The Witch's Redemption (Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch - MCU / Marvel)

Prologue

It's over... It's all over... That thought never left Wanda's broken mind as she let herself be carried along by the currents of her own magic, floating in the middle of a great dark void and unending. It was done. She had destroyed the Darkhold, not just the one in her universe, but all of its versions across the Multiverse. Now everyone thought she was dead, and it was better that way. Using the few forces she had left, Wanda had used them to teleport herself as far as possible through the Multiverse, where no one could ever find her.

Her feet finally landed on grassy ground. She was now in the middle of a small, sparse space surrounded by a sleeping forest on a calm, slightly rainy night. Hands still shaking and tears in her eyes, Wanda fell to her knees, rain streaming down her outfit and face as she stared straight ahead.

Pietro... Vision... Her children... she had lost everything now and forever. And what had she done in the hope of seeing them again? She had inflicted so much suffering, killed many innocent people and even betrayed the friendship of her allies and friends, those who had nevertheless helped her when she was alone and homeless. She was once an Avenger, one of them. She had been too blinded by her own pain to see that she already had a new family. She hadn't even hesitated to manipulate another version of herself for the sole purpose of taking her children. Strange was right, he had tried to warn her, to make her realize her actions, to help her, but her thirst to find happiness again was the strongest, to the point of spreading misfortune and chaos around her.

Wanda stared at her hands as though she didn't recognize them, seeing the chaotic magic of the witch that had blackened her fingertips. Ahead of her, a puddle of water formed by the constant rain revealed the reflection of her face to her, but she saw nothing but the destructive monster she had become and swept the water away with the back of her hand, preferring to look away.

Crying, consumed by regret and grief, Wanda raised her head and let out a howl, a powerful mixture of anger and sadness that echoed through the wind and rain, driving away all the nocturnal animals in the vicinity.

_"...I hate you..." Wanda said in her tears as she looked back at the water in the puddle, seeing the image of that scarlet witch staring at her. "You were supposed to help me find happiness, not spread death. Because of you, I lost everything."

In the water, the reflection of the red witch's shadow frowned, her pupils glowing that piercing chaotic red. But Wanda wasn't intimidated and pulled the tiara from her head and made it disappear into her hands. She would never use that power again. She didn't want it anymore. Turning her back on her past, Wanda began to walk away alone into the forest. No matter in which universe she had landed, now her exile of eternal solitude began.

***********

But meanwhile, far away from here, in a dark isolated dimension, another solitary form, male and dressed all in black, was advancing with a slow but determined step in the midst of rows of fiery and roaring flames, forming veritable infernal ramparts. The man in the leather coat and wearing a long metal chain around his belt like a whip, approached a sort of altar made up of a multitude of more or less ancient skulls, assembled on top of each other. At the top of this macabre altar sat an obsidian vessel studded with infernal runes and containing a thick black oil-like liquid.

The man held out one of his hands to the basin and in the second, the black liquid ignited, creating a crackling, dancing red flame.

_"Show me..." he ordered in a firm, dark voice.

The flame, as if animated by a will of its own, obeyed the injunction and made appear within it a kind of ethereal reflection of Wanda, alone and broken, moving away gradually through the forest. The man watched impassively until the vision faded into the fire.

_"So that's where she's hiding now..."

On these accusing words, the man clenched his fist which slowly began to ignite. The irises of his eyes gradually turned red as flames literally flared up in his gaze, the skin of his face and his hair slowly beginning to crumble to the bone and his voice doubling in intensity, becoming even more cavernous and inhuman. Around him, the walls of flame grew and exploded in intensity, as if the fire was going mad as this man's demonic power manifested and transformed him.

_"No one can escape their faults. It is time for Wanda Maximoff to be brought to her final judgement."