Hi ! I felt like posting another chapter ! Hope you'll like it ! (I don't even know if anyone's reading haha)
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men...
His name echoed in my head. I could see it vividly. I'm still not able to see what will really happen. Alex will use his powers to destroy a big room, and then to protect his friends, he will attack a group of really suspicious people. His powers looked amazing, but also extremely dangerous. His laser beams, because yeah, that's what it looked like, will hit some sort of engine and the whole mansion will explode, leaving him to be the only casualty of the accident.
The thought crossed my mind at this instant. I knew for a fact that he wasn't alone there, the explosion should have killed all of them, but he was the only one to die. How ?
Riley stops me from putting too much thoughts into this and gives me back my notebook. She looks upset as well. She sits down next to me and puts her arm around my shoulders.
"Want to talk about it ?"
"What's to tell ?"
"Oh, Mar. I know you. And you're more upset than usual. Tell me what happens." She looks really concerned, and as usual, I can't say no to her.
"He uses his powers to save his friends, but he hits an engine by accident. The damn thing explodes and … He's gone."
Huh, is her only answer before something dumb leaves her mouth.
"Is he hot ?"
"You did not just ask me that."
"I have my priorities. So... is he ?"
I know she's trying to lighten up the mood, and I'm greatful for that. I try not to smile.
"Yes, he is."
"Ooooh, she admits it. Tell me, how is he ?"
"Blond-"
"Of course", she cuts in.
"Blue eyes. Fashion taste is a bit lacking I'll admit. And he deserves a haircut. But other than that, he's... really handsome."
"And what are you gonna do ?"
"What do you mean what am I gonna do ?"
"I mean, are you going to save him ?"
"You know I can't."
"I know you won't because of something that might happen."
"Don't lecture me, Ri. You know what will happen."
"I know that Camille died because an idiot couldn't keep his eyes on the road."
"The very same idiot I saved. If I hadn't she'd still be here."
"How do you know ? For all you know, she could have died jaywalking the very same day."
"You know it's not true. I would have seen it."
"And yet you didn't see that her date had changed. You're not almighty, Mar."
"Exactly. That's why I'm not saving him. I'm done screwing with the universe."
"Then why do you look so upset?"
"I'm not", I start walking away. I can't deal with her right now because I know she's right. I do want to save him, but I'm scared that my actions will create ripples in time. Saving Alex was something I shouldn't even consider because it's not in the cards. The future is not built around Alex Summers' survival. But I was torn. I had the choice to save him. He didn't want to die, he just wanted to protect his friends. I turn just in time to see Riley walk out of the door with her coat on. I catch up to her but she does not look at me.
"What are you doing?"
"What you should do."
"You can't !"
"Huh, watch me."
"You don't even know where he is."
"But I know his name. Look, Fate. You are going to regret not helping him when you could once he's dead. But right now he's not. He's alive, young, breathing, and he deserves to live."
"They all deserved to live. Should I get my notebook so I can refresh your memory? I didn't save them. What makes him so different?"
"It makes a difference when I keep seeing you being racked with guilt everytime you don't save one of them. I'm done witnessing that. So get off your ass, get in the damn car and let's go. You'll worry about consequences when it's done."
She looks at me like she's about to shoot me so it's hard to go against her order. But if I'm being honest, I don't want to not go. I want to save him. I have been itching my whole life to make a difference amongst my own kind. And I have that chance right here, right now.
I grab my coat and we're off to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
"What's the address again?" Riley asks. She's been asking that for hours.
"1407 Graymalkin Lane, Westchester County, New York. Stop asking the same question and drive ! We've been on the road for hours and I need to pee."
" We're nearly there. I just need to make a U-turn because I took a wrong turn."
" I told you to turn off this stupid GPS, it's confusing you even more, and believe me, you don't need that."
"What is that supposed to mean?" she accuses me, turning her head in my direction.
"Eyes on the road !"
"Then stop distracting me, jeez."
After a while, the car comes to a full stop and we found ourselves in front of a massive gate. We get out and approach it. There's a sign just beside it, saying Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
"We're in the right place."
"Alright, let's go." She pushes the gate open and we walk down the path, down to the mansion. "How much time do we have left?"
"Twenty minutes tops" I say, checking my watch.
"We drove all night. If we had done things differently, we might have been too late."
"You don't need to tell me that. I know. I knew that."
"You can't keep living with guilt, Mar. It's okay to want to do the right thing, even if it means something bad might happen."
"Let's hope things will be different this time."
"Let's hope." she agrees.
"This place is a damn maze, we're never going to find him in time!" Riley whines. She sits in the middle of the hallway and a few students stop to throw weird glances at us. My best friend keeps checking her watch, and I'm becoming anxious as well. Alex doesn't have much time left, and we can't do much if we keep getting lost in the mansion. Riley looks at me suddenly and grips my shoulders. "Try to remember. Where did it happen?"
"Um.. There was a big room and then a hallway."
"Are you for real? This place has nothing but big rooms and hallways. You're gonna have to do better than that, honey. Come on, give me details!"
"It's not like these hallways. The hallway he was in was white, almost like a hospital."
"That's not helping, we only have a few minutes left !"
"Well I'm sorry. I've experienced his death, I wasn't watching a reality show !"
"Okay okay, new plan !" She gets up and grabs the first kid she finds. She's a young girl, obviously a mutant by the greenish color of her skin. She seems startled and tries to pull away at first.
"It's okay", I try to reassure her. "We just want to know where we could find Alex Summers."
"I don't know who that is."
"Um, he was with a guy... in a wheelchair."
"You mean Professor Xavier? I think he went to the Cerebro with Hank, a blond girl, a blond guy, and a woman with brown hair."
"That's him, the blond guy. That's Alex. Where is the Cerebro?"
She points at the elevator and just says "top floor" before fading away. Strangely, even though I can't see her anymore, I can still see her number where her head should be. And then it hits me, her mutation is allowing her to fade into the background, just like a chameleon. Riley seems to think she just disappeared because she keeps looking in every directions saying "where did she go?".
I slip her a thanks and I drag Riley away, towards the elevator. We step on it and the doors close on us. Riley just presses a button and the elevator goes up.
"Nervous?" Riley asks. I feel sometimes that she can read my mind but then I see her eyes go down to my hands and I can see that I have been twisting them in an impossible angle. I stop that and let my arms fell.
"A little."
"How much time do we have left?" Watching my watch, I see that his death is due in a few minutes.
"Shouldn't be long now." The elevator finally reaches its destination and we are welcomed by a loud explosion. Riley catches herself on the walls but when she starts to leave the safety of the elevator (which now that I think about it is pretty dumb, since the elevator could just fall with us in it) I stop her and we hear voices at the end of the white hallway.
"Well, at least you got the white hallway aspect right. What happened?"
"He destroyed the Cerebro I think. They're here. Which means the bad guys should be here riiiiight... now." As if on cue, we can hear a man calling out to Alex and I can remember this scene from my vision. I remember Alex's voice yelling at the guys taking away his friend.
"Hey ! Hey, assholes!"
"All will be revealed, my child." A dark voice says. And I remember this man. He looked dangerous. I risk a glance to look at him and I can see his date of death, but strangely enough, it keeps changing everytime I blink. They back away to leave with the Professor and Alex yells at them to stop. She shoots at them with his powers while a man screams at him not to. This. This is it. Time seems to slow down and comes to a stop suddenly. I step out of the elevator and see the explosion from up close, the fire is already so close to Alex that the blast already send him flying. I turn to see two women and a man tring to cover themselves from the blast. And I had missed it in my vision but there's a man there. He's just a blur, and I realize that he's moving so fast that I didn't get to see him.
I have the choice again. I move towards Riley and look at her frozen face. I remember our conversation. I have to choose between saving him or letting him die. But I already know that I'm just lying to myself. I had already made up my mind when I got into the car. I touch Riley to allow her to move with me in this frozen moment between life and death. The Moment. It is where the choice must be made.
"What the heeeell?" she gasps.
"Welcome back. Now if you're done yelling, help me move him to safety."
"We're really doing this?"
"Yeah. We are. Now move your ass, I can't keep that up for long. I'm gonna severed his fate and then we're out. But I can't move him by myself." I approach Alex, feeling a bit nauseous. I haven't severed anyone's fate for a while now, and I still feel like I won't be able to do anything, but I move towards him anyway.
"So, how do you get rid of someone's fate?"
"I kiss him." There's a long silence that settles itself. It has been a while since I managed to shut her up.
"You've never told be that !" She says, excited.
"You never asked. And it's not a big deal. It's just a kiss."
"Well go on then. No time to let the tension built, kiss him."
"You're such a romantic."
"Pffr. You know you want to." And I kinda do. So I grab his face and put a small kiss on his lips. Instantly I see his fate vanish and his date resets itself. And I know that for now, it will stay that way until the universe has decided when he should actually die. It seems to be forever when I finally back away from him. Riley looks at me with a weird, perverted look.
"Shut up. Help me get him out."
"What about those guys?"
"They'll be fine."
"God, he's heavy."
"It's all muscles" Ri chuckles.
"That's what they all say." That makes her laugh and she accidently drops Alex's legs in the grass. I follow him down to the ground because of that and she laughs even more. "I hate you."
"I think we're far enough. You think we're far enough?" I look around, and we can see the mansion in front of us, behind the safety of the trees.
"Yeah it should be okay."
"Okay so can you re-start time? It's starting to freak me out."
" I just d-" I'm interrupted by the explosion of the mansion and I instantly shield Alex with my body without even realising it. The beautiful mansion is nothing but a pile of ruins now, but there's a group of people on the lawn that has formed itself and I'm happy to see that the speedster seems to have gotten everyone out.
"Who the hell are you?" I hear a voice say. I turn to see Alex looking at me with shock and Riley tries to calm him.
"We just saved your life, pal. You were supposed to die in there."
"Wha-"
"I'm Mara. This is Riley. I'm a mutant, she's human. And I saw you die yesterday. I thought you might like to survive."
"What about my brother?"
"You were the only one supposed to die. I think he's okay." He gets up and starts running towards the group of mutants and we follow close behind. I get to see the guy with the glasses again, and the speedster. We manage to approach them thanks to Alex.
"Hank!" Alex calls.
"Alex? Oh my god, we thought you were dead!" He seems truly delighted to see that the blond survived. He hugs him quickly and Alex returns the sign of affection.
"Apparently I have a guardian angel." He points at me and get weird looks from everyone.
"Hi. I'm Mara."
"Where's Scott?" Alex asks, almost panicked.
"He wasn't there when the place blew up. But he just went to the heart of the explosion. We thought you had died. He probably thinks so too."
"Well then !" Riley intervenes.. "Hi, I'm Riley. I'm human, and I'm going to tell your brother you survived. Imma let you, mutants, talk it through." She walks away, happy to avoid the explanations that had to follow. Everyone looks at me weird and I smile awkwardly.
"Alex, what happened?"
"I don't know. Ask her." Before I can even answer we hear a loud noise coming from the sky. We look up and see helicopters come our way, and we hear "Please remain calm. Medical assistance is on the way". It is repeated over and over again and I can see that the group seems to be relieved but I'm not. Something's wrong. A few soldiers come our way with guns in hand, and one seems to be in charge. I back away slightly and bump into Alex while the woman with brown hair (Moira apparently) meets them halfway to talk.
"What is it? What's wrong?" worries Alex.
I look at all the soldiers and then my eyes stop at the man in the middle. "They're all going to die. Except him. Stryker. He lives."
"Stryk-" he starts before we hear Raven (as it is written above her head) shouts to Moira to wait. Stryker orders his men to fire, and we are blasted away. Alex stops my fall from being too hard, but I fall into darkness anyways.
That's it for today !