A/N Yes! I have finished. Okay, normally, I'd thank each and every one of you people who review individually, but, I'm tired, so, thank you everyone! Here it is, the last chapter, hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Bobby was sulking in front of the TV. He knew there was a chance that he would be kicked off the main team for this, but he didn't care.
Well, he did, but not enough to go help. Yeah, the Professor had taught them to try and get along with all mutants, bad or good, but still. Kitty had left them. Kitty had joined Magneto. Kitty was the one who had broken the rules.
But he was the one who was going to get kicked off the team. Funny how the world works sometimes.
"There's got to be something I can do," he mused aloud to himself. "Some way to make sure I still have a spot on the team."
"You could still go and help," a voice said from the doorway. It was Storm, taking a break from Cerebro.
"What do you mean?" Bobby asked. "They've all left, it's too late. Besides, I don't understand why we're trying to rescue her anyway. She's not an X-man anymore."
"She may have said she left, but I think it was more to prove a point than to really leave," Storm said. "She doesn't belong with the Brotherhood."
"Why? Who gives you and the professor the right to decide? When Todd and Fred tried to join, you wouldn't let them, and when Tabby and Rogue went to the Brotherhood, you didn't go out and 'rescue' them. You waited for Rogue to come to you, why don't you do the same for Kitty? What makes you so special that you can decide who to save, and who not to?" Bobby asked. "What if I left for the Brotherhood, would you try and save me, or would you wait for me to decide to come back on my own?"
There was a laugh from the doorway, "Like the Brotherhood would ever let you in," Tabby said.
"Who asked you?" Bobby snarled.
"I'm just saying," Tabby said, walking toward the couch he was on, "you're too weird for the boys in the Brotherhood to ever want you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bobby asked, offended.
"That you try to be the teacher's pet and the class clown at the same time, the Brotherhood would never accept you. Which I guess is okay, because you would never accept one of them," Tabby said.
"I'm through listening to this," Bobby said, getting up.
"Just a moment, Bobby," the professor came into the room, "Jean's just called me, we need to get down there. They need our help."
"Do you want me to call the others?" Storm asked.
"No, that won't be necessary," the professor said, "Tabitha and Bobby should be enough. But if you could prepare the Blackbird for launch, I would appreciate it."
"What's going on, Professor?" Tabby asked as Storm left.
"I'm afraid that Magneto has used Mastermind to brainwash Kitty, and Jean suspects that some of the others might have false memories now too," The professor said.
"Is that why Kitty left?" Bobby asked.
"I'm sure there were actual reasons for her wanting to leave," Xavier said, "from what I've heard, she had every right to walk out. I may not approve of her decision, but I understand why she left," he gave a stern look to Bobby, which told him that the Professor knew all the things he did. It was one of the curses of living with a telepath for a teacher.
"Well," Tabitha said, grinning at the fact that Bobby was in trouble, "We better get out there, huh?"
Magneto's base, half an hour earlier
Entering Magneto's lair wasn't as hard as Ray thought it would be. It was in the side a cliff by the beach, and all it took was Avalanche's and Cyclops powers to bring it down.
Amazing how one small girl could make two of the greatest enemies work together. They had even stopped bickering for a time.
"Come on, Earthquake, I can't do all this by myself, try pulling your weight."
"Maybe if you get out of my face, I'll aim at the mountain instead of you," Lance retorted.
Okay, maybe not completely, but they weren't ready to kill each other, which is always a good thing when they were working together.
There was a crash, and part of the cliff fell.
"Okay team, Magneto had to have heard that, so we have to make this quick," Cyclops said. Logan and Lance gave each other a look; there were three 'leaders'- why did Scott get to be the one who made the calls?
Ray was the last one in, out of all the X-men, he was the only one not trained to be a real one, and the Brotherhood had been trained by Magneto and Mystique, he was the only one not sure of what was going to happen.
He looked around the hallways as they walked, the walls and the ceiling were made of metal, and there were only a few florescent lights that gave an eerie glow, and it gave him the creeps. He heard a noise behind him, and quickly turned, but there was nothing there. He tried to calm himself down; he'd never make it on the team if he freaked out every time they went to fight Magneto. But there was something weird going on here, he knew it.
He turned to the front again, only to find that the others had disappeared. He heard a noise behind him, and turned around again, only to see a strange man, one he had never seen before, and that was the last he remembered.
Amara was not happy about any of this. First, she had to cancel her shopping plans with Jubilee, and then they had to come all the way out to who knew where just to rescue a person who willingly left. Unlike Bobby, Amara didn't care about the glory of being an X-men, she was just as content being on the secondary team. But she figured that she could get more training if she was on the real team, and accepted the position when Xavier asked her. She just wanted control of her powers, and if having to save a rogue X-men helped her, then so be it.
She looked around for Ray, but it seemed that some of them had split up, Rogue, Logan, Fred and Lance had disappeared along with Ray. Scott must have ordered for them to split up or something. She really should start to pay attention to him.
Suddenly, they were out of the corridor, into a bright room, and Kitty was there, watching them.
"Kitty! You're alright!" Kurt exclaimed happily. She glared at him, and phased through the floor. She came up right behind Kurt, and did some sort of move to his neck, Amara couldn't really see, and Kurt fell to the floor in a heap.
"Kitty, what the heck are you doing?" Jean asked. Kitty did not respond, but phased through the floor again. Before she could see where Kitty would come up, Amara felt a hand around her mouth, and she was pulled through a doorway before anyone could notice.
Logan wasn't exactly sure what they were expecting to find. He knew that her memories had been changed- they all knew, but they weren't sure what it was changed to. He wasn't even sure where she would be... strapped to a table, evil scientists all around? Her locked in a prison cell, starved and barely alive? Her being forced to watch toothpaste commercials?
What he wasn't expecting was to come to a room, and find her beating the tar out of her own teammates. Kurt, Scott, and Todd were on the floor, and Kitty was ready to knock Pietro out.
His claws instantly came out, but, remembering it was his little 'half-pint' he was fighting, he quickly pulled them back in. Of course, without his claws, he wasn't sure exactly how to stop her without hurting her.
He looked around the room, and noticed that Amara was missing, and Ray was just coming through the other door.
Right before Kitty could go after him, Pietro ran out of the room. As Logan went up to Kitty, ready to fight her with his fists, he called over his shoulder to Ray, "where were you, on a bathroom break? Give me some help over here!"
When his back was turned, Wolverine felt electrocuted, and knew that for some reason, Ray had attacked him.
"What are you doing Bezerker?" he asked, as Bezerker continued to use his powers on him, slowly bringing him to his knees. Logan knew that it would only be a few seconds until his healing factor kicked in, but for the time being, he could only clench his teeth against the pain.
He jerked his head to one side, and noticed Jean running out of the room His first thought was that she was deserting them, but he caught sight of the cell phone in her hand. She was calling for help.
"Good idea, Jeanie," Logan said, as he felt his healing factor start to work. His claws unsheathed, and he pounced on Ray, knocking him to the floor. He had no problem using his claws on Ray, and had them almost touching his neck, when he felt something behind him.
It was Kitty, and she had just stuck something in his back. Wolverine tried to focus on what it was, but he started blacking out.
Lance watched in horror as his girlfriend attacked her team. Even though Pietro said that she might not be able to take the changes to her memory, she seemed to be doing fine. In fact, she seemed to be fighting better than what he had ever seen her do. Mastermind had probably added in some training sessions in her new memories.
But that didn't matter, what was important was getting her to remember without hurting her. And she was coming for Lance, Ray right behind her.
"Kitty, I don't want to hurt you," he said, backing away from her.
"Why are you fighting on their side?" she asked, one of the first things she had said since they found her.
"What do you mean their side?" Lance said, trying to see if she could get her to remember anything. "Kitty, Mastermind changed your memories, you've got to believe me."
She looked at him in disgust. "I would have thought someone hand picked by Mystique would be a bit smarter than that. You know that they're not my teammates, they never will be again."
He looked at her closely, she looked hurt. He didn't know what her new memories were, but they were definitely something bad.
"What happened, Kitty?" Lance asked, trying to calm her down. But before she could say anything, the floor around him started to melt around him. He looked behind him as his feet melted into the floor. It was Magma, looking just as serious as Berzerker and Kitty.
"What the heck is going on?" he yelled as he made an earthquake, and freed himself.
Amara and Ray weren't saying anything, but Ray shocked Scott, who was starting to get up, and Scott fell to the ground again.
Lance glanced over at Wolverine; he was already starting to wake up. His eyes opened, and he dodged a flow of lava that Magma had sent at him.
"Rocky," he said to Lance, the only other mutant that wasn't controlled or knocked out, "get Kitty, try and get her to remember." He turned towards Ray, "I'm going to… help Ray along here." His claws popped out.
"What am I supposed to say to her?" Lance asked, as Logan tackled Ray.
"I'm a bit busy here kid," Logan said, "just do whatever you did to make you guys remember."
"Do whatever you did to make you remember,' Lance quoted silently. "What the heck does that mean?"
"It means you need to get your butt in gear, and do something," Wolverine snarled, as he and Ray rolled on the floor. Ray was doing his best to shock Logan; Logan was doing his best to avoid killing the kid - no matter how much he really wanted to.
"Kitty," Lance said, as they circled around each other, waiting for the moment to strike. "You've got to remember the truth, Mastermind messed with your head, and he's making you think you're on Magneto's side.
Kitty eyed him suspiciously. "The only thing I remember is that they kicked me out. They kicked me out because of you."
"That's not true, you left them. Mastermind just changed it so you think they kicked you out," Lance said.
"If that's even true, why did I leave?" Kitty asked, and Lance couldn't tell if she really wanted to know, or if she was just trying to distract him. The question is- from what?
It became apparent as Magma jumped on his back, and knocked him to the floor. She turned him over, and held a ball of flame in front of his face.
"Kitty, I'm telling the truth! You're not on Magneto's team; you're an X-men!" Lance screamed, trying to get Amara to power down.
"I was an X-man, Lance," Kitty said, crouching down, so she was just inches away from his face. "But I was thrown out, for you." She kissed him on the cheek, and got up. She almost made it out the door when…
"As much as I love the whole romance thing, I think it's time we break this up." There was a great flash of light, and suddenly, Amara was off of Lance, and Tabby was helping him up. Bobby was in the corner, trying to block Kitty's way, but she phased through him and any barriers he created.
"Shadowcat," Logan said, struggling to get Ray off of him without hurting him, "you can't walk away from a fight. I thought I taught you better than that." Storm knocked Ray off with a bolt of lightning, and he got up.
"You're not the boss of me anymore!" Kitty screamed, and pulled out a gun from a pocket in her outfit, and shot him in the chest.
"Kitty, what the heck was that for?" Bobby asked in horror, as Storm tried in vain to catch Logan, who was collapsing.
"Kitty, you know that you don't belong here, you belong with us" a voice inside her head said, "If you didn't, you wouldn't shoot Wolverine, who you know can heal himself." Logan was already starting to heal; the bullet was coming out of his chest. "You could have shot anyone, but you shot the only one that can't be hurt."
Kitty looked at the professor, who was coming through the door with Jean. Rogue, who had missed a turn, and hadn't shown up yet, rushed to Logan, and then at Lance, who was getting up, and then at Bobby, who was coming towards her.
"No!" She shouted, "You're wrong!" And to prove her point, she shot the gun two more times, once at Lance in the shoulder, and then at Bobby in his leg. They both screamed in pain, and fell to the floor.
"Kitty, you don't have to do this," the professor said, no longer trying to reach her telepathically. "Mastermind has altered your memories; you are an X-men! Look," he mentally forced past the memory blocks Mastermind put in, and tried to show Kitty her true memories.
She was playing baseball, and Bobby iced up the bat, shopping with Jean and Amara, being a Bayville Siren. All these memories resurfaced, and Kitty stared blankly at the ceiling, remembering everything that was good about being an X-men.
Kurt and Jaime playing video games until all hours of the night, Rogue smiling secretly whenever she got off the phone with Remy.
"Kitty, you must remember, you have to stop this," Jean said, as she used her powers to grab the gun away from her. Kitty was so confused by what was going on, she didn't even try and stop her
"Kitty, I know the others have done some stupid things, but you need to think past that," Rogue said, slowly walking towards her, feeling safer now that her gun was gone.
The professor kept bringing memories up. She was at the Sadie Hawkins dance. She was at the pool. She was at the beach. She was with Lance. She was with Kurt.
It all overwhelmed her. She fell to her knees, clutching her head, crying.
"Stop it!" she screamed. But the memories kept coming. Just when it felt like she couldn't take it anymore, they stopped.
She looked up. Lance and Bobby were bleeding freely from their gun wounds, and Bobby was glaring furiously at her. Most of the team was on the ground, unconscious.
"Oh, gosh, what have I done?" she whispered, and collapsed in a new set of tears.
The professor came over, but she didn't look up when she heard his mechanical chair coming at her. She flinched when he put his hand on her shoulder; it just reminded her of what she did.
"Kitty, it's okay, it wasn't your fault," the professor said, in his most fatherly voice. "You're still welcome to come rejoin the X-men."
Even as he said it, he could hear Bobby say, in your dreams, in his mind. It was true; it would be difficult to except her after everything that happened - even though most of it wasn't her fault.
"There was a lot that happened today that wasn't your fault at all, that you didn't have a choice in," Ororo said. "You do not have to feel like we're throwing you out, your welcome at the mansion at any time."
"But for now," the professor said, "I think we need to get Bobby and Lance to the infirmary."
"And we have to get out of here, before Magneto and his lackey's get down here," Logan said.
Kitty still was crying, but she had slowed down. She would never be accepted back into the X-men now, and she knew it.
After the others had been revived, they headed for the X-jet and X-van. Logan looked everywhere for a sign of Magneto.
"Wonder where he is," he muttered, before getting into the car with the others.
Up in a room, watching through a camera, Gambit was wondering why they weren't going down as well.
"This experiment was a failure, there is no need to pursue them anymore, we never beat them anyway," Magneto glared at the others. "But don't worry; someday soon, the Brotherhood will be loyal to me again."
A/N Oh yeah, did I mention the sequel? Yeah, I didn't want to end it completely, but I wanted to kind of get away from the X-men, so I'm kind of starting over again. I don't know what it will be called, but it's going to be a bit longer, and more Lance/Kitty focused, because I couldn't fit that in here, so don't worry. I've got big plans for this one.
Don't forget to review! Thanks!