I gulp. Kaila did it. I can't back out now.
Biting on my lower lip nervously, I use the sharp tip of the already-bloodied dagger to cut the skin of my palm. The pain is hot and awful.
Kaila smiles and places our bloodied palms together.
"Now we're blood sisters forever".
I smile weakly, still shaken from what we've just done.
"Blood sisters forever," I say. I smile more certainly.
It's dark. I'm lying on what feels like concrete. This place smells dank and musty. My eyes fall to the vertical bars that trap me. I'm in a cell of some kind.
"You're awake I see," someone says in a gravelly voice. A shadow steps up to the bars. Magneto.
"I'm sorry, it's not really you that we want.You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," he says matter-of-factly. "But since we have you here, we might as well give you the honour of being our first test subject," he laughs in good humour.
I don't think it would seem funny to me even if I knew what he's talking about.
Another shadow joins in beside him.
"Ah, how nice. May I introduce to you the latest addition to our cause". I can't see well in the darkness but this new shadow is clearly a woman. She has long hair and is wearing some kind of suit. New addition? Like I would care.
"Where's John?" I croak. Magneto laughs and doesn't reply. Instead, he walks away, leaving the woman-shadow and me alone. "Have fun," he says.
She bends down. Is she going to hurt me? I can feel her staring at me.
"What do you want?" I ask with as much bitterness as I can muster. I don't appreciate being stared at like a lab specimen.
I hope they haven't done anything terrible to John.
Suddenly, she stands up and leaves. I'm alone again.
I try to understand how all this must have happened. Mystique must have been a trap to get John back to Magneto. She must have insinuated into gaining his trust and then she must have pretended to leave Magneto knowing that John would seek her out.
A loud sound of metal bolting jars me alert. The bars of my cell slide open slowly. The cell door opens wide with a loud clank.
Is this another sick joke?
I wait for something to happen but am greeted with silence. I peek my head out of the cell, checking to see whether the corridors are empty. There's no one around. Deciding that I better make my move before whatever good force that's decided to help me changes its mind, I bolt out of the cell.
I have to find John.
I make my way blindly down the corridor until I come to the end. There are doors at all sides. Which one should I take?
Without warning, there's a clicking sound and one of the doors swing open. Something doesn't feel right. I spin around wildly. There's someone standing in the shadows.
"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" I ask in confusion. I take a step forward towards the figure when I'm suddenly pushed through the open door. It slams close behind me. I try to open it but it's locked.
Looking at the closed door for a moment, I whisper, "Thank you". I make my way again.
This room is bright. I let my eyes adjust to my new surroundings. A corridor in the room leads to somewhere else. There are a few doors along it.
I check that there's no one around. My skin prickles with anxiety. I wish I were invisible.
Someone is banging on one of the doors from the inside. Through the small glass window on it, I see John yelling angrily, his voice muted by its thickness.
I run towards the door and signal to him that I'm going to let him out. He looks surprised and relieved to see me. I smile and he indicates towards something beside the door.
There's a small keypad on the wall. Looks like I need a password.
Something brushes against my neck. A piece of paper flutters onto the floor at my feet. It has numbers on it.
This is too easy. I know it's the work of that figure, whoever it is.
Punching in the numbers from the piece of paper, the door is unlocked. To my surprise, John rushes out and grabs me in a bear hug that almost crushes me.
"You're okay! I thought something happened to you," he says. Woah, I didn't know he cared about me that much.
"Glad to see you too," I manage to choke out from beneath his grip. John suddenly realises what he's doing. He releases me and scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment. I laugh.
We hear voices. John grabs my hand and we hide behind one of the other doors.
Looks like some kind of storeroom.
John peeks out the door through a small crack. I hear the voices walk past. He lets out a breath.
"Who's that?" I ask.
"Frog and Kay," he says without turning, "Kay's new. Magneto thinks he can develop her into something powerful". Frog? What kind of name is that?
John leads me out of the room.
The both of them are still walking down the corridor, their backs to us. One is a guy wearing a long overcoat. He has a funny gait in his walk, almost as if he had frog-legs. That must be Frog. The other is a woman with long dark hair in a ponytail. She wears a red leather overcoat and matching boots. They turn the corner.
There's something vaguely familiar about her.
"Lyn". John has opened a door at the other end of the corridor. He indicates that we go through it.
I like John better this way. He seems less maniacal. Suddenly I realise why.
"Where's your lighter?"
John frowns. "Magneto took it". Of course, he wouldn't want John burning the door down now, would he? John's jacket is gone too. I can't for the life of me understand why Magneto would take it.
John sees me looking. "If you're wondering about my jacket, Frog took it".
"Oh". That sucks.
We go through the door.
"At first I didn't understand why Magneto would want me back so badly. After all, I wasn't exactly a Kay. But now I do".
We stare at the large, weird-looking metal contraption in front of us.
It looks like a transformer out of some science fiction movie.
John circles it and starts explaining, "See, fire emits a lot of electromagnetic waves, like infra-red, light and even a bit of UV". Since when was John such a scientist? He takes in the incredulous look on my face before he continues. "Magneto thinks that by shortening the wavelengths of these waves, he could create a lot of gamma radiation".
I realise what he's saying. "To mutate all of humankind". John nods.
"But there's a problem. He can't get enough fuel to supply enough fire and even if he could, it would take a lot of trouble".
"So he wants to use you to generate power for this thing," I say, my voice rising at his ruthlessness.
"Yeah, but I can't create fire, only manipulate it". John points at a pointed stick-like object atop a raised platform on the contraption. "That thing creates a spark. I'm supposed to stand on that platform, create a continuous stream of fire from it and feed it to the transformer".
I suck in a breath. This is big. Really, really, big.
"How did he get the knowledge to make this thing anyway?"
"I don't know. For all I know, maybe he designed it himself. After all he and Professor Xavier were the ones who created the Cerebro".
"The what?"
"I'll tell you about that some other time".
We have to tell somebody. If Magneto's plan is carried out, this war between humans and mutants will never cease.
"Even if we do escape, what if he manages to get all the fuel he needs some other way?"
John knows I'm right. He knows who we can inform. He knows who can help us. Even if he doesn't like it one bit.
"The X-men".