Chapter 30
He's a superpowered alien. At night he patrols the streets of Bayville catching criminals and saving people...in-between homework, writing for the school paper, training sessions, spending time with his girlfriend.
There hasn't been as much of that last one since yesterday morning. Rogue is still mad at him for taking Wanda's side as she accused him of while she yelled at him.
Clark is, truthfully, a little sick of it...of all of this aggro between Rogue and Wanda. He hates that Rogue is mad at him but her reasons...well that's the point. It has to do with Wanda and therefore she refuses to talk about it.
So basically he has no means to resolve this at the minute. He's not going to apologise for the fact she is being completely unreasonable. He never took a side so how can he apologise for something he wasn't doing? In fact Clark thinks he has been way more patient than perhaps he should have. It's been a month since he told Rogue he would let her tell him in her own time.
'Well she is certainly taking her sweet time isn't she,' his inner Kal snarks.
Clark shoves his hands in his pockets as he walks home from school rather depressed. He had chosen his own way home, not in the mood for company...or to put it another way he's brooding.
So to return to where he started this thought he's a superpowered alien. You would think his life would be great but in reality it wasn't and the superpowered alien part only makes his life more complicated in all honesty.
Clark sighs and his hearing spreads out and he hears...Logan roaring?
That can't be good. Taking a quick look around he jogs into an alley before switching to superspeed. His journey home takes seconds and he finds Domino, Wolverine, Storm and Beast battling what look like mutated trees that are walking about the front yard.
One is about to smack Domino down with a branch so Clark zips in and blocks.
"Perfect timing," Domino remarks. "Now why can't all men be like you?" she asks with a mock sad, pouty face.
"Then I would stop being special," Clark quips as he pulls hard and yanks the tree into the air and slams it down.
Domino chuckles.
"What is going on?" Clark asks as he pins the struggling plant down.
"Haven't a clue...Logan! Stop chopping at them!" she suddenly yells at Wolverine who is using his claws to slice apart the tree he is fighting.
"What?" Clark asks.
"Ever seen Fantasia?"
"Loved that movie!" he enthuses with child-like glee. "Uh I mean once," he switches to a more stoic tone.
Domino eyes him. "That was about as smooth as me before my bikini wax," she jokes at his poor attempt to cover himself. "Anyway think Sorcerer's apprentice. There was only one tree when we started."
Oh Clark gets it. Like the mop that Mickey Mouse keep chopping up only for more to grow out of the pieces. "One of those days."
"Yep," Domino confirms with a sigh.
"How...Wanda," Clark suddenly says the name.
"Say what?"
Clark points at her. "Wanda."
Domino looks and sees Wanda is just standing there and has that far off expression again...just like after the Danger Room went nuts. "Oh I'm never going to live this down," she suddenly complains.
"What?"
"Logan had his suspicions something was going on with Hexy girl and now I'm going to have to admit he was right. My ego can't take it I tells ya."
"Lets try and find a way to stop the killer trees first and we'll deal with Wanda later," Clark proposes.
Dealing with the killer trees in the end meant Clark vaporising them with his heat vision. They didn't grow back after that. When everyone else gets home they find a scorched, wrecked, front lawn.
"Like what happened here?" Kitty asks.
"Yeah. Someone have a party and forget to invite us?" Tabby wonders because it looked like one hell of a party if it was.
"Time Bomb! Zip it!" Logan yells, now officially in a foul mood.
"Where's Wanda?" Clark asks.
"Wanda. It's always freakin Wanda," Rogue mutters as she storms past her boyfriend, giving him the glare of death, not bothering to stick around for the explanation.
"She is not the only one responsible here," the Professor adds. He too had been drawn out by the mutated trees and had spotted someone he knew before she vanished.
"Who else was there Charles?" Hank asks.
"Agatha Harkness."
"Who?" Storm asks.
"An old...acquaintance," Charles says with a little distaste to show that his last encounter with her hadn't been a favourable one. "I will explain later," he promises. "Right now we must concentrate on Wanda," he decides what the focus must be.
Clark closes his eyes and listens. By now everyone close to him he has learned to detect their unique heart rhythm. With Wanda he hears strangled sobs as well. In an instant he is gone with the usual accompanying gust of wind.
Wanda had ran. The very thing she told herself she would never do. Running was a sign of weakness...of being afraid. She had been afraid all those years locked up in the place and she told herself no more.
However this was not fear for herself that drove her to run. It was fear for everyone else around her. She had no wish to harm her friends. That's why she had to get away. To protect them from herself. It had all spiralled out of control quicker than she could quite grasp. 5 days ago she knew nothing of magic and witches and now she was a real witch with real mystical power that was beyond even her simplest ability to reign in.
She feels a sob well up but manages to half-strangle it. Wanda comes to a stop amongst the trees of the woods near the Institute. She sees a fallen tree and sits herself down upon it.
Wanda brushes a tear from her eye. It sits on her finger and she looks at it. When was the last time she actually cried she asks herself. It's so long ago she can't remember. She had thought she used all her tears up long ago.
Then there is the familiar gust of wind. "Go away Clark!" she yells at him without turning to look.
Wanda hears the crunch as he walks on the undergrowth and he sits down next to her. "That's not going away," she says through gritted teeth.
"I'm not going anywhere," Clark tells her, in a soft soothing tone.
"Get away from me!" she screams.
"Wanda..."
"No! You don't understand! You have to get away before..."
"Before what? You hurt me? Nope. Sorry. Not a good enough reason."
Wanda finally turns her head to look at him with a piercing glare. "Are you stupid? Did you not see what I did?"
"I saw," Clark replies calmly.
"Then get away from me!"
"Nope," he refuses once again, popping the p.
Wanda lets out a cry of frustration and gets to her feet and starts walking away only for Clark to blur in front of her. "Clark!" she cries out in annoyance.
Clark reaches up and removes the glasses off his face so he can look at her clearly in the eye. "Wanda," he says softly. "Running away does not solve anything."
"How would you know?" she snaps off harshly.
"Because I've been there, done that and the t-shirt's on order. They keep promising it's coming but there's always some delay," he says with a put-on resigned shrug.
Wanda cracks a tiny smile before she catches herself. "You don't understand."
"That you're afraid you'll hurt someone?"
Wanda nods.
"Wanda. I worry about that every second of every day," he says in haunted tones.
Wanda looks at him curiously and a little confused.
Clark smiles ruefully. "People see how much I can lift but they don't understand what it really means to be that strong. To me most people might as well be made of the most fragile glass. One momentarily lapse in control and they shatter in my hands and the worst part of it is that I just keep getting a little stronger every day and I don't know if it is ever going to stop. Then there's the fact I can kill with a look. Scott can back me up on how that feels if you really want more proof that you're not alone. Wanda I get you're afraid but please don't run away from your friends," he asks of her.
Wanda looks at him with a forlorn look before her eyes falls to the ground. Her arms wrap around herself. Tears well up in her eyes.
Clark takes a few steps forward and hugs her. It is what his mother would always do when he was upset. She would just hold him and it always made him feel better.
Wanda finds herself melting into Clark's embrace. It feels so nice, warm and secure. She can't remember the last time she felt like that and that is when she starts. She starts telling Clark everything about what has been happening to her and how she feels like she is spiralling out of control.
Clark listens carefully as Wanda's voice cracks with emotion many times and tears leak down her cheeks. He rubs her back a little. "It's alright you know. I go through the same thing every time a new power emerges."
"You do?"
"Sure. My powers didn't come all at once. I mean I've always been strong and fast but the others developed one by one and I had no idea what was happening to me or how to control them but eventually I figured out the trigger and once you know what the trigger is you learn how to control the on/off switch...for those powers I can turn off. The others...it's like I said; every second, every day."
"Even right now?"
"Even right now," Clark confirms that even holding her like this he has to be self-aware enough not to squeeze too hard and crush her.
After awhile holding her Clark leads Wanda back to the fallen tree and they sit down next to each other. "You ok now?" he asks her.
"Not really," Wanda says morosely as she wipes the tears off her face. "I still don't know how to control my power."
"It takes time and I'll help anyway I can."
"Thanks...but we both know there is only one person who can really help me."
"Dr Strange," Clark guesses. The Professor told Clark about him and while Clark is reluctant to expose what he is to help Wanda he had agreed for the Professor to let Dr Strange know.
"I'll have to leave," she says with deep sadness. She doesn't want to but all this has made her see there is no choice. It hardly needs thought upon any longer. If she wants to protect her friends she has to get these powers under control and only Dr Strange can help her do that.
"It might not be for long," Clark suggests.
"What do you mean?"
"Like I was saying about my powers. Once you find the trigger and learn how to control it maybe it's possible you can come back."
"You think so?" Wanda says with some hope that might be a possibility.
"Why not? You can ask Dr Strange but I see no reason that says you will have to stay with him indefinitely."
Wanda...she had truly not thought that. She thought if she left it would be permanent. She'll definitely have to ask Dr Strange. Maybe she should have asked him when he proposed it a couple of days ago, if she is being honest, but it never occurred to her to ask.
"Why do I always have to leave the place I call home?" Wanda says in a quiet voice.
"You're not leaving your home. Your home will always be here," Clark assures her.
"Why did my father never think like that?" Wanda says, venom slipping into her tone.
"I don't know. I wish I could give you an answer but I can't."
"I don't expect you to. I just...I hate him and Pietro. I hate them," she says with real venom. "They just dumped me and forgot I existed and..."
Clark puts an arm across her shoulder. "And that is something neither I nor your friends will ever do to you," he promises.
That's part of what Wanda is afraid of. Being rejected by her friends like her father rejected her. "You promise?" she asks in a small voice.
"I can promise that I'm not your father. I'm your friend. I'm here for you. If anyone has an issue about what happened they can take it up with me although I don't believe they will. Accidents happen Wanda. Around here they happen practically every day."
That's true Wanda has to concede. She sighs. "They'll be happening at Dr Strange's now," she says, accepting that she must leave if she is to learn to control her new abilities.
"Yeah. I sure hope he has his insurance paid. I wonder what type of policy covers mystical mishaps?"
"You're so weird," Wanda mutters at his train of thought.
"You're not the first to say it and you won't be the last."
"I guess I should go tell the Professor about me choosing to leave," Wanda decides. Enough hiding.
"Yeah but whatever happens, like I said that night on the rooftop, if you should ever need me just shout my name and I'll be there."
Wanda looks at him with a bemused expression. "We don't know where it is I go. Could be on the other side of the world for all we know."
"Then give me a week. My powers are growing."
"A week?" Wanda asks, sceptical about his claims.
"Ok. 2...at the outside."
Wanda giggles and tries to cover her mouth to stop it(because she doesn't giggle!) and she ends up letting out a loud snort.
"See. Told you you should do that more often."
"Do what?"
"Smile."
And Wanda does that very thing and smiles. "I wish..." she starts to say and then stops.
"Wish what Wanda? What do you wish...and I think I just invented a new tongue twister," he remarks with a dorky look of confusion.
Wanda slaps him across the arm for that.
"What do you wish Wanda?" Clark asks again in a soft reassuring tone in that she can tell him.
"I wish..." she hesitates because it sounds stupid and needy.
"You can tell me. It'll never leave here," he swears.
"I wish...I wish..." she bites her lower lip.
"Tell me," Clark gently encourages her.
"I wish...I had a brother like you," she confesses.
"Then you have one," Clark almost instantly replies.
"Really?"
"Sure...although there is a down side."
"What?"
"Well since I think of Kitty as the irritating little sister I never wanted I believe that makes her your little sister as well."
"In that case I take it back," Wanda says.
Clark shakes his head. "No, no, no, no, no. Too late. We already agreed. You're stuck."
"No!" Wanda mock wails in horror.
A short time later Clark and Wanda return to the mansion and she goes to tell the Professor her decision. She finds him, by now, back in his office.
"If that is what you want," the Professor says, accepting her decision, as he gazes at her standing there, looking conflicted.
"It's not what I want," Wanda tells him in no uncertain terms. "It's what I need to do. What happens next time my powers go off and I hit someone instead. I...almost hurt them in the Danger Room," she says with overflowing guilt. "I'm...sorry," she feels she should apologise.
"Accidents happen Wanda," Charles assures her, showing he is not angry at her. "Especially around here," he adds.
Wanda smiles a little. "That's what Clark said."
"I'll contact Stephen," he tells her.
"Thank you," Wanda says in a quiet, resigned, tone.
"Before you go, Wanda, tell me about Agatha."
Wanda looks surprised at his mention of the name. "You know her?"
"Agatha has been around a long time."
"I...she helped me to control my powers. She was there when Mystique broke me out. I don't know how Mystique knew her."
"The same way I do."
Wanda looks at the Professor puzzled.
"Mystique...your father...we were not always on opposing sides. We were once friends. All of us."
"W-what happened?" Wanda asks, her curiosity getting the better of her despite her father being involved.
Charles' expression becomes sad. "It's a long story. To be short sometimes things just fall apart no matter how hard you fight to hold them together," he says with much regret.
"She said she had a vision of...I guess my powers emerging and said she came to help me," Wanda gives her interpretation of what Agatha said.
"That's possible," Charles can concede. "Visions are common for those who are magically inclined. Certain mutants have the same ability."
"She said that I had to go with her. I refused to go with her. I didn't trust her but she kept insisting and insisting and I just...got angry."
Charles brow furrows. Why would Agatha have been that insistent? It implies her vision must have been about more than just Wanda's current state. He'll have to look into it. "Well if I see Agatha I will have words with her about her manners. She should know better," he says to assure Wanda he will not tolerate one of his students being treated in that fashion.
"I'll go pack shall I?"
Charles nods in acceptance. "Just so you know Wanda, whatever happens, you will always be welcome here."
"Clark said the same thing...more or less," Wanda says with a small, but sad, smile. With that she turns rounds to head to her room and pack.
"You really have to go?" Tabby asks of Wanda as she watches her friend pack her belongings. Wanda had apologised for what happened in the Danger Room the other day. Tabby easily accepted it. A couple of the others were 'freaked out' by what Wanda had done but Tabby wasn't. Tabby was more upset about the prospect of losing her friend.
"What choice do I have Tabby? Next time who knows what I'll do."
"Turn Bobby into a toad?" Tabby mischievously suggests.
"For his sake he better hope not because I wouldn't be inclined to turn him back," Wanda says with her own mischievous grin.
Tabby grins wider at that joke.
Wanda sighs. "I really don't want to Tabby but I have to," she says, sad at leaving Tabby, who is essentially, for all it counts, her very first friend.
"I'll...I'll miss you," Tabby says honestly, upset she is losing her friend.
"I'll miss you too," Wanda returns the sentiment. "But hopefully I won't be away too long. Just long enough to get a handle on these powers."
"And then just think of the fun we can have with real magical powers to play pranks," Tabby proposes with a wicked grin.
Wanda has to admit that does sound a little fun.
A short time later, bag packed, Wanda emerges from her room. By now she guesses everyone will have heard she is going to be leaving. That'll mean a lot of goodbyes she doesn't really feel like making. Maybe she can get them all together and just say it the once. Might be easier for her.
"So you're leaving then."
Wanda frowns at that rather flat, business-like statement. She turns her head to the left to see Rogue. "Yeah. I am. Happy about it?" she asks in an aggressive tone.
"Delighted. Finally means ah won't have ta live with ya coming up with ways ta hog all tha dang limelight."
"Excuse me?" Wanda asks, sure she must have heard that wrong.
"Ya heard meh."
"I heard you but I can't believe that came from someone who throws a tantrum every time the attention isn't on her."
Rogue's face darkens. "What do ya mean by that?"
"You think the whole world revolves around you. Here's a reality check. It doesn't!"
"Are ya speaking inta a mirror because that's what ya should beh saying ta yourself."
"Ha! I'm not the one who threw a hissy fit at their boyfriend over the kitchen table!" Wanda says, her voice rising in volume.
"Don't ya dare bring mah relationship with Clark inta this!" Rogue shouts back, rapidly becoming pissed. "Didn't ya learn that from last tahme ah kicked your ass!"
Now Wanda was pissed. "You didn't kick anything! It was the others interfering that saved you!" she yells.
"In your dreams!"
"Any time you want a rematch I'm available!" Wanda dares Rogue.
"Yeah? How about right now!" Rogue shouts as she tackles Wanda to the ground.
The girls rolls about on the floor wrestling, scratching, punching and insulting each other.
"That's it!" a voice booms before Rogue and Wanda find themselves physically lifted off of each other and into the air.
Both are taken in complete shock by the fact it is Clark that has them, his face as dark as thunder. Rogue doesn't think she has ever seen this look on his face.
"I have had enough," Clark says angrily, enunciating every word slowly.
The world blurs and before Rogue and Wanda can readjust they find themselves planted down on a bed.
Rogue instantly recognises this as Clark's room. "Clark what are ya..."
Clark cuts her off with a severe raising of his index figure, as a warning gesture, and a look of steel in his eyes. When he speaks there is an eerie calm to his tone "I have been patient. I have been beyond patient. I have waited and waited for you to tell what happened between you and Wanda over the summer. That was a month ago and all I have had is evasion and silence and every time you two are in the same room I feel like I'm walking on eggshells trying not to upset either of you. No more. We are sorting this out and no-one is leaving this room until I get an answer."
"But Clark!" Rogue begins to protest but he cuts her off again.
"Rogue. I love you but this has to stop. We're getting to the bottom of this and then you two are going to work out some way to at least part on civilised terms when Wanda leaves."
"You must be joking?" Wanda snorts.
Clark turns his stern glare onto her. "Do I look like I'm joking?"
Wanda physically recoils from the impact of his look. "Um...no."
Clark nods to say she is correct. He walks over to the door and closes it before he leans against it, blocking any attempt at escape. He folds his arms across his chest. "So who wants to go first?" he asks them.
Rogue just looks at him in complete stunned silence. She had never...not ever seen this side of him before.
Wanda has the same look.
The girls look at each other before both saying, accusing the other, "This is all your fault!"
Clark's gaze does not waver for one second as he waits.
Out in the greenhouse Martha and Ororo were indulging in their shared love of gardening.
Martha was just gently pruning a few flowers back when she lets out a sad sounding sigh.
"What's the matter?" Ororo asks her friend.
"I'm just thinking about Wanda," she explains.
Ororo smiles warmly in understanding. It pulled at her heart too whenever a student left. When Volcana had left that had greatly upset Martha. Ororo's friend had put so much of herself into trying to help Claire and now...well no-one knew where she was. The connection with Wanda may not be as strong but there is one. "I'm certain one day she'll be back," Ororo says assuredly. "This is just what she has to do. The same as anyone who comes here. Dr Strange is the best person to help her with her new abilities."
"I know what you're saying Ororo. I do but I'll still miss her."
"As will I."
"It won't be the same without wondering when she'll level the mansion," Martha jokes.
Ororo laughs, a wonderful sound as matter of fact.
Martha returns to tending her flower. "So I was meaning to ask. What is going on with you and Logan?"
Ororo freezes, stock still. "W-what do you mean?" she asks with an uncharacteristic stutter. Ororo is almost always serene, calm and carries herself with an almost regal air.
"You've been avoiding each other like the plague ever since the party at the weekend," Martha had noticed.
Ororo returns to planting the flower she was working on into it's pot as her mind works through what to say in response. It's not as if she is ashamed. She's not. She can remember it all clearly now and she did nothing to be ashamed about. It is just complicated.
"Ororo?" Martha queries gently.
Ororo sighs. "We...slept together," she admits.
"Ah. I see," Martha says with a pleasant smile.
"You're not surprised?" Ororo gathers from Martha's tone.
"Not completely, no. I've noticed some...sparks between you two from time to time and Logan does have that feral quality that is quite appealing.
Ororo turns her head to look at Martha and arches an eyebrow in question.
"I'm married. Not dead," Martha explains what she assumes Ororo is asking about her noticing Logan's attractiveness.
A quirk of amusement comes to Ororo's features. She had come to really enjoy the humour of the older woman. She could see where Clark gets it from.
"So Isobel's spell lowered your inhibitions and you acted out your attraction," Martha summarises it, simpler than she knows it is but that's the gist of it.
"Yes," Ororo confirms.
"So that explains Logan's awkwardness," Martha concludes. Logan's inability to emotionally express himself was not exactly a secret. "What about you?"
Ororo sighs and rubs her eyebrow with her finger. "Logan and I have been friends for a long time, almost a decade. I first met him when I was 20."
"He hasn't aged a day has he?"
Ororo shakes her head. Logan looks exactly the same as the day she first met him when the Professor brought him home one day. She frowns momentarily and tries to recall whether Charles ever fully explained how he met Logan. Not that Logan ever stayed around for very long. He was working for SHIELD still back then and even after he quit he would go off to Goddess knows where. He still does vanish off for days or weeks at a time. Part of him seems to have an insatiable need to wander.
"I'm going to guess you are concerned about how this will affect your friendship," Martha jumps to why she thinks they're avoiding each other.
"That's one concern. To be truthful Martha I don't know what I want. Any relationship with Logan is...complicated." Ororo has known him long enough to know that for certain.
"But the situation isn't. You either dismiss it as a drunken one-night stand and resume your friendship or admit you have real feelings for him and try and work something out."
"You almost speak as if you are recalling some personal experience," Ororo observes.
"Who says I'm not."
Ororo is officially intrigued. Strange as it may sound, despite knowing each other for a year there is a lot about Martha's past Ororo still doesn't know.
Martha can see she has peaked Ororo's curiosity but as much as she likes and trusts the wind-rider she prefers to keep her past exactly there. In the past. "So what will you do?"
"I am not certain. Even if I was willing to pursue something with Logan, his feelings on the matter are another issue. I've known him 10 years, as I said, and in that time I don't think he has had a relationship that lasted more then a few weeks with anyone if that. He doesn't seem to like commitment and, while I am not old, I am also past the point where all I desire is a casual romance with no prospect of it leading anywhere. Logan...Logan has all the time in the world. I do not."
"Sounds like you are trying to talk yourself out of trying," Martha concludes.
"Perhaps I am and if that is the case perhaps that alone is a reason not to try and pursue it. If I believed it was a real possibility I wouldn't be trying to come up with reasons to avoid it."
"But you are attracted to him?"
"As you said he does have a feral quality to him...and an intensity that is breathtaking."
Martha's eyebrows rise slightly. She can guess what that second part is referring to.
"Still I have doubts."
"Everyone has doubts."
"Did you with Jonathan?"
"Lots of them. I was making a very dramatic change in my life and my father did not...and still doesn't, approve."
"Did you doubt your feelings for him though?" Ororo asks a more specific point.
"No."
"I have doubts whether it was anything but lust. It has been awhile since I last laid with a man and as you said Logan is attractive."
Still sounds to Martha like Ororo is trying to find reasons to deny it was anything more. "I won't tell you want to do Ororo but what I would say is that it is not healthy or helpful to let this drag on in its uncertain state."
"You are correct," Ororo agrees. "I shall make a decision and talk to Logan soon," she determines.
Martha just hopes that whatever choice Ororo makes that it is the correct one. For all she desires is to see her friend happy.
"This is ridiculous Clark!" Rogue protests at being imprisoned like this.
"So's the fact you've been procrastinating for a month!" Clark fires back. "And we both know if it had been the other way round you wouldn't have let this drag on a day without demanding an answer."
Rogue opens her mouth to argue but nothing comes out because she can't argue. She wouldn't have allowed Clark to keep it bottled up if it was the other way round.
"You know I can just Hex you out of the way," Wanda threatens.
"Go ahead and try. I dare you," Clark challenges her.
Wanda is shocked. Where's the laid-back farmboy gone.
Rogue isn't as shocked because she knows that expression he is wearing, that little grin pulling at the corner of his lips, almost as if he is enjoying this, enjoying being able to speak his mind. Underneath Clark's exterior is this bad boy personality(Clark calls it Kal) and usually he keeps it at bay(except when they're in bed together which let Rogue tell you makes Clark a hell of lot more fun and passionate than one might think first off upon meeting him but enough of her pleasures and get back to the point). Rogue's point is that it's always there and sometimes it comes out but if it is coming out here then she really must have pushed him too far this time...or he's been exposed to red kryptonite again. She really hopes it's not the 2nd one.
Clark continues to lean there against the door, blocking the exit. "Just so you know I can outlast you. I was locked up for 3 months, no food, no water, no sleep so you can't wear me down. You'll be needing to leave here long before I do," he points out in case they think of trying to out-wait him.
Rogue and Wanda look at each other, both scowling.
"I'll tell you," Wanda decides. "If you get your girlfriend here to apologise to me."
"Apologise?" Rogue almost screams in pure disbelief. "That'll beh tha day ya trumped up little..."
"Rogue," Clark says sternly stopping her rant.
"She's tha one who needs ta apologise!" Rogue spits out furiously.
"For what?" Wanda asks. As far as she is concerned she did nothing.
"If ah have ta explain it than y'all are a lot dumber than ya look," Rogue insults Wanda.
"Which is still better than you because you are as dumb as you look," Wanda insults Rogue right back.
"That's it!" Rogue screams and launches herself at Wanda but is grabbed and stopped by Clark.
Clark fixes them both another severe look. He is even scowling. "No more fighting," he scolds them both. "We're here for the truth and I want to know what is so hard about telling it. I'm betting you've both blown this whole thing way out of proportion."
"Excuse me!" Rogue and Wanda exclaim at the same time, taking issue with that.
"Prove me wrong," Clark dares them.
"Fahne. Ah will!" Rogue replies incensed by the accusation.
Clark barely holds back a little smirk that that actually worked.
"Oh no you won't!" Wanda objects. "I'll tell him because we both known you'll distort it to make you the victim."
"Ah was tha victim!" Rogue growls.
Clark silently groans at how that hasn't worked because they're arguing again. "Will someone please tell me something? I know it was about a month after I vanished. You were all living in the lower levels right?" he says trying to create a jumping on point for someone by using a starting place they can't argue about.
"Yeah. We were," Rogue confirms.
"Yeah," Wanda agrees.
Finally. They're getting somewhere.
Flashback...
Rogue wanders around the lower levels trying to find some place she can be alone. It's been a month since...since...
A strangled sob escapes her before she can stop it. It's been a month since Clark vanished without a trace. All they found at the caves was Mr Kent who was in a coma with no brain activity. Clark was nowhere to be found and they had no leads to go.
Rogue pauses and brings her hand to her heart, barley noticing the fact within her hand she is holding the silver octagonal key. She brings her hand to her aching heart. God she never realised losing someone you love could hurt this much. Her heart physically aches.
She wasn't prepared for this. She had basically accepted that a life of loneliness was her fate. She never expected to find a boy she could touch and fall in love with him and do a lot more than just touch. She'll never forget that night in the woods they made love. Not ever. Most perfect night of her life...and then it was snatched away.
Her life was ruined all over again just like the day her powers manifested. It's not fair. Why does she always have to suffer like this?
Rogue has never felt like this and she really isn't sure what to do. She's been acting as she always use to. Isolated and away from other people which brings her back to trying to find some place to be alone.
Rogue walks around a corner, so lost in her thoughts, she doesn't see someone else coming the other way.
Wanda was trying to find some place to be alone before she went postal on Bobby primarily. She hates being down here. It's so cold and stark and reminds her of the place. It doesn't help that Clark, one of the people whose been nicest to her, who reached out and saved her, who is her best friend after Tabby, has been missing for a month with no hope it seems of ever finding him.
What really bothers Wanda the most is the feeling of helplessness. For half her life she felt helpless locked up as she was and now she has that feeling again only it is due to the fact there is nothing she can do to help. It doesn't help all the abuse she and the others are getting for being mutants. To be truthful all that did was severely piss Wanda off.
Wanda walks around a corner, so lost in her thoughts, she doesn't see someone else coming the other way.
"Watch it!" the two girls yell at each other the moment after they bump into each other.
"Me? You're the one who should watch it!" the girls echo each other.
That causes them to glare at each other.
"What is your problem?" Rogue demands to know.
"Right now? You!" Wanda accuses.
"Ah don't know why Clark was always so nice ta ya," Rogue says with no understanding as to why.
"Yeah well I don't know what he saw in you at all. He could do a lot better than some pathetic, selfish..."
Rogue cuts Wanda off and demands to know, "What do ya mean selfish?"
"Do I need to get a dictionary?" Wanda asks, back insinuating Rogue is too stupid to understand.
"Ah don't need a dictionary. Ah'll just drain ya dry," Rogue threatens.
"Oh do try. Please," Wanda dares Rogue, because that would give her an excuse.
Rogue is tempted. Oh so tempted. "Stay out of mah way," she gives Wanda a warning.
"So you can what? Sit around and indulge in your 'woe is me' routine. That's what I mean when I say you're pathetic and selfish. You walk around here like you're the only one who is missing him."
"Ya dare!" Rogue hisses, her eye twitching in that way it does when she is really, really pissed. "Ya dare ta think ya know what ah am goin' through? That's rich for someone with tha emotional maturity of a retard. No wonder they locked ya up!"
Wanda's eyes flare with anger, the lights flicker and the next thing she knows is she trying to get her hands around Rogue's throat. Rogue retaliates with trying to get her hands around Wanda's throat. They end up wrestling around on the floor yelling insults at each other.
Back to the present...
"And the others showed up shortly after and separated you," Clark can finish the story from what he knows.
"They should have let me finish the job," Wanda mutters.
"As if!" Rogue refutes that. "Ya couldn't finish tha job if ah had one hand tied behind mah back!"
"Stop!" Clark shouts before they start all over again. "Ok. Just stop," he pleads. "What is it with you two?" he asks in total exasperation. "Do you feel threatened by each other or something because you're both Goths with anger issues and aren't so unique any more? Whatever it is I'm sick of it. Everyone's sick of it. Now we're going to work through this. Lets go back to your fight. Wanda, apologise."
Rogue starts to smile. She knew Clark would stand up for her.
"For what?" Wanda asks Clark in incredulous tones.
"Rogue is not selfish nor pathetic in any way."
Wanda makes a sort of snorting sound in dispute of that.
"Do you know once that Rogue was captured and drugged to try and learn my secrets?" he asks Wanda.
"...No," Wanda says after a pause.
"She never told them anything. Even when the drugs could have caused her severe mental damage she kept my secret. Now does that sound like someone who is pathetic or selfish?"
"...No," Wanda has to concede.
"So?" Clark asks expectantly.
"I...apologise," Wanda says very reluctantly. "But only for that!" she adds.
"It's a start," Clark says with a sigh. He looks to his girlfriend. "Rogue, apologise."
"What!" Rogue exclaims as a tiny little smug grin starts to form on Wanda's face. Wanda knew her newly ascribed brother would stand up for her at some point.
"Rogue you know, as well I do, Wanda did nothing to deserve being locked up as Magneto did to her. I know you must have been upset. I'm not holding that against you but what you said went way too far. You have to see that."
Rogue shifts a little uncomfortably because if she is being honest she did think she stepped over the line. "I'm sorry I said that...but that's all!" she insists.
"That's progress. Now next issue. You both seemed to get upset about who was missing me. The answer is you both were in different ways. Wanda would you concede that losing someone you love is different to losing a friend? That it is on another level of pain?"
Wanda thinks of her mother whom she lost. That still hurts deeply. "Yes," she concedes in a small voice.
"Rogue if it were say Kurt or Kitty that had been missing, would you have missed them?"
"Of course ah would," Rogue insists.
"Then can't you concede that while it was different Wanda was missing me in her own way?"
"Ah hate it when y'all are logical," Rogue mutters in complaint.
"Was that a yes?"
"Yes," she says a little petulantly.
Clark thinks that defuses most of what they described their fight was about. Now the next step. "Now then I think that just leaves trying to find a way to get you onto civilised terms because you do have more in common than you seem to think apart from both being angry, angst ridden, Goths."
"Like what?" the two girls ask at the same time.
"Well for starters you have both been used by Mystique and started off on the wrong side and both have issues with controlling your powers but I'm not going to stand here and list the rest. You need to see it for yourselves so you two are going to sit here and work something out before Wanda has to depart. I'm going to go to the Danger Room and smash a couple dozen Sentinels to pieces."
"Why?" Rogue asks him.
Clark shakes his head. "Why she asks," he mutters in disbelief before he answers. "Because you two have driven me up the wall and I need to go let my anger out and the Danger Room is the only place I can safely." Thankfully Forge and Beast had managed to fix it after Wanda's unintended actions. "Now I'll be listening so don't even think of leaving. I'm not expecting sleepovers and pillow fights but you two will stay here until you are at least on speaking terms and if you attempt to leave I'll just bring you back here," Clark warns them before he turns, opens the door and leaves, slamming the door behind him so hard he almost breaks it.
Rogue and Wanda sit in silence just looking at where Clark left, both wondering how they had managed to push him this far.
"Did he mean that?" Wanda asks. "About bringing us back?"
Rogue shrugs. "Ah don't know. Ah've nevah seen him that annoyed...except for perhaps when we were fighting tha Juggernaut," an example comes to mind.
"Great," Wanda mutters. She was very tempted to Hex him or do a spell on him but fearful that she couldn't control it. Besides she would probably end up being punished for it. She had been before for hexing people no matter how much she thought they deserved it. "What did he mean about you being on the wrong side?" Wanda asks, confused by that bit which isn't surprising since she and Rogue have never talked.
Rogue sighs as she remembers. "Lahke ya Mystique used and manipulated meh inta joining tha Brotherhood. It was just after mah powers manifested and mah mind was a mess with bits and pieces of absorbed people and ah didn't know how ta handle it all so it wasn't very hard for her ta beh honest."
"Bitch," Wanda mutters with venom which earns her a look from Rogue. "I mean Mystique," she explains who she is referring to.
"And then some," Rogue adds in agreement about what a bitch Mystique is. "She's Kurt's mothah ya know."
"Really?"
Rogue nods.
"Huh now you said it the resemblance is obvious...and she sends the Brotherhood to attack him?"
"Bitch," Rogue repeats the description of Mystique.
Wanda never knew how much apparently. That's not how family should work. Living here has shown Wanda how family should work. To have people who care enough for you to want you all to get along...oh that's why Clark is doing this she suddenly works out.
"Was he right?" Rogue asks, seeking to put an end to this out of her love for Clark and because he asked her to. "Are we threatened by each other?"
Wanda thinks about it. "I did like being 'unique' but it's not like we're the same. I'm more of a red and black person."
"And ah'm more of a green and black person," Rogue adds her two cents in.
"My father is a manipulative, evil, lying jerk who tried to use a telepath on me to mess up my head so he could continue to use me for his own insane little schemes," Wanda says trying to pick out a difference.
"Mah 'creator', that jackass Stryker, threatened ta wipe mah memories and 'fix' mah powers so he could use meh as a weapon," Rogue says back.
"My father has all the parental skills of some breed of sharks who eat their young after giving birth to them," Wanda compares her father to.
"Mah fathah's Logan," Rogue points out.
"Oh right. Yeah. You have it much worse," Wanda jokes.
The two girls share a laugh.
"Oh mah God are we...bonding?" Rogue asks in disbelief at the sudden realisation that they might be doing that very thing.
"I think we are," Wanda says in an equal amount of disbelief.
"Ah can't believe it...although it's nice ta have someone ta talk ta who understands at least a bit," Rogue confesses.
"Yeah. It is," Wanda agrees.
"That's why ah love Clark so much. He...gets it...gets meh," Rogue says in a soft, sincere, loving tone.
Wanda smiles a little at seeing how much Clark truly means to Rogue. It is written clearly on her face and what Rogue is saying Wanda understands. Clark is good at listening and understanding. Still there is a pang within Wanda of an emotion she doesn't quite understand. A desire to have what Rogue has with Clark...with someone for herself...she thinks. Wanda still has a hard time getting to grip with her emotions. "We're getting him back for that sleepovers and pillow fights crack though right?" she asks Rogue, because no way in hell is Wanda letting Clark get away with that.
"Oh yeah. He's dead," Rogue says in total agreement and with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm for getting back at Clark.
Both girls start to grin evilly as they plot their revenge.
Author's Note: Wanda may be crushing on Clark but I believe after being locked up she doesn't understand the emotion and translates it, wrongly, into her wish that Clark is her brother. Perhaps down the line she'll realise she made a misjudgement only it'll be too late by then. Ah emotional angst. A writer's dream. So finally we get to see what had Wanda and Rogue hating on each other but at least Clark gave them a reason to sort it out. They now have a common cause; getting back at him. The poor boy. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Wanda says her goodbyes and meets her new fellow students at Dr Strange's...and we find out where Isobel fled to.