Chapter Six - What happens in Paris,

Very superstitious, writings on the wall
Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall

Wanda Maximoff was a fearsome creature whose mouth seemed to be in a constant purse. She didn't like the unexpected, appeared to have an opinion on everything and was critical of everybody. Her freshly polished nails rapped on the diner counter, the colour was a glittering red most likely begotten from the blood of her foes. She drank her coffee black, without sugar and continued to stare at Zoe and Peter from across the booth. She eyed her brother's arm draped loosely on the back of Zoe's seat, his fingers inched ever so closely to her shoulder.

Zoe wore the clothes that Wanda had let her borrow, and while the striped short-sleeved shirt was not ill-fitting tucked into her corduroy mini-skirt, the waist had needed to be cinched in with a large black belt. Wanda was taller and curvier than Zoe and had the figure of a swimsuit model, yet another point as to what made her so intimidating. Wanda looked both as striking and as unapproachable as a movie star. But Zoe knew better, Wanda Maximoff was not impenetrable, and something tells her that the older girl's friendship could prove to be valuable. She at least did not want Wanda to hate her and forever be on her bad side, Zoe would always be grateful to the Maximoffs for taking her in.

The only sound made between the three of them was the tapping of Wanda's nails and the air that blew out from Peter's smacking lips. Having flicked through the diner menu, Peter finally puts it down and looks up. He sensed some discomfort on Zoe's behalf, finding it not uncommon for Wanda to have that effect on people. To her benefit, she wasn't cowed into fear by his sister, more like resigned to her examination. "Do you know what you're having? My treat," he asked her kindly, trying to distract from Wanda's blunt gaze. "Don't mind her, that's just her face," he added.

There was a TV tucked into the wall behind Wanda, the screen now and again turning interference had been cutting off the afternoon soap some of the patrons had been glued to. A waitress had grumbled something under her breath when she began to hit the side of it a few times. It took her several attempts before the picture finally came back on.

Zoe shrugged non-committedly, "er, I'll just have whatever you're having." Finally, she broke eye contact with the younger Maximoff. Looking out the window she gnawed on the inside of her cheek and tugged at the skin around her thumb. If she were being honest she didn't feel like being there. Outside, that is. With great reluctance, she was pressured by Peter into coming out to the diner with them just a half-hour before. Despite how much she hated herself for being so unfamiliar with it, there was just so much she wasn't used to. She hated to admit that a part of her missed Prisoner Oh-Two, and the routine she had with him at the Pentagon; there she knew what to expect and what to do. There, Zoe didn't have to be afraid of herself and the power that threatened to spill over, they would have taken care of it.

'Dark Matter'. It was the term she had heard them use to describe it.

She swore she could see sounds swirling above her in shades of orange and red. Her head was swimming and her tongue felt the size of a car's tire. Pumped with enough tranquilizers to take down a person twice her size, her eyelids felt too heavy to open and she was drugged out of her mind. She could feel her mouth open and close, she tried to speak but was not even sure she was making any sound. Zoe could feel her mouth walking away, could see it waving goodbye. Her head lolled from side to side, her body placed on a sterile metal table.

She began to think that the men in white lab coats would never be finished with her tests. They were drawing more blood from her, the IV tube a red line connecting a girl to an empty blood bag. She didn't know why they needed so much for their microscopes, she thought that should have been the point, that they needed very little to understand could see pictures of her on various boards, diagrams, charts. Thre was lab equipment and medical equipment and monitors and wires. All of this just to find out how she ticked. They were no closer to finding it even after so many weeks. Don't they know she was not a clock?

All of this just to find out how she ticked. She wondered when they'll stop. She wondered when they'll realise they'll never find the ticking. Don't they know that she was not a clock?

I'm not a clock. I'm not a clock. Please. Why would I know how to tick? Not a clock. Never was.

Starbursts bloomed at the back of her eyelids, like the 4th of July fireworks her parents had taken her to see once. The three of them had lain on a picnic blanket that night, huddled up in each others' warmth as they sat by a lake. She wished she were there now, with mom and dad on the 4th of July, looking up at the fireworks display. Mom and Dad. She could hear them saying their names, just barely. Her head was now a fishbowl, and there was water in her ears.

"Ishikawa...Stanford...called it 'Dark Matter'..."

"Dead now...no...we've only got his notes...can barely understand them,"

"...We don't even know if it exists... never seen anything like it."

"Very advanced..."

"Monitoring her vitals...could be worse...responsive,"

"Well keep testing! Whatever it takes...got to get it right... what...who cares? It's not as if she's going anywhere..."

July 4th. Fireworks show. A lake. Mom and Dad. I'm shivering. Where's the blanket?

Peter had waved the waitress down who had just finished with the TV, immediately she began to jot down their order. Wanda grabbed her attention, "Tomato soup with the crackers please, and keep the coffee coming."

"And for you two?" the elderly waitress turned, looking bored.

Peter handed her the discarded menu, "We'll have your burgers with a side of fries. Oh!" he said with a jump as he turned to Zoe, "and you gotta try their milkshake, they're good!"

"Sure," Zoe nodded with a tight smile.

"You know what type you want? There's strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate." their bored waitress asked.

"We'll get all three, she'll try them all." Peter grinned.

"Peter," Zoe began to protest.

"It's fine. I haven't actually seen you eat for real," he said as the waitress walked away.

Zoe had been looking outside staring away into nothing for a few minutes when Wanda finally broke the silence. "So what's with you? You look like you're going to piss your pants." Wanda asked, with genuine concern in her voice.

Her brother's eyes grew large as he tried to admonish her, "Wanda!"

"What? It was annoying. And obvious. And she's fidgeting like crazy, it's like with you and that leg thing, I hate that." Wanda rubbed the handle of her coffee cup, downing the dregs of the warm coffee.

Zoe kept looking out the window, her eyes scanning the streets, "Being outdoors… is weird. Is there such a thing as reverse claustrophobia?"

"You shouldn't have let Peter force you into coming outside." Wanda said with a shake of her head before turning to scold her brother, "Pete, I told you not to, didn't I? What did I say?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to - I mean, I didn't use to be... I just feel anxious. Like I'm walking down the street and they're not my real legs or my real feet, and my head's about to float away severed from my body… Like my brain hasn't caught up with the rest of my body - that I'm finally out." She leans her head on the glass of the window and forces her eyes shut.

"So that's it then," Wanda shrugged, "you're really screwed." she said with some finality.

Peter threw his hands up in exasperation, "Christ, Wanda! You're being a real bitch right now." his fine silver hair falling in front of his eyes.

Wanda's cheeks had flamed, "No, that not- that wasn't what I meant! I mean, they really did a doozy on her, of course it's all weird! Have you thought about how long they kept her there? Look how pale she is now." she had crossed her arms over her chest and looked away in embarrassment. "I told you we should have stayed home."

At this, Peter too was abashed, his eyes drifting to his lap, "I'm sorry, Zo. I didn't even think about - Look I'll take you home if you're not feeling well."

Zoe's head shook in the negative, her hands reaching for Peter's sleeve, "No, no, I'm good. I need to get used to this. I can't shut myself in forever."

Soon enough the waitress had come back with their order, taking two trips to bring them all their food. Three different milkshakes were placed in front of Zoe as Peter began to pick at his fries and Wanda raised her cup for another refill. The three of them thanked their waitress and silently started on their food, Peter didn't really know how to move one from their previous conversation and was thinking of something to say.

Zoe had grown quiet in reflection, she really was thankful for the Maximoffs, and yes, even Wanda. She could respect the need to protect her family, her mistrust, Zoe had felt, was entirely justified. She knew how easily the people one loved could be taken away.

She didn't realise that Peter had been talking to her just now, her eyes meeting his, "Huh?"

"I was asking if you thought the food was alright," Peter smiled. To his credit, she thought the food was really good and continued to sip her strawberry milkshake.

"I do like it, thanks," she said with an appreciative grin. Zoe decided to at least make more effort in trying to become normal. She liked Peter, a lot. She wanted to like the outside, she wanted to do all the things she missed out doing, she wanted to do it with her new friends. "This milkshake is awesome."

"I completely agree," Peter said, pushing the chocolate and vanilla milkshakes closer together and putting both straws into his mouth, combining the dairy-based drinks. He took one long sip and waggled his eyebrows at her, he so wanted to impress.

Zoe was caught off guard and snorted into her own milkshake while Wanda rolled her eyes and dipped crackers into her soup. She wanted to ignore it, but Wanda did get a warm feeling at seeing Zoe interact with her brother. She thought Zoe looked tired and sickly and too pale, Wanda could see how she changes when Peter was around; she looked fuller, more alive, more complete and real. He was bringing the girl back to life.

It had shocked Wanda to see how sweet and careful he had become with the girl, something only typically reserved for their family. She made him slow down, it was something that they found harder to do more recently. Normally, Peter didn't bother with girls like her, girls who were timid or straight-laced, or who under better circumstances probably would have been the popular type with her composure, soft exotic features and the way she incited some form of protectiveness from others. Girls that normally Peter wouldn't have the time of day for, not when he usually hung out with the burnouts and the flunkies. Still, maybe something good could come out of it, maybe Peter would actually start taking things seriously for once.

A loud gasp suddenly pulled them out of their reverie. The cook had poked his head out of the kitchen, his grill sizzling away and forgotten, the men at the bar had grown silent and a woman had gotten her rosary out of her bag and had clutched them to her chest. The waitress was now quickly raising the volume on the TV's breaking new footage, it looked like the Paris Peace summit had suffered some kind of terror attack. All eyes were stuck to the small television screen as the report went on, no one had found the ability to speak.

The report had cobbled footage together of the chaos that ensued: a blue woman had jumped out from a window before miraculously transforming herself into the exact appearance of a bystander, shots rang in the air, a man fights a large hairy beast in a nearby fountain, the crowds that had lined the building had dispersed and was running every which way in complete utter panic.

They could hardly believe their eyes to the information they had just witnessed. At once the diner erupted in chatter, voices overlapping, their plates abandoned.

"Oh my god, what was that thing?"

"Did you get a good look of those people? They were people, right? That was real,"

"People? C'mon, they weren't people! Those were - things! Freaks of nature!"

"Please, that whole thing was fake."

"Fake?"

"Probably some idiot protesters who think they need to shock people to get noticed. You'll see, it'll blow over in a couple of days."

"Protesters? Protesting what, to continue the shitstorm in Vietnam? That conference was held to end the war. There wasn't any point in protesting it."

"Well Nixon doesn't exactly have a lot of fans, I tell you, as soon as that Kennedy boy died, this whole country's gone for the worst. Who knows, maybe they were there for those Vietnamese."

"Freaks, or, freaks in costume then, what have you. Freaks all the same."

"It was only a publicity stunt."

"Just wrong. All of it was just-"

"But suppose you didn't know though, you saw that blue person yourself, it turned into a woman, just an everyday looking woman. What if they're already hiding among us? How would you tell a freak apart if they looked like everyone else?"

"Hey pal, there's no need to get everybody in a frenzy, you're scaring the missus."

"Well good! She should be scared, we should all be! This is what we get for not paying attention, you know? I mean this has probably been going on for years, no one just wakes up suddenly a different colour one day. Who knows what kind of government experiments are happening right now? In Langley? In Arizona, or Colorado or the friggin' South Pacific? They could be dumping toxic chemicals in the water. Or worse, this could be the Russians…"

"Real or not, all I know is that I wouldn't want any of them near my kids. They're all probably gone in the head."

"They're dangerous, that's what. And they should stay away if they know what's good for them."

"They should be locked up!"

"Shouldn't be allowed to exist more like it, freaks!"

Peter, Zoe, and Wanda had looked to one another, not knowing what to do.

Mutants. The world had just gotten a glimpse of their everyday reality. The media had shined a light at those people whom for so long had had to hide in the shadows and suppress their abnormalities. Of course, humans were afraid of them, everyone is afraid of things they don't know, things beyond everyday comprehension. But that fear wasn't as well justified as the fear mutant kind had for humanity. It was a fear all three of them knew intimately.

Peter's whole body became tense, his mouth was curled into a deep frown as his fists balled up on the tabletop; across from him, his twin looked to be in a similar state and about to explode. He knew he had to get them out of there, if any of their powers acted up, especially Wanda's they would all be in an endless amount of trouble. Beside him, Zoe felt cold to the touch, the blood had drained from her face, her throat had started to close up and she was finding it hard to breathe.

When Peter shook her gently and broke her out of her daze, "Let's get outta here. C'mon, Zoe, c'mon." he whispered, looping his arm around her waist, the other he offered for her to hold on to. He slowly pulled the both of them to their feet and left a few crumpled bills on the table, not really caring about change.

Zoe, who was close to tears, nodded and followed him wordlessly. Wanda was already on the move, she opened the door with more force than was necessary, and walked out of the diner in an irritated huff. The rest of the diner patrons did not see them shakily depart the establishment, too engrossed in their mutant-hating discourse.

Wanda was angry, angrier than she'd ever been in a long time, her face became red and she had started to shake uncontrollably. The town had already had its own prejudices against the Maximoff twins, not that any of them had any definitive proof, but enough to cause suspicion. The Maximoffs were just too weird, and they seemed to leave a lot of strange occurrences in their wake. This was only the icing on the cake. She could barely register Pietro calling her name over the thoughts racing through her mind. As they turned an alley, she couldn't contain the bubbling rage inside her any longer, "What the hell do they know? Those narrow-minded, hateful, ignorant- they're - they're... EUGH! Just who do they think they're calling freaks?"

"I know, I know." Peter had murmured, though it was aimed more towards Zoe than Wanda as he tried to soothe the catatonic state she was in. He pushed her hair behind the shell of her ear and kept an arm around her shoulders as he steered them after his twin. "We just...have to be more careful now."

His words did nothing to suppress Wanda's heat, "Oh that's rich, Pete, coming from you." She spat, her mouth downturned in a grimace. She began ruffling her curly auburn hair in frustration, yanking at the strands. Wanda turned around to rant some more when she saw how unresponsive the younger girl was. Quickly, she ran over to them and placed a hand on the girl's cheek, "Shit," she says worriedly, not liking how cold she had gotten and started to rub up and down Zoe's arms. "You better run her home, Peter. She needs to lie down. Then come back for me, mom shouldn't be home for another couple hours and Lorna would still be over at Jenny's for dinner."

Peter eyed her for a moment and nodded, doing her bidding, he was gone quicker than a flash. Wanda just turned her face skywards, her anger had dissipated, but as soon as it had left another wave of worry came over her. No longer were there only two mutants residing in the Maximoff home, now there's three. Things would only just get harder from here on out. The world's axis was shifting, and she didn't know whether it would be for better or worse. "Shit." Wanda declared once more, this time, cursing the sky.

Very superstitious
Nothing more to say
Very superstitious
The devil's on his way

A/N: Apologies if this chapter was a little short, it's hard when you're trying to write a separate storyline and you couldn't find a jumping off point. Can y'all believe it's been a year and I've only pumped out six of these puppies? Nevertheless thanks everyone for reading and following and reviewing and favouriting and everything...just thank you! University really keeps me busy and I just hope I keep getting more and more inspiration to keep writing, I honestly have so many ideas and the hardest thing really is just to put them on the page. I started writing on this website because I wanted to see if I can do it and wanted to know how many people would actually bother reading my stuff or would be interested, so to those who've even just bothered skimming these, thanks again. I wish I were one of those people who update regularly and consistently write and write, hopefully, I can find the time to get my shit together, until then...

Jeez, these poor kids, amirite? Does it give me great satisfaction that I am essentially playing god and everything that happens to them - whether good or bad - is all up to me? Yes, yes it does. It's really the only kind of control I can exercise in any case.

To my reviewers, you're giving me the warm and fuzzies, truly.

RAM: Sorry for making you wait this long! I bet nearly ten months wasn't what you expected. Shout out to ya!

Demona Evernight: Let's see if I can finish this fic first, but yeah I can see Zoe shaking up Apocalypse's world. ;)

bbymojo, shika93: thanks for the review you guys are too sweet! I did have an awesome time abroad and I hope you like this one too.

anonymouscsifan: Ah, my dear. Wanda has a mind of her own, and not everyone we meet will only ever be just nice and accommodating. Truthfully, I kind of like her abrasiveness, because I think it makes people more real that way to have their own agendas and thoughts regardless of however challenging. Wanda for me at least is a great motivator in driving the story forward, no one should be a purely a black or white character, just like Wanda is not always gonna be mean... probably.

A Fellow Author: Thanks for the review! I feel like writing is always a labour of love and very personal and that translates a lot into the emotionality of the characters. Zoe still needs time to come out of her shell, her imprisonment at the Pentagon has not been kind to her and she needs to recover from that. The Zoe we've seen from Logan's memories are evidently very different and the Zoe that we will come to know is still growing too. As for the fandoms I'm in, if you check out my profile that should clue you into some stuff; I have A LOT currently I'm heavily into Marvel but I do have so many more fandoms I want to write in including some musical theatre properties and other TV shows... that's all I'll reveal for now, I don't want to disappoint anyone by getting their hopes up. :/

MY DUDES, I LOVE YOU.

Song credits belong to Stevie Wonder's "Supersition". If you had any song recommendations for this fic, or any other fic of mine, please message me or leave a review! A thorough musical education is good for the soul. :)

Have an opinion? I want to hear it. PM is always open for a chat, or leave a review if that floats your boat.

I do not own any characters you might recognise, they are the property of Marvel (and maybe Sony Pictures?). I do own my OC Zoe.

Many thanks! And happy fanfic hunting!

-HannahBananasxx