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************Nightmare Lullaby***************
The marble floor was cold and smooth. It had been created less than a century ago, but still seemed vast and ageless, constant and reliable. Everlasting, forever and ever.
Callie smiled as the tips of her toes and the bottom of her heels emanated energy enough to smolder the tops of the marble. It was still there, underneath, constant and reliable, but changed now, never to be the same again.
'Like me.' Callie rolled the thought around in her head. She dropped the shoes she had been wearing with a small "clack" to the ground.
'Subtle, have to be subtle.' She chided herself halfheartedly. 'Can't get caught now when you're so close.'
She walked down the corridor, singeing titles as she went. Felling the pull of emotion deep down in her chest.
Suffocating her.
For any outsider to have seen her, Callie would have been deemed just another normal mutant, a student even, maybe one with a small case of insomnia. On the inside, Callie was on fire...
Burning Down.
She didn't feel right, which was just... weird, because Callie didn't feel... at all... at least she never used to, not when she didn't want to.
Right now...
Callie didn't want to.
Callie laughed the thought out of her head and walked a little faster, though it seemed as if her legs were fighting her the entire way, dragging her down.
Something had happened since she had left that house with the blood on its walls and windowpanes. She didn't feel the same.
'You don't feel!' Her thoughts ran into each other.
Callie laughed louder and stopped herself, clasping her hands over her mouth.
She moved an index finger in front of her lips. "Shh..." She sighed, closing her eyes.
She still felt charged with unrelenting power, she still felt amazing, but something was bad and different.
This emotion inside of her, it was just too much. Callie still felt indestructible, but she also felt powerless to stop what this rage was doing to her.
Things flipped over and crashed in waves inside her head. Nothing was making sense and her mind yelled in protest in an effort to preserve its fragile state, but the rage SCREAMED back; it wanted its master, and Callie certainly wasn't him.
Callie knew she wasn't.
"What's the first thing you do in a high risk situation Sweetheart? How do you increase your opponent's fear so you can located, blind-side, and defeat them? How do you win the game?"
Her boss' voice reverberated inside of her head. He had said it years ago; when he was still training her. Callie continued her journey to the back of the mansion where she knew the main power generators to be.
"Turn off all the lights." Callie shuffled slowly now, arms rigid at her sides. "Then say boo."
At least she still had the power to do that.
She'd figure everything else out when she met up with that man finally.
The rage inside of her screamed again, to be with HIM, rattled its cage. Callie held her ribs, her eyes glowing softer. 'I wanna be the master... I wanna be the boss.' She thought.
"I wanna win the game." She whispered as a fog escaped her mouth.
She continued towards the power box, taking deep uneven breaths, her feet now scorching the tiles beneath them, some of the stone cracking and breaking. Broken... just like her.
Callie started smiling again, totally denying the fact that what she truly felt, deep and hidden in her heart, wasn't rage, it wasn't hate, it wasn't even anger or a need for power and destruction.
What Callie felt...
What Callie really felt...
was fear...
*************
Jean slowly lifted her head. It still felt heavy from tapping into the Phoenix Force to restore Logan's emotions. The no sleep aspect wasn't helping anything either, but she felt a little better.
At least Scott had calmed down. In fact, he was back to normal. Normal stoic Scott, going over different plans with Hank and a sleeping Bobby, about how to stop this woman. They would be leaving within the hour.
Jean felt something pull at the back of her mind; She ignored it, too tired to care about what her powers were trying to warn her of.
She glanced over at Leila, who had slept through everything that had happened between Logan and Scott.
The girl was still and peaceful. Jean smiled at the thought of the worst being behind her. All Leila had to focus on now, was what could be the most important and the most exciting point of her life as a mutant. Learning how to control her powers.
Jean thought of all the different controlled scenarios that she could introduce to Leila, to see what the full extent of her powers were and to...
The thing that had been pulling on the back of Jean's mind... Yanked down hard..
Jean furrowed her brow.
"Scott." She tried talking. It came out tired and quiet.
"Scott!" She shouted clear and strong.
He stopped talking and turned around to look at her where she sat on the medical bed that had previously held Logan.
"What's wrong!?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
"I..." she started. " I think..."
BAMF!
Shocked at Kurt's entrance, the group jumped.
"Sorry," Kurt started. He looked around the room, and his gaze locked with Jean's.
"She's here! In the mansion..." He looked at her.
"What do you mean? Who's..." Scott started, and then it dawned on him. "No... how did she...?"
"She's a thief, so... I don't know. But Logan, he's going after her." Kurt continued.
"No!" Jean burst out, without really knowing why. "I mean, I don't think it's a very good idea. I don't think Logan should be anywhere near that woman." She continued, quietly now.
"Jean..." Scott looked at her, puzzled. "We have to stop this now. It's already gotten out of hand." He moved towards the medlab doors.
"Wait, Scott! Something else is wrong... it's happening right now... I can feel it."
Scott stopped to look at his wife.
Jean went to speak again when all of the lights blinked off and the room was plunged into total darkness.
Jean gasped.
***************
Callie had left the smoldering waste that had been the mansion's power generator far behind, and now moved to where she had felt a new surge of fear... there were people awake and she could find them now.
~Nothing like a fear of dark places...~
Callie walked slowly through the hallways. There were a lot of people around her... poor little dreaming children who... they might...
Callie couldn't think and she couldn't concentrate. The rage inside of her wanted more power to fuel itself, but she had run out a long time ago.
She had to get more.
Callie stopped in the middle of the hallway and slumped to her knees. The glowing in her eyes and skin turned to fog. She was running out of time.
'No, I'm so close. Don't go back to him! Don't leave me...' she frantically thought, holding her head.
I can't feel this way again!
Helpless...
I won't!
Feel nothing anymore...
Her head lifted as her eyes glowed bright again. The fog disappeared. Callie surged all of her remaining energy and drew her powers out as far as they could reach.
Unfortunately, the only people she could reach were the students all asleep in their dorms.
She felt their subconscious minds freeze, felt connected to their dreams, and turned them all to nightmares.
She had never known she could do that before.
Trapped in their dreams, memories no longer made sense and the children could make up their own worst fears, things that could never really exist but seemed so real on that other side of their brains.
A Nightmare Lullaby.
Callie's head sank into her hands. Pure terror transmitted into raw energy and Callie absorbed it to fuel the rage... so it wouldn't leave.
As the rage came back, grew stronger, Callie grew stronger, and as Callie grew stronger so did her powers, and soon every single one of the sleeping student body was tossing and turning, trapped in their very worst nightmare.
Callie lifted her head, sparks now flew from her eyes, she looked down at her hands, which besides from faintly glowing with the rest of her body, had blood on them.
Nosebleed?
'Small price to pay.' She thought, wiping her hands on the hard marble floor. She stood up.
All again...
The rage was hers, her body was hers, her powers were hers...
She was ready... and pretty soon...
Everything would be hers...
************************************************************************
************Nightmare Lullaby***************
The marble floor was cold and smooth. It had been created less than a century ago, but still seemed vast and ageless, constant and reliable. Everlasting, forever and ever.
Callie smiled as the tips of her toes and the bottom of her heels emanated energy enough to smolder the tops of the marble. It was still there, underneath, constant and reliable, but changed now, never to be the same again.
'Like me.' Callie rolled the thought around in her head. She dropped the shoes she had been wearing with a small "clack" to the ground.
'Subtle, have to be subtle.' She chided herself halfheartedly. 'Can't get caught now when you're so close.'
She walked down the corridor, singeing titles as she went. Felling the pull of emotion deep down in her chest.
Suffocating her.
For any outsider to have seen her, Callie would have been deemed just another normal mutant, a student even, maybe one with a small case of insomnia. On the inside, Callie was on fire...
Burning Down.
She didn't feel right, which was just... weird, because Callie didn't feel... at all... at least she never used to, not when she didn't want to.
Right now...
Callie didn't want to.
Callie laughed the thought out of her head and walked a little faster, though it seemed as if her legs were fighting her the entire way, dragging her down.
Something had happened since she had left that house with the blood on its walls and windowpanes. She didn't feel the same.
'You don't feel!' Her thoughts ran into each other.
Callie laughed louder and stopped herself, clasping her hands over her mouth.
She moved an index finger in front of her lips. "Shh..." She sighed, closing her eyes.
She still felt charged with unrelenting power, she still felt amazing, but something was bad and different.
This emotion inside of her, it was just too much. Callie still felt indestructible, but she also felt powerless to stop what this rage was doing to her.
Things flipped over and crashed in waves inside her head. Nothing was making sense and her mind yelled in protest in an effort to preserve its fragile state, but the rage SCREAMED back; it wanted its master, and Callie certainly wasn't him.
Callie knew she wasn't.
"What's the first thing you do in a high risk situation Sweetheart? How do you increase your opponent's fear so you can located, blind-side, and defeat them? How do you win the game?"
Her boss' voice reverberated inside of her head. He had said it years ago; when he was still training her. Callie continued her journey to the back of the mansion where she knew the main power generators to be.
"Turn off all the lights." Callie shuffled slowly now, arms rigid at her sides. "Then say boo."
At least she still had the power to do that.
She'd figure everything else out when she met up with that man finally.
The rage inside of her screamed again, to be with HIM, rattled its cage. Callie held her ribs, her eyes glowing softer. 'I wanna be the master... I wanna be the boss.' She thought.
"I wanna win the game." She whispered as a fog escaped her mouth.
She continued towards the power box, taking deep uneven breaths, her feet now scorching the tiles beneath them, some of the stone cracking and breaking. Broken... just like her.
Callie started smiling again, totally denying the fact that what she truly felt, deep and hidden in her heart, wasn't rage, it wasn't hate, it wasn't even anger or a need for power and destruction.
What Callie felt...
What Callie really felt...
was fear...
*************
Jean slowly lifted her head. It still felt heavy from tapping into the Phoenix Force to restore Logan's emotions. The no sleep aspect wasn't helping anything either, but she felt a little better.
At least Scott had calmed down. In fact, he was back to normal. Normal stoic Scott, going over different plans with Hank and a sleeping Bobby, about how to stop this woman. They would be leaving within the hour.
Jean felt something pull at the back of her mind; She ignored it, too tired to care about what her powers were trying to warn her of.
She glanced over at Leila, who had slept through everything that had happened between Logan and Scott.
The girl was still and peaceful. Jean smiled at the thought of the worst being behind her. All Leila had to focus on now, was what could be the most important and the most exciting point of her life as a mutant. Learning how to control her powers.
Jean thought of all the different controlled scenarios that she could introduce to Leila, to see what the full extent of her powers were and to...
The thing that had been pulling on the back of Jean's mind... Yanked down hard..
Jean furrowed her brow.
"Scott." She tried talking. It came out tired and quiet.
"Scott!" She shouted clear and strong.
He stopped talking and turned around to look at her where she sat on the medical bed that had previously held Logan.
"What's wrong!?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
"I..." she started. " I think..."
BAMF!
Shocked at Kurt's entrance, the group jumped.
"Sorry," Kurt started. He looked around the room, and his gaze locked with Jean's.
"She's here! In the mansion..." He looked at her.
"What do you mean? Who's..." Scott started, and then it dawned on him. "No... how did she...?"
"She's a thief, so... I don't know. But Logan, he's going after her." Kurt continued.
"No!" Jean burst out, without really knowing why. "I mean, I don't think it's a very good idea. I don't think Logan should be anywhere near that woman." She continued, quietly now.
"Jean..." Scott looked at her, puzzled. "We have to stop this now. It's already gotten out of hand." He moved towards the medlab doors.
"Wait, Scott! Something else is wrong... it's happening right now... I can feel it."
Scott stopped to look at his wife.
Jean went to speak again when all of the lights blinked off and the room was plunged into total darkness.
Jean gasped.
***************
Callie had left the smoldering waste that had been the mansion's power generator far behind, and now moved to where she had felt a new surge of fear... there were people awake and she could find them now.
~Nothing like a fear of dark places...~
Callie walked slowly through the hallways. There were a lot of people around her... poor little dreaming children who... they might...
Callie couldn't think and she couldn't concentrate. The rage inside of her wanted more power to fuel itself, but she had run out a long time ago.
She had to get more.
Callie stopped in the middle of the hallway and slumped to her knees. The glowing in her eyes and skin turned to fog. She was running out of time.
'No, I'm so close. Don't go back to him! Don't leave me...' she frantically thought, holding her head.
I can't feel this way again!
Helpless...
I won't!
Feel nothing anymore...
Her head lifted as her eyes glowed bright again. The fog disappeared. Callie surged all of her remaining energy and drew her powers out as far as they could reach.
Unfortunately, the only people she could reach were the students all asleep in their dorms.
She felt their subconscious minds freeze, felt connected to their dreams, and turned them all to nightmares.
She had never known she could do that before.
Trapped in their dreams, memories no longer made sense and the children could make up their own worst fears, things that could never really exist but seemed so real on that other side of their brains.
A Nightmare Lullaby.
Callie's head sank into her hands. Pure terror transmitted into raw energy and Callie absorbed it to fuel the rage... so it wouldn't leave.
As the rage came back, grew stronger, Callie grew stronger, and as Callie grew stronger so did her powers, and soon every single one of the sleeping student body was tossing and turning, trapped in their very worst nightmare.
Callie lifted her head, sparks now flew from her eyes, she looked down at her hands, which besides from faintly glowing with the rest of her body, had blood on them.
Nosebleed?
'Small price to pay.' She thought, wiping her hands on the hard marble floor. She stood up.
All again...
The rage was hers, her body was hers, her powers were hers...
She was ready... and pretty soon...
Everything would be hers...
************************************************************************