The fighting finally ceased in the early morning hours.
Sokovia’s situation resembled something from the Warlord Era, five major factions controlling this small nation, clashing several times annually.
Whoever captured the capital crowned themselves president.
Never mind that presidential terms rarely exceeded one year.
A president was still technically a president.
According to Marvel lore, Sokovia should fall under Doctor Doom’s sphere of influence.
Yet Luca searched his memory thoroughly and found his predecessor had never encountered that name.
Then he remembered, back when Marvel teetered on bankruptcy, they’d sold off numerous superhero and supervillain rights.
This explained the vast divergence between cinematic and comic universes.
Doom and the Fantastic Four had likely been written out entirely.
Similarly, the mutant population had vanished from this world, leaving only the ragtag group of “miracles” seen in the films.
What a pity.
He’d been genuinely curious about Invisible Woman and Mystique.
If those weren’t available, even Polaris would have been acceptable.
Fortunately, Wanda occupied the space beside him, offering some solace for his disappointment.
Yes, this Wanda remained strictly in the “look but don’t touch” category.
But developing the Scarlet Witch from childhood?
That sounded like a properly ambitious project.
The three woke together the next morning.
Both twins thanked him sincerely, they understood that without Luca’s intervention, they’d either be exploded into meat paste or shot dead fleeing through the streets.
The victorious army began occupying the city systematically.
Rescue teams methodically cleared damaged buildings and extracted survivors.
After decades of civil war, Sokovia had developed an efficient post-conflict protocol.
Chaos existed, but a certain order persisted within it.
Regardless of who seized the capital, wholesale looting never occurred.
Instead, occupying forces typically stabilized the situation, protecting residents’ safety and property.
Everyone understood the capital’s economic and political value.
Reducing it to rubble would enrage the other four factions, a consequence no one dared risk.
The deaths of Luca’s predecessor’s parents and Wanda’s parents?
Collateral damage and pure accident.
Thousands died in these annual conflicts.
Relative to Sokovia’s millions, war casualties barely exceeded traffic fatalities.
When tragedy struck personally, however, statistics offered cold comfort.
Rescue teams cleared the corridor debris and extracted both pairs of parents.
The twins dissolved into tears at the fragmented remains.
Luca felt nothing, he barely knew these people.
Yet watching the fragmented bodies being boxed, his chest tightened inexplicably.
Soul transference or not, bone-deep connections proved difficult to sever.
The rescue team placed all four bodies in containers for cremation.
Luca stood silently with the twins through the entire process, then helped inter the ashes in the cemetery.
Everyone understood carrying parental ashes cross-country belonged in melodramas, not real life.
The recovery team initially planned to send the twins to an orphanage after confirming their parents’ deaths.
Luca rejected this proposal immediately.
He knew exactly what Sokovia’s orphanages represented, Baron Strucker’s personal laboratory, where orphans had served as human experimentation subjects for years.
In a chaotic nation like Sokovia, ordinary people struggled merely to survive another day.
Who had time to investigate what happened to unwanted children?
Wanda clutched Luca’s clothing tightly.
Despite her advanced physical development for a ten-year-old, she remained tiny, standing beside his 1.75-meter frame, she appeared utterly vulnerable.
She and Pietro genuinely feared Luca might abandon them.
Even children understood “orphanage” rarely signified anything positive.
No normal child wanted that fate.
“Luca, I understand your sentiment, but have you considered how difficult caring for two children alone will be?” The district attorney’s aunt handling registration spoke earnestly.
They’d been neighbors for over a decade.
Differences aside, aunties possessed universal characteristics regardless of ethnicity.
“Aunt Madeline, I know what I’m doing.
Those orphanages destroy lives.” Luca drew on his predecessor’s memories and addressed the aunt before him.
If memory served correctly, this woman had constantly tried to sell her daughter to his predecessor.
Glancing at her stout figure, Luca shuddered involuntarily.
Who could afford that?
Another excellent reason to flee Sokovia immediately.
“The old couple were such good people!
Why did misfortune strike them?” Aunt Madeline spent considerable time praising the deceased parents’ virtues.
Eventually pivoting to inquire whether Luca might need her daughter’s…
assistance.
Luca now qualified as a catch by local standards… young, attractive, inheriting a family fortune worth hundreds of thousands.
Definitely prime husband material.
True, his parents had just died.
But was it really inappropriate to discuss marriage arrangements during mourning?
Surely the best way to help the family continue their lineage was to provide a wife immediately!
As a longtime neighbor of the deceased, Madeline understood these customs intimately.
Luca’s age, eighteen?
Her daughter was sixteen!
Sokovia didn’t concern itself with such trivialities.
Sixteen was perfectly acceptable for marriage.
Fourteen wasn’t uncommon.
Seeing off Aunt Madeline and her marriage proposals proved more exhausting than the entire Titanic mission.
“Luca!” By the time the rescue teams and persistent aunts departed, another day had passed.
Pietro and Wanda stood before him, expressions uncertain.
They watched him nervously, wondering what their future held.
No blood relation connected them.
This young man had already saved their lives, taking them in would be extraordinary generosity.
The Maximoffs, like most Western families, kept minimal savings.
What little existed had barely covered funeral expenses They were now penniless.
Without Luca’s support, they wouldn’t eat tomorrow, let alone continue schooling.
Everything they currently possessed, including shelter, belonged to Luca Quinn.