Chapter 321: Family Concerns

13th May 2013, Asgard

(Hela Odinsdottir POV)

The woman gave her a knowing glance, "Because he's the one who took over your will and stabbed your father in the back."

Hela stiffened. She remembered the feeling of weakness and wanted nothing to do with it. She ignored the pain in her heart when she saw her father being stabbed. In the back of all places, what a dishonorable way of fighting. No matter what happened, she could not let her father's potential death stay unavenged, "I agree."

The Midgardian witch nodded, "Good. What about your father?"

"I'll assume that he was under the Shadows' control until he wakes up. When he does, I will confront him."

The woman nodded, "Don't expect much, Hela. Mind control or not, Odin is still an asshole at the best of times."

Hela stifled a snort at this. Yes, that was an apt way of describing Odin.

16th May 2013, Sayre Manor

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda Maximoff was used to her mother disappearing on odd quests whenever she feels like it. She disappeared for years after her first fight with Entropy, she stayed for months in a cave in Wakanda during her ritual, and now, she went to Asgard to fight some kind of Shadow Demon things that controlled the Asgardian in order to get Odin's alliance in the fight against Entropy.

Honestly, Wanda had no idea what the hell was going on with the Asgard mess, only that Jasmine was really going out of her way to deal with it. Honestly, Wanda stopped trying to figure out her adopted mother's plans a very long time ago. She had plans inside plans, surrounded by complex plots and turns, that somehow end up working. No, she wasn't worried about her mother's life in the slightest.

Wanda will admit without a shred of shame or guilt that being adopted by Jasmine was the best thing that ever happened to her. Her life before was so lonely, so uncolored, filled with nothing but madness and anger. Wanda's rage against her father, against her brother, against the world, had consumed every cell in her body and the young woman shuddered at the thought of what she would have become if her mother hadn't saved her.

Would she have been able to control her powers? Would she have been able to live a meaningful life without being consumed by her rage and pain? She definitely wouldn't have met Jean, her other half. Wanda didn't know how they were blind to their own feelings towards one another for so long, but the moment that they confronted themselves in Genosha, everything felt right.

Speaking of Genosha, Jasmine had sent them there to help Emma Frost rule the country. At first, Wanda thought that it was a demeaning job. She was the daughter of Jasmine Potter, who even arranged for Genosha to exist in the first place and took it over from Mr. Sinister. But Wanda didn't realize how complex the operations in Genosha truly were, and that if she became the leader overnight, she would have been overwhelmed after a single day. Still, Wanda could recognize that she was groomed into the leadership, not as much as Jean who was probably going to be promoted to the Queen of Genosha in a few years, but Wanda did not doubt that Jasmine had a leadership role for her.

Still, Genosha was more than a national thing, it was more like an international operation that monitored mutants all over the world. While Jean was mostly tasked with dealing with political and local issues, Wanda was part of the external affairs task force. The operation was imperative and extremely large. It was largely composed of three departments. The intelligence department catalogues emergent mutants and puts them under surveillance and detects if an issue occurs with them thanks to a connection to Alfred, Jasmine's virtual intelligence.

The extraction department deals with the urgent removal of mutants in case they are in danger like being hunted down by an organization or zealot rioters. These agents tended to be heavy hitters in case there is a confrontation with the danger element, although those tended to be rare occasions. Finally, the communication department is the one responsible for contacting the mutants in question and their families, to offer them a place in Genosha. This department also includes the infiltration specialists that spy on certain organizations that might cause harm to Genosha or the mutant issue at large.

Anyway, Wanda was a high-ranking agent that has participated in all three departments and rescued thousands of mutants across the globe, offering them and their families a place in Genosha, to live a peaceful life without hiding who they are, what they are.

The system that they had devised was obviously working. The mutant issue stopped appearing every other day in newspapers, seeing that incidents involving mutants started to decline drastically. Nowadays, the media barely even mentions it at all, to the anger of most governments across the globe. They wished to create their own armed forces made of mutants, which they view as little more than weapons of mass destruction.

It was disgusting, it was disturbing, it was horrible, and Wanda hated it. But it was the truth of the world, power attracts, and humans are greedy. Still, Wanda's time in Genosha was oddly relaxing, and she was somewhat glad that she was away from her mother's mad plans for a little while.

However, Jasmine had asked her and Jean to stay in Greenwich to deal with any regularities. Apparently, there was something called the Convergence, and it created random portals all over the nine realms, and with how Asgard is planning an attack on these Shadow people, it was entirely possible that a stray portal could appear and cause problems. Why only Greenwich needed to be defended, Wanda had no idea, but the reality manipulator had long stopped doubting her mother's statements.

Things were remarkably stable for a while until a single large spaceship appeared out of a red portal and destroyed a couple of buildings. Jean was able to easily hold it up the moment she realized what happened, and Wanda disintegrated the ship and its inhabitants. But there was still some damage done, and dozens of people had lost their lives. Wanda knew that it wasn't their fault; Greenwich was a large place, and the convergence portals were random by nature. They had saved thousands of lives if the ship – which was honestly as large as a skyscraper – had continued its trajectory and killed people.

This happened three days ago, and like a switch, the mutant phobia was back. Wanda had no idea how stupid they could be considering that it was an alien ship that crashed in the middle of a British city and was saved by a couple of mutants. But people were very wary of the powers showcased by Jean and Wanda, not that they were able to find any sign of their existence. They just assumed that a powerful mutant happened to be there during the attack, although there were some conspiracy nutjobs that say that it was a terrorist attack arranged by the mutants.

It was sad to see the fact that they had saved so many lives, were being judged so harshly. Politicians stroked the fire, enraging the public by saying that Mutants should be monitored by the government to avoid such issues. It wasn't even that they cared about the fact that they saved a city, but they wanted to say that powerful mutants can be dangerous for everyone.

It wasn't even fair, not really. They couldn't consider Jean and Wanda as scales to what a mutant was capable of. The average mutant was barely more than a regular person, with an extra small ability that didn't mean much in the long run. Enhanced vision, reflexes, or hearing wouldn't get the government excited about it. It was juggernauts like Magneto, Wanda, Jean, and even Xavier who were the ones being targeted really. The people never even considered that barely more than one percent of the mutant population was an alpha level mutant or above, and by trying to control them, the government will end up hurting millions of others for the handful that exist in the world.

But all of this wouldn't change anything really. No one knew about Genosha, and whatever laws they drafted wouldn't impact them in any way. Genosha's purpose would continue, at risk mutants will continue to be saved and freed, and it's not like any nation could impede their operations in any way. It would probably take a couple of years for the outsiders to figure out that whatever they're doing wouldn't work. Genosha will always stay one step ahead of them, and all that fearmongering will be a waste of resources.

And yet now, a few days after the incident, Wanda and Jean sat in Sayre manor, waiting for Jasmine to return. The place was somewhat empty without her mother's presence. She even started to miss Selene's silent dismissive glances that were always on her face.

Speaking of Selene, Wanda knew that something had happened between her and Jasmine. It definitely wasn't pretty. No one, not even Bucky, had any idea what truly happened, only that Jasmine returned one day furious after something Rose had done, and Selene was gone afterwards. Even Rose didn't answer any of her calls, and yet Wanda knew that the witch was still in Britain. Apparently, the political situation was up in flames after some sort of mass assassination of very influential people in the magical world.

The reality manipulator thought that Rose might simply be too overwhelmed while dealing with the issue to answer them and would contact them shortly. They knew that Jasmine had put her in charge of the magical world somewhat, and she probably had some trouble dealing with it.

Still, Jasmine hadn't contacted them for months outside of the small mission in Greenwich, and even then, she sounded oddly detached. The thing with Selene must have really shaken her up, and Wanda was concerned.

The reality manipulator looked at her beautiful girlfriend who had just entered the room, "Did you find out anything?"

The redhead shook her head, "No, no one knows anything. It's really weird, actually."

"Do you think we should ask Rose? She was obviously involved in whatever happened to Jasmine."

Jean nodded, "I don't know. She might be busy."

Wanda snorted, "It's not like we can't just teleport out if she's too busy."

Jean's green eyes bored through her, "You're really worried about Jasmine, aren't you?"

"She's my mother," Wanda returned, "of course, I'm worried."

"She's been through so much already, she can take it, Wanda."

The reality manipulator shook her head, "No, something is different this time. Something was wrong when she called us, and with how Selene is gone somewhere, and Rose is ghosting us, something must have happened, something serious."

Jean looked pensive, "Ever since I met her, she has been obsessed with the fight against Entropy. She's giving it her all, and I can tell that. This is probably another of her antics trying to think of the bigger picture or something like that."

"Jean, I'm serious here. I can feel that something is wrong."

Jean shrugged, "If it makes you feel any better, I suppose we could go to Britain and ask Rose. But if she kicks us out, or if she's too busy, you'll be the one explaining about your little hunch. I still think that it's probably nothing and that you're just missing Jasmine. But it's your mother, so I guess I can understand your worry."

Wanda was relieved by her girlfriend's acceptance to go to Britain. She ran and enveloped the redhead in a hug, "Thanks for understanding. You're the best girlfriend ever."

Jean gave her a cheeky smirk, "Remember that when it's my time to ask you for a weird favor."

Wanda snorted as Jean waved her arms and opened the portal. The two women walked inside and appeared in a deserted alley in Britain. Wanda was going to get answers and Rose was the key to it.