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Chapter Seven: Back to Normal?

Wanda's fist became blurred with her blue powers as her anger intensified. "Where did he go now?!"

A nearby sapling exploded into a million splinters, making Pietro and Larka duck in fear of the sharp fragments.

"Look on the bright side," Pietro started nervously. "At least your not stuck in that dome thing anymore."

His sister screamed in frustration and turned around sharply, causing Pietro to yelp in fright. "Are you sure that you don't know where he has fled to? Be careful with your answer, you don't want to end up in jail again do you?"

Larka looked at him curiously. "Jail, whatever did you do to end up in jail?"

Quicksilver rolled his eyes. "I never really went to jail…I was just in the truck that was going to take me to jail."

Larka laughed, but remained silent as she looked at the debris of wreckage around her. An awkward silence had fallen on the group. Pietro kept shooting nervous looks at his sister before quickly looking away, and then repeating the process over again. Wanda was muttering darkly under her breath, angry that her father had escaped before she could acquire her revenge.

"I'm going back to the disgusting disease ridden house that I call home," Wanda spit out angrily and set out for the boarding house.

Smiling Larka followed, Pietro at her side.

It was almost dark by the time they made it back, the sky turning into a variety of different blues, pinks, and oranges. The wolf girl stifled a yawn as she made her way up the broken walk.

'It's strange how from the outside, the Brotherhood home looks so big. But the inside really doesn't match up.' Her mind spit out in random thought. She let it go, getting to the point where she was too tired to give it any real thought.

She yawned and tired to stifle it with her hand. Pietro grinned at her and asked, "Tired?"

"Not at all," she lied and yawned again.

"Right," he said and entered the house. Larka tensed as she followed Wanda into the boarding house.

She wasn't looking forward to seeing Lance, she knew that his reaction would not be the happiest.

Her luck that he was sitting on the couch, probably hadn't moved since Wanda left. Except maybe for the bathroom or food.

As soon as he saw Larka, the earth mover stood up. "What's she doing here?" His voice was loud enough to hear through the entire house.

His yells drew Todd and Fred in, curious to see what all the ruckus was about. Todd's eyes lit up when he saw that Wanda was back. He didn't get the chance to talk to her since she was already walking to her room. Sighing he went over to stand behind the couch and listen to yet another argument from Lance's mouth. Fred walked to the kitchen, muttering about crazy mutants.

"She's here to stay," Pietro answered, having to speak louder over the slam of Wanda's door. "Whether you like it or not."

Lance sneered. "Why? She doesn't belong here, don't you understand? She won't fight with us if she doesn't agree!"

"Yeah, well so what. It's time for us to really choose a side. The only reason you agreed to be a part of the Brotherhood was so you could live here for free. You just didn't wanna stay out on the streets."

The ground shook slightly, but it was gone within seconds. "Hey, I'm not lookin' for a fight." She said, trying to help the speed demon. "I'm just looking for a place to live where people actually accept me."

Lance started to say more, but Pietro cut him off. "Listen, I was put in charge as leader. What I say goes. If you disagree with me, you disagree with my father!"

It was obvious that Larka didn't like the father card, since she still had the urge to rip his throat out for what he had tried to do to her. Being an experiment was no one's idea of a good time.

Lance cussed under his breath and stormed to his room, the entire house shaking until the door slammed, almost to the point of breaking, behind him.

"Yo, where've you guys been?" Todd asked rhetorically from behind the couch. "I was about to die from not seeing Wanda, ya know?"

Pietro rolled his eyes at Toad's enthusiasm.

"Oh, and Larka. One of the X-geeks dropped off her clothes and stuff. It's laying on the extra bed in Speedy's room."

Larka smiled and couldn't help but wonder who was willing to drop something off at their enemy's house.

It was as if Pietro had read her mind, because he asked that very question. "Who dropped it off? I thought the X-geeks hated us too much to even come near our house."

"Summers," Todd replied with disgust. "He didn't seem too happy about Larka not going back to the institute."

Larka shrugged. "Oh well, they'll get over it I guess." Her voice was happy, glad that she wouldn't have to go back.

"Aww, too bad I wasn't here. I love a chance to offend Scott Summers." Pietro said breathlessly.

Larka rolled her eyes and stretched her backs muscles. "I think I'm gonna go change, these clothes are getting a little worn." She didn't have to say that she had been wearing them for two days plus.

'Wow. It's only been two days…almost three. It just doesn't seem possible that so much can be crammed in such a short amount of time.' She was able to pull out of her thoughts and headed to Pietro's room. Her room? Their room? She sighed, it was all so strange. But then again what mutant life was calm and monotonous? None that she knew of, that was for sure. She easily found her stuff, sitting right where Todd had said it was.

A large suitcase and equally large bag almost filled the bed that they lay in. She went over and opened both, scowling when she looked inside. Her clothes were a heaping mess in the suitcase, the opposite of how she left this in her closet at the institute. Meaning that someone obviously could care less about her stuff. The other bag made her grit her teeth. It was filled with her favorite item. Books. And the were bent and torn from being stuffed harshly in the bag.

She sighed and went to work fixing the stuff, starting with the clothes. She really didn't mind if they were wrinkled or not. It was the thought that went into packing that made her mad. Whether it was Summers or some other mutant that had something against her she didn't know. Her hands folded the clothes within a few minutes, finding her toothbrush and other such things under the mass of clothes. She pulled out a smaller bag hidden in the suitcase and threw all of her hygiene things in it. With the suitcase empty she stashed it under the bed and out of the way. Sitting the small stack of clothes off to the side of the bed she set to work on her precious books. The hard backs only had torn pages, something easy enough to fix. But her paper back's covers went bent and folded, something that was hard to fix. Sighing she sat them safely as she could next to her clothes and put the bag with her suitcase.

Grabbing a pair a sweats and under clothes she changed. She barely got her bra snapped on when the door opened.

"Hey, what's taken so-Ahh!" Pietro stood in the doorway, just now putting his hands over his eyes. Larka hurried to pull on the pants and shirt, glad that she at least had panties and bra on.

"I'm dressed now," Larka sighed. "You can take your hands down now."

Pietro immediately went into an explanation of apologies. "I'm-so-sorry-Larka! I-was-just-wondering-what-was-taking-too-long! I-knew-you-said-you-went-to-change-but-I-didn't-think, didn't-know-where-you-were-changing. I'm-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-sooooo-sorry!"

It took her a minute of staring to realize that he had said that in under four seconds, and another moment to translate and process it.

She laughed. "Pietro chill out. I know you didn't do it on purpose. The look on you face told me that much." She laughed and walked out of the room.

He shook his head as if he had been expecting a different response. "You're…not mad? Most girls would of killed me for walking in."

"Well I guess I'm not like most girls. But if it happens again I might kill ya, but I'm not making any promises." Larka laughed.

She walked back into the living room to see Todd and Fred watching TV, it seemed like a regular theme. As she came in with Pietro at her side, Todd acknowledged them with a smile and then went back to the glow box.

'Glow box?' Larka thought curiously. 'Another wolf word I guess,' she laughed quietly to herself.

Pietro shot her a curious look, making her laugh again. "Just thinking," she told him with a smile.

Todd was suddenly hoping over to us, two bounds and he was there. "Yo Larka, I'm sure you're hungry. There's some food in the kitchen that we made earlier."

"Thanks Todd, I don't really have to eat a lot. My body doesn't need to be fed as much as a normal person's does. But I am hungry." She laughed, realizing that a simple thanks would have done just as fine.

"Come on then," Todd smiled back and leapt off into the kitchen.

Larka followed with Pietro still stuck to her side. He must have been hungry too. His powers made him burn so much energy that she was surprised he hadn't complained about being hungry by now.

When they entered the kitchen, Larka could smell chicken sandwiches in the microwave. Pietro and Todd noticed her with her nose up and sniffing, and laughed.

"What?" She asked with a smile. "Never seen someone sniff to find food before?"

"Oh yeah, all the time." Pietro replied sarcastically, adding to the sarcasm by rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, it ain't like we hang out with Wolverine all the time or nothing." Todd said as he pulled the food out.

It only took a few seconds for plate of chicken sandwich and cold glass of coke to appear in Larka's hands, courtesy of Quicksilver the blur. She laughed and leaned against the counter to eat.

"Thanks guys," she said in between bites. "I didn't realize that I was this hungry."

"No problem, Feral," Pietro replied.

Todd agreed. "Yeah, you're one of us now."

She laughed and gave the speedster a curious look. "Feral?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, you call me Speed. It's only fair that I give you a little nickname of your own."

She smiled and took a swig of soda. "I guess you got a point."

Todd shoved the rest of his sandwich, which was about half, into his mouth. "So, where exactly did you guys go?"

"Magneto's keep," I growled. "I meant to stop him…but he got away." She didn't feel like explaining it all. Or admitting it more like. Losing control wasn't something she was proud of, she didn't even want to think about it.

"Yeah, I got there after he was gone…so did Wanda." Pietro agreed to Larka's lie. Understanding her reluctance to tell Toad about her uncontrollable urge to kill Magneto.

Todd didn't even seem to notice their hesitation, although it was nonexistent in Pietro's voice.

"You said Summers dropped off my stuff?" Larka asked to change the subject.

Todd nodded. "Why do ya ask?"

She shrugged as if it didn't really matter. "I just wanna find out who decided to craw it all into the bag. The clothes I could care less about, but my books are more personal. Besides, the thought the went into doing it so carelessly is what bugs me." She laughed at herself. So much for trying to sound like it didn't matter.

Pietro kind of growled, something Larka wouldn't have expected from him. "That's the X-geeks for ya, they could care less about their enemies." An undertone of anger was hidden in his voice, barely detectable. As they finished their food in silence, Larka absentmindedly washed her plate off; she was too deep in thought to even realize what she was doing.

'Where did that fool of a mutant run off to? Wanda destroyed his experiment, but how long until he can get it back? Money can get you far…I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem for him. And why does Wanda want to destroy him to badly? What happened between them? I guess I'll have to ask Pietro about it later.' She turned around to find Pietro and Todd staring at her oddly.

A moment of awkward silence passed between the three as the two boys stared at Larka. It was broken by the wolf girl's nervous laughter. "What?" she asked curiously, not getting what they were staring at.

Todd smiled and answered. "You just kinda went quiet there. Pietro and I yelled you name and ya didn't even look up."

Pietro agreed, the same grin on his face that was on Todd's. "Deep in thought, right?"

She smiled, "Really deep in thought I guess." She laughed. "Sorry bout that, you just gotta smack me upside the head or something when I do that." He sentence was interrupted by a yawn. She smiled sheepishly. "Guess I'm a little tired."

"I'll go show ya where you can put your stuff," Pietro said immediately. "Then you can go ahead and drop off."

She started to say thanks, but another yawn cut it in half.

Todd laughed. "G'night Larka. See ya I the morning'." Without saying any more he bounded off into the living room to join Fred in watching TV.

"Come on," Pietro said and headed for his room.

'His room? Our room?' She held back a little shudder. It was strange to live so close to someone she hardly even knew.

Inside the room he pointed to an empty closet on the side of the room that Larka's bed was on. "You can just put you stuff in there. There's a shelf for you books and hanger for the clothes."

"Thanks Pietro, really." She smiled.

Stepping to the closet she opened the door to reveal what Pietro had just said. She quickly started putting her books on the shelves, glad that they had somewhere to go. She paused in putting up White Fang and looked over at Pietro. He was speeding back and forth from her clothes to the hangers, putting them in their new place at lightning speed. She smiled and continued to set up books. He was done long before she was, but didn't offer in helping with the books. He could tell that they were special to her, and didn't touch them without her consent. She smiled once done and sat down on the bed.

"Thanks for helping with the clothes," Larka said after yet another yawn. "That speed of yours sure can be used a lot."

He nodded and stopped at the door. "No problem. Go ahead and go to sleep, you've used your powers to their very extent." He smiled. "I'm surprised you can even hold your head up." She yawned again and tried to smile. "Night, Feral."

She smiled, managing to not yawn. "Night, Speed."

Pietro shut the door behind him, leaving her in the comfort of dark. No sooner than her head touched her pillow, and she was sound asleep.

The next morning…

Larka awoke at the first light of dawn in the Brotherhood home. She sat up quietly when she noticed that Pietro was asleep in the other bed. She didn't want to wake him. Carefully getting out of bed she left the room. She listened for any sign of others being awake, and heard someone in the kitchen. She through the living room and into the kitchen to see who it was.

"Hey Larka," Wanda said with a glass of juice in hand. "You're up early."

She nodded. "As are you. I've always woken up early…it's a wolf thing I guess." She was still waking up, drowsy from the dead sleep that she had been in.

The raven haired girl went to get herself something to drink. Opening the fridge she grabbed the orange juice and poured herself a glass that she found in a high up cabinet.

As she took a drink Wanda spoke again. "I'm gonna look for him today…I think I know where he is."

"Who? Bucket head?" Larka asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, the psychotic flame throwing lackey of his dropped an obvious clue to where father is hiding." The word father was spoken as if it were poisoned. "I will find him and get my revenge."

Larka remembered her questions from the night before, and knew that Wanda was the last person she wanted to ask about the relationship between her and her father. Her hot tempered mind was like a ticking bomb. How the brotherhood boys didn't already set her off into destroying the entire house was a mystery to Larka.

"Good, give him a good punch for me." The wolf girl told Wanda. She didn't bother on offering to help. She knew that the witch would want to do this on her own. She was independent, not needing any support.

Or at least that was how she seemed to act. It could all be an allusion.

"Yeah, I can promise you that I will." She rumbled darkly, a deeper meaning hidden in her angry voice.

"When are you leaving?" Larka asked curiously.

"Now," Wanda replied simply. "I want to leave before my brother can try and stop me. The others are not a problem…but Pietro is a little harder to catch."

Larka didn't ask why her brother would try and stop her. He obeyed his father like an obedient dog. She had seen that when the speedster had refused to help her stop Magneto.

Scarlet Witch walked past Larka and looked back once. "Bye," she said quietly and went out the front door; Larka knew she would search until she found him.

Stretching Larka walked into the living room and sat down with her now almost empty glass. Again her mind swirled with questions.

'I really need to talk to Pietro. Something must have really pissed Wanda off for her to want to kill her own father. But…what? I don't even know why she's here if she hates her brother with the same passion that she hates her father with.'

She sat there a little while longer, mulling over the best way to ask her speedy friend. She didn't just want to randomly ask, that wasn't her way. She had to be subtle about it. And careful; very, very careful.

"Hey, you're up early."

Larka pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked over the back of the couch to see who it was.

Pietro of course. She doubted that he could stay still for longer than seven hours, even for sleep.

"Hey, Speed. A popular greeting," she laughed knowing that Pietro wouldn't understand.

He nodded and moved on to the next question, "I thought I heard someone else talking before I came in here, was there or were you just talking to yourself?"

Larka laughed. "Wanda was here, but she left a few minutes ago."

"Where'd she go?"

"I don't really know," she answered truthfully. "She never said the name of the place."

"Oh," Pietro responded. He looked deep in thought.

"What did Magneto do to her? Why does she hate him so much?" Larka blurted out, seizing the chance to ask before it was gone.

Pietro looked a little shocked, but seeing her anxious face he knew that he had to answer.

He walked around the couch and sat down next to her. Looking into her eyes he started.

"It all started when we were about eight…and Wanda's powers started to emerge…"