Tears of the Innocents Chapter Two: At Breakfast, a x-men: the movie fanfic

Chapter Two:

It was Gaia who had given him the old photograph, taken just days before the tragedy that had torn into his heart and left him a seething ball of burning rage. Pyro felt an unfamiliar tear on his cheek as he looked at the small picture of the girl he had loved. Angrily he wiped it away, and tried to keep the images out of his mind. Images of Jacqueline, as beautiful and perfect as she had always been, smiling at him – in his mind she was always smiling. She hadn't smiled much in the short time he had known her, but that was all he could remember now, the smiles that had come in the last days when the two of them had discovered love for each other. He could still remember the incredible burst of new feelings that had exploded in his heart when he fell in love with her. He had thought it would last forever, that he could finally be happy. But that, it seemed, was not his destiny. Jacqueline had died, shot in the back by a sub-creature – by a human – and his love had been taken away from him. He didn't remember the towering lust for vengeance, the many times he had cursed and sworn an eternal vendetta on any human who walked the Earth. All he remembered was the love and the loss.

Now, seventeen years later, he had a new love. This however was love of another kind, love of a father for a daughter. He had thought the vast wound in his heart could never be healed, and perhaps it could not, but Gemini was doing her best. In many ways he didn't understand the feelings she had for him. He wasn't her father, hadn't raised her, and hadn't been aware of giving her much attention over the four years she had lived under his care with his other students. He had never expected her to have any feelings for him at all. He had never expected Jacqueline to have any for him either. He had never expected anyone to.

He remembered when he had first encountered Gemini. The ageing Magneto had been asking him to rescue a young mutant who was being held by human researchers. Pyro's instant reaction had been: why bother? It's nothing to do with me. Eventually Magneto got sick of asking and made it an order, so Pyro gave in and went. Angry at being ordered what to do, he had burned the research laboratory to the ground along with every human in it. Each time he set one of them alight he imagined it was the monster who had killed Jacqueline. And in a way, it was. Humans were all part of a multi-headed monster, like a huge world-wide hydra, that sought to eliminate mutant life.

During his pyromaniacal rampage he had found the child that Magneto had been so worried about. She was tiny, about nine years old and small for her age, and he found her huddled in the corner of a very small holding chamber. She wore no clothes and there wasn't a single object in the room.

"All right, come on, let's go," he'd snapped impatiently.

The tiny figure hadn't even moved, and he wasn't even sure she was alive. What a stupid waste of time this would have turned to be if the child was lying in there dead. And for some reason, Pyro found himself saddened by that thought. At first he couldn't think why. Why should he care? She wasn't his kid. He had only come here because Magneto had demanded it. If the kid was dead, well, that was Magneto's problem. He was the one who wanted her.

But try as he might, Pyro couldn't quite get that to sit comfortably in his mind. He hated himself for it, but he began to realise that he did actually care. He was actually upset at the thought of the little girl lying dead inside the cell. But why? Death shouldn't bother him. He had seen enough of it – and caused enough of it – in his time. But he had never seen it like this before. He had never seen a tiny child die, wasting away in starvation, without a hope in the world, without anyone who cared if she lived or not. He had never seen a childhood lost, a person who had never been, a young innocent life taken away before it even had a chance to grow and develop.

Then as he entered the room, his fears vanished. He could see her breathing, weakly and almost imperceptibly. He saw her eyes were open, staring at the wall in front of her.

"I said let's go."

The girl didn't respond in any way, and didn't seem to be aware he was even there. He sighed angrily; he didn't have time for this.

"Come on!" he'd demanded loudly.

At this the child cringed and tried to curl herself into a ball, cowering into the corner. Pyro stopped. As angry as he was, he saw no reason to upset the child unnecessarily. She was a mutant, after all, and deserved to live.

"I'm here to help you, are you coming?" he said, trying to soften his voice.

Other than trembling with fear she didn't move, but he thought he heard a sort of whimper coming from where her head was buried between her knees. He sighed. This could take forever. He'd just have to carry her. She was tiny and probably didn't weigh anything at all. But he didn't want to touch her. The child's nakedness was making him feel uncomfortable, and it didn't feel right to be touching her when she was like that. Pulling off his coat, he knelt down beside the small girl. As he got closer, she tried to press herself even more tightly into the corner, her tiny arms hugging her tiny legs as if she could protect herself. He noticed ugly-looking bruises and incision marks on various parts of her body, and he tried to ignore them. He didn't want to think about what might have been done to her in the name of 'research'. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he gently prised her away from the wall. She made a weak and hopeless attempt to struggle, clearly terrified at being touched. He tried to soften his grip in the hope of calming her, as he wrapped his coat around her tiny figure. It was the gentle touch and the warmth of the coat that finally got a reaction. She looked up, her blue eyes peering fearfully into his. Her mouth opened but no sound came out.

"Come on, I'm going to get you out of here," he said, in the sort of voice he remembered the adults using at the school, so many years ago.

Then a tiny hand gripped his. The girl's mouth was moving as she tried to speak, but made no sound. She whimpered. Perhaps she had forgotten how to speak. How long had she been kept here like this? Pyro stood, and helped the girl to her feet. His coat hung loosely over her shoulders but it was better than the nothing she had had before. She squeezed his hand tightly, but he wasn't in the mood for that. He just wanted to get out of here and get her to Magneto. He pulled his hand free. The girl swayed as she tried to stand independently, but she lost her balance and fell to her knees. He helped her up again and she fell again – it became clear that her legs had no strength and could not support her. She looked up at him and gave the soft whimper again, clearly appealing for help. His impatience was rising again. He didn't have time to stand here while the girl tried to get her legs to work. He lifted her into his arms and headed for the exit. Contented and reassured, she had fallen asleep in his arms on the way out.

She hadn't woken until they were back at the island, where he'd given her over to Magneto and assumed his job was done. Only it wasn't. It hadn't taken the girl long to regain her strength, and soon she was following him everywhere and expecting him to have time for her. She began to show off her powers of duplication, and often there were two of her running around after him. It was impossible to explain to her that he wasn't going to look after her, that her rescue hadn't been his idea, that he really just wanted her to go away and leave him alone. She still couldn't speak or understand a word. At first he was angry. He hadn't wanted to go rescue her. He'd been coerced into it. And now that he had done so, the stupid kid wouldn't leave him alone and wouldn't take a hint.

But at the same time, he found himself starting to enjoy the attention. Few people had ever had much time for him. Nobody save one had ever really tried to understand him. Nobody had ever respected his desire to be his own man, to do things the way he thought was best. They had always tried to make him change to suit their own ideas. They had always assumed he didn't know what he was talking about. Nobody had really ever accepted him for who he was. In a way, the child's innocent unconditional love was something he had never felt before – and something that he found he could not do without quite so easily. By the time she had started to slowly regain her speech and understanding, he had suddenly lost the desire to tell her to go away. He was so used to having her around that he had almost forgotten what it had been like before she arrived.

She wanted to play together and have fun, to enjoy the freedom she had been denied for so long, so he took her down to the beach and taught her how to swim. He encouraged her to practice using her duplicating power, and showed her how he used his own mutation. It seemed so natural to be spending time with her that he never even thought about how odd it seemed for him, of all people, to be caring for this child. He hadn't thought of himself as her father. She, on the other hand, clearly had done, ever since that first day in the laboratory. One night they had stayed up late to gaze up at the stars, and he had pointed out all the constellations he knew. Eventually they had gotten to Gemini…he couldn't remember which of them had suggested it as a name, but with her duplicating power it seemed perfect. She had called herself Gemini from that night on.

It had taken her four years to summon up the courage to ask him to be her father, and to officially adopt her as his daughter. He'd wanted children. He'd wanted to have a family with Jacqueline. That chance had been stolen away from him. He hadn't hesitated in agreeing to adopt Gemini. The bond of a father and daughter had finally been sealed between them. Even now, at fourteen, the age when children tended to feud with their parents and drift away from them, her devotion to him was still unwavering. She greeted him happily every time they met, and sometimes she would walk up and cuddle him for no apparent reason other than she loved him. In some ways, she was still that tiny little girl he'd first set eyes on that day.

He looked at the picture once more. Jacqueline was gone. There was no way to go back in time and change what had happened. There was no way to send back a warning of what was going to befall her. But if there had been…if there had been some way to accomplish the impossible and travel back to the past…he knew he would have done or given anything to be able to use it. Anything and everything.

If looks could kill, then Marina would have dropped dead the very instant she entered the dining room that morning. As would Gary, walking by her side. From a table in the corner, Cassandra narrowed her eyes resentfully at the pair of them. She hated Gladiator for his lies and his false promises of love. She hated Aqua for stealing away the man to whom Cassandra had pledged her heart and her future. She hated seeing the two of them together, sharing the love and the happiness that Cassandra had had stolen from her. She clenched her fists angrily, and wished there was some way she could act on her feelings, some way she could make them sorry. She wished she was a telepath who could mess with their minds and make them hate each other. Or a telekinetic who could use her power to hurt them. Or somebody like Cyclops who could melt them with a glance. Or somebody – Vertigo, Wolverine, Shock, Pyro, anybody – who had some way to use their powers to attack. Cassandra hated the uselessness of her mutation. True, it allowed her to see into the future…but she had never foreseen any further than a few minutes in advance, and it wasn't as if she could consciously activate her power, or turn it on and off as she wished. It was spontaneous; when danger was near, she would see it happening before it did. And it wasn't even as if she could change the future. She was shown only what was definitely going to happen. It was up to her to use that information to protect herself. If, for example, somebody tried to hit her in the face, she would only foresee that they were going to try. She wouldn't foresee whether or not they succeeded. All she could do was try to dodge or deflect the attack. It had saved her life on numerous occasions, but still…she just felt so completely useless compared to the others, even the little children.

"Hi," came a voice, as somebody with his breakfast tray sat down across from her.

She glanced up. Helios. What was it he liked to be called? Oh yeah. Dominic. Not that it mattered. Cassandra had no use for human names.

"Hey," she responded dully, without enthusiasm, listlessly chasing her last few flakes of cereal with a spoon.

"Something wrong?" he asked, hearing her tone of voice.

"It doesn't matter…" she said languidly, gazing at the surface of the table without interest.

"OK…oh hey, don't forget it's our turn to help out with the little kids' swimming lesson today."

"Huh," Cassandra muttered, then she raised her hand to stab an accusing finger across the room at Aqua. "Why can't she ever do it? She's the one with the water powers. Can't she ever do anything useful?"

Helios glanced over at Aqua, who sat at the far side of the room between Annie and Gary. Probably the safest place on the planet for a person to be. He said, "Well, you know she's got problems, don't you? She can't really interact with the littl'uns well enough."

The foreseer snorted, "She's got problems. That's all I ever seem to hear nowadays. Everybody's got fucking problems. We deal with them instead of making excuses out of them."

Surprised at the uncharacteristic swearing, Helios looked uncomfortable. Avoiding her eyes, picking his words carefully, he answered, "Well, it isn't always that simple. Some problems aren't that easy to deal with. Like this, it takes time."

"What happened to her anyway?"

"Her family died. They were on a boat trip off the Florida Keys. Something went wrong and the boat sank. There was no time for anybody to get to safety. They died, every one of them. Except Marina – she found out she could breathe underwater and she survived. Rescuers pulled her to safety and she found her way here."

"What happened to the boat? Why'd it sink?"

"She doesn't know. I guess they must have hit a rock or something."

"Hmm. What about you, how'd you end up here?"

"My parents died when I was a baby," he said. "I was taken into foster care, and somehow my new parents found out about this place. When I was twelve, the British government started putting all sorts of laws into place to 'monitor the mutant population', as they put it. I was sent here for my safety. I still call my mum and dad every week and talk to them, but we all agreed it was best that I live here. You?"

Cassandra took her eyes off the girl she hated, and looked at Helios, "I was abandoned at birth. My parents – human, of course – had tests done and they discovered I was a mutant. I lived in an orphanage until I was twelve – all the other kids knew I was a mutant, of course, and they did their best to make life a living hell. They told me mutants were scum who didn't deserve to exist; I didn't know any better, so I believed them. Then one day a man came to the orphanage and we were told he wanted to adopt one of us. Everybody was really excited because he was well-dressed and arrived in his own helicopter. He had to be fabulously rich. The human kids all said I was the last person he would want to adopt, and I knew they were right. I didn't even let myself hope. But then he took me aside and said he wanted to foster me. I couldn't believe it; I asked him if he knew I was a mutant. He said of course he knew, he was one too, that was why he was interested in adopting me."

She smiled, "It was Pyro, of course."

"Ah. You mean he's your father?"

She gave a shrug, "Legally, I suppose he is. We don't think about each other that way. I've never had the same kind of bond with him that Gemini has."

"Yeah…I noticed that too. What's the story between them?"

"I don't know. Ask her."

"I don't really know her well enough to speak to her."

"Well, you don't know me either, do you?"

"I suppose not…"

They fell silent. Helios began eating and Cassandra, lacking any appetite, picked at her food, her gaze moving back over to rest on the two objects of her dislike.

Marina glanced over to see Cassandra's look of hatred being directed towards her. The aquatic girl quickly looked down at her plate. Nervous and a little upset, she began tracing little circles on the surface of her empty dish with the tip of her fork. She wasn't sure what her feelings towards Cassandra were. She had felt a little guilty at first when she saw how unhappy the other girl was, but she felt the foreseer's subsequent resentment was out of order. Gary had met Marina first, known her longer, and declared his love for her earlier. Cassandra had no grounds whatsoever for claiming that Marina had stolen him away. Besides, it was Gary's choice. If Gary had decided to go with Cassandra, Marina would have accepted it. She'd have been heartbroken and tearful, but she would have accepted it. Cassandra had been treating her like dirt ever since Gary and the rest had begun staying permanently at the school. She had no right to do so. She was jealous…it was as simple as that…it was so stupid. She should just get over it and leave Marina alone.

"Marina?" she heard Gary's voice.

She looked up, and forced a smile on to her face. She loved him, she knew she did, and she was happy being with him. But at the same time, she found it hard to smile, to relax…her mind was too troubled, too fragile. She was too anxious and too distressed for her mind to be at rest. Her horrific and painful memories were still the dominant force in her thoughts. Sometimes she could make herself think about other things, but she could never really push the memories out, or stop thinking about them. Everything her life had been based on was now lost, and she was trying to rebuild herself from inside. It was not something a teenager's mind was designed to do. Building psychological foundations was something that was supposed to happen when you were a baby. Marina only hoped that she was not forever unbalanced.

Gary's knee playfully nudged against hers under the table, and she instinctively tensed and drew herself in, her smile fading and her gaze dropping to her plate. But then she stopped herself. It was her natural reaction to shy away from the unexpected. She was still relearning how to handle everything that happened to her. Bodily contact made her especially nervous. But she knew how to deal with it now. She smiled shyly at him, and brushed his knee with hers in return. Gary's hand slipped down underneath the table to rest gently on her thigh. She blinked in surprise. No. That was too much. That didn't feel right. That was too intimate when other people were around. She shook her head at him, and he lifted the hand away, "Sorry."

Marina didn't say anything. She was worried. She knew Gary loved her, or at least he had loved her. But he was changing now. He was not the same person he had been when they had first begun dating. He wasn't changing because he wanted to; as far as she knew he couldn't help it. Something had happened – Marina still didn't know for sure what it was; they had never fully explained it to anyone. Whatever it was, it had resulted in Annie and Gary absorbing part of each other. They now shared each other's powers, personalities and even consciousnesses.

It had obviously changed them. She knew that much. Were they acting any differently? Yes. Sometimes. Sometimes they would get mixed up. Sometimes Gary would think he was Annie, or vice versa. Sometimes Annie would wake in the morning, confused and trembling, as their waking brains would get confused, and they would wake up in each other's bodies. It was a strange experience to be speaking to Gary's mind inside Annie's body, but it would only last a few seconds before they got straightened out, and she would be Annie again.

Marina didn't have the confidence to ask them about it – she thought it might be a private thing they wouldn't want to discuss – so she could only go on her own observations. She often watched, trying to draw conclusions from what she saw. But she was worried. If Gary wasn't Gary any more – if there was some of Annie in there too – what did it mean for his feelings towards Marina? Did he still love her? And if Annie wasn't Annie any more, if she was partly Gary, what if her feelings had changed? What if she was starting to share his romantic feelings for Marina? That was really scary. She knew Gary didn't like it much either. She put her hand on top of his, and squeezed gently.

Gary was glad of it. He squeezed softly in return. He too was afraid, afraid of what was happening to him and his sister. It had been happening on and off over the months since the absorption. The first time, it had been one of the most terrifying experiences he'd ever known. He remembered every detail:

He'd woken from one of those haunting dreams of nuclear apocalypse, and knew instinctively that something felt wrong. In fact, he was struggling to find something that felt right. Everything felt completely bizarre, and he thought he had to still be dreaming. As he came to full consciousness, he sat up and opened his eyes.

Seeing a nightdress-wearing girl in his bed, he was confused. Why was there a girl in his bed? Was it Marina? He didn't remember going to bed with her last night. This didn't look like his dorm either. And wait a minute…where was his own body? It took another few seconds before the truth finally clicked. The girl's body was his. A female voice gasped in shock from his throat. Small, soft hands moved to his forehead when he tried to put his head in his hands in surprise. Running his hands around the back of his head, he discovered long, straight hair that hung down past his shoulders. Eyes widening, the girl began trembling with sheer terror and gasping in horrified shock.

What's happening? What's happening to me? Why am I a girl? What's going on? How can this be happening? This has to be some kind of dream; this has to be some kind of nightmare! Who am I? What's happened to me?

Pushing the duvet aside, she hurried to the mirror to try and find out the awful truth of what was happening, of who she had become. She took one step away from the bed before losing her balance and falling to her knees. Trying to stand, she swayed uncertainly and fell back on to the floor. What's happening? What's wrong with me? I can't even walk! Tears began pouring from her eyes as she started to become hysterical. Fear was destroying her thought processes as Gary's poor mind could not cope with these new experiences. Trapped in a body full of hormones and feelings that she didn't know how to handle, she was awash with terror and confusion. Her body was the wrong shape; it was too small and smooth and she couldn't figure out how to make it work. She began screaming.

Abruptly light assailed her, and she screwed up her sensitive eyes in pain. Still sobbing and shaking, she was suddenly aware of figures around her, hands on her arms, and voices in her ears.

"Crusader? Are you all right?"

"Hey, Crusader!"

"A – Annie?"

The voices and the figures swam around her as she swayed and lost consciousness, blacking out on the floor.

The next thing Gary was aware of, he was waking in his own bed, in his own body, as normal. At first he had put the terrifying female experience down to a simple nightmare, but he was soon to discover that this was not the case. The rest of the guys in the dorm were sitting up in bed, looking at him strangely. Somebody had flicked on a lamp.

"What's up?" he asked.

"We were hoping you might tell us, mate," said Dominic. "You were shaking and gasping and trembling all over."

"You OK?" asked Atlas.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Vertigo drawled mockingly.

"I…I guess I must have done."

But Gary wasn't so sure. He stood, slipped through the open doorway and walked across the corridor to the girls' room. Pushing open the door, he instantly saw the three younger girls clustered around Annie's bed. His sister was standing unsteadily on her feet, supported by the others.

"Annie?" he said.

In surprise they turned round, and Gemini squealed, "Hey! You ever heard of knocking? This is a girls' room, do you think we could have some privacy, please?"

"Sorry. Annie, are you OK?"

His sister sat down and blinked sleepily, "I – I think so."

"W – we think sh – she had a nightmare," Marina ventured.

"Was it – um – was it anything to do with me?" he asked uncertainly.

Annie seemed surprised, "Yes. I woke up and…I was you. How did you know?"

"Because the same thing happened to me. I woke up and I was you. I didn't know what was going on and I screamed for a bit, then I blacked out."

Brother and sister looked at each other in confusion. Gemini made a point of walking over to close the door Gary had left open behind him, after checking to make sure there were no lecherous eyes spying on her from the boys' room. Cassandra had turned her back on him, and was busy glaring daggers at Marina. The water girl avoided her eyes, and sat on the bed beside Annie, nervously crossing her legs.

"I think I know what happened, and why," Annie said slowly. "If I'm right – then it isn't good."

That was when they had first become aware of their frightening new condition. It seemed to occur on a wholly random basis. Sometimes they could go weeks without waking up in each other's bodies at all, and sometimes it would happen every morning for days on end. It was terrifying, the worst thing either of them had ever been through. Neither of them knew how to live in the other's body. A guy's mind could not manage a girl's feelings and hormones, and vice versa. Having a body that was a completely different shape from normal also made it nearly impossible to even walk a few steps. They were terrified and helpless until their minds spontaneously switched back to the right body.

The most frightening thing of all was that they had no guarantee they would switch back at all. Sometimes they would switch places for only a few seconds, and sometimes it would take up to half an hour before their minds sorted themselves out and got back into the right person. What if one day they didn't sort themselves out? What if one day they didn't switch back? What if one day they woke up as each other, and were forced to stay that way forever? It was more than either of them was ready to face. There appeared to be no way to control the occurrences. They had tried going to sleep at different times, waking up at different times, sleeping in various different rooms, but nothing seemed to have any effect on the frequency or the length of the body-swaps. There was nothing they could do about it, except hope and pray each time that the change wasn't permanent.

It was ironic in a way. They were having body-swaps because they had absorbed some of each other's life force. The absorption had happened by accident when they were fighting against the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. During that fight they'd both been prepared to sacrifice their lives if it meant saving their friends and family. The absorption had been part of that. They wouldn't have been quite so prepared to undergo the absorption if they'd known it meant the terror of the body-swaps. In a way it seemed worse than dying. It was still losing your life, but then being stuck in another's person life that you didn't want to lead, without any way of getting back to your own.

Maybe it wouldn't come to that, optimist Annie had finally pointed out. Maybe the change would never become permanent. Maybe it was something they would simply get used to in time. It would be a pain, of course, but it seemed like a small inconvenience to put up with in return for the splendid array of powers they shared. And after all, why would the change become permanent? They'd absorbed a bit of each other, true, but only a little bit – only for a fraction of a second – and a permanent change seemed both unlikely and improbable.

Gary wasn't quite so sure. Perhaps he was just pessimistic, but he was convinced the body-swaps were lasting longer and becoming more frequent. Surely it would get to a point where the switch became forever. These swaps had to be happening for a reason. They had to be leading towards some final climax, some permanent change. Didn't they? And that wasn't all. He was certain that they were slowly, gradually changing into each other, still changing day by day. They hadn't just inherited each other's powers. There had been other physical changes as well. Annie was taller, or he was shorter – whichever, there was little real difference in height any more. Annie seemed more muscular, and he seemed smoother and more graceful. Was it just his imagination? Was it just his worries manifesting into illusions? Were they really still changing, into each other, as each day went past? Was that feasible? Was that possible? Who knew? This had never happened to anybody before.

Annie had gently suggested that the two of them spend some time becoming more familiar with each other's routines and functions, to make things easier on the occasions that they did switch. Gary had refused instantly. To him, learning how to be a girl was tantamount to accepting he was going to become one. He wasn't even going to go there. It wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't allow himself to think about it. And neither of them felt comfortable explaining it to anybody else. Obviously they had to tell their dorm-mates what was going on, but nobody else knew much besides the most basic details of the swaps. Should they tell someone? If so, who? Who could help them? Who had ever gone through the same experience? Nobody. Rogue might have been able to help…but she was only familiar with a one-way absorption.

At the end of the day, they could be sure of only one thing: the body-swaps were happening, and would keep on happening until something happened to stop them. But whatever that might be, neither of them had any idea. Something would stop the swaps. It would have to. They couldn't live the rest of their lives this way! Gary was nervous about going to bed with Marina now, in case it was Annie who woke up with her in the morning. How could either of them ever lead a stable life with this random and unstoppable curse hanging over them? Night and day, both of them hoped and prayed that they would find a way to end the body-swaps, now and forever, before it drove them to despair.

Slouched in his seat at the far side of the dining room, Vertigo surveyed the room lazily, his eyes half-closed as if he was falling asleep. His gaze appeared idle and disinterested, as he seemingly unconsciously rolled an apple across the back of his hand, down the length of his arm and flicked it from his elbow to catch it in his other hand. A group of the younger children giggled and clapped appreciatively. Glancing over, Vertigo surveyed them. Acceleratus, Phobia and Turtle smiled innocently at him; they were always enthralled by the juggling tricks that he could do apparently without thinking.

Was I ever like that? he wondered to himself, was I ever young and innocent and impressed by such simple little things?

The kids were watching him intently, hoping he would do some more tricks, and he decided to humour them. Seizing another couple of apples from the bowl in the centre of the table, he proceeded to juggle the three fruits in the air with one hand while looking the other way. He pretended to drop one, but grabbed it just before it hit the floor, then caught the other two on top of it, the three apples balancing perfectly upon each other. The little children shrieked with delighted laughter and clapped once more.

Yes, I was like that once, he decided

He simply couldn't understand how the children could get so excited about such trivial things. And it wasn't just the children. He looked over at the table where the adults were seated, watching as they told jokes and laughed, or smiled at each other and looked happy.

Why do people get happy so easily? What's there to be happy about? Vertigo didn't understand it at all. He had never been especially happy in life. At an early age he had learned that there was no point in being excited or happy about anything, because you were bound to be disappointed and saddened soon enough. As a child, whenever he had allowed himself to feel positive about something, another thing had come along just as quickly that had made him feel ten times worse. What was the use of feeling good if you were just going to feel bad the next moment?

People said he was lazy and cynical, and he agreed. What was the point of working hard when everything was pointless and there was nothing worth striving for? Even if you worked hard to build something up, somebody else would tear it down soon enough. What was the point of trusting in the basic goodness of others when it was clear that it didn't exist? People lied, broke promises, and hurt each other. He expected the worst from everyone and everything, and wasn't surprised when it happened. Some people might have been sad when things went wrong, and some people might have tried to make things better. Vertigo did neither. He took the third option. He simply didn't care. Nothing could bother or disappoint him when he didn't care. Life and death, love and hate, peace and war, they were all inconsequential. Nothing really made a difference to a world where nobody could be trusted and everything was guaranteed to go wrong. He had never encountered anything to make him think differently.

At least, not until recently.

"Hey," he heard her saying as she slid into the seat opposite him.

Vertigo glanced up from his slouched position. Gemini offered a friendly smile to the little kids who were still watching and hoping Vertigo would do another conjuring trick.

"What vision of beauty is this?" he heard himself saying in his usual lazy tone of voice.

Inwardly he swore. Damn it. Why couldn't he get his voice to sound anything other than sarcastic? At this rate she'd think he was making fun of her. Why couldn't he express his feelings for her in words? Normally so confident and always knowing exactly what to say, it was an entirely new and uncomfortable experience for him to be so utterly tongue-tied whenever she was around. All he could seem to do was give vague sarcastic comments; he could never find any words that would let her know how much he cared.

"So, uh…" he began, but stopped.

She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish. No words would come. Eventually he just shrugged and slouched lower in his chair, trying to look nonchalant.

What is wrong with me? he thought furiously, I'm supposed to be cool and confident and uncaring at all times. Why do I always lose it whenever she's around?

She smiled at him again, and said, "Are you going to eat all of those?"

Startled and nervous, the apples slipped out of his hand. He reacted to catch them before they hit the floor, and gave one to Gemini, hoping she couldn't see how badly his hand was shaking.

"Thanks," she said.

You're welcome, he wanted to say but couldn't. It was as if the commands from his brain were intercepted and deleted before they could reach his tongue. Every night in his room, long after Helios and Atlas and Gladiator had fallen asleep, he would lie awake and try to think of ways he could talk to Gemini, to let her know exactly how he felt. Every night he would be convinced he'd found the right thing to say, but every morning it would fly straight out of his mind whenever he set eyes on her. They had dated once or twice, but that was just after the Apocalypse episode, when everything was crazy and asking her on a date hadn't seemed like such a difficult thing to do. Now that things had settled down and were running on some semblance of normality, his earlier confidence was shot.

He began again, "Gemini, I – "

He stopped again. I what? I like your hair? I think you're beautiful? I'd like to spend time with you? I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world and you're the best thing that could ever happen to a lazy slob like me and I want to go out with you and hold you and…

" – I like your hair," he said finally.

She looked surprised, "You like my hair? I'm, like, just out of bed and I haven't even brushed it yet."

"Well, I – um…"

He paused once more. His mind had emptied of anything he might have said to her. There didn't seem to be any way of expressing his feelings for her in words. She turned her head to one side and gave him a cute little smile. Maybe she was trying to reassure him but all it did was make him even more nervous. Her gorgeous features were only enhanced when she smiled. He was finding it hard to pay attention in classes now, when all his attention was centred on this girl, and trying to think of a way to start a conversation with her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, giggling slightly at his embarrassment.

What is wrong with me? he demanded of himself, I've never felt like this before!

It wasn't as if he had never fallen in love before. He had once fallen for a girl at the orphanage where he had grown up. He couldn't remember how old he had been, but he did remember finally working up his courage to confess his feelings to the girl. Her response had been short and decisive: "Get real, freak!", followed by laughter. He could still hear it in his mind.

"Are you OK?" she asked, still giggling.

He swallowed hard. OK. Time to just go for it. Just open my mouth and say whatever comes naturally. A quick glance to the side told him that the little kids had drifted away, disappointed that he was not playing any more tricks with the apples. Good. It was just the two of them.

"Gemini – " he began – good start, he told himself sarcastically. "Do you wanna – well – go somewhere today?"

She raised her eyebrows, "Like where?"

"I dunno. How about into town? You said you needed some new clothes, didn't you?"

Gemini looked at him a little strangely, "You wanna go clothes shopping with me?"

"Why not?"

"Well, it's just…that's the kinda thing I'd normally do with another girl. Like, she could help me choose."

He felt some of his usual confidence returning, and he smiled lazily, "You know I have exquisite taste."

Then she said, "Well…OK, sure."

Vertigo let out the breath he hadn't even realised he was holding. He tried to keep the relief and the elation from showing on his face. Careful, he told himself, you're almost happy. He swallowed nervously, hoping Gemini didn't notice. He needn't have worried. Her attention was now fully elsewhere. Pyro had just entered the room, and Gemini was smiling brightly and waving to him. He smiled in return and nodded to her, then went to sit with the other adults.

"You really love him, don't you?" asked Vertigo.

"Of course I do," she said in surprise, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's my dad."

It must be nice to have a father, he didn't say. Gemini stood, depositing her apple core in the bin, smoothing down her nightdress, and said, "OK, I'm going to go have my shower now and get dressed. I'll meet you after our morning classes are done, 'kay?"

"Yeah. We could have lunch in town?"

"Sure, yeah."

She smiled, and was gone. Vertigo watched her go, admiring her small yet gorgeous figure as she turned round to give him a cute smile and a wave just as she left the room. Then he sat back once more. He still didn't know what it was that happened to him every time Gemini was near. He'd heard stories of men losing all sense over a woman, but he'd never thought it would happen to him. He'd always thought he was too cool and in control of things for that to happen. Maybe not. Maybe he was just insane, he thought lazily. Maybe everybody was insane. Maybe the whole world was just a crazy mess, full of crazy people doing crazy things in crazy ways. Was that chaos theory? He didn't know. He didn't care.

"So what do you think it was?" somebody asked.

Neil Rosiçky closed his gold-pupilled eyes for a moment, then said, "I don't know. I can't think of an explanation for it."

Breakfast was the first chance he had had to tell the others about what he had discovered that morning. The anomaly was still bothering him. It just wasn't possible for a consciousness to suddenly disappear like that in the middle of a scan.

"Are you sure you didn't just make a mistake?" asked Shapeshifter dubiously. "Maybe you lost concentration or something."

"I'm sure I didn't make a mistake. If I had stopped concentrating, the machine would have stopped with me. I still only have limited control over it, but it at least obeys my commands now."

"It doesn't make any sense…" Chloe Rosiçky said. "Did the Professor ever mention anything like this?"

Cyclops shook his head, "Not to me."

Nobody else said anything. Then Pyro spoke up, "I know what it might have been. Somebody experimenting with Magneto's helmet technology."

The mention of Magneto's name drew a few uncomfortable glances from around the table.

"Yes…" said Neil slowly. "That could be it. It would certainly explain why somebody suddenly disappeared from my telepathy. Who has access to the helmet material?"

Pyro shrugged, "I couldn't say. I know it's an alloy of different metals and non-metals, and it doesn't occur naturally. Magneto always kept a stockpile of it on the island, but I've no idea where he got it from originally."

"The Professor would probably have known," someone said.

"But that stockpile would have been destroyed when the Horsemen wiped out the island," Pyro went on. "If there's more of it somewhere, then I'm sorry…your guess is as good as mine."

"What about Mystique?" asked Storm. "Is she still alive?"

"So my students claim. I haven't seen any sign of her myself. As far as I know, she killed herself shortly after Magneto died. She couldn't take losing him. I suppose it's possible she could have faked her death and been in hiding these years – that's what my daughter told me anyway – but I can't say for sure."

Neil said, "In that case I'll talk to Gemini. I want to get to the bottom of this. It might be nothing, but if Mystique or anybody else is about to try something – using the helmet technology to shield their thoughts from me – then I'd rather know about it sooner than later."

Cyclops nodded his agreement, "Where exactly did you sense this – anomaly?"

"Glasgow," the telepath replied, adding, "Scotland," for those around the table who might not have known the UK too well. "I can narrow it down tighter once I get there."

"So you think we should go check it out?"

"That was my plan," said Neil. "The only problem is I'm a little busy at the moment. I have classes to teach, and I want to spend time with Annie and Gary and help them practice using their new powers, so I can't really drop things and go right now."

"I'll go," offered Pyro. "I have no duties to keep me here."

The others cast glances at him, some of them suspicious. The less trusting of the X-Men still could not see Pyro as a friend or ally, much less as 'one of their own'. But Cyclops forestalled any argument, "Fine. Bobby and Felicity can go with you."

Pyro didn't argue either, "Fine."