Dark Dawn

Chapter three: The Search For Something More

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.

"Kurt? Is it really you?" Ororo ran into the blue mutant's arms. He was quite surprised with his warm welcome.

"It's so good to see you. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in such a long time." Ororo said and hugged him tightly. She had really missed him, and there had been a lot of times when his comfort and guidance could have been useful to her.

"Well, I have been a lot of places. But when I heard about what happened with the cure and all that, I thought you could need a hand or two here." Kurt said and smiled shyly, "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing just fine. I am the headmistress now."

"Of course you are. Nobody would be more perfect for the job than you."

"Except the professor and Scott" Ororo muttered to herself.

"Do you still need a German teacher?" Kurt asked.

"Not anymore…" Ororo said and smiled.

X

Scott had showered after a long session of rehabilitation. When he came back to his room -- closely followed by a big mutant, Scott was sure didn't mean to be noticed -- Remy was already there.

"Let me guess. Eggs and bacon?" Scott said, closing the door and gesturing towards the tray Remy was holding.

"Non. Gumbo!" Remy said with a smile. "Don' hate it 'till you try it!"

"Exactly what is gumbo?" Scott asked with a pessimistic face.

"Well it… is a mix of t'ings. A Cajun meal. Remy hopes you like spice, 'cos this stuff is hot!!"

Scott sat down on the bed next to Remy. "Well you—" Scott was about to say; you only live once, and rolled his eyes at too many clichés that just didn't work in the mutant world.

"Comment?"

"Uh, you … seem to know what you're doing when it comes to food, so I guess I'll trust you on this one." Scott said and took the tray. On the tray there was a deep plate with the so-called gumbo. A glass of water stood next to it. Scott quickly needed the water, because Remy had been right about the spices.

"Do you like it?" Remy asked.

"I'll get used to it" Scott said, after nearly emptying the glass. Remy took the glass and went outside to fill it again. Scott waited with his next bite until he came back.

"So how's it going?" Remy asked

"It's getting better. I'm hoping I'll soon be back to my old shape." Scott said, and took his next bite.

"You planning to escape then?"

Scott hesitated, wondering if it was wise to tell Remy about his plans.

"It's alright, you can tell Remy… oh, wait! Merde!"

"What's wrong?" Scott asked, as Remy looked nervously around.

"Sinister is always listening…" Remy whispered. "It's not safe 'ere!"

They were both silent for a while, Remy discovering hidden cameras and microphones, Scott eating.

Once Remy had found and destroyed them all, he returned to Scott's bed.

"'E can't 'ear or see us now" Remy said.

"And how do you know he won't be coming in here to see what's going on?" Scott asked

"'Cause 'e's busy," Remy said.

"With what?"

"Experimenting" Remy said.

"Well, then I'm definitely escaping!" Scott said.

Remy smiled, "Good, I'll 'elp you!"

"Why?"

"Because, Remy can't escape alone and neither can you." Remy said, not willing to tell Scott about Sinister's plans. Remy just hoped they could get out in time, before the evil mutant did whatever he was going to do.

"Fair enough"

X

Warren Kenneth Worthington III had just gotten back to the school from a meeting in New York. After what happened at Alcatraz Island, his father was slowly beginning to accept him the way he was. He was also beginning to include him in the family business. Warren was proud and grateful, but bored nonetheless. As soon as he got to his room, he lost his shirt, tie and the wing rack that held his wings tight to his body. His wings spread out in all their glory. They were aching after a long time of having been folded together. He opened his big window and flew out of it.

Elizabeth Braddock, Betsy among friends, had noticed Warren's arrival and quickly ran to the attic, where there was a window that led to the roof. On the roof she admired Warren for some time. He did look like an angel with the long white wings, blond hair and blue eyes. She was falling for him, and had to do something about it. Betsy was a girl of action, and she was not afraid to take chances.

He noticed her immediately. He wondered what such a beautiful and tough girl would want with him, but put on a little show for her, nonetheless. After some time he flew to the roof and settled down next to her. Her long dark purple hair was flowing in the wind.

"How's it going wing-boy?" she asked him, with her British accent.

"It's alright. The wings are a little tense, so I was just stretching them a bit." He said and tried to sound confident, which he wasn't! She found it cute.

"I see." She said and moved a little closer "Wanna take me for a flight some day?"

"Uh… sure, if you want to."

"I'd love to! Maybe we could go see a movie or something afterwards…"

"Really?" Warren couldn't believe what he was hearing, "like a… a—"

"A date? Yeah, like a date. So, are you up for it?"

"Alright." Warren tried not to, but he was grinning like an idiot.

"Good, shall we say Friday? Around 8?" she asked coolly, but inside she was screaming with joy.

Warren nodded still smiling, "I better get to class. I'll see you around" he said, and flew.

Betsy let out a girlish giggle, and tried to catch her breath. She was finally going on a date with the millionaire angel. She was also going to be late for music class if she didn't hurry up.

X

Betsy arrived in the music room shortly after Warren. His wings were once again folded underneath his clothes, which were now jeans and a cashmere sweater. Betsy smiled and winked at him, and he blushed and gave a shy smile back. She found that so adorable.

The room was a relatively small room, normally used for regular classes. Now it was equipped with 20 chairs and a piano. The senior students were slowly beginning to find their seats, when Alison Blaire entered. She had brought a guitar.

"Alright! Be quiet everybody!" she said loudly, and the room quieted. "I'm Ms. Blair and I'm your music teacher. I know you haven't had music as a subject here, so we'll start slowly. Do any of you play instruments?" A few students put their hands up, and told which instruments they played.

"Good! Now, besides all of the historical and theoretical stuff you need to learn, we are also going to do a lot of practical stuff. As you are a very small class, I'm going to make you a large band. Now what does a band consist of? Yes Jubilation?"

"Jubilee! Do you mean a rock band or like jazz or something?" Jubilee asked.

"Just a normal band, playing normal popular music. And by popular I don't necessarily mean pop music. Just the kind of music that is played in the radio. Katherine?"

"Just call me Kitty. Piano, guitar, bass, drums, maybe some brass instruments, strings… still depends a lot on the music you're gonna play."

"Very good. Now let's say we're going to play uh… let's see… this song by Oasis: Wonderwall. Do you all know it?" Most of the students nodded, while Alison plugged her iPod to the stereo. "Which instruments would you use then?"

X

As time went by, more and more of Raven's skin was becoming blue, and her eyes were still yellow. She didn't know what to make of it, until she decided to visit the small forgotten area of New York City where the Morlocks lived. Most people called the place Mutieville. The Morlocks were mutants; the ones whose mutations were too obvious and abnormal, that they weren't able to walk around in public. If it hadn't been for Magneto, she would probably have lived there too. A fact she tried very hard to forget.

A big number of Morlocks had understandably taken the cure, and most of those who hadn't had joined Magneto and died at the Phoenix' hand. But now it seemed that most of the cured mutants were coming back. Raven met one of her, he couldn't be called a friend, but they knew each other. He was called Caliban. As a mutant his skin had been gray, and his bones abnormal. After the cure, he had become a rather good looking man, but now his bones had begun to grow again.

"I see it's happening to you too" he started to say, as he noticed her yellow eyes "Too bad. You were so pretty as a hum—"

Raven slapped him across the face. "Don't you dare say it!" she yelled at him. She felt the angry tears fill up her eyes again. She quickly blinked them away and pulled herself together.

"What is happening to us? Why isn't the cure working?" she asked calmly.

He thought a while about what to answer. He was afraid that she might slap him again, or worse.

"We don't know. It just happens. I guess the cure just isn't permanent" he said with a sad face. "If you want some kind of analysis or something, maybe you should see Hank McCoy."

"I don't need that. When you're fully mutated again, will you call me? I need you to find a certain mutant for me."

X

"So what did you think of Ms. Blaire's class?" Bobby asked his girlfriend.

"It was great. It's nice to get away from the books sometimes. And she was so nice. She really understands us, and knows a lot about our kind of music." Marie answered.

"Come on! Oasis?! She's totally living in the wrong millennium" Jubilee said from behind them. Marie, Kitty, Bobby, Peter and Jubilee were all on their way from the music class to physics.

"There's nothing wrong with Oasis. Just because they aren't from last week, it doesn't mean their music isn't good." Kitty said.

"Oh wake up Kitty-cat! Nobody likes your old-fashioned loser-rock!" Jubilee said, half teasing half serious.

"Just because she doesn't like your kind of music, it doesn't mean she is a loser!" Marie said, surprised that she was defending Kitty. For some time she had been rather jealous of her and Bobby's close friendship. "Besides Oasis was more pop than rock. And they were good!"

Kitty was just as surprised and Marie was. Jubilee stormed off to find some of her other (more popular) friends, and left the four others.

"Wow, thanks!" Kitty said to Marie sincerely.

"You're welcome. Jubilee is a good friend, but she can be a bitch sometimes. It's not fair that she thinks that her way is the only right way." Marie said and smiled. Bobby and Peter nodded to each other, smiling. The air was cleaned between the girls, and they could all be friends again.

X

Scott had completely lost his sense of time during his stay at the base, because he never saw the sun, so he simply slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry or when Remy fed him. He had often thought about asking Remy about the time and date, but always forgot.

At a time where he usually slept, he was now sneaking around in the base. He figured that most of the other inhabitants would be asleep. And he was right; apart from the occasional guards the base was asleep. He found his way back to the lab, and this time he went inside. Inside the large but dark room, there was everything a mad scientist could need and more. Some of the instruments looked more like they should be used for torture than experiments. And Scott was afraid that some of them were.

He found test-tubes, x-rays, radioactive chemicals, and other dangerous liquids. And was that scratch marks? They looked like Logan's claws and appeared on many walls. Probably from the time Logan had escaped the Weapon X program, or when he and the other X-Men including Scott had escaped from Stryker. The more he found, the more he wanted to run for his life, and get as far away from the place as he could. Unfortunately he knew it would be impossible without his power blasts.

Finally he got to a small closed off room. Inside he found Remy lying on a table, asleep or unconscious. He had several needle-marks and scars on his arms, and some wounds. He was pale and breathing heavily.

"Remy! Remy wake up!" Scott said "Wake up!"

Scott checked the pulse and opened Remy's eyes. Suddenly Remy grabbed Scott's hands and both sets of hands started glowing.

"Remy, it's me. I'm not gonna hurt you." Scott said calmly.

Remy blinked a few times, and looked up at Scott. Their hands stopped glowing.

"I'm sorry" Remy said in a low voice. He sat up and looked at his arms. He quickly pulled the sleeves down to hide the scars and wounds "I'm sorry you 'ad to see dat"

"I have seen much worse, thank you." Scott said "What the hell happened to you?"

"As Remy told you, Sinister likes experimenting on unlucky mutants. C'est moi" Remy said and shook his shoulders.

"Remy, we're getting out of here. Now!" Scott said.

"Now? Are you crazy? Now de security is de most."

"What do you mean? There are only a few guards that we can easily take out—"

"Mais non, you see dat's what Sinister wants us to believe, but really dere are 'idden guards and traps everywhere" Remy explained "Non, it's better if we wait until tomorrow. Jus' be ready and I will come for you, d'accord?"

Scott wanted to protest, but found that he had to trust Remy. "Sure, whatever you say. I hope you know what you're doing."

"Remy always knows what 'e's doing!" he said and smiled.

"Right. Now lie down, I'll take care of those" Scott said, referring to the wounds. He had after all lived with a doctor for almost a decade.

X

"Okay, if a guy comes up to you from behind like this…" Logan stood behind Marie in the gym. It was the first of her fighting lessons. "…And attacks you…" Logan put his arms around Marie's neck "What do you do?"

"Well, if I knew how to do it, I'd grab you and, you know, throw you over my head, like in the movies." Marie said, dead sure it was the wrong answer.

"Right… if today, you were attacked like this, what would you do?" Logan asked rolling his eyes, tightening his grip around Marie's neck. He hated doing it, but knew he had made a promise and had to keep it.

"I don't know. Probably scream and try to kick him or something…" Marie sighed "Can't you just tell me how I'm supposed to do?"

"I need to know how much you know. What you're capable of." Logan said "Now take this seriously, this isn't a movie. In this world people die! If you don't know how to defend yourself, you're as good as dead!"

"Okay, alright!" Marie took a deep breath and tried to move free of his grip. She knew it was hopeless, but had to try. Then she stepped on his toes and tried to kick his legs.

"Alright, now because you're a small woman, this won't do much difference to the attacker, but as you said even small women can through heavier men in the way you said. Okay, grab my arms." Logan said and Marie did as told "The trick is to use your back to lift me, not your arms. Obviously you can lift me anyway, but Sam here will be your sparring partner for the lesson"

The scrawny boy named Samuel Guthrie or just Sam was a few years younger than Marie. He was nearly invincible, but not particularly heavy, and therefore a good sparring partner. He had been standing in the back of the gym until Logan had called him forth. Logan stepped away and let Sam take his place. Marie smiled at him, her way of telling him not to be afraid, and grabbed his arms instead. Sam nodded back. Logan took a place in front of Marie and instructed her in how to throw Sam. After many attempts, she succeeded.

After that they did some cardio and weightlifting. When they we're done Marie showered and met Logan in the kitchen. She was hungry and he had made her omelets.

"Here try this. The protein will be good for you." Logan said and placed the plate with omelets in front of her.

"I didn't know you cooked." Marie said surprised

"Neither did I, but I just thought I'd try it" Logan said.

"Thanks. So how did I do?" Marie asked.

"Considering you've had the danger room training before, you did alright. But you've always relied on 'borrowing' the others' powers in the danger room, and now you can't do that"

"I know. So how did I do?"

"You did fine. But I'm glad you asked me to do this. I'm afraid you're gonna need it."

X

"How was your first day?" Ororo asked the new teachers at dinner.

"It's was great!" Alison said "I think the kids really enjoyed it"

That was the recipe for a good teacher, Ororo thought, someone who found joy in the children having a good time.

"I'm glad. Brian, what did you think?" Ororo asked.

"Sure. It was nice. Charles taught them well." Brian said and smiled. It lifted years off of his face.

"I have a question" Doug Ramsey said "What happened to the other teachers? Losing three teachers at the same time seems an awful lot to me." The others nodded in agreement.

Ororo and Logan looked nervously at each other. Hank wasn't present as he was at work at the UN. Finally Ororo spoke: "Some months ago we lost our friend dr. Jean Grey. Then some weeks ago Professor Charles Xavier and Scott Summers were… killed." The other teachers except Kurt gasped in horror.

"What happened?" Alison asked.

Ororo looked down, and Logan grasped her hand under the table.

"Maybe some other time" Logan said. For now all you need to know is that they were killed.

Ororo looked up and smiled "Of course you need not worry about your own safety at this school. I assure you that we have taken every safety precaution possible."

"And now that Hank McCoy has become ambassador, the world has become a much safer place for mutants" Roberto said.

"It has indeed." Ororo said.

X

When Scott got back to bed after talking to Remy, he didn't notice the dark figure in the far corner of the room. He didn't bother turn on the light, but went straight to bed. He lay for a long time, thinking about what had happened. He could not wait until they got away from this place. Far too many terrible things had gone on here.

He finally fell asleep, but was awaken after a few hours by an excruciating pain going through his entire body. It was, if possible, even worse than when Jean had atomized him. After some minutes, the pain was completely gone. Scott was left with a weird feeling of his body being too small for him. Like there was not enough space for his soul to fit in there. It was even worse in his head, and it ended up giving him a headache. He didn't fall asleep again that night, but the weird feeling eventually disappeared, and the dark figure was gone as well.

The chapter title "The Search For Something More" is by the band Antifreeze

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