A surge of energy traveled up and through their connected hands on contact. The form of Jean vanished into smoke, and Anna was thrown tumbling forward into an abyss. All structures and features around her faded as she turned end over end over and over again.
Next, she opened her eyes, the sun was shining high overhead, and it rained down a comfortable heat upon her. A gentle breeze swayed the trees, and the birds sang a summer song in chorus. Blades of grass extended through the spaces of her stubby fingers and curled over to tickle the back of her hand.
Her knee hurt, but she didn't want to go inside. Nan would be upset that she was playing so hard and probably wouldn't let her back outside. Sides, it didn't hurt too bad.
She rolled over to her rear and examined the brown and purple skin covering her knee. It was only a little worse than her elbow. She popped back to her feet with a little jump and looked back up at the tall oak tree. She got halfway to the top this time, maybe more!
Searching the secret compartment of her plastic riding car, she found the Swiss Army knife and unfolded the tiny folding knife. She jumped as high as she could and nicked the tree with the blade.
"Almost to the top!" She said, panting.
"What are you doing?" Anna's split mind was divided between feelings of the familiar voice. One of surprise, the other was stone-cold fear.
"N-Nothing."
"I said," a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and twisted her around. She looked eye to eye with a several years younger and full-haired Charles Xavier. "What are you doing?" He snapped the Swiss Army knife out of her hand. "Who said you could play with knives?"
"Give me my knife back!" She tried to reach but was shoved backward, nearly tumbling back to the ground.
"You're not allowed to play with knives, Cain. You're going to hurt yourself."
"Says who? I can handle a knife! Dad gave me that knife for Christmas!"
"This knife was supposed to be mine, but he gave it to you to spite me."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he doesn't like me, so he gave you what was mine to hurt me."
"No, he didn't!" She lunged at Charles, and he easily dodged her. She tumbled forward, landing back on her bad knee. This time, it was really starting to hurt. "S-Stop being mean!"
"I'm not being mean, I'm trying to protect you. Don't you get that?" Xavier folded the Swiss Army knife shut and examined the intricate detail in the handle.
"No!" She rolled over and felt her eyes and neck grow hot. "You're being mean! Give me my knife back. It's MINE!"
"Throwing a tantrum won't help -" The young Charles was cut off as he was tackled to the ground by her. She pinned him, hand to hand, leg to leg. "Get off me, you fat idiot!"
"You're being mean! You're always being mean!"
Xavier struggled under her but could hardly budge her. "Get off me you fucking mistake!" He spat in her face, and she reached for her eyes out of reflex. The smaller boy took the opportunity to throw him off. "Enough!" Xavier stood and dusted the grass off his kacky pants and caught his breath. "What do you think is going to happen when Dad and Mom die, huh?"
Anna furiously swiped away at her face with both hands to get the sticky spit off. "I don't know!" She said through tears.
"You're going to be my problem, Cain. I'm going to have to take care of you because you can't take care of yourself. So you better learn to respect me and my rules quick, or you'll be living in a home the rest of your life. Understand?"
"I - I" Anna struggled, but the sticky spit only sank deeper into her eyes and creases of her skin. She felt so dirty and icky.
Xavier squatted near her, "Are you even listening to me or are you just going to cry like a baby?" After a brief pause, he snapped back to a stand, "Forget it." He began to walk off back towards the mansion.
"Where are you going?" Anna shrieked loud enough that she could feel her throat tear from within.
"Anywhere that's away from you." Xavier produced a pair of keys and approached a slick-looking red sports car. He fired up the engine, rolled down the driveway, and shot down the street.
Anna crawled on hand and knee back into her toy riding car and lay on its interior bench. She popped open her secret hatch. The inside was empty aside from a paperclip necklace made of gold paperclips she'd found in her dad's office and a few sticks of warped gum. "It's my knife…"
The colors around her faded, and the shapes twisted. Everything fell into dust, and once Anna opened her eyes again, she stood over the open coffin of her father. The dark, drab colors of the funeral parlor mixed perfectly with his sallow skin and crisp black tux. His jawline was severe, and his face was just as stoic in death as it was in life.
She ran her fingers over his forehead and the recesses of his hollow cheeks. She did until her Nan gently took her hand and held it in her own. Her grip was firm and warm.
"Are you okay, Cain?" She asked so softly that the church mice would have a hard time hearing her.
Anna nodded. She understood what had happened and that her father was gone. What she had a hard time telling everyone else was that it didn't feel like he really was. Like any second, those eyes were going to pop open and look right back at her.
"Are you scared, Cain?"
She looked back at her Nan. The old woman seemed to be unaffected by time in her mind's eye. The same wrinkles were in the same spots and of the same amount. The snow white hair on her head was thick, and the twinkle in her eye never lost luster. "Aren't you?" Anna replied.
"What are you still doing here, Cain?" Down the stairs came Xavier. His suit jacket was open, and the tie around his neck loose. "Why are you here, Cain? The old man isn't getting MORE dead."
"Charles." Said the older woman crisply, but Xavier's eyes hardly acknowledged her presence.
Even from where Anna stood, she could smell the booze on his breath. "I don't want to leave him."
"Why? He left all of us a long time ago!"
"Charles!" Nan straightened, and her bright blue eyes stared into the young man's. "Go back upstairs. Now."
"Fine!" Xavier clutched the guard rails to the stairs and spun on the spot. "I just thought baby brother might want to join the festivities, is all."
Anna felt a hand circle her back. "It's alright, Cain… Everything is going to be okay."
Anna's legs gave out, and she couldn't stop herself from falling to the floor. When she fell, though, instead of falling on the hardwood of the funeral parlor floor, she was on a hospital bed. In a hospital gown, she was connected to a series of blinking machines and monitors like one of the tvs at home. The room was so bright and cold, and all she wanted in the world was a blanket.
"I'm afraid it's degenerative," said a doctor with thick glasses on the other end of the room.
Opposite him was an Xavier Anna had an easier time recognizing. Tall and thin, the man stood at a remarkable height. His hands were tucked into his tan trouser pockets, and his matching tan suit jacket was unbuttoned. A solid black tie played a perfect backdrop to a silver X pin. "I…see."
"These sorts of illnesses are common among individuals who struggle with his condition. I'm frankly surprised he's gone this long without any major issues."
Xavier lowered his head and bit his lower lip. "Then what are the next steps, doctor?"
"Next steps?"
"Yes," Xavier looked over at Anna, and caught her eye momentarily before returning to the doctor. "Where do we go from here? Please let me assure you, money is no object here."
"I'm not sure if you understand me, Mr. Xavier. This is terminal. There are no next steps."
"What?"
"I know this is difficult to hear -"
"In this day and age, in the most advanced medical facility in the nation, you can't figure out what to do for him?"
"Mr. Xavier, please calm down."
"I will not calm down until you tell me what you're going to do to fix him!"
The floor fell out from beneath Anna, and she floated there in space a while. Flashes streaked by her vision like shooting stars, and the tips of her fingers and toes grew cold. A white sheet stretched over the legs and stomach of her prone form, and she felt her weight supported by a thin mattress.
"I expect regular updates," Declared Xavier just as he was presented with a clipboard in a room partitioned off from her via thin glass. His face looked older somehow than the last time she saw him. The bags under his eyes were a little heavier, and the creases dug a little deeper. "Including how he's feeling and any change in appetite, mood -"
"We'll send you a daily video, if you'd like, Mr. Xavier." Said a man in a black suit and short-cut hair. The man sat at a cheap-looking desk with little in the way of dressing to decorate the room. "Nothing but the white glove treatment with an Xavier."
Hands stretched over Anna and secured long bands over her body and legs. The running engine of the truck she was near made it difficult to hear, and the echoing sounds of footsteps and cars off the hollow warehouse walls didn't help much either.
Xavier signed the documents on the clipboard after taking long enough to read through them, and the man started loudly and rhythmically tapping his fingers on the desk. "Very well," Xavier said, following a long sigh. The man snapped the paperwork out of his hand and made a motion through the window. Anna felt her gurney move as strong hands loaded her into the back of a truck.
The last thing she saw was the man clapping Xavier on the shoulder and smiling. "Kid gloves, Charlie. Don't worry."
What followed were flashes of light. She could hear barking dogs and the occasional talking of people over her. When she opened her eyes, she saw the passing of long fluorescent lights overhead as her gurney was rushed down a hallway. The longer she watched the lights pass overhead, she could see the walls change in her peripheral vision from a mix of yellow tile and white wall to gray cement and iron doors. She could feel leather fastened around her arms, followed by the hot bite of needles.
Soon she found herself in a cell with a bead of light leaking through a sliver of a window behind her. The light passed like a flash in front of her over and over again, with only a glimmer of white moonlight to break its regular intervals. Eventually, she found the strength to stand and look in the mirror hung above a dripping sink. The man looking back at her was hardly one she recognized.
He had a beard, and his eyes were red and sunken in. Anna touched her face, and thick fingers mimicked her movements as she navigated her swollen nose and chapped lips. A flash of heat traveled across her abdomen. "No!" She shouted. "No, no, no!" With a wadded fist, she punched through the mirror, and it, along with the world around her, shattered into a million pieces that all reflected her grotesque image back at her. "Stop it!" She cried, swatting at the scattered pieces, "Stop!"
"Cain!" Anna looked in the direction of the voice and found Xavier standing out as the sole color in a void of darkness. "My god…"
"You!" Anna's body shuddered, "Charles!" She leaped after him and tackled him to the ground. There she pinned his face and twisted his body till she heard a crack.
"Cain… please… this isn't you!"
She leaned in close to his ear. "You're right, brother. This isn't me. This is what YOU made me!"
"Anna," The sound of her name was like cold water to her spine. Anna, the true Anna, sat up after finding herself prone on the ground. "Anna," the voice called again.
"Jean?" She looked around but couldn't find her. Instead, she found a tall beet-red centipede looming over her. Abnorbaliny long pincers clicked just below a pair of glinting beady black eyes. Rows and rows of wiggling scaly legs waved in the air and threatened to envelop her as they got closer. It was then she realized they weren't getting closer to her; she was getting closer to them.
She stopped mid-step and forced herself to look into the face of the creature. "Cain?" The monster cittered and its mandibles drooled a green, thin slime in response. She could pick up on a wet sort of stale smell that she often found on things that had been left outside and not moved in a while.
"Those people did this to you, didn't they?" The creature lowered and got to eye level with her. "Why are you here? Why are you in my mind?" The insect answered by only matching her head movements. "I'm sorry for what happened, but that's not an excuse to do what you did, Cain."
At this, the monster steamed and clacked its pincer mouth. "You don't believe that." It hissed through something beyond its body. It almost sounded like the voice was coming from behind her, but when she looked, nothing was there.
"You don't know what I believe and don't!"
"Yes, I do. I know everything about you, Anna. I know you hate Charles just as much as me."
"And how would you know that?"
"Because, Anna, I'm in your head…" It's long scally body snapped to attention from behind it and lunged with the speed of a snake to coil around her. She could feel a wet heat sink through her clothes and the many chittering little legs pressing against her flesh.
"God!" She breathed as the creature's grip continued to tighten, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
"There is no point, Anna. No reason to continue your struggle. I am stronger, smarter, and more experienced. If you just let go, I can take all the weight of existence off your shoulders. You just need to let go, little girl."
"No… I…" Anna pushed against the coil of muscle but felt the fight leave her arms and felt the color in her vision fade until a pair of blue hands appeared next to hers. "Wha-" Outside the centipede, Kurt was grabbing hold and pulling with all his strength.
"Kurt?" Now with room to breathe, Anna pushed again. "You can… go to hell… you big bug piece of - Waoh!" She fell forward suddenly and rolled on a patch of earth previously unseen. When she looked back, she saw that the centipede had shrunk down to a quarter of its size and was struggling on its back.
Kurt wordlessly picked up the dog-sized bug, placed it back upright, and stood next to it, looking back at Anna.
"You okay?" Her brother didn't respond, but instead looked back at her, smiling.
As for the bug, it wriggled and writhed but ultimately didn't move as if it were pinned in place by some unseen force. When Anna looked around, she saw the world had turned from a featureless void to the lawn and the tree she saw in her first vision as Cain. The field was just as green as she could remember, and the wind carried a scent of freshly mowed grass.
She walked past the pair before her, knelt, and ran her bare hand over the bark of the tree. She felt the rough bark and thumbed a slash placed there by the Swiss Army knife.
"I don't know exactly what's going on here, but I think you and I are going to be stuck together for a while, Cain." She stood and loomed over the writhing little bug. "But let's get one thing straight, I'm in charge and I call the shots. I use your powers and abilities, and it ain't the other way around." She looked back at the tree. "But while you're here, I don't want you to live in your past."
Anna waved her hand, and the toy car and ball appeared just as they were in her visions. When she looked back at the bug, it was no longer a bug but instead a little boy in blue overalls and a yellow and red striped shirt staring up at her. She rested her hands on her hips and blew the bangs out of her face. "Well? Go on, before I change my mind!"
The little boy showed her the briefest of smiles before sprinting past her and jumping into the toy car.
In a breath, Anna opened her eyes and found herself in a room with white walls. "Goddamn it… not again."
"Anna?" A hand squeezed her wrist, and when she looked, she saw it was Kurt sitting on her right. "Anna!" He stood and wrapped his arms around her. "Oh my god, you had us so scared after you fell and - and you didn't respond - and -"
"K-Kurt!" She tapped his shoulder. "Easy!"
"Right, sorry!" He released his grip on her.
"Welcome back to the realm of the living, Ann." Said Evan while raising his soda to her.
"She's awake?!" She heard from a room over, followed by a crash of something glass and expensive-sounding. A moment later, Scott appears in the doorway armed with a charcuterie board. "Damn it, Anna, you couldn't have waited another five minutes to wake up from your coma?" Scott unfolds a little stand next to her bed and rests the impressive spread next to her. "I got the crackers, cheeses, and most of the meats ready, but Logan's still working on the steak tips!"
"Sorry, I'll try to keep you're schedule in mind next time I'm in a critical condition at the hospital, Scott."
"Good!" Scott gives her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "Glad you're alright, Anna."
She holds his hand on her shoulder, enjoying the waterfall of love from her friends just a moment longer, when her attention is pulled toward Jean in the corner of the room. Sat in an uncomfortable-looking chair with one of her legs crossed over the other, her gaze fixed somewhere in the middle distance near her toes. Seemingly returning to reality under the call of Anna's stare, Jean looked back at her and flashed her a tightly knit smile.
"Welcome back, Anna," She said softly.