Scott P.O.V.
The darkness around his eyes disappeared and I could see them return to his natural blue pigment as he died in my arms. The water crashed back down into the ocean and pieces of metal and debris fell from the sky as the lightning ceased. I brushed back his hair with my fingers and kissed him one last time. I hadn't cried over someone this hard in all my life, or at least for as long as I can remember. All this time I thought of myself as the lion and Alix as the lamb needing to be protected, but Alix was a dragon all along, or at least part of him was. But I still loved him anyway, he was my best friend.
"I'm so sorry." I cried as I buried my face into his. I held him against my body tightly, not wanting to let him go. I was so close to just having him back and returning things back to normal. But I guess normal just isn't possible when you're one of us.
...
After what happened, I didn't want to stay at the school anymore. I couldn't, not without Alix. I left and returned home to my grandmothers house. My days started blurring together. I wasn't eating the same, wasn't sleeping, and the rare occasions where I did I would have a nightmare of Alix. Whether he's killing me or i'm killing him. It always woke me up in the middle of the night and made it almost impossible to go back to sleep.
Maybe Alix was better off being "cured". Maybe we could have lived a somewhat normal life together. Maybe he would still be the same person I met a year ago. The person that would blush and try to hide it every time I looked into his eyes instead of the person that could tear someone's flesh apart. These things always raced through my mind late at night as I tried to sleep, maybe that's why I would get these nightmares.
My most recent dream was the first time I had been to Alix's house. We were in his driveway and I was trying to convince him to come to prom with me.
"So eight?" I asked him regarding the time to pick him up. He stepped closer to me and whispered into my ear.
"It's too late." His words hissed inside my head. I looked at him confused. "Its too late." He repeated as he closed his eyes and I caught him before he fell. My claws were impaled into his chest.
"NO!" My voice echoed throughout the empty vicinity. The bloody claws returned into the slits between my knuckles. I held my hand to Alix's wound as tears began to fill my eyes. "No, no, no, no." I tried to keep pressure on it so blood would stop gushing out. Nothing worked. I held him close and cried just like the first time it happened.
I woke up panting and sweating. My grandmother was close to me with her hand over my chest. My brain didn't recognize it at first and out of fear my claws extended and I stabbed through her stomach. Once i came to realize it was her a knot formed in mine.
"Shit, shit, shit, i'm sorry." I said in a panic.
"You...wo-wouldn't...wake up." she got out in between breaths. I could tell she was in pain every time she inhaled.
"Fuck, i'm so sorry." tears began to fill my eyes in real life this time. I know how Alix felt now. To not be in control of your power, to accidentally hurt the ones you love.
"I-it's...okay...Scott." She tried to reassure me, but her face told me otherwise. "Wh-what...are th-those." She asked shakily looking at my still exposed claws. I retracted them without thinking of anything good enough to answer her question with. She was getting cold and pale, I knew I had to do something but I didn't know what. If only I could lend her my healing abilities.
I thought to myself for a second. "Give me your hand." I told her as I reached for it.
"Wha-" she started before I cut her off.
I shushed her. "Just let me concentrate." I said as I held her hand and closed my eyes. Nothing happened. I squeezed her hand tighter.
"Yo-you're...hurting me Scott." She said weakly. I stayed silent and focused. I heard her gasp and I felt that knot in my stomach again. The knot got bigger and bigger until it felt like it was tearing my skin open. I looked down to see that it was. A wound appeared in my stomach and it was ripping open slowly. It felt just like when I was trying to get to Alix, or maybe Phoenix, I was still fuzzy on the whole thing.
"What are you?" My grandmother asked me with shock and fear as I could hear the strength returning to her voice. My stomach was bleeding and hers was now completely healed, no scar, just the blood on the front of her nightgown. I released my grasp on her hand and the new wound on me began to close and seal itself up until it was nothing but smeared blood.
I looked up and met my grandma's eyes. "A mutant." I responded. She looked at me both confused and worried.
"But...how? People aren't just born with metal inside their body."
"I don't know, i'm not sure how I became like this."
She paused and then asked "where do they even come out of?" curiously.
"Between my" I gestured to the area between my knuckles.
"It doesn't...hurt?" she asked with empathy.
"Every time." I told her and she looked at me with more worry.
"Well, i'm sorry about all of this. Get some rest kiddo." She said to me as she kissed my forehead. "I love you no matter what you are." She reassured making eye contact with me.
"I love you too." I smiled at her and she turned off the lamp on the dresser beside me. I tried to go back to sleep but then I started thinking to myself, if i could take the wound of another and transfer it to my body, would I be able to save Alix? Or was it too late? I couldn't sleep not knowing the answer to this. My grandma didn't like me going out late, especially without her knowing, but I had to. I quietly opened my bedroom window and crawled out of it being sure to shut it behind me.
I ran through the woods as fast as I could. Stumbling over twigs, branches, rocks, and whatever else laid in the uninhabited area. I reached the cemetery and found Alix's tombstone. I've never been to a cemetery at night before and it wasn't the most pleasant experience.
Alix's tombstone was in a clearing separate from all of the others. His tombstone had "Alix White burns in hell." spray painted across it in red. It made me so angry to see that, and I used that anger to dig him up. I had no shovel or any kind of tool, I didn't think any of this out beforehand. Instead I used my claws to tear apart the ground. I dug my way into the ground like a dog looking for a bone he hid and there i found him lying.
I didn't like seeing him this way it made me feel that same knot in my stomach I felt earlier, and I hadn't even attempted to heal him yet. I held both of my hands over the wound I impaled into his chest and I concentrated as hard as I could. I imagined all of the memories Alix and I had together, good or bad, and I used those memories to fuel my power. My chest started hurting more and more I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I wanted to stop, to give myself a second to heal, but I didn't I could feel Alix's wound stitching itself back together. But as for mine, my chest was burning and developing small cuts. My heart was beating rapidly and I didn't think i'd even make it the whole way. I felt Alix's heartbeat slowly return to him and that's when it happened. My heart ripped open. As if it just got stabbed with three metal blades, it tore apart.
Alix opened his eyes and gasped.