Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 21

I walk into Stark towers with Clover, my heart racing a little. I glance around the lobby, half expecting all the avengers to still be here but they're not.

Even the front desk is empty, nobody's sitting behind the big black computer. I look at all the grey chairs stacked up against a wall, nobody's sitting there either. The entire lobby is empty for now, probably only until they realise I'm back.

"They're probably with Rhodey, he's the avenger Mystique attacked" I say, glancing at Clover who's looking around the lobby. I have so many questions for her, starting with how the hell she managed to get in and out of the x-men institute, in all my years there I never heard of anyone getting in and out successfully, though I guess if they did it successfully obviously, we wouldn't have known.

I inwardly sigh as I see Steve and Natasha walking out, they're the main two avengers I didn't want to see, Thor may have called me a coward, but I'd rather talk to him then these two. I don't think anything can be done to gain Natasha's trust, I remind her of her old self, and I don't think she can bring herself to accept it.

"This is Clover, I told her she could stay here, she helped me escape from the x-men institute" I say defensively, waiting for Steve to try and arrest me again. Natasha glances at Clover and then at me, she looks puzzled, I can't say I blame her. I just rocked up with a girl I've only known for, like, five minutes, I'd be surprised too if I was someone else.

"That's okay, Clover's welcome to stay here. I think the room next to yours is empty" Steve agrees quickly, I raise an eyebrow and stare at him. If he's being agreeable, it must mean he wants something from me, I don't really feel like granting Steve Rogers a favour. Deep down I know I can't hold Steve responsible for Natasha's opinion of me, but I feel like he's trying to poison her against me, and it bothers me – especially because almost everything he says is true, I don't deserve Tony or Natasha's love, I don't deserve Peter's friendship.

"Wait, you went back to the x-men?" Natasha asks, staring at me with a horrified, upset expression on her face. Natasha might be a master of hiding emotions and putting on false emotions, but I think this is real. "Storm, we're both so sorry. I know Mystique attacked Rhodey, not you."

"So why accuse her of it?" Clover asks. I blink, Clover doesn't know any of us yet, why is she getting involved?

"We're both sorry, Storm, I shouldn't have brought up your past actions, I believe you didn't know" Steve says, ignoring Clover's question. Steve looks and sounds sincere but I'm certain he wants something, maybe he's doing this for Natasha, it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that something romantic is going on between them.

"It's fine, I'm going to show Clover her room" I answer, not particularly interested in speaking to Steve or Natasha right now, but it's easier to say it's all fine to end the conversation faster. I start walking towards the lift and Clover follows me without saying anything. We step inside and I press the button.

I look at our reflections, Clover is studying me. I look away from our reflections, hiding the blush that comes to my cheeks. The doors open and I step out onto our floor, heading down to Clover's new room. Clover has a small, brown bag, I want to ask if she has any other stuff, but I don't want to say anything to upset her either, not everybody has a family or a home.

I open the door to Clover's room, glancing around. Two full length mirrors are hung up on a wall, a dark brown wooden desk in a corner with a black desktop on it, a single bed with a white doona, a green blanket on the end of the bed. There's a white couch against a cream wall, her room is slightly bigger than mine.

"Your room is bigger than mine" I complain, causing Clover to laugh slightly. There's a wooden set of drawers which Clover opens and begins to put things in her bag away, it's mainly clothes. I raise an eyebrow as I see a bunch of knives. "That's a lot of knives."

"Not all of us grew up with superpowers and being trained by the x-men everyday" Clover replies, pausing to look up at me. "I don't have any special powers, just my own skills and weapons." She must know how to fight well if she has all these weapons, did someone teach her to fight, or did she learn it herself?

I open the drawers and begin to put some of Clover's stuff away, my head is pounding, and I should probably rest but I want to hang out with Clover for a while. "Thank you" Clover says, smiling at me. I return the smile. I place a white short-sleeved top into her drawers. I pull out a plain light pink hoodie and place it in her drawers.

"How did you sneak in and out of the x-men institute?" I ask, she implied she'd been there multiple times and she knew who I was, also said I was basically Mystique's daughter which I guess my younger self might've believed. I close my eyes, now is really not the time to think about Mystique and our past, she tried to kill me not twelve hours ago.

"I'm good at getting in and out of places, I've been doing it my whole life" Clover replies, getting up and sitting on the edge of her bed. I sit down on the floor, my back leaning against her chest of drawers. "I never had anyone, so I learnt how to survive alone."

I'm tempted to ask where her parents are but I'm not going to push it, we're still strangers and her past isn't any of my business, it also sounds like it's been rough. I haven't had the easiest life either, but at least I always had someone there for me, I guess sometimes I need to stop and look for the light in situations.

"It must've sucked when Mystique pretended to be you, what went wrong?" Clover asks me, looking at me intently. I laugh bitterly, what didn't go wrong is a better question to ask. I cannot believe this is my third time explaining everything, at least it's to Clover and not Henry.

"Mystique lied about everything; I thought humans wanted all the mutants dead. I was kidnapped and brought here, and I found out I bombed a building when I was eight, over a hundred people died because of me" I answer honestly, showing Clover I trust her may be what it takes to win Clover's trust. We're not friends yet but I think it's going to happen. I fiddle with a loose thread on my black jumper, not meeting Clover's eyes.

"You were eight, don't beat yourself up. The x-men have been tricking people for years, you're not the first to fall for their lies" Clover shrugs, I can't tell if that makes it better or worse. There is something mildly comforting in knowing I'm not the only one but knowing other children have also committed terrible acts causes a dull pain in my chest that I can't explain. "Were you trying to find Mystique today?"

I nod in response; I have no idea what would've happened if I'd fought Mystique. In all my anger, I thought I could fight her and even kill her, but now that I've calmed down, I know the biggest threat to me is that I still care for Mystique and Scarlett, I wouldn't be able to seriously hurt them. Both of them know this and they'll use it against me. Even if I was willing to kill either of them, they're both strong and powerful, I could easily lose.

I fiddle with the ends of my burgundy jumper, folding the sleeves then pulling them back up. There will be a day when I have to fight Scarlett again and the truth is I'm not prepared for it. I see my reflection in the mirror and for a second, I don't recognise the girl staring back at me, the old Storm would do whatever it took to achieve her goals, I guess she never even imagined Scarlett being in harm's way.

Someone knocks at the door. "Come in" Clover says, the door opens, and I roll my eyes as I see Steve hovering in the doorway, what the hell does he want now?

"Storm, can I speak to you in your room please" Steve says, his tone informing me that this isn't a request, it's an order. I think I was the right; he was pleasant before because he wants something from me.