X-Men: Evolution

Blood Magics

31. Directions

Dragon had been glad she'd gone and spoke to Remy. He didn't seem at all scary now; he'd actually been very nice. He'd managed to help get her wing folded back up, and they had talked a lot; he'd told her a little about himself, and about an adventure he'd gone on with Rogue to save his father. She told him some about herself, including some on her powers- he'd been curious about how she'd managed to cut the power a few days ago, so she'd explained the colours the best she could, and how she could cut them to stop things like lights and some mutant powers. She told him, as well, about some of the other students, and why she didn't like Tabitha, and she'd told him about what had happened as a result of her and Rogue bleeding on each other. He'd been very interested in that story, asking questions that Dragon did her best to answer, but unfortunately, he didn't have any idea on why such a connection would open in their minds simply from bleeding on each other, either. It was something she'd really like to know.

She and Remy had spoke with each other until Jean came in to bring dinner, and she'd been so started to see Dragon there that she'd dropped the plate, thought she'd managed to catch it with her power before it or anything on it hit the floor. That had been the end of the conversation; Jean had ushered Dragon out. She'd seemed upset, and at first Dragon thought it was because she'd been in there, but she didn't yell at Dragon; instead, once she shut the door and made sure Dragon was outside, she left the girl there without even checking to see where Dragon was going. It seemed strange, so Dragon hurried after her, not wanting to make her more upset, but eventually, she realized that whatever was upsetting Jean, it was something else.

Dinner for Dragon was a sandwich that somehow looked like it had been put together very quickly, and after she ate, she heard a few other students commenting that their dinner had been a lot more rushed, too. After consulting with her colours, she determined that Jean was down in one of Beasts "labs," which Dragon had advised to stay out of if she could, since there were a lot of breakable things in his labs. For a moment she wondered if whatever Jean was doing was going badly, because of her mood, but somehow that didn't seem to be it. Quite a few things seemed to be going on at once in there, or at the very least she was running around checking a lot of things from what Dragon could tell, but she seemed to be nodding a lot. Nodding usually meant a good thing, so she just wasn't sure what was making Jean upset.

But she didn't ask or interrupt. She spent the evening with Rahne and Jamie; the latter made a clone of himself and a frisbee, and she and Rahne would each chase one, Rahne in wolf form. It had been fun, but when it got dark and they had to stop, an overall gloomy mood settled over the mansion. That, Dragon thought she could kind of place; it seemed way too empty with all of the grown- ups and older students gone other than Jean. There were fewer colours, fewer voices, fewer footsteps. And everyone left seemed restless; when she asked, Rahne told her softly that they hadn't heard anything from the team that had left since they had transmitted that they had arrived at their destination.

They had, though, only left that morning. They had sent the message of their arrival a couple hours later. They were supposed to check in daily, and while the students had kind of expected a message from them to tell them how that day had gone and if they had indeed found a hidden "lab," they had technically not broken the promise of a daily check- in because they had sent notice when they arrived.

It was still making the others uneasy, though. But as Rahne said, there would probably be a message waiting for them by morning. The Friday movie was decided upon, but Dragon barely paid much attention to it; she couldn't really understand what was going on, anyway. Something about people fighting each other with glowing swords.

When curfew came, several of the students were of the mind to break it; Rahne gently reminded them that Professor Xavier would be able to tell if they'd broken rules when they got back, and a few of them did go to their rooms like they were supposed to; Dragon herself was one of them, but she could tell from the colours that Ray, Jubliee, Tabitha, and Amara had all stayed up and were taking advantage of the rec room being mostly empty. Sam and Roberto, however, went to their rooms, and Rahne convinced Jamie that their rooms were where they needed to be, too.

Still uneasy, Dragon had gone to sleep in the shadow under her bed again, until a jolt of fear had her eyes snapping open.

She was confused, at first. She hadn't had a nightmare. She was still inside the shadow. Why was she afraid?

Swallowing, she looked around; even poking her head out. Her room was normal; nothing was in it. She could even see by the colours that Ray, Jubilee, and Tabitha were all still downstairs, though it looked like Amara had gone to her room. But the fear still rippled through her. Dragon couldn't understand why she was suddenly scared.

Then, finally, she realized it; she wasn't scared. The emotion she was feeling wasn't hers. She'd never felt anything before, when she had tried to feel for Rogue the way Rogue could feel her, but now, she could feel something. Rogue was scared, really scared.

Dragon shot out of the shadow the rest of the way and towards her door. Before she remembered that she would have to turn shadow to go through the gap, she slammed into the door face- first. She fell back onto her tail with a cry, her right wing falling open.

It stung, a lot, but Dragon shook her head and tried to pull her head back together. What was she doing? Was she going to just run in the direction that Rogue's fear was coming from? How far was she? And even assuming Dragon could get there, what would she do? She didn't know what Rogue was supposed to be doing, other than looking for something that might tell them where Kurt was, and she didn't know what it could be that was making her scared. What could Dragon possibly do? She couldn't even fly to find her.

Another colour floated in front of her face, a strand of red. In it was the image of Jean, still down in that lab, still checking things.

Jean was a telepath, like the professor! She could tell Jean there was a problem, and Jean could check what was happening!

Remembering to turn shadow this time, Dragon passed under the door and ran downward until she reached the room Jean was working in. She slowed down, then, because she remembered that she'd been told things in there were breakable, but she still had to go in.

Passing through the door, Dragon looked around anxiously, easily finding the person she was looking for.

"Jean?"

Jean jumped; she had not, luckily, been doing anything other than staring at a small machine. She seemed even more upset now than she had been earlier.

"Dragon!? What are you doing here?"

Dragon headed over, making sure she didn't bump into anything. Her wing dragged on the floor again, but she couldn't worry about that.

"Something is wrong. With the others, I mean. Something happened. I can sense Rogue. She's really scared."

Jean stared down at her for a long moment, then glanced up at a clock on the wall. "Past two…" she muttered. "And there's been nothing…" She blew out a breath; it didn't quite look like a sigh.

"And you said you can sense Rogue?" She asked Dragon sharply.

Dragon nodded rapidly. "Yes! I haven't been able to feel Rogue before at all, but I woke up because all of a sudden she got really scared. She's still scared. I think… I think she's getting sad, too." Dragon added, taking a moment to focus on the emotions she could still feel coming from Rogue.

"Sad? Um… come here." Jean knelt down and held out her hand; Dragon moved forward until she was close enough that Jean put her hand on her head. Jean closed her eyes for a moment, her forehead wrinkling; then, she dropped her hand and sighed, standing back up. "I… I was thinking something might be wrong. I tried calling after dinner. I… they should have responded by now. I know that technically they checked in today, but… when we heard nothing after that, I thought something might be wrong. I was expecting them to at least get in touch in the evening to let us know if they found anything. But… you might be right."

Dragon waited a moment after she stopped speaking, but when nothing else came, she asked, "So what do we do, then?"

"I… You go back to bed. I'm going to try calling the others one more time, and I'll tell them that we need to hear back. If we don't hear from them by seven, I'm grabbing the others and we're going to go look for them. I don't like this at all." Jean sighed.

"I want to help! Rogue helped me when I was sad."

"I know, Dragon. You did help. You gave me a reason to suspect that something really is going on. I'll take it from here. If we don't hear from them, then we'll go find them early tomorrow morning and see what trouble they got into. You go back to bed; I didn't realize that I'd been up this late. I'll try calling, then go to bed myself. I assume everyone else is by now."

"Ray, Jubilee, and Tabitha are still in the rec room."

Jean froze. "What? Ugh, of all the times for them to pull this. I should have known they would try to break rules once everyone was gone. Alright, then, you go back to bed; I'll deal with them, call the others, and get to bed myself. If I can't get in touch, then we'll go looking for them tomorrow. Thank you, Dragon. Good night."

Dragon hesitated, but could see that Jean was now starting to turn off some of the machines she had been watching all day; after the older girl shot her another, stern glance, Dragon nodded, relenting, and headed back up to her room. She didn't know what else to do, and she didn't want to get in trouble.

Still, the fear she could feel coming from Rogue never lessened, and the sadness that she was feeling grew stronger. It was not a good night.

The next morning was a flurry of activity; Jean woke them all at seven am, despite it being Saturday. There were a few complaints at first, but they dried up when they heard the news; still no contact from the search team. Jean had tried them over the comms, and had tried Cerebro, and couldn't find a trace of them. Breakfast was rushed, uniforms had been thrown on… and then they had hit a wrinkle.

Jean didn't want to bring Dragon with them. Nine years old and still poorly trained (though Jean hadn't used those exact words), bringing her along was a bad idea.

On the other hand, if Dragon wasn't coming, someone else had to stay behind as well. Bringing a nine- year- old to a place that could possibly be more dangerous than first thought was not a good idea, but neither was leaving them home alone.

Rahne had volunteered to stay, but after some thought, it was determined that she was needed; if the others were not found at the coordinates they had, her ability to track by scent might be needed. Dragon then pointed out that she could come and stay on the jet, and that sparked a debate, which turned into an argument.

Finally, it was decided that Amara had to stay. Roberto would be able to provide firepower if needed, and had super strength on top of that. Amara couldn't say she was happy with the arrangement, exactly, but once Jean finally made up her mind, that was that.

Besides, Amara reminded herself, it should only be a few hours. If they punched it, the XM- Velocity should get them there in a couple hours, hopefully they would find out that something was just wrong with the comms and the lab was guarded against Cerebro (since the one Kurt was currently in somehow was, it wasn't that much of a stretch), and everyone was fine. The second team would come home, and with luck, be back in time for a late lunch.

And it certainly wasn't that she disliked Dragon, or any kids, for that matter. Amara just didn't really… have any experience with baby- sitting. Unsure what to do, she was really hoping that maybe she could put on a couple movies until the others got back. Heck, if that was agreeable to Dragon, Amara would let her pick the movies, and she herself could do her homework. She'd rather be out with the others, helping, but since that was now off the table, she could put the time to good use. She could read ahead in her English book if she had to.

So she and Dragon saw the others off, and as Amara watched them make for the coordinates wistfully, Dragon suddenly spoke.

"Why are they going that way?"

Amara glanced down with a frown.

"Because that's where the others are."

"No, it's not. Or at least, it's not where Rogue is, and they all went together. They're going the wrong way."

"No, I saw the coordinates myself, Dragon. They're going to the same place that the others went to investigate."

"Well, they aren't there now, then! Rogue isn't that way!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Rogue isn't in that direction! She's that way!" Dragon pointed a paw in a direction far more south than New Orleans.

Amara shook her head. "No, the place they went to search isn't that far south. Listen, Dragon, don't worry. I'm sure they'll be back with good news in a few hours. Would you like to pick a movie? I can put it in the player for you."

"No, I want you to call the others and tell them they're going the wrong way!"

Amara rolled her eyes. "No, Dragon, they're not. The lab is in New Orleans, not Mexico. Come on, let's find something to do while we wait for them."

Dragon growled at her, then sat right where she was, turning her glare to the now- closed hangar doors. Amara sighed. "What, you're just going to stay here the whole time?"

Dragon refused to answer her. With a groan, Amara fetched her schoolbooks, then sat down next to the stubborn brat. She still had homework to do, and eventually, Dragon would either get bored, or the others would get back.

A/N: "They're going the wrong way!"

Jean and the "New Mutants" aren't going to find the others in New Orleans... but it might be less of a challenge for the others to track them down than the captive team thinks. If, that is, they listen to what Dragon has to say...

Almost couldn't post this chapter today, my computer was refusing to connect to the internet. Kept telling me no connections were available. Thank goodness I was able to find a fix; I can't afford a new laptop right now. XD