Chapter 25

Practice

At the Institute

Dean was training with his bronze sword and shield outside by the woods. The only way to get better was to practice after all.

"Dean" He heard from behind him.

Dean stopped and looked back to see the Professor, "Oh hey prof, didn't see you there" he continued.

"Yes, I was going to contact you telepathically but then I noticed how focused you were" Charles said.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of concentration to get the form flawless" Dean said keeping his shield up.

"Yes, well, I was just curious why you were practicing with a stick" Charles said with a confused expression.

Dean looked at his weapon, 'What?' he thought. And then he realized, "Oh the mist" he said out loud. It must be masking the true form of his sword.

"Mist?" Charles asked.

Dean laughed, "I was told that everything related to my world, gods, monsters, demigods, special weapons, is disguised in this thing called the mist. It's like a form of magic to hide all those things from mortal eyes" he held up his weapon, "This may look like a stick but it's actually a bronze sword"

"Magic?" Charles said out loud. He was already familiar with magic and someone who could use it, his old friend Dr. Strange. It is possible for something like that to happen, it's still hard to believe.

But as he stared at what was in Dean's hand his vision blurred and the object seemed to change multiple times before his eyes.

Charles blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but the object kept on changing.

"We'll discuss this some other time" Charles said leaving. His mind needed a break.

"Will do Prof" Dean said going back to his exercises.

Kurt was sitting outside, alone.

Out of everyone who went to the underworld and saw its horrors, Kurt
was the most affected. It's not every day you find out one of your parents is a demon. If Kurt could ask God one question it would be, "Why me?" After what he's been through with his appearance now he has to deal with this? Why can't he just be a normal teenage boy that worries about acne and girls?

And that's only half his problem, the other question is what sane person would fall in love with a Demon? Yet alone have a child with them.

A wild black cat walked up to Kurt and meowed at him, "I suppose you don't have parent problems?" Kurt said to the cat.

The cat meowed and tilted its head sideways in confusion.

"No I guess not. Why would a cat have a Demon for a parent?" Kurt said out loud.

The cat meowed and walks away.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be around me either" Kurt said in despair.

Outside the walls of the institute the wild cat morphed into a sad looking Mystique.

'How could he possibly know?' Mystique thought, 'The only people who know of Azazel are I and Magneto. And he would not bother with such matters. Perhaps he's just assuming, yes that must be it' Mystique looked back at Kurt and could clearly see the despair on his face.

It hurts her to see her child in this position, she wished she could embrace her son and make his pain go away but she can't. Kurt can never know that his mother is Mystique, it would crush him. Perhaps in time he may know the truth, but for now he must remain alone.

In the Danger room

Dean was practicing in the danger room by himself with his headphones in his ears. Listening to Demons, by Avenged Sevenfold.

Dean somersaulted backwards a few times before he jumped backwards, landed on the wall and pushed off of it with a heavy right punch

{I've been thinking lots about my life and
How quick I'd wash it down the drain
The past tense, the future, nothing matters now
I act on my own, and I'm to blame
Living's a wicked dream when things turn out all wrong
We're all so weak, no matter how strong, yeah}

Dean punched with his right, then with his left, then he tornado kicked the invisible opponent.

He pressed his advantage by using a good combination of jabs and low kicks, Dean then jumped into the air and threw a heavy downward punch.

{I don't like that you're calling me a liar
I don't like that you found out I'm a snake
Been sneaking around for far too long now
I don't like how fast my intentions fade
Karma has beat me down, the worst is yet to come
Many mistakes, and still I'm so young, yeah}

Dean pounded the ground pretending to hit his invisible opponent then jumped up into the air and threw as many lightning bolts as he could as fast as he could.

{I can't count how many times awakened in fear
Nightly, palms sweating
Dreams of promises I've made to no one but myself
I've been crushed daily
Don't lend me your hand, I can't trust myself
So how can you trust me?}

All the lightning bolts hit the same spot scorching it. Dean then landed on the ground and summoned a really big lightning bolt to his right palm before throwing it straight ahead.

{We've all made selfish, bad decisions
We've all tried dishing out the blame
Convinced ourselves of our own actions
My problem is, I'll never change
In doubt, some good comes out, I'll fold before it's time
Can't promise you that it's my last time, yeah}

Dean felt his energy depleting but he pushed himself. He ran as fast as he could to catch up to the lightning bolt flying through the air and even went past it.

{I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown
But I can't change so unnaturally, demons, they follow me
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown
But found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me
Truth won't help you now, all the love's gone too far, oh, oh
I'm scarred, yeah
Demons, they follow me, cause my insanity}

Dean ran to the wall and jumped off of it to kick the lightning bolt midair. The bolt was absorbed by his body and it vanished.

If he was fighting a real opponent he would have had to either avoid the lightning bolt or his attack, either way he would be getting hit by something.

Jean was lying on her bed wondering, 'Who should I pick?'

She had been wondering this ever since she broke up with Duncan. The two guys that she's interested in, Dean or Scott. Both very appealing choices to Jean.

'But which one? They're both so different. I need some air' Jean thought.

She went outside and for some reason she hadn't noticed what a beautiful day it was before. Jean closed her eyes and felt the sun touch her skin, it almost felt like a summer sun. But no it was still May, another month and summer will be here.

Jean noticed some stray thoughts, she opened her eyes and found Kurt sitting all alone looking miserable.

Jean walked over to Kurt, "Hey Kurt, why the long face?"

Kurt sighed, "Jean can I ask you something?"

"Sure" Jean replied.

"Do I look like a Demon?" Kurt asked flat out.

That was the one question she was not prepared to answer, "Kurt, I can't answer that. If this is about what Charon said don't let it get to you"

"That's easy for you to say. I always knew I looked like one but now I have confirmation too" Kurt said.

"Kurt look, no matter who your parents are we'll still love you for who you are. Who or what your parents are don't define you, you do"

Kurt got up, "I suppose you're right. But it still doesn't make me feel any better" he teleported leaving a trail of smoke in Jean's face.

Jean coughed and waved the smoke out of her face, 'He really needs to stop doing that'

At the Boarding house

Phantazia dodged another fireball from Pyro and counterattacked with her electromagnetic blasts.

Pyro dodged by leaping to the right, then to the left, then right.

Phantazia had developed a bit of a trigger finger which she seemed to be utilizing well. Unlike Pyro who needed a couple of seconds to form his fireball, Phantazia could instantly fire her EM blasts.

As he evaded her attacks, Pyro ended up being backed into a corner.

Phantazia fired a two-handed beam at Pyro.

There was no time for him to dodge normally. Right before it hit him, Pyro blasted the ground with a thick stream of fire, propelling himself upwards into the air. A little trick Magneto taught him.

"All right then" Phantazia altered her own magnetic field and launched herself upward towards Fever pitch.

Phantazia can fly but she has yet to master the ability, for now she can just dash in short bursts.

Pyro moved out of the way, by propelling himself sideways with a another stream of fire and Phantazia fell to the ground face first.

Phantazia got back up looking like she just mud wrestled someone.

"That's enough" Mystique said.

She was watching on the sidelines along with the rest of the Brotherhood. Mystique had been testing and training her new recruits to find their weaknesses and to improve them. From what she could see Phantazia still has trouble with flying and has a bit of an anger problem. Pyro's skills are surprisingly good but he was lacking in team work.

"What are you doing I had him!" Phantazia shouted.

"You didn't have anything, if this were a real fight you would have been roasted" Mystique said.

"If I could fly I could get him easily" Phantazia wined.

"But you can't, and until you do you're going to practice. Now go Eileen" Mystique ordered.

Eileen stormed off and passed by the other Brotherhood members snickering.

Eileen shot an EM blast in their direction and left.

Everyone except Toad got out of the way. It hit him in the head and for some reason his tongue shot out and didn't retract.

"Whath the thuck yo!" Toad said.

The rest of them started hysterically laughing at him.

At the Institute

Jean had just come back inside from her talk with Kurt, which literally went up in smoke. And as she came in she saw Dean walk out of the subbasement elevator in his workout clothes.

"Where were you?" Jean asked.

"In the danger room" Dean went upstairs.

Jean used her telekinesis to float and follow him up the stairs, "You spend an awful amount of time down there"

"The only way to get better is to practice" Dean said.

"But don't you think you overdo it sometimes?" Jean asked landing in front of him, "Aren't you satisfied with how good you are now? It's not like there are a lot of people who can beat you"

Dean chuckled, "That's what keeps me going. Knowing that there's someone that can beat me, it's like a goal. And if life has taught me anything, it's that there's always someone more powerful than you" he walked past her.

Jean looked back at him and wondered, 'He can be stubborn, or proud, whichever way I decide to look at it. But he knows what he wants, and he's dedicated'

Jean decided to go see what Scott was doing. She found him in the garage working underneath his car.

Jean tapped him on the leg, "Hey"

She accidentally startled Scott making him hit his head on the bottom of his car.

"Ouch" Scott muttered.

Jean giggled.

"What do you want?" Scott came out from underneath the car and at the sight of Jean his face lit up, "Oh, it's you Jean"

"I didn't realize I was that silent" Jean said.

Scott tried to get some attention off him so he went back underneath the car, "So what do you need?"

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to see what you were doing" Jean replied with a smile.

"Well as you can see I'm pretty busy" Scott said.

Jean frowned, "Alright then, I'll see you later" she left.

'He's sweet and honest, but sometimes he just can't take a hint' Jean thought.

This was going to take some more thinking.

Cerebro had scanned the area for mutant activity and had started creating profiles for two identified mutants using their powers in the area.

The Professor located the two mutants at the Boarding house.

He telepathically alerted everyone, 'There will be an emergency meeting in the war room in 5 minutes'

Everyone gathered inside the war room and sat patiently for the Professor to begin.

"Not too long ago Cerebro picked up the mutant signatures of the two individuals that recently joined the Brotherhood" Charles said.

"So what did it find out?" Scott asked.

"I believe we're going to have our hands full" Charles brought up their display in the center of the room.

A 3D image of Pyro and Eileen was shown.

"The boy's name is John Allerdyce. His ability is pyrokinesis" Charles said.

"Pyrokinesis?" Dean asked.

"The ability to manipulate fire, I've seen it before" Scott said.

"Yeah, and we know that a power like that can be very destructive" Logan said.

"Caution is advised when encountering him" Charles said.

"What about the girl?" Jean asked not sounding happy.

Dean picked up on her tone.

The image changed to Eileen.

"The girl's name is Eileen, and her power is quite unique. She can project electromagnetic blasts" Charles said.

"That's a new one" Scott had to admit, "What do electromagnetic blasts do exactly?"

"Well EM blasts for short, I had a hard time figuring that out myself. But luckily I think I have found the answer" Charles said. The display of Eileen changed to an X-ray of her body, "You see every person has a miniscule EM field around them which affects the flow of their body. Now Eileen's blasts tend to manipulate the flow of any person's EM field that they touch"

"And what would that result in?" Ororo asked.

"The result being that when a person's EM field flow is altered their body tends to…malfunction" Charles said.

"Malfunction?" Rogue queried.

"For lack of a better word" Charles said.

"Malfunction how exactly?" Kurt asked.

"Depending on the energy output she could immobilize you, render you unconscious, or even make you lose control of your powers" Charles said.

"Oh…well that's not good" Dean realized.

"That means this girl could easily take us all out with her EM blasts" Scott said.

"Which is precisely why if you encounter them I would recommend Jean to handle Eileen" Charles said.

"Me?" Jean asked.

"Yes, your telekinetic powers should be able to counter hers. I have faith in you Jean" Charles said.

"Thank you Professor" Jean said appreciating the confidence.

At the Boarding house

Eileen was practicing her floating, so she didn't go very far. She was only about 3 feet in the air. The constant concentration she had to keep up was very tiresome.

Eileen dropped down, she just couldn't seem to focus today. She kept on thinking about that boy Mystique wanted her to seduce. Every time she thought of him she would lose her mind, 'I don't understand, is there something wrong with the way I look?!'

Dean has rejected her every chance he got which is why his mere existence is haunting her.

'He must be playing hard to get, yeah that must be the answer' Eileen deduced on her own, 'And if he doesn't acknowledge me, I'll make him' she thought as purple smoke came out of her eyes.

Dean sat by his window holding his celestial bronze sword. His mind was preoccupied with thoughts of the underworld and what he might have to face.

"You ok?" Rogue asked him.

Dean looked back and saw the concern in her green eyes. He didn't even hear her come in, "I'm fine" he assured her.

"You don't sound like it" Rogue noticed.

"For a girl who's supposed to be a loner you do come by here often" Dean said.

Rogue walked next to him, "Maybe I find it fun to bother you"

"I wouldn't be surprised" Dean said staring out into the distance.

Rogue stared at him for a couple of seconds, "Sometimes it's hard to figure you out"

Dean laughed lightly, "Really, why?"

"During the day you don't take anything seriously, you just have fun. But I always find you by yourself at night brooding, like way more than me. It's like you have this whole other side to you" Rogue said, "Probably the reason why you're single"

"Yeah" he had to agree sadly, "You don't have any I should worry about do you?" Dean asked.

"Can't touch" Rogue reminded him.

"I know...but you're beautiful. I kinda thought guys would line up to date you" Dean said.

Rogue wishes, "Only in your head Dean. Not in reality"

"Really? There's never been anyone? Even before your powers kicked in? Didn't you say you had a 1st crush once upon a time?" Dean asked.

Rogue hesitated. She did promise herself to try and open up a little to Dean, "It was...I mean...we never officially dated or anything. It was flirting. I was hoping he would ask me out but then my powers kicked in"

"What happened with you and him?" Dean asked.

Rogue bit her lower lip and then said in a deathly quiet voice, "I put him in a coma for 2 weeks"

"It wasn't your fault" Dean assured her. He then gently wiped away a solitary tear that had escaped from Rogue's left eye.

Rogue hadn't even realized the tear escaped. She took a shaky breath.

"Trust me, compared to what I've done. You're a saint" Dean admitted.

"Why would you say that?" Rogue asked, that sounded a little too harsh.

"Because...I'm not who you think I am…I'm not a good person" Dean said recalling his moments at Hydra.

"You're wrong. You are a good person" Rogue argued. She refused to believe it.

"No, Rogue, I'm not. I've done...things. Bad things" Dean's head dropped so Rogue couldn't see into his face.

Rogue put her arms around Dean and hugged him, "We've all done bad things. And it's ok to talk about them"

"I'm sorry but I can't" Dean said.

"You told me that it's not healthy to put up walls around yourself, what happened to that?" Rogue asked.

"Sometimes we put up walls to see who cares enough to break them down" Dean said looking into her emerald green eyes.

Rogue tried to read his thoughts through his eyes but it was impossible.

'There's so much you don't know' Dean thought as he struggled to keep his emotions in check.

"Maybe...maybe you're right. I don't really know you…..but I do know bad people don't feel guilt" Rogue smiled at him gently, "You know I won't push but when you're ready to talk about that I'll be here"

That made Dean smirk a little, "Thank you"

Rogue looked down at the celestial bronze sword in his hand, "That's a cool sword"

Dean looked at the weapon in his hand, "You can see this?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Rogue asked.

'Perhaps there's more to Rogue than I realized' Dean thought as he stared at her.

Author's note: So we wrapped up the aftermath, some are taking it worse than others. And correct me if I'm wrong but aren't mortals not supposed to be able to see through the mist? Well unless they're special ;)