Hey! So I got some time away from work for vacation time at the family cabin and settled down to write this bad boy for you guys. Hope you all enjoy chapter 35!
This time, they had the sense to rent two cars, instead of one. Laurien sat comfortably in the passenger seat as Logan drove her and Erik toward where she assumed the Embassy must be blissfully unaware of their impending arrival, as Charles, Hank and Sera followed in another car just behind them.
Paris was bustling with immense crowds of people as usual, but a strange sensation hung in the air above the entire city as the accumulative aura drifting off of every civilian amassed into one huge storm of excitement.
Laurien gladly welcomed a different emotion besides the one of impending doom that usually resided over cities of this scale in times such as these. The conclusion of a war was always a time of celebration, though much more enjoyable if you were on the winning side. Laurien was very young at the time of the liberation of Holland, but was old enough to remember the masses of parades as soldiers passed in their imposing tanks. The men from many different countries, though primarily Canada, were waving to the crowds with a girl on each of their arms who kissed them on the cheek, leaving a bright red lipstick mark on their war weary faces.
She'd been too small to see the procession on her own two feet, so her father had lifted her onto his shoulders and held on tight to her legs as she waved wildly at the soldiers with her tiny hands. It had been such a strange, yet exhilarating experience for the young Laurien, considering that at the age of four, all she had known was the German occupation. She'd never seen so many people so happy before in her life. From then on, she began to notice how life was supposed to be.
Laurien remembered how a few years later, during a speech at her parents' fifteenth wedding anniversary party, her father had stated that there were four days of his life that he cherished the most. The first had been the day he married his wife, the second was when Daaniel was born, the third when Laurien was born, and the fourth when Holland was liberated.
Laurien's mother had tears of happiness in her hazel eyes as she lifted herself from her seat and kissed her husband before whispering something in his ear. His face had changed from one of confusion to one of elation as he hugged her and announced to the party that he was about to add another day to the list, seeing as she'd just told him that they were expecting another child.
Laurien had looked over excitedly at a twelve-year-old Dan when the news had finally sunken in, and they'd shared a smile before he kissed her on the forehead. He told her not to worry, that she'd always be his favorite.
She wondered if that were really true, if she had actually remained his favorite. He'd never once snapped at the twins, never chastised them harshly or been mean to them, like he had been to her growing up, yet Laurien was the only one he'd trusted to keep his secrets in time of need. No matter how terrified she was for him every single day for two whole years, thinking about him in Korea and fighting the invading Communists, she kept them from all those inquiring, against her better judgement.
Sometimes she found herself wondering if she hadn't kept his secret, then Dan, Roosje and Bastijn might still be alive today, all of them with families of their own and jobs to keep. She knew that it was cruel to think such things, as Charles had previously advised her not to, but she couldn't help it. And with that thought, she found becoming envious of Logan as they neared a closed gate leading to the Embassy. Everything that had gone wrong in his world could be fixed just by changing a single action of the past, an opportunity that most people would kill for.
A pair of guards neared them as the car rolled toward the gate, but before they could so much as utter "Halt!", the gate detached itself and scooped them up before pinning them to the nearby brick wall. The inside of the car remained silent as they rolled forward and passed the trapped guards, both of whom had been knocked unconscious by the force of the gate.
They parked next to such an extremely expensive looking car, that Laurien feared even glancing at it would scratch it. Their old chipped Camaros paled greatly in comparison to the spotlessly glistening black car as Laurien stepped out onto the pavement and took a look around, subtly noting the state of the art security cameras pointing in every direction through her aviators.
She self-consciously adjusted her black blouse as she stood up straight, straightening the plunging neckline before her hands lifted to pull nervously at the grey scarf that was looped around her neck. They'd had time to change at the hotel before coming here, and now Laurien was deeply regretting not bringing an extra layer. Even with her heavy grey tweed coat and wool scarf, the deceivingly pretty-looking Parisian weather still gave her a chill that seeped down to her bones.
She felt a firm hand against her waist and looked up to find that Erik was the one it belonged to. "We should get moving. The faster we get to Raven, the faster we can get out of here."
Laurien nodded, but swiftly disengaged herself from Erik when she saw Charles roll up with the others.
They entered the building together as a large group, following Charles and Erik as if they knew exactly where they were going. As they walked, Laurien permitted her eyes to wander the surroundings. The walls of the embassy were ornate, decorated with large paintings of what Laurien assumed to be Gods, with their chiselled stomachs looking like a cheap chocolate bar and their arm muscles bulging like too many tomatoes in an elastic bag. In short, the Embassy was what she imagined the inside of Buckingham Palace to look like in London, with random flowery vases on useless antique tables that were only significant because some dignitary had touched it once a very long time ago.
Even with the cheesy decorations, Laurien knew that her father would have fallen to his knees at the sight of the pillars and the high arches that they passed as they hurried along down the hallways. They eventually made their way toward a large staircase, where the sudden rumbling of footsteps, quickly followed by the frantic chorus of foreign languages, erupted from several stories up.
"Something tells me that we're headed the right way." Hank mumbles under his breath, before they all race up the stairs, Laurien taking them two at a time and very grateful that she decided to forgo the heels in her suitcase.
The roar of voices grew louder until several men dressed in rather important looking uniforms fled past them, barely noticing the drastically differently dressed group in their chaotic effort to descend the stairs. Erik and Charles simultaneously quickened their pace until they reached the top landing, striding down a long hallway before entering through a wide open doorway.
The room was trashed, chairs were toppled over everywhere she looked surrounding a long marble table upon which Raven, in her natural blue form, was crouched with a gun in her hand trained on a short man, his back hopelessly pressed against the wall.
"Raven." Charles called, the sound of his voice diverting Raven's attention to him instead of her target.
It was the opportunity that an unseen man to their right needed. Several Taser coils shot out and bit into Raven's skin, causing her to collapse onto the table, the gun slipping from her trembling hand as she convulsed violently.
Erik waved his hand and buried the Taser probes into the uniformed man's chest instead, as Charles rushed to tend to Raven. Laurien fully entered the room with Hank, and immediately heard a strange alarm beeping to her left. When she looked over, she saw the short man looking astonished at their group as a small remote in his hand blared annoyingly.
So, this was Trask, was all that registered in Laurien's brain as she looked between the man and his remote. A sudden heat flared within her as flashes of the attack on the mansion appeared before her eyes, prompting her to summon the remote out of the man's hand and let it hover above her hand. The remote began beeping spastically from being in such proximity to her, and she quickly understood what it was for. With a firm clench of her fist, the remote became a crumbling mess of plastic and glass, before falling to the ground in pieces.
She glanced at the man, making eye contact with him as her vision flashed a sickly shade of green and her stomach squirmed. She watched him carefully as he blinked at her in morbid fascination instead of fear, a reaction that greatly disturbed her, before he slowly slid to the side and escaped out into the hallway.
She let him go, staring at the empty doorway for a moment longer before turning back to the reunion scene unfolding before her. Charles was stroking Ravens red hair, whispering unintelligible words in her ear as he did so.
A gradual uneasiness crept into Laurien's bones as the conflicted emotions of a painfully familiar presence became known to her. She found herself glancing over to Erik in alarm just in time to see him reach for the forgotten gun beside Raven, summoning it into his hand before he aimed it at the girl's head.
"No!" Laurien gasped, latching onto the casing of bullets residing within the firearm and causing it to jam as she urged them to stay still with her powers, but she found a strong resistance fighting to remove them from her control.
"Laurien, let go." Erik growled, the gun shuddering from their conflicting efforts as he tried to keep it steady in his hand.
"Erik, what are you doing?" Charles demanded carefully, standing in front of a now crouching Raven to block Erik's shot.
"Securing our future." Erik muttered, his brow furrowing as he tried to focus on overpowering Laurien, but he was admittedly failing, his emotions betraying his concentration. "Forgive me, Mystique. As long as you're out there, we'll never be safe."
"Get her out of here, Charles." Laurien ordered as her lip quivered, slowly beginning to move the gun down to the floor and out of harm's way.
"Use your powers, Charles, stop him." Raven pleaded desperately.
"He can't." Erik suddenly dropped his mental grip on the gun and threw his other arm at Laurien as she was yanked back by her belt, slamming her into the wall and allowing him to freely raise the gun and point it back at Raven.
Before she knew what had happened, Laurien saw Sera step in front of Erik and press the mouth of the gun against her forehead. Laurien's stomach dropped so suddenly that she thought her legs might fall along with them as she watched her last living relative purposefully place herself in front of a loaded firearm.
"Oh dear." Sera snarled, her eyes tauntingly flashing as she stared down the man holding her life in his hands. "I guess we're at a bit of an impasse right now."
"Sera, what are you–" Charles started, his voice beyond panicked, but Sera cut him off.
"I'm going to give you a choice, Erik." She offered, using a blatant seriousness that Laurien had never seen before upon her face. "Something that I know that you haven't exactly had the opportunity to exercise over the years, but here it is."
Erik stared at her, his mouth set in a thin line, but Laurien could see that the wheels in his head were working furiously as the gun slightly wavered in his hand.
"You have the choice, to either shoot me in the head and then proceed to kill the innocent woman behind me," Sera then murmured, her hands flexing at her sides. "Or you can think about what you are doing, and who you are doing it in front of," She added, cocking her head slightly toward Laurien and prompting Erik to glance in her direction as well. "Lower the gun, and we can all go home in one piece today."
Erik's blue eyes worked furiously as his conflicted conscience battled itself, his emotions burying themselves a hole in his chest as what he thought was right became warped and disfigured, before his eyes finally rested on Laurien.
Don't do this to me again, she pleaded silently, knowing full well that he couldn't hear her, but her chest tightened immensely when he nodded and he began to lower the gun.
Laurien hadn't even the time to let out a breath of relief before Sera's face broke out in a startlingly wry smile and in one swift motion, she suddenly grabbed Erik's wrist in a vice-like grip, lifted the gun back up against her forehead and forced his finger down upon the trigger.
The shot rang out through the large room and reverberated against the walls as blood splattered from the back of Sera's head and sprayed Charles' face. As the body collapsed, Raven got to her feet and ran as fast as she could toward one of the windows on the other side of the room. Laurien didn't seem to understand what had happened as she blinked and looked down at the draining corpse that had been her only lifeline to her family.
The blood spread out upon the floor, stretching its fingers from the fire of Sera's hair. Chunks of brain matter and fragments of bone were scattered across the red like boats and rocks in an ocean, sailing along with the current, reaching to grasp Laurien's shoes as the tides lapped at the soles.
She was barely aware of Erik raising his gun again, or Hank tackling him to the ground, or even the second bang of the gun, she was only aware of the shapes that the blood made upon the white marble tile. At first a dog, then an island before transforming into something unrecognizable as it continued to spread.
She was finally spurred back to reality when someone grabbed her face and forced her to look up. She met Erik's apologetic gaze as sound slowly filtered back through her ears, but before he could say anything, a fist came out of nowhere and sent Erik sprawling to the ground. A flash of pink and brown clothing signalled Charles' arrival as he pinned Erik underneath his smaller frame. It wasn't long before Erik had the upper hand and was able to push Charles off of him before heading toward the window, summoning something from the table into his hand as he did so.
A few ragged breaths later, Charles groaned and slowly got back to his feet, holding a hand to his cheek as he stumbled toward Laurien. "It's going to be all right, darling, just wait a moment and–"
"Where am I?" A voice interrupted, suddenly reminding Laurien with a jolt that Logan was still there with them.
"Huh?" Charles grunted, looking over at the taller man exasperatedly as he tried to reach for Laurien's wrist.
"How the hell did I get here?" Logan asked, his cloudy eyes finally focusing in on the people surrounding him.
"What? You came to us. Look, I don't have time for this right now. I'm Charles, you know that." Charles started, turning to Laurien to say something else, but Logan suddenly grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket and yanked him back to face him.
"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice rapidly becoming animalistic as he shook Charles violently.
"Charles Xavier." Charles cried out in surprise, grasping at Logan's wrists as he tried to pry himself away from the man.
"I don't know you." Logan growled, his knuckles white from the immense grip he held Charles with. He backed away sharply when a blue furred Hank got to his feet after having been knocked to the floor by Erik. "What the hell is that?" He yelled, staring wide-eyed at Hank's rapidly changing blue form.
Charles held a hand out to Hank, warning him not to get riled. "Whoa, look, I can deal with this. Just go, stop Erik!"
With that, Hank bolted toward the shattered window and leapt to the ground below, leaving the rest of them alone in the grand room, silent except for the subtle buzz of the man being tasered.
Laurien finally got a good look at him and noticed to her horror that it was the same man from the night of the attack on the mansion. Heat seemed to overwhelm her as she slowly started to back away, raising a trembling hand to her mouth. "Stryker." She breathed, before a tumultuous chorus of cries from outside jarred her attention, prompting her to hurry toward the window after Hank.
"No, Laurien, come back here." Charles called after her, but she was undeterred as she stepped upon the window sill and looked down just in time to see Hank dragging Erik into the nearby fountain in the middle of the square. Laurien's eyes shifted to find where Raven was lying, blood smearing across the pavement with every movement of her leg.
Laurien tightly gripped the edges of the window, glancing down apprehensively at the long drop to the ground. As a reckless idea came to mind, she grabbed onto her belt with her powers and gave an experimental tug, enabling herself to lift a few inches off the sill. Well, she thought, if Erik can do it, so can she.
Taking a deep breath and pushing everything else to the back of her mind, she lifted herself off the sill and outside. Her hands shuddered violently with the effort as she tried to gently lower herself to the ground, the pavement rising quickly to meet her. Her feet hit clumsily, but she stuck the landing, all the while trying to ignore the way that her shoes tracked Sera's blood upon the pale cobblestone.
Seeing Raven struggle to her feet, Laurien rushed forward to help her, weaving with difficulty through the throngs of terrified civilians. The blue woman recoiled at her touch, but stilled when she realized that it was her. "Are you all right?" Laurien croaked out, her voice barely audible above the commotion surrounding them.
Raven nodded hurriedly, but tightly grasped Laurien's hand as she limped forward, blood oozing out from the bullet wound in her calf. Laurien helped her along, snaking an arm around Raven's waist to give her extra leverage, and all the while paying mind to the people rushing around them as metal fences were ripped from their original places and cars were tipped on their side with a magnetic pull toward the water fixture.
Laurien craned her head back to the fountain, seeing Hank push a gasping Erik into the water, his body pinning him the metal bender down. She was afraid for a moment that Hank might actually drown Erik, but she then remembered what Logan had said on the plane. Erik was a survivor, and against all odds, he'd probably make it through yet another debacle with only a scratch to show for it.
They had almost reached the outskirts of the square before a loud growl alerted them to what was occurring behind them. Above the crowds of people, Laurien spotted Hank being lifted in the air as the metal of the ornate fountain wrapped around his wrists and ankles, pulling him off of the metal bender who was now getting to his feet.
"You have to get as far away as possible from here." Laurien instructed Raven, ushering her toward an empty car that hadn't been completely overturned. She carefully pushed the car back on its four wheels with her powers before opening the driver's side for Raven to enter.
"Wait," Raven exclaimed, gripping Laurien's wrist before she could get away. "Aren't you coming with me?"
"It'll be a dead giveaway if I join you, no matter what form you take." She explained hurriedly, watching in awe as Raven transformed into a bronzed brunette with enchanting hazel eyes and a thin face. "I'm sorry, I can't help you more than this."
"You've done more than enough." The other woman implored in a silky smooth voice, suddenly reminding Laurien of Sera's own that had only just recently been silenced and prompting a hot lump to rise bitterly in her throat as suppressed tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She nodded silently in response and stepped away from the car, allowing Raven to speed down the road and join the convoy of quaint automobiles fleeing the scene as well.
Dun, dun, dun! Hehehe... I'm going to hell. Anywho, I finished that book that I was talking about, The Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse. I highly recommend it to all of you. It's a wonderful read and very insightful to how life was like in the Netherlands during the war. So if any of you have been wondering how life might have been like for Laurien if she was a few years older, there you go. They even mentioned stroopwaffles, my favorites! Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this action packed chapter, thank you for reading, and please review!