Chapter 11

It was somewhat of an understatement to say that there had been an interest in the attack on Bayville. Media circus was a more accurate way to describe it. It had been a great many years since a town had been so wholly demolished, beyond repair. Even now, many days after the memorial service had been held for the victims of the violence, reporters were still encamped in and around the area, getting interviews with whoever would give them, trying to shed some light on the attackers.

The fact that some of the people involved in the attack had huge knives grafted to their arms or could melt metal with a touch did not escape those who witnessed the scene that Sunday. As a result of this, mutants had not really come out of the incident very well. Mutants were a shaky subject amongst the general public already, and so once their 'full destructive potential' (as leading politicians deemed it) had been demonstrated, fear and outrage became focused wholly on the mutant species. Common opinion was that the mutant attackers were violent human haters, bent on wiping out humanity as a whole.

The scary part was that they were actually quite accurate in saying this.

Apocalypse was not troubled by this abundance of bad press. In truth he was profiting from it. Every day brought new followers trudging into his camp, having sought them out to join him in his quest. Apparently the news reports had served not only to insight public fear and hatred of mutants, but also acted as an advert for those mutants who hated humans.

So it was that Apocalypse began to rebuild the army that had been sufficiently damaged after the Bayville attack. But he had learnt things in the wake of that Sunday. For one thing, he had learnt that destruction or humans on their own really was as easy as it had been so many years ago. The silly mortals were just as helpless, just as useless in defence as they always had been. But the other mutants, those who would deign to oppose him; they had grown in strength.

It wasn't just lucky chance that enabled them to beat his forces. His men were trained in acts of violence, skilled in the art of hatred. But this made them disloyal, bandied about mistrust between them. When they took on a fight, they wanted to do it alone, and this decreased the likelihood of success in combat. To remedy this, Apocalypse had installed a new aspect to his teachings. The emphasis was not put upon working as a unit to destroy humanity, like a crusade. He encouraged companionship between the men somewhat, and organised them into teams. He gave each group small tasks of destruction, sending them to nearby houses and towns. Smaller attacks became commonplace but escaped major news because of the remoteness of the targets.

This was all Apocalypse could accomplish for the time being. He could not yet risk another grand scale encounter with the real opposition. That was his final lesson. He had learnt not to underestimate the little girl who had inherited the power. She was young, and inexperienced, and could be beaten, but Apocalypse would have to put his all into the fight, and to do that he needed an army behind him upon whom he could depend to win a battle.

So the training continued, and the army got stronger, and Apocalypse carried on waiting.





Mystique was awake at night again. Everyone was back in the house, which was surprising because Kitty was supposed to be out for the night and she had the sneaking suspicion that Pietro and Lance had intended to stake out the house she was staying in.

These had been confirmed when the three of them walked through the door, the two boys looking to Logan sheepishly. The older man shook his head, before walking away.

Mystique had smiled at them. 'So..' she asked, drawling as she had done when it was just her and the brotherhood, 'did 007 and 008 fail in their mission?'

They looked mortified. Some of the others who were still up heard from the kitchen and started laughing. Lance looked crestfallen. 'Were we really that obvious?'

Mystique nodded solemnly, 'we knew your plans even before you did.'

Kitty giggled and touched Lance on the arm, moving out the room, He followed behind with Pietro, the two of them starting up an argument as to who would be 007 and who would be 008.

Rogue, Kurt and Scott came back fairly soon after, looking as though they'd had much more success in their plans than their friends. Rogue gave her mother a quick glance before she disappeared up the stairs; Kurt and Scott remained awkwardly behind.

They stood for a few moments in silence, before Scott had been unable to keep up the sober expression and ran out the room to a place where he could bask in his own happiness.

Alone, Kurt looked at his toes, before glancing at the spot Rogue had hastily vacated. 'She's all right you know,' he mumbled, 'better than she was.'

Mystique nodded slowly, for want of anything else to do.

'She just um, needs time you know.' he bumbled on bravely, 'we're still pretty new as a family.'

'Just keep taking care of her,' Mystique said slowly, before adding 'son'.

Kurt looked a bit bemused, as though the words were somewhat alien to him, before he fell back into goofy mode and saluted her strictly, before bounding away to berate a Tabby who had been rather creative in her pranking.

'Night mom' he called on his way out the room.

So it was that Mystique was now half smiling, half frowning. It felt like she could never be close to both her children at the same time. The moment she was getting on with one, the other seemed to drift out of reach.

She decided once again that caffine was the answer to her sleepless nights, and as she padded softly down the steps she reminded herself to stock up on more coffee when she went to the store the next day.

Marvelling at how domesticated she had become since taking on the care of so many teens, Mystique settled herself down on one of the kitchen chairs and breathed in the aroma of her drink.

Of course it was tradition that her nighttime wanderings should be interrupted, but this time the intrusion was more desired than previous ones had been.

Rogue looked genuinely surprised to see her mother seated at the kitchen table. She made a hesitant gesture towards the thin that was thinning in content.

'Couldn't sleep, just came down for a snack.' She said quietly. She pulled the door open as quickly as possible, and was well on her way out the door before she spoke again. She seemed to make a decision, and put the food on the table so loudly that it made Mystique jump slightly.

'Actually I didn't come down here for food, I came down here because I knew you were downstairs. I just wanted to say sorry, you know, for what I said to you earlier.'

Mystique looked deep into her mug. 'Apology accepted.'

Rogue looked slightly taken aback, as if she'd been waiting for something more. 'Um, all right then, I'll just go back to bed, see you in the morning and everything.'

Mystique nodded, and Rogue turned around again. She'd made it two steps before she burst into tears. Her mother was at her side in a second.

'Shhh' she said soothingly, 'it's all right, don't cry, it's all right.'

Rogue broke away from her and banged her head violently on the fridge door, her face darkening into a sorrowful scowl.

'I can't keep doing this!' She shouted hoarsely, as though she'd played this scene a hundred times before. 'I can't keep crying! I can't keep making people sorry for me! Making me sorry me! It just makes everything so much harder!' she screamed the last part, before she stopped the violence and turned to face a stunned Mystique.

She looked at her mothers face and her hands flew to her mouth as though she were a child that had just done something very bad.

'And I'm so sorry mom. I'm sorry I said those things, and I hurt you, and I let you down.' her lip trembled. 'And I'm so sorry I'm not strong enough for you, I'm just so, so sorry.'

Mystique closed the distance and threw her arms around her, overcoming her shock at such an outburst. Stroking her daughter's hair, and sheltering her from any harm there might be lurking in a kitchen at one in the morning; her own voice began to shake a little.

'shhhh, shhh it's all right, there's nothing to be sorry for, everything's all right.' She murmured, not sure if she was getting it quite right, she seemed to be repeating herself a lot, and not a huge amount of what she was saying was really that useful.

She pulled away a little so she could see Rogue's face. It was tormented. 'Never tell me you're not strong enough again, hear me? You are strong, you are so strong, and I am so, so proud of you.'

Rogue had stopped crying, she was taking deep, shuddering breaths that rocked the cool silence of the room. She did calm down though, and stood quite like the calm after a storm.

When she had decided that the crying was over for the night, Rogue broke the contact, sniffling slightly.

'I'm sorry' she said, then laughed slightly, 'maybe that wasn't the right phrase.'

Mystique laughed louder than she would have done normally, and sobered quickly. 'Promise me, if you ever feel like this again, you come straight to me, don't worry and keep everything bottled up.'

Rogue carried on laughing, but there was no humour in it now. 'That'll be difficult, I feel like this every second of the day.'

'Except when I'm with friends,' she added.

Mystique looked at her as though she were a particularly difficult puzzle. 'What is going wrong Rogue? Tell me, we have all night.'

Rogue laughed again, 'do you have all lifetime?'

'If you need it, then yes.' Rogue laughed even harder.

Mystique was getting nowhere this way, so she launched into the speech she'd had time to prepare whilst Rogue wasn't speaking to her.

'I know that nothing has ever been easy on you. And now, after everything changed, since you got all these new powers, you've been given all these new responsibilities and roles, and I know this must be very hard. I'd imagine most the time it feels as though you have the world on your shoulders.'

Rogue wasn't laughing anymore, but there was a sad little smile on her face as she listened unattentively.

'But it isn't a wait you have to carry alone. Everyone around you wants to share the burden with you. Your family is here, your friends are here, Pietro's here, he's do anything for you. Let us share whatever it is that's happening to you, whether it's trouble with school or trouble with Apocalypse!'

She finished there, because she had the sneaking suspicion that her words were falling on deaf ears.

She was right. When Rogue stood, it was with the same small, ironic smile on her face she'd worn countless times before.

'Sorry mom, but these are my powers, my gift,' she it as though the phrase was a bitter taste in her mouth. 'Quite impossible to share really. But it's nice to know I have friends, and family.' she finished as the expression on her face became far more genuine.

She looked away a bit, and the visage twisted again, to that sly expression she felt showed her relation to Kurt.

'All the family's missing is a father. Night mom,' she said, breezing quickly to the door and yanking it open. Logan came stumbling through, managing to preserve some shred of dignity by not falling completely over.

Rogue raised her eyebrows at the pair of them before disappearing into darkness.

Mystique too was looking at Logan with a quizzical stare. Logan had the grace to look slightly flustered.

He looked behind him, taking a moment to settle back into character. 'What is it with the kid.' He asked gruffly and quickly, pointing vaguely behind him. 'One minute she's pushing you away, the next she lets the flood gates well and truly open.'

Mystique was still looking amused, Logan looked down.

He said 'I'll just be going' as she asked whether he'd like some coffee.

He changed his mind awfully quickly. 'Erm, yeah that'd be good.'

They could hear laughter coming from up above them.



Looking at Rogue Monday morning, you would have had absolutely no idea of the scene that had occurred in the night. She laughed with the others, raised her eyebrows curiously at Kitty's over enthusiasm to get to school, pulled Lance aside to quietly apologise for everything, and smiled at Pietro as if everything had suddenly slotted back into place in her life. Only this time, under close watch, Mystique was able to see just what it was that had been troubling her about Rogue's behaviour, other than her lapses into tears and shouting.

There was an air of going through the motions about her, something almost automatic in her words and gestures. Funny enough, Mystique felt that the only time Rogue was being herself was when she was crying or shouting.

But she played along, and she let herself be fooled into thinking her daughter was happy again. The attitude certainly fit in with the other mutants that morning. Kitty seemed particularly pleased with herself, as though she knew something that the others did not. Pietro was happy simply because Rogue was happy, and Lance was grateful that Kitty hadn't slaughtered him for spying on her. Scott was still bouncing off the walls from his date with Lydia, Kurt and Tabby were conspiring and giggling in the corner, and Bobby and Amara were swapping nervous glances.

This attitude stretched onward throughout the journey to school. By the time the cars pulled up at the gates they were all ready to pile out and were bizarrely eager to begin the new week.

If only had continued till the end of the day.



The moment Kitty darted out the car and ran into the building, shooting furtive glances all around her, everybody knew something was very definitely amiss. They all caught up with her around fifteen minutes later, when they saw her putting a stack of paper in tray that was normally used for storing the school newspaper. She left the scene quickly, and watched, giggling from afar as people began to pick up the pages, and gasp at their contents.

The others moved in curiously, and Lance wrapped his arms around his girlfriend with a quizzical face. She giggled and handed him her own copy of the pages. Lance looked down and his eyebrows shot over the top of his forehead.

Extracts from the diary of Lorna Baker

New students arrived today. Most the guys are pretty hot, but they've all got these girlfriends, who're either freaks of trailer trash. One of them was really getting to me, so we 'made friends' with her dweeby best friend Pryde to piss her off. This is going to be fun!

Can't believe Cheryl's new hair, if it were any more wild she'd have birds nesting in it. Friend she may be, but when will that girl get a clue?

And so it continued. Lance felt his jaw drop and Rogue looked up from her own copy to Kitty, her face a mixture of disbelief and admiration, echoed by all the other mutants.

'How long have you known?' Rogue asked her.

'A while' Kitty replied, 'I just thought it would be more fun for me to take revenge alone.'

'You were certainly very exacting with it.' Pietro chipped in. Kitty laughed archly.

'I haven't quite finished yet!' she declared.

As if on cue, there came a screech from further down the hallway, followed by much laughter and the sudden appearance of a furious Lorna Baker. Trailing behind her somewhat reluctantly were her friends; as they too had read her diary extracts.

She caught one look of Kitty and her face turned scarlet, which now clashed terribly with her hair. This was what Kitty had promised. Instead of the platinum blonde locks she usually wore, Lorna had something on top of her head that resembled a lawn cutting. Kitty had dyed her hair bright green.

Those who had been waiting years to see Lorna shown up clapped and laughed with glee, and this only incensed Lorna further. She stalked up to Kitty with her finger pointed accusingly.

'Pryde' she hissed, and the rest of the hall went silent immediately. 'What the hell have you done?'

Kitty feigned innocence. 'Me?'

This just made Lorna even angrier. 'Yes you, you dweeby bitch! My hair and my diary. How the hell did you do it?'

Kitty gave up the act, and looked at her old 'friend' with a grim smirk on her face. 'That's what you get when you try to use me to get back at someone else Lorna. And whatever it is that made me a bitch, it's safe to say I learnt it all from you!'

Lorna stood there breathing heavily for a bit, and then screamed. 'Out with it Pryde, how did you get ahold of these, things.' She still wasn't prepared to concede to the fact that her hair may be coloured falsely.

'Does it really matter now Lorna.' Kitty said fluttering her eyelashes sweetly. She let her gaze flick upwards to the girl's disastrous hair, and giggled a little. 'Hasn't the damage been done?'

That did it. Lorna ran forward, and shoved Kitty as hard as she could. Not prepared for the contact, Kitty was unable to steady herself, and went tumbling backwards.

This was when things started to get really unfortunate. Kitty couldn't stop herself from hitting the wall so close behind her, and falling through it in front of half the school.

Lorna wasn't the only one shrieking, and judging by Kitty's face as she climbed back through and straightened herself up, she had fully grasped the gravity of the situation she was now in.

Lorna now had the advantage in the confrontation. She looked at Kitty triumphantly. 'You're one of those mutant freaks aren't you?' she screeched. Kitty looked down and couldn't speak. 'That's how you did this to me, isn't it?'

Kitty was again lost for words, and was also losing support in the fight. People began to think to themselves, if she can do this to Lorna Baker, what could she do to me?

The atmosphere in the room was not so usual now; it wasn't about a catfight between two teenage girls anymore. The thoughts of the crowd became voiced in harsh whispers, and people were joining Lorna in glaring at Kitty. For the first time since the whole thing began Kitty looked frightened.

Lance chose that moment to step into the fray. He pushed his way through the crowd and placed a comforting arm round Kitty's shoulders. 'Yes, Kitty is a mutant. So am I.'

As if to prove his point, he held out his hand and knocked Lorna to the floor. The crowd around them was getting nastier. The other mutants looked unsure of what to do. Lydia was looking at Scott's glasses curiously.

Rogue waded in. 'I'm a mutant too.' She said. The others followed in; Scott threw a glance in despair at Lydia. 'We all are'.

People around them began to shout, the jocks were getting ready to rush forward. Rogue leant in.

'We need to get out of here as quickly as possible, doing as little damage as possible.'

The others nodded. Kurt held onto as many people as he could, getting ready to port. Everybody else stood ready.

The crowd closed in, and they moved into action. Kurt ported away instantly, and was back a few moments later to continue moving people out. Rogue held up her hands and concentrated, creating a barrier between them and the 'normal' students. Kurt continued porting people out of there, and Rogue, gritting her teeth in concentration, shouted out to Pietro. 'Make a whirlwind! Give us some cover.'

He gave a very, very quick nod before carrying out her command. The wind around them grew larger, and the numbers of them left in the building grew smaller. Rogue pushed her way through the chaos and found Lorna. She looked at Rogue as though she were having the time of her life.

'I always knew you were a freak!' she screeched, as though by this she had achieved some small victory.

Rogue cocked her eyebrow, raised her eyes upward, and Lorna with them, and spun her round and round and round until her face colour now matched her hair. She dropped her in the garbage bin.

'Likewise.' She told her, before putting a hand to her pendant and porting away. Pietro was gone a split second later, and Bedford High was empty of all mutants.

From her position in the garbage, Lorna shrieked again.



Back outside the gates, only a little while after they'd entered through them, the mutants gathered together to wander what the hell they were going to do next.

Kitty was crying quietly, the weight of guilt heavy on her shoulders. When Rogue and Pietro arrived, she looked up.

'I'm so sorry.' She said in a small voice.

'They were going to find out at some point.' Rogue said reasonably. 'We can't blame you for others biggotry.' She faced everyone else.

'It was really brave of you all to come forward in that hallway and confess to the world what you are. We have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.'

Scott sighed heavily. 'No we don't, it's just they don't see it that way.' He looked back to the school building where his date was probably trying to recover from the trauma of having gone out with, (and kissed) a mutant. He sighed again.

'We should get back to the house. The town will probably be there to break down the door sometime soon.' Fred said matter of factly. Some weren't sure whether he was joking or not. Most thought not.

They began to walk away slowly, Tabby pulled out a phone from her bag to call the mansion. Scott heard a voice behind him and turned.

Lydia was running towards them, looking slightly out of breath. Scott motioned to the others to carry on without him, and stopped to wait for her.

She took a few moments catching her breath, and then looked him in his glasses. 'You really are one of them aren't you?'

'No.' he said, 'I mean, I am, but I'm me really.'

'I know' she said, 'I'm really sorry about what happened to you guys back there.'

'It happens' he said shrugging slightly. 'I'll see you around, maybe.'

He started to walk away. Lydia still stood there awkwardly. 'What's your power?' she shouted after him.

He faced her, and gestured to his eyes. 'What do you think?'

She closed the distance between them. 'What happens?'

'Red light, anything in it's path is, well it's not pleasant. I'm just a weapon really.' He laughed harshly.

Lydia came even closer, and they were now almost touching. 'I don't think so.'

She reached up to his face and he flinched slightly. She pulled off his glasses gently and he squeezed his eyes shut. She kissed his closed eyelids, and he almost opened them in surprise.

'You have beautiful eyelids.' She whispered. Scott finally smiled.

'I have to go, they'll be there with their pitchforks at the house soon.' He made to go.

'Let's go then. I'm coming with you.'

Scott looked at her as though she were insane. 'You're kidding aren't you?'

Lydia put her hands on her hips. 'Are you going to send me away just because I'm different from you?' she asked lightly.

People were starting to come out the doors to see if they'd left yet. When the caught sight of Scott they began to shout.

He grabbed her hand.

'You're right, you're great, and I'm stupid, let's go!'

They ran off together back to the house.



DISCLAIMER: Characters and situation are property of Marvel and WB

AUTHORS NOTE: It's been a while again, hasn't it? Sorry!! But I've been really busy and I've had lots of ideas for the story, I just have to try and find a way to fit them in!! I was going to bring in the three weird guys, but they didn't quite fit in with this chapter so I thought I'd bring them in at the beginning of the next one, which will be up sooner than this was! Honest! Keep reviewing, it keeps me going!!! Thank you.