Part B of Issue #16

Later

It held on with all it's strength as it traveled on a human transport device they called a car. For some reason, it didn't know why it was following the man with the glasses, call it intuition. It had the feeling it was going to learn one of it's life lessons. One lesson that would bring it closer to understanding the pride of a warrior, one lesson that would bring it closer to being a warrior. When it was out of strength, the human device stopped and the man got out. It dropped from the car, and took deep breaths. Now that it was dark, it didn't have to hide from the sun, mother darkness gave it strength now. It began following the man, pass the giant gate and along the driveway. After few minutes of walking it stood at some construction site. There were metal poles sticking out of the ground, and a hatch in the ground. It saw faint light coming from under the hatch, and now learning from it's pass experiences, quickly prepared to hide in the shadow, as the man opened the hatch.

Scott arrived home late, it was pass eleven and only Bobby, and some of X-Force were in front of the tv watching a movie. He said a brief hi to them and then headed for his "room". He didn't notice a strange shadowy creature following him. He opened the door and found the bedroom empty. He was hoping Jean would be there, but she wasn't. Their psi link seemed to be dead too. ^She must be really angry then.^ Scott realized. Sitting on the bed and began to take of his shoes. After a shower he lay down in bed and began thinking. It had been a long day, with Senator Kelly, and Jean seemed to be hiding from him.

It hid in the corner of the room, where no light from the lamp reached. It wasn't sure what to do now, it was still learning the techniques of spying and learning from it's enemies. It began to grow inpatient. Just what was it supposed to do here ? Then, when it was in doubt another person entered the room and things began to get interesting again.

Jean closed to door behind her and glanced casually towards Scott sitting in the bed. "Hi." she mumbled as she headed for the bathroom. She took a quick shower and spent half an hour in the bathroom afterwards brushing her hair. When she walked out she was wearing barely panties and a bra. Scott's gaze followed her as she moved around the room, but not a word was spoken. The silence in the air was almost deadly. Finally Scott couldn't stand it any longer and began talking.

"Jean what is wrong ? Will you tell me or are we going to ignore each other all the time ?"

Jean spun around, with furry. "You want to know what's wrong ? I'll tell you what's wrong. I've had enough. Enough of being nice to everyone, enough of caring for everyone, enough of always helping out everyone, but no one ever helping me. I've had enough of not being able to use all my powers because someone's afraid of it."

"Jean what do you mean by that ?" Scott asked honestly surprised.

"What do I mean ??!! I told you few days ago Scott. If you'd listened you would have known. I've had enough of life like this."

"Like what ?!" Scott was getting angry too. "What the hell is wrong with you Jean, I don't understand you."

Jean paced around the room, nervous. When Scott finished speaking she grabbed her head in furry. "You never understood me Scott. You just wanted me to be there for you, lift up your spirits, help you with the X-Men, and have sex once in a while."

"That is such a lie."

"It is ? I don't think so. Think about it Scott. Ever since we came here, ever since the fight with Shadow King. You took the leadership of the Blue Team, I was on the Gold Team, we only met when the world wasn't in danger. And still then you were always thinking about your job, always having doubts about some members, whether it was Warren, or Betsy, or Gambit. You never had time for me."

"But Jean, my responsibilities as the leader..."

"What about your responsibilities to me ?! I was alone Scott, you always had time for everyone else but me. I was supposed to be the heart of the team, and hold everyone together, make sure everyone was well. But what about me ??!!"

"Why didn't you ever say that ?" Scott asked.

Jean ignored his question and kept talking. "And of course my dear husband, I had to cut down on my powers, because everyone was telling me that I couldn't overuse them. That it was dangerous. I did it, for the sake of it, but I don't want to live like that. I was gifted with powers and I don't want to hide them. I'm not a little girl anymore."

"Jean you know what dangers your powers can cause when they're not controlled."

"I don't care about dangers !! There won't be any damn it ! I've lived with these powers for years." Jean took a deep breath and looked him straight in the face. "And if you'd let me mind wipe Graydon Creed, Bobby's father would have not been disabled today."

"Don't you dare to include Bobby's dad in this !" Cyclops shouted on top of his lungs, angry.

It grew more and more interested in the conversation. It remembered learning that humans argued often, and that those arguments could be very interesting and educational, they could learn much about human behavior from arguments because then the person's real nature was shown. Just then they could begin to fully understand how humans would react to certain behavior. And it remembered that when the argument reached the point when one person began to raise their voice the argument would really bring effective results. It began to observe even more carefully, trying to recall every moment for later study.

"Why not Scott ? Because you know you made a mistake ? Because you know that if you let me mind wipe Creed, or at least read his mind then we would have saved Bobby's dad, and saved lives of god knows how many people ?" Jean said with a wicked smile.

"Jean this is not about me, or my mistakes. It's about you and your powers. The Professor used his powers to full extent and look what happened."

"With all respect to him Scott, he couldn't control his power and it took control over him. I'm stronger."

Scott looked down at the ground and said nothing, he was lost.

"You're thinking about her aren't you ?" Jean said walking up to the bed. She sat down beside Scott who still stared at the sheets under him. "Scott I am not Dark Phoenix, I never was. I know you thought I was her, but I wasn't. She was just a copy of me and a very bad one. I won't make those mistakes, as she did because I'm the original."

Scott looked up and looked her straight in the eyes. "I know that Jean, but I'm afraid. Afraid that I'll loose the woman I love the most."

"I know you are Scott, you were always worrying about me, but you have to understand me, I'm not going to become the next Onslaught. And I want to be myself again. Ever since we joined the X-Men again I've been living like everyone else told me. I want to live like I want to now. And that means that it's okay to get angry sometime, and that no one comes to me with their problems. I'm not the heart, or the mother of the team. I've got my own problems and my husband to worry about. And I want more attention from you. I don't want to be just your help in leading X-Men. I want you to be my husband for once. Is that too much to ask ?"

"No... no it's not."

"Then please Scott understand me, and help me. I don't want to argue with you, I don't want to have to close our psi link just because we got into a stupid argument. But if you listened to me in the first place, and if you would want to be there for me, there would be no argument."

"Yeah I know. It's just that...."

"Sssshhh, don't say anymore." she said placing a finger on his lips. She kissed him and pushed him down on to the bed. "I want sex. Now." she said smiling, unbuttoning his night shirt. "And I know you love me, then show it to me." she said with a wicked grin. She began kissing him passionately , biting the inside of his lip. She paused for a while, while he took off her bra. His hands began to massage her breasts, as her hands began pulling off his shorts. Suddenly Jean paused. "Wait." she said. "Let's do this my way."

Scott looked up surprised at her as she got up from the bed. He felt being lifted by her powers and he landed on the floor. He never remembered having sex on the floor, not with Jean anyway. She stood over him, without a top, still with her panties. She pulled apart his naked legs and lowered herself onto the ground. She smiled and began her act to Scott's astonishment.

It almost lost it's breath when it saw the woman throwing the man on to the floor. It didn't learn much about the thing humans called sex, but it knew that it was basically w period of pleasure, which lasted sometimes long, sometimes short, and during which the humans could reproduce, but did not have to. It was still very confusing to it, but now that it was basically in the middle of it, it decided to watch carefully and learn, for further reference. It moved up closer, as far as the darkness let it, and watched carefully, as the woman performed some sort of suck on the man, and listened as the man moaned in pain. It did not understand why the humans did it if it brought pain, but it guessed that there had to be a reward to it. It remembered to ask this question later, but for now it watched carefully. It was happy, that it followed the man to his house, it had made so many important observations it would be well ahead of other learners. Just as it watched the man dispense some strange fluid it heard a whisper in it's head. It was a voice, of one of it's brothers, that was near calling it. It apparently said that there was a battle to be fought nearby, and that it should come and join. It was shocked at the offer, for the get such an offer one either had to be very skilled or it had to be a very important battle. Nether less, it decided to go off and join the fight, for if it fought in it then it would be considered a warrior and given the power of dawn. It wouldn't have to experience every painful process of learning, it would just become a warrior. And with the information it gained today it was sure to be very well off in the life of a warrior. It began leaving the room slowly still looking at the couple, as they performed some weird pose, and it left thinking that maybe it still had lots to learn. It found out that the fight was to be really near, in fact in the same house that it was in now. It traveled few rooms across the corridor and entered a door. It found it's brothers waiting around for it to show up. They were surrounding a bed and there was a human lying in it. One of it's companions quickly transferred the needed information into it's head and it understood why exactly it was called the join this fight.

Betsy woke up, hearing a sound around her bed. She didn't move, just opened her eyes and looked around. Everything seemed pretty normal, but somehow she felt that it wasn't. Then she felt it again, there was something around her bed. With one swift move she sprung upwards and took a defensive position.

From around her bed, sprung and army of.... shadows. Betsy was surprised and didn't know what to do, when something grabbed her by the throat. It took few seconds for her to regain a clear mind. She pushed the shadow creature off her chest and swung her hand punching one in the face. She threw herself, headfirst into them. They all moved to the sides and she landed, on the floor, grabbing a katana from under her bed. One shadow threw itself at her and she pierced it's body with the sword. She got up to her feet and took a defensive position. She was surrounded by a half circle of shadowy men, if they were human in the first place. They were all black, and only thing that made them human was a somehow, human shape of their bodies.

"What is this ? Who are you ?" Betsy asked rising her sword keeping the shadows at a distance.

One of them, who appeared to be the leader answered in a harsh inhuman voice. "We are Undercloaks, human."

"Undercloaks ?" Betsy mumbled, as she remembered that they had something to do with the Crimson Dawn.

"And we have come here to regain what is righteously ours."

"What do you mean ?" Betsy screamed starting to get nervous.

"We have come to take back what Crimson Dawn gave you." with these words they all threw themselves at Betsy. She began swinging her sword all around, killing some of them, but there seemed to be more than she thought. She activated her psychic knife and stabbed one of the approaching shadows which appeared to be smaller.

It felt electrifying pain as something pink pierced it's chest. It's thoughts swirled in a brain storm, as it fell to the ground, barely alive.  It had never experienced such pain before, it had never felt so close to dying.  It began crawling across the room with the rest of it's strength, away from the fight. It was no use to it anyway.

Betsy turned around and pierced a shadowy head with her katana. She was nervous, anything that was to do with Crimson Dawn, gave her chills, and now she was being attacked by a army of Undercloaks which wanted to take her in. She hit one of the shadows in the head with her psychic knife and turned around for another one was coming up behind her. This seemed to be a easy fight, but yet something was wrong. Suddenly the one that talked to her shouted few words in a harsh voice and the Undercloaks disappeared. She looked before her, wide-eyed, not understanding this one bit. One minute she was fighting an army of Undercloaks who were all about to kill her, and now they all disappear. Or did they ? ^Maybe they're still here, maybe this is just some trick.^ she looked around the room suspiciously. She didn't see anything abnormal but again she didn't either when she first woke up. Keeping and eye on the walls, she sat on her bed and covered her legs with a cover. She held her katana in her hand as she looked around the room, prepared for anything to happen again.

End

For Patricia