Agent-G: I'm also looking forward towards the meeting between Shadow and
Michael. Who's your money on?
Just a Girl – Reunited
Anne fidgeted in the Blackbird, as did the kids, but she for an entirely different reason: she was going to see old friends who she didn't even remember. It would make anyone nervous.
Jean had looked at the young woman and smiled reasurringly, she had already called ahead and explained the situation to Xavier, so not everyone would go into instant shock upon seeing Anne. Xavier had also assured her that he was convinced he could devise a therapy that could help Anne recover her memories of the life she had had as Marianne
At the Institute, the occupants were in a frenzy, even Rogue was effected by the news that Marianne had survived, even though she had no memories of her life prior to the accident. They had opted to not call Devon just yet, as his response could be a bit too much for the young woman. Shadow was somewhere in Europe at the moment, so he wouldn't mess things up.
Kitty and Amara were cleaning Marianne's room, whereas Scott and Kurt were busy preparing a room for the two new boys and Jubilee and Rahne were busy with preparing a room for the new girls. Logan had chosen to escape, he would return when everything had calmed down a bit. The rest was busy preparing a huge meal. It wasn't every day a friend returned from the dead.
"I, like, totally can't believe it! She's back!" Kitty cheered as she looked around the room.
"Yes, she is, but remember, the professor told us not to pressure her on anything, he wants to know the cause of her amnesia first," Amara straigthened herself.
"What's, like, the big deal with that? She like, hit her head and lost her memory," Kitty shrugged, not quite understanding why the cause of Marianne's amnesia was so important.
"Different cases of amnesia often need different approaches. Now, I am sure you both know you are to call her Anne untill she indicates otherwise?" suddenly Hank's voice rumbled through the room.
"It sucks that she doesn't remembah us," a Southern drawl added.
"Well, at least she, like, survived," Kitty peered over Hank's shoulder to see Rogue standing behind him.
"Yeah, ya're raht, Ah guess. But, the professah told meh ta come an' get ya all 'cause the plane is landin'," Rogue quickly jumped aside as Kitty stormed out with a shriek, followed closely by Amara, "Ah swear, that gal ain't all theah."
Hank decided not to respond to this, but he couldn't hide the grin on his face. He did wonder, however, how she could have survived the explosion. It was nearly impossible that she managed this, he had seen the explosion. He too made his way towards where the Blackbird would land.
~*On the Blackbird*~
"So, that's it. How did you enjoy the flight?" Jean turned towards Samantha. The young girl had looked up towards the redhead as soon as she found out what Jean's power was.
"Cool!" she exclaimed, Jonathan merely snorted, thinking that it wasn't cool to reply, Ezra didn't look up, but Connor spoke for her. Something he had always done, since he could easily read her emotions.
"It was amazing, Ezra thinks so too," Connor nodded.
"How are you feeling, Anne?" Jean looked at the young woman.
"Could you fly me back?" she joked, "I don't think I've never been as nervous in my life as now, but then again, I don't have a lot of reference points."
Jean could easily see she was very nervous, her face was pale, she was picking at her sweater while her teeth seemed to be permanently burried in her lower lip. Michael has seated himself besides her and was trying to get her to relax, which wasn't working very well.
The exit of the Blackbird was opened and the children rushed out, followed by Ororo. She immediately noticed the welcoming committee and nodded towards them. Ororo was quickly followed by Anne, Michael and Jean. As soon as Anne set foor outside, she was ambushed by Amara and Kitty and the other people gathered around her, wanting to make sure she was really there.
"I take it Anne was very loved as Marianne," Michael observed.
"She was our little sister," Jean nodded.
Anne, meanwhile, didn't know what hit her. There were so many faces around her and they were all familiar, though she couldn't exactly pinpoint names, she knew they were all important to her, but she also felt something was missing, like there should be more faces, even though she couldn't figure out how or why.
"Anne, if you are not too tired from your flight here, I would appreciate it if you would join me in my office," Xavier spoke up, a warm smile on his face.
"I'm not tired," Anne took it as an opportunity to get out of the crowd. She knew his name was Xavier, she had seen his face on television and Jean had told her about all the adults and the X-men, new and older. Xavier turned his wheelchair around and Anne quickly followed him, leaving Michael to deal with the lot of them.
"As you know, I think it will be very possible for you to regain you memory, I also think that I could help speed it up. It would, however, mean, that I would have to enter your head," Xavier spoke as soon as they were in his office.
"Really? O, I don't mind you in my head, professor. Something tells me I can trust you, and for as far as I know, I don't have any deep and dark secrets stashed in my head. How long will this take?" Anne looked at him, eager to regain her former memories. The warm welcome had convinced her that her life hadn't been bad.
"I don't know how long, that will depend on how well locked off you memories are and I am glad you believe you can trust me," he smiled warmly at her, "now, sit down and let's begin, shall we?"
Anne sat down in a chair as the professor moved besides her and helt his hand up next to her face. He frowned slightly as he entered Anne's mind.
~*Inside Anne's mind*~
"Anne, can you hear me?" the professor asked as he stood in the midst of what appeared to be a house. It figured, he thought, Marianne had always felt that a home was important, and this was, undoubtedly, also Anne's perception.
"Yes, I'm here. This is some weird view of my mind, professor. Kinda funny too," he heard Anne's voice behind him. Suddenly, she stood next to him.
"I figure the memories are either up in the attic or in the basement. That is where you store things you dn't wanna throw away but don't have any room for, right?" Anne grinned, "I'll have to do some remodeling, make some room for my new old memories. Boy, that sounded just weird."
The made their way up to the attic first. The lock on the door was quite strong, but not unbreakable, as Anne proved when she got frustrated and smashed it in, much against Xavier's advice.
"I have a brother? Yes, I do. O, poor Devon, he musn't have taken the news well, did he?" a few tears found their way over Anne's cheeks.
Xavier thought as he saw Anne look through her old memories. Re-opening the forgotten memories had been relatively easy, perhaps because of Anne's stubborn nature, but Xavier also thought that her having no incentive on trying to regain her memories in Boston, nothing familiar, had played a big part in her not regaining them, but also her doubts if her former life had been good were bound to have kept her, subconciously, from regaining them.
"Eew! Spider!" Anne/Marianne suddenly shrieked, "they even have those blasted creatures here!" she continued with a whine. Xavier was hardly able to surpress a chuckle.
"Ow, go ahead, professor, laugh. Marianne's afraid of spiders, who would have thought?" Anne/Marianne turned around to mock-glare at Xavier, "it's not all here. All the good memories are, but the sad ones must be down in the basement."
"Do you want those too? We could stop for the day. You must be getting tired," Xavier offered.
"Professor, you should know that I don't quit half way through. I need to have those memories too. I have to know what happened on that mission. I need to know. The good can't go without the bad, I don't know if I would have the guts to continue later, when everything has settled down," Anne/Marianne pleaded. Xavier could do nothing else then agree and they went downstair. Finding the way towards the basment, however, was a lot harder then towards the attick.
"Professor, this is my mind, right?" Anne/Marianne asked exasperated after a while.
"Yes, why?" Xavier nodded, not knowing what Anne/Marianne had in mind.
"So I can do anything I want, right? I mean, the mind has no boundaries, right?" without awaiting Xavier's reply, she let a wall explode in front of them, "that's gonna gave a major headache," Anne/Marianne winced.
"Anne, that was very dangerous of you to do, you could have destroyed your mind!" Xavier berated her.
"Oops, my bad. I'm sorry, professor, but I'm on a bit of an adrenaline kinda rush right know, and the basement should be right down there," she said while pointing at the old stairs that had appeared behind the wall. As the decended down the stairs, Xavier noted that these memories were actually filed away in boxes, and that they were very dusty. Ane/Marianne shrieked several times, seeing spiders crawl against the wall.
"I am seriously going to have to call an exterminator. This is so me, my mind-house is plagued by spiders! I HATE spiders! They just make me... eeew," Anne/Marianne muttered, while looking through all the files. Xavier noticed that he saw emotions varying from pure outrage down to immense sadness on her face.
"I know why I staid behind," Marianne finally broke the silence, her voice barely more then a broken whisper, "there was a little girl, hardly older then Sam. They were operating her without giving her something to knock her out. She was dying, I couldn't get her out and I couldn't let her die alone. I staid behind with her, I hid underneath the table. O god, I killed those doctors, professor, I killed people with my power!"
She crumbled to the ground, Xavier moved to comfort her.
"Don't touch me! I'm a murderer! I killed them!" she cried out, flinching away from him.
"Marianne. You are not a murderer, I am sure you had no other choice at the moment, those people were murderers, cold blooded murderers. They would continue to kill and hurt mutants all their lives. I am not saying killing is okay, but in this case, I don't think there could have been another way," Xavier said sternly.
"You... you think so?" she looked up at him, the look in his eyes reminded him of a child needing comfort.
"Yes, I think so, now, come, Marianne, let's go and tell the others, they will be delighted," Xavier helped her get up.
~*In the dininghall*~
Michael had listened to a lot of stories about Marianne, but to be honest, he didn't care. He was anxious to know how things had gone. Jean had explained to them what the professor would attempt and though Michael was happy for Marianne, he also was slightly afraid that she would leave him. Michael also knew that he had to have a long 'talk' with this Shadow for kidnapping Marianne.
Suddenly the doors opened and Marianne walked in, followed by Xavier in his wheelchair.
"I am Marianne, but you can all call me Anne for short," she stated with a huge grin on her face.
Just a Girl – Reunited
Anne fidgeted in the Blackbird, as did the kids, but she for an entirely different reason: she was going to see old friends who she didn't even remember. It would make anyone nervous.
Jean had looked at the young woman and smiled reasurringly, she had already called ahead and explained the situation to Xavier, so not everyone would go into instant shock upon seeing Anne. Xavier had also assured her that he was convinced he could devise a therapy that could help Anne recover her memories of the life she had had as Marianne
At the Institute, the occupants were in a frenzy, even Rogue was effected by the news that Marianne had survived, even though she had no memories of her life prior to the accident. They had opted to not call Devon just yet, as his response could be a bit too much for the young woman. Shadow was somewhere in Europe at the moment, so he wouldn't mess things up.
Kitty and Amara were cleaning Marianne's room, whereas Scott and Kurt were busy preparing a room for the two new boys and Jubilee and Rahne were busy with preparing a room for the new girls. Logan had chosen to escape, he would return when everything had calmed down a bit. The rest was busy preparing a huge meal. It wasn't every day a friend returned from the dead.
"I, like, totally can't believe it! She's back!" Kitty cheered as she looked around the room.
"Yes, she is, but remember, the professor told us not to pressure her on anything, he wants to know the cause of her amnesia first," Amara straigthened herself.
"What's, like, the big deal with that? She like, hit her head and lost her memory," Kitty shrugged, not quite understanding why the cause of Marianne's amnesia was so important.
"Different cases of amnesia often need different approaches. Now, I am sure you both know you are to call her Anne untill she indicates otherwise?" suddenly Hank's voice rumbled through the room.
"It sucks that she doesn't remembah us," a Southern drawl added.
"Well, at least she, like, survived," Kitty peered over Hank's shoulder to see Rogue standing behind him.
"Yeah, ya're raht, Ah guess. But, the professah told meh ta come an' get ya all 'cause the plane is landin'," Rogue quickly jumped aside as Kitty stormed out with a shriek, followed closely by Amara, "Ah swear, that gal ain't all theah."
Hank decided not to respond to this, but he couldn't hide the grin on his face. He did wonder, however, how she could have survived the explosion. It was nearly impossible that she managed this, he had seen the explosion. He too made his way towards where the Blackbird would land.
~*On the Blackbird*~
"So, that's it. How did you enjoy the flight?" Jean turned towards Samantha. The young girl had looked up towards the redhead as soon as she found out what Jean's power was.
"Cool!" she exclaimed, Jonathan merely snorted, thinking that it wasn't cool to reply, Ezra didn't look up, but Connor spoke for her. Something he had always done, since he could easily read her emotions.
"It was amazing, Ezra thinks so too," Connor nodded.
"How are you feeling, Anne?" Jean looked at the young woman.
"Could you fly me back?" she joked, "I don't think I've never been as nervous in my life as now, but then again, I don't have a lot of reference points."
Jean could easily see she was very nervous, her face was pale, she was picking at her sweater while her teeth seemed to be permanently burried in her lower lip. Michael has seated himself besides her and was trying to get her to relax, which wasn't working very well.
The exit of the Blackbird was opened and the children rushed out, followed by Ororo. She immediately noticed the welcoming committee and nodded towards them. Ororo was quickly followed by Anne, Michael and Jean. As soon as Anne set foor outside, she was ambushed by Amara and Kitty and the other people gathered around her, wanting to make sure she was really there.
"I take it Anne was very loved as Marianne," Michael observed.
"She was our little sister," Jean nodded.
Anne, meanwhile, didn't know what hit her. There were so many faces around her and they were all familiar, though she couldn't exactly pinpoint names, she knew they were all important to her, but she also felt something was missing, like there should be more faces, even though she couldn't figure out how or why.
"Anne, if you are not too tired from your flight here, I would appreciate it if you would join me in my office," Xavier spoke up, a warm smile on his face.
"I'm not tired," Anne took it as an opportunity to get out of the crowd. She knew his name was Xavier, she had seen his face on television and Jean had told her about all the adults and the X-men, new and older. Xavier turned his wheelchair around and Anne quickly followed him, leaving Michael to deal with the lot of them.
"As you know, I think it will be very possible for you to regain you memory, I also think that I could help speed it up. It would, however, mean, that I would have to enter your head," Xavier spoke as soon as they were in his office.
"Really? O, I don't mind you in my head, professor. Something tells me I can trust you, and for as far as I know, I don't have any deep and dark secrets stashed in my head. How long will this take?" Anne looked at him, eager to regain her former memories. The warm welcome had convinced her that her life hadn't been bad.
"I don't know how long, that will depend on how well locked off you memories are and I am glad you believe you can trust me," he smiled warmly at her, "now, sit down and let's begin, shall we?"
Anne sat down in a chair as the professor moved besides her and helt his hand up next to her face. He frowned slightly as he entered Anne's mind.
~*Inside Anne's mind*~
"Anne, can you hear me?" the professor asked as he stood in the midst of what appeared to be a house. It figured, he thought, Marianne had always felt that a home was important, and this was, undoubtedly, also Anne's perception.
"Yes, I'm here. This is some weird view of my mind, professor. Kinda funny too," he heard Anne's voice behind him. Suddenly, she stood next to him.
"I figure the memories are either up in the attic or in the basement. That is where you store things you dn't wanna throw away but don't have any room for, right?" Anne grinned, "I'll have to do some remodeling, make some room for my new old memories. Boy, that sounded just weird."
The made their way up to the attic first. The lock on the door was quite strong, but not unbreakable, as Anne proved when she got frustrated and smashed it in, much against Xavier's advice.
"I have a brother? Yes, I do. O, poor Devon, he musn't have taken the news well, did he?" a few tears found their way over Anne's cheeks.
Xavier thought as he saw Anne look through her old memories. Re-opening the forgotten memories had been relatively easy, perhaps because of Anne's stubborn nature, but Xavier also thought that her having no incentive on trying to regain her memories in Boston, nothing familiar, had played a big part in her not regaining them, but also her doubts if her former life had been good were bound to have kept her, subconciously, from regaining them.
"Eew! Spider!" Anne/Marianne suddenly shrieked, "they even have those blasted creatures here!" she continued with a whine. Xavier was hardly able to surpress a chuckle.
"Ow, go ahead, professor, laugh. Marianne's afraid of spiders, who would have thought?" Anne/Marianne turned around to mock-glare at Xavier, "it's not all here. All the good memories are, but the sad ones must be down in the basement."
"Do you want those too? We could stop for the day. You must be getting tired," Xavier offered.
"Professor, you should know that I don't quit half way through. I need to have those memories too. I have to know what happened on that mission. I need to know. The good can't go without the bad, I don't know if I would have the guts to continue later, when everything has settled down," Anne/Marianne pleaded. Xavier could do nothing else then agree and they went downstair. Finding the way towards the basment, however, was a lot harder then towards the attick.
"Professor, this is my mind, right?" Anne/Marianne asked exasperated after a while.
"Yes, why?" Xavier nodded, not knowing what Anne/Marianne had in mind.
"So I can do anything I want, right? I mean, the mind has no boundaries, right?" without awaiting Xavier's reply, she let a wall explode in front of them, "that's gonna gave a major headache," Anne/Marianne winced.
"Anne, that was very dangerous of you to do, you could have destroyed your mind!" Xavier berated her.
"Oops, my bad. I'm sorry, professor, but I'm on a bit of an adrenaline kinda rush right know, and the basement should be right down there," she said while pointing at the old stairs that had appeared behind the wall. As the decended down the stairs, Xavier noted that these memories were actually filed away in boxes, and that they were very dusty. Ane/Marianne shrieked several times, seeing spiders crawl against the wall.
"I am seriously going to have to call an exterminator. This is so me, my mind-house is plagued by spiders! I HATE spiders! They just make me... eeew," Anne/Marianne muttered, while looking through all the files. Xavier noticed that he saw emotions varying from pure outrage down to immense sadness on her face.
"I know why I staid behind," Marianne finally broke the silence, her voice barely more then a broken whisper, "there was a little girl, hardly older then Sam. They were operating her without giving her something to knock her out. She was dying, I couldn't get her out and I couldn't let her die alone. I staid behind with her, I hid underneath the table. O god, I killed those doctors, professor, I killed people with my power!"
She crumbled to the ground, Xavier moved to comfort her.
"Don't touch me! I'm a murderer! I killed them!" she cried out, flinching away from him.
"Marianne. You are not a murderer, I am sure you had no other choice at the moment, those people were murderers, cold blooded murderers. They would continue to kill and hurt mutants all their lives. I am not saying killing is okay, but in this case, I don't think there could have been another way," Xavier said sternly.
"You... you think so?" she looked up at him, the look in his eyes reminded him of a child needing comfort.
"Yes, I think so, now, come, Marianne, let's go and tell the others, they will be delighted," Xavier helped her get up.
~*In the dininghall*~
Michael had listened to a lot of stories about Marianne, but to be honest, he didn't care. He was anxious to know how things had gone. Jean had explained to them what the professor would attempt and though Michael was happy for Marianne, he also was slightly afraid that she would leave him. Michael also knew that he had to have a long 'talk' with this Shadow for kidnapping Marianne.
Suddenly the doors opened and Marianne walked in, followed by Xavier in his wheelchair.
"I am Marianne, but you can all call me Anne for short," she stated with a huge grin on her face.