Part 35 – Sudden Hate

"NO! NO NO NO! GOD, PLEASE, NO!"

Kitty jerked her head and opened her eyes.

"PLEASE, NOOO!"

Bobby was screaming. She rolled onto her side and stood up. She heard a crash of metal and jumped. He had pushed one of the tables inside the tent over. He was kicking anything he could find. It took Kitty a moment to remember where she was and all that happened. She felt a small jerk of disappointment in her stomach and she watched him.

"Bobby —"

He yelled and kicked the fallen table. His hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat and his eyes were burning with anger. He must have been doing this for a while. But his eyes weren't just angry, they were sad. Lacking the hope the once held.

"GOD DAMN IT!"

Kitty felt Bobby's emotions copy into herself and sink nauseatingly into her stomach. She swallowed, trying not to let it take over.

"Bobby —" she tried again.

"FUCK!" he yelled ferociously, slamming his foot into the table as hard as he could. A huge dent was the cause, and he fell onto his knees and all at once burst into tears.

"WHY! WHY THE HELL DID WE HAVE TO LOSE HER AGAIN! GOD DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS!" He yelled and punched the table so hard his knuckles turned red and began to bleed.

"Bobby!" Kitty snapped. He looked up, startled that she was awake. She finally noticed that he didn't know she had risen, too distracted by his anger. The table he had finished assaulting was the one Kari had previously been sitting on.

"Get a grip, Bobby, what's the matter with you?"

Logan came up to them pulling on his gloves, which were slightly battered and bloody. Bobby looked up in an irate glare and Kitty turned to Logan.

"Nothing. We're fine. Is everyone else okay?" she asked, trying to switch the subject.

"Yeah, they're getting themselves up. Either of you know what the hell happened?" he asked, eyeing Bobby curiously.

"No. But we should find Magneto before anything else happens." Bobby managed to say, trying to keep his voice calm and somehow formal.

"All right. Come one, we're heading back to the jet to check the coordinates."

As Wolverine walked away, Kitty turned to Bobby, who shakily got to his feet.

"Are you all right?" Kitty asked quietly, grabbing his arm comfortingly. He nodded his head, taking off his glove to wipe his face of his tears. He nodded again and replaced the glove taking in a deep breath.

"We can't tell them," he whispered.

"I know," Kitty nodded.

They were silent as they watched their comrades get to their feet and say a few words before looking around curiously.

"What do we do?" Kitty asked, looking up at him, trying to hide her new lack of hope.

"Act like it never happened," he replied, not sounding as calm as he was attempting to be.

"Bobby," Kitty said in a normal voice so he jumped.

"I know, I know. But if we tell them, they'll think we were seeing things, or it was just a clone, and that we're too hung up on the fact she's 'dead' to focus on the mission."

"What if it was a clone?" Kitty questioned, realizing it was a possibility.

"It wasn't," he stated flatly.

"How can you tell? A clone looks exactly like the original."

"She was still in her uniform, and her arm was still bleeding!"

"Magneto could have copied the uniform, and purposefully stabbed her arm! He's playing with us!"

"Fine, go ahead and doubt, I'm not giving up on her."

"She's DEAD, Bobby."

He had been halfway through walking away when she said this. She felt a disgusting sinking feeling in her stomach again. She had never wanted to say those words, but she knew in her heart they were true. She swallowed the biter taste in her mouth and Bobby turned to look over his shoulder.

"I expected everyone to give up Kitty, but I never thought one of them would be you." He shook his head lightly and walked away, leaving her standing there more hurt than she had been in years. Maybe he was right. Maybe she was giving up too soon. But it didn't seem logical. Kari had to be dead. No one could survive a fall like that.

No one.

"Can't…believe…I'm even…DOING this…I mean, how stupid do I have to be to carry some stupid girl all the way to a base, which is God knows HOW far away right now, I'm about to pass out, and I hardly have a reason for it! Well, beside the fact he sort of needs her and I'm sure if I came back empty handed he'd be a bit pissed off…so I guess I'm doing myself a favor…Oh well, one good deed deserves another, I guess."

Mumbling became a habit of John's as he trudged through the trees in search of Magneto's base. Whether it was a nervous or subconscious habit was unknown, it just began and now he was unable to stop.

"How the hell am I supposed to find this place, anyway?" he grumbled. He glanced up in a bored manner, and then stopped. "Oh, DUH."

How could he have been as stupid as to not use the sun as a compass? He felt ridiculous now. It was about five o'clock maybe, and the sun was lazily sinking in the west.

"Sun's west…and from Alkali Lake it was about four miles northwest…so I need to go…THIS WAY." He turned around and sighed in a deep breath. At least he wasn't lost. And Kari had still not awoken, which was also good. She was still completely limp, leaning forward on his back, her hand still brushing against his chest lightly in spontaneous steps. He had tried to ignore this the entire time he walked, and was half succeeding. He chest now became numb from trying to ignore it.

He stepped over a large log and heard a low rumbling noise. He stopped and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What the hell…" The rumbling grew louder and he saw a black line between the trees. It rose over the top and came towards him. The rumbling grew into a high-pitched laser-like noise of an engine and it came closer, increasing in speed.

"OH SHIT!" he yelled as it shot at him. He flung Kari towards a tree and jumped over her, shielding her from whatever it was. As it drew away, and the trees continued rustling from the burst of air, he saw it was a jet. A normal fighter-jet, an F-18, actually. Still covering the girl under him, he craned his neck, confused, and tried to watch where it was going. It circled around and came back towards him in another deafening roar, rustling the top of the trees again. It was then he noticed it was heading back to the military camp. No doubt no one had sent a signal or report for hours, and a jet was sent as a default to make sure things were okay.

But they weren't, and if that aircraft landed and saw what had happened, that would mean more backup. More backup meant a search party, and a search party meant trouble for him.

He estimated all of this in his head. He was at least still three miles from Magneto's base. And with Kari weighing him down, it could take him a little over three and a half hours. In an estimate of how soon the jet would discover the catastrophe, and how soon they would call for reinforcements, that gave him less than three hours. He needed to hide. Somewhere they wouldn't look. But where the hell would he hide? No choice but to start looking.

He glanced down and noticed Kari was still unconscious under him. He stood up cautiously, scanning around, then picked her up again and rested her on his back. Then he was hit with something else.

The military already knew where Magneto's base was. If he headed there, they'd find him.

Fuck.

He stopped in mid step and looked around. He sighed. NOW what? He couldn't go to the base. He couldn't head back. The lake was too far. He was trapped. So North, West, and South were cut off. He had east. But that didn't lead anywhere.

But if I head east and stay low, once the military's gone, I can head back to the base. I only need to hide long enough for them to see no one's here, then break for it.

It seemed easy enough. He looked at the sun, turned and headed east.

"Storm, we have another jet," Jean reported in a worried tone.

"Lie low, get over that hill and they won't spot us." Storm pointed and Jean lifted the jet quickly. They hovered a bit over a hill and landed on the other side.

"So what do we do now?" Warren asked. "The military's bound to swarm in, they'll find Magneto, he'll release the clones —"

"— then we're dead," Logan finished with a shrug.

"We find the exact coordinates to Magneto's base, and we get there before they do," Jean answered simply.

"Yeah, that's all well and good BUT: did you forget about the CLONES?" Kitty snapped.

"What about them?" Logan stated.

"Only the fact that they're exact copies! They have all of our abilities, and no doubt our same intelligence!"

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Bobby mumbled. Kurt stifled a half second snicker and Kitty gave him a glare.

"Knock it off, Iceman, we have to be serious. I know it's hard because you guys are still kids, but that doesn't give you any permission —"

"I'm not a kid anymore Logan, STOP SAYING THAT!" Bobby snapped back.

"You are too, you're only sixteen, so knock it off!"

"DON'T NEGLECT MY ABILITIES JUST BECAUSE OF MY AGE! SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!"

"What did you call me!" Logan snarled, dragging Bobby out of his seat by the collar of his uniform.

"HEY!" Jean shouted, pushing them away from each other with a wave of her hand. Kurt and Warren stood in between them to keep them separated.

"That was uncalled for, both of you. Cut it out. The last thing we need is a quarrel in the team," Storm ordered sternly.

"I'm not the one with cold feet," Logan growled.

"Tell that to your oversized ego," Bobby shot back.

"Bobby!" Kitty argued. He gave her a glare and she mouthed "Cut it out!" as Logan kept his fists clenched.

"No one here's perfect, all right? We each have our own personal problems, but we are NOT letting that get between us!" Storm interrupted, "One more insult out of either of your mouths and your back at the mansion — I don't care HOW old you are," she added with a point of an angry finger as Logan opened his mouth to protest.

"Back to the POINT," Kitty began, "We need some type of strategy. If these clones are as high tech as I think they are, they can match every ability we have, offensive and defensive alike. They have our mutant ability, they are us. There's no way we can just fight them off if they can copy our techniques."

"She's got a point. We need a plan, we cannot just barge in there and expect a warm welcome," Kurt agreed.

"What if we didn't fight our own clones?" Scott suggested, "If they aren't us, then they can't copy our movements."

"But could you really bring it upon yourself to fight one of your own team?" Jean pointed out.

"Well, if they're clones, they're not actually our team."

"But what if you had to fight a copy of me? Could you do it?"

Scott made no reply.

"Besides, if we fought a clone that wasn't a copy of ourselves, then how could we know we're fighting a clone? We could attack the original by accident." Kurt looked at Storm and she nodded at this.

"So, it's settled. We have to fight our own copies."

"What's settled? We don't even have a PLAN," Kitty reminded them.

"There's no time to come up with one. When you reach the fight, come up with your own strategy. You alone will know your own weakness."

Everyone was silent as they either looked at each other or the floor in solemn nods of understanding.

"We go in, end of story," Jean stood up and lowered the ramp to exit the jet. "And Logan, if you insist on not fighting yourself, fight Bobby's."

"Would be a damn shame if I hit the real one, then," Logan growled as he walked past the sixteen-year-old. Bobby gave him a glare and Kitty walked past him without acknowledgment. This hurt him more than anything.

Now, he felt as though all of his friends were dead.

Kitty just felt subconsciously triumphant as she did this. Like she was winning the silent battle. But she also felt hurt, at the fact Bobby thought she had given up. Just because she thought Kari was dead? He made it sort of a vague accusation. She felt he meant she had given up on everyone. Including him.

Considering he was all she had left, she was angry with this. If he wanted to think that, fine. Let him. But it wasn't true. She stopped herself from turning around to talk to him. Let him wallow. Who gives a shit.

"Lay low, guys, we got a lot of military activity coming our way," Storm warned as everyone gathered. There was no eye contact. There were no other voices. Just solemn steps.