mad woman | wanda maximoff

eight.

MAD WOMAN | viii.
"WHO'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND"
Earth 838: New York | 2025

"Wanda is missing."

They were sitting in Jean's office, Athena leaning against the wall while Natasha and Hank sat in the two chairs in front of her desk. They'd exchanged some small talk before Hank had made the decision to drop the bomb. The words cause Jean Grey to freeze as she looks over at Hank and then her eyes drift over to Athena.

"What do you mean that she's missing," Jean states.

"No one can locate her," Hank informs the telepath, "There was – a fight between Nora and Wanda. We believe that someone has been messing with her head. Someone not from this universe?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"The Multiverse has been opened, Jean," Hank tells her, "That young girl with us, America Chavez. She's the key to navigating it which means a lot of people want her power. Other versions of Wanda."

"Wanda is powerful enough as it is," Pietro states, "Now imagine a darker more powerful version of her."

"I get the image," Jean states, "So what do we want to use Cerebro to find her?"

"No," Hank states, "Wanda is – unstable. We fear what she might do to it. Plus, we have an idea of where she already might be."

"With our father," Pietro answers.

Jean raises a brow, "Magneto?"

"We know how you all keep tabs on him, and we wanted to know where he is now," Natasha states in a tone that was purely business.

"Please," Athena tacks on and Jean looks over at her, gaze softening.

"Our last tracked location of Magneto was Genosha," Jean says, "It's off the coast of Africa, north of Madagascar and the island of Seychelles. There he's built a sanctuary for mutants around the world. He's done no harm, so we've never felt the need to intervene."

Athena's lips quirk in a small smile, "Retirement plan."

"What?" Daisy asks beside her, and Athena simply shakes her head.

"Thank you," Natasha says as she stands from her seat.

"Try not to create any trouble with him," Jean requests, "You Avengers are prone to causing more problems than you solve."

"Jean," Natasha states, "Wish I could say it's been a pleasure, but it never is."

Natasha heads out of the office and Daisy shakes her head as she follows after her. Pietro and Hank hug Jean before heading out. Athena's the last to head out of the office when Jean calls out to her.

"Nora?"

She pauses and turns to look at the redhead, "Can we talk?"

"Yeah," Athena says as she makes her way back toward the desk.

Jean smiles at her, "You don't have to keep up the act. I've seen inside of your head Athena Choi. When Hank mentioned the universe, everything sort of clicked."

"Right," Athena says softly, "Thank you for not saying anything I suppose. And I wanted to apologize for the actions of the version of me in this universe. She seems like a real lothario."

Jean laughs, "No, Nora wasn't a lothario. She always made her intentions clear. She was going to go back to Asgard she couldn't do long-term, but you couldn't help but fall for her. I always wondered what it was about Wanda. I'm thinking it's just something that's meant to be seeing as you have a Wanda of your own?"