One last little bit-

Villianus Ex Machina

Universe 616, Latveria

The room was grim, still, silent, but the woman who stepped out of nowhere to stand in the middle of it was calm. Her hair was a playful riot of colors and her skin a mix as well. She looked odd, but her demeanor was sad and proud at the same time as she looked around the room to blank stone walls.

"I am expected." The woman said and paused as a door that would not have been out of place on a bank vault opened on one wall and a familiar form hustled in. Grey armor. Green cloak. "Victor? No need to rush." She paused and worry started to rise. "Is there?"

Victor Von Doom, monarch of Latveria, paused in whatever he was going to say and then shook his head. "No, Milady. I was delayed and was worried I would not be here to meet you."

"You don't need to be so formal with me. We have talked about that, Victor." The lady did not quite groan. "I am not your equal here. Not even close." She sighed as he bent into a formal bow. "Don't do that! If any of your subjects see that, or worse, one of your rivals…"

"No one is here on this level." Victor said quietly as he rose from his bow. "Between my skills and various people's assistance, I am quite sure than we are alone here. Even Richards and his assorted fools know better than to poke around here."

"Good." The lady said sadly. "Any change?" Victor shook his head. "I… I see."

"There may not be." Victor warned. "Elizabeth was and is one of the strongest willed beings I have ever encountered. That said? She had her limits and that golden skinned fool did his best to break her."

"He failed, though, didn't he?" The lady all but begged and Victor did not answer. "I… No…"

"Breaking is always easier than mending. Anyone else, I could find a way to assist." Victor said quietly. "But Elizabeth is my equal in many ways. She is stubborn, dedicated and quite frankly, scary with her ability to alter reality around her." The lady nodded and Victor shook his head. "No psychologist with any sense is going to get into the same room with her. I was never a psychologist. I do know about causing trauma, both physical and mental, but fixing it is not as easy, Lady Ess."

"I am not a lady, Victor." The being who had been a Tenno said sadly. "I am still coping with my own messes, but I am better. I hoped Elizabeth could get better with time."

"She has and she has not." Victor replied. "She is better in some ways, but in others, she is still broken and may never fully recover. She knew he could control her and did not fight the controls as she did with her mother, but the desecration of her soul left scars that may never fade."

"Can you hold her, Victor?" Ess asked quietly. "If not… I am next eldest. I can take responsibility if you need me to."

"I don't know." Victor admitted. A shocking thing from such a man in the middle of his power. "When she is lucid, she wants to get better but she is rarely lucid now. She and Wanda have bonded, but she pushes Wanda away. Probably fearing what she may do in a rage."

"I know that feeling." Ess muttered. "What about all of the self appointed do-gooders on this world? Can they do nothing?"

"Wanda asked and some of them tried. Some of them did help her but it did not last." Ess stilled and Victor nodded. "They all understand the danger now. Even the silliest or craziest on this world like existing and everyone knows that she can end them if she is pushed."

"I do need to see her, but before we do that: Thank you, Victor." Ess bowed to him and he seemed flummoxed. "You can hide what you are from everyone else. You may even have fooled Elizabeth, but I know. I know what you did and why."

"Do not speak thus." Victor was hushed. Scared?

"I didn't understand and now I do." Ess bowed again. "I will not speak of it but know this: To me, mine and those of us who know such things, you are the true hero of this world."

"They… They needed an antagonist." Victor said slowly. "I… I had to. No one else could do it! He would have-" He broke off as Ess stepped forward and laid her hand against the mouth of his armor.

"Every decent story needs a protagonist and an antagonist." Ess said very quietly. "You do evil better than most I have ever seen, Victor. And when you do? You do not go too far."

"Evil for its own sake is just plain dumb." Victor retorted. "There has to be reason for it. I didn't want to do this. I liked Sue. I even admired Richard, but… He would have gone too far. He has gone too far many times. He needed a foil."

"And you did it." Was Ess about to cry. "No matter your own desires, your own needs, you chose to do it. You chose to be the bad guy. The most reviled being on this world. And not because you were a selfish little shit like Lorinos, but because your world needed you." She was crying now. "It is not fair!"

"I have been selfish." Victor replied, apparently unmoved by her sorrow. "I like existing as much as the next person."

"And if Reed Richards had managed to breach the barrier between realities, as bad as things have gotten here, it would have been worse. All hell would have broken loose here." Ess replied, stepped back. "I apologize for the affront, your majesty."

"Stuff a sock in it." Deadpan!

Suddenly, both the newest warden and the dread monarch of Latveria were laughing! Victor held out a hand and Ess took it.

"Be strong." Victor said as he led the way out of the door. "She does love you."

"I know."

Ess swallowed hard as they walked a few steps to another huge, heavy door. It opened silently and Victor led her into wonder. The room was painted in gentle colors but a pair of oddly colored force fields barred the way to the sole other door on the other side of the room. Victor walked right through them, Ess keeping pace. They felt odd to her. Not quite tangible, but definitely there and definitely potent. The door ahead of them was just as massive and weighty as the others. It did not open as they approahced. Victor touched a pad that appeared by the door and the barrier slid aside. The moment it did, sound assaulted Ess.

I! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTEE! YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!

Elizabeth, last true born daughter of the last Emperor of Orokin sat in the middle of a wasteland that had been a comfortable room. Shredded furniture littered the floor and in one case was stuck to the ceiling. Her hair was a fright. She hadn't bathed recently and her eyes... Madness sang in her eyes. Her eyes snapped with power as she threw out a hand and golden energy flared from it to fly at Ess who froze. Victor shook his head and the power Elizabeth had thrown hit a green field of some kind that flashed with odd lettering before vanishing. The attack came nowhere near Ess.

"Be nice, Elizabeth." Victor spoke as if to a young child. "Your sister traveled a long way to visit. The least you can do is talk to her."

YOU CANNOT HOLD ME! The thing that had been Elizabeth rose to her feet, her power scouring the floor around her. Then, she changed. Her eyes went back the way they had always been, but now, held horror. "I…" She staggered back, her power vanishing and the room suddenly warping. Suddenly, it was a comfortable room with a bed, a chair and a desk that held an open book. Her own body was clean, her hair draped carefully around her shoulders. "Oh god! Victor! Did I hurt you again?" She stared from the gray armored form to the lady and froze. "Ess? NO! You cannot be here, Ess! I will hurt you too!"

"It is okay, Eliza." Ess said softly even as Eliza recoiled all the way across the room. "I won't stay. I just had to see you. I… I am sorry."

"So am I." Eliza said as she hugged herself tight. "But this is for the best. I can't hold it, Ess. I need… I need Cathi, Ess! Call Cathi!"

"No." Ess was still quite, but adamant as Victor looked at her. "Cathi wouldn't do it. She loves you. She would try to help you instead and you would in all likelihood break free even with all of Victor's skill. I can't allow that."

"You cannot stop it." Eliza's mildness faded and then madness was back. No, it had never gone. She had been hiding it. Faking a semblance of sanity even under her clean cut appearance now. "He cannot hold me. I will be free and you know what I will do."

"Yes, I do." Ess slumped a little. "Thank you, Victor."

Power flared all around Eliza and she was frozen like a fly trapped in amber. Ess stared at her and then started to cry.

"She will kill everyone she thinks wronged her." Ess managed as Victor led her back out of the room.

"She has made several lists, including one list that she thinks I haven't seen." Victor was subdued now as he led her back the way they had come. "Your name is on it along with several other wardens. Her daughters, both adopted and true born are on it too. Corporeal or shade, it doesn't seem to matter to her. I know a couple of wardens did hurt her, but if she starts tearing through their ranks, then we haven't seen bad yet."

"No." Ess heaved a sigh. "I… I will see what we can do, but… She is so powerful, Victor. I don't know if a Royal Guard even could stop her now. If anyone manages to kill her, she will just reset things and we will back at square one."

"I know. I can hold her." Victor said softly. "My mystical and technological wards can hold her, but not forever. We need another alternative, so I will be looking as well. In my copious free time." He paused as as an alarm started to sound. "And right on schedule. I could almost set my watch to them if I had one. Here come the Avengers to right my latest wrong." His sarcasm could have cut steel.

"Don't kill them, Victor, no matter how much they deserve it for being so dense." Ess was back in the room she had arrived in and now she bowed to Victor.

"I am the villain, Ess." Victor shrugged. "I should not enjoy it so much, I know, but I do take some delight in watching them squirm. Too much to simply end it with a massacre. And even if I did? The story won't let me go now. Better me than some poor fool off the street."

"Sometimes it takes very bad people to do the right things." Ess nodded to the monarch of Latveria and vanished.

"So very true." Victor Von Doom, despot of Latveria gathered his power and teleported to his throne room where his minions were gathering to face this new threat. "Who dares challenge Doom? These fools shall face my wrath!"

Same story, different day.