Black Ice

Disclaimer: "You were supposed to destroy the Sith! Not join them!"

Chapter 42: Sapphire Fallout Part 3: Confrontation

Stokes Maximum Security Prison

"Be careful down there, man." A voice called. "He's crazy."

"Yeah, thanks. I will." Ace Starr responded. He walked down the hall of the prison until he found himself looking at the door of the cell that Bobby Drake was in. The door was clear, allowing him to easily view of the inside of the cell. The young feral sighed. Man, how bad can things get? Ace sighed, then spoke up. "Bobby? Bobby, you in there?" Bobby Drake looked up from his sitting position. He turned his head to the door.

"Ace?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's me." Ace nodded. "You alright?"

"What do you think?" Bobby grumbled. His face formed a scowl. "I hope you're happy."

"About what?"

"What do you think? What you did to me." Bobby growled. "I'm shackled up like an animal. I can't use my powers, and I'm stuck in this God-forsaken place!"

"What?" Ace blinked.

"You were going to betray me!" Bobby snapped. "You were going to turn on me and throw me away like garbage!"

"Oh, really?" Ace crossed his arms.

"Yeah. Everyone else did." Bobby remembered. "My parents turned on me, the X-Men turned on me, Elizabeth turned on me…"

"Why?" Ace asked. "What happened with all of them?"

"What do you think?" Bobby snapped. "My parents hated me because of my powers, I dunno why the X-Men hated me, and Elizabeth led me on!"

"Elizabeth? The blonde girl from Nightshift?" Ace blinked.

"No, Elizabeth Knightley, sister of Kiera. WHO DO YOU THINK?" Bobby snapped. "That blonde tramp. She led me on. She made me think she loved me!"

"Based on what I heard between the two of you, it seemed like she had no idea you felt that way about her." Ace told the ice-maker. Bobby growled.

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"You're not going to listen to me, are you?" Bobby snarled. "I knew it. You're taking her side! Why can't you take my side? Why does everybody take sides against me?"

"I'm not taking sides, I'm just trying to figure out what happened between the two of you." Ace told the ice-maker calmly. "Based on how you spoke about her back in the mall, it seemed like something very bad happened between the two of you."

"No, duh." Bobby cracked smarmily. "It was her fault anyway."

"What happened?" Ace blinked. Bobby scowled.

"Why should I tell you? You wouldn't listen."

"Try me." Ace grunted. "Look, man. I wanna help you. I think of you as a friend, and Ace Starr never turns his back on his friends. Just tell me what happened!"

"You wouldn't believe me! Just leave me alone!" Bobby snapped. "You never would understand, Ace!"

"She broke your heart, huh?" Ace deduced. Bobby growled.

"Don't. Go. There." Bobby growled. "She had no right!"

"Just tell me what happened." Ace tried to get through to the ice-maker.

"You wouldn't believe me, Ace." Bobby scowled. "You wouldn't know. You've never been there. Just leave me alone!" Ace sighed.

This is going to be a loooong night. Ace sighed to himself.

Dark Hollow

The team of young mutants known as Nightshift was busy repairing their home after Bobby's rampage.

"Alright…" Lucas stood in front of a house. Lorna Dane, the green-haired magnetism manipulator codenamed Polaris, was using her powers to levitate several small nails. She levitated them toward a board. "Easy…easy…hold it…good…" Lucas hammered them in. "Thanks." He nodded thankfully.

"Meh." Lorna shrugged, walking away. "Whatever." Meanwhile, Elizabeth Guthrie, the blonde mutant codenamed Amazon, walked to the edge of the reservoir. She sat down next to Sammy Pare, the young fish-like mutant.

"Here you go, Sammy." Elizabeth smiled, handing Sammy a steaming mug. "Some nice hot chocolate for you."

"Thank you." Sammy took the mug and sipped from it. The blonde girl and the young mutant boy seemed to develop a sort of mother-son bond during their time in Nightshift. The bond changed the two quite a lot over time. It made the young Sammy more confident, and it softened Amazon up to a degree. He noticed that Lizzie was staring out at the reservoir. "Elizabeth? What're you looking at?" Elizabeth blinked.

"Nothing." Lizzie quickly shook her head to get her mind back on track. "Nothing at all. Ah was just thinking about something."

"About that Iceman guy?" Sammy deduced. Lizzie sighed. Why did the fish-boy have to be so sharp? "Lucas told me he was a miserable psychopath." Lizzie remembered the incident at the Bayville Mall.

Begin Flashback

"Bobby…" Lizzie stammered. "Ah…Ah…Ah never intended to lead you on." She tried to calm the insane enraged ice-maker. "If Ah did, Ah'm sorry. Ah know why you're doing this. Ah understand." She looked up at him. At his eyes. The ice blue eyes that showed intense anger, but also hid away a great amount of pain. "Ah just want you to know, Ah''m not mad at you. Ah know you didn't intend to hurt anyone. Ah am not angry at you for causing my miscarriage. If Ah didn't know, then you couldn't have. Please, Bobby. Just stop this. Stop before someone gets killed. Killing Lucas won't make me love you. And it won't heal your pain, either. It'll just make it worse." Lizzie begged. "Ah don't hate you, Bobby. Ah just want to help you." Bobby laughed at that.

"Help me?" Bobby laughed. "HELP ME? You took my dignity, and you want to help me! You made me look heartless! You made me look like a murderous fool, and you want to HELP ME? I lost my friends because of you! I lost a family because of you!" Tears started to come down Bobby's eyes. "You don't care in the least! You really make me sick! I'M THE VICTIM HERE!" The blizzard grew in intensity with Bobby's rage. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR PRECIOUS LUCAS DID TO ME? HE TRIED TO KILL ME!" Lizzie's face betrayed confusion. "Don't look at me like you don't know! While you were recovering in the Institute! You had your precious boyfriend ATTACK ME! He nearly crushed me like an egg! He called me a murderer!" Lizzie's eyes widened, and she gaped in shock.

He may be talkin' crazy, but Ah don't think he was lying about that last part. Lizzie realized. If it's true…Oh mah God…What'd Ah do? Ah was so intent on distancing mahself from the rest of mah family that…Oh God, What'd Ah do? This is mah fault! A couple tears started coming down her eyes. "Bobby…is that true?"

"Yeah. It is." Bobby scowled. "You sent him out to attack me for revenge. It didn't work. I'm still here. I've played that memory in my head over and over non-stop. Every minute of every day, for months, I've relived that pain. And it was all because of you." Bobby pointed a glowing hand at Elizabeth, making the blonde shudder.

End Flashback

"He wasn't always like that, Sammy." Lizzie corrected. "He was once a good person. He just let his bitterness and his anger get the better of him and consume him."

"Why?" Sammy blinked. Lizzie sighed and bowed her head.

"Sometimes, when a person gets hurt really bad, they hold in all the pain and the hurt until they can't take it anymore and they snap." Lizzie explained. They don't let it out because maybe they're too afraid to, or in Bobby's case…he felt alone. Maybe he felt no one would understand his pain." Lizzie sighed and got up. "Ah gotta go, little guy. Ah gotta talk to Lucas." Sammy nodded. Lizzie walked into the abandoned town. She walked into the house that she shared with the telepath, and saw Lucas fixing some kind of gadget. "Lucas?" The Scottish blond looked up.

"Aye?"

"Can…can Ah talk to you about something?" The Kentucky-born girl asked. Lucas blinked.

"About what?" Lucas blinked. "I nae understand."

"I wanna talk about the whole incident at the mall. With Bobby." Lizzie started.

"What about that psychopath?" Lucas muttered. Lizzie sighed.

"During his whole rampage, Bobby claimed that while Ah was healing at the Institute, Ah sent you to get revenge on him." Lizzie explained. "He told me you tried to kill him."

"He's insane." Lucas scoffed. "Probably just a psychotic rant."

"Ah dunno." Lizzie crossed her arms. "When he tried to crush us with water, he said it was exactly what you did to him, only you used telekinesis instead of water." Lucas groaned.

"He's crazy, Elizabeth." Lucas told the blonde girl. "He's locked up in a madhouse."

"What happened between the two of you at the Institute?" Lizzie narrowed her eyes. "And don't you dare lie to me." Lucas sighed.

"After ye were hurt…" Lucas sighed. "I was mad. I was incensed. I could nae believe that Bobby could simply do that to you…"

Begin Flashback

Lucas spun around as Bobby came out of the mansion. He narrowed his eyes.

"You." He growled, hovering up into the air. "You're the reason she's in there now!" Bobby glanced at the door of the mansion in a panic. He could still make it through into the safety of inside, activate Defcon 4, and close the mansion up. Unfortunately, before he even put a step towards the door, he was surrounded by a ring of fire, blocking his escape.

"Ye cannae hide things from a telepath." Lucas pointed out with an evil smirk. Bobby squeaked, huddling in the middle of the fire, further away from the flames. He HATED fire. It was in his very mutant nature to stay away from it. His body never coped well when he was exposed to extreme heat.

"W-w-what are you doing?" Bobby gulped, sending out a mental shout to the Professor for help.

"Gettin' payback." Lucas growled. He then smirked. "Me Da didn't quite get that message. I blocked it off. It's not a problem, is it?" Bobby flinched away as the flames grew closer to him.

"I'm sorry I attacked Elizabeth, okay?" The ice-maker snapped in indignation. "I was angry!"

"Angry? ANGRY?" Lucas exclaimed. "You havnae seen angry, ye low life, little murderer?" He grabbed Bobby up out of the fire telekinetically, holding him above the flames.

"Murderer?" A confused and scared Bobby exclaimed. "But Lizzie's not dead! She's fine!"

"I'm nae talkin' about Lizzie." Lucas snarled, telekinetically throwing Bobby roughly against a wall of the mansion. Bobby managed a grunt of pain, before icing up, sending an ice blast at Lucas. It did no good, however. A burst of flame melted the ice into nothing before it even made contact. "Ye just attacked her without thinking about the consequences of your actions." Lucas held a hand up and closed his fist. As Lucas made the action, Bobby gasped in pain. His icy form was cracking around him, crunching close to him. It was squeezing his vital organs together. He tried to suck in a breath, but his windpipe was closing up too. He made a weak attempt to struggle away as his vision became blurred. Then…suddenly, it all stopped. The pressure was released and he fell to the floor with a thud, gasping for breath.

"You're not worth the energy." Lucas scowled. "But see that as a warning. If ye cross my path again, ye won't be so lucky." With that, he flew off away from the mansion, not moving too far away...he wanted to know when Lizzie was awake again. Bobby gasped, getting shakily to his feet, powering down. Battered and bruised, he limped back inside the mansion to his room, a look of grim determination on his face.

First Lizzie embarrasses me and breaks my heart, now her boyfriend attacks me. They'll pay. I'll make them pay for this. Bobby mentally vowed, rage building up within the young man.

End Flashback

Lizzie was aghast. She covered her mouth with her hands. Lucas sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand.

"It was a very emotional outburst." He sighed guiltily. "I had no bloody idea he'd come back and cause all that."

"Ah…Ah…" She stammered. "No wonder he came back! No wonder he tried to kill us!" Lizzie exclaimed. He voice and face showed a mix of shock, horror, and anger. "Ah…Ah…Ah can't believe you, Lucas! Ah can't believe you did something so heartless!"

"I have no excuse, Liz." Lucas sighed guiltily. "I was just so angry at him. He hurt me really badly when he caused ye to fall off that Cliffside."

"It was an accident!" Lizzie exclaimed. "Ah can't believe you! Ah really can't." She started to tear up. "Didn't you realize what you did? You caused all this! This all came from you! He wanted to kill me, but not as much as he wanted to kill you!" Lizzie panted. "He was willing to kill innocent people just to get to you!"

"Lizzie, I…" Lucas shook his head. "I…I didn't mean to cause all of it!"

"Well, you did!" Lizzie snapped. "Didn't you think that maybe he was feeling guilty enough about that incident without you having to bully him like that? WHAT RIGHT DID YOU HAVE?"

"Why are ye standing up for him?" Lucas snapped back. "He caused ye to fall off a Cliffside! He murdered our unborn child!"

"It wasn't his fault, Lucas!" Lizzie told the telepath, her eyes misty. "He had no idea Ah was pregnant. Ah wasn't showin'. He was broken-hearted, Lucas. Ah feel responsible for this. If Ah had known how he…" She shook her head, and started to leave.

"Lizzie…" Lucas reached out towards Lizzie. Lizzie held up her hand, stopping him.

"Ah know why you did what you did, Lucas." Lizzie said. "Ah was angry at Bobby for a while, too. But Ah realized there was a lot of things he didn't know. Ah'm sure if he knew about mah…condition at the time, he would've backed off. God, Ah was so intent on being the 'black sheep' of the family. Ah was so intent on rebelling that Ah never noticed how mah actions were affecting others…nor did Ah notice how others were feeling about me. Ah didn't know he…he…" Lizzie sobbed. Lucas sighed.

"Ye didn't try tae kill the X-Men, though." Lucas reassured. "Bobby did. Now he's paying for it."

"But he's suffered enough." Lizzie sighed. "Ah just can't believe…God, how did things come to this? How did things get so bad?" Lucas sighed.

"I don't know." Lucas admitted. "But the damage is done. Bobby got what he deserved." He left the room. Lizzie watched him leave, then sighed.

God, how did things get so crazy? Lizzie mentally wondered. Ah can't believe all this has happened. Ah feel so bad for Bobby right now. He brought all this on himself, and all this happened to him because of a broken heart…and just a series of bad events.

Next: Sapphire Fallout Part 4: Breakthrough Lila Cheney pays a visit to Stokes. Meanwhile, a certain evil English mutant prepares to start remaking the world, starting in Bayville…