{zión moreno, 21, trans woman, she/her/hers} || yazmín navarro montes is a mutant with the ability of hydrokinesis (water manipulation). they’ve been in new york for eight and a half years where they spend most of their time as student attending xavier’s/unwilling omega. when i think of them, i think of words and pictures carved into desks, a pool of water’s wobbly reflection, necklace chains tangled in hair, and fast footsteps following the sound of a schoolbell.
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yazmín navarro montes was the apple of her parents’ eye. despite being the middle child of three children, she didn’t linger in the background or have to fight for attention. her mother and father always had plenty of time and love for her, no matter what. they let her express herself however she wanted. because of that, she would, soon enough, realize she was trans. her parents accepted her wholeheartedly, as did the rest of her family, embracing and supporting her. they even moved churches the moment the one they attended attempted to disapprove. their new and lifelong one would be loving and kind, and yazmín would see it as her second home for a long time.
unlike most kids, yaz didn’t bemoan going to church, praying, or all the time spent there that other children would say is ‘wasted’. she herself felt close to god, as if he smiled on her and her family. the cross her grandparents had given her on her fifth birthday almost never left her neck. her sister teased her for how much of a “kiss-ass” for god she could be, but it didn’t shake how yaz felt. when she was within the walls of the church, it was as if a wave of energy would fill her bones. it was magical.
schooling proved to be more of a challenge, as she found herself easily bored. that was until she got a taste for science, chemistry specifically. she dove head first in, eager to read, learn, and watch whatever she could get her hands on. there were more than a few times they had to air out the house when one of yaz’s experiments went awry. most of those incidents could be explained away easily, but there were one or two her parents always wondered about. it was as if yazmín would have access to chemicals or tools that she’d have no way to get. they’d soon find others who shared in their concerns.
much like any tween about to become a teen, yaz would have spouts of moodiness. she filed in behind her sister in one of those moods, irritated by everything and anything, even the surge of energy she got entering the church. as they sat down, the priest came down the aisle to bless them all with holy water. it was a routine he liked to do every first sunday of the month. yazmín rolled her eyes as he passed their row, unhappy her outfit would get stained. that was all it took. the water never touched her, standing still as her eyes met the ceiling, before sprinkling to the floor in front of her feet. she didn’t notice at all, nor did her family.
but the priest did.
he didn’t want to believe it. right before his eyes, the water meant to bless a devoted child of god had repelled itself from her. he even tried to bless her again, yet the same thing happened.
to yazmín, nothing had happened. it worried the priest even more. at first, he did nothing with this information, unsure of what to do. as time passed, more odd instances happened around her. she took her brother to the park, and the park’s sprinklers rose but no water came out. once they left, water exploded from each opening. her mother would notice she’d come home bone dry despite a spring shower outside. every once in awhile the faucets in the house would only run warm right away despite the winter biting at people’s heels outside.
it’s six months what the priest witnessed when he came to her parents. he explained his concerns, and they were distraught. mutants were becoming a more well known entity in the last decade, but many churches had found themselves distrusting. they thought, instead of a scientific explanation, the manifestation of powers was evidence of demons or the devil itself. people who showed signs of these abilities had to be saved for the sake of themselves and others.
when yazmín came home from school that day, she was met by all three of them and a priest she didn’t know. her sister was away at college and her brother had been sent to stay with their grandparents. it was an unsettling silence that would last for two years.
that evening yazmín went through her first exorcism. they didn’t explain why or what she had down. it scared her, despite how little they did. the way her parents looked at her, how the priest flinched under gaze, she couldn’t understand what she had done wrong. it took the third exorcism for her to find out what it was. holy water sprinkled on her, until it suddenly halted in the air. she stared at it, eyes wide, before turning her head and the droplets hit the exorcist right in the face.
“the hold the demon has on her grows stronger,” the man gravely spoke.
it finally dawned on her. she tried to defend herself, tell them she wasn’t doing it on purpose, that she hadn’t done it at all. she would know if she were possessed, and she wasn’t. she cried, shouted, but no one listened. none of it worked. her parents were desperate to save their daughter, and the priests wanted to save her soul.
the exorcisms continued, increasing in their length and intensity. days blurred together, prayers ringing in her ears and her hope for a light at the end of the tunnel growing smaller and smaller. her father would cry out, “please save my little girl! please bring her back!”
“i’m still here, papa,” yazmín sobbed. “i never left!” but after awhile, even that didn’t sound true.
somedays she’d fight back, although unintentional. her hands curling into fists would freeze the pipes, a glare could boil a drink, a missed kick would bring a wave of water over from their neighbor’s pool. each time they grew more convinced of her possession, while yazmín realized she wasn’t without options. she made a few attempts to run away, only to fail because she was only thirteen.
then, quite suddenly, that daily routine came to an end. it all started with the newest exorcist coming in, and wondering aloud if there was any saving her. her mother had gasped, and father looked ready to cry. he and the other priests went to another room, and came back with a new plan. they would take her out of this environment, to somewhere no demon could survive. it could take months, years to return, if she ever did. it was their last resort.
yazmín didn’t give her parents a chance to answer. “i’m not leaving my home!”
“now, young lady, that isn’t-”
“i didn’t do anything wrong!” her cry shook the house, the pool next door sloshed, and the dam holding back the river above the down cracked ever so slightly.
“baby, please--” her mother tried to calm her, but yaz shook her head, tears already on her face.
“i’m-” the sink heads burst off. “not-” cracks filled the area around the pool, “leaving.” every pipe in the house ruptured, breaking the drywall apart with the force of the water coming out.
a similar scene took place in other houses, backyards flooded other backyards, and the crack of the dam grew longer.
“she must be stopped!” the priest cried out, unsheathing a dagger from beneath his robes and headed toward yazmín, quickly. “or else she will take us all!”
there were screams and yells all around her. time slowed down. yaz watched each muscle of his body raise the dagger towards her, and she grabbed for anything to help her. water interlinks with her finger and forms a sharp knife of its own. his dagger dragged over a centimeter of her neck, and the pain woke her up. she used the weapon in hand and stabbed it through his body.
metal clattered to the floor with a thud of a body. everyone was staring at her. within moments, yaz passed out.
the next few months of her life would be hard to account for. the government had gotten involved, as did charles xavier. her meltdown had brought their town a lot of attention, along with questions. no one found out that she caused it. authorities wished to keep her with them, but charles had somehow convinced them to let her attend xavier’s. later, yaz would find it ironic her attempt to stay home would send her away anyways.
things were hard for awhile, but she grew accustomed to her new life. she even enjoyed it, being around people like her and free to use those powers without consequence. nearly a decade later, the year of exorcisms was becoming a distant memory. but the government hadn’t forgotten about her.
someone powerful enough to nearly sink an entire town at thirteen, who could surly do even worse now, was not easily filed away by those in charge. they had contacted professor xavier in the beginning stages of the omega project, then reached out to her. they offered her a deal: a complete wipe of her record in exchange for her participation. yazmín hated them for it. they made her an offer she couldn’t refuse, and she accepted it with gritted teeth.
now, yazmin is moved out of the comfort of xavier’s and lives in a cold compound with strangers she prefers to keep at arms length. her life is a whirlwind again, and she’s not sure when it’ll stop this time, if it ever will.