The Uncanny X-Men
Coming Back from the Dead
John lifted Isabella off the floor, and onto the sofa, and Scott ran over.
"What happened?" demanded Scott.
"I just told her who Dr. Grey was and she fainted," said Rogue.
Jean carefully inched over, saw Isabella's face, put her hand to her mouth, and gasped.
"Jean, can you--" he saw her face. "Jean?"
Jean turned around and ran. Bobby gently slapped her face, and Isabella slowly opened her eyes.
"What-- what happened?" asked Isabella.
"You fainted," answered John.
"Me? Faint? Why-it-it can't be," she whispered.
"What can't be?" asked Scott.
"Nothing, my imagination got away with me."
"That doesn't cause you to faint."
"I thought someone was someone else. It's nothing."
"All right, but just in case, go get something to eat."
"Okay."
John took Isabella to the kitchen, and they ate together, then John walked her to her room, where Rogue, Jubilee, and Kitty were waiting.
"Maybe I could give you the tour tomorrow?" he suggested.
"I'd like that. Good night, John."
They kissed, and she went into the room. The three were sitting on her bed.
"I'm Jubilation Lee," said the Chinese- American girl.
"And I'm Kitty Pride," said a girl with brown hair.
"I'm Isabella."
"Cool. So, we've heard all the rumors about you, so what's true and what's not?" said Jubilee.
"Jubi!" said Rogue.
Isabella laughed.
"It's all right, well, what have you heard?" said Isabella.
"That you used to date Bobby Drake," said Jubilee.
"Not true, we've been friends for a long time, and we'll never be more than that."
"That you totally spent time in the slammer," said Kitty, dramatically.
"True, in NYC, it was only a couple hours, before they took my back to North Carolina. We spent the summer in Boston, and the school year in North Carolina."
They laughed.
"That you've slept with John," said Jubilee.
"I've never had sex with him, but we fell asleep on a friend's sofa together before."
"That you've come here to spy for Magneto."
"Who? I guess that's not true, unless I'm bugged or something."
"Oh, okay, umm.. that you threw you dad through a wall."
"Not true." The looked disappointed. "I pushed him through a wall, I didn't throw him, Suga."
They laughed. They went to sleep that night, talking and gossiping about everyone in school. Isabella didn't see Dr. Grey during the next two weeks; Scott said she wasn't feeling well.
"I wonder why she got sick all of a sudden," said Isabella.
"I dunno, maybe she's pregnant," said John.
"Not with being part of the X-Men."
Rogue ran over and hugged a man who looked like he belonged in a forest. Bobby walked up behind her, jealous.
"We'd better leave them to it," said Isabella, leading John into the TV room, and they watched TV. Soon, the man came in the room and sat at the other end of the sofa. He stared at them. Isabella politely smiled at him.
"I'm Isabella, and this is John."
He looked from one to the other, his stoical expression never changing.
"I'm Logan."
"Oh! So, you're the guy who beat me to the Cyclops material!"
He looked at her, his eyebrows raised.
"Material?"
"About having one eye."
"You were gonna bust on him?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't have resisted if you hadn't beaten me to it."
He laughed, and Isabella snuggled closer to John. Around ten, Isabella and John went to their dorms.
"So, I saw you met Logan," said Rogue, as they lay in their beds, facing each other.
"Yeah, he was serious until I mentioned joking around with Scott about the whole Cyclops thing," said Isabella, yawning.
"Yeah, he thinks it's funny. They don't get along too well," said Rogue, falling asleep.
"It's a territorial thing. I guess it goes with having a penis," said Isabella, also falling asleep.
Kitty and Jubilee laughed, sleepily. Around two AM, Isabella woke to bright lights in the bedroom.
"Jubilee-oh God! Wake up!" she screamed, and ran out of the room, waking up the younger kids in the room to their right, then she headed to the room to their left, but men with big guns were almost to that room, so they had to leave, or they would have gotten them all.
John and Bobby joined Rogue and Isabella in the hall.
"Where's Logan?" asked Rogue.
They found him, alone facing at least a dozen with a fat man in front of him. Bobby put a wall of ice between them. Logan turned around.
"Go! I'll be fine!" he said.
"But we won't!" cried Rogue.
He ran into the secret panel with them, and closed it just as they heard the wall of ice shatter. They made their way into the garage, and they clambered into Scott's car, and they were off down the road.
"Jean and Storm are in Boston, we'll go there," said Logan.
"My parents live in Boston," said Bobby.
"Good."
Isabella still hadn't noticed the old rag doll in her hand, but Bobby did.
"Bella? What's that?"
She opened her hand, and looked at the doll. It was an old rag doll wearing a once- white dress, with red yarn for hair, and brown buttons for eyes.
"It was my sister's. That's why I fainted when you told me Dr. Grey's name. The doll's name is Jean Grey. My mother named it Jean Grey, because my sister had named it Jean, and we'd have to specify which one we wanted. Jean, my sister, loved the Grey Poupon commercials, and the doll's dress was always gray after one week with my sister, so my mom named the doll Jean Grey."
"Oh, well that explains a lot," said Bobby, quietly.
"What happened to your sister?" asked Logan.
"She died. They lost her body at the hospital; they said she must have gotten mixed up in the shipment to the local med school. I didn't want to go looking for it, out of fear that it might be too late."
"I'm sorry," said Rogue.
"It's all right."
Isabella looked around at all of them. She was in boxer shorts and a black tank top, Rogue was in a black nightdress, Logan was still fully dressed, and Bobby and John were in their boxers and t-shirts. Isabella smiled, and put her head on John's shoulder, until they reached Boston. They four teenagers went upstairs to get dressed. Rogue was the only one who didn't put on Bobby's clothes. Isabella was the first one back downstairs. She bent over, looking on the bottom shelves of the refrigerator, as Logan took a drink of beer.
"Y'know, Suga, beer ain't exactly the breakfast o' champions. I wonder where the Drake's are," said Isabella, hidden behind the island and the refrigerator door.
"Right here," said Logan.
Isabella stood up and closed the door.
"Mr. Drake! Mrs. Drake! Ronnie!"
"Isabella, what are you doing here?" asked Mrs. Drake.
"Bobby's up-never mind, here he is."
"I need to tell you something."
They all walked in to the living room and sat down, to hear Bobby's news. He told, and showed, them his secret.
"This is all my fault," said Mrs. Drake.
"Actually, they say that men carry the mutant gene, so it's his fault," said John, nodding at Mr. Drake.
Isabella tried not to laugh, and Mr. Drake looked at her.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Drake," she looked at John. "Actually, Suga, men can't carry genes. They either are or aren't. Women are the carriers. For example: a non- hemophiliac man can father a hemophiliac son, but ONLY if the mother was a carrier. Women are carriers, not men," said Isabella, knowingly.
"Well, someone listened in Bio," said Bobby.
"I had to have a good grade to get into Chemistry." They laughed, as Ronnie stormed out of the room, glaring at Isabella. She stood and went after him. "Ronnie-come back!"
"Stay away you freak!" he yelled at her.
She stopped and looked back at Bobby, Rogue, Logan, and John, who had all skipped a heartbeat. She closed her eyes, and continued up the stairs like a mother who's kid was in a lot of trouble.
"Ronnie, c'mon and open the door, Suga," she said.
"I can't believe you'd do this to me!"
"What did I do?"
"You became a freak! After all we've been through!"
She leaned against his door, and slid down to the floor, so her knees were against her chest.
"Ronnie, I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened, and I can't not be a mutant, it's not possible. I think God's just makin' up for people like my little sister who are devolved."
There was silence for a minute.
"Leave me alone freak!" he shouted.
Isabella put her head in her hands and began to cry.
"I thought you loved me more than that, Mon petit frère."
She walked slowly down the stairs.
"What happened?" asked Bobby.
"Well, he officially hates us. I think he feels left out, or scared, I don't know which."
"Left out? I think I need to have a talk with him. I can't touch anyone, ever!" said Rogue.
"I know that, but he doesn't understand. I even called him 'mon petit frère' and that always works, I'm losing my touch."
"What does that mean?" asked John.
" 'My little brother.' It's French."
"Oh. Why do you call him that?"
"The three of us were so close we might as well have been siblings."
Logan ran back into the house. There were flashing lights in the yard.
"Come out of the house immediately!" John, Bobby, Rogue, Isabella and Logan walked out of the house, Logan's claws out. "Drop the knives, sir. I repeat, drop the knives!"
Logan looked at him.
"I can't."
The officer to their right shot Logan in the head, and Rogue and Isabella screamed, trying not to cry. Bobby, Rogue, and Isabella slowly lowered to the ground.
"You heard of those dangerous kinds of mutants?" asked John.
"John NO!" cried Isabella.
"I'm the worst one."
He threw a mass of fire at the officers on either side of them, and more at two of the police cars. Rogue took off her glove, and took some of John's energy, knocking him to the ground. The X-Men Jet landed in the cul- de- sac. Logan stood up, and began walking to the jet, the four of them behind him, Isabella pissed off at John. The officer who shot Logan looked at him over the hedge, and fainted.
"C'mon Isabella, they would have killed us!" he said.
"Not if you had done what you were supposed to and NOT pose a threat!
"I did it for us!"
"Trying to kill people is not something you do 'for us!' "
"C'mon, Isabella, don't do this!" he begged.
Isabella began to walk up the ramp into the jet.
"Now, we can't get married, because you're wanted for attempted murder! And weren't you saying just last week how you would do everything you could so we could get married, well, THIS ISN'T ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"
She got on the jet. They got in, and they attempted to put on their safety belts, and they all succeeded, except for Rogue, who was still fumbling with hers when they took off. She eventually got it to a point where she thought it was on, but it wasn't.
"Who's he?" asked Logan, pointing to a blue man.
"I'm Kurt Wagner, but in the Munich circus, I was known as the Nightcrawler!"
"Fantastic," said Logan, sarcastically.
Isabella smiled at him, as the back of John's neck got red again.
"I'm Isabella, that's John, that's Bobby, that's Rogue, and that's Logan."
"Hello."
"There are two bogey's on the screen," Storm said.
She did a barrel roll.
"Please don't do that again," said John.
"I agree," said Logan.
"Don't listen to them! That was awesome!" said Isabella, enthusiastically.
She looked outside, and saw at least ten tornadoes around them.
"One down," said Jean.
The other one was destroyed, but not before it had released two missiles. Jean managed to destroy one, but the other was too hard for her. She finally managed to destroy it, but it was right behind the jet, blowing the tail off. Rogue flew out.
"Rogue!" shouted Bobby.
Kurt popped out of the jet, and popped back in with Rogue. Isabella tried to unbuckle her seatbelt.
"What are you doing?" asked John, as she flew out the back of the jet, and to the front where she tried to stop the jet from crashing.
Jean was also trying to stop the jet. All of a sudden, she noticed the back closing up, and the jet stopped. She turned around and saw a blue woman, and an older man dressed in red. He put the jet down, and they all got out, but Isabella stayed in mid-air. She'd gotten a good look at Dr. Jean Grey, and took the doll out of her pocket.
"Come on down, Isabella," said Storm.
"No, not until SHE is gone!" growled Isabella, saying the word 'she' with complete and utter disdain.
"Bella, come down," cooed Jean.
Isabella ignored her and flew up to the top of the nearest tree, crying. Kurt popped up next to her.
"Vat is vong?" he asked, softly.
"Jean was my sister, but I thought she was dead."
"Bella, come down so we can talk," Jean called up to her.
Isabella dropped the doll down to her, and Jean caught it.
"There! I want nothing to do with you!"
The blue woman moved under the tree, and she heard her say, "Let me try," to Jean. She transformed into a beautiful blonde woman. "Carol, Carol Danners, come down here."
Isabella flew down, Kurt following her.
"Misty?"
She turned back to the blue woman, who nodded. They hugged.
"So, that's your sister?" she asked, looking at Jean.
"Yeah, so, how have you been? I haven't seen you since. since I was arrested!"
The two laughed.
"Isabella Maria Anastasia Gwenyth Olga Carmen Moran Sulinski! You were arrested?" demanded Jean.
"You have five middle names?" asked Bobby.
"Six, you miscounted." Mystique laughed. "Jean has just as many. Alexandra Jean Tatiana Elizabeth Helga Celeste Lynn Sulinski.
"You didn't answer my question. You were arrested?" demanded Jean, again.
"You remember that, John?" sighed Isabella.
John laughed.
"Yeah, who'd have thought? You! Arrested for indecent exposure!"
Jean, Bobby, Storm, Rogue, and Logan all stared, open- mouthed.
"We were drunk," explained Isabella.
"Can we talk, now?" asked Magneto, impatiently.
Mystique, Jean, Logan, Storm and Magneto all walked away, leaving the rest of them to pitch tents. Bobby, Rogue, and Kurt walked up to John and Isabella, who were still laughing.
"Indecent exposure?" asked Bobby.
"We were driving around, drunk, late one night, and there were there two double F prostitutes, and Misty and I flashed them to prove we were B&T, unlike them."
"Double F? B&T?" asked Rogue.
"Fat and Flat, and Big and Thin."
"Oh"
Isabella smiled, and they finished up the tents, and went to sleep. The next morning, they all got on the jet, and took off.
"So, you got arrested, what else did you do?" asked Jean.
"Well, I was Goth for a while, binging every weekend. From Friday afternoon to Sunday night, piss drunk. Then, I ran away. I ended up in NYC, that's where I met Tony."
Mystique laughed.
"Ah, how I miss Tony," she said, not meaning a word of it.
"He got me a job, a new name, Carol Danners, fake Ids, and he introduced me to Misty, and I lived with her."
"What was you job? You never told me," lied John, turning on a portable radio.
"I. danced."
"Danced?" asked Jean. "Care to clarify?"
"Misty and I were. er. we were strippers."
Bobby turned around in his chair.
"WHAT?!?!"
The song "Bring Me to Life" came on, and Isabella began to sing the song.
"How-how-how?" stuttered Jean.
Isabella didn't answer until the song was over.
"Tony," said Isabella, simply.
"Why?"
"Because I needed a job."
"Why'd you leave home?"
"Do you know what it's like to hear 'You should be more like Jean.' 'Jean always had straight A's.' 'Jean's room was always clean.' Jean! Jean! Jean"
Jean changed the subject.
"Well, you ran away, became a stripper, what else did you do?"
"Then, I got arrested."
"For indecent exposure."
"For indecent exposure, possession of alcohol, and possession of fake I.D.s. And that was just me."
"You were charged with all that?" inquired Jean, shocked.
"Yes."
"And they didn't lock you away!"
Isabella shot Jean a death glare.
"NO! Because I didn't buy the alcohol or I.D.s, Tony did. I was sentenced to 320 hours of community service."
"And did you complete your time?"
Isabella rolled her eyes.
"Yes. Sixteen hours a day for ten weekends. Two and a half months of pushing around old people, reading and playing with kids, and cleaning up the side of the road, hurling every time I saw roadkill."
"Is that all?"
"Well, fights are imminent at our house. Bobby helped me through the beginning, but then he left, then about two weeks ago, it all came out. We were eating breakfast, and I was kinda out of it. I'd spent all night being Suicide Prevention Hotline for one of my friends, and they'd asked me what I was doing all night on the phone. I said talking to a friend. And they brought up that I had no real friends and they said-never mind, I don't want to talk about it."
Isabella glanced quickly at Bobby.
"C'mon, Bella, you've told us this much," said Bobby.
"But someone here all ready knew about it. No one knows about this, though."
"Bella, I have ways of finding out," said Jean.
"It's not you-oh all right. They said that everyone felt bad for me because you were dead, and Bobby was only my friend because we'd known each other for so long, and he felt bad, because I had no friends, and he went off to school, because that was the only way he could get the hell away from me without hurting my feelings."
Isabella was in tears now, curled up in a ball in her seat. Jean hugged her.
"Bella, I couldn't have stayed."
"I wouldn't've told any one! I didn't tell anyone."
Jean looked at her.
"Told what?"
"That you could move things. I came in to talk to you after that fight you had with Mom and Dad, and I saw everything about two feet off the floor. I left the room, and I never told anyone."
Jean hugged her again.
"You need to rest, you're a wreck."
Isabella looked at her.
"Thanks, Jeannie," she said, sarcastically.
She relaxed and fell asleep. A while later, she stirred, she thrashed in her seat, held down by the safety belt, she whimpered, then screamed. Logan, Bobby, John, Rouge and Jean rushed to her side.
"Don't wake her up!" Jean shouted over Isabella's screams.
"Why? She's screaming!" said Logan.
Isabella screamed louder and clutched her head in pain.
"Do something!" instructed Storm.
"She's in pain!" shouted John.
"Don't wake her up!" repeated Jean.
"Why the hell not?" asked Logan.
"Because she'll die!" Everyone, except Isabella, got quiet. "She and I have this unique ability to see the past, present and future in our dreams. Bella's were always more vivid and accurate than mine."
Isabella opened her eyes and gasped for air.
"Jean, stay away from the water. For God's sake stay away from the God damn water!" Isabella shouted.
Jean hugged her sister.
"Again? I thought I'd escaped that destiny."
Isabella looked at her sister, and shied away from her.
"No, it's too late. It has begun. You've had them, too. I saw the fire in your eyes when you tried to stop the missiles. It has begun. I got you back for one day. ONE DAMN DAY! And it starts!" Jean hugged Isabella, and Isabella closed her eyes and said, in an unearthly voice, " As is the beginning, so as its end. Birth, death, and rebirth of the beloved sister, who's soul will soon be smothered by the ashes of the Phoenix." Isabella opened her eyes. She hugged Jean tightly, and whispered, "You will destroy us all."
John lifted Isabella off the floor, and onto the sofa, and Scott ran over.
"What happened?" demanded Scott.
"I just told her who Dr. Grey was and she fainted," said Rogue.
Jean carefully inched over, saw Isabella's face, put her hand to her mouth, and gasped.
"Jean, can you--" he saw her face. "Jean?"
Jean turned around and ran. Bobby gently slapped her face, and Isabella slowly opened her eyes.
"What-- what happened?" asked Isabella.
"You fainted," answered John.
"Me? Faint? Why-it-it can't be," she whispered.
"What can't be?" asked Scott.
"Nothing, my imagination got away with me."
"That doesn't cause you to faint."
"I thought someone was someone else. It's nothing."
"All right, but just in case, go get something to eat."
"Okay."
John took Isabella to the kitchen, and they ate together, then John walked her to her room, where Rogue, Jubilee, and Kitty were waiting.
"Maybe I could give you the tour tomorrow?" he suggested.
"I'd like that. Good night, John."
They kissed, and she went into the room. The three were sitting on her bed.
"I'm Jubilation Lee," said the Chinese- American girl.
"And I'm Kitty Pride," said a girl with brown hair.
"I'm Isabella."
"Cool. So, we've heard all the rumors about you, so what's true and what's not?" said Jubilee.
"Jubi!" said Rogue.
Isabella laughed.
"It's all right, well, what have you heard?" said Isabella.
"That you used to date Bobby Drake," said Jubilee.
"Not true, we've been friends for a long time, and we'll never be more than that."
"That you totally spent time in the slammer," said Kitty, dramatically.
"True, in NYC, it was only a couple hours, before they took my back to North Carolina. We spent the summer in Boston, and the school year in North Carolina."
They laughed.
"That you've slept with John," said Jubilee.
"I've never had sex with him, but we fell asleep on a friend's sofa together before."
"That you've come here to spy for Magneto."
"Who? I guess that's not true, unless I'm bugged or something."
"Oh, okay, umm.. that you threw you dad through a wall."
"Not true." The looked disappointed. "I pushed him through a wall, I didn't throw him, Suga."
They laughed. They went to sleep that night, talking and gossiping about everyone in school. Isabella didn't see Dr. Grey during the next two weeks; Scott said she wasn't feeling well.
"I wonder why she got sick all of a sudden," said Isabella.
"I dunno, maybe she's pregnant," said John.
"Not with being part of the X-Men."
Rogue ran over and hugged a man who looked like he belonged in a forest. Bobby walked up behind her, jealous.
"We'd better leave them to it," said Isabella, leading John into the TV room, and they watched TV. Soon, the man came in the room and sat at the other end of the sofa. He stared at them. Isabella politely smiled at him.
"I'm Isabella, and this is John."
He looked from one to the other, his stoical expression never changing.
"I'm Logan."
"Oh! So, you're the guy who beat me to the Cyclops material!"
He looked at her, his eyebrows raised.
"Material?"
"About having one eye."
"You were gonna bust on him?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't have resisted if you hadn't beaten me to it."
He laughed, and Isabella snuggled closer to John. Around ten, Isabella and John went to their dorms.
"So, I saw you met Logan," said Rogue, as they lay in their beds, facing each other.
"Yeah, he was serious until I mentioned joking around with Scott about the whole Cyclops thing," said Isabella, yawning.
"Yeah, he thinks it's funny. They don't get along too well," said Rogue, falling asleep.
"It's a territorial thing. I guess it goes with having a penis," said Isabella, also falling asleep.
Kitty and Jubilee laughed, sleepily. Around two AM, Isabella woke to bright lights in the bedroom.
"Jubilee-oh God! Wake up!" she screamed, and ran out of the room, waking up the younger kids in the room to their right, then she headed to the room to their left, but men with big guns were almost to that room, so they had to leave, or they would have gotten them all.
John and Bobby joined Rogue and Isabella in the hall.
"Where's Logan?" asked Rogue.
They found him, alone facing at least a dozen with a fat man in front of him. Bobby put a wall of ice between them. Logan turned around.
"Go! I'll be fine!" he said.
"But we won't!" cried Rogue.
He ran into the secret panel with them, and closed it just as they heard the wall of ice shatter. They made their way into the garage, and they clambered into Scott's car, and they were off down the road.
"Jean and Storm are in Boston, we'll go there," said Logan.
"My parents live in Boston," said Bobby.
"Good."
Isabella still hadn't noticed the old rag doll in her hand, but Bobby did.
"Bella? What's that?"
She opened her hand, and looked at the doll. It was an old rag doll wearing a once- white dress, with red yarn for hair, and brown buttons for eyes.
"It was my sister's. That's why I fainted when you told me Dr. Grey's name. The doll's name is Jean Grey. My mother named it Jean Grey, because my sister had named it Jean, and we'd have to specify which one we wanted. Jean, my sister, loved the Grey Poupon commercials, and the doll's dress was always gray after one week with my sister, so my mom named the doll Jean Grey."
"Oh, well that explains a lot," said Bobby, quietly.
"What happened to your sister?" asked Logan.
"She died. They lost her body at the hospital; they said she must have gotten mixed up in the shipment to the local med school. I didn't want to go looking for it, out of fear that it might be too late."
"I'm sorry," said Rogue.
"It's all right."
Isabella looked around at all of them. She was in boxer shorts and a black tank top, Rogue was in a black nightdress, Logan was still fully dressed, and Bobby and John were in their boxers and t-shirts. Isabella smiled, and put her head on John's shoulder, until they reached Boston. They four teenagers went upstairs to get dressed. Rogue was the only one who didn't put on Bobby's clothes. Isabella was the first one back downstairs. She bent over, looking on the bottom shelves of the refrigerator, as Logan took a drink of beer.
"Y'know, Suga, beer ain't exactly the breakfast o' champions. I wonder where the Drake's are," said Isabella, hidden behind the island and the refrigerator door.
"Right here," said Logan.
Isabella stood up and closed the door.
"Mr. Drake! Mrs. Drake! Ronnie!"
"Isabella, what are you doing here?" asked Mrs. Drake.
"Bobby's up-never mind, here he is."
"I need to tell you something."
They all walked in to the living room and sat down, to hear Bobby's news. He told, and showed, them his secret.
"This is all my fault," said Mrs. Drake.
"Actually, they say that men carry the mutant gene, so it's his fault," said John, nodding at Mr. Drake.
Isabella tried not to laugh, and Mr. Drake looked at her.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Drake," she looked at John. "Actually, Suga, men can't carry genes. They either are or aren't. Women are the carriers. For example: a non- hemophiliac man can father a hemophiliac son, but ONLY if the mother was a carrier. Women are carriers, not men," said Isabella, knowingly.
"Well, someone listened in Bio," said Bobby.
"I had to have a good grade to get into Chemistry." They laughed, as Ronnie stormed out of the room, glaring at Isabella. She stood and went after him. "Ronnie-come back!"
"Stay away you freak!" he yelled at her.
She stopped and looked back at Bobby, Rogue, Logan, and John, who had all skipped a heartbeat. She closed her eyes, and continued up the stairs like a mother who's kid was in a lot of trouble.
"Ronnie, c'mon and open the door, Suga," she said.
"I can't believe you'd do this to me!"
"What did I do?"
"You became a freak! After all we've been through!"
She leaned against his door, and slid down to the floor, so her knees were against her chest.
"Ronnie, I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened, and I can't not be a mutant, it's not possible. I think God's just makin' up for people like my little sister who are devolved."
There was silence for a minute.
"Leave me alone freak!" he shouted.
Isabella put her head in her hands and began to cry.
"I thought you loved me more than that, Mon petit frère."
She walked slowly down the stairs.
"What happened?" asked Bobby.
"Well, he officially hates us. I think he feels left out, or scared, I don't know which."
"Left out? I think I need to have a talk with him. I can't touch anyone, ever!" said Rogue.
"I know that, but he doesn't understand. I even called him 'mon petit frère' and that always works, I'm losing my touch."
"What does that mean?" asked John.
" 'My little brother.' It's French."
"Oh. Why do you call him that?"
"The three of us were so close we might as well have been siblings."
Logan ran back into the house. There were flashing lights in the yard.
"Come out of the house immediately!" John, Bobby, Rogue, Isabella and Logan walked out of the house, Logan's claws out. "Drop the knives, sir. I repeat, drop the knives!"
Logan looked at him.
"I can't."
The officer to their right shot Logan in the head, and Rogue and Isabella screamed, trying not to cry. Bobby, Rogue, and Isabella slowly lowered to the ground.
"You heard of those dangerous kinds of mutants?" asked John.
"John NO!" cried Isabella.
"I'm the worst one."
He threw a mass of fire at the officers on either side of them, and more at two of the police cars. Rogue took off her glove, and took some of John's energy, knocking him to the ground. The X-Men Jet landed in the cul- de- sac. Logan stood up, and began walking to the jet, the four of them behind him, Isabella pissed off at John. The officer who shot Logan looked at him over the hedge, and fainted.
"C'mon Isabella, they would have killed us!" he said.
"Not if you had done what you were supposed to and NOT pose a threat!
"I did it for us!"
"Trying to kill people is not something you do 'for us!' "
"C'mon, Isabella, don't do this!" he begged.
Isabella began to walk up the ramp into the jet.
"Now, we can't get married, because you're wanted for attempted murder! And weren't you saying just last week how you would do everything you could so we could get married, well, THIS ISN'T ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"
She got on the jet. They got in, and they attempted to put on their safety belts, and they all succeeded, except for Rogue, who was still fumbling with hers when they took off. She eventually got it to a point where she thought it was on, but it wasn't.
"Who's he?" asked Logan, pointing to a blue man.
"I'm Kurt Wagner, but in the Munich circus, I was known as the Nightcrawler!"
"Fantastic," said Logan, sarcastically.
Isabella smiled at him, as the back of John's neck got red again.
"I'm Isabella, that's John, that's Bobby, that's Rogue, and that's Logan."
"Hello."
"There are two bogey's on the screen," Storm said.
She did a barrel roll.
"Please don't do that again," said John.
"I agree," said Logan.
"Don't listen to them! That was awesome!" said Isabella, enthusiastically.
She looked outside, and saw at least ten tornadoes around them.
"One down," said Jean.
The other one was destroyed, but not before it had released two missiles. Jean managed to destroy one, but the other was too hard for her. She finally managed to destroy it, but it was right behind the jet, blowing the tail off. Rogue flew out.
"Rogue!" shouted Bobby.
Kurt popped out of the jet, and popped back in with Rogue. Isabella tried to unbuckle her seatbelt.
"What are you doing?" asked John, as she flew out the back of the jet, and to the front where she tried to stop the jet from crashing.
Jean was also trying to stop the jet. All of a sudden, she noticed the back closing up, and the jet stopped. She turned around and saw a blue woman, and an older man dressed in red. He put the jet down, and they all got out, but Isabella stayed in mid-air. She'd gotten a good look at Dr. Jean Grey, and took the doll out of her pocket.
"Come on down, Isabella," said Storm.
"No, not until SHE is gone!" growled Isabella, saying the word 'she' with complete and utter disdain.
"Bella, come down," cooed Jean.
Isabella ignored her and flew up to the top of the nearest tree, crying. Kurt popped up next to her.
"Vat is vong?" he asked, softly.
"Jean was my sister, but I thought she was dead."
"Bella, come down so we can talk," Jean called up to her.
Isabella dropped the doll down to her, and Jean caught it.
"There! I want nothing to do with you!"
The blue woman moved under the tree, and she heard her say, "Let me try," to Jean. She transformed into a beautiful blonde woman. "Carol, Carol Danners, come down here."
Isabella flew down, Kurt following her.
"Misty?"
She turned back to the blue woman, who nodded. They hugged.
"So, that's your sister?" she asked, looking at Jean.
"Yeah, so, how have you been? I haven't seen you since. since I was arrested!"
The two laughed.
"Isabella Maria Anastasia Gwenyth Olga Carmen Moran Sulinski! You were arrested?" demanded Jean.
"You have five middle names?" asked Bobby.
"Six, you miscounted." Mystique laughed. "Jean has just as many. Alexandra Jean Tatiana Elizabeth Helga Celeste Lynn Sulinski.
"You didn't answer my question. You were arrested?" demanded Jean, again.
"You remember that, John?" sighed Isabella.
John laughed.
"Yeah, who'd have thought? You! Arrested for indecent exposure!"
Jean, Bobby, Storm, Rogue, and Logan all stared, open- mouthed.
"We were drunk," explained Isabella.
"Can we talk, now?" asked Magneto, impatiently.
Mystique, Jean, Logan, Storm and Magneto all walked away, leaving the rest of them to pitch tents. Bobby, Rogue, and Kurt walked up to John and Isabella, who were still laughing.
"Indecent exposure?" asked Bobby.
"We were driving around, drunk, late one night, and there were there two double F prostitutes, and Misty and I flashed them to prove we were B&T, unlike them."
"Double F? B&T?" asked Rogue.
"Fat and Flat, and Big and Thin."
"Oh"
Isabella smiled, and they finished up the tents, and went to sleep. The next morning, they all got on the jet, and took off.
"So, you got arrested, what else did you do?" asked Jean.
"Well, I was Goth for a while, binging every weekend. From Friday afternoon to Sunday night, piss drunk. Then, I ran away. I ended up in NYC, that's where I met Tony."
Mystique laughed.
"Ah, how I miss Tony," she said, not meaning a word of it.
"He got me a job, a new name, Carol Danners, fake Ids, and he introduced me to Misty, and I lived with her."
"What was you job? You never told me," lied John, turning on a portable radio.
"I. danced."
"Danced?" asked Jean. "Care to clarify?"
"Misty and I were. er. we were strippers."
Bobby turned around in his chair.
"WHAT?!?!"
The song "Bring Me to Life" came on, and Isabella began to sing the song.
"How-how-how?" stuttered Jean.
Isabella didn't answer until the song was over.
"Tony," said Isabella, simply.
"Why?"
"Because I needed a job."
"Why'd you leave home?"
"Do you know what it's like to hear 'You should be more like Jean.' 'Jean always had straight A's.' 'Jean's room was always clean.' Jean! Jean! Jean"
Jean changed the subject.
"Well, you ran away, became a stripper, what else did you do?"
"Then, I got arrested."
"For indecent exposure."
"For indecent exposure, possession of alcohol, and possession of fake I.D.s. And that was just me."
"You were charged with all that?" inquired Jean, shocked.
"Yes."
"And they didn't lock you away!"
Isabella shot Jean a death glare.
"NO! Because I didn't buy the alcohol or I.D.s, Tony did. I was sentenced to 320 hours of community service."
"And did you complete your time?"
Isabella rolled her eyes.
"Yes. Sixteen hours a day for ten weekends. Two and a half months of pushing around old people, reading and playing with kids, and cleaning up the side of the road, hurling every time I saw roadkill."
"Is that all?"
"Well, fights are imminent at our house. Bobby helped me through the beginning, but then he left, then about two weeks ago, it all came out. We were eating breakfast, and I was kinda out of it. I'd spent all night being Suicide Prevention Hotline for one of my friends, and they'd asked me what I was doing all night on the phone. I said talking to a friend. And they brought up that I had no real friends and they said-never mind, I don't want to talk about it."
Isabella glanced quickly at Bobby.
"C'mon, Bella, you've told us this much," said Bobby.
"But someone here all ready knew about it. No one knows about this, though."
"Bella, I have ways of finding out," said Jean.
"It's not you-oh all right. They said that everyone felt bad for me because you were dead, and Bobby was only my friend because we'd known each other for so long, and he felt bad, because I had no friends, and he went off to school, because that was the only way he could get the hell away from me without hurting my feelings."
Isabella was in tears now, curled up in a ball in her seat. Jean hugged her.
"Bella, I couldn't have stayed."
"I wouldn't've told any one! I didn't tell anyone."
Jean looked at her.
"Told what?"
"That you could move things. I came in to talk to you after that fight you had with Mom and Dad, and I saw everything about two feet off the floor. I left the room, and I never told anyone."
Jean hugged her again.
"You need to rest, you're a wreck."
Isabella looked at her.
"Thanks, Jeannie," she said, sarcastically.
She relaxed and fell asleep. A while later, she stirred, she thrashed in her seat, held down by the safety belt, she whimpered, then screamed. Logan, Bobby, John, Rouge and Jean rushed to her side.
"Don't wake her up!" Jean shouted over Isabella's screams.
"Why? She's screaming!" said Logan.
Isabella screamed louder and clutched her head in pain.
"Do something!" instructed Storm.
"She's in pain!" shouted John.
"Don't wake her up!" repeated Jean.
"Why the hell not?" asked Logan.
"Because she'll die!" Everyone, except Isabella, got quiet. "She and I have this unique ability to see the past, present and future in our dreams. Bella's were always more vivid and accurate than mine."
Isabella opened her eyes and gasped for air.
"Jean, stay away from the water. For God's sake stay away from the God damn water!" Isabella shouted.
Jean hugged her sister.
"Again? I thought I'd escaped that destiny."
Isabella looked at her sister, and shied away from her.
"No, it's too late. It has begun. You've had them, too. I saw the fire in your eyes when you tried to stop the missiles. It has begun. I got you back for one day. ONE DAMN DAY! And it starts!" Jean hugged Isabella, and Isabella closed her eyes and said, in an unearthly voice, " As is the beginning, so as its end. Birth, death, and rebirth of the beloved sister, who's soul will soon be smothered by the ashes of the Phoenix." Isabella opened her eyes. She hugged Jean tightly, and whispered, "You will destroy us all."
