oMens II

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Everyone got out of the vehicle, seeing the Frost sisters make their way down an abandoned parking lot. The Underground ran over to them, yet stopped, commanded by Sophie.

"Come any closer and they die."

Monty stood shocked to see the condition of Lauren and Andy. Blood poured down their nose, even their ears, they looked defeated. Their bodies seemed to be like puppets on a string, while the sisters were the marionettes.

"You shouldn't have come," Esme said.

Andy looked over to the Pryde in fear and disappointment, All that Monty knew, in his gut, was that they did something, something awful.

This turning in his stomach made his body stiff, as Andy looked away from him, as if too guilty to even look at him or anyone.

Reed shakes his head. "You don't have to do this. Just give them to us and we'll go."

"Too late. They're ours now."

The triplets looked over to the siblings. "Kill them. Kill them all."

"No. No!"
"Please!" The Struckers pleaded to them, as their hands inched closer to each other.

Lux had told Monty about it.
How if they hold their hands, this unstoppable force could and would destroy anything in its path. Lux had always seemed to fear it, in some way, thinking how it corrupted Andy.

Not today, Monty thought, moving behind everyone.

"Reed, get out of the way," Marcos tells, lighting his hands.

"Marcos, no, they'll kill them!" Caitlin shouted.

"Andy, Lauren, you have to fight," Their father tells them, "Remember who you are."

Suddenly, Lorna stepped in front of the triplet, turning everyone's attention onto her, having Monty slip through and under the cement floor.
Just as Lorna's voice came calling to Esme, Andy and Lauren's connection faded slightly.

"You told me that story, about what the humans did to you when you were kids. They forced you to use your powers to do things that you hated. How is this any different?"

As the Frost sister seemed to be j. doubt, Monty slowly rose up from the cement, bringing his hands toward the siblings'.

"Esme, what is wrong with you?" Sophie and Phoebe yell.

"I-I... I can't," Esme whispers.

"This is no 'I' Esme. There's only 'we.' You're nothing."

"No, she's not nothing!" Lorna shouts, "She is my friend."

While Esme broke off the connection of everyone — Andy, Lauren, and Jack — Monty quickly threw his arms out and pushed the Struckers away from each other.

"Marcos now!"

Suddenly, the man fired his lights to the other triplets, showing them down with ease. Monty didn't hesitate to them, jump up from the cement and stab the two square in the check with the daggers he kept from the Circle.

"That's what you get for fucking with Lux," He sneered quietly to them, twisting the knife in.

As he pulled the daggers out, Esme rushed over to her sisters, tears in her eyes and mind scrambled. Monty turned around to see a fainted Lauren and Andy, as police sirens were heard.

"Th-The police are close," Esme says, "You can get away in the tunnels."

"What about you?" Lorna furrows.

"I can't leave them!" She shouts, tears pouring down her face, "Just go. Go!"

As everyone scattered to the underground tunnels, and Esme had to force herself to discard her own sister's body, no one cared to check the pulses of one of the Frost sisters.

In the underground, Monty had realized it was the one that Reeva took the Inner Circle, Andy and Lauren were sitting on dirty cement with dried blood stuck from their nose and ears. Monty decided to be with the Struckers and help clean off the blood from Andy's nose with a damp rag.

Pryde couldn't help but feel sympathy for them. As he now learned that the siblings had successfully knocked down and destroyed a government building, killing hundreds in the process.

"Esme told me a little about how their powers work," Lorna tells them, "When they force people to do things that go against everything they care about, it, um... it causes damage."

"When they tried to make me leave the Inner Circle, dragging me away from our own daughter, it was like my... brain was in a vice," Marcos explained, "I think they're lucky to be alive."

"Mom... Dad...I-" Lauren weakly spoke, "I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Caitlin asked.

"The building that w-we destroyed... all those people."

"No, that-that was not your fault. You didn't do anything. You didn't have control of your powers."

Monty pushed away his emotions, from the scene. He really never had someone like that, someone who comforted him and cared for him as the parents did for their kids.

Obviously, there was Lux, but deep down, he wished to have met her sooner, so he didn't feel like such a monster when he had to be forced into those Mutant Fight Clubs.

Damn it, Lux, please be safe, Monty thought to himself.

Monty was stopped by the trembling hand of Andy, holding his wrist. "W-Where is Lux?"

The freckled boy gulped, feeling the dread that he was trying to ignore. He didn't answer him back.

"Monty, man... where is she?"

"I don't know," He admitted, cracked voice, "I couldn't find her."

Immediately, the Strucker boy tried to get up, but failed as his body was too weak and Monty pushed him down to stay.

"Let me go," Andy mumbled, "Let me go. W-We gotta find her. Let me go."

"Hell no, you're not going back out there. You can barely walk, you don't have the strength."

"Lux is still out there! We have to-to find her. Those Frost sisters got her, god knows where she could be."

"I know that!" sneered Monty, "Don't you think I didn't look for her? She's not in the city, I don't know where she could be."

Andy glared daggers to him. "Then you didn't look hard enough."

Before the boy could try and get himself up, Reed quickly guided his son to stay down. "You are in no condition to look for Lux," He tells him, "I'm sorry, Andy."

"We need to move," Lorna orders.

Caitlin shakes her head. "They are in no shape to fight. They can barely even walk."

"Okay, well, we can drop them off at the scrapyard," Marcos suggested.

"We can't just leave them there!"

"Cait, I hate it, too," Reed tells his wife, "But they will never be safe while Reeva is out there. If we don't stop her now, we might never get the chance."

And so they did.
Lauren and Andy were laid down in the garage of the scrapyard, with Monty to look after them.

"Monty," Lorna calls him over, "Listen, you need to keep them safe. If Reeva's team finds this place, you need to strike them first."

He nodded, "I got it."

"And make sure, they are unharmed, before Caitlin and Reed have a damn heart attack. They cannot afford another blow, if they take another hit, god knows what will happen. Keep them safe."

Before the Dane woman could leave, Monty runs up to her. "What about Lux? I mean, we haven't found her. She's still out there——"

"Listen, the best bet is that she's back in the Inner Circle. I'm Jack brought her back there, but I swear to you, I will bring her back to you. You're not the only person who cares about her."

That wasn't the case for Lux.
She sat in the passenger's seat of a pick-up driver, completely silent, not speaking a word to him other than. "Drive."

She looked like hell.
Incredibly beat up, blood being soaked in her clothes, and feeling numb. Her face had to be covered by her hair, all made into the side so that her ice couldn't be seen.

The driver only expected that she was mugged, though, being mugged in the middle of nowhere didn't seem right; she must've been a hitchhiker who got in the wrong car.

"You sure you don't need a hospital kid? I'm sure when we get to the city, someone could take a look at you."

But she didn't reply.

"Well, no worries. We're only 5 miles until we get to the city."

The man turned on the radio to a talk show: "... in the outskirts, a strange view could be seen there. A field completely covered in ice, yes you heard me, ice. In the middle of spring. Of course, officials have speculated that it was caused by a mutant. Sources tell us that two small craters could be seen as well, we can only imagine how bad this mutant fight was."

"A bunch of mutants? Pathetic, if you tell me."

Lux's eyes twitched, as her hand slowly made a fist by her leg. She tried her best to ignore him, and just looked to her window.

"I'm glad those damn Purifiers are hunting them down. Trust me, they are doing god's work, right now. I mean, it feels nice to know we are being protected. But to hell with them, muties."

Muties.
The echoing voice of her mother came. A voice she hadn't heard in a long time, a voice that she swore she had forgotten by now.

The more the voice grew, the angrier and angrier Lux got. The more the man talk, the less patience Lux had.

"Well, they'll all be dead anyway. They're too busy killing each other, like animals."

Animals... she was an animal.
I'll show you animal, Lux thought.

Immediately, Lux punched the man with her glowing, closed fist. And she didn't stop. She didn't care that the man was already unconscious, she didn't care that the truck was lost in control.

Beating that man was all she wanted to do for herself. Beating him senselessly, mercilessly. All she could see was red, crimson red.

The truck had leaned over toward the left, and out to the electric poles and trees. Lux didn't realize her mistake until the truck jolted her back and forward, hard.

Her head pounded as it was hit on the dashboard, her body ached from the crash, but she was still awake. Groggily, she got out of the truck, falling down on the dry grass. She winced to herself, even trying to stand up.

She looked to see that her right leg was busted, at most a sprain but the pain didn't stop there. Traveling to her abdomen, Lux lifted her shirt to see the hole her brother made, which was closed off by her iced body (just like her face), but it was clipping and cracked from the truck.

"Fuck," She groaned, "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

The Mycroft got herself up, using the truck for support, and hobbled her way over to the driver's side of the door. When she opened it, her stomach turned and Lux immediately vomited at the sight of what she had done.

It only took one look to have the image stuck in her mind. His face was too butchered to even recognize him, just a mount of beaten flesh of where the head should be. Icicles poked out of his skull and flesh, his flesh was covered with frostbite, blood dripped over his shoulders and down, and bits of bone could be seen here and there.

"Oh my god," Lux cried, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my fucking god."

She crashed her back into the truck and kneeled down to the ground. Lux screamed to herself, hugging to knees to her chest. She didn't want to be there, she didn't want to be alone.

Her mind had clicked: there was no Andy, no Monty, no Jack, to comfort her now.

Andy wasn't there to assure her that what she did was self-defense, Monty wasn't there to see if she was okay, and Jack was no one in sight, nowhere to tell her that he will protect her like a big brother should.

Lux was alone... she was alone.

❅   ❅   ❅

The sun was about to disappear.

Monty nervously was biting his nails in anticipation of Lux coming back. He really did believe Lorna, that Lux was just with her brother, and was unharmed from the fight.

All Monty could think about is Lux.
How she will return, how this fight would affect her. Pryde only wanted Lux to be safe, safe and with him. At least, he could take care of her.

Andy and Lauren were still in recovery, they could walk a little and had more strength. The two couldn't lie, Monty was just a natural caregiver. He was gentle with them, patient, he didn't get mad when they got frustrated in not joining the fight, he listened to them as they talked to him about what happened.

They didn't even know why they talked to him, he was a complete stranger, yet a stranger that listens.

The Strucker boy could see the blatant worry Monty had, he was too. Something deep in Andy's chest could feel that something was wrong, that something had happened to Lux.

He wouldn't know what to do with himself if something happened to Lux. Back then, he promised to protect her, promised that he would be there for her. If his younger self could look at himself now, younger him would scream that he was an idiot, and he would agree with him.

As much as Andy still loved Lux, go walk in hell and back for her, he understood her still being with Monty. Monty made her happy, he's kind and extremely caring to her, he would never hurt her like Andy did — that is what he liked most about Monty.

Suddenly, wind chimes echoed in the metal building. The three snapped their heads to each other, someone had entered in the junkyard.

"You two, hide," orders Monty.

"We can't help," suggested Lauren, "You could be outnumbered."

"I can retreat if I'm outnumbered, but be near the exit in the back. I'll come back in 5 minutes, after that, you guys leave."

"We can't leave——"

"Yes, you can. And you will."

The Struckers were in defeat.
They weren't strong enough to fight, but they were strong enough to run.

"Hey," called Andy, "please, come back."

Monty smiled and nodded to him, before grabbing a gun and disappearing into the walls. Andy and Lauren made their way to a broken window that was near the exit, that looked over the front door.

The Pryde slowly raised himself out of the ground, with piles of junk beside him to hide in, if things go worse. He stopped as he heard footsteps growing near him. He propped his gun up and was ready to fire.

Hearing junk fall, he held his breath, aimed in front of him, a distance away from him. But he had dropped his gun from what was in front of him.

There Lux Mycroft stood, fairly beaten up, but still held a smile on her face when seeing Monty there. Lux's eyes held tears, seeing someone was here. Monty had the same reaction, he was relieved to see her here. It had felt like the piles of heavy rocks were lifted off of him and he was now free.

Lux's eyes caught movement behind, seeing Andy make his way toward them. But her smile quickly faded, seeing that the Strucker's face wasn't smiling or even happy, it was complete empty anger.

"Get out of the way!" Lauren comes out screaming. "Get out, hide!"

Before any of them could react quickly, Andy swung his hand with a hard swipe. Monty was thrown into the air and into the pile of metal scraps. Lux's screamed Monty's name in seeing him get pushed back.

Monty closed his eyes and felt a painful stab coming from his back to his chest. His eyes opened up in seeing a rusted ripped-up pipe, impaling him.

Lux's tears fell, seeing his body move into the pipe and get stuck there. His body tried phasing out, but the damage was done, his abilities couldn't save him now. She looked back to Andy, seeing that he was too busy fighting Lauren.

"Andy, stop!" The sister shouts, "Get her out of your head! Stop it!"

The Mycroft ran over to the boy, kneeling down beside him. "Monty!"

He spat out blood and smiled, "Lux... I don't think I'm doing okay."

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay," She comforted, "You're gonna be fine. After this, w-we're gonna go and-and we're gonna be okay. We can order that take-out you like, and watch that movie you've always wanted to see."

"Spider-Man," Monty coughs, "I-I..."

Lux turned to see Lauren struggling against Andy, making the girl's heart simply crumble under the pressure, from not wanting to say goodbye.

"Hey..." Monty holds onto her hand. "I-I'm hurting, a-and I need you..."

He then met with blood pooling in his throat, which made Lux realize what he asked her for.

"I-I can't," She mutters, lip trembling, "I can't."

But the more she saw him suffer, his doe eyes pleaded with her, the more guilt she left for him. He was dying a slow, painful death, something he didn't deserve. She knew what she had to do.

She leaned toward his head and kissed his forehead before her hands traveled toward his heart. Her hands glowed, as she cried to herself.
At that moment, she felt utterly defeated. This was the person she felt completed, he made her better, he made her feel that she was enough.
She wanted to hold him, wanted to hear him laugh once more, wanted to feel his hands to hold her face...

That would all be gone.
His light, his kind words, all of it...

"I love you," Lux tells him.
With bittersweet tears in his eyes, with the stabbing, throbbing pain he experience, he had put a smile on his face — finally, someone had loved him.

Cupping her hands together, she pushed into his chest, an icicle was stabbed into his heart. The life in Monty's eyes immediately faded, and soon, his smile.

Lux dropped to the feet of Monty, sobbing to herself. He was now gone, the boy that made her feel special, the boy that was too innocent and too kind for anyone.

Suddenly, a force gripped the back of Lux's throat, slowly choking her as she was pulled up. It turned her around to see Andy, eyes glowing an electric blue. Lux's eyes widened to see a passed-out Lauren behind them and a very alive Sophie in control of the Strucker.

With his extra hand, he stretched out to her abdominal area. She could feel this force hover over her sealed ice wound, and she began to scream when she knew what he will now do.
Andy quickly scrunched his hand and jerked his hand out.

The Strucker's mind snapped open.
His mind wasn't clouded, it wasn't bounded down anymore. He turned around to see that Esme had taken down Sophie, the Frost sister who poisoned his mind.

He quickly turned himself around to see Lux, lying on the floor, blood around her.
"Lux!" He shouts, kneeling down to her, holding her to his chest.

Andy was horrified to see a giant gapping hole in the middle of her chest, he had ripped out the block of ice was that embedded into Lux's body. Lux couldn't speak, she didn't scream, she couldn't do anything. She could only feel herself slip away slowly.

"No, no, no. Please, please! Lux, stay with me. Y-You can't go, you can't go," cried the boy, holding onto her for dear life.

How she wanted to comfort him. How she wanted to wipe the tears out from his eyes. But she only watched, having Andy be the last thing she could look at.

She could remember his smile that used to be there, the grin he had when she would say something sarcastic. She remembered his laugh, his laugh echoed in her ears from memory.

"I love you," He sobs, "I have loved you since the day I met you. I loved you when you would always protect me in school. I love you, now. Please, don't go. Don't go."

He loves me, she thought.
That would be her last thought...

Tears slip through her eyes, with the corner of her