*Sigh* OMG! That took soooo long to write (Okay, the chapter came out fast, but bear in mind that I almost only did that yesterday and this morning…)!! Hey, I have a surprise for you, gang, though it didn't seem to tarumatise anyone that Antoine was dead. *sigh* You almost didn't react, guys! I wanted frustration, death threats, anything! Nooo, you just accepted it without a word. *giggle* Am I the only one to like character torture here?

Enjoy!

In which everything makes sense

He felt like falling from a dense, thick white cloud to land on hard ground. No, not hard, but quite comfy, and soft. He took a deep breath. Bad idea.

It hurt. His chest was tearing appart with every breath, and he felt like breathing water. But his chest wasn't the only thing that hurt.

He felt like a hot poker was replacing his back bones, and something was around his neck, keeping him from moving his head.

Where the hell was he? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

He tried to open his eyes, but the whiteness of the place blinded him, and he quickly closed them back with a moan.

Then he remembered. The power blast aimed at his chest, the dreaful sound of his neck breaking.

He should have been dead… but for some reason, it looks like he wasn't.

He felt panic as he remembered his neck was broken. Could he move? Was he paraplegic for the rest of his life? "I'd rather die" he thought. But he comforted himself, reasonning that his whole body wouldn't hurt so much if his spinal cord had been snapped. He wiggled his toes, and sighed with relief. He wiggled his fingers, and touched hair.

He popped his eyes opened, touching again. What was around his neck prevented him to look down, but he did swivel his eyes to each side, taking on his surroundings. It looked like a hospital, but he had a doubt it wasn't a general hospital. More like a private clinic…

His neck was sore and hurting, and he moaned, trying to stretch it. The hair on his fingers stir, and a face came into view. He gasped.

"Lilianne?" he whispered. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, and looked down at him, a beaming smile on her face.

"Antoine… I'm so happy you finaly woke up!" She looked like she was going to lunge at him to hug him, and he braced himself. Instead, she leaned down and let her head rest on his shoulder. "You scared us, Toine. Never do that again."

"Where am I?" he croaked. He felt like his vocal cords would never work normaly again.

"At the Xavier's mansion, in the med lab, or something like that." She frowned. "There's a big blue teddy bear taking care of you." Her face was so comical he chuckled.

"That's Hank, I think."

"Aaah, the prodigual son has awaken!" There was the sound of a door closing, and heavy footsteps walked in his direction. A big blue furry face appeared over him. "How are you feeling, my fellow Frenchman?" Antoine closed his eyes, overwhelmed. He didn't understand why he was still alive, and two was too many over his head at the same time.

"Crowded" he answered. When he opened his eyes again, Lilianne had retreated to the chair next to the bed, and Hank had proceeded into tilting his bed so he could half sit. Or at least see what was going on in the room. "Hank… why… what happened?"

"I believe the real question is 'why am I not dead?', no? I still have to figure out what exactly happened in your body the moment your neck broke. The only persons I know who could have survived such an impact are Rogue and Wolverine." Hank sat down on a chair he pulled next to the bed, and looked at him. "Have you ever had a important accident? A car wreck, a big fall…"

"A car wreck." Antoine swallowed. He didn't like to remember that, and the fact that it was because he was loosing Josée that he left so suddently.

"When?"

"At the beginning of the summer. Ahm… six weeks, maybe." Hank's brows went up at that.

"Do you remember what injuries you might have suffered?"

"No" he whispered. "I was unconscious for several days." From which he had awakened to see Josée had flew away, leaving him alone.

"A very bad broken leg" Lilianne answered for him. "Several broken ribs because of the airbag, a sprained wrist, and several lacerations."

"Lacerations? Where?" Hank asked, his narrowed eyes looking at Antoine, and his seemingly unbruised skin.

"His face. And it took him no more than a week to recover from his broken leg." She was looking at him too, a small smile tugging at her lips. "I wish I could heal as quickly as you, le frère…" Hank smiled.

"A healing power might be the answer, Antoine. It seems you are full of surprises." He rose from his chair, and walked to the door. "I will tell your parents that you have awakened. I believe you have some explanations to give them."

He left the room, leaving Antoine looking sheepishly at his grinning little sister.

~~

Hank smiled. Josée, Louis, Remy and him were sitting at the small dinette table in the kitchen of the mansion, and he felt like looking at younger, slightly different versions of Remy and Rogue. Josée didn't have white stripes in her hair, but her long auburn hair, a tad darker than her mother's coppery locks, fell in her back with the same beautiful curls than Rogue's. Louis, sitting between sister and father, was almost a perfect replica of his father, with hair the same color as Josée and Remy (though Remy's did held some greyish strands at his temples, he noticed silently), dishelved and falling over his eyes, same height, same wide shoulders with a promise of powerful arms and chest when he would get older. They had Rogue's emerald eyes, though maybe a little more narrowed, like Remy's. The three of them were also frowning at him in interrogation, and he found very it very comical. He chuckled.

"Let's begin this little meeting with the beginning of it all. Your father's powers allows him to kineticaly charge any non-biological matter, using the potential energy enclosed in the atoms forming the material, and converting it into kinetic energy. Since every material is formed of atoms, he can charge about anything. His powers have evolved after his encounter with Sinister seventeen years ago, so he has been able to charge items through air, without touching, but it costs him huge amounts of body energy and heat, and wears him off quickly."

"Which is why I don' do it often, only when I really need to." Hank nodded at Remy, and continued his explanation to the frowning twins.

"The difference between yours and Remy's powers are that Remy cannot charge living material, such as biological cells. He can charge them if they're dead, but not while they're alive. He couldn't charge a spider if he tried, but he could charge a dead rat." Remy lifted a brow at Hank at the example, but smiled and said nothing.

"But we can charge living stufff" interrupted Louis. Hank nodded again.

"You both have the power to kineticaly charge items, like your father, but you can do it as well on biological material as on non-biological material. Which means you can charge objects as well as animals, bugs and humans. Though you can only do it through skin contact." Josée shivered.

"What are you trying to say?"

"The potential energy you three use to convert into kinetic energy is much more present in living cells than in dead cells. That is why we thought you have to concentrate on charging a non-biological material in order to convert the energy concealed inside of it. Living cells have so much energy enclosed that your body detects it right away, not allowing you to control the power conversion. This is the explanation we have come up to explain the control you have on charging non-living material, but not living material."

"It's very logic, Hank, but it doesn't help to know it" said Josée, a tint of despair in her voice. Hank smiled, and picked an apple in the fruit basket on the table. He threw it at Louis, who caught it with one hand. He looked down at the red shiny fruit, then at Hank.

"Louis, walk to the patio door, charge the fruit and throw it away." Louis frowned, but got up and walked to the door. Opening it with one hand, he charged the apple with the other, then threw the flaming fruit away as far as he could. It exploded over the park outside, sending white bits, pips and juice over the threes. He turned to Hank.

"What was the point?"

"Prooving that you can charge an apple." Louis frowned and opened his mouth to reply, but Hank raised his blue paw, stopping him. He picked up another fruit, and threw it to Remy, who caught it and looked at him with a small smile and a frown. "Charge it, Remy."

Remy raised his brows, but he nodded and looked a the apple for a few seconds. Then, winking at Hank, he opened his mouth and took a juicy bite out of it. Josée chuckled. "I don't think that's what he had in mind, papa." Remy swallowed, and shook his head.

"It's de only t'ing I can do with it." Both teens opened their mouth. Remy looked at Hank. "Why d'y'ask me? Y'knew I couldn't."

"What do you mean?" Louis asked. "You can charge an apple, surely. It's so small…" Remy shook his head.

"Non, I can't. I never could." He took another huge bite of the fruit.

"There are two kinds of living cells on Earth" Hank explained. "There are vegetal cells, who form the plants, flowers, trees and such, and there're the animal cells, which are the base to any animal form on Earth, from the bacteria on your skin to fish, from insects to humans. Now," he took the apple from Remy's hand before he ate it all, "we all know you can charge these living cells. You could charge an object, such as playing cards and furniture, like your father. But you can also charge living things like trees and bugs. Are you all following me?" The twins nodded, a deep frown on their forehead. Remy smiled, recognizing Rogue in the frown and the green eyes. Hank lifted the apple so they could see it. "This is a fruit. It is the way plants have found to reproduce themselves, and it is made of living vegetal cells."

"But since it's been picked up, it's dead, no?" Louis interrupted, a strange look in his eyes. Hank smiled. They were begining to understand.

"It is still alive. The pips you find in the fruit enter the earth as the fruit rottens, and dies. But the cells we find in this apple" he lifted it into view for demonstration "are still alive, though no longer fed by the plant.When the cells die, the fruit rottens. It is made of living cells, which is why Remy can't charge it, but you two can. Now," he leaned back in the chair and his eyebrows rose in interrogation "the question we have to ask ourselves is why you actualy could control the charging of those living cells, while you can't control it when you touch an animal or a human.?"

"Dere's prob'bly less energy in it, I s'pose?" Remy asked. He was more than interested in what was said, and sat on the edge of his chair. "Maybe dere's more potential energy in animal cells than vegetal ones."

"Maybe" came Josée's voice. She reached out and took the apple, looking at it. "But it still is alive, dad. And it still contains more energy than dead cells. Am I right?" She looked up at Hank, who nodded in satisfaction.

"Now, before this all turns redundant, I want to tell you my theory about your capacities to control your powers. These powers came to you at the same time, Louis by "charging" Remy, and Josée by charging a bench." Louis shivered and sighed, and Hank smiled. "I still thank the odds for it being your father you touched, Louis. If it had been anyone than him or probably Rogue, maybe even Logan, it could have been mortal. This fact made us focus our attention on the fact that you could charge living cells, and we kind of pushed aside your capacities to charge non living cells. But we never thought of the fact that Josée couldn't control her powers either when they first manifested. Or you wouldn't have blown up that bench at the mall." There was a long silence, and Remy leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his lips.

"I couldn't control m'powers at first either. I kept blowin' up t'ings in de house, nearly burned de house down, and drove m'father crazy. I couldn't even hold a fork, and eat." Hank smiled at him, and looked at the twins.

"All of this to say it is probably my own fault you can't touch anyone without charging them." He frowned and shook his head at their concerned expressions. "You see, the brain is the most incredible machine on Earth, but also the most complicated one. You body won't function normaly as long as your brain won't let it. Now, the very first time your powers emerged, the first thing we told you was that you couldn't control your abilities on charging living cells, but could control it when charging non-living material, which we hadn't proven yet, since Josée blew up the bench without controling it." Hank sighed, seeing their doumbfouded faces. "I other words, I screwed up your brains…"

"Is it like a phobia of somethin'?" Hank smiled at Remy's interruption.

"Thank you Remy, I was looking for an example. It can be compared with a phobia. Your brain is so convinced of something, even if it isn't true, and makes your body reacts in that way. It's the same thing with psychological pregnancy. If a woman is a hundred percent sure that she is pregnant, chances are that her body will react as if she were, and she will gain weight, her periods will stop, and her breasts might even begin to produce some milk if the problem is not resolved quickly. I told you, the brain is a powerful engine. Now, your problem is that you are so convinced that you can't control your charging of living material, that your body reacts the same way, not allowing you to control it."

"I didn't even try to, when I killed the Marauder, on the street" Louis said. "I knew he would blow off, the moment I touched him, so I didn't even try to keep it inside. It just… flowed out."

"But Louis had to concentrate on charging the apple. Why didn't his brain tell his body to charge it right away?" Josée asked.

Hank smiled. "He said it himself. He thought the apple was made of dead matter, and that he could control it, like you both thought Remy could charge it. Now if I'd told him it was made of living cells before I gave it to him, chances are he couldn't have controled it." Hank leaned back in his chair, a large grin on his face. "All of this is fascinating. I love psychology."

To be continued…

Sorry to end the chapter this way, but I worked so hard on the meeting part, and I'm fed up with the chapter. Hope you understood what Hank was babbling about… Ask if you have any question, and I'll answer it the best I can. I am not, after all, a psychologist.

Foo : I felt like it was a manner of life or death by the way you ended that review. Okay. I personnaly thought Antoine's family knew about his powers. If you go back to chapter 3: Finding a friend, you'll see that Philippe calls Antoine a mutant freak, so I'm guessing the whole school knows about Antoine's powers. It would be hard hiding it from his parents from then. Take your guess, maybe they manifested at first at school, then he was taken at the principal's office, call the parents at home and blah blah blah. I think I made the Bergeron's (that Lilianne and Antoine' last name, is case some people hadn't noticed. I think I mentionned it only once) a very nice and understanding family, so there shouldn't be any problems with mutants. Though if I were them, maybe I'd seriously reconsider letting my daughter live with them for a year (danger danger…). And it seems you are the only one who noticed Louis' last quote in chapter 15. Nope, Antoine isn't dead. And at least it didn't take me more than two chapters to bring him back… *sticks out her tongue* Hint, hint! Write, write!

Becki : Oh, yay, you're crying! I know I have power on my readers, that's what I like so much about writing! The power, man, the power! But don't worry. Though Time and Sixteen Years weren't meant to have bad endings. But it ain't home, maybe, but not TT and 16 years…

nessie : If you like cruelness as much as I do, you are indeed crazy, my fellow sadistic friend. But do not worry! It's a good thing! *wink* *hands out a straitjacket to nessie* Welcome in the club, friend! By the way, merde is pronounced  [meh (think meeeeh, like a sheep) – r (roll it, like a cat purring) – dh] short version [meh-r-dh]

WarmerThanFire : I'll try putting some more Rogue and Remy by the end of this. There was a little more Remy in this one though.

ishandahalf : Okay, I don't think you'll cry in that story, so put your kleenex aside for a while. As for the quick updates, I don't think I can do it as quickly as I did Through Time (20 chapters in two weeks… I was crazy), but I'll do my best…

Tammy : Well… here's more! No Rogue, though, sorry!