The Ripple in Man and Mutantkind

by Mistercraycray95

It was a normal school day at Bayvile High School for David Ripley, or as normal as it could be for an abused gay kid, until he finds out he's a mutant, which is more scarier than finding out you're gay, but joining the X-Men makes it all worth it. Rated M for language, violence, and brief sexual content.

26. Chapter 26

X-Men Evolution: The Ripple in Man and Mutantkind

Chapter 26: Remembering Lost Love

After we all arrived at school, we went inside for the start of the day. I personally escorted Evan to his first class; science.

"Alright, I've never had this guy, well as a teacher, but from what I've heard he's kind of strict on a few things and he doesn't take tardiness lightly, so be sure you pay attention and get in on time. If you do just that and a little more, everything should be fine." I said patting Evan's back.

"Thanks Ripley." He said.

"Don't mention it. Oh, and one more thing, steer clear of the jocks. The guys with the sport jackets. They're really stingy around freshmen and people who don't fulfill their status quota of douchery." I said.

"Oh...okay, thanks man." Evan said. I smiled a bit before taking a deep breath.

"Okay. Well, I hope you enjoy your first day, and I'll see you later." I said patting Evan's back.

"Okay." Evan said.

"Okay." I echoed walking away before turning back around. "Oh Evan!" Evan turned around to face me. "Meet me and everyone else for lunch outside." Evan smiled and gave me a thumbs up, confirming the meeting plans. "Alright, I lo-" I stopped talking for a moment so I wouldn't make myself look weird before I ran off back into the halls leaving Evan confused behind me. As I was running, I felt the need to cry a little, so I ran right into the nearest restroom to wash my face. I turned on the faucet and allowed some water to pool in the cup of my hand before rubbing my face with it. I kept on repeating this until I felt myself calm down a bit. I looked in the mirror and stared on at myself for a while, with my mind racing back.

Flashback

It was years ago, I was just barely ten years old and I was getting picked up by the people of child protective services at last after months of abuse at the hands of my father Carl, and the cowardice of my mother. In my little arms I had my favorite white teddy bear, and I was snuggling him so closely and crying so silently because I was so scared of what was going on, but I was also very relieved to be out of that house, but still horribly frightened at the thought of what Carl would do once I got home. During the drive, the man who was driving, Mr. Adam Smith, kept glancing at me to make sure I was alright, and he could tell I was very unsettled.

"Hey, it'll be okay Josh, no one is going to hurt you anymore, I promise." He said. I looked up at the man's reflection in the rear view mirror and saw him giving me a gentle smile, which perked me up a bit. After driving for a while, I fell asleep and dreamt deeply and very comfortably for a while until I felt something wiggle my shoulder and shake me awake. "Joshua? Josh wake up, we're here." I stirred myself awake, but not enough to make my body work and saw a fuzzy image Mr. Smith I was holding out my arms.

"Carry me?" I said in a sleepy tone. Mr. Smith chuckled under his breath before picking me up in his big strong arms and walking us both into a large building with a lot of windows with other children looking at us through the glass or leaning right out the window to get a really good look at me. As we approached the building, a nice looking young woman held open the doors for us.

"Thanks Gwen. Hey this guy's all kinds of pooped out, could you go grab his suitcase and bring it to his room with us please?"

"Okay Adam." Gwen said walking off outside as Mr. Smith carried me into the building. In my sleep I could feel the sensation of rising like I was inside of an elevator and set down somewhere in a bed or something. Suddenly a large ringing noise and someone calling out my name really loud.

End Flashback

"Mr. Davidson!" I opened my eyes sharply with a jump and looked around at everyone staring at me, including the teacher. I cleared my throat and sat up straight in my chair. "Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

"Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm just a little off today. I'll be fine, it won't happen again. Please continue." I said. The teacher nodded his head and continued to give a demonstration on math or something. By the time I was finished attending the first of my usual classes, I had started to flashback again while I was in line getting my lunch. I had chosen a slice of pizza with potato tots on the side with a fruit salad and a small carton of chocolate milk. Seeing the pizza reminded me of when I first met Kyle, and how rocky our first meeting was.

Flashback

I was stirring in my sleep, thinking of the momentous morning I had when I felt something poking me in my the side.

"Hey, it's time to eat." A voice said. I turned over on my other side to avoid the kid who was poking me. "Hey kid, wake up." He began to consistently poke at my back and kept going harder and harder until I was awakened. I sprung out with my hand and grabbed at the poking hand.

"Hey, what the hell?" I said groggily.

"Don't swear, now you have to pay a dollar for the swear jar." The boy said.

"I didn't swear, I said the name of an alternate plane of existence where evil resides. If hell's a swear word I might as well say my street address."

"Now you owe two dollars." The boy said.

"Well I guees it's a damn good thing I don't have two dollars to spare for your damn jar, because I can't give a damn thing!"

"Stop swearing!"

"Bite me!" I shouted before someone entered the room, Mr. Smith.

"Hey, hey, hey where's the fire, huh?" He said.

"He won't stop saying bad words." The boy said pointing at me.

"Well he woke me up with his bony pointy finger, really hard!" I shouted in his face.

"All right enough. Josh, I want you to apologize to Kyle for swearing."

"Oh my god, I didn't swear. I said 'hell', the name of an alternate plane of existence that is said to be a place where evil people and fags go to." I said.

"Now that's not a nice word." Smith said.

"What word?"

"Fag, it's a very bad word to say. Say you're sorry Josh."

"But..." Smith looked at me with a stern glance before I swallowed my words and half of my pride before sighing. "Alright, I'm sorry Kyle."

"Okay good, now Kyle, I want you to apologize to Josh for waking him up the way you did."

"But..." Kyle said before Smith gave him a stern look. "Alright, I'm sorry Josh." I gave a little smile, that come to think of it seemed more like a smirk.

"Alright, there we go, we're all buddies now. Why don't we go down to dinner, it's pizza night." When Smith said "pizza" I stood right up.

"You just said the magic word!" I said.

"You like pizza?" Kyle said.

"Dude, I love that sh..." I said before flowing into another word. "...tuff so much! If it was healthy I'd eat it all the time."

"Me too. But wait a minute, it has all the food groups, right?"

"Well depending on the toppings and the person, yeah. Dairy from the cheese, fruit from the tomatoes in the sauce, meats are whatever kinds you put on there, and the same goes for vegetables, like onions or peppers."

"Yeah, and the grains in the crust and the oils of everything else."

"Precisely."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, but I know how to use 'precisely' in a sentence."

"Cool. You're actually kinda cool."

"No I'm not."

"Um...what movies do you like?"

"I like the scary kind, but only in the day, not at night. When it's dark or nighttime I get nightmares."

"Me too." As we were talking we were walking down the halls to the mess hall with the other kids and Mr. Smith walking right behind us.

End of Flashback

I had gotten out of my flashback and saw myself staring at my tray of potato tots, fruit salad, and pepperoni pizza, though I was mostly staring at the pizza. It was funny how we first clicked together, a philosophical discussion on pizza. From then on it was our food, the only one we shared together for years, and now for the first and most unfortunate time it was now just mine, and mine alone.

"Hey Rip!" I heard a voice behind me and I turned around to see Kurt and Evan walking towards the bench I was sitting on. I gave a friendly smile as a nice greeting.

"Hey guys, come over here and join me." I said pointing out the empty seats on the bench. The boys smiled and took a seat next to me on both sides. "So Evan, how's your day going so far?" I said taking a bite of pizza, which had gotten kind of cold.

"It's been alright I guess, for as school goes, ya know?" He said.

"Mm-hm." I said sipping my now warm chocolate milk, which almost made me gag. "Mmm!"

"So Ripley, how has your day been?" Kurt said.

"It's been okay, milk's a bit warm, don't think I want to drink that." I said putting the carton down. "Yuck. I'm also thinking of going about to get a few things for the funeral after school and order a casket for Kyle."

"Who's Kyle?" Evan asked.

"Ripley's boyfriend." Kurt said. Evan looked at me with a surprised expression that quickly turned into a look of pity.

"Oh...I'm sorry man. How'd he die?" He asked.

"When my powers emerged, they caused my house to explode and it killed my father, and it put Kyle in a coma. He held on for a while, he was really strong that boy, but he had a, um...an aneurysm or something and he passed away a few days ago." I said as tears began to form in my eyes.

"Man, that sucks. I'm so sorry." Evan said putting a hand on my shoulder. I sniffed once and wiped away the tears in my eyes.

"It's okay. Carl was a douche, but he was still my dad in the end I suppose, and Kyle..." I said before sighing. "If there is one, God bless that boy, I know he'll be in some sort of a heaven somewhere."

"Would you like some help? We can all get together and go out to help carry stuff for you or something if you want." Kurt said.

"No it's okay, you don't have to." I said.

"Don't have to what?" Kitty said from behind me, startling me.

"Don't have to help him go out and get some things for the funeral after school." Evan said.

"Oh hell no. We're, like, so going with you Ripey." Kitty said sitting down next to me.

"Really it's fine. Xavier said he'd drop off a sealed envelope with a credit card and enough money to spend inside later, and that's really all I need. Plus I'd really rather do this on my own so you guys don't have to..." I said. Kitty wrapped her arms around me and held me tight.

"Well, I may be rude or whatever, but I don't care, I'm going to help you and you can't say 'no', not without me giving you the face." She said as she puffed out her lower lip and her eyes went bright and sad looking. I tensed up in a bit of irritation.

"But..." I was about to detest before she flashed her big blue Puss-in-Boots face at me and made me go numb with a warm feeling, which left me feeling guilty of wanting to say no. And although I still a fighting urge to fight it, it quickly seceded. I put a hand on hers and leaned my head on hers before groaning in defeat.

"Ugh! Alright already Kat, you win. If you all want to come along I won't stop you." I said. Kitty smiled brightly at my words. "But seriously, you really need to stop making 'Puss-in-Boots eyes' at people, or at least me."

"Deal." She said kissing my head and grabbing my milk carton. "Can I have a sip?" She took a sip of the warm milk before spitting it out with a nasty face. "Oh God, that's awful!" We all gave a hearty laugh at Kitty's misfortune before I took a bite of my pizza and began to actually enjoy my lunch, surrounded by my friends. The rest of the lunch period and the day flew by as I continued to flash back to when Kyle and I were getting acquainted.

Flashback

It was three years after from when I had moved into the orphanage and by then Kyle and I were becoming very close, and I had also made a few friends and hanging out with some of the other kids. Becoming friends with most of them was harder than most, especially because of my social disorders I developed from the years of systematic abuse and "guidelines" from Carl, but Kyle...he was special. We hung out every day, we spent the night's in each other's rooms, even though it was against the rules headed down into the woodlands nearby the town. Supposedly there was a wishing well where some of the kids would go to make wish-dares, whatever those were.

"So where is this place again?" I asked.

"It's close, not too far." A girl, Sarah, said as she pushed a couple branches aside.

"Well, I hope it's not too far, my feet are about a minute from bleeding to death." I said.

"It isn't too far Josh, your feet will be okay by then." Kyle said patting my back and making me smile. We kept on going a few more feet before we saw a pile of bricks and stones in some kind of circular pattern.

"Welp, here we are." Sarah said. "Josh Davidson, welcome to the Wishing-Dare Well."

"Davidson is a name I'd rather forget, and I'm sorry, "'Wishing-Dare Well', what's that mean?" I said.

"This well, isn't just a regular wishing well, this is where we wish for dares." She said. I laughed lightly at the term's definition.

"What's so funny Josh?" Kyle said.

"That makes no sense at all. With wishes you ask for something that hardly has a chance of actually manifesting and with dares you usually have to comply to the challenge asked of you and produce results, and with wishing for dares it causes the terms for both wish and dare to become mutually exclusive." I kept laughing as I saw everyone else stare at me like I had a sea urchin growing on my face.

"Come on, it's really fun. Here we'll show you how it works." Sarah said picking up a stone of the ground. "Kyle, would you grab a stone and join me?

"Mm-hm." Kyle said grabbing a rock of the ground and joining Sarah near the well. The both of them shrouded the stones with their hands and whispered something into their closed palms before dropping it into the well. After a couple seconds of silence, a noise erupted from the well followed by another a split second after it. Sarah smiled at Kyle, which made him look rather nervous.

"Alright Kyle, what I wish is for you to dare Josh, to kiss you." Sarah said. I tensed up and all color fell from my face. Kyle looked rather nervous as well as he walked over to me with a flushed expression of uneasiness.

"Umm...Josh?" He said.

"Y-yeah?" I stammered.

"I-I-I dareyoutokissme!" He said quickly. I looked at everyone and blushed in embarrassment.

"Come on Josh, it's like you said, "You have to comply with the challenge and produce results.", so give us results." One of the boys said.

Being just into my pubescent years, my frontal lobe was developing and my judgement skills weren't very good, although I was kind of smart back then, except when I just really wanted to be a part of the cool crowd and play their little games. I walked closer to Kyle, leaned in close to his face, and closed my eyes. our lips hardly touching and I could just about taste them.

" Hah! Gaaaayyyy!" Another one of the kids said. I opened my eyes and ran off into the woods crying.

"Josh come back! It's dangerous to be out there by yourself! Josh!" Kyle shouted.

End of Flashback

At the end of the day I had gotten the credit card from Xavier with the money I needed and was sitting outside the front of the school waiting for everyone else to show up and help me go out funeral shopping for Kyle. Each second I waited seemed like hell for me. I could've been using the seconds to fly over and go find a proper wake and a suit for Kyle's body, which has been in a freezer for weeks and probably all worn out and I would imagine in would need some sprucing up, and I was just sitting on my butt, waiting and wasting more time. I tapped my feet impatiently and twiddled my thumbs for a while before standing up.

"Oh, to hell with this! I don't care how much Kitty's lip pokes out or how big...and wide...and teary...her eyes get-Dammit!" I thought wiping away my tears of the thought Kitty's sad looking Puss-in-Boots eyes. Suddenly two hands covered my eyes, which startled me greatly and made me squeak in surprise like a mouse.

"Hey, guess who?" A voice said. I recognized it to be Kitty's and smirked.

"Well, by those hairy palms I'd say...Kurt?" I said. I heard a scoff before the hands moved off my face and gave my back a gentle slap. I turned around and laughed.

"You're such a bitch!" Kitty said laughing.

"I'm not just a bitch, I'm the bitchiest bitch who ever bitched, bitch!" I said with a a haughty face. Kitty laughed and shook her head.

"What? What?" She said between laughs. I smiled at Kitty's laughter and looked behind her to see Scott and Jean walking out of the school.

"Hey Scotty!" I shouted with a wave. Scott looked over to me and smiled as he walked towards us.

"Hey Ripley, we've been looking all over for you." He said.

"Really? How come?" I asked.

"We heard you were going to go out shopping for Kyle's funeral, and we wanted to catch up with you before you left." Jean said. I groaned in annoyance under my breath and crossed my arms.

"Who told you?" I asked. "Kurt? Evan?"

"No..." Scott said before Kurt and Evan arrived right next to us.

"Yes." Kurt said.

"We thought Ripley would use the extra hands, and extra mind power, to handle stuff." Evan said.

"If I wasn't a mutant with telekinetic superpowers, I think I would take that as an insult." I said in a false defensive tone. Everyone chuckled under their breaths.

"Also, Scott's the only one with a car." Kurt said. "And a driving license."

"That's right, but wait, don't you and Jean have plans for today Scott?" I said. Scott and Jean blushed for a brief second.

"Oh yeah, you guys have a date don't you?" Kitty said in a playful tone. The older teens blushed deeper before they shook their heads and cleared their throats.

"Yeah, but we're more than willing to push it a bit later to help a friend in need." Jean said.

"Or reschedule if we need to." Scott said. I almost cried again, but my face sprouted an instant frown on my face to replace the sob face.

"Scott? Jean?" I said.

"Yeah?" The duo said.

"If you cancel that date tonight on my behalf, I will give you guys such a sunburn. No more pussyfooting around the willows, you both need this first date tonight. Not yesterday night, (though I admit a better choice that would have been), not tomorrow night, not next Friday night, TO-night. You will go out to a nice restaurant, maybe a movie, enjoy each other's company, and have a great evening, understand?"

Alright, but just like you said this morning, "Once you're with the X-Men, you're never alone." right?" Scott said putting a hand up for a high five.

"I'll be damned, he does have tape recorders in the halls doesn't he?" God I love this guy." I thought. I smiled and gave Scott a friendly high-five and interlocked my fingers with his

"Right." I said. Scott smiled and I at him before Kitty locked her arm with mine.

"Alright, enough bromancing. Let's get moving!" She said as pulled me in the direction of the student parking lot, with everyone else following behind.

Flashback

I was out in the middle of the woods, and it was starting to get dark, the sun's final minutes of the day running out. On a fallen tree, I was crying, for being a coward, for being a whiney little kid, for letting myself fall into a dare so ridiculous and so...gay. I didn't want to exchange behaviors like that when I was little, and feeling like the way I did when I was about to kiss him caused me to just...freak out. And the feelings, the wants that were secret from others, and worst of all myself, were at last revealing themselves.

"Josh!" A voice called out. I looked up and saw Kyle running right at me. "There you are." He said as he tried to wrap his arms around me, but I walked away from him.

"Get away! Don't...just don't-."

"What, don't yell like I care about you? You had me scared to death Josh! Why the hell did you run away?! We've all been worried sick and Sarah's been crying for hours! She thought you got eaten by a bear!"

"Well, she shouldn't have told you to dare me to kiss you! I didn't want to kiss you like that I..." I trailed off my words before Kyle got a confused look on his face.

"What?"

"She shouldn't have made the stupid wish, just leave me alone! I don't want to look at anyone."

"What did you mean when you didn't want to kiss me like that?"

"Nothing, it was nothing."

"Josh, please just talk to me. What did you mean?"

"I'm not ready to talk about this right now!"

"But when? When will you be ready Josh? When will you quit hiding behind your logic and just talk to me?" I flinched.

"I've wanted to kiss you for a while, I don't know why, but I just do just so bad and I didn't want to kiss you or have you kiss me on a dare or some shit. I wanted us to kiss...because I think I like you, like, like you like you, okay?" I tilted my head down as the years from my eyes began to flow. Kyle looked surprised at my words, but his surprised expression quickly faded as he walked up to me and held my hands.

"Well that's a relief, because I think I feel the same." He said. I opened my eyes quickly in shock and looked up at Kyle's face.

"Y-y-you do?" I stammered. Kyle nodded his head slowly and I laughed a bit before I sighed in relief and sniffed.

"Oh Gods, thank you." I thought.

"Why did it take a dare for you to tell me your feelings?" I said.

"I'm so so sorry for before. I wanted to kiss you for a while too and that back there was a perfect time to do so, but that was just really stupid of me, just so stupid." He said.

"Yeah." I said.

"When we did have our moment to tell our feelings, I now know that it should be a moment with just the two of us."

"So, um...how do we handle this? Do we give it a moment to sink in, do we just kiss like a couple from a film, or do we get down in the dirt like some dirty...MMPH!" I was babbling like a fool before Kyle's lips shushed me up and closed my eyes. After a couple more kisses I opened my eyes and looked into his turquoise blue-green eyes and saw just how beautiful they were for the very first time.

"I think we're supposed to just shut up." Kyle said. I chuckled and cried a little before we continued to kiss in the final minutes of sunlight of the day.

End of Flashback

I was looking around at a very beautiful henna casket with a nice frivolous white design of the bed inside. It seemed perfect, absolutely perfect to me, but something about it still urked the hell out of me. Jean saw that I was staring at the casket and walked over to me.

"It's beautiful Ripley." She said.

"Yeah, it is. I just hope Kyle would have liked it. His favorite color was red, but this doesn't seem like a proper shade of red, but I want it to be something...traditional also. I don't want anything too flashy, but nothing too funeraly and depressing."

"This is a beautiful color Ripley, you should get it."

"Hmm, I'll put it on my maybe list." I said walking off to another casket with a bright brown shell and a beautiful black design over the lids. Kurt walked next to me and smiled me before looking at the casket.

"This one's kind of nice, huh? The design seems to be stable and...comfortable looking." He said. I put a hand on it and sighed in annoyance. The top of the casket felt kind of course and kind of weird, like it wouldn't last for a beer and a dollar.

"This is a 'no thanks'. I'd rather not have a dead human pancake after the first shovel full." I said as I walked back to the henna case and held my chin in deep consideration before moaning like a zombie. "No, this isn't... it just, AAH!" I shouted as I slammed my fists onto the lid of the casket and sighed.

"Whoa Rip, are you, like, okay?" Kitty asked.

"No, I'm trying to do this right and none of these are right. And this casket, this damn casket..."

"What? What's wrong with it? It's beautiful."

"I know it's beautiful, but it's too...I don't know, it doesn't look too flashy or too depressing, or too both of the said flashy and depressing? Or is it, I don't know... too something else? It doesn't say anything bad to you?"

"I don't think so. I think it seems like it's kind of a, like, cheery color, you know?" Kitty said as Jean walked up behind us.

"Yeah, it kind seems kind of relaxed and warm. It feels...human." Jean said.

"Yeah I guess, but I'm not human, and that was the last thing Kyle knew and he was scared of it, of me. So what would I know about human, huh?" I said walking over to a solid black casket. "This seems better, it's not too bright or dark or..." I said trailing off and hitting my head on it. "Not too dark', it's black for fuck's sake you moron! Nothing is darker than black. And the color's too solid and the lights are gonna refract into someone's eyes and blind them. 'Bye Kyle, and now bye eyesight' said the funeral guy." I sighed in annoyance before walking back to the henna. "God, why is this so hard? Is this my punishment for murdering my dad and my boyfriend? Do I not deserve to be the one to lay them down to rest, is that it? And for the love of merciful Zeus can I not babble like a retard for once?"

"Ripley!" Scott said as he wrapped his arms around me. I began to tear up a bit as I felt Scott's hug tighten a bit. "Calm down."

"I'm sorry." I said silently as I wiped away my tears. "It's just so hard doing this, and I want to get this right can't help but feel like I'm being punished for being so horrible."

"You're not horrible Ripley, you've never done something like this before, it's okay to be stressed out. You just need to compose your emotions and take a few deep breaths. Breathe with me. " He said. I took a deep breath in and out a bit quickly at first, but my breathing began to slow down and sync with Scott's. After a while of breathing and getting myself relaxed, I grew a little smile and pat Scott's forearms.

"Thanks Scott. I'm sorry I freaked out." I said as Scott let me go.

"You're welcome Ripley." Scott said. I smiled at him before I rubbed the lid of the henna casket and smiled with a cleansing sigh. "This is the one, I can tell."

Later

After the little fiasco at the coffin store, and buying and setting up all of the chairs and tables for people to sit at in the living room and the main hall, I was cooling down from the stress with an extremely brisk cold shower, which steamed off of me because the blue heat coming off of me evaporated the water before it could touch me and it made kind of a sauna effect instead. While I was steaming, I was humming a little tune to try and help calm down, one that came very easy to me, one both Kyle and I knew by heart. After a while of humming I began to sing it out loud, very silently.

"You make me glow, but I cover up, won't let it show."

"So I'm putting my defenses up, 'cause I don't wanna fall in love."

"If I ever did that, I think I'd have a heart attack."

I stopped singing and sniffed loudly to keep the tears from falling out.

"No more crying please. Just please let me get by the rest of the day without the damn crying." I thought as I finally allowed the cold water to touch me. After scrubbing myself off and drying myself I put on a brand new bathrobe and wrapped a towel over my head to dry my hair. As I was walking through the halls, I could hear the clicking sound of heels coming up to the end of the hall where I was headed. I walked to the hallway and saw Jean in her new red dress putting in the other one of a pair of diamond earrings.

"Bow-chika-bow-wow!" I said loudly making Jean look up and smile at me. "Don't I have great taste or what? Give me a little twirl Jeannie." Jean giggled at my comment and spun around for a second before stopping and laughing. I chuckled heartily before walking closer to Jean. "You look gorgeous Jean."

"Thank you Ripley. And thanks for the dress I love it." Jean said as I removed the towel from my head.

"You're welcome, I'm glad you like it. Are you, uh, headed out with Scott now?"

"Yeah, we're gonna go out to dinner, maybe a movie too. Could you help me with my zipper?"

She said.

"Sure."

"And, maybe my hair?"

"Mm-hm." I said as Jean handed me a hair band. I zipped the back of her dress up and wrapped her hair up in the band and made a little bun in it before Jean handed me some hairpins. "So, dinner and a movie huh?"

"Yeah, someone suggested dinner and a movie very forcefully earlier, so we decided to go do just that." She said.

"Well good, that someone must be super nice and caring." I said as I finished her hair. "Alright, done." Jean smiled and turned around to face me before wrapping me in a little hug.

"He is." Jean said. "And we love him so much." I flinched after she said that.

"I-I'm sure he does too." I said, trying not to cry. "Here let me look at you." Jean let go of me so I could see her all the way, and she looked positively stunning.

"How do I look?" Jean said.

"Red, you're gonna knock him dead."

"Hey Jean!" A voice called out. Jean and I looked out to who was calling and gasped in shock. There was Scott with black slacks with a matching black coat and his new brown turtleneck with his new silver ruby quartz glasses on his face. For a couple minutes Jean and I stared at this well dressed handsome man before us. Scott looked just as swept away by Jean and looked up and down at her. "Wow, you look great Jean." Jean blushed and moved a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Thanks Scott. You look really handsome yourself." Jean said. Scott cleared his throat and fixed his sleeves before looking to me.

"Oh Ripley, I didn't say this before, so...thanks for the new clothes, they're awesome." Scott said.

"You're welcome Scotty, I'm happy to give you guys something nice for what you've given me." I said before sighing. "Man, you guys look so cute together." Scott and Jean looked at me with equal blush. I clapped my hands and walked by the couple. "Well, I hope that you guys enjoy your date, and I hope you have a nice evening. Now if you'll excuse me, I'mma gonna go to bed." I said pointing my thumbs behind me before turning around and waving goodbye to the couple. "Good night and good luck guys." I winked at them before turning back around.

"Good night Ripley!" Jean said.

"Good night Rip!" Scott said before extending his arm out to Jean. "Well, shall we madam?" Jean giggled at his comment before looping her arm with his.

"Why thank you sir." She said as the two walked out of the hall to their glorious evening.

Later that night

(Author's P.O.V.)

Scott Summers was laying peacefully in his bed with a cheerful smile on his face. He had finally gone out with the girl of his dreams and he was enjoying his dreams of romantic victory and also thinking about poor Ripley when a loud and terrible shriek filled his bedroom and his mind, making him spring up from his pillow with a hand on his visor ready to attack.

"Who's there?" He said loudly. The shrieking came again which made Scott bolt out of his bed and out his bedroom door. He looked around the hallway as the screaming continued. He walked past Jean's room as she opened her door.

"Who's screaming?" She asked.

"I don't know, it sounds like someone's hurting, bad." Scott said sniffing at the air. "Do you smell smoke?" Jean sniffed at the air too.

"Yeah." She said. Scott ran quickly to one door and banged on it loudly and rapidly.

"Everyone, wake up! Fire!" Scott shouted before moving to another door and banging it rapidly too. "Come on everyone, wake up! Fire!" Kitty groaned as she walked out of her room with raging bedhead.

"Not another drill Scott." She said groggily rubbing her eyes. Suddenly another shriek filled the halls which startled Kitty all the way awake. "Like, what the hell was that?"

"It isn't a drill, and someone's in trouble. Go wake the others, now!" Scott said. Kitty nodded quickly ran to Kurt's room. Scott and Jean were running right to Ripley's room when they noticed that as they were getting closer to the room, the more the smell of smoke seemed to get.

"No. No!" Scott thought. When the two X-Men reached Ripley's door, they saw massive amounts of smoke pouring out from the cracks and a horrible screaming from the other side.

"Ripley, I'm coming!" Scott shouted as he ran to the door. He opened his visor, and expected his red blasts to come from his eyes, but they weren't working. "What?" Scott concentrated harder on the door trying to unleash his beams.

"Scott, what's wrong?" Jean said.

"I don't know, my powers aren't working!" Scott shouted. He always wanted to be able to have his ruby shades off, but now wasn't the time for wishes to come true, especially now when a friend was in danger. "Jean, can you get the door open?" Jean put her fingers to her temples and concentrated hard, but nothing happened.

"Scott, I can't use my powers either!" She said. Another violent scream began to erupt from behind the door, which made Scott begin to violently pound on Ripley's door. "Ripley open the door!" He shouted as the rest of the teenage X-Men soon arrived.

"Oh mein gott." Kurt said as Scott grunted when he rammed into the door.

"Is this Ripley's room? Dear God!" Kitty said as another shriek erupted from behind the door. "I'm coming Ripley!" Kitty ran right at the door, but bounced right off of it and crashed to the floor instead of phasing through it. "OW!"

"Kitty, are you okay? What did you do that for?" Evan said.

"Maybe, like, because I thought I would go through it like I normally can. Why didn't I, and why the hell is Ripley screaming?! What's wrong?!" She said loudly.

"Let me try." Kurt said closing his eyes readying himself to teleport, but nothing happened. Kurt opened his eyes and looked around.

"Vas?" He said closing his eyes and clenching his fists. "Agh! I can't teleport, I don't know how!"

"What do you mean you don't know how? You've been teleporting since, like, preschool." Kitty said.

"I know, but I just can't." Evan clenched his fists hard and focused on his spikes, but all that came out was a few beads of sweat.

"Something's very wrong here, my powers are toast." Evan said.

"This is just like when we were in Ripley's mindscape. Our powers weren't working and we were frightened out of our wit." Scott thought.

"Move!" A voice shouted. Everyone stood aside before the the mutant claw wielding man Logan unsheathed his claws and charged at the door.

"Wait, guys stop!" Scott shouted. Everyone looked at the door and saw that smoke wasn't leaking from the cracks anymore and the screaming had stopped. Scott knocked on the door loudly. "Ripley?" When no one answered him, Scott knocked once more a bit louder. "Ripley?" Again no answer. Scott suddenly began to bang hard on the door. "Ripley!"

(Ripley's P.O.V.)

I woke up screaming and covered with sweat and someone was banging at the door. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know where I was, so I focused my telekinesis on the door and completely barred it off.

"Ripley! Ripley let us in!" A voice called out. I felt my fear increase as I heard my name called, and I hated it when someone knew my name and I didn't know who it was.

"Get away! You hear me? I'll burn you, I swear to God!" I said as my eyes began to glow and burn with violent blue flames.

"Ripley it's Scott, open the door!"

"Scott?" I said before I remembered who Scott was and where I was. My eyes' glow died down and with a flick of a finger I opened the door with my telekinesis.

"Ripley are you okay?!" Scott said running over to me.

"I'm fine, just a bad dream. Why are you...?" I said before Scott interrupted me with a tight hug.

"Thank God you're okay." He said. I got out of Scott's hug, turned on my lamp and widened my eyes in surprise. All over the floor were very deep and very bad burn marks, like a fire went all over the room and nearly burnt it all to the next floor below. I stood up and looked from the floor to the ceiling, and then to my bed. There were black burn streaks all over it and a large burn mark in the shape of my body in the center.

"What...the...HELL?!" I said. While examining my bed the rest of the X-Men came into my room.

"Dude." Kurt said.

"Oh man." Evan said.

"Ripley, like, what happened?" Kitty asked.

"Are you okay?" Jean said.

I was completely speechless at the sight of my room's state, so much I failed to notice a breeze behind me. Logan entered my room and took notice of the windows and saw that they were all shattered from the inside out, lots of tiny shards of glass littering the balcony outside. Logan looked around the room with his claws unsheathed and sniffed around looking for evidence of a possible intruder.

"Hmph." He scoffed before putting his claws away and looking at me.

"What the hell happened in here Rip?" He asked.

"I don't know, I don't know!" I said clutching my hair and looking around the ruined room.

"Jesus Christ, what did happen in here?!" I thought.

"What happened guys, why are you all here? And why the bleeding hell does my room look like a drug lab pulled a goddamn kamikaze?!" I shouted.

"We heard screaming and smelled smoke. We came to where the screaming was coming from and it led here to your room. There was smoke coming from the cracks of the door and... " Scott stopped talking before taking a breath. "...we thought you were burning and you were dying. And when we tried to get to you, something barred the door from everything and made our powers stop working."

"What?" I said.

"It's true, I couldn't even get the door to wiggle or get a telepathic reading from you." Jean said.

"Ya, and something made me forget how to teleport and Kitty couldn't use her powers to get in." Kurt said.

"I, like, bruised my freaking elbow trying to get in, and when nothing else was working we were all totally freaking out." Kitty said. As they were talking, I was sitting on the floor with an inquisitive look on my face.

"Just like when Scott, Jean, and Kurt were in my mind. Their powers weren't working and they were all freaking out and scared. And they were all desperate to get to me despite their own personal safety or others, just to get to me." I thought.

"And Logan was about to go all, like, Freddy Krueger on the door when you stopped screaming all of a sudden." Kitty said.

"We were all scared that you had gone Ripley. Are you alright?" Jean said. I looked all around my room and then at my own two hands, that were glowing with blue heat. I closed my fists gently and relaxed my shoulders before sitting down on the floor.

"Yeah, too bad my room can't say the same. I guess my powers run rampant when I'm under duress and asleep." I said sighing and punching a hole through the floor. "Aw, dammit to Hell!" I shouted as I stood up. "Speaking of which, can we get out of here?" I walked quickly out of my room and out of the hallway with everyone behind me. I sat on the floor with my back propped up against the wall and my head tilted up to face everyone.

"What were you doing before we burst into your room?" Scott asked.

"I was...dreaming, I-I think. After I said good night to you and Jean, I went to bed and I think I was asleep and I had a dream, a really bad one, come back and became a horrible nightmare all over again. I could smell the fire, the screaming, the burning flesh of all those people, people calling out for help, but I couldn't do anything to help,. And the fire...the horrible laugh that was coming from the blaze..." I said as I began to tear up and my body began to ignite. Scott walked right up to me and put his hands on my shoulders.

"Hey, Rip you don't have to say anything now. It's pretty late, we'll talk in the morning." Scott said as my flames began to calm down.

"There's another bed in my room Ripley. You can, like, bunk with me for the night." Kitty said.

"No. Thanks Kitty, but if I did do that to my room, then maybe I need to be somewhere that's more cold and flame proof where I won't hurt anyone. Maybe the Danger Room where all the dangerous things belong." I said walking away from the group.

"Ripley you don't need to..." Scott said walking up to me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" I shouted slapping his hand away. "I could have killed you Scott, all of you! If none of you heard me screaming and your powers weren't working like you said, you probably wouldn't have been able to get out! I could've burnt you all alive like my dad and my boyfriend! Understand?!" Everyone looked speechlessly at me. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Look, everyone I'm sorry I yelled, and I'm sorry I slapped your hand Scott I hope I didn't bruise you, but for now until I can get through this next week, I just need you all to keep your distance, for all of our sakes." With those last words and a whoosh of air I teleported out of the hall and porting back to my room walked right to the cabinet in front of my singed bed.

"Please God don't be ruined." I thought opening the doors and sighing in relief.

"Keelah se'lai!" I said loudly and grabbing a Within Temptation CD case out of the cabinet and teleporting elsewhere. When I did leave the room, some of the X-Men, Scott, Jean, Kurt, and Kitty, had returned to my room. They obviously heard me shout and came to my room to head me off. Kurt walked in and sighed out in remorse for my once beautiful room.

"Man, poor guy." Kurt said. Scott sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I wish there was something more we can do to help him." He said.

"You've done well Scott." A voice said. Everyone looked back to the doorway and saw Xavier and Storm standing in the doorway. "But I think I should take it from here."

Danger Room

I was in my uniform unleashing my emotions on the Danger Room's programs and machines while loud music blasted through the speakers from the control room. Machines everywhere in the room were blasting at me with lasers, flamethrowers, and metal arrows and I did pretty much nothing but dodge and overheat a few circuits . After a while of this little sequence, I could feel my angst getting better and my emotions were beginning to calm down a bit. Suddenly a tentacle with a large taser device grabbed my body and electrocute me. I screamed in pain as the electricity flew in and out of my body before I felt my fighter's sense overcome me and my mind. I suddenly stopped screaming and my eyes began to glow again with blue light and fire. I grabbed at the tentacle around me and with hardly any strain at all I ripped it right off of me. One other device began shooting explosive frisbees at me, but i didn't flinch as they went right for my upper body. With but a thought, I immobilized the disks in mid-air and watched them disintegrate as the device continued to shoot disks at me. This time I disks swirl around me and back at the machine. They sliced right through it and before the slices of machine could seperate, it exploded. I looked around at all the machines that were still active and a very interesting idea cam email to my mind. I began flying around the room in a perfect circle with my head ablaze and quickly gathering speed, began to increase the heat of the flames after each lap from where I started. As I continued at the pace I was flying, and with my blue flames ignited, I was creating a bright blue halo looking thing with a small black object circling around inside, which was me. After gaining the appropriate speed, I bolted out of the halo and flew up above the center on the ceiling. I then aimed my hand down and a stream of blue fire erupted from my hand and when it went into the halo, the flames suddenly expanded from a thin stream and into a large pillar of combustion and light. I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't go blind before I felt the hot winds begin to secede. I opened my eyes and widened them in surprise. All around the Danger Room, every but of technology and weaponry was completely decimated and burnt almost to cinder. I groaned loudly and face-palmed hard before screaming out in anger and unleashing a few torrents of blue fire from my hands to the floor.

"Damn!" I screamed in my head. I suddenly heard clapping and I looked up to the control room to see Xavier clapping his hands at me.

"Very well done Ripley." Xavier said. I looked all around the destroyed Danger Room before dying my flames down and growing a goofy nervous smile on my face.

"Well, I guess I'd say it is." I said before teleporting into the control room. "Though I guess I kind of overdid it."

"Yes, I'm afraid you have, but the display of your abilities was amazing. I had no idea you could concentrate and produce that amount of energy at once."

"Thanks." I said grabbing my arm nervously. "I'm sorry I woke you up, I was having a difficult day yesterday and tonight was no better and I just had to let my negative emotions out and I didn't want to hurt anyone and this was the best place I could do so without doing so. I admit the symphonic metal was a bit much, but I find myself relaxed around it and I guess it was wrong of me to think that it wouldn't be loud enough to reach upstairs. Again I'm sorry."

"It wasn't the music or your abrasive training that awoke me." Xavier said.

"It was my screaming wasn't it?"

"Yes, I wanted to talk about it with you, over a cup of tea." Xavier said rolling away towards the elevator. I followed him for a few steps before I saw a mirror and saw sweat stains under my armpits.

"Can I shower and get dressed first?" I asked.

Later

After I had showered and changed into a plain white T-shirt, a pair of pajama bottoms, and shrouding it all with my black bathrobe, Xavier and I were in the main living room of the mansion on the couch. He poured us both a cup of tea and handed one to me.

"Thanks." I said taking a sip. I've never really tried kinds of teas before, but this one was truly euphoric. I could taste raspberries, maybe some orange and ginger, and I loved it a lot. "Damn that's good. What kind of tea is this?"

"It's a blend of different European teas, each made in a different country." Xavier said.

"Mmm, money well spent that." I said taking another sip.

"Ripley, would you explain your dream to me?" Xavier said. I put the cup in my hands and sighed as I looked into the dark liquid.

"It wasn't a dream, not really. It was a memory from my past, one of the grim parts of it, ripped from the suppressed part of my mind and shoved right back in my face." I said.

Flashback

It was an average day, I was hanging out with Kyle and our friends at the orphanage, and Kyle and I wanted to tell everyone about us, and how happy we were. We had this big thing planned out, we were going to get together to play like other days and tonight I felt like we were going to do the naughty. When we were sitting together on that couch that night we had our fingers entangled in one another's. I was leaning towards his ear to suggest going to my room later that night before Mr. Smith walked into the room.

"Josh, Kyle? We have someone here to see you two." Smith said. Kyle and I looked at him and each other and shrugged. We both got up from our seats and Mr. Smith escorted us to the front.

"Hey Bae, who do you think is here?" I asked.

"No idea, could be one of our grandparents." Kyle said.

"Pfft, yeah right. One of my grandparents, what a crock that would be." We both kept walking through the halls before reaching the front desk of the orphanage. Kyle and I beamed when we saw that the people waiting for us was indeed Kyle's grandparents Stan and Flo.

"Grandma, Grandpa hi!" Kyle shouted as we ran up to the couple.

"Hey boys!" Stan shouted. Kyle and I both hugged Stan and Flo tightly and switched back and forth between them for hugs.

"Hello Joshie-McTater." Flo said. That was her nickname for me. Stan and Flo often came over to visit Kyle and he introduced me to them and they just fell in love with me, almost like I did with Kyle. Stan wrapped an arm around us both and led us to the visiting area of the orphanage before Smith stopped me in my tracks.

"Josh, we actually have somebody else for you as well." He said. I looked at Smith with a glare when I saw this somebody else from the window. It was Carl, my father.

"What the hell is that son of a bitch doing here?!" I said loudly.

"He's come to see you."

"No way is he coming anywhere near me or in here. If he comes in here I will run away from here so fast it'll make Lance Armstrong look like a common jogger."

"Please Josh, he's been to therapy and rehab. He's been clean for five whole months now."

"Oh, five months, huh? Well that makes up for the most shitty YEARS, I repeat, SHITTY YEARS of my goddamned life! And have you been talking to him?" I said.

"Yes I have." He said. I scoffed and crossed my arms.

"Oh great, he's made a friend. What, does he want to take me home to him and his bullshit? I don't think so. You go tell that ugly, lying, low-standard butt wipe to get out of here and never come around me or else I swear to God I'll go princess Diana of Themyscira on his ass." I said walking off at a rapid pace.

"Josh!" Smith shouted.

"Talk to my skinny rapidly retreating ass!" I shouted pointing a finger at my buttocks.

"Josh, get back here!"

"Ah ah ah ah, ass!" I said pointing two fingers to my buttocks and running off to the visiting room where Kyle, Stan, and Flo were waiting and talking. I sat down with an impatient grunt and held my head in my fingers.

"Hey Josh, what's the matter?" Stan said.

"My ass of a father decided to come by for a pity party or some crap." I said. Kyle leaned forward in his seat and looked at me in the eye.

"Oh, that's who that man was?" Flo asked. "He looked so sad."

"Oh yeah, that's so classic him. Gets his emotional hooks into you and then when you have your guard down then, 'YANK!', he pulls you apart." I said.

"Well, from what we heard from Mr. Smith he's sorry for his actions, and you should talk with him, and also wash your mouth out." Stan said.

"I don't have to talk to the purple leprechaun living in my butt, and I sure as hell don't have to talk to him." I said standing up and walking away with Kyle walking behind me. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.

"Sweetie..." He said.

"Don't 'sweetie' me Kyle. And I'm not saying that because you're going to try and convince me to pity my dad, but if he saw you with me or heard you call me 'sweetie' he would beat us both and try to make it our fault. And then he'll cry and say 'sorry', but still make the beatings our fault." I said. Kyle took my face in his hand and leaned in for a kiss. We shared a few kisses before we stopped.

"Please talk to him, if he's sorry, really sorry then let him talk." He said. I looked away from Kyle for a few seconds before he turned me back around. "Please? For me?" I looking in his eyes

"Hey Josh." Carl said.

"Hello." I said rather blankly. We both stood kind of swaying in the air for a while before one of us spoke up.

"You've grown up a bit haven't you?"

"Yeah, tends to happen to kids after four years."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"For what exactly Carl? In the years I've put up with your crap I've come to learn that there are lots of things you need to apologize for. Not just for me, but for others, so really you need to be specific." Carl sniffed and scratched his arm. He then went into detail of all the things he did to me and that he had no right to do those things to me. While he was talking, that's when the firestorm came, just all of a sudden right out of the blue. Streams of fire flew around from its source and jumping into every building for blocks, including the orphanage. I ran inside to try and save everyone I could. I first went into the visiting room where Kyle and his grandparents were. The fireplace in the room was gas activated, and it had a plexiglass cover. When that all that fire entered the building it was have punctured a gasline or something and the fireplace exploded. Stan and Flo shielded Kyle from the blast and he was okay, burns on his body in a few places, but he was alive. Unfortunately I can't say the same for them. The blast hit them head on and large fragments of glass entered and shredded their insides. They were dead almost instantly. Every where was the same thing for miles, nothing but people screaming and running away from the blaze or running inside to save who and what they could. Carl had taken me and Kyle into his car and we were headed back to his place to pack up and leave, but when we got to the house it was already to late. The fire had reached his house, and my mom was supposedly inside. We couldn't cry, we couldn't scream for her or Kyle's grandparents, we had to get the hell out of there if we wanted to live. While we were leaving, in a little inferno of the remains of a house, I could see someone's silhouette, standing upright like a man who had gotten off work on a good day. I peered closely at the man and I could have sworn I saw the faintest thing of a smile and a haunting laugh echoing out in the smoke. I wake up in the night to that laugh occasionally. We drove a few miles before we had finally gotten to a hospital and Kyle was immediately taken to urgent care. I stayed at his side for days before he woke up at last. We immediately started to talk about what had happened and how many lives were lost, and where we would go and what we would do, but I didn't care about the future, I was far too upset. I was so angry and so sad that I could feel both going in and through me and eventually turned into hatred. I hated the fire, I hated the people who ran inside and died for their precious wares instead of running for their lives, I hated Stan and Flo for being there at that moment, I hated that my mother didn't leave Carl long ago, and I hated how life treated me. There was nothing but abuse and tragedy in my life, and I wanted it to just stop. I wished that I change who I was, be someone else who didn't go through such hell.

"What are we going to do Josh? Everything is gone, everyone is gone, Josh we can't..." Kyle said before I interrupted him.

"Don't call me that anymore Kyle!" I said as tears flowed and hit the floor. "Never again call me that name. That name is nothing but a curse of all that I have lost; my innocence, my home, my friends, family, and for God's sake I almost lost you Kyle! I will not let that wretched name take you away from me too, and I sure as hell will be a different person enough to protect you when it tries."

"Well...what do I call you now?" Kyle asked. I wiped my eyes and looked out to the rising sun in the horizon outside the window as the perfect name flew into my head.

"My name is David Allen Ripley, and I will be sure no one will fucking forget it." I said boldly. And that is how I got my name, well most of it anyway. A couple days afterwards I got my name legally changed from Joshua Bassett Davidson to my current full name, David Allen Ripley by a local attorney. As for the town, it took months to repair the damage, and during that time I could still see everyone's faces in all the charred rubble still being swept into trucks and hauled away. Sometimes they would find skeletal remains that were almost completely ash, and every time they did I was hoping that one of them was my mom, just so at least I would know for closure, you know? But when the papers and the obituaries stopped coming in from the town about the fires and my mother's name didn't appear I feared the worst, and what's worse is that I still couldn't get over the guilt of being glad to be alive when so many others were in my place. Kyle and I were the ones who got each other's backs forever and always after that, except we kept our relationship secret. We both had lost so much, and we didn't want to lose each other, so we kept us a secret to protect each other from the world.

End of Flashback

I sat there staring at my cup of tea as I finished my tale. The Professor looked at me with something that looked like remorse for me.

"Carl came and took me over here in Bayville where we have relatives and Kyle went with me and got adopted by a wonderful couple who couldn't have children themselves; Robert and Julie Daniels."

"Daniels?" Xavier said.

"No relation to Evan or his father I checked." I said. "We lived in Bayville for two months before my life before the orphanage began again and Carl began drinking again and beating me whenever he had an itch he couldn't scratch. While that was happening my relationship with Kyle began to falter. We were off and on again and this last year we got together for what we thought would be for good, but this year Kyle wanted to be brave for the both of us and came out, even though didn't. I wanted to as well, I really, really did, but I was still too scared, too afraid to lose the one thing that meant something to me. And then the events of the past few weeks, and then here we are."

"My God Ripley. I have heard the stories of that fire and heard a great deal of people had died, I never knew there were survivors. And after all this I'm surprised to hear a young man such as yourself go through such things." He said.

"Yeah, well that's just me I guess; a survivor. That's all I'll ever be I suppose." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that's all I've ever done all my life, just survive in whatever way that was possible. I never felt like I was alive, at all, I just wasn't dying. And in all honesty, I would gladly want to die if I didn't want to live so badly. I just..." I sighed and felt tears flow from my eyes. "I just hate this; the way I've always struggled to get by and have absolutely nothing go right for me at all. I hate feeling like I can't just live and not be a survivor and be alive instead of not dying, without feeling guilty that my parents, my friends, and my love are gone and thar I'm responsible for most of their deaths and I'm still alive instead of them. And what I hate most of all is that I may not be able to move forward. I know Kyle would want me to keep going, but I'm just so damn tired of my unquote un-life." Xavier rolled over to me and held one of my hands.

"Ripley, listen to me. The events that transpired against you are absolutely not your fault. You couldn't have known, no one could have known, what would happen in life. What we do, as people, is look onward to the next day and be grateful for tomorrow. Something else we need to remember is that the past is in the past and the future is how we endure the present because the past is history, the future will be a mystery, but today, the current moment you're still alive in, is a gift. That is the reason it is called 'the present', and as long as a single breath is in you Ripley, it is also a gift to the loved ones you lost; to live if not for yourself, then live and work hard at living for them. You are a survivor Ripley, but you must allow yourself out of the rubble and begin to live." I lunged forward and wrapped Xavier in a hug in his little chair and just cried. I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but I just had to or I would have exploded. After a while of crying I let go of Xavier and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Thank you for listening." I said.

"You are welcome Ripley. And don't worry about your room, we'll take care of it later after the funeral." Xavier said before I stood up.

"Good night Xavier, and again thanks for the talking, and the tea, and everything else."

"You're welcome, again. Oh Ripley?" Xavier said. I turned around to face him.

"Yeah?"

"Before you left for the Danger Room, you said something. What does it mean?"

"'Keelah se'lai'. The closest translation for it is: 'By the homeworld we hope to return to one day.'. It can mean other things like, 'Go in peace' or 'May peace be with you', 'have mercy', things like that."

"Where does it come from? I've never heard something like that before."

"It's from the Mass Effect video game series. The language comes from a race of aliens called the Quarian. Many generations ago they were a technologically advanced race with hundreds of different machines and devices, including a very powerful environmental suit which allowed them to survive in almost any type of environment. Things were so great until they were forced by their created virtual intelligence units, the Geth, off their world after one developed actual intelligence and sparked a powerful civil war between the Geth and their creators. Hundreds upon thousands were slaughtered from both sides, and to survive and preserve their race, the Quarian people fled their world on a massive flotilla of large ships. For many millenia, while inside their environmental suits, their immune systems quickly faded away and they became nomads, and moving from world to world looking for a new homeworld until they just stopped altogether."

"Why?" Xavier asked.

"Because one certain phrase rang about their flotilla and throughout the known galaxies they shared with the other races out there, giving them hope to one day return to their home. 'Keelah se'lai' is what they all say to give them hope. And in many instances I have seen them grating their world back once and for all. I've never really had a home or anything to hope for, and these people have given me more inspiration to live and find a home. Saying stuff like that strengthens my will to live and gives me hope for a better tomorrow and one tomorrow to have all I want or need. Plus I've always had a knack for integrating languages and cultures into my own life, and so far I've seen that I was right to do so. I'm strangely much more happier than I have ever been, and I feel like this could be my home. Not a house like before, but an actual home." Xavier smiled at me and held my hands.

"I'm glad you feel like this, and I'm thankful you're comfortable with opening up to me." Xavier said

"I'm also curious to ask, but where did you get your name from?" Xavier said.

"David, from the David and Goliath story in the Bible who destroyed his enemy with nothing but a little stone, and Ripley from the woman played by Sigourney Weaver who faced down the face of her nightmares hundreds of times, literally and metaphorically."

"And Allen?" I blushed deeply, closed my eyes, and cleared my throat.

"Um...Allen is actually the first name of one of my favorite adult entertainment actors." I said. Xavier looked at me with a raised brow before he developed a surprised reaction and cleared his throat.

"Oh my...and may I ask why you chose that name?"

"Because of his endurance and flexibility to many things thrown at him despite his old age." I said chuckling. "Hmm, so to speak." I began to laugh as I saw Xavier's face turn red, with his bald head he looked like a cherry without its stem, which made me laugh a bit harder. After a couple seconds I stopped laughing and cleared my throat. "Sorry about that, I'm just going to go to Kitty's room and try to get some sleep. Thanks yet again Professor, and good night." I walked out of the room leaving Xavier with his face still red and shiny.

End of Chapter 26