Changes

By Benji: The Vampire Confuser

Sequel to Little Help From My Friends and No Day But Today

Cameo from a Vertigo comic.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, save myself, and the few original characters here-in. Most are based on real people of my acquaintance.

Hi there. A lot's happened between now and my last account. To recap for those of you who're just tuning in, Last year me and my friends discovered that we were all Mutants. I mean, we all knew we were Mutants, but we didn't know each other were mutants.

Let me start over. There was this thing called the Mutant Registration Act. It basically said that Mutants had to come out on record as to their being Mutants. If they didn't, and they were caught they went to a concentration camp. So basically mutants didn't have much in the way of rights.

Anyway, we foiled the government's first attempt to catch us, but the second time we got outside help. From Magneto. That and I had this whole thing where I was dying of a terminal, incurable disease. Which pretty much brings us to the end of spring break last year, which is where I left off anyway. After my aborted attempt at suicide, I basically shut down. Not like before, which was from shock, and fear, but from grief, shame and resignation.

I passed off my silence to my family as laryngitis till I got to school. At school I did the same thing. I went with some of my friends, Casey, Gwen, and several human friends (as far as I know anyway) to dinner. I think maybe Casey noticed the bruises peeking from my sleeve cuffs and shirt collar, but he didn't say anything. I know Gwen noticed, and I could see in her eyes that she knew what it meant. She was after all, the only person that knew I was sick.

That night we all gathered. I can't remember if it was solely for making sure we were all alive and free, or if we intended to play Masquerade. Kevin was not there, which bothered me at the time, but, in hindsight, it's probably better that way.

"Damn Steve," Paul said. "How the hell did you keep that hidden all week?" Paul was referring to the collar that Steve still had around his neck. He'd tried several times, unsuccessfully to remove it.

"Turtle necks and keeping to myself mostly." Steve said.

After a bit more chit-chat about how we'd survived our breaks, Casey dropped the bomb.

"Mike what happened?" he asked. "Did you get into a fight?"

I figured out then that no one had really noticed the bruises. Steve was of the opinion however, upon seeing a hint of one rising from my high collar that I'd gotten one hell of a hickey. But soon they all noticed that I was very nervous about the subject, and the other bruises that could be seen despite my clothing.

"Mike," Gwen said gently. "You have to tell them."

They all looked at me expectantly, but I refused to meet their eyes. How would they react? How do you tell someone that the secret You've been keeping is that you're dying?

"Tell us what?" Trevor asked.

I thought briefly of telling them it was nothing. That it was none of their business, that I was fine. But I knew they wouldn't let up, and I also knew that if I didn't tell them, Gwen would. Or make me wish that I had.

"I don't have laryngitis." I said softly. "It's a bit more serious than that." All during this short speech my voice…fluctuated. It's the only way I can think to describe it. It changed several times, in pitch, speed, volume, even sounded like each of them at one point. Gwen had been standing apart from the others, as if to observe their reaction. It wasn't immediate, but it came. Paul was the first to realize what it meant. And he backed quickly away. As much as everything that had happened this year had hurt, his reaction beat them all. That was mostly why I hadn't told. There was fear in Paul's eyes, fear and anger.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Steve asked incredulously. Of all the corners that I'd expected support from, Steve wasn't one of those high on my list. "Why aren't you in the hospital?"

"Because they couldn't, and wouldn't do anything for me." I told him. "If I went there, I'd just be labeled as a Mutant and tossed out on my ass."

"Well news flash," Paul said. "They're gonna know when you-" he never finished the sentence.

"He knows that." Gwen cut in. "He knows all that." Just before we gathered, I'd told her everything that had happened over spring break. And she'd confided in me that the ghosts of those dead agents were haunting her. She'd put up a front of dealing quite well with what had happened. As had the others. I couldn't vouch for them, but I know Gwen wasn't dealing with it so well. The dead agents kept telling her about the families they'd been supporting, never letting up. Underneath her strong façade, she was a wreck. Just like me.

"Are we in danger?" Trevor asked. "I mean, how contagious is this?"

"I don't know." I said, feeling, but ignoring as best I could, Paul's accusatory glare at my back.

"Your parents just let you come back to school?" Casey asked.

I was silent for a moment. "They don't know."

"Jesus Christ." Trevor said. "You didn't tell us, you haven't even told your parents?" he looked at Gwen. "Why'd you tell her? Never mind I know why you told her."

Most of the others probably kept forgetting that Gwen had had cancer. It'd happened before we met her, so I suppose it's slightly understandable.

There was a moment of awkward silence. Naturally. I mean, I Didn't know what else to say, and how does one respond when they find out their friend has been keeping this kind of secret from them?

After a bit, Paul finally spoke up. "How much longer do you have?" He'd said it so quietly that I almost didn't hear him.

"I don't know." I said. "The short circuiting power is the final stage." Oh by the way this whole time my voice has been changing every few words. When I finally looked up, I looked at Gwen. Even after all the letters I'd written her, there was still so much left unsaid. In a way, she represented everything, my hopes, my dreams, my goals, everything that I would never get to have. 'Cause at that point, I was still in love with her. I think in that moment, we were all as close as we'd ever been. It kind of made me feel good that I'd kind of brought these guys back together, our group had been drifting apart of late.

But like all good moments, it didn't last.

Fortunately no one was standing near the window when the rock smashed it. What followed was one of the most frightening times of my life. I'm proud to say that I never shut down at all that night. I blacked out, but that came near the end this time, and had nothing to do with me not being able to deal with the situation.

To make a long story a bit shorter, the Friends of Humanity, an anti-mutant hate group had found out about us. We ran, but they had the building surrounded. Casey made the bushes out front grow really big so we could climb to the roof. Only one problem, I couldn't. I had almost no energy left, and my body was in constant pain from the bruises covering my body. I started to feel a bit light headed, and details from here on in until this part was over are a bit fuzzy. Somehow, they got me up there. But once we were there, we were trapped.

I think Paul, Trevor and Steve managed to keep the mob back at first, but we were soon overwhelmed. And then I got hit with a baseball bat. And I blacked out. What happened while I was out was related to me the next morning. Just like before, when everything seemed the most hopeless, Magneto swept in like a strange kind of Deus Ex Machina. Only this time he wasn't alone.

There was an Asian girl with him, wearing a blue hooded cloak. Most of us had pretty minor injuries, except for me of course. As soon as the girl saw how bad shape I was in, she hurried to my prone body and laid her hands on my chest. She closed her eyes in concentration and slowly, the bruises on my body disappeared, and my labored, raspy breathing returned to normal. Her face showed the amount of effort she'd had to expend, and immediately upon my getting better, she collapsed.

"I hope you have had ample time to consider my offer." Magneto asked them. "And I also hope you see that, unfortunately, there is little hope of continuing your normal lives here."

There was no argument there, but a couple of them had been given another option. Over spring break, Steve, Trevor and Gwen had received letters from Professor Xavier. It was basically the same deal that I'd gotten a few years before.

"What about this Charles Xavier guy?" Trevor asked. "It seems like everything you've offered we can get at his school. And continue our education as well."

Magneto sighed. "Dear Charles. He, I'm afraid, does not truly realize the full extent of the problem. He believes that if given half a chance, mankind will do the right thing. I however have learned first hand what mankind does when left to his own devices." That's an approximate quote of what happened. Like I said, it was relayed to me the next day. The long and the short of it was that they all decided to join Magneto.

I woke up the next morning feeling, well better than I had in months. I was in no pain, my cough was gone, and I felt like I'd gotten a great night's sleep.

"Bout time you woke up."

I had not been expecting anyone else to be in my room. But then, I'd been half hoping to wake up and realize everything had been a dream. I also realized that I was no longer in my room. Actually I remembered the whole evening and wondered if I was in a hospital. All that went through my mind fairly quickly. It just sort of ran in, said hi, then ran out again. So I looked around. The room was small, about the size of my room back in freshman year Though, whereas that room had been designed for two people to share, this one was for one person. A boring person at first glance. There was nothing in the room save furniture, me, and the one who'd spoken. I'll get to her in a moment.

It didn't take me very long to figure out that the room was simply not inhabited yet. There, it's been a moment. The other occupant of the room was the Asian girl I mentioned earlier. Now that I'm to the point to which I've actually seen her, here's a better description. She was about my height, and slender. Her hair came to her shoulders, and she always seemed tired, probably because the others depended on her for every little injury they encountered. But I'm getting ahead of myself. One of the first things I noticed about her, despite the fact that I've always been attracted to Asian women, was her hands. They were slender like the rest of her, and graceful. Healer's Hands as my sophomore year room-mate would say.

In this case it's the literal truth. Her name was Chaki (pronounced Shakee, with a short a) Tamaka, and her mutant power was the healing of, well, nearly anything. Feeling better than I had in a long time, as I said, a wave of hope washed over me, and I asked her if she'd cured me.

"I'm afraid not." She said apologetically. "I can't alter the DNA, and that's where the Legacy Virus is. All I can do is heal the symptoms." And heal them she did. She'd taken the Virus back to it's dormant stage, giving me who knew how long left to live. It took me a while to accept that. But that's neither here nor there.

I realized that I was fully rested, and very hungry.

Chaki led me to the dining area, and on the way she explained that this was one of two headquarters that Magneto maintained. It was sort of like a training camp for his newer recruits. There were a fair number of trainees in the dining hall, most of whom fell silent when we entered. Then the whispering started. I heard the words "new guy", and "legacy" in the whispers before I tuned them out. I don't think I ever really got used to being the center of attention. Doesn't matter, didn't happen often.

Anyway, I was easily able to ignore the voices (not the ones in my head though. Joke! Joke!), because at that moment, I saw my friends gathered at a table, gaining strength from more than just the food. Which resembled S.U. food just a bit too much. Back before we all found out each other's secret, I went through a pretty negative period of my life. I basically felt isolated from all my friends. That happened occasionally. I'd start feeling like I was being excluded from everything, get tired of not having messages on the audix, stupid stuff like that. I say stupid because it was. Rationally I know that. Too bad Depression is never rational.

I started to feel like no one would ever notice if I were to disappear. I never got quite far enough to attempt the ultimate stupidity, though one night the usual hiding the scissors wasn't enough to stave it off and I plastered myself with band-aids (on the wrists and the jugular, best places to cut if I was gonna do that). That helped long enough for me to get hold of myself. But one weekend I just decided to prove to myself that I was wrong. I left. I told Paul, but only because I knew I'd never be able to sneak out without him knowing. Somehow I convinced him to go along with it, asking him to just say he didn't know, if someone asked where I was.

I went home for the weekend, and when I came back I was faced with several very justifiably pissed off friends. The day after I left, when even my room-mate supposedly didn't know where I was, they were ready to call the police. So Paul told them where I'd gone, and why. I'm sorry I did that to them, and I'm sorry that Paul agreed to it. (I wouldn't have) But I'd done what I'd set out to do, prove that I'd be missed. That feeling is one of the things I carry with me to this day.

The other is the absolute relief and happiness on my friends' faces when they saw that I was all right.

I never really got close to any of the other mutants in Magneto's group. Maybe if I'd been there longer I would have. Hell, I never really developed any friendships in High School or College until at least my sophomore year. Fortunately I already had a ready made group of friends. The others gradually made friends outside our core group, who would occasionally hang out with us. The only one who really joined our group full time was Chaki.

I take great pride in the fact that I figured out pretty early on that Chaki had feelings for me. The difficulty was that, at this point (a few weeks after we'd arrived) I was still in love with Gwen. But I'll get to that later.

Magneto was usually on hand to teach someone how to use their powers. He helped me to refine my control, and to strengthen my voice. After a bit, it no longer strained me to copy sounds, or even to manipulate them. By the time I left I was pretty formidable. Which I Didn't particularly think was a good thing. I did not enjoy learning how to burst someone's eardrum by projecting a very loud noise directly inside their ear canal.

The others got really good at controlling their powers too. Casey had a regular farm growing pretty soon. There were other people there too, the three who'd already "graduated". I never thought much of Toad or Sabertooth. I got the feeling they were just enjoying going against society. I never got the idea that they were really committed to any cause other than themselves. Mystique on the other hand was actually pretty cool, in a dark, sexy, scary way. I wondered what horrible fate Magneto had saved her from. She was totally devoted to the cause, and to Magneto himself. More to Magneto himself I thought.

So back to me and Chaki. I knew Gwen didn't like me in that way. But, letting go isn't as easy as "okay new love interest". For the first few days when we were there, I thought maybe things had changed. She spent more time with me, we had a lot of really long conversations. I told her things I'd never told anyone else. We became the kind of friends I'd always hoped we could be (you know, short of being romantically involved) Thank god I never brought up the topic of us being a couple. I chickened out again. Fortunately this time it was for the best. But once she was really sure that I was okay, things gradually went back to the way they had been. Here, just like at school she was Miss Popular, and I went back to missing her a bit. But Chaki was determined, and we started spending more time with each other. And we became the kind of friends that I'd wanted to be with Gwen. I'm not sure exactly when my feelings for Gwen transferred to Chaki. I don't remember the transition. It just happened.

The others didn't know that I still had the Legacy Virus. They didn't know that it was still there, waiting. I didn't tell them any different. The symptoms popped up once during my stay there, but Chaki nipped 'em in the bud right away, and know one knew. I think Magneto suspected, but he didn't say anything.

So things went a bit like at school for a few months. The only real noteworthy thing that happened before July, was Paul. Me and him kind of drifted apart. He'd taken to using the term "flatscan" a bit too much for comfort. I tried reminding him about his human friends, like Chris, Mikiah and Wendy, but it didn't do any good. The others noticed too, but I guess they'd lost a bit of faith too. I don't know what made me keep mine. Maybe the fact that I was dying. I think that's one of the worst memories I carry with me. Paul's descent.

We did liberate a Mutant Camp once. I'm really proud of that. Magneto led us of course, and we didn't lose a single Mutant.

In July, the fourteenth to be precise, Magneto put his master plan into action. He'd been telling us for a long time that he'd been planning to strike a great blow for Mutantkind. It made me worried, but I didn't really think about it too much. Not till the day that Mystique showed up and told us he'd been defeated, and arrested. It was a blow to everyone. I mean, Magneto was our leader. Hell, to most of us, our savior, and even a father figure. He'd always seemed so strong, so confident. How could something like this have happened? If Magneto himself could be stopped, what chance did the rest of us have?

Then someone, I won't say who, but his initials were Paul Foos, decided he wasn't going to take it lying down. He got the bright idea of busting Magneto out of prison. It was ludicrous. Suicidal. Insane. Naturally I was one of the first volunteers. The man had given me a new lease on life. I wasn't gonna abandon him to the kind of place he'd saved us all from.

Mystique led us to where he was being kept, and managed to get us past security. She disguised herself as Senator Kelly (more on that in the next paragraph), and the older volunteers posed as his aides. The rest followed after we'd taken out the guards. Now, about Mystique's disguise. She'd posed as Henry Peter Gyrich long enough to get a good sense of Kelly's habits, so she was able to play the role quite well. I was most happy with the fact that, as the Senator, she revoked his resistance to the repeal of the Mutant Registration Act. That act alone gave me, and several others hope.

They stuck me in the security booth with a guy who could tap into people's nervous systems and make them feel pleasure or pain. He wasn't the nicest guy, but we never had huge differences. Mystique's talents would have been useful as well, but there were still check points she had to take care of. So it was that me and the guy, who's name escapes me, found ourselves taking on the X-Men by ourselves.

"The hell are they?" the guy asked, looking at the surveillance monitors. Three people in leather jumpsuits were coming down the entrance hall.

"Let's find out." I muttered. Or words to that effect. "This is security." I said into the microphone, copying the voice of the guard lying comatose on the floor behind me. "Identify yourselves."

The dude with the funky shades looked up at the camera.

"We're the X-Men. We have reason to believe that Mutant Terrorists may have infiltrated this prison to free Magneto."

I looked at my partner and mouthed "X-Men?"

He shrugged helplessly. Let's get one thing straight real quick, Magneto had never mentioned the X-Men. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was to keep us confident, or he didn't want to lose anyone to the prospect of having to fight other Mutants. It doesn't really matter I suppose.

"Never heard of you." I said. "And as to your accusations, my board's green. The only intruders I see are you three."

The rest of my ruse was cut off when the hot redhead next to the spokesman squinted her eyes, and turned to him. "Cyclops the guards are all unconscious."

"Hey!" my partner shouted, as the three rushed off camera. "No one said anything about Telepaths entering the mix!"

He rushed out into the hallway, just in time to incapacitate Cyclops with a wave of pain. I winced, and prepared to launch my own assault on their eardrums, when the black woman with white hair sent a gust of wind blowing the guy into the wall hard enough to knock him out.

I think maybe they sensed my hesitation, or saw me wince when my partner attacked. Whatever the reason, they didn't immediately take me out too. Instead, the redhead tried to reason with me. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I think it went along the lines of "Why are you following Magneto?"

Then I said the clichéd stuff about Magneto being a great man, I owed him, I was fighting for a cause, yadda yadda yadda, and then she dropped the bomb. She told me what Magneto had been doing when they'd defeated him. When I voiced my disbelief, she hit me with some kind of Telepathic…thing, that showed me what had happened. Whether it was the invasion of my head, or the shock of finding out what kind of man Magneto really was, that he was willing to commit genocide, that he was willing to sacrifice a young girl, but not himself for the cause…I probably couldn't have stopped them if I tried. But I didn't try.

The X-Men stopped Mystique and the others, but we all escaped. I told my friends what I'd found out. Their response was, well not what I was hoping for. I was having a crisis of conscience, and though they weren't all like "so what", none of them seemed willing to talk about it. I realized then just how far gone they'd all gotten. The only one who seemed to have the same conflicts as me, was of course, Chaki.

I stayed in my room for two whole days. My friends came by a few times, to make sure I was okay. I know they picked up on the fact that I was conflicted. But still, none of them would talk to me about it.

I wonder how they reacted when they found my note. Oh I know how they felt after a few months. But then, how did they feel. I left at Midnight on July 18th. Though I hadn't told Chaki what I was gonna do, she'd known. She met me in the corridor, with her own bag packed. I think that was the moment I first realized that I loved Chaki. We didn't say anything that night. We didn't need to. All I said was "Thank you." When I saw her in the hall.

Wasn't too hard to get past security. Just made a commotion far from our real position, and the guy on guard duty went to check it out, and we just left.

My symptoms returned not long after that. We were on the road for a few days before that, and that night it was raining. Chaki healed me, which left her worn out. We were afraid that they might come looking for us, so we traveled at night, sleeping where we could during the day. After about two weeks we finally got to where we were heading.

In Diapers,

Report Cards,

In Spokes Wheels,

In Speeding Tickets.

In Contracts,

Dollars,

In Funerals and Births.

In, Five hundred fifty five thousand

Six hundred minutes, how do you measure,

A last year on earth?

-Rent

We've been at Xavier's ever since. I wouldn't say we were welcomed with open arms, but they didn't tell us to get lost. They remembered me, remembered that I'd seemed to be reasonable. So they let us stay. We were a bit too old to be regular students, but they soon found stuff for us to do to earn our keep. I helped the kids whenever they tried to put on a play or something. Chaki naturally found a niche in the med center. Xavier knew I still had the Legacy Virus, but he respected my privacy, and didn't tell anyone. I got to know the kids pretty well through my own efforts, and me and Storm got along pretty well.

I never really felt comfortable at Magneto's camp. But here, I finally felt like I belonged. The X-Men, in essence had the same goals as Magneto, and their methods were ones I could live with. But again, nothing of much importance happened until about a month after we'd arrived. Well, that's not quite true, I got back in touch with my family. I had been right about them supporting my decision not to register, though they were worried sick about me. That was their main bone of contention, the fact that I hadn't told them, and just disappeared. I got hold of my human friends from S.U. too. Chris had told most of them what was up when we all disappeared. I didn't tell them that the group that the others were still with were basically the bad guys. Mikiah asked me to tell Gwen hello for him next time I saw her. Two important events occurred after that. One good, one bad.

On TV whenever they show someone in a doctors office, he always says: "Well, I have good news and bad news." And it's always a question of whether they want to hear the good news first, or the bad news. Fortunately, I have a tie breaker. I'll tell them in the order that they happened.

First would be the bad news. I was out in the city with some of the other kids, Chaki, Marie and her friends, plus Bobby and his friends. As the oldest Chaki and I were sort of the de-facto chaperones.

"Oh my God." Chaki said softly. I knew her well enough by now to recognize her tones of voice. This was recognition. And apprehension. When I looked where she was looking, I saw why. There they were, eating lunch at the food court in the mall. Paul, Gwen, Steve, Trevor and Casey. They were talking and laughing, just like we'd always done at school. At the moment Gwen was doing one of her characters, Gwendolyn, a girl with down syndrome. We'd always joked that she was going to hell for making fun of people like that. Never stopped us from laughing. Not even after we'd become a persecuted minority. Really makes me ashamed now.

For a moment I thought; Why are they in New York? Are they here to attack the school? Then I rejected that thought. If they were here for that reason, they'd just do it, without taking a break to relive old times. I wanted to join them. I wanted more than anything to be part of the group again. At the same time, I was afraid. I almost just ignored them, I almost walked away, preferably before they saw me. I'm not sure what made me choose the other path. Why had I suddenly gotten so brave? Maybe it was the need to know.

None of them noticed me approach. Paul seemed to have invented a new character to go along with Gwen Mae. His usual gag was "Ug, the Lacrosse Player" which was basically like The Hulk, only stupid.

"Hey." I said. I've never claimed to be eloquent. I've never, in all my life heard noise stop so suddenly. The table just fell completely silent. Trevor, Casey and Steve had their backs to me, so I couldn't see their faces. But the fact that they didn't turn to look at me sent me the intended message. Paul gave me the look of a thousand deaths. And I was pretty sure he meant it literally. I looked to Gwen, thinking that if anyone could understand, that if any shred of our friendship lingered, it would be in her. She just looked sad. And then, on an unspoken signal, they stood as one, and walked away. Without saying a word. Without saying a damn word.

Then, came the good news. Tonight in fact. It's December 10th. And the Mutant Registration Act has been repealed. When Mystique took Senator Kelly's place, she'd made it appear as if he was removing his opposition to the repeal. I feel like I've been released. If weren't for the fact that I was still sort of wanted for accessory to the murder of those MCA Agents way back when, I could go home tonight. I think maybe I will go home for Christmas.

Or, I will if I have time.

I'm standing out in the rain on the edge of the property. In this weather that's probably not the smartest thing to do, but I don't care. My symptoms are back again. They've been popping up off and on ever since last spring, but Chaki was always able to heal them, and buy me more time. But they've never come on this fast before. The cough and the bruises hit me both at once. I feel just like I did the night Magneto came for us. Only worse. No one at the school except Chaki and Xavier even know I still have the Legacy Virus like I said before. But they don't know about my current condition. Xavier might, he's psychic. But no alarm has been raised back at the school yet as far as I know.

"Hey Mike."

Even in my weakened condition I manage to whirl around. I never thought I'd hear that voice again. Not kindly disposed at least. But behind me is Gwen. And she's smiling. Not a villain smile, but the way she used to smile at me. Like a friend. I don't say anything. For one thing, if I did, my short circuiting power would give me away. And for some reason, I don't want anyone to know. I always figured that if I had a terminal disease I'd want everyone to know. That I WOULD want the pity and the attention that everyone on TV seems to hate. But I don't. I don't want to dwell on the fact that my time is running out, I want to enjoy what I've got left.

Gwen seems to take my silence as a rebuke. Which is a fair assumption, I don't think I would have spoken even if I could.

"Mike I'm sorry." She says. "I-none of us knew what to think when you left. We were hurt because you hadn't told us in person-"

"I tried to tell you in person." I whisper harshly. I can always explain it away as laryngitis. Again. She doesn't ask. "But none of you would talk about it."

She looks even more sad than when I saw her at the mall. "I know." She says. "It took us a long time to realize that. That we weren't mad at you. We were mad at ourselves."

All that sounds really good, but it also sounds like the dialogue on Dawson's Creek. I say as much.

Gwen shakes her head. "I don't know how else to put it." She says. "When you told us what you learned from the X-Men, we went into denial. First we just told ourselves that it was a trick to demoralize us. When we realized it was true, we tried to shut it out. After a while we couldn't trick ourselves anymore. But by then you were gone. When you saw us at the mall, you surprised us. As soon as we left we knew it was a mistake. Like I said, you'd taken us by surprise."

"So you ran." I say, still whispering. I learned last time my power short circuited that I can keep it under control by whispering.

"And we tried to find you again, but you were gone again." She sighs.

"So you decided to come out here finally?" I'm not sure I'm buying it. I want to believe her, I want to forgive her, them. I really do. But hurt like I have doesn't go away that easily. Besides, if they were really sorry, they'd all be here.

"Actually it was Paul's idea."

That surprises me. Then the rest come out of hiding. Suddenly I'm very aware that we're standing out in the rain. And that it's cold. How long were they standing out here?

"How'd you know to look for me out here?"

Paul shrugs. "We know you like the rain."

"And that you're crazy enough to go out in it when it's this cold out." Gwen adds, shivering.

In the distance, the Mansion is decorated for Christmas. Some of the younger students still believe in Santa. That's really got nothing to do with anything, but I think it's worth mentioning.

"You guys wanna come in?" I ask, knowing even as I ask it, that they'll say no. I'm not wrong.

"Actually we're here to take you out." Trevor said. "To celebrate."

Celebrate what?"

"Christmas." Gwen says.

"The repeal of the Mutant Registration Act." Casey says.

I nod. "Sounds like fun."

"By the way," Steve asks. "Why are you whispering?"

We have a great time. We go out to the city, see a Broadway show, eat dinner, go to a movie, go clubbing, hang out. It's one of the greatest nights of my life. I wish Chaki were here, but tonight is really about us. Back where we started. The best of friends. At some point it stops raining and turns to snow. We sing Christmas songs, and laugh.

And then I feel it all welling up inside me. My power, my bruises, and my cough. And know this is it. I collapse. I don't really feel any pain. Physical or emotional. Maybe if I hadn't had this night before I went I would. But I feel okay. I didn't get to become a superhero. I didn't get to be in any movies. But I had a wonderful family. Friends who loved me. And a girl who loved me more than anyone.

I'm not quite dead when they get me to the mansion. At first it looks like there's gonna be a fight until Xavier tells the X-Men that no, Gwen and the others are not responsible for what happened to me. Chaki is pissed at me for not telling me about the symptoms cropping up again. But somehow I know that she knows that this time she wouldn't have been able to do anything. The X-Men are shocked to learn that I have…no…that I HAD the Legacy Virus. As are the kids at the school.

Gwen and the rest are appalled. They'd thought I was cured. I Can't begin to imagine what was going on in their minds. Gwen and Paul I know were pissed, because they said so.

The funeral is beautiful. It's like a reunion. I see people I Haven't seen in years, some of whom I don't know how anyone managed to track down, when I lost track of them years ago. Gwen opts to stay with the X-Men, and though the others go back to the Brotherhood, they part on good terms. I know Gwen could see me if I wanted her to. But all I do is leave her with a message to tell Chaki that I love her, and a little feeling that, I'll be fine. And I will. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.

I turn to the girl beside me, waiting patiently. She's really pale, but also really pretty. I think that if people knew what she really looked like, they wouldn't be afraid of her as much. She fingers the ankh pendant hanging around her neck and says;

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah." I tell her. "Yeah I am."

We start to walk away, and the next thing I hear is the gentle sound of her wings, as she carries me away.

The End