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1X10 – Ghosts – Act III
“AM I DEAD?!” Kitty screamed at her parents who stood before her, not believing what they were seeing.
Kitty was falling again, this time into the basement to land on the washer and dryer with a hard thud that she definitely felt.
“Ow,” she curled onto her side, glad to see she was solid again but it did little to elevate her fears.
The door to the basement opened and light flooded the room. Within seconds, Kitty’s mom was holding her.
“Are you hurt,” her mom asked as she helped her off the laundry machines.
“What’s wrong with me,” Kitty asked between sobs, clutching her mother as if her solid form would keep Kitty from fading into nothing.
“I don’t know,” her mother admitted almost painfully, “I don’t… we’ll figure this out… we will.”
Kitty felt herself being lifted, but this time it was her father picking her up. She instinctively curled against him as she couldn’t stop crying, “I don’t want to be dead…”
…
“No,” Rogue mumbled and her faced crinkled as if she was in pain.
Pyro stood above her and frowned down at her sleeping form, scratching his head.
“Hey,” Avalanche came in from the gym area, “have you seen—”
“Shush,” Pyro cut him off with a finger to his lips and pointed to the sofa with his other hand.
The Greek frowned and walked forward, seeing Rogue’s sleeping form. “She’s having a nightmare,” he spoke more quietly.
“She’s dreaming a memory,” Pyro corrected, “just not a happy one.”
“Looks painful,” he pointed out the obvious distress on her face, “perhaps you should wake her.”
“Oh, ho, no, no, no,” Pyro shook his head and waved his hands, “bad idea, bad.”
“Rogue cannot be that big of a grouch,” Avalanche frowned.
“Oh, it’s not Rogue you have to worry about,” Pyro told him, “it’s who you might be waking up with her,” the Aussie pulled his shirt up and showed a nasty scar just below his rib cage, “they nearly killed me one time.”
Avalanche raised a single brow, “When was this?”
“Um,” he put his shirt down, “like five years ago?”
Rogue sat up sharply, breathing rapidly.
“Rogue?” Pyro asked, trying to get her attention without getting into her line of sight.
Rubbing her face, the woman cleared her throat, “Sorry, fell asleep.”
“Noticed,” the Aussie was glad to see she woke up as herself, “who was it this time?”
“Rowland’s guard,” she ran her hand through her hair and she swung her legs off the sofa, “the super strength one.”
“Discover anything interesting,” he asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” Rogue stood and stretched a bit, “maybe, give me a minute.”
Almost like a zombie the woman walked towards the kitchen to get herself a glass of water.
“That does not look like it was healthy,” Avalanche commented.
“Probably wasn’t,” he agreed.
“But she did it on purpose,” the Greek easily caught on, “made herself dream his memories.”
“Doesn’t always work,” Pyro admitted, “but when it does, it works really well.”
…
“Hey,” Scott stopped Jean in the hall later that evening, “how did Dr. Reyes’ visit go with Danielle?”
“It was good,” she told him, “as long as we can wake Danielle up in the next week then there really shouldn’t be any adverse affects, physically wise.”
“Well, that’s something,” it was good to know that she had a fair chance of recovery.
“The cafeteria should be opening for dinner,” she gestured in the general direction of the kitchen, “wanna grab a bite to eat?”
Scott was extremely tempted, after all, it was just a friendly dinner between co-workers in a room full of fellow teachers and students…
A rustle of denim and a fleeting shadow…
“You know, maybe later,” he gave her an apologetic smile and before she could respond he headed down the hallway towards the corner where he thought he saw the figure, his brother.
Another faint glimpse of the shadow and he jogged to catch up to it, finding himself in one of the classrooms.
Standing in front of the white board, writing out the word ‘betrayal’, was a young boy.
“Alex…”
The boy stopped when he finished the L and slowly turned around. He looked the same as the last moments Scott saw him all those years ago, right before he was sucked out of the plane…
“Hello, brother,” Alex spoke, the voice achingly familiar.
“This can’t be…” Scott breathed.
“Why can’t it be?” the figure asked. “Oh, that’s right, you killed me.”
“You’re not real,” his shook his head, trying to find a logical explanation, “it’s an illusion, a mutation that manifests—”
“Manifest’s what, big brother,” Alex was suddenly right in front of him, staring at him with accusation in his eyes, “the truth? That you let me die.”
“No, no,” feelings of guilt and pain boiled to the surface no matter how hard he held them down, “I tried to grab you, I tried.”
“AND YOU FAILED!”
Scott stumbled back at the ferocity of his brother’s words, smacking into the wall.
“You’re my big bro,” Alex seemed to be at a loss, “and you didn’t protect me. You abandoned mom and dad. And here you are,” his arms gestured wide, “in a big shiny house, telling yourself you’re gonna help people,” the boy laughed, “who the hell are you kidding?”
“Alex,” tears escaped from under his red tinted glasses, “I’m… I’m so.”
“NO!” he pointed his finger accusingly, “You don’t have the right to say you’re sorry! You failed us! Your own family!” he pointed to the door, “And you think you’re going to save this one?!”
The weight of his brother’s words drug him to the floor, Alex was right, he was a failure, to his family, to the school, his team, to everyone.
“Scott!” he barely heard Jean’s voice cut through the haze. “Scott, look at me.”
“Jean?” his brother was gone and all he could see was the beautiful woman who had her hands on his face, soothing him. She was the woman he was quite possibly in love with… but he’d only end up failing her too.
…
“Sorry, I’m a little early,” the man said as he took off his coat just inside the front door.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Kitty’s mom smiled at Trevor while he hung up his coat, “dinner’s almost ready.”
“Smells delicious, Terri,” he gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek, well aware that Kitty was coming down the stairs slowly, silently judging if he was good enough for her mother.
Kitty looked at the man critically. He opted for the more formal look of a light blue suit and jacket, but forwent the tie to give it a more relaxed look. The man wanted to make a good impression but didn’t want to look too stuffy or pretentious, she could respect that.
But it would take more than smart dress sense to get Kitty’s approval.
Not that Kitty would express her disapproval to her mom unless it was really serious. Her mom deserved to be happy even if the guy happened to have a really annoying laugh or something like that.
“You must be Katherine,” he held out his hand politely.
“It’s okay,” she shook his hand and smiled, “you can call me Kitty.”
Trevor had a solid grip and didn’t do that creepy thing where he just held on putting his other hand over hers, Kitty really hated that, “It’s good to finally meet you, your mom talks about you all the time.”
“All the time?” she replied cheekily, “boy, that must get really awkward then.”
It took him a second to decide how to reply to that and he went with, “Well, it can, especially when she says all those mean things about you.”
“Trevor,” her mom gasped at his equally cheeky response, nearly punching him in the shoulder as he laughed.
Well, he had a good sense of humor, that was something at least.
…
Scott was sitting at one of the student desks, rubbing his forehead as if that could get rid of the pounding in his head. Jean had pulled another desk closer to his and was rubbing his back.
“Here you go,” JP sat a glass of water down in front of him after running off to get it at high speed.
“Thank you,” he took the drink and drowned it.
“You look like you could use something stronger,” Bobby commented from where he was sitting on top of one of the student desks.
It wasn’t a half bad idea.
“Scott,” Xavier came through the door followed by Ororo, “how are you feeling?”
“You want me to be honest,” he was a grown man who only minutes before had been bawling like a baby, he was the leader of the team, he was supposed to be stronger than this, “I feel like I just watched my family die right in front of me all over again.”
The room went quite, no one wanting to touch that statement.
“I’m sorry,” Xavier rolled in front of him, “but please, tell me, what did you see?”
“I saw Alex,” Scott pulled himself together, sitting up a little straighter and unconsciously pulling away from Jean, “he looked like the last time I saw him, he was writing on the board,” he just now noticed that the word was gone, “but it’s not there, he had to have been some kind of illusion.”
“Someone was making you see things?” Bobby asked and Scott missed the slight touch of fear in the boy’s eyes.
“It was more than that,” he cleared his throat, “I wasn’t just seeing Alex again, I remembered everything I felt the moment I saw him die as if it just happened. I felt…” years of guilt solidified into a single point of blistering pain, “I felt everything.”
“Could this be a secondary mutation manifesting in one of our students?” Ororo asked.
“Hhhmmm,” Xavier got that telepathic look in his eye, “there doesn’t seem to be any residue of an unknown telepath or other psionic manifestation in Scott’s mind. Jean?”
“He looks clean to me,” Jean agreed with him, “which is odd, all psionics leave a little trace.”
Bobby held his hand up, “Is this a bad time to point out I’ve been seeing things too?”
Everyone looked to the Iceman, Xavier asking, “When?”
“Earlier today,” he pointed at JP, “you remember, when I thought I saw my dad.”
“Jubilee,” Jean suddenly realized, “she thought someone was playing a trick on her, showing her images of her parent’s death.”
“So this manifestation is making people see ghosts from their past,” JP put it all together.
“But Bobby’s dad isn’t dead,” Jean pointed out.
“That man will outlive Logan,” Bobby said as if that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Where is Logan?” Scott asked. “If this is bringing up painful memories…”
“I think I have never been more thankful for his want to patronize the local bars,” Xavier spoke wryly, “whatever this is, it seems to have a wide area of effect and is getting stronger.”
“We should move the children down to the telepath training area,” Ororo decided, “the rooms are made to block telepathy and psionics. Whoever is doing this likely does not realize that they are doing it, once we figure out who it is, we can help them.”
“Good idea, ‘Ro,” Xavier agreed, “but let us be gentle about it, if we cause a panic, or even anxiety, it could make the situation worse.”
“Agreed,” she nodded, “Jean, Bobby, go with Charles to the cafeteria, most of the students are there. Jean-Paul, check outside for any stragglers. I’ll start doing a floor by floor search.”
Everyone quickly agreed with the plan, JP disappearing while Jean and Bobby stood.
“I’ll help with the floor by floor,” Scott said as he stood.
“You will go straight to the training rooms,” Xavier told him, “you were the first to be seriously affected by this mutation. It could hit you again and may be even worse.”
“It’s okay,” Jean assured him with a hand on his shoulder, “we got this.”
“Of course,” he nodded and followed with them out of the classroom, knowing they were quite capable of handling this on their own.
They were also right to recognize that he was compromised, at a greater risk to fail them, it was apparently what he was good at.
…
“All right folks,” Bobby jumped up on one of the empty tables at the end of the cafeteria, “drill time, yay!” he waved his hands in the air like Kermit the Frog, “so if you would all kindly form straight and orderly lines thatta way,” he was now mimicking an air traffic controller, “I promise this is not an attempt to keep Chef’s chocolate cake all to myself, tempting as that may be.”
It was the smartest idea to get Bobby to move the students, they respected him but didn’t quite take him seriously enough to be truly worried that this was anything more than another random drill. Though there was still a fair amount of moans and groans, a few students bringing their pizza or other items with them to finish on the way.
“Follow the hall to the left down to the telepath training area,” Jean told them as the kids filed out of the room behind Bobby who was leading the way like a piped piper.
Xavier watched them as they passed, trying to sense for who might be giving off an unusual psionic presence.
“Betsy is already there,” Jean said to Charles, “getting the students into the rooms, she said she hasn’t had any strange visions today.”
“As telepaths we are likely immune,” he reasoned, “at least at this stage.”
“It’s strange though,” the woman frowned, “to be able to affect such a wide area and break through Scott’s telepath defense training so easily, you’d think we’d be able to sense someone that strong.”
“Yes,” Charles agreed, they should be able to, so why weren’t they?
…
“I’m telling you,” Doug was standing with Jubilee in the hallway of the girl’s dorm wing, “I’ve been through the security feed three times now, there is nothing there.”
“I know what I saw,” Jubilee was just so angry, maybe unreasonably angry, but she had good reason, didn’t she?
“It was early in the morning,” the man splayed his hands in defeat, “could you have been half awake?”
“Dreamed it?” she laughed at him then shook her head. “Whatever, I’ll figure this out myself.”
“Jubes,” he called after her but she stormed off and went to her room, slamming the door behind her.
Rubbing the bridge of her nose with both hands, she felt like she was going to explode. She went into the bathroom and turned on the water to splash on her face. She was just… so… angry…
There they were, reflected in the bathroom mirror, their eyes boring into her soul with their accusations.
Screaming, Jubilee backed out of the room in a panic, her pulse pounding.
“Jubilation Lee,” her mother said and Jubilee turned around to see both her parents standing in the middle of the room.
“This can’t be real,” she was trembling now, “ghosts aren’t real.”
In the back of her mind she could hear banging on her door, someone else calling her name.
“We wouldn’t be ghosts if it wasn’t for you,” her father said sternly.
“Always had to be the center of attention,” her mother added coldly.
“No, no,” she shook her head, “the other driver was drunk, he was speeding, he ran the light.”
“Perhaps if I’d been paying better attention,” the man gave her no sympathy.
“If you weren’t so distracting,” the woman sneered.
“It wasn’t my fault,” tears streamed as she gripped her head, nearly tearing her hair out, “it wasn’t my fault.”
“It will always be your fault,” they both spoke in eerie unison.
“Jubilee!” she felt herself be grabbed. “What’s wrong?”
Blinking rapidly, her parents were gone and all she saw was Doug, confusion and fear etched across his face. She collapsed against the tech savvy mutant who held her awkwardly, trying to console her.
“It wasn’t my fault,” she repeated and she would continue to do so until one day she actually believed it.
…
“Head down to the telepath training area,” Ororo told James and Ben who had brought their dinner to their room so they could keep playing co-op on Call of Duty, “stay together, do not stop for anything.”
The two boys didn’t argue and made their way down the hall to the stairs.
“Ororo,” she heard Charles in her mind, “I am getting distress from Jubilee, I fear she may be affected.”
“On my way,” she told him and headed over to the girls side.
As she turned down a hall, she noticed that the window at the end was gone, blocked by a solid wall.
“That’s not right,” she said as fear unwillingly crept up inside her.
“What’s not right?” Charles asked and she barely heard him over the sudden pounding of her heart.
Turning around, the cross hallway was gone and instead there was another solid wall blocking her path.
“No,” she put her hand on the wall and tried to push, it felt solid, “no, it’s an illusion.”
“’Ro!” the shout was so distant it might have not existed at all.
Behind her, the hallway disappeared, blocked so that she was standing in a ten by ten square space.
“It’s not real,” her pulse was rapid and her white iris’s dilated, “I can escape, I can walk out of this.”
Hyperventilating, she backed against the wall and sunk to the floor.
“I’m not trapped,” she said as she began to rock herself, “I’m not trapped, not again, never again…”
…
“Everyone, I know it’s a little cramped,” Bobby was ushering the last of the students into one of the five rooms, “this shouldn’t take very long.”
“What’s going on?” James asked as he and his roommate Ben showed up late to the party.
“Nothing you have to worry about,” Bobby smiled and gestured for them to enter the room which acted like a mental Faraday cage.
“All the other rooms are secure,” Jean walked up to him, Xavier rolling next to her, “each has adult supervision. If something starts happening, they’ll come get us.”
“I fear we have lost Ororo,” Xavier was frowning, his face that of a man desperately trying to figure out what was going on.
“Does this have to do with Danielle?” James popped his head back through the doorway.
“Miss Moonstar?” Xavier crinkled his brow in thought.
“She’s the newest mutant here,” the kid pointed out.
“She’s in a coma,” Bobby stated the obvious.
“So?” was the Apache’s only defensive statement.
“Someone should check on the girl,” Xavier decided, looking up at the red head, “stay here Jean, continue to search for the source of the manifestations. Stopping this is the only way to truly help those who have been affected.”
“Yes, sir,” she nodded to him and the Professor wheeled himself down the hallway. Jean then walked around Bobby and poked her head into the last training room, “Where’s Scott?”
Bobby didn’t hear her, he didn’t hear anything, all he could see was his father.
The man stood nose to nose to him, though it was more nose to forehead as the older man was taller than Bobby, looking down at him, always looking down at him.
“This is what you’re doing with your life?” he father said, nearly laughing at him, “it’s not bad enough that you’re a freak, but you had to go and be an accountant too? What, couldn’t find a real job?”
“I’ll never be good enough for you, will I,” Bobby muttered in response, unable to look him in the eye, “not for you, not for anyone, no matter what I do.”
“Smartest thing you ever said,” this time his father did laugh.
Bobby was yanked back and found himself inside the training room, Jean slamming the door shut, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he cleared his throat and blinked away tears that threatened, “you got me in time, I’m fine.”
‘I’m Fine’, that was the only answer he’d ever give, no matter whatever happened to him, no matter how ‘not-fine’ things got, because no one liked a whiner, and no one really cared how he felt anyway.
Why should they?
…
Xavier rolled up next to the hospital bed Danielle was laying on, checking her vitals on the screens. She had an IV pumping her fluids and monitors on her head, heart, and lungs. By all outward appearances she looked to be taking a heavy nap.
“Communal empath,” Xavier repeated the words, “empathy would explain the effects,” he frowned, “but how? How could you break through defense training I myself put in place…” he trailed off as he ran the implications through his mind.
“Oh, now you’re figuring it out,” a young voice spoke to him, the accent of an American who had spent too much time in Scotland, “the Great Charles Xavier is so brilliant… after the fact.”
Charles turned his chair to the side, seeing the twenty something man sitting on one of the spare hospital beds, legs dangling back and forth. He has his mother’s coloring, a full head of thick black hair that stood straight on end, a mockery to Charles’ early onset baldness.
“You’re a manifestation,” Xavier spoke clearly, “nothing more.”
“Really,” the man didn’t believe that for a second, “how can you be sure? This is well within my abilities,” he laughed as he spread his hands wide, but then his jaw went tight, “and you would know… because you just had to know, isn’t that right, dad?”
“David,” Charles breathed, mentally telling himself this couldn’t be real, but he couldn’t stop himself from answering the image, “I didn’t know, if I had—”
“You’d what?” his son interrupted him, jumping off the bed. “You just had to see what I could do, you used me like some freaking lab rat,” he was seething with anger, “your own son.”
“That was never my intention,” he argued with himself because this couldn’t be real.
“Well, you know what they say about the road to hell,” David chuckled, “and that’s exactly where the mutant race is going,” the boy was in front of him, lording over him, “there will be war, death, and insurmountable pain… and it will be all… your… fault…”
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X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 
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