M'kay. So we've seen what's gone on with the Brotherhood. Now let's see how Serena is holding up. In this chapter Serena gets into conflicts and sees just how damaged she is.

Chapter Fifteen: Self-Reflection

(late afternoon on the same day)

Serena knocked on the door to a small pastel blue house. It was a few seconds before someone had opened the door. It was a small boy of about ten with a round face, dark brown hair cut into a bowl cut, and big bright blue eyes.

"Serena!" He swung the door open to reveal a boy identical to him standing next to him, who squealed, "Sis!" and rushed at her throwing his arms around her waist.

"Hey Kevin, hey Calvin." She said to them.

Calvin pulled away and looked up at her. "Hey Sis, you don't look so good. Are you alright?"

She looked at her two brothers, then in a rush of emotion, bent down hugged both of them tightly.

"Ugh, you're squeezing me too tightly." Calvin groaned.

"What's with you?" Kevin asked.

"You don't know how happy I am to see you two again."

"Really? I couldn't tell." Kevin said with a hint of sarcasm.

She let both of them go. "Is mom home?"

They both nodded.

"Yep. Mom!" Kevin called out.

A woman with shoulder length brown hair that was curled out walked up to them. "Kevin how many times have I told you..." She spotted Serena. "Serena! What a nice surprise. Come in. Come in."

Serena walked inside and closed the door behind her. Then she turned to her mother. "I'd like to talk to you in private."

"Alright." Mrs. Hallow replied without a thought. "Kevin, Calvin, go on and play."

"But we wanna talk to Serena." Calvin whined.

"In a moment dear. Right now we need to have a little chat." The twins gave identical scowls but left leaving Serena and her mother alone. They sat down in the living room.

"Are you okay?" Her mother asked worried. "You look like you haven't had any sleep for days."

"Let's just say it's been a long week." Serena replied wearily.

"Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

"No thanks."

"So how have you been?"

"Great."

"Have you been keeping your grades up?"

"Um, yeah."

"And what is it like in that school for the gifted you've been going to?"

Each question was getting harder to answer. "Uh... very interesting."

"Well that's good."

Serena sighed and decided to get to the point. "Mom, I've been wanting to tell you something. It's about my gifts."

Her mother's face turned dark. "I wouldn't exactly call them gifts dear."

"Yes, well something happened." She said hesitantly.

"Nobody saw did they?" Her mother sounded suddenly worried.

Serena reluctantly looked at her. "Well, actually yes."

Mrs. Hallow's eyes widened. "Oh god no. This is terrible."

"No, no mom. Nobody was all that shocked."

"Well why not?" Her mother asked incredulously. "You don't normally see something like that every day."

"Because," Serena swallowed, "because they have powers too."

Her mother's eyes went wider. "All of them?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Every single one?"

"Yes."

"What are they running over there?" Her voice sounded high pitched.

"It's a school for the gifted mom. For mutants." Serena explained.

"Mutants?" Her mother said shocked.

Serena nodded.

"Is it so that they can cure the problem?"

"What problem?" Serena asked.

"Your powers."

"Um, I'm not sure what you mean by cure..." Her voice was slightly irritated.

"Get rid of!" Her mother said shrilly.

"No mother. They train us how to use and control our powers."

"You mean to tell me all this time you've been learning how to use them?" Her mother looked like she was going to faint.

"What's wrong with that?" Serena asked indignantly.

"Serena what you have is abnormal and should not be encouraged."

"Why not?"

"You have the opportunity to become a full time scholar. You'll never get there with those powers in the way."

"They are not in the way. They never have been."

Her mother stood up. "You are not going back to that school!"

"What!?" Serena yelled.

"No daughter of mine will be associating with freaks!"

As Serena's anger rose she could feel somebody else taking over. "Those freaks just happen to be my friends!" A hard cold voice took place of her soft sweet one. "And I happen to be one of them!"

"I will not allow it!" Mrs. Hallow shouted. "We'll pack up and leave if we have too!"

Serena stood up angrily. "You can't do that!"

"You are my daughter and as long as you are in this family you will obey the rules!"

"Well then maybe I don't wanna be in this family!" Serena snarled.

"Whether you like it or not you are a part of this family!" Her mother screamed.

"Am I!?" Serena asked savagely.

"I don't even know why you exist!" Her mother said without thinking.

Serena felt a stab of emotion. For a moment she was silent. Then she said, "I exist because you had sex with a guy you weren't even married to! Doesn't that make me a bastard!?"

"You're not my daughter! My daughter would never behave like this!"

"Oh no. She'd do your every little whim and let you force her to do things she doesn't want to!" Serena forced volume on every word. "Well guess what!? I'm sick of you trying to control my life!"

"I'm just trying to keep you from ruining it!" Her mother said exasperatedly.

Serena glared at her mother. "You already have." She said in a voice so full of hatred not even the words of highest volume could over-power them. And she stormed out of the room. She made for the front door but the twins blocked her.

"Sis! We have to tell you something."

"Not now!" she said roughly and shoved them out of the way.

"Sis, wait!" Calvin called to her. But she didn't stop. The two watched her leave with identical hurt faces.

Calvin looked at Kevin. "Now what? We can't mom."

"I guess there's nothing we can do about it." Kevin shrugged.

"But what if mom finds out? She'll get so mad, especially since Serena is already--"

"I know, I know."

"So what do we do?" Calvin's voice quivered.

"We'll just have to hide it. Nobody can know about it."

"But can we keep it a secret?"

Kevin shook his head. "I don't know."

Serena walked down the street fuming. "Some mother. She doesn't understand. She thinks I'm a freak. She doesn't even realize that my powers make me special. I can do things others can't. Doesn't that count for anything? My own mother can't even understand. Nobody ever did, except..."

She walked up to the tattered old house which was the brotherhood house. She stared at it longingly, wishing that it was all a dream, and she would wake up in the Brotherhood house to see Todd's warm yellow eyes hovering over her. But no dream or nightmare could possibly be this painful.

He was the only one who understood. The only one who really knew how I felt. And the others, they understood. I felt like I truly belonged here. But, Pietro... What did I ever do to him? Why did he want to throw me out? Why did they want to throw me out? What did I do wrong?

Serena wanted to go inside and see Todd again, hold him again, love him again. But he doesn't remember me. To be forgotten is worse than death. Especially if its by someone you love. My only hope is that he's happy. I do not want the both of us to be miserable. I just wish he knew, how much he meant to me, how much I needed him. Tears started to leak through her eyes. Good-bye, my love. She turned away from the house and walked down the street. As she walked out of sight, Todd poked his head out the window and looked around. When he didn't see anything he pulled his head back in and shut the window.

Serena walked down a very familiar path. Was I here before? The park slowly came into view. Yes, I was here. On... that day. She had a flashback of her leaving the Brotherhood, running down the street, fire hydrants blowing up, stopping at the park. She walked towards the park and looked in. Nobody was there, so she went in, hopping over the fence. Same green grass, same playground, and in the middle of the park was the same fountain. There was no sound except the whisper of a gentle breeze and the splashing of the water fountain. She walked up to the swing set and ran her hand down one of the bars feeling it's cold metal. She took a seat on one of the swings.

Suddenly, Serena felt a wild playfulness, almost as if she was a kid again. She started to go back and forth on the swing gently. Back and forth getting steadily higher with each swing she used her legs to push her up. She went higher, flying down the ground and rushing up to the sky. She was able to rock forward and look straight up at the sky without having to crane her neck. The chain on the swing started to jerk. She rose backwards seeing the bright blue sky stretched out before her, then she rushed forwards swooping over the ground and as she rose to meet the sky, she let go. The world rushed past her in a blur of color. She suddenly came to her senses and changed into her liquid form. She hit the ground with a splash, then after a few moments she gathered herself again.

"What was that all about? I felt like, I had no worries, no responsibilities, no regards to the consequences of my actions." Serena didn't understand what had happened, but she knew for a fact that she hadn't felt like that ever since she was just a little girl. She had felt like that another time also, when she had been with the Brotherhood. It had been such a happy feeling. But those memories were long gone.

Serena suddenly spotted quite a large puddle in the ground. She sat next to the puddle in the ground and stared at her reflection. She looked terrible. Her hair was growing wild and unruly from neglect of brushing it. Her eyes were puffy from crying so much. Under her eyes were faint black circles from lack of sleep and her skin was paler than usual. Displeased by the image she saw she splashed the water making the image ripple out of sight. When the water slowly became still she stood up and screamed in horror at what she saw.

Reflected in the pool was herself scared and frightened, but that wasn't the part that scared her. Her body was covered in wounds. All across her arms, legs, and face were cuts, bruises, and sores of all kinds. The crimson red gashes stood out against her pale skin. Cuts on her legs, scratches against her arms, and gashes decorating her scared and now colorless face. The wounds were not bleeding, but they were unmistakably open. Serena felt her arms, whimpering at the sight. She couldn't feel them, but her sight overruled her sense of touch. She grabbed her face unable to look at the horrible image and sank back down to her knees. She slowly drew her hands down to look at herself again. The image of cut and wounds was gone and had been replaced by another. Her reflection was smiling at her as if please by what she saw. But Serena was not smiling.

"Horrible isn't it?" the reflection told her.

"How?" Serena said breathlessly.

"How what?"

"How are you there?"

"This is a way I can speak to you." The reflection explained. "Mirrors are capable of revealing many things to one who looks into it."

"Who are you?" Serena asked.

"I am you." It said simply.

Serena frowned slightly. "I don't understand."

"Don't you?" it asked in the same hard voice that Serena heard come out of her own mouth.

Serena shook her head disbelievingly. "You couldn't be... Are you what's making me act like this?"

"Act like what?" The reflection asked. "I only come out when you need me."

"I don't need you." Serena spat.

At this her reflection exhaled a scoff. "Lying to yourself."

Serena glared at the thing with her face. "Go away."

"Unfortunately I can't." Her reflection said wryly. "I'm a part of you."

"How did you become a part of me?" Serena asked skeptically.

"You created me. I was born out of your pain, anger, hatred, all of your negative feelings. You usually harbored your feelings letting them build up piece by piece. I was slowly formed over the years, until you released your anger that one night in the alleyway. But little did you know when you put all your pain on display, you didn't realize instead of setting it free you took what you hated and it created me." The reflection smiled at the confused and scared look on Serena's face.

"So you were made out of my pain?" she said slowly.

"Yes, and I'll always be right here. You can't separate yourself from what you've done now."

Serena's eyes were wide. "No. How could I let this happen?"

The reflection just shrugged. "You should've known that as you let your feelings slip away you were committing yourself them everyday."

"So I took what I hated and made it apart of me?"

The reflection gave a slight nod. "Precisely."

Serena was speechless. But her thoughts slowly found words attached to them. "If I could change, take back the pain and retrace every wrong move that I made, I would."

"Well you can't. You have to live with what you've done and take the shame to the grave with you."

Nothing could stop all the thoughts flooding into Serena's mind and the pain attached to them. "Why are you doing this?"

"Me?" It asked indignantly. "You're the one who shot yourself in the back again."

"I did not." Serena snapped.

"Call me a liar? Then look." The reflection turned into the scarred image of Serena. "Take a look at your back." The reflection told her.

Serena turned around and lifted the back of her shirt. There were indeed bullet holes on her back reflected in the pool. Serena was trembling.

"What are theses?" she asked as she ran a trembling hand down her back. She couldn't feel them, but the image was still as terrifying as ever.

"All of the physical and emotional scars you've ever received. They symbolize the pain others gave you and the pain you gave to yourself."

"What do you mean?" Serena's voice quivered.

"The pain of being alone. The pain of being with someone. The pain of betrayal, all of it has pulled itself upon you and left it's mark."

Serena blinked back a tear. "So the scars really are real."

"Yes."

Serena looked at her hands. "How did I get like this?"

"Simple," it said, "over the years you became too trusting. Desperate for friendship. You'd let anybody in. It was okay for awhile, but in the end, it all came down."

"So, I really did do this to myself." She buried her face in her hands. "I can't even trust myself anymore."

"I know how you feel." It said in a slightly softer voice. "After all, I am you."

Serena's voice was starting to become high-pitched. "I can't take this anymore. This is just too confusing."

"I know, I know." The reflection said in an understanding tone. "You feel weak inside. You find it hard to believe that you've come this far. People say they understand, but in reality, they couldn't even begin to imagine the pain gnawing at your insides, slowly devouring you. You're all alone in a dark place. No matter how many are in the same room with you, you are still trapped in that dark world created from your own misery. You're confused, wondering why you're here, why all this has happened, why fate dealt you a losing hand. You can't eat, because the food turns to ashes in your mouth, you can't sleep when so many thoughts are passing through your mind giving you no peace, and you can barely stand when life keeps throwing one thing after another at you, giving you no time to rest. You feel like you're dying, sometimes you wonder if you haven't already. Each day your body gets heavier, the air gets dryer, and all around you is nothing but a meaningless blur of images. And you know that it's never going to stop as long as time keeps everything in motion."

Serena slowly lifted her face from her hands. "I'm just so tired. Tired of everything. I'm tired of this deceit, tired of getting knocked back down every time I get back up again."

"You know," the reflection said slowly, "I could take over for awhile."

"What?" Serena asked not sure she knew what it meant.

"Let me take over for you." It said in a voice that sounded a bit too hopeful. "Rest a little bit, heal your wounds."

Serena shook her head violently. "No, I don't trust you."

"What's not to trust?" It asked.

Serena's eyes narrowed. "With you in control there's no telling what damage you would do."

"Well after the way you've been doing things I don't think I could possibly do much worse could I?" The reflection sneered.

"GO AWAY!" Serena screamed with rage and slammed both her fists into the puddle wiping her reflection out of sight.

"You can't change who you are." The voice said and faded.

Serena stared angrily at where she last saw the smiling image. Then suddenly, she broke into a sob. She drew her knees to her chest. She rested her arms on her legs and buried her face in them. I don't know how I got this way, but I know I'll never be alright again. She just sat there and cried, her sobs echoing through the empty playground.

Will Serena be able to hang on much longer? Or will she finally crack under the strain life has put on her? Stay tuned!

Next chapter, Pietro goes out to wallow in his own sorrows. Will he end up doing something he'll regret?