A/N: Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for.
Three days later...
What the hell is happening to me? What do these dreams MEAN? I had been having worse and worse dreams over the past three days. It's gotten so bad I can't even sleep anymore. What the hell is wrong with me? I was walking around the mansion. The feeling of being in hostile territory had grown stronger, so much that I couldn't let my guard down. Combined with the nightmares I had started sleeping only an hour or two every night. It was really wearing on me. My friends noticed I was tired and kept asking me what was wrong. "Nightmares," I told them. And it wasn't even a total lie. On one hand they were nightmares. On the other, most nightmares don't have you screaming and whimpering in your sleep, only for you to wake up sweating and terrified. So I had taken to wandering the mansion at night. Sometimes I passed Logan or Laura who seemed to have trouble sleeping as well. It didn't escape my notice that the three of us with the same mutation had the same habits as well. This is driving me insane. I knew there was a connection between us. No matter how much they denied it I could smell their lies. Logan's at least. Laura was very good at lying. So here I was wandering the mansion, killing time until it was time for school again. This is ridiculous. I can't do anything without sleep. May as well try. So I headed back to my room and laid down on my bed. Sure enough, I couldn't sleep. I stared at the ceiling for four hours, when it was time to prepare for school.
One day later...
He looks like hell. I was in the kitchen eating a late dinner when Matthew walked in. We all knew he'd been having nightmares. We can hear them half the time. But he looked really bad. His face was gaunt, his skin looked pasty, and he looked exhausted. He nodded to me as he walked past and sat down with a turkey sandwich. "You look like you need some sleep." He laughed harshly. "If I could sleep, believe me, I would. Why can't you? Nightmares, Scott. Then talk to the professor. Talk to someone. You're killing yourself." The professor said he would be remembering everything very soon. It seems like whatever he's remembering is pretty gruesome. He smiled but it seemed forced. "Thanks for trying to help Scott, but no thanks." Stubborn kid. I was wondering what the best way to persuade him was when he froze. The glass of milk he had been holding seemed to hit the floor in slow motion. Then he looked at me and said three words. "I remember everything."
As soon as I said the words Scott brought his hand up to his glasses.I upended the table and kicked it towards him. He blasted it to bits but didn't move in time to dodge the kick that slammed into his ribs and knocked him off his feet. Pathetic. I move to finish him and then stop. They did not kill me when they had the chance. That should not affect my decision to end him. They showed weakness. I should take advantage of it. So what am I feeling? Unknown. Revise course of action. Attempt to leave without killing. Is this an error? Maybe. I will decide if I survive this. I hear a shriek and look up. Kitty is standing at the top of the stairs with a look of horror."What are you doing? LOGAN MATTHEW WENT INSANE." Logan. Shit. He can probably beat me in a fight. Now I need a hostage. I pick up Scott and hold my fist to his temple. What..? I can feel him? Xavier was in my mind. I could feel it. Get out or he dies. His presence retreated. Logan sprints around the corner claws bared. "Take another step and he dies." The other mutants were arriving at this point. Kurt look scared. Jean looked pissed. "Anybody used their powers and he dies." Bobby ran into the room and yelled, "What the hell are you doing? Have you gone insane?" They never told him? Illogical. "They never told you who I was? What Xavier did to me? What the professor did to you? You mean give you a home? Give you food to eat? Xavier never told you?" Is he trying to get his students killed? "No, I never told them," Xavier said, coming through the crowd of mutants at the top of the stairs. "I had hoped if you thought them innocent you wouldn't hurt them. So, Matthew. You have the hostage. We're powerless to stop you. What happens now? Now, you return my katana to me."He turned to Hank and nodded. Hank ran off. "Matthew, forgive me if I'm wrong, but you don't seem like a killer to me." I laugh at this. This is the best he can do? My laugh seems to enrage Wolverine who roars. And then I hear someone moving around behind me. They step towards me. I kick back without even looking and I hear bones breaking. I turn to see Rogue, lying on the ground cradling a broken leg. I look up to see the entire crowd of mutants moving towards me. I let one of my claws slide slowly towards Scott's temple and they freeze. "You don't seem to like Scott very much. I can remove him from the equation if you like." I hear outraged whispers and hisses. Hank enters the room with my katana in the sheath I brought it in. I motion him to bring it to me. I hear movement behind me. Foolish girl. I take a step back. And bring my booted foot down on her arms.. And then on her ribs. There is no noise now. They all stare at me, hatred etched onto their faces. I stare back coldly. They think they know hatred? They don't know the meaning of the word. Beast comes closer, face apparently calm. He wants to rip me to shreds. Too bad I have his precious student at my mercy. "Put it down there." He drops it and begins backing away. I move forward and pick it up. I draw it to make sure they didn't try and trick me. They didn't damage my sword. Good. I would have had to kill this guy if they had. "I'm going to leave now. I see anyone exit the mansion and Scott dies. No one has died yet. No one needs to." I nod my head towards Rogue. "She will be fine." I step back towards her. Their looks of hatred intensify. I bend down and touch one of my fingers to her forehead. This feels...disturbing. I watched my memories flash before my eyes and I felt drained.I removed my finger quickly. I turn back to see her broken leg look confused. They don't seem to want to murder me on the spot at least. I begin backing towards the gate. After what seems like an eternity, I reach it. I drop Scott on the ground and begin running. I laugh harshly. Running away? I have nowhere to go.
That kid better be long gone. Or he'll wish he was dead. Beast had Scott and Rogue on stretchers in the entrance of the mansion. They were both unconscious. Rogue from blood loss. Scott from the pain of two broken ribs. Hank had confirmed what the kid had said. "She'll be fine Logan. She just needs to rest. All her wounds have already healed. His healing factor is even stronger than Laura's." The students were standing around whispering to each other. Nothing like this had ever happened. They had never been betrayed by one of their own. They're so young. He had been betrayed before. But it still hurt. "Everyone," the professor began. "I believe you deserve an explanation." Everyone stopped whispering and looked to the professor. "Matthew was the assassin who attacked the mansion a month ago." To say they were shocked by this declaration was an understatement. "What? How could you let him live here?" Jamie demanded. "Because, Jamie, my choices were limited to killing him, attempting to rehabilitate him, or let SHIELD use him as a weapon." This stopped most of the whispers. "I erased his memory. I gave him false memories so he wouldn't attempt to attack us. I wanted to give him a chance at redemption. It didn't fail." Shocked whispers at this. "How can you say it didn't fail?" Bobby asked. "He nearly killed Rogue and Scott. And that is exactly why it didn't fail." The professor said with a smile.
"According to his training, he should have killed every single one of us. And he left, without a single death. I am proud of him for that." The professors face hardened. "But we are the X-Men and it is our job to apprehend dangerous mutants. Which he is." The students smiled grimly at this. "But he was trained from birth to be a killer so I will send only the best of us." Their faces fell at that statement. "And we will have to wait until I can locate him with Cerebro. I will announce who will be on the team sent after him later. And a warning to all of you. If you ever see him by chance, or because you were sent after him, do not think of him as your classmate. This is not the same person. This person is a ruthless killer. I would like to say he might show restraint because we showed him kindness, but I doubt he will." Yeah, because he showed so much restraint with Rogue. Rogue woke up suddenly and began coughing. Everyone immediately gathered around her. She gripped her head and began speaking in her Southern drawl. "Oh, God, he's in my head. Stripes, calm down. Now." I place my hands on her shoulders and she stops shaking. "Everyone please go back to bed. Storm, Logan, Kurt, Kitty, Bobby, Jean, Tabitha, Laura, please stay," The professor said. Everyone walked out slowly except the ones he had pointed out. "I have already chosen all of you for the team that will be sent after him. I may choose others. If any of you feel you can't do this you can back out now. None of us will blame you." Nobody spoke. "Rogue, I know it's hard but please concentrate on his memories and tell us what he might do next. And why he did what he did." She appeared to be thinking for a second and then began speaking. "He has no idea what he's gonna do next. His only thoughts were to get out of here. Preferably without killing anyone." Well that's no help. "As for what he did..." She looked confused. "He had intended to kill Scott. And then he felt guilt. Only he didn't know what it was. He eventually decided not to kill him because we could have killed him but we didn't. He was wondering if what he was doing was a mistake. As for attacking the mansion... He wanted to kill Logan. He hated what they had done to him and wanted to stop it. For good. He figured if he killed the original it would make it much harder for them to make more. But then he saw Laura. He saw she was living a normal life and wondered if he could do the same. So he attempted to run and think about it. But the professor stopped him. Speaking of the professor stopping him, why didn't you?" Jean asked. "I couldn't." The professor said frankly. "His healing factor is even more powerful than Laura's." I growled at this. "It determined my knocking him unconscious as a threat. So when I tried to do it again it stopped me. How?" I demanded. He shouldn't be able to do that. "I'm not sure. When I attempted to shut his mind down it just didn't respond. I could hear his thoughts but when I did he could feel it. So I didn't dare try when he had Scott at his mercy." Catching this kid is gonna be a much bigger problem than I thought. "Continue, Rogue." She looked at the professor and spoke. "I didn't get many of his memories. He only touched me for a second. The last ones I got were right after he escaped HYDRA. About three months ago. First thing he did was hunt down the other HYDRA bases on the continent. He destroyed four of them. As far as he knows, that's all of them." Least he did something useful. "If that's all, I think we should get to bed." Ororo said. "The students must be tired and they have school tomorrow. Ororo I believe I can let them take the day off. After all, their classmates were attacked." The students smiled at the professors words. "Yeah, well you still got danger room sessions." My words wiped the smiles right off their faces. "Be there at 5am."