Author's note: Huh, for all the bored of you, don't worry, things start to heat up (or cool down) in this chapter. Oh dear God I hope I pull this off.

Madripoor Rose: Thanks. I wanted to put the New X-Men kids down here somewhere actually, but since I didn't follow their book, I have literally no idea who they are. But isn't that golden kid a healer? What's his name?

Ryan Schiff: 1.) Thank goodness I never mentioned that Emma was from England. 2.) I did wonder, back in Morrison's New X-Men run, he gave a rule that when Emma was a diamond, she lost her telepathy, thus she and Scott easily got captured by Martha Johansson's uber-mind. But by the time Astonishing rolls in, she can use telepathy again, in diamond form. So did something happen in the middle? Anyway, I actually thought about the Living Monolith making an appearance, but that would take things a little too far.

Previously on…the X-MEN try to investigate why Rachel Summers, AKA MARVEL GIRL, suddenly attacked EMMA FROST. Though no one is permanently injured, it leaves both the faculty, and the student body a little rattled, as the possibility that whoever did it is someone residing in the campus. It's not the best way to welcome back the long dead X-Man Peter Rasputin, AKA COLOSSUS, who has still remained silent in the proceedings. Liaison to the administration KITTY PRYDE on the other hand, has been hard at work interrogating the students on what they know. Meanwhile, they still remain oblivious to the actions of BILE, a mutant who has been recruiting silver age villains for his apparently violent cause…

Chapter 3: "Crazy, Beautiful People"

Kitty rubbed her temples as she took a seat on the small bench in the private lockers. The one where the X-Men went to change into their colorful uniforms when the occasion called for them to do so. She always thought that the locker rooms were a pit stop. The place where they needed to go before setting out on a mission, from fighting High Evolutionaries in outer space, to setting a bunch of upstate New Yorkers free from unstable aliens in a high rise. It was there where she went when she needed a little privacy. A little break from the world around her. It was already a little past midnight, and the day went by like it was just a thirty-two page comic-book. She felt that, after spending the day wading through the emotional torrent that are high school students, she deserved a break. Though why she couldn't sleep, she had no idea. "…" Perhaps that's another reason she was down there. Without a sound, the young X-woman began to strip off her clothes. And she remembered a time when she didn't want to change into a costume anymore.

Peter Rasputin's Room/ 00:08

Peter Rasputin sat up in a cold sweat, unable to sleep, and turned on the night light on the small table beside his bed. One more night. Just like the night before. And the night before that. The dreams don't stop. It was good in a way, he thought. Those nightmares reminded him that he was still human. Still very much alive. Cold comfort. Every night he would relive it. The trepidation, trapped inside the red, round room, as he waited atop a surgical table, unable to move, unable to change. The fear, not of the act itself, but in its imminence. Every waking moment hounded by the certainty that come an hour or so, the pain would begin once more. Every single night. So much so that time saw it fit to simply leave him there, to go on without him. A mutant powerful enough to bring down mountains, left utterly defenseless. It offended him.

Locker Room/ 00:09

There was a time when Kitty felt that her civilian clothes represented normalcy. That keeping them on meant keeping the bad things away. A life away from all the danger, the drama. That's why she hid the costume. She thought that all the things wrong with her life could get locked up in the darkness along with it. Away forever in a little, cardboard box, gathering dust beneath her bed. To be forgotten. But now she knew better. She knew that the bad things creeping between light and shadow didn't discriminate between heroes and civilians. Targets and collateral. She even found out first hand that the most frightening thing in the world isn't a super villain with a badly colored costume. But rather, it was the idea. The idea behind the superpowers. The idea behind the guns and rifles. Ideas that push man to fight their brothers. An inescapable hatred gestating itself within people too afraid to understand something, in fear that doing so might mean that they are guilty of it was well. With a loud sigh, she zipped her uniform to a close, taking her civilian clothes and throwing them into her locker.

Peter Rasputin's Room/00:10

He didn't remember leaving the window open. But he was glad that it was. At least by then, no one worried about Sabretooth climbing through the window and killing everyone in their sleep anymore. The cold, midnight winds danced their way into his room, uninvited, but welcome nonetheless. He was already sitting at the edge of his bed, letting the wind caress his body. It was nice. The complete and utter opposite of the robotic spikes, scythes and lances that got stabbed into him all that time under the ground. Each one was still as vivid as day. A hook. A drill. A saw. A large, serrated blade that looked like a tree with a steel branch. Each one taking its turn with his body. Violating him in the most, nefarious sense of the word. "…" He was a hero. Is a hero. The type that would stare death in the eye, laugh, and then punch it in the throat. Everyone knew that. Which is why he was so ashamed of himself. Because in all that time beneath the Earth's surface, all he ever thought about was how much he wanted to be dead.

Danger Room/ 00:11

It never changed. The Danger Room. A large, chamber capable of hard light manipulation, which in effect allowed it to create any simulated person, or environment, that it was asked to. The first time she wandered in there, her teammate Kurt Wagner, better known as the Nightcrawler, asked her to tell the rest of the X-Men that he would be held up in the kitchen. She stepped into the room, not knowing that the X-Men were already commencing with an exercise. She nearly died. Later that day, as she finally managed to feel confident enough to attempt an exercise, her consciousness from decades into the future invaded her body, in an effort to warn the X-Men of the dangers that killing one man would bring. Life was never really easy. Kitty took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and whispered to the air. "Simulation, begin." And with that, she found herself atop a snowy mountain, on a square, cemented battleground, in front of an ancient Chinese temple. Five men wearing orange robes and brandishing long poles. "Let's go." The X-woman instructed, and as such, the man behind her lunged forward, in an attempt to impale her from behind.

Scott Summers' Room/ 00:12

"I didn't fall asleep." Emma defended, watching her partner angrily pace the room.

"Yes, you did. You fell asleep. I can't believe you'd fall asleep!" Scott shot back, not looking at her. At which point would be crazy, since practically every male in the campus, and Northern America, wanted to get a chance to see Emma in her night gown.

"Sweetheart, get back to bed." She urged, sitting up.

"Why? So you can fall asleep again?"

"I didn't fall asleep!"

"Yes you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"Okay, I did. But only for a second!"

"And that makes me feel better, how exactly? I mean I heard you snore!"

"I do not…! Scott…I've had… the monumentally unenviable task of absorbing Kitty's memories of all the students she ever talked to, and the strain that puts on me…it's been a very difficult day."

"…I know, I know…"

"Honey, I'm really, really sorry."

"…I really put a lot of thought to that speech you know. I mean University week is just around the corner…"

"I promise I'll make it up to you."

"Better be good."

"I promise."

"Better make me feel like its Christmas and Santa brought me a new pair of eyeballs."

"…Front row seats to Wrestlemania. I'll have that horrid Lita woman do an impromptu lap dance for you." She offered, not needing her telepathy to see that her lover's face was already getting soft.

"…I like how that sounds." Scott answered, a small smile cracking through his angry exterior.

"Oh really?" Emma asked, raising her eyebrows.

"The tickets part, I mean." Scott immediately pointed out, earning an approving glance from Emma. "Edge can have Lita." He continued, climbing back to bed.

"Good." Emma replied, leaning forward for a kiss.

"I much prefer Torrie Wilson."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"No, come to think of it, I want Trish."

"Thin ice, Mr. Summers!"

Danger Room/00:12

"Was it really meant to be? Me finding him?" Both the man in front of, and behind Kitty closed in on her. Kitty somersaulted backwards, both her hands gripping the man from the rear's shoulders with both hands, pushing him forward. And with just a whim, she used her phasing ability to realign both her, and her assailant's molecules. Since the man in front wasn't able to stop in time, he found himself running right into his comrade, just as Kitty hoped for. "I mean, what if all of this is just some annoying coincidence?" Taking her hands off as she landed on the ground, the phasing effect wore off, and the two men found themselves cut in half, thanks to their molecular structure rejecting each other. Kitty didn't bother to look at the end result. Especially since she needed to concentrate on another monk headed her way. "No. Can't be a coincidence. Can't, just can't."

He came at a batting position, telegraphing his move miles away. "Or maybe I'm just interpreting it the way I want it be…" A lot of people misconceive martial artists as people having a sixth sense of sorts, one that enabled them to feel oncoming danger. Modern movies made it so, but the real fighters, the ones who clocked more field time than Olympic track and field runners, they knew better. It's all about reading movement. A muscle tensing, where the eyes are locked; all signals. And an expert fighter is the one who manages to read them the split-second they're made. "No, something like this…it has to mean something! It can't be arbitrary. It can't be some cosmic joke." This one was easy, but it was the next action he'll take that would get tricky. "God, stop it, just…why should I be the one going out of my way to get his attention? He's the guy for crying out loud!"

The monk swung from left to right, in which the X-woman easily ducked in avoidance. "I mean, what, just because he's recently deceased, he forgot how to date? Hello?" And from this position, the next, fastest possible movement would be a lunge. And that was exactly what he did. Kitty simply leaned to her left, avoiding the pole from impaling her. Now the monk's right side was vulnerable, and Kitty didn't hesitate taking advantage. With her left leg, she kicked the monk behind his right knee, sending him down on it. Then, with both hands, she bent down and grabbed the monk's weapon, kicking him in the gut with her right boot, and pulling at it in the same time. It earned her a new weapon. By that time, the two other, still-armed monks made their way to her, ready to strike.

"Just stop, stop thinking of him." One came at her from the right, ready to cleave her skull with a quick, vertical blow. Her ability to phase through solid matter would have made it effortless to avoid her aggressor, but save the two whom she terminated earlier on, she convinced herself to maintain that session as one to hone her physical capacity. "Okay, there's a crazy kid in campus who possibly wants to kill us all…"she thought, as she held her newly acquired staff up, in a horizontal position, effectively blocking the blow. With the end of the enemy's weapon right in the middle of Kitty's own, she pushed her left hand to the right, pushing the end of the enemy's weapon in the same direction. "And not anyone I talked to fits the serial-killer-in-training profile…well, except for Blindfold…" Gathering her strength, she then slugged the monk on the face with the other end of the pole, from right to left. And in one motion, she spun backwards, in the same direction as her last action, easily avoiding the assailant who lunged at her, then raising her pole arm to the air, and with both hands spinning it around, crashed it onto the man's spine. "…I wonder what Peter's doing right now?"

Danger Room, Master Control Panel/ 00:15

Peter watched silently as Kitty continued to out maneuver the two remaining simulations. She was faster now. Much more imaginative with her power. Tougher from the look of things. But there was still something that stayed the same. They say that a person's eyes are much more articulate than the tongue could ever prove to be. Even with the mouth bound shut, a person's eyes spoke of emotion, of what went on behind the layered smile or the practiced frown. Peter always thought that, in a lot of cases, words were not needed. After all, people nowadays say a lot of things, but often mean very little. And as he watched the young woman fighting for her life beneath him, he felt worried that she was no longer the person he fell in love with. Until he finally got a glimpse of her eyes. They were as bright as when he last saw her. "Katya…" he whispered, a small smile finally finding its way to his face. If ever there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the prize that karma planned in store, then for Peter, simply to see her again was it.

Scott Summers' Room/ 00:26

"I told you I'd make it up to you, now didn't I?" Emma teased onto Scott's ear, before resting her head on his fast-breathing chest. "You should make it up to me more often, sweetheart." He answered, placing a hand to stroke her golden hair. "Ah. Now didn't this all work out for the best?" she then asked, propping her head up so that her chin was resting on Scott's chest.

"Yeah. "

"You should run your speeches by me more often."

"…You didn't mind control me into forgiving you, right?"

"Huh, I threaten you with celibacy."

"Been there, done that."

"Right, right. You know, I can make everyone believe that you're a eunuch."

"Threat considered, and is approached with maximum caution." Scott replied, putting his arms to the back of his head. Emma smiled and crawled up further, giving her lover a long, soft kiss. "…Careful, Mr. Summers, you're starting to get witty. We wouldn't want that now, do we?" she teased, pushing his hair back, away from his face. "Well, I was getting a little tired of my image. Especially since it involved a stick and a bodily orifice."

"Oh? I find it…charming."

"That's because you're weird."

"Excuse me? I much prefer the term… eccentric."

"That just means weird, but with money."

"Well I am a rather successful…?" The telepath lifted her head, concern engraved in her eyes.

"Emma, what's wrong?"

"Oh, God…" Emma sat up, her hands over her temples. Scott saw a soft, glow of blue energy floating around Emma's face, the manifestation of her psychic power. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up after her.

"Stand up. Stand up, it's downstairs. We need to go… now!" The woman began to get out of the bed, grabbing a white night robe from the nearby chair.

"Emma! Calm down." Scott got on his feet, putting on a pair of jogging pants.

"Scott. It's downstairs."

"What? What do-"

"It's going after Katherine."

"…"

"... Peter is down there with her."

Danger Room/00:27

Peter's heart pounded as he made his way down the steel corridor. A blue tint washed over the entire area, with bright, fluorescent lights lining the top and bottom wedges. He never admitted to anyone, that each time he transforms into his steel body, he'd always think of these walls. How lifeless they were. And how lifeless people must see him as well. But then again, public opinion was the last thing on his mind early that morning, as he stopped in front of the Danger Room's doors. He pressed his palm on the panel beside it, and a voice-code authorization message popped up on the small screen. "Rasputin, Piotr Nikolievitch. Colossus." The panel gave out one, long beeping sound, and a second later, the double doors slid open.

"Katya? Are you alright?" Peter asked, as he stepped inside the Danger Room. Earlier on, he swelled with pride as he watched the young woman devastate her simulated aggressors without a problem, but he found himself very much concerned that she simply crouched to the ground and hugged herself soon after she ended the program. She hasn't moved since. "Katya…it's me. Peter."

"…" She had his back to him, and the only light in the room was the light from outside, behind the open door that Peter had just used to enter the room.

"Katya?" he asked again.

"…"

"…Kitty?"

"You should have stayed dead." Came a cold, cracked voice.

"…?" Peter simply stood in muted shock, unable to stop her words from sinking in like a poisoned arrow.

"Why did you come back? Why…" Kitty turned her head, her eyes covered with tears. "I was getting over you! I was moving on with my life, and you had to come back turn my whole world on its head!" the young woman got to her feet, her once pitiful expression replaced with that of fury.

"…I…"

"Don't. Don't. Don't. No. Stop. Stop it!" Kitty shook her head violently, her hands gripping the sides of her head. "Why won't you stop talking? Get out of my head! Shh! Shh! Out! Get out!"

"Katya…" Peter took a step forward. It tore him inside to see the woman he felt so strongly for being reduced by her emotion to such a wretched. State. But with the knowledge that there was a powerful mind-altering mutant apparently targeting the faculty, his instincts ordered him to keep his distance. Katherine Pryde was, is a strong woman. This was not her.

"Katya, please, let me get you to Emma. She can help." Peter offered, taking another weary step toward the whimpering girl.

"…Hold…me…" Kitty pleaded, her face bowed down, her hands kept to herself in a desolate embrace. "Please? It's so cold…and there's nobody here with me" she further pleaded, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"I'm so scared…" she reached her shaking hand to him, pleading for him to come closer with it.

Peter clenched his eyes, unable to act so tough as to ignore the woman he felt so strongly for breaking apart right in front of him. "No. It's not her. Don't fall for this." He thought to himself. "Emma…Emma, can you hear me? Please pick up my thoughts…" he then mentally pleaded, trying his best to ignore the deranged young woman. He opened his eyes again, realizing that if he didn't watch her movements, then she might do something dangerous. She took a step forward, and he took one back. "Please…everything's going dark…" she whimpered. "…She's not dangerous…" Yes, she was. "Not like this, she can't possibly…" Yes, she could. "Maybe I can stop this…maybe she just needs someone to…" Succumbing to his emotions, Peter took a step forward.

"…It's so cold…oh God, it's so cold…"

"…" Peter gritted his teeth and opted to ignore everything his instincts screamed at him, taking one, last step forward, and taking Kitty in his arms. "It's okay, Katya, I'm here. I'm here…" he whispered, as the X-woman began to cry harder in his embrace. He really wished that he knew what to say. And as he searched his mind for the words, the right words, he suddenly gasped out loud. "Kitty?" his voice trembled as he looked down.

Kitty had just phased her hand into his chest. "What are you…?"

"It's okay…" she whispered, as her hand dug deeper into him.

"Katya…!" Peter felt Kitty's hand holding on to his heart, and he knew full well that in any instant, Kitty could crush it, killing him instantly.

"I'm saving the world…." Kitty narrowed her eyes. "I'm setting things right again…" and she squeezed her hand hard.

Chapter 3, End.

Next Chapter – Kitty versus Colossus?

Author's Note: There you have it. Hope you had fun, and hope you'll review (yes, I have succumbed to the shallowness of that bloody hit chart). Until the next time! Cheerios.