Wanda walked along the street leading to the abandoned factory. Her steps seemed steady, yet they carried the rigid, vacant stiffness of a sleepwalker.
The world around her had already faded and warped in her eyes. Familiar streets lay beneath a layer of constantly rippling haze.
Children's laughter, their tender cries of "Mommy," and seductive, chaotic whispers from the Abyss intertwined, playing a symphony of madness within her mind.
The boundary between reality and illusion had completely collapsed in her heart. The only thing still clear was the "door" ahead, the one that could reunite her with her children.
"Wanda!"
A startled voice pierced part of the veil of chaos, accompanied by the faint rush of wind from high-speed movement.
Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver, appeared before Wanda from around the corner in an instant like a silver bolt of lightning, blocking her path.
He had just finished a patrol and stopped by to visit his sister, only to keenly notice that something was deeply wrong with her.
"Wanda, what's wrong? Look at me!" Pietro pressed both hands to his sister's shoulders, trying to make her focus on him.
The emptiness in her eyes set every alarm bell ringing in his mind.
"...The children... Mommy's coming..." Wanda murmured. Her gaze seemed to pass through Pietro and settle on some distant point in the void.
She tried to go around him, her movements carrying an unquestionable brute force.
"What children? Wanda, snap out of it! Something's wrong with you!" Pietro tightened his grip, only to discover in horror that the Chaos magic swirling around his sister had formed an invisible barrier. Not only did it easily fling away his strength, it even began to affect the reality he touched.
The air around his fingers began to warp like asphalt beneath a heatwave.
"Wait