don't go home without me: lights
in a world that you're not near
don't go home without me
———
'Word coming late tonight that Congress is considering temporary mutant internment facilities for those whose powers have been deemed a clear and present danger to human citizens. This coming on the heels of the Jean Grey incidents which, after destroying two communities, and attacking police and military personnel-'
Charles quickly shut off the tv that both him and Max had been watching. After Scott and Charles had explained what was happening to her, she had been staying in the Professors study as they wanted her to be monitored just in case she connected with Jean again. To find her location.
Maxine had already changed out of her dress from the funeral, now wearing a cropped black shirt, no sleeves and a pair of black cargo pants with a red bomber jacket and heel boots with grips on the bottom.
Laying down on the couch that the Professor had in his office, she watched as he wheeled over to his desk and picked up the Presidents telephone.
She heard the tone of someone picking up and Charles started to speak, "This is Charles Xavier. I'd like to talk to the president."
'Mr. Xavier, this phone will no longer be operational.'
"I have to tell him not to do this. There's no need to throw away everything we've accomplished. You have to give us a chance and-" The line disconnected and he stalled for a second before slamming the phone back down. His breathing got heavier as he didn't take his hand off the phone.
"It was only a matter of time."
Charles looked up to see Max looking at the black screen of the tv, trying to see if she could turn it back on with her mind.
"What?"
"People fear the strange and unusual, we, ourselves, are strange and unusual." She looked over to him as she repeated what she said to him all those years ago. They looked at each other for a second as Charles remembered when he had first found her.
***
"I shouldn't stay here. I can't stay here." She said, fiddling with her fingers.
He looked at her before a second and clasped his hands in his lap, "Okay..why not?"
"I don't belong in a place like this." Maxine said simply, looking up at him from her hands.
"And why's that?"
"People fear the strange and unusual. I, myself, am strange and unusual." She let her little red horns and spilt tail out to make her point.
Charles chuckled softly and said with a smile, "So am I. So are kids at this school. You're not alone anymore, Maxine."
***
Maxine had gone to get a peanut butter sandwich and Charles had taken her spot on the couch, taking a cat nap. She took a bit of her sandwich as Scott bust through the door to the study, startling her slightly.
"Charles?" He asked as he looked around for the Professor.
"Charles? Charles! Hey, Hanks hasn't gotten back yet." The telepath woke up sleepily and questioned him, "What?"
"Hanks hasn't gotten back yet."
He thought for a second, mostly because he wasn't completely wake yet, before asking, "Did you check his quarters?"
"Yeah, he's not there either." Scott said.
"Wait," Max started as she swallowed her bite, listening to what they were saying, "Where did Hank go? When did he leave?"
"When you were connected with Jean, he told us what was happening to you before leaving, saying he would be back soon." Scott turned and gave her a kiss on the forehead in greeting.
Max thought for a second before she came up with something, something that could be crazy.
"Charles....I have an idea. It could be crazy. But it might be crazy enough to work." She said looking at the Professor this time with a small smile.
He read her mind to know what on earth was going on in inside that head of hers. His blue eyes widened as he quickly said, "No, no, Max, it's too dangerous-"
"I would be disappointed if it wasn't." Max smirked a little as she cut in but Charles ignored her.
"We don't know what could happen if we hook you up to Cerebro-"
"Charles, you can't get into Jeans head to find out where she is, I can. Please. Let me do this."
The Professor looked at her, knowing that she wasn't going to let up till she got what she wanted. Max was determined, he'll give her that. Passion to help everyone even if it meant drowning herself in the process.
"Alright. Let's go."
***
Ororo and Kurt walked through the doors to the lab with confused looks on there faces. They had been called down by the Professor without a explanation. Standing in front of them was Maxine, Charles and Scott, the older of them sitting in his is a usual wheelchair.
"We know where Jean is." Scott said before anyone else could.
"I zought vu zaid vu couldn't track her." Kurt said as he looked over to the Professor.
"I didn't. Max did. Since I haven't been able to get into Jeans mind and she can, we hooked her up to Cerebro but we didn't only find Jean." Max finished for him.
"Erik found her first. Hanks with him. They're on their way to her, and they're gonna kill her."
"And anyone who stands in their way. Kurt, I'd like you to take Scott and I there, but that's all. I want you to leave us there and then come here." The blue man reluctantly nodded softly.
"And us?" Ororo asked as she gestured to herself and Max, who had moved to stand next to her as she stared at the Professor.
"I'm not talking to you now as X-Men. Scott and I will go fight for Jean without you two. End of discussion."
Before Ororo could say anything, Max stepped forward slowly and bent down in front of the man in the wheelchair.
"I have pasted out four times in the past three days. I've got enough energy stuffed inside me to flat this entire building. I'm going to New York with you whether you like it or not. Make your choice." As her hair turned white and her eyes red, her spilt tail whipped agitatedly behind her.
Everything was silent as Charles looked at her in surprise. Scott made the first move, slowly walking over to his girlfriend and pulling her back up, cautiously, so she was standing straight up. He pulled her into his arms and shushed her as the petted her hair down. Max's tail wrapped around his leg as she apologized to the Professor quietly.
"It-Its alright, Max. You two can come." He was quite for a second before talking to Kurt, "Kurt, close your eyes. I'll show you our destination."
They all grabbed each other's arms, making sure the someone held onto Kurt as he closed his eyes as Charles said. In a puff of sulfur smoke, they were gone.
When they all opened their eyes again, they were in New York city, just as Max said. They were in some park with trees to dense see past so they could only assume they were in the middle of it. A little ways away, was the X-Jet.
"Where are they?"
Charles and Max searched through the minds of everyone around them till they found them.
***
Buses sped past them on the narrow street with parked cars along the sides. Across it, were tall apartment buildings as the streets bustled in front of them. Standing off to the side, at the entrance of the park, was a tall African American woman with shaved hair. She looked at the building before turning her head back to the park and saying, "She's in there."
The three men that she were talking to walked forward. Erik, Hank in his natural form and another with long dreads and a mean face.
"Hello, old friend." They stopped and turned around to see Charles, Maxine, Scott, Kurt and Ororo standing a little ways behind them. Maxine's hair and eyes hadn't changed back and her tail whipped behind her as her horns from her hairline.
"Save the 'old friend' shit, Charles. And stay out of my way." Erik said harshly.
"I'm sorry for what she did. But I can't let you go in there."
"You're always sorry, Charles, and there's always a speech. But nobody cares anymore." The metal manipulator stepped forward towards them a little as he talked, his steel helmet blocking anyone from messing with his head.
"We do this here, now, they'll see us as monsters. Violent freaks, fighting on the streets of New York." Charles said loudly.
"What did I tell you?" Erik told Hank lowly as Charles continued, "Damn it, man, your homeland will be gone. Everything you care about."
"Save it." Was all Erik said in return.
Angry by how unbothered he was about this, Max quickly stepped forward from her spot next to Scott.
"If you touch her, I will fucking kill you." She growled at him, her hands starting to glow red as her powers started up.
"Don't do this, Erik. Killing Jean will not bring Raven back." Charles warned one last time.
"The girl dies."
Just as Erik said that, Hank growled and jumped over the fences, running on four legs for the apartment. The mans dreads brown two times their size and were used like whips. Max forced them down for a little period of time so that she could boost herself into the air and over them.
Hank went to run across the road but the moving cars stopped him, slamming on their brakes and rear ending other cars to avoid hitting the blue man. He jumped up on one of the cars and starting for the building.
Erik lifted himself off the ground and over a red double bus as Scott shot lasers at him but only hit the building front of him. People were clamoring to get out of the way, screaming as the mutants fought.
Storm was fighting the man with dreads, giving Kurt enough time to get the Professor away from them while Max and Scott were trying to stop Hank and Erik from getting any closer to the apartments, any closer to Jean.
Hank jumped up onto one of the cars as Scott jumped onto the wall of the park, two fingers to the side of his visor. He shot at the car under him, making the blue man jump off quickly as to not get hit.
Erik floated back to the ground in front of the gates to the apartments. Scott ran along the brick wall as he yelled, "Kurt, I need you!"
The blue boy teleported behind him before teleporting him closer to Erik, on top of one of the cars. Scott shot a laser just past him, hitting the metal door to the building. Giving his mutation, Erik pulled the door in front of him to use it as a shield as Scott continued to fire at him.
Charles was trying to stop the other mind reader from hurting Kurt by stopping her movements for as long as he could. Kurt couldn't stop teleporting around because of her powers. The Professor turned his head to Erik and tried to read his mind, even though he knew that he won't be able to with his helmet on.
Erik, who could feel his old friend trying to get into his head, said loudly enough for him to hear him, "You can't over power me, Charles."
"I know I can't. But she can."
Turning his head, he saw Max floating up off the ground with to large pieces of asphalt that she had pulled from the ground, red incasing both of them. Her eyes glowed red with hints of orange, her hair white with one stripe of black that never changed in her bangs and her horns and tail out and proud.
She threw them at him, making him drop his shield door for a second and ducking out of the way as Scott's laser hit the ground next to him. Erik pulled the car from under his feet, making him fall off. Max rolled on the ground into a kneeling position and used her powers to stop him from hitting the ground to hard and landed him on top another car.
Hank jumped from vehicle to vehicle, jumping off the red double-decker bus that Storm was currently fighting on and causing a hail storm on top of. He tackled Scott harder into the car and used one of his hands to push down on the side of his head so he couldn't fire any lasers at him.
"Max!" Scott yelled, making his girlfriend look back over to him and Hank. She wrapped red energy around the blue man threw him off, making his back hit the bus, creating a dent in the metal.
"You know this is wrong, Hank. Killing Jean, one of your teammates isn't going to do anything good. It will only prove to the world further that we are freaks. Raven wouldn't have wanted this. She sacrificed her life to helping Jean. She wouldn't have want you to kill her for vengeance." Hank didn't listen, even though she knew that her words would get through to him at some point. Hopefully soon.
He thrashed against her powers. Using the metal plates of the bus, Max curled them around him to hold him in place.
She went to stop Erik from entering the building when something happened. The ground started to shake as the ground cracked under them. Max grabbed onto Scott and covered in a red bubble as they rolled off to the side.
Erik was pulling something huge from the ground. A subway broke the asphalt next to them, the people inside screaming and the lights flickering off. The metal controller walked inside the building with the subway car demolishing the wall behind him.
She dispersed her energy shield and made sure Scott was fine as Charles spoke in her mind.
'Max, come help. I can't get inside with this woman stopping Kurt.'
Max ran over to where Charles was, clouds of sulfur smoke popping up everywhere while the Professor was keeping the woman's knife out to her side. Her head was turning back and forward as she tried to force him out of her mind.
The white haired woman wrapped her in energy and threw her to the side like a rag doll, her head hitting a street poll. That was definitely going to hurt like a mother fucker later.
The sound of a window breaking made Max turn her head back only to watch Erik fly out of the window, his back hitting the top of the subway car before falling onto the ground, now unconscious.
"Kurt! Kurt! Kurt?" The Professor shouted and a clouds of black smoke appeared into of them, "Are you alright?"
"No!"
"Come here! Get me in that house! Max protect the outside! Don't let anyone in." The two of them disappeared before she could argue. She groaned in frustration and turned around, lifting herself off the ground and onto the subway car. Her tail whipped angrily behind her and her horns seemed to grow even more, curling back.
The man with the dreads was standing on top of the car, crouched down to the ground. She levitated off the ground. He went to whip at her with his hair but suddenly she was gone. At least to him. Beside him was Max, curving her fingers next to his temple as energy pulsed from her fingers to his mind.
His eyes glowed red for a second before fading back to their original color. Suddenly he screamed, falling to his knees like his was being pulled and fell off the side of the subway car, grunting and thrashing on the ground. Fear manipulation.
She placed her feet back on the metal overhead of the underground vehicle and looked down at her boyfriend, who was staring up at her in awe.
"Make sure Storm is alive, baby." Max said with a smile, her fangs having grown out with her powers growing more and more. The solar flares energy only building up inside her.
***
Charles panted as he finally made it to the top of the stairs, his legs being moved by Jean. Her wild red hair turned in the air, floating behind her, her skin cracking even more than before around the edges of her face and her eyes now fully orange, barley able to see their original color. Her hand was slightly raised as she forced the paralyzed man to move against his will.
The walls behind her were breaking apart and moving back together, dust floating in mid air because of the intense power coming from her. The Professor lifted off the ground and towards her. The strange woman with white hair watching happily.
"I can't see in your mind anymore...but you can see in mine." He choked out, his veins becoming more prominent and his eyes watering as she choked him with her mind. "So look. Jean, look."
-
"And what you choose to do with your gift, well, that's entirely up to you." Younger Charles said to her inside the hospital waiting room.
-
"This could be your new home," Charles said as they started driving up to the school, "We could be your new family."
-
"Because you are not broken." They stood in front of the school as he spook to her, not adult to child, bur person to person.
-
"Then you'll take her?" Jean's father asked Charles, sitting in a hospital bed with a neck brace and bandages.
"Yes. I can help her in ways you can't."
"She can't be helped. She's a lost cause."
"No, she's not. As long as there's someone to care for her, who believes, then there's still hope."
-
"Max, this is Jean. Jean, this is Maxine. But she prefers Max." Charles watched from afar as Jubilee introduced her two friends to each other. Both of them had had trouble making friends with anyone beside Jubilee.
"It's nice to meet you, Redhead." 15 year old Max said to her as she held out a hand to her.
14 year old Jean took it shyly and asked, "You're not scared of me?"
"No, why would I?" The dark haired girl asked with curiosity as she tilted her head to the side.
"It's just most people are.."
Maxine laughed a little to herself and said, "Well, I'm not. Besides..." She trailed off, running a hand through her hair, pushing her bangs up. Two small red horns poked through her skin along the edge of her hair line, which would soon be covered by her thin bangs. A tail that split into two whipped behind her.
Jean jumped back slightly, not from fear but from shock. Her mouth that was open in awe soon curled into a smile as Maxine smirked and finished her sentence, "I'm scarier."
-
"I like you, weird girl." Max said with a smile.
-
The memories and visions coming from Charles head stopped as a tear rolled down Jean's cheek.
"Then there is still hope." He croaked out as he could feel death looming over him if she didn't let him go.
Slowly the walls stopped pulling themselves apart and went back to normal. Jeans hair calmed down and her eyes went back. Charles was lowered to the ground, his legs unmoving so his body slumped against the bar railing. He pushed himself up slightly so his back was to the railing and not his side.
"I knew. I knew that you were still in there." He panted out with a smile.
"He just showed you your past. Follow me...into your future." The white haired woman said as she stepped forward, over Charles' leg and stood in front of Jean.
"No." Jean said as she shook her head softly, finally meeting her eyes, "I never asked for this. Any of it." Her eyes were brimming with tears as her body shook slightly.
"I traveled to the stars for a gift you don't want." She cupped the younger woman's cheek as her eyebrows pulled together a bit.
"Then take it. Please. Free me."
Pleased that she would be getting what she wanted, the white haired woman nodded with a smile, "I'll try."
She placed the palm of her hand against Jeans temple and dragged it down softly to rest on her other cheek. The red heads hair started to lift up once more. Both of their faces started to crack as power surged between the two of them. The white haired woman's face was contorted in displeasure as she didn't expect this.
The woman's hands cracked like Jeans own as the red heads coat was starting to burn off in places. The wall has started to move again. The woman pulled Jean close to her, rest the young woman's head against her shoulder as the power was being sucked out of Jean. Along with her life force.
"Stop it. You're going to kill her." Charles said quickly as Jean gasped against the woman's shoulder.
"Your lives mean nothing. Your world will be ours." The white haired woman hissed out at him as Charles had come to the realization.
"You'd kill us all."
"Yesss."
"Jean, you have to let go. Jean, let go! Let go, Jean! Let go!" He yelled at her but she wouldn't.
"Jean."
The red head used what energy she had left to turn her head just enough to look behind her. Standing at the end of the staircase behind her, was Maxine. Her now black hair was being affected by the power inside the three of them. Her horns and tail were still out as the latter whipped in agitation. Her eyes were red mixed with orange, orange like Jeans had been.
Max walked forward towards them slowly as the white haired woman looked at her in shock.
"You have it too..." She whispered enough for her to hear. But Maxine didn't stop her movements.
"You say you have no family yet here I am. You're my sister. Always have been, always will be. Please...take my hand and let go." She reached out a hand to Jean as she plead. The memories they had made at the mansion were running through Jeans head. Everything they had done together
The redhead slowly let go of the woman and reached out for Maxine's, wanting to grab on but she didn't have enough energy to reach. Max grabbed her hands and pulled her into her chest, breaking the connection. Jean crumbled in her arms, now unconscious.
"No! You insolent-" The woman screeched as she tried to reach for them but a laser beam shot her through the ceiling, making a large hole. Probably, hopefully, she was dead.
Max looked down stairs through the bar railing to see Scott, who had busted through one of the windows to get in. Even though Max had gotten in through the subway car that was currently blocking the entrance.
She looked and now noticed Jeans limp body in her arms. Max fell to the floor as the redhead landed in The Professors lap. Scott ran up the stairs as quickly as he could. Concentrating as much as she could, she could hear things coming from outside, more than she could before. People talking through comms. People with guns and things that would take them away.
"Jean. Jean? Jean, Jean. Charles, what's wrong with her?" Max asked frantically as she herself and the Professor tried to enter her mind. But couldn't.
"I don't know. I can't read her mind." He said in the same tone as hers. Scott was kneeled beside them, checking for a pulse. Thankfully, it was still there but very faint.
The black haired woman's head popped up when she heard voices starting to come from inside the subway car, entering the building. Flashlights coming from the charge-bullet guns fanned around the ceiling, looking for them. Looking for mutants.
"She's alive." Scott said quietly.
"Scott, you have to get her out." Max said, turning to her boyfriend. "You have to- No!" She cut herself off by electricity shocking her, running through her veins as she fell to the ground, unable to move. Only watch.
Whew! Over 4000 words- 😳
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