Subject: [OTL]: (Breeze Arc; alt. Anya Lehnsherr) Stray Wind (PG-13) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 20:43:20 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Stray Wind by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Those who are Marvel's, are Marvel's. Etc. NOTES: At the end. -------------------------------------------------------- 1/2/2003: -------------------------------------------------------- She sat, watching the work going on, with dispassion. It was a familiar friend. It had to have been, for the past 43 years. Dispassion was something "Alda Huxley" had chosen to cultivate as a traveling companion almost from the time she could remember. #Waking up in a shallow grave will do that to a person,# the person who most of the world believed to be the former U.N. ambassador from Genosha thought, trying to hide her concerns. Alda was failing miserably. The primary object of her worries was lying in a hospital bed, brainwaves erratic, with a host of his former arch-enemies trying to ensure he would live through the day. Dispassion was moving out, replaced by memories of another time when "Alda" had been crying for the man in the bed. ******************************************************** 10/8/1962: Vinnitsa, Russia: ******************************************************** She coughed, spitting up dirt, and cried. It had been so BAD in the house, with the smoke and the flames. And now Mama and Papa were gone. "Hurt," the girl sobbed, pulling herself out of the ground. She was confused as well as in pain; hadn't her Mama told her not to dig in the dirt ? "Who would leave a child out here in the middle of nowhere ! Alexi ! Come quickly !" The girl looked up, shivering in her nightgown, as a woman swept her into her arms and brushed dirt from her face. "Are you all right, little one ?" the woman - not Mama, the 2-year-old realized - said in Russian. "Hurt. A fire. Mama and Papa went away," the girl sniffed, clinging to the woman as a man approached. "Bring her, Tanya. We have to get to the checkpoint quickly, before we're caught by the army," the man of the pair said. "Pass her off as ours - we can't leave her behind." "Of course not ! What is your name, little one ?" the woman asked. "Anya," the girl said, quietly. "Anya Lehnsherr." ******************************************************** "Ms. Huxley ? Or should I say, Ms. Lehnsherr ?" Alda/Anya started, looking up at the bald man with whom she'd had such a tulmultuous relationship over the past 20 years, and smiled wryly. "Charles, please. Anya is fine," she said, standing and turning away from the observation window into Magneto's medlab room. Charles Xavier leaned on his cane, giving Erik Magnus Lehnsherr another concerned look before turning back to the living conundrum standing before him. Alda - Anya, Xavier corrected himself; it was just so hard to think she COULD be Magnus' long-lost daughter - was tall, with blonde hair cut short, and those piercing blue eyes that had haunted the master telepath for years, reminding Xavier of SOMEONE, he just couldn't figure out whom ... "You're wondering how the hell I could have lived through that house fire in Vinnitsa," Anya said, her smile turning grim. "I have a very powerful, very annoying healing factor - one of my two mutant abilities. It manifested, in a black-comedy sort of way, as I lay near death in that grave. Father didn't bury me very deeply; I learned years later he was on the run from the Russian army over what happened at the town, and he had little time." Xavier nodded; he'd figured that she would have to have some form of potent healing to have survived the blaze. "Your genescans came back positive. Since you submitted to the ... indignity ... of an inhibitor collar during the scan, I have no choice but to believe that you are truly Anya Lehnsherr," Xavier said, sitting down slowly beside Anya as she returned to the couch. "Oh, believe it. And it wasn't an indignity. I understand about the necessity to be sure of who I am. After all, you're probably a bit peeved that I pulled this over on you for 20 years," Anya chuckled, almost apologetically. "Considering where you grew up, I understand your need for secrecy," Xavier replied. "Genosha before the Mutate Wars was hardly a safe place to be a mutant." Anya snorted derisively. "I was lucky. David Moreau and his repulsive little regime didn't come to power until I was in college," she growled. "But I would have been dragged off to the transmode chambers with the rest of the unfortunates if it hadn't been for my second power." Xavier cocked an eyebrow, prompting another laugh from Anya. "It's actually a side-effect of my healing factor. I can effectively damp my x-factor, through intense concentration, to appear human to genescanners," Anya said, faintly. "It's a fairly narrow little quirk, but it kept me from becoming a mutate zombie. I can't control genetic structures or heal others or rearrange organic molecules - just hide what I really am." "It must have been lonely," Xavier prompted. The glare Anya gave him - as well as the faint hostility emanating from her well-screened mind - made him close his mouth on his next question. "You have no idea. Remembering who I was - remembering that damned house fire - and finding myself getting a new, pathetically fake, name and a foster family ... I have a very good memory, Charles. It's a cruel thing, memory," Anya muttered. She continued to explain, letting Xavier ask a question here or there. "Alda Huxley," Anya began to explain, was obviously a pseudonym. It was one crafted by her foster parents, Alexi and Tanya Petrovich - AKA Alex and Tanya Peters, Genoshan spies in Russia during the Cold War - had created for her to get her into their home country. They'd been under deep cover for more than three years, so the Genosha Intelligence Division had no reason to suspect that the Peterses would have "adopted" a Russian orphan. Learning at an early age to hide her differences - which her foster parents had chalked up to a blessing of simply having a very healthy daughter - "Alda" had grown up among the old-family Genoshan elite, human in seeming. "Of course, I was the ultimate changeling. I used my Magnus-given intellect to become a superb student, figuring out by eighth grade what I was, and I knew I had to find a way to hide my mutancy," Anya said. She stood, looking once more in upon Magnus, and sighed. "But I knew that while I was in, effectively, enemy territory, I had a father out there. I didn't realize what had happened to him, or that I had siblings, or that my mother was most likely dead, but I KNEW that my father wouldn't just abandon me without a very good reason," Anya insisted. She turned back to Xavier with a weak smile and breathed, "Imagine my shock when, as a low-level bureaucrat in the Genoshan Department of Foreign Affairs, we got intelligence photos of my father, the 'greatest mutant threat to Genoshan security.'" "And then, at 23, was when you met me," Xavier said, rememmbering the conference at Hammer Bay with a heavy heart. It had been 1985; the X-Men were in the throes of a roster change, and Xavier was following up some dark rumors about mutants in Genosha being suppressed. He had traveled to Hammer Bay, utilizing some of his own inventions to keep his mutancy well-hidden, and had met with then-Senator Marie Reneau. Reneau, later the last human President of Genosha before Xavier's first class of New Mutants helped overthrow her fascist regime in 1994, had poo-pooed Xavier's concerns, and pawned him off on Alda. "You have no idea how ... wretched ... I felt, having to lie to an American about the ugliness beneath the skin of Genosha," Anya whispered. "It had all started in 1983 - the doors being broken down in the dead of night, teenagers and young people being dragged off to the Citadel, then coming back bald and glassy-eyed and in skinsuits ..." She hugged herself, and looked at Magnus tearfully. "I finally understood what he had gone through back in Germany, before he had been hauled to Auschwitz," Anya breathed, looking at Xavier again. "I just couldn't do anything. All I could do was try to ride the waves, hoping that maybe the next President would stand up to Moreau and the Magistrates ... and then the X-Men go and cause chaos. And months later, your 'X-Force' go and level the Citadel. Talk about irony." She laughed bitterly, leaning against the glass between her and her father, and fixed her blue gaze directly upon Xavier. "Charles, I have to admit, I've liked and hated you in equal measure ever since the fall of Moreau's regime. Your speeches, your Dream ... it's all very nice. But try telling that to a mutate whose memories are the only thing they can get back of the years they spent as a slave ..." Anya trailed off. "I may have escaped being a mutate, but I can empathize with the rage they felt. I saw the price the Mutate Wars took on Genosha, Charles. And part of that IS your fault." Xavier started, but held his tongue when Anya crossed her arms. "Don't think I blame you for everything, of course. There was plenty of stupidity and misplaced hatred on both sides in the Wars," Anya sighed. "It's a wonder there weren't more casualties. As it was, when the Acolytes and Exodus stormed the country in '95, I really thought we had a chance of getting things under control." "With Exodus ? Not likely," Xavier said drily. Anya nodded, her eyes turning icy. "I looked at Luna, and I KNEW. I could see myself as a toddler in her face," Anya said, a chill behind her words. "The very idea that that - vermin - Exodus would kidnap an innocent child - my NIECE - and use her in my father's name ..." "That explains why you risked everything to get her out of the Acolytes' base camp," Xavier breathed. "You took her to her parents ..." "I knew that Magnus had had three other children, but the name 'Maximoff' in the intelligence reports threw me about the twins. I almost let it slip when I saw Pietro in the flesh for the first time - the resemblance to a young Father was eerie," Anya mused. "But I wasn't ready to reveal myself yet. I had to find a way to get Father on my side ... to make myself useful ..." She shook her head and shrugged. "You became a power broker in the tenuous armistice government between the old human families and the mutates after the 1995 cease-fire," Xavier said, nodding. "And for your efforts, you were awarded the ambassadorship to the United Nations." Anya laughed again, bitterness underneath the mirth. "I thought I was in the last possible position to ever come in contact with Father. Especially after you went and wiped his mind only weeks after he had lobbied for peace in Genosha," she said, frowning at Xavier. "He'd become unstable ... not that that excuses what I did," Xavier replied sadly. "'Onslaught' ? Really, Charles," Anya sniffed. "That was strike two between you and I. By the time you resurfaced in '97, and shocked the world with your televised announcement about the identities of the X-Men to lobby for the Parahuman Equal Rights Act, I was very cross with you." She gave Xavier a wry laugh, then added, "Not that I was exactly a paragon of honesty. But I figured that if I spilled the beans about who I was, all of my hard work as a peace broker would have been torn to shreds. I may not have liked everything about Genosha, but it was improving after decades of fascist slavery. My silence was a small price for peace." Anya sat back down beside Xavier, and shrugged. "Then, in 1998, Father came up with that ridiculous plan to force world surrender by tinkering with the magnetosphere. You were busy leading the X-Men to the North Magnetic Pole, and the Security Council wanted someone with mutant expertise to try and broker a peace deal," she said. An evil smile flickered across Anya's lips, prompting a raised eyebrow from Xavier. "Haven't you ever wondered just why the General Assembly gave Father the presidency of Genosha, after you defeated him ? I burned the message from SHIELD stating that the magnetosphere was returning to normal. I WANTED the General Assembly to cave in and believe that the only path to peace was to appease Father," Anya said. Xavier blanched. "Oh, don't act so horrified. Genosha thrived over the past four years, didn't it ? The human families were repatriated successfully, the skinsuit removal program was a wonderful success, and Father kept his hands out of the global cookie jar," Anya sniffed. "You - risked - everything - for your father's APPROVAL ?" Xavier wheeze-growled. Anya's face turned steely. "I DID it as much to save the planet from a heartbroken old man who had a pack of bloodthirsty anti-human cultists to keep on a short leash," she growled. "If that tramp Rogue had bothered to stay with Father ... do you know just how ANGRY I am with her ? It's bad enough she seduced Father when she was barely legal - Mystique's influence, I think - but to create a child with him ? Young Charles has been through so much garbage in his life, and all because his father is such a conflicted, wonderful mess." Xavier gave her a doubting look and replied, "Rogue is hardly a 'tramp.' And as for young Charles, he's not so young anymore." Anya glanced into her father's room, where her 14-year-old half-brother was keeping a vigil at Magnus' bedside. "True. But he deserved better. We all did ... I can't hate Father, though. I truly think he's lost the ability to trust humanity," Anya pondered. "Do you know, he treated me like a daughter when he was Genosha's President ? I would come and sit at his feet when he was on his throne, and just listen. I kept his confidences - things he never even told Amelia Voght - and I just tried to be there. And he was always a kind man, never once suspecting our true bond ... he thought of me as an 'exemplar' of humanity." Anya gave a sardonic laugh and muttered, "Some 'human' I am. With the influx of mutants into Genosha, we practically painted a giant bulls-eye on ourselves for the Sentinels." "How did you rescue Magnus ?" Xavier pondered, remembering the chaos in Hammer Bay following the New Year's Eve 2002 attack by the Sentinels. Anya smiled sadly and began to speak. Magnus had been standing on the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Hammer Bay, watching the clock count down to 2003, when the Sentinels attacked. He tried to crush them magnakinetically, but some kind of power-reversion field had hit him. "That's why you're seeing so many electrical burns across his body. I found him where he fell - his helmet had exploded, outwards, thank God - and he was incoherent. I got him to a healer, who stabilized him, and then Exodus found us," Anya said. Her face went cold again as she added, "I had to go active with my healing factor when Father accidentally shocked me during one of his spells ... and Exodus detected my mutant power. He was NOT pleased, to say the least ... so I convinced Voght to get us out of there." "Is Amelia - ?" Xavier asked, concern for his former girlfriend coloring his tone. "She's fine. Exodus knows he needs her to keep the Acolytes in line, and with the Palace in shambles, there wasn't enough advanced healing tech to properly treat Father," Anya said. "So, I came here." "Where you admitted your true identity," Xavier breathed. Anya stood, giving Xavier a wry smile, and headed for the door to Magnus' room. She could smell the antiseptic in the air, and saw the squiggly green lines on the monitors. Charles Lehnsherr - #My little brother,# Anya reminded herself - looked up with worried blue eyes and brushed brown and white bangs out of his face. "Pull up a chair," the teen offered. Anya did so, looking at Magnus' face before patting Chuck's shoulder. Magnus looked ... old. #Like he was never deaged, then reaged to 20-something,# Anya thought grimly. #Like all 75 of his years decided to come screaming to the forefront now ...# She felt a hand squeeze her shoulder, and looked at Chuck questioningly. "He's going to be all right," the teen said, giving Anya a faint smile. "And you're going to be all right, too." "Me ? I'm -" Anya began, glancing at Magnus before looking at Chuck again. "The glass isn't that thick. I heard you talking to the Professor - all those years alone, trying to be the daughter Dad thought he'd lost. You're part of the family, Anya - you always have been, in your own way," Chuck insisted. "How !? It was my absence that drove him to become who he is !" Anya snapped. "If I'd come forward years ago -" "The daughter of Magneto found in Genosha? You'd've ended up in a skinsuit so fast you wouldn't've had had time to feel your memories getting wiped," Chuck said, more forcefully. He laughed bitterly, then looked at Magnus and said, "For the past four years, I've tried to be anything but Dad. And you've tried to live up to his example ... you saw his good side, and I only saw the bad. But now we have a second chance." Anya gave Chuck an intense stare, then heard one of the monitors give a beep - - and looked into a third set of blue eyes, both familiar and yet, suddenly, so very distant. "Charles ?" Magnus croaked. Chuck got his father a glass of water, and the Master of Magnetism sipped it carefully as he tried to sit up. Then, Magnus looked at Anya. And looked some more, and raised a silver eyebrow. "By the Eternal ... I thought I was delusional, listening to you two," Magnus said, awe in his voice. "But Magda has been in your face for all these years, and I never saw ..." Anya leaned over, letting the tears flow, and thought a silent thanks at Chuck as the boy left quietly. "Hi, Papa," she breathed. "I'm home." -------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: -------------------------------------------------------- Obviously, this is a VERY AU; I've practically thrown every bit of Magneto-lore out the window writing this, but ... One of the few interesting parts of "The Magneto War" from a few years ago in the core X-books was Alda Huxley. How, I pondered, could a character with such a pathetically obvious name have such an interest in the welfare of the most powerful mutant supremacist extant in the Marvelverse? Alda was supposedly a high-ranking official in the U.N., yet she burned an official U.N. document (X-Men Series 2, #87, if I'm not mistaken) to fool the world into thinking Magneto should receive control of a political hot potato. Then, the possibilities hit me ... especially in the sequel to "Magneto Rex," when Alda was so antsy around Wanda Maximoff (Lehnsherr), Magnus' daughter, the Scarlet Witch. And thus, the past bit of whimsy came out ... take it as you will ... -------------------------------------------------------- tbc in Breeze Book 2 --------------------------------------------------------