X-Men: Civil War

Chapter 8: Reason

A/N: the picture above is my drawing of Maxine

Maxine Lehnsherr

I can't believe he's actually turning himself in, it won't help anything, especially what might happen when he does. I bury my face into my creased palms and let my claws dig a little into my skin, hoping the pain might wake me up from this little nightmare that had torn me from the frying pan and tossed me into the white flames.

"Maxine, Stop." Adam says and I pull my, now bloody, talons away from my head.

"Why are you hurting yourself like this?" He grabs my hand and wipes the blood from my finger tips.

"To tell you the truth, I don't really know." Tears collect in the corners of my eyes and I try and push them out before they can fall.

"It's OK, whatever is wrong I will be here for you." I wrap my arms around him and I can feel him hesitate in surprise before he returns the gesture.

"I'm sorry, I'm kind of emotional at the moment." He smiles kindly and skin around his eyes crack.

"I'm pretty sure you deserve the right to be emotional." I laugh a little bit, but my light-heartedness turns to worry as pieces of Adam's face start to fall off.

"Adam, your eyes." I touch my hand to his cheek and heal the missing area.

"What's wrong?" He asks, suddenly changing his tone also.

"Part of your face fell off." His hazel eyes widen and he feels around his face frantically but I hold on to his hand and place mine on any other cracks he has and I heal him again.

"Hey don't worry about it, I can help ok?" He nods his head and hurried footsteps tell me that there has been a decision made on whether or not Cap is going to Iron Man and who is going with him.

"He's going and you and Muse are going with him." The frazzled voice of Bobby announces while pointing at me.

"Alright, I'm coming." I stand up and Adam stands up with me.

"Are you sure you want to?"Adam asks and takes ahold of my arm gently.

"Yes, I'll be fine." I put my hand on his and he lets go.

I run with Bobby towards the area where Cap, Muse and Logan are waiting for me. Logan nods in my direction and the other two look over.

"So your decision is final?" I ask Cap.

"Yes." I see Muse's eyes deepen and the sorrow is almost pouring out of them, until the screaming of a siren breaks her stare.

"What's happening?" Bobby says into a mic in his ear and a garbled response makes his eyes widen.

"We're about to be bombed, we have to get out of this area or-" he's cut off by an explosion rattling the building and everything after happens slowly.

Chunks of the ceiling fall onto us, and I hear Muse try and protect her and Steve, but then there's only a high pitched ringing and something wet at the back of my head. I feel my scalp and bring my hand back to my line of view to see red. It sticks to my fingers and dries from a dark scarlet to a light rust. I waver and fall to my knees, feeling suddenly weak. My eyes wander to Muse, who is helping Steve get up and to where Bobby was standing, now a pile of rubble.

"Bobby." I feel my lips move but I don't hear sound escape from them. A hand reaches from under a large piece of mortar. I try to lift the concrete from off his body, but I'm not strong enough. The hand tries to push the heavy cement and eventually gives up. My ears start to clear and I can hear my name being called, but I don't know who's calling it.