Howdy! I know, I've been hiding for a long time. Most of you probably haven't heard of me. I think the only thing anyone ever read by me is the Therapy stuff. Which I am still rewriting. Oh well. That is officially on hiatus. Anyway, here's my latest story. It's long, angsty, and annoying, so enjoy it.
Just a forewarning, you have to remember that teenagers, while they can accept death, usually don't believe it can really happen to them or anyone they know. Wanda's death shatters that innocent bubble and forces the X-Men/Brotherhood /Acolytes/Whoever else to realize that they can die too. So, while there's grief too, any that don't have personal connections have a reason to be shaken up. Yeah...
By the way: I like to ship Kurt/Wanda! Just a warning. Pairings are undecided, though. I haven't thought much about romance. Most chapters won't be this long, I can promise you that. Anyway, enjoy, read, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! I'll at least look you up if you review- whether it's good, bad, or a flame. Constructive criticism would also be nice. Okay, anyway, loves and hugs and enjoy the story!
Chapter One: She Never Would Have Died
Wanda Maximoff's death struck the X-Men hard. Under normal circumstances, it would have bothered them much more than the death of Pietro or St. John. The difference was that the senior X-Men (and Bobby, whom had taken Evan's place on the main team) witnessed the death.
If the scarlet teen never would have remembered, wouldn't have broken through Mastermind's lies, she never would have gone after Magneto.
She never would have died.
"Kitty! Major shoe sale! C'mon, let's head to the mall!" Jubilee called out to her friend as she stepped off the X-Jet. She was surprised when Kitty slowly shook her head, as though she were trying to grasp some forbidden fact, and trudged up to her room. Rogue was the next one off the jet, arms wrapped around herself as she mourned the loss of a girl who could have been a close friend.
Scott was the next X-Man off the plane. He was more shaken up over Wanda's death than any of the others. He suddenly knew that with battle came death- a fact that he was not ready to accept. He refused to so much as look at anyone in the mansion as he hurried to his room. Jean followed him off, pale and wide-eyed. She, having looked into the dying girl's mind and seen her thoughts, was not looking forward to the next battle or even danger session. Bobby stumbled off the plane after Jean. He stared blankly ahead of himself, ignoring his friends' hellos and concern, as he hurried to lock himself in his room.
Jubilee, still confused about her friend's behavior, stood in the hangar.
"Jubilee, are you coming?" Tabitha walked into the hangar with Amara and crossed her arms.
"Kitty doesn't wanna come. She seemed so…" Jubilee trailed off as Logan and Storm walked down the ramp and off the jet. They were holding something about as tall as Jean, if not taller, between them. A thick white sheet, stained with red here and there, was draped over it. Storm looked close to tears. This, however, wouldn't have been enough to silence the girls. In fact, Jubilee or Tabitha normally would have asked what it was. What stopped them from doing that was the long, pale arm dangling from the sheet, blood dripping from the fingertips to the floor.
Amara's breath caught in her chest. Tabitha studied the arm carefully, and tried to suppress a gasp when a small trickle of blood slowly slid down it. Jubilee was transfixed by horror.
"W-Who's that?" Tabitha finally squeaked, staring at the adults. She could eliminate Kitty, as Jubilee had mentioned Kitty didn't want to come. The arm was slender, and looked somewhat feminine in Tabitha's mind, which eliminated the boys. That left only Jean and Rogue.
"Don't worry 'bout it, Kid." Logan answered as Storm hurriedly pulled the arm back under the tarp. They left as quickly as they could, leaving the girls alone with their thoughts.
"I don't much feel like going to the mall anymore." Amara said a moment later. The other girls nodded their agreement.
No one noticed Kurt leave the jet solemnly.
"R-Rogue?" Kitty looked up as the door to her room opened, praying it was her roommate. She, like Rogue, had yet to change out of her uniform.
"Heya Kit." The other girl sat down on her bed.
"It's p-pretty silly of me to be crying w-when I didn't really know her, isn't it? I m-mean, she wasn't m-my friend or anything…" Kitty wiped away tears and gave her friend a helpless grin.
"Kitty-cat, we were there when she died. It's natural to wanna cry." Rogue shrugged as she settled on her bed. She wondered briefly if she had drawn those words from Storm's psyche. "Hell, even I wanna cry."
"Then why d-don't you just cry?" Kitty looked at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rogue just smiled at her sadly. "I'm gonna go, l-like, call Lance."
And once Kitty was gone, Rogue allowed herself to cry for a girl killed before her time, a girl who could have been more if anger hadn't destroyed her.
Scott Summers was furious. He didn't quite know who (or what, for that matter) had invoked this fury, but it was there, constantly nagging at the back of his mind. He hated himself for not somehow stopping Wanda's death- after all, he certainly didn't wish death on her. Maybe defeat, but never did he want someone to die.
Especially a teenage girl, someone just younger than himself.
He shuddered. It could have been any of them that died- it could have been Jean. The one person in the world he would spend his whole life with could have been killed that day. Or innocent and intelligent Kitty, the life of any party. Kurt, who always knew just what to say to make someone feel better and laugh. Rogue, the cranky but tender girl he had come to think of as a sister. Even Bobby would have been hard to lose.
The worst part was that, even as team leader, he wouldn't have been able to stop it anymore than he stopped Wanda's death.
That's why he was angry.It was only partly for the girl that had died- the rest was because, if he couldn't stop this, he would never be able to stop the deaths of anyone important to him.
If any one of his team mates- his family- died, he would lose a piece of himself too. It didn't occur to him that he could die as well, and that they felt the same way.
Bobby wanted to laugh and joke. He wanted to go freeze the girls' bathroom or watch a movie with his friends. Most of all, he wanted to erase Wanda Maximoff from his memory. In fact, the entire fight would be a wonderful thing to forget.
"C'mon, Bobby! You're gonna miss the game!" Sam knocked on their bedroom door as he hurried outside. The guys had planned on playing a game of football after he returned from the mission- but, this was before Bobby was exposed to real death (as opposed to a pet or grandparent dying).
"I'll catch up in a minute!" He called out, trying to make his voice sound happy and lighthearted. He unzipped his uniform with shaking fingers as he quickly changed into jeans and a T-shirt. A few minutes later, he was outside, playing a silly game with his friends to forget the day.
"Lance?" Kitty took a deep breath when she heard the phone pick up on the other end.
"No, this is Pietro."
"Oh… Pietro… I-It's Kitty." She stammered. This was the dead girl's brother! It was going to be hard enough just to tell Lance. She had hoped he would tell Pietro.
"I'll go get Lance- sounds like Kitty-cat's gonna whine again!" Pietro's laugh was carefree and arrogant.
"No! I… I think you'll wanna hear this first." The sensitive valley girl had finally conquered her tears before the phone call. Now, they threatened to fall again.
"Hurry it up, Kit-Cat. I gotta go, and you're boring." Pietro used the tone of someone inspecting his or her fingernails.
"It's Wanda…" Kitty tried to decide how to tactfully say that his sister was dead.
"What? She beat you guys up again?" Pietro laughed again, obviously enjoying the mental picture.
"No." She was in tears by that point.
"Then what? Why the hell are you crying? Get to the point, or I'm hanging up on you." Pietro was irritable. She was wasting his time to blubber in his ear about who knew what.
"Wanda's dead, Pietro. H-Her body's here. She died fighting your father and the Acolytes." Kitty whispered.
Click!
Kitty stared dumbly at the phone in her hand. Pietro hung up on her. She set the phone back in its cradle and walked into the living room. She sat down on the cough and stared numbly at the black TV screen.
Jean ran a brush through her hair for the hundredth time. She wanted- needed- to brush all the grime of battle out of her hair. Maybe it would help her forget. The brush clanged to the floor as she dropped it. She then peeled her uniform off her sweaty skin and stepped into the scalding shower.
She began to scrub viciously at her skin, trying to clean the day- and the memories- away. She only succeeded in rubbing her skin raw. She still felt the utter sense of betrayal issued from Wanda as an Acolyte, employed by the girl's father, delivered the final blow to her life.
Jean shivered, even in the scalding heat, and one again considered asking- no, begging- the professor to erase her memories of Wanda's dying mind. And, one again, she knew it wouldn't be fair to Wanda's memory to forget her last thoughts. She remembered a very brief feeling of contentment and love emitted from the girl before the pain set in. Every time she recalled the feeling, she thought of Kurt, and wondered why. She remembered Kurt had rushed to her side, even in the heat of battle, and held her hand until she was dead.
And she suddenly realized why Kurt had refused to even acknowledge anyone on the flight home. She wondered how she would feel if Scott had died, and shuddered. She couldn't ever lose Scott.
Far in a different corner of the mansion, a blue demon wept for the death of his soul mate, and for the secrets they never revealed.
