"Friends..."
Lorna had tried her best not to think about that word, because she had seen with her own eyes how each of them left, one after another.
Their sacrifices were all so she could make it to Wayne Manor.
At last, she had made it. But instead of arriving as a survivor or a fighter, she knelt here as a prisoner, right in front of the enemy of all mutants, 'Bruce Wayne.'
To the world, he was nothing more than a shallow billionaire playboy. But every mutant under Charles' command knew the truth. 'Bruce Wayne,' along with the Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp, were the real reasons mutants had fallen to this point.
Now, with guilt and shame weighing heavily on her, Lorna could no longer hold onto the strength she once had. And the notorious villains of Gotham standing around her weren't going to offer her any chance to speak or fight back.
Pyro's headless body. Angel's mangled wings, torn from his back. The skinned faces of Shadowcat and Blink, peeled away while they were still alive. And finally, Deathstroke, who had arrived late, casually bringing in a clear bottle of water, a paper label stuck on the front with the name "Iceman" scribbled in pen.
They were just fragments of her teammates' bodies, but the moment Lorna saw them, her mind spiraled. She couldn't stop imagining how each of them had met their tragic end.
"No! Please... stop! I'm begging you!"
No matter how much of Magneto's resilience she might have inherited, in that moment, her spirit completely broke. She collapsed to the floor.
"Oh, right."
Deathstroke spoke casually, as if remembering something small. He turned on an already prepared projector.
On the screen, just outside Wayne Manor, Peter had finally arrived. But for someone like him, who relied purely on brute strength, the forest Poison Ivy had created was an insurmountable obstacle.
He could tear a vine apart. However, whenever countless soft, flexible vines came at him together, even the mighty Colossus was unable to move forward.
And those plants were far stronger than anyone could imagine.
In the projection, Peter was eventually entangled, his limbs bound tightly by the vines. The deadly plants coiled tighter, slowly compressing from all sides.
They might not be able to rip apart his metal body instantly, but at this rate, it wouldn't take long before he was crushed into a flat disc of steel.
"Peter..."
Lorna only took one glance before lowering her head. She couldn't bring herself to watch. She knew exactly why he had come here, and that only deepened the guilt gnawing at her. She didn't have the courage to witness how it would all end.
Upstairs, 'Bruce' looked down at her and gave a slight nod. He hadn't come all this way just to break her spirit.
He turned to Poison Ivy. "It's time."
"Alright, Bruce."
Ivy, who usually looked cold and unapproachable to everyone else, only ever showed a genuine smile when she faced the man who had avenged her: 'Bruce Wayne.'
She approached the fallen mutant, and with a subtle curl of her delicate fingers, a vine covered in blossoms slipped through the window. It moved on its own, coiling into a floral wreath that gently landed in her hand.
As Poison Ivy drew closer, Lorna forced herself to hold back her sadness and looked up. But when her eyes landed on the wreath in Ivy's hand, her expression shifted to fear.
"W-What is that...?"
She could see clearly. Although the flowers on the wreath were bright and beautiful, the vine coiled around them was lined with sharp, menacing thorns. Something about it felt terribly wrong.
Poison Ivy smiled gently at her question. "Just a small gift. Once you wear it, everything will be over."
Ivy's power wasn't limited to simply controlling plants. She could also manipulate the ones she grew or summoned to secrete specific toxins tailored to different effects.
Some of those poisons were lethal, capable of killing with just a scratch. But others, like the ones in this wreath, worked like Joker Infection, affecting the mind rather than the body.
As long as Lorna wore the wreath and the thorns pierced her skin, the constantly secreted neurotoxins would seep into her system and slowly take over her mind.
It was one of the most reliable forms of mental control that Reid trusted.
In a world where mental abilities often leaned toward the abstract and invisible, he preferred methods he could see, ones that worked through chemistry and biology—like Ivy's poisons.
And the reason only Lorna had been brought to this point was simple. First, her powers were valuable. Someone like Angel might've had presence in the comics, but his abilities weren't enough to interest Reid.
Second, Lorna's own powers had no way of resisting the effects of the neurotoxin. Without some kind of special ability, even Superman wouldn't be able to escape Ivy's control once it took hold.
As for the other mutants, they had been discarded for various reasons. In the end, their bodies were simply left behind for LexCorp's research.
"No… don't come any closer!"
Lorna didn't know exactly what the wreath was hiding, but her instincts screamed danger. She tried to back away, struggling against her restraints, but the vines around her suddenly tightened, holding her in place.
...
Just as Lorna was about to be turned into Poison Ivy's puppet, on a highway outside Gotham.
A flash of silver streaked through the air, and two figures appeared at the roadside, one held in the arms of the other.
"Pietro, stop carrying me."
The woman with long, dark brown hair slipped from the silver-haired man's grip, landing lightly on her feet.
"You're the fastest. Go find our sister. I'll stay here and keep watch."
From their brief exchange, their identities became obvious.
They were Magneto's two largely overlooked children, Pietro Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver, and Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.
Like many others, they had been raised and educated by both Magneto and Professor X. But unlike most of the other mutants, the two of them had never truly been swayed by either man's ideals.
Pietro was rebellious by nature, wild and energetic. All that talk from both men about mutant destiny and revolution meant nothing to him. It was just nonsense that went in one ear and out the other.
Wanda, on the other hand, was simpler in her reasoning. Like Jean, her powers were immense, too powerful in fact, and capable of accidentally hurting others. Deep down, she wasn't a warrior. She didn't enjoy conflict, and she certainly didn't share Professor X's or Magneto's growing hostility toward humans.
Neither sibling wanted to be at war with humanity.
So, when they became adults, both of them left the academy, choosing to walk away from the two men's influence. They began living their own lives, blending into society under their real names, Pietro and Wanda. They lived as ordinary people among humans.
Still, they never stopped caring about mutants, especially the state of the academy.
Family, after all, was still family.
By the time they received news of Magneto's death, it was already too late. Their father was long gone.
Since then, the two had quietly kept watch over the academy from afar. They stayed uninvolved during its decline, unwilling to be pulled into another ideological war. But when they learned that their sister had set out with her friends to Gotham, seeking vengeance…
They knew they couldn't lose another member of their family. And now, they were here for one reason only: to save Lorna.
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