WANTED U | ANGEL | X-MEN APOCALYPSE

thirteen

thirteen !
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Rosa barely manages to sleep, even with Warren right beside her.

His breathing even. His body in a complete state of relaxation as if they aren't about to bring the end of days. He even looks peaceful, his lashes brushing his under-eyes and his jaw relaxed for once, not grinding his teeth with stress.

After managing around an hour, she wakes in a cold sweat sits up with a groan, shivering as she rubs her eyes with the balls of her palms.

It's too much. It's all too much. Between their intended bringing of the apocalypse and this new power shooting through her veins and rattling around inside of her skull, Rosa is tired of it all.

Tired of fighting.

Tired of living in fear.

She squeezes her eyes tight as the memories of what she's left behind come back to her. Those defences she's worked so hard to hold up slip in her moment of fatigue and she hears him.

Hears that voice that has guided her for years.

Professor Charles Xavier slipping through the cracks. Never one to pass up an opportunity when he sees one. Pulling the door open with both hands and stepping into the furious darkness.

But he has not come with advice.

"What have you done, Rosa?" His voice is a whisper as it drifts into her mind through the door she's forgotten to lock. "Come home," He beckons, he pleads, "Come home."

For a split second, she considers. Until the hate and the pain and the anger comes crashing down onto her once more at blistering speed, snapping her clean in two.

"No!" Rosa bites, shoving him backwards, slamming the door shut and locking it top and bottom. Shutting him out once more. Blocking him from her mind. Pushing back the tears and swallowing the thick lump of truth in her throat.

She rubs her face with her hands as she attempts to recollect herself. Though it is perhaps more of a feat than she's fully capable of in her current state.

"You are in pain, my child," Apocalypse notes calmly, crossing the room towards her as if he is walking on clouds. Her outburst doesn't seem to alarm him. Nothing appears to faze him.

Rosa opens her mouth to reply but clamps it shut once more, stiffly climbing to her feet and shaking out her wings.

"There is no need to be afraid. You will bring the new age in with this power, but, until then, it will continue to magnify within you." He reaches a hand towards her and grips her chin, bringing her to meet his eye and see. Not forcefully, but not weakly either.

A reminder of the potential those hands withhold, but also a reminder of all he has promised. Opening her eyes once more, beyond the realm of pain. To see the world she will bring to its knees for the greater good of all mutants.