Chapter 5: The mission is approching

I knew Captain America was about to be discovered as Natasha quit as my assistant and went to work for Stark. He managed to create a new element and Bruce Baner managed to beat the Abomination.

I was finalizing today's paperwork when a bald, dark-skinned, one-eyed man entered my office. I knew he was Fury and waited for him to speak but to my surprise, Natasha, who was behind him, spoke first before him.

"It is good to see you again Mr. Zekiel." Fury walked to my desk and sit on one of the two chairs in front of my desk. Natasha followed suit. I asked acting ignorantly. "Who are you?"

"The one that has been keeping an eye out for you, Mr. Zekiel." He said crossing his legs to which I responded. "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down? From what I can see, this means Ms. Natasha was a spy. That means that all that flirting was to gather info. I am slightly sad that it was not because of my looks or success." Natasha rolled her eyes at that comment. "You never fell for any of it anyway and kept saying you had a girlfriend."

Fury saw that we were going in a different direction than he wanted. " We're here to talk to you about an initiative for which you are a potential candidate."

He told me about the Avengers initiative and the fact that it was to protect the planet which included mutants. I agreed to participate but made it clear that I did not trust them as much as they did not trust me and I would leave if I saw any backstabbing. So he smiled and then left my office.

One week later I rushed to the mansion as Jean wanted to talk to me. She had been fine as I always unbeknownst to anyone absorbed the Phoenix energy which empowered my mind powers. My absorption ability had grown and thankfully no one else knew about it. It made the Phoenix quiet as it started to see me as its predator. That was the only conclusion I could think of.

I arrived and I saw that she seemed a little uneased talking to Scott. I could have listened to their conversation but one day made I promised never to use my super hearing inside the school. It did not bother me as too much noise was never pleasing. I piqued something with my super sense which worried me.

She brought me to one of the rooms in the mansion. We talked for a while. She kept bringing up the subject of opening my mind which always started a fight between us. She, as a telepath, thought we should open our minds to one another while I, who knew the future did not want to lose one of my survival advantages at best and at worse break her mind when she learns about the Phoenix inside her along what it will do when it wins. It always went along these lines.

"Why do you still not want me to see your mind?"

"It's because it's called privacy!"

"But we're together it should not matter!"

"Yeah, it should! If we know what we're always doing what's the difference between that and surveillance the other."

"The difference is that you're out there and with this, we would never need to doubt each other. This would make us a better couple for it."

"There is this thing called faith in each other maybe we should try this first before knocking it out."

After a while, we would stop as we noticed the situation was going nowhere. She inhaled deeply and told me something I was worried about when I arrived at the mansion.

"I-I-I'm sleeping with Scott." She said as tears started to flow out of her eyes.

My eyes turned red but luckily I also went into super speed. She did notice that I had stood up and deliberated whether to listen more or else. I chose to listen partly in the hope this was a joke.

"It happened a while back. At first, it started as a one-night mistake after I was mad that you never let it fully into your mind. I started to think you were cheating on me or something as we spend not seeing each other. Then as more time we spend with each other I started to open up to Scott and he did the same."

She stopped as she could feel my pain. Although I block my mind for everyone, I allowed her to be able to feel my emotion. I was hurt, heartbroken and livid. While she was saying that I was listening to both her and the whole school and found out that many knew of this. I had become the Scott of the x-men. I left at super speed to get out of here and get somewhere where I could cool down before going back. I moved so fast that no one would notice my leave and return. While I was leaving I noticed a group led by Charles that was heading to where Jean and I were. I felt and went into the garden where I remember all those time we spent together with Jean. I visited every part of the mention that was opened and reminisced my time with Jean. That is when I also remembered all the effort I put in to control my power, all those times I could feel my head splitting because I was adjusting to my newly acquired sense, all those mind tricks I learned, and my mission. I went back to where I was, in front of Jean. Time resumed and before she could even say anything else I took a deep breath and held in for five seconds while I heard her. "L-L-lo I-I'm..." She was not able to finish her sentence as she looked down. I closed my eyes and exhaled. I opened my eyes as the group opened the door. They seemed relieved that Jean was okay. Charles moved his wheelchair close to me as he said. "I understand this must be painful for you-" I cut him off. "It is not painful at all."

This shocked everyone. I continued, "I just erased any feeling I had for her, saving me quite a lot of... trouble. Now if you would excuse me I have other things to attend to." I left without looking at anyone.

[3rd Pov]

When Laurence left there was a deafening silence in the room. The group was composed of people that knew about the affair between Jean and Scott but Charles had told everyone to keep it a secret from Laurence as it was their love life and no one had any right to interfere. While Jean was crying, Scott went to confront her. Rogue was the first one to speak.

"Would you please stop with this victim bullshit act?!" Everyone looked at her. She was an attractive young brunette who had a streak of white hair in them. She wore gloves as she could kill anyone when she absorbed their life force or power upon contact. This was true for everyone other than Laurence as since her power was considered copying it was nullified. Laurence had rescued her when her town had thought she was a witch and tried to burn her. She started to fall in love with him as he was a nice guy and treated everyone kindly. The fact that he was to her knowledge the only one she could touch without killing played a role in her feelings. If not for the professor being so adamant she would have told Laurence.

"Rogue!!" said another attractive brunette. She had a little extrovert aura around her.

"Come on Kitty, we all know we didn't come here to support miss cry me a river over there but to stop Laurence in case he goes mad and tries to kill Scott. I'm mad he just left. I had bet that he would at least break a leg."

The group had all made bets when Jean told them that she was going to tell Laurence about her and Scott's affair. Rogue was the only one that bet that Laurence was going to kill Jean. Everyone knew that she had a crush on him and thought she was just venting her frustration. Logan bet that Laurence would ripe Scott's spine and beat him with it. Others just bet which limb Scott would either lose or break. Only Kitty bet that both would be fine. She thought that Laurence would forgive them both.

Logan lighted a cigar and said, "looks like the little cat won at the end. Shame, I was looking forward to Scott screaming like a little girl."

Although they were here to contain Laurence, that did not mean they were for jean's and Scott's actions. The man was putting a target on his back while constantly doing damage control for Magneto's actions against the public or when one of them screwed up or got controlled by someone. It was clear that he would want to, at least, break a few bones.

Charles was about to speak when Logan interrupted him. "Look Bob, I know what you're going to say and the answer is no. nobody is going after him. I saw the look in his eyes. He meant what he said about erasing his feeling for red hair over there. That said, his eyes were screaming that he would kill the first person that told him to calm down. All we can do is just wait. Seriously, now you see why I wanted to tell the kid. The sooner he learn the better it would have been, let's just hope it wasn't too late.... 'Logan was leaving when he turned around and looked at Scott' Oh and red eyes sleep with one eye open for the next few months, it might not help but at least you will know how you died."

Charles could only hang his head. Scott could not say a word back.

[3rd POV END]

After I came back home, I cried. I had lied about erasing my feelings. I am still planning on erasing them but I needed some time alone do to it. I told my secretary that I was going to be absent for three days and told anyone that asked that it was food poisoning. I was indeed pissed at them but I was not going to let all those years of hard work, and borderline torture for my senses, go to waste. The Kryptonian mind helps me compartmentalize my thoughts. I could divide my consciousness into several. This helped me leave without causing a scene. I let myself feel all these emotions as it would be better to go through them than be repressed. Once I was calmed enough I erased all the lingering feelings about Jean.

A few weeks went by and Charles contacted me I had made it clear by the way I spoke to him that I was now viewing him as an acquaintance. He had seen that I had not changed the algorithm and was still helping mutants, he could not ask for more as he had broken my trust in him. Jean, Scott, and Charles were the only ones I addressed as Ms. Grey, Mr. Summers, and Mr. Xavier. I was cool with the rest of the gang as even if they wanted to tell me Charles could have stopped them with no one nothing it.

While I was doing my duties as a CEO, Fury contacted me saying he need help with someone that potentially had the mind-control type of powers. It was known that I could fly, was strong, durable, and was immune to mind control. This made me realize that Loki was here and I could finally have finished my mission.