Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 47

My eyes slowly open and I blink as I see a bright light, I shut my eyes tightly. Slowly the memory of me and Clover fighting Magneto comes back and my eyes open wide, oh no. I sit up, realising I'm on a bed.

I glance around the room, my mouth turning dry as I take everything in. There are two twin beds, a small wardrobe, a desk beside each bed with a cream-coloured lamp on it. My heart sinks, why did Magneto decide to put me in my old room?

I wince as I stand up, my head pounding. I touch it, feeling a couple of stitches. I raise an eyebrow, why would Magneto get a medic to look at me? He did say he'd invested too much to just simply kill me, but I didn't think that meant he'd go out of his way to keep me alive. The thought he needs me is unsettling, I think I'd rather him have just killed me.

I walk towards the door, attempting to open it. It's locked which isn't surprising but does cause my heart to sink a little, there is no way to escape from the dorms, I'd have to somehow to get out of the room and then run-down multiple corridors and then once I'm outside the people keeping watch would see me. I sit back on the bed; I need to think.

The door opens and my head jerks up. I blink as I see Henry, I was expecting Magneto. I don't bother saying anything, I'm sure Magneto has come up with some story about how I killed both Scarlett and Mystique.

I wait for Henry to attack me, if I believed Henry had killed Clover, I'd want to kill him. Henry grabs my shirt and pushes me against the wall. I wince as my head slams against the wall again, I'm going to end up with a serious head injury again.

"I'm not going to kill you, not yet" Henry says, I look at his eyes and I'm forced to look away, there's so much raw pain and anger in those eyes and it's my fault. I might not have killed Scarlett, but she knew what was going to happen when she killed Mystique, she knew it was a death sentence, yet she did it anyway. "I'm going to kill that blond girl in front of you and make you watch."

My eyes narrow despite the situation. I don't care what lies have been told to Henry, if he touches Clover, I will rip him apart. "That 'blond girl' had nothing to do with Scarlett's death, and besides she's with the avengers. I tried breaking in there, remember?" This all started with my mission to kill Tony Stark. If I had succeeded, would I still be killing with the x-men? I have no idea if I would have discovered their lies or not.

"Magneto told me exactly what happened, how you tortured Scarlett for hours before finally killing her, that's exactly what I'm going to do to Clover. Then you'll be feeling exactly how I do now" Henry says, I have no idea how to get Henry to believe anything I tell him, we grew up trusting Mystique and Magneto with every cell in our bodies, besides if I killed Scarlett, I wouldn't admit it now, not with him threatening Clover.

Henry pulls me forward and shoves me, I wince as I land on the ground. I glance up as Henry comes over and kicks my stomach. "Fight back!" Henry says, pulling me up and punching me. Blood begins pouring from my nose, Henry's eyes darken, and he hits me again. I'm not going to engage in this fight, all scenarios end with me losing. "Fight back Storm, make it easier to hate you!"

Life would be easier if we all never cared about each other, wouldn't it? The fact I cared for Scarlett resulted in me getting my head bashed in. The fact Ashton cared about me resulted in him getting kidnapped by weird scientists. The fact Scarlett cared about me resulted in her death.

"Do you really think I'd kill Scarlett?" I ask, looking up at Henry. Henry looks away from me, I know deep down he's questioning it, I'm sure Scarlett told him everything that happened between us. I didn't want to fight her in the forest after I chased her there after she saw at Flash's party, why would I go from that to killing her?

"I think Scarlett's dead because of you, does it matter if you pulled the trigger or not?" Henry asks, I look down. I've always felt like all of this is my fault, I just didn't expect to hear anyone else say it, but Henry doesn't care about protecting my feelings.

"Maybe it doesn't" I say hollowly, a sinking feeling in my chest once again. "This cycle of violence just continues, and it won't stop. I bombed a building, I tried to kill Iron man, Scarlett bombed a hospital then she tried to kill me, Mystique tried to kill Rhodey, Scarlett killed somebody in that cave, the x-men kidnapped Clover and MJ, Mystique told Scarlett to kill me, Scarlett killed Mystique, Magneto killed Scarlett, Clover and I tried to kill Magneto, Magneto attacked me, and now you're here trying to make me suffer before you kill me, so does it really matter who killed who? The circle is never-ending." I'd never realised how much it all goes back, I think the cycle of violence goes back even before I was born, maybe even before Tony was born.

Henry stares at me like an alien, probably wondering what the hell I'm rambling on about. I can see his brain ticking, moving through everyone I listed, trying to see if I could be telling the truth. It's not like I came up with something amazing, there's always violence and bloodshed in war. Peter could be the only one of us who's truly innocent, the only one without blood on his hands. Clover's innocent in another way, there's blood on her hands but it's only the blood that was necessary, she never went out of her way to kill, she just wanted to keep herself alive. But then we did both go after Magneto, Clover was blinded by anger, and I was grieving Scarlett. In hindsight I understand Tony locking us in Stark towers. If I listened to him, I wouldn't be here now, Clover wouldn't have been shot.

"If Scarlett died because she killed Mystique in order to protect you, then your death makes that sacrifice meaningless" Henry says, more to himself than to me. He starts pacing, staring down at the floor. I nod, Scarlett's death can only mean something if this succeeds, otherwise it's just another causality of the x-men. "Scarlett's death can't be meaningless; I won't allow that."

My mind flickers to Clover, I hope Steve isn't being too much of a dick to her. Knowing Clover, she could be the one yelling at him. My mind then flickers to Steve, as much as I find him annoying, he does want to help stop all of this, all the avengers genuinely do. Maybe it's taken too long and too much has been done that could have been stopped, but the avengers are trying at the end of the day. If I was raised by Tony, maybe I'd be a decent person.

"How do I know for sure you didn't kill Scarlett?" Henry asks me, his eyes narrowing, and he pulls out a knife. I blink, what happened to him worrying about me dying making Scarlett's death meaningless? My mind flickers for an answer he'll believe.

"I can't prove it to you" I reply, I close my eyes as the image of Scarlett's lifeless body enters my brain. Why did she choose that moment to turn on the x-men? I wish I could be mad at her for doing something so stupid, but I just can't find it within myself.

"I have to go" Henry says abruptly, walking out of the room. I shrug and lie down on my bed, I know Henry's rattled, he always leaves conversations abruptly when he isn't sure what to feel or who to believe.

*Author's Note* What do you think of Henry and Storm reuniting?