[Westview. The S.W.O.R.D. Circus base. The 2000s.]
The camera zoomed in on Sebastian Michaelis. He was wearing a polka-dot clown suit with a comically large ruffled collar. He stared directly into the lens (mockumentary style).
"I have served royalty," Sebastian said, his voice flat. "I have served the savior of the universe. And now, I am serving... cotton candy."
He looked down at the pink fluff in his hand.
"If anyone asks," Sebastian crushed the candy, "I was never here."
He ripped the ruffled collar off. He didn't care about the script anymore. The barrier had expanded, swallowing the S.W.O.R.D. agents, but it had also thinned the magic elsewhere. He could feel the source of the rot pulsating from the house next door to Wanda's.
Agnes.
Sebastian vanished from the circus tent, leaving a pile of clown clothes on the floor.
[2800 Ellis Avenue. The Living Room.]
Wanda Maximoff lay on the couch in a bathrobe, eating sugary cereal dry from the box. The house was glitching—the toaster turned into a 1950s model, then a 1980s one. The milk carton transformed into a glass bottle.
"I'm fine," Wanda told the camera crew (who weren't really there). "Just resting my eyes. It's a 'Case of the Mondays', right? Or maybe it's just a total psychotic break. Who can say?"
[Knock. Knock. Knock.]
Agnes burst in. She wasn't wearing her usual neighborly smile. She looked... hungry.
"Wanda, dear! You look terrible. Let me take the boys. You need a spa day. Or a coma."
"No," Wanda mumbled. "I just need... to stop thinking."
"I can help with that," Agnes guided her up. "Come to my house. I have tea. And answers."
Agnes led the groggy Wanda out the door.
From the shadows of the kitchen, Sebastian watched. He was back in his ruined tailcoat (having discarded the clown suit). He was bleeding black ichor again, but his eyes were sharp.
"Tea," Sebastian whispered. "How inviting."
[Agnes's House. The Basement.]
Wanda sat in Agnes's living room. "Agnes? Where's the tea?"
She saw a bug crawling on the drapes. A cicada. Then another.
"Agnes?"
Wanda walked down the hallway. She found a door. The basement.
She went down.
It wasn't a normal basement. It was a dungeon. Roots grew through the stone walls. Pillars of ancient rock held up the ceiling. The air smelled of mold and old magic. A glass case held a glowing book—the Darkhold.
"Wanda?" Agnes's voice echoed. "You're trespassing, dear."
Agnes stepped out of the shadows. But she wasn't Agnes anymore. She wore robes of violet and black. Her eyes crackled with purple energy.
"You're... magical," Wanda whispered.
"And you," Agatha Harkness sneered, "are a problem."
She raised her hand to blast Wanda.
WHOOSH.
A silver knife flew through the air, embedding itself in the wooden pillar right next to Agatha's head.
"My apologies," Sebastian walked out of the dark corner of the dungeon. "I seem to have dropped my cutlery."
Agatha didn't flinch. She pulled the knife out of the wood. The metal sizzled and turned purple.
"The Butler," Agatha smiled. "I wondered when you'd drop the act. Did you enjoy the circus?"
"It lacked dignity," Sebastian's claws extended. "Now. Step away from the grieving widow. She is spoken for."
"Spoken for?" Agatha laughed. "By who? You? Stark? Please. You're just a leash looking for a neck."
"And you," Sebastian lunged, "are dinner."
He moved faster than the eye could follow. He aimed for her throat.
Wanda raised her hands to help, summoning her red chaos magic.
But nothing happened.
Wanda stared at her hands. "My magic..."
Sebastian hit an invisible wall. BAM.
He was thrown backward, slamming into the stone floor. He tried to summon his shadows to cushion the fall, but they didn't come. He felt... heavy. Mortal.
"What did you do?" Sebastian gasped, trying to stand.
"Basic spellcasting, baby," Agatha twirled a finger.
She pointed to the walls.
Carved into every stone pillar were massive, glowing runes.
"Runes," Agatha explained, walking around them like a predator. "In a given space, only the witch who cast the runes can use her magic."
"I am not a witch," Sebastian snarled. "I am a demon."
"Potay-to, Potah-to," Agatha waved her hand. Purple chains erupted from the floor, binding Sebastian's wrists and ankles to a pillar. "It's all energy, darling. And in this room? I control the flow."
She blasted Wanda with purple lightning, pinning her against the opposite wall, suspended by magical shackles.
[The Interrogation]
Agatha pulled up a wooden chair and sat between them.
"So," Agatha looked at Wanda. "The Scarlet Witch."
"I'm not a witch," Wanda gasped.
"Oh, honey, you're something," Agatha leaned forward. "You created a sitcom reality. You mind-controlled a town. You created life. That is 'Chaos Magic'. That makes you the Scarlet Witch."
She turned to Sebastian.
"And you. The Stark Dog. You're here for the resurrection, aren't you?"
Sebastian strained against the purple chains. They burned his skin like acid.
"He saved the universe," Sebastian spat. "He deserves to live in it."
"See, that's what I don't get," Agatha stood up, pacing. "Wanda here... she has the power of spontaneous creation. She could have rewritten the world. She could have brought back her parents. Her brother. Your boss."
Agatha leaned into Wanda's face.
"But instead... you made a TV show. You used the power of a God to play house."
"I just wanted him back," Wanda wept. "I just wanted Vision."
"But you didn't bring him back, did you?" Agatha whispered cruelly. "You just rebooted his hard drive. He has no soul."
She looked at Sebastian.
"And you know it, don't you, Butler? You tested the dog. You saw the truth. She can't save Stark. Because Stark is gone."
Sebastian stopped struggling. The truth hung in the damp air.
"Is it true?" Sebastian looked at Wanda across the room. "The Vision... is he empty?"
Wanda looked down, tears streaming. "I... I can't feel him. I can't feel his mind stone. It's just... me. It's all me."
Sebastian slumped against the pillar.
"Then I have failed," Sebastian whispered. "The contract... the hope... it was all a delusion."
"Ding ding ding!" Agatha clapped. "We have a winner! Now, since you're both so deliciously traumatized, let's take a trip down memory lane. I want to know how you did it, Wanda. How you unlocked this power."
Agatha summoned a door of light.
"We're going to watch your life story, Wanda. Every sad, pathetic moment that led to this."
She pointed at Sebastian.
"And you? You get a front-row seat. Watch and learn, Demon. This is what real grief looks like."
Agatha dragged Wanda through the door of light.
Sebastian was left alone in the dungeon, chained to the pillar, surrounded by runes that dampened his power, staring at the empty space where the Witch had been.
"I do not need a lesson in grief," Sebastian whispered to the silence. "I am living it."
[End of Chapter 56]
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