Title: The Master and the Mistress

Author: Viral

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Ororo rested in her attic suite, her white hair sloppily covering her pillow and feeling like sheer, silk sheets across her golden brown cheek. She squirmed around in the bed, hearing noises from outside but not wanting to wake up because of fatigue. Little did she know: this laziness would be her downfall. Outside of the mansion a group of FOH members lit their torches, readied their guns, and prepared their grenades to completely destroy the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters. After a silent command from their leader, the FOH members released a loud yell and through their weapons into the mansion windows, the brick exterior, and the large main entrance door. Ororo jumped out of her bed, noticing that flames were quickly creeping into her room. Smoke filled the attic and caused her to choke several times before noticing that the ceiling was caving in on her. "Ororo!" Hank yelled, entering the room with the dead bodies of Rogue and Xavier in his arms. His blue eyes looked up to the ceiling with fear, causing Ororo to look up only to find herself bombarded by flaming wood, brick, and glass.

Ororo gasped loudly, holding her chest, as she fell off of the swing in the garden. "Bright Lady," she whispered, her heart pounding as she realized it was just a nightmare. She looked around. The mansion was in perfect condition, the grass wet with the morning dew, and the sun peeking through over the horizon. It was early morning, Ororo's favorite part of the day. Perhaps the peace and quiet that it brought would help her and relieve her from the breathtaking nightmare she just had.

-=-=-

"Piotr, I just do not seem to have faith in Charles' ideals anymore," Ororo said softly over the phone. She was speaking to her old friend, Piotr Rasputin, better known as Colossus. He, at one time, had left the X-Men and joined Magneto. Perhaps he would be able to help her make a decision.

"Ororo, I do not wish to decide for you," he said in a strong Russian accent. "But I think it is important for you to make your decision carefully. The nightmare you had shows your insecurity in Xavier's dream. Maybe it's time you left."

"If I do leave, I will be an enemy of the X-Men," she sighed. "I just cannot leave everything behind. I have to choose a side to fight on because I am apart of the war. I suppose leaving the X-Men leaves me with only one alternative."

"Give the Professor some time," Piotr said. It was odd for him to be giving the advice to Ororo, he was always looking for her advice. "Talk to him and then see how you feel."

"I shall try," Ororo said with a slight smile on her face. "Tell Kitty I said hello and I pray she is enjoying her time away from the team."

"Will do, Ororo," Piotr said. "I will talk with you later."

Ororo hung up the phone, walking back to the vanity in her attic, barefoot. She was wearing a blue jean jumpsuit and a plain white T-shirt under it. On her feet was a pair of construction-colored work boots. Her white hair was placed in a ponytail with a deliberate loose collection of hair hanging on the right side of her face.

She walked out onto the attic's balcony and gracefully hovered down into the mansion's garden. "This will be quite an adventuresome day," she said as she walked among the tulips and daisies and began watering them with a collection of small rain clouds. She began humming a jazzy tune as she slowly walked among the flowers, picking up stray petals and tending to the landscape.

"Storm... Ororo," Scott said as he approached her. Ororo nearly jumped out of her boots. This was the first time anyone had interrupted her while she was doing her gardening. Normally no one else was up this early in the morning, except for the Professor who would be taking care of business.

"Good morning, Scott," she replied, although the tone of her voice admitted it was only a formality and not something she really wanted to say.

"No pressure, but I'm just curious," he said, standing in his spot. "Are you attracted to Magneto?"

"Yes, I am," Ororo admitted, resting her blue eyes on a rose that seemed to be withering away. She bent down and studied it.

"Why?" he asked. "The guy is like... Xavier's age. He might look young and feel young, but the guy is old!" Scott said, almost laughing at Ororo's answer.

"Scott, I am a woman who is very capable of making wise decisions," she said, standing up. She had hoped they wouldn't have to argue again. "Now, I have a question for you."

"Shoot," he said, still chuckling.

"Do you feel intimidated by me? No pressure, but I am just curious," she said sarcastically, turning away from him. "Is your masculinity challenged when you have to follow the orders of a woman on the battlefield?" Scott swore under his breath, causing Ororo to turn back and look at him. "What did you say?"

"You heard me," he said, poking out his chest and frowning. This was all met with a gruesome kick from Ororo's long leg as her work boots collided into Scott's jawbone, knocking him to the ground. When he looked back up at Ororo through his ruby quartz shades, dirt could be seen on his cheek and blood running down his bottom lip.

He yelled, allowing his adrenaline to take over his mind, as he removed his shades and shot a deadly blow of optic blast energy into Ororo's torso, burning through her the stomach part of her jumpsuit and t-shirt and showing her abs. Ororo grunted as she picked herself up from the brick walkway of the garden. Her entire body became covered in lightning and the wind picked up dramatically around her immediate body, causing her ponytail to wave in the air like a cloud behind her head. Her hands went forward and a lightning bolt immediately shot out of the sky, directly pinpointed to hit Scott in his back. The mutant fell forward from the heat, electrical jolt, and the force of the bolt as he shook in spasms on the ground with a second-degree burn in his back. Ororo readied herself as another lightning bolt was cooked up at her fingertips.

"Ororo, no!" came the Professor's voice telepathically. "I'm sending Hank out to retrieve Scott, but I want you in my office, RIGHT NOW!"

-=-=-

"Yes, Professor?" Ororo said calmly as she entered the office. She had changed into an extra outfit of the same kind and color and walked into his office nonchalantly.

"I called you ten minutes ago, Ororo," Xavier frowned. "Your behavior outside with Scott and your lack of haste in answering my calls is showing quite an unreliable change in your character."

"Surely you did not expect me to take the abuse Scott was throwing at me!" Ororo said, her voice rising to a soprano pitch as she walked closer to the Professor's desk. "That is quite unreasonable!"

"This is not about Scott," Xavier frowned. "It's about your inability to see what your new personality is doing the team. The way you are acting is affecting everyone you interact with. You are making decisions reliant on the way you feel at the moment and you are failing to see the consequences of her actions before hand!"

"I did not come here to have a moral examination, Charles," Ororo frowned. "I know very well that I am changing. Right now, I do not know if it is for better or for worse, but there is no stopping it."

"Why?" Xavier asked, squinting his eyes. "Why are you changing?"

"Professor, what are you going to do about the Friends of Humanity's attacks on the pro-mutant institutions?" Ororo asked.

"There is nothing we can do," the Professor frowned. "We can only continue to portray, through our actions, that mutants deserve equal rights. We can not attack the Friends of Humanity, but we can protect our kind."

"That is not enough!" Ororo yelled. "Your passive actions are not helping to move things along. You are not trying hard enough!" The Professor found himself speechless at Ororo's outburst. "Your unwillingness to be aggressive in your fight is causing your dream to slip out of your hands..." she said. Her voice was now almost as low as the volume of a whisper, "And it is causing me to lose faith in your dream."

"What are you saying?" Xavier asked, rolling his wheelchair from behind his desk with a sad look on his face.

"I do not know for sure," Ororo sighed. "I need more time to think." She turned and walked out of the door.

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