Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 18

I walk into Stark towers with Ned, Peter and MJ and pause as I see multiple avengers in the lobby, they all stop talking as we approach them. Steve, Thor, and Bruce all look angry, Wanda looks shocked, Sam looks both angry and upset, and even Natasha is looking a little upset. Tony looks devastated, I've never seen him look this upset before. My heart sinks, something's happened, hasn't it? Something bad and I was busy crying in a forest when I should've been here to help.

"Mr. Stark, sir, what happened?" Peter asks, his voice filled with concern. Sometimes I forget that Tony is a father figure to Peter. Peter respects him highly, they have a bond that's possibly stronger than the bond Tony and I share. Their situation doesn't have the complications that ours does.

"Storm attacked Rhodey, he's in a coma in critical condition, we're not sure if he'll wake" Bruce answers, his voice as hard as a rock. I gasp, somebody attacked Rhodey? My eyes widen as I realise Bruce said I did it. I didn't do anything; I wasn't even in the building.

"When was this?" MJ asks, her eyes narrowing. She gives me a reassuring look. My entire body feels numbed, Rhodey has to wake up soon and be okay, it'll destroy Tony if he doesn't. Even Natasha is friendly with him.

"Not even thirty minutes ago, how dare you have the nerve to come back in here" Thor booms, his voice loud and his eyes full of anger. "You're a coward, Storm, too scared to face us so you pretend to be on our side."

I glance at Tony, Rhodey's been his best friend for so long now, I can't begin to imagine how he's feeling. His best friend is a coma and there's nothing he can do except pray he wakes up and is okay. If someone who looked like me did this, it must have been Mystique she's the only shape shifter I know. Scarlett can only transform into animals, not people.

"We were with Storm thirty minutes ago" MJ says defensively. "It wasn't her." I shoot MJ a grateful look, relieved we became friends, and she gave me a chance. I can see why Peter likes MJ and Ned so much.

"It was probably Mystique, we all know she can shapeshift into whoever she wants, she's trying to get you to turn against Storm" Peter says, stepping towards me protectively, like he's waiting for the avengers to lunge. My eyes widen, what the fuck am I going to do if the avengers try to attack me for this? I don't want to fight them but I'm not letting them throw me in a cell for something I didn't do, they're all aware of Mystique's powers.

"Was the train station a distraction so you could sneak in and try to kill Rhodey while we're all busy?" Steve asks me, I sigh, is he seriously back to this? If I was going to kill anyone, I wouldn't wait until they were back from the station, that's the stupidest plan ever.

"She didn't do it, she was with us in a forest" Ned says, rolling his eyes. I glance at Tony and then at Natasha. Natasha bites her lip and looks away from me, she glances over at Steve who places his arm on her shoulder. Tony is looking at me, I can't tell if he believes us or not, but he's believed me every other time.

"She still could have helped Mystique, or it could have been Mystique with you, I say we arrest her until we figure out the whole story" Steve says, walking towards me. I wait for Tony to speak up, he's probably in shock but Steve's about to arrest his daughter, I need his help.

Why would Mystique do this? Was it her way of separating me from the avengers because she wasn't able to kill or capture me today? If Rhodey knew something important, he would've spoken up already.

"Steve, come on, I'm not working with Mystique" I plead, stepping back slightly as he approaches me.

"Don't" Tony finally speaks up, causing Steve to stop and turn around to stare at Tony. "Storm isn't responsible for this; I think we all know that."