Lorna Maximoff wasn't a princess.

Of course, she wasn't born to a royal family, she knew that even when she was little. But, even in a non-literal sense she wasn't one. She could never be a princess.

Lorna was a freak, and those two things were mutually exclusive.

Almost as long as she'd pretended to be a princess, there'd be people reminding her that she wasn't. Her peers would say it bluntly with venom that came from years of hearing their parents speak their minds in their own homes. Her friends would say it through a veil of camaraderie, without even thinking that maybe what they were saying about her fellow mutants cut her deep. Her elders would say it through sympathetic smiles, all while patting themselves on the back for being progressive.

She'd tried to not be. God, she'd tried her hardest to not be the freak they said she was. She'd have her Mama put her hair in an elegant chignon and would wear a pretty pink dress to a school dance, but none of that mattered, she'd always be the freak she was born as.

For thirteen long years, she played pretend. She played a princess who had friends and slumber parties and would giggle about boys, and it felt like it was working. She was a happy-go-lucky girl who was a part of a tight knit group despite her hair color.

And then along came ninth grade.

Along came Mary-Jo Chadwick.

That day made her realize what she was. It made her realize she could never be the princess she deluded herself into thinking she was. It was like the stepsisters trying to force their feet into the glass slipper; that role would never fit Lorna. She'd never marry a dashing prince or be saved by a knight in shining armor. She'd certainly never get a happily ever after, no matter what the storybooks had promised.

That year, Lorna stopped lying to herself. Out went the pretty pink dresses and the tiaras. In its stead there was eyeliner and boots that clomped across the floor; a warning to everyone that the freak was arriving.

She wasn't sure if she isolated herself first or if her group dumped her first, but either way, she found herself with no friends. She even grew closed off from her family, who tried their hardest to understand what was going on with her. She appreciated it, but she didn't want their help. They'd all gotten their fairytale endings; Peter and Naomi were goddamn soulmates and Wanda and Isaac fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.

No, that wasn't her. Lorna was a freak. She'd never get what they had.

.

For a long time, that day in the ninth grade was the worst she'd ever experienced. But, it was replaced with the day she found out about Naomi's cancer.

Mama had been the one to tell her; she'd known something was wrong just by looking at her when she'd told her that they needed to talk. They'd sat down at the kitchen table and Magda's voice had trembled dangerously as she told Lorna the diagnosis.

Everything became a blur and she found herself stumbling out of the room and into her own; locking the door behind her despite hearing the muffled calls from her mother. She sat down with her back to the door as she tried to get a handle on the spinning world around her. Everything was falling apart, slowly but surely. The world wouldn't be right without Naomi Maximoff in it.

But, she didn't cry, she just waited until her mother left- likely to go have a cry herself- and she quietly slipped out her bedroom window.

Her brother's apartment wasn't all that far away and they'd given her a key for whenever she wanted to drop by. She wasn't sure what she'd find when she slipped inside, but she certainly hadn't expected to find Naomi alone. When she asked, the woman had just smiled wryly and said

"He thinks there's a way out of this. That he just has to find it."

Naomi made them dinner no matter how Lorna protested and the teenager couldn't miss the way she'd wince if she moved a certain way.

Over a plate of lasagna, the stupid, childish words Lorna had been holding back spilled from her lips before she could stop herself.

"Are you scared?"

It was quiet for a long moment before Naomi responded, her voice low and breaking on the last word.

"Yeah… I'm really scared."

.

That's why the normally irate teenager piled into her sister's small car for an hour drive without a word.

If Naomi was alive, then she'd drive a week without complaining.

.

The first words Lorna ever spoke to Ororo Munroe were about her hair.

The only mutant she'd ever met with a manifestation like her own was Peter, so the sight of the white Mohawk had been a revelation. Among other things.

Ororo had smiled and her accent had curved perfectly around her reply; a compliment on Lorna's hair, which made the teenager feel warm on the inside, no matter how she denied it. Of course, anytime someone who wasn't her family said something nice about her hair, she felt that way. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

But, a woman with the ability to control storms was.

.

"So, you can cause a lightning strike whenever you want?"

Ororo had just explained her powers to Lorna, but she tipped her head in thought before replying to her question.

"Yes, I think so. I've never had it fail before."

Lorna couldn't help the small smile that grew on her as she thought about the implications.

"You know that lightning basically makes magnetic fields," she said, Ororo's brow furrowing "So, how would my powers react when you use yours?"

Ororo thought for a moment more before a wide smile spread across her features. The type of smile that would make a man's breath catch.

"Let's find out."

.

You'd think that living at a school made specifically for mutants would make her feel like less of a freak.

Honestly, most of the time it did, but the rest of the time… It was far worse than back at home. How mutants could be so judgmental actually blew Lorna's mind. But, she became intimately aware of that on her first full day at the school.

Ororo had joined her during the tour Jubilee was giving her around the mansion. You needed one to even attempt to navigate this place, so Lorna was actually paying attention, even if she was throwing in sarcastic comments here and there.

"That's the Professor's office. He says his door is always open for a student, but I really only go in there if I have to because he will talk to you for hours," Jubilee warned, a small smile on Lorna's features as they made their way around the manor.

At that moment, a pair of teenage boys walked past them and shouldered Ororo roughly, who stumbled but said nothing.

But, Lorna wasn't raised like that.

"Hey, watch it, Assholes," she called after them, a steadying hand on Ororo's shoulder that she was uncomfortably aware of.

The boys actually stopped and turned around to face her, obviously hoping that their stature and gender would intimidate her. Once again, though, Lorna hadn't been surrounded by the strongest women in the world her whole life to be bullied by a pair of knock off Eddie Deezens.

"Why should we?" One of them asked obnoxiously "She's a murderer."

"Lorna, let's just—" Ororo started softly.

"Because if you don't, I'll be a murderer," Lorna said, confrontationally taking a step forward "And on your tombstone it'll state your cause of death as a boot up your ass."

"Why don't you listen to your girlfriend and j-."

Whatever he planned on saying was interrupted by a flash of green light and the books he was holding flew up into the air before raining down on them slowly as pieces of paper.

"Finish that sentence," Lorna stated, her voice a low warning.

Suddenly, the paper around them moved in a common direction and reordered themselves correctly before rebinding inside of the covers.

"Thank you, Jean," the calm British voice of the Professor said as he glided up to them "I'd appreciate it if you didn't destroy my property, Lorna."

"Sorry," she replied grudgingly, the Professor nodding before turning his attention.

"And I would appreciate it if you two would come have a word with me in my office."

The two teenagers froze; obviously expecting to get away with what they were doing. But, they shuffled along after the Professor and the hallway was quiet until the door was shut behind them.

"I swear your family never gets in trouble for anything," Jubilee said.

.

"You don't have to tell me."

Lorna didn't elaborate. She knew Ororo would understand what she was saying.

The white haired teenager in question leaned her head against the tree they were lounging against. It was quiet between the two women and the only sounds were that of the mutants who were enjoying the sunny day.

"… What happened in Cairo… I helped the man who did it," she admitted, her voice so quiet that Lorna second guessed what she was hearing at first "I didn't… I didn't directly kill anyone, but… I helped him, I supported what he was doing, I… I'm a murderer."

It was quiet again, but not as long as before.

"And then?"

Ororo looked over at Lorna in surprise; her brown eyes looking right back and causing Ororo look down at her hands.

"He… He was going to kill Mystique and I realized how wrong I'd been, so… So I switched and I helped the X-Men."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Ororo asked, surprised as she looked up again and watched as Lorna nodded.

"Okay."

.

"So, you have to assert your dominance and be quick to get the best food here."

"That's exactly how it was growing up with Peter."

"I believe you," Jubilee replied, casually handing Lorna what she honestly suspected to be fine china.

Lorna did as Jubilee advised and grabbed the best looking food faster than any other student that was in the kitchen and stared down anyone who tried to start something.

"Please don't kill my brother over a roll."

Lorna broke her standoff with Scott and turned to look at whoever spoke, but not before her hand reached out and snatched the bread before the grumbling teen could.

She came face-to-face with man with a hair style reminiscent of what her brother had back in the 70s but brown. He seemed too old to be a student, but didn't look to be a teacher. But she realized he'd already answered that question with his first sentence to her.

"You're Scott's brother?" Lorna asked, the surprise she was feeling reflected slightly in her tone.

"Alex Summers," he said simply "You're Peter's sister."

"Lorna Maximoff," she mirrored his reply before turning slightly to send a look over her shoulder at Scott "Well, unfortunately for you, I see the familial resemblance."

Lorna couldn't help the slight pleased feeling she had as she walked away and heard the boisterous laugh from the man she'd just been talking to.

.

At first, Lorna wasn't sure about sharing a room. Even in the tiny house she'd grown up in, she'd always had her own room. The idea of a roommate wasn't exactly appealing to her, but she didn't have much of a choice. So, she'd give it her best shot.

.

"You and me, we're gonna be better than we were before
I loved you then
But now I intend to open up and love you even more
This time, you can be sure."

Lorna couldn't help the mixture of a squeak and a giggle as Ororo slid across the wood floor in her socks and plowed right into her side. Lorna caught her before she could slam face flat onto the floor and both girls barely held it together. But, you don't really need to be that put together to lip-sync.

"I'm never gonna let you go
I'm gonna hold you in my arms forever."

The pair mouthed into the same hairbrush that Ororo was holding, but during the next section of the chorus, Lorna grabbed her roommate's wrist and pulled it closer to her. She was singing the man's part anyway.

"Gonna try and make up for all the times
I hurt you so
Gonna."

Ororo pulled her wrist back and Lorna came along with it, both of them actually belting out the next part; not even caring about the other students.

"Hold your body close to mine
From this day on, we're gonna be together
Oh, I swear this time
I'm never gonna let you go."

.

Time passed, it always does, and Lorna found herself fitting into the mold of the school. In all honesty, it was a nice place to live and a few dickheads were easily dealt with.

She never forgot, exactly, but it did slip to the back of her mind. She didn't focus on it quite as much.

But the world always liked to remind her that she would never be free.

She would always be a freak.

.

"What will happen to us?"

The only response Lorna could come up with to Ororo's question was a tiny shrug. What will happen to them? The world was falling apart for her once again. But, this time it wasn't just for her; the world was becoming a cold place for mutants all over.

"This is my fault."

Lorna's head snapped up to look at the woman who sat beside her on the bed with a fierce look in her eyes.

"Don't say that."

"Why not?" Ororo asked, refusing to meet her gaze out of guilt and instead focusing on the wood paneling of the floor "It is. They would've never reintroduced the Sentinels if Cairo hadn't…"

"But, Cairo would've happened with or without you," Lorna said, her voice backed with the steel she had learned from her mother and her sisters "And since you were there, you were able to switch sides and help them. If it had been someone else, they might have not helped and maybe the X-Men wouldn't have won."

Ororo shook her head and leaned her elbows on her knees as her shoulders drooped in reflection of her mental state.

"… I shouldn't be here," she finally said, slightly muffled "I am making it worse for all of you."

"Just, shut up!" Lorna yelled, startling Ororo "God, your self-pity isn't helping either!"

The silence between them was heavy for a moment and Lorna rubbed her forehead while she felt more tired than anyone her age should feel. She finally broke it with a voice unlike the one she'd used before.

"I'm sorry… Just… don't say those things. They're not true. And… And I don't want you to leave… You're… You're my… best friend. So, don't say those things, please… At least don't say them for me."

Again it was quiet, only this time the ball was in Ororo's court.

"You're my best friend too," she said, her voice nearly cracking under the pressure of her emotions "The greatest friend I have ever had."

Lorna turned her head to look at Ororo face on and the pair said nothing as they held each other's gazes. There were a million things to say, though, but Lorna couldn't find the words. And even if she could articulate what she had in her head, she wouldn't dare say it.

It was Ororo who broke their connection, but not with words; with a movement. Her arms reached around Lorna before the latter could even realize what she was doing. But, when she did, her body relaxed into the hug, despite her mind running a million miles a minute.

.

"She alright?"

Lorna looked up in surprise from where she'd been quietly shutting her bedroom door behind her. Ororo had fallen asleep on her bed and while Lorna logically knew she could just take Ororo's bed, she decided the better recourse would be to leave and go for a walk. There was too much going on her head and she needed it be clear before she went to sleep.

But, none of that mattered, because Alex Summers was walking down the hallway towards her.

"Yeah, I guess," Lorna said with a small nod, dropping her eyes to the doorknob "As good as she can be."

"I get that," Alex commiserated with a nod before looking back up at Lorna "And you?"

Lorna didn't verbally replied- she was scared of what might come out- and she instead just shrugged with a flop of her arms. Alex snorted without much humor and nodded once again.

"Where are you going?" He asked, Lorna sending him a look.

"What's it to you?" Alex chuckled at her prickliness before replying

"Just making sure you're not going to drink yourself to death or try to kill the president or something," he said, Lorna rolling her eyes.

"I was planning on taking a walk, but now that you mentioned assassination…"

Alex actually laughed at that before running his fingers through his hair to push it out of his eyes.

"Well, unless you need the company, I'll leave you to it."

"See ya, Alex."

Lorna watched Alex walk away to his room before she turned and headed towards the stairs. The tumultuous thoughts she'd had repressed sprung back up after her conversation with Alex. She'd been able to ignore the world crumbling when she was trading barbs with the less annoying Summers brother.

But, now…

Everything with Sentinels and Ororo…

Why wasn't she allowed to forget for even a second what she was?

Did God think it was funny?

Lorna felt the crackle of energy around her hands as she grew angrier and more scared than ever before. But, this wouldn't be good. Powers reacting out of harsh, pent up feelings like this never did.

Maybe happy thoughts would work. That's what her high school counselor had suggested, and sure, it never worked before, but maybe now.

Happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts.

The sound of something falling to the floor with a thud broke Lorna out of her happiest thoughts she had and she turned to come face to face with a shocked girl with red hair.

God did think it was funny.

Why else would he fix it that she'd be thinking her forbidden happy thoughts around the mind reader?

.

No matter how many times Jean promised she wouldn't utter a word of it to anyone, Lorna was still on edge. Maybe it was a bluff and she'd snitch her out to everyone in the school. Then everyone would know what a freak she was. How broken she was.

And then Jubilation freaking Lee had to make everything a million times worse.

.

No matter how she said it and to who, no one believed her when she said that she didn't have a crush on Alex Summers. Jubilee was persuasive when it came to matters like this and Lorna's main reaction to anything that upset her was violence and anger, which made it look like she was lying.

But, she didn't have a crush on Alex Summers!

She didn't!

She didn't.

She…

.

The cup of tea the Professor had made her was bitter, but it felt good on her tongue. It felt like something after the numb feeling of crying her eyes out. Thankfully, the Professor had let her wipe off her running eyeliner before they went down to his study to have a talk; Lorna noticing the way the students' eyes slid over her as if she wasn't there, sparing her their curious gazes.

"So," the Professor said with a painfully optimistic tone "What are we going to do next?"

"You said you weren't going to throw me out," Lorna said bluntly, the Professor smiling at her.

"And I promise that. No, what I meant is what are we going to do to help you?" he said, leaning his elbows on his desk in an attempt to engage Lorna more "Because you're current method is causing you to lash out in anger and then breakdown. This can't keep going on the way it is."

"What would you suggest, Professor?" Lorna asked, a hint of the return of her bite to her voice.

"Well, I'm no psychologist, Lorna, but I would think you should start by not calling yourself a freak every day."

Lorna's eyes dropped to her hands as something like shame washed over her. She wasn't sure what brought it on, whether it be that she was calling herself that or that the Professor knew, but she did know that her embarrassment was easy for even a non-telepath to spot.

"Just keep telling yourself 'I am not a freak,'" the Professor offered, his voice gentle without a hint of damnation.

"I am not a freak," Lorna repeated, finding it surprisingly difficult to say.

"Good," the Professor said with a pleased smile "Now, your issue with your fellow students, well… I think if I told Jubilee to stop saying you have a crush on Alex Summers, it would only make it worse."

"Yeah," Lorna said, nodding "It… I should be able to just let it go, but… it's harder than it seems."

"I know, Dear," the Professor said gently before continuing "As for Naomi, you'll likely have to deal with that one head on."

Lorna sighed and sat back in the plush chair with the knowledge that the Professor was right.

"Why does she have to be such a…"

"Obstinate woman?" The Professor offered with a curl of his lips, having seen the ways Lorna would've ended that sentence "I'd assume there was a time in her life where she had to and she's never shaken the habit… But, I think she'll come around eventually. She's been with one man for ten years, she must have learned something about admittance of wrongdoing."

"I doubt it."

.

"First kiss?"

Jubilee said nothing to the question that Ororo directed at her, which was the way this game was played, of course.

"A boy named Roger Carmichael," Jean said from her spot in an overstuffed chair "Behind the bleachers at her middle school."

"Boring," Lorna said simply, before lolling her head to Jean, who was the grandmaster of this game and thus held all the power "We should really be asking better questions."

"Like what?" Jubilee asked, the door to the library swinging open before Lorna could speak.

"Hey," Naomi said, the small smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture on her face greeting them "The Professor told me to tell you all that this use of powers is strange and likely unethical. So, rock on."

"Looking good!" Samantha called as Naomi went to shut the door; the woman's smile growing as her hand reached up to rest on her now obviously protruding stomach. The nearly six months of pregnancy had been good to Naomi and she glowed the way stories said expecting mothers did.

The door shut behind her and it was quiet for a second before Lorna leveled Jubilee with a stare and spoke.

"If you had to kiss one of the boys in our group, who would it be?"

"Kurt," Jean said simply, Samantha giving an overdramatic gasp and kicking her friend in the shin.

"What?" Jubilee asked "This is between Peter, Scott, and Kurt; who were you expecting?"

"I don't care, you're in the doghouse now," Samantha said, the other girls giggling at the pair of best friends' antics.

"Okay, okay," Jubilee said, kicking back into gear "Lorna?"

"Yes?" She replied, wary on the inside, but hiding it.

"Biggest regret?"

Lorna paled slightly as she realized the exact memory that would pop up, but before she could call a safe word or something, Jean was speaking.

"Going to a party in the ninth grade," she said slowly as the story came to her "Because when she got there, Mary-Jo Chadwick-."

The room was filled with damning silence. The type that put most people on edge.

"Oooh, what happened?" Jubilee asked excitedly , Lorna uncomfortably aware of Ororo's questioning gaze "Who was Mary-Jo Chadwick?"

And then the warzone.

Lorna heard the sounds of yelling as if it was through a thick wall and she moved like she was walking through a thick gelatin. Maybe it was because of the way her head had knocked against the coffee table when the first blast came or maybe it was a mixture of disbelief and fear, but either way, she felt almost as if she was floating.

But, that never lasts.

There was another blast that rocked the mansion and through the haze that surrounded her, one word cut through to reach Lorna.

"Sentinels!"

All at once, the veneer that surrounded her disappeared. She didn't know how she'd gotten here, but she knew that she somehow had gotten separated from her friends. She had to find them. She had to help them.

She had to help everybody.

.

Lorna barely dodged a piece of debris as she ran down the hallway that led to the bedrooms. It was unlikely that any of her friends would've come here for cover, but she checked each room nonetheless, which was a very good call when she got to the last one.

The girl had been curled up in the corner of her room with a tear streaked face when Lorna had thrown the door open.

"Hey, we gotta go," she said hurriedly, running in to grab the girl.

"No, no, no," she hissed, fear obvious in her eyes. Lorna sighed and shook her head before she spoke.

"What's your name?"

"Amy," she murmured.

"Okay, Amy, I know you're scared and, honestly, I'm pretty scared right now too. But we can't just sit here and let fear take us over. We need to go and find our friends. When we're with friends, nothing can scare us, not really."

Amy looked at Lorna with wary eyes before she nodded and took her hand.

The pair ran back down the hallway with their heads low; the sounds of yelling and battle coming from outside the building. Although Lorna had convinced Amy to come with her, now that she was with her, she didn't know what to do. She couldn't go outside with a young child.

"Hey!"

Jubilee.

Relief spread across both of their faces before they were reminded how dire this situation was.

"Come on," Jubilee said "The Professor said to go hide down in Cerebro."

"Have you seen the others?" Lorna asked before even considering going down there.

"Yeah, Sam's down here. The rest are out there," Jubilee said with a worried flick of her eyes to the windows before she focused back on the two standing there "We seriously got to hide."

"Ororo?" Lorna asked, still not moving.

"She's outside," Jubilee said "Now, come on."

Lorna's eyes went from Jubilee to the window she'd just looked out of. Her mind ran a million different thoughts, but they all came out to one answer.

Lorna pushed Amy's hand into Jubilee's and then she turned and ran straight towards the door.

Straight towards danger.

.

At first, she had no idea what she was doing. Even though there were only three Sentinels, they were even worse than her nightmares and watching her friends try to dodge their attacks sent her into something like shock. Everything was happening so much and so quickly that it was almost impossible to do more than resemble deer-in-the-headlights.

"Hey."

Lorna didn't jump even though Peter appeared right in front of her; no matter the circumstances, she was used to her brother's antics.

"Go back in-!"

Before Peter could finish his sentence, a blast from a Sentinel's gun caused one of the cars in the driveway to lift up in the air and come hurtling towards the Maximoff siblings. But, before the speedster could move them out of the way, green energy surrounded the front fender and stopped it in midair.

Peter didn't even try to conceal his shock as his sister grit her teeth and sent the car right back; knocking the Sentinel back and actually seeming to do substantial damage against it. It was quiet between the siblings for a moment, with only the sounds of the ongoing battle.

"Goddamn it," Peter finally muttered.

.

There was a rhythm to it that Lorna hadn't expected to so easily fall into. All of the others had trained together for months, but she worked with them like a well-oiled machine. But, that might be because a piece of their puzzle was missing.

Lorna would've been more worried about Naomi, but since Peter didn't seem upset, she didn't see much of a point in it.

Not only did she feel in tune with the people around her, but with the world itself. She'd always had a special connection with the Earth, what with her powers and all, but now it felt like it was working with her to defeat the Sentinels. The Children of the Atom were receiving help from their mother.

She propelled herself up into the sky to get a better angle before nailing a Sentinel with an energy blast. At the same time, Jean joined in with her own power as well as Scott and Alex, and the thing wobbled. Peter and Ororo had gotten another one down not two minutes ago, which meant that once they got this Sentinel, there'd be one left.

Lorna sent another blast, but this time at its gun arm in the hope it'd disconnect. While it did tear it off almost completely, Lorna couldn't appreciate her work.

Something hit her hard in the back and she tumbled back down to the Earth; landing with a sickening thud.

The world was hazy again; she heard the yells of the people and felt the rumbles of battle around her like before, but this time, Lorna could taste metal and feel numbness in her back that she knew was not good.

She could vaguely make out the people around her and watched through hooded eyes as the Sentinel she'd been fighting fell to the ground. The one that had hurt her stood tall, though, and none of her teammates seemed to be doing anything to it.

It was looming over her now; Lorna wondered if maybe it sensed that she was weak and wanted to pick her off before turning to kill her friends. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, it was headed towards her and she had nothing to protect herself with.

And then the world lit up.

The sky was killed with dazzling light and for a brief moment, Lorna wondered if this was the light they talked about in movies, but it suddenly channeled into spot; a shining woman in the sky.

Then, the Sentinel was struck by lightning bolts; the power unmatched by anything Lorna had ever seen before. The machine seemed to disintegrate into almost nothing and then it and the light was gone.

And it was quiet.

Lorna watched as the woman who wielded so much power set down on the grass beside her; Ororo dropping to her knees and brushing green strands out of Lorna's face.

"Watch her. I'll get a doctor," Lorna heard her brother say but hardly acknowledged. In fact, she barely noticed anything that was happening around her. The only thing she registered was Ororo and the tears that were running down her cheeks.

"M-Mary-Jo Ch-Chadwick," Lorna managed, Ororo shushing her softly and gripping her hand tightly.

"Don't speak, just breath. Your brother will be back soon," she promised, Lorna smiling faintly.

"She was at the p-party," she continued as if Ororo hadn't said anything "She got us to play spin-the-bottle. She went first."

"… And then?" Ororo asked gently, Lorna's eyes welling up with tears.

"It landed on me."

Their heavy breaths filled the quiet in between every sentence Lorna painfully said.

"She kissed me. And I-I realized why I didn't get as excited as the other girls about Shaun Cassidy and why I didn't like kissing Caleb Banks after the winter formal."

"… What're you saying?" Ororo asked, her voice raw.

"You know what I'm saying," Lorna replied.

It was silent between the two for a long moment.

And what broke that silence, well…

It was a million times better than anything to do with Mary-Jo Chadwick.