Disclaimer: Xavier, Gambit, Lapin, Henri, The FOH, The New Orleans Thieves' and Assassins' Guilds, Jubilee, Paige, Chamber, Skin and Emma Frost belong to Marvel. Hope, Donald, Allegra and StarDust were created by me. Leo and Nick belong to their agents. Anyone else are just people I didn't remember when I was writing this, so they're more than likely not important.
Xavier looked at the girl, with a certain wonder in his eyes. She hadn't moved since they had arrived, and just looking at her, he felt awe inspired. He had not missed the brief exchange between Allegra and Pix, and he felt certain that what Allegra had said, had been the entire truth.
Hope was literally vibrating with energy, her eyes shining brightly with a silvery glow, both from the ammount of electricity within her frame, and the raw emmotion in her heart.
There was a lot of pain in her, at not being able to protect him. She was angry that the cost of her freedom was turning out to be the life of one of her best friends and mentor. She kept looking for people to blame, coming up with many different people, but the most unuasal of which was S.H.I.E.L.D. Perhaps this can be used to my advantage. Xavier thought to himself.
"Hope, is it?" he asked coming from the shadows.
She nodded slightly in response, but didn't remove her eyes from Gambit's face to acknowledge him.
Xavier frowned in a fake show of sadness. "If the others had been there..." He whispered, aparently to himself, but loud enough that he was sure she could hear him. "Maybe we could have prevented this."
"Neither you nor your X- Men could have prevented this... anymore than I," she whispered back.
Xavier looked at her, with encouragement in his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Sinister would have come after him no matter what went down. The X- Men wouldn't have been able to stop him. Feel fortunite that no others were hurt in this confrontation." She whispered so softly, that Xavier was bearly sure he had heard it.
She sighed deeply, as a tear slowly trickled down her cheak. "Remy saved me. When I was small... After my parents disowned my brother and I for being different... After I lost my brother to Sinister... after I lost my foster parents to mutant hating factions of the FOH... When I was all alone, and thought the whole world was against me, he and his family pulled me back from the abyss. He gave me something to believe in again." After a pause, she countinued again, "He saved more than my life... he saved my soul."
"That's a large task for one man," Xavier stated, pretending to care.
Hope sighed, not noticing his incincerity, or simply not caring. "Indeed. When my powers surfaced, it caused a bit of a comotion in my home city. In fact, I severely injured an EMT and blew off half of my own brother's face and body in the middle of a crowded down town Toronto street.
"My brother, who was also a mutant, only survived because of an advanced healing factor. My parents sought to send me to a 're education' camp, to get me out of their lives. Velosity- That's my brother- and I fled to Flordia. It was as far away as we could get. We were then seperated. I was adopted by a wonderful family, and he disapeared. I later found out he was taken by Sinister.
"I went to New Orleans on a trip with my school band. While there, I met up with a mutant hating group who was attacking a young mutant. His family, who were non mutants, were trying to help him, but weren't having much luck. I had to employ my powers to save him.
"With my distraction, his family was able to get him to safety. But that didn't save me. The crowd posed no real threat. They couldn't touch me with my power. However, my new family was not the same matter." She paused for a moment. "They were beaten to death. My school threw me out for being a freak. I was alone, hurt, and very, very angry.
"I was wonderng the streets for days, searching out members of the FOH and exacting my revenge. As you can imagin, it wasn't very good for my health, but I didn't care. I had nothing left to live for. What I didn't know was that both guilds had been searching the city for me, and by some fluke, I hadn't been found."
"Why were they searching for you... For that matter, If you were wondering the streets, how is it that you weren't found? Both of the major New Orleans Guilds must be quite extensive. How were you unnoticed?"
"It's not every day that a powerful mutant shows up, and saves the lives of the two thief princes. They couldn't find me because they were looking for signs of a mutant who was comfortable with their powers... Which at the time, I wasn't. Also, they were looking for a young boy.
"It was Remy who found me. He had just been 'let out' of the hospital by Henri and Lapin. They took refuge in a church when they had been almost spotted by the authorities.
"They led Remy to the front, so that he might rest, and went back to secure the door. Remy heard my wheezing, and came looking for the sorce. Though barely able to stand himself, he found enough strength to comfort me. He wrapped his arms around my barely concious, mal norished form and whispered his thanks and prayers and songs and anything else he could think of to sooth me until I totally dosed.
"He knew who I was, but the others had no idea. When they came back to find him huddled up to a small girl, they were quite shocked. Remy insisted that I go back with them. Weary of arguing with him, they agreed, and the four of us went to the thief mansion.
"Jean Luc was grateful to me for what I had done, but believed that I could be a security risk if I stayed there. I ended up going home with Lapin. His mother put me in with his little sister Pix, who was about my age. We became like sisters. Remy and Henri would come by a lot and play with us, and over time the five of us became very close.
"One day Remy gave me this locket." She held out to him the thing she had been holding to her heart since she arrived in the medlab and Xavier took it gingerly.
On the front of the silver locket was engaved a rose. He opened it to find a picture on one side of a young boy with starteling blue eyes and blond hair that fell much the same way Gambit's did. He looked like Leonardo DiCapirio, or Nick Carter, only he appeared bigger, better built.
Next to him was seated a boy who, for all intents and purposes, had no face. That's how it appeared anyway, as under a piece of cloth, which was most likely a make shift mask, there was no curve or distinction to his face. The mask which covered the place where the face should have been, was split diagonally down the centre by what looked like a lightning bolt. One side was of it was red, the other was white. Long black hair spilled out the top in a pony tail, the short pieces hanging losely. The background of the picture appeared to be on fire.
The picture beside it was one of Gambit, and his brother Henri standing in front of the Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.
Hope broke the silence, that had fallen over the room, even over the sound of the machines. "Everything on or in that locket has a meaning," She whispered, eyes focused on Gambit's still face.
"A silver rose represents pure hope. Silver of the petals is the colour of purity--"
Xavier cut her off. "I thought white was the colour of purity."
"No, think French revolution. White is the colour of virtue not purity. The green of the leaves is for Hope. Gambit always joked that that's what I was. Pure Hope.
"The pictures inside... Blaze was my heart, as he was all I ever loved. Velosity, my freedom; He saved my life and made me safe. Henri was my honour, it's was what he taught me, who I am... and Remy," she sighed "He's my soul... for it is what he gave me, when I believed I had none..." She trailed off and was silent for a moment. It was a thoughtful pause.
"If Remy dies too... I'll be lost." Finally Hope broke her gaze and turned to Xavier. "Without love, life, honour or soul... can hope truely survive?" She spoke barely above a whisper, then returned her gaze to Gambit's face.
It was a metaphor. A retorhical metaphor at that. She was tired, but yet still fought on. Xavier closed the locket and placed it on the bed. He was contemplating exactly what had tired the girl so suddenly, wheather it was the subjuct matter which had made her seem so spent or the simple act of talking itself. More importantly though, how he could use it to his advantage. Either way, she was no longer in the mood for small talk. He supposed leaving her with Gambit in his last moments of life would probablly be the best way to go... For now.
As he floated out of the room in his gold coloured hover chair, he noticed the young girl with the amazingly long blond hair and crystal blue eyes, who, the others had told him, had healed Hope wth a touch of her hands. When questioned on this, and as to wheather or not she could use this power to save Gambit, she said that it would probablly kill her to do so. But she hadn't said it wouldn't work... Xavier pondered this for a moment.
She had presented herself to them all quite formally with the name Miranda Alease Allegra Contessa Rhain Bennett. She answered to Allegra he believed. Right now she had on Burgandy framed glasses, set off by a Generation X uniform that she had borrowed to replace her old torn clothes, and her long hair was pulled up into a bun. She reminded him of Paige, only that her eyes sparkeled with an almost immature kindness and love of fun, just the way Jubilee's did.
She said nothing as he passed, but stared blankly at Hope and Gambit. Xavier wondered how long she had been there, and if Hope had known and exactly what she was thinking, staring so blankly.
For a moment, he considered scaning her mind, but all of the children were being so closely monitored, that he was want to do that. Also, if Gambit had noticed his scan, who was to say that they wouldn't as well?
After a brief hesitation, he left to find anyone else who might be useful to him, and his cause. As soon as the doors shut behind him, Allegra broke her silence. "Hope?" She tentatively whispered.
Hope jumped, as if starteled from a dream, the lights wavering as she did so. "Al? When did you get here?"
Allegra ignored her question. "You're too tired to keep this up Darlin'." A firey sort of anger filled Hope's eyes as Allegra spoke. "Don't look at me like that. It doesn't work you know. You're not in enough control of your powers. You're tired, and you're hungry, and you're packin' enough heat to blow us all to kingdom come."
"I'm perfectly fine."
"You're sucking in energy, and you don't even realize it. You pulled juice out of the lights when I starteled you. What are you going to do if you do the same thing to the equipment that's keeping Remy alive?"
Hope looked down at Gambit's face again. For what seemed like an eternity, she remained perfectly quiet, and still; Then she looked at Allegra, eyes resigned and fearful. "I just can't leave him like this. He saved us all so many times... More than I can count... I just can't leave him to die alone... And in so much pain..."
Allegra's eyes filled with tears, but she didn't let them spill. She owed it to Hope to make this work. "You can feel it." It wasn't a question. Allegra could see it in Hope's eyes. Hope's empathy wasn't a mutant power that Betsy could turn off. It was a special sense, a feeling that she had for all things living. She could always feel the pain of those around her, not through a super power, but through the simple act of caring. And when it came to people she cared about, Gambit was top on the list.
"I'll watch him for you. Sit here with him." Hope looked at her, her eyes resigned, and yet, somehow, at the same time, unyeilding. Allegra could tell by the look Hope had given her, that in Hope's mind, Gambit was already dead. Waiting for the pronounciation was just a formality.
Hope noticed the look in her own eyes reflected back at her by a questioning look from Allegra. After a moment's still pondering she whispered gently over the link. A machine shouldn't have to keep a human alive. He's not going to get better, the act of everyone saying he is alive is merely a stubron front. The beating of his heart... It's not his own heart... His breathing... False... His face is still his own, his spirit can never be taken away, but the only thing holding him in the physical world is a heartless, unthinking, unfeeling machine.
For anyone watching, it would appear that nothing had been said between the two. Hope sat perfectly still, barely breathing, not even blinking, and Allegra's own posture matching that of Hope's in a standing format.
It was odd for Allegra to see Hope like this. Normally this sort of thing would push her over the edge, and she would be crying to the point of hyperventalating. But she knew that if Hope were to allow herself to slip, all of the energy balled up inside her would destroy everything around her. Allegra planned to use this to her advantage.
Hope had the same realization as Allegra when she saw it in her eyes. It was at that point when she realized how much she needed to get somewhere and vent the forign energy... and she had to get there fast.
She stood up so fast that she knocked over the stool she had been sitting on, and ran for the door. She needed to get outside where she could blow the energy harmlessly into the air or the ground.
As she left, Allegra locked the door behind her. Her mind was spinning. If Remy goes, Hope will be short to follow. Maybe not to death, but surely to insanity. She said it herself, she can't take that sort of loss. Not after losing Blaze and Velosity. There's no one left to hold her together.
Flipping off the monitoring systems that Remy was attached to, she gently moved a strand of his hair out of his closed eyes. Her own eyes started to glow a flouressent violet, the way they always did when she was assessing a person's injuries.
She grimaced, but set to work trying to heal him anyway.
Husk and Donald were sitting beside each other at the kitchen counter, discussing the finer points of their similar mutations. Since arriving at the school, Donald had been slowly changing form into something resembling what he thought he had once looked like. Jubilee, Chamber and Skin sat at the table, and StarDust stood at the fridge, frowing at the health food.
"The hard part about it is that I can't control it. I mean at least with your husking, you have the abuility to be what you are. Most times I don't even remember who I am anymore. With my powers, I can't go back to who I was, because who I was doesn't exist."
Husk frowned. "Maybe it's not important. Who you were I mean. You can't go back to who you were, because it's not who you are now. And as for your appearance, It's not what you look like, or what your powers are that makes who you are inside."
Donald smiled sideways, making Husk smile too. "I guess you're right. I never really thought about it that way. You're quite the phillosipher you know."
Husk blushed. Through all her brave words, she couldn't help but notice what he looked like on the outside. His hair was a blistering, hot red, cut slightly shorter on the sides than on the top, leaving a few pieces falling over the center of his forhead in a wisp. He was skinny, but muscular, and his eyes were so soft and kind that she felt she'd fall in if she looked too long.
At the table, Chamber was doing the best to ignore the look that Paige was dealing Donald, when an almost liquid blue flash of light ran in the parlor door on one side, across the small room, and out the door on the other side, which led outside.
Chamber, Husk, Jubilee and Skin jumped up emmediately from their seats, but StarDust, in a sigh of frustration, just shut the door to the fridge and grabbed a banana. Donald looked at her.
"Make yourself at home..." He said sarcasticly, ignoring what had just happened, as if it was a regular occurance.
She shurgged indignently. "Ms. Frost said to do exactly that. So I am."
Donald shook his head, but smiled at her anyway. Jubilee looked incredulas, "Did you guys just blink and miss that or what?"
"Hmm?" StarDust purred, "Oh, you mean Hope? Normal thing with her. When she takes in too much electricty she has to blow it off, or she simply blows up."
"Looks really cool when she does it though."
"Yeah. Know, if she's not careful, she'll take out the entire school," StarDust said nochlantly, between bites of her banana.
Donald moved to stand in the window. He smiled as the sky blue was eclipsed by the brillance of the lurid light. Even the sun seemed dim in comparision.
Fascinated, Chamber moved to exit the building, but was stopped emmidately by Donald. "That wouldn't be the smartest thing you ever did."
Chamber looked at him, as if to ask, 'What do you mean by that?' But before the question registered with his powers Donald nodded to outside and said in a simple and unworried tone, "Shock wave."
Jubilee, Husk and Skin moved up behind them to get a better look. As the quintuplet stood and looked on, an invisible shockwave sped towards the school, taking out trees and rocks, and everything else in between.
"Umm..." Donald started, the sound of worry only begining to colour his voice. "Star'...?" He squeeked out, his voice craacking like a boy in puberty. He swallowed, and then countinued, "Star', you might want to put up a shield, and colapse the shock wave."
"I'm coming," she said in an annoyed sigh, and tossed the banana peel over her shoulder, it landing in the compost heap, without her even looking. "What's so--" Her eyes went wide as she saw what was coming towards them. "God in Heaven!" She exclaimed, activating her powers to protect them from the wave.
"It's not usually this bad..." Donald whispered in the silence of the dramatic moment.
Almost in slow motion the energy of Hope's blast turned up around the inside of the shield, and folded back in upon itself. StarDust created a doughnut wall of energy, with Hope as the centre, and the swirling blue light of her powers acting as the eatable part. Ever so slightly, the energy began to fold in upon itself, until it finally dispirsed.
Immediately, StarDust dropped her shield, and both her and Donald were in the air, headed towards their friend. Donald had morphed into some sort of winged creature, and StarDust was gliding on a green disk, faster than Donald had ever seen her move.
Within seconds, she was at her firend's side, having landed so hard on the ground beside her, that there was an indent in the dirt where her knees had hit. She pulled Hope over onto her back and then up onto her own lap, just as Bull landed beside them.
Hope's expression defied her name, as no faith was seen in it. Tears streamed down the right side of her face, and her eyes stared up blankly and unblinking at StarDust. "I just can't do it... I can't keep going on... I can't keep losing friends like this..."
StarDust was distraught. She held Hope close and whispered to her. "Shhh... Remy will be alright. Everything's going to be just fine... You'll see..."
She pushed StarDust off her and stumbeled to her feet, tears pouring out of her eyes like gysers, making StarDust's fill as well. "You don't get it..." She choaked between sobs. "It's not Remy I'm worried about..." She looked down into the eyes of her friend. "He's going to be fine... It's Allegra..."
How's this for an ending Mage... *Evil laughter*
CRIM§ON™