Dark Dawn
Chapter two: The trick is to keep breathing
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any other related material. It belongs to Marvel and Fox. I do not make any money on this.
"Breakfast!" Remy entered Scott's room, with a loud and cheerful exclamation.
Scott had been sleeping and was quickly annoyed with the loud wake up call.
"Eggs and bacon! Just de way you Yankees like it." Remy smiled proudly of himself. He placed the plate on Scott's lap and set the glass of orange juice on the bed table.
"Bon appetit" Remy said and found a chair. He loved watching people eat his food.
Scott started eating and obviously liked it, because in a matter of minutes the food and juice was gone.
"Was it good?" Remy asked.
"It was great. Thanks" Scott answered with genuine gratitude.
Remy smiled even more. He could almost sense, when people lied and he knew Scott was honest. Despite his lying thief nature he liked honesty, just not when he had to be honest.
"Why are you in such a good mood?" Scott asked, while he set the plate on the bed table.
"Nothing special. 'S just a très beau morning." He didn't want to tell Scott that his meeting with Sinister was not regarding his eavesdropping, but because Sinister wanted him to permanently take care of the man lying in the bed in front of him. Thinking about the conversation, he became sad again. "'Ow are you today?" Remy asked, trying to say it with the same cheerfulness but failed.
"It's getting better and better. Hardly any pain left, but I'm sick and tired of hearing the stupid beep of the heart machine." Jean had several times told him what it was called, but he always forgot it again.
Remy went to his other side and turned 'the heart machine' off. "Better?"
"Yeah"
"Pardon me being so forward, but I'm very curious. What 'appened to y'wife? Monsieur Sinister won't tell me." Remy talked softly and carefully, sounding like a little school boy, which was exactly what he intended.
Scott sighed, eyes down, then he began to tell the story, right to their meeting at Alkali Lake. "Apparently she was unable to control her powers, and they controlled her. I think the X-Men did the only possible thing; they killed her."
Remy had seen his share of tragedies in his life, but it never happened to someone that close to him, someone he truly loved. He never let anyone close enough for that to happen. He only barely understood Scott's loss, and therefore he felt even more sympathy for the broken man.
"I'm sorry" Remy said. It was all he could say.
"Don't be!" Scott's voice was trembling, and Remy could see that he was close to crying, but then his face became hard again. "I don't need your pity!"
"What do y'need?" Remy asked.
"Tell me everything you know about who Essex is, and why he wants me." Scott said without blinking.
"Remy doesn't know a lot about Sinister. But per'aps 'e knows more than most people… all right. I believe 'e was born a long time ago. Like 200 years or somet'ing. Being a mutant, I guess 'is powers must've made him as invulnerable as 'e is, an' given 'im long life. Any'ow, 'e is very smart an' is a docteur or professeur in biology or somet'ing. Is crazy about de 'uman body an' does all sorts of creepy experiments on unlucky mutants."
"Is that why he wants me?" Scott asked.
"Non, not you. You're special." Remy said with a sad look on his face. "Sinister never tells about 'is plans to anyone. 'E doesn't trust anyone but 'imself. But Remy's sure you're very special, or 'e wouldn't 'ave gone through de trouble of bringing you to life again. He needs you for somet'ing very evil, Remy's afraid"
"And do you have any idea of how I can get out of here? How much of the dam did you rebuild?"
"Just so we could walk around 'ere wit'out getting our socks wet." Remy said in a light tone "Dere are open doors everywhere for t'ose who work 'ere, but for you it would be 'arder. Not sure is even possible."
"I'm sure I can think of something…" Scott said more to himself than Remy.
X
"Please tell us your name" Ororo said to the young woman in front of her.
"Alison Blaire" the blonde woman answered. She was standing in the office in front of the desk, where the three teachers sat, wearing baggy jeans with many holes and chains, and a bright pink t-shirt saying: 'I love whiteboys' in bold black letters and then in smaller letters 'Get the fuck over it!" Her blonde hair was short and frizzy and she had six earrings in each ear. In many ways she reminded Logan of Jubilee, but doubted she was the kind of teacher Ororo was looking for.
"And what are you intending to teach?" Ororo asked. Since the loss of three teachers, the school had found it hard to find staff. Now as the fall break was ending, Ororo had decided to try to find someone from outside. Unfortunately, not a lot of people were willing to teach in a school full of teenage mutants.
"Well, I'm not sure it's even a subject here, but I would like to teach music."
The teachers looked at each other for a while then Ororo said: "You're right, it is not a subject here yet. Why do you think the children need to learn music?"
"To me music is the most amazing thing ever!" Alison said, and a gleeful smile formed on her face as she mused "To immerse yourself in an instrument or just using your voice and creating music out of it, it's just the best feeling there is. And I think it would be nice for the kids to get a break from all those dusty books and actually do something fun."
Hank was smiling to himself, Logan snorted because he agreed with her, but wasn't sure he was allowed to, and Ororo spoke again: "Do you play any instruments?"
"I play the piano, guitar and bass, and I sing"
"What are your powers?" Logan asked.
"I can transform sound into light, and thus create some pretty powerful blast" Alison said.
"Good. If you will please fill out these papers and leave them in the hall, we will call you back with our answer" Ororo said.
Alison seemed hesitant "This isn't one of these 'Don't call us, we'll call you' rejections, right? 'Cause if it is, you might as well just say it to my face." She got more and more angry "I'm sorry if I might seem a little unconventional and your fancy little upstate prep school doesn't need music. I just needed a job and heard you were looking for teachers!"
"This is definitely not one of those 'Don't call us, we'll call you' rejections." Ororo said, not affected by the woman's little outburst "We just need some time to discuss this, since we haven't had music before and it will be difficult to start the children up on a brand new subject"
"Oh, okay. I had to ask" Alison said and laughed nervously. She took the papers and went quickly to the door.
"Wait!" Hank said, and Alison stopped "If I were you I'd hold the line open" Hank winked at her and smiled, so did she.
When she had left, the teachers waited for the next. A thirty-something man. He was dark and looked Latino.
"Buenos diaz!" He said when he entered.
"Hello, I'm Ororo Monroe, the headmaster of this school" Ororo said "Please tell us your name"
"Roberto DaCosta. I would like to teach Spanish" He answered, with a thick accent. Logan snorted, thinking it was pretty obvious that that was his subject.
"That's great! Do you have a teaching degree?" Ororo answered.
"Yes, to teach high school. I have university too, but I do believe you shall we say 'kick the kids out' before college."
"Yes. That is correct. But we don't kick them out; we just don't teach then at college level. We prefer that if the students want a college degree, they actually go to college." Ororo said and smiled "Are you from a Spanish speaking country?"
"Yes, I'm from Spain, actually" He said with pride.
"Okay, what made you come here?" Hank asked. Logan was uninterested in the pretty-boy. He thought the school had enough of them as it was.
"I am very interested in American culture, and I got accepted into an American university. Majored in climatology."
"So you're like one of those weather-persons on the news?" Logan asked, as Ororo sat a little up in her seat with renewed interest.
"No, not really. They are meteorologists. I am a climatologist. There's a difference" Robert said.
"Interesting. I would like to hear more about that some other time." Ororo said "If you will please fill out these papers and leave them in the hall, we will call you back with our answer."
Roberto took the offered papers, thanked the three for their time and left.
"What a nice young man!" Hank said, because he really meant it, and to irritate Logan, who had already made his mind up about the man.
"He better continue bein' just nice. I don't give two cents for that Antonio Banderas look-a-like! I'm sure he'll be a real pleasure for the girls" Logan snorted again "Who's next?"
"Brian Braddock" Hank said, looking at his papers.
"Braddock? Isn't that the name of one of the girls here?" Logan asked.
"Yes. Elizabeth Braddock." Ororo said, while the door slowly opened.
"Is this the office?" A man with an English accent asked. He looked tired and confused, but couldn't be very old. Perhaps in the late twenties.
"Indeed it is. You must be Brian Braddock" Ororo said.
"Yes. Betsy said you were looking for an English teacher" Brian said and sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"Are you guys related?" Logan asked.
She's my little sister."
"Okay, and you want to teach English?" Ororo asked.
"Yes. I have a university degree in physics if you need that, but otherwise English is fine."
Ororo smiled "We do need a teacher in physics, if you're interested in doing that too.
"Great! When can I begin?"
"You need to fill out these papers and we will call you back with our decision"
"Oh, okay" Brian was clearly disappointed, but took the papers "Are there many others wanting the position?"
"No, you are the only one so far" Ororo said with a disappointed look in her eyes.
After some other mutants, and one non-mutant, who didn't know about the school's real purpose, they had filled out most of the empty spots.
"All we need now is a teacher in German" Ororo said, looking up from her papers at the end of the day.
"There's no one who even speaks German among these people." Hank said.
"I guess there's nothing else to do them, but to drop the language" Ororo said and sighed.
"I don't think anyone'll mind" Logan muttered under his breath.
"Thanks for helping me out, you guys" Ororo said and smiled warmly.
"You did good Ms. Headmistress" Hank said and patted her arm with a big paw.
X
The door to the smallest study room of the mansion was currently locked. In the room Bobby and Marie were exchanging hot kisses and half of their clothes were on the floor. They were half lying half sitting on the small couch. The music was playing loud so that no one could hear them.
Bobby's hands found the zipper of his girlfriend's jeans, as she suddenly stopped kissing his neck.
"Don't go there!" Marie said in a pleading tone.
"Why not?" Bobby asked almost offended.
"Because I don't want to, yet."
They both sat up in the couch and looked at each other without touching. Marie picked up her shirt and pulled it on.
"What's wrong Marie?" Bobby asked, pulling an arm around her and looking worried.
"I'm just not ready!" Marie almost screamed and ran to the door. She unlocked it and ran outside. She needed to find someone to talk to. Logan; she would never even dream of talking about that with him. Kitty: they hadn't been the best of friends lately. Jubilee; if she told her, she would tell the whole school. She didn't really have any really good friends she could tell everything to. She ended up finding Peter. She knew he wouldn't understand her, but he would always try, because he had the biggest heart of all (not just because of his size!).
"Peter!" Marie said relieved, when she found him outside, sketching.
"Hey there girly!" he said and smiled.
She sat down beside him. He was drawing two of the smaller children playing X-Men. The girl was wearing a towel for a cape, running around and screaming: 'Storm!'. The boy had three sticks on each hand and was clearly playing Wolverine. Marie smiled.
"There's something wrong" Peter stated.
"Well uh, yeah. I didn't really know who to talk to…" Marie looked nervously at Peter, who had stopped drawing and was looking at her.
"I'm always here for you" he said "Tell me what happened."
"Me and Bobby… we were…" Marie stopped.
"Studying?" Peter said in a playful, knowing tone.
"Uh yeah… well I always seem to freeze whenever we get close enough to actually have sex. The touching and kissing is great, but going further scares me."
Peter was listening intently, without saying anything.
"A year ago I never thought I would get to do it. So I never really thought about whether I was ready for it. But now I'm n- I don't have my powers and everything's fine and… I'm rambling!" Marie sighed and leaned against Peter's shoulder. He put his strong arm around her.
"I guess you're just not ready." Peter said.
"But shouldn't I be ready?"
"I don't think there is a certain age where everyone becomes ready. It depends on how mature the person is and whether they're with the right person. Sex is very intimate and personal and if you don't trust the other person…"
"You sound like my parents!"
Peter laughed "Yeah I get that a lot. But I'd rather sound like your friend, giving you some good advice."
"You're probably right. But what can I do to become ready?"
"Be patient" Peter said and looked back on the two kids, who had now just defeated 'Magneto', a pile of branches and clothes and a bucket on top.
Marie squeezed his arm and went inside to apologize to Bobby.
X
After Remy had left, Scott had gotten out of bed and looked around the place. He had been there before, but never really got the time to explore it. He had terrible memories of torture and almost killing Jean from here, but that didn't matter now. Right now it was important for him to get away from there, so he wouldn't receive more traumas.
He was, thanks to his mutant powers, gifted with a supernatural sense of directions and space. Therefore he quickly got a good idea of the place. He noticed every alarm, every guard, every door and every camera. It must have been quite a task to dry it up again after it was flooded.
He was just about to explore a room, when Dr. Essex came out from it.
"Ah, Mr. Summers. Already out of bed. Excellent!"
Scott had gotten a quick glimpse of the inside of the room, and it had looked like some kind of Frankenstein's lab or something in Scott's mind. Another very good reason to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Since you're already up and running, we might as well begin your rehabilitation training immediately. Come with me!" Essex started walking, and Scott didn't know what else to do but follow. He didn't see Remy come stumbling out of the lab some minutes later.
The rehabilitation was like most normal rehabilitation trainings, except it was in an old abandoned military base, now used as an evil lair, and the place for the training used to be a training room for soldiers. It was hard, even though the things Scott had to do were simple normal things. His body was aching when he was done. He lay on a bench, breathing heavily.
"Essex?" Scott said panting.
"Dr. Essex" The man answered with a slow gentle voice, with an undertone of annoyance.
"How come my blasts aren't working?" Scott asked. He had excluded that his powers were gone, because he wouldn't have been able to find around in the base without them.
"You haven't seen the sun in months. Your body absorbs and processes the sun's energy and converts it to your powerful energy 'blasts'. Without the sun's energy, there's nothing to process and thus; no 'blasts'. If you went outside and let your body absorb the sunbeams, you would be seeing red again." Essex answered quick and matter-of-factly.
"Can I go outside?"
"No. We can't have you running around, blowing holes in things, can we? Your exceptional 'sunglasses' are missing. I suspect that your friends from New York took them, when they found Jean. And you wouldn't want to run around blind either." Essex said "You've had your share of blindness"
"How do you know that?" Scott asked. He didn't think anyone except Jean, Hank, Ororo and Xavier knew about his past and how he had lived for months with duct tape over his eyes.
Essex eyes looked surprised and scared, nut then became cold again as he said: "It's only logical that it would have taken some time from when your powers manifested, and to when Hank McCoy invented your glasses."
Essex shouldn't know that Hank made the glasses, Scott thought to himself, but didn't say anything.
"You should go back to your room. I'll have Remy make you dinner."
X
Marie found Bobby in the game room, taking out his frustrations on the PlayStation 3. She sat down on the couch beside him, but he pretended not to have noticed her.
She was trying to think up something smart to say, but all that came out of her mouth was: "I'm sorry about what happened"
Bobby turned the TV off, and turned to look at Marie. He didn't look angry, just hurt and confused.
"So what happened?" Bobby asked.
"I don't really know… I'm really sorry. I guess, I just don't want to do it yet." Marie said.
"Why didn't you tell me from the start? I never put any pressure on you when you had your powers. Why do you think I would start now?"
"I don't know, I just… I supposed you'd expect me to be ready immediately."
"But I didn't! I know you, and I know how hard it must have been for you to be robbed of all contact for so long, and how hard it must be for you to get it back."
Marie smiled and looked into her boyfriend's eyes. She loved him. She finally admitted to herself that she loved him. She leaned closer to him and he put his arms around her.
"Please talk to me the next time there's something wrong, okay? I don't like to see you hurt like that." He said into her hair.
"I know. I'm sorry."
They sat on the couch for a while, until some smaller kids began using the PlayStation.
X
Kitty was in the library, reading, when she saw Bobby and Marie walk by in the hallway. They were holding hands, laughing and teasing each other. Kitty envied Marie. Not so much because she had Bobby – she had gotten over him a long time ago – it was more the fact that she had someone. Kitty was always perceived as the smart girl, the brain on legs. And she hated that. She wanted to be noticed for something other that her IQ.
"What's going on?" Peter asked as he sat on the couch beside Kitty "You're clearly not reading?"
Kitty's thoughts were interrupted and she looked confused at her friend. He was probably her best friend. Sometimes her only friend. Before Marie had taken 'the cure' – Kitty hated that name – Bobby had been her friend too, but now he hardly ever left Marie's side or her skin!
"Kits?"
"Surry, I was just…" Kitty stuttered, looking for something clever to say.
"Daydreaming?" Peter asked with a teasing smile.
"No! I just… I'm thinking!" Kitty said, knowing that answer wouldn't satisfy him.
"About…? Me?" Peter asked, with the same smile.
"No." Kitty said, noticing that his eyes became a little less happy, but his mouth was still smiling.
"Oh, about what then?"
Kitty sighed, she knew he wasn't going to leave her alone, until she spilled. "I want someone to notice me!"
"What do you mean?"
"People always think of me as the smart girl; the one they can come to if they need help with homework, or if their computer's broken down."
"You don't like that?"
"Well, no! I mean… I'm glad that I'm smart, but I just want other people to consider me less as just a brain and more as a person. And I-" Kitty stopped, breathed and said a little lower "I want a boyfriend."
"I see… anyone special in mind?" Peter asked.
"Uh, no not really" Kitty said "I just want someone to hold me and kiss me and…"
Peter was listening without saying anything. Kitty appreciated that. He didn't even come with those annoying little grunts that are supposed to say that you're listening.
"And what?" Peter asked
"If the boys don't notice me, I won't get a boyfriend, will I?!" It came out a little angrier that Kitty intended.
"Maybe it's just you, who don't notice the boys." Peter said quietly and left. Kitty sat and stared at the lit up fireplace, pondering what he had meant.
X
Marie found Logan late at night, working out in the gym. He was currently lifting weights.
"You should always work with a spotter" Marie said to him, as she sat down on another bench.
"I can handle it!" Logan said, panting, "Besides it's pretty heavy. They might not be able to lift it"
"Peter would, Guido, Dr. McCoy… should I go on?"
"Fine, but maybe I like bein' alone." Logan put the weight back on its place.
"Of course you do. You always have." Marie smiled gently "What's wrong this time?"
"Nothin'. How are you doin'?" Marie knew he was stalling, but wasn't going to let him off the hook.
"I'm good. You?"
"Good."
"Would you tell me if there was something wrong?" Marie asked.
"Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the issue." Logan said. Marie smiled at his honesty.
"Fine. So is the 'issue' Marie-friendly this time?" Marie asked and picked up a small 2 pound hand weight.
"Told you, there's nothin' wrong!" Logan said, beginning to become annoyed. Marie noticed.
"How's it going with training the X-Men?" Marie asked, to keep the conversation going.
"You should know, since you've been to every single session we've had since Alcatraz. Trouble lettin' go?" Logan smiled at her, knowing her too well.
"Yeah, that was kinda the reason I came looking for you" Marie said "Can you teach me to fight?"
Logan looked at he for a while, then smiled and said: "Of course I can, but why would you wanna fight?"
"I'm just sick of being the weakest one here! I'm sick of not being an X-Man! I'm sick of-"
"Being human?" Logan lifted his brow.
"No, I'm just sick of not being a mutant. Do you know what I mean? It's not that I don't want to be able to touch people, but I feel so out of place sometimes."
"A freak among the freaks, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda" Marie laughed.
"And how do you think fighting could help you?"
"I was kinda thinking of joining the X-Men again…"
"No way!" Logan stood up. Marie did as well.
"Why not?"
"It's way too dangerous!"
"Well, why do you think I want to learn to defend myself?!"
"I don't care! I will not let you put yourself in danger just because you feel out of place." Logan was shouting, he was angry, but clearly very concerned as well.
"You can't decide what I do! You're not my father!" Marie was shouting too. She had hoped Logan would understand.
"You're right. But I am the leader of X-Men, and I won't allow you to join the team. If you were injured I would never forgive myself. Don't you understand? You can't use my powers to heal you anymore." Logan sat down again.
"You can't heal any of the others either!"
"Bu-" Logan didn't know what to say. He simply cared too much about Marie to let her join the team. He had not liked it from the beginning. They had had too many casualties over the years.
"But they're not me." Marie said quietly. "I'm not a child anymore."
"I know, kid. I'll teach you self-defense, and maybe you can join the team, but I ain't promisin' anything!"
Marie hugged him tightly and thanked him many times. "When can we begin?"
X
A week after the 'teacher auditions', the student body was gathered in the auditorium. They hadn't been told what it was about, so of course everybody in the room was talking loudly about the reason they were there. The teachers sat in the front row, and when it seemed that all the students had arrived, Ororo entered the stage. Quickly the room became quiet. Everyone had great respect for their principal, who could control the weather and easily send a lightening blot through you. Ororo looked around for a while. Hank could tell that she was a bit nervous, but doubted any of the others knew. Ororo was a strong independent woman, without many fears, but she had a big heart and cared about her 'children' and that quickly transformed into fear of letting them down. Though she had never said it, she had terrible doubts about her competence as headmistress.
"Good day, everybody!" Ororo said "I have gathered you here because the fall break is ending soon. Some months ago we lost two teachers…" She was quiet for a moment as everybody remembered Professor Xavier and Mr. Summers with respect.
"The rest of the staff would have had a hard time filling their places, so we have added some people. Please give a warm welcome to your new teachers. First is Brian Braddock; he will teach English literature and physics." Brian Braddock entered the stage and the students clapped. Those who knew the girl named Elizabeth Braddock started asking her f they were related.
"Okay, then there is Doug Ramsey, who will teach math." Ororo continued. Again they clapped as he entered the stage. He was a handsome man, and most of the girls quickly noticed.
"Roberto DaCosta will teach Spanish." More clapping.
"Alison Blaire will teach music. We have not had the subject before, but I hope it will interest you."
Alison Blaire entered the stage with an electric guitar and started playing 'School's out'. After a minute of playing and improvising, she ended and the applause was supplemented with cheers and whistles.
"All right! And most of you already know Dr. Hank McCoy. He will teach biology and chemistry." The clapping was not quite as enthusiastic as with Alison Blaire, but still more than the others' as Hank was well-liked especially among the younger students. They all thought of him as a teddy bear.
"Charles Xavier taught German last year, and we have not been ably to find a replacement, so the subject will be cancelled this year." The students weren't sure if they were allowed to cheer, so they kept quiet.
X
After the presentation, the students went back to their previous occupations, the talk even more eager than before. They were all discussing the new teachers.
Ororo went to her office with Hank, to plan the schedules for the rest of the year. After some hours of work, Hank had to leave for the UN, and Ororo was left alone in Charles' old office. She didn't like being alone there. That was when she missed her mentor the most. She walked over to the large windows and stared at the (entirely natural) rain. She smiled as she thought of a little girl, who had complained that their headmistress would let it rain as she could so easily make it go away. Ororo had tried to explain that just because they had the power to do something it didn't necessarily mean that they should. The girl didn't understand, and Ororo knew that Xavier would have been much better at explaining it. Her thought were interrupted, as there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." she said, without turning around.
"I'm sorry to disturb you," a gentle male voice said with a German accent "but I heard you were looking for a German teacher."
Ororo turned around and couldn't believe her own eyes. "Kurt?"
The 'you're special' line is a nod to Minisinoo's great fanfic about movieverse-Scott's origin called 'Special'.
In the comicverse Brian and Elizabeth are twins, but I've taken some artistic license and changed the ages a bit. Besides, not many other things in the movies are like the comic, so why should this be?
"Hey there girly!" is for Louise.
The chapter title "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing" is by the band Garbage off the album, Version 2.0.
What did you think? Please review!!!! It's the only pay I get ;-