Deep Silent Winter
By: reedleonn
Disclaimer: Why would I own anything? It's a fanfic. Duh.
Synopsis: After months of being absent from their lives, Pietro reappears out of the blue. But he isn't quite the same speed demon with which the Brotherhood or the X-Men were acquainted. There's something off about him. What happened to him and why has he come back to them after all this time? Most importantly, what dark secrets is he keeping from them?
Enjoy and review if you feel like it.
"Looks like the weather today will be partly cloudy; it should be a fairly cool autumn day. We may see some rain coming down over the next few days as well but today I'd say there's only a 30 percent chance of any precipitation – not a lot of cloud cover going over Bayville over the next 24 hours but-" Evan blankly stared at the television screen from his seat at the kitchen table, his eyes at half mass being that he had woken up only 10 minutes prior. He had a chocolate chip cookie partially hanging out of his mouth and he propped his head up with one hand, the other twitched on the remote.
"Evan! Did you, like, just wake up?" Kitty asked from behind the darker skinned boy. Although Evan couldn't see it, her hands were on her hips and she puffed up her cheeks, waiting for a response.
"Yeah. So?" Evan replied, not even bothering to turn around. "I miss much in training?"
"Training with Logan was, like, totally cancelled this morning." Kitty stepped toward her friend as he nearly choked on his cookie.
"Cancelled? Man! What happened? They never cancel training!"
"The Professor didn't say. Bummer that we were all already up when we got the message telepathically, except you of course." Kitty tilted her head towards the door hearing a noise. Todd hopped in and Kurt teleported into the kitchen soon after.
"Give it back, Toad!" Kurt tackled Todd to the ground, Kurt's image inducer flying off in an unknown direction. Todd reached for it but Kurt managed to grab it seconds before Todd could even lift himself from the floor.
"You ain't no fun, Blue Boy!" Todd rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bruise forming.
"Man, I hate commercials." Evan groaned as he flipped stations. "Why does every TV station have the same ads on at the same time!"
"Unbelievable." Kitty rolled her eyes.
"Found only at Wal-" Flip."The world's best clumping cat lit-" Flip. "call now for a free tri-" Flip. Evan yawned and turned the TV back to the local news station.
"Don't you have homework you should be doing?" Kitty pestered.
"It's Sunday morning. I'll do it tonight." Evan snorted.
"That's dumb. And it's not morning. It's 12:30." Kitty turned and began to walk out of the room when she saw Wanda standing in the doorway. She was staring at the TV in awe, a contorted look on her face.
"Turn it up." Wanda said.
"Huh?" Evan turned his head in her direction.
"I said, turn it up." Wanda's eyes never left the screen.
"Alright, alright. Don't get testy."
Evan turned up the volume on the TV. "New information has arisen, which police say could send several people from an anti-mutant group behind bars. Three weeks ago, it was released to the press that "mutant hunters" were abducting and holding hostage mutants from all around Bayville and even towns beyond Bayville. There is still debate over the rights mutants hold in our community so it is unclear what motivated officials to-"
Evan, Kurt, and Kitty stood gaping at the TV. Wanda turned and walked back in the direction from where she came, not even wanting to hear the rest.
"Not to be a downer or anything but is this really a surprise?" Todd shoved his pinky in his ear, trying to clean it. "A lot of normal people don't like us, if you haven't noticed."
Kitty stared at the place Wanda had been standing only moments ago. "Shut up, Todd."
Wanda watched the rain drops accumulate on the windowpane. She was only slightly aware that Lance had walked up and stood behind her, his eyes on the back of her head. "30 percent chance my ass."
"Weathermen don't know a lick of what they're talking about." Lance grunted. They stood in each other's company, the awkward silence between them.
"He disappeared on a dark day like this. The only difference is that it was freezing rain, not this crap weather."
"What? Freezing rain is better than just regular rain?" Lance chuckled.
"Everything was covered in a sheet of ice the next day." Wanda went on, ignoring Lance almost entirely. "Suddenly I feel like I'll never see him again."
"What are you talking about? I'm sure Pietro will show up sooner or later." Even saying this, Lance was unsure about it.
"Even if he does, it's been over half a year!" Wanda turned to face Lance, her eyes dark and gloomier than usual. Lance frowned.
"He'll be back. He always comes back."
Wanda turned back to look out the window. "Why are you here anyway? Did you need to tell me something or can you leave me alone?"
"Oh. Yeah." Lance kicked the ground. "'Bout that, Baldy wants to have a meeting with everyone together."
"Why didn't the jerk just send a telepathic message?"
"Uh. Dunno?" Lance turned and walked away. "It starts in 10 minutes."
Wanda felt her temper boil. Looking past the windowpane, she could see large puddles forming in the lawn. It was raining harder and she felt her anger turn to sorrow, loneliness, longing – her brother was lost.
She turned away and hurried to catch up with Lance.
They entered the piano room to see that all the other students were already waiting, looking quite bored and slightly confused. Wanda and Lance stood next to Rogue and Todd. They, surprisingly, failed to keep joking around when the instructors entered the parlor.
Ororo, Logan, and the Professor entered and while Hank McCoy was nowhere to be seen few people seemed to notice or think this was odd. Xavier entwined his fingers and rested his chin on them, a signal to his students that he was waiting for them to quiet down. When a couple of the newer students continued to laugh and talk amongst themselves, Logan held up a fist and drew out his claws. Everyone was silent in an instant.
"Thank you, Logan." The Professor closed his eyes in thought. "I have an announcement to make." Xavier was hesitant in telling them, a few of the students glanced at each other.
"What is it, Professor? Don't leave us hanging! First you cancel training and now a meeting. What's up?" Scott spoke out. Jean Grey, who was standing next to him leaning against a wall and arms crossed, exchanged quick glances with Xavier. She knew to say nothing about what Xavier was going to tell his students. Jean had already known the announcement all day without anybody telling her personally.
"Yes, well then. Without further ado, my announcement." Something was holding the Professor back and making him nervous. His students could tell and the feelings were passed along. "We have a new student."
The room exploded with questions. "Who is she? Or is 'she' a 'he'? Tell us his name! What's his power? Where is he? Why isn't he here? Is he shy? Maybe he's shy! Have we seen her in school? Is he from another country? That'd be cool! Professor! Tell us! Yeah, come on! Tell us!"
"Enough!" Xavier rubbed his temples. "He's been through a lot. I feel it would be best for him to slowly introduce himself as opposed me introducing him to everyone at once." The room filled with a chorus of "aww's."
"What happened to him?" Rogue spoke and all eyes were on her. When the Professor didn't answer her question immediately, she explained herself. "You said, 'he's been through a lot.' What happened to him?" She avoided eye contact with most everyone in the room.
The Professor nodded in acknowledgement. "I'm afraid that's his tale to tell. He'll tell you when he's ready." He looked around at his student's inquisitive faces. "Hank is with him now, helping him get settled. He arrived very early this morning." Xavier smirked. "Even before the first of your alarm clocks went off."
"We should go greet him!" Tabitha cheered. "Make him feel welcome and at home! It'll speed up the process!"
"I bet you'll throw your 'firecrackers' at him like you did when we first got here." Fred protested and motioned to the other members of the Brotherhood. "Besides, what kinda wimp doesn't show his face to the people living under the same roof as him?"
Fred and Tabitha continued their bickering and several other students chimed in to take sides. Rogue grudgingly turned to Jean, having both a comment and a question.
"So, Jean, who is the new kid? I mean there ain't nothing that can get passed you." Rogue raised an eyebrow at the redhead who noticeably tense up.
"Sorry, Rogue. I can't tell you."
"Pft, you're such a goody-goody." She grinned, trying to joke but when she noticed Jean wasn't laughing Rogue bit her tongue. "I didn't mean that…"
"I know you didn't, Rogue. And it's alright." Jean looked down at her feet. "I just truly understand the Professor's decision and I feel he's doing what's best for the new student."
"Right." Rogue nodded and offered Jean a smile.
"Hey, Rogue. Maybe we should help break up the argument." Jean motioned to the two groups of students led by Tabitha and Fred. Almost every student in the room had taken a side by now, even Scott. The only two who failed to do so were Lance and Wanda.
"Stop this now." Ororo stood in the middle between the two groups. "This is madness! The new student will not be chased after!" Storm knew that the students were capable of being overwhelming for new comers. The ambitious and energetic Xavier kids sometimes seemed like a pack of animals hunting down a piece of fresh meat. "Just leave him be for now." After Ororo's scolding, the argument settled down and the two groups dissolved into individual students again.
"Come on, Chuck. Finish this meeting preferably before I ring someone's neck." Logan commented. Xavier nodded in agreement.
"One last note and then you're all free to go." The students quieted down again at the sound of the Professor's voice. "If the new student does introduce himself to you, please use your best manners. He may seem a bit…different…than what you may expect." To this comment, there were a lot of head tilts and baffled looks.
Xavier's students filtered out of the piano room, talking to each other almost as if nothing had been said to them in the meeting. Only the instructors and a handful of students remained behind. Among them were Kitty, Evan, and Kurt. Lance stayed behind after Wanda crept out of them room before anyone else. He knew she wanted to be alone but he was not entirely sure why or what was bugging her. She would most likely confide in Rogue later, she often did as the two had become close.
Ororo approached the small group that remained. "Could you give us a moment?" She asked, a twinge of worry in her voice as she noticed Hank had entered the room.
"Is it about the new kid?" Evan yawned, still tired and waking up. Ororo nodded. "Man, what's with all the secrecy? It's not like we've never met a new student before."
"Please, Evan, this once don't argue." Ororo left them to dismiss themselves.
"Weird." Lance grunted and made his leave.
"I'm vith Lance on this one. Very strange." Kurt was soon to follow. Kitty and Evan were close behind.
Ororo rejoined the other instructors. "How is he?" She asked.
"Confused, disoriented, frightened." Hank sighed. "I gave him something to make him relax. He fell asleep soon after."
"I'll admit I was surprised when Nick Fury's number showed up on my cell at 2 am," Logan said. "Didn't know he was handling the 'mutant hunters' incident upstate."
"He needs rest and support. Life won't be easy for him for awhile." Hank pinched the bridge of his nose between his two fingers. "I'm going to go find something for this headache. Can somebody check on him in a few?" They all nodded as Hank went off to find some headache medicine.
"I'll go check on him, Chuck. Ororo, I think you need to scold your nephew for planning to skip out on my training session this morning. He better be there tomorrow or he'll get extra special training." Logan snorted.
"Actually, Logan. I would like to check on him. I can sense he is awake already and his mind is, quite literally, speeding uncontrollably." Logan waved a hand in agreement as he and Ororo walked away.
Xavier made his way to the elevator and for once he was having too much time to think and began pondering the state that the new student was in. His anxiety about the situation began coming to the surface once again. When he exited the elevator, he began down the hall, stopping in front of one of the many wooden doors and knocking. Upon turning the handle, he slowly creaked open the door as not to alarm the boy too much.
In front of him in the dark room, sat a teenager on the bed. Xavier could see with the light pouring in from the hallway that the boy was huddled into himself and shaking slightly. His arms hugging his knees, his legs pulled up to his chest, his back hunched, and his head turned downward hiding his face – the teen was terrified.
"It's okay. It's just me." The Professor entered and closed the door. He flipped the ceiling light on and the boy tensed up even more so. "It's alright, Pietro. You're safe now."
The teen turned his head toward the Professor. His white hair was hidden under his black hoodie and a shadow was casted down over his face. His blue eyes stared with uncertainty at the man before him. He was paler than ever and it accentuated the dark circles under his eyes.
Pietro's appearance and his stare were saying everything he was thinking. He had no need to open his mouth.
To be continued…
Author Note: Thanks for reading Chapter One! Don't forget to review or favorite it or whatever you want.
I also have a fanart tumblr if you feel so inclined to look at that…there isn't anything posted just yet but keep checking back or follow it for dashboard updates (or whatever they're called.) I'll be posting artwork to it soon.
.com
Stay tuned for Chapter Two of "Deep Silent Winter" brought to you by reedleonn!