AN: It's official, I've contracted a stomach virus. Which means that, when I get over it, I won't be posting for a while… better make up for it now
AN2: Please make note that the inhabitants of each vehicle will change every chapter, which will have an effect on some chapter's flow, so that list last chapter is now a moot point.
Chapter 51: Flames that Forged the Wolf
As the X-Jet and Velocity headed towards the Muir Island Center, they had decided to cut across the mainland, give the kids a good view. However, due to the differences in construction, the X-Jet turned far faster, and was soon a good twenty minutes ahead of the Velocity.
After a quick radio discussion, it was decided that they would meet up again at the Muir Island Center.
As the X-Jet landed, Bobby asked the fatal question.
"Mrs. Munroe. I was wondering, just how old ARE you?"
Storm, like any woman would be, was understandably angry. Angry enough to cause a fairly powerful storm over Muir Island.
The Velocity set down as the winds picked up to the point where they would soon destroy the craft.
"We're gonna have to find shelter." Said Logan. "The Velocity can't take this."
They nodded, and quickly set out, using various blankets to shield themselves from the worst of the rain and wind.
They soon came upon a castle, nestled at the top of a hill. Knocking on the door, Logan waited for the door to open.
Rahne watched, as the one man she had never wanted to see again in her life opened the door…
The Good Reverend Jeremiah Craig.
Her eyes widened, as her blanket, which she had been wearing almost like a cloak, went a little higher, covering her face in shadows. If anyone had been looking at her eyes, they would have seen her eyes fill with a sort of wild strength, a liquid fire, they would have seen her eyes become more… feral.
Storm was eventually calmed down, but the damage was wrought. She wouldn't be able to calm the storm, and they would just have to wait for it to blow over.
Xavier rolled into the study of Moira MacTaggert's Center, and settled himself before the fire, preparing himself to do some telepathic communication.
Reverend Craig had let them into the castle, and shown them to the living room, where a blazing fire had been set to light. He left, just as Betsy's eyes went out of focus. They returned to focus quickly.
"The Professor wanted to know if we found shelter, I told him."
The rest nodded, and Rahne's eyes seemed to slip back to her normal self, although the liquid fire remained, just below the surface.
The Professor came out of his telepathic trance, instantly
aware of the presence of his old friend Dr. MacTaggert.
"So, Professahr. Wahre's Rahne?"
"She was on the Velocity. They're presently sheltered at a castle south of here."
Dr. MacTaggert nodded.
"So, how go things at the institute?"
"Very well, actually… Although I had noticed something…"
"Which is?"
"You'll understand it better yourself if you watch the students for a few minutes."
She tilted her head questioningly, but they turned on a few of the security cameras, watching the students.
First was Tabby and Piotr.
"Oh mah. I do not believe that is surpoosed to go thare."
"Yes, I frankly did not know that you could position it like that, did you?"
"No…Ooo, that had ta haurt."
"Yes indeed."
They turned away from the vicious game of Scrabble, and turned on the camera where Scott and Jean were, however, Dr. MacTaggert had an inkling about what the Professor was talking about…
Jean and Scott were presently staring out a window at the rain, watching it patter down upon the windows.
After several minutes, they turned the cameras onto Kurt and Amanda. Watching the two, there could be no denying the feeling between them… they were presently sitting in the sitting room, talking quietly. Yet as Dr. MacTaggert watched, Kurt's tail wrapped itself around Amanda's leg, then waist.
"His tail's certainly doin' quite a good bit o moving."
"His tail had a mind all it's own." Said the professor, as they switched the Camera's over to various other couples. Finally, they shut them down.
"Well, that was informative."
"You see what I mean?"
"Aye, I believe Oiy do, Professar. But to have such strong emotional ties at their age?"
"That's not all, Moira… Most of those couples have only been together for at the most three or four months. Only Jean and Scott have been together anything longer than that, and even then, they denied it fervently. I can only presume then, that those two were not actually together in the sense they are now."
Moira shook her head, "Sorry, Professar, but that's all a shock. Oiy mean, what does it all mean, if mutant's have emotions that strong?"
Rahne had managed to slip away from the other X-Men, slipping off after Reverend Craig, the liquid fire once again at the fore in her eyes.
Padding quietly down the hallway, her sneakers making her quite sneaky, she sniffed the air.
*That way.* thought Rahne.
Slipping off down the hall, she began to converse with her other half.
'Why did this have to be the only place we could find shelter?' she bemoaned.
*Do not complain pup. See this as a chance to face him for his crimes against you.*
Rahne walked by a small room, and, looking into it, shuddered, remembering her youth.
She had been seven, and her 'father' reverend Craig, had found her playing outside on the Sabbath… To say he was unhappy was an understatement.
She had been locked in her room for the rest of the day, her young mind, already beginning to feel the first instincts of a wolf, taking umbrage at the containment. The next day, he had dragged her into this room, and had made good 'the good lord Jesus's salvation of her soul'.
She didn't think that the good lord wanted to give her salvation by leaving her a trio of lash marks down her back.
She continued, her eyes full of even more liquid flame.
Sam followed his girlfriend at a good distance, thankful for Logan's basic lessons in stealth. He was nowhere near as good as his girlfriend, but she wasn't even trying, so he had no difficulty following her. Something was not right with her, Rahne wasn't one to wander off on her own, especially not in someplace as big and unfamiliar as this castle.
Rahne slipped past another room, and, looking in, was sucked back into her mind to another day…
She had been 13, and Moira had taken her out that day. They'd gotten her hair, which had been mid-back length, far too long for the heat of the Scottish summer, cut back to just below her ears. She had also bought Rahne several pairs of shorts and T-Shirts, and some make up.
When she came home wearing them, Reverend Craig was furious. He had drug her into this room, albeit with some difficulty, and had shoved her head under the water to 'rid her of the Satanic influence.' He had then slapped her around, calling her such things as 'whore', 'slut', and 'tramp', then told her to go 'put on something decent.' Meaning 'something that you'll melt in, in this weather.'
He had then burnt everything Moira and her had bought.
Rahne's liquid fire eyes blazed slightly as she saw the Reverend Craig…
"What it means Moira, is that the genetic differences between mutant and human run deeper than merely physiological."
She tilted her head to the side, almost questioningly.
"What do ye mean, Charles?"
"What I mean, is this. We know that mutation has a profound effect on the physiology of a person, thus the unique abilities of each person… With such variety, there must be something that ties all the differences together as one race… I'm beginning to think that the psychological differences may be it."
"What differences?"
"Hm… a few examples may be best. Take Rogue for example. Despite her best efforts to remain emotionally detached, she had, none-the-less, become quite close to the rest of the X-Men, although their relationships have all the normal variety that most people's do. However, despite all her differences with, say, Jean, there have been several occasions where she has stuck up for the other girl, where a human with the same kind of relationship would not.
"Also, take the New Mutants… For all their differences in background, appearance, attitudes, and mentalities, they are a close-knit unit, despite having known each other for only a year. They have more solidarity to them, and are more willing to fight for each other, than many sibling relationships. Humans take years, sometimes even a decade, to form relationships like that. They did so in a year, possibly even less."
"So yer sayin that they be formin' strong bonds?"
"More than that, I'm saying, Moira, that it seems that, as much as humans are social and emotional creatures, mutants are far more so."
Rahne slipped into hunter mode, and Sam, who knew his girlfriend far better than even he realized, knew that something was about to get maimed. However, he saw only their host, who he realized just then, never gave him his name.
Moving quickly, he grabbed Rahne's shoulder, and spoke into her ear.
"Ah don' know whaht's wrong with ya'll, Rahne, but killin' aour host ain' the way to solve it. Let's go talk somewahre, kay?"
She nodded, and the two slipped away, Sam thankful that their host hadn't seen him.
Leading Rahne into a small, bedroom like affair, he sat her on the bed.
"Whahts wrong with ya, gurl? Ya'll're actin laike ya want ta kill tha man."
"I do, our mate."
Sam suddenly was hit with two things at once about that statement. First, it had no Scottish Accent.
Second, Rahne never called him her mate.
The wolf did, though.
"What are ya'll doin in control o' Rahne's bodah."
"The pup is frightened beyond belief, our mate."
"Whay?"
"That man… is the Good Reverend Jeremiah Craig."
The storm had blown over at the Center. However, it's strongest parts were just about to pass over the site of the Velocity's landing, making their departure for the Center impossible. Moira was standing on the balcony, looking out, and remembering Rahne's childhood, when she would run among these hills, the few times of happiness during her youth.
"Ya know." Came a voice from behind her. Spinning around, she found herself looking at a blond young girl, with a light southern accent.
"Rahne tells Sam about this place a lot."
"Who's Sam?"
"Mah brothah, her boyfriend."
Dr. MacTaggert's eyebrows shot up, but she shook it off quickly.
"What does she say aboot it?"
"Thaht it was one of the few places she evah felt comfahtable when she was young."
Dr. MacTaggert smiled faintly, even as she said. "Oiy doubt that this was one o' the only."
"Doctah MacTaggert. All the X-Men know the gist a Rahne's story. We all know the gist a all the othah's storahs."
She stopped, understanding finally what Charles had meant about strong bonds. It would take Rahne years to tell most people her story, she was just that way… to tell the others the gist so soon; she had to have trusted them emphatically. What Charles had told them when she was taken was but the tip of the ice burg, not even the gist.
"Ya'll mean tah tell meh that the mahn who's letting us stay
in his HOUSE is the man who put ya'll through that?"
"Yes, our mate."
Sam shook his head, and was about to reply, when a voice shrieked from behind him.
"GET OUT OF THAT ROOM!! It has been touched by some kind of…. Satanica! It is unholy!"
The other X-Men were standing with Craig, who was shrieking at the top of his lungs. Rahne was hidden from his sight behind the lean frame of her taller boyfriend.
"What do you mean, Satanica?" Asked Roberto from his right.
"He means me, Sun-Flame (Due to his power, and it's source)." Said Rahne, as she stepped out from behind Sam.
Roberto and the others stared. They all knew the nicknames that the wolf called them, and that was the wolf's name for Roberto.
Kyle snapped. He knew more than some of the others did about Rahne's treatment at Reverend Craig's hands, and it didn't take too much deductive skill to figure out who their host was. The tickling in his mind only confirmed it, with it's hostility towards and fear of him. While the tickling may annoy him at times, he knew better than to doubt it. He lunged at Craig.
Charles Xavier was not one usually given to fits of emotion. He couldn't afford to be, not when he was living in a house of teenagers, they were too easily offended. However, the very sight of Moira MacTaggert, his long time friend, and once, before he could no longer walk, something more, brought forth emotions he had not felt in a long time.
He had watched as she went about making sure that everything in the rebuilt Center was ready for Rahne's arrival. When Paige had inadvertently let slip about Rahne and Sam, she had taken it better than ha thought she would.
At least she hadn't destroyed any of the Ming vases yet.
"Oiy 'ave only two things ter say, Charles." She said, as she calmed down.
"Which are?"
"One, 'e had best be good to me little Rahne. And two… Would yer mind 'elpin me?"
Charles Xavier shook his head ruefully as he helped Moira clean up the shattered vases and beakers littering the floor.
Roberto acted on instinct, drawing on his drained power reserves to intercept Kyle, and hold him back.
He was latter intensely thankful that his power came with built-in invulnerability.
"DEMON!!!!" Craig shrieked, upon seeing Roberto. He began to close in on Roberto, a cross in hand.
Rahne's body seemed to transform, her fingers growing claws as her face took on a slightly more lupine appearance. A tail shot out of the base of her spin, breaking through her jeans. Her skin covered itself in fur as her eyes transformed into a wolf's. Her feet redesigned themselves of their own accord, as she settled more of her weight to the balls of her feet, her heals rising off the ground slightly, she growled deep in her chest.
All of this took a tenth of a second.
She launched herself straight at Craig…
Only to grab Betsy's psy-blade.
"Strike him down, shadow-walker (because of her ninja training, and her stealth skills.) and you will prove yourself to be, of your own will, what you were forced to be."
Betsy stared at Rahne for a few long seconds, and then realized what she was doing. Blushing, she retracted her psy-blade. Rahne let go of her hand.
Reverend Craig stared at Betsy and Rahne, intensely aware that that blade, which had come within a quarter inch of his head, would have killed him, and that he had been saved by the 'Satanica.'
"Ye are no creature of Satan… for they would nevar save a holy man… yet ye are not of God's creation." Craig's voice held the shaky quality of one whose entire belief structure had just been cut down before him.
"What are ye?"
And that is what led to the scene of the X-Men sitting in the study of the Reverend Craig, while Kyle, as the best speech-giver amongst them, described genetics from the religious standpoint.
(AN: I'm not going to go into any actual religion bashing here, but if you don't like how I put this, tough. I'm not going to get into a debate on religious philosophy. Also, Craig does a lot of nodding his head. ** = Craig nodding.)
"When God created the man, on the seventh day, He created man from clay, correct?" ** "Well, God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that He had to do something to bring man to life from that clay," ** "so, with His divine breath, He took the tiniest parts of the clay, and brought them to life." ** "The parts were so tiny, that man cannot see them with his eyes alone," ** "and, into these parts He put 26 chains, so small that they fit in the very center of these pieces of clay. " ** "These chains were what would make one man different from another, for these chains would determine the color of a man's hair, his eyes, his skin, his height, and everything else about him." ** "For God knew that He, with all that He must do, would not be able to do this for every man and woman." ** "When a child was formed, the chains in the child were a combination of the ones from the father and the ones from the mother." ** "And for eon's, God was content to watch His children, to help where He could, and stay back when He had to." **
"However, it came to pass that God found that, even with all the possibilities in the chains, he had seen them all before. And, as God created man in His image, he has our flaws, including the capacity to become bored." slow **
"And so, God made steps to correct His boredom. He reached down to the Earth and, with his divine breath, placed into certain people another chain." **
"This chain was different, however. For this chain would ALWAYS be different. No two people would ever have the exact same chain." ** "And it is this chain that makes Rahne able to become a wolf at will, this chain that makes Roberto able to do what he did earlier, and all of us capable of some feat or another that normal men cannot perform. It is God's gift… but it is also a test of man's fortitude. For man has become corrupt, angry, and intolerant of difference." **
"And so, God places before mankind a test. Can we learn to accept difference when it is our own children, or not? That is his test." **
"And so, we must go, Reverend Craig. For the storm is past, and we have friends we must meet. Fair well."
And with that, the X-Men left the building, and boarded the Velocity.
(Post Chapter AN: Next chapter, Rahne gets to see MOIRA!!! And Sammie boy gets to meet his girlfriend's guardian… God help him.)
