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“It’s me who opened the Darkhold. I’m going to close it, so that no one will be tempted by the Darkhold again”, Wanda speaks with tears rolling down on her cheeks, kneeling on the altar of the Darkhold temple.
She raises both of her hands covered in the red-glowing psionic energy cloud, dismantling the structure of the temple, lifting the roof into the air. She’s free from the temptation of the Darkhold, but not the guilt persevering since the day she joined HYDRA and then collaborated with Ultron.
And there’s Stephen Strange, in a resurrected yet slowly decomposing corpse of his alternate self, watching her sentencing herself to death. He feels something in his throat, not this Defender Strange’s throat, but metaphorically. He feels like he needs to say this, or else he would never see the day he’s done regretting for not doing so.
“Wanda!”, he calls for her, gaining her attention. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”, she asks, seemingly slowing down on her telekinesis.
“For not being a good friend to you”, Stephen says louder than his previous sentence. He feels liberated, like a burden has been lifted from his chest. And that feels like a right thing he needs to keep doing.
Seeing Wanda all surprised and speechless, he continues his speech, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I’m sorry hadn’t come for you sooner, before Westview and the Darkhold…”
Wanda’s still aghast at his confession, as she’s gradually savoring in what she has known for a really long time that deep down she deserves to hear. Stephen continues with his trembling voice, seemingly almost running out of time of his dreamwalking, “We were a team, we were the Avengers. And we were the only ones among them wielding magic. I was the Sorcerer Supreme and I had known that your power was magic, not something given to you from the Mind Stone. But I… I never said it to you…”
Wanda remains her focus on the dying Stephen, tears rushing down harder from her eyes. “I… I got scared. I was a man at the bottom of his life and then suddenly I was the Sorcerer Supreme. I was scared I could not live up to the shadow of my mentor. I could not take anyone under my wings and teach them. I was scared what if I had led you down to the wrong path…”, he confesses.
“And then, I saw you singlehandedly overpower Thanos”, Stephen chuckles, “I thought everything was fine. Hell, I was intimidated, even. At Tony Stark’s funeral, I intended to make a conversation with you, I was going to ask you to join us at Kamar-Taj. But I got afraid again, and so I never did…”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there during Westview. You don’t have to take my words for it, but things were not easy for me at that time, and I have lost my Sorcerer Supreme position to make any interventions.”, Stephen pleads his case. “But that was no excuse, I thought things were okay when I knew you managed to solve your problems on your own, but I never had any second thoughts to check in on you.”
“I didn’t even visit you, to have a chat between two Avengers. I only came to you when I needed your help”, Stephen points out the fact that has been bothering him throughout his travel across the multiverse. “You have every right to be mad. But don’t punish the world, the multiverse. You were alone, and when you needed someone… As a friend who also practiced magic, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to provide you the company…”
Wanda feels her heart softening, much more since the minute she realized the witch she had become when she saw the horrified looks of her sons in another universe. And then two words come out of her mouth, something she never had the chance to say to those she has hurt. Everyone just ran away from her, and she was just forced to move on with her life, with an unprocessed tons-heavy guilt buried deep inside of her. “I’m sorry, Stephen”, she speaks softly with her shaky voice.
“You don’t have to do this Wanda”, Stephen buries his affectionate look inside of her eyes from a distance, begging her.
“I have to, Stephen”, she says with piles of rocks still levitating above the two of them. “I have killed too many innocent lives.”
“I know”, Stephen argues, “and I cannot tell you that it’s okay. But look at me, Wanda. I tried to follow the only way to save the whole universe from Thanos and make sure that humanity can still have a future. But people still call me a liar and hold me responsible for half of the universe’s death.”
She looks at him with disbelief. People have praised him as the hero, how he saved billions of lives across the universe; on the news, on the graffitis on buildings in the cities she has visited. She has never empathized with anyone more than this moment. She never thought there would be people in this planet believing he was also a villain.
“But I cannot let that prevent me from doing my job, there are still countless of mystical, cosmic threats we need to fight”, Stephen reasons. “When that happens, I do hope I could have a friend fighting by my side. And I’d be honored to work with an Avenger like you again.”
Wanda breathes heavily through her nostrils. The words Stephen says are accumulating inside of her mind, but she still needs a push.
“All those people that you have killed”, Stephen says, taking all of his courage. Wong has told him to choose his words wisely, he’s still unsure of what he’s saying at the moment, but something in his heart is telling him that that’s the right thing to say. “Their blood has shed on my hands not much less than yours. I know you can say you are the one who made all those choices, but I cannot say I don’t share the blame. I wasn’t there when you needed a friend. You don’t have to believe me, but I’m not good with friends, I’m not good at maintaining relationships. People just reluctantly worked with me because they had to. I created my own enemies through my arrogance. And I have spent years hating myself for it, for the people I have hurt and neglected. And that includes you, Wanda…”
“If you can give yourself a chance to put the past behind and correct your mistakes, you also give me a chance to correct mine… And even if you wouldn’t do this for yourself, would you do it for an old friend?”, Stephen stretches out his hand, palm open, as though offering her a shake. These are the last words that he has spoken from deep within his heart. If it doesn’t work, he knows he’ll spend centuries grieving.
Fortunately, it works. Wanda smiles through her tears, noticing the warmth and the relief in her chest. “I’ll do it for a friend”, she speaks with a grin. And he smiles back.
And then the whole architecture collapses, rocks after rocks, rubbles after rubbles. No one could have survived in this situation.
But amidst the cold-blowing wind in the mount of Wundagore, two figures sheering through the air, covered in flowing scarlet auras. Wanda effortlessly sets herself hovering above an area, not afraid of the cold. She telekinetically tears apart the ground, carefully placing Stephen’s corpse into the grave. “I’ll see you soon. You need a proper burial, my friend.”, she says.
And the corpse smiles back at her before completely shutting his eyes, after which she seals the hole then flies away. In another universe, Stephen wakes up from his dreamwalking, amusedly seeing the Darkhold burning with pride and contentment. “She has destroyed the Darkhold in every universe.”
“She did the right thing”, Christine comments.
A week passes by. The setting sun is still shedding its very last light of the day on Kamar-Taj, which is covered with scaffoldings for reconstruction. America Chavez, Wong, and all inhabitants of the sacred shaolin gather around in the clearing, underneath the orange sky. Stephen Strange walks out from the shadow of the indoors, in his blue tunic and the Cloak of Levitation, respectfully bows to the Sorcerer Supreme, earning a grin from the corner of his mouth.
“Thank you for being here today”, Stephen announces, “I’d like you all to meet… a friend”, he stretches his hand to the side, channeling everyone’s attention to a woman slowly revealing herself from the shadow. She’s dressed in a hoodie and a pair of worn-out jeans, yet people still recognize her unforgettable auburn hair flying in the wind.
“My name is Wanda Maximoff”, she swallows, “And I’m here to say… I’m truly sorry for everything I’ve done.”
THE END.