Gypsies

by Lalaith Quetzalli

-AU to Nightingale.- Prince Loki died, and his loss brought about a change in fate no one could have ever predicted. As three princesses are left alone, forgotten by the world that was once their home, left to wander through the Realms… until the day comes when they may find some sign and make a new home for themselves. (Crossover with Wonder Woman) Temporary Character Death

2. Boon

For this chapter we'll touch on CA (very loosely) and dive fully into the X-Men fandom, mostly through First-Class (I totally love First Class, and Cherik!). Now, I refuse to call what I'm doing a warning, but I do remind you all that there is slash/yaoi,/homosexuality, whatever you wish to call it, in this story. And if that's not your thing you can turn back now. Though really, unless this is the very first fic of mine you've read you should have known this was coming like, since two weeks ago! At least!

Dreamcast: Aside from those mentioned in the previous chapter we have Karen Gillan as Anya Willow. As for the twins... in the main timeline I actually played with both sets of Maximoff twins (in X-Men first, and then in the Avengers, choosing Bryce Dallas Howard as Wendy Maximoff, Peter's twin), in this one we'll have only one set, Erik's children, though they'll have the names used in the Avengers (which are their original names): Pietro and Wanda. You can picture whoever you prefer in the roles, even if your preference is to mix actors from one fandom and the other. I couldn't make up my mind so... I leave it to your own imagination.

No songs in this one. And here comes the chapter!

---

Boon

Some bad things might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

WWII broke my heart in ways few could ever comprehend. It was… at the end of the Great War, things were supposed to be better, and they were, for a while. Rose and I found Helena in London (going by Helen Lucas), she'd been working with some of the spies, against the Germans, during the war. Always from the shadows, making sure she wouldn't be seen, wouldn't be remembered when it was all over and done.

We came together then, let the world believe us to be sisters. She, Steve Trevor and his secretary: Etta Candy, became fast friends. They did something together that made it so suddenly she was believed to be Sir Patrick Morgan's (the man who had turned out to be Ares) secret daughter. I didn't much liked the idea, but it gave us security, and allowed us to claim all his monies and assets, which we made sure to use for the better of our own.

Steve and Diana did marry as soon as we got back to London, just like they said they would. And the following year, Diana gave birth to one who'd be their only child, a daughter: Hippolyta (Lyta, for short). That was also the only time we received amazon visitors. I knew not what happened really, but I knew Diana was sad for a long time after they left, and once I heard her whisper about never seeing them again. It made me think about those I myself had left behind, in Asgard and Alfheim both.

We spent a few good years together, but eventually we began going our own ways again. Rose took off for Egypt. I had a feeling she'd been badly shaken by the war and wished to return somewhere comforting, and she'd liked that place. Eventually I began getting letters from her about how well she was doing, and the great friend she'd made: a librarian called Evelyn. Helena kept her work in the shadows, which meant she at times would stay gone for days or weeks without a word. I understood, I knew she was doing good work. It was why, even though I missed them both very much I never tried to call either of them back.

Eventually I decided I might as well make a new life for myself. While I'd stayed in London for years, Steve and the others did not need me, not really. They'd always been more Rose's friends than mine, and that was just fine. So I took off for the continent.

Years later, I was in Rome admiring the work of some very talented (and long since dead) artists, when I heard rumors about something going on in Germany. They were very contradictory rumors. Some spoke of a man rising in power who promised to give back what their country had lost during the Great War; give people back their dignity, good work, a better economical situation. Others said he was a power hungry man seeking power for himself and willing to go over anyone he had to, to achieve it. I worried what the truth might be and what it might cause, so I ended my sort-of vacation and traveled to Germany.

I knew right away something was definitely off. It couldn't be normal, so many military, and the way they would treat some people as less simply for their beliefs (I myself didn't ascribe to any particular belief system Midgardians possessed; though I did like some parts of a few. In the end I believed in the existence of a Higher Power, a being who was beyond life and death, beyond time and space, who'd created the universe, for good and for evil).

I tried to get close enough to those in power to find out what was going on exactly, didn't realize how badly things were getting until it was much too late. I'd discovered enough about the ghetto to be concerned, and was trying to find out more about the camps. I knew things were very wrong, and was getting ready to call on any and all contacts to warn them; but first I wanted to have as much information as possible to give to them. I was even willing to use my empathy to get the information if needed when… it was as if something broke, or many somethings. Lives extinguished, so many at the same time, and me with my empathy wide open. I screamed, louder than I ever had, before blacking out completely.

xXx Helena's POV xXx

When Nana screamed I was in New York, working with the SSR (and more specifically, Agent Peggy Carter) in Project Rebirth; I heard her, all the way from Germany.

Peggy and I were in the office, trying to deal with the shit-load of paperwork caused by the fact that, as successful as Project Rebirth might have been, there had only been one successful subject and now Dr. Erskine was dead, and the formula had died with him. Even Howard Stark didn't know all that had gone into it. Erskine had been too careful, too paranoid after the terrible mess with the man-monster most knew as the Red Skull.

The scream was terrible, I felt as if the very blood in my veins had gone cold. It didn't matter if I knew no one else could hear it, that there was no way I could possibly begin to explain, I still couldn't hold back my reaction: which was dropping everything I was holding in my hands (which were a folder of papers, and a half-empty cup of very bad coffee), as I half curled into myself, fighting the instinct to cover my ears (pointless as the gesture would have been).

"Elaine?" Peggy asked worriedly as she approached me.

I had changed my name right after leaving London, years after the Great War (which would eventually come to be known as WWI), I was going by Elaine Serrure.

I looked straight at Peggy for a few seconds, considering how much I could, or even should tell her. She was a good woman, there was no doubt about that, nor was there any doubt regarding her trustworthiness; but being good and trustworthy didn't mean she was the kind of woman who could deal with her whole world being tilted on its axis. Which was exactly what would happen if I were to tell her even a fraction of the truth about myself. Still, I liked her, she was a dear friend to me, and I couldn't help but want to share at least a part of myself with her, so I did:

"Something is wrong." I offered simply.

"How wrong?" She inquired.

"Very, very wrong." I answered quietly.

And really, for Mama to have screamed like that… she'd been through so much, from the loss of her human friends before I was ever born, the loss of Adar, of his family, of Asgard, and then her family in Alfheim, as well as the realm itself, the loss of any home at all. She'd experienced loss, grief, pain, like few individuals ever had, yet I had never so much as imagined a cry such as that leaving her lips. Yes, something had to be beyond wrong.

"How do you know?" She inquired, curious.

Curious, but not disbelieving, or in denial. She might not understand how I could be telling her that, but she did indeed believe it to be true (or that at least I believed it to be true).

"That… is a very long story." I admitted.

"Well, how about you tell me where we need to go, and then you can tell me the story on our way there?" She proposed.

I accepted. And we did. She had no idea why we were going to Germany exactly (neither did I for that matter), but she trusted that there must be a reason. I told her my story (and my family's) on our way to Europe. For the longest time I wasn't sure how much she'd actually believed, but she never claimed it to be impossible, and never treated me any different, which was more than I could have dared hope for.

Rose was waiting for us in Germany, having already collected our unconscious mother, as well as everything that had been in the tiny room she'd been renting. What we found there… it was a lot more (and worse) than anything we could have imagined.

"This is… it's amazing…" Peggy commented as she went through the pages and pages of notes.

Some things she didn't understand, I knew, Nana had mixed languages, and not all of them were human. Still, Peggy had been a code-breaker before being an agent, and the repetition of some key words was helping her understand at least the ideas, if not the exact words being used.

"We need to get all this back to HQ." She decided after several more pages. "Though it might be a good idea for one of you to rewrite some of the notes, if you don't want these other languages to fall into the hands of the SSR."

I nodded. While I didn't think the SSR would do anything particularly malignant with the pieces of language they'd find there, it still was a good idea to change it. Especially the words that almost resembled khuzdul. Nana hadn't actually used the language of the dwarves of course, but words in a human language that sounded enough like it; if someone who only knew languages from Midgard tried to translate it the word they'd come up with wouldn't fit at all, because it'd been chosen for its sound, the similar phonetics to the khuzdul, rather than its actual meaning. Nana was an insane genius like that, probably would give the best linguists of the age the time of their lives; but still, it was better if khuzdul and the various elvish dialects were taken out entirely. Old English and Ancient Norse could be justified, the others not so much.

"We need to get Mama out of here." Rose stated solemnly.

"Shouldn't we wait until she's awake?" Peggy inquired, worriedly. "Make sure she's alright."

"She's not alright." Rose answered grimly. "And she won't wake up, not now. Not until it's all over. Her empathy won't let her."

I let out a breath. It made sense. Nana's empathy was so strong, with things being as bad as what was implied in those notes (and probably worse), I couldn't quite imagine what might have happened exactly to cause her to shut down, but it must have been bad certainly. And the worst part? It clearly wasn't over yet. It would happen again, and again… and thus Nana wouldn't be waking until we could make certain it'd happen no more.

"We can get her to London, a safe-house, make sure she'll be protected." Peggy proposed.

"Not with the SSR." Rose shook her head. "The last thing we need is the government getting too interested in us." She pondered for a moment before adding. "Find Etta, or one of her children. They will help."

"You're not coming with us." Peggy realized right then.

I'd known it already. Could see it in every line of my sister's body, the way she was practically vibrating where she stood, dying to get moving, to go into her next mission.

"Chief is waiting for me." She answered simply. "And Lyta, and a few others. We'll try and stop as much of what's coming as we can, while we still can."

I wondered then, if only for a moment, how much she'd seen. Did she know what had made Nana scream like that and then shut down? Probably. If so she wasn't telling, and I could respect that. Something told me that I'd be finding out, sooner or later, and if it was as bad as I suspected, I'd rather not deal with it until I really had to. Avoiding things because they were bad, or hard, wasn't my usual choice of action, but I was already stressed out enough. I'd rather deal with one thing at a time; and in that moment my priority was making sure Nana would be safe.

xXx

I was right. Things were really, really bad, worse than anything I could have ever imagined, because even after everything I'd been through up until then, even after going through so many battles and the Great War, I still hadn't imagined the depravity and pure evil souled beings could be capable of. In all my lives (because I remembered them all, due to a disastrous magic accident when I was still young) I'd been through countless wars, some so very bad they still gave me nightmares at times. There was a reason why I'd made a vow never again to kill a souled being. And yet, seeing what was going on during that war, what a man dared order being done, to men, women and children… it was the first time I ever truly wished I'd never made that oath. Because if I hadn't then I'd have walked right into his house, gone through as many so-called soldiers as dare step in my way, and I'd have ended his life with my own hands. No one would have been able to stop me.

It surprised me, my own bloodthirstiness, but it's just… I saw the survivors. From the prison-camps, but even worse, from the concentration camps! I had no doubt that, anyone else who had seen what I had, with my power at their disposal, would feel exactly the same.

Yet I couldn't do it, I couldn't just go and kill him. So instead I did my best to save as many people as I possibly could. Peggy got me the information I needed, and then she made sure our superiors focused completely on Captain America and his Howling Commandos, while I went on my own missions. Sometimes Peggy even joined me. We worked well together, and we really saved as many as we could.

We came across Rose and her friends a couple of times. But for the most part, we focused on different things. The SSR's objective was HYDRA, while Rose and the others were taking on the Nazis in general. It was good, we both did our best.

I had the pleasure of seeing a rare wonder, a match-by-choice (unlike my parents, who were an involuntary match). It was said that almost all matches started by choice, until the Ancient Vows were pronounced, then from their next life on, they became an involuntary one, for their souls were already bound. The only exception was with those who were said to have been a match from the beginning of time, those who'd once, before the creation of the universe itself, been a single soul, which was split into two bodies when they gained form as part of Yggdrasil. Most believed that part to be a myth, to have never happened… I knew better.

I witnessed the love between Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers, and it was truly a thing of wonder. At least until the day Steve sacrificed his life, crashing Red Skull's plane (with all its bombs) on the arctic. Then Peggy was left alone to mourn for the love that was lost so suddenly.

Nana woke up when the war ended (for a value of it, judging by the shadows in the eyes of those who'd been to war and lived to return home, I had a feeling the war never truly ended for them), close to a month after the second bomb was detonated in the Far East. And the fact that she didn't wake up the moment Hitler was defeated told me something else had gone wrong, even if I could not quite put my finger on it for the longest time.

"I dreamt." She explained quietly when we finally had a moment of privacy. "Night after night, day after day, the whole time I was unconscious I dreamt… they weren't nice dreams."

She never said it outright, but then again, she didn't need to. She knew what had happened, perhaps not in detail, but enough. She knew of all the lives lost, all the pain, the loss, the grief, the despair… even being unconscious hadn't spared her from all the suffering the war had caused. Especially not for the catastrophic loss of life at the end, she'd felt it, all of it. Maybe not as badly as if she'd been right there, in Japan, or actively using her empathy, but still enough to know just how far humans were willing to go while waging war. It was the kind of answer I'd always wish we'd never asked the question for.

Rose arrived a week before Nana woke, and the two of them were ready to leave in just a month. I wasn't going with them. After Peggy had taken some days to mourn the loss of her chosen match she'd informed me about the plans she and Howard had for the future, and asked me to help. I promised to, as long as my involvement was kept completely secret. She agreed. So I said my goodbyes and watched my mother and sister walk away. All I could really hope for in that moment was that it wouldn't take yet another war for us to come together again.

xXx Meril's POV xXx

Mama and I spent the years following the end of the war wandering across Europe, reclaiming our identity as wanderers, as gypsies. The times weren't easy, the war had left too many in the worst conditions: impoverished and nearly in ruin. We helped all we could, in every way we could think of, yet I couldn't help but feel that it just wasn't enough, it'd never be enough.

It was almost midsummer in 1954 (by our traditions at least, for I knew humans had taken to celebrating the start of summer in what for us was already midsummer) when I woke up after a vision potent enough that every single candle in my room was burning when I finally opened my eyes, some of them with flames so intense half the wax had been consumed in a very short time. And Mama was there too, sitting on her own bed in the room we were sharing in that particular town in Ukraine (far south, we'd actually just crossed into the country from Romania less than a handful of days earlier).

"Meril?" She only ever used my birth-name as a pet-name anymore, and I liked it well enough that way. "Sweet-heart?"

"Fire." I answered in a croak, even as I extinguished all my candles and reached for the water on the small bedside table. "There's going to be fire. Bad."

"Anything we can do?" She asked softly.

"We have to." I gasped, I was so thirsty, but swallowing so fast made me cough. "She's going to die if we don't."

"Where?" Of course she'd never want people to die, not after everything we'd already witnessed.

"Northeast from here." I answered, recalling as much as I could. "Near Odessa. The village isn't even on the map!"

"We'll find it." She did her best to reassure me, though we both knew it to be hard. "How long do we have?"

"Two days at most." I answered grimly.

"Then we better get ourselves a mode of transport." She decided.

I knew how big that was, for her. She still didn't like cars, despite the fact that they were the favored method of transportation for most. Then again, I didn't like them either. We were so used to walking places, or using horses, when walking might be impractical. Cars were bigger, harder to control, and while we might be good at adapting, it still wasn't easy sometimes.

We waited only long enough for our landlord's wife to have opened the kitchens (we were paying for the room and breakfast). It was still quite early, but not so much that someone might have had something negative to say about our stay.

We were lucky enough to find a farmer that was taking the same route we intended. He was on a cart, rather than a truck, and we were warned he had many stops to make, but it was still better than walking the whole distance ourselves.

As fate would have it, there was a bit of an accident on the way. A truck passed us at some point, too fast, and going too close, it spooked our horses. Mama managed to calm the animals with some judicious use of her empathy, but by then the man was already on the ground. I barely managed to get him out of the way of the horses before they could step on him. He still had a bit of a sprain on the wrist, where he tried to keep hold of the reins until the horses moved in just the wrong way, so Mama insisted that he let her lead, while he directed her. He agreed.

We made it to Odessa that same night, and the man insisted that we stay with him once he learned we had nowhere to go. He had an empty room, where his daughters (who'd since married and left the house) had slept. Mama agreed, she could sense he was a good man who felt the need to pay us back for our assistance. I was also quite sure that he suspected, if not actually knew, that his sprain was healing quite fast because of us. Gifted weren't talked about so openly, not since some of the worst things that had been done during the war, the experiments… no one wanted to end up in a lab or a camp somewhere. So nothing was ever said. Still, I was glad to find there were still good people left in the world. It gave me hope for the future, that perhaps one day we might not be all in such danger simply for being who we were.

In the morning we left Odessa and took off walking towards the nearest settlements, those that couldn't be found in maps; that, if history held, would eventually be absorbed by either of the cities surrounding them as they expanded. It took hours, but we found it, the place didn't even seem to have a name; it was little more than a bunch of buildings and streets close to a mine. One I knew, even without a vision to back me, would be closing very soon.

We'd just begun walking down what looked like the only actual street when the screaming began, and the rumbles. The earth seemed to be practically shifting beneath our feet. Mama began saying something but I didn't listen, because my vision was almost overtaking me… time was running out! And fast!

"Mama…" I gasped, barely able to pull myself to the present.

"Go!" She nodded at me. "Save her."

That was all I needed, I took off running. Following my instincts. I made it to what looked like a hostel. There were people at the front, arguing, screaming in a mix of Russian, Ukrainian and even Romanian, it was bad but I ignored them completely, taking off to a side before any of them could see me and looking for another way in. I found the backdoor and didn't even stop to think about it, I rushed in. The fire was bad, and getting worse but I ignored it completely, going through it and straight to the stairs. I needed to get to the top floor.

I heard the child crying right as I reached the top, she was calling for her parents in Romani. It hurt, to hear her like that, but at least as long as she was crying, she was still alive.

I burst into the room, hand extended, calling the fire to bend to my will, just in time, as the child was curled up into a ball in the furthest corner of the room, trying to hide from the flames that had already consumed most of the room. She couldn't have been more than five years old! Small even for that age, with hair so red… redder than even mine, and hazel eyes.

"Little one…?" I called swiftly switching to Romani myself. "I'm here to help you."

Her head turned immediately my way and she stopped crying out. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything she stopped, cocked her head.

"You're not burning…" She whispered.

"No, I'm not." To prove my point I ran my hand through the flames beside me a few times, before extending it before me so she could see. "The fire cannot hurt me, and if you come with me, I will make sure it doesn't hurt you either."

"Can you get me to dai (mama) and dadro (papa)?" She asked me very softly.

"I promise you, I will." I assured her.

That seemed to be all she needed, she rushed out of her corner and straight into my arms. I held her tightly, making sure to keep my focus so no flame would touch her. She still hid her face against my neck when I stepped into the flames and out of the room, but she didn't let go, or scream. It wasn't exactly easy, getting out, the building was wooden, and falling apart already. So I held her tighter and began running, making use of my light body (as half elf, I was less dense than most races), my speed and agility to make it out. We made it out just in time.

There was a loud, awful sound right then, something I'd only heard once before, during the war, and a moment later the cars near me seemed to crumple. As if some giant, invisible hand had closed around them. And it didn't stop there. Buildings all around, the same began happening to them as the very foundations collapsed under a force that couldn't be seen. I could hear a woman still screaming, calling for her baby; though even louder was the voice of a man, there were no words with his voice, just a roar that I could almost feel in my blood. And then there was Mama:

"Magnus!" She was speaking Romani too, and straight to the man. "Magnus stop it! She's alive! I promise you! Your daughter is alive!"

Right on time, the little girl twisted in my arms.

"Dadro!" She cried out loudly.

She immediately began reaching for him, even as I tightened my own hold on her to keep her from falling.

"Anya!" The man cried out.

His whole demeanor changed in an instant, and I couldn't help but notice the way the rumble and the shifting of the ground stopped instantly. Whatever had caused all the destruction, he was the one behind it.

"Draga mea (my dear)!" The woman who had been wailing cried out as she hurried to her feet and towards me.

"Liebling (darling)." It surprised me, to hear the man use an endearment in German, rather than any of the languages the argument had been on, but I pushed it aside.

The two were instantly upon the child and I let her go then, going to stand by my mother. While I wasn't sure why we weren't leaving yet, it just felt right to stay.

"Thank you..." The woman eventually turned her attention to us. "Oh thank you so much!"

"It's our pleasure." Mama said very softly.

"I'm Magnus." The man announced, as he too turned his attention towards us. "Magnus Eisenhardt. My wife, Magda. And this little darling is our daughter: Anya. Thank you so much for saving her."

"I am Solovey, and this is Roza." Mama introduced us.

xXx

I was never fully sure how it happened, but we stuck together. The five of us, we left the small settlement together and walked for hours until we found a town far away enough that they were unlikely to connect us with the destruction, whenever someone finally came across it. Then… we just didn't left. Maybe it was destiny, or that saving a life created that sort of bond, we became almost like family.

There was trouble. I got a feeling that there had been trouble since before we left the village. At first I only noticed the little things: how Magda and Max never went to bed at the same time, how there were never any 'suspicious' noises. At first I thought that might be exactly the reason; we were renting rooms, one beside the other, that maybe they were embarrassed that we might hear them or something. Then I began noticing the bigger things: like how they never embraced, or kissed, never stood together; what was more, Magda seemed to avoid Max as much as she could through the day.

"She's scared of him." Mama finally told me one night, when I told her all the things I noticed.

I had forgotten, that as much as I might be able to see, she could also sense, and there was no lying or hiding things from her empathy.

"What Max did in the middle of his fear and hatred…" Mama exhaled, shaking her head sadly. "She's absolutely terrified of him. There's no doubt in my mind, she'll be running away, soon."

"What about Anya?" I worried deeply.

Would she try to take the girl with her? And how would Max react if she did that?

"I don't know." Mama admitted. "Magda cares for the girl, but I think she fears that Anya might turn out to be too much like Max."

"Bad temper?" I tried for levity and fell flat.

"Gifted." Mama corrected grimly.

"So what? She'll abandon her daughter because she might be gifted?"

"Keep in mind that the only example Magda has of Gifted right now is Max. And if I'm right, she discovered his Gift back in that village, when he destroyed it and killed practically everyone there. We might be willing to accept it, because he did it when he snapped, when those same villagers were willing to let Anya die, simply because her father was different. I… I don't agree with what Max did, but I understand him. Magda… she's not had an easy life. Max has been her security for so long, and now she feels she cannot trust him."

The worst part? I understood her too. It wasn't that she hated Gifted simply for being different, it was just that her discovery of such had been so traumatic, and with her past (being a survivor of the concentration camps…). Yeah, I could understand where she was coming from too, I had seen too much during the war myself.

"That's not all." Mama admitted.

Her tone alone told me I was really not going to like what came next:

"Magda's pregnant."

I was right, I definitely did not like that. It was one complication we did not need. Things being what they were, there was a chance Magda didn't know, and if she left as she was… aside from the fact that she was taking Max's children, what would she even do with the children? If she was even considering leaving Anya I very much doubted she would want to keep any other children of Max. Would she abandon them? Give them up for adoption? And to what kind of people? Or would she keep them? And if she did, would she fear them? Resent them? Worse? Too many options, and none of them were good.

"We cannot let Magda go." I blurted out. "Not with those babies."

Mama arched a brow, and it was until then that I noticed I'd spoken in the plural, and I hadn't the slightest idea why. I hadn't had any visions, but I knew it, instinctively, Magda was going to have twins… and they were going to be Gifted.

xXx

Magda did try to run. Mama stopped her. She never told me what she told her exactly, but Magda decided to stay. Even then, she told Max that she no longer wished to be married to him. She would wait until the twins were born, leave them with us, and then she'd leave. Max agreed. I wasn't sure if he even loved Magda anymore, if he ever had; but at least the knowledge that he'd get to keep his kids helped him.

Mama was with Magda while she gave birth, while I got to stay out with Max and Anya. We were all very worried as we had once again ended in a place where medical services weren't exactly the best; they still had midwives rather than doctors, then again, at least Mama and I were more used to dealing with the former than the latter.

It took several hours, but eventually Mama came out, expertly holding a twin on each arm.

"Max," She called with a gentle smile. "Come meet your children. Anya, these are your little brother and sister."

Carefully, she passed the boy to him, before leading Anya to one of the sofas, making sure she was sitting down, before placing the baby girl in her arms.

"Just hold her head like this." Mama guided her. "That's it, perfect!"

"What are their names?" I asked right away.

Max turned to look at Mama briefly and she shook her head in silence. I knew it had to be about Magda, and it didn't surprise me. She probably hadn't wanted to even hold the babies, I knew already she'd be leaving the following morning, chances were we'd never see her again.

"Well, this big boy is Pietro." He placed a kiss on the baby's head before whispering a prayer in Yiddish, then turned towards the girl still in Anya's arms. "And our newest princess is…"

"Wanda!" Anya cried out brightly.

The baby in question whined, seemingly about to start crying, causing Anya to snap her mouth closed hurriedly. Mama began humming softly then, an old melody, an elven lullaby, lightly gracing the back of the baby's head with her fingers even as Anya began shifting a bit, trying her best to rock her without risking dropping her. It worked, soon enough baby Wanda was deeply asleep again.

Max said nothing, just smiled, big and proud at his daughter. And when Anya raised her head to look at him and noticed, she smiled just as bright.

Max told me to hold Wanda then, while he gave Anya a chance to hold her little brother too. I did easily enough. Holding the baby girl… it was a wonder, I had no kids, obviously, and in all my centuries I'd never imagined myself as a mom, had never found someone who made me wish for marriage, much less motherhood. And it wasn't that just holding Wanda made me desire it but, it brought the idea of motherhood to my mind, and for a moment I wasn't sure how I should be feeling about it exactly.

Eventually Mama took Wanda, and Max asked me if I wanted to hold Pietro. I saw no reason not to, and I was curious, if it'd feel any different… I never expected what happened the moment the baby was placed in my arms:

It hit me with the force of a train, the exhilaration of jumping off the edge of a cliff, not quite knowing what might be at the bottom (I'd had to do that once, and thankfully there was water at the bottom), the terrifying uncertainty of arriving to a new place, not knowing how you might be received (which might have lessened with time, as we kept traveling, on and on, but it never truly went away, not completely).

A brunette boy, looking at the world with wonder, his auburn-haired sister always at his side… a boy whose hair keeps lightening in shade, even as his sister's becomes redder, discovering the world, both the good and the bad… the same boy, going into a sprint, a friendly race against other kids, to suddenly find himself miles from where he started, not knowing how it happened… constantly moving, never being completely safe… the father, and the godmother, always doing their very best to keep both the boy and his sisters safe…

And the boy is grown. He knows the world isn't perfect, isn't truly safe, but he's thankful nonetheless for all his family have done to keep him so. And when he looks at me (and I know it is me he's looking at) his eyes fill with a light I've seen in no one else:

"Ves'tacha (beloved)…"

I blinked, tears shining in the corner of my eyes as I pulled the baby closer to my chest for a moment, against my heart, before lowering my head to kiss his brow softly.

"Neshama (soul)…" I breathed out quietly. "I'll wait for you."

Then, before anyone could so much to think to ask what was going on, I carefully placed the baby in Max's arms, spun around, and fled.

Mama caught up with me, of course she did. Her eyes following me even as I began throwing things haphazardly into my knapsack.

"What's going on?" She asked eventually.

"I have to leave." I replied simply as I closed my bag. "I cannot stay."

"I can see that." She nodded evenly. "Why?"

"I…" I had all the intention to make up something, anything, until I saw her eyes, and then I deflated, letting myself drop onto the bed. "Pietro's my match."

She said nothing, just waiting, and I just couldn't hold back.

"I don't think it's supposed to be like this." I admitted quietly. "You've told me stories, and I've done a lot of research on the topic, in every Realm we've been to. Even with 'destined', the involuntary matches; the bond is only revealed suddenly when they're both mature enough to understand what it means, to embrace it. If they meet when they're too young they'll be friends, confidantes, as good as family, they'll be all to each other, but only as much as their minds can comprehend. Except… I'm centuries old while Pietro was just born!"

"You'd never do anything to hurt him."

"Of course not! That's not the problem here. The problem is that the moment I held him I had a vision, I saw him grow up. He and Wanda are going to be inseparable, and Anya will take very good care of them both. All three of them will always be very close, and even when they find out how cruel the world can be, they'll also understand how much you and Max have done to protect them, to give them the best possible lives, and they'll love you all the more for it."

"That doesn't sound like a problem."

"No, but my vision did not end there. I… I saw him, looking at me… he… it was the same way Papa used to look at you…"

I knew, of course I did. My visions weren't always of the future, or the present, sometimes they were of the past. I hadn't seen everything, but enough to know my father, and to know just how much he and my mother had loved one another… how much she still loved him (would always love him), and how fortunate Helena and I were that she loved us enough to stay.

"I'm afraid…" I added quietly. "I fear that one day I might look at that little boy, and expect to find a light in his eyes, that won't be there. Not yet. That wouldn't be fair on him."

"Or on you either." Mama replied kindly. "You're very brave my darling. I don't know that I'd have been strong enough."

"You are Mama. You are the strongest person I know. As for me… I've lived centuries, my whole life really, alone. I can wait a few years more."

It'd be worth it, I knew now what was waiting for me at the end of that path: my very soul.

"I'll make your excuses with Max." She assured me. "Go, take care of yourself."

"I will." I nodded. "We'll meet again soon enough Mama."

"Of course we will." She replied easily enough.

What was a couple of decades when we'd lived centuries? Granted, living in Midgard, where things happened so quickly, changed so fast, time no longer passed us by; but it didn't appear to last forever either. We'd been apart for much longer before, we'd handle it.

I was leaving the hostel when I heard Anya's voice, she was babbling at the babies. I wanted so much to look at her, sure she'd have a bright, precious smile on her face. But I knew if I did it'd only make it all the harder to leave, and I had to. It was the problem with being a Seer, I live as much in the Future (or the Past) as I do in the Present. I had no fear I'd do anything that might hurt my match, but he deserved to grow up, to become who he was meant to be, without having to wonder why I might sometimes stare at him, searching for someone who wasn't there. It might never come to that, but I wouldn't risk it, not for anything. So I walked away.

xXx Tinuviel's POV xXx

Trouble started when the twins were two. Or perhaps it would be more precise to say that trouble caught up with us when the twins were two. It was late in the night, it was raining. We were living in the outskirts of Prague, in the Czech Republic, renting a house, all of us together. To the community Max was the children's father, while I was their mother's sister. It was the easiest way to connect us while us two adults looked nothing alike. Thankfully, the fact that both Anya and Wanda were redheads, and my own hair was mahogany helped a lot.

Rose had left the same day the twins were born. It was relatively easy to tell Max and Anya that she'd had a vision that made it necessary for her to leave immediately, and while she'd be coming back, it was unlikely that it'd happen any time soon. The best part? Not a single word in all that was a lie, so there was no need to feel guilty at all.

We'd stayed in that particular village just long enough to make sure we wouldn't be putting the babies in any danger by traveling with then, then we moved. It had taken close to a year, moving from place to place, yet staying longer and longer in each place, until we finally decided to just stay in one place. Prague being our choice.

Until that night. It was late when Max finally got back home, it had been raining for hours. So it was no surprise to find him drenched to the bone. Anya had fallen asleep on the sofa while doing her best to wait up, worried about her dadro. I couldn't fail to notice the way he stood.

"What happened to you?" I asked in a whispered hiss, not wanting to wake up Anya.

She was so young, and yet she still did her best to help around the house, and to take care of the twins. I had taken it upon myself to school her, as we didn't exactly have the necessary papers to send her to school (and Max was too paranoid to let her go anyway).

"We need to leave Prague." Max announced. "Tonight."

"Max…?" I had a very bad feeling.

"Someone just tried to kill me." He explained grimly. "Or no, it was worse than that, they were trying to abduct me. On orders from Schmidt."

I swallowed. Of course I knew who Schmidt was. Max had shared his story and Magda's with both Rose and I early on. At least the basics. The rest had come after Magda had left, which was also about when I told him my own story, and that of my daughters.

"What does Schmidt want with you now?" I asked, feeling I wasn't going to like the answer.

"He never let me go." Max's answer was worse than I feared. "The Mine Chief in Ukraine? The one who refused to pay me what I was due because I supposedly stole it from others? He was sent by Schmidt too. The idea was to make me desperate, so when they offered me a way out, by going back to him, I'd take it."

"The… the children…" I gasped. "Do they know about the children?"

"They know about Anya." Max answered darkly. "Only, they think she died in Ukraine. They have pictures of you and the twins, but haven't quite managed to connect you to me just yet. Apparently they thought you might be Magda, they know I wasn't alone when I escaped the Camp. But they found Magda in France."

"Is she…?"

"They left her alone. She's of no interest to them. I am. And you, if they ever find out you're Gifted as well."

"If they ever come anywhere near me they'll discover that a thousand years do not pass in vain." I couldn't help it, I practically snarled.

"Tanti (Auntie) Solovey…?" Anya's sleepy voice pulled me out of my dark mood instantly.

"I'm here, my darling." I called softly to her. "Papa's home."

"Dadro!" Anya cried out brightly.

A look from me, told him all. We'd pack up and leave soon enough, but Anya had been worried about him and she deserved a moment of his time. It would be alright. We could be quick when needed. We'd be long gone by the time anyone came calling.

xXx

That was how it began, Max's life as a Nazi-hunter. Because he decided that if Schmidt was going to send people after him, and potentially after his family, then he'd be the hunter, rather than the prey. I changed my name: to Eos Eisenhardt, Anya becoming Willow Eisenhardt; the twins still had the same names, only changing surnames. Max for his part went back to his birth-name, that of Erik Lehnsherr, while he hunted Schmidt's cronies; while with us he used the name of Max (Maximus) Eisenhardt. It was Helena who got all of us papers, thanks to some contacts of hers, though she never met with us directly.

Five years later, in 1962, Erik went on a hunt, first to a bank in Switzerland, then to a bar in Argentina, before ending on a yacht off the coast of Florida. As for the children and I, we'd been living in Greece, near the coast, when Erik had first taken off for Switzerland, then we moved to Spain, where we stayed for several weeks, until he left Argentina for the States. It was then that I decided we might as well go to America and got us plane tickets to Massachusetts, where my eldest put one of her own safe-houses at our disposal.

It was something she and Rose had started doing at some point; because such a thing honestly never occurred to me. There were three places I'd considered as home in my life: Naneth's talan in Jewel Forest, the palace in Faerûn, and the Golden Palace in Asgard; and two of those places had never been mine. I wasn't sure how it had started, exactly, but I knew Rose and especially Helena, had a number of houses and apartments across the world that belonged to them. Such was the case of the small townhouse in Salem where we arrived.

And then Erik dropped off the radar. At first we didn't notice. The trip from Spain to the US had had more than a few delays and complications, so when we first got to Salem we were so tired I didn't pay attention to the fact that there were no telegrams, no letters, no calls. Then a day passed, and another, and on the third I realized something was definitely off. Thankfully that was when Erik finally deigned to get in touch, he actually phoned us.

"Eos…?" He asked the moment I answered.

"Erik?!" I exclaimed, very relieved. "By the Stars, it was about time. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to call in some reinforcements to track you down."

Because of course I couldn't have done it myself, I had to stay with the children.

"I am alright, I promise." He reassured me. "Things… didn't exactly go as planned, in Florida. I… it's a bit of a long story, but suffice it to say, I'm on the right track now."

"What does that mean?"

"We're after Shaw now. That's the name he goes by nowadays, Sebastian Shaw. He has others with him. He's planning… he plans to cause a new war. We're tracking him, are going to take him down. It will all be over soon."

I had no reply for several seconds. The blood in my veins had almost frozen solid at the thought of a new war. Hadn't two been bad enough?!

"Eos?" Erik called. "Eos answer me!"

"Another war…" I finally croaked. "Who would want that?!"

"Someone who thrives on other people's pain and tragedy." Erik answered grimly. "But we won't let it come to that. We will find Shaw. And I will kill him. I promise you Eos. He will be gone, once and for all, and then we'll all be safe again. You, and the children, we'll finally be able to live our lives in peace."

"You better not get yourself killed in this endeavor Erik. I will not forgive you if you do."

"I won't. And I'm not alone."

"That's a point I wanted to ask. Who's we?"

"Well… whether you believe it or not, I've made a friend. His name's Charles, he's Gifted too. A telepath… I don't like it much. The idea of someone in my head… not that I think he'd even want to be there, my mind is too dark a place for one such as him. Too good, too innocent."

"Do not put people on a pedestal Erik. You know how that can turn out. Just like I wasn't a noble, vulnerable princess, there may be more to your Charles than can be seen at first sight. And one thing I think you should consider. I am an Empath, and while I may respect your privacy, that doesn't stop me being one. I try my best not to use what I sense from you, but sometimes I just cannot help myself; sensing another's feelings is as much a part of me as breathing. Consider the possibility that it might be the same with your Charles's telepathy. If so, then asking him to stay completely out of your head might not be feasible, it might even be uncomfortable, if not outright painful to him. I'm not telling you to give him carte blanche to dive into your head. Just be understanding when it happens. Accept him, and all that makes him who he is, as much as it seems that he's accepted you."

"What makes you so sure he has?"

"You wouldn't be sticking around if he hadn't."

"True enough." He actually chuckled. "And he's not my Charles, you know?"

I said nothing about that, just chuckled to myself. I may not have been Rose, may not even be near enough him to be able to pick up on his feelings. But some things I could just feel…

xXx

Anya, Pietro, Wanda and I settled well enough in Salem and spent a nice, uneventful summer. Then, in October, we got one visit we weren't expecting. Things were a bit tense, what with the threat of Nuclear War (a Third World War! What the hell were humans thinking?! Hadn't they had enough of violence, and pain and pointless death?!). There was no reason to believe Shaw and his minions might have found us, but still I couldn't help but worry and stress out, things getting worse the longer we went without hearing from Erik (whom, I knew, wasn't calling to lessen the chance of us being found, but still). Anya picked up on my mood and became increasingly worried as well.

And then it happened. We had a pretty decent-sized back-yard and I'd been teaching Anya how to shoot a bow at her insistence. I also knew she was planning on asking her dadro how to use a gun, though that one might take longer; I wasn't sure Erik would be too willing to do it, at least not yet, seeing how she was barely thirteen and all.

I sensed the arrivals and couldn't help but tense up. Anya responded to my own tension, and then to the sound of a branch breaking. She spun around on the heel of one foot, finished drawing the bow, and shot an arrow. Which then stopped in mid-air, less than inch from a newcomer's body.

"Anya!" Erik and I cried out at the same time.

"That's remarkable." The man who'd almost been shot commented.

I could sense he was honestly fascinated, whether by Anya's marksmanship, Erik's skill with his own gift, or both at the same time I had no idea.

"Erik." I forced myself to focus. "I didn't know you were coming. Who's this?"

"This is Charles Xavier, I've told you about him." He informed me. "Charles, this is Eos. One of the four most important people in my life, and my dearest friend."

"Mrs. Lehnsherr…" He bowed his head at me, kissing the back of my hand.

I couldn't help myself, I snorted.

"Ma'am?" He inquired, clearly confused.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Xavier." I nodded calmly. "But you must know, I'm not Erik's wife. We're actually not related to each other at all, but if we were to choose, we'd be siblings. I've been helping look after his kids since the twins were born."

As if on cue the two rushed out of the house right then and straight to their father, demanding his attention for hugs, kisses and more.

"My apologies for the misunderstanding." Charles murmured apologetically. "I just thought… I didn't even know Erik had children."

"It's quite alright, and no one knows, really." I couldn't help but smile a bit at the hurt he couldn't fully hide. "Erik has spent the last five years, since a crazy Nazi sympathizer made the mistake of planning a hit against us in his presence, fighting to keep us all safe. For the most part that means no one knowing we so much as exist. He must trust you a lot, to bring you here. And I'm sure we both know how hard it is for Erik to trust…"

"I'm deeply honored, and very grateful, that he's decided to trust me." Charles admitted quietly. "He's the best friend I've had in my whole life."

I nodded at him, before deciding to focus on the matter at hand.

"Erik, as delighted as the children and I are to see you, why are you here exactly?" I inquired. "You are still much too tense for Shaw to have been dealt with already. Which means there's something else going on, what is it?"

He explained it then. The trip to Turkey, the disaster they found there, and the even worse one they discovered upon their return to Richmond. How the base was attacked, every single human killed, how one of their new students lost his life fighting back, while another chose to switch sides to ensure her own survival…"

"Stupid little girl." I couldn't help but mutter to myself.

Erik nodded silently. He knew what made me said that. We'd both seen it before, during the war (even if I had been technically unconscious for most of WWII, I hadn't been entirely unaware, and there had also been WWI), people switching sides, going to the Germans, believing it was their only true chance at survival. They thought that because they were the strongest at one point, it would remain that way. They thought that because they chose to serve, that they'd be protected in return. They didn't realize that the kind of men who would be willing to take them, to accept double-crossers, couldn't be trusted, for they were liable to be the same, or even worse.

"How bad is it?" I asked grimly.

"Unless we do something about it, there will be war." Erik admitted.

I couldn't help it, I dropped to my knees, tears falling from my eyes as I stared at my closest friend. I was terrified.

"No…" I gasped, horrified. "Not again. Max… I cannot go through that, not again."

I didn't even notice when I slipped and called him by his fake name, the one I'd known him by first. I was so distraught.

"It won't come to that." He assured me, dropping to his knees beside me and embracing me, the children following suit. "I promise you Eos, Shaw will not get away with this."

We stayed there, kneeling on the grass, for nearly a full minute.

"What happens now?" I asked eventually.

"Now, you all come with us." Erik explained. "Charles is allowing us all to stay at his estate. It'll be safer than here. I don't wanna risk Shaw finding any of you or, if he were to succeed…"

He didn't finish, and I didn't need him to. It was also until then that I remembered we weren't the only ones in that backyard.

"Thank you Mr. Xavier." I told him as I got on my feet. "I promise we'll be no bother, and if there's any way I can help, don't hesitate to ask."

"You are no bother Miss, and please call me Charles." He replied easily. "Now, I don't know how you might be able to help exactly but…"

"Erik didn't tell you?" I interrupted, then chuckled to myself. "No, of course he didn't. I'm Gifted myself. I'm primarily an empath, though I do have a few other tricks under my sleeve…"

As much as Erik might trust him, as much as my instincts might agree, I wasn't going to be telling Charles everything, not yet. The time would come. Still, that was enough.

"An empath?" He asked, fascinated. "Groovy… I've never met one. I'd be delighted to hear all about it, my dear."

I considered telling him that whatever I told him might not help at all, there was no way of knowing if humans with a gift for empathy would be in any way like me, but I wasn't sure he was ready to know about other Realms just yet. It had been hard enough with Erik so… I pushed the matter aside for the time being.

We were packed easy and fast enough (after all the years, we'd truly become pros at it). Anya was such a good girl, she never complained; and the twins were so delighted by the prospect of going with their papa that neither of them said a negative word about it. Soon enough we were on the military jeep Erik and Charles had appropriated at some point from the people they'd been working with (for?) before Shaw decimated the base and on our way to the Xavier Estate.

xXx

Everyone was watching out for us when we arrived to the Xavier estate. The property was huge and beautiful, it almost reminded me of my own estate in Jewel Forest, the only place I'd ever called home that had been truly mine. I knew that when people looked at me they didn't think much about me, I was just a woman in an old, plain green dress, nothing special. Anya called more everyone's attention if only for the way she ran all around, trying to take in everything at the same time.

"Who are you?" The pretty blonde girl asked, the only one apparently brave enough to go to us and actually ask the question.

"Raven!" Charles's explanation answered my own question about who she might be.

"I am Eos Eisenhardt." I introduced myself, then added, so as not to have more people calling me Mrs. Lehnsherr: "Erik's sister in all but blood."

"You're so cute!" Raven practically shrieked as she turned towards Anya.

"I am…" She broke off, turning to look at me, questions in her eyes.

"It's alright schatz (treasure), I trust them, they're friends." Erik nodded at her.

"Are they special, like dadro (papa) and tanti (auntie)?" Anya wanted to know.

"Yes, they're all very special indeed." Erik nodded.

"I am Anya Willow." The girl introduced herself with a bright smile. "I'm not special but I love meeting special people!"

"You're not…" Raven looked more than a little confused.

"She's not a mutant." Charles clarified. "She's Erik's daughter, as are the twins."

All eyes (not just Raven's, but also those of the boys who had finally dared approach, and a woman about Erik's and Charles's age standing in the back) turned to me.

"I'm not their mother, no." I shook my head.

"Mama did not want us because of what made us special." Anya said simply.

It pained me, that she knew that Magda had abandoned them and why. All the same, I would have never lied to her about it, it wouldn't have been right, especially because the truth had a way of coming out, always.

All eyes turned to Erik but he just looked at me, he just hated explaining things, but knew that the others would need to at least know the basics.

"Magda, the children's mother, she was Erik's wife." I explained as succinctly as possible. "She found out about Erik's ability in the worst possible circumstances. The town turned against them, Anya almost died, Erik killed people trying to save her… Roza and I got there just in time to get her out of the burning building before it was too late. Magda couldn't handle it. The only reason she didn't leave immediately was because she was pregnant and we knew the twins would be gifted. So she chose to stay only long enough to give birth, then left the twins with us and took off. We haven't seen her since."

"But what about Anya?" The oldest of the boys, asked.

"What about me?" Anya piped up. "I wanted to stay with dadro. And he said I could stay, even if I wasn't special like him!"

"You're very special schatz…" Erik assured her, picking her up. "Perfectly human as you are, you will always be special to me, and that's what really matters."

Everyone looked at Erik in shock, like they couldn't reconcile who he was in that moment, with the thirteen-year-old in his arms, with the man they had known the previous few months. I could only smile. Erik and Anya loved each other so much, and they obviously had missed each other. It made me feel that no matter what risks we might be putting ourselves in, joining their little group, it would be worth it.

xXx

For the first week or so of 'training' I did and said nothing at all. At the children's insistence I took over the kitchen when it became obvious that no one really knew much about cooking, except the kind of things that only needed boiling water and the like… everyone loved me for that, though I could tell they didn't think much of me. At least once a day Erik and I would look at each other and it took everything in us not to laugh.

Even Charles, who knew about my empathy, he seemed to have dismissed it completely, like it wasn't useful for what was coming their way and thus unimportant. The only thing that bothered me was the way even Agent MacTaggert dismissed me. She, who was perfectly human (as all but Charles and my little family believed me to be), who knew how hard it was to be a woman in a man's world… she too looked at me like I was less.

It was early on the eighth day of training that things finally changed. I was outside, with Anya, the both of us going through our Tai chi routine, as was tradition.

"So… what's so especial about that?" Alex Summers asked as he looked us up and down.

"Tai chi is a martial art." I explained calmly. "It's good defense training, it also helps promote health. I learned it from a master, many years ago. Anya has been learning for a few years now, as well as Jujitsu; they will serve as a basis once she's ready to learn other forms of combat."

"You would send your daughter to fight?" Moira asked, horrified, turning to Erik.

"Dadro's not doing anything!" Anya cried out immediately.

"I'd rather she never were in any danger." Erik said at the same time, more calmly than his daughter. "But she's already in danger, just being my daughter, just living in this world, puts her in danger. And so, I'll make sure that if she'll be in danger anyway, at least she'll have a fair chance. So yes, Eos teaches her Tai Chi, and Jujitsu, and archery. I've taught her how to throw a punch, to run, to blend in; one day I'll teach her how to fight dirty."

"And to shoot!" Anya added.

"And to shoot." Erik added, though it was obvious it cost him.

"I don't know how you think that kind of moves would manage much." Alex scoffed.

For all answer Anya rushed him. Alex didn't even know what was going on before he suddenly found himself on his back in the grass.

"Wha… that's not fair!" He cried out, jumping onto his feet. "I wasn't ready!"

"An enemy will not wait for you to be ready." Anya snapped at him, already on her guard. "You have to be ready, always."

"That's true." Erik nodded.

The blonde ended on the grass three more times in the following five minutes. He never could so much as get a hold of Anya. She was fast, agile and very slippery. Even if she didn't know much about fighting just yet, she knew enough. We all knew Alex was holding back, even when he did manage to get close, he didn't really want to hurt her, but then again, Anya did know some dirty tricks already, and she wasn't using those either. She knew Alex wasn't an enemy, but she still believed he needed to learn a lesson.

"You taught her all that?" Hank asked, looking at me with a mix of surprise and disbelief.

"I cannot believe it." Erik scoffed. "A whole week and you still think she's a weak little woman? What, you think she's just with my family because of how good she can cook?!"

I snorted at that, as did Anya.

"And it's not about being a mutant or not." Erik went on. "I've been hunting Nazis for the past five years, since they tried going after me, and my children! Most of the time I'm hunting down someone, she's the one who stays with them. Do you think I would trust my children, my greatest treasures in the world, to someone who couldn't look after them? Who wasn't strong and capable of protecting them from anyone, even Shaw if he came calling?"

That certainly made everyone take notice.

"Come on." Erik called, turning to look at me.

"What…?" I had a feeling what he wanted, yet wasn't sure yet.

"Lets show them how its done." He announced.

I didn't even try to stop him. Due to the training, I'd taken to wearing sweats, sleeveless tops and loose sweatshirts on top. I followed Erik to a wide expanse of grass, where I took off my shoes before dropping into a simple, defensive stance.

No words were said, no warning, nothing. One moment Erik was looking around, making sure we had everyone's attention, the next he was throwing himself at me, two punches followed by a kick. I reacted automatically, moving to a side to avoid his first punch, bowing my head to evade the second, before dropping to my knees and letting my body fold backwards to avoid the kick. The last move caused him to over-reach and before he could recover I was moving myself. Twisting slightly to the side to release my legs, which I then proceeded to use for a sweep in his direction. He barely managed to avoid me, going into a backwards roll so as not to end up sprawled on his back. And that was just the start.

Soon enough I stopped thinking about our audience. I stopped thinking about anything but the fight. It was something my match had taught me. To think of nothing but the moment I was in, to let my instincts guide me as I fought with everything I had.

It wasn't the first time Erik and I sparred. Before ever beginning his activities as a Nazi-hunter he made sure I had what it took to keep myself and the children safe. I had no idea what he'd have done if I hadn't proven to be up to the task, but thankfully we never needed to find out.

Right as when, during a normal spar, Erik would be calling on the nearest weapon (giving me just a fraction of a second to conjure something to fight back), instead he stopped completely.

"Halt!" He called strongly.

I froze, my body in an angle, one knee flexed, the other extended, one arm on guard while the other hand was on the ground. I had been about to pivot on it, using my extended leg to kick out at him before shooting up (using the hand on the ground to push myself into the air), flipping either onto him, or clear over him where I'd have been able to then attack his back. It was one of my more flashy moves, and a well-practiced one. Only possible at all because of how lighter my body was when compared to a human's, I knew others couldn't do it unless they had either a special ability, or very special training.

"I think we've proven our point by now." He said simply.

He probably knew what I'd been about to do and decided we'd shocked our audience enough for the time being.

"That was… awesome!" Raven practically shrieked, rushing towards me. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"I can teach you a lot of things, but you have to do something first." I told her calmly. "Not for me, but for yourself."

"What?" She was confused by that.

"Be yourself." I said simply.

That truly seemed to throw them all for a loop.

When she didn't seem to get it I threw a two-punch-kick combo at her. She dodged the first punch, blocked the second, but the kick hit her. Then, I purposefully went to kick her again. In a second her whole body seemed to ripple, the blue-eyed blonde facade falling away to reveal a blue-skinned, red-haired woman with amber eyes who managed to catch my leg in the nick of time. She let go a moment later, as she realized what had just happened. Though, thankfully, she didn't force herself back to the facade.

"You have a remarkable gift for shapeshifting Raven." I told her kindly. "And I have no doubt that your facade has kept you safe for many years, out in the world. But in here you are among friends, among family. You don't need to hide here, no one needs to hide here. Which means you can be blue. You also need to understand that because your blonde form is not natural, it takes a degree of concentration for you to keep it up all the time. Concentration you're then not putting on fighting, or whatever else you might be doing at the time. That makes it dangerous for you to go into a fight like that. You understand?" I needed her to, needed them all to, it was important. "I can teach you a hundred battle-styles, thousands of moves, but they will all be useless if you're not a hundred percent focused when you go into a fight." I placed a hand on her blue, scaly skin, projecting as much serenity as I could without actually using my empathy on her. "Out there, among the baseline humans. Among those who aren't yet ready to understand how different some people might be. There you may use your facade. It will keep you safe. But here… here you don't need it. And when you are ready to go into a fight you shouldn't, it could mean the difference between victory or defeat; but more importantly, it could mean the difference between you living or dying… You understand?"

"I understand." She nodded.

Something shifted in her. Not something that could be seen, but I could feel it, the moment she took in everything I had just said and not just understood it, but made it a part of her. I wasn't sure how I knew it (I wasn't a precog after all), but in that moment I was sure fate itself had just shifted, for good.

It still took a few days to get Raven to find a balance between being blue, and still being decently clothed. Charles almost had an apoplexy with that one, while Erik couldn't seem to stop laughing at him… at least until I asked him what he'd feel if it were Anya… then he was all for Raven getting over herself and putting on some clothes already… and then Anya and I were the ones who couldn't stop laughing.

xXx

For a while being there in the Xavier estate, it almost seemed like we were in some kind of bubble, like the outside world couldn't touch us… of course, that couldn't last forever. Eventually the bubble burst. In our case with a speech made by Kennedy. There was a lot I didn't understand; but then again, even with all my years living in Midgard, sometimes human politics still escaped me. All I knew was that the fleets of two countries were heading for Cuba, WWIII would begin unless they were stopped; and since that was exactly what Shaw wanted, chances were he'd be there… which also meant we'd be right there too, as we were the only ones with any chance at stopping him and his group.

Anya was surprisingly understanding when we told her she couldn't join us. Even though she wanted to learn how to fight, wanted to help… she knew she was much too young and nowhere near ready to be part of the confrontation against someone like Shaw. So she'd be staying in the mansion with the twins, safe, awaiting our return.

On the night before we were to go off to war, it took Erik and I forever to get the kids to sleep, though it was then next to impossible for us to do the same. Which was probably not surprising, all things told. So he went to find Charles and play some chess, inviting me to join them for a drink. I agreed, though I wanted to find Moira, have a little chat with her first. I had been wanting to talk with the woman all week, but it just never seemed to be the right time for it. Also, the one time I'd gotten close to actually talking to her I'd gotten an unexpected long-distance call… from Rose. She was in Moscow, doing her best to keep things from getting worse than they already were. I had no idea what she was doing exactly, and I didn't want to. At least she could assure me that if we managed to get things under control in Cuba, that was as far as the Russians would be taking things. She also let me know Helena was handling things in Washington.

While that certainly reassured me, at least enough to know that once we dealt with Shaw and his Hellfire Club the two countries wouldn't go and unleash war upon us all anyway. There was still the matter of Moira though, and time was running out, so it was then or never.

I found her on the back porch, with a glass of red-wine.

"It would seem no one around here is getting any sleep tonight." She commented when I sat on the chair beside her.

"Not really that surprising, considering what we know we'll be facing tomorrow." I replied.

"True." She agreed, taking a sip of her wine. "I imagine it's not a coincidence that you came here now. As you usually prefer Erik's company, or Charles's. So, what is it?"

"It's nothing against you, I assure you." I told her right away. "But yes, I was looking for you now." I took a deep breath. "Have you thought about what you'll be doing once this is over?"

Moira blinked, seemingly not understanding the question.

"Tomorrow we'll avert WWIII." I explained. "I have no doubt about that, because none of us will settle for anything less. I know Charles has great plans for the future, and Erik and the kids will all be helping him with that. As will I, of course. But have you thought about what you'll be doing then?"

"Are you sending me away?"

"Not at all. I have the utmost respect for you Moira… not so much for your superiors. The mere fact that you've been here the last two weeks and we haven't so much as heard a word from your superiors tells me a lot. It tells me that either they have no idea what's going on with you, and with us, or they're conveniently ignoring us all for the time being. The former means that they'll all be getting a hell of a wake-up call tomorrow, and it'll be a coin-toss whether they'll support us or turn against us; the latter means that they're waiting until it's all said and done either to try and use us, or to get rid of us. None of those are options I like. Most of them leave us with no option but going to ground and hope they'll not try and come after us… I think we both know how things will end if they try that. I know you've researched Erik enough to have an idea what he's capable of when those he cares for are threatened. He became the most fearsome Nazi-hunter in order to keep his three children safe, what do you think he'll do to protect not just them, but everyone else in this mansion right now? What do you imagine Charles will do?"

I didn't mention myself but she was a clever woman, I was sure she could read between the lines.

"I didn't actually expect an answer right now." I went on. "But I do think it's something you need to think about. Like I said, I'm not sending you away. I think you're a remarkable woman Moira. You could do great good with us, and also with the CIA. In the end it'll be up to you, what path you choose to walk. But I think it'd be better if you stop and think about it, make your choice calmly now, rather than when time's finally run out on us all. We could use the help of someone like you, no doubt about it. But it's not easy, being a baseline human among gifted; and it will be especially complicated, as long as the world at large isn't ready to know the truth. Only you can know how much you're willing to sacrifice. In the end, the choice is yours."

"I will think on it." She assured me eventually.

I nodded, turning around to leave her to do the thinking on her own.

"Eos…" She called just before I went back inside. "Thank you."

I bowed my head briefly, then left her.

Neither Erik nor Charles noticed when I slipped into the library. There were drinks on the table in between their two armchairs, and a half-finished game of chess, though they appeared to be completely lost in their chat/argument for the time being. I said not a word, just stood in a corner of the room, watching, listening, until they got to what seemed to be the biggest disagreement between them both:

"After tomorrow they're gonna turn on us." Erik was saying. "But you're blind to it, because you believe they're all like Moira, like Anya."

"And you believe they're all like Shaw." Charles said in return, his demeanor going completely serious, almost grim as he added: "Listen to me very carefully my friend… killing Shaw will not bring you peace."

Erik took a deep breath, I knew he was fighting against his instincts to lash out. Charles may have been a good man, but he'd managed to miss the point completely, and it was taking every ounce of Erik's patience (most of which I was sure he'd only learned having to deal with me and the kids over the past seven years…) not to say the first thing that came to his mind, which wouldn't have helped any, and might have created a chasm between the two men nothing would have been able to bridge over, not in time. So I decided to step in.

"Charles, you are a good man, there's no doubt about that, the way you want to help everyone, not just gifted, but baseline humans is commendable." I told him with a kind smile, before turning on the other hand. "At the same time, you're so terrible naive that it actually frightens me at times. Erik… you know I admire your tenacity, your strength; you also know I hate the way you sometimes allow the darkness in your past to guide you. It's dangerous, and it could lead you down a path I will not follow, and I certainly won't let the children either."

Erik bowed his head soberly; we'd had talks on that same topic in the past. I was quite sure the only reason he hadn't allowed those same shadows to take him over already were Anya and the twins. Anya especially, the fact that she was his daughter, she loved him, and was so very human… it had been the wake-up call Erik so dearly needed at the lowest point in his life. Knowing he couldn't go into an us-and-them mentality, not with Anya there with him.

Charles just stared at me, mouth slightly open, blinking, it was obvious he didn't quite know what to say to my words.

"You say killing Shaw will not bring Erik peace, but it will." I clarified. "It will bring peace, not just to him, but to me, to the children, to all of us."

"Eos…" Charles began.

"I… I have no idea what kind of life you've lead Charles." I did my best to present my point of view. "Though I'm quite sure it wasn't quite as perfect and pampered as many would believe, as a place like this would make them think. I know because I can feel it in you. I don't need to go deep into your heart, to invade your privacy, you project it, much like I'm sure we all project some of our surface thoughts most of the time. Until very recently this place wasn't home to you. Even now, I have a feeling it's only become home because we're all here, rather than because of the place itself."

"That's true." He admitted.

"And are you willing to allow that home to be threatened simply so you won't have the death of someone, even a man as despicable as Sebastian Shaw, on your conscience?" I challenged.

Again, he seemed to have no words.

A wave of my hand was enough for a nearby chair to rise a few inches into the air and then float to us before settling down again, close enough for me to sit on it. Charles's eyes widened; it was the first time I used magic in his presence, at least in such a way that he knew for sure it was me. I didn't allow him to focus on that, as I had much more pressing matters to focus on, like what was going to happen in the morning.

"I'm going to tell you a little story Charles, and I need you to listen, really listen." I informed him. "A long time ago, there was a woman called Amora. She wan an Enchantress, and a very powerful one. She could have had a great life, gold, admiration, a good consort, everything. But she fancied herself in love with the crown prince. She sought him, and when he turned her down, she insisted. She was willing to use everything at her disposal, even the darkest of arts to get him into her bed, to make him her consort. Her plans were discovered in the nick of time by a young princess, the wife of the crown prince's younger brother. Amora was stopped, but instead of giving up, instead of seeing the error of her ways, she decided the princess was to blame for her situation. She tried to kill the princess, more than once. The last attempt almost killed the princess, her husband arriving just in time. He saved her… and it cost him his life. Leaving the young princess a widow with a young daughter and an unborn child."

Charles was practically gaping at me. It was obvious he hadn't the slightest idea of what the point of the story was, or why I was even telling it, though it had managed to enthrall him nonetheless.

"Amora was arrested." I went on.

"Arrested, not killed?" Charles interrupted.

I nodded, wondering if he was beginning to draw the parallels. Erik said nothing, he knew the story, though never before had I told it in quite that way, or with that level of detail.

"That was pretty much the princess's reaction." I agreed. "Which she went and expressed to the King, Queen and Crown Prince, at length. She was told that Amora deserved a proper trial. What no one, not the Royal Family, not the young princess, were expecting, was when Amora chose that precise moment to make her move. She freed herself from her chains and rushed the young princess, and when the princess defended herself and lethally wounded Amora, the Enchantress used her last breath and the power of her own death to curse the princess. Cursed her to be forgotten by those she saw as family, to never have a home again. See, the princess was not from that Kingdom, she was from another Realm and only there because she married the prince. Amora's curse made it so everyone forgot she'd ever been married to the prince. She lost her family, lost her home. She and her daughters were left to wander, alone…"

"Eos…" Charles was clearly speechless.

"I was that princess." I finally threw the bomb. "I was known as Tinúviel, wife of Loki, back then. My match gave his life to save me and our unborn daughter from Amora's curse. They let her live, even after she took Loki from me, from all of us. And because of that, she got the chance to curse me, and my daughters. We've spent the last… more than eight hundred years now, wandering. We have no home. I don't even know if there's a way to break Amora's curse. I do know that it could have all been prevented if someone had just killed Amora when they had the chance, when they caught her after her attack on us… I've felt, on my own flesh, and that of my own daughters, the consequences of not eliminating your enemies when you have the chance. I will not allow it to happen again. The question is, will you? Will you let Shaw keep breathing and risk him killing even more innocents, risk him coming after you, after your children, next? What is more important for you Charles, your conscience, or the safety of those you care for?"

"It's no contest." Charles finally answered after what seemed like forever. "Because if by my action or inaction I were to cause any kind of hurt to any of the children… I'd never forgive myself. My conscience could never be clean then. I'd rather stain my hands with Shaw's blood, than with that of anyone else he kills."

And just like that, with that one choice, fate shifted, again…

xXx 3rd Person POV xXx

The next morning the Fleets of two of the most powerful countries in the world, witnessed things they could have never imagined possible. They had gone there expecting it to be the opening salvo of a new war, a confrontation none of them truly expected to survive. Instead they ended witnessing a fight that would go down into legends, between beings they could hardly believe to exist. It was the kind of thing that seemed to almost have been pulled out of the pages of old books, old myths. Yet it was all so very real.

They witnessed a man pulling a submarine out of the sea through the strength of his own will (and power over magnetism); witnessed devils, fairies, beasts and flying children fighting all around among themselves; witnessed the elements bending to one or more of them in different ways. Witnessed one group defeat the other and, instead of seeking a new enemy, stand down, satisfied by what they had achieved, by averting a war…

And then, when their own governments chose that very moment to forget their past enmity and turn on those who had just saved them all, they witnessed how one man stopped a hundred missiles in the air, before disabling them into useless pieces. Then they heard the voice of the second man inside all their heads, informing them of what had just taken place, giving them a chance to turn away, to leave them in peace. And when that wasn't enough, they witnessed a third person, a young woman, stand in between them and wave her hands before their own ships began sailing away without any of their input.

Legend was made that day, the legends of Professor X, Magneto, Hekate and the children behind them, their X-Men. Though… no one really knew what their real names might be, for any of them, if they even had normal names at all. Where they'd come from, where they'd gone from there, nothing at all.

Days later, in the main Meeting Room of the CIA HQs a very important (and top secret) meeting was taking place. Director McCone and his top-ranked men were debriefing Agent MacTaggert upon her return from wherever their assets had gone after the utter destruction of Division X. Or at least, they were trying, which wasn't exactly easy considering the woman apparently couldn't remember a thing about Cuba, or the two weeks she'd been absent before that:

"All that time wiped clean from your mind. Just gone." The Director stated in disbelief. "He can do that? You don't remember anything?"

"Sometimes I get fragments." Moira murmured in her most empty tone. "Like...trees, sunlight, screams, a kiss…"

The last one was probably too much, but then again, she had a part to play. It had been her choice. Even if it would cost her on the short-term, she believed it was worth it.

"Oh, Jesus!" McCone explained. "Gentlemen, this is why the CIA is no place for a woman."

Just a few words, and they saw her as little more than a secretary, again… It irked her, yet she knew it was the best course of action. They would demote her, and she'd have to fight her way back up, but that was alright. She knew she could do it. Soon enough they'd forget about her, would see her as non-important. And that was when her plan would really go into effect. After all, no one would ever expect a woman who had lost so much because of the mutants, to be spying on the CIA for them…

It wouldn't be easy, and there would likely be times when she would doubt herself, but she didn't fully trust the government anymore. And as much as she would have liked to just walk away, she knew she could do more good right where she was, so she stayed. Moira MacTaggert had chosen the path she'd walk, for her friends, for her chosen family; and she wasn't one for regrets.

---

And that's all for today! I never did like the idea of Charles messing with Moira's mind against her will, or even her knowledge, so I decided to change things a bit there, as you can see here.

In two weeks it all comes to a head! The Gypsies will find that home has more than one definition, and no curse will remain forever unbroken... not even Amora's...

P.S. If you're interested, I have an ongoing Time-Travel fix-it fic in the Teen Wolf fandom, called Time River. I would love it if I could get more readers there!