Isolation | E LEHNSHERR

CHAPTER SIX

"Yeah, the world is still sleeping, while I keep on dreaming for me. And their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe."
-I'm Still Here, John Rzeznik

Apparently as soon as possible was not soon enough. It was morning in Virginia when they finally got back, and they returned to devastation. The base was completely destroyed, and apparently Shaw had come only to persuade the others to join him. He'd succeeded in getting Angel on their side, and Darwin had died while trying to save her.

The first thing Rory did when she saw the others was run up to Scarlett, and give the girl a huge hug, relieved that she was alright, albeit looking like a mixture of sad, scared, and extremely exhausted.

Charles ran to Raven once he got, and gave her a giant hug, and then turned to everyone else. "We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately."

Rory looked over at the telepath with wonderment from where she was hugging Scarlett, wondering if she'd heard him right.

"We're not going home," Alex insisted.

"What?" Charles asked.

"He's not going back to prison," Sean told Charles while nodding at Alex.

"And there's no way in hell that Scarlett and I are going back to that basement," Rory inserted.

"He killed Darwin!" Alex argued.

"All the more reason for you to leave," Charles tried to explain. "This is over." That only angered Rory even more. Did he really expect them to just up and leave everything? Like nothing had happened? Rory didn't know about the others, but she knew that wasn't going to work for her.

"Darwin's dead, Charles," Raven told the telepath. "And we can't even bury him."

Rory didn't know Darwin, she hadn't spoken to the African American man except to say hello to him the first day, and to introduce herself. But he was a mutant, like her, and the fact that this Shaw guy just killed him, just like that, it made her blood boil. To make matters worse, it could've been Scarlett who'd of died. Shaw should count his blessings it hadn't of been because he was already facing the wrath of five very angry mutants who were clearly Darwin's friends. However, what they were bound to do to him would look like child's play compared to what Rory would do to anyone who tried to hurt the people she cared about.

Erik spoke out after a few moments of silence after Raven's words. "We can avenge him."

Everyone looked up to him. The younger mutants, Rory included, looked hopeful, while Charles and Moira (Rory couldn't figure out what the hell she was still doing there) looked skeptical.

"Erik, a word please," Charles said, dragging Erik away.

While they were gone, Rory turned her attention back to Scarlett. "I'm so happy you're okay," she told her best friend while hugging her for the thousandth time. "I don't know what I would've done had it been you who died."

Scarlett looked sad though. "Darwin was my friend, Rory. And it's like Raven said. He's dead now. Dead because some psychopath decided to kill him to make an example out of him. We have to get Shaw. Do you understand?" She looked a little unstable, so Rory pulled her into another hug.

"Don't worry," she murmured in Scarlett's ear. "We're going to make him pay for everything he's done."

Charles turned back the others, and Rory looked at him to see what the telepath was going to say. "We'll have to train. All of us." He paused to let that sink it. "Yes?"