"Nervous?"
"No. I fly all the time,"
John frowned at Warren. "I was talking to Raven, Birdlegs."
She turned to them, "Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't really listening,"
Raven had been staring out the window for several hours, watching as the clouds and landscape passed by. Warren had commissioned his private jet for the ride back to San Francisco, and though John felt apprehension, he had no idea what Raven must be going through.
"We noticed- you haven't said a word all day," Warren said. He put a hand over hers. "Don't worry, Raven. I phoned my father earlier, there has been some success on the reversal process."
She ignored the rising hope in her heart and the tingling where their hands touched. "If there is a reversal process, I don't know that I would trust who was holding the needle. People, human and mutant, have been trying to hurt me all my life. Taking away my mutation was enough to take me out of the game; it would be too easy if they were to just hand my powers right back to me."
Warren shook his head and griped her hand tighter, a small reassuring squeeze. "You don't understand. My father did put a lot of funding into a development for the mutation cure, but it's not because he hates mutants-"
"Oh, of course not! He just did it out of the goodness of his heart, right?" John drawled.
"Please, listen to me. The doctors and scientists that work for my family aren't idiots; they're all highly educated and understanding people. They did the job they were paid to do, and they saw it as an exciting breakthrough- not a way to exterminate mutants."
"Stop arguing, boys. We're almost ready to land." Raven said, interrupting the two of them. They had been bickering lightly for most of the flight- she was tired of listening to it, she just wanted some time alone to think.
Indeed, the clouds had parted and the seatbelt light dinged on. The pilot issued a short message over the intercom.
John turned to Warren. "Look, all I know is that your 'highly educated and understanding' scientists had better find a way to reverse the cure before it's time for us to go back to New York."
"Or else what?" Warren challenged.
Raven's eyes widened. So, the birdbrain actually has some guts under all that fluff, she thought with some measure of approval. Warren's eyes, usually a soft and charming blue, had hardened to steel as he glared at Pyro.
"I'll torch the Worthington building. That was the plan. After we destroyed Alcatraz, he was going to let me do it, and I will." John said, the leather strap on his hand visibly strained.
"Not if I can help it. We're having them work day and night on the reversal process, and I have faith in our employees. I want Raven to have faith in them as well. The cure was never about mutants- it was about me. My father just wanted me to be a normal man."
The plane bumped slightly as it landed and pulled into the private hanger. "Oh, please, what's so great about being normal?"
"The safety of being around people who are just like you, I guess," Warren said as the doors opened and they made their way off the plane.
John scoffed, "Please, I'd feel less safe if I lost my powers. As long as I have a flame, I'm the most powerful man on the planet, and that's exactly how I like it."
"Unless someone gets too close and you get knocked out," Raven jibed as she nudged him in the ribs.
"One little mistake, and I don't like to get repeat concussions, thanks," he laughed a little as the car pulled onto the highway. "But what about you, Warren? You're honestly telling me that you would want the cure and never be able to fly again?"
"I used to want that," he said quietly.
"What! Warren, you can fly! Every single person on the planet has dreamt about what it would be like to fly," John said.
"It is wonderful…flying is wonderful...the first time, I was terrified. It took forever for my wings to grow large enough to support my weight, and even then I still had to train myself. I just started jumping off of fire escapes until I could glide into a landing...I was 15 when I finally, really flew for the first time. It's freedom, the only real freedom there is." Warren trailed off as he looked at Raven. "Can I ask you a question?"
Raven had been quiet the whole day, her mind in a different time and place, her eyes always absorbing the scenery out the window. She had been half-listening to their conversation- something about flying?- but she turned to give her attention to the handsome young man.
"Yes."
"Raven, what does it feel like when you morph someone?"
The question gave her pause, and as she thought over the answer, her spirit plunged ever lower. "I can't remember."
He took her other hand into his own, "I have faith in my company- we'll be able to jog your memory."
Two days after Warren's plane touched down, an urgent message was transmitted to his main office. For the more obvious reasons, he had chosen to work from home, at least until the time came when he would take full control of the company that his grandfather had found and his own father had expanded upon.
The message was from his father, and very brief- a simple statement that the reverse for the cure had been developed. Warren and John had managed to become more civil to each other for Raven's sake, though they doubted she would have noticed, distracted as she always seemed to be.
Her mood had not seemed to change much since they'd left the airport in New York- when not asleep, she sleepwalked through the day. John didn't like it; he assumed that she was anxious over the thought of seeing Eric again, of what they would say to one another. Either way, now that they knew of a way to bring back her powers, he hoped that she would snap out of it, and come back to him.
Warren shifted in the chair beside him. They were in the waiting area designated for patient families, while Raven was interred a few doors down. John had had to be forcibly removed from her room, so intent was he to stay in with her, but Warren assured him things would be fine.
"What is taking so long? How long does an injection take?" he demanded.
Warren shrugged. "It's only been a few minutes, the doctors need to ask her questions and things like that- when has a doctor's office ever been quick and easy? Relax- I like Raven, I wouldn't hand her over to just anyone,"
John didn't like how Warren was so reasonable and calm- he knew well enough that it was Warren who held all of the cards here; he was the one with the money and resources, he was the one who had alerted them to the reversal and Eric's presence. John knew all of that, but he didn't like it.
Finally, 20 minutes later, the door at the end of the hall opened. John jumped up from his seat and he started towards the figure that was coming out. He paused once he saw that it was Raven- Raven, just as she'd appeared when they'd first entered the hospital. John paused; her eyes were empty, her face very pale.
He went to her, reaching for her hands. "Raven…what happened?"
The woman before him seemed to tremble, her eyes- so empty before, began to fill with a mixture of tears and madness. She looked past John, to Warren. "Take me to Eric. Now."