1X05 – Second Star to the Right – Act III

1X05 – Second Star to the Right – Act III

Jean closed the door to Marie’s room, “I got her to sleep,” she told JP as he stood anxiously, “but she was quite upset.”

“Yeah,” he rubbed his forehead, “I just…” he was at a loss to explain his anger, it all sounded like excuses to him, “Aurora goaded me into hurting Marie,” he ground his jaw.

“I know she’s your sister,” Jean sighed as if she had given up on decency, “but we warned you to leave Marie and Aurora alone for the time being, that she wasn’t going to be cured overnight.”

“None of you knew Jeanne-Marie,” his frustration began to brew again, “that woman in there is a mockery of her.”

“And yelling at her won’t get her back,” the telepath took him by the arm and lead him away from Marie’s door.

“What would you have me do,” he snapped back at her, “because I’m not going to just leave her like this.”

“You have to realize there is nothing you can do for her,” Jean looked at him sadly as they stopped further down the hall, “let the Professor and I work on bringing the two personalities back together. We can only do so much, the two personalities have to, on some level, work with us and riling them up, especially Aurora, will only hinder progress.”

“Do whatever you have to,” he told her plainly, “but she’s my sister, I’m responsible for her and will do whatever I have to to get her back, don’t forget that.”

“Somehow I doubt you’ll let us,” she gave him a sour look, “but I’m telling you the best thing you can do for Jeanne-Marie is to leave her alone.”

JP gave a short, unhappy laugh, “You have no idea what you’re asking.”

“No,” Jean admitted quietly, “I don’t, but you still need to do it, for her sake.”

Anger continued to simmer just under the surface at the whole ordeal, but mostly he was mad at himself for putting her in this situation in the first place.

Aurora had been right, this was all his fault.

…

There’s nothing quite like the early dawn of a Brazilian island paradise.

Celso Padua had the morning off thanks to some last minute cancellations. The tourists had already paid their fees and accepted the no-returns policy which suited him just fine. He needed to work on his boat anyway, it was more than sea worthy but he had been meaning to strip down the lower deck and reseal it for awhile. If he could get it stripped this morning then he’d seal it tomorrow.

“You’re such a wanker!” he heard someone shout and his English was good enough to know that particular insult.

“Do it your damn self,” a man with red-orange hair came down one of the side ramps and started stalking down the dock, almost knocking Celso over.

“Watch where you’re going,” the man shouted at Celso before brushing past.

Celso was about to say something rude when someone else came around the corner shouting, “Fine, I will!”

Thoughts of rudeness left his mind as he saw the woman, a black bikini showing off her considerable assets, though she was covered in a white mesh, long sleeve, short hemmed, tunic. Her body was very lean though muscular, as if she was someone who worked out regularly. He could just make out a symbol tattooed on the right side of her stomach, just above her bikini line. It was Asian lettering but he couldn’t tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, or whatever else it could be.

Frustrated, the woman turned and went back down the ramp. Celso couldn’t help but watch, checking out her backside. At the bottom of the ramp next to a medium schooner named Anna-Marie, she bent over and attempted to haul up some rigging.

Stripping the lower deck could wait.

“Need any help?” he asked in English as he headed down the ramp towards her.

“Huh?” she looked up at him warily since he was a stranger to her. After a second of consideration, she moved to the side, and in an Australian accent, or maybe New Zealand, he always got them confused, she said, “Thank you, you get that end?”

“Course,” he smiled and together they managed to get the rigging ropes and equipment up onto the boat.

“Thank you,” she held out her hand but it was covered in grease from some of the hoisting gears and while he didn’t mind she pulled back and looked like she was going to wipe her hand on her mesh tunic but decided she didn’t want to do that. With a cute laugh she said, “I’m Anna.”

“Celso,” he smiled at her, “happy to help.”

She thought it over and said, “I put some coffee on earlier, would you… care to join me?”

He tried not to sound too eager, “Love some.”

…

Knocking softly, Jean waited for Marie to open her door. The girl looked a tad disheveled from the night before, dressed in a ‘granny’ style nightgown, her hair pulled up into a bun.

“Marie,” Jean smiled softly, “I’ve come to see how you are doing. Did you sleep okay?”

“Ah, yes,” she nodded shyly, hiding herself somewhat behind the door, “but I don’t remember a lot. I don’t know why Jean-Paul attacked me like that.”

“A misunderstanding, I assure you,” she attempted not to be patronizing, “he wants to apologize but didn’t want to upset you further.”

The woman was older than Jean but she seemed like a frightened young girl, “I’m not sure I want to see him right now.”

“I understand,” Jean was sympathetic, “why don’t you take the day off, relax, maybe have a hot bubble bath, it always makes me feel better,” she gave a small laugh, “and when you’re ready we’ll sort this all out.”

“That, ah,” Marie offered a weak smile, “that does sound good actually.”

“Great,” she smiled, “and maybe tonight can be a girl’s night, you, me, Betsy, Kitty, see what trouble we can get too.”

Marie laughed nervously, “Thanks, but that’s not really my scene.”

“I think it could be,” she put a slightly suggestive tint to her words, hoping Aurora would hear the offer, “you never know, right? Anyway, I’ll come back by lunchtime, see how you’re doing.”

“Alright, thank you,” Marie nodded and shut the door timidly.

Jean let out a long breath… one step at a time.

…

After talking to Jean, Marie was just a bit confused and, if she was honest, a little afraid. She didn’t understand what happened last night… the clothes… her brother attacking her… and now Jean, who had always been nice to her, was now acting really friendly… what was going on?

Seconds later, Marie blinked and her features become more solid, confidence etching the corners of her features. Aurora was in control… and she had a pretty good idea of the answer to Marie’s question.

Aurora gained a mischievous glint to her eyes…

…

Rogue was always the distraction because she was very… distracting. Sometimes she wondered where she might be if she hadn’t been a mutant and been forced to run away. On days she was honest with herself, she knew she’d probably be working at the local diner. It was about the best she could have hoped for, all things considered.

“This is a nice schooner,” Celso commented in his accented English as he accepted his cup of coffee after they moved into the cabin. Rogue made sure to put the cup down on the table instead of trying to hand it to him directly. It was too early to brush his skin.

“Thank you,” she faked an Aussie accent, the absorbed voice of Pyro jibbing her saying ‘I do not sound like that’, even though he totally did, “it was my grandfather’s. He passed away a few weeks ago, left this to me and my brother.”

“Your brother?” he questioned a little too interestedly, she knew what he was thinking.

“You met him,” she sat down next to the man, sipping her coffee, “well, ran into him is more like it.”

“He ran into me,” Celso defended himself but Rogue could see the wheels turning in his head, now realizing that she was more than likely single if that man wasn’t her boyfriend.

“Sorry about that,” she gave him her best apologetic pout, “we’re having some disagreements about what to do with the Anna-Marie.”

“Oh?” he was clearly checking her out but now feigned polite interest.

“He wants to sell it,” Rogue sighed, “but this is all we have left of granddad. Sure, she needs some work, but sell her?”

“You could get a fair price for her,” he glanced around appreciatively, then realizing his mistake corrected, “but that wouldn’t compare to its emotional value.”

“Exactly,” she gave a thank you gesture, hands spreading out wide, “when we were young he took us out on the Anna-Marie all the time. Sailing up the coast, pretending we were pirates. My brother and I, we were born in Sydney, you see, but grew up in Argentina. My mother was Australian but my father Argentina, though his father was English, moved there after the war… and you’re so not interested in my family history,” she went for a flaky, cute, vibe.

Maybe she could have tried her hand at acting?

“It’s fine,” he assured her, “you have a lot of memories of your grandfather, good ones too, there’s nothing wrong in wanting to hold onto them.”

“You’re just saying that,” she frowned, getting him to have to think quickly.

“No, no,” he shook his head, “my grandfather first took me out on a boat when I but a few months old,” he started to get that nostalgic look in his eye. “He taught me how to scuba when I was six, and always said there was much more to this world than the two dimensions of land and air.”

“You loved your grandfather,” she said softly as she reached forward, brushing his hand and instantly drawing in his life force.

Celso slumped into his seat and Rogue held on long enough to follow the memory chain that was linked to his grandfather. It was a success, she got what she wanted, a complete download of everything he knew about his grandfather and his possible life in Germany and afterwards.

As she shuffled through the memories the thuds of booted men came into the cabin.

“Get anything useful?” Quicksilver asked.

“Eu encontrei algo interessante,” she said when she realized that Celso did know something that might help, “temos de ir para a terra firme.”

“Um, Rogue,” Pyro gave her a funny look, “you’re speaking Portuguese.”

Sighing, Rogue rubbed her head, she hated when that happened.

…

Bobby had his headphones in as he headed into the kitchen, going straight to the top-open deep freeze where he stashed his ice cream. Humming along to the song, he rummaged through the depths of the freezer only to find his ice cream was gone. “Jubilation Lee, I swear…”

Suddenly an open container of Ben and Jerry’s appeared before him, “Looking for this?”

“Ah, yeah,” he stood up and closed the lid, staring awkwardly at Jeanne-Marie who was not dressed in her typical high collar, long hem clothing. Instead she had on a tank top and low waist jeans. He would consider her quite hot if it wasn’t for the fact that it was all way too weird. Slipping the ear buds out he asked, “Aurora?”

“You have good taste,” she said as she dipped out a spoonful of the desert and ate it, slowly pulling the spoon out of her mouth… definitely awkward.

“Well,” he laughed uncomfortably and tried to back away, “enjoy.”

“I plan to,” Aurora grinned and for every step he took back she took one forward, “going somewhere?”

“Well, you know taxes,” he backed into one of the refrigerators, “they don’t prep themselves.”

She raised an eyebrow, “It’s October.”

He laughed awkwardly, “Never too early to catalogue deductions.”

“I suppose,” she pouted and saddled right up against him, “but I can think of some much more interesting things we could catalogue and de-duct.”

Remembering she had super strength and could snap him in two, he pressed himself farther into the wall and tried not to touch her inappropriately, or at all. Bobby wondered just how mad people might be at him if he decided to ice Aurora, just enough to get her to back off so he could get away. His fingers started to ice up as he debated what to do.

“Aurora!” the word was barked and Bobby was both glad and terrified to see Jean-Paul standing in one of the kitchen entrances.

“Oh, go away,” she rolled her eyes at her brother, backing off just enough to give Bobby some breathing room, but she grabbed the cyrokinetic by the shoulder, “or, I’m sorry, did you want this one for yourself?”

With that she pushed Bobby, her strength sending him flying forward, scrambling on his feet to keep upright. He ploughed into JP who didn’t take any notice of him, simply batted him away as he kept his attention on his sister. Being knocked sideways, Bobby comically hit one of the pillars and sunk to the ground.

“You’re embarrassing yourself,” JP informed Aurora sharply.

“You mean, I’m embarrassing you,” she shouted back smugly, “poor ol’ self-righteous Jean-Paul.”

“You’re not going to goad me this time,” he told her, crossing his arms.

“What a pity,” she frowned, then grinned, “but I’ve gotten tired of little Miss ‘get the to a nunnery’ Marie anyway.”

JP’s eyes narrowed and Bobby decided that staying on the floor was his best chance at being ignored during the fight that was sure to ensue.

“What do you mean?” JP asked his pseudo sister.

“I mean that Marie had her moment and she wasted it,” she pushed up off the ground to float above it, “I think it’s time she slept awhile.”

JP took a stumbling step forward, “You can’t do this.”

“Watch me,” Aurora challenged and then flew off between the pillars, knocking over a bread serving truck and the shield guard for a food station on her way.

With a flash of light JP sped after her leaving Bobby to grab his phone from his pocket, quickly hitting speed dial.

“Hey,” he said once it picked up, “we have a serious problem.”

…

Most of the team met up in the hallway, Scott the first to ask, “Anyone seen either of them?”

Jean closed her eyes, “They’re still here, in the house, but JP is running all over the place and Aurora isn’t standing still either,” she frowned as she shook her head, “her mind is so chaotic.”

“Maybe we should just wait for them to calm down?” Kitty asked.

“Aurora’s already destroyed two doors and three windows,” Scott pointed out, “that we know about.”

“She’ll keep wrecking the place as long as JP is chasing her,” Logan said gruffly, “that’s why she’s doing it.”

Scott nodded in agreement, “Fan out, if you find JP, try to talk some sense into him, if you find Aurora, alert the team, do not engage.”

…

Aurora was having way too much fun. If she wanted to do something she simply did it. If it annoyed her brother, that was even better.

He got her into this mess, it was all his fault.

Something at the back of her mind told her that wasn’t strictly speaking true…

Brushing off the thought as nonsensical, of course her brother was to blame for everything, she continued to taunt him by knocking stuff over as she went down the hall.

Then she remembered the greenhouse conservatory on the roof of the mansion. With a diabolical giggle she went out a window, not bothering to open it, and flew up to the greenhouse.

So much glass… so little time.

She was just deciding on where to start when a voice boomed, “I can’t let you continue this parade of destruction, Aurora.”

Turning around, she saw the one they called Storm floating on the winds only a few feet from her, “And you’re going to stop me, Weather Bitch?”

“If I must,” she replied evenly.

“And just how are you going to manage that,” Aurora scoffed at the woman who didn’t even have super strength, in fact, she was light enough to be held up by the winds alone. “Why don’t you go back to wiping the little brat’s noses. You’re out of your league.”

A delicate eyebrow was raised and a hint of a smile passed through the woman’s lips, “Little one, you have absolutely no idea what league I’m in.”

…

JP was looking for his sister, every time he got close he’d have to save something from being totally destroyed and she’d get away again.

All he could think about was how everything was his fault, this was all his bloody fault. He should have protected her better, he should have seen what was happening, he should have—

In the middle of running through the kitchen, JP found himself being hauled sideways by a massive force which sent him to the ground, skidding into one of the tables.

Snikt.

“Stay down,” came Logan’s very threatening voice as his claws were positioned entirely too close to comfort, “Adamantium trumps invulnerability.”

“Aurora—”

“Is doing this to get at you,” the man interrupted none too politely, “she’s your sister, it’s what siblings do, only Aurora doesn’t have the sense to know when to stop, she has no more reservations.”

JP didn’t want to believe him and mentally fought every word… but he was right, “I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”

“Kid,” the Wolverine softened his grip a little, perhaps a bit of sympathy playing on his face, “sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do for someone. It hurts like a bitch, but if they don’t want help, you can’t force them, it’ll only make it worse.”

The realization that the older man was right hit JP so hard he felt as if his heart would explode from the pressure.

“Logan,” Bobby’s voice called from across the room, “’Ro found Aurora, they’re fighting above the mansion.”

With a grumble, Logan grabbed JP by the collar and hauled the man up. “Don’t even think about running.”

The three men headed over to the exit and rushed outside. Jean, Scott, and Kitty were already there, staring up into the sky.

“Who’s winning?” Logan asked, still dragging the taller JP around by his collar.

“Who do you think?” Scott answered dryly.

Seconds later, one of the figures dropped forcefully from the sky, slamming into the stone patio, sending spider web cracks through the designs. Aurora attempted to lift her body and get up, but then her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed, passing out.

X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

A series of short stories in a fictional X-Men TV Universe.