Chapter Twenty-nine: Joining the Other Side.

The days passed by slowly. Ana did her best to avoid Warren, and was succeeding in that. She hadn't talked to him ever since they'd fought, and that was five days ago now. She just didn't know what to say to him. He seemed so different these days, and he'd hurt her feeling. She needed him to come to her and apologise, but so far he hadn't come, so she was being stubborn and stayed away. She spent her time in class and the Danger Room, getting her frustration out on the programs there. She'd lost count of the things she'd destroyed there this last week. Wolverine had been there to help her by setting up new programs and challenges, and she appreciated it. She needed someone around that understood her pain and feelings. Someone that understood why she was pissed at Warren and why she hated. And even if Wolverine and she didn't talk much about it she could feel that he understood her. She felt a kinship with him in a sense. They both had been through some pretty shitty things in their lives, and neither wanted to talk about it, but deal with it themselves, getting their frustrations out by hitting something. Or maybe she had him wrong and he just plain liked to destroy things. Either way, right now she preferred him to Warren.

This Saturday she'd come to the Danger Room at seven in the morning and now it was well past eight. She was sweating and panting and her entire body was aching. She knew she'd soon see some new bruises blossom on her body, but she didn't care. Usually she used her powers while fighting, but today she'd decide to go for hand-to-hand combat. She wasn't particularly skilled at it, but she could punch and kick whenever she saw something coming close to her and that was exactly what she'd been doing. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't sophisticated, and it certainly wouldn't be impressing for anyone watching, but it was a great way to loosen up some tension.

Some of the holograms had gotten some good hits on her during her session; she hadn't bothered about playing it defensive and had ignored everything that could be called blocking. And even if the fact that they were holograms meant that it wasn't as harmful as a real person punching her they had quite a sting to them, causing the ache in her entire body.

"Are ya finished yet?" she heard over the speakers and peered up to see Wolverine looking at her from behind the glass of the control room. She shrugged and straightened her jacket. She wanted to just keep going, but her body was starting to protest violently. Her arms were shaking and her legs were starting to feel like they were made from jelly.

"How 'bout we stop for now and you can come back later or tomorrow or somethin'?" she heard Wolverine say, and she nodded slightly. A little rest did not sound all that bad right now.

The holograms around her faded and soon vanished, leaving only the empty Danger Room behind. She left it quickly and met up with Wolverine outside.

"You okay?" Wolverine said. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and an ever-present unlit cigar hanging from his mouth.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ana said quietly and rubbed a hand over her left shoulder. Something must've hit her there, and she was starting to notice just how much it was throbbing.

Wolverine eyed her for a moment and then shook his head. "You should take it easy for the weekend, ya are goin' to ruin yourself keeping this up. Get an icepack from the infirmary for your shoulder and relax." With that he turned around and left.

For a moment Ana just stared after him. A small smile played on her lips. Wolverine wasn't the best at small talk, but that suited her just fine. She set off towards the infirmary to get the icepack and then get back to her room. She had some history assignment she should finish by Tuesday, so she might as well get started on that.

With the icepack pressed to her shoulder underneath her jacket she walked through the hallways of the mansion, making her way back to her room. Her eyes were locked to the tip of her shoes. She hoped that by avoiding everyone's eyes they'd leave her alone, and so far it had worked perfectly. She wasn't in the mood to talk to people anymore. They were never looking her in the eyes anymore, their gaze would always drift to her scarred face, and she could see a look of pity on their face. But she didn't need their pity, couldn't stand it. It literary made her sick.

"Ana…" she suddenly heard and her head snapped up by the familiar sound of Warren's voice. He was standing outside her room. She didn't know what to say to him so she just stood there, staring at him.

Just looking at him like this made her heart ache. She'd never loved someone like she loved Warren, and she hated the fact that they were fighting. She wished they could just make up, but after the things he'd said she just didn't know if she could. They'd both changed just in the short time they'd know each other, and she feared that they'd changed too much. She'd had problems understanding how Warren had wanted to be with her to begin with, and now that she had these hideous scars… She looked horrible, and she knew it. Warren however was handsome and everything else a girl could need. He could get whatever girl he wanted.

"Can I talk to you?" Warren said and took a step closer to her. His wings were tucked close to his back, but she could still see them behind him. She yearned to let her hands caress them, to feel the soft feathers under her fingers, to have him wrap them around her and hold her close and… She had to look away as she felt tears creep to her eyes.

"What do you want?" she said, and it sounded more hostile then she'd intended.

"We need to talk, Ana. About the fight the other day, about everything…" he stopped for a moment, like he was searching for the right words. "I hate it that we aren't talking, hate it that you are angry with me. I'm sorry for what I said, and I hope you can forgive me."

Even if her eyes were brimmed with tears she had to look up at him. He was fidgeting and biting his bottom lip, and there was something about the look in Ana's eyes that made he believe he was truly sorry.

"I…" she started, but she was interrupted by the sound of running feet from behind. She turned around to see Bobby skid to a stop a few feet away.

"You guys have to come. We have a mission and we're meeting up by the X-Jet in five minutes," he said and heaved for his breath. Ana nodded and Bobby ran off, probably rounding up more of the X-Men. Ana looked back at Warren.

"Uhm… well… we'll have to go then I guess," she said. This really had come at a bad time. It looked like Warren and she were getting over their fight, but now they had to leave. But that was part of being an X-Man; you had responsibilities that came before your personal life.

"Yeah, I guess," Warren said and shrugged. Ana didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything, but turned around and set off towards the sublevels again. So much for getting rest.

Ten minutes later she found herself yelling at Storm. "You can't just ditch me here! I wanna go as well!"

"You are not going anywhere, you are not well enough."

"I'm more than well enough! I wasn't that badly hurt."

"It's not all physical injuries, Ana," Storm said calmly and Ana's mouth snapped shut. She glared at her headmistress. What was it that she was insinuating? That she was mentally damaged and couldn't be trusted not to go crazy and kill a bunch load of people? Had she really that little trust in her? That one time she'd done that had been different, she'd thought she'd lost Warren, who wouldn't go a little crazy then?

"Besides, it's not a big mission. We're just going to Utah to pick up a mutant girl, we don't need too many people to do that," Storm continued.

Ana sighed. She hadn't wanted to go on the mission because she thought there was loads of fighting or anything, she just wanted to feel useful. But apparently she wasn't. She gave up. If they really didn't need her she wasn't going.

Storm sent her a comforting smile as she entered the X-Jet with Shadowcat, Iceman, Angel and Wolverine, but Ana did not return it. Obviously it wasn't like she was the only one that didn't go, but she'd really, really wanted to. So what if it was only a small mission, it would be something to do. She mumbled a, "fuck this," and turned around, leaving the sublevels quickly.


Kitty strapped herself in and leaned back in the seat as she waited for the X-Jet to start and take them to Utah. The mission should be easy, but it had to be done. Some teenager girl had been taken in by the police and then sent to the social workers, but no one knew how to handle her, because she was no ordinary girl, she was a mutant. And regular humans did just not know how to handle them, so the X-Men had to step in.

Storm had called the social workers and gotten the tale of the girl from them. Fifteen year old Kate Devlin was a telepath, and had for years been exploited by her foster father, John Carrington. He'd used her as a tool, utilising her powers to rob people of their possessions. According to the police he and Kate had simply walked up to a house and he'd make her use her powers so the people would willingly give up their possessions and money and what else that had of valuables. Afterwards Kate would wipe their memory of them, and there would be no trace of a break-in or anything besides the fact that their stuff was gone.

But in the end Kate and John Carrington had tried to rob someone who wasn't just a regular person, but another telepath. Which soon lead to the imprisonment of both. But Kate had been freed. It was obvious that John had used her from she was too young to know that there was anything wrong with what they did, and she was not to be blamed. But now she needed a place to stay where someone could teach her proper use of her powers, and where could possible be better than the X-Mansion?

So that was why they were on their way to Utah, it was where Kate was at the time. The X-Jet made the trip in a short time, and soon Kitty could step out of it and look around. They were in a silent little town, and quickly made their way to the building where the social workers had their offices. They didn't make it all the way before they stumbled upon trouble. In the middle of the quiet street stood an all too familiar person.

"Sabretooth," Wolverine hissed from between clenched teeth. Kitty heard the sound of his claws unsheathing. If Sabretooth was here that probably meant that Magneto was here as well, and that could only mean that he was after Kate as well. And as X-Men, the good guys, they couldn't let him get away with it.

"Step out of the way or I'll tear you to pieces ya big, stinkin' beast," Wolverine said, but Sabretooth only laughed.

"Like you have ever managed to take me out. Besides, however enjoying it would be to beat the crap out of you, I'm not here to fight you. I'm just here to make sure no one bothers our little Kate."

"She is not yours," Storm said calmly.

"Well, that'll be where you are wrong. She is ours, just give em a sec and you'll see."

And before anyone could say anything else Magneto came walking out of the building, and next to him walked a scrawny teenage girl. Her brown hair was filthy and limp, and her eyes were hard where she stared at the X-Men. She looked like a tormented child, one who had seen too much pain in her life, one who had been robbed of her childhood.

"Magneto, she is only a child, don't do this!" Storm called out, and Magneto looked up at her.

"Do not do what, Ororo? Don't take this girl to safety? Don't teach her how to use her powers to the fully? Don't give her the life she deserves?"

"Don't take her to that filthy fortress of yours and ruin this young girl. She's not one of your minions, she's an innocent child."

"But where can she get it better than with us? Kate has already made a friend with us, someone who'll teach her. Who could teach a telepath at the mansion now? Jean Grey? Xavier? Both dead and in their graves. She needs someone who's a telepath, someone who knows how it is and how to use those powers." Magneto smiled and with a hand gestured behind him where a white-clad woman came out of the building. "And I have Emma Frost here, a more than competent telepath."

Kitty shifted her weight from one foot to the other. This had not turned out to be the routine mission it had been supposed to be. Nothing ever seemed to go as it should for the X-Men, the entire world seemed to be against them. Now Magneto had beat them to Utah, but they weren't giving up that easily. "You can't just kidnap her! It's a crime!" she called out without thinking it through. She should have left the talking to Storm, but she was getting pissed.

Magneto turned to her, and an amused look passed his face. "Kidnap her? Oh, you have this all wrong my dear. No one is kidnapping anyone, she's coming voluntarily. Someone is smart enough to see what is best for them."

All eyes were instantly directed towards the girl, and no one could miss her nod. Soon they could hear her voice, not over the ground, but in their minds. "I'm going with Emma and Magneto. I hate humans and I'm not going with you human lovers."

A silence swept over everyone as her words sunk in.


Ana was lying on her bed, trying to read up on the Civil War, when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in!" she called out as she finished the page she was reading and put away the book. As she look up she saw Warren standing right inside her door. He must've just come home from the mission, because he was still wearing his leather uniform. Ana scrambled to her feet and ran a hand through her hair, suddenly very aware of how horrible she must look with her hair flying all over the place.

"How did the mission go?" she asked plainly.

"It…the girl joined the Brotherhood," Warren said and shrugged. "Magneto came there before us and convinced her to join them. It wasn't much we could do really."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ana said and took a step closer to Warren, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"It's what happens I guess, they can't all believe what we believe."

Ana stared up in his blue eyes and for a moment neither of them spoke, but just looked at each other.

"I—" Ana started to say, but she didn't get further because Warren suddenly leaned in and captured her lips in a kiss. For a moment Ana didn't react, but then she melted into the kiss, happiness over being in his arms pushing all thoughts of what he'd said and how she wasn't good enough for him to the back of her mind. When he was kissing her like this it was hard to think about anything but his lips on hers.

Suddenly Warren pulled away and Ana opened her eyes to look at him. "I really am sorry for what I said the other day, I didn't mean to hurt you," he said, his voice calm and serious.

"I know you didn't," Ana said and went up on her toes to capture his lips in a kiss. She didn't want to talk now, she just wanted him.

The kiss soon deepened, and Warren's tongue begged for an entrance she willingly granted. While their tongues battled she used the opportunity to pull down the zipper of his leather jacket and undo his belt. Quickly she pushed the jacket away and over his shoulders, tugging it hard to get it down his arms and away. With a small chuckle Warren helped her, and the jacket soon dropped to the floor.

Ana wrapped her arms around Warren's shoulders and pressed her body against his. It was like she hadn't seen him in years and all she could do was kiss him and feel him and yearn for him. Her toes curled in her socks and she moaned into the kiss. It might've been a surprise to see Warren with a pierced tongue, but now she wasn't seeing anything bad with it. The small metal stud changed the kiss, made it different, but not in a bad way.

Warren soon pulled away from the kiss, and in a fluid movement grabbed the hem of the t-shirt she was wearing and pulled it over her head, tossing it away. She hadn't bothered putting on a bra after the shower earlier and the cool air on her skin made her nipples pebble.

"God, I want you so much," Warren murmured huskily and pulled her against him again.

It didn't take them long to discard the rest of their clothes and drop back on her bed. The sex was insane. Quick, but so filled with emotions and lust it drove her crazy. If this was what make-up sex was like she'd had to start fights with him more often, because this was truly amazing.

Afterwards she curled up next to him and drifted away to sleep with a happy grin on her face.