Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. I had a bunch of personal things going on, but everything's okay now, or at least as okay as it will be. So anyway, here you go. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Pietro

Pietro wasn't sure when he stopped running, only that he did. He looked around only to find he had absolutely no idea where he was. The streets were unfamiliar, as were the buildings on them. One thing was for sure, though. He wasn't in the city, but rather a suburb of sorts. He told himself not to panic. Someone would eventually find him. He remembered his teachers and Marya and Django always told him that if he was lost, he should stay in the same place so someone could find him. Deciding to stick to that advice, he fell down to his knees near a tree in what looked like a park.

It's not fair, he thought. In his mind, he hadn't done anything wrong. Yet he had still gotten into trouble for it. It wasn't Wanda's fault she had weird abilities. Wait… weird abilities… He thought about how he had ended up in that situation. He shouldn't have been able to run that fast. It wasn't possible for a normal human. And he was afraid. He was afraid that Magda would hate him now that he was like Wanda. He was afraid that everything and everyone he cared about would want nothing to do with him anymore.

What had always concerned Django was how Pietro handled his emotions. He didn't get upset in the way that most people did. Instead, he completely shut down. He tuned the world out and would lash out at anyone trying to break through his barrier of solitude. It wasn't healthy, but it was the only way he'd ever handled negative emotions.

"Pietro?" the boy heard a deep voice ask. He jumped, not having expected to be found so easily. He looked around before his eyes landed on a familiar face. But how did he find me so fast?

"Go away," the boy said, turning to face away from the man.

"Not without you," the man replied. He moved closer to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This is nothing to be ashamed of, Pietro."

"I know," Pietro grumbled. He just wanted the man to go away. He wanted to go home with Marya and Django and Wanda, and he wanted everything to be normal again before Wanda almost killed him and before Marya sent Wanda away. He turned around to look at his father.

Erik knelt down to Pietro's level. "You don't need them, Pietro," he said gently. "You, me, and Wanda, we can be happy together." Pietro didn't reply to that. He studied his father's face, thinking about a few talks Django had had with the boy. He knew better than to believe that. Django always said that Pietro could never really trust Erik, that he could never really be sure. That's why Django always made sure he or Marya was around when Erik visited. "Will you think about it?" he asked.

Pietro thought on that for a few minutes. "I'll think about it," he said, knowing deep down he wouldn't. Django and Marya were his parents, even if they weren't really related. Django was the one that took his side and stood up for him. Django was the one that would fight for him. And Marya was the one that always took care of him. Marya was the one that would kiss him when he cried and tell him he did a good job when he brought home a good grade. They were the ones that really cared, not his father.

"At least let me get you home," Erik sighed. Pietro nodded and followed after his father back toward New York.

"Thank God," Django breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Erik return to his home with Pietro. Pietro ran toward Django, who pulled him into a tight hug. "Are you okay?" he asked, keeping his hands on the boy's arms.

"I'm fine," Pietro assured. "I wasn't even that lost." As it turned out, he had only been in a different neighborhood, one he'd never seen before. "Where's Marya?"

"With Wanda," Django answered. He knew Marya hadn't been particularly happy about the arrangement, but someone had to keep an eye on the girl while he and Erik were looking for Pietro. "We need to talk, take a seat." Pietro frowned, but sat down on the couch anyway. "Do you remember when we talked about how some people are different from others?"

Pietro nodded. "Yeah, because he was there to," he gestured toward his father. "You said it's good to be different, just that other people can't know if you are because they might hurt you."

Django smiled slightly. If there was one thing he could say about Pietro, it was that he paid attention when he really needed to. "Magnus?" he asked.

Erik sat across from Pietro. "There are more different people than you would think," he said. "I'm different, and so are you and Wanda. We're called mutants, and we can do things most other people can't. Now, normally these abilities don't show up until you're a teenager, but with you and Wanda, it's obviously happened sooner, but it's nothing to be worried about." For all his faults, Erik at least knew how to explain things simply. It was something he'd learned from Charles when they were working together. "But it's extremely important that no one finds out," he added. "At least not yet."

"But why?" Pietro asked. If he was supposed to be proud of being different, or a mutant as his father had put it, why did he have to hide it? "What about Wanda?" he knew she hadn't meant to hurt him, that she hadn't been able to control it. What if that happened in school around everyone else?

"Because the world isn't ready, Pietro," Django spoke up. "Which is why things are going to be different from now on."

"What do you mean?" Pietro asked. He didn't like different. Different meant something was going to change, and he didn't see how that could be good.

"We're taking Wanda to get help tomorrow," Django answered. "She'll have to go away for awhile, we don't know how long."

Pietro shook his head. "But she didn't do anything wrong!" he stood up without realizing it. "It's not her fault. She didn't mean to hurt me. She wouldn't hurt anyone…"

"Not intentionally," Erik corrected. "She hurt you, and if we aren't careful, she could hurt someone else."

"But…" Pietro tried to speak, but Django cut him off.

"It's not up for debate, Pietro," Django said sternly, placing a hand on Pietro's shoulder. "We're sending her to get better so she won't accidentally hurt someone again. It's for the best." He sighed and backed up. "Magnus will take her to the facility tomorrow."

"Can I go too?" Pietro asked in a small voice. He wasn't going to let his sister go without seeing her again.

Django looked at Erik, who nodded. "Alright," Erik sighed. "Be ready to leave early tomorrow."

"Can I go to my room now?" Pietro asked. Django nodded, and Pietro ran up to his room, closing the door tightly behind him. He threw a book across the room. It wasn't fair. Instead of solving the problem like they always told him to do, they were just sending Wanda away for someone else to handle it, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He saw a note on his bed and examined it. "Mutant and proud," he read out loud. "Yeah right." He ripped the paper into tiny pieces and slid down onto the floor. How could he be proud of who he was when he had to hide who he really was from everyone else? How could he be proud when the whole 'mutant' thing seemed to cause nothing but trouble? It just wasn't fair.