#runningveryfast

Billy returned to the Kaplan home to the sounds of "Pew pew! ZAP! Bang!" coming from the living room. He didn't need to check to see that his young brothers were bouncing around on the couch -- despite their father's repeated protests. On a normal day, he would have attempted to wrangle them into a slightly quieter activity, but nagging thoughts picked at his mind and he couldn't even be bothered. Instead, he made a bee-line up the stairs and into his bedroom. Dropping his backpack unceremoniously, he shut and locked the bedroom door behind him. The noise from downstairs was now barely audible above the hum of the central heating system. He shed his jacket and scarf, letting them fall in a heap before making his way over to his dresser. Proudly displayed there, glinting in the setting sunlight that peeked through the blinds, were a series of gemstones Jane Foster had given him for the holidays. The biggest rock though, sat in the pit of his stomach - a dense, solid clenching in his gut. Something was wrong. Out of place. But he couldn't put his finger on what it. He pulled open the top drawer, and dug beneath his socks for a box of old news clippings about the Avengers he'd been collecting since he was a kid. Sitting on top was a clipping about a fight back in the early 90s accompanied by a photograph of the Scarlet Witch. Wanda. Before he'd joined the Young Avengers, before his powers had even manifested--he'd met her for the first time. Bruised and bloodied and ashamed to even go home, Billy had made his way to Avengers Mansion and sat down just outside the gate. He hadn't expected to see anyone come or go, he just needed to be close to his heroes for a little while. The sun had dipped low in the sky over Manhattan and he knew he'd have to leave at some point--and that's when she showed up. She'd fixed his wounds and told him to stand his ground against the bully who'd so rudely introduced his fist to Billy's face. And he had. That's when his powers emerged. Powers just like hers. He didn't even know if she remembered that moment, but it changed his life. And ever since he'd become a part of her life, something else had changed and definitely not for the better. She seemed frayed--because that was about as nicely as he could figure out how to say crazy without coming out and saying it. He'd seen her black out, lash out with no recollection, speak without any knowledge of what she was saying. She called him her son. But his mother was Rebecca Kaplan and his father was Jeff Kaplan and he had two younger brothers and that was his family--except for the fact that he had a identical twin who he was in absolutely no way related to and who happened to have the exact same powers as Wanda's twin. Billy put the box of news clippings away and shut the drawer. Absently, he picked up the quasicrystal from his dresser and sat down on the edge of his bed. He turned the stone over in his hand trying to stay anchored to something physical, even as his mind raced. *~*IwantoknowthetruthIwantoknowthetruthIwantoknowthetruth*~* With a rush of wind, his room faded around him, replaced with unfamiliar surroundings but not-unfamiliar faces. Wanda. Beaming as she held two infants, one cradled in each arm. Behind her, Vision, with his hand on her shoulder, surrounded by teammates and friends. A sense of warmth washed over Billy as he took in the scene around him. Another rush and the world around him shifted again. This time there were no details to his location, just an empty darkness seeping in from the edges, and a lingering sense of pain. Wanda's face bruised and bloodied, not unlike his own the day he'd met her. The wind came again, numbingly cold. Wherever he was it was impossible to tell--warped and devastated, there was nothing to indicate what this place had once been. Only that now, it was a murder scene with Vision laying dead at Wanda's feet. In an instant, the scene faded and Billy snapped back to awareness. He knew the truth. He was Wanda's son.