⚜️ Saga 0: The Ash Years
📍 Location(s): Snowfield behind the safehouse | Upstairs hallway, near Dante's room
🕰 Year: Late 2006
🎯 Main POV: Split — Dante with Wanda, then with Jean
🛡 Sin System Status: Post-Intimacy Interrogational Phase
⚠ Emotional Pressure: MAX | Internal Decision Point Approaching
—
The snow was bone-pale.
The kind of cold that kept light tucked beneath its skin.
Dante stood outside the safehouse, breath curling in ghost trails, red coat unfastened. He wasn't there to think. He was there to *breathe*.
Because inside that house — it was getting harder to.
That's when she appeared.
With soft steps without using any magic. No coat.
Just Wanda — heavy-eyed but steady —her hair half-windblown, hands bare.
She stepped beside him in the snow, not touching.
He didn't startle.
He simply looked sideways.
"You're not dreaming," he said quietly.
**"No."**
And then, after a silence that felt like it predated speech:
> "Do you remember her name?"
Dante didn't blink.
Wanda's voice was still. But it was the kind of stillness you survive or don't.
> "The one I whispered. While you slept. The name I gave her."
She looked down slightly.
"And I know I shouldn't ask. Not after… not after last night. But I need to know if you heard it."
> [Sin System Snap Cue — Inquiry Trigger Received]
> ❖ Wanda Maximoff | Sync: 85.4% → 86.1% (Vulnerability Surge)
> ❖ Dante Sparda | Emotional Drift: 49.4% → 51.0%
> ❖ Risk: Memory Deviation / Fear-Based Pause || Pressure: High
Dante said nothing for a breath.
Then:
> "Lioré."
Wanda exhaled.
Not in relief. Not in release. But as if the world stitched back together for one pulseless second.
Dante added, "You've said it in dreams before. Even when we didn't have a future."
Wanda's lip trembled — she bit it to hold.
And then very softly:
"Do you want her to exist? Or am I the only one who's been waiting?"
Snow fell between them.
And Dante reached out — resting one hand at her jaw like letting her fall would be a world's end.
"I didn't ask for the dream. I didn't stop it either."
He didn't answer not did he promise her.
But she nodded.
And turned back inside.
> [Sin System Pulse: Dual Honesty Registered (Non-Evasive)]
> Wanda Sync: 86.1%
> Bond Category: Deep Memory Alignment (Active)
> Rival Conflict: Delayed — Truth Exchange Accepted
—
Later that same day…
Jean intercepted him just outside his room.
Still in her faded sleeves. Hair braided too tight.
her eyes were not glowing — not yet — but you could see glint of fire burning under the surface.
Dante tried to speak his voice, but she asked first.
In voice which was Quiet, Precise yet Sharp as a scalpel:
"You said her name in my dream."
He paused.
"Jean—"
She stepped closer, voice barely holding.
"You kissed me in that house made of flame. It felt so real. Like safety bleeding at the seams. You said… you chose me. I waited for the name."
"And then you said hers."
There was no fury.
Just the Phoenix **alert** behind her pupils — *still unsure if it should burn or just break down weeping.*
> [Sin System Interrogative Pressure: LIVE]
> ❖ Jean Grey: 62.2% → 62.7%
> ❖ Emotional Input Type: Psychic Recall Error
> ❖ Dante Anchor Drift: 51.0% → 51.8%
> ❖ FX: Clarity Crossfade | Phoenix Pathpoint Unlocked (Pending Response)
"…Did you mean it?" she asked, quieter now.
"Did some part of you forget me? Or just call her first by reflex?"
Dante's answer didn't come easily.
"Jean, I don't know who I call in dreams because I don't get to edit what they remember."
A pause.
Then truth, ragged:
"But I haven't forgotten your name once while I was awake."
Jean looked at him for a long while.
Fire at her fingertips, dim and slow — like a sun trying not to scream.
She leaned forward until their foreheads nearly met.
"…Then say it."
"Now. Just once."
"Say me, not her."
> [System Spike Detected – Phoenix Challenge Accepted]
> Bond Wager Osmosis Initiated – Thread Claim Escalation Threshold: LOW
> Mutual Honesty Detected: Jean → 62.7% → 63.4%
> Rival Phase Contained
Dante, eyes opened wide to her, leaned in and whispered…
> "Jean."
Finally, Not as oath, Not as cinder.
But *as vow.*
And later, when she walked away—burning calmer, but burning still—
Dante leaned gently into the doorframe and whispered again,
This time to himself.
> "Lioré. Jean…"
Neither woman heard it.
But the house *did.*
And so did the Phoenix.
And in the cellar, where chaos threads hummed dormant —
the wards began to breathe.
Because *truth spoken between two names* is still a kind of magic.
Even if it breaks them later.
—---------