Uná’s head spun and her mouth felt like somebody had made her eat cotton. Like cotton balls used for dabbing cuts with; same balls that children used to glue to paper to make lambs or snow. “Oh I’m never drinking again.” She sighs and wiggles in the chair she was put in. There is no pounding pulse from music. As she looks around it is obvious that she is no longer in the club. Oh I’m in trouble.
Flashbacks of the club and a definite edge of reality after her make out session with Frost. NEVER drinking again!! NEVER!!! Her head spun and she saw the backs of two men dressed in dark identical outfits.
She blinked and quietly rolled out her chair. Pushing past a half wall that seemed to have fogged her powers from her she felt the beginnings of a massive headache. This is really going to hurt…
Uná had put the guards under rather quickly. Not having the option of leaving the room is something she wasn’t comfortable with and she made it known. She snuck down the stairs and again tried to cloak herself in illusions.
Nothing. So she’d have to do this the old fashioned way. Looking around she kept to the shadows. She wanted out the door but the light would give her movement away. She picked up a little pebble and tossed it behind the group, which included Frost and a couple of goons.
“I don’t give a shit what they’re doing, get them here now. ALL OF THEM! Those freaks are coming and we might as well be going up against them with pea shooters!” The veins in Lex’s neck protruded as he yelled at one of his subordinates, demanding more reinforcements. “And if you ever-”
CLANK
Lex stopped short to look toward the direction of the sound. His men instinctively drew their weapons and pointed toward the source of the noise, but there was nothing to be seen. It was Lex who first turned his head the opposite way, looking first to the windowed office above. He could see no one looming over the glass. He had multiple guards assigned to that room and not a single one could be seen from his vantage point. His eyes slowly rolled down to ground level.
“Red,” he called out in that general direction, concern in his voice. “Sweetheart, are you alright?”
Uná froze just as she was about to bolt for the door. Oh damn… do I run anyway? How long till the guards upstairs wake up? Uná blushed at the endearment. And since when am I a ‘sweetheart’? I did make out with the guy… No I like Nikola.
Uná searched the floor for another pebble and tossed it again a bit farther this time. This time she thought she could out run him.
CLANK
Again, the armed men in suits scurried to find the noise and train their weapons on it. Lex, however, was unmoving. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint her location, but he knew she was out here within earshot. He also knew what she was trying to do. He hesitated a moment, thinking upon his next words carefully.
“You want to leave,” he called out loudly, making sure he could be heard no matter where she was hiding. “You woke up in a strange place with scary men with guns and you’re frightened. I get it.” He looked to all of his men and started flapping his arms like a bird, a commanding gesture. “Everyone, put the guns down, now!” No one hesitated. Lex’s word was law in this place.
“Red, if you want to leave, you can go, I just don’t want you to go alone. I don’t know how much you remember, but there’s this thing out there that’s coming for you. Several of my men sacrificed their lives to make sure I could get you out of there safely. If you look at yourself, you’ll notice you don’t have a scratch on you. My men can’t say the same thing. You are safe here, with me. I only brought you to this place because it’s the most fortified one I could think of.” Lex audibly sighed, as if defeated. “You can come out. No one is going to hurt you. Not while I’m around.”
Uná squeezed her eyes shut during Frost’s speech but she knew he was right. She hated that people died for her. She vaguely remembered something terrifying had screamed her name. Mostly she remembered Aya and how she had helped her to get free of that prison in her own mind. Uná thought about how she was safe. Plus wasn’t he offering to keep her safe?
Uná stood up and swayed a little. She moved into the light which blinded her and she blocked the light with her hand. “Where am I Frost?”
Lex’s eyes fell to hers and a small smile grew upon his face as he slowly took steps toward her, being sure to put his hands in his pockets as he advanced, lest she think he was out to make a quick move. “You’re in a club called Nocturne, not too far from where we were,” he began to explain, taking each step very slowly. “My family owns it. It’s sort of a satellite base of operations for us.” He looked around the place as if seeing it for the first time, trying to empathize with her first impressions of her surroundings. “Honestly, it’s not the type of club I’d be caught dead in, usually, but business is business.” He smirked and took another slow step forward.
He found himself just within arms reach of her before he stopped. His face then fell serious, the smile disappearing, but his hands remained in his pockets. “Now I’ve got to explain some hard truths to you and I need you to be a little open minded as I do so. Can you trust me?” He pulled out one hand and extended it to her, waiting with anticipation.
Uná kept eye contact with him as he explained were she was. He was advancing on her and that made her nervous as evidenced by her stance, but it was slow as if approaching a skittish horse or a deer. Her heart picked up speed as he held out a hand asking her to trust him. Asking her to be open minded.
She licked her lips and bit her lip and sighed. She straightened and put her hand in his. Surely he couldn’t be all that bad. Wait… how did he know that was after me? Her eyes widen and her hand twitches as if she was about to snatch it back but she left it there in his. “Okay. I can try…”
Lex gripped her hand gently and gave a very light tug, encouraging her closer. “Let's go up to the office,” he suggested as he took the lead. “I’m sure you’ve got plenty of questions and I definitely have some of my own but, frankly, we don’t have a lot of time.” Lex got to the steps and released her hand, hoping she would still follow him as he ascended. “On the way here, my mind was infiltrated by a mutant,” he stated between steps, eventually making his way to the door of the office, opening it up and beholding the unconscious guards on the ground. He paused a moment to take in the sight before looking back toward Uná with a raised eyebrow and a sly grin. “Impressive.”
“Anyway,” he continued, holding the door open and ushering her inside. “This mind raping mutant went on and on about revolution, using ridiculous prose that all amounted to one thing. It was a call to arms. A request for violence with a single individual being the judge and jury for said actions.” He made his way behind his desk and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of scotch before taking a seat in his chair and gesturing for her to take a seat across the desk as well. “What do you call a person like that?”
Uná walked up the steps cautiously and silently. She flushes as he says that what she did was impressive and she moved around him into the office. As he sat down she did as well. She sat as if it were a throne claiming the seat as she tilted her head. “Surely you know Frost that I’d think the person was a lunatic and setting themselves up for failure. You can’t take on a more than 90% world of non-mutants and expect to win. Cohabitation would be better. Eventually everyone will be the same again.”
Uná played with her hair absently leaning her elbows on the desk. “What has that got to do with me?”
"I absolutely agree," Lex nodded as he poured the scotch into the glasses, sliding one to Una first before filling his own. "But how about the principle of the matter? I mean, the man's rounding mutants up with plans to point them like a gun, forcing his will on the world through fear and intimidation. A terrorist, wouldn't you agree?" He lifted his filled glass and raised it slightly. "Cheers, by the way."
Uná absently drank the scotch humming as it made a nice sweet burn all the way to her stomach. “More’s the shame to those that want to follow him. Blind as children. Again we agree. So...there is a point to this I’m sure.”
Uná took a healthy gulp of the liquid and leaned back in the chair as she pulled up her legs and draped them over the arm of the chair. Tilting her head back she swallowed and smiled at the ceiling then looked at Frost with hooded eyes still smiling. She cradled the scotch glass and ran a finger around the rim then dipped her finger in the scotch and sucked it clean.
"Precisely!" The word slithered out of Lex's mouth with a grin that took over the entire lower half of his face. "You continue to amaze me," he declared as he took a sip of his drink. "My job is not a fun one, but necessary nonetheless. I am a keeper of the peace, if you will. Men like that are dangerous. They infect their followers, convince them that their cause is righteous. This particular mutant seems to have telepathic abilities to aid in that endeavor. Others might have to impose their will through other means. Perhaps seclusion, reinforced brainwashing, creating ties and bonds between individuals to simulate a family, making it harder to escape and harder still to even want to. That's how cults work.”
Lex set his glass down and looked at Una for a moment, as if trying to read her body before he spoke next. “What can you tell me about Adam Ashford?”
Uná looked perplexed. “Adam? Ashford? The only Ashford I know is the dean of m-a private school. He might have a son I don’t recall.” She was a little discombobulated with the swift change in subject. She dipped her finger in and sucked it clean again. “What are you getting at Frost?”
“My assignment, in this particular case, was to try and bring down a terrorist using gifted teenagers such as yourself as a weapon. This Ashford. He takes in wayward young people, misfits of society and trains them to hone their extraordinary abilities to execute his will. He will try and convince you that it’s justice, but it’s simply a matter of who he feels is an affront to him and how willing he is to use his misguided pupils to attack them.” He paused for a moment, continuing to look Uná over, gauging any reactions she might be projecting.
“I don’t want harm to come to people like you. Wonderful people. I think my actions speak louder than my words. Here you are, narrowly escaping a situation that could have been disastrous and grim because I demanded your safety.” He brought his glass to his lips once more, taking an extended gulp, finishing his drink and setting it back. “My concern is that your… peers… will be resistant to seeing the truth of their situation. Yours as well. They’ve been fed an objective, incessantly told that it’s for the greater good and yet here you are, seemingly unaware that the puppetmaster exists. I know you’re a student of the Ashford Institute and I will never hold that against you.” Lex leaned forward on his desk, locking eyes with his counterpart. “Red, I want to save you. I want to help you and anyone you think isn’t too far gone in their false ideals. But I can’t do it without you.”
Uná downed the last of the scotch and tried to stand. Tried. She swung her legs down from the arm of the chair and attempted to stand after several tries she was able to get her legs under her but she was leaning over the desk and still swaying. Uná rubbed her face aghast that he could think that they were going to be attacking people. “I can understand that point of view from the outside but we are our own people. It’s not fair to lump me in with everyone who made a bad impression on you or whomever your getting your information from. They are wrong. We are learning to control our powers and be able to help others…”
Uná swayed and put her hand to her head. Wait. Was Frost right? “Why do you need me? I’m nobody. Just a… alumni. You can’t possibly think that…” Uná opened her eyes and shook her head. “What were we talking about? Ashford? And attacking people… no that monster...”
Lex looked a her with furrowed eyebrows. He wasn’t entirely sure what, but something was wrong. “You’ve been through a lot,” he began. “I need you for exactly the reason that you said before… I’m on the outside. You could help me save the most amount of people from within, help me correct Ashford’s corruption of young minds.” He studied her as she seemed out of sorts. “I suppose time will tell. I’ve not ever harbored intent to harm your friends. I’m curious if they will be able to say the same.” Lex stood up and moved around the desk to the other empty chair that was adjacent to Uná’s. “Are you alright? I won’t lie to you, Red, the monster is probably coming, but I swear to you that I will be in it’s way. As long as I breathe, you’re going to be fine. Do you believe me?”
Uná laughed and moved over to stand in front of Lex. “That monster is probably gone. Life like illusions are pretty fantastic and something I can do. So that monster is me. Funny that I believe you that I’ll be fine. Illusions are great. I can be up here talking to you or I could actually be downstairs dispatching your goons.” She leaned over and trailed a fingertip over his jaw. “I think I know your weakness Frost.” She whispered and smiled as if to say ‘ask me’.
Lex looked at her, cocking his head at a shallow angle. “I didn’t think I had one until tonight and I still don’t know her name.”
Uná smiled and tapped his lips. “Names are intimate. We also don’t know each other’s favorite color, movie, song or if we like dogs or cats. Lots of things we don’t know about each other. But I know one thing… you have a weakness and I know it…” Uná stepped back quickly. “Oh hell…”
Lex’s interest was piqued, but there was a layer of suspicion that he wore as he made his request. “Please. Enlighten me.”
Uná backed up a bit more. She smiled way to brightly. “About what?”
Lex’s eyes started to squint, confusion beginning to take over as he tried to process the situation he was in. “My we… Red, are you with me right now?” Something wasn’t right. Her behavior was shifting and her focus was barely existent. He stood up from his chair and took a step away from it, allowing for some room. “Are you alright?”
Uná was drunk that much she knew. But her focus was still able to pick up on the fact that he was actually being truthful. They didn’t know each other’s names and she was his weakness. He’d said as much. As soon as he realized what he’d said he wasn’t going to let her leave. At least that’s what she’d do. “Uná.” She said it automatically. “Oh yeah I’m fine…” She rubbed her temples and for a moment forgot that she was trying to get out the door and possibly make a run for it. After all if she was his weakness then if she kept herself a hostage without really being a hostage maybe he’d behave?
“I hope so,” he said as he walked over to her, reaching back behind himself. A moment later, he hand came back around again holding a chrome plated gun. With his hand around it’s nozzle, he handed it toward Uná, offering it up. “Uná… I’m - No, I’m sorry, you’re always going to be my Red. Take this.” he said, extending it further. “It’s going to take a lot to bring me down, but if it happens, you need to have something to protect yourself.” He reached forward and pulled out her hand, placing the weapon within it. Not wasting a moment, he moved like liquid behind her, his hand clasped around hers, causing her to grip the handle. With his index finger, he moved hers into the correct position over the trigger, aiming the weapon toward the glass windows of the office.
“You always hear the term ‘Pull the trigger’, but the trick is to actually squeeze,” he said softly, his lips within an inch of her ear as he helped her aim. “Line the sight, squeeze twice.” He squeezed her hand within his, but the gun didn’t fire. He slowly stepped away, leaving the weapon in her possession while he pulled out its twin. As his finger toggled the safety, he made sure she saw the maneuver before reseating the gun into the back of his pants.
Lex glanced at the clock up on the wall before letting his eyes fall to Uná once more. “You’re with me, aren’t you?”
Uná looked at the gun in her hand like it was a snake and going to bite her. “I… I can’t take this. It’s probably registered to you. If I used it, it would be traced back to you. Besides I don’t want to have a chance to use it, or think about using it. I won’t need it.”
Her stubbornness was showing as she put the gun gently down on the desk. She looked at Lex her expression mulish and the spark of temper like blue fire rising in her eyes.
Lex studied her once more before he forced his face to soften. He took the gun from the desk and placed it where he retrieved it from. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, but I am concerned for your safety. It’s about to get… exciting.” They weren’t that far away from the Avalon. It was only a matter of time before Nocturne’s doors bursted open. He looked to her one more time. She had the chance to shoot him and she didn’t. She had the chance to escape and she wouldn’t. Lex had his trust issues, but he laid out every opportunity for her to cross him and there they stood. “Are you ready?”
Uná shook her head at Lex. “I’m telling you there is no reason to worry. Don’t trust me, Frost? So it would be here by now. How about them apples? What you gonna do? You can just call me a cab. I’ll be fine.” She smiled up at him.
Lex’s face was a mix of admiration and disappointment. He began to run the possible scenarios through his head, weighing the pros and cons of his potential decisions. If he sent her away the mutants, the creature, all of it goes trailing after her, leaving him with just the local authorities to deal with for the incident at the club. Authorities that were already in the family pocket. But, at the same time, he loses any edge he had in completing his task, allowing her to go back to a fortified institution surrounded by powerful mutants. She was here now. Why set himself up for failure?
“I’d never make you take a cab,” he said finally. “I’ve got cars and I’ve got drivers. If you’d like to go, they can take you wherever you wish.”
Uná looked at Lex, really looked at him. She suddenly looked sober. Very sober. “You’d be stupid to let me go. If you did I could be used against you. Let’s not play this game anymore. I don’t think you’re stupid, quite the contrary. So what is the real deal?”
“The ‘real deal’ is that we’re running out of time. In mere moments you’ll find yourself faced with a predicament. Slay the savior or push back the lemmings.” His eyes shifted to the clock again. It was late, or early, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Sunrise would be here in the time it took to watch a movie. With it brought vulnerability, at least for Lex. He leered back at Uná, struggling to keep his metaphorical mask on straight, the stresses of the situation causing his adrenaline to kick in. “Are you prepared to kill me or…” his voice trailed as he looked at her, his eyes glistening. “...or are you ready for us both to cut our strings, to denounce our fate as puppets?” He let the silence permeate for a moment before saying, “Red, I could give you the world.”
Uná was stunned by that comment. “You don't know me well enough to say that. You're going all Kylo Ren on me. I don't know if black is white or up is down when you talk.” She ran a hand through her hair tugging the tangles through with a vengeance. “My love life is just starting to… never mind. Look… this isn't normal for me. I don't know what to say, other than you don't know me and I don't know you. Isn't this a bit too soon?”
Uná looked at Lex trying to get across that this wasn't a rejection but a situation that she wasn't familiar with.
Lex’s fist began to clench, but he was careful to hide the reaction behind himself. “It is,” he agreed aloud. “And it’s unfair of me to put this sort of thing on you, given what you’ve been through tonight. You deserve to rest and for things to be easy and for happiness to flow in excess.” He paused for a moment. “What I warn you of is an impending choice. Soon, you’ll have to drink the kool-aid or decide that your choices are your own to make. That you’re not afraid to step into unknown territory. That your willing to trust in fate, a cosmic force that saw fit to bring us together.” Lex sighed for a moment, theatrically. “You don’t have to decide right this second, but the decision is coming, whether you make it yourself or your misguided peers make it for you. I just want you to be prepared.”
Uná raised an eyebrow sardonically. “Kool-aid? Really you make it sound like a cult. Which it isn’t, by the way. But you couldn’t know that unless you attended the school. Ever think that enrolling would be the best way to see if Ashford really is as fanaticall as you think? What is it you do anyway? And why me? I’m not close to any of the staff. More often than not I’m being yelled at to quit horsing around from across campus. Repeatedly yelled at. I don’t think that qualifies since some of the stunts are pretty extreme and it’s all about safety. And I’m rambling…”
Uná tilted her head at Lex. “All this cause of a dance?” She looked truly lost. She looked like she had no idea why he thought she was special. He’d put her on the spot, made her feel like defending herself and those she trusted. Should she though? She shook her head and her eyes blazed blue fire. “Why?! Why me?”
Uná advanced on him clearly pissed about how she felt he could possibly be right and there was someone right there on hand to take the brunt of her temper. Call it the drink talking but she was pissed at his high handed assumption that he could make it all right in her world. “You need to explain yourself cause you’re looking at one pissed redhead and me getting the silent treatment will turn around and bite you. You could have any female you laid your eyes on and you chose me. Well it’s starting to sound like you knew who I was and where I was from before you started talking to me? Are you just feeding me lines that you think some young naive girl wants to hear so you can drop me on my ass later when you get bored?” She poked him in the chest. “Just because I kissed you doesn’t mean you own me. Besides maybe I was practicing.”
He’d hurt her pride with his questioning. She didn’t like to be compared to a sheep or being blind. She considered herself pretty knowledgeable and a good judge of character.
“First of all,” he said out loud. I don’t need to explain shit to anyone. I’m not joining some bullshit kumbaya school of misfits, and you cannot even imagine the depths of mY aNgEr!. Lex forced himself to pause for a moment while the thoughts played out in his mind before forcing his composure to resurface. “First of all, I told you what I do. I make sure things run smoothly. Keep the peace. And why you? You were gorgeous, seemed like you were alone. Then you were in danger. I fixed that. I made sure you got out of there smoothly and here you are at peace, unscathed.”
Lex glanced out the office windows at the floor below, ever monitoring the situation for the inevitable arrival or someone or something. “Maybe you were just practicing.” He said, repeating her words without looking back at her. “Then I suppose it should be me that’s offended. You used me.”
Uná lept at him pissed as a little hellcat. Her temper blew through her and made her see red. She hated being placated and pair that with an insult and she had more than enough. She kicked and punched in a flurry not caring where she landed blows or if she did.
Lex stood there, taking on the onslaught of barrages for a moment. His patience was wearing thin and his skin was getting hot. He was getting frustrated trying to do this the diplomatic way. As her fists pounded down ineffectively on his chest, he began to tremble just for a moment as he considered dismissing any attempts to remain composed. As he clenched his teeth, his pale eyes met hers and suddenly the man was gone. All that remained was the beast.
WIth one hand, he seized Uná’s throat and brought her in close, leaning down a bit so that he met here eye level. In a graveled whisper, he said “Stop.”
Uná was too far gone to really control herself at this point. There was a dim realization that she had a hand on her neck and that she wasn’t getting as much air as she should be but her temper was calling the shots. That temper was if anything self destructive.
Locking eyes with Lex Uná reached out and slapped him across the face. Hard. If she couldn’t get a punch or a kick to make her point clear then a slap would have to do. Stop was a foreign concept. She wasn’t done yet. Something in her snapped. This time it got real.
Lex opened his mouth to say something, his eyes wild, but just as he did, there was a commotion outside that caught his attention.
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