Chapter 7: Can You Save Me

Zoey looked down to find herself in slacks, a blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and brown loafers.

She had his hands.

She reached up and felt his soft hair.

"Holy shit," Zoey said-but Charles's voice came out.

"You can definitely say that again. Can you change? Now, please," Raven looked annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I usually can't control the powers the first time they come in range," Charles' British voice emitted from her mouth.

This was so weird for her. A different skin; a different voice!

"Think that you're looking at yourself in a mirror," Raven said.

Zoey did what she asked, closing her eyes - but she could only see Charles.

From the flashback on the beach and trying to save the soldier's lives, laughing on the grass after she had blown him over, his face of anticipation as he had almost touched her…

"I'm sorry, I can't." Zoey opened her eyes.

Raven tilted her head. She brought up her hands, showing rumpled clothes folded halfheartedly.

"I brought a shirt and jeans, to fit Zoey," she said, and shrugged as she tossed the clothes onto the pillow before turning to face her.

Her skin was a mixture of scales, smooth skin, and even small blue spikes. It was modest enough for her not to wear any clothes, and she had a slim figure.

"You're staring," Raven said, and Zoey met her yellow eyes.

"Sorry."

"No, it's actually okay. Most people ogle, you're just looking."

"You power is amazing..."

"It is pretty awesome, but you... just looking at him is... is weird," she said, a slight frown on her blue lips.

"Sorry, I didn't even intend to use your power. It's like with Alex, I can't control it."

"How is that dickhead?" Raven asked, sitting down at the end of the bed. Zoey couldn't help but laugh.

"He's fine. But I wouldn't call him a dickhead."

Raven tilted her head, then spoke.

"Wait, you get Charles' powers too don't you? Do you mess with him? Oh, please tell me you have!" she said.

Zoey was a little thrown off by Raven's sudden friendliness, but maybe that was just her personality. Or she was up to something.

"No," she simply replied.

"Really?"

"No, and he doesn't invade my head in return," Zoey said, and couldn't help but smile when she heard his voice.

"How is he?" Raven asked softly.

Zoey blinked and looked at those yellow eyes.

"He's doing well. He found two more… mutants, Janie and Ororo. You probably already know from the diamond woman."

"Frost, call her Frost. And she did mention it. At least they have females there now, instead of just the four guys," Raven said, giving a small smile.

"Has he told you anything about me?" she asked.

Zoey shook her head.

"I found a picture of you two together, at some pub in '62. You were a pretty blonde girl."

At that, Raven transformed into said girl, wearing a blue turtleneck dress.

Zoey nodded.

"Yeah, that's her."

Raven transformed back into her true form.

"When Charles found me, he helped me pick out a character from a children's book, so I could be her when around others."

"Found you?" Zoey asked, hoping she would continue.

"He hasn't told you about me?"

Zoey shook her head, unsure what to say. Raven continued.

"Charles… took me in when we were both alot younger. We grew up like brother and sister, in the big house. But when the whole… CIA fiasco began, I started to doubt myself even more, but Erik helped me with that. On the beach of Cuba, after Erik had faulted the missiles and Charles was shot…" she broke on the last word and looked down. She wrung her hands, and looked back up, her face back to being straight. "Well, Charles and Erik broke apart right then. Charles knew I wanted to join Erik, and he let me go. I love him even more for that."

Zoey stayed silent, speechless.

He has been helping people since he was a little boy. That's all Charles wants to do: help.

Zoey smiled.

"He loves you too," she finally spoke. "When he saw the photo, I could tell."

"How is the house? Has he changed it at all?"

"Not really except for adding bedrooms for the others," Zoey said, not giving any more information.

Raven was nice, but being with Eric, it made her an enemy. Zoey dreadfully remembered about Frost spying on them. She probably has the whole grounds memorized. "But the grounds are huge!" Zoey continued, not wanting to sound as wary as she felt.

"I was actually far from the house, with Ororo when Azazel took me-"

"What!?" Raven said, quickly standing up. "That incompetent bastard left a witness!?" She paced in front of her. "If he took you at sundown…" she started muttering silently to herself. She then suddenly stopped.

"What time is it?" she asked with a slightly raised tone.

"I don't have a watch," Zoey said, Charles' shaking voice coming out.

"This is not going to end well-"

"ERIK!"

Zoey heard the yell from outside, but she heard it inside her head too, and knew it was the real Charles.

"Shit," Raven said, and slipped out of the room, the locks clicking behind her.

Zoey echoed with her own curse and ran to the window.

How in the hell did he get here quickly? Or how long had it been? The stars and a full moon were in the night sky. It would have to be a long train or plane ride from the mansion to Southold.

But she felt his presence, a warm tickle behind her ears.

"Charles!" Zoey yelled out in his voice as she looked outside, lights from the dock and the house flooding the yard with light. Charles was in his chair, on the grass with Hank, Sean, Alex, and Janie, all standing with him.

Charles was dressed regularly, but the rest were in sleek black suit get-ups that reminded her of the ones she saw on Eric and Charles at the beach. Alex had a weird circle contraption on his chest, and Sean's outfit had fabric attached from his sides to his sleeves, like a cape. She noticed Janie was barefoot, not wearing boots like the others.

"Charles!" she yelled out again, banging on the window. She saw Hank look up, and a second later Charles did as well.

'Are you okay? Has he hurt you?' she heard his voice in her head. Her heart fluttered and she thought back to him.

'No. Not intentionally.'

'What the hell does that mean? Dammit-'

Suddenly his presence left her, and she knew it was Frost.

She went to the door and started banging on it, trying to reel in Hank's power to break through the door. It only left a few dents… this door was a hardy metal. She continued to kick and hit the door, and felt the faerie girl's abilities enter her; Erik probably called for back-up.

Her back itched but she ignored it as she took a deep breath and felt the fire building up in her throat.

She stepped back slightly, and pushed out her breath when the door opened. She watched fire come out from her mouth and hit the girl, who screeched as she flew back, stumbling over, her wings tangling as she landed on her stomach. She was steaming, and Zoey didn't give it a second thought as she ran down the stairs.

She had almost reached the front door when a hand grabbed her shoulder and jerked her away. She turned to Raven, keeping a tight grip on her new immensely tingling skin, more powerful than before.

"Raven, let me go," she said, trying to sound stern as Charles, but instead sounding scared.

"What have we here?" Erik said from behind.

She turned towards him, and saw he had a weird helmet on. The grin on his face was swept off when he saw her, and his shocked face quickly turned to a scowl.

"Erik, please, just let me go," she said pleadingly, hoping that her being Charles -nevertheless a standing Charles- would weaken him enough to give in.

Erik ignored her and turned to Frost and Raven, both in original forms.

"We're going to have a chat with dear Charles - the real one, and his pals," Erik said assuring. He walked up to Zoey and took her wrist. She felt his power's strength surge through her, and looked around for something metal, but couldn't find anything.

"I learned my lesson, dear," he whispered to her.

"Mystique, why don't we have some fun with Charles? Frost let us all know how worried he is for his darling Zoey, let's bring back some lost memories, why don't we?" he said.

Mystique smiled, nodded, and transformed, the blue flecks of skin turning around to create a tall and very pretty brunette. She had on black go-go boots and trench coat.

"Perfect," Erik said. Frost went first, opening the door and stepping out. Erik jerked Zoey outside next, with the brunette following.

They all walked forward, Zoey more being dragged, and they stopped in line in front of Charles and the others. They all had the weirdest looks on their faces, all seeing a double of Charles. Charles himself looked at Zoey wide eyed.

Zoey gave Charles a pleading look, trying to say sorry. He closed his eyes, and then opened them.

He didn't even glance at her; his furious eyes were only watching Erik.

"Erik, you have the audacity to kidnap? From my home?" Charles said in a dark tone.

"Charles. I guess it had to be sooner, rather than later," Erik said.

Zoey tried to pry from his grasp, but he kept a tighter grip, and she gave up. She turned back to Charles, who was looking at the brunette sadly.

"Raven, what are you doing?" he asked.

Zoey looked over to see the brunette smile.

"Don't worry, Charles. I know how much my real form makes you uncomfortable."

She had an American accent and a soft voice.

"It doesn't make me-" he stopped, and shook his head. "Nevermind, Raven. I didn't come here for a reunion with Moira," he said.

Charles turned to look at Eric, and they started talking, but Zoey continued to watch Raven – Mystique, whoever, still in Moira's form.

Zoey frowned, noticing how beautiful Moira was. She hated that she felt a pang of jealousy.

"Hey Beast. How goes the hiding?" 'Moira' asked, nodding at Hank. Hank didn't answer, he just looked down. Then suddenly Raven shifted back to her blue form. Alex spoke.

"First of all Raven, I have to say… that suits you," he said, eyeing her up and down. Janie shifted her feet and looked away, and surprisingly Raven laughed.

"But second," Alex continued, "you need to shut up."

Sean laughed, and Hank looked back up with a slight smirk.

Erik jostled her, and Zoey turned her attention back to him. She kicked his ankle, but he didn't budge as much as she wanted him to.

"Stop tossing me around," she said sternly, hearing Charles' voice with more certainty.

"Show me what you can do, with the out of range theory. I don't believe it," he said.

"What, didn't your 'twinkly little bird' tell you all about it?"

Erik turned to Charles, a grin on his face.

"Want to explain this one for me?" he asked.

Zoey turned to Charles, who shook his head. His knuckles were turning white he was gripping the chair arms so tightly.

"Fine, then I will. Charles here has known that Frost was checking in on all of you. He managed at times to block her out."

Her heart stopped.

"You knew? Why didn't you say anything?" Zoey asked.

"Because I didn't think he would've taken it this far!" he said in a raised tone. He let out a deep breath, and finally met Zoey's eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said weirdly, still having to look at himself.

"Zoey," he repeated, "I'm sorry."

Zoey smiled back weakly, and was about to reply when she felt Frost at the back of her mind. She could tell because of the shiver it sent down her neck.

"You telepaths are unbelievable!" Zoey said, looking at Frost in diamond form. Then Zoey felt her skin vibrate again, and Zoey saw Erik watch with a raised brow as she felt her body transform back to herself, and the skin around her eyes tensed up yet again.

That's when an unconventional idea sprang into Zoey's head.

She delved into Frost's power more, feeling the cold and the embracing the chill on her body. She focused on Janie as she fought to keep her diamond form on her face, so as Frost couldn't hear her plan.

'Janie, I need you right now, okay?'

Janie's eyes widened, but she didn;t look over at her, didn't reveal what Zoey was doing. Her lips curved up to smile but she stopped, and went back to a straight face.

'I was thinking that some ivy might help us get away from this spat…'

She saw Janie brig her head down, and she raised her head with a grin.

Zoey ignored Erik's voice as she felt the ground underneath her shoes start to vibrate. She latched onto Janie's power in use, and she felt the vines sprout from the ground. She opened her eyes and looked down to see thick stemmed ivy slowly creeping up in the air, at the feet of Erik, Frost, and Mystique. It hadn't touched any of them yet, but Zoey spoke to distract them from finding out their plan.

"As I was about to say…," Zoey said aloud, looking first at Frost with a glare, and then looking at Charles, a small hint of a smile at her lips as she talked. When she saw his eyebrow twitch, she knew even he didn't know what was going on.

She felt the stems of the ivy root deep into the ground, and she yelled out "Now!"

She concentrated on the ivy around Erik's legs, and it wrapped around him tightly. He heard him and the others next to her yell out as they realized they were immobilized. Zoey threw her elbow behind her and hit Erik's stomach. He loosened his grip, and Zoey took a step to run, but tripped, falling onto the grass.

Her own feet were wrapped in vines. Probably her own doing. She turned over and kicked her feet, but no luck. She reached forward and started to tear them apart, but Erik lifted a hand, and a knife came flying from far away. He caught it and sliced at the vines at his feet and legs, and advanced towards her with the knife held high in the air. But then she heard a roar.

It sounded like an animal, and she heard the thumps reverberate in the ground as Hank ran towards them.

A flash of blue flew at Erik and they tumbled in the ground before Hank landed on top of him, his teeth bared, holding the knife Erik had summoned to his own throat. Zoey reached forward and sliced at the vines with her new claws. She kicked a few more times and managed to slip out of the vines. She rolled away and clumsily stood up.

Sean knocked Frost over with a sonic scream. When she got up quickly, Janie was there, wrapping vines around her feet as she threw a punch. They started fighting, Janie having a slight advantage with her use of kicks. Coming from Janie, the brutality was surprising.

Angel had flown from the roof of the house and Alex sent a ray her way, knocking her into the wall as she fell into the bushes, before he sent another ray at Frost, missing Janie by a foot and ripping Frost's feet from the vines as she flew back from the impact, skidding on the grass a few feet away.

"Everybody stop!" Erik bellowed out. Hank backed away, and Erik stood up, wiping a little bit of blood from his throat.

Raven stopped kicking at Sean and ran to Erik's side. Janie retreated the vines back into the ground, and started walking backwards, Frost mirroring her moves. Alex rushed up and grabbed to help Janie; she was visibly shaking. Angel flew out of the bushes and landed on the ground to brush herself off.

"It seems you have made your decision, Zoey. I'm sad to see you choose to be a pet rather than a free mutant," Erik said, looking solemnly at Zoey.

"Erik, I would rather be a pet to Charles… than be your prisoner," she said. Erik's brow quivered but he shook his head.

"Well, then. You've made your decision."

Zoey started slowly walking backwards. The others followed, slowly retreating, expecting a backhanded attack. After a few feet, Zoey finally turned around to see a large black jet.

They all rushed to the jet, Janie steadily holding Sean up who had a bloody nose and a forming black eye, Alex standing near them looking worried, and Charles following behind as Hank stood strong, staring at Erik and the others.

"C'mon Hank!" Alex yelled before running inside. Hank turned and ran to the jet, rushing to the pilot's seat and taking the jet into the air.

"Buckle up NOW, everybody!" Hank yelled as the door started to close. Zoey stumbled but grabbed onto the handles already installed. Janie grabbed Sean's arm and dragged them to the front seats closest to the pit. Charles was already fastened to a special seat to encase his chair at the end of the jet, and Zoey managed to slowly and shakily take a seat next to him.

She blushed as she felt Charles's hands encase around her body as he reached for the buckles, bringing them across her body, and at the sound of the click, Charles finally looked in her eyes.

He looked so sad, Zoey wanted to hug him.

Instead she leaned forward and looked toward the front of the jet.

"Holy shit!" she said laughing. Janie and Sean laughed as well, but Alex and Hank were too intent on getting home quickly and made no noise.

"He hurt you."

The softness in his voice startled Zoey and she looked at Charles, who was staring at her neck, his face solemn.

"I did give him some attitude... you know me," she said lightly, wanting to see his smile again, but he shook his head.

"This is all my fault. I knew Frost had been spying, but I didn't see this coming-"

Before she realized, Zoey reached forward and touched his shoulder, on his padded jacket. His eyes widened, but he didn't move.

"But you saved me, Charles. Yet again. Thank you," she said, staring at him to let him know she meant every word. She saw his other cheek turning pink, and she blinked and drew her hand away.

"Thank you," Zoey repeated softly to Charles. "Thank you," she said again, this time louder to the front of the jet.

"But of course! Once Ororo ran into the house screaming, Simon following and making a scene as well, we knew something was wrong," Sean explained.

"Are they back at the mansi – house?" she asked.

Charles half smiled.

"You can call it a mansion, and yes I told Ororo that Simon couldn't be left alone," Charles said.

"And it's dangerous. I didn't know it would get violent, sorry."

"Don't apologize, I knew it would get rough, that's why I had them suit up."

"Like real superheroes," Zoey muttered with a smile.

"Sorry what was that?" Charles asked, furrowing a brow.

Zoey shook her head with a smile.

"Nothing."

Please leave a second or two to review! Negative or Positive!