CATACLYSM || X-Men

8| big girls don't cry

Richmond, Virginia, 1962

It was like she felt it. The people she had come to know seemed to disappear. She hadn't healed them, so she didn't feel them pass, but after Sully had give them the chance she'd been craving for so long, she felt devastated. It was a loss.

    Her disappointment in herself shocked her, as did the feeling that made itself home in the pit of her stomach. If only she could name it.

    Standing in front of the ruined building, among all the rubble and the wreck of the potential friendships, her emotions, Rose felt numb. As she usually did when something bad has happened. After a few hundreds years, she couldn't sort through the feelings mixing inside her. It was confusing, but most of all, it was lonely.

    So lonely. Always. Constantly.

    "You couldn't have prevented this."

    She didn't turn, instead moved her eyes from the ruined building to the mutants sitting along the low wall that was part of the path.

    "We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately," Charles spoke once Raven let him go, looking at the small group. Rose had just stepped over to them, seeing the group down two recruits.

    "We're not going home," Sean replied, Rose looking straight to Alex as he did.

    "What?"

    "He's not going back to prison," Sean added, nodding to his new friend beside him.

    "They killed Darwin," the ex prisoner told her, which was all she needed to hear to agree with him.

    "All the more reason for you to leave. This is over."

    Charles's tone had a finality to it that Rose knew as a luxury they couldn't afford. Shaw had made it personal, once again, and just like she had turned to snitching to the CIA about it, these kids were going to turn themselves into machines, soldiers, to avenge their friend.

    "Darwin's dead, Charles," Raven agreed, seeing the emotions on Rose's face play out. "And we can't even bury him."

    "We can avenge him," Erik offered, Rose letting out a scoff, attracting everyone's attention, because they just could decide if she agreed with him or not. Charles looked to her, trying to figure it out for himself, before he pulled the man to the side.

    "You're all so quick to line up and fight. Don't you have people who care about you?" she asked Alex and Sean, who looked between them before they turned back to her.

    "This is it."

    Her eyes were on Alex, who knew who she meant. Not that he felt he could return home, not that he wanted, and Rose knew that. At the stubborn look in his eyes, Rose threw her head back in a groan. She turned on her heel, and walked over to Erik and Charles, who seemed to be in a heated argument.

    "You're not going to stop them," she told the telepath, who became more confused at her words.

    "What do you-"

    "There are some fights you can't give up. They have the need, the passion for this. You're not going to extinguish it with an offhanded 'go home, you're kids, it's for your safety'," she waved her hand, getting increasingly agitated as she realised what she was saying.

    "Shaw has his army," Erik agreed. "We need ours."

    Charles hesitated, of course he did. Rose would have, in his place, if she hadn't seen this scenario play out before. She'd been just like them once.