“Welcome to the Time Variance Authority.”
Wanda barely glanced up at the screen – what was the point? One jailor was much like another, whatever they called themselves. A collar around her neck, a jumpsuit to mark her as a prisoner, the endless questions to file her away neatly; been there, done that.
Of course, for a while she’d thought things could be different. For a while she’d been the Scarlet Witch in more than name, chaos magic at her beck and call, subject to her every whim. For a few brief moments, Wanda Maximoff had known exactly who she was and been able to embrace it.
Then, as before, as before that, as before even that, they came for her.
Six guards. She supposed she should be flattered by that, the expectation that she would fight them tooth and nail. ‘Arrested for crimes against the Sacred Timeline,’ they’d told her, and her first thought had been well, it was always going to be something.
Hauled in front of a judge with an officious tone and old eyes, she doesn’t bother to speak in her defence. She barely even listens to the litany of crimes – it seems SHIELD weren’t the only ones angered by the Hex, but what’s curious is that this court’s objection seems to be to…
“Wait, what?”
She looks up curiously then, head tilted a little to the left as she appraises the now clearly irritated judge. Well, no one likes to be interrupted, but Wanda needs to hear that again for herself.
“Your crime, Miss Maximoff, is in allowing the illusion surrounding the town of… Westview, USA to fall.”
“To fall?” she repeats slowly, disbelief in each short syllable. “Not the illusion itself, but-“
“The cessation of the magic maintaining the town and the life forms within, yes.” More irritation this time – someone clearly isn’t as used to being interrupted as Wanda is. “The maintenance of Westview is crucial to avoid future divergence of the Sacred Timeline.”
Admittedly, Wanda wasn’t listening to that either, as it really, truly hits her. Giving up everything wasn’t enough; when had her sacrifices ever been enough to satisfy anyone? They took and took, and when they had demanded all that she had, they punished her for letting them take it.
“Miss Maximoff?”
They’d told her earlier, that magic wasn’t possible in the Time Variance Authority. They hadn’t explained why, and she hadn’t volunteered to them that, in bringing her in, they’d walked past an older woman with an unusual headdress, one no one else had seemed to notice – who’d raised her finger and made three short, sharp movements.
“Runes.”
“Excuse me?”
Wanda’s gaze rose again, scarlet burning around her irises as she lifted her right hand – right, down, up – leaving the symbol blazing in the air in front of her, recalled to its caster.
““In a given space, only the witch who cast the runes can use her magic. I’m the witch.”