Author's note: Hello, gentle readers! So, this is meant as a one shot companion piece to The Hand You're Dealt. It's Peter's point-of-view of the Brotherhood returning to base and discovering that their captive flew the coop while they were gone. Thank you to anonymouscsifan for the inspiration!

I'm kinda surprised at how some of the characters ended up reacting, Magneto especially. I wrote what they told me to, though! I think in chapter 78 of The Hand You're Dealt we'll kinda get an insight on why Magneto in particular reacted the way he did. And then the second thoughts for Peter are sprinkled in here and there! Hopefully all of you enjoy this little sneak peek of what happened outside of Vivien's POV. Feedback is welcome, and as always, thank you for reading!

Peter's Pain

"What do you think is taking the boys so long?" Wanda wonders aloud. "I can't get them on the radio."

We're waiting a couple streets over from the warehouse we were trying to hit tonight before the X-Men popped up and ruined everything. They even took our van, the jerks.

"Who cares?" I mutter.

"Peter-"

I shake my head and lean against a tree.

After what happened earlier, I couldn't give two shits where Fox and Jackal are. They had Mastermind screw with Vivien's head, tried to break her-

And I sat there watching without doing a damn thing to stop it.

I mean, Vixie's tough. I knew she could handle it. That's why I didn't step in. Yeah.

But it still sucked to watch.

To be honest, I don't think she'll ever forgive me for that. And no matter how many times I tell myself that it was for her own good, that even if I tried to intervene it would've just made it worse for her, I'm not sure I'll be able to forgive myself, either.

"Is- is he worth it?" I asked her when we were alone.

"Yes," Vivien replied, no hesitation at all. "He's the best person I've ever met."

That hurt more than if she'd stabbed me or something. I knew right then and there I had no shot. None. I'd missed my chance to ever tell Vivien how I feel about her.

It's all the Fuzz Ball's fault, man. Somehow he's gotten his claws in her and twisted up her thinking so much that there's no getting through to her. She's so convinced that he loves her, when it's obvious he's just trying to lure her away from us.

She didn't even give me any credit for protecting her, either. We both know that if I'd told Fox that she was sneaking out to see Beast her brother would've completely lost his shit, but I didn't rat her out. Doesn't that count for anything?

Apparently not.

"Quicksilver, go find the boys," Mastermind says now.

I open my mouth to tell him to suck it, because he doesn't get to give me orders-

"Peter?" Wanda whispers. "Please? The sooner they meet us the sooner we can go back and talk to Vivien some more."

Yeah, ok.

I mean, we can try to talk to her, but I have a bad feeling that after what happened earlier Vivien's going to be too pissed to listen. And then she's been sitting in that room this whole time tied to that chair without food, so you know she's gonna be super grumpy.

"I-"

Just then I spot Fox and Jackal making their way towards us, saving me the effort of going to find their dumb asses. Fox especially looks pissed- but again, what else is new?- as they stomp their way over. Both brothers look pretty roughed up, like they got into a fight and lost.

"What's wrong?" Wanda asks.

"She's been seeing Beast," Fox snaps. "That little bitch has been sneaking out to see Beast!"

Uh oh.

Wanda throws an anxious glance my way. "Beast? How do you know?"

Fox doesn't answer- he's too busy cussing up a storm and bitching about how disgusting it is to think of "that big, blue freak" touching his sister.

Dude. Don't think about your sister like that. It's gross, man.

Jackal is kinda methodically pulling out his own hair. Hello, Mr. Psycho. "Beast freaked out when we told him Sissy wouldn't be sneaking around with anyone anymore," he explains. "And you said he's got that drug that makes him look human-"

Oh shit.

I hold my breath, waiting for one of them to do the math on that one. Thankfully they seem too mad to really be thinking straight enough to connect the dots and realize that I lied. Dad told me once that the brothers aren't too bright to begin with. I can definitely see that now.

"Come on," Fox snarls, turning away. "Let's get back. I swear, when I get my hands on that little traitor-"

"You'll do what?" I blurt out.

"None of your damn business," he retorts. "She's our sister, we'll deal with her."

I really don't like the sound of that.

See, this is exactly what I was scared of. It's why I didn't mention the Blue Butt when Fox had me follow her.

I wouldn't put it past him to kill Vivien now that he knows she's been sneaking around with an X-Freak. His own sister. What the hell is wrong with him? I mean, I can't picture ever wanting to hurt Wanda or Lorna, even if I caught one of them making out with Havok or something.

Wanda gives me another worried look.

I grit my teeth and shake my head at her. I honestly don't know what to do except follow after Fox and hope that maybe Wanda can talk him down somehow and keep him and Jackal from hurting Vivien. She's better at that stuff than I am.

My stomach feels all twisted up the entire time as we head back to the Brotherhood base. I'm scared for Vivien, ok? Even after everything that's happened, I still want to keep her safe if I can. It's all so confusing, knowing she's a traitor, knowing she's in love with someone else, but still caring about her so much. It really hurts. I wonder if she felt this conflicted about sneaking around with the Fur Ball?

All of us head straight to the room we left Vivien in without even reporting to my dad first. Fox and Jackal are both too busy wanting to kill their sister, Mastermind seems like he's looking forward to maybe torturing Vivien some more- God, I hate that guy- and me and Wanda are both wondering what the hell to do.

None of this feels right, man.

Fox unlocks the door-

"Sonuvabitch," he hisses.

I peek over his shoulder. There's no Vivien in sight- in fact, the only trace of her is the remains of the chair Jackal tied her to earlier, and it's in pieces.

This is going to sound really messed up, but the first thing I feel when I see that empty room is relief. And then I'm just confused, wondering where she went.

"Her room-" Wanda begins.

Yeah, because she's totally going to be in there, waiting for us to catch her.

But still, I humor Wanda and take off to Vivien's room.

Sure enough, no little blonde girl inside. Worse than that- all of her stuff is gone.

All of it except the presents all of us gave her for her birthday. The mirror thing Wanda got for her, the scarf Jackal gave her, the records from me and Fox- all of it's laying on her bed. It's pretty obvious that she didn't want to take anything that reminded her of us with her.

And I thought it hurt when I saw Vivien kissing the Fur Ball. That was nothing compared to this. It seriously feels like someone just punched me in the chest. The pain knocks the breath out of me and makes my eyes burn.

She's really gone. She's gone and never coming back.

I'm glad I'm so much faster than everybody else, because by the time they all catch up I've blinked away that stupid burning feeling in my eyes.

"She's gone," I sorta mumble.

Wanda immediately comes into the room and takes my hand. She's got tears in her eyes, and that just makes me feel worse. I'm almost glad to have an excuse to hug her, because I could really use one, too.

"Gone?" Jackal echos. He comes further into the room, all wide-eyed and nutty-looking, like he's expecting his sister to pop out from under the bed and say "just kidding" at any second. He looks really sad as he picks up the scarf, like a lost little boy. I feel kinda bad for him.

Fox not so much.

He snarls and kicks in the dresser, like that's going to help anything. "That selfish brat," Fox growls, and he really starts going to town on the room with a big fat hissy fit while the rest of us watch, basically stunned. He knocks over the bookcase and stomps on it, and then gouges the mattress with his claws.

And here I was thinking Jackal was supposed to be the crazy one, jeez.

Fox points at his brother. "I can't believe she left me to deal with you by myself."

What a dick. I mean, I get that he's pissed, but why's he gotta take it out on Jackal?

Oh yeah, that's right. Because he's an asshole, that's why.

"Sissy left us?" Jackal whispers. He starts shredding the scarf as his expression quickly becomes more panicked. "But what are we going to do, James? We need her to-"

Fox grabs his brother by the shoulders, cutting him off. "Relax, little bro," he says, giving him a slight shake. "We'll get her back. I promise. But first..."

Mastermind finally speaks up for the first time in a while. He's been watching the rest of us from the doorway in that creepy mannequin way he has. "Perhaps we should finally tell Magneto what's going on now?" he suggests in his annoying nasally voice.

Dead silence.

"Nose goes," I say, quickly touching my nose.

Jackal imitates me, but the other three give us irritated looks.

"I'll do it," Wanda offers finally. She steps away from me and bravely squares her shoulders. "I'll- I'll try to break it to him easy."

Aw, man.

I can't let her do that now, can I? I'd be a bad brother if I did.

Looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet on this one.

Oh boy. This is not going to go over well. But I might as well get it over with, right?

Without another word I kiss Wanda on the cheek and zip on over to Dadneto's room. Taking a deep breath, I knock on his door.

Dad looks surprised when he sees me standing there. "Quicksilver," he murmurs, eyebrows raised. "Are you here to give the mission report?"

"Uh- sorta," I reply uneasily.

He frowns.

Crap. Here goes.

"So Vivien's been dating this human dude- I mean, we thought it was a human dude- and that pissed off Fox so he knocked her out and tied her up and tried to make her not want the guy or something anymore but it didn't work and then we went off on the mission like you asked and the X-Geeks stopped us- oh and they took the van, by the way, sorry- and I guess it turns out Vivien's boyfriend is actually Beast, so we came back and she ran away."

Dadneto stares at me. "What?"

"Er- Vivien ran away," I repeat slowly.

"Ran away."

"Yeah."

"With Beast."

"Um, I guess? She didn't exactly leave a note, Dad."

He gives me that annoyed look he always gets when I say something kinda dumb. There's this muscle in his jaw that starts twitching or whatever. "Where are the others?" Dadneto asks through gritted teeth. "Take me to them. Now."

Well he could be more polite about it, couldn't he? But still, I do as he says. I whisk him away to the hallway outside Vivien's room so fast he barely has time to blink.

Fox goes as pale as a ghost when he sees my dad. Dadneto's like, the one person who can take Fox down a peg. Wish I could do that- maybe Vivien would've respected me more or something if I went toe-to-toe with her asshole brother, you know?

And now I'm feeling sad all over again, man...

"I'm sorry, boss," Fox says immediately. "I thought I could handle this, because it was family business and I didn't want to bother you-"

"That's a pitiful excuse," my dad cuts in, his expression ice cold. Brrr. He turns to glare at Mastermind. "Did you have knowledge of what was going on?"

Mastermind squirms guiltily. "Yes," he admits.

Dad's lips curl back. "You fool. You should have come to me-"

"It was my fault, though," Fox interrupts. "Magneto, I accept full responsibility for all of this. I promise, I'll make things right-"

"You will do nothing," Dad snaps, and all the metal stuff in the room kinda flings back into the walls to emphasize the point. "Listen to me, all of you. You will not seek Vixen out or approach her in any way, do you understand? She has betrayed our Brotherhood, but we will let her go her own way."

"The X-Men-" Mastermind begins, but he shuts right up when my dad throws him another dirty look.

None of us say it, but we all know there's no way Vivien will go to the X-Men. She's going to go off alone and do her own thing. Fur Ball or no Fur Ball, she's never liked being part of a team, as much as it hurts to admit that.

I'll probably never see her again. And as much as I try to tell myself that's probably for the best, that hurts too.

"Do you understand?" Dadneto repeats sternly.

All of us reluctantly agree, though I see Fox and Jackal exchange a look that makes me uneasy.

They wouldn't go behind my dad's back on a direct order like this though, would they? I mean, I get it, Vixie's their sister, but I'm sure Dad has his reasons for letting her leave us in peace and they should listen to him. Respecting her choices, just like he said before when he told us to lie to her about stuff we knew she would get upset over.

He actually took that a lot better than I thought he would, actually. See, Vivien was making a big deal and trying to make my dad out as the bad guy for no reason.

...Right?

Aw man, I can't think like that.

I mean, he's my dad... He can't be a bad guy. If he's a bad guy, what does that make me?

Right?