Requiem

The Price of Freedom / The Price of Love

A gush of wind blew Wanda's hair as she took a step back to prevent herself from being knocked over. Before she could question where it came from, an aggravated voice sounded behind her.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

She turned to find a very confused and very angry Peter.

"Pietro, you don't-"

"And what are you wearing? Where did you even get that?" He interrupted. "It looks cool and all but it's a bit much."

Apocalypse's wardrobe upgrade had been a nice feature, but not particularly one Wanda asked for herself.

"What are you doing here?" He refocused, asking again when she didn't answer. But before she could even get a word out, he held his hands up and spoke again.

"You know what, it doesn't even matter. The giant blueberry dude with crazy powers took the Professor and Erik. Everyone is trying to get them but there's this guy with wings back there and some hot chick with those weird light sword things. Oh and Raven's with some other lady - Polaroid? Polo?"

"Peter!" Wanda interrupted, halting his pacing.

"Right, not important, sorry. But get this, she's Erik's daughter!" He put on an exaggerated expression of shock. "I knew Erik had kids but wow! Trying to end the world? Can't say I'm surprised. Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree if you know what I mean."

When Wanda just stayed silent and looked away, Peter hastily hatched a game plan.

   "Okay, so I'm thinking since everyone else is dealing with all of the other guys, we attack the blueberry man. I'll catch him by surprise with my speed and then you do your hex thingy on him. It'll be a Maximoff special! Like the ones we practiced in the danger room."

"I can't do that, Peter."

He stopped for a moment, unsure what to do, but rescovered quickly.

"Oh...okay, that's alright." He assured, " You can attack him first then I'll finish it up. A switcheroo could be good. Catch him off gua-"

"Pietro! I'm not fighting Apocalypse." Wanda finally yelled, exasperated.

He simply furrowed his brow, unsure if her hesitancy was from fear or confusion.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm fighting with him. He's the one who brought me here, who gave me this suit."

Wanda would have laughed at how large Peter's eyes bulged if it wasn't so heartbreaking.

"I-I don't...that's not..." He fumbled for words as his brain short circuited.

His sister was fighting with Apocalypse. She was fighting against them...

She was fighting again him.

"What do you- Wands, he's not on our team. He's the bad guy. I don't know what he told you, but he lied." Peter grabbed her hands, hoping to get through to her, but she ripped them away, an anger brewing in her that he'd never seen before.

"He showed me the truth! The only 'bad guys' are the humans who seek our extermination. They hunt us and destroy us simply because we are different. We cannot let this happen any longer. We have to stand up for mutants everywhere, once and for all!"

Her speech bordered on extremist. If Peter didn't know any better, he'd think this was Erik talking, not Wanda.

This wasn't her. She wanted to help people. She was a good person, wasn't she?