Thanks to:
Steph14Wales – Jean's got a reason to go to the Institute…revealed in this chapter!
Oceanbang – I was gonna go up to 'Blind Alley', but then I noticed a huge gaping plot hole if I did (not so much notice as saw 'Dark Horizons 2' and realise I had a problem), so just up to 'Stuff of Villains'. It's not really about Scott…
DemonRogue13 – Pyro is cute! Thought his love of fire might translate to Jean for obvious reasons.
Lyranfan – Magneto always was ruthless with Pietro and Wanda. Jean would make a cool Acolyte – and what can I say? I am twisted! J
Risty – I had my reasons for replacing Gambit with Jean, glad you liked the change!
Furygrrl – I really wanted to write stuff for Pyro, I never seem to get the chance! And Jean is up to no good, as usual…
Rogue14 – Double J, I like it!
LadyEvils – Figured you had to be Lance! I thought Lance worked better in the chapter than Rogue would have and he would be more likely to be with Kitty at that point than Rogue would have.
Wen1 – I love that line too, I just had to keep in some version of it!
XX-Goth-Gal – Thanks! Find out Jeans plot in this chapter…
Carol J – Glad you liked it!
StArRy – Thanks for reviewing, glad you liked the intro!
Author note: This is the penultimate chapter – one more to go. Don't hurt me! I'm planning a sequel and I hope you'll look out for it. BTW, kudos to everyone who made Pyro puns (you know who you are!).
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution. Unless Marvel want to give me a nice pressie…
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Some security system thought Jean scornfully as she flew over the grounds of the Xavier Institute, too high for the cameras to detect her movement. Below her she could see Beast training the New Recruits on the grounds, the kids running laughing through the trees. Outside the garage, Logan was fine-tuning the engine on his motorcycle. She could sense Xavier's presence inside the building – he was in bed with a virus and thanks to her enhancements, he wouldn't be able to detect her. A mental scan of the building told her that Scott was in his room, talking to his brother on a web-cam. Rogue was listening to music in the room that she and Kitty shared. Kurt was searching the fridge for a snack. That left four people she couldn't locate – Storm, Spyke, Avalanche and Shadowcat.
Returning her attention to the New Recruits, Jean quickly searched Jamie's mind. Ororo and Evan were in New York visiting their family. Lance and Kitty were in detention for ditching school to chase the Brotherhood. They were due to return soon, but Jean hoped to be gone by then.
Learning the layout of the mansion before withdrawing from Jamie's mind, she landed on Kurt's balcony and entered the mansion. Making sure she kept track of everyone in the Institute, she hurried through the deserted hallways and down flights of stairs, making no attempt to hide from the cameras – there was no one watching them and by the time they went back over the tapes it would be too late to stop her. It wasn't long before she arrived outside the Cerebro room. The complicated security system caused her a problem for a few minutes as it was wired to an alarm, until she reached into Kurt's mind. He teleported to her side, registered his thumbprint on the pad beside the door and bamfed back into the kitchen as the Cerebro room opened, immediately forgetting where he'd just been.
So this is the famous mutant detector.
Jean was impressed. Before her was a huge spherical room, the computer at its centre at the end of a long catwalk of metal leading from the door. She approached the unit quickly and put on the headset. Magneto was hastily constructing a Cerebro unit of his own now that he had a pet telepath to operate it, but he would expect her to use it for his benefit. That wasn't the problem – she wanted Magneto's vision of a world of mutant superiority as much as he did – but there was something she needed to do for herself first.
The Cerebro unit was relatively easy for a telepath with her powers to figure out. She concentrated her search on a small town in Mississippi.
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Bamf!
"Kurt!"
"Sorry Rogue."
"Stop popping up in front of people. It's annoying."
"I know, I know. So, vot are you doing?"
"Nothin. Why, you bored?"
"Nein, but I heard Lances jeep pull up a minute ago and I thought ve could all go see a movie if Scott's finished talking to his brother."
"Sure, if there's something good on. Let's go get Scott and meet the others downstairs."Kurt teleported them to Scott's room. The leader had already finished talking to Alex and the trio went downstairs to find Lance and Kitty in the rec room. Going to the movies was just about the only thing they could all agree on.
"The review said it's the best romantic comedy of the year!"
"No way. Ah think we should see the new Tim Burton film."
"No, the Tarantino!"
"We're not all old enough Alvers. And before you ask Kurt, I'm not sitting through two hours of subtitles."
Kitty turned away from the others, pouting about her suggestion being shot down and noticed the TV flickering. "Hey guys, look at that."
Rogue frowned as the picture grew dark, then brightened again. "Power surge, or…?"
"Cerebro at full power," finished Kurt.
"Can't be," said Lance. "I thought the Professor was still too sick to get out of bed."
"He is." Scott stood up and made for the door. "X-Men, let's go. I think we've got a big problem."
The group got to the Cerebro room moments later, Kitty phasing Lance and Rogue through the floor and Kurt 'porting himself and Scott directly outside the doors. The thick electronic doors stood wide open, but the room was empty.
"Must have just gone," said Scott, rushing towards the computer and accessing security footage. "Kurt, go get Logan."
"He's gone," said Lance before Kurt could leave. "He rode outta here as we were coming back. And McCoy's in the woods on a training session with the New Recruits."
"Ah don't believe it," said Rogue furiously as she looked over Scott's shoulder and saw Jean Grey on the tape. "How'd she get in here?"
"And where is she now?" Scott punched up a view of all the security cameras. "She's not on any of them! She can't have…"
"Look!" Kurt pointed at the picture of the hangar. To their disbelief, the X-Jets engines had started and the craft sped down the runway.
"We're too late!" cried Kitty.
"Can ve find out vhere she's going?" asked Kurt.
Scott magnified the footage of Jean using Cerebro, focusing on the file Jean was looking at. "I can't see the location, but there's a picture. If I can –"
"Vait," said Kurt. "I know zat woman…"
"Irene Adler." Rogues voice was shaking. "She's the woman who raised me. Mystique called her Destiny because she could see the future…that bitch is going after my mom!"
"Everyone to the Velocity," ordered Scott. "We're going after her."
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Jean walked up to the house and used her powers to unlock the door. It opened silently and she stepped inside, the first thing she saw being a silver framed photo of Rogue and an aging woman in dark glasses. Jeans eyes narrowed. That had to be –
"Hello Jean."
The blind woman was sat on an armchair in the corner of the room, the white cane propped up against the table beside her. Jean walked further into the room, using her telekinesis to shut and lock the door behind her. "Destiny."
"I've been expecting you."
"Of course you have. You can see the future, right?"
"I see pathways, probabilities. The future is not set in stone. Probability is not certainty and new paths may be chosen."
"The way you and Mystique chose mine?"
"Yes. I knew the best time – the only time – to approach you about joining us. I could see the path you would take without our intervention and how it would affect all our lives."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You're a telepath. If I lied, you'd know. And if I'd left, you'd find me."
"Why did you care if I joined your team anyway?"
"I saw the pathway of your life should you join us. Visions about you ceased abruptly, the day you lost control of your powers to be exact, although I knew that you did not die. I've had only one vision regarding you following that day, which I had only hours ago. Had you not come to us, your destiny would not see you aid us and Rogue would have been lost to us. I did not know she would be lost to us anyway, and you were our only hope to make her stay."
"Rogue? You only wanted me around to keep Rogue? WHY IS EVERYTHING ALWAYS ABOUT ROGUE!?"
Jean levitated into the air, her green eyes blazing with anger. Photographs and ornaments began flying through the air, whirling around the room. The sight may have been lost on Irene, but she could hear glass breaking, feel the atmosphere grow heavy with psychic energy.
At that moment, the front door was blown off its hinges by a red beam and the five X-Men ran into the room. Scott saw Jean and immediately shot an optic blast at her. She created a telekinetic shield to defend herself, then used her powers to lift him up and hurl him backwards through the large bay window. Before he even hit the ground, Jean reversed the path of the breaking glass so that the lethal shards flew back into the room. A wickedly long splinter pierced Lances abdomen and he fell to his knees, blood soaking his uniform.
"LANCE!"
Kitty knelt beside her boyfriend, her terror increasing as he put a hand to the wound and blood poured through his fingers.
"I'll…I'll be alright," he whispered. "You go…" He closed his eyes and grimaced in pain.
Afraid to remove the glass from the wound, knowing it would only cause Lance to lose more blood. Kitty stood up intending to phase right through the telekinetic shield and punch the bitch right in the face – but before she could even turn, a heavy vase smacked her in the back of the head, knocking her to the floor in a dazed heap.
Sensing Rogues approach and knowing she had removed her gloves, Jean lifted the girl off her feet and slammed her into the wall behind Irene, pinning her there. As Kurt teleported to his teammates aid, a solid wooden dresser flew towards Rogue and hit Nightcrawler as he reappeared in front of her. The elf collapsed to the ground, barely able to breathe from the pain of his three broken ribs.
Jean took no notice of her injured adversaries, instead focusing all of her attention on the blind woman in front of her. "I'm going to take care of your little Rogue – but first, I want to know what my destiny should have been, the one you stole from me!"
Rogue struggled in vain to free herself. "Irene!"
"Don't worry child, everything will work out for the best."
"She's lying," said Jean bluntly. "It's what she does."Desperately Rogue glanced down at Kurt, who was lying on the floor at her feet with his arms wrapped around his chest, his tail waving in the air. She'd taken off her gloves when she'd tried to sneak up on Jean. If she could just get hold of his tail…
Too late. Jean forced her way into Destiny's mind, tearing through the woman's thoughts and memories as though they were tissue paper. The attack was brutal, the redhead taking no precautions with her assault. Irene screamed, her voice filled with pain. Still telekinetically pinned to the wall, Rogue could only watch helplessly.
Jean rifled through Destiny's memories, her visions of the future, discarding those she did not seek until she discovered the blind woman's foresight of the Brotherhood and examined them eagerly, not caring about the damage to the woman's mind. Irene shrieked in agony as Jean psychically ripped out her thoughts…
{…will run away from home find her in the bus station…}
{…will return home when the bus fails to arrive…}
{…Xavier's second recruit, still afraid of this power, this life, but believing that she can be accepted by normal humans and use her powers to help others…}
{…most popular girl in school without telepathic suggestions…}
{…best friend, trust him with my life, always there for me…}
{…out of control, can't control my powers…}
{…help me Scott…}
{…connection we made is so strong…}
{…mansion demolished what is he's hurt what if he's…}
{…he's in trouble…}
{…girlfriend to the rescue…}
{…you got that right lady…}
{…last, best hope for the human race…}
{…flying on wings of fire…}
{…the power to consume galaxies the power the POWER…}
Kurt tried to take a deep breath and groaned with pain, his tail swishing. Rogue snatched at it again – and caught it. She kept hold for only a second or two, long enough to absorb his powers and render him mercifully unconscious.
Her eyes gleaming yellow, Rogue glared at Jean, the telepath too caught up in what she was doing to notice the change.
"Word of advice Jean…"
Bamf!
"…Don't mess with the Rogue!"
Scott limped back through the front door, blood oozing from numerous shallow cuts, just in time to see Rogue appear behind Jean, put a hand on her face and teleport. They reappeared at the other side of the room and promptly vanished again, materialising in the centre of the room, giving Jean no time to use her powers against the other girl.
"Rogue! Let her go!" yelled Scott in alarm. "You're going to kill her!"
Kitty struggled to her knees and watched as Scott tried to get the pair, but Rogue used her stolen powers to form a telekinetic bubble around herself and Jean, refusing to let go.
"We have to stop her!" Scott helped Kitty to her feet. "Phase through the shield and separate them!"
"Why?" asked Kitty, folding her arms. "Look at what she did to Lance! I say we let the bitch die."
"Then you might as well have stayed with the Brotherhood. We're the X-Men – we're supposed to be heroes! If you don't stop this, you'll be just as bad as Jean."
He's right. Damn.
Kitty made herself intangible and phased through the bubble, closing in on the pair. She grabbed Jeans arm and made the girl as insubstantial as herself, breaking the contact Rogue had on the redhead. Jean sank to the floor, her eyes closed. Rogue staggered backwards, the shield disappearing.
Scott looked around, noting that Kurt was unconscious, Lance was sprawled in an ever-widening pool of his own blood and Irene was slumped in the chair, blood trickling from her ears and nose. "We need some help here."
"Logan's on his way," replied Rogue, her voice flat, her hands massaging her temples. "He heard the Velocity leave, found out where we were headed from the security tape."
"Good, replied Scott grimly. "Because if we don't get the others some medical help soon, they might not make it."