Deja stopped running. She panted quietly, trying to think. Yukiro would have known what to do. She hated herself for not knowing. She never knew what to do, even when Yukiro was teaching her. Deja didn't have a clever and sensible instinct.
'Who was that man in the wheelchair? He had been so bizarre. What am I supposed to do?' She knew how to fight. She knew how to run. She even knew how to wheeze silently for safety. But she didn't know how to react to whatever life threw her. And she knew those people would be after her again. Her foster family must be worried. They would have called a search by now.
'Of course!' Exactly! Deja kicked herself mentally for not seeing this. 'Go to the police!' She stopped panting with her new determination and decided to set off. But first, she needed a direction. 'Where's a police station?' She saw an approaching cab. "Taxi!" she yelled, waving out her arms and successfully catching its attention. It pulled up on the sidewalk next to her and she got in the back seat. "To the police station, please."
"That'll be $10.60."
Deja stared. "Now?"
The driver actually didn't care, but now he grew concern. She was nervous; probably didn't have the money. "Yes. Now."
"Um…"
"You don't have the money, kid? Get outta here."
"No! Wait. Um…Do you have-I mean do you know where the station is?"
"What, you gonna walk?"
"Yes, I-I need help. Just tell me where it is!"
"Tell ya what. I'll drive you for $5."
Deja was touched, but she still didn't have the money. She wished she could have given him the money, but she just couldn't. "I-I-I-"
The driver sighed. She seemed so helpless and nervous, in an innocent and heartbreaking way. He wanted to drive her, but no exception. "Sorry, kid. You're on your own."
"Can you just tell me where it is?"
"See that road? Walk down it 'till the fifth light. Then take a right. Right again, then go straight 'till the next light where you turn left. It's right around there."
"Thanks," she mumbled, distracted by the looming task of walking all that way.
"Logan?" Wolverine didn't hear Storm's gentle voice. "Logan?" He stirred. Looking up he saw the soft smile of Ororo. "Is everything alright?"
He felt a shiver subside. "Whatya mean?"
"Well. You seem a little…distant."
Wolverine sighed. He stared at the front of the jet. Scott was busy piloting the plane. Professor X and Nightcrawler were sitting close behind him, apparently not listening. He craved talking to Storm, letting everything out, but felt some kind of restraint holding him back. He tried to talk her remotely anyways. "Well…it's not easy being called a murderer."
Ororo nodded subconsciously. She thought that was bothering him, but he acted so tough most of the time she couldn't tell. "Logan," she said in her lovely accent, "She's confused. The Professor can't even make much sense out of what he saw in her mind. All we know is something's wrong with her gift…which is related to time." She watched as Logan blew her words off. She reached out a soothing hand on his. "I was once told that bad memories stand out more than the good ones. Maybe, for the moment, she can't see any good. But we can show her."
Logan's stubborn eyes looked back at her peaceful ones. He gave her what would be a smile for someone else. "…Thanks."
"In time, wounds heal." They both knew what she was talking about. "When you're ready, you can begin."
"I know," he countered quickly, unable to hold down his words now that she put attention on the unspoken matter. "But I feel like…I just can't let go. Like it's not real. It hasn't registered. I just-"
The two suddenly noticed that Kurt had stopped his droning prayers. Their words had been carrying quite easily in the silent jet. The dead stress hung in the air, and tension was practically emanating from Scott's determinedly quiet face.
"Excuse me," Deja said timidly, finely reaching a police station. The guard at the desk looked up skeptically at her. Deja faltered, unsure of what to say. "Um-"
"Do you have an emergency or complaint?" the guard asked. Clearly she was uninterested.
"People are chasing me," Deja mumbled out.
"What?"
Deja smacked herself mentally. What a stupid thing to say. "Has an Akira Oyama been placed as missing?"
The guard typed the name into her computer. "Oh." Deja tried to peek over curiously but the guard threw her back with a cold stare. "Please stay right here." She left, leaving Deja shaking with unease. The guard came back, but with a middle aged man in a trench coat walking behind her. "Right over-"
"Yes," the official said confidently. "I'll take it from here. Miss, would you please come with me."
As the guard came over from the counter and placed a firm arm on Deja's she gave the female cop a desperate look. "What?"
"Don't worry, Miss everything is perfectly fine."
"No. Wait-What's going on?"
"Miss." Deja finally stopped struggling and looked at the cold eyes of the official. "I'm taking you to your family. They're worried sick."
And with that Deja was ushered out of the station into a car. Looking around she noticed it didn't look like the cop cars she'd seen. She didn't know it, but it was a Lincoln. The official gestured her into the back seat while he assumed the seat next to her, the driving being taken care of by a chauffer. Before the man had actually gotten in, Deja felt the door beside swing open and a pair of strong arms fling themselves around her neck, dragging her out while using her for a shield. She didn't scream of instinctively kick out, but she did get distracted with the barrel looking her in the face by the cop. The driver spun around and shut at whoever had her, almost deafening her. She was thrown to the ground while a blast of hot air went past her. 'Oh God,' she grimaced inside and the person dragged her up.
"Come on!" she heard him yell. And the vision of an explosion told her to follow him. They ran for a few seconds before she felt the heat explode and again her ears shut themselves. The fire maneuvered around them miraculously and she felt the boy's hand pulling her. He opened a building door and waited for her to go in. What was he thinking? She turned to run back and see if the officer was ok. "No!" The hand pulled her back and when she looked at him she saw something in his eyes she hadn't seen before. "You gotta come with me, they'll kill you." Deja threw him off again. She turned and saw the blazing fire. The man and the driver had to have died. Unless they escaped? She saw the other policemen piling out into the parking lot in awe and horror as the sound of a fire truck already grew in the distance. She felt the boy come beside her. "We've been trying to protect you from these guys." He waved at the fire. "They're who kidnapped your grandmother."
Deja looked from his eyes to the flames licking the black smoke. "Bullshit."
Pyro nodded. "Ok. Maybe we have our own interests in protecting you. But they did take…Yur-e-ko. Yur-e-ko Oya-mama." Deja shook her head at his awful pronunciation. She currently felt no threat from him. A vision was coming to her of being shot at. "Listen," Pyro distracted her. "I can't make you trust me. But you never actually stuck around to see what we're doing. It's not torture. It's not death or experimentation. We're fighting a war. Against these guys." He waved again at the destruction.
Deja's mouth dropped and Pyro looked to see what she was gaping at. The man who tried to take her away was emerging from the wreckage. Completely unharmed except for the ash covering him, he walked boldly out in front of them. "Shit," Pyro hissed. The man held up a gun similar to Pyro's. "Run!" Deja didn't need him to shout that, she was already sprinting. The two teenagers turned. Deja was ready for another run.
a/n-add a trench coat and you know they're bad, or unbelievably cool like in the Matrix; I really wanted to post this so the mistakes are numerous, I'll fix it tomorrow, everything's tomorrow,; plus I'm completely pro Nightcralwer+Storm so no Storm+Wolverine loving going on; just a very intimate friendship
a/n-I also know Deja was kind of acting unnaturally nice to Pyro in the end, well there's an explanation just wait 20 more chapter (jk)
