Westview Town Square
The residents of Westview surrounded Wanda on all sides, their voices desperate as they pleaded for understanding, for help, for rest.
"When you let us sleep, we have your nightmares," said 'Norm', his eyes dark.
"No that's not true, I've… I've kept you safe in here. You… you feel at peace," Wanda said, almost pleading, her breath coming fast.
"We feel your pain," 'Dottie' said.
Their voices grew, pleading and begging and hemming her in at all sides. Wanda felt her tears well, her heart pounding -
A figure crashed down on the town hall steps, just outside the circle of Westview residents. For a moment Wanda thought with desperate hope: Vision? But it wasn't Vision: it was a woman in jeans and a halter top, two large dark wings stretching from her back. Maggie.
Maggie rose from her half-kneel, legs shaking and her hair frazzled as she looked up to take in the scene around Wanda, then staggered forward.
"Wanda," she panted, the wings already retracting. "Wanda, I'm here, let's talk-"
The voices swelled, drowning out Maggie and crawling over Wanda's skin: Please, and stop, and help, and Wanda-
The magic burst from her as she held her hands over her ears and screamed. She bowed over, so she couldn't see the magic flaring out from her. When the voices had finally stopped, she looked up; and her stomach dropped at what she saw.
Everyone was on the ground, with bands of burning scarlet magic around their throats. They were choking, looking up at her with bulging eyes and open mouths. She glanced aside to Maggie and she was choking too, one hand to the magic cord around her neck and her other hand outstretched to Wanda, her eyes bright with tears. She fell to her knees and her chest convulsed horribly, trying to suck in a gasp of air.
"No, stop!" Wanda cried, flaring her hands once more and ending the magic. A collective intake of air sounded around the square.
"If you won't let us go," cried 'Mrs Hart' once she had her breath back, "just let us die. Please."
"I will," Wanda panted, tears streaming down her face. "I will let you go, I will. I will."
"What's stopping you?" Agatha called, from her lofty position above them all in the air. "Heroes don't torture people. Just ask your friend there." She nodded down at Maggie, who was shakily picking herself off the ground, hand still at her throat.
"Wanda," she croaked, looking up. Her eyes were bloodshot.
Wanda looked down at her hands, at the glow there. Felt the eyes on her.
With a cry she raised her arms and a blast of scarlet energy rocketed out of her, not outward but upward, right to the peak of the Hex a mile in the air. It hit and the whole boundary of the Hex lit up red glowing from within. And began to pull apart at the seams. Pale blue daylight poured in from the edges, and inside the town square the illusion glitched, buildings and cars and advertisements skipping across decades.
"Go! All of you, now!" Wanda cried, and the Westview residents took off running, away from the witch with the pylon of scarlet energy in her hands.
Outside the Hex, the S.W.O.R.D. camp saw the chinks in the armor of the Hex and fired up their vehicles.
Maggie rose to her feet, her eyes wide. "Wanda…"
She couldn't even see Wanda amidst the magic wraithing around her, other than a silhouette with spread arms and a tilted-back head. Her eyes darted up to the other witch, Agatha, who was watching with a smile on her face. Maggie looked over her shoulder to the edge of the Hex, the expanse of blue sky she could see through it. She could practically feel the fresh, real air seeping through. The residents of Westview were sprinting for it at full speed.
Maggie grit her teeth, turned back, and she held her ground. She kept a wary eye on Agatha, ready to leap in as soon as the witch made a move toward Wanda.
Moments later she jumped out of her skin at an almighty crash behind her. She turned, hands rising, then dropped them when she saw the android shape rising out of the plume of dust, shaky on his hands and knees.
"Vision." She dashed over, reaching out to help him up but hesitating when saw that parts of him were missing. He was flaking away, glitching like a staticky television, fragments of Vibranium shedding from his body and floating in the air around him. His eyes were wide and his fingers trembled.
"Vision, oh my god." She finally reached out to his arm and helped him up. He barely acknowledged her, leaning on her for support as he reached out a hand to Wanda.
"Wanda!" he cried, and it sounded like he was underwater. Wanda looked over, her eyes horrified.
On the other side of the square, Tommy and Billy appeared in a blur of speed only to collapse to the ground, flaking and disintegrating just as Vision was.
"Boys!" Vision shouted, crumbling in Maggie's arms. Her hands slipped away as more of him seemed to disintegrate and she cried out, trying to hold him, to keep him together. She dropped to her knees beside him.
"Vision, stay with me," she begged him, feeling pieces of him crumbling in her hands.
"Now do you see?" Agatha called to Wanda, smiling. "You tied your family to this twisted world, and now one can't exist without the other."
"Boys!" Vision shouted, even as his face began to flake away. Maggie reached out helplessly, too afraid to touch him.
"Save Westview, or save your family," Agatha called.
Maggie didn't need to see Wanda drag her arms in toward herself, reclaiming the magic with a scream. She already knew which choice Wanda would make.
She closed her eyes and felt Vision reform in her arms.
Sam and Woo's escape had been easy, once the S.W.O.R.D. agents all left in a hurry. The two of them ran out of the base, only to see a few miles away the Hex reform, the gaps at the seams closing up once more.
"Shit," Sam cursed.
Woo looked over his shoulder to see a fleet of vehicles arriving, flashing with sirens. "Well, they did say within the hour."
Vision shuddered in Maggie's arms as his body came back together, solid and warm. She let out a breath and a tear spilled down her cheek. Vision glanced at her for a moment, wild-eyed.
"Go," she nodded, and he ran toward his family - to Wanda, to the boys. They reunited in a crying huddle in the town square, Vision kissing their heads. Maggie stood up and looked around; there was no one else in the square, they'd all fled. But no one would have had time to get to the edges of town before the strange magic closed. Her mind raced; how to free a town full of people from a magical enclosure that Wanda no longer had the will to open? Nothing Maggie had ever learned or built had prepared her for this. She looked down at her hands, reminding herself once more that she was real, she was herself. She touched the Kimoyo bead hanging around her neck, resting over a pair of dogtags, and her heart twisted.
Staying in here is not an option.
Maggie caught a blur of purple movement out of the corner of her eye and gasped as Agatha blasted a stream of purple energy at Wanda and her family.
"No!"
Wanda conjured a scarlet field of magic around her family to fend off the attack, and Maggie flared her wings and sprang back into the air. She dove toward Agatha, arms outstretched to tackle her off the roof of the Town Hall. The witch looked at her with violet eyes.
"This doesn't concern you," she hissed in the midst of her chanting, and flicked a hand.
Maggie's wings jerked and she careened sideways, crashing into the side of the Town Hall - the bricks themselves shuddered and moved, enveloping her in a stone embrace. She cried out, struggling but unable to break free. The corners of bricks jabbed into her ribcage, her hips. Her head remained free but her entire body was encased, rendering her immobile.
Maggie could only watch, helpless, as Agatha absorbed more of Wanda's magic, as the pale white Vision emerged in the sky, as armored vehicles roared into the square and dozens of S.W.O.R.D. soldiers trained their weapons on Wanda and her family.
The situation exploded into violence - the two Visions tackled each other into the public library. Wanda soared into the air to face off against Agatha, and Tommy and Billy went after the soldiers.
Maggie struggled against the stone encasing her, grimacing and jerking, while keeping an eye on the situation on the ground. Billy seemed to have somehow enchanted the soldiers, with blue glowing energy playing around their temples, as Tommy zipped around at super-speed taking their weapons. She stopped struggling against the now rigid bricks.
"Hey, kids!" she called, drawing their attention. She remembered seeing them as much younger boys, only yesterday, and fought off an eerie shiver. She gestured with a chin at her situation. "Help me out?"
The boys shared a wicked grin. Billy lifted both hands in Maggie's direction and she gasped as the stone slabs of the town hall shivered and move again, rolling away from her body. She sucked in a breath, felt a sudden whoosh of air and speed and a pair of small hands on her arms, and half a second later found herself on the ground in the town square, on her own feet. Tommy let her go, his hair a crazy flyaway mess from the speed he'd been running at. He grinned up at her. On a rooftop a few buildings away, Wanda and Agatha hurled magic at each other.
Maggie brushed down her shirt and glanced at the two boys. "Wow. Thanks."
"Look out!" cried a familiar voice. Maggie and the two boys glanced over to see the woman Maggie knew as Geraldine, dashing toward them with a terrified look to their right - Maggie followed her gaze to see an older man in a jacket that said S.W.O.R.D., levelling a gun at the boys.
Maggie moved, but she'd seen the gun too late. She threw her wing out, trying to reach for the boys, who were just a few steps too far -
But 'Geraldine' had got there first. She stepped in front of the boys, arms flared and her eyes glowing gold - and the bullets passed through her body in strange bursts of golden light, slowing until they dropped harmlessly to the ground behind her with a tink. The last bullet passed over her shoulder, and Billy stopped it with a pulse of blue magic.
"Nice tricks," 'Geraldine' breathed.
"I like yours too," Billy smiled.
The woman's eyes met Maggie's. "Maggie," the woman nodded. "I'm Monica."
"Monica," Maggie replied breathlessly. "Nice to finally meet you."
They both glanced back when they heard the slam of a car door - the older man with the gun had jumped into one of the armored trucks, and as they watched he threw it into reverse, squealing backward up the main street.
"Is he running?" Maggie asked, stepping forward in unison Monica. Her wings cautiously flared, the webbing glowing ever so slightly red in the sunlight. Her head was still throbbing, but Vision and Wanda wanted to protect these boys. And even though Maggie wasn't sure they were quite real, she'd protect them too.
"No, he's getting a run up," Monica said grimly. A hundred yards away the truck squealed to a stop again, and Maggie braced herself, jaw clenching. The older man looked up, his dark eyes fixed on them through the windshield.
Then there was a strange honking noise. From the adjoining street, a cream and red-striped van roared into view and drove straight into the side of the armored truck. There was a smash and glass shattered, knocking the armored truck sideways into the kerb. The man was thrown sideways and then looked up, dazed.
Maggie squinted and saw the driver of the new van, a dark haired woman in a strange blue uniform, smiling. "Have fun in prison!" she sing-songed.
Monica blew out a breath. "Hey, Darcy!" The driver waved to her, smiling.
Maggie straightened and retracted her wings, glancing back at the two boys in the square to check they were alright. They were admiring the flattened bullets that had passed through Monica. Wanda was still up fighting Agatha, and no one had seen the two Visions in a few minutes-
Her assessment of the situation was broken by the sound of a car door crashing open, followed by:
"Meg!"
Her heart stilled and she turned, just as a man in army dress uniform flew out from behind the funnel cake van, hat tumbling from his head and practically skidding on the road as he darted around the van.
Maggie's face crumpled. "Bucky."
His brow knotted and he doubled his speed, sprinting down the road toward her; she barely registered the strange soldier's uniform he wore, and the new shorter haircut.
She stumbled forward, but had only made it a few paces before he'd flown across the road toward her and scooped her up in his arms.
She cried out, her arms flung around his neck as he clutched her to him, one arm banded around her back and the other angled upward to support her head, his heartbeat pounding from his chest into hers.
"I've got you, I've got you," he breathed, clutching her. The smell of him washed over like a tidal wave, warm and so familiar, and she closed her eyes.
She clung to him, shaking from head to toe. "You - I - I didn't remember-"
"I know, me too. But I've got you now." He buried his face in her hair and she could feel him panting, his hands shaking as he held her.
"Dad, dad!" she heard the boys cry behind them, and she looked back to see Billy and Tommy running toward Vision - the Westview Vision - as he emerged unharmed from the library. He embraced his sons, under Monica's watchful eye.
Bucky rubbed Maggie's back, and she looked at him to see him watching her. His sea-grey eyes were a shock after what her life had been recently, and her hands tightened reflexively on him. "Let's go over," he nodded.
Still holding each other, Maggie and Bucky made their way over toward the shattered gazebo in the town square, where Vision held the boys to him. Agatha and Wanda were out of sight for now, though Monica kept a watchful eye. The S.W.O.R.D. agents stood motionless; whatever Billy had done to them held fast.
"Vision," Maggie said when they approached, her voice broken. Bucky supported her with an arm around her waist. Vision looked up at her. "Do you know me?"
"I know how I am meant to know you," he said, eyes flicking to Bucky for a moment. "But regretfully, I do not have those memories."
She sucked in a breath. "You can't remember?"
"He - the other me - he has the memories. But not I."
"The other you?"
"He left," Vision looked up, at the far-off invisible wall of the magic.
Maggie stared at him. She didn't know, or care, if he was real. But Vision was here. "I - can I…"
He held open his arms, and Maggie staggered forward to hug him. Tears rolled down her cheeks as his arms enclosed around her, as startlingly warm as ever. With her ear to his shoulder, she heard the familiar soft mechanical whir of him; he did not have a heartbeat.
"I never thought I'd get to do this again," she choked out. She could still see his lifeless grey body lying in the Wakandan forest, his head broken and his eyes white.
"We were friends," he murmured.
"Yes," she breathed. "And I failed you."
"No," she felt him shake his head. "I may not remember, but a friend like you… you could not fail me." She looked up to see him smile, and it was so Vision that tears spilled anew down her cheeks.
"I've missed you so much."
At that moment there was a magical crackle, and they all looked up to see Wanda tackle Agatha over the edge of the department store roof. Maggie and Vision sprang apart as he reached for his boys and Maggie looked back to make sure Bucky was safe, but in the next second the two witches soared up into the sky, magic flaring at their hands.
"Look after them," Vision said, to Monica and Maggie, then soared soundlessly off the ground toward his wife - but in the next moment Wanda looked back and cast a boundary of flaring scarlet magic to keep him down.
"Wanda, what are you doing!" But despite all his efforts he could not fly up toward them. He came back down, and touched the boy's heads.
All any of them could do was stand there helplessly as Wanda fired blast after blast of magic at Agatha, seeming to grow weaker and more diminished each time. Agatha's loud cackles echoed down to the ground, followed by booming thunder. A magical storm whipped up around them, an angry scarlet thundercloud.
Maggie didn't understand this - this duelling of magic. She could only watch, her hand in Bucky's, and hope that they weren't all disintegrated under the force of it.
"Look," Bucky murmured. She followed his gaze and gasped - enormous runes had appeared on the boundaries of the magic walls surrounding Westview, burning scarlet. They burned through the clouds, flickering like TV static.
"Wanda," Monica murmured.
Wanda was glowing, magic unfurling around her like an imploding star - she drew light from Agatha, from the surrounding clouds, from her runes, her silhouette changing within the scorching light.
The clouds cleared, fading to bright sunny skies as if nothing had happened. And the two witches in the air came down to earth.
Agatha collapsed in a heap of tattered purple robes. Wanda floated down, her hands glimmering scarlet, and she… looked different. She wore a mantle of deep burgundy, fitted to her body and flaring in a draped skirt at the waist, over sturdy black trousers. She wore fingerless gloves of the same burgundy, and a headpiece that rose to two points, holding back her auburn hair. Gone was the tired, overwhelmed young woman who'd been desperately trying to hold on to the magical illusion she'd created. Wanda looked more powerful than anyone Maggie had ever seen, and more dangerous.
She spoke to Agatha for a while, explaining her plan to lock Agatha inside her own mind, turning her into 'Agnes' for good. Maggie drew in a sharp breath when she did, and heard Agnes's old voice again, oblivious to the change she'd undergone.
When Wanda turned, Billy, Tommy and Vision hurried up to greet her. They exchanged some quiet words, and Maggie could tell from the somber tilt of Vision's head what they were discussing.
Moments later the four of them turned to leave, but Wanda cast a glance back to Monica, Bucky, and Maggie.
Monica nodded, once.
Wanda nodded back, then turned to leave with her boys.
"Wait!" Maggie stepped forward, laying a reassuring hand on Bucky's arm as she did - he stayed behind, his brow knotting.
Maggie limped over - it was becoming harder and harder to walk. "Wanda," she breathed.
"I'm sorry," Wanda said, her chin high as she held her boys. "I just… I thought we could have peace."
Maggie opened and closed her mouth. She couldn't think of what to say.
Vision nodded, his hand on Wanda's back. "Thank you for being my friend, Maggie."
And then, as a family, they turned and walked away.
The moment Wanda and her family disappeared down the street toward Sherwood Drive, Monica gasped. "Look!"
Bucky and Maggie followed her pointing finger to see the red glowing boundaries of the Hex, shifting and moving again. Only this time they were shrinking, pulling inward toward town. Maggie limped back toward Bucky, taking his hands as they both looked up at the magic around them. Night had abruptly fallen, one last dramatic change from the magic over Westview, and the streetlights glowed around them. Monica turned, taking it all in.
"She's going to let them vanish," Maggie murmured, her heart pounding strangely against her chest. She looked from the Hex walls and down to Bucky's face.
"They weren't real," Bucky replied, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear.
She met his eyes. "Yes, they were."
His eyebrows bunched and then they both looked up at the sound of distant crackling to see the magic shooting inward now, closing in at a breathtaking pace. Maggie looked back to Bucky and put her hands to his face, her eyes welling. A hundred unsaid things crowded for space on her tongue, and left her speechless.
"We'll be okay," he murmured, swiping his thumb over her cheek with his fingers in her hair. It was his left hand, and she realised it looked like flesh.
"I know," she whispered.
And then the magic rolled over them.
Before her eyes, Maggie saw Bucky shift - his army dress uniform was washed away in the shimmer of red magic that blew past them, leaving a worn leather jacket and jeans. His arm turned to metal, though the haircut, which she'd thought was part of the magic, remained. She could feel her own clothes crackle back to the plain ones she'd been wearing on the day she arrived to Westview. Her right leg buckled as her prosthetic reappeared, but Bucky shifted to take her weight. Around them, the town square faded back to the way it had been, save for all the S.W.O.R.D. vehicles and agents. The funnel cake van turned into a massive armored truck.
Soldiers and agents gasped and looked around, suddenly free of their control.
Maggie let out a shuddering breath, and the tears welling in her eyes rolled down her cheeks.
"I'm awake," she breathed.
"You, Vision, are the piece of the Mind Stone that lives in me. You are a body of wires and blood and bone that I created. You are my sadness, and my hope. But mostly, you're my love."
He kissed her - how could he not, this remarkable woman of magic and pain and love.
"I have been a voice with no body. A body, but not human. And now… a memory made real. Who knows what I might be next?" he smiled. The walls rolled in. "We have said goodbye before. So it stands to reason…"
"We'll say hello again."
When Wanda reappeared in the town square, she strode through a silent crowd of Westview's residents. Their animosity was a physical presence in the air, though they said nothing.
Finally, she made her way to where Monica, Bucky, and Maggie stood, just in front of the S.W.O.R.D. vehicles. Maggie felt peeled raw, the sun piercing her eyes and the air slicing her skin, and the sight of Wanda striding up with her hands in the pockets of her cardigan and a hood over her auburn hair made her want to shiver apart at the seams. Bucky's arm slid around her, holding her close. She didn't miss the wary look on his face as he eyed Wanda.
Monica stepped forward. "They'll never know what you sacrificed for them."
Wanda shook her head. "It wouldn't change how they see me." She looked down, then up again. "And you, you don't… you don't hate me?"
"Given the chance, and given your power, I'd bring my mom back. I know I would," Monica replied.
Wanda's gaze turned to Maggie.
Maggie looked down. She felt so much - anger, definitely, and grief. She looked up. "Even if it was pretend," she finally murmured. "It was… it was nice to pretend to have him back. For a while."
"But you're still angry," Wanda said, reading between the lines. She nodded. "I'm sorry. For all the pain I caused."
"I know," Monica murmured.
"I don't understand this power. But I will."
Maggie pulled together her courage. "I hope you find peace, Wanda."
In the distance, sirens sounded. Wanda took a breath. "Goodbye Monica. Maggie." She turned on her heel and began to stride away.
"Bye, Wanda," Monica called. "Good luck."
Police cars and armored vehicles squealed into the square, just as a crackle of magic rolled over Wanda - her uniform from before appeared, and she soared up into the air.
The FBI and police descended on the town square, arresting the older man who'd shot at Wanda's boys, and other S.W.O.R.D. agents, as well as rushing up to the Westview residents to help them.
Maggie sagged against Bucky, a low buzzing in her mind.
"Hi," came a woman's voice from beside them.
Maggie turned, and saw a dark haired woman with glasses - the one who'd driven the van into the older man's truck.
"We haven't met yet," the woman said, sticking out her hand. "I'm Dr Darcy Lewis."
Maggie took her hand, frowning. "I do know you. How do I know you?"
Darcy cocked her head. "I don't know. But I… I guess I saw you, in the Hex, and…"
"She's the one who called us in," Bucky explained, his hand on her back. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her."
"Thank you," Maggie said. She blinked. "I emailed you once. Years ago, I emailed Dr Jane Foster asking for some information, and you responded."
Darcy's eyebrows flew up. "Dang, that must have been years ago. I'm still friends with Janey, just not an assistant. You've got a memory."
"Sometimes." She winced.
The sirens got louder as more vehicles poured into the square and the voices ramped up in volume. Darcy looked around. "Ugh, I'm getting out of here. Debriefs are for the weak." She farewelled Monica briefly, then took the former-funnel cake van she'd arrived in and drove out of town.
"Monica!" called a male voice from the direction of the feds, and they all glanced the other way to see a man in an FBI vest with a wide smile, waving as he ran up to them. And hot on his heels-
"Sam," Maggie breathed, her voice shaking. More and more, it was sinking in: this is real. I am real. And each second, the energy she'd summoned to fight with Wanda and Vision slipped away.
Sam and the FBI agent rushed over, the agent running to greet Monica and Sam running to Maggie, wrapping her in a hug. He had a circular canvas bag tucked under his arm, and she could feel the Vibranium through the fabric.
"I remember now," he said, gripping her. "Oh my god, this is crazy."
Something vibrated in Maggie's pocket and she let go of Sam to pull it out - her phone, at half charge as it had been a week ago.
"It's Pepper," she said, and ran a hand over her mouth. "I don't…"
"I think we might take a page out of Darcy's book and get the hell out of here," Bucky said, hand on Maggie's back as he met Sam's eyes.
But the FBI agent stepped back from greeting Monica and held up a hand. "Ms Stark, please, we're going to need your statement."
"This is Agent Woo, he's been helping us," Sam explained to her, before putting a hand out. "Listen man, she's been through a lot."
Maggie's attention was drawn over Agent Woo's shoulder - at the line of FBI vehicles, she could see the man she'd known as Tony. He was surrounded by three kids, all of them weeping as they hugged each other. Her heart twisted, and for a moment the man looked up, meeting her eyes.
He nodded once.
Maggie looked back. "Agent Woo." He met her eyes. "Anything I have to say is not going to clarify anything for you, or the FBI. Just get these people safe. I'm going home."
He looked like he wanted to stop them, then sighed. "I'm not sanctioning this, but fine. And hey, listen," he said, pausing them as they made to leave. "I'm going to keep the footage and files from getting out anywhere. But you ever want to look them over, you give me a call, okay?" He flicked a hand, and a business card appeared in his fingers, outstretched to Maggie.
"Footage?" she frowned as she took the card.
"The - the show was being broadcast," Sam explained in a low voice. Maggie shot him a quick, horrified look.
"I-"
"Let's go," Bucky murmured. With one last nod of thanks to Woo and Monica, they slipped out of the town square, tracked down Sam's car, and took off, leaving Westview behind them.
Maggie fell asleep in the back seat with her head on Bucky's chest, gripping his dogtags in a white-knuckled fist.