Thanks for all the support I've got so far from my reviewers, and this is a chapter many of you will find you've been waiting for. This was definitely one of my favourite chapters to write.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men: Evolution

WORD COUNT: 4966

Thursday, January 31st, 2002

"Ow…" Rebecca mumbled. Her head was pounding like hell. What happened? Slowly, the memories came back to her. The smoke off in the distance. Julia. Being smashed into the ground. A flash of green light. A pair of arms lifting her. The sensation of flying. Another impact. Falling for a very short time. A hard landing, accompanied by the sickening sound of something hitting a very solid object.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. The crackling of flames and the smell of smoke surrounded her, with the noises of a battle in the background. The fight was still going on; she had to help! 'Help who?' the little voice in the back of her head asked. She didn't want to hurt her sister, but she couldn't stand by and let her new friends down.

A scream drew her attention to Storm. She was surrounded by a cloud of crackling black energy, and being quickly swallowed up by it. "Auntie O!" Rebecca heard Evan cry. When the cloud dissipated, Storm vanished along with it. Rebecca gasped as it hit her: they'd just lost another X-Man to the Spirit Realm.

She started to get up, but stopped when she became aware of a weight draped over her body. Twisting around, she saw that it was Ray's limp left arm. He was lying beside her, motionless, his forehead bleeding against a sharp rock. "Ray!" Rebecca shook him, but he didn't respond. "I've gotta get him outta here," she said to herself. She slung one of his arms over her shoulders and started dragging him away.

"PULSE! BEHIND YOU!" Rebecca turned and saw a green blast heading their way, and blocked it just in time. Cyclops and Havoc rushed over, sending their own blasts at Julia. "Are you two alright?" Cyclops asked.

"I'm fine," Rebecca replied shakily, "But Ray- Berzerker's out cold. I think he hit his head on that rock over there."

"Get him out of here. I'll get Forge to meet you in the front hall." Pulse nodded, shifting Berzerker's dead weight – no, don't say 'dead' – in her arms before flying towards the mansion, keeping her force-field up for 360-degree protection. A few energy blasts hit, but they couldn't penetrate her bubble, and the Summers brothers were giving her cover fire, anyway. She made it inside unharmed, just as Forge joined her in the front hall. Wordlessly, she handed Ray off to him before heading back outside and into battle.

The situation in the sky hadn't improved at all. Angel was missing, leaving only Phoenix, Sunspot, and Cannonball fighting Julia. On the ground, however, the other bad guy – someone had called him Mesmero – was vastly outnumbered and outmatched. A tremor from Avalanche knocked him off his feet, and Rogue managed to brush his face with her bare hand. Both stumbled and fell to the ground, the latter clutching her head.

Pulse heard Julia scream behind her, and turned to see her sister falling out of the sky, towards the burning forest. Cannonball was able to catch her before the flames could. Pulse flew over to where the pair landed. "Jules?!" she cried, "Sam, is she okay?"

Julia was clutching her head and weeping hysterically. "Becky…" she moaned.

Rebecca put her hands on her sister's shoulders to get her attention. "Jules, I'm here!"

Julia looked up at her, and for the first time in over a week, Rebecca truly saw her twin sister in their shared green eyes. "Becky? I'm so sorry, Becky! It's not me, its-" She screeched again, tearing herself away.

"Jules!" Rebecca touched her twins shoulder to pull her back. It came as a complete shock when a red energy whip shot out and wrapped around her neck.

"Hey!" Roberto – who'd since landed beside them – and Sam tried to force her off, but they only succeeded in increasing the grip around Rebecca's throat. She was losing air by the second.

Suddenly, Rebecca got a weird feeling in her hands. Glancing down at them, she saw that her shields had appeared, but they were different. Instead of circular force-fields, they were formed to fit around her hands like a pair of gloves, and they continued to creep up her arms, spreading out and under the energy whips until they covered her as one feather-light body shield. It expanded out from her slightly, so that the energy whip was squeezing on that, instead of Rebecca's neck.

Julia looked furious. She'd reverted back to the cold, hateful girl they'd been fighting just a minute ago. She unleashed an energy blast, not towards Rebecca, but at Cannonball and Sunspot. The boys were knocked off their feet and hurled towards the other fight, crashing into Blob.

"Seether!" Mesmero called. He was stuck under Wolverine, Beast, Pyro, Gambit, and Colossus. "It's time to leave!"

Julia didn't even spare Rebecca one glance as she waved her hand – which was now glowing black – and covered the whole dogpile in the dark energy. Then she vanished in her own 'cloud' of it.

Rebecca ran over to everyone else. "What the hell just happened?!" she cried.

Anna was on her knees, still holding her head. Roberto, Sam, and Fred were all tangled up in the snow – if it weren't for the circumstances, Rebecca would've laughed at the sight. Pietro was pounding on the ground in hyper-speed frustration. Everyone else was scattered, looking about as shocked as she felt.

"So, what happened, exactly?" Amanda asked.

Scott sighed heavily. "Logan and I were outside with the Professor when those two showed up. Xavier was the first one Seether got; he was gone before we even realised what was going on. So Jean and Ororo took her on in the sky while the rest of us went after Mesmero. He tried messing with our heads, but the mental barriers the Professor put in our minds pretty much stopped him, so Seether started blasting at everything and everyone in sight. Then Pietro soon showed up, and Sam was only a few seconds behind him. A few minutes later, and Kurt brought Paige, Jamie, and Pyro, and then everyone else arrived."

They were all gathered in the spacious living room. Austin and Amanda had been picked up from school, so they were included as well. The only ones absent – besides those lost to the Spirit Realm – were Forge, Jean, Anna, Lance, and Ray. Forge was analysing the security footage to see if he could spot anything in the fight that might help, and the other four were down in the infirmary; Ray hadn't woken up yet, so Jean was looking after him while the other two were getting painkillers for the headaches caused by their powers. Rebecca wanted to go down and see Ray, but Jean insisted they all stayed upstairs until she said so. And besides, Austin had her waist in a sort of vice grip, keeping her more or less stuck in her seat.

"So now practically all the instructors are stuck in the Spirit World!" Kitty realised, "Plus Bobby, Wanda, and John!" Looking back, Rebecca realised that Kitty was right. In fact, the only adults left were Scott, Jean, and Forge.

Just then, Forge walked in. "Did you get anything?" Scott asked him.

Forge shrugged. "Well, it was kinda hard, since I didn't know exactly what to look for, but I did seen a pattern in the way Seether uses her powers. Every time she uses one of her powers, except for flying, her hands glows a certain color. You know, green for the blasts, or red for the whips. But she never uses more than two at the same time, like each hand can only use one power at a time, and obviously she's only got two hands. It's not much, but just knowing that might give us an advantage the next time any one of us has to go up against her."

"I think that actually saved our lives last week," Jubilation added sadly, "The only reason she let go of the Blackbird was because Bobby was chucking ice at her, and her other hand was busy keeping the portal open."

"Makes sense," Alex commented.

At that point, Jean walked in, with Lance and Anna right behind her. "How's Ray?" Rebecca demanded.

"I ran a few scans," Jean reported, "He's got a cracked rib and he's lucky he didn't get a concussion, but he'll be fine otherwise, I think."

"How'd he crack a rib?" Evan asked.

Jean shrugged. "I think I know," Forge answered, "When I watched the fight on the security tapes, there was a moment where he and Rebecca were slammed into a tree, and Ray was kind of sandwiched in the middle. At their velocity, the impact could easily break bones."

Rebecca felt a painful twinge of guilt. Ray had been injured protecting her. It was her fault.

"Has he woken up yet?" Roberto asked.

Jean nodded. "Yeah, but he's pretty banged up. It'd be better if he didn't get a lot of visitors right away."

Rebecca stood up anyway, pulling herself out of Austin's grip. "I want to see him," she insisted.

"Rebecca, I'm not sure it-"

"Please. He got hurt protecting me. I need to talk to him, just for a couple minutes."

Jean sighed. "Okay. But try not to talk too loud; he's got a killer headache."

"Well, smacking your head on a rock can do that to you," Austin bluntly commented, "Dumbass mutie should've watched where he was going."

"Austin!" Rebecca gasped. His hostility towards her fellow mutants still hadn't died, he'd just toned it down in expressing it, and not by much. Roberto stood up, and it took the combined efforts of Sam, Kurt, and Alex to pull him down in a quiet struggle.

"What?" Austin glared at her.

Rebecca huffed. "You can be so unbelievable sometimes. Could you just try to be nice to my friends for once? Even before all this, you never gave Lynzi, Chris, or Matty any respect!"

"What does that have to do with anything now?!"

"Everything!"

"Uh, we'll just go…" Kitty mumbled, giving the rest of the room a significant look. One by one, the other X-Men and the Brotherhood got up and left. Several threw death glares at Austin's back, and surprisingly, Rebecca didn't mind. She herself was giving him one. Soon, the two of them were all alone.

"What's your problem?" Rebecca snapped, "Ever since we got here, you've been rude, bossy, possessive, and cold towards me! You don't respect me, you don't respect any of my friends, you never leave me alone, and you act like I can't think for myself! Why?"

"You're seriously asking that question?!" Austin seemed like he was stuck between rage and disbelief. "Please! I'm only doing it for your own good! These mutants have been poisoning your mind, and I've been doing everything I can to stop them, but you have got to work with me here!"

"You're never going to give that up, are you?! You've been saying the same crap for a week, and I'm just sick of it!"

"Why don't you get it?! You keep treating these freaks like they're human! They're not! MUTANTS AREN'T PEOPLE!"

SMACK! Rebecca slapped Austin as hard as she could across the face.

"Get out!" she shouted, "Go home, Jones! You're not welcome here anymore! We're THROUGH!"

Austin turned and stormed out of the room, pausing at the door for a few seconds only to look back at her. "You're a freak, Reid," he spat venomously, "You're just like them."

Rebecca shrieked, not unlike a wild animal, and threw a shockwave at him, only barely missing as he ducked away. She tried to calm herself down, but it didn't work. She really, really needed to talk to someone before she exploded.

She streaked out of the room, not bothering to answer when the others called to her, to the elevator. Impatiently, she jabbed at the button until the doors opened, then waited just as impatiently for it to sluggishly bring her down to the lower levels. Down the hall, around the corner, through the door, and she was in the infirmary.

Rebecca stopped when she saw him lying on one of the beds, his shirt off and bandages on his head and chest. He looked up in surprise when she came in. "Hey," he greeted her, grinning weakly. The smile vanished in a second. "What's wrong?"

And then the tears came. She'd been trying to keep them back, but that one question broke her. They spilled from her eyes like waterfalls and tumbled down her face, and she began sobbing violently.

With her vision blurred badly by her tears, it took Rebecca a couple moments to register that Ray was sitting up. "D-Don't," she told him, "You're h-hurt."

"Well, it looks like you're worse off than I am right now."

He held out his arms to her. Sniffling, Rebecca drifted over and sank into his embrace, shaking harder than ever. Ray held her tightly as he ran his hand up and down her back. She felt herself finally relaxing, just from being in his presence.

They stayed like that for who knew how long. Rebecca didn't want him to let her go. She didn't know why, but she felt safer around him. He understood her in a way that none of her other friends ever had. It was strange, the connection that had developed between them in a little over a week. It'd been… nine days now? And already she felt like she could trust him with her life. Today's events definitely proved that.

Eventually, Ray broke the silence. "So, what happened?" he asked softly, "Did something happen with Julia in the fight?"

Ah, yes. That had temporarily left her mind due to her argument with Austin, but now it hit again with full force. How could she have forgotten about Julia, even for a moment? She felt terrible about it. Rebecca fought back the urge to break down crying again, letting only one sob escape.

"Shh… shh, easy. If it's too hard to talk about it now, then you don't have to."

"No- no, I have to tell you. If I don't tell someone, I'll just explode or something." She shifted so that she was sitting next to Ray instead of putting all her weight on him, and put her arms around his neck, not wanting to exert any pressure on his ribs. "Every time I start really enjoying my life here, any time I'm happy for a while, I suddenly feel really guilty about it, knowing that while I'm fine, my own twin is miserable and I can go so long without remembering that! She was herself for a few seconds today, Ray, and she was terrified! And I just forgot about her, my own sister! How could I do that to her, even for a few minutes?!" The little bit of calm she'd achieved by coming here was gone. She couldn't get another word out.

Ray pulled her into a tighter embrace, again beginning to rub her back soothingly while she sobbed into his shoulder. "Hey, it's all right," he murmured, "Look, I don't have a twin or anything, but I do know what it's like to have a loved one who's worse off and feel guilty about it." He paused. "I've only told the professor and Logan, but I have a little brother living with our father and older brother back in New Jersey. They're… not exactly the best family to live with. Dad just sits and drinks until he passes out, ever since Mom died, and so he's pretty much out of it all the time. Duane's usually high and looking for someone to vent on, usually Tyler. Used to be me, then my powers kicked in, and he kicked me out. I doubt Dad even knows what's going on in his own house, so he obviously can't do anything about it. I don't know whether or not Ty's alive, dead, in the emergency room, or what. An when I've got time to think, everything always comes back to me wondering if I did the right thing, leaving him in that hellhole while I struck out on my own and wound up living a better life here.

Rebecca had stopped crying by then, listening to Ray's story. He had a dark, sad look in his eyes, no doubt reliving the painful memories in his mind. "Oh, Ray…" she whispered, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze. Ray winced; clearly his broken rib was bothering him. "Sorry," she apologised quickly, moving away, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He pulled her back closer to him, smiling faintly. "Anyway, my point is that even though I feel horrible about it sometimes, always being miserable wouldn't make any difference. Julia wouldn't want you to be moping around all the time, right?"

Rebecca smiled a little. "Right."

"So what else happened?" he asked, "Who else did we lose? Jean and the others wouldn't tell me anything."

The smile faded. "The Professor was the first one they got." She couldn't bring herself to explain that it was her sister sucking people into the Spirit Realm; she knew Ray was already aware of that anyway. "Then Ms. Munro, Warren, Mr. Logan, Mr. McCoy, Remy, and Piotr."

"All the adults except for Scott, Jean, and Forge," Ray summarised, "Smart strategy. Take out most of the leader figures, leaving us kids to fend for ourselves."

"I know. We came to that conclusion five minutes ago."

"You came in here seven minutes ago," Ray noted, glancing pointedly at the wall clock.

"Okay, nine or ten minutes ago. Everyone was there: even the Brotherhood, Amanda, Austin…" she trailed off.

"What'd he do this time?"

"Huh?"

"I can tell from the way you said his name. You two have another fight?" He grew super serious. "What'd he say? If he hurt you, I'll punch his lights out, broken rib or not."

"It's fine," Rebecca told him hastily as he tried to get up, "I'm done with him. We broke up, and he'll be on a plane back home as soon as possible."

"Really? Great! I was getting sick of… Oh, sorry."

"Like I just said, it's fine. I know you two hate each other, and to be honest, I don't know how I couldn't hate him, either. Once he found out I was a mutant, everything changed between us. It beats me why he didn't just dump me and spare us all this drama."

Ray shrugged. "Who knows how that guy thinks? All I need to know is that he's an asshole, and that you deserve way better than him."

Rebecca blushed. She'd heard Amanda and Tabby and pretty much everyone in the mansion saying that, but it sounded different in Ray's protective tone. For once, she found herself believing it. "Uh… thanks." He smiled down at her, and she grinned back, even though she was still crying a little on the inside.

Just then, the door slid open, and Jean came in. "Ray!" she scolded, "You're supposed to be resting!"

"I'm fine," Ray protested, "I'm not made of glass, you know. Ow!" He'd tried to stand up, but gasped in pain and sat back down.

Rebecca took his hand. "Maybe you should lie down," she suggested. Ray rolled his eyes, but gingerly settled himself back down. Jean then gently laid a hand on Rebecca's shoulder.

"Rebecca, I'm sorry, but he needs to sleep. You'll have to go back upstairs. Everybody's worried about you."

Rebecca sighed and turned to leave, but not before giving Ray a peck on the cheek and whispering "Thank you" in his ear. His face went three shades of red, causing hers to heat up as well. Then, slowly, she let Jean lead her out.

"You okay?" the older girl asked as the two of them headed down the hallway towards the elevator.

"Uh-huh. I think so."

"You know, you're not the only girl here who's lost a boyfriend because of her powers. I was dating this guy, Duncan Matthews, before mutants became known to the public. Once we were exposed, he wanted to use my 'problem' to cheat on tests for him, so I dumped him right there on the spot, in front of the entire school."

Rebecca chuckled. "Yeah, I think Kitty told me that story once, then said I should do the same. Guess I took her advice after all, huh?"

"I guess so. What about the second part?"

"Second part?" They came to the elevator and got in.

"I wound up hooking up with my closest guy friend, and I've been with him ever since." She threw a sidelong glance at Rebecca. "You and Ray seem to be pretty close."

Rebecca just blushed furiously and looked away. "Don't even go there. We're just friends, nothing more."

Jean grinned. "Okay, but you might want to tell everyone else that. Alex has got a betting pool started on you two, and almost the entire Institute has a piece in."

"Even you?"

The elevator door opened, and Jean's response was drowned out by half a dozen voices.

"Rebecca, are you okay?"

"How's Ray doing?"

"What'd Jones say to you?"

"Can I kick his ass for you?"

"No way! I call dibs on the ass-kicking!"

"Oh, would you all just SHUT UP?!" Rebecca shouted. Amanda, Roberto, Kitty, Evan, and Tabby all fell silent. Good thing Lynzi had taught her that trick; it was the only way to quiet groups like the Park kids or this bunch. "I'm fine, he's fine, like you don't know because I know some of you were listening in, and no ass-kicking just yet, okay?" She said that all in one breath.

"O-kay… so… why not?" Tabby asked. "If anyone ever talked to me like that, I would've cleaned his clock, or at least stuck a cherry bomb down the front of his boxers."

"I don't doubt that, but he's been going around forever insisting that we're monsters. If you just attack him for no reason – and I know you've got a good reason, but I'm sure he wouldn't tell it like that – it'll just prove him right, in his mind. I won't give him that satisfaction."

Tabby and Evan huffed. "Fine," they grumbled.

Rebecca was glad that Ray was in the infirmary right now. Well, not about the fact that he was injured, but at least he couldn't get at Austin. It was strangely comforting, though, knowing that he would fight for her like that.

Scott, Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Evan, Forge, and Lance all stood in the tactics room, trying to figure out what move to make next. All the other students were still trying to come to terms with what had happened, but the 'Original Six', the Brotherhood leader, and the only other adult left had quickly pulled themselves together and decided to come up with a plan of action.

"Okay," Anna thought out loud, "We need to find a way to stop Apocalypse from returnin', obviously, get our friends back, deal with Jones, handle things around the mansion until Logan an' the Professor and everyone else returns, and any other crap Ah haven't thought of yet."

"There's the media," Forge added, "That battle didn't go unnoticed. I'm surprised this place isn't swarming with reporters already."

"They're probably gathering theories from the locals instead," Kitty stated glumly, "That way, they can spin their own stories about how wild and dangerous we are instead of getting the truth. Not that the truth's much better. I mean, what happened with Apocalypse is pretty much common knowledge now. Nobody wants to hear about his servants running around and attacking other mutants."

"Nobody vould vant to be around mutants at all if zey found out," Kurt commented, "Zey'd be too scared zat zey might get caught in ze crossfire."

Scott rubbed his temples. "Okay, okay, so we've got a lot of problems to deal with right now. Let's try and focus on the most immediate ones. Now, I doubt Jones wants to stay another night here, and let's face it: the feeling's mutual all around. So we should get him on the next flight home, as soon as possible."

"I'll book the tickets," Forge immediately volunteered.

"Alright, that's taken care of. Now, there's bound to be at least one reporter who'll eventually come up here, so we have to figure out exactly what to tell them. Kitty, I want you to handle that. Say it was just a few lone mutants and we've taken care of the situation. We don't want a panic about Apocalypse possibly coming back. Oh, and Alvers, try and keep your boys from interfering. We all know Tolansky will be dying to get on camera, and we can't have him messing this up."

Lance glared back at Scott. Even with the X-Men and the Brotherhood at a general peace now, those two still didn't get along. Some things just never change.

"Anyway," Kitty interrupted, not wanting her boyfriend and her team leader to get into yet another fight, "There's another thing we've gotta consider. Roberto told me that Seether sorta came back to her senses during the fight, but it was only for a few seconds."

"She fought off Mesmero's control for a while?" Jean asked, clearly surprised, "Do you think she might have some telepathic abilities of her own?"

"Nah," Anna disagreed, "Ah saw it go down, and it was rahght after Ah drained ol' tattoo-face. It was Mesmero's power – or lack of it – that freed her for a bit. But Ah just barely brushed his face, so it was only temporary."

"So if we wanna save Julia," Lance concluded, "We've gotta take out Mesmero and keep them apart."

"How do we know that Seether and Julia aren't the same person?" Evan questioned, "What if there's no saving her? It could've all been just an act."

"He's got a point," Scott added, "She attacked Rebecca right after that. It might've been a trick to get her guard down."

"No," Anna disagreed again, "The little bit of his thoughts Ah was able to absorb are pretty murky, but he was definitely focusin' on keeping the true Julia locked up. Seether is a different personality altogether. The question is how to get rid of her."

"Well, I don't think we should talk about it anymore without Rebecca's input," Kitty announced, "They're twin sisters; she obviously knows more about Julia than anyone here, probably more than the entire world. She should have a say in whatever decision we make on this." She glanced over at Jean, who'd since drifted out of the conversation and looked deep in thought. "What do you think, Jean? Jean?"

The redhead started when she realised she was being addressed. "Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking, Rebecca told me about the nightmare she had the night after her sister went missing. It was about the car crash that killed their parents, but it was all from Julia's perspective."

"It's not all that surprising," Scott commented, "Like Kitty said, they're identical twins."

Jean continued on as if he hadn't even spoken. "Then there was the one she had last night. I was half-asleep, but I'm positive I felt another presence in the mansion then, more specifically, in Rebecca's room. I think someone's been sending her those dreams, like some sort of message."

"Mesmero?"

"No, it wasn't him. Besides, the presence wasn't physical, it was purely mental. But I don't know of any telepath strong enough to send those dreams over such a long distance. Cerebro didn't pick up anyone nearby last night; there was nobody on the grounds, and all the mutants in town were either here or at the Boarding House."

"Well, what about Julia?" Evan suggested, "There's a lot of theories that twins have a sort of psychic link, or something like that. Imagine combining that with both twins having mutant powers. And the first nightmare was from her point of view."

Jean nodded. "That's pretty likely, but it might be a good idea to test that theory first. If there is a connection, and Seether is sending messages to Rebecca, maybe I can get it to work in reverse."

"That's pretty risky, Jean," Scott cautioned her, "Who knows what could happen to her mind?"

Jean sighed. "I know," she admitted, "But maybe we should consider it, or at least let Rebecca decide for herself. It could be our only hope."

Now, anyone who's curious about Ray's story, it'll be covered in more detail in the sequel, but until then, you can find some flashbacks in my other XME fic, 'Family, Meet My Mutant Friends'.

Until then, please Read and Review and tell me what you think.