"Jack!" Kitty called excitedly as they walked in to the mansion, heading towards their computer class with Professor Darkholme.
Jack turned to face her as Kitty practically jumped on her, throwing her arms round her neck in an extravagant hug.
"Thank you sooo much!" Kitty said.
"You're welcome?" Jack said, a little bemused.
"Jealousy!" Kitty raved, "You can drop hints til your blue in the face, but make them jealous and they do all the hard work for you!"
She skipped off down the corridor singing happily.
"What did I do?" Jack asked Rogue who was busy laughing at Kitty.
"Earlier when you were talking to Professor Worthington you made Kitty go on about him until Peter got jealous and kissed her to get her attention back on him," Rogue said.
"Nothing then," Jack said, "Kitty goes on about Warren all the time, if I've been talking to him or not!"
"Well, I think it was specifically because you were flirting with him a bit," Rogue said.
"Flirting?" Jack asked sceptically.
"You so were!" Rogue said, grinning teasingly at her friend.
"Well if Kitty thought so, then I probably was," Jack said with a shrug, "She seems to be the self-appointed 'relationship guru' in this place."
"She might not be so keen to interfere with everyone else now she has her own boyfriend," Rogue said with a grin, "So do you like Professor Worthington?"
"Yeah, he's nice," Jack said, "When he's not asking too many questions."
"No, I mean like like," Rogue said, "Don't try and skirt round the question with me, girl!"
"I have never thought of him like that," Jack said.
"Why not?" Rogue sounded surprised and a bit disbelieving, "He's hot, and he obviously likes you."
"Are you looking to take Kitty's place as self-appointed relationship guru?" Jack asked.
"Ok, I'll shut up," Rogue said laughing as they came to the computer suite.
It was Jack's first computing lesson, and she looked distinctly uncomfortable about using the machines.
"Me and computers don't get along," she said, "I have a habit of blowing them up."
"Join the club!" Jubilee said.
"Only with you it's quite literal!" Bobby joked.
Jubilee just shrugged with a face that said 'guilty as charged'.
"Ok, class," Mystique said, walking to the front of the room. She always taught in her human form so as to be less scary to the younger students who recognised her from her criminal days, "Today we will be continuing compiling a database, advancing the work we started last week. Jack, come over here and I'll bring you up to speed with what we've been doing."
The rest of the class settled into the lesson as Jack wandered over to where Professor Darkholme was sat at the front.
"I don't do computers," she said as she sat down opposite her.
"Lots of people think that, but it's not so hard to learn the basics," Mystique said.
"So you used to work for Magneto?" Jack asked.
Mystique was caught completely off guard by the question. No other student had been so impertinent as to question her directly like that.
"I only ask because I wondered what made you change your mind," Jack said.
Mystique regarded her coolly, trying to decipher the thoughts and feelings behind her fathomless green eyes. For once Mystique had no notion, not a clue – she could read nothing in Jack's expression. This was a girl who was well practiced at hiding things, and yet Mystique felt a strange desire to answer her.
"I believed that Eric had the answers to our problems," Mystique said, "I thought he would lead us into a world where we would no longer be persecuted. When he spoke he made me believe that killing all the humans was the only way. You may find it hard to believe that someone like me could be naïve, but that is what I was. When you have lived a troubled existence your entire life and someone says to you that they have the power and the motive to fix that, you cling to it. You believe it because your heart wants to.
"The day I changed my mind was the day I got shot by a 'Cure' bullet and Eric left me behind. I knew then that it was not me he cared about, but my mutation and what I could do. He was just another in a long line of people who look at mutants and see their mutation, not the person. He was just as bad as the humans we set out to destroy."
Jack didn't say anything for a moment, letting Mystique calm her anger.
"Do you ever wonder if you've made the wrong decision?" she asked once Mystique had recovered sufficiently.
"Why do you?" Mystique countered, knowing the girl had chosen the X-men over Magneto, just like she had.
"All the time," Jack said, "But not about Magneto."
"I guess I would say the same," Mystique said, before falling silent.
She felt bad. All those wrong decisions, directed by a desire to create a world pictured by a man whose logic was flawed. Most of her life wasted at the hands of Eric and his Brotherhood. So many lives destroyed. How many had she taken for a wasted cause? What part of her was foolish enough to make such terrible choices?
"Sometimes we have to make decisions that we regret, because it was the only option available to us at the time," Jack said thoughtfully. Mystique felt like she was responding to her thoughts, "Taken out of context those decisions are bad ones, but if you think about it, it was the best you could do when the choice was presented to you, and no one can blame you for that."
Mystique looked over at Jack, expecting her to be staring intently at her, but the girl was lazily looking up at the ceiling, like the words she had spoken had been on the tip of her tongue, falling out of her mouth rather than being dug from some deep, meaningful recess of her brain.
"They say you don't like to talk much about yourself, your past," Mystique said, turning the conversation away from herself. She didn't like how unnervingly accurately Jack could read her emotions without even trying.
"They told you the truth," Jack said, "I get the impression you don't like to talk about yours either." She added in a tone that said 'don't question me and I won't question you'.
"I don't like to talk about mine because I am ashamed of it," Mystique said, watching Jack closely for a reaction.
"I guess I would say the same," Jack said, her face as blank as ever.
Jack never did any computer work in the end. She spent so long talking to Mystique that the lesson was over before she could begin. The next day, their morning lessons were cancelled due to Storm calling a meeting between staff members, so she missed out on computers again. She wasn't exactly upset about this.
The other lesson they were missing was English, which didn't disappoint Kitty half as much now she had Peter. They had been set a chapter to read in their spare time, and somehow Rogue found herself reading it out to Bobby, Kitty, Peter and Jack.
"Why do I have to read it?" she asked, "Why can't you all just read it in your heads?"
"You're from the south," Jack said, "It's a book set in the south – it's authentic if you read it."
Jack seemed to be the main advocate for a lesson taught by 'Professor Rogue' but the others soon followed her lead. Rogue gave up trying to argue with them in the end.
"That is what the President proposed," Storm said to her staff, having just explained her meeting with the President the day before, "I said I couldn't come to a decision without consulting you first, so, that's what I'm doing."
Logan, Mystique, Warren and Hank all stood in silence. Hank had at least known what was coming, which was more than the others could say, but he could still not think of a response.
"Well, I think it's a good idea," Mystique said, "But it's very easy for me to think that, because identity is not an issue with me."
"I think the government is talking out of its ass if it thinks it can stop people linking us back to this place," Logan said gruffly, "I'm surprised we haven't got people knocking our door down because of furball here."
"I haven't done anything that is a threat," Hank said, "I'm a politician. Nothing more than a chatterbox with some big ideas to most people."
"If we are doing this to protect the humans, then what cause would they have to campaign against it?" Mystique said, "I know a lot of people have very closed minds, but would they oppose a Government endorsed initiative?"
"People appose government ideas all the time," Hank said, "That's why we call it a democracy."
"But are the people we should be worrying about humans or other Mutants?" Storm asked, "That was my main concern, beyond identity. Will it just encourage people to attack us?"
"Well, if they couldn't identify us then they couldn't attack us," Logan said, "but that ain't going to be easy, no matter what your precious government might believe."
"Well, this school isn't exactly a secret," Mystique said, "it's been attacked before, what's to stop it happening again, if you go with the President's plan or not."
"But that's the point," Storm said, "If we go with the President's plan, could he stop it happening again?"
Warren listened as their debate escalated. It was basically him and Hank they were arguing over, the two that stood out. No one else had any particularly noticeable feature, not one that couldn't be hidden easily anyway. One part of Warren thought it was a great idea, forming an official team to keep America safe, but he knew that it would thrust him straight into the spotlight, because there was no hiding who he was.
Warren Worthington III, billionaire heir and winged mutant superhero. He thought he could probably have handled being one or the other, but both at the same time? And if they did go public, what would the implications be for his Father and his company?
Jack wandered down to Professor McCoy's biology lab. Everyone else was watching TV, playing pool and generally just chilling out, but she knew the blue furred Professor would be down here, probably pouring over some science journal and making notes.
She knocked lightly on the door and let herself in. Professor McCoy looked up from the paper he was analysing.
"Ah, Miss Starbright!" he said, removing his glasses and placing his pencil on the desk.
"Miss Starbright?" Jack asked.
"Forgive me," Hank said with a smile, "I'm showing off again. It's a joke."
"I don't get it," Jack said.
"Warren tells me you enjoy English Literature," Hank said, "Have you ever heard of an author called Anthony Horowitz?"
Jack shook her head.
"He writes the sort of stories that young boys love to read – adventures, spies, gadgets, that sort of thing. Anyway, one of his books was about a young British boy who became a spy for his country, Alex Rider. This boy lived with his Uncle, but his Uncle died on a mission, and he was left in the care of his American housekeeper, a Miss Jack Starbright. He comments all the way through about how he doesn't know what 'Jack' is short for, Jackie or Jacqueline perhaps, but that to him she was always just Jack. I thought it was rather appropriate, but like I said, I'm just showing off again."
"I like it," Jack said.
"Then perhaps you might consider it for your X-name," Hank said with a smile, "Now, Latin! I don't know really what you want to learn, as conversational Latin is fairly redundant…"
"Just talk to me," Jack interrupted, "Say something, then tell me what you are saying."
She sat opposite him, resting her hands on the desk, already listening intently, despite the fact that he wasn't saying anything. Hank watched her for a second, then began to speak. He started by telling her a little about himself, basic things like eye colour, favourite sports, the kind of things you learnt at school when you were little and first studying languages, but before long he got carried away. He started speaking of his life, what he had done before he came to Xavier's mansion, how he had discovered his power, college life and work. He had long forgotten to translate for her, and couldn't remember everything he had covered to sufficient detail to tell her now, but she didn't ask him too. She just sat unmoving opposite him, her hands linked, her eyes closed as she concentrated on the sound of his voice.
As he spoke, Hank watched her closely. She wasn't an obviously pretty girl, not like Kitty or Rogue, but there was a certain charm to her. She was still too thin, her cheek and collar bones prominent in a way which announced she was underfed, or at least had been. She didn't seem to ever brush her long brown hair, nor remove the bracelets on her wrists.
Hank decided to finish his long speech.
"And I don't suppose you understood a word of that, did you?" he said in Latin.
Jack opened her eyes and met his gaze directly, then did something that took Hank completely by surprise.
"Not much," she replied, in Latin, "but I think I got the basic idea."
Hank stared at her in open jawed amazement.
"Fascinating," he said, returning his glasses to his nose to look at her better.
Rogue stood on a hill overlooking a city she had never seen before. It was rife with poverty and corruption. People littered the streets, scratching an existence off the barren rocks. Their houses were no more than shacks, hastily erected in what little space could be found.
There was such desperation to this place. Rogue felt her breath catching in her throat as she held back choking sobs. Small children with sorrowfully wide eyes looked up at her, begging for her help. But Rogue had nothing she could give.
She was a curse. She destroyed everything she touched. She couldn't even provide the comfort of her arms around them. Not without killing them.
A young girl in ragged clothes ran over to her.
"Save us," she said, grabbing Rogue's hand and pulling her towards the city.
Rogue realised she wasn't wearing any gloves. She tried to pull away from the girl but her grip was like a vice. A blinding pain began to sear across Rogue's forehead as her hand throbbed, like it was sucking the life force from the girl. The girl looked up at Rogue, her face covered with the strange veins that appeared whenever she touched someone's skin. She was dying.
"No!" Rogue said.
The girl smiled and laughed.
Rogue awoke with a gasp, her arm throbbing, her head searing and her mind still filled with the images of her dream. As she slowly got her breathing and heart rate under control, the pain and the images began to fade, but she knew there was no way she was going to be able to sleep again tonight.
Slipping into her dressing gown, she headed downstairs to the kitchen to get a large bowl of ice cream. Boy did she need one right now.
She thought about getting a bowl, but decided the tub and spoon approach would best suit her needs. She located a reasonably empty ice cream tub, and sat down at the table, ready to decimate it. She dug in the spoon and raised it to her mouth.
"Trouble sleeping?" a voice from the doorway asked, and the spoon missed her mouth.
"Yeah," she told Logan as he sat opposite her, "Bad dream."
"What happened?" Logan asked.
"I killed a little girl."
It wasn't so much that, but the sheer desperation and sorrow she had felt, while dreaming and as she woke. It was a feeling so strong that it haunted her even now, sat eating ice cream in the kitchen with Logan. But Logan was a man of actions and material things – she doubted he would understand why a feeling troubled her so much, even if she could find the words to explain it.
"It was just a dream," Logan said.
"It felt real," Rogue replied.
They fell into silence, Rogue picking at her ice cream half-heartedly. It wasn't helping as much as she would have liked.
"What about you?" she asked after a moment, unable to take the silence anymore.
"I heard you walk past," he said with a shrug, "It's been a while since we've spoken properly, thought I'd see how you were."
"You got out of bed at three in the morning to ask me how I am?" Rogue asked with a small smile.
"Yeah," Logan said with a shrug, "How are you, kid?"
"Surviving," Rogue replied.
"On ice cream?"
"Pretty much."
They fell into silence again, but this time it was Logan who broke it.
"You know, I'm worried about you, kid," he said, "All the others say you are coping really well with the return of your power, and they are amazed by your strength and courage. They don't look past that, but I can see something is eating you up inside."
Rogue looked up at him, surprised. She had been feeling out of sorts lately, but she didn't think it had been enough for anyone else to notice. But then, this was Logan, and he knew her better than anyone, even Bobby.
"I just…" Rogue began.
"This isn't about a boy is it?" Logan asked with mock seriousness.
Rogue laughed and shook her head.
"I just feel different," she said, "Since the return of my powers I feel different, like something in me has changed. I'm not the same as I was when I had my powers the first time. I know I look the same, and I act the same, and nothing about me noticeably has changed, but I feel… different," she finished lamely, dropping her spoon on the table and resting her head in both hands, frustrated that she didn't have better words to describe it.
"You've grown up," Logan said.
"You think so?" Rogue was eager to accept a plausible explanation.
"Welcome to the world of adulthood, kid," Logan said.
"If I've grown up, how come I'm still 'kid'?" Rogue asked.
"You'll always be 'kid' to me," Logan said.
Rogue smiled at him, glad for his company, glad for his care.
"Now, you should hurry up and finish that ice cream," he said with a fake stern voice, "You won't want to be tired for the birthday party tomorrow."
He stood up and walked over to the door.
"Thanks Logan," Rogue said.
"Don't mention it," Logan said, "Kid," he added as an afterthought, before winking and leaving Rogue to her ice cream.
Please review! xXx