Part 3: A Warm Welcome
Wagner yelled out, "Stick together, everyone."
Wagner looked around worried. He was too tired to teleport a group this large again. And he knew the other Kurt wasn't strong enough.
Out of the blue an optic red blast shot under several of the soldiers, making them fly in all direction. Wagner looked at Scott and saw his surprise look. If he didn't do it, that means..
"Thank God!!!" Wagner shouted.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew and several more (standing) men were missing their guns. When the 'wind' stopped, there stood a man with a mischievous grin, and large pile of guns next to him. He held two of the guns in his hands and pointed them to the soldiers, "Now, I know this gun were made for mutants to lose their powers, so the won't do any damage to you," he gave them a wicked smile, "but I'm betting they'll still hurt like heck."
At this time, Cy pushed the other remaining men over towards Silvers pile. "We surrender." Mumbled one of them meekly.
Silver gasped, "Do you? Do you really? Thank goodness, because I was beginning to wonder, I just don't know what we would have done if you didn't open your lousy good for nothing human mouth and tell us!" He yelled in the guys face.
"The question is, what should we do with them?" Cy said, glaring at all of them from under his visor.
"Ya, now that's the tricky part, if Jeannie were here..." Silver stopped himself but a little too late.
Cy turned to him with clenched fists. "But she's not, now is she? Nevermind, have any ideas Silver?"
Silver put his hand to his chin and started looking around, he stopped as he saw Jean. A second later Jean felt someone grab her hand, and a second after that she was standing in front of Scott's duplicate, holding the hand of Pietro's duplicate.
Cy looked at her with shock, he almost thought he was dreaming, then he remember, the parallel world plan. For a moment he found himself wishing that it was a dream, and that it was just the two of them, that is, his Jeannie.
Silver smiled. "Look what I found. Jeannie junior, and we can use her." Cy nodded, then turned away to hide his pain from her, but Jean felt it.
"Okay." Silver pushed her in front of the group of fearful humans. "Go for it."
"What?" She looked at him puzzled.
"You know," he held his hand out toward the humans. "Wipe their minds."
"What?" She just stared at this very strange Pietro, with a tinge of fear.
He looked a little impatient. "Do what you do, wipe their minds. You know, empty, insane, clean um out so you can see clear through one ear, make em go, cuckoo." She just stood there with a confused looked. "Come on." He said in an annoyed voice.
Wagner stepped up. "No Silver, she can't. She's younger in years and powers than Jeannie was. She's not ready to try that. None of them can."
Silver stilled looked puzzled, and Cy remained silent, showing no emotion.
"Then what are they here for? We don't need babies. We need soldiers." A voice came from the fog as a girl emerged. She looked like Kitty but a little older, in more outrageous clothes, and with a patch over her eye.
Cy turned to her, "Kat, we need their help."
Pietro, a little offended zipped into the group. "No, no I don't think you do need us according to 'Kat' here, she take care of them herself, can't you KittyKat?"
She moved towards him menacingly. Cy put a hand on her shoulder. Kat smirked and looked at Silver, "I guess you're a smart mouth in every world, aren't you?" She glared at Pietro.
Silver shrugged. "Oh I don't know, it's a gift, really."
"Enough!" Cy stepped up to the group. "You guys have two options. Either, I can vaporate you now, or we can have Wagner send you to Mutant Isle, and let you stick it out there. What'll it be boys?"
The humans said nothing. Either way, they would probably end up dying. Cy looked around at the surprised X-Men.
Kat, who was sick of standing silent and glaring at the humans chimed in. "Why don't we just feed them to the arachnids?" The humans gasped in fear. Kat turned to them. "At least you'd stayed alive longer, sure, you would have half your blood sucked out of you every day, but you'd live for a while, enough time to contemplate the things you've done to us!"
Cy, who was obviously the leader, stepped up. "No, for the sake of our new found friends we won't do that. But we do need to get rid of them. Wagner, I know your power is weak, so use Jeannie's mind strength, and throw them out of this world."
Wagner nodded and turned to Jean. "Jean, I am sorry, but we must get rid of them."
Jean nodded. Wagner took her hands. "Just concentrate your mind into mine, and do not let go." Jean placed her hands on his head. The second she did she cringed. It was like her powers were almost combining with Kurts to help energize where he was low. She was linking their minds. Wagner reached his hands out and grabbed her, aware that she was about to collapse from a loss of power. A second later the group of humans disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and Jean collapsed, completely unconscious.
Cy nodded. "She'll be alright. Come on, lets get out of sight."
**************************************
Magnus looked at the decaying wasteland. Vast emptiness as far as he could see. "Ugh." He grunted disgusted.
"What is the matter my love?" A soothe voice asked, behind him.
He turned briefly and looked at her, "The same as always, Raven." He turned and looked out the window again, "Disgusted at how mutants have to live."
Raven nodded, understanding. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, from behind. "It's sad, while mutants have to live here in the Savage Land, humans get live in the only place on earth that still has resources."
"Yes." Magnus agreed, "And they throw their own waste here as well. Mutants have to live off their waste." He looked at her, "Do you think it'll ever change?"
Raven sighed, "Maybe, with the help Wagner's bringing." She held him tighter, "I hope so. There are only so many dead children's faces I can stand." She closed her eyes, at the memory of the twelve-year-old mutant she found yesterday.
Magnus opened him mouth to reply but stopped at the angry voice of Kat, downstairs. "What do you mean, you can't change the density of other objects?" Kat yelled at Kitty.
"I mean, that I can't do that!" Kitty defended herself.
"Then -what- can you do?"
Kitty shrugged, "I can phase through things."
Kat looked at her annoyed, "That's it! That's all you can do!!! You mean to tell me that you're barely in the beginning stages of your powers!"
"Um...yes." Kitty mumbled, embarrassed.
Kat glared at the rest of the room, "Are all of you in the first stages?"
Storm stepped forward, "You must understand, we are from a completely different world."
Kat rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever!"
"Wagner." A voice boomed.
They all turned and saw a man and blue-skinned woman that resembled Magneto and Mystique. Wagner stepped forward, "Hello, Magnus. I have returned."
Magnus looked at the new comers, "Is this the help you found?"
"Help?" Kat asked sarcastically, "What help?" She glared at the kids, "We needed soldiers, these are just a bunch of X-babies." She looked at Scott, "What's the count of the number of humans you've killed?"
Scott's eyes widen, "Zero!"
"Zero?!" This time it was Silver that shrieked.
Xavier wheeled forward, interrupting, "The X-men don't kill." It was a simple fact and the most important rule.
Kat turned her all her attention towards him, "You were always a weak and foolish man, Xavier. That's why you were one of the first that went down."
"That's enough!" Cy stepped in before Kat got real ugly.
Kat glared at him, challenging him. He glared back accepting the challenge. They stared down each other for a few moments, before Kat huffed and stomped off, indicating that Cy won.
Silver watched her huff off. He looked at his father, "I better check on her." He mumbled, as he ran after her.
"Gosh, why is she like that?" Kitty asked after they were gone.
Raven stepped forward, "Don't mind Kat. She was raised by Sabertooth then later by Wolverine." She placed a hand on Kitty's shoulder, "Not to mention Kat never had the easiest of lives."
"Yeah, well," Cy said, "You try to go through life knowing that one of your best friends and the love of your life is dead and it's all your fault."
"But it's not Kat's fault," A soft, southern voice called out. They all turned and saw a woman and two men walking up.
"I don't dink dats what he meant, chere." On of the men answered.
"Yeah, Ro." The other man spoke, "Cy meant nothing bad, just what he thinks Kat feels, though hes probably mixing her feelings with hi...someone elses."
'Ro' was obviously Rouge. The first man was unfamiliar, and the second must be Iceman, being that the man was 'iced up'.
Ro noticed the unconscious woman in Scott's arms, "You wanna lay her down somewhere?"
"Yes, please." Scott smiled at the woman.
"Come on."
"No wait!" Cy stopped them, "I'll take her." He grabbed Jean from Scott's arms. With Jean in his arms, Cy started to walk out of the room.
Scott glared at his back, "I'll come too." He said as he walked behind him.
Cy turned to open his mouth in reply, but after a pause he closed it and nodded.
After they were gone, Magnus turned towards Xavier, "Thank you for coming. As you can see we desperately need help."
Xavier nodded, understandingly, "Maybe we can talk privately and you may explain the full situation."
"Please follow me." Magnus replied as he started to walk towards his office. Raven came behind Xavier, and helped, pushing him. Storm and Logan gave each other a look and followed them.
The rest of the students and the brotherhood members stood there, not sure what to do.
Ro smiled and looked at her companies, "What ya say, Remy? Ice? Should we give then a tour?"
Ice smiled, "Yeah, let's split them up."
"Da." Wagner agreed, "Get Tabby to come and help."
And so the groups of kids were separated.
Ro got Rogue, Spyke and Ray.
Remy got Kitty, Lance, and Pietro.
Wagner got Kurt, Toad, Blob and Beast.
Ice got Bobby, Amara, Rahne, and Sunspot.
And Boomer got Tabitha, Sam and Jamie.
*******************************************
Cy laid Jean carefully on the small bed.
"Will she be all right?" Scott asked behind him.
Cy studied her, "Yeah, if she's anything like my Jeannie, she will be."
Scott nodded, relived. He noticed the way Cy was trying to make her as comfortable as possible.
Scott stepped forward, slightly blocking Cy from Jean, "But she's not your Jeannie."
Cy stared at him for a moment then turned away. "Yeah, sure, never said she was."
Scott turned his attention towards Jean on the bed. He smiled fondly as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He was so worried when he watched her fall unconscious earlier.
He heard Cy chuckle behind him. "What?" He glared at him.
Cy shook his head, "Nothing, it's just I'm finally seeing what they meant." He sat on a nearby chair.
"Seeing what?" Scott asked as he sat on the bed, besides Jean.
Cy sighed, remembering, "The team use to tease me about when I used to act like that." He answered pointing to Scott and Jean.
Scott's eyebrows knitted, confused, "Act like what?"
"Whenever something happened to Jeannie, even if it was something as small as a headache. I would stand like you did just a second ago."
Scott still had no idea what Cy was talking about. "Stand like what?"
Cy sighed. "Tense, on guard. Making sure she's fine. Glaring at everybody, except at her. Almost like it's everyone else's fault she was in any way uncomfortable, yet at the same time never loosing that look of sincere love and admiration."
Scott nodded, finally understanding. And he had to admit he noticed that he too would do that with his own teammates.
There was a long silence, before Scott broke it.
"So," Scott asked cautiously, "What did happen to your Jeannie?"
Cy closed his eyes in pain, "She was killed." He stood up, angrily. He started to walk towards the door.
Cy had already reached the door and opened it, when Scott had spoken again.
"How?" Scott whispered
Cy turned his head halfway, but still not facing Scott, "She was tortured by," He said his next word with venom and hatred, "humans." And he walked out.
Scott's sigh, "What world have we come to?" He asked himself.
"Scott?" Jean's soft voice called for him.
******************************************
Magnus sat behind his desk, with Raven standing beside him, leaning in his chair. Across from him, sat Storm who was next to Xavier. Logan stood behind them, arms crossed.
"Well, what is it you want to know?" Raven asked the three.
"Everything." Xavier replied in his calm voice.
Magnus nodded, "It all started many years ago. Life was in a 'tense' state, being that mutants were recently exposed. We, to the humans, were too different to understand. So they reacted the same way they always do when they're afraid. They tried to get rid us."
He paused, as if remembering, "Soon, all world government combined money and work force to evacuate Genosha. They then demanded for all mutants to move there. They claimed it was so humans would slowly become comfortable with the fact that mutants exist. And like blind fools we came. And at the first couple of years everything seemed fine. It seemed we had all the support of the governments. They even told us, humans were starting to accept us. But then their true attentions were reveled, sadly it was too late."
Magnus closed his eyes at the painful memory. Raven placed her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him. She looked at Xavier as continued Magnus story.
"The humans were building Sentinels." She saw their confused looks and explained, "Sentinels don't exist in your world, eh? Lucky you. Sentinels are these...giant robots. They are designed to track down mutants and destroy them."
Xavier's eyes widen, already knowing what had happened.
"Yes, Xavier. The humans sent the Sentinels to Genosha to kill us all."
Magnus stood up, angrily. He turned his back towards them, looking out the window. He spoke in a low and angry voice, "They had planed it all along. They got us all in one place, gave us false hope, and then stabbed us from behind." He turned to look at Xavier, "Obviously some of us managed to survive. The humans weren't planning on that. Those who survived will always have those images of that fateful day. We'll never forget the screams, the blood. We'll never forget the stench of death that lasted for days. We rose above the ashes, with a new determination."
Raven sat on top on Magnus desk, legs crossed, "So ever since then we've been in this war."
"Will you help us?" Magnus asked stepping forward.
"Of course." Xavier nodded.
"But," Storm interrupted, "How exactly are we going to help?"
Raven smiled wickedly, "Ever heard of 'eye for an eye'?"
********************************************
Love hurts, that's Kat's phrase. It was what she always felt after...certain past incidents.
Kat looked out to the land. 'Dead like everything in my life,' Kat thought bitterly.
"So, are you going to bite my head off too?" A sarcastic voice asked.
"Go away, Silver." Kat didn't bother to turn around, she knew it was him.
Silver sighed, "So, why are you bitter about the world now?"
"What part of 'go away' didn't you understand? The 'go' or the 'away'?" She snarled.
"Well," Silver smiled playfully, "I'm having a bit of trouble with the 'away'."
Kat turned to glare at him, "Would it help you better in I add 'an insult' at the end?"
He shrugged as he walked closer, "Don't know, why don't you try it?"
Kat rolled her eyes, "Why can't you leave me alone?"
"Because, sooner or later, you're going to have to tell someone why you're so mad at the guys from the other world."
"Why? You want to know why I'm mad?" Her voice got loader as she turned to looked at the window again, "Because they're were supposed to be help! What can they do besides get themselves killed!"
Silver shook his head, "I'm not asking for the answer you're going to give Magnus and Cy. I want the truth."
Kat was quiet for a moment, she knew she could never lie to Silver, not matter how much she like to pretend she could. When she spoke again her voice was soft, "Did you see her? The other me. The way she was standing so close to Avalanche? They probably think their love is so forbidden." She swallowed, "At least he is alive in her world. She doesn't have to remember his death day and night. She can hold him."
A lone tear slipped from her one good eye. "I hate having to see what I can never have."
Silver pulled her in him arms, holding her close. "I know how you feel."
"No you don't!" Kat pulled away from him. "Have you ever been in love with someone? Someone you can't hold because that someone was killed!"
Silver looked at her sadly, "No, but I know something worse."
"Yeah? What?" Kat asked sarcastically.
Silver stepped closer to her, "To love someone, someone very much alive and be able to hold her. But the only thing in the way is that she can't let go of the past, and for this reason you have to watch that person die inside a little bit everyday."
"Silver," She looked down sadly, "We've talked about this."
Silver reached out his hand under his chin and pulled her face up to look at him. "I'm sick of talking about it." He whispered as he leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.
Kat put her hands on his chest, planning on pushing him away, but instead of doing that she found herself pulling him closer. She moved her hands up to wrap around his neck, as her leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her lower half of her waist. He pulled her closer, raising her up slightly, giving them easier access to each other.
It was heaven for both of them; their kiss was long and deep. And it ended all too soon.
Kat phased out his grasp, eyes wide. She slowly started to walk away.
"Kat." Silver reached out for her.
Kat turned and started to run away.
Silver sighed and ran after, using his super speed to stop right in front of her.
"You can't run away from this again." Silver stood firm, determine to not let go.
"Watch me." Kat started to walk around him, and he stepped there blocking her.
"You know I love you! I've accepted it. Why are you denying what you feel?" He asked.
Kat looked up at sadly, "I stopped denying it to myself, my feelings of love for you." She looked down again, trying to hold back the tear, "But I choose not to act on them" With that said, Kat phased through him, running away.
Silver knew he could catch her, but chose not to. He just stood there with his shoulders slumped.
Yeah, love hurt...a lot.
Wagner yelled out, "Stick together, everyone."
Wagner looked around worried. He was too tired to teleport a group this large again. And he knew the other Kurt wasn't strong enough.
Out of the blue an optic red blast shot under several of the soldiers, making them fly in all direction. Wagner looked at Scott and saw his surprise look. If he didn't do it, that means..
"Thank God!!!" Wagner shouted.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew and several more (standing) men were missing their guns. When the 'wind' stopped, there stood a man with a mischievous grin, and large pile of guns next to him. He held two of the guns in his hands and pointed them to the soldiers, "Now, I know this gun were made for mutants to lose their powers, so the won't do any damage to you," he gave them a wicked smile, "but I'm betting they'll still hurt like heck."
At this time, Cy pushed the other remaining men over towards Silvers pile. "We surrender." Mumbled one of them meekly.
Silver gasped, "Do you? Do you really? Thank goodness, because I was beginning to wonder, I just don't know what we would have done if you didn't open your lousy good for nothing human mouth and tell us!" He yelled in the guys face.
"The question is, what should we do with them?" Cy said, glaring at all of them from under his visor.
"Ya, now that's the tricky part, if Jeannie were here..." Silver stopped himself but a little too late.
Cy turned to him with clenched fists. "But she's not, now is she? Nevermind, have any ideas Silver?"
Silver put his hand to his chin and started looking around, he stopped as he saw Jean. A second later Jean felt someone grab her hand, and a second after that she was standing in front of Scott's duplicate, holding the hand of Pietro's duplicate.
Cy looked at her with shock, he almost thought he was dreaming, then he remember, the parallel world plan. For a moment he found himself wishing that it was a dream, and that it was just the two of them, that is, his Jeannie.
Silver smiled. "Look what I found. Jeannie junior, and we can use her." Cy nodded, then turned away to hide his pain from her, but Jean felt it.
"Okay." Silver pushed her in front of the group of fearful humans. "Go for it."
"What?" She looked at him puzzled.
"You know," he held his hand out toward the humans. "Wipe their minds."
"What?" She just stared at this very strange Pietro, with a tinge of fear.
He looked a little impatient. "Do what you do, wipe their minds. You know, empty, insane, clean um out so you can see clear through one ear, make em go, cuckoo." She just stood there with a confused looked. "Come on." He said in an annoyed voice.
Wagner stepped up. "No Silver, she can't. She's younger in years and powers than Jeannie was. She's not ready to try that. None of them can."
Silver stilled looked puzzled, and Cy remained silent, showing no emotion.
"Then what are they here for? We don't need babies. We need soldiers." A voice came from the fog as a girl emerged. She looked like Kitty but a little older, in more outrageous clothes, and with a patch over her eye.
Cy turned to her, "Kat, we need their help."
Pietro, a little offended zipped into the group. "No, no I don't think you do need us according to 'Kat' here, she take care of them herself, can't you KittyKat?"
She moved towards him menacingly. Cy put a hand on her shoulder. Kat smirked and looked at Silver, "I guess you're a smart mouth in every world, aren't you?" She glared at Pietro.
Silver shrugged. "Oh I don't know, it's a gift, really."
"Enough!" Cy stepped up to the group. "You guys have two options. Either, I can vaporate you now, or we can have Wagner send you to Mutant Isle, and let you stick it out there. What'll it be boys?"
The humans said nothing. Either way, they would probably end up dying. Cy looked around at the surprised X-Men.
Kat, who was sick of standing silent and glaring at the humans chimed in. "Why don't we just feed them to the arachnids?" The humans gasped in fear. Kat turned to them. "At least you'd stayed alive longer, sure, you would have half your blood sucked out of you every day, but you'd live for a while, enough time to contemplate the things you've done to us!"
Cy, who was obviously the leader, stepped up. "No, for the sake of our new found friends we won't do that. But we do need to get rid of them. Wagner, I know your power is weak, so use Jeannie's mind strength, and throw them out of this world."
Wagner nodded and turned to Jean. "Jean, I am sorry, but we must get rid of them."
Jean nodded. Wagner took her hands. "Just concentrate your mind into mine, and do not let go." Jean placed her hands on his head. The second she did she cringed. It was like her powers were almost combining with Kurts to help energize where he was low. She was linking their minds. Wagner reached his hands out and grabbed her, aware that she was about to collapse from a loss of power. A second later the group of humans disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and Jean collapsed, completely unconscious.
Cy nodded. "She'll be alright. Come on, lets get out of sight."
**************************************
Magnus looked at the decaying wasteland. Vast emptiness as far as he could see. "Ugh." He grunted disgusted.
"What is the matter my love?" A soothe voice asked, behind him.
He turned briefly and looked at her, "The same as always, Raven." He turned and looked out the window again, "Disgusted at how mutants have to live."
Raven nodded, understanding. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, from behind. "It's sad, while mutants have to live here in the Savage Land, humans get live in the only place on earth that still has resources."
"Yes." Magnus agreed, "And they throw their own waste here as well. Mutants have to live off their waste." He looked at her, "Do you think it'll ever change?"
Raven sighed, "Maybe, with the help Wagner's bringing." She held him tighter, "I hope so. There are only so many dead children's faces I can stand." She closed her eyes, at the memory of the twelve-year-old mutant she found yesterday.
Magnus opened him mouth to reply but stopped at the angry voice of Kat, downstairs. "What do you mean, you can't change the density of other objects?" Kat yelled at Kitty.
"I mean, that I can't do that!" Kitty defended herself.
"Then -what- can you do?"
Kitty shrugged, "I can phase through things."
Kat looked at her annoyed, "That's it! That's all you can do!!! You mean to tell me that you're barely in the beginning stages of your powers!"
"Um...yes." Kitty mumbled, embarrassed.
Kat glared at the rest of the room, "Are all of you in the first stages?"
Storm stepped forward, "You must understand, we are from a completely different world."
Kat rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever!"
"Wagner." A voice boomed.
They all turned and saw a man and blue-skinned woman that resembled Magneto and Mystique. Wagner stepped forward, "Hello, Magnus. I have returned."
Magnus looked at the new comers, "Is this the help you found?"
"Help?" Kat asked sarcastically, "What help?" She glared at the kids, "We needed soldiers, these are just a bunch of X-babies." She looked at Scott, "What's the count of the number of humans you've killed?"
Scott's eyes widen, "Zero!"
"Zero?!" This time it was Silver that shrieked.
Xavier wheeled forward, interrupting, "The X-men don't kill." It was a simple fact and the most important rule.
Kat turned her all her attention towards him, "You were always a weak and foolish man, Xavier. That's why you were one of the first that went down."
"That's enough!" Cy stepped in before Kat got real ugly.
Kat glared at him, challenging him. He glared back accepting the challenge. They stared down each other for a few moments, before Kat huffed and stomped off, indicating that Cy won.
Silver watched her huff off. He looked at his father, "I better check on her." He mumbled, as he ran after her.
"Gosh, why is she like that?" Kitty asked after they were gone.
Raven stepped forward, "Don't mind Kat. She was raised by Sabertooth then later by Wolverine." She placed a hand on Kitty's shoulder, "Not to mention Kat never had the easiest of lives."
"Yeah, well," Cy said, "You try to go through life knowing that one of your best friends and the love of your life is dead and it's all your fault."
"But it's not Kat's fault," A soft, southern voice called out. They all turned and saw a woman and two men walking up.
"I don't dink dats what he meant, chere." On of the men answered.
"Yeah, Ro." The other man spoke, "Cy meant nothing bad, just what he thinks Kat feels, though hes probably mixing her feelings with hi...someone elses."
'Ro' was obviously Rouge. The first man was unfamiliar, and the second must be Iceman, being that the man was 'iced up'.
Ro noticed the unconscious woman in Scott's arms, "You wanna lay her down somewhere?"
"Yes, please." Scott smiled at the woman.
"Come on."
"No wait!" Cy stopped them, "I'll take her." He grabbed Jean from Scott's arms. With Jean in his arms, Cy started to walk out of the room.
Scott glared at his back, "I'll come too." He said as he walked behind him.
Cy turned to open his mouth in reply, but after a pause he closed it and nodded.
After they were gone, Magnus turned towards Xavier, "Thank you for coming. As you can see we desperately need help."
Xavier nodded, understandingly, "Maybe we can talk privately and you may explain the full situation."
"Please follow me." Magnus replied as he started to walk towards his office. Raven came behind Xavier, and helped, pushing him. Storm and Logan gave each other a look and followed them.
The rest of the students and the brotherhood members stood there, not sure what to do.
Ro smiled and looked at her companies, "What ya say, Remy? Ice? Should we give then a tour?"
Ice smiled, "Yeah, let's split them up."
"Da." Wagner agreed, "Get Tabby to come and help."
And so the groups of kids were separated.
Ro got Rogue, Spyke and Ray.
Remy got Kitty, Lance, and Pietro.
Wagner got Kurt, Toad, Blob and Beast.
Ice got Bobby, Amara, Rahne, and Sunspot.
And Boomer got Tabitha, Sam and Jamie.
*******************************************
Cy laid Jean carefully on the small bed.
"Will she be all right?" Scott asked behind him.
Cy studied her, "Yeah, if she's anything like my Jeannie, she will be."
Scott nodded, relived. He noticed the way Cy was trying to make her as comfortable as possible.
Scott stepped forward, slightly blocking Cy from Jean, "But she's not your Jeannie."
Cy stared at him for a moment then turned away. "Yeah, sure, never said she was."
Scott turned his attention towards Jean on the bed. He smiled fondly as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He was so worried when he watched her fall unconscious earlier.
He heard Cy chuckle behind him. "What?" He glared at him.
Cy shook his head, "Nothing, it's just I'm finally seeing what they meant." He sat on a nearby chair.
"Seeing what?" Scott asked as he sat on the bed, besides Jean.
Cy sighed, remembering, "The team use to tease me about when I used to act like that." He answered pointing to Scott and Jean.
Scott's eyebrows knitted, confused, "Act like what?"
"Whenever something happened to Jeannie, even if it was something as small as a headache. I would stand like you did just a second ago."
Scott still had no idea what Cy was talking about. "Stand like what?"
Cy sighed. "Tense, on guard. Making sure she's fine. Glaring at everybody, except at her. Almost like it's everyone else's fault she was in any way uncomfortable, yet at the same time never loosing that look of sincere love and admiration."
Scott nodded, finally understanding. And he had to admit he noticed that he too would do that with his own teammates.
There was a long silence, before Scott broke it.
"So," Scott asked cautiously, "What did happen to your Jeannie?"
Cy closed his eyes in pain, "She was killed." He stood up, angrily. He started to walk towards the door.
Cy had already reached the door and opened it, when Scott had spoken again.
"How?" Scott whispered
Cy turned his head halfway, but still not facing Scott, "She was tortured by," He said his next word with venom and hatred, "humans." And he walked out.
Scott's sigh, "What world have we come to?" He asked himself.
"Scott?" Jean's soft voice called for him.
******************************************
Magnus sat behind his desk, with Raven standing beside him, leaning in his chair. Across from him, sat Storm who was next to Xavier. Logan stood behind them, arms crossed.
"Well, what is it you want to know?" Raven asked the three.
"Everything." Xavier replied in his calm voice.
Magnus nodded, "It all started many years ago. Life was in a 'tense' state, being that mutants were recently exposed. We, to the humans, were too different to understand. So they reacted the same way they always do when they're afraid. They tried to get rid us."
He paused, as if remembering, "Soon, all world government combined money and work force to evacuate Genosha. They then demanded for all mutants to move there. They claimed it was so humans would slowly become comfortable with the fact that mutants exist. And like blind fools we came. And at the first couple of years everything seemed fine. It seemed we had all the support of the governments. They even told us, humans were starting to accept us. But then their true attentions were reveled, sadly it was too late."
Magnus closed his eyes at the painful memory. Raven placed her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him. She looked at Xavier as continued Magnus story.
"The humans were building Sentinels." She saw their confused looks and explained, "Sentinels don't exist in your world, eh? Lucky you. Sentinels are these...giant robots. They are designed to track down mutants and destroy them."
Xavier's eyes widen, already knowing what had happened.
"Yes, Xavier. The humans sent the Sentinels to Genosha to kill us all."
Magnus stood up, angrily. He turned his back towards them, looking out the window. He spoke in a low and angry voice, "They had planed it all along. They got us all in one place, gave us false hope, and then stabbed us from behind." He turned to look at Xavier, "Obviously some of us managed to survive. The humans weren't planning on that. Those who survived will always have those images of that fateful day. We'll never forget the screams, the blood. We'll never forget the stench of death that lasted for days. We rose above the ashes, with a new determination."
Raven sat on top on Magnus desk, legs crossed, "So ever since then we've been in this war."
"Will you help us?" Magnus asked stepping forward.
"Of course." Xavier nodded.
"But," Storm interrupted, "How exactly are we going to help?"
Raven smiled wickedly, "Ever heard of 'eye for an eye'?"
********************************************
Love hurts, that's Kat's phrase. It was what she always felt after...certain past incidents.
Kat looked out to the land. 'Dead like everything in my life,' Kat thought bitterly.
"So, are you going to bite my head off too?" A sarcastic voice asked.
"Go away, Silver." Kat didn't bother to turn around, she knew it was him.
Silver sighed, "So, why are you bitter about the world now?"
"What part of 'go away' didn't you understand? The 'go' or the 'away'?" She snarled.
"Well," Silver smiled playfully, "I'm having a bit of trouble with the 'away'."
Kat turned to glare at him, "Would it help you better in I add 'an insult' at the end?"
He shrugged as he walked closer, "Don't know, why don't you try it?"
Kat rolled her eyes, "Why can't you leave me alone?"
"Because, sooner or later, you're going to have to tell someone why you're so mad at the guys from the other world."
"Why? You want to know why I'm mad?" Her voice got loader as she turned to looked at the window again, "Because they're were supposed to be help! What can they do besides get themselves killed!"
Silver shook his head, "I'm not asking for the answer you're going to give Magnus and Cy. I want the truth."
Kat was quiet for a moment, she knew she could never lie to Silver, not matter how much she like to pretend she could. When she spoke again her voice was soft, "Did you see her? The other me. The way she was standing so close to Avalanche? They probably think their love is so forbidden." She swallowed, "At least he is alive in her world. She doesn't have to remember his death day and night. She can hold him."
A lone tear slipped from her one good eye. "I hate having to see what I can never have."
Silver pulled her in him arms, holding her close. "I know how you feel."
"No you don't!" Kat pulled away from him. "Have you ever been in love with someone? Someone you can't hold because that someone was killed!"
Silver looked at her sadly, "No, but I know something worse."
"Yeah? What?" Kat asked sarcastically.
Silver stepped closer to her, "To love someone, someone very much alive and be able to hold her. But the only thing in the way is that she can't let go of the past, and for this reason you have to watch that person die inside a little bit everyday."
"Silver," She looked down sadly, "We've talked about this."
Silver reached out his hand under his chin and pulled her face up to look at him. "I'm sick of talking about it." He whispered as he leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.
Kat put her hands on his chest, planning on pushing him away, but instead of doing that she found herself pulling him closer. She moved her hands up to wrap around his neck, as her leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her lower half of her waist. He pulled her closer, raising her up slightly, giving them easier access to each other.
It was heaven for both of them; their kiss was long and deep. And it ended all too soon.
Kat phased out his grasp, eyes wide. She slowly started to walk away.
"Kat." Silver reached out for her.
Kat turned and started to run away.
Silver sighed and ran after, using his super speed to stop right in front of her.
"You can't run away from this again." Silver stood firm, determine to not let go.
"Watch me." Kat started to walk around him, and he stepped there blocking her.
"You know I love you! I've accepted it. Why are you denying what you feel?" He asked.
Kat looked up at sadly, "I stopped denying it to myself, my feelings of love for you." She looked down again, trying to hold back the tear, "But I choose not to act on them" With that said, Kat phased through him, running away.
Silver knew he could catch her, but chose not to. He just stood there with his shoulders slumped.
Yeah, love hurt...a lot.