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Amira's day was already down in the tubes. Scott and Ororo had reamed her even owning a knife, let alone using it. When they demanded that she hand it over to them, that just started another argument where Scott threatened grounding, washing the X-Jet, and extra Danger Room assignments and Amira threatened to leave.
Ororo accused her of acting like a Hellion. Amira accused her of projecting her nephew's faults on her and made a rather nasty comment about "Let she who has never attempted to electrocute someone cast the first stone!"
The argument broke up when Jean, Althea, Lina, and Sooraya intervened as peacekeepers and separated them. Amira stormed off to be by herself for a while. Her friends; Althea, Rogue, Sooraya, Lina, and Rahne knew enough to give her some space and the others were too terrified to try bothering her.
Most of them, anyway.
"Sanctimonious, moralizing…" Amira cursed under her breath as she angrily paced back and forth outside.
"That was some fight." Amira didn't bother turning around to see who was disturbing here.
"And I'd suppose you'd be the expert." Amira growled, still not looking at him, hoping he'd take the hint.
"I've had a doozy or two in my time, as the Americans might say." Gilaad shrugged. "Stabbing that guy wasn't smart, but I think I understand why you felt that you had to show that limiting yourself is a bad idea."
"If this is some kind of Zionist rationale for why tossing out the Geneva Conventions in order to bomb, starve, and enslave my people I'm really not interested!"
"It's not." Gilaad snapped angrily. He took a deep breath. "I'm not talking about—that. I'm talking about more basic struggles. Good versus Evil."
"So we are talking about my people and yours?" Amira asked. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Go on." Gilaad was holding onto his temper with both hands by this point.
"I admit, I haven't been with the X-Men as long as you have but I have noticed that they're well…a little naïve."
"A little?" Amira snorted. "They wouldn't recognize reality if it bit them in the—"
"I'm not arguing." Gilaad sighed. "But—let's be honest. I'm not thrilled to find you already living at the Institute and if I'd known I might have thought twice about coming. Nothing I can do about that now, though."
"So long as we're being perfectly honest, let me make one thing clear right off the bat: I don't like your country, I don't like what it stands for, and I don't like you." Amira stated.
"I'll just have to cope somehow." Gilaad snorted sarcastically. "Seeing as how much your opinion means and all. But look, we don't like each other, our peoples don't like each other fine. I can deal with that. But for better and worse I'm the only one here who has a chance in hell of understanding how you think."
"Many Israelis think they understand how my people think." Amira snapped. "The next one that's right will be the first one. But do go on." Gilaad continued.
"The X-Men and the Misfits think…I don't know what they think really. Sometimes I think that they see themselves as something in between a peacekeeping force and a new civil rights movement. But the lofty ideals behind them about mutant-human coexistence can't sustain them in fights where—in order to succeed, in order to survive—they'll have to do things that are totally against their grain and their beliefs."
"Only in fables and stories do the pure and righteous fight the forces of evil and remain unaffected. Scott and Ororo are so wrapped up in Xavier's dream that they don't really think about just how human-mutant peace is going to be achieved…if it can be achieved at all.
"They need to learn something about the brutal nature of fighting evil. It is not for the pure to fight evil. It takes its toll. It demands a…darkness of the soul, if you will. Fire must be met with fire. We can't become what we fight…but we can't shrink back from doing what we have to either. That's what you were trying to show them, though doing it in a game was totally out of line. But that's where people like you and me come in. We're the ones who have to do the dirty jobs no one else can, because they can't do it. They'll hate us, curse us, call us as bad as their enemies…but in the end, they'll need us. Even if they can't recognize it or admit it."
"But even so, it might not be such a great idea to shove their faces in it." Gilaad finished. "Think on that for a while." With that, Gilaad turned and left Amira alone again.
"Great. My one supporter is a fricking Israeli. What else can go wrong today?" Amira groaned. A sudden explosion answered her. She whirled around to see it originated in the wrestling arena. "Oh wait, I'm a Palestinian." Amira groaned as she ran back. "And a mutant. Something else can always go wrong!"
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Next time! Heeeeere's Donald!