Dealing

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2nd March 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

To her despair, Scott unleashed his concussive beams at her, hitting her from the back. The spells on Wanda's clothes helped mitigate the damage but it still hurt like a bitch and Wanda could feel that she had broken a few ribs. Wanda would never doubt Jasmine's recommendations again. These clothes had probably saved her life.

The witch was sent flying towards the entrance, next to the unconscious Kitty Pryde. Wanda heard Scott slowly walk towards her. Wanda knew that the next hit would be fatal so she crawled, trying to desperately escape, dragging Kitty with her.

Scott had caught up to her in seconds and Wanda closed her eyes, preparing for her death, which never came. Instead, she felt like she had a hook somewhere behind the navel pulling her away. The witch passed out not knowing if she would survive or not.

When she woke up, Wanda felt sorer than she ever been before. She hadn't even had time to open her eyes and the first thing she felt was her body being extremely stiff. She slowly blinked and opened her eyes. She was in her room. How was that possible?

The teenaged witch was sure that she had perished. Maybe it was all a dream or something? Well, a nightmare would be a better description. Slowly, Wanda walked out of her room, still in her PJ, and went to the dining room. Funnily enough, Jasmine was there, eating breakfast as if nothing happened.

The older woman smiled warmly at the teenager, "Good morning, Wanda. I thought you wouldn't wake up this early. You've had quite the night, haven't you?"

"What happened?" the teenager questioned.

"I believe I should be asking you that, young lady. After all, it's not every day that I find my ward and her friend half dead in my house. You're very lucky that I added an emergency portkey to the Ankh around your neck or else you probably would have been dead." The older woman scolded.

Wanda looked confusedly at her not so secret mother figure, "Portkey?"

"Ah, a nifty piece of magic. A teleportation spell keyed to an object and a location. I added a few enchantments where if you're truly in mortal danger as in you're a few seconds from dying, or are extremely wounded it would teleport you to Sayre manor and alert me. Imagine me surprised when I felt it last night, and rush to find you clinging to Ms. Pryde, in critical condition. So, again, what happened, Wanda?"

"You mean that it wasn't actually a nightmare?" Wanda yelled out.

Jasmine looked at her as if she was an idiot, "I just said that, kiddo. Do try to keep up."

"How's Kitty, is she alright?"

"She's fine. She was just knocked out. I patched her up and teleported her to the Xavier institute."

Wanda looked relieved at this but suddenly stood up, "What about Jean, did you get her?"

"I haven't seen Jean ever since our lesson, yesterday morning."

Wanda jumped up, suddenly overwhelmed, "We have to get her. We have to save Jean."

"Calm down, Wanda. Take a deep breath and explain what happened."

Wanda wanted to protest but one look at Jasmine's face and she knew that the woman was serious, now, "Alright, I'll tell you what happened."

The teenaged witch took a deep breath and continued, "It all started when Jean agreed to meet someone with Scott. She was still a bit nervous so she asked me and Kitty to have her back…"

Wanda continued to tell the story, Jasmine being silent the entire time. When she was done, Jasmine asked her something that took her off guard, "So, you didn't even think of contacting me, while you knew you were fighting an opponent who outclassed you in experience and in power?"

Wanda looked down, "I thought that I could take him. I thought I was smart enough, strong enough to make you proud."

Jasmine smiled at her, "I can understand this, but no matter what, you should always choose survival over pride. Your growth has been amazing Wanda, but this was never a fight that you were never going to win in the first place."

"But…"

"No buts, Wanda. Your negligence could have gotten Kitty killed for no reason than you wanted to prove yourself to me. You're lucky that this is an emergency because you will be punished after we get Jean back. However, there is something else that we have to address."

"What?" the teenager asked.

"You killed three people last night, Wanda. How do you feel?"

The realization made the young witch stiffen, "It was easy, too easy. I didn't let it get to me because I needed to get Jean out of there. I never realized how easy it was to take a life. I know that they were trying to kill me, but I still feel like I shouldn't have done it. I feel like a monster. Am I a monster, Mom?"

Wanda was practically sobbing by the end of her little monologue. She didn't even notice that she called Jasmine, Mom. And she didn't notice how warm the older woman's eyes had gotten when she heard it. Jasmine just took Wanda into a hug, and kept her close as she wept.

A few minutes later as the younger witch calmed down, Jasmine spoke up, "Wanda, you need to realize that what you're feeling right now is what makes you human. The minute you don't feel anything when taking a life, or even worse, if you take pleasure from it, you start to slowly lose your humanity."

"But you killed a lot of people, Jasmine. You never lost like I did."

The older woman gave Wanda a bitter smirk, "When you live for as long as I did, you change, in ways that normal people just don't realize. Mortality is part of what makes humans, well humans. It's a part of their core, the idea that their days are numbered, that they should treasure every second, the pressure for progress, to try to create a legacy, to make the world a better place, it's all part of what makes the human race so special. I have lost my humanity a long time ago, so has Selene for that matter. We all deal with it differently. Selene dealt with by avoiding any type of relations with mortals, and I have been clinging desperately to my humanity by taking roles every so often, pretending to be normal human with a normal life. Neither of our methods are good, we both know this. It's just the only way to live in a mortal world as immortals. The important part here, is the fact that you, Wanda, are human. There's nothing wrong to have the feelings of one. In fact, I quite recommended."

Wanda chuckled at that last joke, slowly calming down from her breakdown. She just sat there, relishing in the hug from her mother figure for a few minutes.

"What about Jean," Wanda suddenly questioned, "how do we get her back?"

"I added an inert tracker to her seal, it'll take an hour or so to activate but it should give us enough time to prepare. Do you know the name of the man that took her?"

"I think he called himself Sinister."

Jasmine hummed in understanding, and Wanda asked her, "You know who he is."

"Yes, Nathaniel Essex. Quite the tragic story, this man has. Started from being a somewhat unethical scientist to an actual monster from the manipulation of others."

"You knew who he was and did nothing!" Wanda accused.

"It's a lot more complicated than that. I just ignored him. Nathaniel Essex is older than he looked, around two centuries, I believe. A true genius, years ahead of his time, and unknowingly a mutant with minor telepathy. Unfortunately, the death of his son broke him and he got possessed by Apocalypse."

"You mean the guy that you killed in Egypt."

Jasmine nodded, "Yes, Apocalypse must have picked up on his minor telepathy and used it to send an astral presence in the hope of using him to free his main body. I felt it happen and added protection against possession so that it wouldn't happen again. I even removed the influence from the man's mind. But unfortunately, the guy was obsessed with resurrecting his son and channeled some of the knowledge of mutants from Apocalypse's hidden possession to experiment on people. I couldn't remove the host of a willing psychic possession. Because this wasn't a soul but a psychic imprint in Essex's mind. He then started to kidnapped some street rats and criminals to experiment on them. The more he did this, the more Apocalypse started to take control until one day the imprint tried to take over the man's mind fully and killed his wife. He started transforming the body to resemble to the one Apocalypse had. The man was able to beat the imprint but he still clung to it and refused to let go, if only subconsciously."

"Why would he do that? I though you said that he's a genius or something."

"He wanted the knowledge that the imprint had, but he also wanted to be free of it. So, he dedicated his life to the destruction of Apocalypse, not knowing that he was already free, not realizing that he could remove the imprint at any moment, should he just let go of his obsession with mutants and weaponizing them, he would be free. The main body, Apocalypse was never even aware of Essex's existence other than he had tried to possess him and probably failed since Essex never came to free him."

Wanda looked confused, "didn't you kill Apocalypse?"

Jasmine nodded, "Yes, I did. But the imprint wasn't actually connected to Apocalypse. This wasn't an actual possession, just a shot in the dark, the man took in his attempt to escape. As far as Essex is concerned, since the imprint hasn't faded, Apocalypse was still alive. Additionally, I removed all traces of the fight since it was a large scale one and would probably cause mass panic if they did."

"But what does this have to do with Jean? Is he trying to weaponize the Phoenix Force?" Questioned Wanda.

"No, it doesn't have to do with it. No one, especially a human, can actually take control of something like this. It would be unthinkable, that's even without the security measures I added to Jean's seal. No, Essex is a scientist, he's probably the best one that has ever lived. He has cracked the human genetics code, and can give anyone powers, he can take away powers. I said that the man was a genius. I wasn't exaggerating about how brilliant he is. He's been cultivating mutant families, in an attempt to create the perfect mutant. I'm not sure exactly which families he chose, but I know that the Summers and Grey families were one he paid close attention to."

Outraged, Wanda asked, "And you just left him alone? To kill and experiment on people?"

Jasmine shrugged, "I can't be expected to solve every crisis under the sun. Getting too evolved stops the human race from evolving since they would rely on me too much. See, I turned ancient Egypt into a paradise when I lived there. But the moment I left, they started to practice slavery once more and people started to get slaughtered left right and center before being taken over by Apocalypse. Plus, in the grand scheme of things, there has been thousands of unethical scientists that have helped the human race. The world wouldn't have been the same without them, Sinister included. He was a big help in creating the super soldier serum when he infiltrated Hydra in the early days of the second World War, so without him, there wouldn't be Captain America. That man is responsible of decades if not centuries of advancement in the sciences, especially biological and medical advancements. The man may be a monster but he has helped the human race in the long run. In the end, I am not some sort of judge who chooses who lives and who dies. I only punish those who break the natural laws, nothing more. Anything else would be personal business."

"What about Scott? Did you know about Scott?"

Jasmine shook her head, "I knew that there was something wrong in a fundamental level, but I thought it was because of his trauma, not someone reprogramming his subconscious. I assumed that Xavier would have done an in depth scan to make sure there was nothing truly wrong with him, so I ignored him."

Wanda nodded, this made sense, "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, the tracker just activated. It seems that we'll be going to Genosha. After all, we have to save your little girlfriend."

Wanda protested, he face crimson, "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Whatever you say, kiddo. Now, get dressed. It's time we go on a mission together."