Mind's Eye (X-Men Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen

Very few words were spoken amongst the students. Once and awhile Vale heard footsteps and a door opening, but no one came to the cell they were in.

At first she thought maybe Professor Xavier would arrive soon and take them back to the mansion. But, as the time ticked away the blind girl's thoughts roamed down a darker path.

They were going to a prison in Russia, was her first assumption. She wondered if the authorities were observing them for an experiment a little later after her first thought. Vale then jumped to the idea of them starving the mutants for punishment.

After an hour she came to the conclusion that they were going to be dropped off in the Australian Outback with only their clothes and chains bonding their hands and feet.

"Everybody stop thinking." said Jean quick and loud. Her voice etched with a quaver.

Vale's train of thought stopped to a halt.

"What?" A male voice, Sam maybe, said from next to Alison.

"Stop thinking." The telepath continued, a slight yelp in her tone. "Alison, you and Sam just kiss already. Amara melting the walls aren't going to get us anywhere. No one is going to be deported. Using our powers got us stuck here in the first place. Nine-year-olds can't go to jail."-- She paused to breathe--"And Vale, for the love of God stop thinking about getting eaten by emus!"

The musty room was quiet as they stared at Jean. It was sometimes hard to remember that she could hear their thoughts.

"But is it a possibility?" Vale said. Curiosity eating at her brain.

Jean only sighed.

"I wouldn't think so given that emus are large birds and the biggest thing they eat are rodents." The Girl-Who-Talked-To-Nothing answered. "I meet interesting people."

"You mean imaginary people." Tabitha taunted. Vale pictured a smirk on the girl's lips.

"Not again." muttered Alison. "Antionette--" The older girl was ignored.

The girl jumped to her feet in one swift motion. Vale thought she was going to lunge at Tabitha with her speed. Everyone kept their mouths shut.

"My imaginary friends are more than just things you believe in when your a kid. Just because you can't see them now or understand what I see, doesn't make them fake and for children." She paused and stepped closer to Tabitha's face, sharp and agile. "They've helped me when I needed someone the most. To me, they are better than anyone you call real." She turned her back to Tabitha and her tone turned calm, "Some people aren't."

Vale couldn't tell if the girl-- Antionette, heart had jumped with pride for telling off Tabitha or when she had passed a certain boy who sat next to Jean. Either way the blind girl had a small smile on her face.

Vale's eyebrows shot up at the sparks that entered her view. All her dreadful ideas vanished while she stared at the familiar auric energies that neared their cell with each step. Jean stood with Vale, she seemed to have sensed them too.

"The Professor!" Jean and Vale said almost in unison.

The young mutants fought their way to the prison bars. Mindful of the high voltage.

Slowly the heroine, who Vale was told preferred Raven, and Professor Xavier parked themselves in front of the cell bars. Rage and frustration radiated off of the pair. She could hear it in they're breathing.

The relieved moods the students had once felt quickly was replaced with nonchalant nervousness.

"We're in deep shit, huh?" Scott was brave enough to actually say something.

"The deepest shit." The Professor agreed.

Yep, we're screwed. She thought.

20:16, June 8, 1983.

Given that the young group of mutants had ruined the only car the X Mansion had available, Professor Xavier had "rented" a school bus. It wasn't a pleasant ride to say the least.

However it would never compare to to the storm that was to come in Professor Xavier's office. Vale readied herself for the lecture.

"What we're you lot thinking?" The Professor barked. "Do you know how many memories I had to mess with this evening? I'd very much like an explanation to why half of the Westchester Mall is destroyed!"

The students shuffled and muttered words under their breath. Hoping that one of them would explain what had happened.

Vale hid behind the lighting girl--Ororo.

"it-it's my f-f-fault. I-I--" said the nine-year-old mutant.

"I lost zhe small child--" Kurt sputtered rather quickly.

"Then s-someone bumped into m-m-me a-and I m-m-multiplied--"

"Ve searched for him, but Tabitha launched her exploding things at a copy..."

"S-she threw a f-f-firecracker a-at me!--"

"Ve thought it vas a copy--"

"Th-then my m-multiples at-t-tacked t-them--"

"ALRIGHT!" Professor Xavier stopped the two from further overlapping each other. "Could just one person talk." Irritation thick in his usual calm voice.

Alison stepped forward. Her heart pulsed quickly with each step closer to the Professor's desk. Vale crossed her fingers that the older girl wouldn't screw up.

"Jaime's copies had started attacking Forge and Tabitha, It wasn't hard to find them with all their noise." Alison explained. "We all got down to the food court and Forge was knocked out. So, we...threw all we had at them."

Vale remembered that part of the chaos hours ago, it was barely ten minutes after they began their search. She was the only one who couldn't use their powers to fight. All she did was dodge flying chairs and Tabitha's explosives. Vale hated that she couldn't help.

You couldn't do anything. The words echoed. So worthless.

Expecting silence hung in the air, the suspense of their punishment weighed their heads down. Vale assumed they'd be expelled.

Professor Xavier let out a exasperated sigh and said, "It genuinely pains me to punish my students." He uncovered his mouth. "But I have to give you three month probation. That means no leaving the mansion, curfew at seven o' clock, and, not to forget, assigned chores through out the summer."

Vale seriously doubted that their probation "genuinely pained" him. Because three weeks later she found herself knee deep in toilet water.