A/N: I think 16 chapters is the max here, but we'll see.

KDBloomfield: Thanks for the review ;)

WARNING! Blood and graphic violence, I guess

Chapter 15: Just a Spoiled Little Kid Who Went To Catholic School

Laura kicked one of her legs forward, the momentum mid flight turning her back to face Phoenix as she landed in a crouch. Blob ran towards the burning figure, currently mostly sticking to the ground after Laura left a few marks on her – nothing serious. She didn't want her bleeding out or having permanent damage. Jean's body was still hers. Laura did calculated slices, ones away from major arteries and ligaments, mostly surface level. Placed strategically, spots which pulled whenever she moved.

She knew that agony. Did multiple training sessions with deep cuts like that – deep enough it took a while to heal them all. To make sure they wouldn't slow her down.

She took off, running after Blob and launching herself off his back, attacking from higher up as he swung. They didn't do much – Phoenix was faster than him, even while injured. But it was a great distraction, allowed her a bit of time to do more.

"So you really are a soulless machine after all, X23" Laura refused to let the words stop her. Blob got pushed away, his feet leaving wells in the concrete as he braced against the force field. Phoenix cocked her head as she leaned to the side, Laura's left fist missing her face by an inch. She quickly withdrew her hand, turning her body, her foot colliding with Phoenix's waist, pushing her over. She levitated herself back upright before she hit the ground. "Everyone else hesitates to hurt me. Even the Brotherhood" Her voice slowly melted back to Jean's. The flames moved closer to her, burning at Laura's back. She launched another attack, her right foot's claw managed to cut a bit around the Phoenix's ankle. She cried out, grabbing Laura's right hand and bending it back at full force. The claw of her left hand sliced above her knee. "But not you. We've lived together for months now. We're friends, aren't we? Then why are you hurting me?"

Her voice wavered at the end. Laura flinched.

Phoenix immediately went for her core, exposed by her shoulders relaxing momentarily, her hands falling slightly to her sides. The full force of the blow wasn't much – but the flames licking at her flesh hurt. Phoenix's other hand grabbed at her chin as she curled inward to shield her hurt chest. Laura moved her hands forward, ready for her claws to cut Phoenix's sides – but it was Jean, it was Jean's eyes that widened as she hurt her and Laura retracted her claws, gasping.

The uppercut swept her off her feet. She landed on her right hand, dislocating her wrist. She set it back immediately. The burn the hit left on her jaw stung even as it healed.

She hurt Jean. She hurt her.

"It's so easy for you" Laura took a deep breath, still facing the concrete. Phoenix's steps made her ears twitch. "To not have feelings. To just hurt people. It's what you were made to do, X23."

Laura pushed herself back into a roll, her feet hitting Phoenix's hips. She flew back, smashing into a nearby car. Laura turned to face her as soon as she landed, but she was already gone. She sniffed, but the flames around her dimmed her senses.

'You'll always be like this.'

The assault on her mind distracted her further. Images of Logan, Jamie and her teammates pulled to the forefront, all of them twisted, filled with doubt, awkwardness, fear.

'They'll never see you as anything other than what you were born as.'

Her eyes stung, the smoke and heat getting to her head. She couldn't breathe, everything was closing in on her – her thoughts, the flames, the smoke filling her lungs.

The ground started to shake around her, She felt an arm on her shoulder, grabbing her suit – a huge arm, definitely Blob. She got pulled away, the flames dimming under an assault of rain.

The earth stood still just moments earlier, during their retreat. Avalanche's yell rung through her ears.

Remy woke up right before they retreated, at least that's what Mr. McCoy told her. He was groaning when she approached the stretcher.

His skin was covered in miniature cuts from the shattered glass, but thankfully the energy he produced didn't hurt him – a miracle really, considering how much damage was made by the explosion.

"Remy?" She leaned over, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Ro'?"His head turned slightly. "La chienne fait un gâchis de moi."

She understood the sentiment. Her covered fingertips brushed against his forehead as she adjusted his hair.

"Ah'm doin' it."

He sighed, closing his eyes. She left a kiss on his bandaged shoulder as she walked away.

Miss Munroe and Evan kept Phoenix busy as Mr. Logan tried to form a coherent plan. Kitty tried to listen as her eyes wandered to the Velocity, where SHIELD agents moved the injured towards their helicopters. She felt uneasy with any government organization, shivering when she remembered the last time any of them touched their bodies. Recovering her friends from a military base.

Lance's entire left arm was badly burned. She had to phase the upper half of his suit off him, the reinforced material SHIELD provided for him slightly melting into his wounds. She stared at the visible handprint left among the burns, before she got pulled away by Mr. Logan.

She hoped it wouldn't still be visible on his bicep after the burns healed. That it would melt into the other scars.

That she wouldn't have to look at it again.

Wanda stood next to her, her left arm tightly bandaged after she refused to be benched. Pietro fussed about it for a few seconds, but even he had to admit they needed her on the field. They were already halved, the remaining ones already exhausted.

The plan changed drastically. They were supposed to keep Rogue safe, as she went on a suicide mission. Again.

Kitty almost refused to let her. That was her ex-roommate, her friend, her sister. She already risked her life for all of them once.

But Rogue's powers were what they needed. So she kept her mouth shut, agreed to do what she was told, and just squeezed her hand as she moved to her position with Alex.

"Hey, Pete."

Piotr looked down at Tabitha as she cracked her knuckles and shook out her hands. She gave him a tired smile.

They were assigned the left flank, Rogue surrounded by all of them with Kurt and Roberto right next to her. Blob and Scarlet Witch took the rear, Alex and Kitty the right, while Laura and Logan decided to tear their way through at the front.

"You know, if we don't survive this" She stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against his cheek. "You're pretty fine. Would totally like get a coffee or something with you."

He felt his cheeks heat up, but thankfully his blush wouldn't be visible in his metal form. He cleared his throat.

"Спасибо. Ugh, thank you" He cleared his throat. "Sounds nice."

"Better live through this then" She nodded, facing straight ahead.

Wanda took a deep breath, raised her hands and bent the surrounding lampposts, their bulbs cracking. Her fingers danced in the air as they moved around Phoenix at faster and faster pace, while Sunspot used his energy blasts to melt the top together resembling a moving cage. Havok timed his blasts, most of them landing between the posts, pushing the injured Phoenix lower and lower to the ground. Evan sent a series of spears out of his hands, embedding them into the concrete around her. Wanda slowed the posts down a bit to let Boom Boom release handfuls of bombs, piling them into the bottom. They all stepped back as Wanda went back to circling them faster and faster around Phoenix.

The explosion shook the earth beneath their feet. Wanda stumbled a bit, Fred catching her with his right hand before she fell. Chunks of metal went flying in every direction. Fred caught the one coming at them with his other hand, throwing it to the side. She could see Kitty phasing her and Alex, and heard Kurt porting near them. She could feel the heat from their spot at the back and hoped that Wolverine and X23 were a bit fireproof on top of their healing factor. Storm seemed to extinguish the surroundings of the Phoenix's flames, no doubt to make it easier for them to exist in her vicinity.

Wanda righted herself up, planning her next move as a flood opened in her brain, something breaking down walls she was unaware were there.

Her happy memories of childhood with father melting into pictures of loneliness, sadness and so much anger. Five years of living without human touch and connection, just an odd visit from Charles Xavier every few months.

"Wanda?" A gust of warm air brushed over the top of her head as a huge man leaned over her.

She knew that was Fred talking to her, the same guy that made her breakfast for over a year now, that sang along to the radio while doing so to make her niece giggle. But when she looked up her first instinct was to push him as far away from her as she could.

"Get away" Her voice wavered as she used her powers to leave herself surrounded by nothing but the safe ground beneath her knees. She could feel her blood rushing through her body, her heart beating wildly in her constricting chest. "Get away! Get away!"

She must have hurt somebody, the energy swimming around her changed. She felt someone moving towards her and lashed out, screaming.

"Wanda!" She knew that voice so well, it used to be almost the same as hers when they were kids. "Sora, hey, listen to me, I'm gonna take you home."

Pietro.

Her hands shook in rage, as she finally had a target.

He left her to rot.

Her right hand flew forward, grasping at the air and pulling him towards her with her magic.

"New plan, we need a new plan!" Kitty tried to grasp at Wanda to phase her away, but was being stopped by a spell protecting Wanda's back.

Rogue eyed the remaining mutants, trying to calculate the best course of action.

"Evan, Fred and Kitty, try to talk her down, take her out if it won't work" She waved her hand towards Phoenix, a gesture meant to rush the others into action. "Everyone else, we try again."

She fought hard with herself not to look back at Wanda, her tear stained, broken face already imprinted in her mind.

When Ray tracked him down, he didn't feel ready to resurface.

Callisto already eyed him suspiciously after Apocalypse, waiting for him to go back to the surface for good. Instead, he asked her to be the one to try grocery shopping at night, as he guarded the rest. Because the surface exhausted him. Especially after seeing the way his friends – ex-friends – looked at him.

The manhole covers around him started shaking, before flying past him and straight at Pietro. Kitty tackled him, phasing them. Evan pinned a few down with spears, as Blob destroyed the rest.

The way he left things with Wanda especially pained him.

When they used to be kids, back in Brooklyn, the three of them were inseparable. Wanda and Pietro stuck to each other like glue, going everywhere together even when Evan wasn't a fan of playing with a girl at first.

But then when he was about ten he got awkward around her. Because he wasn't old enough to really go after her in any meaningful way, but old enough to know he liked her. So he just mumbled around her every now and again, blushing when she bullied them into playing house with her.

Blob tried talking to her about something, Luna and taking care of her - probably a dog or something. Evan worked his way towards her and exchanged looks with him.

Wanda was still in hysterics, ignoring everything around them. Evan barely managed to duck as a hood of a nearby car flew at him, or rather at Pietro, still being held back by Kitty.

He knew he had to do something.

When she used to scrape her knees during their – very childish attempts at – basketball games, he would help her pick gravel out of the wound. Pietro never had the patience for that, and there were spots she couldn't see that well, with her cheek pressed into her leg. She never cried over it, just hissed if he dug into a particularly tender spot. She'd thank him afterwards. Both of the twins used to have tiny gaps between their front teeth back then.

He managed to make his way a few feet to her left, waiting for an opening.

She cried once, it was when Pietro broke his arm falling off the monkey bars at school. Her father had to come pick them both up, since she wouldn't budge from her spot next to her brother. They took turns carrying Pietro's backpack for the entire month his arm was in the cast.

Evan leapt towards her as she threw her arms back, forming a long, blunt piece of bone in his left hand. His right hand forced her arms to stay back as he hit her with it, praying that he wouldn't cause her any permanent damage.

The first time he saw her as a teenager, in that cursed mall, she was equally as guarded as when she was a kid. But she didn't remind him of the way she was when she played with him, or when she dusted off her scratches. She seemed like the Wanda he saw that one day on the elementary school playground, and never again after that. And that seemed to be her new status quo.

As the flat end made contact with her temple her eyes widened for a second before closing. As she went limp in his arms, her wet cheek brushed against the exposed skin on the inside of his elbow.

Rogue mentally prepared herself to jump into the fire, tossing her gloves to the side. She knew the longer she stalled, the more casualties would weigh on her conscience.

They should have just dropped her on top of Phoenix immediately. She could have probably talked Violette into it, using the remnants of the girl's misplaced sense of guilt. Maybe Magneto, he always prided himself over knowing sacrifices need to be made.

They were losing badly, have been for hours. And Rogue could have solved that.

Piotr and Roberto tore their way through with fire and brute force, leaving Rogue to trail behind them. Alex continued to blast Phoenix off to the side, as Logan and Laura kept engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Laura landed right in front of Piotr after particularly hard blow, catching Rogue's eyes.

The younger girl seemed to calculate something, before telling Roberto to move aside.

They were just a few feet away from Phoenix. The fire seemed to dull each time she was dealt a blow by Logan, from around six feet to waist high.

"Throw me the moment Wolverine's out" Laura turned to Piotr. "Right at her. Rogue, the second I hit her, move in."

Rogue allowed herself to glance at Logan, before nodding. She'd probably chuckle at the sight of Laura curled up into a ball, her feet resting on Piotr's palm under any other circumstance.

Logan got thrown at a nearby building. Before he even made contact, Laura was in the air, claws extended. Phoenix turned to face her, gasping when one of the claws sunk into her hip. Rogue took a running start, crossing the flames, now barely knee high. Phoenix's eyes lit up with violent, orange flames as she grabbed at Laura, her force unleashing in a powerful wave. Rogue held onto the ground as hard as she could, her feet dragging back despite her digging them in. Laura screamed, retracting her claws and flying back, through the once again raging wall of fire.

She was alone.

Phoenix turned to her, lowering herself to the ground, her face twisting into a grimace as her injured leg touched the ground. She didn't seem to be bleeding terribly, despite the deep puncture wounds. Rogue stood up, feeling the ring around them tighten, the heat warming her back uncomfortably.

"Why would you waste your time on these insects, when you hold such power?"

Rogue shivered as the flames licked at her bare fingers, the red figure in front of her smiling enticingly. She started to use Jean's voice again, another layer to her manipulation.

She picked the wrong target.

Rogue refused to close her eyes, staring straight into the entity's face.

"You have potential, Rogue."

The tips of her fingers started to ache. She fixed her fighting stance, not breaking the eye contact.

"Fuck off."

Phoenix flew towards her but she held her ground, ready. She let her hand burn as she touched the entity's cheek, the pull of her powers barely strong enough to stop her from falling over under the Phoenix's force. Rogue felt her mind burn and let go as soon as she absorbed all of the flames. Jean's limp body collapsed onto the asphalt as Rogue could already feel her own self being pushed to the back of her mind as flames surrounded her body.

"Imagine all of the things we could do, Anna."

Her own name echoed through her mind. She was trapped, surrounded by fire as she watched cities burn down, could feel the power over life and death feed the flames further.

"I could give you what you want."

She could see herself hugging Kitty, the girl's hands touching her bare shoulders. Logan mussing up her hair like he did with the other students. Kurt touching her arm as he told another one of his corny jokes.

Rogue could see herself touching Remy's cheek, her bare fingers heating up from his warm cheek. Kissing him, slowly, passionately. His fingers digging into her body.

"Just join me, Anna."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and shivered, turning.

It was Jean, the one she kept inside her mind after absorbing her powers. She kept all the people locked in the back of her mind after her meltdown, but now she must have landed back there with them.

A calming wave of water extinguished some of the flames as Jean stood next to her, facing the invader. Her hand moved down from Rogue's shoulder to grab her bare hand.

"You always help me with my mind when I need it" The redhead smiled, tightening her grip on Rogue's fingers. "It's about time I helped you with yours."

Something inside her mind started to crack and Rogue pushed forward, urged on by Jean. With every step more of the flames disappeared and she could feel more and more control return to her. It seemed like forever until she was back at the forefront of her own mind, the Phoenix still fighting for total control.

"You'll never have that without me, Anna" The entity seemed almost desperate. "I'm the things you fear about yourselves, the secrets you keep in the dark. And you can't get rid of me."

The cracks deepened and something akin to a wall collapsed, and Rogue felt more in control over her own self than she ever did.

"That's where you're wrong."

She forced all of her energy into a mental wave, extinguishing the last wisp of Phoenix into nothing.

Rogue gasped, her eyes suddenly snapping open.

Remy was kneeling on the sidewalk still bandaged up, her body pulled into his lap, his own eyes wide.

"Rogue? Are you okay, cherie? Did it work?"

"Anna" She blurted out, her chest constricting slightly. She couldn't be the last person to use her name.

"What?"

She raised her hand, slowly brushing his hair away from his face. The edges of her vision started to blur.

"My name."

That took the last bit of her energy out of her. She closed her eyes as her arm fell down, her bare hand brushing against the concrete.