AN: So here it is, the first Chapter of The Show Must Go On. I hope you all like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men characters P;
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- 17 years ago –
Harold and Mirella had just finished packing up the rest of their equipment, they had just finished their last show of the night when they heard a babies cry.
Mirella froze "Harold, do you hear that?" she asked. Harold nodded. They set their things down and looked around for the baby. The rest of the crew was too far away to hear.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" it sounded like it was coming from inside one of the tents. They both started checking inside the tents. They came to the last tent when they found her, wrapped in a bloody T-shirt, lying on top of one of the stands they use in their acts. "Oh Harold, she is beautiful!" she exclaimed picking up the baby in her arms. Immediately after she picked her up, the baby stopped crying. She held the baby closer so she could get a better look at her "Harold! She is just like us!" she gasped. Harold leaned over and looked. She could have passed off as a regular baby if it hadn't been for her bright red eyes.
"So she is," he said. "What do we do with her?" she asked. She didn't feel right, leaving a poor, innocent, mutant baby out in the cold.
Upon closer inspection, they found a note. All it said was 'Please take care of our baby, she means the world to us' Mirella winced as she noticed the little droplets of blood on the note.
"We'll take her in and raise her as one of us, after all, we can't leave her here, no one will take her once they see her eyes" he stated. Mirella smiled and left with the baby to get her some real clothes, or at least something better to wrap her in.
A few days later Mirella and Harold were with the rest of the crew surrounding the baby. They had accepted the fact that they were all going to take care of a mutant baby, seeing as how they were all mutants themselves. Now they were just thinking of what to name her.
"I say we name her Annabelle" Marisol said. She had long blue hair and tinges of blue all over her skin; she could control water.
Mirella shook her head, it just didn't seem right. "How about Star? Or perhaps Angel?" Gaston, one of the acrobats suggested. His mutation was a little less obvious; he could control air, which helped when he was performing.
This went on for another ten minutes when someone asked Mirella what she thought the baby should be named.
"Ruby, because of her eyes"
- 17 years later –
"Ruby! Stop daydreaming and help Pierre set up!" Mirella ordered. Ruby stretched and made her way over to the tent she knew Pierre would be in.
She quietly studied the people she called family. There was Mirella, who was like a mother to her. Mirella was average height, had flowing black hair, olive skin and bright orange eyes. Her power was telepathy. Her eyes traveled past Mirella and onto Harold, he was like a father to her. He and Mirella had been the one's that found her when she was just a babe.
He may have been six feet but he was a chubby fella, a chubby fella with curly red hair and stereotypical swirly mustache. She often made fun of him because of that. His power was super strength.
She continued to observe her fellow circus folk. Probably should have mentioned that earlier. Harold and Mirella had told her once that she had been found in one of the tents one night and that her parents had died.
She spotted the mischievous twins, Annie and Bonnie, short for Annabelle and Bonnibelle. They were Marisol and Pierre's daughters. They were just ten so no one knew if they would inherit their parents' powers.
They may have been troublemakers but they were adorable enough to get away with it. They both had curly blonde locks with natural blue streaks that were always tied in pigtails and they always wore their matching blue and purple dresses. They were too young to perform so they usually just sat in the audience and watched.
"Ruby hurry up! I'm not as strong as I use to be!" she heard Pierre shout from inside the tent. She ran inside and saw Pierre buried under a box of hoops, rope and nets.
She laughed and quickly pushed everything aside. She finally saw a tuft of Pierre's curly blonde hair. She reached her hand in and pulled Pierre out of the mess.
"Thanks for finally showing up Ruby" he said patting her on the head. She smiled and pushed his hand away. "I'm not a dog!" she whined. "No, you're one of us and you have to help me set up everything for tonight's show," he handed her a box marked 'Flamable Stuff'.
"Finished!" Ruby called out, she finally finished setting up everything that was in the boxes. Pierre looked up and scanned the room. He shook his head and pointed to his hand.
Ruby rolled her eyes and held her hands out and in one swift motion, lit everything she has just set up, on fire. She and everyone else had discovered her power when she turned thirteen.
She sneezed and accidentally lit one of the tents on fire. It was a good thing they had a few mutants who could control water there, otherwise someone might have gotten hurt. But over time she learned to control it, thanks to Pierre and Largo.
Largo was a short fella, some may even call him a midget, but he was a good man with a kind heart. He and Pierre's power was to create and control fire. Along with being a mutant, Largo had also been a teacher, an English teacher to be exact.
He had been teaching everybody English in between shows, he taught Ruby ever since she was a kid. "Roooooooby!" "ROOOOOOOOOOBYYYYYYY!" Ruby sighed. Pierre laughed; they all knew who that was.
Eight years ago, Harold and Mirella finally had a baby of their own, little Esmeralda or Esme as some liked to call her. She was a cute little thing, wavy black hair, olive skin, she was the spitting image of her mother, but had her fathers warm brown eyes. They had all discovered she took after her mother in more ways that one.
It was during the day, when she, Ruby, Annie and Bonnie had been at school. They were all minding their won business when they heard her scream. It wasn't out loud though, she had screamed to them in their minds.
They had all ran out of their classes and searched for her. When they finally found her, she was soaked from head to toe in water and was shivering. Some girls had played a prank on her by pushing her in the school pool; the only thing was Esme couldn't swim.
After that fiasco, Harold and the rest of the adults made sure everyone knew how to swim.
Since then, Esme had become quite attached to Ruby. She would often follow her around and sometimes Ruby would wake up to see Esme snuggled up beside her.
"Well that's my cue," she said before going off to find Esme.
"ROOOOOOBYYYY!" she heard Esme call out once again. "I'm coming Esme! Don't worry!" she yelled back. She heard laughter and then felt something attach itself to her legs. She looked down and saw the smiling face of Esme.
"Hi Ruby" Esme smiled. Ruby couldn't help but smile back. "Hey cutie" she greeted ruffling Esme's hair. "Hey! Mommy worked hard on making my hair pretty today!" Esme complained.
"Tell you what, I'll let you help me get ready for tonight's show, How's that sound? Good?" she said knowing the answer. Emse loved helping her get dressed. She said Ruby was like a giant doll that she could dress up.
She took Esme's hand and led her to the dressing room. She watched as Emse handed her a small bundle of clothes. She laughed and chose her favorite ones from the pile.
She studied herself in the mirror. She had put on a black and red striped corset, black spandex pants, black ballet shoes and she was wearing her favorite gloves. They were silk and went all the way up to her elbow, one glove was black and the other was red.
She had also left her long black hair down, instead of putting it in a bun like she usually does. She spun around in a circle and turned to Esme.
"How do I look?" she asked playfully. Esme clapped her hands. "You look so pretty! I can't wait until I'm old like you! Then I'll be pretty too!" she said enthusiastically. Ruby just smiled, Esme was so innocent, despite living in a world where people like them were hunted and hated.
She remembered when some kids at school accused her of being a mutant because of her eyes. Harold and Mirella had told the school that she was born with a birth defect that made her eyes look like that but some people just can't stop hating.
She touched her forehead and felt the scar they left after one of them had thrown a large rock at her. "Ruby?" she heard. She saw Esme staring at her with concern.
She patted Esme on the head, much like Pierre had done. "I'm not a cat!" she smiled, noticing how similar they were. "Of course you're not, now come on, we have to hurry and get ready before the show starts!" she said taking Esme's hand.
She entered the tent and noticed there was already a crowd of people sitting in the stands. She watched as Esme took her usual seat in between Annie and Bonnie. She turned and left to go look for her fellow acrobats.
When she was five, she was given the choice of what to do. She could have been a fire-eater, a juggler, a trapeze artist, a magician, an animal tamer, or she could have followed in Harold's footsteps and trained to become a ring leader, but none of those things appealed to her.
So here she was, at the age of seventeen, a simple mutant slash acrobat in her family's circus on the outskirts of town. "Ruby! Get ready, I hear Harold now!" one of the other performers whispered. She nodded and took her position.
The show went off without a hitch. Harold introduced them; they did a little performance showcasing everyone in the show. Mirella did her little psychic thing. Pierre and Largo did their act as well. Soon it was time for Ruby to do her act and for some reason, she felt nervous.
She stared at the audience. Something didn't feel right. She turned and saw Harold give her a questioning stare, almost as if he was saying 'what are you waiting for? Just go!' 'Ruby what's wrong?' she heard in her head.
'Something's doesn't feel right' she thought back. She saw someone in the audience stand up and throw something at her. She instinctively threw her arms out in front of her face and set whatever it was on fire. It landed beside her with a dull 'thud'
She watched the flames die down and gasped at what she saw. It was a knife. Someone had tried to throw a knife at her! She stared at the audience in horror. For a second everything was silent. Then people started clapping.
She looked at Mirella backstage and then back at them. They thought it was all just part of the act. She plastered on a fake smile and bowed to the audience before going on with her act.
The rest of the night went by fine. Ruby saw some of the others try to find the person that threw the knife at her but the person disappeared. There were still a few people wandering around when she heard it. The screams.
She was in the change room with the girls when she heard the screams. She told the girls to hide under the table as she looked outside. It was chaos, pure and utter chaos. She saw tents burning and saw the bloody bodies of her family on the ground.
She muffled a scream as she saw a bunch of people dressed in black holding guns and flamethrowers. She recognized the 'FoH' patch on each of their arms. "Oh my God…" she whispered. She ran outside and looked for her mom and dad.
"Mom! Dad! Pierre! Anybody!" she screamed through all the noise. She felt someone grab her from behind. She turned around and almost cried at the sight. It was Harold; he had a bloody gash on his forehead and blood all over his hands and clothes.
"Oh God, Dad, what happened?" she sobbed. "Mutant haters, they finally found us," he wheezed. "Where's mom?" she asked, she felt hot tears roll down her cheeks.
He looked away. "They got her…" he trailed off. She felt her knees buckle under her. "But I don't understand, can't we fight back?" she stuttered. He shook his head. "We may have powers but we have no chance against guns and bullets" he sighed.
He helped Ruby up and held her face in his hands. "Ruby" he paused "you… you have to go now" he told her. Ruby's eyes widened. She looked at him and held onto him for her dear life.
He pushed her away, "Ruby, you have to take the kids away from here! You all still have a chance! We don't! We're not what we use to be. You must protect the children now" he looked deep into her eyes.
"Ruby, I love you, you' will always be my daughter and I will always be your father, but you must go now" he said before he ran out of the tent. She just sat there in shock until she heard the girls scream.
'Ruby! Help! Please!' she ran back to the tent only to see some guys set it on fire. Rage took over her. She held one hand up and started to kill the flames.
The guys turned around and spotted her. She felt a stinging pain in her arm and leg. She saw one of them holding a gun pointed at her. She raised her other hand and set the men on fire. She smiled as she heard their screams of pain.
She limped inside and found the girls huddled together under the table. She grabbed their hands and started running through the forest. They ran until they couldn't run anymore.
The four of them collapsed under a large tree, tears streaking their now dirty faces. Ruby picked twigs and leaves from the girl's hair while she held them close. She gazed at Esme, "Esme" she started. Esme looked at her.
"I need you to do something for me. I need you to send a message, a telepathic message, to any mutant, ask them for help" she explained. Esme wiped her tears away and nodded. She sat down beside Ruby and suddenly had a blank look on her face, as if she were having a really vivid daydream.
Ruby put an arm around Esme as well as Annie. Annie was leaning on Ruby's left side, Esme was on her right and Bonnie was lying in her lap. Each of the girls had cuts and bruises somewhere on them and they were all dirty from the smoke and the running.
Ruby felt her eyelids droop. She shook it off and noticed that the twins had fallen asleep. She looked up at the sky and prayed that someone out there would find them and help them. She felt a tug at her arm. She turned and saw Esme looking at her with now dried tear streaks down her face.
She imagined they all had very visible tear streaks down their faces. "What is it? Did you find someone?" Ruby asked hopefully. Esme nodded. "She said not to worry, and that she'll be here soon to help us" she told her. Ruby sighed.
"Ruby…what's gonna happen to us?" she heard Esme ask. She took in a breath. "I don't know Esme, I just don't know"
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AN: How was that? I was listening to 'The Show Must Go On" the Moulin Rouge version as I was writing about the attack on the carnival up until the end of this chapter. I have no idea who I'll match Ruby up with. Hopefully people will vote on it.
Vote: Who should I pair Ruby with?
Angel/Warren:
Nightcrawler/Kurt:
Pyro/John:
Colossus/Piotr:
Toad/Mortimer:
Gambit/Remy:
NOT Bobby, he belongs to Rogue P;
NOT Scott, look down
NOT Logan, he's TOO old for her