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Dreamweaver Chapter 1
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Title: Dreamweaver
Author: LadyAdela
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Mia and Violet are mine, the rest belong to Marvel.
Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated
Notes: ((Telepathy)) & Memory
Mia drifted aimlessly through the space once known as her mind, reliving memories of her eighth grade year. It was the year she discovered her gift, and the year that her whole life changed. Before she came into her gift she was innocent and carefree. Her only worry was that she might fail her algebra class.
Her gift taught her to fear.
It taught her to fear herself.
It taught her to fear the rest of the world.
Her gift was a mutation.
Her gift was a very dangerous mutation.
Her gift was a very powerful mutation, with many different components.
The first clue that she was a mutant came just a few weeks into the year. Her algebra class had been studying negative numbers, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand them. When it came time for the test, she panicked. She studied madly the night before, and when she finally gave up at midnight, she cried herself to sleep worrying that she would fail anyway.
She nearly cried when she saw the test, because she knew she couldn’t pass it. She tried each question, she gave her best effort, but she realized that she wasn’t even going to finish in time. Then suddenly, as if someone turned on a light switch, she remembered how to do number five. Then she got number six. Then seven, and eight. She finished her test with fifteen minutes to spare. She was smiling from ear to ear as she packed up her poetry notebook, but her smile faded when her teacher asked her to stay after school and discuss the test.
As the rest of the class left the room, the teacher sighed. She had felt a peculiar twinge coming from Mia’s direction, and she had an idea what it was. She locked the classroom door, drew the shades, and sat down at her desk. She pulled off her blonde wig revealing shockingly bright purple hair. “Mia,” she said softly, “do you know what I am?”
Mia gasped. “You’re a… a mute… a mutant! Mama and Daddy talk about the mutant problem at night when they think I’m in bed…Daddy says that mutants are gonna try and take over the world.”
“Mia, do you know what you are?”
“I’m a human!”
“Are you sure?” She turned away from Mia and began to erase the chalkboard.
“Of course. I don’t have any freak powers or anything.”
((Then how can you read my mind?))
“What do you mean? I can’t read your mind.”
She turned back to face the now terrified girl. ((You just did, you are now, and you did during the test. I felt you pulling the solutions from my mind. You didn’t even realize you were doing it, but I did.))
Mia just stared, cold realization dawning in her eyes. “Oh my God!” she whispered. “It’s true isn’t it? I’m a freak now. Mama and Daddy will be so unhappy.” She broke down in tears.
“Mia, look at me. I won’t tell anyone what you are, but you cannot tell anyone what I am either.” She leaned over her desk and removed her contacts, then went over to the sink and washed her hands. When Mia looked up, she saw a green skinned woman with bright purple hair and eyes. “I’m Amanda King, codename Shrinking Violet. I have a green thumb, both literally and figuratively.” She sat down in front of Mia and looked the frightened girl in the eyes. “I’m also going to be your mentor until I can convince your parents to let you go away to a school for ‘gifted writers’.”
Mia just nodded.
True to her word, Violet mentored Mia in the ways of mutants. She helped her hide her still developing gifts, and consoled her when she got discouraged and scared. She also convinced Mia’s mutant-fearing parents to let their daughter go to Xavier’s School for Gifted Students on a ‘writing scholarship.’
Mia moved into the school on New Year's Day. Her first class gave her a panic attack. She had never known a single mutant before she discovered she was one, and being in a class full of them overwhelmed her. Their thoughts, their dreams, their feelings, their fears. Her gifts that had developed so far included not only telepathy, but empathy and a dream interpretation as well, and she still didn’t have them under control. She spent a few days in her room, only coming out to visit the professor for training in how to control her gifts. After a week, she was finally brave enough to return to class.
“Dreamweaver, are you going to eat your breakfast?”
Mia looked up at the blue woman and scowled, “Not after you’ve had your filthy hands on it.”
“Fine then, go hungry.” Mystique turned and left the room with the tray, locking Mia in alone.
She didn’t care. She drifted into memory again.
Her second attempt to get through a class at ‘Mutant High’ ended just slightly better. She met a few nice people, but she lost control and ended up answering questions they hadn’t asked aloud. To her surprise, they acted as if this was completely normal. Only later did she hear the whole story about Jean Grey. Her third day in class went surprisingly well. She had always loved literature and was a gifted writer, so she had no trouble concentrating on her English teacher rather than her classmates’ minds. At lunch, she ventured down into the dining hall rather than retreating to her room to eat a sandwich, and was rewarded with a genuinely good conversation with Bobby and Rogue. Bobby was crazy about Rogue, and outwardly she was crazy about him. Mia sensed that there was something entirely different under the surface, but she put all her effort into stilling the urge to go digging for the truth.
That evening at dinner Mia noticed that Rogue looked distracted and Bobby looked sullen. Neither one of them spoke to her, nor did they speak to each other. They wouldn’t even make eye contact. Rogue finished eating first and left the table in a hurry. Bobby sighed. Mia gave up and put her hand on his. “What’s wrong?”
Bobby looked startled. After a moment he shook his head. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, “why don’t you look and see?”
“I’m not learning to control this shit in my head just so I can snoop in someone else’s. I can go digging in your mind if you want me to, but it’d be a whole lot easier, and probably better for you, if you just told me.”
Suddenly Bobby’s voice invaded her mind. ((Are you hearing me?))
((Yes))
((I don’t want to tell you what’s happening because I don’t know for sure. I don’t want to start a big rumor that could end up being wrong. I’d lose her for sure then.))
((Wait, why are you so afraid you’re losing her?))
((Did anyone tell you about Logan and the incident on the Statue of Liberty?))
((Yeah, he saved her life right? And risked his own?))
((You know her gift… She absorbed some of him. Apparently she absorbed some of his thoughts about her too.))
Mia sighed, ((Why has that just become a problem?))
((Because he’s back again. Last time he came back she and I had just started dating and I thought her feelings for him were hero-worship. Now I know better. I caught her looking at him this afternoon and it wasn’t a ‘you’re my hero’ look. It was a ‘you’re my wet dream’ look.))
“All I can say is that you need to talk to her about it. Ask her how she feels. Genuinely care for her.”
“Lunchtime Dreamweaver! Are you any closer to deciding who to side with?”
Mia spat at the old man as he sat her tray down.
“My, My, aren’t we feisty. Do you plan on skipping this meal as well?”
Mia glared at Erik until he gave up and left, taking the tray with him. She hoped they would eventually get the picture and give in to her demands. They wanted her powers for their war against humans, but if she starved her powers would die with her. Ignoring the hollow sounds her stomach was making, she sank into memory again.
Mia lay on her bed staring at the ceiling out of boredom. Times like this made her wish she had a roommate, but Professor Xavier had decided that control would be easier for her if there were fewer people around. Apparently Jean had gone through the same trouble when she first came into her powers. Mia wished desperately that Jean was still alive. She would have been a wonderful mentor.
Just as she was starting to drift off into memory and wishes, someone knocked on her mental door. ((Mia, are you there? It’s Bobby. Can we talk?))
((Yeah Bobby, hang on a sec. Where are you?))
((In the kitchen… looking out the window… at Rogue.))
((Oh. I’m on my way.))
As soon as Mia walked into the kitchen Bobby turned to her with tears in his eyes. “Look at them.”
She walked toward the window, but she knew what she would see before she got there. Still she looked, sighing as she saw Rogue sitting beside Logan on a bench in the garden. “You broke up with her. She has every right to be there.”
“I know… but it still hurts. I still dream about her. I dream about them together too. I guess it’s because I worry about it so much.”
“Probably.” She turned to look him in the eye. “It will fade in time.”
“How much time? I’m losing sleep over these dreams.”
“Read a book or something before you go to bed. It’ll distract your mind from her, and probably help refocus your dreams.”
He sat down, facing away from the window. She walked over and started massaging his shoulders, thinking about the fact that he was probably better off without Rogue and her deadly skin. She knew she shouldn’t think that about her first friends at Xavier’s, but she couldn’t help herself. She sighed as she tried to tell herself that she did not like him that way. She could tell herself that until she was blue in the face, and the only thing she would accomplish would be looking like Kurt’s long lost sister.
Suddenly Bobby stood up and turned around to face her. ((Do you really like me like that? Is that why you encouraged me to break up with her? Are you that selfish?)) He stormed out of the room, leaving her crying. She collapsed on the floor, sobbing. ((Bobby, no! Bobby! I… you weren’t supposed to hear that! Bobby! That’s not true! You’ve been my best friend ever since I came to school here! What you overheard, it’s just a recent thing. I tried to ignore it; I’ve kept it locked away for a long time! Bobby, come back!))
She heard Ororo’s thoughts before she heard Ororo’s footsteps. She decided she would rather not have to explain to anyone why she was laying in the kitchen floor bawling like a baby, so she forced herself to get up and walk to her room, where she collapsed on her bed and bawled like a baby.
Mia awoke several hours later feeling cold, sore, and hungry. “Well,” she said to herself, “I guess it’s back to the damn kitchen.” She looked over at the clock that said 2:33 am and laughed. “At least there won’t be anyone else up.” She made her way out of her room and down the hall, but as she was passing Logan’s room she heard mumbling and moans. She paused to listen, afraid that it might be Rogue, but realized Logan was having a nightmare. She listened closely, and before she could stop herself she was experiencing the nightmare right along with him. She was lying on a cold metal table, in terrible pain, surrounded by men in white lab coats holding champagne glasses. She tried to get up and confront them but she felt like someone had dropped a thousand pound weight on her. She screamed in frustration, and felt pain consume her hands as six metal blades slid out from between her knuckles. She threw all her effort into rising from the table, and sprung up as if she were light as a feather, with her claws drawn. She glared at each man in turn, finally springing at the one she decided was the leader. She slit his throat in a single movement, then picked up his lifeless body and flung it across the room, hitting another scientist. She expected to be challenged, to be locked up, to be shot, but the men just stared in horror as she sheathed her claws and walked out of the door.
Mia came back to reality with Logan shaking her. “What were you doing in my nightmare? Hasn’t wheels taught you to mind your own business?”
“I… I could… I couldn’t h-help it. I was walking by your room and your thoughts were projecting really strongly and I accidentally fell into your nightmare and I-”
He hushed her. “What did you do to it? How did you change it? Why did you change it?”
She looked frightened. “I ch-changed it? What did I change?”
“I’ve never even gotten up off of the table, much less attacked Stryker. How did you change it? How did you make it end differently?”
“I don’t know. I just thought I was seeing what you were dreaming, the same nightmare you always have. I thought it was the same one Rogue said she saw when she touched you.”
“It’s always ended with the scream; I’ve never dreamed that far. I know it didn’t really happen that way, because I’ve seen Stryker since then.”
Mia began to tremble and broke down sobbing.
((Professor Xavier! Professor! I need your help! Please come quickly!))
((What is wrong Mia?))
((I… I changed Logan’s nightmare I think…))
Mia looked up as Amanda entered the room, and gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to convince you not to starve yourself.”
“I don’t want to eat anything they fix. They might have it drugged so they can force me to cooperate with them.”
“You need to cooperate with them Mia, for the good of mutants everywhere.”
Mia jumped up from her bed and cried “you’re not Violet! I know who you really are, you ugly blue bitch! Get out of here, and don’t come back!”
Mia shuddered as Mystique morphed back into herself and turned to leave. She spat at the blue woman, who turned back to her and said “I was going to invite you to come fix your own food because you really shouldn’t starve yourself, but if you choose to be nasty, you can just stay here.”
Mia’s stomach growled at the thought of her first meal in over twenty-four hours. She said quickly, “Take me to the kitchen and let me cook! I’ll eat then!”
“Good,” said Mystique rather crossly. “I was afraid I’d have to stick a needle in your arm, and since I’m no doctor, that wouldn’t be too pleasant.”
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