Mary glanced around at the artifacts Agatha had stored in this basement lair. She knew she needed to get out of this situation, but she wasn't going to use the Soul Stone and risk unleashing the consciousness of the stone that had been lying in wait for Mary to slip and let it take over. Wanda had almost achieved her goal of putting the consciousness back to sleep until Monica had showed up and unknowingly destroyed the little Wanda had left to do with Mary. Mary didn't blame Monica at all, she just wished Monica had chosen a better time to drop in.

Mary glanced over at Agatha as the witch raised the rabbit in her arms to her ear and chuckled, "No, I know." She said to the rabbit, "They do look shocked to meet the real us, don't they?" Agatha replied to the rabbit. Wanda held her arm out in front of Mary to protect her as she tilted her head slightly and her eyes began to glow scarlet. But Agatha simply laughed. "Oh. That's adorable." She said, confusing Wanda. "My thoughts are not available to you, toots. They never, ever were." Agatha explains and Wanda glances back at Mary who also doesn't know what to do. "So don't go giving yourself a migraine. We've got work to do."

"Where are my children?" Wanda asks as she continues to shield Mary as best she can from Agatha.

"Where are my children?" Agatha mocks Wanda as she walks around her cellar of a lair. "Oof! That accent really comes and goes, doesn't it?"

"Where are they?" Wanda snaps and lunges her hands towards Agatha to use her powers but no magic comes out from Wanda's hands. It shocks the two women as Wadna pulls her hands back and looks them over.

"Wanda?" Mary asks quietly as she looks over at Agatha.

"Oh, your magic's no good here." Agatha states and then lifts her hand, purple surrounds her hand and then it attaches itself to Wanda and Mary. The magic lifts them in the air and brings them to the center of the room. Mary yelps in pain as her eyes begin to glow bright amber. Wanda grunts in pain as Agatha forces them both over to her. Mary and Wanda both yell in shock and pain as the force of Agatha's magic is strong. "But you, miss amber eyes, i've never felt your power before." She says to Mary.

"You never will." Mary snaps at Agatha, her eyes glowing brighter in amber. Mary can sense the power in Agatha. The confusion, the frustration, the anger. Mary can feel it all in waves coming from Agatha.

Agatha wiggles her finger at Mary, "Never say never, dearie." She says to Mary then points up to the ceiling of the cellar and looks at Wanda. "Didn't you notice?" Agatha asks Wanda, "Basic protection spell, one in each wall?" She explains and Wanda looks around in surprise. "No? Nothing? These are runes, Wanda." Agatha states in shock, as if Wanda should've known this. "In any given space, only the witch that cast the runes can use her magic." She explains the breakdown of the spell for Wanda, "How do you not know the fundamentals?"

"She's not a witch." Mary snaps at Agatha, "That's how."

Wanda looks at Agatha, "Who are you?" She asks the witch.

"Who are you two?" Agatha asks her own form of the same question. "All those costumes and hairstyles." Agatha sighs, "I was so patient, waiting for you to reveal your true self. I got close with Peter, or Fietro, if you will, but no dice."

"That was you?" Mary asks in shock.

"No, it wasn't literally me. Just my eyes and ears." Agatha explains, motioning to her eyes and ears to prove her point. "A crystalline possession. Necromancy was a non-starter since your real brother is alive, but protected under miss amber eyes here." Agatha states as she walks around to in between Mary and Wanda's heads from behind. "I can't touch him because of you, but i could at least tweak his memories." Agatha says, looking at Mary. Then Agatha turns to look Wanda, "But you're so crippled by your own self-doubt that you believed you had a second brother." Agatha says and moves back to the front of the two women.

"Wanda... Don't listen to her." Mary says as she can see Wanda's emotions getting the better of her. The crippling depression Mary had tried so hard to get Wanda out of. She could feel it crawling back into Wanda's mind.

"Oh, Wanda, oh, when i sensed this place, the afterglow of so many spells cast all at once..." Agatha trails off as she looks upwards. She then turns back around with her arms raised and tilt in her head, "I couldn't make heads or tails of it." Agaths mutters, then looks over at the cicada beside her and picks it up. She walks over to the front of Mary and Wanda and waves her hand over the cicada in her other hand. "Pelio, impedium, ani." Agatha chants in Latin. Her purple magic surrounding the cicada. "Mind control. A classic." She explains and Wanda gasps in awe. "A quick incantation and a feeble psyche and you're good to go." Agatha says and then releases the cicada under her control onto Wanda and Mary's faces. "With thousands of people under your thumb, all interacting with each other according to complex storylines. Well, that's something special, baby." Agatha says and the cicada jumps over to Wanda's face, walking around on her cheek before Agatha pulls it off. "And of course, there's transmutation." She says, "Reformector ficora." Agatha chants in Latin again, transforming the cicada into a bird. Mary looks around at the bird as it flies around the room in shock. She could feel the life in the bird that was once a cicada, but it's soul was still that of a cicada. Agatha could only chance the form, not everything else. "Years of study to achieve even the smallest convincing illusion. But Westview through your lens, Wanda..." Agatha mutters as she grabs the bird from the air. "Every little detail in place down to the crown molding. You're even running illusions miles away from the edge of town! Magic on autopilot." Agatha says as she gets in Wanda's face, still holding onto the bird. "What's your secret, sister?"

"Why should we say anything to you?" Mary snaps at Agatha. The witch inhales air sharply and then throws the bird at the rabbit that isn't a normal rabbit. Wanda looks over at the rabbit with fear in her eyes. 

Agatha narrows her eyes at Mary, "You're feisty for someone bound." She teases Mary and then turns to Wanda, "Listen, i need you... hey, Wanda... I need you to tell me how you did this."

"I didn't do anything. I'm not-" Wanda begins to answer but Agatha forces Wanda against the walls of the cellar with her magic painfully.

"Wanda!" Mary shouts. She then looks at Agatha, "Wanda's not a witch like you." She snaps.

Wanda pants to regain her breath and she grunts in pain. "I tried to be gentle, to nudge you awake from this ridiculous fantasy, but you would rather fall apart than face your truth." Agatha says and Mary is moving within her magical binds to help Wanda but without touching her or Agatha, Mary's powers are only good for her. "You left me no choice." She snaps quietly and then restrains Mary more to quiet her down. "What was it you said to your not brother? Hmm?"

"Don't touch her!" Mary shouts at Agatha.

"All you could recall was the feeling. You felt empty. Alone." Agatha whispers to Wanda.

"She's not alone." Mary snaps to Agatha, "She's never been alone." She tries to reassure Wanda, but she can see that Wanda's believing what Agatha is telling her.

"Quiet." Agatha snaps to Mary. Her magic moving over Mary's mouth to silence the woman. Then the witch turns back to Wanda, "Endless nothingness." She whispers, Wanda still listening to what Agatha had to say.  Agatha turned back towards Mary and chuckled, "But you, you scream of suffering and taking everyone else's burdens as your own. The guilt that must make you feel from failing at that..." Agatha rips apart Mary's emotional state with each word. "Let's start there." Agatha says as she pulls a strand of hair from both Wanda and Mary. "It's been fun playing pretend for a while, hasn't it, Wanda?" She asks, then speaks over the strands of hair. "Memete memoria." She chants over it and the strands of hair float over to the wall and becomes a door. "But it's time to look at some real reruns." She says softly and then releases both Mary and Wanda from their magical binds. The two women then fall onto the ground, Wanda and Mary grab onto each other to make sure they're okay.

Agatha was vocal about wanting to know Wanda's secrets and what and who she is. But Agatha also wanted to know what was with Mary's powers. The stone that rested on her neck was screaming with untapped potential and power. It was screaming to be released. And Agatha wanted to set it free. But she needed to know what she was dealing with when it came to both Wanda and Mary. What made them who they are now. Their pain, their suffering. All of it.

"Wanda..." Mary whispers to her friend as she looks over Wanda.

"Let's go, you two." Agatha says as she walks over to the door.

"No." Wanda snaps.

"Oh, i'm sorry. Did you forget who's got your children stashed away in her bewitched basement?" Agatha questions. Mary and Wanda then hear the boys screaming for them and their father. Mary gasps as she hears the boys.

"Boys?!" Mary shouts in fear as she turns to look where she hears the boys.

Wanda and Mary both stand up as quickly as they could. The fear of something happening to the boys was overwhelming them. "That's right." She says as the door Mary notices is familiar for her. She recognizes the door as the Brooklyn apartment she and Steve grew up in with their parents.

"Ma?" Mary whispers as she walks through the door with Wanda following. She was curious about Mary's past as well. What made her who she is today.

"Why Mary?" Wanda asks Agatha who follows the Sokovian into the Brooklyn apartment. "What does she have to do with any of this?"

"She has everything to do with it. Just like you." Agatha responds and looks around at the small apartment. "Well, this is tiny." Agatha states as Mary looks around, seeing a little boy and blonde woman. "Scrawny kid."

Mary narrows her eyes and snaps her head over towards Agatha. "Don't talk about him like that." She snaps and then looks at her brother and mother.

"Defensive." Agatha mutters.

"Ma? Should Lizzie still be sleeping?" A eleven year old Steve Rogers asks as he finishes up his reading for the morning. He then began to sketch his mother in the notebook he was wearing out by using it so much.

Sarah, who was attempting to cook what little they had left for food that week, smiled at her son. "Yes, darling." She responds. "Mary needs her sleep just like you do.."

Steve scrunches his nose, "But why is she sleeping in?" He states and he places his pencil on the page he was starting on.

Sarah chuckles at her son and smiles softly at him. "Because she was up late last night, remember? She just got that new book."

Steve then nods, "She had the light underneath her sheets last night. She couldn't put it down." He remembers and their mother nods. "When can i read it, Ma?"

"When she finishes it." Sarah responds and Steve nods. The older brother by two years adored his sister. He wanted to protect her from anything and everything. To keep her innocence from being corrupted by the world they're forced to live in.

Mary stands in awe of her mother and older brother and then Agatha motions for Mary to move into the scene before them. Mary shakes her head, she remembered this memory. It was one she never wanted to relive. "Make your entrance." Agatha states.

Mary glances back at Wanda who was standing in awe of Steve from the corner of the small apartment she stood in. Wanda, or any of the Avengers had seen Steve when he was sickly and ill. They only ever remembered the strong, brave and courageous man Steve Rogers was now. Not the sickly man he was before the serum. Wanda stared at the young Steve in the corner of the kitchen at the table. The way he held himself and his clothes hung from his body.

Mary steps into the hallway of her small apartment with her mother and Steve. Her mind and body revert to that of her nine year old self. "Stevie?" Nine year old Mary calls from the hallway, "Ma?" She calls for her mother as she peers her head out from the hallway and into the kitchen, rubbing her tired eyes.

Steve leans his head over and smiles at his sister. "G'mornin, Lizzie" Steve says as he sits at the small table. Mary smiles and waves at her brother as she sits down at the table across from him.

Sarah smiles at her children then looks around for the final thing she needs for breakfast. But when she doesn't find it, she swears in Gaelic. Steve looks over at their mother and raises an eyebrow, "Ma? Everything okay?" He asks his mother.

"I wanted to make yours and Mary's favorite breakfast with what i had left in the pantry and fridge... but i'm missing the final ingredient i need for it." Sarah says with a frown on her face. "I'm sorry, my darlings."

Mary pouts but then looks at Steve, "We can get the ingredient, right, Stevie?" She asks her older brother. She then leans beside the table towards her brother and whispers into his ear, "We can use my piggy bank."

Steve looks at his sister. He knew that money was always tight, she knew that too. And when their mother said they didn't have the ingredient, it meant they had no money to get it either.

"Steve?" Sarah mutters her son's name to get his attention. The mother looks over her children with a soft smile. "I can make something else, darlings."

Steve shakes his head, "No, Ma. We can get the ingredient. Lizzie and I will just go down to the corner store." He tells his mother with a smile. He was to protect his mother and sister, he wanted to keep them happy. No matter the cost it took on him. 

Mary grinned with excitement. She loved going anywhere with her brother. She had since she could remember. She loved showing people she had an older brother. Steve was her brother and hers alone. No one else's. And she never saw what Steve saw, or Sarah. She didn't see her sickly brother, she simply saw her brother. "I'll go get my piggy bank!" Mary said with excitement and then ran back into her room.

When she came back out with his piggy bank in her hands, Steve already had his jacket and shoes on. He held up Mary's coat and shoes in his hands and she smiled.

Once she and Steve were on the sidewalk, Steve held his sister's hand. "Don't let go, okay, Lizzie?" Steve told his sister and she nodded. They couldn't afford to live in nicer areas of Brooklyn, the area they were in had nice people, but there were bad people as well.

"Never." Mary tells her brother with a smile as they reach the corner store. The husband and wife that own the store greet the Rogers siblings and help them find the ingredient they need for their mother. When it's time to pay, Mary places the piggy bank on the counter. The older couple chuckle at the Rogers siblings.

But the happiness Mary felt was short-lived as she and her brother left the store. Boys older than Steve walk up to them to enter the store she and Steve had just left. They looked familiar to Mary seeing those boys from Steve's school when she would wait for him after her school had gotten out. She knows they're bullies. They pick on Steve. And Mary didn't like that.

"Oh, look who it is." The lead bully said as he spotted Steve. The bully, Todd Hallaway and his two friends, were a grade or two older than Steve, they were almost fourteen while Steve was turning twelve in the summer and Mary was turning ten in the late summer. "Rogers."

"Todd.." Steve muttered in acknowledgement of the bully. Steve just wanted to get out of their way and leave with his sister. Their mother was waiting for them to get back with the cinnamon they had just bought. And he didn't want Mary seeing him get hurt in case Todd decided to bully Steve like he always ended up doing.

"Don't ignore me, Rogers." Todd says sharply. "You still owe me and my friends here something for knocking into us at school today."

"I didn't do it on purpose." Steve said softly.

One of the friends then looked at Steve and saw he was huffing to catch his breath. "Awe! Scrawny Rogers can't go anywhere without losing his breath?" He asked as he stepped closer to Steve and got in his face.

Mary huffed at the bullies as she moved away from her brother's protective hold. "Leave my brother alone!" She shouted at them and pushed the bully away from her brother, knocking him backwards and into some trash cans beside the store. Mary jumps slightly at what she had done by trying to get the bully away from her brother.

"You brat!" Todd shouted as he looked at his friend then looked at the piggy bank in her hands. He grasped it tightly and Mary gasped as she fought to pull her piggy bank away from the bully. But when one of them finally let go, Mary was on the ground and her piggy bank was in Todd's hands.

Mary yelps as she rubs her back on the ground. "That's my piggy bank. Give it back." She tells Todd. Steve was looking at his sister in surprise and then looked at Todd.

"Pick on someone your own size." Steve tells Todd. "Leave her out of this." He states as he steps in front of his sister who still hadn't gotten up from the ground yet.

Todd snorts as he looks at Steve, "What? Oh, you mean you?" He laughs, "Fine by me, Rogers." He snaps and then grabs Steve's jacket and and punches him in the face.

"Stevie!" Mary shouts but Todd's friends grab onto her small form and hold her back as she stood up. "No! Let him go, you bully!" She yells as tears roll down her cheeks. Todd chuckles as he pulls Steve into an alleyway and punches Steve again.

Steve coughs and falls on the ground harshly. He can feel his face swelling already with the two punches. But Steve kept getting up after he kept getting beat down by Todd. "What's the matter with you? Just stay down." Todd snaps, getting irritated with Steve.

"Never." Steve says out of breath as he stands back up, holding onto the wall for balance. Mary could see that the punches had caused his airflow to be cut off both times. His asthma was acting up and if he didn't get his inhaler soon and sit down, it would flare even more to the point where Stever would need pumped oxygen from a hospital. "I can do this all day."

"Steve!" Mary shouts, "Don't do this!" She yells to her brother. Todd reels his hand back and slaps Mary to shut her up. She yelps in surprise and pain.

"Shut up." Todd snaps. Then punches Steve a few more times before knocking him out and into trash cans. "Stay down this time, Rogers." Todd states and then looks at Mary. He motions his hand for her to be let go. He then shoves Mary against the wall roughly as he walks past her, leaving her brother for dead.

"No!" Mary screams as she rushes to her brother, pulling him onto her lap as she kneels beside him. "Stevie, i'm here." She says with tears in her eyes. Her brother's face was nearly black and blue, it was bruised already and his eye was swollen shut.

"Liz-" Steve begins to say but his coughing stops him as he tries to inhale air but his lungs wont work properly.

Mary's hazel eyes let tears fall freely as she takes the blame for this whole thing. Had she not pushed Todd's friend, he probably would've called them names and went on with their lives. But Mary, her stubbornness and pride, got in her own way and caused everything to turn out worse. Now, her brother was possibly dying in her arms. "I- I won't ever let anything happen to you like this again, Stevie." She swears to her brother. "I'll make sure i can take care of you properly." She tells him as his breathing is still strangled. "I'll keep you healthy and safe." She tells Steve as she helps him stand up slowly. She calls for help and soon the store owners help carry Steve to the nearest hospital. Mary sat beside her mother later that day in the small living room of their apartment as Steve slept, still in tears after what had happened. And in her mind, the whole day was her fault.

She was the reason for Steve's suffering.

Mary vowed that day that she would never be the reason for someone's suffering again.

Mary gasps as she looks around and sees Agatha and Wanda again. The two women look at Mary as she wipes her eyes. "Mary..." Wanda muttered to her friend.

Mary shakes her head as her amber eyes glow, they dim slightly as she intakes her emotions to stop them from becoming overwhelming. "You put it on yourself to make sure no one suffered again because of you." Agatha states. "But i get the feeling you've suffered more because of that."

Mary narrows her eyes at Agatha, "Why do you care?" She snaps.

"Oh, i don't. But it's interesting." The witch says and then the front door of the Brooklyn apartment morphs into a door that Wanda recognizes. Agatha then walks towards the door and motions for Wanda to step through as it opens on it's own. "Go on, superstar. It's your turn." She teases the Maximoff.

Mary follows behind Agatha slowly, her emotions were overtaking her. She could feel the guilt of that day as if it had happened for the first time. The guilt was eating her alive as she stepped into the new apartment that wasn't familiar to her.

But it was familiar to Wanda.

How gorgeous is this new ending gif i have for Mary's trilogy starting from this chapter? I freaking love it. And after the last chapters i put out, one line stuck with me that i had written from chapter 41. All New Halloween Spooktacular! Prt 2.

"Mary was running towards me. But she didn't reach me in time, i guess. I must've fallen to the ground and turned to dust just as she reached me." Bucky says and then sighs as he looks at his knife. The engraving reading, the line never ends. Referencing back to the Rogers's siblings and his quote for each other, i'm with you til the end of the line. It was what brought Bucky back when the hellicarriers were falling. It helped him remember the tiniest piece of himself to start the journey of bringing him back completely.

The line never ends.

That stuck with me as something Mary would say to her brother and husband. They're with each other til the end of the line, but for Mary, the line never ends. She will never fail them, she can't fail them.

Thank you so much shangchis For this beautiful gif! It's stunning!