Wow! Tons of lovely reviews (does little dance around the room). That and series 4 of Evo coming on TV next month makes me happy!
This is a bit of a filler chapter, but necessary. I'll update again in a few days!
Thanks to:
Enfant-terrible – I hope you like the new chapter.
DemonRogue13 – Glad I managed to surprise you!
Risty – The Brotherhood so needed an evil telepath. I debated writing an Emma Frost fic, but I thought this was more interesting.
Rogue14 – If you think Jeans a bad girl now, just wait!
X00001 – I have plans for the X-team in the next few chapters…BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
XX-Goth-girl – I wondered what would happen if Kitty had chosen otherwise. She and Rogue interact more as the fic progresses…
LadyEvils – I love writing Lancitty! And Jean would make such a good bad guy.
Lyranfan – I'm glad you liked the fic! I was trying to keep everyone in character (except Jean, hahaha!) and I thought the way that Paul just disappeared was terrible – last time we saw him he was having an accident with some milk! Hope you enjoy the new chapter.
Raphaella – I didn't think Jean would be totally evil from the get-go, but she thinks she's doing the right thing…glad you liked it!
Deb1 – Glad you enjoyed it and glad you like the twists!
Disclaimer: Toad blasted the disclaimer with a trans-dimensional device and now it's lost in middleverse. I think I left my homework there too…
Jean lay on her bed, trying to crush the feelings of guilt she'd had ever since the day Lance and Kitty joined the Brotherhood. It didn't take a telepath to see that Kitty was miserable. The only thing she'd wanted to do since arriving in Bayville was spend all of her time with Lance. The girl was beginning to pull out of her depression, which Jean suspected was mostly Lance's doing although she had tried to spend time getting to know her. Kitty didn't seem to like living at the Brotherhood house, although Lance had fit right in.
Lance had caused her another problem. Jean had been reluctant to enter another mind after what had happened with Kitty's parents, but she'd caught a stray thought from the boy one night that had caused her to look up and see him shooting her an angry, intense glare that had made her realise that he suspected the truth. She had telepathically removed that suspicion that same night and infiltrated Kitty's mind for good measure, ensuring that neither of them would consider her capable of such deceit. It had been nerve-wracking, not knowing if Xavier had permanently affected her telepathy but she had been relieved to find herself suffering no ill effects. It had been necessary too. Lance had been apprehensive about what she might have done, had been considering taking Kitty away from the Brotherhood. Jean scowled at the memory. Even when Kitty was miles away from home, when her entire life had been torn out from under her in the space of fifteen hours, there was someone looking out for her, some one who was willing to put her best interests before their own. Jean envied her – when her powers had manifested, no one had been there for her until she'd been found by Mystique.
Guilt had prevented her from truly disliking Kitty, but it didn't hurt that there was a new girl in the house to focus her resentment on. Mystique had brought Rogue home late one night, a tired, confused Goth who absorbed the memories and personalities of the people she touched. Initially Jean had pitied her, but then she noticed that Mystique seemed to prefer the newcomer to her. Things had changed with Little Miss Sullen around and her mind was difficult to read too – Jean kept finding traces of other personalities, some southern boy named Cody as well as Nightcrawler and Storm. It was hard to work out which memories belonged to Rogue and which didn't. If she absorbed many other people, it would be impossible to use her telepathy on the girl.
Fred Dukes had posed no such challenge. He'd barely been in Bayville a week before she'd altered his thoughts just because of the sheer irritation he caused her. It had been embarrassing to have hi following her around school and attempting clumsy conversation at home, so she'd simply changed his feelings towards her from puppy love to platonic admiration. Mystique had informed her that the X-Men had tried to recruit both Rogue and Fred, but had failed. Jean had used the knowledge to taunt Scott Summers, knowing how much it aggravated him.
Rolling over on the bed, Jean compared the casual way Mystique asked her to read most peoples minds with the conversation they'd had two days previously, shortly after the newest addition to the Brotherhood, Pietro Maximoff, had arrived. Raven had spoken to Jean in the school office and had seemed almost nervous.
"Jean, our organisations founder has a particular interest in Pietro. It might be best for the moment if you refrained from reading his mind."
"As if I could get to it through that ego," Jean had responded sourly. Pietro had flirted shamelessly with both Rogue and Kitty, ignoring Lances hostile glare and his arm firmly around Kitty's waist. The girls had professed distaste, but she could tell that the pair were secretly flattered. He'd barely even looked at Jean and that irked her. She knew she was more attractive than the other two…
"I mean it Jean. Leave Pietro's one-track mind alone."
"Oh fine then. When do I get to meet this mysterious founder anyway?"
"Soon. Very soon."
Jeans remembrances were interrupted by a knock on her door. She could sense that it was Kitty. "Hey, if you want a ride to school, Lance is setting off in five!"
Getting off the bed, Jean opened the door and grinned at the younger girl. "Thanks, but Duncan's picking me up. Maybe I'll see you at lunch."
"Yeah. Sure you will." Kitty turned and went back down the stairs, leaving Jean to stare after her. It was true that she didn't hang around with the Brotherhood much at school, but apart from their powers they had nothing in common. Still, they were teammates. Maybe one lunch wouldn't hurt.
At school she went through the motions of paying attention, agreed to go to Duncan's party that night and pulled the answers to her geometry homework from her teachers head. At lunch she sat with Lance, Kitty and Fred, much to her surprise enjoying their company. When the lunch break neared its end, the four Brotherhood members went to their lockers, passing Scott Summers and the newest addition to the Institute, Evan Daniels, as they did so.
As the group walked past the X-Men, Scott grabbed Lance by the collar and slammed him against some lockers. "What did you do with Kurt?"
Blob grabbed Scott by the scruff of his neck and easily lifted him off. "Back off Slim!"
"Put him down!" snarled Evan.
"Back off Spyke-Boy or I'll rock ya!" Lance squared up to the other boy, sending a telepathic message to Jean. {Get Kitty away from here quickly!}
{Don't worry about us!} Jean knew she could never drag Kitty away and there was no way she was showing any weakness to the X-Men, no matter how embarrassing it was to be fighting beside the Brotherhood in front of a crowd of cheering students.
"WHAT is going on here?" Ms Darkholme approached the mutants as the crowd quickly dispersed.
"Summers here just went ballistic on us!" said Lance.
"Yeah," added Kitty. "For no reason!"
"Oh, I've got a reason," said Scott darkly.
"Never mind." Raven indicated to the X-Men. "You two, come with me."
Jean risked a brief scan of Evans mind as the pair followed the Principal. "That's odd. They can't find Nightcrawler and I can't get a mental reading on him either."
"One less X-Man to push us around," replied Kitty, still shaken by Scott's sudden attack.
The Brotherhood spent the rest of the day being quizzed about their near-fight with the X-Men by curious students and by the final bell, Jean just wanted to go home. Before she could go and meet Duncan however, Mystique contacted her telepathically. {Gather the others and find Rogue. I have reason to be concerned about her.}
Great thought Jean bitterly, Let's all worry about the Rogue. She scanned the building for the others. Pietro had already left – typical – but the others were gathered by Lances jeep, listening to Toad describe something. Rogue was in an unused part of the school.
With the X-Men.
Deciding that this couldn't be a good thing, Jean hurried to get the rest of the Brotherhood.
00000000000000000000000000
"They're down there," Jean said as the Brotherhood approached the abandoned lab.
Lance was the first one down the stairs, where Rogue was stood with Scott and Evan. "Hey Rogue, Mystique sent us to find you. So, you with us – or them?"
Scott eyed the group by the door before turning back to Rogue, seeming confused and angry. "Mystique? You working for her now?"
"Hey Summers, you got your friends, ah got mine. But this ain't mah fight. Ah'm outta here." Rogue stalked out of the lab and Scott noticed Jean frowning thoughtfully at the Goth.
Toad pulled him out of his musings. "Yo, it's that gizmo I was telling you about."
"Grab it," ordered Jean.
"The projector stays with us," said Scott, wishing they weren't so heavily outnumbered. "Keep that portal open!"
Evan threw a row of spikes at the Brotherhood to block their path, but Blob busted straight through them. Scott managed to blast the floor from under him, causing him to fall backwards, and Evan threw down another wall of spikes. Noticing Jean flying over them, Scott hit her with an optic blast, knocking her into a wall, but then he and Evan were knocked off their feet by an earth tremor. Kitty and Lance had phased through the spike wall and Avalanche kept the X-Men busy while Shadowcat ran through them to grab the projector.
"Got it!" she yelled triumphantly.
Blob burst through the spike wall again and the X-Men suddenly found themselves having to deal with Blob, Toad and a newly recovered Jean as well as Avalanche.
Lance glanced over his shoulder to where Kitty was hanging onto the projector and noticed something strange in the ever-narrowing portal. It couldn't be…
"Kitty, DROP IT!"
Lances yell caused everyone to look into the portal and Scott and Evan, trained to make split-second decisions, dived for cover. Lance covered the ground to Kitty with a speed that even Pietro would have admired and grabbed her around the waist. She let go of the projector and he pulled her with him to the floor, landing painfully on his tailbone before rolling to cover her. Almost immediately after, the portal seemed to bulge and Principle Darkholmes new car sped out. Toad and Jean ducked behind Blob and the car hit the boy, getting completely written off without seeming to affect him at all.
"Phew!" exclaimed Fred as Jean and Todd peered out from behind him. "Good thing I'm the Blob!"
Todd sighed shakily. "You can say that again, yo."
Lance sat up. "You OK Kitty?"
"I'm fine, thanks to you," she replied. "But the gizmo…" She indicated to the projector, lying in pieces on the floor.
"Come on guys," he said, standing up and helping Kitty to her feet. "This party's over."
"Yeah, later losers," added Blob as the Brotherhood walked out of the door. Jean was the last of them out, looking thoughtfully at the boy in the car next to Kurt. Another mutant no doubt. She'd have to inform Mystique. Outside, she scanned the area for people and frowned as she picked up Rogues unmistakable psychic imprint nearby. The younger girl had hung around to make sure that the missing Nightcrawler turned up alive and well. Jean contacted Mystique telepathically, deciding they needed to talk. The new mutant on the scene was the least of their worries – it looked like they might have a defector in their own camp.