-Locke-

I breathed out, opening my eyes. It was time.

Wanda's magic was silent. She was no longer spreading her perception throughout the compound.

The Darkhold on my lap cloaked itself from view upon my will. It became intangible and invisible, phasing out of this reality into a false one.

My steps made no noise as I jumped off the bed and approached the door, placing my hands on it.

There were many ways I could do this, but after much consideration- I had to be sneaky. Vision no doubt had super senses.

Using my bleeding finger, I drew an inverted cross on my palms, slapping them together to summon the Umbris Destroyer.

The entity made of dark mist launched out of the red portal, devouring a small hole on the door. I pulled the palms apart, unsummoning it.

My hand fit through the created hole, searching for...

I knew it! There was a door latch. I pulled it down and the steel door swung open outwards.

Freedom at last.

My heart threatened time burst out of my chest in relief and happiness. I had done it. I had escaped the cell. Now all that was left was to make a run for it.

-Cyclops-

"What's our ETA Beast?"

Cyclops enquired from his seat inside the X-jet.

"1 hour. We should be entering Europe in a bit."

Beast answered from the Cockpit.

"Good."

Cyclops nodded with a heavy tone, sweeping his gaze out at the rest of the Team.

Storm was strapped in to his left staring out through the window of the jet, behind her, Wolverine was asleep, his snoring louder than the hum of the engines.

Rogue was next to the feral mutant, reading a book- she smiled at Cyclops when she felt his gaze.

On her other side, Gambit was shuffling his cards deftly- he held one up and drew it across his neck as a warning to Cyclops. The former Mutant wasn't happy to see his girlfriend smiling at the latter.

The Leader of the X-Men swallowed a scoff, instead shifting his focus to the couple at the back. Kitty Pride was sitting on Collosus' lap.

He thought about telling her to buckle up in her own seat, before he decided it wasn't worth it. Let Collosus have his fun.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Jean, who was closest to him on his right, asked concernedly.

Cyclop's mind said 'no'

"Yeah."

But his lips uttered something else. Despite lying to his Telepathic girlfriend, Jean only smiled in response and hugged his bicep.

"Don't worry. As long as we're together, we'll keep each other safe."

She assured.

Cyclops nodded with a grunt. But inside, he was still skeptical about their chances with Wanda. Luckily, they weren't alone.

-Locke-

The building had multiple floors.

Just my luck I was stuck on the lowest one, deep underground.

Behind me was a long corridor with huge pipelines. My cell being further behind.

"Sub level 9."

I read the plaque on the wall before some stairs, staring up at the long ass staircase leading upwards. A sigh inevitably escaped me.

I hate taking stairs.

"There's gotta be an elevator around here. I can't picture Strucker walking down hundreds of steps."

Thankfully looking around paid off. But while I did find a lift, it was unfortunately out of service.

Luckily, there was a freight elevator at the end of the floor. It was risky to ride it, but better than wasting my energy. I was saving that for when I had to run.

The freight elevator had a control panel that was easy to understand. The yellow button was for Up and the red for Down. Green probably meant Stop.

Pressing on the yellow, the elevator begun ascending with a rumbling sound.

'Finger's crossed, Vision or Wanda won't notice the cell is empty.'

My hope grew stronger the more levels I passed, body tense and heart wildly racing.

A light appeared above me.

'Almost there...just a bit more...'

A few minutes later, the rumble of the freight elevator fell silent as it came to a stop on its one.

I looked around in relief. I made it. This was the Ground Floor.

Or as the plaque on the wall read, 'Section 1: Loading Bay.'

The area seemed to be a sort of Garage/Storage facility. There were large containers stacked upon one another, almost reaching the roof of the warehouse.

A few trucks and dozens of snowmobiles were packed on the other side of the chamber, leaving an open path between us- probably reserved for moving cargo.

And there, at the back was the exit, blocked by metal doors. Nothing the Umbris can't handle.

Exiting off the elevator, I quietly hid behind a container, senses peeled for signs of any presence. Mostly Vision- the Android could go intangible and invisible at the same time. Add in flying and that made him a literal ghost.

If he discovered me, I was fucked.

Even the Umbris Destroyer didn't have my confidence in dealing with him. The Android would merely phase through it.

Fortunately, there was no one around. And no cameras either. Which meant I was able to sneak to the Exit without an issue.

Now all that remained was to summon the Umbris Destroyer and have it eat through the doors.

I almost missed it. The feel of Wanda's magic coming from my front. Only very very subdued.

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It was a film of energy perpetually running through the exit doors. Not only that, but it covered the entire wall to my front.

A magical boundary, no doubt.

Passing through it would probably alert Wanda. Damn. I was naive to think escaping would be that easy.

For all her faults, the Scarlet Witch came prepared. She wouldn't let the Darkhold slip away from her hands again- meaning countermeasures.

But on the other hand, I was done with being her prisoner. Nothing was going to stop me from getting out of there. Antarctica is my next stop. Believe it.

Maybe that's why, after a brief consideration, I came up with a stupid plan.

I was going to use the second spell, Armament Chaos, to imbue the characteristic of the boundary field into myself.

Told you it was dumb. There was a lot I didn't know about magic. And there were a million ways things could go wrong. The spell was not even meant to be used like that.

But if I could match the boundary field's wavelength, there was a chance I could pass through undetected.

Or I could horribly die by exploding from the inside. Chaos magic was risky like that.

Biting my finger was no less painful now than the first time, but I was able to draw some blood.

With a deep breath to calm myself, I sent a prayer to any gods listening and proceeded to trace the inverted cross on the invisible field.

My finger stalled before touching it, however.

Without a word, I quickly ducked behind a few crates, just as the front half of a Truck phased through the exit doors.

The surprise at seeing a floating truck was overtaken by the sight of Vision holding up the underside while flying in.

I shrunk behind the crates, making myself small and hoping I hadn't been spotted.

The Android was preoccupied with his task, as he continued on to the end of the storage facility without stopping, phasing through the wall into the other side.

I was about to sigh in relief, when the breath caught in my throat. My eyes widened in stupefication.

Just before the Truck disappeared through the wall...I caught a glimpse of what lay inside.

People.

My mind immediately added, 'Sacrifices.'

-Wanda-

Despite how large the Hydra base was, it took no time at all, with phasing, for Vision to pass through the outer sections of the building, and into the spacious inner court yard.

The courtyard was a few hundred square meters in scope. Surrounded by tall fences with four watchtowers it looked more like a prison yard.

In fact, a prison yard was accurate as a description. One meant for Strucker's abducted subjects back when the base was still in operation.

But then it had been abandoned after there was a containment breach, that led to the spread of a virus.

Hydra evacuated and the experiments- now infected, were further mutated by the natural energy emanating from the Leyline.

Shortly afterwards, Shield discovered Hydra's existence and promptly destroyed most of the Organization.

-0-

Gently, Vision touched down, placing the truck he had been carrying, just outside the entrance to the yard.

Wanda, levitating in the air with her eyes closed, opened them to stare at the Truck hungrily.

"Finally."

She gratefully flew down, waving a palm and melting a part of the chain fence- creating a hole big enough for someone to pass through.

The entrance happened to be facing the back of the truck. Whimpers could be heard coming from it.

"Do not be afraid, come out."

She softly beckoned, her body aglow with a scarlet aura, feet hanging a few inches off the ground.

At the failure to heed her words, Wanda looked to Vision, who punched the side of the truck, rocking it and leaving behind a dent. The scared whimpering increased.

"Come out. I won't hurt you."

Wanda tried again, and this time, the abducted villagers complied, filing out into the courtyard and huddling close together.

Wanda found herself the target of their terrified gazes.

The group consisted of adults. Most of them 25-40. Though two looked older than 50.

The oldest of them was a gray haired mam who stood at the front of the others, holding a hat in his hands.

Unlike the rest who held fear in their eyes, he was calm and stared down Wanda.

"You."

The scarlet witch pointed at him, angry that he wasn't cowering like the others.

"I see courage in your gaze. But courage without power is nothing. You're like an ant to me. Learn your place, Old Man!"

Scarlet wisps of energy surrounding her palms flew out in a burst of electricity, that landed on the old man.

He grunted in pain and fell to the ground, body seizing up in agony.

Laughter bubbled it's way out of Wanda. A glee of amusement coloring her eyes as some of the villagers went to help the old man, only for remnants of her spell to electrocute them too.

'They're Weak and Undeserving to breath the same air as you. Tools to be used. Livestock to be slaughtered.'

The voice in her mind spoke, justifying her actions for her.

'Yes.' Wanda agreed. In the end she was doing all this for Pietro. Her love for her brother made her strong enough to take actions others would condemn. Tony and the rest couldn't understand. That's why they had to go.

More importantly, she turned her head to the side, a knowing smirk spreading across her lips.

"How long are you going to keep on hiding...Locke?"

-Locke-

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!!!

I should have just ran when I had the chance. But something in me had hesitated after seeing those people.

Innocent people that didn't deserve to be sacrificed for Wanda's goal.

So I had decided to tail Vision, hoping for a chance to rescue them without being noticed.

But Wanda had easily discovered me.

'Stupid! Stupid!'

Curse my bleeding heart.

Peeking at the yard from one of the building's pillars I was hiding behind, I found Wanda looking directly at me.

I quickly ducked in fear, heart hammering in my ears. She looked completely different from before. Scarier.

The skin around her glowing red eyes was colored black, just like her lips. And the chaos magic I sensed running through her was 10 times more than before.

'I'm utterly fucked. There's no way I can beat her.'

'What should I do now? What can I do? Not to mention she has Vision with her.'

In the middle of freaking out, a yellow laser tore through the pillar, just above me, missing my head by inches.

I jumped out of my hiding spot with a frightened scream and ran down the hallway.

Vision's laser beam- which came out of his forehead, cleaved through the sides of the building, destroying even more pillars.

Things were about to get worse as the corridor ended in a wall, that I was quickly approaching.

My head swerved around, eyes jumping to Vision then to Wanda before a dangerous plan came to mind.

But first, you need to understand something. The second spell from the Darkhold was seriously broken.

Armament Chaos let me copy one single characteristic from anything I drew the inverted cross on.

Even energy.

Wait that makes no sense Locke!

Oh but it does. See, I knew that there was no way to beat someone like Wanda or vision, but that didn't mean, I couldn't injure or incapacitate them.

Lucky for me, I had a few ideas on that.

So before arriving to the yard, I had torn off a power cable from within the building, using Umbris to expose the live wires.

And then drawn a small inverted cross on the wire itself.

And because Armament Chaos let me pick one characteristic off something and imbue it onto myself, I picked the electricity running through the wire.

And now, a dangerously high charge current was running through my body, cycling my energy channels- eager to be used.

I called it out just as Vision's laser passed rhrough the last pillar.

The current jumped into my control. It was so easy, I was caught off guard by the wisps of electricity running across my hands, harmlessly.

Most of it poured down my legs, directed by thought, energizing my lower body so that I ran up the wall, evading the laser as it passed below me.

In the air, I slapped my hands together, summoning Umbris and setting the target as Vision.

The Android phased through it, proving my theory correct. The Umbris destroyer could not target incorporeal things. So it instead ate through the half destroyed pillars, causing the hallway roof to fall on the Android.

That brief respite would buy me a few seconds at least. Thats all the time I had to deal with Wanda.

I safely landed and quickly cut towards the courtyard, the chained fence between me and her.

Armament Chaos had a time limit of 10 minutes. And since activating it, only a short time had passed.

Meaning there was plenty of electricity still within me. If I released it at once, even Wanda wouldn't come out unharmed.

But the problem was her personal shield, which she had on at all times. I had to get through that first. Something that was easier said than done with her attention on me. Curiously watching me rush the chain fence.

A major characteristic of electricity is Conductivity. And as I had essentially imbued it onto myself, I became electricity itself. Which means, I could move as it did.

'It's now or never.'

I thought, lunging forward.

The second I touched the chain fence with my forehead, my body literally shifted state from matter to energy.

I became living lightning.

It was seamless and easy, unbelievably so. My consciousness melded with the current as I conducted through the metallic fence, flashing out of view, surprising Wanda by the look on her face.

Streaks of blue electricity covered the entire chain fence, confusing her senses.

Only for me to revert back into human form behind her, launching a single bolt at her back.

The bolt landed but was blocked by a shimmering red shield around her body.

Wanda quickly turned around to face me, hands lighting up with chaos magic. The look on her face was one of dark anticipation and malice. A contrast to my terror filled expression.

Only for the Umbris Destroyer to slam into her from behind, devouring the personal shield on her body.

Through the whole thing, I hadn't pulled my palms apart, keeping the Umbris Destroyer in this reality. And that stupid plan, spectacularly paid off.

I sent it away before it could reach me, glad at its usefulness.

Before Wanda had time to recast the shield, I pulled out all the erratic electricity blazing in me.

The current sped down my hands, turning them a glowing white with strange red symbols across the length.

And with a guttural roar filled with all my frustration, hunger for revenge, and satisfaction at finally besting her, I pushed every last bit of the energy out, a full on, inescapable blast delivered in close range.

She didn't have time to even scream, the radiant laser beam of blue light that left my palms, swallowing her, immediately shredding her form apart and leaving nothing behind.