Chapter Summary:

Being close to Jughead Jones is dangerous, so keeps everyone at arm's length—for their protection and his sanity. But, when he finds himself increasingly drawn to Betty Cooper, does he have the courage to let down his walls enough to let her in? Will she still want to be his friend when she learns his secrets?

Chapter Two – Danger (Room)

Jughead sat in the control room overlooking the Danger Room. Students weren't usually permitted up here, but Jughead had always been good at finding his way into places where he didn't belong. If he got caught, he'd say he was asked to observe the session while his program was running. (After all, that was the truth.) Over the three months that he'd been at school, he discovered he had quite the knack for creating Danger Room scenarios. The instructors encouraged him to write scenarios for the advanced students who were capable of dealing with pretty much anything he might throw at them. (Which, he interpreted as, if he royally screwed up, he was unlikely to kill any of the experienced students).

Observing the session, he didn't think he'd done too badly. Seeing it in action, there were a few things he'd like to change, but those had more to do with the storytelling than the combat. This program started simply enough with the towering purple and pink Sentinels herding any Mutants in the vicinity into a nearby crowd. Which, in turn, was populated at random by human-sized Sentinels wrapped in flesh and undistinguishable from the innocent bystanders.

Before his mutation manifested, Jughead hadn't understood the terror the mere mention of a Sentinel could cause. They'd seemed comical. Too big to be an effective weapon. Too bold in design to appear menacing. But, in his first Danger Room session which wasn't an assessment, they sent a simulacrum of a Sentinel after him. It was as unstoppable and single-minded in its focus as the real thing. He was minding his own business when it scanned him, detected his Mutant gene, and chased him down without mercy. His powers didn't give him any advantage over the Sentinel. There was nothing to absorb and his powers didn't offer him any other advantage. The creators of the Sentinels hated him and those like him just because they were different. He'd always been different, the weirdo who didn't fit in. There'd even been a point when he reveled in the distinction. But, no one had truly hated him until his powers appeared.

Even if the others don't deserve the persecution, maybe you do… The voice of one of the psyche's he absorbed taunted.

The Professor's psyche entered the fray, reminding him not to listen to the negativity and to block out the intrusive psyches. Jughead grumbled as he began the laborious process of mentally 'locking away' the unwanted psyches. The voices were never silent. They kept a running commentary about every aspect of his life, but most of the time when they were 'put away' their voices were a static-y white noise in the back of his head he could mostly ignore. It was when they 'escaped' trouble began.

Once the rogue psyches were banished, he was able to return to the actual reason he was up here lurking in the observation room. Earlier in the day, Betty had asked him to select one of his scenarios for her team's training session. Since his programs weren't yet on the list of approved sessions, she bypassed scheduling one of the teachers to supervise and requested he observe the session. For safety reasons, no one was suppose to use the Danger Room without supervision—someone to stop the program if things went amok. It was implied adult supervision, but it wasn't specifically written anywhere in the rules. Jughead had been here long enough to realize that the more experienced students took advantage of this loophole and occasionally asked a classmate to observe. The teachers tended to turn a bit of a blind eye to the practice when it was one of their most trusted students (Betty, for instance) doing the bending.

Betty's team consisted of Veronica and Archie. Which came as no surprise to him, since the three of them did most things together. What did surprise him was how quickly the tight knit trio welcomed him into their group of friends and their easy acceptance of him. He was't certain if this was simply because Betty asked them to be friendly or if they genuinely liked him. Those who liked him were few and far between. Still, they were persistent. Veronica kept inviting him to join their weekend activities no matter how many times he declined and Archie had finally worn him down to join a weekly video game marathon. Betty was the only one whose intentions he didn't doubt. She appeared to genuinely like him, though he had no idea what she could see in him.

There was a pleasant (albeit slightly anxious) fizzy feeling in his chest when Betty asked him to observe the session. It wasn't the same as participating, but it was nice to be needed again. He wasn't allowed to join his peers in these simulated encounters. Again, this was something he never thought mattered to him, but being stuck with the other new students who were all at least two or three years younger than him left him feeling the whole outcast thing all the more. He got it, he was more of a liability than a help in these scenarios.

Besides, his powers didn't lend very well towards battle. Maybe someday he could be a pinch hitter if someone was injured, and him knocking them out wouldn't make things worse. He could steal their powers and fill their shoes. Though that surely had to be a worse case scenario for everyone involved, if he ever heard of one. At the moment, the instructors were more focused on teaching him basic self-defense. They weren't too keen on the street fighting style he'd demonstrated in his initial assessments. He fought dirty—end it quick and hard before they could hurt you. It had always served him well. Except, that didn't coincide with the image they wanted the school to present. In the end, it probably didn't matter. Jughead had gotten the impression they were looking at him to be part of one of the stealth/infiltration teams. Which, fitted the true nature his powers better, even if he found the thought of purposely adding to his collection of psyches distasteful.

Still, he didn't mind the opportunity to simply observe Betty at work. She led the team with an innate efficiency and skill. The first time he'd observed a session, he'd been surprised by how quickly Veronica deferred to Betty in the field. Before then, he'd never seen Veronica back down on anything, but when Betty made a plan, Veronica quickly fell in line. With her telepathy, Veronica connected her team members so they could communicate silently and near instantly. Not only was Veronica a telepath, she also had a form of telekinesis which manifested around her hands in a iridescent mother-of-pearl-esque glow. With her telekinesis, from a distance she could tear the processors from a Sentinel, or push a civilian out of harm's way. In a pinch, she could form the telekinetic field into a shimmering shield. Archie had fire powers which he tended to wield like a sledge hammer (or, possibly a more apt comparison—a flamethrower) no matter the situation. Only Betty appeared capable of restraining him to use his abilities in a more subtle manner. Though in today's session, Betty was relying on his much hypothesized secondary mutation—luck.

Jughead had programmed the scenario with an evolving set of goals. When the program started, the first thing they came upon a lost boy and his dog. They needed to help the boy find his parents. While they searched for the parents, the towering Sentinels made their appearance. Which meant they not only needed to help the boy from his parents, they needed to protect the boy and themselves from the Sentinels' attacks. Once they were herded into the crowd at the nearby funfair, the smaller human-like Sentinels appeared. The trio needed to disperse the crowd, once again avoiding injury to the gathered masses. It was no surprise that Betty had figured out the secret 'bonus mission.' There were three civilian mutants in the crowd. They needed to get the Mutants to a safe house before the Sentinels identified them and added them to their database. Overall, Jughead was pleased with the program. And, if he were being honest with himself, he enjoyed watching Betty work. She was quick and clever and beautiful.

Flinging charged hair ties at the Sentinels, Betty was able to draw the Sentinels' attention to herself, while Archie helped the boy locate his parents. Veronica used her abilities to scan the minds of the crowd—first to locate the disguised Sentinels, then the other Mutants. Despite the others involvement to the success of their mission, Jughead only had eyes for Betty. She moved with a liquid grace and strength. Not for the first time, he wondered if she had been a dancer before she joined the school for mutants. Did she have dreams which didn't pertain to the ability to blow things up with a touch? He had dreams once, but these days he often struggled to remember which dreams were his and which belonged to the others. Instead of dwelling on everything he'd lost, he took advantage of being alone to openly stare at her. Why was it when touch was an impossibility, that for the first time in his life, he wanted to know what it was like to hold her? To have her fingers run through his hair? Her long legs wrapped around him? Maybe even the taste of her lips…

If you took a picture it'd last longer, the voice not his own, from the back of his head teased him.

Jughead bit his lip and resisted the urge to snap back at her the way he would have before his world fell apart.

Aw, c'mon. It's no fun if you don't respond. There's a petulant sulk in her mental voice.

His lower lip jutted out in an impish pout, while he crossed his arms and his shoulders collapsed into a defiant slump. He wasn't in control of his body. She was. Her psyche was finding it easier to take control on his body, mostly because his attempts at locking away her psyche were perfunctory at best.

Shaking off her control, he scowled and gave her mental presence a shove. Is that what you want?

I want you to ask her out. It's obvious she likes you. Besides, this is seriously like the first time ever you've been attracted to someone…don't miss out because of me.

It's not just you. He tugged his beanie lower over his ears, as though if he tried hard enough he could hide within it. It's me—me and my poisonous skin. I'm better off alone. Who wants to get close to a person who can drain them of everything that makes them them? Besides, what could she ever see in me?

With a sharp exhale she was in charge again and blew at the swoop of hair escaping his beanie and rolled his eyes. I don't know doofus. Maybe she likes you for your brain. Certainly can't be your personality.

Hey! he protested.

"Hey Jug. Lost in thought?"

Jughead scrambled out of the overdramatic sulking posture as he forcefully regained control of his actions. He didn't want anyone to know that he wasn't always in control of his mind and body. Betty stood in the doorway of the control room. Sweat beaded along her hairline and the ends of her ponytail stuck to her neck. Her sclera still held traces of cloudy grey as her eyes returned to 'normal' after using her powers for over the course of the exercise. He tried not to stare at her lips as she drank from her water bottle.

"Um, yeah, something like that." He shoved his notebook into his bag before she could notice he failed to make a single note about the training session or the program. "Good session."

"Thanks." Betty's smile lit up the room. "Oh, and I wanted to thank you for spending your afternoon watching us. I can't imagine it was all that interesting for you."

"No problem. There was no where else I would rather be." The moment the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to stuff them back in. Even hidden under his beanie, the heat flooding his ears was surely brilliant enough to be seen from space. "You know, I wanted to see if I needed to make any revisions or edits. What do you think?"

Resting her arms on the back of his chair, she leaned towards him. "It was a good scenario. The changing objectives really kept us on our toes."

"Good. Good….That was my intention. Thanks for giving my program a chance." He could see Betty's reflection in the darkened observation room window. Heat flooded her cheeks and the green of her eyes flashed as bright as they did when she used her powers. Butterflies fluttered about his stomach at her reaction. Warmth filled his insides at the thought that he was able to cause her eyes to flare like that. A part of him wanted to track that response, so he could cause it again.

At the back of his brain, her never-completely-banished psyche prodded him to make a move.

Fine. He grumbled mentally in token protest. But I'm not aiming at anything more than friendship.

In a fit of sarcasm, she rolled Jughead's eyes. Right.

He interlaced his fingers, knotting them together as nerves joined the butterflies in his stomach. Taking a deep breath, he met the reflection of her eyes. "All I've got left on the schedule today is my training session. Do you want to maybe hang out afterwards. Maybe we could do a movie night in the rec room?"

"I wish." Betty's smile vanished and so did the light it brought to the room with its presence. "I've got to go home this weekend."

"Oh." He rubbed the back of his neck and studied the scuffed toes of his shoes. That went just about as well as expected. It took all his nerve to stay put and resist the urge to scuttle away to the privacy of his room.

She pulled the second chair beside his and took a seat. Their knees nearly touched. "I've noticed you haven't gone home since you arrived. Too far away? Or, family…?" She left the question hang. Family was a sensitive subject for many of the students here. Not everyone could be Archie, whose parents loved and accepted their mutant son without reservation.

"A little bit of both, I suppose. I could make the ride easy enough on my bike, though it's a little long for a weekend." He ran his fingers over the two-headed snake coiled into an 'S' tattooed onto his upper arm. Would this be his only tattoo? The mark of a legacy he wasn't certain he even wanted. Even if he did want it, would they still want him?

Before his mutation manifested he'd joined the motorcycle gang his family had led for generations. At home, he was the Serpent Prince. He was legacy. Though, he supposed the Jones reign would end with his father. The gang wouldn't want him to take the mantle. Most of the Serpents didn't know he was a Mutant, but they did suspect he was responsible for the current state of unrest among the gang's leadership. "Let's just say, my family is happier with me out of the picture."

"Sorry, Jug." She reached out to place her hand on his knee, but hesitated for a moment before placing her hand on her knee instead. "I know this sounds completely selfish after what you said, but sometimes I wish my mom would just forget about me."

"Why?" He couldn't imagine why anyone would ever want to forget Betty.

Betty pinched the bridge of her nose and gave a long sigh. "Are you familiar with Alice Cooper?"

"Sure. Who isn't?" Jughead hadn't though much of the journalist before joining the school, but you had to live under a rock not to have at least heard the name. She was a loud, prominent voice in the anti-mutant community. Over the last few years, most of her articles were focused on finding a 'cure.'

"She's my mom."

"What?" In his shock, he pushed back on his chair, sending it rolling a few inches backwards. It never crossed his mind that the two Coopers could be related. Cooper was a common enough surname and the thought that Betty and Alice shared blood seemed almost ridiculous. "How…? Why?"

Betty gave a cynical laugh. Tugging the hair elastic out of her hair, she held it up for him to see the fuchsia glow as she infused it with a charge. "When you're thirteen and can't control your ability to blow things up with a touch, you can't really hide the fact that you're a Mutant. Mom didn't really have a choice about sending me away to get 'help.' She doesn't actually know what the school does. She thinks that they're teaching me to suppress my powers and that someday soon there will be a cure which will make all this disappear. Then, I can once again be her normal, perfect daughter." The hair tie exploded with a small pop as Betty released the charge. With her hands empty, she curled them into fists while she brought her ragged breathing back under control.

"Then why do you still go home?" He wedged his hands under his thighs to prevent himself from reaching out and holding her hand. The fading fuchsia glow almost, but not quite, hid the crimson crescents marring her palms.

"Reasons," she sighed heavily and closed her eyes. "It keeps me in enough of mom's good graces that she doesn't dig too deeply into the school's true purpose. And, the Cooper's are pretty well off—not by any means rich like Veronica's family, but we're more than comfortable—and mom has influence with their paper. Anyways, if I can keep mom happy, I can use that influence and money to help Mutants. I know it's not ideal, but I guess it seems like a small sacrifice on my part to help everyone else. You know, especially since mom is the cause of some of that suffering."

"Betty…" Jughead struggled to form words as a fierce anger burned in his chest and twisted with the flood of concern. His hands ball into fists under his legs and he had to loop his legs around the feet of his chair to keep from going to her. Betty gave a breathless gasp. Her emerald green eyes flared like she could almost sense what he was feeling.

She might not be a telepath, but Jughead had the impression he was probably 'shouting.' If he didn't want any nearby telepath to pick up a stray thought, he needed to reinforce his mental shields as Betty had taught him.

"Betts," he tried again, this time much calmer, "you don't need to sacrifice yourself for everyone else. What you need—physically and mentally—is important too." You're important to me. Though he left the last part unspoken.

"Thanks." She wiped at the tears forming at the corner of her eyes. There was something very deliberate in the way she didn't allow them to fall.

Unease churned in his stomach. Had anyone ever told her it was okay to want things for herself? That it was okay to say no? That she didn't need to sacrifice her own mental health to appease others?

He stood and tucked the chair against the desk, leaving plenty of room between him and Betty. "This weekend…if you need someone to talk to…you could text me. Or, call. Anytime. Even the middle of the night."

"I…I think I'll take you up on that offer." She stood and took a step towards him. Unlike everyone else who know about his powers, Betty didn't move away from him. Taking a deep breath, she readied herself to face the rest of the school with the facade of expected perfection. Before the masks could slip into place, she hesitated and waved her hand through the empty space between them. "Jug, may I touch you?"

Jughead swallowed hard. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into an embrace and comfort her, but that was too dangerous. Over the last four and a half months, for the sake of everyone else's safety and his own sanity, he'd shunned all touch. Instead of growing accustomed to the lack, he felt the deprivation keenly, especially when Betty was near. Maybe her home situation explained why she seemed nearly as touch-starved as him. He fought with the compulsion to withdraw. Betty needed this moment of human connection as much, if not more than, he did. Besides, in his heart, he knew that he could deny her nothing. He nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Standing stock still, Jughead scarcely allowed himself to breathe for the fear of accidentally brushing against her skin. Moving slowly and cautiously, so not to startle him, she placed her hand on his flannel and t-shirt covered shoulder and gave it a fleeting squeeze. The skin under his layers buzzed with an energy that had nothing to do with her mutation. As her hand dropped to her side, Jughead breathing had become rapid. Her cheeks had grown a rosy pink.

"Thank you. I needed that," she whispered.

His throat was too dry to do more than nod in response. He needed that too.

Betty turned towards the door. "I need to get going, but maybe we can try that movie night long distance?"

"Yeah, I'd like that." Jughead followed her out of the control room. They discussed movie choices until he needed to turn for the locker room, while she continued onto the dorms.

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