Rebecca let go of Maya.

She was incredulous. Clearly she misheard her wife because her and Sam wouldn't do that.

Except Maya was not a liar. No, that was not her sin. "What were ye thinkin?! That cannae be legal," she snapped, her accent thick with frustration. "Ah dinnae care abit hoo ye caught her right noo. Ye're holdin' someain withit givin' two shits over due process. Oh, nae 'someain,' sorry; mah sister, Maya."

A lot of feelings were buzzing in Becca's chest. She had a new respect for Agnes and her hive. "Ah leave the team an' noo thes is hoo the X-Men operate?"

There it was. Maya, in a strange way, felt a bit of relief. This reaction, she had expected.

>>"What were ye thinkin?! That cannae be legal. Ah dinnae care abit hoo ye caught her right noo. Ye're holdin' someain withit givin' two shits over due process. Oh, nae 'someain,' sorry; mah sister, Maya."

Maya winced. Becca calling Aoide her sister was still something that did not sit well with her. Aoife had used that connection to manipulate and attack her. She was a half-sister, technically, and an all-around liar.

>>"Ah leave the team an' noo thes is hoo the X-Men operate?"

"No. This is how Sam and I operate when someone attacks the family." Maya frowned. She regretted a lot of things, but not the initial decision. "We did not want to catch anyone, just... get some information about the cult, before it all gets out of hand. And then Aoife" she refused to call her a sister "showed up, and she mindf*** Sam so bad he stabbed himself to keep from freezing the whole damn city."

Rebecca wanted to approach this with a clear head, but she could not wrap her head around the choices Maya and Sam made holding her sister off the books. They were allowed to investigate the cult's goings-on and when Aoife confronted them, they had the right to fight her and apprehend her. It was the choices they made after capturing her that disappointed Becca.

Before she interjected, what Aoife did to Sam gave Rebecca pause. She knew what it was like to be mind-whammied by Aoife, but whatever she did to Sam was clearly worse. Rebecca felt a sense of second-hand guilt, as though she was tangentially responsible for Aoife's actions.

That guilt only stalled her for one pregnant pause before she retaliated. "Ah know, Ah know; Aoife's done... reprehensible things. Things she needs tae be held accoontable for. But that's nae excuse tae gie doon tae her level. You're supposed tae be better than th' villains, Maya." Her tone was stern, but she softened enough to admit, "Ah know what she did tae Kalos and Ah has... weighed on ye. Your anger is valid."

The softness evaporated as Rebecca found her stride, reminding herself what Maya did. "But tae let your feelings convince ye tae lock a captive up off the grid? Dae ye realize if that got out, the X-Men could lose their deputized status? Your legitimacy. Ye hae a cult tryin' tae turn people against mutants, and yer pulling this shit, Maya?"

Rebecca huffed. "Ah'm talkin' tae mah sister, then we're transferrin' her tae SUPER containment. Dorn't make me report mah own damn team." Her former team, she reminded herself silently.

>>"Ah know, Ah know; Aoife's done... reprehensible things. Things she needs tae be held accoontable for. But that's nae excuse tae gie doon tae her level. You're supposed tae be better than th' villains, Maya."

Maya huffed, frowning, but bit back her response. She was so f*** tired of having to take a high road, against people who did anything any everything they wanted to hurt others. Screw their level. She'd take whatever level was needed.

>>"Ah know what she did tae Kalos and Ah has... weighed on ye. Your anger is valid."

"I know it is."

>>"But tae let your feelings convince ye tae lock a captive up off the grid? Dae ye realize if that got out, the X-Men could lose their deputized status? Your legitimacy. Ye hae a cult tryin' tae turn people against mutants, and yer pulling this shit, Maya?"

"What was I supposed to do, let her go?" Not even the X-men did that. Not when someone was attacking innocents, when they were being an active threat. And honestly, Aoife was lucky she was still alive.

>>"Ah'm talkin' tae mah sister, then we're transferrin' her tae SUPER containment. Dorn't make me report mah own damn team."

"From what I can tell, it's not your team anymore."

Maya knew she'd gone too far this time. She felt angry and hurt, having to confront her wife about something that was so... wrong. Did Becca not see that? Also, how was Aoife still her 'sister' after all she'd done, but the X-men were suddenly not a good fit anymore?... But none of that was an excuse to attack her like that.

"I'm sorry." Maya sighed, frustrated with herself. She tried to run a hand through her short hair, her usual gesture of frustration, but her hand got caught on her antler. "Sh*t."

"Look, I didn't take her to SUPER because I am not sure they can hold her. I'm not even sure who can hold a... magic user in this city at all. We had to make a decision before she recovered enough to mindf*** both of us."

Rebecca was trying to see things from Maya's perspective, and it was disappointingly easy. When Agnes wanted to seek out her mysterious missing brother, Rebecca was the one to get protective in an attempt to shield a woman she loved from potential danger. Cult and everything. So she could not say she would have acted differently than Maya in her shoes.

But there was a difference between letting someone go and doing things right. Despite not being on the X-Men, Becca would hate for the team to lose so much of its legitimacy in the public eye over a scandal of human rights. The right wing pundits would swarm all over news like that. The team still meant something to her, but Maya's words were a punch in the gut. It was not her team. That was Rebecca's choice. It was not something wrong to say, but she hated the way Maya said it.

At least Maya seemed to catch herself once it left her lips. Becca glared until Maya apologized. She hated this fight; they had never had one like this before. Even now, she wanted to be gentle and say something about Maya being mindful of her antlers, but the mood was all wrong to joke. There was a first time for everything.

"Ah know trustin' anyone else with her must be hard for ye, but handlin' supernatural... concerns is literally SUPER's job." And damn Maya and Sam for making Rebecca justify SUPER. But despite everything, and despite all Aoife did to her, Rebecca still felt the need to protect her sister. "If this wasnae personal, you'd have handled this differently. Instead, ye have her locked away in secret. And if she did fuck with Sam's head... weel, we've both seen how dark things can gie when Sam's in a dark place." She did not want to spell it out, but part of Rebecca did worry what could happen if Aoife was left alone with an angry Sam. She hoped, even in Maya's anger, that she would not want that.

"It's nae my team anymore," she finally agreed, her voice cooler than she expected. She was containing herself, but literal sparks were starting to pop from her skin as emotional exhaustion was weakening her passive resistance to mystic energy. "But Ah'll report ye all the same. Ye caught your criminal. But mah sister deserves due process, like any criminal."

Exhaling slowly, focusing on channeling her energy to avoid some kind of Wild Magic outburst, Becca looked to her feet. "Ah dinnae hate ye, Maya. Ah couldnae hate ye and ye know it." They just saw this problem from two different sides, and that was not an issue they were going to resolve in a night.

>>"Ah know trustin' anyone else with her must be hard for ye, but handlin' supernatural... concerns is literally SUPER's job."

Maya arched an eyebrow at her wife, against her better judgment. SUPER... had not been an organization to trust with anyone who was different, historically. Their handling did not result in nice things, even with their recent face lift, if rumors could be believed. Maya was not sure that option was any better, or frankly more legal, than holding Aoife on their own.

>>"If this wasnae personal, you'd have handled this differently. Instead, ye have her locked away in secret. And if she did fuck with Sam's head... weel, we've both seen how dark things can gie when Sam's in a dark place."

"Oh, I know." Sam was in a bad place, he had been ever since they returned from the fight. He didn't say much about what Aoife had done, but it couldn't be good.

He noted the sparks around Becca; her magic was acting up. In that regard, Maya assumed it was not all that different from a mutation. Still, somehow it felt... more volatile. She gave her a cautious look.

>>"It's nae my team anymore. But Ah'll report ye all the same. Ye caught your criminal. But mah sister deserves due process, like any criminal... Ah dinnae hate ye, Maya. Ah couldnae hate ye and ye know it."

Well, there was that. Maya's look softened; she was not angry now, just desperate.

"She was your sister for a whole of five minutes, and she used it to..." to do that, all of that, to Becca and Kalos. Maya choked on the words and shook her head. "What even is the due process for someone like that? Do we have a due process? Or is she just gonna enchant judge and jury and walk straight out? How do we even know how many people her cult already has in high places?" From what she could tell, they had been very busy. Maya shook her head again. "Her magic doesn't work in the mirrorworld. That I know for a fact. I'm not handing her anywhere until I know she will be held there."

Rebecca scrunched her nose at the downplaying of her relationship with Aoife. She knew a lot of what happened was built on lies, and that did hurt. But she was not willing to pretend it meant nothing to her. "We were catchin' up for months. An' Ah know she had... ulterior motives. Ah gie she's done awful things to me. To Kalos." That hurt her more than what she endured. Kalos did not trust many people, and she hated that Aoife getting close to her led to a willingness to cast aside her mutation.

"But just coz we dinnae hae th' process for how tae handle Mystics yet disnae mean we just dae what we please. 'We cannae gie her prisoner's rights cuz she might whammy people.' Dae ye realize you're literally using an anti-mutant talking point, Maya?" So much of the injustice toward mutants stemmed from the fear-mongering that they were too dangerous to treat humanely.

Rolling her neck, Rebecca tried to release some stress she was building up. Not all of that was physical; she was high on mana and emotions. "One second." Taking a breath, she moved to her suitcase and grabbed a notepad. She had gotten into the habit of drawing glyphs when she felt overcharged; her magic needed somewhere to go, and with enough protection glyphs, she could eventually turn her emotional stress into wards for the Mansion.

Keeping her eyes on her notepad as she carefully traced her lines, leaving a faint shimmer in the ink trails, she could let herself think of the problem at hand. "Ah'm nae sayin' we just trot her up to SUPER's door. We can talk tae Haven; last Ah heard, they might have some leads on trustworthy folk in SUPER. And maybe ye can work with them to figure out the right way to hold Mystics."

Rebecca looked up from her notepad to meet Maya's eyes. "Nae all Mystics are gonna be standin' with the Cult and some are gonna need tae be rehabilitated from indoctrination." She needed to use that word, because Maya needed to remember that her sister was not born evil; she was taught evil. "Ah'm nae lettin' mah partner start th' practice of treatin' mah people like a problem."

Knowing Maya was going to hate that, Rebecca knew she had to press on it anyway. "Mutants will always be mah people, but like it or nae, now sae are Mystics."

>>"We were catchin' up for months. An' Ah know she had... ulterior motives. Ah gie she's done awful things to me. To Kalos."

She had. Even thinking about it, Maya felt the pain all over again. Helpless, in what had been done to two of the most important people in her life. And helpless in making it right.

>>"But just coz we dinnae hae th' process for how tae handle Mystics yet disnae mean we just dae what we please. 'We cannae gie her prisoner's rights cuz she might whammy people.' Dae ye realize you're literally using an anti-mutant talking point, Maya?"

She was. Maya knew it, but she felt at a loss of what else to do. Aoife was dangerous. Not for the sole crime of being a mystic, but because she did hunt and hurt people. Maya had been with the X-men long enough, she knew what the moral compass told them to do. She was just also terrified that the moral compass was going to get them killed.

>>"One second."

Becca drew something in a notepad. Maya watched, confused. It had something to do with magic, she knew that, but she wasn't sure what was happening. At least her antlers finally decided to disappear in the meantime. She shook her head.

>>"Ah'm nae sayin' we just trot her up to SUPER's door. We can talk tae Haven; last Ah heard, they might have some leads on trustworthy folk in SUPER. And maybe ye can work with them to figure out the right way to hold Mystics."

Maybe.

>>"Nae all Mystics are gonna be standin' with the Cult and some are gonna need tae be rehabilitated from indoctrination. Ah'm nae lettin' mah partner start th' practice of treatin' mah people like a problem."

Maya watched Becca quietly, not sure what to say. My people. She must have sensed it.

>>"Mutants will always be mah people, but like it or nae, now sae are Mystics."

She knew. And she also knew she had to accept it. Why did it feel so damn hard?

"It's not mystics." That was only half true. "Well... it's the cult, more than the mystics. And magic... But that's not the point. She is the point." Maya struggled to put words to all that was going through her head. "What she's done, how she's done it... The things she said when we caught her... If she does go free, if that's a risk we have to take to be the good guys, and she comes after... after Iris, or Kalos, or you, or..." Or me. Maya was not used to worrying about herself, but the idea that they could taker her powers, that did terrify her. "We can't make a mistake. We can't."

There were so many things Rebecca loved about Maya. She could list for days the wonderful pieces that made up the person she decided to marry. But if one rose to the top as her favorite thing about Maya, it was her honesty. Maya was worried, but as she opened up, she let Rebecca peer into what she was dealing with. And that helped.

Maya did not deny what Rebecca accused her of. It was clear on her face; she recognized she was toeing the dangerous line walked by her own oppressors. The desperation born from fear to blur the lines of right and wrong. The difference between Maya and the anti-mutant bigotry of the past lied in where their fear arose. Maya did not hate or fear Mystics; Becca knew her lover did not have a bigoted bone in her body.

This fear was personal. It was fear for her family. It was even fear for herself. Maya was so good at being selfless, Rebecca did not consider how Maya could fear for herself. Rebecca lost her mutation and she was learning to accept that, but Maya was still a mutant. She had always been proud to be a mutant and it was a core part of her identity. Hell, being a mutant was the whole reason Maya and Gawain both existed as equal parts of who Mirror was. Knowing she could suddenly lose her powers, half of her identity, and a big part of who she saw herself as... well, that was something Rebecca would do almost anything to protect.

Antlers melted away as Rebecca spent less time in physical contact with Iris and thus her time transformed was brief. Tearing a sheet from her notepad, Rebecca closed the distance between her and Maya. "Ah know. We need tae be careful. Ah dinnae want-- nae, Ah worn't let something like what happened come again for our family. Ah'm still scared, too. But dorn't let fear make us cruel, Maya." Rebecca tried to wrap an arm around Maya's waist, hoping she was still allowed this intimacy. "Ah know th' spouse Ah fell for can dae that."

In her free hand, Rebecca held up her glyph card and watched it disolve into shimmering green bubbles that floated into the space and popped. It was a small protection; a ward against ill omens. They had amassed a lot of negative energy, and Rebecca wanted to work to fix that, not make things worse. "Coz Ah'm still here tae protect ye. Tae hae your back. Nothing will change that, Maya."

Becca's antlers disappeared too. They would be back once Iris woke up and one of them had to handle her again, but for now, they were back to normal. Maya sighed as Becca touched her. It was near uncharted territory for her to admit to being that scared and helpless. Especially after holding up the family duties for the past weeks.

>>"Ah know. We need tae be careful. Ah dinnae want-- nae, Ah worn't let something like what happened come again for our family. Ah'm still scared, too. But dorn't let fear make us cruel, Maya. Ah know th' spouse I fell for can dae that."

Maya did not want to be cruel. But she remembered the feeling that coursed through her when she was fighting Aoife. That had not been all fear... a lot of it had been the need for revenge. She didn't want to be ruled by that the next time they met. But it was also hard to let it go with nothing to replace it.

Becca's paper with the sign dissolved into bubbles. More magic. Maya wondered what it was for.

>>"Coz Ah'm still here tae protect ye. Tae hae your back. Nothing will change that, Maya."

Maya let out a shaky breath, and wrapped her arms around her wife, burying her face in Becca's neck. Something she had been holding in for weeks had just popped, like the bubbles. Becca was back; she was different, but not in the one way that mattered most. After weeks of wondering how she was dealing with all this on her own, and Maya being with the kids, trying to help Kalos along, Becca was back, and now somehow she was the steady one. Maya held her tightly, and started to cry.

Being with a hero was a challenge. Becca understood that because she was a hero, and she knew herself to be a challenge. When you built yourself around being the one people could depend on, who keeps everyone safe and who will always make the selfless decision for others, it gets hard to take care of yourself. It was why Becca believed her and Maya worked; they could remind each other that it was okay to care about yourself. To not be invulnerable. To break down.

Maya had gone through so much, and she did not have the luxury of an international soul-searching mission. Maya gave Becca that opportunity, and now it was Becca's chance to be the partner Maya needed.

Maya wrapped her arms around Becca, and Becca embraced her wife as she finally broke into tears. Becca rubbed Maya's back and kissed the top of her head. She said nothing; she just let Maya let out all the anxieties and frustrations and fears she was holding so close to her chest for too long. Tensions were high and this problem was not resolved, but they were back together. For now, that was a comfort greater than any of her protection spells.

Maya had been holding on to the lot of that for a long time. She had let out the frustration in the wrong way (shooting Aoife, mostly), but that had done nothing with the underlying fear for her family, and for herself. Ever since she had joined the X-team, she had been a responsible person - hero was a big term, but at least she tried to live up to it. Especially as a parent. And now, it all came crashing down. But Becca was there to catch her.

For a while, Maya cried. By the time she was done crying, she and Becca were cuddling on the couch, and Iris, mercifully, was still asleep. Maya wiped her eyes, feeling awkward as she circled back to her usual self, and sighed. "I'm sorry." Becca was the one who had been dealing with a whole lot.

Life with Maya was so stable for so long, it was inevitable they would run into struggles eventually. Even if they were not X-Men, no one had a life without trials. At a time like that, it was important to have faith in the person you committed to, though good times and bad. Becca was not happy with all the decisions Maya made handling Aoife, and they had to find common ground, but Rebecca remembered that Maya had never failed her as a partner. They were and always would be a team.

And right now, Becca's teammate needed her as a shoulder to cry on. Maya had done it for her so many times before; this was the least she could offer. Rubbing Maya's back, Becca let Maya cry out all the emotions she had buried for too long until she was finally ready to talk.

"If you're apologizing for cryin, then dorn't. Ah'm always here for ye when ye need tae let yourself be vulnerable." It did not happen often for the brave heroine, but it could happen in the safe space of their relationship. "If you're apologizin' for throwin' Aoife intae an abyss off the grid, then that's progress." She knew Maya was not going to forgive Aoife and wanted her captured, but Becca hoped she shed some light on how far Maya went.

Becca sighed, because fighting with Maya was draining. "We made it far before dealin' with our first big fight as a couple, dorn't ye think?"

>>"If you're apologizing for cryin, then dorn't. Ah'm always here for ye when ye need tae let yourself be vulnerable."

That was not exactly what she was apologizing for, but saying the reason out loud would have made it sound incredibly silly, even Maya knew that. She was just glad Becca seemed less angry at her now.

>>"If you're apologizin' for throwin' Aoife intae an abyss off the grid, then that's progress."

... well, that was not it either, but Maya had a sheepish look now.

>>"We made it far before dealin' with our first big fight as a couple, dorn't ye think?"

Was it really? Maya had been so wrapped up in all the emotions, she wasn't even really thinking about the context of their relationship. She cleared her throat.

"Um, in the spirit of honesty... I also shot her." she admitted. It was better to say it now than circle back to the whole fight later. "She's fine." she hurried to add. "She'll be fine. I did it to keep her form hurting Sam."

Becca was looking forward to returning to the same page as her partner. Things were weird when they were working to opposite ends. As upset as Maya made Becca with the news of her sister's captivity, ultimately the Scot could see things from Maya's perspective. That was important, because she knew Maya well enough to believe she would not act on malicious intent without a good reason.

If they could communicate their way to the end of this, they would work themselves through anything.

Though Maya was not making it easy. Her initial admission made Becca tense up, which Maya would feel sitting so close to her. Becca pursed her lips, letting Maya continue so she could give some context. Becca let the admission linger for a few seconds before flatly replying, "Ye really buried the lead tonight, ye know that?" With a sigh, she tried her best once more to put herself in Maya's shoes. "Aoife's dangerous. Ah get why ye had tae take extra measures in the moment. Ye have that bow for a reason. Unless ye're planning on tellin' me ye took mah handgun," she joked. Then she thought better of it given the track record of their conversation. "Ye didnae, right? Ah'd assume nae, but ye're full of surprises tonight."