Chapter Text
New York City, 2028
Kate Bishop was tired. She was tired and, quite frankly, she was frustrated.
The Avengers were struggling to figure out their Doctor Doom problem which left the Young Avengers to pick up the slack and international crises were a wreck on her sleep wake cycle. Not to mention the fact that she was twenty-six and was still considered a ‘Young’ Avenger. She loved her team, she did. And she understood why she was still a part of it, they needed a leader. But Cassie was more than capable of taking over and the others were fast approaching their twenties as well.
Mostly, Kate was tired of being ignored by the Avengers. A frustration she is well aware is shared by her teammates. The Young Avengers had stepped up when the Avengers began floundering with the Tony-Stark-not-Tony-Stark-actually-bad-guy-Doctor-Doom situation and while the world had recognized them for it, their older counterparts had not. And it was beyond aggravating.
Which is why Kate was looking forward to avoiding the Avengers’ Tower by going straight to her apartment and sleeping until her mission induced jet lag figured itself out.
Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Kate groaned in frustration as the key to her apartment jammed, with a curse she gave the handle a firm twist and pushed into her living area. Kate tossed her keys aside and let her pack fall to the floor before finally glancing around the loft. The sight that met her gaze caused a dull ache to begin forming at the base of her skull.
“Okay, …can we please agree that breaking and entering is a crime?” Kate’s frustration made Kamala tilt her head from where she was sprawled on the archer’s couch and shrug.
“Sure, but is it really breaking and entering if you have a key?” Kamala asks cheerfully.
“Since when do you have a key?” Kate demands but clattering from the kitchen draws her eyes away from the sheepish Ms. Marvel to the guilty expressions gracing Tommy and Billy’s faces. The speedster had been digging around the cabinets while Billy was boiling water on the archer’s stove. Right, of course the wonder twins were involved. “Which one of you illegally stole and copied my apartment key?”
“‘Illegally’ is such a mean word.” Tommy hedges.
Billy nods in agreement. “And we didn’t steal, we temporarily borrowed.”
“Also, are you aware the only food you have is Mac n’ Cheese?” Tommy questions as he hands several boxes of the mentioned meal to Billy who promptly dumps the pasta into the boiling water.
Kate can’t help but grit her teeth as the dull ache turns into a full blown migraine. “Yes, I am aware I only have Mac n’ Cheese. I like Mac n’ Cheese and— America, get out of my liquor, you’re seventeen.” Kate barely pauses as America hits her head with a yelp as she withdraws from the alcohol cabinet with a rueful grin. “And ‘temporarily borrowing’ a key to copy it is still illegal.”
“Sorry, fearless leader,” Cassie’s voice sounds from behind Kate, making the archer jump. Spinning around, Kate spots Cassie leaning against the wall next to her door. Spying the amusement in Cassie’s expression, Kate does the mature thing and flips her off causing a grin to blossom as her traitor of a co-captain shrugs. “I tried to stop them but they were determined.” Cassie pushes off the wall and hands Kate a bottle as she walks past to sit on the couch that now held both Kamala and America.
Glancing toward the white medicine bottle in her hand, Kate snorts at the Excedrin label glaring up at her. A water bottle comes into view and Kate follows the arm to an apologetic Eddie who shrugs helplessly before moving to join Billy and Tommy in the kitchen after Kate snatches the bottle from his hand gratefully.
Staring at her teammates in resignation, the archer knocks back two migraine pills and makes her way to her full couch. Kate taps Kamala’s feet off her coffee table and, without warning, flops across her female teammate’s laps. They grunt but, after shifting around, accept her presence, the archer’s feet over Kamala and her head in Cassie’s lap with America trapped in the middle. It isn’t long before Cassie reinstates herself as Kate’s favorite when the twenty-two year old’s hands begin running through Kate’s hair while periodically pausing to massage the knots along the archer’s neck.
With her migraine receding and her teammates surrounding her, Kate finally lets herself relax. The tension and frustration she had been holding onto since their mission had been foisted upon them finally beginning to fade. Letting her eyes fall shut, Kate sighed and said what they were all thinking. “So… the Avengers are being jackasses.”
And with that the dam broke.
“Thank the goddesses I’m not the only one who noticed.”
“I mean I wasn’t going to say anything…”
“Allow me, what the fuck is wrong with them?”
“I know we’re technically their subordinates but like seriously.”
Kate lets them rant. On one hand, the archer understood the stress the Avengers are experiencing and most of them actually were handling it well. The problem was the few Avengers their team was interacting with were not handling it as well as they could be. And normally, Kate wouldn’t let the others go off in such a manner but the second one of the so-called “Fantastic Four” snapped at her team members, Kate stopped giving a fuck.
“My biggest issue is that we could be helping them but, no, we’re left picking up the messes they don’t want to deal with.” Kamala’s annoyance is echoed by the others as she continues. “I mean, arguably, I have an ace in the hole they could use but they’re refusing to.”
“Yeah, exactly…” Tommy frowns. “Wait, what ‘ace in the hole?’” The topic has Kate opening her eyes as the team focuses on Ms. Marvel.
Kamala blinks. “Monica Rambeau. She’s stuck in a universe with a Doctor Doom that’s relatively peaceful. If we could contact her, he could give us a way to either beat this Doctor Doom or to talk him down.” There’s a stunned silence as the team stares in bewilderment.
“Kamala…” Cassie begins. “Why have you never mentioned this before?” She shakes her head and holds up a hand. “Better yet, how do you even know this?”
“Oh, right. Monica, Carol, and I are still kind of connected, so sometimes we get flashes of what’s going on around each other. And I mean, I told the Avengers, but they didn’t think I had a reliable method of communication and moved on.” Kamala shrugs. “I didn’t think to mention it after they dismissed the idea but, like, now I’m angry, and…” Ms. Marvel gestures to America. “We have a teammate who can jump dimensions.”
“Still can’t control it that well and you don’t know what universe Monica is in.” America’s protest is waved aside.
“No, but we could figure something out.”
Kate flails around, trying to resituate herself to squeeze into a sitting position on the couch as Tommy, Billy, and Eddie hand out bowls of Mac n’ Cheese to the team members and take a seat in chairs they dragged over. Rubbing her face, Kate feels her headache returning in full force. Cassie meets her gaze and grimaces in agreement with the leader’s frustration. This whole time they could have been helping save lives, not just with their missions but with the global crisis happening, and the Avengers had ignored them as an option.
“Right,” Kate’s voice cuts through the room. “Kamala, do you think we could contact Monica?”
Eddie’s eyebrows raise. “Wait, are we doing this without the Avengers permission? They ordered us to stay out of this conflict. Are we sure?”
“Yes,” Cassie and Tommy declare without a second of hesitation.
“I don’t know,” Kamala says to Kate. “It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten a flash from Monica. I’m kind of afraid something has happened to her. What if she’s… what if she’s dead?”
A muted silence fills the room as the team considers the option. Suddenly, Billy blinks before grinning and wiggling his eyebrows at Eddie and his brother from another mother. “Actually, I think I know someone who could tell us if she’s dead or not.”
Eddie groans but Tommy positively cackles. “Oh, Wanda will not be happy about this.”
“Yeah, well, Wanda doesn’t need to know.” Billy shoots back, his grin spreading. “Besides, she could probably help us figure out how to communicate across dimensions and if that doesn’t work, and she’s in the mood, she could probably figure out how to beat Doctor Doom herself.”
“‘In the mood,’ you mean if she’s bored enough.” Eddie says with a snort.
“Exactly,” Tommy agrees. And for a split second the boys share a look that speaks to a shared experience the female members of the team couldn’t relate to.
“Okay, not to sound impatient or anything.” America cuts in. “But who are you guys talking about?”
They grin. “Agatha Harkness.”
Silence.
“Am I the only one who has no idea who that is?” Cassie questions, to which Kamala and Kate second.
“Actually, I think I’ve heard of her.” America says, leaning forward in interest. “At Kamar-Taj. She’s like four hundred years old, right? Strange was pissed last year because she stole a book of magic right out from under his nose. Left a calling card and everything.” America sighs in fond remembrance. “I have never seen Strange so frustrated, it was glorious.”
“We know.” Tommy laughs.
“Who do you think helped her steal it?” Billy adds with a grin as Eddie sinks into his seat sheepishly.
“Love, I don’t think we’re supposed to be proud about stealing.”
“Right,” Billy snorts. “Like you didn’t have fun impersonating Madisynn.” The Skrull-Kree hybrid laughs bashfully before biting his lip in a failed attempt to hide his mirth.
“Lovely,” Kate groans. “So you're all full blown criminals, not just the occasional breaking and entering type.”
“Shhh, I want to hear this story.” Unfortunately, Kamala would have to wait for the story as Billy and Tommy’s phones began to ring.
The names ‘Vision’ and ‘Wanda’ appear on their respective phones and for a second the reincarnated twins stare before declining the calls. And suddenly every Young Avenger is aware their talk of disobeying orders was about to become much more well known if the Scarlet Witch decided to track her wayward sons. Sharing glances, the air in Kate’s loft grows still as they silently come to the same decision.
Yes, they were going to disobey orders. Yes, they were going to seek out someone the Avengers wanted them to stay away from. And yes, they were going to help save the world. Because they could and they were going to look great while doing so.
Billy grins as Kate nods his way in silent approval. Leaning over, Billy kisses Eddie before practically skipping over to the nearest door frame and closes the door. Holding his hand out as blue symbols appear at his fingertips, Billy takes a deep breath and with his exhale presses his middle finger into the center of the door.
The room seems to vibrate as patterns burn their way across the wooden frame. Swirls and runes and emblems blossom into existence even as the door itself begins to waver in their eyesight. Almost as if reality was trying to pull the wood in two directions and the doorway was confused as to which way was open and which way was closed.
Kamala and America both let out gasps as Billy pulls away from the shimmering door and they stare at him in awe.
“That…” Kamala’s brow furrows. “I have no idea what you just did, but time and space are feeling very loose in that doorway.”
America laughs. “He made a portal. But… it doesn’t lead anywhere in this world?”
“Yes. It’s a portal to a pocket dimension. Full disclosure, when we walk through this door the portal will fade behind us. Meaning we’ll have to exit the dimension using one of the permanent doorways. So this isn’t exactly going to be a quick trip.” Billy warns them, but Kate knows their minds are already set on this road.
Sighing, Kate pulls out her phone and fires off a text. “Good news, I just told the Avengers we’re taking a week's vacation.” Kate grins as the team snickers. “Bad news, they’re probably going to try finding us any minute now.”
For a second no one moves, then all at once it’s a mad scramble to squeeze feet into shoes, shovel Mac n’ Cheese into mouths, and stuff phones into pockets. Tommy, of course, is the first one through the enchanted door, followed closely by Kamala and America. Cassie ends up dragging Eddie through as the poor boy attempts to get one last bit of food, leaving Kate and Billy as the only two in the loft.
“How badly are we going to end up regretting this?” For some reason, Billy laughs at her question.
“Honestly, it could go either way.” Billy grins. “Agatha has the unique ability to make you simultaneously regret your life decisions while also making you realize there’s nowhere else you’d rather be.”
Snorting, Kate takes the answer at face value and walks through the portal with Billy following close behind. Leaving the team to blink in awe as their world shifts and the door fades from existence behind them.
“Woah.” Kate isn’t sure who said it, it might have been all of them, it might have been just her but either way she understood the sentiment.
Sprawled out before them were dozens of buildings, each one looking to have been plucked from a different era of time all together. The hodgepodge of architecture shouldn’t have worked together but something about it just fit.
Something about how the air itself seemed to vibrate with energy and vitality and magic made it seem like anything was possible. Anything at all.
“Welcome to New Salem.” Billy proclaims proudly. “Also known as the Witches’ Haven.”
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The Witches’ Road, 2026
Agatha rubbed her face in exhaustion as she slid down a tree to sit on the Road beneath her.
Sharon, then Alice, and now Lilia. All gone. All because of her. Agatha had killed and tricked and destroyed plenty of times in her lifetime. Plenty of people have died because of Agatha, but no one has ever died for her. And now three have.
A part of her didn’t want to care, didn’t want to feel guilty. But the larger portion of her mind, the side that felt unbalanced and raw without the Darkhold to hold her emotions in check, desperately wanted to cry. Worse, she longed to be held. To be wrapped in the only arms she ever felt safe in and never leave.
Agatha sighed and looked over to where Jen and Billy were sleeping in the distance. Far enough away they wouldn’t hear her if she broke but close enough she would know if they needed her.
Not that they’d ask for help. Not after learning Rio was Death. As if it was Agatha’s fault Rio had existed since time immemorial.
Without her permission, a humorless laugh escapes the siphon witch. Her mother always had said Agatha was marked for Death. Who knows, maybe she had been made in such a way to love only Death and that only Death could love her. And even then, Agatha had driven Rio away.
She closed her eyes. The Road’s new moon ensured the forest was draped in darkness, the only light coming from the glowing green roots twisting through the trees. The whole forest was cast in a verdant glow and Agatha didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to be reminded of who was missing from her side.
Even her locket felt heavy, hanging from her neck as a constant reminder of how badly she had messed up. A reminder of all the reasons Agatha didn’t deserve love, and she knew if she were to open the locket once more, she would see precisely why even Death was too good for her.
Agatha didn’t open the locket.
“You know how this will end.” Death’s voice pulls Agatha’s eyes open, but the siphoner doesn’t turn. Instead, she lets Rio draw near to where she was sitting at the edge of the Road.
It’s only when the Green witch was crouching before her that Agatha meets her gaze. “Why?” She questions.
“I hurt you.” Rio states sadly, like it was a fact she knew she could never undo. “I did my job and… I lost you. I don’t have anything else.” She didn’t elaborate, she didn’t have to. They had both lost each other, they had both lost Nicholas. And what did it leave them with? No wife, no child, no coven. What else was there to do, but what they were created to do?
And yet, here was Death, still trying to give everything she could to the one person who probably deserved it the least. Agatha laughed once more and tried to ignore how it turned into more of a choked sob. Goddesses, she was pathetic. If only her mother could see her now.
Cool hands cradling her face pulls the siphoner from her thoughts. “Stay with me,” Rio soothes and begs in equal measure. “Be with me while… while you still can.” The crack in Rio’s plea cuts through Agatha’s stubborn resistance to Death’s pull and before either of them registers the action, Agatha is drawing Rio near. Straining to be closer even as she settles Rio over her legs so the Green witch is straddling the siphoner.
“Kiss me.”
“Agatha.”
“Kiss me.” Agatha’s hands flexing around Rio’s waist, as she pulls Death ever near. “ Please .”
Rio shudders, her neck bending so their foreheads pressed together. “You want me to make you forget.” Rio breathes against her lips.
“No,” Agatha corrects in a sigh, nudging their noses together gently. “I want you to help me remember what the Darkhold tried desperately to erase but never could.”
Rio’s breath hitches and then, finally , she was being kissed. Smooth lips pressing gently against her own in a tentative reintroduction of what had once been familiar. Agatha’s eyes immediately shut as she feels Rio’s lips adjust and part to take her bottom lip in her mouth, and Agatha’s hand slides into that wild, dark hair.
Whatever Rio had intended this kiss to be, it quickly dissolved into something else. Something that quaked in Agatha’s stomach and had her humming as Rio’s tongue slipped briefly under her top lip, and she ached to chase it, to reclaim every inch of the entity atop her. And it was too soon when she felt Rio pull away slowly.
Death was looking at her in awe and Agatha’s eyes fluttered in a desperate attempt to stave off tears as Rio’s fingers brushed against the witch’s lips reverently. “I remember this.” A sharp inhale. “I’ll always remember this, it’s written into my very being. Not even the One-Above-All could make me forget.”
Agatha trembled at the oath and she wrapped her arms around Rio, cradling the immortal impossibly closer to press her lips against the Green witch’s forehead. Holding her there for a second, for a lifetime, trying to infuse as much love she was capable of into the gesture. For a moment they held themselves still, simply breathing, absorbing all that each other were, until Agatha shuddered and moved. Brushing her lips over eyelids and cheekbones, before finally capturing Rio’s lips in a heated kiss. Her hands pushing Rio’s jacket off and sliding across any available skin, needing to feel Rio under her palms, her fingers moving everywhere, in a desperate attempt to relearn all they could.
Unfreezing, Rio wrapped her arms around the Purple witch’s neck, one hand in her hair as she rocked her hips and both women groaned at the contact. Agatha broke the kiss, her lips blazing a trail down Rio’s neck as Death arched to give her better access and was rewarded when Agatha dragged her teeth across her pulse point, eliciting a moan. “Yes.” She hissed out and the simple word went straight through Agatha, desire pooling in her core.
Her hands slipped around to Rio’s side, her fingers splayed out, covering as much skin as she could. She felt the ribs of the other woman, tracing them with light touches and then slid her hands upwards, under her slitted shirt, until her thumbs were brushing the underside of Rio’s bare breasts. She stroked the soft skin there, teasing the other woman whose lips were nipping a path along her neck. Each pass of her thumbs moved slowly higher and were accompanied by gasps that sent tingles down her spine and wetness flooding her center.
Rio tried to hurry Agatha along, her need becoming desperate as she tried to push Agatha’s arm and therefore her hand higher but the siphon resisted, enjoying the effect she was having on Death.
“Touch me, damn it.” Rio growled in her ear and it brought a smile to Agatha’s lips as she relented, allowing her hands to cup the warm flesh, her thumbs sliding out to brush across the taut nipples.
Rio arched into her hands, hips driving down, craving some friction to ease the ache building between her legs. She muffled a moan against Agatha’s neck by biting down, a hoarse cry flying from the witch’s lips in response. It wasn’t enough and whatever patience Agatha thought she had was very close to running out. Agatha needed to have Rio now, needed Rio to have her just as fiercely. She reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, yanking it over her head. She repeated the move, this time taking hold of the irritating cloth still separating her from Rio and practically tore it off.
Rio laughed hoarsely at Agatha’s desperation, but before the witch could do something to retaliate, Death’s hands began their own re-exploration of Agatha’s skin drawing ragged breaths from the siphoner. Rio pulled Agatha tight against her and she brought their lips together again, her tongue demanding entrance which Agatha was only too happy to oblige. Slowly, Agatha’s hands came up to cup Rio’s cheeks as she broke the kiss, and looked into glazed eyes. Agatha desperately wanted to confess the depths of her feelings that still remained but the words wouldn’t come, she couldn’t make them and all she could hope was that this wouldn’t be the last time she got the chance to express them.
Rio pants before blinking slowly, trying to clear the haze settling over her mind. “You okay?” And her concern pushed Agatha’s worries from her mind
“Goddesses, yes.” Agatha rasped as she leaned in for another kiss. Desperate fingers scrambling to work their way past Rio’s pants only to meet resistance. “Why do you always wear such restricting clothes?”
Rio laughed once more, her breath warm against Agatha’s ear causing shivers to run down her spine. “To annoy you of course.” And then Rio was rolling them so Agatha’s back pressed into the soft moss covered ground as the Green witch settled between her legs. “You’re beautiful.” Death spoke against her lips, easily unbuttoning the brunette’s pants, but, to Agatha’s frustration, did nothing with her new access. “Still a bit overdressed, though. But I’ll make do.” Rio continued as she kissed her way down Agatha’s neck and collarbone, only stopping when her lips met cloth covered breasts. “Okay?” Rio hooked her fingers into the bra’s waistband and looked up, waiting.
But Agatha was done waiting. Rio’s habit of giving freely while taking only what Agatha offered was the final straw to the Purple witch’s already flimsy resistance. “Goddesses, just touch me and don’t stop.” Agatha moaned in Rio’s ear. And Death followed her command.
Hours later, Agatha would wake alone. Sore and satisfied in ways she hadn’t been in almost a century as she pulled her clothes back on. Slowly, she made her way to the still sleeping Jen and Teen with her hand gripping her locket. The weight of it heavier than ever as loneliness filled her. And in that moment, as she shook the remaining members of her coven awake to face the last trial, she made a promise.
Death’s rules could not be broken, but they could be bent and Agatha would be damned before she let the opportunity Rio had given her to do just that slip through her fingers.