Katie barely slept that night. Her dreams were filled with anxious nightmares, ones of being dissected piece by piece while she was still living. Countless times, she bolted awake in sheer terror, tangled up in the swirled mess of flannel sheets. Finally though, around four in the morning, she gave up on trying to sleep and went down to the kitchen to get some breakfast.
Her footsteps echoed on the hardwood floors as she walked through the eerily empty, silent halls. Every few feet a large, paned window let in bursts of moonlight, but besides that though it was pitch black.
Eventually, she stumbled her way into the kitchen. Blindly, she made her way over towards fridge and on her way collided into something. With a thud she bounced back a few inches, reaching forward again to feel what she had hit. Her hands felt a thick fabric, with hard muscle underneath. Her fingers gently reached up and felt an unshaved cheek and then where the eyes should be there was a smooth band. Cyclops.
"Looking for something?" He asked.
Katie struggled to answer as he took a step back and flipped on a light. He gave her a distracted, sort of half smile before turning and withdrawing a box of cereal from one of the cupboards. He then proceeded to get a bowl and a container of milk, all of which he carried over to the table.
"Sit," He told her as he did so himself. She did, and watched silently as he prepared a bowl of cereal. Finally, Scott spoke up.
"He doesn't know, ya know." He said between loud crunches.
"Excuse me?" Katie questioned nervously.
"Xavier." Scott replied before taking another bite. "He doesn't know about yesterday."
Katie felt a swell of relief, but it was quickly gone again. "You're not going to tell him?"
Scott took his time answering. "He will find out. Trust me, he will. He always does." Crunch. Crunch.
Katie studied the older man, whom she knew little about. His wife had died minutes after the attack she knew, as did she know he was a former X-man. But as she watched the worn-out, graying man who looked like he had seen all too much, she felt sorry for him. Maybe he was working with Xavier, but he appeared rather pathetic with his meager bowl of cereal.
"Why aren't you going to tell him?" She asked, rephrasing her previous question. Scott sat back in his chair with a faint sigh. Then he leaned in close, across the table.
"He killed my wife," He whispered. "And he used me." He added. He backed away a bit. "I'm not telling that bastard anything." He said, voice still in a whisper. Scott began to collect the remains from his meal. He wordlessly replaced everything and washed to bowl. He was about to leave when he stopped. He turned around and looked right at her from behind his dark glasses.
"Don't do it again. You don't need to know; you don't want to know. And next time, he will catch you, not Logan." He finished, voice still not raising above the near whisper. Then, he simply walked out of the kitchen and down the dark hallway.
Feeling a bit bewildered; Katie remained frozen where she sat. She spent the following two hours sitting at the old kitchen table, watching the sunrise. Her fingers lazily traced over faded patterns of the pale wood's grain, while she slowly sipped on a lukewarm cup of coffee.
Eventually, Students and teachers awoke, more and more as the time passed. But everyone generally knew to avoid her, so she was undisturbed until nearly seven. Ororo came in then in a flurry, looking worried. As soon as she entered the kitchen and spied Katie's slightly slumped form; she let out a relieved sigh.
"We've been looking all over for you." Ororo said in a rush as she walked over to the student, hands on her hips, her relief having turned to irritation. "You were supposed to be in class twenty minutes ago. We thought something happened." She said quickly.
Katie blinked as she listened to Ororo rapidly talk on for another minute before she reached down a roughly grabbed her by the arm. Ororo led her back to class, and while Katie didn't struggle she was shocked at the treatment for skipping a class.
By the time the two had reentered the class, Ororo had regained her typical calm, collected personality and once she opened the carved oak door, she was even cooler. She dropped Katie's arm like it was a hot coal and walked swiftly up to the front of the class. Katie quietly took her seat towards the back, trying to ignore the curious looks that flew her way.
Ororo cleared her throat loudly, and most of the student's attention turned back to her.
"Now that we're all here we may begin. Are any of you aware of the even that occurred in 1357?" Ororo asked. The rest of the class went by in a long blur.
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Around 4-pm that day, Ororo was heading towards the kitchen when she found herself walking directly next to Scott. The exchanged quick, polite greetings.
"Heard you had a little disaster this morning," Scott said after a minute as they both entered the empty kitchen.
Ororo gave a short, harsh laugh. "Katie was skipping. Of course I panicked. You remember what the Professor said," She replied back as she entered the pantry in search of lunch.
Scott nodded from his position of leaning against one of the counters.
"And the professor was gone, so what was I supposed to do? Tell everyone why it mattered so much she didn't leave without supervision? That might have taken a while." Ororo said a minute later when she walked out of the deep pantry, can of condensed soup in hand. "You want some?" She asked, holding the can up.
"Sure," Scott said, moving away from the counter and casually plopping himself down at the table.
"Where is the professor, by the way?" Ororo asked as she searched the cupboards for a can opener.
Scott considered her question for a moment. "No, actually, I don't know. I think he had Kurt take him somewhere." He shrugged.
"Oh." Ororo commented quietly.
Their conversation was then broken up by the approaching of a familiar figure that came stalking in. "Hey Scotty-boy," Logan commented as he sat down across from Scott at the table. Scott forced a quick, tight-lipped smile. Ororo cast a glance over her shoulder.
"Logan, you want some soup?" She questioned, hovering over the pan where she was already heating some up.
Logan made a passively gesture. "Nah," He added. Ororo nodded and turned back to focus on her soup.
"What was the big hubbub about this morning?" Logan asked after a few long, awkward moments of silence.
"One of the students was missing." Scott replied quickly.
"Oh. Well couldn't X find them?" Logan questioned, fiddling absently with the salt shaker.
"The professor wasn't here, Logan." Scott said evenly.
"Oh, I see." Logan said, pouring the salt shaker over, along the tiny white crystals to tumble free. "Why the big wig-out though? I thought yer all doing some let the students be free to so whatever type of deal now." Logan said, arranging the spilt salt into a neat pile.
Scott rolled his eyes behind his visor. "Logan, please just shut up." He said tightly.
Logan sat back in his chair cockily. "Gee, sorry, Scotty." He said with a trace of a smirk.
Scott let out a short, stressed sigh before hastily standing up. "See you later, Storm," He said before leaving in a huff.
Ororo cast Logan a sideways glance from the corner of her eye and slightly shook her head.
_____________________
"I believe this could work," Xavier said, pounding his fist on Neil's coffee table.
"No." Neil said again for the umpteenth time. To that, Xavier sighed.
"Would you just listen to logic for God's sake?!" Xavier demanded, his voice rising to a angry yell. Oh how this man's stubbornness infuriated him!
Neil stood up, and began to walk around the room. "What your saying…It's wrong. I..I won't." Neil declared.
Xavier rolled his eyes. "What harm is there in it?"
Neil's head snapped back towards Xavier, his typical, easygoing personality gone. "What the hell do you, 'there's no harm in it'?"
"Neil, honestly. Be reasonable."
Neil shook his head in disgust. "You know, I went along with it. I went along with it all, buddy. The tests, the studies, the poking and the prodding. Heck, I'm sure you've got enough of my genetic matter to repopulate the earth with nice little Neil clones. But I've gotta draw the line somewhere and this is it."
Xavier closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "We could fix it." He said quietly.
"It's too late for that!" Neil screamed. "You son of a bitch, when are you going to get it through your head? You can't fix this! You can't! I can't, You can't, and this wouldn't either!"
Xavier glared at the younger man as he silently watched the tirade. When the former astronaut was finished, Xavier calmly held up a hand for silence.
"Neil," He began slowly. "This is all it would take. I'm sure of it. With this, we could begin all over again. I understand all our previous attempts failed, but this is it! You can be the Adam of this new world, and restart the human population."
Neil opened his mouth to protest, but Xavier, as aggravated as he was, would not allow an interruption. He used a quick telepathic nudge and continued.
"I know this must be rough for you to understand. But just trust me." Xavier finished, releasing his mental grip on Neil to allow him to respond.
"What part of 'No' didn't you understand?" Neil demanded as soon as he was able to speak. Xavier opened his mouth in protest but this time it was Neil who cut him off.
"And what about the rest of your mutant friends, eh? Not everyone was a human hugger like you, Xavier. I seem to remember some people were quite happy after your little massacre. Oh yes, and I remember the rumors that flew through the limited, controlled media when people thought there were still a few humans milling about. Remember that, Xavier?" As he spoke, Neil walked in a loose pace around his side of the room. He could hear the rain outside, droplets falling rhythmically on the metal roof. Nightcrawler was probably around there somewhere, prowling around in his usual glum. His cold blue eyes drifted over towards where his opponent, Xavier, sat in his streamlined wheelchair. The bald man sat solid as a marble statue, not even blinking. He was probably sorting and sifting through Neil's mind, he decided. That or talking telepathically with his little henchmen back in New York.
Neil snorted, remembering the few brief times he had visited Xavier's school. The fake friendly smiles and gestures. The odd way everyone seemed convinced the world was going just as smoothly as it ever had, while they all avoided speaking of the day it had happened. That had been days after the rumor was spread.
Then of course, when something like that not only is true, but spread around the globe, it is more of a news story. Anyway, someone, one of the doctors perhaps, Neil never did find out though, ratted Xavier out for holding and aiding humans for scientific research. With the government is its early, unstable turmoil, there were never nay formal charges pressed against Xavier. He simply made the lab that was studying Neil and cloning prospects disappear, and that's how he ended up here. On his private little island on the opposite side of the country from Xavier and his precious little school. Far enough away no one would come looking, and to that day no one ever had. The talk of Xavier hiding humans and studying those he held died away quickly, as Xavier revealed his labs to be studying a rare fruit fly from inner Africa.
"Neil," Xavier finally spoke up after a long silence. "If you can't do this the conventional way there are alternatives," He said slowly, gently stroking his chin.
"I thought your point was a conventional human," Neil protested.
"Well, I'd need your cooperation, wouldn't I?" Xavier shot back.
Neil sat down. "I can't do it. Go back to your clones, Professor. I know she wouldn't agree and I'm not either. I had a family already, and you killed them." Neil finished with an accusatory note.
"Damn it, it wasn't my fault!" Xavier yelled at the man, his anger peaking. He then called angrily to Nightcrawler, telepathically summoning him.
"Good day," Xavier began, turning and wheeling himself towards the door. "This isn't over, Neil." He said as he opened the door, giving one last look back towards the tired looking younger man. He then turned and wheeled himself out the door and onto the porch. There, Kurt was waiting, trying with little avail to shield himself with his arms from the downpour. He smiled when he saw Xavier, but the cheerful look vanished when he realized the mood Xavier was in. He gingerly hopped over, splashing in the already pooling water around his feet in the mud. He looked past Xavier's shoulder to where Neil sat inside, head in his hands.
"Let's go," Xavier commanded suddenly. Kurt grabbed on tightly to the older man and in an instant they were gone.