mama maximoff
They all waited patiently, hearts jumping at every gust of wind, heads turning towards every blurred object that passed their vision, waiting for Peter to come back. They knew he was upset, so they knew they needed to give him time to cool off. They were a little worried after a while, but most of them tried not to let it bother them.
The adults let the first few days pass by, but Charles started to seriously worry after the week passed. The telepath tried to locate Peter using Cerebro, and his worry only increased when he couldn’t find the boy anywhere. Usually, that meant one thing and one thing only, but Peter was special. Neither Charles nor Jean had ever been able to read his mind, it was too fast and only caused them pain when they tried, so Charles decided that was why Cerebro couldn’t find him, not for any other reason. Definitely not.
The younger ones resorted to sticking together, mostly just distracting each other but sometimes bouncing theories off of each other about where Peter might be, whether it be a serious guess or a wisecracking remark. That’s what they were doing one morning when Charles, Hank, and Raven found them, the three coming back from another failed attempt at locating Peter.
“What if we ask his mom?” Kurt suggested as the adults walked in, “Do you think she would know where he would go?”
“Maybe.” Jean agreed, Scott nodding in agreement.
Ororo contemplated for a moment, “Have we seen if he’s with his mother? He did live with her for a long time.”
Charles looked towards the teens at the suggestion. “That may be something to check, actually. But if Peter wants some time alone it’s better to call rather than barge in uninvited.” He directed the last sentence towards Hank, the doctor nodding and picking up the rotary in the corner of the room. They had a list of all students' emergency contacts next to every phone in the mansion, so Hank was able to find the number pretty easily.
“Hello? Who is this?” Came the voice of a woman from the other side of the call, not that anyone other than Hank heard her.
“Hello, this is Dr. Hank McCoy, I work at Xavier’s Academy for Gifted Youngsters? Is this Peter Maximoff’s mother?”
The woman chuckled slightly. “Not necessarily. I’m Magda, his aunt, but if you want to call me his mom go ahead. What did he do this time?” She sighed, sounding tired.
Hank blinked. Aunt? “Uh, he didn’t do anything. Peter ran off about a week ago and we were wondering if he went home. Or if you know where he might’ve gone.”
There was silence on the line for a moment. Hank was about to say something but heard a quiet voice whisper before he could. “A week ago?”
Hank nodded, forgetting Magda couldn’t see him. “Uh, yeah. Exactly a week ago.”
There was a sharp intake of breath and Hank’s brows knit together in confusion. “Oh, Pietro…” Magda breathed before coming to her senses. “No, no. He’s not here. And I don’t know where he would be otherwise. Could you… is there any way you could make a house call? I feel like this is something we should talk about more in person. Not… not over the phone.”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course. We can be there in an hour or two.” Hank replied. Magda hung up without another word and Hank pulled the receiver from his ear, looking at it in confusion at the exchange.
“Well?” Raven asked impatiently.
Hank put the receiver back and turned to face everyone. Everyone was looking at him, waiting. “He’s not there. His aunt said she doesn’t know where he would’ve gone, either.”
“His aunt?” Ororo asked in confusion.
Kurt also looked confused. “I thought we were calling his mother?”
Hank sighed, pulling off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. “That’s not what’s important.” Hank slipped his glasses back on and looked at Charles. “She wants us to meet her so she can give us the whole story.”
Charles nodded, shared a glance with Raven and announced “Let’s be on our way, then.”
An hour later saw the three adults pulling into the driveway of the Maximoff residence. The younger X-Men had tried to come along but were swiftly denied. They supposed they should’ve expected someone to be waiting for them, but a 14 year old girl with long, dark green hair wasn’t who they imagined. Raven (currently in her more human disguise) watched the teen curiously as she got out of the car, Hank helping Charles into his chair. The girl gave them an analyzing look as they neared the front door. “Are you the people from the academy?” She finally spoke.
Charles raised an eyebrow. “Yes. We are. I’m Charles Xavier.” He extended a hand for the young girl to shake, her facial expression remaining the same.
“Lorna.” She responded, taking his hand politely. “I’m Peter’s sister… technically.”
“Technically?” Raven questioned, confused.
Lorna smiled slightly. “It’s a long story. Come in. Mom told me why you’re here. We have a lot of shit to cover.” She told them, smiling sadly as she opened the door.
“Language, young lady!” Called a voice from inside the house, Hank recognizing it as Peter’s aunt. Lorna didn’t respond, merely rolling her eyes and leading everyone inside. The inside of the house seemed normal, a little cluttered but not messy. An open floor plan meant they could clearly see the brunette woman making coffee in the kitchen. “Any of you want a drink?” She offered, Hank took the offer, but Charles and Raven refused.
Eventually they moved towards the couch and chairs of the living room, the woman taking a swig of her coffee from a chair and Lorna sitting cross-legged on an ottoman. They all sat in silence for a moment, no one daring to speak.
Until Lorna got bored of the silence, that is. “What day did you say he ran off?” She asked suddenly, looking between the three adults.
“I believe it was the 2nd.” Charles answered amicably.
The teen nodded and scoffed somewhat sadly. “Yeah, that tracks.” The three were all taken aback by the reaction.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Raven asked, perhaps a bit too heatedly.
Magda cut in before Lorna could get upset. “March is always a little hard on him, the 2nd especially. There’s so many bad memories associated with the day.” Charles raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t comment. Magda tensed slightly and smiled at them, sadly. “Peter… he’s always been a handful. But there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his sisters.”
Hank looked up from sipping his coffee in confusion. “As in, plural?”
Magda smiled sadly yet again. “Let me explain some things. It’ll help you understand. My sister Marya had Peter and his sister Wanda, twins, after leaving Europe with me. She was weak after they were born, always sick. She wasn’t able to work, so I took care of the whole financial situation. Sometimes, she couldn’t even get out of bed, so I took care of the twins. All the way until they were 7 and Marya passed away.”
Charles looked baffled, awkward, unsure how to take the information. “I was unaware Peter had a twin.” He shared two quick glances with Raven and Hank. He blearily wondered if Erik had a history of twins in his family.
“Because he doesn’t.” Lorna interrupted, rolling her eyes. The adults looked at her in confusion. “Not anymore.” She stated coldly.
Magda sighed as a sad fog descended over the two. “Wanda died. When Peter was 15.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Raven commented offhandedly, deep in thought. “March 2nd?”
“Was when her powers became too much for her and basically vaporized her? Yeah.” Lorna was cold, blunt. She had been young when Wanda died, and she only had good memories of her. But her last memory of her older sister was blinding red light swallowing Wanda whole, leaving nothing behind except a distraught twin brother and a traumatized little sister.
“Lorna!” Magda scolded softly, eyes misting in grief.
Lorna raised an eyebrow in challenge. “What?! It’s what happened! Wanda’s mutation lashed out and tore her apart! I’m not wrong. You just don’t want to hear it. You never do.” With a finality in her words, she stormed out of the front door, but a lack of receding steps told them she merely was out on the porch.
Charles raised an eyebrow. “She was a mutant? Like Peter?”
Magda nodded. “Her mutation… she was powerful. Very powerful. She couldn’t control it all the time, and the things it would do… she hated it.”
Raven looked solemn, yet intrigued. “What was it? Her power?”
The woman sighed, smiling bitterly. “We never really figured it out for sure. At first we thought it was just telekinesis and minor telepathy. The first things she would do were taking her toys away from Peter when he wouldn’t share, and she once tattled by projecting the memory into my mind. But as she got older, things started happening that didn’t fit that. There were times when she literally changed one thing into another. She turned my vase into a cat.”
Hank choked on his coffee. “What?”
Magda was smiling, almost laughing. “Yeah. We had to give it to one of our neighbors.” Her mood turned solemn as she got back on topic. “And then in her teenage years things started exploding, or melting, or shattering. She didn’t mean to, her powers were getting stronger and none of us knew what to do. Then… March 2nd.”
“Do you mind…” Charles started slowly, his tone gentle, “Telling us what happened?”
Tears formed in the redhead’s eyes, and she sniffed. “I got married a year or two after Lorna was born. He wasn’t a good man. He made sure not to hurt me in front of the kids but Wanda was always smart, she knew something wasn’t right. March 2nd, Lorna was home sick. And my husband was in a bad mood. She did something, I’m not sure what and he just… snapped. He yelled so loud I was sure the neighbors were gonna call the cops. Wanda came home earlier than we expected. She came in the room just in time to see him hit Lorna for the first time. She started screaming at him and her powers started reacting to her emotions. “
“Her eyes… she always had such pretty eyes. I assume she got them from her father. They glowed. They were furious and a scarlet red, the same color her power usually was. Her power was leaking out of her, everywhere. I had never seen it do that before. She used her power to push Lorna away from my husband and I stopped thinking. I grabbed Lorna and ran. Not far, just to the driveway. Lorna was crying, screaming really. And anyone on our block who had been home were outside just staring at us. I could still hear Wanda yelling inside, and my husband started to yell back. And then… it was silent. There was nothing. I saw one of my neighbors on their phone, they were calling the police. I thought it was over. I didn’t know what Wanda had done to my husband but I thought it was done. But right as I turned to come back inside the house… it didn’t explode. More like it… collapsed in on itself. Like there was a vacuum at the center pulling everything in. And it glowed red, but I knew Wanda would never destroy her home, not on purpose. Even when there was only debris, the red didn’t stop. “
“That was when Peter got home. Track ended early. He saw the house, the remnants of Wanda’s power and something in him, I think something broke. He… blurred. And then his blur searched every inch of the destruction. I don’t even know how fast he was going. For all I know he could have searched the rubble thousands of times. Even when he stopped running he still was a blur. The neighbors were all freaking out. I didn’t know what to do, I still was holding Lorna and she was screaming her head off, she was only 6. I couldn’t just take Peter and leave, you can’t exactly touch him when he’s in that state. So before anyone could approach us I put Lorna in the car, and talked to him. It’s hard for him to understand anything when he’s that fast, but it was the only thing I could do. He understood, though. Slowed down, got in the car. And then we drove all the way to New York. He was quiet the whole time. I was in shock. We had nothing left, literally.”
“I built my life you see now from the ground up. Even as Lorna grew into a rebellious teenager and Peter’s grief made him steal. He wasn’t always a thief. The kleptomania formed because he didn’t know how else to handle the loss. But even that has never been enough of an output. So every year, on March 2nd, he’s not himself. He overthinks, he fusses like a mother hen, he throws a tantrum, or… he runs.” She swipes hand under her eyes, brushing away tears. The three mutants understood now, everything made too much sense. Peter had been running from his grief for years, and he wasn’t stopping now. “But he’s never been gone for a whole week. At most he’d be away for a day or two. Something about this doesn’t feel right.”
Hank sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That makes so much sense now.”
Charles had been silent throughout the entire story, sadness for the boy he had grown to care for blooming in his mind. But something still bothered him. “Magda… do you mind if I go speak to your daughter?”
The woman nodded silently. “Lorna… hasn’t been herself in recent months. I think something happened but she won’t talk to me. Teenage rebellion is a bitch.”
Charles gave her a small smile, his thoughts racing. He stood up and as he walked to the door his mind drifted to Erik. The man had lost so much in his life, more than he even knew. Charles wasn’t looking forward to the discussion he needed to have with the man, but for now he needed to focus on something else.
Little Lorna, who was sitting outside. Little Lorna, who was not exactly broadcasting her thoughts, but Charles could still feel an overwhelming sadness and a unique anxiety coming from the girl. Little Lorna, who was broadcasting her anxiety over being a mutant.