Thanks to enfant-terrible, Goofn1, Soulstress, LadyEvils and Sahara for the excellent reviews! And for Sahara, I have put up the Evo-over 18 address on my bio page at the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters contained herein.
Lance opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling, conscious of the weight of Jean's arm across his stomach and her breath against his neck. He had to admit the bed was a lot better than the tiny sofa, but he had the feeling he'd made a mistake. Sleeping with Jean had certainly been satisfying and he couldn't say that he regretted it, but it was going to make his job a lot harder if she felt the need to keep him out of danger and she wasn't going to be happy when he left town…
There was some one in the living room.
He heard the stealthy steps from the other side of the door and quickly disentangled himself from Jean, trying not to wake her up. He glanced around and cursed to himself as he realised he'd discarded his clothes by the front door and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around himself as he opened the door and peered into the room.
"What the hell are you two doing here?"
Pietro and Wanda looked around guiltily. "You weren't answering the phone," said Wanda. "We called about twenty times. We thought something happened."
"Looks to me like something did happen," smirked Pietro. "Creeping out of Jean's bedroom in a towel? And the suspicious pile of clothes over there?"
Wanda sniggered as she saw Lance's look of embarrassment. "Looking after her in every sense of the word, huh?"
"Oh shut up." Lance went over to the door and rescued his pants. "You speak to Magneto?"
"Yeah," said Pietro. "Sabretooth knows about Creed, but he didn't talk about it much. Thought he was an embarrassment, not being a mutant. He's not sure they've ever even spoken."
"So we can't get any info about him from Sabretooth." Lance went to the sink and poured himself a glass of water. "Does he know who the mother is?"
"Suspicions were right. It's Mystique."
Lance shuddered at the thought. "We lived with her all that time and we never suspected. Do Kurt or Rogue know anything about it?"
"Not a thing. He seems to be Mystique's dirty little secret. They didn't know he even existed until now."
"And he shows up here, where his brother and sister live, the last place his parents were known to be. Coincidence?"
Wanda snorted. "I doubt it. Maybe he's out for revenge."
"Then why is he targeting Jean instead of Rogue or Kurt?"
"That's where the theory falls apart," said Pietro. "But since Destiny's the one who paid his school bills, maybe we can get something out of her. Up for a trip to Mississippi?"
"Sure," said Lance. "Today?"
"Yeah, if you can talk your new girlfriend into staying at the Institute while we're there. What is it with you and the X-girls anyway?"
"Shut up. Who's staying behind?"
"Blob and Toad. All the kids are restricted to the Institute at the moment, shouldn't be hard to keep an eye on them unless some one decides to get adventurous."
"Those blond kids are creepy," said Wanda. "Five identical telepaths, that's just weird. And they keep looking at me."
"The sooner we sort this mess out, the sooner we can get the hell away from this place," said Pietro. "What with the X-Men giving us the evil eye and Father being back, I'm more than ready to leave."
"Amen to that," added Wanda.
"Yeah," said Lance absently. Suddenly, leaving Bayville was no longer high on his list of priorities. "Let me just wake Jean up. I'll meet you back at the mansion."
"Should we give you an hour?" asked Wanda with a smirk.
"Make it two," sniggered Pietro.
"GO!" Lance ushered them to the door.
In the bedroom, Jean hurried back over to the bed, not wanting Lance to realise she'd been eavesdropping on the conversation. She'd known that he would have to leave sooner or later, that he hated being in Bayville again, but she'd been harbouring secret hopes about him changing his mind.
Stupid…
Lance walked into the room and grinned as he saw her sat up. "You have to go to the Institute today, I've got to make a trip to Mississippi. You mind?"
"I guess not." Jean stared at his chest, fascinated. She knew how strong he was from the night before, when he lifted her up effortlessly and she'd experienced what a good lover he was the night before. Maybe he did have to go and maybe he'd never come back, but right now he was in her room and she was going to make the most of it.
000000000000000000000000000
"Are you Irene Adler?" Wanda took the lead, thinking that the woman might be more forthcoming if she heard a female voice.
"Yes Wanda, I am." Destiny wore dark glasses that hid her milky-pale eyes but didn't carry a cane, knowing the layout of her house too well to trip over the furniture.
The Brotherhood exchanged glances. "Did some one tell you we were coming?" asked Wanda.
Destiny laughed. "I can foresee the future. I knew you were coming to see me about Graydon. With your brother and two colleagues. One of whom used strawberry scented soap this morning."
Pietro caught his sister's suspicious look. "It wasn't me! Ask Lance, he was the one who took an hour and a half to show up to the Institute."
"Wow, she's worse than Logan," muttered Lance.
"When you lose one sense, the others compensate." Destiny smiled and stepped to one side. "Come in."
The four trooped into the house, noticing an abundance of photographs of Rogue about the place although Irene couldn't have appreciated them. There were no pictures of Graydon that they could see.
"You want to know why Raven kept Graydon a secret," said Irene as she settled into a chair.
"Uh, yeah," said Lance uncertainly, wondering how they were supposed to interrogate a woman who apparently already knew what they were going to ask.
"When she returned to America pregnant, she asked me what I could see in the child's future. You understand that she had no intention of becoming a mother, the boy was an unfortunate accident as a result of a mission she was on."
"We understand that," replied Wanda.
"I knew that he would never manifest any mutant powers and told her so. She was – angry."
"So why didn't she just get rid of it?" asked Pietro.
Destiny smiled. "You know so little about her, considering that you've lived under the same roof. Still, that was always Raven's way, never wanting to reveal too much about herself. You might as well ask why she didn't abort Kurt either. She doesn't believe in terminating pregnancies."
"Just waits until they're born." Lance scowled as he tried to digest the information. "I don't get it. She'd sell out her kids in a second if it benefited her and having a human kid was only ever going to cause her problems. So why take the risk?"
"She was still his mother," said Destiny sharply. "If the children were to get in her way, she'd do what was necessary – but that might never happen. The risk was hers to take."
"So you couldn't predict how Graydon would behave," said Wanda.
"I see pathways, probabilities. When it comes to the future, very little is set in stone. I realised that the boy could become resentful of mutants, but so much depended on how he was brought up and what happened in his life that I couldn't be certain. And of course, the attitudes of his parents toward him played a role. I warned Raven of that, but she's driven by her goals rather than her responsibilities. For a time I tried to be the boys surrogate mother but when we adopted Rogue there was no choice but to hide his presence from her and he couldn't be allowed to remain here."
"And no one mentioned that there used to be a boy living here?" asked St John.
"A few people did, but I told her that I'd fostered him before he returned to his parents. Remember she was only a child. I think she forgot about it."
"And Graydon was left in boarding school from then on," said Lance.
Irene shrugged. "Sometimes Raven or I managed to visit. When he left school, we gave him enough money to set up on his own."
"I don't blame the guy for being bitter," muttered Wanda.
"So why is he in Bayville?" asked St John.
"I knew he would go there," said Irene. "I wanted to warn Raven, but she's been incommunicado and I was unable. He's been with the Friends of Humanity since their formation shortly after the Sentinel incident, which I know you were a part of. His resentment of his mother and father is immense, but he would never be able to even speak to them unless one of them initiated it. Rogue and Kurt however are known to reside at the Xavier Institute. If Graydon is as resentful as I foresaw he could become, they are his best targets."
"Is that one of your visions?" said Pietro sarcastically.
"My visions are not always clear. I see Graydon plotting with others like him. They have something planned, something big. But there is too much that could alter their plans or change before they carry them out. I can't be more certain of what they are doing."
St John picked up a picture of Rogue and studied it. "Any idea where they're hiding or what exactly they're plotting?"
"I see fire…but that's all. And I sense that Graydon is in Bayville and he meets the other Friends of Humanity in a bar. Nothing else. Avalanche, you want to know why I think that he's going after members of his family and yet the Friends of Humanity seem to have targeted Dr Grey. Also you're curious as to why he hasn't been here when I'm an easier target."
"Uh…" Lance cursed the way she knew what he was about to ask. "No offence."
"None taken. Even if he came here, it's likely that I would foresee it and either call the police or leave. And as to why he seems to be targeting the doctor, she's high profile and the Friends of Humanity are not all about his personal vendettas. I imagine they would turn their backs on him if they knew of his parentage. So maybe the group is after the doctor, but Graydon isn't going to be satisfied with that."
"So you're telling us that the Friends of Humanity are after Jean but Graydon is after Rogue and Kurt?" Lance could feel a headache coming on. "Why didn't you tell either of them?"
"I've never spoken to Kurt and Rogue is still very wary when we speak. She blames me for not warning her about her mutation or telling her about Raven's plans for her future. She knows that my allegiance is with her mother but she doesn't understand it. As well as that, forewarned is not always forearmed. No one knows that better than me. If I were to tell them that their brother was chasing after them wanting revenge, Rogue would try to find him and Kurt would try to reason with him. They wouldn't think to contain the threat that he poses. Blame Xavier's tutelage for that."
"I don't suppose you want to tell us how we can get in touch with Mystique?" asked Pietro.
"If I knew, I would already have done so." Irene shrugged. "She's currently out of the country. That's all I know."
"If you have any visions about the Friends of Humanity, let us know." St John pulled out a card with his phone number on it, thought about handing it over and then realised just how little good it would do.
"Just tell me what your number is," said Destiny. "I'll put it in my organiser."
The formalities of exchanging numbers complete, the Brotherhood left the house and walked slowly back to the landing strip where they'd landed the helijet.
"That was just confusing," muttered Pyro.
"Not necessarily," replied Wanda. "We can check out the bars in Bayville, see if we can find any that the Friends of Humanity might meet at. And if Graydon is going after Rogue and Kurt, we can expect them to strike either at the Institute or when they leave. That means keeping an eye on the mansion and on the pair of them."
"I've just had a thought." Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "If Creed wants to get to his sibs, the best way to talk the Friends of Humanity into attacking the Institute is to wait until the security systems are deactivated. Then they can attack as a group and do some damage. It'd be high profile because everyone knows about the school and they could achieve their real objective."
Pyro looked blank. "Which is?"
"Duh," said Pietro. "These guys want all mutants wiped off the face of the planet. They want to drive the X-Men out of the mansion at least."
"So when would the Institute defences be deactivated?" Wanda paused outside the helijet.
"When people without security clearance are going in and out," replied Lance. "We're alright now we have clearance, they can't follow us in."
"They wouldn't want to," added Pietro. "They'd want to wait until they could get in with the minimum of resistance and as few of the senior X-Men around as possible. I'd say during the day when they're expecting visitors."
"So why don't we just set a trap for them?" asked Pyro. "They break in, we beat them up and arrest them, hand them over to the cops or SHIELD and get the hell out of Bayville."
"We can't set a trap when there's kids at the mansion," said Lance. "We'll just have to find another way to find them. Bar hopping might be our best bet…"
The ringing of his phone interrupted him. Retrieving it from his pocket, he noticed that Toad was calling and immediately knew that the news couldn't be good.
"What's up?"
"Protestors outside the mansion. A lot of them. Mayor Kelly went on record today saying that there were no cases of normal humans being poisoned by Pow-R-8 until Jean started investigating the side effects. He practically accused her of fixing the results of the tox-screenings. But there are six kids in the hospital with none-specific symptoms similar to food poisoning. Blood tested positive for Pow-R-8."
"Then Kelly has to eat his words." Lance smirked at the thought of their former Principal being humbled.
"Nope. He never crossed the line yo. Never accused her straight out. He did let slip that Worthington Industries funded the research. Stock took a nosedive. Angel is screaming."
"How did he find out?"
"You can find out anything if you know which computer to hack. And for the final piece of good news – guess who got outta jail today?"
Lance thought back to the many people the Brotherhood had put in jail since joining SHIELD. "Who?"
"Does the name Duncan Matthews ring a bell?"
"Oh no." Lance recalled Duncan from their days in high school and the brief alliance they'd had as a way to get Scott expelled. The plan had backfired massively. Duncan had also dated Jean Grey, something that Lance didn't need to be reminded of.
"He used to date – "
"I know Toad. How did he get parole?"
"No parole. Lawyer argued that murder is uh, something like 'the illegal killing of a human being' and attempted murder is trying to kill a human being. But the Leech kid's a mutant…"
"He's still a human being!"
"Not according to the judge. The law doesn't cover mutant humans."
Lance clenched his fists angrily. "This is why I love being back in Bayville. It's such a haven for the minorities of the world."
"His mom brought him over to the mansion, they're staying a while until they know what Matthews is up to. This place is getting pretty crowded yo."
"We're on our way back. Call Fury; ask him if he can find Mystique or Sabretooth, not that I imagine it'll do us much good even if he can. And get a list of all the bars in Bayville."
"You taking Jean out on the town?"
"Shut up. We think the Friends of Humanity meet at one of the bars. With the recent activity, could be they'll be meeting more often. If you can, find out which have an anti-mutant policy, or a pro-mutant policy for that matter. We can safely rule those out."
"On it." Toad rang off and Lance glanced at the others.
"The mansion's swarming with reporters and protesters and Duncan Matthews smart-ass lawyer just got him out of jail."
Pyro grimaced. "Sound like the perfect excuse to go out and get drunk."