X-Men: A Diamond in the Rough - Chapter 3
Title: A Diamond in the Rough
Author: Silk
Email: katiepult@gmail.com
Fandom/Pairing: AU X-Men (Comic-verse), Emma Frost/OC Femslash
Disclaimers: Marvel & its characters aren't mine. The Original Character is mine however. I don't usually approve of disclaimers. Since books don't have them why should I? Anyone who is familiar with the Marvel-verse knows there are many alternate Earths and this is my version. Beta'd by Whedonist (1shinyboat ) Thank you for the kick in the ass. Ratings will go up to NC17/M. Any special disclaimers will be posted with that chapter.
Please don't forget to review. Thank you!
Paragraphs bracketed by // denote a flashback scene.
Chapters 1, 2,
Chapter Three
Genosha. A decent-sized island really, with a large almost perfect circlular bay that divers have said holds some of the most beautiful reefs in the world and crystal blue waters that lap up onto the shore in gentle waves.
That is where the beauty of this place ends.
Genosha is a wasteland of crumbled buildings, destroyed lives and millions upon millions of dead.
Even the massive humanitarian effort that once crawled over these broken pavements and collapsed buildings, could only find so many bodies. The rest are buried forever where they died.
Emma grimaced as she stepped off the ramp of the Blackbird, the once white sand under her feet now gray and full of ash.
"Ahh, Paradise," she spoke, her tone like ice.
"I hate coming back here too, Emma," Jean assured her as she stepped up next to her fellow X-Man, her red hair snapping back from the breeze coming from behind them. The air was clean here with the wind coming from their backs instead of from the massive graveyard they were looking at.
"Oh, yes. Please do tell me how this place haunts your dreams. How you've experienced it firsthand..." the blonde telepath started to go off but couldn't find herself able to finish.
Jean started moving, making her way off the beach, followed by the rest of her team. Emma sighed and rolled her eyes before reluctantly following.
She reached out with her mind, a tendril brushing the shields of the other woman. When she felt them lessen in strength she spoke telepathically, *Being a bitch can be a tad wearing sometimes. While you weren't here for it's destruction, you did see the aftermath.*
Emma caught Jean's eyes as the woman looked back momentarily.
*Apology accepted. I know it's harder on you. We all know.*
*Yes, well... we should have brought a picnic basket*, Emma replied before ending the conversation. Being dragged here against her will because Jean went behind her back and scanned the island with Cerebra rankled her. She had told the woman it was just a dream and being countermanded wasn’t making her vodka hangover headache any better.
Emma abhorred this place. Its memories. Its constant reminder of her failings. This island kingdom had been ripped from the hands of its mutant hating population by the very people they had enslaved and terrorized. The rebellion had been a bloody time but then it had blossomed into a paradise where all mutants were free and welcome here, their gifts creating cities whose spires and buildings were only possible by the God-given talents only millions of mutants could provide. Hammer bay, the capital, was the shining example to all that mutants could live together in peace... at least with themselves. Magneto's, Master of Magnetism and ruler of Genosha, had had plans to conquer the world, but those had been short-lived. Some days she wondered whether or not that was a good thing.
Looking out onto the scarred remnants of that once graceful place, Emma couldn't prevent a shiver from scurrying up her spine as she remembered the day it all came tumbling down.
It still stunned her how one human... only one! Could murder sixteen million people in less than one hour. All it took was the will to kill, the desire to destroy a civilization and the sheer balls to hit that button and send out death.
Sentinels. Machines whose only purpose was to hunt down and destroy humans that happened to have the X-gene. The X-Men had a long history of combating different models of Sentinels over the years. All of them owing their existence to Dr. Bolivar Trask, an anthropologist who thought the escalating number of mutant births would be the end of the rest of humanity. He ended up fathering a mutant himself.
History is full of little gems of irony.
Emma herself had almost died during a Sentinel attack when Trevor Fitzroy, another mutant, had sent several to the Massachusetts Academy where she'd been Head Mistress. The school had been destroyed and the student superpower team called the Hellions had died, except for one. That one had been so traumatized by the incident that she was still with Emma. The girl, whose mutant power was to transform into either a purple house cat or lioness, had since been stuck in her smaller form unwilling to change or speak to anyone since. Catseye was little more than an intelligent pet despite Emma’s continuing attempts to rehabilitate her. Sometimes a person’s trauma was too great to be healed.
It didn't matter how many organizations the X-Men had destroyed trying to eradicate all existence of the Sentinels; there was always someone out there who had the knowledge and the resources to make more. There would always be someone that hated mutants, just as there would be mutants that held no love for their own species, let alone baseline humans.
"I'm not sensing much so far. Low level life forms for the most part," Jean Grey opened her eyes from her telepathic sweep.
Emma reached out with her mind to do her own preliminary search. It was her team after all and even though Jean was the co-Head of the academy along with Scott, the team and the mission was Emma's responsibility. Logan wasn't a regular member of her team either, but had volunteered to step in since Hank McCoy, otherwise known as Beast would be out of the mansion until later in the day. She felt almost grateful for him offering. The man had seen such death and destruction in his time that she knew she could count on him keeping things together with the team.
"Colossus, you and Karma head West. Northstar and Shadowcat to the East. Wolverine," Emma said using Logan's team name, "go with them please. Jean and I shall take the North. Everyone watch your step and don't hesitate to call out if you need us," the blonde telepath ordered, her mental faculties more than capable of sweeping out telepathically at the same time verbally issuing orders.
"While I'm sure you're all aware that Cerebra detected only the one unknown mental mutant signature here, we have no idea whether they are hostile or friendly. I'd rather not have this turn out violent," she gave Wolverine a stern look. "If I end up ruining these new boots I shall be very cross."
She eyed her teammates as they paired off, ignoring the projected juvenile-like comments coming from Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat.
Sighing Emma swept her mind a little to the East of where she was currently looking and brushed up against Jean's own mental fingers so that the two could work in tandem.
It was long, meticulous work, their minds making a grid of the part of the city they were working, sweeping back and forth, looking for any sign of life bigger than a rat. Part of Emma's mind began to drift as the rest of it went through the automated motions of searching the rubble.
//
"Good Morning, class", Emma smiled tightly as she leaned back against the front of her desk. The sun shone brightly through the tall windows that covered the length of one of the walls of her classroom. It’s a beautiful day and she was feeling bubbly, almost happy. Seven high school students peer at her in different stages of morning fugue.
"I have radioactive dog dirt on my shoes. There are luminous bird droppings on the statues of our beloved president Magneto.
"Therefore, we shall not be singing the words to 'Genosha, Genosha, Promised Island, Mutant Utopia' this morning, with your usual tuneless gusto or otherwise.
"Instead I propose we spend today's telepathy period hacking into the minds of some of our favorite screen idols.
“A gold star to the first girl who discovers the awful truth about Tom and Nicole..." she offered with an amused tilt to her lips.
"Miss Frost..." One of her students, Negasonic Teenage Warhead interrupts her. The girl is one of her favorites, even if she has atrocious taste in clothing and style. Goth is what they called it, which included the prerequisite black dress and the palest of white skin that was framed by the long black braids of her hair.
"You think everything's just a joke, but I had the same nightmare fifty times last night and I'm having it again right now.
Everyone's going to die."
//
*My mind keeps shying away from something here, but I think… yes, someone’s there.*, Jean interrupted her thoughts then proceeded to lift them both up telekinetically, carefully flying them through the air.
Far better than scrambling over broken buildings, Emma thought to herself. Trying not to think about how her all white uniform was now an unsavory shade of gray was becoming a bit of a challenge. She didn't reply to Jean's thought immediately, instead continuing to work with the other woman to probe an area she was interested in.
*This place needs a serious change in decor*, Emma broadcasts silently just far enough for Jean to hear her. *Perhaps a little color... blue? What do you think?*
*Green*, Jean replies simply.
*Why am I not surprised? You do look fabulous in green however, so I can understand the bias.*
*Emma...* Jean's tendril of thought is hesitant as if she's knows even attempting to broach the subject of Emma's gallows humor would be unwelcome.
*Don't try therapy on a therapist, my dear, it'll just make me laugh.*
*You're a sex therapist, it doesn't count*, Jean shot back, her tone slightly amused.
*Oh touché. Although technically I'm more than just a sex therapist, you shouldn't be so judgmental about my talents. It might have helped you with dear old Scott if you two had come to me before the divorce,* she replied harshly.
The love affair the two had had over the years had been rather nauseating to Emma and she’d been somewhat amused when it was finally broken under Scott's inability to deal with his blindness, damage done in battle and his subsequent removal from being on a team. The fact that his anal retentive devotion to rules and regulations made him a good match as a teacher and administrator of the school wasn't lost on Emma either. The irony made her positively giddy at times.
Silence was the only reply from Jean on that one and Emma felt a slight twinge of regret, even if she'd rather scoop out her frontal lobe with a dull spoon than admit it. And though she had never liked Scott, nor understood what Jean saw in him, she still regretted her words.
*I apologize, Jean. That was a low blow, even from me.*
Jean didn't respond, instead paying more attention to the unearthly silence of the dead city surrounding them.
*There... do you sense that?*
Emma focused and both women grew still, frozen in mid-air, held up by Jean's power.
*Yes.* Emma pointed mentally to a section of half-destroyed compound more easterly of their position that looked to have once been surrounded by a tall, high security wall. Whatever it was, it felt like looking into a dark closet and seeing nothing, even though there was child hiding in the dark with their eyes closed and whispering, ‘You can’t see me.’
They started to move again and soon Jean had them land safely on the ground, just past a broken down section of the wall.
*Wolverine? We think we might have found our target. You're close...* Emma shared a mental picture of the building that they stood in front of. *Bring your team and find a way around back. Jean and I will make our way inside.*
Several large concrete barrack-like buildings inside the compound all surrounded a courtyard in the middle, the broken slabs of masonry still holding up a leaning flagpole. Purple tattered remnants of the three pronged red crown of Magneto’s Genosha snapped in the breeze.
*I believe this used to be one of the genetic testing facilities before the revolution. Magneto changed it to a prison to house some of the human scientists,* Emma said, her eyes trying to peer into the nearest building. *It was one of the few buildings that remained after the Genosha Mutate rebellion. Magneto said it had history, but I never bothered to learn it. Too much else to do, to teach...*
She shook her head as she held herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso. She could feel Jean's eyes on her but refused to look at the other woman. They were here for a mission and she refused to be treated like some broken doll.
*Trust me Emma, you're not broken. Cracked here and there, but then aren't we all,* Jean replied quietly, catching what Emma believed had been a private thought.
//
There was light ahead, something she hadn't seen in hours. Or was it days? She was having a hard time remembering precisely.
Ahead of her, in the light, there's a man, or possibly a lion she thinks. She pauses a moment, thinking she might know him, he's blue and furry after all, but then puts the thought aside. She can't afford to think about it at the moment, she has someone to save. Someone she's been caring for and holding for days.
"Her name is Ellie Phimister. Her mutant name is Negasonic Teenage Warhead. She chose it herself..." she tells everyone who is standing there as she walks up out of the hole and into the sun. It would help them to know who her charge is. She's so light in her arms, so frail.
She thinks about how she always thought Ellie's mutant name was silly... childish. What was she going to do, after all, when she was no longer a teenager? Change it to Negasonic Adult Warhead and perhaps, after many years, Negasonic Geriatric Warhead?
It doesn't seem so silly now, she thinks as she blinks against the light. It's been too long since she's seen it. Hours? Days?
"She will be a credit to her family and other species. Get her to a hospital," she demands, her voice hoarse from disuse or screaming, she doesn't know. Turning, she gently hands over her student to two human emergency workers.
"Her skin..." one of them trailed off, looking at Emma. "What's that all over her skin... she's a robot. She might be a sentinel."
Emma looked at the man as if he was the mess she had stepped in while walking through a park to work that morning.
"Get her to a hospital..." she repeated, the energy quickly running out of her as she bent over, her hands on her knees trying to keep herself erect.
They looked at Ellie and slowly lowered her to the ground. One whispered to the other, but she could hear them.
"The kid's dead."
"Then bring her back to life, you imbecile!" she screamed in fury, the energy it costs her bringing her to her knees.
Another form comes forward and stops in front of her. Tall with bright red hair that flows down over her shoulders and back. She's looked at the other woman with concern.
"My God, Emma Frost? Emma! She's one of us X-Men!"
Is she? She doesn't quite remember.
"She's been dead for hours." The human is spoke again, but while she heard the words, they didn’t seem to mean anything.
The red-head came closer, a look of almost horrific fascination and pity on her face.
"Emma? It's me... Jean. Jean Grey," she said, reaching out and touching the kneeling woman's head. "Emma, what are you doing here? What happened to your skin?"
Emma's eyes focus as she looks at her own arm, studying how it glistens in the sun.
"I have no idea," she answers, looking back up at Jean. "It got hard."
She looks away again, this time noticing her surroundings. It's strange. Alien. Burning. Ashes and dust.
"What happened to everything?"
//
*Let's get this over with*, Emma thought to Jean, falling further into depression. God she hated Genosha.
*Emma?* Wolverine's mental projection was sloppy and haphazard, but she was easily able to reach out and connect with him. Not for the first time did she bemoan the fact that the experiments done on him long ago made telepathic communication difficult.
*Status?* Emma asked him at the same time, quickly bringing the entire team in on the conversation. Colossus and Shadowcat slowly made their way to their position, but had further to go yet. Jean didn't think they could wait for much longer. Too much fear, she had said.
*We're here. Lots of nice holes through the wall, so we did it pretty silent. Smells like death.*
Emma raised an eyebrow in derision. *Yes, well. The entire island smells like a charnel house, Logan...*
*This is newer. Not a lot of bodies... maybe just one or two.*
She got the impression that he was sniffing. Which with his heightened scenes wasn’t a pretty thought.
*A couple of months old.*
Grimacing she replied, *Wonderful. We're going in.* Emma nodded at Jean and the two women started towards the nearest barracks.
Onto Part 4
Author: Silk
Email: katiepult@gmail.com
Fandom/Pairing: AU X-Men (Comic-verse), Emma Frost/OC Femslash
Disclaimers: Marvel & its characters aren't mine. The Original Character is mine however. I don't usually approve of disclaimers. Since books don't have them why should I? Anyone who is familiar with the Marvel-verse knows there are many alternate Earths and this is my version. Beta'd by Whedonist (1shinyboat ) Thank you for the kick in the ass. Ratings will go up to NC17/M. Any special disclaimers will be posted with that chapter.
Please don't forget to review. Thank you!
Paragraphs bracketed by // denote a flashback scene.
Chapters 1, 2,
Chapter Three
Genosha. A decent-sized island really, with a large almost perfect circlular bay that divers have said holds some of the most beautiful reefs in the world and crystal blue waters that lap up onto the shore in gentle waves.
That is where the beauty of this place ends.
Genosha is a wasteland of crumbled buildings, destroyed lives and millions upon millions of dead.
Even the massive humanitarian effort that once crawled over these broken pavements and collapsed buildings, could only find so many bodies. The rest are buried forever where they died.
Emma grimaced as she stepped off the ramp of the Blackbird, the once white sand under her feet now gray and full of ash.
"Ahh, Paradise," she spoke, her tone like ice.
"I hate coming back here too, Emma," Jean assured her as she stepped up next to her fellow X-Man, her red hair snapping back from the breeze coming from behind them. The air was clean here with the wind coming from their backs instead of from the massive graveyard they were looking at.
"Oh, yes. Please do tell me how this place haunts your dreams. How you've experienced it firsthand..." the blonde telepath started to go off but couldn't find herself able to finish.
Jean started moving, making her way off the beach, followed by the rest of her team. Emma sighed and rolled her eyes before reluctantly following.
She reached out with her mind, a tendril brushing the shields of the other woman. When she felt them lessen in strength she spoke telepathically, *Being a bitch can be a tad wearing sometimes. While you weren't here for it's destruction, you did see the aftermath.*
Emma caught Jean's eyes as the woman looked back momentarily.
*Apology accepted. I know it's harder on you. We all know.*
*Yes, well... we should have brought a picnic basket*, Emma replied before ending the conversation. Being dragged here against her will because Jean went behind her back and scanned the island with Cerebra rankled her. She had told the woman it was just a dream and being countermanded wasn’t making her vodka hangover headache any better.
Emma abhorred this place. Its memories. Its constant reminder of her failings. This island kingdom had been ripped from the hands of its mutant hating population by the very people they had enslaved and terrorized. The rebellion had been a bloody time but then it had blossomed into a paradise where all mutants were free and welcome here, their gifts creating cities whose spires and buildings were only possible by the God-given talents only millions of mutants could provide. Hammer bay, the capital, was the shining example to all that mutants could live together in peace... at least with themselves. Magneto's, Master of Magnetism and ruler of Genosha, had had plans to conquer the world, but those had been short-lived. Some days she wondered whether or not that was a good thing.
Looking out onto the scarred remnants of that once graceful place, Emma couldn't prevent a shiver from scurrying up her spine as she remembered the day it all came tumbling down.
It still stunned her how one human... only one! Could murder sixteen million people in less than one hour. All it took was the will to kill, the desire to destroy a civilization and the sheer balls to hit that button and send out death.
Sentinels. Machines whose only purpose was to hunt down and destroy humans that happened to have the X-gene. The X-Men had a long history of combating different models of Sentinels over the years. All of them owing their existence to Dr. Bolivar Trask, an anthropologist who thought the escalating number of mutant births would be the end of the rest of humanity. He ended up fathering a mutant himself.
History is full of little gems of irony.
Emma herself had almost died during a Sentinel attack when Trevor Fitzroy, another mutant, had sent several to the Massachusetts Academy where she'd been Head Mistress. The school had been destroyed and the student superpower team called the Hellions had died, except for one. That one had been so traumatized by the incident that she was still with Emma. The girl, whose mutant power was to transform into either a purple house cat or lioness, had since been stuck in her smaller form unwilling to change or speak to anyone since. Catseye was little more than an intelligent pet despite Emma’s continuing attempts to rehabilitate her. Sometimes a person’s trauma was too great to be healed.
It didn't matter how many organizations the X-Men had destroyed trying to eradicate all existence of the Sentinels; there was always someone out there who had the knowledge and the resources to make more. There would always be someone that hated mutants, just as there would be mutants that held no love for their own species, let alone baseline humans.
"I'm not sensing much so far. Low level life forms for the most part," Jean Grey opened her eyes from her telepathic sweep.
Emma reached out with her mind to do her own preliminary search. It was her team after all and even though Jean was the co-Head of the academy along with Scott, the team and the mission was Emma's responsibility. Logan wasn't a regular member of her team either, but had volunteered to step in since Hank McCoy, otherwise known as Beast would be out of the mansion until later in the day. She felt almost grateful for him offering. The man had seen such death and destruction in his time that she knew she could count on him keeping things together with the team.
"Colossus, you and Karma head West. Northstar and Shadowcat to the East. Wolverine," Emma said using Logan's team name, "go with them please. Jean and I shall take the North. Everyone watch your step and don't hesitate to call out if you need us," the blonde telepath ordered, her mental faculties more than capable of sweeping out telepathically at the same time verbally issuing orders.
"While I'm sure you're all aware that Cerebra detected only the one unknown mental mutant signature here, we have no idea whether they are hostile or friendly. I'd rather not have this turn out violent," she gave Wolverine a stern look. "If I end up ruining these new boots I shall be very cross."
She eyed her teammates as they paired off, ignoring the projected juvenile-like comments coming from Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat.
Sighing Emma swept her mind a little to the East of where she was currently looking and brushed up against Jean's own mental fingers so that the two could work in tandem.
It was long, meticulous work, their minds making a grid of the part of the city they were working, sweeping back and forth, looking for any sign of life bigger than a rat. Part of Emma's mind began to drift as the rest of it went through the automated motions of searching the rubble.
//
"Good Morning, class", Emma smiled tightly as she leaned back against the front of her desk. The sun shone brightly through the tall windows that covered the length of one of the walls of her classroom. It’s a beautiful day and she was feeling bubbly, almost happy. Seven high school students peer at her in different stages of morning fugue.
"I have radioactive dog dirt on my shoes. There are luminous bird droppings on the statues of our beloved president Magneto.
"Therefore, we shall not be singing the words to 'Genosha, Genosha, Promised Island, Mutant Utopia' this morning, with your usual tuneless gusto or otherwise.
"Instead I propose we spend today's telepathy period hacking into the minds of some of our favorite screen idols.
“A gold star to the first girl who discovers the awful truth about Tom and Nicole..." she offered with an amused tilt to her lips.
"Miss Frost..." One of her students, Negasonic Teenage Warhead interrupts her. The girl is one of her favorites, even if she has atrocious taste in clothing and style. Goth is what they called it, which included the prerequisite black dress and the palest of white skin that was framed by the long black braids of her hair.
"You think everything's just a joke, but I had the same nightmare fifty times last night and I'm having it again right now.
Everyone's going to die."
//
*My mind keeps shying away from something here, but I think… yes, someone’s there.*, Jean interrupted her thoughts then proceeded to lift them both up telekinetically, carefully flying them through the air.
Far better than scrambling over broken buildings, Emma thought to herself. Trying not to think about how her all white uniform was now an unsavory shade of gray was becoming a bit of a challenge. She didn't reply to Jean's thought immediately, instead continuing to work with the other woman to probe an area she was interested in.
*This place needs a serious change in decor*, Emma broadcasts silently just far enough for Jean to hear her. *Perhaps a little color... blue? What do you think?*
*Green*, Jean replies simply.
*Why am I not surprised? You do look fabulous in green however, so I can understand the bias.*
*Emma...* Jean's tendril of thought is hesitant as if she's knows even attempting to broach the subject of Emma's gallows humor would be unwelcome.
*Don't try therapy on a therapist, my dear, it'll just make me laugh.*
*You're a sex therapist, it doesn't count*, Jean shot back, her tone slightly amused.
*Oh touché. Although technically I'm more than just a sex therapist, you shouldn't be so judgmental about my talents. It might have helped you with dear old Scott if you two had come to me before the divorce,* she replied harshly.
The love affair the two had had over the years had been rather nauseating to Emma and she’d been somewhat amused when it was finally broken under Scott's inability to deal with his blindness, damage done in battle and his subsequent removal from being on a team. The fact that his anal retentive devotion to rules and regulations made him a good match as a teacher and administrator of the school wasn't lost on Emma either. The irony made her positively giddy at times.
Silence was the only reply from Jean on that one and Emma felt a slight twinge of regret, even if she'd rather scoop out her frontal lobe with a dull spoon than admit it. And though she had never liked Scott, nor understood what Jean saw in him, she still regretted her words.
*I apologize, Jean. That was a low blow, even from me.*
Jean didn't respond, instead paying more attention to the unearthly silence of the dead city surrounding them.
*There... do you sense that?*
Emma focused and both women grew still, frozen in mid-air, held up by Jean's power.
*Yes.* Emma pointed mentally to a section of half-destroyed compound more easterly of their position that looked to have once been surrounded by a tall, high security wall. Whatever it was, it felt like looking into a dark closet and seeing nothing, even though there was child hiding in the dark with their eyes closed and whispering, ‘You can’t see me.’
They started to move again and soon Jean had them land safely on the ground, just past a broken down section of the wall.
*Wolverine? We think we might have found our target. You're close...* Emma shared a mental picture of the building that they stood in front of. *Bring your team and find a way around back. Jean and I will make our way inside.*
Several large concrete barrack-like buildings inside the compound all surrounded a courtyard in the middle, the broken slabs of masonry still holding up a leaning flagpole. Purple tattered remnants of the three pronged red crown of Magneto’s Genosha snapped in the breeze.
*I believe this used to be one of the genetic testing facilities before the revolution. Magneto changed it to a prison to house some of the human scientists,* Emma said, her eyes trying to peer into the nearest building. *It was one of the few buildings that remained after the Genosha Mutate rebellion. Magneto said it had history, but I never bothered to learn it. Too much else to do, to teach...*
She shook her head as she held herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso. She could feel Jean's eyes on her but refused to look at the other woman. They were here for a mission and she refused to be treated like some broken doll.
*Trust me Emma, you're not broken. Cracked here and there, but then aren't we all,* Jean replied quietly, catching what Emma believed had been a private thought.
//
There was light ahead, something she hadn't seen in hours. Or was it days? She was having a hard time remembering precisely.
Ahead of her, in the light, there's a man, or possibly a lion she thinks. She pauses a moment, thinking she might know him, he's blue and furry after all, but then puts the thought aside. She can't afford to think about it at the moment, she has someone to save. Someone she's been caring for and holding for days.
"Her name is Ellie Phimister. Her mutant name is Negasonic Teenage Warhead. She chose it herself..." she tells everyone who is standing there as she walks up out of the hole and into the sun. It would help them to know who her charge is. She's so light in her arms, so frail.
She thinks about how she always thought Ellie's mutant name was silly... childish. What was she going to do, after all, when she was no longer a teenager? Change it to Negasonic Adult Warhead and perhaps, after many years, Negasonic Geriatric Warhead?
It doesn't seem so silly now, she thinks as she blinks against the light. It's been too long since she's seen it. Hours? Days?
"She will be a credit to her family and other species. Get her to a hospital," she demands, her voice hoarse from disuse or screaming, she doesn't know. Turning, she gently hands over her student to two human emergency workers.
"Her skin..." one of them trailed off, looking at Emma. "What's that all over her skin... she's a robot. She might be a sentinel."
Emma looked at the man as if he was the mess she had stepped in while walking through a park to work that morning.
"Get her to a hospital..." she repeated, the energy quickly running out of her as she bent over, her hands on her knees trying to keep herself erect.
They looked at Ellie and slowly lowered her to the ground. One whispered to the other, but she could hear them.
"The kid's dead."
"Then bring her back to life, you imbecile!" she screamed in fury, the energy it costs her bringing her to her knees.
Another form comes forward and stops in front of her. Tall with bright red hair that flows down over her shoulders and back. She's looked at the other woman with concern.
"My God, Emma Frost? Emma! She's one of us X-Men!"
Is she? She doesn't quite remember.
"She's been dead for hours." The human is spoke again, but while she heard the words, they didn’t seem to mean anything.
The red-head came closer, a look of almost horrific fascination and pity on her face.
"Emma? It's me... Jean. Jean Grey," she said, reaching out and touching the kneeling woman's head. "Emma, what are you doing here? What happened to your skin?"
Emma's eyes focus as she looks at her own arm, studying how it glistens in the sun.
"I have no idea," she answers, looking back up at Jean. "It got hard."
She looks away again, this time noticing her surroundings. It's strange. Alien. Burning. Ashes and dust.
"What happened to everything?"
//
*Let's get this over with*, Emma thought to Jean, falling further into depression. God she hated Genosha.
*Emma?* Wolverine's mental projection was sloppy and haphazard, but she was easily able to reach out and connect with him. Not for the first time did she bemoan the fact that the experiments done on him long ago made telepathic communication difficult.
*Status?* Emma asked him at the same time, quickly bringing the entire team in on the conversation. Colossus and Shadowcat slowly made their way to their position, but had further to go yet. Jean didn't think they could wait for much longer. Too much fear, she had said.
*We're here. Lots of nice holes through the wall, so we did it pretty silent. Smells like death.*
Emma raised an eyebrow in derision. *Yes, well. The entire island smells like a charnel house, Logan...*
*This is newer. Not a lot of bodies... maybe just one or two.*
She got the impression that he was sniffing. Which with his heightened scenes wasn’t a pretty thought.
*A couple of months old.*
Grimacing she replied, *Wonderful. We're going in.* Emma nodded at Jean and the two women started towards the nearest barracks.
Onto Part 4