Sure enough, there were plenty of guards down there. And a red beam of light was faster than someone's ability to raise a gun.

Storm's wind tunnel sent them flying without and issue, and the unarmed guards went splat against a wall in the elevator they were suspended in, leaving the X-Men to witness door after door in what looked to be a research level. It was pitch black, only illuminated by the Cyclops' beam and the occasional flashlight that Ryder telekinetically knicked off the guards. This floor had been evacuated, it was a mid-level kind of security environment where the most intensive research was the kind of reactions a mutant's immune system had to a certain drug or chemical compound. This was where they took the dangerous ones, the ones that could kill people. They were getting into the thick of things, now

They'd gone ahead. Whatever. 

And then Xavier had to get involved right as she started walking forward. [i]That[/i] was annoying.

[color=00ffff][b][i]I'll be whatever the fuck I want. Whenever I want to be it. Get out of the fucking way, you're distracting m-[/i][/b][/color]

A door slid open behind Ryder.

A guard stepped out and leveled a gun at her. She aimed her laser rifle at him. She missed, he didn't.

The bullet ripped clean through flesh and embedded itself into the wall, not reaching bone or an artery. It was shallow, and it didn't bleed much. Not a terrible wound, but a reminder she was still mortal. The guard fired another shot from his pistol, and then two more. The three bullets after the first stopped mid-air, and she burned a hole through his ribs with [i]her[/i] gun. He didn't get up.

Ryder growled at the pain of having a chunk of her should split open. Her telekinetic powers forced the wound shut for a moment, and then her gun floated up to point at it. She mentally willed the rifle to lose most of its intensity, right before burning it shut.

They could've just bandaged it, but Ryder was being Ryder about this whole thing.

[color=00ffff]"The bottom floor is that way, there are other ways in and out that guards can't access."[/color] Routes on the top executives and Andrew Becker could access.

[color=00ffff]"Becker's probably in there."[/color] She kept walking.

[hr]

It was unraveling.

The chamber was like a dream, right before someone woke up. Streaks of neon green that lit the room trembled and flickered, blurring between real and fake. He'd gotten so comfortable expressing his presence like this that Becker almost forgot just how fragile he really was. As if the galaxy outside Earth had been smeared. 

[color=silver][i]"Stop."[/i][/color]

It didn't make him stop. The only space in this room that wasn't trembling was the silhouette of a man standing in the middle. Just a vantablack absence where a person should have been. He was furious, and the fact that the vessel was this close by meant he could've taken her at any moment. He knew that much, but his brother wasn't so sure. Too much time had been invested for them to jump the gun [i]now.[/i]

[color=silver]"If you want this, you'll have to listen to me,"[/color] Andrew said. He could've been pulped at any second, his brother wasn't that weak. [color=silver]"We have her, even if she's injured, you can still make the transference. There's-"[/color]

There were twenty feet between Andrew Becker and the negative space he called family a moment ago. Now there were two.

[color=silver]"I'm trying. I'm trying to [i]help you,[/i] you know that..."[/color] He was so tired of trying. Umbra was so tired of waiting, of course, but it wasn't the same. Andrew could have just shut the door and left him any time.

Why he didn't, he couldn't remember.

[color=silver]"I know what you're thinking, you know that? You... You won't slip me if you do what I think you're going to do. It won't [i]work.[/i] You're just strong enough to take once, and then what?"[/color]

It was like screaming into a void.

[color=silver]"It might be years before you get your strength back, and by then? She'd likely be dead. Listen to me, Ja-"[/color]

An invisible force sent Andrew into a wall that was not there five minutes ago.

The room screamed, bent itself into words that mimicked the idea of human speech. Every pseudo molecule vibrated all at once.

[i]I TOLD YOU. DO NOT CALL ME THAT.[/i]

Andrew's body felt like it was going to flash freeze, his thoughts made him feel sick. His limbs weren't real, but they were still stuck to him. He was a passenger in his own shell, a figment of the life his brother had to reckon with every day. The specter of nothingness was standing over him. It never moved through space, but it was simply [i]there[/i] in whatever position it wanted to be. Andrew rolled over onto his side and stared up at where its eyes would have been.

[color=silver]"Fine. Listen to me, [i]Umbra.[/i] Listen,"[/color] Andrew pleaded.

[i]NO.[/i]

[color=silver]"You... Won't. You won't be strong enough."[/color]

[i]YOU WILL.[/i]

Andrew's blood ran cold, and he was already numb.

[color=silver]"Don't do it... You-"[/color]

The hazy realm around them cascaded to the ground, like stars falling from the heavens. Everything he'd constructed in here, every little figment that gave him the permissions necessary to even exist within this space as his brother did [i]shattered.[/i]

And then, to Andrew Becker, there was nothing.

There was only [i]nothing.[/i]

He stepped out, into the real world for the first time in years.

[i]YOU ARE MINE. YOU WILL SEE.[/i]