Here you go, my loyal readers. Chapter 27. Get ready for some action coming up soon!! And guess what! I got my first flame. Boy, it's a doozy too. Guy musta been doing his Simon Cowell impression or something. I think it's funny he sat through the whole thing before he flamed, but it's okay, at least he didn't judge it too soon, that woulda really made me mad. Anyhoo, Thanks so much for reviewing, because it really means so much to me!! I hope you guys are all having a great Thanksgiving weekend!!!!!
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"Magnus, come in please." Xavier said to the dark, shadowy figure hovering outside his office window. "I do wish you would use the front door, though."
"Charles, I'm surprised at how it easy it was to break through the mansion's security. I thought you and I had built cerebro stronger than that." His deep, metallic voice echoed in his helmet as he sophisticatedly landed on the floor inside the window and took a seat at Xavier's desk.
"Yes… It turns out that some intruders had very detailed schematics of cerebro's mainframe, and they managed to get into the institute without our noticing. Hank is working on some upgrades." The professor wheeled himself behind his desk. "How can I help you, Erik?"
"After the events in Egypt, I thought you and I had an understanding regarding Apocalypse." Magneto stated.
"I'm not aware of any understanding. Maybe if I could read your mind…"
"This is not the time for joking, old friend. You know that when it comes to Nur, you and I are on the same side."
"Are we Magnus? And which side is that? The side that believes mutants should dominate the Earth? If that's so, then you would be on the opposite side of mine and my X-Men." Charles finally grew solemn.
"I am on the side that will do anything to stop the slaughter of innocent mutants… and humans so long as their willing to submit to their superiors… Apocalypse must be stopped." Magneto clarified. Charles sighed, still not satisfied with his response.
"Then yes, it appears we are on the same side." He acquiesced.
"I demand to be kept in the loop about his actions… and ours."
"If you will agree, that by no means you are completely in charge of this operation, we would greatly appreciate your military talents." Magneto grimaced at his lack of control in the situation, but reluctantly agreed.
"Alright, Charles, you've got a deal." He said as he extended a hand across the neatly kept desk. Charles smiled as he shook it. "Now, what do we know?"
* * *
"Kurt?... Kurt?" Betsy whispered to him as he slept in the middle of math class. "Kurt?" She shook him gently this time, as the entire class watched, but to no avail. Finally she went inside his head. He was dreaming about sitting next to Amanda on his front lawn in Germany. Betsy watched from behind a tree, not wanting to disturb them. She admired how cute and affectionate they were together. They sat on a picnic blanket just talking and reveling in the perfect weather. Then Rogue and Mystique walked out of the large, white house behind them.
"Kurt, sweetheart, dessert's ready. You'd better hurry before your sister eats it all!" Mystique called to him. He smiled as he looked over at Amanda
"I'll be back in a jiff!!"
*BAMF!*
Amanda savored the freshness of the lavender scent left by Kurt's light purple smoke. "Kurt!! You're so silly!" She heard Rogue say inside the house.
*BAMF!*
He reappeared with a cup of chocolate mousse for each of them. Amanda smiled, happy to see him again, even if he was only gone for a second. "My mother's specialty." He explained. "It's my favorite." He took a spoonful and held it out as if he was going to feed it to her. She smiled and leaned in to eat it, but Kurt whipped it away at the last second and ate it himself. She giggled at him, and then he really did give her a bite.
"Mmm… It's delicious." She said as she took one of the cups from him. Betsy couldn't help but smile sadly at all of the blatant imagery of Kurt's desires in his dream. She didn't want to interrupt his happiness, but when the teacher cleared her throat, Betsy whipped around, Kurt's world dissolving behind her as she left it. She found herself once again at her desk in the classroom, the class and the teacher still staring at her.
"Sorry…" Betsy mumbled. "He's dreaming… I'll answer the question."
"No." The teacher replied simply.
"But you don't know the joy it gives him, and he really needs it." Betsy pleaded.
"So what? I really need a higher salary. Kurt really needs to learn about imaginary numbers." The teacher said.
"Oh c'mon. Imaginary numbers are just that… imaginary. I mean, if you knew the real life stuff Kurt and I have to deal with every day, especially now, you'd let him have his few moments of peace. It's not like he's going to grow up to become an engineer or something. Why do we have to learn this stuff anyway?" Everyone in the classroom glared up at the teacher, all wanting to know the answer to the question, but too afraid to ask it themselves.
"You have to learn this stuff because if you don't, you won't graduate. Then you won't grow up to become anything. So I suggest you wake him up, then take this note, and go to the principal's office." The teacher replied as she scrawled a message on a piece of paper.
"M– M– Miss Frost?" Betsy stuttered as she slumped in her chair. She stared at the note the teacher waved in her face. The teacher just looked back at her, unsympathetically. Betsy snatched the note, then sat up straight in her seat as she went back into Kurt's mind. He was resting with his eyes closed on the blanket again, with his head in Amanda's lap. She was running her hand through his hair as Betsy walked up behind them. Amanda couldn't acknowledge her presence until Kurt did, since she was a figment of his mind. "Kurt?" Betsy whispered as she bent down beside him. He calmly opened his eyes, but jumped when he saw her, surprised she was so close to him.
"Betsy? You can't have any of my chocolate mousse." He said possessively, not realizing she wasn't part of his dream.
"Kurt, you're drooling on your math book." She said.
"I'm what?"
"You're dreaming… in the middle of class. You have to wake up." She sighed.
"Oh." Kurt said, disappointed. "I knew it was too good to be true." Betsy forced out a smile to try and comfort him. The world around them started to dissipate as Kurt woke up. When he opened his eyes, his head was pressed against his math book and Betsy was looking him in the eye, still forcing her smile at him. Once he sat up, Betsy got up and began to gather her things. Kurt looked up, surprised to see the entire class staring at him. He wiped the spit from his chin and blushed with embarrassment. "Uh… what'd I miss?"
Betsy smiled and shook her head as she left the classroom. The second she shut the door behind herself, the bottom dropped out of her stomach. She looked one way down the hall and saw the exit to the building. Then she looked the other way and saw the door to the principal's office… Miss Frost's office…Emma's office. She took a deep breath and took a few steps in the morally 'correct' direction, then chickened out and ducked into the bathroom. She stared at the door for a second, then had to slow down her heart beat. She turned to walk into a stall when she saw a guy, standing at urinal, staring at her.
"What are you gawking at?" She said defensively, not wanting to let on her embarrassment about accidentally walking into the men's room. The boy quickly zipped up his pants then tried to run out. "You're not going to wash your hands?" She asked him in disgust. He sheepishly walked back to the sink and quickly washed his hands. The whole time Betsy watched him, although he pretended not to see her, his face was beet red. She continued to glare at him as he dried his hands and left the room. When he left, Betsy heaved a sigh of relief. She was relieved to be alone. She put her hands on the edge of the sink and leaned forward, putting all her weight on her hands, and stared down at the floor. She remembered every little detail from the last time she saw Emma. She was afraid that if she angered her again, or somehow mistakenly challenged her, she'd be in for a pain so much worse she couldn't imagine. Betsy stood back up and lifted the sleeves of her striped shirt to see that her bruises were hardly even beginning to fade. Tears welled up in her eyes when she thought about her time at the Hellfire Club. She remembered her parents and her brothers. She missed them all terribly, but knew that her brothers would blame her for the death of their parents. They wouldn't have ever had any connection to the Hellfire Club if it wasn't for Betsy and her lack of control over her powers. They wouldn't have met Emma if it wasn't for Betsy. She wouldn't have murdered them if it wasn't for Betsy. When she managed to escape or, as it turns out, was kicked out, she thought she'd never have to think about it again. No one would ever know she was ever part of the Hellfire Club. No one would know it was her fault her parents were dead, and she would never have to look at Emma again. Now, she was forced to go speak with her, to go into her office which resided at the end of the hallway from her math class everyday, all because she asked a teacher 'why?'."
"Uh? Betsy?" She instinctively rolled her sleeves back down and looked toward he door to see Pietro standing halfway in the room.
"Yeah? What?" She said, trying to force back tears.
"You know you're in the men's room?" She said, trying not to make her feel stupid or acknowledge her quite obvious emotional fragility.
"What's your bloody point?" She growled.
"That… uh… I'm gonna go to another bathroom." He muttered as he slowly backed out.
"Good idea." She said. With that, he took off running down the hall, and Betsy looked back in the mirror. She sighed, feeling bad for yelling at him, and because she realized she couldn't stall any longer. She had to go talk to Emma to save her sanity if for nothing else. She stepped out of the bathroom and slowly walked down the hall to the principal's office. She stared at her feet so she wouldn't have to know just how long she had left. She kept walking until the door knob came into her line of view. She sighed again as she opened it, and walked into the little receptionist area before Emma's office. She sat down in a chair in front of the secretary's desk. He was young, and very handsome, but he sounded completely vacant as he talked on the phone about spas and manicures. No doubt Emma had hired him because he was pretty to look at. Betsy didn't want to irrupt him; she wanted him to take all the time in the world. She tried to see through the foggy pain of glass into Emma's office. She closed to her eyes to try and sense something, but couldn't. She knew she wouldn't since Emma had rather difficult mental barriers being the Queen of the most sophisticated organization on the planet, bent on world domination.
"Can I help you?" The secretary finally addressed Betsy. She was so leaning so far forward in her chair; she nearly fell out when he startled her.
"Oh, yes, is Miss Frost in?" Betsy asked, trying not to cloud his mind with any polysyllabic words.
"Nope. She's been out all week."
"Really?" Betsy said surprised. She tried to sound more interested than relieved, to see if she could get more information about Emma's conveniently timed absence.
"Yeah, she's been sick." He answered. "Hey! Are you Australian or something?"
"Uh… I'm English actually." Betsy answered, confused by the relevance.
"Oh, whatever. I just love your accent. I think I can do a pretty good English accent, listen: Where are mi tea and crumpets??" Betsy stared at him as if he were crazy while he spit out an offensively terrible, fake English accent. He didn't see the problem with it though.
"Yes… well… okay then…" Betsy said as she slowly backed out of the room.
"Right-o!" the secretary said as she shut the door.
"Hey Betts!" Kitty said, startling Betsy as she once again sighed with relief. Kitty was sitting outside the principal's office doing homework.
"Hey." Lance said, sitting beside her.
"Hey guys." Betsy responded. "How's free period going?"
"Kitty's makin' me do work." Lance grumbled.
"Lance, you have to do homework. Seriously, it's not that bad." Kitty nagged him. Then she realized Betsy had just come out of Emma's office. "Did you just see Miss Frost? What did you do? What she say?" Kitty begged for gossip.
"Oh… she wasn't there." Betsy replied. Kitty pouted, disappointed by the lack of drama.
"What's the big deal with you and Frost?" Lance asked. Betsy and Kitty just sighed at each other. Suddenly, Betsy dropped her messenger book bag on the floor and doubled over in pain, clutching her head.
"Omigod!! Betsy! What's wrong?!" Kitty jumped up to help her. Lance just there, wide eyed, not knowing what to do.
"Make it stop… it hurts… it hurts." Betsy fell to her knees and put her head on the floor. The pain was so overwhelming she couldn't breathe.
"Lance! Go get the nurse!" Kitty ordered. He stood up and took off running down the hall. Betsy continued to writhe in agony. "Betsy, what's wrong? What's going on?"
"No… wait…" Betsy called after Lance as she began to regain her composure and sat up, trying to catch her breath. "It's… it's going away."
"Whoa." Lance said as he cautiously walked back to Kitty and Betsy. He wanted to be ready to go at a moments notice. "What happened?"
"Something's wrong." Betsy mumbled. "Something's very, very wrong."
* * *
"What happened?" Betsy asked as she popped into Dr. McCoy's mind while he was sipping coffee and going over some medical reports Dr. MacTaggart had faxed him from Scotland. Her sudden voice caused him to jump, spilling his coffee all over his nice sweater.
"Betsy! Don't scare me like that!" He shouted back aloud.
"Sorry." She replied.
"Hank?" Dr. Reyes looked at him as if he was crazy; not knowing Betsy was speaking to him.
"Oh, Betsy… telepath." He explained rather caveman like. Cecelia just smiled at him and shook her head as she went back to her work. "What is it?" Dr. McCoy finally went back to thinking to Betsy as he attempted to pat his sweater dry.
"What happened?" She said again.
"Happened? What do you mean, 'what happened?'? Nothing's happ--"
"Dr. McCoy!" Magneto said as he burst in the med lab with Xavier's lifeless body in his hands.
"What have you done!" Hank shouted at him.
"Magneto… why am I not surprised?" Betsy thought as she looked through Hank's eyes.
"Betsy, go away." Dr. McCoy ordered as he cleaned off a bed for the professor and he and Dr. Reyes did their best to take his vitals.
"I'll gather everyone. We're coming home." Betsy replied.
"No- Betsy-" By then he could no longer feel her presence. He focused on the task before him. The most pressing emergency of the moment.
"What happened?" Cecelia asked calmly, not fully aware of his connection to the X-Men.
"We were discussing… current events… when he clutched his head and blacked out." Magneto explained.
"What else?" Hank demanded.
"Nothing. That's all." Dr. McCoy scowled at him, then went back to Xavier.
"You know, it might be a telepath thing." Cecelia whispered to Hank, since there didn't seem to be anything wrong with Charles's body.
"I think you're right." Hank said.
"Maybe we should bring home Betsy." Cecelia suggested.
"Already on it, I guess." Cecelia looked at him confused, but he ignored her.
"What's going on?" Magneto insisted.
"Well, actually--" Cecelia started.
"Why should we tell you anything?" Hank interrupted her, barking at him in her ear. "How do we know you didn't cause it?"
"I'm sick and tired of these baseless accusations." Magneto sighed angrily. He waved his hand and a drawer filled with sterilized scalpels opened. The scalpels rose from their resting place and flew out of the drawer, sharp side forward, like torpedoes bombing straight at Cecelia. She couldn't move back or she would have fallen top of the professor. Instead, her force field was triggered just in time, much to Magneto's dismay. The scalpels stopped and poised to resume their pace at Dr. McCoy. Suddenly, Magneto's helmet sparked and glowed pink. He looked up to see Gambit hanging from a light fixture with hands on either side of Magneto's helmet.
"Drop 'em, or we'll have t' have that fruity suit a yours dry cleaned t' have a buried in." Magneto glared at him, and he only smiled back, arrogantly. Finally, the projectiles fell to the floor. Remy pulled himself back up, but instead of letting go of Magneto's helmet, he pulled it up with him. Before Magneto could react, another set of hands were planted on his face from behind. He struggled as he felt his mind being penetrated.
"It's alright. They have an agreement. He didn't do anything." Betsy said as she took her hands off his face. "He's on our side."
"Treacherous vermin." Magneto grumbled at both Gambit and Psylocke.
"You must be awfully dependant on that helmet. Your mental barriers are rather weak." Betsy responded.
"How did you get here so fast?" Hank asked Betsy.
"Well, when I saw Magneto in your mind, I had Kurt 'port me back here right away. I knew you all wouldn't be able to do anything about whatever had happened." Kurt waved from over her shoulder. "The others ought to be along shortly."
"You guys were makin' enough noise t' wake the dead." Logan said as he, Peter, and Scott entered the room. "What happened to the prof?"
"We don't know." Cecelia said as her force field retracted. "We can't find anything wrong with him, except he won't wake up."
"Omigod!" Kitty shouted as she led everyone to the entrance of the med lab. Seeing the professor unconscious on the bed almost made her cry as she buried her head in Lance's chest.
"How did you guys get here so fast?" Kurt asked.
"Well, traffic isn't really a problem when you can phase through other cars." Lance explained.
"Half-pint, if you caused any other accidents--" Logan chided her.
"Magneto…" Pietro interrupted as he pushed his way in the room, Wanda following behind him.
"What are you doing here?" Wanda growled.
"You cannot defeat Apocalypse on your own." Magneto explained.
"You got a bunch of new Acolytes to whip us into shape?" Pyro spat sarcastically from the crowd of students.
"I have several perspective new recruits in line to replace you, but there is no time to train them. I have come here to prepare all of you myself." Everyone whispered, offended.
"We don't need your help, father." Wanda insisted.
"We don't need anything from you." Pietro chimed in.
"Alright, listen up." Logan announced. "If the prof. made an agreement with him to train you all, you probably need it. Apocalypse is bigger and badder than anything we've ever dealt with before. We're gonna need all the help we can get." The students were all still leery, but they couldn't argue with their superior.
"We're going to need Charles." Magneto said to Logan. They both looked over to Hank and Cecelia. They looked at each other, then at Betsy. She looked around, surprised to have been singled out.
"We think it might be a psychic thing." Cecelia explained.
"How did you know something happened before it did?" Hank clarified. "I thought your precognition wasn't that specific."
"It isn't… and I don't think I knew before it happened. It was probably at the same time." Betsy said. "Whatever happened to him caused a psycho-kinetic backlash. I wouldn't be surprised if every telepath on the planet felt it." Cecelia and Hank just looked at each other, having no idea what she was talking about. "Alright, just get out of my way." Betsy said, frustrated that no one could understand her. Hank and Cecelia moved so she could sit in a chair beside the professor's bed. Betsy situated herself and began to go to work when she felt several piercing eyes upon her. She glared up at Hank and Cecelia staring over her shoulder. "Ahem." They got the hint and moved back. Then Betsy turned her gaze to the crowd of students watching silently in the doorway. "I could use a little privacy." She grumbled.
"Deal with it. We're not going anywhere." Scott said. Everyone continued to stare at her, agreeing with Scott. She sighed and closed her eyes.
When she turned around, she found herself in the dark void of the astral plane. She couldn't ever remember it being this dark, or cold, or lonely. She looked off into the distance to see an enormous fortress straight ahead of her, obviously representing Xavier's mind. She cautiously walked up to the door and knocked on it, giving large, booming, raps. She admired the strength of the security, but was not surprised by it. When she got no response, she knocked again. She was once again met by a disturbing silence. Finally, the quiet got to her, and she called out.
"Professor Xavier?! Professor, it's Betsy!!" She was growing increasingly worried and frustrated by the continuing stillness. She began walking the length of the tall, thick fortress façade for any kind of loose stone that might let her in. She turned a corner and saw a pile of stones on the ground. She quietly walked over to the rubble, and saw a hole had been blasted into the wall. She concluded that the backlash occurred when whoever it was, forced their way in. She stepped over the stones and leaned in the wall, but couldn't see anything. She decided to step all the way in, but was suddenly, in a burst of white light, thrown back out of the fortress and out of the astral plane. She fell back off her chair in the med lab and on the floor. "OW GODDAMMITT!!" She shouted as she rubbed her throbbing head. Hank and Remy rushed over to help her off the floor while Cecelia checked on the burn on her forehead. "Aw bollocks…" Betsy muttered.
"Wow, you've got a third degree burn on your forehead, Betsy. It must've been something big." To Betsy, Cecelia was stating the obvious. To everyone else, they were shocked by the news.
"Well, well. There's only one entity I know that can do that." Betsy said to herself.
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Amanda – Thanks so much!! I'm so glad you're downloading the Phoenix saga. I've had it for a while now, and I, like the pathetic geek that I am, have practically the whole thing memorized. I'm waiting for the Dark Phoenix TPB on eBay. I hope I haven't made it too complicated. If you have any questions, you can just ask me!!
Rogue151 – Nothing wrong with being lazy, just so long as you still review!! I guess it's a good thing I figured out how to enable anonymous reviews! It'll be a while before we see our good 'ole angst ridden buddy Rogue again, but I divulge nothing!!!
Gothic Cajun – Hmmmm… guess I can't refute your logic!! I'm glad you like the comic relief. Here's another chappy!!!
Jen1703 – A Jott fan, eh? I'm glad you like the Scott/Phoenix interaction, I have to say, those are my favorite parts too. More to come in the future, stay tuned!!
Ishandahalf – I'm glad you like Pyro's personality. The show didn't give him one, so I can do whatever I want… mwah ha ha ha ha!!! Yay, I love meeting other Jonda fans. Here's another chappy, so keep those reviews comin' quick like a bunny on crack!!
Syd – dude?
X-Fan – Awwww you made me soooo happy. You really made me day, and I had a terrible one!! I got home and read your review and I swear I felt like I was smiling for the first time in god knows how long!! Thanks so much!! I can't believe you sat down and read this whole thing start to finish. Thank you so much. I really want to be a screen writer one day, so if I need references, I'll give you a call!!
