wings ↣ w. worthington iii

10. who is the enemy? who is the ally? why is no one talking? ✓

"I walked far down the beach, soothed by the rhythm of the waves, the sun on my bare back and legs, the wind and mist from the spray on my hair." (Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh)

Word Count: 1329

IT HAD BEEN four weeks since the "attack" on the school, and the younger mutants had been assured so many times that everything was under control that they had—thankfully—started to believe it. The entrance hall had been easily repaired by Jean, but no one was any closer to figuring out who had crashed it, or what the strange blue energy field had been. Everything was so confusing, and Lilli felt like she needed a break. Fortunately, the other X-Men thought so as well. It was decided that they would be going on a small excursion to a beach, and Lilli was looking forward to hanging out with Cas.

Well, actually, she wanted to see him shirtless, but she didn't dare tell anyone that.

Lilli supposed that Warren was probably just as good-looking as Cas, but she didn't even want to think of Warren in any positive light. She, along with a few other X-Men, completely suspected Warren to be the "intruder" the voice had spoken about. Who else could it be? He had fought against the X-Men in the last war, so it was completely plausible that he could do it again. He was always separate from the other X-Men and seemed secluded. He was the only suspect. It was a very dark time for Warren.

Scott and Cas had threatened to hurt Warren if he ever thought about hurting any of the students or professors. Warren had just glared, insisted for the thousandth time he wasn't a sleeper agent, and walked away with a snotty look only billionaire teenaged boys can manage. The little bugger also kept trying to tell Lilli that Cas was the bad person, and Lilli had shoved Warren into a tree when he first suggested it. She yelled at him that he was a traitor. He yelled back that she was stupid. They'd had a long, heated argument only broken by Peter and Ororo pushing them apart and dragging them away from each other.

It was a very dark time for the X-Men indeed.

So, when the beach trip was first suggested, Lilli was all for it. They settled on a date, and the date steadily drew nearer and nearer while the tension between the X-Men drew tighter and tighter. Not a day went by that there weren't arguments or fights within their group.

They were just at a breaking point when the date finally arrived. Jubilee was of course invited, but Hank and Professor Xavier weren't. It was a students-only trip. No one wanted to go with Warren, but they couldn't just tell him he couldn't go. It was surprising that he was even going in the first place, but Lilli assumed that he was also stressed. Stressed from betraying his second family.

On the drive down to the beach, Lilli was practically sitting on Cas' lap while his arms wrapped around her waist. They talked and laughed with the rest of their group. Besides Lilli, Cas was closest with Scott, which surprised everyone. They had started off with a very rocky beginning but they now told each other everything, joking and messing around like brothers. The friendly banter definitely increased in playfulness when they reached the beach. Sand was thrown and water was splashed while the rest watched on, laughing almost as hard as Cas and Scott.

Lilli loved the lake, and she hopped right in after Ororo, and they floated around on their back and let the waves toss them up and down gently. It was so serene and Lilli was finally at peace. It felt like all the stress from the past four weeks was seeping into the water and off of Lilli's shoulders.

It seeped right back into her when a sharp, faraway shout broke the silence. Both Lilli and Ororo craned their necks up to see what the commotion was, and on the distant beach they saw a large fight breaking out.

"Shit," Lilli cursed under her breath, and she and Ororo swam as hard as they could back to the shore. It took a few moments since they were battling the current and they had floated quite a ways, but they managed to haul themselves out of the water and up to the fight.

But when they arrived, they were met with a disaster scene. The X-Men were all beat up and covered in wet sand, beach towels were up in burnt trees, and rocks from the sidewalk were tossed carelessly around the ground. The sand was everywhere, caking every single one of the X-Men from head to toe.

"What happened?" Ororo asked, her eyes taking in the scene and not registering what happened, the same as Lilli. She couldn't fathom what she was seeing.

"Is everyone okay?" Lilli asked breathlessly, still wiped out from the sprint across the lake.

There were a few murmurs and grunts, but no one seemed completely beyond repair. They all trudged to the water to rinse the sand off, and Lilli felt a pang in her chest when she saw Cas limping. Only a few moments later, once everyone was cleaned off, could Jean describe what had happened.

"We were just laying here. Then all of a sudden these people came from behind the trees. They were mutants, you could easily tell, but there must've been a telepath because I couldn't read their thoughts. They yelled something like, 'For Kezing!' The next thing I know... they were attacking. After we were all on the ground, they left as quickly as they appeared. They caught us completely by surprise."

"Who's Kezing?" Lilli wondered out loud after taking a moment to digest the story.

"Another group of mutants who wants us dead, apparently," said Cas roughly. As he spoke, he scowled at Warren who most generously returned the look.

"As you would know," Warren shot back. Lilli noticed that he suddenly looked perfectly fine, and she didn't hesitate to ask him about it. "Healing factor," he said stiffly, flashing an irritated look at her. She had no idea that very soon, she would be thanking her lucky stars for that healing factor of his.

"So you aren't just faking an injury?" She asked innocently, batting her eyelashes. Warren gritted his teeth and looked away in annoyance, and Lilli rolled her eyes. She had once thought if he could actually be nice, and he wasn't just some random asshat. But she knew now that he wasn't an angel, despite his heavenly appearance. He was a dirty traitor who was terrible at being undercover. She didn't know what it was, but she knew he was planning something. Something big.

"I think we should go," Peter muttered from under a tree. He looked particularly ruffled and kept shooting furtive looks at Cas and Warren, then his eyes shot over to Jean's. They seemed to be having a conversation, but before it could go very far, Cas stood up and took Lilli's hand for support. He limped slightly as they made their way back to the car while everyone followed. The ride was short and quiet. No one spoke a word, yet Cas kept glaring at Peter. Lilli assumed it was because Peter could have stopped something from happening, but he didn't react fast enough. She thought it sort of pointless to be mad at an innocent person like Peter for such a strange reason, but right as she started thinking that, Cas squeezed her hand and all her worries melted away. She suddenly knew Cas was the good guy and Peter really should've reacted faster.

The rest of the night, Lilli only spoke two words and they were saying goodnight to Ororo.