☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

f o r t y - s e v e n

~ 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 ~

His goggles, sweaty and caked with dirt, stuck to his face as he tried to pull them off. He took a better look around him, ignoring the stumbling of his feet.

The courtyard was an absolute disaster. Half of the base was reduced to bricks and pieces of wood laying in piles along the ground, and the other half was broken towers and walls that were doomed to fall over if the wind was too strong.

Peter took a deep breath. He was alone, with the X-Men on the other side of the base helping the last of the prisoners into the X-Jet. The corners of his lips turned down as he turned to the dragon. It sat on one of the roofs of the base, unmoving, and breathing slowly. He followed the gaze of the dragon to an opening in a wall of the base.

He couldn't see anything inside; it was too dark. But, the dragon was staring at it. A low growl shook its voice.

Before his curiosity could take over and lead him inside the opening two hundred feet away from him, the dragon moved. Its tail straightened as it stood and jumped off the roof, its wings carrying it into the cloudy sky. The loop the dragon made was large, and Peter followed it as it dove lower, and lower, and directly into the opening of the wall.

The opening couldn't have been larger than ten feet, which made the vanishing of the dragon that much more phenomenal. It disappeared with a poof of black smoke, which lingered in the air for a few seconds, then faded away completely.

Peter couldn't move as he stared at the opening. He still couldn't see inside. It was an unnatural pitch black.

Everything went silent.

The ground shook once. It shook again.

And Amara emerged from the opening, running faster than he thinks he's ever seen her run before, her face caked in blood and black ooze, her hair a mess, and her expression a picture of pure, utter horror. She was screaming bloody murder, so much so he couldn't understand a word of what she said.

His legs moved instantly. They pounded against the stone as he ran to her, the last bit of adrenaline his body probably had being used to the last drop. He didn't care. Her face made him sick to his stomach. He had to get to her.

He was so close. They were so close. They were so close.

Then something grabbed her ankle. He watched with terror as she faceplanted into the ground, and before she could grab onto anything, she was yanked backward. She continued to scream, desperately trying to grab anything.

Peter wasn't fast enough to reach her, but he could make out what she was saying as her hands clutched onto the opening of the wall.

"Peter! Run! Run! RUN!"

Her hands slipped from the wall, and she disappeared just as fast as the dragon did.

Peter didn't even think as he followed her into the opening, screaming her name and looking around wildly. The pitch black disappeared, and he bolted down every hallway he could find, confused and terrified and desperate for his mutation to come back right now.

He couldn't find her. He was getting lost, deeper and deeper into the maze, in places he didn't even know could exist with how little of the base was left outside. Her screaming seemed to get further and further away, making him panic even more and force himself to run even faster.

He jumped down a flight of stairs and leapt over all the bodies laying on the ground. He sprinted along the stone and cursed every empty hall he found.

Peter slammed into something at the next corner he turned, and he fumbled on his feet, only having half a second to realize it was Amara before she grabbed his arm and yanked him back the way he came.