Disclaimer: None of the mutants belong to me. Anything familiar you read below is most probably not mine either.
*
A/N: What has ff.net done to my spaces???? They deleted it! Now my story's just one whole mesh of words without changes of scenes!!! ARGH!
Thanks to Phobia who pointed it out. I swear I know how to separate scenes, I usually do it by putting in huge spaces in between paragraphs. Unfortunately, something happened. So I had to reupload all chaps of this story. My other stories might take a while. =)
* Chapter 13*
*
*
"Is he insane? He wants us to do what?" Lance thundered out loud as the whole Brotherhood Boarding House shook in protest of the quivering earth.
"Watch it, saltshaker," Rogue grumbled as she snagged the cup of coffee that almost fell down the table.
"Magneto wants you to go back to Bayville High." Was Mystique's calm reply. "All of us."
"After all we've done?"
"All we did was to show the world who we truly are," Wanda told him.
"Yeah and bring down two buildings." Kurt added helpfully.
Todd snickered. "And illegally hold in detention all the senators and about a hundred civilians."
"And ruin military property." Pietro smirked. "And vehicles. Tanks, even."
"Oh, man! They're going to hate us for sure!" For some twisted reason, Todd found that particularly funny.
A thought struck Kurt. If they hated them, then wouldn't they try to hurt the ones they love most? "Mother, are you sure my family is OK?" Kurt asked, referring to the adoptive parents he left in Germany.
"Of course." Mystique replied brusquely. "You had just talked with them last night." She said with just a touch of irritation.
"Ja." Kurt replied. "But I couldn't help being worried, you know."
"I'm not going back to school," Lance crossed his arms defiantly.
"Spoken like a true three-year old," Pietro sneered.
"Shut up, Pietro," Wanda snapped.
"What about her?" Lance gestured towards Rogue.
"What about me?" Rogue growled low in her throat.
"If you're not going then I'm not going."
"Let me put it this way," Rogue gave him a dark smile. "After everything we did, there are only two places you'll ever see your pretty Kitty—in school and in your dreams."
*
*
*
"What are you doing, chere?" Remy asked smoothly as one of his arm snaked around a thin waist, while another flirtatiously toyed with a lock of hair, her hair. "Trying to develop x-ray vision?"
"Sugar, if I needed x-ray vision, I'll just go out and steal it myself," Rogue replied as she adjusted her position to look at the teenaged thief blatantly flirting with her.
"So why are you squinting so hard?" He persisted as he released the white hair coiled around his index finger.
Rogue shook her head.
Remy craned his neck to get a view of what Rogue was looking at. "You're spying on your brother and his girlfriend?" He asked in disbelief.
Rogue glared at him. "I was not spying!"
"Whatever you say, cher." Remy smirked as he pulled the southern lady closer towards him. "Remy missed you," he murmured softly as he buried his face in her hair. "Welcome back to school."
Rogue playfully elbowed him on the gut before weaseling out of his embrace. "And what a welcome it was," she said with a smirk, fully facing the Cajun.
"Not our fault half the school isn't here, cher." Remy replied good-naturedly as he leaned his frame against the wall, enabling himself to view the woman before him fully.
"Half?" Rogue raised an eyebrow. "I estimate that just a quarter of the school population showed up," she shrugged. "Most people are terrified of the mutant hysteria."
Remy crossed his arms. "Why did you have to do that?"
Immediately, the good humor left Rogue's face, to be replaced by a sardonic smile. Her gaze returned to her brother and his girlfriend. "Humans need to learn where their place in the world is," she muttered so softly that Remy thought that he misheard.
"So what now?" Remy asked as he took a step towards the Southern girl.
Rogue gave him a smile that can only be described as evil. "It's your move, sugar," she said sweetly. "You're the good guys. We do something bad, then it's up to you to fix 'em." With that, she turned around and walked away, leaving Remy chuckling to himself.
*
*
*
Mystique, as Principal Raven Darkholme, smiled to herself as she shuffled the papers on her desk.
The media had been in overdrive since the Brotherhood had revealed themselves to the world. Worldwide, people were stepping forward and admitting themselves to be mutants—actors, politicians, musicians, businessmen, lawyers, even doctors.
The whole world was in a state of paranoia. But to be a mutant was to be in.
Magneto's show of strength and power had cowed the rest of the world—anyone who hurts a mutant deals with the master of Magnetism himself. The effortless way that Magneto and the Brotherhood crushed the US army convinced everyone that crossing them would not be a wise idea.
If an elderly man, a woman, and seven teens can defeat the best and the brightest of the US defense system, then how could the whole world far against the powers of all the mutants combined?
Humming softly to herself, Mystique found the piece of paper she was looking for. A report from one of her scouts from the White House. Not surprisingly, the place was in uproar. Mystique scanned the report. It was fun to anticipate what the President would do during their period of peace. Of course, just because there was a truce between them doesn't mean that her Brotherhood would sit back idly.
Already, she had asked Agatha Harkness to redouble the efforts in training Wanda.
Sabertooth had been commanded to lead the training sessions that night with Toad and Blob.
Magneto himself would supervise the training of Nightcrawler and Quicksilver.
Avalanche would be out tonight to recruit a new mutant one of Magneto's moles heard about.
And as to Rogue…Mystique's smile widened. She had something special planned for her Rogue that night.
*
*
*
"I always thought something was off about her," Taryn shuddered as Rogue walked past their lunchroom table. "I mean, just look at her hair!"
Jean's eyes followed the path the Southern belle traveled.
"Mutant freaks," co-football player, Amber, muttered in agreement. "My mom wants me to stay at home, but my dad said that he would first be damned before he lets those freaks ruin everything he worked hard for," the last statement was made in a cautious whisper.
Taryn nodded. "Well, my dad said that they had been here for a long time and hadn't hurt us any, so there's no reason that they'd start now." She grimaced. "But I still don't trust them."
"But I can't believe Pietro's one of them," Amber groaned. "I mean, his sister, that's understandable! But Pietro?" She sighed deeply. "What a waste, right Jean? Jean?" Amber waved a hand directly in front of Jean's face when the redhead failed to answer. "Hello? Earth to Jean?"
"Huh?" Jean snapped out of her reverie. "Oh. Yeah. You're absolutely right."
Amber and Taryn looked at Jean weirdly for a moment then returned to their conversation.
"At least Remy's still available." Taryn said.
"Haven't you heard?" Amber asked. "He's going out with that Rogue now."
"But that was before he learned she was a freak. Now that it's out in the open, he'll be sure to dump her!"
Amber giggled.
"Uh, you know what, guys, I forgot something in my locker. I'll just catch up with you later," Jean stood up and hurried away.
"What's up with her?" Amber asked.
Taryn shrugged. "I think she also had a thing for Remy."
*
*
*
"So, you're just going to sit there and listen to them trash-talk us?"
Jean gasped when she turned a corner and saw Rogue lounging against the wall, seemingly waiting for her. Her eyes widened. "You were eavesdropping on us?"
"As if I don't have anything better to do with my time," Rogue rolled her eyes. She touched her left ear briefly. "Mr. Wolverine left me a few presents,"
"They don't understand us that's why they're thinking that way," Jean defended her friends.
"And I can just hear you explaining to them the way things are," Rogue glared at the telepath.
"Oh, and your way is much better?" Jean demanded, her voice rising. "Go out and scare the world into acceptance of our kind!"
"You know what they say, sugar," Rogue told her with an infuriating smirk. "It is better to be feared than loved."
"You give mutants a bad name. Instead of them accepting us, they'd just resent us more!"
"I refuse hide who I truly am anymore." Rogue told her in all seriousness. "If you want to continue deceiving your so-called friends into thinking that you're one of them, that's your choice. But I won't hold myself back for their sake anymore. I'm done hiding." With that, Rogue stalked away.
Jean took a deep, calming breath as she slumped against the wall. Rogue was right. She was hiding herself from the world. She was denying who she truly was. The only time she can relax and be herself was in the Institute. But when she was in the real world, she keeps a bit of herself hidden, tucked away. At the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, Magneto and his Acolytes had done mutantkind a favor.
Jean shook her head vigorously, as if doing so would help her banish the traitorous thoughts in her mind.
She remembered how Storm looked after she was rescued from Trask's facilities. She remembered the stories Beast recounted about his experience with the genetic scientists. She remembered the memories Professor Xavier shared with her.
But most of all, she remembered Mystique.
The way her eyes hardened and suddenly blanked out when she whipped out her gun and shot Trask.
She remembered Trask, who cowered in fear in the last moment of his life.
She remembered the way he looked as life slowly drained from him.
She remembered his eyes. The fear, the horror, the acceptance.
Jean shook her head once more.
No.
The ends would never justify the means.
Just as it wasn't their fault that they were born mutants, it also wasn't the people's fault they were born without the X-gene.
It was all a matter of chance in the genetic whirlpool.
Yes, she wanted to stop hiding.
But the price Magneto was offering for her freedom to be herself was too high.
The time would come when she could be herself without fear or persecution.
But forcing herself on them was not the answer.
She believed in Professor Xavier's dream.
And she would fight hard for that dream.
For herself.
For her friends.
For her family.
For all of mutantkind.
*
*
*
"Ready?" Avalanche, who was piloting Magneto's newly-acquired heli-jet, sneaked a glance at the woman who was opening the side door.
Rogue sneaked a glance downwards and saw nothing but darkness. She would take a plunge and not even see anything while falling down. The absence of the moon ensured that. But she gave her pilot a thumbs-up sign. "Thanks for givin' me a lift, sugar," she called out. Decked in an all-black bodysuit, her hair tied in a neat, bouncy ponytail, she looked like one of those actresses in TV and movies who were playing the role of an undercover agent. The only difference was, Rogue ain't acting, she ain't playing a part. She was the real thing. Blowing him a kiss, Rogue stepped out and tumbled to the ground below. Ever the gentlewoman, Rogue closed the door with her magnetic power even in mid-drop.
Lance snorted and shook his head. Show-off, he thought affectionately.
But he had his own mission to think about. Squaring his shoulders, he pressed the button that would enable the vehicle to travel thrice faster than the speed of sound, accelerating from zero to a thousand in a blink of an eye.
He arrived in his destination in minutes. Maneuvering his craft to land in a middle of a isolated woodland, Lance fervently wished that the mission be over and soon. Recruiting mutants were never his strong suit.
Lance glanced at his watch for the tenth time in the last half-a-minute. He was getting worried and restless. He followed Magneto's instructions to the letter, didn't he? He was on time, right? He even arrived at the rendezvous point five minutes before the time agreed upon! Wait! What if by arriving five minutes earlier, he scared off the other guy? What if he was supposed to arrive at midnight on the dot and not a second before or after? What if—
"G'day, mate!"
*
*
*
~tbc