Vision looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he tied his cape around his neck. This Halloween he'd chosen a costume that would allow him to be seen with his true face. He wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps he was tired of hiding.
He was in the living room in time to see Wanda descend the stairs in her sorceress ensemble: red leotard, red crown, tights. Even after all these years of marriage, he was still frequently struck by her beauty. Today, the sight of her looking so uncannily beautiful caused him to feel even more lost and conflicted. How was he ever supposed to confront her about her secrets when he couldn't bear the thought of upsetting her?
"You look wonderful," she said to him.
"So do you," he replied, hoping she would misconstrue the tightness in his voice.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Shouldn't you bring a jacket?" he asked.
"It's not too chilly today. And if it's cold on the walk home tonight, you can wrap me up in your cape," she added suggestively.
He couldn't help but chuckle and wrap an arm around her.
Agnes waved to them from her yard as they passed.
"You going to the party?" Wanda asked.
"In a bit. Your costumes look great!"
It was warm for an autumn evening. All their neighbors seemed to be out and about, heading to the party or getting an early start on trick-or-treating.
"You're being quiet today," Wanda noted.
"I'm sorry. I'm just thinking," Vision said evasively.
"I have always loved how thoughtful you are." When he didn't laugh, she asked, "Is it anything you want to talk about?"
"Not just yet." It was a night to socialize and enjoy themselves; he didn't want to bring down the mood. Besides, if she could keep secrets, so could he.
"Okay." After a minutes, she said, "I think I'm going to dart back home and change into some flats. These shoes are killing me."
"Would you like me to go with you?"
"No. Go on ahead. I'll meet you at the party."
Normally he might have insisted on accompanying her, but Vision didn't mind a few minutes alone to think.
Several people he passed wished him Happy Halloween. Some greeted him by name. Rather, by his alias. Everyone in Westview was always so friendly. Neighbors were always eager to help each other, the twins had never been bullied in school, they had never been made to feel unwelcome in any way. Everything about it seemed perfect.
He kept thinking about what Agnes said yesterday: something that seemed too good to be true probably wasn't true.
"I think something's wrong here," he muttered aloud to himself.
No one had ever asked him why he didn't eat. No one who shook his hand had ever commented on his skin being harder than typical human skin. It was as if they were incapable of noticing anything odd about him.
Suddenly feeling like he needed to get away, he floated up into the air, wondering if anyone would spot him and point him out. No one did.
He flew higher, getting a bird's-eye view of their idyllic town.
There was something there, a layer of some kind of energetic static. He flew through it curiously, trying to figure out what it was.
And then suddenly the sky changed from early evening twilight to star-studded black. The air was colder. All was quiet.
He looked around.
Beyond the edges of town he could see razor-wire fences and floodlights. Beyond those, he saw a car parked on a road in the woods with its headlights on.
He flew closer to investigate. He saw someone in the car, apparently asleep at the wheel.
It was Agnes, wearing the witch costume he'd seen her in a few minutes ago.
He flew to her. The driver's side window was open.
"Agnes?"
She didn't wake up.
He reached toward her to rouse her. Something like electricity zapped from his fingertip to her head.
She jolted awake with a gasp. She stared at him, eyes wild.
"Am I dead?" she asked.
"No," he assured her. "Why would you think that?"
She looked at him pensively. "Because you are."
The way she said that—both authoritative and amazed—convinced him she knew something he didn't.
It terrified him.
"What do you mean?"
"What are you doing here?" She asked him instead of answering. "How did you get out here?"
"I flew," he answered without thinking about it. This all seemed so surreal he was staying to wonder if he was having some kind of nightmare.
"You flew?" she repeated.
He realized how strange that must sound. Agnes didn't know about his powers.
But she just started laughing, like that was the funniest joke she'd heard in years.
"You just flew out? You mean you could have left Westview any time you wanted this whole time?"
"It seems so," he answered. "Can't anyone?"
"Almost no one has been able to enter or leave Westview in over a year," Agnes said.
"But...how did you get out? I saw you only a few minutes ago."
"I've never set foot in Westview in my life, Vision."
"How... How do you know my real name?"
Agnes took a deep breath. "Okay. You must be so confused. You want to know what's really going on in Westview?"
"Yes. Very much," he answered.
"I'm not the best person to answer that. But I know who is." She took out her phone and made a call. "Hey, sorry to call you this late. I mean, this early, but I need to meet up with you right now. You are not going to believe this."
She got out of her car, put her wrists together, and circled her hands in a way that reminded him of Wanda when she worked her powers.
A circle of light appeared in the air in front of her. Through it, Vision could see a room containing what looked to be advanced scientific equipment.
"Come with me," Agnes said as she stepped through it.
Vision did. He was uncertain if it was a good idea, but he needed answers.
The room they emerged in was some kind of lab. Vision was trying to figure out what they could be studying in this room when a door opened. It occurred to him too late that he should perhaps assume his normal human disguise.
But he found himself facing Bruce.
"Oh my God," he said. "Vision?"
"I told you you weren't going to believe it," Agnes said.
"Doctor Banner?" Vision said, desperately trying to figure out what was going on.
"You can call me Bruce. How did you get out of Westview?"
"He flew," Agnes answered for him. "Apparently, he can go right through the energy barrier."
"Your appearance has changed since last I saw you," Vision noted.
"Yeah. That's not important right now. Vision, how much do you know about what Wanda is doing?"
He shook his head. The question didn't make sense. "Wanda is not doing anything."
"Do you know how you got to Westview in the first place?" Agnes asked.
He was about to answer with a simple 'Of course', but realized he didn't. It was a long time ago, and he hadn't thought about it for a long time.
"Did Wanda ever tell you?" Bruce asked.
'How are you here?' That was what Wanda asked him, mystified, that night.
"She didn't know," Vision answered. "We have never known."
Bruce rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How much do you know about A-day?"
Vision felt as if his memories had been frozen in ice, and now they were coming to him in thin thawing trickles. "The day terrorists attacked San Franisco"
"Do you know what happened then?"
He'd died. Killed in the Terrogen expolsion, he was protecting civilians.
But he was alive.
"No," he answered. "I presume you found a way to stop the terrorists?"
"Kind of," Bruce said. "We lost Captain America, but A.I.M. Has taken over everything."
He stared at Bruce and Agnes. "I don't understand."
Bruce nodded. "I think you might benefit from seeing what we've been able to figure out so far." He turned on one of his computers, and brought up everything they had on Westview?"
Vision looked at the models and nodded slowly. Vision reached out to the computer screen, touching the center of the yellow ripples. "For fifteen months, Westview has existed inside a bubble dimension. As near as we can figure, it's being generated by Wanda's powers. Time inside the bubble dimension is passing more quickly than outside, about one nineteenth the speed of regular time."
"So an hour here is about nineteen hours there," Agnes clarified. "But that's really just my best guess."
"We completely agree," Bruce said.
The implications were beginning to coalesce in Vision's mind, and they were devastating.
"Why would she do this?" Vision asked himself.
"It's a protective shell she's built around herself," Bruce speculated. "After everything she's suffered in her life, she's just trying to protect herself."
Agnes shook her head. "Not quite. She's not doing it to protect herself..." She looked pointedly at Vision. "She's doing it to protect you."
"Me?"
Vision's head was swirling. "This is what she's been keeping from me, all this time."
Bruce hesitantly added, "We know she can alter and even create physical matter. We've seen Wanda do it."
Agnes added, "She used it to create the house you live in, the college where you work..."
She trailed off, leaving something unspoken dangling in the silence.
It dawned on him. "And me. You believe she created me."
"Re-created you," Bruce said
He looked at Agnes. "Why did you never tell me this?"
"Would you have believed me?"
Bruce continued his explanation. "We believe Wanda's mind powers are influencing everyone in Westview. She wants them to be nice and happy and not question what's going on, so she's subconsciously making them. We need an Uplink from a base in Westview and we have shut off the energy field creating the bubble dimension, but we've had no way to administer it—no way to safely get it inside Westview and get close enough to anesthetize her. Until now."
They meant him, Vision realized. This was why Agnes had brought him here, why she'd told Bruce he could pass through the energy barrier.
"You're asking me to turn against my wife,."
"Not really turn against her."
"The people of Westview are trapped there. They deserve the freedom to leave, the freedom to remember what's outside their town, the freedom to know what's real," Agnes added.
Vision considered that point. He felt a lump in his throat, and something cold and poisonous in the pit of his stomach.
"If we sever Wanda's connection. If I do this, will I cease to exist?"
Bruce didn't answer for a long second. "We don't know. We don't know enough to be able to answer that."
