Chapter 144: Meteor
5th June 2006, New York City
(Wanda Maximoff POV)
Wanda didn’t know that Jasmine had such an impact at her birth father. The witch found herself feeling quite free with her final chain to Magneto being severed.
The man continued, “And with that said, I cannot allow the Morrigan to have an apprentice. She’s a threat, not just to me, but to our kind. I cannot allow a second Morrigan to be born, especially one with your powers. I am sorry, Wanda, but this is for the best.”
Magneto raised his hands and thousands of things made of metals started to levitate. The man started to float, looking threatening. Wanda in return, let her powers flow through her, and started to levitate too, “You’re just proving my point, Magneto, but if you want a fight, I’m more than happy to oblige.”
Father and daughter stared at each other for a few seconds, before leaping at each other.
Wanda was the first to attack, sending a powerful hex bolt at her birth father. It’s a spell she created that came naturally to her. In its essence, the spell turns the will of the universe itself against the user, it’s the magical expression of Murphy’s law; anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Jasmine had been very surprised by this spell, although she could easily cast something similar, the older woman had admitted that it took her a long time to manipulate probabilities to that extent.
As she expected, the spell crashed into the magnetic shield that Magneto always had around him. Seriously, he was that paranoid.
Wanda dodged the two concussive beams sent at her by the Summers brothers. She still didn’t know what Scott’s brother’s name was. Not that she cared, really. It was just weird calling someone ‘Scott’s brother’ in her head. Anyway, Wanda retaliated by sending a telekinetic push at them, sending them flying back.
Magneto used her distraction to attack her, making the metal around the witch come to life and fly towards her. Wanda responded by charging up a pulse of magic that once unleashed, turned every single metal projectile into rose petals. For some reason, the flower petals were easy for her to picture in her head, plus, she always like the color red.
Surprised by the complete disappearance of his weapons, Magneto didn’t see her next attack coming. Jasmine had explained to her that in combat, invincibility was an illusion. There’s always a weakness, especially when dealing with the senses. People often forget to protect their sight, hearing or even smell. You could easily blind someone, use sonic attacks that would imbalance them, or use gases, to get the upper hand in a fight.
And Wanda did just that. The witch flew towards Magneto and created an orb of light in her palm, directly in front of the master of magnetism. The man was immediately blinded by the attack, and Wanda sent a telekinetic drill at the shield, trying to destroy it.
Magneto, still blind, collected every single piece of metal around and sent it at her. Wanda had to dodge since she didn’t have any time to use transmutation.
Seeing the Summers brother coming towards her, Wanda sent a telepathic message to Jean, ‘Take care of the roid brothers, I’m dealing with Magneto. And make sure that this place doesn’t blow while we’re inside. One small crack will be enough to kill us all.’
Jean sent her a telepathic confirmation and Wanda started to wonder, what the hell were the X-Men and the Brotherhood doing? Were they just standing there watching the fight? When she asked Jean, the redhead confirmed that Xavier had told them to stand down in fear of hurting Scott accidentally.
Suddenly, Wanda heard a roar coming towards her. Oh, shit, it was Sabretooth. She had forgotten about him, during the fight with her birth father. Speaking of the master of magnetism, the man looked to have recovered his sight and was sending a veritable wave of metal towards her. Wanda sent herself into the air, dodging the wave and transmuted some of it into slime that fell right in front of the leaping Sabretooth. The savage mutant slipped and fell comically, before being attacked by an angry Logan.
Wait, Logan? What the hell was he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be on Earth? This meant that the man was able to track Xavier down and travel here, somehow. Maybe using some sort of space craft.
Well, it wasn’t the time to think about it. Magneto had disassembled parts of the wall just to have enough metal to attack her again. Wanda countered by sending a telekinetic push that threw everything away, before creating a giant rotating drill of psionic energy in her hand and leaping towards her birth father.
The master of magnetism looked confident that his shield would hold and when the two attacks met. The drill kept drilling at the shield. A crack started to show, and Magneto had barely enough time to widen his eyes before the drill broke the shield and was going to impale him.
However, the man was a being with decades of fighting experience and was able to dodge the attack slightly. The attack hit, but barely grazed him. It was still enough for a good part of his gut to look shredded. Magneto screamed in pain but was able to get some metal to cover the wounded area, stabilizing the wound for the time being.
Wanda didn’t wait to seize the opportunity before sending another telekinetic push at the man and then creating a psionic sword, ready to impale the bastard. However, as soon as she almost reached his heart, Wanda was immediately pushed in super speed, saving Magneto’s life.
Wanda knew exactly who it was and snarled in anger, “Pietro!”
However, her brother’s blank face made her wary, so she immediately tried to look to his mind. What waited her made her shake in fury. Xavier was controlling her brother’s body, hoping that he would kill her and spare Magneto. Wanda didn’t wait for him to realize that Wanda knew what was happening before she froze her brother in the air using her telekinesis and leapt towards him. Wanda put her hand on her brother’s head, and with a telepathic blast, knocked him out and freeing him from Xavier’s control. It was another thing that Jasmine taught her. A telepathic blast using touch will always overpower any kind of long range telepathy, no matter its strength.
Before she could turn her eyes at Xavier, Wanda was hit by a strong gust of air, sending her flying away, before sending in a bolt of lightning at her back. Luckily, Wanda was able to create a shield to block the attack, but it was still a flimsy one which shattered immediately, sending her flying further away. Wanda righted herself in the air and landed on her feet, facing her opponent. It was Storm, who was attacking her for some reason. Another telepathic scan later, and the witch concluded that Xavier was controlling her too.
Quickly enough, Wanda sent a telekinetic blast at the woman sending her away before touching her head and using a telepathic blast, knocking her out.
With that done, Wanda turned towards her downed opponent. Magneto limped back up and glared at her, “The witch has taught you well, Wanda. I see that going easy on you will amount to nothing. I let whatever affection I held for you blind me. You’re too dangerous to be left alive, especially without any kind of supervision. At least one of my children wasn’t a disappointment. Why couldn’t you be more like your brother, Wanda; he, at the very least, appreciates my guidance and my experience.”
Wanda didn’t want to respond to his taunts and frankly didn’t care. She stopped hating the man. He was a small pathetic human being with an ego larger than the sun, who was scared of being weak or helpless, who thought that the world belonged to him, that it was his right to rule.
Instead of talking, Wanda created another drill of psionic energy and leapt at the man who was expecting a battle of words, by the surprised look on his face. The man attempted to use his shield again, and once more, the attack broke through it. Magneto obviously anticipated this because he was able to create a wall of steel, which halted the attack for enough time for him to fly away unscathed.
However, as he flew away. Wanda created a psionic sword and extended it towards the master of magnetism who couldn't see her because of the wall of steel in front of her. The attack pierced through the steel and impaled him through the shoulder.
The man was grimacing in pain as he flew away. Magneto snarled at her and raised his hands. Suddenly, the station itself started to move, to be manipulated by him. It came to life and did everything to attack the young witch.
Wanda tried to do her best, transmutating the incoming projectiles, but she was still hit a few times. There were cuts all over her body and she was starting to bleed profusely.
Magneto looked angrily at her, “It’s been a while since someone pushed me this far. You truly are of my blood. I am sure now, that you’re too dangerous to be left alive. You’ve barely scratched your potential and you’ve pushed me this far.”
Wanda was on the ground, trying to suppress the pain, “That’s all there is to it, isn’t it? You’re just scared of me surpassing you, of making you weak, helpless. You haven’t changed a bit Magneto. You might look like a charismatic, powerful leader, but that’s a lie isn’t it. You’re still the scared little boy who was too weak to save his mother. The boy who’s scared of being helpless again. You never left the camps, did you, Magneto?”
The man snarled in fury and was about to attack her again, but he was pushed away in super speed. Wanda smiled, despite her pain. Pietro had saved her; he hadn’t betrayed her. In the contrary, Magneto was gaping in shock at his son. Before he could do anything, Wanda created a psionic sword and extended it towards Magneto. The man was so shocked that he forgot to dodge or even conjure a shield. The attack went through his heart and killed him. Just to be sure Wanda walked up to the body and decapitated him.
Pietro smiled at her, “I told you. From now on, I’ll always have your back Wanda. I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”
Wanda started to tear up but was surprised when Pietro’s eyes turned blank and started to attack Wanda. Once more, Wanda simply levitated him and knocked him out. She growled, “Xavier!”
She was beyond angry, no she was beyond being furious. That man was starting to piss her off. Wanda looked at him, in anger and wasn’t surprised that he was glaring back at her. The witch looked around for Jean and found her, sweating and concentrating on something. She must be using her powers somehow and Wanda didn’t want to distract her.
One by one, every single remaining X-Men and member of the Brotherhood started to attack her with the intent to kill. Storm was first, and Wanda just waved her hand and pulled her to the ground as if she was being pressed by a giant hand, and the witch knocked her out, once more.
She dodged Logan’s leap, summoned him and knocked him out again. She then created an illusion of herself, one that was dodging the Blob’s and Lance’s attacks while her real self was knocking out the remaining mutants, aka, Scott and his brother.
She then walked behind Sabretooth who must have smelt her somehow, but he was still restrained by her telekinesis and knocked out with a telepathic blast.
Finally, the two members of the Brotherhood remaining tried to impale her illusion self, only to go through her, revealing her trickery. The real Wanda was behind them and knocked them out too.
With that done, the only mutants still standing, or in Xavier’s case sitting, were Wanda, Jean and the bald telepath himself.
Wanda looked at Jean and asked, “What’s happening?”
Jean looked pained, “Magneto’s attack destabilized the outer shell. I’m pretty much the only thing holding this place together. We need to hurry; I’m pretty much holding an entire asteroid here.”
Wanda nodded and looked at Xavier, “You have one last chance. What’s your problem with me?”
The man’s glare didn’t fade in the slightest, “You’re too dangerous. You just killed one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. Reality manipulation is not a power that anyone should have. You can change reality when it suits you. You don’t realize how dangerous that is? You could just kill all the mutants should you want; you could enslave the human race with just a thought; you could destroy this planet, rule it. The world is your playground. No one should have that power. When we discovered your powers, Wanda, what they truly are, we chose to be merciful and just imprison you. It was a kindness from my part and affection from Magneto’s. Your memories of your true capabilities would be erased, and the prison would drug you so much that achieving control over your powers would be inconceivable. It was the only way that we saw you being allowed to live. We never expected you to get out, one day, nor gain control over your abilities this quickly. We should have killed you that day. You destroyed everything. But first, it was just for the greater good, but now, you killed Eric. You killed my friend, and you made it personal. I will vow this to you, Witch, I will not rest until you are dead. I will dedicate every second of my time, every dime I own to kill you. I will train my X-Men to specifically target you and I will rid the world of your taint.”
Wanda waited for the man to end his rant and looked at him impassively, “That’s the difference between you and me. I’m not merciful to my enemies.”
Without giving him time to realize what was just said, Wanda telekinetically snapped his neck, killing Xavier immediately.
Wanda looked at Jean, who didn’t look at her with an ounce of judgement. The redhead shrugged, “I don’t know what happened to him, but if you didn’t do it, I would have done it myself.”
Wanda relaxed, realizing that Jean wouldn’t see her as a monster, “Can you make a portal to Earth?”
Jean shook her head, “I’m not sure but if I miss, I could end up creating one to the middle of the vacuum of space. Better not risk it, especially while I’m still holding this place together.”
Wanda nodded, “Logan must have come here somehow? Do you have any idea how?”
Jean brightened, “The Blackbird,” at Wanda’s look of confusion she asked, “It’s the X-Men's Plane. It can do some limited space travel. Logan must have used it somehow. Jean closed her eyes for a second. It’s in the hanger. We have a way out.”
Wanda nodded and levitated the unconscious mutants. They walked to the hanger, ready to come home. They entered the plane and started to fly away. Finally, Jean let go of her hold on the asteroid, which exploded seconds later after its shell crumbled. Wanda was, once again, thankful for Jean’s actions on the asteroid. Magneto could have killed them all in anger.
As she watched the explosion, Wanda realized that she had just killed Professor X and Magneto, but the only question that remained in her mind was ‘Where is Jasmine and why didn’t she come?’
Chapter 144: Meteor
5th June 2006, New York City
(Wanda Maximoff POV)
Wanda didn’t know that Jasmine had such an impact at her birth father. The witch found herself feeling quite free with her final chain to Magneto being severed.
The man continued, “And with that said, I cannot allow the Morrigan to have an apprentice. She’s a threat, not just to me, but to our kind. I cannot allow a second Morrigan to be born, especially one with your powers. I am sorry, Wanda, but this is for the best.”
Magneto raised his hands and thousands of things made of metals started to levitate. The man started to float, looking threatening. Wanda in return, let her powers flow through her, and started to levitate too, “You’re just proving my point, Magneto, but if you want a fight, I’m more than happy to oblige.”
Father and daughter stared at each other for a few seconds, before leaping at each other.
Wanda was the first to attack, sending a powerful hex bolt at her birth father. It’s a spell she created that came naturally to her. In its essence, the spell turns the will of the universe itself against the user, it’s the magical expression of Murphy’s law; anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Jasmine had been very surprised by this spell, although she could easily cast something similar, the older woman had admitted that it took her a long time to manipulate probabilities to that extent.
As she expected, the spell crashed into the magnetic shield that Magneto always had around him. Seriously, he was that paranoid.
Wanda dodged the two concussive beams sent at her by the Summers brothers. She still didn’t know what Scott’s brother’s name was. Not that she cared, really. It was just weird calling someone ‘Scott’s brother’ in her head. Anyway, Wanda retaliated by sending a telekinetic push at them, sending them flying back.
Magneto used her distraction to attack her, making the metal around the witch come to life and fly towards her. Wanda responded by charging up a pulse of magic that once unleashed, turned every single metal projectile into rose petals. For some reason, the flower petals were easy for her to picture in her head, plus, she always like the color red.
Surprised by the complete disappearance of his weapons, Magneto didn’t see her next attack coming. Jasmine had explained to her that in combat, invincibility was an illusion. There’s always a weakness, especially when dealing with the senses. People often forget to protect their sight, hearing or even smell. You could easily blind someone, use sonic attacks that would imbalance them, or use gases, to get the upper hand in a fight.
And Wanda did just that. The witch flew towards Magneto and created an orb of light in her palm, directly in front of the master of magnetism. The man was immediately blinded by the attack, and Wanda sent a telekinetic drill at the shield, trying to destroy it.
Magneto, still blind, collected every single piece of metal around and sent it at her. Wanda had to dodge since she didn’t have any time to use transmutation.
Seeing the Summers brother coming towards her, Wanda sent a telepathic message to Jean, ‘Take care of the roid brothers, I’m dealing with Magneto. And make sure that this place doesn’t blow while we’re inside. One small crack will be enough to kill us all.’
Jean sent her a telepathic confirmation and Wanda started to wonder, what the hell were the X-Men and the Brotherhood doing? Were they just standing there watching the fight? When she asked Jean, the redhead confirmed that Xavier had told them to stand down in fear of hurting Scott accidentally.
Suddenly, Wanda heard a roar coming towards her. Oh, shit, it was Sabretooth. She had forgotten about him, during the fight with her birth father. Speaking of the master of magnetism, the man looked to have recovered his sight and was sending a veritable wave of metal towards her. Wanda sent herself into the air, dodging the wave and transmuted some of it into slime that fell right in front of the leaping Sabretooth. The savage mutant slipped and fell comically, before being attacked by an angry Logan.
Wait, Logan? What the hell was he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be on Earth? This meant that the man was able to track Xavier down and travel here, somehow. Maybe using some sort of space craft.
Well, it wasn’t the time to think about it. Magneto had disassembled parts of the wall just to have enough metal to attack her again. Wanda countered by sending a telekinetic push that threw everything away, before creating a giant rotating drill of psionic energy in her hand and leaping towards her birth father.
The master of magnetism looked confident that his shield would hold and when the two attacks met. The drill kept drilling at the shield. A crack started to show, and Magneto had barely enough time to widen his eyes before the drill broke the shield and was going to impale him.
However, the man was a being with decades of fighting experience and was able to dodge the attack slightly. The attack hit, but barely grazed him. It was still enough for a good part of his gut to look shredded. Magneto screamed in pain but was able to get some metal to cover the wounded area, stabilizing the wound for the time being.
Wanda didn’t wait to seize the opportunity before sending another telekinetic push at the man and then creating a psionic sword, ready to impale the bastard. However, as soon as she almost reached his heart, Wanda was immediately pushed in super speed, saving Magneto’s life.
Wanda knew exactly who it was and snarled in anger, “Pietro!”
However, her brother’s blank face made her wary, so she immediately tried to look to his mind. What waited her made her shake in fury. Xavier was controlling her brother’s body, hoping that he would kill her and spare Magneto. Wanda didn’t wait for him to realize that Wanda knew what was happening before she froze her brother in the air using her telekinesis and leapt towards him. Wanda put her hand on her brother’s head, and with a telepathic blast, knocked him out and freeing him from Xavier’s control. It was another thing that Jasmine taught her. A telepathic blast using touch will always overpower any kind of long range telepathy, no matter its strength.
Before she could turn her eyes at Xavier, Wanda was hit by a strong gust of air, sending her flying away, before sending in a bolt of lightning at her back. Luckily, Wanda was able to create a shield to block the attack, but it was still a flimsy one which shattered immediately, sending her flying further away. Wanda righted herself in the air and landed on her feet, facing her opponent. It was Storm, who was attacking her for some reason. Another telepathic scan later, and the witch concluded that Xavier was controlling her too.
Quickly enough, Wanda sent a telekinetic blast at the woman sending her away before touching her head and using a telepathic blast, knocking her out.
With that done, Wanda turned towards her downed opponent. Magneto limped back up and glared at her, “The witch has taught you well, Wanda. I see that going easy on you will amount to nothing. I let whatever affection I held for you blind me. You’re too dangerous to be left alive, especially without any kind of supervision. At least one of my children wasn’t a disappointment. Why couldn’t you be more like your brother, Wanda; he, at the very least, appreciates my guidance and my experience.”
Wanda didn’t want to respond to his taunts and frankly didn’t care. She stopped hating the man. He was a small pathetic human being with an ego larger than the sun, who was scared of being weak or helpless, who thought that the world belonged to him, that it was his right to rule.
Instead of talking, Wanda created another drill of psionic energy and leapt at the man who was expecting a battle of words, by the surprised look on his face. The man attempted to use his shield again, and once more, the attack broke through it. Magneto obviously anticipated this because he was able to create a wall of steel, which halted the attack for enough time for him to fly away unscathed.
However, as he flew away. Wanda created a psionic sword and extended it towards the master of magnetism who couldn't see her because of the wall of steel in front of her. The attack pierced through the steel and impaled him through the shoulder.
The man was grimacing in pain as he flew away. Magneto snarled at her and raised his hands. Suddenly, the station itself started to move, to be manipulated by him. It came to life and did everything to attack the young witch.
Wanda tried to do her best, transmutating the incoming projectiles, but she was still hit a few times. There were cuts all over her body and she was starting to bleed profusely.
Magneto looked angrily at her, “It’s been a while since someone pushed me this far. You truly are of my blood. I am sure now, that you’re too dangerous to be left alive. You’ve barely scratched your potential and you’ve pushed me this far.”
Wanda was on the ground, trying to suppress the pain, “That’s all there is to it, isn’t it? You’re just scared of me surpassing you, of making you weak, helpless. You haven’t changed a bit Magneto. You might look like a charismatic, powerful leader, but that’s a lie isn’t it. You’re still the scared little boy who was too weak to save his mother. The boy who’s scared of being helpless again. You never left the camps, did you, Magneto?”
The man snarled in fury and was about to attack her again, but he was pushed away in super speed. Wanda smiled, despite her pain. Pietro had saved her; he hadn’t betrayed her. In the contrary, Magneto was gaping in shock at his son. Before he could do anything, Wanda created a psionic sword and extended it towards Magneto. The man was so shocked that he forgot to dodge or even conjure a shield. The attack went through his heart and killed him. Just to be sure Wanda walked up to the body and decapitated him.
Pietro smiled at her, “I told you. From now on, I’ll always have your back Wanda. I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”
Wanda started to tear up but was surprised when Pietro’s eyes turned blank and started to attack Wanda. Once more, Wanda simply levitated him and knocked him out. She growled, “Xavier!”
She was beyond angry, no she was beyond being furious. That man was starting to piss her off. Wanda looked at him, in anger and wasn’t surprised that he was glaring back at her. The witch looked around for Jean and found her, sweating and concentrating on something. She must be using her powers somehow and Wanda didn’t want to distract her.
One by one, every single remaining X-Men and member of the Brotherhood started to attack her with the intent to kill. Storm was first, and Wanda just waved her hand and pulled her to the ground as if she was being pressed by a giant hand, and the witch knocked her out, once more.
She dodged Logan’s leap, summoned him and knocked him out again. She then created an illusion of herself, one that was dodging the Blob’s and Lance’s attacks while her real self was knocking out the remaining mutants, aka, Scott and his brother.
She then walked behind Sabretooth who must have smelt her somehow, but he was still restrained by her telekinesis and knocked out with a telepathic blast.
Finally, the two members of the Brotherhood remaining tried to impale her illusion self, only to go through her, revealing her trickery. The real Wanda was behind them and knocked them out too.
With that done, the only mutants still standing, or in Xavier’s case sitting, were Wanda, Jean and the bald telepath himself.
Wanda looked at Jean and asked, “What’s happening?”
Jean looked pained, “Magneto’s attack destabilized the outer shell. I’m pretty much the only thing holding this place together. We need to hurry; I’m pretty much holding an entire asteroid here.”
Wanda nodded and looked at Xavier, “You have one last chance. What’s your problem with me?”
The man’s glare didn’t fade in the slightest, “You’re too dangerous. You just killed one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. Reality manipulation is not a power that anyone should have. You can change reality when it suits you. You don’t realize how dangerous that is? You could just kill all the mutants should you want; you could enslave the human race with just a thought; you could destroy this planet, rule it. The world is your playground. No one should have that power. When we discovered your powers, Wanda, what they truly are, we chose to be merciful and just imprison you. It was a kindness from my part and affection from Magneto’s. Your memories of your true capabilities would be erased, and the prison would drug you so much that achieving control over your powers would be inconceivable. It was the only way that we saw you being allowed to live. We never expected you to get out, one day, nor gain control over your abilities this quickly. We should have killed you that day. You destroyed everything. But first, it was just for the greater good, but now, you killed Eric. You killed my friend, and you made it personal. I will vow this to you, Witch, I will not rest until you are dead. I will dedicate every second of my time, every dime I own to kill you. I will train my X-Men to specifically target you and I will rid the world of your taint.”
Wanda waited for the man to end his rant and looked at him impassively, “That’s the difference between you and me. I’m not merciful to my enemies.”
Without giving him time to realize what was just said, Wanda telekinetically snapped his neck, killing Xavier immediately.
Wanda looked at Jean, who didn’t look at her with an ounce of judgement. The redhead shrugged, “I don’t know what happened to him, but if you didn’t do it, I would have done it myself.”
Wanda relaxed, realizing that Jean wouldn’t see her as a monster, “Can you make a portal to Earth?”
Jean shook her head, “I’m not sure but if I miss, I could end up creating one to the middle of the vacuum of space. Better not risk it, especially while I’m still holding this place together.”
Wanda nodded, “Logan must have come here somehow? Do you have any idea how?”
Jean brightened, “The Blackbird,” at Wanda’s look of confusion she asked, “It’s the X-Men's Plane. It can do some limited space travel. Logan must have used it somehow. Jean closed her eyes for a second. It’s in the hanger. We have a way out.”
Wanda nodded and levitated the unconscious mutants. They walked to the hanger, ready to come home. They entered the plane and started to fly away. Finally, Jean let go of her hold on the asteroid, which exploded seconds later after its shell crumbled. Wanda was, once again, thankful for Jean’s actions on the asteroid. Magneto could have killed them all in anger.
As she watched the explosion, Wanda realized that she had just killed Professor X and Magneto, but the only question that remained in her mind was ‘Where is Jasmine and why didn’t she come?’
