The Training
Once the excitement of locating Hank and him scolding Wanda and Carol for the way they treated him had died down, they were able to get information from each trip. Carol and Wanda held back and vaguely described their failed attempts to recruit from their list. Intentionally forgetting to mention the moment they abandoned Hank, who was glaring at them the entire time. The only story with detail was how they acquired Thor Odinson.
He was in the middle of a battle with giants. Wanda and Carol had landed in the middle of the crossfire. Thor was confused by the women that appeared out of thin air, he was certain he had gotten every civilian out of harm's way. Then Carol got right into action and he didn’t care to question much after that. She and Wanda helped the God of Thunder conquer the giants and at the end of it all, they asked him to come with them. He wasn’t one that was suffering from nightmares of the Scarlet Witch, so he wasn’t close to the cause, but he hasn’t experienced teamwork like that in decades. He was more than happy to join the two. If the rest of the group was anything like those two, he had no doubt they would come out on top against one enemy.
Jean and Simon couldn't even look at each other as Simon says that it was clear they were unsuccessful. You're curious why they had a bad trip but decide to worry about it later. Next was you and Vision. Neither of you knew how to deliver the news about revealing so much of the plan to the Scarlet Witch.
Vision starts to tell the group about the trip from the beginning as you compare the dream visions of the Scarlet Witch to the real woman you witnessed. She was far more powerful than anyone was prepared for. It left an unsettling feeling in the pit of your stomach as the foreign panic began to rise through your chest. “Natalia Romanova,” Vision reads the name from his holographic list. He pauses as he looks at you, since he carried most of the presentation you took that as your cue.
Pulling on the collar of your super suit for a sec, you roll your shoulders, and clear your throat and drop both hands behind your back. “The moment we met Natalia Romanova we were a little thrown off about how sudden she appeared since a receptionist informed us that she was in a meeting. We anticipated a bit of a wait. And there was, however, we were unaware of that. The first Natalia that met us was the Scarlet Witch in disguise. So we can add shapeshifting to the list of abilities. And possibly, multiversal travel.”
“How can you be so sure?” Raven asks, straightening in her seat. Up until now, there hadn’t been much to pay attention to. The woman had grown bored of hearing the failures of the mission. But this news could affect everything.
“You might not understand this but… She had the wimple,” you state to Raven and divert your attention to the rest that are still confused. “In all of your dreams have you ever seen the wimple on her head?”
Carol raises her hand, “What the fuck is a wimple?”
Vision steps in by projecting the description of the Scarlet Witch and an image of what she should look like in her full form. “As far as we know, only one Wanda has this crown,” he explains, “the one that is after us. Not only individually, but now as a team.” He stops projecting the image.
“Okay, what does that mean for us?” Jean asks this time, growing a little nervous.
“It means that the Scarlet Witch knows we’re plotting against her. That she knows how to travel through the multiverse and is no longer limited by the Darkhold. This isn't about dream walking or traveling through reflections and shadows or trying to break through our minds anymore! She has advanced faster than we’re prepared for,” you warn, feeling the panic suffocate your lungs with every sentence. Your wife touches your hand to settle you down but you pull away manically. She shouldn’t be here. She needs to be somewhere safe. She needs to be home with her family. “We only have a matter of days now and the fate of every universe in existence depends on us.” You take another look around the room. “I have to say, I don't know if we have it in us to defeat her. Not as unprepared as we are.”
Your hopeless words only irritate Raven, so she looks to the man beside you to get his thoughts. As she has gotten to know him through working together, she has grown to trust his judgment. He knew this. “Vision, do you feel the same way?”
The synthezoid looks to Raven, then looks to you, and finally he analyzes everyone else's expectant faces. “She is a force to be reckoned with. I'm certainly not a match for her on my own. None of us are.” His words hit Carol, Jean, Raven, and Simon the most. Since the day they met him, Vision had been confident that anyone of them — especially him — had a chance one on one with the witch. However, after coming out of that fight as the only one affected, his stance on that has changed drastically. He's not even certain they could defeat her together.
“Good thing none of you are alone then,” Raven says as she rises from her seat to address the room. “We are a team! Would I have preferred more time for us to get ready? Of course. But I have faith that we still have enough time to do that.” She stands with her hands on her hips with an inspiring presence. “I believe we can win this fight as long as we work together. We cannot waste anymore time sitting around and unfortunately, we can’t gather more help. But each of us are resourceful in our own ways. We can make due with what we have. Unlike Y/n here, I believe that we do have it in us to defeat her!” She gives you a side eye that you meet with a scowl. You were only thinking about the safety of your wife and of everyone that you care about back home. “Who by the way can go home if they lack that much faith.”
“Hold on,” Wanda jumps in. “They're scared, okay? We all are, and we should be allowed to express our fears without being chastised for it.”
“Wanda makes a good point,” says Simon as he points in the brunette's direction. “However, Y/n wasn't expressing fear. They were expressing doubt and we can't have any of that if we're going to come out of this alive. I say we put it to a vote on whether or not we let them stay.”
“You do realize if I go, so does my wife, dickhead,” you snap at him.
“Woah, so much hostility,” Simon holds his hands up in surrender. “I’m only thinking in terms of what benefits the team. Wanda can stay because she is useful. She has power and insight. Whereas you, well, other than being eye candy for Phoenix, there isn't much use for you here.” Not having much control over yourself at the moment you jump over the table and tackle Simon in his seat. You're able to get a few punches in before Thor and Wanda pull you off of him. Simon laughs as the cuts you created heal instantly, leaving only a few drops of blood on the surface of his skin as proof you were able to hurt him.
Thor holds onto you until Wanda tells him to let you go. Once he does, you walk out of the room to get some air. “Real nice Simon,” Jean glares at the man as she steps around him to follow you.
“Jean, need I remind you, that's not your problem,” Simon calls out behind her. She stops at the door and shuts her eyes as she fights the old habit.
“It's okay, Jean,” Wanda says. “They can barely look at me right now. Besides, I probably won't be able to convince them that the team really does need them here seeing as I wasn't the one that brought them here in the first place.”
Jean turns and thanks Wanda before continuing on. The woman isn't quite sure where to start looking for you. She just had to trust her instincts which led her to find out that you and Y/n were similar when it came to hiding spots on campus. The first place she looks is where she finds you, standing in the greenhouse.
“And here I thought you would be a completely different person,” she makes her presence known.
“Huh, you weren't the person I was expecting,” you mumble as you distract yourself by tending to the plants in front of you. “This place is a mess. What do you people teach your students here?”
“We don't anymore,” Jean answers. “We had a student, she had the ability to connect with all things nature. She was shy and it took her some time to settle in here. Y/n helped her with that. They built this greenhouse for her. Made an after school activity out of it which helped her connect with a few other students and allowed her to learn and develop her abilities.”
“What happened to her?” You ask, knowing it couldn't have been good based on the state of this place.
“She ran away after Y/n killed themselves,” she frowns as crushes a dead leaf in her hand. “I was too distraught to search for her. I care about her, but I was lost for months. Charles found her though and when he returned without her, he said that he had faith she would find her way back here eventually.”
“And this place?” You say, keeping this conversation going to avoid talking about anything else.
“The other students were too conflicted to keep up with this place and no one else in the staff cared enough to take on the extra work. I would have, for Y/n, but I couldn't.” Tears spring to her eyes as she remembers that this was the place that she told Y/n that she wanted to build a family with them. The topic had been a tough one between the two. Y/n wasn't sure they believed in marriage and Jean couldn't ever see herself as a mother. At one point neither of them thought they were safe enough to have a child of their own. But watching you be so attentive and caring towards the students made her wonder what it would be like to adopt and raise a kid or two together. It started here, with Y/n on their knees and explaining to the insecure mutant the importance of her abilities, where Jean got the idea to start a life outside of this school. The two had spent most of their life dedicated to the institute that at first the idea of leaving didn’t seem possible. Then once the seed was planted in their heads it kept growing until the idea excited the couple rather than scaring them. She couldn't look at this greenhouse once Y/n passed. It represented everything that was taken from her.
“My school had a greenhouse long before I got there,” you say. “It was bigger than this. A complete mess by the time I got to it. Worse than this place. I was kind of a troublemaker when I was first brought there and the last punishment I ever had was having to keep a place like this clean for a month. Professor Xavier made certain he was the one to keep an eye on me while I worked.” The corner of your mouth lifts up at the memory that felt like another life. “I ended up spending time there everyday until the day I graduated. It was relaxing,” you set the gardening tool in your hand down and look at Jean. The moon was shining through the transparent roofing, it provided enough light for you to see that she had some tears in her eyes.
A piece of you felt guilty for wanting to comfort her. “It's what led me to Wanda,” you continue. “She was the only friend I had that would help me out with it. Everyone else thought it was weird that I spent a lot of time here. It took me sometime to realize that she did it because she had a crush on me. She still uses it against me sometimes. I saw it as just hanging out with a friend and she saw it as the only time that we could be alone without anyone interrupting and really connect with each other. When I finally caught up with her, I asked her to be my girlfriend at that greenhouse,” you reminisce. Jean wipes some tears and now you feel bad for mentioning it. “Sorry,” you grab another tool and try to find a plant to work on.
Jean cracks a smile, “What for? I can hear about you falling for your wife without losing my mind. You know that right?”
“No, I didn’t know that actually,” you bite your bottom lip in thought, “I guess I’ve just been thinking about being in your shoes. I’m not sure I’d be able to hear about how Wanda fell for someone else without completely falling apart.”
Jean shrugs, “Y/n chose to leave me in quite a permanent way. So I guess–”
“They didn’t choose to leave you, Jean,” you correct. She takes a step closer and you clench your jaw as you try to bring the details of that nightmare to the forefront of your mind. “I didn’t know that’s what you believed but, that’s not what happened. Y/n, they were fighting voices and shadows, the rope that took them was enchanted with a magic so dark they didn’t have a chance against it alone. But they did fight.”
“Do you know if they had any last words or anything?” Jean asks but all you can do is shake your head. You weren’t given that much. What you remember from that dream was fear the most. You originally thought it was an anxiety dream. Who wouldn’t? There were a lot of whispers of unfamiliar voices and dark figures, a noose with glowing shapes at the school you hadn’t visited in years at that point. There weren’t any details beyond that. “They didn’t leave me,” Jean whispers in relief.
“No, they didn’t,” you confirm.
“Thank you,” she says. Then she closes her eyes and blinks a couple of times as she remembers why she came here in the first place. “I’m sorry for what Simon said to you. He spent the entire trip trying to convince me to follow some asinine plan to get you to fall for me so that he could have your wife. Which is ridiculous because he tried something like this in his universe and it got him kicked out of the organization there. And I would never–”
“Jean, it’s fine. I know he was just trying to get a rise out of me. I can’t say that I blame him,” you cut her off. “I should have cleared my head better before the meeting. I thought I had, but I don’t know. Seeing the amount of people we have and reliving that mission over and over again so I could explain it to everyone… it got to me. I shouldn’t have let it.”
“It’s understandable,” she puts her hand on your wrist to pull your attention away from the plant. “You saw something that isn’t quite easy to comprehend. I wouldn’t know what I would do if I knew I had to fight against you.”
“That’s the thing, it’s not just fighting against her, Jean. We have to kill her. Otherwise, this might never end.” You state with a shaky tone. “I have spent so much of my life trying to keep Wanda alive, I don’t know how–”
“If it comes down to that, I will do it,” Jean promises. “Besides, I don’t think I have to remind you that the Scarlet Witch and Wanda are two completely different people. She sent me here because she knew what you needed right now. She put your needs in front of her insecurities. The Scarlet Witch is only thinking of herself and how much power she can acquire.”
You nod your head as flashes of the mission invade your thoughts again. You have to remind yourself what you’re seeing isn’t someone that you love and know. But an enemy you must defeat. Your breathing quickens as you get trapped in the memory. Your arm stings worse than when it happened and you let out a scream. Jean grabs the part of your arm that is glowing and does her best to siphon the magical poison out of you. As she tries to help, you are shown flashes of images that don't make a lot of sense. You see Wanda and the Scarlet Witch facing each other, then flashes of everyone on the team, bodies of kids on the ground in front of the school, and just as you're about to see something else, Jean successfully removes the acid from your arm ending the connection.
“Thank you,” you pant out as you look at your slow healing arm.
“I think this is the real cause of your panic attack,” Jean says as she holds up a jar of the glowing acid. “We need to send this out as soon as possible. Who knows what she has done to it.”
“You’re right,” you clear your throat. “She could be tracking us with it.” You shake your head, “Dammit! I might've put us all in worse danger!” You angrily grab the jar and march out to the main platform for multiversal travel. Not wanting to waste much time, you open a portal to get you there faster. Once you're at the device, you pick a place at random and send the jar there. Hoping it would buy you guys more time. Jean lands beside you just after the jar has disappeared and asks if you're going to be okay. “Yeah,” you nod, “We should get some rest. I'm sure training is going to start early tomorrow. Don't want to be groggy.” You make another portal to get you from the platform to your room where Wanda was already tucked in bed.
You're not surprised to find her wide awake, waiting for you to return. You smile as you remind yourself of her kindness and her pure heart. “I love you,” you say as you join her on the bed.
“Aren’t you going to change out of that?” She gestures to your thick and slightly uncomfortable supersuit. You shrug and with a snap of your fingers, it transforms into comfortable pajamas. Wanda laughs as you climb on top of her and pepper her face with kisses. “What has gotten into you all of the sudden?” She squeals.
“I already told you,” you say as you continue kissing every inch of exposed skin, which wasn’t much room to work with. “I love you!”
Wanda giggles, “I know, but earlier you seemed…”
You stop abruptly and pull away slightly, “I know, I know. I’m sorry about that I jus–”
“No, don't tell me,” Wanda places both hands on the sides of your head. “Show me,” she closes her eyes and pulls your head to meet against hers. You take a breath before you think about the mission again for her to see. When it's over Wanda kisses your lips slowly, opening her eyes. Yours remain shut, afraid of what your wife will read from your eyes. “Look at me,” she requests softly. She repeats herself one more time before you open your eyes. Staring into hers brings you such relief, your entire body relaxes. “You know that I'm not her, right?” You nod and she caresses your face with her knuckles and you take her hand to your lips. “I love you too. Now, let's get some sleep. We have a full day tomorrow, we’ll need the rest. At least I will.” You fall off of Wanda and lay on your side. She does the same, facing away from you so that she can lean her back against you as you hold her. The two of you fall fast asleep into a dreamless sleep for once.
Training the most powerful beings in the multiverse is no easy task - in fact, many would say it's impossible. It all gets worse, however, when you add the factor that none of them really know each other - maybe just other versions of themselves, but it's nowhere near the same. So neither knows the limitations and qualities that the others have to offer. So how do you train these people? Well, that's what you are trying to do in the large training hall at Xavier's School for Gifted Children. At least it was, until a bunch of teenagers came through the front door.
Raven walks to them first, and you, Carol, Jean and Simon follow her soon after. Wanda and Vision were busy with the monitors. Approaching the group, you see that all of them are wearing the Institute's uniform. But unlike your universe's blue and gray outfit, theirs is yellow and blue. You think that this combination makes them look like cartoon characters, but you decide to keep the comment to yourself - especially considering Raven's furious expression. "What are you doing here?"
"We came to help." Says a tall boy with dark blond hair, to which the other teenagers nod and murmur their agreement.
You and your group exchange apprehensive looks, and you're the first one asking, "How old are you, kid?" You notice they all avoid your gaze, and you wonder if all of them are under the age of eighteen. You don't think that's the case, but you're only confused by their reaction to your question when you remember Jean's reaction upon seeing you. They weren't uncomfortable with your question, they were uncomfortable with you.
"Enough." It's a girl who answers this time, with dark makeup and white streaks in her auburn hair. You try to remember whether you've seen these people at the Institute before, but nothing comes to mind. You wonder if they just don't exist in your universe or if they joined the school after you left. A hand on your forearm wakes you up from your thoughts, and you look to the side to find Jean inviting you and the rest to a spot farther away from the children to talk in privacy.
"What are we thinking about this?" The redhead asks with her arms crossed, looking at each of you for opinions.
The blonde by her side is the first to offer, "They're kids."
You look at the group by the door again - who is looking back at you with anticipation - and Jean says what's on your mind before you can do so. "Not all of them."
"Jean-"
"Not to mention, the Witch will have lackeys." Carol interrupts the shapeshifter, who looks at the Captain as if she was about to rip her head off at any minute now. "What?!" Danvers raises her hands in surrender at the almost growl the other lets out, taking a step back for precaution. "I don't mean it like that-"
"Carol, has a point, honestly." You are the one who interrupts this time, in an attempt to prevent the impending fight between the two women. You find it amusing that Captain Marvel, the most powerful being in her own reality, is so afraid of Raven. But you decide not to comment on it in order to keep talking, "the Witch may have an army we don't know about. Not as strong as her, but certainly enough to keep us busy. Our focus should be on her. Perhaps, with a group of our own, it will be easier to stop her. This will only end when she's out of the picture."
"Is that any way to talk about your wife?" Simon is the first to speak after you're done, his voice harsh and judgmental, and you can't control your own irritated scoff as you turn back to him.
"She is my wife." You say through gritted teeth, pointing at where Wanda and Vision are debating something about the monitors, but the man doesn't take his eyes off of you. "And while we're on the subject you'd better stay away from her." You poke his chest hard as you're done, making the rest of the group hold their breaths. But Simon only scoffs, a disgusting smirk on his lips that makes your blood boil.
"Do we have a problem?"
"Y/n." You only notice your fists are glowing when Carol rests her hand on your shoulder. You take a deep breath to calm your nerves, and soon the purplish energy that covered your entire figure dissipates, the stardust reminiscent of the Infinity Stones - with its microscopic fragments of their specific colors - giving way to your normal human body. Simon watches your glowing eyes return to their normal coloration without blinking, and you need to contain a smirk as you notice, from his clenched jaw, the apprehension he felt.
"So?" You get back to the main topic as if nothing had happened, pretending not to see the way the rest of the group exchange uneased looks. As you wait for a response, you glance at Wanda on the other side of the room, but you don't let your eyes linger too long as you see the brunette is already looking at you, with her eyebrows furrowed in that way she always does when she's worried. The quiet seconds drag on for a while, but don't make up a full minute before Raven sighs in surrender.
"Fine. But only those who are over 18," Raven determines, and doesn't let Carol speak as she adds, "end of discussion." The blond mutant then leaves, stomping toward the group of teenagers still waiting by the door.
"I was just going to say I agree with her, geez," Captain Marvel grumbles as she walks away from the group as well, rolling her eyes as she heads to where the training dummies are.
You can't help but let out a low laugh, shaking your head lightly before you turn your attention to Jean. "She really cares about them, doesn't she?"
"She does. She always has." The redhead confirms with a sweet smile at the thought of her friend, and you offer her a soft smile as well, tapping her shoulder lightly before heading to where Wanda is - without failing to exchange a glare with Simon, who has his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watches you leave. You hear the two talking about the training ahead of you, but you don't pay much attention to it as you finally join your lovely wife by the monitors.
"Is everything alright?" She holds your hand as soon as you're close enough to touch, and you frown in confusion as you let your fingers slide in between hers.
"Yeah, why?" The question makes her smile with amusement, tilting her head towards where Simon and Jean are still talking.
"You almost jumped on that guy's neck." The observation makes you look away, and you have to stop yourself from rolling your eyes as you grumble.
"It was not a big deal, don't worry about it."
"You know, I don't need to read your mind to know when you're jealous." She points out right away, and you see her smirk is as teasing as her tone when you look up at her again. You don't answer, however, mumbling something the brunette can't understand as you avert your gaze once more, and Wanda can't help but find it all endearing. "I'm yours, you know?" She tugs on your entwined hands for you to look back at her, casting you a loving smile when you do so.
"You better tell him that." You hit back with annoyance, but you're not really bothered anymore - not when she's so close to you, her mere presence providing you with all the serenity you need. Your comment makes the brunette giggle heartily, amusement written in every one of her features.
"Oh, I will." You barely have time to frown in confusion at her answer before she pulls you closer, her hand on your neck to bring your mouth to hers.
You smile against the kiss as you match it, all your muscles relaxing as she slides her tongue on yours, letting go of your hand to take both of hers to your hair, playing with it in her fingertips. You take advantage of your empty hands to hold her around the waist, wrapping your arms around her so her body is pressed flush against yours, enjoying the warmth she provides you, the feel of the-
"Alright, lovebirds, let's get to work." Carol breaks the moment completely as she throws a styrofoam ball at your back. You and Wanda break the kiss with amused laughs, and you turn your back on your wife just to glare at the blonde woman who had just attacked you. Danvers, however, fakes an innocent expression, and you only laugh some more as you shake your head, entertained.
Thor stumbles into the training hall with a strange jug that you're assuming came with him from Asgard. “I thought we could use more soldiers,” he slurs. Everyone exchanges confused glances. “So I grabbed your travel thingy and went home to grab a few friends,” he grins as an Asgardian army charge into the training center behind him. Every single one of them were about as drunk and as massive as Thor is. Raven, who was standing by her students, looks at the large group across the room then smirks at Carol, Jean, Simon, and you before turning back to the young mutants and sending them back home with Jean's help.
“Well, she got her way,” Carol says, a little impressed.
“To be fair, you did have a point about numbers over strength. We should have prioritized a large army of people willing to fight after we failed with getting more people like us.” You throw an energy orb at the moving target in front of you. The simulation strikes back and knocks you on your ass. “Dammit!” You groan as you stand up.
“Hmm, maybe Simon was right about you,” Carol teases.
You don't entertain a comment as you restart the program. You've been out of the game for a while. You couldn't even guess how many years it's been since the last time you've trained. But, you didn't mind this new challenge. Everything in your life with Wanda has been too easy. Not that either of you minded, after almost losing each other and everything you've built together, it was nice to have it easy. But without challenge, life can get a little stale and it’s hard to realize what it is that is missing. Working through each training station wakes you up as you realize, this mission alone might be your true purpose in life. Looking over at Wanda as she laughs at something Jean says, you feel a little guilty. With the thought crossing your mind that this mission might just be the last you ever complete and not because you’ll be returning to your retirement. Despite what you promised your wife.
Over the course of the next couple days, everyone works hard on strategies and executing each and everyone of them in a hyper realistic simulation. Fighting against a fake Scarlet Witch that is equipped with every ability that they know of. Even with just those she was nearly impossible to beat. Only one practice had the outcome of Wanda surviving. But she was the only person to survive. It wasn’t everyone’s preferred outcome. Although it was one that you and Simon could agree on. It was the only thing the two of you could agree on.
The two of you were still butting heads on every little thing. If he wanted someone to go left you made a compelling argument as to why they had to go right. If you wanted someone to be in the air, he wanted them on the ground. It got to the point that neither of you were allowed to provide ideas anymore. But as the team ran through each strategy that Raven, Carol, and Vision came up with, there were enough clear errors that you and Simon just had to fix. It wasn't until the two of you stepped aside and settled on a few solutions together to present to the rest of the team that they let the pair of you speak again.
Several more practice runs and the amount of victories surpassed the amount of losses. The team began to feel safer and grow more confident in each other and themselves. There was still some looming anxiety over the unpredictability of the actual Scarlet Witch. No one knew for certain the extent of the damage she was capable of. But there wasn’t anything to be done other than to hope for the best.
Once the last run ends horribly, Thor looks around at the tired faces of his team and an idea pops into his head. “You know what we need?” Some turn to him, others are too exhausted. “A party!” He cheers and everyone exchanges glances with each other. Not quite sure if they are up to breaking for a party when they don’t feel like celebrating. “Come on, it’s been days since you guys ran in with this witch. She hasn’t arrived. We still have time to figure all of this out. We need this.”
Carol is the first one of the group to speak up, “He’s right. Couldn’t be bad to party for the night.” She nudges Raven, who has sort of become the unofficial leader, and nods to the rest of you.
Raven looks around then to Carol's pleading eyes and sighs, “Yeah. I think we could use the moral boost.”
Thor claps his hands, “It’s settled then! Tonight, we party like Gods!” He raises Mjölnir in the air as he makes his declaration. His voice booms in the simulation room and his excited energy has a positive effect on everyone as they separate to get cleaned up and rest before the impromptu event.