Assuming that you've seen WandaVision, so I'm trying not to re-tell too much of the story. Go see my Tumblr (emmagnetised) for the Pinterest board & playlist for this story.
November 6th, 2023
S.W.O.R.D. and US Air Force Research Base, Outside Westview Anomaly
Doctor Darcy Lewis stared at the fuzzy screen of the vintage TV the scowling S.W.O.R.D. agent had brought her. It showed a black-and-white… sit-com? There were two couples on screen, one older, one younger, having a dinner party. The younger two were… familiar. For a moment Darcy was so shocked at what the broadcast frequency she'd discovered had revealed that she didn't hear or understand what was before her.
It had been such a weird day already: taken by agents in a truck to this creepy g-man base, with a big metal enclosed operations centre surrounded by rows of canvas tents filled with servers and accommodation for the many agents on site. All of it pointed towards a line of floodlights, which were trained on what looked like empty air, except for when it shimmered strangely. They'd been sending in drones all day, with no result. And everyone had been such dicks to her.
And now this 1950s sit-com, playing out before her eyes.
Behind her, she was vaguely aware that the S.W.O.R.D. Acting Director had returned to the main operations hub, and was giving orders. It was all white noise in her ears, as she focused on her television. The studio audience - because it appeared there was one - laughed at a joke about a Sokovian tradition.
She felt the loud laughter prick the attention of the others in the room.
"What is that? Who's doing that?"
On screen, the young woman in a gorgeous white nightgown shut her kitchen door and exclaimed, eyes wide: "Who are those people?"
"What are you wearing?" exclaimed her husband in reply.
They continued to argue, and Darcy felt a presence settle to her left - she glanced at it and saw a man in an FBI jacket, frowning at the screen. Behind her, she felt more people approach.
"Is that…?" asked FBI-man.
"Yeah, it… looks like her," Darcy managed. On screen, Wanda Maximoff crossed her arms over her chest and said:
"You move at the speed of sound, I can make a pen float through the air. Who needs to abbreviate?" The studio audience laughed again.
The camera angle changed to one including Wanda's "husband" - and he appeared to be made of flesh and bone, but Darcy recognised him too. "Look, I know it's been a crazy few years on this planet, but he's dead, right? Not blipped, dead." She looked to the FBI-man, as if he held the answers. He just frowned.
"What am I looking at?" came an authoritative voice behind her. "You," she glanced back to see an older man with a dark furrowed brow and a S.W.O.R.D. jacket, pointing at her. "What is this? Where's this coming from?"
She gestured in the direction of the strange shimmering wall outside. "Out there." She looked back to see another person - character? - handing Wanda a pineapple. This was an unfamiliar woman with pincurls and a checkered dress.
"Is it authentic?" the Acting-Director asked.
Darcy's mouth worked for a few moments. "I'm not sure how to answer that."
"Is it happening in real time? Is it recorded, fabricated?"
"I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know."
His brow lowered even further. "What do you know?"
Her eyebrows rose a little and she gestured back at the other machines around her. "My equipment registered an extremely high level of CMBR. That's…"
"Relic radiation dating back to the Big Bang," he said, annoyingly confidently.
"Yeah. Entwined was a broadcast frequency. So I had your goons pick me up a sweet vintage TV, and when I plugged this bad boy in, voila, sound and picture." On screen, Wanda magicked a series of dishes over to the dinner table - though it looked a lot like they were floating on wires.
The FBI-man still hovering to her left said: "So you're saying the universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?"
Darcy glanced at him and frowned. "It's a working theory."
The S.W.O.R.D. bossman looked to his agents. "Get me a transport back to headquarters now." He moved as if to walk off, then looked back. "Are we recording this?"
"Never stopped," Darcy replied. "And I think I can pick up from the start of the, er, episode."
"I need immediate analysis." he said, looking back at his room of agents. They were still staring. "Now, people. Let's go!" They scattered. He walked off, and Darcy turned to the FBI-man.
"He's a charmer."
"Great work," he smiled.
"Hey thanks!" She adjusted her glasses. FBI-man stood up and made to walk off, and she called after him: "Maybe I could get that coffee now?"
He didn't look back.
"Or not. That's cool." Music swelled from the TV, and she looked back to see Vision and Wanda on their couch - Vision had transformed into the robot-form that was more familiar - leaning in for a kiss.
Awww, went the studio audience.
"Aw," went Darcy.
Where before the S.W.O.R.D. research base had been full of a hundred different people trying a hundred different things to learn anything at all about the anomaly, now it became a very focused hive of activity.
The FBI-man, who Darcy quickly learned was named Agent Jimmy Woo, had taken charge of the analysis in Hayward's (S.W.O.R.D. bossman) absence. He gave them all a debrief:
"First and foremost, our main objective is to get any intel on Captain Rambeau" - that was the lady who'd gone missing into the Anomaly the day before, Darcy had learned - "but originally this case was a missing person, so we're going to start there. We've successfully identified two individuals inside the Westview anomaly." He'd put printed-out stills of Wanda and Vision on the wall of the analysis bay. "Let's keep going."
Darcy ended up paired with Jimmy - she liked the cut of his jib compared to the other agents, and he seemed to recognise that she too was a bit of an outsider, like him. Apparently Hayward had tried to run him off the base when Woo called in Rambeau's disappearance.
They wrote four key headings on a rolling whiteboard:
What we know
Who is behind this?
What we don't know
Failed attempts at contact.
They set agents on analysing the recorded footage that Darcy had managed to capture, and Darcy was first to identify 'Mr and Mrs Hart' from the dinner party; two Westview residents.
Then they managed to access the episode from its beginning. It really was just like a 1950s sitcom episode: started with a cute opening sequence of Wanda and Vision arriving in wedding clothes to their new house, while a song about them starting fresh in Westview played.
Darcy and Jimmy watched it through together, just as other agents were doing around the operations centre, pausing to take stills and make notes.
"Wandavision," Woo noted when the title card came up. "Catchy."
They followed the story along; Vision and Wanda's debate about the calendar on the wall, Vision leaving to go to work, their neighbour Agnes arriving to welcome Wanda. Darcy paused to print a still of Agnes's face, and passed on the image to one of the analysts.
"Golly, you settled in fast! Did you hire a moving company?" the glamorous Agnes in a checkered dress asked.
"I sure did! Those boxes don't move themselves!" Wanda replied, and the studio audience chuckled.
The scene cut to an outside shot of the house, which was surrounded by white picket fences and a tidy rosebush out front.
"There's the address, 2800 Sherwood Drive, Westview," Darcy noted. "That's an actual address in our current maps for Westview."
"Looks like he's driving… to work?" Jimmy suggested as he watched, turning aside to reach for the coffee pot.
Vision's dark 1950s-style sedan pulled out of the driveway and onto the tidy street. Seconds later there was a crrr-clank and the car jerked to a stop, black smoke rising from the hood.
Vision jumped out of the car in his neat suit, whipping off his hat. "Why are you broken!" he demanded of the car, eyes wide behind his glasses. "My engine never breaks!" The audience chuckled again.
At that, a person dashed across the street toward the car, dress bouncing as she waved toward Vision, whose back was turned as he leaned over his car.
"Oh, here's another character," Darcy said, leaning forward.
The shot changed to a close-up of the woman; she wore a knee-length frock with large lapels and double breasted buttons down the chest. She ran across the street in nice heels, her hair done up in victory rolls. She was gesturing with a comically large wrench.
"Say there!" the woman cried. "It's your alternator!"
"Whoah," Darcy breathed, reaching out to pause the screen. She sat back. "Is that?" She leaned closer. "Uh, Agent Woo?"
He turned around from pouring his coffee, and his eyes widened.
"It's her, right?" Darcy asked.
"Play it," he said.
Darcy obeyed.
The screen cut to Vision, still clutching his hat and frowning down at his smoking car, until he looked up at the sound of the woman's shout. "Pardon?"
The woman brushed past him and whipped up the hood of the car, sending Vision stumbling back a few steps. There followed a few seconds of comedic clanks and splutters, and then the hood came back down and the woman stepped back, a smudge of oil on her cheek. She dusted her hands off.
"All done," she said a little breathlessly, beaming. She had the same chirpy late-American accent that all the other characters had had so far. "But be sure you see a mechanic soon all the same."
"Why, thank you," Vision said, holding out his hand for her to shake. "You must be one of our neighbours, we've just moved in. Newlyweds, you see."
"How lovely," the woman beamed.
"I'm Vision."
"You can call me Maggie."
Darcy paused again, and she and Jimmy exchanged a significant look.
"Three Avengers in a 1950s sitcom," he breathed. He turned and flagged down an agent. "Hey, get in contact with Hayward, tell him Maggie Stark is in the anomaly too." The agent blinked, then saw the paused TV screen with Maggie Stark's face as plain as day. She looked different in the 1950s getup, but the woman was an Avenger and the subject of the most famous court case of the century. They knew her face. The agent's eyes widened and he hurried off.
"But why is she a side character?" Darcy wondered.
"I'll add that question to the board," Jimmy said, and reached forward to hit play again.
"My brother and I are your neighbours across the road, at number 2799," Maggie pointed across the road. The camera shifted, revealing a nice house like all the others on the street, with a man in the driveway. He had his back turned, cleaning a nice car, but they could see he wore a suit and had dark hair.
"Is Tony Stark alive?" Jimmy exclaimed.
Darcy shook her head slowly. "We didn't see his face, but…"
The shot cut back to Maggie and Vision - Vision had noticed something around her neck.
"Are you a veteran?" he asked, frowning in puzzlement.
"Oh no, I'm an engineer," Maggie smiled. She touched the chain around her neck, and Darcy realised she was wearing military dogtags. "These are my husband's. He's off at war right now."
"Husband?" Darcy queried, eyebrows high.
"I see. Which war is that?" Vision asked.
Maggie shot him a confused look, and before she could reply her hand suddenly shot open - the wrench fell onto her right foot, and there was a loud metal clank. The audience laughed.
"Silly me," she said, scooping the wrench back up. "Well, it was lovely to meet you, Vision!"
He looked at his watch. "Heavens, is that the time? For being an automaton, I sure have had things slipping my mind lately." More canned laughter. "Thank you for the help, Maggie. In repayment we'll have to fix you up a meal sometime." Maggie laughed, and Vision rushed back into his car and drove off.
The scene cut back to Agnes and Wanda inside the house.
Jimmy paused again, and the two of them stared at each other.
Jimmy set off watching the rest of the episode - a charming story about a miscommunication over dinner plans - while Darcy focused on analysis. She was getting a headache from the creepy grim lighting in the operations centre, and the clanking footsteps of all the agents streaming around them.
She did a facial recognition match for Maggie Stark, just to be sure, and it came back with near-perfect accuracy. She tried to learn more about Maggie's "brother" in the driveway, but the camera had been on him barely a few seconds.
Next, she zoomed in on the strange dog tags around Maggie's neck. They were vintage dog tags, like everything else in the episode, and once she was able to clarify the writing on them…
"Holy shit."
"What did you find?" Jimmy asked, eyes still on the screen where Vision was welcoming Mr and Mrs Hart to his home.
"Check it out," she said, printing the enhanced still and handing it over.
Jimmy looked down, reading:
James B Barnes
32557038 T41 42 O
R Barnes / 3092 Stockton Rd / Shelbyville IN H
"Isn't that Bucky Barnes? The Winter Soldier?" Jimmy said, confused.
"It is," she replied, already cross-referencing the enlistment number. "And that reminds me - look at what Maggie's wearing in the episode."
Jimmy pulled over the still of Maggie's introduction, examined it, and shrugged. "Maybe a little dated for the time period?"
"Ugh. Look, I'm a red blooded American woman, I googled Bucky Barnes plenty when I was a teenager, and that is basically what his uniform looked like. If you pretend it's not a dress. See?" She googled on her phone - which she'd snuck into the base without telling S.W.O.R.D., though Jimmy didn't call her on it - and found an image of the Howling Commandos. She pointed out Barnes in the image for Jimmy: he wore a dark blue peacoat with double breasted silver buttons, and large lapels.
"That is… strange," Jimmy said, comparing the two outfits. He rubbed his forehead. "So we've got Maggie Stark in this, maybe her brother, and she's supposedly married to the Winter Soldier?"
"They were in HYDRA together. And they were on the same side in the Avengers' Civil War. It makes a kind of sense, I guess," Darcy mused. "Kind of cute, if you think about it. But he got blipped, I'm pretty sure." She frowned. "I don't even know where he's supposed to be nowadays."
"We'll pass it on to Hayward," Jimmy said. "I'm sure he's trying to get in contact with people who know Wanda and Vision already."
Darcy shrugged, and they went back to their analysis. A few minutes later they spotted Monica Rambeau, sitting on a park bench just reading as Agnes and Wanda had their main scene in the background. She had a 50's updo and the whole outfit as well.
"Alright, brass tacks, Dr Lewis," Jimmy said, his eyes full of worry for the agent he'd met only yesterday. "What're we looking at here? Is it an alternate reality? Time travel? Some cockamamie social experiment?"
"It's a sitcom," Darcy said. "A 1950s sitcom."
"But why?"
"Hey man, we're working with the same scarcity of intel. But listen, I… I do have an idea."
"Episode two just started," called Rodriguez, Hayward's second in command, as Darcy was explaining her radio contact idea to Jimmy.
"Episode two?" he echoed.
"Yup, and it looks like it's set in the 60's."
"Ooh, production development," Darcy murmured. She and Jimmy both leaned over and saw the tail end of a scene of Vision and Wanda in bed, before an animated opening sequence started up. Still black-and-white, but the aesthetic was notably different.
"Catchy song," Darcy said, impressed. The animated Wanda and Vision went about their day - side characters popped up, including an animated Monica in the same grocery story as Wanda, Vision's colleagues, and then Vision driving past all his animated neighbours; including Maggie, cartoonishly drawn with a dark updo, leaning on a car and waving, next to her "brother", who did look a lot like Tony Stark, with the facial hair and everything. But Darcy didn't suppose a cartoon counted as a positive ID.
"Okay, I think this equipment is ready to be set up outside," Darcy said, slapping the top of a box.
Jimmy nodded and turned to another agent. "Keep us updated on the episode, any key developments or new characters."
"You got it," she nodded, and Jimmy and Darcy turned to go outside.
While Agent Woo and Dr Lewis were setting up their radio broadcast equipment outside, the 1960s episode played out on multiple television screens across the S.W.O.R.D. base. Numerous agents pored over each scene, making notes and passing stills onto other agents for analysis. They dutifully recorded Wanda and Vision's opening conversation about the upcoming talent show fundraiser, the planning committee meeting that Wanda was to attend, and the neighborhood watch meeting that Vision was to attend.
As soon as Wanda found a toy helicopter in her rosebushes - a helicopter in colour, which looked jarring with the rest of the screen being black and white - the base devolved into a hive of activity; that was the drone they'd sent in. Rodriguez took a printed still outside, to show Woo and Lewis.
Soon the neighbour Agnes - who still hadn't been positively identified as any of their Westview residents on file - interrupted Wanda. They had some dialogue about Agnes's pet rabbit, and when Wanda went inside to put the rabbit away, the postman Dennis walked up.
'Dennis' hadn't been identified yet, so several agents got busy on that, while others noted down what he and Agnes discussed.
"Don't shoot, I'm just a messenger!" Dennis joked, and he and Agnes both laughed as he walked past. He crossed the street and the camera followed, giving a view of the opposing house; Maggie Stark stood in the garden, and smiled as Dennis handed her a letter. She wore a 60s-style pinafore dress, striped, with a cropped cardigan and white gloves.
The scene cut back, and Wanda emerged from the house. "Shall we?" she smiled.
"Oh, we shall," Agnes replied, holding out her arm for Wanda to take. They set out onto the sidewalk, but paused when Agnes turned back and looked across the road.
"Maggie, you're coming to the Planning Committee meeting, aren't you?"
Across the street, behind her white picket fence, Maggie beamed. "Be right there!" Behind her, the front door to her house opened and a man walked out: dark hair, a suit, and facial hair in a strange pattern.
The agent who'd taken up Dr Lewis's position in front of her television frowned, and took a still of the man's face.
"Say, you must be the Maggie that fixed our car the other day," Wanda smiled, shading her eyes to see across the street better.
"Guilty," Maggie said, putting both hands up. "Your Vision is a real gem."
"You have no idea," Wanda laughed.
"You two walk on, I'll be right behind you!" Maggie called with a smile.
Agnes and Wanda did so, and Agnes leaned in to whisper conspiratorially: "Born into money, that one, she can afford to be late."
Darcy had successfully set up the radio transmitter outside; all they needed was for a radio to appear in the episode, and then they could theoretically speak right into the anomaly. The transmitter was a hulking setup, and her fingers were numb in the cool misty air of the evening after setting it up. They'd decided that Jimmy would be on talking duty. They'd also just had a still delivered with a weird colourful toy S.W.O.R.D. drone, and they couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Darcy rushed back inside the operations centre, trying to warm up her hands. She ran back to her desk and shooed off the hapless junior agent who'd been on watching duty there.
"There's some stills and some notes-" she began, gesturing, and Darcy flapped her hands at her to get her out of her chair. She slid on a pair of headphones.
"Jimmy, you ready?" she asked, twisting to look out the operations hub's opaque window at her setup on the grass outside.
"Ready!" Jimmy responded, shooting her a thumbs up.
Darcy eased down into her seat, focusing on the episode.
There was a collection of ladies sitting under a gazebo outside a swimming pool, and…
"Jimmy, Monica is talking to Wanda!" she exclaimed, spotting the young black woman in a weird 60s updo with a blazer on, perched on a lounge chair right next to Wanda's. The shot widened out and Darcy recognised the dark-haired woman to Monica's left. "She's got a speaking part now, and she's sitting next to Maggie!"
"What's she saying?" Jimmy asked.
"Say, those pants are peachy keen!" Monica said.
"She… likes Wanda's pants."
"Is it the 60s still?"
"Uh huh." Darcy watched Wanda and Monica's brief interaction, and then focused on the wider scene; they were planning the talent show fundraiser. It was a dainty setup, with teacups and all the ladies in nice dresses (aside from Wanda). The woman running the meeting, Dottie, was a blonde bombshell with a commanding air.
Monica ended up leaning back over toward Wanda and they had a brief exchange, eventually introducing themselves.
"I'm, uh… Geraldine," Monica smiled.
"Geraldine?" Darcy exclaimed, nose wrinkled.
From Monica's left, Maggie leaned over. Up to now she'd simply been sitting and listening while sipping her drink.
"Maggie," she smiled. "Welcome to the neighbourhood."
"Why is it that everyone else except Wanda, Vision, and Maggie have different names?" Darcy mused.
"Another question for the board," Jimmy said. "Focus, Darcy, look for some kind of radio."
"How long have you lived here?" 'Geraldine' asked.
A vague look passed over Maggie's face. "Feels like just yesterday," she ended up smiling, and the audience chuckled.
"Have I seen you before?" Geraldine asked, now looking fully at Maggie and frowning.
"I've got one of those faces," Maggie smiled. She shifted in her seat. "I live with my brother, but my husband's coming home any day now. Here he is, see?" She fished a small framed picture out of her pocket.
Darcy leaned in to get a closer look.
Inside the frame stood a man in a 1940s-style uniform, but the space where his face should be was all blurred and unfocused, like water had spilled onto a charcoal drawing.
Geraldine frowned at the picture and looked back up at Maggie's face, but she was beaming at it as if there was nothing wrong.
"Creepy," Darcy muttered.
"And I'm irritated," said the put-together blonde Dottie, drawing the scene's focus back to her. Soon afterward the scene changed, and Darcy let out a frustrated sigh.
"I'm looking for a radio, I promise!"
"Just let me know when you do," Jimmy replied.
The next scene was the Neighbourhood Watch meeting in the Town Hall, where Vision met the other men in the town and had a comical exchange about food. Other agents began photographing all the characters they hadn't seen yet, including…
"What the hell?" Darcy muttered.
"What's going on?" Woo asked.
"One of the Neighbourhood Watch guys just introduced himself as Tony." The man looked to be in his late 40s, wearing a flashy suit and sunglasses even though he was inside, and he had his dark beard shaved into that iconic weird shape. He cracked a few jokes, making the audience laugh. Darcy stared. "But it's… it's not Tony Stark. He's got the facial hair and everything, but it's not him." The man looked similar, with the same jawline and dark hair, but it was off. He had a rounder face, a different shaped nose, a higher brow. He was just… a different guy, dressed up as Tony Stark.
"Well I guess we can cross one resurrection off the list," Jimmy replied.
Darcy watched 'Tony' tweak his tie and flash a grin, fidgeting with his hands. "He's acting like him, though."
On screen, Vision proclaimed: "I too have some top secret gossip to share. Norm here's a communist!"
There was a second of stunned silence, and then the men burst into raucous laughter. After a moment Vision joined, and so did the audience.
"Vision, you're a real cut-up!" a character called Phil Jones (they'd already identified him as Harold Proctor in real life) laughed.
To Vision's left, the fake Tony leaned over and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You'll fit in here well, son."
"Ew, and he just called Vision son," Darcy said, as the other men began bonding with Vision.
"Well, technically…" Jimmy said. "Hm. Another question for the board."
A couple of minutes later, the scene cut back to the pool club.
"Wanda's with another character, the blonde one," Darcy said.
"Real person," Jimmy reminded her.
"Ooh, uh, radio on the side table!" Darcy exclaimed, pointing at her screen even though Woo couldn't see it. "Start talking!"
Their attempt with the radio failed. The scene had gotten weird while it was happening, but then there was a cut and it went right back to Wanda and Dottie's hostile yet polite conversation.
Disappointed, Jimmy returned and they watched the rest of the episode, with the talent show. There was a quick cut through the performances: a couple performing a tap dance, three younger adults doing some kind of dance dressed as cowboys, Phil performing the piano, and then Maggie and 'Tony' singing a song together - Darcy recognised it as I Can't Get No Satisfaction.
As they watched, an agent brought back the still image of the fake Tony, attached to real-world identification.
"His name is Marco Lopez," Jimmy read out. "He's 48, and he lives in Westview."
"So he's been given the part of Tony," Darcy said.
"That's messed up," Jimmy grimaced.
On screen, Wanda and Vision were bowing to the audience after performing their magic show, with Monica ("Geraldine") between them, looking bewildered. The show cut to several reaction shots of the crowd; Agnes clapped and applauded Senor Scratchy, the rabbit, and then there was Maggie and 'Tony' sitting at a table, laughing and applauding.
"She looks so happy," Darcy murmured, almost to herself.
Jimmy glanced at her. "So do all of them," he muttered. "I don't think it's real though, any of it."
Darcy eyed the dark haired Avenger, in a 1960s pinafore, her head tipped back laughing. "No."
The pregnancy reveal was a twist.
It came in the midst of a S.W.O.R.D. agent going MIA after entering the anomaly - or the Hex, as Darcy was beginning to call it in her own head.
Then came the 70s episode, with Wanda's belly ballooning and her promptly going into labour. Things were in colour now. Monica/Geraldine had appeared on screen a few minutes ago, in a crazy 70s outfit.
"1950s, 1960s, and now the '70s," Darcy said. "Why does it keep switching time periods? It can't be purely for my enjoyment, can it?"
"I can't believe Wanda and Vision are having a baby," Jimmy mused. Behind them, the operations hub was as busy as ever. But after their failed attempt, Darcy had decided she needed a packet of chips.
"Want any?" she asked.
Jimmy chuckled. "Heck, I thought about it for sure. A little Jimmy Woo. Get him a tiny little FBI badge…"
Darcy smirked and waved her packet under his nose.
"Oh, you - chip? Sure?" he nodded, trying to rearrange his face.
Moments later, Monica was delivering Wanda's baby. Darcy and Jimmy stilled, awed into silence. And then Vision appeared with the doctor, a little late, and…
"Twins!" Darcy cooed as the second baby appeared. "What a twist."
Jimmy shot her a look.
"What? I'm invested."
Vision saw the doctor out, as Monica watched over the babies with Wanda.
"Well, Dr Nielson," Vision said, his bright blue jeans vibrant on the screen as he closed the front door behind them. He wore his human disguise, with wavy blonde hair. "I hope you're still able to make your trip!"
"Ah yes, my trip. I don't think we'll get away after all. Small towns, you know. So hard to… escape."
Vision shot the doctor a strange look as he walked away. Vision turned to head inside, but spotted Agnes talking to Herb over the yellow wall between the houses, with Maggie standing near Agnes. There hadn't been many side characters in this episode so far, unless you counted the stork.
"Man, the outfits this episode are something else," Darcy murmured, taking in Maggie's getup: red flare leg pants with chunky heels, a patterned beige turtleneck, and feathered 70s hair with a tie-dye scarf keeping it back. "She looks like a corporate hippie."
Woo choked on his chip.
"That cut in the brick wall is still there," Jimmy noted once he'd recovered, pointing out the slice through the yellow wall Herb stood behind. There'd been a weird scene earlier in the episode where Herb had just cut straight through it with his hedge trimmer, alarming Vision.
Vision approached his neighbours. "Remarkable day we're having, isn't it?" he said chirpily. "Did you lose power too?"
"Oh, sure did," Agnes replied, pulling away from her hushed conversation with Herb and Maggie.
After a brief, awkward exchange, Vision turned to go back-
"Vision!" Agnes called. She wore a slightly less horrible outfit, a blue dress with a mustard patterned skirt. "Is Geraldine inside with Wanda?"
"Yes, why?"
The scene cut back to Monica and Wanda inside, and Darcy reached for another chip, half listening to Wanda and Monica's conversation until-
"He was killed by Ultron, wasn't he?"
"Did she just say the name Ultron?" Jimmy said, sitting back with his eyebrows lifting. "Has that happened before, a reference to our reality?"
"No, never!"
The scene cut back to the driveway outside.
"She's new to town." Herb said as Vision drew closer, "Brand new."
"No family. No husband," Agnes added.
"Well there's nothing wrong with that," Vision replied.
"Hmm," said Agnes.
Maggie tilted her head. "She was saying some awful strange things to me earlier." She rubbed her forehead.
"Monica was speaking to Maggie? Off screen?" Darcy wondered aloud.
Agnes focused her gaze on Vision. "No home."
Back inside, Wanda quizzed 'Geraldine' on what she'd just said, until:
"No, I think you should leave," Wanda said, in a harder tone than any they'd heard from her.
"Oh Wanda, don't be like that," Monica snapped, her face dropping.
"This is different," Darcy murmured. And then the scene cut back outside again, making her lean forward in anticipation.
"What do you mean she has no home?" Vision asked.
Herb's gaze grew serious. "She came here because…" he broke off, glanced at Agnes. Then tried again: "She came here because we're all…"
"She came here because we're all what? What are you trying to tell me?"
"She came here because we're all…"
"Stop it," Agnes hissed, whirling around on Herb. He silenced, looking cowed, and then Agnes looked back at Vision and broke into an uncanny smile. "Well, I better get going." She grabbed her bike, still beaming sunnily. "That macrame's not going to hitch itself!" She winked, rang her bike bell and then walked out of the scene.
"We still don't know who she is, do we?" Darcy asked. Jimmy merely hmmed in assent, too engrossed with the scene.
Vision turned back to his neighbor. "Herb?"
But his neighbour only grinned as well, grabbed his hedgetrimmer and said: "Catch you on the flipside, Vision," before wandering off as well.
Finally, Vision turned to his last remaining neighbour. "Maggie?" he said softly. "What's going on?"
She smiled a little confusedly, still hovering by the yellow brick wall, hands on her hips. Then, all of a sudden, her eyes glimmered. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you," she murmured, eyes fixed on his face.
Vision's eyes widened. "What?"
But then the strange look on Maggie's face broke into a grin - offputting, with the tears in her eyes. "A slice of my famous apple and rhubarb pie! I meant to save you a slice the other day, at the talent show. I'll make it up to you." She reached out, touched Vision's elbow, and then walked away too. A few musical notes chimed, wrapping up the scene.
"What the fuck," Darcy muttered under her breath, but then the scene switched back inside the house.
Wanda was confronting Monica still. "Who are you?"
"Wanda…" the real fear in Monica's eyes made Darcy's skin prickle.
Wanda stepped forward, menacing, and then-
The scene cut. Next thing they knew, Wanda and Vision were sitting on the couch before the TV together, each holding one of their babies. The credits began to roll.
"What happened? Where'd she go?" Jimmy asked.
"God, not again," Darcy hissed. She rewound a few times, looking for the missing scene. "There's nothing here! One second Monica is standing right there, and the next she isn't. Someone is censoring the broadcast."
"But where's Rambeau?" Jimmy asked.
At that moment, an alarm blared.
"Alert!" called a man over the PA. "Boundary has been breached!"
Darcy and Jimmy shared a glance, then darted to their feet and began running.
Of course, they had not seen the last moments of Wanda's confrontation with Monica Rambeau, nor her firing a blast of magical energy into her chest. Nor had they seen Vision rush into the house, asking:
"Wanda? Where's Geraldine?"
"Oh, she left, honey. She had to rush home."
At the boundary of the Westview anomaly, right by the Welcome to Westview! sign, a woman in a blue 70s vest erupted through the strange shifting wall and tumbled to the damp grass below, limbs flailing.
As agents sprinted toward her, shouting and flashing lights, Monica drifted in and out of focus. Her mind throbbed with pain, her body ached, and the cold bite of real air made her lungs hurt.
"Monica!" called a familiar voice - Agent Woo, the FBI Agent. "Are you okay?"
"It's Wanda," Monica breathed, dazed. "It's all Wanda."
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