BACK ON EARTH 727, Wanda had Wong transport her to Mount Wundagore. They walked through the portal and the cold frosty air hit their faces.

Wanda looked out as some of the clouds moved. Behind them, she saw the old temple at the peak of the mountain.

"You couldn't portal us up there?" She asked Wong in an annoyed tone.

"My magic can only take us so far. Masters of the Mystic Arts weren't meant to journey among the forbidden grounds of Wundagore."

The witch immediately flew up and telekinetically carried Wong with her. They crossed the dark depths of the canyons and finally made it to the temple.

The inside was run down, with statues and columns broken and faded. They stepped over rocks and rubble as they looked around the dark space.

"Eons ago...the first demon, Chthon, carved his dark magic into this tomb. The same spells were later transcribed into the Darkhold." Wong explained.

They heard a noise but ultimately ignored it. They walked up some steps and made it to a concrete table in the middle of the altar. Wong looked up and eyed an old statue of what looked to be a follower of Chthon.

"There's no telling what soulless monstrosities lie within." He added.

Wanda lit up the braziers around the room with her powers. Once she lit the final one, a large demon-looking monster came out of the shadows and growled.

Three more appeared. Wong conjured weapons made of Eldritch Magic and was ready to fight. Wanda leaped onto the altar and channeled energy on her palms.

Surprisingly, the monsters didn't fight. Upon seeing the witch they went on a knee and bowed in her prescience. Wanda was confused at first.

"They been waiting for me?"

She looked at Wong, who was already fixated on the carvings behind her. Wanda turned around and saw a statue carved within the wall. It was of a witch...and it looked eerily like her.

It was of The Scarlet Witch.

"This isn't a tomb." She said as she channeled energy in her hands again. The redhead stood tall on the altar.

"It's a throne."

• • •

STEPHEN AND Y/N walked through the lobby of the facility and went up the long set of stairs. The Ultron sentries escorted them down a walkway and to a large door. It opened and the sentries pushed the two inside before shutting it again.

"Geez, I've never been arrested before." Y/N remarked.

"Can't say the same." Stephen replied, then clarified after the man glanced at him. "It got pretty rowdy in my freshman year of college."

The two walked through the narrow corridor and made it into a large room. The platform in front of them was raised and had six seats, three of which were filled. Mordo wasn't in his but he walked behind the rest.

"Stephen Strange. Y/N L/N. You have been called before the Illuminati." He announced. "I...Baron Karl Mordo, Master of–"

"Hold on..." Stephen interjected. "Karl?"

Suddenly, a shield hit the floor near Strange and it ricocheted off the wall back into the hands of the thrower. She sported a suit similar to Captain America, but that and the vibranium disc donned the Union Jack.

Mordo began to introduce the members.

"Captain Carter. The First Avenger."

Portrayed by Hayley Atwell

"Woah." Y/N muttered. "So they have a Captain Britain?"

"Blackagar Boltagon." Mordo continued. "Keeper of the Terrigen Mist. The Inhuman king."

Portrayed by Anson Mount

"Blackagar Boltagon?" Strange wanted to chuckle at the name. "Hitaguy Hitathere."

"Captain Marvel, defender of the cosmos." Mordo pointed at the hero, who deactivated her mask. It wasn't Carol Danvers, but her friend, Maria Rambeau.

Portrayed by Lashana Lynch

"And the smartest man alive, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four."

The man appeared through a cubic portal. He pressed a button and shut it off as he looked at the two men.

"Hello, friends." He greeted.

Portrayed by John Krasinski

"Fantastic Four?" Stephen scoffed, it sounded like an old band. "Did you guys chart in the 60s?"

"I'm sorry, is this a joke to you?" Maria asked him.

Y/N decided to chime in. "Well, Blacksmith or whatever has a fork on his head. I could see why it may be."

Boltagon used sign language to tell them to watch their words. Captain Carter defended the Inhuman.

"Be grateful Black Bolt doesn't engage you in conversation."

"Why? Does he have bad breath?" Stephen asked.

A voice then called out from the corridor on Illuminati's platform.

"Wow, he's as arrogant as I once was."

The man walked out and joined his colleagues. He wore blue and silver robes and his cloak was also colored the same. He was clean-shaven, but still the same guy.

"Our sixth member." Mordo announced. "Doctor Stephen Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme."

"Holy crap." Y/N said as he leaned toward his Strange. "That's how you look without your goatee?"

"In all honesty, I even forgot how I look without it." He replied as he stared at the doppelgänger.

"Y/N." Supreme Strange decided to greet him first, then his variant. "Doctor? I hope."

"Yeah, yeah. We followed the same profession." He shot back. "So what the hell are we doing here?"

"Today, we're here to determine what to do with the both of you...and the child." Captain Carter answered.

"So you're all going to play judge, jury, and executioner?" Y/N asked.

"I created the Illuminati so we can make the decisions no one else could." Supreme Strange said.

"So before we vote, if the two of you have anything serious to say, now's the time." Maria told them.

"Oh, yeah I do." Strange stepped forward. "What danger do we pose? How are we a bigger threat than the Scarlet Witch?"

Maria scoffed. "Oh, we can handle your little witch if she decided to dream walk."

"Trust me, sister, you won't be able to." Y/N butted.

Maria looked at Peggy. "The hell he just call me?"

Reed chose to speak next. "We appreciate your concern, but it isn't the Scarlet Witch that we fear. The greatest threat to individual words and possibly the multiverse..." He looked at Y/N. "Deals with him."

Y/N was taken back. "What?"

"Him?" Strange pointed at his friend. "Y/N L/N? The Specter? Earth's Mightiest Hero and the one who died defeating your so-called Kang The Conqueror?"

"We should tell them the truth." Another voice echoed.

An older bald man came out of the corridor on a futuristic-looking yellow hoverchair. Mordo began to introduce him.

"Our final member...Professor Charles Xavier."

Portrayed by Patrick Stewart

Strange looked at the man. "What truth?"

"That is not how our Y/N L/N died."

• • •

IN WUNDAGORE, WANDA examined all the carvings on the wall. She admired the statues beside the one of her, which were depictions of Billy, Tommy, and Vivian. Behind her stood Wong, who simply watched.

"You're wondering what happens now." Wanda spoke to him.

"No. That I have already accepted. But I do wonder...when you can force America to send you to any universe you want...why take her power for your own? You know it will kill her."

She turned around and faced the sorcerer. "For Billy, Tommy, and Vivian. What if they get sick? In the infinite multiverse, there's a cure for every illness. A solution to every problem. I won't lose them again."

"I understand the effects of the Darkhold. Your thought process now is being influenced by Chthon himself. You are his vessel. Once you have that power...that influence will grow. All that reasoning of protecting your children will just be an excuse for you to cause chaos across the multiverse."

"You are wrong." She shot back in a rougher accent. "I have always been in control."

Wanda turned around and looked at the statue of the Scarlet Witch.

"I know I was meant to rule everything. It's carved in stone." She looked down and then back at Wong. "But that's not what I want. I just want my family back."

"At the cost of a child's life?" Wong exclaimed. "Is there no peace in knowing that even though you cannot be with the ones you love, there are worlds where you're together? Is that not enough?"

Wanda immediately lifted him using her powers and glared. "No."

She threw Wong out of the temple and off the cliff, seemingly to his death.

Wanda began her seance on the altar moments after as the monsters guarded her. Again, she dream walked and entered the 217 universe.

In it, Wanda was on the sofa sleeping beside her children. They ended up getting that last bowl of ice cream after all and crashed quickly afterward.

The sleeping redhead's eyes shot open, her pupils colored crimson. The Scarlet Witch successfully possessed 217 Wanda and got up from the couch.

She gazed at her sleeping children. A smile grew on her expressionless face and she slowly went to the kitchen. There, she saw photos on the wall of their family. She spotted one of Y/N, which was in a decorative frame and had an in memoriam message contained with it.

It was then she realized he was dead in the universe they were in, which explained what Tommy's remark meant earlier.

Wanda let out a doleful sigh. This further fueled her determination and gave her even more of a reason to bring Y/N with him once she gets America's power. She could take the variant Wanda's place in the current universe and their children will finally have their father again.

She left through the front door and looked up at the night sky before flying up and to the location of America Chavez.

• • •

THE ILLUMINATI BEGAN to explain their previous circumstances to the outsiders below. They were all in their seats now and let Xavier speak.

"Y/N is not the initial threat...but the offspring is." He said.

"Offspring?" Strange asked. "Of who?"

"Of the Scarlet Witch and the Specter."

This confused Y/N, who furrowed a brow and looked up at the bald man.

"But I can't have any children with Wanda. At least not in my world." He said.

Mordo chimed in. "The reason for that is because of the Darkhold. As long as Maximoff is corrupted by its magic, there is no way for her to conceive with you."

"What kind of sorcery shit is that?" Y/N blurted.

"Y/N has children in other worlds. I assume in this one too. Won't that mean they're also a danger?" Stephen questioned.

"William, Thomas, and Vivian were conceived naturally, yes, but the outlier would've been their fourth one." Xavier explained.

"That is the one that we feared." Reed added.

Y/N scoffed. "You guys are afraid of a baby? 7 superheroes! Afraid of an infant! How could it possibly be dangerous?"

"You don't understand!" Supreme Strange suddenly scolded. After a moment, he composed himself and continued. "You don't know what I saw."

"What you saw?" Y/N asked.

The variant Strange began to explain.

"In our efforts to eliminate Thanos, I used the Book of Vashanti to look in other universes, an ability that took years to master beforehand. There, I stumbled upon some that were in ruin...desecrated...a hellscape. All caused by one being...the third son of a Witch and a Wraith."

Y/N couldn't believe what he was hearing. Before he can say anything, Xavier spoke again.

"He did become a hero growing up, but with that immense power he inherited...came a curse. A dark entity had possessed him known as The Void. Once unleashed, there's practically no way to stop it. It's a death sentence to that reality."

"That is why we assume you aren't able to conceive a child in your reality." Mordo said. "The demon Chthon won't allow it, since the birth of that being will usurp whatever power he has. It will be able to destroy him."

Strange glanced at Y/N, who shook his head and looked down.

"Well...congratulations to all of you then." Y/N said sarcastically. "Your Y/N went out fighting before he can even think of having another one."

They all stood quiet, with a couple of the members glancing at each other. Stephen remembered what Xavier mentioned earlier.

"You said Y/N didn't actually die fighting Kang. What happened?" Strange asked.

The question got a reaction out of Supreme Strange the most. He sighed and looked down before deciding to answer.

"He...he was already getting tired of the superhuman life. Being the Wiccan, being a part of the Illuminati. He wanted to settle down. And he told me he and Wanda were planning on having another child."

The prisoners listened to the words of the Sorcerer Supreme as he continued.

"I had already seen the damage done to those universes. I told him about it and what could happen if he were to have that child...but he denied it...and said he wouldn't let that happen. I told the others and they tried to talk him out of it too, but he kept denying and denying."

The tone of voice Supreme Strange was speaking with and the expressions of the other members gave Y/N an ominous feeling.

"What did you do?" He finally asked himself.

Reed looked at the young man. "We were formed to make decisions no one else could...especially the hard ones. And that's what we had to do."

Charles Xavier put both his hands at his temples and transparent waves came out of his head. He got into the minds of both Strange and Y/N and projected the event to them...

• • •

Y/N AND SUPREME STRANGE walked through the portal and stepped onto Lamentis-1. Based on their readings and what Strange hypothesized, Kang was supposed to be there.

They looked around and Y/N stepped forward. His brows arched in a confused manner as he expected there to be some hint or clue on the time-traveling villain being nearby.

"This isn't right, Stephen." He began. "You said that–"

He turned around and saw that Stephen closed the portal. He looked directly at Y/N, not saying a word.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Suddenly, a couple more portals opened up letting out Captain Carter and Reed Richards. Black Bolt, Charles Xavier, and Captain Marvel, who were already on the moon, came out of hiding and joined them as well.

At this point, Y/N already had an inkling of what this could be. He just didn't want to believe it. So he still began to question.

"What...what is all this?"

"Your mind is set on it, Y/N." Xavier said.

"I fear there's no way we can change that." Strange added.

There they were. The Illuminati on the moon lured their fellow member with a false location on Kang. In reality, the villain had already been taken care of by Richards. They were all there to simply deal with Y/N.

Wiccan began to shout at his colleagues. "All because I want to settle down? Leave all this shit behind? Bear another child with my wife? Look at what you're doing!"

"We've told you of the danger that could come with having that child, L/N." Peggy said. "Many times."

"I said I wouldn't let it happen. You have to trust me."

"That is not a guarantee, Y/N. You're giving us no other choice." Reed said.

Y/N exhaled and looked down. "You're willing to make Wanda a widow? How are you going to live with that?"

They all looked at each other. Supreme Strange sighed, composing himself from his already guilty state and looking directly at his friend.

"Your sacrifice will be for the greater good."

Those words hurt Y/N, especially hearing them from a longtime friend and mentor. With their decision already made, Wiccan lowered his head and clenched his fists as he turned around.

"We were once allies. Now you have turned into my enemies."

"We will do what we must." Xavier said.

There was a beat before Y/N responded.

"You will try."

The soul-stone-powered sorcerer immediately shot a beam at the members. Supreme Strange conjured a shield that protected them before they scattered.

Captain Carter barrel rolled and landed on her feet before throwing her shield. Y/N raised his hands and slowed it down before tossing it aside. He blasted Peggy away with an orb of energy.

Maria soared in the air and shot her cosmic energy at Wiccan. The man conjured a three-dimensional rectangle and blocked the attack, but Reed wrapped his elastic arm around his torso.

He struggled in his hold initially, but Y/N shifted the rectangle toward Reed and caused Maria's beam to hit him. He was heaved away and Y/N brought his full focus back on Captain Marvel.

Y/N flew up while still shielding himself from the beam until the splash got close to Maria. She stopped firing and it allowed Wiccan to strike her in the stomach which sent her crashing back down.

Richard had recovered and wrapped Y/N with his arm again. He pulled the hero down and hit the floor, but Y/N was able to phase out of his hold. Mister Fantastic began to combat him, his hands stretching out to the distant Y/N as he tried to land a hit.

With the attempts being fruitless, Y/N enveloped his wrist with mystical energy and kept them in place.

"I always thought your powers were stupid." Y/N remarked.

He quickly conjured a spell that allowed him to blow cold air. Reed's elastic body began to freeze and the man was stuck in place like a statue.

Suddenly, Black Bolt ran in and looked at Wiccan. There was a brief staredown as Y/N knew what he was going to do. The Inhuman opened his mouth and spoke loud enough to harm only Y/N and not the rest of his team.

The strong sonic waves came toward Y/N, but the man immediately called upon a bubble of energy that took in the sound. Boltagon closed his mouth upon realizing what he was doing.

Y/N held the bubble in between them before throwing it at Boltagon. He didn't have time to react, but fortunately for him, Captain Marvel flew in and pushed him. But the bubble impacted a boulder nearby and the shockwave still blasted them away.

Captain Carter came in for another shot at Y/N. The sorcerer-slash-superhuman felt her presence and evaded a swing from her shield. He turned around and faced her, where they then began to fight hand-to-hand.

She tried to land a hit with her shield again, but Y/N held it in place and looked at her directly.

"Why, Peggy? After all we've been through?" He asked.

The first Avenger shook her head and sighed. "I have to think of everyone else. The greater good."

Y/N was already hurt and angered by the fact his friends were trying to kill him. He scoffed and shook his head too.

"Maybe you are just jealous. That I get to live happily with my family...while you aren't able to be with Rogers."

Peggy seethed her teeth and glared. "Don't talk about him."

She backed away and attacked again, but Y/N bent backward and dodged her shield. They landed jabs and kicks before Y/N took her down with a leg sweep. She tried to get up again but Wiccan opened a portal behind her.

He kicked Peggy inside and quickly opened another portal in the air in the distance. She fell through and landed on a pile of rocks, disposing of her for now.

Y/N looked and saw nobody around. He spun around again to double-check and that's when Doctor Strange appeared.

"You can still come out of this, Y/N." He said.

"Go to hell, Stephen." He spat back. "You never changed. You're still that egotistical, arrogant son of a bitch from back then...willing to stab their friends' backs if it meant gaining something."

"And what I'm gaining now...is safety. Reassurance that our reality will keep existing. Your son will end up destroying our world."

He shook his head. "What you all are doing will come back to haunt you. You will regret what you've done today. The bill always comes due."

Supreme Strange began to move his hands around and conjured magic.

"You are facing the Sorcerer Supreme and his mastery of the arcane arts."

Y/N began to form his own magic around his arms.

"The same arts you taught me, asshole."

Wiccan struck first and shot a beam at Strange, who countered with a barrier of glass.

He threw it back at Y/N, who ended up shattering it with a super-powered punch. Strange stood his ground and placed his hands on the floor where the Bolts of Balthakk shot toward Wiccan.

He evaded the bolts with his reflexes and phasing ability. Y/N ended up holding one of the bolts in the air and solidifying it. He broke it into shards and heaved it at Strange. The sorcerer charged up his magic and used a variation of the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth to turn the shards into softer pebbles.

Y/N ran at Strange, conjuring his Sacred Sword of Vashanti. The sorcerer brought out his own too and prepared to strike his friend.

They clashed blades and fought, the two of them demonstrating their mastery in the form of combat. But, Y/N was showcasing how much of a better fighter he was since he was trained by S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers years ago.

They locked blades and Y/N kneed him in the stomach. He backed up and slashed Strange on the leg which brought him down. Y/N kicked him to the floor and held him down with his foot.

"I...I don't want to do this, Stephen." Y/N said softly. "Why did this have to happen?"

Strange didn't reply and simply used his hands to open up the Eye of Agamotto. He didn't use the Time Stone, but instead, let a flash of light blind the hero.

"Argh!" Y/N groaned.

He opened his eyes immediately and adjusted his sight. Then, he realized his surroundings were different. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his chest.

"Baby?" The voice said.

Y/N looked to his left and saw Wanda. The two of them were sitting on the sofa in their house and he was in casual wear. He was confused.

"Everything all right?" She asked again after noticing his expression.

"Uh...nothing." Y/N replied and rubbed his face. Was it really all some insane dream?

He looked at Wanda. "Where are the kids?"

"Upstairs. I didn't want them to see this horror movie on a school night. Or else it'd be a hassle putting them to sleep."

He chuckled. "Understandable."

Wanda looked toward the kitchen. "Mind getting me some water, honey?"

"Sure thing." Y/N said, then kissed her hand before getting up.

Before he can enter the kitchen, Wanda called out to him. "Y/N?"

"Yeah?" He turned around and replied.

"I love you...very very much."

Her statement came out of nowhere and he found it weird. Still, he accepted it and smiled.

"I love you too."

SHULK!

Before he knew it, the mystical sword stabbed through Y/N's back and out of his chest. He looked down at the protruding blade and back at his wife, whose body and surroundings began to dissipate.

He was back on Lamentis-1. The battered and bruised Illuminati members stood around and watched as Strange dealt the blow. In reality, Professor Xavier created the illusion in his mind after Stephen blinded him.

Strange pulled the blade out and Y/N fell to his knees. He knelt there a moment, his last thoughts being of his family and the illusion of Wanda that Xavier made him see. Y/N then fell onto his stomach, finally dead.

The members all looked on in sadness, but also with an added sense of relief. Their universe's survival was at the cost of their longtime friend...but that was the hard choice they had to make.

Strange conjured a tarp and wrapped the deceased hero with it. He lifted him with his magic and opened a portal to their chambers. He walked through and the Illuminati followed.