I've updated the deleted scenes. This time we show the events of Chris being kidnapped by the X-men from Maggie's point of view. The deleted scenes can be found as a separate story on my profile. Have a nice day and happy reading!

After the incident on television, it didn't take long for other countries to speak out against the Sentinels. According to the UN, using them without their expressed permission would be "troublesome". Basically, if those big robots could kill mutants they sure as hell could kill humans.

Of course, the US being the US, they refused to relent- what they did on their soil was only their concern, after all. There may be treaties covering nuclear warheads but Sentinels, which were basically high powered drones had no such legal coverage.

Public opinion was surprisingly against the robots. People didn't like the idea of being in a police state with giant robots flying over their houses. Many were protesting in the streets to get them decommissioned.

The president dealt with it in all the wrong ways. If he'd kept his calm, he might have been able to convince people to not believe us but he did no such thing.

Good luck with getting reelected, man.

Father had doubled down on his attempts to get Jacob to join him- no, he doubled and then tripled down. He was having great successes in recruitment otherwise, but this 16 year old boy continued to elude him.

A week after the incident, I said, " Maybe we'll never be able to recruit him Father."

"What?"

"We can't offer him anything. We don't have anyone with even half his powers. We can't teach him much."

He frowned, knowing I was right. Still, he said, "Don't give up just yet, son. I'm not raising a quitter."

I nodded, not showing my frustration for his stubbornness.

The next day, after my classes, I got a text, asking to meet a friend of mine in a rather secluded part of the campus. I thought it was strange but decided it wasn't a threat to me.

I get to the location and see my friend sitting at an outdoor table looking at the surrounding trees, facing away from me.

"Hey, Amad! I'm here, what's up?"

A pop was heard and then my neck felt as though it were on fire.

My vision blurred and I could barely make out a thin feminine figure with thick bushy brown hair. But it was the gleam of sunlight that reflected off the silver strands in her bangs that convinced me.

"Marie?"

That was all I managed to say before I was pulled under.

I woke up tied up with rope. The room I was in had no windows and was lit with a single overhead light bulb. A mild autumn breeze easily blew through the thin walls of the building.

Questions bubbled onto the surface of my mind. Was she working alone or with Xavier? But more importantly: where was I?

I decided to summon some metal but I just couldn't. She'd sucked me dry.

Great.

Some rumbling was heard in the next room.

"What the hell? Why can't I just-just. He did this. He made me this way." It was her yelling, but at who?

"No, I don't care if it wasn't intentional. Do you know how hard it is to live with all y'all together in my head? And even worse, he got to be free of this craziness but me, the victim? Damn it, Optimism stop crying"

Yup, that sounded like Optimism.

She walked in. I decided to pretend like I was still asleep.

"Your - what did Logic call, it shards of your consciousness? They're telling me I should save your ass." She was silent for a beat. "But you've killed so many - willingly, too! You- the nice guy from the park. How can someone act so damn, damn normal when you do that. Should be a crime. I'd be doing the rest of the world a favor if I did kill you. You'd just follow your Daddy and make the world run red with blood."

I had to fight to keep a neutral face. My teeth pressed together with such force that my jaw muscles went numb, then cramped up.

She laughed. "I've been listening to your- friends too much. I'm starting to sound like you now- sometimes. And that's the worst thing. I can feel me-my personality- drain from me. Every moment with them is another moment where I become more like you."

My heart sunk. What was I thinking getting upset at her? She didn't need my anger, she needed help. I was the one who caused this. I should take responsibility.

"I can hear him. Your Pappy say things like. 'Not good enough Electron' or 'you can do better' or 'I won't tolerate mediocrity' when I'm just livin'. He's there criticizing my decisions all day. And he's so damn convincing. I want to do what he says because you want to. I'm different now. I want to do well on my school work. I like learning weird stuff now- like stuff about space and engineering. And there's always him whispering in the shadows. He was already there but adding your friends has made it worse. At least back then he didn't talk much." I could hear her shift, the rustle of clothes moving.

"He cares about you. He does. Buckethead does things I've never seen him do in my head like letting Optimism cry on him. The others joke with him and call him old and make fun of him. Like he's just some normal parent." She huffed.

"Well, he isn't a normal parent! He almost killed me, remember? He killed Senator Kelly. And what about all the crap he's done before that- the people he's hurt? Would you worship him so much if you knew he couldn't even save his own kid and wife? He dreams about them, cries over them too. If he weren't a goddamn maniac, I'd have some sympathy for the poor bastard."

I sucked in a silent gaping breath. I'd been holding it for so long, unknowingly. I knew my Father had had a family before. He said he had a child die on him. But this was the first time I heard any details about them. I was curious. But at the same time, I was tempted to get up, so she'd stop talking. This wasn't my past and she had no right to tell me all of these things. Still, my curiosity persisted… and since he adopted me, that would make his daughter my sister anyway… Didn't I have a right to know? I wasn't sure if he'd ever tell me, if he'd ever told anyone about this. I wondered if the Professor knew. Probably not. So, this might be my only chance.

"I'm so angry at you, at him, at everyone for writing me off as crazy. I had hope for some sort of life, then you came in and you taught me to control it but… You made it all worse. Just like him! That's all he ever does. He's going to make you just like him, take whatever redeeming features you have left."

Well, there went that opportunity. Wait, redeeming?

Then, a cry that broke midway into sobs.

"Yeah, I said that. I did. You- it's like a switch with you. You'd murder them, turn around and go feed stray cats. Well, Maggie's switch has long since broke. And he'll kill that part of you too. You're so hooked on him accepting you, you'll just roll over and accept it. "

Angry, my fist balled up and I opened my eyes.

"You were listening." She looked angry, like I did something wrong. This filled me with more irritation and rage.

"Yes, I was. I wanted to know your intentions. So you'd like to kill me? For a mistake you made?"

"No!" She yells. She looks more furious than I thought a person could possibly be. "You. You were the one who did this to me."

"You touched me. You did that." I glare back at her. She made that supid mistake all on her own. She was reckless and miscalculated- no she didn't bother to calculate at all. She had no chance against my Father. And for that, she suffered.

She walked towards me with quick, curt steps and before I knew it my head was turned the other way, cheek stinging. Instead of going for a punch, she'd slapped me to minimise skin contact. She made sure she wouldn't take what little strength I had left. She wanted me to stay awake.

I frowned, thinking of how I had taught her that trick.

"I should have let Father kill you," I stated as though my opinion were fact.

"What?"

Oh, so she doesn't know. I smirked.

"Yeah, Father wanted you dead. And if I had told him you had my memories, he'd have killed you. But I didn't. But now that's moot since you're going to kill me anyways."

"You liar!"

"Really? Then go see for yourself. You absorbed me right? Then, you should have the memory. It happened not even a month ago. After I left Charles's school."

She looked cautious, but closed her eyes. Seconds later, after they opened, they were red and a few clear streams was making their way down her face.

"I tried to kill you…" she croaked.

"You did."

"I- I'm…"

"Don't even apologize. I don't even know why I saved you anyway. You kidnap me, drug me, steal my powers and then expect forgiveness? Besides, you're not Marie anyway. Father was right Marie died the moment you absorbed my voices. You're blinded by revenge and are nothing like the kind girl I know. I grieved her death. And, I owe the husk of what's left of her consciousness nothing."

She glared at me and left before returning with a gun- a plastic one. I'd figured it must have come from the school. After all, that's how the X-Men knocked me out- at least that was the conclusion Father and I had come up with earlier.

My heart beat madly in my chest as I tried to regain my powers, tried to untie the ropes, tried to do anything. But it was no use. She'd even stolen the rope tying skills I'd learned in Boy Scouts.

There was a familiar pop and then nothing.

I opened my eyes to the white walls of the infirmary in my house.

I saw my Father pacing a few meters away. He didn't notice my waking up.

"Father?"

He rushed over to my side with a speed not normally seen in old men.

"You were drugged. Who took you?"

"I- I it was-" I paused.

The white chair in the corner's bottom scraped as is slid towards us. Once it arrived, he sat down. A water bottle was picked up from the desk against the wall across from us. It was placed into my hands. I drank.

He started again. "There's no rush… We found you tied up in an abandoned warehouse by your school."

"I was supposed to meet with a friend at school, but I was set up."

"Do you remember what your attackers looked like?"

"You'll- you'll, kill them if you find out their identities?" I sounded so pathetic, really. I sounded pathetic and small and helpless.

Father, probably thinking I was afraid, tried to assure me. "Of course I will. Any father would. I'll make them regret every moment they held you hostage and watch the light fade from their eyes."

"It..."

I can't lie. He'd find out eventually. Besides, it's her. She kidnapped me. She tried to kill me. She betrayed my trust.

"It was Rogue." I answered, not even calling her by her human name. That was the name of a loved and lost friend. And I'd not sully it by referring to that girl by it.

First, silence, then the room shook violently. I'd later learn that it was not not just the infirmary, not just the house, but the entire block. Metal close to him started floating in the air while the buildings further away had their frames shaken.

"After the mercy I bestowed upon her. Even crippled she- She must have absorbed Wolverine to heal herself. There is no other way."

"So you're going to kill her?"

"Yes, and there isn't a phrase in the eight languages I know that you could use to keep me from doing so." Once again he gave me the look- the look he gave when there was no way he was going to change his mind.

"I know. I just...I just feel guilty. She told me why." Father's presence always had a way of releasing emotions I hid from others and even myself.

"You haven't done a goddamn thing!" He started raising his voice. "You're completely innocent! You tried to help her, even. You taught her to control her powers. And she does this with them? She's betrayed you in the worst possible way."

I quietly added, "She's losing herself."

"What?"

"My voices. They're chipping away at her sense of self. She's becoming more like me than herself. They can't peacefully coexist and it's tearing her mind apart."

There was an uneasy silence. Finally, Father spoke.

"I see. Still, she's a threat to you and as long as that is the case…"

"I know Father. Are you going to leave me… to go look for her?"

"Yes. She must be caught, so you can be safe." He once again gives me the same look.

"I don't want her caught right now. I want you here! You want to help me? I don't want revenge. I want comfort. My friend is suffering because she cared about me- enough to try to fight you. And I yelled at her because I was frustrated and angry. She..."

He frowned. "I'm sorry."

I sniffled. "Thanks."

He left.

I miss Marie. The real Marie.

I was about to get up when he reappeared in the infirmary.

"Stay there. You need to rest." He says.

"I feel fine, Father." I protest.

"You've never been tranquilized. I have. You won't be perfectly fine for at least another day. I've taken the liberty of notifying your teachers that you won't be in for the rest of the week."

Another layer of blankets wrapped around me.

"Thanks, Father." I smiled at him. He must've been really worried, if he wanted me to miss school.

A grimace appeared on his face. "If I were truly worthy of your thanks, you wouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place."

"I'm okay Father. You didn't know."

"It's my job to! You could have died Electron! That girl said she wanted you dead. And- and if she had killed you? I honestly don't know what I would have done."

I had an idea, whatever torture he would've cooked up for Rogue wouldn't have been fun.

"Father, it's okay."

"No it isn't. I'm supposed to protect you, keep you safe. And yet you're here in the infirmary." He gestured to the variety of machines attached to me, expression sullen and defeated.

"I'm still here Father. I won't die on you."

His frown deepened. "Not willingly. But if I keep failing you… I'm sorry, I should be the one comforting you, not the other way around. You're the one who got kidnapped. You won't be safe as long as she's free. She knows where you go to school."

I gathered my courage and formulated my words carefully. "Rogue… She mentioned something from your past. Can you tell me more about it? I have questions."

He sighed and sat down. "I won't lie. But I cannot guarantee I will tell you everything." That was a classic kind of response from him.

"Okay Father." I breathed in. "Rouge said your wife and first born kid died. And that you feel guilty about it."

The pain that registered on the mans face was unreal. He looked away in shame. I immediately regretted my words. Even worse, I had asked him right when he was feeling so vulnerable and guilty…

"I- I couldn't save them. I didn't know anything about my powers back then. And I foolishly tried to hide them. If I'd practiced them I might have…"

"Father, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

He waved my apology away and composed himself. "It's fine. You should know about your older sister. Her name was Anya. She had a power too- she could communicate with animals. She was so happy. She liked to climb trees, listen to the birds chirp." I smiled. Father sounded happier now that he was talking about his family.

"And Magda, my love, she would've adored you. She was tiny, but possessed a strength of will and a goodness of heart. After we were freed from the camps, I lived with her and her distant relatives. Eventually, we were wed. I always had a crush on her but… it morphed into something more as I grew older." His face fell. "We could never afford photos so I would have forgotten their faces had Charles not permanently attached the memories to my mind - at my request of course. I was forgetting what they looked like… What their voices sounded like..."

"I see." It wasn't like now. Without a photo, people had no other way to perfectly recall what their loved ones looked like, and most people have a voice messages from family members and home videos at least.

That was so kind of him.

"Then what happened?"

"My first taste of the hatred humans have for mutants… I saved a man from dying with my powers. But… He brought the police to our house and they burned it down. I had no control over my powers at the time and they tied me up so I- we could only watch as she burned with our home. She kept screaming, 'Mama, Papa, hilf mir! Es tut weh. Es tut weh.'"

I cringed. That translated roughly to 'Mom, Dad, help me. It hurts. It hurts.'

"When she stopped screaming- I knew. Somewhere I just knew, she was gone. My vision blurred and I called on the powers I had tried so hard to forget. I turned on the crowd and killed them all. I cut them all down- einschließlich der Kinder."

I gasped. That translated to including the children.

"They were pointing all of them and staring and laughing at our misery. Happy the monster and his monster family were going to die. Me being jewish and her being a gypsy we were not very popular anyway. They were glad." The house began to shake again.

"They stood there and did nothing. No, they cheered even. Happy to be rid of us. Happy to see a child burn. Mein Kind… Anya. Mein freundliches Kind hat niemanden verletzt und ohne Zurückhaltung geliebt."

My child… Anya. My kind child hurt no one and loved without restraint.

"I decapitated them. But Magda ran away, frightened of my power. I was too tired to follow her and passed out. When I awakened she was gone. I had nothing- nothing at all. So I tried to track her down… When I found her she'd been drowned by an angry mob that had heard about me. I never got to explain."

There was silence.

I squeezed his hand.

"So as you can see, I can't let anything happen to you."

"I get it."

"You are the only person I know who cares about me. I'm not sure if I deserve it. I-I don't see you as a replacement for her but… You're a second chance I never thought I'd get. And when I noticed that I was starting to care for you… Early on, I was honestly more angry with myself than you and did my best to remain unattached… But we were so similar in that we suffered for others ignorance. I couldn't help but be sympathetic… And you had a personality that amused me to no end. You were and are bright, inquisitive, and curious about the world around you. And you are kinder than I could ever dream of being."

"What changed?"

"You fainted. You went to the hospital and I was so worried about you. I wanted you alive and safe. I could lie to myself about how I felt but after that… Moreover, I came to the conclusion that caring about you wasn't the same as replacing Anya. Beyond that… I do remember Anya saying she wanted a little sibling."

A bit of silence.

"That couldn't have been easy to tell me. But I'm glad that you did."

He nodded. "Rest here. If you need anything, call Toad on your phone."

"Yes, Father."

"Good."

My Father, he had acted so normal and scared. It was the oddest thing, seeing the man this vulnerable. It suddenly realised that what I had just witnessed was Erik Lehnsherr, not Magneto.

Neither my Father, nor his agents, or even the professor- who rushed to find her first, could find Marie.

She was gone. As if she had turned to smoke.

To keep me safe, Toad had to accompany me to school, even if I drove, to make sure I was okay. Father texted me right after my classes ended, and I had to respond immediately. Once again, I was confined to the house except for chess practice and meeting my martial arts teacher in the morning. Luckily, my Father did take me out a few times a week to stave off the stir craziness.

It felt as though my life would never be the same.

Maybe, I shouldn't have said happy reading. This one was a tear jerker. Oh well.