Synopsis
The Avengers have been attacked by dead Jack Of Hearts, 'possessed' Vision, 5 Ultrons, berserk She-Hulk and a Kree spacefleet. The Avengers casualty list is Ant-Man and Hawkeye dead, Vision destroyed, the new Captain Britain and Wasp on the critical list (with Yellowjacket watching over her), and She-Hulk in SHIELD custody. And Iron Man left when some of the team believed he'd got drunk before addressing the UN Assembly. Then Dr Strange arrived to tell them it was all a magic attack.
Now we'll find out what's really been going on.
It all begins with a flashback to Scarlet Witch and Wasp sunbathing beside the Avengers Mansion pool while Hawkeye practices his archery. Janet van Dyne and Clint Barton are having an affair and Jan confides in Wanda Maximoff that she recently thought she might be pregnant, which is *not* what she wants. She thinks superheroes shouldn't have kids, like when Wanda had twins. Jan immediately realises her mistake because Wanda's memories of her 'dead' boys have been buried to save her sanity, and she pretends to be drunk and makes a hurried exit. But Wanda starts to think.
In the present Captain America and Falcon are the only current Avengers still active but they are surrounded by a horde of ex-Avengers and friends as Dr Strange's astral body explains further. He claims to have just returned from prolonged meditation and then noticed the magic being used here. He has erected a cloaking spell so that whoever is doing this can't hear or see what's happening now. He can't detect who it was, but whoever it was had a great level mystic power to create this much chaos. Strange asks who *they* know who might fit this description. And Cap has a sinking feeling he knows.
Another flashback has weeping Wanda going to see her witch mentor Agatha Harkness to ask why anyone would think she once had 2 children. Agatha spills her cup of tea, then recovers herself and asks Wanda to sit down for a chat. But now angry Wanda demands to know where her children are.
Back in the present Steve Rogers has presumably aired his suspicions of Scarlet Witch. Most of the others can't believe it. But Nick Fury points out that she's Magneto's daughter and used to be in his mutant terrorist Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. Spider-Man says he always found it strange she married the robot Vision, but Falcon slaps him down. It's Firestar who brings up what happened to her kids, which is news to DrS, and he *delivered* them. Beast and Warbird explain how Wanda unconsciously willed the twins into existence - they weren't real. Agatha Harkness worked it out and 'erased' them.
Stephen Strange is angry he wasn't consulted at the time. He's always known that Wanda's control over her magic was shaky. As a mutant she was born with her hex power, she never had to learn magic the hard way. Cap has to agree she'd had control problems in the past. DrS says he offered to take her as a student but she was always too busy as an Avenger. But her hex power wouldn't be capable of this. Warbird and Wonder Man tell him how she gained a new level of power called Chaos Magic. But they still can't believe she did this. Iron Man joins them all and says she was with him at the UN while much of this was happening. But Strange then stuns them all by telling them there's no such thing as Chaos Magic.
He then gives them his appraisal of her life (accompanied by reprints of panels from a variety of stages). An orphaned mutant with a violent past has a power to alter reality she didn't earn, doesn't understand and can't control. But every time she changes reality, albeit for noble reasons, her grasp on reality becomes blurred - and it becomes easier to change it again. It would take a strong person to cope with this if they had a calm life. But being an Avenger and daughter of Magneto is far from a calm existence. So she creates a piece of normality and happiness in the shape of children, but that all goes wrong. He asks them if they would wonder about the sanity of someone who had lived through all that.
The listeners are beginning to accept the possibility that the Doctor is right. Beast protests that Agatha made sure Wanda doesn't even remember her children. But someone suggests she may have remembered. Strange now says he can track the magic back to its source.
We see Scarlet Witch serving dinner to apparently Agatha Harkness, Vision, Wonder Man (Vision's 'brother' and another of Wanda's lovers) and 2 10-ish boys - her children. Then Cap walks in. The 2 boys start arguing - 1 says they should have killed *all* the Avengers but the other says Cap's 1 of the good guys. Steve reminds Wanda that they've grown close lately (eg in the CA & Falcon series), and tries to persuade her that this isn't real. But he suddenly finds himself confronted by Red Skull and Nazi soldiers. And a hail of bullets propel him and his shield out of the house.
SW follows him out, floating in midair, and we see all the other Avengers outside Agatha's Whisper Hill house. Warbird launches an attack but is stopped seemingly by Rogue (who once stole her powers and memories). And then loads of enemies attack. Scarlet Witch is above it all emanating magic until Dr Strange attacks *her*. But she's strong enough to match him, and sends his enemy Dormammu against him. However Strange uses the Eye Of Agamotto to show her the truth ...
... and the Witch falls from the sky to be caught by Cap. DrS declares her alive but her mind has gone. Nick Fury enters the house with some SHIELD Agents and they find Agatha Harkness' decayed corpse (sitting in a chair looking out of an upstairs window like Norman Bates' mother). Magneto arrives to take his daughter away (guided there by Charles Xavier). And the Avengers disperse.