Chapter 14 - The Beginning of the End

Holding a book in my hands, my finger toying with the corner of a page, I leant my head against the window beside me and stared out over the estate. The library in Charles' mansion was gorgeous, with hundreds of old books, a big windowsill with a cushion to sit on, and beautifully carved wooden furniture. It smelled of coffee and old parchment, and it was one of my favourite places to visit. I'd found lots of books on botany which I figured I should look into, just in case it gave me more ideas about my mutation, and I'd come to realise I was a quick learner – we were never taught anything but madness in the asylum, and I could barely remember my life before that, so this was all new to me.

Hank was sat on the other side of the room at one of the small tables, his head buried in four books at once. It was rare to see him outside of the library or his lab, and despite there not being much interaction between us, it was nice to spend time with him. Charles or Moira would pop in from time to time to take out or return a book, but apart from that, Hank and I were the only ones to spend time in here.

I looked back down at the page I was on, my eyes running over the words but not properly focusing on them. Something had been bothering me lately: I barely saw Raven anymore. She frequented the gym and spent time with Hank in his lab, I knew that much, but then she'd disappear off into her room or somewhere else and I wouldn't see her again until meal time. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were really the only times I'd get to see her properly, and it was starting to upset me. I didn't know if it was something to do with her personally, or if I'd annoyed her in some way, or if she was going through something she didn't want to talk about, but it was making me a little anxious, and I missed her.

I lifted my head and looked over to Hank, wondering if he knew anything about it. "Hey, Hank?" I called, drawing his attention away from his studies.

Before I could continue, Sean came bouncing into the room, wearing the generic, grey jogging bottoms and jumper we'd all been given, but with an additional harness strapped over his torso. The harness had black and yellow striped material attached to it that stretched down Sean's arms in a triangle shape, making him look like a little bumblebee. "What's up, nerds?" he smirked.

Charles came in behind him, smiling in amusement. "Hank, we're going to do another flight test off the dish, are you ready?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Hank nodded, closing up his books and piling them neatly on his desk.

"Wait, a second," I frowned, "By 'dish', do you mean the satellite dish?"

Sean laughed nervously. "Exciting, huh?"

I grinned. "I have to see this. Can I join?"

Erik appeared in the doorway then. "Maybe you can catch him when it doesn't work," he smirked. Sean just smiled uncomfortably at me.

We walked out to the dish, which took about half an hour considering it was near the far edges of the estate. Hank and I tried to chat about different things to Sean to keep his mind off of the fact that he was about to throw himself off the top of the satellite dish and hope that he could make himself fly, but our efforts seemed fruitless. It didn't help that Erik would keep making comments about how quick Sean's death would be if he didn't manage to fly.

When we reached the ladder that would take them to the top, I stood to the side. Sean looked at me pleadingly, but I just laughed. "There's no way in hell I'm going up there," I told him, crossing my arms stubbornly. "Besides, like Erik said, I might need to catch you," I smirked.

With a pat on the shoulder, and a little shove, I encouraged Sean over to the ladder with the rest of them. As they began their climb, I moved back so I had a good view of the platform they'd be standing on, and took a deep breath. I couldn't even begin to imagine how scared Sean would be; if this worked, it would be his first successful test. Hopefully the imminent likelihood of death if it didn't work would be enough to make him get his act together.

I'd sat down while I waited for them to climb, but when I saw them all appear on the platform, my nerves had me back up on my feet again. I could see Sean moving about, clearly nervous and uncomfortable, and that made me feel even worse. Feeling slightly ashamed of myself for doubting his ability, I opened my palms towards the ground and summoned a load of roots, preparing myself just in case. I didn't know how safely I could catch him when he'd be falling at such a speed, but I couldn't stand by and do nothing while he plummeted to his death.

Suddenly he fell, letting out a couple of terrified screams. My eyes were pinned to him, my lungs refusing to inhale, my body tensing with fear. He fell past the middle of the dish, and kept falling, his arms spread out, but he didn't make a sound. Then he fell past the bottom of the dish, and my heart stopped, roots bursting out of the ground around me.

Finally he screamed, and I had to cover my ears from the force of it as it lifted him high into the air. I laughed out loud, relieved beyond belief, and let the roots all descend back into the soil. Sean whooped and hollered in between his screeching, flying back over the curve of the dish and out over open land.

The others soon joined me on the ground again, and I shared massive grins with them. Slapping Hank on the shoulder, I said, "Good job, Hank, you didn't kill him!"

"Erik almost did," he replied, avoiding eye contact with the older man as if scared Erik would hurt him for making a joke about him.

"What did you do?" I asked, ready to roll my eyes.

"I just gave him the encouragement he needed," Erik shrugged, smirking.

"He pushed him off," Charles clarified, shaking his head as we watched Sean fly over us again.

"Jesus," I laughed, "I've got to admit, you had more faith than I did."

"I had faith in him flying," Erik confirmed, "But I don't have faith in him landing."

My smile dropped in shock. "Did you even take him through how he would land?"

Hank smiled awkwardly. "I'm sure he'll figure something out."

As he said that, there was another scream from Sean that wasn't one that would carry him anywhere, and we turned to see him fall ungracefully to the ground, landing flat on his stomach.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later that afternoon, I was walking through the mansion, looking for something to do, when I bumped into Raven in one of the hallways. "Raven, hi," I waved, a little caught off guard.

"Oh, hey, Eve," she smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes like it used to.

"Do you want to go for a walk or something?" I asked, playing with my fingers nervously. The last time someone stopped being my friend, they went with our enemy; but losing Raven like this was worse – she was right there in front of me, fighting the same fight as me; she just didn't seem interested in me anymore.

"Uh, no, I'm fine, thanks," she replied, beginning to walk past me.

I turned to watch her go. "Are you okay?" I blurted. She stopped in her tracks, but didn't look back. I felt my face heat up, hoping beyond hope that I wasn't annoying her. "You know I'm here if you want to talk, right?"

She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled tensely. "I'm fine. Thank you." Then she walked around a corner and out of my sight.

My head dropped down as I sighed heavily, rubbing my forehead. I was no closer to figuring out what was going on with her, but I was definitely getting on her nerves. What the hell had happened?

Pulling my sleeves down over my hands, I crossed my arms over my chest and kept walking down the hallway, having no real destination. Part of me was telling myself to just leave her alone because that was what she wanted and if she didn't want anything to do with me then I should just give her that isolation; but, the other part of me wanted to help her and make sure she was okay because she was my friend and she'd been there for me plenty of times before.

"Evelyn, are you okay?" Charles' voice sounded.

I looked up to see him, Alex, and Hank coming in one of the main doors – I hadn't even realised I was heading in that direction. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine," I nodded. He looked unconvinced. I noticed what Alex was wearing then: a black vest-type thing with a circular piece of equipment on the chest. I leapt at the opportunity to change the subject. "Wow, what are you all dressed up for?" I grinned at the blonde.

He fixed his collar, feigning modesty. "Oh, you know, just blasting a manikin apart without hurting either of these two," he bragged. Hank muttered something under his breath as he unfastened the vest from around Alex's torso and walked off with it.

"What do you mean?" I asked tentatively as Alex walked closer to me. "You're controlling it more?"

"He's improved massively," Charles smiled proudly, patting Alex's shoulder. "He's no longer controlled by his mutation; he controls it."

"Alex, that's amazing!" I beamed, impulsively throwing my arms around him. I immediately panicked, wondering if I'd pushed the boundary too far. I started to pull away, but his hands found my waist and held me there, pressed against him. I couldn't help but grin. "I'm so happy for you."

He pulled away then, smiling down at me. "Thanks, Evy."

"Evelyn, have you seen Raven anywhere?" Charles asked.

I pulled away from Alex and took a step back, looking to the older mutant. "I think she went to the gym," I shrugged, feeling my mood deflate again. Charles frowned slightly before nodding and walking away.

Turning back to Alex, I forced the bad thoughts away again. "So, how did it feel?" I asked.

We started walking along the corridor, heading towards one of the living rooms us teenagers had adopted as our own. "It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders," he sighed, shaking his head. "With Hank's suit, I can finally use my mutation and not be so afraid of hurting everyone around me."

I smiled up at him. "Must be amazing," I nodded.

As we approached the door to the living room, I could hear the sounds of the pool table being used. Eager to try my hand at the game again, I went to step inside, but Alex caught my hand in his and held me back.

I looked down at our hands, feeling the warmth emanating from his skin, his fingers wrapped around mine, before looking back up at his face. He had a slight frown as he stared back at me, his eyes glancing between mine. "Evy," he murmured, and a shiver ran down my spine. "Thank you for helping me. I couldn't have done what I did today if you hadn't helped me forgive myself."

I licked my lips, waiting on words to form in my throat so I wouldn't look so out of it anymore, just staring up at him. "Don't mention it," I muttered back, slapping myself internally when I realised how shit it sounded. Why couldn't I just put my emotions into proper words? This wasn't exactly subtle. When he took a step closer to me and my breath caught in my throat, I tried to cover up my reaction, saying, "I just want you to be happy," although it came out more like a fucking whisper.

He smiled gently, intertwining his fingers with my own. "I am happy," he said softly.

Suddenly Sean's head appeared from inside the room and I jumped, removing my hand from Alex's to slap Sean's shoulder. "Jeez, I just wondered if anyone wanted to play a game of pool with me," he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder.

"Sneak up on me again and I'll ram the pool cue up your ass," I snapped, my embarrassment over getting such a fright transforming into aggravation.

Sean raised his hands defensively, retreating back into the room again. Too embarrassed to look at Alex, I followed the ginger, listening the two of them chuckling at me.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I stood next to Alex behind the couch, the rest of our group crowded around the TV with us, watching the President's address. Alex stood with his hands in his pockets while I stood with one crossed over my chest and the other supporting my chin, my fingers playing with each other nervously.

"It shall be the policy of this nation," he was saying, "to regard any nuclear missile crossing the embargo line that surrounds Cuba, as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."

"That's where we're gonna find Shaw," Erik announced, pointing a gun he'd acquired at the TV.

"How do you know?" Alex asked.

"Two superpowers facing off and he wants to start World War Three – he won't leave anything to chance," Charles explained.

"So much for diplomacy," Erik replied. "I suggest you all get a good night's sleep." And with that, he left the room.

I exhaled quietly, feeling the reality of the situation descend upon my mind once more. Tomorrow was going to be even worse than the day in the facility; this time we'd be actively fighting against Shaw, Angel, and his followers, and there was even more of a chance of us dying. I felt a hand on my back and looked up to Alex, whose face reflected my concern. He slid his hand up my back to my shoulder and gave it a squeeze, subtly pulling me in closer to his side.

Charles turned the TV off and stood to look at us. "Erik's right," he said, "We need a good rest tonight so we can give Shaw all that we've got tomorrow." He took a moment to look at us individually. "This is what we've been training for. If anyone doesn't want to go through with this, please understand that you don't have to come. This is a very dangerous mission, and there's no telling how it will end."

"We can't back out now," Sean replied. "This is what we signed up for and we're gonna see it done."

I nodded with the others, making Charles smile proudly. "We're a team," he nodded. "Shaw won't break us."