Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men or Portishead's song "Sour Times," so don't get litigious.
Jinx looked puzzled. "Wait, I'm confused. What can you do for us?"
"Well… I can read your mind. But you might not want it."
"Why not?"
"Well, everyone's first time is pretty painful."
"Why would reading my mind be painful for you?"
"No, it would be painful for you. I am going to search your memory, and see if I can find the face of one of your attackers. Then I can find out who they were."
"I'll go first," Gaia offered reluctantly. She had never liked the thought of someone snooping around in her grey matter, but she figured Jinx didn't need anymore pain right now. Anyway, she was kind of curious. What could he find out that she didn't already know?
She closed her eyes…
Back at home. The kids at school, ganging up on a young Jinx because they'd figured out that, in some cases, she was responsible for their bad luck. It was stupid, like blaming Gaia for every natural disaster in history…
Principal Whatshisname, the one who'd been elected prom queen or something back when he went to the high school, giving her his best faux-sorry look. He was saying that they couldn't afford to have people like her around, that she was a liability, that she didn't deserve to be valedictorian even though she really was better than her classmates. She'd looked calm for a moment, then thrown his hot coffee into his face…
Her parents, telling her that it wasn't safe at home anymore, not when people were getting so angry at mutants…
The lamppost falling toward the Buick, then being shoved away by a force Gaia couldn't see…
Gaia jumped back and opened her eyes. Why hadn't she remembered that before!
"What did you see, Professor?" Jinx asked. The Professor was staring at the floor, still thinking about what he had seen. Gaia slumped back against the wall, her head throbbing with sharp pains. Jinx limped over to Gaia. "Hey, Gaia, are you all right?"
"Don't worry," answered Xavier, gesturing at Jinx not to touch her. "She'll be fine. Just don't touch her." Gaia was eerily silent. "Will you come over here, Jinx?"
Jinx closed her eyes and stepped forward…
Suddenly, she saw her old school… her old home… her old life…
A group of kids chasing after her, screaming "Jinx! Jinx! You're a big jinx!" There was a sudden blow to the back of young Jinx's head, and Gaia was yelling at the kids to stop as Jinx's vision went dark…
Another beating from the other kids. Jinx was lying on the pavement, feeling lightheaded and nauseated as a pool of blood formed around her head…
Then her memory shifted to flying with someone, Gaia hugging the boy's other side for dear life…
Gaia being beaten by a certain wolf-like creature…
Then a young boy with a green tongue attacking Jinx with a large piece of metal…
The Professor opened his eyes. When Jinx opened her eyes, tears began to pour out. She had such a bad headache that she collapsed.
"Jinx!" Gaia ran to Jinx, who was lying on the floor, just as Jinx opened her eyes again.
"That's more than enough for today," the Professor said. "You've both been through quite a lot. I'd suggest that you both allow Jean to give you a checkup, and she could certainly take care of Jinx's ribs, but…" He looked warily at Gaia. Jinx was staring at Gaia, too, understanding what the "but" was about.
"But what?" Gaia wanted to know. "What do you think I'm going to do, try attacking Jean with a tongue depressor?" Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea… suddenly remembering that her thoughts had an audience, Gaia began to concentrate really hard on the song "Gimme Shelter."
Once again, Jinx was at the playground where the kids always threw rocks at her when she was young. Jinx wasn't a child anymore, so anyone would think that she'd have the guts to fight back.
She didn't.
As soon as the children came towards her, she backed away. It was grade school all over again, and even though Jinx was becoming an adult, the sight of the stones the children were holding made her terrified. She tried to use her powers, but it didn't work. Why? It seemed like they were throwing the rocks in slow motion. The pain came at her in slow motion, too: the sharp pain of the particularly jagged rocks, the crushing pain where the rocks piled up, the sudden punching pain of the average rocks… all drawn-out and magnified…
They were still laughing, and someone had started the familiar chant: "Jinx! Jinx! You're a big jinx!" Each of them kicked her until her face was covered in blood and bruises, and then they left her on the pavement.
Suddenly, the sky turned gray and stormy. Jinx rose to her feet, all her injuries gone. The children turned around to look at her. She responded by giving them the evil eye, unleashing her power on them. The children began to drop, struck with all kinds of different grotesque or painful maladies: seizures, strokes, heart attacks, internal bleeding, leprosy, something that looked like a virulent strain of the black plague…
Amidst all the moans, groans, screams and deaths, Jinx found that she was enjoying their pain just as much as they'd enjoyed hers.