Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters; please don't sue me I am a poor college student. I am not making any money off of this and I am just writing it for the benefit of my own entertainment as well as the entertainment of the other fans out there. Also, this is a story from my own imagination, any resemblance to real life events, or even those in fiction is completely coincidental. As an additional note, there are so many fan fiction stories out there on this site as well as others, so any similarity is coincidental or great minds just happen to think alike. I do claim the non-Marvel characters, such as the Williams family and the new offspring of the LeBeau and Summers families. Thanks!
Note: I apologize for the spacing and random indents and anything of the sort. When the pages are loaded onto this site everything seems to get a bit messed up. I noticed that single lines get double spaced randomly. Sorry about that.
Through the Years
Chapter 33: Facing Fears
When David and Jessica told their families about their relationship, they couldn't help but notice that no one seemed to be surprised. It was as if everyone saw it coming but them. David joked that having a number of psychics and people from the future coming in and out of the Mansion on a day to day basis probably softened the blow for everyone else. Nathaniel pointed out that not much had changed anyway, they always seemed to have a thing for each other and now it was just out in the open with a title. But David and Jessica's relationship didn't change the special friendship the three of them had together. On the contrary, it almost seemed to strengthen the bond between the three of them.
Gambit and Rogue were thrilled with their daughter's newfound happiness. Having known David since he was in diapers helped to soften any blows that usually come along with a child dating, though it didn't stop Gambit from questioning Jessica every time she went out. But Rogue had already prepared her daughter for this by explaining that Remy was just watching out for her. So instead of getting defensive like a normal teenager, Jessica would apply a little patented LeBeau charm, smiling sweetly, giving her father a hug and kiss on the cheek. Then she'd say something to the affect of "Oh Poppa, don't be silly." Or "Oui Poppa, I'll call if I'm going to be late." That usually helped to appease the Ragin' Cajun, and he didn't have to know that it was a planned act between the two women who loved him most.
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One day in February, Xavier watched Nathaniel as he trained in the Danger Room, monitoring the young man's progress and gradually increasing the programs to fit his growing expertise. The young X-man Blazer was very dedicated to one day becoming a full-fledged member of the X-men and maybe even taking over the role of leader from is father. Xavier couldn't help but note that Nathaniel was so much like Scott at that age in some ways but different in others. Best guess is that Nathaniel is the way Scott would be had he grown up with loving parents instead of in an orphanage. Nathaniel was confident, outspoken, popular, things that his father never was at that age. But both were stubborn, commanding, and ready to do whatever it took for the good of the team. Inheriting powers from both his parents made Nathaniel quite a powerful mutant, maybe not the most powerful in the world, but defiantly up there on the list. He also worked hard at it, practicing almost everyday to hone his abilities. In that respect, Nathaniel had more control and skill over the powers he was given, making him truly a force to be reckoned with.
Thinking of Nathaniel's dedication to mastering the use of his powers made his brow furrow with worry about another young mutant who wanted nothing to do with her powers, Jessica LeBeau. Sure, she acted as a reserve team member whenever help was needed, but she never came to him to learn of her abilities, nor did she ever seem to use her powers much. This was certainly a change from the child who used to use her powers in secret. Whenever he asked her about this, he sense fear from the girl, knowing that she was afraid to know the full range of her abilities, particularly a certain ability she got from her mother. Like Nathaniel, she also inherited great power from both her parents, and with a little training she could be a force to be reckoned with. But she never dealt with the fact that she could absorb energy from people. In fact, he knew that she only used that ability once and that was on Belladonna when she was four and she never talked about it.(1) Ever since then she had experimented with her other abilities, but never tried to absorb again out of fear of what it would do. Xavier knew this was a matter that had to be dealt with. It had gone on unmanaged for far too long. In fact, this worried and perplexed him so much that he cancelled his Danger Room session with Nathaniel for the next day and arranged a meeting with Jessica.
The next day Xavier was sitting in his office intently reading up on Jessica's file. Whereas most of the X-men and the students of the Xavier Institute had neatly formalized records dealing with their abilities, Jessica only had scattered notes about when her abilities emerged, but no one really knew her full potential because she did not work to strengthen it. Xavier put down the folder when he sense his appointment approaching.
"Come in," he summoned as she raised her hand to knock.
Not the least bit disturbed by this since she had grown up around the X-men, Jessica just walked into the room without giving it a second thought. "You wanted to see me Professor?"
"Yes Jessica, please sit down," he said motioning to a chair in front of his desk. The teenager put down her backpack and had a seat. "Tell me, how is everything going? Are you doing well in school, things with David alright?" he asked trying to put the girl at ease.
"Yes, all of the above, good," she said with a perplexed look on her face. "Professor, I don't mean to be rude, but you never psychically contact any of us unless it is very important. I'm guessing you wouldn't have asked me here like that unless it was really important."
Xavier smiled at her, "By growing up with the X-men you and Nathaniel have become so skeptical of everything around you. Don't ever lose that, it's an important and useful quality." Again his tone grew serious. "But you are right; I did call you here for a very important matter." With that he pushed a button to close the door Jessica left open, lest wandering souls decided to eavesdrop by the door.
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Hours later the door opened again. "It's dark out, are you sure I can't get someone to give you a ride home?"
Jessica smiled, "No thanks Professor. I think I'll fly home, it's not that far."
"Very well then, be careful," he called after her as she left the room.
"Oh Professor," she said as she popped her head back in the doorway, "I just wanted to thank you for today. I feel…I feel… well, I'm not sure what I feel, but I don't feel afraid of my powers anymore."
"That was my intention my dear, and I'm glad," he said to her. "You have been blessed with great powers, therefore you should use them to better the world as you see fit, whether it's with the X-men or not. And when you do become a teacher, there will always be a spot here at the Xavier Institute if you decide to teach here."
She smiled at him and nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, and don't forget to bring David with you."
"I won't," she said before flying off towards her house down the road.
Once she left the room he reflected on what had just occurred. After closing the door he asked her what her intentions were after high school, to which she said that she hoped to attend college, she wanted to be a teacher like her father. Xavier then asked whether she had any intentions of joining the X-men as a full time member. She responded that she liked being a reserve member just fine and really had no desire to fight full time the way Nathaniel wanted to. She wanted to make a difference for mutants in her own way by being an educator. Her parents had been reserve member her entire life so he asked her if that had any influence on her decision. She said no it didn't, that even if they had been fully active members the way they had been many years ago, it still wouldn't have made a difference to her. He asked her if this decision had anything to do with how she felt about her own abilities to which she said no. But he sensed that although he was telling the truth, something about his statement troubled her.
After talking with her on the subject of her own abilities, he found out that Jessica was afraid of her powers. She knew both of her parents had times in their lives where their powers acted in erratic ways; in fact her mother was still unable to physically touch anyone except Gambit and Jessica. Jessica figured that the less she used her powers, the less she would know about them and thus the less she would have to fear about herself. Xavier told her the importance of knowing herself and that her powers were just another facet of her life. He got her to talk about her abilities and what she herself knew of them. After all, no one else was a better expert because she knew exactly how they reacted. She was able to explain how she felt very in control of her ability to kinetically charge objects, her ability to fly, and even her limited telepathy which had never fully developed to anything more than the ability to charm, possibly considered to have burned out when she used it to save her life during the encounter with Sinister (2). She also knew that when she felt her powers draining on her life-force that she had to balance it out somehow, usually by transferring some power to another person.
Xavier then questioned about her absorption abilities, knowing that was what truly bothered her. Her response surprised him, and it isn't an easy feat to surprise the most powerful mind on the planet. She said that she had not tried to use that power since the incident with Belladonna out of fear of what it might do. Xavier asked what happened during that encounter. Even if she was only four years old, it was a very traumatic event, so she must have remembered it somewhat. In fact she did recall that day in great detail: she remembered the picnic, playing with her grandfather, how scared she was when Belladonna grabbed her and attacked her family. And she recalled waking up in her grandfather's arms after Belladonna fled. But she didn't recall using her powers. Xavier asked if it was alright to tap into her mind to find out what happened and she gave her consent.
Entering into Jessica's mind Xavier stood in that day in the place of the four year old child and saw it from her perspective with her thoughts during the encounter. He felt her legs running and the wind on her face as she ran to a tree, all the while she was thinking about how she wanted to show her grandfather how fast she could be like a big girl. He felt her terror as she was grabbed by a strange woman who claimed to be her father's wife, which she knew couldn't be true because that was Momma's job. He felt her relief when Poppa said that the strange woman wasn't his wife anymore. After watching the battle with the little girl's thoughts and terror he came to the moment when she used her absorption powers. He knew that from working with Rogue in the past she would feel the person's persona in her mind as their life energy flowed into her and she got the ability to use their powers if they had any. As a result he expected to feel this with Rogue's child. Instead the next thing Xavier saw was Jean-Luc LeBeau's face as Jessica woke up after the incident and began to cry.
Xavier was perplexed by this. He felt Belladonna's life force flow into the little girl, but that was it, no persona, no voices, no powers, nothing. It was as if she couldn't access the powers given to her by another person, she could only steal them. With Jessica's permission he called Wolverine into the office and asked her if she could try to use her absorption on him. Knowing that Wolverine would be able to take it, Jessica obliged and absorbed a little of Wolverine's powers. Xavier then asked her how she felt. Since she was older now she didn't black out. She said that she felt some energy flow into her, but she didn't feel anything else: no personality, no powers, nothing. Xavier asked her to try to use his powers but she couldn't manifest any bone claws, and she wasn't able to use his heightened sense of smell or hearing, and none of them were willing to cause her any harm to see if she had his healing factor. It was a known fact that Rogue's absorption powers were stronger than Jessica's, as a result of Jessica having a weakened form of the ability, maybe she could only take the powers, but not use them.
While Xavier made note of that in her file, Wolverine noticed Jessica growing pale and asked her what was wrong. She said that there was too much power flowing into her, probably as a result of Wolverine's abilities laying latent in her and she needed to expel them somehow. Xavier offered to be the vessel since this would provide him with proof of the second part of his theory. He told her if possible to specifically concentrate on Wolverine's abilities, in other words not to transfer any of the abilities that she was born with, just something else that might be in her. She obliged and Xavier felt energy flow into her. Then he felt a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time. He got out of his chair and he walked, much to the surprise of Jessica and Wolverine. He explained that this proved his theory. Jessica could absorb a person's powers but she couldn't use them, however they all knew she could pass powers to another person since she did it to David on a frequent basis. He assumed that she could pass on someone else's powers, not just those that she was born with. Xavier's temporary ability to walk was proof of Wolverine's healing factor at work on Xavier. It only lasted for a few minutes since Jessica only used her power on Wolverine for a second and Xavier sat down in his hover-chair before he could fall. But now they understood Jessica's full potential. She might not be able to use the powers she absorbed, but maybe someone else could.
For the rest of the winter Jessica was willing to go see Xavier twice a week to work on mastering her abilities. Most of the time David would go with her to be the vessel for the absorbed powers. He would work himself to see how long he could hold the powers on loan and how many he could hold in case in an emergency she needed to pass most of her powers to him temporarily.
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Winter passed into spring before anyone knew it. On the first decent day out, Nathaniel, David, and Jessica decided to hang out on a grassy hill under a tree in the school yard and do their homework there instead of at the Mansion library or one of their houses. Max Cooper skulked out of the school building. Another day of boredom behind him, but tonight there was a meeting of the Youth FOH to look forward to. He was President of the local chapter. It was somewhere he felt important, unlike this place where he was just another face. He was in charge of spreading the word of the mutant menace and how to stop it to the younger Youth FOH members, they looked up to him and he intended to set a good example. He helped to organize groups to run newly discovered mutants out of school, the FOH heads provided names from scans that were done during physicals and Max and his group did the rest. It didn't hurt that their own principal Mr. Desmon was a member of the FOH as well. Laws might legally protect those mutants, but no law matters more to a teenager than the law of social standing. Making the mutant know what an abomination it was aided in the said mutant leaving the school on its own. Max smiled at the thought. What he was doing was good, not only for him but for the future. As he had always been told, once the mutant menace was weeded out of society, then normal humans can get on with life.
As he walked across the school yard he spotted three figures sitting under a tree, working on some homework, talking, and laughing. They were Nathaniel Summers, Jessica LeBeau, and David Williams. He scowled in their direction. He hated them. He hated them for being friends with each other, for being so close that no one seemed to break them apart. He hated them because his parents told him to. They didn't tell him to hate these three specifically, but rather to hate anyone linked to mutants. It was a well-known fact that David's father died defending mutants, which made him guilty and his friends guilty by association.
Across the school year Nathaniel spotted Max out of the corner of his eye. "Uh oh, Mean Max just left the building" he muttered to them. They privately referred to their classmate as Mean Max since elementary school. For nearly their entire existence this boy had incessantly picked on them, mainly David but he would verbally harass the others if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. When they were younger it wasn't so bad, like them, he feared the teacher. But now that they were older, the teacher's opinion of him didn't seem to matter any more. This fact became evident when seconds later Max leapt on top of David and started pounding on the blond haired, glasses wearing boy. Jessica and Nathaniel tried to pull him off of David but he managed to get a few shots in on them as well, pushing Nathaniel onto the ground and giving Jessica a black eye. After making sure that Jessica was OK, Nathaniel noticed that David's glasses were broken and his face was bloody. As much self-defense training he might have had with the others at the Mansion over the years, David was still no match for someone that much bigger than himself. Nathaniel realized his own disadvantage, Max was much stronger than even he was; Max was the biggest and strongest kid at school. But if he didn't act fast, he was afraid David would be seriously hurt. Nathaniel looked at Jessica as he said, "I'm sorry but I have to do this," and he blasted Max with a low-grade optic blast. Max was knocked off of David in an instant.
"You're….you're a mutie," he stammered. Why didn't he know that! The FOH would have told him if they knew! And he would have loved making public the knowledge that the school's star football player was really mutie scum. Max abandoned his attack on David and charged towards Nathaniel, only this time he whipped out a pocket knife.
"Stop that! I don't want to hurt you," Nathaniel screamed dodging the weapon. He and Jessica were always taught by their parents and the X-men that they should never use their powers unless it was absolutely necessary. It had been necessary to get Max off of David, but he didn't want to have this escalate into a full blown battle.
"Well I want to hurt you, Mutie! You don't belong in a school with normal humans," his anger took a hold of him and he lunged again.
David looked at his girlfriend, blood streaming out of his nose, "You have to do something, I'm afraid he'll kill Natey." Jessica nodded in agreement knowing what he meant. She momentarily feared using her powers in public, but she knew David was right. Max was acting crazy and if she didn't so something, Natey might get seriously hurt, or worse. So she flew over to Max, picked him up, causing him to drop the knife, and suspended him in the air, "Sorry Shugah, but I can't let you hurt my friends. You're gonna have to cool off!"
"Put me down you dirty mutie!" He shrieked. Her too! If these two had been mutants all along, how many more were there in the school that they didn't know about!
Meanwhile Mr. Desmon, the principal, had been in his office when he heard some commotion outside in the school yard. He saw Max lunged at David and knew he had to get out there before someone got hurt. When he made it outside he was shocked to see Nathaniel Summers shoot a beam of light out of his eyes, knocking Max off of David and then petite little Jessica LeBeau fly up and pick Max up off the ground.
"STOP IT ALL OF YOU," he bellowed. "My office, NOW!" The interruption got their attention. Nathaniel helped David up; Jessica landed and put Max down. Then they all gathered their belongings and made their way to the principal's office.
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The principal made his calls to all the parents, and told them to come to the school immediately. Mutants in the school, but how! They scanned the children every year during their physicals and thought they had weeded out all the muties. They did have a new machine this year that had never been used. Perhaps this will give them the results they needed to expel the mutant trouble makers.
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"Remy could ya get that," Rogue called to her husband from the bathroom in reference to the ringing phone. She had just gotten in the house and all she wanted to do was wash her hands from another day of work with Wolverine. It seemed like everyday there was another vehicle to repair, or the equipment in the Danger Room wasn't working right, or this, or that. If it wasn't one thing it was another. Well, it gave her a steady paycheck, so she didn't care if the constant car wrecks were from reconnaissance missions or teaching the students how to drive. As she was drying her hands she heard Jean's voice tell her "We'll meet you with the van outside in 5 minutes." Jean never mentally contacted anyone unless it was an emergency. There was a hint of worry in her tone. It didn't take her long to figure out why because when she stepped out of the bathroom she face to face with a worried looking Remy.
"Somet'ing's happened wit' the children. We have to get to t'school now," he said. As they made their way outside to the anxiously waiting Mr. and Mrs. Summers, Rogue was certainly glad Scott was driving, because she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the road with all these worst case scenarios running through her head.
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The scene in Mr. Desmon's office was tense. Max, playing up the role of the victim sat with his parents on the right side of the room. David and his mother sat in the middle, and Jessica, Nathaniel and their parents sat to the far left. Before the parents arrived, the students had all been taken to the nurse's office to be cleaned up, however they were also scanned with the newest mutant scanning technology, a device that was smaller than the one that was traditionally implanted in the scale. It was concealed in the principal's hand as the nurse handed out bandages and ice packs. Only Max knew what the Palm Pilot looking device Mr. Desmon held really was.
Mr. Desmon cleared his throat before talking. "First of all, I'd like to say that I am very disappointed at what happened. I like to think of this school as a safe haven from the rest of the world. Violence is not something we condone. However, mutants pose a threat to the mainstream society and I cannot punish Max for self-defense to what he viewed as a personal threat."
At this statement everyone began to talk at once, silenced almost immediately when Mr. Desmon began to speak again. "We scanned Nathaniel and he has shown up as a mutant, something our previous scans of him with the older technology never showed. Jessica's scans show her as a human, but as we have witnessed, she must have powers, perhaps the scanners are not powerful enough yet to see that, which makes her all the more dangerous. We request that for the safety of the other children and the right for them to lead normal lives, that these two be removed from the district."
Knowing that anger wouldn't solve anything, the X-men tried to remain calm but these were their children they were talking about. "What about their rights to lead normal lives," screamed Rogue once the shock of what Mr. Desmon said wore off.
"Not to mention the fact that they were attacked with a knife, they were just defending themselves," argued Scott Summers.
"As mutants, they have no rights in this school, or any other public institute as far as I am concerned," Mr. Desmon said, his prejudice clearly showing. As a public figure he tried to keep it in check most of the time, but it is impossible to hide who you really are.
Max's father Max Cooper Sr stood up and screamed, "I suspect that most of you are mutants as well," he said as he pointed an accusing finger over the parents of the outted mutant children, particular attention was directed at the sunglasses wearing fathers. "Not many people would wear sunglasses indoors unless they had something to hide."
Reinvigorated by his fellow FOH member, the principal ordered, "Now, I want you mutants all out of my school. NOW!"
"We knew this would happen one day," said Jean. "And we have discussed it at great length, and you know what, we will pull our children out of this school, not because you are telling us to, but because we fear for their safety. You are not the ones that need to be afraid, they are. They are innocent children who are pawns of a system that is working against them."
Without another word, Jessica, Nathaniel, David, and their parents got out of the chairs they were sitting in and headed out the door.
"Wait a second David; he called after the blonde boy. "I didn't say that you had to leave. It is apparent from scans and your reactions in the battle that you have no powers. As a human, you are invited to stay in this school. Max will be punished for attacking you of course."
David looked at the man that he was taught to respect and couldn't find any regard for him. He also glanced at the bully who had caused this mess as he spit out the words, "I'll have to decline that offer. I don't want any part of an institution that won't accept my friends just because they are different." Everyone looked in surprise as the shy boy said these words. His mother couldn't help but feel proud of her son, especially when he said his next words. "My father died for their cause, the least I could do is refuse to suppose your prejudiced cause. I might not have super powers. I might always have my friends coming to my rescue like they did today, but I'll find my own way to bring down bigots like you. Someday I will. It's the least I can do." With that he put his arm around his mother and left the building, thus leaving the school forever.
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Now that they were on longer welcome in regular school, the only thing left to do was to admit Jessica and Nathaniel into the Institute. Sure, Xavier hoped that they would be able to complete a regular education, but that wasn't the case. But what about David? Had he not shown the strength of his own character? He heard about how the human teen stood up for what he believed in and was proud that he took up the cause his father died fighting for. He could probably find another school to accept him, he wasn't a mutant, and he wasn't going to manifest powers. Then Xavier got a brilliant idea. Why should his school be limited to students who were persecuted for being mutants? Why not open the doors to those who were persecuted for being the friends of mutants? The goal of his school was to have a place were tolerance and peace ruled in the place of hatred. Why not extend that same tolerance towards humans?
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When Logan heard that his goddaughter and her friends were kicked out of school for being mutants, Ororo had to do a lot of convincing to prevent him from going down to the school and rearranging the principal's face. He couldn't help but get worked up over the situation, those kids were family to him and it made him furious that after all this time, after all the years the X-men put into fighting for mutant rights, that people couldn't live in peace because of a tiny piece of their genetic strand. What really scared him was that if this could happen once to their own children, what would stop it from happening again? What if the next ones persecuted were the Summers' twins or his own little Munroe? Not that those children had any powers, they were far too young to display any signs one way or the other and no one wanted Hank to scan for them. It was better to let nature take its course. What if the next time it was worse, someone was hurt or even killed? He didn't want to think about that. Most people see him as someone who fears nothing, but even the X-man known as Wolverine could be scared by certain things, one of which was of harm coming to those he loved and him not being able to do a thing about it. Every time he thought about harm coming to Ororo, or Munroe, or any of the X-men, he hit the Danger Room projections harder. That was his compromise with his wife. He wouldn't go down to the school and cause a scene; instead he could take out his frustrations running a high level Danger Room session. And judging from the number of Sentinels he had destroyed in this simulation, he was plenty mad.
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(1)- Ch 22
(2)- Ch 24
Author's Note- I will seriously be happy when this semester is over with! I wanted to get this chapter out before finals start since well I know I won't have any time then. Good luck to anyone who has finals or final papers due soon:-)
GiveGodtheglory- I'll take that to mean you enjoyed the update:-P
Calliann- Oh wow, thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you are enjoying this story. I don't know if Jessica and David are up there with Remy and Rogue, I mean those are some pretty big shoes to fill, but I'll honored that you think so! I have fun with them anyway. I hope you keep enjoying this story:-)
Ishandahalf- A Johnny Depp biography eh, I wonder if my one suitemate's seen it. She's a big fan, we have lots of posters up of him in our common room, good stuff, good stuff. I'm glad you enjoyed my twisted love triangle; I wanted to do something different in which one side of the triangle (Natey) wasn't really part of it since well he was never the object of anyone's affection. After all, I already did the traditional triangle with Booby and Jubilee; it was time for something different. Anyway, glad you are enjoying this story:-)
Tammy- Glad you enjoyed the mother/daughter bonding, I was afraid I focused too much on the father/daughter relationship in this story and wanted to make a point in say that Jessica and Rogue are close too. :-)
Quing- Yeah, everyone seemed the think that Jessica would end up having a thing for Nathaniel, but nope, David was the one for her, despite their apparent differences. :-)
Sweety8587- Glad you enjoyed the family bonding :-)
Khitoutsu Hikutsa- Lol, well I can see how people would think they could be related since they are both from the South, have brown hair, cool powers, and similarities like both being adopted. But I'm glad you took the opportunity to read your dad's comics to clear that up! I hope you continue to enjoy this story :-)
Reiyuka- I'm glad you liked what you read so far, I hope you continue to enjoy this story :-)