Chapter Text
Mrs. Maximoff was the kind of person who knew something was going on, but decided not to press onto the obvious issues. She knew very well that her son Peter could run very fast, and her daughter Wanda could imprint dreams inside people's heads, but she decided that it was best not to discuss their 'powers' on the dinner table, especially in their little sister Heather's presence. She knew, when she met the guy who could control metal, that the one night stand in Germany was something that would resort to her having a child, but when two children came -- twins! -- one with silver hair, the other with copper brown, her perspective about powers was changed.
She knew that her children wouldn't hurt her. She knew that.
But Wanda started having nightmares. At age fifteen, when at the peak of puberty and peer pressure she had refused to take the drugs offered to her at a party, young men her age tried to do something to her. If not for her brother Peter's fast reflexes, she would have had it worse. Her nightmares were of her screaming, and every night after that party, both Mrs. Maximoff and Heather could read these nightmares as well. Peter was immune, for he was the twin, but Mrs. Maximoff didn't know that. On the second week of the nightmares Mrs. Maximoff knew she had to do something. Therapists and neurologists and psychologists were called, and Wanda , gradually, started to regain her consciousness, started to control who could read her dreams and nightmares.
Mrs. Maximoff knew that it wouldn't be the last time that Wanda would accidentally show them her nightmares, so when the twins reached seventeen, she asked Wanda nicely if she would like to go to college.
Just so that Wanda could get away from here, so when she had nightmares, Mrs. Maximoff and Heather and Peter would be free from the nightmares once and for all.
Only Peter was immune, and only Peter knew why Mrs. Maximoff wanted Wanda out of the house. It was a selfish reason, but Peter understood. It did not mean that Peter sided with Mrs. Maximoff.
After all, Mrs. Maximoff hid a lot of things from her children. The only thing that Peter and Wanda knew about their father (not Heather's -- Mr. Maximoff had already passed on) was that he could control metal.
***
"Are you ready?" asked Peter, carrying one of Wanda's bags.
"Ready as I'll ever be," answered Wanda.
The twins heaved a breath of fresh air at the same time.
Wanda was the only one to go to college for some reason. She's read her mother's mind, accidentally, and she knew why she had to be away from the house. Her dreams were getting better, but she still couldn't control what was going on inside her head, and she shouldn't really let people read her dreams, much less her mother and her little sister. Peter's free arm draped over Wanda's shoulder, pulling her close. Peter was the only one who understood. She could read Peter's mind, but her dreams had no effect on him. He was immune to her power, as she was immune of the whiplash. It was how they complemented each other.
The landlady said that the dorm building didn't allow visitors, but when she saw Wanda and Peter carrying a lot of bags, the landlady sighed, gave them Wanda's key, and ordered them to proceed. The building itself was really great, and Wanda took her time in breathing all of it in. While walking towards the staircase, Wanda took this time to think of what she would be doing here. She took Psychology as her choice of program because her mother made her to. it was fitting, it was suited for her, and she liked it even if it was seemingly odd that her mother forced her to take it. Wanda didn't object, she never did, because she knew that it was wrong.
They reached the third floor - Wanda's floor - and the search for her room began.
Room 312 was the room assigned to Wanda, and it was a single-bed room. Peter looked at her sister and Wanda looked at her brother. Their mother had it all planned out - for Wanda to control her powers, she would need serenity. Peace. She would need to be alone. Without a word, Peter dumped the bags onto the bed, the prepared mattress puffing out dust. Wanda would take care of that later.
"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" asked Peter, his expression worried.
Wanda just gave him a smile.
The landlady caught up with the twins to tell them that they had an hour with each other before she kicked Peter out of the building, which was enough time for them to talk about what would happen next. Wanda, upon the exit of the landlady, closed the door and locked it, before turning to her brother. "I'm going to show you something," she said, going through one of the bags to retrieve a small hand mirror. It seemed like an ordinary mirror, but then Wanda cracked it with her knuckle, causing a small shard to crack for the taking. Wanda gave the small shard from the mirror to her brother Peter, who took it without question.
"I charmed the mirror," said Wanda. "I've been practicing. I can do charms and hexes now. Look."
Peter looked at the mirror shard, and Wanda looked at the remaining part of the mirror. The twins saw each other through each other's mirror parts. Peter could see Wanda, and Wanda could see Peter. it was a charm so advanced that Peter felt really proud to call Wanda his sister.
"So if I look at this, even when I'm at home, I can see you?" Peter tried the mirror shard in different angles, and he could still see Wanda standing at the exact location.
"Yes - I figured we needed this. I think mom's up to something." Wanda sighed. "I've been feeling it after the party...after that night...I could be wrong. But we need more evidence."
"Well, you're not the only one who thinks that mom's up to something, you know." Peter chuckled.
"Just...if you see something weird, something mom doesn't normally do, tell me through the mirror okay? Whisper it. I can hear you."
"You got it, Scarlet."
"I'm counting on you, Silver."
It was in that exact moment that the landlady knocked on the door to tell the twins that their time was up. With a last glance at each other and a last tight hug, Wanda opened the door and bid Peter goodbye, watching as the landlady talked to Peter while they descend the stairs.
"I'm counting on you, Silver," repeated Wanda under her breath, the now-cracked hand mirror gripped tight in her fist.
***
A few weeks ago.
It was too easy, getting into the mall at night. Mrs. Maximoff and Heather were asleep, and the twins were bored out of their minds. Peter didn't want to risk getting caught, so he wore a black bonnet and a black leather jacket instead of his usual get-up of silver to match his hair. Wanda didn't need a disguise, because she could easily make one, and fool the guards into thinking that she wasn't there. With Peter's speed and Wanda's tricks, the Maximoff twins were invincible.
It was too easy.
Peter sped through the unsuspecting guards, nicking their keys from them. In no time at all, he was already by the bushes near the back entrance, waiting for Wanda to just slip past the guards. It was too easy. With just a graceful flick of her hands to each guard, she had rendered them unmoving, trapped in their own daydreams with the illusions she had implanted with her magic. Then, with swift feet, Wanda joined her brother in the bushes, waiting to attack just in case, as Peter unlocked the employee entrance's door.
The mall was full of echoes, which scared Wanda the most. They needed to keep silent. Wanda devised a charm that could make their steps inaudible, silent, so no one would catch them. Even when Peter sped towards a shop, there was no sound. No one could suspect a thing.
There was a certain thing that Peter liked and he would get it tonight. The table tennis video game from the arcade, the one that costed a penny per game. Too expensive, and too much of an effort to go to the mall arcade just to play it. Peter didn't have that kind of patience. And besides, Wanda had already perfected the magic so Peter could play on it without paying a single coin. Wanda had agreed to it fully. There was no stopping him.
Once in the arcade, the only question left was how to get the arcade game home.
Wanda charmed the video game, making it lightweight, so Peter could carry it effortlessly. They had to unplug it and rewire it, which took longer than Wanda had originally planned. But they did it, they did it anyway. Peter was already carrying the game and Wanda was charming each step, so that Peter could run fast while carrying the game. It was trickier to go out, but they did it, and still, the guards Wanda had charmed were still trapped in their daydreams. Dropping the game momentarily, Peter locked the doors, returning the keys as well. He resumed his position beside his sister, the game still light as a feather to his touch.
"Can you run with that thing?" asked Wanda in a hushed voice.
"Yeah." Peter smiled. "But the only problem is, how do we get this inside the house?"
The twins snorted, trying hard to keep quiet. Wanda held her brother's hand, and Peter's other arm was carrying the game effortlessly, thanks to Wanda's magic. With another flick of her hand, Wanda's magic would wear off in ten seconds. On the fifth second, Peter and Wanda had already stormed off, and on the tenth second, the two guards did not suspect a thing.
On the next day, Wanda created an illusion in the basement, so that their mother wouldn't know what they stole. The police questioned them because Peter had a knack for stealing from the certain mall, and Mrs. Maximoff just sighed because she was used to it. They checked the basement, and it wasn't there. Wanda altered her illusion so only the Maximoff family could see the crowning glory - a fully functioning table tennis video game, courtesy of the Maximoff twins. The police let Peter off, and when they drove away, Peter and Wanda bumped their fists together.
Mrs. Maximoff sighed again.
***
Four weeks have passed since Wanda's departure for college. Mrs. Maximoff rambled on and on about how proud she was that Wanda was finally doing the right thing, and how Wanda was the first of the Maximoffs to be able to go to college. Peter had none of it, although he had to admit that he, too, was proud of what his sister could accomplish. Heather was proud as well, Peter could see that.
On that evening, after Peter had settled down, he held onto the shard of mirror that Wanda had given him. He could see Wanda, looking out the window. The mirror she had seemed to be perched onto a pile of books. Although he had nothing to report (about their mother's actions against them, if that was even a correct accusation), Peter thought that it would be nice to talk to his twin. It's been a month, after all.
Peter did it the only way he knew how - by singing.
A Pink Floyd song, because he knew better.
"Us and them," Peter started singing.
"And after all, we're ordinary men.
Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do."
"Shut up." whispered Wanda from the other end of the mirror, a faint chuckle following her joking threat.
"You seem really down." Peter whispered back.
"It's actually nothing. I can feel presences, but that's about it. They bother me, but not too much."
"What do you think they are?"
"Freaks." Wanda looked directly at the mirror from where she was sitting, and smiled. "Like us, Peter. Freaks. Which scares me."
Peter smiled back. "If they're freaks too, then you shouldn't be scared. You should go find them. See what kind of freaks they are. Because you know, no one believes freaks like us, except us."
"No one would believe us even if we told them," whispered Wanda, her smile dropping.
Presences of 'freaks'. Now that was something that Peter needed to see for himself. All his life he thought that there were only three freaks in the world - his dad, and the two of them. If Wanda could feel these 'freaks', if she could detect where they were, then there was a fifty percent chance that... that...
"Say, Scarlet. Do you think you could find -?"
"I've been thinking about that too." Wanda cut him off. That was just how Wanda was, she knew exactly what Peter was going to say. "If I can feel them, I can definitely feel him. But it's only the presence. It's like we freaks share the same gene or something."
"There was a thesis about that, right? By a professor."
"Yeah, maybe I get to study that in a biology class. But I gotta go to bed now - Psych 101 is at 8 and it's past midnight, I have to go to bed."
The twins said their good nights, smiled, and went to bed. Only Peter wasn't really going to sleep. He would spend the remainder of the evening thinking about Wanda, how she can possibly find the father they have never met. But what if she did actually find him? What would he have her say? Would Peter let Wanda introduce herself? Would he go there and introduce himself? There were a lot of questions inside his head. If only Wanda was still awake, she could read his thoughts in an instant.
But looking at the mirror shard told Peter that Wanda was already fast asleep.
***
There was a woman made of organic diamond, moonlight reflected on her beautiful skin. Beside her was a man clad in red, and another man whose skin was red. The man clad in red wore a helmet, possibly protecting him from the forces that might penetrate his brain.
"She's here," said the diamond woman, "Third floor, twelfth from the staircase. She has...a very complicated power. Very strong, even stronger than all of us combined."
The man with the helmet smiled. "You humble us, Emma. But I have to admit - someone who has the ability to put spells on mirrors is someone we should look out for."
"She'll be a very useful comrade," commented the man with red skin.
The diamond woman - Emma - looked at the view from the dorm building's roof top. "So tomorrow, Erik? We recruit her?"
The man with the helmet stared at Emma with hatred, but it seemed that Emma was used to it. "Magneto." he growled, before softening his tone. "Azazel will take care of the boulder, Mystique will take care of the disguise, Angel and Riptide will take care of the bystanders." Azazel - the man with red skin - bowed before disappearing into the night.
Magneto, the one with the helmet, looked at the view as well. "I will take care of recruitment."