Chapter 4 Creed

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except Krull, which belongs to Columbia-Tristar

Later that day:

Kurt and Graydon were playing with Talia at the Brotherhood House. The place was being made up nicely now. Freddy, Todd, Pietro, and Lance were all helping out to make things easy for Wanda. Kurt wished that she would move to the Institute so that he could be with her and the baby, but she had refused, and he could not live here at the boarding house.

"She looks like you, Kurt." Graydon said bitterly.

"Vell, yes. Do you ever want to have kids?"

"What does it matter? I can't."

"Vhat?"

"Mother - she deliberately infected me with a disease when I was little. She told me it was a vaccine, but it wasn't... she told me the truth later. She eventually gave me the antibiotics necessary to cure the disease, but by then... I was sterile. I'm lucky that I still produce everything but sperm. Otherwise, I might have never hit puberty."

"Vhy vould she do zat?"

"So I wouldn't contaminate humankind with old, inferior genes. I was a step backwards, not forwards."

Talia climbed on Graydon's shoulder and nuzzled against his neck. He seemed rather non-responsive. "I hate her, Kurt. And, truth be told, I hate you, too."

"Me? Vhy?"

"How would you like to be told 'I wish I had been able to drop you in the river instead of my dear, dear, boy?' You were always her favorite, and because you weren't there, she could make you seem - so perfect. Her nice son, her perfect son, her 'normal' son. Not a crippled freak of nature, a throwback. Good grief, I thought that most humans were mutants until I was five."

"Vow. How did you not notice all ze non-mutants in ze vorld?"

"I thought that they all looked like Mom, and that they just put on their "freaky faces" when they were outside. I was born with a 'freaky face,' and so I had to hide the fact that I really looked like that. It's like thinking that you were born with clothes on."

"You must... I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it is like to feel that you are a freak because of a disability. Vith me, it's always been a trade-off, I'm freaky, but I can do things others can't vith you, you felt freaky and... disabled. I'm so sorry."

Graydon handed Talia over to Kurt. Suddenly Kurt noticed something.

"Her tail! It's... it's shrinking!" Slowly Talia's tail shrank into the hole in her diaper.

Graydon watched and then, as Talia was wearing only her diapers, tickled her stomach. She laughed, and the tail popped out again.

"Retractable," was his only word.

That night, Graydon sat still in the study, illuminated only by a small lamp, sulking. All the things he could never have. A family. His mother's love. Acceptance by those whom he surrounded himself with. He would never be let in. No danger room sessions, he had no powers. No playing games except the "no powers" versions. And he would never be certain whether they were playing that way as a challenge, or because they pitied him. Good God, this isn't how it should be. It shouldn't make you feel like a freak to be normal. And as far as Graydon could tell, it was only going to get worse. The X-gene was increasing its spread through the population exponentially. Humanity was getting replaced. And he would be replaced with them.

Suddenly he heard a man walk in behind him.

"Graydon."

"Ca - Cay?"

"Cain. My name is Cain. I've - I've heard you talking to Kurt. I wanted to tell you - don't let the mutation come between you."

"What do you mean?"

"You're jealous of Kurt because your mother loved him more than you. And because he has mutant powers and you don't. Believe me, I know what you're going through. Professor X is my brother. I didn't know I was a mutant until I was thirty and I talked to... well, it's a long story. But the long and short of it is, until a Dr. Essex did some tests on me, I didn't know I had the X-gene, and until he enhanced me, I didn't have any powers. Charles was better than me that way - he had powers. And Father loved Charles best. So I... I grew to hate my brother. Also, Charles once read my mind - by mistake, and...well, the point is, I let my hate of my brother nearly destroy me. I'm trying to control it now, but I can't guarantee that I won't go off the deep end again. Don't let the same thing happen to you."

"Hmm..." Graydon thought to himself, 'but he could be lying. Pretending and using me.'

"It's strange, Charles used to be the more athletic one, and now he's in a wheelchair and I'm the Juggernaut."

"How did that happen?"

"Only the Professor knows. He doesn't like to talk about it, and I don't force him to."

"Ah."

Cain shook his head sadly. "I don't know what's going to happen with me. Now I have a son or daughter by a female version of Essex. Well, at least a son or daughter on the way. And I don't know where..."

But Graydon was lost in thought. Pondering what was to become of him.

(A/N): I figured I'd explain Talia's on-again, off-again tail in Exiles by having her tail retractable.