ᑕᕼᗩᑭTEᖇ SI᙭TEEᑎ:
˜"*°•.˜"*°• ᗰOTᕼEᖇ •°*"˜.•°*"˜
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ᑭᖇEᐯIOᑌSᒪY:
More words to curse in, nice, She thought, trying to cheer herself up. Before long, she found herself drifting off and slipping to unconsciousness.
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Natalya woke to the distant sound of voices, and tried to yell, but she was drained and tired.
"Where are the twins? And Natalya?" Came Wanda's muffled voice.
"Oh, they're probably just playing in the basement," Agatha replied.
Natalya shuffled around in an attempt to stand, but thumped back down against the concrete. The creak of the door opening was like music to Natalya's ears.
"Boys? Natalya?" Wanda called.
"Mom!" Natalya managed to get out. Wanda's steps thudded against the staircase.
"Tommy? Billy? Natalya?" Wanda called, obviously not hearing her daughter's previous calls.
"Mom!" Natalya yelled once again, louder, as she saw the familiar orange hair and messy clothing come into her line of vision. "Get out of here, it's-"
"Now, that's enough Natalya," Agatha said, entering the basement and holding her rabbit in her arms, "Wanda, Wanda. You didn't think you and your daughter were the only magical gals in town, did ya?"
"Agatha, I've already heard this speech, can we skip it..?" Natalya whined, shuffling to try and get her powers back. She could feel them - like her fingers were grazing the edges of her magic but was missing every time she tried.
Agatha rolled her eyes at them teen, flicking her wrist to close her door with her powers.
"The name's Agatha Harkness," Agatha reintroduced, "Lovely, to finally meet you, dear."
"Mom, I just realised that Agnes is just a shortened version of Agatha Harkness," Natalya said, "The A and G from Agatha, and the N-E-S from the end of Harkness. Geez, I feel like a genius now."
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Who's been messing up everything?
It's been Agatha all along
Who's been pulling every evil string?
It's been Agatha all along
She's insidious (ha-ha!)
So perfidious
That you haven't even noticed
And the pity is (the pity is)
Pity, pity, pity, pity
It's too late to fix anything
Now that everything has gone wrong
Thanks to Agatha (ha!)
Naughty Agatha
It's been Agatha all along!
And I killed Sparky too
*evil ass laugh while holding a dog's corpse*
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"She does look shocked to meet the real us, doesn't she?" Agatha agreed with her rabbit before her eyes flicked over to the teen still wriggling to stand up, "I guess it doesn't run in the family." Agatha turned back to Wanda, who's eyes were glowing a dull red, "Oh. That's adorable. My thoughts aren't available to you or Natalya. They never, ever were. So don't go givin' yourself a migraine. We've got work to do."
"Where are my children?" Wanda spoke at last, her accent lacing her voice like Natalya remembered.
"Mom, I right here." Natalya whined.
"Where are my children?" Agatha mocked, "Oof. That accent really comes and goes, doesn't it."
"Where are they?" Wanda demanded, raising her hands to shoot her magic, but nothing appeared.
"Oh, your magics no good here," Agatha explained, "Well, Natalya's is, but that's a whole other spell." Agatha jerked her hands in a strange motion Natalya felt was oddly familiar and Wanda grunted, her hands and legs bound behind her, leaving her levitating like Natalya was earlier. Wanda was jerked forward.
"Didn't you notice?" Agatha asked, "Basic protection spells, one on each wall? No? Nothing? These are runes, Wanda. Natalya knows what they are-"
"I do? Since when?"
"In a given space, only the witch that cast the runes can use her magic," Agatha continued like the teen hadn't spoken, "How do you, a witch, not know the fundamentals, but Natalya, a sorceress, does?"
"Who are you?" Wanda demanded, getting annoyed by Agatha speaking about her daughter. Natalya stayed quiet, unsure whether to make a sarcastic comment or to just let the adults with superpowers fight whilst acting like she wasn't there. She chose the latter.
"Who are you?" Agatha shot back, "All those costumes and hairstyles. I was so patient, waiting for you to reveal your true self. I got close with fake Pietro. Fietro, if you will, but no dice-"
"I knew it wasn't the real Pietro! Ha!" Natalya interrupted, not earning even a warning glance from the women.
"That was you," Wanda said, connecting the obvious dots Natalya had connected awhile ago.
"No, it wasn't literally me," Agatha confessed, "Just my eyes and ears. A crystalline possession. Necromancy was a non-starter since your real brother's body is on another continent. Not to mention, full of holes."
Natalya inhaled sharply as a vision flashed across her mind, gaining the attention of both adults.
A body covered in a white sheet, silver hair peeking from the top, and dots of red spotting the sheet. A brunette woman held a small, red haired girl to her side and sobbed.
"Natty?" Wanda said softly, snapping her daughter from her vision.
"You're so crippled by your own self doubt that you believed it," Agatha continued to taunt, "Oh, Wanda, oh, when I sensed this place, the afterglow of so many spells cast all at once with the mix of sorcery... Oh, I couldn't make heads or tails of it." She plucked a fly from the wall and gathered purple energy in her palms before starting to mutter spells in tongues.
"Mind control." She explained, "A classic, and from what I can tell is that Natalya is quite familiar with this one. Quick incantation and a feeble psyche and you're good to go." She made the fly go over to Wanda and land on the woman's face.
"Mom, is this animal cruelty? Where is the phone? Not ok, Agatha." Natalya said sarcastically, "If you make that thing go near me I will hit you."
Agatha continued like Natalya hadn't spoked, again, "With thousands of people under your thumb, all interacting with each other according to complex storylines. Well, that's something special, baby." The dark haired woman grabbed the fly off the mother's face, "And of course, there's a transmutation." She opened her palm and the fly appeared. She muttered another incantation and suddenly it was transformed into a bird flying around the room.
"Years of study to achieve even the smallest convincing illusion," Agatha sighed, "But Westview through your lense, Wanda...:" She grabbed the bird from the air harshly, making Natalya jump, "Every little detail in place to the crown molding. You're even running illusions miles away at the edge of town! Magic on autopilot."
"So I was right, she was controlling everything," Natalya whispered to herself, feeling the fear of her mother growing in her chest.
"What's your secret, sister?" Agatha asked. She threw the bird she was holding toward Senor Scratchy and he began chewing on it. "Listen, I need you... Hey, Wanda, I need you to tell me how you did this."
"I didn't do anything," Wanda denied, "I'm not..." Agatha moved her hands and Wanda was jerked to the side. Agatha made her way over to Natalya and lifted her roughly with her powers.
"Did Natalya do it then?" The older woman demanded, holding her hands in front of her and squeezing them into a tight fist. Natalya gasped for air, feeling the pressure of Agatha's magic tighten around her neck.
"Stop it!" Wanda yelled but Agatha didn't obey.
"I tried to be gentle," Agatha continued, "to nudge you awake from this ridiculous fantasy. There were times even your own daughter tried to stop you. But you'd rather fall apart than face your truth. You left me no choice." Agatha finally let Natalya go, and the teen fell to the ground roughly. She doubled over, trying to stop her shaking and calm her breathing.
Agatha went up close to Wanda's face, "What was it you said to your not-brother? Hmm? All you could recall was the feeling. You felt empty. Alone. Endless nothingness. Let's start there." A door appeared on the wall, "It's been fun playing pretend for awhile, hasn't it, Wanda?" The woman plucked a piece of hair from the redhead woman and whispered a spell, making it grow and float toward the door. "But it's time to look at some real reruns."
Agatha moved her hands and Wanda dropped to the ground. Natalya groaned in annoyance, seeing she was still bound, "Why do I have to be bound? I'm harmless!"
"You're a sorceress, not a witch," Agatha explained vaguely, "I can't control your magic without a certain spell. All right, let's go."
"Wait, am I coming?" Natalya called, "I wanna come! My memories barely make sense. Take me with you!!"
"Oh my god, you are incredibly annoying, Natalya," Agatha observed bluntly, "But sure. The more the merrier."
"No," Wanda replied defiantly, "Natalya, please stop talking to the person who literally bound you."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Agatha said sarcastically, lifting Natalya with her powers so the teen could walk on her own feet, but her arms were still bound, "Did you forget who's got your children stashed away in her bewitched basement and one right here I was choking earlier?"
"Yeah, that was actually quite rude," Natalya told the woman next to her.
"Mom! Mom! Natty! Help, please!" The twins' voices echoed through the basement. Natalya flinched, knowing she could join them at any given moment.
Wanda got up quickly with terror on her face and Agatha hummed in approval, "That's right." The door opened and Wanda walked forward, grabbing her daughter's arm on the way. "After you, superstar."
WORDS: 1590 DATE: 1/11/2021