Chapter 104: Wanda

3rd September 2005, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda was barely thirteen years old when she was left in this hellhole. Abandoned by her father and her brother because of their fear of her powers. Truth be told, Wanda wasn’t really sure who she was angrier with. Her twin brother was with her since birth. They had promised each other to stay together forever and he just spat on everything they had together, thirteen years of being inseparable, being each other’s pillars. When their mother and step father died in Sokovia in the explosion created by that damn Stark, they were each other’s pillars of support.

Even when they were alone, they had each other. But all of that disappeared when that man came to get them. Their birth father, Magneto, tracked them down after two years living in the streets of a war torn country. These two years had changed them, Wanda knew that. It was something she tried not to think about. Pietro developed his sense of humor to deal with what happened, a way to find a silver lining for everything. So, when their supposed birth father found them, they both latched into him without a second’s thought. Anything was better than the streets.

The next few years were one of the happiest of her life. Magneto had taken them to America and for the first time in her life, she could live like those old TV series she watched with her mother and step father back in Sokovia. Sure, she was bullied because of her foreign accent but after a while it faded away. But most of all, she was glad that her brother started to live for himself once more. There was a light in his eyes that was gone after their parents died.

Of course, all good things come to an end and it started when they got their powers. Pietro was the first one to unlock his powers. He could move in super speed. It was really impressive but when they showed it to their father, he didn’t say anything and Wanda could see the disappointment in his eyes that Pietro inherited his control over metals. Nevertheless, it was enough for him to get preferential treatment. It was slow at first, but Wanda’s father started to pay more attention to her brother. He smiled whenever he looked at Pietro, he started training him to control his powers.

And for the first time in her life, Wanda was alone. She had always had her brother, even when they had lost everything, they had each other. But they were being slowly getting apart because of his powers. So, Wanda thought that perhaps if she had any powers, she wouldn’t be left behind. So, every day, Wanda would focus with all her might and wish for her powers to manifest. She did this for months without seeing any results. But Wanda was persistent, she loved her brother and a part of her wanted her father to be proud of her as well. She grew to love the man, distant as he was, over the years.

She kept doing this little exercise until one day, when she was eleven, something clicked and the world around her shook. She had passed out but she did so with a smile on her face. She wasn’t going to be alone anymore. She had powers.

When she woke up, she expected to see Pietro’s look of awe, her father’s subtle proud smile he gave her brother when he got a breakthrough with his powers. But all she got were looks of fear from her brother and wariness from her father. She later learnt that she almost destroyed their house. People attributed what happened to an earthquake but she knew what had happened and it terrified her.

They ended up moving away from the city and her father did end up trying to train her. For a couple of months at least. She still had no control over her abilities. She didn’t even know what her abilities were in the first place. It destroyed everything around her. She pushed her brother away when he startled her once. It sometimes transformed things into something else. She doesn’t really know how to explain it but she had somehow transformed her brother’s sneakers into birds. Thankfully, she was alone, and Pietro thought that he just lost them somewhere. Seeing no progress with her powers, Magneto gave up on her and cancelled her lessons. Add insult to injury, she wasn’t allowed to leave the house until she had control over her powers.

But what hurt her the most was the fear in brother’s eyes whenever he looked at her. They had been inseparable for years and yet now, he is scared of her. Perhaps she was a monster? Was he right to be so afraid of her?

So, Wanda didn’t leave their house for almost two years, until one day, her father took her and her brother on a trip. Wanda was ecstatic; she was finally going to leave the house. She was hopeful that her father recognized what he did and would start to take care of her once more. That hope was crushed when she was taken to this place. The Vault. A prison, in the shape of a mental institution. A Place that should supposedly help people but was in fact a place to indefinitely hold dangerous people with powers.

Her father and brother left her there, without a single word, without even saying goodbye. She never saw them after that fateful day.

At first, she couldn’t understand. Why had her father abandoned her? It wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t control her powers. She tried her best, she really did. Was that not enough? Her powers reacted to her wild emotions, destroying everything in the room. They didn’t give her any replacement. She had lived for years without even a single bed. No one even tried to help her? Wasn’t this a place to help people like her?

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For the first few months, she cried out for her father to return but after time passed, her tears dried out and all that was left was rage. She had almost killed a few of the guards with her powers in her rage. After that, the only interaction she had with another person was the latch the guards used to give her food. She swore that she would get revenge on her father for what he’s done to her. But she couldn’t bring herself to hate her brother. She didn’t know if she ever could. Whenever she thought of him, she saw two images, the one from her beloved brother before they left Sokovia and then the boy who did nothing as her father gave her away.

That was until he came. She had lost count of the days then. Maybe it was months later, maybe it was years later, but she had received her first visitor. A foolish part of her wished for them to be her father or her brother. But it was a strange bald man in a wheelchair. He called himself Charles Xavier.

They talked about what happened and the man refused to let her out. She had made the mistake of telling him about her feelings towards her father and it scared her. She could see it in his eyes. Still, the man left without doing anything.

Every few months or so, the man returned, hoping that she would give up on her hatred. He didn’t understand that hatred was all she had. Every time they would argue, and he would leave. She almost attacked him once, but the guards electrocuted her before she could even twitch.

And now, here she was. Seventeen years old, according to Xavier anyway. She was huddled in the corned of her dark cold room. The night sky was visible from her window. It was raining, not that she cared anyway. She had grown used to the cold a long time ago.

If she was honest with herself, Wanda would admit that she had given up on escaping. The only was she could do so would be with her powers and she had no control over them. Even if she could train them, she was still constantly under surveillance which means that her jailers will always know what she’s capable of.

Then only thing that kept her from sinking into the despair was her rage. Rage at her father abandoning her, rage at her jailors, rage at her brother, rage at Stark for killing her mother, rage at the world itself. It had kept her from becoming a shell of a person. Not that it hadn’t been a close call. Her constant attempts to attack everyone around her were the only way to express her sense of self. No one could control her emotions; they were hers and hers alone.

Like every night, she let out a scream of rage, hoping that someone outside this prison would hear her.

“Well, aren’t you a cheery little girl?” an amused voice said, behind her.

Wanda whirled around at the speed of lightning; this was the first time in years that she heard a voice in her cell. No one dared enter her ‘room’ after she almost killed one of the guards. They always restrained her when they took her outside, which was a very rare occasion.

She looked at the intruder. It was a woman, she had long wavy black hair and green eyes that seemed to illuminate the room. The woman was smiling at her. No one smiled at her for a very long time.

This can’t be real; it just couldn’t be. Good things do not happen to Wanda Maximoff “Great, I’m imagining things now…”

The woman smiled sadly at her, “I am very much real, Wanda. But I know that you won’t believe it anyway. So, assume that I am real. What do you have to lose by doing so?”

Still, years of self preservation won against the disarming smile the woman sent to her and walked aggressively towards the woman, “Who the hell are you?”

The woman didn’t even flinch at her threatening body language, “My name is Jasmine, little one. And I have an offer to give you.”

“What kind of offer?”

“Well, I find myself in need of an apprentice and decided to offer you the position.”

What? Wanda hadn’t been expecting that. Apprentice, who even says that anymore? “Well, as you can see, I’m not going anywhere.”

“But that doesn’t have to be that way. I can let you out, if you so wish.”

Fear gripped Wanda’s heart. For the first time, the prospect of getting out was a tangible thing. If the woman was telling the truth or if she was real in the first place not some sort of imaginary friend she made up. But the question was, should she get out. She still had no control over her powers. She could hurt people, hurt the kind woman. She knew the answer even if she didn’t like it.

Wanda whispered “I can’t. My powers, they’re dangerous.”

The woman must have heard her because Wanda found herself enveloped in a hug. When was the last time someone had given her a hug? It was her brother, before she got her cursed powers. It seems like so long ago. She missed the feeling, the comfort. This reminded her of her mother when she tucked her brother and her in bed. Wanda couldn’t help but tear up at the feeling.

“Oh, you poor thing. You’re not going to hurt me. I’m going to help you how to control your powers.”

“How?” She had tried everything and nothing worked.

“I’m like you, dear.”

This simple sentence shocked Wanda to the core. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t some sort of freak. But Wanda had been hurt before. She had to be sure before hoping for anything, “Prove it!”

The woman let go of her and smiled. Suddenly, the world shifter around her. Some sort of strange red light moved around the world, changing it. Suddenly, instead of a prison cell, there was a room. It was quite nice, with a bed that looked comfortable, a closet filled with clothes. There were even little dolls in the corner. But more importantly, it used the same red energy she did when she used her powers. The woman wasn’t lying. Wanda wasn’t alone.

For the first time in years, Wanda had hope. It eclipsed her rage, swallowing it hole. Wanda wasn’t alone and she wasn’t going to let go of this woman anytime soon.

“I’m in!”

The woman smiled at her and the wall behind her started to slowly melt into a door. But instead of leading to the outside of her prison, there was a giant house on the other side. It even had a large garden around. Could she do this as well?

“Well, what are you waiting for? Allons-y!”

Wanda jumped forwards.