Chapter 7

Adelina woke up the next morning, feeling strangely well rested and not stiff at all. Her hair was tangled in front of her eyes, suffocating her as she rolled over on the bed, wondering why the wall looked the way that it did. Where were the cracks that were tentatively held together by old guerilla glue?

When she rolled her over, she started in fear at the sight of Nami standing at the window, her back to the scaled girl. Once her heart had calmed down a bit, she sighed in relief and sat up.

"Jiminy Christmas, Nami!'' She exclaimed softly. "You gave me a heart attack!"

The girl didn't reply. Adelina narrowed her eyes in concern.

"You had that dream again…...didn't you?"

"Yes…"

Adelina sighed. Ever since they were little, Nami had been having nightmares which prophesized when she would face down Phoenix. Everyone saw this as a good sign, the final battle where Nami would stand victorious in battle. But for some reason, Nami didn't believe it. Whenever she had it, she would join Wolverine in his brooding wherever he was and would have intense training sessions that would last for hours.

It was clear that Nami was withholding information about her dream, or maybe she was interpretating it differently, but whatever the reason, Adelina always had a challenge in cheering up the young girl afterwards.

"Hey, I was thinking that today we could go shopping with the boarding matron after I get my image inducer fixed."

The young queen turned around. "I thought you weren't sure it was going to work."

"That was before we were taken out of a cave and put into a home." She gestured with her finger to the wall outlets. "Maybe I can use some of the wires from the outlets to get it going. And then, once I figure out how to get some money, then maybe I'll go and get me some more advanced tech to spruce it up a bit. But my first goal-"

"Is getting it going." Nami finished with a light chuckle. "And you think it's only gonna take part of the morning?"

"You forget, my dear friend, that Nightcrawler showed me how to make an image inducer with only the least number of parts when this undertaking was decided in case I was chosen. All I have to do worry about is how to undo the wiring without causing the electricity in the house to short circuit or without causing a fire." She scratched her chin after a thought. "Or getting electrocuted."

"Yeah, please be careful when you're doing that." Nami stretched, yawning hugely while doing so. Adelina's smile dropped a bit when she saw the dark purple bags underneath her queen's dark brown eyes. But she forced it back on when the two made eye contact. "I'm gonna go and see if Mrs. Betrend has any clothes she can spare for the day at least. And some toiletries."

"Can you get me some while you're at it? Uh, the toiletries only, please. I don't wanna walk around in clothes that'll fall right off."

Nami chuckled. "Sure. Make sure to keep it locked til I get back."

"Three knocks?"

"Three knocks." Nami confirmed. "Be right back."

Nami left, leaving Adelina alone. She stood off the bed, making her way towards the little desk that was squeezed into the corner. Adelina removed the image inducer and placed it on the desk before turning around and facing the outlets. She gnawed on her bottom lip as she examined it. The protector was chipped and broken, long past it's time to be replaced. It would be a simple pull to get it off but the thing that she had to worry most about was getting electrocuted, accidentally starting a fire or cutting the power out. Most of the wires that she practiced with weren't connected to anything so she wasn't sure she was ready for the real deal. But she had to have some sort of the disguise and a hood and some makeup just wasn't going to cut it.

So, with a quick prayer of protection, Adelina slowly opened the outlet.

Inside was a jumble of red, blue and yellow, all of them tangled. Some of the outer plastic had decayed, leaving the copper wires exposed.

They really need to do an inspection or something. Adelina thought as she prodded the wires with her claw. This is really dangerous.

After a moment of hesitation, sorting through her memories to see if she could recall how Nightcrawler showed her, Adelina went on in. At first her hands were shaky and she double guessed herself, going to cut the wire only to pull back her hand. There were three more attempts at starting which were cut off by Adelina's own hesitation. She quickly pushed those feelings down and started to actually remove the wires.

Her tongue slowly found its way out of her mouth as she focused on the task.

It didn't take long for her to get lost in the task, her mind focusing to a point and blocking out all the noises around her. The minutes seemed to blur as Adelina slowly and very carefully severed the wires in half. There were a couple that short circuited, singeing a couple fingers black. The pain was but a minor inconvenience in the back of her mind, as her fingers became more and more attuned to moving around the exposed wires. It seemed that she was all into the task, her mind pushing everything out and the world had become just her and the outlet.

"Wow-"

Adelina squeaked in shock, not from the wires, but from Nami who had apparently arrived back at the room. Her hands, dropping the wires that she was holding, flew up to her chest, to stop her pounding heart while her wings exploded outwards as adrenaline pumped through her body. Nami stumbled back, her eyes wide with shock until everything settled down.

"How many times," Adelina whispered, "have I asked you to not sneak up on me while I am working with wires?"

"Including this time? Fifty-nine."

Adelina hoped her deadpanned look was enough for Nami to know that she wasn't really in the joking mood. She sighed as she dropped back down to her knees and removed the final wire that she needed. It fizzled and popped as it was removed, apparently being the only live wire she was dealing with, but she quickly removed her fingers before they got singed.

Again.

"Well, I got our things." Nami said as Adelina started to work on the removed wires. She opened the broken time piece that she had figured out how to repurpose and started to remove the old wires. The winged girl didn't even hear Nami as she was talking about how the boarding house matron was going to take them school shopping later that afternoon and that they were going to start going to class in two days. That caught Adelina's attention.

"Why so early?"

Nami shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe it's a state law or something. But whatever it is, let's hope that you can get that thing up and running."

Adelina didn't say anything, her focus having returned to the image inducer. She had the same prayer running through her mind as she shakily connected the wires and seared them together. The necklace started to glow as power entered it. Smiling happily, Adelina draped it over her neck before glancing down at her hand. Instead of purple scales with three clawed fingers, she was staring at a slightly pink hand with five fingers, each of them with perfectly manicured nails. Adelina experimentally moved her fingers, touching them to her face and feeling no traces of scales, smiled and jumped in adulation.

Nami, from where she was sitting, smirked in happiness. "Looking pretty good Ade."

"Thanks, Nami!"

There was a knock at the door not a moment later. Ade stood ram rod straight as the door swung up and Mrs. Betrend hobbled in. "Alright, ladies. Let's get going. I've got a date tonight and I don't wanna be late."

"Oh! Uh…..." Adelina glanced down at her clothing and at Nami's baggy pajamas that she had borrowed.

"We're gonna need some time to get ready." She added almost a biting tone, "Ma'am."

Mrs. Betrend sighed heavily. "Fine. Just hurry up already. We'll leave in thirty minutes."

The woman left the two girls alone. When she was gone, both Adelina and Nami laughed.

"Ugh, I swear that woman is as big as the Blob." Adelina whispered through the cackles.

"Yeah, well, we better get ready." Nami said as she managed to get control of her laugh. The young queen stood and Adelina watched her grab the toiletries that she had found earlier that morning. "I'll be quick. Is that thing waterproof?"

Adelina clutched the rosary first, out of habit then anything, but then touched the image inducer, nodding as she did so. "Should be. You and Dr. McCoy made the time piece waterproof in the event we, you know, ended up in the water on entry."

"Alrighty. I'll see you in a bit."

Adelina nodded. Nami left, closing the door behind her, leaving her by herself with her thoughts. She fell onto the bed, interlocking her fingers over her chest as she stared up at the ceiling. There was a wistfulness to her stare, as she imagined Nightcrawler in the room next to hers or maybe in the room with her and was reading a book or something.

I promise, Mr. Kurt, She thought, Phoenix won't get a chance to rise. Even if I have to sacrifice myself, I won't let it happen.

Adelina could only pray that it was enough.