☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

f o r t y - s e v e n

Unfortunately for her, he was able to see the thing at the end of the hall that Amara was running from, and he stood still.

It was... It was Amara, but way, way worse. She was massive. Her teeth were sharp and pointy. Her arms and legs were long and skinny, and almost unreal. Her eyes were red and glowing. Her hair was a mess. And her entire body was black and misty, exactly like the dragon. The bad Amara used all four of her limbs to crawl forward, up the wall and along the ceiling in quick circles, directly towards them.

Amara must have used her mutation to get him to move, and it worked, because he very quickly started running down the hallways with her. Peter had no idea if she knew where she was going, but he followed her anyway, too confused and scared to do anything otherwise. He couldn't run away like he usually could.

"Peter," It called. The combination on It's voice and massive footsteps sent chills down Peter's spine. He couldn't even tell where the voice was coming from. It was like it came from every direction and straight to his skull, then echoed inside his head. "Get back here."

Amara pulled him through a doorway and up a spiral staircase. He cried when he tripped on something, but didn't even bother checking what it was. He just continued to run. Deja vu hit him like it never had before as emerged on a roof, and didn't stop moving. Of course, he didn't have his speed as they did this again.

Their balance wobbled as It broke through the roof. He didn't have time to hesitate. The edge of the roof was beneath his feet, and his next step was his big leap off of it. A loud roar came from behind them, probably It just barely missing grabbing them from the air.

Their landing wasn't pretty. Amara wrapped herself around him and they rolled along the ground, a little ungracefully and harder than necessary. When they stopped, Peter was basically laying in Amara's lap. They looked at each other quickly.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice cracking.

He nodded, but he didn't have time to respond. The ground shook again, and Peter turned, horrified to see the bad Amara staring at them angrily. He tried to get up with Amara as she stood, but she kept him down, and stood in front of him. He didn't know what to do except watch.

"Stupid girl," It seethed, moving closer at an impossible pace.

His heart sank as he watched Amara slowly raise her hand. He could see the shaking of her body from his spot on the ground. She was terrified.

"Please, stop," she said, but Peter was sure It only moved faster.

"That's not going to work. Not anymore."

It stormed all the way up to her with Its mouth wide and body even larger than before. But just before It could reach her, a strike of lightning hit It on the head. Both of the Amaras cried out in pain, and Peter sprang up, running to his Amara and pulling her back.

He hugged her close as he watched each of the X-Men land in a circle around It. It growled lowly and looked around, but before Peter could say anything, Kurt appeared in front of them, and they were gone with a poof.

They landed behind the X-Jet. Luckily, Peter's grip was tight on Amara, which let him hold onto her tightly when she tried to book it into the forest.

"Ames, hang on!"

"Let go of me, Peter," she fought, instantly trying to pull herself out of his grip. "Please, It's going to kill them, I have to lead It away, you have to run away from me-"

"I'm not going anywhere," he said firmly. "I'm not going to leave you. But you have to tell It to stop."

"I- I can't control It, Peter, I can't do it, I can't control It anymore, not even a little-"