August 19, 1992
"They're close by," Logan said.
Max smiled and shifted his coat. Soon he would have something at least approaching normalcy. He was going to see family, was going to see something that wasn't shattered because of the events at the Institute.
As he moved his coat he felt something move inside. He wondered what it was. When he figured it out froze for a second. How could he have forgotten? He still hadn't taken out the knife that his mother had given him.
He could feel its weight pressing in on him now, and he couldn't help but feel nervous. The decision seemed more pressing now with what he'd witnessed back at the Institute. Despite his mother's wishes, it looked like he was going to have to go into combat without knowing his answer.
His weakness on the issue still bothered him. How could he not be ready to kill, ready to die if it came to it? It was a good cause, and he'd be on the side of right. His parents had made the decision that now faced him years ago. His mother might have died that night because of it.
Max shook the thought off. She'd made a difficult decision, true enough, but she hadn't died for it. He didn't care that the odds were against her survival. She was alive, and he was going to see her later. He just had to get to Angel and his sister first.
Logan stopped walking, taking a deeper sniff of the air.
"Max an Rogue, stay here," he said.
"Why?" Max said, his eyes narrowing.
Logan glanced at Remy. Max's nerves, already stretched tight, began to fray.
"Don't you dare tell me to stay behind again!" Max said.
Logan sighed. Emma smiled to herself, almost as though there were some private joke that no one else knew. It just made Max angrier. He didn't like Emma's smirks, didn't like the way Toad kept staring at him.
He knew that it had to do with his mother. They must know that she was the woman who had left the Brotherhood years ago and joined the X-men. If they were staring at him because they were hostile to his mother then it did make him wonder why Magneto wasn't giving him looks. He'd been cordial towards him, even if he seemed amused by most of what Max said.
"What's going on?" Max said.
"Could mean nothing," Logan said.
Max didn't like his tone. Rogue put her hand on Max's shoulder and stepped forward.
"Logan, what's happenin?" Rogue asked.
She sounded scared. Max didn't blame her, there were a few tendrils of fear wrapping around his rage now. Whatever Logan had smelt couldn't be good. However, he still needed to know what was happening. Angel and Luna kept dancing in front of his eyes. He needed to see them, needed to have something stable after that night.
"It's pretty faint, but I'm smellin blood," Logan said.
Angel dropped to the floor. The wind whistled above her head. She saw where the metal wing had sheered the air above her head, and she could feel a prickle where it had skimmed her scalp. Blood ran down her forehead as a cold sweat broke out on her body.
She aimed low and pushed off from his shin with her foot. The creature stumbled and Angel got to her feet. She spat up as much fire as she could muster onto one of his wings. The metal glowed, but it didn't melt. It didn't even seem to hurt him.
There was a flurry of the metal objects. It was like they were feathers of some sort. Angel didn't understand. Were the wings organic? What on earth was going on?
"Hey!"
Angel saw John, his hands full of fire.
"John, it doesn't hurt him!" Angel screamed.
She was too late. John had already aimed streams of fire at the creature's wings. The force knocked him back, but when he got to his feet his wings were glowing red. In the demonic light Angel could see a crystal in the middle of his forehead. It was blue, giving it a strange contrast to his red-hot wings.
The creature's wings flapped and it shot up into the sky. He could fly with those wings: they weren't just for show. Angel saw him dive towards John. He made contact, shoving John into the ground. She thought she heard something break, and John screamed.
Bobby sent a flurry of ice at him. It froze his wings to his back, but the creature barely glanced up. He brought a fist back. Angel had seen the force that he'd used to push Piotr into a tree. It was likely that he could crush John's skull.
Angel ran forward and spat fire into the creature's face. The creature stumbled, batting wildly at his face. Angel could see that some of his face had blackened underneath her fire, and for a moment she felt hopeful. Perhaps he could burn after all.
However, when the creature turned again, Angel could see that his face was healing. Her heart sank. He had a healing factor? It wasn't a very good one, but its presence certainly changed the situation somewhat. Already the blackened flesh was only red and raw.
John scrambled away, his arm swinging oddly at his side and his face a mask of pain. Piotr rushed forward and pushed the creature to the ground again, ice flecks flying in the air. Piotr began punching him repeatedly and Angel ran towards the pair, hoping she could do something to help.
The creature pushed Piotr off him and got to his feet. He took to the air again and sped off. Angel looked after him.
"He ran away?" Piotr said.
"He was winning," Bobby said, "Why would he run?"
Angel unfurled her wings. She could feel fear, just like she always had when she was in the Brotherhood. Unlike then though, she had something solid and simple that she was fighting for.
"He's not running away," she said, "He's just moving to the back of the cabin."
Luna didn't know who any of these people were. She hadn't been at the Institute very long, and she'd been too concentrated on seeing her brother again to think about the other people there. She wanted her mother, brother, father, and aunt. Only her aunt was there though, and she couldn't find her. The girl named Kitty just kept pulling children towards the back. A delicate-looking Asian girl helped usher them out further.
She didn't want to go. Even with her sleep-addled mind, she knew that she didn't want to go. Luna didn't know why she had to keep leaving people behind, why they kept leaving her in the first place. Her mother had left her to go off and fight. Her brother had left her to go find her mother. Now she was the one leaving her aunt, but there didn't seem to be any good reason for her departure.
There was no way that she was leaving though. She knew what it was like to be left behind, and she knew that it never added up to anything good. Luna wanted to tell Kitty that she wasn't going, that she was staying put, but she didn't have time to get the words out. Kitty just grabbed her arm and pushed her forwards. The Asian girl ushered her towards the door before Luna had formed the syllables of protest.
The next thing she knew she was outside. Someone else, she couldn't see who, was leading them further into the woods. All of the students were following in a straight line, giving each other momentum. Luna looked back at the cabin, but she was being pushed by the tide of exiting students.
She looked up at the sky, feeling miserable. Above them the moon glittered. Luna thought she saw someone flying there, and hope rose in her. Maybe it was her aunt. That would make sense. Angel could fly: Luna had seen her do so several times.
On closer inspection she saw that the wings were too big. A feeling of unease filled her. The Asian girl began to move with the students. Luna grabbed her hand. The Asian girl looked down at her, an exasperated expression on her face.
"Miss!" Luna said, pointing to the person in the sky.
The girl's eyes widened. In her spare hand she gathered up a collection of colorful sparks. She stretched her hand out and a flurry of sparks hit the flying thing in the chest. It fell to the ground, but Luna could see that it was getting to its feet.
"Everybody move!" the girl screamed.
She began tugging Luna as the stampede continued. Luna could see another shape in the sky, and she knew that this was her aunt. She wanted to tear herself away from the Asian girl, go to her aunt, but the girl was pulling her too hard.
Luna wished she was strong, like her brother or parents or aunt. She had never wanted to train like Max had. Luna was impressed by her parents, but she had hoped to be a writer when he got older. She didn't want to be a fighter like Max or her parents. She didn't even have a mutation yet.
As the flying thing got up Luna got a good look at it. Her mother had told her not to call things weird once, but the creature there was weird. There was something so wrong about it, something that made her want to run.
The creature got up just as her aunt spat a wad of fire at it. It slumped to the ground and her aunt landed next to it. Luna saw her aunt move a little closer, her lungs sucking in more air as she got ready to spit again.
The creature knocked her aside with one of his wings. Luna saw a gash appear on her aunt's face.
"Angel!" Luna cried.
The creature looked up at her. She felt fear grip her as it got to its feet. It began pushing students aside as it approached her. She saw her aunt getting to her feet, one hand clutching her face. Her aunt began running after the creature.
Next to her the girl sent another wave of sparks at the creature. This time it dodged them and surged closer.
"Get out of here!" the girl said.
Luna looked at the girl, feeling frozen. She looked at the creature and back at the girl.
"I'll be fine!" the girl said.
She let go of Luna's hand and pushed her back. Luna stumbled and began following the other students. She saw the girl tried to gather up more sparks, but the creature backhanded her. The girl was sent to the ground, clutching her shoulder and moaning.
The creature continued tossing students aside, its eyes fixed on her. Someone knocked into Luna. Luna lost her balance and fell. She scraped her knees and chin. She rolled over, seeing the creature come closer.
Luna began to push herself backwards, her feet clogging with dirt. She thought of her mother and father. Unbidden, hot tears began to fill her eyes. She wanted them there. Better yet, she wanted them to wake her up, just like they always did when she had a nightmare.
No one woke her up though. The creature reached out and grabbed her arm. Its grip was cold and it lifted her into the air. Luna cried from the stress it was putting on her arm. She kicked out feebly. All she managed to do was hurt her feet.
The creature looked at her and cocked her head. For a moment she saw something change in its eyes, before the blue crystal on its forehead glowed. The flicker disappeared and its eyes became cold again.
Then it batted its wings and took off into the air, pulling Luna with it.