April 21, 1968
Wanda finished packing her bags. She still felt ill from the night before, almost dizzy. Was this what it would feel like to use her powers full force? She wasn't sure she wanted to do it again. It hadn't even worked, and she still felt stupid.
Sighing she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. The rest of the kids were chattering in the hallway, talking excitedly about the chance to go camping. Right. Camping. They weren't going to evacuate because someone from the future had come and told them that they were going to be attacked.
Everyone grouped together with their friends. Wanda walked alone. Her brother and sisters were gone. She wished she could have gone with Anya the night before. If she'd asked she was sure that her father would have let her. It would have saved her the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she'd have been with Anya. Anya had a tendency to find anything good in a situation. Peter called Anya a baby doll, and maybe she was. Now that she'd seen her mother, those looks and glow kind of made sense.
She walked down the hallway. They were near the staff rooms: it was one of the quicker ways through the mansion. As she moved, her mind switched from daughter to father. His words echoed in her mind. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't really been cruel to them. He'd just ignored them. Perhaps his biggest crime had been leaving them alone when she'd wanted him to be more.
He loved her though. It was a stilted, constrained love, but it was deep, and it was there. He wanted to keep her safe. He'd been being honest when he said that, and it had made her want to make things good for them. It had made her want to wake up Susanna, her stepmother, her sisters' mother, her father's wife.
Because there was love there. It was more than her mother had ever done for her. The only person who'd ever loved her before she stepped foot onto Westchester had been her brother. Then she'd met her sisters, and they had loved her. She'd never had a parent love her though. Not until her father.
How was she supposed to deal with that? It was all new to her, and it was far too difficult to take in. She felt guilt for thinking that he couldn't feel that, but also angry at herself because she'd had no way of knowing.
"Is someone here called Wanda? Peter?"
She turned. A kid was half-hanging out of the lounge.
"Telephone call for someone called Wanda!" he yelled, "Or Peter! Someone's on the staff phone, and I don't know where the professor is!"
Wanda sighed and walked over. She could only think of one person who would call her.
"It's my mom, isn't it?" she asked glumly.
The boy nodded, giving her a sympathetic look. She knew he didn't know her, Wanda didn't even know his name, but she wondered if this was a common reaction to hearing a parent was calling at this school. It served to make her more conscious of her father caring, even though it wasn't much.
"I can tell her I couldn't find you," he said.
"No, it's fine," Wanda said.
"Sure?"
"Yes," Wanda said.
She walked into the lounge and closed the door. She wasn't sure at all, but she couldn't bring herself to ignore it. It was her mother who was the bad guy. She wasn't going to stoop to her tactics and ignore calls. Wanda was better than that.
She sat down and picked up the phone.
"Hi mom," she said, "What's up?"
"Just wanted to see how you were getting on."
Her mother's voice was stiff and formal. Wanda sighed and leaned back.
"More like you wanted to check to see if we're dead," she said, "We're not. Big surprise."
"You say that like it's so unlikely," her mother said, "You're in a building full of other freaks now. Anything could happen."
The first prickles of pain began in her heart. She clenched the phone tightly. This had been a mistake.
"I can't imagine your 'father' being very helpful either."
Her knuckles turned white.
"He loves me more than you do," Wanda snapped, "I know that's setting the bar really low, but he actually cares. That's something."
"He doesn't care about anything," her mother sighed, her voice vaguely scolding, "Not really. I would have thought that you'd have figured that out by now."
"He cares. And my sisters do too," Wanda said, tears stinging her eyes, "You just don't understand. It's not like you ever loved anything."
There was a tense silence.
"I loved you, once," her mother said.
The prickles in her heart turned into a thick, stabbing pain. God, this hurt.
"I think you think you did. Before you found out I was different," Wanda said, "But I don't think that's love. Not if it goes away that easily."
"Don't you dare-"
"I'm through with this mom," said Wanda, "I'm through with it."
She hung up the phone and bowed her head. The sobs started suddenly and with very little warning. Wanda clutched at her face with her hands, hiccupping out whatever love or loyalty she had still held for her mother.
Had it always been this way? She thought back to her early childhood days, to the days spent defending her brother, herself, to her current life. Was she only seventeen? The tears she sobbed out now seemed to have been held back for more than that, building and growing in number and strength.
The door opened, but Wanda didn't look up.
"Go away," she managed.
The door didn't close. Instead she felt someone sit beside her.
"What's wrong?"
The voice was soft and gentle, but Wanda didn't know it. She buried her face deeper into her hands.
"I don't wanna talk about it," she said.
"I don't think that's true," the voice said, "My daughter always says that, but I can tell when she really means it and when she just wants someone to listen to her, but she's too scared to say so."
Damn whoever this was. The voice was soothing and sincere: a stranger who cared more than her mother if something was wrong with her. Wanda let out a harsh breath.
"I just realized that my mother doesn't love me and never did," she said, "Not really, and especially not when she found out what I could do. I've always known but...I was too dumb."
A tentative arm wrapped around her shoulders. Wanda stiffened at the contact, but she couldn't bring herself to shove her away. Her nausea from the previous night was kicking in now, and she couldn't find the strength to push her away.
"No," the voice said, "You just loved her. There's no shame in that."
"In loving someone who hates you?" Wanda said, "In not being able to tell real love from fake?"
"You can tell, otherwise you wouldn't be crying," the voice said, "Mothers and daughters, it's complicated. You wanted her to love you because you find it easy to love people. You just wanted it returned so badly from someone who was supposed to love you unconditionally."
Wanda gave a hiccupping sob.
"But other people love you," she said, "A girl as tenderhearted as you, someone must. So, who loves you?"
She snorted, but the woman's words gave her pause.
"My brother," she said, "And my sisters. My father too. He's not good at this...but he's trying."
"Then focus on them," the voice said, "That's what's important. They love you just as you are. You can be loved: they've proved it. That's something, right?"
Wanda smiled. She wondered at the voice's ability to make her feel better, to say something that she needed to hear. It was like they were really listening. It reminded her a bit of when Anya had found her, crouched under the tree after her brother and her had argued.
Wait, like Anya? Her eyes flew open and she jerked back. A soft, familiar face stared back at her, a little shocked. Wanda gaped.
"Is something wrong?" Susanna asked.
"How long until we get home?" Alex said, "I wanna see if Hank stopped looking so geeky."
"He's still wearing his glasses," said Lorna.
"Ugh."
"It looks like we'll be there in an hour," Raven said.
"Good," Lorna said, "I'm getting tired of flying."
She cracked her neck. Alex moved forwards so that his fingers brushed her neck. She gave him a side grin.
"I don't see why we can't just stop by here," Raven said, fingering the small card that Stryker had given her, "I don't think it's a big outfit, and we could probably just make a quick stop and get some reconnaissance."
"Raven, I just flew a jet into Vietnam and stole soldiers from the government," Lorna said, "I think I'm done being rebellious for this year."
"More like this month," Alex said.
He moved his hand to her shoulder affectionately when she snorted. The air moved next to him and Peter leaned over the control panel.
"Me, that would be for the week," he said, "You didn't even let me outta the plane."
He glanced at Lorna's new brother. She'd told him the entire story when she'd been back with him, although Peter had already blabbed most of it. That was a snort turnaround for kids, and it probably made things difficult. He couldn't imagine the pain and confusion Lorna had been through when she'd found out.
Her father was her hero, and she'd always loved her family fiercely, believing it was perfect. It was far from prefect, Alex could see that, but at least it had been loving. Alex had spent enough time in the foster system to know that that wasn't always the case.
She'd whispered her feelings the night before and he'd wrapped his arm around, her willing for things to get better. Life was difficult enough for her without all of this going wrong, and he'd felt a new level of guilt at not being there for her.
It was a mistake he wasn't going to repeat. Especially not with their upcoming wedding.
"It was Vietnam," Lorna said.
"I'm actually shocked that he's more upset about you not letting him out than about how you accomplished it," Alex said.
"It was well-played," Peter said, "Dickish, but well-played. I'll just be wary of the next time she tries to hug me or anything."
"If I had to be wary every time I hugged Lorna then-" Alex began.
"What did I say about trading saliva?" Peter asked.
"Stop calling it that," Lorna snapped.
"That's what it is," he said.
Alex heard a few scattered chuckles from the back and winced. They had an audience now.
"Don't worry Lorna," Raven said, "Guys only say stuff like that when they've never been kissed."
There was a chorus of catcalls from the back.
"I've been kissed!" Peter said.
"By someone other than a relative?" asked Raven.
Peter spluttered and the laughter increased. A sudden jolt threw Alex off his feet, sending him crashing into the wall. Raven jerked in her seat and Alex saw Peter hit the wall as well. A few of the soldiers who hadn't been buckled in bucked forwards.
"What's going on?" Raven shouted.
"Something hit us!" Lorna yelled back.
Alex struggled to right himself, pushing down lingering feelings of panic.
"Take your brother's hand. Keep close to each other. You should land in around the same place. Take care of each other."
Not again. He gritted his teeth and grabbed Peter's arm. He dragged him to a seat and began shoving the buckles in place.
"Everyone, get strapped in!" he yelled, "We're in for some turbulence!"
Peter looked dazed and confused. Alex had to get him buckled in before something else happened. The others were reacting well: they'd been in battle before. Peter was too damn lost at the moment. This wasn't his world, even if he'd done half the robberies he bragged about.
When he was done Alex looked over at the rest. Todd and everyone was buckled up. Good. He slammed down into his seat and did up his first buckle just as they bucked forward again. The loose harness jostled him and he nearly clipped his head.
It made him redouble his efforts to buckle up.
"What the hell is going on?" Lorna said.
"It's not showing up on the radar!" said Raven, "The spare engine's down, but..."
Her voice lowered. Alex looked up and saw a robotic face outside the windshield of the jet. Purple eyes glowered at him, and his hands fell limp by his side.
"What in God's name-?" Lorna said.
There was another explosion and the plane began spiraling down.
"Engine two is down!" Raven yelled.
"Brace yourselves!" Lorna shouted.
Alex grabbed his harness and held on. It might not be his first plane crash, but that didn't mean it would be smooth sailing.