Chapter Twenty: Here Without You

It had been a month, but Tobi was still adamant that Alex had not left of his own accord. Well, okay, maybe he had – but she was sure that some kind of danger had befallen him. As she munched listlessly at her toast, she was joined by Max, who was checking out the morning paper.

"Coffee?" Danni asked of Tobi as she headed past to the kitchen. Tobi knew that, to a degree, Danni blamed herself for what had happened. She had told Tobi over and over that she would take it back in a heartbeat. She had been there for Tobi, through the violet tantrums due to frustration, through the heartbroken tears and sleepless nights.

"No, thanks," Tobi replied.

"There's a mutant stirring up trouble again," Max stated through a mouthful of bacon, flipping through the paper rather uninterestedly. "They were talking about him down at the Toucan. I forgot what his name was, though. Some kind of chess piece, I think."

"Close your mouth," Lucie shot across at her older brother, wrinkling her nose in distaste, "Bet his name was King. It seems like the sort of presumptuous name a power-crazy maniac would have."

"Nah." Max shook his head and shoved the paper across to Perry. "It wasn't King."

"Bishop?" Tobi replied quietly, surprising even herself.

Max looked up and across at her, looking a little stunned. If any of the new mutants had questioned Tobi shutting up inside herself after Alex's disappearance, they never voiced it.

"Yeah. That was it."

Tobi's chair scraped back as she stood up. Danni, who was approaching with a steaming mug of coffee and a bowl of Weetbix, looked astonished as her friend marched determinedly out of the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to speak to Charles," she called over her shoulder.

Tobi slammed her fist down on Charles's desk, teeth bared in agitation. Normally she had more restraint, but she was so frustrated with being shot down all the time. Charles refused to listen to her, refused to believe that Alex's disappearance was anything suspicious.

"You know I'm making sense!" Tobi insisted, her green eyes blazing, "Charles, please. I can do this on my own, you know I can…"

"If this Bishop is really as powerful as everyone is saying, no you can't." Charles faced the girl with chagrin written all over his face. What had happened to the strong girl he'd trained? What had happened to Jett? She had morphed back into scared little October Sutherland, and Charles could sense her despair. "Tobi. I understand what you're going through…"

"No you don't!" Tobi shouted at him. She didn't think she had ever raised her voice to Charles, but now, she had reached her wit's end. "You don't know what it's like! He could be in danger! He could even be dead! But you don't want to think about that. You want to think he's gone on his way, all free and merry. I know something's not right. He broke my heart, Charles."

Charles remained silent for a few moments.

"Don't you think that you broke his, Tobi, when you revealed his darkest secret?"

Tobi sat down heavily, her shoulders tensing and her green eyes welling up – but she didn't cry. Tobi was done with crying. She raked back her bronze hair and sighed heavily.

"Of course I know that, Charles. I hurt him…and that's why he would have done something stupid. Look, Bishop is attacking other mutants, so what's to say he hasn't done the same to Alex? Please, Charles. He's out there. I know he is."

Charles felt helpless. Tobi might well be right – but what could he possibly do? How were they supposed to find Alex if he really was in trouble? He couldn't stomach the thought of endangering all the young mutants at his school. For now, they had to wait until they received some kind of news…yet Charles knew that he was kidding himself. What exactly was he waiting for?

"I'm afraid it's out of the question, Tobi. I…"

"Please don't say you understand," Tobi retorted venomously, "I don't want to hear it anymore."

Tobi sat moodily skipping stones across the pond. She hated fighting with Charles, but what she hated more was the uncertainty she was now confronted with. Could it be possible that Alex had really left them, never to speak to her again? Had her betrayal really been that bad? She swallowed the lump in her throat and whizzed another stone across the pond's smooth surface.

They needed to do something. Tobi wanted to make a move herself, but there was something holding her back. She realized that it was the truth. What if she found out that Alex was dead? Worse, what if he'd left her for good, with no intention of ever seeing her again? The unknown might be torturing her, but the truth would probably kill her.

"Hey there."

Tobi heard the crunching of feet across the gravel and looked up rather suspiciously as Elliott sat down beside her, staring across at the pond as she picked up another stone and made it skip. He grinned and shook his head slowly.

"I could never do that. I guess it's got to do with your super-speed. Do you mind if I…?"

"Knock yourself out," Tobi replied morosely, holding out her hand. Elliott had been told by Charles that he was not to use the powers of any of the others unless he had their permission.

Elliott reached across and touched her hand, perhaps for a moment longer than was necessary, before he picked up a stone and skipped it perfectly. He crowed in triumph and turned to face Tobi.

"Did you see that? That was awesome!"

Tobi said nothing. Elliott's smile faded as he realized that she wasn't really in the mood and he reached across and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking deep into her green eyes.

"Hey. Are you okay?"

Tobi shrugged. "I don't know. Do I look okay?"

Elliott shook his head slowly. "You seem upset. Is it because of Alex still?"

So everyone did know. Tobi's lips curled into a wry smile. Perhaps they all thought she was pathetic for pining after a boy who clearly didn't care about her anymore.

"It doesn't matter."

Elliott's eyebrow slanted into a frown.

"I think it does, Tobi. I know you're sad because he left. If he's been captured or something, like you think he has, we'll get him back. But you know, it's not that bad if he's really left because of your fight."

Tobi turned to glance at him suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?"

Elliott just shrugged, staring off into the distance with an impassive expression on his face.

"Well, if he's left because of something that trivial, he's clearly a dickhead. You'd be wasting your time with him. I suppose it's better that you found out now what he's like, rather than later."

Bishop marched over towards Alex, flanked by Ghost in case the stupid boy tried anything. The blond looked up at Bishop with utter loathing etched across his face. Bishop smirked as he inspected Alex's brilliant black eye and a rather wicked cut down his neck. He'd tried to escape last week and Ghost had delivered a beating the boy wouldn't soon forget. Some of his ribs were probably still broken.

"Not looking so crash-hot today, huh?" Bishop asked smugly.

They'd stumbled upon Alex at the Toucan, where he had been trying to drink his problems away. After he'd accidentally told Bishop what his power was, the young mutant knew that he couldn't just let Alex go. The boy would be the ultimate weapon when it came to invading Charles Xavier's mansion. It also helped that he was previously a student there…so Charles would never risk hurting Alex.

Over the past month, Bishop had been building up his force of rogue mutants – or rather, Rogues. He had also discovered, to his fury and surprise, that Sebastian Shaw was actually his father. They had the same power, so it was really too obvious. Now, Bishop wondered why the man had abandoned him.

Alex glowered up at Bishop, teeth clenched together. He wasn't bound by physical chains, but that was probably the humiliating part. It meant he wasn't viewed as a threat. At first, Alex had tried to fight. Ghost had negated his power and he'd been tortured so savagely by Bishop that he'd never tried it again.

Over the past month, Alex had pretty much learned the definition of pain. Bishop, with experience behind him as a common bully, had taught it to him. The other Rogues – there were around ten of them in total – had also indicated that they had no intention of helping Alex…so he resigned himself to his fate. He knew why Bishop still held him prisoner. He had the power of destruction, a power that Bishop probably hoped to wreak about Charles and the others. Alex had felt sick when he'd first realized he'd have to attack those he cared about – Charles, Sean, Tobi…

Tobi. If only he hadn't left her. All he wanted now was the opportunity to start again, to tell her that he loved her. He knew how terrified she would be when she discovered that this Bishop was the same person she'd talked about, who tormented her throughout her youth.

"What's the matter?" Bishop mocked him, kicking Alex ruthlessly in the ribs and grinning when he grunted in pain. "Worried about your friends? You shouldn't be. If all goes well, we won't even need to hurt them. It's the humans who are the real enemy."

Alex muttered something under his breath. Bishop frowned, leaning down so that he could hear what the blond boy said.

"I didn't catch that. What?"

"I said," Alex hissed, "I'll kill you."

He swung a fist at Bishop, knocking the dark-haired young man sprawling. Bishop was one of those types who was very used to hurting others, but became totally powerless when being hurt himself. He stared across at Alex with wide eyes, before he gritted his teeth in anger.

"Stupid boy," Bishop spat, clambering unsteadily to his feet as Ghost silently delivered a punch that nearly broke Alex's jaw. "Maybe we should bring your friends into this after all if you're going to be rebellious. What about your little girlfriend? The one you were making out with in the car park at the Toucan that time? I could have some fun with her."

Alex's stomach wriggled as if it had been invaded by worms. So it had been Bishop watching that time he'd been making out with Tobi…only, Bishop didn't know who Tobi was. He still assumed that the Tobi he'd known was a boy.

"Leave her out of this," Alex rasped.

Bishop smiled nastily. "Only if you behave."