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_A miracle has happened. Storm and Illyana have escaped their terrible fate in Limbo. Ororo is staying with the girl nearby. We both agree that the school is likely not a safe place for her. This world is now almost as foreign to her as Limbo was seven years ago. Ororo is adamant that Illyana should attend school, after she has had time to prepare herself, to better adapt.
Last night, I found what I believe to be the solution. Katherine Pryde, a student who unfortunately had her time here cut short by the fall of the X-Men, has been on my radar of late. I see potential in her, based on the Deerfield Incident, that she might be a candidate for helping me restore the X-Men to their former state. Now I'm even more sure. She's studying in Chicago currently, and Illyana is nearly the same age. She could be just what we need to keep Illyana safe. We'd have to be quite clandestine about the whole thing though. Katherine does not know what Illyana has been through. I'd like to keep it that way.
For the first time in quite a while, I feel rather hopeful about the future. With the return of my oldest student, we can set the stage for my newest to take the reigns after I am gone.
[ADMN_X/0225-2014]
It was a nice summer morning, about one week later, when the school opened its doors once again for the parents of the student body. Getting the school ready for the open house after everything that happened was a tall order, but Emma was never short on favors.
"Everything's going well, Emma," Lorna said, pouring herself a glass of water. "You want some?"
"That would be splendid, dear. Thank you."
They watched the students and their guests mill around the dining room for a brief moment.
"How are the students minding the whole "demon invasion" thing?" Emma asked.
"Quietly. You could hardly ask for silence, but generally the only kids blabbing are the ones whose parents are alumni. A crisis is kind of a rite of passage to them."
"I suppose Mr. Worthington is just happy to see a few more of his comrades saved from that ghastly place."
Emma took a sip of her water.
"Actually, that is a good topic of conversation."
"Limbo?"
"Yes. I recently had an… expansion of my worldview. I thought I understood the worst the world had to offer, but I wasn't thinking big enough. I also have come to realize that you are the closest thing to a peer I have at this school."
"And how is that?" Lorna raised an eyebrow.
"Because we both come from the other side of things. I didn't know your father as well as Ororo and the Professor, but we… ran in the same circles. My point is, I do not want to make an enemy of one of the few people who might be able to understand."
"I was pretty young when Magneto… left," Lorna looked down. "I've spent my entire life doing things to prove to myself that I wouldn't turn out like him. You said you were part of my dad's 'circles;' do you think he would have been disappointed in me?"
"Based on where Erik was when I knew him, you two would disagree on quite a lot."
"Good," Lorna drained her cup. "So, do you think we should start over?"
"I would like that."
"Cool."
"If it's all the same though, I think it's best our co-teaching period come to an end. Kitty and I were looking at a rotation."
"Who do you have in mind for me?"
"A supervisory role. Over Miss Sinclair, Miss Moonstar, and Mr. Ramsey's new class."
Lorna tilted her head. "Four teachers for one class? Seems like overkill."
Emma smirked. "Not for these students."
I don't know who I expect to come scream at me first," Sam cowered, "Miss Frost, or my mom after she finishes talking to Miss Frost."
He, Bobby, the Cuckoos, and Rachel were sitting in the sun room together.
"She has other things bothering her right now," said Celeste.
"You should probably know," Mindee whispered to Rachel, "that she's concerned about you and her as well."
"I'm 'concerned' too," Rachel shrugged.
"Maybe you should talk to her," Phoebe said.
"I will… when I'm ready. I know what she means to the three of you, but… it's not that way with us."
"You know, for people who can talk with your brains, you sure are bad at talking with your mouths," Bobby said, earning sour looks from all three girls.
"Um, Storm?"
Storm was fixing herself a plate at the buffet. When she looked up, Kitty and Scott were there. They both looked guilty about something.
"We've been thinking," Kitty began.
"Neither of us have exactly acted our age recently," Scott shuffled his foot.
"But you managed to keep your head through everything Belasco threw at us. Plus, now you have your powers back."
"So maybe you should be team leader."
Storm looked at the two of them. Then she laughed.
"No, I don't think that's going to happen."
"Oh?" Kitty looked at Scott, but his face was as blank as hers.
"When Charles and Erik and I returned to the United States to start this school, we knew that we would have to address the plight of mutants across the globe. We knew it would need to be more than the three of us, so our goal was to find young mutants who could be taught to control their mutations, be made to care about mutantkind, and who could one day shoulder the burden of leadership. If I took the lead now, what would the last thirty years have been for? Truly, I would be failing the Professor's dream for this place if I let you just quit."
"Wow," Kitty breathed.
"I know," Scott said. "Now imagine being on the receiving end as a teenager."
Kitty stepped closer to Storm.
"Well, thank you, Ororo. But don't sell yourself short. I don't know what we'd do without you."
"You already have the makings of a great team," Ororo smiled. "You just need to be better at talking to others."
Then she turned to Scott.
"And you need to get better at listening to others. I've been trying to teach you that since you were 14."
"I'm… sorry."
"I haven't given up on you yet, Mr. Summers."
Cecily had stepped outside to get some fresh air, when she saw Laura pacing anxiously along the end of the driveway. Every once in a while she leaned out of the open gate and grumbled.
"What are you doing, Laura?"
"Hn," Laura grunted.
"Looking for their car. I sent your parents an invitation."
"You did what?"
"I've been checking for two hours, they still aren't here."
She leaned out from the gateway and checked the other side of the wall for cars once again.
"They aren't coming," Cecily said gently.
"But they have to come, they're your family!"
Cecily laughed, then gave Laura a hug.
"Come back inside."
"Cess," Laura frowned. "I'm not good at this part of... having a friend. I always think that - since I'm invulnerable - everyone else needs my protection."
The silver skinned girl smiled.
"Do you wanna know a secret?"
"Sure."
"When I went on the mission last week, to Limbo? I did it because I wanted to show you I could be tough. I knew you were worried about the open house, but really it's fine. I know where I stand with my family."
"You don't need to prove anything to me," Laura said.
"And I don't need you to fight all my battles. Especially the one with my mom and dad."
"I knew it was a bad idea. I wanted to go over the plan with Kitty, but then there was all the demon stuff."
"I appreciate what you did," Cecily laughed. "Now come on, everyone will be looking for us."
On the other side of the buffet, an awkward meeting between Triage and Armor was taking place.
"Chris," the girl began to say.
"Hisako," he started at the same time.
"You should go first," she said quietly.
"I wanted to talk about that Limbo mission."
"So did I, actually."
The both snickered. Then Chris grew a serious expression.
"So, where I grew up, I knew people that reminded me of Warren. They had money, attention. Influence. They never seemed interested in using it on me, but a lot of other people I knew totally fell for it. And it always ended the same way. They got discarded and stepped over for the next batch. I hated seeing my best friend go down the same path, and… I was jealous."
Hisako looked Chris in the eye.
"Chris, that's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me. You're my friend, and I'm sorry if all that stuff with Warren got in the way of that. But I think you're wrong about him. I don't think he's like that on purpose."
She leaned in and whispered.
"He's kind of an airhead."
"Warren has this kind of special universe he comes from. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't caught up in it myself. The money, the attention. He's a solid dude, he's just not used to being out of it."
She scratched her head.
"The uh, Warren… universe."
Chris looked at her, a bewildered but encouraging smile on his face.
"So I'm basically over him anyway."
They exchanged a fist bump.
"In that case, dibs!"
Jubilee suddenly made her presence known at the table, a beaming expression of victory on her face.
"How long have you been standing there?" Hisako asked, bewildered.
"Long enough. Kind of an airhead? Kind of a gorgeous airhead! And now I have dibs!"
She ran off into the crowd.
"I think it's a good thing we didn't come here until we were 17," Chris said.
"This place messes with your head."
Towards the end of the day, Kurt and Anna passed one another in the hall. Anna was helping clean up.
"Heya Kurt!"
"Good afternoon, Anna. You have a moment?"
"Sure. Whatcha up to?"
He twiddled his large thumbs.
"I've been a terrible brother lately."
"What?"
"When you developed your mutation, I was scared. Scared of what could happen if you copied mine."
"But you like your mutation."
"I wear it well!" He grinned. "But when I was your age, it was the name of my existence. One day you're you and the next you're… a new you. It took me a long time to make peace with it."
"Kurt…"
"So I decided I would be your brother - from a distance. Bringing you here was having my cake and eating it too. But being your teacher has gotten in the way of being your family."
She reached up with a wavering hand to touch his face. Her skin gradually turned fuzzy and blue, and her eyes frosted over yellow.
"Well? How do I look?"
"You… look like my sister."
When she pulled her hand back, the color receded, and her appearance returned to normal. She looked at her hand, astonished.
"Well hey, look at that!"
Hank entered and interrupted with a polite cough.
"Kurt, when you have a chance, Warren and I would love to get up to speed on the various goings-on. Scott is with us downstairs in the lounge. Should be just like old times, if you exclude basically everything."
Kurt looked at his sister.
"Anna?"
"Go ahead, Kurt," Anna nodded. "I'm going to take these cups back to the kitchen and see what kind of leftovers we're working with."
"Kitty found her on the roof of the school.
"Hey, you."
"Hey," Illyana sighed. "I've been… avoiding you this week. Sorry about that."
"I figured you'd need some time. You looked like you were doing some serious thinking."
Illyana looked at her hand.
"I took back two Bloodstones, so now I have one more than I did when we left Limbo. But Belasco still has the other two, and he's gone."
"But not for good. I've made some calls, and a specialist will be here tomorrow to investigate our situation."
Illyana shot her an odd look, then looked down at the ground, smiling softly.
"I want you to have something."
"What?"
Illyana summoned her Soulsword and flipped it so that the hilt faced Kitty.
"The best part of me. I need you to hold onto it for a while. And if the Darkchilde ever takes over again, I want you to promise me that you'll use it to end her - once and for all."
"Yana-"
"This is bigger than both of us, Kitty. If it gets that far, there won't be anything of me in there worth saving."
"I don't know if-"
"Promise me, Kitty."
"...I promise."
Kitty touched the hilt of the sword and it vanished.
"You can summon it with a thought, now. Hopefully a good thought," Illyana smiled.
"We'll get this sorted, Yana. We're the X-Men. We can do anything. By the way, Sam and Roberto really want to talk to you. They're really broken up about letting Belasco get away."
"I will talk to them," Illyana nodded. "I wasn't able to hold Belasco, but I wouldn't have done it any differently. Everyone here is like family. I would do anything to protect them."
She frowned.
"I only wish my whole family could be here."
Ororo and Piotr walked to the end of the driveway together.
"Where will you go?" Storm asked.
"Home," Colossus answered shortly. "Away from this school and its madness. Somewhere I can clear my head. I want no more part of the X-Men."
"I understand," Ororo said. "You went through quite an ordeal. She missed you terribly, you know. If you stayed-"
He put a thick arm on her shoulder.
"Thank you for keeping her safe, Ororo."
Storm watched him cross the boundaries of the school gate. He didn't look back.
And in a chamber at the top of his maddening palace, Belasco ran a finger over his scarred face. On the table before him was the medallion, now only two red gemstones set in its star shaped face.
He waved his hand, and three more gems suddenly flickered in and out of view.
A fire rose in his eyes. He grinned.
|X-Men: Blood Ties|