This chapter has no X-Men in it (tear) but I love this chapter. It's so sad, but has lots of character development and drama in it. I'm really good at drama, I think, not to blow my own horn or anything. Next chapter will definitely have Romy in it (because that's my favorite thing to read, I love Gambit! He is the coolest!) and the next chapter after that will be AWESOME! You have no idea what's in store, I promise (I already have them written, I just have to find time to type 'em up). Thanks so much for reading and reviewing; it means so much to me!          

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            Pietro sat in the arm chair of the destitute Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House. He was flipping through the TV channels, watching four shows all at one, and bored by every one of them.

            "Slow down, yo. That looked pretty interesting."

            "Can't you be solving our housefly problem, Toad?" Pietro snapped back. Wanda, sitting on a small end table beside Pietro's chair, and behind Toad, sitting on the floor, just rolled her eyes. Just then, the door bell rang. No one moved to answer it. Pietro continued to furiously flip through the channels. Then the doorbell rang again. "Someone get the door!" Pietro yelled. No one responded. "Toad, make yourself useful and get the door." Whoever wanted in the landfill the Brotherhood called home began repeatedly ringing the bell, and knocking on the door.

            "Why don't you get up off your lazy butt and get it yourself, little brother?… Leave Toad alone." Wanda chided Pietro. Toad smiled at Wanda.

            "Love you too, baby cakes." Wanda gagged at him as Lance rushed down stairs.

            "I'll get it." Lance announced, grumbling.

`           "What do you mean little brother?" Pietro ignored the noise coming from the door, and Lance's acquiescence to get it. "I was born, like, ten minutes after you."

            "Yeah… what took you so long?" Wanda mocked the super speed demon. He grumbled being personally offended when anyone called him slow.

            "Yeah… Whadda you wa--" Lance started as he opened the door. He interrupted himself when he saw who it was. "You!" He said, narrowing his eyes, "What are you doing here?"

            "I'm movin' in." Pyro said as a goofy grin once again crept across his face.

            "Who is it Lan— Pyro!" Pietro yelled. Toad jumped up behind him, and Wanda came to the door too.

            "Whoa… y'all got a sheila too?" Pyro said when he saw Wanda. "An' she's a looker at that." He eyed her carefully up and down. Wanda was offended that he would do anything less than fear her.

            "What do you think is the probability that your ridiculous orange hair will suddenly catch fire?" She said to him through gritted teeth.

            "Do I get a lifeline?" He tired to joke with her.

            "No." She wouldn't play along.

            "Uh… okay… I'd say it's not bloody likely then." He responded.

            "Wrong." Wanda said as she began to wave her arms in the air. Pietro quickly grabbed her.

            "Uh, Wanda, why don't we just see why he's here, first?" Pietro was still scared of his sister's power.

            "Like I said," Pyro started. "I've got orders from the big man to move in here."

            "Why would my father send you here? I thought he wanted you there?" Pietro asked.

            "Gambit, Colossus and Psylocke declared mutiny, so he sent me here while he figured things out."

            "Who's Psylocke?" Lance asked.

            "She was a new recruit, double agent, took 'em to the X-Men." Pyro answered. The four just stared at him. "Can I come in?" He finally asked. An aisle parted between them and he stepped in just as the Blob came down the stairs.

            "What's he doin' here?" Blob asked.

            "Toad, you speak idiot, explain it to him." Pietro ordered. Wanda smacked him on the back of the head.

            "Lay off!" She shouted.

            "I guess you're stayin' in my room." Lance said as he started walking up the stairs. "Follow me."

            "Bonzer! It'll be slumber parties like old times!" Lance stopped dead at the top of the stairs and looked over his shoulder down at Pyro. The others had gone back to whatever it was they had been doing when they were so rudely interrupted. "I just hope you don't still wet the bed, mate." Pyro tried joking again, but Lance couldn't understand where he was coming from.

            "Who are you?" Lance asked when he couldn't figure out what Pyro was talking about. He finally realized he was supposed to know Pyro, but he didn't know how.

            "I figured you didn't recognize me. I didn't recognize you till I saw your real name in the file. Been a long time." Pyro danced his way to the top of stairs around Lance, still stunned by him.

            "John…?" He finally pulled a name out of the recesses of his memory. Pyro smiled and nodded, encouraging him on. "John Aller…dyce?" Pyro then beamed with pride.

            "Just Pyro now though." Lance smiled as he continued down the hallway. His best friend had just reappeared, as if he'd come back from the dead.

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            Peter stood close by Xavier as they entered the compound on Muir Island. He said little so he would be certain there was no possibility of offending the generous man.

            "So Peter, what is the exact nature of your powers?" Xavier said, breaking the awkward, looming silence.

            "My body, my flesh, my organs… it all becomes some kind of metal, nearly impervious." He said. "My eyes can withstand a .45 caliber bullet. And of course my strength increases more than I can calculate."

            "So you're basically invincible?" Xavier concluded. Peter looked at the floor and shook his head.

            "No, sir. I can sustain damage, but rather than bleeding, I lose energy from certain spots on my body, as long as I remain in armored form."

            "Interesting." Xavier said as he stroked his chin. "You know, Peter, it's alright if you call me 'Charles', the students aren't allowed to but--"

            "I wouldn't feel comfortable, sir."  Peter interrupted. The professor said nothing in a silent understanding. They were finally met by a woman with shoulder length red hair. She wore a yellow sweater under her white lab coat. She quickly bent down to give Xavier a hug.

            "Oh Charles, it's so good to see ye again." The woman said with a thick Scottish accent.

            "You too Moira, it's been much too long." Xavier replied.

            "And you must be Peter." She said, addressing the big, complacent man at Charles's side as she extended a hand. He merely nodded as he shook it gently. "I'm so sorry I didn't know about Illyana's situation. I had no idea Magnus brought her here under duress. I would've called ye, Charles, but she never said a word about it." Peter nodded again. "She's just been a ray o' sunshine though. She comforts the older patients like a daughter. And she just adores her big brother."

            "That's Illyana." Peter said, Moira hearing his voice for the first time.

            "Older patients?" The professor asked. "There are more with this disease?" Moira nodded.

            "It's a virus. It's been spreadin' like wild fire all over the world. It's highly contagious, but only to mutants. I have to ask you both to wear these." She opened a door in the wall of the complex. It was a closet filled with haz mat type body suits. Peter quickly changed into his armored form. "Or ye could just wear that." Moira was stunned by his transformation. She raised a fist. "May I?" She asked Peter. He nodded. She knocked her fist against his metal chest. The sound intrigued her. "Fascinatin'" She said.

            "Perhaps you could have a look at it some other time, Moira?" The professor interjected on Peter's behalf. He could sense the man's eagerness to see his sister, but his reluctance to speak up.

            "Oh right." She said. "But I'm still going to have to ask you to wear this." She held up a small surgical mask.

            "I do not breathe." He said, waving it away.

            "Wow." He eyes got wide, but finally one of Dr. MacTaggart's assistants met them in the corridor. "Oh, would you take Peter here to see his sister Illyana?" The assistant nodded and walked off, Peter following behind. Moira and the professor continued down the hallway. "I didn't want to mention this in front of Peter, Charles, but I'm really worried about this virus." Her voice filled with fear and concern.

            "What exactly does this virus do?" Charles asked.

            "It all started when one of my patients died; it became airborne, and ravenous. It causes mutant's powers to flare out of control. When Magneto brought the girl in, she was teleportin' herself an' others far, far away, and even into some strange dimension, and didn't know how ta get back. Now she's got a terrible rash. No one's recovered from it, and I don't know how ta stop it."

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            "Miss Rasputin, you have a visitor." The assistant said as he nudged his head in the door. Illyana sat on the bed, flipping through the television channels on the TV attached to the ceiling on the opposite side of the room. Her big blue eyes were drawn to the door as the medical assistant stepped out of the room. She watched in silence as a thick, steel hand poked through the crack in the door. Her eyes lit up as the fingers wiggled in a wave.

            "Piotr!" She shouted. He slipped in the room and shut the door. She jumped from her bed and ran into his waiting arms. After she released herself from his loving, protective grasp, she looked up at his eyes. "That kind of hurt." She rubbed her head which she had banged into his chest in her excitement.

            "I've missed you, Yana." Peter said. "How do you feel?" Her eyes turned a sad blue as she fingered her reflection in the metal of his bent knee.

            "I feel alright, I guess." She mumbled as he stroked her golden hair.

            "What do you mean 'I guess'? Who is hurting you? I will kill them." He stood up as if he were going to leave the room on a mission.

            "Piotr!" She giggled and clawed at his neck for him to bend back down to her level. "I mean that I feel fine, but I have a terrible rash." She pulled down the collar of her hospital gown to reveal the skin deformity on her chest, snaking its way up her neck.  Peter grew very concerned. "It doesn't hurt, or itch… it just is. And I keep teleporting to I don't know where, and it takes a great deal of concentration to get back." They paused solemnly. Peter could not even attempt to understand how she felt.

            "I have left Magneto." He said, breaking the sad silence. Her eyes lit up sky blue again. "I have joined the X-Men."

            "The X-Men?" Illyana was unfamiliar.

            "They do good things, Yanna. They want to help people. They have brought me here, to you." She smiled with pride at Peter.

            "Then I will hurry up and get better to come home with you, my big brother, the X-Man who does good things."

*          *          *

            The professor and Dr. MacTaggart had been sitting in her office, filled with sun light from the large ocean view window, talking about how to address the rise of this new virus.

            "No doubt, Moira, we must keep the media out of this."

            "Aye, Charles." She agreed from the other side of her large white desk. "If this get's out it'll only perpetuate the anti-mutant hysteria. Humans'll blame ye fer bien' diseased." She shook her head in disgust.

            "I'll have Hank come up here as soon as possible." She nodded as she took a sip of her tea.

            "He'd be a wonderful help. My team and I, we've had no luck on a cure yet, but I think we can find one. I'm just afraid how many more will die b'fore we do."

            "We must tell Peter about his sister." Moira put her hand on her mouth and looked out the window.

            "She's only seven years old, Charles." She looked back at him. "Seven year olds aren't even supposed to be mutants yet, let alone die because of it." Xavier stared at her for a moment as she collected her thoughts and built up the emotional strength to get up from her desk. The two walked out together, Charels at her side in his wheel chair. They walked down the hall silently.

            "I'll leave you two alone." Charles said as he stopped half way to Illyana's room. She nodded and kept walking. She stopped at the door and raised her hand to knock. She looked back at Charles for moral support, and he disappeared into another office. Moira knocked on the door and didn't wait for an answer before opening the it and walking in. She saw Peter and Illyana, locked in a hug. Then Illyana looked up at her with her giant blue eyes.

            "Dr. MacTaggart!" She shouted, always happy to see anybody. Peter turned to see Moira standing in the door way. "Dr. MacTaggart, this is my brother, Piotr!" Peter stood up.

            "Yes, Illyana, we met earlier. I was tryin' to tell him how ye were doin' an' he nearly knock me over, he was so excited to be seein' ye." Peter stood stoic once again, as he almost always was, except in Illyana's presence. Illyana could sense the pain in Moira's voice, even as she tried to be encouraging. "Illyana, I've got to talk to Peter for a moment, is it alright if I take him from ye?"

            "Only if you promise that you will bring him back." Illyana smiled, subconsciously trying to lighten the somber tone in the air of the room.

            "I will return shortly, sister." Peter responded as he followed Moira out of the room. He shut the door behind himself and quickly reverted back to his flesh form.

            "Why don't we take a seat, Peter?" Moira gestured to the bench that was cut into the wall of the corridor. She didn't want to take him in to her office, it was too big and impersonal. Here they would be closer to each other, and they could really talk, everyone knew not to interrupt them. Peter sat down and he watched as Moira did too. "Peter…" She began, "I'm afraid I wasn't upfront about your sister's condition." He remained emotionless as he listened carefully. "This virus it… Peter… there's no cure for it." He looked perplexed. He appeared to be feeling all emotions all at once and struggled for one to grasp on to. This, he decided, was obviously not a good thing, but he didn't know of its consequence. "Illyana isn't goin' t'get any better until we find one." She finally said, calmly.

            "Does she not know about this?" Peter asked. She said she would get better, but she could have simply been trying to protect him, it was in her nature to want everyone to be smiling all the time.

            "Well, she's seen patients come and go, and she knows she hasn't been getting' any better, so I suppose that deep down she knows. But she would never let herself be seen with anythin' less than a smile."

            "Where do they go?" Peter interrupted. She was confused, having rushed through what she said so she wouldn't have to dwell on sadness for too long.

            "Beg yer pardon?" she asked.

            "You said there was no cure, yet the patients, they come and go?" He asked honestly. Tears welled up in her eyes. She took his big warm hand into her small, clammy, calloused biologist's hands. She had never expected to be so emotional. She never planed on being an actual doctor; she wanted to be a scientist. She wanted to make the medicines that made people better without having to see them die before she did. When she met Charles Xavier, though, he changed her. When she met him, she knew no one would take care of mutants, not the way she could. And because of it, she suffers so much, watching the people she cares for live and die while the world would rather not look at all.

            "Peter…" She sniffed back tears. "The survival rate of the Legacy Virus is, until we find a cure, zero percent." She tried hard not to look into his eyes, but decided she had to be there for him. She was surprised to see nothing. Before, he had been sorting through all emotions all at once. Now there was nothing. Emptiness filled the innocent man's face. Moira could feel his hand turn to ice in her own. He looked at her as his eyes turned to steel. "Peter? Are ye alright?" He stood up and walked down the long hall way. At first, Moira just watched him until she realized he could very easily hurt someone. Xavier heard Peter clunking down the corridor like a one man army. He motioned for Moira to let him go, knowing he wouldn't harm anyone.

            When he got outside, it was cloudy. The salty island air made him cold and sticky. As the cloud that had temporarily blocked the warmth of the sun moved across the sky, the heat beat down on Peter. He armored his arm and punched it coldly into the brick wall of the Muir Island Research Center. The brick crumbled to the ground at his ankles. He kept hitting the wall until he had vented his rage for the moment. He heaved as he fought to regain control of his emotions. He became human once again as he sat on the ground with his head in his hands.

            "Peter?" He heard a calming, familiar voice. He looked up to see the professor sitting in his wheel chair in front of him. "Perhaps you should go be with your sister. She needs to be with someone she loves."

            "Yana needs to be with someone who is strong." He said. "I may be able to knock down walls and buildings, but she has been the strongest person I know. This disease will claim her life… I know she knows this, and still she smiles. I fall to pieces… I cause destruction." He said. He looked down at his hands.

            "Then let her be there for you." Xavier said as he put a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter couldn't understand why this man cared so much or how he knew exactly what to say. "Peter, I can promise you that we will find a cure. We will stop this virus. I can not promise you when, but I do know this will stop."