AN: I'm not very good at being a geek, so sorry for only just having to figure out how to delete that annoying repetition of the first sentence at the top of the chapter. Just ignore it in the last few chapters if you can. Thanks for those gorgeous reviews.

Erik came back into the laboratory to find Pietro with a smug grin on his face. It was the type of grin that said 'Look what I did, Daddy', the same smile that had set terror into Erik's heart when Pietro was little. He remembered that exact face from one very traumatising incident during Pietro's potty training, when his little cherub had left him a surprise in his helmet. This, despite the circumstances, made him chuckle.

'What on earth have you done this time?' he asked his son good-naturedly, which made Pietro almost squirm with glee.

'I've seen my new powers!' Pietro exclaimed, having quite forgotten how ill he was in the midst of all the excitement. 'There was this tingling in my fingers -'

Erik interrupted, frowning. 'Tingling? We'd better do some medical tests.'

'No, Dad!' Pietro insisted. 'It was the other mutation! My hands felt like they were burning and swelling up -'

Erik raised an eyebrow, about to reel off a list of medical symptoms.

'And just when I thought I was going to explode these… these sparks shot out of my fingers and made the bracelet light up!'

Pietro sat back, smirking and panting and waiting for his dad to be as excited as he was. This was, after all, completely amazing!

'If I learn to control this mutation then I can get better, Dad! My body's only screwing up because it can't handle two sets of powers. But if I get control then I can do anything, I can get better and I can be pretty freakin' awesome, probably the best superhero in the world!'

He expected Erik to jump up and down and sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Instead, he noticed that his father was looking very, very concerned.

'What colour were the sparks, Pietro?' he asked in a wary voice.

'Blue, of course,' Pietro said, rolling his blue eyes to match. 'And I don't know if they were sparks, they were more like -'

'Bolts.'

Pietro nodded, not understanding why Erik suddenly looked like he wanted nothing better than to stick his head in a filing cabinet and to slam the door on it hard.

…

The jaw-dropping new discoveries of the day had left Pietro exhausted. For his health, it had been a very good day with no seizures or even a headache. The exciting new possibilities distracted him from wallowing in self-pity, and he had barely even noticed Lance's absence.

'I can get better now,' he told his pale reflection in the bathroom mirror. 'I know I can.'

'Oh, can you?'

A sickly little voice startled him from behind, making him jump in a very effeminate manner. Somehow it wasn't very surprising to see the owner of the voice there, in his father's grand marble bathroom. With any luck, she had phased through the toilet and met something disgusting in the U-Bend.

'Shitty, how delightful of you to drop in,' he snarled. 'I would say pull up a seat, but I'm afraid I might flush you.'

She glared at him through her smudged mascara, looking like a premenstrual panda. 'You don't seem that sick to me.'

'Ask Magneto for his latest medical report,' Pietro smirked. 'And why not volunteer to donate some organs, I'd simply love to have your liver. I'd also like your heart, but my dearest Lance already has that, doesn't he?'

Pietro realised he was quite enjoying this surprise visit – even when potentially dying, he was still shit hot.

Kitty folded her arms, disappearing into her shapeless navy sweater. It made Pietro miss the pastel candy-fluff she used to wear, because there was nothing about her appearance to mock. It was just too pathetic.

'Whaddaya want, Pryde?' Pietro hissed, expecting she hadn't come by for tea and cake.

Her puffy eyes narrowed into tiny slits. 'There's something I think you should know,' she said, sounding disgustingly nasal. 'About Lance.'

Surprise, surprise! Return of the Jealous-Psycho, sticking her claws into dead meat!

'Don't try to tell me he's fucking you,' Pietro said. 'I can smell the bullshit from here.'

A cruel smile curved her lip, like a snake about to strike. 'He's moved on from me. And he's moved on from you. Right now he's at the Brotherhood House with a girl, and if you think I'm making this up then I can prove it.'

She flicked her greasy-looking hair, and Pietro was sure he got a waft of bacon. He wanted to flush her head down the toilet and laugh in her face because Lance would never cheat on him, but his insecurities were already swooping down upon him. Hadn't he known this would happen? Lance didn't want to be with someone who was one inch away from dribbling and wearing plastic underwear! He'd shacked up with some normal, healthy girl who could promise him a normal, healthy life. And he would leave him as miserable and sour as Shitty Pryde, leave him to die on his own while he frolicked with Miss Perfect!

'Take me there,' Pietro said through his teeth with forced calm. 'Take me there now.'

It had better not be true. He had two mutations, and he wasn't afraid to use them.

…

The walk to the Brotherhood House seemed to take forever. The medication slowed Pietro down, but only to a normal person's speed. What made the journey hard was the growing sense of dread at what he would see when he entered the house. He was also extremely disgusted that he was accompanied by toxic Kitty, who he could have sworn was giggling hysterically under her breath. This was not a good thing to think about on his deathbed. To hell with Lance if this gave him a heart attack!

He had forgotten how shabby the Brotherhood's living quarters were. As they approached it, what had been home looked like a derelict death-trap. The mouldy shutters flapped in the wind and revealed that every single window was broken. He remembered how Lance had boarded them up with wood stolen from a dumpster, in which they had also found the rocking chair. Despite himself, he smiled.

They came to the familiar red door.

'Well, Miss Kitty,' he said with as much charm as he could muster as he offered her his arm. 'Lead the way.'

With the strangest sensation he had ever felt, she phased them through the door. Pietro could feel all of his body melting as it disappeared through the wood – it was like floating on water and flying all at once. Much as he hated Kitty, he couldn't help being amazed by her powers. It would be awesome to go wherever he wanted with no closed doors, just phase right in whether he was welcome or not.

It was only a momentary distraction from what he saw next. It was exactly what he didn't want to saw, and also exactly what he knew he would see. There was Lance, sitting on the couch and staring at a black-haired girl who was standing up with her back to Pietro and Kitty. Pietro was glad he couldn't see her face because her very presence was enough to make him fill with fear. It reminded him of a horror film where as long as the monster doesn't see you, you're safe.

Kitty was smiling in a 'told you so' kind of way. Pietro sincerely hoped that she phased herself into Todd's underwear drawer on the way out.

'I'll leave you to pick up the pieces,' she whispered to Pietro, with her poisonous lips alarmingly close to his neck. The next thing he knew, she was gone and he was alone in his old home about to face his cheating boyfriend.

Subtlety was not something he did well.

'LANCE!' he screeched, making the boy in question clutch his chest in shock.

'How the hell did you get in here?!' Lance spluttered, shaking his filthy adulterous hair out his love-rat eyes.

'Kitty Pryde gave me a tip-off. Looks like she was right this time,' Pietro whispered venomously, glaring at the girl's back.

Lance almost laughed. 'Come on, Piet, you're sick. And Kitty's sick. And actually, she's sick too, now that you mention it. The thought of me cheating on you with her is stupid. No offence,' he added to the girl.

But she ignored him, and refused to turn round to confront what she knew was finally there. She clenched her mouth shut, wanting to be far away – she wasn't ready to do this, even after years of wishing for it.

'I took her in because she was poor and scared,' Lance continued, in a level voice. 'Just look at her – she isn't some bimbo I've picked up for kicks! I'm just trying to help her.'

Pietro seethed. Look at her! He didn't want to look at her, the villainous bitch. 'Help her? You're supposed to be helping me! What is this, some kind of charity project?'

Lance rolled his eyes. 'Don't be such a brat.'

He noticed that the girl was trembling. She couldn't hide. She couldn't hide.

'P-Pietro!' she blurted out, smothering her mouth as soon as the words came out as if they had burnt her.

Pietro froze on the spot as the girl turned around and her face swam into focus. There was no way this could be happening. The medication must be stronger than he thought, because he was almost sure that he could see –

'Wanda!'

Blue eyes met blue.

They were now both shaking, blinking as if they were trying to wake up from an impossible dream. 'I thought you were dead,' Pietro whispered.

Lance could only stare. What the hell was going on? How did Pietro know the crazy girl, whose name had now been established as Wanda? And was it just him, or were their faces scarily similar when put together…

'Is this really happening?' she asked in a voice that was barely there.

Pietro swayed on the spot, thinking that if anything was going to give him a heart attack tonight, this was it. Wanda was alive, and Wanda was here! He had only one thing that could prove it.

Lance watched as Pietro passed a tiny piece of silver jewellery to Wanda. She passed it through her fingers as she examined it with an awed gasp, and promptly burst into tears. It was obvious that she had not cried for a long time, perhaps never cried, as she made no effort to conceal the loud jolting sobs that shook her frame.

It was a devastating picture with Wanda breaking down and Pietro rooted to the spot, too afraid to touch her. He had one hand stretched out towards her which twitched with need, but he couldn't seem to reach her. He wanted to cry but he couldn't do that either. All he could do was study her face, read it closely in case she went away again.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place for Lance. They looked so similar because they must be twins, and they were so shocked because they had been separated a long time. He guessed that Wanda might have been locked away for her madness, and Pietro had been forced to forget her. But something more alarming was fitting together in his head – Wanda had lost her powers, and Pietro's mutation was multiplying. If the same blood ran in their veins… could it be connected?

Too excited to notice his own cleverness, Lance ran out to the jeep to fetch Erik and Baldy. He knew this had to be the answer to the puzzle; it was almost too good to be true! For once, he drove carelessly and swerved all the way to Erik's house, noticing nothing. The trees blurred into one thick line as he raced down the road. His heart was pounding, pounding, pounding in his chest. For once he understood the rush that Pietro got from speed. He was rushing towards hope that stretched out across the horizon like a sunset.