" Cassandra?" A voice called into the room, a voice that shouldn't have been there. " Cassandra wake up." My eyes fluttered open slowly. I was dressed in my nightclothes and under the comforter on the bed. Rogue, Jubilee, and Kitty were in my room, door closed tightly behind them.
" What do you guys want?"
" We heard you. You were having another nightmare." It had been a few more weeks since Rogue had asked if John hit me. She had taken my answer as the truth, even though she knew it wasn't.
" Sorry. I didn't mean to wake anyone up."
" It's okay. Maybe you should talk to Professor Xavier. He might be able to help." I shook my head no. It was an old argument. I still wasn't comfortable with people knowing too much about my past since they could use it against me.
" Yeah, it'll help. He helped Rogue. He's helped everyone in here."
" We've had this argument before." I sat up, which I realized quickly was a mistake. The bruise on my stomach showed clear in the harsh overhead lighting in my room.
" What happened?!" Kitty cried softly, eyes riveted to the bit of exposed tissue. I had been sleeping in long pants and a long-sleeved button up shirt that John had bought me a month ago.
" Nothing." I answered quickly, tugging the shirt down to cover the skin. Rogue just glared daggers.
" It doesn't look like nothing. Take your shirt off." It was my turn to glare.
" No."
" Either tell us what happened or take your shirt off so we can see the damage and guess."
" Get out of my room." I answered coldly. I was not about to get hurt because these people were trying to be 'helpful'.
" We're your friends, we just want to help."
" That's why she's got me. You guys can go now." John said, silently slipping into the room. The three girls turned on John, blocking his view of me with their pajama-clad bodies.
" Get out of here John, before we tell the teachers you were out of bed and in the girl's dorms after lights out." They threatened in unison, having most likely planned this before they came.
" She's my girlfriend, I want to help."
" Just stay away from her." John's gaze managed to find mine and transmit all the anger he was starting to feel. I could see the fire starting to spark in the dark chocolate depths.
" You guys go on. I'll be fine now." I said, trying to tap the three girls in the direction of the door. " I'll try not to wake anyone up again."
" If you need us, just come to our door. It's always open." I smiled gratefully at Kitty.
" Thanks guys, but it's not necessary." They left and John came back.
" You okay?" He asked quietly, concern in his eyes.
" Just a nightmare, that's all." I said, slipping further under the covers as John came around and climbed in with me. Wrapping his arms around my waist, I just barely hissed as he fell asleep and squeezed tighter, hitting the bruise that he had caused from my belly button almost all the way around to my spine.
" Cassandra, can I talk to you?"
" Did I do something wrong?" I asked, knowing the answer before I even asked it. We had just gotten a test back on the latest segment in our auto mechanics class. I hadn't gotten my sheet back. Scott held it up with a frown locked in place.
" You failed." I could see that by the nice big, circled, red F in the left-hand corner.
" I'm sorry." I apologized instantly, chin dipping down to my chest.
" If you need help you can always come to me. Your grades have been slipping for a few months now."
" I've been working really hard but I just don't understand." My grades in my other subjects, minus Technology, had pretty much stayed in the low A, high B range. Of course the two classes Mr. Summer's taught where the ones that had dropped to the low D, high F range.
" I was giving you extra lessons but you quit those yourself. If you need extra help, all you have to do is ask." John's warning rang in my head, getting louder and louder.
" No, I'll get better, I promise."
" You've said that before. You're getting worse. Come here Saturday morning at six and we'll work on both classes. Try and see I few can't get you caught up." I knew that if I didn't show up, Scott would come and find me and drag me off into the garage and computer lab for lessons.
"Okay." I agreed reluctantly, imaging my punishment once John found out I had disobeyed him.
" I thought I told you no more lessons with Scott." John's voice said, reaching my ears from the only exit from the row of shelves.
" I didn't have a choice. I failed another test, I need the help John."
" You mean you need to sleep with him."
" No! How many times do I have to tell you that?" My patience was wearing thin and I didn't pay attention to the danger I was entering.
" Maybe if you were a little more willing I'd believe you."
" I've explained why I don't want to John. I thought you understood." John had walked down the hall until my back was pressed firmly against the bookshelf laid into the wall.
" I do. You're saving yourself for him. I thought you were going out with me." He hissed, not really needing to be quiet. Even the honorary librarian always deserted the library at this hour.
" I am not and I am going out with you." I added the last four words as a quick afterthought, knowing how easily he could've twisted my words otherwise.
" I'm starting to doubt where your heart lies. I thought you loved me." He pleaded, taking another small step toward me. I pressed myself closer to the wall.
" I never said that John." In an instant Pyro replaced my loving boyfriend.
" You're right, you've never said that. You should have." The hard wood floor was soon splattered with tiny droplets of blood.
" Pyro please!" I screeched after a few minutes when his hiking boots started to connect with my stomach. I puked up what little lunch was resting there. He stopped from shock. It was the first time I had ever called him by his mutant name, despite everyone else in the mansion using it.
" What did you call me?" He asked, breathless and confused.
" Pyro leave me alone. Please." I begged ruthlessly, knowing what my saying 'Pyro' was doing to him. He turned tail and ran while I stayed curled up in the corner close to two hours before someone came to find me.
" Oh my god, Rogue go get Hank." Bobby called to his girlfriend as he rushed forward to me. I had kept hold of consciousness until that point.
I woke sometime later in the infirmary.
" Feeling better?" Hank's soothing voice asked from behind my head. Professor Xavier wheeled into my sight a split second after Dr. Hank McCoy.
" A little bit. What happened?" I asked, the afternoon's events fuzzy in my memory.
" That's what we were just about to ask you. Bobby Drake found you hovering near unconsciousness in the library. You lost quite a bite of blood and threw up most likely most of what was in your stomach." I winced at the picture the blue-haired man was painting.
" Sorry about the mess."
" It's quite all right my dear. Now if you'll let me, I'd like to see what happened. I promise this won't hurt." Professor Xavier smiled soothingly at me, and although I remembered, hazily, what happened, I knew he wouldn't be able to find the right moment. I nodded my head carefully, fully aware of the little man with the fifty pound hammer running around my brain.
I don't know exactly what he saw during the ten minutes he was inside my head but I do know that he entered quite a few different rooms. Rooms that I didn't want him to know about.
" Do you know who caused it?" I asked quietly, knowing that he didn't.
" No I'm afraid I don't. Excuse me, I need to speak with the teachers. Hank, come up to my office when you are don't." Hank had started a quick exam over me just to make sure everything was still okay, that my body hadn't sustained any permanent damage. He was done in a few minutes and had left to go to the meeting going on above me.
Concentrating hard I shifted my body into a more useful form. A new student had arrived about a week after John and I had started going out. The students had nicknamed her 'Ghost' since she could project her form and actually get it to move around. Professor Xavier said she was using astral projection, but whatever it was, it would allow me to listen to the conversation going on about me.
" Good timing Hank. How is she?"
" She'll have a headache for a few days at most but other than that, completely healed." Hank said, smiling as he settled down into an overstuffed leather armchair.
" What do you mean, 'completely healed'? When Rogue got me, she had a broken arm, fat lip, broken nose, concussion and I wouldn't have been surprised if she had a few broken ribs." Scott exclaimed.
" And all of that was true when I first got her into the lab. Broken arm, wrist, and nose, bit tongue, split lip, mild concussion, black eye, three broken ribs, two bruised and numerous bruises along her entire body. Although, while she was unconscious, her body started healing."
" Excuse me?" Everyone in the room asked simultaneously. Hank turned to the one who stayed silent and said,
" I'm sure Professor Xavier understands why." The room turned to face their mentor.
" Cassandra's gift is… interesting, to say the least. Her body seems to store the knowledge of a mutant's abilities in a 'room' in her mind for later access. During her coma, her mind opened the door holding Logan's thoughts, dreams, memories and abilities, accessed how his mutation works and sit it to the task of fixing her body."
" Wait a minute, she has my memories?" Logan asked, more than a little shocked.
" That would explain her attitude after fixing her broken back." Storm suggested.
" Yes it would and yes she does. She seems to retain the memories and abilities of those she turns into. Much like Rogue's gift except without damage to the one she's… copying, for lack of a better word."
" So did you find out who put her into the coma in the first place?"
" No. I was unable to reach the room that stores her memories. I ran into quite a few… traps and loopholes. She doesn't want me to know about her past.
" Rogue said that she, Jubilee and Kitty had noticed bruises on her body a few weeks ago. Why didn't those heal instantly?" Storm asked, having talked to Rogue after she and Bobby had found me. I was able to anticipate Xavier's answer before he said it. I was starting to think Ghost had some telepathic abilities as well.
" Her mutation seems to be… evolving. It stored the information but didn't know what to do with it. Most likely, up until today, Cassandra didn't know how to access the information unless she consciously shifted form into the mutant whose ability she was trying to use. Her mind simply made a connection for her to access the gifts without changing form and therefore requiring less energy."
" How would that require less energy?"
" She tires quickly after changing form, since it drains her mentally and physically to hold a shape for a long period of time. As she gets better, she'll be able to shift for longer periods of time without collapsing into some form of a coma. One day, with enough practice, she'll be able to hold a form indefinitely."
" I know who hit her." Scott said, standing up randomly. " I'll kill him."
" Scott, Scott! Xavier called through the door. I dropped the invisibility and appeared in front of Scott.
" Scott stop!" I cried just before he walked through me.
" Sarah, what are you doing?" He asked angrily. " If you don't mind I'm a little busy."
" I'm not Sarah. What are you going to do?" I already knew, and I was right that Sarah, or Ghost, had slight telepathic powers when she concentrated.
" Cassandra? I'm going to kill Pyro for beating you. I told you he was bad news."
" It wasn't Pyro. I was having a nightmare and I wasn't feeling good."
" I don't believe you." He said, and I could just see him glaring at me through the visor.
" I swear, I'm not lying." I mentally crossed my fingers behind my back.
He paused, just staring at me as I stood pleading with him. Scott sighed and I knew I had won.
" I'm going to go back to the meeting." He announced pointlessly. I nodded and faded out, making it look like I was going back through the floor to the infirmary. In reality I followed him back to Professor Xavier's office.
" We were just talking about Cassandra. Mind to tell us who you've just killed?" Charles Xavier asked politely. Scott sat down, pouting in his seat.
" No one." He muttered.
~~~~~
A/N: For everyone who has reviewed (and for those who haven't) thanks for reading. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get these two chapters up but there are only two more so I'm hoping (don't count on it though) to have them up before end of April, latest. It's just, I have the stories on my (school-issued) crappy I-Book (yes folks, It's an Apple). Now, for those few of you who like Apples, come use our I-Books and then tell me you still like them. The school has also blocked FanFiction so I can't update from that computer. Which means I have the arduous process of re-typing everything. Fun for me, right? Oh well, enjoy and tell me what you think.
