Secretly Powerful

Wake Up: Part 3

As soon as she entered the black void, she was already leaving it.  It felt like a couple seconds had passed and the next memory came rushing in around her. It made Aubrey's head spin, she stumbled when her feet were on solid ground again.
She threw her arms out to keep her balance, like some one would do if they just tripped and tried to catch themselves. She looked up, and was greeted to a sterile stark light blue and white office. Her stomach plummeted. All thoughts of the disembodied voice in the sky forgotten.
Her eyes widened as she took in the office, and she lowered her arms. She recognized the office as the head Scientist's office at the research center she'd worked at a couple years ago. Her eyes flicked to the people in the room, as one of them had moved.
The head scientist, whose name escaped her memory, had moved to lean against his desk. And across from him were Aubrey's mother, and again, a younger Aubrey. But this time she looked a little older, not quite a teenager, but also not her current age either. She furrowed her eyebrows slightly.
She and her mother sat next to each other on one of the grey sofa's, not far from the head scientist. She noticed Young Aubrey clasped her mom's hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"I'm...i'm afraid there's been an accident." The head scientist said.
"No." Aubrey stepped back. She remembered those words well.
"No no no." She took another step back "No. not this."
"One of the testings didn't go as planned, and Finn..." the head scientist continued.
"No. Stop it." Aubrey covered her ears, like a child would. She didn't want to hear it again. Even if this moment had replayed over and over for months in her head.
She saw her mother shake her head, her grip tightened on young Aubrey's hand.
The scientist said somethings she couldn't, and didn't, hear. But for whatever reason, her brain or whatever she was experiencing forced her to hear this
"Finn didn't make it."
A tear she hadn't known was there rolled down her cheek.
"He passed away..." young Aubrey wailed cried out like someone had mortally wounded her. She collapsed onto her mother, hot tears streamed down her face as she cried into her mother's lap. Her sobbing drowned out the rest of what the scientist said, but she hadn't cared then and she still didn't care now.
Her mother held her, and absently rubbed her back as her green eyes stared at nothing.
Aubrey stepped back again, feeling her lungs constrict and her heart rate increase. She had tried so very hard to forget this moment. To put it out of her brain as much as possible. But here it was again. This dream, her mind forced her to relive this moment again.
"But why?" She whispered as silent tears rolled down her face.
As if to answer her question, she scene before her began to split apart. But not like the others. Instead of waves and rippling, cracks formed in front of her, like a cracking glass. They spiderwebbed into every inch of what she saw until it shattered apart into a million tiny pieces.
As the memory fell away, she stood in the black void. Her body both stricken with renewed grief but also numbness.
She didn't have much time to take it in though. The invisible floor beneath her was snatched from under her, and she fell again. A yelp escaped her throat as she was pulled down into the dark depths of her mind.
She closed her eyes and screamed once more. But not from falling. She screamed out of frustration and pain, and exhaustion.
When she opened her eyes dark asphalt greeted her vision. She reeled back and blinked, startled at the sudden change. She was relieved not to be in the pitch black void anymore, but some warning would've been nice.
She let out a breath, and glanced around her without moving. She was kneeling on her hands and knees. And judging from the fabric on her arms she wore her Mystique suit again. She looked up, her hair shifted at the change. She sat back on her heels, and wiped her hands on her legs as she did. The road had been wet. She scanned her surroundings. She sat in the middle of an empty street which looked to be far away from a populated city. And it was nighttime, she also figured it had just rained since the road was wet.
She sighed and moved her hand so she could grasp her hair in frustration, but found that something covered her head. She felt around her head to discover it was a hood. Attached to her suit. Her eyebrows furrowed, baffled again.
She didn't have a hood on her suit. Or at least the one she currently wore.
She glanced around her again and stood up cautiously.
A man appeared on the middle of the street a couple feet away from her. She blinked, not exactly sure she'd seen correctly.
"I should've known." A low, rough voice said.
"Noah?" Aubrey murmured to herself. She stepped back, away from him.
He stepped towards her. She stepped back again, but in a heartbeat he had somehow reached her. He outstretched his arm, reaching for her face.
She moved away from his hand, a strangled whine came out of her. But despite her moves to get away from him, he still reached her anyway.
His hand tore off half of her mask covering her eyes. The sensation felt like having a band aid ripped off and cold air blasted into your face.
She closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them. She stared at the violet side of her mask in Noah's hand.
"Stop hiding Aubrey Bridgette." He said.
Her eyes widened, she looked him dead in the eyes.
"Wha-" before she could get out her question, and before her brain had fully taken in his words, Makenzie appeared out of thin air, standing next to Noah. A disappointed scowl contorted her face.
"I should've never trusted you! Best friends wouldn't hide things like this!" Makenzie yelled at Aubrey.
Her breath caught in her throat, and something stabbed at her insides, because a sharp pain erupted in her chest. She stepped away from Makenzie.
"No I-" she tried to say.
Wyatt appeared on the other side of Noah.
"You should've told me." A grim expression on his face "I can't ever trust you again."
Aubrey took another step back, Wyatt's words stabbing her in the chest too.
Christian appeared next, disappointment and betrayal in his eyes. "How could you?"
Another step back.
"I-"
"You're fired Freeman!" Captain Ferguson yelled at her.
Confused horror took over her facial features, tears pricked the back of her eyes.
"You wouldn't keep somethin' like this a secret." Her mother appeared. The same hateful, betrayed expression on her face "You're not my daughter."
Aubrey took two steps back. Her hand grasped the fabric on her chest. More pain erupted in it. She felt dizzy.
The people she cared about continued to cut her with their words. And each time they stung, just as much as the first time. They grew louder and louder until their words echoed from all around her.
She shut her eyes. Wishing they would stop. Wishing she wasn't here anymore in this forsaken place.