Fire

Pain. Pain like a fire burning through every nerve in my body as I gulped in a short deprived breath, my bones creaking under the pressure, feeling like they'd snap. My brain was being split in two and I couldn't breathe! The darkness surrounded me again.

Pain brought me back again. Chaos, fire, burning. No air, can't think, no oxygen. Back under.

I fought back up to clear my head, a pulsing energy running through me now to go with my throbbing bones muscles and migraine. I recognised a sound; screaming, mine. I slammed my teeth together as I kept trying to breathe as it came in short bursts of oxygen. Nothing, I couldn't hear anything but a ringing in my ears. Numb, couldn't feel anything. I opened my eyes. A burning white hot fire surrounding a bubble of safety with Angel and me in the centre. His eyes were screwed shut, licks of fire were breaking through and lapping at his skin, but we were both alive. Cocooned.

Pain again as I shut my eyes. Pulse, pulse, pulsing of energy through me. Noise, everything bursting to life at once, the crackling and explosions of fire, debris crashing, our own yells. A silence again. Darkness. Falling. Falling. Trapped. Hurt. Burnt. But cocooned. Both alive. Alive? Angel? Ringing. Pain. Darkness. Sleep...

...

My eyes snapped open and a long intake of sooty breath followed by coughing. I couldn't see or hear a thing, but I was alive. I tried to move slowly and yelled out, my legs were pinned down, crushed, my back and the backs of my arms felt burn, charred and hurting like hell. I wished I wasn't awake, but fat chance I could get back to sleep now. I was curled into a ball, my legs trapped and god knows what but it felt like dirt and sharp metal surrounding me. I then felt the wetness, reaching up a battered hand not far from my face to touch it gently before pulling back sharply. My head felt slick with...oh my god so much blood. I could feel it everywhere now, cuts along my arms, my back, a huge slice out of my side. Oh god. Trapped. Hyperventilating and gasping for breath. Panic. Trapped and bleeding, I wasn't healing. Couldn't phase, no energy to try. Not dead but then where? How could I still be alive. Buried alive. I whimpered, tears rolling down my face my eyes still wide open but seeing nothing. And cold. I was shivering. Was that blood loss or the cold? I needed to get my breathing back under control or I'd pass out again... Though I wanted to get back to sleep there was something else. Angel. Oh god Angel, was he here? I couldn't breathe let alone speak or move. In...out...in...out. Over and over like a mantra. Innnn...ooouuut...In through the nose, out through the mouth. Relaxing. You're alive. My thudding heart was still beating way to fast but I was still breathing, just don't think about the lack of space. Never again will I go in an enclosed space again. I shuddered. Angel. Think of Angel. I flex my fingers and tried to clear my sore throat.

"Warren?" I tried, but only an inaudible sound came out. I clenched my fist and teeth together, I couldn't be trapped alone I couldn't I-. Stop. Try again. "Warren!" I tried, nothing came out. My throat had nothing left to give. He was in front of me last time I saw him. I tried to push my arm forwards as it crept painfully outwards, dislocated shoulder. I yelled out but barely a sound came. Tears rolled in frustration as I pushed it out further. Further still. I groped around the broken metal. Nothing. I couldn't feel-

There, something soft. A hand. Wet and slick but a hand. I almost recoiled in horror. My eyes wide open again. Oh god I couldn't handle it if he was...I couldn't- Breathe damn it. I forced myself to reach further, up his arm, brushing past ash and dust, pieces of shattered metal to find his face. I paused, scared. Not wanting to check if he was still breathing.

"Come on!" I ordered myself, a small noise coming out, "Come ON!" I shouted as best as I could, my shaking hand finding his mouth and- Was that air? Oh god please don't be me making things up. Find his neck, soft, wet again but there. Or was that just my wet fingers? I pressed down. A pulse. He's alive. Tears rolled freely now, I wasn't alone. We'd get out of this somehow. He was alive. That's all that mattered. I fell back asleep without realising it.

...

I yelled out, shocking myself briefly as the sound actually came, but almost deafening to my ears. There was a battle going on inside my body and every muscle seemed to be contracting and releasing over and over, my stomach rolling, a fire spreading through my veins as I panicked again. There couldn't be another bomb. My skin was boiling; I could see white hot red flashes beneath my eyelids. And then it was all gone. I was left a shivering, shaking mess. I warm hand clutched onto my own as I squeezed it back and tried to calm myself down. Soothing me as a thumb brushed over my knuckled and the shivering started to subside. The whole ordeal seemed to have zapped my energy as it faded away. I squeezed at the soft hand again and felt a wave of shock and relief wash over me as a squeezed back, bringing tears to my eyes.

"Warren?" I whispered, and even that felt loud.

"I'm here." I voice croaked back through the darkness. I shifted slightly, my legs were still trapped but all the pain from earlier was replaced with discomfort. I guess it was from shock.

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

"I'm not gonna lie, I was...In a bad way. But just now, I don't know something's changed. I think I've gone numb. Unless, you don't think you healed me accidentally do you? Do you think you just got your abilities back?"

"I'm not sure..." I replied. I tried to phase but nothing happened. I gently cut myself on one of the jagged pieces of metal and it didn't heal. "No, nothing." I said as my stomach dropped. Again I was hit by the cold and a sense of claustrophobia, but tried not to show it as I shuddered violently.

"It's so cold." I chattered. Maybe I was feverish?

"I don't feel cold, though my skin's always been relatively protected from it." Warren whispered gently and continued to rub the back of my hand. I wished we could have been closer, I wanted to be protected within his comforting arms, but I had a hand at least. We stayed in relative silence for a while.

"What do we do now?" He asked softly.

I thought about it, "Logan and Colossus will still be alive but they might be in similar situations as us and it'll take them a while to get out. I don't know if they'll be able to tell if we survived or even where we are. We were also on the bottom floor and fell down even further so there's no telling how far down we are. We're probably in a small gap far underneath tonnes and tonnes of metal and dirt and machinery so...It'll take a while even if they do know we're down here. But I'm sure they'll do everything they can...And us, well...I guess we have to hope that my abilities are gonna return and I can get us out of here."

"Kitty no matter what happens I'm glad we at least both made it, and we're both together. If we're together we can make it through this."

"Yeah I'm sure you're right. I don't know how much air is going to be in this small pocket so we should probably try not to talk much."

"Okay." He squeezed at my hand as my shivering continued and I tried to think of being back at the School, messing around and growing up like normal people. Stupid things like being curled up with a good book or listening to some music as I hoped that everyone else was okay and drifted back off to sleep, the battle within my body still waging. A fire was on her way.

...