Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Agatha Harkness was smart. She has lived this long for a reason. Granted she is fueled by a very strong motivation which is simply put: don’t die, but it has gotten her this far right?
Being a covenless witch has had its share of ups and downs but despite it all, she was a survivor. And one doesn’t simply survive by trusting everything around them. You must learn and adapt and take. You have to look out for number one and not rely on anyone else (except when you’re syphoning the life out of other witches)

But I guess that is where her first lie comes into play. Agatha didn’t know it at the time, or maybe she didn’t want to admit it, but she relied on one person reoccurring throughout her long life. One entity person who, like a shadow never left her side. The same entity person who will never leave her side. Even when they hated each other, She is constant.

As solid as the ground she walks every day.

“So why can’t I feel her?”

She was in the middle of a teaching levitation to none other than Billy Maximoff when she felt a sudden sharp pain in her chest and the connection went slack. It took her breath away and Billy had the nerve to ask what was wrong.
She ignored the teen as she walked a few feet away from him and channeled a good amount of energy through the bond that they had created years ago.

“Rio?” Silence.

There were exactly 3 (maybe 4) things Agatha Harkness knew to be true. Now, being alive for over 300 years, that doesn’t seem to be very impressive. It’s not that she wasn’t paying attention for the last 3 centuries, it was more like- being alive for so long you tend to see truths crumble. Such as, women simply being more educated than a man, would inevitably mean she is a witch, and should be killed. Or that no person would ever fly to the moon. That one even impressed her.

The first truth was that, She, Agatha Harkness, held a power over Death. No, Rio, not Death. She had a power over Rio Vidal, who just so happens to hold the power of Death… she found this out first by accident. Being teenagers in the midst of the 1600s, falling in to such passionate love, without knowing what will happen throughout the course of her life.

It took Agatha five whole seconds to figure out who Rio was. After killing her mother she laid eyes upon her for the first time and was speechless at her beauty. Not at all what Agatha envisioned “Death” to look like, with her big brown eyes, long dark hair and rosy cheeks, Agatha tilted her head at the woman.

The stories always told about a skeletal figure dressed in all black, reaping your soul and whisking it away to the afterlife. But even in this (gorgeous) human form, Agatha could feel the power radiating off of the woman who stood just feet away from her. “Why do you hide your true form?”

Rio had stayed silent for a second or two, mirroring Agathas head tilt as if she was confused. “I didn’t want to scare you.”

Agatha let out a watery laugh, emotions still high from her power grab off her whole coven. “I just killed my Mother, and you’re worried you’ll scare me?”

It started slowly at first, little acts of genuine love sprinkled around her constantly. She could feel Death, Rio follow her through her travels. Flowers being left for Agatha on pathways where she would walk; some Agatha had never seen before and would later find out no one else ever would again. Getting bitten by a mosquito happened exactly 2 times before the nasty little things vanished, the annoying buzzing never heard by her ears again. Fish was always bountiful when she was hungry, and the water always crystal clear for drinking.

Rio had loved her wholly and deeply and Agatha had loved her just as fiercely.

Rio would never admit to bending rules for Agatha, but a part of her always knew that no one else in history got this kind of attention, and she loved it.
After some time had passed, they decided to get married and to no ones surprise, Lady Death suggested binding their souls at the same time. It was a beautifully perfect ceremony of just the two of them and the moon shining bight in the sky.

Agatha had realized back then how perfect they seemed to fit together. The Witch Killer and Lady Death. It had a nice ring to it and it was a great way to balance work and play.

Often times, Agatha would love to attract the attention of the wrong crowd. Her title as a witch killer did get around quickly so it was hard to find reliable siphoning sources in some places. So to have a little fun, mostly because she missed her wife, she would kill the occasional mortal man in order to get a minute alone with her wife. She would saunter over to Rio with a grin on her face, sweep her arms out and say “Surprise!” when Death would show up.

Many times, this would put a bounty on her head. The average man never cared when women would end up missing or dead, especially if that woman had ties to witchcraft. For instance, around the time of the Salem Witch Trials, Agatha had a perfect date night planned for her and Rio that was sure to impress. She would start by enticing a few willing participants one at a time down to the river by pretending to be grossly interested in them. She would fake innocence and shyness till she had them eating out of her palm. In the end, they would suggest a picnic by the river as if it were their idea and she hadn’t set the whole thing up, there she would kill them and present their souls to her loving wife.

Rio and Agatha had a bet to see how many fools she could get to agree to meet their demise in one night. Plus, every man had brought the picnic that was promised, so it was like dinner and a show.
Except there was one man who had sat back and watched as Agatha had made her move on five oblivious men, and was advancing on a sixth. It was shaping up to be a new record. He had secretly alerted a few of his men to her actions and as a group, followed Agatha and her sixth and now final victim of the night down to the river.

Once at her location, the man saw the multiple picnic baskets thrown around and the obvious signs of struggle from her previous fun. Rio had taken care of the bodies so nothing could eventually be traced back to Agatha, so sweet of her.

The man faltered, “What’s all this about?” he gestured to the mess lying about.

“Well to be honest, I didn’t have the energy to clean up before you got here.” She said with a sigh. “Im only adding you to the list because my wife didn’t think I could go one more round.”

“Wife? What? What are you going on ab-“ He stopped mid-sentence when he heard the sounds of a group of men with torches running towards them. Agatha lowered her shoulders with an eye roll, her wife just had to be right. Soon the two of them were surrounded by about ten men. All of which were holding torches that dimly lit up the scene of the crime.

“You! Woman! What is your business here?” one yelled, she could figure out who it was exactly since all of them kind of looked the same.

“Who me?” she once again donned on her sugar sweet persona. “Why, I was just hoping to have a nice meal with this handsome gentleman here. What seems to be the trouble sir?” ugh it made her skin crawl to speak to anyone like that let alone a man. But they tended to be such simple creatures.

“Hey that’s Johns hat!” Idiot number... lets say 5, pointed to a hat that was tattered lying in the mud close to the water. “What did you do to him!?” He started towards her with his pocket knife in hand. This one was more aggravated than the last, must have been a friend.

Agatha could hold it together any longer. She was tired, full from all the food that was kindly brought to her by five other men, and now these guys were ruining her date night with Rio. She looked down at the ground, hiding her face from view and laughed. Quietly at first, but it bubbled up to the surface till she was hackling outloud. The men went silent as the laughter made them all grow uneasy. She slowly looked up and her eyes were shining purple.

Rio, who was probably finishing up ferrying her latest casualty across the river, had yet to return. She usually stayed in the shadows when mortals were around. She never tended to dabble in such affairs. That was until Agatha was in trouble….like now. “Sweet heart? Darling? We may have a little situation on our hands. It seems I should have maybe stopped at five bodies tonight like you suggested” she spoke through the bond they shared, a little too calmly.

“Are you admitting to being wrong my love?” came a sultry voice through her head.
“Well seeing as I am on empty in the magic reserves, I guess Ill have to admit defeat if it means you'll come to my rescue?” Agatha really only had enough magic to put on a show since she seemed to have dried up all of Salem of witches who would trust her enough to siphon.

She heard a sigh float through her head and just a slight amount of worry cross through her own chest, “ How many?”
“About 11 including the one that was going to push me through a new personal bes-.”

“Shes a Witch!”

“Grab her!”

“Who else did she kill!?”

“I found Sam’s gun over here!”

All hell broke loose in front of her as the men pulled out rope and guns out of nowhere. They rushed her as she was telepathically speaking to her wife, how very rude, and started roughly tying her hands behind her back.

“My love, not to rush you, but any day would be great, these guys are actually competent on tying knots.” She didn’t outwardly show her discomfort, but it was safe to say these men were not taking chances with her. Rightfully so. She may be void of her power, but it did not mean she was power-less.

Rio didn’t respond after that. Nothing but the soothing emotion came through their bond which let Agatha know that Rio was going to come through.

The little flirt...

“Lets burn her!”

“No! Lets tie her up and throw her in the river!”

“Torture her! Do to her what she did to our men!”

It was always the same ol song and dance with these folks. Like, come up with something more creative would you? She sometimes felt like she would die of boredom before they ever got around to killing her.

“What is your name Witch?” A man with a striking grey mustache spoke to her.

She let her eyes flash purple once more and gave him a haunting smile. “My name will mean nothing to you in a few moments.”

A hand smacked her across the face with enough force to send her to the ground. Having her hands tied meant she took the brunt of the impact to her shoulder and head.
“Darling what the HELL? Where are you? I can feel you’re close!” She moved to sit up, lip now busted and bleeding.

“You know I’m not supposed to interfere with mortal lives.” Ugh again with the flirting! Her tone was even, but Agatha could feel the strain it was taking Rio not to out right combust.

“I asked a question wench!” the men around him cheered. “I guess you’re right, your name doesn’t matter, seeing as you’ll be dead, nothing left to remember you by.” He effortlessly hoisted her up to her feet with one hand under her arm. “I think she needs to go for a swim! What do you say lads?!” they began to cheer louder than before and collectively walked her to the edge of the water.
“Any last words Witch?” He sneered in her ear.

Agatha tilted her head to the side when she got a familiar feeling. Her wife was near, and very angry. Oh how she loved when her wife got angry. “Why yes I do actually” she used that cheery voice that she hated. He looked at her and waited. She leaned in to whisper in his ear so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. “I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this.” And she smiled with all teeth.

The air suddenly got cold. Very cold. Darkness creeped in from the water and the tops of the trees. Then men started to grow quiet as they noticed that even with the flames from the torches, the darkness still persisted. “SIR! Look!” one man yelled and pointed to the middle of the river. There standing like a statue on top of the water, was a figure clad in all black flowing robes the face hidden under a baggy hood, and undoubtedly looking straight at them was Lady Death.

Agatha knew who and what the men were terrified of, but she never took her smiling face off the man who still held her arm in a vice like grip. She was truly enjoying the moment, enough so that she didn’t turn to look at her stunning wife for a few more seconds.

Death walked across the water slowly towards the men who seemed to be paralyzed. Once she was close enough, she allowed her hood to fall back just enough to show them all her skeletal face. She was magnificent. Terrifying in the most sexy way possible. Death looked at all of them with her hollowed out eyes and spoke in a low voice that seemed like multiple voices in one.
“Who did thisss?” she slowly brought a hand to Agatha's bleeding face.

No one answered. In fact, one by one they started to retreat as clumsy as they could. But no one could out run her wife. With a flick of her hand, vines rushed the men wrapping around ankles, wrists, and necks and suspending them in the air all around them. Mustache man still had a death grip on Agathas arm and was frozen with fear. His eyes wide and glued to Death. “Ill ask you again. WHO DID THISSS?” she was inches away from his face. Hollow eyes looked down and noticed the hold on her arm.

Agatha heard a snap and immediately was released from his grip, she looked down and saw Rio had broken the mans arm. He yelped in pain, finally broken from his paralysis and fell to the ground. He was shaking and breathing erratically but still not speaking. Meanwhile the other men were fruitlessly struggling against their vines. With the immediate threat gone, Rio untied Agatha’s hands and continued to check her over.

“Darling you look a mess. I left you alone for two seconds and you almost get yourself killed. For what? A new record?” she guided Agatha’s chin up and gently kissed her split lip, healing it immediately.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me get hurt.” Rio lifted her wrists to her mouth and peppered open mouth kisses to each, soothing the rope burn. “Will you get in trouble for interfering?” there was a slight worry to her tone.

Instead of answering her question, Rio turned to her fleshy form and kissed her passionately on the lips. Once finished, Agatha turned to look at the man on the ground. He was completely still, he seemed to have died of fright. Rio never looked away from her face as Agatha realized what had happened. She spun towards Rio with a look of shock, eyes frantic, “Now you’ll definitely be in trouble! You weren’t supposed to kill him! You should have left him for me!”

Agatha didn't understand Lady Deaths fine print. But she did know that interfering in the lives (and deaths) of mortals was a big no no.

“My love, he was hurting you. Plus, I could probably blame it on the fact that he died of a heart attack, not from me.” Rio said with a small smile. Her tone was so much sweeter when talking to Agatha rather than the deep monstrous (sexy) voice she used just moments before.

Agatha cupped Rios face and spoke softly, “This was a great date Rio, I even bested my own personal record!”

“You didn’t kill the last one, he died of natural causes, your number still stands at five. Better luck next time my Love.” Rio laughed while holding Agatha at the waist. With a quiet urgency, Rio pulled her away from the chaos they created. Soon the struggling men in the trees slowly went still, Rio felt the pull to do her job but didn’t say anything right away, instead she waited until she felt the pull of the tenth and final soul before speaking.

“I need to go to work, ill be just a couple hours, I left my post for longer than I intended. Keep walking along the river until I return. Ill be able to keep watch over you to make sure you stay out of trouble.”

With a final kiss goodnight, Rio ripped a hole in reality with her dagger and stepped inside.

“Te veo.” And left with a wink.

Chapter Text

Agatha could still feel the bond she shared with her wife, just very faintly. It was as if standing in a crowded park and seeing just the glimpse of someone you recognized, but as soon as you tried to get a closer look, they were gone. It was just out of reach, like the smallest breeze on a scorching hot day, barely enough to cool the sweat already coating your face.

She remembered another time when the connection had all but disappeared, another life time. Full of hate, furry, and cowardliness. A time where nothing else mattered except getting her hands on a certain book.

But this is not that time. This was Rio who vanished, Rio would never. She swore it a million times over. She was always around, and if she wasn’t, it was easy to summon her; all she had to do was kill someone. But who? She looked for a split second at the teen…. No. she couldn’t. That would be too much, too soon. If she killed teen just to summon death, and nothing ended up being wrong, then… well then that would seem like she was panicking.

She was not to panicking, Agatha Harkness does not panic.

It had been some time since she last killed for fun. As of late, her circumstances have been quite literally life or death situations which really took away from having a good laugh. Also as hypocritical as teen was, he was very against her killing, and Agatha really didn’t want to end up in another hex. Especially when Rio was MIA.

“Take me to the hospital.” She demanded from Teen.

“What? Why? I thought we were going to look for Rio.” He asked too many questions for his own good.

“Yes, that’s great Teen, I’m glad you’re paying attention. But unless you want me to kill you, or someone one of my neighbors, I need to go to a place where people are always dying.” She took a shaky breath before continuing, talking slowly as if she were talking to a child and that child couldn’t keep up “Rio always shows up after someone has kicked the bucket! I’ve never needed to go to a hospital, therefore I don’t know where it is. So lets get a move on!”

In a flash, they were on the road.

They lost count of the hours they spent at the hospital. But apparently this was a great hospital because not nearly as many people died as she had hoped. But still, there were deaths, but no Death. They waited around the hallways of rooms that housed mourning families, but as it was, after they died, Rio never showed up to collect their souls.

“Rio darling, your work is starting to pile up…”

Where was Rio? And why wasn’t she answering her pleas?

On the drive back to Westview, Agatha came to realize her second truth that she, without a doubt understood which was, Death was inevitable. For years Agatha killed witch after witch and would always wait to see Death come collect the souls. It was a game, and it was fun, and sometimes, a bit sexy.

“You’re staring mi amor.” Death, dressed in her all black robes and skeletal figure, would say without looking up from the freshly slain body.

“I can’t help it. I like watching you work.” Agatha would slowly circle Death her wife without blinking. Eyeing her like she was ready to pounce. (She never would though; Death took her job very seriously.)

Sometimes while lying under the stars on a quiet night, she would have to suddenly leave to collect her little trophy’s. Rios face shifting to striking ivory bone before creating a beautiful flower in the palm of her hand to give to Agatha. She would lean in close and whisper “Te veo” lovingly in her ear. As much as she would hate her love leaving at random hours of the day, Rio always made sure the fire was burning extra hot and the protection wards were in place.

Many times Rio would come to her, saddened by work day. She would be unusually quiet, eyes downcast. “What happened my love?” it was usually the same old story; an unjust death of a mother, a child who was abused, or the occasional witch who was murdered.

Despite what many people would believe, Death had a heart, and it was pure gold.

They would spend their time together in mostly silence; Rio would create intricate flower crowns for both of them to wear, and Agatha would praise her art until Death would ultimately be called on again. Always staying until the tug became too uncomfortable to ignore. When Agatha would wait for her return, she would thank the Goddess that death was on her side. That she had no one other than the entity herself to love, and that she would never know grief from losing a loved one that she held close.

Soon she learned that was not a fundamental truth. nothing in this world could keep Death at bay. Not even falling completely head over heels in desperate love with Death herself then marrying and having a child with said being. When your time is up, She will come.

Now, if you ask Agatha, it took a couple hundred years to truly believe this. She was adamant that Death was her biggest fan. Someone who would destroy the earth itself in order to keep Agatha satisfied.

She was wrong. Death had one sole purpose in this universe, and unfortunately in spite of what she wanted to believe, it wasn’t to love Agatha Harkness. Rio Vidal was the natural order of all things and no amount of hatred or blame could sway her duties.

But in all honesty, somewhere looking back in all those years, she wonders if she ever really did blame Death, or if Death was just easier to punish. Either way, Agatha has come to realize that death gave her something to cherish and to hold for the rest of her life. The memory of their son, no matter how short his time with her was, was better than never having it at all.

Nicky was a gift. He was sent to Agatha (and Rio) made purely from love. Even after pushing Rio Death, away due to the ever constant fear of him being taken from her, she loved every minute she was gifted. It was a sad day when Agatha Harkness had to come to terms with the fact that her wife had a job to do. And Rio Vidal had altered the sacred balance in order for it to happen. Sometimes, boys die. And even Death herself can’t change the inevitable. There was no separation between Death and her loving wife.

“I didn’t want to do it My Love, you must believe me.” Rio had spoken to her while she was sitting next to the river with her back turned. Agatha knew her wife was creeping in the shadows. Most likely due to not knowing how to approach her without being turned to dust. (if anyone could, itd be Agatha)

It had been two weeks since Death came for Nicky, but she knew Rio was around constantly, silently watching over Agatha. She could feel her when she was near and would once again notice the strange flowers and generous amounts of fruit trees that grew close to her path.

Agatha stood slowly, not turning to face her wife. She said nothing for a while, letting the sounds of the babbling river and buzzing insects fill the hollow hole that was between them.

“I tried to tell you that he needed to come with me years ago, I have to keep the bal-“ She was cut off by Agatha turning and fixing her with the most haunting glare she had ever seen on her wife’s face. Her eyes were blood shot and watering, not yet letting tears fall. Although there were tear tracks trailing through the dirt on her face as if she refused to cry in front of Rio. She had never seen her wife look at her with such distrust.

Rio flinched and took a shaky step back at the ferocity of the eyes that were burning into her. She looked down in shame. The overwhelming feeling of rage that was directed at her was suffocating. Agatha had only ever emanated love and lust and occasional possessiveness when being near her.

Rio dropped to her knees, still not looking Agatha in the eyes.

For the first time in two weeks, Agatha felt the smallest amount of shame. Her hair was wild and untamed; she had dark circles under her eyes despite not needing sleep; she looked even paler than her skeletal form. To top it off, Rio stared to cry. The involuntary whip lash of being full of hatred then immediately shifting to sorrow forced Agatha to take a stuttering deep breath, her solid walls she has built fracturing just slightly. Rio was hysterical at this moment, so she didn’t notice.

“Please Agatha, you must understand.” Rio chanced a split second glance up at her wife before quickly lowering her head begging for forgiveness.

Within a fraction of a moment, Agatha turned back to stone. “No Death. You must understand.” Agatha walked slowly over to Rio and stood directly in front of her huddled over form. “I warned you. If you took him, I would hate you. Forever.”

It was starting to get dark. The moon was starting to peek through dark clouds and the stars beginning to shine bright in the sky. If any travelers were to wander by, they surely would get quite the show. A grief stricken Agatha Harkness standing all too calmly over The Lady Death, as she begged on her hands and knees for forgiveness for doing what she has done since the beginning of time.

Rio slowly sat up, but didn’t dare stand, “I loved him too.” She wiped her eyes.

Agatha huffed out a bitter cold laugh. “How dare you.” She said quietly as she turned away from her broken wife and started to walk away. “I want you to stay away from me Death. Ill know if you're near.”

“Agatha please! Don’t do this!” She staggered to her feet, eyes wide with panic. “You don’t understand! I gave you time with him! For the last six years I had to feel his soul screaming to be set free! He needed-“

Agatha turn sharply again and pointed a finger in Rios direction. “He needed more time!”

Silence drug out for what seemed hours. “No, Agatha. You needed more time. And I gave you what I could. What HE could.” Rio said eerily calm. “I could feel his soul in such despair. He hung on for as long as he could, and I allowed it. He was happy yes, but his soul was suffering My Love.” She looked down once more to the earth. “I felt every second of it as if it were my own.”

Agatha stared at her wife with a neutral expression; once again, the river becoming the only sound to break the tension between them. Rio thought for a moment that Agatha had heard what she was saying, that maybe they could work through this heart break. That Agatha would understand the gravity of what she had done for her. Agatha closed the distance between them and wiped a stray tear from Rios face.

“Then may you continue to feel the despair; but from my soul.” She turned and walked away from Rio with long strides. And Rio once more, fell to her knees, but upon landing she was transformed into her skeletal form.

She couldn’t see Agatha anymore but a bitter voice floated through her head, “Looks like you have a job to do Death.”

Chapter Text

Ok at this point, she might be starting to panic.

It has been 24 hours with no sign of Rio. Poor Teen was having to play damage control with a spiraling Agatha Harkness, which was more stressful than the time he realized he was the one to have created the road. She was pacing the floor of her old creaking house and her magic was crackling in her palms.

“Ok, Ok… let me think Teen! I can’t concentrate with your nervous energy oozing out of you!”

“Uhh… sorry?” he sat at the kitchen table sipping a calming tea he had made both of them, hers sat untouched. He’s never seen Agatha spiral before, but according to Rio, there was one memorable moment on the road, but he had been unconscious and Agatha had denied the whole thing. She had always valiantly covered any unintentional emotion with a lie or a witty one liner and carried herself with what should be an illegal amount of grace.

He started to pick at his black fingernail polish, “Ok let’s start from the beginning. Yesterday we were practicing levitating rocks in the yard when you felt what exactly?” He had a scribbled in notebook opened to a new page next to his tea.

“I already told you, it was a sharp pain and then almost nothing.” She stopped her pacing and leaned up against the kitchen counter. She looked exhausted, they both were, and neither had slept since the day before. She reminded him of Detective Agnes, dedicated to an impossible case, worn down, but still steadfast in her search. He was positive they would find Rio.

“Alright well have you ever felt that before?” he started writing down what looked to Agatha like gibberish with his messy hand writing.

Agatha’s mind flashed her back to a terrible time. Well, quite a few terrible times to be honest, but one time in particular.

Something Agatha knows for certain is that despite what people might think, Rio Vidal can feel pain. She knows this because she has been the cause of such feeling both emotional and physical. Over the years of heart break, Agatha has said horrible things to Rio. She blamed the entity for taking her their son away. Rio never complained, she accepted the harsh words and verbal punishment like it was any other Tuesday. She saw the hurt in her eyes and felt the heartbreak every time she walked away from her wife after another countless battle. Agatha knew that with her power over Rio, she had the ability to devour her whole, and so she did.

Now, let it be clear that Agatha Harkness has learned to resent herself for causing such pain to her wife. This is something that only Rio herself could ever forgive, and has reminded Agatha time and time again that she has.

On some occasions, she would lure Death into a trap with freshly killed corpses, seduce her with the promise of a fun wild night, then leave her before anything could happen. Other days she would allow a night of passion, but immediately turn cold once she got what she wanted out of Rio.

In the end, Rio would always show up. She would always have some words of wisdom about how Agatha should or shouldn’t do the things she was doing. For years, centuries even, Agatha would torture Rio without care in the world.

And Rio let her.

Because Rio loved her.

As toxic as that sounds, it’s probably more the fact that with their shared soul bond, Rio could most likely feel every emotion Agatha tried valiantly to hide during these fights. No matter what was said, She knew that Agatha didn’t mean her harsh words or violent blasts of purple that were aimed her way, (but always conveniently missed.) And Agatha could never truly hate her wife.

They were both so broken, but had no idea how to help each other.

There was a fight. It was one of the more brutal ones that happened over the years. Usually their fights were seen as foreplay, with the flirtatious words, and the guarantee of fabulous makeup sex, not to mention Rio always made sure Agatha went home without a scratch. But this one had just a few too many low blows on both parties.

It was the anniversary of Nicky’s death and Agatha was feeling some very strong emotions- to top it off, she had also gotten a hold of the location of the Darkhold and maybe a small amount of a new potion she had brewed to help her get just the right amount of courage to do what needed to be done. She was standing in the middle of a seemingly deserted forest, as if all the animals could sense her power and chose to stay well away, Agatha had barely finished the spell needed to open a portal to the location she desired.

“Agatha, you need to stop. That book will tear you a part!” Rio had solidified out of black smoke directly to Agatha’s left. She was wearing her signature black on black with her matching black eye shadow, meaning she must have come straight from a job, or possibly- seeing the circumstances- left right in the middle of one. She looked good. She looked deadly.

Compared to her wife, Agatha probably looked like she had just been spat out of a hurricane. She was all aggression and fueled by hate fire. She was in her own signature look of purple robes that seemed to glow a faint purple from her swirling emotions. “And you need to leave me alone, Death. Go back to stealing children from their mothers in the middle of the night.”

The use of her cosmic name always hit Rio with a jab when it came out of her wife’s mouth, and Agatha had felt it just as she had for years. But it didn’t deter her from walking forward towards the portal that would take her to the cursed book. The book that held power; all the power; power that could possibly even bring her son back to her- to them.

It could even hold the power to hide from Death. Which she didn’t necessarily want, but in order to bring Nicky back, she would have to hide from Death. Because what she was going to do with that book and her sons souls would well and truly be an abomination to the sacred balance that Rio held so dearly.

But surely once Rio was able to see their sons face once more, she wouldn’t take him again right? She wouldn’t do that to them again, right?

She was drunk on the thought of it (or maybe it was the brew…) the mere thought that they could be a happy whole family again... Nicky needed both of his mothers, that’s why it didn’t work the last time. She would do better this time.

Be better.

She knew Rio wouldn’t understand. The whole “Sacred Balance” this was Rios only personality sometimes. But if she could just obtain this little book, she would be able to hide from her. Not for long, but long enough to bring back their Nicky. She glanced nostalgically to her wife at the thought.

And, well, if Death tried to take him again, she would have the Darkhold to hide them both for as long as she wanted. Rio wouldn’t get to know her son if she was just going to try and take him away again. She easily swapped her mindset from longing to determination, and took a step towards the portal.

Rio grabbed her arm to stop her from continuing her path, but Agatha turned quickly with a burst of purple, and hit her wife square in the chest. Rio flew back and slid across the grass. Agatha had felt the blast as if it had hit her, and for just a moment felt the slightest regret.

 But just for a moment.

Out of the corner of her eye, Agatha caught a glimpse of something shine from a few feet away as her wife slowly stood back up. Deaths dagger. A idea came to her at that moment. A truly evil idea that made her start to question how far Agatha was willing to go in order to get a hold of that book. Turns out, with the help of that brew, she was willing to do just about anything.

Her eyes flashed purple and she summoned the blade to her. Something she was only able to do because of the soul bond they shared. It’s terrible- looking back on it- how something that was supposed to be made out of unpolluted love, was turned into such destruction. She held the dagger in her hands and remembered all the fun they had shared with the blade. It was beautiful and intricate. Something made only for death herself to wield. Rio narrowed her eyes at her wife and went to speak.

“Ag-“

In an instant, Rio hardly had time to react as the blade was bolted with a steam of purple across through air and embedded deeply into Deaths upper thigh.

The pain was immediate, for both of them. But what threw Agatha off the most was the hurt she felt in her heart. It was Rio that she was feeling. Her wife was completely caught off guard. Agatha was the only other person in the universe to be able to touch deaths dagger, and she just abused that right. Maybe it was her own sorrow at actually injuring her wife that she was feeling...

 The constant push and pull of who’s emotions were who’s was exhausting and after centuries of dealing with it, she was ready to sever whatever bond was keeping her from doing what needed to be done. She stood there for only a moment, wide eyed staring at Rio who was now crouched down on one knee looking up at her with tears in her eyes. “This is a new low Agatha, using my own blade against me.” She was breathing heavily as blood started to drip from around the wound. “My blade is meant to reap stubborn souls, not be used in anger.” She tried to dislodge the offending item but it seemed to be stuck deeply in bone.

As she sat there grunting in pain, Agatha tried not to show her own pain on her face. She could feel not only the blade in her own leg, but once again the never ending heartbreak seeping out of her wife. “That should remind you not to tell me what to do Death. I don’t answer to you, and once I have that book, you won’t be able to find me until I want you to. Think of it as a souvenir.”

She was shocked at the words coming out of her mouth. She had drawn blood from Rio in the past with that blade, but never out of anger. She knew there were very few things that could cause harm to Lady Death, and Rio had given her that information willingly to only her.

“Agatha! Please My Love!” Rio tried to stand once again falling to one knee. Getting stabbed was painful, she had to admit, but being stabbed by Deaths Reaping blade was something entirely different. It was meant to dislodge the soul from the body, which meant it had to be struck in a very specific place in order to work properly. So using it as a weapon on its own owner, in a place where it shouldn’t have been used, was confusing the blade. It was trying to reap a soul from a leg, which probably could have worked with a little finesse from Death herself on a typical mortal. But Rio was not typical nor was she mortal. The blade hung on with everything it had, trying again and again to find a soul to reap.

Agatha ignored her wife’s calls as she continued walking towards the portal. She slowly started to feel her connection with death subside the closer she got. She chanced a glance back just to make sure that what she was feeling wasn’t Rio dying. Hoping that what she had done hadn’t caused more damage than was necessary. Her step faltered for only a second when she saw what she was leaving behind. Rio was struggling to rip the blade free. All concentration on putting both hands on the hilt and tugging as hard as she could. The entity started to glow a dark green with the effort. The sight was almost enough to sober Agatha up. Almost.

By the time Rio had managed to yank her blade free of her thigh, Agatha was gone, and with her the connection she had been so used to feeling for centuries. The wound on her leg would heal, but it would need time seeing as it wasn’t a normal weapon that had been used. Nothing would compare to the pain in her black heart knowing the love of her life would be gone for who knows how long. But Rio would welcome the pain as it was the only thing she could still feel from her wife. Panting and bleeding, Rio stood and stared into the emptiness where her wife had been not two minutes earlier and let out an animalistic scream to the dark forest.

____________

“Hello? Earth to Agatha?” Teens voice came through to her to break her free from her thoughts.

               That was the last time she remembered feeling her bond grow slack with Rio. She was unaware of how long her memory held her hostage staring blankly at the kitchen sink. She blinked a few times coming back to herself. “What?” She turned slowly to face Teen, wrapping her shaking arms around herself as if she hadn’t just stumbled down one of her least favorite memories to date.

               “I asked if you’ve ever felt this happen before. You know, your bond disappearing?” He had stopped writing in his note book and she noticed his tea was gone. How long had she been zoning out for?

               “First of all, Teen, our bond hasn’t disappeared, that would mean…” She stopped herself from oversharing too much. The kid had a way of getting too much information out of her weather he meant to or not. “That’s not what happened. I can still feel it, it’s just very faint. And she won’t answer me when I try to reach out to her.” She took a deep breath and finished, “I can’t tell where she is.”

               It was quiet for a moment. Teen allowing that information to settle between them. He could piece together what Agatha was not saying. He couldn’t imagine the helplessness she must be feeling for her to be reacting this way. To have a bond in which connects two people souls is something people could only hope to be able to find, but that connection spanning over three centuries? Who could say they had such a love as that?

Chapter Text

Coming up on the 32^nd hour of not knowing what the hell happened to Rio Vidal. Agatha was in her basement obsessively going through old spell books and mumbling to herself. Teen had fallen asleep about 7 hours ago half on the table, face in a book. She didn’t mind. She could finally think without him asking useless questions. It’s not that she disliked the boy, it was just in this particular case, he was not experienced enough to help. She had been around far longer than he could even start to comprehend, and everything he suggested, Agatha had already thought of. He meant well, and that is probably the only reason she hasn’t kicked him out of her house yet.

She glanced down at his sleeping form, man his neck was going to be stiff when he woke…

               She was tired. She has hardly eaten except the occasional fruit or slice of bread that Teen had thoughtfully supplied for her in between reading and ranting. Nothing she found in all of her books were nearly helpful. They all said the same things as she had known for years, like “Nothing could kill death” or “Death comes for us all.” Yadda yadda yadda. She slammed a dusty book shut and threw it across the room with such force it crashed into a shelf causing Teen to jump awake falling off his stool.

               “Ouch…” he said from the ground rubbing his neck and elbow where he landed.

               “Oh good you’re awake.” She said with a bitter tone, all sincerity gone.

               “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep, did you find anything?” He stood brushing off his pants and once again taking his seat across the table from his mentor. He wasn’t sure if it was daytime or night outside, but it was dark in the basement. They were using an ominous singular lamp that dangled from the roof above in order to see the scriptures they were reading.

               She sighed. “No, I don’t get it.” She leaned her elbows down onto the table and put her face in her hands when she felt it.

               There, in her chest was a sharp pain, similar to the moment she lost contact with her wife. She immediately stood up ram rod straight. Teen noticed quickly and also sat up. “What is it?” he asked with wide eyes.

               “Rio?” she sent through her connection to her wife, suddenly hopeful, despite the pain she was feeling. “Rio, my Love, where are you how come I can’t find you?” Suddenly there was bright hot pain in her chest that caused Agatha to hunch over and grab at the invisible wound as if she could rid herself whatever was causing it.

               “Agatha!” Rios voice sounded pained but Gods did it feel good to finally hear her voice.

“Rio where have you bee-“ She was cut off by the voice urgently floating through her head.

 “Listen to me carefully My Love, there isn’t much time.” Agatha went silent, listening to Rios frantic voice. “You need to take the Abomination away. Far away, anywhere, just get out of Westview.”

Agatha could tell that there was no time to ask questions. She should just listen to her wife’s words and run. She felt dizzy, after feeling almost nothing between their shared bond, to this sudden rush of panic and urgency. “Rio, I’ll send him away, but I’ll come to you! Where are you? I’ve been looking ev-“ once again cut off by her wife.

“No! You have to go to! She wants you dead! She’s too powerful!” the connection went slack again.

“WAIT! NO!” Agatha verbally yelled.

“Agatha! Are you ok?!” Teen rushed around the table to see if he could help

               “It’s Rio,” she panted. “She’s hurt, I need to find her.” She slowly pulled herself up with the help of the boy. As she stood she felt a surge of protectiveness flow through her from Rio. She gasped a deep breath of relief, if she could feel all of this, then that means Rio is still alive at least. But her going MIA for the last couple of days also means something else.

Someone was doing this to her.

                                                                           (About 32 hours earlier…)

               Death was working long shifts these days. She always thought the past eras were harsher on mortals, with the brutal injuries and beautiful plagues. But something about the 21^st century kept her increasingly busy. She lost count over the amount of souls she ferried because some poor human decided to walk down the street at night, and was deemed suspicious enough to kill. At least back in the glory days, people died with honor, now it’s just sad…

               She was about finished with her duties, claiming she was caught up enough to spend at least two nights with her wife; that is if the humans were capable of holding off for two days without starting another war… fingers crossed.

               She stepped onto the shore ready to steal her wife away from that abomination of a Teen to have a relaxing weekend when she felt an odd sensation. The dark air surrounding her stared to quiver as she looked with narrowed eyes at the vast emptiness that was her kingdom. Someone was forcing themselves into her realm. But who would have the power? The devil himself tried once, many centuries ago, but she quickly put him in his place. He wouldn’t dare try her again. The Scarlett Witch? Perhaps, her power is (was) quite frankly terrifying and unknown even to Death, but stories say she is dead. Rio had tried to find her soul, but there was nothing to collect. She was glad, because Rio Vidal loved knowing that her wife was once again, the most powerful witch out there. But was she dead? Was she currently trying to rip a hole into her world and hopelessly try to steal her children back? The children who weren’t even in the afterlife?

               A swirling portal started to open roughly ten feet in front of Lady Death. She took a step back, not out of fear, but because whoever was able to force their way into the afterlife was truly a powerful being. She wanted a good look at who dare keep her held up from her already too short vacation.

               Ever so slowly, the portal finished forming, and out stepped a black boot. What came next confused the hell out of Rio Vidal.

               “Agatha?” She shifted to her human self, lowered her defenses for a moment and relaxed her shoulders, tilting her head. Standing in front of her was her wife. Draped in thick dark purple robes, hair wild and beautiful, Agatha smiled at her and waved with a flick of her fingers.

               “Hello Death.” She said calmly. Too calmly.

               Something was not right, Agatha wasn’t able to access her world without Rio, she may be the world’s most powerful witch, but some things are set in stone since the beginning of time. “How are you here right now? I was just on my way to see you.”

               “I couldn’t wait. I missed you.” Her words were off as well. She didn’t take any step towards Rio; instead she stood like a statue next to the portal that never shut.

               “You shouldn’t be able to get in my realm without me, how are you here?” She asked again, slightly more stern than before. “Only my blade can rip a hole into the afterlife.” She narrowed her eyes noticing the slight difference in her wife. Her eyes were manic; well, more manic. She seemed to radiate an eerie kind of hunger like a silent starving lion about to pounce on her prey. And her hands, oh- her hands were stained black. She hasn’t seen her hands like that since the Darkhold had complete control over her wife.

               Agatha continued her smile. “My Love don’t be silly, you gave me your blade remember? To keep me safe from anyone who tried to cause me harm.” She slowly pulled out Rios dagger from her cloak to show it to her.

               Rio was confused and immediately her hands touched her hip where her dagger was kept. She took her eyes off of the woman in front of her looking down at the holster which still held her dagger safely in its place. Out of nowhere a blinding pain hit her in the chest, hard. She stumbled back a couple paces and before looking at what it was, she looked to the woman. She was still smiling that unnatural smile, with her arm out in front of her, no blade in her hand. Rio looked down to see her blades twin buried to the hilt in her chest.

               Dropping to her knees, Rio tugged at the blade, knowing from history it would be a bitch to get out. She looked toward the woman who wore her wife’s face. “Who are you?” it hurt to talk, it hurt to move, and it didn’t feel too great seeing the pleasure in the eyes that she had loved so entirely. This was not Agatha Harkness, They had forgiven each other. They had grown closer than they ever had after the road. The Darkhold was gone, right? Did her wife find a copy somewhere and the power went straight to her head like a drug addict? Were they back to square one? After all this time?

               It was like deja vu when her wife stalked closer to stand over her. She looked down at her with a scary amount of disgust. Similar to when Rio was left in the forest after taking her son. She did not miss that look. “You killed my son.”

               Again, Rio had thought they worked this out, Agatha had claimed she understood. At least Her Agatha understood. “No, Agatha, we talked about this-“ a slap to the face cut her off.

               She lowered herself to look Rio dead in the eyes, “You killed my son, then you killed Billy.”

               Ok now that proved it. Either Agatha had gone bat shit crazy, or this wasn’t Agatha. “Billy? The Abomination? I didn’t kill either one of them. Billy is still alive! You were going to help him work on his magic last I heard! That was only a couple days ago! I haven’t even seen you since.” Agatha didn’t seem convinced. “You wouldn’t let me reap him! I tried, remember?”

               That made Agatha blink a couple times. She seemed lost in thought. Still leaning over to look at Death, “You didn’t reap him? You listened to her?” she brought a stained black finger to her chin, tapping it. “Billy is still alive?” She said quietly to herself, “Finally.”

               “Listened to who?” Rio was having a hard time catching her breath, the blade still proudly stuck out of her chest, her lip now bleeding from where she was slapped. Getting a closer look at the blade, she definitely recognized it as her own. But how? There was only one. Was the one strapped to her hip a fake? Had Agatha played her for a fool all this time and somehow swapped her out for a fake? No, Agatha has done many questionable things in her life, but things between them have been good.

               Blood was dripping onto the dirt path where she sat. She looked down at it realizing she was bleeding in her own sanctuary. What the hell is going on today?

               Agatha seemed to snap out of her thoughts abruptly and her wistful expression turned angry once again. She stood tall rolling her eyes at a struggling Rio. “Maybe you didn’t kill Billy, yet. But you did kill Nicky.” She started to walk a few paces away, not at all worried Rio would find the strength to get up and defend herself. Whoever this woman was, knew the power of the blade she wielded. She stopped and turned towards Rio who had returned to her fruitless attempts to pull the blade from her chest. “All you do is take. In every universe, it’s the same thing.”

               That caught Rios attention and she stopped aggravating her injury. “What do you mean ‘In every universe’” The pieces were slowly sliding together. The reason this Agatha seemed so off putting from the one she knows. This Agatha was consumed with the same grief as the day Rio was forced to claim her son’s soul as if it had just happened. She was gladly consumed by the Darkhold’s magic. This kind of power came from years maybe even centuries under that retched books influence.

               This was not Her Agatha.

               Agatha stayed silent, looking at Rio with a blank expression. “The Darkhold has allowed me the ability to travel to other universes. I’m looking for my son, I want him back.”

               Rios eyes widened with the confirmation - Agatha Harkness, having the ability to travel through the multiverse? The amount of chaos she would be able to cause. It was a glorious thought, if only she used that ability for other reasons. Her wife really was something to be amazed with. A thought suddenly came to Rios mind. “Agatha. How do you have my blade?” the pain momentarily forgotten.

               She laughed. “I told you Death. I want my son. If you don’t have him, I’ll just have to kill you and move on.” Oh, it wasn’t Her blade. It was a blade from another universe. Another Death. She walked back to Rio and hoisted her painfully to her feet. Rio winced as dark stained fingers touched her skin. It was unnatural. It was not her wife’s loving touch. They started walking towards to portal that had never closed, an act of strength of keeping it open for so long.

               “Where are we going?” Rio asked, even though it wouldn’t make any difference knowing. Being stabbed with her dagger had this nasty habit of severing the bond she shared with her wife. Meaning she wouldn’t be able to relay her location to anyone. Agatha number 2 didn’t answer her. They kept walking. “Wait! Before we go, answer this question.” They stopped walking, Rio took that as acceptance. “How many?”

               “How many what?” Not Agatha asked back.

               Being so close to her Rio could see the beautiful blue eyes she loved were turned almost completely black. “How many universes did you kill Death?”

               The trespasser looked slightly taken aback by the question. Maybe it wasn’t very many. Or, maybe she was just the first to ask. Rio wanted to believe that in some other universes she didn’t have to take Nicky. She wanted to hope that Her and Agatha had been able to live happily ever after. She also wanted to know how many worlds were left without order, without mercy, without Death.

               “One hundred and seven, including yours.” She said almost quietly as if she was growing tired of searching and coming up empty. The news hit Rio like another dagger. One hundred and seven universes where Nicky was always meant to die. How unfair the cosmos was!

               They stepped into the portal.

Chapter Text

Rio had been with this crazy bitch for long enough. Time was a hard thing to track when you had no need to for your entire existence… And not to mention night and day didn’t exist in her realm, so she had no way of knowing what point in the day she was rudely taken. But again, it had been long enough, at the very least over a day. But that was one day too many; especially when she had given herself the green light to run away from work for two. What should have been two majestic days spent with her wife! Hopefully in bed! Not tied up in the woods with a psychopath that wore her wife’s face. (although she wouldn’t complain being tied up in the woods with her real wife…)

               The Bitch had taken her to a makeshift cottage that had a striking resemblance to the one her and her beautiful loving wife had built before Nicky was born. It was very nostalgic, but the memory was also being choked out by the blinding pain she had been in for at least 24 (maybe plus) hours… It seemed as if This Agatha had acquired the Darkhold way back then and time for her had stopped. Well, kind of stopped, she could tell she was still in her universe, Death had ways of knowing the jurisdiction she ruled, but maybe this woman created the only shape of a home she had merely ever known. It was a small wooden cottage that used to be full of love and bursting with life. Rio made sure of it. The walls which once were yellow but covered in beautiful vines and flowers she created only for Agatha, laid bare and dull and looked to be blue. The kitchen she had watched the love of her life create beautiful cooked meals, had nothing but dust and shriveled up fruit. There was a purple quilt that Rio had brought Agatha from Italy that they huddled under on cold nights, this one was an odd green color. It was all the same, but so very different.

               The blade in her chest kept her from using any of her power, not that she had much left anyhow. The entire front of her body was covered with blood, not to mention the multiple other wounds she had accumulated since walking through that retched portal. It seemed this Evil Hag was trying to draw out her suffering. Kudos to her, it was working. Rio was hurting, she could only remember hurting this badly when she allowed her precious son to continue blessing the earth with his beautiful soul. At least then it was worth it.

               Rio doesn’t even know what to call her captor anymore. She is not Agatha, that name is and only ever will be, reserved for the kind woman who is probably tearing down half of the universe right now because she can’t reach out to her. She can’t call her a hideous monster, because well, she still had Agatha’s face… so far she has settled on Bitch, Hag, and Bitchy hag. Leave her alone ok? She’s lost a lot of blood and can’t use her brain more than she had to.

               Anyways, The Hag was currently yelling at Rio from across the room. She had taken a small break from using her as a dart board, apparently In some universes, Death had kept darts instead of a blade. And as if Rio needed the reminder, there were 107 different universes in which This Woman had collected all of her trophies. Twelve darts to be exact. Why in the hell were there twelve Deaths out there with darts… it didn’t even seem logical. But I guess there were three out there who had carried katanas, and four with maces. Thankfully those are still sitting in the pile yet to be used on her. She had excellent aim with the darts and she wasn’t really excited to see how she would wield the rest of them.

               “Tell me where Billy Maximoff is!” she was aggravated in a way that could only be from handling the Darkhold for too long. She was quick to anger and severely irritable. “You said you left him with Her!”

               She sneered at the term “Her” like she hated her wife. “I told you, I don’t know, my connection had been severed since you stabbed me!” Rios hands were tied behind her back to a post that was conjured out of the wall. It pulled at her would in the worst way. “Come now, this isn’t your first torture session I’m sure, you should know this.” She was drained of energy, slumping down, but she refused to go down without at least warning her wife of what was coming.

               “I’m going to find them. And when I do, I’ll kill her.”  She said so easily. Rio couldn’t help but wonder how many Agatha’s she had killed along with Death. She needed to find out a little more about this wench before trying to contact Agatha.

               “Why would you do that? She’s essentially you isn’t she?” Rio breathed out. “If you’ve done this over a hundred times, why don’t you know where to find them?”

               Hagatha actually had the decency to answer her, most of the time the conversations were very one sided. “Every timeline is different. Sometimes they are in Salem, others they are in California. It depends on when I arrive on your timeline.” She looked at Rio with a bored expression; and threw another dart that lodged in her bicep.

Ok there were thirteen darts.

               Rio had a plan. And it sucked. But seeing as this woman was very much a professional, she didn’t see any other choice. Her hands were tied, literally.

               “So, you’re looking to get back what you lost? Is that it? In your universe both Nicky and Billy died, and you’re looking to get them back.” Rio was fishing. “But Billy isn’t even yours. He’s a Maximoff. The Scarlett Witches son. Why are you so desperate to get to him?”

               The Bitch circled closer towards Rio, good. “Oh Death. This little information must not be very concrete in this universe.” Rio tilted her head in confusion. “Billy is a Maximoff, but he is also very much Harkness, just as Nicky is very much Vidal.”

               The air left Rios lungs at that information. Agatha and Wanda? She knew she should have reaped the little bastard, just like she knew she should have hunted down the pieces of his mother’s soul. But that was in Her universe right? Not Rios. Although it would explain why Agatha was so protective over the little abomination. Searing pain brought her out of her spiraling thoughts as Hagatha grabbed the knife in her chest and started to move it slightly. She let out a scream.

               “Stay with me Death, you can’t say you’re all that shocked.” She leaned in close and Rio could feel her breath on her cheek as she spoke into her ear. “I mean, you did kill our son. It only makes sense I would get with someone who would never betray our child; Betray me.” She leaned back and plastered on that hateful toothy smile.

               The pain was unbearable; the hand that twisted the blade had a firm grip, knuckles going white under the stain of dark magic pulsing off of the woman. Well, no better time than now, Rio thought to herself. She head butted the Witch in front of her causing her to fall backwards taking the dagger with her.

               Gasping, Rio also fell to the floor and immediately felt her connection to Agatha reconnect. And with it, what little power she had left, she was able to break the ties wrapped around her wrists. She could tell her wife was saying something, but she didn’t have time to figure it out. “Agatha!” She shouted into her mind.

               “Rio! Where have you bee-“

               “Listen to me carefully My Love, there isn’t much time.” She knew how much Agatha hated being cut off mid-sentence, but Hagatha was starting to get back up, and she seemed pissed. She hoped the urgency in her voice was enough to convince her wife to listen. She would (hopefully) get the chance to apologize later. “You need to take the Abomination away. Far away, anywhere, just get out of Westview.”

               In the cottage, The Witch was rushing Rio, who to be fair was shocked just to be standing on her own with how much blood she had lost. The woman had the blade in hand and lunged. Rio was able to grab the arm that held the cursed blade inches from her chest. It was reversed of the time Rio had encountered a freshly released Agatha Harkness from a hex not long ago. (Minus the sex appeal)

               Once again, Agatha was saying something through their bond, but Rio only heard bit and pieces as Hagatha grabbed a fistful of her hair and slammed her head against the wall. Rio went dizzy again as her brain caught up to what her wife was saying. Something about coming here? That would not do. That would put her wife in danger, which would make doing all of this worthless.  “No! You have to go to! She wants you dead! She’s too powerful!”  

As Rio slumped to the ground, all energy completely drained, power exhausted she heard the woman in front of her laugh out loud. “Westview huh?” Rio blinked up at her, how did she know? She had specifically spoke to her wife through their bond. The bond that only they shared- unless- did the bond go so deep that it traveled through every universe? Or did Rio just get hit one too many times. If that were true, then that means This Woman in front of her had not only killed her own universes Death, but severed her own soul bind.

               “I know what you’re thinking, and no I don’t have the same bond you and yours share. The Darkhold have gifted me with glorious skills. One of those being mind reading.” She squatted down and paused to lift Rios chin to look at her better. “But yes, I did in fact kill the other half of my soul.” Again, another long pause “Your wife seemed really worried about you. Lets go give her and the boy a little visit.” With that, She slammed a different knife into Rios leg and sat there unchanging while Rio let out a cry of pain, once again severing her bond with her wife.

  Looking down at her leg, Rio realized she had once again been stabbed with her own blade.

Chapter Text

Agatha had gotten the message loud and clear from her wife. Someone or something was coming. And if it scared Rio, it was probably not to be taken lightly. Not only that, but Rio had practically begged for her and Teen to flee, which was odd because Rio was only ever addressed him as an ‘Abomination’ and would often be found hissing at him from dark corners like a feral cat.

               But Agatha Harkness did not run, except when she ran from death… she was currently rushing around her house gathering what seemed like random house items into a bag mumbling under her breath with a very shaken Teen following close behind her. She grabbed a spell book from the library, a couple knives from the kitchen, a cactus plant which was a gift from Rio, and threw them all in a duffle bag and tossed it to Billy. “Why are we taking these things with us?” He too was throwing things in the bag mostly to follow suite with Agatha, except his goods were all snacks from the pantry.

               “Correction Teen, you are taking these things and you are going to run. Get in that sad little Subaru of yours and go as fast as that thing with go; which I can tell, is probably not very fast… so maybe take it somewhere where you’ll find something faster, and then keep going. Just go.” She helped him stash some more snacks in the bag and started shoving him out the front door.

               “Wait! I thought Rio wanted both of us to run! Where are you going? Maybe I can help! What am I supposed to do without you?!” They made it outside just a few feet from his car, the sun was just starting to set.

               “You could always come with me Billy.”

Both Agatha and Billy turned to look towards the familiar voice. “Uh, Agatha? What’s going on?”

               Agatha pushed Teen behind her and eyes the woman in front of her. It was a trick, it had to be, it was an illusion of herself when she was under the influence of the Darkhold. Her hair was wild and flowing in the non-existent wind. Her fingers were black and her eyes were shadowy, practically glowing with darkness. I mean, if you were to ask Agatha, she looked great. Power looked good on her. “Who are you?” She asked.

               The woman chuckled a little bit and tilted her head. “You and your wife ask a lot of questions.”

               That was just not the right thing to say to Agatha right now, “Where is she!” she pushed Teen down behind the car, “Stay” she told him like a pet and floated ten feet off the ground, glowing purple from her hands ready to strike.

               The woman stayed on the ground still smiling at the display of dominance. “Relax. She’s alive, for now. I still don’t know what my plan is with both of you yet. You see, this is the first time in my search that I’ve come across Billy Maximoff alive and well.” She glanced over at Teen who made awkward eye contact from his hiding spot behind the car before hunching down again.

               “Bring me Death NOW!” Agatha wasn’t playing any games, she had been kept from her wife too long, any longer and it might just drive her passed the point of return.

               A long moment drug out between them, but eventually the imposter was the first to move. She huffed out a breath from her nose like an angry animal, raised one magnificent eyebrow, and quickly ripped a hole in the universe with Deaths Dagger. “Is that my Wife’s Blade? How dare you touch it!” Agatha was furious! Who did this woman think she was?

               The woman reached in to the ripped portal with one arm all the way up to her shoulder. She looked at Agatha and went still. “No,” she said chillingly. “It was my Wife’s Blade.” Then she yanked a weak and bleeding Rio out of the portal and dropped her on her knees directly in front of her.

               The breath was stolen from Agatha’s lungs. Her wife looked absolutely terrible. She was dirty, covered in scrapes and bruises, her nose was bleeding and her hair was untamed. But the absolute worst part was the oh so familiar sight of Rios Dagger wedged into her thigh; well that, and the fact that the entire front of her was stained in blood. How much more could one being have left? “That, is your wife’s blade.” She said with a smirk. Rio looked up from the ground as if she was slowly realizing where she was and who was floating before her. She spit on the ground droplets of blood.

“Agatha you need to go. Please!”

               Agatha had never seen her wife in such a state, yes, they had gotten into fights with each other, and with other groups, but never had she ever seen such torture brought upon Death herself, who was this Bitch? And how did death have her dagger stuck in her leg, while the other woman was holding it in her hand?

               Without looking away from her wife’s eyes, she spoke to Teen. “Teen, change of plans; get Rio out of here. Same destination- anywhere but here. Got it?”

               Teen looked close to passing out, “Agatha, I could help! I know I’m still learning but I don’t want to leave you here!”

               “Agatha! No! You need to go too! She’s had far longer with the Darkhold than you ever got the chance to! She is powerful!” Rio was struggling to stand up and blood was dribbling down her chin. Agatha saw red with fury as she charged the woman. Rio dropped back down to her knees “Teen! Get over here!”

               Billy kept his head down as he ran straight for Rio as the chaos erupted; there were flying mailboxes and shrubs being ripped from the ground. When he reached her, he attempted to help carry her over to his car to escape, but Rio slapped his hands away from touching her. “No! I’m not leaving, help me get this knife out of my leg, then ill summon you a portal to go through, once you’re through, I’m going to help Agatha. That Bitch has met her match.”

               “Uh ok and what if she hasn’t met her match? You said she’s been corrupted by the Darkhold longer than Agatha had been? That seems pretty dangerous?” he grasped the handle of the blade a tugged roughly. Rio hissed in pain. “Are you ok? You look really bad, like you’re in a lot of pain.” His voice was shaking and Rio actually took pity on the boy. After all, he was only a ten year old soul.

               “You’re going to need to pull harder than that, this isn’t an ordinary blade Teen.” She took a deep breath and prepared for the second attempt. “If we are losing, then I’ll force Agatha into another portal. We will be able to find you wherever you end up.” She grunted as Billy failed for the second time to dislodge the blade.

               Flashes of purple and black were flying across the quaint little Westview neighborhood. The poor neighbors were probably stressing out once again. “I’m sorry! I’m making this worse! I can’t get it out! I’m so sorry!” he was shedding a few tears now and his hands were covered in blood. “You aren’t supposed to be hurt! Agatha said it was almost impossible!”

               “Hey! Teen listen to me ok? You’re fine, this blade is meant to be very hard to dislodge, I’ll help you through it ok? But I physically cannot do this without you.” Her voice was calm despite the amount of pain she was in. She reached up to lay a blood stained hand on his cheek. “You’re doing great kid, the first time I got struck with this blade, it took almost all of my power to take it out myself, and it still took over 10 minutes. But we gotta do this quick, Agatha needs my help.” With that she took his hands and wrapped them around the hilt again, placing hers on top of his. “Ready?” he nodded his head and they counted down from three and pulled with all of their strength.

               As Rio had in the past, Teen started to glow blue with the power he was emitting. But eventually the knife came free. Rio fell back and laid flat on the ground, panting and trying not to black out. She just needed to catch her breath for a second before helping her wife.

               As the thought formed, she heard Agatha take a hard hit. Ok so taking a breather was out of the question. Rio turned her head to see she had landed in a pile of robes not far from where Rio lay. “Ok kid, time to go, think of a nice place far from here, once I make the portal, step through it. But keep running, don’t stay anywhere too long ok?”  When she turned back to make sure he had heard her, the boy was gone. With the dagger. “Oh COME ON!” she slapped her hands against the ground. “That is MY dagger! Have you people no boundaries?”

               Agatha had uncovered herself from under all her robes breathing heavily. So far she had only managed to acquire a bloody nose, perhaps some bruised ribs, and a largely wounded sense of pride. In other words, she was holding her own thank you very much. This Agatha 2.0 was fairing much better than she was though. It was almost like she was toying with her; dragging it out. She turned quickly in all directions to make sure the horrid being wouldn’t get the jump on her, but instead saw her walking towards Rio. Nope, not today Bitch.

               The problem with fighting a foe which is your twin, is that you both share the same powers. So Agatha knew she couldn’t out right blast the woman in front of her or else she would be drained dry of all her power. Where did Teen go? He was supposed to get her out of here; that boy’s first lesson should have been minding orders!

               “Its sad really, how all of you fight so hard till the bitter end.” She glanced up and looked around at all the destruction her and Agatha had caused. Her hands were putting off a black smoke as she spoke. “I’ve seen you both die over a hundred times, it never ends the same. But it does end.” Rio had managed to brace herself against a broken fence board. The Woman was walking between the two lovers who were still recovering. She looked down to Agatha, “I’ve learned to kill Death first, so that when your Agatha goes next, there is no one to collect your souls.” Agatha snarled at the woman, bloody teeth glistening in the low light.

               “You’re not going to touch her, you filthy Hag!” Agatha summoned Teens blue Subaru and hurled it at the unsuspecting woman. It bought her just a couple minutes to run to her wife. Upon seeing her, Rio started to move closer. “Hey, hey its ok! You’re ok.” She brushed gentle fingers across her lovers bruised and bloody skin, wiping the tears that Rio didn’t even knew she had trailing down her face.  Rio looked into her eyes and let out a small chuckle to her wife’s confusion. “What’s so funny? We aren’t doing so hot here…”

               Rio, with tears glistening in her eyes laughed again, “It’s nothing, I just also called her a Hag. Hagatha to be exact.” They both smiled at each other, but only for a second because the moment was ruined with the sound of scraping metal. Before Agatha could rise to her feet, Rio pulled her back down to whisper quickly in her ear. “Listen my Love, I don’t know how much longer I’ve got here,” that caused Agatha to turn her full attention to her wife.

               “What do you mean? You are Death, you’ll be fine once this bitch is gone! We will get you to a healer and you’ll be fine Rio.” Hagatha started walking towards them once more looking considerably irritated.

               Rio smiled, “Yes My Love, but you need to know a little about her- quickly.” As she spoke Agatha could see the shaky rattle of her chest with each breath. The stab wound in her chest that no longer actively bled, but was still soaking her front. She went to put pressure on her wound, forgetting about the looming danger in favor of her wife. “She’s scouring the multiverse for Billy and Nicky.” Agatha was taken aback by that information. “She’s killed one hundred and seven of us, and left those universes with no natural order.” Agatha looked behind her to see the woman growing closer by the second. “She has had the Darkhold influence for centuries, but she’s never found a universe where Billy is alive, so you need to keep him safe ok?” Rios eyes started to roll in their sockets before she shook her head to stay present. “Here, I took this from her stock pile, it’s about as much of an abomination as the boy, but it has the same effect as my blade.” She painfully reached into her pocket to pull out a dark green dart.

Agatha allowed that information to sink in. no wonder this Bitch was a force to be reckoned with. She was first and foremost a “Agatha Harkness”. Secondly, she had the power from the Darkhold. More power than what should be possible. And thirdly, she was heart-broken. She was everything Agatha had at one time tried to be. This woman, who was closing in on her, was what she could have been if not for listening to wife. She turned away from Rio with a slight smile to confront the witch head on.

               “Agatha please, run! Use the dart I gave you- tear open a hole in reality and RUN.” Rio begged from behind her.

               “That’s cute,” said the Bitch who was now within talking range. “I had a couple of you try to run. You can, if you want. It makes the chase more fun. Not to spoil anything but, I do find you.”

               Agatha Harkness only ever ran from Death. She swore she would never do so again, which left her only one option left here. If she were to ultimately die either way, why not go out with some honor? Her wife was always going on and on about people these days dying for nothing. So, to wrap her whole life up with a nice little bow; Agatha came to her final, but probably most truthful fact she has ever come to accept.

Agatha Harkness has been and always will be, a Witch Killer.

There, standing in front of another impossible battle, she looked down at her feet. She once again started to laugh, which quiet at first, grew to a manic cackle. When her eyes returned to the woman in front of her, her eyes were raging with purple fury. Her hands carried balls of purple lightning which she gladly used to rip the neighborhood apart in order to have ammunition to throw at this Hag. Just because she couldn’t blast her, didn’t mean she couldn’t blast things at her. She flew into the air causing lighting to strike down from the dark cloud that congregated overhead.

Agatha 2.0 could barely keep up with the constant rock hard items being hurled in her direction, and yes one of those items was in fact a large rock. She had to admit, this universes Agatha was one of the more persistent ones. At one point, she started using things from inside her own home. A kitchen sink was barreled through the walls, next a refrigerator that she almost didn’t dodge in time. Was that a bunny cage? Needless to say, she was getting very exasperated at the woman. She needed to end this so she could find Billy. “ENOUGH!” she yelled and swept both her arms out in front of her. All the debris that had been piling up around her went flying in all directions including the flying irritating purple woman. The wicked witch was panting and had managed to get hit a couple times with who knows what.

Agatha slowly righted herself and landed on her shaking feet. Both women were spent, but Hagatha still seem to weep dark energy like steam. She wasn’t sure how much more she could throw at the woman, literally, before her power drained. She glanced quickly at Rio to make sure she hadn’t been hit by the manic woman’s blast of rubbish, and her heart sank. Rios eyes were closed, and from her point of view, didn’t look to be breathing. “Rio?” she ignored the witch in front of her and ran to her wife. “Hey! Rio! Open your eyes my Love.” She gently scooped her head in her hands and tried lightly patting her cheek in hopes of not hurting her further. “Rio come on, you’re ok, just open those big eyes of yours! Rio?” She closed her eyes and reached for their shared bond, it was fainter than when Rio had gone missing. (Was that really only two days ago?) But it was still there.

“Rio babe, you need to hang on a little longer ok? I have this Hag right where I want her, any minute she’s going hit the ground and not get back up. Ok? Can you open your eyes? Or give me any kind of sign that you hear me?” Agatha was fully crying over her wife, tears dropping on her loves face. “Please My Love.”

“And just like that, Death is gone.” Hagatha had stood a mere few feet away and watched the whole depressing scene. Not a single emotion written on her face. “You know something? You’re a crier. It’s not often I see the combination of your relentless rage and your overwhelming high emotions.” She crouched down next to Agatha who was still hovering over Death, stroking her face. “You should be thanking me, She’s the reason Nicky is gone. And where I come from, She’s the reason Billy is gone too.”

Agatha looked repulsed at the woman next to her. “Thank you? She’s the only reason I was able to have six beautiful years with Nicky. She bent the rules for me. And here where we come from, she didn’t take Billy either! She was supposed to, but she bent the rules a second time! For me!” she gently laid Rios head back on the ground, careful not to cause any more damage and kissed her split lips chastely, and turned her whole body towards Agatha 2.0.

“Where I come from, she took him after just a week. And Billy was quick too.”  She looked Agatha in the eyes. “I had acquired the Darkhold soon after she took Nicky hoping to find a way to bring him back. Along the way Wanda and I had created Billy with chaos magic. After the hex, Death was jealous, called him an abomination, and reaped his soul.” Agatha thought she saw remorse in those blackened eyes, but it quickly vanished. “Soon after killing Billy, I used the Darkhold to find her and I killed her slowly. Painfully. I wanted her to feel everything I had felt for centuries.”

“And now? You just keep going around finding more and more of us to round up and kill?” both Agatha’s stood at the same time. “I’m not mad at her for what she did, I understand why she had to do what she did! You don’t get to choose how I deal with my baggage!” Purple came back to spark in her eyes.

“I guess it won’t matter how you feel, because it always ends the same way; with both of your bodies being left out to rot.” Black smoke once again started flowing off of her as she snarled at purple irises.

“You forgot one thing though,” Agatha had said glancing quickly over the other woman’s shoulder.

Before Hagatha had time to ask what she meant, a scorching hot blade was rammed through her rib cage from behind, protruding out of her front. Quickly, Agatha added the dart to the gaping hole in her chest. The Witch faltered and staggered back to see who had the audacity to stab her from behind.

Billy.

“None of the other worlds you’ve ruined had a Billy Maximoff.” Agatha said smiling.

How Teen was able to wield the Dagger which belonged to Death herself, could only be the result of his vast amount of unknown power running through his veins.

Just for fun, Agatha saw yet another blade attached to the woman’s hip, and quickly grabbed that as well and jammed in into her stomach. No one could survive being stabbed by Deaths blade, let alone three. She let out a scream of pain and anger, but somehow still had energy to conjure her magic in her hands, ready to blast Billy into oblivion. Man, the Darkhold really was a powerful book.

The Bitch let out a shrill scream and took aim at Teen who looked like a deer in the headlights. Without thinking, Agatha rushed to push teen out of the way before being blasted right in the chest, resulting in the ultimate power grab. Her first instinct was to scream. To be honest, everything she had known about dark magic seemed to be anything but pleasant, so she readied herself for what was to be expected as agonizing torture. Her mind went back to when her original coven had tied her up, ready for execution. But just as it was then, she felt a surge of power.

She knew better than to drain the woman dry of course, siphoning that amount of power all at once would most likely make her go crazy, or ultimately, kill her. But she did enjoy being the cause of the horrifying screams that were wailing from the other woman’s throat. Beautiful purple magic lighting the night around them. She missed this.

Once Agatha had her fill of power, she cut the tie. All at once the world returned to dark night, only lit by the few remaining street lamps. The other woman dropped to her knees. Finally she looked terrible. Skin wrinkled, hair flat, eyes hollowed out. She was bleeding from her mouth no doubt from the multiple blades sticking out of her from odd angles. She struggled to look up at the boy and Agatha.

Agatha walked up closely to the woman and leaned down to look into her eyes. “Looks like you’ve met your match Bitch. Enjoy Hell; say hello to the other hundred and something Agatha Harkness’s you’ve sent there.” and then immediately snapped her neck.

“Woah, that was really hardcore.” Teen had said from behind her.

She quickly turned to face him, checking him over for injury, in which she only found a couple scrapes on his face. “Teen! Where did you go? I gave you specific instructions!”

“I went to find Jen.” He said casually, “Rio was hurt bad, and I-“

“Rio!” she cut him off, turning suddenly in search of her wife. In a moment she found none other than Jennifer Kale leaning over a bruised and battered Death. Running over to them, she slid onto her knees beside the pair. “Jen! Is she ok?” Rios eyes were still closed. “Please I need to know-“

“Agatha, give me a second, she’s not doing good. I need to concentrate!” there were supplies scattered all around the ground, flasks of healing moon water, gauze, and a handful of crystals. “I don’t know if I have all the right things here, Teen just came over hysterical saying Rio was dying! I grabbed what I could and we ran back here, Agatha what the hell happened? Who was that psychotic Hag?”

Agatha could help but let out a laugh at the reminder that Rio would be proud that her nickname had stuck. “She was me, but angrier…” then a quick pause, “What do you need?”

“Ok cause that makes sense. Uhm, I need more moon water for starters, what was she stabbed with? I can tell the wound in her chest and leg is from a knife, but there’s so many little cuts and pin pricks that aren’t healing well, even with all the moon water I brought.”

“Teen! We need more water!” Pin pricks. Agatha could see it now that she was close enough. It was tough earlier to see the destruction done to her lover through all the blood soaking her whole body. But now with the amount of moon water having helped wash the area, she could see that the chest was the worst part. She remembered feeling as though she herself had been stabbed, and the memory made her sick. That was two days ago. “It must have been with her dagger. Wounds made from that are, for obvious reasons, hard to heal.” She reached out and brushed her fingers through Rios matted hair. “The pin pricks must have been from those darts. That Bitch must have used her for target practice, there’s so many.”

Teen came running back to the group holding two buckets of water, breathing heavily. Jen stood up and grabbed one pale, “Ok I need to do some spell work over there where the moon is unobstructed, I’ll only be a minute.” With that, she and Teen ran to the nearest moonbeam, leaving Agatha alone with her wife.

               Looking down at Rio, Agatha started to cry once more at the state of her love. “I leave you alone for five minutes and you almost get yourself killed.” She mimicked the words that were said to her so many times before. She continued wiping the dirt and blood from her bruised face. To anyone who were to walk passed, they would immediately believe Rio was long dead. But Agatha could still faintly feel her wife’s soul. It was hurt, and quiet as if in hibernation, but it was still there; hanging on. “I would really appreciate it if you could open your eyes my love.”

               With what seemed like extraordinary effort, Rios eyes began to move behind closed lids. Her brows slightly furrowed in pain before relaxing once more. Despite the tears rolling off her face, Agatha let out a breathy laugh. Of course her wife was so whipped, that even on the brink of oblivion; she would claw her way back to her. “That’s it my Love, come back to me. Please.”  

               To Rio, simply opening her eye lids felt like trying to make the world spin in the opposite direction. One eye slightly opened first and she was met with horrible pain from the light coming off the street lights. She groaned. “ A’Gtha?” she slurred.

Relief flooded her veins, “Hi! Hey! Yes it’s me!” she saw Rio furrow her brow once again at the volume she used. “Oh sorry!” she said much quieter. “Can you open those beautiful eyes for me?”

Again, Rio grunted in pain but ever so slowly, watery brown eyes met watery blue.

“There you are.” Agatha was smiling a big genuine smile aimed at her wife, she never let go of caressing her face. “Jen is here, She’s going to patch you up ok? You got pretty messed up the last couple of days.”

“Am I dead?” Rios eyes never looked away from her wife’s face. “I feel like I died; or that I’m dying currently…”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jen and Teen came running back with more pales of moon water. “Sorry! This is a big batch, so it needed a little extra time to brew! Holy shit she’s awake.”

“Hey there Kale.” Rio garbled. She really isn’t sure how she’s alive let alone awake. “Did’ja come all the way here just t’get m’number?” Laughing caused a fresh round of blood to drip out of her mouth. “Goddess this hurts.” She added.

“You know what Rio? Yes. Yes I did come all the way over here in a horrid panic because I thought you were going to die before I ever got your number. So how about you survive whatever the hell happened so I can get it from you. Yea? Sound good?” Rio smirked and Agatha snarled. “Oh hush Harkness, I need to keep her awake.” She filled a small flask with moon water and gave it to Agatha. “Agatha, give her this to drink- small sips Rio! I’ve seen what you can do to a bottle of tequila, this isn’t the time!”

               Agatha tilted her wife’s head up to pour a small amount of water into her mouth and Rio instantly started coughing painfully. “Kale, this is hurting her! Are you sure you brewed it right?” She swiped at the water that spilled down Rios neck.

“Yes I’m sure woman! She’s bleeding internally, the moon water is taking too long to heal the wounds from her dagger, so it needs as many routes as possible to the injury.” As she was talking, she was applying more gauze soaked in healing water to her leg. “I think the Dart wounds are healing, that’s a good sign. Rio? How are you feeling?”

“Uh… I’m not sure… pain is weird for me. I’ve never died before, but maybe this is what I feels like?” Rio wasn’t slurring her words as much anymore which caused Agatha to sag with relief. But her wife still looked like… well Death. “Mi Amor I think there’s something wrong with me.” She looked up at Agatha with wide eyes like a child.

Agatha laughed a little, “Well, I’ll say My Love, you’ve got holes all over you. That would hurt even a cosmic being like yourself.” Looking her wife in the eye, she noticed Rios face go a little green. Oh.

Rio quickly curled in on herself, turned to her side and promptly threw up. Blood. “Jen! What’s happening!?” Agatha reached over to rub soothing circles along her wife’s back. Once finished, Rio rolled back over to stare up at the stars.

“Ugh! That was disgusting, what the hell was that?” She weakly wiped her mouth, “Am I Dead now? Is that normal for people to do that? Tasted vile!”

“Rio, you threw up. The moon water must have worked on patching your insides up, which left leftover blood in your stomach. Your body got rid of it, I think that was a good thing.” Jen said flatly, even though her emotions were extremely high, she tried not to let the relief show too much. “There! I think I packed the wounds as best as I can. The bandages should hold, but I’ll need to observe her until I know for sure she isn’t dying.” She looked up and gave Agatha a smile.

“That’s what throwing up is? Oh Goddess, that was horrible! Agatha My Love I will find a spell to rid you of ever having to experience that form of torture for as long as I live!” Well, Rios sense of dramatic flair was also making its way back…

“Uh guys? The house was kinda destroyed in the fight, is there a place we could go to keep Rio comfortable?” Teen had been silently watching the make shift surgery trying to stay out of the way. "Wait, is that my Subaru?" He pointed to the smashed car.

The question went ignored.

Agatha, knowing she was fully topped off on magic, looked to her broken home. She went to stand and felt a cold hand grasp her arm frantically. “Wait! Don’t go anywhere. Are you sure that Hag is dead? I’m not at my best, I can’t feel souls calling to me…” Agatha knelt back down and pried her wife’s hand off her arm and kissed her knuckles.

“Yes Rio, I killed her. She’s gone. I’m just going over there to fix up the house so you can have a comfortable place to lay your head tonight.” Rio seemed to relax at that, exhaustion taking over her features once again.

Agatha stood in the middle of her destroyed front yard, “Teen! Get over here, we are going to have a lesson.” Teen happily trotted over to his mentor and listened to what she was about to say.

Together they were able to put things back to where they mostly where the belonged, windows soared through the air to fit snugly in their frames, the kitchen sink and refrigerator were gently dropped in their respective places, and Sr. Scratch was able to get his cage back (not that he ever used it.) It wasn’t perfect; the wood floor creaked in spots it never had before, and some windows only opened from the wrong direction, also almost all of the faucet taps were backwards, the hot was cold and the cold was hot. But it was good enough. (Agatha had even took it upon herself to add a more comfortable living space for Jen should she need to stay and look after her patient.)

With teamwork, Jen and Agatha managed to carry Rio into the living room and deposited her on the couch. In the half hour that it took to rebuild the home, Rio had managed to look much better. She still had circles under eyes, and she winced every time she moved; but the color returned to her face and her eyes didn’t have that haunting look to them anymore.

Agatha took it upon herself to clean her wife up now that the immediate stress had settled. Jen entered the kitchen to make some food for everyone and Teen had gone upstairs to shower. With a bowl of warm water and a wash cloth, she started cleaning Rios face. Rio just stared at Agatha like she was memorizing her face, just as she had done for centuries. “My Love?” she said quietly.

“Hmm?”

“Is the boy yours?”

Chapter Text

“Is the boy yours?”

The question hung in the air like a heavy cloud.

Rio was patently waiting for a response. Her eyes wide, lips still covered in blood. Her normally put together self, looked like she had been spit out of a tornado.

She could hear Teen turn on the shower, the pipes creaking with effort. Jen was oddly silent, no doubt eavesdropping on the current conversation.

The bowl of warm water was slowly growing cold.

How did she answer this question?

Would it break her wife all over again?

Would Rio kill him?

Would she kill her?

She didn’t know.

She carefully set the water and rag aside and moved to sit as close as she could on the couch. She wanted to give her wife her whole attention.

She reached to gently brush a matted lock of hair away from Rios face.

“Rio…”

Her wife flinched at the sound.

Agatha could tell she was preparing for the hard truth. Rio’s eyes blinked and darted to anything except Agathas.

“Rio, hey. No.” She jumped in before Rios mind spiraled too far. “I don’t know.”

Silence once again filled the air.

“You… don’t… know?” Rio finally said.

“I don’t.” The purple witch sighed a long breath. She had no idea how to approach the topic without making herself seem guilty.

It was the truth. Agatha had no idea how the Scarlett Witch was able to create the twins.

She knew how her and Rio had done it.

But Wanda was on a whole different level.

“She had said in her universe, her and Wanda had used chaos magic to make them.”

“Well chaos magic was her specialty.” Agatha snorted. Then sobered.

It was not a moment for jokes.

“Look Rio. I really don’t know.” She admitted. “You and I both know that it requires a lot of power to create life.” She couldn’t stop her hands from fiddling with a tattered piece of Rios shirt. “I know that they weren’t made organically, Vision was a figment of her warped reality.”

Rio seemed to accept this information, although, a little hesitantly.

“But.” Agatha said.

Rio met her eyes.

“It does take two.” She said timidly. “And I was the closest witch in her hex.”

A clatter of silver wear could be heard from the kitchen.

Without taking her eyes off her wife, Agatha called out, “You alright in there Kale?”

“Oh uhh. Yea! I’m good.” Came a muffled response. “Dinner is almost ready!”

Rio kept a neutral expression. Agatha couldn’t tell if the lack of color in her cheeks were from the conversation or the days of torture.

It sickened her to hope that it was from the torture.

“So he could be yours.” Rio said quietly.

It broke something inside of her. She truly didn’t know.

“He could be. Yes.” Rio deserved the truth. Plainly.

“Were you aware?”

“No Death.” She needed Rio to believe that part. “I would have never entertained that.”

“You were hiding from me then.” She countered, her voice quivered.

Oh how she hated how she did things in her life.

She had hurt her wife so many times in her long life. She wasted too many years not showering her in the love and respect she deserved.

“Listen to me.” Agatha gently cupped her wife’s tear stained face. “I have done incredibly stupid things in my life. And I know I did a lot to hurt you. But I have never tried to recreate another life after Nicky.” Her voice shook with emotion. “I have only ever wanted that with you.”

Rio smiled through her tears.

“If that boy is mine, then Wanda must have used my magic without knowing it.” She said. It was a likely conclusion. The poor woman didn’t know what she was doing from the beginning. She may have entrapped a whole town and enslaved their minds into acting out her perfect sitcom life, but at the time, Wanda Maximoff wasn’t outright cruel.

She wasn’t evil.

“It makes sense you know?” Rio finally chimed in quietly.

“Hmm?”

“I see so much of you in him.” A pause. “I see Nicky too.”

Agatha went quiet. She was expecting fury, hatred, even a hole in the wall. But of course her cosmic entity of a wife could see past this mountain of a conversation.

She had stated many times over the years that human life was so incredibly short. She had preferred to move on from wrongs that people would inevitably commit.

Which was incredibly helpful when in a relationship with a Harkness…

“I do too.” She finally said, smiling through her own tears.

A cough from the kitchen interrupted their conversation. “Uh dinner is ready.”

As if on cue, a squeak could be heard from upstairs, Teen was out of the shower.

Agatha had opted to bring Rio her dinner on the couch, where they sat in comfortable silence.

Rio was occasionally eyeing Teen who was in the kitchen with Jen. Her eyes barely peeking over the curve of the floral print couch.

Death didn’t need to eat. But she would indulge in order to have close proximity of Agatha.

Jen had made a stew. It was quick and easy to make, not to mention warm and full of healthy things best suited for recovery.

Rio noticed Agatha’s hand shook every time she raised her spoon to her mouth; the contents almost spilling back into the bowl.

It seemed the last couple of days had also taken a toll on her wife.

Rio waited until the last shaky spoonful of stew was eaten before grabbing the bowl away and setting it on the side table with a slight wince.

“Rio-“

“Let’s go shower?”

Agatha blinked at the sudden eagerness to move. She knew Rio was an entity, but surely she was too exhausted.

“Come on, you stink.” Rio challenged.

She looked down at herself. Both women were still covered in dirt and blood. Twiggs and leaves were buried in their hair. She also couldn’t stand to look at the tattered remains of Rios usually gorgeous clothing.

She quickly came to the conclusion that they were both in desperate need of cleaning.

Rio winced once again when Agatha tried to gently ease her into a standing position.

Together they slowly and painfully made it up the stairs and into the newly redone, master bathroom.

Agatha took charge and reached for the shower door when Rio intercepted her.

“Let me.”

“Rio, you can hardly stand up…”

The green witch gently pushed Agatha back until her she bumped into the sink. With a little help of what little magic she had remaining, she hoisted Agatha up onto the counter.

Rio winked before turning around to mess with the shower knobs until steam filled the air around them.

Agatha watched with a slight smile. It was always interesting to watch her wife do human things. Especially domestic human things.

She had learned in their early years what an appropriate temperature was for bathing, along with how long something should cook for, or even how much pressure should be applied to a mirror when cleaning it.

It was a good thing she wasn’t superstitious because her wife had broken many mirrors.

Once the water was ready, Rio had limped back over to where she had left her wife.

She looked like hell, but still had the audacity to sway her hips in a flirtatious manor.

Agatha couldn’t help but laugh at her antics.

Rio grasped the hem of Agathas top and eased her out of it.

Agatha returned the favor. Rios shirt was caked in blood that stuck to her skin and made her hiss in pain.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I like a little pain.” Rio winked again.

Agatha closed her eyes, “Don’t.” She said. The trembling came back to her voice. “Don’t joke about you being in pain please.”

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Rio said quickly. “That wasn’t funny.” She stepped in close, fitting perfectly in between Agathas knees.

Agatha breathed in deeply, reeling in her feelings.

She had a height advantage from her spot on the counter. She tilted her head down and placed her forehead against Rios.

The steam was curling around them now like smoke. Neither woman cared.

“Agatha?”

Agatha had her eyes still closed, just enjoying the closeness. “Hmm?”

“Can I kiss you now?”

The Purple Witch opened her eyes and was met with Rios large brown eyes, begging for an answer.

Agatha laughed and nodded as she grabbed Rios face, connecting their lips.

Gods she had missed this woman.

Rio had lived since the dawn of time, and still swears that nothing compared to the feeling of her wife’s bare chest against her own, and her lips on hers.

The kiss was full of everything they had desperately needed in the last couple days. It spoke louder than either one of them could conjure and it promised things neither of them knew how to declare.

They stayed like that for a few long moments. It was hurried, and frantic with teeth but quick with a soothing tongue. Until it turned soft, accompanied with the taste of salt from tears neither one knew were shedding.

They were both out of breath and flushed in the cheeks.

Agatha took full credit of bringing color back into her wife’s previously pale face.

She smiled at the effect she had on the entity. “Come on, you stink.”

She carefully hopped off the counter top and they stepped into the scorching water.

They took turns lathering each other with soap. It took more times than Agatha had liked to admit to get the water to go from red to clear. But they got there.

Agatha inspected her wife to make sure there were no more actively bleeding wounds.

To her amazement, all that were left were angry red marks, slightly raised like braille.

Her hand gently traced each one, quickly followed by a kiss.

Rio was all too happy to allow her wife to explore her body.

Soon, their fingers wrinkled and Agatha had to make the very hard decision to get out of the shower.

They dressed in simple, soft robes before crawling into bed, facing each other.

“Are you okay?” Rio asked Agatha as she caressed her face.

“Me? You were the one tortured.” Agatha said the last word quietly.

“And I’ll live.”

Agatha huffed at that comment. “But you almost didn’t. I almost killed you Rio.”

“That wasn’t you.”

“No, but it easily could have been.” She countered. “She was everything I strived to be at one point.”

Rio stayed silent. She grabbed at her wife’s hand and held it close to her chest.

“I don’t blame her.” Agatha said almost ashamed. “I mean. I’d kill her again in a heartbeat for what she did, but I guess I just understand her.”

“She had the Darkhold a lot longer than you.” Rio stated. “And She came from a different universe. Things aren’t exactly the same in every one.”

“She said her death took Nicky and Billy.” A pause. “Death didn’t give her as much time as you did for me.”

“No one else in history.” Rio recited her words from the road with a chuckle. “I guess I can say ‘In the multi verse!”

Agatha allowed a laugh.

“Thank you Death.” She said seriously.

Rio stilled. She still had that reaction after all these years.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more.”

“Don’t be.” Agatha kissed her cheek. “You gave me so much. Thank you.”

They stayed quiet again.

It was reminiscent of a time long ago where they would lay side by side for hours, not saying a word, just enjoying the sun on their face and the company of each other.

“Are you okay?” Agatha finally said.

Rio smiled. “You worried about me?”

“I’m serious Rio, you were hurt. You just found out that Teen might me kind of my child, and Jen is in the kitchen playing Betty Crocker.”

“Ugh don’t ever say her name while we are laying in this bed.” She dramatically threw her arm over her face.

Agatha gently slapped her shoulder, careful not to hurt her.

“Yes Agatha, I am okay. The abomination is going to take some time to adjust to.” She stated, “I guess this means you’d be angry if I did reap his soul now?”

“My love, I think I was against that from the start.”

“Fine.”

“Are you in any pain?”

Rio had to ponder on that question, which really told Agatha everything she needed to know. “I’ll be alright. I might need a couple days to get back to normal.”

She looked tired. Her eyes drooped and her breathing was deepening.

Agatha wasn’t doing much better.

“Let’s go to sleep.”

Death actually yawned in response. Again, a red flag.

“I love you Agatha.”

“And I love you Death.”