Who was he?

He was Jamie.

No wait, was he?

Things had been so confusing lately. He had thought they were confusing back when it had been just him and one other Jamie—or HAD it been him?—but now there were many others.

Not temporary clones, not duplicates he could pull back into himself. Full-fledged Jamies—at least as much as he was one, he assumed. Unlike the temporary duplicates that he was normally able to create (Xavier's mindblock preventing the voluntary use of his powers was unfortunately still active), these ones had no telepathic link to him, no presence in the back of his mind like the ones that he remembered (?) being able to normally produce.

But whenever these permanent duplicates were created, they retained the original's memories up until the point of the split. That was why "Jamie" wasn't sure if he was the "real" one. And he felt pretty certain all of the other Jamies felt the same way.

"Jamie" looked tiredly out of the glass. A dozen other Jamies looked back at him, the same expression on all of their faces. Each Jamie was imprisoned in a small cell not even large enough to lie down in, with a transparent front that despite his constant pounding, "Jamie" couldn't break through.

"Miserable" had been far too kind of a word to describe his stay here. He had lost track of the time since he had been imprisoned in this room—it seemed like forever. Usually there would be about an hour every now and then that consisted of incredibly painful experiments, and then he—or at least one of the ever-increasing number of other Jamies—would be led back here and locked away again. They were fed well enough, but "Jamie" didn't feel like eating, and apparently none of the others did, either.

Too bad. If they didn't eat everything that was given to them—and some of the food, though apparently nutritious, was absolutely wretched-- they were subjected to painful torture. If that didn't work, they were force-fed. If that didn't work, well… they were made an example of.

In the midst of all the cells full of Jamies, there was a Jamie who had been particularly defiant. He now hung by the neck from a rope attached to a ceiling rafter, his slightly-decayed body in plain view of everyone and a reminder of how much one of them meant to the larger project—after all, H.Y.D.R.A. could always create more of them. And they did.

"Jamie" had learned soon after his stay here that his initial splitting was no accident—apparently a H.Y.D.R.A. agent had intercepted him one evening on the walk home from the library. Before Jamie could do anything, the agent had injected him with some kind of drug—one that knocked him out and, eventually, caused the split. Jamie only knew of this because he (?) had been told shortly after his imprisonment by a man called Sinister, whom he now knew only too well. Jamie had woken up back in the library, the agent having deposited him there. Jamie had assumed his faint memory of starting to walk home had been just a dream—which of course, it hadn't.

Whatever the food the Jamies were being force-fed was, it was pumped full of hormones. Jamie had noticed he and the others had grown several inches and become a bit more muscular as well since he had been imprisoned here. The aches and pains from what one would normally call "growing pains" were nearly maddening at times. Whatever the ultimate goal was of all these experiments, Jamie was sure he and the others were being used to create some kind of weapon.

As if it were ever in doubt when H.Y.D.R.A. was involved.

"Jamie" continued to mull over his situation, as there was little else to do. He certainly didn't want to look out of the glass wall of his cell at the "reminder" in the middle of the room. As the seconds dragged on into minutes, and the minutes into hours, he slowly started to drift asleep, even though he was sitting up. He was so tired, all the time… one didn't sleep much when they had lost all sense of time, all sense of individuality, all sense of comfort, all hope…

"Jamie" was jolted awake, along with the others, when the lone door to the room slid open and a almost purely white-skinned man with black hair came in, flanked by two guards. The man, whom the Jamies all knew was Sinister, had a very unique appearance. A bit on the tall side and having a lithe, muscular figure, Sinister work a black uniform with a red triangular symbol in the center—the symbol of H.Y.D.R.A. The same symbol was tattooed on his forehead, and his eyes glowed the same red color dimly. Despite the fact that his skin was so white, his lips were black, which amplified every smirk, every grin, every emotion that showed on his face.

"Jamie" panicked as Sinister and his guards stopped at his cell, looking inwards.

"Ah, M-7. It's been a while—well, if you can call two days a while," Sinister smirked. "I think it's time for another split."

Jamie knew full well what that meant. And he also knew it was beyond useless to beg for mercy—that only made the experiment more painful in the end as a punishment.

"Don't worry, we're very close to a real breakthrough," Sinister said. "This…. monotonous… procedure shouldn't have to be done that many more times. However, science must march onwards. X-20, if you please."

"Jamie" flinched as the glass wall to his cell slid open and the three-armed guard stepped inside. Her black hair cascaded down the teenage guard's back, two bone claws sticking out of each of her two "normal" arms. A third malformed stump of an arm stuck out of the side of her torso, only one shorter bone claw sticking out of that arm. In addition, a blinking green electronic collar hung around her neck. Jamie wasn't sure what it did, but he was sure it wasn't something good.

X-20 grabbed "Jamie" roughly and wordlessly pressed two of her bone claws against the back of the boy's neck, forcing Jamie up and out of the cell, both of them following Sinister and another familiar female teenage guard as they exited the room.

Kitty glanced at Rogue, who quickly glanced back before turning her eyes downwards again.

No understanding or forgiveness there, it would seem.

The same reaction seemed to be coming from a fair number of the X-Men. They understood where she was coming from, her reasons for doing it, but still… they felt like she was abandoning them.

And in some ways, she was.

But this was her life, not theirs. She probably should've broken the news that she was leaving the Institute sooner, she had to admit, but beyond that she wasn't sure why so many of them harbored that passive resentment towards her when she was doing the same thing that Berzerker was doing—she had just decided later and for different reasons, that was all.

Yes... that was all.

She looked out over the Bayville High football field, with lawn chairs spread out everywhere, high school graduations sitting in them with their relatives and friends in the stands. Most were paying attention to the principal, who was now making a rather long-winded speech, but a few kept their eyes focused on her—many of them students she didn't even really know.

Principal Donaldson, caving into public pressure for the umpteenth time, had demoted Kitty a few days ago from valedictorian to salutatorian—supposedly for "missing classes" now and then due to various legitimate emergencies involving the X-Men, though everyone knew the real reason was because of X-23's outburst in the cafeteria the other day, yet again reminding everyone at Bayville High that Mutants were more than met the eye. Anyone who had such an "unfair advantage" deserved to have the playing field leveled, apparently. Many stood to reason that a Mutant simply couldn't have reached valedictorian status on her own, oh no. Kitty must have "cheated" with her "Mutant intelligence" abilities. So now she had switched places with the real salutatorian, Arcade. No speech for her—it was Webber's speech, now. The salutatorian's speech, interestingly enough, had been stricken from the program at about the same time as the announced position switch.

"…and so, as they say, Carpe Diem," Principal Donaldson said, finishing up his fairly underwhelming speech. He was sweating profusely, even though it was rather cool for a day in June—he was clearly very nervous, what with all the Mutants present and the obvious pressure on him because of the recent demoting of Kitty's title. Kitty was honestly puzzled why the short, round little man with a comb-over had ever accepted the job of principal at such a "hot zone" as Bayville High after Robert Kelly became mayor. He clearly couldn't handle stress very well.

"So, without further ado," Principal Donaldson, stepping aside, "Let's hear a round of applause for our school's valedictorian of the year, Webber Torque!"

Webber stepped up to the podium, grinning in a rather goofy manner. Just about everyone present applauded generously, including Kitty—the teenager had worked hard to get the second-highest GPA in the school, after all.

"Heheh… well, uh… thanks everybody… thanks for that!" Webber smiled, adjusting his glasses absentmindedly as the applause died down and Principal Donaldson retreated to the back of the stage and took his seat. "Hi, Mom and Dad! Hi, Aunt Pat! I did it! Heh… Well, um, I know you all are expecting me to give a speech… But, uh, well… sorry, I don't have one prepared. I mean, I'm sure you're all aware of the sitch—I'm not the real valedictorian, after all."

A lot of confused murmuring broke out among the crowd.

"So, uh, I'm hope she'll forgive me for putting her on the spot like this, but—let's hear it for the real valedictorian here, Kitty Pryde!" Webber said, clapping as he stepped aside and motioned for Kitty to take his place at the podium.

"Wait, Mr. Torque—" Principal Donaldson said, his face quickly turning red. "You can't—"

"Hey, it's my speech, isn't it?" Arcade shrugged. "I'm just letting someone else say it for me."

Principal Donaldson sputtered but said nothing, sitting back in his chair and privately fuming.

Amid a couple of confused claps and another couple of boos, Kitty nervously hurried up to the podium.

Putting her hand over the microphone, she whispered, "Webber… what are you doing? You're going to get yourself in trouble… I'm okay, really."

Webber waved it off. "Hey, it's the least I can do to try to make up for… y'know, trying to… kill you and your friends a few years ago. Look, if you want to talk later, we'll talk—but you've got a speech to give!"

"Uh… okay…" Kitty said, clearing her throat and nervously looking out over the confused crowd in front of her as she took her hand off the mic. "Well, this is surprising… Um, like Webber, I really don't have a speech prepared either, but—"

Kitty was interrupted as someone near the back of the crowd yelled angrily for her to get off the stage.

"U-umm…" Kitty stuttered, her face flushing red. At the edge of her hearing she heard two graduates conversing in the front row about the possibility of one of the X-Men using their mind control powers to make Webber give up his speech.

"Phase through this!" someone in the first couple of rows yelled, hurling a clump of dirt and rock from the field at Kitty. Instead of phasing, Kitty merely ducked, though the dirt did knock her graduation cap off.

Kitty reached over and grabbed her cap, dusting off the bits of dirt off the best she could as she stood up. Her vision was quickly clouding up as tears threatened to start flowing down her cheeks.

Kitty, listen to me.

Kitty's head suddenly jerked up at the "sound" only to discover that it was Professor Xavier's voice in her mind. Looking into the stands, she saw that indeed Xavier was concentrating, two fingers to his temple as he looked back at her reassuringly.

Don't forget what I've taught you. Ignore them, pursue onwards. Giving them any sort of attention—or worse, quitting—is exactly what they want. Take advantage of this opportunity Mr. Torque has given you.

Uh… sure, Professor, Kitty thought back, briefly wiping her eyes and smiling. Thank you.

"W-well, I guess what I would have to tell everyone here is that…. Even though this seems like an odd place to say this, the most important things in life aren't the things you learn in school," Kitty said, her expression and voice noticeably gaining confidence as she continued. "Don't get me wrong, the stuff we learn in school is totally important. History, math, English, science…. all of these subjects, of course, increase our knowledge of the world around us and, like, help us all to make the world a better place.

"But knowledge isn't enough. What you learn in school isn't enough to really succeed in life, in my experience. You need things you can only learn perhaps from your parents, or perhaps certain authority figures… whether those authority figures be your instructions, God Himself, or maybe just your friends. Obviously, everyone knows totally different people, everyone has a completely different circle of people they know, so it's up to you to decide who are the people who can lead you down the right road.

"And believe me, here, at graduation, we're all at a crossroads. I know a 'crossroads' is usually defined as a point where you can take this path or that path, but there's, like, lots and lots of paths you can take from here. You could become a mass-murderer—you could become an utter saint. But of course, most of us will fall somewhere in between. And most of the time, it's not anyone else's fault but ours where we end up. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we're the ones that really make the decisions that really impact our lives. And often they're not decisions that are easy. We'll lay awake at night, on the verge of breaking down as we decide on things that will affect our lives from here on out.

"And we'll have to deal with tough things… really, really tough things. Hopeless situations. Times when your closest friends and relatives die. Times when your friends betray you. Times when it seems like the whole world is either falling apart or going mad around you.

"Which pretty much brings me to the climax and conclusion of what I want to say—as hard as it can be, stay strong. Determine what path is right for you, and if you're, like, sure of it—you're sure that your principles and your values are in line with that path—then follow it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

"But also accept it when you've made mistakes—as God knows we all do. At the end of the day, you're responsible for your life, and you're responsible for the decisions you make—so own up to them. Don't try to pass the blame onto someone else. Pay for your mistakes, and learn from them. It is only through failure—whether it's our own or from watching others' failures-- that we become better people.

"And, well, that's… that's pretty much what I wanted to say."

Kitty stood there for a few moments, a nervous smile on her face.

Slowly, a few people in the audience—about half of them the X-Men—started to clap. Then a few more joined in, and a few more. Soon more than two-thirds of the audience present was standing, clapping enthusiastically, while the other third remained seated, muttering amongst themselves.

"Uh… alright, thanks for that, uh… enlightening speech," Principal Donaldson said, hurrying up to the microphone and almost pushing a blushing, grinning Kitty out of the way. "But, uh, we need to get going with the handing out of diplomas."

As Kitty put back on her graduation cap and returned to her seat, Webber gave her a few rough pats of encouragement on the shoulder. Donaldson continued, "Alright, we'll start with the first row and go back from there. Mrs. Dawkins will be handing out your diplomas, so come up when I call your name…"

Kitty had shaken so many hands she felt like hers was about to fall off.

It was after the graduation ceremony, and everyone that had attended had lined up to congratulate all the graduates.

To be honest, the rest of the ceremony had gone smoother than she had expected. Only one other insult was hurled at the X-Men graduates—at Kurt in particular—as they received their diplomas. A few attending members had refused to shake the hands of any of the graduating X-Men, but it's not like they missed it. Their hands were aching enough already.

Thankfully, the last few attendees were now finishing making their way down the long line of graduates, and the line was starting to fizzle out as everyone started to talk to each other, the last part of the ceremony officially over.

Kitty immediately started to look around for Arcade, and found him a few seconds later, talking to members of his "nerd clique" who were also graduating. Waving to him as she made her way over, Webber quickly saw Kitty out of the corner and waved back.

"Hey, Kitty!" Webber yelled as she came within earshot. "Great speech!"

"Yeah, thanks," Kitty yelled, grinning quickly, her mind clearly on something else as she then quickly apologized to Arcade's friends and pulled him aside.

"Webber, seriously, why did you do that?" Kitty asked, keeping her voice low so his friends didn't hear. "I thought you totally hated us."

"Well, I tried to kill you," Webber laughed with a snort. "Not quite the same thing."

"C'mon, Webber—I mean, thanks and all, but—"

"No, I know what you're getting at," Webber interrupted, waving Kitty's concerns away as Rogue and Kurt slowly came up behind Kitty, both of them having spotted the two starting to talk and interested in the outcome of this conversation as well. "Look, I know it didn't exactly look like we were friends anymore after I sorta… y'know, hacked your Mansion's security system and thought I was playing some elaborate computer game when I was really giving you guys the fight of your lives."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Rogue said, crossing her arms. "I mean, we've tangled with Apocalypse, after all."

"Hey, I'm in the top 10 on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the Halo 3 leaderboards," Arcade replied defensively. "They don't call me 'Arcade' for nothing."

Kitty sighed, rolling her eyes before saying, exasperated, "I can't believe I'm saying this Webber, but yes, you did a fine job of trying to kill us. I'm sure none of us could have done any better if our positions were switched. Now, get on with the explanation, please."

"Oh, right," Webber replied, adjusting his glasses before continuing. "Well, I mean, needless to say, when the whole 'Mutant' thing went public it didn't take long for me to put two and two together. Before I had figured the reason you guys were in the game was because you had created avatars that looked like you when you had 'played the game' some time earlier."

"Aaand you didn't think that the 'graphics' looked a little too good for a video game?" Rogue asked sarcastically.

"Rogue, please," Kitty said, clutching her forehead. "Just… Webber, please continue."

"Well, it DID looked like a pretty advanced system, I didn't think it was outside the realm of possibility… certainly no moreso than you guys actually having superpowers," Webber said, shrugging. "But anyways, when you guys finally came back to Bayville High after your, uh… leave of absence… you guys didn't seem to want to talk to me, or anyone at the school that wasn't a Mutant, really. And to be honest, I was still trying to get over the whole idea that people I knew actually had cool superpowers."

"They have their downsides…" Kurt said.

"Well, I mean, yeah, I'm sure," Webber replied. "But I was too nervous to talk to you guys, you guys thought I hated you because I wasn't talking to you… so I guess it just went on for these two years because neither of us were willing to talk to each other. But really, I don't hate you just 'cause you're Mutants. I think that's kinda silly. If anything, I think it makes you guys super-awesome! I wish I had your cool powers!"

"I never thought I'd say this, but we need more people like Arcade," Rogue mumbled.

"But since I'm leaving in a few weeks for an IT university out in Cali, I realized this was my last chance to make amends with you guys… so I did," Arcade shrugged. "So… I really, really am sorry."

"Well, none of us came out of it seriously injured or anything," Kitty said, smiling. "Apology accepted, Webber. And… I'm sorry I had automatically assumed you hated us."

"Eh, it's no biggie," Arcade said sheepishly. "Just kinda sucks that we're all reconciling here just when I'm about to leave. Since my folks still live here, though, I should be back a few times a year and we can get together and do some computer gaming 'n stuff, Kitty."

"Uhm, wellll…" Kitty said, her eyes wandering skyward as she scratched the back of her neck.

"What?" Arcade asked, an eyebrow raised. "What's wrong?"

"I'm actually—"

"Little Miss 'Stay Strong' is chickening out and leaving the X-Men," Rogue said, interrupting Kitty.

"Rogue!" Kitty snapped. "I'm not 'chickening out'! I'm leaving because this isn't, like, the path I think is intended for me, is all. And it's not like you're one to talk about me leaving the X-Men…"

Rogue mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, but otherwise didn't reply.

"…Oh," Arcade said, momentarily looking crestfallen before putting on a forced smile. "Well, whatever you want, I guess. I can't imagine wanting to leave something like the X-Men, but then again I'm not in it, 'a course."

"Sorry," Kitty said, her eyes now focused on the ground, refusing to meet Webber's. "It was a tough decision, but… one I hope is the right one."

"Well, you guys'll always have my thanks for helping to save the world from that crazy pharoah," Webber said. "Among a dozen other things."

"I see you've been following our, uh… 'exploits' kinda closely," Kurt said.

"Yeah, a bit," Webber grinned. "I mean, this stuff is a geek's dream, let me tell ya. I grew up reading comics about stuff like this, and to find out it's more or less real, minus the radioactive origins and whatnot? It's just surreal."

"You know what else is surreal? The fact that we're done with high school forever," Kitty said, transparently wanting to change the subject as she took off her graduation cap and started to absentmindedly fiddle with it. "Who knew that moving a string from one side of a cap to the other had so much meaning?"

"I hear zat," Kurt said. "I still can't believe Rogue actually graduated. What is up with our school system?"

"Hey!"

"Kidding, kidding!" Kurt laughed as Rogue gave him a playful shove.

"Hey, do you want to meet my parents really quick?" Kitty asked.

"You parents are here? Cool, I've never met 'em," Arcade said. "I didn't think they'd be coming here all the way from Chicago."

"Of course they would!" Kitty said as she and Arcade left Rogue and Kurt behind and made their way to the other side of the field. "Though… they're not just here to attend the ceremony, to be honest. They're also helping me pack up my things and driving me home tomorrow."

"Ah," Arcade said. They were both silent for a few moments before he continued, "Say, do you know whatever happened to Risty? I haven't seen her around here for over a year now. Did she move back to England or something?"

"Um… yeah, yeah, that was what happened…"

From the edge of the football field, perched at a position under the stands, X-23's eyes narrowed as they followed Kitty & Arcade closely, walking briskly towards Mr. and Mrs. Pryde.

She hadn't been invited to the graduation ceremony—Professor Xavier didn't feel very comfortable having her in such a large crowd of people just yet.

She couldn't honestly say that she blamed him for that.

She had snuck up into the stands about midway through the ceremony, curious as to what exactly this "graduation ceremony" involved. Like everyone, she was rather surprised when Arcade had let Kitty make his speech for him.

But then Kitty had the nerve to make her speech about staying strong… of all things.

Shadowcat didn't know the meaning of the word.

X-23 dropped down from her position among the steel bars below the stands, hitting the ground with barely a sound.

It was time she taught Kitty exactly what "staying strong" meant—for the good of the X-Men and their cause, she had to know before it was too late.

No matter what the consequences were.

"Danielle, make sure Bobby knows I want strawberry ice cream, alright? No sprinkles or candy or any of that extra stuff!" Kitty yelled down the hallway as she opened the door to her and Moonstar's room, her gaze focused on her friend, who was currently on the phone.

Kitty heard Danielle repeat her request into the phone, and Moonstar gave a thumbs up before running back towards the stairs.

With both her and Berzerker leaving tomorrow, the X-Men were throwing a bit of a "going-away" party tonight, and Bobby and Jubilee were out buying ice cream for everyone at the nearest Cold Stone Creamery. It had made the most sense to send Bobby on the errand, of course, since he could make sure that the ice cream didn't get too soft before he made it back to the Mansion. Jubilee had volunteered to come along because—well, she hadn't outright said why, but everyone knew. Ever since Sam's death, something had… changed between Bobby and Jubilee. Most had guessed that Sam's death had shown them just how suddenly someone could be taken away. Apparently the two had always had romantic feelings towards each other, but neither of them had had the courage to express those feelings. Sam's death had pushed one of them to tell the other in private. No one was sure whether it was Jubilee who broke down and admitted her feelings or Bobby, but the end result was that they both were more than friends now—they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and rather close ones at that. Still, outside of their feelings towards each other, they were still the same relatively carefree spirits they had always been.

With Bobby and Jubilee gone and Danielle on the phone, just about everyone else—including her parents—were downstairs in the main meeting room, chatting, or playing board games. Apparently a few of the pieces from Life were missing, and the box had been stored in the cupboard in Kitty and Danielle's room, so since Danielle was currently occupied, Kitty had gone up to look for the missing pieces.

Kitty walked into her room, closed the door, turned to face her and Danielle's cupboard, and froze, the smile instantly vanishing from her face.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to get up here," Laura said, standing in front of the cupboard. Tossing the couple of game pieces Kitty was looking for on the floor, she continued, "You're not very observant. That will have to change—for all of you."

"What do you want?" Kitty said coldly.

"I was at the graduation ceremony earlier today," Laura said, crossing her arms. "I heard your speech."

"…And?"

"You know exactly what I mean. Don't pretend. You made a speech about following the path you've been set on, no matter who or what gets in your way."

"Well, I don't remember putting it exactly like that, that's a bit too confrontational, but—"

"Yet you're quitting as of tomorrow," Laura continued, as if Kitty hadn't talked. "I am curious how you can commit such hypocrisy."

"I'm not quitting!" Kitty yelled in frustration. "You want to know my path? It's not here! I can't—"

"You won't."

"—I can't continue to deal with these constant battles against these mega-Mutants, deaths, giant robots, haywire powers, all these heart-pounding moments! It's non-stop here! I'll contribute to the world via other means—like, y'know, attending college and getting a degree! What a lot of normal people do!"

"So you wish you were normal."

"I didn't—" Kitty started to say in anger, then suddenly forced herself to calm down before continued. "Alright, sometimes I do wish I was normal. I'm sure we all do. I'm sure you do."

"I will not lie. I do," Laura said, briefly turning over her arm so Kitty could see the rapidly-healing twin scars over X-23's wrist, which made the color drain from Kitty's face pretty quickly. "But I realize that to continue to wish for something that will clearly never happen is foolish. This is our situation. We must deal with it. And we must use our abilities to accomplish our mission as best as we can."

"There you go again, talking about our 'mission' again! Listen, Laura, I'm totally sorry about your past, I really am. But you're out of that hell now. The real world doesn't work like that—out here in the real world, the person comes before the 'mission.' Yes, the X-Men have an overall purpose, but we're also a circle of friends. Something you apparently still can't understand!"

"Friends can abandon you, Kitty. I may be younger than you, but this is something I know very well from experience," Laura said, slowly walking over to a box on Kitty's bed that contained many of her packed-up belongings. "And when friends abandon you… there is only the mission. Our mission to secure a place for Mutantkind among mankind—to get them to accept us, as well as stop the Acolytes, the Brotherhood, and other Mutants from corrupting this mission."

"That's your past talking, Laura," Kitty said. "Out of all of my time with the X-Men, none of them have ever betrayed us. You can trust us. Please. Let yourself out of this self-imposed cell you're in and become friends with us."

Laura sighed. "I see I'll have to teach you about this the hard way."

Reaching into Kitty's box of belongings, X-23 pulled out a framed black-and-white picture. Looking at it for a moment, she turned it around so that Kitty could see it and idly asked, "Who is this?"

"That's… that's my great-grandmother," Kitty said nervously. "She… she escaped from the Nazi regime and emigrated to America. She's one of my personal hero—"

Before Kitty could even react, X-23 casually unsheathed her claws and sliced the picture into thirds, the glass frame pieces shattering as they fell onto the floor.

Looking at Kitty, who was utterly speechless, mouth agape, tears welling up in her eyes, X-23 said emotionlessly, "She is a person. Flawed, just like we all are. She has no relevance to the mission—we are not fighting Nazis. Therefore, you must forget her. That is how you stay strong, Shadowcat. By leaving your personal connections behind."

"Hmm," X-23 said, rummaging through Kitty's belongings again. "Is this a picture of your great-grandf—"

Kitty suddenly launched herself at X-23, a cry of unbridled anger, pain, and hatred interrupting Laura. X-23 had been expecting this and ducked, causing Kitty to slam into the floor behind her.

"You're being sloppy," X-23 said, slowly standing up and turning around to face Kitty. "That is another thing that has to change."

"The only thing that needs to 'change' around here is YOU!" Kitty screamed, jumping again at X-23. X-23 dodged, but Kitty quickly grabbed a fistful of Laura's dark brown hair. Initiating her Mutant ability, Kitty phased herself out entirely, but only phased X-23's upper body with her. Using the momentum generating by her jump, Kitty phased downwards through the floor, dragging X-23 with her to the first floor in a downward arc, leaving X-23 in an extremely uncomfortable crouched position with only her head sticking out of the kitchen's ceiling while her curled legs stuck out of the floor in the room above and her body and arms are stuck in the area in-between the floors.

"I'm getting the Professor," Kitty said, letting go of Laura and unphasing as she landed on the kitchen floor. "This has gone far enough."

"Not yet," X-23 said, unsheathing all her claws.

For the next second or so it was difficult for any one person to completely know what Laura was doing except Laura herself, given her unusual predicament. Almost faster than the eye could follow, she brought her hand claws downwards and cut a small circle around her head in the ceiling while at the same time in the room above bending her legs in a painful position that was just short of actually dislocating her knee joints and slicing a similarly-shaped circle in the second-story floor. The remaining sliver of structure was nowhere near enough to hold her weight and with a crack, she tumbled downwards into the kitchen upside down, a large circular chunk of wood, pipes, and drywall crumbling around her main body as she moved. Nimble as ever, she circled around in mid-air, landing on her feet.

Surprised, Kitty didn't have time to react as X-23 did a backwards flip and brought up a foot—the claw now retracted—right into the bottom of Kitty's chin, sending her reeling back into the kitchen wall behind her and slumping to the ground, the hanging pots and pans clanging down on her noisily as a result of the impact.

Cutting almost all of the remaining floor and ceiling debris away from her body in a few quick swipes of her hand-claws, X-23 then jumped up onto the ceiling again, upside down as Kitty began to recover and tossed aside the fallen pots and pans, holding her jaw which was quickly swelling from the kick.

Again taking Kitty by surprise while she was distracted, X-23 cut loose one of the bulbs from the chandelier above the kitchen table and threw it directly at her. Kitty barely had enough time to turn her face before the hot glass bulb smashed into the side of her face, splinters of it embedding in her cheek. Kitty hissed from the hot pain, then stopped with just the hiss as it made her jaw throb.

"You'll thank me for this soon enough," X-23 stated, letting go of the ceiling to land on the floor… only to find that she was stuck in mid-air.

"I've got her, Professor," came Jean's voice from the hallway. "She won't be able to do any more damage." Moments later Jean and Xavier entered the kitchen, several of the other Mansion's members right behind them, curious as to what all the commotion was about.

"Oh my god, Kitty!" Mrs. Pryde cried out, immediately running over to where Kitty lay against the wall, partially covered with pots and pans, one side of her face filled with glass shards and bleeding profusely while her jaw was swelling badly. "Sweetie, what did she do to you?!"

Kitty tried to talk, but she only managed to get a small amount of bloody spit out of her mouth before she decided it probably wasn't a good idea and closed her mouth again.

"Hank, let's get her to the medlab," Ororo said, motioning for Mrs. Pryde to stand back as Hank effortlessly—but carefully—picked Kitty up and carried her out of the room. "I'll let Kitty's father know what's happened."

"And you," Professor Xavier said angrily as Jean telekinetically turned X-23 around in mid-air so that she was directly facing both of them. "You know full well that what you did here was wrong! Yet you did it anyway!"

X-23 was fully expecting this, and was mentally preparing herself for what was obviously coming next. Still, she had never seen Xavier's face actually red from anger before. That, at least, was surprising.

"I needed to teach her a lesson," X-23 stated matter-of-factly. "One that all of you need to take to heart if—"

"Enough!" Xavier yelled, cutting her off. "YOU are not an instructor here. You were on thin ice already, Laura, but attacking your own teammate?!"

"Actually, she had attacked me first," X-23 stated.

"I know Kitty well, Laura. Don't try to pin this on her. She would not attack you unless you had pushed her the absolute limit. Enough is enough. You have ten minutes to pack your bags—you are hereby expelled from the Xavier Institute! And once Jean releases you, if you don't immediately do so I will make you leave! Do you understand?!"

X-23 thought it odd that Xavier had ended the conversation with the exact same question that he had ended it with the previous time he had yelled at her.

Still, they would learn in the end. She knew it wasn't going to be long before everything that had been keeping the X-Men tense for so long came to a head… but this time, unlike with Nimrod, they weren't prepared to do what was necessary. Hopefully her example here would help them, make them understand what they would need to do before it was too late.

But for now… it was best to let things be. So, X-23 responded to that same question in the same manner that she had before.

"….Yes."

To be continued…
 

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