The next few days after the party, Storm deliberated about her decision. Most of the staff were considering their points of view, trying to assist Storm in making her difficult choice, but Warren was distracted by something else.
He had been watching Jack very closely (not for the reasons Logan had alluded to) and was noticing things about her. They were just small things, a little expression, a hint of something in her face, but Warren was beginning to get suspicions about her, and the more he watched, the more certain he was that they weren't based on nothing.
The trick was going to be bringing it up without offending her, or worse embarrassing her in front of her friends and classmates. Jack exuded confidence, but Warren thought this was probably just a façade to hide a deeper insecurity. It would explain why she was so reluctant to talk about her past anyway.
So, while Storm and the others deliberated how best to deal with their problems, Warren deliberated how to subtly confirm his suspicions then approach Jack without upsetting her in any way.
Rogue poked her head round Jack's bedroom door. She was lying on her bed, listening to a CD that Rogue recognised as one of Kitty's. Jack looked up at her.
"Mind if I join you for a while?" Rogue asked, "Only, my roommate wants some alone time with her boyfriend…" she added, rolling her eyes.
"No problem," Jack said with a grin, hitting the power button on her CD player and sitting up.
"Thanks," Rogue said.
It was quite late, and Rogue felt ready to collapse into bed, but she owed Kitty some time. The girl had put herself out numerous times before so Rogue could share some alone time with Bobby.
"It'll only be til midnight," Rogue said, "then I can head back to my room."
"Stay here if you want," Jack said with a shrug, "You look ready to fall asleep now."
"I feel it," Rogue said, yawning.
Her nightmares were getting worse. It was the same image, but clearer and somehow more affecting, and more often. She couldn't shake it, and that meant many a sleepless night.
"Go on," Jack said, "It's two hours til midnight, you're going to fall asleep in that time anyway, you may as well do it deliberately."
"You don't mind?" Rogue asked, smiling gratefully.
"What a stupid question, of course I don't!" Jack said, throwing her over a spare set of pyjamas.
Rogue awoke with a gasp. For a moment she was disorientated, until she recalled that she was in Jack's room. There was no clock, but she guessed it was early morning. The whole house was silent, so it had to be at least past midnight.
"Do you always have nightmares?" Jack's voice seemed horribly loud in the near silence, even though it was barely above a whisper.
"Sorry, did I wake you up?" Rogue asked guiltily, "Kitty sleeps like a log, I've never disturbed her before."
"I'm a light sleeper," Jack said.
Rogue sat up in bed. Her head was filled with images again – the same images of the city and the girl. She had to do something about it.
"Jack, can I ask you something?" she said.
"Sure," Jack said, sitting up too.
"When I touch someone, I absorb their life force, and with it their memories," she said, "Often after touching someone I get a head full of strange images and feelings that I'm not even sure belong to me, or not. Part of me knows that they aren't mine, but on the other hand they become so wrapped up in my own memories, it's very hard to separate them out."
"That must give you a headache," Jack said. Rogue smiled, though she doubted Jack could see in the darkness.
"Since I touched you, I've been having memories of things that I can't even begin to understand or explain, and yeah, it gives me a headache, and nightmares. I was wondering if you could help me out, just to make sense of the pictures a little bit. Even if you just say that they are definitely memories of yours, that will help," Rogue said, "That way at least I might not struggle to remember what they have to do with me!"
"I'll do what I can," Jack said, sitting forwards a bit, "What was your nightmare about?"
Rogue told her of the city and the people living in poverty, of the overwhelming sense of despair she felt whenever she was there. Jack listened to her speak, a very guarded expression on her face.
"It doesn't look anything like Britain though," Rogue finished.
"I've travelled a lot," Jack said with a shrug, "You're probably just remembering something I've forgotten, a memory from when I was really young."
"It looked like Africa, or some poor country in Asia or something," Rogue said, "Have you ever been to Africa?"
"I…" Jack began, but suddenly looked over towards the window, frowning, "Did you hear that?"
"No," Rogue said, following Jack's gaze, "What…"
Jack put her finger to her lips and Rogue stopped talking. She listened in the silence, thinking at first that Jack was being crazy, but then she could hear it too. Faintly in the distance.
"Footsteps," Rogue said.
Jack went over to the window and teased the blind apart with her fingers, peering out at the grounds.
"It's probably just a couple of people out for a midnight stroll," Rogue said, joining her at the window.
"There are at least ten people, and one has really heavy footsteps," Jack said, "And they're heading in this direction."
"How can you tell all that?" Rogue asked.
"Listening," Jack said, "You should try it sometime!"
It was a minor poke, but Rogue let it slide and listened. To start with she could still just hear footsteps (which was quite an achievement in itself – they were very quiet) but as she strained to hear better suddenly the sounds took on a whole new depth.
Rogue became very aware of Jack breathing next to her. Never before had the simple function of taking breath sounded so loud to her. Outside she could hear leaves rustling in a light wind, and down the corridor someone was tossing fitfully in their sleep. Rogue trained her ears on the footsteps.
Jack was right, there was quite a number of them, Rogue estimated about twenty. One had really heavy footsteps, thudding into the ground, another walked in step with at least two other people, like they were marching together. But in and amongst all the sounds of feet and walking, Rogue could hear something else.
Click, click, click. The flicking noise of a zippo lighter being opened and shut continuously – a noise that Rogue would recognise anywhere.
"Pyro…" she murmured fearfully.
Rogue took over looking out of the gap in the blind. After about two minutes searching, her eyes fell across the Brotherhood gathered at the gate. She looked up at Jack with horror etched in her features.
"Go," Jack said, "Get all the teachers awake, I'll take the dormitories and get everyone out of here."
Rogue nodded, and after grabbing her gloves off the table, ran out of the room. Jack picked up her dressing gown and threw it over her shoulders as the metal gate was ripped from the wall by Magneto's power, and ran out of the room after Rogue.
She sped down the corridor, throwing open the first door she came to, which was Rogue's room. Kitty was asleep in bed.
"Kitty!" Jack called, shaking her awake.
"What?" Kitty said sleepily, "What time is it?"
"Time to get up!" Jack said, dragging her out of bed.
"It's still dark…" Kitty protested.
She was just about standing up when a crash startled her awake.
"What was that?" she whispered fearfully.
"That was probably Juggernaut crashing through the wall," Jack said matter-of-factly, "We need to get everyone awake and out of here right now."
Kitty nodded, and ran through the nearest wall. Jack ran out of the door and down the opposite corridor, opening the door to a dormitory of younger students. They were all sat up in bed, having been woken by the commotion.
"What's going on?" one of the children whimpered.
"You have to come with me," Jack said, "You have to get out of here now, head for the escape tunnels!"
The kids looked at her nervously, shaking their heads, too afraid to move. Jack could hear the Juggernaut advancing up the stairs towards them.
"Come on!" Jack said, grabbing the hand of the nearest one, "I'll get you safe, I promise, now we have to move!"
She pulled them into the corridor, and went on to the next room.
Warren's room was a little way away from the other teacher suites. Storm had had the consideration to give him one with a balcony so that he might stretch his wings once in a while, but that meant he was stuck in a completely different area to everyone else.
Being a relatively light sleeper, he woke up to the sounds of crashing without the need for a wakeup call. He walked out of his room, looking for the source of the chaos. Students were running down the corridor, apparently away from something, or someone. The students he could see were mostly the younger, more defenceless ones.
"Get behind me!" he called, standing in the centre of the corridor, spreading his wings wide so they blocked the way.
The last few kids ducked beneath them and joined the others, cowering behind him. One last student ran round the corner, looking back the way they had come, heading straight towards him. Warren caught Jack in his arms before she could crash into him and looked down at her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Are all the others safe?" Jack asked, her messy hair was everywhere and she looked anxious, "I promised I would get them safe!"
"They're behind me, now what are you all running from?"
His question was answered, not by Jack, but by the Juggernaut charging round the corner, head down as he built up momentum.
Warren knew he couldn't stop the Juggernaut, nothing could. He gripped Jack by the upper part of her arms, ready to drag her out of the way, but she held out her hands in front of her, shooting out her unique green energy, encompassing the Juggernaut with it. For a moment he kept moving, but slowly his momentum was ground to a halt, with Jack straining to keep him back. He stopped about an inch from them. As Jack held him in position, Warren noticed with a wry smile that she wore her beloved bracelets even in bed. They were glowing green with the rest of her hands as she lifted the Juggernaut and threw him back the way he had come, out of the window at the end of the corridor.
Storm and Logan suddenly appeared from round the corner. Storm looked from Jack to the window, figuring out what happened, then ran to direct the kids into the network of escape tunnels all round the mansion. Logan looked at Warren who was still holding Jack and raised an eyebrow at him, before running off somewhere else to pick another fight.
"Nice job," Warren said to Jack, "I thought for a moment he wasn't going to stop."
"So did I," Jack said, breathing a little heavier than usual.
He let go of her arms and she stepped away from him. She looked very funny not in her dungarees but in her pyjamas. She had at least had the thought to grab a dressing gown, unlike Warren who was stood in the corridor wearing only a loose pair of trousers. Jack had also noticed this, and grinned.
"Don't let Kitty see you like that, she might fall through the floor in shock," she said, before running off after Logan.
Warren watched her go, then ran forwards and leapt out of the broken window to find his own fight somewhere else.
There was one student who was still in his room. The Juggernaut had charged down the corridor, followed by the rest of the Brotherhood before he had had the chance to escape. Now all he could do was cower in the corner and hope no one noticed him until it was all over. Not that he would have been able to do much else outside of his room. In fact it would probably have been worse if he had managed to get out on time. He would have rendered all the rest of the group useless.
Jimmy sat hidden behind his bed, too afraid to even move to take a look to see if the coast was clear. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself, because he knew he couldn't fight them off. He might remove their powers, but a strong hand could still strangle him, powers or no.
All around the sounds of fighting echoed through the corridors. Bangs, shouts, explosions, Jimmy could hear just about everything from the corner of his room, and it made him want to cry. All this anger and resentment because of him, because of what his genes had done. He'd only ever wanted to help people – he thought the cure they developed from him at Worthington labs would make people happy, and it had, but it had also made people angry.
A sudden loud bang made Jimmy look up. Someone was throwing doors open down the corridor, and they were coming towards him. He hid behind his bed, peaking over the top of it as high as he dared while trying to stay hidden.
As the door to the room next to him was thrown open, Jimmy closed his eyes and ducked lower. He didn't have the courage to look, all his courage had deserted him. His door flew open.
"Jimmy!" Jack's voice was like sweet music.
Jimmy opened his eyes and looked up at the older girl.
"We have to get you out of here, come on!" she said, holding out her hand to him.
Jimmy hesitated, but Jack wasn't going to let him stay behind. She leaned over and grabbed him, dragging him out of the room.
"Come on," she said, "Help me see if anyone else got left behind."
She threw each door they passed open and looked briefly round the room. Jimmy went to the next door along, doing the same.
"I think that's everyone," she said, grabbing him by the hand once more and turning back the way they had come.
Together they ran down the corridor a little way, but on turning a corner they came face to face with Pyro, who was standing with both his hands on fire, ready.
"Back, back!" Jack said, dragging Jimmy back again.
As they rounded the corner again, they nearly collided with Callisto, who was blocking their escape route. They were trapped.
"Hello again Jack," Callisto said, advancing on them, close but not too close – she knew what getting too close to Jimmy did to your powers.
"Nice jammies," Pyro said with a smirk, teasing them by shooting jets of flame towards them.
Jack wrapped her arms round Jimmy defensively, trying to keep her eyes on both Callisto and Pyro at the same time.
"Why don't you let us kill him, Jack?" Pyro said, "Then you could put up a decent fight. You might even stand a chance that way."
Jack didn't say anything, and Jimmy couldn't help wondering if she was thinking about it.
"Or have the X-men ways rubbed off on you to the point where you would actually sacrifice yourself to try and save him?"
Jimmy tried to run off as Pyro and Callisto edged closer, but Jack's hand gripped his shoulder, digging into his skin so he couldn't go anywhere.
"Stay exactly where you are," she whispered to him, "If you move they'll kill you in an instant."
Callisto had heard their little exchange with her superhuman sense and laughed.
"We're going to kill you both anyway," she said, "Why put off the inevitable?"
"You aren't going to kill anyone," Jack said.
"And how exactly do you intend to stop us?" Callisto looked very smug. Jack had to wipe that look off her face.
"Like this," she said, shooting her energy rays from her hands and sending them both flying backwards out of windows.
Jimmy stared at her in as much shock as Pyro and Callisto had as they sailed out of the corridor and into the night.
"How?" he asked, "Your powers shouldn't work around me!"
Jack knelt beside him.
"Can you keep a secret?" she asked.
Jimmy nodded.
"I'm not a mutant," she said, then stood up, grabbed his hand and they ran together down the corridors towards the escape tunnels.
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