AN~ So here is the fourth chapter. Lets hope its longer than the third. . .

Nyx

It's not bad enough that Styxx was in a coma, Thos is coming apart at the seams, and Ray is almost catatonic, but now my parents are here! Wonderful. Just wonderful. I looked after Thos as he stalked down the halls to Professor's study. Then I turned toward the door. The two people I hate most are behind that door, looking at Styxx. And Styxx doesn't even know that they're there.

I wanted to get in and push them out. If Styxx can't punch them, they shouldn't be there! But I knew I couldn't. Wolverine sighed and walked away from the door. I stared at it. A beautiful mahogany finish, there was some external damage, but thats to be expected when it's in a house full of mutant teenagers.

After a few minutes of me internally analyzing the door, Thos came back. He looked at me for a few seconds before speaking.

"Whats the plan?" his voice was void of any emotion, and he stared blankly at the door, like he'd be able to see through it if he looked hard enough.

"We kick them out." I said. He nodded. I strode forward and yanked the door open. And there they were. My father, the spitting image of Thos- except his eyes. And my mother, with her sharp angled face and dark pixie cut hair. They were standing around Styxx like they actually cared; it made my blood boil.

I felt my muscles tense, my hands fist, my jaw clench, and my eyes narrow. Growing up in a broken family, I learned to hold in my anger a long time ago.

"Nyx?" my mother asked, looking at me in disbelief. Like I wasn't real. Like she was in an episode and hallucinating at home in Weymouth. Just like the past.

"Get out." I snapped. My voice was clipped, and I could feel my anger start to get away from me.

"We came to see you, honey." my father said. My tongue was pressed to the roof of my mouth, and I started to bite into the inside of my cheeks. Soon I tasted blood.

"We don't care." Thos said now. He was talking in a voice that reminded me of a lion tamer desperately trying to control and enraged feline. "You don't have the rite to be here. Much less when Styxx is like this. So get out."

My mother and fathers faces fell, like they had been expecting us to just have let go of the past. I don't know about Thos, but I can still remember everything. All of the names, all the beatings, every time Styxx has yelled at me to go into our room and then I could hear her scream through the wall.

My arm moved before I could register what I was about to do. My right arm pulled back and I drove from my hips up. My fist collided with my fathers right cheekbone, and I swear I heard a crack. Weather it was my hand or my fathers cheek, I don't know.

"It was all you!" I yelled. "Your the reason for all of this! It was you who drove us here, and its you who thinks you can just waltz right back into our lives!" the lights had started to flicker and electricity was darting from my clenched fists to the light switches and electric sockets.

"GET OUT!" I bellowed. Then they ran. Like the cowards they are, past me and Thos and out the door. I was breathing heavily and I felt like I was about to be sick from the rage still residing at the pit of my stomach.

I spun on my heel and stalked to the Danger Room. I programed on of the harder sessions, and got into my new recruits uniform. I plugged in Styxx's iPod and put on all her heavy metal songs full blast. Then I started dodging lasers.

As I jumped around and dodged lasers and shrapnel alike memories took over my mind, playing the past out like a movie.

It had to be at least midnight. The world outside was a pitch black and I could hear the shady voices of people on the corner outside our house.

Then came the scream. I knew it was Styxx. She was the only other person in this place that wasn't my mother or father. I wanted to yell at them to let her go, to not hurt her. To leave us alone. But I bit my lip to keep from making a noise. I knew that if I did they'd just hurt her more.

It felt like an hour later when she came back into our room. Her eyes were dry- she would never give them the satisfaction of her tears. She didn't go to her bed, she crash landed next to me. I pulled the covers over her and hugged her to me. Thats when she started to cry.

"I swear I'll get us out." she'd repeat over and over and over again. I'd tell her to be quiet, that everything was going to work itself out in the end.

A blurred image of our back door, Thos, standing straight and tall, was playing a game of chicken with our father.

"Go on then! Get out! And when you can't make it don't come crawling back here!" he said, our father, not Thos. And then Thos stalked out the door. His over stuffed duffel bag slung over his shoulder and his acoustic guitar in his hand. He cast a backwards glance at me and Styxx, who was standing right beside me, and smiled.

An official looking court room with cream walls and bright red carpet sat before me. I was in my best cloths being led by the hand by my brothers attorney, a tall slender, red haired woman who looked like she couldn't be above twenty-eight. I saw Thos behind a mahogany desk like thing, and the tall woman led me over to him.

He smiled at me, gave me one of his huge hugs that made me feel like I couldn't breathe and then some one else took me back behind a tall (to me at least) railing. I chose a seat beside Styxx in the front row. I could just barely see over the top of the railing.

"The party of Thomas Montleeonii calls Styxx Montleeonii to the stand." said the tall thin redhead very clearly. Styxx got up and went to sit behind another desk. She calmly played with the swivel chair until the judge nicely asked her to stop.

I tuned out most of the things said them, focusing on what I could see instead. The judge was an older man, with thinning gray hair, a small goatee and the brightest set of blue eyes I had ever seen. The person who led me over here, a rather short African-American woman with pin curled black hair and dark brown eyes, smiled warmly at me. Like she was trying to distract me. I turned my eyes to Thos.

His cornsilk blonde hair was pulled back into it's usual low pony tail, but there was something different. His face, (I know now it was because he hadn't shaved); his expressions, they seemed more dark, more brooding; his posture, he was slouching like he never did, and his breaths were short and ragged-like he was dreading what was coming next; his mannerism's, he was fidgeting like he never did, and he kept glancing about the room as if trying to distract himself.

Then Styxx got back to sitting beside me, ("The chair up there is really fun!" she had said) and then we went back home. Little did I know- that would be the last time I'd see my brother for a long, long, time.

I snapped out if my daydreams when a laser caught me on my upper thigh, singing the black fabric of my uniform. I dived away from my current place, landing hardly on my left shoulder under a face rock ledge. A very large piece of burnt and shredded shrapnel landed were I had been only moments ago. I huddled into the fetal position, and stayed that way for a few seconds.

I took deep breaths, holding in the tears that the memories had caused. I took one more deep breath, then I lept out from the little rift of rock. I did a ninja roll to avoid a large, charred, mix of metal and fabric that had been aimed at my head. I saw the next piece of random crap being fired at me, a beat up trash can, and set a bolt of electricity at it. There was a giant flash of bright, white, blinding light as the trash can exploded.

It had been rigged with explosives. Wonderful. I was blown back and hit the wall behind me hard, banging my head against a particularly sharp edge. I fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. My vision was black but I could still hear and smell things. I could hear screaming. It sounded too far away to be anything in the same room, too far away to be anything on the same planet.

There came a voice, yelling frantically- "STOP PROGRAM! STOP PROGRAM!" that seemed to be some were near the screaming I heard. I felt someone's arms around me and my hands gripped their shirt tightly.

"Nyx. Nyx! Come on, don't black out." the voice mumbled. I felt myself being lifted, and the screaming got closer. Thats when I figured it out; it was me that was screaming. I quieted down, putting my face in the shoulder of whoever this person was. My hands continued to grip the persons shirt so tightly I felt my hands start to ache.

I don't know how long it was but I felt the papery feel of a hospital bed beneath my back. My hands got tighter on the persons shirt as whoever it was started to back away from me. I felt big calloused hands uncurl my fingers and get my hands off their shirt. Dr. McCoy was there then, I could feel his fuzzy fingers on my head, turning it to see what was wrong. I noticed for the first time that my eyes were clamped tightly closed. I opened them slowly and was met with the bright glow of florescent lights.

I looked over to my right to see who it was that had gotten me from the danger room. Ray Crisp was standing there. His face was thinner and his eyes were slightly red and a bit sunken in. His cloths were disheveled and wrinkly, like he hadn't changed for a few days. To sum it up- he looked like crap had smacked him in the face.

My eyes narrowed. I didn't care that he had saved my life possibly. I didn't care that he had even dated my sister for a period of time. He is still the enemy in my mind. And most likely always will be.