Hey, guys! Hope you all had a great week! I'm excited to present another chapter that was a complete pain in the ass to write, but I still enjoyed pulling my hair out (which is odd, believe me.) Hope you all enjoy!
When she entered her own room, Laurien swallowed guiltily as she stared at the snowfall of goose down that erupted when she'd opened the door. A small feather fluttered down from above, brushing gently against her nose before she eventually batted it away and sent it spiraling out into the hall. Laurien clawed at her nose, willing the small tickle to disappear as she felt foreboding at the sensation of a sneeze coming.
She braved the cloud of feathers to put on some random clothes from the wardrobe, only to have to stop after she'd become rather flustered when she couldn't find the head hole of her shirt. After she'd taken it off, she realized that she'd been foolishly trying to put a pair of pants over her head for an entire minute.
After hurriedly promising to herself to never utter a word of it to anyone ever, she grabbed her leather jacket and headed downstairs, hoping that she wouldn't run into Erik on her way. She felt guilty for thinking that, for from what she could remember of last night, she'd thrown him across the room, hard, and only because he'd tried to help. In the end, she honestly wanted to avoid having to admit what had caused the nightmare. She didn't want to deal with it today of all days, not with something as important as this.
It already didn't seem to be her lucky day, as when she turned the corner towards the stairs, she saw Erik coming up the staircase, now fully dressed. She started to back away, but he spotted her almost instantly. "Laurien."
She bit her lip, her anxiety growing with every footstep he took towards her. "Erik, I –"
He cut her off by pulling her into a tight hug that took her completely by surprise. "When I woke up, you were gone." He murmured as he pulled away to hold her face between his hands, rubbing calming circles against her skin. "I wanted to make sure that you were all right."
"If I'm all right?" She repeated incredulously. "What about you, Erik? I threw you across the room for Christ's sake!"
"I've had far worse." He shrugged, his eyes darkening when he saw no change in her stricken expression. "I'll admit that it shook me up a bit. I didn't like seeing you that way, and I doubt that I'll forget it easily, but it's all right, Laurien. No one got hurt."
"This time." She pointed out, her knuckles turning white as they anxiously clenched around the jacket in her hands. "I'm not able to distinguish the dream from reality when I'm like that." She took a deep breath, feeling the usual pain from her side twinge as she inhaled. "I'm afraid I might accidentally kill someone when I think I'm defending myself." She whispered.
He frowned, eyes narrowing. "I thought it was about the fire again."
"It was." She lied, a jolt passing through her as she realized her mistake. She shook her head. "Never mind, we'd better get going."
He looked as if he were ready to protest, but wisely decided against it and nodded, before following her down the hall.
Upon reviewing their conversation, Laurien felt something nagging at her from the back of her head, a question that needed answering. She felt completely insensitive for asking, but it had been a while since she'd asked and he'd never explained.
"Erik?" She started tentatively, feeling her stomach plummet at the very words coming out of her mouth as she looked up at him. "You once mentioned that Shaw ripped your family apart."
The inviting heat that surrounded her ceased as his eyes darkened instantly at the mention of the man's name. "Yes." He responded, his voice still gentle, but she could tell that she'd hit an obviously sore subject.
Laurien wanted to retreat almost immediately, turn back time to five seconds ago, just keep her mouth shut and prevent herself from opening an old wound, but she knew that there was no turning back now. "What happened?"
Erik stopped walking and brought Laurien to a halt with a hand on her arm as he hesitated, his voice suddenly hoarse and unsteady, the weight that she'd sensed the first time she saw him was finally exposed as he uttered the four difficult words. "He killed my mother."
Laurien felt as if someone had hit her with a jolt of electricity as her vision flashed the dark shades of blue and red. A familiar feeling of anger washed over her body as something dawned in her mind, sending a barrage of sparks shooting through her veins, but she kept quiet and let him continue.
"He knew of my powers and wanted to use me for his own means. But when I couldn't control my powers, he gave me an ultimatum; either move this coin," He murmured quietly as a single coin levitated from his pocket and placing itself lightly into the palm of her hand, the symbol of the Third Reich facing up towards her. "Or he would shoot my mother."
Laurien swallowed with difficulty, the coin bringing back flashes of some of her earliest memories in life; all the soldiers, the hunger, and the pain… She quickly tore her gaze away from the piece of metal and handed it back as if it had burned her. She looked back up at his unwavering eyes, agony so evidently engraved upon his face that it hurt her in turn.
"I couldn't do it, so he killed her. Right in front of me." He finished before pocketing the coin, a controlled rage simmering in his words.
"That's why you've been tracking him all this time." She said with care, the words rolling of her tongue slowly as she ran them through her head. "You want to kill him."
"And I'm going to." He urged, his hold on her becoming a bit tighter. "I'm not going to let him destroy anything else. He's not going to get anywhere near you."
"It's going to be alright." Laurien reassured him, placing a gentle hand on his arm to calm him. "I promise."
She lifted herself on her tiptoes to kiss him tenderly on the lips, willing his anger and fear to disappear for now and to just breathe, as she could feel the anxiety growing in his chest. He had been after this for so long, that she wondered what would happen tomorrow when it was all over. The only way she could see the coming day ending was in death, but whose?
"Come on, let's go meet the others." She whispered, feeling him calming beneath her touch. "I'm sorry for bringing him up, I shouldn't have asked."
"No, it's alright." He said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. "Just means that there are no more secrets between us."
She smiled back at him, and let him lead her back down the hallway, though the only thing on her mind were those ominous words; if only that were true, Erik.
Erik had forgotten something back in his room and told Laurien to go on ahead. She went down the stairs to find Charles and Moira waiting by the front doors of Hank's lab with Alex and Sean throwing punches at each other's palms for practice. Laurien gave a quick smile at the boys before walking awkwardly towards Charles, knowing that he was the only one that she could talk to about the events of last night. Her vision flashed gold as she leaned against the wall beside him, feeling his presence inside her head and breathing a sigh of relief as it meant that they could talk privately, away from the others' prying ears.
"About last night," She started, though even the voice in her head was shaky. "I want to apologize for what happened. I-"
"You have nothing to apologize for." He said gently, sending waves of calm throughout her body. "Even the best of us have nightmares, it's nothing to be ashamed about. I just want to make sure that you're all right."
She nodded before letting her heavy head tilt back and rest against the wall. "You're the only one who knows." Her mind whispered, careful not to disrupt the peace inside her head that he'd provided. "And I'd like it to stay that way."
"You have my word." He replied, smiling sadly as he held her hand tightly in his. "We can talk anytime you're ready."
"Thank you."
He gave her hand a tight squeeze before releasing her to move away and talk to a just arriving Raven at the bottom of the stairs.
Laurien almost did a double take as she spotted Raven, having never seen her in her natural form before; the sapphire blue skin and bright red hair that contrasted beautifully against one another. It was admittedly a breathtaking experience for Laurien, making her wonder why Raven had waited until now to show them.
From what she could tell from their expressions, the siblings were not happy with one another. Raven frowned, as Charles seemed to be lecturing her about something that she obviously didn't agree with. She said something curtly to him before moving towards Laurien and the others.
"Hi." Laurien greeted as she neared. "You all right?"
"Oh, Charles is just being Charles." She said, sighing as she joined her in leaning against the wall. "He can be a little frustrating at times."
"Siblings can be very difficult." Laurien agreed. "I would know. One time, my brother got his hands on a pack of cigarettes with his friends and almost set his room on fire." She laughed, remembering how his friends had sprinted from the house after she'd found the curtains ablaze. "I have never had such a strong urge to rip someone's head off before that day."
Her laughter slowly faded away as she remembered what she'd felt when she saw the flames. It brought her right back to the night their parents had died and sent hot prickling sensations up her arms as she tried to subdue the flames.
Laurien still felt bad about screaming at him the way she had, after the curtains had become a smoldering tangle of ashy fabric. It wasn't even his idea anyway, that damned kid Jesse from down the street who'd stolen the cigarettes from his mother and brought it over after school. Goodness, she'd really hated that kid.
She'd become so emotional after the whole ordeal that she eventually took the confiscated pack of cigarettes and had one right there on the front steps of the house. Not the best demonstration of a good example, she'd thought as she let a soft puff of smoke escape her lips, but to hell with it all. There was no use in pretending that she wasn't susceptible to making as many mistakes as any other individual. She was only human.
She had raised an eyebrow at the thought, as she wasn't exactly human, now was she? She'd pondered on it for a moment, but ultimately decided to desist, feeling it to be an unnecessary subject for the time being. She'd taken a last drag of the cigarette, savoring the wonderfully sharp taste as she threw the remains to the ground and extinguished it beneath her foot, before she heading back inside the house to deal with the mess.
Raven broke her out of her daze as she chuckled softly. "I was more the pyromaniac than Charles back in the day, though he always covered for me."
"You guys really love each other, huh?" Laurien said, a small nostalgic smile pulling at her mouth as she imagined a younger Charles Xavier and Raven lying through their teeth as they tried to look as innocent as possible in front of a disgruntled housekeeper.
"Yeah." Raven beamed as she glanced towards her brother who was greeting an approaching Erik. "We really do."
She suddenly turned back to Laurien, lowering her voice to a whisper. "So, you and Erik, last night."
Laurien froze at the mention of last night, her eyes widening as she whipped her head around to face Raven, wondering if she'd heard about the nightmare. "What about it?"
"Come on, Laurien. You have to tell me the details." Raven smirked at her, nudging her arm as she giggled. "Though I guess I probably know a lot already, considering that I sleep in the room next to yours."
Laurien went from absolute fear to complete embarrassment in a split second, as she understood what she meant before smacking her forehead with her hand. "Oh, God no. No, no, no." She groaned, her mind flashing through the series of events that had occurred before the nightmare.
"Oh, yes. Now you must tell me everything. I command it!" Raven squealed, practically jumping in excitement.
Charles saved Laurien as he called them all over to look at the sign on the door that she hadn't noticed when she walked in. The note looked like it had been written rather hurriedly, the words straight to the point and messy, traits that were not like Hank at all.
'Gone to the airbase, bring the crate marked X. Hank.'
Charles ripped the page off the door before pushing them open to show the shambles of Hank's lab. As Laurien's stomach dropped at the sight of such destruction, her troubles shooting to the back of her head as she focused her contemplation on the possibility that someone had attacked Hank during the night without any of them knowing. She pushed the thought away, as she knew that Charles would've known if something was wrong, as he had with her.
"What the hell happened here?" Erik asked from beside her as they followed Charles towards the other side of the room where the previously mentioned crate laid waiting. They approached the large box with caution. In Laurien's head, it could have contained anything from St. Bernard puppies to a rigged explosive, but when Charles opened the lid, he revealed several yellow jumpsuits packed neatly on top of one another.
"Hank has been busy." Erik commented as he took in the contents.
"It seems so." Laurien mumbled under her breath, as she lifted one of the jumpsuits, raising an impressed eyebrow as she felt the complex fabric beneath her fingers spark a sense of security within her.
"Do we really have to wear these?" Alex complained, wincing at the assaulting shade of yellow.
"Well," Charles considered. "Since none of us are mutated to withstand extreme G-Force or being riddled by bullets, I suggest we suit up."
It was about an hour later that they were all standing on the tarmac of a private garage that concealed one of the strangest looking planes that Laurien had ever seen in her life. It seemed to have a quite aerodynamic design, she admitted, like something straight out of a science fiction novel she'd once read a few years back, but that in no way made her feel less nervous about flying in it. In her blunt opinion, she thought that it looked like it could be ripped apart by a particularly strong gust of wind.
She winced restlessly as she tugged on the straps of her yellow and blue jumpsuit, pulling them until they pressed uncomfortably against her body, before loosening it and starting all over again. The repetition soothed her, making her wish that she'd brought along the sack of marbles. The suit fit nicely, almost like a glove, though it made her wonder how Hank had gotten her measurements so perfectly, as she couldn't remember him ever asking. She quickly glanced to Erik who stood next to her, only to find that he was already looking at her with deeply concerned eyes.
"You good?" He asked, nudging her arm with his elbow.
"Yeah." She voiced breathlessly, her chest seizing as she tried to get her nerves under control. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Where's Hank?" Raven asked from Erik's other side, voicing what they were all thinking.
"I'm here." A voice called from the other side of the garage as footsteps echoed against the metal walls. A large dark figure walked slowly towards them before the stranger stepped out of the shadows and into the light.
"Hank?"
A furry, blue feline-like creature stood before them, wearing the same jumpsuit as the rest of the team. Sharp claws jutted out at the ends of strong fingers and blue fur stretched across his whole body, making him only recognizable from the glasses that rested on the edge of his nose, in front of bright yellow eyes that flitted down sorrowfully to the ground, making Laurien's heart ache for him.
"It didn't attack the cells, it enhanced them." He murmured, his gaze avoiding theirs. "It didn't work."
Laurien frowned, wondering as to what he was referring to, but Raven spoke before she could even think about asking.
"Yes, it did, Hank." Raven said gently. "Don't you see? This is who you were meant to be. This is you." She lifted her hand to his face as he padded closer, caressing his cheek reassuringly. "No more hiding."
They looked affectionately into each other's eyes, making Laurien wonder with bated breath if this was the moment that they would finally realize their love for one another.
Her hope was extinguished abruptly as Erik's hand came up and clapped Hank on the shoulder as he said the words that made her wince. "Never looked better, man."
The reaction was instantaneous. Hank grabbed Erik by the throat with his enhanced hands, and lifted him off of his feet before anyone knew what was happening.
"Hank!" Laurien gasped, using all of her self-control to keep herself from lunging forward, as Hank's claws were dangerously close to piercing the flesh of Erik's neck.
"Don't mock me." Hank growled; his teeth bared threateningly as he snarled at a choking Erik.
"Hank, put him down immediately please." Charles commanded, his voice steady as he tried to remain calm, but when Hank didn't make a move to let go of him, he grew panicked. "Hank!"
Erik collapsed in a heap on the floor as Hank released his grip on him, gasping for air. Once he'd caught his breath, Erik looked up at the man, his eyes flashing gravely. "I wasn't." He hissed, the redness of his face ebbing away slowly as oxygen returned to him.
"Even I got to admit you look bad ass." Alex drawled, seemingly unfazed by the events around him. "I think I got a new name for you, Beast."
Laurien knelt down and helped Erik back to his feet, keeping a firm hold on his arm to make sure he didn't do any more reckless things. He glanced down at her grip on his arm before raising an eyebrow at her, making her quell the urge to roll her eyes.
"You sure you can fly this thing?" Sean wondered aloud as he stared up at the massive airplane.
"'Course I can." Hank said heatedly, his anger still in the process of subsiding. "I designed it."
"Well," Charles interrupted, a stern look telling them that it might be best for all of them to shut up. "Why don't we all file in then? Come on."
Laurien held on to her seat for dear life as the plane took another sharp turn, making her stomach churn uncomfortably. She couldn't remember how long they'd been in the death trap of an aircraft, but it felt considerably longer than the three hours that Charles had told them of once they'd reached cruising altitude, the time it took to get from New York to Cuba.
She hated planes. After being accustomed to getting around by either train or bicycle in Europe for her whole life, her first flight to North America was a bumpy one indeed. The poor young man who'd had the grand misfortune of sitting beside her had a sprained hand from her holding on so tightly to him during takeoff, though he'd seemed to understand her agitation and smiled graciously when she'd offered to buy him a drink after they'd landed in Toronto. She smiled to herself upon recalling the memory; drinks that had quickly led to other activities.
She glanced over at Erik and Charles who were standing by the back of the plane around the bomb bay doors. They'd just sent Sean out to find out where Shaw was, as Erik assured them that he would be there to coax the Americans and the Soviets into World War Three.
She shuddered at the thought. Another war might just seem like one more name on a list of conflicts for people of the future, but no one could imagine the unspeakable chaos that came with it. The torn up towns and villages, the destruction and pain that met troops wherever they went. The thing that she remembered the most from her first five years on the planet was the stench of death that drifted through the streets at all hours of the day, invading their homes and burrowing deep into their skin.
As far as she knew, the war had been what had killed her parents and taken her siblings away from her. Even though the war had 'ended', as they said, there were still the visible prolonged effects everywhere she looked. She would do anything to stop it from all happening again.
"Banshee's found Shaw." Charles called, setting her heart racing even faster as she gripped her seatbelt tighter, her knuckles turning white against the pressure. "You ready for this?" He asked Erik as he got a strong hold on a strap hanging from above.
"Let's find out." Erik growled before carefully lowering himself down onto the wheel of the plane.
It seemed to be only moments later when something metallic appeared in the corner of her eye. She glanced around, only to do a double take when she saw the spinning propeller of what looked to be a submarine floating outside the windshield of the plane. Laurien stared open-mouthed at the sight, prodding Alex to her right before pointing towards the front of the plane.
Things started to go downhill from there, unfortunately. Suddenly, the plane shook violently as an insanely strong gust of wind buffeted the metal hull, causing the whole aircraft to spin out wildly. Unsure of what had happened, she desperately wanted to turn her head to where she could hear Charles yelling to her left, but she didn't dare try, the strong force of the spiraling plane making her feel as if her neck were about to snap in two.
An ear-rupturing explosion rocked the plane as a blast of fire erupted outside the windshield. The plane plummeted to the ground, causing Laurien's stomach to fall with it as she held on tightly to her seat. Next to her, Alex gripped her arm in a bruising hold. The roar of noise growing louder as Charles and Erik's voices joining the clamor, until a gut-wrenching crash rang through all their ears as they slammed into the beach, and suddenly, everything went completely silent.
Hope that wasn't too abrupt an ending! So, I love hearing from you guys, about anything really, (Tom Hanks, Movies, favorite Tom Hanks Movies, etc.) Have you all seen the new Captain America: Civil War trailer? EPIC! I am in the midst of drawing up another story that takes place in the X-Men Universe, but it might be a while. Please share any suggestions or requests you'd like to see happen, I'm open to ideas. :) Please review!