Alice's blood rushed through her ears, nearly drowning out the panicked thoughts running alongside her pulse. She gripped the strap of her little duffel bag like a rope attached to a life preserver as the bag itself slapped against her thigh while she walked.
This is insane.
More than insane.
Really insane.
Gravel kicked up behind long strides bounced along the driveway, mocking Alice's refusal to pull her truck onto the school's grounds. She didn't want to be sending any kind of message that she might possibly be staying, and though that seemed to be the best way to send the message it did make for an uncomfortable entrance.
I have lost the last of my marbles.
They have rolled away.
I might have thrown them out a window.
"Alice," a coarse voice addressed her. Coarse from disuse, not anger. That voice could have been run through the shakiest phone line through ten connections and then played over a megaphone just a little too far away, and Alice would have still recognized it.
"It's a school, you know – big pretentious stone building like this and that yahoo made it a school; not exactly subtle, you know?" Alice laughed, pulling at the end of her braid.
"Alice,"he insisted, grabbing her arm to force her to stop the slow charge towards the castle. She could feel the movement of the plate steel in his fingers even through the thick sweater's sleeves. He dropped his voice to barely a whisper above silence. "Eyes."
"I know," Alice confirmed, "they're not exactly subtle." She put her hand on his metal one, squeezed the fingers gently, and he released her arm. Even stone-faced, his expression seemed apologetic; for grabbing at her? If a bruise might develop, it would be gone before she pushed up her sleeve to check.
"It's alright," she told Bucky. "They won't hurt you."
His brow furrowed. "And you?"
He catches on quickly, Alice thought. "If you can't break me, I doubt they'd do any better," Alice cast a broad arm at the school. "Come on; the chickens get nervous when the foxes linger outside." Not quite a confirmation, but not an outright lie; just the way Alice liked it.
Bucky walked a little closer behind her as they fell under the castle's shadow. Alice could hear the chime of children's laughter drifting from open windows, and the thunder of footsteps on stairs as classes let out for the hour and everyone ran to make it to the next class on time.
A fluff of blue hair poked out of a window and Alice saw Bucky's arm twitch violently to a concealed weapon. She grabbed it, wrapping her arm around his elbow like old lovers going for a stroll. She smiled broadly and waved, speaking softly to Bucky. "They're just children; curious about people walking towards the school. No need to shoot children." A few more curious faces popped out of windows before the adults herded them away.
There was no need to knock at the front door this time around as it was open and waiting for them as Alice and Bucky approached. Alice offered a warm smile to the old school-mates who waited for her, and received one wave and a pained grimace from Bobby and Piotr respectively.
Alice got straight down to business, releasing Bucky's arm as she approached the school's guard dogs. "I need to talk to Charles."
"He is busy," came Piotr's terse reply.
"I'll wait," Alice offered lightly as she passed him, entering the wide foyer. "Library okay?"
"Nyet," Piotr commanded. "Visitors wait in lobby."
"Sorry, Al; you know how it is," Bobby apologized where Piotr had not, closing the heavy wood doors behind them.
Alice's face twitched. "Yeah, I know."
The hair on the back of her neck rose as the click of heels on marble echoed down the connecting hall. In a building full of gangly teens and children, only two people wore heels with any real grace. Ororo, and-
It shouldn't have shocked Alice that Jean Gray looked exactly the same as the day Alice had left. "Alice; so good to see you." She offered the perfect gracious smile, a hand extended just far enough to offer either a handshake, or to seem demure if rebuffed. "And who is this?" The woman held her tone just on the appropriate edge of a purr as she looked past Alice to Bucky.
"Nothing that concerns you," Alice bit back instantly.
Jean's face transitioned from warm to sour as Alice's abrasive tone dove past all social niceties, dropping the extended hand. It gave Alice a sick pleasure to ruin Jean's neat little script. "Everything that goes on in this building concerns me and every other X-Man."
Alice shrugged, trying to release the tension steadily building there. "Then we'll step outside."
Alice moved to turn her back on the redhead, but Bucky set his hand on Alice's shoulder to stop her. "We'll stay here." His thumb tapped the exposed skin of her collarbone. "Visitors wait in the lobby."
Bobby gulped nervously as Bucky's cold stare turned towards him. "I'll, uh, go see what's keeping Professor X." He turned and jogged down the hall.
The air inside the room grew thick with tension and try as she might, Alice felt her breathing quicken as adrenaline surged through her veins. Jean crossed her arms disapprovingly and shook her head. "It's so disappointing to see you like this, all…" she gestured to Alice's entire form, "disorderly."
Standing in the lobby in simple jeans and a black sweatshirt, Alice knew that Jean wasn't been referring to her outfit. A long time ago she would have lowered her gaze and apologized. A long time ago she didn't have Bucky at her back with his hand on her shoulder, a coarse thumb tapping at her collarbone. Now, standing in the lobby, Alice lifted her chin slightly and replied: "I rather like being disorderly. Chaotic, even," she added with a hesitant grin.
Jean made a disapproving noise. "Come on, Alice; we're both adults now."
Alice didn't try to keep the incredulity from dancing across her face. "And what's that supposed to mean, exactly?"
The whirring of a low electric motor cut through the tension in the foyer. "Alice," a calm, older voice addressed her. "It was my understanding you chose to leave us."
"Yeah," she shifted from one foot to another, slightly betraying her discomfort. "You're going to have Logan fly me and my friend to Iceland."
Xavier's attention drifted briefly to Jean as Alice was sure they shared a brief mental conversation. "And why would I do that?" he asked.
Alice's jaw flexed and she curled her lip into her mouth like she could contain the venom dripping from her eyes. "Because if you don't, I'll tell them everything. And they'll never look at her the same." Alice's eyes flashed to Jean only briefly. "You wouldn't want that, so…"Alice jerked her head to one side, gesturing down the hall. "Let's take a tour and chat, shall we?"
"No," Bucky challenged.
Thrown off her rhythm, Alice shifted in a way that forced Bucky to release her shoulder. She missed it immediately. "What? No – it's fine; you'll be fine, and I'll be right back and then we can-"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "No."
Alice threw up her hands. "I give up; I don't know what you're trying to say."
Alice felt a presence slither into her head and she froze. He knows that you're afraid, Alice. She felt that presence look around, examine the interior decorating, and take a too-comfortable seat. He wants to protect you. It's sweet.
Alice nearly threw up at the sound of Jean's voice in her head. She could have spat venom for the viciousness in her reply. "Get out of my head!" she screamed at Jean.
Signaled only by her distress, she was certain, Bucky drew the pistol Alice knew he had concealed and pointed it at the redhead. She didn't hear a safety click off, but Alice couldn't be certain he had ever switched it on in the first place.
He didn't shoot – thankfully – but he was waiting. For a reason? For orders, Alice realized with a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Don't," Alice whispered under her breath. Bucky did not lower the gun, but clicked the safety on.
The room hummed with power. Piotr had donned his steel form, and the temperature of the room had dropped by a significant degree. Alice could taste electricity in the air. Recognizing that she had lost complete control over her original plan, Alice turned her attention slowly, gathering her will and just doing her best not to throw up.
Hello again, Charles, she thought. If Alice had to describe the feeling of thinking at someone she would fail, throw up her hands in dismay, and go make some cocoa. But, after she'd lived with another voice in her head, cast from across the room or across the lawn, whispering and cooing and laughing, she knew what it sounded like. Using that knowledge, that history, she reached out from a place deep inside, and felt the feather-like intrusiveness similar to an oncoming sneeze that signaled Charles had accepted the 'handshake'.
You and I both know what happened. You let that woman hurt me, Charles. You knew that she hated me after she realized I didn't want her. You let her get inside my head and play around in there, burning me from the inside out; turning me into someone I couldn't recognize in the mirror no matter how long I looked. I knew something was wrong. You knew something was wrong.
Bucky seemed to sense, somehow, that there was a conversation happening without his knowledge. Some tension in her shoulders, perhaps, or the defiant lift of her chin. He stepped closer to Alice, still keeping the pistol trained on a barely-concerned Jean.
"Please," Alice said out loud, "put it down." Jean could stop the bullet if she focused hard enough. She could also boil Bucky's brain inside his skull if she wanted.
Bucky didn't look away from the perceived enemy. His arm brushed against her shoulder for a moment as he lowered the pistol, so close was his proximity; it gave her courage.
The first of the most immediate dangers removed, Alice returned to her thoughts. When I came to you and begged you to make it stop, you told me that 'young girls just get into it at times'. You told me that she didn't know what she was doing like that somehow made it okay to let it go on. You let it get so bad that when she finally broke me like a toy she didn't want any more, you had the gall to ask me to apologize.
She took things from me I'll never get back. Alice couldn't help but smile a little as Charles frowned, like he wanted to deny her claim but didn't have the footing to do so. She continued, you let her do these things not because you were afraid of her – like I had every right to be – but because you wanted her to be strong. And maybe you wanted me to be strong, too; but that was not the way.
Feeling the blood rise in her chest; the lingering wrath, the memory of pain and suffering and confusion, Alice had to take a breath. She wasn't really angry any more. She had set aside that anger and hatred and helpless frustration some time ago so that she could sleep at night. The new anger came from the new horrors Charles had laid upon her mind – traveling back in time with her a blindfold over her eyes.
But… she wasn't here for vengeance. She had come back to the school, to the halls that haunted her, to help Bucky.
His body nearly touched hers as he stood like a ready attack dog at her side, and with each breath that he or she took that distance nearly bridged. She could feel the concern that Jean had identified buzzing between them. Even if he didn't have the right words for it yet, Bucky was there for her. She had to be strong for him in return.
I want nothing to do with any of you – this building could burn to the ground and I'd be the first to dance in the ashes, but I'm willing to forgive you. I'm willing to forget everything that happened if you help me this one time. That lingering hate tried to seize her lungs through her chest as the shapes of words danced through her mind. You never helped me, not once…Alice cleared her throat, determined to make sure she could be heard. "I'm asking you to make it all right… by taking us to Iceland."
In a mostly symbolic gesture Alice set her hand on Bucky's arm. The tension in his arm hummed against her hand and she felt the urge to pat at him like a skittish horse. He shouldn't know the danger of the room in a genuine sense but could rely on the keen instincts of an experienced soldier. Were she a more confident liar, Alice would have told him not to worry.
From the outside, the last two minutes in that hollow lobby must have seemed quite strange. After yelling at Jean, Alice grew quiet and stared down the old professor in a wheelchair. At that moment, and many more to come, Alice wished she could read his mind.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Men with steel skin.
Some kind of oddball ice-man.
The world's creepiest redhead; worse even than Russia's little Spiders.
An old man in a wheelchair with extremely expressive eyebrows.
Alice, a mouse in a room full of bobcats, begging to be heard.
Power.
Power, that hummed in the air.
Expressive Eyebrows, who Alice had repeatedly called Charles, tapped his hands against the arms of his wheelchair. "Your friend looks quite a lot like a wanted criminal from the news."
Alice had a response ready, her tongue as sharp as his knives. "Your students look the same with greater frequency, Charles." A warm glow thrummed in his chest. Not a furious heat, or a shameful burn, but more like… pride.
"Give us a moment." The old man rolled away, soon followed by all but the steel-skinned man who watched Alice like she might sprout horns and pull a pitchfork out of thin air. He didn't like the look of anger and thinly-veiled disgust he could read in the other man's face.
"I can kill her," Bucky commented, not bothering to lower his voice. "If you want. Might take a few tries." That got the steel man's attention – disgust morphed into surprise and back to anger, but now directed in a much more preferable direction.
Alice appraised his words with a smile. "That's sweet, but no." She snorted derisively. "That would just make her a martyr, and she'd love that."
"Bozhe moy, Alice; have you no shame? We are family."
"Ona ne tvoya, chtoby nazyvat' sem'yu," Bucky spat. Nearly his mother tongue, the words came easily and dipped in venom. She is not yours to call family. If they had ever been Alice's family, it was clear to him that she feared this place now. A tremble in her lip when she hesitated between words and a thread pulse that fluttered along her neck like a caged bird spoke volumes.
The steel man addressed Alice directly, ignoring Bucky's rebuttal. "Utka, you were such sweet girl – always kind, always giving, always smile – what happened?"
That looked like it hurt. Alice's mouth opened like she wanted to reply, but then pressed her lips together tightly; silencing herself. Bucky's grip tightened on the pistol. He wasn't sure the lower-caliber rounds would penetrate the steel skin of Alice's enemy, but he was willing to give it a go.
"Hey," he barked, getting his opponent's attention. "Yesli vy sobirayetes' dat' yey poshchechinu, imeyte poryadochnost', chtoby zaplatit' yey za yeye vremya." The steel man spluttered in disbelief at the offensive suggestion. If you're going to slap her, have the decency to pay for her time. "Ili shlepni menya i posmotri, chto poluchitsya." Bucky smirked, and flicked his fingers in a 'bring it' gesture. Or slap me, and see what happens.
The steel man started a round of half-epithets and tensed his fists for a fight despite Alice's orders for both of them to knock it off. That's right – look at me, not at her.
A chortle of coarse laughter broke through the tension. "Gettin' in trouble again, Rebound?" This other man looked closer to Bucky's level of 'scruffy' than anyone else who'd cruised by in Alice's rough welcome; overgrown mutton chops and a lazy flannel under an outdated denim jacket, with an entire ensemble held together by a very Texan-style belt buckle. He strode past the metal man without a second glance, appraising the exhausted Alice in one sweep. "You look like shit."
Alice sagged in relief, the iron leaving her spine in a rush as she smiled at the newcomer. "Hey, Logan." She placed a hand on Bucky's arm in an attempt to provide a calming presence. "This is Bucky." Her eyes smiled a little less than her mouth, but it remained an improvement from the earlier tension. "He's an old friend."
"I'm supposed to take you and your…" he looked the Soldier up and down. "… friend… to the old country."
"That's great to hear – when can we leave?" Alice was definitely leaning on Bucky's arm for support, relief robbing her of the adrenaline necessary to keep her standing.
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Warmin' up the engine now. In a rush?" he asked, taking a step back and allowing them to follow.
"You could say that." Alice left her hand on his arm as they walked. He could feel the pressure of it against the steel, even through both his shirt and jacket.
For as much activity as the school seemed to portray, the route they took through and eventuallydown through the large building seemed mostly abandoned. Dark oak walls yielded to sterile white modern ones as the elevator doors opened. Bucky took an abrupt step back, grabbing Alice's wrist to keep her from exiting.
"Bucky?" Alice asked, stepping close. "It's okay." It was not okay. Memories of a variety of sterile and not-so-sterile places with bright lighting and dim lighting, all that tasted like a rubber mouth guard and felt like electricity shooting through his brain, threatened to overwhelm his senses. The memories slammed into his gut with all the force of a thorough beating, and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. Wipe him and start over.
Logan was asking Alice a question and Bucky couldn't hear it. He could see the frown on the gruff man's face, see the tension in his body he tried to hide by tucking his thumbs into his pockets. He could see the worry in Alice's eyes.
A thought flickered across her face, and she swung her bag around on her shoulder, digging around for a moment before pulling out a pack of gum. She pulled out two sticks, showing him they were from the same pack, and unwrapped them both with nimble fingers. She popped one into her mouth, and held the other out to him.
He accepted it suspiciously and chewed on just the corner. His mouth filled with the taste of processed mint so strong it made his teeth ache. The chilly sensation shot up through his nose like a bad frost and made his eyes water. He inhaled sharply, which didn't help at all, and blinked rapidly as he resisted the urge to sneeze.
"Yeah, it's terrible stuff, right?" He could hear Alice's voice again. "Good for purging the senses. You with me now?"
Determined not to let his senses overwhelm him again, Bucky shoved the rest of the gum in his mouth. He nodded as he chewed, and allowed Alice to lead the way out of the elevator. Logan wisely kept any additional comments to himself.
Bucky followed Alice, his eyes firmly fixed on the back of her head and did not let his attention stray. If he could memorize the haphazard way her hair tended to slip out of the little elastic holding it away from her face then perhaps he wouldn't notice the hum of the fluorescent lights, or hear the echo of footsteps bang against the walls. It looked like a maze he could happily lose; endlessly searching out new paths with his hands without ever really looking for a way out.
His torture was mercifully short-lived as the white halls opened into a modest hangar bay containing a single stealth-style jet. His attention wandered from Alice as he sought to categorize this new place, and she had to put a hand on his arm to remind him to keep walking.
True to his word, the engine hummed a warm tune of a well-kept engine as they boarded and Logan climbed into the pilot's seat, leaving the co-pilot's space empty. "Strap in, kids," he called as the ramp closed the belly of the jet and he flipped through a few pre-flight checks.
"I've got it," Alice protested as Bucky checked Alice's harness twice over.
"Just let me do this," he insisted, fastening the buckles. She grumbled, but no longer fought his hands as he gave the harness a decent shake to ensure she was tightly secured. As he clipped into his own chair to her right, Alice raised an eyebrow in skepticism as his harness received far fewer checks.
"Nonstop service to the North Pole, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times," Logan announced, and the jet rose smoothly from the tarmac. Hydra would have bombed several countries for that jet's maneuvering ability, Bucky thought as it rose above the school's green lawns and took off into the sky.
Alice looked out the window to the rapidly shrinking building fading into the greenery of Westchester County. She put a hand on her chest lightly to touch at the bullet sitting under her sweater. She blinked misty eyes and lowered her head.
"You getting' sick back there already?" Logan called over his shoulder, interrupting whatever moment Alice had been having.
"Nah, just choking up at that godawful cigar smell that follows you around just like I remember; have you done laundry at all since I left?"
Alice flashed Bucky a smile as she caught him watching. Her face spoke in a language he'd forgotten – or been made to forget – but he knew that he had once known what that look meant. He could tie it only to a taste – a memory of a taste – of fresh mint leaves.
Logan chuckled, producing a cigar from the pocket of his denim jacket. "That depends; what year is it again?"
"You're disgusting," Alice laughed as Logan also produced a lighter and got to work on the cigar.
"Marie likes it," Logan defended.
Alice shook her head. "Marie likes you; there's a difference."
"Oh, you want a barrel roll, Alice?"
"What? No!" Alice protested.
"Two? You've gotten so brave – here she goes!"
Alice shrieked as Logan spun the jet in a tight corkscrew, and Bucky's left hand shot out to grab at the buckle of her harness as it rattled in place. The metal groaned under the pressure but he could not will himself to hold it with any less force.
"You're such an asshole, Logan!" Alice screamed, clutching with both hands at Bucky's arm for some sense of security.
Logan eased them out of the spin and into a level run again. "You sure about that?" he asked coolly.
Alice grumbled darkly but clearly wouldn't risk another series of barrel rolls to win an argument.
"Dum Dum," Bucky said suddenly as a sense of familiarity shuddered through him.
"What'd he call me?" Logan barked.
"Not you!" Alice yelled back. "What about Dum Dum?" she asked him.
"You used to bicker like that with Dum Dum." It felt unusual for a memory not to overtake his sense of time and place, and provide context to a situation rather than distract from it.
"Yeah," she confirmed, her voice tinged with sadness, "I did." Her gaze fell as a fond smile spread across her lips, only to be replaced by a look of embarrassed surprise as she found her hands still clenched tightly around Bucky's arm, his metal hand still locked over the harness buckle on her stomach.
They both stared at the entanglement together for a solid moment, and he let go of the steel just as Alice released his arm and Bucky turned his attention to the little window to his right and did his damndest to ignore the rush of heat that had filled his chest. The sensation, abrupt and intrusive, made focusing on anything else an impossible task. He closed his eyes and focused on it instead.
One.
The petals of a yellow paper flower, spinning between her fingers and tucked into her hair.
Two.
Merry music, people laughing, Bonne Anee, Alice.
Three.
A fondness, a desire, and a denial.
"She out yet?" Logan's voice interrupted his focus.
Bucky opened his eyes, and found the window surprisingly dark. How long had he been focusing on that memory?
"Hey, is she asleep?" Logan repeated the question. Alice had indeed fallen asleep in the seat behind Logan, her head bobbing lightly with the motion of the jet.
"Yeah," Bucky confirmed.
Logan shook his head. "Same old Alice. Get up here, whatever your name was."
Bucky unclipped his seat's harness and dutifully climbed into the copilot's seat, narrowly avoiding kicking a control or two. Logan glanced his way to make sure everything was intact.
They sat in awkward silence for a minute or two, and Bucky was about to ask the other man what the hell he wanted when Logan finally spoke. "Don't let her come back to the school again."
"Why?" He had absolutely no intention of letting it happen anyway but was curious about Logan's reasoning.
He chewed angrily on the remnants of his cigar. "Somethin' there's not good for her. I never figured out, what, but…" a muscle tic in his jaw conveyed his frustration. "She always bounced back. And then one time she didn't. I thought being away might've changed things, but she had the same scent she always did." Logan flicked a switch on and then immediately off again; an unnecessary motion to discharge pent-up energy. "Fear. She's terrified of that place."
That much was obvious already. "Did she ever tell you why?"
A deep scowl settled into Logan face. "I'm not good with people. I took a lot of solo missions to get away, and had a lot of catching up to do whenever I got back, and Alice…" he punched another series of buttons vindictively. "I thought if she had a real problem she'd just ask; she asked about enough other shit."
"She never asked for help," Bucky said. It didn't need to be a question. She'd barely asked for help removing his knife from her arm.
Logan grunted a confirmation. "So you do know Alice." The console of the jet beeped for attention and Logan punched a button to silence it. "Building full of people with super-powers and nobody thought to ask why she was so damn terrified. If they – if we can't do that, she needs to stay away. If Chuck wants to send her away again for whatever fuckin' reason he's got, then someone's gotta make sure she's okay." Logan clenched his hands on the controls. "So don't fuck this up."
"I'll keep her safe," Bucky promised.
"You fuckin' better," Logan replied. He released the controls with one hand and clenched the fist tightly. Three long metal blades shot out from between his knuckles with a metal-on-metal snikt.
Bucky recoiled in shock but had nowhere to go.
"I'm holding you to that promise." Logan relaxed his fist slightly and the blades retracted. His knuckles healed over almost instantly as he returned his hand to the jet's controls. "Now go wake her up – we're landing soon."
Bucky climbed out of the seat and back into the passenger rows. He knelt in front of the sleeping Alice and put a hand on her knee. He meant to say 'Alice', as he had already on several occasions, but instead when it left his mouth it had turned into "Hey, Doll."
Alice moaned a protestation and blinked sleepily, rubbing at her face as she woke slowly. "Mmn… where are we?"
"Landing just outside of Akureyri," Logan called back.
"My Amma was born in Akureyri," Alice said around a yawn.
Bucky checked her harness again before strapping himself in for the landing. Still seized in place, he'd likely have to break it for her to get out again after they landed.
Logan laughed at the lilting musicality of her sleepy voice. "Yeah, I remember."
"That's so nice of you," Alice sighed, clearly still not awake.
The jet landed with as much grace as it had executed upon takeoff; barely a jostle as it settled on the ground. Bucky was out of his seat a moment later and got to work peeling open the mangled steel of Alice's harness.
"Hey," she commented, more awake, "I don't remember it looking like that."
"Sorry," Bucky said, freeing her with a final yank.
"Don't be," Alice brushed a few metal shavings off of her sweater as she stood, "I'm not paying to replace it." She retrieved her duffel as Logan lowered the jet's ramp behind them and a swift, icy breeze rushed into the cabin.
Alice took a deep breath and smiled. "I missed that smell. Come on," she beckoned, starting down the ramp with Bucky close behind. "If I remember right, there's a decent-looking hotel that's basically a row of little cabins on the south end of town."
"Hey!" Logan called for Alice as she hit the bottom of the ramp and she turned. He tossed her a backpack but Bucky caught it mid-throw, intercepting it neatly. "There's money in there. Enough to get you goin'. Stay safe, Rebound. And you…" Logan pointed at him, his stature aggressive and his eyes blazing. The scruffy man didn't need to speak. Bucky understood.
"Wow, thanks Dad," Alice drawled. "You want me home before nine, too?"
Logan laughed, ascending back into the Jet. "Be seein' you, Alice."
She watched as the Jet raised and sealed off the belly of the cabin. She watched as the engines roared to life and it rose into the night, vanishing against the midnight sky. She blinked rapidly and cleared her throat as the last of the engines' call faded against the distant crashing of waves. "We should get going."
"I'm following you, Doll." There was that word again; it slipped out so easily after the first utterance it felt as natural as breathing. A grin twitched on the side of Alice's mouth in response, and Bucky decided he wouldn't fight whatever part of his memory had conjured the name.
Additional translations:
Bozhe moy: my goodness.
Utka: duck (like calling someone a duckling)
Amma: Icelandic for Grandma
A/N: this chapter is so sad to me. I thought a lot about how much I wanted to dive into Alice's backstory, specifically why she left Xavier's school. We've gotten snippets of it, but never really the whole picture. Alice did a pretty good job of just setting the experience aside, while still acknowledging that it hurt her. She's earned the right to be angry, and it took time to learn who she was enough to know that it was wrong. She's earned the hate that she feels, but was willing to let it go for Bucky's safety.
Whatever it takes.
Now we also have a reason for Alice's trick about memories. She's not too super sure about some of her own, so she uses the five senses trick to see if some of the memories she has from her time under Jean's thumb really happened.
Alice also tends to make the same kinds of friends, no matter when/where she is.
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