( Volume: 4 Arc: "skeletons in the closet" 3 Issue: 2/2 )

Chapter 136 : painful truths

On the roof, where all their heart-to-heart discussions seemed to take place, a bottle of alcohol between them. Julian dangled his feet off the edge; Laura had her knees drawn up to her
chest, and she gazed out into the night with half-lidded, dull eyes. He couldn't tell if she'd been crying or not, due to the damn healing factor; but he thought he'd heard sniffling.

"I just don't understand it," Laura said bitterly. "Most men…when they hit their midlife crisis, they go out and buy a sports car. Logan went out and got a new kid. Like, what the fuck, I'm not good enough?"

"Don't be stupid," Julian said. "He had him before you. Or at the same time. He didn't even know about you till you were five, Laura. If you found out you had kids out there…wouldn't you look for them?"

"No!" Laura snapped, even though she knew this was true. "I'd pay attention to what I already have!"

"Yeah right," Julian said. "I think I know you a little better than that. You're already thinking about kids, other kids. You talk about it, sometimes, when you're drunk."

Laura looked down. "I can't—Julian, I tried so hard to make him happy—to make him proud—and still—" she burst into tears. "And now he drags in this…"

"Aw." Julian rubbed her shoulder and pulled her against his side, trying to understand what she was feeling.

"He's my first g-good memory," Laura sobbed bitterly. "Seeing him…in his r-ridiculous...spandex…suit…with the underwear on the outside…I'd never seen anything so c-colorful…" she paused, took a
big swig of Everclear. "…I asked him what my m-mission was…I'll never forget what he said..."

Laura fell silent and stared ahead.

Julian waited for a minute. "What did he say?" he asked.

"He said…'To be normal'." Laura stared ahead. "I tried, so hard…my whole life, I built on that…trying to be normal. I think I failed. Obviously…I mean…" she hiccoughed and
snorted. "…he went out and got another kid."

"You're doing just fine," Julian said.

"No I'm not!" Laura snapped. "I'm nowhere near what I should be! I teeter all over the place and I overreact and I drink too much…" she took another swig. "I'm not like the other kids here. I'll never be
like the other kids…I'll never be Cessily…or Nori…or Sofia." She looked away.

"You don't need to be!" Julian said, frustrated. "If you could go through all that…and not bat an eyelash…not be a bit traumatized…then there would be something wrong with you."

Laura hiccoughed again. "But he went and got that kid…Daken."

"Because he couldn't leave him, Laura," Julian said. "He was in a bad place…and he had to save him, like he saved you."

Laura fell silent for a while.

"That's were you went, that night, isn't it?" she asked.

Julian looked down. "I…they told me not to tell you. Logan wasn't…he wasn't all there, and there was some pretty weird stuff going on."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Laura asked.

"I was afraid you'd got out in the middle of it all, okay? Logan nearly killed me."

"…" Laura closed her eyes. "I have the Shrimps, too. I wouldn't leave them. No matter what, because I'm not like some people."

Julian knew she meant Logan.

"Look…just go along with stuff. I know you don't like his son…but it's not your life, okay? At the end of the day you can go home, and be with the Shrimps."

"And emo-kid, thanks to you," Laura added, her nose wrinkled.

"Hey, he's not that bad. Entertaining."

Laura sniffled.

"I guess," she said.

…

"I don't understand why we're firemen now! I thought we moved past that with the new costumes!" Laura snapped over the wind, struggling to zip up her uniform. They'd left the house, in a
hurry at Emma's urgent summon; James had been assigned with the duty of watching the Shrimps for the first time since the situation was an emergency.

"We're not! It's a pyrokinetic!" Julian said as the stairs came into view. He slowed and dropped Laura carefully, then ran after her into the school.

The elevator took forever; Julian used his code (something that always made his chest puff up, so Laura let him do it); the door had barely opened to the sub-basement, and they were off
again. Laura made the turn to the ready room, but Julian kept running; he skidded to a halt and joined her a few seconds later.

"Good," Scott said. "This is a serious situation. It's the same girl we tried to recruit before. Candace Burns, with powers of crematory-level—perhaps even hotter—pyrokinesis. There are some
injured civilians—three dead—and S.H.I.E.L.D. is present. You're going to need to either convince her to come quietly, or use force to subdue her, tranquilize her, and bring her to the school,
where she will be held in a containment unit."

Laura stared with wide eyes.

"You going to be alright?" Scott asked her.

She paused, then closed her eyes and nodded.

"Good. Get to the hangar, we're leaving in—"

"Hold it, Slim." Logan was suddenly present—and Daken. "We got an extra body to help ya out. Little trackin' power never hurt no one."

Scott looked at Logan, at Daken, then nodded. "Good. Daken, follow me—I'll give you a uniform, then we're leaving."

"-!-" Laura looked outraged. "What?! Just like that?! I trained for a year and a half to join this effing team, and I didn't even want to be on it!"

"He's combat-trained," Scott said. "He'll know what to do, won't you, Daken?" He gave the boy a friendly grin.

"Yes," Daken said, not returning the gesture.

"Yer damn right he'll know what to do," Logan said. "Half-pint's a chip off the old block."

Laura stiffened.

"Laura…" Julian put his hand on her shoulder. "Later, please."

Logan glanced at her; Daken also turned his head.

"Got a problem, darlin'?" Logan asked.

Darling. Logan had never used this term with her—had never implied she was just another girl at the school. She'd always been the 'half-pint', the copy of himself. The clone.

"Hardly," Laura said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

Logan turned his back on her, patted Daken's shoulder, then left; Scott led the boy to the other room to retrieve a spare uniform; Laura stood, her hands clenching and
unclenching, her face white with anger.

"C'mon…shit to do," Julian said, feeling bad. He'd seen the way Logan had reacted—pushing her to the side, suddenly treating Daken to the spotlight. She was right;
there was more to this than saving an innocent, than being there for his kind.

This seemed involve Logan wanting a son, and not a cloned girl—a daughter.

"Yeah." Laura made fists stiffly, then followed him towards the hangar. "There's always plenty of shit."

…

The flight went by quickly, with Scott piloting and Julian as the co-pilot, leaving Laura to sit in the back, fortunately far enough from Daken that she did not have to see
him. Soon, however, that no longer mattered, for the moment.

"HOLY—" Julian looked out the windshield, as Scott skillfully tilted the X-wing down. All they could see, in the center of the city, was a great, smoking crater. It looked like a small
atomic bomb had gone off. The perimeter of the crater was charred and melted; buildings hundreds of feet away were covered in soot.

"This is bad," Scott said.

"Why didn't the senior X-men take care of her?" Laura demanded, from behind. "She's completely psychotic!"

"We tried," Scott said, grimacing. "She…Emma says she flits in and out of the psychic network. At times, it's like her mind disappears entirely. We think it's some sort of secondary mutation."

"Like she needs more," Nori grumbled.

Scott sighed. "Remember…get in, get out, fast, no fuss. Try not to catch on fire. If she gets you…Elixir, I want you to stay near Hellion or Surge at all times."

Julian noted that his new codename only seemed to apply when Emma was around, and understood, having the same strategies with Laura.

…

Daken followed Scott, still silent, although it was obvious he was full of opinions about the other X-men present.

"X is with me," Julian told Scott firmly.

The leader made no argument. "Groups of five. Inform me immediately if she is sighted." Scott paused. "Mercury, Elixir, Reaver—with Hellion. Go, now. Tempest—Merge, Icarus, Daken…"

His voice began to fade into the background as Julian led the smaller group away, his expression serious. "X, can you remember what she smells like?"

"Pretty much," Laura answered, her nose wrinkled. "It's going to be hard to find her in here, though…it all smells the same. Like charcoal and cooked meat."

"Eww," Cessily said, reaching out and taking Kevin's hand.

They moved for a while longer, their eyes shifting through the shimmering heat and burning wreckage.

"This is really weird," Julian said. "From what we found out on her before…she does it for fun. But they're always little, controlled fires…like she intentionally burns just one, or two
buildings. She didn't even get soot on some walls…and then…remember how she was doing murals, Josh?"

"Yeah," Josh said. "She did these really intricate designs, with fire. It was awesome."

"This is completely out of character for her, then," Julian said, gesturing around himself. "I mean—look at it. It's a mess. It looks like a bomb went off…like she totally lost control of herself."

"I'm not surprised," Laura said sourly. "Let's not forget this is the asshole that set me on fire, okay? My gosh, you guys sound like you've got a crush on her!"

"I was trying to look for clues," Julian said calmly. "We're here to find her. She's hiding. Best way to find someone in hiding is try to figure out what's going through their mind, right?"

"WRONG!"

Snkkt!

The five New X-men whipped around, their eyes wide as they took in the sight of the girl that had burned Laura before—or, rather, a flame shaped in the outline of her, with bright white
eyes and mouth, and flickering hair, white at the roots and blue near the tips (like a candle).

"Hi," she said, a puff of white flame emerging from her mouth. "I seem to have set myself on fire."

"We can see that," Julian said, his hand on Laura's shoulder, holding her back; her claws had popped upon hearing the girl's voice.

"It looked like so much fun, you decided to try it yourself?" Laura asked, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"Well, that and something's odd," Candace said. "Your friend is right…I didn't mean to do this. Such a waste of materials, no taste at all!"

"…" Laura's face contorted. "You set me on fire, you crazy bitch! I almost died!"

Candace blinked, the white of her eyes momentarily disappearing.

"Oh. I'd forgotten." She paused. "I was quite cross…here you were, spoiling all my fun by trespassing in my beautiful city. But, you seem to be just fine…I don't see why you're complaining."

"You're insane, we get that," Julian said. "We're here to stop you from hurting anyone else, ever. Why a person like you got such destructive powers, I have no idea…but I'm not going to
stand here and let you kill anyone else—"

"I've never killed anyone," Candace said, her eyes slightly whiter.

"You set me on fire!" Laura repeated. "I can't believe we're arguing about this!"

"I wanted to make an impression," Candace said. "Besides…you heal, and so does your golden friend here. Since you people wouldn't leave me alone, I thought a scare might help."

Laura stared at her.

"She got a brain infection," Julian said, also annoyed with the candid attitude. "You don't do shit like that, whether they have healing powers or not. And you have killed, three people. Today. In
addition to whatever else you've done."

Candace blinked again.

"…yes, well…I wasn't feeling quite well…I had an encounter in the days prior, with some very rude men. I was abducted, and they popped my neck with something unpleasant in a hypo. I went a
bit dotty. I got away. Then…things are a little hazy, I kept flitting in and out of consciousness…I exploded, and woke up like this." She gestured to herself.

"Abducted?" Julian asked. "By who?"

"I haven't the foggiest," Candace said. "And now, I think I'm about to pass out. It's been nice speaking with you." Her eyes disappeared, a cloud of smoke rose into the air, and she tumbled
to the ground, now made of regular flesh and bones like she'd been the first time they'd met; except now she was clean, and naked.

Each boy tilted his head slightly to take in the view. Laura reached out and whapped Julian on the back of his.

"Uhnf—" he rubbed his head and glared at her.

…

Scott's face remained neutral when they told him of the attack. Laura felt sure that he already knew something of this nature; perhaps had even suspected that it applied to the case of
Candace; and she wondered if he hadn't allowed the girl to get in trouble, for the purpose of observing this new foe.

Aside from the other facts, of course.

The girl was loaded onto the stretcher, strapped in, and given a tranquilizer, despite the fact that she had accompanied them willingly. Laura agreed with this; she was not eager to get on
board an aircraft with the girl.

"Well done," Scott said to Julian as they prepared to take off.

Julian grinned, pleased; Laura rolled her eyes. He hadn't even done anything.

…

"Hang on guys," Scott said as the team headed for the locker rooms.

The group paused, with questioning expressions.

Scott shifted, folded his arms. His body language spoke of discomfort.

Laura's eyes narrowed.

"I need Dr. McCoy to do a quick, routine blood check on you. It's a policy after every mission, to ensure that no one picks up any strange viruses on the way."

Lying.

Laura waited until the group had turned around and headed for the lab, Scott hovering over them like a mother hen, then reached out and grabbed her superior's sleeve, her eyes full of anger.

"What, exactly, did I just get exposed to?" she hissed.

Scott cleared his throat. "Nothing. It's routine."

"Bull shit!"

Julian paused, seeing Laura had stayed behind, then came back. "What's up?"

"We've been exposed to a deathly pathogen," Laura said, glaring at Scott. "This asshole thinks he's not going to tell me exactly what I'm bring back to the Shrimps…but I think
a few minutes might help." Snnkt.

"Laura, out of line!" Scott rebuked.

Julian put his hand on her shoulder. "Stop. Laura, put them back. Now."

She turned her glare to him momentarily, said nothing.

Scott sighed.

"Like I said, it's a precaution," he said suddenly. "I'm anal these days. There's a chance she was infected, to bring back as a bomb to use inside the school. But…you said she escaped. Then she
exploded; I think whatever damage that was going to happen has happened, and she's literally burned anything she had out of her system."

"Bio warfare," Julian commented. "Boy, that's scary…thinking they've moved beyond picketing the gate."

"Mmm." Scott looked at Laura.

"What was it?" she demanded.

"I don't know." Lying, again.

"Bull shit, Scott! Tell me!"

"Laura—" Scott.

"I think we do have a right to know," Julian said.

Scott paused.

"So far, it's consistent with some of the symptoms of the Legacy virus. But—"

Laura made a squeaking noise, vaguely similar to a mouse being trodden on. Both men glanced at her, disturbed that she could make such a sound, and Scott held up his hand, seeing
she was about to panic.

"Don't. I told you, the worst is over. I wouldn't have sent you guys in if I thought it was live Legacy. I think this is some sort of new strain. The original was much slower…and nowhere near
as violent. The attacks tended to build up over time." Scott raised his eyebrow. "There's also the fact that it was injected. Legacy is airborne, and safe to Humans—they could have simply
held a rag soaked in some virus over her nose."

"True," Julian said.

"Besides…her powers involved mile nuclear fusion pyrokinesis. Atomic level. The injection seemed to trigger some sort of secondary mutation, and, like I said, the pathogen was completely
burnt out of her system. You know how thorough that kind of burning is, Laura."

Laura watched him doubtfully, but finally nodded. "Fine. But if you dare to have me take something home to the Shrimps, know I will happily slit your throat and fuck the hole that remains."

The men stared at her, disturbed.

"Um," Julian said.

"…" Scott's forehead wrinkled. "Point taken. Now go get your blood tests."

…

"Laura—hey, Laura, wait!" Logan called, chasing them down the hall to the front doors as they left the laboratory, with blood tests clean of Legacy virus.

She was tempted to ignore her mentor, but at the last moment she turned.

"What do you want?"

Logan paused.

"I need to ask a favor," he said.

Laura watched him with narrowed eyes. "Yes?"

"Daken," Logan said. "I want ya to help him fit in here."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I barely fit in myself." Laura turned away; Logan grabbed her by the shoulder. "Not done. You do fit in…you've got yer group of friends. I know how
kids can be—they won't get him. I need you to help him make some friends, so he don't feel left out."

Laura expression was cold. "I can't make people like him." She looked at Julian. "Come on, Keller, places to be that aren't here."

"…" Logan folded his arms. "You don't like Daken, do ya?"

"Logan," Laura said, her eyes flashing. "You didn't get anyone to let me in when I came here," she said. "I had to 'fit in' all on my own."

"Daken's different," Logan said. "He—" He was about to explain some of the boy's up-to-recent circumstances, but Laura was hearing none of it; she brushed the man's hand off her
shoulder, stomped down the hallway and closed the door behind herself. It made a very final, resounding clicking noise.

"…" Logan gazed at the closed door.

"She's upset about being replaced," Julian said quietly. "She feels like she's just an unwanted clone again."

"Grr." Logan rubbed his face with his hand. "What the hell was I supposed t' do? Leave Daken there? In that shithole?"

"No…" Julian sighed. He felt sorry for Logan, at this moment; he looked lost.

"Look, I'll talk to Cess and Sofia about making him feel a part of things. Laura's not the best welcome wagon ever."

Logan eyed the boy. "Thanks, Keller," he grunted. "I'd owe you one."

"One dad to another, right?" Julian asked. "I kind of owe you already for Nate's electrocuting you. Speaking of which, I had a heart-to-heart with him."

"And?" Logan looked vaguely amused.

"He cried, and he asked if he'd killed you. He doesn't seem to understand that dead people don't walk around after."

"Heh," Logan said. "You're a good kid, Keller."

"Thanks," Julian said, surprised. "I always thought you were of the opinion that I was a piece of crap, so that means a lot."

"I did, a long time ago," Logan grunted, folding his arms. "Pretty much until yer shotgun wedding. Still upset about missing that, by the way."

"Not much to miss," Julian said. "We bribed an old judge to do it on his lunch break. He was eating some weird sort of taco. Laura couldn't stand the smell and was holding the trash
can 'just in case' while I was saying my vows. Someone let one rip, too, still not sure if it was her or the judge, but it happened during her part and she busted a rib laughing when
the smell hit. Wasn't all that reassuring to me."

"I see," Logan said, amused. "Yeah, I'm not upset anymore. Still…wish I'da been there for her…always felt bad fer that."

"I can get that," Julian said. "Well, I gotta go…she's probably halfway across the field, still ranting to me, and once she realizes I'm not there…"

"Yeah," Logan said, patting his shoulder. "See ya round."