Victor felt alone. It was something that never happened to him. He was always the man who could kill, cheat, and lie for hours on end and never feel the ache of needing companionship. But here he was, listening to his mission's brief with the unfamiliar pang of lonliness filling his being. He slumped in the chair he sat in, Leon shot him a glance from across the room and Victor sent him a dirty look. He was not over the fact that Leon had beaten him and Dezra up even though it was several long months ago. He quickly looked away and Victor turned back to the brief. Wraith was droning on about how they needed to 'be extremely careful' and how 'nobody can know yer there'. Sighing softly to himself Victor tried to focus on the maps he was being shone.
Several other guys in the room were newbies, they'd obviously never gone on a stealth mission before and he could smell their nervousness in the air. One guy in particular was sweating heavily, the scent of fear was thick in his nostrils as he took a deep breath. Turning back to look at the guy he was not surprised at what he saw. The man was medium sized, not tall not short, not fat or skinny. The sweat was dripping off his face in big droplets, his pits were soaked and so was the area under his neck. The guy's brown eyes met his shocking blue ones in a heated glance, the other guy's eyes widened before he passed out and Victor chuckled.
"What's so funny 'Tooth?" Wraith asked him as he ordered some men to take the guy back to the training barracks.
"Ya got some pretty whimpy guys, newbies." Victor looked around the room inspecting each and every guy, some of them were undaunted by his gaze but the majority of the room were either shaking viciously or sweating heavily.
"I don't got any other choice, mosta tha stronger guys left after ya and these kids are still in trainin'." Wraith's answer was expected by Victor and he nodded.
"I figured, these guys are shakin' in their boots." Victor chuckled as he watched another guy faint. He looked at Wraith now. "These guys won't last one minute on tha field, let me train 'em, I'll give ya prime soldiers by tha end o' tha month." Wraith contemplated his suggestion for a minute and then nodded.
"Ya can have 'em, but ya gotta wait 'til tha end o' tha mission first."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Jade woke up wrapped in JJ's arms, her hair was laying across his face and she wondered idly how he could breathe with her hair up his nose. Shifting her body so she slipped off of him and onto the bed she pulled her hair off of his face. JJ started to wake and she rested against his arm. His shocking green eyes opened and stared into her blue ones.
"Morning JJ." She whispered against his cheek as she kissed him lightly. He grunted in response. Guess he's not a morning person. "Thanks for staying with me last night." He awoke more now and kissed her back on the lips.
"No problem." His voice was gruff from disuse but still deep and wonderful in Jade's ears.
"It means a lot to me though." She felt tears welling up in her eyes again and she fought to push them back. JJ brushed his thumb across her cheek as a tear slipped down it.
"I'm always ready to hold you if you need me Jade, don't worry 'bout it." He kissed her cheek once more and looked over her shoulder to see the clock. "Well, I gotta get up now, gotta find a way to get back home."
"Alright." They seperated then, Jade got into the shower while JJ waited patiently for his turn. While JJ showered Jade dressed in her X-Men uniform. The uniform consisted of knee high pliable, heel-less, black boots, tight black shorts with a black belt that held several utilities of hers. Her black top was halter strapped and ended just above her belly button. The Professor had objected to someone so young wearing such tight clothing but she had fought tooth and nail to wear whatever she wanted to wear. Pulling her red hair into a tight braid she tied the end with a rubber band and then tied a black ribbon over it. She was putting her black, fingerless gloves on when JJ exited the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Blushing deeply she looked away and listened to him chuckle softly.
"Sorry 'bout that Jade, gotta remember this isn't my house." He went back into the bathroom and Jade quickly exited the room. She headed down to the danger room, needing to let off some steam. She had so much restless energy inside of her and she felt that if she didn't let some of it out she'd blow. Reaching the danger room she tested the door but it was locked, going up the control she figured she'd watch whoever was in there until they were done. When she looked out the control panel window she gasped. Down there dressed in one of Psilock's spare costumes was her mother.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Dezra woke that morning with lonliness permeating her being. Showering and dressing quickly she met the Professor for a meeting. It was only six when she woke up so her children were not yet ready to wake. He decided to let her and her children stay until they were ready to leave. Going to Psilock's room the purple haired woman let her borrow a spare outfit and she dressed quickly in it. Practically running to the danger room she had set the room on the highest setting. Pinning her long, red hair up she activated the danger room. She fought viciously against the attacking robots and gadgets, blowing most of them away with fire or just fighting fist to fist with them.
She was halfway through with the program when exhaustion began to set in. Fighting harder she ignored the oncoming drowziness. A robot replica of the Juggernaut attacked her and she focused the fire to ignite inside of his stomach. Dezra watched as the flames ate away at his stomach and the rest of his body erupted in the flames she refused to quench. Just as she was about to attack a sentinel the program was shut off. Looking up at the control panel she saw her daughter Jade staring down at her in amazement. Realizing her state of dress she crossed her arms and stared back at her daughter.
"Are you going to come down here and hug me or are you going to stay up there all day." Before her sentence was finished Jade was running out of the control room and bursted through the danger room door.
"Mom!" She screamed as she embraced her mother tightly. The two women hugged eachother for long moments before seperating.
"I've missed you so much Jade, so so much." They hugged again, needing to feel eachother's presence for the first time in long months.
"It's been so long Mom." Tears were welling up in Jade's eyes and Dezra brushed them away with her thumb.
"I know, but don't worry now that we're together again we can all go home."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Victor roared in frustration as he watched Shatter yet again trip and fall right into the pit full of spikes. Shatter was impaled with the metal spikes once more but he pulled away and his body healed back. Victor stormed towards the blonde guy with rage in his eyes.
"That's the fifth time in one hour that you've failed to jump over tha darned pit!" He roared at the man. Shatter stumbled backwards and fell back into the pit. "Make that sixth." Victor mumbled as he reached down and pulled the weak man out of the pit.
"Patron désolé... Je suis un klutz mes excuses... Veuillez me pardonner!" Shatter mumbled in French. The man was from Lousianna and when he was stressed he tended to lapse into French. Victor clamped a hand over the babbling man's mouth and glared at him.
"Slow down and speak english." He ordered the shaking man. Shatter took a deep breath and let it out.
"M' pologies Patron, 'm a lil klutzy no?" His voice was soprano and broken. He was only fifteen and he was still going through puberty, he was the youngest soldier Victor had to train and watching the kid break was not his idea of fun. It just reminded him of Dezra's son Taris.
"It's alright Shatter, just getcher act tagether and try not ta fall in tha pit again. Even though ya gotta healin' factor, I'm startin' ta wonder how long it'll last with tha rate yer hurtin' yerself." He half smiled at the boy and watched as the boy visibly relaxed. The boy was tall, only two inches shorter than Victor, with blonde hair, hazel eyes and that cajun accent he was a lady killer. Victor had wondered where the boy had gained the nickname Shatter for a long time until he saw the boy's mutant ability. He shot glass projectiles out of his fingers with just a thought, he was dangerous to get pissed off but he was a softie and at this point in time wouldn't hurt a fly. He'd gone on the last mission with Victor and stuck to the much larger man like flies to garbage.
Victor didn't regret taking the boy in as his apprentice though. He was a sweet young man and was amusing with how often he got into trouble. He found himself getting attached to the trouble maker and he knew that it would hurt like hell when the boy had to go on his first mission by himself. He knew Shatter wouldn't last long in the army but he would do his very best to help him survive.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
(A/N) Well here we are yet AGAIN. I was thinking last night that maybe it was a bad idea to cut the fic off so quickly so I decided to pick the story up again. Forgive those of you who liked the ending but it was just rubbing on my consciousness and I HAD to start it again. So I'm sorry! -Sabeybaby
translations
Patron désolé... Je suis un klutz mes excuses... Veuillez me pardonner! Sorry Boss... I'm a klutz my apologies... Please forgive me!
Patron, Boss