Gryphon (Completed)

Chapter 1 : Awake Again

The dark is so cold and I feel lonely for the first time in my entire life, well whatever is left of it. The thick forest around me is insulating my heavy breathing and I can feel myself starting to panic, where am I, where is The Institute... und why am I not blue anymore?! I think this as I examine my arms and I feel claws in my fingers starting to come out and retract. I get up and There's a heavy weight on my back, I feel it with the tips of my pale fingers, that I now have five of, and the soft texture of feathers alarms me. I think to myself, when did I grow wings?! Well,I think as I start to flex the muscles in my new found wings, maybe i should try them out, right? And I leap into the sky with the wind hitting my face, at first I wobble a little, but then I get used to the upcoming warm drafts that lift me up and the cool ones that lend me speed. I see a city come up on my right and I spin into a dive and pull up at the last second at a mirrored office tower. Wow, I think, as a feeling of deja vu overwhelms me and I wonder if I've ever done this before, but before I can land I hear the thick blades of a helicopter and the static of a megaphone.

"THIS IS THE MRD! STAND DOWN OR WE WILL SHOOT!" The cragly voice of a man says through it, but with one flap, I turn and dive back into the forest where the thick undergrowth hides my wings and racing footsteps. I crash through the brush and see a familiar, yet devastated, sight. The Institute. The walls are burnt and crumbling, and there's a graveyard in front of the porch, which I walk up to and see the one thing that I had tried to avoid. My brother's.

"Nein, nein, nein... Kurt... I'm so sorry... I could've saved you... if only... why didn't I..." I say between cries and small gasps, until a hand rests on my shoulder, and I look up to see prof. X through the streaming tears.

"My dear, I don't think there was anything you could do, what is your name?"

"Maxine, sniff, Wagner, remember?" He then looks at me with surprise and I let him see my past memories, including the new one I had gained shortly after I had woken up.

"I see, why don't we head inside and I'll tell you all that has happened the past 20 years."

"Ok, but I would like to stay out here a little longer."

"Alright, I will be in Cerebro if you need me." He walks back to the institute and into the mangled hole that was probably a doorway.

"Oh Kurt, I should have stayed and saved you..." I start to say again, but a large banging noise catches my attention and when I turn my head to see what it is, it's a sentinel!

"Professor, get out..."

"Shh, Maxine I don't want them to get you also, just go find Logan!"

" Ok. " The professor is gone and all I can do is stand and watch one of the last people I trust be carried away by a robot made by humans, who also killed my brother, and I understand the pain that Magneto felt that led him to bitterness, but I will not have hatred rot in my heart, I will forgive, like I've always done. I then start towards the dirt path that lines part of the forest that only me and Logan would've seen. Well, it's a start, I think and run as though my life depended on it, because it did.

I stop for a short rest and think about Robin, I hadn't seen his grave, which means he's still alive. I have to find him as soon as I find Logan and save the professor, or else he might already be dead or worse.