Blinked Reality
By: The 80lb Carrot
Disclaimer: The X-Men are not mine in any way, shape or form. Even this reality belongs to Judd Winick (it's the first one they visit in 'eXiles')
Summary: A world where O:ZT took over fifty years ago and the X-Men never existed as told through the eyes of one Cecilia Reyes
Rating: PG-13 (language, violence, dark situations)
Genre: Drama
Read this: Major Storm OOCness. She's gone from a regal goddess to a panicked teen. Apologies to all you Storm fans out there, but this is an AU.
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I looked down, wondering who the hell would be stupid enough just to sit there in the midst of an emergency. I didn't recognize the girl, I had doubted that I would, but I did recognize the way in which she held herself. Something had scared her, or more correctly was scaring her, and there was nothing she could do about it. She had gone pale under her mocha skin and white hair lay loose everywhere as she buried her face in her arms. I looked up at Henry, he seemed to have everything under control and I figured I could take a few minutes off to see what was going on. Crouching down, I knelt beside her. "What's your name?" She could not have been more than fifteen.
She looked up at me with solid white eyes filled with restrained tears. "Ororo," she told me.
"And why are you sitting here?"
The smile she gave me was sad and weak. She shook as she spoke. "I can't control it."
"Can't control what? Your muscle and bone movement?"
A brighter smile this time, but it faded much more quickly. "The weather."
Two very simple words. I had never taken into real consideration the powers that people like me could have, had never realized the extent to what we controlled. I was silent for a few seconds, listening carefully to what was going out around me. A storm raged outside, so loud and obviously dangerous I wondered how I had not heard it before. I turned back to Ororo. "Why can't you?"
"I don't know!" Her eyes went wide with fear and I could almost predict her panic. "I just can't and everything's going out of control and I don't know what I'm doing and I just hate it!" As her last few words bit off I could hear a huge crash of thunder right outside the facility and in only an instant figured out what was going on.
One hand on her shoulder, I spoke in my most relaxed voice. "Ororo," I said, calling her by name and returning her to the here and now, "You need to calm down. If you stop freaking out, everything out there will work out on its own."
She shook her head violently and the wind picked up. "No, no it won't. I've tried, it's useless! All the guns, they were loud and crashing and people were dying and bleeding and . . . "
This was not working. I looked around me to the people I knew. If only we had Jean . . . no, no no no, no wishing for that. Had to work with what was available and if the marvel girl wasn't around I would just have to resort to something else. I stood. "Samuel Guthrie!" I called, "Come here! Now!"
Two heads whipped around at my announcement, Sam's and that country girl's. I watched in utter amazement as brother and sister were reunited. It was the last thing I had expected, but looking at the two of them I found that in fact they *did* look and act quite alike. Not wanting to break up the family reunion, I had to call on someone else.
"Sarah!" The pink haired girl looked back around at me and came over. Rumor had had it that as a child she had no control over the bone growths that came with her mutation, but had been forced to learn it before they could collar her. Without her healing factor, no control would have led to her bleeding to death. But now that she had her healing back the growths had just as much control as ever so I could not have disproved the rumors. "I need you to stay here with Ororo," I told her, "Make sure she calms down and gets control of the storm outside."
"I can take care of myself!" Ororo insisted.
"Prove it," I shot back.
She scrunched up her face in concentration and for a few moments the storm raged as before. But gradually she relaxed and as she did so it abated, slowing down until it was literally gone, almost as if it had never been. The teenager looked so proud of herself that I couldn't help but grin. I found it very strange how young she seemed when I was really only three years her senior. Somehow, cocky as it may sound, I had always placed myself on level with Kurt and Jean when it came to maturity.
"See," she told me, "I did it!"
I nodded. "It only took a little bit of goading."
She was silent for a few moments as realization sunk it. The look on her face told me exactly what her reaction would be and I rushed to stop it before the storm started up anew. "You worked hard to calm down, now stay calm!" I insisted, "When you get worked up you loose control of the weather and that only makes you worse. So keep control of your emotions and you'll keep control of your powers. You get what I'm saying?" She nodded. "Okay, Sarah, you take her back with the others. I've got sick people . . . to . . . attend . . . to?" I looked over to where Henry stood, surrounded by bandaged patients and smiling faces. "Or the doc could have taken care of everything."
Scott approached me just then. "How soon can they get out of here?" he asked.
"Who?" I had no idea what he was talking about
Exasperated, he pointed to all those that had been injured. "Them. We have to get back to base."
I was silent for a few moments. "You said you shut down communications first, right?"
"Yes. So when can they move."
It was my turn to be irritated. "Just shut up and listen to me. Did they get any message out?"
"No."
"So no one knows this place isn't still operational."
Silence, then, "right . . . I was just thinking that." He had grasped my point, even if he wouldn't admit it. Feeling quite proud of myself I settled back and watched as he got everyone's attention. The man was a leader, I had to admit that, even if he was a little to stuck on himself. "Cecilia has brought an important issue to my attention." That shocked me, he was going to give me credit for it. "As far as Bastion and Operation: Zero Tolerance know, this base is still under their control. As long as we play our cards right, I have some very good news.
"We have a place to stay."
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questions? comments? flames? anything else of the sort? be sure to review the fic because i'm starting a new rule. i need at least 4 or 5 reviews for this chapter before i'll post the next one, so . . .