Once everything was said and done with their journey back to Earth, Guin would be feeling better from the overexertion of her powers, which was definitely a good thing. Pietro was sort of hovering around her to ensure that she was okay. However, despite that, she'd still have a very vague headache that was just barely there. The pair however were soon going to be interrupted by two people walking towards the pair. Well, more of one who was rather confidently heading their way, while the other was sort of walking a little ways behind the other, almost reluctant about it.
"We need to talk," Magneto said, Miranda was there too, and Pietro was shifting a little uneasily by Guin, not entirely too sure about the entire thing.
Ordinarily, Guin would have muttered her comments to Pietro a little more privately, but the lingering headache and everything she'd just done had made her want to give her telepathy a little bit more of a break. Or perhaps she just enjoyed being a bit of a bitch to Magneto.
"Great, you two," Guin rolled her eyes.
"Let me guess: you're here to get our insurance company's info so you can file a claim for your busted ass station?" "You act I actually paid for it to begin with. Actually I am grateful for your group's intervention in trying to get as many off the station as possible," Magneto responded, looking at Guin.
"And you instantly get defensive, when I haven't exactly done anything to offend you today." "Erik, perhaps this sort of conversation would be best if you weren't seemingly being at least a little hostile, calm down okay?" she said to him.
"I'm still confused as to what would need to be talked about, since I know I haven't had an actual conversation with you in like, forever. Since I'm the oddball, Wanda and Lorna were both always the favored children and all." Pietro responded rolling his eyes a bit.
Guina this is a bit weird. "Yet," Guin corrected.
"You haven't done anything to offend me today yet. But the day is young - I'm sure you'll find a way." She crossed her arms, her head aching ever so slightly as she heard Pietro's whisper to her across their mental link. She nodded in agreement - this was
incredibly weird. She didn't know what exactly Magneto wanted to talk about, but she wasn't inclined to hear it. The only reason she wasn't storming off in a huff right now was because Pietro hadn't made a move to flee, and hadn't indicated to her just yet that he wanted to. It was his family, so she let him call the shots here.
"As stated, I'm the disappointment child so why is this conversation even seemingly important?" Pietro then added again, looking at him still very confused.
"I actually came over here to apologize for my treatment of you and for everything that has seemingly occurred between us. I have been trying to do better then in the past, hence why I decided to try working at making a nation for mutants where they didn't have to live in fear and change how I go about doing things, if you haven't seemingly noticed." "...Wait did I hear that right?" Pietro ended up responding, very much in shock at that statement.
"If you do not believe me, should Guinevere feel up to it, she can read my mind to see how sincere I am and how I am trying to do better." He hadn't put his helmet back on since he had taken it off hours before when Guin asked to read his mind, so he didn't seem concerned about hiding anything.
"I'm fine," Guin snapped immediately. Even with her exhaustion and overuse of her powers, she wasn't about to just take Magneto at his word. She didn't trust him - didn't believe that he was telling the truth. It was just another tactic from Pietro's abuser to try to trick him. Maybe Magneto was here to try to recruit Pietro back, to have his favorite punching bag back at the Brotherhood after his project went up in flames.
So she lifted a finger to her forehead and focused, peering into his mind. What she saw shook her to her core.
He was telling the truth. She even caught a glimpse of the home he had had on Genosha, where he had set aside a room for Pietro if he ever wished to visit. It sickened her.
"... He's not lying, shockingly." He was really surprised to hear that. He'd never once had ever heard his father apologize for anything ever in his life.
"...I don't think the doc is going to fully believe this conversation is even happening because I don't believe it..." Pietro ended up saying out loud.
"Who?" "Doc Sampson whose my shrink that I have been talking to for the last few months, makes things a lot easier to deal with. Plus he's the only one that actually isn't freaked out at the idea of having me as a patient so there is that added bonus." he explained with a shrug, still incredibly weirded out by everything but figured he'd answer the question.
"Actually manage to drag Wanda with me once or twice to see how that'd go, went better than I initially thought it would honestly." "I know that, it is likely that we won't be able to have a good relationship of any sort, given the past and I know better than most how difficult the past can be to let go. I am hoping, for at least, a better one going forward. I am truly trying to do better, and if you might be willing, perhaps we can do something then." There was a lot of trauma and all that he potentially had to unwrap before potentially doing that full thing. Namely would be to talk with the shrink first to ensure this potentially wouldn't be a horrible idea.
"...I'll have to think about it, since obviously there are a lot of issues here. However, if I do end up saying okay let's try, don't be surprised if I drag you to a therapy session at all," he ended up saying, before mentally saying to Guin
Yeah, next session is definitely going to be interesting. "That is all I can ask for on the subject," Magneto said, nodding his head in agreement with what Pietro was saying.
"Though that is not the only thing that needs to be discussed here right now." Guin was frowning, protective over her husband and his mental health - and already doubting that anything good could come of a reconnection with Magneto. But it was his choice. She was no stranger to parental alienation - she had cut off contact with her own mother. If her mother were to be here today and ask for a second chance, she wouldn't be inclined to give one. They were different people though and Pietro had already lost his mother - his father was his only remaining parent.
I'll come with you, if you want Guin said, even as her head ached with pain and her nose bled ever so slightly.
And while her usual response would have been to ask Magneto what else he wanted, this was a sensitive area between him and Pietro - so she let him lead the conversation. If it had been up to her, they would have left ages ago.
That would be nice... Not fully settled on it though, as I mentioned, going to talk to Doc about it and see what he thinks... Pietro responded to Guin, before looking at his father.
"So what else is it that you want?" Pietro asked him.
"Actually the next part of the conversation has nothing to do with me. But more of Miranda, as there is something that she needs to say. Which if she doesn't say it I likely will end up mentioning it." he said, turning to look towards her, and she very much did not seem to be too thrilled to be having this conversation.
"...There are so many things that likely would make this conversation easier..." Miranda ended up saying as she took a step forward and walked right up to Guin.
"Um... I know that everything that has ever happened, you have no real reason to potentially trust me... But you know what my powers are... At least vaguely... If you don't mind, this might make it easier to explain," she continued, holding her hands out to her,
"I have something that I need to show you." "...What?" Guin froze, her mind reeling. She had nothing to do with Miranda. She hardly knew her. She'd met her in the world Wanda had created, yes, but otherwise she didn't know her at all. She was a complete stranger to her at best - and at worst, she was the girlfriend of Pietro's abusive father.
"I'm sorry, but what exactly could you possibly need to show me? I barely know you." "...It's complicated, okay? I am not good at talking through things, and it partially is a particular memory I need to show you. It's harder to explain than you'd think... And doubt you'd believe me anyway..." Miranda was clearly having a difficult time with the explanation, she actually was stumbling over her words. She'd never really had the best confidence in herself, the closest had been when in the House of M reality she literally had ended up
killing Magneto, or when she ended up breaking things off with him permanently back in Genosha. This though was probably the hardest thing she'd ever actually talked to anyone about at all. This would be so much easier if a certain person was there with them but who knew where he was, and she wasn't going to just ask someone to call him without explanation.
Guin frowned. Her heart was pounding quickly and she didn't know why. Something about this entire thing was unnerving to her - like she was standing on the precipice of something, with a final chance to turn away. She almost opened her mouth to ask for Pietro to take them away - maybe Spain, her family had a nice holiday house there - and leave all of this behind, to stop whatever strange encounter before it could finish.
"Fine, but just so you know, you're being incredibly sus right now." Taking a deep breath, Miranda took Guin's hands in her own, her eyes glowing purple as everything went dark briefly, before everything eventually came back into focus. They'd be in a large house, one that Guin would have very vague sort of fuzzy memories of from when she was really little. Miranda took a step back, looking around the house that was around them.
"...I know this all seems weird... I'm sorry... The original idea was to have Tony be here too when we had this conversation... But well... Things don't always go the way that they should... And I learned that things likely would be better if you never knew, but... Things change and I realize that you should know the truth... Even if it changes nothing." she said softly to Guin, before just pointing somewhat towards a room that was off to the side. She'd hear voices coming from that room, one was a woman's voice, and the other sounded like a young toddler girl who was giggling over something.
Guin backed away from Miranda as the scenery changed to one that she almost recognized, one filled with familiarity but lost to time. And the mention of her father... Many possible explanations jumped into her mind, none of them that she liked. She felt sick, like she was about to vomit. Every instinct was telling her to go, that whatever Miranda wanted to show her, she didn't have any interest in it - that she didn't want any part of this.
"Stop!" Guin snapped.
"Just - just stop this, now!" Her skin felt like a thousand little bugs were crawling across it, her chest was tight, she couldn't breathe, and her ears had started to ring.
"STOP IT!" Maybe this was a really bad idea. Guin didn't seem to be doing too well over the whole situation, and Miranda froze the memory, figuring that might be better then watching it play out entirely. This was not something she was good at, not to mention she had expected to not be seemingly alone in this whole conversation at all.
"Sorry... Maybe I shouldn't show you... Unless you want me to..." she apologized, unsure of what to do.
She breathed in. She breathed out.
In. Out.
In. Out.
In.
Out.
Slowly, Guin came back to herself. Slowly, the tension in her body began to lessen, the pit in her stomach feeling less like it was about to swallow her whole. She was in control. The techniques she'd been taught in rehab came back to her now, as she looked Miranda dead in the eye.
"I don't want you to show me anything," Guin said, perhaps harsher than she meant it. But it was the truth.
"Say what you have to say. But this? This doesn't work for me." Well at least Guin had ended up saying something to her, and now mentally Miranda was panicking because she was not used to fully telling anyone anything. Actually, she was really bad at wording things, but with how things were going so far, she figured she didn't have anything to lose and
probably couldn't make anything worse.
So she went with it.
"Sorry... I'm not used to figuring out wording, I've honestly never been really good at it... You might think I dove into your head to pull out a memory, but I didn't. This memory that you see here, of this house... It's not your memory, it's mine..." she started to say, before taking a few steps away from Guin and kind of looking like she might have a bit of a breakdown herself at this point.
"How exactly? Well I don't fully know what stories or everything that Tony told you but... The person you believe is your mother, well she never was... I am..." Miranda was still trying to figure out how best to explain what was going through her head, and took a moment to fully think through what she was saying.
"I was on the outs with Erik, I basically had left the Brotherhood for essentially a decade by the time this memory happened. I had left in late 1993, and I stayed away. Trying to build a life for myself away from everything... In 1999, I met your father, while I was at the Stark Expo that year. Tech and everything always interested me so I had gone... Well one thing led to another and I ended up pregnant with you... Tony found this house, and we moved here together... Honestly I don't have too many happy memories if I'm being truthful, aside from those few years in this house... With you... Most of my life I spent running, but here I was truly happy... This memory though, is from when everything came crashing down... My past caught up with me, but ironically it wasn't my time with the Brotherhood that caught up... Before the Brotherhood even really was formed, I was younger than you when I met Xavier and Erik, and they were in need of some help... Where they were getting together a group of people, mutants, to try and combat against an organization that was not exactly too kind. They tended to sort of try and get it so that they could have mutants under their own control... I didn't have anything to lose back then, so I went to go help them out. Some... Not so great things happened there, and in the end, I ended up leaving with Erik, not entirely too sure what to even do... Well turns out that organization ended up going underground instead... And they figured out where we were and if the memory here played out... You'd see the whole thing as it happened... I used my powers to defend you and your father, and the two of you managed to get out of here... A few days later, I found myself by Xavier's mansion, I was going to see about asking for help or something, but no one seemed to be home at the time, or if he was there, he chose to pretend I wasn't instead... So I ended up back at the Brotherhood, having hit the lowest point I could have thought possible... Eventually your father found a way to contact me. But we figured at least at that point in time... It was probably better for me to stay away. The idea was that we were going to tell you a few years ago but... Your life seemed like it was hectic enough already without me potentially stepping in to make things worse... I don't expect anything... I never did... I just wanted to tell you the truth... Since we ended up running into one another once again, I wanted to tell you for a while... I also figured it'd be better if I told you before Erik said something..." Yeah, Miranda was starting to cry a little bit now as she spoke.
Guin was uncharacteristically quiet as Miranda spoke.
She listened, even as her ears thrummed. Even as other memories flashed into her mind - of being a little girl, excited that her father was home, only for him to be reeking of alcohol and other scents she couldn't yet name, collapsing on the floor in front of her - of being a little girl again, excited that her mother was there to spend time with her, only to be pinched and prodded and used as a prop. The excitement to see her parents had waned and waned, leaving her with a hole that could not be filled, no matter how much her father's employees tried. A loneliness, an ache that had led her to self-medicate - to succumb to the same genetic predisposition for addiction that her father had. Her relationship with her father had been repaired over the last few years - but there was no fixing the relationship with her mother.
But that hadn't been her mother.
They'd lied to her.
For her father to let her believe
Maddie was her mother... To put her in that position...
Something hardened in Guin's heart.
And now for the woman claiming to be her mother in front of her, in tears... Guin didn't move to comfort her, didn't move to help her. She didn't
know her.
It would have been easier to be angry with her - but Miranda had a reason, an excuse.
If this was even the truth - if this was even real.
Guin's mind was spinning, her body filled with that familiar ache, a hunger for that which would undo her.
"Okay." Guin didn't know what to say.
"Thank you for telling me." It was robotic, almost mechanical.
"I want to go, now." It took Miranda a moment to collect her own thoughts, before she waved her hand, and they were back on the mansion grounds standing where they had been before. She turned away and started walking away.
"...I'm sorry Guin," she ended up saying to her as she walked away. Magneto ended up leaving after looking at Pietro and Guin for a moment. Then he was gone too, leaving just the pair of them there.
"...Guina? Are you okay?" Pietro asked her, taking her hand in his. This had been not something he had been fully expecting to have happen, and he was a bit concerned since he had no idea what happened with Miranda before she had left at all.
"I don't know."
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