"Are you sure?" Seconds dripped by before the man answered, the dial of the french ormolu clock showed it's progress. Time was after all, all they had to use and maybe their time had arrived at last. The man who'd been summoned here stood with his eyes locked three feet above his masters head. To look down would bring the nightmares of those old hands on his flesh again and the scars hadn't faded from the last time. Clearing his throat he found enough saliva in his dry desert mouth to answer the living corpse that sat across from him.
"Yes sir, Jean Grey has been spotted with Scott Summers, obviously out of the control of Xavier." The rattle of air that passed for breath left the sallow lips of his superior.
"I see." Seconds passed, each one sounding like a death knell to the man who stood in front of the desk. Finally he spoke again, a mocking tone entering the dry wheeze of his breath. "We'll have to pay Charles a visit, now his little pet has flown the coop."
"Do you want us to pick her up?" The near corpse straightened up, picking off imaginary lint off it's suit.
"No. Don't go anywhere near Jean Grey, she's liable to turn you inside out while your still a mile away. No we'll deal with Miss Grey later, I want you to concentrate on our investments at Xaviers school. Go collect them, you'll find the files down in research, bring them 'home'."
The man saluted and left the man sitting behind the desk alone with his clocks, just as he was closing the door the dry voice echoed again making his skin crawl. "Be sure to get 'everyone' Addams, and I do mean 'everyone'."
His eyes flicked to the pale fleshed face, the drawn skin, the thin slash of a mouth, white flesh hung over a prominent skull, threads of white hair tufting on a pate scarred with age. The rhuemy eyes suddenly sharp as they caught the soldiers gaze, his wince visable as it did so making the near corpse grin to show it's cavernous mouth.
"After all it is goods bought and paid for." A deep pink tongue ran over the edge of his mouth, the lips too thin to be noticed and the solider couldn't help but shudder as he saw the delight fire in his superiors eyes.
Pulling himself out of there and shutting the door behind him, never more thankful for the metal and wood that seperated him from the man behind it. He always felt like a fly talking to a spider when he went into there, as he walked down to where his men were awaiting his briefing the secretary passed by carrying his superiors dinner. The deep red could be confused for claret, he had once and it had been the scent of copper rising from the unstoppered bottle that had clued in him in to exactly what was inside it.
Shaking himself from that train of thought he got his mind in order; they had a raid to plan. Pushing open the door to his men they were already seated and waiting, smiling he nodded to the projectionist who'd been waiting for his arrival. The lights went out and a picture flicked up, walking over to it he gestured to the mansion that now covered the screen. "Gentlemen, here's our target. A simple clean and sweep, we're to collect as many viable specimens as possible, level 3 to 5 only. Anything below that, clean." A nod passed through the assembly, "You have your packs, get them read and start your training. We have a week before we head out, so learn your targets and you'll get home. Sloppy work on this one will mean you splattered all across New England."
An interior diagram flew up onto the screen, showing a floorplan and description of rooms. "Get acquainted with this plan, there are tunnels but we don't have the plans to those. So you'll have a window of three minutes tops to get your targets aquired and secured." His face scanned the men gathered around him, the smiles had faded and they now had the faces he'd seen so often, the ones that had succeeded so often where others had failed. Smiling at the gathered host he left them to get on with their planning, while he went to shower the touch of his superiors gaze off his skin.
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Marie sat in the garage, all around her metal had been heated, warped and discoloured, as if someone had been touching the cars with a blow torch. Xaviers Rolls had a blistering scar all down one side, the paint blistered and cracking. Her gloved fingers feeling around the edges, seeing the paint crumble as she touched it. Suddenly feeling as if the entire building she was in could crumble just as easily, backing away from the car she made her way back home. She'd met the secretary, seen the damage Jean had wrought on the school, making her glad that the woman was still travelling away from here. She only hoped she had enough sense of self left after being used so badly.
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Scott was still conscious, he just couldn't move on his own, she was controlling everything he did. Even as he signed the resgister to the hotel, smiling to the clerk he wanted to scream at the man to save him, to help him. But as he met Jean's smiling face handing her the pen; he knew that was an impossibility, what he'd done was finally coming to roost on his shoulders. Every step he took was agony as Jean controlled his body, letting him open the door and offer it to her first. Seeing her walk inside the smile that had been on her face suddenly fading and her anger rising. Eyes darkening with it and her hair rising as her powers increased. He was pulled physically from the door wrenching his wrist, the wood slamming into the hole and sealing itself. No one was getting in here until she was ready to let them in, he was stuck with her.
The drive had been murder, she'd driven using her powers, all the hatred and pain forced through the engine. It sat in the car park, it's racing engine destroyed by her wrath, leaking oil all over the asphalt; black blood from the one thing he'd cared about more than her.
She turned on him now, her face schooled into what he liked to call her 'schoolmarm' face, cool, calm, collected but underneath she was seething. She'd used the same face on Bobby when he'd frozen the med bay up as a joke. She'd made him clean bedpans for a month, by hand.
"Scott," her tone was even but the twitching under her skin told him she was close to letting everything go. "You're going to tell me *everything* you know about these little missions I've been going on. I *want* you to tell me or I'll rip it out of your head and leave you a vegetable for the cleaning crew to sort out tomorrow. It's your choice Scott, more than I had by the looks of things." She manoeuvred him so he was standing by the window, the morning light on his face. He felt her grip loosen on his mind, just enough so he could think and speak but he couldn't move. Licking his lips he broke his silence, trying to reach the woman who he'd once loved, cherished more than anything else in the world. And he had to wonder exactly when ideals had become more important than his love for her.
"I love you...." her eyes flashed dangerously as she moved toward him. A sneer on her perfect face sending her usually beauty into Medusa realms, it was then he knew he'd be lucky to get out of here alive.
"Love? Love? You wouldn't know that if it came and hit you in the fucking groin! YOU USED ME! You KNEW what I was doing, you LET him do this to ME! You were supposed to be HELPING me, helping me get control not use me like a weapon." She paced in front of him her hair fluttering in the created winds around her head. Tears were falling now down her skin and Scott wanted to dry them, needed to touch her, to repair the damage he'd caused her. She was the unsure girl again, the one who'd needed his security, his strength, his leadership. The one who'd hidden in his arms when the voices and emotions of those around her became too much for her to cope with. Her wet eyes found his, her body coming closer to his own. She held him still as her hands went for his shades, "You want to know what love is? Love is doing what you can for those you care about, giving everything even when you shouldn't. I loved you Scott, I still do somewhere so I'm going to do this for you. Even when I shouldn't."
Her hands took the shades away, his eyes were wide open as she moved them away. He couldn't close them and he expected to kill her when her hands moved away, what happened instead made his heart leap for joy. She was there, in colour, seeing everything in the subtle tones and highlights he'd been denied for so long. Her hand touched his skin stroking the stubble on his face, a wet smile on her lips. "I've taken it Scott, it's gone, you'll never be able to use it again. I've locked it away, deep inside your mind, burned the circuit in your brain. Your free of him Scott, he can't use you anymore, your free."
Scott was lost in the sight and sensation he was pulling in from his eyes, from the world he'd lost when he'd been eleven to register exactly what she was saying to him. Her next words hit home though and made his bowels turn to water. "Scott, I'm going to be in your mind, all you have to do is show me how this started, why it happened, show me. If you love me, show me."
Her fingers wreathed themselves in his hair, their pads grazing his scalp and he knew if he tried to keep her out or lied to her she'd burn him in an instant. Nodding to her he acquiesced; letting her into the deepest parts of his memory, showing her the truth of it all, of everything he'd hidden from her, every secret, every lie. As he did so for the first time in nearly twenty five years, tears rolled from his freed eyes painting the air with salt as Jean closed her own to read what he was revealing to her. All he could hope was that she still had enough love for him to let him live past today.
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Marie walked into the kitchen at the school, she thought about snagging a few things for their own lunch back home when Storm entered the kitchen. Her face was pinched, taut and her normally clear eyes ringed with red. Storm started a little when she saw Marie in the fridge, she was about to leave again when Marie popped her head up. "Hi, Ro' want some tea?" Marie read her scent, she was confused, hurt, tired, a wan smile found it's way onto the goddesses face.
"Yes I would, thank you Rogue." Smiling at her Marie switched on the kettle on the hob, the silver reflecting the sight of Storm sitting at the large wooden table.
"You okay? Everyone's out ah see, gone to the museum huh?" Storm nodded as she looked out of the window, when her eyes turned back to look at Marie a seriousness had filled them.
"Rogue would you please sit with me?"
"Sure, that is if ah don't scare you bein' so close an all." Storm smiled at her, touching her arm with a bare hand.
"Rogue, you've never scared me. You've always been approachable to me, just because I'm not a touchy person doesn't mean I don't care." The kettle whistled and Marie got up to fill the pot on the counter, Storm's eyes following her movements.
"Jean's gone Rogue. She's taken Scott with her and I don't think their coming back. Charles is searching for her now but he said she's had a breakdown, she's dangerous. We need to find her and bring her home as soon as possible, there's no telling what she could do to Scott or to anyone for that matter."
The words entered her head but Marie knew that Jean was finally realising what she'd been used for and for Jean it had been a terrible wrench to know her fiance had been one of those controlling and using her. Turning back to Storm she schooled her face into the appropriate concerned look, sitting down next to Storm with mugs and the teapot.
"So what's gonna happen to the school? Ah mean we've just lost two of the senior staff, ah can help out a little but ah don't have any experience of teachin."
Storm nodded as she poured her tea into her cup, "Yes we'll have to send out for replacements but it's not just that Rogue. If Jean is so unstable then we'll have to be ready if she attacks the mansion, she said some awful things Rogue. I'm glad you weren't here to hear her, I find it so hard to believe that she could ever believe such things, never mind say them."
"So your sayin we might have to take her down?" Storms eyes didn't meet hers for a moment but when they did the pain inside their depths was obvious.
"If what I saw of you in the Danger Room was a taste of what you've been learning with Logan, you two might be the only chance we have if she comes back."
So that was it, Xavier knew he couldn't control her anymore so he'd find her and send them out to kill her. She knew too much about what she'd been doing and if she got more information from Scott.....Marie nodded to Storm, her hands wrapped safely around the mug she held in her grip.
"Ro' you know Logan would never let the kids here get hurt you know that, if it came to it he'd carry every single one of em out on his back. Me included." Storm reached out and touched her hand, gripping it and squeezing it tight.
"Your right, he's always put the children first, he always went to find you first when he got home. Just to check you were okay, yes I think we should get some plans made, just in case."
Marie smiled at Storm and squeezed her hand back, Logan had filled her in about the things he'd spoken about with Peiter. Two plans were better than one, they'd get the kids safe no matter what happened, as soon as they were away from the school Logan's plan would come into effect. Hers was to get them out of the grounds, over the table they drew up a plan, it was late afternoon when the buses brought the kids back loaded with toys and sugar. But the plan was made, all they had to do was implement it when the time came. Smiling to herself Marie left the school to get back home, she had things to discuss with Logan before the day was out.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Things speed up now, Xaiver is still hiding away, while the truth about his dealings is finally coming to light. Jean takes matters into her own hands, while Marie gets the mansion organised.