Chapter 9

Gee, life on Earth was just getting so much better. Well, now I knew that my parents wouldn't kill me for running away here. No, instead they order me to stop a war between Earth and the other planets. How was I to do that? It's bad enough that there was going to be a war between the mutants. Now my people have joined as well, but not my side. Nope, they chose the bad side. Why am I not surprised? Well, maybe concentrating on this war will help my mind wander away from two certain boys… Hopefully.

If they weren't worried before, these girls sure were worried now. There was a war coming, and they had to fight against their own people. They had all met together in Micki's room today. No one wanted to discuss a war, but they didn't really have a choice. This wasn't something that they could just postpone.

"Micki, do you have this room all to yourself?" Mara asked, looking around. Micki nodded. "That's so cool. Mara has to share her room, but she likes her roommate."

"Who do you share your room with?" Lily asked.

"Rahne."

"Oh, Wolf Bane." Lily smiled. "She's a very nice girl." Mara nodded.

"Okay, maybe we should cut the chitchat and start discussing the war," Kat interrupted.

"Thank you Kat." Micki passed the note around to all the girls. "This is the message we got from the Royal Court." When the note came around to Lily she just read it out loud.

Dear Children,

It has come to our attention that people from the planets are escaping to Earth. We have learned that Lilyanna of Mars, Jennifer of Mercury, Kathryn of Saturn, Sakura of the Moon, and Talya, daughter of General Moon, are on Earth. We would appreciate if you do us a favor before you all return home and stop these people from destroying what isn't already destroyed on this once beautiful planet Earth. We trust you can handle things. Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Royal Court

"So they want us to fight a war for them," Jen said. "Why should we? Why can't they fight it?"

"Micki, when you left, what was going on?" Lily demanded to know. Jen had a good point. Normally they would never ask them to fight such a war for them. There had to be a reason.

"They were at war," Micki answered truthfully. "Whoever is behind this mess, leading our people to Earth to destroy everything, they're also leading a war between the planets. They've already gained control of Pluto. I think just as I was leaving they gained control of Saturn."

"So it's not just Earth that's having problems. It's the whole universe." Lily contemplated their situation. "So while they handle the bigger war, they leave us for the smaller one."

"What do you mean?" Mara asked.

"Well, think… they have to fight for eight different planets while all we have to do is defend Earth. It's not really fair if you think about it, and the only reason they asked us to do it is because we're already here. If we were still at home where we're supposed to be, they would never have put us in such danger."

The girls looked around at each other. Lily had a point. Their parents had always been really protective about what kind of danger they put their kids in. This was the biggest danger of all.

"If they were here now, they would try to handle it themselves," Tal commented. Lily nodded. "They're actually putting the fate of Earth in our hands." Tal sounded amazed at this thought. "I never really thought they'd ever do such a thing. We have to try our best. We can't disappoint them."

"Well said Tal," Jen complimented her. "And I agree. So we're going to do all we can to stop this war and make things right again. We're going to make our parents even more proud of us than they already are."

"How can we tell if someone is from another planet?" Mara asked.

Lily tapped her head. "I have the ability to read minds and sense people. I will know if they're from another planet or not."

"But that means your mind will always have to be open," Jen explained. "You're still recovering from White Queen's School for Mutants. How do you expect to handle finding people from other planets?"

"That's what I'm training for. I'm going to build my ability to read minds and learn to concentrate better. Won't fail Jen. Just trust in me, okay?" Lily begged her cousin.

Jen sighed and nodded. "I trust you. I'm just worried is all."

"That's understandable." Lily smiled and hugged her cousin. "As we all should be. We all know what we're up against. We're talking about people even our parents had trouble dealing with. We're going to give it everything we've got to end this."

"You ready?" Jean asked Lily. Lily needed and sat as if in meditation. It had been awhile since she had done this. She used to visit her temple every morning and just meditate for a couple of hours. It was a good way of cleansing her head.

"So why are you the one training me, Professor Grey?" Lily asked. It's not that she didn't like Jean… okay, maybe it was. She preferred Xavier, but you don't always get what you want. Jean just annoyed her in a many ways, not to mention a big minus was that Jean was dating Scott. Lily hated Scott. He acted all high and mighty, and disregarded other people's feelings or thoughts.

"Xavier as other problems to deal with, and I've been in the same position you're in now. I understand more than you may think I do."

Great, Lily thought to herself. Now the not so popular professor thinks that she understands me. Just want I need. Lily sat up straight and cleared her mind. At least in that way she didn't have to worry about Jean.

"Lily, I have a question."

Lily looked up at Jean. "As away Professor Grey."

"Why can't I read your mind? Even Xavier can't. You have nothing blocking it."

Lily shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe my powers are stronger than yours." Lily smirked, watching that doubtful look cross Jean's face. "Just kidding. Maybe you're not meant to read my mind, nor anyone else for that matter."

Jean thought for a moment. "I guess you're right."

"I'm sorry Rogue, did you say something?" Bobby looked over at his girlfriend.

"That's it Bobby, I'm tired of you ignoring me. You were thinking of Lily again, weren't you?"

"No!" Bobby tried to calm Rogue down. "Trust me, I wasn't. I swear."

Rogue examined her boyfriend. "You're lying to me. You're always thinking about Lily, so what's the difference now?"

"The difference is I chose to stay with you Rogue, okay? Yes, I liked Lily, but that's over. She means nothing to me." Bobby took her hands in his own. "I'm much happier being here with you. Trust me."

Rogue sighed and buried herself into Bobby's embrace. She wasn't sure how much of what he said was true, but he did ask her to trust him, so that's what she would do. Unbeknownst to the couple, they had a shadow lurking just around the corner.

Lily stood there. She had heard and seen everything. She took a deep breath, fighting back the tears. "What did you expect Lily? Of course he didn't really care for you like you cared for him," she tried to tell herself. "I'm such an idiot." She started her way back to her room, but was stopped by Morion. She scowled and pushed her way around him.

"Lily, will you stop avoiding me?" Morion grabbed her good arm and threw her against the wall. She let out a small squeal of pain.

"Morion, stop! Both you and Bobby. You're both crazy!" she shouted.

"And it's all your fault."

"My fault? How is it my fault?" She tried to fight him off. "I hate you both!"

"No you don't. You wish you did. It would make things a lot easier, huh?"

"I do hate you!"

"Stop pretending." He let her go and stood there, eyes glowing with anger. "You can say you hate us all you want, but really you're afraid to be with one of us. I don't know what your past is with guys, but get over it. Stuff happens. I don't know what it is about you, but I'm drawn to you Lily."

"No! You don't care about anyone. Everyone here says it."

"What do they know? Just as I don't care for them, they don't care for me. They don't hate me because I don't acknowledge them. They hate me because they're scared of me. They've been scared since the first day I walked through those doors, but you weren't."

"I might not have been scared of you then," Lily shouted, "but I am now. I'm scared of both you and Bobby. You both keep throwing me around like I'm some sort of object. Well, I'm not. I'm a person, and I have feelings as well. Both of you, just stop attacking me. Leave me alone. I want nothing to do with either of you. You hear that Bobby?"

Bobby just stood there watching Lily, pain all too noticeable in his eyes. He had heard the shouting in the other room and came to investigate what was going on. Rogue stood right next to him.

"I don't love anyone. I don't even have an interest in being with anyone. I enjoy being alone. Love is pathetic. It just gets in the way and clouds your mind of your surroundings. I don't ever want to love, ever again." Lily then covered her mouth, realizing what she just said. She turned and made her way to room as quick as possible under her condition.

Tal sat outside, watching the leaves fall from the trees. She pulled her jacket tight around her and walked over to the gate. She leaned against it, staring out at nothing. When they left White Queen's School, Tal had also left Gambit behind. She was a little lonely now. She wanted to see him again, but after that battle, he would probably never want to talk to her ever again. Stupid, you should have known better than to let yourself fall in love with the enemy, she scolded herself. What did you think? That he was just going to convert himself to help humans rather than destroy them all for the sake of love? This isn't some fairy tale.

"Thinking about him again?" Kitty snuck up behind Tal, causing her to jump and bang her head against the gate. She cursed, being as her head had still hurt from being knocked unconscious the other day. "I'm sorry. Didn't really mean to scare you."

"Hey Kitty." Tal gently rubbed her head.

"Let's go to the club tonight."

"What?" Tal was too busy with the pain to understand what Kitty was doing.

"The club. Let's go."

"No, not tonight. I think I just want to lay down for awhile and maybe get some sleep. Because of my concussion, I wasn't allowed to sleep last night."

"But…"

"I'm tired."

"If you go, he might be there. I'm just saying, you want to see him right?" Kitty said quickly, tired of Tal interrupting her. "He's usually there, right?"

"Oh." Tal seemed to perk up a bit. "You're right." Then she seemed depressed again. "What if he doesn't want to see me? What if I try to talk to him and he just completely brushes me off?"

"You'll never know if you don't try." Kitty nudged her friend a bit with her elbow and winked. Tal just smiled and nodded.

"Alright. We're going to the club tonight."

"Yay!" Kitty cheered.

Tal just laughed. "Are you sure you didn't just use Gambit as an excuse to have fun?"

Kitty backed away laughing. Tal chased her up to their room. Kitty was just happy that she could get her friend to stop sulking, even if it was for just a little while.

Later that night both girls entered the club. Guys turned in their direction, some even asking them to dance, but the two girls just brushed them all off and entered the dance floor together, swaying against each other. Tal's gaze searched the club, hoping to find Gambit, but she never did. She figured he might show up later. But as the night went on, there was no sign of him. Eventually she gave up and the two girls just went home. Tal knew he wouldn't show up, but she just wanted to make sure. She didn't want to miss a chance to see him. The two girls walked home in silence.

Gambit looked down at his new mission. He looked up at White Queen. "But these are…"

"The new students. I want you to terminate them. Gambit, you're my best student. I trust you'll get the job done."

Gambit took one last look down at the picture he held in his hand, his gaze focusing on Tal. She was his enemy. He had fallen in love with the enemy. He nodded, not really wanting to. "It'll get done." He walked out of the room. He then crumpled up the picture, kinetically charging it in the process. He threw it into a trash bin, and then the picture blew up.