This is by far the worst chapter of this story, but I needed to do it before I could do the visitation, because I wanted to explain certain things that are going to happen there.  I'm sorry it didn't get posted earlier, but I was kind of distracted after my great-grandmother died.

Disclaimer: Tainz owns.... Zero, Nada, Zip, Zilch.....

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~*Lance*~

                "Scott Summers died after yesterday's battle." 

                We all sat there in shock for a minute, then Pietro was gone.  He just left in a blur.  Remy looked at Magneto, half smiling.

                "Great joke, Homme.  No one here'd ever kill anyone.  These Brotherhood people are idiots."

                I resented that.  We weren't idiots.  We were misfits.  Broke, teenage misfits.  The only reason I agreed to get our group to work for Magneto was because we needed the money and a place to stay.  We were out of food again and we couldn't risk letting Todd get caught lifting another wallet.

                I hate Magneto and I don't like Mystique a whole lot more, but the fact of the matter is, we have to survive.  We can't all be as lucky as Pietro and be able to switch loyalties as quick as we wipe our asses.  I have to make hard decisions sometimes and I have to look out for the rest of the Brotherhood.  Todd and Freddy look up to me, so it's my job to protect them as best I can.  If that meant one more battle on Mystique's side, I figured it was worth it.

                I know that some people think of me as a hood, but who cares.  I do what I have to.  The only thing is...  I think it was my fault.

                I watched Todd look from Magneto to Remy and back again.  He said, "Yo...   He's not kidding."

                Todd's just a kid.  Sure, he's in high school.  He's not that much younger than me.  He still shouldn't have had to look the way he did when he said that.  His face was big and scared.  Everyone looked a little irked... except Sabertooth.  I'll bet he couldn't count the people he's killed, even if he took off his shoes.

                There was this silence from Magneto, then, "Of course I'm not kidding.  Scott Summers is dead."

                I couldn't believe it.  I'd made the decision that had gotten someone killed.  It didn't matter that Scott was a stick up the ass jerk.  He was a living person, then he wasn't.  If my team hadn't joined ranks with Magneto, Scott would probably have survived.  I stood up.

                "I want our money, then we're out of here.  I don't care what you say.  We're leaving."

                I'd already made a huge mistake.  I wasn't going to let it repeat itself.  What if it were Kitty that died next time?  I still have feelings for the girl.  Todd looked over at me.

                "Where are we gonna go?  The X-Men will kill us."

                I can't say that the thought hadn't crossed my mind.  The X-Geeks can be dangerous when you provoke them, but I wasn't going to hide away because of it. 

                "We'll go to the funeral and apologise.  We didn't do anything wrong."

                No, we hadn't, but I knew who had and I knew that he'd better lie low.  I knew that if Pietro ever showed his face near any of them again, they'd kill him.

                We got our money from Magneto.  One thing for the man, he doesn't lie.  He might cheat and steal, but he keeps his promises.  A little while later, we got home to our crumbling, dirty hell hole.

                I'd hoped to be able to provide something better.  Magneto told us we could stay there as long as we wanted, but I didn't want any of us staying with him.  I can't believe I was stupid enough to join forces with him.

                It was late.  We'd spent the day at Magneto's, celebrating what he had told us was a victory.  I'd believed him.  I'd been out of commission and hadn't seen the last part of the fight, but I'd believed him when he'd told us it was a victory.  The celebration seemed wrong now.  All the food I'd eaten with the Acolytes was churning in my stomach.  I felt sick. 

                I decided to go to bed.  I needed time to think on things.  Like how we could show our respect at the funeral.  I decided to pick up a newspaper the next day so I could find out when the whole thing was happening.  I was in my room when I heard something strange and went to investigate.

                Todd was being sick in the toilet.  Shock or something, I'm sure.  I started to go see if he was okay when Wanda stalked past me into the bathroom.  I watched her sit next to him and put her arms around him.  It was weird.

                I guess Wanda must have those maternal instinct things girls are always talking about, because she held the smelly little bugger while he puked.  She grabbed the cleanest washcloth she could find and washed his face with it.  I stood in the doorway and watched.  She kept telling him that she'd kill Pietro for this.  I believed it, too.

                Things like this bring out stuff in people, I guess.  She was sitting acting like a mom to someone she'd always seemed to hate.  Freddy was actually crying.  I could hear it.

                I thought for a while about calling the Institute.  I'd almost decided not to when I made up my mind and did it.  After a couple of rings, Rogue picked up.

                "If this is another stupid crank, ya can hang up right now!"

                "Rogue, it's me."

                She was silent.  I thought she'd hung up on me or something.

                "Are you there?"

                "What d'ya want?"  She sounded angry.

                "It wasn't my fault.  I was trying to...  I just wanted you to know I didn't kill him."

                She sighed.  "Ah know.  Pietro...  Tell him if Ah ever see 'im again, Ah'm gonna kill 'im."  She flung down the receiver with a crash.

                I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  I shouldn't have even expected her to listen for me that long.  Still...  A part of me had expected that I'd have to protest my innocence for ages to get her to believe me.  At least it would have taken up some time.  I went back to my room. 

                The walls in the boarding house were pretty thin, with the number of times we'd slammed things, like Todd, against them.  I could hear Wanda talking to Todd, trying to calm him down.  From the crashes, he was hopping around his room, like he always does when he's upset.

                Scott's death was a huge shock to all of us.  We'd never thought that someone would die from all this.  It hadn't crossed our minds.  All the battles and everything were a way for us to survive, but in the end, they killed someone.

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                Again, I apologise for the crappiness of this chapter.  I really didn't want you all to think that the reason the Brotherhood wasn't at school was their cowardice.  That was Evan's take on things.  If you thought that they were avoiding the X-Men, it wouldn't make sense for them to show up at the visitation, would it?

Anyroad, please Review.  I promise things will be better next chapter.