Chapter 8: Turn of the Tide
(At the institute)
Professor Xavier was sitting at Cerebro. He thought, Kurt, I need you for a moment. A few seconds later Kurt teleported into the room.
"What is it Professor?"
"I have a job for you Kurt. Right now Serena's powers are being used without her control."
"Why Professor?"
"Her powers are triggered by her emotions. And with her powers she could become a danger to herself and those around her. And right now her emotions and powers are running dangerously high."
"What is wrong with her?"
"I'm not quite sure Kurt. That is why I want you to go and try to calm her down if you can."
"I could try."
"Good. She is heading towards a small park just south in town of here."
"I'm on it!"
-----------------------------
Serena ran down the street, fire hydrants blasting open as she passed. She wanted to get away from everything. She just wanted to be by herself. She slowed down as she ran out of breath to run. Passing by a park she saw through a fence that there was nobody there. It had a small playground with a swing set, a slide, and a jungle gym and trees were growing all around. Some of the sprinklers were on. Seeing how empty and quiet it was, she jumped the fence and walked across the grass to the swing set. She sighed heavily and sat down on one of the swings. The emotions that were heated up inside of her were causing the sprinklers to go haywire, but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything right now. All she wanted to do right now was disappear off the face of the earth. She heard a bamf and whipped her head around to see Kurt in his human appearance. He smiled at her faintly and gave a small wave.
"How's it?"
She closed her eyes trying to keep calm. "How did you find me here?"
"Well, uh..." he hesitated. He really didn't want to tell her, but considered that honesty would be the best thing right now. "The Professor has this machine that detects other mutants."
"Did you come here to say 'I told you so'?"
"No, not at all."
"What did you come here for then?"
"The Professor thinks your powers react with your feelings. If they were to rage out of control it could be very dangerous."
"So you think I should go to this school you were talking about and train my powers."
"Well I..."
"No offense Kurt but, I'm just not ready to except another outstretched hand. Because every one I've taken has burnt me."
"But you can trust us." She looked at him.
"Can't you see I want to be alone? I don't want to trust anymore."
Kurt thought a moment then he said, "Wait right here." And bamfed. A few seconds later he appeared with an ice cream cone in his hand. "Here." He handed it to her.
"What's this for?" she asked skeptically.
"Well when a girl is depressed or angry and won't talk to you, you just give her ice cream and she'll calm down. At least that's what I've heard." Her look of incredulous was broken by a smile and she burst into a fit of giggles.
"Where in the world have you heard that?"
"Uh, sorry. I'm not from around here."
"Apparently. It sounds like something my older brother would say."
"So he was lying?" This made her laugh even harder.
"He actually told you that?"
"He said cookie dough would work the best but we were out of that."
"Thank you. You're very sweet." She said and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Well you sure seem happier. So what happened?"
Her smile slightly faded. "It was like you said Kurt. They used me and they were going to drop me."
"They were? Why?"
"I guess I wasn't cut out for being a bad guy."
"Well you know, you can always try the good side."
"I just don't want to be used anymore. I want someone to like me for who I am, not what I am or what I can do."
"You know, even though I have not known you for very long, I can still see you're a good person."
"How?"
"I can see it in your eyes." He bamfed so that he was hanging upside down on the swing rail. "And after all, the eyes are the windows to the soul." She smiled faintly at him. "So what do you say? Give it a try."
She sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll give it a try."
"Great! Let's go see the Professor." He grabbed her hand.
"Wait I..." she didn't get to finish. They teleported to the mansion. They were inside and Serena looked at her surroundings. "Wow. You guys actually live here?"
"Yes, they do." A voice said. Professor Xavier appeared with Storm and Logan with him.
"Serena, this is the Professor." Kurt gestured. Serena tried to smile.
"It's nice to finally meet you Miss Hallow."
"She wants to join the X-Men Professor."
"Does she really?" he asked. She nodded her head slightly.
"This is Ororo and Logan. They teach the students how to use and control their powers."
"Hi." She said apprehensively.
"Nice to meet you." Storm said. Logan gave the slightest nod.
"Well young lady," Serena shifted a little feeling the gaze of the adults on her. "Are you sure you want to join us?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Very well." He said. "You'll have to ask your parents' permission. If they allow it, you can join us."
"Alright." She turned and started walking to the door.
"And Serena," Xavier called. She turned to look at him. "I know you've had some difficult times. But that's what we're here for. To help you."
"Thanks... Professor." She turned and walked out.
"Let's just hope she doesn't do too much damage." Logan said.
The next morning Serena brought her mother to the institute. Professor Xavier talked with her about how the school was for gifted students and that Serena had potential. Luckily he didn't mention anything about mutants and nothing unusual happened. After much talk Serena's mother agreed. On her way out her mother kissed on the cheek. "Have fun sweetie." and left.
"Well congratulations Miss Hallow. You are one of the X-Men now."
"Thanks." She muttered. Kurt walked into the room.
"Ah Kurt, will you show Miss Hallow here to her room?"
"Sure." Kurt led her to a bedroom. "Here you go." He opened the door for her.
"Wow." She said as she looked around. "You weren't exaggerating when you talked about this place." She tossed her bag onto the bed and sat down. "Thanks, I'm starting to be kind of glad I joined you guys."
"I promise you won't regret it." He said and shut her door.
"The question is," she said to herself quietly, "can I trust you with that promise?"
--------------------------
Kurt had made his way downstairs and saw the Professor deep in thought. "What's wrong Professor?"
"The problem is Kurt is that she is still afraid to trust us. And with her past experience, I can not blame her."
"Then we'll just have to earn her trust." Kurt said.
"Yes, but she won't give it so willingly. It will take time. But for now she will maintain her distance until she feels she ready to trust again."
-----------------------------
(At the Brotherhood house)
"Toad! Come out of there!" Pietro banged on Todd's door.
"Go away." Todd's voice came through the door.
"Don't make me break this door down!" Lance yelled.
"Leave me alone." Todd said.
"Alright, have it your way!" he turned to look at Tabitha. "Boom Boom."
"Well it's his room." She shrugged.
"Since when do you respect the value of other peoples' privacy?" Pietro asked incredulously.
"Good point." She said and slipped a small energy bomb into the key hole so that it blasted the lock. They pushed the door open to see Todd sitting on his bed.
"Freakin go away!" Todd shouted.
"Come on Toad. It's not the end of the world." Tabitha said.
"It might as well be now that Serena's gone." He whimpered.
"She flooded the house!" Pietro said exasperatedly.
"Could ya blame her? Could ya!?" Todd's voice rose.
"She wasn't one of us. She didn't belong. She was just another goody-goody who..."
"You don't know anything about her so just shut-up!" Todd bellowed.
"I don't see what the big deal is." Pietro said incredulously.
"You also don't see just how much you screwed it up!" Todd said angrily.
He tried to leap away from them but Pietro, expecting this, grabbed him. Todd who was particularly angry spat slime in Pietro's face which made him drop Todd instantly. Todd seized his chance and dove right out the bedroom window. Pietro wiped the slime from his face. Now he was upset.
"When I get my hands on that little..." He was going to go after Todd but Lance stopped him.
"Wait Pietro, let him go. Give him some time to cool off."
"Why are you defending him?" he demanded.
"Because I know exactly how he feels." Lance told him.
"No offense Quickie but you probably could never understand what love feels like." Tabitha said.
"Whatever." He muttered.
"What kind of got me wondering was that necklace of hers." She said out loud.
"Why?" Lance asked.
"Weren't you looking at it?"
"I wasn't paying attention to her necklace. I was a little preoccupied with her face."
"Well you know how it's usually shimmering? Well while she was yelling at you guys I noticed it wasn't like that any more."
"What did it look like?" Pietro asked.
"It's kinda hard to explain." Tabitha continued. "It looked as though waves were crashing down inside of it. Like the ocean does when there's a storm."
"It must've been the lighting in the room." Lance shrugged.
"Anyway we have more important issues right now." Pietro said impatiently.
"I guess I didn't realize exactly how much Toad loved her." Lance said.
"I feel kind of bad. I mean little Toddles finally gets a girlfriend and we go and mess it up for him." Tabitha said sadly.
"And she was pretty nice to us come to think of it." Lance added.
"Cooked the best meal I ever ate." Fred put in.
"Oh brother, listen to you guys." Pietro said in disbelief. "Look we got along fine without her before and we can get along fine without her now." But even as he said this he too felt a slight pang of guilt. But he ignored it. "I'm outta here." He zipped off. Lance stared after him shaking his head.
-----------------------
Serena had finished unpacking and sat down on her new bed. She started worrying that the others were still upset about the fight between the Brotherhood and the X-Men. I hope they aren't mad at me for that. She thought. But no matter what I won't let myself be used ever again.
"Serena." A voice came from her balcony. "Serena, are you there?" She walked over to the balcony and looked down to see Todd hanging from the edge.
"Todd, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you."
"Well I don't really want to see you right now."
"Please, don't hate me."
"I don't hate you Todd. But after using me like that, why shouldn't I?"
"I didn't want you to go."
"Then why didn't you follow me? Why can't you join the good side?"
"If I could I would follow you where ever you would go."
"Then why don't you?"
"Because I'm a bad guy. A delinquent. I'd never fit in with these guys, they all hate me. I just don't want you to hate me. But then, I guess I couldn't blame you." He looked at her hopefully. She looked at his yellow eyes, and smiled.
"Oh, how could I ever hate you Todd?"
"So you forgive me?"
"Of course I do. After all, you're the only one who truly understands me."
"So you'll come back to the Brotherhood?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Look Todd, I know you didn't mean to hurt me, but your friends did. I couldn't live with them. Besides, they don't want me there."
"Serena, I know they can be jerks sometimes but..."
"Todd if I went back there something dangerous would happen."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't want to know what I see when I look at them. I can't explain it, but there's a part of me..." She shook her head. "I just can't." She looked at him trying to make him understand. "You saw what I did to your house when I got upset. I need to learn how to control my powers and my emotions. I don't want to see anybody getting hurt by me."
"I understand." He said sadly dropping his head.
"Hey," she put her hand under his chin and lifted his face up. "It doesn't mean we can't still be together."
"I know but still..."
"Serena?" a voice called.
"Just a minute." She said. She looked at Todd. "You should go. I'll see you in school tomorrow." She kissed him on the forehead.
"Alright." He let go of the balcony and dropped down. Serena walked to the door and pulled it open. It was Kurt.
"Hey, you ready for your first training exercise?"
"I guess so." She shrugged.
"The Professor asked me to give you this." He held out an X-men uniform. She took it in her hands.
"Wow, thanks."
"You need to get dressed and be outside a few minutes."
"No problem."
Training for Serena wasn't that bad. During defense practice they shot saw blades at them. She turned into her liquid form so that the spinning blades passed right through her body. During rescue mission training however where they were supposed to rescue drowning people, she had tried to wash her victim (who was Kitty) up onto the side of the pool with a small tidal wave, but the water rose up higher than she had wanted it to and ended up splashing all of them. Everybody was dripping wet. "Eh heh," she laughed nervously. "Sorry?" "It's okay. Just try to tone it down a bit next time." Cyclops said. She made friends with the rest of the students just fine and apologized to the others for fighting them. They said it was no problem.
Later that evening, Serena sat in her bedroom alone meditating. The incense was burning a strong fume that spread quickly across the room. It helped her to relax and push out all thought and feeling out of her mind. In front of her sat a glass of water, the surface as still and solid. She focused her mind and closed her eyes. The water slowly lifted out of the glass until it was only two feet away from her face. She opened her eyes slowly trying not to lose her center of attention. The glob of liquid started to slowly split until the there were two globs of water floating in the air. Then the two started to separate to make four. But at that moment there was a loud knock on the door, causing Serena to lose her focus. The two orbs dropped out of the air and splashed onto the floor. She heaved a sigh of impatience as she got up and headed to the door. She opened it just enough to see who it was. "Kurt?" she asked. It was indeed Kurt. He was standing outside her room, halo-watch off and wearing his night clothes.
"Um, hey." She blinked at him waiting for him to say why he was knocking on her door at this hour. He scratched his head nervously. "I forgot to give you this." He handed her a bracelet that had silver moons and stars encrested with aquamarines and sapphires. She stared at it in her hands.
"What's this for?" she asked confused.
"You mean it's not yours?" he looked even more confused than she did.
"No."
"I found it at the park in the sand."
"I've never seen it before." She held it out to him.
He shook his head. "You can keep it." She gave him a small smile.
"Thank you." They stood there for a few moments until Serena said, "Well, goodnight." She shut her door.
"Night." He sighed deeply and headed back to his room.
She placed the bracelet on her vanity and sat back down in the center of the room. She looked at the spilt water. She exhaled slowly and focused once more. The water collected from the floor until it was hovering as a liquid glob. She moved it over the cup and released it so that the water sloshed back into the glass container. She decided that was enough for one night. She put the glass of water on her bedside table and put out the incense. She crawled into bed and fell asleep.
-----------------------
Todd was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling thinking. Should he really join the X-Men? Is that what it would take for him and Serena to be together? He would not soon forget what happened last time he was there. First they tried to fry him, and then they sick that blue demon on him. Not to mention he almost got killed in that so called 'danger room'. And they wonder why he didn't join them? Besides he liked being a bad guy, leaping about non-stop causing all manner of mayhem. He could do whatever he wanted without thinking twice. He was a troublemaker, and nothing could change that. He had never been loved by anybody. So he hadn't known what it was like until Serena came into the picture. She was the only person he could remember that ever loved him and the only person who ever used his real name, Todd. He didn't really mind people calling him Toad, but he would've liked it better if they would call him Todd. But nobody ever did. They just thought of him as a smelly, slimy little kid who brought them nothing but disgust. Not many people like toads, so that's what they call him. But Serena had looked beyond all that. When she looks at him she doesn't see the shrimpy wise mouth that everybody else saw, but a guy who could understand how it feels to be used and abused and what it was like to be practically all alone in the real world. That's what she saw in all of us. That's why she joined us. That and because she had finally found a group of friends who understood her problems and knew exactly how she felt. She had probably hoped that her life here would erase the past she dreaded so much. But instead it had set it in stone. One, almost two weeks she had been with them. And all this started at school, when he first met her he had found himself accidentally in love. If it hadn't have been for Lance and the rest of the guys, he might've never even met her. He chuckled to himself as he thought of what they might say if he told them this fact. But how could she possibly live in a place where hardly anybody there knew what the real world is like?
"Todd?" Lance's voice shot out of no where straight into his thoughts like an arrow.
"Yeah?" Todd asked.
"I thought about what you said earlier and well, here." He grabbed Todd's hand and put something in it. Todd looked at what Lance had given him. It was a picture of him and Serena snuggled up together on the couch. The night before she had left.
"How did you...?"
Lance cut him off. "Don't ask how. I just thought you might like it."
"Thanks Lance." He said gratefully.
"Hey, no problem. You are after all still part of the group."
He left Todd alone to stare at his picture. Todd flopped back down on his bed. He just hoped that nothing else will go wrong.
ON THE NEXT CHAPTER, MANY CONFLICTS ARE EXPECTED. NOT JUST BETWEEN TODD AND KURT, BUT THE REST OF THE X-MEN AND BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS. AND HOW FAR WILL TODD GO TO PROVE HIS LOVE FOR SERENA?
(At the institute)
Professor Xavier was sitting at Cerebro. He thought, Kurt, I need you for a moment. A few seconds later Kurt teleported into the room.
"What is it Professor?"
"I have a job for you Kurt. Right now Serena's powers are being used without her control."
"Why Professor?"
"Her powers are triggered by her emotions. And with her powers she could become a danger to herself and those around her. And right now her emotions and powers are running dangerously high."
"What is wrong with her?"
"I'm not quite sure Kurt. That is why I want you to go and try to calm her down if you can."
"I could try."
"Good. She is heading towards a small park just south in town of here."
"I'm on it!"
-----------------------------
Serena ran down the street, fire hydrants blasting open as she passed. She wanted to get away from everything. She just wanted to be by herself. She slowed down as she ran out of breath to run. Passing by a park she saw through a fence that there was nobody there. It had a small playground with a swing set, a slide, and a jungle gym and trees were growing all around. Some of the sprinklers were on. Seeing how empty and quiet it was, she jumped the fence and walked across the grass to the swing set. She sighed heavily and sat down on one of the swings. The emotions that were heated up inside of her were causing the sprinklers to go haywire, but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything right now. All she wanted to do right now was disappear off the face of the earth. She heard a bamf and whipped her head around to see Kurt in his human appearance. He smiled at her faintly and gave a small wave.
"How's it?"
She closed her eyes trying to keep calm. "How did you find me here?"
"Well, uh..." he hesitated. He really didn't want to tell her, but considered that honesty would be the best thing right now. "The Professor has this machine that detects other mutants."
"Did you come here to say 'I told you so'?"
"No, not at all."
"What did you come here for then?"
"The Professor thinks your powers react with your feelings. If they were to rage out of control it could be very dangerous."
"So you think I should go to this school you were talking about and train my powers."
"Well I..."
"No offense Kurt but, I'm just not ready to except another outstretched hand. Because every one I've taken has burnt me."
"But you can trust us." She looked at him.
"Can't you see I want to be alone? I don't want to trust anymore."
Kurt thought a moment then he said, "Wait right here." And bamfed. A few seconds later he appeared with an ice cream cone in his hand. "Here." He handed it to her.
"What's this for?" she asked skeptically.
"Well when a girl is depressed or angry and won't talk to you, you just give her ice cream and she'll calm down. At least that's what I've heard." Her look of incredulous was broken by a smile and she burst into a fit of giggles.
"Where in the world have you heard that?"
"Uh, sorry. I'm not from around here."
"Apparently. It sounds like something my older brother would say."
"So he was lying?" This made her laugh even harder.
"He actually told you that?"
"He said cookie dough would work the best but we were out of that."
"Thank you. You're very sweet." She said and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Well you sure seem happier. So what happened?"
Her smile slightly faded. "It was like you said Kurt. They used me and they were going to drop me."
"They were? Why?"
"I guess I wasn't cut out for being a bad guy."
"Well you know, you can always try the good side."
"I just don't want to be used anymore. I want someone to like me for who I am, not what I am or what I can do."
"You know, even though I have not known you for very long, I can still see you're a good person."
"How?"
"I can see it in your eyes." He bamfed so that he was hanging upside down on the swing rail. "And after all, the eyes are the windows to the soul." She smiled faintly at him. "So what do you say? Give it a try."
She sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll give it a try."
"Great! Let's go see the Professor." He grabbed her hand.
"Wait I..." she didn't get to finish. They teleported to the mansion. They were inside and Serena looked at her surroundings. "Wow. You guys actually live here?"
"Yes, they do." A voice said. Professor Xavier appeared with Storm and Logan with him.
"Serena, this is the Professor." Kurt gestured. Serena tried to smile.
"It's nice to finally meet you Miss Hallow."
"She wants to join the X-Men Professor."
"Does she really?" he asked. She nodded her head slightly.
"This is Ororo and Logan. They teach the students how to use and control their powers."
"Hi." She said apprehensively.
"Nice to meet you." Storm said. Logan gave the slightest nod.
"Well young lady," Serena shifted a little feeling the gaze of the adults on her. "Are you sure you want to join us?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Very well." He said. "You'll have to ask your parents' permission. If they allow it, you can join us."
"Alright." She turned and started walking to the door.
"And Serena," Xavier called. She turned to look at him. "I know you've had some difficult times. But that's what we're here for. To help you."
"Thanks... Professor." She turned and walked out.
"Let's just hope she doesn't do too much damage." Logan said.
The next morning Serena brought her mother to the institute. Professor Xavier talked with her about how the school was for gifted students and that Serena had potential. Luckily he didn't mention anything about mutants and nothing unusual happened. After much talk Serena's mother agreed. On her way out her mother kissed on the cheek. "Have fun sweetie." and left.
"Well congratulations Miss Hallow. You are one of the X-Men now."
"Thanks." She muttered. Kurt walked into the room.
"Ah Kurt, will you show Miss Hallow here to her room?"
"Sure." Kurt led her to a bedroom. "Here you go." He opened the door for her.
"Wow." She said as she looked around. "You weren't exaggerating when you talked about this place." She tossed her bag onto the bed and sat down. "Thanks, I'm starting to be kind of glad I joined you guys."
"I promise you won't regret it." He said and shut her door.
"The question is," she said to herself quietly, "can I trust you with that promise?"
--------------------------
Kurt had made his way downstairs and saw the Professor deep in thought. "What's wrong Professor?"
"The problem is Kurt is that she is still afraid to trust us. And with her past experience, I can not blame her."
"Then we'll just have to earn her trust." Kurt said.
"Yes, but she won't give it so willingly. It will take time. But for now she will maintain her distance until she feels she ready to trust again."
-----------------------------
(At the Brotherhood house)
"Toad! Come out of there!" Pietro banged on Todd's door.
"Go away." Todd's voice came through the door.
"Don't make me break this door down!" Lance yelled.
"Leave me alone." Todd said.
"Alright, have it your way!" he turned to look at Tabitha. "Boom Boom."
"Well it's his room." She shrugged.
"Since when do you respect the value of other peoples' privacy?" Pietro asked incredulously.
"Good point." She said and slipped a small energy bomb into the key hole so that it blasted the lock. They pushed the door open to see Todd sitting on his bed.
"Freakin go away!" Todd shouted.
"Come on Toad. It's not the end of the world." Tabitha said.
"It might as well be now that Serena's gone." He whimpered.
"She flooded the house!" Pietro said exasperatedly.
"Could ya blame her? Could ya!?" Todd's voice rose.
"She wasn't one of us. She didn't belong. She was just another goody-goody who..."
"You don't know anything about her so just shut-up!" Todd bellowed.
"I don't see what the big deal is." Pietro said incredulously.
"You also don't see just how much you screwed it up!" Todd said angrily.
He tried to leap away from them but Pietro, expecting this, grabbed him. Todd who was particularly angry spat slime in Pietro's face which made him drop Todd instantly. Todd seized his chance and dove right out the bedroom window. Pietro wiped the slime from his face. Now he was upset.
"When I get my hands on that little..." He was going to go after Todd but Lance stopped him.
"Wait Pietro, let him go. Give him some time to cool off."
"Why are you defending him?" he demanded.
"Because I know exactly how he feels." Lance told him.
"No offense Quickie but you probably could never understand what love feels like." Tabitha said.
"Whatever." He muttered.
"What kind of got me wondering was that necklace of hers." She said out loud.
"Why?" Lance asked.
"Weren't you looking at it?"
"I wasn't paying attention to her necklace. I was a little preoccupied with her face."
"Well you know how it's usually shimmering? Well while she was yelling at you guys I noticed it wasn't like that any more."
"What did it look like?" Pietro asked.
"It's kinda hard to explain." Tabitha continued. "It looked as though waves were crashing down inside of it. Like the ocean does when there's a storm."
"It must've been the lighting in the room." Lance shrugged.
"Anyway we have more important issues right now." Pietro said impatiently.
"I guess I didn't realize exactly how much Toad loved her." Lance said.
"I feel kind of bad. I mean little Toddles finally gets a girlfriend and we go and mess it up for him." Tabitha said sadly.
"And she was pretty nice to us come to think of it." Lance added.
"Cooked the best meal I ever ate." Fred put in.
"Oh brother, listen to you guys." Pietro said in disbelief. "Look we got along fine without her before and we can get along fine without her now." But even as he said this he too felt a slight pang of guilt. But he ignored it. "I'm outta here." He zipped off. Lance stared after him shaking his head.
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Serena had finished unpacking and sat down on her new bed. She started worrying that the others were still upset about the fight between the Brotherhood and the X-Men. I hope they aren't mad at me for that. She thought. But no matter what I won't let myself be used ever again.
"Serena." A voice came from her balcony. "Serena, are you there?" She walked over to the balcony and looked down to see Todd hanging from the edge.
"Todd, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you."
"Well I don't really want to see you right now."
"Please, don't hate me."
"I don't hate you Todd. But after using me like that, why shouldn't I?"
"I didn't want you to go."
"Then why didn't you follow me? Why can't you join the good side?"
"If I could I would follow you where ever you would go."
"Then why don't you?"
"Because I'm a bad guy. A delinquent. I'd never fit in with these guys, they all hate me. I just don't want you to hate me. But then, I guess I couldn't blame you." He looked at her hopefully. She looked at his yellow eyes, and smiled.
"Oh, how could I ever hate you Todd?"
"So you forgive me?"
"Of course I do. After all, you're the only one who truly understands me."
"So you'll come back to the Brotherhood?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Look Todd, I know you didn't mean to hurt me, but your friends did. I couldn't live with them. Besides, they don't want me there."
"Serena, I know they can be jerks sometimes but..."
"Todd if I went back there something dangerous would happen."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't want to know what I see when I look at them. I can't explain it, but there's a part of me..." She shook her head. "I just can't." She looked at him trying to make him understand. "You saw what I did to your house when I got upset. I need to learn how to control my powers and my emotions. I don't want to see anybody getting hurt by me."
"I understand." He said sadly dropping his head.
"Hey," she put her hand under his chin and lifted his face up. "It doesn't mean we can't still be together."
"I know but still..."
"Serena?" a voice called.
"Just a minute." She said. She looked at Todd. "You should go. I'll see you in school tomorrow." She kissed him on the forehead.
"Alright." He let go of the balcony and dropped down. Serena walked to the door and pulled it open. It was Kurt.
"Hey, you ready for your first training exercise?"
"I guess so." She shrugged.
"The Professor asked me to give you this." He held out an X-men uniform. She took it in her hands.
"Wow, thanks."
"You need to get dressed and be outside a few minutes."
"No problem."
Training for Serena wasn't that bad. During defense practice they shot saw blades at them. She turned into her liquid form so that the spinning blades passed right through her body. During rescue mission training however where they were supposed to rescue drowning people, she had tried to wash her victim (who was Kitty) up onto the side of the pool with a small tidal wave, but the water rose up higher than she had wanted it to and ended up splashing all of them. Everybody was dripping wet. "Eh heh," she laughed nervously. "Sorry?" "It's okay. Just try to tone it down a bit next time." Cyclops said. She made friends with the rest of the students just fine and apologized to the others for fighting them. They said it was no problem.
Later that evening, Serena sat in her bedroom alone meditating. The incense was burning a strong fume that spread quickly across the room. It helped her to relax and push out all thought and feeling out of her mind. In front of her sat a glass of water, the surface as still and solid. She focused her mind and closed her eyes. The water slowly lifted out of the glass until it was only two feet away from her face. She opened her eyes slowly trying not to lose her center of attention. The glob of liquid started to slowly split until the there were two globs of water floating in the air. Then the two started to separate to make four. But at that moment there was a loud knock on the door, causing Serena to lose her focus. The two orbs dropped out of the air and splashed onto the floor. She heaved a sigh of impatience as she got up and headed to the door. She opened it just enough to see who it was. "Kurt?" she asked. It was indeed Kurt. He was standing outside her room, halo-watch off and wearing his night clothes.
"Um, hey." She blinked at him waiting for him to say why he was knocking on her door at this hour. He scratched his head nervously. "I forgot to give you this." He handed her a bracelet that had silver moons and stars encrested with aquamarines and sapphires. She stared at it in her hands.
"What's this for?" she asked confused.
"You mean it's not yours?" he looked even more confused than she did.
"No."
"I found it at the park in the sand."
"I've never seen it before." She held it out to him.
He shook his head. "You can keep it." She gave him a small smile.
"Thank you." They stood there for a few moments until Serena said, "Well, goodnight." She shut her door.
"Night." He sighed deeply and headed back to his room.
She placed the bracelet on her vanity and sat back down in the center of the room. She looked at the spilt water. She exhaled slowly and focused once more. The water collected from the floor until it was hovering as a liquid glob. She moved it over the cup and released it so that the water sloshed back into the glass container. She decided that was enough for one night. She put the glass of water on her bedside table and put out the incense. She crawled into bed and fell asleep.
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Todd was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling thinking. Should he really join the X-Men? Is that what it would take for him and Serena to be together? He would not soon forget what happened last time he was there. First they tried to fry him, and then they sick that blue demon on him. Not to mention he almost got killed in that so called 'danger room'. And they wonder why he didn't join them? Besides he liked being a bad guy, leaping about non-stop causing all manner of mayhem. He could do whatever he wanted without thinking twice. He was a troublemaker, and nothing could change that. He had never been loved by anybody. So he hadn't known what it was like until Serena came into the picture. She was the only person he could remember that ever loved him and the only person who ever used his real name, Todd. He didn't really mind people calling him Toad, but he would've liked it better if they would call him Todd. But nobody ever did. They just thought of him as a smelly, slimy little kid who brought them nothing but disgust. Not many people like toads, so that's what they call him. But Serena had looked beyond all that. When she looks at him she doesn't see the shrimpy wise mouth that everybody else saw, but a guy who could understand how it feels to be used and abused and what it was like to be practically all alone in the real world. That's what she saw in all of us. That's why she joined us. That and because she had finally found a group of friends who understood her problems and knew exactly how she felt. She had probably hoped that her life here would erase the past she dreaded so much. But instead it had set it in stone. One, almost two weeks she had been with them. And all this started at school, when he first met her he had found himself accidentally in love. If it hadn't have been for Lance and the rest of the guys, he might've never even met her. He chuckled to himself as he thought of what they might say if he told them this fact. But how could she possibly live in a place where hardly anybody there knew what the real world is like?
"Todd?" Lance's voice shot out of no where straight into his thoughts like an arrow.
"Yeah?" Todd asked.
"I thought about what you said earlier and well, here." He grabbed Todd's hand and put something in it. Todd looked at what Lance had given him. It was a picture of him and Serena snuggled up together on the couch. The night before she had left.
"How did you...?"
Lance cut him off. "Don't ask how. I just thought you might like it."
"Thanks Lance." He said gratefully.
"Hey, no problem. You are after all still part of the group."
He left Todd alone to stare at his picture. Todd flopped back down on his bed. He just hoped that nothing else will go wrong.
ON THE NEXT CHAPTER, MANY CONFLICTS ARE EXPECTED. NOT JUST BETWEEN TODD AND KURT, BUT THE REST OF THE X-MEN AND BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS. AND HOW FAR WILL TODD GO TO PROVE HIS LOVE FOR SERENA?