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Title: The New Mutants, Volume XV: Making Amends
Author: KanedaX
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Spoilers: X3, The New Mutants volumes I-XIV (see above)
Pairings: Theresa/Remy, Bobby/Kitty
Rating: PG-13 for language and faux-lesbian smoochies
Summary: Clarice isn't a bad guy, Kurt isn't up to date, and Rogue isn't quite herself.
Notes: Once again I find myself writing a lot of stuff before the team gets back to the job at hand. However, hey, I think this is a fun chapter, so if you don't like it, I'll give you a complete refund of zero dollars. As usual I do not own the X-Men, Marvel Comics, or 20th Century Fox. But I do own Classics Bumblebee, and he is AWESOME!
Previous Chapter (Aftermath) / Next Chapter (Like A Child)
The cell door slid open, and Clarice Ferguson, a spare hospital gown covering her pink skin, pushed herself against the far wall, shoving herself along the soft cot that was attached to the wall. Ororo Munroe and Sean Cassidy stepped through the door as it slid closed behind them.
“Hello, Clarice,” Sean said softly, and Ororo had to force the image of Anthony Hopkins out of her mind quickly.
“What do you want?” Clarice said pitifully, her knees pulled up to her chest.
“We just want to talk,” Ororo said, sitting down on the bed next to her. Clarice shrunk away even further. Sean leaned against the wall, his shadow being cast along the floor from the overhead lights.
“When can I get out of here?” Clarice asked.
“Soon,” Ororo replied. “We just want to talk, and learn what you know. Then the three of us will decide what we should do.”
“I didn’t want anyone to die,” Clarice said. “None of us did. I didn’t… Mr. Lehnsherr said that no one would get hurt.”
Ororo nodded. Once again, it came down to Magneto telling people what they wanted to hear, yet going by his own agenda.
“We know,” Sean said from the wall. “And we know you want to help. God knows you could have left here any time you wanted to.”
“Why am I still down here?” she asked.
“Honestly?” Ororo said, looking around the metal cell. “For your protection. We don’t know for sure how many others Magneto has working for him, and he probably wouldn’t be very happy knowing that one of his own had come to help the good guys.”
“I,” Clarice breathed. “I was a bad guy?”
Sean shook his head. “You were with the bad guys,” he responded. “That’s one of the things about bad guys. They tend to twist the rules a bit, twist the truth. Those guys you ran with, they were criminals.”
“I know,” Clarice replied. “I knew that they were fighting back against the humans when I met them. Shoplifting, putting up signs, that sort of thing. You know, ‘fight the power’?”
Ororo turned back to Sean, who sighed and dropped his head. “They were into more than that,” she said to Clarice. “Jamie Madrox was a serial bank robber, pulling multiple heists at the same time.”
“Yeah,” Clarice said hopefully, “but Erik brought him in, he wasn’t there when…”
“From what I learned from our government, Sarah Rushman had been on the run for years, charged with first degree assault, armed robbery, and had been a member of multiple mutant terror rings.”
“Yeah, but she was psycho, we all knew that,” Clarice responded quickly. “But we were able to keep a hold of her, she didn’t do anything like that when…”
“Alvin Wyngarde was a trained hacker,” Ororo continued, “and was also wanted for sexual assault and battery.”
“Alvin?” she said, her voice dropping.
“Cain Marko had been arrested for assault and battery when Magneto broke him out of police custody a year ago.”
Clarice stared at Ororo, her mouth suddenly feeling very dry.
“And John Allerdyce, who I am sad to say was a former student here,” Ororo concluded, “not only killed dozens of soldiers along with Magneto and Juggernaut at Alcatraz, but also murdered hundreds of innocent humans and mutants when he firebombed a public Cure facility last year.”
“What?” Clarice said, her voice rising in shock. “No, Johnny couldn’t have done that! He was so nice…”
Sean and Ororo exchanged a glance as Clarice continued.
“I mean, when I met him he was so nice to me. He knew I was a mutant right away. I mean, look at me,” she said, holding up her pink hands and brushing a tear away from her glowing green eye. “But he didn’t care. After her learned about what my power was, he introduced me to his friends. They weren’t quite as nice, but he explained to me that they were fighting so people like me could live a normal life.
“We got into some stuff, did a few jobs, but it was nothing really bad. Nothing that hurt anybody more than, you know, a chain store or something like that. Cain and Sarah were scary sometimes, but Alvin was nice. And John…”
She brushed her hand across her eyes. “I was in love with Johnny. And I thought he was in love with me. I mean, whenever things got really bad, and I started getting scared, he was there, and… and we would… and he would convince me to stick around. And I would, because I wanted to be with him…
“Was all that a lie?”
“I don’t know, Clarice,” Ororo said softly. “I can’t answer for what happened when your group was together, because you and Cain are the only ones still around to talk about it. But what I do know is that John killed one of our students tonight, completely unprovoked, and nearly killed another. So did Cain. Added to what we already know about the two…” she shrugged, allowing Ferguson to complete the thought.
“He lied to me,” Clarice said, her voice darkening. “The John I knew would never do that. But I guess I obviously didn’t know him.”
“What do you know about Magneto?” Sean said.
Clarice looked up. “What do you want to know?”
“Where is he?” Sean asked. “Why did he attack us? What is he planning to do with his kids? How did he know that Brian was the Phoenix?”
“The Phoenix?” Clarice asked, looking to Ororo with a look of confusion. “Like in Harry Potter? No… you mean that thing that looked like a big, glowing knight? I don’t know. If he knew about it, he didn’t say anything to us.”
“Where is he now?” Ororo asked.
“Tatooine.”
“Where?”
“In that movie, Star Wars?” she nodded. “After he pulled the metal out of that man’s body, I got really angry, and sent him to the first far-away place I could think of. Tatooine.”
“But,” Ororo replied, confused, “That’s a movie, there’s no such thing as…”
“Tunisia.”
Ororo turned to look at Sean.
“Those scenes were filmed in Tunisia,” he said, a small grin on his face. “Northern Africa.”
Ororo continued to stare, and Sean shrugged.
“I have my geek identification card in my wallet, if you need to see it, Professor.”
“So that’s how your powers work?” Ororo said. “You can think of a place, and open a portal there?”
“I guess so,” Clarice responded. “I mean, I have to be able to picture a specific area in my head. I can’t, like, look at a map or stare at the moon, or anything. Although I did watch the old moon landing footage once, and ended up in a movie studio in California.
“It was weird.”
“So you don’t necessarily need to know where the portal is opening,” Ororo summarized, “just so long as you know what it looks like?”
Clarice shrugged.
“Well,” Ororo said, turning to Sean. “I guess she puts Kurt’s powers to shame.”
Logan paused, his blade frozen in mid-motion. He flared his nostrils, taking in the new smell that had entered the Danger Room.
Instinctively, he swung the sword over his head and spun around, arcing the blade downward, where it passed harmlessly through a cloud of dark smoke. He heard a poofing noise behind him, and he spun around, his teeth bared.
“Verletzen Sie nicht!” a voice yelled from above him. “Es ist ich!”
Logan looked up to find a blue-skinned man hanging upside-down by one of the uneven bars he had set out for training along with a weight set and attack dummies. Dangling by his tail, his coat awkwardly hung over his face.
“Kurt,” Logan growled, sheathing the katana at his side, “I could have killed you.”
“Ja,” Kurt Wagner responded, releasing his tail and, spinning in mid-air, gracefully landing on the floor. “It is a pleasure to see you, too, mein Freund.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you gave up on the whole ‘hero’ racket.”
“I could say the same for you, Wolverine,” Kurt replied, chuckling. “Didn’t Ororo tell you I was arriving?”
“Ororo hasn’t told me much of anything,” Logan said, “considering I just woke up an hour ago.”
“Mein Gott,” Kurt said. “She told me you were hurt badly. You’ve been out of bed an hour and you’re already here? Training?”
“Gotta keep myself in shape,” Logan said, flexing his hand. He stared at it, as if he expected something to happen, then shook his head and cursed quietly.
“Should ask Forge to make me something,” he muttered.
“Was ist das?”
“Nothing,” Logan replied. “So what are you doing here, anyway?”
“When I saw the news,” Kurt explained, “They talked about the attack.”
“Shit,” Logan growled. “We’re all over the press now.”
“The news mentioned a mutant attack on a school in Westchester County,” Kurt corrected. “They didn’t say anything about what kind of school it was.”
“Great,” Logan said. “The government probably keeping them hush-hush in exchange for them not losing their asses about Alex.”
“Who?”
“Long story,” Logan replied. “Either way, it gives them some good press. Evil Mutants apprehended while attacking Upper-Crust Private School. Classy of them.”
“Anyway,” Kurt continued, “After I heard about the attack, I called to see if I could help at all. I spoke with a Dr. McCoy…”
“Fuzzball’s here, too?” Logan said dumbfounded. “Jesus, I’ve been out too long.”
“He said he was taking care of the injured.”
“He must have been on the can when I woke up,” Logan said, looking towards the door. “Or the litter box, or whatever the hell he uses.”
“I teleported my way along the coast,” Kurt said. “Just arrived a few minutes ago. I didn’t recognize many of the Kinder upstairs, so I thought I would come down here to see if there was anyone I knew. I saw the Danger Room open, thought I would take a look.”
“Along the coast?” Logan asked, grabbing the towel off the nearby weight bench. “That where you’re shacked up now?”
“Alma, ja,” Kurt replied. “In New Brunswick. A nice town, very friendly to mutants.”
Logan snorted as Wagner followed him out of the Danger Room. “I picked the wrong part of Canada. So you haven’t gotten to see anyone else since you got in, huh?”
“Nein. I saw Theresa and Connor, but everyone else was otherwise occupied… or…”
Logan didn’t need him to finish that thought. Dead. Passed on. Whatever you wanted to say.
“I am sorry I could not come,” Kurt said quietly. “But I said a little prayer for them when I heard. Charles. Jean. Scott. Jubilation. Little Artie…”
“It’s not like we had much contact with you,” Logan replied, his throat tightening at the mention of the names. “You’re here because you caught us on the news, and the others weren’t exactly noteworthy in the grand scheme of the world.”
“Not to those who didn’t understand,” Kurt said. “But we no better, ja?”
“Yeah,” Logan said as they walked towards the med lab. “Well, I can’t promise that you’ll be too thrilled to see some of the others, they’re not in the best shape…”
As they walked into the lab, Logan’s mouth dropped.
“Kurt!”
“Oh, come on,” Logan yelled. “I’ve only been awake an hour!”
The mood had lightened considerably in the short time since Logan had left for the Danger Room. Kitty was sitting on Bobby’s bed, her face beaming. Bobby’s bed was raised. His head and chest were still bandaged but, sitting up, he was definitely looking better than before.
Rogue’s bed was empty.
“Hey, Kurt!” Kitty said.
“Allo, Katzchen,” Kurt said, smiling. “Allo, Robert.”
“How’s it goin, Wagner?” Bobby said, a grin cracking his face.
“Better than you, I would think,” he replied, pointing at the bandage crossing Bobby’s forehead. Drake reached up and rubbed it gently.
“Yeah, it stings a bit,” he said. “But, hey, I’m a fast healer.” Kitty giggled and squeezed his hand. Kurt looked at the interaction with a bit of confusion.
“You two are…?” he asked. “But what about…?”
“You got a lot of catching up to do, Blue,” Logan said, patting his shoulder. He turned to the pair. “So where is Marie?”
“Marie,” Hank replied, walking from the back room with a stack of files, “bolted out of here not five minutes ago.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Never seen a girl more full of pep,” Hank said, smiling slightly with a look that hinted at a blush beneath his blue fur. Bobby and Kitty looked at each other with the same confused embarrassed look. Hank regained his composure and extended his hand to Kurt. “Henry McCoy.”
“Kurt Wagner,” Kurt said, taking it, “But in the Munich circus I was known as the Incredible…”
“Cram it,” Logan growled.
Jimmy Cameron was sitting down at the kitchen table, setting a turkey sandwich down for his lunch, when he heard a poofing noise beside him and he was enclosed in a rib-tightening bear hug. Before he had time to even see his attacker, he felt a pair of lips pressed against his.
After a few seconds that felt like an eternity of shock and bliss to Jimmy, the kiss was broken, and he saw a girl’s grinning face inches from his, her arms still wrapped tightly around him.
“Hi,” Rogue said perkily, the white lock of hair hanging in front of her face.
Jimmy opened his mouth. Hi, he wanted to respond, but all that came out was a half-hearted squeak.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said. “Hank told me that you were the one who brought me down to the med lab.”
Jimmy’s face felt like it was on fire. His mind was screaming at him to say something cool or witty, since this was the first time he had ever been kissed by… well, by anyone. But his mind also kept seeing her face, smelling her hair, feeling her body pressed against his, and decided that his brain really wasn’t up for functioning right now.
“W…well…I-I-I-I,” Jimmy stammered.
“It was really awesome of you,” she continued, not noticing his flounderings, “to remember that my powers don’t work when you’re around. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”
“W-w-w-well,” he pressed, “It wasn’t just… just me… I mean, Theresa was there… and Remy…”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he muttered. The blush had spread to the top of his bald head.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“Outside?”
“Awesome!” Rogue yelled happily and, dragging Jimmy along by the arm, ran from the kitchen.
The cell door slid closed just as Kurt and Logan left the med lab. The two groups met in front of the elevator. Logan’s eyes narrowed, and his hands instinctively flipped out to his sides, expecting blades that never appeared.
“What’s she doing here?” he growled as Clarice ducked behind Sean. Ororo quickly stepped between them and put her hand on Logan’s chest.
“She,” Ororo said firmly, “is here to help.”
“The hell she is!” Logan yelled. “She was there with Magneto!”
“Yes, she was,” Ororo replied. “And she’s here to make amends.”
“But…”
“We all make mistakes, Logan,” she continued. “You know that as well as anyone. She thought she was with the good guys. Now that she’s here, she’s ready to be with the real ones.”
Logan stared into Clarice’s glowing green eyes, his teeth bared. Finally, he pulled back, staring tensely at Ororo.
“Logan,” she said, “This is Clarice Ferguson. Clarice, this is Logan.”
Logan looked back down at Clarice, who was slowly edging her way back from behind Cassidy.
“Hey,” he said flatly.
“Hi,” she responded, her eyes dropping to the floor.
Ororo sighed, and then turned to Kurt. “Good to see you again, Kurt.”
“And you as well, Ororo,” he said as the two embraced in a friendly hug.
“Name’s Sean Cassidy,” Sean said, extending his hand.
“Kurt Wagner,” he replied. “But in the Munich circus I was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler!”
Logan rolled his eyes and wiped his hand across his face. “Jesus, does that line ever work? Really? Do you get a lot of tail?”
Kurt gave him a toothy grin, his pointed tail wagging.
“Sean,” Ororo said. “Why don’t you bring Clarice upstairs and introduce her to the students. Henry said he wanted to talk to me for a few minutes.”
“Sure,” Sean nodded, laying his hand gently on Clarice’s back and escorting her into the elevator. “Come on, lassie.”
“You want to come along?” she said, turning to Logan and Kurt. “We’re going to have a little brainstorming session.”
“Sure, why not?” Logan shrugged. “It’s been minutes since I’ve seen the lab.”
“Outcast?”
“Nah,” Theresa said. “It might be a cool sounding name, but it doesn’t fit him very well.”
“Hmm,” Remy replied, running his hand through her hair.
“How ‘bout Vector?” she said, looking up from his lap.
“Might be closer,” he conceded.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jones asked from behind them, his breath fogging from his mouth. He leaned on the back of the bench on which Remy and Theresa sat, Theresa’s head in Remy’s lap. In front of them on the lawn, the students were taking full advantage of the freshly fallen snow. Alison and Lucas seemed to be fully immersed in a pickup game of snowball fight, while Alex (who Forge had conceded, from across the Atlantic, was probably fine to leave his room in small doses, just so long as he kept the rest of the suit on) had decided to make his own army of miniature snowmen. Peter sat at another bench on the far side, calmly brushing paint across an easel.
“Code names,” Theresa replied. “We’re trying to decide what good names for them would be.”
“What do you have so far?” Jones asked, walking around to face them and sitting down in the snow.
“Well, we decided Artie would have made a great Mirage,” Theresa said, pushing her hair back from her eyes with her gloved hand.
Jones smiled. “That is a good one.”
“We’re trying to figure out Arthur,” Remy said. “We have Outcast, Outlook, Vector, Hollow Man… he’s a tough one.”
“I always liked Longshot,” Jones said, shrugging. “Mr. Logan said it in the first self-defense class, and it kinda stuck.”
“Really?” Theresa said.
“Yeah,” he replied. “It stuck with Centino more, though. He really got a kick out of it.”
“Better than what we had,” Remy said. “I like it.”
The three heard footsteps floofing through the snow, and turned to see two bodies standing in the shadow of the winter sun.
“That Remy?” Rogue asked, and Jimmy nodded. She pulled Jimmy to within a foot of the trio, wrapped her arms around Remy, and kissed him.
“Hey!” Theresa yelled, pushing herself up from Remy’s lap, “What do you think you’re…”
Before she could get another word out, Marie turned and kissed her full on the lips.
Lucas paused in the middle of the fight and stared at the scene with a look of amazement.
“Don’t worry, squirt,” Alison said from next to him, patting his shoulder with her snow-covered glove. “You’ll get a girl to do that for ya someday. If you’re lucky.”
Lucas turned and cocked his head. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Albuquerque,” he said sarcastically, and was quickly retorted by a snowball to the face.
Theresa’s eyes widened in shock, and stayed that way as the kiss broke and Rogue wrapped her arms around their necks in a hug.
“Thank you guys so much,” she said. “You all helped me, even though I didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
Theresa twisted her head to meet Remy’s behind Rogue’s back, and they shared the same look of shocked confusion.
“I want to make things better,” Marie continued. “Starting now. I’m not locking myself up anymore. And you two have a lot to do with that.”
“No… problem, Rogue,” Theresa croaked, patting her on the back. “You know you’re always my friend.”
“Pleasure to… meet you, by the way,” Remy gasped.
Rogue pulled back, a look of embarrassment on her face. “Hi,” she said, taking Remy’s hand and shaking it furiously, “I’m Marie. Or Rogue. Either one’s fine.”
“Remy,” he said awkwardly. “Remy LeBeau.”
“Nice to meet you, Remy,” she replied, a big grin on her face. She released his hand, and then stood up, turning back to the field.
“Peter!” she squealed, and Jimmy was helplessly dragged across the snow towards the artist.
“Ooookay,” Jones said from the ground, staring at Rogue as she ran away. “Besides the fact that I didn’t get any of that, what just happened?”
Theresa and Remy were still struck dumb.
“I mean,” he continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like that before. Sure, Professor Munroe said that she might manifest some of the personalities that she had absorbed, but…”
He turned to the two, and, still hearing no response, pressed on, ticking them off on his fingers. “Bobby, Peter, John. Logan. Magneto. I mean, its not like she absorbed anyone so… perky…”
Hearing this, Theresa’s hand slowly covered her mouth. She stood up and walked across the snow towards Peter, Rogue, and Jimmy.
“Theresa, what’s up?” Remy asked, but she ignored him, walking faster over to the group, as a memory re-surfaced in her mind.
“So what’s it like?”
“What’s what like?”
“You know…” Jubilee replied.
The moon was shining into the girls dormitory that Friday night. Theresa was lying in her bed reading a book, and Kitty was sitting on top of her sheets, unselfconsciously clipping her toenails.
“I don’t know if I do know,” Rogue said nervously, her gloved hands clasped tightly on top of her crossed legs. She had only been at the Academy for a month, and Theresa could tell she still wasn’t used to Jubilee’s bluntness.
“The whole ‘absorption’ thing,” Jubilee said, pushing herself to the edge of her bed, which was situated next to Rogue’s. “What’s it feel like?”
“I don’t know,” Rogue said, her eyes wandering along her pajama pants. “I mean, when I absorb someone, I really don’t feel much of anything.”
“But what does it feel like to them?” Jubilee persisted.
“Jubes,” Kitty said, “leave her alone. She doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“I…” Rogue muttered, “I don’t know what it feels like to them. Every time I’ve done it, it hasn’t exactly turned out very well.” Theresa, who remembered what happened to Mr. Logan, as well as what Magneto did in New York, silently agreed with her.
Jubilee continued to press the issue. “Do me,” she said, holding out her hand.
“What?”
“Do me!” Jubilee said, a grin on her face.
“No!” Rogue said, shying away.
“Come oooonnnn!” Jubilee whined, bouncing up and down on the bed. “I wanna try it. Please?”
Rogue stared down at her hands, and Jubilee took the opportunity to jump across to Rogue’s bed, flopping down on her stomach next to her.
“I’ll be your best friend,” Jubilee begged. “And I’ll make you waffles and take you shopping for new gloves and do whatever you want your new best friend to do!”
Rogue looked up at her uncertainly. “I don’t know…”
Jubilee dropped to the floor on her knees, leaning on the bed. “Pleeeeease?” she said, pouting her lip.
Rogue looked down at Jubilee’s puppy-dog eyes, and then looked up at Theresa and Kitty, both of who were looking at the pair with a look of helpless interest.
Sighing and shaking her head, Rogue reached up to her forearm and began pulling one of her long gloves off. Jubilee jumped up and squealed, clapping her hands in child-like glee.
“Just for a second, okay?” Rogue said uncomfortably.
“Just a second I promise I promise I promise,” Jubilee replied, hastily sitting back down on the bed. Her arm shot out in front of her. She pulled the arm of her yellow sushi pajamas up, and squeezed her eyes shut tight. Theresa thought she looked like a kid expecting a shot at the doctor’s office. Rogue looked down at the exposed arm, exhaled strongly, and touched her bare hand to Jubilee’s wrist.
A second passed. Two seconds. Then Jubilee’s eyes popped open, and she bolted to her feet, pulling her arm away from Rogue.
“Oh my God!” Jubilee breathed. Rogue jumped up, a look of concern on her face.
“I’m sorry!” Rogue yelled, “I didn’t mean to hurt you, are you alright?”
“That was so awesome!” Jubilee screamed, grinning in sheer delight.
“It was?” Rogue replied as Jubilee squealed and bounced up and down.
“That was the coolest thing ever!” she continued, running over and bouncing on Kitty’s bed.
Rogue started giggling in spite of herself. “Was it?” she repeated, her mood lightening instantly. She reached her hand out, and small sparks erupted from her fingertips.
“Eeee!” Jubilee squeaked, wrapping her arms around Kitty, “She can do my sparkly thing, too, that’s so cool!” Giggling madly, Jubilee kissed Kitty on the lips, then bounced off the bed and launched herself across to Theresa’s bed, doing the same to her.
“Calm down a touch, Jubes,” Theresa said after bursting into laughter. Too far into her state of euphoria, however, Jubilee quickly turned her attention to Rogue.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” she babbled, grabbing Rogue by the arms and pulling her in, kissing her just long enough to not be affected by her power.
When Jubilee pulled away, Rogue attempted to blink, and smiled.
“No problem,” she said, laughing.
“So how about Jubilee?” Remy asked from behind Theresa.
“I don’t know,” Jones replied. “Firebrand?”
“How about Black Cat?” Remy said.
“Kitty would have to fight her for the ‘cat’ thing.”
“Sparkler?”
“That one’s a good one.”
Jubilee only has one name that would fit her, Theresa thought as she walked across the field, where Jimmy had stepped away from Rogue and Peter long enough for Rogue to joyfully demonstrate her new ability to turn her skin into steel. Peter laughed and nodded.
Jubilee was always happy, she thought. Even though her power wasn’t as strong as Alison’s, she was able to light up a room like no one ever could. Her whole lack of inhibitions when she was really wired up. She could never stop touching people when she was really excited, that whole ‘socially bisexual thing,’ as she liked to say. She was never embarrassed, and always wore her feelings on her sleeve.
“Rogue?” Theresa asked.
Rogue turned around with a smile on her face. “Yeah, Theresa?”
Theresa walked forward, and wrapped her arms around Rogue, hugging her tightly.
Jubilation Lee had her nickname the moment her parents gave it to her, she thought. She was a jubilee. And it’s good to know that part of her is still here.
“Thank you for staying,” Theresa whispered, partly to Rogue, but mostly to her best friend.
Previous Chapter (Aftermath) / Next Chapter (Like A Child)
Title: The New Mutants, Volume XV: Making Amends
Author: KanedaX
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Spoilers: X3, The New Mutants volumes I-XIV (see above)
Pairings: Theresa/Remy, Bobby/Kitty
Rating: PG-13 for language and faux-lesbian smoochies
Summary: Clarice isn't a bad guy, Kurt isn't up to date, and Rogue isn't quite herself.
Notes: Once again I find myself writing a lot of stuff before the team gets back to the job at hand. However, hey, I think this is a fun chapter, so if you don't like it, I'll give you a complete refund of zero dollars. As usual I do not own the X-Men, Marvel Comics, or 20th Century Fox. But I do own Classics Bumblebee, and he is AWESOME!
Previous Chapter (Aftermath) / Next Chapter (Like A Child)
The cell door slid open, and Clarice Ferguson, a spare hospital gown covering her pink skin, pushed herself against the far wall, shoving herself along the soft cot that was attached to the wall. Ororo Munroe and Sean Cassidy stepped through the door as it slid closed behind them.
“Hello, Clarice,” Sean said softly, and Ororo had to force the image of Anthony Hopkins out of her mind quickly.
“What do you want?” Clarice said pitifully, her knees pulled up to her chest.
“We just want to talk,” Ororo said, sitting down on the bed next to her. Clarice shrunk away even further. Sean leaned against the wall, his shadow being cast along the floor from the overhead lights.
“When can I get out of here?” Clarice asked.
“Soon,” Ororo replied. “We just want to talk, and learn what you know. Then the three of us will decide what we should do.”
“I didn’t want anyone to die,” Clarice said. “None of us did. I didn’t… Mr. Lehnsherr said that no one would get hurt.”
Ororo nodded. Once again, it came down to Magneto telling people what they wanted to hear, yet going by his own agenda.
“We know,” Sean said from the wall. “And we know you want to help. God knows you could have left here any time you wanted to.”
“Why am I still down here?” she asked.
“Honestly?” Ororo said, looking around the metal cell. “For your protection. We don’t know for sure how many others Magneto has working for him, and he probably wouldn’t be very happy knowing that one of his own had come to help the good guys.”
“I,” Clarice breathed. “I was a bad guy?”
Sean shook his head. “You were with the bad guys,” he responded. “That’s one of the things about bad guys. They tend to twist the rules a bit, twist the truth. Those guys you ran with, they were criminals.”
“I know,” Clarice replied. “I knew that they were fighting back against the humans when I met them. Shoplifting, putting up signs, that sort of thing. You know, ‘fight the power’?”
Ororo turned back to Sean, who sighed and dropped his head. “They were into more than that,” she said to Clarice. “Jamie Madrox was a serial bank robber, pulling multiple heists at the same time.”
“Yeah,” Clarice said hopefully, “but Erik brought him in, he wasn’t there when…”
“From what I learned from our government, Sarah Rushman had been on the run for years, charged with first degree assault, armed robbery, and had been a member of multiple mutant terror rings.”
“Yeah, but she was psycho, we all knew that,” Clarice responded quickly. “But we were able to keep a hold of her, she didn’t do anything like that when…”
“Alvin Wyngarde was a trained hacker,” Ororo continued, “and was also wanted for sexual assault and battery.”
“Alvin?” she said, her voice dropping.
“Cain Marko had been arrested for assault and battery when Magneto broke him out of police custody a year ago.”
Clarice stared at Ororo, her mouth suddenly feeling very dry.
“And John Allerdyce, who I am sad to say was a former student here,” Ororo concluded, “not only killed dozens of soldiers along with Magneto and Juggernaut at Alcatraz, but also murdered hundreds of innocent humans and mutants when he firebombed a public Cure facility last year.”
“What?” Clarice said, her voice rising in shock. “No, Johnny couldn’t have done that! He was so nice…”
Sean and Ororo exchanged a glance as Clarice continued.
“I mean, when I met him he was so nice to me. He knew I was a mutant right away. I mean, look at me,” she said, holding up her pink hands and brushing a tear away from her glowing green eye. “But he didn’t care. After her learned about what my power was, he introduced me to his friends. They weren’t quite as nice, but he explained to me that they were fighting so people like me could live a normal life.
“We got into some stuff, did a few jobs, but it was nothing really bad. Nothing that hurt anybody more than, you know, a chain store or something like that. Cain and Sarah were scary sometimes, but Alvin was nice. And John…”
She brushed her hand across her eyes. “I was in love with Johnny. And I thought he was in love with me. I mean, whenever things got really bad, and I started getting scared, he was there, and… and we would… and he would convince me to stick around. And I would, because I wanted to be with him…
“Was all that a lie?”
“I don’t know, Clarice,” Ororo said softly. “I can’t answer for what happened when your group was together, because you and Cain are the only ones still around to talk about it. But what I do know is that John killed one of our students tonight, completely unprovoked, and nearly killed another. So did Cain. Added to what we already know about the two…” she shrugged, allowing Ferguson to complete the thought.
“He lied to me,” Clarice said, her voice darkening. “The John I knew would never do that. But I guess I obviously didn’t know him.”
“What do you know about Magneto?” Sean said.
Clarice looked up. “What do you want to know?”
“Where is he?” Sean asked. “Why did he attack us? What is he planning to do with his kids? How did he know that Brian was the Phoenix?”
“The Phoenix?” Clarice asked, looking to Ororo with a look of confusion. “Like in Harry Potter? No… you mean that thing that looked like a big, glowing knight? I don’t know. If he knew about it, he didn’t say anything to us.”
“Where is he now?” Ororo asked.
“Tatooine.”
“Where?”
“In that movie, Star Wars?” she nodded. “After he pulled the metal out of that man’s body, I got really angry, and sent him to the first far-away place I could think of. Tatooine.”
“But,” Ororo replied, confused, “That’s a movie, there’s no such thing as…”
“Tunisia.”
Ororo turned to look at Sean.
“Those scenes were filmed in Tunisia,” he said, a small grin on his face. “Northern Africa.”
Ororo continued to stare, and Sean shrugged.
“I have my geek identification card in my wallet, if you need to see it, Professor.”
“So that’s how your powers work?” Ororo said. “You can think of a place, and open a portal there?”
“I guess so,” Clarice responded. “I mean, I have to be able to picture a specific area in my head. I can’t, like, look at a map or stare at the moon, or anything. Although I did watch the old moon landing footage once, and ended up in a movie studio in California.
“It was weird.”
“So you don’t necessarily need to know where the portal is opening,” Ororo summarized, “just so long as you know what it looks like?”
Clarice shrugged.
“Well,” Ororo said, turning to Sean. “I guess she puts Kurt’s powers to shame.”
Logan paused, his blade frozen in mid-motion. He flared his nostrils, taking in the new smell that had entered the Danger Room.
Instinctively, he swung the sword over his head and spun around, arcing the blade downward, where it passed harmlessly through a cloud of dark smoke. He heard a poofing noise behind him, and he spun around, his teeth bared.
“Verletzen Sie nicht!” a voice yelled from above him. “Es ist ich!”
Logan looked up to find a blue-skinned man hanging upside-down by one of the uneven bars he had set out for training along with a weight set and attack dummies. Dangling by his tail, his coat awkwardly hung over his face.
“Kurt,” Logan growled, sheathing the katana at his side, “I could have killed you.”
“Ja,” Kurt Wagner responded, releasing his tail and, spinning in mid-air, gracefully landing on the floor. “It is a pleasure to see you, too, mein Freund.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you gave up on the whole ‘hero’ racket.”
“I could say the same for you, Wolverine,” Kurt replied, chuckling. “Didn’t Ororo tell you I was arriving?”
“Ororo hasn’t told me much of anything,” Logan said, “considering I just woke up an hour ago.”
“Mein Gott,” Kurt said. “She told me you were hurt badly. You’ve been out of bed an hour and you’re already here? Training?”
“Gotta keep myself in shape,” Logan said, flexing his hand. He stared at it, as if he expected something to happen, then shook his head and cursed quietly.
“Should ask Forge to make me something,” he muttered.
“Was ist das?”
“Nothing,” Logan replied. “So what are you doing here, anyway?”
“When I saw the news,” Kurt explained, “They talked about the attack.”
“Shit,” Logan growled. “We’re all over the press now.”
“The news mentioned a mutant attack on a school in Westchester County,” Kurt corrected. “They didn’t say anything about what kind of school it was.”
“Great,” Logan said. “The government probably keeping them hush-hush in exchange for them not losing their asses about Alex.”
“Who?”
“Long story,” Logan replied. “Either way, it gives them some good press. Evil Mutants apprehended while attacking Upper-Crust Private School. Classy of them.”
“Anyway,” Kurt continued, “After I heard about the attack, I called to see if I could help at all. I spoke with a Dr. McCoy…”
“Fuzzball’s here, too?” Logan said dumbfounded. “Jesus, I’ve been out too long.”
“He said he was taking care of the injured.”
“He must have been on the can when I woke up,” Logan said, looking towards the door. “Or the litter box, or whatever the hell he uses.”
“I teleported my way along the coast,” Kurt said. “Just arrived a few minutes ago. I didn’t recognize many of the Kinder upstairs, so I thought I would come down here to see if there was anyone I knew. I saw the Danger Room open, thought I would take a look.”
“Along the coast?” Logan asked, grabbing the towel off the nearby weight bench. “That where you’re shacked up now?”
“Alma, ja,” Kurt replied. “In New Brunswick. A nice town, very friendly to mutants.”
Logan snorted as Wagner followed him out of the Danger Room. “I picked the wrong part of Canada. So you haven’t gotten to see anyone else since you got in, huh?”
“Nein. I saw Theresa and Connor, but everyone else was otherwise occupied… or…”
Logan didn’t need him to finish that thought. Dead. Passed on. Whatever you wanted to say.
“I am sorry I could not come,” Kurt said quietly. “But I said a little prayer for them when I heard. Charles. Jean. Scott. Jubilation. Little Artie…”
“It’s not like we had much contact with you,” Logan replied, his throat tightening at the mention of the names. “You’re here because you caught us on the news, and the others weren’t exactly noteworthy in the grand scheme of the world.”
“Not to those who didn’t understand,” Kurt said. “But we no better, ja?”
“Yeah,” Logan said as they walked towards the med lab. “Well, I can’t promise that you’ll be too thrilled to see some of the others, they’re not in the best shape…”
As they walked into the lab, Logan’s mouth dropped.
“Kurt!”
“Oh, come on,” Logan yelled. “I’ve only been awake an hour!”
The mood had lightened considerably in the short time since Logan had left for the Danger Room. Kitty was sitting on Bobby’s bed, her face beaming. Bobby’s bed was raised. His head and chest were still bandaged but, sitting up, he was definitely looking better than before.
Rogue’s bed was empty.
“Hey, Kurt!” Kitty said.
“Allo, Katzchen,” Kurt said, smiling. “Allo, Robert.”
“How’s it goin, Wagner?” Bobby said, a grin cracking his face.
“Better than you, I would think,” he replied, pointing at the bandage crossing Bobby’s forehead. Drake reached up and rubbed it gently.
“Yeah, it stings a bit,” he said. “But, hey, I’m a fast healer.” Kitty giggled and squeezed his hand. Kurt looked at the interaction with a bit of confusion.
“You two are…?” he asked. “But what about…?”
“You got a lot of catching up to do, Blue,” Logan said, patting his shoulder. He turned to the pair. “So where is Marie?”
“Marie,” Hank replied, walking from the back room with a stack of files, “bolted out of here not five minutes ago.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Never seen a girl more full of pep,” Hank said, smiling slightly with a look that hinted at a blush beneath his blue fur. Bobby and Kitty looked at each other with the same confused embarrassed look. Hank regained his composure and extended his hand to Kurt. “Henry McCoy.”
“Kurt Wagner,” Kurt said, taking it, “But in the Munich circus I was known as the Incredible…”
“Cram it,” Logan growled.
Jimmy Cameron was sitting down at the kitchen table, setting a turkey sandwich down for his lunch, when he heard a poofing noise beside him and he was enclosed in a rib-tightening bear hug. Before he had time to even see his attacker, he felt a pair of lips pressed against his.
After a few seconds that felt like an eternity of shock and bliss to Jimmy, the kiss was broken, and he saw a girl’s grinning face inches from his, her arms still wrapped tightly around him.
“Hi,” Rogue said perkily, the white lock of hair hanging in front of her face.
Jimmy opened his mouth. Hi, he wanted to respond, but all that came out was a half-hearted squeak.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said. “Hank told me that you were the one who brought me down to the med lab.”
Jimmy’s face felt like it was on fire. His mind was screaming at him to say something cool or witty, since this was the first time he had ever been kissed by… well, by anyone. But his mind also kept seeing her face, smelling her hair, feeling her body pressed against his, and decided that his brain really wasn’t up for functioning right now.
“W…well…I-I-I-I,” Jimmy stammered.
“It was really awesome of you,” she continued, not noticing his flounderings, “to remember that my powers don’t work when you’re around. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”
“W-w-w-well,” he pressed, “It wasn’t just… just me… I mean, Theresa was there… and Remy…”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he muttered. The blush had spread to the top of his bald head.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“Outside?”
“Awesome!” Rogue yelled happily and, dragging Jimmy along by the arm, ran from the kitchen.
The cell door slid closed just as Kurt and Logan left the med lab. The two groups met in front of the elevator. Logan’s eyes narrowed, and his hands instinctively flipped out to his sides, expecting blades that never appeared.
“What’s she doing here?” he growled as Clarice ducked behind Sean. Ororo quickly stepped between them and put her hand on Logan’s chest.
“She,” Ororo said firmly, “is here to help.”
“The hell she is!” Logan yelled. “She was there with Magneto!”
“Yes, she was,” Ororo replied. “And she’s here to make amends.”
“But…”
“We all make mistakes, Logan,” she continued. “You know that as well as anyone. She thought she was with the good guys. Now that she’s here, she’s ready to be with the real ones.”
Logan stared into Clarice’s glowing green eyes, his teeth bared. Finally, he pulled back, staring tensely at Ororo.
“Logan,” she said, “This is Clarice Ferguson. Clarice, this is Logan.”
Logan looked back down at Clarice, who was slowly edging her way back from behind Cassidy.
“Hey,” he said flatly.
“Hi,” she responded, her eyes dropping to the floor.
Ororo sighed, and then turned to Kurt. “Good to see you again, Kurt.”
“And you as well, Ororo,” he said as the two embraced in a friendly hug.
“Name’s Sean Cassidy,” Sean said, extending his hand.
“Kurt Wagner,” he replied. “But in the Munich circus I was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler!”
Logan rolled his eyes and wiped his hand across his face. “Jesus, does that line ever work? Really? Do you get a lot of tail?”
Kurt gave him a toothy grin, his pointed tail wagging.
“Sean,” Ororo said. “Why don’t you bring Clarice upstairs and introduce her to the students. Henry said he wanted to talk to me for a few minutes.”
“Sure,” Sean nodded, laying his hand gently on Clarice’s back and escorting her into the elevator. “Come on, lassie.”
“You want to come along?” she said, turning to Logan and Kurt. “We’re going to have a little brainstorming session.”
“Sure, why not?” Logan shrugged. “It’s been minutes since I’ve seen the lab.”
“Outcast?”
“Nah,” Theresa said. “It might be a cool sounding name, but it doesn’t fit him very well.”
“Hmm,” Remy replied, running his hand through her hair.
“How ‘bout Vector?” she said, looking up from his lap.
“Might be closer,” he conceded.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jones asked from behind them, his breath fogging from his mouth. He leaned on the back of the bench on which Remy and Theresa sat, Theresa’s head in Remy’s lap. In front of them on the lawn, the students were taking full advantage of the freshly fallen snow. Alison and Lucas seemed to be fully immersed in a pickup game of snowball fight, while Alex (who Forge had conceded, from across the Atlantic, was probably fine to leave his room in small doses, just so long as he kept the rest of the suit on) had decided to make his own army of miniature snowmen. Peter sat at another bench on the far side, calmly brushing paint across an easel.
“Code names,” Theresa replied. “We’re trying to decide what good names for them would be.”
“What do you have so far?” Jones asked, walking around to face them and sitting down in the snow.
“Well, we decided Artie would have made a great Mirage,” Theresa said, pushing her hair back from her eyes with her gloved hand.
Jones smiled. “That is a good one.”
“We’re trying to figure out Arthur,” Remy said. “We have Outcast, Outlook, Vector, Hollow Man… he’s a tough one.”
“I always liked Longshot,” Jones said, shrugging. “Mr. Logan said it in the first self-defense class, and it kinda stuck.”
“Really?” Theresa said.
“Yeah,” he replied. “It stuck with Centino more, though. He really got a kick out of it.”
“Better than what we had,” Remy said. “I like it.”
The three heard footsteps floofing through the snow, and turned to see two bodies standing in the shadow of the winter sun.
“That Remy?” Rogue asked, and Jimmy nodded. She pulled Jimmy to within a foot of the trio, wrapped her arms around Remy, and kissed him.
“Hey!” Theresa yelled, pushing herself up from Remy’s lap, “What do you think you’re…”
Before she could get another word out, Marie turned and kissed her full on the lips.
Lucas paused in the middle of the fight and stared at the scene with a look of amazement.
“Don’t worry, squirt,” Alison said from next to him, patting his shoulder with her snow-covered glove. “You’ll get a girl to do that for ya someday. If you’re lucky.”
Lucas turned and cocked his head. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Albuquerque,” he said sarcastically, and was quickly retorted by a snowball to the face.
Theresa’s eyes widened in shock, and stayed that way as the kiss broke and Rogue wrapped her arms around their necks in a hug.
“Thank you guys so much,” she said. “You all helped me, even though I didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
Theresa twisted her head to meet Remy’s behind Rogue’s back, and they shared the same look of shocked confusion.
“I want to make things better,” Marie continued. “Starting now. I’m not locking myself up anymore. And you two have a lot to do with that.”
“No… problem, Rogue,” Theresa croaked, patting her on the back. “You know you’re always my friend.”
“Pleasure to… meet you, by the way,” Remy gasped.
Rogue pulled back, a look of embarrassment on her face. “Hi,” she said, taking Remy’s hand and shaking it furiously, “I’m Marie. Or Rogue. Either one’s fine.”
“Remy,” he said awkwardly. “Remy LeBeau.”
“Nice to meet you, Remy,” she replied, a big grin on her face. She released his hand, and then stood up, turning back to the field.
“Peter!” she squealed, and Jimmy was helplessly dragged across the snow towards the artist.
“Ooookay,” Jones said from the ground, staring at Rogue as she ran away. “Besides the fact that I didn’t get any of that, what just happened?”
Theresa and Remy were still struck dumb.
“I mean,” he continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like that before. Sure, Professor Munroe said that she might manifest some of the personalities that she had absorbed, but…”
He turned to the two, and, still hearing no response, pressed on, ticking them off on his fingers. “Bobby, Peter, John. Logan. Magneto. I mean, its not like she absorbed anyone so… perky…”
Hearing this, Theresa’s hand slowly covered her mouth. She stood up and walked across the snow towards Peter, Rogue, and Jimmy.
“Theresa, what’s up?” Remy asked, but she ignored him, walking faster over to the group, as a memory re-surfaced in her mind.
“So what’s it like?”
“What’s what like?”
“You know…” Jubilee replied.
The moon was shining into the girls dormitory that Friday night. Theresa was lying in her bed reading a book, and Kitty was sitting on top of her sheets, unselfconsciously clipping her toenails.
“I don’t know if I do know,” Rogue said nervously, her gloved hands clasped tightly on top of her crossed legs. She had only been at the Academy for a month, and Theresa could tell she still wasn’t used to Jubilee’s bluntness.
“The whole ‘absorption’ thing,” Jubilee said, pushing herself to the edge of her bed, which was situated next to Rogue’s. “What’s it feel like?”
“I don’t know,” Rogue said, her eyes wandering along her pajama pants. “I mean, when I absorb someone, I really don’t feel much of anything.”
“But what does it feel like to them?” Jubilee persisted.
“Jubes,” Kitty said, “leave her alone. She doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“I…” Rogue muttered, “I don’t know what it feels like to them. Every time I’ve done it, it hasn’t exactly turned out very well.” Theresa, who remembered what happened to Mr. Logan, as well as what Magneto did in New York, silently agreed with her.
Jubilee continued to press the issue. “Do me,” she said, holding out her hand.
“What?”
“Do me!” Jubilee said, a grin on her face.
“No!” Rogue said, shying away.
“Come oooonnnn!” Jubilee whined, bouncing up and down on the bed. “I wanna try it. Please?”
Rogue stared down at her hands, and Jubilee took the opportunity to jump across to Rogue’s bed, flopping down on her stomach next to her.
“I’ll be your best friend,” Jubilee begged. “And I’ll make you waffles and take you shopping for new gloves and do whatever you want your new best friend to do!”
Rogue looked up at her uncertainly. “I don’t know…”
Jubilee dropped to the floor on her knees, leaning on the bed. “Pleeeeease?” she said, pouting her lip.
Rogue looked down at Jubilee’s puppy-dog eyes, and then looked up at Theresa and Kitty, both of who were looking at the pair with a look of helpless interest.
Sighing and shaking her head, Rogue reached up to her forearm and began pulling one of her long gloves off. Jubilee jumped up and squealed, clapping her hands in child-like glee.
“Just for a second, okay?” Rogue said uncomfortably.
“Just a second I promise I promise I promise,” Jubilee replied, hastily sitting back down on the bed. Her arm shot out in front of her. She pulled the arm of her yellow sushi pajamas up, and squeezed her eyes shut tight. Theresa thought she looked like a kid expecting a shot at the doctor’s office. Rogue looked down at the exposed arm, exhaled strongly, and touched her bare hand to Jubilee’s wrist.
A second passed. Two seconds. Then Jubilee’s eyes popped open, and she bolted to her feet, pulling her arm away from Rogue.
“Oh my God!” Jubilee breathed. Rogue jumped up, a look of concern on her face.
“I’m sorry!” Rogue yelled, “I didn’t mean to hurt you, are you alright?”
“That was so awesome!” Jubilee screamed, grinning in sheer delight.
“It was?” Rogue replied as Jubilee squealed and bounced up and down.
“That was the coolest thing ever!” she continued, running over and bouncing on Kitty’s bed.
Rogue started giggling in spite of herself. “Was it?” she repeated, her mood lightening instantly. She reached her hand out, and small sparks erupted from her fingertips.
“Eeee!” Jubilee squeaked, wrapping her arms around Kitty, “She can do my sparkly thing, too, that’s so cool!” Giggling madly, Jubilee kissed Kitty on the lips, then bounced off the bed and launched herself across to Theresa’s bed, doing the same to her.
“Calm down a touch, Jubes,” Theresa said after bursting into laughter. Too far into her state of euphoria, however, Jubilee quickly turned her attention to Rogue.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” she babbled, grabbing Rogue by the arms and pulling her in, kissing her just long enough to not be affected by her power.
When Jubilee pulled away, Rogue attempted to blink, and smiled.
“No problem,” she said, laughing.
“So how about Jubilee?” Remy asked from behind Theresa.
“I don’t know,” Jones replied. “Firebrand?”
“How about Black Cat?” Remy said.
“Kitty would have to fight her for the ‘cat’ thing.”
“Sparkler?”
“That one’s a good one.”
Jubilee only has one name that would fit her, Theresa thought as she walked across the field, where Jimmy had stepped away from Rogue and Peter long enough for Rogue to joyfully demonstrate her new ability to turn her skin into steel. Peter laughed and nodded.
Jubilee was always happy, she thought. Even though her power wasn’t as strong as Alison’s, she was able to light up a room like no one ever could. Her whole lack of inhibitions when she was really wired up. She could never stop touching people when she was really excited, that whole ‘socially bisexual thing,’ as she liked to say. She was never embarrassed, and always wore her feelings on her sleeve.
“Rogue?” Theresa asked.
Rogue turned around with a smile on her face. “Yeah, Theresa?”
Theresa walked forward, and wrapped her arms around Rogue, hugging her tightly.
Jubilation Lee had her nickname the moment her parents gave it to her, she thought. She was a jubilee. And it’s good to know that part of her is still here.
“Thank you for staying,” Theresa whispered, partly to Rogue, but mostly to her best friend.
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