1¹ | Dexter ▷ Scott Summers | ✓

T W E N T Y O N E

Ruth sprawled across Scott's lap in Charles' hotel room, waving her arms frantically. "What do you mean I'm not on the Warren team?"

Charles sighed. "Ruth...he's probably very angry. You being there and also having the tendency to get very angry, it just isn't going to work out."

Ruth saw his logic. Unfortunately for him, life was going really well for her so logic could go fuck itself for all she cared.

"He is angry," she said, "Life's been shitty for him. So a bunch of smiling, positive, 'it'll get better' kids isn't going to make him want to come with us. He's going to want to murder them all."

Ororo nodded, much to her surprise. "She is right. When we first found him, he was angry. He wanted nothing to do with us. Apocalypse made him feel vengeful, but we won't give him any reason to want to come with us."

"We could help him," Kurt argued.

"He wouldn't accept that," Ruth said. "If he's like I think he is, he'll want to do things himself. We'll need to convince him that we would be beneficial, but we can't do that if he thinks we're all a bunch of—and I mean this as no offense—hippies. Idiots who think everything is just going to get better because in his mindset right now, nothing ever is."

Charles sighed, searching for a loophole. "Your powers could be beneficial for the lab team. In the event we have to destroy everything."

She pointed to Alex. "You have him. He destroyed the mansion, didn't he?"

"Uh, that was also, technically, me," Hank said. "Alex just blew it up."

Alex looked smug. "Yeah. I did."

Ruth sighed, looking at Charles. She wanted to find Warren. She should find Warren, she was one of the first who voted that they find him. And she knew what it was like to be angry. When Charles found her, she was angry. She only went with him because it meant she wouldn't have to stay in jail.

"Alright," Charles relented, "You can go. Erik, Raven, any objections."

Erik shook his head. "Just try to be rational. Don't pick a fight. I've learned that the hard way."

Raven waved for Ruth to follow her out the door. "I'd like to say my piece in private."

Ruth sat up slowly, her heart pounding. She looked at the others, afraid of what would happen; she and Raven didn't have the best track record.

She walked out the door, wrapping her arms around herself. She walked into Raven's room, closing the door.

"You probably think I hate you," Raven said. She was in her blue form now. "I don't. I'm not particularly fond of you, but I don't have it out for you. If you thought I did, that's very big-headed of you. Slightly understandable, but still big-headed."

Ruth shifted. "Jeez."

Raven waved her hand. "That being said, I owe you some form of an apology. Let's put it like this. I like you as much as Ororo does. You two aren't close, I can see, and she's not completely smitten by you, unlike Scott, Jubilee, Kurt, even Jean, for some reason. That's the way I feel about you.

"I'm sorry for what happened in the hangar. You already know that. I apologize for being so rude to you whenever you spoke. That was unnecessary.

"Though, if anything, I apologize for sending you away. I'll admit, I sent you away for more reasons than just endangerment. Something about you just rubs me the wrong way. Still, as the adult with more power, I shouldn't have made a decision that was based more than just on the well-being of everyone. I apologize."