And here we are! The latest AU! Late again, I know, but I was out of town for the weekend, still, I'm here now.
This fic was born from an idea StarRose85 gave me. It came out quite different from her idea, but I just couldn't help myself. I might still write another where things are closer to what she suggested... but for now I give you this.
Warning of sorts: there's an underage relationship and marriage in this one. Underage as in one half of the pair being a minor, fourteen to be precise. Still, there's nothing sexual to the relationship at that point, something that is explicitly stated in the story, and it is, technically legal where things are happening (yeah, a tad insane, but still).
Other warnings: There's slash and femslash here, though you should expect it already, considering two of my main pairings in the X-Men fandom are such: meaning Cherik and Mystique/Destiny. Also, while this is a different timeline from the original one, here too Marie/Rogue will have met Logan and stayed with him, rather than end up in the Institute.
This fic will take a very different turn from previous ones, I hope you'll like it.
This fic CAN technically be READ AS A STAND ALONE. All such readers need to know is that Silbhé Salani/Nightingale is a human-born girl, the reincarnation of Loki's match and consort, a former princess of Alfheim and Hel/Helena's mother.
Dreamcast: Emily Browning as Silbhé/Nightingale, Kristin Scott Thomas as Kathryn, Julianne Moore (as she looks in Hunger Games) as Destiny, Candice Accola as Lorna, Carey Mulligan (with short blonde hair) as Blindspot (will add others as necessary).
The song in this chapter is "Edge of the World" as sung by Within Temptation.
Wintersong
(Alternative Universe to Nightingale)
By: Lalaith Quetzalli
Words can be lost in the wind, or buried somewhere deep, but the song… the song endures, it carries on, in the air, in the hearts and souls of everyone who hears its melody. One day a melody was created, forged from an eternal winter: clear as ice, pure as new-fallen snow and as beautiful and unique as a snowflake…
Motif
We were who we were at our very cores, and that would never change...
I opened my eyes, briefly wondering when and why I'd closed them, but that didn't seem to be too important. I felt dizzy, like the world was spinning around me with no control, my brain kept pulling up things: scents, images, sounds, memories, and a part of me couldn't help but swear that more than half of those hadn't been in my head the day before…
And then a voice called to me, I'd no idea what had been said, I wasn't paying enough attention, but I knew it was calling to me, so I spun around, half-absently noticing the touch of what felt like silk against my legs, I was in a floor-length, sleeveless, lilac dress, sandals on my feet, my long auburn hair falling in loose curls to the middle of my back. The moment I finished turning I laid eyes on the one who'd called: standing tall, more than a head taller than me: with thick curls of raven-black hair cascading down her back and almost to her waist and green eyes so light they looked almost like glass; her skin was pale alabaster and one half was perfectly unblemished, while the other side was covered in many thin silvery scars; she was wearing a long-sleeved, floor-length black gown, elegant but sad, like a mourning dress…
"Helena..." I didn't even think of the name until it was coming from my lips.
And then it hit me, the one standing before me was no mere woman, I knew her, she was my daughter! (Technically she'd been my daughter, centuries and a lifetime prior, but I cared not for such details; she was mine and that was that).
I was embracing her before I quite knew what I was doing, and as I did, things began falling into place inside my head, inside my heart and soul.
"Oh Nana (Mama)..." She whispered in that quiet yet strong voice of hers as she held me close. "I was so afraid… so afraid Ada (Papa) would be too late, that the deamarkonian would not work… I did my best to keep you breathing, your heart beating, and even then I… you almost didn't make it. And I thought I'd lose you again… that again you'd be gone and I'd be left here, helpless, alone..."
My own memories followed her words. I remembered my current life, as Silbhé Arianna Kinross-Salani, human, daughter of Aislinn and Sebastian Kinross-Salani, niece of Kathryn Salani. Mom dead due to blood cancer, dad always working, aunt Kathryn always with me. And then the cancer, the same sickness that had taken my mom had threatened my life too, and Loki… my dear dear friend had taken it upon himself to save my life, any way he could. That had ended with him creating something that had before only existed in fiction (in a novel I'd been reading while bed-ridden, in fact), the deamarkonian: a set of bracelets that connected the life-force of two individuals, allowing them to share it. It was meant to allow his energy to help me survive the leukemia. According to Helena's words I'd gotten it on just in time… barely. Would have died if she hadn't been using her own power to keep me on the side of the living. I went on my toes and with some effort managed to place a kiss on her brow in a quiet thank you.
Her comment about me almost not making it, about being gone again… brought forth even more memories, of a past and a life long gone. One where I'd been Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard, who'd renounced the crown of the elves out of love for the second prince of the Realm Eternal. A Jotun by birth and Aesir by adoption. Who'd given birth to the most beautiful little girl, our little light, our Helena… and then… I'd been pregnant with our second child, another girl, when everything went wrong. Amora, and her plots, her coveting of something, someone, who was never meant to be hers… and I was the one who ended up paying for that, me and my unborn child both. But I was back, I'd been given another chance (two, if one counted surviving the cancer as well) and one day Meril would have hers too.
"I'm here Helena..." I whispered softly as I ran a hand soothingly through her hair. "I'm here now, and I'm not leaving you, not again."
I vaguely noticed that in my new life I was shorter than I'd been before, but that wasn't too important. Looks weren't really what mattered, it was all about the soul… and regarding the soul, I could feel another pulling on mine.
"Go nana." Helena pulled away just enough for me to see her nod. "Go, Ada's waiting for you."
"Promise me you'll come see us as soon as you can." I told her instantly. "I don't care about the Allfather's ancient rules. You are already very much a part of my life, you can get involved in it. Lives and names aside, I'm still your mother, cala amin (my light)..."
"Yes, yes you are." She nodded, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.
It was the last thing I saw before the mists of Helheim cleared from around me, and my soul went back to my body and the world of the living…
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was: blue. Ice blue skin, with tribal-like markings the color of dusted snow. His face was the same, with eyes that were red and black, shocking and exotic and absolutely gorgeous.
"Fintalëharyon (Trick-prince)..." I breathed out, a smile on my lips.
"A'maelamin (My beloved)..." He replied in the same soft tone.
"Not that you don't look absolutely stunning like this, but what's up with the skin?" I asked, hoisting myself up on one arm to look at him better.
He was wearing nothing but black boxer-shorts, which left a lot of skin bare to my eyes, and I couldn't help but eye him appreciatively.
"The deamarkonian." He explained, signaling to the cuff-bracelets we were both wearing. "There was a completely unexpected side-effect to them. Apparently all spells upon me, upon us both, were broken the moment they were activated…"
Which explained why he was blue, and apparently also why he remembered me… because it would seem at some point the Allfather had erased all memory of me from his mind, and from that of everyone else in Asgard, in an attempt to stop my match's downward spiral, caused precisely by us being a match. We weren't meant to be without the other, and as romantic as that notion could be, the dark side was that if one half died and the other didn't do so instantly as well, he/she became self-destructive in an instinctive attempt to join their other half. Loki didn't die when I (Tinúviel) did, but a part of him had really wanted to, had done everything short of turning a blade on himself… and his father did probably the only thing he could think of, believing that if he no longer remembered he'd lost someone, that would somehow erase the loss itself. He'd no idea. The worst part was that, afterwards, my love was still in pain, he just had no idea why; and no one really understood why he acted the way he did.
"I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come back to you…" I told him very softly, running a hand down his cheek.
"I have a feeling it wasn't up to you." He replied gamely, before his eyes gained an odd glint as he added: "At least now I know why the name Nightingale suited you so well from the start..."
Indeed: Nightingale… Tinúviel… that had always been my name, in whatever language.
"I cannot go back to Asgard like this." Loki announced abruptly, sitting up.
"I don't understand." I admitted. "I mean, I understand the Allfather's glamour falling, but you're a shape-shifter it should be easy enough to change..."
"It is." He proved it, right then and there, returning to the form I knew better on him: alabaster skin, emerald green eyes, obsidian black hair slicked back, dressed in green silk and black leather. "But as I put distance between the two of us..." He left the bed, walking to the far end of the room, and I could see his image growing slightly blurry and almost flickering. "It gets worse the more distance there is. I can still travel the branches of Yggdrasil, but once I leave Midgard I have no control over my magic anymore. If I were to appear in this form in Asgard..."
"You don't think they remember." It wasn't really a question.
"No, I don't." He agreed. "And even if they did, the truth of my origins was never really public knowledge, only Erynion and Sif knew outside my family, and perhaps Heimdall." His face twisted as he added: "Things will not go well if Thor sees me like this right now."
"He's your brother…" I tried to say to him.
"He is." He nodded grimly. "But he's not the brother you remember, my Nightingale. He's..." He shook his head. "He's not the brother I once loved as dearly as if we'd been born as such. Make no mistake I still love him, but nowadays… things haven't gone right since we lost you."
I knew that for a fact, and not just for what he was saying, and what he'd told me in the three years since we'd met in my current life, but I could sense the emotions coming from him (Empathy, a gift that apparently had followed me into my new life, I just hadn't know there was anything especially about me always being able to tell what others were feeling…), and I knew it went beyond Thor not remembering me, and it probably wasn't good.
And then we were interrupted, in a most unexpected manner.
"Silbhé!" It was aunt Kathryn. "Silbhé darling, are you alright?"
It hit me like a bucket of iced-water. She was worried about me, and why wouldn't she be? Just the day before I'd been dying… in fact, shortly before dawn I'd been as good as dead, if it hadn't been for my love and his creation… I had no idea how I was supposed to explain any of it to my aunt, and apparently we weren't getting any time to make a plan. We'd have to improvise.
xXx
We didn't actually tell her the truth that day. Loki pretty much panicked and went invisible a fraction of a second before she opened the door, and while I didn't like lying to my aunt, to the woman that was as good as my mom, the only one I had any real memories of… I wasn't going to push him into something he wasn't ready for. So I let it go. I think she knew, even then, if not exactly what was going on, at least that something was. Then again, I'd been dying the night prior, and then she found me to be alright? Of course something was going on.
It took three days for us to go to her with the truth, about everything. She never backed away from him, not from his name, his skin, or his history. I know it couldn't have been easy, not with how complex it all was, and especially when my part in it all came up. I was fourteen years old, yet I had memories and experiences that spanned more than a century…
"I always knew you were an old soul..." Aunt Kathryn said almost wistfully. "I just didn't realize quite how… literal, that statement could be."
I loved her so much…
One of the reasons we went to her was because Loki was having trouble reigning over his power. That is to say, he was unable to do much magic away from me (the farther away he got, the worse his control got), and his Jotun abilities were tricky even when near me. He needed to focus whenever he touched someone, to avoid giving them frostbite; I was pretty much the only one he could touch without a thought and not hurt, which was both a relief (a guarantee he'd never hurt me, consciously or not) and not so much (because that meant he still couldn't touch others). At least he did not hate himself, like I knew he'd have, if he didn't have the memories of his parents having explained it all to him, back when he'd first found out the truth (the time he'd been made to forget once).
It's not like we ever expected Aunt Kathryn to be able to help us directly, but I knew she knew a lot of people, and I knew she'd worked for the government for fifteen years before retiring so as to be able to help dad raise me (in the kind of job that you couldn't talk about over dinner…). As it happened, we were right, she knew people. It was how we found ourselves, a week after my life was saved, standing at the gates of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters.
My love did not say a word as we went up the long driveway, and then to the door, where a green eyed, red haired woman was waiting for us.
"You must be Silbhé and Luka, correct?" She asked kindly.
"That's us ma'am." I nodded with a small smile. "You must be Dr. Grey."
"That's right." She agreed before turning around. "Follow me please, the professor is waiting for you both in his office."
The office was at the end of the hallway, and inside we indeed found Professor Charles Xavier, the headmaster of the Institute (and, as we'd eventually discover, the leader of one of the two factions that lead the mutant community).
"Welcome." He greeted us with a smile. "You know, you don't have to hide here."
Loki's hold on me tightened compulsively at that. We were holding hands, had been since teleporting out of my house; it allowed us to feel safe, at the same time it allowed him to keep a human glamour up with ease.
I said nothing, leaving it up to my match. A few seconds passed still, as he took a deep breath, then he slowly let go of a my hand, at the same time he dropped the glamour. We both heard a sharp intake of breath from behind us, something that made Loki tense all over again.
Dr. Grey, who was still standing at a side, turned her eyes towards whoever was at the door (behind us). She said nothing out-loud, but I had a feeling she didn't need to.
"I'm unaware how much Ms. Salani explained to you through the phone, Professor." Loki said in an even tone. "I am not a mutant, neither of us is. I am actually a Jotun."
"Excuse me, what is a Jotun?" Dr. Grey inquired softly.
"Some people call them Frost Giants, though they prefer the term Jotun." I clarified.
"Frost Giants… like in Norse mythology?" A male voice behind us (Mr. Summers) asked.
"Not like those, exactly those." My love corrected.
"Huh?" It was obvious none of them were expecting that.
"Indeed, there is life beyond our planet, and some things we believe to be myths are actually real." I announced calmly. "I still think they're all aliens rather than gods… but I suppose that's mostly a matter of perception."
"Your name's not actually Luka, is it?" Ms. Grey asked with sudden insight.
"No, it's not." My Maverick seemed to decided to take a chance as he announced. "My name is Loki… yes, that Loki. God of Mischief and Lies..."
"… and chaos, and magic, and mayhem… and so many other things. It depends on who you ask really." I added in my most blasé tone.
Loki actually laughed at my comment.
"And you, miss?" Mr. Summers inquired as he fully entered the room.
Tall, blonde… it didn't surprise me when Loki tensed at him. The dark glasses covering his eyes and part of his face, in a material that wasn't glass or plastic, and shone red, gave us a very good idea of where his mutation might be focused.
"Oh, my name really is Silbhé and I was born human." I nodded glibly.
I wondered how long it'd take each of them to pick up on my specific wording.
"Why are you here…?" He asked next.
Loki's tension reached whole new heights and none of us missed the way frost began to form on the chair he was on. My reaction was also instinctive as I entwined my hand with his. I could see from the corner of my eye as the two younger mutants made to say something, or perhaps try to stop me, only to freeze (figuratively) when noticing that the frost didn't affect me in any way.
"Does this answer your question?" I asked evenly, turning my eyes to them again.
"How old are you?" Mr. Summers asked next, apropos of nothing.
It actually took me several seconds to parse out the feelings I was getting from him, and make sense of the way they fit with the looks he kept giving me, us, and our hands… it eventually hit me though, and I didn't like the implications.
"I am fourteen years old." I answered, before narrowing my eyes at him and going on. "And before you even dare think something negative about Loki let me say this: I know my body is young, but my mind and soul are older than you could even begin to imagine."
"Past lives?" Ms. Grey's eyebrows raised abruptly in surprise.
"Possibly." I shrugged. "At the very least one, I have memories of one. Nine centuries ago give or take. Lived to be about 120 or so… and I was married to him for 95 of those."
That shut Mr. Summers up immediately. Ms. Grey just looked at me with a mix of nervousness, awe and disbelief.
"I know how it sounds." I went on, more calm than before. "I swear I am not lying. We don't know all the details. We do know that I have a past-life, that we were married then, until an Enchantress called Amora murdered me, furious at me for foiling her attempts at enthralling Thor." I shook my head, that part wasn't that important. "Aunt Kathryn knows about this, if that helps." I let out a breath. "I know how it looks. I'm fourteen, and most people look at us and think: statutory rape, or something. The thing is we've not done anything like that, and we won't until I've reached age of consent; though really, if we wanted we could marry right now with my aunt's consent, and I know she'd give it." I shook my head, knowing that my rant wasn't helping. "What you need to understand is that when I say we're a match, that we're soulmates, I'm not being a classic teen-aged girl rhapsodizing about the wonders of eternal love, without having the slightest idea what it is about. I know, I've been married for longer than most humans live! And I'm still as much in love with him as I was the day I said my vows. We love each other; time and space have changed nothing. One day we'll marry again, and it matters not if it's tomorrow, in two years, four, or ten. We're going to be together for the rest of this life, and as many more as might come afterwards." I let out a breath. "And this, us, has nothing to do with why we came here. We came here because Aunt Kathryn believes you can help us, help him with his powers."
"Well, we've never had someone quite like you Mr. Loki, but we'll do our best." He promised, looking at my love with a small smile.
"Odinson." My Maverick stated. "My name is Loki Odinson. Luka Hvedrungr is the cover I go by in this world, but my true name is Loki Odinson."
"Very well Mr. Odinson." The Professor nodded. "Welcome to the Xavier Institute."
xXx
There were a few complications upon our first settling into the Institute, and in the end we had to go ahead and get married, once we went back home to gather my things so we could formally move into the Xavier Estate. The teachers outright refused to allow us to share a room, no matter how much we insisted and cajoled, so in the end we took the decision out of their hands. Since Dad was spending most of his time out of the country, Aunt Kathryn legally had sole custody of me; she signed the necessary forms, and with her intervention we got a judge to sign on it as well, we were married before returning to the Institute the following Monday.
Mr. Summers and Ms. Grey were quite obviously shocked by our actions, as were most of the younger members of staff; only Prof. Xavier and Ms. Munroe (the other senior member of staff) seemed to be mostly accepting of our actions. I knew that our decision might make it harder for some people to accept us, but for me it was more important to feel secure in my bond to Loki, and for him to feel the same. And that began with us being allowed to stay together, even to sleep in the same room. We shared a bed, but there was nothing sexual going on, even being husband and wife, I knew my body wasn't mature enough for that, and we were in no hurry. In our minds and souls the two of us had been married long enough, we didn't need sex, there were other forms of intimacy that were enough for us. We particularly loved cuddling, especially in little clothes, the touch of skin on skin was pleasant, and comforting.
We wore no wedding-bands, but had tattoos on the right finger instead, the design of claddagh rings in the same golden color of traditional bands. The only pieces of jewelry I really wore were the deamarkonian, the trinity-knot earrings in three golds that were an heirloom from my mother and a nightingale pendant forged in mithril that my match had commissioned for me from the best jewelers in all the realms, the dwarves of Nidavellir.
As much a shock as our marriage was when first introducing the notion, it didn't take long for people in the Institute to either forget about it or simply decide it was no longer interesting. And so we moved on.
The next shock came in my love's true form. We knew we couldn't keep holding hands all the time. So the day after installing ourselves in our room, we stepped out with him in his real skin. No one ran away, or looked away in disgust, there was a mix of curiosity and fascination. The warning not to touch him seemed to fall on deaf ears, until a few boys ended with frostbite in their fingers, and then they decided it might be a good idea to listen to us. I only rolled my eyes before going ahead and healing them. That, somehow, appeared to shock them even more than my love's obviously blue skin.
"I don't understand." I admitted when everyone staring began unnerving me.
"Are you aware just how rare true healing is?" Dr. McCoy, one of the Professor's former students and a guest lecturer asked with obvious fascination.
"I'm quite aware." I said in a drawl. "It's a gift, and it has limits. Surface injuries are a piece of cake, piercing wounds and the like can be exhausting, but it can be done. Nerve damage I can do nothing about, nor about healing what is no longer there, or problems or sicknesses I don't know exist in the first place." I thought it over before adding. "If one of the children went and broke their leg today I might be able to heal them, depending on how bad the break was; but something like for example a spinal injury… the nervous system is completely beyond me."
I very purposefully did not look at the Professor, though I had no doubt he knew I was talking about him; just like we both probably knew Dr. McCoy had been thinking about him when bringing the topic up.
*Thank you anyway, Miss...* The Professor's words touched my surface thoughts.
Loki and I knew about his own mutation and we'd agreed to allow him into our minds on a near permanent basis, understanding that reading minds was to him like feeling emotions was to me, or magic itself was to my match. As long as he didn't try to go deep into our heads, we had no trouble. We had enough control of our thoughts not to just offer up all our secrets, and were accepting enough that we wouldn't mind if something did escape and he happened to pick up on it. We didn't miss the mix of surprise and gratitude that shone on Charles's aura and expression was something that neither of us could miss, it left me wondering how many people had been as accepting as us before (I had a feeling that not many…).
*Silbhé.* I whispered mentally to him. *Call me Silbhé.*
It was the middle of the summer, and thus there were no formal classes in that moment. Though there were still a number of students, among those who either had no families to take them in, or who simply couldn't (or wouldn't) go back to them. Our priority was for my Maverick to learn to control his icy touch, and perhaps even his ice magic. We hoped that once we'd managed that he'd be able to gain control of his shape-shifting next which would, in turn, allow him to change into Aesir again, though only if he wanted it.
It was near the end of the summer that we met Darcy Lewis. She was a former student from the Institute, studying in Culver, though she'd changed majors twice: first Law, then History, she hadn't liked any and hadn't yet decided which one to try next. She had a college fund, set by an uncle or something (she was never clear on that); the only thing she seemed to truly enjoy was learning languages (I understood that part at least). She'd apparently dropped by the Institute seeking some kind of guidance, believing she'd nowhere else to go, no one else to go to; her parents were dead and she had no other close family or friends.
Professor Xavier introduced her to us when I took a cup of elven tea to him. (Loki had had the herbs in a pocket dimension, and Charles shared the like for it with me, so I usually made enough for us both). Darcy Lewis was a young woman of average height with lightly tanned skin, thick dark brown curls to her shoulder blades, blue-gray eyes beneath a pair of glasses and a very curvy figure; she favored simple tops and jeans and there was a hint of mischief in her expression I knew all too well.
"Silbhé, Loki, meet a former alumni of the Institute, Miss Darcy Lewis." He introduced us. "Miss Lewis, two of our more recent additions, Silbhé and Luka Salani-Hvedrungr."
"Nice to meet you, around here they call me Wallflower." She said in return, shaking each of our hands in turn.
With recent training my Maverick was beginning to gain control over his icy touch, though he hadn't had much opportunity to practice; apparently the people in the Institute had taken the not-touching too strongly. Still, Darcy had no reason to hesitate, and it went well enough.
"We don't really have code-names yet." I admit with a shrug. "Being new around and all that."
"If you don't mind the question, why Wallflower?" My love asked almost immediately.
He was still so awed at the whole concept of mutations, had been since first finding out about it, about mutants in general; there seemed to be no end to his wonder as he saw each mutation, no matter how big or small.
"Don't know what a Wallflower is Lucky?" She asked cheekily.
Loki arched a brow at the nickname but said nothing about it.
"You go unnoticed?" I asked, cocking my head to a side, curious.
"Something like that." She nodded, then proceeded to close her eyes, concentrating.
I could see the moment she went, mainly because I could no longer see her, not with my eyes, though a part of me could still vaguely sense her. Beside me, my husband stared at the spot where Darcy had been standing (was still standing) for all of two seconds before going into raucous laughter. I'd never heard him like that, it was enough to shock me, and to make Darcy return.
"Is he alright there?" She asked, evidently confused.
"Oh Norns!" He cried out in Ancient Norse. "I never thought my eyes would see something like this! Such shocking wonder..."
"Hey!" Darcy cried out. "What the hell man?!"
My love stopped laughing as he looked at her carefully. Connected as we were, I was beginning to see the connections he'd made, and it truly was a wonder…
"Oh stars… you really have no idea what it is you can do..." He murmured right then. "I did wonder, if your chosen name was a mistake or the best trick ever seen!"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Darcy demanded, and I could sense her losing her patience with us.
"What you do Darcy, it goes beyond going invisible, or not being noticed." I explained to her calmly. "What you're actually doing is stepping into another plane, sort of another dimension."
"That's impossible." She shook her head vehemently. "I would know if I were doing something like that, something cool… wouldn't I?"
"Probably not, particularly if you don't know it can be done." I offered.
"You see, there are dimensions in the universe, planes… you could also see them as layers." My beloved did his best to explain it in terms they could understand. "There are many, and different forms of life exist in each. Some don't have living beings, but energy instead. Like, there is a level that holds the energy that some individuals channel and turn into their magic (not him, because his magic was very much a part of him). Now, the layers that interest us right now are the one where we live, lets call it the Material Dimension. Outside all those layers is the abyss, the emptiness, outer space, whatever you wish to call it. Now, between us, this world we live in, and the abyss, are a number of layers that conform what is by most simply known as the Shadow Plane. It's a tricky plane, not just anyone can survive in it, and those few of us who can, can also use it to navigate from one place to another, either in our world, or others, as the Shadow Plane is part of Yggdrasil and as such connects all its Realms. The Shadow Plane can also be further split into several Dimensions, the closest to us being the Mirror Dimension which, as its name suggests, looks exactly like this one. Except reality there can be changed, bent to the whims of those with power, magic. Whatever happens there does not affect us, not directly. It's not too good for transport though, as one needs to cover the same distance we would in the real world." He shook his head, turning his attention back to Darcy. "When you activated your mutation, you stepped out of this dimension and into the Mirror one."
"What?!" Darcy squeaked at that. "No! That's impossible! I didn't even know about this Mirror-whatchamacallit! How could even step on it, or in it, or whatever?!"
"Miss Lewis, calm down." Charles called.
I could tell he had a hard time getting through to her, even with his telepathy; made a part of me wonder if it had always been like that, if it may be part of her mutation. With us, I knew that while he could read our surface thoughts, and might be able to dive into our inner ones; that was mostly because we allowed it, my love's magic would stop him if we chose it to, and we always knew when he was there…
"Darcy, easy..." I whispered, running a hand up her forearm and calling on just enough of my own power to help her calm. "This is not about things to know or don't. Your mutation has not changed, you simply know more about it than before."
"You said she went into the Mirror Dimension." Professor Xavier said suddenly. "You don't think that's all she can do, do you?"
"No, I don't." Loki admitted with a shrug. "Even if it were, that would be useful enough. But I do believe there's more she can do. I'd be willing to help her find out..." He turned to look at Darcy again. "That is, If you wish it?"
"I..." It seemed to take forever for Darcy to make up her mind. "Yes, yes I want to learn."
The following weeks she made arrangements and dropped out of college, didn't tell us a thing until it was all said and done, and when I asked her if that was really what she wanted, she surprised me with her answer:
"I only went to college because Uncle Eli gave me a card with money for it, and I had no idea what else to do." She admitted with a shrug. "I've known I'm a mutant since I was twelve, but there never seemed to be anything special about my mutation. I mean, yeah, I could make it so people didn't notice me, but that didn't seem special at all. I always wanted to help, but didn't see how I possibly could… Yet now. Now Lokes is telling me that there's more to my mutation than we ever knew, who knows? Maybe it won't amount to much in the long run, at least it'll keep me entertained before I make up my mind or my next major… But what if it does mean something? What if this is my chance to finally discovering what it is I can do to make a difference, to matter? Who knows, maybe this is what I'm supposed to do…"
I didn't try to insist further then. And so we added her own training into our rather eclectic schedules. Soon Darcy had become our best friend, almost like a sister even. She was the only one who seemed to think nothing at all about the fact that I was fourteen and married.
"Hey! You act like you're older than me!" She said simply one day. "I mean, not like I think I'm old enough to be married or anything, or like I intend to marry anyone, or even have someone I'd like to marry..." She cut herself off, shook her head then seemed to revise. "The point is. If it works for you? Awesome! It's your life, your choice and no one else has any right to complain about it. Not like you married them or anything..."
I couldn't help it, I laughed at that. She was so right! Darcy Lewis definitely made our life more interesting than it used to be.
xXx
We were right in our deductions about the progression of Loki's power and control. It took him nearly a month to gain enough control not to give frostbite to anyone not me. Then a couple more months before he began getting the hang of his ice-magic. About half a year after our arrival to the Institute he finally had enough power and control to shape-shift back into his Aesir form, though, unlike the one the Allfather had been responsible for, the new one allowed some of his markings to carry through, only they appeared a very light, almost white, blue, like frost on his alabaster skin. In my (biased, but so what?) opinion, he looked absolutely gorgeous.
Then the next surprise came, when we discovered I could call on my beloved's magic at will. It was a bit tricky, for all but the most frequent spells (those I did so often they became second nature) I needed to trace runes in the air and call to them. Still, it was a most unexpected bonus.
And while getting his ability to shape-shift back meant that he didn't need to be blue anymore, sometimes my Maverick changed back into that form for no reason. He knew some of the kids actually liked it. Especially Bobby, who called himself Iceman, he loved to play with my love, and learn tricks for him. At times when looking at him I couldn't help but remember many years before, when Helena had been young… I also wondered if Loki would look just like that the next time. When I was old enough to lay with him again, to give him a child… It was a nice dream.
The rest of the year we juggled my learning to use his magic as efficiently as possible, his re-traint (as the loss of all spells had also meant losing all the blockers he always kept on his magic, and thus having to learn how to re-balance all that energy and power), and teaching Darcy the full scope of her own mutation. Turned out we were right, she could move through the Mirror Dimension, could also step fully into the Shadow Plane and travel through there… though she couldn't stay there too long, and couldn't go deep enough to actually move through the branches of Ygdrassil… still, it was more than anyone ever expected.
Sometime near the end of Spring in 2007 I decided it was time to put some of my old plans back on track, which meant college. Darcy was all for joining me, even when I explained I was not going to Culver. Norwich was still offering me a place, and while I had every intention to take the necessary online classes to qualify for degrees in Mythology and History (the subjects I'd been taken online classes on thus far), I'd switched my focus in the year since arriving to the Institute. I applied to NYU with an aim for both Sociology and Linguistics, with some Nursing classes thrown in for good measure, hoping that learning more about such would help me guide my healing. Darcy decided to go for Political Sciences, hoping for a Master in Arts of Politics later on. The real surprise was seeing my love filling an application for Law in the same University. After much thinking it over he'd decided not to even try going back to Asgard, even though we were all sure he was ready for it.
"I… Nightingale..." His voice broke as he tried to explain it to me, tears clogging his throat. "They don't remember me love, not the real me. They do not know you beyond the legend that has been shaped since your loss. I cannot go back to that, back to pretending that you don't exist, that you're not at the very core of me, everything that's good and pure in me… and I especially cannot go back to just being Odin's second son, the trickster prince… I'm more than that, I am Loki Silvertongue, Sky-Treader, I am mischief and lies and magic and chaos… I am also ice, the youngest prince of Jotunheim, an illegitimate son I might be, but of the royal line nonetheless. I cannot un-know all that, Nightingale; cannot pretend like I am any less than what I am… I cannot do it, please don't make me."
"I will never make you do anything you don't want to, my Maverick." I promised him, holding him as tight as my body was able. "Ever. If you wish not to go back, that is your choice to make. I will support you."
"So we'll do this then?" Darcy called from the door.
No comment was made about how long she'd been there, the things she might have heard. In the year we'd known one another she had become as good as our sister, and we loved her as such. Almost as much as we'd once loved Sif (and that was yet another loss we both mourned).
"We'll do this." I agreed.
The plan was fairly easy. Go to NYU, get one or two Master Degrees, and then work together, in Mutant Relations. We knew it wouldn't be easy, it would put us in the spotlight in ways most of us weren't fully comfortable with. But someone needed to do it, and while both Professor Xavier and Dr. Grey did a good job when they had to do it, it was dangerous. If enough people turned against them, they could also end up turning against the Institute… there was a reason why Dr. McCoy was only a guest lecturer; he spent most of his time lobbying in favor of mutants. And he did a wonderful job; I still believed we could do more, we only needed the tools to understand the world we lived in, the laws, the people… and that was why we'd chosen the subjects of studies we had. It was likely some people wouldn't like it, but we weren't the kind who gave up, no matter how hard things got.
xXx
All in all, I had no idea just how hard things could get. We spent four years at NYU, with little to no free time, signing up for as many classes per term as we could in order to finish our studies. We came on the other side completely exhausted, though also quite satisfied. A number of offers were made to us, some even knocked at our door (we'd decided to rent together an apartment to be closer to the school, and put some distance between us and the Institute, just in case). We turned them all down, having already made our own plans.
There was a meeting of World Leaders that would be taking place sometime in late May or so of the following year, and that was our end game. But first we needed to get our ticket there. Dr. McCoy gave us a hand to start, put us in contact with other lobbyists, and people he knew were in support of mutants. It didn't take us long to realize that just lobbying, talking to important people wasn't enough, there had to be other ways of making a difference. And then it happened, we were in a support meeting and heard about a young man who'd just lost his job, simply because his daughter was a mutant and he wasn't ashamed of it. Before I knew what was going on Darcy was offering our services to him. We agreed of course.
By the end of the month Mr. Andrews had his job back, his boss had been fined and we had half a dozen cases more, and they kept coming. Luka gave his services as lawyer pro-bono (not like we needed the money, really), Darcy worked on PR for us and the mutants (mostly putting things on the internet, calling people's attention to groups' and individuals' plights, it worked). I worked on mediating between the two sides: humans and mutants. With human parents who had mutant children, couples, friends, colleagues, everything that was necessary.
The three of us were publicly known as mutants: Maverick, Wallflower and Canary they called us. The first known for his tricks, which some compared to a magician's, though with him you'd never be able to see the 'trick'; Wallflower had a knack for going unnoticed; while I was known for having a nearly hypnotic voice and light illusions. We downplayed our gifts, a lot and we knew it, but it was easier to deal with humans (especially the kind who either didn't like or didn't trust mutants) when they believed our mutations to be innocuous, not dangerous at all.
Finding myself pregnant before the end of that first summer was an unexpected, though not at all unwelcome development. It didn't even slow us down that much. I went to doctor appointments as needed and while my white-blood cell count was cause for concern (my doctor couldn't understand how I was living like one in remission, when I so obviously wasn't; the cancer was there, yet I was quite clearly alive and having little trouble), but we handled it.
Six months after beginning we were more than a little famous. It had gotten us a few enemies, of course. Like Senator Kelly, the staunchest supporter of the Registration Initiative or, as some were beginning to call it, the Mutant Registration Act. I hated it, SHIELD and its Index was bad enough; they went after enhanced mainly, and sometimes managed to land an actual gifted. I wasn't sure if they didn't go after mutants because they didn't really have the ability to identify them, or if they feared the consequences. Magneto's Brotherhood was relatively well-known, after all, though they didn't act out as often as they had back in the sixties and seventies (either that or whatever they were doing in recent years was the kind of thing the government would rather keep on the down-low); and Professor Xavier was no pushover either.
Practically from the start of my pregnancy (certainly from the first night I knew for sure I was pregnant) I began having dreams. Half of them showed me what I somehow knew was our baby, in the future: she was petite, with skin like strawberries and cream, long dark mahogany hair in waves, and eyes that seemed to go from the warmest brown I'd ever seen to an intense mix of red, orange and black that seemed to shift like a living flame. Some of the glimpses I got of her future showed her surrounded by fire, flames dancing around her, upon her, yet never really burning her. In a couple of them she wasn't alone, standing beside a tanned young man, with eyes like steel and platinum blonde hair with brunette roots (it always seemed to be wind-swept). I couldn't know for sure, of course, but an instinct inside told me that my daughter and that young man were as connected as Loki and I were to each other.
The other half of my dreams managed to be even more cryptic: there was a young version of the Professor, some younger than others, the youngest version of him actually walked! I'd never asked how he'd ended in a wheelchair, hadn't dared; but from the first time I had a dream of him standing… running, I just knew whatever had brought that loss couldn't be good. And it wasn't even just him, there was a man, he seemed to be very close to the Prof… Charles (I couldn't help but see the youngest version of him as Charles, rather than the Professor), especially in the oldest flashes, Charles called him Erik, and it took me a ridiculous amount of time before I realized that he was none other than Magneto! And suddenly the tension between those two and their factions took an entirely new dimension!
In March we found ourselves in the middle of a very intense, and not a little tense debate. Only Darcy and I were there that day, Luka was in court, fighting a high-profile murder case where the accused, a mutant woman, had drove half a dozen people to suicide through psychic harassment and near torture; the reason? Those same people had done everything from physical abuse to rape and one near-murder of young mutants and never been prosecuted due to lack of 'undeniable proof'. It was a delicate case, we all knew Rachel (the accused) would be sent to jail, we were doing our best to avoid the death penalty, and to use her case as proof so other instances of abuse and crimes against mutants would not be so easily dismissed. She knew the odds and had agreed completely with the plan.
It was how Darcy and I ended being the only ones present that day in City Hall. Senator Kelly was presenting (not for the first time) his initiative for a Mutant Registration Act, and we were there as his opposition. Darcy was the one actually on the floor, fighting back each and every argument Kelly took, I was on the edge, ready to help in case it was necessary. Sometimes my mere presence helped, I was a well-known figure after all. Pro-mutant, married to a very gifted man (it'd been a bit of trouble, when it came out just what age I was when we got married, but in the end the law was on our side) nearly eight months pregnant with a baby that no one doubted would be gifted as well, and with a following of my own.
On the other side of the 'political arena' stood Senator Kelly's PA, as well as his bodyguard (for all intents and purposes I did the work of Darcy's PA, and it was known we needed no bodyguard though my husband at times played the part). The most interesting part was that I was sure of several things regarding the two on the opposite side from me: they knew each other, not just that, they were deeply connected, partners in the job (which meant she was probably a bodyguard as well, meant to act as a last-line of defense) and quite possibly personally as well; but the one that stayed with me the most was that I was quite sure those two were mutants…
I was still pondering that over when closing arguments took place. No decisions would be made that day, though there were rumors about there being some form of voting soon to decide what would be done. We could only hope Darcy's words had had an effect. I'd just gotten on my feet and was considering talking to the presumed mutants on the other side (I was quite sure Kelly was unaware of their status, and did not want to make things harder for them) when all hell broke lose without a warning.
It was insane, I hadn't been in such a battle since a lifetime prior (and that had been an epic battle where I'd lost my two dearest mortal friends of the time). I wasn't ready. My specialty laid in a bow and arrows, or throwing knives, and I'd neither available to me in that moment; and I had to be careful with calling on too much magic, as my baby needed it to survive, and I wouldn't put her at risk, no matter what, not when I… when we finally had a chance at getting her back. For that same reason ice magic was a no-no in that moment.
The two bodyguards soon revealed themselves and it was like I suspected, they were both mutants, and Kelly had had no idea (the look of shock in his face when he realized it… when they used their gifts to save his life…). Darcy was quite skilled at keeping herself safe and I focused mostly on keeping a half-moon shield before me in order to keep the aggressors at bay. I was quite enthralled by the battle, which was probably why I never sensed the person coming at me from behind, not until a flash of pain came and consciousness deserted me.
xXx
I regained awareness before proper consciousness. There was a voice calling me and I tried to respond, not quite noticing at first that I was doing so in a number of languages that weren't English, or that the voice was inside my own head in the first place. My match was calling to me, through our soul-bond…
*'m a'right…* I muttered mentally, not quite coherent just yet.
*My Nightingale!* Loki exclaimed, obvious relief coming from him.
*Yes my love, I'm here.* I finally began processing things properly. *I know not yet where it is I am exactly, but I am alright, as is our Little Rose.*
*I can use our bond to track you, Darcy and I will be there to get you...* He was immediately formulating a plan.
*No!* I refused unexpectedly (even for me). *I… I promise I'm alright. I think… I think I need to stay here.* I could feel a sense of urgency, the same that colored the background of every X-Men dream I'd had in recent months. *I cannot explain it right, but I believe there's something I must do while here. Something related to the dreams I've been having, about Charles and Erik...*
*You mean Magneto…*
*I mean Erik Lehnsherr.* I made a pause, struggling with finding the right words to express my thoughts, my feelings on the matter, in the end all that came out was: *They're a match.*
It was almost curious, because I hadn't actually known that for a fact, not until that moment. I'd had nothing but suspicions with the traces of a bond I kept perceiving in those dreams/visions, something that at times looked almost like an immaterial ribbon formed of multi-colored light… in that moment they were not suspicions, I knew the truth behind the words I'd just pronounced, knew it instinctively and without an ounce of proof. It was insane. Though no less true.
My Maverick trusted me, and so he stayed away. Turned his full attention to his case, allowing me to turn my own to my own surroundings (though I know that if, at any point, he'd reason to believe the baby and/or I might be in danger he'd drop everything and be by our side as fast as magically possible).
The first thing I became aware of was arguing, apparently some of the people around me didn't agree with those who'd decided abducting me was a good idea. I didn't even need to open my eyes to know who all I was hearing, their identities came to me after moments of hearing their voices: Sabretooth (a feral, blood-thirsty, hardly in control, he'd once been a good man but there was no way of knowing how much of Victor Creed still existed in him), Toad (once a good boy, got hurt one too many times, leaving an unfeeling creature in its place), Mastermind (his main ability was to create complex telepathic illusions, he was also a sociopath, incapable of even the simplest human emotion), Destiny (a blind precog, she'd never been seen actively participating in the Brotherhood's activities, yet she was very much a part of their organization), Magnetrix (grown up as an orphan, she was in fact Magneto's illegitimate daughter and appeared to share all his abilities, though to a lesser degree, she lived to make him proud), Mystique (the best mutant shape-shifter ever known, she was also once Raven Xavier, Charles's little sister…) and finally there was Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr, Max Eisenhardt, Magnus… I'd seen so much of him I couldn't help but feel like I knew him already).
"The lady's awake..." Destiny announced in a soft but powerful voice, I also didn't miss the accent, the certain cadence, so much like that of other precogs I'd known a life prior…
I didn't say anything to that, just opened my eyes slowly, taking in the people in the room. I was sitting on a simple chair, held to it with seamless bonds that had obviously been put in place by either Magneto or his daughter. The chair was hard and somewhat uncomfortable, but aside from that things weren't too bad, so I made no complaint, just waited in silence for one of them to say something and get the ball rolling.
"Who are you?" Mystique finally asked, cold and hard.
Her tone did not affect me, I could sense it was nothing but armor, I could almost visualize the little, innocent, kind girl she'd once been, hiding beneath lawyers of ice and steel and poisonous spikes. A part of me hurt for that little girl, even though I knew there was nothing I could do about it, about her.
"Silbhé Arianna Kinross Salani-Hvedrungr." I gave them my full name.
"Not your slave name, your real one." She spat at me.
"I am no slave." I informed her with my head held high and narrowed eyes. "That is my name and it always will be." I made a pause before compromising. "If you're interested in knowing what other mutants call me, it's Canary. Though I'm sure everyone here knows that already."
"Yes." She hissed. "I'm aware who you say you are, what you claim to be… Liar!"
That one took me by surprise, enough to make me blink, though I did not flinch back, even when she got into my personal space, which I was sure was her intention.
"Excuse me…?" I asked, tilting my head to a side.
"We know you're not a mutant." Destiny explained from behind her. "Your blood tests show no X-gene, no mutation whatsoever..."
My brows arched enough they probably went into my hairline at that. Since there was no doctor among them, that meant they hadn't conducted the tests right then (also, genetic test was not done in a couple of hours, which was more or less how long I'd been unconscious), which meant that they'd gotten that information from someone else. The only blood-tests I'd gotten done away from the Institute in the last… stars-know-how-many years had been during one of my check-ups, my OB/GYN… I did not like the implications of that.
"That my blood shows no traditional mutations, doesn't automatically mean there are no mutations there at all." I replied evenly.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" She demanded.
For a moment I was sure she would strike me and then…
"Mystique!" With a single word, Magneto stopped her, then he turned his attention towards me. "We will discover your secrets, Ms. Canary."
"Perhaps." I shrugged, careless. "Though I do wonder how you'll know when you have. How will you recognize the answers, when you don't even know the questions?"
It probably wasn't the bed idea, antagonizing them, all of them really, like that, but I just couldn't help myself. Besides, I wasn't the kind to act the part of quiet, intimidated prisoner, no way!
Thankfully none of them took it personally, if anything they seemed to see it as a challenge. I answered all questions they made about my job, the things all three of us did, and was quite sincere when explaining why we did not care about getting paid for what we did. I also had no compunction about admitting to having been in the Institute, even if just for a year, that I knew I wasn't a mutant, though I refused to tell them what I was exactly (other than I wasn't human, not completely), I admitted that I downplayed my powers, all three of us did, but wouldn't tell them what all I could do (and surprisingly enough no one insisted on that).
"I really don't understand." Mystique admitted hours later. "You have all these ideas, about changing things, about making them better… why the hell would you ally yourself with someone like Xavier?"
I bit my lip at my first response, I wasn't sure if anyone other than Magneto, and possibly Destiny, knew about her connection to Charles, and had a feeling it might not be the best idea to bring it up. So instead I took a different approach:
"You know what I've never understood about your modus operandi?" I asked in turn. "What makes you think that killing people will make people take your side?" I raised a hand before anyone could interrupt me. "Lets break it down, shall we? First you're going to tell me that you don't need humans taking your side, but truth is that more than half of the inhabitants of this world are human, and even from the other half, not all are mutants; and most of them are way too young to make a difference in any way that counts." I shook my head. "Pushing that thought aside for now. You cannot really get rid of all the humans, it's unfeasible; and even if it were somehow possible, do you honestly think it'll help you, to commit genocide to that level?"
"It's survival of the fittest." Sabretooth hissed.
"Yeah, until it gets you killed." I deadpanned. "Now, consider this. Some of you might have been born to mutant parents, but I'm willing to bet most of you were born to humans. Now, you might not like your families, and there might even be a good reason for that, but have you considered all the mutants that will never have the chance to be born if you actually manage to annihilate all of the baseline humans? And what about those mutants whose human families do love them, support them, would fight for them? Do they deserve to die to? And do you think those mutants would thank you for killing people they loved simply because they did not share a genetic mutation?"
"What? Are you going to tell us a sob story about your family now?" Mystique challenged.
"I have no need for it." I answered calmly. "My mother has been dead since I was three, my father lives in Europe, I haven't had hardly any contact with him since I first attended the Institute, he doesn't know I'm gifted, never cared to find out. Aunt Kathryn does know, she supports me, it was actually her idea that I attend the Institute, she met Professor Xavier back in the eighties." I made a pause, then added. "And yes, she's human."
No one said a word to that, though I didn't know if it was because they didn't care for what I was saying, if they didn't believe me, or if I was getting through to them.
The conversation ended there with them. I didn't actually have to stay in that chair. I was allowed more or less free-reign in the house where we were staying, though I still had a seamless metal bracelet around my wrist (the one without the deamarkonian), which I imagined Magneto and Magnetrix used to keep track of me.
The deamarkonian was a source of curiosity for both mutants with magnetic abilities, same with my nightingale pendant. Apparently they could sense the metal in both, yet they couldn't actually manipulate them, which made Magneto very interested, while it seemed to drive Magnetrix more than a little crazy.
I checked in with my love mentally thrice a day so he didn't worry. He had no idea why I hadn't left yet; he knew I was quite capable of it, I didn't know how to explain myself, other than say I needed to be there for something. Something was coming, and I needed to be there to help when the time came…
xXx
Three days later things were getting more than a little boring. All kinds of questions had been asked, some repeatedly, and while I answered a lot of them, I still refused to give them some of the answers, and it drove them all crazy. Yet even Sabretooth didn't dare try anything against me, apparently my being pregnant was enough of a deterrent, somehow.
There was only one person I knew for a fact did not want me there, she loathed me, in fact, I could sense it (It'd been quite disconcerting, as I'd never felt such negative emotions directed at me). She hadn't been there when I'd first woken up, though my unborn baby's precognitive gift told me that she was known as Blindspot and I had no idea what her gift was, other than it was psychic. She could not read my mind or anything, though she was still quite angry at me for reasons beyond me. She also cared very little for my baby and had tried to convince Sabretooth more than once that I should be killed. I had a feeling that she was going to be a real problem sooner or later; yet I had no idea just how much.
In any case, that particular day there had been very few questions, it seemed that no one knew quite what to say or ask anymore, so I was mostly left alone. I was beginning to get tired more easily than before, and my back ached. Pregnancy wasn't easy, especially with my body already being so small, and my baby more than human. I'd taken to sitting on a window-seat that overlooked the country-side. I had no idea where we might be but I didn't focus on that. I didn't actually notice when I began singing, it was something that just happened sometimes with me:
"Uh..."
"Cannot swallow the soil, make it all beautiful?
Cannot carry you, carry you, carry you now?"
"The truth can't bare the sunlight
You're afraid for the day it does
Hell when I told you so
I got burn, burn, burned again"
"Heaven forbid that my heart is for sale
Hope in the end truth prevails"
"I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Feel that I'm gonna get home if I try
I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Need to find my way home, home"
"Uh..."
"He earns fire as a god, but I believed in your heart
And I'll be leaving you, leaving you, leaving you now"
"The truth can't bare the sunlight
And don't pretend to be my guide
You said you'd change it over
But I got burn, burn, burned instead"
"Heaven can wait 'cause my soul is for sale
Hope in the end truth prevails"
"I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Feel that I'm gonna get home if I try
I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Need to find my way home, home"
"Home..."
"I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Feel that I'm gonna get home if I try
I'm gonna run to the edge of the world
Run to the edge of the world
Need to find my way home, home"
"Just to fall out,
No more rain
Once upon a time"
I was so lost in my own melody I didn't sense the danger until it was practically upon us already:
"BEWARE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, putting all the force of my magic behind my voice and that single word.
Almost everyone responded to my scream instinctively, throwing themselves to the ground or behind something that might serve as a shield. I didn't have time to go anywhere, so I dropped to my knees and curled up as tightly as I could, trying to clear the window. There was an explosion that blew it up and I could feel the glass slipping across my skin leaving no marks thanks to all the protective spells on my nightingale pendant.
*Nightingale!* Loki yelled mentally, having sensed the change in my situation.
*We're being attacked.* I informed him succinctly as I waited for what might be coming next. *Military, probably black ops… I don't think this is a sanctioned move.*
*It cannot be.* My husband agreed. *With everything going on in the Senate the government wouldn't want to provoke the Brotherhood into acting out precisely now. The last thing we need is to go back to the tensions there were between humans and mutants in the seventies.*
I knew he was right, which meant that the current situation was probably more dangerous than it would have been otherwise.
*I'm on my way love.* He assured me.
I knew he'd be, and he wouldn't be arriving alone, which meant I only needed to make sure the Brotherhood lasted for a few minutes, and that things didn't go to hell in that same time.
It wasn't easy. The group attacking us had cut off the power and phone lines, had even had time to set up a perimeter which included traps fixed so we couldn't run away. And we were forced to leave the house when the use of rocket launchers meant it was likely to fall on our heads at any given moment.
Magneto was furious, in between using his abilities to attack the black ops and keep his team safe he kept yelling at Destiny for not having warned him about our predicament. That worried me too. After months getting precognitive dreams or sometimes just instincts, something so huge happening and me not knowing about it wasn't exactly normal. Much like the attack that left me unconscious in the first place…
It took several very long minutes, but Magneto and Magnetrix together managed to disable the weapons from the military. Some thought that meant we'd won… and then Toad fell, with a bullet to his forehead. A plastic bullet.
Curses flew all around, even I couldn't help but do the same. The Brotherhood closed ranks and somehow (not sure how, exactly) I ended in between them. They might not have been the heroes, but they weren't villains either, and I was a pregnant woman, a gifted pregnant woman, at least some of them wished to protect me.
I wasn't that surprised to not see Blindspot among them, though a corner of my mind told me that was but a sign of something bigger, something that was there, that should be obvious, and yet somehow I failed to grasp it…
"Why the hell didn't we see this coming?!" Mystique practically snarled.
And then the answer came, in the most unexpected manner… at the same time the 'obvious' hit me with the force of a sledgehammer: with Blindspot walking forth from the row of black ops, dressed in fatigues, and carrying one of their plastic guns.
"Surprise..." She drawled.
There was so much hate in her, anger and a dark glee… I almost felt sick.
*Hold on!* My match's sudden announcement made me sway for a second. *We're coming!*
They'd be arriving in a few seconds… though it took me less than one to realize we didn't have that time. I made up my mind then.
"My match's coming." I said quietly to the mutants closest to me. "Don't kill him, please."
I went into motion at the same time as Blindspot gave the order for all the soldiers flanking her to shoot us. No one suspected what I was about to do, or so I suspect, as no one tried to stop me until it was already too late. I stepped out of the circle even as I twisted my fingers, tracing symbols in the air, stopping a couple of steps ahead of the Brotherhood at the same time as I slammed my open palms against the air, as if there was something there.
"Algiz!" I cried out, calling on as much magic as I could, willing my magic to follow my wishes, to form a dome rather than the simpler half moon shield I was used to.
For a moment the sound of shooting drowned everything: the cries of those in the Brotherhood who seemed to be honestly shocked by my actions, and those either furious or terrified at the attack… and then they realized that the bullets weren't touching any of us. Pinging almost harmlessly against the translucent lilac-ish dome before me, right where my hands were braced.
"What the… What is this?" Magnetrix asked in wonder.
"Magic." I deadpanned.
It took almost a full minute, but eventually the shooting stopped. I'd felt each and every bullet, like a pin-prick against my skin. I'd probably have some minor bruises where I'd been hit most, but nothing to really worry about. Still, I just knew a shield wouldn't be enough, not in the long run, especially if they brought out high-caliber weapons. I'd to stop that from happening, had to give my love time to get through the Shadow Paths and to me.
I made the decision in a second, twisting my wrists around, pulling my arms to me and then throwing them out again in a sharp motion, as if I were throwing something hard. The effect was instantaneous: we all heard the shield breaking, like glass shattering, except that the metaphorical pieces didn't fall upon us, instead they were thrown out, straight at the black ops team, like a sort of shockwave. None of them saw it coming.
I knew it wouldn't kill them, wouldn't even take them out for long, but it would give us time, and that was all that was really needed… still, it happened to be more magic that I'd used since the end of my first trimester; I wasn't surprised when I began swaying. The last thing I was aware of was the change in the air around me as my love appeared a couple of feet away from me, he wasn't alone, and it wasn't even just our sister; two more were with him, wild fighters both of them. Their names came to my head unbidden: Wolverine and Rogue. And then I blacked out.
xXx
Pain woke me. I discovered I was in the hospital, and right in the middle of labor. Apparently the excessive use of my magic had put my body in enough stress that my baby decided it was time to be born. I nearly went into a panic attack at that. The thought that my choices might have hurt my baby, that my desire to help others might end up with me losing my unborn child, again, it was almost too much. And then my match was there, holding me tight, whispering reassurances into my ear in every language I knew.
It took a while but eventually I managed to calm down. I wasn't quite eight months pregnant but my doctor had already checked me over and she was confident that the baby was fully formed and quite capable of surviving if born. She might need a few days in an incubator, but even that was unlikely. And so I began pushing.
At 1:15 of the morning of March 20th, 2012, Rose Alfdis Salani-Hvedrungr was born. She was small, so rosy she looked almost red, with delicate-looking tiny curls of bright auburn hair (which I knew would darken with time) and big red-orange-black eyes that shifted in a way that could only be defined as magical. She was utterly perfect.
"Little Rose..." I breathed out as the baby was placed in my arms. "Our precious little miracle..."
My love did not say a word, he just looked at us with so much love in his eyes and in his heart, I felt like I could drown in it. It was breathtaking.
Despite being born six weeks early Rose did not need more than a night in an incubator, and even that was done just in case, as there was no problem with her. And then the surprises began:
First was the basket full of tiny roses in every shade of pink and white, along with some baby's breath and other smaller flowers as a finishing touch. The card was a generic 'Congratulations for your new baby...' the only handwritten thing was the signature and it read: RK. Even with no proof I'd very strong suspicions what that meant and I couldn't quite believe it.
It only got more unreal when the news showed footage from a live press-conference Senator Kelly was giving, in which he announced he no longer supported the MRA, in fact he was to soon begin working with several pro-mutant groups, including our little firm, in search of better rights for the Community.
"It'd seem that having mutants protect him put things into perspective." Darcy commented.
I just hoped the development would make things easier for us. Really, Kelly had been the only important politician pushing for the MRA, which might just mean that without him it'd fall to the side. Loki, Darcy and our new friends had managed to control themselves enough that almost no one from the black ops group that attacked us died; there was also enough proof of their actions, both in the auditorium where the debate had been taking place, and the safe-house in New Jersey where I'd spent three days with the Brotherhood.
Really, only three people had died from that attack: Toad, none of us had been able to do anything. Blindspot, my match had killed her, having learned that she was the one responsible for me being involved in the mess at all (she had put not just me but our baby in danger, I might not like killing, but I understood why it sometimes might be necessary, and nothing would ever make me turn my back on my love). The other was the man behind the whole operation: Colonel William Stryker, the men arrested had given his name up but by the time a team went to arrest him he was already dead, killed savagely. Those investigating the matter believed he'd been murdered by one of the mutants he'd been trying to brainwash, after he or she managed to break free. At least that was one less thing to worry about.
The last surprise was even bigger, and one none of us could have ever expected: I had Rose in my arms, with a thin blanket partially covering her face to let her sleep and not overwhelm her with the sights and smells and sounds of the city. We'd just stepped out of the taxi when we found someone waiting for us just outside the apartment building.
"Hello Mr. Lehnsherr." I greeted him with a nod of my head before my love could say a thing.
I didn't miss the way his eyes went straight to the baby in my arms, even mostly hidden as she was beneath the off-white blanket.
"Mazel tov." He murmured automatically.
"Thank you." I inclined my head at him again. "Would you like to come in?"
Even without the precognitive gift Rose had allowed me while inside me I couldn't miss the rush of emotion that passed through Magneto's eyes in the space of one blink. The mix of confusion, surprise, disbelief, and nestled in between all those, a tiny spark of hope.
"I would not want to inconvenience you Mrs. Hvedrungr." He told me politely.
"It's no inconvenience." I pressed a bit. "Come with me."
My Maverick said nothing, just opened the door for us and went straight to get some tea done. He knew I wouldn't be letting go of Rose for a while yet. Not for any negative reason, but simply because a part of me felt a need to be holding her, to make sure she was still there, that I hadn't lost her again, like so many years prior… As for Lehnsherr. I believe my match saw himself in the man, saw a shadow of what he could have been, in different circumstances. We were so very lucky, the two of us; even with my past death and long absence, we'd found each other again, he'd been willing to give up Asgard and I was willing to give up the life I once thought I wanted, all to stay together. Our love was stronger than anything else that could have pulled us apart. I knew not everyone was so fortunate. Aunt Kathryn hadn't been (I knew not the details, only that something had happened in the past, when I was still an infant, a decision had been made, by her and the man she loved, and it had pulled them apart); and then there were Charles and Erik…
The two of them were a match, I had no doubt about that; and yet for more than fifty years, their ideologies had been stronger than their love for each other… I couldn't fathom it, couldn't imagine anything ever being stronger than my love for Loki. And yet, they were still alive, and as long as that remained true, there was hope, hope that one day they might learn to see the world through the other's eyes, see themselves as the other saw them, and compromise… who knew? Maybe that day was closer than even I expected.
"I'm leaving the country tonight." Erik announced after what seemed like forever.
I didn't say anything, waiting for him to get to the point. And he did, pulling an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket, which he passed on to me.
"I was hoping you would be so kind as to deliver that to Ch… your Professor." He said simply.
I didn't ask why he didn't do the delivery himself, I could still see inside my mind, like pieces of a puzzle, the memories/visions I'd been having, about him and Charles. The last time the two of them had said goodbye, Charles had wanted so much for Erik to stay… but Erik still believed in his cause so much, and he also believed that his presence would only put the Institute, and Charles himself, in even more danger.
"You didn't ask how I did the things I did that day in Jersey?" I commented in what most would have considered a complete non-sequitur.
"I didn't ask why you didn't leave the moment you woke up, though we both know you could have." He said for all answer.
Yeah, we were both aware that there was a lot more to my powers than most would assume by my code-name alone, and it wasn't just me.
"There's one thing I do want to know." He said unexpectedly. "That song you sang that day, just before the attack. Why did you do it?"
I heard the question he wasn't asking as well, it was so clear on his face: What did you do to me?
"It just… it felt right." I shrugged, mostly to myself. "It's just something that happens sometimes. I need to get my feelings out, or someone else's and I sing about them."
"Someone else's feelings..." He repeated, as if only then realizing it. "You're an Empath."
"Among other things." I admitted with no hesitation.
"You took a great risk, revealing as much of your power as you did, that day." Erik said.
"I did what was right." I replied simply.
For several minutes none of us said a word, we just kept sipping at the tea Loki had prepared. Surprisingly enough it was my love who broke the silence eventually.
"So that's it then?" He asked, brow arched. "You finally got the government on your side, and the greatest threat against mutants is gone, and you will just walk away? Give up? I expected more of the man who many believe is meant to one day lead the Mutant Community..."
I could sense the shifting emotions coming from Erik. They were so strong, almost wild. It was a wonder they didn't drive him crazy. It took seemingly forever for him to settle but when he did… I looked into his eyes and saw the man that had one day rose his hand and stopped a hundred nuclear missiles in their tracks…
"What do you propose then Mr. Hvedrungr?" The mutant finally asked.
"Trust me." My husband answered honestly. "I will take your case."
And so we got involved in what would probably become the most insane case of our careers…
So... what do you think? Am I crazy or what?
This AU has three parts and, as always, will be updated every other week. Also as always, full sized poster/cover and a set of wallpapers can be found in my DeviantArt account, I go by Princess-Lalaith there.