Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 96

I lower myself to the ground as I land outside of Zed's house. I don't have a plan unless you count murdering Zed as a plan which I don't.

I walk to the side of the house, I have no idea whether I should knock on the front door and hope he doesn't suspect it's a mutant or if I should break a window, either way I'm not getting in here undetected.

I decide to smash the window, the glass breaks and I climb through, somehow managing to avoid most of the glass, just slicing my palm. I freeze as I hear a noise, I glance down at my hands and see that fire is emerging, I still have my powers.

The room has a few couches in it, I can see tears and rips in the couches, the furniture is either old or someone else has come looking for Zed. I see a computer in the corner on the room on a white desk, the computer looks old, I doubt it would turn on.

"You" Zed says, his eyes narrowing as he stands in the doorway. "What the fuck are you doing here, Storm?"

All this anger is blazing through my body as I stare at the man who is responsible for Clover's death. I want him dead; I want to be the one who kills him, I don't care if finding out I killed people almost broke me. He deserves to die; he killed Clover for no reason.

"You killed Clover, you killed my..." my voice trails off. We weren't dating before she died, but there was more than friendship between us. There's not one simple label I can put on Clover, she was the love of my life, but she was also a great friend, a fellow ally, and almost an advisor to me. "She was mine."

"I was aiming for you, I would never kill an innocent person" Zed says hollowly, I smirk as I see how tired and upset, he looks, I hope he hasn't had a moment's peace since he killed Clover, I hope she's here haunting him. I hope his hell is Clover killing him repeatedly.

"I didn't know about the building; we both know you know that I didn't. You hide behind this lie so you can tell yourself it's worth it, that this darkness is necessary to avenge your family, but we both know the truth. This darkness was always in you, you're just too much of a coward to admit it so you hide behind a lie" I sneer, folding my arms as I stare at Zed. Zed raises a knife and I raise an eyebrow, waiting for him to throw it at me. Zed likes killing, it's written all over his face, he isn't after justice, hunting mutants is a form of entertainment for him.

"I'm going to kill you" I say, realising that I am. No one is here to stop me; nothing is going to stop me from killing Zed.

"You won't kill me, you're an avenger and they have morals and rules that they follow" Zed says, he does lower his knife which is interesting, maybe killing Clover instead of me actually did affect him, I really hope it did.

"But I'm not an avenger" I reply, and thick thorns emerge from the ground, they grab onto Zed's legs and he falls onto the floor, his back leaning against the wall as more thorns pin him to where he's standing. A trail off fire leads to his leg, Zed cries out as the flame touches his foot, he struggles but the thorns are too tight for him to be able to move.

"You're insane! Do you really think your stupid girlfriend wants you to do this?" Zed asks which causes me to laugh, Zed stares me with a horrified expression on his face, he's realising that I am insane.

"Oh, she would have done so much worse to you" I smirk, remembering all the times Clover threatened to hurt Steve after he'd call me a traitor, I think she would have completely off the rails if I was killed. "You killed her, and you need to be punished, but I don't see the value in you spending another day on this planet."

Water surrounds Zed, his clothes are all water, I turn the water to ice and Zed starts swearing under his breath, he's simply not match for me. This isn't even a fun fight, it's not even a fight at all. A smile appears on my face as I think of a way to make it more interesting.

"Would you rather me cut off your foot or your hand?" I ask Zed, picking up the knife that he dropped. Zed gasps as he looks at the knife in my hand.

"Storm, please, I'm sorry" he begs, staring fearfully at the knife. I shrug, his apologises mean nothing because Clover is dead and nothing is going to bring her back, he simply shouldn't have come to Stark towers and I'm going to make him realise his mistake.

"If you don't pick, I'll pick for you" I say twirling the knife around in my hands. I frown as I hear the door open, a thorn wraps itself around Zed's mouth, preventing him from calling out, I can hear footsteps, I wait for the person to appear.