Back inside the hex.

WANDA RE-OPENED her eyes and let out a shaky breath as she was pulled from the memories Agatha had been showing her. She raised a hand up to her cheek to wipe away the stray tear that had fallen and looked down at the couch in front of her. The same couch where her and Carson sat every night.

She took in her surroundings, noticing all the cameras and stage lights dotted around the room. It all looked like some sort of set from a film. Her house. Their house. It was just a reminder to her that none of it was real. That it never was.

The sound of someone applauding grabbed her attention and she looked ahead, seeing Agatha sat in the audience with her feet propped up on one of the chairs, a sick grin spread across her face.

"Bravo, bravo." Agatha chuckled. "That truly was a cinematic experience. And the ending with you and your little lover boy? How sweet. It's a shame he didn't get to experience it with us but... I'm sure he's having his own fun."

Wanda's eyes narrowed and she began to walk forwards. "What are you talking about?"

"Y'know I figured he'd get bored all by his lonesome so I just... made him take a quick dip in the waters of his past torment—" Agatha let out a dramatic gasp and covered her mouth. "Oh, have I said too much?"

And with the wave of her hand, the older witch suddenly disappeared. Nothing but a purple cloud being left behind.

~~ ᗢ ~~

CARSON remained in the basement of Agatha's house, her magic still bound around his ankles and wrists to keep him restrained. After she had taken Wanda through the strange door, he tried his best to break free, to escape, to go after them. He thought it was pretty sloppy of the older witch to leave him there. Because with no one watching him, he'd be able to get out with no one noticing.

But little did he know, Agatha had other plans.

And right now his body may of still been there. But his mind... well, his mind was somewhere else.

.... . -.-- / -... ..- -.. .-.-.- / .. - .----. ... / - --- -. -.-- .-.-.- / -.-. .- -. / -.-- --- ..- / .... . .- .-. / -- . ..--..

Carson's eyes shot open and he let out a gasp as he sat up in the bed. His jaw instantly clenched at the new scenery and he took in his surroundings, starting to relax ever so slightly when he realised where he was. The bed, the wall paper, the posters. Carson recognized it instantly. He was in his old home. Before Hydra, before the Avengers, before it all. He was home.

The sound of clattering caught his attention and he got up from the bed, cautiously walking over to the door and opening it to see what was happening.

And the sight practically made his heart drop right out his chest.

He looked ahead to see his dad stumbling down the hallway, a bottle of alcohol gripped tightly in his hand, a few of his friends walking into the house behind him. They we're all laughing to themselves about something, each of them slurring their words as if it was the first time they'd ever spoke.

But Carson paid them no mind. His eyes we're locked onto his father. It had been years since Carson had seen him. So long ago that if it wasn't for the old pictures he kept, then he would've forgotten his face.

He'd be lying if he said that he never wondered why his father never came back for him, never tried to reach out. Carson had become a hero in the eyes of the world, surely that would be enough, right? What he was doing was enough for him? But it clearly never was. In Dominic's eyes, Carson was a freak. An abomination. That's all he ever would be.

Dominic took another swig from his bottle and turned around to walk down the hall. But he came to a stop when he saw Carson stood in the doorway of his room.

"Oh." Dominic raised a brow. "Look who's awake everybody. The kid decided to grow a pair and come out of his room. You wanna speak to me now? Or are you too scared to, huh?"

"Come on, leave it..." One of his father's friends said, putting his hand on Dominic's shoulder.

"Hey, hey, hey." Dominic pushed his friends hand away. "We're just talking. What, am I not allowed to speak to my own damn son? C'mon Carson, tell them."

Carson took a deep breath and shook his head. "You've been drinking again."

"Don't start with this shit again, boy." Dominic said through gritted teeth. "I'm the man of this house and I'll do whatever I damn please! And I don't need a freak like you telling me what I can and can't do!"

"Leave it." Another one of his friends joined in. "He's not doing anyone any harm, let him be. Just calm down."

Dominic huffed. "Calm down? Get the hell out of my face!" He shoved his friend away and the man hit the wall with a thud.

Carson instantly tensed up as his father started to walk towards him. Dominic looked at his son in distaste and pointed towards him, the bottle still in hand.

"It's you." Dominic let out a scoff, his words slurring. "It's all you."

"This isn't real." Carson muttered under his breath. "He's not real."

"Y'know everyday... I saw your mother lying in that hospital bed slowly dying." Dominic chuckled dryly. "And I thought to myself, how the hell am I supposed to raise this stupid kid on my own. This hyperactive little bastard that keeps RUINING MY LIFE!"

Carson clenched his jaw and looked away. "Stop talking."

"It's all... you." Dominic spat, his tone laced with venom. Wanting nothing but to hurt Carson. "You killed your mother, you hear me? You killed her!"

Carson gripped his head, all of his fathers words starting to swarm around his mind. "Stop."

"Everything bad that has ever happened to this family is your fault!"

"No, no, no, that's not true" Carson mumbled. "It's not true, it's not true.. it's not."

"SHE'S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!" Dominic yelled.

He hurled the bottle towards Carson and he raised his hands over his face to shield himself. The bottle hit the wall next to him and instantly shattered, a few stray pieces of glass cutting the skin on Carson's arm.

Carson slowly lowered his hands and his head shot up to look at his father. He started to charge towards him, but just as he was about to make contact, the illusion of his father faded away.

He landed on the now cold concrete ground, his surroundings being changed.

He was now in some sort of containment room, one he knew all too well from his time with Hydra.

A hand on his shoulder regained his attention as they flipped Carson over. Carson let out a grunt and began to push the person away but was quickly stopped by someone else firmly gripping his hands and pinning him down.

"Get the hell of me!" Carson shouted, squirming in their grip as they got him to his feet.

The persons cold grip on his arms made Carson look down at his wrist, his eyes widening when he saw the metal hand that was keeping him down.

Before he had the chance to move his head up to see who it was, the other person in the room grabbed Carson's face and roughly tilted it to the side, moving a large needle towards his neck.

"You go through with this and I'll kill you!" Carson spat, his whole body writhing to try and move away.

"Now, now, Mr. Swan."

The person chuckled and injected the needle into his neck, making Carson grit his teeth together as he tried to muffle his screams.

"The procedure has already started."

Carson suddenly appeared in a large room, multiple scientists in uniform hurrying around doing their own thing. He took in his surroundings and looked around at the unfamiliar room. The navy tiled walls, the observation booths that were above, the logo's dotted around. Everything about it seemed to familiar, yet so unknown to him.

A scientist started to walk over to him, looking down at the clipboard that was in her hand. Carson perked up and began to walk towards her too, meeting her in the middle.

"Uh, excuse me." Carson began. The woman didn't look up from her clipboard and continued walking. Carson cleared his throat and decided to try again, thinking that she didn't hear him. "Can you tell me wh—"

Carson was cut off when the woman walked straight through him, the action not seeming to phase her at all. His breath instantly hitched in his throat and his hands flew up to his chest, completely in shock as to what just happened.

His head snapped up to look around at everyone in the room. Everyone was just continuing with their tasks as normal. It's like he wasn't even there. Like they couldn't see him.

"What..." Carson muttered under his breath.

He walked over to one of the desks where another scientist was sat and waved his hand in front of their face to grab their attention. But just as he expected, nothing. He even tried to push a few things off the desk to see if that would work but his hand phased right through it.

He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "Why can't you... see me?"

"Dr. Miller." Another scientist called from the other side of the room. "We need you over here."

Carson watched as the man stood up from his desk and joined the other employees, his brows coming together when he saw them all huddled around a hospital bed. He began to walk over, spotting a gap where the scientists were grouped up and deciding to go there so he could see what they were looking at.

But honestly, he wished he'd just stayed where he was.

His eyes widened when he saw who it was that was laying in the bed. Multiple needles injected into their arm, hands strapped down to the bed, some sort of high tech oxygen mask on their face. Their body was covered with unhealed gashes, cuts, burn marks that travelled all the way up to their neck.

It was him. He was looking down at himself.

One of the scientists looked around at the machinery before turning to Dr. Miller. "I thought we were supposed to wake him—"

"That's no longer necessary." Dr. Miller shrugged.

"What?"

"There's been a change of plans. Director Haywards orders." He stated plainly. "Start the extraction."

Carson clenched his jaw. "No, no, no, what the hell are you doing to me!"

A few of the scientists looked around at each before reluctantly taking their places. With the flip of a few switched here and there, the machine powered on and just like Wanda had to witness, Carson was now watching as his body began to shake violently sake in the bed.

He ran over to his own bedside and attempted to pull out the wires of the machine, to do something, anything. Because they sure as shit wasn't trying to help him in there. But just like all the other times, he couldn't do anything. He was completely helpless. Forced into watching himself getting tortured.

And just when he thought things couldn't get worse...

"He's all I have..."

"Well that's just it Wanda, he isn't yours anymore."

Carson slowly looked away from his bedside and towards the door that led into the room, his attention instantly being grabbed at the sound of Wanda's voice coming from the other side.

"Wands?"

"What are you doing to him.... Stop it... you're hurting him! STOP!"

He moved away from the bed and began walking towards the door. "Wanda! I'm right here!"

"You can't do this! LET ME GO!"

Carson's pace instantly quickened when he heard the sounds of Wanda being in distress. He didn't care if he was about to walk into some other illusion, he didn't care if it wasn't real. All he knew was that someone was hurting her in some way and he had to stop it. He had to help her. He had to get back to her.

All he wanted was her.

"Wanda!"

.-- . .----. .-. . / -.-. --- -- .. -. --. / .. -. / - --- / .... . .-.. .--. / -.-- --- ..- / --- -.- .- -.-- ..--.. / -... --- - .... / --- ..-. / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.- / .-- . .----. .-. . / --. --- -. -. .- / --. . - / -.-- --- ..- / --- ..- - .-.-.- / .. - .----. ... / .- .-.. .-.. / --- ...- . .-. / -. --- .-- .-.-.-

CARSON'S eyes opened and his head shot up, now suddenly being jolted back into reality. He looked around the room and saw that he was back in Agatha's basement. As much as he hated this place, because believe me he did, he was glad to be out of all the mind games and illusions. He'd had enough of the theatrics.

He let out a grunt as started to pull his hands apart, out of Agatha's wisps. It wasn't exactly proving to be easy. But he didn't care. He just wanted to get back to his family. Wanda needed him. His kids needed him. And he was going to be there.

The more he fought against Agatha's magic, the more the runes that were dotted around the basement started to fade in and out. He could feel them starting to give out the more he tried. He knew that if he kept going then he could overpower them.

So that's exactly what he did.

Carson let out a groan as he felt the wisps start to burn against his skin, but he clenched his jaw and ignored it. Because when he started to feel his eyes flickering their usual red glow, he knew he was almost there. Each rune that was on the wall broke apart one by one and lost their purple hue.

With one final push, his hands broke out of Agatha's restraints and her power's hold on him diminished. He landed on ground and let out a breath before looking down at his hands, smirking in amusement when he was greeted by the sight of his powers swirling around his fingers.

"Took you long enough." Carson chuckled to himself.

He lifted up his hand and aimed it towards the basement door, blasting it off it's hinges. With that, he got to his feet and ran out of the room to go find Wanda.

~~ ᗢ ~~

WANDA SPRINTED out onto the street, following the voices of Billy and Tommy calling out for help. She turned the corner and her chest instantly tightened at the sight of Agatha hovering in the air, holding onto strings of her powers that were tightly wrapped around the twin's necks.

"I know what you are." Agatha told her.

"Mom!" Billy called out, resulting in Agatha pulling her powers tighter around their throats.

"It's okay, baby, it's okay." Wanda tried to calm them down.

"You have no idea how dangerous you are." Agatha shook her head. "You're supposed to be a myth. A being capable of spontaneous creation. And here you are, using it to make breakfast for dinner!"

"Let go of my children!" Wanda shouted.

"Oh, yes, your children. And Carson, and this whole little life you've made." Agatha scoffed. "He was dying, Wanda. Carson was dying. But you knew that, didn't you? And by trying to save him, you unlocked something far bigger than you could've ever imagined."

Wanda's eyes narrowed at the older witch and she shook her head, not wanting to listen to what she had to say. But Agatha continued.

"This is chaos magic Wanda." Agatha said. "And that makes you... the Scarlet Witch."

Agatha lowered herself to the ground, rolling her eyes at the two boys that continued to writhe in her hold.

"Get off me!" Tommy grunted. "Let go of my brother!"

"My powers work out here, or did you forget?" Wanda called out to her.

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

Billy and Tommy both shared a look with each other before nodding. They each tried to make a run for it to get away from Agatha, but she was quick to react. She pulled the strings of her wisps backwards and the twins were harshly tugged the ground.

"No!" Wanda yelled.

Wanda sent a blast of her powers towards Agatha before she could do anything else and it hit her right in the chest, hurling her backwards.

Wanda looked over at the twins. "Go to your room."

"No way." Tommy shook his head. "We're staying with you!"

"Come on, mom, we can help!" Billy tried.

Agatha got to her feet and grinned. "Listen to your mother boys!"

Wanda shot them a warning look. "Now!"

Tommy nodded and used his super-speed to take him and his brother back inside the house.

Wanda fired over at Agatha again. The older witch let out a grunt and stumbled on her feet slightly but she remained standing. Agatha held onto Wanda powers in her hand and Wanda watched as she somehow turned the ball of energy into her own, absorbing it into her body.

"I take power from the undeserving." Agatha smirked. "It's kinda my thing."

Wanda looked down at her hand, her brows coming together in confusion when she noticed the tips of her fingers had turned black. While Wanda seemed to be distracted, Agatha took this as her chance to fire back, the impact making Wanda hit the ground with a thud.

"You're clearly in over your little red head." Agatha taunted. "So why don't you surrender your magic to someone who knows what to do with it?" She raised herself up into the air, giving Wanda a faux sympathetic look as she watched her get to her feet. "I'll even let you keep this pathetic little corner of the world all to yourself, and have poor Carson put under your control again. What do you say?"

Wanda's head cocked to the side as she glared at Agatha. Her energy began to form in her hands once more and she walked closer.

"So... I'm guessing that's a no—"

Agatha was cut off when one of the cars from the neighbours driveway clashed against her body, launching itself and her into one of the houses.

"Yeah." Wanda panted. "It's a no."

She let out a breath and began walking towards the car, leaning down slightly so she could look underneath to see if Agatha was there. But to her surprise she was gone.

Wanda was going to continue looking for the witch but the sound of someone coming up behind her grabbed her attention. Her eyes flicked up to one of the shards of glass that was still intact with the window, her eyes widening when she saw... Vision?

She turned around to see an all white Vision stood at the edge of the driveway, looking at her with an emotionless expression on his face.

"Vis?" Wanda asked as she walked closer. "What— How are you... here?"

He didn't reply. Instead he continued to look at her, his head tilting in curiosity. Wanda couldn't believe what she was seeing. That he was stood right in front of her. Other than Carson and Natasha, Vision was one of her closest friends. And although she had no choice back in Wakanda, she never did quite forgive herself for destroying the stone in his head.

"Is it really you?" Wanda said quietly.

"Wanda." Vision smiled and placed his hand on the side of her cheek. Wanda returned the smile and moved to pull him into a hug but before she could he placed his other hand on her cheek too.

Wanda's face contorted at how firmly he was holding onto her and she looked up at him. "Vision... what are you d—"

Vision suddenly began to increase the pressure and lifted her up into the air. Wanda let out a yelp and she tried to break free, the sounds of her jaw starting to crack sending shivers down her spine. She desperately clawed at his hands to get them off but the android didn't budge. He just pushed more.

"And I was told you were powerful."

Wanda let out a scream in pain as Vision continued to squeeze her head between his hands. But before he could finish the job, someone ripped him away from Wanda, tackling him down to the ground.

Now that Vision no longer had hold of her, Wanda dropped to her knees and looked over at what was happening. And a wave of relief hit her when he noticed Carson had joined the fight, knowing that Agatha no longer had him. She watched as he held Vision by the throat, pushing his head into the ground as he flew along the road.

"Hands. Off." Carson told the android sternly before lifting him up and throwing him into some cars on another neighbours driveway.

Carson exhaled and lowered himself to the ground, watching as the cars went up in flames and exploded. He turned around to see Wanda running up to him and he met her in the middle, resting his hands on her waist as he checked over her body to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"I'm fine." Wanda told him. "I promise."

Carson kissed the top of her head before pulling away and gesturing towards the driveway where he had tossed Vision. "So, who's the marshmallow?"

"That's Vision... at least I thought it was I—" Wanda inhaled sharply. "He was our friend."

Carson nodded slowly while he took in the information. He looked around, noticing the lack of two other people. "Wait. Where are the boys? Does she still have them—"

"No. They're in the house, safe." Wanda shook her head. She reached down and held Carson's hand, bringing his attention back onto her. Wanda took a deep breath before speaking. "Carson I... I should've told you everything. The moment I realized what I'd done. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, hey, it's alright Wands." He told her softly. "I, uh... I know why you made this world."

Wanda gave him a sad smile and nodded. "I can fix it."

"You're sure?" Carson checked.

Wanda's gaze travelled over Carson's shoulder and her eyes widened when she saw Vision emerging from the wreckage of the blown up cars. Carson noticed Wanda was looking at something and turned around to see for himself, letting out a huff when he saw the android.

"Shouldn't he of... I don't know, blown a fuse or something?" Carson scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, how cute. You two have made up." Agatha sudden reappeared, hovering over the top of a house. "I take full credit for that, of course."

Carson rolled his eyes at Agatha and glanced back over at Vision who was walking towards them. He turned to Wanda to find her already looking at him, giving Carson a nod.

"This is our home." Wanda told him.

"Then let's fight for it, witchy."

~~ ᗢ ~~

IM BACK AGAIN WOOO

also i'm still recovering from the multiverse of madness trailer like JESUS

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