Chapter 4

The dining room was empty when Talyn sat down at one of the tables. Not that it was weird. Any normal human being would be sleeping around six in the morning. She sighed and leaned on two of the chair legs, while she stared out the window.
She had slept okay once Erik didn't intrude her dreams anymore, but once she had woken up again, she couldn't get that dream out of her head.

She had to do this.
If she'd give him the boy, she wouldn't owe 'm anymore and he would stop bothering her.
Well, if she wouldn't give him the boy, he would follow her around – one way or another – until she would go crazy or go after him after all.
It wasn't like she got an awful lot of choice.
It wasn't like she hadn't done worse things. Giving a boy to the guy wouldn't be that bad. She didn't have to kill him by herself.

"Wow, you're an early bird." The cheery voice ripped her away from her thoughts and she bounced back on the four legs of the chair.
The girl from the day before, Talyn thought her name was Rogue, sat down at the other side of the table. Her hair was still a bit messy, and the weird, white strands were tucked away behind her ears.
"I couldn't sleep well," Talyn said.
"Oh yeah, I know how you feel," the girl smiled, "I was so full of thoughts when I first arrived here, I couldn't sleep well for a week or something like that."

Talyn smiled politely.

"What time is breakfast?" Talyn asked. She was really hungry, since she hadn't that much for dinner the day before.
"From seven 'till ten," Rogue answered. "So you'll have to wait for another hour."
"Crap," Talyn grinned.
Rogue laughed. "So, where do you come from?" Rogue tried to make conversation, "why you came here?"
Talyn shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, not really had a home."
"Oh." Rogue remained silent and seemed to think about it. "That happens a lot with the people around here. Did your parents kick you out?"
"I really don't know," Talyn said again, "I can't remember."
Rogue pursed her lips. "Why not?" she finally asked.
"Because they filled my whole fucking body with Adamantium."
Talyn could see Rogue's pupils wide from where she sat. It was for a short moment though. "Sounds familiar," she then said casual, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Talyn grinned at her. "Yeah, I know right."
"Same as Logan?"
"Yup, same mutation, same experiments… I was glad he already figured all the shit out."
"But you can't remember anything as well?"
"Nope. Just woke up years ago, without a memory, and with the claws. But well, I thought I've had them for all my life."
"Sounds like shit."

"So what about you?" Talyn asked her. She wasn't really keen on talking about herself. She'd rather listen to somebody else ramble on about stuff.
"Well, I found out I couldn't touch people the hard way," she said. Talyn could hear a southern accent kick in there. "It had my boyfriend in a coma for months." She was silent for a second and then added; "Well, ex-boyfriend."
Talyn grinned. This girl wasn't as annoying as she thought she were.
"Then my parents kicked me out, Logan found me, we came here," she made a gesture around the room, "and now I'm following classes here."
"What happens when you touch people?" Talyn asked.
"I can touch them now," Rogue said. Her eyes saddened though. "Though the Cure is losing its strength, I know it's coming back." She stared at a point behind Talyn and seemed to be caught up in her own thoughts. She continued after a minute or so. "But before, when I'd touch people, I could take over their powers. They would become a part of me, you know. Their voice would be in my head for weeks after a short touch. I would take away their life strength, or even their lives if I would hold on for too long."
"Must have been tough."
"Yeah it was." Rogue nodded vaguely. "But you know, somehow the mutation made me who I am now. Sometimes I wonder if I could control it by now, you know, if I didn't take the cure."
"I guess you got a new opportunity soon," Talyn said.
"I know. I'm scared about it, if it stops working at all."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I'll have to watch out again. I don't know if Bobby can handle it…"
"Bobby?"
"Yeah, my boyfriend," she smiled, and then grinned, "I think he didn't mind I took the Cure."
Talyn grinned as well. "Guys will be guys."

After breakfast, which they took immediately when it was served at seven, Rogue took Talyn for a tour around the mansion. Not that Talyn would remember everything about it. There were so many rooms, that you could wander around there for hours and still not find that one room you were looking for.
Well, at least she tried to remember the most important rooms of the mansion. The kitchen, of course, where you could grab yourself some food or a drink when you wanted to. The dining hall, where breakfast, lunch and dinner would be served every day. The floor with all the classrooms. The television room, where you could sit around a bit, watch TV or read a book or something. And next to that the 'game hall' as Rogue had called it, where the older students hung out a lot. You could play pool there, or darts, or any kind of video game or other game you could think of.

After the tour, Rogue brought Talyn to her own room again, since she had already forgotten where that was.
"I'm glad your room is in the same hallway as mine," she smiled as Talyn opened her room with the key she had gotten. "If you want, we can hang out a little more."
Talyn turned her head around and smiled briefly. "Yeah, fine."
"And Jean and Scott in the room opposite of yours, have you met them already?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Oh well, I guess you'll meet them today," she said. "And Logan is next to you, so I guess you don't want to run into him when he's wandering around the mansion at night," she smirked.
Talyn smirked back. "Yeah, I might know how to handle 'm."
"I have no doubts," Rogue said half serious. "So, at twelve we have class from Jean, do you wanna come?"
"Oh, I don't know…" Talyn doubted, "I'm not really the type of girl to follow class."
"I could have guess that," Rogue grinned, "but she's a good teacher, she will teach everybody how to handle their powers, especially now with the stuff about the Cure going on."
"Okay, can you pick me up?"
Rogue smiled. "Yeah, of course! See you in an hour!"

Talyn smiled politely and closed the door behind her. Maybe she could get an hour sleep before she would have to go to class. She snickered. She, going to school again. That was kind of funny.

They were a few minutes early for class and not many students were there yet. Rogue walked in as Talyn stood uneasy in the doorway.
"Hey Jean," Rogue greeted her teacher, who was a beautiful redhead. She looked up from the papers on her desk and smiled. "Hey Rogue, you're early."
"Yeah," Rogue nodded, "I brought Talyn with me!" She looked at Talyn, still in the doorway, and Jean followed her glance.
"Ah, so you're Talyn," she smiled as she stood up, "nice to finally meet you."
She shook Talyn's hand and looked at her for a short moment. "So you're Logan's equivalent." She grinned widely. "I hope you don't have the same temper."
"Don't know the guy long enough to say something 'bout that," Talyn grinned back.
"Trust me, you don't want to know," Jean winked at her. "So, you're gonna follow this class?"
Talyn nodded.
"It should get interesting," Jean smiled, "there will be a few other people. I'll have a few test to match your guys abilities to mine." Now she winked at Rogue and Rogue laughed.
"I'm not sure that's really fair," Rogue smiled teasing.
"What can you do?" Talyn asked.
"I'm a telepath."
"Like professor Xavier?"
Jean laughed. "Well, not much like him. I'm not as strong as he is."
"So, did you read my mind when I came in?"
"Oh, I have difficulties with reading Logan's mind as well as yours," she explained, "I don't know why. The professor thinks the Adamantium is blocking it somehow. Charles has a little bit trouble with you two as well. Not as much as me though," she added smiling.

Before Talyn could say something about that, a few other students, all a little older, came in the classroom. Talyn felt a little uncomfortable around all these people she didn't know, but tried to relax a bit. She sat down next to Rogue, with Bobby behind them. They talked for a little while, until Jean was going to start class after a small, bald boy came in last.

Before Jean could even start her introduction to class, a crucifying pain went from the tip of her toes through her entire body.
Talyn screamed loud, as she threw her head back and extended her claws. The extending of her claws only caused more pain, going through her hands, her arms, her shoulders... Her head felt like it was going to explode.
Though she didn't, couldn't, notice, everyone in the room was now staring at her. Some of the other girls had screamed when the new girl had started screaming, others were just staring in disbelieve.

Jean ran towards her and was able to catch her before she fell off her chair.
"Talyn!" Jean yelled, "stay with me! What's happening? Talk to me!"

But there was nothing Talyn could do.

The pain was now running through her entire body. She had never felt that much pain in her entire life and it felt like her organs were melting inside of her, like her heart was literally on fire, like her lungs were crunched together. She couldn't breathe anymore.

Air was not coming into her body. It started to get dark, voices and screams faded away, smells started to disappear. The pain became heavier, she felt how her body fell on the ground, how she slipped into a darkness...

And then it was all over.

She was breathing heavily when she opened her eyes again. Slowly, she could feel her body filling itself with oxygen again and slowly she regained her powers and was able to stand up from the floor and sit on her chair again.
Rogue looked at her, with a worried look on her face, and laid her hand on Talyn's shoulder.
"Jesus, Talyn, are you okay?"
Talyn breathed heavily for a few more seconds, then coughed, before she could speak again. "I guess, I don't know… what the hell happened?"

"I'm so sorry Talyn," she then heard from behind her. Talyn turned her head around to see Jean standing in the back of the room holding the small bald boy, who had came in last. "I totally forgot that this is the only person alive that could kill you."
Talyn looked confused. "What… What do you mean?" she stuttered. She was still feeling slightly dizzy, but it was healing as well.
Jean looked at the boy and smiled at him. "It's okay, Jimmy," she whispered to him, so soft that probably only he and Talyn could have heard it.

Then Jean stood up and walked to Talyn, she sat down on the seat next to her.
"Talyn, that is Jimmy," Jean said, "he can take every mutant's power away, that's what he does. He can't control it yet."
Talyn cocked her eyebrows. "I don't understand."
"You see, when he takes your powers away," Jean started to explain, "you won't have your healing powers anymore, which means…"
"That the Adamantium is killing me," Talyn finished.
Jean smiled briefly. "Yes, indeed."
Talyn looked at the small boy, who was now standing in the corner, looking sad and sort of guilty. He waved at her, and she smiled in response.
She wasn't going to blame him.

"I thought I was going to die," she said more to herself than to Jean or Logan, who were now the only two people in the room after Jean had send the other students away. Logan was probably there because Jean thought they could relate or something, about this. Not that she thought she would ever feel related in any kind of way to that man. He was still as grumpy as ever.
"He killed me once," Logan then said, in a deep slow voice.
"You died?"
He grinned. "Several times kid. Don't worry about it, it's not that bad."
Talyn sighed deeply.
"Jimmy was the boy they took for the Cure," Jean said suddenly. "The government took him, captured him… they want to him again now it's stopping to work."
"He made the Cure?" Talyn asked in disbelief, "that little boy?"
"He didn't make it," Jean said, "he was used to make it. They used his DNA, enzymes… it came from him. Not that he wanted to give them that. He felt depressed for months when we got him back."

Talyn thought about her dream from the night before. Her dream with Erik. Did he mean this little boy? Did he want to have this boy?

"I heard something about Leech," she said carefully, "when the Cure was just invented…"
"That's the kid," Logan said, "Leech. You should stay away from him, as far as possible," he grinned.
She smiled absent-mindedly.

This was Leech.
This was the boy Erik wanted.
The boy that made the Cure and the boy that could break it again, according to what Erik was thinking. It was just a kid, she thought, feeling guilty. Did she really have to give him to Erik?
She sighed deeply. She owed Erik big time, the least she could do was give him the boy. She had done worse. It wasn't like she was going to kill him herself. Luckily, Erik knew she would never kill another person ever again.

She had to give him the boy. She owed him and he would stop bothering her when she did.
But now there was only the problem left that she couldn't get close to him.
She needed him and he was the only one capable of killing him.

She sighed again.

"You should get some lunch," Logan growled, waking up her up from her daydreams. "Trust me, it will make you feel better."