Sorry it took so long to put the next Chapter, guys! I've been really busy lately. Anyway, here you get to meet the gypsies better, and a few starts of other things. Mostly planting seeds of what is yet to come in this one.
I do not own X-Men:Evolution or its characters, but Rhianna is mine. All mine. Enjoy!
I opened my eyes to destruction. But it felt more… real… than before. I could feel the heat radiating off of the licking flames on my palms and the bitter chill of the Southern Winds on my cheeks. I could feel the pain as my arms were sliced open from falling steel. The dome was in pieces, shattered and blazing. It was destroyed. I had destroyed it. But how?
I looked around, seeing burnt portions of what looked like clothing. And… skin. I could smell the skin. Shards of glass and metal littered the ground. Two arms wrapped comfortingly around me, and I glanced over to see one of the translucent-skinned gypsies giving me a side hug, wearing a miserable expression. I had destroyed more than just real life. I had destroyed her life. Her misty eyes raked over the devastation, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. It hardened before it hit the floor, bouncing on the ground three times before going still.
The flesh of her body shuddered, her four arms. Its color shifted and wavered until she looked sick. It turned a dark shade of exotic purple. Different. Like I was different. Her tear changed to match the bizarre color of her skin.
"Change." Her voice was choked and bumpy, fighting back the raging torrents of sadness that were no doubt soon to come. "Before it is too late." A picture of Pyro flashed into my mind, laughing like a mad man and swarmed by a tornado of fire. Remy, playing solitaire with so many cards it took up a whole room. Then Piotr, defending whatever passed behind him. It didn't matter who or what they were. Unknown people, flags, celebrations. His heart was strong enough to take the emotional loss, and his body followed suit with the physical.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. It was all my fault. Like always. I turned to face her properly. "Amethyst," I murmured. She nodded.
"In your fate, in your lifetime, change comes with control. Learn to control your mind, and your destiny will change to suit you," The lilac-colored gypsy crooned. We both watched as the world inside of me slowly started rebuilding itself, flames falling back and dying in their ashes, chilly winds warming and disappearing. "If you do not learn control, you will perish. And if you perish, we perish with you. You must learn control."
The Gypsies, the CROWS, Aitor and his demented sister Louhi. Even Abasalom and Ariel. They weren't just my imagination, they were alive. No matter what Magneto said. They thought, they breathed, they spoke. They had a heartbeat. Who was I to steal that away from them?
"I'll… try," I struggled to say, desperately not wanting to disappoint her. But how could I not? Control was a finicky thing. A blue gypsy, Sapphire, came up on my other side.
"Thank you. No matter how hard it seems, you are too proud to give up this fight." Her voice was thick and smooth. Like honey being poured. Slowly.
I felt a force tugging me upward, back to reality, and I gave both Amethyst and Sapphire a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye. I would once again face the unknown. I was lifted through the air, into the bloody sky and out into the bloody world.
"Ugh. I feel like I got hit by a truck," I grumbled. On a metal chair, in a metal dome. What a welcoming. "You people have serious issues with déjà vu." I knew I was grumbling to no one but the air in front of me. Though I pretended to be, I wasn't really upset. Suddenly, I realized that those cold walls and strict tiles were more of a home to me than my house ever was.
I walked boredly through the halls, glancing into rooms. Most were lighted but empty, still full of crates. There was no sign of the destruction I had caused. There was no chill, no fire. No stench of burned skin.
"Hey Airy Fairy, wanna gimme a hand?" I turned to see the Australian, hauling a large box across the room. He didn't particularly look like he needed help, but I walked over.
"What happened at the carnival? How long was I out?" I had a brief recollection of the… night? before, but it was dim.
He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, but I could see the worry in his eyes. "We were watching the fireworks on the beach and you fainted. I'm not sure after that, it's all a bit… fuzzy. That was three days ago," he added quietly.
I couldn't believe it. I mean, I had been out long than that, but… I had attacked him. And everyone on the beach. How could I have been so stupid as to watch the fireworks show? All of the lights…
Shaking my head and moving back to neutral ground, I teased him, "You can't even lift a box by yourself?"
"Not a 'eavy one." He grunted, dramatically trying to use his knee to hold it up.
"Sissy. Why are you guys always moving these boxes around like slaves, anyways?" He just shrugged.
"Y' can quit t'e insults, vous savez," a different voice answered me.
"And you can shut your oversized Cajun mouth," I snapped. Remy held up his hands in a 'cool it' posture.
"Sorry," I grumbled, not particularly feeling apologetic.
"Jus' say'n." In the short span of time I had spent snapping at Remy, I had let all of the weight fall into Pyro's hands again and he fell to the ground, not prepared for the sudden extra load.
"Mon Dieu. You guys can't do anything!" Pyro's expression only became more confused, and Remy's twisted with an amused smirk. It wasn't their fault, but I just needed someone to be mad at.
"Feel like a drongo." Pyro muttered as I walked out of the room. Drongo? I shook my head. These people just kept getting stranger and stranger. I supposed that's what happened when you mix so many different ethnicities and dump them in the same place.
From then on I practiced my control in my usual spot more often, the stack of boxes that I was sure were moved a little every day. I stared at the moon while Amethyst coached me, though occasionally Sapphire would come and help.
I became familiar with the gypsies (Amethyst, Sapphire, Garnet, Emerald, and Amber, their skin correspondent to their names) and the twins (Diamond and Obsidian). Except for the dragons, the gypsies seemed to be the most intelligent creatures there. The Mantises weren't the smartest, so I just let them roam around the jungles eating each other's heads. Cerfs, rather fawn-like creatures with abnormally large hooves, were capable of speaking but they didn't have much to say. They wandered around the fifty-one lakes, jumping in and often coming out much smaller as the poisonous water disintegrated their bodies. They believed that it was all in good sport. The Cardinals were humongous bird-like creatures with bright red scaled skin and a few slightly darker feathers. And three rows of perfectly sharpened needle-like teeth, might I add. To be perfectly honest, they scared me. A lot. I only spoke with them when I needed to and always had Abasalom with me.
But with the gypsies' help, I established control in my mind. When awake, it no longer felt like they were hurling themselves at the walls of my wits anymore or straining to get out. When asleep, they generally stayed inside, though I often caused a certain five men nightmares. This training took up many hours of my day, but it's not like there was much else to do. Magneto still didn't trust me enough with important missions, and studied me for what seemed to be all of the other waking hours. Occasionally Pyro would join me in staring at the moon, but I always felt sad that he would never be able to see the true beauty of it. He could never see the diamond craters and sparkling crystal stars streaming through the night.
One other thing that I learned is how to walk through my memories. Things that my subconscious had noticed before but I didn't, I could. I could stand in the middle of the hospital playroom in France, I could count the Legos on the table and children entering and exiting. I could walk through the hallways of forgotten worlds and observe every little detail. But the one thing that I wanted to see most was the one thing I couldn't see. I still couldn't remember my mother's face. When I tried to enter the hospital room- her room- the door didn't budge. But despite that, things were getting better.
It was so strange- I didn't feel crazy anymore. I was no longer walking through the hallways, lost, with a blank expression; I wasn't constantly losing fights that didn't exist and falling into a different world. I wasn't arguing with the air in front of me. The Alcolytes usually left me alone when I stared at the sky for hours through the window. Maybe they realized that it had something to do with my improvement, or thought that I just needed my private time. I didn't know.
Alas, good things could never last, do they? Diamond and Obsidian approached me for the first time. Amethyst had warned me that they were fortune tellers, of sorts, and could occasionally see the future but it depended on each and every of the thousands of small decisions that one makes in a day. They could only tell for certain when something really bad was going to happen, but could never see it specifically.
"You have gone through a journey, and it will repeat itself," Obsidian said in a chanting, ominous tone. "You will start from the beginning again with almost nothing," Diamond put in. "But you have grown fond of your original destination. You will see all from a different perspective, and you will see the wrongs of your doings." Obsidian's coal-black face turned down, as if in mourning. Diamond's sparkling white visage shined red in the light. "And you will escape to find one you lost." They held out their arms in a forgiving stance.
"Protect everything that you have, or you will lose it," They whispered in unison.
"Rhianna?" I jerked out of my dream-like state. "Magneto wants to see us." Piotr's thick Russian accent filled the room. I could hear Remy and Pyro arguing in the background.
Protect everything that you have, or you will lose it.
