Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise (and I'm borrowing a couple of things you may not recognise from sources you simply may not be familiar with); be assured I'll identify anything relevant when it comes up.
Feedback: Always appreciated
AN: I'm sure that I'm not the only one who regrets what the MCU has done to the two youngest official Avengers in their last few outings; it may make for a dramatic narrative, but there's something depressing about seeing Spider-Man lose all his social contacts and the Scarlet Witch being driven insane by trauma and an evil spellbook. To that end, I give you my own idea for how things could progress for them both after the destruction of the Darkhold, which opens literally as Wanda is bringing Mount Wundagore down on herself.
As with "Guardians of Magic" and "Legacies' Triad", I'm getting the first few chapters out now to whet your appetites for when I can focus on it in more depth after finishing a few of my current projects, but I hope you'll enjoy these first few chapters anyway.
Scarlet Witch and the Three Spiders
Even as she turned her power against the walls of the mountain chamber that had been her place of power just moments ago, Wanda hated how a part of her still wanted to give in to the lure of its influence. She knew that it was wrong, she was fully aware that it was nothing she should pay attention to, she knew now that she had let this accursed book twist her longing for her family to do such terrible things…
It had seemed so simple when she first took the book from Agatha after undoing the Westview Hex. She would use the book to learn more about the power Agatha had hinted at, find some way to bring back the family she'd almost had, and then she could put the Darkhold somewhere safe and never have to worry about it again. She wasn't even sure when she'd started to focus on her children and stopped thinking about whatever was left of Vision, even if she told herself that she didn't want to see the complete absence of emotion in that white form's eyes ever again, but the more she'd searched for a way to bring back Tommy and Billy, the easier it had been to dismiss everyone else… to forget that she'd gone to SWORD to retrieve Vision's body alone even after Pepper Potts helped her trace where he had been taken after Wakanda… even after Clint and Sam had offered to come with her…
Why do I have to lose it all? We had so little time all those years, and why did I have to suffer? Everyone else got everything back after the Blip except for me; doesn't that give me some right to be selfish?
But like Strange had said when he first realised what she was doing… that was the kind of rationalisation their enemies had always used, right up to the part where she had ignored it. No matter how she had told herself that she was doing it to be the best kind of mother to her sons, no matter her insistence that she'd just take America's power to ensure that she could protect them from any future threats or dangers, no matter how some of the Illuminati had been arrogant dicks who thought they knew best about everything…
She had still killed people. The defenders of Kamar-Taj who wanted to protect a teenage girl, the father in blue who had just wanted to go back to his children, the bald man in the hoverchair who had tried to believe that she and Stephen could be better… those were the deaths she would truly regret (she wouldn't let herself think too much about the women or that man in black; she hadn't learnt enough about them to know what there was to mourn). It wouldn't atone for everything she'd done, but if she could eliminate the temptation of the Darkhold for anyone else, she might at least have the chance to go out in the hope that someone would still think well of her in the end.
She had never wanted to be a monster… but even if she couldn't be a mother, at least this way she might still be able to be a hero.
As the rubble fell around her, she felt a sense of blue engulf her amid the surge of red as the Darkhold dispersed-
Wanda would later learn that she had more reasons than most to be disorientated by what happened next, but it would be safe to say that literally everyone would be confused to go from being about to be crushed by rubble in a distant mountain to finding themselves falling through the air above a large city.
Wanda just managed to recognise the Empire State Building as she tumbled through the air, but she could barely bring herself to register anything else, never mind try and save herself. The effort of destroying the temple at Wundagore had already basically drained her powers, so she knew she wouldn't be going anywhere under her own power, and on top of that… now that she knew she could never have her children back… that she could never be part of a family again… that she had ruined everything she'd worked for since Clint Barton told her she just had to step out that church door to become something more…
Maybe it's better this way…
Her morbid thoughts were interrupted when something hit her around the waist and she felt herself start to fly upwards rather than her continued descent towards the ground. For a moment she wondered if she had instinctively started flying again, but then she felt herself drop down before rising and she realised that someone had an arm around her waist and was carrying her somewhere. Twisting her head in confusion, Wanda found herself looking at a figure in red and blue with a full-head mask on, a black pattern to the red that-
I know him.
It wasn't exactly a detailed history- he'd been on the other side in Leipzig and taken part in the final battle against Thanos, and she thought he'd been at Stark's funeral afterwards- but they had both been Avengers at different points, and she had definitely heard his name during that moment when 'Captain Marvel' had tried to take the Gauntlet away from Thanos…
"Peter… Parker?" she said, looking cautiously at the figure still holding her.
As though those words had been a cue, the figure instantly changed direction and moved quickly towards a nearby rooftop. Wanda was briefly struck by a sense that she was seeing triple as she and her red-and-blue saviour landed- she wasn't entirely sure what building she was on right now, although in her defence she had never spent much time in New York- but then the web-clad hero removed his mask- Wanda had a sudden sharp headache and a more intense feeling that she was seeing everything around her three different ways at once-
