Summary: Lydia is a typical Midwestern girl, except for the fact that she's a mutant with multiple personalities. She was never liked as a child, so she doesn't freely give up the information to just anyone. Well, Lain doesn't. Kelly could care less and Nina wants to tell everyone in sight! With so many people in one head, how long can Lydia maintain her distance when she's feeling so different? And what about the scientific breakthrough she represents? Will Lydia ever find peace in Xavier's school?
Wolf: Yo, I thought I'd take a break from "Like Everyone Else" because I'd already started writing this one. There are a few things I have to make clear before you start reading too far into the story and start getting really confused. When I refer to Lydia, I mean the body of the main character. When I say any other names that will then be revealed, I mean that they, as a personality, are being directly referred to. For ease, a couple of the names are both Lydia and another name to show you how it works for this chapter only. The rest you have to figure out on your own. R & R, please, and if you have any tips, let me know.
The X-men thought they had trouble when someone like Rogue joined the group. Her powers were dangerous to both herself and others. Now, there was a new batch of students and among them, there was Lydia DuPont, a girl just out of childhood and already on the road to being a very dangerous mutant with powers she couldn't control, and even some she hadn't even discovered.
Not many of the other students knew much about her from their class introduction. Professor X also found that her mind was separated into multiple distinct personalities, all of which worked together to make up Lydia, but none of them knew all of the story and the other personalities were always alerting their sister when someone was trying to pry. The professor knew a few things, but not enough to make him feel calm about using the girl as a team member or student. His morals prevented him from openly probing her mind, so it was almost impossible to set his mind at ease.
As far as anyone could tell, Lydia was just a small girl with a sickly pallor that covered her coffee-colored skin. Her hair, black and let loose so that it hung to her stomach without obstruction, covered deep blue eyes that never quite met another person's gaze directly.
Surprisingly, when the new students met up with Nightcrawler and the other first generation of students, she'd been the only one not even a little surprised by his blue appearance. Beast hadn't frightened her either, even though he thought it was fun to scare the new students and it had always worked before. She was just a quiet girl who took orders and seemed to have complete control over her powers and emotions.
Well, that was the impression for the first few days. After that, she started to open up to Nightcrawler, although no one else could even come close to her. She didn't trust people easily and it seemed that the professor would allow her to be as recluse as she needed to be for the moment. The fact that she was already making friends with the so-called 'unreachable' older mutants was a good thing.
"So, you were telling me about your old family," Nightcrawler said with a smile as Lydia stopped. Her head was suddenly spinning and she clutched it gently. Since she was a person called Lain at the moment, one of her other personalities was trying to get through, but she wouldn't let it. She was having a nice conversation with someone for once.
"Yeah," Lydia/Lain continued, her Midwestern accent making her one of the majority in at least how she spoke. "Back up in Wisconsin, I lived with my dad and my brothers. They were all older than me so I never knew what to expect from them. You're kind of like Dave, Kurt. Maybe that's why you seem so familiar."
Nightcrawler smiled widely and sat down next to Lydia/Lain on the bed. "My family was just my mother and my father," he told her. "They fished me out of a river, you know."
"I guess that makes you a sort of fish, huh?" Lydia/Lain said in a different voice. She covered her mouth and her eyes widened as she thought the word 'fish' loudly within her mind, not being able to stop the echo as it reached where her powers were locked away. Suddenly, the bed she and Nightcrawler had been sitting on turned into a thrashing muskellunge that didn't seem to mind that it was out of water.
"I'm so sorry," she shouted as things started crashing around. Nightcrawler smiled at his new friend while she opened the door to shout for help in getting the fish out of her room. It was nearly seven feet long, a really good size if she'd been fishing, but that was hardly the time or place for one. If she wasn't careful, it would try and bite someone's hand off. These fish were carnivores. If there was meat in front of them they would take it, even if it was still connected to something as big as the fish itself.
Other mutants gathered in the doorway while Nightcrawler and Lydia/Lain started to hold onto the fish and try to make it stop thrashing so much.
"That's it!" Nightcrawler shouted, teleporting himself and the fish out of the room. Lydia/Lain had turned bright red by this point and she saw people snickering and talking about her. Without trying, she'd successfully turned the student body against her. This year of school was just going great. It had only been three days and already she was considered weird, even for a mutant.
She would end up being alone at this school, too. It wouldn't be different from back at home, just using seperate reasons.
When Nightcrawler returned, Jean Grey walked into the room and sent everyone else out. Lydia was left there, alone and without a bed. "Professor Xavier wants to see you, Lydia," Jean told her, smiling softly at the girl she knew had caused the trouble with her powers.
"I know," Lydia/Lain said with a sigh. She hoped that no one would kick her out because of this incident. It had only been a bed, after all. She hadn't done it to Nightcrawler, which was a good thing. She'd accidentally turned her brother into a weasel once because of those stupid power of hers.
"Ah, Lydia," the professor said as she walked in. He was also with a man Lydia remembered as Logan. She thought his codename was Wolverine or something, but she couldn't be sure without consulting her other selves.
"Actually, it's easier to call me Lain for the moment," Lydia/Lain told him, showing him exactly which personality she was for their visit. Lain had been in control for almost a week now, and she knew that she wouldn't be there for much longer since she'd used her powers.
"Alright, Lain," the professor continued, unconsciously scanning the girl one last time to see if her thoughts were apparent enough to see without prying. "Would you tell me why you turned your bed into a… What kind of fish was it, Logan?"
"A musky," Lain told them both, rolling her eyes. "Look, I didn't want to turn it into a fish, but I said that made Kurt a fish and I was touching the bed. My powers react to what I say and I wasn't watching my tongue. It'll be a bed again in a few hours, so don't worry about buying a new one."
Logan snorted at that. He seemed to believe that Lydia could and had turned her bed into a fish about as much as her old 'friends' had when her powers first manifested themselves.
"But as for the rest of you," Professor Xavier continued, silently asking Jean and Kurt to fish out the bed from the bay, especially since a freshwater fish couldn't survive in saltwater, "I need to catalogue your powers to prevent further incidents. There was only so much I could tell your father about you without setting off one of your less agreeable personalities."
Lain sighed. "You can read my mind, can't you?" she told the older man. "Why don't you just to that and save me the trouble of explaining everything to you?" The professor seemed surprised that Lydia was so willing to get her mind read. Before, she'd refused a hundred times even when the professor had given up asking and tried to covince her instead.
Of course, that could have had something to do with the fact that her brothers were hovering protectively around her all the time. She seemed more like a stuffed doll to them than a person. Her father hadn't been much better. The older man was convinced that his daughter was an average human and her skills as a mutant were negligible if he didn't talk about them.
As Lain sat down, the professor reached out to her and was suddenly in her mind. It took the form of a hallway littered with different doors, each probably representing a personality. At the end of the hall there was a sort of circular room, filled with light. It was interesting, but Charles had the distinct impression that he wasn't allowed into that room of light, something he respected. Some parts of the mind were private. He wouldn't go deeper than he was invited unless it was urgent.
While Charles looked around one more time to try and take in as much detail as possible, he noticed that a few people were staring from their door and several were stepping out of the room of light. Lydia was there in all of them. One eventually stopped in front of him and smiled. She was Lydia as he remembered from her physical body, but she was a little taller and her hair was much shorter. This must have been Lain's form, the dominant personality in the girl.
"Here, Charles," she told him, handing over a set of keys, each stranger than the next. "Use that to unlock any unfriendly door, if you think you can handle it. The ones that don't care whether you're here won't have locked their doors, so I'd visit them first and try to make friends. I hope you enjoy your examination. Don't get hurt, please. That would be too bad." With that, Lain bounced on the ground and through the ceiling, disappearing as quickly as she'd appeared in the first place.
Charles looked around and started his journey. The doors beckoned and he had work to do.