It began as a normal day. Wanda dropped Vision off at the college and the twins off at the elementary school, then she stopped by the fabric store and the grocery store before heading home.
When she walked into her house, she stepped on a note that had been shoved under the door. She frowned, wondering who had left it there. She unfolded it, then dropped it with a yelp like it had burned her as soon as she saw the words at the top.
Wanda Maximoff...
No one but Vision, Nat, and Dr. Ramos should have known who she really was, and this wasn't their handwriting.
Heart pounding, she picked the note back up, unfolded it, and made herself read.
Wanda Maximoff,
Meet me at the corner of Eltonhead Road and Chestnut Lane.
Come alone.
Tell no one.
She paced for several minutes, wondering what to do. She wrote a note for Vision and left it with the original note in their bedroom.
Whoever wrote that note, she had to find out what they knew.
Eltonhead Road was beyond the edge of town, past farm houses, orchards, and a cow pasture, not far from the highway. She parked at the side of the road and stepped out of her car.
"I'm here," she said to the cluster of trees where someone might be hiding, prepared to immediately engage her power at the sound of a gunshot or any other threat.
A woman walked out from behind a tree.
Wanda didn't know who she'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been Jane Foster's graduate student. She'd only met the young woman a couple of times. They'd never talked more than the exchanging of pleasantries.
"Hi. Who are you?"
"Monica Rambeau," she said.
"Have you been waiting long?" Wanda asked, not knowing what else to say
"I figured you'd show up sooner or later, Ms. Maximoff."
The use of that name brought back the anxiety she'd felt when she first saw the note. "How do you know that name?"
"I used to work for Director Fury, a long time ago. I know about your powers, I know how you got your powers, and I know what you're doing now. You need to stop it."
"Stop what?" she asked, confused.
"This. Westview. You need to free Westview. Keeping an entire town in your thrall is wrong, and you know it. You used to be an Avenger; you're better than this."
She thought Wanda was doing something to Westview? That made no sense. "What are you talking about?"
"You've turned this town into a prison for your own purposes. It's not worth it."
Wanda shook her head. "I don't know where you're getting this from. I haven't done anything."
"You expect me to believe that? ."
"This isn't me," Wanda said.
Monica stared at her. "And now they're back. Which you know. They're too dangerous for you to control. They're too powerful for anyone to control. You have to stop."
"To stop what?" Wanda shouted. "I'm not doing anything! I'm not imprisoning anyone! I would never do that!"
"Then why can't anyone leave? This, right here," she pointed behind her, "is as far out of town as anyone can go. No one has left or arrived in years. I have tried so hard to find a way out."
"Okay, you're wrong. I just bought oranges and bananas at the grocery this morning. Those don't grow around here, so if no one comes to town, how did they get here?"
"You have to free us. Your husband isn't worth all of this."
Wanda stared at her. "What does Vision have to do with it?"
"They're how I figured out you were behind this. You need to stop controlling the town, or I'm going to tell everyone the truth. I'll keep telling them until they can see it too."
"I can't stop anything," Wanda insisted, feeling more frantic with each passing moment. "You would...ruin my husband's life, my life to...to tell people this paranoid fantasy of yours that I'm somehow controlling everyone?"
Monica looked at her incredulously. "Ruining what lives? It's not real."
Wanda shook her head, stunned. "What? What do you mean it's not real?"
"You created it, it's a lie."
"I didn't create my husband. That's crazy."
Monica shook her head. "Vision is dead."
"No Vision's no..." Her throat closed up. She couldn't even argue against something so horrible.
"You've enthralled an entire town, warping reality and controlling people's minds just so you could pretend to have a family. You're deluding yourself, and you need to let them go."
"It's all real," Wanda repeated helplessly.
"They're just illusion you're controlling," Monica said. "And if you don't end them, I will."
The threat was too much. Wanda's power boiled over and burst out of her beyond her control, just like the sharp "No!" she screamed at the same second. A wave of red energy crashed into Monica, who went flying backward.
"No!" Wanda cried again as she realized what she had just done. She tried stop it, tried to levitate Monica down gently, but in a second, she disappeared from view. One instant she'd been flying through the air, and the next it was like she'd blinked out of existence.
Wanda stared at the spot where Monica had been, gasping, heart pounding. She hadn't meant to do it. It had been an instict, to protect Vision. Monica was going to expose them, possibly try to kill them.
But...had she been right about the Infinity Stones? Was Wanda still using their power without knowing it? Had she somehow used them to make Monica Rambeau disappear?
But Monica was wrong about Vision. They were safe here, and Wanda was going to keep her and Vision safe, at any cost. And that meant she had to make sure no one connected Monica's disappearance to her.
She had to get home and burn that note.
Monica flew backward through the energy barrier. She could feel the energy field reach inside her. She felt like the red forcefield of Wanda's power enveloping her was the only thing stopping it from tearing her apart.
The sky blinked from daylight to night. She flew through cold air, and then hit the ground hard.
She blinked her eyes, seeing people run toward her, silhouetted by floodlights.
Her plan had worked better than she'd anticipated.
She hadn't expected to survive it.
