InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "C'mon, you know it's cute"

Loki didn't enjoy hot places. He knew it was due to his heritage as a Frost Giant, which was a topic that never set well with him. He tended to push it aside, to avoid all mention of it, and to hide it from as many people as he could. He wasn't sweating profusely under the hot Nevada sun, but felt slightly wilted inside. It didn't impede his magic though, and he found it just as easy to path himself and Wanda to the place known as Yucca Flats, to launch their plan to reclaim the Darkhold from a sorceress.

He was keenly interested in reading the tome, and a spell could help him skim through it quickly. And he had every intention of handing it over to Wanda, because she needed it to reclaim her children. Children he remembered too well, and knew that it would drive him mad if he happened to have children and lost them as well.

There were plenty of empty buildings and structures to use, and he quickly cast illusions over them, a shimmering green ribbon rippling over the area until it resembled a small Midgardian town, teeming with illusionary people. There was just enough power there to make things seem more tangible if bumped into or touched, and he meant to hide himself with the same spells he used to fool even Heimdall's gaze and hearing. He grinned over at Wanda, and it was easy to see the impish glee in his expression. If there was anything that Loki liked, it was getting away with something somehow forbidden.

"I hope this will suffice and be enough to fool her. If you can distract or vanquish her, I can grab the book. She did bring it with her in the other universe to use against you?" he asked, trying to make sure.

---

Wanda had thought things over and planned for weeks on exactly what to do and was glad that Loki had agreed to help. She had studied some of the Darkhold, but not nearly enough in regards to the chapter on her, the ‘Scarlet Witch’, and she needed to know more for one primary reason: finding her sons. She hadn’t heard them on the astral plane in this universe, but there was a possibility that with the Darkhold she could reach through to her own and bring them to her - and she was going to take it.

As she stood next to Loki and watched his illusionary people begin to wander, she studied them with a critical eye, then decided that they would do and sent him a nod. “I agree. In my world, she infiltrated Westview after sensing what I did because she was curious, and she kept the book in the basement of her home under those runes we went over before. But since you aren’t a witch, her sigils shouldn’t affect you and you can slip in there to retrieve it.” She was putting a lot of trust in Loki for this, but she’d used her powers to read what she could of his thoughts and peer through his own illusions, and felt that he wouldn’t betray her.

Lifting her eyes to the sky, she took a deep breath, and for a moment thought about Vision again. He probably should be here, but with how he looked now….well, she wasn’t sure that he’d be able to blend into this ‘story’ in an effective way to draw in Agatha. She’d told him some of what she and Loki had planned, and only hoped that she had the emotional strength to get through the next few hours - or days, however long it took.

---

"If she's as hungry for power as I was, she'll show up immediately. It's that way with anyone who always wants more. You have the advantage, in that you know what happened there. She does not."

He still had his secrets, things carefully buried away with meticulously layered spells within his mind. But where Wanda and her children were concerned, he had developed what most Midgardians would call a 'soft spot.' It was rare for two solitary magic users to work together, and yet Wanda had only ever been good to him no matter what incarnation it was. No matter if it was right or wrong to anyone else (he considered it the right thing), he was going to help her gain possession of that book.

It was clear that something important was missing, He had been able to get a clear picture from what she had given him before. He waved a hand and a Vision walked by in his human form, looking like he was heading off to work in the office.

That done, he surveyed his handiwork and said softly, "Idyllic. I'll shroud myself from sight and senses now, and will let you know when I've got the book."

He cast a spell and disappeared from view, but his voice was easily heard by her side, "Best of luck."

---

“You’re right,” she replied simply, with a small nod. It wasn’t that Wanda was nervous about this - they’d taken every precaution and she was timing this while Strange was distracted so he wouldn’t notice it - and since no other sorcerers had arrived in Westview, Wanda could only believe that her type of magic wasn’t something they were as attuned to, and hoped it was the same in this universe.

When he created the image of Vision, Wanda paled for a moment and stared after him, before returning her attention to Loki. “Alright,” she replied with a faint smile of thanks and, after he disappeared, she walked over to the small lot she’d chosen for her ‘home’ here. For a long minute, she stared around her, just letting the emotions rush over her once again. As she’d once said to Vis, her grief was like a wave that washed over her, and this time….she was willingly letting it drown her.

Releasing her grip on her powers, Wanda let them pour out of her and form the Hex - rewriting pieces of Loki’s own illusions into a vision that better matched what she was going for - and changing her own appearance as well. The house built itself around her as her magic, as endless as it was, formed it brick by brick, and continued on to change the setting and time period of the area, turning it into a literal TV show just as she had in Westview...only this time the minds she touched and moved weren’t actually real.

When it was finally formed, Wanda let out a slow breath and mentally tested the barrier of the Hex to ensure it was secure and hadn’t gone past the area she designated - and at one corner she picked up on something that she’d missed that first time, in Westview. Someone else’s magic sliding in and blending with her own to allow them entry into her world. Unbidden, a smile slipped onto her lips and she spoke so that Loki could hear her.

“She’s here.”

---

The illusions acted as ample placeholders for Wanda to manipulate and change around as needed. Vision had been easier once Wanda showed him what he looked like before they arrived.

He caught sight of Agatha, who was definitely not an illusion. She was powerful...but not quite as powerful as himself, Wanda, or Strange were, and less so if any of them were combined. What he guessed is that she was likely ambitious, and eager to see what Wanda's power was about or how it could be manipulated. What she was carrying somewhere on her person though...that radiated power. Needless to say, he was intrigued.

'Yes, she is,' he thought back to Wanda with a wide smile. Usually when Loki smiled, it meant trouble was brewing. This time was no different even if it was trouble for a good cause. He kept his distance and remained shrouded, watching from a safe distance as Agatha set up house near Wanda's new home. He didn't dare come closer until the new resident of 'Westview' had finished settling in. He watched and waited, thinking to Wanda, 'As soon as she leaves her home, I will enter.'

---

After hearing Loki’s words, Wanda took one more deep breath, then let the black and white “episode” begin. Right on cue, the doorbell rang and she went to it to let in her ‘neighbor’ Agnes, all the while pretending she had no idea who the woman was.

Considering this entire scenario was just a brief twenty three minute type of story, it wasn’t long before the day and evening progressed until they were part-way through the meal preparation, and “Agnes” was bringing over the ingredients for the cake. As Wanda smiled her way through it all, she sent a mental message to Loki.

”Anything yet? She may be masking it somehow.”

---

Loki had ended up decked out in a smart suit with shorter hair in Wanda's scenario. He adjusted his tie before continuing.

"Not yet," Loki thought back to her, hands moving with a green glow of hazy magic dancing through the air as he broke hexes and wards. "She's definitely had time to cast several spells over this doorway."

He was adept at recognizing spells and powers, and knew when he reached the basement door that this place was swimming with both. He began using a complex series of counterspells and conjured runemarks to try to break it carefully and move quickly, all without alerting the mistress of the house. Wanda's 'neighbor' was a surprisingly adept witch, even he had to admit that. She would likely put up quite the fight with Wanda, who was outrageously powerful already. This assessment coming from someone who was inherently snobbish about sorcery already.

Once the basement door opened, he stepped carefully down the vine-covered corridor into what looked like a circular rotunda held up by pillars. He was shrouding every footstep, walking in silence, sensing where the barriers were so he didn't step within unguarded. Then he saw the book on a table beneath the effigy of a goat's head, and he felt the power radiating from it. He would need to be quick, and he gravitated toward the book with an outstretched hand, systematically breaking through any shielding spells. He then plucked up the tome, casting a quick spell for memorization while rapidly flipping through the pages. For him, they read as if written in Native Asgardian, and knew it to be like Allspeak, to conform to the reader's native language. After flipping to the last page, he closed it and swiftly placed it in his pocket dimension. No more than thirty seconds had passed. He had read larger tomes in less time, but this one felt like he was wading through a swamp during the attempt.

What? Of course he was going to sneak a peek. And of course he used a spell to cheat. He's the God of Mischief, after all. That spell appeased many a stern tutor, but the trade off was it left him with a massive headache afterward.

Already he felt slightly off and his temples throbbed, but that wasn't out of the norm. He had the book. It was now Wanda's to keep and use to reclaim her children again, once he handed it over.

"I have it and I'm leaving her basement now," he warned Wanda, as he headed toward the exit. "Your foe will be very angry, very soon."

---

Agnes (or rather, Agatha playing her part), looked really troubled all of a sudden. She wasn't sure how someone as magically untrained could be inside her home fouling up a home-cooked meal and still remove something so powerful from her basement. Despite that, Wanda - with magic powerful enough to create an entire town and captivate its inhabitants - was surely the perpetrator.


Still, she couldn't really sense who or what it was that had physically been in her basement and she was too far away now to stop the thief, whoever they were. Whatever happened could be nipped in the bud. All she had to do was get to the source and drain the power from Wanda, and then find whoever was helping her and do the same to them, too.

She had just conjured a pineapple for a pineapple upside-down cake and decided to use that as a ruse.

"Yoo-hoo, butterbean," she cooed through the door, using the door knocker to rat-a-tat-tat knock on the front door. She was ready to drop her pineapple and throw a binding spell at Wanda as soon as the door was opened. "I forgot something from those recipe cards! It'll really impress your boss!"

---

Wanda gave the Harts a smile as she breezed through the room, on her way to the door, but her focus was on the woman on the other side. As she pulled the door open, Wanda reached out to grasp Agatha by her elbow and draw her into the house, then shut the door.

''Agnes, dear, so glad you could join us,'' Wanda said brightly. The instant the door shut, the sigils that Wanda had worked into the door frame of every room in the house glowed a soft scarlet, and the people behind her - Vision and the Harts - suddenly froze in place. ''It was rather kind of you to save me time by coming over like such a good neighbor, truly.'' With a wave of her hand, the pineapple in Agatha's hand disappeared in a soft puff of red smoke, and Wanda gave her a chilly smile.

''Don't bother trying to use your magic, darling. I'm afraid it won't work in here. Little trick I learned from you, actually.''

---

Meanwhile, now on Wanda's well manicured front lawn, Loki fed everything from his memorization spell to Wanda. If anything, it would reinforce what she would have remembered from her dreams. He was half-tempted to conjure some popcorn to watch the show, but his job right now was to protect the book in his pocket dimension to give it to Wanda and to help keep the witch from escaping the area. With Agatha contained inside Wanda's house, the safest place would be at a distance...yet close enough to Wanda if she needed aid. Which he doubted.

Instead, he dropped the rest of the illusions so they could both retain more of their power, and cast a shielding spell over the yard itself. There would be no escape at all, now. Not that he expected there to be.


Revenge was bittersweet at the worst and sweet at its best, and Wanda was about to serve it with a smile. Loki wasn't about to interfere with the young mother getting revenge on someone who hurt her family, back in the universe they came from.

Hel hath no fury, indeed.

---

True to form, Agnes' hands rose to cast a spell, purely acting on muscle control. Not so much as a single purple spark came off her fingertips, and she stared at her hands like they betrayed her.

"....but how?" Agatha asked, looking flustered and annoyed in equal measure. "You don't even know how you're doing it. You can't yet. The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, no need for incantation. Her power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme, and it is her destiny to destroy the world. But you didn't do this alone. Who helped you? It couldn't be one of the covens...."

She drained countless of the other witches she came across, drawing their powers into herself. Just like she had done to so many others, and her own mother. There were no survivors.

She turned and looked at the sigils, knowing each one, having used them so many times before.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked, turning to face Wanda again. Inside, she was a churning cauldron of fear and fury inside, not believing that anyone could get the drop on her so easily. "This is small fry stuff. I could teach you so much more, Wanda. It's what good neighbors do."

---

As Loki’s illusion faded away, Wanda’s spell around the home she shared with Vis remained in tact, but the period shifted so that she and Agatha were both in color - and her own outfit changed becoming once again the clothing she’d inherently decided upon once she accepted her place as the Scarlet Witch.

“You’re a little late to the party, dear. I’ve heard all this, and I already know it - and there’s one more thing I know that you don’t,” she told her sweetly, even as she stepped closer to Agatha.

“The Scarlet Witch doesn’t have a predetermined destiny. She makes her own.” Her power snapped out, binding the woman in places while she continued to smile. “As for what I’m going to do, I’m going to leave you in the role you decided for yourself - the nosey neighbor.” It was the same thing she’d done in Westview and even now, with Agatha’s mind open to her, she could see that the other woman would’ve made the exact same choices.

“Really, we’re just skipping to the end of the show, instead of going through the story step-by-step. Do try to keep up.” Lifting a hand, she brushed her fingers across the other woman’s cheek and set the spell into place, locking her into the same position as before. “I’ll find a safe place for you, don’t worry. No one will bother you, and you’ll be able to create a life of your own, possibly even make a few friends, or get a dog. And I’ll always know where you are.” Her hands lifted, weaving scarlet threads in the air that surrounded Agatha, lifting her from the ground, and then - Agatha disappeared, sent away by Wanda’s powers.

It was then that she let the building around her slowly fade away, after sending one last look towards the image of Vision, standing between the Harts.

---

Loki waited in the desert, the illusion of the dapper English gentleman evaporating away so he stood there in a more modern black suit. He knew that all of this had to be difficult on Wanda, reliving all that, and as the last of the building faded he stepped forward, moving his hands until the book floated between them.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice soft and sincere. He looked at where the house was, knowing how tempting those illusions could be. He'd fallen into them too, and sometimes he convinced himself that they might be real too. "I peeked. Tread carefully with this, my friend. The dark arts are woven into every fibre, and it lists many grave sins within."

He held his hands out so the book floated over them. It was bad enough that he read it quickly with a spell. The power it radiated was tangible, like a shadow wyrm breathing death and brimstone against the nape of one's neck.

---

Wanda took a deep breath to control her own emotions, then closed the distance between herself and Loki. She had expected nothing less, though she had to wonder if the book showed him the same thing it had shown her. Her eyes fell to it when it appeared, and it was at once both familiar and alien - but it still called to her, much as it had the moment she’d seen it back in their universe, in Agatha’s witch-basement.

“Thank you for retrieving it,” she said before reaching out to take the book. For a moment she studied the cover, then abruptly she opened the small pocket dimension of her own and deposited it within. The tiny sphere of light that signified it disappeared again, and she returned her attention to Loki. “I only hope it’ll help me do what I need to do. We should return to New York, before we’re missed.” She had a great deal of studying to do, and could only hope that whenever the others learned what she now possessed, no one would be angry.