Agatha knows what's coming, of course she knows. The last trial is for a Green Witch and they summoned Death herself into their Coven. As if they didn't already have enough trouble with the Son of Scarlet Witch as a familiar and the dwindling of their numbers. The Road is a fickle mistress, she had said to Billy and it was true. She felt cornered. She could feel Death's shadow around her. She was closing in and Agatha would have to make a choice.
She locked eyes with the woman she once loved, the woman she still loves - her mind traitorous supplies.
"Your coven is shrinking", Rio says with a cold smile. "First Alice, now Lilia. It's nice that she took the Salem Seven with her. The bodies are really piling up. Just like you promised." She's rounding on Agatha as a predator does it's prey. It makes Agatha uneasy. No matter what people think, she has been a victim way too many times for her to feel any comfort in this situation. Even if she's looking into Death's eyes, Rio's eyes, there's only dread running through her body at this moment.
"Did you doubt me?" She puts as much strength as she can behind her words.
"I did." Rio has never been nothing if not truthful to her, except that one time. "Yeah, I thought that'd be a trick in there somewhere... And there was!" Agatha knows the game is up. "You were distracting me from him!" She gives Agatha a look that she remembers what it means. Naughty girl.
"You're a big girl... I knew you were going to figure it out eventually" she postures. She has a goal here. More than one, truly.
"He's an abomination!" Rio is serious about this and Agatha knows that. Knows that what Billy did goes completely against the natural order. But his entire existence is against the natural order and still, there he is. "He is disrupting the sacred balance... And I know how you feel about him."
That's too close to home for comfort and Agatha needs to deescalate this now! "Oh, please, I've know the kid for two minutes". It's been more than that. From being Agnes in Westview to this walk down The Road, she knows Billy. The joyous kid with mental reading powers and magical, unnatural, growth spurts, to the Teen, the lost soul darkened by grief and confusion. She knows him. She remembers Rio's soft voice, not long ago. He's not yours. Of course she knew, she's always known. She lost her heart when Nicholas died and it is still very much lost. If Billy was Nicky, her heart wouldn't still feel like coal and her love for Rio wouldn't still feel like ash in her mouth and pain in her stomach. But still, he matters.
"I watch you, Agatha. As closely as you watch everyone else." And Agatha knows is true for except when she was hidden by the Darkhold, she had felt Death's eyes on her all this time. "This walk with another woman's son on a road that doesn't -"
"Stop!" She hates how her voice breaks. How weak she gets when she remembers the lowest point in her life. A point from where she never moved on. She's still stuck there and there's nothing she can do. The bottom is not a point from where you can only go up. She's been drowning on mud and going forever under since the 1700's, since the day she buried that small precious body on the woods and with it, her own heart, her life. She sees Rio hesitate and thinks they might postpone this again, but no.
"No one in history has had special treatment like you". Rio says and Agatha knows that she truly believes that. But it is so far from the truth that it could as well have been an outright lie.
"You call what you did 'special treatment '?" She sees Rio's genuine confusion and she wants to smack her in the face. "You gave me nothing. You took!"
She sees the indignant look in Rio's face, because she knows that she did her job, only her job. "And that's usually your move, right?" Agatha feels like she was slapped. She cannot face Rio and let her see how much she affects her still. "Why do you let them believe those things about you? About Nicky?"
And her walls crack once again. She remembers it all for just a second and faces Rio with words long held in silence. "Because the truth is too awful".
Rio moves to sit down and Agatha sits across from her. Is this Rio's trial already? No, she concludes. There's no countdown and it truly seems like the Road is giving them time to hash it out before it comes. She also knows they won't come into an agreement about this. As they haven't been in an agreement about anything since her son's birth. That was the last time they agreed on anything.
"What he wants from the Road is a violation." Rio must be desperate if she's trying to convince Agatha with explanations about the cycle of life and death.
"Finding his brother? It's borderline wasting the Road's Time". She says tiredly. Few witches walked the Road. Fewer still actually know what it is. The knowledge lost to time and mixed with legend. A realm outside time and space that can only be accessed by some powerful witches and sorcerers and the ones they summon there, of course. The road is home to the Goddess of Witchcraft and more than anything the Ballad could ever describe. She would know. There's no actual end, of course. You walk it, facing challenge after challenge, until you face everything you have to face and find all the answers you need from it and the Road expells you right back where you entered it. Using it as a locator spell is childish. Innocent even. But completely dangerous. The Roads is deadly. It's too much risk for such a little reward.
"His brother isn't out there... Not yet, anyway" Rio sighes.
Agatha is confused. "What do you mean?"
"The son of the Scarlet Witch stole a second life." Rio emphasizes. "I can't let him do the same for his twin. I have to take him." Agatha understands then. Death is a creature of duty. And someone cannot escape her. She is inevitable. All roads lead to her.
"Then take him." She is tired of this back and forth already. It's more than they talked to each other in 275 years - she shouldn't know the exact number of years, but who cares? Not her. She sees how Rio averts her eyes and it clicks. "You can't." She starts to connect the dots "if Billy is killed he'll reincarnate again and then you'll lose him". She knows she's right because Rio looks ashamed, like she believes this is a personal failure of hers. "You need him to... Turn himself in". She can feel a plan forming in her mind's eye. "I can arrange that." She sees Rio light up and remembers a time where her powers were so uncontrolled that Death thought she was killing witches as an offering. As a courting gift. And when she met her, she ended up doing it anyway. She killed and killed to win the heart of the being before her and lost her own in return. "I can get him to the finish line and then... deliver him to you". Can she, though? - her mind intervenes again and she shakes that feeling away. Her own freedom in exchange for Billy Maximoff? Yes, she can. She killed several witches. What is one more? She remembers another boy, innocent too, so many years ago. Too many. She stomps that line of thought and faces Rio, who gets up. This is a bargain now.
"In exchange for..."
"If I deliver Billy... You let me go." The idea is frightening but she wants that. Doesn't she? Goddess, her mind is so full and contradictory at this point. She might end up crazy before the end of this conversation and the beginning of the next Trial.
"You will eventually die, Agatha". Rio points out the obvious.
"But I want you to stop pursuing me. I want you to stop making my life hell." She sees a crack and Rio's armour and feels it as well. Shit! Rio took Nicholas from her. What type of mother would it make her if she let that go? If she allowed herself to continue this game of theirs? Where Rio keeps following and Agatha keeps her distance, but never truly severs the connection between them? The moment she lost Nicky, she lost Rio too. There's no future for them as much as there wasn't one for her beautiful boy. And she is so so tired. "And when I die, a long, long, long, long, long time from now, I don't want to see your face."
Rio breaks and Agatha almost takes it all back, takes her back in her arms and pretends they still have time, they still have a chance. But before she can, Rio silently says "okay." And moves away from her. She keeps looking back, as if she expects Agatha to renegade the terms, to call for her, and Agatha wants to, but she can't. She can't. If there's one thing that Agatha is certain of is there there's not happiness for her in this existence. There's no place for peace in her life. Nor love. For her, love is ever just outside her reach. First with her mother, than with Rio, and her son. So she doesn't. She lets Rio go. Once and for all. She expected some relief over it, but as soon as Rio is gone, she feels a burden on her shoulders, even bigger than there was before.
She turns to find Jen and Billy and after walking a little she finds them just in time to hear the mini Maximoff say "I'm fully aware that Agatha Harkness can never be anything but a covenless witch". Well, there's that. It burns, still, after all these years. The weight of her mother's judgment, of witchkind's judgment really. She never chose that power and by the time she could control it, she had already been named the Witch Killer. Her traitorous mind keeps pushing her around. She shouldn't care what he thinks of her. She just proverbially signed a deal with Death for his body and soul. It still hurts. "Ouch" she goes for ironic. She lets her mind wander.
Everything from then on is a mess. They have to do the trial without Rio, she unbinds Jen, who she never knew she had bound in the first place. Just one more sin to put on her list and she goes away, freed from the Road. Good for her. It's just her and Billy now and even though she doesn't want to, she cares about the boy. So she helps him. Of course, she does have a deal to not kill him and see him to the end of his journey so she can deliver him to Rio, but she can help him reincarnate his brother in the meantime. A final fuck you to Death. The heartless bitch.
She finishes the trial by herself and thinks this is it. She has done it, it is the first time she enters the Road with the help of a Coven. The last time she did this, there was only one person with her. Her only real coven. The only one who mattered. She faced several challenges then, and in the end, the truth she found wasn't to her satisfaction. She hates the Road. But she has a purpose. She needs her power back. She has enemies and without the Darkhold's protection, she cannot hide herself from them. Without her powers, she might as well be dead. And she does not want that. At all. Don't I? Am I not tired? Haven't I tried everything there is to try? Maybe if I die now, I can see him one more time. Join him. Take Rio's hand in mine and walk through the veil and let go.
She is almost convinced when a bright golden light shines in front of her. That's the sign. The same one she had the last time she finished the Road. She steps through and it's met with her. The Triple Goddess. Maiden, Mother, Crone. Hecate. The Goddess of Witchcraft. She bows in respect. "My Goddess." The distorted voice is always a surprise. It really sounds like several people talking over each other, saying the same words. Hecate is a Coven all by herself. Three voices harmonizing, reciting, creating.
"Agatha Harkness. It is very seldom that a witch comes to the road more than once. It is even more rare that a witch with such a loud longing in her heart and such experience and long life comes to me to ask for something as fickle as power. Is that what you truly desire from this journey?" The Goddess is direct. As if a being removed from time and space had no time to waste. Agatha stopped. There were rules, she couldn't ask for anything. Hecate wasn't a djinn. If not power, what was it that Agatha could ask for? What was it that she wanted from the Road? Why did she come? She thought about the boy that freed her from the spell of the Scarlet Witch, whom she could feel trying to enter her mind from the beginning, whom she knew wasn't Nicholas. She thought about Rio, about the rules she knew so well. She thought about running from Death, from pain, from destiny. In front of the Fates, instead of power, she asked for mercy.
She is thrown from the road back onto her house. Rio was waiting for her. She cackles "Congratulations, my love! I'm sorry I didn't have a ribbon for you to run through". Agatha knows she's riling her up, and still she lets herself play her own part. What can she do? She tries to summon some power, anything to delay Rio. Nothing comes.
"Where is it? I want my prize!" She screams at Rio. Maybe she can have that on the technicality.
"So do I" Rio responds and she is all Lady Death in that moment. No sweetness, no vulnerability.
Agatha has never backed out of a fight, though, even one she knows is long lost. "I got you the kid out, as agreed!" She yells.
"And he's now where? He was supposed to surrender himself. That means, you're coming with me." Lady Death looks at her and says "I'm thinking Death by a thousand cuts!" And Agatha knows she's hurt Rio when she asked to be free of her and this is her way of lashing out, it does not hurt any less when she is filled with tiny cuts from broken glass all over herself. Apparently, slow and torturously is the way her lover is going for. Lover, it's been awhile. Rio hasn't been her lover since just before Nicholas death. And she never took another. She knows she was destined to love and be loved by Rio. Her mother said Death would be attached to her and Evanora had been a powerful Divination witch. She just never knew that was meant literally. Maybe she wouldn't have thought so bad of Agatha then, if she knew. But now really wasn't the time to reminisce or maybe it was. They say your entire life passes before your eyes when you're about to die.
She stares at the moon. This is going to make Rio even madder, but maybe it will help her summon Alice's power. "Fire phase" she makes a protection circle "expelle hoc malum" she chants repeatedly.
"You're calling me evil? I am the natural order of all things, baby... And you love me!" Agatha's legs shake with the profound certainty in Rio's voice. She's right, of course. But after everything they had been through together, she didn't think Rio still believed on her love. "You are a coward!" That does tickle her wrong.
She remembers Lilia's prophecy though. "When she calls you a coward, hit the deck". She ducks and it really shows how far gone they are on this fight that Rio tried to kill her with a fucking sink. "A coward? Me? Who was it that hid in the shadows as she took my son from me? You did not have the guts to look me in the eyes as you did it! You did it in my sleep! And then, you had the gall to show up and call me love! To tell me it was mercy! How is it mercy that I never had a chance to say goodbye? How is it mercy as you left me to wake up alone in the woods with the cold body of my boy, to bury him, to mourn him! How is that for cowardice, Lady Death?" She spews all the pain, the anger, she hadn't said in the last 300 years. She begged Rio for his life when he was still in the womb, she fought for his life and protect him from her, keeping her distance for the sake of the biggest love of her life, her perfect son. One she didn't conjure, she actually created all naturally. A son that reminded her of The Green Witch she loved, who grew inside her, life from death, something beautiful out of something terrible. Out of a man who was forced on her and she killed him for it. But still, a baby came out of it. Nicholas. Victory. She had been brave for him, she had made him brave too. At least, she hoped she did. She was no coward.
Rio stumbled on air. She hadn't expected that reaction from Agatha. When she came to her, after taking Nicholas to his resting place, Agatha had looked empty. Broken. She had tried to comfort her, but Agatha only said one word. Go. And everytime from then on, every single time she tried to approach her, it had been the same. Go. Never more than one word. Sometimes with more fire, sometimes with more hate, always in pain. Go. "Why don't you want me?" She said as she cut her once more, hearing Agatha scream. "Huh?" Agatha chanted in Latin, trying to heal herself, but Rio didn't allow her too. Vines pulled her and locked her in position, Rio descended on her waiting for an answer and Agatha cried.
"I do! I do! And what does that say about me, huh? How can I have lost my heart, buried in the woods, where I buried Nicholas and still love you? And still ache for you? How could I possibly allow you into my life after you took him? And I know it is your job, I know you think you were merciful, but there's no mercy in Death for the living left behind! He might have gone in peace, he might be happy somewhere in the afterlife. It does not matter because I'm not. I'm not happy and I'm not in peace and I cannot love because HE IS NOT HERE! I went to sleep with my son in my arms, woke up and he was gone. And he took everything good that I could possibly become with him, Rio. And we can't be. Because I'm broken and I have nothing more to give you."
Rio screamed and was suddenly thrown several feet away. Agatha looked and saw Billy. She knew he'd come, but she still wished he didn't. He wasn't in control of his powers and neither was she and Rio was much to strong for an untrained witch. Even if he was the Son of the Scarlet Witch. "You look good" she told him.
"You don't" he smiled. She opened her mouth to tell him to free her broken arms and go when he said "Don't take it all" and hit her with his powers. "It feels so good". She had seconds to search her brain for what made her stop the last time and when she looked at him and saw him weakening, she remembered her trial and Nicky's voice. Mama, stop! And once again, she did. And then Rio was back. She had to play this perfectly. Enough power to protect Billy from Rio's attack, defend herself, counterattack.
"It seems like the both of you are finally on the same page... so I'll let you decide. One stays with me, the other walks free". Agatha knew this was not going to be easy. Billy was still innocent enough to volunteer and that was what Rio wanted. She sent a wave of power that took him from that garden back to the basement and fought Rio on it.
"Power looks good on you" Rio called.
"Honey, everything looks good on me".
"You seem like you're having fun".
"Who, me?"
She saw movement from the corner of her eye and that distracted her enough for Rio to send a powerful wave of green power to her. She struggled to breathe. She saw Rio hesitate and Billy sent her flying. He kneeled beside her. She closed her eyes and then looked at the boy that made her think of her own son so much. A big heart, a thirst for knowledge, compassion and curiosity. "This is futile. You know it. We can't fight death". She looked at him with the care she had tried to fight feeling for him "You're not bad".
"Neither are you".
She smiled "you're the only one that thinks so". It was truth. Not even she herself thought different anymore. But she had a way. She saw as Rio started to move inside the house. Billy, she called on her mind, I know you can hear me. We only have one chance. Offer yourself to her. She expects you to. And expects me to accept it. Just this once, trust me. Now she can only hope he does.
Billy gets up "I'll go with you. That's my choice, take me!".
Agatha gets up "Take him! You heard him! The boy, as promised!"
Billy balks "What?"
She hears Rio chuckling at her apparently double crossing him.
She cannot open her mind to him now. She just shouts mentally for him to keep calm. "It's over." Rio keeps her eyes on Billy and Agatha tries to change her focus "Now put my yard back. Why don't you plant a few azaleas on your way out?" It's working.
"But... I thought you were..." Billy opened his mouth. Fuck. Rio turned her focus back to him. She needed to think.
"What can I say? I'm just a covenless witch". She laughed and saw Rio turn her head, even if her body and posture were still on Billy. She felt him invading her mind. She felt his fear of dying. She heard his question "Is this how Nicky died?" She had no time to answer. She knew Rio's attention was divided, it was now or never. She turned to the single love of her life, said "I do love you" and kissed her. Her mind remembering what Hecate said.
Back on the Road
A bright golden light shines in front of her. That's the sign. The same one she had the last time she finished the Road. She steps through and it's met with her. The Triple Goddess. Maiden, Mother, Crone. Hecate. The Goddess of Witchcraft. She bows in respect. "My Goddess." The distorted voice is always a surprise. It really sounds like several people talking over each other, saying the same words. Hecate is a Coven all by herself. Three voices harmonizing, reciting, creating.
"Agatha Harkness. It is very seldom that a witch comes to the road more than once. It is even more rare that a witch with such a loud longing in her heart and such experience and long life comes to me to ask for something as fickle as power. Is that what you truly desire from this journey?" The Goddess is direct. As if a being removed from time and space had no time to waste. Agatha stopped. There were rules, she couldn't ask for anything. Hecate wasn't a djinn. If not power, what was it that Agatha could ask for? What was it that she wanted from the Road? Why did she come? She thought about the boy that freed her from the spell of the Scarlet Witch, whom she could feel trying to enter her mind from the beginning, whom she knew wasn't Nicholas. She thought about Rio, about the rules she knew so well. She thought about running from Death, from pain, from destiny.
"I know I'm undeserving, and still I ask for mercy. Not for myself. For the boys. The souls the Scarlet Witch created from your Chaos and some souls I imagine, that came from his realm. Mephisto's. I ask on your mercy that they get a chance to grow up, to be good". The Goddess seem to weight on her words. "There will be a price". Agatha closes her eyes and nods. She will pay it. "The witch boy, he will need a guide." Agatha opens her eyes and looks at the Goddess, who continues "Lady Death serves Mephisto, as you know. She ferries the souls. Both boys are one soul. One soul, two vessels. Which means a soul was denied it's eternal rest and reshaped into these children. An eye for an eye, a soul for a soul. You will forfeit your right to eternal rest and serves as William Maximoff's spirit guide". She awaits for Agatha's decision.
Agatha's eyes fill with tears. "My Goddess, still on your mercy, my son. When Death comes for me, may I see him? Just once? So I can say goodbye. I never said goodbye". The Goddess just nodded.
Before sending Agatha back, expelling her from the Road, she says "You shall step into Death in a lover's embrace. Goodbye, Agatha Harkness. For now".
As she kissed Death with all the angst, pain and love she felt during all the time they were apart, Agatha syphoned the magic that was at the fingertips of the other witch. She could not kill Rio, of course, but taking this on, would for sure end Agatha's life. She held on for as long as she could and then she felt it, the cold. She knew Rio thought they would be together now, of course she knew that was what Rio expected would happen when Agatha crossed the veil into her home, but Agatha wouldn't cross the veil. She hoped Rio could forgive her this last transgression.
Rio felt as if time stopped, she hadn't seen this coming. She was Death, she should have expected Agatha to have a plan. She knew Agatha. But a plan to die? That was never in the cards. She turned to the boy, the rule breaker, and said "you may go". From Agatha's body, she made her most beautiful work and then she prepared herself to ferry her into her realm. She tried to compose herself, to not feel giddy. There, they would have eternity. She and Agatha could work it out. She turned to Agatha and she saw the sadness in her eyes. She started to connect the dots on her mind. "No! No, no, no, no, no... NO!" She took her knife and tried to open the veil. It didn't work. She tried again and again. Tears filling and overflowing from her eyes. She turned to Agatha "What did you do???? Why won't you stay with me???"
Agatha touched Rio's face "I gave them a chance. The rules can be bent, but not broken. You taught me that. In place of the soul that lost it's rest when Wanda created the twins, I give up my right to eternal rest. A soul for a soul. Please understand. It is not that I didn't choose you. I will always love you. But they get a chance to grow up. To be good, Rio".
Sadness overtook death. "We will never be together".
"Oh, my beautiful Death, Rio... This does not mean I won't continue to love you. Because I will. And it doesn't mean I'm not yours anymore. Because I am. My love, my Death... I hope you can forgive me this last transgression, this last betrayal. After Nicholas, you are the most beautiful thing I've ever had. That will never change. And should Fate intervene, we will see each other again". Agatha started to fade and Rio tried to hold onto her. She couldn't. That was always their story. Rio tried to hold onto Agatha and she never could. She dropped to the ground in front of the colourfully planted azaleas and sobbed.
The end?