Author's note: After the death of Darwin, this chapter is guesswork, other than some of the specific lines of dialogue, which I got from a transcript. Yes, I'm sorry, I gave some lines to Logan. What can I say? I love the big brute.
The next night, Charles, Erik, and Moira were out once again, looking for a Soviet general in the USSR who Shaw seemed to be going to target for something. The couch was put back the way it had been before our partying, and the shattered window had been replaced, though we had drawn a green curtain across it in response to bigotry from some of the agents. The silly people didn't seem to realize that this entire compound was devoted to people like us, or maybe they couldn't bring themselves to think of us as people at all; I had to dissuade Logan from beating them up. Sean wore a grey shirt with its long sleeves rolled up, Hank wore a light flannel and light gray pants, Raven wore a low-cut, long-sleeved black dress with a silver necklace, Armando wore a light blue polo shirt tucked into belted, dark pants, Angel wore a collared shirt, a miniskirt, and her leather jacket, again, all black, Alex wore a gray striped t-shirt under his own black leather jacket, with blue jeans, and Logan was dressed in a leather jacket, a t-shirt, and jeans. I was wearing snug, green camouflage pants, a glittering, gold-sequined blouse, and brown, athletic leather boots. My hair was tied back in a ponytail, showing my large, gold hoop earrings.
Sean and Hank were seated on one couch opposite Raven and Angel, laughing and talking, while Alex played on the pinball machine, trying to beat Armando's high score, while Armando stood next to him, watching anxiously to see if he would keep his title of Pinball Wizard. I sat in an armchair, listening to Raven, Hank, Sean, and Angel, while keeping an eye on Alex and Armando, as well well as Logan, who was drinking a beer and sitting in the other armchair. Honestly, forget keeping an eye on anyone but Logan; I could hardly keep my eyes off the fierce, muscular rogue.
There was a distant thudding noise, like the footsteps of a giant, and we all froze. "What was that?" Armando asked.
"I don't know, something doesn't feel right," Logan growled. I agreed with him. He and the rest of us went toward the curtained window, and he pressed the button on the wall that opened the curtains. We all looked out at the courtyard, seeing nothing to account for the noise for a moment. Then, we saw a silhouette appear in front of the moon as two men materialized in front of it in a flash of red, and then in another red flash, one of them disappeared, letting the other fall, screaming. "What is that?" Armando murmured, and the man fell just a few feet in front of the glass window, and Raven shrieked, her and Angel clasping their hands over their mouths. The teleporting man made the agents who were supposed to be guarding us rain from the sky, and as another crashed to the guard near us, Raven shrieked again and Logan unsheathed his claws, crouching and ready for battle.
Several armed agents ran up to the window, and one man hit it with his hand to attract our attention, as if he didn't have it already, yelling, "Get back, get back! Do not leave that room, we're under attack!"
We took a few steps back, then a man with red skin and a tail, wearing a suit and holding a large dagger, or perhaps a small sword, appeared behind them, and we all screamed variations of, "Look out!"
"Shoot! Shoot!" One of the agents yelled, and though they did, the red man disappeared again. I recognized him from Charles and Erik's description as being Azazel, one of Shaw's followers. At the sound of the gunfire, Hank, Angel, Raven, Alex, Sean, and Armando dived behind one of couches, literally, in Sean's case, Armando covering them, while Logan and I stood by. After having known for two millennia that I was virtually immortal, my self-preservation instincts, the "flight" part of "fight or flight" in me, had died, unlike me. I hadn't so much as flinched since I was two hundred.
Azazel appeared behind one of the armed men, grabbing his arms, so that his shots hit the window between them and us, shattering it. Then something new distracted us: a tornado, outside the other window that was still intact. Our attention was diverted again as Azazel reappeared amongst the remainder of our guards, and began slaughtering them, stabbing them with both his sword and the spearhead-shaped tip of his tail.
"Stay here my ass! Let's go!" Logan roared.
We ran after him as he charged through the exit of the room, down a concrete hallway, running into more armed guards that shouted, "Get back," at us.
"We can help!" At least one of us yelled back, but before we could prove it, a massive explosion sent the others running and screaming back into our previous room, Alex towing me along behind him. In one window, we saw Azazel finishing off some of the guards, and in the other, a huge tornado. One guard, a blonde, had followed us into the room. Azazel had killed all but one of the guards outside, and he wrapped his tail around that one, holding him in front of himself, waving the man back and forth slightly while the blonde tried to get a clear shot, finally firing his gun and hitting his fellow agent, not the homicidal teleporter. Raven sobbed while the body of an agent flew out of the tornado, towards us, hitting and shattering the window in the way, and Azazel killed the last agent, the blonde, then disappeared again. The tornado dissolved, revealing a man inside it who walked through the now-shattered window, entering the room. I recognized him as Riptide.
"You want the mutants? They're right through that door, just let us normal people go, we're no threat—" We heard a man pleading on the other side of our current room's exit, followed by a slashing noise that probably signified Azazel ending his life.
"Where's the telepath?" We heard a different man ask.
"Not here," someone else answered him calmly.
"Too bad. Well, at least I can take this silly thing off," The man speaking opened the doors to our room, and strolled in, followed by Azazel, telling us, "Good evening. My name's Sebastian Shaw, and I am not here to hurt you." He was a thin, middle-aged, blue-eyed blonde, wearing a black suit over a blood red dress shirt, and holding a metal helmet that looked like it belonged on the head of a medieval warrior.
"Freeze!" A guard yelled at him from outside. Idiot. He should have just shot him.
"Azazel," Shaw said, and Azazel teleported out and killed the agent. "My friends, there is a revolution coming," he told us, handing his helmet to Riptide, "When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do, each of us will face a choice. Be enslaved, or rise up to freely, but know that if you are not with us, then, by definition, you are against us. So, you can stay, and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me, and live like kings," He looked at me, Raven, and Angel, "And queens."
"Go fuck yourself," Logan snarled. Shaw held out his hand, and Angel took it, and they walked towards the empty frame of the window that had looked out at the courtyard.
"Angel," Raven said in shock.
"Are you kidding me?" Alex asked.
"Come on," Angel told us in a tight, emotional voice, "We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of." She turned, and walked away with Shaw, followed by Riptide.
"We have to do something," Raven murmured, as Shaw, Angel, and Riptide stepped through the window. Armando turned to Alex, giving him a look, and Alex shoved him away as he realized that he was being asked to use his powers against another person, even someone like Shaw.
"Stop. I'm coming with you," Armando said loudly, going after Shaw and Angel.
"Good choice," Shaw told him, "So, tell me about your mutation."
"Well, I adapt to survive. So, I guess I'm coming with you," Armando replied.
"I like that," Shaw said, smiling, and beckoned him over to the rest of the group.
"Alex!" Armando yelled as soon as he was close to Angel.
"Get out!" Alex roared to Raven, Hank, Logan, and Sean, warning them away from him.
"Do it!" Armando shouted, grabbing Angel and shielding her with his body, his skin becoming rock-like, and Alex blasted rings of red light at Shaw, Riptide, and Azazel. Two missed, then Shaw caught one.
"Protecting your fellow mutants? That's a noble gesture," The madman said as he squeezed the red light into a ball in his hands, then absorbed it. Armando lunged at him, but Shaw turned and absorbed the energy of his punch, vibrating. Then he grabbed Darwin by the chin, and whispered, "Adapt to this." A ball of energy appeared in Shaw's hand, and he forced it into Armando's mouth, then Azazel teleported, disappearing with Shaw, Angel, and Riptide. Darwin started to glow, his body frantically trying to transform into something that could absorb the blast, his skin turning to shiny chrome, then starting to crack and darken, as I lunged forward, trying to take his hand to heal him, though I knew I couldn't make it to him in time, even as light started to shine through the cracks in his skin, and he turned to me, holding out his hand, not for me to touch, but to ward me away. The light enveloped him, destroying him from the inside out, and I could do nothing to save him. The shockwave of the explosion hit me, throwing me backwards and knocking me off my feet. If I hadn't been me, I might have suffered from at least scrapes, bruises, burns, broken bones, and maybe have died, but, being me, I was fine. The others were farther away than I was, and escaped unharmed.
After his death, I wandered the compound, looking for anyone who was still breathing, trying to find someone I could heal, some life I could save. Alex, Raven, Hank, and Sean followed me, none of them knowing what to do. It was pointless anyway. Every non-mutant in the compound was dead. "We should get our things," I finally suggested, having given up hope on being able to help anyone, "We are not going to be able to stay here any longer."
"Yeah, good idea," Alex agreed, and Hank, Raven, Sean, and Logan concurred. We all went to our rooms and quickly gathered our belongings in suitcases, none of us wanting to be alone for long, and met back up in the hallway that all our rooms were connected to before going outside. Raven had a white suitcase, Sean had a green plaid one, Hank's was blue, Alex's was black, while I carried my two large, brown leather bags and Logan carried a army-green duffel bag.
Charles, Erik, Moira, and the handful of operatives accompanying them found us all the next morning, outside, in front of the remnants of Division X. Raven had found solace in Hank's arms, and the two had fallen asleep, while Alex and Sean both managed to doze off using their luggage as pillows. Logan fell asleep holding my against his chest, but I stayed awake the whole night, relying on my healing factor to keep me alert. All night long, I could think of nothing but Armando's last few moments, what I could have done differently, how I could have, should have saved him somehow.
I heard the noise of car engines approaching us, and I knew it had to be Charles and his entourage. They came in four large black cars like the ones we had driven in to get to Division X, and the sound of their arrival awoke Raven, Alex, Sean, and Hank, who all stood, tensed up, ready to flee, while Logan crouched, claws unsheathed, until the familiar government vehicles came into view.
Charles, Erik, and Moira all nearly flew out of one of the cars, Charles running over to Raven and hugging her, before the three started to bombard us with questions.
"What happened?!" Moira demanded, and Charles lifted his hand to his temple to find out the answer to the question without the hassle of having to listen to people speaking. I could sort of feel him digging around in my mind, and I expected Alex, Raven, Hank, and Sean were feeling the same way. Government agents flooded out of the cars, and started examining the rubble of the compound.
"Shaw happened," I said grimly, for the benefit of the two newcomers who didn't have telepathic abilities.
"Where are Armando and Angel?" Erik asked, his eyes scanning the carnage of the building behind us, but before anyone could answer him, Charles spoke.
"That's it, then. You're all going home," The telepath said to Sean, Alex, Hank, Raven, Logan, and me. "This has gotten too dangerous."
"Dangerous? Charles, I am immortal," I reminded him, glowering.
"No one else is!" He roared at me, rage in his eyes.
"Do you think I do not know that?! I have watched thousands of people die! I know better than anyone how easily lives end. Everyone I have ever cared about is dead except for my butler and the people here!" I snapped at him, tears in my eyes. Everyone looked at me, stunned for a moment by my statement, that I cared about them, and Logan squeezed my hand gently.
"I—I'm sorry, Zoe, but I can't lead people to their deaths," Charles stubbornly insisted, shaking his head.
"Then don't. I will. I've had plenty of practice," Logan snarled.
"No!" Charles yelled. I could see in his eyes the helpless rage he felt at the fact that he had gotten Armando involved, and it had led to his death.
"He's not going back to prison," Sean told Charles, pointing to Alex, and I nodded emphatically, already planning ways to keep Alex a free man. I could stash him on my estate; it was a huge property, over a dozen acres. If anyone investigated, I had a secret second basement I could hide him in while the place was being searched...
"They killed Darwin," Alex said darkly.
"All the more reason for you to leave. This is over," Charles stated firmly, but he was wrong; this was far from over, and he had to have known it.
"Darwin's dead, Charles. And we can't even bury him," Raven cried, her hands balling up.
"We can avenge him," Erik said suddenly. Personally, I thought we ought to leave avenging to a certain group of people who didn't have X-genes, but taking down Shaw sounded like a very good idea.
"They're just kids," Charles told him, trying to sound as if he had the final say on the matter.
"No. They were kids. Shaw has his army. We need ours," Erik replied, and Charles slowly gave in and turned to the rest of us.
"We'll need to train. All of us. Yes?" He asked us grimly.
"Yeah," Alex replied, and Raven, Hank, Sean, and I echoed him.
"We can't stay here," Hank said. "Even if they re-opened the department, it's not safe. We've got no where to go."
"I might know a place," I started to say, thinking of my own estate, but Charles spoke at the same time.
"Yes we do," He said. The eight mutants and Moira split into two groups (Charles, Moira, Raven, Hank, and Sean, and Erik, Alex, Logan, and me), and each group situated itself in one of two cars. Charles drove one, and Erik drove the other, following the telepath. Alex sat in the front passenger seat next to Erik, while Logan and I sat close together in the back, leaning against each other comfortably.
"What exactly happened back there?" Erik asked, glancing back at me and Logan in the rear view mirror, "Besides you two hooking up." Of Logan and I, neither had the decency to blush or be embarrassed by that.
"A red, devilish-looking guy with a tail," Logan began.
"Azazel," I interrupted.
"Yeah, Azazel. He showed up first and started teleporting people into the air and dropping them, and stabbing people with a knife and his tail, and he got one of the agents to shoot out the glass in one window, then there was a tornado, and an agent flew out of it and broke the other window, and the tornado disappeared and there was this guy there," Logan kept explaining.
"Riptide. Riptide was there. Then there was an explosion in another part of the department, and then Shaw came in and said something about a revolution coming, and he asked us to join him, and Angel did, then Darwin said he was going to join too, so he could shield her when I used my mutation, but Shaw absorbed it and he made a ball of energy and put it in Darwin's mouth, and then he and Angel and Riptide and Azazel all teleported away..." Alex continued, almost babbling, then trailing off.
"I tried to get to Armando in time to save him, I tried, and he just looked at me and he held up his hand to tell me to stop... and then it was all over," I whispered, and Logan wrapped his arms around me, resting his cheek on top of my head.
"Once a Nazi, always a Nazi," Erik muttered grimly, staring at the road ahead, probably thinking about all the horrible things he wanted to do to the man.
Within an hour of driving, we were in front of a mansion large enough and extravagant enough to rival my own home, with huge lawns and gardens. It didn't, however, appear to have its own zoo, so in my mind, my own home remained firmly superior. We got out of the cars and converged in front of the mansion.
"This is yours?" Sean exclaimed, looking around wide-eyed at the opulence in front of us.
"No, it's ours," Charles stated, smiling. I thought the law would probably disagree on that, but I declined to comment.
"Honestly, Charles, I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship," Erik declared sarcastically.
"Well, it was a hardship softened by me," Raven said, grinning.
"I suppose this will work almost as well as my place," I conceded, chuckling, after looking around, and the others smiled. "Now, where are our rooms? I would like to put my things away, if you do not mind, Charles."
The telepath led us inside, up a grand staircase, and into a long hallway. "This whole hallway is just bedrooms, pick whichever you want," He told us, and we all started to find bedrooms. I approached Logan as he went into the closest room.
"By any chance, Logan, would you like to, perhaps, double up?" I inquired of him nervously.
"You mean, sleep together?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," I replied, blushing slightly.
"Sometimes the claws come out when I'm asleep," He informed me.
"I might be the only person who could not be harmed by them," I told him, then murmured softly, "And I hate sleeping alone."
"In that case, I'm glad you asked," Logan said, and pulled me close to him, kissing me fiercely, and we went into the bedroom together.