I was never going to post this today. I'm supposed to be out helping my boyfriend celebrate his eighteenth, but instead I'm at home, sick in bed. :( Very bad for me... but good for you, as this is now finished much earlier than it was going to be! (hope it's quick enough for you IcedBlaze - I'd love a nice long review :) would cheer me up no end!)
For some reason I've had real trouble with this chapter. I still don't like it much, but it will do. Hope it doesn't read to jumpy or out of character. I tried to make it nice and long to make up for that.
Anyhoo, here's the chapter. Only three left to go now, and one of them is already written (unfortunately it's the last one, so you'll have to wait again for the next, though hopefully not as long!)
Jack sat a little way from the Brotherhood as they made preparations to leave. Her head was pounding so much it felt like her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets from the pressure.
She felt a tickle high up in her nose and then a warm drip of something on her face. She put her fingers to her nose, wiping away a trickle of blood. On seeing the red liquid on her fingers she swore.
"So, you're an alien from outer space?" Pyro's voice asked from above her.
She looked up as he sat down next to her.
"For me it was inner space," she said with a shrug.
Pyro smirked.
"You're bleeding," he pointed out.
"I know…" Jack said, almost self-consciously dabbing at her face, "It's going from hot to cold that does it," she lied.
It was cold enough outside for Pyro to believe her without question, and in a surprising act of chivalry, he took off his jacket and handed it to her.
"You're going to be nice to me now?" Jack asked, pulling it on.
Pyro shrugged.
"It seems like you're calling the shots now," he said.
"In other words you're afraid of me," Jack said.
"I am not afraid of you!" Pyro protested.
Jack rolled her eyes then stood up.
"Good, because I'm not the one you should be afraid of," she said, before walking over to find Magneto.
"Are we ready to go?" she asked the master of magnetism.
"Ready when you are, my dear," Magneto replied.
"Then lets move…" she said.
Rogue pushed through the crowds, struggling more and more as the arrival of the spaceship caused a massive wave of eager civilians to push forwards, swamping the entire area.
The riot police were totally overwhelmed, and many had given up resisting and had indulged in their own urges to get closer and have a better look. Rogue struggled to push against the tide towards where Storm was waiting, but she couldn't. She had neither the strength nor the confidence. She was too afraid of touching someone's skin and inadvertently hurting them. Though she didn't doubt that there would be people killed in the crush, she didn't want to add to the problem.
As the ship landed the crowds stopped heaving, and everyone looked over. Rogue knew this was her chance, but she was as captivated as the rest, unable to draw her eyes away from the majestic ship. Her heart hammered in her chest as it opened, reacting to a fear that was so real, but grounded in nothing. Nothing she had experienced at any rate…
Storm watched calmly with the others as the ship landed softly on the grass, resting on three large feet descending from beneath it. Like in any alien film, a large ramp was lowered with a hiss of air, and light flooded outwards.
"'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' anyone?" Bobby said.
Kitty punched him on the arm and they turned their attention back to the ship. From within it, people started marching out. They were dressed in long robes that made them look like monks. It was a good look to display peace and harmony, but part of Storm's brain was thinking about how they had been sat watching telly, studying the human race, for a long time. They would know how to look peaceful.
"You have your cynical face on, my dear," Hank said to her.
"I don't like this," she said, "I hope I'm proved wrong but I have a bad feeling."
"Well, I don't see any sign of our magnetic friend, so at least that's one less thing to worry about," Hank said.
"You know, the arrival of your little friends has totally ruined all my plans for chaos and disruption at the summit?" Magneto said to Jack as they walked towards Central Park.
"And I suppose my getting shot was part of the plan?" Jack asked.
"Actually, my dear, I never intended to have you shot," Magneto said, "You just got in the way at an inopportune moment."
"That's nice," Jack said.
After a moment of walking in silence, Jack spoke up again.
"I can imagine this will be just as much fun for you as disrupting a summit," she said, "it's as good a way as any to announce to the world that you are back."
"I suppose," Magneto conceded.
They walked on swiftly for another few minutes until they arrived at the edge of the crowds of people, clamouring to see the spaceship.
"What now?" Magneto asked Jack.
"Disperse amongst the crowd so when the time comes, you come at them from all directions. Surprise is going to be our best advantage."
"They don't look so threatening," Magneto said, looking at the priest-like attire of the aliens.
"Don't let the look fool you," Jack said, "under those robes they'll be in full fighting gear."
"I'm really not sure why I'm trusting you on this," Magneto said.
"Because, Magneto, liars always know when people are telling the truth," Jack replied.
Magneto laughed.
"You are much more interesting when you aren't pretending to be something you're not," he said, "Now, how do you suppose we cut through this crowd?"
"You're the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," Jack said, looking back as she walked into the crowd, "If that doesn't clear a path for you then what will?"
Rogue stood watching as the people began to file out of the ship. 'Ooh's and 'ah's sounded all around her as wonder-filled eyes took in the sight of the alien envoy, but she couldn't join in. Something was wrong and she knew it.
"Rogue," a voice said from behind her. She turned round to see Jack stood there, half smiling at her.
"Jack?" she said with surprise.
"Rogue, I need your help," she said.
"But you're awake, how are you feeling? Are you alright?" Rogue said.
"There's no time," Jack said, "I need you to do something for me."
"But, there's something wrong – I know it. I can feel it," Rogue said urgently, "You know it too, it's you who I can feel in my head. You have to do something, because you know."
"Yes," Jack said, "So I need to show you something, as you're the only one who can back me up on what I'm about to do."
"What are you going to do?" Rogue asked, confused.
Jack never answered, she just closed the gap between them in a couple of paces and put her hands on Rogue's face.
Rogue tried to struggle away from her, but her grip was too strong. As she started absorbing Jack's life force, and unusual amount of memories began flooding into her mind. It was like Jack was forcing her memories into Rogue's mind.
"What are you doing?" Rogue asked, "I'm going to hurt you, stop it!"
"You're not going to hurt me," Jack said, "I know when to stop, so stop fighting me!"
Rogue stopped struggling to reign in her power and let the link widen. The barrage of memories was painful, and tears streamed down her eyes.
"Sorry Rogue," Jack whispered, "But I have to show you this."
As the weight of the memories stopped Rogue's mind from concentrating on anything else, Jack guided her to the floor. As the last image was pushed from her mind, through into Rogue, she pulled away her hands and stood up.
"Look after her," Jack ordered the nearby people, who had taken their gaze off the ship to the strange goings on happening right next to them, "And don't touch her skin!"
The people nodded as Jack marched off and knelt to the floor to help Rogue sit up. Rogue stared after Jack for as long as her eyes could keep a focus on her. What was she going to do? Rogue couldn't ponder on the possibilities for too long – she had a whole new bunch of memories that she needed to get under control.
"Wait," Rogue muttered as she succumbed to the inevitable black out, "wasn't that Pyro's jacket?"
Jack caught back up with Magneto as the President stepped forwards onto a small stage, presumably to meet with the alien leader.
"What are we to do then?" he asked.
"Let me deal with him," she said nodding towards a man who was walking out of the centre of the envoy, "then wait for me to let you know it's ok to attack. They might just go away, but I doubt it."
"What about the X-men?" Magneto asked.
Jack looked up at him, a menacing look lurking beneath her otherwise expressionless face.
"Don't hurt them," she said, cold threat dripping from her words, before wandering off again.
"As you wish," Magneto said.
Jack looked at the landing area. It was surrounded by a small fence, but that was nothing. She could vault it easy enough. The X-men were arranged on a platform, overlooking everything, and there were plenty of army people scattered around.
Jack looked back over at the X-men. As far as they were aware she was still back in the medical room in the mansion. Rogue was probably in the crowd because she had been heading to tell them she was gone.
They looked majestic and magnificent stood on the platform. All except Wolverine, who looked bored. He wasn't really onside with the benevolent and giving ethos the X-men upheld. Jack identified with this. She felt her attitude was much closer to Logan's than most people realised. Being 'good' was all fine when things were going well, but sometimes you had to get your hands dirty to get a job done. She knew Storm, Warren and the others wouldn't understand this, but perhaps she might be lucky enough to find an ally in the Wolverine.
Jack tore her eyes away from the X-men and looked back over to the President. An all too familiar face was walking up to him. Jack dropped any thoughts of consequences and started running.
The President watched as a man, dressed more regally than the others standing around, emerged from the centre of the envoy. He presumed he was the leader of the group. So far this was all going well. They appeared to be unarmed, they certainly hadn't done anything threatening, and now they were extending the hand of friendship in a very diplomatic manner. A meeting of leaders.
The man stepped up onto the slightly raised stage and reached out a hand to the President, smiling. The President smiled back and held out his own hand in return. He was about to grasp his hand and shake it when someone familiar stood in front of him, between him and the alien leader.
Jack glowered at the alien leader, using her body as a shield to protect the President.
"You!" the alien hissed.
"Jack?" the President said with surprise.
"Leave them alone," she said, her voice as cold as her eyes.
"Or you'll do what, Jack," the alien leader said.
Jack looked behind her to the X-men. Storm was stood watching her, her face confused as everyone else's. Jack apologised to her mentally, then took her power. Storm suddenly staggered as she felt the tear of something leaving her body. Logan was there to catch her.
"This," Jack said, turning back to the leader, her eyes no longer green, but glowing white.
Overhead a storm cloud gathered and lightening streaked across the sky. Jack channelled it through her body, shooting bolts of electricity from her hands into him. Storm watched as he sailed high into the air.
"Quite a remarkable character when you get to know her well, isn't she?" A familiar voice said from behind her.
"Magneto!" Storm said. Logan had his claws out, but Magneto only had to hold up his hand to stop him.
Jack fired another bolt of lightening at the alien leader, pushing him further away. He flew so far from the landing site, that he wasn't even visible when he landed. Jack dropped her arms, satisfied with this, and the sky returned to blue and clear, her eyes to green.
"She stole my power!" Storm said.
"Borrowed, my dear, only borrowed," Magneto said, "you will be reassured to hear that it is only a temporary state, your powers will return."
"What game are you playing, Magneto?" Logan asked.
"Hers," Magneto said, nodding over to Jack who was marching towards the ranks of aliens that had lined up in front of the ship.
"You've got two options!" the young girl called to the fleet before her, "You get back on that ship and leave, or I'll have you all killed!"
Storm looked round the crowd that surrounded the alien fleet. Among the terrified looking humans she spotted Pyro, Callisto, Arclight and other members of the Brotherhood.
"What is going on Magneto?" Storm demanded, "They haven't done anything yet and they said they come in peace!"
"Jack disagreed," Magneto said, "And I should think she is the leading authority on such matters."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan asked.
"Why, she's one of them!" Magneto said, unable to contain a chuckle at their stunned faces.
Jack stood still before the fleet, one hand resting at her hip, the other held slightly out to her side, fisted and ready.
"We are not surrendering to you," a man at the front of the fleet said.
"Then I will destroy you," Jack said calmly.
"You and what army?" he asked, removing the robe he wore to reveal much more fighting-friendly clothing and a number of weapons.
"This one," Jack said, entirely unconcerned by his little display of power.
Behind the alien fleet, their ship rose into the air of its own accord. As the aliens looked round in confusion, the Brotherhood made their move. Juggernaut crashed through crowds, knocking out anything that stood in his way, Callisto moved like lightening, killing the aliens before they even knew what had hit them, while all the others did what they did best.
Jack stood by and watched it all, not even participating in the demolition of the fleet. She didn't need to – her army were making quick work of them. Superior numbers and the element of surprise worked wonders against even the most powerful and well trained of armies.
Pyro sauntered up to her side. She looked up at him and nodded. He smirked down at her, then languidly held up a hand, sending out a jet of fire towards the ship. At first nothing happened, so Pyro gave the blast a little more juice, then like a spectacular firework display, the ship exploded into a burst of brilliant flares and sparkling shards of metal.
"Don't they look like the happy couple?" Logan muttered to Warren.
Warren knew the Wolverine was just trying to provoke a reaction from him, and he wasn't going to give him the pleasure. Still, as he looked over at Jack, wearing a hooded jacket under her dungarees that somehow made her seem much darker, he couldn't help thinking how comfortable she looked by Pyro's side.
Jack scanned over the decimated fleet. A strange mixture of emotions was stirring in her chest. She wasn't proud of what she had had done, but there was relief. Relief wasn't so far from happiness – was she happy about it? No, she decided, and reminded herself that sometimes you had to get your hands dirty.
"You think you stand a chance, don't you?"
Jack's head snapped round to see the alien leader, slightly charred but still alive and well.
"You can't kill me Jack," he said.
"Maybe not, but I'll give it a good go," she replied.
He laughed, a cold and mirthless laugh.
"The only advantage you think you have is knowledge of this place," the man said, "but I've been watching your little hideout for days. I know this place inside out. Not even your friends, the X-men will be a surprise. I know all their names…"
"What are you calling yourself then, so I might tell them yours," Jack said.
"Call me King," he replied, "But you will not get the chance to tell them."
He pulled out a gun and shot it at Jack. Jack reached for her shield but it wasn't in her pocket. For a brief moment panic filled her heart, gripping at it like a phantom hand, but the bullet bounced off something before it got within a metre of her.
The smirk fell from King's face as Rogue stepped up next to Jack.
"Looking for this?" Rogue asked, handing the shield generator to Jack.
"Thanks," Jack said.
King glared at them both.
"Your Mother's parlour tricks won't win you this fight," he said. Rogue suddenly stumbled as she felt something wrenching inside her.
"Fight it, Rogue," Jack said, "He's trying to take your power, but you can fight it. I know you know how."
"I know because you know," Rogue nodded, pulling her power back from King.
King looked extremely irritated, and Rogue thought she detected a hint of fear in his eyes.
"You'll have to set another date for killing me, sorry," Jack said.
"Tomorrow," King replied, "midday. That should give you enough time to say your goodbyes."
"Where?" Jack asked.
"I'll find you," King said, "And if you even think about running, I'll kill them all."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Jack said, "I'm done running."
Storm was particularly angry at Jack and berated her, through expressing her relief that she was alive, for not talking to the X-men first. Jack took all this disappointment and anger with a stony face, not rising to it, not shouting back.
"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?" Storm shouted.
"Only that I can explain myself, and will, if you will calm down a little," Jack replied, "If you don't think you can hear it from me, talk to Rogue. She'll tell you."
She went through similar motions with Hank, but finally lost her cool when Warren decided it was his turn to have a go.
"Why did you do it?" he asked.
"I've told Storm, I've told Hank, I have my reasons, and I will give them when you are prepared to actually listen," she said angrily.
"I'm not talking about what you did, I'm talking about the way you did it. Why did you trust them, side with them over us?" Warren asked, a little angrily, like he was trying to contain it.
"Because I had to ask them to do something that I didn't want to have you do!" Jack snapped, "It's not that I don't trust you, I just didn't think you would understand."
"Well, you were right about that," Warren replied coldly, "I don't understand at all. All those people Jack, and you just had them killed."
"I gave them a chance!" she said, her voice rising to a shout, "I gave them the opportunity to walk away."
"I don't see why you had to kill them in the first place, that's not what we do, not the example we want to set. There are other ways of dealing with problems, better ways…"
"He's going to kill me, Warren," Jack said bluntly, "King. He's come here for that purpose. This world, and its people are only obstacles that stand between him and his target. Tomorrow he will come here and he will kill me, and when he's done it wouldn't surprise me if he went on to destroy half the city."
"Why?" Warren asked.
"Because he's destructive and has no respect for life," Jack said.
"No, I meant why is he going to try to kill you?"
Jack laughed hollowly.
"There's no try about it Warren, he will kill me, but I intend to take him down with me," she said, "King chose his name because that's what he is, the King, of our planet. He gets his right to the throne from his power – the ability to take on other people's powers.
"I have that power too. The green energy, the shield, they're just gadgets that my Mother gave me, to make it look like I had ordinary powers, so I wouldn't be killed as a child. Anyone carrying the little shield generator and wearing these bracelets could have my 'powers'.
"Because I have the same power I could potentially challenge his right to rule. Normally I wouldn't have been bothered, but King is a terrible ruler and my people live in poverty and pain every day of their lives. It nearly killed me to abandon them, but I had to. I came here, a place very similar to my home, to escape King until I was strong enough to defeat him. Unfortunately he's found me and followed me here.
"King will kill me tomorrow, because he has everything to lose. He would go to any length to retain his throne, and so will absorb huge amounts of powers from people, to the absolute limit of what he can carry without killing himself. To fight him I will have to go one step further, and the power will completely fry my brain. I have to kill myself to kill him."
"There's a limit on how much you can absorb?"
"Yes, I'm like the reverse of Rogue. When she takes powers it hurts the other person, when I take powers it hurts me. I had to do a number on Magneto earlier to get him listening. I took about five powers and held them for all of twenty seconds. It put enough pressure on my mind to burst a blood vessel. With training I could become stronger, have more endurance, which was why I came here – to train, but now I've run out of time."
"Isn't there another way – we could all fight him, beat him with superior numbers," Warren said.
Jack shook her head.
"With that much power he would just pick you off one by one," she said, "I won't have him hurt you."
They stood in silence for a moment. For once, Jack was the one to break it.
"So, no 'glad to see you're alive'?" she asked.
Warren laughed a disbelieving laugh, shaking his head as he turned away.
"I'm incredibly glad," he said, "But you've changed, Jack, how can a week unconscious change a person so much."
"I've not changed," Jack said, "your perception of me has just changed."
"A week ago you were from England, now you're from another planet," Warren said.
"The way some of you talk it's one and the same," Jack said with a shrug.
"Why did you lie like that?" Warren asked, "You've deceived everyone here."
It hurt him the most. Was everything she had said and done just an act? Did the person he thought he might love not exist?
"I never lied, I just let people believe what they wanted," Jack said, "Rogue said I sounded British, so I said I was British. I thought it would be easier that way. I never counted on…"
"What?" Warren asked.
"Nothing…" Jack said, turning away as a silent tear ran down her cheek.
She had never counted on caring so much about the X-men. Particularly Rogue and Warren. Rogue would understand, Jack had made sure of that, but there was no way she could change Warren's mind if he set it against her.
Warren watched her struggling with her emotions, as she sniffed slightly, trying to keep it all bottled up inside. Were his feelings for her being reciprocated? There was only one way to find out.
In his mind's eye, he took three large strides to her side and cut off her sobs with a kiss. Her tears mingled with his face but he didn't care, because just for one moment she was his, in his arms, and all the hardship and suffering couldn't come between them.
But the Warren in his mind was much braver than he was in real life. In real life he didn't move, didn't speak, and she looked up at him through sad eyes before turning and walking away.
Please review! xXx