Who: Willette Sullivan and Henry Walker What: Wanda and Billy have a reality-altering heart to heart. Where: Asteroid M. Reincarnate safe haven in space. When: Late Saturday night Warnings: None. Status: Complete!
Space wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Sure, in the movies it seemed like a cool idea to be able to walk on the moon, see the rings of Saturn and engage in epic battles with aliens from Mars. In reality? Space was just another half-empty void, just as filthy as the Earth they’d all left. But at least Earth had Taco Bell.
Was Willette experience regret? No. At least none that she cared to admit to anyone, not that it would make any difference. Even the reincarnates on Asteroid M were looking at her sideways, always giving her a wide birth whenever she walked past. Screw them. For the most part, she was perfectly happy to watch everyone down there suffer. What did she owe them anyway? The mundies were no better than reincarnates, but at least they were organized about it. No more of the tired, day in and day out whining and moaning about the struggle of the Reincarnate; now they were all scattered. Caught. In hiding. Some still fighting for their lives, and Willette had to give them credit for that. But none of it mattered in the end, this is what would have happened either way. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
Just because they were off-world didn’t mean they were completely cut off from it. Word had already reached Asteroid M of a recent break out of a few reincarnates from the Cube. Mostly mutants, Frankie and Rachel of the X-Men among them. And Henry. That had struck a chord with Willette, as much as she didn’t want it to. It was relief, but she tried to bury it. She couldn’t afford to care in this new world she’d created anymore than she could afford to in the last one. It was much better for her to just keep looking out the window of their tiny little space station and pretend nothing down there on Earth still touched her.
---
It had been scarring. That was the only word that Henry could apply to what had happened in the Cube. There was already the overlay of what had happened previously for Billy, but at least this time he didn’t have to watch his boyfriend get cut open again, and again. And again. But maybe in some ways, it had been a little worse, because of who had given him up. His parents had always been supportive, if supportive while telling him to hide who he was, was a thing. His oldest sister? Not so supportive; Henry had to hide it from her as well, because she was a very firm supporter of the anti-Reincarnate movement. No more war meant their (her) side had been the winners in all of this.
And Henry had paid dearly for that. To have those implants attached to his ears was enough pain then he cared for, and that was coming from someone who played football for his school. But being able to scream and not hear yourself? To try to help, to see everyone brought by, and he couldn’t help them? He couldn’t think about it right now. Plenty of nightmare-fuel for that later on, but this couldn’t continue. It just wasn’t right. And only one person could have done this, done this whole thing, and neither Henry nor Billy could doubt that she’d been possessed, taken over, whatever would force her to do this. They didn’t know Willette very well, but they did know Wanda. And maybe that could help.
Maybe if he’d been prepared, he could have gone to Asteroid M and been accepted. But he didn’t know. “IwanttobewithWilletteIwanttobewithWilletteIwanttobewithWilletteIwanttobewithWillette.” He’d said it, over and over, concentrating hard, now that he could hear himself. Henry had spent time recovering, hiding, but now he needed to work. In a flash of blue light, he was gone from the safehouse, and. Well. In space.
“Willette?” It was almost cautious sounding, until he steeled his will. He couldn’t be cautious. Not now.
---
The sudden intrusion was a surprise. It wasn’t just everyone else on Asteroid M that was avoiding her, her so-called family had been pretty scarce recently too. She hadn’t seen much of Mason or her pseudo-father figure in the last week, but she also hadn’t made much of an effort to see them either. She was more content to be alone. Willette had never been much of a recluse, but she didn’t fully understand why she suddenly was until now. She was in mourning.
“Henry?”
She couldn’t remember if it was the first time she’d actually called him ‘Henry’ instead of ‘kid’ or some variation of the nickname, because she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually seen him. Before The Change, that is. Time was passing differently now. She turned away from the window fully to face him, recognition on her features not covered by dark curls but not much else. She was wary, guarded. Unsure of how to receive Wanda’s sort-of son, who was still barely more than a stranger to Willette. It was very likely that he was angry with her, and she couldn’t blame him. She was a little angry at herself, because she knew exactly what happens in the Cube. Not that she’d meant for him to end up there, but she couldn’t take it back now. She couldn’t take any of it back.
“I’d heard you made it out.” Her voice was soft and carefully detached, betraying no emotion she might have felt in that moment, if she did. “The others?”
---
This still was weird, even though everything that had happened this week had also been weird. Weirder than normal, but more destructive, now. People had died. People were still dying, or in the midst of dying. They were killing people like them like they were some dogs that needed to be taken down. And enjoying it. They were enjoying capturing them, killing them, sticking them in cages, torturing them if they felt like it. Just because they could. Because they could. It all made his skin crawl.
But what he wanted to know, what he needed to know, was why. Why did she do this? Did someone make her do this? He doubted that, but it still didn’t make sense why she would do it. Why why why why why.
He gave this little half smile, like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to or not. “Yeah, I made it out. Took them awhile, but they got me out.” His hand unconsciously went up to one of the marks around his ear. He didn’t have super healing or anything, and it. It just wasn’t. He gave a short shake of his head.
“Some of them did. Not everyone. It’s chaos down there.” His tone was accusatory, until he bit his lip. “A lot of people are dead, now. Some of them are still alive, but... I don’t know which is better, and I don’t think they know, either.”
---
“Yeah, well.” Willette’s tone was forcibly flat and she gave a very painstakingly shrug of her shoulders. “That’s life, right?”
She wasn’t convincing at all, and she knew it, but she didn’t really care about being invincible anymore. Most of the people she knew were already dead in this brave new world, so the only thing she had left to fear was herself. Everything that happened because of what she’d done was on her conscience, but that was the thing that people wouldn’t understand, including Henry. She didn’t regret it. Any of it. This is what reincarnates were asking for by carrying on with the ridiculous charades they were day in and day out, making meaningless war against each other when they should have been concentrating on the real enemy. If that wasn’t clear by now? That wasn’t her fault. She was just doing what no one else could. She was the most powerful mutant in the world, she wasn’t going to make apologies for that.
And yet, her gaze shifted, almost apologetic as she reluctantly made eye contact with Henry before moving from her spot by the window, abandoning the galaxy in front of her in favor of something not as familiar. Wanda’s son. Weren’t children supposed to reflect any bit of actual good you had done in your life? She hadn’t done much in the way of good, and that was long before Wanda had ever become a factor. Willette didn’t know much about Henry’s life before or after Billy, but she was pretty sure he was a better person than she was, and that made her smile a little at his accusing tone. Ah, the genuine sound of disapproval. She’d never heard that from anyone, especially family. It was almost refreshing.
“So?” She crossed her arms and squared herself in front of him. “Why are you here?”
---
Henry shook his head, a sharp jerk of his head. “No. This isn’t just life. This is someone playing around with our lives, and we have no control over it.” He’d folded his arms across his chest. He was tired, and he looked it, but there wasn’t any time to stop. No time to stop during all of this. Because how many people were dying now, while he was up here with her?
Nothing stopped. Nothing was stopping. But it could be. “You’ve stacked the deck.” It was an easy answer to it all. He really did understand the problems between reincarnates and mundies, he did. And fighting with themselves, with groups like Camelot and the Resistance out there, that wasn’t going to help anyone. But, and this is why his voice came out more accusing.
“You stacked the deck,” He repeated. “But you stacked it against us. We shouldn’t be fighting between ourselves, right? But how is this better?” He flung an arm out, like he could show her how much of it was all worse. “How are people-- friends-- who are dying, or locked away, or anything, how is that better?” Henry paused, breathing in deep, then letting it out slowly.
“You did all of this. So you should fix it.” Was she the most powerful mutant in the world, now with Henry around? They had the same power; he was still working on controlling it. And he thought, at one point, that he was doing a good job. It was hard, dealing with his emotions with this, because Billy’s were so out of whack as well. But only the person who cast the spell could un-cast it.
“This is just like no more mutants. Except all this? Is more like ‘torture all mutants and then no more’.”
---
She had to hand it to the kid. He was pretty quick on the uptake. Willette didn’t answer right away, she merely looked at him. Considering him, maybe. Not many people were brave enough or even willing to stand toe to toe with her, but of course, Billy had most of the same powers that she did. Nobody else in the world was quite like them. In that moment, watching him stand up to her, she was actually a little proud. Of course, that didn’t stop her from getting snappy. Maximoffs were complicated like that.
“It’s not better, that’s the whole point!” Willette snapped, looking dangerous for a moment. Of course he got it, but that didn’t mean he understood. He was still a kid seeing the world through rose colored glasses, he probably still believed that everything could turn out alright for everyone and that a snap of her fingers would make everything better again. Nothing was better in the first place, because nothing was ever good. Reincarnates were no better than the mundies just like mutants were no better than the humans. Everyone was fucked up, people were always two seconds away from backstabbing their closest friend if it meant they got ahead. Hypocrites and war mongers, all of them. Nobody was ever looking out for the little guy anymore. All they ever did was screw and screw and screw each other over until there was nothing left but desperation and misery. People did pretty despicable things when they were desperate and miserable, but Willette was neither. She was just fed up.
“Yeah, I did all this,” Willette admitted emotionlessly, no trace of the red hot rage on her face that had been evident not even a minute ago. She was tired of caring, of Wanda caring, and she just wanted it all to stop. It was almost over now. “You know why? Because these idiots only ever learn through suffering.” It’s possible she was channeling Wanda for that one. “Give me one good reason why I should fix this. One reason that I’d actually consider.”
---
It had almost scared him, to go up against her. But he knew he was right. And she could try to hurt him, but she wouldn’t. He knew she wouldn’t. Because they might be Henry and Willette, but Billy and Wanda? They wouldn’t do that. You didn’t hurt family. Or, at least, the family that you liked. Maybe he wasn’t fully confident in his powers, but he’d had the time to learn them. And the time to know how they worked from the other side.
But he didn’t get that. Why make things worse for everyone? They already were worse, before this. There was fighting between them, yeah, and they were fighting against the government in less catastrophic ways, but… Henry really thought that they could work it out at some point. Come to an understanding, of sorts. Even if it was just ‘Don’t hurt us, and we won’t hurt you’ kind of deal, it was still an understanding. It was something, at least. This was… this was…
They did only learn from suffering. “I can’t give you a reason,” Henry said quietly. He could go on and on, spouting out the different reasons like ‘you’re letting people die’ or ‘you can stop the torture from happening’ or ‘because if you have the power to stop something bad from happening then you should’ or ‘it’s just the right thing to do’. Henry took a few steps so he could look out the window. Space looked cold. Scary. Infinite. He pressed his hand against the glass, and when he pulled it away, his hand print was there.
Henry turned to Willette. “Who decided that you get to play God?”
----
His question actually struck a nerve with her, but one she didn’t immediately recognize. Her feelings were all mixed up with Wanda’s now, the confusion of someone so close to them and yet so far challenging their decisions causing doubt and an ache of guilt to rest in both of them. In some of her not-so-shining moments Wanda had been known for her power trips, using her abilities like a crutch. When things got bad, she let the power of probability fix things. It had taken her a long time to learn that you couldn’t just wish something away and guarantee its safe departure. Actions had consequences, and Willette’s? The consequences were catastrophic.
“God? Are you kidding me?” Willette was lashing out now, for the first time a little afraid of herself more than anything else. She wasn’t Wanda, not completely. She wasn’t yet used to being responsible for the entire weight of a world, being so powerful that with a snap of your fingers entire realities flipped upside down wasn’t something you got accustomed to overnight. How could one person be able to control all that? Willette had never believed in God, not before she became a mutant and definitely not now. There was no God, or all of this? This would never have been allowed to happen. She wasn’t trying to play God. She just wanted to be left alone.
Her temper flared and deflated in the same second, once again faced with looking at Wanda’s son and not being able to hit back. There were some things you just never did, even if you had no limits anywhere else. You never hurt family. “Like I’d want to be in charge of this miserable state of being.” She huffed, crossing her arms and purposefully averting her gaze to look sideways at the ground. “Think what you want, but I only rolled the dice. I had no control over what anyone chose to do here. Everyone was soooo quick to tell me what they thought I should do with Wanda’s gifts, and now you’re all bitching about it. You really think taking it all back would make a difference?”
---
Henry hadn’t backed away, not physically, but he had this brief moment that he was ready to use his powers to protect himself. After screaming himself hoarse for so long, he still wasn’t ready to use his powers to actually hurt someone. But back when he was still discovering them, each and every day? He wouldn’t have used them for anything. Now he was quick on the draw, ready to deflect.. anything. Even any physical contact. He was pretty ready to get that away from him, and he scratched at the marks around his ear again as he tried to think of what to say.
Just because he had the same power didn’t mean he understood what was going on in her head. But then she told him what was going on. And he got it. She wasn’t doing this on some egotistical trip because she wanted to just play a little game or something, and she wasn’t doing this because she wanted a world in the palm of her hand like Magneto had done. She just wanted to be left alone.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t, now. Because Henry was here. “Yeah, I do.” He unconsciously mimicked her, crossing his arms as well. “I didn’t tell you what you should do with your powers. And Colby didn’t. And my other friends didn’t. So why should they have to suffer because of what someone else did? All those people, the Camelot people, the ones who died, the ones they executed recently? They probably didn’t tell you what to do with your powers either.”
He was angry. “You do have control! This is your world, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t choose what would happen, you’re still the one who created it. And you’re the only one who can fix it. I can’t do it. If I could, I wouldn’t have spent all that time in the Cube, I would have put things back the way they were and hid on some deserted island somewhere!” He made a frustrated sound, grabbing his hair.
“I’m not telling you what to do with your powers. I’m telling you that maybe, if you want, it’d be nice to give people their choices back. Maybe this is really what will happen, but we don’t know that. I want to roll my own dice.”
---
“It’s not my world, the mundies made it theirs! Why do you think I’m up here on this gigantic piece of ugly space rock? Because I would have been corralled with the rest of the cattle.” Willette’s voice was raised but she didn’t sound angry, she just sounded tired. And she was tired. She wished she’d gotten a sweeter deal in all this, if only she’d thought to erase everyone’s memories House of M style like Wanda had. Honestly, it wasn’t just her, she would have been doing everyone a favor. (Arguably, she would have been doing everyone a favor by not doing this at all, but you know. Details.)
This wasn’t Willette’s ideal world. It really wasn’t. In a long list of realities that she’d prefer, this wasn’t even close to the top. So why was she arguing now to keep it? She didn’t really have an answer for that, all she knew was that she’d made one choice and now everyone else’s choices left her frozen, horrified. People were awful no matter the reality, so what was so much better about the first one? If she really wanted to fix things, she would just get rid of the miserable human race altogether. But she wouldn’t. She would never do that. Mutant genocide was Wanda’s claim to fame, Willette wasn’t quite ready to go anywhere near there. So yeah, he was right, she did have control. Maybe not over everyone’s individual choices, but as far as forcing the hand with carefully predetermined scenarios? Yeah. Okay. She’d give Henry that one. She did have control over that much. And she had the power to make things right again.
“It’s too late.” Her voice was much quieter now, uncertain, still looking at the ground as she bit her lip and silently mulled over the phrase ‘No More War’. Such a simple sounding concept she’d uttered. What did that even mean anymore? People had taken her words into their own hands now, for better or for worse. Not so shockingly, it was pretty much for worse. How were they all supposed to come back from this? There was no going back. Or even if there was, nothing would be the same after this, before anything even really happened. A world changed by a bad dream. “We can’t go back now…”
---
“Who really wants to live on a space rock? Not everyone got this option, you know. I’m pretty sure tons of the reincarnates couldn’t get on this place even if they asked nicely. And if my choice was earth or space rock, I don’t want to live in space.” Henry looked over at the window, at his handprint still slowly fading away. He could never live up here. Life might be worse back on earth, but abandoning it like this felt wrong. Didn’t she see how it was wrong? That the choice was either stay and be killed or imprisoned, or abandon their whole world?
But as he looked at her, Henry felt that maybe, just maybe, she was getting that right now. Or maybe just losing the will to fight against this whole thing. He might be tired of fighting, but that didn’t mean he was giving up. He gave her a little, but genuine smile.
“It’s never too late. We can go back to before. Just turn back the clock. Undo what happened, go back to when you said it. I know it’ll work. I can help you, if you want me to. But it can go back to what it was. I know it can.” If she needed the help, he would give it. If she needed the power, he would give it. Or, if she needed a hand to hold onto, he would give it. Whatever it was. He would give it.
---
Nobody ever told you how hard it was to say no to your own kid. Even if he wasn’t technically hers. Billy was their common link, and it was strong enough to leave a lasting impression. And it was almost admirable, just how hopeful he still was. After everything they’d all been through in this reality, not even counting the first one? Anyone else might have given up on the human race a long time ago. She sure had, and that was long before she’d ever uttered those world changing words. But not Henry. It was nice, actually, seeing that kind of hope in someone else. Willette never had that, and she was positive she never would. But it was still nice to see. It made her decision that much easier.
In all honesty, she didn’t need much convincing. Just the right incentive. But his words sunk in deep, mostly because she already knew them to be true. This wasn’t right. Willette didn’t need anyone telling her that, as she stood there for a long moment considering him. Messing with time, changing realities? It wasn’t just cheating, it was wrong. And she actually felt guilty, even if she’d sooner die than admit it. This wasn’t how you won battles. This wasn’t even how you fought them. She’d have to find another way. But looking at Henry now, she knew she had to make things right again, and endure any consequences that followed. She’d put things back the way they were. If only for him.
“Okay.” Her answer was practically inaudible under her breath, but she was sure he heard her. And if she didn’t act soon, Scarlett Jones was likely to burn the entire Earth anyway, and that was probably something everyone would like to avoid. Willette had wanted to change the world, not destroy it. She knew what to do. “Take my hand.”
Willette took a step closer to him and once their hands had touched, she closed her eyes. Just for a moment. Then they opened.