Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:38:52 +1000 From: thothboi@hotmail.com Subject: Weaver X: Chapter 8 Xmen is the trademarked property of Marvel, all Marvel Characters are copyrighted to Marvel, their characters are borrowed, for the purposes of the story. This is a work of Gay fiction, containing adult situations between consenting males. If you are under the legal age in your country, DO NOT CONTINUE, otherwise, I hope you enjoy. Weaver X: Chapter 8 Alex sat on the edge of the window, enjoying the fresh air and moodily took a draw of his cigarette. He'd always hated people trying to speak over his head, as though he weren't there, and the four of them just acted like he didn't exist, talking about how they were going to investigate his ability. Taking a deep breath, he put the cigarette to his lips again. He was always grumpy when he was tired, and healing those men had been tiring. Closing his eyes and leaning his head against the window sill he exhaled a long stream of smoke and made himself relax. A terse knock on the door was all the warning he got before the door flung open. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" A tall blonde man stormed into the room half yelling. Alex hitched his towel tightly as he stood up. He'd only been out of the bath for a matter of minutes, not enough time to be dressed. "Do you mind?" He glared indignantly at the intruder. "Do you mind? Smoking is a disgusting habit and not permitted in the mansion." The blonde snarled, strangely, he was wearing a pair of sunglasses. Alex raised a cold eyebrow. "I assume you're Scott." He wove a shield of air between himself and the man, ensuring he couldn't get close and took another draw of his cigarette. The man made to grab the offending cigarette and came smack up against the barrier of air in his way. "Put that out now." He demanded. Alex stared at him. First he was spoken over, and now he had to put up with this idiot. Temper flaring he took a long insolent drag on the cigarette, flicking the ash out of the window, as he wove flows of air to seize the idiot. "Quit it one-eye." Logan snarled walking in the door, and slamming it behind him in the faces of several fascinated students. "Professor has no rules about smoking in the mansion, and you know it." Alex smiled triumphantly and inhaled the last of his cigarette. Staring at the intruder, Alex opened a tiny gateway parallel to his waist and dropped the cigarette in it, then let it snap shut. "Thankyou Logan. Now if you don't mind, both of you, get out of my room." Alex let his voice grow cold on the last. Logan pulled at the intruder's arm, but he refused to budge. "Don't smoke in the mansion again, what is permitted for teachers is not for students." Alex had the feeling he was staring icily behind the sunglasses. Exasperated beyond all reason, Alex wove a gateway behind the two men and weaving flows of air, picked them both up and deposited them on the other side. "Next time I ask you to get out of my room, do it." He stared at Logan's angry face. "And never enter my room without my permission again." He flicked his gaze at the obviously furious intruder. Dismissing them both, Alex let the gateway go, releasing the flows that held the men just before it winked out, ensuring that both of them couldn't make it back through. Swearing softly under his breath, Alex got dressed again and headed downstairs in search of something to eat. The crowd of curious onlookers tried to sneak a peek in his room, as he stepped out, obviously looking for Logan or that man. "Alex? Are you alright?" Rogue stepped out of the crowd and joined him on the stairs. "I'm fine." He replied a touch too lightly. "You can't say that I didn't warn you about Scott." She said somewhat ruefully. "I thought that was him." Alex nodded thoughtfully. His first day and already he'd pissed off a teacher, more than that, he'd pushed him out of a gateway, at least he hadn't made that one go too far, he'd opened it into the woods he'd seen on the property from the window. "Um, not that it's any of my business, but where are he and Logan?" She asked, somewhat nervously. "Right about now they're walking back from their impromptu visit to the woods." Alex replied, letting a small satisfied small hover around his lips. Rogue shook her head. "Logan's going to be pissed." "Where do you keep the food in this place?" Alex asked, feeling slightly anxious now, he was perfectly justified in doing what he'd done to both of them, but there was something about Logan that suggested danger. Alex sighed. Do what you like and pay the price for it. Another of his mother's sayings. Rogue led him into a smaller kitchen than the one everyone had been gathered at breakfast. "There's stuff in the cupboards and the fridge." She said, taking a seat at the breakfast bar. She watched Alex make a sandwich silently. Finally Alex sighed. "What is it?" He asked her, shifting his sandwich onto a plate. "What is what?" She blinked, confused. "You've been examining me like some kind of, I don't know what. You want something, so out with it." Alex said exasperatedly. For over a year he had little social interaction, even living with Dimitri hadn't made him grow accustomed to any great amount of social interaction, or social grace, he realised awkwardly. Rogue sighed. "I heard you healed those government types you brought here." She drew a quick ragged breath. "I was hoping you could heal me." Alex stared at her, astounded. "Gossip does travel fast, I don't know what you mean." Alex said slowly. "Being a mutant isn't an illness, so I don't know how I could heal you." He watched her cautiously. "I don't mean that." She made a small frustrated sound. "I, my ability I mean, I can't touch anyone." Alex frowned, even more confused now than when he was when she made the request. "I'm not sure I follow." "I'm not explaining it well." Her words were tinged with embarrassment and frustration. "If I touch someone, a normal human, I put them in a coma, if I touch a mutant, I get their power for a while, but if I touch anyone for too long." She heaved a sigh. "They die." She finished quietly. "But I was thinking that maybe, my ability is broken, that I'm supposed to be able to control it somehow, but the on/off switch got broken somehow and that you could maybe fix that." She finished in a rush, colouring slightly. Alex stared at her in shock. Beyond anything else, how could she know that he had healed those soldiers? It also came clear in his mind as to why she was wearing old fashioned long gloves, a thing he'd noted without questioning, if the slightest touch could maim. He shook his head slowly. "I don't know Rogue." "Could you give it a try?" Emotion flooded her words, the raw need for something, for hope. Alex chewed his lip in thought and nodded slowly. "I can do something that tells me if you're sick, that'll tell me if anything can be done, but I can't promise, even if I do find something that I'll be able to heal you, I've never healed anything like that before, and I have to say that I wouldn't even know where to start." Rogue nodded solemnly. "I know, thanks." Alex took one of her hands, physical contact was necessary for both the diagnostic and healing weaves, he just had to hope that the material didn't get in the way too badly, and spun the diagnostic weave. Immediately information began flooding back to him, the material didn't matter and the weave was working, perfectly, as was Rogue. His heart sank, this meant so much to the young woman, he was so caught up in trying to find the right way to break the news that he almost missed it, in the midst of all the healthy responses, there was a tiny sense of discontinuity, something cut and unhealed. Surprised, Alex recoiled, letting go of Rogue's hand. "That was the strangest feeling I've ever had." Rogue's stare was split between her hand and the bench top, plainly afraid to hear what Alex had to say, she went on. "It felt like warm chills, and I don't have any other explanation." "Rogue, there is something." Alex interrupted her before she could draw breath to speak again. "I don't know what it is or what it effects, I have no idea about it at all." Alex held up a warning hand when hope suffused her features. "I think I can heal it, but I have no idea what the consequences will be to you, or to your talents. I don't even know if it will have anything like the effect you're hoping for if I do heal it." Rogue nodded slowly, her face falling as she absorbed the information. "But there is something wrong." She said slowly. "That means that something needs to be fixed." She sat up straight on the chair. "I don't care what the effect is, if there's any hope I can." She trailed off. Alex understood what she meant all too well. Any street walker would. After a while you divorce yourself from meaningful physical contact, it's either that or go mad. The value of a loving human touch meant a lot, particularly when you couldn't feel it anymore. Alex considered calling the Professor. I know Alexander. Proceed. The Professor's voice flowed soothingly through his head. Nothing else will be enough, and like Rogue, I too hope. Alex nodded, startled that the Professor was watching, but he nodded nonetheless. I'll give it a go, that's all I can do." Alex wasn't quite sure if he was addressing Rogue or the Professor, but he felt the Professor's approval and withdrawal. "That's all I'm asking." Rogue smiled bravely as Alex touched his hand to hers once more. Alex wove the diagnostic weave again, this time searching for the sense of something cut, and found it. Focussing the weave, he studied it for a moment, then shifted the flows to healing. There was more than just the cut sensation, it almost felt like the area around the cut section had died back. Becoming absorbed in his weaves, he walled out the world until finally, the cut section rejoined and the area around it was just as alive as the rest of Rogue. "God, that was scary." Rogue burst out as Alex released the weave. "It felt like I was in a tumble drier with a couple of boulders." She looked up at Alex's completely exhausted face. "Well?" She asked expectantly. Alex shrugged eloquently. "I healed the breach, but what that's done is completely beyond me." Rogue slipped off her glove and, with Alex's approving nod, laid a finger across the back of his hand and waited. "Nothing!" She said excitedly, then did it again. Alex felt a screaming pain, as though his soul were being torn out of his body, it stopped abruptly and he looked up at Rogue's triumphant face through a haze of gathering darkness. *** Alex woke suddenly and sat up, staring around him wildly. He was in a dim lit room somewhere... abruptly the door opened and Dimitri walked in smiling at him. "You have done a miracle, you know." He said quietly. "Whatever it was you did to Rogue." He smiled. "Where am I?" Alex asked, grateful to see a familiar face. "You're in the infirmary." Dimitri sat down on the end of the bed. "After you healed Rogue, you blacked out and we brought you here." Alex raised an eyebrow. "Am I alright?" He asked dryly. "Just exhaustion, it seems healing people takes it out of you." Dimitri replied, casually inserting his observation. "You slept through most of yesterday and all of last night, I thought you'd wake up soon." Alex nodded. "Rogue? How's she doing?" He asked anxiously. "It will take some practice, but she can control her ability. To what degree is unknown, but at least there is some control now." The Professor replied as he entered the room. "If I may have a word with Alexander in private, Dimitri?" "Of course." Dimitri replied, looking strangely puzzled, but he left the room. "If you're mad at me." Alex began to speak. "I'm not angry with you, but I believe the sooner you enter training, the better for the rest of us. Rogue's healing may have opened floodgates that you and I may regret opening sooner rather than later." The Professor continued. "As they are open, we must cope as best we can and prepare for the future." "Professor, not that I'm stupid, but you kinda lost me." Alex stared at the wheelchair bound man in confusion. "There are others among the students who have similar problems to Rogue, problems to which I fear there is no solution, not even your marvellous gift of healing could affect. The anger and resentment this could, and will, inevitably cause, and the difficulties you may face from other mutants, let us say that it is perhaps better in some ways for you, that you hadn't been able to heal Rogue." The Professor sighed. "As that isn't an option, the only path left available to us, is to see you trained as swiftly as we can." Alex frowned. "You're telling me that I'm going to be the target of anger and resentment because I healed Rogue." "No, I'm telling you that you're going to be the target of anger and resentment because you will not be able to heal all the others like you healed Rogue." The Professor said irritably. "Her healing will inevitably bring you to the attention of other mutants who would give a great deal to have your abilities with them, mutants who would not scruple at anything in order to have you on their side. There are some humans and mutants who believe a war is coming between mutant and human kind, and there are some who would do anything, use anyone to precipitate that war. You may find yourself a target from more places than you know exist, simply because you exist." Alex's eyes bulged as he assimilated that information. His first reaction was to run and hide himself back on the streets, but that wouldn't really be an option, once the knowledge of his abilities was out there on the street, nothing would stop the mutant groups in particular from picking him up with little to no difficulties. He could fight, but he wouldn't be able to fight them all. Here, maybe, he stood a chance. There were others who would fight to keep him safe and here he could learn to use his powers to such a degree that any who came against him would have to be suicidal at least. "Then teach me fast, if we don't have too much time to waste." Alex said grimly, his feet making a resounding slap on the floor as he slid off the bed and stood. "That means I don't have the time to waste." AUTHORS NOTE: This is my first flirt with submitting anything I've written, so please be nice and give me lots of feedback! Thanks to all those who've written and let me know what they think, much appreciated.