NightWitch: Misgivings
WANDA
Wanda was waiting in the throne room of Magneto's palace when Mystique stepped through one of Blink's portals, dragging an unconscious Nightcrawler through with her.
Magneto himself stood on the throne dais, hands clasped behind his back, flanked by two of his guards.
"Thank you for fetching our esteemed guest, Mystique," Magneto said dryly. "I will debrief you on the other matter later, but for now you can take him to the cells."
"Are you sure that's a good idea," Wanda said, swallowing the queasy feeling that twisted through her at the sight of Kurt lying wounded and broken on the ground. "He looks…ill. He needs medical attention."
"Never underestimate an X-Man, Wanda," Magneto said, turning to his eldest daughter. "They are far tougher than they look. I'm sure Mister Wagner will be just fine in the cells."
"Of course, father."
Magneto waved a hand to Mystique. "Take him away."
"Wait-" Wanda took an involuntary step forward as Mystique and Blink roughly jostled him off the ground and he let out of soft groan. "What about the X-Men? If something happens to one of their own, if they find out we let him die here, there will be consequences."
"What the X-Men don't know won't hurt us," Magneto said, eyes narrowing slightly. Wanda knew he thought she was letting her feelings get in the way of what was best for Genosha. "Though I suppose they will want to hear from their friend at some point, so it would be wise to keep him alive. With that in mind I leave our guest in your hands, Wanda. I trust you."
With that he swept out of the throne room, crimson cape billowing behind him, leaving Wanda to hide her surprise.
This was a test.
She knew it was a test. And yet…
"Take him to his old rooms in the guest wing," she ordered Mystique. "And see that he receives medical attention."
Mystique regarded her coldly. "If he wakes up he could escape."
Wanda bit the inside of her lip, misgiving creeping in. She had to keep him out of the cells, but she couldn't let him escape. She could keep him safe and obey her father.
She steeled her voice to sound uncaring, impartial. "Then sedate him. He can't escape if he never wakes up."
Twilight poured through the high arched windows of the palace, turning steel to rose gold and softening all the harsh metal lines of the guest wing.
"The patient is stable," a mutant doctor in a white lab coat said, standing outside the doors to Kurt's room. "And I have administered a sedative that should keep him from waking up while he recovers, though I don't think it's necessary. Even stabilized, the patient is in bad shape. The overexertion of mutant abilities can be deadly under the best circumstances, and he's also suffering from other injuries, including head trauma and a mild case of pneumonia."
"Thank you," said Wanda, pushing through the doors and into the dim room. "That will be all."
Her long red cape floated gently around her as she stepped quietly across the room, moving a chair to near the bed and arranging herself comfortably on it before finally looking at him.
It wasn't good.
Even under a thick layer of blankets he shivered fitfully, the tip of his blue tail twitching spasmodically where it peeked from the sheets. And there was still blood crusted in his hair from the blow to the head Mystique gave him. He looked haggard and spent.
"Oh, Kurt," she said softly, barely louder than a whisper, smoothing salt-dusted hair away from his forehead. She could smell the sea on him, brimstone and brine. "You stubborn fool."
KURT
He dreamed.
Terrible, restless, fevered dreams of drowning in an icy sea, trying to get to a home he could never reach. Salt in his mouth and water rattling in his lungs. He couldn't breathe. Pain raked through his head. But he couldn't stop fighting; there was something he had to do. Something he had to tell the X-Men.
Sometimes he almost fought his way to the surface. Clawing up to the light, where voices drifted above him like seagulls riding a breeze.
The voice of a woman, unfamiliar…
"...I don't know what to do with you…I never did…"
The voice of a woman, familiar this time, lovely but unplaceable…
"I'm going to read to you, Kurt, would you like that? I feel silly doing this but I feel guilty just sitting here…"
WANDA
She did her best to keep her visits a secret, but she'd seen Lorna peeking at her through a crack in the door, and had once caught Mystique standing over Kurt's bed watching him with her unfathomable yellow eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Wanda asked the shape-shifting mutant. She was irritated to be caught checking on him, and hadn't forgiven Mystique for giving him a concussion.
Mystique turned and walked away. "Just making sure you're doing your job."
Most days, Wanda read him selections of her favorite novels, or poetry, or news clippings about the X-Men. Some days she didn't have the time to do more than make sure he was still breathing; her duties to Genosha and her father kept her busy.
Sometimes she just talked to him. She didn't have anyone else to tell her worries about the future and Genosha and what her father was doing. She really only had Lorna, and couldn't burden her younger sister with the weight of her duties. But she knew Kurt would understand, if only he were awake.
KURT
When he finally managed to open his eyes he wasn't alone. A woman in red sat at his bedside, a large brown book in her lap. It took him a groggy moment to recognize her.
"Vanda?" he croaked. "Where am I?"
"Kurt!" Her blue eyes widened. "You can't wake up yet. I promise everything will be alright, but you have to go back to sleep."
"I don't understand." He shook his head, trying to dispel the cloudiness fogging his mind. "What happened?"
Wanda looked strangely panicked, standing so abruptly she toppled her chair. "Doctor! Someone call for a doctor, we need more sedatives in here!"
WANDA
When he was properly sedated again Wanda and the doctor stood outside his door, speaking softly.
The doctor said, "He's recovering surprisingly quickly. In fact, we're going to need a lot more sedatives if you want to keep him unconscious."
"Do what you must," said Wanda, trying to quell her panic. Her heart still pounded in her chest like she'd just gone through battle, and her hands trembled so much she had to clench them at her sides. "There won't be side-effects? I mean…it won't hurt him?"
"Not directly, but it is unnatural to be unconscious and immobile for too long. Without exercise the body begins to atrophy and weaken."
"Oh."
She let her gaze trail through the cracked door to where he lay unconscious, one arm flopped off the bed like a rag doll's. When he'd woken up she'd panicked, desperate to keep her father from throwing him in the cells, or berating her for letting a prisoner escape…and maybe also a little desperate to keep him from leaving.
She knew that was selfish of her.
And would it really be so terrible if he escaped and went back to the X-Men? What could they do against Genosha? And at least then she would know she was doing the right thing for Kurt; he belonged with the X-Men, not in a cell.
"Wanda." Her father's resonant voice rang down the corridor, bouncing off the metal walls. "I've been looking for you."
Magneto dismissed the doctor and turned to his daughter, who raised her chin and steeled her nerves.
"You wanted to speak with me, father?"
His usually stern face softened. "I just wanted to say how proud of you I am. I know better than anyone how hard it is to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders." He cast a glance through the door, and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I also know what it's like to care for someone who you don't see eye-to-eye with."
Wanda had never considered that perhaps her father knew more of what she was feeling than she realized. He had been friends with the X-Men's Professor for longer than she'd been alive. Dear friends. And he had never let their relationship get in the way of his vision.
He said, "I know I can count on you, Wanda. I always have."
That was the problem: he was right. She would always do what was best for Genosha.
KURT
The next time he woke up he was in a cell.