Xander vol.1 Transmutation (15 page)

“
Wonderful idea. Carry
on.”

Forty minutes later, they
were ready to check out. Nora had picked out a simple wardrobe for
Xander, which consisted of the heather grey tee and denim jeans he
was wearing. As well as a few other plain tees and jeans. Nothing
flashy, which she had to convince him of to begin with. But
eventually he gave in, letting her put together his
wardrobe.

They approached the
cashier counter together, Xander carrying all of the clothing. Nora
had decided against the wig, the blonde reminding her of Sarah too
much, and the others just being too ridiculous of a
colour.

Placing the things on the
counter, Nora sighed, glancing up at Xander while the cashier
fiddled with something with their back to them. Xander returned the
glance with a raised brow after feeling her gaze on him. His
expression suggested a question.

“
So, how are you paying
for all this? I’m sure you didn’t expect me to,” Nora asked,
crossing her arms.

“
Of course not. Does your
species’ currency accept gold?”

Nora nodded with raised
brows of her own.

“
You have
gold?”

Now Xander nodded. Nora
huffed, throwing her arms up.

“
Then we didn’t have to
shop here!” she whined. Her increased volume made the cashier turn
around, revealing the all too familiar face of Nani. Nani’s eyes
widened as she saw her, Nora’s face almost immediately mimicking
hers.

“
N-Nani,” Nora
stammered.

“
Nora?”

Xander looked up from the
pile of clothes he was shifting through for the fourth time, seeing
the familiar human face. He smiled, his posture straightening in
recognition.

“
Human!” he greeted with
joy.

Chapter 13

Walking in through the
door of Fran’s house, Nora held herself as she walked further in at
a rather quick pace, while Xander followed lazily behind, kicking
the door shut behind him. He sighed, shifting the pile of clothes
in his arms as he stepped a little closer to the pacing
Nora.

“
So, explain this dating
thing to me. What is it?” he asked curiously as he set the pile of
clothing down on the back of the sofa.

He watched her, waiting
for a response. But it soon became clear to him that she was
getting further and further into her thoughts. Thoughts unpleasant,
by the look on her face.

She was pacing around in
circles, her eyes focused on her feet. Seeing Nani for some reason
had jarred her. Being face to face with her past, when she didn’t
know if she could reconnect to it again.

Nani had given her a piece
of her mind back at the store about how she felt about her sudden
disappearance, and Nora not being able to give a reason for it only
made things worse. They had to leave the store before Nani caused a
scene, and Nora had been replaying the conversation the entire way
back to the house.

The response she’d gotten
from Nani – it made her think. About her own family. How would they
react to her disappearance? Would they accept her the way she was
now? Would they understand? How could she expect them to,
when
she
didn’t?

“
Nora?” Xander asked
softly, watching the slow deterioration of her brain.

Her head spun, and she
felt her footing begin to falter. What if she’d made a terrible
mistake? What if she couldn’t handle what she had set out to do in
the first place? Forget about her family accepting her. What if she
couldn’t save them? What if she couldn’t stop the doctor in time?
And they were subjected to this life? The life of a mutant? Of a
Chimera? What if they died in the process?

“
Nora,” Xander said again,
a little more firmly as he stepped towards her.

Nora’s hands had found
their way to the sides of her temple, and she was beginning to make
soft whimpering sounds. When he wasn’t answered a third time, he
gripped her by her shoulders and gave her a firm shake.

“
Nora
,” he said again. This time Nora’s eyes fluttered, before
refocusing on Xander’s face. He frowned. “What is it?”

Nora was silent for a
moment, as her mind recollected itself. Her eyes darted about as
she pieced together an answer, trying to remember where she was.
And then, having it all mash together, her eyes watered, somewhat
surprising Xander.

“
What if I can’t do this?”
she finally said. Xander’s frown deepened.

“
What?”

“
This,” Nora said,
gesturing to the room and confusing Xander further. “This … Rescue
mission. What if I can’t do it? There’s no way that I can. Richard
almost killed me –
twice
. I can’t go up against all of
them. I don’t even know how many there are,” she ranted as the
tears began to fall. “And what about the police? What if they won’t
help me? What if they lock me away forever to be tested on
instead?”

Xander squeezed her
shoulders, trying to calm her.

“
Stop,” he ordered. “What
are you saying?” Nora sniffled, reaching up to wipe her eyes at the
question. “You keep saying ‘I’. When
I
, a
power-wielding alien
have already
agreed to help you with this,” Xander reminded, letting go of her
shoulders with a sigh. Nora wiped her eyes more hurriedly as he
shook his head.

“
But what if it’s not
enough? What if –“

“
Don’t insult me,” Xander
frowned. “I’m more than enough to help you save your little
power-queer planet.”

Nora sniffled again, her
breathing coated in soft hiccups.

“
Just stop crying. You do
that too often.”

Nora’s head snapped back
up in disbelief of the insensitivity, her eyes watered again as she
raised her fists. Xander flinched as he suddenly felt the wrath of
Nora’s hands against his arm, making his curl away from
her.

“
Well excuse me for being
human!” she whined just before Xander caught a hold of one of her
wrists.

He laughed, making her
frown and flail about, trying to get her hand free to continue
hitting him.

“
That’s good,” he said,
catching her off guard.

Her fury slowed to a stop
as the words paused her onslaught. She looked at him, at his smile,
before pulling her hand away from him.

“
What?”

“
You said you were human,”
Xander noted.

Nora’ eyes broadened as
she realized. She lowered her fists from their hitting positions
and she realized he wasn’t laughing at her.

“
So?”

“
So. You think you still
are, don’t you? Despite calling yourself a Chimera yesterday, or
whatever it was.”

“
I’m not human,” Nora
insisted, her eyes lowering. “Not anymore.”

“
Aren’t you? Just because
you’re like this now, doesn’t mean you’re not, does it?”

“
It doesn’t work like
that.”

“
I know,
genetically
, you may not
be considered human anymore. But does that really make you any less
of one? Saphora is, by genetic structure, an Ekechi. Yet she
remains an Athenian. I think it’s the same for you.”

Nora fell silent at his
kind words, taking them to heart. She felt her chest heave, and
somewhat of a weight slide from her shoulders, hearing what she had
longed to believe. That she was still human. A smile cracked her
features as her body lunged forward into his, her arms wrapping
around him and catching him by surprise. His body stiffened as he
his arms immediately raised in caution as she nuzzled against
him.

“
Thank you,” she sobbed.
He grunted as she squeezed, before groaning, hearing the strain of
her voice.

“
Crying,” he groaned.
“You’re crying again,” he complained as he reached down to take her
by the shoulders and attempt prying her off. She whined, tightening
her grip to stay where she was.

“
I can’t help it!” she
whined.

“
Alright,
alright
,” Xander cooed,
still tugging at her shoulders. “Here, you bring the clothes up to
Saphora’s room, and I’ll fix some Athenian food, huh? Okay?” he
offered.

Immediately, Nora’s eyes
dried as she took a step back from him in order to look up into his
face. She wiped her eyes.

“
Really?”

Xander nodded and Nora
spun around, grabbing the pile of clothes on the sofa and flying up
the stairs, nearly tripping over herself in the process. Xander
chuckled to himself watching her go.

“
Emotional, that one,” he
mumbled to himself before turning to enter the kitchen and trying
to remember where he had stashed the food.

There were so many cabinet
and cupboards it could have been. He sighed, slapping his hand to
his face when realizing he hadn’t the slightest idea where he had
left anything. They’d been eating Earth’s food for the past few
days, and his memory was faulty. He stood there, hands on his hips
as he scanned the kitchen, concentrating on each door and trying to
recall his last actions.

It was then that he heard
movement outside the kitchen. He glanced at the ceiling, as if to
look through it into Saphora’s room. Had Nora rushed to finish that
quickly? That’s when he heard it again, coming from not just
outside the kitchen, but outside the house.

Footsteps.

Thudding, as if there were
several. His eyes narrowed as he spun around, eyeing the window
next to the door and seeing the moving figures. Perhaps it was
Richard? He’d found them and brought reinforcements?

He stepped back outside
the kitchen, eyeing the door. Meanwhile, upstairs, the door to the
closet Nora was inside slowly closed shut. Xander called on its
magnetic properties to secure the door’s lock, unknown to Nora, who
was still busy putting the clothes away. He frowned, coming back
into the living room and watching the door with
anticipation.

With sudden force, the
door came crashing in, startling the focused Nora upstairs. She
tensed, instinctively ducking and covering her head as she heard
the crack. Her eyes shut tight as she whimpered, listening for the
sound to continue. She peeked one eye open, her face scrunching
into wonder as she questioned exactly what Xander was doing. But
her thoughts of Xander being the cause quickly faded as she heard
several voices.

“
Richard?” she gasped,
whipping her head around to look at the closed door.

She listened intently, her
eyes darting about. But she didn’t hear Richard’s voice, she heard
Xander’s, followed by the loading of a weapon. She gasped again,
hurrying to her feet.

“
The police,” she
breathed, just before hearing the weapon fire, followed by a grunt
of pain from Xander. “No!” she cried, running to the door and
twisting the knob, only to find that the door would not open,
despite not being locked. “What?” she said aloud as she continued
to tug and pull on the doorknob.“No!” she cried again, realizing it
was Xander that was keeping the door closed.

She went to pull harder,
but was met by a slight, but large enough shock. It knocked her off
her feet onto the carpeted floor. She groaned, rushing back to her
feet to try the door again, but flinched when she heard the weapon
go off again. Slowly, her hands lowered from her ears as she
awaited more noise. But what she heard made her blood run
cold.

Silence.

Silence rang in her ears
for what seemed like ages before she heard the dragging of a body,
accompanied by grunts from the police. Nora’s face paled as the
magnetized door slowly creaked open. She watched it like she would
a ghost, before rushing out of the room, shaking her head. She
darted to the open window in Saphora’s room, falling to her knees
and peering outside from its corner.

With bated breath she
watched as the men and woman dragging Xander’s passive body into
one of the black vans. She gasped as she saw the blood that stained
Xander’s new shirt, as well as a portion of his jeans. She
whimpered as their eyes met. His seemed to be telling her to stay
where she was. Demanding it, even. She shook her head in protest,
but his gaze remained unwavering as he was shoved into the vehicle,
arms cuffed behind his back.

It was then that she heard
footsteps reenter the house, making her spin around. They were
quick paced, and headed in all directions – including upstairs.
They were searching the house. Nora’s breathing sped up as she
searched the room for a place to hide, her scan ending with the
bed. With an almost thrust of her body, Nora crawled under the bed
in time to hide her body from the entering officers.

She clamped her hand over
her mouth, fighting the whimpering cries her body evoked. She
watched the men’s feet pass on each side of the bed, listening to
them speak amongst themselves as they began searching.

“
Think this guy knows
where Saphora is?” one of them asked another.

“
I don’t know, but Elba’s
gonna find out,” the other answered.