Disclaimer: I don't own any of the X-Men characters or the X-Men universe. I only own my original character Anastasia Nereus.
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The Tale of Nixie

Chapter 3

Anastasia was still grinning as she sat in between Erik and Charles in the cargo hold of the old truck as they plowed on towards the military office of the USSR. Neither Erik nor Charles joked around as they usually did, staying stoic and focused. Suddenly, the panel between the front and back of the truck opened up and Moria stuck her head through, addressing the three mutants.

"We got a problem," the man in the front said. Erik then returned, "What?"

Moria looked slightly scared as she said, "I'm so sorry. This wasn't on the map." The three mutants peered past the glass to see a security check road block on the road. Anastasia groaned and Charles became completely business.

"No matter what happens, act normally. I'll take care of this," he said before shutting the panel and addressing the soldiers and other two mutants in the cargo hold, "Now listen to me..."

Anastasia looked on as the Russian soldiers questioned Moria and the man. Thankfully, they couldn't see her, as she was in her evaporated state now. The soldiers now started to approach the back of the truck, and Anastasia quickly reformed inside the cargo hold.

"They're coming." She said before evaporating again and watched the scene unfold in front of her. The soldiers raised their guns at the door as they heard the man in front disembark from the trunk, but Charles gestured at them to get up.

"Woah, now, easy chaps..." he said as he held his hand to his temple. The man opened the door, and to Anastasia's surprise, both him and the soldier looked as if nothing was in the cargo. She then noticed Charles's intense concentration on the two men until they finally closed the doors. Anastasia solidified again next to Charles and gave him a one-armed hug while Erik patted him encouragingly on the leg.

The three mutants gazed through binoculars at the elegant white building through the bushes, along with Moria and the other CIA agents.

Anastasia focused on the entrance as did everyone else, during which she saw a pretty blonde woman in a white fur cap and cape pass by security.

"Charles," Anastasia softly called out and he turned towards her, "who is she? Can't you read her mind and find out?" Charles's expression, if possible, became even more grim.

"I can't, she's a telepath like me, so if I read her mind, she'll know we're here," Charles glared into space some more before continuing, "Let me try something else..." He then focused on the entrance of the building, and Anastasia guessed that he was controlling the now strangely acting guard at the entrance.

Charles removed his concentration from the entrance and let out a dejected sigh, "Shaw's not coming." Now Anastasia was very unfamiliar as to who this Shaw person was, but whoever he was, Erik obviously hated him very much.

"I don't care, I'm going in." Erik said with determination and started to get up, but Charles interjected.

"No, Erik! She'll find out that we're here!" Erik crouched down and started a glaring contest with Charles.

"She is Shaw's right-hand woman! And I'll be damned if I let her go!" he growled, and was about to run off when Moria grabbed his sleeve.

"Let her go! You'll endanger this entire CIA operation if you expose us!" Erik's mindset seemed unchanged.

"Then it's a good thing that I'm not CIA." Erik finished off and ran off. Anastasia debated whether to go after Erik and help him or stay out of this unknown situation. She turned to Charles, who looked as if he was having the same debate, and decided that whatever Charles decided, she would go with him. Anastasia looked back at the entrance of the building, and saw various twines of barbed wire quickly trapping the guards. She then let out a low whistle as she admired Erik's determination as he ran straight across the exposed lawn.

Charles exhaled sharply and got up as well. Moria tried to hold him back, but Charles jerked her hand off.

"No, I can't leave him," he said determined, and ran after Erik. Moria sighed, and turned expectantly to Anastasia.

"So, are you going to leave too?" Anastasia contemplated this.

"Well, normally I wouldn't and instead try to enjoy the coziness of this wonderful thorny bush," she said the last bit sarcastically and Moria cracked a small smile, "but you know as well as I do that I'm the only one that can reign them into control." Anastasia gave her a wave and promptly evaporated.

Anastasia re-solidified on the building entrance foyer, and quickly ran in the direction of the noise upstairs. Soon enough, she was right behind Charles when they approached Erik. However, all three of them braked immediately when they saw the contents of the room.

Anastasia had seen many weird things in her life, being a mutant and all, but this was definitely at the top of her list. On one of the couches in the room sat the same woman from the entrance, only now in white ligerie, and on the bed sat a Russian man apparently "fondling" thin air and giggling. Anastasia was very confident that Erik and Charles had the exact same open-mouth look on their faces as she did. The Russian man suddenly stopped giggling when he noticed the three new arrivals at the door and started to raise his gun.

Charles held his temple and quickly said, "Go to sleep," and the man promptly fell down. The blonde woman stood up and, to Anastasia's astonishment, turned into a moving statue of diamond. She stared at them for a couple seconds before Anastasia recognized the look of the "flight" instinct in her eyes.

Charles had also seen the look, and was about to alert Erik when, to both of the men's shock, Anastasia materialized quickly into a form of ice right in front of Frost. She then grabbed the diamond woman's throat and easily slammed her down onto the metal frame of the bed. Anastasia, still in her captivating ice form, turned to Erik and nodded towards the metal. Erik nodded and quickly got the metal to cuff Frost's arms on the bed frame.

Erik and Anastasia, who melted into her human form, both looked expectantly at Charles, who focused intensely on the diamond skinned woman. Unlike most prisoners, however, the woman only smirked vainly at the three mutants in front of her.

"You'll never read my mind in this form, sugar." She crooned, and for some reason, Anastasia felt hot rage literally boiling in her blood. This woman, for some reason, gave her the urge to reduce anything in the 30-feet vicinity into rubble. She growled, and turned her fist into her ice form.

Erik was also very frustrated with the attractive but vain blonde woman and was about to use force. However, only pure instinct fueled him when he grabbed Anastasia's furious fist whirling towards the woman's face just in time. Charles and the woman, Emma Frost, were much more shocked than he was; they hadn't even seen Anastasia's hand move until Erik had caught it.

Anastasia was both furious that her punch was stopped and astonished that Erik had actually seen her speedy right hook and grabbed it. She settled with giving him an ice cold glare that could freeze the Earth's core over.

"Why stop me?" she growled and Erik gave her a stare to match her unerring glare.

"There are easier ways to get information than you breaking your fist," Erik reasoned grimly, and Anastasia reluctantly turned her fist back into normal form before wrenching it out of Erik's grip. Erik internally sighed in relief, his hand was both so frozen that he couldn't feel his joints and filled with pain at blocking that powerful and rapid fist. Nevertheless, he turned his attention to Frost, and with a flourish of his hand, one of the metal columns of the bed frame unraveled and wrapped itself around the blonde woman's neck.

Erik crouched down in front of Frost and gave her a determined glare.

"Where is Shaw?" he hissed, but Frost only glared back at him with her own determination. Erik got up, and twitched his finger. The metal tightened around Frost's neck, and her expression turned into mild discomfort. Charles whispered an warning "Erik" but he paid it no heed.

The metal tightened as Frost continued to say nothing and the mutants started to hear the crack of the diamond around her neck. Charles urged Erik to stop again, but the German ignored him again. Anastasia became worried: even though this woman was the enemy, she didn't deserve to be cold-heartedly killed.

Erik was slowly loosing himself in the cracking of Frost's neck when Anastasia jumped in front of him. Momentarily he felt a blinding rage at her, and to the his allies' shock, Anastasia started feeling her cherished silver necklace tightening around her throat. However, it stopped and reformed to its original size when Charles shook Erik and silently communicated with his telepathy, making Erik noticeably calm down. Anastasia went back to the left side of Erik, silently rubbing the red imprint on her neck.

Emma Frost went back to her human state, and Erik walked off to next to the window.

"If she turns back into that form, just tap her neck, she'll fall apart," Erik said in a strange tone and continued gazing onto the outside grounds. Charles went to reading the blonde woman's mind, while Anastasia silently gazed at Erik's back. When Charles was finished, he noticed that both of his comrades were lost in thought, and in thoughts about each other.

"You guys...," Charles started slowly, and Erik and Anastasia both turned to him expectantly, "this is a lot worse than we thought..."

Anastasia's face turned grim, and it only worsened as Charles explained the situation. She contemplated it as she walked ahead as Erik and Charles turned Frost over to the CIA.

Erik and Charles were walking side by side when they nearly tripped as Anastasia stopped dead in her tracks. Erik whirled her around and asked her, "What is it, Anastasia?" Charles, seeing the shock on the beautiful Mediterranean woman's face, wasted no time in assessing the situation. To Erik's puzzlement and frustration, now Charles's face was etched with the signs of impending doom as well.

Anastasia suddenly snapped out of her reverie and ran to the outside. While her two partners chased after her, Charles briefed Erik on the situation, and soon enough, both of them were frankly scared out of their wits. They ran out into the green lawn of the military building to see Anastasia frantically pacing in a circle in the middle of the lawn. When she saw them, she stomped towards them and literally shook Erik by the shoulders with worry.

"What are we going to do? No wonder Shaw didn't come when we left, it was the perfect opportunity! Oh sweet gods, the kids! They have no chance against the mutants that he's got! Shit!" Anastasia rambled and continued pacing. All of a sudden she stopped and looked to the two men again, this time with a mad glint in her eye.

Charles, reading her mind, quickly gripped her by the shoulders and said, "No, Anastasia! There's no way you can do that without dying of exhaustion!"

Anastasia easily shook him off and rambled on, "Think about it! There's no way that we can get there in time, so I'll re-solidify myself there, save the kids, beat down Shaw, take care of his cronies, and problem solved!" Erik's eyes widened at the insanity of the idea. Charles continued to try to discourage her but she snatched her hand from his firm grip and ran off.

Anastasia stood erect, and took a deep breath. She had never done a teleportation of this distance, but it didn't matter, with those kids in danger, anything was possible for her. There was no way that Shaw was going to even touch those kids forcefully on her watch, she thought with the bubble of rage emerging again. Especially Sean.

That was her last thought before she focused all her will on the CIA facility for the mutants and evaporated.

Anastasia re-solidified in the lounge room that the mutants shared, and crumpled. She felt so tired...so tired as to sleep and never wake up again. Several blurry shapes all surrounded her, and she recognized the red blob as Sean.

Sean certainly couldn't have described his shock when Anastasia appeared in the demolished room only minutes after Shaw and his cronies left with Angel. He yelled to Alex, Raven, and Hank to come and quickly ran to Anastasia's figure when she crumpled in exhaustion to the floor.

"Sean..." she croaked. Sean nodded, and she continued, "...everyon...ok...Shaw?"

Sean gulped and looked at the rest of the teenage mutants before answering, "Shaw just left. Angel went with him, and Darwin...Darwin..." Sean choked up at the memory of the mutant who he had just met but become great friends with. He gulped, but when he saw Anastasia's beautiful blue eyes soften with sorrow and understanding, he burst into tears and sobbed on Anastasia's chest. Anastasia, with great effort, lifted her deadweight arm and put it around Sean, and grunted to Hank.

"W...wa...wat...err..." Hank scrambled up and ran back with a large bottle of water. He tipped the bottle's contents onto her parched lips, and saw Anastasia visibly relax and brighten up when the water entered her system.

After a minute, Sean got up and wiped his eyes, muttering about being a wimp.

"You're not a wimp, Sean." Anastasia turned to the speaker, Alex, who looked haunted enough for Anastasia to realize what had happened with him. She pushed herself off the floor, despite Hank's and Sean's protests.

"Raven," Raven turned to her with too many emotions present in her eyes, "tell me, are there any fires or such that could spread? If the fire department comes now, we could all be in deep shit." Raven pointed towards the entrance, where smoke was starting to billow through.

"Ms. Nere—Anastasia! You're really tired, you don't have the energy—where did you teleport from, anyway?" Hank protested, and Anastasia shunted him off with a whimsical wave.

"Russia," Anastasia muttered, and continued with drinking all the water she could find. The four mutants in the room all gaped at her, and they continued until Anastasia finally noticed them.

"What?" If possible, the young mutants gaped even more.

"Why would you travel halfway around the world just to come here quickly?" Raven inquired, and Anastasia mysteriously murmured, "Just had a feeling about Shaw..." before shouting, "Alex! Come with me!" and walking out. Alex said nothing and dragged his feet out of the room.

When he got through the tunnel, Alex was still puzzled as to why Anastasia had called him here. He jumped through one of the small fires in the lobby room and approached her in the middle. Alex certainly noticed that she was beautiful, with her ice blue eyes sparkling with determination and her arms moving elegantly around, controlling the huge wall of water that was putting out the gigantic fires. Finally, the fires were finished and Anastasia plopped down onto one of the only un-demolished stairs in the foyer. She patted the seat next to here, and Alex sat down as well. They both sat in silence until Anastasia finally broke it.

"I don't know what happened, but I can definitely tell that whatever happened to Darwin, you were right there..." A loud gulp from Alex was the only assertion she needed. Anastasia briefly glanced at Alex, who continued staring into space, and decided that Alex wasn't going to open up anytime soon.

"I know how you feel..." Alex this time turned his head at her and gave her a glare that would ignite the Arctic Circle, but Anastasia continued before he could interject, "Most people don't have the right to say this, but I do..." Alex calmed down when he saw an unknown emotion spread in the eyes of the water-controlling mutant.

"I was born in January 21st, 1844, 17 years before the beginning of the American Civil War. When the war started in 1861, I snuck in as an field nurse, because I wanted to save as many souls from death that had already taken my brother and cousins. For about 2 years, I got along well, saving the lives of many misfortunate soldiers. Then, the Battle of the Gettysburg happened." Anastasia started her story with a cold, unattached tone.

"It was horrible, death everywhere, and I was soaked in the blood and guts of countless soldiers. Some good-for-nothing Confederate then blew up the medic tent of our side, and I was able to get out just in time with one of the shot soldiers that had just come in. While we were hiding from the cannon fire, somebody shot me. I thought that I was supposed to die, but instead, the bullet just dropped from my body and the hole briefly became water before closing up and turning back to normal. Before I could revel at this amazing miracle, I got knocked out and dragged off somewhere."

"Days later, I woke up with the shot soldier that I had saved with me in a lockup. The Confederates were rumored to be brutal in information gathering from their prisoners, so we were both scared. But we kept each other's hopes up, and soon enough, he practically became my lifeline, my brother in all but blood. But one day..."

Anastasia gulped and Alex thought that he saw the glisten of a tear in the corner of her eye before she continued.

"One of the Confederate generals came to the lockup, and demanded that we be released. I started praying thanks to all the gods I knew until he knocked out my friend and dragged me out by the hair into a room filled with scientists and generals. They chained me to a chair, and after they brought in my friend and held his head over a large tub of water. Then, the main general started telling me about mutants, about how only the top of the top knew about them...about how I was one...I didn't understand at all...it was unheard of...Mutants, for God's sake! But he continued with complete seriousness, and at the end, he gave me a deal...well it was more like a demand..."

"He told me 'I'm going to drown your friend. If you can control the water to not kill him, you're both free. If you fail ...your friends dies and I kill you right after.' After he said that, they woke him up...and...as soon as he was awake, they drowned him..." Anastasia retched back a sob and gritted her teeth, "...I tried, you know...I tried so hard to make the water stop somehow...but it didn't work...drowning is a very painful death, you know...the water enters your passageways, and quickly blocks everything...your lungs, your brain...your heart...the brain can survive 6 minutes without oxygen, so for the longest six minutes of my life, I watched him slowly struggle for oxygen and finally die." Anastasia now turned towards Alex and he saw the trauma forever scarred into her eyes.

Anastasia exhaled deeply and got up. Before walking away, she turned to Alex and said, "So yes, I do know how you feel."

"Anastasia!" Alex called out, and the woman turned around to look at him.

"What was his name?" Anastasia looked at him in confusion, "I just...wanted to know..." Alex finished off lamely, but Anastasia gave him a sorrowful smile.

"I always loved his name, he only went by one...Logan."

DUNDUNDUN. Haha hope the twist is good! Please review! You'll get...cyber-chocolate! :D

-iHeartToast2011