Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER FORTY TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), is Tim looking sheepish or is it just me? I think that he may be up to something. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are special. Really. They archive and that makes me happy so they're special. :) (Guess which author hasn't had caffeine yet/ *waves hand around madly * ) Readers/Reviewers: You know, this whole musical thing wouldn't be so disturbing if they didn't insist on doing the nude scene.



Kurt was giddy with relief when he saw Jean's flaming red hair through the leaves and limbs several yards ahead of him. "Jean," he said just loud enough to be heard. She twitched but managed not to scream, turning to peer through the lessening dark for the source of the voice. "Stay where you are, I'll come to you," he said.
"Kurt?" It was Rogue who pinpointed him, her face appearing near Jean's in the thick woods. They were close to the complex but the trees were still very close together, making it difficult to do more than walk single file and even then, it was hard to maneuver around the growth of the forest, even for Kurt. "Where the Hell have you been?" Rogue said with a mixture of relief and irritation.
"Long story, but we're not alone..." A nudge against his hand made him look down. "Hey, Rahne...where're your clothes or are you going canine for this?" She barked and he sighed. "Probably for the best. Easier to run on four legs than two..." Rahne seemed to agree, judging by the little growl she made.
Jean frowned. "What do you mean we're not alone? Who else is here? I know Empath, Roulette, and Emma are here somewhere..."
Kurt shook his head. "Warren is here and he said Banshee was with him, already going into the house." Quickly, he related the encounter with Warpath and Tabby's state, how Warren seemed to come out of nowhere, and finished with, "Why are the others back inside? We escaped that giant room and they were hiding in the woods..."
Rogue sighed. "Dumbasses were coming back in for us. Dumbasses."
Kurt raised a brow at Rogue's assessment and she had the good grace to look abashed. "Like you wouldn't have done the same thing," he pointed out. She made a noncommittal noise and turned her attention towards the dark complex, pretending it to be fascinating so she would not have to meet Kurt's eyes. Kurt said to Jean, "Have you been able to contact them?"
"Yeah but..." she sighed, throwing her head back as if the tension was just too much, "Empath has them. I thought I had Empath out for the count, out long enough for us to get away, but I didn't count on Scott and them going back in..."
Kurt closed his eyes and counted to ten, the urge to growl and kick something in frustration quite strong. "Okay," he finally said. "Banshee is going in ahead of us. We can make it back in but you have to know, I can't port right now."
Jean raked a glance over Kurt, the slowly lightening sky making it a little easier to see him with each passing moment. He was very ragged, she noticeis lis lack of rest and proper food showing clearly on his body. She nodded and said, "Stay out here with Rahne then. Rogue and I will go in behind Banshee. Empath wanted _me _ to come back so I have to go..."
Kurt shook his head vehemently. "Nein. We all go. I don't want to chance an even bigger mess than we're already in by getting split up again."
Rogue finally spoke again, "Can't you just, you know, do that thing to him from here? You know, that Vulcan mind meld or whatever it is you did?"1
Jean sighed, her head still throbbing at the memory of it all. "I can't from here. I need to be a little closer. Besides, I'm a better telekinetic than I am a telepath."
The other three regarded each other with varying looks of disbelief. If what they had all seen of Jean's telepathy was the weaker of the two skills... "Jean," Kurt finally said, "I think you've been holding back."
She rolled her eyes. "Look, it's getting daylight out. We don't know who all is on our side anymore and I don't want to linger. We get in, we find Empath and deal with him, we find Banshee and get out."
"Sounds like a plan," Rogue said, "just a few quick questions-Who is Banshee, why is he here, why should we trust him, and what if he gets to Empath first?"
Kurt said, "Banshee is apparently someone the Professor knows. Warren came with him and he wouldn't be here with someone untrustworthy..."
Rogue said hotly, "We thought we could trust Roulette and the others...look at where we are now!"
Jean made a motion as if to say "enough" and Rahne growled. "Listen to me, all of you," the older teenager said sharply, "Right now, we don't trust anyone except each other, got it?"
"How do we know one of us isn't Mystique?" Rogue asked, irritating them all.
"You just have to trust us," Kurt said.
"You already said you can't port...convenient, huh? Mystique wouldn't be able to port, even in your form..."
Jean snarled, "Rogue, shut up! We're under enough stress as it is without you being paranoid! Kurt is Kurt! I can tell!"
Rogue narrowed her eyes at the two and then glanced at Rahne, who made another canine noise of encouragement. _She would be able to smell if he was different... _ "Fine," the Southern girl said resignedly. "Let's get in there and kick some empathic ass then."
"One more question," Kurt said. "Jean, are you sure you're up to this? You know he's going to come at you telepathically..."
"I have to be up to this. I need to get his attention so I can pinpoint him, though..." _*Empath, keep talking...we're coming for you. _ *


For one brief moment, Emma felt comfortable. Then the throbbing headache started and she tasted the blood drying on her tongue. What happened? Oh... Deciding to keep her eyes closed for a moment or two longer, she thought that she was spared having to deal with anyone, mutant or not, until she could form a plan of action. She was wrong, though.
_*Emma...I haven't seen you in ages. Would have been more polite to drop me a line before coming by, though.
Charles.
Tell me, Emma, just what is it you need with my children? Why are you here? And why shouldn't I turn your mind into gibberish? _ *
Emma bit back a verbal retort and instead reached mental fingers towards Professor Xavier's mind, seeking to instill fear in him with her own abilities. Instead, she met with a solid wall.
_*Now, now, Emma. You should know better. It hasn't been that long since we last met. You be a good girl and stay in your own head, why don't you?2
Do as you say not as you do is it Charles?
We're just talking Emma. You know that isn't the same thing as the mind rape you had planned. Using someone's own thoughts and fears against them...you know how I feel about that.
Rape is a bit harsh, isn't it? After all, you've used the technique yourself on more than one occasion. _ * She sat up then, her head giving a sudden, painful throb that echoed down her neck and back as she opened her eyes to stare straight into the Professor's cold gaze.
_*The difference is minimal. When I have done it, it was out of necessity, to defend myself or others from real danger. When you do it, it is purely a power maneuver, isn't it? You do it to show how strong you are and remind others how weak they are, how you hold them in contempt, just like a physical rape. You want to remind people how much you hate them and by extension, yourself...
Stop your psychobabble, Charles. I've never heard so much drivel come from you in one sitting. _ *

Unnoticed by Emma but certainly noticed by Professor Xavier, the Wagners and Cecilia looked on. The telepaths were not moving, simply staring at each other, the only indication of conversation being their changing facial expressions and the odd twitch of Emma's fingers where they rested on her knees. "What's going on?" Erika asked Cecilia in a whisper.
"They're talking."
Erika took this into consideration and looked first at the Professor, then at Emma, then at Cecilia. "Why doesn't he just read her mind?"
"He is trying, but you see, she's a telepath too. She can block him out of anything she doesn't want him to see."
"Kurt can do that!" the young girl said with some recognition of the condition. "He told me so."
Cecilia ed. ed. "Sometimes people who aren't telepathic can do it, too..."
Erika stared at the telepaths again and said after a long moment, "I think I need to learn how to do that, since I'm going to be hanging around mutants a lot."
"Are you?" Cecilia asked, a little amused and somewhat glad of the girl's chatter because it kept her from stressing.
"Well, Kurt and Kitty are going to get married one day and they're kids will be mutants, and everyone here is like Kurt's family away from home, so I'll be around them sometimes, too. It might be a good thing if I could use mental shields like that..."
Cecilia smiled a little, glad to be thinking of something other than the current situation and someone other than Beast, if even for a few minutes. "I'm sure something can be arranged...maybe the Professor can teach you how as soon as this is over."
Erika nodded. "He blocked my mind for me earlier so she couldn't read my thoughts...It didn't hurt a bit!"
Astrid finally noticed the conversation occurring in the vicinity of her knees and bent to shush Erika, leaning against the back of the girl's chair as she did so. "Shhh! Don't distract the Professor!"
Cecilia straightened and smiled. "I don't think that's humanly possible."

Indeed, the Professor knew they were talking and even knew what they were talking about, but he was too focused to let it break his concentration from Emma. _*Drivel it may be to you, Emma, but it's truth, isn't it? That's why you hate to hear it. Tell me, what did Magneto offer you that made you turn against all mutant kind?
Turn against...Charles, you're a flaming idiot, you know that? I made the decision on my own, for the good of my Hellions and...
Yes, the Hellions. And where would they be again? _ * Professor Xavier felt a twinge of pain from Emma's mind, a memory flashing from her to him unbidden. _*Oh, Emma... _ *
_*He was expendable.
You don't believe that at all. _ * The Professor felt a wave of guilt from the woman and felt a grim, regretful satisfaction at the knowledge that she felt that way. An image of an olive-skinned youth, no more than eighteen, laying dead on the floor of a house he knew to be Emma's in Massachusetts, had flared brightly in his mind for a moment and he knew then that Emma had been responsible for his death. Once that little floodgate had opened, there was no stopping the replaying of the incident in Emma's mind, though she did not seem to realize that she had sprung a telepathic leak. Seizing a piece of the memory, Professor Xavier said, _*Does his brother believe that he died for the good of your cause, Emma? _ *
Emma moved then, her cool exterior cracking badly. She lunged forward at Professor Xavier, sending him sprawling before he could react. He fell, chair and all, onto his back under her onslaught. Bracing his hands against her shoulders, he shoved at her, succeeding in getting her off his chest only to have Johannes grab her before she could move forward again. "Let me go!" she shouted.
Cecilia and Astrid worked on righting the Professor who thanked them with a smile and murmured words, not embarrassed by his condition and the inability to move on his own but rather taken aback by Emma's outburst. After dusting his pants for unseen motes, he smiled at the White Queen, held a foot or so off the ground by Kurt's father. _*Now, Emma...I think we're ready to talk... _ *
1 Yes, I'm a Trekkie. LIVE LONG AND PROSPER! Ner. ;)
2 Another line taken from The Changeover by Margaret Mahy