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The Lehnsherr Institute, Westchester County, New York
Wanda Maximoff opened her eyes and felt her fingers curl around the red, silk sheets of her bed. She sat up immediately and looked down to find herself in her pajamas. This . . . this wasn't right. She tried to shake the fog of sleep from her mind. The last thing she could remember, she and the other members of the Brotherhood had been answering a distress call. Frost Enterprises had been under attack by the villainous X-Men. Being close friends with the CEO, the Brotherhood had been summoned to drive back the group of mutant terrorists. Wanda struggled to recall the events of the battle. Her memories were hazy and indistinct. When she tried to grasp onto them with her mind, they slipped through her mental fingers like water. She must have been dazed or knocked unconscious during the battle. In any event, she and the others had obviously won the day and returned home safe and sound.
Wanda shoved her worries out of her mind and got out of bed. She could hear noise from downstairs, most likely from the TV. It wasn't like her to sleep so late but she assumed the fight with the X-Men had been a taxing one. The rivalry between the two teams had been going on since the very beginning. Wanda wondered sometimes if it was destined to go on for eternity. She headed for the shower, taking off her pajamas and putting them on the edge of the sink. She stepped into the shower and turned it on, the blast of warm water soothing her muscles and easing her tension. She sighed happily and thought no more of yesterday's battle.
# # # # # # # # # #
Wanda came into the living room after her shower to see that Toad and Blob had parked themselves on the couch in front of the TV. She reasoned that it must be Saturday because there was no way that the duo would miss their cartoons. Toad saw her come down the stairs and smiled at her from where he was crouched on the sofa in the style of his namesake. He shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth and returned to watching TV. Wanda wished that she could retain that sense of innocence. All of the Brotherhood members were adults now but many of them had started this lifestyle when they were teenagers. It had been a long and sometimes painful journey for them full of battles won and lost. She and her twin brother Pietro had grown up so much since those early days. Losing Magneto had been hard. When Wanda and Pietro first met him as teenagers, Magneto had saved their lives from an angry mob. When he learned that they were mutants and orphans, he took them to America and gave them a home at his school. As time went on, he eventually adopted them officially as his children. It was this sense of loyalty and family that kept the Maximoff twins at the Lehnsherr Institute. They had been among the first members of the Brotherhood and they vowed that they would keep the team going until the very end.
"Figured you'd be up way before now," said Toad as Wanda took a seat in one of the recliners. "Wanna watch the news about how we beat the X-Men again?"
"Maybe later, Mort," said Wanda. "I don't want to interrupt you and Fred when you're watching cartoons."
"Good ones are all over now anyways," said Blob, shifting in his seat on the other end of the sofa. "You slept through most of the morning, Wanda."
"I must have." Wanda felt like her mind was moving underwater. Her thoughts seemed slow and unfocused. "Where are the others?"
"Pietro went out for his morning run," said Toad. "Johnny's off doin' something outside. Sarah's down in her workshop. The three of us are here."
Wanda nodded and tried to focus. Something just didn't seem right but she couldn't figure out why. It was the same morning routine as usual aside from her lateness. Everyone was doing the same thing they always did. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. So what was wrong about all this?
"Emma's on the TV," mentioned Blob as the cartoon show ended and the news came on.
Wanda watched the news, the top story of course being how the Brotherhood saved Frost Enterprises from the X-Men's attack. Emma Frost was giving a statement about the incident, mostly thanking the Brotherhood for their help. Emma had always been a good friend of the Brotherhood, Pietro in particular. Wanda always enjoyed teasing the Brotherhood's leader about his romantic involvement with Emma, something that was a secret to the public but common knowledge to the Brotherhood. She was happy for him though and she couldn't deny that Emma's financial backing kept the Institute going in its dark days. There was also the advantages of having one of the world's most powerful telepaths as your ally.
"I'm going to make myself some tea," said Wanda.
"You okay, Scarlet?" asked Toad as he noticed Wanda didn't seem quite like herself. "You seem kinda off today."
"Just a little worn out from the battle, Mort," answered Wanda.
Toad nodded and returned to watching the news with Blob. Wanda went into the kitchen and began making herself some tea. Her mind drifted to all the Brotherhood had been through recently. There was the showdown with the Xavier Acolytes, a group of religious fanatics led by a mutant called Nightcrawler. There was the battle with Warren Worthington III and his Hellfire Club. There was the discovery of an anti-mutant government conspiracy orchestrated by the mad geneticist known as "The Beast". There was the loss of Magneto at the hands of his former best friend Charles Xavier, a battle which also claimed Xavier's life.
Wanda was startled out of her reverie by the whistling of the tea kettle. She took it off the stove and poured herself a cup. A blur of motion whipped into the room and instantly there was bread in the toaster as well as butter and jam on the kitchen counter waiting for said toast. Wanda smiled at her twin brother, the leader of the Brotherhood known as Quicksilver. Though he was technically the younger of the two, Pietro had been taking care of them since their parents died. The twins were inseparable from then on.
"Your breakfast," said Pietro as he took the toast out of the toaster and held out the plate to Wanda. "I trust you were up early enough to catch the news?"
"Emma gave us some good PR." Wanda took the plate along with her tea and sat down at the kitchen table. She went back for the butter and jam and began spreading both on her toast. "I'm afraid I'm running behind today, Pietro."
"And I'm afraid I wouldn't understand the concept." Pietro took a seat opposite his sister and relaxed after his usual morning run. "I need to meet with Emma later today to talk about what happened. She believes that the X-Men are up to something bigger than just a random attack."
"And I suspect your meeting will be very private," said Wanda with a grin. "No disruptions?"
"Emma and I are very good friends, Wanda. It's important to remain in her good graces. Her relationship with the Institute is very valuable."
"I'm sure you're very good at maintaining relations with her. You always have a way with people."
The two siblings smiled at each other as Wanda took another sip of her tea. There was some noise as someone came into the kitchen via the backdoor. Both twins watched as St. John Allerdyce, John to his friends and Pyro to the rest of the world, came inside and removed the sweat from his brow with one of the kitchen towels. Wanda knew that Pyro was a bit of a loner. All of them had been when they first arrived at the Institute, save for her and Pietro of course. Pyro had been the slowest to warm to the rest of the team and even now he enjoyed his space. His power could be a very destructive one and Wanda assumed that was why he preferred solitude to the company of others. She could sympathize with him, her own power being very volatile as well. Were it not for Pietro's constant company, Wanda was certain she would be every bit the loner that Pyro had been. He was a fierce fighter in battle and she knew all the Brotherhood considered themselves lucky that Pyro was on their side.
"Woodshed's stocked fer winter," said Pyro as he put the towel back on the rack. "G'day, Wanda. Runnin' a tick behind are we?"
"Just taking things slow unlike my brother." Wanda took a bite of toast and then washed it down with more tea. "Mort mentioned that Sarah was down in her workshop. I thought perhaps I would take her some food. You know how she sometimes loses track of time when she's down there."
"No worries, luv," said Pyro. "I'll make sure she's fed."
Wanda watched Pyro peel off the nicotine patch on his arm and throw it away. She and Pietro had both been adamant about John quitting smoking. Normally, their admonishment fell on deaf ears and the most they could do was get him to smoke outside. Wanda was glad that he was taking quitting seriously this time, but she was also puzzled as to what brought about his sudden change of heart.
"I don't like people talking about me behind my back, you know."
Wanda watched as Sarah Ryall, or Scanner to the world outside the Institute, floated up through the floor and shifted out of her electro-transitional form. Scanner was the Institute's resident tech geek and she spent most of her time in her workshop. She had designed and programmed the Brotherhood's training facility known as "The Danger Room" as well as most of the other gadgets they used in the field. Scanner was also a bit of a recluse, not unlike Pyro in that regard. The two of them were close but Wanda always sensed there was something more going on. It wasn't her place to pry though. Her own love-life was chaotic enough without meddling in someone else's. She hadn't been in a relationship since she ended things with Jason Wyngarde. Their parting had been a mutual agreement and amicable. She had her life as a superhero and he had his budding career as a stage magician. Though they were still on friendly terms, Wanda knew that they wouldn't work as a couple. They were taking two very different paths in life and those paths would most likely never cross again, at least not in that way.
"Didn't mean anythin' by it, Sarah," apologized Pyro. "How goes it with the repairs?"
"Repairs?" Wanda gave Scanner a quizzical look.
"Our psi-blockers were damaged in yesterday's battle," reminded Pietro before Scanner could say anything. "Are you alright, Wanda? You did take a shot to the head."
"I . . . I must be more rattled than I thought," admitted Wanda, not remembering much of anything about the battle at all. "I'm sure it's nothing though."
"Psi-blockers are good to go again," reported Scanner. "Everything's in working order."
Wanda heard an alarm go off, most likely the result of someone tripping the Institute's security measures. She looked at her brother and wondered why he wasn't checking it out. Pietro was always the first one into the fray because of his speed. It allowed him to easily scout ahead so that they were never taken by surprise. However, he and the rest of the Brotherhood simply went about their business as if nothing was going on. Couldn't they hear the blaring of the claxons? Wanda could hear it just fine and it was becoming irritating.
"Is no one going to see to that?" she asked.
"See to what?" inquired Pietro as all three of the Brotherhood members gave Wanda strange looks.
"The alarm," said Wanda and now the noise was getting louder. "Don't any of you hear it?"
No one answered her question. All of them looked at Wanda as if she was crazy. She hated that. Yes, her mutant power was chaotic and she was prone to bouts of being emotionally erratic. It was something she dealt with on a daily basis and she had learned to manage whatever condition it was. All of her teammates over the years had been supportive of her struggle in their own ways. Still, she couldn't stand it when someone gave her that look, especially if it was one of the other Brotherhood members.
"Ya feelin' alright, Wanda?" asked Pyro. "Maybe ya got hit in the head harder than ya thought?"
"Someone or something is outside," stated Wanda as she stormed into the living room and then towards the front door. "If you don't believe me then I'm going to prove it to you."
The rest of the Brotherhood trailed after Wanda as she opened the door and marched onto the front porch. The second she saw the figure standing on the Institute's front lawn, her blood turned to ice. She obviously couldn't be sure but she was willing to bet that her face was as white as a ghost. Erik Lehnsherr, the famous Master of Magnetism, was standing there in his full regalia. He took off his helmet and smiled at his Brotherhood, particularly at the Maximoff twins who were his adopted children. Wanda swung her head around to look at the others and saw that they were smiling back. It was as if nothing had changed. It was like the man called Magneto hadn't been dead for years now.
"This . . . this isn't right," said Wanda as she tried to figure out what was happening.
"Is that any way to greet your father, dear?" asked Magneto as he came up to the porch to greet everyone. "Come, give me a hug."
"You're dead." Wanda's mind furiously raced to make sense of everything. "I saw you. We all saw you. You were in a fight with Xavier and . . ." She struggled to think of what happened next. Why couldn't she remember things?
"I think we should take you to a doctor," said Pietro. "Our father never died, Wanda. Look at him standing here right now. Does he look dead to you?"
"No, he died." Wanda felt like she was going insane. "It happened. I know it!"
"Bloody psi-witch musta hit ya hard," assumed Pyro.
"Phoenix." Wanda's mind seized on Pyro's words and realized what was going on. "I know it's you doing this, Jean Grey! Get the hell out of my mind before I hex you into the afterlife!"
"There's no one here but us, Wanda," said Magneto as he tried to soothe his daughter's ailing mind.
Wanda's hands glowed with scarlet energy and she pushed herself free of the circle her friends and family were forming around her. She took a battle stance and tried to figure out how to break free of this telepathic trap. All the members of the Brotherhood had psi-blocking technology to help keep their minds free during battles with the X-Men. Pietro must have been right when he said they were damaged during the last battle. Phoenix must have used her telepathy to lock all of them into some kind of telepathic illusion. Wanda tried to focus. The Brotherhood had all undergone training with Emma Frost on how to guard their minds. She thought about possibly using her hex powers but she was scared of the results. Her hexes weren't always as precise as she liked. They could still have unintended consequences. If she was correct in assuming all the Brotherhood members were trapped in this illusion with her then they would suffer whatever backlash her hex caused. She had to chance it though. Right now, she was the Brotherhood's best hope.
"I'm going to fix this," said Wanda as she concentrated.
"You're going to stay in here with us," stated Magneto as he came towards her. "Don't you want that, Wanda? Don't you want me to still be a part of your life?"
Wanda felt her resolve falter at her adoptive father's words. She did want that, more than anything. She sometimes wished that things could go back to the way they were when she and Pietro first came to the Institute. Life was so much easier back when they were young and Magneto was there to protect them. The world had become so hard lately, not just for the Brotherhood but mutants as a whole. She secretly doubted that the Brotherhood had the strength to continue leading the mutant community towards a better future. She secretly doubted that she had the strength to keep the team together.
"Father," said Wanda tearfully.
"It's going to be alright, my child," said Magneto as he took her hands in his.
"It is." Wanda closed her eyes and set her mind to the task. "Goodbye, Father."
Magneto, or whatever phantom Phoenix had conjured to look like him, tried to say something but Wanda wasn't listening. Her hands glowed bright red once more and this time that energy sprang outward in a pulse. Everything around her shattered like glass as the Scarlet Witch unmade this hollow reality she found herself trapped in. She felt herself tumble through eternal darkness as she desperately tried to wake up. She screamed but no sound escaped her mouth. Her arms flailed helplessly as they searched in vain for purchase. She thought that she would fall forever until she felt her body collide with something hard, possibly the floor although that made no sense to her. In the end, it didn't matter. There was only blackness and nothing else.
# # # # # # # # # #
The Scarlet Witch's eyes shot open and she immediately tore her way free of the pod she was trapped in. She looked at her foes, the X-Men, and saw Phoenix wearing some kind of helmet with cables coming out of the top of it. The cables snaked along the floor to the pods that the Brotherhood members occupied. Wanda wasted little time in making sure that Phoenix suffered for what she had done. She gestured towards Phoenix and watched the helmet that Jean wore glow red with hex power. The helmet began to sputter and smoke, and Jean threw it to the ground before it crumpled into nothing but scrap metal. Cyclops opened his visor to fire his optic blast at the Scarlet Witch but Wanda hexed the blast away. She gestured to the cables attached to the pods and watched them tear themselves apart. Whatever cables remained suddenly snaked towards Wanda, coiling around her midsection to pin her arms to her sides.
"What's the matter, 'dear sister'?" snarled Polaris as she used her magnetism to make the cables constrict around the Scarlet Witch. "Didn't you enjoy your dream? Wasn't it everything my father died for?"
"Our father," corrected Wanda, trying to get even one arm free so she could hex her way out of the attack. "He loved . . . you too, Lorna."
"Not half as much as he loved you and your idiot brother! I was his only real daughter but he threw me away. You two were all he ever cared about!"
Wanda felt the temperature inside the room increase and knew that her team was coming to her rescue. Pyro threw a fireball at the X-Men, causing them to scatter and Polaris to break her concentration. Iceman hit the Brotherhood with a blast of cold but couldn't slow down Quicksilver fast enough. The leader of the Brotherhood moved through the fray with the speed of a lightning bolt. He took down Iceman in a second and then Phoenix in another. He zipped to dodge an optic blast from Cyclops and then gave the X-Men's leader an uppercut. Quicksilver turned and took a punch from Colossus. The Russian X-Man towered over Pietro's fallen form, his metallic skin glinting in the light of the room. He was about to deliver a killing blow when Blob latched onto him by the back of his collar and tossed him aside. The largest member of the Brotherhood took an optic blast straight in his sizeable gut, shrugging off the beam of concussive force as if it was nothing.
"We need to regroup," ordered Cyclops. "Blink, get us out of here!"
The X-Men's teleporter looked to her leader, taking her eyes off of Toad in the process. That was all Toad needed to whip out his tongue and let it coil around Blink. The elf-like mutant wrestled with Toad's tongue, finally uncoiling herself from it. She threw up her arms to block his kicks and dodged a glob of slime that he spat at her.
Blink was about to summon one of her portals when something came up from underneath the floor behind her. Scanner solidified herself and then latched onto the back of Blink's head. It only took a short burst of her power to scramble Blink's bio-electric impulses and leave her unconscious on the floor. Scanner shifted back into her transitional state as she watched Polaris pick up the scrap metal via magnetism and attempt to squash her with it. Polaris growled in frustration and latched onto Scanner's form with her magnetism, trying to tear the Brotherhood member apart. Scanner cried out in pain but a glob of slime hit Polaris in the eyes and caused her to halt her attack. Toad grinned and then hopped out of the way before Colossus could punch him. He continued nimbly dodging his larger foe's punches, leading him towards Blob. When Toad dodged the next punch, Colossus found his fist now buried in Blob's chest. He tried to free himself but Blob simply thrust forward, throwing Colossus backwards and sending him straight into a wall.
"Where are we anyway?" asked Toad as he hopped onto Blob's shoulders and surveyed the battlefield from his new perch. "Is this still Frost Enterprises?"
"Don't think so," answered Blob. "Looks like we found the X-Men's hideout."
"We've been looking for this place for weeks," said Scanner. "I always wanted to see what kind of tech they had at their disposal."
"Yeah well they won't have it for long once Scarlet gets done," realized Toad as he watched the Scarlet Witch do battle with Phoenix. "Wouldn't mind watchin' her trash that dream machine thing they had us all in."
"I really want to take a look at it before that," admitted Scanner. "I'm betting that the helmet Phoenix was wearing channeled her psychic abilities into the machine and then into us."
"You won't live long enough to test your theory." Phoenix used her telekinesis to lift a hunk of machinery and swing it like a club at the group of Brotherhood members.
The Scarlet Witch saw what was happening and cast one of her hexes at the machinery, causing it to fall apart despite Phoenix's telekinetic grip. Wanda was still fuming over what she had experienced while hooked up to that machine. That anger clouded her concentration and made it easy for Cyclops to tag her in the back with an optic blast. The X-Men's leader had little time to celebrate, however. Quicksilver was on him in an instant, pummeling him from all angles. Cyclops let out another blast but it was more to create space than actually hit his opponent. He knew that there would be no hope for a victory now that the Brotherhood weren't incapacitated.
"All we wanted was to give you a life that would keep you away from us," said Cyclops. "You had everything you could ever dream of."
"Living a lie is never what I dream of," retorted Quicksilver. "It looks like you won't escape this time, Summers. If I were you, I would surrender now before things turned even uglier. I'll be a gentleman and at least give you that option."
Cyclops motioned for the X-Men to regroup. Phoenix hit the Brotherhood with a psychic blast that disoriented them. She then used her telepathy to rouse Blink back to consciousness. Once the magenta-skinned mutant was awake, she used one of her portals to get the X-Men to safety. Quicksilver cursed as he and the rest of the Brotherhood regained their bearings after the psychic attack. He looked to the mangled pods that he and the others had been imprisoned in and it only furthered his irritation.
"I think this machinery only works for a telepath," said Scanner. "I'd have to get it inside my workshop and study it further before I can say for sure. The technology looks really interesting."
The Scarlet Witch wasn't going to wait for that. Once she set her eyes on the dreaded mechanisms that had set up the fantasy world they were trapped in, she immediately knew what should be done with them. She pointed at the pieces of machinery and all of them began to glow red. Before everyone's eyes, the machines melted into puddles of hot slag. Quicksilver looked into the eyes of his twin sister and saw the fury that they displayed. Wanda was normally very calm but her emotions could get the better of her at times. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, a silent affirmation that he and the others were there with her.
"I don't think further analysis is necessary, Sarah," he told Scanner, his eyes never leaving his sister's. "Thank you for freeing us, Wanda. We wouldn't be here right now if not for you."
"I almost failed." Wanda's eyes returned to normal, the red glow subsiding as she powered down. "I almost believed the lies that she was feeding all of us. I miss our father, Pietro. I miss him so much."
"We all do." Pietro hugged his sister. "I think the best way to show our love for him is to honor the dream that he died for. Someday, the world will be as he always wished with humans and mutants living together in peace. Until that day, we must keep fighting."
"Of course," agreed Wanda. "I wouldn't want any other group of people by my side except for my family."
Quicksilver went to get in touch with Emma Frost in order to assess what had truly happened while the Brotherhood was incapacitated. The rest of the Brotherhood set about salvaging whatever remained of the X-Men's makeshift base. The Scarlet Witch sighed and closed her eyes. She could still feel the effects of whatever that machine was. She could still hear Magneto's voice in her head as he coaxed her to stay in that lovely fantasy. Her brother was right. Fighting for their father's dream was the only true way to keep him alive. Anything else would be just a pale imitation and Wanda would have no part of it.
"I think it's time that we went home then," said Pietro. "Of course we'll have to find the jet. Emma mentioned it's still back at Frost Enterprises. I think she's annoyed that it's taking up all the space on her roof."
"We'll make it home," said Wanda. "I can't speak for the rest of you, but I think I'm going to take a nap when we get there. Maybe this time I'll have more pleasant dreams."
END
Message from the editor: Wesley wrote this story and submitted it for this event in October 2016. Unfortunately, those of us at the site received word of his death on January 30, 2017. Wesley was a prolific writer and will undoubtedly be missed. We wish his friends and family our sincere regards during this difficult time.
Wanda Maximoff opened her eyes and felt her fingers curl around the red, silk sheets of her bed. She sat up immediately and looked down to find herself in her pajamas. This . . . this wasn't right. She tried to shake the fog of sleep from her mind. The last thing she could remember, she and the other members of the Brotherhood had been answering a distress call. Frost Enterprises had been under attack by the villainous X-Men. Being close friends with the CEO, the Brotherhood had been summoned to drive back the group of mutant terrorists. Wanda struggled to recall the events of the battle. Her memories were hazy and indistinct. When she tried to grasp onto them with her mind, they slipped through her mental fingers like water. She must have been dazed or knocked unconscious during the battle. In any event, she and the others had obviously won the day and returned home safe and sound.
Wanda shoved her worries out of her mind and got out of bed. She could hear noise from downstairs, most likely from the TV. It wasn't like her to sleep so late but she assumed the fight with the X-Men had been a taxing one. The rivalry between the two teams had been going on since the very beginning. Wanda wondered sometimes if it was destined to go on for eternity. She headed for the shower, taking off her pajamas and putting them on the edge of the sink. She stepped into the shower and turned it on, the blast of warm water soothing her muscles and easing her tension. She sighed happily and thought no more of yesterday's battle.
# # # # # # # # # #
Wanda came into the living room after her shower to see that Toad and Blob had parked themselves on the couch in front of the TV. She reasoned that it must be Saturday because there was no way that the duo would miss their cartoons. Toad saw her come down the stairs and smiled at her from where he was crouched on the sofa in the style of his namesake. He shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth and returned to watching TV. Wanda wished that she could retain that sense of innocence. All of the Brotherhood members were adults now but many of them had started this lifestyle when they were teenagers. It had been a long and sometimes painful journey for them full of battles won and lost. She and her twin brother Pietro had grown up so much since those early days. Losing Magneto had been hard. When Wanda and Pietro first met him as teenagers, Magneto had saved their lives from an angry mob. When he learned that they were mutants and orphans, he took them to America and gave them a home at his school. As time went on, he eventually adopted them officially as his children. It was this sense of loyalty and family that kept the Maximoff twins at the Lehnsherr Institute. They had been among the first members of the Brotherhood and they vowed that they would keep the team going until the very end.
"Figured you'd be up way before now," said Toad as Wanda took a seat in one of the recliners. "Wanna watch the news about how we beat the X-Men again?"
"Maybe later, Mort," said Wanda. "I don't want to interrupt you and Fred when you're watching cartoons."
"Good ones are all over now anyways," said Blob, shifting in his seat on the other end of the sofa. "You slept through most of the morning, Wanda."
"I must have." Wanda felt like her mind was moving underwater. Her thoughts seemed slow and unfocused. "Where are the others?"
"Pietro went out for his morning run," said Toad. "Johnny's off doin' something outside. Sarah's down in her workshop. The three of us are here."
Wanda nodded and tried to focus. Something just didn't seem right but she couldn't figure out why. It was the same morning routine as usual aside from her lateness. Everyone was doing the same thing they always did. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. So what was wrong about all this?
"Emma's on the TV," mentioned Blob as the cartoon show ended and the news came on.
Wanda watched the news, the top story of course being how the Brotherhood saved Frost Enterprises from the X-Men's attack. Emma Frost was giving a statement about the incident, mostly thanking the Brotherhood for their help. Emma had always been a good friend of the Brotherhood, Pietro in particular. Wanda always enjoyed teasing the Brotherhood's leader about his romantic involvement with Emma, something that was a secret to the public but common knowledge to the Brotherhood. She was happy for him though and she couldn't deny that Emma's financial backing kept the Institute going in its dark days. There was also the advantages of having one of the world's most powerful telepaths as your ally.
"I'm going to make myself some tea," said Wanda.
"You okay, Scarlet?" asked Toad as he noticed Wanda didn't seem quite like herself. "You seem kinda off today."
"Just a little worn out from the battle, Mort," answered Wanda.
Toad nodded and returned to watching the news with Blob. Wanda went into the kitchen and began making herself some tea. Her mind drifted to all the Brotherhood had been through recently. There was the showdown with the Xavier Acolytes, a group of religious fanatics led by a mutant called Nightcrawler. There was the battle with Warren Worthington III and his Hellfire Club. There was the discovery of an anti-mutant government conspiracy orchestrated by the mad geneticist known as "The Beast". There was the loss of Magneto at the hands of his former best friend Charles Xavier, a battle which also claimed Xavier's life.
Wanda was startled out of her reverie by the whistling of the tea kettle. She took it off the stove and poured herself a cup. A blur of motion whipped into the room and instantly there was bread in the toaster as well as butter and jam on the kitchen counter waiting for said toast. Wanda smiled at her twin brother, the leader of the Brotherhood known as Quicksilver. Though he was technically the younger of the two, Pietro had been taking care of them since their parents died. The twins were inseparable from then on.
"Your breakfast," said Pietro as he took the toast out of the toaster and held out the plate to Wanda. "I trust you were up early enough to catch the news?"
"Emma gave us some good PR." Wanda took the plate along with her tea and sat down at the kitchen table. She went back for the butter and jam and began spreading both on her toast. "I'm afraid I'm running behind today, Pietro."
"And I'm afraid I wouldn't understand the concept." Pietro took a seat opposite his sister and relaxed after his usual morning run. "I need to meet with Emma later today to talk about what happened. She believes that the X-Men are up to something bigger than just a random attack."
"And I suspect your meeting will be very private," said Wanda with a grin. "No disruptions?"
"Emma and I are very good friends, Wanda. It's important to remain in her good graces. Her relationship with the Institute is very valuable."
"I'm sure you're very good at maintaining relations with her. You always have a way with people."
The two siblings smiled at each other as Wanda took another sip of her tea. There was some noise as someone came into the kitchen via the backdoor. Both twins watched as St. John Allerdyce, John to his friends and Pyro to the rest of the world, came inside and removed the sweat from his brow with one of the kitchen towels. Wanda knew that Pyro was a bit of a loner. All of them had been when they first arrived at the Institute, save for her and Pietro of course. Pyro had been the slowest to warm to the rest of the team and even now he enjoyed his space. His power could be a very destructive one and Wanda assumed that was why he preferred solitude to the company of others. She could sympathize with him, her own power being very volatile as well. Were it not for Pietro's constant company, Wanda was certain she would be every bit the loner that Pyro had been. He was a fierce fighter in battle and she knew all the Brotherhood considered themselves lucky that Pyro was on their side.
"Woodshed's stocked fer winter," said Pyro as he put the towel back on the rack. "G'day, Wanda. Runnin' a tick behind are we?"
"Just taking things slow unlike my brother." Wanda took a bite of toast and then washed it down with more tea. "Mort mentioned that Sarah was down in her workshop. I thought perhaps I would take her some food. You know how she sometimes loses track of time when she's down there."
"No worries, luv," said Pyro. "I'll make sure she's fed."
Wanda watched Pyro peel off the nicotine patch on his arm and throw it away. She and Pietro had both been adamant about John quitting smoking. Normally, their admonishment fell on deaf ears and the most they could do was get him to smoke outside. Wanda was glad that he was taking quitting seriously this time, but she was also puzzled as to what brought about his sudden change of heart.
"I don't like people talking about me behind my back, you know."
Wanda watched as Sarah Ryall, or Scanner to the world outside the Institute, floated up through the floor and shifted out of her electro-transitional form. Scanner was the Institute's resident tech geek and she spent most of her time in her workshop. She had designed and programmed the Brotherhood's training facility known as "The Danger Room" as well as most of the other gadgets they used in the field. Scanner was also a bit of a recluse, not unlike Pyro in that regard. The two of them were close but Wanda always sensed there was something more going on. It wasn't her place to pry though. Her own love-life was chaotic enough without meddling in someone else's. She hadn't been in a relationship since she ended things with Jason Wyngarde. Their parting had been a mutual agreement and amicable. She had her life as a superhero and he had his budding career as a stage magician. Though they were still on friendly terms, Wanda knew that they wouldn't work as a couple. They were taking two very different paths in life and those paths would most likely never cross again, at least not in that way.
"Didn't mean anythin' by it, Sarah," apologized Pyro. "How goes it with the repairs?"
"Repairs?" Wanda gave Scanner a quizzical look.
"Our psi-blockers were damaged in yesterday's battle," reminded Pietro before Scanner could say anything. "Are you alright, Wanda? You did take a shot to the head."
"I . . . I must be more rattled than I thought," admitted Wanda, not remembering much of anything about the battle at all. "I'm sure it's nothing though."
"Psi-blockers are good to go again," reported Scanner. "Everything's in working order."
Wanda heard an alarm go off, most likely the result of someone tripping the Institute's security measures. She looked at her brother and wondered why he wasn't checking it out. Pietro was always the first one into the fray because of his speed. It allowed him to easily scout ahead so that they were never taken by surprise. However, he and the rest of the Brotherhood simply went about their business as if nothing was going on. Couldn't they hear the blaring of the claxons? Wanda could hear it just fine and it was becoming irritating.
"Is no one going to see to that?" she asked.
"See to what?" inquired Pietro as all three of the Brotherhood members gave Wanda strange looks.
"The alarm," said Wanda and now the noise was getting louder. "Don't any of you hear it?"
No one answered her question. All of them looked at Wanda as if she was crazy. She hated that. Yes, her mutant power was chaotic and she was prone to bouts of being emotionally erratic. It was something she dealt with on a daily basis and she had learned to manage whatever condition it was. All of her teammates over the years had been supportive of her struggle in their own ways. Still, she couldn't stand it when someone gave her that look, especially if it was one of the other Brotherhood members.
"Ya feelin' alright, Wanda?" asked Pyro. "Maybe ya got hit in the head harder than ya thought?"
"Someone or something is outside," stated Wanda as she stormed into the living room and then towards the front door. "If you don't believe me then I'm going to prove it to you."
The rest of the Brotherhood trailed after Wanda as she opened the door and marched onto the front porch. The second she saw the figure standing on the Institute's front lawn, her blood turned to ice. She obviously couldn't be sure but she was willing to bet that her face was as white as a ghost. Erik Lehnsherr, the famous Master of Magnetism, was standing there in his full regalia. He took off his helmet and smiled at his Brotherhood, particularly at the Maximoff twins who were his adopted children. Wanda swung her head around to look at the others and saw that they were smiling back. It was as if nothing had changed. It was like the man called Magneto hadn't been dead for years now.
"This . . . this isn't right," said Wanda as she tried to figure out what was happening.
"Is that any way to greet your father, dear?" asked Magneto as he came up to the porch to greet everyone. "Come, give me a hug."
"You're dead." Wanda's mind furiously raced to make sense of everything. "I saw you. We all saw you. You were in a fight with Xavier and . . ." She struggled to think of what happened next. Why couldn't she remember things?
"I think we should take you to a doctor," said Pietro. "Our father never died, Wanda. Look at him standing here right now. Does he look dead to you?"
"No, he died." Wanda felt like she was going insane. "It happened. I know it!"
"Bloody psi-witch musta hit ya hard," assumed Pyro.
"Phoenix." Wanda's mind seized on Pyro's words and realized what was going on. "I know it's you doing this, Jean Grey! Get the hell out of my mind before I hex you into the afterlife!"
"There's no one here but us, Wanda," said Magneto as he tried to soothe his daughter's ailing mind.
Wanda's hands glowed with scarlet energy and she pushed herself free of the circle her friends and family were forming around her. She took a battle stance and tried to figure out how to break free of this telepathic trap. All the members of the Brotherhood had psi-blocking technology to help keep their minds free during battles with the X-Men. Pietro must have been right when he said they were damaged during the last battle. Phoenix must have used her telepathy to lock all of them into some kind of telepathic illusion. Wanda tried to focus. The Brotherhood had all undergone training with Emma Frost on how to guard their minds. She thought about possibly using her hex powers but she was scared of the results. Her hexes weren't always as precise as she liked. They could still have unintended consequences. If she was correct in assuming all the Brotherhood members were trapped in this illusion with her then they would suffer whatever backlash her hex caused. She had to chance it though. Right now, she was the Brotherhood's best hope.
"I'm going to fix this," said Wanda as she concentrated.
"You're going to stay in here with us," stated Magneto as he came towards her. "Don't you want that, Wanda? Don't you want me to still be a part of your life?"
Wanda felt her resolve falter at her adoptive father's words. She did want that, more than anything. She sometimes wished that things could go back to the way they were when she and Pietro first came to the Institute. Life was so much easier back when they were young and Magneto was there to protect them. The world had become so hard lately, not just for the Brotherhood but mutants as a whole. She secretly doubted that the Brotherhood had the strength to continue leading the mutant community towards a better future. She secretly doubted that she had the strength to keep the team together.
"Father," said Wanda tearfully.
"It's going to be alright, my child," said Magneto as he took her hands in his.
"It is." Wanda closed her eyes and set her mind to the task. "Goodbye, Father."
Magneto, or whatever phantom Phoenix had conjured to look like him, tried to say something but Wanda wasn't listening. Her hands glowed bright red once more and this time that energy sprang outward in a pulse. Everything around her shattered like glass as the Scarlet Witch unmade this hollow reality she found herself trapped in. She felt herself tumble through eternal darkness as she desperately tried to wake up. She screamed but no sound escaped her mouth. Her arms flailed helplessly as they searched in vain for purchase. She thought that she would fall forever until she felt her body collide with something hard, possibly the floor although that made no sense to her. In the end, it didn't matter. There was only blackness and nothing else.
# # # # # # # # # #
The Scarlet Witch's eyes shot open and she immediately tore her way free of the pod she was trapped in. She looked at her foes, the X-Men, and saw Phoenix wearing some kind of helmet with cables coming out of the top of it. The cables snaked along the floor to the pods that the Brotherhood members occupied. Wanda wasted little time in making sure that Phoenix suffered for what she had done. She gestured towards Phoenix and watched the helmet that Jean wore glow red with hex power. The helmet began to sputter and smoke, and Jean threw it to the ground before it crumpled into nothing but scrap metal. Cyclops opened his visor to fire his optic blast at the Scarlet Witch but Wanda hexed the blast away. She gestured to the cables attached to the pods and watched them tear themselves apart. Whatever cables remained suddenly snaked towards Wanda, coiling around her midsection to pin her arms to her sides.
"What's the matter, 'dear sister'?" snarled Polaris as she used her magnetism to make the cables constrict around the Scarlet Witch. "Didn't you enjoy your dream? Wasn't it everything my father died for?"
"Our father," corrected Wanda, trying to get even one arm free so she could hex her way out of the attack. "He loved . . . you too, Lorna."
"Not half as much as he loved you and your idiot brother! I was his only real daughter but he threw me away. You two were all he ever cared about!"
Wanda felt the temperature inside the room increase and knew that her team was coming to her rescue. Pyro threw a fireball at the X-Men, causing them to scatter and Polaris to break her concentration. Iceman hit the Brotherhood with a blast of cold but couldn't slow down Quicksilver fast enough. The leader of the Brotherhood moved through the fray with the speed of a lightning bolt. He took down Iceman in a second and then Phoenix in another. He zipped to dodge an optic blast from Cyclops and then gave the X-Men's leader an uppercut. Quicksilver turned and took a punch from Colossus. The Russian X-Man towered over Pietro's fallen form, his metallic skin glinting in the light of the room. He was about to deliver a killing blow when Blob latched onto him by the back of his collar and tossed him aside. The largest member of the Brotherhood took an optic blast straight in his sizeable gut, shrugging off the beam of concussive force as if it was nothing.
"We need to regroup," ordered Cyclops. "Blink, get us out of here!"
The X-Men's teleporter looked to her leader, taking her eyes off of Toad in the process. That was all Toad needed to whip out his tongue and let it coil around Blink. The elf-like mutant wrestled with Toad's tongue, finally uncoiling herself from it. She threw up her arms to block his kicks and dodged a glob of slime that he spat at her.
Blink was about to summon one of her portals when something came up from underneath the floor behind her. Scanner solidified herself and then latched onto the back of Blink's head. It only took a short burst of her power to scramble Blink's bio-electric impulses and leave her unconscious on the floor. Scanner shifted back into her transitional state as she watched Polaris pick up the scrap metal via magnetism and attempt to squash her with it. Polaris growled in frustration and latched onto Scanner's form with her magnetism, trying to tear the Brotherhood member apart. Scanner cried out in pain but a glob of slime hit Polaris in the eyes and caused her to halt her attack. Toad grinned and then hopped out of the way before Colossus could punch him. He continued nimbly dodging his larger foe's punches, leading him towards Blob. When Toad dodged the next punch, Colossus found his fist now buried in Blob's chest. He tried to free himself but Blob simply thrust forward, throwing Colossus backwards and sending him straight into a wall.
"Where are we anyway?" asked Toad as he hopped onto Blob's shoulders and surveyed the battlefield from his new perch. "Is this still Frost Enterprises?"
"Don't think so," answered Blob. "Looks like we found the X-Men's hideout."
"We've been looking for this place for weeks," said Scanner. "I always wanted to see what kind of tech they had at their disposal."
"Yeah well they won't have it for long once Scarlet gets done," realized Toad as he watched the Scarlet Witch do battle with Phoenix. "Wouldn't mind watchin' her trash that dream machine thing they had us all in."
"I really want to take a look at it before that," admitted Scanner. "I'm betting that the helmet Phoenix was wearing channeled her psychic abilities into the machine and then into us."
"You won't live long enough to test your theory." Phoenix used her telekinesis to lift a hunk of machinery and swing it like a club at the group of Brotherhood members.
The Scarlet Witch saw what was happening and cast one of her hexes at the machinery, causing it to fall apart despite Phoenix's telekinetic grip. Wanda was still fuming over what she had experienced while hooked up to that machine. That anger clouded her concentration and made it easy for Cyclops to tag her in the back with an optic blast. The X-Men's leader had little time to celebrate, however. Quicksilver was on him in an instant, pummeling him from all angles. Cyclops let out another blast but it was more to create space than actually hit his opponent. He knew that there would be no hope for a victory now that the Brotherhood weren't incapacitated.
"All we wanted was to give you a life that would keep you away from us," said Cyclops. "You had everything you could ever dream of."
"Living a lie is never what I dream of," retorted Quicksilver. "It looks like you won't escape this time, Summers. If I were you, I would surrender now before things turned even uglier. I'll be a gentleman and at least give you that option."
Cyclops motioned for the X-Men to regroup. Phoenix hit the Brotherhood with a psychic blast that disoriented them. She then used her telepathy to rouse Blink back to consciousness. Once the magenta-skinned mutant was awake, she used one of her portals to get the X-Men to safety. Quicksilver cursed as he and the rest of the Brotherhood regained their bearings after the psychic attack. He looked to the mangled pods that he and the others had been imprisoned in and it only furthered his irritation.
"I think this machinery only works for a telepath," said Scanner. "I'd have to get it inside my workshop and study it further before I can say for sure. The technology looks really interesting."
The Scarlet Witch wasn't going to wait for that. Once she set her eyes on the dreaded mechanisms that had set up the fantasy world they were trapped in, she immediately knew what should be done with them. She pointed at the pieces of machinery and all of them began to glow red. Before everyone's eyes, the machines melted into puddles of hot slag. Quicksilver looked into the eyes of his twin sister and saw the fury that they displayed. Wanda was normally very calm but her emotions could get the better of her at times. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, a silent affirmation that he and the others were there with her.
"I don't think further analysis is necessary, Sarah," he told Scanner, his eyes never leaving his sister's. "Thank you for freeing us, Wanda. We wouldn't be here right now if not for you."
"I almost failed." Wanda's eyes returned to normal, the red glow subsiding as she powered down. "I almost believed the lies that she was feeding all of us. I miss our father, Pietro. I miss him so much."
"We all do." Pietro hugged his sister. "I think the best way to show our love for him is to honor the dream that he died for. Someday, the world will be as he always wished with humans and mutants living together in peace. Until that day, we must keep fighting."
"Of course," agreed Wanda. "I wouldn't want any other group of people by my side except for my family."
Quicksilver went to get in touch with Emma Frost in order to assess what had truly happened while the Brotherhood was incapacitated. The rest of the Brotherhood set about salvaging whatever remained of the X-Men's makeshift base. The Scarlet Witch sighed and closed her eyes. She could still feel the effects of whatever that machine was. She could still hear Magneto's voice in her head as he coaxed her to stay in that lovely fantasy. Her brother was right. Fighting for their father's dream was the only true way to keep him alive. Anything else would be just a pale imitation and Wanda would have no part of it.
"I think it's time that we went home then," said Pietro. "Of course we'll have to find the jet. Emma mentioned it's still back at Frost Enterprises. I think she's annoyed that it's taking up all the space on her roof."
"We'll make it home," said Wanda. "I can't speak for the rest of you, but I think I'm going to take a nap when we get there. Maybe this time I'll have more pleasant dreams."
END
Message from the editor: Wesley wrote this story and submitted it for this event in October 2016. Unfortunately, those of us at the site received word of his death on January 30, 2017. Wesley was a prolific writer and will undoubtedly be missed. We wish his friends and family our sincere regards during this difficult time.