A/N: Hello my lovelies. How have you been? It's been a long time since I last updated, but like most of you seem to be, I have grown a little bored with this story. I hope that can change soon because I really love the characters of this story as they were the first characters that I started off with a long, long time ago. For now though, I'll give you another update.
OOOOOOOOO
"What the hell are you doing here?" Scarlet demanded, glaring at her father and mentally telling herself that she couldn't mess up Xavier's office with the bloody remains of the man. Her gaze slid briefly onto Charles. "Why did you let him come here?"
"Maria," Xavier said softly. "Your father –"
"He is not my father," Maria hissed at him.
"Your birth certificate begs to differ," Magneto said, watching her through his cool blue eyes. "And I know that I fathered you."
"You may have been the sperm donor that created me, but that doesn't make you a father, Lehnsherr. And before you say that you raised me and took me under your wing as a real father should, I'd think again. I was abused by you every moment of every day that I spent with you because you found out that I have the ability to copy and store the powers of all the mutants that I encounter." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You didn't care how many people were hurt while I was learning those powers. You didn't care that I lost control frequently and hurt people standing by me. I killed people, Lehnsherr. I killed children because of you."
Objects in the room shivered as Scarlet's powers threatened to show themselves. She took a deep breath through her nose and forced the powers back.
"I only wanted what was best for you," Magneto told her, sitting down on a chair in front of Xavier's desk. "I wanted you to learn how to control yourself while copying the powers that I knew you needed."
Scarlet rolled her eyes. "I learned a lot while I was with you. I learned that I couldn't trust my powers around people. I learned that I couldn't trust you for a moment. I learned that you created a monster inside of me, one that still plagues me every single day that I spend in this world. I learned that I have to run from everyone because I'm not safe to be around."
Magneto's eyes lowered to his wrinkly hands. "I wanted to bring you up so that you could feel safe."
"Well, you didn't do what you wanted to keep me safe. I had to find my own version of safety by living in the streets in places that no one knew a thing about me or my curse. I had to be safe from you."
The old mutant said nothing for a moment, allowing Scarlet the chance to look at Xavier. She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side.
"Chuck, you know what happened in the Danger Room," she said coolly. "Do you still think that it's safe for you to keep me here with the others? Because I can have my bag packed in five minutes and be gone from your life for good, if you want me to."
Xavier smiled softly. "I do not think that you are a major threat to anyone in this school, Maria. What you are experiencing merely comes from not enough practice and allowing your anger to get the best of you. One day, you will be able to control your powers and your anger."
"And you'll still let me play with the kiddies?"
"Yes." He leaned forward slightly to prop his elbows on the desk sitting between them. "There is no place in the world that is safer for you to be than in this very school. Your father even agrees to your extended stay here."
A burning feeling settled in Maria's body, barely rivaling the heat that her body was already trying to deal with. Her red eyes turned back onto Magneto and saw that he was watching her once more. She pulled her lips back to reveal sharp canines in a sneer that meant business.
"Maybe I don't want to stick around then," she muttered. "If he approves of something, it must be something to avoid."
"You always were a difficult child," Magneto said under his breath.
"Sorry. We can't all be like your precious Addison." Scarlet glanced at her hand and saw that she was still showing flames in her skin. "Not that anyone should want to be like her…Can I leave, Chuck? There are places that I need to be and I'm getting really tired of being around this man. Thinking about killing him again and again is getting really old in my head and I'd rather go somewhere to cool off before I melt the floor and people in this room."
"You may leave," Xavier told her.
Scarlet turned to leave, but Magneto reached out to her, almost touching her arm but she jerked back in time.
"Is it true that you changed your name to Wayne?" Magneto asked.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you're not my father," Scarlet told him icily, heading for the door. "And you never will be."
OOOOOOOOO
The water of the pond was cool enough for Scarlet to let herself relax in it. She floated on her back for a few minutes, staring up at the sky. Her body was slowly cooling down and was losing the flame patterns under her skin. She had her clothes on, not caring about how wet they had become. All she wanted to do was cool down and relax away from people.
Even from her distance from the school, she was aware when her father left the campus grounds. A soft sigh of relief passed through her lips.
It was stupid of him to come here, she thought, looking up at the sun. It was stupid of Chuck to invite him. Maybe now he'll leave me alone. Can Chuck promise to keep him away? She shook her head and placed a hand on her stomach. Probably not. Chuck is focused on creating peace between warring oppositions. He's always looking for the peaceful way out of a fight.
I guess I should be glad that Addison wasn't there when I was. I can only handle one of them at a time and even that's hard on me. Addison is the lesser of the two evils and I chose to go with her. If you call getting knocked in the head and getting taken to a strange mansion choosing. Her bubbliness is annoying, but I'd take that over Dad's constant oppression.
Scarlet closed her eyes and let her body be enveloped by the cool water, falling to the pond floor for several moments. Surfacing, she spat out some water and looked towards the shore. Jubilee was standing just within the small clearing that surrounded the pond, watching her. The girl waved her hand and moved closer.
"Having fun in there?" she asked, stopping at the water's edge.
"Yeah," Scarlet said, treading water to stay afloat. "You wanna come in? The water's cool."
"Too cool for a girl like me to get in." Jubilee looked down at the water. "And there are probably things living in there that would freak me out."
"There are a family of frogs and a school of fish living in here," Scarlet told the other girl. "Nothing that would bite your toes off, Jube."
"Uh-huh. I think I'll stick with swimming pools, if you don't mind. That way I know what I'm getting into the water with." The other girl shoved her hands in the pockets of her yellow jacket. "How can you handle the water being that cool?"
"I have a high tolerance for the cold," Scarlet told her. "And after what happened in today's Danger Room session, I think that I really need to chill."
"Yeah, about that…What happened to you in there, Scarlet? You were angry and nearly killed Pyro, not that he doesn't' deserve it…but your skin. It was like it was made of living fire and you were – well, I didn't get to see much because you ran out of there. But the walls were glowing with heat where your hands had touched them…"
Scarlet looked away from her friend and treaded the water, thinking. She narrowed her eyes against the sunlight and frowned.
Of course they all saw what happened to me when I took all that fire, Scarlet thought, running a hand over her face. There was no way that they could not notice my skin or the heat of the walls…but how much do they know about that being my weakness?
Smiling at her friend, she tilted her head to the side. "I was going to absorb all that fire that Pyro was shooting at me and throw it back at him," she lied without hesitation. "But the fight was interrupted too soon and I never got the chance to let it out. When I left the Danger Room, I had to find some place to channel the heat, so I took a quick shower and then came down here to the pond to let the rest out." Her gaze slid down to the water. "I think I cooked a couple fish in the process of doing that, but better a fish than a person, right?"
Jubilee frowned. "Are you sure that you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Scarlet swam up to the shore and walked out of the water. She put her hands on her hips. "Do you want to get a couple of friends and go get a pizza in town? I've got this cooped up feeling and I want to eat a bunch of pizza. I'll buy all the pizza that we can eat."
She saw the wheels turning in Jubilee's head and watched as the girl battled with her curiosity about what had happened in the Danger Room. For a moment, Scarlet was afraid that she'd have to walk away and mind wipe that part of the day from the girl's head, but that would have taken too much effort. Especially since she'd have to do the same to almost a dozen other people. Luckily for everyone, Jubilee smiled and nodded.
"Sure. I could go for some pizza," the girl said before pointing at the clothes that clung to Scarlet like a second skin. "Do you want to change first though? You're all wet and you kind of smell a little like a fish."
Scarlet glanced down at herself and sighed. "Give me a moment."
Closing her eyes, Scarlet envisioned a wall of air encircling her with its heat. The air around her spun and dried her clothes like a hair-dryer would have done to hair. When she opened her eyes, her clothes and hair were completely dry.
She held her arm out to Jubilee. "How do I smell now?"
A little hesitant, Jubilee leaned forward and took a small sniff. Astonishment crossed her face as she pulled back.
"You smell like cherry blossoms."
"Damn," Scarlet muttered, looking down at herself. "I was going for strawberry. Ah well, I can't always be perfect."
"How do you do that stuff?" Jubilee asked, watching Scarlet scoop up her gladiator sandals.
Scarlet smirked. "I'm just that good. Now do you want to go get some friends and some pizza or am I going alone?"
She didn't wait for Jubilee to answer before heading off into the woods that would take her back to the mansion. Jubilee kept muttering under her breath as she tried to keep up with Scarlet's long stride. Scarlet was just glad that the girl didn't seem to be thinking about the Danger Room session anymore, which meant that she wouldn't have to wipe the memories from the girl's mind and create new memories in the place.
Thank God, something was easy today, she thought, emerging from the woods. Because I seriously cannot take any more crap.
"Hey Pete!" she called out, waving at the teenager who was throwing a football around. "We're going to go get pizza. You wanna come? My treat."
OOOOOOOOO
A/N: I don't know if there will be more than twenty chapters in this story. Not many people seem to be interested in what happens, but I want to keep going until I think that everything I wanted to happen has been placed in the story. Please, for those of you still supporting this story, leave a small comment or two in the review box. It would be much appreciated and I will try to get back to you in a timely fashion. Thanks. -Scarlet