X-Men: The Gifted Ones

66. MY LAI, VIETNAM

Forge and Warpath hovered over the village in their helicopter. They noticed it seemed to be nothing but carnage below and noticed a great number of women, children, infants and elderly.

"Not a draft-aged person among them!" Forge muttered under his breath, enraged. "We were tricked into a massacre!"

He looked down and saw Medina approaching a young red-headed woman who was holding a child in her arms. He noticed she was wearing an X-Men uniform. He was relieved to see that she was trying to save villagers. He knew she would pay highly for it. She seemed prepared to pay the price.

Medina kicked her hard in the side. She gasped for air but still held onto the child.

Forge felt his anger building as he watched Medina pull out his gun and hold it to the girl's head. There was a tense few moments and nothing seemed to happen, then he saw the girl kick Medina between the legs as hard as she could. She ran away as Medina crumpled to the ground in pain.

Forge and Warpath watched the entire scene unfold from overhead. Warpath wanted to kill Medina himself, but decided it was best to let the man answer for what he had done to this village.

"Warpath, I'm landing now!" Forge said as he picked up his radio. "Stryker, I have a position on two civilians I need you to rescue; they're closest to you!"

"Copy that! I see them now!" Stryker replied.

Forge landed the helicopter and Scarlet Witch ran toward it with the child. Warpath opened the hatch and she placed the child inside. "We need to load as many survivors as we can into the helicopter!" she called out to him.

"Lead them here," Warpath insisted. "We'll help them evacuate!"

He watched a second helicopter land nearby. He was surprised to see Logan emerging from it, almost sauntering, and smoking a cigar.

"I saw someone else trying to be noble," Logan shouted over the sounds of the blades rotating. "I thought I'd help!"

Warpath and Scarlet Witch smiled.

Havoc, Hank, Banshee, Cannonball, and Sway appeared from the path into the clearing and ran toward the helicopters and Warpath. Forge climbed out of his helicopter and ran toward them.
"I saw some women, children, and older people run toward a bunker!" he said breathlessly. "We need to get them out! They'll die in there!"

"Let's clear them out!" Warpath ordered. "Fire at anyone who tries to stop us!"

Scarlet Witch felt galvanized into action. "We can help with that! Cannonball, come here! Let's make a path so the villagers can escape from the bunker to the choppers!"

Cannonball and Scarlet Witch stood about ten feet apart with their backs to one another. They held up their hands and created a force-field on either side of the path. She hoped they could hold it up long enough. Hank, Banshee, Sway, and Havoc were rounding up survivors and urging them to the helicopters. They seemed to understand that these people weren't like the ones killing the villagers. One by one, they quickly climbed into the helicopters. The X-Men only climbed on once the last person was on board. Full of survivors, the two helicopters took off from the village.

Warpath looked over at the X-Men who were all catching their breath. He was amazed by them. "How did you get here so quickly? My brother only sent the signal seven hours before the attack!"

Hank looked at Scarlet Witch. "We were already on our way, thanks to Scarlet Witch and her warning!"

Scarlet Witch smiled. The boy she had rescued had climbed onto her lap and she held onto him. He looked nervously at his surroundings, at the strange people, but he seemed comfortable in her arms.

Sway looked at her, her eyes full of admiration. "We were right to trust you. You're a hero. You saved a lot of lives today."

Scarlet Witch's expression grew sad. Her eyes filled with tears. "There is nothing heroic about killing your own brother."

Hank looked over at her, his eyes serious. "You did it to save a village. None of these people would be alive right now if it weren't for you."

She took a deep breath and nodded. Tears rolleddown her face. She scanned the frightened survivors as the helicopter flew tosafety. There were so many children among them. She looked at the boy in herarms. He would live to grow up, have children of his own. She had killed herown brother to save this boy. Was it worth it? She looked at the boy's wide,innocent eyes. Pietro had changed. He wasn't the brother she had loved. Shedidn't know who that bloodthirsty monster was. The boy smiled at her andtouched her red hair, fascinated by it. She pulled him close. Yes, he was worthsaving.