* BLINK !

quill had been… hyper-focused on trying to find the source of all the dinosaurs on genosha. mostly because kevin bacon jr would have loved to have friends and while his son was a dilophosaurus that could likely eat him at any moment, he wasn’t too worried about it.

finding a stick after deciding to take a break and throwing it, he watched as kbjr happily fetched and retrieved it, bringing it back to him and dropping the stick at his feet with a head tilt. chirping at him, quill smiled and picked up the stick and reared back, ready to throw it hard and….

released.

watching as the dinosaur sped off and charged, he only stopped and yelled out in concern when he saw the stick and kbjr heading towards a stranger. “ah shit” he broke into a run, chasing after, only to stop when the person got smacked over by kbjr. “bro, you alright?”extending his hand to help them up, quill smiled at the person. “he’s a bit clumsy but he means well, so i’m…uh… sorry about that.”

clarice had slept in that morning, and because of that, when she did wake up, it was because of zingo jumping on her and licking her face. she groaned out, laughing while patting the dog. “okay, okay, i’m up,” she chuckled.

an hour later, she’d fed zingo and showered, but then realized zingo would probably need a walk soon. attaching the leash to her collar, she headed out with her dog, deciding to walk through the park. distracted by the scenery and by all of the different people zingo wanted to say hello to -- and get petted by --, clarice hadn’t noticed the item that was thrown in her direction until it was too late. zingo seemed to notice the stick before her, jumping up to catch it while clarice was knocked to the ground by another animal. at first, she assumed it was another dog.

until she got a better look at it, and realized it was a dinosaur. “holy shit,” she muttered, staring at it with wide eyes before she took the man’s hand and got back on her feet. “you... you were playing fetch... with a dinosaur?” she questioned. “it’s-- it’s fine, though,” she shook her head, while zingo moved towards the dinosaur to say hello. “i’m alright. and zingo’s friendly -- is your dinosaur also friendly?” she raised a brow, watching the two cautiously.

nightmares still lurked in the corners of her mind, doubts caused by the dream dimension. the more esme let herself dwell on it, the more she speculated that the ordeal didn’t cause them at all, only amplifying the fears she was never meant to have. she was a clone, designed as a weapon – weapon XIV to be exact. weapons weren’t made to have doubts.

there is no i, esme,                         there’s only we.                                             you’re nothing.

it wasn’t her sisters fault. they were stuck in that place too, and perhaps they were just better weapons than she was. esme still loved them. they were her sisters, they were all she really had in this world. and they didn’t abandon her in that forsaken jungle when she’d been poisoned, that had to count for something.

she needed distance from them to separate her thoughts from theirs. it didn’t come as a surprise to her that it hadn’t taken long for someone to establish a bar on genosha, as she slid into a seat, esme ordered herself a martini and leaned away from the bar, careful not to touch the surface. it’s sticky.

“i guess bars are the same no matter what part of the planet you’re stuck on.”

clarice had never been much of a drinker.

maybe it came with the many different foster parents she’d had over the years of her childhood prior to running away, a vast majority of whom either drank heavily or only took in mutant kids for the monthly paycheck. sometimes both. the trauma from the abuse some of them put her -- and her other foster siblings -- through while drunk.

her heart hurt at the thought of the former siblings she’d left behind. she thinks of lily. should’ve saved her. should’ve gone back. there were so many things she could have -- and maybe should have -- done, but hadn’t. she’d ran.

sighing, she pushes the thoughts out of her mind as she takes a seat at the bar, barely even noticing who she’s sitting next. “a beer, please.” she asks after waving over the bartending, forcing a smile towards them.

as the person next to her speaks, she raises a brow. “i probably wouldn’t know. i don’t usually find myself in these places.” she shrugged. “which one are you?”

lorna had known clarice long enough to be able to spot one of her portals a mile away. the flicker of light forming caught her attention, glancing over as it became a full blown portal. it made her relax slightly, to know it was clarice, a friend she could trust – that knew who she really was than the genoshans that looked to her in ways she wasn’t sure she’d ever be used to.

“hey – yeah i’m alright.” she offered, her shoulders lifting and falling in a small shrug. lorna wished it wasn’t so odd to explain what she was doing exactly, trying to determine what she could or couldn’t do – the destructive depths of her powers that could be more dangerous for her to know than remain oblivious to. “it’s… a long story.” she started with a sigh, glancing out to the mountain. “when we all ended up here, i was out there past the mountain and something happened, we all lost control of our powers. it was a lot… like i could feel everything on this scary deeper level.”

she didn’t want it to seem that she was dangerous, there were plenty of others here more powerful than her – but with her track record, maybe it was better to be on the side of caution. “i see your powers are working around the island, it’s a step up from the soul stone, right?”

clarice listened to lorna explain what she’d had to deal with while trying to get to the part of the island they were all living on. she couldn’t help but frown -- it didn’t sound fun. not being able to control your powers never was. she hadn’t been entirely conscious when she’d last lost control, but she had been told enough to know it had been bad. portals everywhere, leading to who knows where.

“i’m sorry to hear that. losing control sucks. glad to hear you’re alright, though.” she said as she moved to stand next to lorna. “so... because of that, you’re trying to push yourself? see what more you could do?” she asked with a raised brow. “for the record, i get it. no judgement here. i think my powers seem to get stronger when i get hurt. like how i couldn’t do this until recently,” she said as she created a short javelin colored the same shades of pink and purple as her normal portals were.

 barely a minute later, she allowed the small portal to close before looking over at lorna, flashing her a small grin. “you know, i still haven’t met that daughter of yours.” she tilted her head to the side slightly. “you got time for that sometime soon?”

Trained eyes watched as the animals in the park’s pond picked at the surface of the water, small ripples appearing in the water and disrupting his reflection. It was soothing simply watching the repeating pattern appear then disappear. But it was hard to even recognize the man he had become. He was no longer a soldier for the US military. He was no longer a victim to the mutant relocation center. He was no longer a weapon created for Sentinel Services to aid mutant captures.

He was Augustus. Pulse. Someone he hadn’t been in such a long time. But it had been so long that it was hard to remember what that life was like.

His fingers traced the Hound tattoo forced onto his wrist, a small tinge of fear lingering in the back of his mind that they would find him– that they would take everyone he cared about and turn them into a weapon like they did him. It was crazy to even think that he was actually living his worst nightmare not too long ago.

Hearing footsteps approach, he didn’t turn to them but began to speak. “I can do a lot of damage here.” He admitted without any particular reason. “I can nullify most of the mutants here with the mere flicker of my eyes, leaving the island defenseless against an attack.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be here.”

clarice hadn’t ever really gotten to know gus that well, considering he had been a one of the, seemingly many, mutants that had been taken by sentinel services to catch other mutants. she couldn’t even begin to imagine what they must have put them through. she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

but she knew what gus meant to john. she knew how close they’d been, and that he had been a good friend to john. she recognized him out of the crowd of people in the park, and made her way over to him. 

she’s about to speak, say hello, when he beats her to it. she listens as he speaks of what he’s able to do. moving to face him, she offers a small, sympathetic smile. "and if i were to lose control of my powers like i have in the past, i could open portals all over the place that would lead to who knows where. if you really think about it, there’s a lot of bad things that could happen. but i don’t think it’s something we really have to worry about. not right now, anyway. you belong here with everyone else.” 

she held her hand out to him to shake. “i’m clarice, by the way. we never really got a chance to meet, i think. i’m a friend of lorna, marcos and john. i worked with them in the underground.”

when lorna first learned she was the heir to some island intended for the safety of mutants, she hardly believed it. she laughed and said no, that whatever it was, it couldn’t have been true because something like that always came with a price. she had learned that the hard way – and now here they were. everyone was, in theory, safe on this island. mutants, enhanced, and even human allies alike. but at what cost? they couldn’t leave. they were trapped again as they had been in the soul stone months ago. that wasn’t erik’s fault – or anyone’s, only a ill step of fate.

she stepped away from the now bustling and crowded city, away from the prying eyes of locals that knew who she was and others that were now finding out. lorna had decided that after she ensured dawn was cared for and watched, that she’d need quiet and distance to test a few theories.

her powers had been growing, or perhaps it was just that she was exercising them more now than she ever had before. she’d used them to hold up again thanos in the soul stone, help crush the gauntlet made of alien metal, took down a building after pulling a bunker out from underneath, and most recently – she felt the metallic elements in the earth’s surface enough to shift the ground. she was always sensitive to metal and the electromagnetic spectrum, but to feel the specific elements mixed in the ground was new. 

lorna stood at the border of the city and ridgeback mountains, curious if she could recreate the moment it’d happened or if her powers were only situationally based. she held up her hands, swirls of green magnetic energy flowing around her fingers as she tried to search out the elements again. “come on, come on –” she muttered to herself, caught off guard as she could feel someone approaching and immediately let go of whatever grip she had over it. “shit – sorry. i was just.. working on something.”

clarice had spent most of her time so far on genosha exploring. getting to know her surroundings. visiting places was always important to her -- just in case she ever needed to make a speedy getaway, it was always better that she could either see the destination in her mind’s eye or physically. she was gradually getting better with using her powers, but she was cautious towards pushing herself too far.

picturing the place she wanted to go to, flickers of light formed between the palms of her hands as she slowly opened a portal. it required a good portion of her energy to do this, and though it wasn’t exactly painful, it could be difficult. it took a lot out of her at times. once the portal was fully formed, she stepped through, allowing it to close behind her.

when she spots someone else towards the border of the city, she slowly approaches them, cautious at first before she realizes that only one person in this city, that she knew of at least, had bright green hair. “hey,” she said as she walked over to her friend, offering her a small smile. “it’s cool. you okay?” she raised a brow, looking out at the mountains. “what’re you up to?”

This wasn’t right, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She never wanted anyone to get hurt – especially not… She couldn’t think it, couldn’t even lift her eyes to look upon their bodies. Lorna pulled her knees closer to her chest where she sat on the wood floor, her hands slipping on the blood that coated them. She tried to wipe the slick redness away, staining her clothes but every time she looked at her hands, they were covered again. How had it gotten this far? All she wanted was to save everyone, but she couldn’t control it – as if death were just in her genes.

Lorna barely acknowledged Clarice’s presence in the room, her own body racked with uncontrollable sobs that made her tremble. An emerald aura shifted and surrounded her, the lights above them flickering with crackles of electricity, any metal in the room contorting out of shape – and most importantly, the blood soaked knives on the floor shook threateningly. Cautiously, her hand reached out, shifting and moving herself across the floor to take Marcos’ cold hand into her bloodied one – desperately wishing the contact would muster even just a shimmer of light.

“I did it – I didn’t… it was an accident.” Her voice broke as she answered, there was no denying the truth. “I killed them, I – I wanted to help but I lost control. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

She’d let out another sob when the bedroom door opened, snapping her attention up. Dawn. She stood in the doorway, older than before. Maybe five or six years old, but Lorna knew her anywhere. She knew the look she gave her in the moment as she saw what she’d done. Hate.

‘You’re a monster.’

She wasn’t wrong. Maybe this is what she was, all she could be. “No no no, Dawn, no.” She pleaded, getting to her feet to go after her daughter, but she ran away. Lorna pushed on, opening the door she’d gone through but it wasn’t the bedroom, she stepped into the mental hospital that once tormented her. Instead, she could see Dawn, in a cell and strapped to a table. “No!” She banged on the window, her eyes turned back to the doorway. “Clarice! You have to save her! Please… I don’t.. I don’t deserve anything but please save her.”

I DID IT. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. I KILLED THEM. 

clarice didn’t know what to think. her heart was pounding in her chest, worse than before, though she hadn’t thought that were possible. “no...” clarice whimpered, shaking her head. though she knew lorna was probably more than capable of this sort of thing, she refused to accept it. she didn’t want to. lorna wouldn’t. no, no, NO.

she scrambles back over to john, her shaking hand coated in a mix of crimson red and bright white blood. “i’m sorry,” she whispers, pressing a kiss to his forehead as she closes his eyes. turning back to lorna and marcos, she repeats her previous motion of closing marcos’ eyes.

“it couldn’t... it couldn’t have been you.” she shook her head. “purifiers... s-someone else in the inner circle... maybe reeva or those clones or andy... not you... you wouldn’t, lorna. you wouldn’t do this.” her breathing was shaky as she tried to process everything, but no mater how hard she tried, she just couldn’t. stuck in a state of denial.

her head snaps up in the direction of the open door, frowning as she looked to dawn. clarice moved to her feet, going over to where lorna was, staring in the same window to see lorna’s daughter, older now, strapped to the table. her blood runs cold and her eyes widen. “i-i...” she mumbled before she threw a small energy javelin, which formed a portal that was supposed to get them in to the room where dawn was. she grabs lorna’s hand and pulls her through with her.

 “you did this to me, clarice.” lily says, causing clarice to turn on her heel to face her friend. “n-no, no, i tried to save us,” she sobbed. “you were a coward, clarice. you knew what he would do to me. to pete and freddie. instead of trying to do something, to help, you left. like a coward.” her foster sister spoke cruelly. clarice shakes her head, a choked sob escaping her lips as she begins to open a portal. “and you’re doing it again, clarice! taking the coward’s way out instead of facing things!” she did her best to ignore lily as she goes through the portal.

clarice sighs in relief as she walks into her shared apartment with john. she thinks things are normal, that that had been some bad dream that she’d woken up from now. an all too vivid nightmare. but then the nightmare gets worse. john is on the floor, bleeding. “john!” clarice yells, running to him, only to find that he’s dead. tears streak pale cheeks as the palms of her hands get covered in his blood. “wake up!” she cries, shaking him, despite knowing he’s already gone. she sits there for a few moments, cradling his body and crying. when she looks up again, she spots another body. marcos. “o-oh my god,” she whimpers, checking for signs of life, before she looks up and sees lorna not too far from them. “w-what happened?!” she exclaimed. “who did this, lorna? j-john... marcos... they’re dead, lorna!”