ten !
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Rosa lies on her stomach atop the beam, cheek pressed to its metal and all of her limps hanging towards the impending concrete. Her dark wings hang like curtains ushering from her back, limp and yet hard to ignore as she tries to sleep off her drunken haze.

Warren is still drinking. He'd clearly lied when he told her he'd only bought one bottle, but, at this point, she's beyond caring about such trivial matters.

Though the heavy music he'd taken to playing after finding the speaker further up in the warehouse's rafters and tapping the liquor bottle along to its pulse was beginning to grind on her gears.

Just as she's about to shout up to him to be quiet before she comes up there and makes him, a glow of purple shines and a group of three strangers step out from its depths, trespassing in their new found sanctuary.

"Faire pisse!" Warren yells down at them, pissed in more way than one. "Or should I say, "Piss off"?"

Rosa pushes herself up and sobers immediately. Warning signs flash inside her mind and yet her curiosity is hungry.

Warren hurls a glass bottle down to the strangers. It smashes at their feet, but they're hardly deterred. He jumps and soars down onto her beam just as she manages to stand and keep her balance.

"This is the guy?" The youthful girl with the white hair questions, clearly unimpressed by the drunkard. "And who is that?"

"He used to be," The other woman replies, something unwritten lying within her dark eyes. "I didn't know his wings were... Let's get out of here. His fighting days are done. As for her, I don't know who she is."

"No, they're not," The mysterious blue man says, clearly the leader. He watches them just as they watch back.

When Warren jumps from the beam and manages to land without toppling, steadying himself with his wings, Rosa follows and lands beside him, determined to walk with him into whatever this is.

"What the hell is this?" Warren grits out, still clutching the liquor.

Unsettled, Rosa's wings flex and shift behind her as she stands at his side, already whittling her way into the most vulnerable one's mind. The young one. The one with the white hair and the storm at her beck and call. She likes to be called that. Storm. It's a part of her no one can touch without consequence.

"I want to give you something," The mutant, which Rosa quickly identifies through invasion of Storm's mind as Apocalypse, tells him. "You too, Harbinger."

Her jaw locks tight at the name on his tongue.

"There is nothing you can give me that I want," Warren replies dismissively, already turning away from their unexpected visitors.

Curiosity grips her tighter. What could he possibly have to offer? What talents did he possess that make him so confident in himself? She wants to see, but his mind is closed to her no matter how hard her fingers pry on his edges.

"Yes, there is." Are the final words Rosa hears before she's snapped from her prying by the shattering glass of Warren's liquor hitting he floor as he begins to writhe in pain under the sheer power of Apocalypse flooding into him.

He falls to his knees, bending back as he cries out in pain when the new, metallic wings begin to shoot from his back.

Rosa can do nothing but watch in a horrified awe as he becomes more powerful right before her very eyes. His broken wing no more. Replaced by the robust metal designed for pure strength.

He lurches forward, his hands curling into fists so tight his nails dig into his palms, but that's the least of his concern as his entire body is alight with agony as he's reborn.

Finally unfrozen from her initial shock, Rosa takes a step forwards as Apocalypse begins to beckon his newest creation.

Warren rises to his feet, a new man shrouded in new found fortune.

Rosa doesn't move another inch when he flicks his wing to the side, shooting projectiles designed for brutal efficiency through the air, right past her nose, and lodges them into the wall.

His chest heaves with every heavy breath, but something has clicked back into place for him with his new and improved wings. As if he is somewhat whole again. Rosa can't deny the purpose written all over his face as she watches him through the dim light.

"Harbinger." Apocalypse turns his attention to her and she wonders what he has in store for her. If it is anything like the weapon he'd turned Warren into, she isn't sure that's for her. "You have seen what I can do. Let me extend my power to you also."

She glances over to Warren just once to know her answer. She will stand by him until her final breath.

If this is the path he chooses to walk, it's the one she will walk too.

Rosa turns back to Apocalypse and firmly nods her head.

He takes a few steps towards her and lifts a hand to her. "Why don't you take a step inside my mind?"

Just like that, the vault door to his mind swings wide open.

Curious, Rosa steps right in. Instantly, she's bombarded by everything inside this ancient mind. From the lives inside the bodies he'd previously inhabited to now, she learns everything. Learns what he means to do. His aspiration of mutant superiority grabs her by the heart and locks her in place, unmoving as she takes it all in. It binds with her undying anger and sucks her right in.

She'd entered for Warren, but now she understands the true purpose calling to her from atop ancient pyramids, whispering to her from the shadows.

When she's in the midst of the grand city of ancient times, she turns to see the man himself standing there, hands folded behind his back.

"So," he says, "now you see."

"Yes," She replies, still glancing around in wonder as his world imprints on her.

When she turns her attention back to him, he's closer than she remembers him being, but she isn't worried. She trusts in him. Trusts in his vision.

"You will be glorious, my Harbinger of the New Age," He grinds out in his low, rocky voice as he takes her by the arm and walks her out of his mind, locking the door behind her once more.

As soon as the real world is upon her, so is his wave of power.

Her eyes fly wide as her wings are threaded with more dark feathers. Streamlined for agility and dexterity in the fight opposed to Warren's brute strength. She falls to her knees in agony as she's built up to a new, godly standard.

But the forest fire is centred in her brain as she grits her teeth and curls her fingernails into the floor. The cry of pain escapes her despite her resolve and she clamps her hands over her ears. The screams of secrets she didn't want to know and the memories of her life rushing by over and over again in a loop but every time they rush by she notices more. Notices the sly glances, the murmured remarks, the thoughts unacted upon.

Fighting to keep her wrath inside. That dark, dark wrath that infests and destroys. She rocks forwards, forehead pressing against the concrete as she groans in agony.

All that power rushing into her body all at once. Crashing over her like a tsunami and obliterating all she'd ever known as strength.

This is strength.

Raw power controlled and tamed within her body. She will bring everyone who opposes her to their knees, begging and screaming for mercy beneath her gaze.

Gradually, the pain retreats until it's nothing more than another battle scar.

Rosa gets to her feet and grounds her weight, her injured leg healed and healthy. Her wings extend to their fullest as she flexes them, testing their new found refined strength.

Ironically, they're now even more adept for performing her infamous death drop. Sleek and streamline. Able to fold completely behind her for a slick plummet through the air to bring death to all those below.

The extension to her mind is perhaps the greatest feat. It's as if she's seeing the world entirely differently. Can see every shadow and flicker of darkness upon the faces of those around her.

If she so much as desires to crush Storm now, a little lightning won't stop her.

She exhales steadily as she looks over her shoulder to Warren, their world shifting once more and yet it will always shift with the other present. Never again will she walk this world alone.

Gods, now she doesn't even have to fly it alone.

He stares right back at her, equally as ready to take on the world by her side, thanks to their unspoken bond to one another.

Binding them together unconditionally.

Until the end.

-

1472 words
26.2.19

guess rosa got herself an upgrade too, but i can assure you she's not got metal wings like he does. the main upgrade for her was her mind rather than her wings.