Chapter Text

The Garden and the Grave

CHOOSING SIDES [PART 4 of 4]

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“David?”

Sofia stares ahead at her squad, bewilderment obvious in her wide-eyed expression. Her next words begin to form on her lips before she’s able to sound them out properly from the shock.

“You are here to stop us? Not help us?”
“Of course they are, Sofia.” Julian scoffs as he steps in front of her, his hands alight with green psionic energy. “Figures. This fight has been brewing for a while. Let’s do it.”

Most of the Hellions step into their fighting stances. Erie eventually follows suit, heels digging into the grass beneath her feet. There is a heavy moment of silence that rests in the air while both groups stare each other down. No one rushes in or makes a move to do so—but time isn’t on their side. Neither is a confrontation.

Julian knows this. That doesn’t stop him from instigating the others to get things moving along.
“I’m gonna enjoy this!” He says loudly, taking a step forward with a tightened fist, grinning all the while. “When will you guys learn that my telekinesis is way too powerful for you?”

That does the trick.

Josh charges at Julian in a full tackle, bringing them both down to the ground. He doesn’t allow the Hellions squad leader time to breathe, either, quickly swinging to get a few punches in.

“You enjoying this, Hellion?”
Josh taunts through gritted teeth, landing another hit to Julian’s jaw.

A stone fist whizzes over the golden boy’s head, close enough to disturb a few blonde locks, before landing further off in the grass somewhere. It barely phases Josh.

“Nice try, Rocky. But that’s airball all the way!”

Erie steps to the side. Despite the low chances, she hopes to make her way around without any of the New Mutants noticing her. All eyes appear to be on the loud altercation. In that same moment, Santo begins blubbering as he holds out his wrist—the one still missing an attached hand.

“Aw no… My hand,” he says through the tears. “I missed. Now I have no hand…”

Laurie appears over his shoulder with a smile, hands behind her back as she leans forward to get a proper look at his face.

“I don’t know why this is getting me so upset.” He finishes the sentence with a loud sob, soft sniffles following after as he continues to lament his lost appendage.
“Sorry, Santo.” She continues by answering that question for him. “That would be me and my pheromones! No way I’m going to let you hit Josh!”

A powerful gust hits them all, stopping Erie from advancing. She protects her face with both arms as twigs and branches zip by. Dirt and grass are dislodged from the earth, kicking up to mix with the other debris.

“Sofia, what’re you doing?”

David’s voice barely comes through over the howling wind in her ears. She’s close enough to just make it out.

Erie drops into a crouch as someone steps up to her left. Brian. He’s in a similar predicament, covering his face with his arms to stave off some of the incoming debris. He glances her way for only a second and continues on ahead. He’s going after David.

“Is this another lecture about me being too impulsive, David?” Sofia shouts, the emotions in her voice on par with the harsh wind. “About me being a bad leader?”
“I never said you were a bad leader. I was willing to follow you,” he tells her, his volume rising as well to match. “You’re the heart of our team! Why do you think we’re all here trying to make sure you don’t get in trouble?”
“I just…” Sofia trails off for a moment, words wavering.

The wind begins to calm, if only slightly. She continues, the presence of tears evident in the way her voice cracks. “I do not know what to do about Kevin! I felt as if I had to act and no one would tell me what to do. No one except Julian.”

David is getting through to her. That’s a good thing, given the wind, but it’s mainly a bad thing given everything else. Erie manages to catch another glimpse of Brian. He’s right behind him. David remains unaware.

“You didn’t know because there’s no easy answer. Maybe that’s what they’re trying to teach us with these squads.” With the air growing calmer still, Erie can finally lower her arms to see again. “That sometimes, what to do isn’t as simple as anything we learn in class.”

Brain brings up a hand. David continues.

“You’re not a bad leader for seeing that this situation is screwed up. Julian’s a bad leader because he thinks it’s simple.”

A flash of red zooms by.

Erie chases after Jay without a second thought. She can’t allow David’s words to shake her resolve—not if they plan on helping Kevin. Her fingers all but brush the heel of his shoe before they become too heavy to move at all. Within seconds, her whole arm grows impossibly weighty. It nearly throws her off balance, and so she has no choice but to stop moving altogether. The sensation only fades when her arm drops.

Jay lifts Brian from the ground with a two-handed grip on the back of his training costume. He flails helplessly as his feet leave the ground.

“Forget it, Brian. You’re not gonna tag David today.”
“You traitor!”

With a few more strong flaps of his wings, Jay flies up and carefully deposits Brain high up on a tree branch far away from everyone. He glides off afterward with a smile and a mocking salute.
“Enjoy the view!”

Erie doesn’t take her eyes off of him until she attempts to walk forward without much success. This time, her foot is firmly on the ground, and far too heavy to lift.

“Not so fast, Void.”

Nelson approaches from one side, hand out toward her much like hers had been seconds before. Erie attempts to pull her foot up again. At seeing her fail, he offers her a sheepish grin.

“I’m here to make sure you don’t cause my squad any problems with those freaky powers of yours.”
“I’ve seen your mutation before,” she tells him. “You can’t keep up with me.”
“That’s fine. All I need to do is slow you down while my squad takes down the rest of yours.”

Her fists clench, a chill slowly settling under her skin. She takes a deep breath. Again, she tries to break free, but in response, he traps her other foot as well. Gravity holds them down to the earth. And with both out of commission, she can’t struggle further, or she risks toppling over completely.

Meanwhile, another argument sparks up further down in the parking lot. The words being said can’t be heard from such a distance, but that hardly matters as Sooraya forms into a cloud of sand in order to avoid electric blasts from Noriko’s gauntlets. Her anaya flutters onto the grass after being struck, but thankfully, Sooraya has flown out of the way to avoid any real damage.

Nelson becomes distracted at watching his squadmate struggle. Not enough to fully free Erie from his powers, but she takes notice. Her eyes drift to the ground, then back up to gauge the situation. Nelson’s actions are turning things into a waiting game. Not ideal, but she can work with it.

At the same time, Cessily focuses on turning her arm into a sharp point.

“I’ve never done this before…” She waves the blade of mercury in warning toward Josh while he continues to hold Julian down. “But I won’t let them take Kevin. So get off of Julian right now, Josh!”

This time, Josh is the one who grows distracted, and Julian takes the chance to fling him across the way where David and Sofia are, knocking him out.

“Thanks, Cess,” he offers in gratitude as he stands up, wiping a bit of blood off of his lips with the back of his hand. “I just needed to catch my breath.”

Josh doesn’t hit the ground. Sofia catches him in a gentle swirl of the air, depositing him safely. “I have you, Josh. You are safe.”
“So you’re with us?” David asks.
“I am with you.” Sofia lands, facing him with a serious expression. “But you must lead the team, David.”

He jumps right into the role.

“All right, Laurie, keep using your pheromones to keep the big guy out of this. Nelson, focus. Make sure Void can’t escape.”

They both send their own signs of confirmation—one for ‘okay’ and a peace sign, respectively. Through that quick gesture alone, Erie senses the force holding her wane, even if it only lasts less than a second.
He next turns and waves an arm over to where Sooraya and Noriko are.

“Sofia and Noriko, switch targets. Sofia, you take Dust. Noriko, back off. This isn’t personal. You focus on Mercury.”

The two girls get into action, Sofia flying over to Sooraya while Noriko makes an electrically-charged dash over to Cessily. With a current of air, Sofia sweeps the cloud of sand into a single stream.

“Of course… Didn’t Dr. McCoy say mercury is an excellent conductor of electricity?” Noriko muses out loud as Cessily writhes from the continuous shocks, her form shifting every which way until she drops, unable to hold her form anymore.

Another strong gust moves overhead, this time containing Dust. The wind continues to carry her sandy form off to the distance until it is no longer visible.

“Dust is removed from the fight. My wind will take her back to campus.”

Julian stares out in that direction in disbelief. Out of all the Hellions, he’s the only one not taken out or stuck in place. He lets out a sigh.

“How could you do this to us, beautiful? To me?”

As a result, the New Mutants’ eyes are on him, next.
“You want me to fry this creep, David?”

Despite the danger, he ignores Nori’s jab. Julian instead sends his glare David’s way, his eyes taking on the same green hue Erie remembers from the cafeteria speech.

“Stay out of this. This is leader-to-leader now.” He leans forward, words going from serious to taunting. “C’mon, brain boy. You and me.”
“Tempting,” David gives a dry reply. “But a good leader knows how to delegate.”

At that moment, Jay once again swoops in at a dive from the sky and lands a solid punch to the back of Julian’s head, leading to him falling to the ground on his hands and knees. Hellion’s out of the fight, too.

Erie decides it’s time to move.

Going limp, she allows her body to fall forward. Nelson begins to scramble at the sight, a shout of panic leaving him as he wildly gestures at her.

“Waitwaitwait!” His voice goes up a pitch. “Are you crazy?! You can’t—”

She’s grateful his worries surpass his sense, and more importantly, his control. An ankle sprain or torn ligaments are not a part of the plan. His powers disperse, giving her full movement again. She continues to fall face first onto the floor right as he attempts to grab her.

Erie blinks out of sight the moment she touches the grass, appearing as if her body sinks into the very earth. For her, the world goes pitch dark, and bitingly cold.

“Huh?” He stares at the spot where she fell. “Can she do that?”
“We… we just saw her do it,” Laurie points out.
“Crap. Impel! Watch out and get ready!”
Still panicking, he snaps his head back and forth, attempting to heed David’s warning. “Ready for what?”

The hysteria proves to be a solid cover. Erie springs up in another blink, following the same momentum she fell with and falling “forward” from the ground up, reappearing behind where Julian still lies in a daze from the hit. Right in front of her is a gliding Jay, wings spread to slow his movement, and who has no time to react when she takes hold of his arm with both hands, bringing them into a spin. The momentum knocks him onto his back with an audible thud.
Erie’s on him right after that, stopping him from fully sitting up with a punch to his jaw. That isn’t enough to take him down so he manages to catch her hands in his.

“The fight’s over!”

Over? The fight shouldn’t have happened in the first place, she protests silently. Aren’t they all on the same side? Don’t they want the same thing? Brian was right to call him a traitor—
No. Her thoughts shift. David was right. Things aren’t so simple, and there’s no right answer. But that doesn’t mean there’s no answer. There has to be one.

Erie continues to think in rapid fire thoughts, her hands held in place by her squadmate. She wonders if there’s still a way to get Kevin out or some quick solution to get Cessily back up on her feet. Erie needs to find a way around Noriko first, though, and Jay’s too fast when he’s flying. Julian is close by. David is also a huge problem—

Her eventual answer is a struggling groan as she tries to pry her hands away. But he holds fast, fingers securing a good lock around her wrists, but he’s careful not to harm her. His healing factor has already taken care of the small cut on his lip from her earlier punch.

His next words are softer.
“You’ve done all you can. The rest is up to the law.”

Again, Erie struggles. His hold slackens. At the first chance she gets, she yanks her hands away, and winds up to hit him at least one more time in the hopes of getting away, knocking him out—something. She needs to do something.

“Erie!”

She freezes before the swing and looks up at Brian’s voice. He’s still up in the tree where Jay left him, both hands cupped around his mouth as he shouts down at her.

“Get away from there!”

She tries to make out his expression against the glare of the setting sun when another voice rings out—David’s this time. His shout is nearly as desperate as Brian’s.

“Nelson, don’t!”

Her head feels heavy. No, her head and neck. Chest, too. Her entire upper torso is somehow too still and yet heavy in comparison to the rest of her body. A headache blooms behind her eyes. Her arm slackens just enough and Jay uses that opportunity to carefully nudge her off of him, breaking the hold Nelson’s gravity had on her.
She lands next to the winged mutant. Her head swims from the sudden changes and the blades of grass swirl over each other in a way that makes her ill. The lingering cold from her mutation isn’t helping, either, and it leaves her with a sense of disconnect as she tries to regain her bearings. Erie shuts her eyes tight. While that helps her stomach somewhat, it does little to dampen her frustration. The plan has failed.

She still failed.

Jay remains at her side, seated on the grass. She only knows this because his voice reaches her ears.

“Everything will work out,” he says softly enough for her to hear. “Always does.”

Erie stays silent because telling him to shut up is considered rude. Plus, she isn’t sure she fully means it.

“So, what’d I miss?”

She hears Josh’s voice along with several pairs of footsteps. The New Mutants are gathering around after their victory.

“Not much,” David replies casually. “I think we won.”

Erie does not wish to hear this. She’s gotten enough rest, and more importantly, she needs to go check on the other Hellions. Once she pushes herself up off of the ground, she spots Julian approaching. With some effort, she’s back on her feet, but her body is none too happy about it. Whether Jay takes note of it is unclear, or if it’s even a factor as to why he chooses to stick close even as their squad leader sends a not-so-friendly glare his way.

“C’mon, Erie,” he says once he’s close enough, holding out an arm for her to take in case she needs the extra support. “Santo needs help getting his hand back on.”

She accepts and goes with him without a word. She doesn’t hear Jay follow them and she doesn’t check.

The New Mutants don’t pay the rest of them much mind. They’re all standing close together at this point, congratulating one another. Josh smiles with pride and stands tall when he speaks up again.

“We won? See, now that’s what I want to hear. Why couldn’t this be a Field Day exercise?”

“Field Day?”

They all tense up at hearing Mr. Summers’ loud question, voice more stern than booming but nonetheless imposing. Only a deeply frowning mouth is visible in his X-Men suit as he stands at the end of the lot. Behind him is Miss Frost, also looking none too happy with the situation and Rahne Sinclair. She’s also unhappy, but… she’s standing with her back turned to the New Mutants for some reason, outright refusing to look their way. Josh is glaring daggers at the back of her head.

“You kids will be lucky if you ever get outside the main building again.” Cyclops moves to approach the New Mutants squad. “Everyone back to the school. Now.”

Emma’s eyes fall to her squad. Well, most of it. Jay is now standing over with the other students. She approaches them.

“Hellions, you are all in deep trouble.”

Santo, still having been unable to stop crying since Laurie’s powers hit him, attempts to explain while waving the stub of his stone arm about.

“I’m sorry,” he sniffs. “I just… my hand was gone…”
“I empathize with your motives,” Emma continues, “but this was disastrously stupid. Let’s go.”

“You did well to stop the Hellions.”

Erie hears Cyclops say to the New Mutants (and one Hellion) as her squad walks by. Jay averts his eyes, hand at the back of his neck in what she’s realizing is a nervous habit of his. Nelson’s less shy about his staring, eyes following her until she’s gone past them.

“But it all would have been for nothing had the FBI seen you, which they were seconds away from doing. You should have brought this to our attention and let the X-Men handle it.” He goes on, arms crossing both arms over his chest. “I know you think there’s not much difference between you and the faculty. Some of us are not much older than you. But we have years of training. You have to leave these things to us.”

After meeting up with Dani Moonstar, they’re back on the move. Needless to say, the journey back to campus is awkward at best. The quiet hangs over them much like a storm cloud. None of the students want to talk to one another and risk breaking the silence, and even if they did, the stony gaze of Cyclops is enough to keep everyone’s mouths shut. And so, aside from the odd sniffle from what remains of Laurie’s pheromones in Santo’s system, they all ride to school with the fight fresh on their minds and bruises for reminders.

They aren’t given much time to nurse those wounds. Dr. McCoy does give them a cursory check up—mainly Josh, Erie, and Julian—seeing as they all took some blows to the head. The rest of their time is spent waiting for Santo to return to normal. Once that is done, both squads follow their solemn-faced advisors to an empty classroom.

Cyclops is waiting for them inside.

“Needless to say, both squads are going to face consequences for what happened today. Every student in this room could have put the school at risk. No matter your intentions, no matter how good—they were wrong.”

Erie wants to curl up and hide despite how the adrenaline has worn off and left her worn out. The exhaustion creeps into her more and more as the headmaster goes on with his lecture.. She stares at the top of the desk, forcing herself to ignore how her stomach is still doing flips and pay attention to Cyclops’ words instead.

“Since you all appear to be keen on taking matters into your own hands, I came up with a fitting course of action. Your detention will consist of aiding with repairs, upkeep, and assistance with upcoming Field Day exercises.”

“Um…” Laurie hesitantly raises her hand. Cyclops nods at her to continue. “If we do that, then won’t that go against the purpose of Field Day?”
“Yeah,” Josh agrees, “It’s supposed to be a surprise, right?”

“Oh, you won’t be working on the challenges for your peers. The younger students get to have their own exercises, so you’ll be helping the staff set things up.”

Despite their argumentative relationship, both Julian and Josh have similar reactions to the news. They both visibly slump in their seats with long sighs.

“We’ve decided that you will all face two weeks of detention after class,” he announces, what’s visible of his mouth set in a grim line. “The Hellions—save for Mr. Guthrie, that is—will have an extra week added to that.”

There’s a collective groan of disappointment throughout the room that’s cut short by the unseen stare he levels at them from behind the red visor.

“Complain all you want. Hopefully you’ll come to understand your actions were reckless and short-sighted within the next couple of weeks.” A wry smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “And seeing as you won’t be allowed off campus—with some exceptions for work and family—you might even learn to get along.”

“Detention?” Cessily squeaks out as she whispers to the rest of the Hellions. “Three whole weeks? I’ve never even had detention before.”
“It’s not that bad,” Santo chimes in.
“Look at the bright side,” Brian includes. “That’s one week without the New Mutants being around.”
“Small mercies, I guess…” Cessily grumbles, but she doesn’t quite sound happy.

David raises his hand.
“Who’s going to be in charge of watching two squads, then?”

“I have just the right person in mind,” Cyclops answers.

[END]