Xaviers!

"...let me guess, our first guest is..."

She goes to open the box.

The interior of the box was lined with foam, form-fitting to the six-inch tall Will, in full Wonka fashion, top hat and all, lying inside of it.

"M...morning, Samantha," he abashedly smiled up.

The X-Man, for his part, rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"You didn't have to extricate him. Being baked into a pie can be a lot of fun."


"For you," the X-Man butt in. "It can be a lot of fun for you."

"Don't be stubborn," Wonka!Will replied. "You just have to close your eyes and slip away, and then it's all happiness."

"Well, strictly speaking, no, but... Wonka!Will hrmed.

"You see me. I'm not really...one for standing up for myself. They bully me more often than not, and so we rarely do what I want..."


"Bul...oh, bullshit. I am sorry, but keeping you from doing dumb things does not count as 'bullying' in any way, shape or form," the X-Man protested. "We have responsibilities and long-term consequences to deal with that you conveniently want to ignore."


"See what I mean?" Wonka!Will smiled up, abashedly.

"Again, yes, but I'm also protected from him by him not being here,"

"Prot...he wrote code in your head! Nailah's been taking advantage of it for weeks now! You're more vulnerable to him than you ever were when we were together!" the X-Man blustered.


"...That's different."

"Melpomene has always been one to take what she wants," Sam's counterpart nodded. "She wants to run people's lives. Here, at least, I am more content to sit back and watch. I am, after all, just an echo; the end result of spending so much time roosting inside our dear Mr. Stanton.

But Melpomene merely rented our boy for a few traumatic months. I've opted to make a home of it. I can keep her in check, aye."

"You will go, and you will listen, and you will make yourself heard. I do not give you permission to hide from this, William Stanton," Sam's counterpart stated, with a degree of finality. "I would not be pleased, otherwise."

"...alright, that's the two of them coming."

Sam slumps into one of the chairs with a sigh.

"I waited too bloody long to do this, didn't I?"

The other Sam place a cup of tea in front of this Sam, and sat down in her own seat.

"He's not your responsibility, is he?"

"A lot of people would disagree with that," she says, ruefully remembering what Miranda said to her.

"Besides, he's a friend, aye? I just didn't want to hurt him worse in the process."

The other Sam nodded, sipping her tea.

"It's frightening, aye? What you can do. The power to mold men's minds, and the dangers that brings with it. And the pressures that puts on you to perform on cue."

"And there's all these bloody things to compare myself to. Worlds where I went wrong. Worlds where I went right." She gestures to the Groundskeeper.

"Prior versions of myself, at that. And everybody's telling me to just find my own way in all this, but they're not the ones getting slapped in the face by it constantly."

The other Sam sipped her tea.

"You do not need to live up to other universes' expectations. But the expectations we set for ourselves can be the most damning of them all.

If it makes you feel better...I was as lost as you, at your age. Perhaps even more so. I made mistakes; I made choices I regret. And I lived, and I learned, and I came into myself, at long last, when I was the most needed.

Things happened over the years that I didn't always quite understand. And I bollocksed them up more times than I care to remember. I made it through, however, because I had people who cared about me, and I cared about them enough to take even the most frightening leaps.

You have your wolves. You have my Champion and her daughter. You have your family to help you when you fall. And you will fall. But you will get back up again, as many times as it takes."