The Variant [Part One] [Wanda Maximoff [FF] | Elizabeth Olsen

Chapter 37

Milla sat on the wooden bench while skipping stones by the coast. The teen watches as the pebbles pranced above the surface of the water with a quick plush! Her thoughts are still hazy. It has been since Wanda's return. Splush! - another pebble succumbs to the depths of the inky ocean. Her blue eyes gaze at the two moons above the sky. Unlike in other earth realities, the nights in Earth-222 are relatively longer than usual, hence why the people living on the planet are sensitive to light.

The two moons are too bright nowadays to the point that everyone is wearing shades even though it's midnight. The teen feels guilty. She admits that she internally expects Wanda to adjust to things quickly. That's what she has been doing for the past six years she's gone. There's always a fast shift at every corner. Milla's attention swiftly turn to the rustling behind her-

"Hey, it's me," The red-haired adult said as she reached Milla's view. Milla breathed-out a sigh of relief. Wanda watches as the reddish glow vanishes from the teen's azure orbs. Chaos Magic- Wanda thought.

When Milla was still a child, the girl displays a myriad of powers. But now that she has gotten older, she wanted to know what she's capable of. What she'll display. "I want you to stop me," Wanda said. "What?" Milla said curiously. In a blink of an eye, Wanda summons a lightning bolt made of chaos magic in a nearby grassland. Milla's eyes widened as the fire starts to spread toward the coastal vineyards. Milla looks at Wanda, she has her scarlet-witch attire on complete with the horned wimple, making her appear like a she-devil in the night. She's letting the Scarlet Witch-side of her take charge. Milla understood what she's intending to do. Mom, I hope you know what you're doing... Milla thought.

Accepting her mother's challenge, Milla steps forward and raised her hands to stop the chaos-fire from spreading. The teen aimed directly at the wall of chaos heading towards the vineyards. Milla's eyes glowed bright red like her mother's as she willed the wall of fire to go back toward the ocean. Milla's body trembles as she wrestles with her mother's powers but struggles to do so. She is far too strong, Milla thought. Wanda mentally grapples as she tries to stop Milla's hold from pulling her magic away. The redhead could feel that the teen is weakening... Wait is she letting her continue? Wanda's attention switches to Milla's view, the teen is still grasping the chaos wall but at the same time letting it go?

When the Scarlet Witch looks at the wall of chaos she created: she sees that the wall is still running but no longer under her control. Wanda's eyes widen as she attempts to maneuver the wall but couldn't. As the wall hit the vineyards it did not destroy them instead the new sprouts and vines blossomed into robust, plump grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, and the vines grew thicker. She intends to put Milla on alarm mode only to be tricked by the teen in return! The Scarlet Witch's mouth hung open. Milla smirked, she calmly coerced the chaos wall to disappear out of thin air- a vintner comes out of his house to see the cause of the commotion only to be delighted that his crop is ready, "Oi! These are ready!" He exclaimed.

"Good one, child."

Milla glances at Wanda's obscure scarlet-witch form. The teen smiled. She was never scared of it ever since then. She's happy to see her again. Even her astral form no longer looks menacing. She has improved a lot. The form nodded at her then flicked her fingers - returning to Wanda Maximoff.

"How did you do that?" Wanda said, surprised. Milla shrugged a bit from the exhaustion. "I still have the memory of that book (Darkhold). As much as possible I don't want to dive into that... I started practicing while you were away." She said. Wanda nodded and then sat beside her. "Practicing you say?" The redhead replied. Milla nodded, she lift her hand and summon some psionics: lightning-blue, water-shimmery white, then soft fiery gold - the evolution of her powers. Wanda watches in wonder.

"I realized that they are also chaos magic," Milla explained. "All this time I was also afraid of it," Milla said. Oh... Wanda thought. The teen suddenly realizes how that would sound for the redhead. "I mean-

"I understand, Milla," Wanda said calmly. Milla turned quiet. "You did not want to end up like me. I get it," Wanda held Milla closer to her frame. "I made mistakes and people were hurt," Wanda said. Milla hugged her tighter when she said that. "I'll make sure that you won't end up like me. I'll make sure of it." The redhead added, she mean it wholeheartedly as she planted a kiss on Milla's forehead. She always does that in moments like this. Almost like an unconscious action imprinted by her variant, Milla's real mother. For Wanda, it would be a crush in her soul all over again if Milla ended up being the destructive Scarlet Witch that she was during her hunt for America Chavez. It would be like torture worst than seeing Pietro or Vision die in front of her eyes. This would be a living reminder of how she failed once more. This time as a parent.

"I can improve right?" Milla said with a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Wanda's gaze didn't leave the teen even though she (Milla) was looking absentmindedly from far away. "Of course you do," The redhead replied, ruffling her hair. She had the same insecurity when she was still Clint's recruit within the Avengers headquarters. Naturally, she understood the teen's sentiments. She'd been there.

"What if I made a mistake? What if I messed up?" Milla said. Wanda closed her eyes, What have I done... (Lagos Bomb Incident). She opened her eyes again. "I admit that fixing those mistakes is not going to be easy given the nature of our abilities. Especially how the public perceives such powers. But we'll make it through." Wanda replied.

Without warning, her hands glowed red, Wanda watches in awe as Milla calmed down. This is exactly what the girl did earlier during the ‘wall of chaos’ she did not control it just like she initially thought. Milla managed to tame chaos magic. Grasping-and-letting go at the same time, almost like tensing it to discipline. She never even thought of that earlier. But then again her upbringing played a role in how she conjured her powers. It's good that Milla manages to overcome the traumatic experience of losing her family. They were brutally murdered before her eyes.

She's thankful to the people around her, the variants, the sorcerers, and the witches in this reality for helping Milla to become the person she is now. The teen had plenty of good memories to pull from unlike hers. Wanda smiled, "You will be a better chaos magic user than me..." She kissed Milla's cheek. Milla once again fell asleep in her mother's arms in exhaustion, lightly snoring as she did so.

From afar Agatha Harkness' variant, Raven cleanses the flaws of her origin. Even though the original Agatha could never be changed still there is a chance to hinder the consequences of her actions. Absorbing the powers of the Scarlet Witch? What an idiot... Raven muttered as she watches how Wanda kicked her original's ass by just swallowing all of her abilities. She zooms in on the apparition of Wanda and Milla's wall of chaos.

The witch's dark eyes scan how Milla left the wall unbounded without destroying everything. Even the wall devoured the vintners' houses but they were never put inside a hallucination, unlike Wanda's Westview hex. The teen has better stewardship of the raw chaos magic despite discovering its full potential for the first time. The dark-haired witch has always suspected that Milla has it. She had seen her use her powers several times when she was just a child. Raven spun the imagery once more stopping at the one showing Milla subjugating and tackling Mephisto into a neverending dimension where he'll be incarcerated for a long time. The dimension the girl has chosen is a clever one, its environment is repetitious in optical and sound to the point of putting the crimson-skinned demon into insanity. Just one tiny sound to echo it a thousand-fold. The witch zooms in the image to Milla's appearance and notices the hint of red on the girl's blue eyes as well as the forming scarlet runes atop her head.

The fact that she could bend the red out of chaos magic before into something benevolent could rewrite the pages of the harbinger of chaos in every sanctum and every coven around the multiverse. For eons, they've waited with bated breath about the next chaos magic caster, such a phenomenon is an omen of bad luck. But now that could change. The next Scarlet Witch is here.