Warning: References to death.

Chapter 16

The smell of burning sausages woke Eli. She didn't need to be a mutat to feel the energy vibrating off of every individual mutant that morning. This energy grew with every passing hour. Eli saw John walk past a group of mutants as he was making rounds. She was careful to avoid him. It was nearly noon when Magneto addressed his militia.

"They wish to cure us. But I say to you, we are the cure!" mutants all around Eli cheered. "The cure for their infirm, imperfect condition called Homo sapiens. They have their weapons. We have ours. We will strike with a vengeance and a fury that this world has never witnessed. And if any mutants stand in our way, we will use this poison against them. We shall go to Alcatraz Island, take control of the cure, and destroy its source. And then, nothing can stop us!"

Mutants cheered for their leader, for their cause. Little did they know, Eli was going to stop them. One way or another, she would stop them. Eli watched as Jean and Magneto left. Jean must have called Logan here, and Magneto was calling him away. Eli waited until both Magneto and Jean left the area before she tried to approach Logan. His wounds were finishing healing. It was a trick that always amazed Eli.

"Logan," Eli whispered. "Logan, get up. You need to get back to the mansion. I'm going to go with Magneto to get the mutant before he does, but this is something I can't do on my own; so get your fat ass up and get the others to Alcatraz!"

Eli almost didn't dodge in time, when Logan swung at her.

"Eli, what're you-"

"Hurry and get back to the mansion! Go!"

Eli stood as far away as she could from Magneto and his generals. The last thing she wanted was to get caught just before the militia made it to Alcatraz. Eli found herself admiring Magneto's abilities, as he created a new bridge with the Golden Gate Bridge. He truly was a magnificent mutant. His only shortcoming was the fact that he was a terrible person at the best of times. Case in point, was when he sent his foot soldiers in to take the brunt of a weaponized version of the cure. Eli predicted that Magneto would do this, and she hung back, waiting to see what he would do.

Eli was more than amused to see that the humans were using plastic against the mutant that controlled magnetic fields. The humans targeted the mutants that remained on the bridge, and Magneto used the surrounding metal debris to protect everyone.

"Arclight, use your shock waves! Target those weapons!" Magneto ordered. Arclight shook her hands out, and when Magneto dropped his debris shields, the tall woman clapped her hands together. The weapons and shields the humans were carrying cracked and broke. She did this several times.

Eli could then hear the tell tale signs of the stealth jet the X-men used. Eli needed to hurry if she was going to get to the cure mutant. Eli watched as the X-men made their entrance; they were aiding the humans. Logan lead everyone and had them form a line.

"You men, cover the doors! Everybody, get together!" he yelled. "And hold this line!"

"Traitors to their own cause," Eli heard Magneto say before he yelled, "Finish them."

Eli saw her chance in the chaos of the fighting, but so did Magneto. He sent three of his generals to retrieve the boy, including the Juggernaut. Eli swore as she raced to catch up to him. It looked as though Kitty was hot on the Juggernaut's trail.

Before Eli could enter the building, Eli threw an obsidian knife at a mutant that was attacking soldiers with what appeared to be the power of a volcano. That might have been a bad choice, but she had to do something. The mutant turned on the petite woman and spat hot ash at her. Her shirt immediately caught fire, and Eli had to tear off the sleeve. This was going to be a pain in the ass.

Even as Eli thought that, a soldier managed to stab the mutant with a cure cartridge. The mutant's body reacted violently and his skin exploded. The soldier screamed in agony as hot ash burned exposed skin. Eli was frantically trying to put her own clothes out as her skin blistered. When she felt that she herself was fine, she went to the soldier and hit out the fires on his uniform, causing her hands to burn even more. Then she gently wiped away as much of the soot from his face as she could. One of the other soldiers came to help.

"Help him! I'm going to help evacuate anyone left inside!" Eli said loudly. The soldier hesitated for a moment, but he nodded as he helped his fellow man get away from some of the harsher fighting.

The converted prison was surprisingly empty, but then Eli wasn't really expecting much, considering the fact that the government was given a heads up about this entire situation. Eli ran passed the corridors that the Juggernaut had ran through. Eli could only hope that Kitty got to the mutant before the brute could. Any people Eli came across, she directed them to go the way she had come and to go directly to the left upon exiting the building, so they would run into soldiers.

Eli stopped in a hallway, where there was a middle aged asian woman lying dead on the floor. Eli examined the body a little closer. Her entire body on the left side was covered in small puncture wounds. There was foam spittle at the woman's mouth as well. This was some kind of venom. Eli noted that she should be careful as she made her way to the yells and pleading of a man. Eli followed the yelling all the way to the roof.

"Please, don't do this! I only wanted to help you people." the man begged as he was held just over the ledge of the roof.

"Do we look like we need your help?" asked a man, before Arclight and another woman pushed the man over the ledge. Eli threw caution to the wind as she ran up and shoved the man's head into the cement ledge. The brunette let her body do the work for her as she crescent kicked Arclight in the face, and then back kicked the second woman in the stomach. Eli cheered for a moment.

"God that felt amazing!" Eli laughed. "Oh shit!"

Eli ran to the ledge to see an angel rescue the pleading man before he plummeted to the ground. Eli looked up to see that Magneto and John were throwing burning cars around. Logan was going to need figure something out and soon. Eli span on her heel. Now that she was at the top of the building she needed to get out of the building and find Kitty. Eli ran and ran, navigating her way back.

The blue eyed girl mad it out of the building in time to see Jean destroying the surrounding area and everyone in it indiscriminately.

"Move!" Eli yelled. "Run!"

Eli helped injured soldiers and mutants alike get out of the fury of Jean Grey. Eli was helping a soldier carry out his comrade when she spotted Hank.

"Hank! Hank, help us!"

"Eli!" Hank took a hold of the unconscious soldier. "You need to get out of here!" Eli looked up at Jean.

"I'm the only one who can stop her," Eli heard Logan say from in front of her. Eli looked up to see Logan speaking to Storm. "Get everyone to safety. Go!"

Storm nodded and flew to help as many people as she could. Eli took a deep breath and followed Storm's actions. There was nothing she could do now, except hope that Logan came out of this as well as he did the first time Jean died.

"C'mon! We need to get as far away from here as possible!" Eli yelled to any stragglers. Blue eyes watched as Jean destroyed people. Eli watched as Logan struggled to reach Jean. She watched as Logan stabbed Jean through the chest, and the raging waters and floating debris fell back to the earth. Eli had to squeeze her eyes shut to keep herself from crying.