Twisting the envelope in her hand Storm watched Hank surveying the area. The agreement of Frankenstein to meet with them had proven to be easier than she’d anticipated.
With a sad sigh she wondered what it would take to get Charles to come. She knew beyond a doubt that he would never be willing to meet them half-way. Charles Xavier hated to be wrong about anything or anyone. A fact that had been established early on in her association with him. Still he should have swallowed his pride long enough to meet with the group that she was currently waiting for.
With an uneasy glance at Hank she resumed her wait. He’d examined her carefully, thoroughly. She’d cried for hours in the shower when he told her that he’d found evidence of sexual abuse. She still woke at night feeling phantom hands on her body, experiences she didn’t remember at all.
“They’re here.”
With a quick inhale, Storm squared her shoulders and prepared to face the group. She wasn’t too sure what she’d find, what she’d see. It was times like this that she welcomed the brawny presence beside her. Beast would do whatever he could to protect her – even from her own fears.
“I see Xavier didn’t bother to show.” The softest of whispers and Storm glanced up to see Logan standing there flanked by Scott and their doctor Tank or something.
A quick glance behind revealed the three girls standing there. Each wore full length leather dusters, heavy boots, and gloves.
“No. He couldn’t make it.” Storm said apologetically.
“Mm pity,” Rogue moved forward a few steps. A disdainful glance at Beast and she focused on Storm. “So what brings you to our playground?”
“Curiosity.” Beast replied.
“’Bout what?”
“Why you helped me?” Storm replied. “You could have left me there to die. You could have left those children behind and yet you didn’t. I don’t understand why.”
Jubilee snickered and glanced at Kitty who moved to flank Beast and Storm. Both knew that Rogue’s short fuse tended to shrink when questioned and they wanted to be able to protect their friend if the other side attacked.
“I told you. I’m Frankenstein, they’re Frankenstein and Frankenstein is not Charles Xavier.”
Storm stepped toward Rogue only to freeze at the sudden and aggressive appearance of two handguns, and a set of claws. “I’m not here to fight Rogue. I’m here to talk.”
“Seems to me you’re here to get something for your boss, I don’t play that game.”
“No? Seems to me you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t at least a little curious about why we’re here.”
Laughing Rogue shook her head, “I don’t like to be threatened! I don’t like listening to my friends scream at night because they’re reminded of what they had to endure at the hands of the military. Tell me Storm do you enjoy the memory of what they did to you? Do you like waking up in a cold sweat, your heart pounding, your chest aching? Hmmm?”
“I don’t really remember too much of what happened there.”
“Then let me fill in the blanks for you!” Jubilee snarled. “Every time your cell door opened someone came in. Every time you bled. They took you whichever way they wanted. They forced themselves into your body and got off on listening to you scream. No amount of drugs would stop the screams, not with what they did to you. I know…Frankenstein knows only too well. You wanna dance, you better pick a different band.”
“I’m not the enemy!”
“YES YOU ARE!” Kitty shouted angrily. “You left us there! You gave up on us. Made us into disposable things. You gave us away, tossed us aside like unwanted garbage because we were in the way of your precious lives. Your cause became so bloody important to you that you forgot who your allies were.”
“I didn’t..”
“Save it,” Scott snapped moving to back Kitty up quickly. “I saw what happens to girls like Kitty and Jubilee. I’ve seen the scars that they wear. The scars that Rogue buried. You think you had it bad? You think that Xavier would have come to your rescue and you’re so wrong.”
“Please, we didn’t come to fight.” Beast declared moving to back Storm up. “Let us help you.”
“Help us?” Logan drawled. “Help us what?”
“Heal? Deal with what happened.”
“Can you give me back my eye?” Jubilee purred walking up to him and trailing the gun barrel across his chest. “Can you give me back my womb? Give me a chance for life beyond my own? No you can’t. And we’ve dealt with what happened. Now you go back and you tell Xavier exactly what we said.”
“You’re breeding your anger Jubilation. You have to let go sometime!”
Jubilee slapped him as hard as she could. “Don’t tell me to let go of my anger. You weren’t the one that had nightsticks shoved in your cunt! You weren’t gang raped on a nightly basis! No you sat in your plush mansion working on some stupid experiment and forgot about us.”
“What about him?” Storm pointed at Scott. “He was one of us. Why is it that you’ve accepted him so easily?”
Scott flushed slightly but stood still when Kitty turned to look at him appraisingly. This was something he’d always wondered about.
“Because,” Kitty glanced at Storm. “He doesn’t hurt me.”
“We don’t want war with you,” Storm spoke softly to Kitty. “Beast and I are trying to deal with what happened. You saved me, took me home, treated my wounds and not once in all that time did you do anything that would make me think I was in danger. I don’t understand that. I can’t understand why you would do that knowing that if our places were reversed it would have been a different situation.”
Brushing past Kitty and Scott Rogue stopped in front of Storm and stared at her. “Nobody deserves what they did. No one deserves to be made into something or someone that they aren’t. We aren’t a monster, and we’re not humans either.”
“Frankenstein was.”
“Frankenstein was a patchwork of people put together by a mad scientist,” Rogue replied steadily. “That’s what we are. Broken pieces of individuals that were put together by someone else to make us into something we weren’t…only we’re stronger than that.”
“You’re wasting out time.” Logan’s low growl had everyone looking at him. “You won’t get it. You understand only what Charles Xavier has preached for years. We’re outta here.”
“No wait!” Storm grabbed Rogue’s arm. Gasping as the floor rushed up to meet her and two long, elegant claws imbedded themselves on either side of her neck she stared at the girl above her. “Please. If you give up on us what does that make you?”
“Realists.” Rogue snarled. “Don’t touch me again or I’ll make sure the only thing you’re doing is drowning in your own blood.”
Laying there long after Frankenstein had left Storm stared at the ceiling. They’d been calm, collected. There had been no sudden movements, no dangerous explosions of rage and Storm wondered idly why Iceman and Warlok had been targeted for violence.
“Why Iceman and Warlok? What did they do that was so bad Beast?”
Kneeling next to her Hank shrugged, “They did exactly what the army did. Only it was worse because at one time Bobby had been considered a friend.”
“We can’t beat them can we?”
“No, not in war. We need to make them an ally rather than an enemy.”
Storm sat up and stared at him. “There’s only way that will ever happen Hank and you know it.”
Hank nodded, “I know. Come on Xavier’s not going to be overly happy that we met with the enemy.”
“Right now I don’t care. I didn’t see an enemy; I saw a nightmare that we created!”
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