Plans and a Thorn

Logan peered around the corner. "What time is it?"
"How should I know?" Koda answered. "Last I heard it was about seven, a little past? But time means nothing to the blind."
Logan rolled his eyes. "There's no one here. I can't smell anyone, not even upstairs, there is no one here Koda."
"What do you mean no one here?"
"I mean there is absolutely no one here at this school except you and me."
"No," she shook her head. "That can't be right, Satine was upstairs,"
"She's not there, I can't smell that peppermint oil she loves to wear, I can't even smell that cologne Scott wears. There is no one here!" he insisted.
Just then Kurt appeared, he turned around and sighed when he saw them.
"There you two are!" He said. "Professor was worried that you two were already attacked!"
"Attacked?" Logan asked. "By whom?"

Kurt shrugged. "We don't know, all of a sudden we were transported out of the mansion and into a field not to far from here."
"Why did you come back?" Logan asked.
"I was sent here to get you two and Jackson."
"Jackson?" Koda asked.
"Yes, he is the only other person who was not transported by whoever." Kurt nodded.
Koda gasped. "Kurt, can you go back to the field and get Satine and Jak for me?"
"I came here to get you two and take you back."
Koda shook her head. "No, we have to figure out what is going on."
Logan snorted. "We? What we?"
"Fine, me. I have to find out what is going on, nothing has made any sense tonight. Jackson was in the bathroom saying he was flossing corn skins out of his teeth from his dinner when he had had McDonalds for dinner, then I fought Logan on the stairs but Logan said it wasn't the real him because he had just gotten back and Satine had said that Jackson wasn't in the bathroom a couple minutes prior to me being in there. Then everyone from the mansion is somehow transported to a field not so far from here, something attacks the other day at lunch and when Jackson attacked it, it still came after me even though it was closer to Jackson."
"Whoa wait, are you suggesting that Jackson is a traitor?"
Koda nodded. "That is exactly what I am suggesting." Kurt disappeared and teleported back a minute later with Satine and Jak.
"Koda, I've been looking all over for you." Jak said. "Where were you."
"Have any of you talked to Jackson lately?" Koda asked.
"No," they said.
"After you left the bathroom I went in there and Jackson wasn't in there." Satine said. "Koda, what is going on?"
"I don't know," she shrugged and thought for a long moment. "Satine?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when you got mad at us about four years ago and you ran away?"
"Yeah."
"How long were we apart?"
"Two weeks, before I came back."
"What about when we were taken by social services, how long were we apart then?"
"A week and a half, so what?"
"Jak,"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when we got in that lot of trouble with racing?"
"Against the Sharks in Los Angeles? Yeah I remember that."
"When we spilt up to save ourselves, how long were we apart?"
He shrugged. "A week, two at most."
Satine giggled. "We have never been apart more then two weeks, we always fought to get together again."
"Then why did Jackson stay in St. Petersburg for two years?" Koda asked.
They fell silent.
"Are you suggesting that Jackson." Satine couldn't finish.
"I fought Logan on the stairs, but Logan says it wasn't him, you said Jackson wasn't in the bathroom prior to me, yet he was in there when I was, lying about what he was doing, and after I left you said you went in there and again he wasn't there."
"He wasn't, there was no sign whatsoever that anyone was in there but you."
"What sign did I leave?"
"You left your little compact computer in there."
"I don't have a compact computer."
"You don't? But, it was there. I thought it was just a make-up compact then when I opened it; I saw it was really a little computer. So I left it there, I figured you would be back for it."
"Did you close it?"
Satine sighed. "No, I left it open." She covered her face with her hands. "It was a transporter wasn't it?"
"Whoever was in there knew that you would open it and leave it open." Koda nodded.
"Are you saying Jackson betrayed us?" Jak asked.
"It can't be Jackson," Koda said. "Odd-Quad never stays away from each other for such a long time and yet he has been away from us for two years. Jackson was the man who started this group; he is the one who is bitching to keep it together, who is the one to plan everything from eating, to sleeping to finding the member who was kidnapped. Jackson would never leave us for such a long period of time, why would he choose now to leave us like that? Right after a mission like that where we blitzed to survive, why would he leave us?"
Jak shook his head. "He wouldn't."
"Damned right." Koda pointed out.
"Which means he's dead?" Satine gasped.
"We've been played for the fool all along. I believe he was captured and tortured, but he didn't tell them anything and they killed him. Then some morph takes him form, knowing that one of us would find Professor Xavier and have him use Cerebro to locate everyone, and then he just waited. When the X-Men picked him up he unfolded an elaborate story and unraveled it to us. We believed him because he looked, sounds and smelled like our Jackson, why should we question him?"
Jak covered his eyes with his hands; Satine leaned back on the wall, having trouble absorbing the truth as Koda saw it.
"But," Satine started. "But what if you are wrong?"
"What?"
"What if this really is Jackson, and he is just being channeled through to act like this? The Professor is strong enough to influence people's mind and act through them, so what if that is happening to Jackson?"
Koda shook her head again. "No, Jackson was never psychic. When Logan and that cloaked thing were fighting I thought I heard you Jak beside me forcing on my braces, but when I asked Logan he said it was Jackson."
"Did you see where he went after that?" Jak asked.
"No," Logan shook his head. "He was there, then he wasn't."
"But after the braces were put on me I saw Logan and the cloaked thing, the image was projected into my mind. How could I hear Jak, yet it be Jackson, and still yet see the image projected into my mind when Jackson is not psychic?"
Jak shrugged. "So it is a morph?"
"It has to be, what else can it be?"
"A clone?" Satine asked, lifting her head to look at them. "A super clone perhaps?"
Logan raised his hand for silence. "If we have to continue this conservation, might I suggest we continue it elsewhere?"
"Why?" Jak asked.
"Someone is here."
Koda inclined her head and listened intently.
"This doesn't feel right." Logan breathed.
Footsteps echoed though the hallway. They were slow and steady, patient and searching, and then they stopped.
"Get out of here," Logan whispered.
"Hello," a voice said. "What are you all doing? Why are you hiding around the corner?"
"Why don't you come out?" Logan asked.
"No, you'll attack me, because you don't know who I am or why I am here, thus you'll attack and I might get hurt." The voice said as if it meant little.
"Why are you here?" Koda asked.
"You're the blind one right?" the voice asked. "I remember hearing so much about you."
"Who are you?"
"Jackson told me about you before I. I. uh."
Koda stepped out from behind the corner. "Before you 'uh' what?"
The voice belonged to a lean young man with straight black hair that fell around his face to his shoulders. He was tall, with dark skin and empty gray eyes. He smiled at her knowing she did not see him.
"Hello Koda, it is good to see you."
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded.
"My name is Loki, but I am not like the God I was named after I assure you."
"Where did you come from?"
"Big bang? Primordial ooze? Divine hand of a benevolent creator? All possibilities, although recent events have given me doubts...about the benevolent creator." Loki hissed.
Koda stepped back. "Why are you here?"
Loki shrugged. "The only reason I can give you, is that I was sent here to kill you," there was a flash of light; Koda merely caught the sound of gasping, yet she ignored it. "But I had the driving need to disobey. You're friends are gone Koda."
"I know." She nodded. "So why aren't you killing me?"
"I told you, a driving need to disobey. I saw Jackson, after they had captured him. It was my job to become him, to come find the Odd-Quad and kill them before any information could be passed to the American government." Loki sighed. "But I was too late, your people had already gotten to you and Satine and Jak. So they tortured Jackson, they had to know where you three went. He wouldn't talk and the torture killed him. Then I was made to be him, to learn how he was, and then I was to go to America and find you three and kill you. But I had luck, you went to Professor Xavier, Samara said you would do that."
"Who's Samara?"
"A fellow worker," Loki said. "We work for the same man, Samara is the woman who attacked you."
"And where do you play in?" Koda asked. "Were you really posing as Jackson?"
"I was." Loki nodded. "I had to."
"So when Samara attacked, why did you shock it with your lightening?"
"I told you twice already Koda, you are blind, not deaf. It was my need to disobey. Because I saw you, and Satine and Jak, and through Jackson's mind I remembered everything you four did together. I have his memories, though it is as if they are a movie in my mind I am merely watching over and over. I know you won't believe me Koda, that's why when I put those braces on your wrists I made my voice sound like Jak's because you would believe his voice. Yes I was in the bathroom, I put the transporter there because I knew Samara and her boss would be here tonight and I thought it better if the mansion was empty, why have a hundred innocent children slaughtered for only four teenagers?"
Koda shook her head. "I don't understand any of this."
"Of course you don't." Loki shivered. "I wasn't expecting you to." He sighed heavily. "Okay, let me start over. I am Loki; I am a Russian gypsy, born with the mutation of morphing and telepathy. I was enlisted to the Mutant regime of Russia three years ago against my will. I was promised if I did as I was told I would be set free. Then I realized, not so long ago, be set free to what? I was taken from the streets, would I have to go back there? Was that worth it? So I thought, I would get myself to America on a mission and I would leave. So I did, but this mission I was set up to do, I don't want to leave, but I don't want to be on their side. I want to help you Koda, you Satine and Jak because I remember how much Jackson loved you three. I know you are not going to believe that I want to help, but I do."
Koda shook her head. "How can I trust you? You are apart of the Russian Mutant Regime and you were sent to kill me. How do I know that this isn't some scheme to get closer to me and kill me?"
Loki stepped up to her and looked down at her. "If I wanted you dead, then I would have let Samara do her job, but I struck her didn't I?"
"To what help?"
"And in the hall, I gave you the braces and the image."
"No, the image was distorted, it switched the people around, I cut Logan instead of the cloaked thing."
"Her name is Samara and she is also psychic to a limit, she probably turned it around."
"And then you left."
"I had to, Samara is stronger then me, she'd kill me had she a chance."
"Why didn't he just attack you at lunch when she attacked me?"
"Because her mission is to first, kill you. Everything is secondary to that." Loki explained.
"You know, I've only known you as yourself for a few minutes and already you are a thorn in my side."
Loki laughed. "I don't have to be, if you believe me, I can help you."
Koda put her hands on her hips.
"Just listen to what I have to offer, if you like it then we can work together, if not, then you can go out by yourself, but there are worse things out there than me right now. I am not your problem Koda, Samara and Crystal are."
"Crystal?"
"The Boss."
Koda nodded. "I'm listening."