Chapter 24: He ʻOhana Mākou (We Are Family)

It was early in the morning before school about a week after the whole Boom Boom debacle, and for the most part, everything was finally getting back to normal. The students were still a bit sad that Tabitha left, but understood why, doesn't mean they had to like it though. Now they were walking around half asleep, getting their breakfast, juice, and coffee, trying to scarf as much down as possible.

"Uh, I'm so tired I feel like I'm seeing things." Kurt said, rubbing his eyes.

"Oh yeah, what makes you say that?" Kitty tainted as she grabbed cereal from one of the cabinets.

"Eh, thought I saw someone jump over the fence and walk towards the institute." He shrugged with a yawn.

"Uh, what?" Scott asked, as he looked out the window towards the gates, then dropped the piece of toast he was eating. "Kurt, you weren't seeing things, that's Devin from the Brotherhood!"

"What?" Everyone suddenly said as the boy went from view, a few seconds later, there was a knock on the door.

Everyone followed the teachers to the door where Devin stood there, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder and several suitcases beside him. He seemed to be almost bored as he stood there.

"Devin? What are you doing here?" Gavin asked.

"Wait, who is this kid?" Bast asked.

"He's Gavin's twin brother, he's been in Japan for the past month." Chelsea explained.

Devin ignored the other two and looked at Gavin. "Well, brother, you did say that if I ever wanted to join the X-men after I sorted everything out that I needed, I should come here." He explained as he stretched his arms out. "And, well, here I am." He then turned to the rest of the X-men. "I have come to join the X-men."

"Pppffffffffft!" Everyone turned to Evan, who was trying to keep himself from laughing. "YOU, want to be an X Man?!"

"Yes." Devin replies flatly.

"Right, and I want to be the tooth fairy." Logan said sarcastically, causing everyone to chuckle.

Devin glared at everyone in the doorway. "I'm serious. Do you need proof?"

"Kinda do kid." Chelsea said.

"Bug off Marks." Gavin growled as he got between the two. He then turned to the others. "And the rest of you, are you all so near sighted that you're not willing to let someone who wants to be better join us? I know Devin is sincere, because he told me!"

Everyone backed up, noticing the anger in the boy's voice. Xavier was the next to speak up. "While I do not appreciate your tone Gavin, I understand you. If you say your brother is sincere, then I'm willing to believe you."

Devin sighed. "You don't have to fight my battles for me Gavin." He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What kind of brother would I be if I didn't?" Gavin said.

Everyone looked at the two, then shrugged. "Come on." Scott told Devin. As they all walked inside to finish breakfast, Bast decided to ask the boy something.

"So hold on, why did you decide to leave the Brotherhood and join us?" She asked the boy as they all ate.

"Why? Well that's easy, it's because I didn't need them anymore." The boy stated bluntly.

"Well you sure are blunt." Chelsea said under her breath.

"It's because Magneto said he'd make my powers fully realized. And when he made them fully enhanced, I basically no longer needed them anymore. So I instead decided to find something else to do. I needed a new direction, a new point to focus my energy into." Devin clarified. "So I spent the past month investigating what happened to me and Gavin's father. And now that that's done, I need to find something else."

This seemed to answer Bast's question, but Chelsea was still curious. "Okay, but don't you and Gav, like, hate each other or something?" She asked.

"No, he's my brother, I could never hate him. I just... Hated being in his shadow all the time. Think of our past relationship as like a sibling rivalry, that basically resulted in us always throwing fists." The boy shrugged.

"I can understand that." Chels muttered under her breath.

Gavin looked at his brother, eyebrows furrowing. "In my shadow? Dev, I never meant-"

"Don't even try to make an excuse," Devin said sharply. "You always tried to show me up in everything. And even when my mutation developed, and I thought I had had the chance to finally be better than you, I found out you had your own set of powers, once again better than mine."

"I..." Gavin was quiet for a minute. "I wasn't trying to show you up, I just wanted to make you proud enough to call me your brother."

Devin looked at him with a look of annoyance. "Well if that was your plan, then it certainly backfired didn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess it did..." the boy nodded sadly before getting up. "I'll... be in my room." He said before he left to go upstairs.

Bast couldn't help but feel sorry for the kid. "Don't you think you could've worded that a little better?" The woman asked Devin.

"Why should he? The kid's just saying what's on his mind, Honestly Gav just needs to stop taking things so goddamn personally." Chelsea countered sternly.

"Chelsea!" Hissed Ororo and Jean, the two not liking how insensitive the woman's words were.

"What? I'm just being honest." Chelsea said with a shrug. "The more he lets stuff get to him, the more he's gonna hurt in life. It won't get him far."

"I will agree with the dragon woman." Devin said coldly. "If I had let my emotions control me, I would have never finished my business in Japan."

Storm stepped forward looking down at both mutants with her piercing blue eyes. "Gavin cares deeply about this team and those in his life. His habit of 'taking things personally', although dangerous with his powers, has also led to many successes."

"Like nearly destroying us on Asteroid M? Like slaughtering those Hydra agents on the lawn of the Institute?" Chelsea sneered baring her teeth. "Yeah, some real good there."

"He what?" Devin asked, surprised.

"It's a long story." Ororo explained. "But his emotions are what makes him different from his other levels. He cares for everyone in the institute like family. Something I recommend you both begin to do."

Devin was quiet for a minute, he hated it when people acted like he didn't have emotions. He was always taught to hide them, and he did, so well in fact that most people mistook him for as unfeeling as the metal his mutation turned him into.

Perhaps now that was finally starting to catch up with him. "... You're right." He sighed heavily.

"What?" Everyone questioned.

"I have been acting unfeeling too much in my life, in fact, I'm certain that it's one of the reasons why Gavin and I have had such a strained relationship." He sighed, before looking at his reflection in the glass of water he was drinking. "I think it's about time I finally started to change that about myself, for both my sake and his."

He then got up and then looked at Chelsea. "I'm going to go talk to him. And, Chelsea was it?"

"Yeah." The blonde nodded.

"While I do agree with you, too much emotion isn't healthy, neither is hiding it all. I think that's a lesson we both indeed should learn." He said before he left to go find Gavin.

Everyone was quiet for the most part, at least until Logan decided to say something to Chelsea as they cleaned up the kitchen (it was their turn this week).

"Ororo had a point, Scales. Ya keep acting way too blunt with Smokey, I honestly thought you guys were closer than that. Not to sound hypocritical but to an outsider looking in, it'd seem like you don't care about him at all." The clawed mutant said as they washed the dishes, causing the Dragoness to accidentally crush one of the glasses in anger and surprise.

"What's that supposed to mean? You think I don't care about him? What kind of bullshit are you spouting?" The woman hissed.

"What I'm saying is that you need to be more careful and thoughtful about what you say. If ya don't, you'll be doing more harm than good." Logan explained. "There's a difference between tough love and just being an ass ya know. You don't wanna end up acting like your parents, do you?"

Chelsea sighed angrily as she dried her hands off. "No, I don't." She replied. "It's just… Difficult is all. But I'll try to be a little less rough around the kid… I'm just trying to help him."

"I know Chels, I know." Logan told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, let's go to Hogan's and shoot a few rounds of pool to get your mind off of things."

"Good Idea." The blonde nodded.

(Elsewhere)

Gavin was currently in his room, hanging upside down from his chandelier with Brownie doing the same while he threw darts at a dart board he had on his wall, which had all the members of the brotherhood all over it and the symbol of HYDRA in the bullseye spot.

He threw another dart and managed to hit the HYDRA symbol dead-center. Another hit the picture of Lance, while another hit the one of Pietro. Before he could throw another one, there was a knock at his door.

Dropping from the chandelier he did a superhero landing and Brownie flew onto his shoulder as he opened the door, seeing that Devin was on the other side.

"What?" The pseudo vampire asked as he turned away from his brother and started getting his school stuff.

"Do you have a moment to talk?" Devin asked his brother.

"You sure? I thought you said you didn't wanna be 'caught in my shadow'?" The boy said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just… I want to be seen as my own person and feel like I actually am that way. You and your powers made me feel like that would never happen." The younger of the two explained.

"Well, there's definitely no way you'll be confused with me now." Gavin said as he moved past his brother, but was stopped when Devin did something unexpected: The metal mutant hugged him. Gavin looked back at his younger brother with a surprised expression, not expecting something like this to happen.

"I don't expect things to be better overnight, but, I want to at least try and repair the years of damage our situation has caused to our and mother's relationship. I just hope you're willing to try too." Was all Devin could say.

Gavin's eyes softened before he returned the hug. "Yeah… I am." Was his reply.

"Good." His brother smiled as Brownie joined in and they all continued to hug for a few minutes before leaving for school.

(Elsewhere)

Bast was currently in Xavier's office with Chelsea and right now she was telling the telepath of the youngest member of their friend group, a Hawaiian girl named Kai who had a water manipulation mutation. One who was currently receiving treatment at Tampa Bay St. Jude's hospital for Leukemia.

"How long has she been under treatment so far?" Xavier asked.

"About a year. The doctors say she'll be finished two weeks from now." The cat woman said. "I'm pretty sure that they also removed her tracker, but I'm not really sure."

"And can you tell me anything else about her?" Xavier questioned. "Like for example, how she is with new environments or people?"

"She isn't very trusting to new adults, especially scientists. However, if the kids are nice enough she'll warm up to them real quick, especially Amara, since she'd probably fill the void caused by the death of her sister, Pele." Bast explained.

"Hm… Yes, that is rather important. I'll have to warn Logan and possibly Gavin to be careful around her." The Professor mused.

"Also, maybe have Jamie be the one to show her around? She gets nervous around guys older than her and I think it'd be nice for her to meet a boy her age." Bast added.

The telepathic man nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea, I must say. It would help them both grow." He said.

"Plus, let's face it: It's about time little Jamie met a girl his age, anyway." The Arabic woman chuckled.

"Yes, I do believe we can agree on that." Xavier nodded.

(Elsewhere)

-Bayville High, Principal Kelly's office-

Devin and Gavin were sitting in Edward Kelly's office at school, and both were trying to explain why Devin had taken a two month leave of absence from school.

"You see, Principal, Dev had to go back to Japan to help the police in the investigation of the murder of our grandparents. And had to get all his stuff so he could move in with me at the Xavier Institute." Gavin explained.

"And this is supposed to be good enough for leaving without even notifying me, because…?" The Principal prodded.

"Because I was the next of kin, and on top of that the custody papers had to be finalized so I wasn't going to be able to come to school until everything was settled, there was just too much red tape." Devin chimed in.

Kelly sighed, realizing that priding any further would be too much of a headache. "Fine, fine, I'll inform your teachers. Gavin, get to class, as for you Devin, since you've attended before I assume you won't need a guide." He then pressed a button on the phone on his desk, moments later a girl walked in.

The girl looked to be around sixteen like him, but she also looked a little odd. She was around 5 '7 ``, had odd looking gray skin, pearl white eyes, and long presumably red hair (though it was obviously dyed hot pink) which was tied up in a fishtail braid. Figure wise, she was pretty attractive looking girl with a curvaceous body and slim muscles with just the right amount of body fat/mass in just the right places, giving her a set of gorgeous hips, beautiful well built legs and a nice medium sized peach shaped ass with an equally nice and bouncy C-cup rack to match.

Attire wise she was wearing a plain black t-shirt with torn off sleeves, a pair of torn cut off white jeans, a hot pink leather jacket, a pair of black fingerless gloves and a pair black and pink heelys.

Needless to say she was an exotic looking bombshell in a teenager's body. Kelly gestured to the girl. "This is Roxanne Styles, she's new here, and I was hoping you'd walk her to both of your first classes." The man told Devin.

"Of course." Devin replied. The boy walked up to the girl and she didn't seem to even make a move to indicate she noticed him. Feeling like she ignored him as they walked out of the office, he waved a hand in front of her face, as if to test her sight, and got only a slight response before she smacked him. She paused before she winced, as if she forgot to say something.

"Sorry, I should've let you know my eyesight's bad." She apologized.

"It's fine, Roxanne." The boy assured her.

"Please call me Roxy." The girl said as they walked to class together. As they walked, they both talked about things, and then Roxy asked something that caught him off guard. "So, have you ever heard of mutants?" She asked in a lower tone.

Devin looked at her in surprise before glancing around to see if anyone was nearby. Not seeing anyone, he leaned in and whispered his response into her ear.

"I am one." He whispered.

"Cool! So am I." Roxy smiled.

That made Devin recoil once more in surprise. Of all the things for her to say in response to his answer, that wasn't one of them.

"You are?" He asked.

"It's part of the reason why my skin is gray and my sight is so bad. I have a sixth sense kinda like a scorpion, and I also have these." She then flicked her wrists and deployed two barbs from under them. "Toxic stingers."

"That explains the scorpion braid." Devin nodded as she sheathed the barbs.

"Yeah, it kinda does. And no, I don't have a pet scorpion." She chuckled.

"I wasn't going to ask that." The Metal Mutant said frankly.

"Oh." Was all the girl said in reply.

(Elsewhere)

-Tampa Bay, Florida-

A black Cadillac pulled into the front of Florida's St. Judes Children's Hospital. As it rolled to a stall, a young valet driver stepped up to the window.

He cocked his hat to the driver (who happened to be Chelsea) with a smile. "Hello Ma'am, will you be doing valet parking today?"

Chelsea smiled back at him. "It's the reason I'm here in front of you kiddo. But hold on one second." She got out and from the trunk pulled out a wheelchair, rolling it over to one of the back doors, from which Prof. Xavier pulled himself into the chair. From the other side, Bast stepped out, adjusting a scarf around her head to hide her pointed ears.

"Don't scratch it up." Chelsea remarked as she tossed the keys to the valet before joining Charles and Bast who were going up the front ramp.

After receiving the room number for the person they would be visiting they entered the elevator, traveling up to one of the highest floors. In the corner of the elevator, Bast nervously picked at her claws. This being a nervous habit she had developed years ago and never kicked.

"Bast, there is nothing to worry about," Charles reassured her as she caught a glance at her expression.

"I know it's just... What if she hates us? What if she resents us for abandoning her?" The cat-like woman wondered.

"She won't," Chelsea said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Bast, you made the right call taking her to a youth home. We couldn't provide for her, not after what happened to Pele."

"We don't know what she lived through though. What if HYDRA tried to come after her like they did us? We never did find out if they removed her tracker." Under her headscarf, her pointed ears began to visibly twitch. "What if she was abused or-or-"

The dragoness rolled her eyes. "Bast! It's okay! She's okay... Well, minus the cancer that is..."

"Besides, Fatima, I spoke to her foster parents and they both seem like good people." Charles smiled at her. "And from the sounds of things, she's lived with them the longest out of any other family. So I suppose she's been moved around a lot."

"Which means HYDRA would have had difficulty finding her." Chelsea concluded as the doors of the elevator opened and they walked into the hall. "Look, everything is going to be okay. She's finally going to be okay." As they made their way down the hall they finally came to the room of the designated mutant they were there to visit. In the bed sat a girl reading a book, around 14, with tan skin and pacific islander features, except for her eyes which shone like sea green, she was wearing a knit cap on her head. Charles knocked on her door. "Miss Kai?"

"Yes?" She looked up, obviously on guard. From behind the man, Chelsea and Bast stepped out, and Kai's eyes widened. "Oh my god! Bast?! Chelsea?!"

"Hey kiddo." The dragoness said, as her Arabic friend ran past her and enveloped the young girl in a hug.

"We missed you, 'Ishraq." Bast whispered the old nick-name a she held Kai close to her. "We were so worried and-and..." She fell silent as she looked into her adoptive younger sister's eyes. "...Can you ever forgive us?"

Kai pursed her lips as she looked down. "I thought I was a burden on you guys..."

"No, no honey you weren't," Bast said solemnly as she held her close. "We didn't know what we were doing. We thought finding you a home would be the best thing for you. After..." She fumbled for the words again.

"After Pele, we were all broken." Chelsea stepped forward to explain. "But by far you took her death the hardest. It wasn't fair to keep dragging you around while you were trying to recover and mourn her. We thought we were doing the right thing."

Kai was silent for a few seconds before nodding. "I know, it took me some time to realize it but, I get that now." She then looked at the two as she hugged them. "And I forgive you guys."

Both women smiled before they separated and turned to Xavier. "Kai, this is Charles Xavier. He runs the school that we work at." Bast said.

"A place for gifted children like yourself." The man nodded.

"And it's full of kids your age." Chelsea added.

"Really?" Kai asked nervously. "Is it... safe?"

"Beyond safe." Bast nodded.

"And you're more than welcome to live there with us so you can better learn to use your gifts." Xavier added. "And we will also schedule you counseling to help you adjust to your new environment as well as help further your recovery, mentally speaking of course."

"Translation: Help you get past your abuse issues." Bast clarified. "And trust us, the lady who does it is a miracle worker."

"I can vouch for that." Chelsea nodded before turning to Kai again as the two met eyes. "Whaddya say kiddo? Wanna come back with us?" The blonde dragoness asked her.

The girl was quiet for a minute or two, as if mulling it over. She had been moving from place to place, family to family for so long it had become normal to her. It wasn't until she was put with her current family that she had been permanently in one place, which was nice, especially since her birth parents had died from HYDRA finishing them off years ago.

Her current family had given her the love and help she needed to move on, and had even helped her through her current predicament. But now… The people who she had called her family for so many years were here, and they wanted her to come with them, it was like she was dreaming.

Another minute passed before she spoke. "...Yes! I've missed you two so much!" She replied with a happy look in her eyes.

Chelsea and Bast smiled as they walked to her and gave her a group hug, the younger girl eagerly hugging back. She had missed moments like these, and now it seemed like she would get more of them in the future. Things were finally looking up for her.

"Well then, if you wish to come live at the Institute, I will speak with your foster parents and have them fill out the necessary forms. In the meantime, I suggest you focus on recovering." Xavier nodded.

That's when Bast remembered something. "Kai, sweetie, did you make sure to get your tracker removed?" She asked.

Kai nodded. "Yeah, the doctors saw it in one of my MRIs and decided to have it removed and destroyed. They thought I may've been part of a human trafficking ring." She replied.

"Well, at least it's gone." The dragoness sighed.

"Visiting hours are almost over, we should be on our way." Xavier told the two women.

Bast sighed before she kissed Kai on the forehead. "See you later 'Ishraq, get better soon, okay?"

"I will." Kai nodded as she looked at Chelsea, who held out a fist.

"Knock this cancer dead, alright?" She told her.

"Right." The girl nodded while fist bumping her before the three left.

(Two weeks later)

At the Institute everyone was arriving home from school ready for the start of the weekend, and they were suddenly surprised when the X-Van rolled up with a trailer of stuff behind it as it parked in the driveway. The teachers and students all ran out to the front yard to see what was going on.

"Vhat's going on?" Kurt asked as he looked at the X-Van and the trailer it was pulling.

"I heard it's a new arrival, a girl apparently, she's around Jamie's age I think." Kitty told the blue fuzz ball.

That's when the car door opened up and Chelsea and Bast along with a girl near Jamie's age. It was Kai, and she was wearing a Miami Dolphins baseball cap, along with some orange shorts, a canary yellow top, and a pair of yellow tennis shoes.

"Who's that?" Jamie asked, after hearing about the girl that everyone was talking about, he wanted to know who she was.

"No clue." Gavin shrugged, Devin doing the same. "But my guess is she's one of Chelsea's friends.

All three girls walked up to the group and Bast decided to introduce Kai to them since the girl seemed a little shy. "Everyone, this is Kai, she's a friend of ours who'll be becoming a student here." She told them.

Everyone looked at the girl and waved at her and gave their best welcoming faces. Well everyone except Rogue, but that's to be expected, that wasn't really her thing.

"Hey there Kai." They all said.

"Hi, I'm, uh, looking forward to staying here with you guys." The girl said with a nervous smile.