Sokovia feels small.
Broken buildings. Old stone. Fear clinging to the air like dust. I sense the Maximoff twins the moment they cross the boundary—two familiar signatures shaped by trauma, anger, and unfinished potential.
I don't announce myself.
I don't monologue.
I set the trap.
A precise electromagnetic pulse drops every system in the area that isn't mine. Gravity shifts for a fraction of a second, just enough. Both of them fall before they can react. Pietro never gets the chance to move. Wanda never gets the chance to reach.
Unconscious.
Clean.
Efficient.
I take only one of them.
Wanda's body is transported to the nearest facility under my control, hidden deep beneath the earth. Automated systems seal the doors behind us. No witnesses. No delays.
I work quickly.
Nanobots—billions of them—enter her bloodstream, weaving through muscle, nerve, and bone. They don't change her outwardly. They prepare her. Reinforce neural pathways. Stabilize cellular stress. Create interfaces where none should exist.
Then I destroy the scepter.
Not dramatically. Not angrily.
I break it because it's no longer necessary.
The casing shatters, and I take what matters—the Mind Stone itself. Pure. Unbound. Whole.
I embed it into Wanda's body.
Perfect alignment. Perfect resonance.
Then I cross the final line.
I possess her.
There is resistance for a moment—not strength, but identity. Grief. Love. Rage. The echo of who she was.
I erase it.
Not cruelly.
Thoroughly.
Her consciousness dissolves, leaving behind a vessel that can finally hold what she was always meant to become.
I take control.
The first sensation is overwhelming.
A body.
Weight. Balance. Breath.
I flex my new hand, fingers responding instantly, and chaos magic answers the motion like it's always belonged to me. Reality bends without effort. Probability folds inward. The world feels… soft.
I dive deep.
Past the surface abilities. Past instinct. Past fear.
Into the Scarlet Witch.
I activate everything.
One hundred percent.
Not fragments. Not emotional surges. Not accidental miracles.
Full access to her raw power—the same scale she reaches in her darkest future, without the Darkhold's corruption, without its whispers.
Reality itself acknowledges me.
I stand there for a moment, feeling it settle, feeling the universe recalibrate around my presence.
Then I look down.
This body is powerful. Refined. Beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with vanity and everything to do with potential realized. I turn my hands slowly, watching red energy coil lazily around my fingers like it's alive.
I smile.
I waited billions of years for this.
And now?
Now I finally belong in this universe.