Phoenix
Summary: First there was nothing. Nothing but a heartbeat, and knowing that she was alive. Five days after X-2, a creature wakes in Alkali Lake, but she does not belong in the water
Spoilers: X-1, X-2, arguably Last Stand, but I wrote this before I saw Last Stand, I was just right about a couple of things, but wrong about many more!
Set: Original timeline, five days after X-2
Rating and content warnings: Broadly speaking, a T. But according to the site rules, there are a couple of chapters that ought to push it up to an M. Those chapters will be clearly marked with Trigger Warnings and what they are trigger warnings for. The plot makes sense without them. If you are concerned, please skip. If you would like a one-line summary, please ask. Barring the problematic chapters, it's not a strong T.
Genre: Hurt/comfort/general
Disclaimer: I have no claim to the X-men and anticipate no profit from this. Only the original characters and the plot are mine.
PLEASE NOTE: I am spoiler-sensitive to all films made after 2011. I'm trying really hard not to spoil Logan for myself.
First there was nothing. Nothing but a heartbeat, and knowing that she was alive. Time was meaningless. She knew that her awareness came and went.
Then there was water. Above her, under her, all around her. She clung to the fact that she was alive. She knew she did not belong in the water, but she could not care.
Then, like a sleeper that suddenly reviles the blanket over its head, she kicked out. She did not know how she knew how to swim, she did not ask. She knew that she needed air, as a newborn animal knows it needs milk, without knowing why. Something inside her sounded 'oxygen', 'aerobic respiration', 'sixteen-fold increased efficiency', but they were barely even words.
Her head broke the surface of the water. She gasped. Power rose inside her. Water surged up out of her so that for a moment, she felt like she was drowning. Then she took a breath. Her body flared in to life. She was cold. She was wet. Her clothes were heavy with water. She looked around. The sky was bright gold in behind her, darker in front. She did not belong in the water.
She kicked out and started to swim for the shore, away from the light. Her muscles began to burn. She kept going. Ghosts of trees began to trail at her legs and belly. She kept going. Air tore in to her body, deeper and deeper with every breath. She could feel more of herself. More of her felt cold. She did not belong in the water. She kept going.
Solid ground caught at her feet. She staggered upright. It was growing darker. East. She was facing east. It was even colder in the air than in the water. Her hands and feet were numb. She staggered forwards, through the shallows. She did not belong in the water. Her hands were bright white, so white they didn't blanch further when she pressed on them. She was shivering. The hairs across her skin were standing upright. Vasoconstriction, thermogenesis, piloerection. Words. Words that described what her body was doing to try to save itself. She wrung out her dripping hair and kept walking. She was so cold.
She heard things moving in the darkness now and then, other creatures in the forest. She kept going. Her fists were balled in her armpits. She stumbled over the dark ground because she couldn't see it. But she kept going. As fiercely as she had known she didn't belong in the water, she knew she didn't belong in this forest.
Something ahead of her started towards her. She stopped. The world was unkind to those like her. She shook her hands out and raised them in front of her. The thing before her was gathering speed. She pushed. She pushed against it as though she'd always known how. The great creature stopped, as suddenly as though it had run headlong in to a wall, and tumbled over itself backwards. She lowered her hands, panting. The bear lumbered away in to the darkness, deciding she wasn't worth the effort. Ursus arctos, a grizzly. She kept going.
The sky in front of her was starting to lighten slightly, she thought, when the ground in front of her changed, from rough, needle-strewn forest, to tarmac running across her path. A road. She shrank back in to the shadow of the trees.
"-menace of mutant violence-"
"-enter our minds and take our God given free will-"
"-don't touch me, you freak!"
"Mutie bitch, get out of here!"
The world was unkind to those like her.
But she was freezing. Wet and shivering at this rate, with no source of food, she wouldn't last another night. Hypothermia. Even if it was warmer during the day, she would not survive for long like this. The road was deserted so far as she could see. She looked left and right along it. One answer was right, the other was wrong. Of this she was certain. She leant back against a tree and closed her eyes. She was so tired.
"Oh Phoenix, where are you now?"
She jumped. She turned to her right as though she'd heard a voice. There was nobody there. But she'd heard a voice. A man's voice, low pitched, slow, English. She knew the voice. She looked slowly around again, then turned right along the road. Phoenix. Now she had a name. If she stayed still, she'd chill and die. She kept going.
Please review. I know I'm ten years too late to be writing in this timeframe, so it'd be nice to know if anyone's reading.