WARNING: This chapter contains an account of RAPE. If you do not wish to read such a thing, skip this chapter...or skim it. It's not *that* descriptive, not like some I've seen anyway. O.o
A/N: Just as a note to all of you who are reading, this fic will very rarely take place outside the house or its immediate surroundings. I'm just telling you so you don't get weirded out...don't worry, plenty will happen, I just don't want to cut away from the house too often because it and its inhabitants are supposed to be the center focus. No view of what Xavier's doing in the gov't, no view of where the captured mutants are (besides in flashbacks) and so on.
And thank you to all my *awesome* reviewers! I am so happy. n__n Sorry it took so long! I haven't abandoned it, but I've been so stressed over this job...
KS-fan: I am so glad that you continue to read this. And yes, Pietro will get help...
Dusty: I haven't read a ton of the comics (just tidbits from different "series") but...Mags shot his kneecaps out? -_- ; Ooowie! Poor, poor Pie.
Flame: Glad you find it interesting, and that you want it to continue. :P
me: You'll have to see what happens to Pie's legs *laughs maniacally*. Wanda was killed (or at least Todd believes so) in the Brotherhood home, and Fred was taken to the same "unknown" place that Pietro was, but as of yet no one really knows who is doing this. Xavier, Logan, Ororo, and Hank have a pretty good idea, but the kids are left in the dark. Does that clear things up a bit? Sorry if it wasn't clear before. All these things are whirling in my head, and sometimes they just come out...strange... :)
girlonthem00n: I like Pietro too. And Kurt...and wee lil Jamie. Er, and I like Todd too, but I'm strange in that way. :)
Breinni: I'm happy to see so many Pie fans! Isn't he great? Yeah he's a traitor, cocky, kinda mean kid...but hey, lookit his dad!
Mandy: It's okay that your last review was hyper, I'm happy to see you're so enthusiastic about it! And don't worry, I will be continuing and hopefully finishing this. I have no intention of not doing so, and if I ever did I would post something to say. I hate it when fics are started, and then *never* updated. ARGH! The line you liked just struck as something Bobby would do. Poor Kurt. n__n And I love Jamie. You'll see more of him.
Eboni: I'm glad you came back to read it then! Oftentimes I too will skip over a story, but then later I will go back and sift through *all* the fanfics in the section and end up reading it. It's just something that happens... I've started reviewing more, though under a different name, because I think it's good to keep people motivated. It's kinda hard now to get good reviewers in the Evo-verse. I'm sure there are tons of people reading, but not many review...So thanks for yours! :P
Radical-Seto: Glad you liked the chapter *and* the fic... Sorry for making you wait! :)
Jacob: I'm glad you're still reading, and that you liked the last chapter.
Calamari Rings: Thanks for your wonderful review! Lol about the sadisticness. I have it too, it seems...Pietro'll be up and talking soon, if I'm feeling nice...Would you beta? I need one. All I need is editing, and for you to tell me if the chapter is stupid, badly written, full of plot holes...if you're feeling up to it... ? :P
Sorry about the weird timeslot of this thing. My brain was malfunctioning or something. :/
--A day from previous chapter--
Not much had happened in the twenty four hours since the powerful, magnetic master had arrived, left his son, had turned and gone. Gossiping about the two students who had snuck out and fooled around in the dark had almost ceased completely, or at least died down to a dull word here or there. Two boys were worried sick for a friend, a furry kid was love sick and heartbroken, and a white haired woman waited patiently through the night by a bedside, running a cool cloth over the forehead of her ill charge.
The house stood darker, more grim in the soft, afternoon daylight. Rain had passed through the night before, possibly the result of a weather witch's sadness, and had left the house muddy and damp. Kids were running about it in drying leaves, some trying to clean its sides, others merely playing.
Inside, the mood wasn't any different.
Lance was pacing when Scott pulled open the door to the living room and stepped out, running a large hand through his not recently washed hair. Avalanche looked ragged and worried, his brows furrowed together in thought as he walked ten steps one way, turned around, walked ten steps the other, turned around...
"Could ya stop that for a sec?"
The Brotherhood boy whirled at the voice.
"Uh...yeah, sorry Summers. What did they say about Pie? Can I see him yet?"
Scott was silent, studying Lance for a moment. He had never liked him, and had been the first to object when the Professor agreed to take him and Todd in. The rock tumbler had only proven himself to be reckless, and destructive. They were the enemy, Scott had said. It wasn't safe to let the bad guys live among the good guys, how could they be trusted? Cyclops had been angry and frustrated with Xavier, had voiced his opinion and shunned both boys from day one.
The day they came to the Institute had been a particularly stressful one for the students at Xavier's. Not only had they been threatened on an earlier outing to the mall, but Jean had been bad mouthed by a group of burly men, of whom Scott had to end up verbally defending her from. He couldn't have used his powers - that would have meant jail. No, instead he was forced to get pummeled after persuading them to go away failed miserably.
They weren't even punished.
And then, upon arriving home dirty and bleeding and bruised, they had discovered Todd and Lance standing idly in the front room, looking slightly frightened and unsure. Xavier had informed them that they would be staying for an indefinite amount of time.
Scott had stormed up to his room, shouting. How had the Prof expected him to react?
Even when they had moved into the house, he had had a bad feeling. Lance's little fiasco with Kitty two nights previous had only strengthened his opinion of the delinquent. The kid was no good, he had told Logan. How could the Prof have agreed to continue to let them stay? They were bad news.
Or so he had thought. Then Pietro had shown up...
"Summers?"
Scott looked at his enemy, eyes searching the other boy's face beneath ruby glasses. Lance was definitely worn out, hadn't slept the previous night. The whole day before no one had been allowed to see Pietro save the adults, who were busy fixing him up, and it was driving the two Brotherhood boys insane. Todd had waited faithfully with Lance almost all night, even when the two were ordered to bed, but had finally fallen asleep that morning.
Lance, though, was still awake and waiting.
It surprised Scott to find a deep sadness in his eyes. He wondered, vaguely, if he should consider these kids his real enemy now or not. They certainly weren't the ones who instituted the Mutant Registration Act. They were unrefined, yes, and delinquents, yes, and made many, many mistakes... but they were now going through something that Scott couldn't even begin to fathom.
"They said you can see him, Lance," Scott said quietly. "He's barely there, though. Ororo says that until the Prof comes, we're just going to have to deal with it."
He pushed open the door behind him, gesturing inside.
Lance nodded, "Thanks Summers," and pushed past him into the room.
-----
Pietro had been put on the sofa off to the side of the living room, blankets wrapped around him and tucked in up to his chin. He was still, save the slow rise and fall of working lungs. Glittering eyes stared at Lance as he tentatively approached. Ororo was gone, had left a moment before to clean herself up, and instead an empty chair occupied the space next to Pietro.
Lance sat in it.
For a moment, he merely took in the sight of his friend. He let his eyes soak up the thin frame just visible under the covers, the gaunt, white face...Unknown to him, Pietro's fever had only receded hours before, after being given a cold bath. He was still sick, but without the fever to further complicate things.
"Hey Pie."
There wasn't a response, though Lance wasn't quite sure if he had been expecting one. He hadn't really known just how bad Pietro was, and was at a loss for words. It wasn't shock, nor surprise, but more sadness than anything that overwhelmed Lance at the sight of his companion. It was a deep hurt, manifested in a lump in the teen's throat, a knotted, twisting stomach. He only felt this kind of grief very rarely. It used to come at the Brotherhood home, when they had been abandoned by both Magneto and Mystique, when their dinners consisted only of some stolen candy bars, when Todd or one of the others became sick with hunger, or cold. He, at one point, had been working two jobs to try and pay for heating alone. Pietro stole food. Todd pick-pocketed where he could.
And still they had always been together, a broken and dysfunctional family. Things had begun to return to normal after Mystique and Magneto had backed out of their lives. Pietro had been forgiven, though it had never been verbally stated. The speedster seemed to put aside the fact that he was designated the leader by his father, and Lance Alvers once again became a sort of warped, pseudo father figure to all occupying that house.
Then the Registration Act was passed. Then people began coming by their house, their home, asking questions and pointing fingers. It became more and more hard to hide the fact that they didn't have a legal guardian at the place.
And then three of them were gone, just like that. Fred and Wanda, then Pietro...
The white haired mutant let out a small murmur, something that caused Lance to smile softly.
"How ya feeling? They taking good care of you?"
Nothing.
Lance sighed, his smile disappearing.
"Ya missed a lot," he said quietly, fingering the edge of one of the blankets. "Todd almost went insane after...well, you know. We...we ended up moving into X-Geek mansion after...after it was just us. Summers drove me crazy...I swear, the guy is the most uptight, ass wipe I have ever met. He actually had the nerve to try and get us thrown out. I thought he was gonna frame us for robbery or something."
Pietro shifted under the blankets, closing his eyes briefly before pulling them drowsily open again and blinking. He looked dead tired, and the rings of dark around his eye sockets didn't help his appearance.
"You slept any Pie?" Of course there was no 'yes', nor a 'no', nor any other sound to satisfy Lance's question...not that he thought there would be. "I haven't been sleeping much either. The first night here...well, let's just say it didn't go all that well. It was quite a show, though I think that Wolverine's planning on carving my ass with those claws of his." He let out a laugh in spite of himself. "I got the talk from the dude. You shoulda been there."
You should have always been there...
"He didn't even sugar coat anything, had those claws out the whole time. I though he was gonna bust an artery." Nothing had developed further from that night. Besides having to spend a day in their rooms, neither Kitty nor Lance had been punished further. Well, not really punished anyway. Lance had suddenly become the victim of hard glares from Logan and Hank, as if it were all his fault, but no further harsh words had come.
Lance put a hand onto what he perceived to be Pietro's shoulder, padded by a sheet and thick quilt. He noticed, for the first time, that the boy was shivering.
"You still cold?"
More shivering...or was it trembling? Lance wasn't sure, but pulled the blanket up a little higher to frame Pietro's face.
"You look like a freakin' Eskimo."
This time Pietro let out a small moan, turning his head to face Lance completely. His face was blank, but his jaw worked, as if to say something, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Was that a laugh?" Yeah right, like 'Tro's gonna laugh right now... Truthfully, Lance was feeling just a little bit scared. He had never known Pietro Maximoff to just lie still... Pietro was always moving, always babbling about something in that fast talk of his. It was only a few months before that Lance had figured out how to interpret what he was saying. When he did stop moving, it was to sleep or eat, and even then his breathing was rapid and he tossed and turned or shoveled in food as fast as he could. The snowy haired boy in front of Lance, however, barely even breathed.
"Just hang in there, Pietro," he whispered, his voice shakier than he had meant it to be. "Baldy's comin', he'll fix you up."
-----
--2 days from previous chapter--
Students bounded down the stairs of the house, and gathered from where they were playing or working to greet the black van that burst up the driveway.
Charles Xavier looked upon the house and grimaced, wondering what had caused him to agree to such living arrangements. It was, in truth, the first time he had been there and seen it, though he had looked at pictures Hank had brought him.
Somehow, the photographs made it look less decrepit than it really was.
"Hey Chuck." Logan greeted the professor's van out front and helped his wheelchair out of it. "Welcome to our very humble home..."
"Yes, I noticed. Have you gotten any paints or supplies?"
"Nah, just groceries. Too much going on..."
The telepath nodded, wheeling himself toward the porch and allowing Logan to hoist him into the house. Jean, Scott and a few of the students were there to greet him, but he didn't spend much time in conversation. He needed to get down to the situation at hand, for he doubted that being away from his ministrations in politics would be healthy to mutantkind. Who knew what would go on in his absence...
"I take it Eric came by?" he inquired softly as Logan closed the kitchen door. Hank and Ororo were already there, sitting at their makeshift conference table.
"Yeah, he came all right, brought Pietro." Growling, Logan pulled open the fridge and grabbed himself a beer. Xavier frowned.
"You keep beer here Logan?"
"Hey, I agreed to stay here and watch the kiddies, didn't I?" He popped the cap off with his bare hand. "I think I'm entitled to a little beer. Any kid who knows me won't be brave enough to mess with it." The rugged looking mutant took a long drink.
"Well, how are things going then...besides Eric of course..." The Professor could sense they were hiding something, and Hank sighed.
"They're... going all right..."
Xavier let the subject drop, knowing he wouldn't get an answer. He knew it had to do with a certain valley girl, but he didn't bother to probe any of their minds. The Professor made it a habit to do so only with permission, though as of late that was becoming more and more difficult, and hard to resist.
"I want to see Pietro," he said instead, quite bluntly, looking into each of their eyes. Ororo wordlessly got up from the table and moved toward the door.
"He's upstairs sleeping right now. We put him in Logan's bunk." She pushed some hair back from her face and let her hand rest on her forehead a moment. "It's the first real sleep he's had since Magneto brought him...Maybe we should let him rest a while..."
Xavier pondered this for a moment. "He hasn't been sleeping at all?"
"Not really, no. I was up with him last night down here. He was...well, restless." Her eyes saddened as she spoke. "He still won't talk...We've been trying to keep the other students away from him as much as possible, though Lance insisted on seeing him. I think it's best we let him recover slowly..."
"I'd like to see him soon and look at his mind. We shouldn't delay here too long."
Ororo knew that the man wanted to see Pietro then and there, but she secretly hoped he would take her advice. Staying up with him had been difficult for her, especially since she had tried to talk to him. He wouldn't sleep, but would jerk his hands and arms nervously about, moaning softly. Half the time he hadn't even registered her presence.
Ororo, I understand how you feel... She sighed as the Professor's voice boomed in her head. I just need to see him, we should get him to the hospital as soon as we can. It's for his own good.
The woman relented, pulling open the door. "I'll go wake him then," she said quietly, disappearing beneath the doorframe.
"I'll bring him down." Logan followed her.
The remaining blue mutant of the house stretched his arms out and groaned, letting them fall back onto the table. It groaned, in turn, with the great weight of those muscles. "What are you planning on doing?" Hank inquired, his voice deep.
"I'm just going to look into his mind, see what...happened, hopefully try and pull him back." He smiled softly. "Don't worry, I'll try not to make it too intrusive."
-----
Xavier gazed intently at Pietro, who was now lying on a couch that had been pulled to the middle of the main room. The pale boy pulled away as the man before him reached out and settled a hand onto Pietro's brow. The Professor offered him no smile, though, knowing what would come. He wasn't exactly thrilled about going into the boy's mind. He had a feeling that what he would find there would be less than pleasant.
"This will only take a moment," he whispered, concentrating his mind on Pietro's jumbled thoughts and memories. For a moment he could barely pick up on anything coherent, but slowly images began to surface.
Some were gray and dull, some were bright and flashing, pulsing and throbbing within the Professor's head. All of them swirled together.
Xavier jerked in his chair. Lights were gliding past him.
Pietro was being dragged down a large hallway. The movement stopped near the end, where he was pinned against a cold floor. His legs were bound with everything and anything that would keep them from moving, that would keep Pietro from using his power. Someone, holding Pietro down with his knees, was pulling off these binds - the rope, the chains, the plastic cords. The boy's mind was speeding along, trying desperately to calculate an escape as his limbs were freed.
But then a uniformed man pinned his left leg to the ground by the knee, and wrenched it up against his boot. It snapped with a sickening crack and shattered down the calf.
Xavier could hear Pietro screaming.
In another, lecherous hands were groping at his bare flesh, kneading the skin between his legs. His ruined limbs flared with pain as they were wrenched apart to make room for the man who crawled between them, jagged fingernails raking along his back. He was begging, pleading for mercy as a great weight descended upon him, a sweaty man pushing and thrusting and rocking against his body. No one helped. Most ignored it, some came to watch. Tears coursed down Pietro's face as he howled in humiliation and pain, his voice becoming frantic as his body was violated more and more violently.
Pietro was sobbing, vomiting, warmth spreading inside of his body. The guard zipped his pants back up, spit on him, and left him bleeding on the floor of his cell.
He hated them, feared them, loathed himself and his weakness.
He had watched Fred be taken away, sedated, and Xavier saw it clearly. He had listened to the deaths of others as they were beaten mercilessly in their cages, pummeled into bloody piles of flesh and bone and then left for days to rot before being taken and replaced by others.
Experiments, needles, lights.
Charles felt physically sick as he saw all these things, and for a moment let his link fade. He returned though, bypassing more memories and searching deep for Pietro himself. He knew the boy was hiding, and had receded from reality. Because Pietro's mind worked faster than a normal person's, along with the fact that he could no longer use his legs and had gone through considerable trauma, the mutant had become trapped beneath his own whirring thoughts. He was barely conscious really, able to see out and respond little.
Xavier finally found him.
Images were spinning around in Xavier's head as he began pulling Pietro toward the surface. The child was aware of went on around him, but was seeing things as if he were very far away, from his place in the back of his mind. He now clung there, trying desperately to remain where he was as Xavier tugged him forward. Pietro was babbling suddenly out loud as Xavier finally broke his link, his voice shrill and panicked as he ranted and raved so fast that none could understand save the Professor.
He began to sob, still speaking rapidly about nothing in particular. His thin shoulders were shaking and trembling with fear and anguish as tears spilled down his cheeks.
Ororo was at his side almost immediately.
"What...?" She looked at Xavier, unsure of what to do.
"Don't worry. I merely brought him out of hiding."
Storm encircled Pietro in her arms, stroking his hair, and was surprised to find that he was jerking away, trying to escape.
"Nonononononononononononono..."
"Shhhh." She put a finger to his lips. "It's all right Pietro..."
"Idon'tlikeitpleaselemmegoIwannaleavewheresdadmagnetosnotherepleasepleaseplease..."
"Pietro!" Xavier's voice was loud and demanding. "Slow...down..."
The boy took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut. Tears escaped through his clenched lids. "Why..." he whispered, voice cracking. He gagged, retching up some bile against the sofa. "Mylegshurt...ow..."
Ororo frowned and put a hand to his forehead.
"He's hot all of a sudden...
Xavier merely smiled sadly down at the Maximoff, the son of his enemy and former friend. "I apologize for that Pietro, but it was...necessary."
The boy opened his eyes and looked blearily at all before him. Ororo was there, with Hank and Logan and the Professor. Hank offered Pietro a small smile, Logan remained placid.
Ororo was trying to be strong for him.
"O...kay..." he said simply, slightly confused. He pronounced each word carefully. "Where's..."
"Eric?"
"U huh."
Again, they were smiling at him, sad smiles. "He's not here right now Pietro," Ororo said quietly.
It was obvious that Pietro knew what she meant. He closed his eyes again, swallowing hard. Xavier had jerked a particularly painful memory, and he rubbed absentmindedly at his skin, his sides, as if he were wiping away unseen filth. Ororo stilled his hands.
"We're taking you to a hospital, Pietro." Xavier was talking again, rolling forward.
"Gonnafixmylegs?"
Hank sighed. "Yes, we are. Logan and Charles are going to take you up north aways, to some friendly doctors. Think you can handle it?"
He didn't respond, and instead clutched desperately at Ororo's shirt sleeve. She pulled him up into a warm embrace, her own tears threatening to spill.
"Iwanna...where's Lance?..."
TBC...
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Sorry for the lateness. I am surprised at the amount of reviews!
KEEP REVIEWING! I *must* have feedback... :P I am a review whore, yes. Forgive me for mistakes, etc, my brain is half eaten by fever.
Next time: Pietro is taken off after a goodbye, Kurt confronts Kitty, and all the occupants of the house receive a scare - especially Jamie.