After Charles, Erik and Moira finally returned with Emma Frost, the right-hand lady of Shaw, the man they were aiming to capture, we went on our way straight back to America. I slept the whole there. When we finally arrived, we were sent straight back to our living area and were not allowed out until we had the okay from Charles. I was stood behind the bar once again, gaining back the weight I had lost in those eleven weeks when I had eaten only bread and water three times a day, whilst the rest of the group were lounging around, besides Alex and Darwin, who were playing pinball in the back corner.

"Oh I didn't know the circus was in town," said a voice outside the now repaired window, catching my attention. "Hey, c'mon honey, give us a little uh," one of the two men outside looked at Angel, flapping his arms as if he had wings, making a whistle noise for sound effects. Angel looked at him angrily. "C'mon let's see the foot. C'mon big foot, let's go." he then says to Hank. I rolled my eyes and brushed the crumbs off of my hands, making my way toward the window and closing the curtains, after flipping the middle finger at him.

"Hey, c'mon, hey," he argued, a guilty look on his face. I mumbled a few profundities under my breath before turning to Angel and Hank.

"They're just guys being stupid," I say, trying to make them feel better. Angel looks at me.

"Guys being stupid I can handle, okay, I've handled that my whole life," she says sadly, "but I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these guys stare at me." I nod at her sympathetically, not knowing what else to do, and sit beside her and Raven.

"At us," Raven says, surprising me. I look at her and nod once more.

"At us," I confirm. Angel looks away and we hear a noise from outside that catches our attention. It was a banging noise, almost as if something was coming in contact with something, and it went on like that a couple more times.

"What was that?" Darwin asks, "I don't know, something doesn't feel right." We all stand up and he and Alex step away from the pinball machine, walking towards us. Darwin flips the switch that opens the curtains, and we look around outside, not finding anything out of the ordinary. We keep looking around for a moment until something high up into the air catches our eye.

"What is that?" I mumble quietly under my breath, sure that nobody heard. The silhouette in the sky suddenly splits into two, and one of the two starts falling, fast and screaming loudly. It lands in front of us and I realise what it is. A body. I unintentionally scream loudly and raise my hands to my mouth, walking backwards and hitting someone hard in the chest. I turn around and see that it was Alex, and I start mumbling incoherent words to him. He pulls me backwards as everyone starts backing away from the window, more and more bodies falling fast from the sky.

A man walks out with a gun into the courtyard, followed by more people banging on our window telling us to get back and not to leave the room. We follow his orders without question, and a red man appears in the middle of the yard. We start pointing at the strange man, signalling to the guards that he was there. They start shooting at him as he disappears, and we crouch behind the lounges in order to hide.

The red mutant starts killing off the guards one by one, even grabbing one's gun and shooting everyone with it, hitting the glass window and shattering it once more. Behind us in the opposite glass window, a large tornado looking things whirls around, tearing cerebro, the device used to find mutants, to pieces. I see Darwin look at the door from beside me.

"Stay here my ass. Let's go!" He shouts, directing us towards the door. I hesitantly follow him. He starts running through the corridor and we bump into a group of guards with guns, telling us to get back into the room. We shout at them in protest, telling them we could help but they attempted to push us back anyway. We hear a loud explosion and the hallway around the corner burst into flames, and we run straight back into the room without looking back.

Looking around at the chaos surrounding us, a tear escapes my eye in fear and I wipe it away before anyone sees. Cerebro was no longer standing outside, and the courtyard where the statue once stood was filled with men both dead and alive, and the red mutant killing the live ones. A final gunshot went off and the world was filled with silence, apart from Raven's sobs, and the shattering of glass that had a man slammed into it. The red mutant who kept appearing and disappearing had killed the final live man in the courtyard and he stepped into the room through the empty window, along with another mutant with brown shoulder length hair. Outside the door, more gunshots went off and we screamed once more before hearing the voice of a what seemed to be a middle-aged man.

"Wait, you want the mutants? They're right through that door, just let us normal people go, we're no threa-" he was silenced by another gunshot, and the door burst open.

A tall man entered the room, wearing a red and black tuxedo, and a funny looking helmet.

"Where's the telepath?" He asks his two followers, to which they replied with 'not here'.

"Too bad. Well, at least I can take this silly thing off," he points to his helmet and does so. "Good evening," he says, "My name's Sebastian Shaw. And I am not here to hurt you." He walks forward towards us and a man appears outside the window.

"Freeze!" He yells, and Shaw orders the red man, his name being Azazel, to kill him. I shriek and Raven grabs onto my hand, I squeeze back.

"My friends," he hands one of his men his helmet before starting, "there is a revolution coming. When mankind discovers what we are, what we can do, each of us will face a choice; be enslaved, or rise up to rule. Choose freely, but know that if you are not with us, then by definition you are against us. So, you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me and live like kings, and queens."

I stand still, almost shaking. I wasn't even considering joining his side; my whole family and everyone I know is human. If I were to join him, I would be betraying the only people who had ever cared for me and supported me, tail or no tail. I open my mouth, ready to tell him that no one in their right mind would join in, when I feel Angel move from beside me, placing her small and perfectly manicured hand in his.

"Angel," I gasp, being the first in the group to speak. "How-" my brain couldn't find the right thing to say to her. We trusted her and the first chance she gets, she betrays us.

"Are you kidding me?" Sean asks, also bewildered.

"Come on. We don't belong here," her voice quivers like there is a lump in it. I stand still with my feet planted in the ground. "And that's nothing to be ashamed of," she adds, and Darwin holds his hand out for her to grab. Angel looks at it before turning away, walking hand in hand with Shaw.

"We have to do something," Raven says, almost reading my mind. I nod my head in agreement and Darwin turns his head to look at us as Angel walks away. He has a crazy glint in his eye when Alex shoves him hard, twice, and I look at him in shock.

"Stop," Darwin says, following Sebastian Shaw and Angel outside the window, "I'm coming with you."

Angel and Shaw smirk and Shaw then walks forward. "Good choice," he says, "So tell me about your mutation."

"Well I adapt to survive," Darwin says, as we all walk towards the door, almost in a line. "So I guess I'm coming with you."

"I like that," Shaw nods, signalling for Darwin to stand beside Angel. Everything goes quiet for a moment and I look at Darwin with pleading eyes, not sure of what he was about to do. I see his mouth open and it takes me a moment before I realise what he said.

"Alex!" He yells, Alex then yells for us to get out. I take a few steps before Sean pushes me out completely. "Do it!" He grabs Angel and his back changes into the same rock form as it was when the boys were beating him with furniture, shielding her from whatever was about to come. I don't see what happens next because Sean keeps pushing me to run faster. I start to pick up my pace and we all reach the end of the long hallway that had more turns than I had remembered. There stood a door, which happened to be unlocked. The four of us enter the room, which seemed to be somebodies office, and lock ourselves in.

"Well shit," Sean says, leaning against the door. I mutter a curse word before sitting down on a three seater lounge beside him. Raven sits beside me and Hank stays standing. I look around and Raven grabs my hand once more.

"How could Angel just pick his side so quickly?" Raven asks no one in particular, to which I shrug my shoulders sadly. Angel had been so kind to us all, yet now she is on the opposing side. How did that happen? I wonder whether or not she had been saved by Darwin and Alex, when I hear something slam into the door, making me jump. I sounded like something had tried to open it quickly, but couldn't. This was confirmed when I hear two knocks and Alex speaking from behind the door.

"Open up, it's me," his voice is sad and defeated, and I already know what has happened. Sean rushes to open the door, and Alex steps in, closing it behind him. He brushes his hand through his hair and exhales, as if he had just run a marathon, before pacing slowly around the room.

"Darwin?" I ask hopefully and very quietly.

"Dead."

"Angel?"

"Gone."

•••