A/N: Only 2 more chapters after this...revelations coming fast and thick...

Chapter Eleven

Lance was all blue and yellow, eyes sunken, veins black. He lay on a table, tubes in his veins. When his gaze alit on Carly, he turned away.

"Lance?"

"Go away," he rasped. "This is your fault. I told you not to do it."

"What's happening to him?" Carly eyed the beeping health monitors.

"We don't know," said the British woman. "His vitals are dropping. It's not anything we've seen before. Frankly, I'm stumped."

But Carly had seen it before, in the dying plants, the life burned out of them. She'd come to think of it as accelerated aging. She'd burned through all of Lance's years just to bust out of a room where she was perfectly safe.

Carly approached Lance, but the woman stepped in between. "What are you doing?"

"I can help him. I can heal him. Please."

Skye nodded. Carly approached Lance, scooted a shackled hand around so her fingers hover above him, but only felt what she felt when trying to revive a burned-out plant: his life was spent. Carly stepped away, knees wobbling. Lance was going to die. Right now. She had killed him, with her power. Her evil power.

No. My power isn't evil.

I am.

Carly slipped to the floor. All her life, she had dreamed of being evil, of conquering the world, but now that it stared her in the face, she didn't like it. This wasn't what she meant to happen when she fixed Lance, strengthened the Bull. But she had ignored his protests, used him.

Killed him.

"Lance, don't die, please. I'm sorry. I swear I'll never use my power again, but please don't die."

"Get her away from me," he mumbled before sickly coughs wracked his body.

Hands grabbed Carly and lifted her away. "No. No! He needs me. I won't let him die!"

But agents dragged her from the room and into some kind of windowless cell. Tears burst from her eyes. Guilt and shame ran through her body.

Skye just stood there in the doorway, face impassive. "If he dies, there will need to be an accounting."

Carly dropped to her knees, unable to staunch the tears gushing from her eyes. She was evil. She was the monster. "I just wanted to help him. You have to believe that." She didn't even believe it herself anymore.

The British woman stepped in, looked down, and shook her head. "I'm sorry."

Carly screamed and fell to the floor.

It was impossible. She loved him and he was taken from her. They were the ones who locked them in that room. They were the ones who forced her to use her power when she had little idea it could kill. How could she be held responsible for that? And the Governor had kept them apart in the first place. If they could have just talked, they wouldn't be in this situation.

Carly pounded the floor with her fists, anger and rage and grief all mixed together. "He wasn't supposed to die."

"People die every day in our business. And for what?"

Carly glared at Skye through a haze of tears. "For nothing. For someone to have more power than the next guy. For revenge. For the thrill. And…" Carly swallowed hard. "…and out of fear."

"But right now, we have a mad woman tearing up the Virginia countryside. How many more deaths do you want in your name? Deaths you might be able to prevent?"

Carly lay on the ground, staring at the wall. "You don't seem to understand. My power, it's not giving life. It's dealing out death. If you put me out there, I can't guarantee that there won't be collateral damage. You're asking me to put out a house fire by burning the whole street down. If I go out there I will destroy things. Please find another way."

Skye sighed and shook her head. "Okay. We'll deal with that woman. Sorry for your loss. You just sit tight."

Which was just what Carly did, arms wrapped around her shoulders once she forced the shackles off her wrists, using her power to deform her arms and then fix them. Lance was dead. She was evil. For-real evil. Not just playing evil like kids did when playing cops and robbers. No matter who she blamed—her father for making her this way, her training which taught her to trade lives for her own gain, Lance for being strong but not strong enough, her own giddy swoon around him—she was ultimately the one with the power over life and death. Lance wasn't one of the bad guys. Lance would never have used his bull power to hurt anyone; in fact, he'd been torn up every time there was a victim of his uncontrollable condition.

Not Carly. She wanted to use her power, thrived on it. She stood. She could feel them, all the lives on this aircraft. Skye studying the battle. The pilot in the cockpit. The scientists in their lab. The weapons experts. She could just reach out and make their hearts burst from their chests, make their brains ooze out their ears. Of course she didn't know much about flying an airplane, but that's not really what stopped her. Actually, she wasn't really sure at all what stopped her. But the thoughts, the anger, the rage, how much longer could she endure it until it all burst out of her?

She lay on the floor while the craft went who-knows-where. She didn't care anymore. The only thing she cared about was gone. Let the plane crash for all she cared.

Some kind of chirping tone echoed through the craft. Through a small window in the door, Carly could just see a monitor. On it, Carly saw a ship approaching, one of the X-Men craft. It somehow docked to the top of the plane, a pretty nifty trick. Great. Wolverine and Professor Xavier come aboard along with Mystique. Skye greeted them, talking and pointing to Carly's cell. Woot. They all seemed angry and argued for a minute, then Xavier broke away and headed toward Carly. Skye led the rest to some other part of the plane.

Carly sat still when the door opened and Xavier wheeled in. What could she do? He looked more stern than ever. She wiped the tears off her face.

"Well," he said, eyeing the shackles in the corner. "Miss Richards. Quite a day."

"Whatever you're going to say, drop it. I know what I did."

Xavier closed his eyes and breathed. "Yes. You do. Good."

"Good?"

"I feel the conflict within you. You believe yourself evil, but would an evil person feel the grief you now do?"

"What does it matter what I feel? It's what I do. Nothing I feel can make up for the loss."

"Again, correct. But there is something you can do. It's called atonement. Atone for your sins. You might not be able to make things right, and this will always be a scar upon your soul, but you need to make a choice. Either be the evil, the thing inside you that yearns to sow vengeance and hatred across the globe, or be the thing that I believe you were meant to be: a bright young woman of energy and vitality, willing to put herself on the line to serve all of humanity."

Carly snorted. "Right. Sorry. I can't stop being Hydra any more than you can stop being bald, no offense."

His gaze bored into hers. "Then decide what type of Hydra agent you will be. Decide what you stand for. I have faith in you to make the right decision. Now there are some urgent matters I must attend to." The professor backed his wheelchair out of the cell and the door closed him off.

Carly slumped back onto the floor. Well, wasn't that super-helpful? Like she had a choice. The door opened again, this time to Wolverine. Carly jumped up. He wore his X-Men outfit with the mask and body suit.

Wolverine held up his hands, talon-free. "Just here to talk. Professor X thought it would be a good idea."

"I think you've made your position clear." Carly put her hands protectively over her stomach. The man looked a little tongue-tied. "Stab first, ask questions later."

Logan looked down. "Yeah. Threaten one of ours, and I will act. But that's what it's like. We cover each other's backs. If you fight with us, we will protect you. You don't have to come to the academy or anything, just take this opportunity to think about what you want to fight for."

"That's it?"

"Yup."

Carly shook her head. "Thanks but no thanks."

Wolverine sighed and shrugged. He left. Up next was Mystique. She emerged as the beautiful blonde, but changed into herself, a blue-scaled, yellow-eyed, naked monster.

"What do you think?" she asked Carly, pirouetting.

Carly swallowed. "So?"

"This is what is inside of me," said the changeling. "I can be anybody. Many times, I've lost my identity, lost my way. I believed in people I shouldn't have. I have only one thing to ask you, Wild Flower. Show me the real you."

Mystique held a flower in her hand.

"What do you want from me?"

"Show me. Show me what you can do." She waved the flower.

"I'm not using my power for tricks." Now what?

"Show me what you truly are, deep inside. Once you know yourself, your decisions will become simple."

Carly frowned. She was tired of this act. Lance was dead, and soon, so would she be. Why play these stupid games?

Mystique changed into Carly's mom. "Show me," said Mom.

"Stop it. Stop being my mom!"

Mystique changed into Dad. "Show me," he said.

"Knock it off! This isn't fair. Leave me alone."

Mystique changed one last time. Into Lance.

"Show me," said the doppelganger.

"Aaaaii!" Carly raised her hand, power flowing into her fingertips. If Raven wanted a show, a show Raven would get. The petals grew one by one until they ripped themselves off the stem and crumpled one the floor, turning black. The leaves curled and churned, the stem pulsed and lengthened. Seeds sprouted from the flower. They tumbled down, impaling themselves on the floor and driving roots into the deck, growing up and forming flowers of their own, dropping seeds that Carly forced to grow until the cell was overflowing with plants and flowers and the stink of thrashed vegetation.

Yet Mystique just stood there, unmoving in the midst of all the luscious carnage. "Why do they not attack me?"

Carly stopped growing plants. They were everywhere, carving into the floor and ceiling. But not Mystique. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Why not? Am I not your enemy?" asked the fake Lance.

"No. Not yet, at least."

"If you didn't kill Mystique, why did you kill me?"

Carly thrust her hands out. The plants pulsed, surged, and then grew black, rotten as an old banana, and slumped to the floor, spent. "Because you were nothing but a pretty flower to me."

Carly slapped her hand over her mouth. No. That couldn't be true. That was the Hydra talking, not her. If it was true, then she was even more evil than she thought…she was a psychopath. She slumped to the floor. "What have I done?"

Mystique turned back into her blonde self. "I don't believe you meant to kill him. But you were careless. That in itself is a crime. People like us have great power. Lesser beings cannot possible understand what it means, the temptation to use it. I can become anyone, fool anyone. I have even been the President, kings and queens, CEO's. I can do great damage or great good. I must choose every day. What is your choice, Wild Flower?"

Carly kicked at some of the dead plants near her. "I never wanted these powers. I never asked for them. I just want to be part of something important. I just want to matter."

"So matter. Decide what's right for you instead of listening to whatever's been pounded into your brain all your life. Don't be they person they want you to be. Be the person you were really meant to be."

Carly eyed the floor. What was point of all this? It's not like she could lose her powers. It's not like whatever was growing inside of her wasn't aching to be set free. Yes, these X-Men were powerful. But did they have evil inside of them? Yeah, a lot of them had done evil, hurt people, used their powers for personal gain. But how many of them had been expressly built for destruction, as a weapon? She wished she'd found a way to keep in touch with Bucky. He'd understand. He was made to do evil. He was just like her.

Yet even Bucky had turned away from evil.

That girl raging down there. That might as well be Carly. Look at all the plants and animals she'd destroyed.

Carly stepped past Mystique and looked closer at the monitors. Wait. Where were the dying plants, the suffocating animals? Didn't this crazy woman destroy those things like Carly?

Then Carly realized—it's a different power. It looks like Carly's, but it wasn't…same effect, different source. Carly looked at Mystique, held out her hand. "With a thought, I can cause your heart to burst. I can cause your hair to burrow into your brain. I can make your tongue swell so it blocks your throat." And part of her ached to do it.

Mystique stepped back, fluttering back into her blue form. "I don't suggest you try."

"I won't. But I do have a question. Why can't she?" Carly pointed to the monitor.