Episode 83: Agatha All Along!

When Wanda came to, she was standing in a dark room surrounded by glowing purple runes. But she couldn't move as Agnes appeared out of the shadows wearing a purple robe that had long sleeves. Her hair was now longer with white streaks in it and her fingers were blackened.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Wanda said, trying to fight against whatever force was keeping her in place. "Where are my Marémon?"

"This isn't a joke, dear," Agnes said and produced three PDBs out of thin air. "And your Marémon are right here."

"You're not making sense, Agnes," Wanda remarked. "I know I've wronged many people, but if this is about trapping you in Westview against your will — "

"Perhaps if I reintroduced myself, it will explain everything," Agnes interrupted.

The room suddenly spun, now being replaced by a clearing surrounded by trees as the moon shone overhead.

"My story began with the Salim Witch Trials, which was a difficult time for my coven," Agnes said as hooded figures entered the clearing. "So to cover their tracks, they started persecuting their own."

The figures then removed their hoods, revealing them to be women. One of them was an elder woman wearing a blue crown of sorts, and she seemed distraught.

"Sister Witches," the elder woman said. "It gives me great pain to summon you all here tonight. A member of our coven has been caught stealing knowledge from the Darkhold book, and she must be punished for it."

"Who is the accused, Evanora?" asked one of the women.

The elder woman paused and said, "My daughter, Agatha."

Many of the women murmured among themselves.

"I was the one who caught her, and therefore I must put her on trial," Evanora said. "Bring the accused forward!"

From behind the circle appeared two more women holding a younger Agnes between them. She wore a plain black dress and buckled shoes.

"Agatha Harkness," Evanora said as her daughter was brought into the center of the circle and tied to a wooden pole using bonds made of blue energy. "You have been charged with examining the Darkhold without permission and using Dark Magic frivolously at the risk of exposing our coven to those who've been executing many of our kind. Do you deny the accusations?"

"No, Mother," the younger Agatha said with no remorse whatsoever. "I do not."

Evanora had a pained look on her face, but then she quickly hid it with a deep frown. "Then we have no choice but to punish you, regardless if you are my daughter or not!"

From beneath the dresses of the women in the circle appeared Ebunnys that looked exactly like Señor Scratchy. They all stood on their hind-legs while the women began chanting. Evanora's crown glowed brighter as her Ebunny hopped over to Agatha and let out an ear-piercing cry. All the women then emanated blue energy, which the Ebunnys captured in their paws creating chains that linked to Evanora's Ebunny.

"They're using Transfer, which Ebunnys use to take and redirect energy from people or other Marémon," Wanda realized.

In response, the older Agatha said nothing while Evanora's Ebunny took the blue energy from the other Ebunnys and blasted the younger Agatha with it. She screamed in pain as white streaks appeared in her hair.

"You will have your magic stripped away until your body is nothing but a dry husk," Evanora stated. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"Don't apologize for my sake, Mother," the younger Agatha said as a more skinny Señor Scratchy popped out from beneath her dress. "You were right to be afraid of me."

Señor Scratchy then let out a cry of his own as he used his paws to capture the energy that Evanora's Ebunny was using to blast the younger Agatha with. The blue energy then turned purple in Señor Scratchy's paws as a book appeared out of nowhere being held by the fist-like ears of Señor Scratchy.

"The Darkhold!" Evanora realized. "You used your Ebunny to bring the book here with our combined energy."

"Right you are, dear Mother," the younger Agatha said as she undid her bonds with her fingers turning black. "Now give me your power!"

Flipping to a random page in the book, the younger Agatha chanted a spell which changed the blue energy coming from the other Witches to purple causing their bodies to become dry husks including the body of Evanora. Agatha then closed the book, leaving the clearing with Señor Scratchy hopping beside her.

"After I left Salim, I traveled around the Marvo region looking for other Witches to befriend and take their power so I could live longer," the older Agatha said as the field changed to Eastview. "But after I thought I was the only Witch left, I had planned to live out the rest of my remaining days in Eastview until you showed up."

Wanda saw herself and Witchlet flying through the air using Witchlet's Telekinesis while carrying Vistro's broken body. Agatha was watching this, and was later amazed when the Hex Barrier appeared even when many Eastview citizens began evacuating.

"Seeing the barrier, I knew a powerful Witch had to have created it. And so I entered the barrier and played along in your make-believe reality as the helpful nurse character Agnes hoping to find the Witch I was looking for. But now that you know my story, let's see yours."

Agatha then waved her hand over Wanda's head, causing her to flinch. The room changed again, becoming a one-room apartment where two children were watching television as their parents made dinner together.

"This must be you and Pietro," Agatha guessed, looking at the brunette-haired girl and the silver-haired boy. "So what happened to your parents?"

In that moment, Wanda knew what was going to happen. She tried to fight Agatha's control, but couldn't do anything as the apartment suddenly exploded. From the wreckage emerged the brunette-haired girl Wanda and the silver-haired boy Pietro while a missile lay in the middle of the apartment with the words 'Stark Industries' etched onto it.

To be continued…