Disclaimer: As usual...those mine are mine, and those not aren't mine.

Chapter 8:

What if you knew someone who had left you when you were younger for unknown reasons, and suddenly, when you least expected it, he or she turned up? How would you react? How would you greet that person? Coolly, acting distant and detached? Ecstatically, throwing your arms around that person and hugging them like there's no tomorrow? Angrily, demanding to know why they disappeared? Tearily, breaking down and crying as if a miracle had just been granted to you?

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to do all of the above.

Can you blame me?

This person standing right in front of me was someone I hadn't thought I'd ever see again. Someone who had left me and my brother without any explanation when I was nine. Someone who was my own mother.

Mom. The word sounded so odd, unused...alien. It tasted funny when I sounded it. Or rather, hollered it.

The other three came a-running. Sam was the first to reach me, and he skidded to a halt several inches away from me. Bobby couldn't stop himself from colliding with Sam, and their momentum - combined a second later with Jubilee's - carried them forward...into ME.

There was a thump as we all went down, with me at the bottom of the pile. In front of my mom.

"Sorry," Sam sheepishly muttered, pushing an amused Bobby off of his lap, his face turning red with embarassment. With a huff, Jubilee got up, followed by Bobby, and lastly, Sam, who turned and proffered his hand, one which I glared at before I took it, struggling to my feet. There was an awkward silence as I turned to the - my mom.

"So, um, this is your mom?" Jubilee hesitantly said. I didn't say anything. My mom, however, seemed to have gotten over her initial shock of seeing me, and turned to Jubilee with a wide smile on her face.

"You must be one of Kelsey's friends." No duh, right? "I'm her mom, Helen Rias." She then proceeded to grab a startled Jubilee's hand and shake it. Then she turned to Bobby and Sam, shaking theirs too. "Pleased to meet you!" She turned to me, mouthing the words 'They're cute.' Only they came out as a loud whisper that ALL of them heard.

MOTHER!

Bobby's jaw dropped, and I saw Sam colour even more. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling my cheeks burn. Oh dear God. I should really stop taking His name in vain, but I couldn't help it. I wish I could bury my head into the ground. I couldn't believe that my mom was acting like...like THAT.

Oh, how mortifying! How could my mom do that in front of THEM? So WHAT if they WERE cute? That's not something to talk about in public!

Where was that foul-mouthed mugger? I think I'll take up his offer of him killing me right about now. Anything to save me from THIS!

Someone slid their arm through mine, forcing me to gasp and open my tightly shut eyes. Surprise, surprise...it was my mom. She was really starting to scare me.

"Let's go inside, and you can tell update me on everything," She giggled. "And you can tell me who those two hotties are."

I wanted to cry. Oh God, PLEASE spare me the humiliation! I don't need this! I promise I'll be good from now on!

I'm beginning to wish that I never did find my mother. None of this would have happened!

The cruelty...

---

"Your mom's, um, something," Bobby finally said the moment my mom disappeared into the washroom. We were all in the mall, on the second level.

I rolled my eyes at him. Jubilee was stifling a giggle.

"Ah thought you said ya mom had abandoned you seven years ago?" Sam asked. His cheeks were still slightly red.

"She did," I replied wearily. "I just found her."

Bobby stared at me. "You - your - she left you when you were..." He paused. "Eight?"

"Nine," I corrected. "She left me with my brother after my dad's - you know what? If you really want to know everything, ask Sam. He can tell you. But do me a favour and disappear, will you? I don't particularly want my mom commenting on - on - oh, just shoo." I finished, stalking into the washroom without waiting to see if they complied. My mom was just emerging from one of the stalls.

"Kelsey," She said in greeting, filling her hands with soap and washing them under the tap. It was just me and her. No one else. "I'm sorry I -,"

"Forget it," I interrupted. I didn't want an apology. "WHY did you leave? Why did you abandon me to Hayden? Dammit, WHY?" I shouted the last word, hearing it's echo bounce off the walls. My mom calmly turned the tap off, drying her hands on a paper towel.

"How much do you know exactly?" She finally said, turning to me with a resigned look in her eyes, dropping the used paper towel into the garbage.

"Enough to know that what you did was unjust and stup- "

"HOW much, Kelsey?" Her voice cracked like a whip, and I recoiled as if stung. She sighed. "What do you know that happened prior to my leaving?" She asked in a softer tone.

I was silent. "Dad was shot when - when I was nine." The world started blurring around me. I hated this subject. I guess I was more attached to my dad then my mom. It always made me want to cry whenever I talked about it. I can't believe I just admitted that. "I don't know why he did. You...disapeared for a week, came back for his funeral," A tear crawled out of the corner my eye, and I blinked rapidly to see my mom clearly. Must concentrate on her. "Then you left again. I haven't seen you til today."

My mom sighed, leaning against the slightly damp sink. "You don't know that much then," She quietly said.

"You COULD enlighten me," I suggested tiredly, my voice edgy as I wiped away the stray wetness on my face.

And then she - she -

SHE SLAPPED ME!

I flinched as the shock jarred me to the bone. She too seemed to recoil as if she had just realized what she had done. I supposed I had it coming - but it was still awful and unexpected all the same. My mom had NEVER hit me before, that I remember, one of the few things which I do from my past. And the fact that she did now...hurt. And not just physically.

"Kelsey," She began, her hand reaching out towards me imploringly, and I instinctively cowered back. Hurt flitted across her face, replaced quickly by weariness, but I SAW the hurt. And I hated myself more than I ever did.

"Baby," She said. "I - I'm s-sorry. I d-don't know why - what -," She looked at me with tears in her eyes, and that made me feel even MORE horrible. One thing about my mom - she was the kind who NEVER EVER cried. Not even when my dad died. This scared the crap out of me.

I settled in the end for shaking my head. "Mom. My past. What's going on?"

She sighed. Long-suffering. Wiped the tears from her eyes. "Your brother's girlfriend - it all started from there."

"Lyra Comerelli." My mother nodded.

"Your brother - he always hated mutants, even when he was a young boy." Tell me something I didn't already know. I had been the target of his hatred, after all... "But Lyra - she was the total opposite of him. Her best friend was a mutant. So was her cousin. Your brother loved her a lot, and right from the start, it was obvious that they were both meant to be." She smiled sadly.

Ugh, gag me. I hope no one ever says such a thing like that about me. EVER.

"For her sakes, he...curbed his anger towards mutants. She had a great deal of influence over him, and it looked as if he was getting over his senseless hatred." Here her visage tightened slightly.

"But he had been suspended before for his treatment towards others in his school...mutants especially, I remember the prinicpal telling me. Several of them held an enormous grudge towards him. But he had too many friends, and they knew there was no way they could have gotten back at him. Not...really, anyway."

Horror pierced my chest. "So - they hurt him the only way they could - through his...his...Lyra?"

My mother nodded, smoothening out her blouse with shaking hands. "They ambushed her in the middle of the hallway," She finally said. "She didn't stand a chance. They...violated her, and when they were done skinned her alive."

Bile rose in my throat. I felt horribly sick. And these were...mutants. I was a mutant. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to. Call it self-denial, but that was just the plain old truth.

"Your brother must have found her skinless body somewhere, and his heart shattered. At the same time did his tentative growing tolerance for mutants. He went straight home, intending to get a gun, but...dad was there. He tried to stop him. It only served to infuriate him further. And so he - he - "

"Mom, stop. Just stop." I broke in. I knew what came next. Dad was shot here. And the police never caught the culprit. But I now knew who it was. Tears clumped in my eyes. "How the - how do you know all this? You weren't there. You weren't there at all. You COULDN'T have known."

My mother closed her eyes. "I - I'm a mutant, Kelsey."

No way.

My mom? A mutant? Impossible. Even though I was one.

Skepticism must have shown up on my face. "And your ability?"

She was quiet. "I'm not - I'm not sure, but sometimes I get...flashes...of the present and future. I - I know what's happening even though I'm not - not there. Sometimes. And only when it - it relates to our - family. I know - knew that the day Lyra died would be the day your dad would. And I just -" A funny look passed over her face, forcing her to stop. "Your dad was also a mutant," She finally said.

There was a silence, one in which we both ended up staring at each other's feet. My mom - a...mutant? And my DAD? Oh, dad..."You've grown a lot," My mother finally said awkwardly, cutting through my thoughts. "And you've gotten away from your brother."

I was silent. "I'm a mutant too, mom," I finally said, my voice low and rather hoarse-sounding. In case she didn't already know that from the mugger's loud proclamations. "Hayden - he tried to - to kill m-me."

She nodded jerkily. "I know, Kelsey. My - ability, remember? Our entire family - "

Whatever she meant to say next, I'll never know. Instead, Bobby, Sam, and Jubilee came tearing into the washroom, faces flushed.

"Guys - WRONG bathroom." I pointed to the door.

"No time for jokes," Bobby hissed, grabbing hold of my mother's arm and mine. "You two have to get out of here. NOW."

"What?" This was, obviously, not my mom. "Why? What the hell's going on?" I broke free of his hold. Apprehension seemed to have a hold of them, and I could feel their fear emnating in THIS direction. And it was this fear that made me shiver , as if - as if someone had walked over my grave.

Freaky.

Bobby growled. "Kelsey, for God's sakes, move!"

"Sentinels," Sam simply said, glancing nervously at the door. "An' they're headin' this way. Jus' got word from Jean. We'd betta scram before they do come."

The warning had barely fallen from his mouth when the ground began to shake. There was a low rumbling, and without warning, the entire roof was torn away, revealing to all five us the late afternoon sky. That was just the backdrop though. There were at least three freaking familiar purple doll-robots facing us, red pinpricks focused upon all of us.

Would someone kindly tell me what exactly I - we - did to deserve this?

I would've recognized them easily, even if Sam hadn't voiced the obvious. Second time today, in fact, that I was facing Sentinels. The first was in the Danger Room with Sam. The second -

Well, you can guess when the second time was. Is.

:Contact Established: Came a mechanical, monotonous voice, resounding in the silence, and it shook me to the core. I shivered. It came from one of the huge robots :Antagonists - Mutant Entities Iceman, Cannonball, Jubilee, Target and Unknown.: There was a nervous silence in which I sneaked a peek at my mom. She looked...resigned? That scared me. Did she see something that foretold this event? And 'Target'? What did it mean by -

Someone screamed from somewhere within the mall, scaring the crap out of me. It was loud and piercing, terror-stricken and filled with fright. It felt like we were in a horror flick, like Godzilla or something. The situation was BAD though. And as if the scream was a switch, more shrieks issued forth.

A growl fell from Cannonball's - Sam's lips. "Not if ah can help it," He snarled. Then he exchanged a glance with Bobby, who nodded curtly. The temperature abruptly plunged to the point that I could see my breath misting in front of me. I suspected this was the Iceman at work. It had to be. Who else had his kind of powers?

"Kelsey," He suddenly grated, eying our adversaries, who seemed to have paused momentarily, as if awaiting orders from some unknown, unseen entity. "What do you THINK you're doing?"

Huh? "Nothing," I retorted. I wasn't doing anything, was I?

"Yes, you are," He said. "Stop using my powers." The Sentinels stirred, rising into the air. One of them raised their palms. :Commencing Elimination of Target.:

What? ME? "But I'm not - "

Then all hell broke loose.

---

What do you think? Keep reviewing IF you want to see what happens next...

Durabrain, BAilyy, FlaminDragon: Thanks!