ATTENTION! Good, now that I have it, I want to ask something of you. Even though it's getting to be a longer story, I still want people reading to review! I need to know how I'm progressing on and how good or bad I'm moving things along, okay? It's not that hard, click a button and write something down!

Sorry for this one being shorter than the others, the next Chap. Will be longer…

I only own Rhianna, not the X-Men, Brotherhood, or Acolytes. Or Principal Kelly.

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"Not again…" I whispered. I hopped over to Pyro, the nearest, who was slouched over a box on the floor. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and put my fingertips on his temples.

For a moment I was surrounded by empty darkness, a void of nothing. Fears welled up in my heart. This only happened when someone was dead, or… when what happened to Glenn happened.

Suddenly I was consumed by a wall of fire, a burning inferno that surrounded my body and soul with pain. I let out a noise of surprise, quickly trying to suppress the flames. But they kept coming at me, taking different shapes and snapping out with vicious teeth and claws. One in particular, a giant fiery dragon, loomed in front of me, and abruptly all of the other monsters that were ablaze burned out. But the last one left lunged at me with vengeful fury, and I barely managed to jump out of the way. Gravity seemed to be increased in here, and it took momentous effort to just move one step, and much more to make a leap.

"Abasalom!" I screeched in desperation. As I dived out of the way, one of the flaming whiskers slashed across my arm, creating a distinct burn. I hardy noticed the pain. Abasalom didn't come, and I was left to fend for myself against this smoldering creature of legend.

While once again jumping out of the way in this heavy atmosphere, I just managed to see the pale outline of the white lion standing next to the glowing immortal. But he was not fighting. His pale shadow was just standing there, watching, waiting. For what? I was forced into a corner, obviously a bad place to be during a fight, and curled up to await the final blazing blow. It never came.

Hesitantly, I peeked out from over my arm, before jerking up in surprise. Pyro was awake, standing, and holding his hands to his head. I pressed my palms to the normally chilly floor under me. It was scorching hot, but that wasn't important. I hadn't been dreaming. Or rather, he hadn't been dreaming. When had this turned into reality?

I looked to where I knew Abasalom had been standing a moment ago. There was no insipid figure, no glowing red eyes. It was like he had never been there. But I had felt his presence, even outside of my mind.

"Rhianna? What happened?" Pyro looked thoroughly confused and fairly in pain, but I just glared at him. "What?" He flinched slightly, suddenly realized he had done something wrong.

"I believe, monsieur, you just tried to kill me." I hissed. Before he could answer, I turned away and walked over to Piotr's still body. His usual metal encasing was gone, though that took almost nothing off of his size. Instead of trying to go into his mind and risk another fight, I shouted in his ear, "WAKE UP! THIS ISN'T NAPTIME!" He jolted up off of the floor, looking around alertly.

"Much better. Now that I've got your attention, do you mind telling me what happened?" I asked with false sweetness.

"You… left. And… I cannot remember." He grimaced and rubbed his head.

"You guys are pathetic." I huffed. After a similar wake-up ceremony for Magneto and Remy, I just stood there glaring at them. "Now does anyone want to tell me what happened?"

"Aww, don' be mad at us. We didn' do no wrong." Remy chimed. "But i' was da Rogue who did dat. I rememba dat much." I felt his conscious slipping away to a daydream.

"Hey, Lover Boy, don't float off yet." I shook my head before turning to Magneto. "So, Monsieur Paper clip, what are we gonna do about it? Something not completely top-secret that I'm kept oblivious of, I hope?" I shot a venomous glance at Pyro and Remy, who both instantly looked away from my gaze.

"First of all, where were you?" Magneto said, obviously a sad attempt to attain control of the conversation. Pathetic, really.

"Out visiting some old haunts." I leaned up against the doorframe, hoping I sounded off-hand. It was absolutely none of their business where I had been.

"Wha' kinda 'visitin' cost three grand?" Remy asked crossly. His red-on-black devil eyes were narrowed dangerously, as he had obviously just remembered the lack of cash.

"One that goes to California to Canada. By the way, Yeux de Serpent, under your bed isn't the best place to hide that much money. Just saying." (Snake Eyes) I put on a beaming smirk, if that was even possible. "As I was saying, are we gonna do anything about it?"

"We have a graduation to go to." Magneto growled.

"Ooh, really? I thought your kids got expelled." I sniffed smugly. The look he gave me was definitely his most murderous glare yet.

--

It ends ol' Bucket-head wasn't kidding. This time I actually got to come along, though. And some new freaks that were previously unbeknownst to me. Except for Sabretooth, but he didn't really count. He was gone most of the time. A teenaged boy with white hair, Pedro, I think it was? Wanda, I could feel the power humming through her body. Searching for a way out. Toad was slightly… disturbing to say the least. He had a definite greenish pallor, and a freaky tongue. Yuck. Blob was… well, a blob. A giant, disgusting, smelly blob. Though I could feel the power- raw strength, actually- that ripped through his body. It was just heavily layered with more than a healthy dosage of fat.

And so, in a rather ridiculous-though Remy assured me the humans would think it terrifying- we walked over to Bayville High to ruin the best day of the year for seniors. What joy.

Though I'll admit I did gain some amusement from the fleeing, flying red graduation coats, it was boring enough for me to wish I had said something about staying home. The field was emptied except for the man, whom I assumed was the principal, just trying to make things orderly. Dream on, loser, I thought.

Pedro quickly dragged Rogue in front of us, and Paper clip sent some of the metal chairs hurling around her. Her face wasn't mad or indignant, but it had an almost… sleepy quality to it. But I could feel another presence, somewhere around here… I cast my mental gaze about wearily.

"Magneto?! Explain yourself." The Professor's tone highly amused me. It sounded like an angry parent scolding a school child. Only difference, both of these men were well over sixty.

"The girl is under Mesmero's control, Charles. She attacked us to absorb our powers." Magneto's voice was thicker than ever, and it was really bothering me. But I had this nagging feeling that there was somebody else here, which happened to be a more preoccupying bother at the moment.

"What proof do you have?" The Professor's voice sounded on the smug side to me. He thought he had won.

"My surveillance cameras. They captured it all." Of course Bucket-head needed to leave out the fact that I pulled their memories to the surface. Not that it was important or anything, with his fancy cameras everywhere. I rolled my eyes and put on a bitter pout as the chairs started to fly off in wild directions. Bucket-head, you idiot! I thought crossly.

Toad made a strangely graceful leap out of the way, they just bounced off of Blob like nothing, and I just stood behind Remy, who easily knocked them out of the way with his staff.

But then the strangest thing happened. Rogue took off to the sky. Like, actually flying.

"Rhi-"

"I'm on it!" I forced a nightmare into her mind, one of darkness. Not just regular darkness, though. Horrible, heavy, thick darkness, the kind of perpetual blackness that would weight her down and smolder her until her steadily disappearing figure was dragged to the ground. But my illusion bounced off of her mind as easily as the chairs had bounced off of Blob's stomach.

"Someone else is here!" I cried out in panic, redirecting the images toward the blocker. I tried to change the cauchemar to something more terrifying, but they were already out of my head, and they rebounded uselessly off of his mind. Rogue's ascent had slowed a tiny bit when I mentally attacked her, but now she was flying freely off because of my lack of attentiveness. And now the other person had also gone out of range. I let out a noise of frustration and pain, falling to my knees. "He was right there…" I hissed.

"Who was?" The Professor asked curiously, but there was a definite demanding tone. I glared up at him.

"Mesmero."