Guilt

"Professor you have to do something!" Tabitha shouted. "Can't you use Cerebro to find him?"

"I can't unless he's using his mutant abilities," Xavier told her. "And…Based on what I've seen. The injuries he's sustained…"

"NOOOOO!" Tabitha screamed.

"Tabitha, I'm sorry…" Xavier reached out to comfort her.

"No you're not," Tabitha said. But it wasn't her voice. She shifted into Toad. "You're not sorry at all."

"That's not true!" Xavier protested. "I am sorry…"

"Bull!" Toad shot out. "I was your enemy! Why wouldn't you be glad I'm dead!"

"I'm not glad!" Xavier shouted. "I'm not! It didn't have to be this way…"

"You're right it didn't!" Toad snapped.

"I offered you a place here but you refused it!" Xavier told him.

"Oh please," Toad sneered. "You never really wanted me in the first place! And don't lie to me! Let's review shall we?" The room changed to the old Cerebro room. There was a blip on the screen. "One week before I talked to Scott," Toad said simply. "One week! You sensed my mutant powers with Cerebro!"

"You don't understand," Xavier said. "At the time Cerebro was very new. I had a lot of false alarms before I perfected it! Yes I found some mutants with it, but there were others that I found that weren't mutants! That's why I ran that test on you! I had to make sure!"

"Ha! I stick a three-foot tongue out in front of Shades and you needed to run a test to see if I was a mutant! Oh yeah and what a great test that was!" Toad said. "Look at this! You had that Weather Witch of yours gets me soaking wet, fries my butt, have Nightcrawler attack me then I get stuck in that psycho training session!" The scene replayed in front of him. "How did you think I was gonna react?"

"I made a mistake," Xavier admitted.

"Ya think?" Toad snapped. "Of course then you went into my brain afterwards and found out what you already suspected…"

"I admit I was shocked when I learned Mystique had already gotten to you," Xavier said. "But I didn't…"

"You didn't want to take a chance that your precious school would be compromised," Toad snarled. "Even though you looked into my mind and saw Mystique had frightened me into doing her dirty work, you still said nothing! Maybe compromised was the wrong word. You didn't want your school to be contaminated by me!"

"No, no that's not true…" Xavier said nervously.

"Oh come on," Toad said rolling his eyes. "Don't bother! Hey so you only wanted the best of the best! It's only natural to want the cream of the crop for your team! So did Magneto. But at least he's more honest about it!"

"That's a lie!" Xavier debated.

"Is it?" Toad asked. "Okay what about Lance? Hmm? You didn't exactly rush over to get him now did you? In fact, you pretty much ignored him. What was that phrase that ran through your mind when you first found out about him? Oh yes. 'Morally Shady!' Does that ring a bell?"

"No, Mystique got to him first!" Xavier defended.

"You let Mystique get to him first!" Toad shouted. "And the others, you didn't even try with them."

"What about Rogue?" Xavier asked. "I took her in."

Todd made a buzzer sound. "AAAHH! Doesn't count! It was Summers that got her, not you! In fact, you had already written her off when you started having her as the villain in the Danger Room. Remember?"

Toad walked around him in circles. "Face it Professor, in your own way, you're as bad as Magneto! You only want the best for your team. You want to have your own little perfect soldiers for your war! Well you forgot one thing, wars have a lot of innocent casualties!"

A huge tornado spun in front of Xavier, engulfing Toad. "NO!" Xavier called out. "Stop!" He screamed as he recalled all the fears, torments and horrors he had ever sensed in Toad. All the nightmarish memories that Rogue had absorbed and forgotten surrounded him and battered him mind.

The tornado subsided. He saw Toad's body as he had seen it in Fred's memories, battered and bruised. Xavier shuddered in fear as Toad spit up blood and slime. He looked at him with pitiful eyes. "Why didn't you save me?"

Xavier reached out to him, but found nothingness. The next thing he knew he was falling into a pit of darkness. "WHYYYYYYY?" Todd's voice screamed at him.

Xavier shot out of his bed, covered in sweat, shaking. He closed his eyes and put his head in his hands and wept.