Water and Blood: Part 4
by Binkeee
"I thought it most likely to find you here."
"Hey 'Star." Julio answered, standing with his arms crossed against his chest, watching the body in the bed remain silent and still.
Shatterstar walked in further till he too, gazed at the girl. His stare was not one of interest or of curiosity like his friend's, but one of hate. A hate that grew every time he would hear his friends talking about this girl, or when he would catch his best friend just staring with a recognizable interest at her, like he was doing at this time. Although Shatterstar wondered he never dared to ask what was the fascination the girl held for his friend. He shifted his eyes from Julio's face to the girl's. A flicker of his emotions raced across his face and was quickly hidden.
"Why is it that you are never interested in battle as you are this girl?" Shatterstar demanded. Julio didn't even act as if he had heard him, unknowingly increasing Shatterstar's hate of the girl. "My friend. I asked you a question." he coldly added in Spanish.
"I heard you, dude, give me a second." Julio snapped. "Why is she more interesting? I know the answer to this already, but I'll ask it anyway. Have you ever heard about someone, or saw someone that looked like the world was against them, not like us, but like they've been beat up, tore up, and just, I guess, been put through hell for no good reason? And after seein' that person have you ever wondered 'What could they have done so bad to deserve to be treated like that?'" Julio looked over his shoulder at his friend who looked confused at his words.
"Okay, let me put it this way, this girl." Julio said, tipping his head in her direction as he turned around to Shatterstar. "With me so far, amigo?" Shatterstar sighed at being treated like a child, and nodded. "Okay good. Now all we know is that this girl was thrown into a lake, right?" Julio paused waiting for Shatterstar to nod in agreement; instead Shatterstar glared at him. "That's what we know, and that she's around our age, well, my age let's say. What do you think she did so wrong to deserve death?"
"Perhaps she was not worth saving." Shatterstar stated, his words filled with ice. Julio frowned and turned to face the girl once again. Shatterstar's jealousy reached a new high as Julio did this. His mind raced with something to get his friends attention off the girl. "She was probably not worth saving at all, Julio. What if she turns out to be an enemy, will you be willing to kill the same one you saved? What would you do if you have just prolonged her fate?" Shatterstar felt triumphant as Julio looked over his shoulder once again.
"But what if she turns out to be the answer to your prayers amigo? What if she turns out to be your equal? Could you stand the fact that you let that chance to save a soul, just slip away because of a few stupid theories?" Julio snapped back. Shatterstar glowered at the girl a second more before turning and walking out of the room in a verbal defeat.
"Fine! Stay with the her!" Shatterstar shouted. He couldn't help but feel hatred for the girl. She had taken his best friend away from him, and for that, she would need to bleed. No, he thought shaking his head lightly, it was not so. Rictor shown the same attention to all the new people, this new fascination would soon wear off and Julio would be himself again. "It will only take a few days after she wakes up."
Shatterstar turned the corner to the Danger Room, never once suspecting that he was being watched. The dull blue haze of Kipper's power hungry eyes flashed, and quickly died down. Her power was decreasing the longer she was without the life's blood of her creator, but with her creator she, Kipper, was completely under control of another. Powerless, the one thing she could never stand to be, is what she would become yet again. A low pitched growl from behind her caught her attention, glancing over her shoulder Kipper frowned as her eyes narrowed onto the small animal.
"You could not pick a worse time to cross my path Siatee.*" Kipper warned.
The animal's ears perked up at the mention of its name, but hissed after Kipper started to advance toward it. "I would never hurt you, again." Kipper smiled sweetly at her joke, she reached out towards the animal. The animal hissed and dived toward Kipper's now exposed stomach, scraping its long talon like claws along her mid section. Kipper let out a scream that ripped through the molecules of the near by waters. Jean Grey dropped the glass of water she had been drinking, Jimmy started to poke the boiling water, and Iceman started to scream as the lake screamed at him.
"'Risteee noooo."
"Silence! She will awake." Kipper snapped. Holding one hand over her wound, as the mixture of blood and water poured slowly out. She winced in pain as she hit her knees. "And she'll wake up sooner than you think. Now leave, I have one more person to visit before I lose all my power."
"Ungh--I should have seen that one!" With effortless ease Domino leaped out of the line of fire, turning in mid jump, she shot at the bothersome energy gun, small pieces of metal rained around her figure as she landed a little less than gracefully on the other side of the Danger Room. Wiping a few stubborn strands of her ebony hair out of her eyes she started to search the area of the room for the next programmed danger.
"What the fuc--?" Gushers of boiling water shot forth out of the ground, steaming up the view window and fogging up the air around her. Domino's mouth hung agape when her gun was snatched away from her. A strong warm breeze filled the room, clearing it of the thick bank of fog that dissolved instantly. Domino's eyes grew in shock as images flooded the room, the one that caused her heart to skip a beat was of a young ebony hair girl that played on the side of a large swimming pool.
Domino felt her heart cringe as the little one innocently danced along the edge of the concrete, her knee length flower dress wrapping around her tanned legs, the sun reflecting off the water in warm rays. Tears started to push there way out of her eyes as she continued to see the girl twirl around, holding her brown hair baby doll with one hand. She sung a nursery rhyme as she played, coming to the edge of the long side of the pool she stopped twirling and stumbled a little, losing her balance. Domino covered her mouth with a gloved hand as the little girl accidentally flung her doll into the middle of the pool.
"No." Domino whispered as the girl jumped into the crystal water, she swam a little way and then started to splash around. Domino's tears flowed down her face as the little girl attempted to free her legs from the material that wrapped around her legs. The little one screamed out, but all in vain, no one came to rescue her. No one came when she could not fight for life any longer, the sweet innocent child stayed in the water face down. Domino reached out to touch the image, her fingers traced the face of the girl sending gentle ripples through the mirage. As the ripples touched the top of the mirage, they came back in dark waves of red. Domino pulled her hand away as the girl's picture was covered with a thick red blood. Inspecting her fingers, her fear reached a fever pitch, as the blood rolled off the tips of her fingers in tear drops. Domino looked up to where the "screen" had been, instead she found a pair electric blue spheres, hidden beneath a dark red cloak, staring back at her.
"What is the matter, my dear LeAnn?" the voice whispered, her voice was soft and soothing like a tropical breeze. "I thought you would have been happy to see her again." Domino felt her heart race and skip violently as the creature reached out for her.
"Hmmm..." Christy moaned, her body felt stiff and ached with stillness, her eyes gently opened to the soft glow of the hall light that came in through the door. Her vision was fuzzy, and her thinking was distorted. She gingerly touched her forehead and tried to force up some memory of what had happened to her to get her into the strange room. "A boy." She whispered in a weak croak.
"Let go!" Domino screamed out, thrusting her fists threw her watery adversary. Kipper laughed in a mocking tone, causing Domino to try harder to break free from Kipper's hold. Her arms were swinging wildly into the water hide of Kipper and thin air. Kipper's dark smile melted away, as the tugging sensation started to pull at her. It was the end of the line for her free reign, her creator was conscience.
"NO!" Kipper shrilled out, throwing Domino against the steel wall. The water creature gripped its sides and double over in a screaming rage. Domino shook off the pain that filled her body, she climbed to her feet and rolled her shoulders. A sweet smile of satisfaction brightened her face as she strolled over to the screaming Kipper. Domino placed all her weight on her right foot and crossed her arms against her stomach, she arched her eyebrow to Kipper.
"What's the matter? You're master waking up? Awe, poor baby. " Domino smirked. Kipper's eyes grew to a blinding blue light. Domino shielded her eyes from the intensity of the light in her eyes. When the glow subsided nothing remained in the danger room except Domino. She located her stolen gun in the far corner, her breath caught in her throat when she saw a baby doll with brown hair sitting under it, a note was rolled up in its shirt. Plucking out the paper she read it over and the shame and depression set over her like an aura.
"Still asleep?" Rictor asked to the girl that lay in the bed. "You know I really hate talking to you like this. Maybe you could wake up?" Still she did nothing. "Fine chick have it your way." He sat down on the metallic chair by her bed, leaning his arms on the back and resting his head on his folded arms. Tilting his head away from hers, he sighed and closed his eyes.
A thought entered his mind unwanted, and unknowingly. Julio started to meditate on the idea, he lightly laughed to himself at what he'd have to say if he was caught. But what if he didn't, no one would know, except him and the Man Upstairs. Julio's instincts said no, but his mind refused to answer to them as he got up and leaned over the girl. He gently kissed her lips, like a butterfly landing on a flower for an instant.
He smiled as he lifted his lips from hers. At the second her eyes snapped open and her hand slapped him hard across his face. It made him stumble backwards in shock, his face blushed deep crimson as the girl looked at him from the bed with disgust in her bright brown eyes. His hand unconsciously rubbed his reddening check.
Wasn't that a neat ending? Thanks to Natalie Martinez for putting the idea in my little brain! Part 5: Try and find out the connections!