ISSUE # 42

It had been a long night, and after a good date at Lauire's house, Laurie and Josh returned to the mansion.

" So, uh..." Laurie mumbled.

" Yeah." Josh stated.

The two teens stared into each other's eyes for a good minute before Josh finally leaned in and kissed Laurie. Laurie relished in the feeling, it had taken her so long to build up the courage to ask Josh out, and now finally it was paying off in all the best ways.

Josh and Laurie finally separated, both of them smiling at the other.

" So, I'll see you tomorrow." Josh told the girl. He started walking away from the front entrance to the girl's dorms as Laurie went inside, a happy smile on her face.

" I take it the date went well, then?" Rahne asked as Josh walked past her.

" Huh? Oh that? Look, Rahne it wasn't really a date." Josh told the woman.

" She just took you to meet her mother. And then you kissed her good night. That's a date by anyone's standards." Rahne told the boy.

" That doesn't affect us." Josh told the woman.

" There was never an us, Josh. You need to get that through your head. I'm happy for you, Josh. I really am. I'm glad you found someone your own age who can relate to you." Rahne told the boy.

" Yeah... I've heard this song before. Look Rahne, I like Laurie, I do. But I love you, there's a difference." Josh told the woman.

" Why? Why can't you just get it in your head that I don't have those feelings for you, and I never will. Laurie's a good girl, you should be hap- Mph!" Josh cut Rahne off as she was speaking and kissed her. Rahne pushed against Josh forcing him off of her body and away from her. " What the hell is wrong with you?!" Rahne asked the boy.

" I was just..." Josh started.

" No, not another word. This is over. You come near me again and I swear I'll tell Dani. Just stay away from me, Josh." Rahne told the boy, she then stormed away from Josh and headed straight into the mansion. She stormed right up the stairs and knocked on Ian's door.

" It's open." Ian replied. He knew who it was and he could feel how angry she was. Ian sat up in the bed as Rahne walked in huffing and red. " What's wrong?" Ian asked.

" Josh... He kissed me." Rahne told the man.

Murder!

For a moment, all Ian could see was red. He jumped to his feet and strode towards the door ready to go downstairs. But the moment he jumped out of his bed, Rahne put her hand on his chest and stopped him.

" No, don't go and do something crazy. I handled it, already. I told Josh exactly what would happen if he did it again. I only told ye, because I wanted ye tae know what happened." Rahne told the man.

Ian felt the anger in his chest beginning to subside, but a small bit remained.

" Thank you...." Ian spoke. He brought Rahne close to him and hugged her tightly.

" Of course. Can, I sleep here tonight?" Rahne asked.

" Of course. My door is always open tae you. Just know that we have tae get up early." Ian replied.

" I know. But I just want tae see ye." Rahne stated.

Ian laughed and picked Rahne up into his arms and carried her to bed, he placed her down gently and began undressing her starting with her shoes.

" What are ye doin?" Rahne asked.

" Just taking care of my queen." Ian replied. " Is she there anything wrong with that?" Ian asked with a smug grin on his face.

" Nae, there is nothin wrong with that at all." Rahne replied, her face now beaming with the same elation that Ian's had.

" Glad tae hear it. Now tell me. What is it, my queen want?" Ian asked. His hand slowly found its way to the inside of Rahne's thighs, slowly making its way to her garden.

Rahne bit her finger and smirked as Ian's hand tickled its way up her thigh. She spread her legs slightly, making it easier for Ian to run his finger up and down her panties.

" I want ye inside me." Rahne told the man.

Ian chuckled and leaned up and kissed Rahne on the lips.

" Your wish.... Is my command." Ian spoke.

" Hehehe! Ian, stop it!" Rahne giggled as Ian pressed down on her with his weight forcing her down to the bed.

The next day.

" I'll see you later, love. I'm gonna see what these New Mutants do about Jeffery. If Josh tries anything else, let me know." Ian told Rahne as he walked her to the door.

" Alright. But be careful. Playing with the dead is dangerous, and I don't want tae see ye get hurt." Rahne told the man.

" Don' worry, love. I'll be jus fine. And if I fall got the strongest woman on the planet to push me back up." Ian told the woman. He hugged her tightly and Rahne smiled.

" Always!" Rahne replied. She leaned back and kissed Ian one more time before walking out of the room.

Later that night.

" Okay, Sofia, explain to me how this works." Ian asked the girl

" It's simple, we're just gonna gather around this table and together we'll all communicate with Jeffrey. If we can somehow make him see that we want to help him, then maybe we can help him move on and be at peace once and for all. He deserves that much." Sofia replied.

" Okay, but do you think it's a good idea?" Laurie asked.

" Laurie, I need you to relax. I will be too distracted to keep your pheromones in check." Sofia told the girl.

" I'm not sure I can relax. But I haven't lost control of my powers in a while." Laurie replied.

" Oh, man. This seems like we're just asking for trouble." Ian groaned.

" You didn't have to be here you know. We can handle this." Sofia told the man.

" Yeah, but I'm just too curious to see what happens." Ian replied with a small grin.

Sofia rolled her eyes and smiled.

" Is that right? You know, I think you really just like hanging out with us. You just don't want to admit it, because that would mean you'd have to have forgiven us." Sofia spoke. She just seemed so confident in her words she didn't think she could be wrong.

" Nope. No, that isn't it at all. Yuir making things up, Sofia. I haven't forgiven anyone. I just know that I need to keep an eye out for ye New Mutants. Trouble seems to follow yuir group around like rust on Logan's arse." Ian replied.

" Okay, whatever." Sofia rolled her eyes and Laurie laughed, " Well, we're still your friends if you want us to be. Anytime you want to hang out the doors open." Sofia told the man.

" No, no, no. This isn't some kind of way tae show I care about you guys. I promise I just want to end this before any real trouble breaks out. I don't want tae wake up one day in the middle of the lake. I mean, just to be clear this ISN'T! And I repeat! ISN'T Just because I care about you guys. I don't want ye tae get hurt or anything. But I also don' care. Just tae be clear." Ian told the two girls.

They looked at each other and just laughed at Ian.

" Quick question? Why do you know Logan has rust on his behind?" Laurie asked.

Ian looked at the girl and sighed.

" I pulled his pants down during training one day on accident. Nothing but hair." Ian told the girl.

" Well, why you were busy pulling down pants. Josh kissed me last night." Laurie said with a look of triumph on her face.

" What? He kissed you? And you are just now telling me this?" Sofia asked in disbelief. " I want to hear every..." Sofia was getting ready to ask for the juicy details when Josh and the others finally walked into the cafeteria.

" Hey, guys! What's going on?" Josh asked as he, David, Kim, Noriko, and Jay walked into the cafeteria.

Ian looked at the golden skinned boy and felt like throttling him right then and there. He even considered telling Laurie about what happened. But he didn't know if that would help her or hurt her. And for Ian, that was the one thing he didn't want to do. So, he decided for now he'd trust Rahne's judgement and let her handle the situation. She wasn't some princess that needed to be coddled. She was one of the original New Mutants. That meant something. Ian was strong, but she had years of experience over him, and he'd trust her to lead him into battle any day.

" Nothing!" Sofia exclaimed. " Except... We are holding a seance."

" That's what you guys consider nothing?" Kim asked.

" I said the same thing, Kim." Ian told the small girl.

" A seance in the cafeteria? We could get in trouble." David exclaimed.

" What's this seance about?" Jay asked.

" This is the closest to where the old dormitories used to be, Jay. This is closest to where Jeffery died. We need to do this so we can finally talk to Jeffery. We must help him. Put him to rest." Sofia explained to the boy.

"Help him?" Jay asked in disbelief. " Are oyu kidding? This guy was messing with the most painful memories of my life! Then he tried to kill us, and we're his therapists now? Let the X-Men blast this kid out of the house. I'm out of here." Jay told the entire group.

" Jay. Wait!" Noriko exclaimed

Sofia got up to follow the boy while the others waited.

" Jay, come back! We must help him because it is the right thing to do." Sofia told the boy. but he wouldn't listen.

" Let him go, Sofia." Julian told the girl as he approached the cafeteria. " He didn't take orders when he was on my squad either. Besides, I thought the whole point of these things is to get sympathetic people in there." Julian stated.

" Yes, because Sympathetic is a word I think of when I think of you, Julian. I cannot believe you are here. Ian, yeah. But you? Now this is surprising." Sofia exclaimed.

" Told you, I'm here to watch your back. I keep my word." Julian told the girl, still feeling sore about Sofia betraying him and the rest of the Hellions.

" Okay, Sofia. What's going on?" Dani asked as she approached the cafeteria. " And why'd you ask me to get permission to close the cafeteria?"

Sofia, Julian, and Dani all walked into the cafeteria to join the others.

" Oh, good, Dani.... Maybe you can tell Sofia that having a seance is a crazy idea." Josh asked the woman.

" I actually agree with Josh on this one. We tried talking to this spirit and almost ended up at the bottom of breakstone lake." Davi added on.

" Sofia, do you understand what you're getting into?" Dani asked the girl.

" Dani, you have a connection with the dead. Nothing else we have tried works." Sofia told the woman.

" What exactly does a connection with death mean?" David asked.

" I was a Valkyrie, once." Dani replied.

" I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention until now, what was that Dani?" Ian asked.

" I was a Valkyrie as in Asgard. It was a nice place." Dani explained.

" Right, got it. I have no further questions." Ian stated. " No, wait one more. Are you still a Valkyrie?" Ian asked.

" No, I stopped being one a long time ago. I'm not sure I still have the powers. I just got a feeling off Jeffery." Dani explained.

" That will be enough, you will be our anchor." Sofia explained. " Now, everyone take a seat and we will hold hands."

" All right, Sofia. We'll try this for ten minutes. I shouldn't even be doing this." Dani stated.

" Maybe not. But where's the fun in not trying? Am I right? Besides if ye didn' we would anyway." Ian told the woman.

" Dear god." Dani mumbled. " If this gets out of hand, I'm shutting it down." Dani explained.

Everyone quickly took their teats and started linking hands.

" Thanks for sticking this out with me man." Julian whispered to Ian.

" No problem, man." Ian replied. " I always got yuir back. Friends till the end man." Ian spoke.

" Heh, right. Friends till the end." Julian raised is fist and Ian bumped fists with him.

" Aw, isn't that cute, Julian." Sofia joked.

" Oh, don't be jealous. I know why you wanted to hold this seance. So, we could hold hands." Julian joked back.

" Is that why you came?" Sofia asked, turning the situation back on Julian. " To hold my hand? To resume your witty banter with me?" Sofia asked. Now, it seemed more like she was being serious. And in a way she was. She wouldn't admit, because it would mean Julian was right. But Sofia really liked Julian and the fact that he'd been distant with her recently made her feel... Well like something was missing.

" You'd like that wouldn't you?" Julian asked.

" Sut up and take my hand." Sofia told the boy.

Everyone linked hands and Sofia began the seance.

" Jeffrey Garret, we ask that you commune with us and move among us." Sofia spoke.

The wind outside began to pick up once again and those at the table began to get a little spooked.

" Sofia, cut it out. It's spooky enough without you messing with the winds." Josh told the girl.

" That isn't me, Josh. Please repeat the chant with me." Sofia spoke.

" Jeffrey Garret. We ask that you commune with us among and move among us." The entire group spoke.

" That's him!" Julian exclaimed as one of the tables in the cafeteria disappeared.

" Ignore him, keep chanting." Sofia told everyone.

" There goes another table." Dani stated.

" It's just down to ours." Laurie exclaimed.

" Oh, great. He's stealing school property. Miss Moonstar you have to tell Mr. Summers I didn't do this." Julain said to the woman.

" Do not let him break your concentration. He is trying to frighten us." Sofia explained.

" Jeffrey Garret, we ask that you commune with us and move among us." The group chanted together once more.

" Uh, guys!" Josh spoke up. He looked into the air to see a bunch of knives floating over them. A moment later all of the knives dropped down towards the table and Julian used his power to keep one of them from landing on Sofia.

" This may be the point where I shut things down." Dani spoke up.

" No, Dani. We are making progress." Sofia told the woman. " Thank you for protecting me, Julian. But he wasn't trying to hurt us." Sofia explained.

" If you say so. But he might want to this time. He's got knives again." Josh told the girl.

Suddenly Jeffrey appeared on the table with a bunch of knives in his hands.

" Leave now! While you can!" Jeffrey ordered.

" No, Jeffrey! We want to talk to you. I'm here so you can talk to us. It's my mutant power." Kim told the boy.

" You are not a mutant. You should not be here." Jeffrey told the girl. " None of them should. But you most of all. When you came here, that's when I knew it had gone too far. That I had to..."

" Jeffrey, just shut up!" Noriko exclaimed. " Stop scaring her. Stop scaring all of us. We're just trying to talk to you, so stop acting like a babu. Grow up and-"

" I can't grow up... I'm dead." Jeffrey told the girl.

" Jeffrey, why didn't you leave when I told you?" Dani asked

" I had a picture in my room... Of my family. I went ack for it. It was all I had left of them. I tried to teleport out when the school exploded. But I guess I wasn't fast enough." Jeffrey explained. The poor dead boy collapsed to his knees and started crying. " I'm sorry. It's all my fault."

" Jeffrey, we didn't know. Because you were teleporting when you died, there wasn't even a body... I'm so sorry." Dani told the boy. " But you know what the outside world is like... It's no safer there. I can try to protect these kids from the Magnetos of the world. Don't make me protect them from you, too." Dani asked the boy.

" I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should have gotten out while I could. I should have listened. I'm sorry." Jeffrey exclaimed. Slowly but surely his body began to fade away. And Ian felt bad for the boy. To be so young and to have died because the adults couldn't give him a world to live in, just made his mission all that more important.

When Jeffrey finally vanished, everyone got up from their seats. The seance was over.

" Hey, you doing all right man?" Julian asked.

" He died, because the adults couldn't protect him. Because they failed to make a world where he could live without suffering. We're the next generation, Julian. We can't make the same mistakes they did. For the kids younger than us, we have to get our shit together man. We can't let this happen again." Ian told the boy. He walked out of the cafeteria feeling worse than when he arrived.

He walked all the way back up to his room, where Rahne was waiting outside his room.

" Hey." Ian spoke.

" Hey, how did it go?" Rahne asked.

" It went well. But... Well, it doesn't matter." Ian spoke. " Hey can, we go out tomorrow?" Ian asked. He wanted to take a piece of Logan's advice and try to enjoy his life more. Having known what happened to Jeffrey, Ian wanted to make sure to cherish and enjoy the life he had been blessed to live. After all, Ian now had power to punch it out with some of the heaviest hitters on the planet. And when he died, he didn't want any regrets.

" Of course. Can we go to Tony's dinner again?" Rahne asked

" Of course!" Ian replied.

" What brought this up?" Rahne asked.

" I just.... Want tae take time to enjoy what I love. Tomorrows never promised and, I want tae show ye how much I love ye." Ian told the woman.

Rahne smiled and hugged Ian.

" I love ye." Rahne told the man.

" I love ye too, Rahne. Now, are we going to sleep? Or..." Ian asked.

" Sleep. I'm so tired." Rahne groaned.

" Long day huh?" Ian asked.

" The longest. Carry me?" Rahne asked.

" HAHAHAHA!" Ian laughed and opened the door. he picked Rahne up and carried her inside and the two quickly fell asleep for the night.