Seeing Scarlet - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

~XVI~

"I warned you!"

Wanda wasted no time in trapping them, grabbing the sisters and binding the others.  Then, invading and controlling America's mind, she used the teen's powers to open up a random portal, throwing, literally tossing, the three through, before opening up the portal to Wundagore Mountain where Wanda herself, or 616 Wanda rather, was conducting the Dreamwalking séance and tossing the sisters through. America and Catalina Chavez landed at the Scarlet Witch's feet.  

All the while, the book of Vishanti burned.

-----------------------------------------

So this is what an incursion looked like.

Wherever they were, whatever reality this was in and across the vast Multiverse, it was not looking too good, not so good at all. It - everything that is - was literally imploding into inky nothingness all  around them on all sides. This universe was mid-incursion and they were right at the centre of it all. If this was what reality collapsing in on itself looked like, it was more than believable. 

"Oh no-"

"Oh crap!"

"It's like this reality collapsed in on itself," mused Christine. 

"Yeah," agreed Stephen.  "Or two realities collided. Whatever it is it's not good.  I can see why you guys were so worried about Incursions. Come on, let's go - America doesn't have long." 

"Universes 616 and 838?" Breathed Kat in astonishment after Christine filled her in while they walked, Stephen in the lead. "There's eight hundred plus alternate universes out there?"

"At least," confined Christine.

"I believe it! It's amazing! Truly amazing!"

"It is."

"That means there's at least that many versions of us..." she gazed around at the collapsing reality surrounding them on all sides. "I wonder which one this is..."

"Which ever one it is, it's certainly not in good shape," said Stephen.

"So where are we going?" Christine asked. "Do you know where we're going?"

"No, but if there's another Sanctum in this universe then there might be another Kat and Other Other Me, and that's our best shot of betting back to America and Catalina."

"Well whatever happened here, this universe's you didn't do a very good job of stopping it-"

Speaking of stopping, Stephen had just stopped walking abruptly, so suddenly that the ladies nearly crashed into him. Through the fog, they saw it, what had so abruptly captured his attention: the tall, looming single building of the Sanctum Sanctorum. A dark figure passed by the window, almost totally encased in shadow, but it was clear: someone was in there. 

"Yeah," muttered Stephen.  "I'll tell him you said that. I'll go first, you two wait here." He turned to face these two important women in his life. "Look after each other."

The two ladies in question exchanged a look and nod.  "We will. Good luck."

The doors slammed shut behind him almost as soon as he set foot inside, making them jump and sealing them off from each other. 

For a while, there was nothing, just the sounds of the universe collapsing around them, literally. So this is it, Kat thought. The end of the world. The end of Time.

"Just curious, and you don't have to tell me, but were you and your universe's Stephen close?" she asked Christine, breaking the silence.  You and your Stephen.

"We used to be, but not at the time of his death. We were long lost to each other then. How about the two of you?"

"We're going through a bit of a rough patch - and this whole Multiverse thing hasn't helped. But he seems too stuck in the past, while I'm avoiding it altogether. Maybe not so good of a mix.  He was lucky to have you, Christine, when he did."

Christine smiled. "He's lucky to have you now."

Suddenly, loud crashes  came from inside the building, sounding like they were coming from above. A lot of crashing and banging and - music?

"What are they doing up there? Playing piano?" Kat strode forward.  "Stay here, I'm going in." She gave the heavy front doors a shove, but they did not budge; she hadn't been expecting them to. With a nudge from some chaos energy, they sure did. 

She followed the musical crashing and shouts up to the top floor of the building where they had seen the shadow-figure from the window and found herself face-to-face with Stephen - well, with two Stephens. 

One was her Stephen, and the other was a shadowy version of him. Yup, as someone speaking from experience, she knew when someone had been dipping into the Darkhold, and this version of her boyfriend clearly had been. And speaking of the Darkhold, there it was, on the floor between the two dueling versions of the same man. So close, just within reach...

"Kat!" cried Stephen.

"Katerina..." said the other. 

"Stephen..."

"Oh well isn't this interesting..." His voice was like a hiss, not warm like Stephen's - her Stephen's.

BANG!

"Oh shit!" she cried, watching as the Shadowy Stephen was thrown back by her Stephen's spell with such force he went smashing out the window and falling to the ground below. Well, that had done the trick. 

"You okay?" 

"Sort of. You?"

"Yeah, same." She strode forward, scooping up the Darkhold. "I really don't like to do this, but I've been thinking about it a lot and, well, we're going up against the Scarlet Witch, so I feel like, only a Scarlet Witch will do-" She flipped the book open.

"What are you doing with the Darkhold?" Christine had joined them. The sudden lack of crashing and music must have alerted her to the relative safety of the building.  

"You worked for the Baxter Foundation, you know that I am the original Scarlet Witch," Kat told her.  "My powers were locked away and buried within the Darkhold hundreds of years ago, I just have to unlock it." She flipped through the pages until she reached the exact centre of the dark book.  

She still had so much explaining to do, but right now time was of the essence, so Stephen just went along with it - it seemed like she had a plan.  "Unlock it how?"

"It's a blood binding, so only my blood will undo it."

"Okay, so what do you have to do? Like prick your finger or something?"

"Not quite." And with that she forged a blade and plunged it through her heart.

(A dramatic chapter ending but I wanted to do it! I'll try to have the next chapter out shortly as to not drag out the suspense! ;)

On that note, this chapter took me a lot longer than I'd hoped, but my Top Gun stories (yes, plural) are taking my priority right now ;)

As always thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))