TAKING ACTION

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come up with words to say to Charles, could not think of anything that she could possibly say to compensate for the situation. There were a million things that she wanted to apologize for, but she just could not bring herself to face him.

So instead, she sits across the room, dabbing a wet cloth against Kurt's chest in hope of his awakening.

Everyone heard the deep, thunderous voice calling out from outside. "Charles! Show yourself!" Heartbeat quickening, Brianna turned her head, eager to catch her father's glance, but he had his eyes squeezed shut. Everyone was looking at him now, as the voice continued to repeat his name in that booming voice.

Brianna could see out a crack in the structure, tears forming in her eyes when she sees Peter get hurt, leg getting twisted by the immortal god. She gasped as he cried out in pain, fingers tingling blue with the desire to fix his pain.

Then, Peter was on his knees, the god gripping his hair and holding him back, exposing his neck. The girl with the glowing pink swords comes forward, and Brianna can faintly hear the blue god order her to kill Peter. She covers her eyes and the sword is swung, but when she looks, Peter is uninjured. Instead, a thick red line covers the god's neck.

He releases Peter, dropping him to the ground. He crawls away to find a hiding place, and the wound on the god's neck seals up before he locks his fingers around the girl's throat.

As he lifts her off the ground, her skin turns a brilliant shade of blue, her eyes yellow, and hair fiery orange. Brianna gasps again, clasping her hand over her mouth in horror.

"Raven," Charles murmurs, eyes watery and head still slightly bleeding.

"I'm going out there," Hank announces, striding towards the door. Scott follows him.

"I'm going with you."

"No," Charles' weak protest stops them. Hank stops at the door, a confused look on his furry face. "It's me he wants." He shifts uncomfortably in his spot.

"Charles, you can't give yourself up," Moira argues. "If he has you, he has us all. The whole world."

The booming voice comes again, "Charles! Come! Rescue your weaklings! Give your life for theirs!"

Charles was about to start sobbing before he sat up, a look of utter realization crossing over his features.

"He was right," he says, earning equally confused looks from everyone. "There is still some part of me connected to him." Jean and Scott shared a look. Brianna could faintly hear the yell again from outside, trying to lure her father out. "I can get inside his head."

Brianna thought this was a bad idea, immediately. Sure, she knows how powerful her father is, but this other guy is a god. He's no match for him.

"Will you do nothing?" The voice boomed. Brianna could feel the suffering, knew someone was in heavy danger outside. She knew it was Raven, had to be Raven. She watched as Charles lay down across a thin blanket, saying "Thank you for letting me in" before closing his eyes and getting lost in the world of minds.

Minutes later, when he began to breathe heavily and seemed to be in pain, Jean had crouched near him again.

Sand began to blow outside, and many heads turned to watch. Then, Brianna realized that it wasn't sand, but the walls of their shelter dissolving into particles, courtesy of the first mutant.

He was standing there, a satisfied smile tracing his mouth. He began to walk forward, looking up at the mutant children.

Suddenly, a long and heavy piece of metal crashed into the ground right in front of the god. Awestruck, everyone turned to find the source, including the god. Another piece of metal, identical to the first one, lands with a large thud, forming an 'X'.

Brianna was shocked to see Magneto floating through the air towards them, metal pieces surrounding him.

"You betray me?" The god asks in disbelief, looking up.

"No," Erik says deeply, "I betrayed them." Then, with a turn of his hand, he lifts all the metal pieces from the ground, before taking careful aim and hurling them towards the god. The god forms an invisible round shield around himself, deflecting Erik's hits.

"Let's jump," Brianna hears Hank say.

"What?" Scott asks incredulously, but jumps with him anyways, down on to the ground, to the scene. Brianna watches as Hank rushes to Raven's limp form, lifting her in his strong arms and hauling her away.

Scott removes his glasses and sends bolts of red towards the ball of flames, where, inside, the god stands, unharmed. This seems hopeless, Brianna thinks, watching and wondering.

"Jean!" She gasps, knowing that if anyone besides Charles could help here, it would be the redhead. She turns and stands, going over to where Charles and Jean are, and crouches down. "You have to go out there."

Jean stares. "What?"

"You have to— you have to help," she stutters. "You're the strongest one here," she admits weakly.

Just then, a whisper sounds from below them, a faint, weak word coming from Charles's lips. "Jean." Brianna looks at the girl again, expectantly, but she is still frozen.

"Help...me," he gasps, and tears form in Brianna's eyes.

"Hank!" The girl hears a shout, no doubt from Scott, from down below.

"I'm going down there," she says suddenly, getting up, trusting Jean with her father's life.

"No, Brianna, you can't—" Jean begins, looking up at her in disbelief.

"I am not going to let my friends die alone," she argues, doing her best to keep her feelings below the surface. "I trust that you'll do good by him." Then, she strides away, coming to the edge of the broken building, two stories up. Keeping her head straight, she inhales deeply before walking straight off of it, dropping a good ten feet to the ground.

The impact doesn't bring pain. At this point, the adrenaline and power rushing through her veins is enough to block out the pain.

First, she rushes to Scott, who is buried in the hard concrete of a wall. Turning her powers to strength, she takes his arms— which are barely showing enough to get a good enough grip on— and pulls with sheer effort, successfully yanking him out of the wall, bringing loose pieces of concrete with him.

He stumbles, regaining his balance with Brianna's help. "Go somewhere safe," she says, wiping her face with her gloved hand and looking around frantically.

"But—" He starts to protest.

"Now," she orders. A look of shock crosses his features at hearing her speak like this, but he listens nonetheless, too surprised to argue. He rushes away, hopefully to somewhere safe.

Next, Brianna goes to Hank, who is lying unconscious on his side. She uses her powers for strength again and drags him across the ground, propping him against the same wall where Raven and Peter are. And then, one by one, she heals each of their injuries, checking quickly but thoroughly for any hidden ones.

Half out of it, Peter mumbles a 'thank you' before letting his head drop back against the wall.

That's when she sees it. Jean Grey, floating mid-air, arms extending. Brianna's eyes widen and a mass of fire and energy rushes every which way, coming from the red-head. The noise is so loud, Brianna thinks she has gone deaf.

She holds her arms out, making a blue protective shield around the three unconscious bodies, to protect them from the force of Jean's powers. However, she is struck with a jolt so powerful that she cries out, lurching forward until she hits concrete and sees nothing but black.