A/N: Hey guys! So I'm uploading a little early this week to apologize in advance; I'm going back to work on Tuesday and I probably will have trouble uploading on a regular basis from now on. I hope you understand and don't worry, I'll do my best to keep up because I'm really enjoying writing this story and I'm glad to see other people are enjoying it as well! :)

"You realise I'm not asking for your permission right?"

"I don't care. I'm not letting you go."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Thea couldn't hold back a giggle in front of her sister's pout. They were in Thea's room and the latter was trying to convince the little girl not to worry about the crazy plan she had been cooking up since the attack. It wasn't going so well.

"I'm not kidding," Ellie added, "you got attacked two days ago and you already want to go after this guy? You're supposed to be the reasonable one."

"I told you," Thea sighed. "I'm not going after him, I just need to find the rest of mom and dad's papers. I thought you wanted to know what happened to them?"

"Not if it means I have to lose you too!"

Thea bit her lips and crouched in front of Ellie to get to her height.

"I'm not going to leave you, ok? Believe it or not, I'm doing this for you. So that when this is all over you can finally have a normal life."

"You sure have some weird ways to show me you love me." mumbled the little girl, a world of worries in her eyes. "And how did you convince your X-buddies to go with this plan?"

Thea got back up.

"Humm theydon'tknowyet." she spat out in a cough.

"What?"

Thea sighed and sat on her bed.

"I haven't told them about it yet."

"And Professor Xavier?"

"Nope. He doesn't know either."

Ellie face palmed and jumped on the bed next to her sister.

"You really think they're going to agree with this madness? If so you really are more naive than I am."

"It's a great plan. They're going to love it."

...

"No."

"Hear me out!"

"No way."

The X-men and their three mentors were crammed into Charles' office where Thea was desperately trying to explain her not-so-brilliant-after-all plan. Her friends had already sceptically agreed to go with it as long as Charles gave them his green light. Which they all knew would never happen anyway.

"Please, Charles, let me explain," she pleaded, both her hands resting on his desk. He sighed and nodded, encouraging her to go on. She took a deep breath and went for it.

"Phase one would be to locate the lab where Stryker's conducting the research. Now we already know he's got multiple bases all over the world, and that kind of research needs a lot of funding; too much for it to go unnoticed. I know my way around a scientific funding data base; I could trace it back to him. Phase two: get in the labs. Stryker is not a scientist, there's a good chance he won't actually be on the site. Plus, I have a lot of connections in this environment; I'm sure I could easily find a way to get in there without forcing my way in. Phase three: find my parents' papers and get the hell out of there. See? Easy peasy."

Charles's eyes narrowed as a silence ensued.

"That's a terrible plan," Raven stated, her arms crossed on her chest.

"Oh come on give me a break, it's not that bad. Phase three is a little sketchy I'll give you that, but I really believe it could work."

"You really think you're going to find the papers you're looking for conveniently sitting on a desk?" Raven insisted. "It's the baseline of their work, it will be protected at best."

"Ok I didn't have time to work on the minutia of the plan but I know I can figure something out."

"And what if he uses the same technology he put on those guns to negate your powers?"

"I can protect myself against that, we know that now."

Raven shook her head, definitely not convinced.

"I think it's worth a try," Charles eventually mused, causing everyone –including Thea- to stare at him with an 'o' shaped mouth.

"Charles," Raven immediately reacted. "This is crazy and you know it." Her friend raised his hands in a gesture of appeasement and explained himself.

"Assuming Thea finds the right lab, there is indeed a good chance Stryker won't expect us to approach quietly. I think his last attack was specifically meant to force us out of our hiding spot and fight back. Why else would he attack now? He's running out of options and time and that makes it the perfect occasion for us to strike."

Thea, who was ready to celebrate and taunt Raven for her small victory, suddenly squinted.

"What made you change your mind?" she asked Charles.

"I didn't. I said I wouldn't let you blindly charge in and you found a compromise. This is me meeting you halfway."

Thea slowly nodded. She wasn't convinced but at least she got what she wanted.

"But you can't go in there alone," Charles added. "You're going to have to find a way to bring a least another person with you. Peter already proved us he would be perfect for that kind of mission."

Thea was going to refuse, not wanting to put her friend in danger again, but Peter got ahead of her.

"I don't think that's a good idea," the silver-haired man mumbled.

Thea felt like a knife was being shoved in her stomach. "Why not?" she asked, forgetting she was going to say the exact same thing two seconds ago. Charles and Jean both winced, Thea's sudden pain hitting them like a rock.

"Kurt's skills would be just as helpful in this kind of situation."

"Thank you Peter," the blue mutant chimed in, "but I fear my features would be too noticeable for us to discreetly get in."

"Go with Scott then," Peter said, raising his voice. "You two already hit it off anyway."

"Peter," Charles softly said, "I don't understand-"

"I said I won't do it!" shouted Peter before leaving in a rush. They all looked at each other, shocked by their friend's behaviour. Thea sighed and rubbed her face.

"I'll talk to him. Charles, thank you for backing me up. I swear you won't regret it."

Her professor smiled and gesture towards the exit. She took a deep breath and headed to the common room. The last time she tried to talk to Peter, it didn't end so well.

...

Peter was sprawled out on a chair, watching TV in the common room. Thea approached him, waving a white handkerchief. He scoffed and turned the TV off, which she took as an invitation to sit in the chair next to him. She nervously twisted her fingers. As he wasn't saying anything, she sighed and looked right at him.

"Ok Maximoff, enough with the silent treatment. I feel terrible for everything that happened, and I'm really sorry. But we barely spoke since the attack and I just can't take it anymore. So if you're going to yell at me, just do it now cause-"

"Stop. Just- stop. This is not your fault."

"Then what is it?" she breathed out. "Talk to me."

"I don't get insecure." he said after a brief silence, staring into the distance. "That's just not who I am. Even when that asshole Apocalypse broke my leg and I was basically screwed, there was still a part of me that wanted to keep fighting. I knew I was going to make it, cause I always do. But when I fell in that water, leaving you to fight on your own..." he paused and shook his head with an empty laugh. "I've never felt so useless in my entire life."

Thea froze in her seat. She was not expecting that. The young man always seem so confident, it was hard to imagine he would ever doubt himself. She slipped her hand into his, her fingers intertwining with his. She felt a light squeeze in return which gave her enough courage to answer him without having her voice failing her.

"It's not your powers I trust, Peter," she softly said. "It's you. You're strong, with or without your abilities. Don't let this jerk Stryker take that away from you." She paused and waited for him to look her in the eyes. "We're both messed up in more ways than we can count but that's what makes us a great team."

They stayed silent for a while, enjoying each other's company without needing to talk. After squeezing Thea's hand one last time, Peter reluctantly let go and sat back in his chair with a sigh.

"Life really did screw us up, huh?" he scoffed, causing Thea to laugh in return.

"Yeah well hopefully we'll have enough time to at least try and fix it."

"At this rate? I wouldn't count on it. I mean you did just expose us your plan to highjack a super secret lab. By the way, Raven is right. Your plan sucks."

"Well not all of us can zoom in and out of a place going unnoticed," Thea pouted. "You know there is such a thing as going too fast."

"Typical sluggish people thing to say."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying, if your plan doesn't involve running away from bad guys with guns at some point, it's no fun and not worth flying to freaking Bufu Egypt. Cause yeah, by the way, there's a good chance this asshole will have chosen the most inconvenient place to put his lab."

"Does that mean you're in?"

"Hell yes. Let's kick some ass."

They high-fived and stared at each other, unable to wipe a smile off their face.

"But just so we're clear," Thea added with a more composed voice, "there won't be any actual ass-kicking involved. This is a stealth mission."

Peter grunted and fell back in his chair.

"You had to ruin the moment."

"Sorry."

...

"So you got invited to the fundraising? Just like that?" Ororo asked, snapping her fingers. Thea nodded back, too out of breath to answer. She and her two girlfriends were just about to end their hour of running around the track behind the school. She was training really hard for her next mission, eager to have every advantage and to be mentally and physically ready. Her friends had decided to join her to show solidarity, although most of the time they couldn't keep up with her, not driven by a powerful rage as Thea was.

The three girls heard a strident whistle on the other side and stopped running, hands on their waist and heavily breathing.

"Getting invited wasn't the most difficult part," Thea explained, struggling to breathe and talk at the same time. "I worked for a couple weeks with the woman throwing the fundraising a few years back. I just gave her a call and she asked me to come."

"Russia though?" Jean asked, concerned. "In the middle of the taiga? Isn't that a little suspicious?"

Thea shrugged.

"I guess it's a rich people thing. The place she invited me to is a massive castle built in the middle of the forest. It's actually a good sign; it would be a great place to conduct super secret research."

"Speaking of which," Ororo piped in, "are you sure that's the right place?"

"One hundred percent sure. All the funding related to this place I could find traces back to Stryker or the CIA. Plus, the fundraising is supposed to support the development of a revolutionary nanoparticle that could help with memory loss. I did a little digging, and guess how many scientists are officially working on this project?"

"Zero?" Jean asked with a sly smile.

"Exactly. And there's no scientific publication related to this project either."

"Wow," Ororo breathed out with a little laugh, "have you slept at all in the past few days?"

"I'll rest when I finally find out the truth," Thea mused, her eyes sparkling with determination.

They finished walking down the track to join Raven and the three guys who were finishing up their set of push ups. Well, Scott was. Kurt was sprawled out on the ground, moaning and cursing in German while Peter was casually sipping on a juice box.

"Why is my plus one not training and sweating with the rest of us?" Thea asked Raven. Before their coach could answer, Peter zoomed in next to Thea and put an elbow on her shoulder, leaning on her.

"I did 102 laps and 35 push ups before you could end your sentence. Does that answer your question?"

"Show off," she scoffed before pushing him off and turning to Raven. "I thought we agreed he had to train at normal speed with the rest of us in case we had to deal with Stryker's stupid guns again?"

"True," Raven answered with a sly smile. "Five more laps for the two of you. You need to work on you team skills."

"Wait," Thea said with a laugh, "that's not-"

"Come on grandma," Peter yelled, already several feet ahead. "We ain't got all day."

"I'm going to kill you," Thea mumbled, not quite sure who she was talking to. She wiped the sweat on her forehead, straightened her tight black shorts and pink tank top and started running after the silver-haired mutant. He imperceptibly slowed down to let her catch up. They kept running in silence for a couple minutes.

"So how do you feel about this mission?" Peter eventually asked, annoyed at how excruciatingly slow they were running.

"Honestly?" Thea breathed out. "I'd feel better if you took it a little more seriously."

Peter glanced at her and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop.

"Hey. You know I mess around, that's how I deal with stress. But if this is important to you then trust me, it is to me too," he said in one breath, his dark glance meeting her bright blue eyes. Thea nodded back, somewhat reassured.

"I don't remember telling you to stop halfway," they heard Raven scream from her observation post. The youngsters winced and got back to their jog.

"Doesn't matter anyway," Thea said with a sly smile. "I'm easily worth two men."

"Yeah?" he replied, mirroring her smile. Without any warning, he jumped on her back, locking his arms around her neck.

"Ow!" she squealed, caught off guard. "-the hell are you doing?!"

"You said you were worth two men, prove it."

"Oh please, you just don't want to run anymore. I knew you were a slacker."

Regaining her balance, she accelerated nonetheless and their laughs seemed to warm up the cold and still winter air. There was a million ways this mission could go wrong but at this very moment, she felt reassured that this weirdo was going to be by her side.

A/N: Sh*t is about to go down in the next chapter so make sure to stay tuned! As always, thanks for your support, it means a lot to me :) until next time!