Brotherhood: It was an Accident
Blame Dholefire. She said that my Age of Wolverine was a dysfunctional family, and that flowed downhill...
So this is a moment with the Brotherhood, set during the same time as my mainline arc.
---bh
"Get out of my face, Pietro!" She was older by five minutes, but it still made him her annoying little brother. In some ways, he was even worse than Todd. At least Todd usually meant well enough; Pietro wanted to hurt people.
"Or what, are you going make me have an accident to? Like Mom?"
Wanda Maximoff stopped in mid step. "Shut up!"
The other members of the old Brotherhood stopped what they were doing. Some of them had speculated about their mother, especially after they learned that Magneto was their father. Had he been a player, or a happily married man, they didn't know. The man did have a kind of rock star aura when he wanted to use it. Pietro never said, even Toad wasn't brave enough to ask Wanda, and Pyro hadn't even thought about it when he was an Acolyte. They didn't even know why the twins were fighting this time.
Maybe Wanda and Pietro didn't know either, or they had forgotten. This fight had been going on for a week. It was the longest one of their squabbles had gone on like this. Pietro stood there, his body language still that of someone wanting a fight. Wanda's voice was lower. "Shut the fuck up. It was an accident."
This was an old wound, deep and never closed. "Yeah, it was. Accidents are your specialty. What was it? Do you even remember?"
Lance pushed himself back from the table. "Pietro, knock it off."
"Yeah, man, why you gotta be an asshole?"
"What, you guys don't want to know why Magneto stuffed her in the looney bin?" He sneered at his sister, his contempt on display for all to see. "She killed our mother."
This was the first time in all the years they'd been a group that he'd ever said that. You could have heard a pin drop, or a flea sneeze, in the quiet that followed. Wanda's arms were straight, fists balled and held away from her sides. Her eyes were closed tightly, like she was trying to retreat from herself, from over fifteen years of suffering. She was trembling slightly
"What's the matter Wanda, truth hurt?" He pushed her shoulder, hard. She stumbled, but didn't fall.
The voice that responded wasn't angry, there was no rage. It wasn't powerful. She squeaked. A part of her was going back to that day. "No, it wasn't my fault. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to Piety."
She hadn't called him that since they were six. Since she went away. Since he left her alone.
Pietro raised his hand to push her again, but it never got there. His next cutting remark never left his lips.
Fred moved silently, uncommonly graceful for him. One large hand came down on the back of Pietro's neck, closing, and pulling. Speed counted for nothing without something solid under foot, and the next solid thing Pietro Maximoff encountered was the window. Followed by the ground outside.
Todd eased up to her, carefully. "Wanda?" He touched her shoulder, fearful. She could turn him into a puddle of toad stew with a touch. "We're here." She wrapped her arms around him, clinging. They were both squeezed in turn by Fred's arms, wrapping around them both.
Pyro stood, watching. He had a feeling that if he made a smart remark, he'd find out how long it had taken Pietro to get to the parking lot. He raised an eyebrow when Lance started walking for the door. "Where you going, mate?"
"Downstairs. To beat Pietro some more."
---Author's notes:
This is not the recommended way of doing something like this. And it sure as hell isn't how it is done at the Institute. But for the Brotherhood, yeah, this is their "family" dynamic in my eyes. Fred and Todd are both screwed up, but with the right therapy and maybe some meds they could be normal- better raised, they could have been good men. Alvers is pissed at the world but at his heart isn't really a bad person, and Pyro is just an ass but not the kind of guy who's going to go out of his way to screw a teammate. Wanda knew nothing but rage that short of direct brain washing she'd probably never get over it- oops, yeah, Magneto thought of that one. The only one I couldn't at least work with is Pietro- he just needs to go away.
Pietro is an Italian form of Peter, which means "rock". Wanda has a couple of origions- one is "wanderer", the another derives from the Vandal tribe. Rejected by the one who could have been her rock, she wanders- I doubt the names were selected to work that way, but it does. Hopefully, she can find a star to guide her way.