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

Warnings for Chapter: Some incredibly random bits, some bad writing, still no Bobby/John action

Chapter Two: Aftermath

Wolverine looked around as he entered the X-Jet. "Hey, where's your boyfriend?"

Rogue was still shaking from her attempt to fly. "I don't know… He went after John."

"Pyro? Logan raised an eyebrow. "And where the hell is he?"

She shook her head, as if trying to get something out of it. "Bobby said something about Magneto. I think he went to stop John going with him."

Logan looked up at Storm, standing at the front of the cockpit. "Let's hope he manages it."

Ororo nodded, seeing the look. "Agreed. We have enough trouble already without Magneto gaining John's powers."

Behind them, Jean Grey stumbled on the ramp. Scott steadied her, worried. "You okay."

She frowned. "It's Bobby. And John, for that matter. Both of them."

Rogue turned to look at her, eyes wide. "Is Bobby okay?"

"Magneto." The telepath swallowed, trying to block out the emotions emanating from the pair. "They've joined Magneto."

"What, both of them?" Wolverine asked, startled.

Jean nodded. "John didn't want to come back. So Bobby went with him."

Bobby stared out of the window as the helicopter lifted away. He squinted, trying to see the dam clearer. Was it just him or was it looking…cracked?

"Am I really worth it?"

He glanced down, distracted, to see John looking up at him. The fire-shaper was sitting on the floor with his back to the window, flicking his lighter on and off. Clearly something was bothering him.

"Worth what?" He had a feeling that he already knew what his friend meant, but it was always more important to hear it directly, without any dramatic spins on it.

"Worth leaving all of them. The teachers, the Professor…Rogue…" He seemed reluctant to say her name, as if it left a sour taste in his mouth.

"It's a little late to be asking, isn't it?" Now he was curious, not entirely sure where John was going with this.

"Bobby, you left your whole life behind. You could have a home…Friends…"

"I've got you, haven't I?" He forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

John just looked away. "You could have a girlfriend."

He paused, thrown off by this statement. He frantically tried to think of something off-hand, as if he'd already thought about this in great detail. "I think I can safely say that we've broken up."

In a strange way, even said as a joke, it felt satisfying to be able to say those words. As if they made it real.

Or maybe it was just saying those words to John.

His friend stared at him. Whilst his expression didn't change, Bobby could tell he was surprised. He'd stopped clicking his lighter.

"…You're being very calm about this," he finally managed to mutter, perhaps just to himself.

The sudden silence left by the absence of that constant clicking began to make Bobby nervous. "Yeah, well, would you prefer it if I burst into tears? Started screaming?"

"I just think you should be showing some emotion." John stood up, unintentionally bringing their faces slightly closer than personal boundaries usually allowed. "You just joined the opposite side to what I know you've always believed in. You've left your girlfriend behind. You've left everyone behind. And you just act like everything's normal?"

"What were you expecting?"

He hesitated, and then looked down at the floor. "I don't know. I never expected you to do this."

"You never expected your best friend to come after you? You never expected the one guy who knows you maybe better than you do to stay with you?" Bobby was almost yelling by the end, calm sarcasm quickly turning into anger.

Something in the tone made Pyro's temper flare up. "No, I never expected the perfect Iceman to abandon his perfect life with his perfect girlfriend and his perfect X-Men to patronise his messed up roommate with his messed up powers and his messed up life!"

Bobby took a step back, but it wasn't from fear. John could feel himself growing hotter, as if his anger had set off a chain reaction in his powers. He tried to control it, to bring his temperature back down to normal, but it was harder than he expected.

His friend watched him warily. "You okay?"

He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I'm fine. It's just…"

"This hasn't been a normal day?" Bobby completed the sentence, smiling as he still tried to make it all sound like a joke.

Pyro looked unimpressed by this. "Well…No. We don't go changing sides everyday."

"Hey, it was your idea. If you want to change your mind…"

"I can't." That was it. End of story.

Bobby raised his eyebrows at the short response. "That's it? You just can't?"

"I can't go back. Not now."

"Why not?"

John opened his mouth to tell him, but then stopped. There was no real reason why not. Not one he could explain to someone who didn't understand. It was what he could and couldn't do, that was all.

With a sigh, Bobby turned away as he saw the look on his friend's face. "Fine. Just remember that I'm here when you need me." Then he added under his breath, "If you need me."

Magneto watched them from the cockpit. "What do you see when you look at them, my dear?"

Mystique glanced at him. "What do you see?"

He didn't look amused or annoyed at her turning his question back at him. "I can see so many things, and none of them match."

"Two little lost boys. Two people looking for something to give their lives meaning." A small smile appeared on her face. "Whatever they are, they're powerful."

"But will they use that power?" he mused, not looking at her.

"Pyro seems more than willing."

"But what of his Iceman? Did you ever see him use his powers?"

It didn't take much thought. "No."

"Neither did I." Yes, Iceman was a mystery. He had expected the young mutant to become one of Charles' X-Men. All of the signs were there: A blindness to the world; a certain naïveté; an unwillingness to use his powers when it mattered, to do the right thing.

All in all, not someone he had expected to join his Brotherhood.

"Maybe he's afraid of them," Mystique suggested, cutting into his thoughts.

"Does he really seem like the type who would fear something so trivial? No, he doesn't use them when he doesn't believe they are necessary."

"Then how is he supposed to be of any use?"

He sat in the seat next to her, turning his gaze away from the two mutants. "He will be, my dear. You can be certain of that. He just needs the right…motivation."

In her last moments of this life, the Phoenix broke free.

Even as the water rushed towards her, thousands of tendrils of telepathic energy spread out from her mind, winding their way away from her. Given enough time, she could have reached the entire world, but she didn't have that time. She had seconds.

The X-Jet. She sent Jean's last farewells, knowing every reaction before the thoughts had even reached their destination.

William Stryker. She felt his fear of the death flowing closer to him; his shame at being defeated by the mutants he had controlled and treated as slaves; his hatred of Wolverine for walking away from him forever.

Fear and hatred. They awoke something inside her, something that would take time before it saw the light of day. Some part of those emotions inspired something deep inside her…

Then her mind reached the helicopter.

Mystique. Calm, in control, slightly puzzled by Magneto's decision to take in two of Xavier's pupils.

Magneto. Plotting, as always, constantly plotting. Adding fresh details to his strategy, accounting for new elements. In particular, the part which the two teenagers would play in his plans.

John. An inferno in every sense of the word. So many emotions, all bubbling and boiling together. Confusion, determination, anger, hatred… And something other, lurking just beneath it all, hidden from everything except her. Some emotion he didn't know about, or didn't want to admit existed.

Bobby. Questions, but not those expected by anyone. No wondering about whether he had done the right thing, just trying to work out what to do next. Further in, certain thoughts and memories seemed protected, as if by ice. Hiding them from others… Or from himself?

She could feel the water closing in on her as fire leapt up around her. Over the years, she had learnt that you couldn't fight the elements. You could try, but they always got what they wanted in the end.

Fire around her body. It would preserve her, let her be reborn. This fire wanted new life. And this time she would be in control.

Water crashing at her barrier. It wanted to run its course, restore the balance, become calm once more.

Fire and ice in her mind, recoiling from her mental touch even as she brushed against them. The fire wanted to burn, to consume, to reach its goal. The ice wanted things to become how they should be, to break down the barricades which separated lives from what should be.

Fire is passion. Emotion. She felt that, both in her body and in her mind. She had chosen her name to represent those feelings, to sum up her whole being with that burning.

Burning in the mind is different to burning in the body. You don't feel pain. Phoenix felt as if it was giving her energy, fueling her powers as it spread though them.

She could sense that Pyro's fire was different, though. Hers was a symbol, a metaphor for a larger mental power that she couldn't describe otherwise. She had to use only similar feelings, experiences and images.

Pyro's fire was elemental. It controlled him just as much as he controlled it. More. His very thoughts were made of fire, his emotions and strengthened and enhanced by those which it unleashed.

No hiding from that fire. No concealing what you felt. Thoughts couldn't be blocked, emotions couldn't be resisted.

Fire is not patient. If it wants something, it will take it. S human being, finding himself thinking like that…

She knew she could never understand. Her fire was too different.

Ice was just as much of a mystery. If she couldn't understand the flames that had inspired her, how could she ever even start to comprehend their opposite?

Ice is mystery. Ice reflects the light that seeks to reveal what lies inside. It conceals what it wishes to remain unknown. It lets nothing escape. Nothing that it doesn't want others to know. No clues, no hints.

No emotions.

Dead bodies can be preserved in ice for thousands of years. Once it seizes hold of something, it never lets it go. Not willingly, at least. Not even when it held the entire planet. There was an Ice Age, when it ruled everything and was present everywhere. It ended, but the ice still wants what it used to have.

Possessive. Hidden. Quiet. Powerful.

Phoenix had known Bobby through Jean. As with all of those she had encountered, she sensed thoughts and emotions, not looks and voices. She knew Bobby was nothing like the ice in his mind.

But she also knew how tempting it was to give in. To break down that wall separating him from his powers. To let the ice freeze him.

Such different elements. Minds with almost nothing in common. So why were they drawn together?

Opposites attract, but in this case they also destroyed each other. Fire was frozen and ice was melted. But maybe that was the reason. Both of them needed that control, that feeling. John was controlled by his powers too much for comfort and Bobby was afraid of what he was capable of.

Besides, there was always that something else, hidden away in their minds, where even they couldn't see it.

They needed each other.

But would they ever truly realise how much?

She allowed herself one last smile. You couldn't fight the elements. She knew that. Soon they would too.

And the waves crashed over her.

Water rushing over flames, not true flames, putting them out, death, no more fire, no more burning, rushing, rushing, burning…

John reeled, hands going to his head. Nothing had happened, he hadn't done anything, but there was something in his head. Something that shouldn't be there. There was a steadily growing pain that tore through his thoughts. He felt fire rising, but there wasn't any to control, so it turned inside instead, making his mind catch fire…

He didn't notice when he fell to the floor, or when the pain spread to his body. Bobby was yelling his name, but he couldn't hear him over the burning. He didn't know what was going on, only that for some reason some part of him was screaming that something had happened…

Then he felt cold, a sensation so alien it made him gasp. Not just a slight drop in temperature either, but as if ice had just touched him. It started just on his forehead, but then waves of it began to spread throughout the rest of him.

Dimly, as his conscious mind resurfaced for a moment, he realised that first touch of ice was a hand. Bobby's hand.

That last thought managed to make him open his eyes, albeit weakly. Bobby was leaning over him, apparently saying something, although John couldn't hear the words. One of his friend's hands was on his forehead, whilst the other was moving to take his hand.

The fire was dying now, returning to where it had come from. A brief, insane laugh escaped his lips. Fire melted ice, it always did, but here it was, running scared, scared of a little cold, almost nothing…

He drifted into unconsciousness.

Bobby exhaled slowly, trying to calm down. Gently he let go of John's hand, though a little reluctantly, and moved away. He hadn't been surprised to see steam rise when he'd touched it. His friend had been so hot…

"What happened to him?"

He jumped, not expecting to hear Magneto's voice from behind him. "I don't know. He just fell."

There was a slight pause as he heard the mutant walk to the window. "Charles's X-Men have gone to lick their wounds." He could sense that gaze turn back to him. "Time for us to do the same. We have made our point. We have won this battle, whatever the price has been."

He only half-heard, his attention taken up by John, still lying there. He looked so innocent, so unlike the John that he'd known for so long.

Something shifted in his head and a faint blush reached his face. This John still had the same effect on him as ever.

But why?

Author's Notes: …Excuse whilst I scream in pain. #does so, running into as many walls as can find# Think I'm over-reacting? Maybe slightly, but not as much as you might think. Seriously, I hate this chapter. It started off okay… Then I got writer's block… And got all thoughtsy… Then added the Phoenix bit (probably one of the most random bits I've ever written)… Then pretended I hadn't, until I had to type it all up…

You know the best bit? I now have to work that Phoenix bit into the plot somehow. Because just having it there annoys me. One of these days, I'm going to come back to this chapter and I'm going to do some serious rewriting. Such as trying to cut down that whole section (it goes on for over two A4 pages!).

Meh. I think there are two main problem I had with this chapter, which just got worse:

Trying to continue after the first chapter has never been my strong point. Notice a slight (read: huge) delay in updating? That would be why.

My plot-bunnies and slash-bunnies got into a bit of a punch-up. The plot-bunnies are responsible for…the plot parts, and the slash-bunnies just got involved in the Bobby-John scenes. The Phoenix scene is just one huge battleground.

…Oh dear god. This has turned into a massive self-pity rampage. Seriously, I'm okay with this chapter. There are actually some bits I quite like. I'm just in a kinda bad mood. Ah well. Hopefully it'll get better. Well, actually, I've almost finished writing the third chapter, so I know it gets at least slightly better.

I'm just going to post this now. Please don't kill me!