One | Steve Rogers

44

Stephen sits up in his bed, quickly awakening from a dream that felt all too real. He pants, chest heaving as he attempts to blink away the lingering feeling of death from his body and mind. On his laptop sits multiple tabs open in his browser, all of the same person.

Mage.

Countless reports and possible sighting of the former Avenger, but none know her current location.

She remains a mystery to the public.

In the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of a picture thought to be her, security camera footage from a library, followed by pictures of the corpse she left behind. He gets out of bed and gets ready for a wedding with the help of his magic, unbeknownst to him that his dream was a reality, starring a monster conjured by a witch.

" You let her get away?"

Lauren faces the witch with arms crossed, the crimson red and dead surroundings casting her in a dark light in her reflective black suit.

" I didn't let her do anything," Wanda says simply, " But you see... now she is in our universe... and you can find her again."

Lauren flicks her wrist, causing her beloved mirror to appear in a plume of black smoke, conveying an image of the very girl their after in a setting that's all too familiar.

" She's in New York," Lauren states, her eyes fixated on the child.

She pays no attention to Wanda, not even as she conjures the Dark Hold and casts a spell from its pages. All she sees is a child, alone and scared, something that hits her deep inside... perhaps even the slightest bit of empathy. Only when she sees a tentacled monster try to grab the child does she turn her head, and for the very first time laying eyes on the Dark Hold and all its beauty. It's dark, decrepit pages, covered in black swirling ink and a scarlet red glow all at once. She can't look away, for it begins to speak to her. It calls to her deepest desires, whispering in her ear about all of the things made possible with the book in her grasp. She could not only be feared in this universe... but every universe imaginable. All that power, just within arms reach, makes it all too seductive for her to ignore it. But as she steps forward, the witch's head turns to her.

" No touching."

" Sharing is caring, Wanda," Lauren says as she attempts to reach out for the book once more, but it levitates away from her grasp, seeing as it's still in the control of the youngest Maximoff.

And this makes Lauren see Wanda in a different light. No more is that scared little girl, barely able to control her powers that she met years ago. No more is her subordinate, looking to her for guidance.

But rather, here is a woman who has faced great loss and endured great pain. Here is a woman strong enough and powerful enough to take what she rightfully deserves, and while Lauren is no stranger to that, Wanda's blackened fingertips tell her a different story. A story of a broken hearted woman who's being indoctrinated by great evil.

Wanda may have an excuse for her actions, for she could plea that the Dark Hold made her do it, but Lauren can do no such thing. Everything she's done up until this point has been her own doing, and not because of the book of the damned.

Lauren's eyes center on the back of Wanda's head, her mind sinking deeply into hers, without even so much as a little effort. She feels Wanda's pain as sees not only her memories from Westview, but all of her dreams of all the other universes in which her boys are real, and in which she is happy.

However, Wanda does not appreciate having her mind toyed with. She slams the book shut and spins around to face the woman with raven black hair as she flushes her out of her mind. Wanda sees a single tear stream down Lauren's cheek, one she did not know was there to start with.