AN: This part is a bit longer, and we're really getting into some good stuff here! I live off of reviews by the way, so please don't let me starve! ^_^
"Kitty! Are you okay?" called Kurt, as if from far away. But the arm shaking her shoulder was close enough. It broke her eye contact with Lance, who lay unconscious in her arms.
"Huh?" she asked, shaking her head.
"You vere zoning out. Ve've been on ze ground for a few minutes now. I told ze others to take the new kids to zeir rooms, but you are ze leader Kitty. Zey are going to have to hear about life here from you." Kurt sighed, seeing that her gaze had once again shifted to the unconscious rock-tumbler. "I know you're vorried about him, liebschön. Come on, let me take you both down to ze medical wing?" he asked, offering his hand.
"Oh…okay. Yeah," she said distractedly.
Without another word, Kurt gathered them in his arms and teleported to the medical center two floors down. It wasn't very big, but the facilities were pretty much top-notch, assembled from various hospitals they'd raided. Unethical, yes, but so was just letting wounded teammates die. Luckily, they had a doctor who had been fired from her hospital when the Mutant Registration Act had passed, and had found her way to Kitty's band of mutant outlaws. Kennedy Jackson had been an ER doctor, until frightened and angry humans had taken away her life. All she'd wanted to do was make a difference. That's all any of them wanted to do. She was relieved to have found a place where she could live without the fear of that mob…but her dreams were another matter.
Dr. Jackson turned around the second she heard the *bamf* that meant they had an injured mutant back from assignment. It wasn't a common occurrence; usually people used the main entrance. "Kurt, Kitty," she greeted with a nod, her long brown braids bobbing. "Who's that? And what's wrong with him?"
"Lance…" said Kitty, still exhausted and half out of it.
"He's an old friend of Kitty's. I have no idea vhat happened to him. He vas like this when I got them both out," replied Kurt, setting Lance's emaciated body on an available gurney.
Dr. Jackson immediately checked the man's heart rate and temperature. His breathing was slow and shallow, and he was burning with fever. She didn't think she'd need to put him on a ventilator, but if his breathing didn't grow stronger she might have to. He'd make it though. His heartbeat was strong, and he had the look of a man who could survive no matter what the odds. She turned to face Kitty. "I wouldn't worry about him; I expect he'll recover in a few days at most. Just leave him here; I'll see that he gets my undivided attention. You can visit whenever you want, Kitty."
"Thanks, doctor. Come on Kitty let's get you to your room. You need to rest now," said Kurt gently, not wanting to drag her away. Kitty was always like this whenever someone got hurt on her watch, but it was even worse now. Kurt almost wondered why, but he knew that they had a complicated past. He just didn't think—no, didn't want to think—that she had feelings for him after all this time. "Come on," he repeated. "Ve'll valk zis time. It's not far."
"I know, Kurt. I just…. Thank you, Kennedy. I'll be back to see him later."
"Of course, just see that you get some rest first. You look like you're asleep on your feet."
Kitty just nodded. The doctor wasn't far wrong. Her ordeal had drained her, and now that she knew Lance was in capable hands, it was time for some rest. She let Kurt half-carry her to her quarters in the residential wing.
**
Jewel Rhodes sat on her bed and concentrated on finding. The guy Kitty was so worked up over was in the med wing, and either unconscious or asleep. She could sense something slightly off about his mind. It didn't feel right to her probe, and even though her telepathy was very weak, she could tell that there was something wrong with him. She just didn't know what, and that bothered her. Who knows what those military guys had done to his head. Jewel had heard stories she didn't want to believe about experiments done on mutants; the government trying to exploit the powers of mutants without having to deal with their personality. She shivered.
Maybe it was just because he was sleeping, she reasoned. Maybe, but she doubted it. She had to tell Kitty. They had to consider the possibility that he was a threat. Jewel hoped for Kitty's sake he wasn't…. So she monitored the sleeping mutant as she walked down the hall to Kitty's room.
"Kitty," said Jewel through the doorcom, "it's me, Jewel. Are you awake?" There was no response from inside the room, so she tried again. "Kitty, I really have to talk to you."
A few seconds later the door opened, revealing a slightly disheveled Kitty Pryde. Her long brown hair was bed mussed, and Jewel knew she must have woken her up from some much needed sleep. "Sorry for waking you, Boss, but I have to tell you about that guy you brought in. I was checking for you to see if he was okay, but I detected something…off. In his mind, I mean. I thought you needed to know, in case he could be a danger. I-I've heard stories about stuff the military does to mutants…."
Kitty's sleep-dulled blue eyes sprang open, and filled with worry. She trusted her team's instincts, and if Jewel said something was wrong, Kitty believed her. "He's been in their custody for seven years…it's entirely possible that they could have tried to do something to him. I guess we need to check out that possibility." Kitty's eyes filled with tears, something Jewel had never ever wanted to see. Kitty was the leader. She was supposed to be strong. Yet her worry for this guy made her lose control. Jewel knew then that they had to set it right, or else Kitty would never recover.
**
Kitty was half thankful to have been awoken. Her dreams had taken her back to seven years ago…to the time the war had begun. After the Mutant Registration Act had passed unanimously, the world had changed, and not for the better. The government had eventually given free rein to the armed forces to try to stop the escalating "mutant menace." They didn't realize that the protests and violent activates were a direct result of the laws passed. The mutants were terrified, and they did what they did to make themselves feel safer. Even the efforts of the X-Men were to no avail when the military reinstated Trask's creation: the Sentinels.
Oh they had tried to fight them, but with government approval and the glory of mass production it was hopeless. For every Sentinel they took out, two more replaced it. Even joining forces with both the Brotherhood and Magneto had come to nothing. In one decisive strike, the military had either killed or captured most of them. Kitty had watched her friends, so close they were almost a second family, being shackled and chained, and led off to a holding facility for who knew what purpose. She never forgot that day. She wouldn't allow herself to forget that day. As much as the X-Men had dreamed of a world where humans and mutants could co-exist, she had to live in the real world now. And the real world was ugly and cruel.
Jewel had said that there had been experiments conducted on mutants, and Kitty knew that to be true. She had rescued a few mutants from places like that, and the experience had been…well, she didn't want to re-live it. The thought that those bastards had done something to Lance made her stomach turn in revulsion. How one human being could do that to another was something that boggled her mind.
"If you made physical contact with him, could you tell what's wrong?" asked Kitty.
"Maybe," replied the younger girl, "but no guarantees. I'll get a clearer picture, but I don't know if I'll be able to see what's wrong with him just from that."
"It's worth a shot though. If there is something wrong, maybe we can fix it before anything happens."
Jewel nodded, and they walked down several corridors that led to the other side of the building where the medical center was located. When they entered, they found the place empty except for Lance and Dr. Jackson, who was giving her a disapproving look.
"Kitty, I thought I told you to get some rest," said Kennedy firmly, but not unkindly.
"I did, but Jewel has brought something to my attention that I needed to have checked out right away. She sensed something off about Lance's mind. We suspect that they did something to him while he was imprisoned."
"All right, check him out…but I'm warning you, if you don't get some rest I'll slip some sleeping pills in your supper," the older lady said with a wink. "I put him in the isolation room because he was jerking about in his sleep. I was actually about to go check on him again to make sure he's calmed down."
The isolation room was down at the very end of the hall of beds, and closed off from the others so that a contagious person couldn't spread their sickness. It was comfortable, with soothing pale mauve walls and an actual bed, as opposed to one of those rickety metal hospital beds in the main hall. Lance's pale form was nestled in the cream sheets, and he looked a bit better. Like heck, Kitty thought, a small step up from Hell.
She examined the face she'd traced in her mind so many times over the past seven years. It was gaunter than she'd remembered, and he had several weeks' growth of a beard disguising the lower half of his face. His hair was just as warm a chocolate brown as she'd remembered, but much longer. Dr. Jackson had taken off that horrible ratty hospital shirt, and dressed him in some pajama pants they had laying around. He needed a bath dreadfully.
Jewel looked to Kitty as if for permission. "Go ahead," she said, and the younger girl put her hands on his unclothed shoulders and closed her eyes. Her breathy gasp signaled Kitty that Jewel was inside. From past experience, Kitty knew that the telepath worked slowly, as her gift didn't allow for brute force, and subtlety took time. She just wished she had the power to see inside that boy's mind, for she had never been able to tell what he was thinking. But then again, had she been a telepath, she'd be in a cage like most of the rest, including Professor Xavier. Even his immense telepathic power had been unable to save him from being taken like the others. Kitty had vowed she'd find him and the rest of her friends one day, but who knew how long it would take, and what they'd do to them in the meantime…