Memories

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Wanda's life was going perfect. She had a good relationship with her family; she was dating Viz; Erik was her favorite teacher, and the principal didn't call on her again.

Meanwhile, the principal at Xavier's School for the gifted was training her brother like he did everyone else. Two moths in, the new recruit was out on missions with others of his level, dealing with small issues. Erik had long since gone his way, off to continue his crusade as before, but keeping it down low.

Magneto was volunteering in some refugee housing to scout for undiscovered mutants. There was an influx of Ukrainians due to their war with Russia. As he sat down at a table sharing stories with a group of youths, he reminisced about the last time he was in Ukraine.

He had been trying to live a civilian life back then, too. Him and Magda and Nina were living in Vinnytsia, living forgettable mundane lives. Until an earthquake happened, and Erik couldn't help saving his coworker's life from being ended under a falling construction magnet. He had done it at the very last second, but it was still noticed.

Erik had gotten startled and he ran back to the inn they were calling home, only to find it on fire. A crowd was attempting to put it out, and Erik swam through to try and find his wife. Magda found him and gave him the unfortunate news: that Nina was still inside.

It took ten minutes for his life to change.

He had had to use his powers to try and save Nina, but all the construction was wood. It was during this chaos when the KGB found him, witnessing his powers in action, and attempted to him take him out. Three rubber bullets had gone through him, and as he doubled over, the wooden inn gave in to the fire, taking his daughter with it.

Magneto killed off everyone in his vicinity, except for his wife, of course. Erik reached out to her for comfort and to mourn, but witnessing his rage and the loss of their daughter made Magda lose her mind. She declared she would never see him again, and he never saw her again.

Emergency services had arrived at Vinnytsia after the earthquake, and collected survivors to take to the neighboring country of Sokovia. The earthquake hadn't been of natural causes, and peaked the interest of Sokovian scientists. There were only a handful of survivors left, enough for them to have generous pool of subjects.

Magda Maximoff was living in the sanctioned neighborhood, under the scrutiny of the scientists. At first, they had no use for the catatonic woman, but once it was discovered that she was pregnant, they kept their eyes on her. Magda couldn't comprehend life without her daughter, and turned to drugs to clear her mind. There was really no way for her to know that her insanity had less to do with her dead daughter, and everything to do with the one yet to be born.

Subsequently, the twins were born premature and by now Magda had developed a genuine drug addiction. Keeping the babies as a single mother meant a state income, with which she could fund her addiction. The babies only survived thanks to the magical cow in their backyard, who took care of them like her own.

The sparce farmland was a vast opportunity for the young heroes to get hands on experience. There wasn't much or many to get in the way. The mission was over and being wrapped up when kurt decided to have some fun.

"Q! Look!" Kurt shouted for Pietro's attention.

The teleporter popped up beside a cow and yelled, startling it so it fell over. While Kurt was having fun, Pietro was offended and upset. When Nightcrawler popped up beside his next target, Pietro knocked him hard.

"Knock it off!" Pietro yelled, and ran back to the plane, leaving a confused Kurt and Mystique.

"Time to take his psychological assessment," Xavier mulled when Raven told him what had happened.

They were ten years old, coming back from school. Mom was waiting for them at lunch. She never waited for them. She greeted them and welcomed them home with hugs, sending them down the hall to freshen up.

That was the only day they had as a family together. They were eating on the table, talking about their day and planning the rest of the evening when a missile broke through their home. Mom was sitting near the kitchen, and was hit in the attack while the twins were flung back into the living room. Rescue workers had found them under the couches.

The memory wavered like static on tv and rewound to the twins walking back home.
They had let themselves in and found mom working in the kitchen. She roughly told them to go change before they could eat. He'd tried to cheer up his sister, younger than twelve minutes to him.

They went to the dining table in the kitchen together and helped mom take the plates to the table. They each had specific plates. He'd taken the bite first, and before he could even react, she knew something was wrong.

He was losing air and his sister was freaking out. Even mom freaked out.

"Max!" She called him, reaching out to help him.

The kitchen door burst open and men walked in. The little girl cried for them to help before she realized why they were really there. The militants picked up the kids as they fought against the restraints. They drugged the girl with a tranq gun.

"You said you wouldn't hurt them!" Mom screamed at the leader.

The man stopped and tossed money at her, and that was the last they ever saw their mother.

"Poor Pietro Maximoff," Charles lamented as he took off the helmet.

"Who's Maximoff?" Raven asked as she stood by him.

"Hmm? That's their birth name. Maximoff."

"No. That's Erik's wife's name."

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