THE GIFTED

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

THIRD POV

Tragedy itself was something that changed everyone, no matter how strong or weak you were. Some people were made stronger, some people became weak, some broke, and some became completely different people.

Before the snap, everything was simple. After the snap, everything changed. Both lovers and brothers were lost - which is entirely true for nearly every Academy team out there.

The Academy itself was something that didn't really have a sole purpose. For some it was where they found themselves after their own personal tragedies, for others it was where they found control, where they rebuilt themselves, or where they saved others.

In a brief summary though, the Academy was the largest Mutant organization in the world. Spanning through every country, city, and state it's main goal was finding, saving, and training mutants or gifted individuals.

The largest team was commonly known as the Blackbourne team, composed of nine of the strongest mutants in the Academy. This team was tied for first place with the Toma team, which was composed of the other five strongest Academy members.

The snap, for them, struck a tragic cord that everyone felt. The Blackbourne team lost five of their nine members, considerable five of the most important members to the remaining brothers.

Owen Blackbourne, the team liaison, lost his first brother and his rock Sean Green, who was the team doctor. Nathan Griffan, one of the hotheads of the group lost two of his first brothers and best friends Dakota Lee and Victor Morgan. Then, of course, North Taylor, the bad boy of the group lost Silas Korba his best friend, and Luke Taylor, who was Gabriel Colemans' best friend and North's actual brother.

The Toma team didn't lose nearly as many as the Blackbourne team, but their loss was just as detrimental. Two of their five members was taken with the snap. Corey Henshaw, the twin to Brandon Henshaw and Raven the professional Russian's lover, was among the lost in the Academy. And Marc Weiland, the coffee extraordinaire, second in command, and best friend to Axel Toma, was also among the teams' losses.

The remaining members of both the strongest teams broke in multiple ways, Owen Blackbourne slipped down the slope of insanity, losing his perfectness and taking up drinking. Axel Toma started fights at every turn with everyone he ran into, which was completely against his personality.

Nathan Griffan followed his stoic leader's footsteps with alcohol consumption. North Taylor went silent, never talking and never yelling, which was once again complete against his personality.

Every time Raven would see Brandon he would attack him, hating the fact that Brandon looked like Corey who was one of Ravan's mates and lover before the snap. Brandon took up sleeping around and became an adrenaline junky.

Gabriel Coleman slipped off into depression, which wasn't something that would be expected for the happy, flamboyant boy.

Four years is how long this lasted. Four years of each boy, who slowly aged into men, pulling away from their families and into themselves. Four years of bonds being crushes and families turning their backs on each other.

It wasn't until the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of their families, the fourth anniversary of the snap, that something finally happened that changed the dynamics of the family again. Tragedy struck the families again.

Raven, leaving the bar on the shady side of town, was distracted by the sound of sobbing in an alleyway. Of course, the Russian wouldn't normally stop, but he felt for the cries and decided to intervene.

What he found wasn't something that he would have ever imagined, especially because the team that the boy came from would have never let him slip so far. But, looking at his team he quickly realized that even the strongest can fall.

Leaning against the alleyway wall was Gabriel Coleman, a picture of nine men in one hand and a gun in the other.

He didn't want to do what he was about to, but nothing was the same anymore, nothing was right. His best friend was gone, which was okay. He could cope with that, he still had his other brothers to lean against. And sure, his stepmom was gone to, she killed herself right after the snap happened. But still, he had his brothers.

Except he didn't have his brothers. Mr. Blackbourne was drunk out of his mind, sitting in his lonely mansion and screaming at anyone that stopped by. Nathan was the same way, yet when Gabriel had seen him last to try and help, to try and fix everything, Nathan had punched him so hard his Jaw broke. That was a year ago.

North, he refused to talk. He locked himself in his trailer, or in his garage, and did nothing. He wasn't even eating. And of course, when Gabriel tried to help North had actually thrown a knife at him. That was two years ago.

The last time his brothers had talked to him was a year ago, Nathan being the last one. They didn't know he was on the streets now, that he lost the trailer in a fire not even nine months ago, that his only parent figure was gone, that he was depressed to. No one knew anything anymore, no one talked to him anymore, he had been forgotten, left behind, thrown out like yesterday's trash. And Gabriel couldn't take it anymore.

Raven, doing the only thing he could think of, started screaming in Russian and proceeded to tackle the younger boy, trying to get the gun out of his hand.

Though the Russian was seconds late, the gunshot echoed around the alley.

"What the absolute fucking hell is wrong with you!" A loud, angry, voice screeched. Both Raven and Gabriel snap their heads towards the other side of the alley, their breaths leaving them at the fierce beauty in front of them.

"I swear to god when I get my hands on you I am going to make you wish you were motherfucking dead! Do you understand me?" The wild-haired red-head snarls, moving towards the two men with a glare that would make Owen and North cower.

"I-i don't..." Gabriel stumbles over his words, finally seeming to understand what was happening around him. He looks at the gun in his hand, the bullet that was frozen mid-air right in front of his face, and back towards the firey beauty who had saved him.

With a loud gasp, he throws the gun away from his face, stumbling to his feet and moving away from the frozen bullet. Tears slip down his face as he faces the girl, words wouldn't come out he struggled to reign in his panic. He had actually pulled the trigger. He was going to kill himself. He had given up hope.

Turning her angry eyes away from the brunette with blonde stripes she glares at the huge, like two heads taller than her, tattoed man that had tried to stop him.

"You better have him to the hospital in the next motherfucking five minutes. Because when I fucking land hell is going to freeze over."

The holographic image of the girl, that neither one knew was holographic, disappeared as time literally started again. The bullet hit the wall, the gunshot finished, and the sound of shouts running towards them all started again.

Right as Gabriel collapsed, the panic officially taking over, did he suddenly realize the words on his right hip was tingling, the first words his soul-mate would say to him, and the words she said echoed in his brain.

As Raven caught the boy, shocked at the events that just happened, he felt the rest of the alcohol in his system leave. She had said the words on his spine, the very ones that he had since he could remember. And she said them so fucking sexy.