Author's Note:
I do not own The Gifted.
Big thank you to Libra Black, doggy bye, and Manuelcards for the favourites, Slightly-Less-Rotten-Tomatoes, and Foreststar of WindClan for the follows, Shady21639 for the follow and favourites, and Ella Symphony for the follow and review. All support, thoughts, and criticism on the story and writing are welcome.
Going to the school dance seemed a good idea at the time. As did taking Andy with her.
It was not.
None of it was a good idea.
She was dancing with Jack, who might have been her boyfriend if she'd said yes to his offer of a date all those months ago before the girl jumped in and said hell no, when she saw Andy getting dragged aside. The part of her that was her said stay and dance, but the part that was the girl said go after him.
And the girl won.
It was the first time, and Lauren told herself it would be the last unless they agreed on something, but she began to push her way through the crowd.
She was still too late.
The gym began to shake and parts of it warp.
Her heart sang.
Andreas.
She wasn't alone.
She wasn't alone!
He was here, he was with her!
Lauren laughed in spite of herself. Those near her frowned and gave her disapproving looks, which was probably fair. Around her students were screaming and scrambling for the exits while she fought against the flow, throwing up a shield to stop a piece of ceiling about to come down on herself and several others.
The girl saw a wooden beam hurtling down towards her.
Lauren reminded herself it wasn't there.
She shoved her way into the shower room and found Andy in the midst of destruction, screaming like he was dying.
He was hurt, howled the girl, they had hurt him!
They must pay.
No. That wasn't her thought.
"Andreas," she screamed before she knew what she was doing. "Andy! Andy it's me! Look at me! It's me, it's me!"
"Lauren? Lauren?"
"Let's go!" She grabbed him, wrapping her arms around him and pulled him to his feet.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"You've nothing to be sorry for," said the girl before Lauren could shut her up. "They deserved it."
She led him out to the car and pushed him into the passenger seat, blinking to try and clear the images of a theatre disintegrating around her as she climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition.
"I couldn't stop," Andy was saying. "I couldn't stop, I couldn't stop."
"Do you remember the soldiers?" Lauren asked. Andy stopped and stared at her. Something like confusion passed over his face.
"How do you-"
"That's a yes then."
Andreas.
He was here with her.
She wasn't alone anymore.
Andrea Von Strucker would have known what to do, how to be brave, but Lauren Strucker was scared and took them home, where she finally told her mom about her mutant abilities.
"Is it mind reading?" Andy asked, maybe finally managing to pull himself together a little.
"No," Lauren replied. "Forcefields."
"But- you knew about the soldiers."
"What soldiers?" asked their mom. Which was when Sentinel Services arrived.
The girl screamed for her to grab Andy's hand and she did before she realised what the girl wanted and dropped it again. Instead they escaped in the car, the girl helping to deflect the bullets as they pulled out of their street probably for the last time.
"Lauren?" Andy whispered as they drove.
"Mm?"
"How did you know about the soldiers?"
"My dreams. Remembering things that never happened to you. They happened to someone else."
Except now she wasn't so sure any more.
"The Von Struckers. That day in the park."
"Yes." Lauren fumbled for her notebook, which she had started taking everywhere with her a long time ago, it was too precious to lose, and opened it to the first page. "This is what I know."
They stopped at a payphone so mom could ring dad. Lauren stared at her figure out the window. Slowly, deliberately, she hit the button to lock the doors and climbed into the driver's seat.
"What are you doing?" Andy asked.
"Looking for answers," Lauren replied.
Their mom screamed as they pulled onto the road and Lauren tried not to watch her trying to run after them.
"So where are we going?"
"To the only person who can give us them."
… three months ago…
"Dad?" Lauren asked.
"Yes love?"
"What happened to your dad?"
Her dad glanced at her. She was sat at the kitchen table, papers scattered in front of her.
"What do you want to know that for?"
"It's for a school project."
"He left when I was young."
"Do you know where he is now?"
"I suppose you're old enough now to know and not go doing anything stupid." He took a seat at the table. "My dad was a difficult man. He lived for his work. As a child I got… incredibly sick. I almost died. He never even visited me."
That was her boy.
"I haven't spoken to him in years. He lives up in Chattanooga."
Lauren scrawled it down in her notebook. "Thanks dad."
… three months later…
They arrived in Chattanooga around midnight and spent a few hours taking turns to nap in the car. In the morning they ditched it just outside the town and walked in. Asking around a little soon got them an address. Otto Strucker now ran a small antiques store on the outskirts.
"So what are we going to say to this guy when we do walk in?" Andy asked. Lauren gazed at the shop.
"I don't know."
Maybe Andrea and Andreas would help them with that.
"Come on. We can't just stay here like sitting ducks."
A bell rang as they entered the store. An elderly man was sat at the counter with a mechanical clock in front of him.
'You've got old,' was the first thing the girl wanted to say to him.
Lauren decided not to go with that.
"It's not often I see people your age in here," said the man. My Otto. "Of course, not often I see anyone in here."
Andy blinked furiously and rubbed at his eyes with one hand, shaking his head crossly. Lauren decided to cut to the chase. "You're Otto Von Strucker?"
He fixed her with a hard stare. "I'm afraid not. You'll find no one of that name here young lady. You're in the wrong place."
She had to look for it, but she could see it, something about the eyes and the mouth. My boy. My Otto. "No. I don't think we are."
He stepped out from behind the counter. "Listen young lady, I don't know who sent you here, but I can't help you."
Andrea smiled. There we are. My baby, my boy, my Otto. There's your fighting spirit.
"I'm Lauren Strucker, this is my brother Andy."
He frowned, looking at her a little harder. He looks just like his father when he does that.
"Reed Strucker is our father."
He seemed to fold in on himself, taking a hard step back. "You- You're Reed's children?"
"Yes." Lauren held a hand out, enclosing one of the parts for his clock in a sturdy shield. He jumped and shied away, both from it and her.
"No- No."
"I think you're the only person in the world that can help us."
He showed them up to his flat and brought them tea and toast when Andy mentioned they hadn't eaten.
"I'm sorry if we scared you," Lauren said, and she meant it, even if the part of her that was Andrea was scorning at what Otto had become. Wasting his gift, squandering his talent, stupid little boy. "We just needed to make you pay attention." He never was very good at that.
"What I don't understand," he said slowly, "is how you two knew. I never told anyone, not a soul, about my past. Not even Ellen. How could you possibly know?"
"You didn't change your name enough Toto," Andrea said silkily. "Removing part of it doesn't hide you from people who know what they're looking for."
Otto leapt to his feet. His hands began glowing faintly gold. See, you can't hide it. Andrea smiled. "I thought you were smarter than that."
"Lauren!" Andy hissed. "You're doing it again!"
She jerked back and slammed her head against the chair, pressing one hand to her temple. "Sorry. She's been… loud ever since the prom. I think she's happy. Or gloating."
Or both.
The glow was still spreading up Otto's arms. Does the little boy really think he can fight us? Us? Andy turned to him. "Mr Strucker, my sister has… flashes. Like visions of some sort, memories. From your mother. That's how we found you; that's why we came here."
"I'm no expert by a long shot, but that did not sound like a vision. You sounded… You sounded just like her. And the look on your face…"
"She talks these days," Lauren said quietly. "And she's getting louder. Please, Mr Von Strucker. We need you to tell us everything you can about your parents."
Slowly, the golden glow began to fade. He can't hold that state. No training, squandering his gifts.
"Are you a mutant too boy?"
Andy stared at the floor.
"Well?"
"Yes."
"What can you do?"
"I… don't know. I've only used it once, and I was so angry… It was like… tearing the molecules apart."
"It's the same as Andreas," Lauren confirmed.
"Are you sure?"
"She felt it."
Otto scrutinised him harder. He really does look like his father.
"And do you have these… visions too?"
"Twice," Andy whispered. Otto stared at them for a long moment.
"Given the situation, I suppose it would be best if you know everything." He turned around and fetched a locked case from a safe in the wall, setting it down on the table and opening it. He laid an old black and white photograph in a frame on the table. "This is my father, Andreas."
Andy picked up the photograph, turning it over in his hand. Lauren already knew the face well enough by now, and Andrea knew it straight off. Otto laid down another photograph. "And his sister, Andrea."
He kept those photographs, after all these years!
"As you appear to know, they were mutants. They were also terrorists." He handed them a stack of newspaper clippings. They were from various countries in various languages, but all bearing their names. One was the all too familiar article Lauren had already seen.
"This was all them?" Andy asked, and Lauren could see the fear behind his eyes. Fear not entirely directed at the newspaper clippings.
"All of it. And more."
Yes. Lauren couldn't see any theatre amongst the clippings, or any mentions of soldiers.
"Tell us about Fenris," Lauren said softly.
"The wolf." Otto selected a new sheet from the case, unfolding it carefully before handing it to them. It was a wanted poster bearing their – bearing the Von Struckers' – photographs and the crimes of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity at the bottom. The part of Lauren that was Andrea recognised it, for she remembered being insulted.
"The powers in our family's bloodline have always set us apart, even from other mutants. But together my father and his sister were more powerful than you could ever imagine. And they used this power to do terrible things, unspeakable things."
"But what was the power?" Andy asked. "What did it do?"
"Destruction," Otto whispered. "Of everything."
Andy rubbed at his head. "Wait. We're mutants, and you, and them… What about dad?"
"Our family's abilities… They have always been dangerous, and different. I had to stop it."
Andrea laughed. "How could you possibly think you could stop it?"
Andy kicked his sister.
"I took a job at Trask Industries on a research project to eliminate the X-gene. I never found what they wanted, a serum that worked on all mutants. But I made a version that worked on just one mutant. And gave it to your father."
"So you… stopped his abilities manifesting?" Andy asked.
"Yes. If it worked as I intended it should have eliminated the X-gene in his genetics and stopped it being passed down. Evidently it didn't work."
Lauren couldn't stop her fast enough.
The part of her that was Andrea started laughing.
"Mr Strucker," Andy said slowly. "I think you just made it worse."