Hi again! So, so, so sorry this update came late. I've been catching up on this story for a couple of weeks now so I'm not too overwhelmed! Hope you guys understand and thanks so much for the favs and follows so far!

Enjoy chapter four!

chapter four – code red

"It hurts all over."

Raven gently rubbed over her shoulder, leaning in to kiss her temple, "How's the healing coming along?"

She shrugged, "Slowly but surely.."

Alex walked past, stained in her blood and it took her hours to realize. She had been in and out

daze in result of so much blood loss.

"Thank you." She spoke softly to him, but he was so confused by the gesture.

"Why are you thanking me? We should be thanking you, you nearly died trying to avenge Darwin." Alex replied.

Eveline slowly shook her head, reaching an affectionate hand out to hold his jacket-sleeve, "I couldn't have done it without all of you. Having someone to fight for makes being what I am...so much more worth it."

Charles and Eric suddenly popped up into their purview, looking over the children with such fright and horror, at them and the scene around them. Alex was up and moving towards them half way but stopped at the last second to look back over his shoulder at everyone. All emotionally spent and exhausted.

"I arranged for all you to be sent home immediately." Charles ordered.

"No." Sean rejected.

Charles gave him a stern look to defend his answer. "Alex is not going back to jail." Sean said.

"You can't send me back to them," Eveline piped up, trying to fight the tears building in her eyes, "They'll kill me for being a failed test subject."

Raven spoke with a tremor in her voice, "Charles, Darwin is dead and...we can't even bury him."

"Eveline protected us while you were out in Russia hunting this Sebastian Shaw character." Alex spat, "He was here throwing Eve around like a damn ragdoll, breaking and testing every nerve and bone in her body. She fought for us while you two were chasing shadows."

The young woman struggled to stand, being assisted by Hank and Raven at her sides, taking hesitant steps towards them to try and buy some sympathy, "I can only feel what pain he has caused you, Erik. When I first touched your mind...I couldn't fathom what I saw and for that I am deeply sorry but if he is what you want us to go against, it's going to take a lot more than your blind hatred for him and Charles's need to send us away because of this."

"We're not afraid. We're unprepared and throwing us away won't help anyone."

Eveline took a deep breath, trying to ignore the sudden rush of pain surging through her body before being sat down again, "I've never seen power like his before. If he can so effortlessly throw me around, break me over and over...then my training the last four years has amounted to nothing."

"That is all the more reason you all should go home."

"So Alex and I just rot in a cell for the rest of our lives, even if I'm that lucky?" she merely whispered, "I may have a human who cares for me, but there is nothing in his power he can do to save me from being exterminated."

Erik registered her pleas, as well as everyone else's, taking them into consideration, "We can avenge him, as well as everyone else who died in result."

Now, Charles was realizing that he was right. There couldn't be anything they wanted more than to fight, to avenge, "We will have to train. All of us. Yes?"

Eveline smiled so...graciously at the both of them for this chance.

"Well we can't stay here, even if they reopen the department it's not safe. We got nowhere to go."

Charles smiled lightly, nodding his head, "Yes we do."

Eveline tilted her head to the side to crack what wasn't broken, sighing in relief to feel her neck loosen up. Charles and Erik still had their sights on Eveline, seeing what hell she had brought to protect them all, at most. What they hadn't realized was she alone could lose her control, and everyone would pay the price for it.

:::

Piling out of the car, sort of leaving some rubbed in blood stains against the fabric of the seating. Eveline had a weak smile looking up towards..this castle of a home. It was a Victorian mansion; the building was made of tan stone. All the walls were capped with stone rail work, ending in points at corners. The windows were tall, and though they were narrow there were so many they seemed broad. The grounds would have fit at least a dozen more of the mansions.

"Is this yours?" Sean asked in surprised.

"No. It's ours." Charles replied with a warm smile on his lips.

Eveline looked about the land, the home, unable to process just how lucky Charles was. Perhaps still is, "You grew up here?"

"I don't know how he handled such hardships," Erik snorted.

Raven couldn't help but chuckle, "Hardships that were softened by me."

"You were here...the whole time."

It was the unbearable sorrow in her voice that made Raven regret ever saying a word. She couldn't face her after that comment, but she could only hope for the chance of a proper explanation...for abandonment.

Raven simply cleared her throat, trying to change the subject, "Let's start the tour."

"Before we get to that–" Alex interrupted, holding Eveline up as best as he could to keep her from face planting, "Does anyone know how to stitch?"

Seeing both men had completely forgotten about her injuries, Charles and Erik's concern spiked, they couldn't have her bleeding all through the halls. Not at this time, at least, "Right, Raven would you mind?"

Once everyone had made it inside, they went their separate ways; Raven heading towards the West wing while Eveline had been led towards the East. More unoccupied bedrooms could be used for fixing her up for the mean while. She didn't speak a word to them as they walked with her, they did offer to lift some of the weight off of her, but she refused. Eveline was walking–well more like staggering–behind them but she made it before collapsing on the bed.

"I want to thank you for all that you had done for them," Charles spoke kindly, feeling her eyes boring into his own.

"Why thank me?" she asked, sitting herself up, "Isn't that what mutants are supposed to do, protect each other at all costs?"

Erik simply nod, "I suppose that's right...we already have the world against us, along with other mutants out to kill us for our cause."

"Did the medical assistance help any?"

She shook her head, "No...I didn't want them near me. I can hardly withstand the pricks of needles and I had already begun healing."

Charles reached a hand out to take ahold of her wrists, pulling them up to see the gashes still open and bleeding, "The medical kit should be in the bathroom, Erik."

"A please would suffice."

"Go, now." he demanded again.

Erik did as told with as much resistance as possible, leaving the two alone to let him examine any other open wounds, "How come these aren't healing."

"My healing factor works one wound at a time. It isn't the best but...it does what it can, stitching it up helps."

"Erik will do his best, needle work isn't my expertise." he said apologetically but it got her to smile.

Eveline reached down to pull her t-shirt from the hem, then over her head to give better access, "I haven't been in this much pain since..."

"Since I left the corp." she whispered, "I nearly died in a gun exercise, four handguns pointed at my head. They all fired at the same time and before I knew it I took one to the back of the head and I stopped three before I hit the ground."

"My doctor...he was–he was so scared of losing me, and I never thought I had that effect on anyone before."

"Are you sure it wasn't a tactic to get you to become more...dependent." Erik intruded, bringing the box of medical supplies back to the bed.

His instigation made her stomach turn, "No, he wouldn't do that. He isn't that shallow of a person, nor would he undermine my trust in him for the sake of his job. He is one the few humans who cares...looks to us like we are exquisite creatures that can't help but pique his interest."

"You say that like he is the only one in the world."

She snorted, "Are you jealous."

Erik then glared deep into her eyes, seeing absolutely no reaction emotion, "On the contrary, I'm annoyed."

"Erik.."

"Looking to a human so highly who, I might add, imprisoned you and used you for the benefit of becoming a weapon of war." he stated rather aggressively, taking Charles's place beside her to begin threading the hooked needle, "I don't see the point, nor do I see a reason to be so...jealous."

"Then I have no reason to continue this bottomless conversation for the simple explanation: you do not understand."

While he might have been right, Erik didn't care. He wasn't going to let the silly love-sick emotions of a mutant, trapped and kept under control, to ruin his initial goal. They were here to help his cause, not the other way around.

"I'll leave you to it and I'll see to it Raven brings you something to wear."

"Thank you.." Eveline merely whispered, trying to focus on the footsteps departing while Erik had refused to warn her of the entrance of the needle.

She gripped the mattress, nails cutting into the bedding once the needle started to move at a steady pace, "Strange to think I can be...flung, stabbed and break nearly every bone in my body but I'm deathly afraid of needles."

"I can understand that." replied Erik, watching her eyes move from the doorway to the inked set of numbers in his forearm.

"That's how you met Shaw.."

He didn't answer, he suspected she was going to catch on further, so it was best to let her find her way, "How did you not kill him for what he had done to you, when you had the pristine opportunity to do so."

Erik exhaled, "I was a boy, I hadn't known the full extent of my powers yet. I was taught to use anger as a source but then, I used my one chance and never found it again until now."

"Fueled by rage." Eveline murmured, taking ahold of her hair to rest it on her opposite shoulder, "As children, Raven went from house to house robbing people blind. She took nearly the entire night to round up enough food for the both of us for a few days before having to go back out there again...when she didn't return I assumed she was caught or killed. Or both."

Then, she looked around the massive bedroom to point out the luxurious attributes, before whispering, "To find out she was living here all these years, it makes me question whether or not I meant anything to her at this point."

"She was the only one who ever truly cared for me and she just...found solitude in Charles instead."

"Maybe it was a wakeup call, letting you know it was time for you to fend for yourself." Erik said, but it wasn't the reaction he expected.

Eveline looked to him with tears in her eyes as everything in the room began to tremble and rise, "If that was the case, an explanation would've sufficed, not leaving me to find out what I could and couldn't do by myself. I killed our mother because I couldn't control what was going on, tore our home in two and watched the neighbors violently hemorrhage right before my eyes."

Suddenly, everything had fallen and either broke or hit the ground in result, "It was always about Raven and will always be about Raven. She's as selfish and spoiled as they come, acting like her gift is an issue where I...I would kill to be anybody but me."

"I can't control what I am. I can't...use my abilities simultaneously against another set of powerful mutants–against one that can absorb energy, no less."

Erik then ceased the threading of the stitch, gazing into her tear-filled eyes to assure, "That is why we are here, to find out the extent and use it. No more shock collars and commands, no punishments and rewards, no deadlines and bids. You have the control, and you use it against those who have made your life miserable from the very beginning."

"That may be your reasoning, but I'm not the type of resolve my past with violence no one can withstand." she murmured.

Eveline uncomfortably rolled her shoulder, being extra careful not to loosen the stitches, to look down to her trembling hands, "The regeneration isn't mine," she whispered, "The snake nest as we called it...they made it possible to extract the DNA of failed subjects and integrate their powers into our genetic makeup. Dear friends were autopsied, had what made them special extracted and-and put into someone else."

This was something that came straight from a nightmare. He was curious what kind of people these were, most importantly how they had advanced in creating the "perfect" mutant through harvesting their powers, "I want them to suffer for it...but I'm not strong enough."

"In due time." answered Erik.

"Eve, I hope you're still my size. I found something as comfortable as possible, made sure it doesn't bug your wounds." Raven's voice carried into the bedroom, but her sister avoided her presence at all cost. And she knew it too.

Eveline simply nodded her thanks before focusing on the various broken artifacts on the floor before hearing the exit, her boots clicking soundly against the hardwood floors, "That was cruel."

"Don't you dare tell me what is and what isn't cruel." she sneered, "I was left alone, she lived in this palace. I hurt people to survive and she bathed in luxury. She had a privilege and I had to salvage. Abandonment is cruel, being angry isn't."

"You seem to have a point."

Erik finished up the last of the stitches, pressing a gauze piece to her shoulder and taping it off to her skin, "Next."

Her arms were now placed in front of her chest, top of her arms facing him while he threaded two needles simultaneously. This one didn't take as long but it hurt just the same, "Why do you so desperately need us to fight your battle."

"Just as you said before, he is too strong. For all of us." he remarked, knotting the last stitch before dressing the wound, "Maybe not for you mind-readers but for us who can't penetrate that muscle, we must resort to our only options."

Eveline let her shoulders slump, pressing her elbows into the tops of her knees as she watched him clean up the mess of blood, "When we find Shaw, what are supposed to do."

"Kill him."

"Splendid." she murmured, taking the clothes Raven left on the foot of the bed to make her way into the bathroom to find herself staring into the mirror. A good, long look and there was nothing that made her stomach turn more than her appearance: sickly pale skin, the scars her weak regeneration left behind, the burn of the shock collar, how from day one she was the healthiest she could have ever been. Now she couldn't recognize herself after the years of "special diets" and food depravity for not following orders.

It was vicious and unnecessary but there was no choice.

Eveline didn't know Erik was there watching, rather he was admiring what she despised with every fiber of her being. He looked her up and down, taking note of every scar that laced her body in a variety of sizes and occurrences. She was burned, cut both surgically and unprofessionally, marked by restraints, and finally the collar that took her ability to live freely. Even now, a forever reminder.

Then, the mirror cracked on her mindless command before she shut the door and locked it, something she didn't think she could ever do.

Privacy came with a catch.

:::

"She hates me, Charles."

"Are you really in a position to blame her?" he asked carefully, going through the myriad of empty bedrooms to clear out and open up the spaces needed, "You abandoned her at seven and left her to figure the world out by herself, during the process of her mutation awakening, no less."

Raven fixed the years' worth of untouched comforters, organizing everything to perfection in the process, "I was going back for her."

"Exactly how many years did you want to wait before doing so?"

it isn't my fault. Raven forced herself to believe that, reciting that meaningless lie over and over until she felt content with herself, "She has been tortured beyond your recognition, yet you expect her to fall back into a place she hasn't been in for the last sixteen years."

A whopping three years Raven had on Eveline but based on a consensus and pure life experience, Eveline was either older beyond her age or had the mind of a child. Simply to broken and to abused to make the difference. "...I don't even know when she started going through her changes. I was young when mine arrived but hers...maybe in the time I was gone and spent here it must've started or...or happened after I left–"

"It happened when I was twelve." the sudden voice flowed into the bedroom, sounding as ominous and empty as well as familiar, "I was scared. I didn't know why the ground started shaking when I was about to cry, why everything was suddenly floating in mid-air, why when mom came into my bedroom with a bad hangover started yelling about them mess – before I knew it there was a spike through her chest because she angered me. I screamed so loud in reaction but that only made it worse, skewer after skewer started darting from the ground and through the roof. Mr. and Mrs. Lynn came by after the panic and with a look, a single look they were on the ground. Blood seeped from every orifice and I didn't know how to make it stop."

"So by definition, it is your fault."

Eveline appeared from the shadows, constricted by the long-sleeved dress with a turtleneck and boots Raven offered. Her near black hair flowed to her waist and her hands linked neatly in front of her, casting this unamused look upon them as she slowly descended into the bedroom, "Perhaps those two innocent people wouldn't have suffered such a gruesome death and well...we both know mother's time was well overdue."

"Of course, I can't blame you forever but if there was a chance that I could've stopped them...if you were considerate enough to think of the only living family that cared for you...maybe I wouldn't have been locked away. My memories would still be intact. We would still be together." she rounded off, looking boredly over the amount of object cluttered in this one bedroom alone, "The butterfly effect is quite fascinating, isn't it."

"Eve I.."

She put her hand up to stop her, straightening herself up to show off the pride she never knew she had, "After we're done with this mission, I want absolutely nothing to do with you. My ability may not be anything close to an oracle, but I can already see where your path is heading ...stupid girl."

Eveline then dismissed herself back out, back to her bedroom to sit in window sill and stare out into the countryside. Not once had she ever remembered being so bold it was borderline rude or disrespectful, but maybe it was Raven's turn for the wake up call.

"That was unnecessary."

"Maybe so," replied Eveline, "It's about time Raven recognizes real tough love and not the simple disappointment you so easily place above her. I know you care for her Charles, deeply in fact, but that shouldn't excuse her from anything she has ever done."

When she faced him, Charles could feel her deep inside his mind, nitpicking what memories to read and others to piece into the picture perfect story of the day he and Raven first met, "It's not like me to want nothing to do with my sister...but to envision her so happy without me makes me forget about the girl I once would have died for."

Then, her presence slowly slipped out and he was free to breathe, "Look inside my memories, find the missing pieces because no matter how hard I try I cannot see anything. I cannot find anything, and I don't know what is real or made up anymore."

Charles tucked his hand away into his trousers, pulling an empty chair to sit beside her and press his fingers to his temple. She willingly let him in. Though, he couldn't explain why digging through her past put an immensely painful strain on his mind.

He must've been pillaging through years' worth of forgotten memories; some were of Eveline and Raven as little girls–both filthy and starving. A passed out drunk mother and an even more careless father. The echoes of fights coming from another room about the girls, what to do with them long before their mutations had ever made themselves known. The liquored-up shouting, cowering children hidden beneath the bed, bottles being thrown around the next room. This was just the beginning.

"Your childhood.."

"It was a doozy, wasn't it." she chuckled humorlessly, wiping away the tears, "I don't remember anything after Raven left. When I woke up in the snake nest.. I get no fragments, no flashbacks, no triggers, nothing."

Eveline leaned so close to the glass she had to press her forehead to the cold, feeling it soothe her overactive mind just a touch, "It's like...they wanted me to forget who I was."

"If that was their goal, they succeeded." he informed her dreadfully, "Past Raven's...voluntary disappearance I can't find anything of your life after."

She squeezed her eyes so tightly the tears still managed to slip out, rolling so hot down her cheeks she couldn't help but wince at the imaginary pain. Eveline then closed off her mind, hearing Charles wince and groan in pain at the sudden cut off, "I don't know what to do, Charles. I'm...I'm missing a chunk of my life and all I could ever ask for was that back.."

"You said something about the walls in the snake nest," he went on, catching her tear-filled eyes almost glimmering with hope, "Did they do more than keep you from connecting with telepaths."

"I–maybe I...I can't think of anything as to why but every time I tried to...remember, at least long distant memories I could never remember."

Eveline pawed at her eyes again, "Not only have they robbed me of my freedom and my sanity, but they also chose to screw with whatever life I had left in me."

"With training, there's a chance you can repair what you had lost."

She looked to him with hope now, with that same child-like fear still overpowering her even at her strongest point, "Do you...do you really think so?"

"Anything is possible if you put your mind to it." he said with a growing smile, reaching a hand out to dry her tears with the back of his knuckles, "I sensed something, even in the blankest part of your mind there was remnants of something there."

Eveline wasn't afraid of putting her trust in him, it would be silly not to. It's the least she could do to progressively give her thanks in a much bigger capacity. To her, everything came with a price and now she was going to pay them back. Whatever it cost them; she will gladly repay it for their tenacity.

But of course, Charles' wandering psyche and Eveline's splintered mind happened to let her plan very noticeable, "You can repay us with your determination to control your mutation. To help our cause."

"By our do you mean yours," she stated, "Or Erik's."

Bit of a short update, this is just a filler I promise they'll get longer and more frequent!

Don't forget to fav/follow/review!

See you next time!