Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
Author's Note : Inspired by the What If issue 87, Screams in the Night.
She sat on the roof staring off to the horizon lost to her own world. Few knew what she saw there, while the few that did wouldn't ever speak of the glimpses they witnessed. A ghost of her former self, once vibrant and full of life, now she quiet with rarely a spoken a word since the day it happened. As the fall leaves drifted on the winds, she stirred back to the reality she so desperately sought to escape with a sigh. Carefully she walked back to the old bell tower of the school, the portal to her escape. A moments distraction could spell disaster, a slip leading to a tumble and a fall some four stories. Perched upon the railing of the old bell a bird sat, pausing to take a step back to admire it, a loose shingle her undoing. She didn't scream, she didn't have the heart for it anymore, simply embracing her fate that rushed towards her.
A swift movement beyond her range of vision found her suddenly taken up tenderly, cradling her gently. The ground slowly neared, her saviour drifting down to walk them both to an old oak tree across the drive. As Jubilee looked up after a time she found a smiling face look looking back, setting her in her lap as she sighed in exasperation. Meekly Jubilee returned the smile, her gaze lingering a moment longer before falling on the main doors of the academy.
"Do be more careful Jubilation, I will not always be there to catch you." Monet said, following her gaze to the main doors as the Headmaster stepped out looking to the pair oddly.
"Is everything alright lass?" Sean called out, slowly closing on the pair as he casually walked across the lane.
"Everything is fine now, Jubilation was sitting upon the roof having yet another one of her spells. She paused to look at a bird, losing her footing on a loose single." Monet explained, looking down to the girl in her lap.
"Saints preserve us, I thought I had that door bolted shut." Sean exclaimed, drawing close and kneeling down to look to his charge..
"I would suggest something a little more sturdy than a mere deadbolt Mr. Cassidy, all that was left of it was some shattered metal and slag." Monet explained, having taken note of Jubilation's perilous perch to give a look to how she had gotten there before watching her though leaving her to do as she pleased.
"Ach, ye be right lass. I'll talk to Emma about getting something done before the poor girl gets back up there." Sean remarked, looking down to the despondent Jubilation, gently brushing a stray lock of hair out of her face.
"I shall keep an eye on her until then Mr. Cassidy, are you not needed at the airport?" Monet inquired, Sean suddenly looking to his watch and cursing.
"Thank ye lass, I almost forgot!" Sean exclaimed, rushing to the house and grabbing his car keys to call for Everett and Paige to join him.
The Cadillac convertible sped out the driveway, past the encompassing gates of the Academy, heading off to Logan International Airport to pick up the latest addition to the school. Jubilee followed the car with a lingering gaze before she once more looked up to the enigmatic Monet. Cautiously she crept from the arms that held her, sitting next to her elder peer with her legs crossed as she watched the main doors. As her eyes grew distant, Monet knew once again that Jubilation had become lost to reality, her mind retreating to that place where she had hid since that awful night had befallen the X-men.
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The screams had finally stopped, though she found the silence was far worse. The shadows flickered as the lasers of the scenario blinked in and out of existence, almost faster than the eye could see. He had to dead, there was no way he could survive that healing factor or not. Creeping to the window she looked down, instantly regretting it as she did so. The charred remains of Victor Creed laid strewn about the door, the lasers still lashing the burnt flesh, ever reducing him to nothing more than a blackened carcass. She felt the urge to vomit but fought against it. She had to get to Hank, if he was still alive he would need help.
Racing from the control room of the Danger Room, she ran back into the depths of the mansion, a shiver passing down her spine as the shadows grew darker and almost tangible as she took the steps of the winding stares two at a time. Coming to an abrupt halt, she stared down the corridor with fear welling in her as she looked to the lifeless form of Hank, strew outside the doors of the power core.
"Don't stand here, just go. Don't stand, just go. Don't stand here just go." Jubilee whispered, willing her body to move as she stood there frozen.
Tumbling forward with a graceless gate she rushed to his side, her stomach twisted in knots looking on the battered and broken form of the lovable man. Kneeling down with a her body trembling, she felt for a pulse as she done with Bishop, and nearly breaking down crying as the fates smiled upon her this time. It was ever so weak and tired but he was still alive. Fear suddenly overtook her as she looked from him to the corridor she had came from. The med lab was a horrid five flights up, the thought of carrying his massive frame up those stairs petrifying her.
"Oh god Hank! Don't die! Please don't die! I don't know what to do!" Jubilee wailed, tears welling in her eyes as the feeling of being utterly helpless and alone took hold of her.
'What'sa matter frail? Can't do a thing without yer Pappy Logan to hold her hand?' A voice called out, causing Jubilee to freeze.
She rose in a start sending a barrage of plasmoids down either end of the corridor to find it vacant aside from Hank and herself. Taking in a shuddering breath, she slowly crouched down and checked upon Hank's pulse again, just ever barely holding onto life.
"Okay Lee, it's just your mind playing tricks on you. Creed is..." Jubilee whispered, her throat growing tight as she dared not even say the word.
Shaking her head clear, she found new determination to her task at hand, getting Hank to the med lab before his faltering pulse beat for its final time. Looking about an idea struck her, rushing into the heavily damaged power core she started picking up strands of cable. Tumbling to his side again she checked once more for his pulse to lend her courage. Rewarded for the moment, she started to wrap the cable about Hank and then herself. Though she could never carry him, her stubborn will and determination would have to suffice her to drag him up those five flights of stairs, if it was the last thing she did.
'Probably will be frail. One wrong step and yull prolly fall over the edge, joinin' Bishop on the other side.' The voice called out once more.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut the hell up!" Jubilee screamed, her head darting about wildly as she looked to the shadows, faint laughter ringing in her mind.
"Shut up..." Jubilee whispered, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she looked to Hank, a sobering image as she began her trek to the med lab.
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Monet looked to Jubilee, worried as she felt anger and grief radiating from her, a rare breach of the shields that had unconsciously been slammed up. Monet knew both she and Emma had been locked in the Danger Room as the Phalanx took free reign over the X-mansion. From what Emma told her, Jubilee had been the worst in those days, having to be fed the little food they had been given until Banshee had rescued them. Shaking her head to dismiss the revery of the tale Emma had told her in confidence, Monet looked down to the youngest member of Generation X with a concerned look.
"What do you see in there..." Monet whispered.
Reaching out to let their minds know another, she looked to the twisted visions below that was Jubilee's mental landscape, a realm of nightmares made of the mansion of the Xavier Estate. Probing further she saw a figure pulling a burden up a spiralling staircase, in that moment she realized that it was Jubilee with a tortured man tied to her slight frame. Drawing closer, she was not prepared for the nightmares that lurked, a flash of red and claws sending her reeling back to reality shaken and shocked.
"Mon Dieu!" Monet exclaimed, staring at Jubilee.
Tears threatened to spill from her eyes though she stubbornly refused to cry. Ever so gently she pulled Jubilee into her lap again, absently stroking her hair while she pulled her into a hug, hoping that she might feel the token affection. Whatever the young girl was struggling with, whatever demons she had to face, for now she had to do so alone with her walls built too high for anyone to penetrate. Sighing, she found an ironic sense of kinship, having spent her life within walls.
From her office the Headmistress looked out, her heart swelling as she noticed two figures out upon the lawn, the elder of the two tending to the shattered mind of the younger. A faint smile touched her, letting out a sigh as she turned back to her desk to review the files. Lost to her own thoughts, she barely noticed Clarice pop her head past the frame of the door. As the girl waited there politely Emma looked to her with a finger to keep her place.
"Might I help you Clarice?" Emma asked of the slight girl darkening her doorway.
"Miss Frost...I saw a little man in a loin cloth, he was spinning a bullroarer and then vanished." Clarice responded in a meek tone, slowly creeping into the room.
"Where did you see this man?" Emma inquired, leaning over her desk with a finger flicking aside her riding crop.
"Near the biosphere." Clarice replied.
"Hmm...do tell me if he returns. I do not care for unwelcome guests here." Emma remarked, a nod given before Clarice left.
Emma sighed, feeling a touch sad for herself yet even more sad for the timid girl. While she wished to exude a sense of authority, she did not wish for her students to either resent or fear her. So far of them Paige seemed eager to please, with Everett's own pleasant nature leaving him amicable to her. Angelo quite the opposite just seemed apathetic towards her, with Monet herself openly challenging her every chance found. Clarice needed a gentle hand Emma knew, timid and fearful after her experience of narrowly surviving the Phalanx. Then of course there was Jubilee, still traumatized since the long overdue death of Victor Creed. Sighing, Emma turned back to the window to watch the thorn in her side show another side of her self, comforting Jubilee out on the lawn, Emma finding some herself at the sight.
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"God Blue, cut down on the twinkies!" Jubilee cried out, pulling the fallen X-man up the stairs, counting every flight if for a sense of progress.
'Can't handle the dead weight frail?' The voice taunted, sending a shiver down Jubilee as she yet again checked for a pulse.
"Shut up! Shut up! You're dead! You can't hurt me! I killed you! Shut the hell up!" Jubilee screamed after finding a pulse, though having to accept it had grown even weaker.
The voice remained silent as her own words echoed down the stairs, bringing tears to her eyes as the awful truth came back to her, she had taken a life when X-men weren't to kill. But they couldn't blame her, she assured herself again, she had no choice. It was either him or her. He had already killed Bishop, and left Hank teetering on the brink. Summoning up her fleeting courage she struggled on, looking up to the doorway that stood a flight up, only one more flight to go until the last stretch of her trek.
'Sure they can't blame ya. Yer absolutely right. It was either you are me, and here your Uncle Vic was gonna leave yer guts all over the bloody mansion for them ta find. Though it wouldn't be the same without the runt around ta find yer corpse like he did that squaw of his.' The voice of Creed growled.
"Shut up! You didn't kill Silverfox! That memory was an implant! Your head is so full of lies that ya can't even tell what's real and what's not!" Jubilee screamed, a new strength finding it's way to her as she struggled on.
'Tough talk kid, yer the one talkin' ta a deadman.' The voice replied with a sadistic chuckle.
Tears fell down Jubilee's cheeks, shocked that she even had tears left after everything that had happened. Pushing back the thoughts she struggled on, toppling against the landing gasping for breath, the lights of the med lab standing off down the hallway as a beacon of hope. Checking on Hank once more, she carried on after finding a pulse. Her legs burning and her back aching, she closed the distance to the med bay in a frantic pace, every hammering beat of her heart a reminder of the knifes edge Hank's life lay.
"No! God no! Don't you do this to me! Do you not dare do this to me! After I dragged your hairy behind up here you can't die on me! You hear me you big blue butthead! You can't die on me!" Jubilee screamed as she did her best to administer CPR to the fallen X-man.
'Take off his suit frail, I mighta tore it ta shreds, but it's still gonna make it harder ta do what ya gotta do.' The voice called out, a mocking tone to it.
"Don't you ever take a hint?" Jubilee asked with venom in her voice, slowly peeling away the tattered remains of the cumbersome suit.
'I ain't the one in need of a hint frail. I'm dead. Yer the one talkin' ta ghosts.' The voice replied.
"Oh god. This is just like Wolvie, just like he was when we met. Bad shit crazy talking to people that weren't there, oh god, oh god, oh god..." Jubilee stuttered as she collapsed in a heap on the floor, her body exhausted and tired with her soul bleeding to death as she looked up to the ceiling.
'Don't like what ya got Frail? I coulda made it all better if ya just played nice fer yer Uncle Vic. But ya had ta be stubborn, just like yer Pappy Logan. I could have made the pain go away. Killed ya nice and quick, just a twist o' yer tiny little neck and snap, all over. But you just had to fight it. Only got yerself to blame.' The voice whispered in her ear, startling her as she felt breath on her neck.
Looking about the room, Jubilee saw that she was alone aside for the fallen Bobby Drake and Emma Frost across from her, alone with Hank dying on the bed next to her. Rage built in her as she jumped to her feet, slamming her fists into Hank's chest as she screamed wildy, lost to the anger and rage. Her vision grew dark as she felt hands grab her, pulling her away as she kicked and fought to break free.
"Leave me alone! I killed you! You're dead! You can't hurt me anymore!" Jubilee screamed as she collapsed in the arms, wails of pain echoing through the mansion drowning out all sound.
In the doorway, Yukio and Ororo stood aghast, while Remy held Jubilee in his arms fighting with the teen. As he pulled her from the med lab, Yukio and Ororo quickly ran to the bedside of Hank, pulling out a crash unit and working to bring him back from the brink. Tears fell freely as they heard the screams ring out from down the hall, Remy yelling to Jubilee if only to break through to her. Their hearts ached as the phrases repeated their maligned mantra, I killed you! You can't hurt me anymore! Yet as they worked they knew in the end someone had hurt her far beyond anything she should have suffered. Tearing her apart from the inside at a place where no physical blow could ever find home, leaving nothing but pain and terror filled screams.
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Thinking the worst was over as he passed through the gate, Jonothon Evan Starsmore looked through the crowd to see the parade of reunions and the happiness that welled in their hearts with the absence of their friends and family. He had none to meet him that he knew, just the letter in hand and a name, Sean Cassidy. With everything life had thrown at him, a lesser man might have succumbed to a fate that might have been insurmountable. He had met it with the proverbial and wholly British Stiff Upper Lip, learning to deal with the tragedy that had cost him so dearly.
With his carry on the only thing he needed, he longed to put the flight behind him be shown to the place he would soon call home. Fate it seemed though wasn't finished with him yet, a monstrosity fading into existence in front of him with a taloned hand clasping his face.
"Welcome to America Jonothon Starsmore, now die!" The vile thing cried, men and women scattering around him with a wail of a child.
From the corner of his eye he could see a pretty blonde race to snag the child, tumbling out of reach of the abomination before him. Somewhere a man's voice carried over the screaming of the crowd, a prelude to the cacophony to come with the resounding words tearing through the air in a deafening din...
"Release the Lad!" Sean Cassidy screamed.
Jono could see the mockery of a man flinch in pain, watching shredded fabric fly through the air on the unseen waves of sound. Feeling the beast's grip tighten upon his head, with the claws tearing through the bindings about his face, Jono looked on as the monster turned with an exchange to his would be saviours. A hand was raised with murderous intent as visible light flashed through the air with a rent of sound slashing across towards the trio, a boy standing before the blonde in anguish yet somehow striving to stand against the assault.
"I'm impressed." The monster remarked in an amused tone.
Anger rising as he had enough of playing the helpless victim if only from his surprise and shock, Jono looked on the vile monstrosity and let the tight grip over his power slip the wave crashing against him in answer to his need.
'You sincerely...want to be impressed? Try this...Pillock!' Jono shouted with his found voice.
The torrent tore from his chest, a vortex ripping about him to shatter the finished concrete beneath their feet still in the encumbered embrace. Denying the claims of the monster, Jono told the truth that little was impossible having found the will to deal with the destruction of his very flesh. Yet for it all the monster prattled on, calling for their surrender so he might feast on them only to be interrupted in his rant by a sound Jono could only dare describe as a Blink. A blur of motion strikes the vile beast, driving him further into the shattered cement mid-sentence.
"Hmm, I actually felt that." The creature muses with a glance skyward.
"It was Pain, Emplate. Get used to it." The airborne girl spat.
Jono saw the latest to join was a caramel skinned beauty who only had words for the monster she named in her attack, Emplate. Others stood on the field of what now could only be a battle, a blonde woman in white with a boy of grey sallow skin, and an elf whose skin was violet standing aside an Asian girl with sightless eyes of blue. Watching their entrance, Jono realized he had lost track of the trio who had sought to save him until he acted in his own defence, a cry from Sean Cassidy drawing his gaze to a horror unfolding.
"Paige!" Sean shouted all too late.
Jono watched helpless to act with the swiftness of the attack, the taloned claws of Emplate tearing down her chest in a bloody gash, her wail of anguish telling him he still might have a heart beating in his broken breast if only because he could feel it taken in an icy grip. Chaos eruptted anew, orders shouted daring to use the precious time they have to save her life. Instead the sallow skinned boy did the unthinkable after rushing to the side of the fallen Paige, his fingers reaching into the would to tear at it with a wretched rip. Laying unharmed in the tatters of her skin Paige looked with reserved respect for the vile fiend.
"Ah, dessert. How nice of you to oblige..." Emplate rasped from aside.
The Asian stood under him with a hand raised to Emplate's chest, Jono as helpless as the rest watching the taloned hand lower to her face with predatory swiftness. Yet instead of the attack he knew all too well himself, a sense of dread filled the hard eyes of the monster who only a moment before expressed only a gluttonous lust. The world exploded in a blinding flash, the nearest windows of the airport blown out as the shockwave tore over them to lay them low. Where Emplate stood menacing over the slight girl, she stood alone with blood trickling down her face from the cuts earned from the taloned fingers.
"Jubilee!" Sean yelled, rushing to her side.
Watching as she struggled with Sean to shirk him off, Jono looked on her as she took the first of many tentative steps towards them. With her expressionless eyes locked on Paige, she knelt next to her with a hand run over her chest where before the bloody gash had lay. Taken into her arms, Paige rocked her back and forth and whispered words of assurance as much for herself as the quiet girl. Knowing a long story when he saw one, Jono gave them some privacy as he looked to the rest.
"Dios, she didn't...did she?" The sallowed skinned boy asked.
"No, he fled. He must have realized what was about to happen just before she could have." The caramel skinned beauty assured, settling down with Paige and the girl Jono knew now to be Jubilee.
"Clarice, do you think you'd be fit enough to take us back to the school? Sean, I'll leave Everett with you for the drive back." The blonde in white asked, a smile offered to the violet girl who just nodded without a word.
In a moment of disconnect with time and space feeling wholly two separate things, joined along side sound that he again could only describe as a Blink though he had to wonder if he really heard it, Jono found he no longer stood in the ruin of the airport but now with the rest on a lawn before a school he'd only seen from a photo. Understanding how they had come so suddenly to join the fight, he looked to see the grey skinned boy holding out a hand in offer.
"Jono si? Angelo Espinosa, welcome to Generation X." Angelo said in greeting with a shake between them.
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Time had lost its meaning, the days blending into another as she sat in her room upon her bed with a hat upon her night stand and a note set upon its brim. People had come and gone, if she struggled she could remember their faces filled with concern. They cared for her in a way she could not herself bother anymore, having fed her and bathed her, hugged her and promised everything would be well again in time. Lies to children Jubilee, trying to protect her from the truth. That she had talked to Wolvie about finding a strength for her power from the revelation of her parents murder was a painful irony, having boasted she could kill with the right use of that newfound might.
In the end she hadn't even needed her powers to kill, all it had taken had been being too scared to act that cost Bishop his life after saving her. Creed though had been different, Hank had pulled through to get the core back online in time for her to reboot it. She'd found the only place she could to make her stand, used the only plan she could come up with. She'd killed him in the Danger Room with the safeties off and the laser field set to max. She couldn't then believe how long it had taken for him to die, sitting on that chair when she should have been rushing to Hank instead, Hank who now lay in a coma with no prognosis on if he'd recover.
Her door opened, light from the hall spilling in with a silhouette set against it that she had come to know well. The door shut with barely more than a click, his feet padding across her rug and the bed springs crying in protest as he sat down next to her. Feeling his gentle touch to her cheek, a tear spilled from her eyes as some part of her soul betrayed her needing the comfort she didn't deserve.
"P'tite?" Remy whispered.
She didn't say anything, she couldn't say anything for there were no words to explain herself. In the dim light of her room his red on black eyes smoldered with their own fire, a sadness in them as he looked on her. She felt herself taken into his arms, picked up as he settled on her bed with his back to the headboard, whispering in melodic french that could only be a lullaby. In the depths of her mind she could hear the grating laughter, feel him in the shadows of her room watching from the darkness.
She had lost something that night, beyond what she feared was her own grip on reality, she had lost the innocence Logan had lauded of her in that letter he'd left the night he'd gone to find a new meaning to his life. Held in Remy's arms with his gentle voice washing over her, sleep found her at last with no need to worry about the nightmares that might find her knowing she had lived the worst of them.
Remy did as he had done ever since she'd been returned to her room, tucking her under the covers and resting her head upon the pillow. The revelation of her ordeal had called for a painful watch, urged by the good Doctor MacTaggert, most resigned to admit she might well take her life otherwise. Remy had stayed with her through those long hours with her arms strapped to the bed, Jubilee laying still and lifeless with not a word spoken to her ghosts or any other. Placing a kiss to her cheek, he looked on her and struggled against his own grief for a long moment.
"Bonne Nuit." Remy whispered, hoping his words could reach her in some way as he took his leave.
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Author's Note : Rewrite of the same story, the old one deleted feeling the need to start fresh. In the wake of that marvellous What If issue, this story will explore the formation of Generation X, jumping for a time from past to present just enough to explore what I need from the Phalanx Covenant. Gen X/-men Cannon is going off the rails soon enough, just keeping enough for Penance's introduction.