A/N: Yeah, I'm too excited to wait any longer. Remember that contest I told you about in Chapter One? Here it is:
Go look at the chapter title box. Go, click on it. You know those weird titles I put up for each chapter? Like: Chapter Two: Something Bad. Chapter Five: Goodbye Love. Etc, etc. They all have something in common. What is it? I put some really easy ones in there, and some harder to find ones. You should be able to figure it out.
If you get it right…erm…hey, I have nothing to give! Well, if you get it right, I will give you a box of cookies. Oh well, it's just a little quest. Have fun! Leave your answer in your review!
A/N 2: Whoooooo! Hyper hyper hyper! That's me, Hyperilla! Hundreds of fleeing people, running from my feet. Yaaaaah!
Bear with me, I am hyper. If you didn't know.
Toxic-Beetle: I've said it before, and I'll say it again because, quite honestly, I'm insane: You don't have to like Caroline, she is the antagonist. And thank you, both for the compliment and the ribbon thing. Yes, the power thing sux. HYPER!
Excuse me for that.
A/N 3: I'm doing this while I'm supposed to be studying for this test. Just goes to show you how nonresponsible I am.
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. If I did…oh my god, have I run out of X-Men fantasies! It cannot be!
Oh yeah, If I owned the X-Men, I'd make Kurt teleport me to New York to go see the musical Wicked. I LOVE WICKED! There we go.
Chapter Twelve: I Know the Truth
New York, Mall, Present DayGwen punched a lip-gloss brush angrily into its tube, still fuming about her punishment. Stupid righteous X-Men, always looking out for the misunderstood, the rejected, the basket cases, the ones who Cannot See the Light.
As far as Gwen was concerned, they could toss Caroline out on her butt and she'd still survive, even without the precious Professor. She wasn't happy with Kurt either, because despite the fact that Gwen was his niece, he was on Storm's ("Stupid," she muttered) side.
And although she knew it was slightly vain, she spent a lot of time every morning flat ironing her hair to stick – straight proportions, almost never showing her black Wagner curls, a trait shared by both her dad and her uncle, to the world, and Caroline had declared war on her by touching it. Her hair was very important to her.
She stopped to stare at her reflection in the stair railing she was passing, and quickly swiped her shiny new red gloss on her lips, feeling proud of herself and her wonderful new find. When she met up with everyone else in the mall, she was not going to share her happiness with anyone, as she was still in an angry mood. Just they wait; they'd wished they'd have listened to her. But then it would be too late. Gwen shivered dramatically and kept walking along in the direction of some weird sports store, where she knew she'd find Jubilee.
Upon arrival, she interrupted herself from a slightly unsettling, somewhat sexual fantasy involving her and Adam Pascal hiring the cast of Rent to take over the mansion and all of its inhabitants, mainly the people she did not care for much at the moment. Blinking, she shook herself awake as the strong scent of rubber, sweat, and metal filings hit her nose.
Jubilee was, of course, staring wistfully at some two hundred odd dollar punching bag. Kitty stood next to her, looking bored to tears, and Gwen saw that some kind of trade was going on here. Kitty went with Jubilee, Jubilee paid for a new pair of jeans. Whatever.
"Hey," she said, strolling over to them. Kitty looked relieved.
"I, like, so hate sports," Kitty said, as a greeting.
Gwen frowned in agreement. "Jubilee, it's almost seven. We're supposed to meet Storm now, remember? If we're two seconds late she'll probably blame me because everything is my fault, apparently."
Jubilee sighed, gave the bag one last desperate glance, and turned around. "Fine."
Kitty looked at Gwen's lips. "Red," she said approvingly. "Nice."
Gwen suddenly felt like bursting with love and appreciation for Kitty. "Thank you," she said happily. "Where did Rogue say she was going?"
"She's looking for some summer gloves someplace. What are summer gloves like, anyway?" Kitty twirled a piece of her hair around her finger in a puzzled way.
"I don't know. Let's go, this place smells like feet."
"It's a sports store," Jubilee told Gwen as they were leaving. "It's sweat. It's natural."
"It's nasty. It's feet." Gwen smirked. "Somehow, I do not get tired of being right all the time."
"You're not right."
"Yes, I am. I always am. Unfortunately, no one at school thinks the same. But just wait until-"
"Gwen, shut up."
"Why is everyone telling me to shut up today?"
Her friends ignored her, instead looking ahead to a clothing store, with Rogue leaving it with a plastic bag. She spotted them, and walked over, meeting them halfway.
"Hey," she said, twisting the flimsy handles through her fingers. "Where's Storm?"
"We're supposed to meet her at the front door now. Come on." Jubilee motioned over in the direction of the down escalator. They walked over and got on, Gwen making comments all the while on Rogue's new gloves.
"…you know what I'm saying?" she asked, staring up at Rogue. "There is, in no way, a summer glove. It's impossible. You will be having a sweaty palmed few months, because there is no such thing as a summer glove."
"Well, these are."
"No, they're n-" Gwen stopped suddenly, grabbing the railing and staring up at a point behind Rogue's shoulder. She looked stunned.
"Is that who I think it is?" she said, shocked. "Look!"
Rogue turned around. Gwen grabbed her and twisted her around.
"No, don't look! He'll see us!"
"Who's 'he'?"
Kitty and Jubilee were now looking around as well. "What are you, like, talking about?"
Gwen gritted her teeth in a whisper. "Is that or is that not John over there?"
Rogue turned around. "Gwen, I think you're right!" She looked stunned as well. "Isn't he supposed to be with the Brotherhood? Why is he here?"
"How do you even know it's him?"
"I'd recognize him anywhere. His hair's really familiar." Gwen patted her own.
Kitty thought this over. "Call him, and if he turns around, we'll know."
No one said anything. Meanwhile, the dark haired boy was moving away. Gwen fidgeted, then screamed, "HEY, JOHN!"
He whirled around, looking surprised. Gwen grabbed Rogue's arm excitedly.
"It's him! It's him! I called his name, and he turned around! Because his name is John!"
Rogue shook her off. "Who's going to talk to him?"
Again, no one moved. The subject of John Allardyce at the mansion was a taboo sort of thing, after he had left the X-Men to join Magneto and Mystique in the Brotherhood. Gwen sometimes thought that he had made the right choice, but that was only when she was mad at someone at the school, like she was now.
"Hey, John!" She began to run up the escalator, and realized that it was going down, making her look extremely stupid. She groaned inwardly, ran harder, and eventually managed to make it to the floor (1).
John stood in front of her, hands in his pockets, playing with something that looked like his Zippo lighter. He saw her, but his face was expressionless. Gwen ran over to him, panting.
"Down," she said, thrusting her thumb over her shoulder towards the escalator, where her friends had gotten off and gone on the opposite one, standing a little bit away, waiting for her.
"So…um…what are you doing here?" Gwen asked, suddenly thinking about taking up smoking just for moments like this, so she could do something with her hands that wouldn't make her look nervous.
"It matter?" He took his lighter out of his pocket and began to flip the lid up, down, up, down. Gwen frowned.
"Stop that. Yes, it matters."
"Why?"
"I'll ask questions. Where have you been?" She let a slight edge creep into her voice, just realizing how much she had been worrying about him. From what she had heard from Rogue, the Brotherhood was not exactly a charity, and she had sort of been friends with John before he left.
Up, down. "Around."
"John, cut it out. Answer either one of my previous questions. Or feel free to answer both."
Up, down. Up, down. "I'm here with Mystique, while she gets something."
"And?"
"That's all I'm saying." Up. Down.
"You know I'm a telep-" Gwen paused, then lowered her voice. "A telepath."
"You can't scare me, Radar."
"Fine. You know we've all been really worried about you at the mansion, right?"
"Like I care." Up, down.
"Fine. But we have been. Especially-" she pointed at her friends, who all turned away guiltily – "them."
"I can see."
"Wow, Magneto really sweetened you up, didn't he?"
John let a slight Elvis-esque sneer creep across his mouth. "Aren't you the one who just ran up a down escalator?"
Gwen resisted the urge to slap him. "None of you business. Now what are you going to do about this?"
John seemed surprised. "About what?"
She puffed her chest up indignantly. "Nine months of worrying, stupidhead! If someone we knew was possibly in trouble – for example, you – it's kind of disconcerting!"
"'We'? Have you become schizophrenic?" Was he smirking?
"Them too, you moron!" Gwen pointed at her friends again. "Quit smirking? It's not funny!"
"What do you want? Walkie talkies?"
"Quit flipping smirking! I'm mad at you!"
"If I give you-" he grinned – "guys a way of talking to me, will you be happy?"
"Obviously, yes."
"Fine."
They began to work out a plan, Gwen still waving her hands around angrily, when she noticed a tall, blonde woman come over to them.
"Got it, Pyro," she said, holding up a bag from some locks store and looking harassed. "Who's she?" She nodded to Gwen.
Gwen suddenly realized who the woman was. "You're Mystique, right? I'm Gwen Wagner."
The woman's eyes suddenly opened wide, and her previous sneer had washed away, leaving an expression of shock. "Do you happen to be related to, ahm, Kurt?"
Gwen jumped. She had not expected that. "Kurt Wagner? He's my uncle, or half uncle. You know him?"
Mystique shook herself, sneer slowly coming back. "I met him back in the fall, after your mansion was attacked."
She looked familiar, Gwen decided. She couldn't say why, though. All she knew was that she and John had a plan, and that Mystique didn't look like a nice person. She wanted out.
"I have to go," she said, glancing back at her friends. "Bye." She turned around. Gwen knew it was a weird way to leave, but she wasn't interested in this conversation anymore.
"What happened?" Rogue asked her, as they went down the escalator.
"He's fine. That Mystique woman was there, too."
Rogue suddenly looked annoyed, and muttered a curse word under her breath. "I hate her. Now what?"
"We don't tell Storm."
"Why not? He was her student."
"Because she'll panic, and try to get him back at the school."
"So?"
"He doesn't want to be there. He's okay with Magneto, I think. And also I'm mad at Storm."
"Good reason."
"Yeah. I'm always right."
"I didn't say that."
"Well, I did."
Kurt sighed as he stared out of his window. He couldn't find Caroline anywhere. Just as well, he thought, he didn't want to face her, even though he had been prepared to. His heart had been pounding maniacally for the past few hours, as he walked around the mansion, asking some of the students lounging around in the heat if they had seen her. They hadn't.
As far as Kurt knew, he had looked everywhere possible. Right now, he was tired, he was not sure what to do about Gwen, and all he wanted to do was sit and discuss this with Storm.
He flung himself onto his bed, burying his face into his pillow. He had stayed up late last night, thinking, and now he'd do anything to go to sleep now.
Classes ended on Friday, he thought, and he still had to grade the exams he had given the week before to make the final cut. He considered getting up to do it right then, but his willpower had run out, and he fell asleep.
Kurt wasn't sure how much time had passed when he woke up to the sound of someone hammering on his door angrily.
He moaned, annoyed, and stood up, rubbing his eyes and running his fingers through his hair quickly. What time was it?
The knocking hadn't stopped. "I'm coming," he called out, and walked over to the door. Upon unlocking it, he heartbeat sped up again.
Caroline was standing there, looking angry as usual. Kurt opened his mouth, about to say something, anything – "get away from me" suddenly felt pretty attractive – when, before he could react or teleport, she punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. He yelped in pain.
Caroline walked in and stood over him. "Tell that yappy little girl to keep her big mouth shut!"
Kurt grabbed his eye, wincing, and sat up. "She was right, wasn't she? She was telling the truth about you!"
She pushed him back down with her boot. Kurt hit the floor fast and gasped.
"Tell her," she said, grinding her heel into the spot between his ribs, "to shut up."
Kurt grabbed her ankle, and with all the strength he could muster, managed to push her foot off. He exhaled in relief, and teleported to a standing position a few feet away from Caroline.
"Don't touch her again! Don't touch her ever again!"
Caroline squinted angrily and clenched her hands into fists. "I'll do what I want. If she talks, I'll make you both pay."
Kurt bit his lip, wincing as his sharp teeth pressed into his flesh. "You can't hurt me anymore, Caroline."
"Don't say my name. And I can hurt you, and that girl."
"If you touch her, I'll-" he paused, thinking. "I'll-"
Caroline snorted humorlessly. "Do what? Bite me? Set me on fire? You haven't changed at all, have you? You're still a stupid little boy inside, no matter how old you are."
Kurt felt a flash of self-indignant anger flash through him, and then quashed it down. "Gwen's smart, you can't hurt her. And you won't hurt me."
"Yes, I can. If either you or her talks, I might not be able to take you now, but I can punch her living daylights out." She grinned evilly. "So don't say a word."
She gave him a contemptuous look, then twirled around with a slight, surprising flair of show and walked out of his room, slamming the door and leaving Kurt stunned.
He stood in his spot for a few moments, then sank down into his bed, clutching his throbbing eye. He knew he should tell someone about this confrontation, but he also knew that Caroline was telling the truth when she said she'd hurt Gwen if she wanted to. He believed that no one else was in trouble, and maybe if he were quiet, the only wound in the mansion would be his bruised eye. What it all came down to, he thought, was that if he didn't tell anyone about anything that had happened, maybe nothing more would occur.
He mulled over that for a while, and decided that it was the way to go. It would be okay. It would be okay. Kurt got up, and began to walk to the kitchen to get some ice for his swelling eye.
(1): Something my brother did at a museum once. Man, those guards got mad at him. It was funny, though.
A/N: Yeah, so my play auditions are coming up, and guess what? I have a really, really bad cold! I can't sing at all! Yay!
Read with sarcasm.
A/N 2: Next chapter: Will Kurt join Caroline in a two person act on Broadway?
Of course not.
Kurt angst, a year has passed. Blah blah blah. I'm in a bad mood about my sore throat.