A/N: Growing up as a huge Nightcrawler fan, I instantly fell in love with Nocturne and, by extension, Wanda, and then Pietro. Especially Kurt and Pietro thanks to X-Men evolution. But back to the point, while I'm not a die-hard Wanda fan, I did like her character prior to AvX, and always thought she needed a good redemption arc.
But we all know Marvel won't give us nice things.
So here's my take on the story.
As an aside, the bulk of my comic book exposure to Wanda comes from her Ultimate version- both in Ultimate X-Men and Ultimates.
Regarding the song choices of these past two WCHBs, blame Bayonetta. Yeah.
You can't tempt me with your scantily clad feminine wiles that easily, you sexy Umbra witch, but I'd like to see you try harder!
What Could Have Been:
Moon River
-0-0-0-
Moon river, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style someday…
-0-0-0-
Blurb: Post-Children's Crusade AU. Scott Summers was able to reign in his temper during Children's Crusade. Wanda, keeping true to her word, travels the world to repower the mutants.
Beat 1 – The Hook
Cyke is watching a news report of repowered mutants, who credit Wanda for the return of their powers. This gives the residents of Utopia something to be hopeful about, and eventually a gradual exodus occurs as its residents begin returning to the mainland. Scott, however, remains on edge waiting for the other boot to drop.
"It can't be this easy. It never is." Scott murmured, his internal conflict evident in his tone. It was clear to Emma that he wanted to believe, but his experiences in life held him back. "You know that."
She hardened her resolve.
"You're just bitter, Scott. Wanda is doing precisely what you wanted—and in a clearly less savage manner. It turns out, there was another way. I hope one day you will realize this." Emma says, saddened that Scott is still looking for a war. She is the last to depart.
Beat 2 – The Meeting
Cyke catches wind that the Purifiers are after Wanda. While still furious at her for causing M-Day, he tracks her down and fights alongside her just as the assault commences. Cyke is furious that Wanda has been travelling by herself; Wanda responds that no one would come with her, and she did not want to impose. Wanda doesn't know when her pilgrimage will end, and everyone else had their own lives to live.
Cyke, reluctantly, decides to accompany her. Justice wouldn't be meted if some random demise struck her. Wanda is irritated by his comment, but chooses to hold her tongue. Cyke has a portable Cerebro, and with it they can track the depowered mutants.
"I can't believe you were stupid enough to travel alone."Scott remarks again while packing his stuff. He'd have to send the x-plane back to Utopia; good thing the auto-pilot still worked.
Behind him, Wanda huffed. "There was no one stupid enough to come with me. Until you."
To Wanda's utter amusement, Cyke pulls out a motorcycle with a sidecar. When prompted, Cyke mentions it's one of the last things he had his Science Team build before they left Utopia. He shows her the ruby quartz gem and tells it absorbs, stores, and utilizes his optic blast to power the motorcycle. The idea came to him when an alternate universe Storm had kidnapped him to trick him into powering a dying Earth.
Wanda is initially stunned before rolling her eyes. Typical X-Man and his convoluted adventures.
Beat 3 – Conflict Point 1
[Told from Wanda's perspective]
Although Scott becomes less hostile towards her, Wanda becomes increasingly irritated by how cold he remains. He feels more like a bodyguard than a companion, and there are times they go entire days without actual conversation—but he remains hovering over her.
Wanda is, frankly, creeped out but recognizes that, sad as it sounds, she's much safer around Cyclops than by herself. It helps that Cyke is actually amazing at wilderness survival, can speak multiple languages fluently, and is savvy enough to blend in and navigate around new towns and cities. If only all the innkeepers would stop assuming they were together!
Does a woman and a man have to be in a relationship just to travel together?
Why doesn't Scott tell them off? Sure, they're given cheaper lodging and he is very respectful of their boundaries, but he could spend a moment to clear the misunderstandings!
And wasn't he still with Emma? She shuddered to think what the White Queen and the rest of the X-Men would do if—if that happened between them…!
And who is he always talking to at night—when he thinks she's asleep…?
Not that she's jealous. She's just curious. Because he's her companion and they've spent so many months together—that is, travelling alongside each other.
It's just Stockholm Syndrome.
The things he does- he's just being polite.
There's no way that…
"Te kurel." Wanda cursed under her breath, her pounding heart in her ears as she spied the charming man with red shades speak to their landlady.
What would her kids say?
Beat 4 – Raising the Stakes
Eventually, Wanda realizes that instead of seeking out former mutants, they've been coming to her to have their powers returned. She is puzzled at first until she is told by her most recent case that a cult has been created in her name.
She is embarrassed at finding out. She tells Scott about it, and finds out Scott has been feeding information on their movement to help mutants find them—and was thus instrumental in creating the cult.
Wanda laughs and, in her euphoria, accidentally mentions that she has started falling for him.
Realizing what just happened, things become awkward between the two.
Days have passed and Wanda grows increasingly annoyed that Scott shows no reaction towards her accidental slip. It's just business as usual. Confronting him, they both acknowledge that what they have was a partnership.
Things are still tense between them, prompting Scott to decide to hold a long-overdue conversation.
Scott holds out a bottle of wine in one hand and a picnic basket on his other, inviting her to talk one moonlit evening in the Caribbean beach.
They talk about M-Day, Decimation, the bus of depowered mutants, Messiah Complex, Osborn's Dark Reign, and everything that happened all the way to Second Coming and Children's Crusade. Scott talks about how he wished none of it happened, but he is slowly coming to grips with the fact that Wanda has done more for the mutants in the past few months than he did in years.
He opens up about Kurt and Cable's recent sacrifice and his estranged relationship not just with his granddaughter Hope, but now with his peers who have all returned to living their lives as teachers.
Wanda opens up about the distrust from the Avengers—how she has only a few friends left namely Carol Danvers and Jessica Drew. She remembers her marriage to Vision, her immaculate conception and subsequent death of her two children. She laments how her sorrow pushed her to selfishly attempt to seek out Doom and turn on her comrades. She acknowledges that she made mistake after mistake, but she cannot take them back anymore, no matter how guilty she feels, so all she can do is apologize, steel herself, and try to help the best she knows.
Scott remarks that after spending the past several months traveling with her, he is finally starting to understand who Wanda Maximoff is.
During the conversation, Wanda picks up how Scott is still paranoid about the circumstances surrounding the resurgence of the mutant population. She is also slightly annoyed that Scott sidestepped her feelings for him, but is too content with the current status quo to let it bother her.
Beat 5 – Conflict Point 2
Wanda and Scott's relationship continues to grow. They're easier around each other, and Wanda no longer gets flustered when people mistake them as a couple of young lovers. Sometimes, she plays along just to see Scott blush—and he does, and she finds it adorable.
They've been spending longer days in one place instead of traveling, though Wanda doesn't mind. She's noticed Scott had been more attentive to her, and her heart warms at his attention.
Depowered mutants would still visit her, and she'd repower them. They're very grateful and she's very flattered.
With Wanda's cult growing even larger, she starts to wonder how there were no further attacks against her. No Friends of Humanity, no Purifiers. No HYDRA, no AIM.
That's when she finds out X-Force has been mobilizing without her knowledge. Cyke had actually been in contact with Logan since their journey began. X-Force had been purging violent anti-mutant groups as well as organizations aiming to turn mutants into weapons.
Wanda is horrified.
Back on the beach, when Scott told her he had done things he wasn't proud of, she never thought he meant murder. It was one thing to avenge and another to hunt.
During their argument, Wanda suddenly collapses.
Beat 6 – The Black Moment
[Told from Scott's perspective]
Scott blames himself.
He noticed Wanda was weakening, noticed it always occurred after she repowered another mutant, and noted her rests were becoming more frequent. They'd been spending less time traveling, and more time resting. It's what prompted him to start her 'Cult' in the first place.
When he first noticed it, he had hoped it was just traveler's fatigue. He brushed it off—she made her resolution, didn't she? This was for the future...
Was this the other boot finally falling?
He pushed her.
Too far; too hard.
Was the future still worth it?
Was the future worth losing her?
Scott knows it isn't. Not anymore. The rules have… changed. He acknowledges, to himself, that he has grown to care for her. That his mission to return the mutant race to its former glory was compromised. Xavier's dream- the dream he had fought for his entire life, can never become a reality when their species is extinct, but he has difficulty caring about that when Wanda is vulnerable in front of him.
When Wanda wakes, Scott tells her to stop but is incredibly vague about his reasons. He has fallen back into Leader!Cyclops—barking an order and expecting her to follow.
Wanda doesn't agree. If the mutants are repowered, then maybe Scott can stop fighting. Definitely, he'd stop fighting for survival, and the burden of leading a species on the precipice of extinction would be lifted from his shoulders. She feels he needs to go back to before M-Day—to running a school and not a hit squad.
She doesn't want him to lead mutant survivors. It frightens her that Scott is turning into a monster—because she forced him into this situation. The guilt was eating her whole.
She caused M-Day.
And Scott was paying for it.
Scott struggles to convince her otherwise but ends up failing. In his desperation, he starts throwing cold logic at her—that she cannot continue repowering the mutants one by one because there were an estimated 14 million mutants prior to M-Day; that her dying would not bring the dead back to life—and Wanda grows increasingly hysterical at how Scott was missing the point.
Wanda lashes out, asking why Scott cares so much about her when he was supposed to be the leader of the mutant race.
Scott is unable to give an honest answer because doing so would admit that he has forgiven her. It was admitting he cares about Wanda enough that he would break his promise of restoring the mutant race—thereby making Nathan and Kurt's sacrifice meaningless.
Wanda takes Scott's silence negatively and demands Scott to leave her.
He does.
Beat 7 – Resolution
In the days since their fight, Wanda and Scott do not talk. Scott had been sleeping out, and Wanda was too tired to find him even if she wanted to.
Eventually, they have to move on to the next town, and Scott reappears. Wordlessly, he picks up their bags and loads them in the motorcycle. Wanda decides she'd much rather sit in the sidecar instead of her usual spot behind him, and Scott wordlessly fires up the bike and they begin their travel.
The two are quiet until they reach a rest area.
As they eat, Scott is the first to speak.
He apologizes. For so long, he had always painted her a monster; blamed her for all their hardships since M-Day. For so long, he's carried the burden of leadership, of having to convince himself and everyone else that the madness around them had meaning.
He despaired at the fact that Wanda had another solution to their problem. And despaired again when that solution was killing her.
Scott finally admits to Wanda that he cannot allow her to die. He admits he is being selfish, that he is trampling over the sacrifices of everyone up to that point, but he'd be damned if he allowed her to sacrifice herself, too.
Two wrongs didn't make a right.
And, damn it, he loves her.
"Can we please stop making each other miserable?" Scott pleads as he holds her close.
"I'd like that." Wanda says, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'd like that very much."
Wanda also apologizes. She knows she can't do anything, anymore. She can't bring the mutants back by herself.
Scott agrees—and he tells her that maybe that wasn't her path. There is still Hope, after all. There's still her lights.
Scott is ready to let go. The past few months have proven to him that his way wasn't the only way. Wanda's way might not be the only way, too. The possibilities were as numerous as the endless stars that accompanied them in their travels during the past several months.
Wanda tells him again- that she loves him. This time, more clearly.
And Scott finally responds.
"I've hurt many people, Scott… including you." Wanda brushes her fingers against his cheek, drawing him closer. "I have spent much time trying to heal them. Let me heal you, too."
And he forgives her. He's not sure about everyone else, but he's sure they will all eventually understand.
Wanda laughs. She supposes they're back to square one—keeping Hope alive.
Scott shakes his head.
He's rather tired, she's rather tired, and he feels everyone is tired of hearing him speak.
Wanda agrees.
She has better things in mind for his lips.
Epilogue:
Wanda and Scott retire to the countryside and open up an inn. The gypsy in Wanda doesn't want the big city life, and Scott feels refreshed in the laid-back countryside.
They both respond to the occasional call—whether from the X-Men or from the Avengers, but they hadn't been having too much of those lately so they are able to focus more on keeping their inn running. Wanda knows X-Force is still active, but she also knows Scott no longer has those late night calls.
He's stopped waiting for the other boot to fall.
The odd mutant still stumbles by, asking for their powers back, but Scott has developed a very convincing spiel to turn them away. It was not right for one person to decide whether or not power should be granted.
Wanda does remark that Scott's preaching has been getting terse lately, and Scott argues that she has to take better care of herself. Wanda chuckles, placing a hand on her womb as she leans against his embrace.
Behind them, the radio hums and they both silently sway to an old song…
Cue the OUTRO! Excerpt from Audrey Hepburn's Moon River:
Two drifters off to see the world...
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end,
Waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend, moon river, and me
-0-0-0-
Cue lighthearted omake of the strangest family gathering ever
I mean, really! There's Pietro with his former wife, Crystal, and their half-mutant, half-Inhuman daughter Luna. There's papa dearest in the ageless Magneto, who had made multiple attempts to murder Scott when he was still a kid. Then there's Lorna and Alex, who are both awkwardly scratching their heads now that they're in-laws. Then you have the shenanigans with Nate, Rachel, Hope, and even Cable meeting Wiccan, his boyfriend Hulkling, and his twin brother Speed—Wanda's twins from her previous marriage to Vision. Corsair and Hepzibah drop by but nobody bats an eyelash at them.
Scott's very proud that his kids aren't the weirdest kids anymore, but don't let Wanda hear him say that!
-0-0-0-
Cue sad, dramatic Omake:
The Other Boot Falls
Two decades later, the Phoenix never came. No new mutants emerged since Hope and her Lights, but there is a large mutant population. Both Wanda and Scott are crestfallen when their daughter, despite having the mutant gene, never manifests her powers, but nevertheless showers her with unconditional love.
Eleonora "Elle" Summers, after believing for so long that her gifts would manifest, struggles to accept that she has no mutant gifts. That she isn't like her parents. She trains hard and studies harder, eventually becoming the youngest agent of S.W.O.R.D. in history, all in an effort to prove to herself that she isn't a failure.
Wanda's (and Scott's) decades prior caused a sudden surge of returning mutants. Unknown to everyone, this is noticed by both the Phoenix Force and the Celestials. The former decides against returning to Earth, feeling that there is no need now that mutants have 'returned', while the Celestials give Earth a passing mark because of the amount of mutants.
Until now.
The Celestials have returned and realize Wanda had tricked them.
Thanks to the larger number of mutants as well as the now mature Franklin Richards and David Haller, Earth is able to win against the Celestials but not after much damage has happened.
Scott Summers is among the casualties in the Celestial's Judgment—dying as he protected his family. Elle is enraged when she finds out why the Celestials came and why she doesn't have any powers—and directs all her anger and grief at her mother.
When Elle hears tales of the Phoenix Force and its capabilities, Elle steals one of the deceased Hank McCoy's time-travel devices hoping to find out why the Phoenix Force never came and change the future…
A/N: Honestly? This story's main focus was originally on the omake, hence it has more structure. I wanted to build a backstory for Edgelord!Elle. I might've mentioned before that the Elle vs Ana ('Yana and Cyke's kid) conflict was rooted in jealousy, and the themes surrounding them would be hard-work (Elle) vs talent (Ana). Elle's storyarc ends with her finding peace with herself, the reality that her father is dead, and returns to her reality to reunite with her mother.
Cyke's optic blast-powered-motorcycle? Base tech that would eventually form Elle's main weapon, as showcased in I'm Used To It and in She Who Watches the Multiverse Die.
Anyway, the 7 Beats system failed me. I also lost interest somewhere along the way. I blame it on the lack of a clear conflict but, like I said, this was supposed to be a setup for Edgelord!Elle Summers. For themes, guilt and redemption are in the forefront.
The story isn't meant to be a dramatic doom-and-gloom either. Heck, typed this up while the Bayonetta 2 version of Moon River was playing in the background. Go figure; am I right?
My greatest difficulty was trying to tear AvX out of the equation. It's in imagining that Wanda's method would work, and trying to picture Cyke and Wanda believing in her plan. Knowing that repowering the mutants requires the Cosmic Turkey created a bias in formulating this idea, hence this pile of convoluted mess.
The other hurdle was Emma. Cyke doesn't move on, emotionally, that quickly- in fact, it took a psychic nudge from future!Jean in the Here Comes Tomorrow for Scott to finally enter a relationship with Emma. Facing a problem, I did what any impatient amateur fanfiction writer would do: ignored the fuck out of it.
Yeah, that's about it.
Cheers~!
