Disclaimer: not my stuff... la la la la... just my plot :)
read a/n at the end!
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'You stole a jet?!'
Hank's distressed voice crackled over the comms of the compact aircraft, startling it's passengers. Wolverine lost his grip on the controls and for millisecond, the jet dropped in altitude.
'I turn away for a second, Pryde- a second!- and you all have run off to save Bobby! A little warning would've sufficed... I searched everywhere for you two.
Logan! How irresponsible!'
'H-how did you find us?' Kitty mumbled into the headset, stunned.
Hank whined over the comms, sounding very much like a child abandoned by his friends- which was pretty much what he was.
'Trance told me,' he grouched. 'And this morning those business tycoons, you know the SouthernIsles and Co. guys, they disowned their youngest sibling.
Some guy called Hands. He looks like a weasel. But get this- he "lost" their newest jet. Now what could've happened to it?'
Kitty cringed at Hank's sarcastic tone. Wolverine laughed loudly into his headset and the rest of the team tried in vain to hold back their giggles.
'His name is Hans,' Kitty replied with a straight face.
'And I don't care! But you stole his jet! Seriously? Have we stooped that low?' Hank cried.
'Well, we technically just borrowed it,' Kitty retorted.
'Yeah right. Anyway, I tracked you guys down and made a comms link- that craft has little to no defense mechanisms. So lame. And now you need to turn the bird around, Pryde. There's massive activity south from where you're headed.'
'Why what's going on?' Kitty asked, perking up at the new information.
'Change your course and I'll explain on the way,' Hank reasoned.
'Tell that to Logan,' the headmistress grumbled.
'Logan?!' Hank screeched. 'HE'S flying the jet? Good lord.'
'I know right?' Kitty groaned. 'I feel airsick for the first time in my life.
'Hey! I'm not that bad, woman!' Wolverine snapped, twisting the jet around to complete another loop in the air.
His passengers moaned behind him and Match threw up again.
'See?' Wolverine crowed in triumph, sporting a boyish grin. 'Perfect. Precision.'
Kitty rolled her eyes inconspicuously.
'Since you're so great, Logan,' she began hastily, reaching out to place a hand on the Headmaster's bicep. 'Why don't you turn the craft around- in perfect precision?'
Wolverine beamed. 'Hell yeah I will!'
Hank groaned over the comms link. 'I am surrounded by idiots,' he said.
Match exchanged a worried glance with Hellion.
'I can tell this isn't going to be good,' he whispered shakily, his face a sour shade of green.
Bobby chuckled in amusement. 'Think of this as a giant roller-coaster in Disneyland!'
Match paled even further- if that was even possible considering how white he had become and cried out; 'But I hate Disneyland!'
Jack felt like road kill. His head hurt terribly, his body stung in various places and he was emotionally drained. His spine was too weary to support the rest of his body mass and left him slouched in his seat. If it weren't for the safety harness he would have been out of his seat and on the floor of the jet in a second, judging by the way Wolverine was piloting the craft. The entire jet swung this way and that, causing the pyrokinetic on board to be vehemently airsick. He threw up every other minute, causing everyone else around him to feel nauseous as well.
Jack didn't feel nauseous. He felt like road kill. He felt like as if his very soul had been dragged out of his chest- like in that book Jamie had given him to read, the big one with that green-eyed boy.
He felt like he'd been kissed by a Dementor.
His chest ached longingly for solace and he found it in a pair of crystal blue eyes staring at him in concern.
He lifted a corner of his lips as a form of consoling Elsa's worries about him and shifted his gaze away from her. It wouldn't do to drag her into his personal problems- and he was the last person on Earth who deserved her concern.
What he had seen was far too despairing and devastating for him to speak of. Another might have found his fears trivial- but to him, they were nightmares. He spent half of his century old life living in this fear and had never really got over it.
It hurt him so much he could barely breathe. What Pitch now possessed was a potent weapon; to know people's fears, and to be able to exploit it in the worst way possible, was to have the upper-hand. Pitch was going to be unstoppable with this power and with no one to stop him he would run rampant and traumatize the entire planet.
The Guardians had to find another way to destroy him. The king of shadows wouldn't be so easily defeated this time around. However, as much as he wanted to, Jack couldn't rendezvous with the rest of the Guardians any time soon for Kitty Pryde had seen to that they efficiently switched courses. Hank had ordered them to do so and head south where mutant activity had suddenly risen. Professor Xavier had found out this information through the use of his machine named Cerebro and had suggested that the team of X-Men already out on the field should investigate into the matter further. Jack had a strange feeling that the activity at where they were headed was going to result in something terrible.
He didn't know if he was ready for another fight. That nightmare had left him disconcerted and disconnected. All he wanted to do now was curl in to a ball and sit in a corner all day without having to speak to a soul. But instead of being isolated with his feelings, Jack was amidst a gaggle of mutants who all seemed to have decided that the best time for a war-strategy-conference was during a flight. Hellion and Bobby, who was still cuffed, were out of their seats and standing at the controls beside Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. They all chattered and argued relentlessly about their next step. Wolverine spent more of his time insulting the Headmistress while the latter concentrated on keeping the jet flying at a constant altitude and speed so as not to cause the standing passengers to hurt themselves by tipping over. She had wrangled the pilot's position from Wolverine a few hours ago after the legendary X-Man had attempted an outlandish experimental stunt that had very nearly ended badly.
Match remained firmly harnessed into his seat in a corner, beside the snoring Sandman, looking much less green now that Wolverine was no longer piloting the craft. Elsa sat across from the youngest Guardian, eyeing him with growing concern. After a pause, she rose from her seat and plopped herself into the spare beside him.
'Hey you,' Elsa whispered with a small smile. 'Feeling any better?'
'Much,' Jack mumbled back, offering a wry grin in return.
He felt the need to say more as she glanced back at him with worry in her eyes.
'I- uh, thanks for helping me back there,' he murmured.
Elsa smiled and her gaze flickered for a moment. 'That was Hellion.'
Jack paused. 'Oh.'
'Nice of him, wasn't it?' Elsa added awkwardly.
'Very,' Jack offered, with equal uneasiness.
'So..,' Elsa trailed off, not wanting to seem intrusive but desperately curious.
Jack remained silent, turning away from her to glare angrily at a corner, lost in his thoughts. Lost in himself.
'You know, you could tell me anything,' Elsa prodded.
'No, I can't,' Jack answered immediately, turning blue eyes round to gaze at her sadly.
Elsa stiffened and began to move away; hastily looking around to make sure no one else had noticed the upfront rejection she'd just encountered. Thankfully, no one had. With little of her pride intact, she made to scuttle away and cower in her seat across from him, when Jack's hand shot out to grasp her won and held her back.
'No wait,' he whisper-shouted. 'I didn't mean it that way! I just… I don't deserve any help from you. Especially not from you- I left you alone with your problems when I should've made myself seen and helped you.'
Elsa's heart fluttered involuntarily. 'Oh Jack,' she whispered. 'No one deserves to be left alone.'
The boy glanced up at her, eyes weary and a frown set over his eyes. 'I do.'
The way he said those words, with such sincerity and conviction- Elsa's heartstrings tore apart.
'Don't say that,' she objected, quickly slipping back into her seat beside him and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
He pulled away slightly and sighed. His eyes looked weary and old- centuries old. 'You wouldn't understand, Els,' he muttered in an undertone.
'Try me.'
He smiled. 'Another time.'
'Tell me goddammit!'
Jack chuckled dryly. 'So persistent.'
Elsa blushed a furious scarlet. She frowned at the Guardian beside her and crossed her arms over her chest. 'I'm waiting.'
Jack sobered up immediately. 'Elsa,' he began. 'I suck.'
'Gee thanks, but I kinda already knew that,' the cryokinetic joked with a wince.
Jack shot her a "knock it off, seriously" look. 'I actually do. You know what? I was never even awarded this guardianship… it was like a second chance. Like- hey you messed up real bad don't do it again. But my second life- or whatever- it came with a price. This massive price … something I didn't even bargain for- from that moment on... I was alone.'
'Is that what you saw in your nightmare?' Elsa asked with bated breath.
Jack flinched; locks of white hair shielding his eyes from view as they fell in his face as he jerked involuntarily at the mention of the traumatic experience he'd just been through.
'Never mind,' Elsa amended hastily. 'You don't have to answer that.'
He answered anyway. 'That among others,' he said.
'Do you want to talk about it?'
Jack looked up at her with big baby seal eyes that shone like ice crystals in pure moonlight, and began whispering; 'It started with her- it always usually starts with her. In all the fearsome nightmares I've ever had, it always starts with her. But this time, Pitch's nightmare somehow made it worse. She was about to die as usual… but like always, I never managed to save her. And she drowned. In the ice. Cold and alone. Leaving me in the cold… all alone.'
Elsa gulped. She asked him who he meant.
'My sister,' came the shaky reply.
'Where is she now?'
'We lived almost a century ago.'
'A century?!'
'Maybe… maybe not. Time passes extraordinarily slowly when you're alone.'
Elsa stayed silent, processing the information Jack had just revealed. He'd spent years upon years all on his own with no one to be beside him? Maybe he'd had had to watch his family grow old and pass away… how could the Moon-man-guy have been so cruel? Jack must have felt so lost.
'What's worse was- and here comes the next bit of the nightmare,' Jack gulped quietly. 'Nobody believed in me.'
Elsa frowned slightly. 'What's that mean?'
'Guardians,' Jack explained slowly. 'We exist purely for the children who believe…. And when no one believes in us our existence is pretty much useless. We become useless. No one can see us or acknowledge us… they just walk right through you. Me. They walked right through me. Everyone I loved and cared for- my sister, Jamie, the Guardians…my friends… you.'
He paused to inhale heavily and slouched further into his chair.
'Are you scared of being alone, Jack?' Elsa asked tentatively.
The Guardian shook his head gently. 'I'm scared of what being alone might make me.'
'And what might it make you?'
'Angry.'
Elsa sat back thoughtfully, rolling his words around in her head. He didn't want to become vengeful. Why was he so afraid of becoming vengeful? Jack was the last person on Earth who'd ever become vengeful…
'As much as I'd like to deny it,' Jack murmured, as if he could sense her thoughts. 'Pitch and I have a lot in common.'
Elsa felt stumped. 'You'll never be like him,' she cried, outraged that he could even assume such a thing.
'You two okay?' Hellion called from the cockpit as Jack urged her to lower her voice while looking around them frantically.
'Yeah,' the Guardian replied hastily. 'Just fine.'
The telekinetic shot Jack a suspicious glare and slowly turned back to the discussion taking place before him. Elsa turned back to Jack and stared him down.
'Don't think like that, Jack. It'll only make it worse.'
Jack sighed. 'Don't worry about it, Els. I can take care of it myself.'
'I didn't say you couldn't,' Elsa said sourly. 'I'm just saying you should change the way you're doing it.'
'And why should I?' Jack questioned, suddenly flaring up protectively around his deepest darkest fear.
'Well clearly it isn't working!'
'Oh really?'
'Yes, really.'
'Why'd you say that?!'
'You're still afraid.'
Jack fell silent and sniffed inconspicuously. Brushing an arm at his eyes he sighed deeply and collapsed further into his seat. 'Gah, I just wanna get home,' he whined, clamming up around his emotions and erecting a hundred foot wall over his heart.
Elsa gave up. Clearly she wasn't getting anywhere. Lately, her people skills had been taking a tumble down a hill. She'd nearly broken Hellion and now she'd scared Jack away. She winced internally and berated herself for ever attempting to intervene in their personal problems. Boys, she decided, were a mystery to be left unsolved. Now a girl on the other hand would've fancied a nice long chat about their problems- she knew for a fact that Anna always consulted her best friend Merida for when she was having a crisis.
A pang of longing shot through Elsa's heart. She was the one Anna should have been consulting. Oh how miserable life was-
'You're in my seat Blondie.'
Ah yes, Hellion and his chivalry to save the day.
'Can't you sit there?' she asked him, looking up into his unreadable face and pointing across to where she had been sitting.
'I like the view from here,' the telekinetic replied smugly, raising a brow with perfect precision.
It was his left brow. Elsa noted that with deep interest; most people raised their right brow- it was the easiest and it usually went up all the way, but Hellion preferred to raise his left. It only raised slightly, a gentle graceful tilt. It made him look far more displeased and cocky. She wondered if he had considered the psychological impacts behind eyebrow-raising before doing so…
'Oi, Blondie,' Hellion snapped, waving a hand before her face. 'You getting up today or what?'
Elsa started. 'Oh please Hellion, just suck it up there's no view anyway.'
He huffed and opened his mouth to argue further but was cut off by Kitty announcing that she was about land and everyone needed to be seated in order for her to do so.
Hellion shot the cryokinetic a glare and ambled over to the seat across from her. Elsa sported a triumphant smile upon her face.
It always felt nice to trump him at their verbal battles- probably because it was a given that if their battles ever got physical she was bound to lose. Hellion was master of his powers, the last and youngest telekinetic on Earth. He'd had years and years of training and had fostered under the best, most legendary, X-Men ever. He was also fun to yell at. Elsa bit her teeth into her lip to keep herself from smiling like a dork. What was it about this guy that made her feel weird again? Oh yeah… chocolate. No wait- what? His eyes. His beautiful brown chocolaty eyes… so deep and dark and mysterious- what secrets do you hold dear mister Hellion's eyes?
Elsa froze. She was losing it. Little by little she felt her brain dissolve into gooey puddles of mush that farted pink hearts and squealed 'hellion love meeeeeee'. She shrugged. Yeah he was good looking… no objection there, and he was kinda nice. Sometimes. Ah who was she kidding? He was a great guy- but she didn't like him… not in that way. She felt her mushy brain goo start to cry. Okay so maybe she had a leeetle bit of affection for him. NOT in the I-really-want-to-kiss-your-face-off way, but the I-would-be-very-sad-if-you-died-or-got-hurt way.
Yeah. That made sense. She just felt fondly for him.
Hah, fondly, what an efficient word- it was so vague. Ten points, Els, she told herself.
Wow, she really was going nuts.
Maybe her affection went a tiny bit further than fondness…
What no! Plus he loved another girl, Elsa reminded herself, slapping her head mentally for ever forgetting X-23 and the uncanny chemistry Hellion had shared with her.
But she's dead now, Elsa's deepest darkest subconscious murmured, reaching for the fluffy cat that was clawing its way out of her hands.
Elsa felt horrified. She couldn't have feelings for Hellion while he was mourning his dead girlfriend!
Her dark side groaned in defeat and dumped the cat on the floor.
She couldn't do that to him. Plus, she'd promised to be his rock. As far as she knew, being a girlfriend didn't fit in a rock's job description.
Rocks were fat and ugly.
She sighed and looked across the jet, at the dark haired boy sitting in her previous seat, wincing slightly as the craft shuddered with the first signs of landing.
She couldn't do that to him. He still loved X-23, she could tell. He'd been so broken when she'd died… no one got over that so easily. Or so quickly.
But it wasn't like she liked him or anything, right?
Elsa frowned as she struggled to decipher her own emotions.
'We're here,' Kitty called. 'This is where magneto is. Angel and Hank are sending in reinforcements. Till they arrive, we scout the perimeter and spy a bit.'
'Yee-haw,' Match cheered with false enthusiasm.
'And where are we exactly?' Hellion asked as he rose from his seat and made his way to the exit.
Kitty raised an eyebrow at his question and shot a glance at the youngest Guardian on board.
She made eye contact with him and he seemed to understand what the answer was and paled considerably at the revelation.
Pryde said; 'We're in Burgess.'
Wind howled in the trees, and even though it was now spring, the air still felt cold and crisp. The breeze chilled her skin and caused goose bumps to race across her bare flesh, and a shiver trailed down her spine. She was clothed scantily, in a ridiculous leather costume piece that came with a cape which flapped behind her in the wind. The other cast glances her way and whispered about her presence in their ranks. She held her head high and tottered past them shakily, unfamiliar with the outrageous heels of her new boots. The shoes were of the finest leather, sticking to her toned calves like a second skin. But she was freezing- literally. The cold wind brushed against the skin she'd left revealed and she berated herself for ever thinking dressing up like this was a good idea. She'd expected a dramatic change in wardrobe would be perfect to mark her own metamorphosis- innocence to maturity, light to dark. Now she just felt stupid.
Her magenta hair fluttered in the breeze, three shades darker than the neon pink it used to be. The maroon locks tumbled across her shoulders and framed her face perfectly. The cape tangled in her feet as she took long strides to escape her fellow mutant's laughter. She would rise above them. She would show them all how powerful she really was. Anger shuddered in her heart and she whipped her souldagger out and held it menacingly by her side. It glowed viciously and spewed a dark purple fog. The other instantly cowed- mollified by the potent power of the weapon. Pixie smirked defiantly and went along her way, doing her best to minimize her shaky teetering.
She really needed Magneto to get her a different costume. One that covered more of her ass perhaps...
a/n: hey guys! new update. it's not long... but yeah. meh. it's raining. i need coffee and tumblr.
anyway, a few things;
first-
about Elsa realizing her feelings towards Hellion... not right now. i mean girls aren't so simple. sometimes we are and we decide that we love the guy.. but when complications arise... we like to protect our hearts from possible pain and then make things complicated for ourselves. Elsa is convinced that Hellion still loves X-23 and why not? He was pretty attached to her. but there was no real chemistry as such... but she doesn't know that. and she's protecting herself so she's covering up her feelings with... DENIAL.
yeah. so..
second-
i hope Jack's nightmare made sense. that was the only thing i thought would scare him most- being alone and becoming like Pitch. if anyone remembers, in the movie, Pitch tries to recruit him and tells him how much alike they are. and i thought.. hey that would scar him a bit- i mean, evil villain telling you that you're both the same. not scary at all *sarcasm* so tell me what you think? or what you expected it to be?
third-
wow we're getting so far- i can't believe i only started this fic this year! thanks to all of you for the support. let's keep it up eh? i'll keep writing for you guys... you keep reviewing for me! i LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what you guys have to say... even if you point out the story's flaws. that's perfect. keep going! it makes me feel properly criticized ^.^ review whatever you want! and what about that bit with Megan huh? just a bit of an explanation.. that's me venting out my hatred for how female superheroes are dressed. all the comics have them dressed in so little- i mean is it even practical? can they fight baddies in that bikini?! and i also thought Megan would feel cooler to dress like that... but then reality hits her and she feels ridiculous.
i dunno
that's what i thought. you guys criticize away!
review fave and follow
i'll be back!