x CHAPTER ELEVEN x
goodbye for now pt. 1
~<x>~
If Josie had known that she would be waking up not once but twice in the same day, she would have stayed in bed. After Hank crashed the plane on the beach due to a tornado and Erik used his mutation to bring Shaws submarine out of the water, the x-men were all trying to find their bearings in the wreckage of said crashed plane.
"Josie!? Jo, hey, wake up. Charles! Charles she's out!"
"Josephine? Can you hear me?"
A pressure started to build in her head, jolting her awake. Sucking in a deep breath, Josie blinked rapidly to take in her surroundings. Charles and Moira were hovering over her body. Hank was helping Raven stand. Erik was looking at her, jaw clenched as he stood in front of a large hole in the side of the plane. Standing on her own, Josie looked out over the beach to see four auras blending together around four of Shaw's minions.
Charles starts giving orders to everyone but Josie isn't listening. Searching their auras, she looks for a weakness, a deep despair she can exploit and blind the mutants across the beach with to ensure her friends survival.
"Josie?" Moira calls from her right.
Josie looks at her as Charles asks, "Can you do it?"
With a nod of her head she locks eyes with Erik who sends her a small confident smile. Suddenly Erik takes off and the others soon follow by trying to take out the other mutants. Josie focuses on Angel, finding a particularly disturbing memory that traumatized her in her youth to temporarily stop her long enough for Erik to get through.
While Charles is focused on Erik, Josie slips past them to follow him in. Moira calls out her name but she's still running, dodging a punch from Azazel before delivering one of her own. Standing, she tries to square off with him but Alex is tackling him to the ground as he shouts, "Go!".
Once inside the sub, Josie uses her mutation to locate Erik and Shaw. All she had to do was follow the familiar red pulsing aura, simple enough except there was an extreme amount of energy suddenly pushing into her. She winces but picks up her pace and finds Erik facing Shaw in a room filled with the energy that was currently draining her.
Erik takes a step forward and Josie's eyes widen, "Erik. Erik, please don't-". Erik didn't turn to look at Josie as she pleaded with him not to do exactly what he said he would last night. The door shut and Josie swore under her breath. Realizing Charles was still in Erik's mind, she ran out of the sub and back to him to figure out what was going on.
Unfortunately, she had made it just in time to try and calm him down as he let out a guttural cry. Knowing no other way to help him, Josie began absorbing some of the pain, to lessen the load from Charles by grasping a hold of his arm. Soon, they both were screaming as a helpless Moira watched on in fear.
As the pain ceased, Josie slumped against Moira and Charles fell forward onto his hands.
"Charles!" Moira called as she watched Erik float out of the sub. Charles looked up and stood with Moira to rush out of the plane to stand with the other X-Men.
Josie's eyes fluttered open, she looked through the fires and holes in the plane to see Erik landing on the beach with Shaw's helmet. Her friends all stood on the beach facing Erik with confusion. Flipping over and attempting to stand, Josie kept glancing at Erik and the others. She could hear his muffled voice but what really kept her looking at him was his aura. It wasn't red anymore, somehow it was a mix of yellow, green and orange, all shades. He was at peace, he was determined, and... optimistic?
Josie's heart started fluttering like a bird, wings hammering against its cage begging to be released, begging to see him and know that he was finally healed. Stumbling out of what was left of the plane, Josie's wide eyes searched for Erik's. Alex saw her standing there, blood dripping from her nose and was immediate in his walk towards her with a steady arm wrapped around her back and another holding her hand to help her walk to the others still watching Erik.
"Jesus, Josie. What happened? Are you okay-?"
"I'm fine, Alex. Charles... he... he was in Shaws head when Erik..." Josie swallowed and found herself glancing into Alex's eyes before looking down at her feet. Why couldn't she tell him what Erik had done?
Alex sighed and squeezed the hand he held tightly before clearing his throat, "As long as you're okay."
Josie smiled at him, taking in the white aura that was now speckled with grey - skepticism - and another color Josie remembered as being worry. She looked away from him to squint into the sun, "Thank you, Alex."
"For what?" He gave her a confused smile as his deep voice asked. They continued to walk and she squeezed his hand back.
"You're always so... calm and... balanced. It's refreshing. You don't realize how much you've helped me focus with everyones feelings always buzzing around me." She finished as they neared the group.
Before Alex could reply, or even think about it, a whizzing sound filled the beach. Alex was immediate in looking at the sky, eyes widening before looking to Josie but found her looking to Erik. Her breathing was heavy, her face determined. Why was it that she was looking at this man like he had all of the answers while he was just looking at the sky?
Eriks hands raised and she shut her eyes.