Seeing Scarlet - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

~XVII~

It happened so fast - Stephen cried out and Christine yelped as the blade struck her chest, cutting deep into her heart. Stephen lunged forward to catch her suddenly limp body as it collapsed in a heap on top of the dark book. Kat's body, now limp, crumpled forward, her blood spilling over and staining the pages.

There was a faint sizzling sound and curls of steam or smoke began to twist upwards from the pages, and both Stephen and Christine leapt back when Kat's body began to rise. 

Red chaos energy began to swirl around her, starting from the book and swarming her body, glowing brighter and brighter, so bright the others had to cover their eyes. Then, when the light faded, there she stood, very much alive, and very much transformed. 

Her robes, formerly purple and blue, now were stained a deep red - blood red, really - long and flowing, elegant and powerful, complete with tall boots and fingerless gloves. And her hair had gone from dark with reddish highlights to pure red, though darker than Wanda's. Her new hair was adorned in a tiara, the same curved design as Wanda's, and her eyes glowed red, blazing with chaos. And of course, in very Kat style, she had jewelry galore: earrings, rings, bracelets, and necklaces. 

Here she was, once again, for the first time in hundreds of years: Ekaterina, the Original Scarlet Witch. 

Stephen stepped towards her.  "You okay?"

"Yeah." She blinked madly. 

"How do you feel? How does it feel?"

She spoke the truth. "Good. Really good."

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

Soon she sat cross-legged on the floor, the Darkhold open before her to a particular page she recalled. She waved her arms around and a red image projected itself into the air before them.  Red orbs showing various realities, and it didn't take long to locate their home reality -  they could hear America's screams. "Okay, now we know where we're going  - I'll connect with America via her mind and get her to open a portal to us. However - I don't know if I can get us both there, I'm still a little rusty. Plus I don't want to strain America in her current wounded state."

Stephen nodded. "Do it, go on ahead."

"What about you?"

"I've got another idea..."

"Oh no," Christine cried. "Are you going to Dreamwalk?"

"It's a little more  than just Dreamwalking..."

"You sure?" Kat pressed. 

"Yeah - like you said, and I don't want to overload you when you're just starting out with your powers again."

"Oh, well thanks." She smiled. 

"Yeah, and who knows - maybe the souls of the damned can help us with Wanda."

 "See you there." She turned to Christine.  "And you'll hold down the fort  here?"

"I don't like what's going on here but do I really have a choice?"

"Thanks Christine." And with that she adjusted her cross-legged position on the floor.  Time to conduct a séance. "Let's go get this little witch."

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

America, it's me. Can you concentrate on my voice? She could sense the teen's fear and pain and her heart went out to her. Catalina was also hurt - by the looks of things, Wanda had intended to torture the older sister by way of getting the younger sister to cooperate. Good. Now I need you to open up a portal so  I can come to you...

The world around her fractured into blue light and a star-shaped portal blasted open before her.  Suddenly, the dim darkness of the other Sanctum was gone, and she was atop a snowy mountain. "Wundagore Mountain," she breathed, and stepped through. 

It had been a spell - no pun intended (okay, maybe a little intended) - since she had been here. This was actually where her powers had been transferred and locked into the Darkhold all those hundreds of years ago. And now, here she was, back again. 

Of course, the blasting open of the portal had caught everyone's attention and Wanda had turned on her, startled and surprised. 

Kat strode towards her, in all her red, chaos glory. "All right Wanda, enough is enough. We gave you more than enough chances to give it up but here we are - now this is us being reasonable."

Pretty soon both Scarlet Witches, the Original and the current, were engaged in an air battle, floating around outside the temple firing blast after blast of chaos energy at each other. Catalina took this opportunity to free her sister. And Kat couldn't see him, but she was pretty sure she could hear Wong cheering. His shouts echoed off the stone surrounding them.

Then the shrieking started, and Kat saw him - Stephen Dreamwalking, across the way on the opposite mountain top. Well, corpse Stephen - by the looks of it he had Dreamwalked into his other self's dead body from the first time they had met the Chavez sisters. 

Dark Souls of the Damned - the source of all the shrieking - swirled around his decaying body, but by the looks of it he had harnessed them and was turning them into a - cloak? 

"Dreamwalking you hypocrite!" roared Wanda. 

"Oh awesome! I want a Souls of the Damned Cloak!" Kat cheered as Stephen used his new attire to carry himself across to them.

"I'm not the only one they're angry with," he said, and cast the Souls forward, and they instantly engulfed Wanda, shrieking and cackling.  Then he turned to Wong.

"I don't even want to know!" Wong cried.

Kat cheered, ran up to Stephen and kissed him - dead him. He seemed surprised while she didn't seem to mind. In fact, it didn't really seem to phase her. 

She smiled. "I still like your ponytail."

"Eh, I don't."

 Then the trio of Sorcerers used their magic to secure Wanda and the Souls together. 

"Stephen? Kat?" came America's shaky voice.

"Yes, we're here." Kat rushed to her side. Catalina had helped guide her sister into a seated position and America leaned against her for support. 

"Yes, it's me inside other me's body," Stephen explained. 

"This wont hold her for long!" Wong cried.

"On it!" Kat raced back to his side and used her own chaos energy to help hold the seal around Wanda and the Souls while Stephen spoke with the sisters.  

"AHHH!" Then, with a yell nothing short of a battle cry, America leapt into action, literally, flying off the stone centerpiece of the temple and throwing at punch at Wanda, striking her directly. That did the trick.

Kat smiled. "A little confidence can go a long way."

(Yeah, go America! Can't wait to see more of her! ;)

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :) Next chapter will be the final one - see you there!)