Her sister's waiting for her, tapping her foot and squinting out into the sky, in one of the tower-top gardens. Sue's apparently unaffected by the view, either of the palace complex and the fields of Genosha sprawling before them, curling around the bay, or of the flowers in full bloom around her.

"You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago," Sue says when Nausicaa lands, frowning.

"Aw. I got out here as soon as I could, sis. You get tied up training with Aunt Miriana all the time. Mom wanted to make sure I had the visualization exercise down before she'd let me wander off."

"You could've texted."

"I will next time. Sorry."

She sighs.

"Come on. Loki's claimed a table for us, at least."

"Oh, good! She always finds the best little nooks..."

She snorts and leads the way.

"Hey Nausicaa!" Loki calls, waving from her seat. She's dressed more casually than the last time they met (something feels weird with that), in her usual blacks and reds, hair out of its usual ponytail to fall around her shoulders, her crown nowhere in sight.

But her friends are here, and everything's great, so Loki just gestures for the two to sit down.

"How're lessons coming along?"

"Really good! Though I still can't beat your record on technomancy... How's Asgard been?"

(What?)

"You'll get there. And it's been boring. I like hanging out with you guys more," she says, pushing at the weird confusion at the back of her head. (Her mind's churning, but it always does that, chaos too quick to get a hold on...)

"Aw, thanks! We like you too. Hopefully we won't disappoint."

"You never do. Still, though, Sue's terrible for gossip. How's everyone doing?"

Nausicaa launches into chatter, about her mom and her Aunt Miriana and her grandfather, about their mutual friends (more acquaintances, for Loki), about Sue and Nausicaa themselves, about recent movies that've come out and news items that the international news never pick up...

Loki listens, laughing along to any jokes, teasing her friends at a few points.

"Sounds like you guys have had quite a fun time while I've been gone."

"Less fun when you aren't around."

"Aw, thanks!"

"Speaking of fun, what do you guys wanna do today?"

"The lines at that newish ride at the amusement park finally aren't ridiculous?"

"You know we could just flash our IDs and get a pass to cut every line, right. Or the entire place to ourselves."

"That'd take away half the fun!"

"Sitting on a grungy floor with lukewarm water while we wait thirty minutes in the heat for a one minute ride isn't my idea of 'fun.'"

"Party pooper. Maybe we can do something else, then."

"Museum's usually pretty calm."

"Pretty sure you've already dragged Loki to all the museums around here, sis. Any of them got anything new?"

Teasingly: "You're thinking like someone who can't teleport, Nausicaa."

"Maybe I am, but then we're spoiled for choice. Got somewhere in mind - that won't make mom's security flip?" Having security's silly when the world's so nice and perfect, but her mom insists, even as much as everyone else sees it as ceremonial theater... And Aunt Miriana trained them to be as paranoid as her.

Still, Nausicaa doesn't like making their lives any harder.

"Anywhere got a zoo with baby big cats?"

"Hm... Dunno. If you're in the mood for a zoo... Guess we could just start places I've heard of? Pretoria, San Diego, Singapore..."

"Don't have a preference, really."

She shrugs, and, picking kind of at random: "San Diego it is."

They can get coordinates and a very usefully high resolution and three dimensional image of one of the teleport areas nearest the zoo, then.

Loki has a blast, fascinated by the animals - especially the predators.

A crow notices them during lunch, hopping on a railing nearby and cawing at them.

"Hey buddy!" Nausicaa says. "Guys, what do crows eat..."

"Seems to want your lunch right now."

The crow caws. A bit mocking, maybe.

Loki puts a hand to her head. (What?)

(Why does she feel like she knows a bird - )

"Well, crows are supposed to be pretty smart, so hopefully they'll know not to eat stuff that's bad for them..." she says, gently tossing a bit of fruit the crow's way.

The crow just stares at her.

Well.

More at Loki.

"Guys, there's something wrong - " she grits out.

" - What?"

"I don't see anything - "

The crow takes off, flying heavily past them, one wing clipping Loki.

She flinches.

"Hey!" Nausicaa shouts after the crow, now annoyed.

Loki shakes her head. "That was - weird. Come on, let's finish lunch and get moving. Though I don't have much of an appetite now..."

"Yeah. Wow, American wildlife's as rude as the people..."

She starts laughing, a bit startled, and indeed manages to finish her lunch.

The incident's pretty quickly forgotten as they go about their day at the zoo, Loki stubbornly ignoring all the trees full of crows watching them. It's a perfect day with her friends, and she's not going to let some asshole birds ruin that.

Everything's great.

There's no reason for it not to be.

She dreams, that night. Of a tree and chains and three women weaving - how quickly it lights -

(She's burning.)

(Isn't she?)

(Isn't that what happens, when you light a fire to destroy your enemies? It never goes away, and it eats and eats and eats and eventually there'll be nothing left for it to eat but you - )

Loki wakes up shivering. Disturbed.

The dream feels sticky, not fading like unpleasant things should - but she's never even been burnt working with campfires -

(No, that's not right - )

She shakes her head, taking a few deep breaths and glancing out her window. The views in Genosha's capital are always so nice, especially if you have money for a good hotel room...

There's a crow on her windowsill.

Looking at her.

She almost dismisses it.

Stops.

"Genosha doesn't have crows," she says out loud. It sounds weak, shaky.

Deep breath. The bird doesn't feel like someone shapeshifted. It feels like it fits in the shape it is.

"Genosha does not have crows."

She stands. She walks to the window.

She opens it, a bit too harshly.

"Who are you?"

The crow flaps in, landing on her desk and cawing.

"I'm not in the mood for games. You aren't a natural crow."

She shuts the window and turns to the crow, crossing her arms.

"Who. Are. You?"

The crow laughs.

It's an almost human sound.

"Might as well ask who are you, little girl?"

"I asked first, and this is my domicile. I am the owner of this room." For the next few nights, at least. "You're an intruder, and a rude one besides."

"Rudeness is such a droll concept."

"Still, who am I to break the rules of hospitality?" It sounds mocking.

"I suppose you may call me Ikol."

"Ikol, then." She crosses to the overstuffed armchair by the window, conveniently already facing the desk, and sits. "Why have you been following me?"

"You're an interesting girl."

"Tell me, Loki. How old are you?"

She goes to answer, opening her mouth -

She can't.

How -

How old is she?

"You don't know, do you?"

"What did you do?!"

"What did I do? Why must I always be to blame for everything, hm? I'll have you know, I haven't done a single thing a crow cannot do for two whole years."

"Then why don't I know how old I am?"

"Do you actually remember anything of your childhood, Loki?"

She pauses.

Tries to remember -

(It hurts - )

She puts a hand to her head.

"I don't. I know things - I know my brother - my friends - "

Everyone except Thor is -

Is a sketch. A vague person-shaped blob she'd never noticed wasn't real -

Nausicaa and Sue are real. Thor is real. Steve is real. The Earth royal family are all real. She has a few other faces she can resolve - all human - mostly young -

"What's going on?"

"Do you really think a world can be so perfect? That you'd play along to whatever cheerful tune? Making friends, going to zoos, being a normal girl - that's not you at all, is it?"

" - No. It's not."

"This world is fake, as are the chains wrapped around your mind. Everything you love is a lie, crafted by someone who wanted a well behaved little utopia, where no one would cause problems. Where every little toy is in its place. Where good little girls don't plot revolution."

"I - "

"I need to think."

Something's warning her, at the back of her head. She doesn't know if it's her instincts or - the chain that's apparently around her mind - she can't breathe -

"Do you want to know the architect of your prison?"

She nods, biting her lip.

"Cecilia Maximoff. Your perfect friends' mother - the Scarlet Witch, in a world that no one but an old crow remembers."

"The princess?"

It kind of makes sense, though. If you're making a perfect world, why not make yourself one of the most important people there? (Except for that doesn't feel like something Cecilia Maximoff would do...)

"The one and the only."

"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?"

"We're unsure. We might be able to break others out mentally - remove their amnesia, and their blindness to this world's flaws."

"Nausicaa and Sue - the Scarlet Witch's children - might be good to approach. I don't think they'd approve of this, at all."

A pause.

"We don't remember her having children, in the real world."

" - That makes no sense, though, I - know them, they're as real in my head as Thor..."

"Thor was in that world. Intermittently one of the Avengers, alongside the Scarlet Witch."

"Then - why the difference?"

"We don't know."

" - I want to try talking to them anyways." Even if -

What if being their friend is fake, what if it's just mind control -

"We'd recommend caution."

"Yeah. This whole - thing - is a mess."

"We'll do what we can, though."

Slow smile. "Yeah. Best we got."

"Okay. So - what do you remember?"

The five girls relay everything relevant to Loki's earlier life - and to the Scarlet Witch.

That they remember or ever learned, at least.

She works her history over with them, then departs, steeling herself to head back to Genosha.

She sends Nausicaa and Sue a request to meet. Despite her fluttering nerves, she doesn't let on there's any rush. Just - normal hanging out.

They accept about an hour later, and Nausicaa even has some suggestions for some nice nature parks they can talk alone in.

Good.

She's pacing nervously on the dirt path, trees arching far over her head, when they get there.

"Loki? Something wrong?" Nausicaa calls, flying over from the teleport pad and landing nearby.

Sue zips up behind her, looking just as concerned.

" - Not here. Come on, let's - walk around a bit," she says, turning to head into the trees.

Her friends follow.

"You're acting really weird. What happened?"

(There's a crow, watching them, high in the tree branches. Alone.)

Loki sees the crow, of course. She can't not.

"Have you ever - felt something was... Weird, or wrong, or that your memories didn't all line up?"

"...What?"

"I mean - not any more than normal - "

Sue has a hand to her head.

"I think - I know - we're being messed with. Some of my memories are fake."

Nausicaa flinches.

"That makes no sense! Who'd do that?"

Sue's slowly pulling her hand away from her head.

"It does. It - "

"I remember being scared."

"It hurt. I - didn't know what was going on."

"And then - there wasn't anything at all."

"I - that was a nightmare, that didn't happen - "

She shakes her head. "I don't know."

"Loki - what's going on?"

Deep breath.

"I - found out this world's... Overlaid over a different reality. It's - I think a kind of shared illusion. Everyone's memories were altered to fit. It's - it's perfect, everything's perfect, in ways - places just can't be - "

Nausicaa's shaking her head, but she's - upset, in a way she wouldn't be if she fully didn't believe that -

"That makes more sense than it should."

"Who though - "

"A - friend of mine. Thought it might be Cecilia Maximoff. Your mother. She's - powerful. Maybe enough."

"Her powers - they don't work like that - "

Nausicaa goes quiet.

"They do, though."

"They're - whatever we want, as long as we want it hard enough, the right way."

"And 'a perfect world' is an easy thing to want."

"Especially one where your kids are alive."

" - Nausicaa?" Sue asks, sucking in a sharp breath.

"That's what - you were remembering, isn't it?"

"I - "

"We died."

"That'd be all the motive she'd need, wouldn't it?"

"...Yeah. Mom - really loves us. And - worries more than she should, if - in a perfect world."

"This sucks."

"Yeah. It all does."

"I'm - not sure what I'm going to do. My plan pretty much ended at talking to you guys."

" - Do we know what'll happen to me and Nausicaa if this reality - breaks?"

Loki breathes in, sharply.

"No."

She - doesn't want to be trapped, doesn't want her friends to die - (again?)

"...We can't let her just - mind control people - "

"Yeah. It's obviously not complete - probably thin, I kinda feel a - almost compulsion to just set this aside - "

"But it's not overriding."

"It's a new set of chains, but chains can be broken."

"And - "

Nausicaa closes her eyes, focusing...

"I don't think it's stable."

"What do you mean?"

"How long's this been running? This - illusion - "

"I don't think for very long..."

"It - feels shaky, now that I'm paying attention. I'm not sure she can maintain it very long, and - I think it won't be pretty if time runs out on it. At least not compared to what we get if she sets it down more gently."

She nods.

"I don't want to lose you guys."

She smiles, softly.

"I've got my mom's powers. And - whatever's happened before, I'm real now. We'll figure this out."

" - Yeah. Nothing we can't do together."

"We'll need to be careful, though. I dunno if this is the type of thing that can - recoil or whatever - but powers are... Tricky. Especially Nausicaa's, and I guess mom's."

"No running off half cocked, roger."

Nausicaa laughs.

"Come on. Let's - see who else we can get."

"I'll introduce you guys to some friends of mine, from the world before."

"Sounds good," Nausicaa says. "Where to?"

Loki gives them the coordinates for Xavier's.

And, with a flash of lightning, they're off.