open arms, mcu ✓

forty nine

chapter forty nine
╰ ( wandavision: episode nine )

💫 ━━ PAISLEY stands near Wanda, watching as the angered mother blasts Agatha with red balls of magic, one after another.

Her own magic rests at her fingertips, but she doesn't use it like her aunt is, she lets it rest in her veins. Bubbling and building into something more.

She wants to create ruins, so she is the only one who can use magic in WestView. She wants to take down Agatha, who had forced her to relive the moments of her life she wished stayed behind her.

"Stop." Lizzy spoke, her feet planted on the ground behind Paisley. "Paisley, I'm sorry."

Paisley whirled around to face the girl she once called her friend. Gosh, she missed her, what they had. But now it was gone. "You did this."

"No, you did." Lizzy stepped forward, only for Paisley to flick her wrist towards her and send her back a few more steps. Unlike her mother, she didn't absorb Paisley's magic, she didn't know how. "They're fighting because my mom wants your magic, but she needs to drain Wanda first. She needs your aunts magic before she can take yours."

Paisleys eyebrows met in the middle, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you need to stop her." Ryder spoke, coming to stand beside Lizzy in his Iron-Kid suit. "Hi, Pais."

"Ryder?" Paisley blinked. Her eyes watering. He's been here the whole time, and she never realized who he was until now. He's been by her side, protecting her, ever step of the way in her life. And she knows it now. "Thank you."

"I couldn't leave my first friend alone, could I?" Ryder smiled before he took a stumbling step, the ground beneath the three shaking as something appeared nearby. "No."

A new, remade vision with white coating approached Paisley, Ryder and Liz. Its movements were calculated, robotic, empty of what the original Vision was.

"Vis?" Paisley reached out for the robot, her fingers touching the cool metal before she recoiled. "You're not Vision."

"I am." The robot man spoke smoothly, a forced convincing tone laced in his words. "Paisley, help me neutralize Wanda, then everyone will be free."

Neutralize Wanda? What was she doing that was so wrong that she needed to be disposed of? What was Paisley missing, what was the bigger picture?

"No." Ryder stepped forward, almost forcefully placing Paisley behind himself. He knew if she said no, she would be the first one to die on the battlefield called Westview. She would die and Ryder didn't have the heart to tell Tony Stark and Pietro Maximoff that Paisley's life was taken away from her by SWORD. "She won't help you."

"You know what that means, right, Ryder?" Vision stepped forward, his hand reaching for whatever he could grasp. "You all will be neutralized if you don't help."

Ryder lifted his hand, his blaster in his palm glowing blue before a blast sent the new Vision flying backwards into a camper van, which exploded on impact. "Shit."

Liz looked between her mother and Paisley, the one who brought her into the world and then the one who showed her what the world was. She placed her hands together before she pulled them apart, a dark purple energy surrounding herself, Ryder and Paisley. She's picked her side, she will find anyway to be free now, even if it means betraying her mother.

Liz watched as the world went on around them; Agatha and Wanda fighting for whatever they could gain, both Visions fighting for the life and dead of Wanda.

"Ryder, you can help Vision, right?" Paisley asked as she stepped around the bubble, that crackled with every minute — Liz was still learning, she wasn't as strong as she thought she was. "Liz you can help evacuate the people, to get them away from where we are?" She watched as Liz nodded in agreement, she could do what has been suggested. Ryder went to fight what he needed to do, but he didn't. "I'll go help Wanda."

💫 ━━ AGATHA has Paisley in her grasp. They stand on top of a building, her purple magic keeping a hold on Paisley. "There's pages dedicated to you and Paisley in the dark hold Wanda!"

A book, the dark hold, appears out of thin air, Agatha having practically created it with a single thought. Pages move until she's where she wanted. "The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, no need for incantation. And you, your name is plastered in the book too, your fate written before you were born. Paisley Maximoff, one whose power exceeds that of the sorcerer supreme." There's a short pause before a page flips once more. "Together, it is your destiny to destroy the world."

Would Paisley really become who the world was telling her she would be? Would she really become who destroyed the world, or would the world destroy her?

Paisley screams. Her throat panging with a rough pain as she continues to scream. Agatha is forced back, her hold on Paisley disappearing. It worked like magic, something Paisley had hoped would happen. "You say we're destined to destroy the world, you included." Paisleys eyes flash blue, a much darker blue. "Than we will. Together."

Agatha doesn't give Wanda or Paisley a change to do anything before she cuts the puppet strings Wanda had on the civilians of Westview, everyone turning towards the Scarlett Witch, screaming to be let free.