"You shameless son of a snake!” I scream as I
stand, paying no mind to the water spilled on my suede dress. I face the man and
unsheathe my claws.
“I did not come for you, clawed one, I came for your
sister. She killed my children and must pay.” He raises a glowing hand.
The wise man and his apprentice rise and face him with
me.
“She could not help it. She was not meant to carry
your demon seed,” the wise man speaks up.
“By all rights, you belong to her sister to pay for
the great dishonor you did to her,” the woman speaks up, rage sparkling in her
green eyes.
The man takes a step towards us, but freezes in his
tracks for some reason, surprise on his face. I blink and dare to steal a glance
at my friends standing by me. Both of their eyes are glowing blue-white, and I
know they’re holding this detestable creature with their minds. A sadistic
grin spreads over my face. In a certain part of my mind, I flip a certain switch
and hold my hand up.
He grabs his chest, suddenly able to move again and
favors me with an all to brief surprised and frightened look. His eyes widen
before he collapses, his brain dying.
In my hand is his heart. His blood runs down my arm as I
crush the organ in my fist and hurl it at his dead body.
I open my eyes and blink when I find myself surrounded by the X-Men and Rose, save for Jean. She’s lying by me with a nasty bruise on the side of her face, and is waking up as well.
“Oh…what happened?” I ask as I reach up to touch my head. It’s throbbing so hard I’m afraid it’s going to explode.
Scott holds an ice pack to his love’s face. “Well, we were fighting Vincent, who just appeared out of nowhere when Jean got knocked out.” He pauses briefly to kiss Jean’s brow. “A few moments later, he just fell over dead.”
Wolvie, who’s holding one of my hands, looks at me gently. “You wouldn’t happen ta know anythin’ about that, would ya, darlin’?”
I blink, vaguely remembering my dream.
Jean groans softly, “Maybe we should talk about this when we get back to the mansion.”
There are nods all around. The rest of the ride is spent in silence.
A few days later, everyone is settled in the living room of the X-Men’s mansion. Everyone’s dressed in black, and the mood is sober. I’ve just finished telling about my dream.
“What I don’t understand,” I say, holding a jeans and sweatshirt clad Rose in my lap, “is why I was able to kill Vinnie so easily in that dream and not in the others.”
“Well, HLM, maybe it’s because he was in your mind and you’re the one who had control over what was happening.”
“I guess I still needed your and Jean’s help though.”
“Not really,” Jean speaks up, “we were really there for moral support more than anything else.”
I nod a little, chewing slightly on my lip and sigh. I look up into Wolvie’s grizzled face when I feel the gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Are ya ready ta go, darlin’?”
I take a deep breath and nod. It’s time for us to leave.
Within the hour, Wolvie, Jean, Scott, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Beast, Rose and I are standing before three small graves with fresh soil over them. The Professor sits behind them, facing us. Tears run freely down my face.
“Before you lie three children who never had the chance to really live. Though they were conceived of in a painful way, they would have been well cared for. Their lives would have been filled with hardships, but their mother and her friends would have done their best to ease the little ones’ pain.
Harmony, Michael and Summer, we’re sorry we couldn’t have known you, but if there’s any justice in the universe, you well have another chance at life.”
With that, everyone files by me, giving me hugs as they pass, and a word or two of support.
Once I’m alone, I kneel in front of the graves and heave a big sigh.
“Oh, little ones,” I begin in a voice broken with sadness. “I do wish you could have been born. I only said those horrible things about you in the beginning because I was so angry at your father and all the things he’d done. Raph and I would have done the best would could to raise and love you.”
I break down into a fit of sobbing for a little bit, the heartbreak overwhelming. I cry for failing the little ones and for the chance that this might have stolen any chance I had at having more children. I cry for Rose and everything that she was forced to go through in her short life, and I cry for all the innocents that died because of Vincent.
I take out three carnations, each with a feather from my wings tied to the stem, and kiss each one as a mother would kiss her children before gently resting one on each grave. Slowly, I stand.
“I guess this is it, my babies. I’ll come back to visit eventually…it’s a long way from home. Rest well.”
With one last lingering look, I turn. My shoulders and wings hunch as I make my way out of the cemetery. I know that things will get better one day, but I feel sadness so vast that I can’t bring myself to believe it.