THE GIFTED

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 22

THIRD PERSON POV

Lydia moves nervously from side to side as the entire table watches her silently. It wasn't like she was nervous about the plan, she was actually extremely excited for the plan. She was nervous, however, about the possibility of everyone disagreeing. 

The plan wouldn't work if her mates didn't get on board. She could still do it, but she wouldn't survive. 

Even now, she wasn't certain that she would survive. Sure, she had to make them think that she was positive that she would, but truth be told she was over powered already. And while she might have the genetics of a supernatural entity she was also human. 

But she was a Stark, and the Stark's weren't the kind to just die. They were too greedy and self-centered to simply die, so she was pretty much relying on the resilience of her father's genes to survive this. 

Silence ensued a little longer, making her glance nervously up at Brandon, who simply gave her a nod. 

He knew his family, and he knew that while they would all completely disagree with the plan, they were also all self-sacrificing enough to know that it was for the greater good of the world. Literally the entire would relied on this halfcocked plan, the plan that could lead to all their deaths. 

"I know it's not the best," Lydia started, glancing at Steve, who tilted his head up and simply listened, "But as a group we have always had absolutely horrible plans, that work exceedingly well. Remember when we went against my dad's wishes for Loki, and I was able to get inside his mind and figure out the compulsion that he had on him?"

"And you got kidnapped afterwards because you sparked his interests?" Nat snarks, raising a brow.

"You mean, he kidnapped her by jumping out of a plane with her in his arms." Barton added, darkening his glare.

Those spies really got on her nerves.

"Or do you remember when Dad took the bomb through the portal and his reactor stopped, and he temporarily died? It was a little sacrifice, that saved millions, and he was fine in the end." 

"You're not helping your case here, peanut," Nathan mumbles looking over at North who stood silently above the red-haired girl with tears slowly blooming in her eyes. 

"I don't need to help my case, damnit! It's simple math! The fate of humanity itself relies on my ability to absorb powers! My mates are stuck in some kind of repetitive process butterfly effect type thing because I'm supposed to go back and bring them forward! My younger sister was raised with an emotionally distant sister that hears voices, because her mother, my mother, died during childbirth! Our father is gone, he's been gone! He doesn't know his wife is dead, he doesn't know he has two daughters now, he doesn't know anything! And there are billions of people in this world alone who are in the same exact situation, but they can't fix it, they can't do anything! But I can, damnit!" 

She finishes her spill by slapping her hands on the table, tears tracing a slow path down her cheeks as she heaves for breath, her chest rapidly rising and falling. 

Without waiting for a response she throws her chair back, North dodging it by centimeters, before storming out of the meeting room, rapidly wiping her eyes in the process. The sound of her heels and the door slamming the only thing to be heard in the room, until that too is gone. 

"I understand that you all need to talk this through, but you need to realize that she had been entirely alone most her life, so she's going to do this one way or another, with or without us helping. There is a reason she hasn't completed the bond with any of us. And it's not because she doesn't want the others to be jealous." North's voice was low and growly, thick, but softer than they had ever heard. 

Before any of them could say anything, he was out the door, following the invisible strings to where he knew the overwhelmed and sad girl would be. Her dad's work room. 

Brandon bounced on the balls of his feet for a second, biting his lip, before addressing those he used to call family and close friends, "We never thought we would share a mate. Sure, the idea was there, but it wasn't something any of us thought we could do. And yet, the fates gave us a mate that would perfectly balance us out. But I've spent the past four years waiting for my opportunity to see her again, and in that time I've come to the realization that it's not that we need her to balance us out, she needs us to balance her out, to be her rocks, her constant, her family. We need her to bring us back together, to be the glue to our family, to make us better and stronger individually. She's going to do this regardless of what we want, because I met the current Lydia, the eighteen year old Lydia, four years ago. And only North was with her there."  

Brandon follows after North, swinging by the large kitchen to grab a pint of ice cream on the way, a frown making his normally sad eyes even sadder. 

Silence ensued once again, no one saying anything as everyone thought over what had been said. 

Looking up, Gabriel was the first to break spell of dread in the room, "She saved my life. Literally. Had Lydia not frozen time somehow and popped up holographically or whatever-the-fuck she did when she did it, I would currently be in a body bag with my face blown off." 

"Da, and she saved mine too. Mostly cause I probably would have killed Blackbourne and everyone else on team because they drove little-man to self-murder." 

"It's Gabriel, Raven, not little-man." 

"But you're little. And a man."

"And you're an ass, and a man! Do you hear me calling you ass-man?"  

"That makes no sense, you speak bad english." 

"I swear to all fucking holy..."

"I agree with Gabriel and Raven. Lydia is the reason we are sitting here today, but this is only half of our family, this is only half of your team," Owen pauses and motions towards the remaining avengers, "It might be absolutely moronic, and it will probably end in me laying her over my knee because it won't go to plan and we'll have to save her, but we owe it to her to bring back the rest of her family. We owe it to our brothers to bring her to them. And we owe it to ourselves and society to do whatever we can to save them." 

"I still think it's stupid, and for you, her mates, to agree so quickly is..." Steve is cut off by Axel's husky voice, starting a chain reaction. 

"I'm willing and will obey." 

"I'm not willing, but will obey." 

"I'm not fucking willing either, but I love her stupid ass, so I will obey." 

"Da, I want to kill big purple man, so I am willing and will obey." 

"I'm willing and will obey." Owen finished, looking at his new family slowly blossoming and forming into something poetic.