➢𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘➢

『 The pill I keep takin'
The nightmare I wake in
There's nothin', no nothin', nothin' but you
My perfect rock bottom 』
𝐏!𝐍𝐊── 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚 ♫ !

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 14: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒏𝒅⟵

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗧 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗖𝗛.

- 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟎𝐓𝐇, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 -

𝐖𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖, 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐉𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐘

OUTSIDE OF AGATHA'S HOUSE, A FIGURE SPAWNS.

Dressed from head to toe in a leather jacket, turquoise top, and highlighted dyed hair, a figure wearing a recognizable face walks next to a dashing one—cunning.

'Fietro' Maximoff walks side-by-side with a Hex-created Dani Rogers, the young woman re-fizzled into existence for reasons unknown—though, uncontrollable ones. She had a job to do. While Monica Rambeau remains trapped in the home Agatha Harkness chose to reside in, her two accomplices begin taking part in the final plan—taking down Wanda Maximoff. Easily did so by first, taking down her allies.

Dani and Pietro, both dressed in leather jackets, smile heartily at one another when strolling down the streets of Westview, New Jersey. They had their orders, and it was time to follow them.

The two laugh in malicious glee and near getting a little too close to one another in the process.

Further up the street, by the Vision residence, Wanda is again confronted by Agnes. Her nosy-not-so-friendly neighbor as it turned out. The other witch currently has purple-aura-embedded strings yanked around both Billy and Tommy's necks.

Wanda's expression and voice scream protection over them, prior wanting to reassure them when finishing her traumatic trip down memory lane—to work backwards—and it worked. Agatha found out how Wanda was able to do this... because she was the Scarlet Witch. An inconquerable being with power chalked up to the unexplained, it lacking an explanation for a while, how she created a sitcom out of Westview.

But it was figured out now. Wanda, grief-stricken, created Vision again. She longed for a happy ending and a long, joyful life lived—marriage and kids—and managed to do so in a matter of a week. She lived that ending with her one true love, Vision. A Vision that she never stole from S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters. Director Hayward lied.

And now, ended up actually bringing the real Vision back to life—by power from the source material.

Wanda's features reel when she is back in real-time, inside Westview, where a floating Agatha holds both her children captive. They struggle.

Tommy demands, "Get off me! Let go of my brother!"

Then is followed by his mother, Wanda calling out angrily, "My powers work out here, or did you forget?"

"No, dear." Agatha evilly smiles, "I'm counting on it."

Her malicious intent is present when wielding purple energy that still strangles the necks of Billy and Tommy Maximoff, both boys running forward but being knocked back by the magic string she has around them. They grunt and yelp in pain.

Wanda experiences one of her own, yelling out, "No!"

She launches an amount of red mist at Agatha and temporarily subdues her.

Freeing her boys, Wanda instructs them, "Go to your room."

But they instantly argue, Billy starting, "No way, we're staying with you."

"Come on, Mom, we can help," Tommy adds.

That is when Agatha rises again, insisting, "Listen to your mother, boys!"

She wields purple magic in her hands again, behind Billy and Tommy.

Wanda demands again, for them to get out of here, "Now!"

Something inside Tommy clicks, and quickly, he grabs hold of his twin brother's hand and speeds them inside their house, into their room—and they are safe from harm.

Wanda, on the other hand, is not.

A disgraced Agatha explains while absorbing the next amount of red aura Wanda launches her way, "I take power from the undeserving."

"It's kinda my thing." 

Wanda heavily pants from being knocked on the ground, her hand previously wielding the red magic currently looking different as it darkens a few shades—looking black. Oh, no. That wasn't good.

Neither is Agatha, "You're clearly in over your little red head. So, why don't you surrender your magic to someone... who knows what to do with it?"

She promises, "And I'll let you keep this pathetic little corner of the world all to yourself. What do you say?"

Wanda doesn't give her answer, instead rising—and with it, she refuses to back down. The woman simply twirls her blackened hand again and from the corner of her green eye, controls a red car—her car.  She fires it at Agatha, bringing her into the garage of a home. Wanda goes to check if it hit her when all that can be seen are Agatha's boots, without her in them. She went missing.

When then turning her head from what she thought she saw in the reflection of the window, Wanda is faced with another unexpected visitor—her real love.

Slowly walking toward him, light green eyes glisten, "Vision? Is it really you?"

The synthetic robot that lands down in the middle of Westview has on a completely white appearance, gem holder near his head now blue with energy—and by the slight metallic tone, the redhead still thinks it's him, "Wanda..."

He puts his hands on her face, cupping them and looking endearingly into her eyes—just as her Vision used to—but then, it is the tight grip that worsens as he's looking at her, followed by his expression.

He becomes nasty.

The sentient weapon's teeth clench, "And I was told you were powerful."

Wanda's face grows pale in alarm, and starting to make noises, the woman struggles to get out of his hold when she is lifted into the air. It isn't him. It's not her Vision.

But thankfully, he shows up to save her.

Hurdling in like a space jet, Hex Vision plows through and tackles White Vision, ripping him away from Wanda, and from there—tosses his body into a gasoline truck that explodes.

The Vision made by Wanda turns around and slightly lowers himself, reaching his wife and first asking about the wellbeing of his children—demonstrating concern as a father should.

"Where are the boys?"

"They're in the house." Wanda is panting as she reaches him, but emphasizing, "Safe."

"Vision..." she begins, shaking her head—feeling remorseful, and finally coming to herself, "I should've told you everything."

She acknowledges her wrongdoings, that it was her, "The moment I realized what I had done."

About everything, Vision accepts her apology, in better understanding of her now, thanks to a chat with Darcy, "It's all right, Wanda. I know why you made this world, but this..."

"I can fix it," Wanda tells him.

"Can you?" He asks her.

Wanda doesn't respond but she is. It was possible after everything she's done so far.

Though then, from a rooftop, is when Agatha Harkness re-materializes again, and as usual, she is satirical, "Oh, this is awkward. Your ex and your boyfriend together at the same party. Who are you gonna choose, Wanda?

The White Vision begins to gather himself from the fiery background of what wasn't his demise.

About Westview, Wanda turns to Vision, one last time. "Vision, this is our home."

Her husband nods, "Then let's fight for it."

The two split up, Vision heading toward his other self for a rematch, and Wanda flying away on red-aura'd palms, toward the center of town.

Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau is trapped in Ralph Bohner's house.

✦✦✦

AND BACK IN THE BASEMENT, BEXLEY LETS GO OF CAITLYN'S FACE.

The moment comes back to them, a sweet, yet forceful first kiss—one girl needed just as much as the other.

To prove to one, that this was real... and to both, they meant the world to each other.

But realistically, they had to get out of there.

"Are you okay? Caitlyn, hey, talk to me! Are you all right?" Caring hands never leave her, and though she is uncomfortable with physical contact—this one, she feels comfortable with it.

This one... is warranted.

Responding to Bexley Nightingale's frantic questions, Caitlyn Strange is slow, with a hefty sigh, "I'm not... dead."

The REAL Dani Rogers cuts in this time, intervening between the two, "Which is why we need to get out of here."

Silent looks are acknowledged and upon seeing her again, the eighteen-year-old greets the sixteen-year-old with a slight wit to her tone.

"Hey, Blondie."

One Caitlyn delivers back, tilting her curly head, "Hey, Priss. Where's our other force to be reckoned with?"

"California." Dani answers.

Caitlyn still holds a grudge, wincing as Bexley feels around a bruised rib of hers, "You know, I would've preferred the Wakandan rescuing me over you."

"Really?" the Blue Phoenix counters, proving a point. "Is that why you stole my face?"

Before developing an incredulous look at Caitlyn's reply, "Believe me if I had more of a choice, I wouldn't have gone with you at all."

Dani's jaw grits, her gaze squinted, and she places both of her hands on her hips.

"Who would you have picked instead?"

A second passes when Doctor Strange's niece speaks again.

"The Asgardian."

No time goes by when the daughter of Captain America starts to talk again, proving a point—arguing, "I don't even think he's—"

Bexley finished checking Caitlyn, cuts her off.

She ends their ever-present bantering. Which, even years later, still existed.

"Hey you two, we've got bigger fish to fry here."

From there, the dark-haired girl continues to push them back on track, explaining most of their situation, and looking around. "Agatha had runes on this place, but I was able to bypass them when they weakened thanks to Dani's Forcefield."

"It's not really a Forcefield anymore." The Blue Phoenix admits sheepishly.

The troubled youth chimes in cynically, "Yeah, more like an ugly blob... of blue..."

Her rude attitude peeves Danielle off again, the eighteen-year-old turning to look at her again, incredulous, "Am I ever gonna get a 'thank you' from you?"

Caitlyn sorely laughs before telling her, "No."

Dani crosses her arms and rolls her eyes.

Once more, the teen of the mystic arts remains the most focused, pulling the two opposite-ended girls together verbally "I don't have my sling ring with me anymore. It fizzled out of existence once we got into the Hex."

"How'd you get in?" Caitlyn's glance at her is quizzical.

A brow turns inward before softening at the explanation, Bexley blushing a little, "Just... tried to remember what Ancient One had taught me, and everyone... that you can't beat a river into submission."

Regarding the conjure of a portal through an extraneous amount of CMBR, and still sharp as a tack with her mystic arts training, Caitlyn easily remembers the lesson—finishing her sentence. "Unless it surrenders to the current."

"Nice work." She says to her best friend, who again blushes.

Caitlyn finds it cute.

And has more hatred for Dani Rogers when she 'butts' in again, "Yeah, and for some reason, I came in wearing a USO outfit."

"Bet it was right up your alley."

Dani is offended by Caitlyn's remark, and mad at it.

However, she tables that and brings the focus back to their current dilemma—referencing it, "Okay, so Bexley doesn't have her sling ring. So how do we get out of here?"

The brown-eyed girl's gaze tips down, lost for a solution, though next to her, pale blue irises enlarge.

Caitlyn's eyes widened, remembering.

"I still have mine."

She couldn't use it and so it made a home for itself by her jewelry box on top of her dresser, one that was her mother's—the REAL one she still had, in fact, back at the Sanctum. If it was still there.

The sixteen-year-old re-emphasizes, "It's at my house."

"That's where we came from." Dani comments.

Bexley is filled with determination, "Okay, then let's go get it."

Energetically taking one of the blondie's hands, the girl with chocolate brown eyes holds on tight—her heart fluttering for when, the first time, Caitlyn squeezes back. She accepted the physical contact. Both prepare to set off to the yellow house where Caitlyn's hex-created parents no longer resided when the eighteen-year-old that helped rescue her doesn't move.

They are halfway up the staircase in Agatha's basement when Dani, somehow senses something—sensing energy.

"You guys go, I'll hang back."

She is met with two puzzled gazes.

"Why?" Caitlyn asks her.

A pair of light green eyes gaze around, and continuing to be aware of the energy-like sensations, Dani bites down on her lip. "'Cause I got a good feeling we're not gonna get out of this with a clean slate."

A tug on her hand from Caitlyn, and Bexley manages to promise, "We'll come back for you."

"You better," Dani answers, it unclear how serious she is.

The hero Blue Phoenix was alongside the Avengers and went one-on-one up against Thanos... and then died because of it.

Very much alive now, the dark-haired natural color of the young woman whips around slowly as Dani checks her surroundings, walking around the basement belonging to Agatha Harkness—and soon enough, she recalls the feeling of vibrating atoms in a body that was genetically modified... that could move as fast as the speed of sound.

Blue waves appear and with it, so does a man, a quicksilver... with silver hair.

Thrust toward him, he catches her in a dip, and holding her much closer than any other villain has held her, there is somewhat of a devilish smile on his face.

"Hey, Cutie. You need someone to cool you down?"

Dani's face is open-mouthed, in shock, but staring into dark brown eyes—she answers him, "I'm taken."

He moves again, this time taking her with him, and they do a spin. Her hands reflexively land on his muscular chest, his enhanced speed again throwing her for a loop temporarily.

His speed, she knows, but his face—no idea. Dani doesn't recognize him at all. He is fake.

He is not the real Pietro. But how can he run so fast?

Wanda's fake brother keeps his hands on her, now upright, and bracing her upper arms, that devilish smile is back—flirtatious.

"Come on, whaddya say?" he asks her. "You look exactly like a girl I used to date."

Dani has her hands pressed against his chest while muttering, "Lucky her."

The silver-headed man remains as silvery smooth as he continues to flirt with her, this version of her, at least. "How about we run away together?"

That is when Dani decides she's had enough.

Outsmarting the speedster in not quickness, but with gravity, she grabs his wrists and rotates the both of them so she and he are facing opposite directions, flipping him while he tries to speed—and the dance move proves to do just the trick when subduing him. "In... your... dreams!"

Dani takes him off his feet, sending him forward, toward her.

Standing over him now, the young woman is straightforward, breathing, "You're not my type."

Then blue eyes glow when noticing the purple-aura'd relic around his neck. Dani rips it off.

Immediately she is met with a different person, "Oh, god. Please, please spare my life, please!"

Though soon she discovers, not for long. "Uh... whoa, how did I get here?"

The silvery head remains, the enhanced body, and still lying down the man cast to play Wanda's late brother, Pietro, stares up at the face of a young woman he did not recognize. He's never seen her before.

"And who are you?"

Dani looks down at him, frowning, shocked that she could still sense his vibrating atoms, which meant he still had his powers.

So he really wasn't Ralph, then.

It is a few more seconds of looking at her before he is reminded of who she resembles, again, another version of her, "You look a lot like..."

"Maximoff..." Dani says, almost like a question.

And the man she hovers over on the ground breathes his name.

"Peter."

All of Dani's features scrunch, confused, and she sits up, backing away and watching this 'Peter Maximoff' rise... and before she can question him further, he speeds away.

He looked lost, and confused...

Meanwhile, Dani remains the last one.

"What?"

The Blue Phoenix drops her hands to her knees, that debacle tiring her more than she would have thought.

That, and... whatever that other thing was. With... him.

Dani exhales many breaths, "I need a 5."

That was weird.

✦✦✦

Upstairs, Bexley and Caitlyn meet up with the one originally held captive.

"Monica!"

The woman with newfound powers greets the mystic artist, "Bexley!"

"And Caitlyn..." she acknowledges the blonde, truly never having interacted with her before this moment—well, not as her alter, at least. "Hi."

Acknowledging it, Caitlyn takes a few steps forward, "I'm guessing you're not Geraldine?"

"Never again," Monica replies with a big breath.

Stuffing her hands into her pockets, the sixteen-year-old agrees. "The feeling's mutual."

Bexley is the one more acquainted out of the two, explaining to Monica, "We're trying to get to Caitlyn's house, to find her sling ring so we can portal back to the New York Sanctum. We should work together."

"I need to find Wanda," Monica says to them, with all the resolve she's always had—the sympathy, to a broken woman.

One, that upon the mention, causes Caitlyn to shrink inward. The blonde snakes her hand into Bexley's again, and after another squeeze, the seventeen-year-old instantly understood.

"Oh," Bexley starts with an attempt not to be rude, that they may not be able to work together, " I don't think Caitlyn's very... comfortable with seeing her right now."

The mention of Wanda and her abilities is a lot to take in, and especially for someone who was around her so long, who yelled at her, Monica understands.

"That's not a problem." She tells them, "You guys go ahead. I'll keep anyone from interfering with you."

"Thanks." Bexley replies, Caitlyn off to the side, and the brown-eyed girl adds with a somewhat nervous laugh and smile, "Mystical threats are kinda more our thing."

The woman shares that smile, warmly, "Makes sense. Good luck."

Monica, Caitlyn, and Bexley go their separate ways—leaving Agatha's house.

✦✦✦

BUT THEN, IN THE BASEMENT, DANI ROGERS IS ATTACKED ONCE MORE.

This time, though, the Blue Phoenix finds herself in a battle with... herself.

The Hex-ified version of her, featured on the 70s episode, as Wanda's 'sister', now wears a scornful grin—hair dyed, highlights... a cute style, really... but Dani is still taken aback. She is still flabbergasted.

She eventually becomes annoyed after facing off with herself, who takes both of her legs and flips her over.

"I've got your back." The double says.

To which, visibly irked, Dani assures, "Yeah, I know you do."

More groans echo throughout the shared com between her and Bexley, in case they got split up, and additionally—the brown-eyed girl's voice of concern.

"Dani? Everything alright?"

"Yep." The eighteen-year-old insists, though mostly out of breath, and she is in the middle of responding when the other version of herself wraps an arm around her neck and chokes her from behind, "Sure thing. I'm totally fine—aGHH!"

Hex Dani tumbles down the stairs and takes the real one with her.

"Just a little further," Bexley says to Caitlyn, a comforting hand on her back—trying to calm her as they near her childhood home. "It's going to be okay."

Meanwhile, Dani shouts through the coms with the opposite.

"Cait—LYNN!!!!!"

Hearing her muffled shout, something in Caitlyn stops—and the blondie's pale eyes glow a heartstopping red and she destroys her.

Little red flurries are what becomes Hex Dani's form, and with them sprinkling around the real one, Dani slumps backward.

"You really could not have done that earlier?" She questions.

Caitlyn's comeback is heard through Bexley's com, "I still hate you."

"Are you okay?" Bexley, as always, is more concerned—shows more care to the older girl she was both thankful for and clung to back at S.W.O.R.D.

Dani sighs, "I'm alive."

The eighteen-year-old leans back against the ground before soon having to gather herself again.

"Still..."

Dani doesn't gather herself completely.

Luckily, she doesn't have to.

Bexley and Caitlyn keep on running while FBI Agent Jimmy Woo finesses his way out of being held captive by Hayward, and that includes bluffing—his team would arrive inside the hour. He truly did flourish... and at the same time, Wanda gets more than a taste of all that she had affected while in Westview.

As Agatha aptly put it, cutting their 'strings' made the so-called 'meat puppets' Wanda was using as characters for storylines on her show ended up causing an exorbitant amount of harm—and now, they confront her for it.

Wanda is confronted by all the Westview citizens whom she had been torturing under her thumb for the last five days. First, Sarah Proctor—Dottie—approaches her and begs Wanda to let her daughter out of her room. Wanda is appalled originally, but then things get so much worse. Back at the Vision residence, Billy uses his telekinetic abilities to forewarn Wanda's outburst. He and Tommy rush to the scene. Vision is still fighting White Vision, after an interaction with Dani Rogers, and back in the center of Westview, Wanda threatens to drown in her own guilt.

The Westview citizens, freed from her control, come after her.

Herb, also known as John Collins, walks up to Wanda, confused. "I don't recognize my face in the mirror, my voice when I speak. I used to try to resist you, but now, I can't remember why. Do you?"

Isabel Matsueda, who, without a will, played Beverly, says to Wanda through a heartbreaking expression, "My husband's on a business trip. Tell him I love him... and not to come back here ever."

"I'm exhausted." The man who delivered mail in Westview tells Wanda, who instantly begins to shake her head.

The woman denies, "No, you're fine. You're fine."

"You're all... You're all going to be fine." Wanda reassures the residents, who only choose to fill her head with more honest confessions—them feeling entitled to so as they are finally able to speak to her, one-on-one.

They are finally out of the torture she gave them. Yet, it's all they can reflect on.

"When you let us sleep," 'Norm' tells her, "we have your nightmares."

A tearful Wanda shakes her head again, words in part trying to convince herself, "No, that's not true. I've... I've kept you... safe in here."

"You... You feel..." she continues, "You feel at peace."

Wanda doesn't convince anyone of what she believes.

"We feel your pain," Dottie tells her.

Wanda continues to deny it. "No."

"Your grief is poisoning us." Sharon Davis, Mrs. Hart, says.

And after that, more voices collide.

"No, stop!" Wanda's green eyes become glossier, though only a dozen desperate voices follow.

They come from all the people she took advantage of, mind-controlled, and put on a TV show without their consent. It was inescapable. She was horrible.

"Please, let us go."

"I wanna get back home."

"Let us go."

"Stop," Wanda begs again, near a breaking point.

But the voices don't stop.

"Let us go, please, Wanda."

They overlap, and they grow in desperation.

"Please!"

"Please!"

They continue to overlap, they all crowd Wanda... until eventually, the woman cannot take it anymore.

She screams, red power flowing out of her and like a chokehold, aura encloses tight around the throats of the residents of Westview—and they fall to the ground making strangled noises.

Quickly realizing what she has done, Wanda removes her hands from her face, eager and ready to undo the unintentional attack—but one that happened, nonetheless. Almost as if a reflex.

"No! Stop." She apologizes, "Stop, I'm sorry!"

All gasp and pant as they begin to sit up.

Sharon Davis holds her throat, "If you won't let us go, just let us die."

"I will..." Wanda insists, tears falling freely now—and the woman is full of remorse, "I will let you go. I will."

"I will." She repeats, though yet, stands frozen.

Agatha, from above calls her out—before informing her that there was an entire chapter dedicated to the Scarlet Witch, a mythical being full of spontaneous creation who didn't need a coven.

Right now, Wanda wasn't acting like an Avenger. "What's stopping you? Use your power and do it now. Heroes don't torture people."

Her true phrase though pessimistic convinces Wanda to stand up again, and by opening the barrier, the woman ushers people out—using her power.

"Go! All of you, now." She ushers, "Go!"

The Westview citizens do as she says.

Upon the barrier opening, Hayward ushers his team inside until it is forced closed a moment later, them able to get in.

When the whooshing sounds and broken TV chatter from the decades constantly switch, Wanda is growing tired before realizing that her intent to let everyone go may not be as simple as she thought. For there was one thing Wanda couldn't let go of, and that was her family. The one she created.

The woman sobs when Vision isn't able to get to her, his machine form physically breaking own as does the collapsing wall around Westview, New Jersey—and from her other side, her children scream her name.

"Wanda!"

"Mom!"

"Help, Mom!"

Agatha flies around and reminds the redheaded woman of her decisions, "Now, do you see? You tied your family to this twisted world, and now, one can't exist without the other."

Wanda hears both her boys call for her. "Mom!"

"Mom!"

The father to her children yells out to his kids.

"Boys!"

Vision, Billy, and Tommy are close to being reduced to atoms.

Agatha presents to Wanda, her choice.

"Save Westview or save your family."

Tommy yells again, "Mom! Help!"

"Help! Please!"

"Mom!"

Straining and grunting, Wanda decides to close the barrier. Hayward's team makes it in by the hair and Jimmy watches the CMBR-made texture close simultaneously.

Wanda is picked up by her husband, rescued by her family, and standing together—nothing could stop them. There were three targets: Agatha, White Vision who had returned, and now Hayward's military. Agatha launches a purple aura at Wanda's family, to which she protects them by spawning her own red as a shield. Agatha ends up taking more power from her. Her hands are black.

The Maximoff family stands in a fighting stance all together.

Telling his boys accurately, Vision is honest. "Listen, boys. Your mother and I never really prepared you for this."

Wanda is too.

"But you were born for it."

Vision takes on White Vision, eventually defeating him—by restoring his memories. Wanda tells her boys to handle the military, and that 'Mommy will be right back'.

All that remains now is Wanda up against a more experienced witch, a woman who wanted power and could get it if Wanda gave up. The only question was, would she?

✦✦✦

BEXLEY AND CAITLYN ARRIVE AT CAITLYN'S HOUSE. It is exactly how it looked that horrifying night, one Caitlyn just relived, and right away the girl's body locks up tight.

It is the continuous warmth in Bexley's presence that gets her to open up more, in this instant, comfort her—and her best friend first goes off memory in watching her practice one day, back at Kamar-Taj.

"It looks just like it used to, huh?"

Caitlyn Strange's reply is a slow pause. "Yeah."

That is when her best friend touches her arm, "Take all the time you need."

The blonde-headed teenager carries a deep sadness in the ambiance.

"I won't be long."

In the interval, Wanda Maximoff takes on Agatha Harkness. Witch versus witch. Wanda goes with her specialty. Sneaking up on the older witch and promptly sending a trickle of red into her mind, Wanda plants a nightmare in her head. Agatha is sent back to that night during the Salem Witch Trials when her coven and mother attempted to execute her for tampering with magic far too dangerous, yet Agatha strived to take power from the undeserving.

The nightmare sequence ends up backfiring when Agatha, a more advanced witch—her strength being knowledge—easily takes control of the situation and swaps Wanda in her place, the redhead prior insisting that the difference between them was that Agatha did this on purpose. Agatha continues to manipulate her into giving up her power in exchange for being able to live the rest of her life in peace with her family. Wanda refuses.

She tackles Agatha back into real-time, the two flying above Westview and continuing to launch things at one another, including words.

"Take it!" she says. "I don't want it."

In due course, as it seems, Wanda is the one doing all the launching—deciding to give up her power.

Dark clouds form and Wanda starts tossing red beams of energy into Agatha, her collecting them and, seeing what she is doing, Vision starts to fly upward.

She blocks him with a red energy field, pushing him down.

"Wanda, what are you doing?"

Agatha taunts her, "Come on, Wanda!"

Wanda continues firing, without any restraint—hopeless.

Crossing one street to another, Dani Rogers manages to get a glimpse at what is going on in the air.

One woman, who she doesn't recognize, yells, "Come on, Wanda! Escape your fate!"

"Release your burden!"

... Burden? Dani turns and lays eyes on a severely weakened Wanda having her power quite literally sucked out of her, and the eighteen-year-old immediately fills with alarm.

"Wanda." She whispers, in disbelief.

Agatha holds out.

"There's more." The older witch incites, "I want it all."

There is more panting, grunting, and launching of power as Wanda—to the naked eye—appears to grow weak, her sons, in turn, yelling out to her.

"Mom!"

Vision holds them tight in an embrace Dani nears close of.

"About our deal..." Agatha is talking to Wanda, finally having consumed all her power, and she doesn't hold back, "Once cast, a spell can never be changed."

"This world you made will always be broken." She tells her, going even further, "Just like... you."

Agatha laughs manically before extending her arms forward to complete the spell but isn't successful. She tries again but fails.

Gazes turn to Wanda and through the sounds of thunder, her face regenerates—no longer looking sunken in and wrinkled.

It soon becomes apparent, that Wanda cast a spell of her own.

Agatha points it out, looking around, "Runes."

"'In a given space, only the witch who cast them can use her magic'."

Wanda tells her with an extended hand, "Thanks for the lesson..."

"But I don't need you to tell me... who... I am."

Agatha shudders in fear, "No. No. No. No!"

And all her absorbed power is soon taken away and returned to the rightful owner, Wanda Maximoff.

Who now... goes by the title, The Scarlet Witch.

Her transformation consists of collecting all red aura in sight, as it alters her wardrobe. Giving her a full-fledged uniform, her upper chest area has a cut-out of an Infinity Stone—a reminder of The Vision. Wanda takes possession of who she was meant to be, who she saw as a reflection in the Mind Stone after being exposed to it by HYDRA...

Wanda Maximoff became who she was destined to be... for better or for worse.

Agatha emphasizes the worst, "Oh, God. You don't know what you've done."

Wanda releases her and the storm clouds subside, bringing both women back onto the ground.

The battle has been won. Wanda fought and proved herself as a strong person, a mother, who protected her children and in turn, banished Agatha to Westview by casting a spell on her—giving her one more special role: as the nosy neighbor.

She leaves Agnes, greeting her boys and her husband, who speaks of their home now being reduced to a 'Fixer-Upper'. Vision tells Wanda he knows she will set everything right in the end... just not for them.

No, Wanda had shook her head, biting her lip. Not for them.

They won't get the happy ending they deserve. Wanda looks at Monica briefly before looking back at her family.

They head home.

https://youtu.be/Ksmq6j2qGwQ

Wanda tucks her boys into bed. Vision, also aside from them—in his real form but wearing regular clothes—expresses his pride in his two sons for all they did today. It was certainly a big day. Bigger than their usual endeavors. However, that meant something—that one day, Billy and Tommy would make great Avengers. But unfortunately, that day would cease to exist, forever.

For when Wanda and Vision say goodnight to their twin sons, only the both of them know it is the last night they will ever have—the last time they will ever see them.

And now, they must say goodbye to one another as well.

Vision is clear on not saying goodbye in the dark, lying that it was bad luck. When Wanda calls him out on it, he is sensitive, telling her he just wanted to see her in the light one last time. The two get close and hold hands when noticing the red, fizzled barrier moving rapidly toward them. In the process, it restores all of Westview before Wanda came to town: it is still daylight.

To contrast, at the Vision residence, it is nighttime.

In their last moments, Vision desires to know, what he is. He, from Darcy, understood he was a voice with no body, to then a body, and then a memory—that became real. Wanda tells Vision he is the piece of the Mind Stone they both gained their power from that lived on in her, the stone itself a resemblance of their innate, natural connection, from the start. Wanda and Vision were connected.

Wanda had a sad, grieving life ahead of her, but at least with Vision—there was hope. At least... there was hope. For, if Vision already lived so many lives, who was to know what'd be in store for him next?

The outside of the Westview Anomaly keeping everyone in nears closer, and coming together one last time, both Wanda and Vision have tears in their eye.

They watch from the window, the red barrier gets closer.

As it passes a block from them, Vision starts to tell her, "We have said goodbye before,"

"So it stands to reason..."

As it erases the house next to them, Wanda cups his face, voice dropped down to a whisper, "We'll say hello again."

She nods, and then, their house is infiltrated.

The walls around them change rapidly when going down each decade, from the 2000s to the 90s, the 80s, 70s, 60s, and eventually, the 50s when black and white fill their surroundings. For a split second, the set is un-built, lights removed, and ultimately—disappears entirely. The Vision residence goes away when Vision utters his last words.

"So long, darling."

And Wanda is standing alone.

Nearby Ellis Avenue, Caitlyn and Bexley watch with a similar stance as Caitlyn's incubated replication of her childhood home fades away with the Westview Anomaly, the red flurries reducing the home to what it was originally, now—a white house with a large 'For Sale' sign in the front yard.

Caitlyn squeezes Bexley's hand in the daytime now, in her other, her trusty sling ring. She isn't sure she'd ever be able to use it again.

Because something is still wrong with her.

For Wanda, the woman drops her hands that seconds ago, held her husband's glowing face—and putting her hood on over her head, she turns around, walking out of Westview. Minutes into walking, Wanda is non-verbally confronted by the Westview residents, town back to normal, and them now staring at her. The Avenger is uncomfortable with the pairs of eyes on her, though keeps her head down when heading over to Monica Rambeau.

There, they talk. Wanda apologizes, for all the pain she's caused, and Monica treats her with kindness. She is empathetic to the power of sadness and the want to bring a loved one back to life, to be able to do that—because if she could, Monica would revive her mother, Maria.

Alas, that isn't possible, and with Wanda's last promise to learn how to control her power, she heads out when the cops show up.

She says goodbye to Monica.

Monica tells her, good luck. She'd need it.

But what Wanda also needed, was a friend.

✦✦✦

https://youtu.be/yrleydRwWms

DOCTOR STRANGE FINALLY FINDS HIS NIECE.

Arriving on the scene at a much later point in the day—after Monica Rambeau is offered to start taking missions in Space—the former neurosurgeon, wealthy uncle but still an uncle brushes past several police officers before reaching the back of an ambulance.

Stephen Strange strides fiercely in his day clothes—Cloak Of Levitation out of sight—when he spots a familiar, shivering figure wrapped in a blanket sitting down, and immediately, he rushes toward her.

The bearded man dressed in a sweater makes his way over to the blonde's side and upon doing so, wraps both warm arms around her tight—compressing her in a hug. The sixteen-year-old, who would squirm initially when her uncle initiated hugging her, this time does not. Caitlyn is so shell-shocked from all she had endured today and in the past five that she says nothing and just leans against Stephen's chest, her ear falling below his neck to where his heart beats. She can feel it beating, she knows she is alive.

Caitlyn knows that this is real.

And all Stephen can say is a repeat of an exhausted and relieved set of words.

"Oh, my god," he presses his niece close to him, "Oh, my god. Oh, my god."

He is not a sorcerer right now. He is an uncle.

He is a father... and Caitlyn is grateful to have him.

Dani Rogers looks away.

Upon the sky darkening and late evening beginning to hit, the eighteen-year-old sets off on her own to find the woman who was responsible for all of this, one who she had great memories with. Who she played with, spent years with... and correlated with that of a big sister.

Wanda is walking up a road, having lowered from levitating out of Westview, and acknowledging who is behind her, she is unintentionally blunt, "I didn't think you'd come."

The entirety of Dani's form perks up, her spine straightens, and to avoid any stammering, the girl forces a chuckle.

"Stuff travels fast." She eludes, "Technology these days..."

The silence in the air causes both young women to grow slightly uncomfortable, and acting on it first, Dani is now the direct one.

"Wanda, I'm sorry. I should've been there, should've picked up the phone when you called, I just..."

She is plain in admitting her shortcomings, and her lack of focus—it only being a few weeks since they won. But in order to win, some people had to lose. In that case, the ones closest to her.

Wanda had lost too, and taking off her hood, she dismisses her, "No, don't apologize. It wasn't on you, I mean,"

"What I do doesn't matter—" she starts, prior to being interrupted.

Dani doesn't agree with her.

"But it does."

Wanda matters to her, but she also wasn't the only one in pain.

The young brunette woman stirs a toe into the pavement street before both arms come to hold herself together, eventually asking, "Caitlyn's role, on WandaVision... was meant for me, wasn't it?"

Wanda's gaze tips up and she pauses.

Her features then drink in pain, "I always thought... if... Vis and I,"

She cannot finish her phrase. But it's okay. Dani knows what she is referring to.

So she again apologizes, "I'm sorry."

Wanda scolds her.

"Stop."

Inhaling a breathy chuckle, the redheaded woman shifts her hands as they stay in her pockets, then shrugging, "I mean, who am I to ask of you? You have your own things going on, your own life..."

Wanda is involuntarily honest again, brutal, though this time, Dani has an actual defense.

"Things are happening so fast." It had only been a few weeks since they defeated Thanos, "I-I mean college's expensive, so is rent, a-and getting in there was a whole process, too—but I'm fine now, I'm here now."

Other people, she lost. Dani is grappling with those losses as she speaks, as she continues to speak when reaching an idea. A solution, that she thought could count as a starting point.

It included her, "Hey, my roommate's abroad right now. Come live with me. I bet she wouldn't mind, just to let you get back on your feet, and we can play the floor is lava like we used to in the Avengers Compound, and lay on the carpet of my bedroom and play with our powers, just like we used to..."

She continues with a gleam in her green—not blue—eyes and a nice smile, "We can, I know it. It'll be like old times."

One that crushes Wanda to make it go away.

"Dani—" she calls to her.

But she doesn't listen, "And Evanston's not that bad,"

"Dani."

She continues with intensity, "Come live with me. "

"Please, Wanda—" she is desperate until her older sister cuts her off.

"Dani, no. I can't." Wanda is firm.

The air around them save for the birds chirping is all that can be picked up, the younger woman pushed into silence, and when it is temporary, the first thing she says to start things up again is in the form of a question—a valid one.

Dani is worried about her.

"Well then, where will you go?"

Wanda doesn't lie, "I'm not sure, but I can't go with you."

"That's final." She remains firm, though.

She has to watch the younger girl's features fall.

Dani is in a swimming pool of regret, voicing her true emotions—some of them slipping through, "I should've been here."

"No, you shouldn't have." Wanda is telling her, stepping closer, candidly, "You have your own life."

"And..." she nears even closer, serious, "I want to be good enough to be a part of it."

Dani begs, tears threatening to spill from her eyes and her esophagus wanting to close, "Please don't go..."

At seeing her crack, Wanda inherently nears doing so as well, "I have to."

"I'm sorry." She says with a frown, though soon smiling, walking over and lifting a magic-wielding hand to gently wipe the stray tear that falls from her little sister's face.

Her grin is watery, thumb running up and down the soft cheek of Dani's before grabbing the back of her head and tugging it—their foreheads hovering by one another.

"Just promise me one thing," Wanda rubs the back of her head. "You'll take care of yourself."

Though her face is full of solace, and pain, Wanda is solemn and good-hearted in the promise she wants Dani to declare to her, right now. It was regarding her well-being. Her safety. Wanda is aware she is not at 100% right now.

So is Dani, and saying to her, wearing a faked joy under a mask of grief and sorrow, remarks, "Promises... I know you used to make those."

At that, Dani laughs. It is watery.

Before the young woman agrees.

"Okay."

Wanda lets go of her face and moves her hand further down Dani's center back, pulling her into a hug. Both girls hold onto one another, squeezing the other tight—and heartbreakingly, eventually, break apart.

"You're my family." Dani articulates, through a few sniffles, and from the other side of her—Wanda's eyes are just glassy.

She nods, acting strong for her younger sister—even if she wasn't there for her.

But, Danielle loves her, "And I love you, Wanda."

And her sister figure replies with a sheer sentiment.

"I love you too, Dani."

She runs a few more hands up and down her arms, giving them a tight squeeze, and smiling once more—although in pain—Wanda turns around and continues on her journey, flying upward, to learn more about herself. To learn more about what the Scarlet Witch was destined for...

... destruction.

Apropos of that, she is also a young woman leaving behind one of her first friends in a new country, a family member, one who she always had a friend in.

For now.

✦✦✦

Trauma is a part of life.

In the life of a hero, of a villain, always involves trauma.

Whether something is taken away, or someone, trauma shapes a person into who they are today—what they are supposed to become. Or, who they are destined to be. They carry it with them, forever.

Caitlyn Elizabeth Strange never thought she was someone special, not until her entanglement with the Reality Stone, and now, upon feeling ripped and re-arranged from the inside out, she isn't sure if all of her even came out of Westview. Out of the Hex.

For, when safe and home with her uncle, and best friend, the other part of her was raging.

No, the missing piece of Caitlyn Strange ventured outward to find Wanda, up in a cabin, to officially commence the end of the world as they know it. For, with the Darkhold, she saw the truth.

And another Troubled Woman emerged from the wreck that was Westview, New Jersey.

Home... it's where she couldn't make it.

Home... is where Caitlyn won't make it back to.

... Is this real?

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

( Of Season Two)

✦✦✦

https://youtu.be/x6HxoF7C4Y8

𝑾𝑨𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑽𝑰𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵

𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒐𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕©

𝐂𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐘𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍.

New content will be out in the next few days. xo.