Agent-G: Yay! Way ta go Vincent!
!Warning! This chapter is sad, very sad, and I don't mean my writing skills.
Just a Girl – The fall
"Marianne..." Scott started, again, the umpteenth time.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I'll try to stay outta trouble. But I'm not promising anything," Marianne sighed. They were just about to reach the lab and Marianne had been on the recieving end of one too many 'you're going to stay out of sight and not get into any trouble' speeches.
She was wearing a form fitting, darkblue suit with a red X across of it. Hank had given her a belt with small pouches in which she had several bandages, painkillers and other first-aid items.
"Leave 'r be already, she'll be fahne," Rogue grumbled, she was seated behind Marianne.
The basic idea was that Marianne would cast her invisible illusion over herself and she would try to find the mutants held there, if any. Since they would most likely need medical assistance and Hank was a bit too obvious. Scott, Rogue and Logan would cause a great deal of destruction as the others would go after Marianne and take possible victims out of the lab.
They landed and everything went according to plan. Untill Marianne found her way into the building and Scott started the diversions. Then, things went haywire.
'Why does it always have to be red lights? Why not light blue or even purple? I am so getting a headache here,' Marianne groaned mentally as she was carefull to stay out of reach of the 'normal' humans. Being invisible didn't make her intangible. And if they started to bump into something that they couldn't see while two mutants outside were raising holy hell, people would get a little suspicious.
It was only in the basements where things went really, really bad. Marianne didn't really know what happened, but it sounded like someone had hit the self-destruction button of the base.
'Great, can things get even more cliché?' she groaned. She let her illusion fade away as the others of the team reached her. She had seen that there were in fact mutants there. They were used for horrible experiments. Marianne had taken a couple of minutes to send the data on the mutants to Xavier.
"That door is locked tight. If I had to guess, I'd be guessing the mutants are kept behind that. So, what do you think? Get them out, or save ourselves?" Marianne thumbed at the door, trying to keep her act together. This was not a good time to fall to pieces and start yelling you don't wanna die. On the other side, it seemed like a damned normal response. Then she noticed Jean looking a little worried at her, that was enough for Marianne to steel herself: this was probably the only chance she had to prove herself.
"I'll get the door out of the way," Jean nodded. Marianne later wished Jean hadn't got the door away, because what was behind it was worth several years of nightmares. Her first reaction was to throw up at the sight of how bad the mutants inside their condition was. She forcefully wrestled her emotions into a very dark corner of her mind and let her newly obtained medical knowledge take over.
"Kurt, you port the ones who can't walk out, the rest, get the ones who can walk out of here. Jean, could you open that door?" she asked, looking at the mutants that were in the cells. They were in bad shape, emphasize bad shape. Very bad shape. She heard Kitty swallow a couple of sobs.
"Okay people, get moving! We don't have a lot of time here. The base is set on selfdestruct. We're the X-men and came to help you all," Marianne heard Shadow call out as Jean opened the other door.
On the other side, she found a young girl, strapped to an examining table. The child was badly hurt, and the doctors were doing something to her without sedation. 'Doctors, if those are doctors, Apocalypse is a nice old grandfather.'
"Step away from the girl. This instant," she called out. They looked up and smirked. The cries of the child made her so angry. How could they do this?
"Stay away freak, and you won't get hurt," one of them even dared to say.
"You are mistaken, this base is about to self-destruct. And before you could hurt me, I'll make your worst nightmares come true," she had discussed the possibility with Xavier, but hadn't tried it out. The 'doctors' obviously didn't believe her.
"Please forgive me professor," she silently prayed. She couldn't believe what she was about to do. It could kill these humans, but the cries of the girl cut through her mind, they made her irrational, "face your fears and survive. Cower from them and die." They looked at her in surprise, she saw their eyes roll back in their heads as they collapsed to the ground. She had never known it actually worked like that. She felt dirty using her powers like that, like those monsters. They had no chance to survive, the base would explode soon enough.
"No... no... please! No more!" the girl cried out.
"I'm sorry you had to go through this, but there'll be no more," Marianne walked closer towards her and could easily see that the girl was dying. If she hadn't been so lucky and have had the life she had, she would have been in the girl's place.
"Fantasy! You have to come right now, the building is gonna blow!" she heard Shadow call behind her.
"I'm coming Shadow, just get the last ones out of here and don't worry about me," she replied absently, not even noticing the use of her code name. This girl was dying, even though every piece of her rational mind told her to scram, well, she never was one to follow her mind over her heart. And at the moment her heart was telling her not to let the girl die alone. She hoped the others would understand, but trying to get the girl out would be futile. The girl couldn't walk because of the pain, carrying her would take too much time. Leaving her alone was not an option.
"You... you should leave..." the child, she couldn't be older then eight, choughed as Marianne freed her from her restraints. Tears were pouring down her eyes.
"You should be growing up like a normal girl. Neither of it is happening. I'm Marianne," she smiled at the girl through her tears as she took the frail body into her arms and hid underneath the table, perhaps it would give some protection, she wasn't sure.
"I'm... I'm Jenn, Marianne... it's a nice... very nice... name," the girl coughed up blood onto Marianne's uniform, it didn't matter, the blood of the girl was all over her. She could hear the explosions begin.
"I'm glad you like it, Jenn. Do you know what my mutation is? I can create illusions. What illusion do you want?" Marianne asked the girl, her voice was choked up. She could at least give the girl something to ease her suffering.
"I... I wanna see... see the sea," the girl was drifting away.
"Then we'll go to the sea," Marianne focused on what she remembered of the sea and allowed herself to go with the girl. They were sitting at a dock, overlooking a calm ocean with the sun setting. The girl cradled in her arms as Marianne whispered soothing words.
"Thank... you..." a faint whisper, barely audible and the girl was gone. Marianne began to cry uncontrollably.
~*Outside*~
"Marianne!" Kitty cried out as she saw the lab explode.
"No! No! This... this can't be! She's gone Scott! I can't sense her!" Jean watched in horror as she watched the lab burn down: there was no way she could have survived that. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find Marianne's mind.
"No... we were supposed... supposed ta go on a roadtrip aftah graduation!" Rogue clenched her fists.
Similar cries of disbelieve were heard as the group felt the loss of one of their own. Shadow didn't say a thing as they went back into the blackbird. Not believing this had happened. The mission had gone fine otherwise, but they had still lost someone, they had lost Marianne. As they entered, the mutants they had rescued could easily see that something terrible had happened. Hank worked in a daze as he, Jean and Kitty applied first aid to them.
"Professor," Scott said through the radio, voice rough from emotions, "we lost Marianne, she was inside when the lab exploded."
At the other side of the connection, Xavier burried his head in his hands, blaming himself for the fall of the young, cheerfull girl. It took him a while to compose himself before he could reach for the intercom.
"Everyone, report to my office at once," Xavier didn't know how he managed to keep his voice level. One by one, the new mutants trudged into his office, each paled at his grave expression.
"The lab has been destroyed, the mutants have been rescued. But, the price was high, too high," Xavier said solemny. Amara gasped, somehow knowing what he was going to say, not willing to believe it as the others looked at him in confusion.
"The lab exploded, while Marianne was still inside. She was lost, she didn't survive," he spoke slowly. Ororo gasped too, she had staid behind in case something happened back at the mansion. Tears formed in her eyes as she heard the others start to cry.
"Children, go downstairs please, I will join you shortly," she said, gathering the last strength she had in order not to burst down in sobs. The young mutants meekly followed her orders, their minds processing the news.
"I should never have allowed her to go," Xavier looked up, and Ororo noticed how much he had aged in just a matter of minutes.
"You could have done nothing to forsee this, Charles, please, do not blame yourself. Blame those who built those wretched places, but not yourself. We need your strength in coping with this, you blaming yourself won't help any of us. Marianne knew the risks, she knew what could happen and she accepted them. She wouldn't want you to blame yourself," Ororo placed her hand on Xavier's shoulder.
"Leave me be for a while, Ororo. The children will need you, go, I'll manage," he didn't look up, didn't have the strength to.
A young girl had died that day, a girl with many chances in life, a girl who had a choice, a girl who had been placed under his care. Xavier looked a the photo hanging on his wall, it was from her birthday, she had been surrounded by friends, the team and the younger ones. Xavier wondered if she had agreed to stay with them, go on that mission, if she had known it would end like this. He could only see one answer: yes, she would have. In those too few months, he had learned she was a sacrificing spirit with a good sense of humour. She had been no saint, not perfect, she had been just a girl. A girl who didn't deserve to die, just a girl who wanted to be accepted for who she was.
!Warning! This chapter is sad, very sad, and I don't mean my writing skills.
Just a Girl – The fall
"Marianne..." Scott started, again, the umpteenth time.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I'll try to stay outta trouble. But I'm not promising anything," Marianne sighed. They were just about to reach the lab and Marianne had been on the recieving end of one too many 'you're going to stay out of sight and not get into any trouble' speeches.
She was wearing a form fitting, darkblue suit with a red X across of it. Hank had given her a belt with small pouches in which she had several bandages, painkillers and other first-aid items.
"Leave 'r be already, she'll be fahne," Rogue grumbled, she was seated behind Marianne.
The basic idea was that Marianne would cast her invisible illusion over herself and she would try to find the mutants held there, if any. Since they would most likely need medical assistance and Hank was a bit too obvious. Scott, Rogue and Logan would cause a great deal of destruction as the others would go after Marianne and take possible victims out of the lab.
They landed and everything went according to plan. Untill Marianne found her way into the building and Scott started the diversions. Then, things went haywire.
'Why does it always have to be red lights? Why not light blue or even purple? I am so getting a headache here,' Marianne groaned mentally as she was carefull to stay out of reach of the 'normal' humans. Being invisible didn't make her intangible. And if they started to bump into something that they couldn't see while two mutants outside were raising holy hell, people would get a little suspicious.
It was only in the basements where things went really, really bad. Marianne didn't really know what happened, but it sounded like someone had hit the self-destruction button of the base.
'Great, can things get even more cliché?' she groaned. She let her illusion fade away as the others of the team reached her. She had seen that there were in fact mutants there. They were used for horrible experiments. Marianne had taken a couple of minutes to send the data on the mutants to Xavier.
"That door is locked tight. If I had to guess, I'd be guessing the mutants are kept behind that. So, what do you think? Get them out, or save ourselves?" Marianne thumbed at the door, trying to keep her act together. This was not a good time to fall to pieces and start yelling you don't wanna die. On the other side, it seemed like a damned normal response. Then she noticed Jean looking a little worried at her, that was enough for Marianne to steel herself: this was probably the only chance she had to prove herself.
"I'll get the door out of the way," Jean nodded. Marianne later wished Jean hadn't got the door away, because what was behind it was worth several years of nightmares. Her first reaction was to throw up at the sight of how bad the mutants inside their condition was. She forcefully wrestled her emotions into a very dark corner of her mind and let her newly obtained medical knowledge take over.
"Kurt, you port the ones who can't walk out, the rest, get the ones who can walk out of here. Jean, could you open that door?" she asked, looking at the mutants that were in the cells. They were in bad shape, emphasize bad shape. Very bad shape. She heard Kitty swallow a couple of sobs.
"Okay people, get moving! We don't have a lot of time here. The base is set on selfdestruct. We're the X-men and came to help you all," Marianne heard Shadow call out as Jean opened the other door.
On the other side, she found a young girl, strapped to an examining table. The child was badly hurt, and the doctors were doing something to her without sedation. 'Doctors, if those are doctors, Apocalypse is a nice old grandfather.'
"Step away from the girl. This instant," she called out. They looked up and smirked. The cries of the child made her so angry. How could they do this?
"Stay away freak, and you won't get hurt," one of them even dared to say.
"You are mistaken, this base is about to self-destruct. And before you could hurt me, I'll make your worst nightmares come true," she had discussed the possibility with Xavier, but hadn't tried it out. The 'doctors' obviously didn't believe her.
"Please forgive me professor," she silently prayed. She couldn't believe what she was about to do. It could kill these humans, but the cries of the girl cut through her mind, they made her irrational, "face your fears and survive. Cower from them and die." They looked at her in surprise, she saw their eyes roll back in their heads as they collapsed to the ground. She had never known it actually worked like that. She felt dirty using her powers like that, like those monsters. They had no chance to survive, the base would explode soon enough.
"No... no... please! No more!" the girl cried out.
"I'm sorry you had to go through this, but there'll be no more," Marianne walked closer towards her and could easily see that the girl was dying. If she hadn't been so lucky and have had the life she had, she would have been in the girl's place.
"Fantasy! You have to come right now, the building is gonna blow!" she heard Shadow call behind her.
"I'm coming Shadow, just get the last ones out of here and don't worry about me," she replied absently, not even noticing the use of her code name. This girl was dying, even though every piece of her rational mind told her to scram, well, she never was one to follow her mind over her heart. And at the moment her heart was telling her not to let the girl die alone. She hoped the others would understand, but trying to get the girl out would be futile. The girl couldn't walk because of the pain, carrying her would take too much time. Leaving her alone was not an option.
"You... you should leave..." the child, she couldn't be older then eight, choughed as Marianne freed her from her restraints. Tears were pouring down her eyes.
"You should be growing up like a normal girl. Neither of it is happening. I'm Marianne," she smiled at the girl through her tears as she took the frail body into her arms and hid underneath the table, perhaps it would give some protection, she wasn't sure.
"I'm... I'm Jenn, Marianne... it's a nice... very nice... name," the girl coughed up blood onto Marianne's uniform, it didn't matter, the blood of the girl was all over her. She could hear the explosions begin.
"I'm glad you like it, Jenn. Do you know what my mutation is? I can create illusions. What illusion do you want?" Marianne asked the girl, her voice was choked up. She could at least give the girl something to ease her suffering.
"I... I wanna see... see the sea," the girl was drifting away.
"Then we'll go to the sea," Marianne focused on what she remembered of the sea and allowed herself to go with the girl. They were sitting at a dock, overlooking a calm ocean with the sun setting. The girl cradled in her arms as Marianne whispered soothing words.
"Thank... you..." a faint whisper, barely audible and the girl was gone. Marianne began to cry uncontrollably.
~*Outside*~
"Marianne!" Kitty cried out as she saw the lab explode.
"No! No! This... this can't be! She's gone Scott! I can't sense her!" Jean watched in horror as she watched the lab burn down: there was no way she could have survived that. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find Marianne's mind.
"No... we were supposed... supposed ta go on a roadtrip aftah graduation!" Rogue clenched her fists.
Similar cries of disbelieve were heard as the group felt the loss of one of their own. Shadow didn't say a thing as they went back into the blackbird. Not believing this had happened. The mission had gone fine otherwise, but they had still lost someone, they had lost Marianne. As they entered, the mutants they had rescued could easily see that something terrible had happened. Hank worked in a daze as he, Jean and Kitty applied first aid to them.
"Professor," Scott said through the radio, voice rough from emotions, "we lost Marianne, she was inside when the lab exploded."
At the other side of the connection, Xavier burried his head in his hands, blaming himself for the fall of the young, cheerfull girl. It took him a while to compose himself before he could reach for the intercom.
"Everyone, report to my office at once," Xavier didn't know how he managed to keep his voice level. One by one, the new mutants trudged into his office, each paled at his grave expression.
"The lab has been destroyed, the mutants have been rescued. But, the price was high, too high," Xavier said solemny. Amara gasped, somehow knowing what he was going to say, not willing to believe it as the others looked at him in confusion.
"The lab exploded, while Marianne was still inside. She was lost, she didn't survive," he spoke slowly. Ororo gasped too, she had staid behind in case something happened back at the mansion. Tears formed in her eyes as she heard the others start to cry.
"Children, go downstairs please, I will join you shortly," she said, gathering the last strength she had in order not to burst down in sobs. The young mutants meekly followed her orders, their minds processing the news.
"I should never have allowed her to go," Xavier looked up, and Ororo noticed how much he had aged in just a matter of minutes.
"You could have done nothing to forsee this, Charles, please, do not blame yourself. Blame those who built those wretched places, but not yourself. We need your strength in coping with this, you blaming yourself won't help any of us. Marianne knew the risks, she knew what could happen and she accepted them. She wouldn't want you to blame yourself," Ororo placed her hand on Xavier's shoulder.
"Leave me be for a while, Ororo. The children will need you, go, I'll manage," he didn't look up, didn't have the strength to.
A young girl had died that day, a girl with many chances in life, a girl who had a choice, a girl who had been placed under his care. Xavier looked a the photo hanging on his wall, it was from her birthday, she had been surrounded by friends, the team and the younger ones. Xavier wondered if she had agreed to stay with them, go on that mission, if she had known it would end like this. He could only see one answer: yes, she would have. In those too few months, he had learned she was a sacrificing spirit with a good sense of humour. She had been no saint, not perfect, she had been just a girl. A girl who didn't deserve to die, just a girl who wanted to be accepted for who she was.