He'd been walking around the little D.C. suburban neighborhood for about an hour, trying to build up the courage to ring the doorbell. Taking a deep breath, Erik finally approaches the small house. He looks down as he reaches the door and notices a welcome mat complete worn down to nonexistence in the middle, presumably from the coming and goings of one unique young man. This makes Erik smile a little to himself and gives him enough courage to finally ring the doorbell.
After a few seconds a woman he recognizes opens the door, "Marya?" Erik says in confusion. That's all he manages to get out though before she takes one look at him and slams the door in his face.
What is Marya doing here? Does she live with Magda and Peter? Guess that makes sense. It can't be easy dealing with a super powered teenager, and Magda has always been close with her sister, so of course she would agree to help her raise her child.
Erik remains standing outside the door. He couldn't just leave. One way or another, he had to know the truth. As he stood trying to decide if it would be completely unacceptable to use his power over metal to break the lock on the door, it opens again.
"You shouldn't have come here Erik. Not after all you've done." Marya sighs, "but I guess you better come in."
She steps to the side and gestures for Erik to enter. He steps inside and looks around quickly.
From behind him Marya says, "He's not here right now. Do you even know what day it is? It's 1:45pm on a Tuesday. He has school. The only reason I'm not at work is because there was a gas leak at the restaurant I waitress at this morning, and they had to shut down for the day. Just sit down for a minute and try not to drop any stadiums on my house. I was on the phone with a friend when you rang the doorbell, and I still have her on hold. I have to make an excuse about why I can't talk, or she'll think something is wrong. She worries."
With that she leaves the room and heads to wherever the phone is located leaving Erik standing alone in the entryway, which also doubles as a family room.
He gazes around. It doesn't look like anything in the house is new, but it feels cozy. Not a bad place to grow up.Looking around some more he notices that there is a pair of sneakers tossed haphazardly to the side of the door, a dollhouse in the corner, along with what appears to be a large wooden toy chest, and some comic books on the coffee table, but none of those things are what catches his eye. What tugs at his heart more than he would like to admit are the photographs hung over the couch. The first one he sees is all too familiar, as he was the one who took it.
It's a black and white photo of Magda holding an adorable little girl who is about two years old. She isn't just any girl either. She was his daughter…is his daughter. She'll always be his daughter. His Anya.
Unable to take the pain any longer, Erik scans the rest of the photos. The next one is of Magda looking a little grimmer. She's not alone in this photograph either. In fact she's holding two babies.
Wait. Two babies?!
He could tell one baby was Peter. He seemed to have been born with that annoyingly charming grin.
But who is the other baby?
Erik quickly moves on to the other photos. The next one is in color and contains two smiling and very similarly looking children, despite the fact that one is a boy—obviously Peter—who has striking silver hair and the other is a girl with hair that looks identical to Magda's, and this child also seemed to have Erik's own eyes.
Twins? Magda had twins? Oh God. I'm really in for it now.
Erik moves on to the next photograph. This one is even more recent. Peter looks to be about 10 or 11 years old as does (presumably) his daughter. This one contains another child too. A little girl of about 3 years of age, who looks a bit like the older girl but not strikingly similar. Marya is also in the photograph, standing behind the children with a small smile on her face.
There is only one photograph left on the wall. It contrasts from the others, being that it looks more candid. It is of Peter and his apparent twin. The girl looks very serious, staring off to the side vacantly, while Peter sits beside her looking equally depressed.
Suddenly, he hears Marya's voice behind him, making him jump, "I know it's a terrible picture, but it's the last photo I have of them together. Her name is Wanda by the way, and you've already met Pietro obviously. He blurted out that whole pentagon escapade when he saw you on the news."
"Pietro?" Erik says, "what happened to her, to Wanda, and where's Magda?"
"I think I better start from the beginning. After you took off, Magda took it really hard. She just lost a daughter and now she'd lost you too, but she was tough. She knew she had to carry on—"
Erik interrupts her, " I didn't know she was pregnant. I—"
"Don't interrupt me please. I know you didn't know. She didn't even know herself until a couple weeks after you left. She moved in with Django and I, and then Django passed when the twins were three and we decided there was nothing left for us in the old country. We had saved up just enough money to get to America, but not even a year after we arrived Magda got sick, really sick, she, she…"
"She died." Erik states. He knows she told him not to interrupt but it seemed like Marya was having difficulties forming the words, and it's not a question, but Magda answers anyway.
"Yes she did, so I raised Pietro and Wanda as my own and I love them as my own. But with the money we had spent to get to America, and Magda's medical bills I didn't have any money left. I was desperate, so I got married. His name was Bryan. He was nice enough, at first, and he made decent money. But slowly I began to see that he was not what he initially appeared. He had a temper, and he hit me a couple of times, but then he started abusing Pietro too. He called him a freak because of his pale skin and silver hair and he…he was just so evil. But I was pregnant with his child, so there was nothing I could do until after the baby, my daughter Mila, was born. I had a lot of complications during the pregnancy, and I had to stay in bed almost the entire time I was pregnant, but as soon as Mila was born I waited until he left for his job at the bank. Then, I loaded up the car, took all the cash we had, and left."
"I'm sorry Marya." Erik says trying to remain calm. How dare someone hurt his family. I will kill that man."Do you know where Bryan is now? I will find him."
"You can't change the past Erik, and it was awful, especially for Pietro but I got my little girl out of it, and Pietro adores her to no end. And as far as where Bryan is now, I'm getting to that."
"So you've been in D.C. since you left him?" Erik asks
"Yes. We were living in California, so I drove just about as far away as I possibly could, got a job, and eventually a small loan to make a down payment on this place, but it was hard Erik. I knew Wanda and definitely Pietro because of his unique hair and complexion, might be different, but I had no idea what to expect. Would they move metal like you, sprout wings, or grow gills? I just didn't know. I didn't even know there were more people like you and the twins until you popped up on the news. I just thought you were special, so Wanda and Pietro would be special too. Wanda was 11 when her powers came, and at first it wasn't so bad. Weird things would just happen around her. She'd ask for a cookie before dinner, and I'd say no but all of a sudden the cookie jar would magically appear in her arms, or she'd throw a tantrum and a mirror might break, but nothing too serious. It was actually more difficult for Pietro. When he first got his powers he had no idea what was happening. He thought we had all frozen, but he was just moving so fast it only appeared that way. He eventually got better at controlling his speed and knowing he had to talk slower to be understood, but I think the world still moves at a snail's pace for him; he just doesn't talk about it because he doesn't want me to worry about him more than I already do. It was quite a challenge dealing with two super-powered children, and they had a tough time at school because the other kids seemed to be able to sense that they were different, but at least they always had each other…"
"But what happened to Wanda? She didn't,…she's not dead, is she?" asks Erik. I don't know if I can live through the death of another child.
"No. she's not dead, but it sometimes feels that way because she left such a big hole in this house. It was a little after the twins turned fourteen, when Bryan found us. It was dark out when he came. We were all just sitting down for a late night snack, when he comes bursting through the door with murder in his eyes, and we all just freeze. That's when he grabs Pietro by the neck and starts choking the life out of him. Pietro could've easily run away before he grabbed him, but he was too scared. The monster from his childhood had found him, and I'm sure he felt like he was that little kid again that couldn't defend himself. After a the initial shock had warn off, Wanda and I both jumped up and tried to pry Bryan's grip off Pietro, but he shoved Wanda away and hit me, causing me to hit the edge of the counter and get knocked out. The entire time this was happening, Mila was just screaming so loud. I can still hear her screaming when I close my eyes. What happened next, I only know from what Pietro told me. Still on the ground where she landed after Bryan pushed her, Wanda began to stare at Bryan. I guess at first nothing happened but then Bryan started to glow all red and he started screaming too. His yells of pain kept getting louder and louder, until finally...poof. There was a brilliant flash of red that sent Pietro tumbling backward and all that was left of Bryan was a pile of ash on the floor."
"Wow," breathes Erik, not knowing what else to say, feeling horrible that he wasn't there to defend his family and now Wanda has had to live with a death on her hands, even it was in defense for her brother's life, taking the life of another is a difficult burden to bear.
Marya continues, "I woke up shortly after that and rushed over to Pietro and Wanda asking if they were okay and what happened. Wanda was just sitting there vacantly staring out at nothing while clutching Pietro's hand. Finally, Pietro found the strength to tell me what had happened, and of course he jumped to Wanda's defense saying it wasn't her fault. She had to do what she did or he'd be dead. I tried to reassure Wanda too that she had done nothing wrong; she was just defending her family. She only nodded though. After we all calmed down, I sent Pietro to bed to rest and put Mila down for the night as well. When I came back I tried to talk to Wanda some more, but the only thing she would say to me was:
'I killed someone…and I know he deserved it, but I could've hurt Pietro or you or Mila. I don't even know how I did what I did. I had no control over it. What if it happens again? What if I hurt someone who doesn't deserve it?'
I again tried to reassure her that nothing that had transpired was her fault and that I know she'd never hurt any of us. I tried to talk to her some more, but she said she wanted to go to bed, so I let her have her space and I went to bed too. Then in the morning, she was gone. It nearly killed Pietro to find out she had left, and he took off right away to try to find her. I filed a missing persons report for her too, but after a week, just when I thought Pietro wasn't coming back either, he flew through the front door and said:
'I can't find her, and, and if I can't find her, she doesn't want to be found.'
It has been over a year since she's been gone now, and still there's been no trace of her, but Pietro's right, with whatever power she posses you can be sure if she doesn't want anyone to find her, then no one will."
As Erik is struggling to process all of this, he suddenly feels a force push him backward. A second later he finds himself flung across the room, his breath knocked out of him and on the ground with a pair of eyes staring down at him that mirror his own