Every little detail
"Wait! Let me check that corridor first!" Scott told Jean telepathically as he expanded his mind the way Jean taught him to do, so he could make sure there weren't any other guards around the corner to stop them.
Getting inside the prison had been a relatively simple task, considering the fact that they had only been learning how to use each other's powers for a really short period of time. Jean had a really simple time adapting to use Scott's optic blasts, because she only had to keep them at bay by using the ruby quartz glasses or visor and eventually shoot a blast or too. Nothing too fancy as long as she avoided long fights or precission jobs.
Scott, on the other hand, had to slowly learn the delicate art of telekinesis and telepathy. Luckily for him, he had Jean to guide him and, as soon as he figured out how to read her mind while blocking out the rest of the people in the Mansion, she was able to help him with it.
The process had been mentally painful for Scott but it also happened to turn out extremely instructive for both of them in more than one way. Jean discovered that her love wasn't a quick learner as she had been while training under the Professor when she was a teenager, and he discovered that being the telepath of the group wasn't as nice as he had always thought it to be. Now he was learning for the first time what other people really thought about him and that was a really hard blow to his already shaky self esteem. Jean had done her best to make him feel better about himself, of course, but her usual efforts didn't seem to be enough to compensate for that extra excuse to feel unworthy. Telekinesis posed an even harder challenge for Scott, so they had decided to base their training and strategy on her optic blasts and his recently acquired ability to sense people and put them to sleep telepatically.
So far, Jean's plan of entering the facility the human way was proving to be flawless, despite the fact that they had ultimated the last details only minutes before going on the mission. Scott made a mental note to trust her more in that regard and decided that, from that moment on, he would be asking her whenever he felt unsure about a strategy instead of just bashing his head against a metaphorical wall until the Professor solved the dilemma for him.
Half an hour later and many floors below, they finally found the brig. A long corridor went out of the lab into the mutant ginney pig storage area. The place was much bigger than they had first imagined and considering the fact that the lab was relatively small, the cells seemd to occupy most of the basement floor. Scott approached one of the cells, where the electrified bars didn't manage to conceal the mutant inside, curled up in a tight ball on a pathetic excuse for a bed. "There's so many of them..." Jean whispered in concerned amazement as she walked through the corridor and saw that most of the cells were occupied. Scott was very aware of that fact, since his head had started aching the second they got close to the brig. All those people thinking and dreaming together were messing with his concentration but he tried to block out the migraine that threatened with affecting him.
"We have to help them," Jean decreed. "We can't," Scott argued. "I have no true control over your powers and we don't know how much longer the guards will stay asleep. There's no time to time to waste." "We must help them, Scott," Jean insisted concerned about the future of those poor mutants. "They'll die a lab rat if we don't," She pleaded with her best weathered-dog face as she rested her hand on his strong forearm. Scott hesitated for a moment and she took advantage of it. "Just this once. Everything will work out." He seemed to protest but she talked faster and said "Trust me." That did the trick. Her judgement had been so right so far, that he felt he owed Jean that much and decided to trust her.
Jean didn't wait for his answer and started bolting the locks with her optic blasts. Startled, the sleeping mutants inside the cells woke up in shock, amazed at the idea of being rescued and set free. "We're here to help you escape." Scott announced using his leading tone to suffocate any chat in the corridor. "This people will hunt you down, so I suggest you all lay low for a while and leave the country. There's a safe haven for anyone willing to believe in peace between our kind and humans and even if you don't, we'll help you get to safety." Jean gave him a significant look. "But for now let's concentrate on getting all of you out of here," he finished the speech in a hurry.
For a moment, the mutants stood silent in the treshold of their cells. Some exchanged worried glances with each other and the rest looked at Scott in doubt. "There's no time to waste! We need to move fast!" Scott reminded them authoritatively. "How do we know you don't want to use us for your own purposes?" A girl at the back asked defiantly. Scott recognized her as the girl they had been sent to rescue. The other mutants hesitated still, ennerved by the suggestion and Scott grew anxious, knowing that his control over Jean's powers was weak. He had no way of knowing when the guards he had put to sleep would wake up. For all he knew, they could be already on their way. "You don't but you're free to stay here and continue to serve as guinney pigs for the rest of your lives... or you can come with me." He argumented. This seemed to work because a couple of the mutants came out of their cells and walked towards him. That made the rest of the prisoners follow like a herd of scared lambs.
"This way!" Scott guided them to the end of the corridor and then through the maze that was the lab.
In a matter of minutes they were at ground level, running to the exit where the guards Scott had stunned still lay on the floor, unconscious. However, before any of the mutants could reach the high security door, a huge bomb-like blast rocked the entire building, destroying the wall ahead and covering them in debris. Burried alive, Jean tried to remain calm and used Scott's powers to blast herself free hoping not to hurt anyone else in the process. She knew she was taking a huge chance by doing so, but she also knew that helping the rest would be impossible from under the debris.
Once free, Jean instinctively looked for Scott. She found him a few feet away, doing a decent job at freeing himself with her TK. He hadn't wasted any time learning to control it, but since moving big boulders didn't require any fine motor skills, it turned out to be an intuitive job for him. Jean decided to leave him alone, not daring to risk hurting him with her newly acquired optic blasts.
A few moments later, Scott got rid of the debris trapping his upper body and scanned the area for Jean's red hair. When his eyes met her visor, he turned to help the rest of the mutants, who were already aiding each other out of the rubble. In the mean while, Jean looked for the cause of the explosion. That was usually Scott's job but since she was the one with the destructive power now, she guessed he'd have her do it. They had known each other so long, Jean knew what Scott would order without having to read his mind and he just took her place after hearing her think about taking his.
The cause of the explosion made its way through the hole before Jean could get out of the facilities to check the grounds. It was a tiny mutant with spikey hair and the ability to blow up things by touching them. She immediately recognized this Gambit look alike from a previous confrontation the X-men had had with him a few years back in the timeline the Phoenix intervened. "Scott!" She cried to call her attention now that she had no way of contacting him telepatically. He turned around to see several other mutants enter the destroyed building.
"Great!" Scott mumbled under his breath right before Jean started shooting at them with her optic blasts. He felt quite useless with Jean's powers absent her years of training, but refused to stay with his arms crossed so he did the only thing he had learned to do with his telepathy and concentrated on putting them to sleep, one at a time. The task turned out to be harder than he had imagined. With the guards, he had to worry about only a few of them at a time and that made them easier to block and simpler for him to concentrate. In this case, there were a hundred brains thinking at once, mentally screaming to get out of the debris and there was also the intruders to worry about. His headache kicked in and he found it impossible to block.
Jean saw him fall to the floor through the corner of her visor, but kept attacking the intruders, since keeping them at bay was the only way to protect him. Following her example, some of the recently freed mutants helped Jean against her enemies while a few others kept trying to free their comrades trapped under the debris.
The newly arrived mutants were shooting to kill and despite the effort of Jean and her allies, were winning the battle. Of the few captives helping her agianst the common enemy, only two remained unharmed while there were at least seven of them as far as Jean could see. The battle wouldn't last much longer and she knew they were going to lose, so she turned to Scott. If they were going to die, at least she wanted to do so looking at him.
Jean's mental state of desperation seemed to shake Scott out of his momentary paralisis. Using all his willpower, he managed to tune out most of the thoughts that cried for help in an attempt to locate the minds he was supposed to be attacking. With a lot of effort, he managed to single out the mutant whose powers resembled those of Gambit. He thought about putting him to sleep, but he knew the situation was desperate, he had seen that inside Jean's mind and realized that the circumstances called for more drastic measures.
With little training in either telepathy or telekinesis, Scott's options were limited, but he had no time to waste, so he decided to take a chance for once in his life. The determined look on his eyes caught Jean's attention and she knew he had some sort of plan. That thought gave her the strenght to keep on fighting and she charged at her enemies with renewed strenght. In the meanwhile, Scott organized his ideas into a plan of sorts and took a moment to block the migraine once more before attempting to do anything else.
When Scott considered that his mental situation got as good as it could become under the circumstances, he tracked down the mind of the mutant capable of blowing things up and attempted to take control over his psyche. He had no idea about what he was doing and it took him several attempts to get him to do more or less what he wanted, although the man moved somehow like a puppet. "Attack your friends," he ordered him trying to make the command as strong as he could. A moment later, several pairs of amazed eyes saw the tiny mutant turn agains his own team mates and Jean knew Scott had had something to do with it. She beamed at Scott for a brief moment before resuming her efforts to keep the intruders at bay.
The confusion the battle generated had given many of the mutant prisoners a chance to get out of their debris prison and recover and by the time the tiny mutant began attacking his own friends, there were several other mutants helping Jean and Scott. That turned the tide in favour of the X-men and demoralized the opposing team, which had started to retreat out, into the lab grounds. A couple of seconds later, however, an explosion similar to the one that had partially destroyed the building took place and the fight was over.
Scott had already started working on turning a second foe into a traitor when it happened. A bald mutant on their side had used his superior strenght to throw huge boulders at the enemies, serving the double purpose of freeing the fallen ones from under the rubble and repelling the foes. He succeeded a couple of times, managing to incapacitate two of their enemies. His third attempt brought along unexpected results, as the tiny mutant he was targetting tried to protect himself from the boulder using his own hands as a shield, for he knew his powers would take care of the piece of debris before it could hurt him. What the bombing mutant didn't foresee was the fact that the smaller pieces of concrete resulting from this new explosion could become deadly to others when travelling in all directions at high speed.
Jean immediately realized what had happened, as a thousand radios exploded inside her head at max volume. It took her only a second to silence them to a comfortable level and then she thought of Scott, felt his fear, his agony. The pain of his optic blasts coming out of his eyes for the first time in what felt like years was excruciating, as it had been when he was just a teenager discovering his powers for the first time. Her headache was nothing compared to his. She wanted to run to his side and help him but years of training made her check the battlefield first.
Bodies. The debris were covered with dead bodies, both the enemies' and those of the mutants they were trying to set free. The projectiles caused by the explosion had killed some of their allies and all of their foes, including the one responsible for the masacre, but she didn't care. There would be plenty of time to mourn the fallen and distribute guilt and, since the battle was clearly over, she rushed to Scott's side. He was all she cared about in the entire world.
She found him on the floor, holding his head tightly with his hands. Kneeling by his side, Jean placed one hand on his shoulder and offered Scott his visor with the other hand. "Here," she said warmly, as if talking to a child. At the same time, Jean used her powers to alter his perception so he wouldn't feel any pain and then projected what she saw inside his head so that he could easily know where to move his hand to get the visor. "Thanks," he managed to say. The explosion had caused him a few ugly looking scratches but none was really serious.
Seeing the pathetic state he was in, Scott stood up and pretended to feel better than he actually did, looking around to calculate the damage the explosion had caused. There were many injured crawling away from the wreckage zone, into the safety of the grounds and Scot knew that there was needed: There was still work to be done.
With the help of their powers and the few mutants that were still able to walk for themselves, Jean and Scott managed to free the survivors from under the debris and leave the crime scene before the police came. Jean tampering with the mind of the policemen to make them take a couple of wrong turns whenever she felt them close to the area had something to do with their successful escape, but her humility would never allow her to give herself the credit she deserved.
"I'm glad to hear your little power swap episode has reverted itself," the Professor admitted later that day, when the three of them discussed the matter at his office. "I guess the effects wore off after the mutant responsible for the exchange died," Jean theorized with a note of sadness in her voice. Her compassive nature didn't allow her to see the dead as foes but as people, people with families that would miss them and so, she felt for them.
"That is probably the cause, yes," he admitted calmly as usual. "I have to say I'm proud of the way you handled the situation. You outdid yourselves." the Professor congratulated them. "You managed to free many innocents from a horrible fate, rescued the survivors and brought your target to the mansion as I expected." "We were very lucky," Scott minimized his deeds as usual. "and many of the mutants we freed helped us as well." "Maybe," the Professor conceded. "But you've guided those poor people to safety, helped them go into hiding... and even recruited a few mutants into our cause. No one can deny that kind of feats deserve recognition, not even you Scott." He couldn't find a way to counter that argument so he just nodded.
A couple of days later, Jean took Scott to the beach for a walk. The weather was nice and it was a lovely spring day for a picnic. They walked in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts, going over the events that took place in the past few weeks.
Jean came out of her introspection first and took Scott's hand between her own. He stopped walking and looked at her inquisitively.
"Scott, I… I want to apologize for what I did to you and Emma." He tried to make her stop but she disregarded his expression and went on. "Only now I truly understand what I did to you by taking away your right to choose. I forced you to become something you loathe and made you feel like a cheater when you would have probably wanted to stay by my side, even if it meant to keep suffering every time I died."
For a moment, she looked at him full of guilt and blinked to cast away the tears that were clouding her green eyes. "I had no right to do that and I'm sorry for making you feel guilty of cheating on me. I can only imagine... I hope you can forgive me someday," she begged, making an effort not to sob.
"I have already forgiven you, Jean" He said in an affectionate tone, clumsily drying her cheek with his thumb before leaning forward to kiss her forehead, pressing his lips to her skin for a long time. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment, trying to let the gesture ease at least some of her guilt.
The afternoon breeze was getting colder and Scott incstinctively moved closer to Jean to protect her from the chill. He slid one arm around her waist in a protective way and then used his other hand to catch a lock of her hair blown by the wind. He tucked it behind Jean's ear in a motion almost too tender for someone like him.
"Can I ask you a favor?" Scott asked after looking into her eyes for a the longest time. "Anything," she replied wondering what it could be. "Make me forget everything about her. Every little detail," he begged. "If I keep seeing her on my mind the guilt will drive me insane and I'll never be able to enjoy this," as he said that last word, he caressed her cheek and neck with his free hand.
She looked sad, but nodded with determination. "Thanks," he said. "Just let me remember that it happened and that I finally understood that you did it because you thought it was the best thing for everyone... I don't want to forget what the Phoenix did for us, but I certainly don't need to keep seeing the details..." he avoided her gaze as he said that, looking over her shoulder instead, at the sea.
"Consider it done," she said. "Getting rid of her ghost once and for all will be my pleasure. Believe me" she said in a tone that let him know just how jealous she had felt all that time, despite the whole thing being her fault in the first place. "... but first, you need to take me back to the Mansion Mr. Summers," she demanded in a playful tone that took him by surprise. "It's getting cold out here and there's still a couple of things I need to learn to master before we forget all about her," she teased him by pressing her body closer against his to make sure he understood what he meant.
"Jean..." he protested having turned a deep shade of red. "You're blushing," she observed with her arms around his neck and an amused smile on her lips that only made Scott flush a darker color. "I really missed this," she confessed ambiguously, slowly stroking his hair with her hand.
"I love you, Jean," he said a moment later, looking into her eyes. His voice dennoted a conviction unusual for him. "And I love you, Scott, with all my heart," she replied honestly. "Then marry me, again," he demanded. "I will," she assured him. "That's the one thing worth enduring the pain of death and rebirth for," Jean said before he leaned to kiss her.
Author's note: WOW. I can't believe this is over! I'm gonna miss this fic T_T but I kind of like the way it ends. They've been through so much they deserve an ending like this. Of course, I've already started plotting the second part where I make their lives hell again ;) It might take a while, though... considering how long it took me to finish this fic... but I'll get there.
I'll take an hour tomorrow to go over the first chapters and write them anew. I'm not gonna change them of course! I like this fic the way it is, I just want to correct spelling mistakes and many gramatical issues I've noticed today as I re read it... I will paraphrase many parts to make them look better because I was a terrible writer when I started this fic and I sucked at english big time. But the essence will remain the same.
Thanks to all of you who have been here for me all this time reading and reviewing, looking amazed every time I posted a new chapter after a long time of not writing. I know I would have never finished writing this if it weren't for your support so, THANK YOU!