Persistence of Memory
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X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
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Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,461
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own X-Men Evolution, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.
39
Persistence of Memory Chapter Thirty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… I found vanilla
sugar here! Whoo! Baileys for everyone! InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are lovely
and wonderful and squishy bunnies for archiving (like I said…I found
sugar…). ProPhile is now smut muse in
charge and Morgan is deputy (at least for Remy, lol). Readers/Reviewers: The ducks go marching one by one, hurrah,
hurrah…
“There a
reason you’re destroying the Danger Room when we’ve got company?”
Todd
dropped to the floor and turned on Banshee with a snarl. “She fucking ran off and didn’t think I
needed to know!”
“Todd,” the
older man sighed, well aware of the situation with Rogue and now Lance and
Amara, mostly from Leech but also from conjecture, “she didn’t want you to
follow her. She wanted to be alone.”
“She
doesn’t have to be!” he shouted. “Let
me go get her!”
Banshee
tackled Todd mid-leap, landing on him and rolling to keep his weight from
crushing the smaller mutant. “Todd,
calm down! Warren is going to look for
them!”
“Them?” He fell still. “Who’s with her?”
“No one is with
her…”
“Fucking
Hell, let me go!” He squirmed admirably,
breaking free of Banshee and rolling to his feet. “I love her! I’m not
gonna let her just run off!” Her letter
had spelled out her reasons well enough, but it still hurt him worse than
anything his mother had ever done, anything Magneto had ever done…worse than
anything he could think of.
Banshee got
to his feet and dove between Todd and the door. “Sit down!” he said just loud enough to engender a threat. Surprised, Todd did so, collapsing
cross-legged on the Danger Room floor.
“You are not to leave this house.
Tear up this room all you want—I’ll run interference with Logan—but do not
leave the Institute! We’ll bring her
back before she gets far…Todd, she loves you.
She said so, right?”
“Right,” he
said quietly, feeling very small and defeated.
“She said so…”
“She thinks
she’s protecting you…everyone…by leaving.
She’s scared, Todd, and liable to do or say some hurtful things. It’s best that you just stay here and let
Warren bring them back.”
“Them?” Todd’s head snapped up. He was in a crouch faster than Banshee could
track. “Who’s with her?”
“No one is with
her…”
“Fuck all,
Banshee! Who is she with?”
“Do not
talk to me like that, Tolensky!”
Todd
snarled wordlessly and let fly a stream of slime, covering Banshee’s face and
chest. As the older man struggled,
clawing at his now-sealed mouth and eyes,[1]Todd
leapt over him, hitting the button to open the door as he landed. “Fuck all you, man. I’m goin’ after her!”
Skin
shifted uncomfortably. “Jubes, he’s
starin’ holes in my head…”
Jubilee
glared at Skin then Remy. “We’re just
talking,” she said loudly.
Remy did
not respond, but settled further back in the armchair. “What on channel six?”
Jubilee
threw her hands in the air and leapt to her feet. “Remy, you’ve been following me around all fucking day! We’re just talking! I don’t need a babysitter!”
Skin stood
and frowned. “Look, man, Jubes an’ me,
we’re old friends is all… She’s nice but ain’t my type.”
“You sayin’
dere somethin’ wrong wid her?” Remy snapped, joining them standing. “You sayin’ she ain’t worth hittin’ on?”
“What?”
Jubilee cried. “Now you want him
to hit on me?”
“Dude, I’ve
known her since she was, like, eleven!
I ain’t gonna hit on her!”
“Why not?”
“Remy!” She pushed Remy hard on the chest. “You’re fucking insane, you know that? I’m
going for a walk!”
Remy and
Skin eyed each other warily. “I’m goin’
wid her.”
Skin
exhaled. “Alright…” He sat down heavily when the Cajun
left. “Man, she picks some fucked
up places to live…”
Kurt
frowned, handing Amanda another tissue.
I hope she didn’t cry like this when we broke up… Feeling retroactively guilty, he patted her
back. “Amanda, you have his
address. Email him. Just say hi. Don’t…” For the love of God… “don’t pour this all out to
him, though.”
She dabbed
at her eyes with the damp tissue and sniffled.
“But I just don’t understand…why do guys keep breaking up with me?”
“I can’t
speak for Paolo,” he sighed. “Amanda, I
hate to do this, but I have something I need to do right now,” he said,
glancing at the clock. “And I still
haven’t seen Kitty today.” At the sound
of her name, Amanda burst into fresh tears.
“Now what?” he groaned, feeling guilty for that, too.
“You left
me for her, he left me for…for...who knows who?”
Kurt rolled
his eyes and stood, offering her a hand up.
“Amanda, we have to continue this later…I have something very
important…”
“Fine,
leave me again!”
“For the
love of… Amanda, stay here, okay? I’ll be back in…I don’t know. An hour!”
“Promise?”
“I’ll
try…”
Kurt shut
the door softly between her sobbing and the rest of the mansion. “What’s going on?” Warren asked in passing,
buttoning the front of his coat hurriedly.
“Long
story…where are you headed?”
“Going to
look for Rogue…Between her, Kitty and the Wonder Twins[2],
we should start putting out our own milk cartons.”[3]
Kurt made a
noncommittal noise and began to walk away, but froze mid-step. “Was?”
“What was?”
Warren rejoined, backing towards the door.
“Oh, Hell…you didn’t know.”
Kurt leapt
at Warren, clutching the man’s coat as he pressed him against the door. “What’s wrong? Where’s Kitty?”
“Logan’s
going to get her,” he said as smoothly as possible, which was difficult
considering the circumstances.
“Why does
he have to get her? Why aren’t
you telling me anything?” He shook
Warren slightly, ignoring Amanda emerging from the study at the sound of the
struggle.
Warren
calmly took Kurt by the wrists and pushed him away at arm’s length. “Kurt, calm down. This is exactly why we didn’t tell you!” He silenced Kurt’s rising protest with a
hard glare. “Listen to me. Logan will bring her back, no problem. When she comes back, you can fawn over her
and protect her all you want. Right
now, the Institute is at stake and we need you to go through with this
interview whether you like it or not!”
He did not add that most of the other participants were missing.
Amanda
spoke up. “People saw Kitty at the
hospital. They saw her phase…”
“What?” They both turned to face her, looks of
horror on their faces.
“This
morning, on the news…they were saying there must be more mutants in Bayville
because some people at the hospital saw a girl fall through the ceiling and
floors…I just didn’t think it was Kitty until now.”
“Who else
phases?” Kurt growled. “Warren, let me
go with Logan!”
“No. Logan’s already on her trail. You have to stay here or there may
not be a here to come back to!”
I’ll
make sure he stays put, Jono intoned, emerging from the rec room. I’ll make sure he gets to the library
and stays there.
“They can’t
see you, Jono,” Warren sighed.
Once
I get him there, Storm can keep an eye on him.
“Okay.” He
pushed a struggling Kurt to Jono. “Amanda,
I’m taking you home, no questions. Got
it?” She nodded blankly.
Jono waited
until Warren and Amanda were outside. Why
didn’t you just port away from him?
“I
panicked,” Kurt sighed, rubbing his wrists.
“Jono…”
Go. You overpowered me. Ow.
The pain…the horror…
Kurt smiled
unwillingly. “Danke mein Freund…”
Go. Before Theresa and Sam realize I’m gone and
come looking for me.
Kurt took
the hint and ported away to only he knew where. Jono sighed and glanced towards the direction of the library and
sent a silent apology to the Professor for further ruining the important
interview.
“We’ve got
an even bigger problem,” Forge murmured to Storm.
“Now
what? Bats have invaded the dining
hall? Students are fornicating on the
stairs? What could be worse?”
“Um…all the
ones we prepped? They’re missing?”
“What?”
The
absolute lack of emotion in Storm’s voice bothered Forge more than anything
else. “All gone.” He
ran down the list of missing teenagers.
“What do you want to do?”
She closed her eyes and
gritted her teeth. “Get me Jamie and
Rahne. Now.”
“Those
two? But…”
“They’re
the only ones here who’ve been here long enough to lie properly about the
place. Go get them and make sure
everyone else is occupied…appropriately.” She turned a fixed smile to Stevens. “Would you like some coffee?
Tea?” Sleeping pill?
“Coffee
would be just fine…tell me, what was that metal door to, the one down the hall
a ways?”
Storm
shrugged. “Fire door. Safety first, you know…”
“Right…safety…” Stevens raised a brow and settled back. “Cream and two sugars.”
Professor
Xavier sighed as he saw Emma stretched out on the backseat of the car. Scatterbrain stood next to the open door,
proudly. “I can manage,” the older man
said calmly.
“But…why
aren’t you walking?” Scatterbrain
peered at him as if expecting Incubus to leap out of his head.
Snapping
his mental shields firmly in place, Professor Xavier replied, “No use arousing
suspicion now, is there?”
“Good point…Can
you handle it from here?”
“I’ll
report back to Magneto in six hours, as ordered.” He made the long unfamiliar transfer to the driver’s seat of the
car, letting Scatterbrain fold his wheelchair for him. “Put it in the backseat.”
“How…”
“Hand
controls. They’re on most of the cars…just
in case.” Professor Xavier smiled at
the lie. In fact, this was the only car
that had hand controls at the Institute, just in case… “Six hours.” He pulled away from the curb and glanced in the mirror to see
Scatterbrain watching him carefully. He
could feel mental tendrils poking at his shields and let a random thought
escape, something banal about how to make it past Logan, and the tendrils
retreated. Emma?
Do
shut up Charles. I have a headache.
Just
checking…
I’m
repairing. Give me a moment.
How
bad is the damage?
Scatterbrain is going to
be a contender…
A/N Next chapter, Lance, Amara and Rogue. The Interview! Theresa, Sam, and maybe a little Pietro.
[1] Shades of
Jean from the first movie.
[2] “Form of…”
“shape of…” Remember those two? *shudder *
Snarky reference to Amara and Lance going everywhere together.
[3] They put missing
kids’ pictures on the side of cardboard milk cartons in some areas, with info
on when and where they vanished and some vital stats.
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… I found vanilla
sugar here! Whoo! Baileys for everyone! InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are lovely
and wonderful and squishy bunnies for archiving (like I said…I found
sugar…). ProPhile is now smut muse in
charge and Morgan is deputy (at least for Remy, lol). Readers/Reviewers: The ducks go marching one by one, hurrah,
hurrah…
“There a
reason you’re destroying the Danger Room when we’ve got company?”
Todd
dropped to the floor and turned on Banshee with a snarl. “She fucking ran off and didn’t think I
needed to know!”
“Todd,” the
older man sighed, well aware of the situation with Rogue and now Lance and
Amara, mostly from Leech but also from conjecture, “she didn’t want you to
follow her. She wanted to be alone.”
“She
doesn’t have to be!” he shouted. “Let
me go get her!”
Banshee
tackled Todd mid-leap, landing on him and rolling to keep his weight from
crushing the smaller mutant. “Todd,
calm down! Warren is going to look for
them!”
“Them?” He fell still. “Who’s with her?”
“No one is with
her…”
“Fucking
Hell, let me go!” He squirmed admirably,
breaking free of Banshee and rolling to his feet. “I love her! I’m not
gonna let her just run off!” Her letter
had spelled out her reasons well enough, but it still hurt him worse than
anything his mother had ever done, anything Magneto had ever done…worse than
anything he could think of.
Banshee got
to his feet and dove between Todd and the door. “Sit down!” he said just loud enough to engender a threat. Surprised, Todd did so, collapsing
cross-legged on the Danger Room floor.
“You are not to leave this house.
Tear up this room all you want—I’ll run interference with Logan—but do not
leave the Institute! We’ll bring her
back before she gets far…Todd, she loves you.
She said so, right?”
“Right,” he
said quietly, feeling very small and defeated.
“She said so…”
“She thinks
she’s protecting you…everyone…by leaving.
She’s scared, Todd, and liable to do or say some hurtful things. It’s best that you just stay here and let
Warren bring them back.”
“Them?” Todd’s head snapped up. He was in a crouch faster than Banshee could
track. “Who’s with her?”
“No one is with
her…”
“Fuck all,
Banshee! Who is she with?”
“Do not
talk to me like that, Tolensky!”
Todd
snarled wordlessly and let fly a stream of slime, covering Banshee’s face and
chest. As the older man struggled,
clawing at his now-sealed mouth and eyes,[1]Todd
leapt over him, hitting the button to open the door as he landed. “Fuck all you, man. I’m goin’ after her!”
Skin
shifted uncomfortably. “Jubes, he’s
starin’ holes in my head…”
Jubilee
glared at Skin then Remy. “We’re just
talking,” she said loudly.
Remy did
not respond, but settled further back in the armchair. “What on channel six?”
Jubilee
threw her hands in the air and leapt to her feet. “Remy, you’ve been following me around all fucking day! We’re just talking! I don’t need a babysitter!”
Skin stood
and frowned. “Look, man, Jubes an’ me,
we’re old friends is all… She’s nice but ain’t my type.”
“You sayin’
dere somethin’ wrong wid her?” Remy snapped, joining them standing. “You sayin’ she ain’t worth hittin’ on?”
“What?”
Jubilee cried. “Now you want him
to hit on me?”
“Dude, I’ve
known her since she was, like, eleven!
I ain’t gonna hit on her!”
“Why not?”
“Remy!” She pushed Remy hard on the chest. “You’re fucking insane, you know that? I’m
going for a walk!”
Remy and
Skin eyed each other warily. “I’m goin’
wid her.”
Skin
exhaled. “Alright…” He sat down heavily when the Cajun
left. “Man, she picks some fucked
up places to live…”
Kurt
frowned, handing Amanda another tissue.
I hope she didn’t cry like this when we broke up… Feeling retroactively guilty, he patted her
back. “Amanda, you have his
address. Email him. Just say hi. Don’t…” For the love of God… “don’t pour this all out to
him, though.”
She dabbed
at her eyes with the damp tissue and sniffled.
“But I just don’t understand…why do guys keep breaking up with me?”
“I can’t
speak for Paolo,” he sighed. “Amanda, I
hate to do this, but I have something I need to do right now,” he said,
glancing at the clock. “And I still
haven’t seen Kitty today.” At the sound
of her name, Amanda burst into fresh tears.
“Now what?” he groaned, feeling guilty for that, too.
“You left
me for her, he left me for…for...who knows who?”
Kurt rolled
his eyes and stood, offering her a hand up.
“Amanda, we have to continue this later…I have something very
important…”
“Fine,
leave me again!”
“For the
love of… Amanda, stay here, okay? I’ll be back in…I don’t know. An hour!”
“Promise?”
“I’ll
try…”
Kurt shut
the door softly between her sobbing and the rest of the mansion. “What’s going on?” Warren asked in passing,
buttoning the front of his coat hurriedly.
“Long
story…where are you headed?”
“Going to
look for Rogue…Between her, Kitty and the Wonder Twins[2],
we should start putting out our own milk cartons.”[3]
Kurt made a
noncommittal noise and began to walk away, but froze mid-step. “Was?”
“What was?”
Warren rejoined, backing towards the door.
“Oh, Hell…you didn’t know.”
Kurt leapt
at Warren, clutching the man’s coat as he pressed him against the door. “What’s wrong? Where’s Kitty?”
“Logan’s
going to get her,” he said as smoothly as possible, which was difficult
considering the circumstances.
“Why does
he have to get her? Why aren’t
you telling me anything?” He shook
Warren slightly, ignoring Amanda emerging from the study at the sound of the
struggle.
Warren
calmly took Kurt by the wrists and pushed him away at arm’s length. “Kurt, calm down. This is exactly why we didn’t tell you!” He silenced Kurt’s rising protest with a
hard glare. “Listen to me. Logan will bring her back, no problem. When she comes back, you can fawn over her
and protect her all you want. Right
now, the Institute is at stake and we need you to go through with this
interview whether you like it or not!”
He did not add that most of the other participants were missing.
Amanda
spoke up. “People saw Kitty at the
hospital. They saw her phase…”
“What?” They both turned to face her, looks of
horror on their faces.
“This
morning, on the news…they were saying there must be more mutants in Bayville
because some people at the hospital saw a girl fall through the ceiling and
floors…I just didn’t think it was Kitty until now.”
“Who else
phases?” Kurt growled. “Warren, let me
go with Logan!”
“No. Logan’s already on her trail. You have to stay here or there may
not be a here to come back to!”
I’ll
make sure he stays put, Jono intoned, emerging from the rec room. I’ll make sure he gets to the library
and stays there.
“They can’t
see you, Jono,” Warren sighed.
Once
I get him there, Storm can keep an eye on him.
“Okay.” He
pushed a struggling Kurt to Jono. “Amanda,
I’m taking you home, no questions. Got
it?” She nodded blankly.
Jono waited
until Warren and Amanda were outside. Why
didn’t you just port away from him?
“I
panicked,” Kurt sighed, rubbing his wrists.
“Jono…”
Go. You overpowered me. Ow.
The pain…the horror…
Kurt smiled
unwillingly. “Danke mein Freund…”
Go. Before Theresa and Sam realize I’m gone and
come looking for me.
Kurt took
the hint and ported away to only he knew where. Jono sighed and glanced towards the direction of the library and
sent a silent apology to the Professor for further ruining the important
interview.
“We’ve got
an even bigger problem,” Forge murmured to Storm.
“Now
what? Bats have invaded the dining
hall? Students are fornicating on the
stairs? What could be worse?”
“Um…all the
ones we prepped? They’re missing?”
“What?”
The
absolute lack of emotion in Storm’s voice bothered Forge more than anything
else. “All gone.” He
ran down the list of missing teenagers.
“What do you want to do?”
She closed her eyes and
gritted her teeth. “Get me Jamie and
Rahne. Now.”
“Those
two? But…”
“They’re
the only ones here who’ve been here long enough to lie properly about the
place. Go get them and make sure
everyone else is occupied…appropriately.” She turned a fixed smile to Stevens. “Would you like some coffee?
Tea?” Sleeping pill?
“Coffee
would be just fine…tell me, what was that metal door to, the one down the hall
a ways?”
Storm
shrugged. “Fire door. Safety first, you know…”
“Right…safety…” Stevens raised a brow and settled back. “Cream and two sugars.”
Professor
Xavier sighed as he saw Emma stretched out on the backseat of the car. Scatterbrain stood next to the open door,
proudly. “I can manage,” the older man
said calmly.
“But…why
aren’t you walking?” Scatterbrain
peered at him as if expecting Incubus to leap out of his head.
Snapping
his mental shields firmly in place, Professor Xavier replied, “No use arousing
suspicion now, is there?”
“Good point…Can
you handle it from here?”
“I’ll
report back to Magneto in six hours, as ordered.” He made the long unfamiliar transfer to the driver’s seat of the
car, letting Scatterbrain fold his wheelchair for him. “Put it in the backseat.”
“How…”
“Hand
controls. They’re on most of the cars…just
in case.” Professor Xavier smiled at
the lie. In fact, this was the only car
that had hand controls at the Institute, just in case… “Six hours.” He pulled away from the curb and glanced in the mirror to see
Scatterbrain watching him carefully. He
could feel mental tendrils poking at his shields and let a random thought
escape, something banal about how to make it past Logan, and the tendrils
retreated. Emma?
Do
shut up Charles. I have a headache.
Just
checking…
I’m
repairing. Give me a moment.
How
bad is the damage?
Scatterbrain is going to
be a contender…
A/N Next chapter, Lance, Amara and Rogue. The Interview! Theresa, Sam, and maybe a little Pietro.
[1] Shades of
Jean from the first movie.
[2] “Form of…”
“shape of…” Remember those two? *shudder *
Snarky reference to Amara and Lance going everywhere together.
[3] They put missing
kids’ pictures on the side of cardboard milk cartons in some areas, with info
on when and where they vanished and some vital stats.