Not Myself
By Princess Alexandria
Princess_alex24@hotmail.com


Annie stared after Christy in shock for a moment.  The woman made no sound while she barreled down the path beyond Annie's ability to see her.  Christy was running into danger again.  Christy may have told her to stay put but Christy had a habit of running into danger too and Annie wasn't willing to risk the woman getting hurt, but when she turned to tell Erik to deal with the car he wasn't looking too good.  Damn, she couldn't leave him alone.

Erik was pale and seemed to be sweating a little.  "Get in the backseat."  Annie told him and unlocked it so that he could.  "What's wrong?"  Maybe he knew more about what was happening.  He sat down while still staring blankly.

"I'm trying to keep my shields up.  I can't project her fear… I'll endanger everyone.  I can't project her fear."  He sounded like someone that had been running just a little too long, and Annie wanted to ask more, but forcing him to split his attention would make it harder for him to keep those shields.

She moved to put the bag she'd dropped and the cooler in the trunk.  She then moved into the drivers seat and started the car.  Christy must be thinking they'd have to run for it and they'd be ready, even if Annie had to drive herself, they'd be ready.

********

Jessi stood in front of Jon's sprawled body, wanting to make sure he was still breathing, but she couldn't risk turning away from the four men in front of her.  It was darts the guns shot.  Drugs.  Jon was probably going to be okay.  She kept telling herself that as she stood in front of him and concentrated as hard as she ever did to keep those darts from hitting her or hitting Jon again.  He'd been hit by a few before he fell down.

"Give it up Mutie.  We can do this all night."  The lead asshole told her, and Jessi wished she could spare some of her forcefields to attack, but she couldn't split her attention like that.  She wasn't good enough for that yet.

She knew what they'd do if they got them.  These were her father's men.  Jessi recognized the lead asshole, because he'd had dinner at her dad's house a few times.  He didn't seem to recognize her yet though.  Maybe it would help.  She had to try something.  Just defending wasn't going to get her out of this.

"Liam, just leave us alone."  She cried out while almost missing a shot to her arm.  The ground in front of her was littered with darts.

"What?"  He stopped shooting for a moment.  The slow grin that crossed his face was far from comforting but Jessi couldn't pay too much attention.  The other three men weren't stopping the attack.

"Jessi… Oh, you're a mutie.  Man you're old man is gonna be disappointed in you."  His voice rose.  "Take the girl alive."

********

Christy moved off the path and still headed down towards the beach.  If it were a large force they'd be watching the paths.  Her expression became blank except for her cold eyes.  Whoever was attacking wasn't getting away with it.  She moved slower to survey the area and took in the battle a few feet from the small cliff she stood on.  Four men were shooting at Jessi.  Jon was down.  The hand around the handle of her gun tightened when she saw Jon down.  Two men were coming up behind Jessi, but the girl was so focused on the attack from in front of her she didn't see them.

"Let's even these odds a bit."  She whispered to herself as she lifted the gun.  A small part of her was worried about what Erik would feel, but she couldn't let that interfere with her job, and her job was to protect these kids.  Her hand was steady as she aimed at the first man, the one whose gun was raising to hit her kid.  The loud gunshot rang out in the night and a man collapsed.  Her aim was good, merciful.  A fast death.  A familiar tingle went across her skin as he died.  It was sick that she got such a high from killing, but she didn't take the time to feel shame.  She took this moment to yell out loudly.  "Keep yourself covered!"  Because Jessi had to stay focused or she'd lose control of her powers.

********

Erik's body jerked as a familiar shock went through him.  Tears came to his eyes and his fingers gripped the back of the seat desperately.  Death. 

"What happened…"  Annie was staring at him, but he was trying to build up the shield.  Brick by brick.  He had to keep control.  He couldn't answer her.

********

Christy moved as soon as she spoke and several darts hit her previous location.  She ducked down as flashlights hit a spot near her and moved to aim at the other man behind Jessi.  He went down quickly.  She knew Jessi needed to see the shots to protect herself, and when covering two people she didn't have enough forcefields to circle her body. Her black clothes helped her blend, but she bent down and grabbed some dirt to rub on her face.  The shine of her skin could give her away, she'd learned that the hard way once, and it wasn't a lesson she'd forget. 

"Liam, what are we supposed to do?"  One panicked asshole yelled out, giving Christy the name of the leader and she risked looking out to see which one it was.  The taller man with blonde hair was in charge.  They'd stopped aiming at Jessi and were nervously looking around the trees.

********

Jessi clenched her fists and focused, hoping that her aim was better than it had been.  She sent a forcefield out with all the strength she could manage, trying to push it further from her body than she ever had before.  Liam doubled over as it hit him in the stomach and knocked him back, before it dissipated because of the distance from her.  He stood hunched over and wheezing from the attack.  "You bitch."  He managed to get out.  Jessi pulled the forcefields tighter to her and Jon, to prepare for another attack.

A rustling in the trees drew the F.O.H. fire and Jessi worried that they'd actually get Christy.  She sent out another forcefield and it didn't make it far enough.  She was weakening.

********

"I will kill you."  Christy called out loudly and noticed the nervous young men standing near Liam became more nervous.  "Killing doesn't really bother me.  You threaten mine, I kill you it's simple."  She moved again, using the underbrush and bushes to her advantage.  "Leave now, or don't leave at all.  Those other two men are already dead."  If they felt fear they'd be sloppy, and maybe they'd run.  She could let them run.

"I'll kill Jessi if you don't get out here right now."  Liam yelled out while pulling out a different gun, one that probably had real bullets.  Jessi couldn't block that, she wasn't strong enough for that.  Christy aimed and fired right at his chest.  This man could suffer.  He fell.  His men ran.  Christy stepped out cautiously.  She just had a feeling that she hadn't killed him.  She could feel it in her bones.  She was usually very good about being able to tell if something was a killing blow or not.

********

Jessi just stood still, staring after the running men and waiting for something to go wrong.  Liam had fallen, and the others ran.  She could see them running down a dock towards a boat.  That was how they got here, how the snuck up on them.  If Jessi weren't so involved in kissing Jon, maybe they'd have seen it coming.

Christy stepped up to the ledge and jumped down six feet onto the rocky beach.  Jessi watched the woman walk up to Liam with her gun drawn, cautious and dangerous looking.  It was then that she finally turned around to see what was behind her.  Two bodies, men, and so much blood.  "Are they really dead?"  She whispered and felt strangely detached from her body.  She felt a little dizzy.

"Yes."  Christy didn't even sound upset about that.

"You killed them."  Jessi swayed on her feet as she turned to face her teacher.  The woman looked like a dangerous stranger as she kneeled down beside Liam and ripped his shirt open.

"Bulletproof vest."  Christy hissed.  Christy looked up at her and Jessi was taken by the coldness in her eyes.  There was little emotion as Christy spoke.  "How's Jon?"

Finally Jessi felt like she could move.  She fell to her knees next to Jon and pressed her hands to his neck fearfully.  A heart beat.  "Oh thank god."  Her voice started to break as the fear hit her.

"Don't break down now.  We aren't safe until we're out of here."  Christy stood up and glanced at the carnage behind Jessi.  Jessi didn't look again, knowing that sight would give her nightmares for a long time already.  "Get the darts out of him."

Jessi moved quickly to pull the four darts out of him.  He didn't even flinch when she did that, and it worried her. 

"Jessi."  Christy's voice made her look up to see the woman staring down at Liam.  "He knew who you were, didn't he?"  Jessi's eyes widened as she watched Christy's fingers flex on the gun she still held in her hand.

"He works with my dad."  Jessi swallowed as that thought sunk in.  Her dad was going to find out she was a mutant.  "Why, what are you going to do?"  Jessi whispered while staring at Christy wide eyed.

"Would the others that left know?"  Christy's hand with the gun moved a little closer to him, and Jessi was scared that Christy was thinking of shooting an unconscious man.

"Don't kill him."  Jessi spoke softly.  Not like this.  It wasn't right.

"You'll never be safe."  Christy turned to look at her and Jessi pulled back a little at the emptiness she saw there.  "If he lives, you'll never be safe."

Jessi stood up and stared.  This couldn't be the same woman that sat and watched movies with them.  This… this was Christy?  She took a step closer to her, trying to ignore the fear Christy's stone like expression and calm acceptance of violence gave her.  "Not like that.  I… I can't."  Jessi took a deep breath.  "You told me not to let you become 'that woman' remember?"  Christy had talked about a woman willing to do anything to make life easier, and now Jessi understood what she meant.  "We'll think of something, but this… this wouldn't be self defense."

********

Christy just nodded.  She knew what she should do, but Jessi didn't have the ruthlessness needed for it.  She couldn't even stand there and see Christy do it.  Jessi wasn't seeing the whole picture, but Christy was going to have to go with that and tell Jessi what this meant for her later.

She put her gun away and could hear Jessi's sigh of relief.  The bodies on the other side of them were a mess, and it would take too long to clean it up.  She wasn't used to having to worry about the law, but at least this gun wasn't registered to her.  She'd gotten this from a less reputable source when she got the image inducer for Annie. 

She removed all of Liam's weapons and took the phone as well.  Any time they could buy themselves was good.  One comfort was that these men wouldn't be able to go to the police, or they'd have to admit to being out hunting mutants, and Christy knew they were murderers.  She shook her head angrily.  She was letting a murderer get away.  She'd never done that before.

We're gonna have to drag Jon back to the car, and we need to move fast and quietly."  Christy tossed Liams things into her pockets.  She couldn't leave them where he or someone else could find them.  The phone she broke over a rock and left the pieces near him. 

When she moved to Jon's side she just stared at him.  Why couldn't he be a smaller man?

********

Annie's fingers were white on the steering wheel.  She kept looking around for an attack, since she was supposed to keep the car safe.  Erik wasn't as tense as he had been, and had whispered that it was over, but he wasn't talking.  He was just staring out into space.

They'd been sitting there for what seemed like forever when she saw the movement on the path.  Her eyes widened to see Christy and Jessi each holding one of Jon's arms around them.  They looked like they were almost ready to collapse as they dragged him back to the car.

She leapt out of the car and moved to help Christy.  "No, help Jessi.  I've got this."  Annie then noticed that Jessi was almost ready to fall to her knees under the strain.  The three of them managed to get Jon into the back seat, and Jessi moved in after him so that he was wedged into a sitting position between Erik and her.

********

Erik had felt more than he ever had.  He'd felt everyone's terror, he'd felt two deaths.  He'd barely managed to hold it all in so that Annie didn't get it.  It took almost everything out of him.

"Erik."  Christy's voice was gentle as she spoke and he turned to look at her, knowing what she'd had to do to keep them safe today.  Tears started down his cheeks finally.  If he'd had better control he could have done something, stopped it, made it so that Christy didn't have to become a killer.  "tire tracks.  Can you cover those up?"  He looked out the window and noticed the dirt road they always drove on to get here.  He'd seen enough cop shows to know tire tracks were bad.

"If we don't drive too fast, I can try to brush the dirt as we pass it."  It would be hard, he'd never used his powers this way, but Christy wasn't going to jail for this.  Not if he could help it.  Everyone else was being very quiet, and Erik could feel Jessi was in shock, whereas Annie was a frustrated bundle of nerves.

"What happened?"  Annie finally asked as Christy pulled out of their parking spot and stopped so that Erik could cover those tracks.  He unbuckled his seatbelt after that and carefully maneuvered around so that Jon didn't fall over.  He faced behind them and used every last ounce of focus he had to brush the dirt with his telekinesis, to cover their tracks.

Christy sounded like she'd aged years.  "We'll talk about it at home.  We need to focus on getting out of here without drawing attention to ourselves.  It needs to be like we were never here."

Erik's headache made it hard to even see by the time they got to the paved roads and it hurt to continue covering their tracks, but he did that until all the dirt stopped falling off the tires.  Only then did he let himself collapse back in his seat.

********

Christy stood in the doorway of Erik's room.  This was as far as they'd been able to drag Jon.  Erik was barely able to walk, Jessi had used up the last of her strength to get Jon up that path with Christy, and Christy and Annie couldn't do stairs with the boy.  Jon seemed to be breathing fine as he laid on his back.  Jessi sat in a chair by the bed holding his hand, but she was still incapable of much thought.  It wasn't time to tell the girl what they'd need to do now.  "Let me know if his condition changes."  Christy spoke quietly and watched Jessi nod.

Christy moved to her own rooms and watched Erik.  He'd obviously felt the deaths.  He was laying down on her couch staring at a blank T.V.  Annie was sitting watching her.  She'd got a brief synopsis of what happened and had been a bit too touchy since then.  Annie seemed to think Christy would need comforting, but she didn't.  The only thing Christy was worried about was how the kids were taking this.

"Annie, get everyone's shoes from tonight.  We'll have to toss them."  Christy was relying on old T.V. shows to know what could give them away.  "I'll take them out in the morning."  Christy sighed.  At the same time she got more moving boxes.  Jessi was moving, and Christy would have to tell her that once some of the shock wore off.

She moved into the bathroom and closed the door.  Once she had the time to look she could see the darts sticking out of her own skin, through her shirt.  No one had noticed.  She hadn't even noticed, since she'd been so focused on getting everyone out of there safely.  She pulled two darts out of her skin as couldn't even see a hole.  She dumped them and just finished undressing for a shower.  She had dirt everywhere.

********

Annie watched Jessi packing from the doorway.  The men that had been coming for Erik's things would now have the contents of three bedrooms to move.  Jon was still groggy from the drugs but he was packing as well.  This wasn't fair.  They were the victims here, and they had to move.  Annie gritted her teeth and moved away.  It didn't look like either of them wanted to talk.  They were both moving as fast as they could to try and beat the movers.

Annie walked down the hall to see Christy.  Christy had gone to work and brought her grading home so that she could be here for them.  She would have called in sick, but grades were due before they left for New York.  Christy was still worrying about the normal things like that.  She must be repressing the shock of killing someone.  Annie didn't know if she could have done it.

Christy wasn't looking at her and her voice was lower, gentler, "Annie, you should start packing too."

"I don't want to leave you."

"Annie…"

"No."

Annie watched Christy look up and could see some pain, finally an emotion.  Christy hadn't been very emotional since it happened.  "I can't train you, I can't protect you if the cops do figure this out, and to be honest… I know you care, but your being here puts me at risk.  I don't think you can pretend nothing happened if someone asks.  Annie, until you all deal with this shock, you could get me caught.  One mention, one comment where someone can hear you, one guilty look… and I'm a suspect."

"I don't want to leave you."  Annie felt the tears fall and her breath hitch.

"And I don't want you to go, but you have to go for now.  At least for now."  Christy got up and Annie barely enjoyed being hugged. 

Annie nodded, not really willing to risk speaking.  She pulled away and moved to pack.  In spite of the reasons why, it felt like she was being kicked out just when Christy would need her most.

********

Christy watched the kids sitting at the airport terminal waiting for the plane from the shop.  They were taking an early flight so that they could get to New York at a decent time.  Christy tucked the newspaper up, carefully covering the front page and put it in her carryon.  She'd read it when in New York and away from prying eyes.  Those men's death made the front page.

The woman started to call for boarding, so she picked up her bag and moved to her group.  She gave them a small smile.  They still looked out of it from waking up before the sun.  "Well, lets go."  She glanced at them.  "You all have books or something right?  We'll be flying for a while."

"Yes mom."  Jessi gave her a teasing smile.  "We all brought our toys."  Mom?  Christy blushed at the teasing laughter, but at least they were laughing again.  Yesterday had been very tense at the house.  Maybe they'd bounce back better than Christy thought they would.