Disclaimer: I own none of these characters…I'm just playing with them until Marvel decides to make me their leader J
A/N: Set a month after Ev's death, I am fully aware of the screwed up timeline here, and the seasons etc…sorry about that? M lovers beware! Warnings for language.
A special thanks to Jane and angel_w for helping out with this =) Please R&R…it feeds the addiction.
Mother's Day
by
Parodys
Saturday had been relatively quiet, with most of the students going home to be with their families on Mother's day. As for Jubilee, she had been left to herself and was wandering the halls trying to figure out something to do. Shuffling along the linoleum floors in her fuzzy pink slippers she paused outside of Paige's room, stopped by the conversation inside.
"Yeah, Mom. Ahm lookin forward to seen ya too. Mr. Cassidy is takin me to the airport tonight." There was a pause and then Paige giggled. "I can't believe you still remember that! Anyway I better finish packing. Happy Muther's Day, Mom. Love you."
Depressed Jubilee walked past, not willing to face Paige's excitement at going home. Jubilee sighed, and headed outside to the new tree house. Climbing up the ladder, she poked her head through only to find Angelo and M sitting together. The Angelo face was flushed and a small bruise was beginning to form on his neck, while Monet straightened her top, deliberately looking at the younger girl as she slowly buttoned the shirt. Jubilee stared at them in disbelief and anger, unwilling to believe that once again Monet had managed to worm her way into another friend's heart. The forms of the two blurred as Jubilee struggled to keep her anger in check, her mind flashing to Ev's grave buried less than a month and then to Monet's smug grin at the sight of Jubilee's tortured face looking at Angelo. Her anger broke as she suddenly realized how much M had stolen from her, and that it had finally become too much.
"What the hell is going on?"
M merely smiled slightly and took Angelo's hand. "And here I thought that even you could figure that one out."
Glancing from M's face to Ange's goofy expression, she glared at them. "Fantastic M. First Ev and now Ange. Planning to sleep your way through the team? Who's next? Jono? Or will we move on to harder conquests like Sean? Did you ever love Ev?"
M flushed, her eyes flashing. "What's wrong with you? Of course I loved Ev, but he died. Deal with it. Ange and I are together now. If you can't handle it then too bad."
Sneering, Jubilee practically growled at the girl. "Ah yes, I forgot. A love that was so strong it only took you a month to get over him. If you're going to do it then at least be honest with yourself."
"Be honest about what? That I'm human or that you've officially gone insane? I always wondered when you'd crack."
Moving between the two females, Angelo calculated how long before it could turn ugly. As it turned out, it didn't take long at all. "Hey guys just relax..."
" No, that you're a slut. That your prissy-ass-oh-so-superior attitude is a cover-up for you being a skank."
Moving so fast that she was a blur, M flew at Jubilee carrying her down and out of the treehouse until they were standing nose to nose. "Listen up you little brat," M hissed. "Don't you ever say that again. I loved Ev but he's dead. Dead! Don't blame me for you being too much of a chicken shit to tell him that you liked him."
"You knew that I liked Ev, he was my best friend and you couldn't stand it. You never cared for him and the only reason you went after him was because you knew that I wanted him. Well congratulations M, you've proven how much of a bitch you really are. I can't believe people actually think that you can feel."
"That's it. You. Me. In the Danger Room. Now! Let's finish this and this time Sean won't be here to save you."
"Fine. Meet you there in an hour. It'll give you time to make peace with the gods. Oh wait, they don't have any for the bitch do they?" Jubilee smirked at the older girl.
"You actually think you can play with the big kids now? Great, I can't wait to see this." M laughed, flying off leaving Ange and Jubilee on the ground. Carnage of any kind is brutal, and Ange didn't want to see his friends get hurt over something so stupid.
"Don't do this, chiquita. She's gonna wipe your face on the floor with the fight and I don't want to clean up the blood. So, we're dating. So what? Ev wouldn't care and you know it."
Disgusted and angry, Jubilee turned on Ange. "I have no idea why Ev liked her but he did. He liked her and that alone should have made you at least respect his memory."
"Jubes, relax. Ya gotta understand, it's M."
Her blue eyes glittered brightly for a moment before shaking off his hand and heading towards the house. "It always is M, and M gets whoever she wants whenever the hell she wants it."
Apple blossoms fluttered down from the trees as she stalked back to the dorms, the white petals swirling around her, their beauty lost at the turmoil raging inside. For the past month Jubilee had been consumed with guilt, anger, pain, hurt, and grief and no one had noticed. No one had noticed that the once bubbling teenager had changed to a silent, brooding child, and tonight it was going to end.
An hour later Jubilee arrived at the Danger room entrance to find that M was already there waiting. "Finally, let's go."
Entering the room, the two stood in the dark while waiting for Paige, the mediator, to start it. Paige's voice came from the lighted observation deck above them, where Jono and Ange were standing next to her. "Here are the rules. The computer will randomly choose a sim every four minutes, no one leaves or enters until someone is down or forfeits the game, anything goes and no fatalities no matter how much you are tempted. Everybody got it?"
"Yeah, Hayseed."
"Yes."
"Fine, the let's begin. Initiating beginning sim now."
The room flickered and then brightened as New York popped into existence, placing the girls in a deserted alley. Tense, the girls circled each other warily, mentally assessing her opponent. This time they were ready to do war.
Thirteen scenarios later, both girls were covered in sweat and bruises, and bleeding from various cuts on the body. Paige shook her head as the sim changed again, this time to a desert, with white sand that stretched from horizon to horizon. Facing each other, M and Jubilee caught their breath as they took in the new scene.
"You ready to give up yet?" M asked.
"Not in the slightest. Beginning to have a teensy bit of trouble are we?"
"Hardly, I just figured you might be tired. It must be draining to keep on using those baby paffs of yours."
Jubilee's eyes darkened to an almost black purple, and hurled a paff the size of a bowling ball at M, which hit her in he stomach. "Fine, I'll finish it for you if you're so bored." Closing her eyes, she concentrated, her brow furrowed as M watched in amusement.
"Attempting teke this late in the game?"
Opening her eyes, Jubilee smiled ferally, her grin making M make a step back. "Check out your hand, luv."
M watched in horror as her hand blurred and wavered, as if someone had erased the lines that held her flesh together.
"Like it? I've been practicing. It seems that my powers aren't limited to paffs anymore. Kinda cool, huh?"
"What the hell are you doing to me?"
Not answering, Jubilee strode over to M and slid her hand through the girl's body. Gasping in fear, M backed away.
"Amazing isn't it? You know, solidity is really fragile. Rearrange the molecules in the tiniest way and – whoops!" She casually dragged her hand through M's arm. "That happens."
"So what do you want? Do you want me to say that you've won?"
"No you little snob. I want you to stop this thing with Ange. You and I both know that you don't care about him and he's too nice for you to hurt." Sparks flew from Jubilee's fingers and her hair crackled with the contained energy. Every time she moved, the air hissed and popped with the electricity.
Casually walking towards the Asian girl, M smiled suddenly. "You can't do anything to me. You can't kill me or explode me because you don't kill. Plus you'd have to answer to Frost. Get a grip on yourself little girl." Lashing out mentally, M was met with solid walls that she couldn't get past. Hurling herself again and again at the barriers, she could hear Jubilee laughing in the distance. It was then that she truly started to be afraid.
"Accidents happen. You and I are training in the Danger Room and suddenly my powers mutate beyond control, everything in the room is destroyed and nothing of you is left except some dust on he floor."
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me princess. Wouldn't you like to be hundreds of molecules scattered across the room? Frankly I think that it'd fit your God-complex." Pulling off an earring, Jubilee concentrated for a moment and then blew on it gently. It dissolved into the air, swirling into the room and then out of sight. A dull thudding could be heard, and both girls glanced up to see Paige frantically pounding on the glass. Ignoring her, Jubilee smiled sweetly and said. "Goodbye, M." Narrowing her eyes, she gave a double kick to the girl's gut, making her double over onto the floor in pain.
Wincing in pain, M stayed on the floor, unable to believe that she had been beaten by Jubilee. Waiting until Jubilee walked out of the Danger Room, it was only then that M curled up into a ball and cried.
Jubilee had spent the rest of the day and the next in a foul mood, and had been in her room throwing darts at the wall when she got a summons from Emma. Not bothering to pull on a pair of shoes, or change from her cut off jeans and old t-shirt she headed down to the office, not particularly surprised she was being called down.
Knocking once, Jubilee entered the "Dungeon" aptly named by the students and plopped down in one of the overstuffed leather chairs in front of the desk. Emma just sat at her desk, her face pale with rage and her hands clenching the desk.
"Sit down and shut up. You are going to listen to what I'm going to say and then you're going to explain yourself." Shrugging Jubilee nodded, and put on her 'yes-I'm-interested-and-listening' face. "I get back from a relaxing vacation, that Sean is still on I might add, to find that you and M decided to have a fight this weekend in the Danger Room. Not only were all the safety protocols off, I also heard that your powers have mutated further. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Using an untested power on a teammate that could kill them? Not only is that childish, it's selfish, irresponsible, and thoughtless. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but do one more stunt like that and Xavier can deal with you from now on. You will not compromise the safety of this team. Do you understand?"
Jubilee's face was expressionless as she looked at the irate woman. Slowly getting up she leaned on the desk, so that she and Emma were face to face, so angry that she wasn't aware of a tear trailing down her cheek. "First of all, it was a mutual fight agreed on by both of us, Paige mediated to make sure that everything was safe as possible. Second, I would never use a power like mine untested. I have been practicing with it on the training sims for over two months now and while I'm not perfect at it, I still am pretty damn good. Third, if you want to get rid of me so badly then do it, I sure as hell don't want to stay here any longer anyway. If that's all then I need to get back to my room."
Still angry, Emma frowned at the girl. "What made you and M fight?"
"She and Ange are going out now. I thought that they should've waited longer out of consideration for Ev. Nobody else seemed to think so."
Emma's expression softened and she gazed thoughtfully at Jubilee. "Monet and Ev were going out, don't you think it's her decision when to get over him?"
"No!" Jubilee shouted. "Nobody here understands. They had gone out for just two lousy weeks. Two weeks. I have loved Ev, ever since we first met and she knew that and went after him anyway. She did that just to show me she could. And then he dies and everybody comforts her, helps her when it's me that's dying inside. I yelled at him. I told him that I didn't want to see him. That I didn't want to be reminded of him. That he was the last person I wanted to see. I yelled at him and he died right afterwards. I never got to tell him that I was sorry, that I missed him." By now Jubilee was crying so hard that Emma could barely make out the words. "And then I walked past Paige's room, and heard her talking to her mom, and it made me miss mine so bad. God, I miss my Mom." Doubled up, Jubilee knelt on the floor unable to contain her grief any longer, shuddering, choking sobs racking her body as she let out her pain.
Running over to the girl, Emma knelt by her and held her lovingly. "I'm sorry, Jubilee. I'm so sorry." Cradling her in her arms, she pulled the girl onto her lap and rocked her back and forth. Wrapping her arms around Emma's neck, Jubilee buried her face in it. Wonderingly, Emma crooned a tuneless melody, stroking the black hair softly. After awhile the tears had slowly stopped, and Jubilee had dried her face on Emma's silk handkerchief, wiping her nose on the soft cloth. Emma suddenly was struck by the intense fondness she felt for the girl. Perhaps even, love. Gently wiping the girl's eyes dry, Emma patted her back softly. Getting up awkwardly, Jubilee straightened her hair and clothes and headed for the door. Unsure of what to do, Emma called out to her. "Jubilee…"
Turning back to look at the woman who suddenly appeared very vulnerable, Jubilee gently smiled and walked out the door. "Happy Mother's Day, Emma."