Backdated like WOE, because I'm horrible.

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Jean wanders across Wanda catching some time away from everyone in the forest. Wanda's a little cautious at first but opens up as much as she can after everything that's happened. Jean discovers that the other's powers offer a little bit of peace.



The aches in Wanda's body had started to fade she
realized as she sprawled in the clearing. She'd gone
back to see the funeral but had ducked back out again
once it was over, escaping to the soothing presences
of the trees and no people. There was a small step to
coming to terms with what she had done and she figured
that, right now, that was good enough.

A noise caught her attention and she froze, letting
her eyes drift towards the woods. Someone, obviously,
did not know how to walk quietly--or was simply not
trying-- and suddenly caught a glimpse of red hair.
Different shade of red than Dr. MacTaggart or
Madelyne's. Ah. This would be interesting.

The number of new and unique ways people could find to
shove Jean's shaky control out of wack was really
starting to mount. She'd have been impressed if she
weren't always coming within a hairsbreadth of losing
it all together. At least this time she'd gotten away
and out before things had started shaking.

She really did wonder what had happened to her control
- Hank's theory that her telekinesis was coming on as
a subconsious 'protection' whenever she felt like she
was in danger made sense, esspecially given her
reactions to her nightmares, but her complete lack of
control over her emotions (particularly her temper)
and her non-existant shielding seemed to have no
explanation.

So lost in her own thoughts, Jean was unaware of how
much noise she was making, and it wasn't until Wanda
identified the newcomer and her thoughts became more
pointed that Jean realized she was far closer than
that background mutter of the Mansion's inhabitants.
Her eyes flew up, scanning the woods. "Hello?" she
called.

Realizing that Jean probably couldn't see her in the
tall grass, Wanda slowly pushed herself up into a
sitting position. "Over here," she responded, linking
an arm over her knee. She'd see and heard about Jean
but with the chaos of the last week, had not actually
met her. Dr. McCoy had been the one to patch up her
wounds after the fight.

They twinged slightly in protest at her movement and
she stilled, content to just keep an eye on Jean.
She'd escaped to the solitude of the wilderness for
just that but she wasn't rude enough to force the
other woman to leave.

"I'm assuming you are Jean?" Wanda asked, though
already knowing the answer. "I'm Wanda Maximoff."

... the solitude of the wilderness... "Yes,"
Jean said. "I'm Jean Grey. It's nice to meet you. I'm
sorry for intruding." There was a slight hesitation in
her voice - she'd seen Wanda's files and knew her
history, but agreed with Kurt that she was probably
innocent of the sins of her father, but that didn't
mean she wouldn't be a little careful.

"Xavier holds a great deal of land--I am simply
surprised that someone did indeed stumble upon me."
The slight hesitation was not lost on Wanda but
considering the fact that Jean hadn't confronted her
about her past earlier probably meant that she was
trying to accept it as much as possible. "Decided to
flee from the confines of the mansion as well, I take
it?"

...hadn't confronted her... trying to accept...
Jean mused vaguely that it was as much a lack of
desire to start yet more fights as anything else, but
being thought well of was never really objectionable.
"Yes," she answered, "the noise and the... fuss and
all. Seems like the only way to get away from it all
is to, well, get away. As for stumbling on you," she
shrugged, "the mansion grounds are massive, yes, but a
lot of the paths require more effort."

A smile tugged out at that one. "And I am much closer
to the normal stomping grounds today than I intended.
Ah well, the clearing is nice enough." Wanda peered
at her under the veil of hair. She didn't know the
woman well and even though she needed the time alone,
making small talk would be interesting enough.
"Starting to become accustomed to being at the mansion
again?"

... time alone... small talk... The woman's
thoughts didn't feel antagonistic and while she wasn't
as calm and collected as she probably could be, she
was a far sight better off than Jean just now, so Jean
was quite willing to make small talk and distract
herself. "Well enough," she said. "Although in truth,
it's not being at the mansion that was a shock after
the first few minutes, but rather everyone else who is
here."

A small, wry chuckle escaped at that and Wanda nodded
at her. "Ah, yes, I can imagine it would be quite a
shock. People change so much in such a short period
of time. If you're around, you don't notice it all
that often but when you've been gone, it's like a
whole new person staring back at you." She caught
Jean's look and smiled. "I travel, a lot, so whatever
friends and family I leave behind change when I
finally make my way back to them."

Jean nodded. "Yes, that's it. I'm glad you understand.
Although... It was two years and a lot of
changes. The school is probably double the size it was
when I left."

"Xavier certainly seems to draw them," Wanda agreed,
wincing as she pulled herself further upright. "In a
good way, of course. Adults and students, as you can
see by my presence here. Though I have the X-Men to
thank for my rescue from the remenants of that same
strike force you found yourself up against."

"Charles has a gift for that, I agree." Jean caught
the wince and focused more sharply on the woman in
front of her. "How are you doing?" she asked. "You're
not yet another of the 'push yourself too hard' set we
should be watching out for, are you?" Wanda's next
words, though, sent a shiver of fear flickering
through Jean's mind. "Stryker? He can't still be
active, it's not possible."

"Do not worry, I am not stupid enough to push myself
behind my means," Wanda responded soothingly. "This
is as restive as I get, so some pain is worth being
outside. And--I do not believe that Stryker is
active, though a pod of his military mean certainly
were. Not so currently, the X-Men took them out when
they rescued me and I broke their helicopter."

Well, that was a little reassuring. "Your
powers," Jean said. "I didn't understand all the notes
in your file. Could you tell me a little more? If you
don't mind my asking, that is."

"No, I don't mind at all." She laughed a little bit.
"I can understand why the notes would be confusing. I
am a chaos manipulator, if you will. Hang on a
second." With a slight wave of her hands, the red hex
rings were suddenly visible. "When my powers are on,
I can see strings attached to everything and I can
affect those strings. Things that shouldn't happen,
or couldn't, suddenly do."

Jean jumped slightly as the mental hum which was
Wanda's presence in her mind just turned off faster
than anyone except perhaps Charles could erect shields
and with no warning at all. The sudden quite was
almost more unnerving than the noise had been, but
perhaps that was just because Jean was getting used to
the noise. "Yes," she said. "I can 'see' that, sort
of."

"What do you see?" She sounded curious. "If anything
at all. I've been talking to Scott and the
Professor--my powers affect a few others, apparently.
Psi-based mutations being the first one." With a
small sigh, Wanda deactivated her powers and the
strings faded from her sight.

"When you are using it? Nothing at all. Which is
remarkable. I can see you plain as you stand right
there but in my head, nothing." She smiled. "Quite a
change from the current status quo."

"Interesting." Scott was right, it could be rather
useful to have someone on the team unable to be read
by telepaths. Well, at least when her powers were on.
"I've been leary of testing out the other
applications when it comes to messing around with
other powers."

"I can quite understand that," Jean said. "Even under
the strictest of lab conditions something always
manages to go just a little off."

"And trust me on this one, when my powers go 'just a
little off', nothing good can come of it." Wanda's
mind immediately scuttled away from the mental image
of the hex bolt sliding down that feral mutant's
throat and his death throes. "I have to be very
careful with what I am doing--a little ironic, if you
will, considering I play with chaos."

"I can imagine, yes." The pure number of ways in which
things could start going wrong when you applied
improbabilities to them was astounding. "I am
occasionally convinced that the irony of the x-gene
bites us all, sooner or later."

"Some more often than not." Wanda shrugged a bit,
careful still of her injuries. "I have a good number
of years under my belt with learning to control my
powers and Scott is pushing me every day to go even
further." Scott was a cheerful, sadistic bastard, she
thought, shaking her head, still worried about how he
was taking what she had to do back there.

...Scott was a cheerful, sadistic bastard...
"True," Jean said with a smile before realizing she'd
answered the wrong part of what she was hearing. Well,
maybe Wanda wouldn't notice. It kind of followed the
conversational thread... "Control and practice come
hand in hand, and you can't really have too much of
either."

Thankfully, she really didn't notice the little slip
and nodded. "Yes, especially when you have a lot
under the surface and do not particularly care to let
it all out." She glanced at Jean thoughtfully. They
had a lot in common with that, or so her file had said
after she had first joined the X-Men. Which was not
all that long ago.

Jean caught the look and nodded. "Very, very
true," she agreed. There was an automatic tightening
of Wanda's mental defenses when the things under the
surface flickered to the top and Jean reined in her
curiosity, attempting to divert her mental attention
to respect the woman's privacy. Which worked, to some
extent.

Jean looked slightly distracted and she tilted her head. "Is
everything alright?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the other woman.
The good thing about not knowing Jean before was that she was free to
make her opinions of her without anything clouding her judgement.
Like two years worth of judgement.

Jean looked slightly distracted and she tilted her
head. "Is everything alright?" she asked, raising an
eyebrow at the other woman. The good thing about not
knowing Jean before was that she was free to make her
opinions of her without anything clouding her
judgement. Like two years worth of judgement.

"I'm sorry to be... distractable," she said. "I can
ignore the mental noise only so long and, while it's
getting better with time, it's still a little draining."

"Do not apologize, not for that," Wanda replied, flickering her powers
on just slightly. "There, does that help any? Or is lack of noise
better than too much noise? As a nonpsi, I would have no
idea...though I do understand about power strain. Far, far too much."
Ah, yes, she had heard about that. Two years meant years of training
and power control down the drain. There was much empathy for _that_.

The lack of mental noise from Wanda with her powers on
was a tad unnerving, but given that part of the point
to her walk had been to put the mental roar of the
school behind her for a bit, she did appreciate it.
"It's strange, I admit, to be able to see you and hear
nothing, but I thank you. It's good to get some quiet
without having to resort to an inhibitor."

"I can only imagine." She grinned a little and glanced over at Jean.
"Though once you are practising in the Danger Room, I would be more
than happy to be a sparring partner. Apparently, the fact that I can
disappear from telepathic radar like that will prove incredibly useful
in the field."


"I will definitely take you up on that," Jean
said with a smile, although it faded slightly within a
second. "It may be a while, though. Walk before you
can run, and all that. But still, it will be very
interesting to see what you can do, and how to best
deal with a 'threat' I can't sense."

"And will enhance my training as well," she agreed, stretching a bit,
idly watching the strings in her mind. "For which I am all for. I am
rather enthusiastic when it comes to this." Wanda glanced up into the
trees, feeling that need to get away just growing a little bit. "This
was enjoyable but I hope you do not think me rude in the fact that I
am just going to slip away. There is still a lot to think about."

"No, not at all," Jean said. "I admit, continuing my
walk sounds nice, as well. It was nice meeting you,
Wanda. I hope your thinking goes well."

"Same here--and I hope your thinking goes well, as well."