DEAD WEIGHT||PJM||

𝟘𝟜𝟘. 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝔼ℕ𝔼𝕄𝕐 𝕆𝔽 𝕄𝕐 𝔼ℕ𝔼𝕄𝕐 𝕀𝕊 𝕄𝕐 𝔽ℝ𝕀𝔼ℕ𝔻

She cowered away slightly when she saw Nine at the other end of the hallway. She was slightly disappointed that it wasn't the Professor. She had wanted to give the older woman a horrific end with her bare hands.

He looked like a shell of himself. A stoic expression had replaced his usual jovial demeanour.

'You have always been too predictable', he said with a small smile on his face.

She was on high alert as she watched him. Legs a few feet apart and arms stretched out, ready to pounce.

'No need to look at me like that, I'm not here to attack anyone', he revealed.

She relaxed from her defensive stance but still watched him closely.

'What do you want?'

She asked hesitantly. It was unlike Nine's to not attack anyone.

'Answers'.

'What happened that day?', he asked.

Her eyes widened.

'I was put in the incinerator room', she revealed.

Now it was his turn to be shocked. That was the room that had been dangled as a punishment over their heads for their entire lives. Professor Sullivan had made sure to use it to strike fear in their hearts so they would never disobey her.

The incinerator was specifically made to ensure a painful end to the mutants. It was a fitting way for them to go, the plethora of victims they left in their wake would agree if they could speak.

There was only one way to completely kill a mutant, by burning it in flames. Their burnt cells would be unable to regenerate so they would disintegrate to ashes.

'I turned so I don't remember what happened after so it might be all my fault that everyone-', she swallowed thickly, 'everyone is gone'.

'You're looking for the cure aren't you?', he asked.

She gently nodded, hiding the shock at the accuracy of his questions.

'It's not here'.

He revealed.

'Then where is it?', she asked in blatant desperation.

'I heard Professor Sullivan talking about something called a 'gala' where she will present the cure'.

He gradually inched closer to her shaking frame at the end of the dimly lit hallway.

'How do I know you're not tricking me?', she asked.

He was unfazed by the way she eyed him suspiciously. He was aware that he didn't deserve her trust.

'You're the only one of my kind remaining, there's nothing I gain by lying to you'.

The reminder that they were the last ones alive stung her more than she liked. The humans were rubbing off on her more than she thought. She didn't like the amount of emotions she had seen them display that she was beginning to unconsciously replicate.

'Zero,' he placed a hand on her shoulder, 'I don't think-',

He paused in thought. It seemed that even after seeing the logs, she still miraculously had hope. He had no idea how to tell her that he suspected that there was no way to reverse what had been done to them.

There was a look of utter devastation that she used to wear on her face back when he and the other mutants were taking turns in completing Professor Sullivan's orders of beating her to a pulp. It was a look that haunted him in his sleep. He was completely disgusted by how animalistic they had been.