I am so terribly sorry for how disgustingly late this is. But finally 1st year at uni is over and I can relax with a nice vodka, some good movies, and my writing. I won't keep you any longer.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but my character, Evelyn.

Chapter 9 - This Is Real

As soon as I walked into the girls' bedroom, I could feel a change – the air was heavier almost, and there was a blatant sense of misery lingering. Raven was under her covers but her eyes were wide open, watery and distant. Angel was sat cross-legged on her bed, fists clenched in her lap and head down. Neither made any sign that they had acknowledged my presence, and both made me quite uneasy, since they were usually far more upbeat than I was. Seeing them like this… it felt like I was glimpsing a scenario in which they were the patients in a mental asylum. The thought made me suddenly nauseous.

"Charles feels bad," I blurted into the deafening silence.

"Why should we care about what Charles feels?" Angel mumbled, oblivious to Raven's flinch.

"Because he's the cause of," I trailed off, gesturing between them stupidly, "This."

Angel looked up at me then, lips pursed and hatred in her eyes. "No," she said, "Everyone else is."

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

She stood up quickly. "People loathe us," she told me, as if I was thick. "They reject us, isolate us, and they always will."

When she began to march out, I lunged and grabbed her arm. "Angel, you shouldn't go out there alone," I said firmly.

She glared at me. "Yes, I should. Now get the hell off me, Evelyn."

The attitude seemed so misplaced on her that I was frozen, speechless, momentarily. "I can't let you do that."

"What the hell is wrong with you? We should be able to go wherever we want, without fear!" she snapped, ripping her arm from my grasp before storming out.

I blinked, seeing flashes of white walls, hearing the echo of an ominous button, feeling the whispers of electric shocks running through my body. There was a distant voice in my mind, a lifeline to help me out of the abyss I was slipping into, telling me that I needed to pull myself together if I was going to help Raven. I latched onto it, my body and mind calming significantly, until I was back in the shared bedroom.

"I care about how Charles feels," Raven murmured weakly.

I turned to her, noting that she still wasn't looking at me. My body felt suddenly stiff, but I dragged myself over to her bed and, after a moment's hesitation, sat myself on the edge, my back facing her and my legs hanging down to the floor. "I know you do," I found myself saying.

"How was he? Was he still disappointed?" she asked.

This wasn't right: me comforting Raven, of all people. But it was happening, and she had done it for me before, so I was just going to have to deal with it. The only problem was how I would go about that. Did Raven need nice lies, gentle truths, or tough love? I would just have to pick one and hope for the best. "At first, yes, he was still disappointed in us all," I began, picking my words carefully. When I heard Raven sniff, I winced. "But I put across my perspective – quite effectively, I think – and then he looked as if the guilt was eating him alive."

I heard her shift as she moved down the bed so she could see my face. She was frowning. "I don't want him to feel guilty."

I sighed, rubbing my face. It really said something about me that I gave up that quickly. "I'm sorry, Raven, this is completely new to me and I have no idea what I'm doing," I admitted shamefully.

Then she did something unexpected: she smiled. It was small and in no way meant she was all better, but it was something. "I know," she said, "And I appreciate you trying." Her face slowly fell again. "It's more than Angel did."

"She's just angry. She'll come around," I said, choosing not to voice my doubts and concerns about the other girl.

"Evelyn?" Raven murmured.

"Yeah?"

"Is it… would it be okay… can I just lay my head down on your leg for a while?" she stumbled nervously. "Just for a few minutes?"

"Uh," I mumbled, "Yeah, okay, I guess."

The look of pure relief and gratitude on her face made my discomfort at the unfamiliar pressure on my thigh worth it. That was the first time anyone ever fell asleep on me.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Now that the window's fixed, the rec. room is available for use again." The man showing off the brand new window was apparently the head of the facility, which was a cause for concern at first, but the more he interacted with Darwin and me the more I became certain he was an open-minded man filled with curiosity and awe, unlike 99% of his agents.

"Thank you, and sorry again for the damages," I said, massaging the palm of my hand.

He smiled. "It was bound to happen some time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to attend to. Have a pleasant evening."

"You too," Darwin called as the man strolled out through the double doors, leaving the two of us alone. "Drink?"

"Yeah, sure," I nodded, walking to the opposite window to look over the field of grass. Unfortunately, being so late, I could only see as far as the outside lights allowed. I could barely make out the line of trees behind the fence, and I thought back to when I wrapped the branches of a tree around myself in my sleep. Confusion and frustration bubbled up in my chest. "Darwin, has Charles said anything to you about our training?"

"Not since he persuaded me to come here, no." I listened to him collect two glass bottles and open their lids before his footsteps approached. "I assumed it would start once all of us were here, but he's away on some kind of mission now so clearly that's not happening." I shared a grim look with him as I accepted a bottle, envious of the patience in his eyes that I clearly lacked. "What do you think they're doing?"

"It must have something to do with Shaw, because if they're wasting time on some CIA bullshit while we're sitting idly here then I really will punch one of them."

"But if it's to do with Shaw, surely they'd take us with them anyway?" he frowned.

I shrugged. "They're trying to teach us a lesson, I guess."

"What, that we're too immature, too irresponsible for this? How else do they expect us to pass the time when we're not fighting Shaw or being trained or even being involved in meetings?"

"That's exactly the point I tried to make to them," I sighed.

He shook his head before taking a drink, his gaze following mine out over the field. "How's Raven doing?" he asked quietly, as if she might have heard him and took offence.

I ran a hand through my hair, thinking of the deflated blonde. "Last I checked, still miserable." He pursed his lips, his brow furrowing in concern. "But she's sleeping now, and Angel's back in the room."

"Maybe a decent sleep is all she needs."

I nodded, tapping my fingers against my bottle absent-mindedly. "I'm worried about Angel."

"She seemed more angry than upset earlier," Darwin observed, a hint of wariness in his voice.

"She wasn't blaming Charles; she seemed to be blaming everyone else."

"As in humans?"

I looked up at him, concern and dread written all over my face. "Yeah, I'm worried where that mindset will lead her."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Jesus, man, you are killing me."

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of spare time."

I smiled in amusement at Alex's reply, the sounds of the game machine ringing through the silence between conversations. I was stretched out in one of the armchairs, my feet propped up on the coffee table while the other four sat on the sofas at either side of me. Sean was once again dining on Oreos, tossing me one every so often with a – surprisingly effective – stern face. Hank dabbled in conversation here and there, but mainly "snuck" glances at Raven any chance he could. To my relief and joy, the blonde girl had become far more animated and cheerful throughout the day, though in the quiet moments her face would sometimes fall as she obviously thought back to last night. As for Angel, I was becoming increasingly worried for her as time wore on; she was the opposite of Raven, retreating into herself as the hours passed and settling into a sour mood.

However, as soon as Charles and Erik got back, Darwin and I were going to talk to them about training and possibly moving somewhere free from leering agents, and I was optimistic that with his help, we'd get through to the adults. If that happened, if we were moved and I was finally in an environment where I was liberated from constantly looking over my shoulder or cringing away from guards and agents, then I could truly be happy. Until then, though, I was content to relax with my friends, and enjoy the moment.

"Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town!"

"And the moment's ruined," I muttered to myself, as we all looked to the two agents standing behind the window. I recognised them from walking past them in the hallways before; they'd never said a word to us then, it was funny how that changed now that there was something between us.

"Hey, c'mon, honey, give us a little, uh…" the agent trailed off, before enacting angel's wings with his hands and making stupid wind noises with his mouth. When Angel just gave him a look, he moved his taunting elsewhere. "No? What about a mental breakdown from the nutjob, huh?" At first I was completely caught off guard, being addressed so harshly, since it hadn't properly happened since I left the asylum. Then I was angry, but the death glare I sent him didn't seem to affect him in the slightest. "C'mon, let's see the foot," he persisted, lifting his leg by his ankle while smirking at Hank. I watched the nerdy boy carefully as he stood, encouraging a "There it is, come on, Bigfoot, let's go," but Hank merely walked to the side of the window and hit the button to close the curtains, thankfully blocking the agents out. "Hey! Hey, c'mon, hey," the agent protested, as amused as ever, until the green material finally covered him.

"Dickhead," I hissed, straightening in my seat so that my legs fell off the table. Sean remained as relaxed as ever, even giving me an amused smirk in reply to my insult. Angel, however, put her mug down harshly on the table and sat staring at the floor.

"They're just guys being stupid," Raven said, attempting to comfort her. I thought that was nice of her, given how she felt Angel was everything but comforting the night before.

"Guys being stupid I can handle, okay? I've handled that my whole life," Angel retorted. "But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us," Raven replied dejectedly, in a last attempt to stop Angel from feeling alone. The response the blonde got was less than satisfactory.

"Raven's right," I spoke up, "As long as we're all together, working together, we can change their minds."

"Don't be so naïve," Angel sighed.

I frowned, unappreciative of her newfound snappiness towards us. "Optimism isn't the same as naivety."

"There's no way we can make everyone like us."

"Of course not," I agreed, "There are always gonna be assholes out there but that doesn't mean the rest of the world are assholes."

"There's no point even trying, they're never going-" She cut herself off as we all twitched nervously, having heard a sudden, loud thud from somewhere outside. Every positive emotion present in my body immediately drained away; something was definitely not right here.

When the second thud sounded, Darwin noticed. "What was that?" Alex was less concerned. A third thud sounded, louder and heavier this time. "I don't know, something doesn't feel right."

We all slowly rose from our seats as the two of them came over to join us, Darwin moving to open the curtains. My heart thundered in my chest, breaking at the thought that our blissful calm was about to be shattered. There was nothing yet to suggest we were under attack, but this good thing, this room of acceptance and friendship, it was going to end at some point, and my gut told me that it was now. As the fourth thud came we gathered before the window in a line, curious but hesitant to see what the cause of it was. Then came the fifth thud, the sixth, seventh, eighth; my fingers twitched and I flinched at each one, unwilling to consider what could possibly make such a sound.

That's when we saw it. Before the brilliant, bright light of the moon, two dark shapes appeared out of nowhere. "What is that?" Darwin asked, the tone of his voice suggesting he already had an idea. As the realisation dawned on me, time seemed to slow, and I watched as one figure disappeared again, leaving the other to begin its descent alone, whilst emitting a terrifying noise that was entirely, unquestionably, human. Every other noise around me went silent, everything else around the body went black; this human being, this soul, was falling rapidly to his death before my very eyes, yelling uncontrollably in confusion and fear, plucked as a happy man and dropped as a murder victim. I could barely–

His body hit the ground, sickening cracks echoing throughout the courtyard, and Raven's piercing, terrified screech sounded by my side, and I was jumping backwards with the rest of them, and someone had latched onto my wrist, and there was a dead agent in the courtyard – not just any agent, I realised; it was the head of the facility, the man who gave me hope for humanity's acceptance of mutants.

There was a dead man in the courtyard.

We were in serious danger.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to tear the attacker apart with my bare hands, I wanted to run and hide in a corner until the evil had passed.

Everything was still slow-motion. My legs felt like they were wading through thick, gloopy mud as we stumbled backwards, my eyes were taking forever moving from body to body as they fell from the sky, my breaths were coming out far too slowly for my liking, my mind was taking an age to comprehend what was happening around me.

Then my wrist was yanked, my name was shouted, and everything sped up to normal time, and my body felt lighter, and it was like I'd been lifted out of water, and then my mind became sharper, and then it began to draw up connections – the thuds were the button being pressed, Raven and Angel's screams were my own as electricity surged through my limbs, igniting each and every cell in blinding-hot agony–

"Get back, get back! Do not leave that room! We are under attack!"

The mutant was everywhere and yet nowhere.

Pristine, white walls flashed around the edges of my vision.

Shouts of warning burst from all around me.

A looming figure with black eyes flashed in front of my face.

Gunfire.

Suddenly an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me down behind the safety of a sofa, where everyone was huddling and screaming, and a single voice spoke and rose up above all the chaos, all the violence and death and fear: "Evelyn? Stay with me, Evelyn. Please stay with us. We need you here."

My eyes were clenched shut, and I realised my hands were clutching my head desperately, my fingers tangled painfully in my hair. Detaching them, I gripped instead onto the one thing keeping me grounded: the arm belonging to the voice. All I could feel was warm leather.

As Darwin half-stood over us, arms outstretched in a protective manner, there was a huge noise from behind us, and we all turned to see a tornado tearing across the field of grass I so cherished, ripping Cerebro to shreds. The person behind me began to breath in short, rapid bursts, and I turned my head briefly to lock eyes with none other than Alex, those lovely blue orbs of his providing little comfort in the utter carnage around us. The teleporting mutant was quick and skilled, slicing through the agents with precision and ruthlessness. It took me a while to acknowledge it, but he was full-out red, with long black hair and a sharp, red tail to match; I'd never seen anyone like him before.

Agents were dying all around us, their limp bodies slumping to the ground with a variety of wounds. It was a horrific thing to watch, but we couldn't look away. Eventually, Darwin had had enough. "Stay here, my ass! Let's go!" he yelled, bolting for the double doors. The rest of us scrambled after him, falling into each other and grabbing any available limb we could to support ourselves. Getting through the doors was both relieving and terrifying, but we pushed on and ran to the end of the hallway, where several guards stood shouting at us to get back.

"We can help!" Darwin insisted as they caught us and shoved us away. Why wouldn't they let us through? Why wouldn't they let us get to safety?

"What's wrong with you?"

I shook my head violently, trying to banish his voice from my head.

Then there was an explosion further down the hallway and everyone was dragging each other and running back to the rec. room. I couldn't keep track of it all, there was too much going on, too much noise, too much activity, too much–

The tornado was finishing Cerebro, the red mutant was dancing between the agents, a flurry of limbs and knives as he slaughtered them all. Why hadn't we been attacked yet? Why were we being ignored? Did they know we were here? Did they work with Shaw? What was going to happen to us?

I felt a hand grip my own tightly, comforting and seeking comfort, and I looked over at Raven, observing the pale hue that had overtaken her tanned skin, the madness of fear in her eyes, the desperation for it all to stop. My fingers curled up to clutch her back, my mind suddenly clearing and sharpening while a sense of determination and hope sparked inside of me. "We're gonna be okay," I heard myself tell her, and I told myself to believe it. We were going to make it out of this fine, because we were going to save the world, and because I was not going to die by the hands of some red monkey with a pointy stick.

There was a yell from outside the field window before a body was thrown through the glass, shattering it and spilling it all over the floor. The red monkey sliced and stabbed his last victim, while the tornado died down and a man in a grey suit appeared, and then they both climbed through their broken windows to flank our huddled group, and I feared what we waited for.

Suddenly a series of gunshots rang out, and a voice shouted, "Wait! You want the mutants? They're right through that door, just let us normal people go, we're no threat–" There was the sound of something making contact with a body and then it slumped to the ground, and a man walked through the doors wearing a strange, grey helmet.

For a moment we all stood silently, observing each other, and merely from the way the newcomer held himself I knew it was Shaw. Who else would saunter into a secret CIA facility, armed with deadly mutants, looking for us?

"Where's the telepath?"

I rest my case.

"Not here," the red monkey replied.

"Too bad. Well at least I can take this silly thing off," he smiled, as if we were friends welcome to laugh with him. He removed the grey helmet and ran a hand through his hair to sort it. "Good evening," he called to us, "My name is Sebastian Shaw." I wanted to claw that charming smile right off of his face. "And I am not," he continued, walking towards us, "Here to hurt you."

"Freeze!" The sudden shout of an agent outside made Raven jump next to me, and I squeezed her hand reassuringly in reply.

"Azazel," Shaw said, with such a lack of fear or caution that he just screamed arrogance. The red monkey appeared next to the lone guard and struck, killing him quickly. Bringing our attention back to him, Shaw continued towards us, handing his helmet to his grey-suited companion. "My friends," he addressed us – my lip curled in disgust, "There's a revolution coming, when mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice: be enslaved," he proposed, looking to Darwin as my fists clenched in anger, "Or rise up to rule. Choose 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, and queens." He was whispering by the end of it, making eye contact with each and every one of us throughout his speech at the most opportune times, seemingly having an understanding of our wants and fears already.

I was not surprised – however, my stomach did drop in fear or anger or distraught – when Angel reached out and accepted his waiting hand, allowing Shaw to lead her away from us, from her friends. "Angel," Raven said softly, disappointed and hurt.

"Are you kidding me?" Sean added, disbelieving and slightly disgusted.

"Come on," Angel beckoned us, tears in her eyes, "We don't belong here, and that's nothing to be ashamed of." When no one else rushed to join, Shaw turned away from us and took her outside, his minions already waiting for him.

"We have to do something," Raven stated, seemingly gaining confidence since realising we were not actually in danger.

All I was aware of was the sound of a slight scuffle, before Darwin called out, "Stop, I'm coming with you," and started over to wear our enemies stood. My brow furrowed, my heart hammering in my chest. Darwin wouldn't abandon us, he didn't have it in him, and he definitely wouldn't side with a man who was responsible for the death of so many in merely one night. What was his play? How was he sure he would be safe? What if something happened to him?

"Good choice," Shaw told him, "So, tell me about your mutation."

"Well, I adapt to survive," Darwin stated easily, as the rest of us walked to the centre of the room, suspicious that something was about to happen, "So I guess that means I'm coming with you."

"I like that," Shaw replied, before gesturing for Darwin to join our former team mate.

As soon as he stood next to Angel, Darwin shouted Alex's name, who yelled for us to get out, before the former dipped Angel and morphed his body, protecting them from Alex's red rings as they surged towards the enemy. We had all ducked for cover, shielding ourselves from the heat of Alex's attack, but we looked up again when Shaw spoke. "Protecting your fellow mutants? That's a noble gesture." Alex's rings were nowhere to be seen, but Shaw was just lowering his arms and his voice had sounded strained – had he absorbed them? "Feels good."

"Oh my God," I whispered, astounded by the power he obviously wielded with such a mutation. But then my voice cut off and I swear my heart stopped, because Darwin was throwing a punch at Shaw, who easily blocked it and took a hold of our friend's jaw.

"Adapt to this," Shaw told him, pinching a bright red energy in his fingertips.

Unlike before, when everything slowed down and I was focused on one thing only, here everything seemed too fast for me to catch up to and I was hyper-aware of everything. I felt like I could see every single detail on everyone's clothes, faces, hair, I could feel the muscles in Raven's hand twitching underneath my skin, I could hear everyone's sharp, erratic breathing, coupled with my own, and I could hear my heart breaking as I watched Shaw slip Alex's energy into Darwin's mouth before he was teleported safely away. I was standing on a steep slope, and I was slipping uncontrollably, trying desperately to reach out to this moment to stop whatever was destroying Darwin from the inside, but it was all happening too fast and there was so much going on and he was too far away and I didn't know what to do and–

And just after he reached out understandingly to Alex, a light too bright to look at overcame him, and when next I looked, there was nothing but a pile of ash on the ground.

Darwin was gone, and I felt a piece of my heart go with him.

One of my friends had died right before my eyes, because of Shaw, the man we were recruited to defeat.

This is real.