A/N: You know what? I just realized I can't write Gambit. Sorry, no can do. So deal with him the way he came out!
As the last of the dust that had been the shape shifter Mystique settled, the X-Men shook their heads as though they were shaking the cobwebs out. What they saw utterly shocked all of them.
Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat, was glaring them. "Whatever happened to, 'We'll never let any mutant, good or bad, die even if it's at the hands of an enemy?'" she shrieked. "Because that is exactly what you just did. You just sat back and let people kill Mystique. And one of them has been a student here for over two years!"
Across the room, Jesse winced at the girl's shrill voice. ::Autumn! You didn't::
"And why shouldn't I have?" the petite blonde asked, drawing herself up to her full five feet. She knew that he couldn't see the action but she was the leader and she was trying to exert her authority. "I knew what I was doing. I'm the leader; you should be able to trust my judgment by now."
"She's right, Jesse," Willow said as she stepped over to them. Turning to the room at large, she grimaced. "I'll submit my resignation today and get my things together."
"Why, darlin'?" Logan asked, puzzled beyond belief. He and, from the looks of things, the rest of the X-Men couldn't even recall the newcomers showing up, let alone Mystique dying. So what in the blue hell had happened?
"Autumn controlled all your minds for a while," Xander said quietly. "Nay wouldn't have had to call us in if it weren't for the fact that you all are so damn idealistic. As it was, Nay did the only thing she could and so did Tumn."
Jean Grey gaped at the young woman who could do something that Xavier could barely do with such ease. "Well, Professor, I think we just found the world's strongest telepath."
Xavier could only nod as he tried to come to grips with the fact that this young woman had practically turned him and his entire team into mindless robots.
Logan snapped irritably, "While that explains what happened, it doesn't explain why she's leaving."
The members of the Scooby Gang looked at each other until Gambit sighed. "Do ya have a place where Willow could 'splain bout all this?"
"Follow me," Scott said, standing up.
*****************************
The X-Men, including Jubilee and Rogue, gathered in the library to listen to the tale. Even though it was a rather tight space with all of them there, the Scoobies stayed as far away as possible from the X-Men and vice versa. Willow simply leaned against Angel's knees as though to say, "I belong here."
Willow started the tale, hesitantly. "I suppose I could simply tell what happened today, but I'd be leaving out so much. So I guess we should start with introductions and then go back to the beginning."
Each of the Scoobies stood up and formed an even tighter semi-circle around her. Autumn looked at the others and started the introductions. "I'm Autumn Winters, the leader of the Scooby gang. Ten years ago myself and three other scared young children ran away from foster care. Because of all the stress we'd lived with, we had all broken out as mutants long before we should have. Things seemed so simple back then; it was just us against the world. But even on the streets, there is no place for mutants so we started the Gang."
Angel continued the tale then, his voice blending the pain they'd gone through and the hope they'd provided to so many together. "My name's Liam Rosenberg but I'm called Angel. Like both Willow and Autumn, I was one of those four children. At first the Gang was simply people who provided a place for street mutants, who'd rescue them if need be. We were so young, so naïve back then. To earn the money we needed, we picked pockets, sold ourselves, and did odd jobs. But then Magneto found out about us. He attacked through one of the girls we had problems trusting."
"He offered her power and trust, and Mystique Rosenberg took it. She nearly killed us all," Jesse's voice spoke of the betrayal they'd felt, nine years before. "There weren't many of us, but if she had succeeded there would have been hell. It was then that we decided that if one of us went to Magneto's side, they would be killed the instant another Scooby saw them."
"That was Jesse Santiago the final fourth child, and I'm Xander Harris. I wasn't one of those first four, but I ran away from home nine years ago, right around the time the Scoobies were betrayed. I found myself in L.A as the Scoobies started to change."
"Before," Willow continued the story, "we'd been peaceful, just living day to day and barely getting by. After my half sister succumbed to the other side, we changed. We all learned how to fight, to kill. We started to advertise our services as an assassination team. Soon after—"
"Soon after," Jubilee interrupted, "they expanded their services to include demolitions. I worked on that side for awhile, sometimes helped out the assassination team."
"I knew I recognized you, chere!" Gambit exclaimed.
"Oh, good," Willow remarked. "Someone finally broke Remy's habit of referring to himself in third-person."
All of the Scoobies started to chuckle as Gambit protested, "I don't know what is so wrong with how I used to speak, chere."
"To hear you refer to yourself as Gambit or Remy was just disconcerting. I, for one, am very glad you don't do that anymore," Willow said.
"It isn't that listening to your teasing isn't fascinating, but I'd like to hear more about your…Scooby Gang," Xavier said before the teasing could get out of hand.
Lorne continued, "Over time the team kept expanding and we earned more income in a way that didn't require any of us to sell ourselves. Along with the changes came the coupling off of pretty much everyone in the original Gang."
"Yep," Willow said with a grin, "I ended up losing my virginity to Lorne, started going out with Autumn…"
"Then we broke up as Xander and Angel decided that they were in love. Of course, then they decided that they were also in love with Remy," Autumn continued.
"Right before Willow disappeared, Faith and I started realizing that we were falling in love," Jesse added.
"Now we just have to figure out people to set Lorne, Autumn, and Willow up with," Angel said with a smirk.
Charles Xavier could only shake his head in amazement. These people were all mentally older than they should have been because of the way they'd grown up, but somehow, they were acting even more childish than Logan and Scott back when they were fighting over Jean. Good riddance.
A/N: Well, whatcha think? Please read and review. Also, thanks go out to everyone that has reviewed. Thank you!!!!!