"There's people I need to talk to, now." She has half formed ideas of who to go to - Nausicaa and Sue of course (can she trust that thought?), but there's a few others -

"Thanks though, Ikol."

"Be cautious who you trust," she says, before taking off, vanishing in a swirl of feathers - completely ignoring the closed window, of course.

Of course.

Loki dithers over her computer, unsure of what messages to send to who -

And, ultimately, leaves, a teleport taking her to -

Somewhere.

It's in America. She knows that.

Forested, a derelict stone mansion and overgrown grounds - it shouldn't look like that -

Loki steps up to the gates. There's no writing on them, but -

"Xavier's," she says out loud, almost like a spell to break the silence. "An academy for the gifted."

She looks at the all too familiar grounds, shivering.

"It never was, here," a voice says from behind her.

A familiar voice, but one Loki hasn't heard - in this world, at least.

She turns around.

"Who are you?"

There's five identical girls, distinguished only by their different clothes.

"You know who we are, Loki," says the girl in the lead.

"...You're Sophie," to the one in the lead.

The girl in a jean jacket, hair cut shorter than her sisters, an annoyed look on her face - "Phoebe."

The quiet girl, dressed like no one spectacular - "Irma Mindee."

The girl she knows is kinder, somehow, dressed in a soft shirt and slacks - "Celeste."

The girl in dark clothes with sharp, crisp lines, who currently seems intensely suspicious of Loki - "Esme."

"You guys are Five-in-One."

Celeste smiles. "Exactly. We were friends in the world before. It was us who taught you about mental shielding."

"Because of Kid Omega."

"That jerk, yeah," says Sophie. "It's good to see you broke through to at least some of your memories."

"I didn't on my own. There was a crow. Called herself Ikol. Told me - that everything here's fake."

"We haven't heard of an Ikol," Celeste says. "And - it's real enough to interact with. It's created, though, we think. Newer than it looks."

"Ikol said Cecilia Maximoff did this. Made this."

"The Scarlet Witch," Esme says, frowning. "We hadn't known she was that powerful..."

"It just - was never obvious?"

"She was one of the Avengers," Sophie says. "An early member and a fairly heavy hitter. But not - this." Wryly: "Still, I suppose it isn't unknown for mutants to hide the true extent of their powers. We did."

"I don't - actually remember how powerful you guys were."

Sophie continues with: "Among the best telepaths ever - when we fully coordinate. But we pretended to be merely good, not exceptional."

"Why?"

They pause.

"We were spies," Celeste says. "We're not, anymore, but we were someone's weapon, once. We broke free."

"And now there's another cage."

"Yes. Built of different material. Nicer. But a cage all the same."

"I don't like cages. No matter how nice."

"You're not alone in that."

"What are we going to do about it, then?"