Warnings for Story: Slash of the Bobby/John variety, very little of the actual X-Men.

Warnings for Chapter: Unbelievably shortness, badly written ending. And only implied slash.

A Different Destiny

Prologue

Pain. Unbelievable pain. Pain that came from a source deeper and more powerful than the physical body, beyond anything you could do to stop it.

The pain of your mind being wrenched apart. The pain of knowing you were going to die. The pain that you would never say goodbye, never say how you really felt about so many people.

Pain is a terrible thing. But it can also make all the difference.

It can focus our minds. The intense feeling makes all else seem simple, and therefore understandable.

Bobby Drake was in pain. His mind itself was under attack, crumbling under an unending assault. He knew it wouldn't stop, not unless there was a miracle… Or when he died.

But as he lay there on the cold metal floor, screaming, it all began to drop into place. Everything that he hadn't been able to see before.

His friend, John. Pyro. His best friend. Always playing with that lighter. Playing with those powers. Letting them loose.

It was what he wanted to do. He could control them, hold them back, but that wasn't what he wanted. The Professor wanted to trap them; Pyro wanted to set them free.

Magneto didn't want to keep them caged. He'd been friendlier than the Professor had ever been. Acted more as a mentor than a disapproving headmaster. Understood him. Encouraged him.

Magneto had to gone to fight. John had gone as well, supposedly to help.

Gone.

John was gone.

John had gone to Magneto, not to the Professor.

The loss, an aching loneliness… It drowned out even that ever-present pain. A cry of despair deep enough to drive out the rest, if only for a moment.

Bobby reached out, wanting to feel the warmth that had walked out on the jet, on his life, on himself. Instead, he felt unfeeling material as a gloved hand gripped his own.

Forcing his eyes open, he saw Rogue holding onto him as if her life depended on the contact. Not fire, not heat, not John, just the girl he had believed he loved.

Only now he could see the truth.

No love, only infatuation. Not with her, but with the idea. A girl that couldn't be touched, that would never feel love the way others were able to. A mystery that had drawn him in, playing on his kindness, on the emotions that were still searching for a focus.

John had seen right through him, though. All the jokes, all the teasing… In that split-second, Bobby realised that John had been trying to tell him all along. He had known right from the beginning what had been going on.

And now the only person who really knew him had walked away.

As if on cue, the pain suddenly vanished, leaving his ears ringing and a head that felt like a small bomb had exploded inside. In the emptiness it left behind, he felt lost. Abandoned. Suspended in motion, floating between choices.

All lives reach this point sooner or later. One choice, two destinies. Two different journeys with two different end results.

This was Bobby's.

One of his destinies is well-known. Bobby stayed with Rogue, became an X-Man and eventually faced his best friend on a battlefield, fighting on opposite sides. He helped to save Alcatraz and attacked someone he knew better than himself.

In that destiny, Bobby never found real love. Never found true happiness, alone or with anybody else. He was on the side that was perceived as good, but he never got what he really wanted.

But what about the other fate? How did that start? Where did it lead? How did it end?

Two realities.

One Bobby went one way, the other went another.

Whatever happened to the other Iceman?

Author's Notes: Hmm… Didn't like that bit at the end, but revision has a way of frying your brain. Besides, it meant that this got finished a lot quicker (although much shorter as well). Kind of depends on what you find more important. Ah well, hopefully it'll get better.

So, I was actually amazed at how good a reaction Frozen Over got (or maybe you people have no taste. No, don't insult the reviewers…). Most people seemed to like the AU idea, so this is it. Probably won't have any heavy slash for a couple of chapters, just the kind of slash I had before (which, in my infinite wisdom, I have decided to call SlashLite). Still, be patient. And I apologise if I just put you off the entire X-Men Movie fandom with this one unbelievably short prologue and/or this author's note which may end up longer than the actual story.

Ooo, that's bad. I'm going to have to stop… Now.

…

NOW.