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Jean glared at her alarm clock wondering how four hours could seem so short. She quickly threw on some clothes and headed back to Xavier's study to help sort out Rogue and Pietro's minds.
Halfway down the stairs she stopped dead seeing Wanda standing in the lobby. "Wanda," she said, her voice icy cold.
Wanda sneered at the other girl. "Is there something you wanted?"
Before Wanda could realize Jean's intention the X-Man used her telekinesis to immobilize the scarlet clad girl. Jean floated Wanda down the hall toward Xavier's study. "I don't like your brother," she said. "He puts people I care about in danger, but I'd never treat him like you do yet for some reason he loves you. You and your father both."
"He shouldn't," Wanda said.
"Well he does, trust me on that," Jean said propelling Wanda into the study. "And this is the result."
In an eye's blink Rogue was between Wanda and Pietro, her breathing ragged with his fear but her eyes were determined.
"It's alright, I have her," Jean said.
Xavier lifted his hand away from Pietro's forehead with a look of consternation at Jean. "This is delicate work," he reminded her.
"He practically wanted Rogue to take his mind," Jean said. "I don't want to do this again. She has to understand, she can't just run around trying to break people."
"Now is not the time for this," Xavier stated firmly.
While they argued Wanda's eyes locked on her twin's slack features. "Is he dead?" she asked quietly.
"No," Xavier sighed. "It seems Rogue's powers only effect the higher order brain functions."
As a touch of fire re-entered Wanda's eyes Jean broke in. "Don't blame Rogue, you're the one who set this up."
"Rogue completely absorbed Pietro's memories, powers, emotions and personality," Xavier said. "I believe Jean and I can restore him to his proper place but Pietro resists our efforts to help him."
"Why would he do that?" Wanda demanded.
"I think you know very well why he would," Xavier said. "Now we have work to do if we are to save him. I would appreciate it if you didn't interfere."
With that Jean used her telekinesis to shove Wanda out the door and slam it behind her. "I'm sorry Professor," she said. "I just… she shouldn't hurt people. She needed to see what she did."
"I agree, but there are priorities," Xavier said. "The longer this situation persists the greater the danger of Pietro's personality loosing integrity. Rogue, please calm yourself and sit down. Jean, let us get started.
****** ****** ******
Wanda stared at the closed door, hand raised to hex it open but something held her back.
While she hesitated Todd, Fred and Rahne filled into the hallway. "Don't," Fred said. "If anyone's got a right to hurt him it's us and we don't want to, so just shove off."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Wanda snarled, then turned and stalked down the stairs. A sigh of relief came from the little group who'd opposed her.
Logan was coming out of the kitchen as Wanda descended the stairs, she grabbed his arm, "Where's the danger room, I want to destroy something."
Wolverine glared at the hand on his arm. "I'll have one of the kids set up a session for ya," he said. "Hey Jamie, you busy?"
Jamie glanced up from a video game, eyes gleaming with curiosity. "Why?" he asked.
"Ya want to run a danger room session?" Logan asked.
"Just me? With no supervision?" Jamie asked eagerly.
"Girl wants to do some damage," Logan said, jerking a thumb at Wanda. "Think ya can keep her entertained?"
"Oh yeah," Jamie said grinning. "Right this way Miss."
****** ****** ******
Jean, Rogue and Xavier stood once again in the foreboding forest where Rogue's subconscious confined the remnants of personalities she absorbed.
Putting her hands to her temples Jean scanned their surroundings, not believing the emptiness she sensed.
"I cleared away the distractions while you rested," Xavier said. "Now Rogue, I must ask that you allow me to place you in a trace state so we may deal with Pietro without risking your minds becoming even more entangled.
"All right Professor," Rogue said fidgeting nervously. Xavier reached out and touched her forehead a moment later she vanished. Around them the forest faded into barren blackness.
"What's happening?" Jean asked.
"I placed Rogue in a deep sleep, even her subconscious is quiescent," Xavier explained. "Now we deal only with Pietro. Come."
Pietro's silver hair gleamed like a beacon in the featureless darkness. The dagger Jean had seen Wanda forge in his memories hung before him.
As they drew closer Jean and Xavier saw that Pietro stood between Wanda and Magneto in the form of the child he'd been. "Choose!" both of them screamed at him.
Pietro reached out to push the dagger away as he touched it spines sprouted from the hilt, impaling his hand. He shook his hand, trying to throw it away but the spines doubled back on themselves affixing the blade to his hand. Pietro grabbed the blade with his free hand and tried to tear himself free.
"Stop it!" Jean yelled as Pietro's struggles to rid himself of the blade caused it to cut him ever more deeply. She grabbed the little boy, holding the knife away from him as she used her powers to force the spines straight then made them withdraw from his flesh then threw the thing away to be lost in the darkness surrounding them.
"Pietro, it's time to go home," Xavier said gently, offering the boy a hand to his feet. "You do need to make a choice, but not that one. Neither of them have the right to demand that you harm the other."
****** ****** ******
Storm stood in the door of the danger room watching Lance's uncertain progress across the room with a thoughtful look on her face. There was something familiar about this, something about the way his eyes flitted toward something unseen, the way his body tried to counter forces that weren't there.
"Lance, your powers are more than simply causing things to shake, are they not?" She asked.
Lance spun toward her and would have fallen except for Beast's hand under his arm. His expression was surprised.
Storm nodded as if he'd answered her question. "As I am in tune with the element of air you are connected to this Earth, true? Aware of its moods and variances in a way no other may duplicate."
"I sense vibrations," Lance admitted. "It went away last time after I… well after I started overtaxing my powers I guess. How'd you know?"
"The weather is not simply at my beck and call. I am also intimately aware of the natural patterns it follows," Strom said. "When my powers began to emerge I was also overwhelmed with this new awareness, but as I began to exert my control the feedback helped me to make sense of what I experienced. In time my new awareness became as familiar to me as touch or scent. We have been focusing only on the rehabilitation of your body while placing the recovery of your powers as a secondary priority. We may have made a mistake. I will bring this to Charles and Moira's attention."
****** ****** ******
Remy opened his eyes then frowned in confusion. "I still be sleepin' right?" he said.
"Non," Mattie said looking up from the herbs she was mixing. "Dis be m' nightmare not yours. How many times yo' plannin' on tryin' to get your-fool-self killed 'fore yo' let your guilt go?"
"I t'ink dis time be de last," Remy said.
"Why couldn' yo' have decided dis four years ago?" Mattie demanded. " 'Fore we had to send yo' 'way? We didn't have a choice Remy, yo' were trouble lookin' for a place to happen."
"I know dat Tante," Remy sighed. "I jus' wanted all dose morons to pay for makin' Et feel like he had to go up 'gainst Sabretooth."
"Yo' knew what'd happen," Tante Mattie said. "De police can only turn a blind eye to us s'long as we keep a low profile. Yo' knew startin' fights like dat was only gonna get yo' banished. Yo' hurt yourself nearly as much as yo' hurt dem."
"I had to do it," Remy said.
Mattie shook her head.
"Yo' hear how Silver-kid be doin'?" Remy asked.
"He been sequestered wit' de 'paths since yo' were brought here. Deir Doctor got de firs' crack at yo'. Mais don' worry, I done make shor yo' be well. Yo' did a right nasty job on dat hand of yours. T'ink mebbe it be a good idea to let go of your bombs 'fore dey blow in de future? 'M makin' up a salve to take care of dat burn for yo'."
"Merci Tante," Remy said. "Yo' ask 'bout Silver for me, non?"
"Course chile, don' yo' worry your head none," Mattie replied patting his cheek.
****** ****** ******
//Rogue wake up,// Xavier projected bring the girl out of the trace state he'd placed her in.
Rogue came to her feet in a blurringly fast motion. She turned her head toward a sound, a drawn out croaking like a CD running at half speed and saw Jean's mouth moving, her hand reaching out to Rogue, all in slow motion.
When Jean's hand moved toward her arm as if to grasp it Rogue stepped back out of reach thinking if it took Jean that long to get a word out an ice age could pass before the redhead released her again.
Then there were more of the dragging sounds and Xavier was talking too.
"This ain't funny," Rogue snapped. "Talk right, Ah can't understand yah!"
//Rogue, you no longer possess Pietro's experiences,// Xavier projected, his words forming in her head with the speed of thought. //And yet you still possess his powers at their current levels. In some ways this is like the incident with Avalanche, however Quicksilver's powers naturally default to the 'on' state, like your own. I fear you shall simply have to endure this until they wear off.//
Rogue glanced out the window and saw a hummingbird hovering there, each beat of it's wings was clear to her eyes, appearing no faster than a robin's wings should. "I'm-going-running," she announced remembering Pietro's belief that you could run away from your problems if you tried hard enough.
//Don't get too far from home,// Xavier warned. //You could get stranded somewhere dangerous if his powers wore off at an inopportune moment.//
After Rogue left Jean and Xavier settled in to wait for Pietro to regain consciousness.
Xavier watched as Jean looked everywhere except at him. "Yes," he said. "I knew Pietro and Wanda when they were small children. It's not rude for you to ask."
"How?" Jean asked. "Kurt's only a year younger than they are, Magneto and Mystique must have already started working together long before Pietro was old enough to remember you."
"I didn't know," Xavier said. "Perhaps I didn't wish to know, Erik was always sensitive about having his mind read so I refrained. He was my friend, more than that he was my only peer. While I'd begun teaching Ororo and Hank it was a different relationship with them, they were my students. I suppose it must have been the same for him, although Mystique and Sabretooth are, like Logan, older than they appear. In it's own way their age makes them very difficult to relate to. I look at Logan and see a man at least ten years my junior and yet I know he has lived through eras I know only from history books."
Xavier paused for a moment then sighed. "Erik and I held on to our friendship long after we became aware of the irreconcilable differences between us, I knew his family quite well back then. Erik and Magda divorced when the twins were five, Magda was given custody. Not that Erik minded, undoubtedly he already had things more important to him than raising his children on his mind. It was three years before I saw either Magda or the twins again."
"What happened?" Jean asked curiously.
"Magda and her new husband, Django Maximoff arrived at my door completely unexpectedly one night…"
"Charles, you're the only one Erik respects," Magda pled. "He took the twins for a week, now he won't give them back, he won't even let me see them."
"We should be calling the police," Django said.
"I don't want to involve the police," Magda said with a significant look at Charles. "I don't want things to get out of control."
"Magda, he kidnapped our children," Django exclaimed. "I don't care if he's their father, he's always treated them like they exist only when it is convenient for him."
"I'll talk to Erik," Charles promised. Mentally he added, //Magda, I know it's early, but you've always been aware that the twins may have inherited powers like their father's. Can you be sure your new husband will be able to handle such a revelation? Could you handle raising them if their powers have emerged?//
"Thank you Charles," Magda said. "I know you'll get them back for me."
****** ****** ******
"May I come in Erik?" Charles asked.
"What are you doing here?" Erik demanded blocking the door and looking harried.
"Erik, you're upsetting Magda," Charles said. "What is going on? Has something happened with the children?"
Erik stepped aside, allowing Charles to enter the house. The scene of destruction that Erik revealed stunned him. A small black haired girl slept in a nest made of the remains of a couch. "Wanda's temper-tantrum wore her out. I'd thank you to keep your voice down, the last thing we need is for her to wake up cranky."
"Wanda did all this?" Xavier asked in shock. A grenade going off in the center of the room would have created less devastation.
"Yes, it seems she's quite powerful, not to mention spirited," Erik said with an ironic tinge to his voice. "Pietro's hiding somewhere. Since you're here you might as well make yourself useful and find him. Last night he was in the crawl space beneath the house, it took me most of the night to find him. Wanda became unhappy this morning when I told her she couldn't play with him until he'd slept for a few hours, the resultant destruction frightened him into hiding again."
Charles bowed his head touching his fingers to his temples. As he made contact with the terrified little boy's mind his expression was transformed. "Erik what have you done?" Xavier demanded.
"Don't look at me like that Charles, do you honestly believe I would deliberately harm my own daughter? It was meant to make her, make both of them, stronger. I didn't anticipate that Wanda's powers would erupt so suddenly or so violently."
"Oh Erik," Charles sighed sadly. "Will you finally admit I'm right? Nature has her own time, you can't force it. Be it a society or an individual you cannot force their development. And now your daughter is paying the price of your impatience."
"I will deal with her Charles, but I need more time," Magneto exclaimed. "Wanda did this much damage despite * my * best efforts to contain her, can you imagine what would happen if Magda or that dullard she married tried to control her?"
Xavier shook his head. "You're right, I'll take Pietro back and explain the situation to Magda, she'll have to deal with Django."
"No!" Magneto stated.
"Have you done something to Pietro as well?" Xavier demanded.
"I may be a fool Charles," Magneto replied. "But I'm not such an idiot that I can't learn from my mistakes, Pietro is fine. I swear I won't attempt to hasten the development of his powers. It is merely that the twins have never been separated. I see no gain in doing anything which would increase Wanda's agitation. Trust me Charles, I will teach Wanda to deal with this."
"In retrospect I never should have listened to Erik," Xavier sighed. "At the least I should have monitored him. However I just wasn't ready to admit to myself what my old friend was capable of. It wasn't until several years later that I realized what he'd done with Wanda, by that point all she had left to hold onto was her rage."
"What happened to Pietro?" Jean asked.
"Erik sent him back to Magda and Django. He kept his promise to allow Pietro's powers to develop in their own time, I honestly thought he'd forgotten the boy. Pietro got good grades, excelled in sports, had a healthy social life and Magda knew to contact me should he begin showing signs of developing powers. However, his rivalry with Evan made it impossible for me to take both of them here. And Magneto had come back into his son's life. I must admit I was reluctance to do anything so antagonistic as to try to turn Magneto's own child against him. For all your sakes I wanted to delay open hostilities with Magneto as long as possible, you needed time to grow into your powers, to gain confidence."
"Am I interrupting?" Moira asked standing in the doorway. "I managed to hold on to Rogue long enough for a preliminary check up. I thought this might be a good time to look in on Pietro as well."
Xavier gestured for her to go ahead. Moira quickly ran thought a check of Pietro's vital signs. "If ye asked me for a diagnosis I'd say he was just sleeping," she said. "How would you state his condition Charles?"
"His mind is back where it belongs," Xavier said. "He's extremely withdrawn though. I blame the shock of the transitions, not to mention his pre-existing depression. I believe I could wake him at this point, but I think it's best to allow it to happen in it's own time, after Pietro has had a chance to reacclimatize."
Moira nodded. "Ororo came to speak with me earlier about Lance. If you've a moment?"
Xavier waited expectantly.
"She believes there is a commonality between their mutations and that it ties into the lad's difficulties with balance. Ororo thinks it is likely his recovery won't progress until he's given a chance to regain control of his powers. Lance seems quite eager to test her hypothesis."
"Lance can't use his powers here," Xavier commented. "The police would be at the door within the hour. Additionally a telepath should monitor his efforts and I do not wish to leave Pietro unattended right now."
"I could do it," Jean volunteered. "And Lance could go to California with Scott."
"Yes, with any luck Lance's practice would be attributed to natural causes. Storm could fly him out to the Mohave Dessert until we're certain he can control the size of the disturbance he creates once again. He shouldn't endanger anyone there. Please tell them to go ahead with their plans," Xavier decided
****** ****** ******
"You're taking off before Pietro wakes up?" Todd asked watching Lance pack.
"Yeah," Lance said. "Maybe I'll be back before he wakes up too."
"I thought you were worried about him."
Lance stopped packing and turned to Todd with a sigh. "I haven't decided what I'm going to say when I talk to him. Whatever I say, I think it'll go better if I can walk up to him without falling on my face."
"What if he wakes up before you get back, yo?" Todd asked. "He'll freak."
"Keep him here," Lance said. "He's in more trouble than he can handle. If he tries to run off get Rogue or maybe that Gambit guy to help you talk him out of it."
"Whatever you say Lance."
****** ****** ******
"Professor, can I go with Lance?" Kitty asked catching him on his way to the kitchen.
"You have school," Xavier pointed out.
"You're letting Scott skip." Kitty argued.
"Scott wanted to watch his younger brother's first professional surfing competition, I believe that counts as a special occasion," Xavier said.
"Jean's going"
"Because, as a telepath she may be able to help Lance control his powers, or make him pass out before he can harm himself," Xavier replied frowning slightly. "I would go myself if not for the situation with Pietro."
"I want to go," Kitty insisted.
"No," Xavier said firmly ending the discussion.
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