Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 57

I wake up to noise, I close my eyes trying to ignore the noise, hoping it will go away soon but I'm granted no such luck. I open one eye and frown as I see Clover pushing the lamp off the desk, so it falls onto the floor, what the hell is going on? Everything seemed fine last night, we went on a run together, had dinner, and then watched a movie before falling asleep, neither Tony nor Natasha bothered to check if Clover was here.

Clover picks up a chair and throws it all the window, the glass smashes onto the floor and she tosses the chair behind her, I'm about to say something when an idea strikes me, well it's more of a fear. I close my eyes and try my best to ignore Clover trashing the room, I'm really hoping my fear is wrong, it probably is.

I can hear something opening but I keep my eyes shut in case Clover checks to see if I'm awake. The noise has stopped, though I can still hear Clover moving about, after around ten minutes she comes next to me and lies back down. Maybe she was having some kind of trauma response and wasn't really awake, that could explain the throwing.

"Storm, wake up" Clover says, shaking me. "You're safe, Storm, c'mon wake up" she continues to shake me. I open my eyes and glance over at Clover, making sure I look confused and sleepy, like I really had just woken up.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" I ask, I then glance at the floor and see all the scattered objects, fuck, Clover has really made a mess in here. "Oh."

"You were screaming and then everything started getting tossed around, it must've been a nightmare" Clover says, placing her arm on my shoulder. I blink, Clover could've also been the one who lit my curtains on fire, I did have a nightmare but maybe it didn't trigger my powers, this could be Clover messing with me. I just don't know why, she loves me.

I don't know what I should do. Telling Natasha or Tony is probably the safest option, but I want to hear this from Clover myself, I don't want this to be dragged out so we can try to figure out Clover's motive.

"Are you okay? Do you want to talk about the nightmare?" Clover asks, looking and sounding concerned. My heart flickers in my chest, this is the girl that I love, there has to be a good reason for this, maybe she thought I needed more training.

I glance at the broken window and all the chairs that are scattered onto the floor, even the blanket at the end of the bed has been shoved into the corner, all the things on the bedside table have been knocked onto the floor, my water bottle has opened and has created a puddle near the window, if this was my powers, I'd be pretty shocked right now.

"I saw you moving everything onto the floor and trashing the place, I'm guessing it was also you behind the curtain?" I ask, though it's not really a question. I highly doubt I lit a curtain on fire in my sleep, so Clover decided to continue for me.

Clover blinks, looking surprised, I think it's the first time I've seen her look surprised. "Was there a reason you decided to make me think my powers were out of control?" I ask, not sure if I want to hear the answer, a sinking feeling has crept into my stomach and my body is tense, like it's ready to flee.

"I wanted you to think you were dangerous and leave Stark towers with me" Clover admits. "After 'your' powers killed Steve." I gasp at her revelation, why does she want Steve dead? I don't question her pinning it on me, the avengers wouldn't kill me if I accidentally killed people during a nightmare, especially because of who my parents are. But I don't think Clover has a good enough reason to want two people dead.

"Why the hell would you want Steve dead?" I ask, I have questioned her extreme hatred of him, but I never thought it went this far, not even for a second would I have genuinely thought that Clover might actually want Steve dead. Yeah, Steve can be a bit annoying, but at the end of the day he, just like all the avengers, are trying to make the world a better place.

"Because he ruined my life! He took everything from me!" Clover exclaims, her voice raising and her fists clenching. Her eyes are dark and full of anger, I've never seen this side of Clover before, I didn't realise there was this darkness in her. "He killed my parents."

I blink, who the hell are Clover's parents? She told me she grew up basically alone and raising herself, said she taught herself how to fight so she could protect herself since she didn't have anyone in her life. "Did anyone tell you about when Magneto tried to storm into some stupid avengers building six years ago?" Wordlessly, I shake my head. I knew the x-men were trying to take down the avengers, but I hardly got specific information when I was growing up, looking back it's another sign that something wasn't right. Mystique and Magneto probably kept quiet because they feared they'd slip up if they told too many lies.

"Steve destroyed this bridge they were planning to cross so they couldn't get the information. He must have thought the information in the building was worth more than innocent people's lives" Clover says bitterly, staring straight ahead, not looking at me. I did actually hear about this, Magneto and Mystique used this as proof that the avengers hated us and wanted us all dead, they said Steve destroyed the bridge for no reason, that he simply wanted all mutants' dead.

"Clover..." my voice trails off as I realise, I have nothing to say. I can't fault her for being angry, the avengers who are supposed to save everyone got her parents killed. "I'm truly sorry about your parents, but Steve doesn't deserve to die for that."

"Seriously? You can bomb some random building and I can't kill the man who destroyed my family?" Clover snaps, I step back, she knows how much it tore me apart when I found out I had killed innocent people and now she's throwing it in my face.

"Is this why you came here? So you could kill Steve? Do you even love me?" I ask, feeling tears welling up in my eyes. I blink them back fiercely; this is not the time to cry. I need to figure out what the hell is going on.

"You were my ticket into this building, I never excepted any of this to happen. I thought I could kill Steve in his sleep and be gone the next day, I should've known Tony's security would prevent that" Clover replies. Her expression and tone are neutral, like this a completely ordinary conversation. We're discussing her killing someone, that isn't normal!

"We need to tell Tony, he can give us more information about what happened, I'm sure Steve had to destroy the bridge and I'm sure they tried their best to-"

"We are not telling the avengers anything until Steve is dead" Clover says, pulling out a knife. Does she seriously sleep with a knife? "I will kill him, and we'll run away together." She walks towards me, and the end of her knife touches my face.

"Clover, I love you, it's why I don't want you to do this" I plead, she'll never forgive herself if she kills Steve, the second it's done she'll realise it didn't make anything better. Her parents will still be dead, and she'll have blood on her hands.

"I do love you, Storm, but I need to avenge my parents, I'm sorry" Clover says, before I can say anything she brings down the pommel of her knife and I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head, then everything turns black. 

*Author's Note* Let me know your thoughts!