Chapter 8
It's all over, it's all over,
My heart echoes it's all over,
Every minute that you cry for her,
Is wasted don't you know,
It's all over, it's all over,
So forget her it's all over,
Stop your cryin',
Turn around and let her go...
~It's All Over; by Johnny Cash
I paced in the Monastery. The explosions, the Monastery's constant rattling and groaning, Kitty and Clint and Logan and Thor, Bishop and Sunspot and Storm and Colossus—it kept repeating itself in my head. Even though I hadn't seen Bishop's or Colossus' or Sunspot's deaths, all the scenarios in which they could have died filled my head. Seeing a Sentinel stab Storm through the stomach made my stomach churn each time it replayed in my head. Logan unconsciously slashing Kitty repeated itself.
I felt my chest constricting, loosening for a moment, before constricting again and I felt like I couldn't breathe.
Kitty was still losing a lot of blood.
Thor's side was still bleeding pretty heavily.
My head hurt like a bitch.
As far as I knew, Bruce had been injured taking on the Sentinels. How much longer could he keep up being Hulk before he ran out of juice? I felt tears in my eyes. What about Steve and the others? They didn't have any kind of abilities to take on the Sentinels, yet they were out there doing their damned hardest.
We had no idea how Logan was doing, wherever he was.
I felt the backs of my eyes sting with unshed tears.
Of all times to have a panic attack..., I thought miserably. Looking over to the huge entryway near the front of the Monastery, I saw the Sentinels trying to use ever potential opening they could find to get in. Everyone who fought them off were getting exhausted. It was obvious by how they were fighting.
I pursed my lips.
"Are we just expected to stand here and do nothing?" I murmured.
"What are we supposed to do?" Bobby said. "The others are handling it."
"They're getting tired."
"And most of us here are injured." Bobby threw a look my way. "There's nothing we can do."
"I can't just stand here and do nothing." I looked at Bobby pointedly. "They're getting themselves killed out there."
"I know," Bobby said grimly. "But there's not much we can do. If a Sentinel gets in here, we'll stop it the best we can."
"Do you honestly think anyone likes this plan?" Erik said, taking a step forward. The older man arched a brow in an almost sarcastically playful manner. "It's the only one that could work. All of this"—he waved to what was going on around us—"was unavoidable."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "There's gotta be something we can do."
"For now," Charles said calmly, "what we can do is makes sure that those of us who are injured are handling themselves OK."
I looked at the wheelchair bound man with a solemn frown. I didn't know Charles as well as his former students did—I only had limited knowledge of him from what I gathered from the first time we'd met. I knew I couldn't argue with all of them, they had a point. We had to make sure the injured were OK and if any Sentinels managed to sneak their way past the ones fighting them off, we'd do what we needed to do to fight them off.
Without another word, I decided to at least try and distract myself with checking up on the ones who needed it most.
Walking over to Thor, who was pacing at the other end of the Monastery, I managed to stop him so I could check his side. He'd bled through his entire bandage and grimaced when I peeled it to take a look.
The skin around the wound was red with not only smeared blood, but from the opening. It was swelling and I noticed there was still a fair amount of bleeding.
"How badly does it hurt?" I asked, looking up at him.
"It's nothing I can't handle," he murmured, his face scrunched up in pain. I've seen Thor fight plenty of things and get hurt, but I could tell this was probably the worst injury he's had to deal with.
Gently removing the bandage, I inspected the wound a little closer. Even with stitches, it didn't look that good.
It should've been better than this, I thought worriedly. Thor can heal a little quicker than others, but why is this taking so long to get better?
"I'm so sorry about this," I said softly, trying my best to figure something out.
"It's not your fault."
"It is."
Thor cautiously knelt down in front of me. "You have no blame in any of this," he murmured.
"I should've left," I said softly. "The moment things started to go downhill, I should've left. You guys wouldn't have had to deal with any of this."
I felt Thor's hands gently grip my shoulders, and even though I wouldn't look him directly in the eye, I could briefly, out of my eyelashes for a split second, see his blue eyes burning into me.
"Don't you ever say that," he whispered fiercely. "Now is not the time to be talking like this. We need you. If you hadn't stayed, we wouldn't have known of this plan."
"I just...I don't know." I hunched my shoulders. "Everyone's getting killed for this and I feel awful."
"We'll all be fine," Thor said softly. "If everything turns out the way it should, we'll have a better future."
"But we won't remember any of this."
"Good." I looked up at him. "I don't want to remember this. I want to know that we can live safely, that we don't have to worry every day." I nodded. "No more talking like this, Zelda." He kissed my cheek. "We need to keep strong and..."
Before he could say anything else, an explosion at the other end of the Monastery violently shook the Monastery. Everyone paused.
A Sentinel stood near a huge opening. Even more were starting to appear behind it.
Author's Note:
Leave a review on what you think, OK? I've been trying to give quick updates to my story as a means of rewarding myself for studying for finals. Even though I spent too much time procrastinating and it's starting to show in my classes...Oh well, I'll be fine. Anyway, let me know what you think!
I own nothing in the 'Marvel' universe, only my characters and the food in my fridge.
Leave a kind and helpful review, please!
Thank you.
Susan Strong
