Against The Clock {Wanda Maximoff A/U}

Chapter Eighteen- Nightmares

I was running as fast as I could but it felt like my legs weren't moving.

Footsteps echoed in the grass behind me constantly closing in.

I looked back for a second before I hit a wall, instead of being stopped I fell right through it.

"So, here's what's going to happen." Godric's voice rang out. "I'm going to kill you, and then I am going to kill your son for all the pain your family has caused me!"

"Please, don't." My mother cried.

I tried to turn away but my eyes were peeled to what was happening in front of me.

A gunshot rang out and my mother fell backwards onto the floor a pool of blood started to form around her as Godric wiped his face from the splatter.

"One down, one to go."

***
"Wanda!" I yelled through the trees. I was stumbling around Wakanda, hopeless.

We had lost.

We had failed.

Not only the world, but ourselves.

"Sam!" Rhodey called as he wandered through the tall grass. "Sam!"

Steve was looking around bewildered.

"Carter!" A woman's voice yelled. "Steve!"

I turned towards the sound of the voice and saw Natasha searching for the two of us.

"Oh, thank god." She cried as she wrapped her arms around the the two of us.

Then I saw it.

Wanda holding a grey vision, her body slowly fell to dust and she disappeared just like I had.

Natasha's body went limp.

"Steve." She whispered. I looked to my right to see he was gone completely leaving only dust blowing in the wind. "Steve, no." Natasha said as she slowly began to crumble.

"Don't let me die, please. Not like this." She cried as her face lost its color and her eyes were red from crying. "Carter, please."

"You couldn't save them, in that world." A voice said to me.

I turned around suddenly.

The scenery turned to a swirling dark green with specks of black and a man sat on a stone throne.

"You couldn't save them then, but with me you can." The man said smugly.

He had pure green eyes, and pointy ears with slicked back black hair.

"Where are we?"

He looked around. "Physically? Or mentally?"

"How about both." I said to him.

"Well, physically we're still in the Illuminati building." He said to me. "Mentally, we're in a splinter dimension. My splinter dimension, known as the Nightmare Dimension."

"So, does that make you Voldemort?" I asked sarcastically.

"Who?" He asked confused. "Anyway, my name is Edvard Haberdash or the Lord of Dreams. Or even better. Nightmare." He said sinisterly as he grew to seven feet tall with a sharp tongue and flaming green hair.

"Okay, cool. Can I have my body back?"

He shook his head. "Unfortunately I cannot enter the mortal world without a host body. In exchange for sharing your body. I will grant you immortality."

"Umm, no. I'll just take my body back actually." I said to him.

Wrong choice of words.

"Then, Carter Cole. This is your final nightmare. One that you will never wake up from!" He yelled before he vanished in green smoke and my nightmares began to replay over and over again.

***
"Carter?" Tony asked him.

"Knock knock, remember me?" Nightmare hissed as he grabbed him around the throat. Tony's eyes lit up with fear as he was thrown across the room smashing into the wall.

Reed went after him using his stretchy limbs to worm his way around the sorcerer and capturing his body within his arms.

"Gotcha."

"Don't blink." Nightmare whispered before he used Carters body to teleport before stabbing his through the black.

Black Bolt stepped forward and opened his mouth.

"Oh, I know you." Nightmare grinned. "Now shut up." He said closing his fingers as an imaginary blade went through his head and rolled off his body onto the floor.

Strange went on the defensive as Nightmare advanced. "Ah, one of my greatest rivals. Too bad, your other version of you is much more powerful. And he's not even Sorcerer Supreme can you believe that."

Strange began to grow exhausted before he was ultimately overwhelmed by Nightmare who cut off his hands before maiming him through the chest.

Namor, due to his hubris was a quick match and was quickly put down. Nightmare picked up his trident and killed Tony with it who was getting back on his feet.

"Where are you, old man?" Nightmare whispered as the lights in the room flickered off.

***
"Carter." Charles put a hand on his shoulder causing him to jump. "It's just a dream, my boy."

"I see it over and over. Failure, I couldn't save them." Carter said shaking.

"Listen to me boy, you can fight this. Don't forget who's mind and body this is. It is yours. You have home field advantage. Take it back."

"I can't, I'm not strong enough."

"You've survived an attack on your mind before. Do it again, Wanda is still alive. She needs you."

"You guys said it yourself. I'm a villain, a threat."

"Not you. It." Charles said.

A fog of green smoke billowed up behind Charles. "Fight it." He said before Nightmare's ghoulish fingers wrapped around his face and broke his neck.

***
Wanda and Strange jogged into the courtroom only to find dead bodies lay askew.

"Holy shit." Wanda let out a breath. "What happened here."

Strange put a hand on her shoulder. "That may be a question you don't want answered." He said touching the cold body of his former self.

Before standing up alert.

"It's still here."

"I can feel it too." Wanda said as the lights turned off and turned on. Carter was standing in between them.

"Carter." Wanda said. "What did you do."

"Not Carter, Nightmare." Strange said getting defensive with his magic.

Wanda's hands grew red, along with her eyes.

"Wanda, if he gets out. He will wreck havoc across the multiverse. Are you prepared to do what we discussed?"

Wanda's eyes returned to normal. "I can't. He's in there." She said as a blast of green light struck her in the chest and Nightmare and Strange got locked into battle.