Chapter 21. Unanimous Confusion.

"We're not going!"

"You are!"

"No we're not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No we're not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No we're not!"

"Yes you are!'

"No we're not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No we're not!"

"You are going!"

At the change in tone, Tabitha and Pietro scowled but didn't shout back. Behind them, Fred and Todd looked quite nervous.

"You are going to school," Lance repeated firmly, looking at the four teens.

"We're not leaving you alone," Tabitha snapped.

"I will be fine! It's bad enough we're staying here, I will not let you miss school for nothing!"

"Since when's school so important anyhow! We ditch all the time, why shouldn't we skip when we actually need to!" Pietro yelled.

"You don't need to! You're going!" Lance's eyes hardened.

"You're going to school, and you will stay there until it's over!"

Pietro glared at Lance, the older teen meeting his challenge with a solid stare. After what seemed like ages, Pietro finally turned, scowling, and slammed the door behind him as he stormed out.

Lance looked at Fred and Todd. "Go after him," he said. After waiting as they obliged, he turned back to Tabitha, who was as stiff as he was.

"We are not leaving you here alone," Tabitha restated, her stance defiant, her fists clenched tightly.

"You're going to," Lance looked at the girl.

"You have to go to school. The guys need you."

"They have Pietro. I'll stay with you. At least one of us should stay with you, if not everyone."

"No," Lance's tone gave no room for argument.

"You're all going to school. And don't skip any classes. I'm serious, Tabitha."

A flash of surprise passed over her eyes when he didn't call her by her nickname. "Don't want to," she finally declared, crossing her arms as she gave him a dirty look.

"You're going. You're going to go to school everyday, study, do your work, and graduate! I don't want you skipping school anymore!"

Tabitha was momentarily taken off guard at the words, she hadn't expected so much. Her eyes flared up in amber fire. "Why are you doing this, Lance! What's so different all of a sudden! Do you want to be one of the X-Men! Do you want us to be X-Men! Because I'm not doing it, damn it!"

"I don't want you becoming an X-Man! And I'm not going to be one, not now, not ever! But you're not going to survive just by fooling around anymore! Take your life more seriously, damn it! Grow up Tabitha, there's more to life than partying!"

Drawing in a sharp breath, eyes wide, Tabitha took a step back, her arms falling to her sides.

Lance sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, sinking onto the bed behind him. Sighing, hands on his head, he looked at the floor for a moment before looking at Tabitha again. "Go to school, Tabby. For yourself. For the guys. For me."


"I can't believe it's Monday again. What happened to the weekend?" Evan grumbled as he walked into the kitchen.

"Ja, but on ze bright side, ve vill have Thanksgiving break soon, and zen vinter vacation," Kurt replied, cutting a piece of pancake from the stack in front of him and putting it in his mouth, along with a piece of bacon.

"Yeah, I can't wait to be on the ramps all day," Evan nodded as he reached for the milk after pouring himself some cereal. "Well, except when we have snow."

"Yah mean all day 'cept when we have snow and the times we have training sessions," Rogue replied as she joined the boys.

"Yeah, and we're like, probably going to have more than usual, too. You know how Mr. Logan is," Kitty agreed as she sat down next to Rogue, taking a plate of pancakes.

"Oh man, you're right. Man, and I thought we'd be free during the breaks," Evan groaned. "Aw man, I'm not gonna have anything to look forward to till summer, am I?"

"That is under the assumption that Logan lets us off easy during that time," Rogue answered before taking a bite of fried egg.

"Vhich he probably von't," Kurt added as he smothered his toast with jam.

"You're all out to ruin my day, aren't you," Evan grumbled.

"They're not going to be that long," Jean assured as she walked in, sitting across Evan.

Scott joined her, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, and it'll be good for us; it's a good chance to improve our skills."

"Says Scott," Evan murmured.

Scott started to reply, but stopped as a trio of figures appeared by the doorway. The three Brotherhood members silently took their seats on the other side of the table, all with different expressions on their faces.

The X-Men waited, expecting a smart comment from Pietro in the least, but when none came, they looked at each other, until Rogue got up and headed over to them. "Good morning tah yah too."

Fred and Todd glanced at her, and gave her a mandatory "Morning", before falling back into their thoughts. Pietro was too preoccupied; it didn't seem like he had even heard her. Close up, Rogue recognized the expression on his face to be one of intense anger, but also extreme confusion.

Not knowing what to do in the incomprehensible situation, Rogue stood there for a moment, then walked back to her seat.

"What is it?" Scott asked.

"Ah have no idea."

"Vhere are Boom Boom and Avalanche?"

"Ah still don't know. Ask them yerself, if y'all want."

"I will," Kitty said, but before Kitty could get up, Pietro jerked up to his feet from the other side, slamming his fists onto the table, his actions making everyone jump.

"I'm-going-to-find-out-what-this-is-about!"

Taking a split second moment to look at Fred and Todd and present the brief explanation for his actions, Pietro ran out the room. Fred nodded to Todd, and the two got up and rushed after the silver-haired boy.

"...Did anyone get that?" Jean looked around.

"Not in ze least," Kurt turned back.

"Something's wrong," Kitty got up and ran to the door, taking the shortest way possible and in doing so, phasing through a chair and the door of an open cupboard.

"Kitty!" Scott let out an exasperated sigh.

"She never learns," Evan murmured.

"Ah'm going after her. Ah want tah know what's going on too," Rogue got up and left.

"Why's everyone leaving?" Bobby asked as he entered the dining room with Sam.

"We don't know."


"Get off my case!" Lance scowled. "I already told you, I'm fine. Can I go already?"

"If you're certain," Hank sighed. "Do you need any more medicine?"

Lance pushed off the table and onto his feet, slower than he would have liked due to his leg.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"...no."

Hank smiled a little, and taking the bottle from his the desk, he shook out two capsules and handed them to him. "You can't take too many at once, especially not so frequently," he explained.

Lance took the pills, looking at them and knowing they would hardly last half an hour. He tossed them in his mouth and swallowed, and then waited to see if the older mutant wanted anything else.

"As we've discussed, you'll have to stay from school today, but that doesn't mean you have to stay in your room all day, feel free to go around the mansion. We want you to make yourself at home."

"Whatever," Lance mumbled before leaving the room.

Hank slumped back in his chair with a sigh. This was definitely a complex situation. He had to admit there were some clear difficulties and it was likely that there would be more, but for now, the hardest thing was convincing Lance that he was not going to die. So far, he had little luck. He had gotten Lance to say it, but he knew Lance didn't believe it. And the teen refused to even talk to any of the other adults, avoiding them with great caution, especially Logan.

Due to his uncertain health condition, they had all thought it might be better for Lance to stay at the mansion rather than go to school. In addition, there was a high chance that Lance would use his powers there, not to mention the fact that they still had no idea how this would develop. They really didn't know anything certain at that. Hank regretted ever telling Lance the possibilities; it had only led from bad to worse to worst. He shook his head at remembering the emptiness in Lance's eyes. When he was with anyone else, especially the rest of the Brotherhood, Lance acted normally, or as he thought he did ordinarily, but when it was just Hank and Lance, the vague flickers of life disappeared from his eyes, and remained blank.

Letting out another sigh, Hank got up and started towards the door, but before he could reach it, it slammed open.

"Tell-me-what's-wrong-with-Lance-I-know-he-knows-something-so-you-must-know- something-too-you-were-the-one-that-told-him-weren't-you-tell-me-what's- going-on-what-the-hell-is-the-matter-with-Lance-tell-me-tell-me-now!"

"...Pietro?" Hank stared at the silver-haired teen that was now drawing in deep breaths; breathes of panic and anxiety, not exhaustion, Hank realized.

"Tell-me-what's-wrong-with-Lance!"

Barely able to understand his words, Hank shook his head.

"We don't know anything yet, Pietro."

"You-have-to-know-something! Lance-knows-something! You-told-him-something- didn't-you! What-did-you-tell-him! Tell-me-damn-it-what-the-hell-is-wrong- with-him!"

"Pietro, we don't know anything for certain yet," Hank said, guessing the meaning of the ramble. He hoped he sounded as reassuring as he wanted to be.

"There's too little information. I will tell you and Lance what I know when I find out. Now you're going to be late for school, please get ready."

"Fine! If-you-won't-tell-me-either-I'll-find-out-for-myself!" Pietro shouted. "And-I'm-never-late-for-anything," he snapped before leaving the room in a blur.

"Oh boy," Hank closed the door to the infirmary as he headed for the library.


"I can't believe we actually came," Pietro murmured. "We didn't even get to find out what was going on with Lance before we left."

"We didn't have time. We'll find out after school," Fred said.

"Yeah, he'll be fine, Pie'. This is Lance we're talking about. It's not like he'd ever really be sick," Todd added.

"Well I still think one of us should have stayed, in the least," Tabitha muttered.

"More like all of us. Why does he want us to go to school anyhow? It's not like this would have been the first time we skipped," Pietro would have gone on, but Tabitha gave him a nudge as she noticed the X-Men looking at them.

"Let's just get through the day without anything. We need to stay low so we can leave the minute school's over, without any problems."

They nodded to her, their expressions a strange mixture of grim determination and anxiety.


"We have to at least try to be nice to them," Scott reminded as they got off the car. "That means no fighting with Quicksilver, Evan."

"Yeah, I got it already," Evan mumbled.

"Ah don't think he'll bother to start anything wit yah today, he was pretty out of it this morning," Rogue said, briefly glancing over at the Brotherhood.

"And I couldn't find Lance, so we like, still don't know what's going on," Kitty couldn't shake off the worry in her voice.

"I don't get what's happening to him. I mean, Jean heard everyone's thoughts and stuff when she had her power surge, but Lance isn't telepathic or anything like that, so how are his powers going faster than he is?"

"We'll have to leave that to Hank and Professor X. Don't worry Kitty, they'll figure it out," Scott supplied.

"In any case, ve should be nice. Lance must be sick or somezing, othervise ze Professor vouldn't have let him stay from school," Kurt said.

"Yeah, you're right. They do look worried, and even without looking at them, I can feel it; their shields aren't too strong when they're emotional," Jean looked at them. "But we can't just suddenly be friendly, everyone at school would think it's strange."

"You're right. Let's just act like usual, but without the fights," Scott looked at them. "And let's keep any eye out. I'll bet some people will be less than disappointed to see that Alvers isn't here," seeing Kitty's expression, he quickly rephrased his words.

"I mean that they'll try to gang up on Toad or something. Jean, keep Matthews away from Toad; we all know he and his friends sometimes beat up on him. Evan, you can keep an eye on him too. Kitty, Kurt, you guys take Quicksilver. Rogue and I will watch out for Blob and Boom Boom."

"Got it," Evan nodded, as did Jean, who was somewhat sidetracked, as she was beginning to really wonder what was going on, with all the things she was picking up.

"And we've got Pietro," Kitty confirmed, as Kurt gave them a thumbs-up.

Rogue nodded, but couldn't help casting a worried glance at the Brotherhood. She was going to figure out what was going on the moment she could get them to talk somewhere privately, that was for sure.