Author's Note: Hello to all of my readers! Please check out the author's note at the end of the chapter for your chance to participate in the future direction of this story!
Chapter Twenty-Five: Anger and Betrayal
Without the mask where will you hide I know the truth now It never was and never will be
Can't find yourself lost in your lie
I know who you are
and I don't love you anymore
You don't know how you've betrayed me
- Evanesance "Everybody's Fool"
"NO!" she screamed, her eyes flying open as she woke with a start, her hand clamped over the place where she had been bitten in the dream, expecting to feel blood on her hand.
"Buffy! Squirt, it's okay!" Scott called as he jerked awake at the sound of his cousin's scream. He moved from the chair he'd been sitting in and sat on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arms around his cousin. Unfortunately, in this case, it was the wrong move.
The next thing he knew, he was on the ground next to Buffy's bed, his head ringing and his whole body aching. Shaking his head carefully, he looked up at the bed, only to see that his cousin was missing. Grabbing the edge of the bed, he pulled himself to his feet, looking around the room, spotting Buffy in the corner near the window, on her feet in a defensive position, her eyes wild with fright.
"Buffy?" he asked softly, not sure what was going on inside her head at the moment.
"Stay away!" she warned, her voice soft, but dangerous.
Scott was confused. "Buffy? What's wrong, Squirt?" He rounded the bed, but kept his distance, seeing her tense up even more.
"Don't come near me, vampire!" she snarled. "Unless you want a stake for dinner, that is."
Scott paused. Why does she think I'm a vampire? he wondered. Slowly, he raised his hands to shoulder height, letting her know he wasn't going to hurt her. "Buffy, it's okay. It's me, Scott."
"I know who you are! You won't fool me by taking my cousin's face!"
Scott shook his head, completely lost. Reaching out with his mind, he attempted to get in touch with Xavier. Professor? Yes, Scott? Is something wrong? replied Xavier's calm mental voice.
Buffy's awake, sir, and she's panicking. She seems to think I'm a vampire. I can't get through to her.
I see. I'm on my way, Scott. Try to keep her calm, and keep her in her room.
Yes sir
She shook her head violently and pressed herself further into the corner. "Stay away from me!"
Scott didn't know what else to do, so he just kept talking softly, hoping that her voice would break through to his cousin the way it had when he had found her on the Astral Plane. This time, however, it seemed like Buffy was determined not to react to his persuasion. Guilt stabbed him sharply. What have I done? he thought. He had only been trying to help her.
You are helping her Scott, Xavier sent to him as he entered the room. We knew there would be setbacks as a result of this.
I was thinking she'd just be angry at me, though
Xavier moved a little further into the room, putting himself between Scott and Buffy, hoping that would help to calm the jittery Slayer. In fact, it did the opposite.
"Stay away from him, Professor," she called, her eyes wide with fright. "He'll attack you if you turn your back on him."
"Scott won't hurt me, Buffy," Xavier replied calmly. "I trust him with my life, and so do you. You love him, he's your cousin. He would never hurt you, because he loves you as much as you love him." He kept up a running monologue with the Slayer, his back to Scott. Scott, for his part, made no movements, trying to show her that he wouldn't hurt them.
Xavier continued to speak, while he stretched out with his mental powers and lightly probed Buffy's mind, distracting her while he tried to find out what had happened to make her so certain that Scott was going to hurt her. What he found startled him.
Scott, she's partially locked in a nightmare, he sent to his protégé. She had a nightmare where you were turned into a vampire and attacked her. She's awake, but seeing you right after having that dream convinced her that you were trying to kill her.
Can you help her?
Shifting his focus from Buffy's mind, Xavier moved a little closer to her, reaching out to take her hand. "Buffy, do you trust me?"
She kept her eyes on Scott, but nodded tightly. "You saved me. Of course I trust you."
"Then trust me now, Buffy. Scott won't hurt you. Give me your hand," he insisted gently. Holding his hand out, he waited. Buffy's eyes finally left Scott for a moment as she looked at Xavier and then at his hand. Finally, she reached out and took his hand, and Xavier wrapped his larger hand around hers.
"Thank you, Buffy. Now, come here." He turned his chair around and guided her back to the bed and towards Scott. She tensed again, and started to pull away. "No, Buffy. You said you trusted me," Xavier said softly, not relinquishing his grasp on her hand. If she had a mind to, he knew she could break his grip – and probably his wrist – with ease.
"I do."
"All right. Sit down on the bed, please," Xavier requested. "Scott will stay right where he is." He deliberately didn't look at the younger man, trying to show Buffy that he had confidence that Scott wouldn't make any move to hurt either of them.
Buffy moved slowly, but eventually sat on the very edge of the bed. Xavier moved his chair so he was sitting in front of her, their eyes on a level with each other, and drawing her attention to him and away from Scott. "That's good Buffy," Xavier praised her. "Buffy, I'm going to help you, but I need you to trust me again. You're having a nightmare. I can help you get rid of it, but you have to allow me to use my telepathy on you. Will you allow that?"
She stared at him for several moments. Xavier held her gaze, showing her nothing but sincerity. If he made the wrong move, they'd lose her. Finally, she nodded.
"Thank you," he said softly. "Close your eyes Buffy. I'll be right here with you the whole time, I promise."
There was another hesitation, but Buffy's eyes fluttered shut. She was still very tense, but Xavier took the advantage and reached out with his telepathy, gently taking control of her conscious mind and easing it into sleep with a strong telepathic command. As she went limp, Scott moved behind her and caught her in his arms, easing her to lay back on the bed, before drawing the blanket back over her shoulders.
"Now what, sir?" Scott asked, reaching out to smooth the blonde tresses away from his little cousin's face.
"Now I purge her mind of the nightmare and keep more dreams from intruding on her sleep. When she is rested, she should be more willing to talk to us about what happened," Xavier replied softly.
A few hours later…
She woke confused and a little bewildered. Where am I? she wondered, blinking in the dim light from the room as her eyes focused. After a moment she recognized it as the room where she was staying in the Professor's mansion. Someone had pulled the shades tightly closed and turned out all the lights.
She turned her head, seeing a chair positioned near the bed. A chair that hadn't been there a short time ago. However, at the moment, there was no one sitting there. But given that this was the Professor's mansion, she was willing to bet that Scott had been sitting there until recently. She had a vague memory of him telling that he'd be there when she woke, but she couldn't pinpoint it.
Pushing the blanket off of her, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. For a moment she wavered, dizzy, but after a few breaths the room stabilized and she was able to get to her feet.
Noise from the door caught her attention, and she looked over at it, expecting to see Scott. No-one was over there, however, and she frowned in confusion. After a moment, she realized that she had heard voices from the hallway, thanks to her enhanced hearing. Moving quietly, she went over to stand behind the door, listening closely.
"Sir, how do I tell her what we did?" That was Scott's voice, and he sounded upset.
"We must tell her, Scott. It is the only way we will be able to help her. You knew that when you agreed that this was the best way," Xavier replied.
Scott sighed. "I know, sir, but now I'm starting to have second thoughts. Seeing her like that in the Danger Room, and then when she woke up earlier…" he paused for a long moment. "I hate hurting her, sir. She's my cousin, I love her so much and seeing her in pain like that hurts me just as much."
Buffy's breath caught in her throat. What is he talking about? How did he hurt me? she wondered.
Scott wasn't finished. "We saw what it did to her when we went into her mind to pull her out of her coma, and then we thought that making her relive it would actually help her?" he asked the Professor. "It seems…barbaric somehow."
The memories crashed into Buffy's mind like a tidal wave. Standing in the Danger Room, seeing the lights flicker, the control panel explode in the Professor's face, the holographic vampires and…him.
She was only dimly aware that Xavier was replying to Scott's question. The words didn't register as she remembered her horror, and her fear for her cousin's life, and her own fear when she couldn't bring herself to attack the Master. She backed up several steps as her breath came harsher and faster as the memories played through her mind over and over again. She stumbled back and crashed into the desk chair, knocking it over and going down in a tangle.
A moment later, Scott and Xavier both entered the room, having heard the noise. They quickly took in the sight. Scott came towards her and pulled her to her feet. She stood looking at him for a long moment, before promptly reaching out and slugging him across the face with all her strength.
Scott's head snapped around with the force of the punch, his glasses falling forward on his face and allowing a thin beam of his optic blasts to sneak past the ruby quartz lenses. The beam shot out and impacted the wall near the door, just above Xavier's head, creating a fist-sized hole in the wall before Scott managed to squeeze his eyes shut and cut off the beams.
"Buffy?" Xavier asked, looking at his student, who was straightening and adjusting his glasses. He looked at his guest, who, for a lack of a better word, looked completely pissed off. The rage in her eyes even scared him, but it was the hurt and betrayal there that caught his attention.
"You bastards!" she yelled. "How COULD you?"
Scott turned back to face his irate cousin, his hand on his jaw. "Buffy," he started, before he winced at the pain in his face where she had slugged him.
"Shut up, Scott!" she snapped. "You saw what this was doing to me and you deliberately took advantage of it! I trusted you, and you betrayed me!" Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Buffy," Xavier tried, only to see the Slayer turn on him. He continued, "Buffy, we are trying to help you?"
"How?" Buffy snapped. "By making me so afraid of vampires that I can't bring myself to fight one when someone I thought I loved was in danger?"
Her words stopped both men cold. Scott swallowed nervously. "Thought you loved?"
Tears were pouring down her cheeks now as she looked at her cousin. "I thought I knew you, Scott. I thought I loved you, but if you really loved me, you wouldn't have done this to me."
"Buffy, it's because I love you that I did this," Scott pleaded with her.
"You have a funny way of showing it," she replied, the tears choking her voice.
"Squirt, you weren't sleeping, you were exhausted, and you were hurt by what happened to you," Scott said, taking a step closer to her and reaching out towards her.
"Don't you dare come near me," she hissed. "I don't care what your reasons were. You had no right to do this to me."
"Buffy, please, listen to me," Scott asked, lowering his hand.
She shook her head, the rage gone, but the hurt and betrayal was more powerful than ever. "Who are you? I don't know you anymore. I thought…I thought you loved me. But I guess times have really changed." She turned to Xavier. "I want to go home."
Xavier sighed. "I'll ask Jean to arrange a flight for you for tomorrow morning."
Buffy nodded tensely, then stormed out of the room past the two of them. She didn't know where she was going, and she didn't particularly care.
Scott was numb. His cousin's words echoed in his head. I thought I loved you, Scott…I thought you loved me…times have really changed…
"Professor, what have we done?" he asked, his voice tight with a combination of physical and emotional pain.
"What we had to Scott," Xavier said. "We did it to help her, and we still can."
"How? How can we help her if she won't let us near her?"
"Scott, I told you this might happen. Yes, she feels betrayed, and she has every right to. But we can still help her."
Scott shook his head, then winced again. "Didn't you hear what she said? She said if I really loved her, I wouldn't have done this. She's right."
"Scott," Xavier said, coming closer to his student. "Don't let what she said get to you. She'll forgive you. She still loves you, and somewhere, deep in her heart she knows you love her. She's just hurt and angry right now."
"And she has every right to be."
Scott left the room, leaving Xavier to think about what they had done and how they could fix it. He had expected this reaction from Buffy, once she found out what they had done, but he had been hoping that she wouldn't find out so soon. She hadn't been ready to hear it, and now it was hurting their chances of getting through to her. Xavier knew that he couldn't let Buffy go home with her mental state as unstable as it was right now. He had less than a day to convince her that they were trying to help her and to get her to stay.
Making up his mind, he reached out with his telepathy. Ororo?
Yes Professor?
I need you to find Buffy. She's somewhere on the grounds and she's very upset. She found out about the Danger Room program before we were ready to tell her and she's convinced that we betrayed her trust, and that Scott doesn't love her anymore.
There was a moment of silence from his student, before she replied, She's within her rights to be upset, Professor.
I know, but she wants to go home. We can't send her home while she's still so unbalanced. We have to get through to her and convince her to stay. Find her, please, see if you can calm her down.
Shouldn't you or Scott do it, sir? Yes. I'll bring her to your study if I can get through to her.
Author's Note: Okay everyone! I am running a poll at the moment. I have some ideas for future chapters, but I'd like to know what you think before I start writing them. The Danger Room scene from the last chapter was only one of several fight scenes that I still have planned. So, what would you like to see for future scenes?
a) Buffy fighting real vampires alone?
b) Buffy fighting real vampires with the help of the X-Men?
c) Buffy going up against the remainder of the Brotherhood? (Toad, Mystique, and Sabretooth) alone?
d) Buffy fighting the Brotherhood with the X-Men?
e) Buffy going up against some other mutant, either with or without the help of the X-Men?
f) Buffy duking it out with Scott over the Danger Room issue?
Let me know what you would like to see! It's possible that more than one of these things may still happen, but I want to know what you most want to see!