Yeesh! Sooo sorry this took me forever. I didn't fall off the face of the earth though, don't panic. I was completely stumped with what to do next but I'm not gonna bother to rant about it.
I apologize for the fact that I didn't edit through this as carefully as I usually do... so sorry in advance for blonde mistakes, awkward sentences, spelling probs, ext ext.
Also sorry for the lack if originality with Magneto's plan. Like I mentioned, it's a lot like the asteroid M plan only I'm gonna hopefully pull it off as different and... yeah... we'll see when we get there.
On the random side...Im all excited that they brought Evan back last week. Yes I know, most everybody hates him but too bad, he makes me smile. I was however, ticked that we didnt get to see any BH! I'd like to know how they're dealing with a mob outside their house when they don't have a jet to get them out... they gotta buy groceries at some point ya know! Anyways, now that I have that out of my system, ill stop wasting ur time.
Oh, P.S. The Magneto in my fic is evil cuz I can't seem to write him any other way... whatever lol.
Review Responses-
IceBlueRose- Yeah...it is a lot like the asteroid M bit... but hopefully I'll make it diff enough... bleh lol.
Incrediblecuznz- Hehe, I was proud of the flea collar line. It just struck me as something Kurt would say to ease tension... anyway, im weird like that. And yeah, when the acolytes do strike... its not gonna be fun for the kids lol.
Black Arachne- I love Lance as the unsung hero. It makes me smile. :)
Mandy- yes, yay for a long review hehe. I felt the need to let Scott try and redeem himself for seeming like such a jerk earlier. He's had his problems too so ya. I like to think the acolytes have some sort of 'normalness' to their lives... which is why I had them just sitting and being normal lol.
Yma- I'm glad u liked Fred and Mags cuz they're the ones giving me the most trouble... little buggers. Mags is gonna end up coming across as a skitzo at some point but I'll tie it all in so it makes sense.
KS-Fan- lol, I'm trying to decide if you liked the fact I brought up that Lance and the boys have to grow up, or if the thought was too depressing to handle hehe. Anyway, glad im pulling Fredd off alight. Mags is still bugging the heck out of me tho.
Silverfox1- lol, I know, it's strange, I'm getting there tho.
Wizard1- *grins* thanks
Eboni- Pietro amuses me too :) I don't know why really, cuz he doesn't do much, but still. Yes, the sentinel thing has happened already. Pretty much everything but the apocalypse stuff has happened. That includes any new stuff too... as long as it doesn't involve that whole story line (yeah, if u can make sense of that lol)
K.C.2007- hehe...hey, he cant help it if he likes clothes!
SkyDancerHawk- I probably shoulda put a warning about that at the beginning of the fic... but at that point I didn't know I was going be including some of the stuff I included. There is gonna be more with Pietro and his self mutilation because it's an issue in the story and I cant just ignore it. I don't *approve* of self mutilation either but it happens. In Pietro's case it's not graphic though...if that makes any difference (there's more than one reason I didn't have him use a knife ppl.. I don't think I could bring myself to write that). There won't be any gay couples btw. I'm not a fan of slash.
MiracleChick- Yeah, it wasn't needed or necessary... I did it to help myself out and decided to post it. I said it wasn't really part of the story so yeah lol. Anyway... I find middle school to be one of the most terrifying places on earth (it wasnt for me personally or anything... but still... middle school kids are brutal!) So I decided to make Pietro one of the victims. Come on, pale scrawny kid who acts feminine... he's fresh meat hehe. And I started to read "trsut" but didnt have time to really... and now I cant find it lol. Can ya maybe tell me who wrote it cuz I can't remember and I wanna read it... please?
Windwalker- I think I threw Logan OOC in this chapter... but I'm trying to do something with him and Lance. Lance needs an advisor person in his life somewhere so yeah. Anywho, I'm working on it.
WinkyBells- "Crazy-go-nuts-cool".... awesome lol.
Calamari Rings- I thought about having the girls notice the scars... but I wasnt really thinking straight when I wrote that chapter lol.
Maikafuiniel- For some odd reason.. I can't e-mail u. But you have my permission to post this :)
To anyone else who reviewed... *gives them all huge hugs* I LOVE reviews!!!!
Chapter 18- Maybe Things Will Be Alright
Todd stared up at the professor with a look of cold anger, muddy with confusion. "So that's it yo? That's *it?*"
The professor looked back at Todd and nodded slowly. "It was a very traumatic thing to witness Todd."
"But...but how...I don't get it yo! Yeah that was terrible but I've seen loads of crap way worse than that! How is that memory so horrible that it caused me to block off anything bad for the rest of my life?"
The professor calmly rested his hands on his desk and leaned toward Todd. He could tell that the young mutant was completely caught off guard by his new memory. Todd had expected something earth shattering, and though his memory was indeed horrific, it still didn't cause him to come close to hyperventilating like he'd expected.
"Todd, to a six year old mind, seeing something like that would be sincerely damaging. You're mind created another world for you emotionally because you couldn't cope otherwise."
"Yeah I know that yo but... I just... I don't understand!"
Todd scowled and glanced around the room. It had been a murder. He'd watched while some man, probably one of his mother's 'clients,' stabbed one of his mom's friends repeatedly. It was graphic, grotesque, and downright terrifying. Yet, he wasn't emotionally attached to the situation in any way. Why this particular event in his life had caused his mind to think in an altered way was beyond him. Overall, it was frustrating.
"So am I done with sessions now that I know what caused it?"
The professor arched an eyebrow and shook his head. "No. Just because you have all your correct memories back doesn't mean you don't need to..."
"Work through them," Todd finished, "Well how am I supposed to do that? Just decide to come to terms with all the horrible stuff I endured, how my mom mistreated me, how I never had a dad, how I saw loads of gore when I was little, and get over it yo?"
Again, Charles shook his head. "Some of these issues, you can still resolve. The pain may still be there for a while, but some type of closure would help."
Todd tilted his head as a strange idea filled his mind. He was too scared to even admit it to himself at the moment, but maybe there was something he could actually do. Someday at least.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro stood in the dim hall and shifted nervously from foot to foot. He was debating about whether or not this was a stupid idea. 'Why does Rogue have to share a room with Kitty?'
He raised a fist to knock on the door and hesitated again. It had to be nearly one in the morning and he wasn't sure how well the girls would react to being disturbed. He knew he had to do something though, and his only other option at this point was to wake up Evan. He knew that was a no go considering the guy slept like a rock and was barely coherent until noon anyway.
He finally began to knock, hoping that Rogue would be the one to wake up first. Kitty was still winching every time she moved due to her cracked ribs. Pietro actually felt sorry for her; being in pain from mere breathing had to suck.
Eventually, the door handle clicked and a very disheveled Rogue appeared in the door way. She blinked against the light and held a finger up to Pietro, signaling him to wait a second. She returned moments later, pulling on her gloves before clicking the door shut behind her. Her hair had been too much of a mess to attempt to tame so she had opted for a ponytail instead.
The make up-less Rogue with her hair pulled back and lack of combat boots caught Pietro slightly off guard, but he ignored it and began to head down the hall, away from the doors so that he wouldn't wake anyone up. Rogue followed him, still stumbling slightly from the lights. They reached the stairway and sat down on the top step.
"So uh, what's up?" Rogue asked, giggling slightly. The whole situation was rather odd.
Pietro began to fidget worse than normal and Rogue noticed that the tapping of his foot kept alternating from a normal pace to his hyper speed. Pietro was suddenly aware of how dumb he must look, just showing up at her door in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
"I...uh..." he shrugged helplessly and kept his eyes away from Rogue. He could feel his face growing hot and wished for the millionth time that he wasn't so fair skinned.
Rogue's face instantly changed into a more serious, slightly more awake, expression. "Are you alright?"
"Hell if I know!" he snapped.
Rogue tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at Pietro.
"Sorry," he mumbled. He was beginning to think this was a stupid idea after all. "I just...I need someone to talk to. I need to be distracted."
"From?" Rogue asked gently.
"Everything! My thoughts, they just...jeez Rogue I can't handle them all at once! There's- too- many,- too- fast,- too- much,- too- hard- to- control.- Gotta- run,- gotta- take- my- mind- off- of- them,- gotta..."
"Shhh. Hey, calm down. Ya don't gotta run Pietro."
"I do! The pain's the only thing that distracts me! You don't get it!"
Rogue took a deep breath and gathered as much patience as she could; no small task considering she was still half asleep and not very sure what was going on. "Well how bout ya try an' explain it ta me?"
"I can't! It's all so fast! I..." he cut himself off and took several breaths. "Rogue?"
Rogue craned her neck so that Pietro had to look up at her. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.
"Rogue, don't let me run."
"I don't intend to."
Pietro ran both hands through his hair and rested his elbows on his knees. He wasn't really sure *how* to explain the chaos that went on in his head. "Ok.Do you ever get so overwhelmed with thoughts that you just wanna scream?"
Rogue bit down the urge to laugh. "Yeah, like, ten people's thoughts."
Pietro nodded and forced himself to stop bouncing his knee. "Ok now imagine all that craziness going through your head so fast you can barely process most of it."
"Yikes."
"Yeah. I've been talking about it with Hank a lot and I pretty much figured out that's why I run. I get so confused that I have to do *something* to distract my thoughts. Pain happens to have the best effect. Lucky me."
"It's interesting," Rogue mused, "It always seemed ta me that ya had great control over your powers, but then there's this whole other aspect of it that you haven't managed to get a grip on yet."
Pietro nodded and the two sat in silence for a few moments. Pietro began to fidget once again, still going back and forth from mutated speed to a normal one. He suddenly clenched his eyes shut and kicked the stair banister in frustration.
"Ok, ok, calm down," Rogue instructed, "Ah got an idea. Why don't ya just talk everything you're thinkin'? That way you'll be able to go slow enough to think it all out. If ya start doing your whole speed talk thing, Ah'll stop ya."
Pietro gave Rogue a skeptical look and the goth rolled her eyes. "Yes, Ah realize that means you're going ta have ta *talk* about stuff, but Ah don't see you coming up with any bright ideas. Besides, there's a few things Ah've been meaning ta ask ya ever since the night Ah absorbed ya."
Resigned, Pietro nodded and stood up. "May as well go somewhere comfortable."
The two mutants headed down the stairs towards one of the common rooms. Settling themselves on a couch, Rogue waited for Pietro to start talking.
The silver haired teen just looked back at Rogue. "What? You think I'm just gonna randomly start saying stuff? Uh-uh."
Rogue rolled her eyes but didn't bother to comment. "So...can I just ask you anything or is there specific stuff you need to talk about?"
Pietro wrinkled his nose. "You sound like Hank during one of my sessions."
Rogue sighed and shook her head. "Pietro, come on. Are you *trying* to make this more work than it needs ta be?"
"No, sorry."
"Ok then. That night, you said you wished you were seven years old again...why?"
Pietro thought for a moment but Rogue quickly reminded him that the whole point was for him to think out loud.
"Right. So, when I was seven, things were pretty good. The Maximoff's weren't all weird until I was about eight I think. Anyway, Wanda's powers hadn't surfaced yet, school wasn't a torture chamber, I had a best friend, and two girls in my third grade class wrote me notes saying I was cute. What more could a kid want? I still wish I could go back to that. No hoping that Mr. Maximoff didn't come home drunk. No being forced into perfection. No middle school creeps treating me like I'm a freak."
"What is it with you and middle school? Seems like every time it's mentioned ya either don't wanna talk about it or it's somethin' negative."
Pietro flushed and shrugged half heartedly, "It just sucked. It's like that for some people I guess. At that age everyone just does whatever they can to seem cool. I happened to like clothes and was a little on the wussy side. So in a world where anything even slightly out of the ordinary is blown out of proportion, I was labeled the school queer. Nice huh?"
Rogue tried to hide her smile.
"What?"
"Well... are you?"
Pietro dropped his jaw in surprise and firmly shook his head. "No. Not even close. Well... ok, so maybe I can see why... oh for crying out loud never mind. I'm straight as an arrow. Yeesh, I can't believe you even asked me that."
Rogue just shrugged, still grinning. "Distracted ya didn't it?" She smirked at him and he rolled his eyes in response.
"Jerk. So anyway, high school was great. I made it pretty obvious I liked girls... we'll leave it at that. Plus it turned out I was awesome at basketball so I was a shoe in for the elite group of jocks. Anymore questions?"
Rogue thought for a minute. "Yeah, what do you think about that just sends you up a wall like right now? Ah mean, Ah know there's probably more than one thing, but what's the worst?"
Pietro looked away from Rogue and began to absently trace the embroidery on the throw pillow he was holding. It was a question that he had already thought of an answer to, only Hank had never asked, or at least he hadn't yet. It wasn't the type of information that Pietro gave willingly, so Hank would never know until he requested the information directly.
"Magneto. Wanda," he said softly, still not looking up, "He messed her up really bad. I don't know if she can ever really come back. I'd even take back the old Wanda that was intent on murdering me. At least that Wanda was who she chose to be. The *real* Wanda was locked away and I haven't seen her since," he paused for a second and finally looked back up at Rogue. "It's not just her either. It's...Rogue, Magneto is my *dad.* How can I hate, really honestly and truly hate, my own dad?"
Rogue sighed and shook her head subtly. She didn't have an answer to that. She knew how he felt, having dealt with the idea that Mystique was her mother, but she had made very few conclusions about it.
"I wish I wasn't just some part of his master plan," Pietro continued, "Because then maybe I could believe it when he says he cares about me, or my well being, but I'm just another tool to him." The speedster clamped his mouth shut. 'No sense in spilling more emotions than she needs to hear.'
Rogue moved closer to Pietro and rested a hand on his shoulder. She didn't have much to say, so her only other option was to sit with him, making sure he didn't go into overload.
"Hey Rogue?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for, you know, letting me be all stupid," Pietro yawned, sinking deeper into the couch.
"Pietro," Rogue started, catching Pietro's yawn, "Ah don't think you askin' for help is stupid. It's better than you runnin'. Did Ah even help at all?"
Pietro nodded as his eyelids fluttered slightly. His head was back to working at a normal pace for him now, and despite that fact there was still the lingering twinge of pain from his memories and thoughts, he felt oddly at ease. "You know something Rogue? Maybe it won't always be like this."
"Huh? What won't always be like what?"
Pietro yawned again and pulled his legs up onto the couch, "My life. Maybe it won't always be this painful. Maybe one day Magneto will leave me alone."
Rogue cracked a sleepy eyelid at Pietro in surprise. "Of course it will, eventually."
"Yeah, but I never really believed it until recently."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Toxin and Creeper."
Magneto stepped aside to reveal two college aged students. One, Toxin, was a female with a wild mane of black hair pulled up half heartedly. The other, Creeper, was a male who looked as though he could easily have been Toxin's twin: dark hair and dark skin. They were not related however, and knew little more about each other than their names.
"I beg your pardon?" Gambit said, looking over at the two students in surprise.
"They're from Chicago," Magneto explained, "New converts willing to fight for our cause. They are two of *many* from their school alone. Our side is growing rapidly."
There was a grunt from the corner of the room as Colossus wrinkled his nose at his leader. "According to you, the sides are chosen for us, remember?"
Magneto narrowed his eyes slightly at Colossus. "If I were in your position, I would know when to keep my peace. There *are* those who believe in our cause."
"And what cause is that? The one that makes you some sort of ruler!? If I had the freedom to choose, I would rather die than see you running your human-free world!"
"Enough!" Magneto thundered, his eyes flashing slightly at the Russian. "We are fighting for what we deserve! Fighting for the dominance and superiority that is due us! I have no intentions of making myself some sort of dictator, but do you really want to live under the rules and restrictions that mere human men place you under? You will be glad to be on my side in the end," the older mutant brought three chairs to where he and his two knew converts were and took a seat. "Now, we need the X-Men to cooperate. At this point they are our only known threat. Others are bound to emerge, but Xavier's students have had real training, and will be valuable if I can convince them to join us. Not even Charles will be able to deny that the sides are indeed chosen for us. There are those with an X gene, and those without."
"We've heard all this boss. Get on with it. No sense in spouting all tha' bull to us. No siree. We've been with ya too long," Pyro grinned and his eyes lit up. He began to laugh to himself, as though he had made some sort of joke that only he understood.
Fred looked over at him but remained silent. He never said much to the others when Magneto was present. Magneto slipped his eyes towards Pyro with a look of annoyance, but quickly replaced it with a cold expression.
"Gambit, you and these two will be the only three to actually enter the grounds," Magneto continued, gesturing to the two new mutants.
"We'll need gas masks or something. Best way in is through the air ducts, but they've got em rigged with gas. And if I may ask, how is abducting them going to convince them you want to help?" Gambit said as a sly smile made its way across his face.
Magneto glared at him slightly. "I have explained this before. If they are unaware of their surroundings, and frightened, they will be easier to convince," he said, his voice even. "It would do all of you well to remember what our purpose is. I find your lack of respect for what I am doing quite obnoxious. It's for their own good that they join us. Once they commit themselves, they'll be thankful for what I've done."
Fred watched the unchanging expressions on the faces of the three acolytes. None of them held any ounce of fear, pride, or respect. If anything, they looked defiant. The young mutant wondered for the first time if what he was doing was right, but swiftly brushed the thought aside. It had to be right, and even if it wasn't, he had to pretend for sanity's sake. He had seen Pyro's eyes when the flame tamer laughed; he knew he didn't want his eyes to ever look like that. Soon, the brotherhood would be back and all would be forgiven once they understood Magneto's plan for their future.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You want me to go in?"
Todd tore his eyes away from the rundown apartment building and looked over at Lance. The older teen had not had to ask where Todd wanted to go when the younger mutant had asked if they could go for a ride. He always had the same destination in mind. Lance had never asked to accompany Todd into the building before because he already knew the answer. It was something Todd had to do alone. This time however, it seemed different.
Todd shook his head and unbuckled his seatbelt. He had a feeling Lance would only lose his temper and start shaking things if he saw what went on inside apartment 4C.
"Do me a favor though. When I come back yo, don't let me leave this parking lot unless I convince you that I did what I came to do."
"Uhh, and what is that exactly?"
Hesitating, Todd looked up at Lance. "I'm not exactly sure yo. I just wanna tell her... tell her how much she hurt me."
Lance bit his lip. "What good will that do?"
"No idea. Maybe I've got this strange fantasy that she'll realize what she's done and want to sober up or something. I dunno yo."
Lance put the car in park and turned off the ignition, buying time. "Do you really want to hurt her Todd? That doesn't seem like something you'd want to do." He was afraid that Todd was about to march into his former home and take out all the anger he could. It wasn't a wise choice, but a person will do odd things when they've been hurt emotionally. He didn't want Todd to make things worse for himself. A guilty conscience really wouldn't help him.
Todd thought about this for a moment and shook his head. "No. I don't want to hurt her yo. I think..."
Lance waited patiently while Todd let the thoughts roll through his head. It always surprised him that Todd returned to see his mother, even though she never seemed to care that he came. He would probably just walk away and never look back if he had been in Todd's place. Todd obviously didn't deal with things the same way Lance did though.
"...I think that I need to tell her I forgive her."
Lance's breath caught in his chest as he looked over at Todd in surprise. He most certainly had not been expecting toad to say *that.*
"Huh?"
Todd stared straight ahead and slowly nodded his head.
Lance blinked at Todd a few times. Maybe he wasn't giving the 16 year old enough credit, but this simply wasn't the type of thing Todd would say. It was too...mature.
"I don't get it," Lance said honestly, "I mean, I think it's a great idea, but how on earth did you come to that conclusion?"
Todd cracked a smile at this and looked over at Lance. "I've had a lot of time to think about it yo. I know I'm the type of person who would just walk away and not care, or just take out all my anger on her, but what good will that do? I've seen what harboring it all away can do to a guy yo, look at Pietro. I figure if I can set it right, at least to some degree, so that at least *I* feel better about things, then maybe I can just go back to being a kid again."
Lance arched an eyebrow at his friend, truly amazed. He felt kind of bad for thinking that Todd wasn't capable of this much in depth thinking. It was so well reasoned and thought out that he half wondered if Xavier had just put the thought in Todd's head for him. Even if he had, which he doubted anyway, Xavier couldn't actually make Todd forgive his mother.
"I always forget you're only 16."
"It's only two years younger than you yo."
"Yeah, but 16 and 18 just seem so different.You've still got time to think about your future, to make a dumb mistake and still get away with it, learn from it. It's not too late for you Todd."
Todd wrinkled his nose and a confused expression crossed his face. "Uh, what're you talking about?"
Lance sighed and leaned on the steering wheel. "Never mind. I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately. Anyway, I think you should forgive her Todd. Forgive her and then move on. Because you know it won't necessarily change anything between the two of you right?"
"Yeah I know. But for *me* it'll be different."
Todd wasn't sure how this would make things different for him, all he knew was that it would. It would be like a release of some sort. He wasn't ready to go inside just yet though, so he opted to stay in the car awhile. He knew Lance wouldn't mind; he never did.
"I remembered what made me block things in the first place," Todd said after a minute.
"How bad was it?" Lance asked, surprised that Todd hadn't mentioned this sooner.
"Depends. I wasn't emotionally attached or anything. Still, I saw someone murdered. I'm not talking instant bullets either. I won't tell you though, it'd make you sick even if you weren't on all that medication yo. Point is I was really small and I couldn't cope. My mom didn't do anything about it. She was there too. She knew I saw it. She never even asked if I was ok."
Lance winced. He hated hearing this stuff. It made him want to bring the entire apartment complex down.
"I'm gonna go in now and tell her."
Lance nodded as Todd climbed out of the jeep and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He watched as his friend trooped up the stairs to apartment 4C and half expected him to freeze up at the door way. If that happened, Lance would have to go get him.
Todd only hesitated for a minute though. He knocked a few times before letting himself in. The place reeked of smoke and alcohol, but Todd was so accustomed to it that after a few moments he wasn't even aware of it anymore.
"Yo, anyone here?"
He could have kicked himself. Of course someone was here, the door had been unlocked, but what kind of greeting were you supposed to give in a place where no one really cared that you were there anyway?
"Whoever you are, I hope you brought cash."
Todd winced. He didn't want to think about what she meant by that. Drugs, more than likely, but whether she needed cash to buy them or she was selling them, he didn't want to know.
"Uhh, nope, no cash. It's just me mamma."
"Todd? Well lookie here. You come crawling back to me now that the world hates you freaks?" She appeared from the kitchen and grinned as though Todd was supposed to find her comment amusing.
Todd shook his head and resisted the urge to tell her that she was wearing far too much make-up.
"Well what're you here for then?"
Todd sighed and took a seat on the couch. He wished he didn't need some sort of *reason* to come see his mom. She wasn't mean; she just didn't care, which in Todd's opinion was worse.
"I just came to talk to you, let you know I'm still alive and all. A lot of stuff's happened to me– if you care."
Ms. Tolansky took a seat on the other side of Todd and lit a cigarette. She made a move for the TV remote but Todd intercepted with a flick of his tongue.
"Mama I'm trying to talk to you yo!"
"I'm listening Todd."
"No you're not!"
Ms. Tolansky took a long drag from her cigarette and eyed her son curiously. On the rare occasions that Todd came to see her, they had established an odd sort of routine. He would show up, say hey, watch some TV, then leave. They never said too much to each other. Although he didn't know it, Ms. Tolansky *did* care about Todd. She just didn't know what to do with him. She was sixteen when she'd had him, and from there on out it was your typical American teen sob story: single mother, father vanished into thin air, drug addiction, too messed up to think about another person's well being. Some teens made it out, but Ms. Tolansky wasn't one of them.
"Well if you've got something to say, say it!"
Todd looked down at his hands as his tongue suddenly seemed swollen in his mouth. "I uh...just that...I forgive you."
"Huh?"
"I forgive you, for all the hell you put me through. I was gonna say it all but no point in giving you a guilt trip about it yo. I just had to tell you."
Ms. Tolansky looked over at her son in shock. Not for the first time, she felt the urge to swear she'd change, to promise that she could rebuild their lives, but she didn't dare. Her own son had grown up before she had, and it was a tough fact to swallow. Todd wouldn't have believed her anyway if she'd promised to clean up, not without good reason either. He'd heard it before.
Todd stood and headed for the door, not able to handle sitting there watching that look of shock play across his mother's face. He placed a hand on the door knob when Ms. Tolansky called his name softly. He froze and waited, not looking back at her.
"Are you happy Todd?"
Todd tilted his head and focused on the door frame. "Sometimes. Not at the moment. I will be eventually though."
He clicked the door open and made a mad dash for Lance's jeep.
"Drive," he said, pulling his seatbelt on.
Lance didn't comment. Instead he pulled out of the parking lot and headed away from the institute, knowing Todd wouldn't want to go back there just yet.
"It's funny yo, the one time I actually want to cry, I don't."
Lance smiled half heartedly. "Yeah, I know what you mean."
Todd let out a laugh and turned to face Lance. "You never cry."
Lance rolled his eyes and smirked. "If that's what you want to think."
Todd tried not to seem surprised by this new revelation. Of *course* Lance must cry at some point or another, but he had a really hard time picturing it. He flicked the radio on and turned the volume up, knowing Lance wouldn't go back to the institute until Todd asked.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro looked at his reflection in the full length mirror and winced.
"Chill out man, it's just a uniform," Evan said, pulling on his yellow boots.
"Uh, hello! Look at me! I look like a skeleton that someone wrapped in spandex!"
Todd peered around his locker at Pietro and smirked. He had to admit, it was a pretty accurate description. The black was also not too flattering; it made Pietro's pale skin look like a florescent light bulb in contrast.
The instructors had all decided that the students, with the exception of Kitty, were all healthy enough to resume training without using their powers. As far as the kids were concerned, training was hard enough *with* their powers. Not being able to use them only made things worse.
"Hey, this is a different uniform than I had last time," Lance announced as he appeared from behind the row of lockers.
His uniform resembled Kurt's, only the shoulders didn't jut out nearly as far, and it had blue rather than red. Thankfully, Lance noted, neither his, Todd's, or Pietro's outfits had the X insignia anywhere on them.
"Yeah," Evan said, "We couldn't find your old one. Plus, it had the X's on it and the proff figured you guys wouldn't like that too much."
"Come on guys, let's go. Everyone's waiting," Scott's voice echoed down the lockers.
"We're comin' yo!" Todd replied, closing his locker.
The guys filed into the danger room and waited for instructions. Logan informed them that the girls were going to run flight sims while the boys hit the weight room.
"Are you kidding me?" Pietro asked, "You're seriously gonna make us lift weights?"
Logan curled his lip slightly at Pietro in amusement. "Yes quickie. Is that a problem?"
Pietro lowered his eyes and shook his head. "Nope. No problem at all."
"Good. Girls, load the simulator, Scott is running the show with ya. Boys, off with Hank. Lance, you're coming with me."
Lance looked up and raised his eyebrows. "Huh?"
"I'll explain on the way."
Lance looked at Todd and Pietro who returned his blank look of confusion. Shrugging, Lance followed Logan toward the exit. The pair silently trudged past the pool and the basketball courts and towards the woods.
"So are you going to tell me where the heck we're going?" Lance finally asked.
"Chuck had a few words with Hank. Seems that they think ya should try to use your powers again after all, but *slowly.* It's going to be like rehab or physical therapy for yer powers."
A rush of relief and surprise washed over Lance. He was beginning to think that they would never let him use his powers again. He suddenly became nervous though as he thought about the last part of what Logan had said.
"Can you maybe explain what you mean by 'rehab for my powers?' And what're we going all the way out here for anyway?"
Logan smirked as he sliced through a branch that had been in their path. "You can't just go back to shaking up the earth all over the place. Hank says it's the same concept as someone shattering their leg or something. They have to slowly rebuild the strength and control in their leg as it heals. Same with your head... or something like that. And we're coming out here because we can't afford to have the foundation of the mansion being split apart; not that you'll be doing anything that powerful for awhile, but I doubt a trembling weight room is very safe."
Lance didn't respond and instead kept following Logan until they reached a small. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of the institute's toughest instructor witnessing his powers in their weakest stage. It probably didn't matter to Logan, but Lance couldn't help wanting to show off when it came to his powers.
"Alright Ro...Lance. I'm supposed to ask you a bunch of stuff about your powers before we start this."
Lance shrugged and took a seat on a log while Logan leaned against a tree.
"How much control do you actually have?"
Lance smirked and looked up at Logan, amused. "I don't see why that's relevant, but not as much as I could have."
"Care to explain?"
"Just causing tremors is simple. It's when I need to cause a tremor directed at a specific target that takes a lot of effort. My head feels like exploding every time I try to concentrate on something that specific. You remember that whole train disaster when Jean couldn't contain that blast? That crevice was about my limit."
Logan raised an eyebrow at Lance and tilted his head.
Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. "Basically, the more I concentrated, the worse the pain in my head got, the harder the tremors are to control. Get it? You notice how tired I was after that whole thing? I wasn't on the ground for dramatics man."
Logan nodded. "I get it. Eventually, we'll work on the control part of things but for now let's just get ya back on track with your normal tremors. I want ya to just shake the ground...*slowly.* Nothing major you understand? Just test 'em out. Any questions?"
"Just one," Lance said, standing up, "Why isn't McCoy doing this with me? No offence, but this doesn't seem like your thing."
"It's not. But anything is better than weight training with those boys. The only time I was ever surprised by one of them was when the elf first got here. And even then I was only surprised because of how much he benched for his size."
Lance raised an eyebrow. "Kurt? I could out bench him no problem."
Logan smirked again. "You'd be surprised how much muscle an acrobat builds up. This is besides the point though, get on with it."
Lance nodded and planted his feet firmly on the ground. He didn't totally buy that Logan just wanted to get out of supervising weight lifting but he didn't comment on it. Logan, he had decided, wasn't exactly what Lance had always pictured. He hadn't been able to envision wolverine talking about anything but fights and missions, but he was getting the impression that Logan may actually have a sense of humor...maybe.
"So are you just gonna stand there?"
Lance shot Logan a glare then stuck his palm out in front of him. The brunette's eyes slid back into his head and his hand curled up slightly as the earth began to shift beneath his feet. It was feeble at first, and Lance had the sudden urge to open up a huge chasm to show he wasn't this weak, but he didn't think the potential consequences would be worth it.
He continued to shake the earth until at last Logan's voice made it through to his brain.
"Alright Lance. Lance that's enough. Lance!"
The ground immediately stilled and Lance dropped his hand to his side. Panting, he turned to face Logan who was...smiling? Lance didn't bother to try and decide if that's what he was doing.
"My head doesn't hurt!" he announced, completely thrilled but trying not to show it.
"Good," Logan said, "Now sit down, take a break, then you can do it again."
Lance reluctantly took a seat on the log once again and tried not to let the fact that he felt completely exhausted after one short tremor bother him. He sat in silence for a few minutes before looking up at Logan.
"Hey, uh, thanks for letting me borrow your bike."
Logan nodded and his eyes flickered over to Lance. "You needed it bub."
Lance ran a hand over his hair and nodded slightly. "Yeah, but I'm not sure I came to any conclusions," he paused, not sure if Logan even cared about what he was saying, "I uh...I thought more about Xavier's counseling pitch," he paused again, waiting for some type of reaction.
"I think you should consider it. Or something along those lines anyway," Logan stated, taking a seat on the log next to Lance.
"Well, I had a...I guess you could call it an idea...sorta."
Logan looked at Lance, waiting for him to finish. "Look bub, I don't do guessing games, so either tell me your idea or don't."
Lance slouched and shrugged slightly. "I was thinking there really oughta be some type of mutant organization that helps kids who's parents can't handle their kid being a mutant. I sure as hell coulda used the help when I got my powers. Sorta like a social worker for mutants type of thing. There's too many mutant teens on the street if you ask me, trust me, I would know."
Logan looked over at Lance with a look of mild surprise written across his face. "How long were you on that bike? Sounds like a lot of thinking to me."
Lance grinned slightly. "A *long* time. It's a nice bike."
Logan nodded. "Well, I don't know how you would go about starting something like that, but I can guarantee you the proff will. If you want my opinion, I think it's a damn good idea."
Lance raised his eyebrows at Logan's language. Logan was one of the main enforcers of the no cussing rule (which Lance had always found a little odd considering Logan seemed like he would have the most trouble with keeping his mouth in check).
"Aren't you the one always on Evan's case for his mouth?"
Logan looked indifferent as he stood up. With a shrug, he responded, "The rule only applies with the kids."
Lance tried to hide his grin. As far as he was concerned, Logan placing him in separate category from the 'kids' was the highest compliment he could get.
"Come on Avalanche, this time I want you to only shake that area over there."
AN: So the OC's were completely out of nowhere. Don't expect me to do much with them as far as depth goes lol. I just needed em. Anyway. Please review! :)
I apologize for the fact that I didn't edit through this as carefully as I usually do... so sorry in advance for blonde mistakes, awkward sentences, spelling probs, ext ext.
Also sorry for the lack if originality with Magneto's plan. Like I mentioned, it's a lot like the asteroid M plan only I'm gonna hopefully pull it off as different and... yeah... we'll see when we get there.
On the random side...Im all excited that they brought Evan back last week. Yes I know, most everybody hates him but too bad, he makes me smile. I was however, ticked that we didnt get to see any BH! I'd like to know how they're dealing with a mob outside their house when they don't have a jet to get them out... they gotta buy groceries at some point ya know! Anyways, now that I have that out of my system, ill stop wasting ur time.
Oh, P.S. The Magneto in my fic is evil cuz I can't seem to write him any other way... whatever lol.
Review Responses-
IceBlueRose- Yeah...it is a lot like the asteroid M bit... but hopefully I'll make it diff enough... bleh lol.
Incrediblecuznz- Hehe, I was proud of the flea collar line. It just struck me as something Kurt would say to ease tension... anyway, im weird like that. And yeah, when the acolytes do strike... its not gonna be fun for the kids lol.
Black Arachne- I love Lance as the unsung hero. It makes me smile. :)
Mandy- yes, yay for a long review hehe. I felt the need to let Scott try and redeem himself for seeming like such a jerk earlier. He's had his problems too so ya. I like to think the acolytes have some sort of 'normalness' to their lives... which is why I had them just sitting and being normal lol.
Yma- I'm glad u liked Fred and Mags cuz they're the ones giving me the most trouble... little buggers. Mags is gonna end up coming across as a skitzo at some point but I'll tie it all in so it makes sense.
KS-Fan- lol, I'm trying to decide if you liked the fact I brought up that Lance and the boys have to grow up, or if the thought was too depressing to handle hehe. Anyway, glad im pulling Fredd off alight. Mags is still bugging the heck out of me tho.
Silverfox1- lol, I know, it's strange, I'm getting there tho.
Wizard1- *grins* thanks
Eboni- Pietro amuses me too :) I don't know why really, cuz he doesn't do much, but still. Yes, the sentinel thing has happened already. Pretty much everything but the apocalypse stuff has happened. That includes any new stuff too... as long as it doesn't involve that whole story line (yeah, if u can make sense of that lol)
K.C.2007- hehe...hey, he cant help it if he likes clothes!
SkyDancerHawk- I probably shoulda put a warning about that at the beginning of the fic... but at that point I didn't know I was going be including some of the stuff I included. There is gonna be more with Pietro and his self mutilation because it's an issue in the story and I cant just ignore it. I don't *approve* of self mutilation either but it happens. In Pietro's case it's not graphic though...if that makes any difference (there's more than one reason I didn't have him use a knife ppl.. I don't think I could bring myself to write that). There won't be any gay couples btw. I'm not a fan of slash.
MiracleChick- Yeah, it wasn't needed or necessary... I did it to help myself out and decided to post it. I said it wasn't really part of the story so yeah lol. Anyway... I find middle school to be one of the most terrifying places on earth (it wasnt for me personally or anything... but still... middle school kids are brutal!) So I decided to make Pietro one of the victims. Come on, pale scrawny kid who acts feminine... he's fresh meat hehe. And I started to read "trsut" but didnt have time to really... and now I cant find it lol. Can ya maybe tell me who wrote it cuz I can't remember and I wanna read it... please?
Windwalker- I think I threw Logan OOC in this chapter... but I'm trying to do something with him and Lance. Lance needs an advisor person in his life somewhere so yeah. Anywho, I'm working on it.
WinkyBells- "Crazy-go-nuts-cool".... awesome lol.
Calamari Rings- I thought about having the girls notice the scars... but I wasnt really thinking straight when I wrote that chapter lol.
Maikafuiniel- For some odd reason.. I can't e-mail u. But you have my permission to post this :)
To anyone else who reviewed... *gives them all huge hugs* I LOVE reviews!!!!
Chapter 18- Maybe Things Will Be Alright
Todd stared up at the professor with a look of cold anger, muddy with confusion. "So that's it yo? That's *it?*"
The professor looked back at Todd and nodded slowly. "It was a very traumatic thing to witness Todd."
"But...but how...I don't get it yo! Yeah that was terrible but I've seen loads of crap way worse than that! How is that memory so horrible that it caused me to block off anything bad for the rest of my life?"
The professor calmly rested his hands on his desk and leaned toward Todd. He could tell that the young mutant was completely caught off guard by his new memory. Todd had expected something earth shattering, and though his memory was indeed horrific, it still didn't cause him to come close to hyperventilating like he'd expected.
"Todd, to a six year old mind, seeing something like that would be sincerely damaging. You're mind created another world for you emotionally because you couldn't cope otherwise."
"Yeah I know that yo but... I just... I don't understand!"
Todd scowled and glanced around the room. It had been a murder. He'd watched while some man, probably one of his mother's 'clients,' stabbed one of his mom's friends repeatedly. It was graphic, grotesque, and downright terrifying. Yet, he wasn't emotionally attached to the situation in any way. Why this particular event in his life had caused his mind to think in an altered way was beyond him. Overall, it was frustrating.
"So am I done with sessions now that I know what caused it?"
The professor arched an eyebrow and shook his head. "No. Just because you have all your correct memories back doesn't mean you don't need to..."
"Work through them," Todd finished, "Well how am I supposed to do that? Just decide to come to terms with all the horrible stuff I endured, how my mom mistreated me, how I never had a dad, how I saw loads of gore when I was little, and get over it yo?"
Again, Charles shook his head. "Some of these issues, you can still resolve. The pain may still be there for a while, but some type of closure would help."
Todd tilted his head as a strange idea filled his mind. He was too scared to even admit it to himself at the moment, but maybe there was something he could actually do. Someday at least.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro stood in the dim hall and shifted nervously from foot to foot. He was debating about whether or not this was a stupid idea. 'Why does Rogue have to share a room with Kitty?'
He raised a fist to knock on the door and hesitated again. It had to be nearly one in the morning and he wasn't sure how well the girls would react to being disturbed. He knew he had to do something though, and his only other option at this point was to wake up Evan. He knew that was a no go considering the guy slept like a rock and was barely coherent until noon anyway.
He finally began to knock, hoping that Rogue would be the one to wake up first. Kitty was still winching every time she moved due to her cracked ribs. Pietro actually felt sorry for her; being in pain from mere breathing had to suck.
Eventually, the door handle clicked and a very disheveled Rogue appeared in the door way. She blinked against the light and held a finger up to Pietro, signaling him to wait a second. She returned moments later, pulling on her gloves before clicking the door shut behind her. Her hair had been too much of a mess to attempt to tame so she had opted for a ponytail instead.
The make up-less Rogue with her hair pulled back and lack of combat boots caught Pietro slightly off guard, but he ignored it and began to head down the hall, away from the doors so that he wouldn't wake anyone up. Rogue followed him, still stumbling slightly from the lights. They reached the stairway and sat down on the top step.
"So uh, what's up?" Rogue asked, giggling slightly. The whole situation was rather odd.
Pietro began to fidget worse than normal and Rogue noticed that the tapping of his foot kept alternating from a normal pace to his hyper speed. Pietro was suddenly aware of how dumb he must look, just showing up at her door in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
"I...uh..." he shrugged helplessly and kept his eyes away from Rogue. He could feel his face growing hot and wished for the millionth time that he wasn't so fair skinned.
Rogue's face instantly changed into a more serious, slightly more awake, expression. "Are you alright?"
"Hell if I know!" he snapped.
Rogue tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at Pietro.
"Sorry," he mumbled. He was beginning to think this was a stupid idea after all. "I just...I need someone to talk to. I need to be distracted."
"From?" Rogue asked gently.
"Everything! My thoughts, they just...jeez Rogue I can't handle them all at once! There's- too- many,- too- fast,- too- much,- too- hard- to- control.- Gotta- run,- gotta- take- my- mind- off- of- them,- gotta..."
"Shhh. Hey, calm down. Ya don't gotta run Pietro."
"I do! The pain's the only thing that distracts me! You don't get it!"
Rogue took a deep breath and gathered as much patience as she could; no small task considering she was still half asleep and not very sure what was going on. "Well how bout ya try an' explain it ta me?"
"I can't! It's all so fast! I..." he cut himself off and took several breaths. "Rogue?"
Rogue craned her neck so that Pietro had to look up at her. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.
"Rogue, don't let me run."
"I don't intend to."
Pietro ran both hands through his hair and rested his elbows on his knees. He wasn't really sure *how* to explain the chaos that went on in his head. "Ok.Do you ever get so overwhelmed with thoughts that you just wanna scream?"
Rogue bit down the urge to laugh. "Yeah, like, ten people's thoughts."
Pietro nodded and forced himself to stop bouncing his knee. "Ok now imagine all that craziness going through your head so fast you can barely process most of it."
"Yikes."
"Yeah. I've been talking about it with Hank a lot and I pretty much figured out that's why I run. I get so confused that I have to do *something* to distract my thoughts. Pain happens to have the best effect. Lucky me."
"It's interesting," Rogue mused, "It always seemed ta me that ya had great control over your powers, but then there's this whole other aspect of it that you haven't managed to get a grip on yet."
Pietro nodded and the two sat in silence for a few moments. Pietro began to fidget once again, still going back and forth from mutated speed to a normal one. He suddenly clenched his eyes shut and kicked the stair banister in frustration.
"Ok, ok, calm down," Rogue instructed, "Ah got an idea. Why don't ya just talk everything you're thinkin'? That way you'll be able to go slow enough to think it all out. If ya start doing your whole speed talk thing, Ah'll stop ya."
Pietro gave Rogue a skeptical look and the goth rolled her eyes. "Yes, Ah realize that means you're going ta have ta *talk* about stuff, but Ah don't see you coming up with any bright ideas. Besides, there's a few things Ah've been meaning ta ask ya ever since the night Ah absorbed ya."
Resigned, Pietro nodded and stood up. "May as well go somewhere comfortable."
The two mutants headed down the stairs towards one of the common rooms. Settling themselves on a couch, Rogue waited for Pietro to start talking.
The silver haired teen just looked back at Rogue. "What? You think I'm just gonna randomly start saying stuff? Uh-uh."
Rogue rolled her eyes but didn't bother to comment. "So...can I just ask you anything or is there specific stuff you need to talk about?"
Pietro wrinkled his nose. "You sound like Hank during one of my sessions."
Rogue sighed and shook her head. "Pietro, come on. Are you *trying* to make this more work than it needs ta be?"
"No, sorry."
"Ok then. That night, you said you wished you were seven years old again...why?"
Pietro thought for a moment but Rogue quickly reminded him that the whole point was for him to think out loud.
"Right. So, when I was seven, things were pretty good. The Maximoff's weren't all weird until I was about eight I think. Anyway, Wanda's powers hadn't surfaced yet, school wasn't a torture chamber, I had a best friend, and two girls in my third grade class wrote me notes saying I was cute. What more could a kid want? I still wish I could go back to that. No hoping that Mr. Maximoff didn't come home drunk. No being forced into perfection. No middle school creeps treating me like I'm a freak."
"What is it with you and middle school? Seems like every time it's mentioned ya either don't wanna talk about it or it's somethin' negative."
Pietro flushed and shrugged half heartedly, "It just sucked. It's like that for some people I guess. At that age everyone just does whatever they can to seem cool. I happened to like clothes and was a little on the wussy side. So in a world where anything even slightly out of the ordinary is blown out of proportion, I was labeled the school queer. Nice huh?"
Rogue tried to hide her smile.
"What?"
"Well... are you?"
Pietro dropped his jaw in surprise and firmly shook his head. "No. Not even close. Well... ok, so maybe I can see why... oh for crying out loud never mind. I'm straight as an arrow. Yeesh, I can't believe you even asked me that."
Rogue just shrugged, still grinning. "Distracted ya didn't it?" She smirked at him and he rolled his eyes in response.
"Jerk. So anyway, high school was great. I made it pretty obvious I liked girls... we'll leave it at that. Plus it turned out I was awesome at basketball so I was a shoe in for the elite group of jocks. Anymore questions?"
Rogue thought for a minute. "Yeah, what do you think about that just sends you up a wall like right now? Ah mean, Ah know there's probably more than one thing, but what's the worst?"
Pietro looked away from Rogue and began to absently trace the embroidery on the throw pillow he was holding. It was a question that he had already thought of an answer to, only Hank had never asked, or at least he hadn't yet. It wasn't the type of information that Pietro gave willingly, so Hank would never know until he requested the information directly.
"Magneto. Wanda," he said softly, still not looking up, "He messed her up really bad. I don't know if she can ever really come back. I'd even take back the old Wanda that was intent on murdering me. At least that Wanda was who she chose to be. The *real* Wanda was locked away and I haven't seen her since," he paused for a second and finally looked back up at Rogue. "It's not just her either. It's...Rogue, Magneto is my *dad.* How can I hate, really honestly and truly hate, my own dad?"
Rogue sighed and shook her head subtly. She didn't have an answer to that. She knew how he felt, having dealt with the idea that Mystique was her mother, but she had made very few conclusions about it.
"I wish I wasn't just some part of his master plan," Pietro continued, "Because then maybe I could believe it when he says he cares about me, or my well being, but I'm just another tool to him." The speedster clamped his mouth shut. 'No sense in spilling more emotions than she needs to hear.'
Rogue moved closer to Pietro and rested a hand on his shoulder. She didn't have much to say, so her only other option was to sit with him, making sure he didn't go into overload.
"Hey Rogue?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for, you know, letting me be all stupid," Pietro yawned, sinking deeper into the couch.
"Pietro," Rogue started, catching Pietro's yawn, "Ah don't think you askin' for help is stupid. It's better than you runnin'. Did Ah even help at all?"
Pietro nodded as his eyelids fluttered slightly. His head was back to working at a normal pace for him now, and despite that fact there was still the lingering twinge of pain from his memories and thoughts, he felt oddly at ease. "You know something Rogue? Maybe it won't always be like this."
"Huh? What won't always be like what?"
Pietro yawned again and pulled his legs up onto the couch, "My life. Maybe it won't always be this painful. Maybe one day Magneto will leave me alone."
Rogue cracked a sleepy eyelid at Pietro in surprise. "Of course it will, eventually."
"Yeah, but I never really believed it until recently."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Toxin and Creeper."
Magneto stepped aside to reveal two college aged students. One, Toxin, was a female with a wild mane of black hair pulled up half heartedly. The other, Creeper, was a male who looked as though he could easily have been Toxin's twin: dark hair and dark skin. They were not related however, and knew little more about each other than their names.
"I beg your pardon?" Gambit said, looking over at the two students in surprise.
"They're from Chicago," Magneto explained, "New converts willing to fight for our cause. They are two of *many* from their school alone. Our side is growing rapidly."
There was a grunt from the corner of the room as Colossus wrinkled his nose at his leader. "According to you, the sides are chosen for us, remember?"
Magneto narrowed his eyes slightly at Colossus. "If I were in your position, I would know when to keep my peace. There *are* those who believe in our cause."
"And what cause is that? The one that makes you some sort of ruler!? If I had the freedom to choose, I would rather die than see you running your human-free world!"
"Enough!" Magneto thundered, his eyes flashing slightly at the Russian. "We are fighting for what we deserve! Fighting for the dominance and superiority that is due us! I have no intentions of making myself some sort of dictator, but do you really want to live under the rules and restrictions that mere human men place you under? You will be glad to be on my side in the end," the older mutant brought three chairs to where he and his two knew converts were and took a seat. "Now, we need the X-Men to cooperate. At this point they are our only known threat. Others are bound to emerge, but Xavier's students have had real training, and will be valuable if I can convince them to join us. Not even Charles will be able to deny that the sides are indeed chosen for us. There are those with an X gene, and those without."
"We've heard all this boss. Get on with it. No sense in spouting all tha' bull to us. No siree. We've been with ya too long," Pyro grinned and his eyes lit up. He began to laugh to himself, as though he had made some sort of joke that only he understood.
Fred looked over at him but remained silent. He never said much to the others when Magneto was present. Magneto slipped his eyes towards Pyro with a look of annoyance, but quickly replaced it with a cold expression.
"Gambit, you and these two will be the only three to actually enter the grounds," Magneto continued, gesturing to the two new mutants.
"We'll need gas masks or something. Best way in is through the air ducts, but they've got em rigged with gas. And if I may ask, how is abducting them going to convince them you want to help?" Gambit said as a sly smile made its way across his face.
Magneto glared at him slightly. "I have explained this before. If they are unaware of their surroundings, and frightened, they will be easier to convince," he said, his voice even. "It would do all of you well to remember what our purpose is. I find your lack of respect for what I am doing quite obnoxious. It's for their own good that they join us. Once they commit themselves, they'll be thankful for what I've done."
Fred watched the unchanging expressions on the faces of the three acolytes. None of them held any ounce of fear, pride, or respect. If anything, they looked defiant. The young mutant wondered for the first time if what he was doing was right, but swiftly brushed the thought aside. It had to be right, and even if it wasn't, he had to pretend for sanity's sake. He had seen Pyro's eyes when the flame tamer laughed; he knew he didn't want his eyes to ever look like that. Soon, the brotherhood would be back and all would be forgiven once they understood Magneto's plan for their future.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You want me to go in?"
Todd tore his eyes away from the rundown apartment building and looked over at Lance. The older teen had not had to ask where Todd wanted to go when the younger mutant had asked if they could go for a ride. He always had the same destination in mind. Lance had never asked to accompany Todd into the building before because he already knew the answer. It was something Todd had to do alone. This time however, it seemed different.
Todd shook his head and unbuckled his seatbelt. He had a feeling Lance would only lose his temper and start shaking things if he saw what went on inside apartment 4C.
"Do me a favor though. When I come back yo, don't let me leave this parking lot unless I convince you that I did what I came to do."
"Uhh, and what is that exactly?"
Hesitating, Todd looked up at Lance. "I'm not exactly sure yo. I just wanna tell her... tell her how much she hurt me."
Lance bit his lip. "What good will that do?"
"No idea. Maybe I've got this strange fantasy that she'll realize what she's done and want to sober up or something. I dunno yo."
Lance put the car in park and turned off the ignition, buying time. "Do you really want to hurt her Todd? That doesn't seem like something you'd want to do." He was afraid that Todd was about to march into his former home and take out all the anger he could. It wasn't a wise choice, but a person will do odd things when they've been hurt emotionally. He didn't want Todd to make things worse for himself. A guilty conscience really wouldn't help him.
Todd thought about this for a moment and shook his head. "No. I don't want to hurt her yo. I think..."
Lance waited patiently while Todd let the thoughts roll through his head. It always surprised him that Todd returned to see his mother, even though she never seemed to care that he came. He would probably just walk away and never look back if he had been in Todd's place. Todd obviously didn't deal with things the same way Lance did though.
"...I think that I need to tell her I forgive her."
Lance's breath caught in his chest as he looked over at Todd in surprise. He most certainly had not been expecting toad to say *that.*
"Huh?"
Todd stared straight ahead and slowly nodded his head.
Lance blinked at Todd a few times. Maybe he wasn't giving the 16 year old enough credit, but this simply wasn't the type of thing Todd would say. It was too...mature.
"I don't get it," Lance said honestly, "I mean, I think it's a great idea, but how on earth did you come to that conclusion?"
Todd cracked a smile at this and looked over at Lance. "I've had a lot of time to think about it yo. I know I'm the type of person who would just walk away and not care, or just take out all my anger on her, but what good will that do? I've seen what harboring it all away can do to a guy yo, look at Pietro. I figure if I can set it right, at least to some degree, so that at least *I* feel better about things, then maybe I can just go back to being a kid again."
Lance arched an eyebrow at his friend, truly amazed. He felt kind of bad for thinking that Todd wasn't capable of this much in depth thinking. It was so well reasoned and thought out that he half wondered if Xavier had just put the thought in Todd's head for him. Even if he had, which he doubted anyway, Xavier couldn't actually make Todd forgive his mother.
"I always forget you're only 16."
"It's only two years younger than you yo."
"Yeah, but 16 and 18 just seem so different.You've still got time to think about your future, to make a dumb mistake and still get away with it, learn from it. It's not too late for you Todd."
Todd wrinkled his nose and a confused expression crossed his face. "Uh, what're you talking about?"
Lance sighed and leaned on the steering wheel. "Never mind. I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately. Anyway, I think you should forgive her Todd. Forgive her and then move on. Because you know it won't necessarily change anything between the two of you right?"
"Yeah I know. But for *me* it'll be different."
Todd wasn't sure how this would make things different for him, all he knew was that it would. It would be like a release of some sort. He wasn't ready to go inside just yet though, so he opted to stay in the car awhile. He knew Lance wouldn't mind; he never did.
"I remembered what made me block things in the first place," Todd said after a minute.
"How bad was it?" Lance asked, surprised that Todd hadn't mentioned this sooner.
"Depends. I wasn't emotionally attached or anything. Still, I saw someone murdered. I'm not talking instant bullets either. I won't tell you though, it'd make you sick even if you weren't on all that medication yo. Point is I was really small and I couldn't cope. My mom didn't do anything about it. She was there too. She knew I saw it. She never even asked if I was ok."
Lance winced. He hated hearing this stuff. It made him want to bring the entire apartment complex down.
"I'm gonna go in now and tell her."
Lance nodded as Todd climbed out of the jeep and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He watched as his friend trooped up the stairs to apartment 4C and half expected him to freeze up at the door way. If that happened, Lance would have to go get him.
Todd only hesitated for a minute though. He knocked a few times before letting himself in. The place reeked of smoke and alcohol, but Todd was so accustomed to it that after a few moments he wasn't even aware of it anymore.
"Yo, anyone here?"
He could have kicked himself. Of course someone was here, the door had been unlocked, but what kind of greeting were you supposed to give in a place where no one really cared that you were there anyway?
"Whoever you are, I hope you brought cash."
Todd winced. He didn't want to think about what she meant by that. Drugs, more than likely, but whether she needed cash to buy them or she was selling them, he didn't want to know.
"Uhh, nope, no cash. It's just me mamma."
"Todd? Well lookie here. You come crawling back to me now that the world hates you freaks?" She appeared from the kitchen and grinned as though Todd was supposed to find her comment amusing.
Todd shook his head and resisted the urge to tell her that she was wearing far too much make-up.
"Well what're you here for then?"
Todd sighed and took a seat on the couch. He wished he didn't need some sort of *reason* to come see his mom. She wasn't mean; she just didn't care, which in Todd's opinion was worse.
"I just came to talk to you, let you know I'm still alive and all. A lot of stuff's happened to me– if you care."
Ms. Tolansky took a seat on the other side of Todd and lit a cigarette. She made a move for the TV remote but Todd intercepted with a flick of his tongue.
"Mama I'm trying to talk to you yo!"
"I'm listening Todd."
"No you're not!"
Ms. Tolansky took a long drag from her cigarette and eyed her son curiously. On the rare occasions that Todd came to see her, they had established an odd sort of routine. He would show up, say hey, watch some TV, then leave. They never said too much to each other. Although he didn't know it, Ms. Tolansky *did* care about Todd. She just didn't know what to do with him. She was sixteen when she'd had him, and from there on out it was your typical American teen sob story: single mother, father vanished into thin air, drug addiction, too messed up to think about another person's well being. Some teens made it out, but Ms. Tolansky wasn't one of them.
"Well if you've got something to say, say it!"
Todd looked down at his hands as his tongue suddenly seemed swollen in his mouth. "I uh...just that...I forgive you."
"Huh?"
"I forgive you, for all the hell you put me through. I was gonna say it all but no point in giving you a guilt trip about it yo. I just had to tell you."
Ms. Tolansky looked over at her son in shock. Not for the first time, she felt the urge to swear she'd change, to promise that she could rebuild their lives, but she didn't dare. Her own son had grown up before she had, and it was a tough fact to swallow. Todd wouldn't have believed her anyway if she'd promised to clean up, not without good reason either. He'd heard it before.
Todd stood and headed for the door, not able to handle sitting there watching that look of shock play across his mother's face. He placed a hand on the door knob when Ms. Tolansky called his name softly. He froze and waited, not looking back at her.
"Are you happy Todd?"
Todd tilted his head and focused on the door frame. "Sometimes. Not at the moment. I will be eventually though."
He clicked the door open and made a mad dash for Lance's jeep.
"Drive," he said, pulling his seatbelt on.
Lance didn't comment. Instead he pulled out of the parking lot and headed away from the institute, knowing Todd wouldn't want to go back there just yet.
"It's funny yo, the one time I actually want to cry, I don't."
Lance smiled half heartedly. "Yeah, I know what you mean."
Todd let out a laugh and turned to face Lance. "You never cry."
Lance rolled his eyes and smirked. "If that's what you want to think."
Todd tried not to seem surprised by this new revelation. Of *course* Lance must cry at some point or another, but he had a really hard time picturing it. He flicked the radio on and turned the volume up, knowing Lance wouldn't go back to the institute until Todd asked.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro looked at his reflection in the full length mirror and winced.
"Chill out man, it's just a uniform," Evan said, pulling on his yellow boots.
"Uh, hello! Look at me! I look like a skeleton that someone wrapped in spandex!"
Todd peered around his locker at Pietro and smirked. He had to admit, it was a pretty accurate description. The black was also not too flattering; it made Pietro's pale skin look like a florescent light bulb in contrast.
The instructors had all decided that the students, with the exception of Kitty, were all healthy enough to resume training without using their powers. As far as the kids were concerned, training was hard enough *with* their powers. Not being able to use them only made things worse.
"Hey, this is a different uniform than I had last time," Lance announced as he appeared from behind the row of lockers.
His uniform resembled Kurt's, only the shoulders didn't jut out nearly as far, and it had blue rather than red. Thankfully, Lance noted, neither his, Todd's, or Pietro's outfits had the X insignia anywhere on them.
"Yeah," Evan said, "We couldn't find your old one. Plus, it had the X's on it and the proff figured you guys wouldn't like that too much."
"Come on guys, let's go. Everyone's waiting," Scott's voice echoed down the lockers.
"We're comin' yo!" Todd replied, closing his locker.
The guys filed into the danger room and waited for instructions. Logan informed them that the girls were going to run flight sims while the boys hit the weight room.
"Are you kidding me?" Pietro asked, "You're seriously gonna make us lift weights?"
Logan curled his lip slightly at Pietro in amusement. "Yes quickie. Is that a problem?"
Pietro lowered his eyes and shook his head. "Nope. No problem at all."
"Good. Girls, load the simulator, Scott is running the show with ya. Boys, off with Hank. Lance, you're coming with me."
Lance looked up and raised his eyebrows. "Huh?"
"I'll explain on the way."
Lance looked at Todd and Pietro who returned his blank look of confusion. Shrugging, Lance followed Logan toward the exit. The pair silently trudged past the pool and the basketball courts and towards the woods.
"So are you going to tell me where the heck we're going?" Lance finally asked.
"Chuck had a few words with Hank. Seems that they think ya should try to use your powers again after all, but *slowly.* It's going to be like rehab or physical therapy for yer powers."
A rush of relief and surprise washed over Lance. He was beginning to think that they would never let him use his powers again. He suddenly became nervous though as he thought about the last part of what Logan had said.
"Can you maybe explain what you mean by 'rehab for my powers?' And what're we going all the way out here for anyway?"
Logan smirked as he sliced through a branch that had been in their path. "You can't just go back to shaking up the earth all over the place. Hank says it's the same concept as someone shattering their leg or something. They have to slowly rebuild the strength and control in their leg as it heals. Same with your head... or something like that. And we're coming out here because we can't afford to have the foundation of the mansion being split apart; not that you'll be doing anything that powerful for awhile, but I doubt a trembling weight room is very safe."
Lance didn't respond and instead kept following Logan until they reached a small. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of the institute's toughest instructor witnessing his powers in their weakest stage. It probably didn't matter to Logan, but Lance couldn't help wanting to show off when it came to his powers.
"Alright Ro...Lance. I'm supposed to ask you a bunch of stuff about your powers before we start this."
Lance shrugged and took a seat on a log while Logan leaned against a tree.
"How much control do you actually have?"
Lance smirked and looked up at Logan, amused. "I don't see why that's relevant, but not as much as I could have."
"Care to explain?"
"Just causing tremors is simple. It's when I need to cause a tremor directed at a specific target that takes a lot of effort. My head feels like exploding every time I try to concentrate on something that specific. You remember that whole train disaster when Jean couldn't contain that blast? That crevice was about my limit."
Logan raised an eyebrow at Lance and tilted his head.
Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. "Basically, the more I concentrated, the worse the pain in my head got, the harder the tremors are to control. Get it? You notice how tired I was after that whole thing? I wasn't on the ground for dramatics man."
Logan nodded. "I get it. Eventually, we'll work on the control part of things but for now let's just get ya back on track with your normal tremors. I want ya to just shake the ground...*slowly.* Nothing major you understand? Just test 'em out. Any questions?"
"Just one," Lance said, standing up, "Why isn't McCoy doing this with me? No offence, but this doesn't seem like your thing."
"It's not. But anything is better than weight training with those boys. The only time I was ever surprised by one of them was when the elf first got here. And even then I was only surprised because of how much he benched for his size."
Lance raised an eyebrow. "Kurt? I could out bench him no problem."
Logan smirked again. "You'd be surprised how much muscle an acrobat builds up. This is besides the point though, get on with it."
Lance nodded and planted his feet firmly on the ground. He didn't totally buy that Logan just wanted to get out of supervising weight lifting but he didn't comment on it. Logan, he had decided, wasn't exactly what Lance had always pictured. He hadn't been able to envision wolverine talking about anything but fights and missions, but he was getting the impression that Logan may actually have a sense of humor...maybe.
"So are you just gonna stand there?"
Lance shot Logan a glare then stuck his palm out in front of him. The brunette's eyes slid back into his head and his hand curled up slightly as the earth began to shift beneath his feet. It was feeble at first, and Lance had the sudden urge to open up a huge chasm to show he wasn't this weak, but he didn't think the potential consequences would be worth it.
He continued to shake the earth until at last Logan's voice made it through to his brain.
"Alright Lance. Lance that's enough. Lance!"
The ground immediately stilled and Lance dropped his hand to his side. Panting, he turned to face Logan who was...smiling? Lance didn't bother to try and decide if that's what he was doing.
"My head doesn't hurt!" he announced, completely thrilled but trying not to show it.
"Good," Logan said, "Now sit down, take a break, then you can do it again."
Lance reluctantly took a seat on the log once again and tried not to let the fact that he felt completely exhausted after one short tremor bother him. He sat in silence for a few minutes before looking up at Logan.
"Hey, uh, thanks for letting me borrow your bike."
Logan nodded and his eyes flickered over to Lance. "You needed it bub."
Lance ran a hand over his hair and nodded slightly. "Yeah, but I'm not sure I came to any conclusions," he paused, not sure if Logan even cared about what he was saying, "I uh...I thought more about Xavier's counseling pitch," he paused again, waiting for some type of reaction.
"I think you should consider it. Or something along those lines anyway," Logan stated, taking a seat on the log next to Lance.
"Well, I had a...I guess you could call it an idea...sorta."
Logan looked at Lance, waiting for him to finish. "Look bub, I don't do guessing games, so either tell me your idea or don't."
Lance slouched and shrugged slightly. "I was thinking there really oughta be some type of mutant organization that helps kids who's parents can't handle their kid being a mutant. I sure as hell coulda used the help when I got my powers. Sorta like a social worker for mutants type of thing. There's too many mutant teens on the street if you ask me, trust me, I would know."
Logan looked over at Lance with a look of mild surprise written across his face. "How long were you on that bike? Sounds like a lot of thinking to me."
Lance grinned slightly. "A *long* time. It's a nice bike."
Logan nodded. "Well, I don't know how you would go about starting something like that, but I can guarantee you the proff will. If you want my opinion, I think it's a damn good idea."
Lance raised his eyebrows at Logan's language. Logan was one of the main enforcers of the no cussing rule (which Lance had always found a little odd considering Logan seemed like he would have the most trouble with keeping his mouth in check).
"Aren't you the one always on Evan's case for his mouth?"
Logan looked indifferent as he stood up. With a shrug, he responded, "The rule only applies with the kids."
Lance tried to hide his grin. As far as he was concerned, Logan placing him in separate category from the 'kids' was the highest compliment he could get.
"Come on Avalanche, this time I want you to only shake that area over there."
AN: So the OC's were completely out of nowhere. Don't expect me to do much with them as far as depth goes lol. I just needed em. Anyway. Please review! :)