The winter palace, she smiled slightly, forgetting the pain for the briefest of seconds. But the knocking at her door brought her back to reality. The sharp pains in her stomach made her gasp for air, but the thick humidity restricted her breathing. How she wished for cold, how she wished for her home. She coughed as her vision was filled with white specks, hmmm how curious, the specks reminded her of the snow.
The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered by the falling snow. A redheaded girl bounded along, dancing in the middle of the street her left hand missing a glove. She saw the glove and bent down to pick it up, her blonde brushing the white flakes on the cobblestone pavement. The Royal Insignia was imprinted on the back. Putting two and two together she ran after the other little girl.
"Hello Princess," she said breathing heavily as she reached the other girl.
"Who are you?" The redhead asked looking at the disheveled state of her hair.
"Illyana." She said softly, "I think you dropped this." She pulled the pink glove out of her pocket and handed it to the other girl.
"My father calls me Anastasia, but I liked being called Natalia. Anastasia sounds too formal." She took the glove from Illyana, carefully sliding it back on. "Mama would have had a fit if I had lost it. Thank you."
"You're welcome Natalia." Illyana said joyfully. Her uncle Grigori had said the Tsar's children were very kind and Natalia was proving her uncle right. Illyana's older brother was trailing behind the young girls, smiling as his sister, his precious snowflake, made a new friend. As they walked around the entire city of Saint Petersburg, the girls began laughing and chasing after one another. As the hours passed Natalia's older sister, Tatiana, dropped back as well and commented on the young girls, making easy small talk with the other teenager as the six year olds goofed around in the snow. As the snowfall increased the Romanov princesses invited Illyana and her brother back to the palace to view the Christmas preperations. With only 11 days left the entire city was buzzing and the snow was making the Chirstmas of 1916 a beautiful one. The siblings agreed respectfully.
The palace was unlike anything they had ever seen; there were evergreen trees in every room. The kitchens emanated the smell of baking cookies. The two girls ran around the palace until Illyana stopped dead in her tracks. She saw a familiar face. Once more she took off running, but she was running towards the man.
"Dyadya Grigori!" She exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around his waist. A smile appeared on his previously stern face as he lifted his niece into her arms.
"Konfetka" He said with a warm smile as he spun her around. Natalia stared at them inquisitively.
"Dyadya? He's your uncle?" She asked once Illyana's feet were on the ground.
"He is." She said with a smile. Behind her, Tatiana's facial expression turned sour.
The snow faded and she heard the crack of lightning followed by the rumbling of thunder. Thunder, she mused in delirium, thunder sounded like the distorted screams of people at horror movie. This would've made no sense to anyone else, but to her it made perfect sense. She laughed, or at least tried to laugh. She had only seen one horror in the course of her unusually long, and at the same time empty, life.
The lights in the theater darkened. He best fried had purposely not told her what movie they were seeing. The silver bracelet around her wrist shone in the light from the screen.
"I think I'll go get popcorn." Her best friend said, standing up slowly. Suddenly her other friend stood up.
"I'll help you carry the drinks Dom." He said with a small smirk. The first thing to cross her mind was the question if they could be dating, but she brushed that fact off, Birdy was too nice for Dom's cold heart. The music swelled as she looked around, couples were sitting next to each other, and some girls were already gripping their boyfriend's hands.
"Dammit Dom." She muttered to herself. Barney, the man sitting next to her who just happened to be Birdy's older brother, looked over at her.
"Something wrong?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Dom didn't say anything about seeing a horror movie." She whispered back.
"Oh," he said looking around, "where are they anyways? It's been a while."
"I don't kn-" She said as the first scream pierced the air, sending shivers through her spine. She shut her eyes, the worst idea, but natural instinct. Heat filled her body and repressed memories came to the surface, memories of the torture. Her entire body tensed and she gripped the armrests. Barney looked over at her.
"Illyana?" He asked quietly. She didn't hear his words; in her mind she was watching her parents get murdered. "Illy?" He asked again.
"Huh?" She asked in response, snapping out of her nightmarish memories.
"Are you okay?" He asked, slightly worried for her.
"Ye-yeah, I'm fine." She stumbled and lied through her teeth. He shook his head, seeing through her lie.
"Should we go?" He asked genuinely concerned.
"No, you can stay and enjoy the movie, I'll go." She said as she stood up. His hand shot out and grabbed hers lightly.
"I'll go with you."
She shook her head as she slowly moved towards the exit. "You should stay incase they come back."
"They're not coming back." He said as he walked up next to her, "I'll take you home."
"Alright." He took her hand and walked them out of the theater. As they looked around the parking lot, noticing that Dom's car was gone. "They're gone," she said with a small chuckle.
"Dammit Clinton." He said slightly angry.
"We've been set up." She said quite amused.
"Can you teleport us back so I can shoot him?" He asked, joking lightly, his mood changing.
"You said you wouldn't kill him. But I will shoot them both, for you." She said with a smile. She tried to teleport them but her magic wasn't working. Strings of Russian curses escaped her lips. "My magic isn't working." He looked at her with a smile.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" He asked softly then shook his head, "let me rephrase that. Can I walk you home?" She smiled and laughed softly.
"If you don't mind walking quite a while."
"Not at all." He said with a smile as they headed towards her house.
The rain continued to fall, increasing the pounding in her head as she tried to let everything go. She was ready to leave her life behind. It wasn't something unfamiliar. She closed her eyes, but instead of being whisked away, out of her dying body, she felt the humidity wrap around her skin, making her hair cling to her neck, to the scars on the back of her neck. She laughed softly as she remembered the night she got them.
Her vision blurred from the perpetual pain. The twists and turns of the unfamiliar city were driving her mad. Blood poured from the wound that cut across her stomach and from the gash across the back of her hair. She conjured every spell she knew but the healing wouldn't work. Finally her legs wouldn't carry her any farther; she fell back against the dark alley wall as her breathing became labored. The pain seeped into her bones. Instead of conjuring spells she muttered prayers, prayers in her native Russian. Red sticky blood pooled on the cobbles beneath her feet. There was a tightening in her throat, the air refused to pass through her larynx. She heard someone running, maybe towards her; maybe it had nothing to do with her. Slowly her knees gave out and she buckled down to the ground, the last thing she felt before everything stopped was someone wrapping their arms around her, faintly she could smell cigars and beer.
It was hours before she awoke, the pain had subsided but it was still ever present. Her head was spinning. Why had her magic failed her? Where was she? And why did he save her? The sound of metal on metal made her eyes snap open and her body cringe.
"You're awake, darlin'." A mans voice said from the corner of the room. The voice was oddly familiar but she couldn't place it due to the fact her head was beating like a drum. She turned her head slightly and a smile spread across her face.
"Hey there Wolf Boy." She said to him, as the pain started to die down. Using her arms to support herself, she sat up, groaning softly. "Where are we?"
"Madripoor." He said unenthusiastically. She nodded having a vague idea of where they were.
"You were pretty beat up, what happened?" He asked not used to seeing her this shape.
"I got ripped to shreds by the demon inside me." A small chuckle escaped her lips. She tried to heal the wounds again and found that her was working this time. The scars healed themselves. "I'm guessing you found some silver in the wounds."
"Yeah, it looked like a fragment of jewelry."
"Must've been from the surrounding area." She thought back to what happened and how the Phoenix kept gaining power. How the wounds wouldn't heal themselves. Somehow she was able to regain control and teleport herself to God knows where.
Slowly she got out of the bed and took a nearby bottle of beer. It was freshly opened and the coldness brought relief to her burning skin, a side effect of the power.
"Illy-" he started to say but cut she him off.
"I'll get you a new one Logan, don't get your panties in a twist." It elicited a small chuckle from him as she drank the bottle. The cold liquid snaked its way down her throat, pooling in a pit just above her breastbone before twisting down into her stomach, reviving the burnt flesh. She sighed contentedly. "Want to show me around your city?" She said with a laugh.
"Sounds good to me." He said getting up and walking out the door letting the humidity creep in. She used her magic to conjure two more bottles of beer as she followed after him. Seeing the bottles he took both of them out of her hands. "Interest." He said laughing.
Her throat begged for the beers. She was choking on the dryness, yet she was sweating from the fever that had appeared. The knocking was gone from her door, but it was still beating down in her head. She was counting down the hours till sun up, there were 4 left. Maybe she could make it. Suddenly she was trying to stay alive, but what would do, she was all alone. And for her, that was normal.
"It's us time." He said with a smile. "Where should we go this time? And don't say its up to me, I chose yesterday with Nazca, remember?" She laughed softly and pulled the covers over her head.
"Can I suggest a day in bed? Or is that not a viable travel option?" She said as he picked her up.
"Unfortunately it isn't Illyana." She mocked being annoyed and then smiled.
"Then let's go to Egypt." A grin spread across his face.
"I've never been to Egypt." He said while pulling on a shirt. She teleported into the bathroom, and fixed her hair for the hot weather and brushing her teeth. Using her magic she changed into a red tank top and white jean shorts. Illyana opened the door and headed back into her bedroom, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Do we fly or teleport today?" He asked whispering into her ear.
"I think we teleport." She said as the Sahara desert appeared around them. Looming before them were the Great Pyramids at Giza. He let out an audible gasp.
"They're more awe inspiring up close." She nodded and smiled as she took his hand. They walked closer and suddenly she was struck with an idea.
"Wait right here." She said to him before walking over to a security guard and talking to him in hushed tones. Several minutes she returned with a smirk on her face.
"What's the smirk for?" He asked as she took ahold of his hand once more.
"How would you like to go inside one of the pyramids, Robert?" He looked at her with an 'are you serious, of course' look, and she laughed softly. "Then lets go." They walked towards the entrance, gated off of course, and she spoke to another guard in hushed tones. Within seconds the guard was scrambling to open the gate and let them in. He let them through and then closed the gate behind them. The inside of the pyramid smelled of dried, old air, and once they had ascended far enough into the darkness, she used her magic to make a small flame appear in her other hand. They spent what felt like hours exploring the twists and turns of the ancient monument. There was laughter, small talk, and a stolen kiss here or there, but for some reason, at least for her, there was a sense of normalcy. Something she had never felt in her entire life. Once they had explored every inch that the archeologists knew about she grinned.
"That grin looks like trouble." He said as he wrapped his arms around her. To him, she was trouble, and to tell him the truth, she was.
"I want to show you something. Something that no one else knows about." He looked at her but agreed. She took his head and led him down underneath the pyramid.
"We've already been down here, there's nothing here." She just laughed and led him to the end of the corridor. Suddenly there was somewhere to go, in the darkness there was another turn, another corridor. She led him into the corridor and used her magic to illuminate it all. She smiled as he gasped again. There were carvings on the walls. But not just in hieroglyphics, in every language he could've imagined and more. Disregarding the fact that they were in the pyramids he ran his hands over them. "What do they say?"
"It's a prayer to lead a soul to heaven. The hieroglyphs are original, but that's it." She said with a knowing smile. "But how they got here is the story for another time. I need fresh air." She headed down the corridor, but in the opposite direction.
"Illyana! You're going the wrong way." He shouted after her, following her then stopping dead in his tracks for the hundredth time that day. They were outside, on the bank of the Nile. She was standing on the bank, smirking. And then, just like that, she dove into the water.