IMPORTANT!! There was a change made to the end of chapter 8 which people who have already read the chapter may want to see. Unfortunately I did not notice for a couple days that the formatting I had used did not show up (in the same way that not all symbols are allowed by ffn). I have made the appropriate corrections and apologize for the problem.

disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever in any way owned the X-Men. If I did, I would be rich and have lots more time to write about them. This is a work of fiction based on the X-Men comic book owned by Marvel Comics Group and I expect to receive absolutely no monetary compensation for it. Dammit.

Farewell Sunshine
by Dizi

Chapter 9

Before my eyes were open, my hand came up to block a hypodermic needle. Like most everyone else, I really hate needles. For me, that's especially true when I have no idea what's in it. The sudden movement sent waves of pain throbbing through my head. The recent past was a complete blank. Spur of the moment, all I could come up with to account for it was that something had happened and I went on a serious bender. Which would be pretty pathetic after just swearing off drinking. Again.

When I did get my eyes open--probably only seconds had passed but it was such a monumental effort it seemed longer to me--what I saw was a blue blur. Surprise, surprise, it spoke.

"Madam, this treatment is necessary to assist your recovery. I can assure you breaking the weak hold you have on my appendage would be quite easily accomplished, however your willing release of said appendage would be best for all concerned parties."

Forcing my eyes to blink a couple times didn't help my vision any, though I became aware of more colors behind the sea of blue. Getting my vocal chords to work was even more of an effort. It took several tries. Luckily the guy with the big words and complicated sentences is patient. Just making my brain function well enough to put my own words together hurt like hell. What had the sonuvabitches done to me? "What... is... it?"

"I fear the name would have little meaning to you. It is unknown outside of specialized groups, such as we here at Xavier's School for the Gifted."

Trying to make sense of that little speech was just too much for me. I passed out. Don't remember doing that before with a hangover; while drinking maybe, but not afterwards when I was suffering for overindulging. Couldn't have been out too long, there was an urgency inside telling me to get up and get busy. Something or someone needed me but I couldn't grasp what or who it was.

Images, pictures, flashed through my pain fogged mind. Too many to see clearly or understand. Some of family and friends, people I knew or should know. Some I recognized and some I didn't. The same was true for places. Confusion ruled my world. Everything went round and round in circles. Hints, whispers, images, people, places, feelings, shadow, light. So much, too much to take in.

Then only the light. Slowly, it blocked out everything else. Started like a glare on the TV so you can't watch the show or when some jerk shines a flashlight on the screen in a movie theatre. The little spot of light grew until I couldn't see anything else. It was still there, but I couldn't see it anymore. I didn't know if I wanted to. Was it important? Was I dreaming, hallucinating, something else? Did I want to know? Could it be... did I... Oh, hell, I just didn't know!

Didn't have to open my eyes this time. Someone was holding my lids apart and shining directly into my eyeball what looked to be a giant flashlight, though it probably wasn't really that big. At that second, I thought and hoped I was seeing the Light again. It's never true, but I keep waiting for it to happen. When it's finally real it'll probably be anticlimatic. Not that I have a death wish.

The light finally disappeared and I was back to not being able to move, don't think I was all the way awake yet. I certainly wasn't willing to try to move. However, I could hear fine.

"I should have been immediately informed BOTH of my patients are classified as homo superior." That was the guy with the big complicated sentences. Who was he talking about? Was it related to my case? Yeah, I remember Sunshine now. How could I have forgotten?

"It ain't nobody's business but hers." Logan. No mistaking 'Mr. Congeniality'.

"Shut up, Wolvie." Was that Jubilee? I think so. "We didn't know she was a mutant."

"Now, darlin', that ain't exactly true. I had a good idea." Uh-huh, Logan usually knows more than he says. It's a very irritating habit of his. As his wife, she should know about it by now. "She ain't got a clue though. Said somethin' once 'bout havin' a grandma with the 'sight' who said she'd inherit it. Let's just say she did, an' leave it at that."

WHAT!?!? My heart tried to beat right out of my chest and my eyes did their best to spring open, ended up only being a flicker. They were talking about ME. My grandmother! Grandma Josephina had always claimed she had 'the sight'. She died when I was five, too young to know if there was any truth to it. Grandma Josie had also claimed I would have her 'gift' and I would fight it. From the earliest I can remember, it was a big family joke that I was going to be just like her. None of us but Mama believed she 'saw' anything, but my mother is superstitious to the extreme so that's understandable. The subject of Grandma Josie came up once right after a call from my mother while Logan and I were still sleeping together, so I knew he was talking about me. For it to be anyone else would be too big a coincidence. He was not only talking about me, but talking about me to strangers. I didn't kick him hard enough.

"Due to the longevity of your association in such matters, you are fully aware of the necessity to inform ME. A psionic attack of this magnitude, commonly called a psi-blast, must be treated most delicately. The repercussions to an untrained mutant with her own mental abilities could be catastrophic."

Psi-blast? What's a psi-blast? I should be part of this conversation. It was again an effort to drag my eyes open, but I did it. That was as far as I got and all I could see was the tiled ceiling.

"Ms. Hewett suffered the majority of the attack as she attempted to protect Ms. Sanchez. She will not regain consciousness for several days at minimum."

"But MaryJo's started learning how to protectively shield herself, Charles said she's gotten good at it." Jubilee again, protesting his statement. Guess MaryJo and 'Ms.Hewett' are the same person, huh? "Considering that, do you really think it will be that long? Sanchez wanted to interview her about Sunshine."

"Jubilation, the estimation I quoted is BECAUSE she shielded to the best of her ability. Without the recent addition to her curriculum--which I am fully aware of as it is in her file--she would not awaken at all. She is recovering." He paused and I could hear a computer boot up. "In point of fact, it is possible the incident will have beneficial results for both female patients. Psionic attacks on the untrained, or not fully trained, individual can either expand or contract mental pathways. Hence, victims generally have one of three recovery results: no perceptible change in mental abilities, a percentage to complete loss, or expansion of the same breadth. You may have been previously unaware of this due to in the past you have only witnessed experienced fully trained telepaths in similar circumstances. The current situation is entirely different." The lecturing tone turned stern. "Which is why the amount of serum administered is crucial. The differential in dosage between humans and mutants-"

"Alright already! Like, get over it, dude!" Sounded like Jubilee was as exasperated as I was. Though for me it was the long speech, which was hard enough for me to follow. It didn't help that my effort to push myself into a sitting position only made my hand twitch. "He messed up and I didn't know, so let's just move on."

"What she said, bub. We got us a serious problem an' need ya ta get Sanchez up an' runnin' as soon as ya can." It's great that Logan's keeping priorities straight. Makes me feel all warm inside. Not.

"I allowed you entrance to the med-lab as I believed seeing someone she knows would be a calming influence after her recent experience, but Ms. Sanchez's earlier activity perhaps caused me to be too optimistic. I had estimated she would have properly regained consciousness before now. Admittedly, my concern has been growing exponentially by the moment."

"Ya mean ya've been waitin' fer her ta wake up?" Logan demanded in his characteristically irritable manner. "Why didn't ya say so? She been listenin' ta our whole conversation!"

Apparently the guy moves quick when he needs to. A chair scraped across the floor and there were rapid heavy footsteps, then a blue furry face was in front of me. He was wearing glasses and a lab coat. Yeah, a guy with blue fur, glasses, and a lab coat! Something like "Gahn..." came out of my throat. I think I had a right to be a little startled.

"My most humble apologies for the delay!" He was nice enough to immediately help me sit up as he glared at Logan. "Recently my compatriot has taken to not telling me what I need to know."

It took about an hour for me to be 'up and running', though running wasn't something I really wanted to try by then either. I was informed my physical problems were caused by medicinal side effects. Too much of the cure because the blue doctor guy--"Dr. Henry P. McCoy, please feel free to call me Hank."--went too far the other way trying to compensate for originally not giving me enough. Which is why he had been so worried. He gave me another shot of something I couldn't pronounce if I wanted to and I slowly regained some use of my limbs. And voice.

I had lost over seven hours, six 'asleep'. Nothing I could do about it but cuss, which I did long and loud. From my point of view, it had gone from noon to mid-evening in the blink of an eye. Forget distractions, delays are my curse on this case. How the hell was I supposed to get anything done this way? My only bit of progress felt hard earned. Since it was going on eight o'clock, it was doubtful I could get any more today. The perp had won this round in more ways than one. No doubt in my mind MaryJo would have been able to help me and because of this attack she couldn't. He'd gotten another victim. At least she wouldn't die from it. Not like Sunshine.

It didn't take long for Sam to show up. Apparently he'd become 'greatly agitated' and 'antagonistic' after the 'incident', and was sent to some kind of special training room to work it off. The complete and utter relief on his face inspired feelings I will NOT allow myself to get immersed in. In fact, I'm going to just do my best to forget I saw it in the first place. Sam was a welcome substitute for Jubilee and Hank in helping me pace the room, that was the prescribed remedy to get my equilibrium back. It also gave me an excuse to cop a feel. Yeah, it wasn't the time but he did it too. Most likely had something to do with being happy I'm alive. For both of us.

Somewhere in there, Summers came around. Hank had thought it necessary to inform him of my new found mutant status. They were under the impression I might freak out about it. Someone else might have, and I just might later. This, like with other things, wasn't the time. We didn't have much time. Sunshine doesn't have much time. Am I the only one who understands that? I've lost another goddamn day! How many days do they think she has? My estimation of Summers went up a notch just because he took my words at face value and dropped the subject of my mutation.

So I sent him off to get me a list of staff and students capable of this psi-blast thingy and their backgrounds, everything possible to get on them. I know it's late, but I have to get what I can as I can. I had a new lead. During my ranting, I had gotten some information on the perp. Seems not all telepaths are capable of this kinda thing. Telepaths come in all different shapes and sizes, figuratively speaking. It takes a certain power level and knowledge of exactly how its done--instinctive knowledge counts--even then not just any telepath can do it. Some have specialized abilities and whatnot. Sam provided an example of an old teammate who could 'possess' someone, take over their body, but can't read their mind yet her abilities are still classified as telepathic.

All that boiled down to the very real possibility the perp might have tipped his hand. By going on the offensive, he's shown the bigshots and me that he is definitely on campus. His method has knocked a whole lot of people off the suspect list. And last but not least, that list is going to get changed to a very short one. I can handle all these recent little inconveniences for those kind of results. Guess my day wasn't wasted after all. It's unlikely I'd have made this much progress otherwise. Perps can be so fucking stupid.

to be continued.

note: So were you surprised at the way the direction has changed? I soooo wanted to surprise you! Unfortunately the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 8 didn't come across properly. If you haven't seen the change yet, you might want to check it out just to get the right feel.

Okay, time for the usual apologies. I know I'm late with this chapter after I said I wouldn't be. I had some internet connectivity issues, then I found out about chapter 8 and felt the need to fix it before loading 9. Then I admittedly forgot for a few days, but during that time I got chapter 11 finished. Hopefully things are back on track. I have chapter 10 back from my wonderful beta Sara, chapter 11 to her, and I'm working on chapter 12. That should cover everything except the unexpected and I cannot be expected to take responsibility for that. Sorry.

Because I feel so guilty about the lateness of chapter 9, I'll be posting chapter 10 next week instead of waiting the usual two weeks.

Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi