Finally! At long last the chapter is up! Anyway, in this chapter the entire Brotherhood (except Todd) take a serious guilt trip (especially Pietro). Wonder why Todd didn't remember Serena and what the Brotherhood was doing meanwhile? Here's the answer.

Chapter Thirteen: Missing Part and a Guilty Heart

The Brotherhood had returned to their house in a grave mood. Lance had placed Todd's small body on his bed. They all stayed in the room and waited for him to wake up. After Lance had put Todd down he turned to Pietro.

"What the heck were you thinking!? What in the freakin world was running through your thick head!?"

"I didn't realize what I was doing." Pietro shrugged slightly.

"You're always making excuses for yourself." Lance glared.

Tabitha looked at him. "Did you hate him that much for leaving Pietro? Did you hate him enough to do that?"

"No, I-- Of course I didn't."

Lance noticed a red stain on his hand. He examined Todd to find blood trickling down the side of his head. "His head is bleeding. Tabitha, go get some bandages." She nodded then left.

"Don't do this."

"Pietro, you do not know how sick and disgusted I am with you I am right now." Lance spat. "We'll be lucky if he doesn't need stitches."

"Hey I'm sorry okay." He said indignantly.

"Don't apologize to me. Apoligize to him." He pointed at Todd.

Pietro rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm sorry."

"When he's awake you moron."

"Hey I'm trying to apologize here!"

"Oh, like you really mean it!"

Tabitha walked in with a bandage roll, some cotton, and a bottle of peroxide. "Okay Lance, here it is."

"Hey why are you yelling at me?" Pietro asked loudly.

"Hello! Toad is unconscious because you knocked him out."

"Lance?" Tabitha asked.

"I didn't mean to knock him out!" Pietro said hotly.

"Oh yes I'm sure it was a total accident!" Lance said sarcastically.

"Uh, Lance?" Tabitha waited for the two to stop bickering.

"Hey at least I didn't destroy a school!"

"Oh yes! Now you're throwing my past in my face! Great defense!"

"Well if you would stop harassing me!"

Tabitha gave a sigh of impatience and walked past the two over to Todd.

"Were you jealous of him? Is that it?" Lance asked savagely.

"For what?" Pietro said taken aback.

"The fact that he found someone who can tolerate him and you haven't."

"Oh please!"

While the two fought Tabitha had wiped up the blood, applied the peroxide, and wrapped the bandage around Todd's head her self.

"Like I would really care about something like that!"

"You don't know what love feels like Pietro."

"Yeah. The only person you've ever been in love with is yourself." Fred finally spoke up.

Tabitha sighed. "Look Quickie, we understand if you were mad at Todd. But what you did to him, it's just... horrible. He's our teammate and our friend."

"I don't really know why I hit him. Honestly I don't." Pietro looked down at the floor his eyes burning. "I just want to pretend none of this ever happened. I wish it would all just go away."

"Well that's not going to happen." Lance snapped. "There's only so much time can erase." Todd stirred groaning a little.

This caught Lance's attention. He kneeled next to the bed. "Toad? Toad are you alright?"

"...Lance?"

"You had me worried for a second there. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts." Todd groaned.

"Well that's no surprise."

"What happened?" He asked wearily.

"You uh..." Lance stole a look from Pietro, "You hit your head."

Todd looked around, dazed. "Where was I? And how did I get here?"

"We were fighting with the X-Geeks, what else?" Tabitha shrugged.

"Oh yeah... damn X-Geeks." Todd muttered.

"Your girlfriend was worried sick about you." Fred piped up.

Todd raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

Lance blinked. "Your girlfriend."

Todd stared at him in confusion. "If you're talking about Tabitha..."

"No! I'm talking about--"

Pietro cut him off. "He's just messing with you." He pulled Lance out of the room.

"What are you doing?" Lance hissed at him.

"Look this is our big chance." Pietro said in a hushed tone.

"For what?"

"Look. It's obvious that he can't remember a thing about his relationship with Aqua Woman."

"And who's fault would that be?" Lance asked. "I'm surprised you didn't knock him senseless."

"I think it's perfect." Pietro stated.

Lance's eyes widened. "Are you insane?"

"If he doesn't remember her then it means no more problems for us. We can start from a clean slate."

Lance shook his head. "No. There is no way I'm going through with this."

"Would you rather have him back with the X-Geeks!?" Pietro asked him angrily.

"No! But depriving him of his memory? That's just sick!"

"You're starting to get soft Lance. I think its best if we all forget about her."

"This is not something you can just forget about Pietro!" Lance shouted.

"Shut-up you idiot!" Pietro hissed. "He'll hear you."

"I'm going in there to tell him."

"If you do I'll tell Mystique when she gets back all about Todd's little affair." Lance stopped dead. "Imagine where he'll be then." He turned around giving Pietro a very ugly look.

"You are the lowest, cold-blooded, unfeeling..."

"What are you guys yelling about now?" Tabitha and Fred came out of the room.

"Toad's wonderin what's going on." Fred said.

"And it seems like he doesn't remember anything from the past month." Tabitha added.

Lance grudgingly responded. "Keep it that way."

"What?" Both of them said in shock.

"Don't tell him anything. About Serena, the time they spent together, none of it."

"But Lance..." Tabitha started.

"Just don't okay!? Don't even mention her name."

"Lance..."

"Just do it!" He said angrily.

"Yeah." Pietro told them. "Let's just pretend none of it ever happened." He looked at both of them. "Alright?" Both nodded solemnly. All four of them went back into the room where Todd was sitting there looking confused.

"What's with all the yellin yo? Somethin I miss?"

"Nothing." Lance sighed. "Look, it's late. We'd better get to bed."

"Yeah okay." Todd nodded. The four left.

"Night guys." He called after them.

"Night Toad." They called back in unison.

The next day the Brotherhood was sitting at the table playing a game requiring much concentration and strategy.

"I bet five bucks and a yoyo." Pietro said dropping some money and the toy in the middle of the table.

"I'll see you and raise you to eight dollars." Lance said and dropped some money onto the table as well. Todd smirked and threw down a ten dollar bill and a few pictures of some of the jocks girlfriends.

"On second thought I think I'll fold." Fred said.

"Not much of a sacrifice for you since you only bet fifteen cents and two Twinkies." Pietro snickered.

"It was all I had." Fred said defensively.

Tabitha was watching the boys play. "I think you two had better do the same and back out now while you still can."

Pietro shook his head. "No way. He's bluffing."

Todd's grin grew broader. "Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not."

"Alright I'll take your bet." He said throwing down a few more dollar bills to match what Todd had. So did Lance.

Tabitha shook her head. "Don't say didn't warn you."

Pietro showed his cards. "Full house. And soon to be a full wallet."

"Not so fast." Lance showed off his straight in diamonds. "Let's see what you got Toad."

With an evil grin he revealed to their horror a royal flush. "I think your straight has led you straight down the path of loser lane Lance."

"Oh very funny." Lance grumbled as Todd collected his winnings. There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get that." Todd hopped over to the door and pulled it open. He was surprised at what he saw. Standing on the threshold stood a girl just a little taller than him with creamy pale skin that almost looked like it was glowing in the sunlight. Her body was smooth and slender and she had a friendly face. She had long dark brown hair that flowed down her back like a dark cascade. And her sparkling eyes different from each other. The right one was oceanic-green and the left one crystal blue. She was very pretty.

But Todd's trance was broken however when she had flung her arms around him screaming, "Todd!" At first he was too shocked to do anything. But he soon recovered. Startled and indignant about this strange and unexpected gesture, he shoved her away.

"What the hell!? Who are you?"

The girl looked equally shocked at this. "Todd," her voice sounded hurt, "It's me, Serena."

"And you are...?" Her eyes went wide. He saw her staring past his shoulder at the rest of the Brotherhood.

"What have you done to him!?" she screamed at them. They seemed to flinch at the shrill sound of her voice.

"Hey what is this about?" Todd demanded.

"Todd it's me Serena! Your girlfriend!" She grabbed his shoulders. "Have you forgotten all I know, and all we had?"

He pushed her away. "You're crazy man!" he yelled and slammed the door shut in her face. He turned to face the rest of the Brotherhood who looked as though they were about to be sick.

"Dang yo. I don't know what that was all about but I sure hope she doesn't come back." He looked at them. "Who was that girl anyway?"

"Who knows?" Pietro shrugged.

"Yeah," Lance said thickly, "Who knows?"

"Well, let's get back to playin yo. I know you guys got a lot more money than that."

"You shall not win!" Pietro declared dramatically.

As Todd sat down at the table he had a strange feeling. He didn't know why, but the split second that she held him he felt an unknown warmth inside of him he hadn't felt since his mother had held him a long time ago when he was still a child. But he would never admit this to the guys.

Mean while Lance, Tabitha, and Fred still had a sick feeling inside. They could not get the image of Serena's angry, hurt, and destroyed expression out of their minds.

A few days past by and they had hardly saw Serena in school, though they weren't really thrilled about meeting with her in the halls. Todd was his old self again, giving the teachers sass, stealing from jocks, and causing trouble. For some reason this didn't make the rest of the Brotherhood any happier. The guilt of Todd and Serena's undeclared breakup still weighed in the bottom of their stomachs like a stone. It was Friday and they were loitering in the hallway hardly doing anything. While Todd was busy trying to catch a fly, Tabitha whispered to the other three.

"Guys, I feel really guilty about this. I mean, Todd was so happy with Serena."

"Yeah, and?" Pietro asked in a bored voice.

"We're practically taking away his happiest memory."

"He got along fine without her before, he can get along fine without her now."

"You really are heartless aren't you!?" Tabitha scowled.

"I'm just doing what's best for him and for the team."

"Are you sure it's what's best for him, or best for you?" Lance asked him.

"And what do you mean by that?" Pietro glared.

"I think you know." Lance glared back.

"You're one to talk." Tabitha injected. "You sided with him about keeping Todd's memory from him."

"She's an X-Geek! She left us and went to them!" Pietro in a raised but hushed voice.

"She left because you were the one who wanted to dump her." Lance pointed at him.

"So did you guys."

"It was your idea." Fred pointed.

"But you still backed me up."

"And I regret it too." Lance grumbled.

"She was trouble." Pietro said.

"She was nice." Lance said.

"Exactly. A do-gooder."

"Just look at Todd." Lance gestured to the boy trying to catch a fast fly. "He's his old self again. A loudmouthed punk with no happy memories."

"And did you see the look on Serena's face when Todd didn't recognize her?" Tabitha asked.

"I felt horrible." Fred said gloomily. "It was like I could feel her feelings coming off of her."

"She's a telepath." Lance said before he could stop himself. Everybody looked at him. "Well a slight telepath anyway. Not as much of one as Red. I think she might also slightly be an empath."

"How do you know this?" Pietro asked eyebrows raised.

"Well, what other explanation is there? Think about it. When she gets emotional, we feel her pain."

"If that's the case," Tabitha said dismally, "then I think we pushed her over the edge."

"Oh please." Pietro scoffed. "You guys are getting worried over nothing. I'm sure in a few days she'll get over it."

"Hey isn't that Serena?" Fred pointed out. They saw someone coming.

"In here!" Pietro pointed to a classroom. While the others scurried into the classroom Pietro grabbed Todd and shoved him into the room.

"Hey! What gives yo?"

"Shh!" Pietro peaked out the door window. His eyes widened.

"What is it?" Lance asked shoving him aside.

"Get out of the way." Tabitha pushed.

"I wanna see." Fred whined.

"Oh... God." Lance said bewildered.

Tabitha drew an intake of breath and clapped her hand to her mouth. Fred stared dumbstruck. If they didn't know it was her, they would've never had guess it was Serena. She looked extremely tired, almost as if she was in a trace. Her face that was once alight with happiness was empty, and there were dark circles underneath her eyes. As she walked she occasionally stumbled.

"What have we done?" Tabitha said so quietly none of the others heard her. Serena slumped against the wall and slid down it looking upwards as if praying to ignoring ears.

"Shouldn't we help her?" Lance asked. Just as the words came out of his mouth Kurt appeared and helped Serena up. He walked her away.

"So now the Elf's moving in."

"What?" Fred asked.

"Fur ball has a crush on her." Lance replied casually.

"How do you know all this?" Pietro asked him.

"He told me. After his little scuffle over Serena with To--" Lance started to say.

"O-kay!" Pietro cut him off.

"Hey I'm still here." Todd remarked. "What the heck is going on?"

"Just spying on them, seeing what they're doing, searching for blackmail." Pietro said casually.

"Why didn't you just say so?" He left the room.

Pietro breathed a sigh of relief. Lance, Tabitha, and Fred were ot as relaxed.

After school it was Todd's turn to cook dinner resulted in the spahgetti catching on fire. While Todd was busy trying to put out the fire Pietro whispered to the rest of the Brotherhood.

"Now remember, try to act normal."

Todd came out of the kitchen with a smoldered apron and five plates of burnt spahgetti.

"Bon appeteit!" Todd said cheerfully setting the plates down on the table.

"Wow Toad." Pietro said looking at the burnt pasta. "Amazing, the food isn't black."

"Oh shut-up and eat."

Lance twirled his spaghetti around with his fork constantly.

sniff sniff

Lance looked up. "Is someone crying?"

"I think I'm about to from this food." Pietro quipped.

"Like you could do better." Todd shot back.

sniff sniff

Lance looked around. Someone was definitely crying. But who? 'Why?' a soft voice whispered. 'Why did you take him from me?' I didn't. Lance thought. "You said he could still love me." I did? 'You said that.' I'm sorry. 'You lied.' I didn't mean for it to be this way. 'LIAR!'

Lance shoved his plate away from him. "I'm done eating." Lance said getting up a little bit too quickly and walking out of the room.

"You haven't even eaten anything." Todd called to him. Lance didn't answer back. Todd shrugged. "Oh well."

Fred was deep in thought. He was there when she had defended them. He heard everything she had said. You think you know them but you don't! None of you do! They have been through more than you could ever imagine! Even after what we did to her she didn't stab us in the back. They were hurt and they didn't want to be hurt again. So they grew hard and distant and turned their backs on the world. But deep down inside are those that look for some kind of understanding. But why? Why did she defend us? Fred stood up from the table and started to leave.

"Hey Freddy where ya' goin? You haven't finished your meal." Todd said frowning slightly.

"I can't eat." Fred replied, and left the room.

Todd's eyes widened. "That's it. It's the end of the world."

"Why do you say that?" Pietro asked.

"'Can't' and 'eat'?" Todd said turning to Pietro. "Freddy would never use those two words in the same sentence."

Pietro shrugged. "There's a first time for everything."

Tabitha was staring at her plate of slightly burnt spaghetti. Some were as dark as Serena's hair. In fact it was Serena's hair. The hair was drape around a face of orange and red. The eyes drew slowly open and looked up at Tabitha. Tabitha stared at the face in horror.

Suddenly Serena's face jumped out at her. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!?" it shrieked. Tabitha gave a cry of alarm and fell back in her seat.

"Tabitha!" Todd said in alarm. "Tabitha are you okay?"

"I... I need to go lie down." She said breathlessly and left.

"Is my cooking that bad!?" Todd called. No answer.

He looked at Pietro. "What is with everybody?"

"Don't know." Pietro mumbled. Though try as he might, he couldn't get the image of Serena out of his head - weary, miserable, as if she didn't have a friend in the world, staring heavenward hoping someone would hear her prayer.

A couple hours later Lance was sitting in his room when he heard a knock on the door.

"Lance?" It was Todd.

"Yeah. What is it?" Lance answered.

Todd pushed the door open. He looked a bit disconserted. "I need to talk to you about something."

"About what?" Lance asked.

Todd fidgeted. "I'm having some problems."

"Well why do you need to talk to me about it?"

"Well, Pietro wouldn't really care and Tabbs never takes things seriously, and Freddy well," he shrugged, "You know."

"I can understand that. Alright come sit down." Todd hopped on the bed. "So what's bugging you?"

"I have this empty sort of feeling inside."

"Maybe you're just hungry."

"That's something Fred would say. I'll admit it does feel kinda like being hungry, only worse. And I keep getting these images in my head. And at night it's terrible. I toss and turn trying to fall asleep and when I finally do, I have these nightmares."

"What kind of nightmares?" Lance asked.

Todd shook his head. "I don't know. They never make any sense."

Lance could tell Todd wasn't being completely open. "What's really bothering you?"

"I just feel like I'm missing a certain part of me, like something really important was taken away from me. But I can't think of what it might be. I mean," Todd took a short pause, "I've never had anything I've ever really valued or loved."

"That's... sad." Lance said.

Todd thought for a moment, then he remembered something. "Hey Lance?"

"What?"

"That girl, who came to our house last week. Who is she?"

"She's a new member of the X-Geeks."

"She's a mutant?" Todd asked surprized.

"Yeah her name's Serena a.k.a. Aqua Woman."

"So she has water powers?" He asked slowly.

"Yep. She can control water, I think she said she could absorb water, and she can shoot it out of her hands. I think she can do more than that but I'm not sure."

"Sounds cool, yo."

"Oh yeah, she can also turn into a water being or something." Lance added.

Todd's eyes widened. "She can turn into water?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah, basically."

"Wow. Too bad she didn't come to our side. We could've kicked some major X-Men butt with that."

"Uh yeah." He said looking away. "Too bad."

Todd wanted to ask Lance something but he didn't want to embarrass himself. He decided to work slowly around it.

"But dang the way she came over here. She must be crazy."

Well after that incident I'd be surprised if she wasn't driven to insanity. Lance thought.

"Man I can't imagine any guy going with her."

"Uh, no. She's pretty much single." Now. He thought bitterly.

"So what's she like?" Todd asked.

"She's okay I guess." Lance looked at him. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothin'." Todd shook his head. "Just wondering."

(Next day...)

It was Saturday again and the Brotherhood was getting ready to leave. "Hey Todd we're going out to get something to eat. You wanna come?"

"No thanks." Todd's voice trailed from upstairs. "I'm just gonna hang around here."

The four exchanged worried looks. Todd never missed the chance of going out in public to cause trouble.

"Are you sure?" Tabitha called up.

"Yeah. Just bring me back a burger or something." Todd replied.

"Okay." Tabitha said.

After they left Todd moped around in his bedroom. Why am I like this? I feel like something extremely important has been taken away from me. Like a part of me is gone. But what? He paced back and forth trying to rid the feeling.

"What is wrong with me!?" He sat down on his bed. He noticed something poking out from under his bed. He reached down and pulled it out. It was a green T-shirt, covered in dust from neglect.

"This isn't mine." Todd examined it. "Tabitha and Pietro don't usually wear green, and it's too small to fit Fred. Must be Lance's. And from the look of it it's been here awhile." He hung the T-shirt over his arm and walked over to Lance's room. It was decorated with pictures of Kitty.

"Think you got enough of them Lance?" He asked himself as he pulled open the closet door and was about to toss the T-shirt inside when in the closet, he saw a box of pictures.

"Apparently not." He looked closer at the pictures and noticed they weren't of Lance and Kitty. They were of... Todd pulled the box out of the closet and sat it on Lance's bed.

"HOLY CRAP!" he screamed at what he saw. The pictures were not of Lance and Kitty. They were of him. Him and the pretty girl with long dark hair. "Serena?" He picked the top one up. It was a picture of him dancing with her, wearing the same green shirt he was still holding in his hand. He searched though the pictures. A picture of them swimming. A picture of them at a picnic. A picture of them at the beach, and many others. "What does this mean?" He had a flash back of her on the door step almost in tears. Have you forgotten all I know and all we had?

"It's true. That's why everyone was acting so weird. That's why I've been feeling this way." He took a look at a picture of the Brotherhood, Todd, and Serena at a wrecked theme park with people chasing them. A choking sort of feeling was rising in his throat. "They lied to me." He croaked. His hand tightened to a fist and the picture was crumpled. And the memory to Todd was like the picture in his hand, when the paper is crumpled up it could never be perfect again.

How will Todd deal with this mark of betrayel? And how will the Brotherhood be able to explain why they kept the truth from him? Stay tuned!