Chapter Text
The relative peace that they had found was over.
Lauren grasped at the strap of the bag on her shoulder, trekking further into the base with an armful of blankets for refugees. Andy was walking ahead of her, similarly burdened by blankets and supplies for the mutants that had arrived in the past few days. There seems to be no end. It was the worst that they had seen in three months.
Sentinel Services had simultaneously hit three of the new temporary stations that they had set up. They hadn’t even lasted a month.
(The room descended into a shouting match following the news.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you had just finished Campbell when you had the chance.” One of the Frost sisters crossed their arms and spoke above everyone else with barely concealed anger.
“That was her decision.” Marcos shot back in Lorna’s defense. The green-haired mutant had sat down while Calisto told them about the revitalization of Trask Labs. Her hands were loosely clasped together, elbows resting on her knees which had spread into a wide stance as the conversation progressed. She was staring at a spot on the wall, obviously thinking along the same lines as the Frosts.
Lauren placed a hand on her shoulder, giving a brief, comforting squeeze before letting it fall back to her side. Andy had his fists jammed into his sweater pockets, but he kept his mouth shut.
“Her decision has cost dozens of mutants their lives.” Another Frost responded blandly, picking at her nails.
“All to save a human.” The Frost that stood farthest from the door tacked on, looking directly at Lorna, who raised her head to meet the blonde’s eyes. The tension in the room rose, and Lauren could feel old instincts kicking in. She eyed the exits, adjusting her stance so that she was blocking Andy a bit.
“You asked her to act. She did.” John moved across the room to lean against a pillar, crossing his arms in a faux relaxed pose. Lauren knew that he was on alert though.
“And we have to remember that it wasn’t just Campbell on that plane.” Marcos just about shouted, moving to stand in front of Lorna.
“Collateral damage is necessary-” One of the Frosts began, and she would have continued had it not been for Marcos who slammed his palm on the table. Lauren didn’t jump, she learned not to, but seeing Marcos like this was not common enough for her to hide her reaction. She felt her posture stiffen.
“We can’t justify deaths with collateral damages.” Marcos barked. “We do that, and we’re no better than them. Did you ask that pilot about his thoughts on mutants before you gave the order to down the plane?” Lorna shifted, raising her hand to grab Marcos' as she pulled him away from the table to sit near her. Lauren partially relaxed, seeing as Marcos immediately turned his attention away from the argument, instead focusing on Lorna with a concerned scrunch on his brow.
“But that is immaterial. All that matters is that we need to deal with it now.” Calisto cut in, sending a sharp look at the Frosts, who all rolled their eyes. “One of my specialties is anticipating what the enemy is going to do and making sure that we are prepared for it.”
“A good specialty to have,” John commented, pushing up off the pillar that he was leaning on as he uncrossed his arms. He walked closer to the table, scanning the papers that Calisto brought out.
“Especially in war. And make no mistake. We are in a war.” Calisto declared while glancing around the room. Lauren straightened her posture as the mutant’s eyes landed on her.)
They had new protocols to fight the Hound program. When they could, they got a telepath to vet the people coming into the temporary stations before any of the mutants got transferred to one of the permanent ones. If they couldn’t find a telepath, they settled for checking mutants for tattoos or anything that would mark them as Hounds.
Telepaths were in short supply, and the Hound program got larger with each successful raid. Lauren didn’t need Sage’s gifts to know that that spelled out bad things for the Underground.
More children were running around than usual since the last raid had been near a group that catered to kids under the age of twelve. Only half of the kids were saved.
Lauren was jolted out of her thoughts by a little girl rushing past her legs. Lauren noticed that her braids were tied in intrigue rows, but they were fraying like they hadn’t been cared for in a while. The little girl turned to smile at Lauren while holding up a finger in a shushing motion, showing off apple cheeks. Then she disappeared.
Lauren blinked, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. She tried to look around, but another child ran into her leg. It was a boy with stark white hair, who blushed a little and fumbled with his hands as Lauren laid her eyes on him.
“Um, have you seen a girl? She was running..” He met her eyes briefly before looking back down. “We’re playing tag.” He explained. Lauren felt a small smile form on her face as she shook her head, mindful of the little girl from earlier.
The boy sighed and before Lauren could blink, a copy of him sprung out of nowhere. The two boys looked around before nodding at each other and running off in two different directions. As soon as they were out of sight, the girl reappeared. She seemed sweatier than she had been but there was a large smile on her face as she ran back the way she came, shooting Lauren a quick smile.
Lauren’s mirth died when she realized that she didn’t know if they had a bed for them both. She walked a little faster, catching up to her brother and dropping off the much-needed supplies.
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The world felt like it was tilting on its axis. Lauren’s steps seemed to echo as she made her way further and further into the building.
The surrounding area was familiar. She reached out to touch the wall but it seemed to shrink away from her as her hand got closer. She turned her head, and suddenly she was in a hallway. She knew it was in the same building, but in this part, large windows lined the sides and bright sunlight poured in. There was nothing outside that she could make out though.
She made her way down the hallway, half expecting it to keep going on forever, but it didn’t. There was a blue set of double doors. As she got closer, the light began to fade. She reached out to push open the door, but something beat her to it. The door was pulled open from the other side, and Lauren blinked in shock.
It was Andy.
He was also looking at her in shock, but he got over it quickly. He stepped back and held the door open for her. She walked through, seeing the room beyond finally come into focus. Streamers hung from the ceiling and there was an empty stage off to the far end of the room. The lights were low, and different colors were shining from different areas. The bleachers were shrouded in shadows, and the windows near the ceiling showed that it was nighttime.
They were back. This was the Belleview High School gym. It was decorated for the Under the Sea dance. This was the place where everything changed.
“So. Why are you here?” Andy asked, walking towards the bleachers. “Usually my nightmares about this night don’t include my sister.” Lauren felt her face scrunch up in confusion.
“Nightmares? You dream about that night?” Lauren spoke, looking around the empty gym.
“This is weird.” Andy kept talking as if he didn’t hear her. He moved to lie down on the bleachers instead, draping his arm over his forehead. “Usually it’s my fan club…” Andy shot up into a sitting position, turning to Lauren. He seemed to have a lot of energy.
“Is this a guilt thing?” He asked, meeting her eyes. Lauren opened her mouth to speak, but Andy kept going. “Because she knows, you know, that none of that matters. In the end, we’re in this together before anything else.” He got up and walked towards her, grabbing her hand and holding it between them.
Lauren studied his face, feeling the heat of Fenris rush into her veins. Just as the glow began to overtake her vision and the beginnings of the power began to travel up her arm, Lauren jolted-
Lauren opened her eyes. She was lying on her back in her and Andy’s shared room at the Mutant Underground base. The light was off, and her eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness. She propped herself up on her elbow before looking to the other side of the room to where her brother's bed was.
She couldn’t see him moving, but she thought that she could make out his steady breathing. The weird dream had been just that.
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Lorna was letting Lauren and Andy lead the training practices under her watchful eye in preparation for when she was going to be taking care of the new addition to the Mutant Underground. The name of the baby was still undecided, but Andy and Lauren kept the suggestions coming. Lauren thought that Sadie and Hazel were nice. Andy thought that they were boring and wanted the kid to be named Bolt or something ridiculous.
Lorna sat on the sidelines, idly using her powers to make a fidget spinner float and spin in the air. Andy was surveying the teens who were sparring. One of them, Nate, could harden his knuckles, which made his punches hurt something fierce. He was paired with Angelica, who could project light and heat from her hands and concuss her opponent. It was a good matchup since their powers were both primarily offensive, so they had to think harder about how to dodge the attacks to win. That was the purpose of these training sessions after all. They needed to learn how to win.
It became a staple that any teens or adults who wanted to train their powers for the fight would come to the main Underground headquarters and train. These people usually came alone, determined. The oldest person was in their forties. The youngest was ten. They came from every part of life too. For every ex-soldier who wanted to fight, there were two citizens whose lives were ruined when Sentinel Services came knocking. There were orphans. There were widows. There were grieving parents.
They came to make sure that they could fight back.
After training had ended, Lorna, Andy, and Lauren gathered to discuss some notes and ideas for the next session. Lauren stood, leaning on the left side of the desk where Lorna sat, looking at Andy as he leaned against the wall on the opposite side. Andy was petitioning for reflex control training where they try to dodge attacks from the siblings. Lorna and Lauren thought that there was some merit to the idea, but were debating what attacks should be used.
“We could do your sharp discs and they can dodge-” Andy began, but Lorna cut him off.
“Lauren, are you prepared for the possibility that they won’t be able to dodge that in time?” Lorna asked, turning to the blonde mutant.
“I mean, I can always make it disperse before it reaches them, but they don’t have to know that…”
“Hard at work I see.” A voice came from the doorway, and Lauren turned to Marcos. He made his way into the room, handing off some papers to Andy so he could crouch down and be face-to-face with Lorna’s stomach. He rested his hands on her sides and his head on the round bump. He whispered something in Spanish that Lauren couldn’t make out, but she smiled anyway at the display. She looked over to Andy, but he was looking down at the papers in his hands.
“Sorry to pull you away, but we got some logistics to work through before the next shipment of supplies comes in,” Marcos said, standing and helping Lorna up. He turned to them, shooting them apologetic smiles.
“It’s fine, we were just finishing up,” Lauren spoke, looking towards her brother who finally pried his eyes up from the pages. “Right, Andy?”
“Totally,” Andy answered, holding out the papers for Marcos to take. Marcos walked closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulders while shooting him an affectionate look. Over the past six months, they had grown to trust Marcos and Lorna a lot more. They knew about the connection to their past Fenris users and the information that is in Otto Strucker's journals. After all that they had done for them, it had just seemed…right.
(“You kids already know that we’ve established a clinic where your father and I can do some real good.” Caitlin explained as she packed her bag. They didn’t have much, but the things that they did have were in short supply. Lauren stood frozen. Andy was sitting on a bed. They were in the temporary section of the Mutant Underground headquarters. Reed wasn’t looking at them, and for that Lauren was glad. In these past three months, they had either spent all their time together arguing or not speaking to each other.
“We know you don’t want to come with us, and yes, Lauren, we know you’re already eighteen. But that doesn't make this any easier. So we’ve asked for Marcos and Lorna to look after you, and I don’t want any protests.” Caitlin held her hand up, clearly expecting arguments. Lauren and Andy were silent. Marcos and Lorna had come to them to ask their opinion earlier, something that their parents had not thought of themselves. Caitlin seemed surprised at their silence but said nothing. She hugged them both, and Reed nodded at them both before heading off. The same day, Marcos showed them their permanent room upstairs.)
As Marcos turned away from her brother, Lauren thought that she saw something flicker in Andy’s eyes. Was that…guilt?
Whatever it was, as soon as it came, it was gone. He was smiling and following them out the door, talking about grabbing some food. Lauren chased the thoughts from her head, moving towards them.
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Lauren would find out that that guilt she saw so fleetingly earlier was part of a longstanding struggle in Andy’s mind. Or his heart, more accurately.
“Lauren, I don’t know how you’re doing this,” Andy spoke to her that night before she turned off her bedside lamp. Andy’s was off, so his side of the room was cast in darkness, only slightly illuminated by the warm light.
“Do what?” Lauren asked, trying to shape her pillow into resembling something more comfortable.
“How you can just be…” She stopped messing with the offending pillow, instead turning to her brother. His tone of voice meant that this was going to be a relatively serious conversation. “Marcos and Lorna are great. They are. But how am I supposed to…”
“Supposed to…” Lauren repeated his words, hoping to prompt him to finish, but he sat up and turned his lamp on, showing Lauren his tear-stained face.
“We already have parents, Lauren.” The words that were spoken were cruel, in her view, but the vulnerability in his voice overtook that.
“We have a mother and a father. And we had our time with them. It wasn’t always bad, I know that.” Lauren felt her eyes water as she recalled days at the park with barbeque cooking on a public grill and the occasional family dinner that ended in laughter instead of arguments. But then she thought of the three years where she was constantly hiding and the dazed way she would go through the day trying to not incur her father’s wrath.
“So we have parents. So what? Now we also have a Lorna and a Marcos and a John and a Clarice.” Lauren barreled on, feeling tears leak out. “That’s not bad, and we’re not…it’s just different. It’s just part of growing up, I think.”
“Growing up, huh?” Andy asked softly. Lauren just nodded, feeling like there were a lot of things that were not being said. Even so, she knew that those things didn’t need to be said to be understood.
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For all the advice Lauren could give, she was limited in so many ways. She couldn’t always protect Andy, try as she might. She had to let him fight his own battles.
After all, fighting in a war was a different beast than hiding from one.