to approach and see the result. Unsurprisingly, the Hulk was still alive, kneeling on the sand, his body smoking and slightly charred in places but regenerating quickly thanks to his superhuman abilities. But the pain caused by the explosion of magic had also strengthened his already great rage, to the point of making his eyes glow with a radioactive green glow, the gamma rays being reinforced by Banner's anger. Suddenly raising his head, he delivered a violent punch towards the Scarlet Witch, who had just time to create a protective field in front of her but was still propelled backwards by the prodigious strength of the green giant. The Hulk, still screaming like a rabid animal, leapt at a much greater speed than before, grabbing the witch while she was still in the air, and threw her violently against a rock formation which shattered on impact. The Scarlet Witch got up in the middle of the debris, injured but quickly regenerated her wounds with her magic, even repairing the bone of one of her arms which had broken.

Hulk charged towards her with force and speed, making the ground shake with each step. Mathias, horrified and powerless to act, saw that Wanda, possessed, did not move from her position, waiting steadfastly for the green giant while she summoned a veritable maelstrom of chaotic magic around her and telekinetically sent rocks hit the Hulk to slow him down in his run. In her hands, the witch began to concentrate a spell, like a sort of sphere of scarlet energy growing thicker and brighter. Despite the rocks that rained down on him incessantly, Hulk approached faster and faster, his green eyes glowing with unprecedented murderous madness.

When he was a few meters away, ready to strike, the Scarlet Witch, her red eyes glowing, acted, unleashing from her hands a powerful and enormous continuous ray of chaotic magic which hit Hulk head-on, to the point of tearing off one of his arms.

Thrown backwards by the power of the chaotic beam, Hulk hit the ground and rolled several meters, his skin smoking and horribly burned but already beginning to heal. But the Scarlet Witch, more than annoyed, was determined not to give him any more respite and without waiting, bombarded Hulk with explosive projections of magic, giving him no time to regenerate his wounds and only accentuating his fury. One of the chaotic magical projections hit Hulk in the head, tearing off half of his face, but driven mad by the incessant attacks and the pain, the green giant, with a masterful slap, struck the Scarlet Witch who once again flew into back and rolled on the ground a little further.

Seeing that the young woman did not get up, Mathias, more than worried, ran towards her despite the danger.

_"Wanda! Can you hear me?! Tell me something, please!" Mathias begged, falling to his knees beside her in the sand.

Suddenly, Wanda gasped, regaining her senses and coughing a little, also wincing from the blow received, but her magic having protected her, she had no serious injuries. However, the power of Hulk's blow had been so violent that Wanda had finally been freed from her possession by the witch's spirit. The young woman looked around, confused, as if wondering how she got there and noticed Mathias, who, more than relieved to see her come to, hugged her forcefully.

_"I was so worried about you." whispered the young man.

_"M...Mathias? What happened?" Wanda then asked, lost and with slightly red cheeks as the young man hugged her.

As Mathias helped her up, Wanda then noticed the SHIELD base, completely devastated as well as the bodies of staff members, lying among the rubble. Wanda's heart heaved with horror, for she immediately guessed what had happened.

_"My god... it's... it's me who did that..." she breathed, her lips trembling, a tear falling from her eye.

_"Wanda... I..." Mathias, sorry for her, wanted to say to try to comfort her.

But a bestial and deafening roar interrupted him and the duo then saw Hulk, who despite his significant wounds healing, was approaching them with a slow step but determined to massacre them both. Mathias, more than worried, took a step back, but Wanda remained shocked to see the green monster.

_"Banner... Oh no..." she panted and quickly understood that his injuries were her doing.

Thanks to her magic, the young woman managed to analyze Bruce's mind, but very quickly, she grimaced with terror as she perceived the unspeakable chaos that was his mind and even managed to perceive, like a past moment, the voice of the Nick Fury of this reality, reciting words in Bruce's ear, like an activation phrase and triggering in him this fury that changed him into the Hulk. Wanda felt her heart tighten with deep sadness. This was the Bruce Banner of this reality: a living weapon, a puppet used by the SHIELD and who had undergone the same brainwashing and cerebral programming that Barnes had undergone in her own reality. Although he wasn't the Bruce Banner of her reality, Wanda felt pity for him. Mathias, seeing the giant monster approaching, took her by the wrist.

_"Wanda, he's coming! We have to leave!" he suggested worriedly.

_"No." she affirmed, tears in her eyes and removing her wrist from Mathias's grip. "I have to help him."

_"What?" Mathias gasped, confused.

_"I've had enough of spreading death around me." Wanda sighed. "I don't want this anymore... No more suffering, no more fear..."

Then, under Mathias' surprised gaze, Wanda slowly walked towards Hulk and stood right in front of him. The green giant, enraged, roared powerfully in the face of the young woman, who did not flinch and looked at him with melancholy and compassion.

_"I know you're not the Bruce Banner of my world, but I read your heart and your mind. You're like him..." she admitted sadly. "During my first meeting with the Bruce of my world, I was driven by anger, the desire for revenge... I showed him abominable things, pushing him to a murderous madness and through my fault many innocent people suffered... I sincerely regretted it afterwards... Today, I want to make amends... So please ... Let me help you, Bruce."

Hulk, breathing hard like an enraged buffalo and growling with all his teeth, seemed hesitant to strike, although his bloodshot eyes and clenched fist showed this murderous urge to massacre Wanda, as he had been programmed to do by Fury . Mathias had stayed behind but seeing the monster still agitated, he wanted to warn Wanda.

_"Wanda..."

But the young woman, without taking her eyes off Banner, made a sign to Mathias to do nothing and to stay where he was, she would take care of that.

_"I know you're hurt, Bruce..." Wanda continued with compassion. "These words that repeat themselves over and over in your head, I hear them too, they hurt you I know... But I also see that you want to fight, to free yourself from these chains... I can help you to free them break them, I want to help you break them. Please, give me a chance to save you."

Upon this humble request, Wanda delicately approached Hulk, who seemed increasingly confused and even ceased any hostile action. Wanda came, without any sudden movement, to place her hands on each side of Hulk's head. She closed her eyes and concentrated, summoning a tiny bit of magic that found its way into the Hulk's confused mind. Plunged into this deep trance, Wanda searched the green giant's mind, managing to find this series of control words, acting like real thunderbolts in Banner's brain and inflicting him with permanent pain. Eager to help her friend more than anything, Wanda concentrated even more, her magic increasing in intensity and plunging Hulk into a sort of trance in order to soothe him. Little by little, thanks to her magic, Wanda began to erase the control words from Banner's brain one by one, at the same time erasing this permanent feeling of pain that was driving him crazy.

From his position, Mathias watched with amazement the transformation of the Hulk, who little by little lost his giant stature and his monstrous musculature to gradually become the sickly man he was. Wanda finally came out of her trance, taking a deep breath after an intense mental effort, and was happy to see that she had succeeded. Bruce Banner was back, in front of her, confused, but very much alive.

_"The... The pain... I... I don't feel it anymore..." breathed Bruce, who for the first time showed a spark of joy in his eye after so many years of servitude to SHIELD .

_"Yes... you are free, my friend." Wanda told him with a smile.

Mathias, seeing that there was nothing more to fear, approached with caution but relieved to see that everything had gone well.

_"It was really impressive." Mathias admitted, still admiring.

_"Thank you, Mathias." Wanda then said, giving him a smile.

_"What?" asked the young man.

_"For believing in me." Wanda responded gratefully, even coming to take Mathias' hands in hers.

The young man didn't know what to answer, blushing slightly and shy.

_"I... you're welcome." he stammered.

Wanda chuckled softly when she saw him react like that, finding him adorable, but in turn, she blushed softly when she saw that their hands were joined. She let them go slowly, a little embarrassed, but without regret for this gesture.

But suddenly, as the calm and silence had returned, a gunshot was heard and Wanda gasped in shock as she saw Mathias freeze, displaying a grimace of intense pain as he collapsed at her feet, a bullet having hit him in the lower back. Further away, near the rubble of the base, the Nick Fury of this world stood, looking furious, holding the pistol in his hand whose barrel was still smoking.

_"MATHIAS!" Wanda screamed in horror, falling to her knees in the sand and holding Mathias close to her.

The young man suffered excruciatingly, losing blood and being on the verge of passing out.

_"MATHIAS! NO! STAY WITH ME! OPEN YOUR EYES!" Wanda begged, completely panicked.

Bruce Banner, also in shock at what had just happened, then ran towards Nick Fury.

_"Sir, no! Stop, please!" he asked, trying to stop his boss.

But without any mercy, Fury pressed the button on a small metal box in his pocket, immediately triggering a paralyzing discharge which stopped Bruce in his tracks and neutralized him, because of a microchip implanted in his neck. Armed SHIELD soldiers arrived after Fury.

_"Let two of you bring this beast back to its cage." Fury ordered coldly, mentioning Banner without even looking at him. "You guys, we'll take care of that witch ourselves."

The Director of SHIELD and his men got into position to fire their weapons. Wanda, totally shocked and panicked by Mathias' injury and state of health, wasn't even paying attention to the guns pointed at her. Fury and his men fired, a hail of bullets rushing in the duo's direction.

But suddenly, like real arrows emerging from the rocks, two strangers appeared, draped in large gray hooded capes and wearing white masks representing expressionless faces. Both of them summoned, with gestures of their hands, shields of sparkling, swirling, orange energy. Wanda, surprised, recognized there a magic that she knew very well, one of her friends practicing it: witchcraft linked to the Mystic Arts.

The bullets had disintegrated against the magical shields, Fury and his men looking stunned by what they now saw. While one of the two masked strangers held up his shield to block further possible shots, the other quickly turned towards Wanda.

_"Please help us! He's going to die!" Wanda begged, holding Mathias close to her, in tears and too panicked to be able to concentrate properly and use her magic.

_"Come with us, quickly!" said the masked stranger, who then summoned a mystical portal.

Helping Wanda support the unconscious Mathias, the stranger entered the magical portal with them, closely followed by his comrade who immediately closed the portal after entering, cutting off any attempt by Fury and his men to pursue them.