Ha! It so didn't take me months to get the next chapter up. Muahaha… My plot thickens. And it only took 14 chapters! Woo! Lol. Ok! Shoutout to all my reviewers!
Agent-G: AHHHH Don't pop your knuckles! Lol I HATE that sound! (I pop my neck too… but my doctor actually told me to stop or I could severely damage something o.O) And it didn't take me that long to get TWO chapters up! Are you proud? You know you are 8D.
Multifan: Mary feels she can trust Amy with anything, so she's gonna tell her pretty much everything. And actually, I haven't been able to keep up with Agent's AGU series, I barely have enough time to do homework these days (is stressed like whoa). And you gotta understand that I'm all about chaos! I'm gonna fit it in when I can .
Howlerdude: See comment above about the whole chaos thing lol… of course Pie's gonna cause trouble.
Fireinu: Let's just say Tabitha didn't appreciate the chair lol.
Brandy Lebeau: Thanks chica!
Ooook! On with the story mah peoples!
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"And you're sure of this?" Magneto demanded from his son.
"Like I said, I didn't believe Lance so I checked it out for myself. Rogue definitely has a sister." Pietro replied impatiently from his seat. Eric sat back in his chair, his brows drawn together in thought.
"I must say this comes as a shock. Mystique never mentioned this to me, is there a chance she didn't know of the child?" The older man thought to himself before concentrating on other things. "That's not the point though. Maybe now my plans will follow through as intended. If we could just get our hands on the sister, Mastermind could alter her memories to make her believe she was betrayed by the X-Men and joined our side…" His thoughts trailed off when he realized his son was still present.
"Yes?" Eric inquired.
"You haven't paid the bills for the Brotherhood. They're complaining that we don't have any food or power." Pietro explained disdainfully.
Eric sighed. He had hoped that Mystique would have taken in the members of the Brotherhood and trained them to be skilled fighters like Charles' students were. Unfortunately, Mystique had failed, and the team was very uncoordinated and quite pathetic at times. That is why he had founded the Acolytes. They were a much better team, although they did have their quirks.
"Alright, I'll write a check." He agreed, hoping to get his son to leave so he could begin to work out the details of his plot he had long since thought had become impossible.
Moments later and Pietro was gone, hopefully back to the Brotherhood and not out to spend the money Eric had just given him. "A sister." He said aloud, his mind calculating each move it would take to capture the girl. He meant no harm towards the child. His original plan had involved Rogue and he had planned to have Mystique train her and then hand her over to Magneto and Mastermind. Once Rogue was in Magneto's care, he would have her mind altered to further the illusions that the X-Men really were the enemy, thereby ensuring that the girl would remain faithful to Eric. He had arranged to develop her abilities so that she could recall the powers she had previously absorbed on command, making her one of the most potent mutants on the face of the earth. With her on his side, the X-Men wouldn't have been as much a challenge as they were now.
Unfortunately, his plans had hit a stumbling block when Rogue joined the X-Men. Eric had still kept his hopes up that he might capture the girl and alter her mind, but he soon realized that would be impossible after the episode with her powers. Once Charles had helped her put the 'psyches' back in order, Eric realized that her mind was incredibly strong because she had learned to lock away the psyches in her mind. To do this required great mental strength, and Rogue had achieved it. To try and alter her mind would have required too much force on her brain and would have led to serious mental damage, rendering her useless to him. But now, he had another chance.
"Siblings usually have similar powers. If the sister's powers are anything like Rogue's, she will be a valuable member of the team. The child must have recently come into her powers as well. This means that she may not have absorbed many mutants yet, and the psyches in her head will be few. The fewer the psyches, the less chance of a breakdown with her powers occurring soon. Hopefully Charles hasn't learned from Rogue's history and begun a training of some sort to build up mental shields against her psyches, and thereby unintentionally building up a defense against strong telepaths as well. If I can set Mastermind on her before Charles begins strengthening her mind, my plan may at last come to pass." He hoped to himself as he paced around his office. "But how…" He paused as he stared out the window into the wilderness surrounding the Acolyte compound. "Do I get to her without Charles suspecting anything?" He finished before racking his brain for the answer.
He knew he would need someone to infiltrate Xavier's watchful eye over his students and get the child. It would take time; Charles would become suspicious if one of his students disappeared shortly after a new face had arrived. No. Whoever he sent must be patient and gain the trust of those at the Institute before snatching Mary away suddenly. Whoever he sent must be trustworthy, and willing to follow his every order. Eric ran through his list of options.
"Gambit? No… He's too old and would most likely be flirting with Rogue the entire time. Damn Cajun. Colossus? No… He's just as old as Gambit. It would be too suspicious." He immediately emitted Pyro and Sabertooth as well, knowing that they would become impatient and be found out before long. Eric lulled over his few remaining options for some time before coming to a conclusion. His choice seemed unlikely, but wasn't impossible.
"Now I just have to convince Pietro to go along with my plans." He sighed, knowing his son would protest the mission.
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Mary had been trying to avoid Tabitha for the days following the incident at the mall. The next morning, Tabitha had awoken Mary with the story that Mary had jammed the balcony door that night and Tabitha couldn't get in after she had snuck out again. Mary had denied the accusation, but Tabitha pointed out the chair. It was all confusing to Mary, and Tabitha had it firmly planted in her mind that Mary had done it on purpose… and now it was time for revenge. It was playful revenge, Mary was sure, but she still didn't want to find any of Tabitha's bombs in her breakfast.
As Mary walked down the girl's corridor, she heard Tabitha humming to herself as she came up the stairs. Thinking quickly, she slipped into Kitty and Rogue's room… hoping to find her sister. "Hey Mary!" Kitty greeted cheerfully as she dug through her desk drawer. It wasn't Rogue…but at least it was someone partially sane.
"Hey Kitty." Mary smiled as she heard Tabitha walk pass the door. A wave of relief washed over her as she heard the blonde walk into their room. "Whatcha up to?" She inquired as she saw the brunette tossing out papers.
"School starts back in a few days, remember? I'm like, trying to figure out what supplies I need and get them before everyone here rushes to the mall." Kitty explained as she pulled out a fluffy pink pen and set it on the tabletop.
A pang of fear rushed through Mary. "School?" That single thought brought forth painful reminders of her last few days at Greenville High. The bullies, the teachers… God how she hated school. "Mary… chill… it's a new beginning here. No one knows anything about you… how bad could it be?" She tried to calm herself, but there was still that distinct feeling of dread.
"Ok!" Kitty said after a moment. "I know what I need so I think I'm going to go ahead and get it. That whole rush before school just isn't cool around here." She explained as she grabbed her purse and started for the door. Mary stepped aside and as Kitty grabbed the doorknob, her eyes lit up. "Maarrry." She said in her valley-girl voice. Mary perked her brow. "Have you gotten school supplies yet? Or clothes for school?" She asked, knowing full well Mary would say no.
Mary began to reply, but was cut off. "No? Now's the perfect time! Come on!" Kitty practically squealed in delight. Mary barely had enough time to run with her before she was dragged down the hall.
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Mary shakily stepped out of the X-van as Kitty pulled into the mall parking lot. Mary had been warned of Kitty's driving, but hadn't experienced it first hand. She watched in shock as Kitty hopped out and walked to Mary, a smile on her face. Once the brunette saw Mary clinging to the side-mirror for stability, her face changed. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"You phased through a bus." Mary replied softly.
"Well! It was either that, or like, hit the thing." Kitty defended.
"You shouldn't have had to do either! That's why they're called stop lights Kitty… they tell you when to STOP." Mary pointed out breathlessly.
"It was so yellow when I went through it." The older girl defended as she crabbed Mary by the crook of the elbow and led her towards the mall. "Ok, so we can easily grab school stuff at the parent teacher store… or something like that. I want to work on your wardrobe so you won't be a spitting image of your sister." Kitty explained as they walked through the sliding doors into the air-conditioned building.
"But… I'm not a spitting image of her. She's pale… and wears a lot of gothic make-up. And she's tall." Mary pointed out obviously.
Kitty perked an eyebrow in amusement as she took in Mary's appearance. She realized Mary was on her way to being pale; she was spending way too much time indoors. Not that Kitty could blame her, it had been warm and muggy outside lately, and with Mary's powers she didn't want to risk absorbing anyone and therefore wore long clothing most days. Long sleeves and humid weather didn't go well together, and Mary was reduced to staying indoors most days, rarely venturing out to see the sun. "At least she isn't wearing the gothic make-up. Like… only Rogue can pull that off I think. Maybe this year I can get her to wear less of it though, she's really pretty without it." Kitty thought to herself as she noticed the dark eye shadow that darkened Mary's eyes.
"Don't even think about wearing the dark makeup. It so wouldn't work to have two Rogues in the house. I would like, have to get onto her for being a bad role model for her sister… and she's really not that tall." Kitty thought for a moment. She came up to about Rogue's nose… so she guessed Rogue was about 5'8. Kitty was 5'5… She looked to Mary and realized the girl was just vertically challenged. "You're just short… don't worry about it." Kitty giggled as they headed in the store for supplies.
Twenty minutes later, they left the store, purchases in bags by their sides. "Ok! Now for the real shopping! Let's do you first… I've already gotten a lot of my things a few days ago." Kitty explained, her smile broadening every second.
"Umm…" Mary began before she was whisked away again. "God help me… if she tries to make me buy pink…" She didn't have time to finish as she and Kitty stormed through the crowd and into a nearby PacSun…
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Hours later, they exited the mall. Mary looked as if she were weight lifting with all the bags she was carrying, while Kitty only held a few. Kitty hadn't tried getting Mary into any of the stores she shopped at, and instead went to a few of the places she knew Rogue was fond of. She had expected that she might have to drag Mary away from all the dark gothic attire, but found that the girl wasn't really interested in most of that. In fact, despite what Kitty had previously thought, Mary and Rogue were more different than it seemed.
It seemed that Mary had tendency to lean towards the more punk line of clothing, although Kitty didn't see much of a difference between Goth and Punk. She had also realized that Mary was a bit warmer to strangers than her sister was, but she had a tendency to flinch away if they made any sudden movements. Kitty knew of Mary's parental situation, and understood that the flinching must have come from that. "I can't believe some people… they have no idea what the do to the kid's psyche." She inwardly scowled. And maybe on a more unfortunate note, she noted Mary's sarcasm was a lot fiercer than Rogue's. Rogue usually glared, scoffed, and scowled to make people avoid her, and only use sarcasm as a last resort. Mary, on the other hand, glared and would make sarcastic remarks. Kitty had experienced it first hand a few days ago, but thought nothing of it until now. "I like, suppose I should be happy she's not a carbon copy… but I need to figure out which sister is worse to get on the bad side of…" Kitty realized as they tossed their things in the backseat and hopped in the car.
Mary yawned as they started down the road for home. "So… are you ready for classes to start back? You're lucky… by the time you got here, it was like, almost Thanksgiving break. Professor didn't want to start you just yet so you got like, an another entire month off." Kitty smiled warmly.
The two-tone chuckled a bit, realizing though that she would have make-up work later. "I guess I'm ready to get back. The first few days there y'all were at school… I was left with books and Logan for company really. Once Thanksgiving break hit, y'all were around too much and I felt like strangling half of the New Recruits. I think school is the middle ground I need." She smiled, feeling that sense of dread returning slightly. "But… is there any information you can give to a new sophomore?" Mary asked hopefully.
Kitty thought for a moment, then smiled. "Just avoid Duncan. He's Jean's ex and a real mutant hater. That… and he's like, just a jerk in general. And if you're in Mr. Ruthig's class, make sure you pay attention; he has a tendency to crack down super hard on the kids who don't. Stick with Tabitha and Amara really… they'll watch out for ya." Kitty explained as they pulled up to the gate of the Xavier Institute and spied Amara in the side yard, flame shooting from her hands as she tried to barbecue Ray.
"… Are you sure they'll protect me?" Mary asked hesitantly.
"… More or less." Kitty said sweetly, hoping she was right.