A-Void

Lady Scarlet

🅅🄸🄻🄻🄰🄸🄽

Wanda Maximoff knew it was true. Her heart ached. She was once a happy girl, obsessed with sitcoms. She was cheerful...

And then: the bombs, and Hydra, and Avengers, and Pietro, and Vision, and Westview.

She knew it by heart. She had nonstop told herself that every morning since she left Westview. She was a villain now, nothing complicated about it really.

No, it had been years since she was good.

Wanda knew this too, it hurt but it was true, she was no hero. She joined Hydra, willingly, which lead to her brother's murder and to her joining the Avengers in hopes to become better but only to return, after being blipped, as a villain all over again. Her true self: The Scarlet Witch.

A doer of evil.

A destroyer of good.

A killer of many.

A torturer of the innocent.

She stopped smiling, she didn't deserve to smile...

And, after Westview she wanted to just hide away, to never allow herself to be seen again, to steer clear from people whom she could get killed or hurt but...

Stephen Strange showed up in her secluded cabin in the middle of mountains and kneeled to sit next to her on her veranda's stairs.

"You fear your powers," Strange stated, knowing full well the answer.

"I hurt so many people, Strange. So many," Wanda replied as she stared at the snow falling in front of her.

The scene must've looked comical to the outside viewer. Stephen Strange and Wanda Maximoff staring at frozen water falling from the sky.

"Many hurt you, so many," Strange answered.

"That's not the same thing, I deserved it," Wanda replied as her hair went everywhere in the wind.

"No one deserves to get hurt to the level you did. You've never once been granted a break, not for one minute. Not a single second. You needed to grow up when you were a mere child," Strange added, not looking at the woman but instead still, just like her, staring at the scenery.

"You're crazy if you believe this," Wanda answered, turning towards her door.

"Believe what you wish; however, I have been called one of the smartest Avengers by quite a few," Strange added.

Wanda scoffed.

"I have hot chocolate and mini marshmallows, want any?" She offered causing the older to roll his eyes.

"Sure, Ki-" Strange stopped.

His head felt like he had just fallen face-first on the ground.

"Strange?" Wanda asked, searching the man's face for an injury. Why else would he be touching his head? She reasoned.

"P-" Strange started but couldn't finish his train of thought.

"P?" Wanda asked, worried for the man.

"I-I don't know, I'll look into it," Strange decided.

"You just randomly thought P?" Wanda asked in confusion.

"Yes, I was about to say 'Kid' and got a massive headache before the letter 'P' decided to infiltrate my train of thought," Strange admitted.

"Strange," Wanda muttered.

"Yes?" The man inquired.

"Oh, no I meant that, that is strange," Wanda explained causing the man to roll his eyes.

"You have no idea how often that happens."

"I can imagine."

The two laughed and Strange followed Wanda inside.

Still, his thoughts lingered on what happened earlier. He trusted his gut feeling. Even if it seemed like a weird thing, one to simply shrug off but he knew there was more to whatever that was...

"Strange, why are you here?" Wanda questioned, earning a brow raised from the man.

"To help you, Ms. Maximoff. You clearly aren't doing anyone, including yourself, a favour by hiding away from the world."

"I don't deserve to be out and about."

"You don't deserve it? Wanda. Maximoff. Listen to me and listen very carefully. You are twenty-one years old. You joined the Avengers at age sixteen. As a teenager. You had to destroy that which you love for the universe's sake. And you did so whilst fighting a Titan, singlehandedly."

"So?" Wanda challenged.

"Stark and Banner created Ultron."

"They wanted to help!" She cut in.

"You wanted to heal. Nonetheless, that's beside my point. The Avengers started a war against one another, over paperwork. Barnes was a trained assassin. As with Romanoff and Barton. Thor lived for wars, he literally sought them out."

"And that's just the first few things which popped into my head. If you really look into it, Ms. Maximoff, you'll find we all lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. Every hero is the villain in the story of their enemy. We've all done bad things. Things we regret. Things we wish we hadn't done, what matters is how we try to fix them..."

"Running away won't stop the guilt that is lingering in your chest. Running away never does anything..."

"But."

Strange raised a brow and tilted his head ever so gently. "But?"

Doctor Strange's cloak flew off from his shoulders and wrapped around Wanda in what one could only describe to be a hug.

She stepped back in shock.

"Yeah, a mind of its own, that one," Strange explained, wearing an amused smirk.

Wanda rolled her eyes and dropped a few mini marshmallows into each cup of hot chocolate she had prepared, handing Strange one cup and keeping the other for herself.

Strange took the drink, muttering a quick thank you, and went to sit down on the chair in front of the fireplace. Wanda joined him, sitting on the chair across from the man.

They both stared into the flames of the fireplace, a peaceful quietness filled the room. The only sound, was from the fire or whenever either adult took a sip of their drink.

"Why are you here?" Wanda asked again, this time more urgently.

"I worry for you," Strange admitted.

Wanda's eyes turned a dark red...

Strange wanted to duck until he realized it wasn't her magic, rather her eyes filled with tears. Raw emotion: grief, guilt, and fear, were clear in those, scared, Stephen decided, eyes.

Strange's cloak wrapped around Wanda again.

She choked out a sob.

Strange awkwardly pat her head. He was not good with emotional stuff. Just ask... anyone actually.

The man sighed.

"Come stay at Sanctum Sanctorum, I'll help you," Strange offered.

Wanda stared at the man.

"Come on, Ki-"

"P-" Strange sighed, again.

"Please, Wanda, I'm worried about you."

"Okay."