Disclaimer: I don't own any of the X-Men characters or the X-Men universe. I only own my original character Anastasia Nereus.
AN: All of you wondrous peeps who reviewed (Lunar Knight, qtgirl, Valkyrie-Pleasant, Sherrie H., Poetgirl10), story-alerted (butterfliesinspring, qtgirl, Valkyrie-Pleasant, Sherrie H., Poetgirl10, Stormbringer-Tsuki) and favorite-d (indy's girl, BellaMasen 1918)…THANK YOU SO MUCH! I beg for your forgiveness for not updating as soon as possible, but thank you so much for the motivation! Also, thank you to the rest of the 130 visitors to this story!
So, please enjoy….*drumroll*….CHAPTEEERRRRR 4!
Cyber-chocolate to you all [because we all know, that's the best thing you can cyber-get ;) ]
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The Tale of Nixie
Chapter 4
Charles and Erik were both consumed by worry for Anastasia and the young adults when they disembarked from the jet that had finally landed in Langley. Only, the trouble was that it wasn't much of a building anymore...more of a gigantic pile of rubble. They both jogged around the area, until they found the group of mutants sitting on the remnants of one of the monuments.
To their surprise, they saw only Sean, Hank, Alex, and Raven huddled by the destroyed wall. Not even thinking straight, Charles rushed straight to Raven and gave her a hug.
He then looked at the rest of the teenagers, and said, "We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately."
"We're not going home." Sean murmured, and Charles gave him a startled look.
"What?"
Sean gestured to Alex, "He's not going back to prison!" Alex broke his stare into space, and exclaimed, "He killed Darwin." Charles, despite being shocked, was still adamant.
"All the more reason for you to leave. This is over." Raven then turned him around sharply, giving him a resilient glare.
"Darwin is dead, Charles," Charles's eyes widened, "and we can't even bury him!"
"We can avenge him." Everyone jumped back at Erik's proclamation, and to Charles's horror, he saw a definite glint in Alex's and Sean's eyes.
Gesturing to a place farther away, Charles curtly murmured, "Erik, a word please."
The teens hear the two powerful mutants spit words angrily at each other, easily hearing the conversation.
"They're just kids!"
"No, there were kids. Shaw has his army, we need ours."
"I agree with Erik."
Shocked at the new voice, everyone turned back to see Anastasia finish reforming into her human form, and then sit next to Sean. Charles and Erik could both concur that Anastasia had certainly seen better days. Her normally graceful posture was slouched with exhaustion and dark bags of sleeplessness hung underneath her electric blue eyes that were crazed by extreme amounts of caffeine.
Her voice was softer than usual, but still resonant, "I just came back from General Armivolkoff's office. Shaw and his brutes, now including Angel, basically forced the general to put nuclear missiles in Cuba." She gave Charles and Erik a hard stare as they both swore.
"Charles." Charles turned back to Erik again, and sighed.
Turning back to the group, he said, "We'll have to train. All of us," he looked at Erik and Anastasia, "Yes?"
Everyone nodded, while Alex grunted a "yeah". However, one problem was still blatant.
"Well we can't stay here," Hank dejectedly mumbled, "Even if they reopen the department, it's not safe. We got….we got nowhere to go!" Erik looked down at that, thinking hard on the subject, and Anastasia, if possible, looked even more depressed.
"Yes we do." Everyone looked up at Charles, who gave a small smile to Raven, who flashed him a great grin in return, "Let's go! They have a van over there."
The mutants clambered into the van, got comfortable, and Charles drove off away from the depressing CIA ruins. He and Moira sat in the front, conversing lightly, while Alex sat next to Sean, both of them starting to kid around, bringing their old characters back. Hank and Raven sat behind them, engrossed in their conversation and in each other.
Finally, Erik and Anastasia sat in the far back of the van. As Erik looked out the window, he felt a distinctive thump on his shoulder. Smirking, he said, "A little early to pull a move, is it?"
To his disappointment, when he turned his head, he found Anastasia lightly snoring on his shoulder, finally getting some much needed sleep. Erik cracked an actual smile, and lurked in his thoughts the entire trip.
"Wow." That word pretty much summed up the reaction of most of the mutants to the….titanic Xavier mansion. Anastasia, back to her bouncy flirtatious mood, after getting some great sleep on a great "pillow", was currently leaning heavily on Erik's back, and kept whispering, "Damn". Meanwhile, despite priding himself on having utter self-control, Erik had to keep reminding himself that she was talking about the mansion, not…him.
"This is yours?" Sean gaped.
"No…it's ours." Charles said warmly, and everyone grinned. Charles gave his charming smile in return, when all of a sudden; he felt a great warmth tackle him with a hug.
"…Thank…you…." Anastasia, to everyone's shock, sniffled into Charles' shoulder, "….I haven't had a home for a very long time…." Charles returned her gesture with a reassuring hug. The mood slowly became awkward for the rest of the mutants, especially Erik, who could feel the bubbling of jealousy begin in his stomach.
"Honestly Charles," Charles let go of Anastasia and looked quizzically at Erik, "I don't know how you survived….living in such hardship…" A very unladylike snort of laughter emerged from Anastasia's direction, and Erik internally relaxed, knowing that everything was okay with the water-controlling mutant.
"Well, it was a hardship softened by me…" Raven gave Charles an affectionate smirk, and then walked in the direction of the mansion, saying, "Come on. Time for the tour."
As everyone walked towards the beautiful estate, Anastasia murmured, "It's like Disneyland…"
"And this floor is the bedrooms." Raven finished. The group of mutants was now at the top floor of the mansion, and Raven turned around, like a picture perfect host, and asked, "Any questions?"
"Yeah…" Anastasia mentioned, "Are there any rooms with that river and satellite view?" Surprisingly, Erik perked up at her question, and now was looking expectantly at Raven as well. Nervous under the intense stares of the two intimidating mutants, Raven mumbled, "Um…yeah, there's one but…"
"Where?" Both of them shouted. Anastasia looked menacingly at Erik.
"Why do you want the room with the view anyway?" Erik, for once not captivated in her beauty, matched the Mediterranean woman's glare.
"Why do you?" Literally seeing the electricity cackle between the two, Raven quickly whispered, "It's just down the hall, but…" That's all she got to until the two mutants whizzed past her, running down the insanely long hall.
Anastasia grinned; she was going to get there first! All of a sudden, however, she felt a pulling sensation on her throat, and got thrown back by her silver necklace. Looking from the ground, she saw Erik sprinting by, laughing exhilaratingly.
She stood up, her aura resembling an inferno, and moved her hand dramatically down. A wall of ice smashed down right in front of Erik, who slammed face first into it and then onto the ground. Groaning, he raised his head, only for Anastasia to run over him and slam him right back down.
Anastasia, now beaming like a madman, could see the room just ahead, and the view! She grabbed the doorknob of the slightly ajar door, and majestically slammed it away. There it was, the beautiful valleys, the rushing river, the gleaming giant satellite. However, right when she was about to take the first step into her new abode…
SLAM
…Erik tackled her down to the ground. Disregarding the groaning woman on the ground, Erik jumped up in non-characteristic joy and shouted, "Haha! It's mine! Yes!"
"No it's not!" Erik's eyes widened as Anastasia grabbed his shirt, and dragged him hard onto the floor. She smirked and tried to get up, but Erik grabbed her leg and pulled her down again. They wrestled roughly, Anastasia slamming him down to the ground, and Erik straddling her down. Punching, hair pulling, biting, kicking; all were happening continuously between the grappling pair, until…
"ERIK! ANASTASIA!" Charles snarled and, holding his temple sharply, froze the two mutants. The image that occurred as a result would be ingrained into the minds of all of the other mutants: two normally suave and majestic tigers of the mutant world pulling each other's hair like elementary kids, with the almighty Professor X actually losing his infamous cool.
Both Erik and Anastasia had turned towards Charles before he froze them, but other than that, they were still in full brawling mode. Erik was on top of Anastasia, straddling her legs down, while Anastasia was dragging his shirt collar down with one fist, while aiming for his jaw with the other.
Charles released his hand from his temple, and Erik fell down full force onto Anastasia, leaving the two of them in a normally very awkward situation.
"NEITHER of you can have this room…." Charles began, but to his continued exasperation, Anastasia and Erik both interjected.
"But I got here first!"
"No, I took ownership before you!"
"Shut up, you slack jawed brute!"
"I believe you're the one who's slack jawed, looked in the mirror lately?"
"Why you little f—"
"ENOUGH!" The two mutants of European descent now cowered under the unusual wrath of the English professor. Charles heaved out an angry sigh.
"Neither of you can have this room…because it is MINE!" Charles glared, and the two adults in front of him gulped. When they got up, they started mumbling apologies to Charles and each other. Everyone left Charles' room, and stood in the hallway. The other mutants were still blatantly staring at Erik and Anastasia, while the latter two finally took a good look at each other.
Anastasia, Erik observed, had bruises in the shape of hands on both of her arms and her legs, a busted lip, dried blood on the side of her face, and a face slightly mashed up from falling face first all this time.
Meanwhile, Erik had bite marks all over his arms and hands that were already starting to bruise over, a completely broken nose, blood dried above his lip, and a very distinctive redness on the entire left side of his face.
It started as a small smile, then a snort of laughter, then a little giggle, and finally….
Hilarity ensues.
If the event before had seemed strange, the new event occurring before the young mutants left it in the dust. Two bleeding, bruised, and extremely powerful mutants of metal and water crying from laughter and rolling on the ground can definitely stay in one's mind for a long time.
"So, Charles, what's my training?"
So far, Anastasia had seen Charles's…..peculiar training ideas for the various mutants. Who would have a basement resilient to even the strongest of Alex's power hoops? Or who would have ever thought of Sean being able to fly? Even his simplest ideas, such as racing and provoking Hank, were simply genius. So Anastasia was quite interested in what he had in store for her.
"Think you could lift that?" Charles inquired, gazing out at the magnificent scenery. Anastasia remained quizzical.
"Lift what?"
"The water of the river." At that point, Anastasia turned around to face him so quickly that he could feel the whiplash of her hair strike his face.
"Are you crazy?" She hissed, but Charles only shrugged.
"It's good training isn't it?" Anastasia scoffed, and lightly murmured.
"That would be like you cracking the most resilient mind in the world…" Charles gave her a genuine smile, and said,
"True, it is hard to explore your head…" Anastasia raised one dark eyebrow at the Englishman's statement.
"Hah, wouldn't that mind be like that Frost woman, instead of humble old me?" She mockingly gestured, but Charles's grin didn't waiver.
"If I invested enough time and energy, I could probably enter her mind in her diamond state. But yours…it has the most remarkable self-defense system I have ever seen…you truly are unbroken…" Anastasia's face darkened at Charles's last statement, and a haunting stare glazed over her ice blue eyes.
"Let's just get to lifting that river….How on earth did you get that idea, by the way?" Anastasia muttered as she walked towards the edge of the patio.
"It actually started with Erik turning that satellite to face us…" Charles chuckled, and to Anastasia's surprise, the satellite dish was actually turned a full 45 degrees.
"Amazing…." She murmured, and regardless of containing no feelings for her, Charles felt the rare bubble of jealousy in his heart.
"I helped Erik out by providing him with some of his brightest memories, but unfortunately I can't do that with you…"
"Because I have no bright memories," Anastasia deadpanned, and Charles desperately shook his head.
"No! It's just that I really can't enter your mind….Look, the best emotion for controlling your power is peace, happiness, love…." Now Anastasia's eyes, filled with nostalgia, welled up, just the slightest bit.
"Just find a memory that creates those emotions…" Charles finished, and Anastasia nodded. She turned her head back towards the river, and took in a deep breath.
Anastasia tried all that she could, to find just one bright memory amongst the mass of horrors that was called her mind. But when Charles mentioned love…one memory finally shined through…
Shrill, yet sweet cries…
A periwinkle blue blanket…
Bright green eyes shining through a face covered in blood….
A calloused, distinguishably male arm wrapped lovingly around her shoulders…
Anastasia exhaled, and Charles was amazed to see tears streaming freely down the face of the hardy Mediterranean woman. However, when he turned his head towards the river, his amazement turned into sheer shock.
What was Charles so shocked at? What was that memory? Holy moly, what is going in? I know, pretty evil to pull a cliffhanger, and quite a short chapter, but I'm making it up to you in the next chapter! :D
So please review!