Disclaimer: ~Sighs~ This is getting really old. ~Begins in monotone~ I do NOT own X-Men Evolution or any of its characters. This story, however, is mine, so get your stinkin' lawyers off my back!!! ~Sighs again and goes to get a strong cup of coffee. ~
Oh Brother Mine
Magneto sighed with slight relief as he went back into the car. He really hadn't wanted to hold both children down by force if Pietro tried something stupid like running away with his sister. Magneto didn't particularly enjoy lying to children either, but it was for their own good. They needed to get toughened up in the ways of the world, and not trust everything everyone said. Magneto wouldn't let the fact that in this case, it was just a son trusting his father with his sister's life, get in the way of his somewhat sadistic reasoning.
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After telling both children to hush, directed mainly at Wanda, Magneto started the car again and drove on. The fact that two of his tires were punctured didn't bother him in the least. He wasn't called Magneto for nothing, after all. He could move the car on his own, with very little effort, considering the whole thing was just a hunk of metal. He didn't even need to start it, but decided it was bad enough if someone saw a moving car on the highway with two flats; he didn't need someone freaked out and staring at them just because they saw a car going nearly 70 MPH without its engine turned on.
In about ten minutes, when both children calmed down significantly, (even though Pietro looked extremely disturbed), they reached the Asylum. Magneto parked his car in front of the building. It was raining pretty heavily. Wanda and Pietro looked out the car windows at the building apprehensively. The place looked dark and gloomy.
Pietro gazed out and then glanced quickly at his sister. Surely this wasn't the place they were going to leave Wanda! It looked so creepy. He was about to say something, but then remembered his Father's orders and kept quiet. Father said it wasn't a bad place, so it wasn't, and that was that. It only looked scary, that's all. Pietro tried to convince himself of this, but was hard pressed to do so.
"All right children, we're here. Get out of the car." Magneto ordered. They did so. Both looked slightly scared of the big building, but at least Wanda didn't suspect anything. She still trusted her Father's word, as did Pietro.
There were 5 people in white lab coats who came out into the rain to meet them. Magneto had called them earlier in the morning, telling them to be ready as their new charge would definitely not come willingly.
Wanda and Pietro stood next to their Father. Wanda looked at her brother to ask him why he thought they were at this place, but stopped in surprise when she saw how upset he seemed. He had hung his head and didn't look at her at all. Before the little girl could say anything however, her father took her hand and led her forward to speak to the White Coat people who had just reached them.
"Ah," one of them said, "this must be the young Miss Maximoff."
"Yes," Magneto replied, "this is my daughter Wanda."
Wanda looked up, trying to hide a little behind her Father. Who were these people? Why did they want to see her?
"Everything is ready, sir," one of the other people said. "We can take her now."
Wanda looked up in shock.
"Wanda," Magnus said to his daughter, "you are going to go with these people,-"
That was it. Wanda clung to her Father for all she was worth and started yelling. Pop! There went another tire. The trees began to sway in their trunks, not due to the rain, and the orderly her Father spoke to suddenly found himself sprawled in the mud ten feet away.
No, no, this couldn't be happening. Father had said she wasn't going anywhere, no! And what about Pietro?! Wanda looked back and saw that Pietro hadn't moved, but was watching the whole scene from where he was. Why didn't he try to help her? For a second, their eyes locked, cerulean blue meeting cerulean blue, one pair being frantic and the other with an almost indecipherable look; was it sorrow, pity, maybe even scorn? But almost immediately, Pietro looked away again and stared at the ground.
Two of the strange people grabbed the frightened little girl and wrenched her away from her Father.
Magneto looked at his daughter a little coldly. "Don't fuss Wanda. This is for your own good. I can't handle you and your powers anymore, so these people will help you, understand?"
Wanda just screamed and struggled some more, all the while pleading with her Father, begging even. "No Father! Please, I'm sorry! I'll be better, I promise! I didn't mean to be bad! Don't send me away! Father, please, I'm sorry! No!"
Magneto just looked at the orderly in charge and said, "Take her away."
He nodded and the now three people holding on to a hysterical, weeping Wanda started back to the Institute. The gates and a part of the wall started to crumple as they crossed it. A Street light popped out.
"Father, Father, no Father, help me please!" Wanda cried, as Magneto watched, doing nothing. Her brother was still standing silently, with his head hung, also doing nothing to help her.
"Father!!!"
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Almost before Wanda was completely inside, Magneto turned and walked back to the car.
"Come on boy," he said as he passed Pietro, who hadn't moved from his position. Staying still in one pose for so long was very rare for the child, not to mention hard.
Pietro turned and followed his Father numbly, head still bent, hands still the pockets of his green sweatshirt. Pietro got in the car, this time in the back, almost mechanically, and put on his seat belt. He was still numb with shame and regret, his sister's screams echoing in his ears. And that look in her eyes, right before he turned away, was that of a rabbit cornered by wolves, and then for a second, it turned into disbelief, and most of all, betrayal. Pietro had betrayed her. He knew he had, and she probably knew it too.
Pietro Maximoff truly hated himself right then. He had broken his promise to the one person in the world he cared most about, and that wasn't excusable, no matter what his Father had told him. Damn it.
Magneto started the car again and drove away, glancing back to look at his son. Pietro sat completely still with his head bent over. Magneto saw the boy shudder, almost involuntarily, and frowned. The child was taking it hard. The kid had better not start crying, for Magnus just didn't hold with such nonsense. It was a sign of weakness. Wanda had been crying, Magneto mused, and almost grinned at the irony of it. He had locked the girl away because of her enormous power, her strength, and here he was thinking about how she had acted weak.
Eric Magnus had felt the smallest, tiniest possible pang of guilt, that passed away just as quickly as it came, when he saw his daught- no, Wanda, being dragged away, crying and screaming for him. He refused to think of the twins as his children, especially not anymore. They were to be soldiers under his command, weapons he would use for a greater good, or rather, his good. At least, Pietro might be. He couldn't think about Wanda now. She was put away, because she and her powers were a liability to him. Perhaps some day he would be able to use her, but not now, and he definitely wasn't going to waste his time on this any more.
Pietro was a different story. Pietro he could control, he could use. The boy would follow his leadership, Magneto could already see that. It was a pity his powers weren't better, but you can't have everything. At least the boy could still be used for his experiments. The young speedster was a perfect test subject. His body would pass the drugs or whatever else quickly, and the results would show up quickly too. If something were to go wrong and the boy was lost, well, his powers were never very useful anyway, except maybe as a messenger.
That, however, wasn't completely true; with extensive training Pietro would get much more powerful, but Magneto didn't want to waste his time with the boy. If Pietro developed his powers on his own, then that was fine, but until then, the boy would be nothing more that a mutant test subject to him.
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Eric Magnus was true to his words, or rather his thoughts. Pietro's life turned into complete hell after Wanda was gone. He was completely ignored by his Father, except when he was forced to undergo radioactive treatment and other inhuman crap to test his Father's insane theories. He was beaten too, whenever he refused to be treated as a Guinea Pig, or when he asked about Wanda, which was almost daily. Worse yet, his father made him wear a control band, which kept him from running. He was only able to take it off occasionally, and even then he couldn't run very far. Magneto rarely concerned himself with the boy's training, but when he did the training was often extremely vigorous, and filled with demands and lectures on weakness, and how normal people were a plague that needed to be eradicated. These sessions usually left the young boy exhausted and in pain for a day or two.
Unknown to his Father, however, Pietro trained his mutant abilities whenever he could, using what knowledge he had to the greatest extent. His speed fascinated him, and he loved the idea of being faster than everybody else. Maybe one day he would be fast enough to run away from them all. To run away from his Father's hurtful experiments, and to be fast enough to get Wanda back and run away with her, to some place where they might be happy again, and he could tell her how sorry he was and maybe even be forgiven.
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Just a little over a year after Wanda was sent away, Magnus became tired of his son, and couldn't be bothered with him any more. He had work elsewhere and didn't need Pietro as a test subject just then. So Magneto unceremoniously dumped an 11 year old Pietro in some orphanage in New York City, with hardly a good-bye, and set off to wherever the hell he was going.
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Fini
AN: It's done! So, how'd ya'll like it? This is the end of this story, and I apologize to all of you who expected something bigger, but this is it. I don't have any plans of continuing it because I finished it quite a while ago. However, I do have a sister story to this one that I'm thinking of posting. Thanks to all of you who you want me to post the other story).
azsuruo: Thanks for reviewing again! How'd you like the end?
Roguehobbit: Yeah, old Mags is pretty evil. As for Magda (the twin's mother), according to any X-Men universe, she supposedly died when the twins were babies. They never knew her.
FairyDustCloud: ~feels flattered~ Thanks! I'm glad my writing actually produced visuals.
K.C.2007: Thanks, I needed that push. J
Firegirl1: Oh, I'm pretty sure she will, just not in this fic.
Invader Nina: Oh good, I'm glad someone else thinks it makes sense. I've reread this thing so many times I wasn't sure anymore.
Incrediblecuznz: Yeah, gotta love little Wanda and Pietro.
Snitter in Rivendell: Wow. That's amazing. Those are the two parts of the story I wasn't quite sure about, (the doctors and the sleeping in the car bit), so thanks for the positive review! And yeah, I liked Magneto in that part too, with the whole subtle underhand manipulation thing. Poor Pie. J