TW: blood/injury

I fell gracefully from the second level of the house as the outer wall had been ripped clean off allowing me easy exit.

Apocalypse stepped forwards, looking me up and down and assessing my power.

He reared his hand back and shot shards of metal across the desert right towards me.

I felt an impact in my lower torso but I ignored it, high off of adrenaline.

Two steel beams fell in front of me creating the symbolic X, blocking most of the attack.

Magneto, who was floating above the scene, had caused this. He had disobeyed Apocalypse and the deity wouldn't be taking it lightly.

"You betray me?" Apocalypse spat at Magneto.

"No. I betrayed them," Erik answered, levitating downwards.

Metal began flying towards Apocalypse, burning up on impact as the deity had created a powerful forcefield.

Hank and Scott jumped down to join me.

Hank's blue form raced along the sand and pulled Raven out of harm's way. He swiftly then freed Peter's foot that had become cemented in the ground during the fray. The speedster stood up and zipped over to join me.

"Good to see you," Peter whispered. He took a knee then leaned against a chunk of rubble.

I sheathed my sword and moved to Peter's side. He gripped his ankle in pain. Luckily, it didn't look broken, just sprained. Peter removed his goggles and slid to the ground, tapping out.

Scott removed his goggles and fired upon Apocalypse, joining Erik. For a moment, I wished I had powers such as theirs. Hank had been right; I felt useless with just my sword.

The battle had begun in a moment, then ended in one. Scott, Erik, and Jean blasted the deity with their mutant power, causing him to fall to his knees then disappear into dust.

The dust cleared and settled down on the dunes once more, blending in with the sand.

Surprisingly, the only casualty was Apocalypse and the woman who had the ability to wield this pink energy.

All battles ought to be fought in the desert, I thought with a small smirk, a cramp forming in my side. I hoped Stark had gotten that perimeter set up.

"Evelyn?" called a voice. Only Charles called me that.

I flew up into the house where he was sitting up on his own accord, out of his trance. Apocalypse had been playing mind games and Charles had won.

"Are you alright?" I asked, kneeling down to check him over for wounds.

Warren flew up into the house after me. Warren's face no longer had tattoos and his wings were no longer metal as Apocalypse's power had faded from him. His pristine white feathers along with my black wings mixed and spilled out the back of the house.

"I'm okay," Charles assured me, taking my hands in his. "What about you? Evelyn, Evelyn?"

I blinked hard. My vision was going blurry.

Charles' voice was fading in and out of my ears. He pulled his hands off of mine, a look of horror crossing his face a he realized his hands were dark red. I stumbled forward from my kneeling position, the heels of my hands impacting the wooden floor.

"Hank! Hank!" I heard Charles yell in a panic, but it sounded like far-off music.

Darkness was beginning to pull at the edges of my vision.

I looked down to my torso. A large patch of Stark's suit had been torn away and replaced with a piece of warped metal, crimson dripping around it.

I felt like I was going to vomit.

A figure floated down into the house . . . Erik.

"Erik, isn't there something you can do?" Charles pleaded with his former friend.

"The best I can do is pull it out, and I fear that would only make it worse," he said solemnly.

I could feel my body slowly sinking into Charles' arms as I could no longer hold myself upright.

"It's going to be okay, Evelyn," Charles said. "Warren, take her back to the Quinjet as carefully as you can."

I was shifted into my brother's arms.

It was at this point I began to lose patches of time.

I blinked and I was in the Quinjet. I blinked again and Hank was standing over me. I blinked once more and I was being moved on a gurney with concerned faces leaning over me.

"Stay with us, Eve," commanded a voice. It was . . . Doctor Banner? But that must have meant I was already back in New York.

"Jesus, kid." That was unmistakably Tony Stark.

I felt as if my limbs each weighed one hundred pounds. I realized an oxygen mask was on my face. Flexing my fingers, I could feel all of the things like heart monitors and IV lines attached to me.

"We're taking her into emergency surgery," said Doctor Banner. "We're going to try our best."

"Eve, if you can hear me, this is Warren," said my brother, taking my limp hand in his. "You're gonna be fine, you hear me?"

"Evie . . . I love you, okay . . . come back to us, Evelyn . . . just hold on a little longer," a familiar voice pleaded.

"Okay . . ." I managed to croak.

Charles. Hold on for Charles.