X-Men: Revolution

by J.HunterFiction

Kurt once made his way to the Real World and learned that up there life he knew was a cartoon. Right now he's back to Evo in company of 2 individuals and has to re-live every single episode. As expected, knowing the future can be a heavy burden and a great responsibility. KurtxOC, realistic approach, I know it's long but it'll be so worth it

11. 4 - Mutant Crush - 1 of 2

X-Men: Revolution

Episode 4

Mutant Crush

+Dallas, Texas, 20.10.1995, 8:42PM+

Logan was in front of Jean and Forge as they continued to push through the crowd without being crushed. People hurrying to see the trucks being destroyed didn't pay much attention to staying out of anyone's way, and not even a single time they heard an apology after being bumped into.

Luckily there weren't that many people trying to get onto the tribunes now, that the show was already on for over half an hour. They knew they don't have to hurry because what they came here for will be the second last performance, but still being stuck on the highway made them all slightly irritated.

Once they managed to pass through the gates and actually get onto the tribunes, they were faced with a raging crowd. Men, women, young and old, everyone came here to see the famous showcase with all the trucks and SUVs.

They weren't here just to enjoy the show, their main objective was to take a closer look at the new star of the truck show. The rumor had it he was stronger than any other human being, and it brought Professor Xavier to the question: could the strongman be actually a mutant?

His device, Cerebro, wasn't perfect. It picked up manifestations of supernatural powers, but if there's no energy emitted and no brain activity changes, it could easily miss it. With sole power of muscles the artist known as Blob had a great chance escaping Cerebro's 'attention'.

This is why the three of them were here, to either confirm or debuke whether they're dealing with one of them. Sincerely at least Jean and Forge hoped they might even have enough time to see the Fair itself, but the traffic on the way forced them to pass by all other attractions this event had to offer.

Finally sitting in one of the rows they focused their attention on the arena and tried to appear as ordinary as they could. They weren't here to draw attention, more so - they even depended on staying anonymous so they dressed in a way that could help them blend in with the crowd. Both Wolverine and Jean had cowboy-style hats, all of them had leather coats and wore regular clothes, not willing to draw attention with their X-uniforms.

And they didn't expect any emergency situation here anyway, it was supposed to be just a sit-and-watch simple mission.

The commentators of entire event had the crowd cheer loudly for the driver who just smashed a lot of cars with their monster truck, everyone around them were standing and whistling.

"And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the main attraction of tonight's show" the enthusiastic voice in speakers announced as a heavy figure wrapped in swaying material approached the mid section of the stage. "The strongest man on Earth - Fred Dukes alias Blob!"

The new person on the arena threw away the cape revealing himself as a tall, made of as much body fat as muscle young male dressed in fitting, white and orange suit. He smiled at the cheering crowd like as if he owned the place.

"That's him" Jean whispered, peeking from under her hat at Logan and Forge sitting on her right side.

Silvercloud replied with a nod, Wolverine didn't respond, just watched.

The performer grabbed chains tied to two huge pickup trucks on both of his sides, wrapped them around his steel-bands covered wrists and took a comfortable position. If it was anyone else standing there, trapped in between two trucks that were about to pull him to either side, they would be torn. But not the famous Blob apparently.

"Go on, Blob, show them what you can do!" the commentator encouraged through the speakers as engines roared.

And the two trucks' wheels began to dig in the ground, trying to move forward but being stilled by the chains held by the young man. The trucks tried so hard that the front wheels actually were lifted off into the air, dust clouds forming around their back wheels, and still - they couldn't get away. The crowd froze in amazement.

And then the Blob did something incredible, pulling the raging monsters towards himself, forcing them to close in until they were so close he had to jump atop of their backs, pulling them even further and crash against each other. As his weight rapidly rested on them, the tires gave up and broke, making the cars as limp and useless as they could get.

Young strongman stood one foot on back of each car and crossed his arms on his chest proudly. The crowd cheered, and they cheered for him. He spread his arms, yes, it was his moment in the spotlight, everyone could see that, because he did something that stood next to impossible.

He wanted to bow, show them his appreciation. However he didn't manage, because the cars weren't the most stable thing to stand on and his ability to balance himself was far from his strength. He swayed, tried to keep balance, but it ended up in just waving his hands around right before he fell flat on his face.

Crowd fell silent, for only a mare moment before waves of laughter filled the huge arena.

As Blob lifted his face and yelled at them to stop laughing at him, his anger was obvious, but no one cared to notice as they laughed even harder. No one but Wolverine, Jean and Forge who felt tad disgusted with the crowd's insensitive reaction.

"That's nasty" Silvercloud said.

There was also one more person who didn't laugh, but she considered this embarrassment an opportunity of her own, and an evil smile played on her lips.

xXx

Mystique was perfectly aware of Wolverine and the other two sitting barely a couple rows behind her. Believe it or not, Wolverine was easy to spot in a crowd even though he was short and hiding under a hat. She noticed them the moment they arrived.

And she didn't care.

All she had to do was to talk to the performer first. She'd have him wrapped around her finger, she was sure of that. His strength will be useful in her Brotherhood, all she had to do was to introduce her offer to him, and after seeing how he reacted to crowd's laughter, she had no doubt he will come with her.

A group of men hurried onto the stage and tried to help the performer up onto his legs and calm his rage as they led him off the arena.

Mystique got up and slowly went down the stairs. She was aware that her half-formal clothing didn't make her blend in with the crowd, but she didn't depend on staying anonymous. As Raven Darkholme, the Bayville High Principal, she came here with an official offer, and people in charge won't know that as Mystique she's got an offer of her own.

She passed to the backdoor of the arena, those were guarded by one tall, bulky man. "Sorry lady, only staff can come in" he said as he stepped in front of the door.

"My name is Raven Darkholme, I am here to see Fredrick Dukes about his future. Your boss, Mr. Grocker knows I'm here and if you won't let me in I'm sure he will consider you his ex-employee, so would you be so kind and step aside before I get annoyed?" she asked in matter of fact tone.

The man eyed her - she didn't look like someone who'd pose a threat, but her bossy, uptight and official look made her look like a representative of some sort. He'd rather not make people of importance angry, so after considering it he stepped away and let her in.

She passed through the old corridor until she found door with a paper gold star poorly taped on it: "Blob". From inside she could hear and even feel powerful punches. As she opened the door she saw the furniture on the floor, thrown and crushed against the walls. The performer - "human 1t" as media codenamed him - was literally punching holes in the wall ahead of the door.

"Something wrong?" she asked as she rested against the doorframe.

He looked around, she could see the desperation in his eyes. "Yes" he said as he turned around, shattered pieces of the external layer of the wall sticking to his large fist. "Those stupid idiots... they've laughed at me for the last time!" he said. "I'm leaving this shitty place!"

"That can be done" she smiled mischievously. It only gets easier. "More so, I know a place where your skills would be properly appreciated" she walked up to him, pointing at him as he was in her arm reach.

"Listen, woman" he pushed her hand away frowning. "If it's a circus, there is no way I would come with you!" he pointed a blunt finger of his own at her.

She laughed shortly as if what he said was funny. "No, no, no" she gently pushed his hand down. "My offer for you is much more interesting, believe me. Will you listen me out?"

He looked down at her with slight interest. "Alright then, why not..."

xXx

"Do you think he's a mutant?" Jean wondered as they were looking for the right door.

"Bet he is. No ordinary human can crush two raging monster trucks against each other's butts" Wolverine said. "Here" he said as he noticed a golden star on one of open door. He stepped a little faster, as he felt a smell that was concerning. A smell of someone he'd rather not lose this Blob bub to.

Just the moment he was in front of the door he saw them close, and the very source of the smell smiled at him like a winner just before the door closed completely.

Jean and Forge joined him, and Grey was just about to knock, but Logan grabbed her wrist.

"No. He's busy" he said. He wouldn't tell them it's Mystique or Principal Darkholme, Xavier didn't want his students to know that the two are one and the same person.

More so if he said it's Mystique and she'd come out of this room as Principal Darkholme the cover would be blown. If he said it's Principal Darkholme it wouldn't make sense why she's here and it would make them ask questions.

"Outside" he said.

"What?" Forge asked surprised. "We were supposed to talk to him..."

"I said go outside" Wolverine sent him a harsh look.

The two did as he told them, and they sat on tribunes where they could still see the door. Wolverine made sure they stay there and was about to return inside, but as he entered he saw the performer leave through different backdoor, led by no one other than Mystique.

He sent her a cold look as she smirked at him with victory.

He stepped back, closed the door and gestured slightly at the two 'sidekicks' to follow him.

"We're leaving?" Jean asked surprised.

"Bub already made up his mind, and he's not coming with us."

Episode 4: MUTANT CRUSH

Installment 1 of 2

Somehow it bothered Kurt when they called him 'Nightcrawler' outside the missions and training sessions. It did from the first time and never stopped, even though before traveling to 'the real world' as it was he spent two years at this school and he should've gotten used to it. Still being referred to by his friends as 'Nightcrawler' bothered him more than something so trivial should.

But whenever it happened it felt just like all they can see is the Nightcrawler, and they forget to notice the Kurt Wagner. Only the Nightcrawler - blue teleporter who's not much beyond being an outstanding mutant. Somehow it made him feel like the difference between Kurt Wagner and the Nightcrawler was not only real, but also really huge.

They were supposed to use the codenames to hide their real identities while out in the field. And that was a good thing, especially for someone like him who also made himself look different in public. He could hide that way. But when his friends used the codename in private it felt like they don't even remember his real identity.

Yet the exact opposite of the situation made his heart flutter in an indeed pleasant way. And, oh well, weren't there more reasons for this nice shudder he felt?

During this training session they were scattered around a deserted town, each of them given a localizator - sort of GPS that was supposed to lead them to something they were supposed to get to 'win the game'. They also had to avoid computer-generated robots that patrolled the streets.

Kurt was just walking on a pavement following the device, looking over his shoulder at a robot heading away from him, when he was suddenly pulled into one of alleys and pinned to the wall. He was about to attack but he calmed when he saw it was Fallen, however before he said anything another robot passed by the alley, probably the reason why Fallen pulled him in here in the first place. They remained silent for another moment before the 'enemy' was far enough.

The girl turned to Wagner, still pushing him slightly against the wall. "You would be toast if not for me, you need to multi focus" she smirked close to his face.

This is what he meant with being seen as more than teleporting taxi cab, having a shadow of outside-trainings life during the action. There was something thrilling about being against this wall of a deserted, robots-controlled town with his girlfriend so close to him and with that daring smirk on her face.

"Danke" he said smiling slightly.

"You're welcome, Kurt" she finally let go of his uniform.

He smiled more. There. Being called Kurt on missions felt like a fresh reminder that there's something beyond fur and teleportation. There's no 'Kurt the boy mode' and 'Nightcrawler the mutant mode', but there's a person caught in between.

Right in that alley he leaned in to kiss her, and she didn't take more than a second to respond.

Usually whether he had his inducer or uniform on created a visible difference in the way people treated Kurt. Whether he'd be just a taxi cab or a friend seemed to depend on this mare hologram.

Fallen didn't make turning off inducer and putting on X-uniform feel like turning into a different creature than he was with the holowatch and casual clothes on. With her he remained himself no matter the environment (even when it comes to trans-world travel), mood or look. He treasured not having to pretend or be treated like someone he was not.

Suddenly his communicator hummed and Scott's voice made their lips part; *Nightcrawler, we need help in the East, do you copy?*

Kurt gave the device an annoyed look. Fallen smirked halfheartedly and nodded at him to respond. Wagner lifted the communicator and pressed the button.

"I hear you, Cyclops. Be there in a moment."

Right after that Fallen's communicator held a similar message from Scott; *Fallen, we need support in the East, how fast can you get here?*

The girl replied right away: "On my way" she said looking at Kurt who grabbed her arm. She nodded and with a BAMF they were gone from the alley.

xXx

Of course they weren't in the Danger Room, since the place wasn't big enough to create a hologram of an entire town. It was an actual city, Havenville, twenty-some miles away from Bayville, to the west. It was mostly destroyed a little over 8 years earlier during sudden confrontation between US Army and Saudi Arabian man who accused a company of trying to damage their holy shrine in Mecca. The company's headquarters were in Havenville so the town was targeted and after the situation was under US control again nobody wanted to spend money on rebuilding the area. Some buildings were completely destroyed yet most of them were only slightly damaged, and some weren't even scratched, but after over 8 years of abandonment they became wrecks. Only four families lived around here, however their houses were all lined up at border town and Professor Xavier made sure they won't witness his X-Men train in the ghost town.

At least that's what Fallen was told on the way here. She was curious about her first training outside of the Danger Room or Institute's grounds. Then again, all of them were. When they got there Storm, who was running the training, provided them with GPS-like detecting devices and simple communicators. She explained them that their objective is to retrieve an object, but it won't be simply displayed on their GPS - the device will lead them from a clue to another clue, they will have to enter new direction to find another clue in either one of the following sections of the town: N, W, E, S, N-E, S-E, N-W, S-W and Central. The first person to get to the item wins, each one of them getting different clues in different places.

They were supposed to face enemies too, computer controlled robots that were basically holograms from Danger Room's resembling system that was recently build-in into metro system of the town to provide the surface with proper holograms. Of course it was done on Xavier's request, but who did it for him his students didn't know.

As for this training was about quickly finding your way around on your own, the original plan was they just go, do what they must and they don't cross roads. Apparently nothing ever goes according to the plan, since Scott called everyone to the East sector.

After getting this urgent call Kurt and Fallen reappeared there, no more than a mile and half away from where they were in the alley. There was a bunch of robots following Scott and Kitty who already were there.

"What's going on?!" Kurt called out to Summers.

"The system crashed, they can't be destroyed!" Cyclops called back. He shot his lasers at one robot that followed him, but it went past him, only slowing him down for a second. His wires were fried but the projection didn't seem to acknowledge it. "Their systems don't respond, hologram keeps them going!"

"And I can't even, like, destroy them with phasing" Kitty shrugged, walking through one of the robots back and forth. She already knew enough about her power to know phasing destroys electric-powered anything, so robots should be easy, yet it didn't work here. "That was totally my only idea!"

"If we can't destroy them what CAN we do?!" Kurt said as he grabbed the two girls and teleported them away from attention of two robots that turned to follow them.

"We CAN destroy them but only if we destroy them to the point where they won't be able to move at all!" Scott called back. He used his lasers to destroy one robot's arm, burn hole through his 'chest' and what was supposed to be a head, then one leg, and it finally fell and shattered into pixel dust as hologram disappeared. "Aim for their legs!" he called out to the team.

The robots were about two and a half meter high, on two legs, with massive chest and a tiny head-resemblance, their two arms were provided with laser guns. They didn't look human, not even humanoid, but they were built by the same schema, so without legs they won't be able to follow, and in case of their vertical arms they won't be able to maneuver their weapons either.

The robots weren't that fast, slower than a running human, so if there was just one of them it wouldn't be hard to handle it. But there were six and it was a problem. Scott destroyed the seventh, now two others followed him and he tried to do the same. Kurt swiftly got his way around one and led him into an alley where it wasn't spacious enough for it to turn around, then he took care of the legs. Kitty tried to hit the robot's legs with some iron trash, and it worked but slowly. Fallen grabbed a steel pipe from old container and as she got behind one robot she rammed it into unshielded back of its 'knee', blocking the leg, then she did the same to his other knee and the robot fell to his back.

And just as all robots were down and they thought it's all done, air shimmered and another seven robots lined in 'V' shape appeared a dozen meters away.

"I think they brought friends..." Kurt said with worry.

First one of them shot in their direction having them spread like bills on first hit.

"Do it same as before!" Scott called to the team.

They followed, only Kitty minded it because she still didn't figure a way to get rid of her opponent fast enough. Her powers were next to useless in case of attacking them, even though they were very helpful when it comes to defense.

Eventually Kitty figured it out and tried to get robots to shot one other as she phased through their blasts, Kurt teleported around one robot, Fallen grabbed the same pipe as before and blocked one leg. She grabbed another and just as she was going to block the other the robot abruptly turned 180 degrees, its arm hitting her face as she was running up to him. As she tried to save herself last second she grabbed his arm and ended up pushed a couple meters away, landing on ground just by a wall. The robot went after her, much faster than she was able to recover, get up and escape.

When she opened her eyes she saw the robot's leg right before her eyes and she backed away, but the wall stopped her, trapping her. Things were going so fast that she didn't even notice when one gun was pointed at her and about to shot.

This is when the robot disappeared, shimmering away like all holograms. She suddenly looked around, noticing all the other robots disappeared at the same time. The others were as confused as she was.

"What-" Kurt started but he was interrupted by all of their communicators turning on at the same time.

*There's something wrong with hologram generators in East sector* they all heard Ororo's voice. *This section is turned off for now, you can go back to your objective.*

Fallen almost had her head blown off, would have if the system here wasn't shut down, could it be Ororo turned it off because she somewhat knew about it? If the system wasn't turned off she'd either be screwed or in need of help of the others. She didn't like it, being a burden, the fifth wheel that only weighs you down, but you keep it because you think it might come in handy someday.

"You're okay?" Scott's voice made Fallen suddenly look up. She didn't notice as he walked over to her, and now he was offering her his gloved hand.

She pushed her thoughts away, not being one to drown in self pity. She'd rather work harder than let failure overwhelm her. She nodded as she accepted Scott's hand and got up onto her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she said, swallowing. "Now excuse me, I've got a competition to win here."

xXxXxXx

+Brotherhood House+

It was easy. Almost too easy. But Mystique didn't even consider it being a trap, it was just that this whole Blob wasn't the kind who likes to do much thinking. His strength was in his body, not in his brain. But that'll do for her.

He agreed to come with her when she mentioned the glory; the glory he supposedly deserves. Of course that was a lie, but only for the most part. After all if her boys work hard enough they might just actually get some glory in the end. But only if they follow her every order.

Without her lead they were nothing, that's why she picked them up. Separately they were trash, brought together and fixed in the right direction they might serve her well.

Of course she was in a way proud to have snatched Blob right from Xavier's fingertips. But it was obvious - Xavier would promise Blob he'd fight for the right reasons, for other people. Trash talk. She knew better than that, her boys all knew better than fighting for glorious days of peace on Earth. Foolish dream.

There was a time she almost believed in Xavier's dream. It seems like days spent in a haze now, now she realized how wrong Charles is. But then, Magneto, he at least had plans that could work out, and so she went with him.

The thing is that she's learned that coexistence isn't possible, and she learned that the hard way. If it's not, there's fight, and only one kind can win. You can either stand up for yourself or be in your own way.

The choice is simple.

And now Mystique walked in front as her new boy fell a couple steps behind her. He walked awkwardly, but his steps were large as he was really tall and she almost expected him to duck when he walked past the front door of the Brotherhood's boarding house. She didn't bother to look back to see whether he did though, she just went on until she arrived at the living room's doorstep and crossed her arms at the view of this devastated and desolated place.

The house didn't look pretty from the first time she saw it - wallpapers were coming off, floor was cracked and uneven, railing on the staircase hardly held its own weight, the little furniture that was there already seemed to have survived a war or two. But like the boss said - only if the team will appear useful they will get a better location, and she didn't give a damn as for her bedroom was the one and only recently renovated and expensively furnished.

However since she actually began to gather boys for the new team it seemed like house aged one hundred times faster. From the day she got Todd to join her she couldn't recall a single time she came here and nothing was freshly broken, crashed, shattered, or at least uncommonly stained. This time was no exception - boys weren't present in sight, but the leftovers, dirty plates and spilled drinks were left behind. She could only bring herself to roll her eyes.

"TOAD! AVALANCHE! GET HERE!" she shouted up the staircase before turning to her newly acquired recruit. He seemed a little confused and worried as he watched the mess living room was in. "Aside you two boys are living here, at least for now" she said, and she couldn't help but wonder whether she'd rather take in more recruits or kick out the already existing. Either way she was pretty sure the numbers would change quickly.

Todd was the first to appear on the stairs, he jumped right down onto the floor and stood up straight. "Ya, boss lady? Oh hell- who's that punk?" his posture quickly bent to a side as he looked the guy up and down.

"What did you call me?" Fred asked, at one hand offended and angry, on the other really not sure what he was just called.

"You mean 'punk', yo?" Todd frowned and apparently he couldn't care less that he pisses him off from the start.

"What are you trying to-"

"Would you shut up?" Mystique interrupted looking at them with annoyed eyes. They fell silent and glanced at her. She unfolded her arms. "Good. Now this is Todd, he was first on the new team you're joining" she looked at Dukes. "And this is Fred, you're going to show him to the room next to yours" she now turned to Todd. "And where the hell is Lance?"

"Upstairs" Todd replied shortly.

Raven clenched her fists and frowned. "ALVERS!" she shouted up the stairs, there was no response. She growled and saying nothing more she went up the stairs, muttering under her breath that he's gonna regret this.

Todd watched her go up the stairs, admiring her back, before turning to the new guy. "So, yo. Yo'll Fred, huh? What's your thing?"

"My thing?" he asked with confusion.

"Not a fast thinker are we?" Todd teased. "Your power. P-O-W-E-R... got meh?"

"Yeah, I... I'm strong" Fred said. "The strongest. Uh... what's yours?"

At that Todd grinned. "You're asking so nicely Imma show you, just don't be too amazed, ha?" he said proudly and began to perform long frog-like jumps and grab stuff with his tongue like it was a sport competition.

Meanwhile Mystique abruptly opened door to Lance's bedroom and found him sprawled on his bed with cigarette in his mouth and mobile game-boy console in his hands. He didn't even bother to look at her when she entered.

"I called for you" she stated.

"Yeah, so?" he asked in bored voice.

"SO, when I call you" she walked over to him, stepping between various objects lying on the floor, "you are supposed to RESPOND" she snatched the console from his hands before he had a chance to react.

"HEY!" he immediately stood up and frowned. "Give it back!" he reached for it but she wouldn't let him get it.

"You are on my team now, Alvers. And it will only be as nice as you make it. If you disobey me, I have plenty of ways to make you regret it" she said lowering her voice. "I give you housing, food, and safety, in return I want subordination. Keep that in mind next time you decide to ignore me, because every time you take a chance on doing that, might be your last in Bayville" he returned the console to him roughly.

He turned away from her and dropped the console on his bed, walking over to the window, shoving stuff off the sill and opening it. "How about the new guy?" he asked, blowing smoke out the window.

"Go downstairs and see for yourself."

"So he said yes."

"I never doubted he would" she stated.

Looking at Lance there, at the window, she remembered when she recruited him. It was almost three weeks ago, back when he destroyed half of the high school on Deerfield after getting angry with that girl Xavier took in and by now enrolled at Bayville High.

At first Lance was reluctant to come with her, but when she offered a new start he was all hers. She saw one emotion in his eyes that she always knew how to manage for her own use - he wanted to leave all past behind, forget shits and move on, even if he was supposed to dive head on into worse shits.

And she gave him the opportunity by giving him a place at this wrecked house. Though judging by mess in his room, the 'wrecked' part wouldn't bother him. She also wanted to offer him schooling as the principal, but Lance didn't want to give straight forward answer to whether he wants it and he refused to bother with trying. He was ok with what she offered as Brotherhood leader, but not with what she offered as a principal of local high school.

"Have you made up your mind?" she asked.

"About?" he didn't turn to look at her, as he looked out the window.

"School" she replied annoyed. It wasn't that she cared for their education, but at high school she could keep an eye on her group during working hours.

"Not yet" he replied trampling the cigarette on windowsill. By the sound of his voice she knew he didn't even think about it.

"Pity. The girl you talked with on that day didn't take so long to come to Bayville High" she said in a matter of fact tone as she turned around to leave.

When she was on the door his voice stopped her; "Wait."

She smiled mischievously for a moment, then put on a careless face and turned around to him again.

"You mean Kitty?" Lance asked, surprised. "She's at this school you're running?"

"Yes. Though she's sticking with our formal enemies, which is an awful loss. She would have it better with us" she said. Lance could just make it happen, and she was hoping for that. Though it seemed like they weren't at the best terms now, she knew that girls Kitty's age can be really blind and many of them like rebellious types like Lance, which means he could actually talk her into joining them.

"Uh... I... I think I'll try this high school stuff" Lance said, suddenly not holding her gaze so easily.

Mystique smiled, winning yet another time. "You can start from Monday, you and Fred will follow Todd to his first classes and then come to my office during the lunch break."

xXxXxXx

+Meanwhile, Havenville training field+

Fallen looked down at her navigating device and the supposed final place of destination. The first place the device displayed was an abandoned store, the second was garage of a suburban house, and believe it or not it's harder to hide there than in the city. She managed to sneak past robots and she only had to block one's legs to get away.

Last clue she got from a post lamp, led her here - to the skyscraper that formerly was used by minor companies. She looked down at the paper in her hands. Aside from the address and sector it also had the information that the Target is on the 7th floor. Considering that the building had over 50 floors it could be much worse, and going up the stairs to the 7th floor will be easy.

She entered through the front, glass door. They were broken, one wing was hanging on a single hinging, so there was no worrying about locks. The place was light, but covered with a lot of dust and most of the windows were shattered on the floor, glass crushing under her boots.

She went past a wooden counter and pushed through another set of glass door to the staircase she could see behind them. She kept her eyes open, for she didn't know for sure if there won't be any robots here, or any traps that are supposed to make it harder. So far it looked safe, so she went up the stairs and found herself on another similar floor, with sofas and sets of doors leading to offices. She turned to go up the stairs again, but after a few she stopped looking up. She grimaced seeing that the next section of the stairs is mostly destroyed, only two stairs remaining and the rest gone. A couple following floors were just the same - it was clear to see since it seemed like some bomb blew this part of the building, and with no wall - the fresh sun was shining on gape where staircase should be.

She stepped back and got to the elevator. Obviously it wouldn't work, but it was still a way up. She tried to open the steel door with her bare hands, but it wouldn't work. She turned around, looked at the place, then checked door to every office until she found one open, and there she found scissors. She came back with them, stuck them in-between the door and pulled until the gape was big enough to fit in her fingers. She pushed the door aside just for an inch and then they went easily.

The elevator was gone, hanging three floors above her. She thought about every possible way to climb up before she tried the ropes by wall in right corner, and finding them stable, she started climbing up.

'Kurt would teleport or just make his way up like it was nothing' she thought. 'I don't know how about Scott or Kitty, but if any of them is heading here they could probably make it to the seventh floor before me if I go this slow' she thought and tried to go faster. It was easier to be a typical human - not hated, not feared. But on trainings and in real combat proper powers made it easier, there was no denying that. The thought that she might be the weak spot of this team pinched her strongly.

She grabbed the steel rope as high as she could, and with her feet against the wall she pulled herself up, once, twice, grateful for the gloves that were the only reason her pales weren't bleeding from the strong grip on harsh rope.

Finally she climbed out of the open door of the elevator shaft, but as soon as she got on the safe floor, her feeling of safety vanished as she heard the sound of a robot. She looked up just quickly enough to avoid being shot, she jumped away and rolled across the slippery floor. Getting up onto her legs as fast as she managed, she took a second to judge her situation.

One of the robots was there, turning to head on her, other than that this floor was almost completely empty, which sadly means no objects to hide behind or use to fight the robot. The only idea she had was to block it's legs like they did with the ones that stopped responding to the control system. But what could she use when there's nothing?

As she circled the robot trying to buy herself more time and make it harder for it to take aim at her, she noticed that these is still old foam fire extinguisher by the broken staircase. Ducking another shot she quickly ran for it, pressed her back to the wall behind a corner and used the two extra seconds before the robot got to her, to remove the blockade. Then the robot was barely a meter away she jumped out shooting foam at his sensors, and hoping it would work.

It did, as the robot began to act like a blindfolded kid searching for piñata. She finally had a moment to catch her breath and wipe sweat off her forehead. She didn't get to rest though, because two more robots headed for her from a neighboring office. She aimed the extinguisher, but it only managed to shoot a tiny bit of foam and it was empty. She had only fractals of seconds to react - she decided the fight is done. She threw away her improvised weapon and ran on full speed towards the broken staircase. She had to jump over the deadly pit below to grab railing that hung down on the other side of the hole. She managed to grab it, and though it almost broke off, she managed to climb up before it gave up.

This way she made it to where the staircase was actually functional, but yet another robot awaited her there. She exhaled, "I can't believe it. YOU SON OF A SCREWDRIVER!" she hissed at the robot, yet it - not offended nor bothered - headed her way. She was just going to head up the stairs and run for her life just to get to the seventh floor and grab what she needs, and just be finally done with this training, but something caught her eyes. A steel, firm pipe that she could use to block the robot's knees and give this son of a screwdriver what he deserves.

She frowned with anger, by now annoyed by the robotic opponents, and sprinted for the pipe. As she did, she heard sounds from the lower floor - blasts, steel hitting tiles. "Scott" she whispered. "Damn, he's too close, I've got no time to deal with this sucker here" she glared at the robot, but it was too late for that. She already on the other side of the room and the robot was right between her and the staircase.

Cursing under her breath she grabbed the pipe and headed on the robot with all the frustration concentrating on this one last 'kill' today.

That was, before the robot's guts busted just a mare moment before she'd hit him in his knees.

She stopped, pipe still in her hand, her frustration suddenly on loss of way to let itself go. She looked at Scott like he just messed with the wrong person, and he just stood there by the stairs, all serious and leader-like. And shades or not - they exchanged those very looks of 'don't you dare do it first' western challenge before both of them sprinted upstairs, racing to the seventh floor as fast as their legs would carry them. And obviously, with Scott being a lot taller, he was winning, but Fallen was more desperate at this point and she managed to outrun him during the third turn around.

Scott got onto sixth floor just a little before Fallen, and just as they were heading up the next stairs they heard a familiar sound echoing throughout the empty staircase - BAMF. The second they could see the empty seventh floor, they could see Kurt grab the only valuable-looking thing there, that was a flag, and they both knew they just lost.

Kitty came in last, just a little behind them as she found another staircase and just phased through its door and walked up here with no hurry. When she entered she saw unpleased Fallen and Scott, and Kurt who refused to take responsibility for upsetting them just by winning.

xXx

"I'm sorry about the problems with East section" Ororo said as she was driving them back to Bayville. "But I was glad to see you put your team ahead of your other objective. Helping others always comes first."

"But what, like, happened there?" Kitty questioned.

"It's the first time we're using the new holographic system in Havenville, it still needs some fixing."

"I hope it gets it" Kitty said. "I don't like robots freaking out in my face."

"You were just phasing around" Kurt said slightly leaning towards Pryde. "None of them even touched you."

"Duh yeah" Kitty crossed her arms and rested back. "But they could have. Not like you didn't just jump around. Where did you learn to do that anyway?"

Kurt smirked and shrugged. "I think that's a part of my powers, and product of too much time and energy."

Kitty just gave him one last look before turning her eyes to the window. Kurt sighed low, so much for conversation, but still Kitty was getting more talkative around him, which was good. Baby steps.

He turned to Fallen and was about to say something, but the words fled when he saw the look in her eyes as she aimlessly stared out the other window. She looked serious, but almost disappointed. He knew she considered not coming in first a failure, even though she told everyone that's not what it's supposed to feel like. She wasn't exactly one to follow her own advice.

Kurt gently brushed her arm to get her attention. She turned her eyes to him, so he smiled; she only smiled slightly back and returned to looking out the window with critical grimace on her face. He gently pulled her closer so she'd rest against him, grabbed her hand she rested in her laps and rubbed it in caring motion. She rested comfortably but her eyes were still critically looking out the window.

As soon as they returned to the Institute Fallen gave Kurt a peck saying she'd see him later, and she left, heading upstairs. Walking fast she almost crashed against Forge when she turned to the corridor where their rooms were. "Oh-"

"Hi, Fallen."

"Hey... How did the recruitment go?"

Forge sighed and shrugged. "I suppose we were on the lost position from the start. Blob never joined the X-Men, did he?"

"Not as far as I know" Fallen replied.

"Anyway. How was the training?"

The brunette suddenly looked like she was insulted. She frowned. "Like every other training made me draw a conclusion."

"What conclusion?" Forge cocked his head.

"That there's still more to learn than I can learn in a single lifetime" Fallen said and passed the boy. "Later" she said the last as she dived into her room.

She only took a minute to change her clothes and then she was on her way to the fitness room

It's been a month since Fallen trained at the Institute. Jean and Scott already had a little more combat experience, and Kurt had two years of trainings and real fights in the X-Men before the time shift. Only Kitty was new, but she was getting grip of her powers quickly and they were definitely useful during trainings, and Forge settled for the role of technical support. So the girl had to work hard to catch up with the rest of the team and it wasn't helping that she had no powers at all to aid her in combat.

But she didn't want it to define her. Whether she had powers or not can't determinate how useful she will be for the team. She knew that to some extent this is a lie, but there were still parts of it that were true. Just because she doesn't have powers to use doesn't mean she has to fall back and always be a step behind the rest of the team. She can do her best, train her hardest, and never let herself be a burden.

Never feel like she needs someone to help her. That's the thing her childhood taught her to never do - believing someone will come and help her. She had to be self-sufficient.

She wrapped her hands in bandages and began to hit the bag, not even allowing herself to admit that she's already exhausted after the field training in Havenville.

xXxXxXx

It was the beginning of Rogue's second week at Bayville High, and she still felt out of place, but it was quickly growing on her. She was never a very social person, but since she had her new 'ability' it only seemed natural to put more distance between herself and other people. If not for the mood, then for the safety.

She was sitting in of the classes - even if at first day some students gave her odd looks because of her gothic style, they quickly lost all interest in her and she was left to her own. She didn't even feel like finding friends now; not now that she knew she could suck all their secrets out just by a handshake if she took off her gloves. She couldn't tell anyone the truth, and it felt to her like it's not possible to build trust upon such a lie.

And she wasn't eager to try building trust anymore. Not after finding out someone she considered her mother kept her in the dark about her real identity for this many years. She never easily trusted people, and now the trust for one of a few she once trusted was damaged.

Her thoughts drifted back to when she arrived at Bayville and came to the High School for the first time. Just like any other new student she was requested to come to the principal's office where she was given her schedule and offered help in finding her way to the classroom, which she refused. She left the office and headed through the hallway in search for the right classroom. Some students slightly frowned at her very gothic style, but she genuinely ignored them or just responded with annoying glances.

Until her eyes spotted a student that immediately captured her attention. It was a brown haired guy in red shades, who was easy to spot for a dozen reasons. First of all, the only other person she knew who wore shades indoor was Irene, and she was blind so that's why, while this guy obviously wasn't as he was reading something a friend handed him. Second thing was he was tall compared to most students that passed by him. And the last but not the least...

She already saw him before.

That awful night after she touched Cody and ran to the cemetery, he was there, wearing some odd shades and a spandex suit. He attacked her. And now here he was, just chit-chatting with some other guy.

"Move it, freak" suddenly Rogue was pushed away as a masculine looking blond sportsman of some kind walked past her. In different circumstances she would call back to him, but this time she just regained her balance and remained still as she noticed the guy in shades was looking straight at her.

Even with the shades she knew he was, and he seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see him. He told something to his friend and began to walk over to her through the crowd. Rogue felt herself tense and she stepped back as the memories from that night came back to her. She almost expected him to jump right at her and try to kill her-

"Hi" he said instead, in a friendly and confused tone.

It was so different from what reaction she expected, she couldn't stop herself from frowning and asking. "...'Hi'? Really? Is that what ya've got to say?"

The boy slightly cocked his head to a side, looking down at her. She was rather tall but he still was much taller from her. "Well... yeah. What are you doing here?"

"Ya ask ME what AH'm doin' here? After ya and yer pals tried to get me last weekend Ah hoped to nevah see yer face again an' now, thousands of hundreds miles away Ah do, an' all ye've got to say is 'HI'?"

"What? No...!" the boy rubbed back of his neck and looked around to make sure no one's listening to them. "We didn't try to 'get you', we were just... we were trying to help you, okay?"

"Ya were all attackin' meh, so not at all okay" she frowned and was about to leave, when he grabbed her forearm. For a moment her heart skipped a bit before she remembered she's wearing a long sleeved shirt so no skin to skin contact can be made. She looked back into his eyes, or rather into his shades, her own eyes firm. "Let go."

"Listen me out first" he said.

She gazed into his features - she liked his features- nevermind. She gazed into his features and didn't sense any danger coming from him, so she stopped and waited for him to speak.

"I don't know what happened back in Mississippi" he said putting his hands slightly up to assure of his words. "I don't know why you think we attacked you, but I'd much easier believe it's a trick or someone else's doing than that any of members of our team would attack you. We're not like that. We help people and got one another's backs."

"An' why would Ah believe that with all mah experience with you provin' the exact opposite?" she crossed her arms and cocked her head with another frown.

The boy didn't seem able to find the right answer. "...I can't make you believe, can I?"

"Oh, now ya figured?"

The boy grimaced slightly. "...But still, I want you to know we only want to help. If you needed us... just let us know. By the way, I'm Scott" he introduced himself after a short pause.

She grimaced slightly, but shook his hand, her attitude slightly disappearing. "Rogue."

But that was a couple good days ago, and since then she already saw more of them. There was also the redhead who gave her the communicator, and the blue haired boy who somehow could turn all blue, and the girl who accompanied him. She overheard her name - Kitty. There were also other people frequently around them, but only those she remembered back from the cemetery, and thus she kept an eye on them.

But they didn't seem to act like villains in disguise. They laughed, chatted and got annoyed over teachers like ordinary students. It was really building up her doubt that what happened in Mississippi was actually real. Perhaps it's like that Scott guy said - it was all forged.

But she didn't want to settle for that thought so easily.

In fact, she didn't want to bother to even think about any of them, however that was very difficult and she had those little thoughts about them on daily basis. Still it wasn't the only thing that made her want to ask some questions and get straight answers.

She took a long walk to think about it that day. When she arrived at home that evening, first thing she heard were voices raised in anger, one trying to be louder than the other making it hard to work out what is being said.

Rogue slammed the front door loudly causing both voices to fall silent. She walked forward to stop in the living room's doorstep and looked coldly at the two women who were arguing just now. Irene sat on the red sofa in middle of the room, while Alison was walking circles in front of her with arms crossed on her chest.

Rogue was sick of it. At first she was glad she'll get to see Alison more often, but since they moved here it seemed she and Irene would fight over something behind her back all the time. It's not like the two of them always agreed before, they used to argue, but those hushed angry conversations and shouts that died down the moment she'd come around were too much. And Rogue was pretty sure it was something sourcing from Alison, as she was the one sneaking around and acting suspicious. For a moment she thought it was about cheating, but it was Ally who seemed more angry about whatnot was going on, and it just didn't fit that kind of issue.

She dropped her school backpack on the floor and stepped into the living room. Her eyes were on Alison.

"Ok, Ah'm fed up with this. Ah want to know what's goin' on" she demanded.

For a moment the silence between the two women only deepened. Rogue figured that Irene wasn't going to respond as she also turned in Allison's direction.

"…What do you mean?" the blonde asked finally.

Rogue growled slightly. "What do Ah mean? Seriously?! " she asked angry. "For starters ya could tell me what'cha arguin' an' whisperin' about behind mah back. An' why ya didn't even visit us anymore an' then had us move across the states to live with ya just when some crazy shit started happenin' to meh!"

Alison opened her mouth to respond, but choosing the right words took her a moment too long, as Rogue angrily continued to question her intentions.

"What's your purpose here?! Why do ya stay at work for days in a row? Who even are ya workin' fo'…?" she shook her head and lowered her voice. Her eyes started to glisten with unshed tears, but she refused to let them flow.

It seemed like Alison was making a tough decision, looking at Irene as if expecting a tip that didn't come. Rogue said all that was bottling up in her for weeks and now she was quietly waiting, praying for the situation to be clarified at last.

Aly sighed with resignation. "Alright, Rogue. Sit down."

The girl exhaled, glad that at last they want to talk to her instead of avoiding any actual conversation. Just that made her feel lighter. She walked over to the sofa and sat down by Irene without saying a word.

Alison only took another brief moment to consider what to say. "I didn't tell you this because you didn't need to know, but now, that your powers surfaced" she exhaled deeply. "I think it's time."

Rogue slowly tensed, as she didn't expect any long term secret being revealed.

"Your powers mean you are a mutant. So am I, and so is everyone in the group that I am a leader of. These morons need a lot of working on so this is why I am gone for days at a time."

With corner of her eye, she noticed Irene frown at her lie. It wasn't just the Brotherhood that kept her busy, but it was a comfortable half-truth.

"What…" Rogue tried to grasp it. "So ya knew about mutants all along?"

"I was one since I was very little, Rogue" she said, something strangely personal in her voice. It was a piece of her history that very few knew about – her young years. "This is how I really am" she stated and then her skin turned dark, ocean blue, eyes became fully yellow with cat-like iris and her blonde hair became shorter and bright red.

"What the…?" Rogue opened her eyes wide and shifted back. She looked at Irene for her reaction only to remember she can't see.

"I'm a metamorph" Alison said as if that explained it all.

"What? Like shapeshifters?" she asked remembering a book she read last year about a group that fought shape shifting aliens.

"Yes" she was so straight to the point, it irritated Rogue. You don't hide something like that for over a dozen years and then just blurt it out with no regret or remorse.

"Why didn't ya tell me sooner?" she asked frowning slightly.

"You weren't ready" she responded like it was obvious.

Rogue's frown deepened. "For what? Knowin' that yer blue? Ah could live with that, but Ah'm not sure if Ah can live with bein' fuckin' lied to by mah own mother" she tried so hard to sound angry – she WAS angry – but she couldn't control the hurt quiver in her voice to save her life.

Irene, who was silent through the whole conversation, found Rogue's hand and held it tight.

The girl turned to her. "Ya knew, didn't ya?" she asked hurt.

"I did, child, but-"

Rogue forced her hand out of Irene's. "No buts, ya both kept me in the dark. And YA" she looked at Alison. "Ya were sittin' here with yer group of mutants an' blew us off like we mean fuckin' nothin' to ya. Or do we now?"

"It's not-" the woman tried to speak but Rogue cut her off.

"Ya only regained interest in meh when Ah turned out to be a mutant, is that why? Ya want me to join yer group, don't'a?"

Mystique was a little surprised at how clever Rogue was to have seen through her so quickly. May she didn't see the big picture, but she noticed things that won't be easy to deny.

"I only want to keep you safe" she said, that much being true. She had a big plan for Rogue but she also depended on keeping her safe.

"Is that so?" she asked half-sarcastically.

"It is" she assured. "That's why I wanted you to come here and be close to me. Now that your powers manifested people may want to use you, and I can't keep you safe if you're far away, right?"

Rogue's shoulders slumped in defeat. "…Okay."

Mystique smiled in a way that would send a chill down Rogue's back if she looked up right now. "Good."

"Rogue" Irene spoke up finally. "Don't you have some homework to do?"

The 19 year old didn't need to think twice about it to know she's being excused out of the room. She composed herself after the difficult conversation and felt she needs time for her own too. She slowly got up without looking at any of the women. "Ah'll be in mah room" she said low and left almost timidly.

Mystique looked at Irene slightly annoyed. "What do you want now?"

"You didn't tell her any of what we talked about" she was angry but didn't raise her voice.

"I told her enough."

"Only what is comfortable for you" Irene stated almost harshly. "How about what you want with her? How about that Alison isn't even your real name?"

"Enough."

"How about what Xavier really is about?"

"I said enough."

"How about telling her what's her destiny?"

"I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH, IRENE!" Mystique got up abruptly, causing the table she was resting against to shift back.

Irene tell silent, but her posture made it clear she's not intimidated by her shouts. She remained silent but this silence was more than enough to state that she's still considering her point undeniable.

Mystique took a few shallow breaths then stood straight and walked out of the room, leaving Irene in silence.

xXxXxXx

Kurt only freshened up a little after they returned to the mansion from the training in Havenville, and after he did he tried to find Fallen. He struggled for a few minutes, unable to find her anywhere, until he arrived at the gym and saw her there, with her knuckles wrapped in pieces of cloth and her hair tied up as she was boxing a punching bag.

For a moment he just stood in the doorway, quietly watching her train. She used to have health issues sourcing from the situation at her home, and for years he watched her struggle so her body could get up from its knees and stand as bravely as her mind learned to stand. It was mostly in the past now, that she's left her 'home' behind, she had time to regenerate and train her body to take much more. He could see that now she wants to push more limits, and for some reason he liked to watch that inner strength she had surface on her body. As much as he liked to help her and look after her, he felt serene with the thought that she can handle herself.

Eventually he pulled away from the door and as he took a couple steps into the room Fallen noticed him. Her gaze only picked eye contact for a moment before she refocused on the punching bag.

"How did you know I was here?" she asked trying to control her breath. It was the hard part, she used to struggle with her lungs and they still seemed to take hard every effort her body uttered.

"I didn't, but you were nowhere else so I figured" Kurt smiled at her, walking behind her back and sitting on lifting bench, just to watch her from there.

She peeked at him over her shoulder, only letting herself get distracted for so long. She punched the bag again and again. "You're just going to sit there and stare?"

"Yep."

She shortly glanced at him with amused disbelief. "How very productive of you."

Kurt shrugged, not bothered with the fact that she doesn't even look his way. "We already had one training today, I'm good. I think you could use some relax too."

"This is a way to relax" she panted slightly as she gave the bag a hard punch. "Especially when I imagine the right person instead of this bag."

Kurt was quiet for a moment. "...You mean your father, don't you?" his voice was a little stained with sad understanding.

Fallen's eyes slowly stilled on the bag. After a moment of silence she punched it first from right, then from left. "Yeah" she stated low. "The only thing I truly regret about leaving that world behind is that I couldn't be the death of that trash" her voice was so low that it would be hard to hear her clearly, but Kurt's ears picked it up.

"...You don't even sound like you care anymore" Kurt said after a moment of thought.

Fallen stopped hitting the bag as she turned to him, her face serious but not bearing any negative emotions in particular. "Because I don't. I hope the universe will serve him what he deserved, but I don't need to be there to see it. Just like he doesn't need to see how far I've come despite he tried to break me for so many years. Nobody needs to witness how it turns out, I still know I win the final battle" her voice was low, but she didn't whisper. Her words were firm and clear.

Kurt smirked half heartedly and got up, taking a step towards her. "You say that, yet you train like you try to prove something."

"I do" she said as low as before. She kept her eyes on his as he approached her and stood in close proximity. "I always want to prove my own self that what I am now isn't yet all I can become."

"Is it what it is?" Kurt asked with a faint smile.

"Yes. And..." she cut off and looked slightly away.

"And?" Wagner gently pushed.

Fallen took a deep breath as her eyes fixed on elements of the gym equipment to her right. "That robot today... I was cornered" she grimaced remembering the robot aiming at her after it pushed her against a wall. "I felt like Ms. Monroe turned off the system because I couldn't handle myself properly. It felt like I needed to be saved."

Kurt slipped his fingers under her chin to make her look back at him. "Come on, the generators were broken" he said. Already being in close proximity he stepped even closer, planting both his hands on her waist. "She would've turned it off anyway. You're doing fine at the team."

"Fine isn't good enough for me" she shook her head slightly, smirking at him half-heartedly as she put her hands on his chest, putting enough distance between them to comfortably see each other's faces. "It never is."

Kurt inhaled deeply and smiled at her again. "You want to get better, fine... but getting stronger isn't what it's all about."

Without as much as a second thought Fallen replied: "But it's essential for everything else."

"Not necessarily" Nightcrawler slightly shook his head. Harris slightly frowned with doubt and watched him quietly. Kurt's smile became a little warmer. "How about I'll help you train more than muscles?"

Fallen scoffed with amusement. "Go ahead. I'd love to learn anything that can help me do more for the X-Men than just stick around and hold information that we're not even allowed to use."

Kurt didn't even blink. "Alright, I'll arrange a special training for you."

The girl put her hands slightly asides. "Ready when you are."

Wagner chuckled. "Fall, you must be exhausted, don't tell me you're not. You need to relax and I really feel like watching some movie with you, so let's leave the training for later."

Fallen smiled and sighed. "Fine."

Kurt's warm smile became fainter as he pressed his forehead to hers. "Don't overstrain yourself. I already almost lost you once, I don't want you hurt again."

"I'm not dying, Kurt" she replied low. "I'm training to AVOID getting hurt."

"And you can train. That's very good. I will help you tomorrow if you let yourself rest for today. You need it. And I need cuddling, und a little popcorn would be nice too" he grinned at her.

Fallen chuckled. "How could I say no? I love popcorn" she teased.

"...Girl, you're missing the point, have some sense of cuddling importance."

xXxXxXx

Rogue spent the rest of the evening in her room upstairs, thinking about the things she learned about her mother and trying to figure out how should she cope with them.

So Aly was absent from their life because she was running some sort of group of mutants. It made her feel betrayed right away, because it was like she and Irene meant less to her than that group. But the more she thought about it the more she was starting to believe that perhaps it's the group that was overly important to her. May that was why she didn't tell her until now too.

On the other hand there was another lie. Aly was a mutant just like her. Well, not exactly. She was a shapeshifter, apparently naturally having odd features like blue skin and cat like eyes, and that she also didn't tell her before. But Irene knew, so maybe she really meant good and just didn't want to complicate her childhood with keeping secrets from the world.

Excuse after excuse Rogue slowly transitioned from anger to forgiveness.

It was late evening, and she decided to apologize for trying to find someone to blame while there might have been no bad intentions to begin with.

She quietly left her room. Seeing that all lights downstairs are switched off, she turned another corridor and saw a line of light under door of the bedroom. Too absorbed with trying to shape her feelings in words before actually having to speak, she forgot to knock and just opened the door gently.

Instantly she looked around in search for Aly to whom she probably owed more apologies, but she was absent. Only Irene was sitting by the desk on the opposite side of the room, her palms tracing over braille printed book in major darkness. She turned halfway around when the girl entered.

"Raven" Irene called softly.

Rogue frowned and opened her mouth to ask who's Raven, but she stopped herself, suddenly realizing she already heard the name. She searched her memory, then it clicked. It was name of the principal that Aly first sent to get them to come to Bayville.

"We always had different views on how to raise her, but if you keep lying to her she won't trust you when the time comes. You can't disagree with me on that much" Irene's voice was sad and angry and yet understanding and somewhat pleading.

Rogue stared at the woman half-swallowed by the darkness. Her eyes were open wide and heart suddenly struggled to beat. Why would Irene think it's the principal who came here and why would she talk to her about raising someone? The only person Irene was raising was her, so could she mean her? So why would the principal have anything to do with it? And what was she talking about, lying to her?

Irene got up and with the book in her hands she walked along the wall to a bookshelf. As she did, she continued; "However you look at it, she has to BE on our side not just be fooled to play out your plan. In the end it's her decisions that will affect every living creature on this planet. "

Rogue felt like she was pushed of the edge. "What are ya talkin' about?!"

Irene's heart sunk at once and she dropped the book on the floor. "Rogue…"

The girl felt tears of anger sting her eyes. "What the hell are ya hidin'? Wait, wrong question. What ELSE are ya hidin'!"

"Rogue, child, I-" she couldn't find any words to say. She was terrified with how much she just revealed.

Seeing how Irene is fighting for air unable to find the words, the 19 year old asked another question; "What does that Raven have to do with any of this?"

Adler was so close to just telling her everything, but she knew how Raven would never forgive her. She knew that despite she felt like she was the one right about all of this, it was Raven's choice and she shouldn't make it for her.

She sighed with inner resignation. "Raven is… Is who Alison was when we first met. That's her name. She still uses it at work… at your school. I know we should have told you much much sooner. I thought it was her when you came in… I'm sorry you had to listen to all of this."

Rogue frowned and clenched her hands into fists. "Yer apologizin' fo' the wron' reasons. How 'bout what ya've been apparently talkin' 'bout behind mah back, like this thin' ya want to use meh fo'?!"

"We're not trying-"

"Well it sure as hell sounded like ya do" Rogue said through clenched teeth.

"Dear child, please… at least listen me out."

The girl stared for a moment. "…Fine."

xXx

"Irene, what did you tell her?!" Mystique's voice was the only thing louder than her angry footsteps as she walked into the room and slammed the door closed.

Irene turned in her general direction but didn't respond right away.

"When I came in she was waiting and right away asked me why I never told her you had visions in which she was ought to help me fight for 'better tomorrow'!"

Adler sighed and put her hands in her laps. "She figured you've got a purpose for her."

"And how would she figure that?!"

Irene slightly dropped her head with regret. "She overheard."

"Overheard" Mystique repeated critically.

"She entered and I thought it was you."

"And you said too much."

"I'm sorry, Raven. Those carpets in the hallway completely mute out sound of the steps, I can't tell the difference… and she didn't knock, she always did before" Irene explained. Hearing no response she added apologetically; "I really didn't mean to let truth slip that way."

Mystique watched her for a moment. Eventually she crossed her arms and looked away. "We'll have those carpets removed" she stated in half voice.

xXxXxXx

[[A/N: You may remember this scene below from the show. I didn't change anything, only added a bit more at the end. If you remember the scene and don't want to read it just skip to the next scene or the part of this scene when Fred already gets to his classroom, that's fine.]]

+Following day, BHS, 9:03 AM+

"...for this semester. Any questions, mister Dukes?" Mystique asked after showing her new recruit his school schedule and reminding him a few times to always call her Principal Darkholme at her workplace.

"I don't know if school is such a good idea. I'm not good at studying…" Fred, AKA Blob, scratched his head looking at the print hesitantly.

"You won't have any problems with it here, I assure you as the principle of this school" the woman replied.

Hoping that would be true, Fred left the office and entered the busy hallway trying to figure out what the paper says. "Final summary mark…" he muttered. "Man, I don't get any of this… Hey, you!" he grabbed a boy who was passing by and forcefully held the paper in front of his face. "Where do I have the classes now?"

"Like I know" the blonde sportsman smirked meanly. "Maybe at the psychologist's" he laughed.

Remembering way too well how people laughed at him at the arena, Fred instantly went red on his face from anger. "Grrr… YOU WON'T BE LAUGHING AT ME!" he yelled shoving the boy onto the ground and instantly turning to steel lockers by the wall. He had similar lockers back in his backstage wardrobe, and he always found them easy to smash and throw. Literally ripping a block of six lockers away from the wall he held it above his head. "UNDERSTOOD?!" he growled walking over to the boy.

The blond boy, Duncan, was strong himself, but seeing the new kid literally rip a set of lockers off the wall and hold it above his head like it weighted no more than a few pounds – it made him scared for his life. It was a whole new level of strong, and just for a moment he regretted his words as he was crawling back on the floor.

That's when he heard his girlfriend's voice somewhere behind his aggressor. "Hi, you're new here, is that right?"

Fred looked back surprised at the kindness in the stranger female's voice. His anger fled when he saw the redheaded beauty standing there, holding a book in her arms gently with a genuine smile directed right at him.

"My name is Jean Grey."

"Oh… ee…" the boy smiled awkwardly and looked up at the lockers he was holding above his head. That's some first impression on the first girl who was smiling at him in a long while. "Uuh… yeah, I'm uh… new in this, uh, town" he said walking back over to the empty wall where the lockers used to be.

Duncan used this opportunity to get off the floor and get away from his girlfriend and the new crazy kid.

"I thought so. Welcome to Bayville" Jean said friendly. She watched him put down the lockers without as much as a blink, despite she felt a little bit confused. She didn't need to take two seconds to recognize the boy for the performer they saw a couple days ago. But she didn't know why suddenly he was in Bayville. All she knew for sure was that he had some temper and would have crushed her boyfriend if she didn't happen to be there to see it. "So, um, what do your friends call you?"

The boy made sure the lockers stay in place despite being a little bit crushed in the middle where he gripped them, and then he turned back to the girl. "I don't know. I don't have any friends" he said softly, looking away from her eyes. "But I'm Fred" he held out his hand and she squeezed it. Her slender pale felt so tiny in his own, it made him look at their hands, the sensation making him as nervous as joyful. "Fred Dukes" he introduced himself fully.

The lockers he put down suddenly collapsed, crashing against another set lockers. Fred grimaced at the sound, but Jean kept her smile on.

"Well, Fred, in that case I'm sorry about Duncan. Sometimes he acts like a jerk. Hey, do you need help with this schedule?" she let go of his hand only to enthusiastically pick up his paper he dropped earlier.

"Yeah!" Fred replied with even more enthusiasm, and instantly felt stupid about it. "I mean, if you could…"

"Alright, hmm" the girl looked at his schedule and bit her lower lip as she searched for the class information for this time and day. "Your first class is right over there" she pointed with her hand towards door straight ahead.

Fred's face lit up like she did something amazing. "Uumm… thanks!"

Jean handed him the schedule and smiled. "Don't worry, the first day is always difficult" she started heading for her class as it already started. "It will get better. See you around!" she waved at him slightly and disappeared into one of the corridors.

Fred clenched his fingers on the schedule, shrinking the paper almost into a ball. "Oh yes, I will see you for sure" he said with a smile that was somewhat… eerie.

After a moment of savoring the moment, Fred headed to the door Jean pointed him to.

"Jean…" he repeated her name under his breath. His first friend. Jean. He opened the door awkwardly entering the classroom. "Uuuhh…"

The teacher was an older man dressed half formally, but he was easy going, so he didn't get angry at the late student.

"Are you perhaps the new student?" he asked seeing the boy's not very good with words.

"Uh… yeah" Fred responded.

"I guess you couldn't find your way around school, so don't worry about being late this once. I'm glad you joined us at last…" he took a step back and leaned in to see annotation in his journal, "…Fredrick."

"Fred… if you don't mind" he didn't have much need for being polite in the past, but he was trying.

"Alright, Fred. My name is Professor Derren Colehan, I'm your new teacher" the man smiled. "How about you take a seat…" the man was going to point his pen at a free chair but then he suddenly felt troubled.

Trying not to make that show he took another peek at the boy who was, in every definition, large. Exceptionally large, possibly the biggest individual he's ever seen. Seating him in the back would force him to squeeze in these little spaces between rows of desks, while seating him in the front would cause him to be in the way of sight and students behind him couldn't see the blackboard.

Eventually he made up his mind and pointed his pen towards a boy sitting in front row by the door, with two seats behind him empty. "Marcus, please return to your old desk" he told him. The boy – a typical trouble maker – eagerly got up and sat down among his friends who cheered and high fived him. With no students directly behind this desk Dukes wouldn't make it hard for anyone and he could see everything well as well.

The teacher turned back to the new student who was watching it awkwardly. "Here, Fred, have this seat" he told him kindly.

He did notice but didn't understand right away the frown on the boy's face when he went to his chair. But Fred noticed one thing about this entire situation. Or at least he thought that's what it was – he was being isolated.

xXx

At first Jean didn't notice the new kid in the classroom. She was thinking about the surprise of finding out Fred is now in their school, and it didn't make much sense to her how that happened. Yet when the teacher asked the new kid to introduce himself and she heard a familiar voice and name she immediately looked to the boy.

"Alright, Mr. Alvers, welcome to our school" the teacher turned to the blackboard. "As for the lesson for today we're…"

As the lesson started Grey kept looking at Lance, second time today wondering how yet another failed recruit came to this school. Well, if you can consider him someone they tried to recruit, as he was mainly in their way of recruiting Kitty. Either way why would be here three weeks later? Why would they both be here? And Rogue, who also comes here a few days after their failed attempt to recruit her.

"Jean."

She turned around to her friend. "Oh… yes, sorry. You were saying?"

"We need to solve this, focus" the girl tapped on one of the papers teacher handed out to everyone in the meantime.

"Right. I'm sorry" she smiled, but sent one last uncertain look towards the new boy. This time he was looking back at her, cold eyes and mischievous smirk on his face.

xXx

After the first class of the day Lance wasted no time as he left the classroom and headed down the hallway, his eyes darting through faces that were turning to him with a shadow of fright. He ignored them until one called his name.

"Hey, Lance!"

The brunet turned around with annoyed look on his face. It was Fred, the new guy at their house whom he left alone in the office earlier this morning. "What?!" he asked bluntly.

"Do you know where's umm… classroom 83? I can't find it…"

"I don't care" he stated. "In fact I don't give a damn about this entire school. Now stop bothering me, I'm looking for someone" he muttered with anger and walked away from the boy who kept awkwardly stared at his schedule.

xXx

The next period was about to start in two to three minutes, Fallen walked alongside Jean discussing Grey's discoveries about Fred and Lance being at their school, with Scott not being short on comments as well, while Kitty and Kurt were walking in front of them, the boy ginning and trying to get a laugh out of Pryde. Over the course of her presence among them he tried to have her to warm up to him and relax around him, this going better and better.

"Geez, Kurt, you're so immature" Kitty said however the giggling she tried to disguise with her hand didn't quite make it sound like an insult.

"Why thank you. I'd rather be that than a boring adult" Kurt gave her thumbs up.

"We're you know, 15, we're not adults yet. But you, like, take it to another level" she tried to make a serious expression for a moment but wouldn't stop grinning.

"We all have our talents, thank you again, Kätzchen" he bowed slightly.

Kitty shook her head. "Like, seriously, what is it with you and calling me that?"

Wagner smiled widely. "Well, it hits close to your name's meaning and I find it fitting. Does it bother you?"

After a moment of considering it Pryde shrugged slightly. "No, I guess… not."

Kurt turned around feeling someone's hand on his arm and looked back to see Scott.

"Come on, we should be in the class already" Summers said and Kurt could see Fallen on the tall boy's other side nodding with agreement. It was one a few classes that students of all ages had together, the Literature class that the three of them shared. Kitty and Jean waved at them as she had a different class. The group split in two just as the bell rang.

Kitty was just about to enter her classroom when someone suddenly pulled herback. The girl turned around and was faced with Lance. "Hey, pretty Kitty" he said smiling.

"W-what are you doing here?" the girl asked shocked at his presence at this school.

"I was transferred to this school. Great coincidence, huh?"

Pryde frowned and stepped back. "No. It's not. You stay away from me, you freak" she frowned with more anger and dived into the classroom. Everyone were still settling down and the teacher wasn't there yet, so nobody paid attention to her. "I can't believe he has the nerve to show up and like, act like we're cool!" Pryde hissed as she sat down.

After using Kitty and almost killing a bunch of people, including her parents, she felt entitled to be angry with him. It really takes one with a nerve to act like it was all no big deal.

xXx

Fallen and Kurt took the literature class because they thought the teacher might go easy on them for being foreigners, and it seemed like one of the classes that do not require any math skills, so that was awesome. Scott and his best pal Paul took this class because they had to take it at some point, and them being at the second last year time was running out. For a while also Rogue was taking this class, apparently genuinely interested in books.

By the time this class was halfway through, their teacher placed his hand on top of a stack of green-covered books piled up on his desk. "For this week's assignment you are going to need to pair up. Since we have an equal amount of girls and boys in our class, I want all partnerships to consist of a girl and a boy" he informed the students. "Please pair up now, you've got one minute."

Fallen just looked over at Kurt who was sitting in a separate desk on her right. He was chilling in his seat and playing with a pencil. He just smiled at her confirming they'd work together. Scott looked around to see there are only three girls from his year in this class, one of them already pairing up with another guy, other two being Taryn and Rogue, who both were a little terrifying to work with. Eventually he just sighed in defeat, and before he found a way out of the situation the teacher proceeded with the lesson.

"Alright. Under the subject of Theatre Theory each pair will prepare a scene" the teacher said as he walked down the isle of desks handing out poetry books to each student. "As some of you don't have a partner yet, I'm going to assign you one… Taryn, you and Paul will play Laura and Jim from The Glass Menagerie (by Tennessee Williams). So we've got only you" he placed a book on Rogue's desk, "and you" he handed one to Scott.

Summers sighed grabbing his head. "Great."

"You will prepare a scene from Shakespeare's Henrik V" the man noted down his choice. "You will play Henrik and Catherine, daughter of the French King."

"You're doomed, dude" Paul said out loud. "Our gloomy friend doesn't talk much. Guess you will need to play both roles all by yourself."

A heartedly chuckle went over the classroom. Only Kurt was frowning in Paul's direction, with Rogue, Fallen and Scott remaining solemn.

"Very well, youngsters" their teacher stepped in front of the white screen and his desk. "Enough. Meet up after classes and over the weekend to memorize your lines. You will perform your scenes in front of the class on Tuesday. And also" he turned to look at Fallen and Kurt, "I don't want you two to work together. You will benefit more if you both work with native speakers."

Wagner and Harris both looked disappointed, but the teacher didn't pay no mind to that.

"Jennifer, you will be working with Noah, and Kurt will work with Amanda."

He got the pair by splitting up another partnership. The couple however had wide eyes at the choice. "Fallen…" Kurt whispered. Working with his once-ex was definitely something that he thought Fallen could be way against.

The girl composed herself and exhaled. She mouthed back to him 'it's okay'. She trusted Kurt so that wasn't a problem, she just despised Amanda for what she's been like to Kurt back when they were dating. However her initial disapproval cooled off quickly as she knew Amanda is but a nuisance anymore.

Not only them, but also Scott definitely felt uncertain about this assignment. He hesitantly looked back at the stubborn goth sitting behind him. "Hey… it's okay with you, right?"

The girl was staring back at him with a frown. "What, you think I'm scared of you?"

Scott felt like throwing his hands up in the air with defeat. "I'm just asking if you're okay to throw lines with me…!"

With her arms crossed Rogue looked away annoyed. "Only if your freaky friends stay away."

Scott sighed and turned back around rolling his eyes under the glasses.

"Well, well, man" Paul smirked leaned in his direction smirking in the girl's direction. "She digs you. Gal just pretends to be so cold."

"Oh shut it" Scott turned back to the teacher's desk, resting his chin on his hand.

xXx

As soon as the class ended, a blonde boy approached Fallen's desk as she was collecting her stuff. "Hey, you have a moment?"

The brunette looked up at him without any certain emotion. "Noah, right?"

"That's correct" he smiled and extended his hand to her. "Jennifer, is it? It's nice to meet you."

Harris shook his hand and got up. "Actually everyone calls me Fallen."

"Works for me. Anyway, we've shared some classes for a while but never got to talk, so now that we're supposed to perform this scene together I thought it'd be good to introduce myself and ask when can we meet up to learn our lines?"

With a corner of her eye Fallen could see that Kurt stopped hanging around waiting for her passively and approached Amanda to discuss the same matter. Sefton had a dreamy smile on her lips as she politely responded to whatever Kurt was saying. Fallen's eyes snapped back to Noah.

"Your boyfriend, huh?" the blonde asked. "Must suck to have him work with a different chick" he said almost understanding.

Fallen stole one last glance in their direction and composed herself. "No, it's fine. I just have a personal issue with this certain girl. Anyway" she shook her head slightly. "We can meet on Saturday and see how it goes."

"Sure, where and when?"

"The mall maybe?" Noah nodded. "Okay, so how about by the fountain at 2?"

"Great. See you then" he smiled.

Fallen nodded. "Yeah, bye."

As Noah went his own way, Fallen slowly approached Kurt who still talked to Amanda.

"Hi" she said, her eyes a little bit too restless.

As much as she could see her presence bring instant discomfort to Amanda, Kurt breathed out as he wrapped his arm around her. "You two already know each other, ja?"

The girls exchanged short looks. Amanda seemed a little intimidated and Fallen struggled not to look too harsh. "Yeah" they both responded low.

The atmosphere between them made Kurt want to withdraw. "Well… okay… so… um… I'll see you later, Amanda."

Sefton smiled awkwardly and waved slightly. The other two headed out of the classroom. Once they joined the crowd in the corridor Kurt sighed out.

"You're alright?" Fallen asked softly.

Wagner took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'm just a little bit stressed over working with Amanda."

Having no response to that, Fallen just wrapped her arm tighter around his back. "It'll be alright."

Kurt placed a kiss on her temple. For a moment they walked in silence. Eventually the boy spoke up again. "We're supposed to study our scenes today late afternoon. But I'm still going to take you for the training like I promised."

Fallen smirked up at him. "Will you really?"

"Ja" Wagner smiled down at her. "Be ready at 10."

"Why so late?"

"It's a part of the training."

Fallen frowned but didn't question.

"Now come on. I'm STARVING" Kurt said in agonal voice speeding up towards cafeteria.

xXx

Fred decisively found lunch break the best part of this entire 'high school' deal. The classes he had seemed pointless, he had issues finding his way around the school all day long, and everything was just boring, but once lunch time came he was delighted. Looking at all the dishes lined up behind the counter made saliva fill his mouth instantly as he rubbed his hands.

He grabbed one of the trays and headed for the window where an older woman in hairnet served the food. However he didn't bother to stand in line and just pushed away the person whom was getting their food at the moment. The serving lady looked up at him terrified, not daring to scold him.

Fred extended his hand with the tray and pointed at it. "Make it full."

The woman didn't take her wide eyes off him as she reached for a plate.

"Woah woah woah" he stopped her and waved his finger left and right. "Did I ask for a plate? Come on" he offered his tray again. "So there's a tip!"

The woman started to fill it up with huge amount of food. Everyone waiting in the line were staring with mouth agape, but no one dared to say a word after the way he cruelly pushed away the one guy who stood in the front of the line. It took the serving lady over two minutes to fill up his tray until there was really no more room and anything more on top of the food mountain would cause it all to collapse.

Having cleaned half of the food resources behind the counter, Fred smiled happily and waved goodbye as he left to find a table to consume his mountain. As he walked away the serving lady sighed with relief and rested against the counter, exhausted.

xXx

Rogue was sitting at one of the tables in cafeteria, finishing her book. Too bad they couldn't recite scenes from literature of their choice. The thought of having to meet with Scott after classes to study wouldn't leave her head. She had mixed emotions towards it. Very mixed.

She purposely sat down close enough to hear conversations at table of the X-Men, but from where she was could only hear some bits of the girls' talk. They talked about such trivial things that Rogue couldn't fight the urge to roll her eyes, but there was a hint of sadness behind that. Was she the only one whose life seemed to be controlled by the extraordinary abilities?

Someone slumped down on a chair on the other end of the round table. She looked up to see a typical punk who seemed to completely ignore her presence. She was about to confront him about it, but decided to let it go.

Until he offensively put his feet on the table.

She frowned at him above her book. "Where do ya think ya're?"

He lifted an eyebrow looking at her like she was stupid. "Prison for the underage?"

"And I think you're at my table so get the fucking feet off it."

He snickered and looked at her with pity. "This is NOT your table, skunk."

"As far as I'm concerned I was here first" her frown deepened.

"So?"

"SO it means this is mah table!"

For a moment they held each other's gaze and finally the guy rolled his eyes and dropped his feet to the ground. "Whatever, prude skunk."

All of the Xavier's kids were at their table, Scott and Kurt chatting on one side and the girls on the other.

"Hey, isn't it the same dude you went to see with Logan and Forge last Saturday?" Kitty asked poking Jean and pointing towards someone.

Looking in that direction they saw who Fallen identified as Blob with no doubt.

Grey smiled looking towards the big boy. ''Yes, Fred, he's alright" then she leaned in closer to the other two. "Until he starts ripping lockers off the walls" she winked at them.

Kitty shifted back putting her hand on her chest. "He was the one who destroyed these?!" she asked with eyes wide and started to laugh. "Nice one."

"You and Rogue are set up to throw lines?" Kurt asked. He somewhat minded his defeated approach to that matter, but it was still funny. "This is going to be interesting."

"Yeeeah…" Scott shifted back hanging on the back legs of his chair. "A romantic scene with a girl who thinks we wanted to kill her. She would need to have one heck of a talent to act it out alright. "

Kurt laughed. "Oh man, I'm so glad to be in this class. I can't wait to see the two of you perform!"

Scott actually found this imagination humorous and laughed along.

As Fred was passing by to a table that a group of teens just abandoned, he heard laughter coming from one of the tables. He frowned in their direction with a growl. The laughter triggered memory of the entire audience laughing at him during the trucks exhibition. Anger stirred in his stomach.

He decided to ignore them as apparently they weren't laughing at him, but negative emotions were controlling his movements. As he arrived at the table it caused him to sit down way too abruptly and the chair cracked beneath him. Falling flat on his butt Fred pushed on the table, the back legs rose up and the remaining food left by previous students flew into the air as his own food ends up splashed all over him and the floor.

Xavier's kids all turned their heads towards the sound and saw the food fly across the room towards the football team's elite's table. Everyone in the cafeteria went silent at the sight of the most aggressive of Bayville High's students being splashed with half-eaten food.

Duncan, the captain, stood up with a growl, his eyes a living fire as he glared towards Fred.

"Big mistake, fat ass" Matthews and his two sidekicks headed towards Dukes.

"Hold on, guys. It's a slippery situation" Jean said as she got up and went towards them.

Pryde giggled. "Yeah, well said" she agreed looking at Fred who struggled to get up but couldn't stop slipping on the food which caused everyone in the cafeteria to start laughing at him.

You didn't need to be a genius to see the anger instantly fill him up. With his teeth bared and his face turning red with anger he yelled at top of his lungs; "DON'T LAUGH AT ME!"

The amount of anger in his voice silenced everyone. He sat up and grabbed big chunks of food sprawled around him, with no hesitation he threw them at football players approaching him, scoring both points on Duncan's face and shoulder and causing him to fall back. His two sidekicks rushed forward with more motivation.

Fred got up and with angry yelling and his arms flying in uncontrolled anger, he continued to throw food at people.

It took just one person yelling "FOOD FIGHT!" for majority of students to take off running out of the cafeteria, and the remaining minority to join in, creating a huge amount of food flying in all directions and everyone scream and run trying to avoid it.

Jean did well secretly pushing away the food by telekinesis, not everyone were this fortunate. Kitty got surprised and hit by a flying fish sandwich. "UGH!" she cringed. "Excuse me, but I refuse to stay for the second course" she shivered in disgust and started to sink into the floor waving, that being unnoticed due to the general chaos. Half of a second later she was gone.

"Should we interfere?" Kurt asked as he managed to duck a flying vegie.

"They'll be fine" Fallen said trying to keep it low profile. "Let it be as it was bef- AAH!" suddenly a plateful of spaghetti hit the back of her head. "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

Kurt's eyes widened in surprise.

"I'll take us away from here" he said grabbing her hand.

"But-"

"There's so much chaos no one will notice anyway."

"Alright..."

"Okay, hold on" he nodded and they were gone in a moment.

Fred was still throwing food in all directions. In his mindless anger he'd even try to throw it at Jean, but she swiftly kept the food away from her with telekinetic force fields. Things were getting serious, with Fred not only throwing food but now also grabbing chairs and tables, all the remaining students decided it's time to flee the war zone. Seeing that Jean knew that's it. She started running towards the boy, calling for him to stop.

Unfortunately she stepped on a slippery food on the ground and didn't manage to recover. She fell with a cry sliding a little further, ending up dangerously close to Fred, who was blinded by his anger and food on his face. Hearing the noise he just turned to her with a table raised above his head.

"FRED!" Jean called. Fear quickly settled in her as she saw him aim at her with the huge object. "FRED!"

She saw the table speeding towards her and in the rush of the moment couldn't focus enough to defend with telekinesis. She turned around protecting her head expecting a blow like non she ever experienced. Instead she heard a blast and a gust of air brushed against her. Looking up she saw that Fred is no longer wielding an entire table, but just a leg. She felt someone support her back all of sudden and looked back to see Scott. Sense of safety came to her.

"Fred, control yourself!" she started again.

"Did you hear her?" Scott was glaring at Dukes with his free hand on his glasses. His fingers were clutching it really hard, Grey could tell he's not going to hesitate much. "If you want to fight though…"

The girl put her hand on his chest. "Stop it, Scott! I'll handle it" she assured in a convinced voice. She turned back to Fred who was breathing heavily and giving out growls. "Everything's alright" she said putting her hand in front of herself, a little bit for defense, a little for reassurance. "Right, Fred?"

Dukes was struggling to catch a breath and still held the leg of the table in defensive manner, but he started to soften and let his hands down. "They shouldn't be laughing at me!"

Jean and Scott got up from the floor. Scott was still ready to lift his glasses at any second as Jean stepped forward cautiously. "You're right. They shouldn't…" she agreed, her voice softening but the shudder of previous fear still there. Still she knew she has to compose herself and deal with the situation just like she has when Fred was about to attack Duncan. Scott standing there ready to blast his head out didn't help in calming the boy. "Uh-m… uh, Scott?" she turned to the brunet just a little bit to keep her eye on Fred at the same time. "Don't you need to get to your class or something?"

Summers got the message but didn't like it. He couldn't help but frown with worry about her. "If something happened I'll be around" he assured. "Very close" he added glaring at Fred.

"I'll be fine" Jean assured forcing out a smile.

Scott headed out of the cafeteria without taking his eyes off Dukes. He didn't see Rogue looking through the glass door and just as he approached them she quickly to withdrew to her locker that was just three lockers away from the glass door of cafeteria. At first she dove right into her locker pretending to have been searching for something all along, but as she noticed Scott wouldn't turn away his gaze from what was going on inside she spoke up.

"Wow, look, ya guys really have one another's back?" she asked, her voice somewhat happy and shy. It made her feel so out of character but seeing what happened there really made her question so much that she was too confused to care if she comes across as weak.

Scott looked back at her surprised at her presence. He quickly looked back to what was going on inside the cafeteria. "Yeah. We try."

Out of sudden somebody pulled the locker's door from Rogue's hand shutting it closed so abruptly that both of them jumped startled. It was the Principal with her cold eyes and ever present deep frown. "What's going on here?" she asked in an intimidating tone.

Rogue recoiled, knowing perfectly well that Alison- Raven- mother- Mystique- whatever you would call her, will NOT approve of her getting in ANY contact with the X-Men.

"N-nothin'" she stepped back and closed her eyes with defeat. She could literally sense her anger and she knew there will be a long conversation happening later on about how she should stay away from them.

Scott stepped closer. "We're just talking, Ms. Darkholme" he assured.

Rogue sighed deep down there. Scott was so oblivious to the reality of this situation. The woman leaned towards them, Rogue recoiled more.

"Enough talking and get to your class, do I make myself clear?" Raven asked with anger, her eyes especially piercing Rogue's eyes. The message was clear; stay away from him.

"Yes, ma'am" with a worried frown and not daring to make eye contact Rogue stepped forward stiffly, clutching her book in her hands.

"Hey, remember, tomorrow after school at the park!" Scott called after her. "Bring your book!"

Without looking back Rogue nodded and bit her lip nervously.

Raven watched Summers walk away for a moment then followed the girl. "Rogue" she called out low but firm. The girl stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around.

"I know what yar gonna say" she spoke up low.

"Then why don't you do as I say?" the woman walked over to her.

Rogue found the courage to look up. "I really don't think they are that bad-…!"

"They WANT you to believe that, Rogue" Raven said with anger, then softened her voice, but never managed to make it warm. "Who are you going to believe, them or your mother?"

The girl didn't look into her eyes.

"Rogue."

She closed her eyes.

"Rogue, who are you going to believe?"

"…You" she whispered.

Mystique took her hand off her shoulder. "Exactly. Now go to your class."

The girl walked away and was about to enter her classroom when the Principal called her name again. She turned to her hesitantly.

"I want you to come to the Brotherhood house with me tonight."

After a moment Rogue just nodded and entered the class.

xXx

"Tell me, Fred, why did you get so angry?" she asked softly as she was sitting down with him.

"Because when they're laughing at me my blood is boiling, you know?" the boy said gesturing with remaining anger, but she could tell the pain in his voice and in his frown were real.

She supportively put her hand on his large forearm. "I understand that, Fred" she assured. "But you need to learn to control yourself… Or have someone help you."

Defeat on his face turned into a smile. "Yeah, sure" then came confusion. "Like who?"

Jean through back to her own past. Self control was a big thing, something she really needed to learn to be able to live her life. People thought she was composed by nature, that her little world was perfect, but there was so much she had to go through in order to be able to even attempt high school. So much discipline she had to master not to leave her surroundings in a similar mess to what the cafeteria looked like right now.

A little brought down by the thoughts she wrapped her arms around her knees. "I learned to control my ability at Xavier's Institute."

"Ability?" Fred lifted his eyebrows in shock. "You mean you also have powers?"

Jean smiled. "Aha" she got onto the floor. "See for yourself."

. She looked around to find something to use. She pointed at a chair that was thrown on the floor a dozen feet away. Then she focused on it. Still struggling to use the potential of her ability she had some issues to move such a heavy object, but after a moment of budging on the ground the chair stormed at one of the walls and broke into a few pieces.

"WOAH!" Fred exclaimed. "You can give someone a nice headshot with that!"

Jean frowned and turned to him again. "No, Fred! The point is you should NOT do that. This is what the Institute is teaching, self-control" she explained. "You should come there with me sometime. The Professor will surely be happy to meet you" she stepped to him and placed her hand on his arm as the final reassurance before she headed for the door.

"I'll think about it" he said with a smile.

"Great!" she looked back at him and waved. "So I'll be going. See you later!"

Fred waved back to her. As she was about to leave the cafeteria Fred noticed that she forgot her backpack so he grabbed and called after her. "Jean!"

"Yes?"

Looking in her direction he saw her standing at the door with that sunglasses guy who seemed to stare in his direction. It made him angry. He decided to keep the backpack and return it to her when they're without this dork.

"Nevermind" he muttered.

She left with that guy.

Fred looked down at the backpack. There was a piece of paper sticking out of the front pocket. He slid it out to discover it's a photo of Jean and this guy in sunglasses. Anger washed over him. He tore the photograph in two and threw the guy's side in the floor, Jean's beautiful side he placed carefully in a pocket on his stomach.

He headed to the door, stepping on the piece of photograph and turning his foot around, tearing the photo furthermore.

To be continued...