All characters belong to Marvel, yadda yadda.
Loss. Sacrifice. The words weighted heavily upon the large mansion and it's sprawling grounds, at Graymalkin Lane. There had been many a low blow dealt to the mutants who went to school at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, from the introduction of Rogue and the battle at the Statue of Liberty, to Logan's past rearing it's ugly head with William Stryker, to the Phoenix's return and the 'cure'.
They'd lost people, one after another. Scott Summers, Charles Xavier, Jean Grey. They'd have lost Logan too, but even the gruff loner couldn't bring himself to leave the grounds after the kids had already lost so much. He was one of the few adults they had left.
But those losses weren't the only losses that the scions of Xavier had known, there had been losses before these, and there were doubtlessly going to be losses in the future.
The memorial gardens were a place of higher-than-usual traffic at Xavier's. Formerly only those with memories of the people immortalized in the Garden made the trek from the school to 'talk' with the departed. Yet since Xavier, Summers, and Grey had all met their ends, the gardens had become a more highly visited area. The first few weeks it was a highly embarrassing area, with everyone wary of intruding in another's grief.
As the weeks passed, the students fell into a bit of an unspoken schedule so as to not end up all going down there at the same time. Some, however, ended up going in groupings anyway. Such as the trio of Rogue, Kitty, and Jubilee. They had paid their respects as was usual, and while Jubilee was trying not to look at either of her two friends who had damp eyes, she grinned and gave their arms a tug.
"C'mon, let's look around. I've never seen the whole Garden, and I heard Miss Munroe saying that there's other memorials down here..." Jubilee fought their fighting her, and after a few moments she saw the other two give up. Kitty much more reluctantly then Rogue, for some reason.
"Are you sure, Jubes?" Kitty sounded like Jubilee had suggested breaking the rules for something, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to Jubes, and even Rogue was looking curious.
"What's up with you chica? Just looking around isn't disrespectful, we'll be mindful!" Well, as mindful as they could be. It was sort of like a graveyard after all..
Kitty didn't fight, but she didn't look too convinced, as she dropped in behind Jubilee and Rogue, while Jubilee shared a 'what got into her?' look with Rogue, earning her a shrug in return.
"Damned if I know" the striped haired girl mouthed at Jubilee.
"Woah. Check out that statue. He's bigger than Peter!" Rogue was surprised, the Statue had to be at least a good seven feet tall on it's own, not counting the two feet it had above the base it rested on.
"No kidding chica, who's this one of? He looks extra hunky.. John Proudstar, Thunderbird. Waitaminute. Wasn't he part of one of the old X-men teams and erm..?" Jubilee swallowed a little there, thinking it'd be a little rude to say he bit the bullet in front of his own memorial.
"He sacrificed himself so that the rest of the team would survive." Kitty answered them from behind the two of them, then frowned at them when they gave her suspicious looks. "Just because you don't know the history of the mansion and the team doesn't mean I don't, okay? If you're not going to respect the people here, let's just go okay?"
"It's okay Kitty, relax.." Rogue and Jubilee shared another look. Kitty had been wound up since the losses, but she was a bit extra wound up here.
"Oh hey, is that a .. sword?" Rogue sounded surprised by what she saw, as she turned from the memorial of Proudstar to cross the garden and hop over a knee high hedge to get a look at another statue.
"Oh wow, it is. Look at the armor, I wonder what color it was.."
"You and me both chica, and look at her face.. she's beautiful, and she can't be any older then we are! Who was this?"
Both were dropping down to move some of the flowers around the statues base so they could read the plaque. But Kitty's voice interrupted them, sounding rawer then they'd have expected.
"She wasn't older then us, she was younger. She was Fourteen, when she died."
"Kitt... are you okay?" Both young women asked it almost simultaneously, seeing the fact Kitty's eyes were wet with unshed tears. They didn't have to think to hard to realize some of the flowers in front of the memorial were from Kitty, but there were enough flowers to make it seem like more then one person brought them.
Jubilee had a sudden burst of insight though. "Wait! I've seen pictures of her before, I think! She was a blond with bright blue eyes, wasn't she?" Jubilee looked a bit guilty at the look Kitty was throwing her.
"Her names Illyana. She was my first roommate." With that, Kitty turned and stalked off.
"Well.. that went well." Jubes sighed and shrugged. "Should we go after her?"
"Nah, I figure we giver her some time to pull herself back together otherwise she's gonna be raw all night. What's the plaque say?"
Jubilee lightly moved aside a group of flowers, and ran her hand over the plaque so she could get a read of it. Clearly, whoever came out here didn't seem to care to read the plaque, and didn't want others seeing it either. Jubilee had a pretty good idea who, when she read it.
" 'Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina.She sacrificed herself so that the world could live.' Sacrificed herself? I'm pretty sure I don't remember anything about that in the stories.." Jubilee trailed off. She'd been at the school a year longer then Rogue, so it had to have been before her own time.
"Rasputina. Do you think that means she's Peter's sister?"
"Yeah, I do. Like remember in social studies, Miss Munroe was talking about how not all countries that families use the same last names, especially for male and female? That's the way their name would be anglicized for his sister.. C'mon, we better go catch up with Kitty."
The next few days the two didn't ask Kitty about who Illyana had been, as their friend pretended the subject had never come up, and mysteriously didn't hear whenever they tried to ask. Rogue seeing how important this might be to Kitty thought to ask Peter, but thought better of it when she'd actually gotten face to face with him. So Rogue let the subject drop.
Jubilee, however, was not so easily daunted. Nor was she so skittish as Rogue. If Kitty didn't want to talk about it, and Peter likely felt the same, well there were still other people to ask! In this case, Jubilee found herself knocking on Miss Munroe's office door, and slipping inside when bidden to enter.
"What can I do for you, Miss Lee? Not detention again?"
"Uh no, not yet Miss Munroe. But like, I was out in the Garden and I kinda had some questions ya know, an I didn't know who else to ask then you?" Just a bit of timidness in her voice, but curiosity as well. Storm would want to be helpful after all, right? The new Headmaster seemed to be taken in so far, and gestured for Jubilee to sit down.
"I can try to answer, Jubilee. What did you want to know?"
"Well, uhm. There's a statue for a young woman down there who barely looked older then I am and well.. her name was Illyana? The plaque mentioned her sacrifice had saved the world.." Jubilee let that hang there, while watching Storm for reactions.
And there was certainly a reaction. Storm's face looked saddened for a moment at the mention of Illyana's name, as if at a terrible tragedy, or a mistake.
"Illyana.. Peter always called her his little snowflake. He was quite right, she was as precious as she was unique. Illyana was a very troubled girl, and her powers made her life very complicated. When New York, maybe the whole world, was threatened to be destroyed Illyana over extended her powers, sacrificed herself to stop the darkness from expanding." Storm looked as sad as such a tale should make her, but it was more then that. Jubilee could tell there was quite a bit about this whole bit that Storm wasn't saying.
"So like, she actually saved the world?" Jubilee had to ask, because what if that was the part they were tiptoing about in not wanting to talk about?
"Oh, she saved the world alright. None of us would have put her up to it, would have asked her of it. She walked into the center of the conflict, and before anyone knew what was happening, she was ending it single handedly.. You.. may have heard some of us talk about that night. It was the night of Inferno." Storm frowned again.
Jubilee's eyes widened a little. Inferno. The older X-men didn't mention that night often, but when they did it was usually in a 'well, it wasn't as bad as...' kind of tone. She'd glimpsed over the summary of the altercation at Alcatraz Storm had entered into the X-men mission log. There had been definite comparisons between Alcatraz and Inferno.
After her little talk with Storm, Jubilee went to see what the computers would turn up. She'd found even with her Jr X-man access, she wasn't allowed to access the file for Inferno. She'd briefly considered asking Storm if she could get access to it, but realized she'd just get told no. They didn't have access to that file and some others for reasons, so trying to get around that probably wouldn't do any good.
However, she did find where she'd seen a picture of Illyana before. Professor Xavier had always liked to put students artwork on viewing in the library. Up along the shelves around the whole room, were portraits and paintings done by students over the years. She recognized one of them as Peter Rasputin's painting style – he'd done one of her the other year in Art. It was of a young remarkably beautiful young blond woman.
"Jeeze. I'm almost surprised she doesn't have wings, she looks close enough to an angel."
"Someone called?" A light voice asked from behind her. A light male voice. Jubilee started, and looked over her shoulder to see Warren Worthington smirking at her, before glancing up at the painting.
"She is beautiful, but she looks young. She looks kind of like a younger version of the girl Peter's latest painting is of." Warren pursed his lips, then shrugged. "What's she got your attention for, Jubes?"
"Oh, erm.. well. I saw her memorial statue down in the Garden, and I've been trying to learn some stuff about Illyana since then. How'd you know.. "
"Roommate, duh. At least you realized it was a dumb question though. Illyana, I knew it was something with an I. Peter doesn't talk about her much to anyone but Kitty. About the only time I actually see those two talk is about her, otherwise he's too shy to talk to her and she's always mooning over someone new.."
Jubes couldn't help but smirk a little at the touch of annoyance that Kitty hadn't swooned over him. Warren seemed to think that all of the girls should, and most of the time he got his wish.
"Jealousy isn't becoming of you, Warren. C'mon, we better get to class or we're gonna be late.."
She wasn't making much head way in the Mystery, but she would. It was just a matter of time.
It turned out, however, that all she needed was a little patience. With all that had been going on, the new English teacher – a purple haired mid-20's something glamor model from England! - decided it would be best if they all wrote something about people they'd lost who meant the most to them, to read to the class. Something about it helping them come to terms with all the loss, and those who'd coped the best could help the others who hadn't coped as well yet.
It sounded like a load of rubbish to Jubilee, but she'd seen the look Kitty and Peter had shared when Miss Braddock gave them the assignment. So all Jubilee had to do was write her own paper. She knew her loss wouldn't surprise anyone – since it was her parents. She couldn't remember much of them, but she missed them still. Like quite a few of the students at Xavier's, she was a ward of the school. Then she just had to bide her time until Thursday, when presentations were due.
Thursday finally came, and when Miss Braddock asked for volunteers to go first, only one person volunteered. Surprising everyone, including her friends and Miss Braddock, was the fact it was Kitty Pryde. Jubilee gave her the 'are you insane?' look, but Kitty ignored her as she slipped out of the seat to march like a soldier to the podium. Like a soldier going to their death by firing squad.
But the normally shy Kitty wasn't backing down from anyones looks today, and she flashed a smile at Peter, before clearing her throat a few times. Jubilee was surprised she could even talk, Kitty usually got pretty camera shy about having that much attention on her at once.
"This assignment was about losing someone we miss the most. I think Miss Braddock probably figured we'd be writing about a family member, or the Professor, Dr Grey, or Mr Summers. I didn't write about any of the above, although the person I'm writing about was the closest thing I've ever come to a sister."
A small sniff, barely audible from Kitty. Jubilee though was frowning. Her and Kitty were close, they'd been friends for a couple of years now, but they weren't close enough to call each other sisters.
"When I first met Illyana, it was by paper. I'd been writing her for six months before she finally came to Xavier's, and I got to meet her. She was everything her letters made her about to be. Beautiful, innocent, carefree. She was delighted by everything, and if anyone would have said she was at a disadvantage growing up in Siberia, they never saw the pure glee she took in learning something new. I'll never forget Illyana learning how to use a computer."
A smile crossed Kitty's lips, and then she looked a little embarrassed and looked back at her paper on the podium.
"Sometimes, I was jealous of my sister. She was smart, funny, cute, beautiful, and she made rooms light up just by walking into them. But more then any of that, was how strong she was. She didn't always have an easy time of things, but you'd be hard pressed to guess that. She never gave up on anything, and it didn't matter how hard she had to struggle, she'd make it work."
"Illyana was strong, and even in the end she had her innocence. She taught me, us.. the meaning of sacrifice, when she sacrificed herself to save all of us." She gestured at the whole room, and beyond. "Illyana could've been like Doctor Grey, given in and destroyed the world. But she had the strength to stop herself, and save the world instead."
"That's why Illyana Rasputin is the person I miss the most, and why I believe in Magik." Kitty shrugged, and wiped at the tears in her eyes and moved to sit down. Jubilee noticed while she was moving however, that Kitty's paper she'd been 'reading' from was blank, beyond a series of wet marks that looked like she'd been crying on the page.
So Illyana had been like Doctor Grey had? Did Kitty mean she was nuts, or that the young woman was like all powerful? She'd been hoping to learn more during Peter's speech, but he focused on his brother instead, who had been a Russian astronaut.
Jubilees room was a mess, as it usually was. Neither her or Rogue were exactly the pinnacle of role models when it came to keeping their domain nice and neat. Clothes littered the floor – it was sort of bound to happen when one had as many clothes as the both of them did. Even if Rogue had taken the Cure, once she'd gotten over the first week or two of dressing like a slut she'd gone back to being mostly covered. Jubilee had teased her mercilessly over the sudden change back to mostly covering clothes, but Rogue tried to claim it was because she was a southerner and New York was cold.
Which Jubilee didn't believe for a moment, of course.
"Like watch where you step Kitty, those clothes might be dirty but I don't wanna see them ruined!"
"Then maybe you should put them in something like.. oh, I don't know, a hamper?" Kitty smirked at her before hopping onto Jubes bed and stretching out to peer at Jubes, who was at her desk surfing the web on the schools Internet.
"Pfft. Hampers are for losers. So how many people have come up to you? You like threw gasoline on a brush fire, Kit."
Kitty was looking confused. "Come up to me? About what? I haven't had anyone talk to... oh, you mean about Illyana." The confused look was replaced by a frown, and a shake of her head. "No one. Everyones been really respectful of my feelings. Er. Well. Sam and Dani came to talk with me, I guess."
At this, Kitty shrugged. She usually didn't spend much time around Sam or Dani. They'd been around as long as Kitty had been, but they just didn't seem to get along very well.
"Why would.. oh. Did they know her too?"
"She was in their class, so she hung out with them and their friends quiet a bit. One year changed the school quite a bit, Jubes. Before you got here, there weren't as many students, things were a lot looser and a bit more free, a bit more chaotic too. The Professor kinda clamped down on all that after we lost Illyana though."
"Sounds like she made a pretty big impact.. how come most of the students don't know about her, if she saved the world? Seems like a big thing ya know?" Here was the question Jubilee had been waiting to hear since finding out about her, and Kitty might answer her!
"Err. Well. Illyana's a touchy subject for people, Jubes. She got on the bad side of some people real easy, and I can't say others were always in the wrong even though I want too. Illyana could be a handful. And well, no matter which side of the fence you were on about her, it became painful to think about her afterward. For those of us who liked her, she was gone. For the people who didn't, she'd proved wrong by saving the day, and they were sure she was rotten to the core.."
"Think about it this way Jubes. You know how we all feel about Pyro and his running off with Magneto? Some people felt that way about Illyana.."
"Why?" Simple, to the point, yet asked very softly.
"Cuz she was powerful, Jubes. At Alcatraz, Dr Grey made me feel like a gnat being swatted around. That's how Illyana made everyone feel. She was a teleporter, but not like Mr Wagner. She'd jump through space and time, just like that. She didn't always have the best aim though, so it got a bit adventuresome if we were taking her portals anywhere.."
"Woooah. Waitaminute. She could time travel!? Are you serious?"
"Yeah. She couldn't always control it, but she could move through time. Prof always said she might be able to do more if she got older."
"So like, why'd she wear the armor and have the sword, if she was a porter? Was it just so she could attack or something like?" Jubes screwed her face up. That didn't make all that much sense to her. Armor and a sword, seemed kinda silly.
"You're going to think I'm silly when I say this.. Yana was more then just a mutant though, Jubes. She was a witch. Sword and Sorcery, magic. It's why she chose the name Magik, and she was pretty handy at it."
Jubilee was grinning like a dork. "Wait, Magic? Like Harry Potter? Did she have a wand?"
A pillow was thrown across the room at her. "I'm being serious."
"Yeah, sure Kit. Look, I've got homework to do, when you wanna tell me the rest I'll talk to ya tomorrow, okay?" With that, Jubes hopped up and slipped out of the room.
Leaving Kitty sitting with her head in her hands. "No one ever believes that part until they see it for themselves. You were Magic though, weren't you Yana? Sometimes I wonder if I'm just not making up memories after all this time.. Peter and I never talk about it, and Miss Munroe doesn't think it's healthy I still dwell.."