The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

Following a lost cause

As the jet began to fall to a soft land on the grass, the trio - excluding wanda - collectively sighed with sympathy. Wanda had insisted that they went back to the cabin, so the rest of the team followed her without question. However, as they began to approach the cabin, they thought about questioning it. Then, when they were close enough to see the silhouette of it and realised that it didn't hold the appearance of a quinjet, they dropped their hope.

Even though the main piece of evidence they were searching for wasn't there, wanda didn't lose any hope at all. She was determined, and she was more than eager to get y/n back from agatha, no matter how dangerous she predicted it to be.

By now, of course, agatha had left the area while taking y/n with her. She had tried to make the cabin appear to be the exact same before the two had fought, and she succeeded greatly. Then, after leaving no trace of her own presence, she took off to disappear with the witch she wanted.

The moment the sword jet touched the ground, wanda slammed the button open and practically threw herself out of it to begin running across the grass. Monica, Mack, and Darcy tried to keep up behind her, but she was too fuelled by love and worry to slow down for them.

When wanda leapt up to the porch, she shoved the door open and off of its hinges, but dropped her tenseness when she saw that the interior of the cabin was not only vacant, but completely normal.It looked as thought nothing had changed at all, not even the folds in the blanket on the couch.

While slowly catching her breath, she walked around the house, trailing her hand along everything, searching for a sign that her love was once there. But there was nothing. There was no indication that anyone had been in the cabin at all. The furniture was in its place, the windows were closed, and there was not a crinkle in the couch at all.

When the trio made it up the steps and into the house to see the empty cabin, they shared confused looks before watching wanda. They all saw the way wanda desperately searched the place for evidence as if she knew for a fact that she was going to find something.

Each of them held the feeling of sympathy for wanda, sensing how desperately worried she was. They too were worried for their dear friend, but they hadn't any hope for her to be in the cabin. During the flight there, they'd all suggested tracking the quinjet, or searching for anomalies around the cabin that could've been signalling them using their powers. However, all of their suggestions were shut down by wanda, who insisted on going to the cabin.

After trying to hold out hope for wanda's search, the trio remained by the door and stood in silence, looking at each other while deciding who was going to be the first to speak.

"Wanda, what makes you think she made it back to the cabin?" Monica finally decided to ask, "If it was agatha, surely she'd have taken her to her own place."

"I don't- i don't know, but I can feel it." She tried to explain, "I can feel it, okay?"

"We need to track wherever the quinjet was left. There might be some useful clues there." She suggested.

With an annoyed scoff, wanda paced around the room and ignored the agents. The trio hung back at the entrance while discussing what to do if they found the jet, or what their next move would be if they couldn't find it. But, even though she was too driven by emotion to think clearly, wanda ventured for her own clues.

She kept her head low and scanned the floor of the cabin for any change or misplaced detail, but agatha was careful. As she made her way to the living room, her head remained hanging low until her foot kicked against something that she knew shouldn't have been there.

When she saw it, she bent down and picked it up with furrowed eyebrows. The rock that y/n gifted to who she thought was wanda rested in her hand, and once she flipped it over the reveal another empty side, she gasped and turned to the agents.

"She was here." She told them.

Mack sighed with sympathy, "Wanda, we don't know that-."

"No, I do." She nodded, "I know she was here, I found this."

Darcy squinted while looking at the object in wanda's hand, "what's that?"

"It's a rock. It's a thing y/n does for me, she gets me rocks whenever she can." She explained.

Monica crossed her arms and sighed, "and how does that mean y/n was here?"

"Because this one isn't painted."

With a sympathetic look on her face, Monica looked up at Mack, hoping to find a way to help wanda calm down. Of course, rocks meant nothing to the trio. They had no idea how much the rock meant to wanda and the case of finding y/n, so they didn't consider it to be real.

"We're gonna find her, wanda, I promise you that." Mack stepped forward and assured her, "but you need to rest."

"I'm not- going crazy, if that's what you're hinting at." Wanda told him, "I'm not, this is evidence, this is-."

With a deep sigh, she calmed herself down and caught her grip on the situation she was in while the three stood around, watching her. Then, when she felt she was prepared to explain, she looked back up and took a breath.

"Just before Monica picked us up in the jet and took us to sword, y/n and I painted every rock she's ever given me. This is the only unpainted rock, which means she gave it to agatha after getting back from sword. And it's not in the special box, so agatha didn't know what to do with it."

Squinting with the hint of realisation, Monica asked, "what do you think happened?"

"Y/n gave agatha a rock and agatha didn't know what to do with it. That's a massive sign that somethings wrong. Y/n's not stupid, she would've picked up on it and tried to fight her. What if agatha won and took her somewhere?"

Mack thought about it for no longer than a second and turned to Monica, "I trust that theory."

Monica nodded, "so do I."

"Obviously I believe you, wanda." Darcy added.

When Monica turned her head back to wanda and gave her a nod, she smiled, "let's go get y/n."