13. Farm-work.

He made his mind up early on that he'd try and help the X-Men as much as he could, without looking suspicious to the Hellfire Club.
Apparently, they were aiding Magneto and had helped by providing a substantial amount of mutants for his use.
There was no way he was going to hurt the very people who had tried to help him, but he couldn't live with himself if his own family was farmed.
He could deal with having a lot of angry mutants on his back – he'd outlive them all anyway.

Training with Sam was nothing special either. Zach's gun training consisted of him lifting the weapons and assuming that he could use it, and his fighting technique relied heavily on his speed and strength to make up for his lack of skill.
He didn't care; he didn't plan on fighting to kill.
He could just play dead after all…

They weren't trained by members of the Hellfire Club themselves, rather, they just fed off each other's competitiveness. Though, they were kept separate from Magneto's army – the Hellfire Club couldn't have its expendable representatives camped in a forest, rather, they were packed off to a small abandoned farm.
Occasionally a member came to see how they were doing, but that was about it.
Sam, having already known most of these people had no trouble fitting in. Zach, on the other hand didn't want anything to do with them, so he took to looking over one of the youngest recruits – a small girl named Sophie.

As a result of her mutation she was blind, but only to the universe her body occupied. She had the ability to 'see' all other universes and realities that overlapped on another, and used that as a means of looking into the one she existed within. She also had the ability to create small windows to travel across and into other existing universes. Her blindness, however, was enough reason to prompt bullying. They saw her as weak and useless, and treated her as so.

After coming back one afternoon from having fed in a nearby town, he watched as a couple of the guys clustered around Sophie laughed and poked her. She sat there, her fingers fiddling at the air behind her. Another pushed her, and she toppled back, through a window – which closed the moment she disappeared within it.

He saw her later on, sitting up in a tree.

'How did you get up here?' he called up.

'I climbed,' she replied giggling. Within a moment he was sitting next to her, dangling his feet from over a sturdy branch.

'Must be nice, being able to just leave one place and appear someone new,' Zach looked out over the land, watching random people show off their powers to one another.

'I'll always be blind to wherever my body is,' she replied, her smile not fading.

'Do people look different in each, uh, universe?' he asked, 'I mean, does Sam have blonde hair everywhere?' She giggled again, and nodded.

'I think I've caught him with strawberry blonde once, but normally, people tend to look the same. Though, I don't really look for outlandish versions, I try and look for the closest version of this reality.'

'How about me?' he grinned.

She turned to him, and her smile faltered.

'What? I bet I'm really hideous somewhere…' Sophie shook her head.

'I don't know what you look like,' she replied, 'it's as if you don't exist anywhere else but here.'

He understood what that meant. Every other version of him hadn't survived the transformation. Maybe his mutation had meant to actually kill him, to stop him from becoming this altogether.

'That's probably a good thing, I hear I'm pretty good-looking,' he joked, hoping to hear her giggle again.

x

It wasn't long before the recruits had gotten bored of showing off their powers and decided to band together to see what they could do as a team. The pressure for each mutant to join in grew as each faction got stronger. Sam had already banded with one of the calmer groups and tried to encourage Zach to do the same, but something within him stopped him – he just wanted to protect the small girl; he couldn't just leave her to save his own back.

The groups were forming according to types of powers and mutations, or by their motives; some, like Zach, were forced into joining, others despised Magneto, and a few were just blood-thirsty maniacs.

It was, unfortunately, the latter that weren't too fond of Zach's neutral behavior. Their reasons for disliking him changed day to day, first it was irritation that he wasn't joining in with the segmentation, then they decided it was because he was an inside man, right now, they thought he was too arrogant.

'So, you think you're too good for us?' A tall, thin girl with dyed black hair blocked his path as he returned to the farm from another feed late one afternoon. She was right, though. He did think himself too good for any of them, especially since he could kill them all without breaking a sweat. Though, instead he shrugged his shoulders, and made his way around her.

Her cronies appeared behind her; it was obvious they wanted a fight. None of them had actually seen him in action.

'He didn't disagree, he must think he's too good for us,' a man with green hair scoffed behind her.

'I didn't agree either,' Zach retorted, talking to them all, rather than the man or the girl.

'Where do you running of to, eh? We've all noticed it.'

What was her name? He had heard it before. She was the leader of this pack of barbarians. Kelsey? That sounded right.

'I'm telling Xavier all your secret plans, and then telling Shaw and Frost that you're going to double cross them,' Zach smirked, knowing that he wasn't going to get a friendly reaction to this. He didn't care though; he had been so bored for the past few weeks, he welcomed any sort of challenge.

Kelsey's eyebrow rose, she was aware that he was mocking her, and it had work. He had wounded her pride.

She watched as he began to walk past her, her boys talking amongst themselves over why she hadn't done anything. It wasn't only her pride that was at stake, but her status. She needed to remain at the top.

She swung her arm out hard and fast, but hit nothing. She swerved around, regaining her balance with poise. Zach was standing just behind her; she could feel him on her back.

'They doubt you, you know,' he whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. He was making her look weak in front of all the others. She turned around, her fists raised to hit him in the face, but he caught them with ease.

'Please tell me this isn't your mutation,' he yawned at her, smiling teasingly. She grew red and looked over his shoulder at her men. They were standing around impatiently, looking annoyed at their leader.

'What a useless leader,' Zach pushed, tightening his grip on Kelsey's hand.

'C'mon Kelsey,' one of the guys shouted, 'show 'im what you can do!'

Zach let go of her hand and slunk a few steps back. She was shaking in fury.

Kelsey turned and faced Zach, who was smiling widely, taunting her. She smiled back – he didn't know what she could do and how messed up he'd be by the end. Her mates saw her reaction and cheered behind them, circling them; creating a sort of pit.

Zach could feel the adrenalin within him mixing with the energy of his last kill; he had gone unnecessarily overboard this time, and had a lot of energy to spend – that was probably why he felt so compelled to fight.

He was just standing there, watching her in such a way that some part of her shied away from him. She couldn't help but notice his pale, handsome features; the way his simple grey shirt clung to his torso, accentuating his toned body. She shook the thought from her head, horrified that her mind was betraying her. Who was this guy, and what was he doing to her?

'Clyde!' She shouted, turning her head to one of the men standing around. He nodded and raised his hands, aiming somewhere between Kelsey and Zach. They seemed to be working together and he was a little disappointed; he wanted to see what she could do on her own.

Clyde's hands burst into giant red flames that shot out into the space between them, but before it could consume either of them, Kelsey raised her hands and the flames stopped moving.

'Oh, I get it. You're telekinetic,' Zach watched, eyeing the flames being careful not to show his growing anxiety. He could feel the heat growing around him, creating a strong pressure around him.

'And apparently, you can't die!' she yelled, releasing the fireball that was still under her control. Panic overwhelmed Zach, and out of instinct he raised his hands out to protect his face; feeling the intense flames fly out past him. He opened his eyes just in time to see that the flames were being bent around his body, and upon turning, he noticed that the flames disappeared out behind him.

Kelsey stared at him in anger – was he a telekinetic too?

Zach was too busy analysing his hands which were unharmed, completely at a loss as to how that happened. It was like he controlled it…that sounded like something Selene had told him about manipulating energies. Is that what he had done?

He was left with no time to think about it before Kelsey raised her hands again; this time sending out a strong telekinetic blast that strangely, Zach could sense. He raised his hands and managed to catch some of the blast, but he was still knocked back through the air. He landed with his hands still cupped; grasping the force he had managed to capture. He got up, and threw it at her using as much of his physical strength he could muster. It hit her stomach and she, too, was flung across the field.

She was lying on the ground, trying to catch her breath when he walked up to her. The crowd had dispersed reluctantly, disappointed in their leader.

She avoided his gaze, ashamed that she couldn't beat him.

Zach helped her up when she was ready and smiled at her – this time, though, it was a look of appreciation, leaving her confused.

'Don't give me that look,' she huffed, taking his hand, surprised at how cool it felt, but not wanting to let go of it.

She was staring at him with such a strange look in her eyes that Zach couldn't read immediately, but understood moments later. She still looked angry, but angry at herself rather than him.

He turned and left with a wide grin on his face, knowing that Kelsey was following closely behind.

x

They were called out early the next morning by a loud, female voice proclaiming good news. Zach walked out of his room with Kelsey stumbling out after to find out what was going on.

Emma Frost stood outside her long, white stretch limo waiting impatiently for the recruits to appear. When she was satisfied most were there, she told them the news after assigning teams. Sophieshifted uncomfortably next to Zach.

They were to leave for Alcatraz Island that night.

Cheers erupted through the crowd, except from Sophie, who stood still; petrified.

A/N
Instead of moaning about this chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who's reading and reviewing as the story progresses!
You know who you are! Thanks!