And now we're into the next chapter of the story, where Johnny Blaze comforts Wanda after freeing her from Mephisto's control. We're almost at the end of the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Ghost Rider. They belong to Marvel Studios, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, Stan Lee and Kevin Feige.

Darkhold Castle, Wundagore Mountain, Earth-616

After freeing Wanda from Mephisto's grasp, Ghost Rider staggered back as he transformed back into his human form. Flesh began to form around his skull as the flames disappeared, revealing a middle-aged man with brown medium-length hair that reached his shoulders, small facial hair and blue eyes. The man placed his hands on his knees and took deep breaths while Strange and Wong looked at him, with Wong helping out Strange by carrying him on his shoulder, confused about what unfolded in front of their eyes.

"What happened?" Wong asked the man.

"She..." The man, Johnny Blaze, began to speak before swallowing and looking at Strange and Wong in the eyes. "She wasn't the bad guy you've been looking for. Someone had taken over her. Or someone."

"Who?" Strange inquired.

"Mephisto." Blaze told Strange and Wong, leaving them surprised.

Both sorcerers have heard about Mephisto, a demon well-known in Faust legend who tricked individuals by making deals with them and using them for his own ends. What they didn't expect was that this demon was responsible for controlling her the entire time, such as perpetuating the Westview incident or her rampage across the Multiverse in search of America Chavez.

"He was controlling her the whole time?" Wong asked, trying to understand the situation.

"Oh, yeah. He was trying to control her and gain her powers for his own ends." Blaze assured. "I know, I just freed her."

"Damn." Strange muttered, taking pity on Wanda now that he learned Mephisto was taking control of her.

"While I was trying to free her, Mephisto told me that he planned to take over the Multiverse and manipulated her to do so. He planned everything from the beginning. I know this because where I come from, his powers are limited on Earth and he needed to find people who can do his dirty work, by making deals with them. That's how he made her enslave a small town and take the Darkhold with her." Blaze explained.

Strange and Wong recalled Wanda enslaving the town of Westview about a year ago when she unleashed her magic on the citizens of the town while going through her grief of losing her lover, Vision, and later taking the Darkhold with her, becoming addicted to its magic and becoming obsessed with finding her children, to the point where she became psychotic. Now that Blaze was telling them the truth, they realized her enthrallment by the devil himself could explain this behavior.

Blaze turned around and looked at Strange. "He also corrupted an old spell to break barriers between universes and made your own universe weaker."

"The Runes of Kof-Kol?" Strange recalled.

"Yeah." Blaze nodded.

Strange lowered his head down in disappointment, remembering the day he cast the Runes of Kof-Kol to help Peter Parker after his identity was exposed five months ago, only for the spell to backfire and bring in visitors from different universes. Now that he learned that Mephisto corrupted the spell prior to these events, he began to feel guilty for indirectly playing a part in his plans. Suddenly, Blaze, Strange and Wong turned around and saw Wanda sitting on the ground, crying over the horrible things she had done. Enslaving Westview. The loss of her children, Billy and Tommy. The attack on Kamar-Taj. The massacre of the Illuminati. Everything was coming back to her as guilt began overtaking her. Blaze approached her and knelt besides her.

"Hey, kid. Look at me." Blaze told Wanda as he placed his hand on her shoulder and she turned her head and looked at him. "It's over. No one is going to hurt you now."

"It doesn't change anything." Wanda said, still blaming herself for what she did. "I still did those things. I'm evil."

"No, you're not. If you were, The Rider would have known." Blaze assured Wanda. "It was Mephisto who did this to you. He tricked you into doing his dirty work. If anyone is to blame, it's him."

"But I still killed those people. I enslaved Westview. My boys are dead because of me." Wanda told Blaze as she was unable to fight back the tears. "I can still their voices in my head. This is all my fault."

"Look, kid, I've been where you've been. I've felt what you felt." Blaze comforted Wanda. "For a long time, I blamed myself for my dad's death. He was dying. I was scared of losing him. I can't forgive myself for that. When Mephisto approached me and made a deal with me to save his life in exchange for my soul, I had no choice. Though my dad was cured of his disease, he died in my arms. That's when I realized Mephisto tricked me and I couldn't get out of my contract. I had to leave everything behind."

Strange and Wong were watching Blaze consoling Wanda, feeling bad for Blaze as well since he lost his father to Mephisto and realizing that both Blaze and Wanda had something in common.

"I let him get into my head." Wanda confessed. "I should have been stronger."

"Just because you've been in a bad place mentally doesn't you can't make up for your mistakes. You do have a second chance, kid. You can still make things right." Blaze reassured Wanda before pointing his hand on her chest. "Just know your kids will live in here. Always."

Wanda was conflicted and lowered her head, processing what Blaze told her. Even though she didn't feel like she deserved Blaze's sympathy, she was still deeply moved by his words and began sniffing her tears, having come to the realization that Billy and Tommy were always going to be with her, in her heart. Chavez then approached Wanda and looked at her. Wanda expected her to give a look of anger due to the things she's done. Instead, she saw a look for genuine sympathy and kindness as she gave her a hand.

"I forgive you." Chavez told Wanda, now aware that she was being controlled by the Devil.

For a moment, Wanda didn't know what to do, as she didn't expect Chavez of all people to give her a hand and sympathize with her struggles. She eventually took Chavez's hand and let her help her up while Wong approached Blaze and looked at him.

"Thank you for your help. We could not have saved her without you." Wong thanked Blaze.

"Just doing what had to be done." Blaze nodded and smiled, having not done so in a very long time.

"So, what now?" Strange asked.

"We're going to send her somewhere safe where she can be taken care of." Blaze told Strange and Wong before looking at the castle. "But first, this needs to go down."

"But how? It's impossible to..." Wong tried to tell Blaze before being interrupted by Wanda.

"I'll do it." Wanda told Wong, getting back on her feet.

"But you'll die." Strange tried to warn Wanda, concerned that she might not come back after destroying the castle.

"I opened the Darkhold. I let the devil control me. I let this happen." Wanda told Strange, having made her choice. "I have to destroy it. No one will ever be tempted by the Darkhold again."

After much hesitation, Strange relented and allowed Wanda to destroy the castle. Wanda used her powers to fly above the altar and sat on it, preparing to destroy it. She then used her powers to lift the castle walls, intending to destroy them, and the castle began to crumble. Blaze, Wong, Chavez and Strange began to feel the castle shaking from where they were standing.

"We need to go, now!" Blaze exclaimed as everyone began to run.

"Leave me..." Strange said, as he was still in his variant's corpse.

"Are you insane?!" Wong told Strange.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Strange told Wong. "Just not on this body."

"We will find you." Wong said as Strange nodded.

Wong left Defender Strange's corpse on the castle, understanding that Strange was dreamwalking into it and aware that it would be useless to keep the corpse with the Darkhold's destruction. Chavez then took a deep breath and summoned a star-shaped portal that opened the way to Mount Wundagore.

"Come on!" Chavez exclaimed.

Blaze and Wong followed Chavez into the portal and headed outside the Castle, leaving Wanda, Defender Strange's body and Mordo's unconscious body behind. As she lifted the castle, she destroyed the Scarlet Witch statue, which was built in honor of the prophesied Scarlet Witch, the one meant to rule the multiverse, and the entire castle began to crumble on her. Wanda then deactivated her powers and allowed the castle to collapse on her, destroying every copy of the Darkhold in the Multiverse.

Meanwhile, Blaze, Chavez and Wong landed on the mountain outside the castle and stood up on the ground, with Blaze glancing at Chavez, amazed by her powers.

"How did you do that?" Blaze asked.

"I was born with it. I didn't know how to control it until now." Chavez remarked.

"Uh huh." Blaze shrugged, having realized that he wasn't the only one capable of traveling the Multiverse, before he heard a sound. "What was that?"

Blaze, Wong and Chavez turned around and witnessed the destruction of the Darkhold Castle as the entire place was crumbling. Suddenly, they witnessed a red burst of magic flashing beneath the surface, before seeing a red protective barrier coming out of the castle's rubble and flying around the sky. As the barrier landed on the ground, it closed to reveal Wanda alongside Mordo's unconscious body laying on the ground. Wanda took a deep breath as she realized she was able to survive something that could have killed her before turning around to see the now destroyed castle. Wanda then turned her head down, still relenting from everything she had done, before Wong approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You have suffered enough, Wanda." Wong comforted Wanda. "Time to bring you back home. To the people who care about you."

Sanctum Sanctorum, New York, Earth-688

Wanda's actions also began to take effect on the incursioned universe as well as Strange and Palmer witnessed the Darkhold disintegrate into ash. They both realized that Wanda had destroyed every copy of the Darkhold in the Multiverse.

"So, she destroyed the Darkhold in every universe." Strange remarked as he witnessed the Darkhold's destruction.

"She did the right thing." Palmer realized.

"Yes, she did." Strange nodded.

Strange and Palmer then got up and looked at the view outside the Sanctum, which was still gloomy due to being destroyed by incursion caused by his evil counterpart. Both of them began reflecting on their journey so far, having helped out Chavez in evading the Scarlet Witch, fighting against Strange's evil variant and encountering the Ghost Rider. During her journey, Palmer began to wonder what would have been like had her Strange not have caused an incursion using the Darkhold and not had died at the hands of the Illuminati.

"What's your universe like?" Palmer asked.

"It's very beautiful." Strange told Palmer. "I wish I could show you."

"I'd really like that." Palmer admitted as Strange smiled. "But I have to go."

"Yeah." Strange nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"It's too bad, though." Palmer remarked. "Could have been one hell of an incursion."

Strange let out a small chuckle before sighing and beginning to reflect on his own journey. Palmer noticed his saddened expression and despite the fact she wasn't her Strange, was worried about him.

"What is it?" Palmer asked.

"The reason why it was never going to work out between us is because..." Strange began to talk, recalling his conversation with his Palmer at her wedding in his universe, before swallowing his throat and continued. "Is because I didn't want to risk losing someone close to me. Just like I lost my own mentor. And it's not like I don't want to care for someone or have someone to care for me, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't happy."

"I understand." Palmer nodded in agreement, as she still hadn't moved on from her Strange's death as well.

"I love you, Christine." Strange admitted. "I always have and I always will."

Strange and Palmer then walked towards each other and Palmer placed her arms around his neck while he grabbed her by the back as they shared a passionate kiss, before pulling away from each other and staring at each other as Palmer caressed him by the cheek.

"Face your fears, Stephen." Palmer told Strange.

Just as Stephen and Palmer continued their moment together, a star-shaped portal opened in front of them and Blaze, Wong and Chavez emerged from it. Strange and Wong turned around and saw the three looking at them.

"I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?" Blaze sarcastically remarked.

"No. It's fine." Strange assured Blaze.

"Who is that?" Palmer asked Strange.

"Johnny Blaze." Blaze introduced himself to Palmer and raised his hand.

"Christine." Palmer said as she shook Blaze's hand.

"You know, I also had a lover of mine once. It didn't work out between us." Blaze told Palmer, reminiscing about his failed relationship with Roxanne back in his home reality.

"Where's Wanda?" Strange asked.

"She's with us. We must bring her back home." Wong replied.

"I can send you guys back to your home worlds." Chavez remarked.

"You can?" Strange curiously asked.

"Yeah." Chavez assured Strange.

Strange and Palmer looked at each other and realized that this was going the last time to see each other, but they would still remember the good moments they went through together.

And that's the end of the fourth chapter of the story. Most of the events in this chapter is pretty much the same as in the movie except Nicolas Cage's Johnny Blaze is involved, Wanda doesn't die and Strange and Palmer share a kiss. Now that Blaze freed Wanda from Mephisto's control, that means her Illuminati counterpart and her children would also be safe.

When I first planned out this story, I wanted to get other heroes besides Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider, such as Ioan Gruffud's Mr. Fantastic, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Wesley Snipes' Blade, into the final battle and have them comfort Wanda after the Rider freed her from Mephisto's control, but I couldn't get through that story, because I didn't want to make pure fanservice, because most of them wouldn't have a real reason to get involved, so I decided to include Cage's Ghost Rider, because his involvement in the story makes a lot more sense thematically.

Besides, both Blaze and Wanda have something in common; they were both controlled by Mephisto to do his deeds, Blaze in the first film signing the deal to rid his father from cancer in exchange for his soul and Wanda accepting his deal in my prelude fic, "The Devil's Thrall", to live out her perfect life. I feel bad for Wanda, because she will be forever hunted by the misdeeds she's done, but at least, she's not totally ruined as in the current MCU. That was my issue of her of being the villain; I didn't get the feeling of her being the biggest threat in the Multiverse and didn't realize until the end of the movie that they ruined her.

Blaze referring to having a past lover in his past is a clear reference to Roxanne Simpson, who was played by Eva Mendes in the first Ghost Rider film.

And now we'll get to the final chapter, which will see Strange and his friends bring Wanda to Clint Barton's farm, Strange and Wong imprison Mordo and take Chavez under their wing and Strange developing his own eye, as well as Blaze visiting his father's grave and Wanda having a moment with the Barton family, before we head to the mid-credit and post-credit scenes.

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Stay safe everyone and take care.