[Earth-616. Mount Wundagore. The Altar.]
The mountain was a shrine to darkness. Carved into the sheer rock face were the original spells of the Darkhold.
At the summit, America Chavez was suspended in a rune-circle, screaming as red energy was ripped from her body.
Wong dangled from the cliff edge, his magic exhausted.
The Scarlet Witch stood before the altar. She was no longer Wanda. She was a conduit for Chthon, the Elder God of Chaos. Her eyes were black voids. Her skin was cracked like porcelain.
"Give it to me," Wanda whispered. "Give me the Multiverse."
[The Arrival]
BOOM.
The sky broke open.
Not with a portal, but with a tear in the fabric of the night.
Flying down from the clouds was a nightmare.
It was Doctor Strange. But his skin was grey and rotting. His jaw was held together by black magic. And behind him, trailing like a majestic, horrifying cape, were the Spirits of the Damned.
They weren't just ghosts anymore. Fueled by Sebastian's demonic energy, they burned with a fuchsia fire.
"Wanda!" The Zombie Strange roared. His voice was a dual-tone screech—Strange's baritone layered with Sebastian's demonic growl.
"You?" Wanda looked up, unimpressed. "You're a corpse. You're rotting."
"And you," Strange landed, the ground cracking under his necrotic feet, "are trespassing."
[The Fight]
Wanda fired a bolt of chaos magic.
Strange didn't dodge. The Spirits of the Damned swarmed forward, absorbing the blow. They screamed in delight, eating the chaos.
"Get away from her!" Strange yelled.
He unleashed the spirits. They flew at Wanda, biting, clawing, dragging her away from America.
Wanda screamed, blasting them back. She severed Strange's left arm with a disk of red energy.
SPLAT.
The rotting arm hit the ground.
"You're falling apart, Stephen," Wanda sneered.
But the arm didn't stay down. Black tendrils—Sebastian's influence—shot out of the stump. The arm crawled back and reattached itself with a sickening crunch.
"I am already dead," Strange grinned, revealing black teeth. "You cannot kill what has no life."
[Earth-Sinister. The Connection.]
In the ruined Sanctum, Sebastian Michaelis was on his knees.
He was holding the physical body of Doctor Strange, pouring every ounce of his energy into the trance.
Around him, the Guardians of the Darkhold (shadow demons) were closing in.
Slash.
Sebastian cut one in half with a silver knife, but three more took its place. They clawed at his coat, tearing the fabric.
"Focus, Doctor!" Sebastian yelled into the psychic link. "My batteries are not infinite! Do not brawl with a goddess! You cannot win a fistfight!"
"She's too strong!" Strange's voice echoed in his head.
"Then stop hitting her!" Sebastian roared, kicking a shadow demon in the face. "Use the girl! She is the key! The Witch wants her power? Give it to her!"
[Earth-616. The Punch.]
On the mountain, Zombie Strange realized Sebastian was right.
He flew past Wanda. He didn't attack her. He tackled America Chavez, breaking the rune circle.
"America!" Strange yelled, his rotting face inches from hers. "Wake up!"
"I can't!" America sobbed. "I can't control it! I'm too scared!"
"Good!" Strange shook her. "Be scared! Use that fear! Don't punch her into a wall! Punch her into the one place she doesn't want to go!"
"Where?!"
"The truth!" Strange yelled. "Open a door!"
Wanda flew toward them, hands glowing with annihilation. "Get away from her!"
America screamed. She punched a star-shaped hole in reality.
[Earth-838. The Living Room.]
The portal opened.
It didn't lead to a battlefield. It led to a suburban living room. The TV was playing cartoons.
Billy and Tommy (the 838 variants) were on the couch, eating ice cream.
Through the portal, they saw the Scarlet Witch.
She was covered in oil, blood, and rot. She looked like a monster.
"Mom?" Billy whispered, terrified.
Wanda (616) froze. She saw her boys.
"Boys!" Wanda smiled, her black teeth showing. "It's me. It's Mommy."
She stepped through the portal.
The boys screamed. They grabbed things—toys, pillows—and threw them at her.
"Get away!" Tommy yelled. "You're not our mom! You're the witch!"
"No," Wanda pleaded, reaching out. "I'm your mother. I did this for you."
"Go away!" Billy cried, hiding behind the couch.
Then, the real mother—Wanda-838—walked in. She saw the Scarlet Witch. She saw her terrified children.
She didn't fight. She walked up to the sobbing, broken Monster.
Wanda-616 looked at her healthy, happy variant. She looked at the boys who were terrified of her.
She realized what she had become.
She wasn't their mother. She was the thing under their bed.
Wanda-838 touched Wanda-616's face.
"Know that they will be loved," she whispered.
[The Redemption]
Wanda-616 collapsed. The black corruption receded slightly, leaving her face pale and tear-streaked.
"I... I scared them," she whispered.
She stepped back through the portal, returning to Mount Wundagore. The star closed.
She looked at Zombie Strange. She looked at Wong. She looked at America.
"I opened the Darkhold," Wanda said, her voice trembling. "I have to close it."
She raised her hands.
The mountain began to rumble. The carvings on the walls began to burn red. She was destroying the temple. She was destroying every copy of the Darkhold in the Multiverse.
"Wanda!" Strange yelled. "Get out of there! The mountain is collapsing!"
"No," Wanda shook her head. "I cannot stay here. If I stay... I will hurt someone else."
She looked at America.
"You have a gift," Wanda said softly. "Don't let anyone take it."
Rocks began to fall. The temple imploded.
But Wanda didn't let the rocks crush her.
At the last second, a flash of red light enveloped her. She didn't die. She faded.
She cast a spell of Self-Exile.
She banished herself to the spaces between spaces—a void where no one could reach her, and she could hurt no one.
The red light vanished. The mountain fell.
The Scarlet Witch was gone.
[Earth-Sinister. The Collapse.]
The connection severed.
Sebastian Michaelis gasped, the fuchsia light dying in his eyes.
He collapsed onto the dusty floor of the ruined Sanctum. The shadow demons, sensing the ritual was over, faded back into the walls.
Strange's body slumped over.
"Doctor?" Sebastian wheezed.
Strange groaned. He sat up. He was back in his own body.
"She's gone," Strange said, rubbing his head. "She destroyed the Darkhold."
"And herself?" Sebastian asked, trying to stand but failing.
"No," Strange looked at the space where the portal had been. "I felt it. She ran. She exiled herself."
Sebastian chuckled dryly. He coughed up black ichor.
"Exile," Sebastian muttered, closing his eyes. "A slow death. How very... poetic."
[Epilogue of Arc 11]
They returned to Earth-616.
The Zombie corpse of Defender Strange returned to its grave (much to the relief of the local worms).
America Chavez stayed at Kamar-Taj to train.
And Sebastian Michaelis returned to the New York Sanctum.
He stood in the library, polishing the Relic of the Crimson Bands. He looked tired. His coat was still torn from the battle on Earth-Sinister.
"You need a tailor," Strange said, walking in with a cup of tea.
"I need a vacation," Sebastian corrected.
Strange looked at him. "You saved me back there. On the other Earth. You fought off the spirits."
"I was protecting my investment," Sebastian said dismissively. "If you die, I have to find a new couch."
Strange smiled. "Right."
He walked to the window.
"Wanda is out there somewhere," Strange said. "Do you think she'll come back?"
Sebastian looked at the reflection in the glass. He remembered the look in her eyes when the children screamed.
"If she finds a way to forgive herself, Doctor," Sebastian said softly. "Then yes. But forgiveness... is a magic far more difficult than the Darkhold."
[End of Arc 11]
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