PG I suppose, for semi
violence, I don't really know how to rate these things.
Thanks Viral n Summers2004 n Debs n Loanshark for your reviews! Debs n Loany,…
please… I mean it!
Summers2004: hehe no I don't think so… I just think Logan's too short for Ro's
own good ;) I'm more of a Remy/Ro shipper.. or well. Neal/Ro shipper. Hope I
haven't chased you away… :)
disclaimer: x men ain't mine. and
also every word in this is purposed for the way you read it.
7th
Ororo turned to look at her team mates. Sage was still fighting Thaiis, jumping
about from mantelpiece to chair, trying to avoid the wayward fists of the other.
It appeared it was just her and Sage now, and Sage wouldn't be able to help her.
Vargas had come to where Neal helplessly looked upwards at the sword's tip
coming to rest on the bridge of his nose, swivelling on its balance so a drop of blood fell down his left cheek. He tried to bring his hands
under him to lift himself up and get away from the sword which threatened to
bore its way into his head, but he couldn't find the strength to even waggle the
end of his finger.
It had all been so sudden, when they had come to the aid of Bishop, Davis and his
sister who had borrowed the place for the weekend, then found themselves all too
quickly defeated and left to curse their ineptness as they lay sprawled on the
floor, staring up at the ceiling.
Then Ororo had come, with Jean and Tessa, and he cursed at himself and his
stupid shades that he couldn't warn them that this was all just a trap for
Vargas to get his revenge on Rogue and kill the people he had set off to start
killing anyway. He yelled profanity in his head when he saw Ororo blow the door
away, telling himself he would go right ahead and kill himself if she was
killed. And now there she was, walking towards him casually as if not knowing
how much her life mattered to him, and although he tried to avert her and tell
her to Get the hell away, she refused to make eye contact with him, only walking
assuredly towards Vargas.
Sage was animatedly battling Thais, trying to predict her next move, but where
usually was her forte, she was now forced to rely on something as foreign as
instinct to aid her in her fight with Thaiis. She felt uncomfortable not being
able to discern the woman's every move, for she proved far too unpredictable for
even a mutant prowess such as her own. Now she had to thoroughly employ her battle
skills, and see what she could do to stay alive. Stay alive today. Only for
today… why so expendable?
Thaiis came dashing at her with her fists, thank goodness for the fact that she
didn't have sword. Her mind did come fairly into use after all, from the
miniscule practically worthless edge of being able to pre-empt a fair amount of Thaiis' oncoming shots. Her mind didn't tire like others' did, she was able to
always think on her feet. That is if her feet weren't already collapsing below
her. The pain ached at her muscles, and the sore spots where Thaiis had hit her
mark well. But the latter herself was tiring too, become more weary of the cat
and mouse game that sent them bouncing around the room from end to end.
Thaiis reached out to kick Sage, but she quickly somersaulted off the wall and
came to stand opposite Thaiis who angrily turned around. They stood staring at
each other, panting and sweating. Sage was becoming increasingly annoyed with
herself. Why couldn't she, the one with the far superior mind, find some way of
beating this woman? Because sometimes it just came down to brute strength.
Ororo closed her eyes and tried to shrug off the little hole in her side,
succeeding as the wound was fairly shallow. She righted herself and walked
slowly to where Vargas stood, tauntingly playing with the sword's edge against
Neal's nose bridge. She held up her hand in warning, and it began to glow with
lightning that shot out erratically at her surroundings, eager and on edge to
strike Vargas down. Inside though, she was afraid, this was the man that had
succeeded in killing her team-mate, and felling so many more, and had barely an
expression of strain on his face as he chuckled to himself with some heinous
self-pride.
He was a little disgruntled that she had refused to fight him early that
morning, when he had had his business with the other four x men and left them in
the care of Thais and Thaiis while he went to avenge the substitute death of
Storm, whose impersonation had finally reverted to its original self when Vargas
cowered back after magnanimity to not kill him, finding a very large pink
creature with yellow eyes in the place of where the dead 'Storm' had lain. He
did want another trophy to adorn his house, and accompany Psylocke. Rogue would
do even better, for the shame she had caused him, but all the same, here was
Storm whom he delighted in the strength of enough to kill and reward himself
with. If he could, when he would; but that was the joyful irony of the trial.
Sage stood over Thaiis' body, almost in disgust, and that was as much as she
could afford in terms of the victor's malevolence before she collapsed beside
her as well.
"I see your lightning came back, Storm," he said as she stopped six feet away
from him. She just continued to stare at him with pure hatred, for what he had
done to Elizabeth, to Neal, to Lucas, to Heather, to Davis and to Jean. Maybe it
even was a precognitive avenging for herself.
"But are you worthy prey?" He toyed with her, as he toyed with his sword, and
built up her rage as he jeered her and scraped at the back of her mind with his
sword that waved in front of Neal's detached face.
Suddenly his gaze changed, and he lunged straight for Ororo's body, much too
fast than she had expected him to be, already giving him the allowance to be far
more than what she had ever previously faced. She quickly jumped back however,
so the blade barely glanced her abdomen, hardly drawing blood. Too close, far
too close for comfort. She immediately raised her hand and struck him with her
lightning before he could come back for another swing, and surprised, he fell
backwards ungracefully, hit by the anger that coursed through her lightning. She
certainly had her lightning back, he thought, and she certainly wasn't playing
around. Good, he thought to himself, Good.
"Let's see how you fare if I do this." He reached over for Neal, picked him up
by the front of his costume, and held his sword to his neck. Neal winced and
swallowed hard. Yes, please kill me, he thought, he didn't want Ororo coming to
his rescue and killing herself over it anymore. That was her way, and while he
was alive he couldn't make her leave. Damn you Ororo, he thought to himself, but
that's why he loved her so much. Her strength of character to do nothing but
good, how she held strong in all her values in life, made it a point, a duty,
never to fail herself and less so her friends, least so the man she loved. She
loved the way she turned her head to look at you, the end of her white hair
whipping gently across her back, giving you that look that made you know she
cared even though she wouldn't say it out loud, still trying to retain that
majestic air of hers. He loved it when one day he'd
finally found her, not Storm, but her, and she had kissed him back when he
embarrassingly succumbed to his heart. She was gentle and tender, yet ever so
regal and austere, always putting on a brave front like a stubborn child.
Underneath was so much more, a woman who believed in everything she did, a woman
who lived, it seemed, for nothing but the purpose of living for others. But now
he had seen that, now he had found her, she had found someone to live entirely
for her too. Curse him for loving her, now everyone would merrily die together.
Oh swell.
He closed his eyes, because he didn't want to see her hurt anymore, as she
stupidly advanced towards Vargas. Go, Ororo, please he pleaded in his eyes, but
again she stubbornly refused with hers as they sternly imparted into his, Not
leaving without you.
Vargas saw her coming, and as she did he pulled his sword to Neal's breast and
began to drag the edge of the sword against it. Neal gritted his teeth in pain,
not being able to do much aside from that because it made no difference to how
much pain he was already in. How did this one man do it?
"No!" Ororo gasped, seeing Neal's face contort with the pain. "Let him go!" she
screamed, albeit completely uselessly. But her rage and pain were what he had
been looking for -- Come to me, Storm -- and he waited for her to come close
enough when he suddenly let go of Neal, lifting his sword from his chest and
letting him fall, and at the same time using the flat of his sword to swipe at
Ororo's knees so she fell forward. Her hands stretched out to break her fall,
and her fingers clenched against the wooden floor, kneeling on all fours as she
looked over the half closed eyes of Neal who lay under her. The lifelessness in
his face etched its anguish into her, and she quickly moved to stand up again.
But then, before she could get up, Vargas' sword came harshly upon her
back, and he pulled it mercilessly across her, cutting her diagonally through
her cape and along her back. He wasn't taunting anymore, now he well and fully
meant the blow, forcing the blade and menacingly dragging it through her. She
felt the cool edge of the sword against her flesh cut her as it purposefully and surely make its
callous path from her shoulder to her hip. He swiped the blade away, leaving a
trickle of drops trailing after the end of his sword to the edge of her cape.
That's how.
Her breath caught, and she
looked down at Neal who was fairly oblivious as to what was happening, and all
he saw was a tear fall from her eyes, her empty unfocused gaze looking back at
him, and blood collecting at the corner of her mouth.
---