The boy took it well. Relatively well, in Wanda's opinion. At least he didn't laugh at her. He just gave her an incredulous look.

"Wait," he said. "Hang on just a minute. Erik Lehnsherr, that Magneto guy, the mutant they were talking about last year- is he your father?"

The words just confused Wanda even more. "I don't know an Erik Lehnsherr," She said slowly. "My name is Wanda Maximoff."

Now the boy's eyes went wide. "But that's my last name too."

She just shrugged quietly, beginning to feel unsurprised by the coincidences. "But you are not Pietro."

"Pietro?" He repeated. "No, no my name is Peter. Who's Pietro?"

"Was," Wanda said. "He was my brother. At least where I come from."

Now the boy- Peter- was raking his hands through his hair and groaning, pacing in a circle. This was unlike Pietro, who would instantly start yelling for answers. "Jeeeeeezus Christ. Okay, okay." He held up a finger. "Where do you come from?"

Wanda wrung her hands. "Would you believe me if I told you?"

Peter scoffed, "I have seen some weird shit that some people wouldn't believe, what's the worst you could say? You're from another world?"

She didn't say anything, but he must have caught the look in her eyes because he said, "You have to be kidding me. Oh, jeez. This explains everything. No, you're messing with me, you have to be!"

"No," Wanda stated, "I'm not. I came here, to this place, I'm not sure how, but I think it must be my powers."

"No mutant has that kind of power."

"Well, I'm not a mutant," Wanda argued. "I got my powers in a different way. I used to be normal," she said, voice hushed, remembering how almost a lifetime ago she was just an ordinary girl with her twin by her side, starting riots and stealing to survive.

Peter laughed dryly, "Yeah, me too! And then puberty!" He made an exploding noise with his mouth. "So you're a mutant and you're crazy? That's got to be the only explanation."

"I am not crazy," Wanda snapped, and without meaning to her eyes flashed red.

It made Peter stop and stare.

Wanda took a deep breath, just like Sam taught her. She let herself calm down a little until she saw less red. "Piet- Peter. How old are you in this world?"

"I'm twenty-five," said Peter suspiciously.

"And you go fast."

Peter hesitated for a bit, but then said "Hell yeah. Yeah, I can go fast."

"And you must love sweet things," Wanda continued, trying to keep her voice from shaking, "and you can't get drunk, and you take things that aren't yours sometimes, and you can never sit still, and when you're moving, it seems like the whole world is hanging suspended in time."

"Okay, whoa there," said Peter, holding up one finger. "While all the rest of that is true, I'm gonna have to correct you about the stealing. I don't do that anymore. Well, not often."

He looked at her, bewildered. "So is that your power? Do you know all this stuff by looking at people?"

"I know. I know these things because where I'm from, I knew you." Wanda paused. "Or someone like you. He was my twin."

Peter grimaced. "I'm really not getting any of this."

Wanda looked down at her hands. They weren't sparking with energy anymore, and if there was one thing she knew she could control, it was what was in others' minds...

She reached out to Peter. "Let me show you."

He hesitated, but moved closer to her. She ignored the wary look in his eyes and placed her fingertips on either side of his head.

The memories rushed between them like a current. Wanda wasn't selective, either; everything she had experienced, every detail of the world she was from, she conveyed to Peter exactly the way she remembered them.

When she released him, he stared at her with an expression of newfound awe understanding.

"Whoa," was all Peter said. "This is creepy as fuck."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"It's cool," he replied, taking a deep breath. He ran a hand through his hair again. "So that man I keep seeing, the one with the white hair...in your world, I'm him?"

"Yes," Wanda said slowly, "but I think that's just another version of you. Like a mirror. Same powers, similar name." She looked at him. "I can just feel it."

"I have a sister," Peter said. "She's younger than me. Her name's Wendy, so in this world, she's probably you. It's a bit early to tell, but I don't think she's going to be a mutant. We don't have the same father."

She just nodded numbly.

"And people did all that bad stuff to you to bring out your powers?" Peter murmured, and she heard a note of sympathy in his voice.

"Yeah."

"Damn." Peter paused, eyes darting around as if trying to gather his thoughts. Wanda could definitely sense the confusion. "Uh, okay. Well, first of all, I believe you now."

Wanda looked up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Totally," said Peter. "Second- I got lots of questions, lady." He looked at her. "So, uh, how about we talk about this? I could use a milkshake."

This was not how Peter imagined the day would go.

He did not expect to run into a (seemingly crazy) lady in the alleyway. He did not expect her to suddenly know some very specific things about him. And he definitely did not expect her to claim that she was his sister and that she was from a different time and world.

The last thing he could possibly imagine would be sitting across from her at a table in a diner, two milkshakes and a tray of fries between them.

(He was supposed to be in San Francisco by now, screaming in a crowd as the wonderful and talented Ali Blair belted her hits.)

But, well, here he was instead.

And God knew why the hell he was handling this the way he was handling it; what had possessed him to invite her for a drink instead of just whisking her off to the mansion and dumping the problem on Professor Xavier, but she had seemed really spooked, and-

He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something naggingly familiar about her.

By the time the two of them had more or less managed to straighten things out, Peter found himself concluding that she wasn't actually crazy.

The rest of the universe was.

"So...no mutants in your world?"

Wanda shook her head, "No mutants."

"But there are people with powers."

"Yes. Not as many as here, but quite many."

"And they call them...?"

Wanda shrugged. "There are many words for it. Miracles, enhanced, superhuman...they haven't always been around like the mutants have. People mostly get their powers from science and technology." And then there was Thor, she thought, but she didn't fancy explaining him to Peter. "Sometimes that means bad things, but sometimes...there can be good things." This time she thought about Vision, who was fascinating and enigmatic.

She caught Peter absentmindedly dipping a single French fry into his milkshake and trying to process everything that had been going on.

"Your turn," she said quietly. "Why did you ask me if I knew someone called Erik Lehnsherr?"

"Ah, well, y'see," said Peter matter-of-factly, "Erik happens to be one of the most powerful mutants and almost usually involved in or responsible for a ton of shit that's been going down in the world lately." He put the fry in his mouth and chewed. "He's also my dad. And I guess, by extension," Peter gestured to her with his straw, "your dad."

Wanda raised her eyebrows. "I was not expecting this."

"Yeah." He paused. "Thing is, he doesn't know. I had a chance to tell him, six months ago, but I never..." Peter trailed off. "Y'know, lemme start at the beginning. Can't do the whole memory-exchange thing you did, but I'll do my best..."

To his surprise, Wanda reached out to his across the table. "Here, let me help."

Her fingers on the side of his head again, Peter felt the same rush of memory he did before, only this time she was drawing them out of him. The Sentinels. The Pentagon breakout. Magneto's attack on the President and Mystique's intervention. Then Apocalypse, the four horsemen, the X-Men, the Professor and his school...

Wanda pulled away with a gasp.

"I know, I know!" cried Peter. "It's crazy. Apocalypse, I know you didn't have him in your world, but trust me, he was WAY worse than the robot-"

But Wanda wasn't thinking about that. "There are- there are so many of you! Of us! There are people like me-" she met Peter's gaze with a smile, and he found it oddly endearing. "This is incredible!"

"Yeah," said Peter, returning the smile, "welcome to our world."

She rubbed her forehead. "I think I understand now. This thing that happened, it is like two separate versions of reality."

"Except I guess someone thought it would be funny to have only one of us in either of the realities," said Peter with a weary shrug. "'Cause your twin is dead, and I'm here."

"I know." Strucker was right, she thought. "And I don't know how...or if...I can ever go back to my world."

"See, that's why I think we should go to the school," insisted Peter. "Mutant or not, you still got powers, and if you need help, the Professor's our best bet."

"Well...nobody seems to be able to help me in my world," Wanda said. "Maybe it's different here." Maybe in this world, where there seemed to be more people like her, she'd have a better chance of hacking her uncanny, astonishing ability.

Besides. She knew she could trust Peter.

He was watching her, waiting for her to make a solid decision. "So, whaddaya want?"

Wanda nodded, managing a smile. "Okay, I guess. I never actually finished school."

Peter beamed. "Well, there ya have it! I'll take you to Charlie and we can find a way to send you back to your world. But in the meantime, you are gonna LOVE the place. We have a ton of fun things to do, great teachers, oh my God, I think you're gonna like Kurt a lot- maybe nobody has to know you're not technically a mutant. And hey!" He suddenly added, excited. "We'll just tell everyone you found out Erik's your dad too. Am I speaking too fast?"

Wanda laughed, and Peter decided he really like making her laugh. "Maybe to other people, but I could always understand my brother. I can still understand you." She smiled, "Yes, that sounds very good. I like it." Wanda let herself imagine it. She thought of going to the school, staying there and making friends. The Avengers had welcomed her, sure, but there was no one in that world who could completely handle or understand her, or her powers. Besides, here there was Peter. Even if he wasn't Pietro, being around him made Wanda feel more right than she did in such a long time. They just clicked.

He was on his feet in a split second, extending an arm to her. "Alright! Then let's hit it."

"Hey!" snapped a voice behind them, making both Peter and Wanda turn around. The manager was standing by the counter, hands on her hips, an upset-looking waiter standing nearby. "I know what you people are. We don't serve muties in here, remember, Jerry?" She added, with a vindictive glare at the waiter.

He started trembling. "But I didn't think they were-"

"Jeremy, are you an idiot? The kid's hair's a dead giveaway," she retorted. Turning back to the pair, she glowered. "Don't bother paying for your drinks, freak show*. Just get out."

Wanda raised her eyebrows. Peter simply shrugged. "Ya see what we have to deal with in this world?"

She felt the magic begin to crackle underneath her skin, but not enough to make a manifestation.

Wanda stood and put a hand on Peter's arm. "Let's go. The fries were crap, anyway."

*a reference to another of Evan Peters' works...;)