In The Heat
An X-men: Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia
Editing and Assistance by Cassie
Chapter Nineteen: Return
Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution, any of its characters or Rachel Summers. They are all property of Marvel.
Dedicated to DOJ, because I know she'll find that Lance is the most exciting thing in this chapter and I wholeheartedly agree.
When the new mutants woke up the next morning, something was not how they'd left it the night before. The intruders were gone. They had tried asking the adults and the X-men where they had vanished to, but to no avail. Everyone just kept telling them to forget it, but if any of them thought Bobby Drake was just going to drop the subject, they were dead wrong.
"I mean, I still have to give the big dude and the stupid Spanish guy a piece of my mind!" He complained as he walked down the hallway with Amara and Ray. His girlfriend lightly kissed his injured shoulder, flashing him a comforting smile.
"Maybe Xavier just did away with them," Ray suggested.
The female among them shuddered. "Stop saying 'do away with' like that. The professor's not a murderer or anything."
A light seemed to go off in Bobby's head. "Or maybe he's hiding them, slowly working their mind with his telepathy to make them good soldiers. Maybe he did that to us too!"
Ray rolled his eyes. "You've been watching too many movies, Drake. If he did that, you wouldn't be able to think about it."
"Oh, yeah…"
Bezerker went around the couple, heading for a door. "Let's just ask someone who really knows." Opening the door, he called inside, "Hey, Jamie, you busy?"
Looking up from his book, Jamie seemed excited that the older people on his team would come seek him out. "No. Not busy at all. What's up?
Amara sat on the edge of his bed, smiling warmly at him. "Well, it's just that the intruders are gone and no one will tell us anything. And since you know everything that goes on around here…"
Ray sat backwards on the desk chair. "Yeah, squirt, spill!"
"Close the door," Jamie said to Bobby, who did so then joined them on the bed. "Okay, well, S.H.I.E.L.D. picked them up this morning. Apparently Xavier thought they'd be in better custody there and Fury wanted to know how they got those telepathic disruptor thingies."
"If they thought we'd be safer if they were at S.H.I.E.L.D. this has to be something big," Amara whispered.
Bobby sighed. "Why won't they just tell us? We're not kids. 'Cept you, Jamie."
The youngest new mutant frowned. "It's not good to call your informant names."
"Sorry," the Iceman told him with a half-smile.
At that point, Kitty stuck her head through the door to tell them, "Guys, breakfast."
The five went downstairs, gathering with everyone else around the tables as plates of eggs, bacon, and a bagel for Kitty was passed around. From his seat near the head of the table, next to his daughter, Scott said, "X-men, when we're finished with breakfast, the professor wants to meet with us in the library."
When Kurt had finally wolfed down his fourth helping of scrambled eggs, they left the new mutants to the dishes and gathered in the soft couches and chairs of the library. The professor was already waiting for them. "Thank you all for coming promptly."
"What's goin' on?" Rogue questioned.
Before he could answer, the door opened with Beast leading in Emma. "I'm fine," she told the doctor. "Really. I can walk." Scott hopped up from his seat on the couch and helped her into a chair. "Thank you, really, but I'm fine."
"Now that we're all here, I'm sure you know what this is about," Xavier started. "As you've undoubtedly heard, S.H.I.E.L.D. picked up our intruders earlier today. Because Rogue was able to give us the information that they were part of the Hellfire Club, I did not feel it was safe for any of us for them to stay and learn more about our environment and the students here. They have agreed to hold them, so if we are lucky, no information will get back to those who hired them."
Emma cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Professor, but I would really like to apologize. I had no idea Shaw was even training those kids, let alone would send them here."
"Do you have any idea why they would send them here?" Scott asked her.
She contemplated the question. "They may have wanted to check up on me. To see if I would help you if you were attacked."
"They why would they hit you first?" Kurt wondered aloud.
"So they didn't have to fight against her?" Rogue suggested. "So it looks like they aren't trying to favor her?"
"Just because they hate her too," Rachel muttered under the breath. Next to her, Kitty giggled.
Emma shot them a look, though because she was across the room, they weren't sure if she had heard them. "Regardless of the reason, I do think I need to go back. I haven't checked it yet and they might be getting suspicious."
This was met was silence until a breathless Phoenix confirmed, "You're leaving?"
The blonde didn't try to hide her scowl. "For a short while."
Rachel nodded. "Well, if you think that's for the best. Can I help you pack?"
"I'd rather you didn't."
"If no one has anything else to add?" Xavier started before anything could escalate. There was silence. "Well, then, off you go."
Scott helped Emma out of her chair again, as she batted her mascara-caked eyelashes at him. "Scott, dear, will you help me pack a bag and take a shower? I feel so dingy after a night in the infirmary."
Kitty and Rachel lingered, with the brunette trying to find a book she wanted her friend to read, as Beast asked the professor a question, "Charles," he whispered. "I didn't want to ask this earlier and frighten the kids, but do you know how they got in? Is our security impaired?"
Xavier sighed. "Not quite. Apparently, when Scott and Emma came back from the city, they forgot to lock the door behind them."
"An honest mistake," Henry suggested.
"The kind of mistake we can't afford to make. It will be good for them to take some time away from each other," he told his colleague. "Emma was always needy of attention; it's why I didn't insist on her coming to leave her home as a child. I didn't want her to impede on the other student's progress by demanding too much of my attention. Scott, I believe, is missing someone to pay attention to as he used to with Jean."
Beast raised an eyebrow, glancing at the girls on the other side of the room, then lowering his voice, "Rachel doesn't fit the bill?"
"Not in the romantic sense. He's falling into the role of the father slowly, but surely. He just wants Jean back, and I'm afraid that he's finding her wherever he can. They're working off each other well-enough for now, but I don't want it to be their downfall."
The two men traveled towards the door out of the library, the doctor sighing, "Yes, and we don't want things falling farther than they already have."
When they had left, Rachel grumbled, "I bet she left the door open on purpose to let her little team in."
"That's stretching it, Ray," Kitty told her, bending down to search the bottom shelves. "I mean, why would she let them in if she knew we would whoop them? Plus, as scary as it seems, I think she likes Scott. Really likes him."
"She seems to like implants too. It doesn't make it real."
Kitty sighed, finally finding the book she was looking for and handing it to her friend. "Whatever. Look, she's leaving for now. Let's just be happy about that. Things are looking up."
Rachel helped her friend off the floor. "Why wouldn't it be? It's not like things can get any worse."
Wanda Maximoff was a very bored woman. This state of brain numbness had been a constant ever since her father had decided to take them to his 'summer home.' Prison was more like it. She, the rest of the Brotherhood, as well as Pyro, Gambit, and Sabretooth were stuck on large estate in the middle of nowhere. There were very few windows in the large building, and the large, thick fence that surrounded the yard was electric. "Alcatraz wasn't this isolated," she hissed under the breath, "Or this hard to get out of."
Magneto kept leaving in regular intervals, leaving them alone with enough food to get by until he got back. Supposedly he would be home tomorrow, but deadlines and the Master of Magnetism rarely agreed with each other.
At the moment, she and the Brotherhood boys were sitting around a television, flipping through the satellite channels. There was nothing local, as apparently they were not allowed to know where they were. Even on the way, they were drugged and blindfolded. As far as Wanda knew, they weren't even in New York, let alone North America.
"There's nothing on," Toad complained.
Fred frowned. "And we're out of popcorn."
"Maybe if you didn't eat a new bag every time we watch a new show, there would be some left," Lance grumbled, bouncing a ball off the ceiling.
From the loveseat in the corner, Wanda suggested, "Anyone want to play a game?"
They stared at her. "B-but, you never want to play with us, cuddlebumps!"
Her brother sped over to her, identical blue eyes searching identical blue eyes. "You okay, sis?"
"I'm fine," she pushed him away. "Just bored. I'd rather go through ten hours of Monopoly then sit here and complain about the lack of channels. I'll go grab some stuff." Getting up, she walked down a few hallways. Because Pietro usually got the games—he didn't like to wait for someone else—she had never been to the closet. All she knew was that he always complained that the door was locked even after he got it open every day.
The corridor she knew the game closet was in had four doors that all looked exactly the same. One of which she knew was one of the many bathrooms. She heard a Cajun voice coming from another one. Deciding that a 50/50 chance was good enough for her, she chose the door opposite the bathroom and used her powers to get it open.
Immediately, she realized that this was not the game closet. To her it seemed like a mad scientist's lab: mostly dark, with just a few strategically placed lights falling over the many pieces of beeping machinery. There were even large tubes about the same height and width of the doorway filled with greenish liquid. In one of the tubes was a dark figure. Wanda's blue eyes widened as she finally focused on it, before turning on her heel and rushing out of the room.
"Where's the game?" Lance asked.
"I didn't find the games. But you have to see what I did." They sat there, sitting at her. "Now!" As they followed her back down the hall, Wanda turned to her brother, inquiring, "What is our father supposed to be doing here?"
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
The question was answered once they reached the room. Almost in unison, each of the boy's jaws dropped. Lance looked at all the machines. "What is this?"
Fred was focusing on what was in the tube. "It's Jean."
"I thought she was dead, yo!"
"She's supposed to be!" Lance insisted. "Kitty told me she was. She said they cremated her too."
Fred rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe they cremated the wrong person?"
"And Magneto just happened to get the body?" Wanda shook her head. "What would he want it for? He's not some…necrophiliac!"
Pietro crossed his arms over his chest. "I dunno, I wouldn't put it past him."
Lance glanced at the controls. "Can we get her out of there? I mean…it kinda looks likes she's breathing or something."
"Yeah, there's like a tube going into her mouth that's giving her air," Fred noted. "Does that mean she's alive?"
Cracking his knuckles, Avalanche put his hands over one of the keyboards. "Let's find out."
Wanda grabbed him by the shoulder. "Not so fast. You've got no idea what you're doing. You could kill her for real."
"What are you all doin'?" drawled a southern voice from behind them. "Gambit don't t'ink you're allowed in here."
Before the Cajun knew what hit him, he was pushed into the room, with the door closed behind him and Pietro leaning on it. "How did you know this room was here?"
Gambit raised an eyebrow. "Just because you're his son don't mean he tells you everyt'ing."
"Then you must know how to get her out," Wanda told him.
"Even if Gambit did, why would he?"
A long green tongue reached into the Cajun's trench coat, pulling out a packet of cards. Wanda's hands glowed as she glared at him. "Just do it."
Mumbling about evil cheres, the Acolyte taped into a keyboard across the room. The green liquid in the tube filtered out. A few more buttons were tapped and a the tube swung open. Fred gently lifted her out, removing her from the airway, and laid her on a clear table in the middle of the room.
"Can Gambit leave now?" he asked, stealing his cards back.
"Just go, Cajun," Lance told him. It was only then that they realized that Jean was naked. The boys pretended to avert their eyes.
"I'll uh…get a towel, yo." Todd went across the hall, grabbing one of the bath towels. He stared at the girl until shoving it in Lance's hands. "Here, you do it."
The de facto leader seemed scared. "I have a girlfriend, you do it!"
Pietro grabbed it from him. "I'll do it!"
Ripping it from her brother's hands, Wanda gently rubbed the remaining liquid off of Jean. "Just go get her some clothes, Pietro."
The white-haired teenager started towards the door. "Wait. My clothes won't fit her."
"My clothes, Pietro!"
He sped off as Todd looked at Jean. "Maybe she's a clone. You know," he whistled the theme to the Twilight Zone.
"You've been watching way too many movies," Lance grumbled.
"Yeah, those are the only channels we get."
As Pietro returned, the redhead started to stir. A pair of green eyes looked up at the five other teenagers. She opened her mouth to say something, the words only coming out as a croak.
"Don't try to talk," Wanda suggested. "Pietro, go get her some like…"
"Ice chips. People give ice chips after surgery," Fred said. They looked at him. "What? I like medical shows."
The speedster made it to the kitchen and back in record time. They watched for a few minute as Jean sucked on the ice, letting it cool her throat. Eventually, she could talk again. "Where am I?"
The Brotherhood members exchanged a look. "We'd, uh, love to tell you that, but…we don't even know where we are," Lance explained.
"Why don't you get dressed and we'll explain?" Wanda told her as Pietro handed her his sister's clothes.
"Thanks…" They waited out in the hallway until she was ready. Jean came out, drying out her hair with the towel. The group led her back to the television room, and she sat at the end of the couch. "So what is this place?
Pietro snorted. "Let's just say Magneto doesn't look for what other people look for in a vacation home. No pool or view of the ocean, but there is a lovely electric fence."
Jean squeezed out her hair again. "How did I get here? How long have I been here?"
"We, uh, don't exactly know, yo," Todd told her sheepishly. "Sorry."
She looked at Lance. "You still talk to Kitty, right?"
He blinked. "Uh, yeah, as much as I can."
"So…if I'm here…where does everyone think I am?"
They all exchanged a look, then focused on Wanda. "Jean…They…" She sighed. "Everyone thinks you're dead. That you committed suicide."
All the color drained out of Jean's face. "I just…it was a car accident. How could they think I would do that on purpose?"
"What are you talking about?" Pietro demanded with as much tact as he could manage.
"The last thing I remember is my SUV crashing," she explained slowly. "I mean, if…if they couldn't find me, then…But it was an accident."
Todd raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember your nice trip to Detroit, yo?"
"I've never been to Michigan."
Pietro shrugged. "If I almost committed genocide, then killed myself over it, I'd probably block that out too."
Lance rolled his eyes, then smacked his friend upside the head. "Smooth, dumbass."
"What are you talking about? I didn't kill anyone, least of all myself!" Jean cried. "Why would you say that?"
"Because you did," Fred told her softly. "We're not trying to lie to you or anything. We swear. Read our minds If you don't believe us."
"Fine." She closed her eyes, concentrating on the people across from her. After a minute, she opened her eyes. "What's with the trick?"
The twins exchanged a look. "What trick?"
"Whatever you're doing to block my telepathy."
"We're not doing anything," Lance insisted.
Wanda surveyed her carefully, then picked up the remote on the table next to her. "Take this from me. With your powers."
With a quick eye roll, Jean held out her hand. Her lower lip, then arm began to tremble as the remote stayed prone in Wanda's hand. "What's going on? Why can't I do anything?"
"This totally supports my clone theory, yo," Todd whispered to Fred.
Jean looked into a mirror that was hanging on the wall. She looked like Jean Grey. Red hair, even if it was sticky, bright green eyes. She felt a knot rise in her throat as she whispered to herself, "My parents are John and Elaine. My sister is Sara. I'm dating Scott Summers. I have a daughter named Rachel. I'm Jean Grey." She swallowed hard. "Aren't I?"
A/N: I know, it's rather short compared to my last few chapters, but it's been less than a week and I actually have to read 30 pages of college-level American History after this. Plus, all the really important stuff happens next chapter. Not that this one wasn't important… By the way, if anyone was wondering why the Brotherhood was missing for the whole fic…now you know. They've played a very important role the whole time. Whoda thunk?
By the way, I can't write Gambit. My apologies to all of Remy's fans for my bastardization of his character.
Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.
