Maximoff Anomalies

Billy IV

One week earlier...

Charlie had a problem. A serious problem. It might be worse than any other problem ever to exist. Worse than anything that had ever happened.

Charlie had a crush. That might not sound like a bad thing, but it was. It was very much so. Charlie liked Nick. Nick liked Charlie. That simple, right? No. Not at all. Nick liked the old Charlie. Maybe he doesn't like the new Charlie, or he does, just not that way anymore.

Charlie had spent a week barely sleeping, barely eating, to the point that Nick was worried again. So, he had to do it. He had to tell him. But not just the crush. If Nick liked him back, and they decided they wanted to do something, Nick had to know. He had to know everything. Even everything about Wanda and Tommy, and all of his efforts to find his brother.

Nick and Charlie met at the park with Nellie. "What is it?" Nick asked, and Charlie played with the hem of his sweater.

"I need to tell you something," he whispered. "Please don't overreact. It's a lot."

"Okay," Nick waited silently until Charlie was ready.

"I like you. Like, I like you, like you," Charlie said quickly. Nick's mouth dropped open, but before he could say anything, Charlie kept ranting. "But there's more. A lot more. To me. It's really really complicated. But I told myself that if I told you, I would tell you everything. Here goes.

"I'm not Charlie. At least not entirely. That car crash - I died that day. Charlie died. And when I came back, I was someone else."

Nick's eyes widened. "But if you aren't Charlie Spring, who are you?" he asked.

"That's the complicated part," Charlie ran a hand through his hair. "So you know the Westview Anomaly, right? That wasn't actually a training exercise. Wanda put a hex around the entire town, controlling everyone, and rewriting the reality of everything inside-"

"Wanda Maximoff?" Nick interrupted. 

"That very one. She made a fake Vision, fake children, and everything. Billy had mind-reading powers like Wanda, while Tommy had speed powers like Pietro. But another witch-"

"Another? Wanda is a witch?"

"Yes, Nick," Charlie sighed. "A witch. And another witch named Agatha Harkness tried to take her magic from her, but Wanda took her magic and then trapped Agatha in her own mind. Wanda took down the hex and Vision, Billy, and Tommy died - or disappeared. As far as everyone in Westview knows, anyway. But at the moment the hex disappeared, Charlie died."

"What does all of this have to do with you?" Nick asked, a small frown on his face.

"This is the reason I can't remember anything, Nick," Charlie picked at his nails, not looking at the other boy. 

"Wait, sorry. I thought you did remember stuff?" Nick frowned. "How did you know about-"

"Nick, I'm Billy," Charlie said quickly. "I am Billy Maximoff."

Nick sucked in a breath, but Charlie kept ranting anyway. "I read your mind, Or... heard your mind. Whenever I'm with someone and they're having really intense feelings, I can hear what they're thinking. It's not as bad as when I could hear an entire town, but it's still bad. And I know I lied to everyone, but how am I supposed to say 'Hi, I'm not actually your best friend Charlie, I'm just some random kid who is only technically days old and was created when your mum, Wanda Maximoff, mind controlled a town, rewrote reality and bought your robot dad back from the dead, which should be impossible because he's a robot and doesn't even have a consciousness'."

"Charl-Billy," Nick snapped his fingers in front of Charlie's face. "It's okay."

"You're not mad?" Charlie asked.

"No, I'm not mad. I would've done the same thing," Nick squeezed Charlie's hand. "But you must've felt so alone."

"It was hard. But I... I couldn't tell you because you were all still hoping Charlie would come back when I knew he wouldn't," Charlie shook his head. "And now... now I don't know what to do. These past few months I've been trying to find Tommy with no luck, and I just can't handle this alone."

"Tommy's alive too?" Nick asked.

"He's out there. He has to be. I can sense him, I just can't find him. I was close a while ago. Three months after I died, I heard him, somewhere in the States. But that was the last time. I don't know what to do," Charlie buried his head in his hands. "It's making me consider going to the only person I know the location of who might be able to help."

"Who?" Nick asked.

Charlie looked up into the other boy's eyes. "Agatha Harkness."

Nick made it crystal clear that finding Agatha Harkness was the last thing he wanted, so they got to work trying to find Tommy through any other method. One technique was actually training with his powers. Charlie threw himself into learning runes, a core part of witchcraft.

"This is doing nothing," Charlie scrunched his face as he tried endlessly to conjure a glow. "Are you sure this works."

"Of course it works," Nick said from where he had several different fantasy books scattered around him on the bed and Charlie's open lap top on his lap. "Percy Jackson, Sophie Foster, literally everyone says to concentrate."

"Yeah well, they aren't real, are they?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"Ms. Marvel says so," Nick countered. "She said it took her a long time to get enough strength, and even then she dropped a kid. Saved his life, but still."

Charlie sighed. "This is useless-"

"is not-"

"-is too. Agatha would know-"

"Agatha has the title 'witch killer', and you're a legacy. I don't think you should be anywhere near her," Nick corrected. "And you feel it too."

Charlie threw himself on the ground. "Fine. Maybe try making me angry, that always seems to work in the books." He pouted pedantically.

"Sweetie, I'm not going to bully you into making a spark," Nick raised an eyebrow, leaning over to give Charlie a small peck.

"Really? I'm sure it would work," Charlie shrugged.

Nick rolled his eyes, then frowned at his phone. "My mum wants me home. Try not to leave the country while I'm gone," he said.

"I'll try my hardest," Charlie grinned, getting up to lead him to the door. "Don't worry, I'll clean up."

"Unlikely," Nick laughed as they traveled down the stairs. "But you'll do enough." 

Charlie leaned up to give his boyfriend a kiss. "See you tomorrow," he smiled.

"See you," Nick grinned back, before walking down the path to his house.

Charlie went back upstairs, flicking his playlist on through the speaker and settling back on the bed, frowning at the search engine. Agatha Harkness Ancient Witches was on the search engine, and Charlie scrolled through the articles, clicking on one about the Salem Witch Trials, which led to a conspiracy theory, and a photo of a familiar witch.

"Agatha," Charlie whispered as he put the image into his browser, coming across a bundle of photos with the witch across centuries - Zeppelin explosion, Titanic, Agatha being the real Jolene from Dolly Parton's song, and even a wiki about her. Records of Agatha murdering entire covens, her nickname as Witch Killer, and Agatha being the only known survivor of The Witches Road.

"What is the -" Charlie turned around as Lorna Wu burst into the chorus of her famous song, Ballad of the Witches Road. 

"Down, down, down the road
(Down the witches' road)
Down the witches' road
Down, down, down the road
Down the witches' road
(Down the witches' road)
Down, down, down the road
Down the witches' road
Down, down, down
Wherever it may bend
I'll see you at the end"

"What is the Witches Road?" Charlie flicked through one of the witchy notebooks Nick and Charlie had purchased to fill his room with. "Many also believe a witch may find who's missing at the end of the road."

Charlie's eyes flicked to another notebook of his own, where MISSING was in big letters next to the name Tommy Maximoff.

"I'm sorry Nick," Charlie winced. "But only Agatha can help me now."