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All of a sudden you could hear voices. The quiet of your lonely days, disturbed by other people. It could not be, nobody was supposed to be alive anymore. As you looked out of the window of the sanctuary, you could discern two people walking towards the building, a teenager and someone you thought you would not see again.
“Hello?? Anybody here?”
“This place gives me the creeps. I wonder what happened here?”
“No idea kid, but let’s see if we find anyone inside. I thought I saw someone at the window when we were approaching.”
As soon as they ascended the stairs inside the sanctuary, you sprang into action.
“Strange” you growled his name and in a blink of an eye your hand was on his neck choking him. “I waited centuries to squeeze the life out of you.”
“Sssstop … please.”
“Hey lady just let him go, stop … you are hurting him.”
“Why would I do that? He took everything from me. He deserves this and way much more.”
“I don’t know what happened here, but this is not the same Doctor Strange as the one in your world, so let him go please.”
“Oh, I am well aware he is not the same person as the one in my world, nobody is alive here anymore … except for me. But if I know him, he is the same self-absorbed fool as the one in my world”
“Please stop. He saved my life. I need his help.”
Her words made you release him from your grip and Strange started coughing, trying to get his breathing back to normal.
“You have 2 minutes to explain yourselves. Him I know very well, but who are you kid and how did you get here?”
Strange was still looking a bit purple in the face. Guess you didn’t control your strength as well as you used to or maybe you were just way stronger than before and centuries of not interacting with anyone was working against you. No matter what, looking at him you didn’t feel sorry at all. The anger was still simmering underneath your skin and in your mind, you were still killing him in hundreds of ways, each one more torturous than the other. Keeping yourself under control was proving to be very difficult and your patience was running thin.
The kid cleared her voice and looking a bit scared started talking and explaining who she was and how they got here.
“Okay, so my name is America Chavez and I can travel between the multiverse. Someone wants to kill me and steal my power. As I was being chased by a demon in my own universe, I opened a portal by mistake, which took me to his world. Apparently, that’s exactly what the demon wanted me to do, as it led me to the person who wants to murder me. Strange protected me and while we were fighting, since I can’t control my powers and they activate when I am panicking, I opened a portal that took us through several universes till we stopped on this one. And that’s a long story short. What happened to this place anyway? Why does it look like this? What happened to everyone?”
“What you see here it’s the only thing that remains from my universe. Everything and everyone was wiped a long time ago in a cataclysmic event, except me, this building and the small space around it. The Doctor Strange from my world was the one who bears the fault of it. Everything happened because of his actions. So, you’ll have to excuse my little outburst, but when the face of the person you have dreamed of killing, for the last 200 years, appears in front of you it takes a little more restraint than usual.”
You could see from their faces they were a bit shocked when they heard you saying 200 years but they tried to cover it up fast and next you heard Strange talk.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say I accept your apology, but you don’t sound really apologetic about nearly killing me here.”
You just grinned at that, in a very malicious way. The mere presence of this human was making you boil in rage and for the first time in 200 years you wanted to sink your teeth into his neck and bleed him dry. Lucky for him, since you didn’t feel the need to feed anymore, he was safe for the moment.
“It wasn’t really an apology; I was just stating some facts. Now that introductions are out of the way and I see you can breathe normally again, want to tell me exactly who is trying to kill the kid?”
Strange was hesitating. You could see on his face he didn’t trust you and he was confused about what you truly were and how you lived for 200 years alone in this place. You couldn’t blame him. You had the looks of a 25-year-old woman, raven black hair, long and straight, body of an athlete, but what was shocking him were your eyes. They used to be crystal blue as the sky of a summer day, but since the event from 200 years ago, one of your eyes was red. He knew you weren’t human, but he couldn’t figure out what you were.
“What’s the matter Strange? Are you having trouble figuring what I am? I will spare you the mystery. I am, what you call in your silly little fairy tales, a vampire.”
“Well that explains the strength and the speed.”
All of a sudden, he was panicking realizing what vampire meant. What a 200 years old vampire, all alone in a deserted world meant. You could hear his heart beating wildly in his chest and it only made you grin harder, showing a bit of your fangs in the process, making him sweat and looking wildly for an exit.”
“Relax, I don’t drink blood. I don’t feel the need for it anymore. Now, would you mind answering my question?”
He still didn’t look relaxed, but he started explaining.
“Her name is the Scarlet Witch. She is trying to kill America so she could take her power to travel through the multiverse, to a place where her kids are alive. She lost everything in our world and to my shame I wasn’t there to help her through the pain of that loss. She lost control of her powers and enchanted a whole town, creating the perfect family she always wanted with the love of her life and her kids, 2 twin boys. I don’t know the details of what happened there, but when the town was freed, and her magical perfect family disappeared, she left the town in the possession of a very dangerous book. She was wielding the Darkhold or what we wizards call The Book of the Damned and the book, feeding from her grief, made her do horrible things. The book allowed her to dream walk into other universes possessing versions of herself, constantly looking for America. Once she gets a hold of America’s powers, she will be unstoppable.”
You almost choke when you hear him. You knew she would exist in another universe, you just hoped that the damn book would not find its way into her hands again. You just hoped that she was happy, even if it wasn’t with you by her side.
“You damn wizards never learn. Why would you even allow that book to exist in your world? That book is the reason why everything I cared for was destroyed in my world.”
At your words, Strange started giving you a weird look but he continued speaking.
“It’s not that simple. Someone managed to destroy the book in our world, but the book is just a copy and I am afraid, by now, she discovered the place where all the copies were made, Wundagore Mountain, the source of the Darkhold's power.”
You were boiling with rage, barely containing your temper. This wasn’t happening, not again, not after all you went through. Unable to contain yourself anymore, your temper just exploded, making your eyes all red.
“Just great, fucking great. Not only you allowed copies of that damn book to exist, you didn’t think of destroying the place where the source of its power was? What is wrong with you people? Do you have a death wish or something? You like everything on the brink of destruction?”
“Look, I didn’t know that place existed till recently. Only the Sorcerer Supreme was supposed to know about it and if I didn’t end up thrown through several universes, I would have gone there to try and destroy it. As it is now, that chance flew out the window and I need to find a way to go back to my world so I can fix things.”
You smiled bitterly looking at Strange with a defeated look.
“You fool. She had the power to destroy an entire universe just by wielding a copy of the Darkhold and if she wasn’t stopped, I am afraid she could have destroyed more than one. What do you think she will be capable of doing, when she gets to wield all of its power?”
Strange was having a horrified look on his face.
“What do you mean she had the power to destroy an entire universe by wielding a copy of the Darkhold? What are you saying exactly?”
“I am saying that this universe was destroyed by the Scarlet Witch and the copy of the Darkhold, the version of you gave to her, Strange. You made this possible. You and your arrogance to save the world. Wanda trusted you when you told her to use the book to destroy Thanos and this is the result of that. Total destruction.”
You sat down with a defeated look on your face and Strange wasn’t looking any great either, his brain trying to process the information you just told him. The kid was just sitting there on the side, looking between the two of you, trying not to panic at all the things she was hearing.
You felt like you were back 200 years ago, when everything you loved was ripped from you. You didn’t want to think what would happen when the Scarlet Witch reached her full potential. Everything you sacrificed back then to save the other universes will be in vain.
You knew you had to do something. You couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. But did you still have the strength to go through all of this again? Someone out there really hated you and was having fun tormenting you.
Strange interrupted your inner musing when he asked “How was the Scarlet Witch in your universe defeated?”
It took you a while to answer and he almost thought you wouldn’t say anything, when he heard you say “I killed her.”
You knew he wanted details, but you couldn’t bring yourself to elaborate any further. There was an emptiness swallowing you whole, just at the memory of that day. Letting yourself spiral through the memories would not help anyone at this point. Clutching the rings you had on your necklace, you tried to center yourself and think of something else. Her smile when you proposed, your wedding day, putting the ring on her finger, the day she gave birth to your kids, all of you cuddled on the couch on a movie night, the moment she took the ring out and handed it to you so you could remember her…. as you could ever forget her. God, you missed her with every cell in your immortal body. You missed your life together…. you missed your kids.
This time it was America who interrupted you from spacing out “You must be a really powerful vampire if you could kill the Scarlet Witch in your universe. We could really use your help with the one that’s chasing me.”
Powerful your ass. You weren’t, but they didn’t need to know the details of how it came to be this way or of who she really was to you. You knew they would doubt you, the moment they would find out who the Scarlet Witch was to you and you couldn’t let that happen. You didn’t know how it all would go, but you needed to see her again and that’s what made you answer her.
“I will help if it’s in my power to do so, otherwise I feel that the sacrifices that were made in my universe might be in vain.”
Strange was looking very skeptical at you. He didn’t trust you, that was for sure. He wanted to know more about you, but one look from you, told him you wouldn’t be sharing stories and singing kumbaya any time soon.
You ignored his brooding attitude and talked directly to America.
“I need you to open up a portal as close as possible to the temple in Wundagore Mountain, because I assume that’s where Wanda is. After that, I want you to close it and I want you to remain here with Strange for a while. If my plan goes south, at least here she has no variant to dream walk into it and you should be safe.”
Strange wanted to protest your plan, but a look from you made him shrink back to his place.
At a nod of your head, America opened a portal and you could see the temple on Wundagore Mountain in the distance. You stepped through and just as you advised the portal closed behind you.
You hadn’t used your powers in a while, but to get to where Wanda was, you needed to fly, so as you started running very fast your body broke into hundreds of bats, carrying you to the love of your life. Cause she will always be the love of your life, no matter the time or place. After all, the Scarlet Witch, from their universe, was still a version of your Wanda and you loved her in every universe and every form out there.
And there she was, atop a stone table in the temple of Wundagore Mountain, just as beautiful as you remembered her, lost in deep concentration as she was dream walking. At the sight of her, you couldn’t help but whisper her name “Wanda”.
It was enough to make her eyes snap wide open and make her look at you. She didn’t know you. You didn’t exist in this universe, but she knew you from other universes. She had seen you with her boys and her other variants. She knew that in another universe you would have been someone important to her.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“My name is Y/N and you know very well who I am, don’t you Wanda? You must have seen me in other universes.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question of 'what are you doing here?’
“You need to stop. You have no idea what the Darkhold is doing to you or what it will make you do.”
“Why would I stop? I am very close to getting my children back.”
“Wanda. Trust me when I tell you, this power will not help you do that. Please, stop while you are still in control of it.”
This version of Wanda seemed more powerful, more in control of the magic she was using, but it was only a matter of time till the Darkhold would take control and everything would turn to dust, again.
You could see her looking at you intently, trying to make her powers work on you and you smirked.
“You cannot read my mind, unless I let you do so. You never could. One of the advantages of being a vampire, I guess. You also can’t control me with your magic.”
“I don’t need to control you. I just need to make you turn to dust.”
As she finished her little speech, her eyes and hands glowed with red magic. She was indeed trying to turn you into dust, but your regeneration abilities had also increased since the events of 200 years ago. It hurt and it made you scream with each step you took towards her, your skin kept breaking and reforming, but you wouldn’t stop. Not now when she was this close again.
She kept using her magic on you, even when you got to the stone table and jumped on it, only stopping when you reached her and your hand closed around her cheek.
There was so much love she could see in your eyes, so much caring, it was making her tremble.
“If you really want to see what using this power will bring you, I can show you.” and as you finished speaking you let the Scarlet Witch into your head so she could see everything, from your life together till the end.
-flashback-
You were at home with your kids, watching tv. All of a sudden, an emergency broadcast started and they were showing people and places crumbling to dust. It was happening all over the world. It looked like the world was disappearing. You turned off the tv, so your boys wouldn’t panic, but they were already looking scared.
“Boys everything will be alright. I am sure that whatever is going on, your mom and the avengers will handle it. Why don’t you go to your room and play a video game, while I try to call your mom? Common, up you go.”
They were reluctant to leave you, but they knew once you made your mind up, there was no arguing with you, so they went up to their room.
Wanda was at the Avengers Tower today. You needed to contact her and see if she knew anything about what was happening, but when you tried to call her, the phone was off.
Just as you were pacing around deciding what to do, Agatha arrived at your place and then a portal appeared in your living room and a very pale Strange walked through.
“What’s going on?” You asked the two of them.
It was Agatha who answered first “Wanda lost control over The Darkhold powers. She is becoming the Scarlet Witch.”
“The Scarlet Witch? Strange what is she talking about? You never said anything like this could happen when we decided to use the Darkhold against Thanos.”
“The Scarlet Witch is a powerful being capable of destroying the universe. I am sorry Y/N. I thought that we could contain it and deal with it after we defeated Thanos, but I was wrong.”
“You knew this would happen? You knew and you still let Wanda use that damn book? What kind of a miserable human being are you?”
“Y/N, Thanos would have killed half the universe just by a snap of his fingers. There was no other way.”
“No. Don’t you dare come with that bullshit to me. You better go back to your sanctuary and find a solution in your fucking ancient books and you better do it before I decide to suck you dry.”
Strange wasn’t happy about your outburst, but he started moving his hands in a circle creating a portal.
“You know what, I don’t trust you, so I am coming with you. Agatha, can you stay here with the boys till I am back? I will try to be as fast as possible.”
“Sure thing, hun.”
“Boys come down for a second, I need to talk to you for a bit.”
As soon as you finished your sentence, you could hear the boys running down the stairs. When they stopped in front of you, you kneeled and hugged them both, real tight.
“My loves, mama needs to leave for a bit, but I won’t be long. You be good here for Agatha. Got it?”
“Yes mama.” they answered in one voice.
“Take care of them please. I’ll be right back.”
Agatha gave you a nod and you leaned over and gave her a hug too.
As Strange was already waiting on the other side of the portal, you stepped through and the portal began to close. You turned around and saw your boys standing near Agatha and looking at you with scared little faces. Last thing you did before the portal closed entirely was yell “I love you boys.” and after that you followed the doctor in the library, with hope that maybe one of those ancient books would contain the solution you needed.
You didn’t know how much time passed, but no matter how many books you kept reading, you couldn’t find any solution. Strange had left the library a few minutes ago and when you heard noises coming from outside the sanctuary, you ran towards them.
The image of Doctor Strange on his knees, being held by red tendrils of magic, made you realize Wanda was there. She looked different, a new costume adorning her frame, but just as beautiful as always. She had tears streaming down her face and she was screaming something. You were so shocked that for a few seconds you didn’t understand what she was screaming about, but then you heard her.
“My boys are gone because of you. I trusted you and you promised that if I use this power, nothing wrong will happen. I had to watch them fade away, screaming for my help and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.”
“Wanda, you have to understand …”
“Noooooooo. I trusted you and you chose not to tell me about the risks using this book.” And with a flick of her hand, he was no more.
You couldn’t process anything anymore. The fact that the boys were gone, kept repeating in your head over and over again and when you looked around, you saw there wasn’t anything left except the sanctuary and a small space surrounding it. The world was already gone.
“Y/N” she finally acknowledged you and that made you look at her.
You could feel sadness and grief radiating from her. For a second your minds connected and she showed you the moment your boys disappeared into dust. The pain was unbearable. Your beautiful life together was gone. Your precious treasures ripped from you.
As all of this wasn’t enough, you heard her say “You have to kill me. I can’t control it. I can’t stop it. This power is destroying everything in its path. I can’t live knowing our kids are gone, that everything is my fault. I don’t know if this destruction will end here or if it will destroy the next universe and the next one, until there is nothing but dust left. Every version of our boys, every version of us, will be gone. Baby please.”
No, no, no, no. This wasn’t happening. What you were hearing was an illusion. A bad joke. You couldn’t be hearing this.
“Y/N look at me. You have to do this and you have to do it now. My love please. There is no other way. Please.”
She came close to you as she finished her pleas and then she wrapped you in her arms. All you wanted to do was close your eyes and forget about the world around you, let her power consume you together with this world. But she wouldn’t let you. She took her ring off and handed it to you and then her lips connected with yours in an all-consuming kiss.
As the kiss broke, she brought your head to her neck and whispered to you “please my love, do this for me.”
Inhaling her scent for one last time, your fangs connected with her skin, piercing it slowly until you could taste her.
You knew you couldn’t stop drinking her blood, from the moment your fangs sunk into her neck. Her blood was addicting. You could feel the power coursing through you, changing you, making you something else. You kept drinking until she was but dust in your hold and the wind ravaging around you, scattered her away from your hold.
It was done, but you didn’t care anymore. You had nothing left and no one. You remained on your knees, looking at your empty hands covered in dust. She was no longer there. The pain was too much to bear, so numbness overtook you. You had no need to move, you felt no desire to feed and so it took you years to even move an inch from that position.
The first time you came back from your self-imposed lockdown you felt like you couldn’t breathe. Funny you didn’t need to breathe; you were a vampire after all.
When you finally managed to move from your position, the first thing you did was to climb to the highest point of the sanctuary building and jump down on the spiky fence. This had been the plan all along. The moment you agreed to her pleas of being stopped, you also decided to follow her in the afterlife, but neither the fall or the spikes were able to kill you. After similar attempts you got to the conclusion that you could no longer die. The power coursing through the blood of the Scarlet Witch had made you indestructible and that’s when the true despair started. Maybe this was your punishment for killing the love of your life, an eternity spent alone in a broken world.”
- End of flashback -
And with that, you ended your connection and she couldn’t read your mind anymore. She had felt your desperation, the agony of those memories and the pain that was all consuming you. She had seen your attempts at dying, over and over again. The haunting look after the first years when you realized you couldn’t die, that you couldn’t follow her variant in the afterlife.
She was watching you now, with a strange look in her eyes, like she couldn’t decide what to do with all the memories you shared, like she couldn’t believe all of that happened.
Your hand caressing her face brought her back from her musings “you are as beautiful as I remember you.”
“Y/N I don’t...”
“Sshht, it's ok, you don’t need to say anything. I know I don’t exist in your world, but for me, you are the only one. I loved you then and I love you now, I love you in every form and in every universe. You are my sadness and my hope, but mostly you are my love.”
Just as you finished you leaned down and kissed her gently. You didn’t expect her to answer your kiss, but she did and you felt like melting against her. As the kiss broke, you could see her eyes full of tears looking at you.
“Y/N you can’t say that. I am not your Wanda. She didn’t have a choice, she couldn’t control the power, but I can and I chose to do so many bad things. I hurt so many people.”
“You’ll make it right. I know you’re not my Wanda, but I know you to your core and you are good. Deep down inside you were always good. Your pain made you lash out and there wasn’t anyone to soothe it for you. The Darkhold used your pain against you and made you do those terrible things, but you can fix it.”
“I can’t. I don’t even know how to start fixing everything I did. All the wrong I caused.”
“You need to destroy this place. You need to close the Darkhold for good.”
You could see the darkness of the Darkhold battling for her will and so you chose to hold her face between your hands and kiss her forehead gently. Making her focus on something else than darkness. To show her you meant every word you said to her, you undid the necklace that held your rings and gently took her hand and slid her ring on and the proceeded to put yours on as well.
Deep down you knew she wasn’t the woman you married, but years of pain and despair were making everything foggy. You didn’t care anymore, you just wanted her back. This time you will let the world burn as long as you have her by your side.
She was looking at the ring on her finger with a shocked face. She was also wondering what would have happened if she had you by her side in this life. All of a sudden, she wanted to know how a life with you would have been. But the Darkhold wouldn’t let her and so she made up her mind.
“You need to leave this place. I opened the Darkhold and I need to close it. I’ll make sure nobody else will ever use its power again, not here nor in another universe.”
As she finished talking, she gently pushed you away and started kneeling on the stone table.
“Go. Now Y/N.”
She was bringing down the mountain, her powers working their way into destroying the Darkhold here and in the multiverse.
You didn’t move away though. You knelt in front of her and closed your arms around her. Inhaling her scent, burying your face into her neck, you whispered “Don’t make me leave. I cannot stand another second in this world without you. Don’t go to a place that I can’t follow. If you are sure, you want this to be your end, find a way to bring me with you. Don’t leave me alone again.”
You knew she heard your whispers when she wrapped her arms around you. All you could feel was her energy, as the mountain was coming down on top of you and as everything collapsed, every Darkhold in every universe was destroyed.
In the last moment, before everything turned into rubble and the place crumbled to the ground, a cloud of red smoke emerged from the wreckage. It was finally over.
THE END