Chapter 124: Trap
28th February 2006, New York City
(Scott Summers POV)
The man smiled kindly at him, “You know what, why don’t you bring her to me and after a conversation, I’ll let you know exactly how to get her to like you. But you have to know, that’s all this can do, get the girl to like you. After that, you’ll be on your own. You’ll have to learn how to navigate your relationship and not mess up. There’s nothing I can do to help you with that.”
Scott beamed at the older man, “No worried, Doc. I’ll try to get her to see you. How do I contact you, anyway?”
The man gave him a business card with an address and a phone number, “Call me whenever you want, Scott. You’re one of my oldest patients, after all.”
The young mutant nodded, and put the card in his wallet. As he walked away, he failed to see the sinister smile on the Doctor’s face.
(Jean Grey POV)
Last night has been one of the greatest nights in Jean Grey’s life. The young telepath had bonded with her two best friends like she has never has with anyone else ever. It was weird because she had barely met Wanda a few days ago, and yet the redhead felt as if they were childhood friends.
There’s something about a shared suffering that keeps people together, plus even their powers were similar. Wanda has seen the darkness and injustice in the world, just as Jean has. On the other hand, Kitty kept them in check; her cheerfulness added a certain balance to their little group.
Funnily enough, they ended up hanging out at Ms. Sayre’s place and the redhead had to admit that it put the sanctum sanctorum to shame, in both magic and appearance. This room of requirements that Ms. Sayre had created was the stuff of legends, a true marvel of magic. The idea of a room that can be as big as she wanted and contain pretty much anything that she wanted, just flabbergasted the young telepath. And they used it to play bowling. What is wrong with Wanda where she could underestimate something like this.
Plus, there was the spar with Wanda. If she was honest, Jean was both looking forward to it, and was anxious. Wanda was taught by the woman who Jean refused her tutorship. It wasn’t anything personal, Ms. Sayre just had a reputation as the Morrigan that terrified Jean to the core. Plus, there was something about her that made the redhead feel small, like it wouldn’t take much for the older woman to squash her like a bug. And while Doctor Stephen Strange could be obnoxious and dismissive sometimes, Jean never felt as if he might actually harm her. So, she chose to study with the Doctor instead than with her history teacher.
The redhead had forgotten about her choice after she actually started to study under Dr. Strange, but she finally recognized her choice when the Juggernaut appeared and Ms. Sayre appeared with a new apprentice, her replacement, Wanda Maximoff.
Ever since that day, Jean always wondered if she had made the right choice. From Wanda’s description, Ms. Sayre was a very lay back teacher but was very strict when it came to magic. Nevertheless, Wanda had always insisted that she was happy at Sayre Manor and the young telepath could see why. The level of luxury there was probably fit for royalty, not to mention the magical artifacts and hidden rooms.
Still that spar was more than a simple practice fight between friends, but as a measuring stick for Jean, to find out how good would she have been had she accepted the Morrigan’s offer and made a deal with the devil.
It didn’t go as expected, that’s for sure. In term of raw power, they were more or less the same, with Jean having a smidge of raw power more than her new best friend, Wanda. But that wouldn’t mean much in the future, as Jean still has a long way to go to reach the peak of her power while Wanda was already there. For some reason, Jean started to sense things like this, maybe it’s the Phoenix Force telling her. Ms. Sayre had said something about it representing change and progress, hating stagnation. Perhaps, this was a way to channel this property of the Phoenix?
Not that it mattered in the end, Jean was pretty much pummeled during this fight, barely even landing a hit. Wanda was just so much more skillful when it came to her magic, that Jean had trouble dealing with it. And Jean’s most powerful ability, her telepathy was useless against her, as she had been taught by Ms. Sayre to protect her mind from intruders.
This spar made Jean realize something very important; it doesn’t matter how powerful you are when you’re deceived in the middle of a fight. A simple illusion was all that took for Jean to lose. And quite badly at that.
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Jean spent the rest of the night having fun with her friends, but on her way back, the redhead has a lot on her mind. She knew now, for a fact, that she would have been a lot stronger and would have had a lot more control if she had accepted Ms. Sayre’s offer.
The question was, did she regret her choice.
Funnily enough, the answer was evident. No, she doesn’t. The redhead loved studying at the Sanctum under Doctor Strange. It was fulfilling, and Jean felt at home there. Even if she would have been stronger, the redhead knew for a fact wouldn’t have been as comfortable at Sayre Manor as she currently was at the sanctum sanctorum.
Jean arrived to the mansion at night, a courtesy of a Portkey, or whatever Wanda called it, that teleported her and Kitty to their residence. It was almost midnight, there was no lights on at the mansion. The Professor’s meeting must have been finished. Scott’s car was even in the garage.
Kitty and Jean phased through a wall to sneak back into the mansion without anyone hearing them. They parted way to their rooms after wishing each other good night and Jean was about to enter her room until she was interrupted by a voice.
“You’re late!!”
Jean suppressed a scream and turned around, ready to attack. It was Scott. Why the fuck was he acting like such a creep and why the hell was he waiting for her. And more importantly, how the hell had she not sensed him. Maybe she assumed he was asleep. People’s minds are really weird when they’re sleeping but not enough that the redhead wouldn’t notice if they’re awake.
The redhead growled at him, “What the fuck, Scott. You scared the hell out of me. Are you trying to kill me or something?”
Scott did not answer, “Where were you, Jean?”
“Thant’s none of your business. What I do in my private time is in no concern of yours.”
Scott scowled at her, “I am the leader of this team, and I am entitled to know everyone’s location at all time in case of an emergency, like a sudden mission or in case they go missing.”
“That’s the biggest load of bullshit that I heard. If you think that I’m actually going to tell you where I’m going whenever I go out. This isn’t a prison, Scott, just a school. It doesn’t matter if you’re in charge or not, this is a huge breach of privacy.”
“Safety is a lot more important than something silly like privacy, Jean.”
The redhead couldn’t believe what her teammate was saying, but was too tired to argue with the creep “I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.”
Scott understood the dismissal to what it was, “No, this is not something we can just ignore. I’m going to talk to the Professor about this.”
“Scott, we don’t track our friends for the same reason the Professor doesn’t like to read minds willy nilly, privacy is very important to him, especially personal privacy. Just admit it Scott, you don’t actually care about our other teammates, you only want to track me around.”
“Fine…. But I looked everywhere for you and Kitty, where did you go?”
Jean sighed exasperated and too tired to refuse, “We went to Wanda’s place.”
Scott straightened up, “You mean Ms. Sayre’s place, right?”
Jean nodded and Scott looked even more furious, “you do realize that Ms. Sayre is an enemy mutant, right? The Professor said that we should be careful about her and that she’s dangerous. What the hell were you thinking, going to her home with no backup.”
“Scott, I didn’t need any backup. I know Ms. Sayre and she isn’t some horrible woman waiting until we trust her before capturing us. If she wanted to capture us, she would have. She’s a lot stronger than she looks, plus, for crying out loud, not everyone who actually refuse something said by the Professor are supervillains ready to take over the world.”
Scott nodded, “Fine… But I’m still telling the Professor.”
Jean had enough of this; she just wanted to go to sleep, “Alright dumbass, I’m tired and exhausted and I want to go to sleep. Now stop your weird little powerplay, something that doesn’t generally impress girls, and go to bed like a normal human being at midnight. Or even don’t go to bed, I don’t care. What I do care about is you stop bothering me so I could get some fucking sleep or I swear to God, I am going to break into your mind, get your deepest secrets and publish them online!”
Scott looked taken aback at her outburst. The idiot had it coming. But it was still a shitty thing to do. She shouldn’t have snapped at him like that.
Pitying the boy, she apologized, “Alright, I’m sorry, Scott. I shouldn’t have said that. It was uncalled for. I’m just really tired and you wouldn’t let this go.”
Scott nodded a bit subdued, “It’s alright, Jean. Actually, I wanted to ask you for a favor.”
“What is it?”
Please God, don’t make him ask her out. It was not something she wanted to deal with at this time. She was too tired for this. Wouldn’t this guy just let her sleep? She was one step away from actually putting him to sleep using her telepathy and leaving him there.
Scott continued, “A friend of mine just came into town. He’s someone that helped me a lot after my family died. He’s one of the few people that I actually genuinely consider family. We’re meeting tomorrow and I wanted you to come with me. I’m a little nervous and I could use some help.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to go to New York tomorrow for my training. I do it every weekend. I won’t be back before seven.”
Scott immediately responded, “It’s okay, we’re meeting at night. Can you come? Please Jean. I’ll really owe you one.”
Jean truly pitied the boy, and she was too tired to argue with him. And for what? A small dinner. It wouldn’t be too bad. Plus, Scott wouldn’t creep at her with another person there, would he?
“Fine, Scott. Now would you please let me go to sleep?”
Scott gave her a bright smile. “Thanks Jean. I really appreciate this.”
Jean ignored him, turned around and went to sleep, unaware to what exactly she agreed to and too tired to actually care about it.
At the same time a pale man sat in his laboratory with a bloodthirsty smile on his face. Finally, everything was going according to plan. He would have his weapon and he would finally be free. Years of misery and planning were finally going to pay off. The last two pieces were practically in place. He only had to wait a day. After all, he had waited centuries for this, what’s one more day in the grand scheme of things?