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alairroux · 1 month ago

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Two chapters one weekend, wow! I was feeling surprisingly creative today and finally finished my paper for school so I don't have to worry about it anymore ^^

Chapter XIII

"Vitals"

In no world or reality Alice expected to be taken to a huge skeleton that served as some sort of base for everyone who got sent into the Void. Even more she didn’t expect to be thrown onto a dusty floor, for a brief moment losing her breath, to her even bigger surprise along with her shirt, due to the dust, just to regain it right in the moment when that freak of a woman had her fingers already in between of her ribs. That was even weirder than feeling her fingers inside her own skull. That was to be expected but like that?! What sort of sick practice is that?

“Hm”

Cassandra lowly hummed to herself, crouching and hovering over Alice, tilting her head from one side to another, like this was completely normal to her. Just a regular Tuesday apparently. Pushing her fingertips a bit deeper brushing against the beautiful ivory arches, feeling a shiver running over Alice.

“The fuck are you doing?”

Alice finally managed to get out of herself, when the fear of as much as breathing passed. It was so weird. Like she was moving her bones and vital organs but at the same time her hand was just passing through them.

“No need to be vulgar, sweet thing.” Cassandra chimed, not even glancing towards Alice’s face. “Just doing a little inspection. Don’t trash around and you should be fine… For the most part at least.”

That wasn’t helping at all honestly. But Alice just decided it was like visiting a doctor, let them do their thing and just hope for a quick end. No, that sounded wrong as well, besides, the feeling was incomparable. Sure, Alice had a surgery before, but it was for her knee, and she was knocked out for the time of it. No one has ever dug around her chest cavity, especially with her wide awake. She had a need to flinch away, when she felt Cassandra just push through her lung, but she was also taking seriously any warnings that she could hear from the powerful mutant.

“Hm… You’re not a human, yet your anatomy suggests otherwise.”

“You can stop digging around, I’m not hiding anything there. You know it’s already pretty crowded.”

Alice hissed, the cold spreading through her chest from the inside out. Gosh, this was so weird and uncomfortable, she just wished to squirm away and probably never go back to being in that place. She probably never before regretted going out of the apartment as much as now. After all, this is what led to her position here in the first place.

"I can feel your heartbeat right under my fingertips, just a bit deeper…” Cassandra hummed suddenly. Her hand moved deeper. “ And I can hold your life in the palm of my hand..."

At that Alice sharply inhaled, feeling those slim fingers wrap around her beating heart. At that moment she wasn’t even sure anymore if it was beating or rapidly speeding out of control. Just a little squeeze too tight and she can be gone. It was terrifying.

Only now Cassandra looked towards Alice, a slight smirk dancing on her lips. Looking at the terrified girl with visible authority, showing her her place. At that moment, Alice was scared to even breathe once more. Those blue eyes showing no mercy, more than anything there was a pure bloodlust burning in them, burning into her soul and that was more than terrifying once more. Then, Nova just retracted her fingers like it was nothing, shaking off her hand from invisible filth.

“Calm down, you’re going to pass out if your heart keeps speeding like that. We don’t have a medic here.”

After that she just got up and walked somewhere to the side, like it was nothing, like she didn’t just hold a beating heart in her hands. Alice let her head hit the floor again, moving her hand over her chest like she wanted to make sure that it was still all intact, without any surprise holes and stuff like that. It was a relief to know that her chest remained seemingly untouched, but she could still feel the cold spread right there, where Cassandra's fingers touched just a second ago.

Still heavy breathing she opened her eyes, watching the particles of dust dance in the golden light of sun seeping through some holes that served as windows. Like a glitter in the wind, they seemed to be more colorful than they really were, the usual gray gone, replaced by green, purple and yellow, tied together in some fancy composition. It was such a pleasant thing for tired eyes. But soon, the sun rays got stopped by Cassandra's shadow, she stood there again watching Alice like a hungry hawk.

“Get up. I’ll give you something to wear.”

Short commands. That’s what she could call things that Cassandra was saying. Alice got up, dusting herself off, starting to cough again. Ugh, this place needed a clean up desperately. She looked around, only now spotting various things that she only heard stories about, or saw them in other people's memories. Magneto’s helmet, Charles’s wheelchair, a coat, ring… Helmet with horns. More like a crown? Ugh, hard to tell. She tilted her head, trying to decipher why it looked familiar and yet so foreign. Then suddenly she felt like her body got pulled on an invisible leash.

“I didn’t give you permission to stare. Don’t get on my bad side, or even your pretty little powers won’t help you.”

Oh, that sharp edge was definitely a bad omen, but also… No, Alice. Behave. This is a life threatening situation, don’t be like Deadpool. Flirting won’t save you. So she just followed after the bald woman, not questioning anything anymore. It was looking like she was going to stay there for an eternity, or until Cassandra kills her, so she might as well learn about the things later.

“Why did you pick someone's corpse as your living place anyway? There were building’s on the way here…”

Unfortunately the curiosity that she was born with, was speaking much faster than any want for survival that was left in her.

“Well, one day you’ll see why I needed something better than a regular concrete building. They’re crumbling away anyway.” The woman hummed, putting some shirt and pants onto Alice’s hands. “Dress yourself.”

Alice didn’t even try to look for a secluded spot, it was pointless. First of all, it’d take a good while and put her as Cassandra’s target, second, this woman already dug through her organs just a moment ago, so not like there was anything to hide anymore anyway. So she quickly changed out of her blood stained clothes and she had to admit it helped a bit.

“So, why don’t you just read my mind about my powers and kill me? I mean, I’m not the best tool taking in the fact that killing me is fairly easy.”

That question was on Alice’s mind from the very second when Cassandra gave up the fight in the middle of that weird desert. She never really thought it’ll be enough to make this mighty mutant stop. She was pretty sure it’ll only fuel her anger and cause her to attack harder, killing her on the spot. But it didn’t happen. For some reason, Cassandra gave her a chance to live further. Right now, Cassandra motioned for Alice to sit on the stool in front of a wonky table and something that looked like a couch combined with a throne. She walked over there and sat down, finding her balance on the shaky furniture.

The table was probably the only clean thing here, not covered in dust at all, with a nice, ironed tablecloth on top, and a tea set. Sort of vintage one. White porcelain with small, hand painted flowers. Really pretty. The cups had wavy edges, like small flowers themselves. She hadn’t seen one like that for quite a long while. Finding one in a Void, would explain a lot. They weren’t needed anymore, so why would anyone want to keep them in an overcrowded world anyway, right? That was sad. Someone having a way to decide if you’re needed or not. Cruel even.

“Because you might be useful to me.”

Who would’ve expected, right? Again just a tool in all that. What a lovely feeling. Alice just nodded her head, not expecting Cassandra to elaborate on her thought, just accepting it as it is.

“But, you might be more than a tool. It’s all up to you. Depending on how you’ll behave under my command.” Now Alice looked towards her, still with a sort of indifferent look in her eyes. “Because if you do decide to work with me, and not against me, you’ll be much more than a tool. You have a very strong power, shame to admit, but stronger than mine, you just have no idea how to use it. How to make yourself known with it, and I might have an idea how to put it to work. How to make you bloom, because until now, everyone only cut off your flower, before they even gave you a chance to show off.”

Alice just observed, her eyes focused on the woman in front of her, feeling something weird almost linger inside her, like a millipede passing over her bones. Barely feelable but still there.

“With right behavior I might give you all you need. A sense of belonging, a sense of your true self. I can turn you from barely hanging on sapling, to a tree. Tree that’ll bear fruits, and you know why it’s so important to bear sweetness caught up in a delicate shell of a simple peel. Right?”

“To rot with a purpose…”

Alice said even before she could think about it, her mind brought up that day when she was making some light snack, and her mind was bothering her about Cassandra all the time. Before the voices were too much, but they were already loud enough to bother her. It felt like summer again. Like fruits were rotting with a purpose of making the city slightly less of a filthy place.

Cassandra just nodded her head, pushing a cup of tea in Alice’s direction, letting the words sink in. Would it mean betraying all she had until now? Yes. Would it mean not trying to go back to Wade and Logan? Yes. Will it help? Also probably yes. But Nova wouldn’t push for an answer. Sure, she could and normally she’d probably force Alice to follow her lead and order, but this time, she had a feeling that this girl will make the right decision on her own. There was no need to force her to make the decision right now. Besides, more time together will give Cassandra time to learn about humans, their behavior and anatomy. Sure, she knew a bit, after all she created her own body for herself from that knowledge, but it was always better to have a living specimen that you can use any moment you want. Right?

Alice took the cup, taking a sip, feeling a warmth spread through her body, replacing the lingering cold. Her mind was rushing forward again. She wanted to learn about her powers, how to use them and make them something of hers, something she’ll be known for. She looked towards Cassandra that was now looking somewhere away, her brows furrowed like she was also deep in thought. Alice could tell that her heart was telling her to follow that offer, to trust in this villain and learn a thing or two. But the more she looked at Cassandra, the more she analyzed the glimpse of emotions and memories she caught in her mind, she wasn’t so sure about Nova being the villain.She wasn’t all that scary or psychotic as Wade and Logan wrote her as at all. It seemed like the perfect case of the villain being the villain as long as only the hero tells the story…

#deadpool and wolverine #cassandra nova #deadpool #alice #oc #wolverine #cassandra #fanfiction #logan howlett #the void #vital signs #heart #chest cavity #digging

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