We brought the group of mutants to Professor Xavier's school. Whether they wanted to stay or not, they now had a safe place to go. A place where they didn't have to hide or live in fear. Storm had taken over the Professors place since the tragedy that I caused.
"Welcome back Alix, Scott." Greeted Storm when we arrived. She seemed surprised to see me. "I see you brought guests."
"These are mutants that we rescued. They were held in captivity, being kept as prisoners and were only released when their DNA needed to be extracted to make mutants with greater power." Scott began to explain.
"Experimentation on mutants... It's not unheard of." Storm answered as a few students began to gather around.
"Whose there Storm?" Asked one girl, shocked to see me there.
"Relax everything is under control." Scott assured the frightened girl.
"Yes, come on in guys." Storm answered. "There's food in the kitchen if any of you are hungry." She offered. She gestured for Scott and I to follow her to speak privately. "I have one question, how are you alive Alix? I watched Scott...kill you."
"I uh...sort of...projected my healing properties to Alix and recovered his wounds." Scott answered for me.
"Really?" She said looking astonished. "That's really quite something. It didn't cause any harm to you?"
"Of course it did. I thought I was going to die, I almost did." He answered.
"I'm sorry about everything Storm." I said to her as my first words. "I wasn't in control of it." I admitted.
"It's okay, the professor wouldn't have been upset with you. He would've wanted you to stay here and continue on with us. You seem to be yourself again, so go upstairs and get some rest if you'd both like." She said as she started walking away. "David should have a spare shirt for you to borrow until you manage to find your own." She said to Scott. "What happened to it in the first place?" She asked turning back around with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't even wanna know." He said as he laughed and started his way up the stairs. I smiled awkwardly and followed along.
...
"Go ill hold them off!" The woman told me as her skin turned into solid diamonds. They shot their guns at her but the bullets had no effect as they bounced off her rocky skin. "Go!" She screamed extending her arms to shield us.
I woke up with a gasp and sat up right away. "The diamond woman." i said with my hands on top of my head. "Oh my god we forgot about her." I looked over at Scott as I herd him snoring. "Scott wake up." I shook him. "Wake up Scott. Wake up." I tried again.
"Ten more minutes." He said half asleep with another snore.
"No Scott really wake up, we forgot about the diamond woman." I tried shaking him one last time.
"Diamond...woman?" He asked groggily. He picked his head up from the pillow and looked at me with his eyes just barely opened.
"The people we saved, we forgot one of them." He rubbed his eyes in attempt to wake himself up. "The one that was shielding us." I put my hands over my face. "How could I forget about her she was the most important one." I said with utter disappointment in myself.
"Relax, we'll go back and get her okay?"
"What if it's too late. She's the last they had left. You saw what they did to you." I could hear the panic in my voice. "And i've been sitting here sleeping." The lamp beside the bed shook as it flicked on and off. "What if they killed her?" I asked with the bed creaking.
"Just calm down. They wouldn't kill her, she's much too valuable to them. Especially if she's the last. We will get her okay?" The creaking and shaking stopped. Scott was good at calming me down.
"Okay." I said feeling somewhat relieved. We got up and told Storm we were leaving to find the last mutant who was stuck at that terrible prison.
"Now that I think of it Alix, I was unconscious and you were in the back of a truck. We don't even know where that place is." Scott said to me. I lost that feeling of relief.
"But I do." Said one of the younger mutants we rescued as she stepped forward.
"Great how far is it?" I asked.
She giggled. "Not too far at all." She put her arms around both of us and closed her eyes. In a second we were teleported to the outside of the building.
"Wow, that's...useful." Scott said impressed. He started walking towards the door.
"Wait...I don't want to go in there." She said with hinted fear.
Scott knelt down to her level and put his hand on her shoulder. "They can't hurt you okay? Not while you're with me." He smiled. "Whats your name?"
"Marilyn, but you can call me Mary." She said shyly looking at the ground.
"Come on, Mary." He held out his hand for her to grab. She smiled back and grabbed his hand. We walked over to the door.
"No handle?" I asked. The little girl grabbed my hand and the three of us teleported to the opposite side of the door. We walked down the hall. The empty cells still had no bars attached.
"I know where they took her." Scott said angrily. "It's where they took me." We rushed down the hall and there was a single door to the left. On the right were more empty cells with bars still attached.
We looked through the window in the lone door and saw the diamond woman on an operating machine. She was unconscious and a doctor with a surgical mask on was drawing her blood into a needle. There was another operating machine with another unconscious body.
He had a stitched mouth, strange red markings under his eyes and he looked sleep deprived. An odd black pattern was drawn onto his skin as if depicting upcoming surgical penetration, it looked like thick permanent marker. Bandages covered his forearms. The doctor flicked the syringe and injected it into the other body. The body shook vigorously for about ten seconds.
"This is what they did to you?" I asked horrified.
"No not that, I was the one getting my blood drawn. They didn't inject anything into me. Afterwards they tried to put me in one of the cells down that hall." He turned over to the hall across from the door.
"Okay it's been long enough. I'll cause a distraction and we'll go in and get her." I told them. He nodded in agreement. I looked at the fire alarm in the operating room and it pushed down from the door window. The alarm blared throughout the halls. The doctor took off the mask and walked towards the door.
"Okay bring us in." I whispered to the little girl. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around us. We teleported to the back of the room just as he was walking out the door.
The alarm woke up the sleeping mutant. He stood up and met my gaze. He familiarized the room and looked at each person individually as if he was scanning them.
When Scott made eye contact with him he released his claws. The other mutant had a single thick blade that grew three times the size of Scott's which he released as well.
"Ok," Scott said preparing for a fight. "Get her out of here." He told me.
"I'm not leaving you here Scott." He looked upset with my response.
He turned back to the other mutant. "Look you don't have to do this." The mutant walked closer to Scott. "Okay, I guess you do." He swung his sword-like blade at Scott and he quickly ducked. The sword made a loud whooshing sound through the air. "Holy shit." Scott turned back to us. "Take us out." Mary grabbed our hands just as the mutant was charging at us.
We teleported to the outside of the building. A second later the mutant teleported just feet away from us. Scott looked at him.
"Fine you wanna fight? Let's fight." He charged at the beast with his claws pointing at him. The red markings under the mutants eyes turned black and his black pupils glowed red. Laser beams were shot out of them targeting Scott.
"Scott!" I yelled telekinetically throwing him out of the way. The mutant looked over and teleported next to me. Mary squeezed my hand and we teleported to the inside again.
"No Mary, you have to bring us back please. I can't let anything happen to him." I said hurriedly.
"But that man wants to hurt us." She said with glassy eyes.
"I know, but if we don't go back he's gonna hurt Scott. I'm just as scared as you but sometimes we need to face our fears to conquer them. He cant attack us all at once."
"Okay." She said nervously and grabbed my hand again. We returned to the outside and the mutant was swinging its blade around back and forth as he crept closer to Scott. I used my power to bend the blade and he groaned in pain through his stitched mouth. He turned to me angrily and shot laser beams in our direction. Mary moved us to Scott and grabbed his hand and moved us again. She teleported us around the field over and over as fast as she could in attempt to confused him. He got the hang of it after a few seconds and spun around. He spun around faster and faster until a tornado whipped around him. He flew towards us in the forming twister. Mary had used too much energy with all the teleporting so she was too weak to do it again just yet. He flew into the three of us. Scott and i were knocked against the building and the twister calmed down. The monster had Mary's throat in his grasp.
"Scott help!" She yelled out as she choked. Scott ran at the mutant at full speed in attempt to stab him but as soon as he got close his skin turned into diamonds. The tips of Scott's claws bent back while the diamond beast remained motionless as a statue.
"No." I whispered to myself thinking of her. "Damn it i left her in there again." I said to myself.
"Alix!" Yelled Scott. The diamond coated mutant had both of their throats gripped tightly in each hand. "Help." He got out as he choked. I panicked trying to think of what to do. I used my power to trip the mutant and push him to the ground long enough for them to escape. That only made him angrier. A long narrow tail extended and wrapped around my leg. He hurled me up and flung me back into the ground and then into the wall of the building. Scott charged at him again and he reverted back to his diamond armor and punched Scott all the way back to the wall with a diamond rock fist. Scott weakly tried to get up from the ground as the mutant stepped closer to him. I got up and felt dizzy.
"Alix!" Scott called out. I looked at him only feet away from the beast.
"Use the phoenix." He said to me.
"What? I can't." I said still believing that part of me was dead.
"Yes you can Alix. Show him your power, don't be afraid." He said to me as the mutant crushed his face into the ground. "Let go, no fear." The beast held him to his knees and exposed his almost body length blade. "UNLEASH YOUR POWER ALIX." Scott yelled out loud as he could. The mutant held the sword to Scott's neck, the blade began to cut into his throat. I could feel the fire igniting inside me. I could feel my eyes dilating, blood rushing to my face. I walked closer to the mutant, he released Scott and walked towards me. I felt massive energy slowly being released from my body pushing him back, making it harder and harder for him to reach me. Scott's throat healed and he screamed "LET GO ALIX! ALIX LET GO!"
I inhaled deeply and raised my arms letting out a glass shattering shriek as a bright white-orange light radiated all around my body. The blinding light grew larger and brighter like a raging fire until it took the shape of a gigantic bird above me. My eyes formed dark circles as my scream got louder. The pressure tore through the mutants skin exposing his organs and then his skeleton until he was grinded into microscopic particles. The harsh light was absorbed into my body and I fell to my knees gasping for air from my prolonged scream.
"You did it." Scott said as he walked over to me uncovering his ears. "I knew you had it in you." He helped me up.
"You say it like it's a good thing." I said dusting myself off, fearing the same thing would happen all over again.
"You may not like it but it protects you." He said using my words against me. "You're getting better at controlling it, it is a good thing."
I looked at Mary cowering in the corner crying. "That's a good thing to you? She just saw the inside of someone's body she's probably scarred for life."
She teleported over to us. "It was scary, but you still saved us. Thank you." She said as she hugged me. I wasn't used to my power doing any good but it felt nice, even if i was saving myself too.
"Alright Mary," Scott said as he got up. "Bring us home." She grabbed our hands and shut her eyes tightly.
"Wait!" I yelled out interrupting her concentration. "Take me to the room we were just in first." I looked at Scott. "I can't leave her again." He nodded and we were transported to the room. I shook her until she began to slowly open her eyes. She blinked a few times and looked around the room until she noticed me.
"Oh, it's you." The diamond woman said with a relieved smile.
"Yeah i've come to get you out of here come on." I unstrapped her and helped her off of the medical bed. The doctor walked in and stared at the four of us with widened eyes and his mouth opened. He ran down the hall and another alarm started blaring.
"Weapon 11 is loose, I repeat Weapon 11 is loose." was repeated over the alarm.
"Yeah you're a little late." Scott said in regards to the alarm.
"They're not too good at securing their weapons." I said in response. "You can take us home now." Mary touched the three of us and shut her eyes tightly. We teleported to the same exact spot as where we first left.
"Where are we?" Asked the woman as she looked around the school.
"A place where you don't have to hide." Scott assured her with a smile. Storm and a younger student came up and greeted us.
"Hi what's your name?" Storm asked welcoming her.
"Heather." she answered.
"What's your real name Heather?" Storm asked.
She put on her sparkling rock coating and replied "Diamond."
"Wow." The younger boy stared at the woman made of diamonds in child-like wonder.
"Welcome to Professor Xavier's school for gifted youngsters, Diamond." Storm responded.
"But I don't really think I count as a youngster." She said unsure. Now that I was paying attention the woman had to be around her early 30's.
"And the professor is no longer here, neither one stops us." She smiled and showed her around.
Scott faced me. "Well, we saved your friend, we beat some badass mutant, and i'm even more beat than before. Can we go finish our nap now?" He asked.
I smiled at him, almost anything he said could make me smile. "Yes."
We walked upstairs to the room. He fell asleep within minutes but as for me, it was hard to sleep. Being trapped inside my head with this other monster, even if it was my monster, I still feared it. I could still hear that screech-like screaming that turned that powerful mutant into dust. It was still inside me just waiting to be freed again, to let loose of all its rage, it's power. It was up to me to keep this beast in control.