~~~~~~~

"Hey Little Sister" -- the story 4/4
By Dex (dex@globalserve.net)

All recognizable characters and settings belong to Marvel; I am
using them without permission but mean no harm and am
making no profit.  The plot and original characters, however
belong to me.  Any and all feedback is appreciated at
dex@globalserve.net.  Redistribution of this tale for profit is
illegal.  Please do not archive this story without contacting me
first to obtain my permission.

***

        "Emma, oh man, that was unreal!" exclaimed Bobby, as
he hurried over to her.  He swallowed heavily as he caught
sight of her arm.  "Geez, let's get you to the Med-Center."
        "No, Robert.  I still have unfinished business with her."
        "Lass, are ye daft?  Tha' witch is on the run.  Let Monet
and Jono handle her.  Without her device, what can she do?"
Sean said, helping his students to their feet.
        "Sean, this is family.  It is my responsibility."
        Sean locked eyes with her, and saw the conviction in
them.  He sighed heavily.  "Ah, weel, if ye must.  But take care
o' that arm first."
        Emma nodded.  "Capital suggestion.  Paige, if I may."
Emma unsnapped one of Paige's forearm guards off while she
was busy resealing the top of her uniform.  Emma locked the
guard on her own forearm.  With a motion, she tightened the
seals at the top, cutting off the bleeding like a tourniquet.
Blood soaked the white wool of her sweater, and covered the
ground around her.
        "Miz Frost?  Are you sure you want to do this?  I could
handle it," said Everett.  Emma shook her head.
        "No.  As I told Sean, this is my problem.  Is everyone
all right?"
        "Yes, expect for Bobby and Jubilee."
        "I'll be fine, just minor cuts.  But the firecracker looks
bad," said Bobby, dabbing at his oozing chest with his shirt.
        "Take her to my room.  I will join you all in the medical
center shortly."
        Sean thought about protesting for a moment, and stopped
himself.  "All right kids, this way o't.  Emma, if ye need us, call.
Understand?"
        "Sean..."
        "Understand?"
        "Very well."  Emma watched them leave, and turned to
the forest around her.  She touched her arm for a moment and
looked back.  Her eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the
forest.  A brief moment later she was gone, only the slightest
movement of brush to indicate where to.

***

        Cordelia ran up the hill towards the exit, the briars and
heather tearing at her dress.  The humiliation banged back and
forth in her skull.  Stupid malicious old mindwitch!  She'd won.
By all the rules, she had won, and somehow Emma had found a
way to take it from her, like everything else.  That stung.  The
smug look on the faces of the children as they were saved --
everyone supporting Emma, who had no idea about what
power really was about, and what it could become.  She'd
show them, Cordelia thought.  She'd show them all!
        "I doubt that."
        Cordelia stopped cold, dreading as she turned to see
Emma leaning casually against a tree.  "I thought you couldn't
read my mind."
        "When you linked us, you shattered the genetic mental
shields," Emma said.
        "You followed me."
        "You know, Logan once told me that a good hunter
tracks, but a great hunter need only wait."
        "So, you are hunting me then?"
        "Don't you think I should?  After all, you are the one who
lost, and that is the first and only mistake nature allows."
Emma walked towards her sister.
        "How did you...?"
        "I used a sensory enhancer to make everything more
acute.  Since I knew you would try to gain control, I routed
you into the sensory pathways and overloaded you.  Simple
enough, when you think about it."  Emma smiled in a tired
way.  "And now I have to decide about you.  If you had merely
come after me, I would have been able to understand, but you
decided to harm my students.  And that I will not allow to
happen again."
        "It's always your choice, and your decision!" Cordelia
screamed at her sister.  "Always you in control and nothing for
anyone else!  You have taken everything and left nothing for me."
        Emma said nothing, only regarding her for a moment.
Then, with shocking swiftness, slapped Cordelia hard.
        "You blame me for your lack.  You, who have spent you
life moving sideways through it; never learning, never working,
only taking.  You always wanted the quick answer, the shortest
path and never, ever tried to understand what it was really
about!  I learned, Cordelia.  Every day, I learned.  From the
ground up, I fought and strained and learned about what I
could do.  I learned from the people, and the animals, from the
smallest neuron to the forces which bind the human race
together.  You know nothing, to use the Pool in that manner!"
        "You know about it?"
        "Of course I do.  I learned what it was and how it
worked.  And I know what it is like: a river of power, flowing
just for you to harness and control.  It is like a dream, power
the like no one has ever seen.  The problem is that it only lasts
so long.  Soon, it asks more and more for less and less.
Eventually, you are absorbed into the forces which you tried to
control.  The only thing that you have is yourself, and if that
isn't enough, that's too bad," Emma snarled.
        "You're lying!"
        "Am I?" Emma said, and the air around them crackled
with energy.  Cordelia felt herself drawn up into a whirlpool of
power.  At the center stood Emma, casually harnessing the
forces around her.
        "You never have understood, have you?"  Her voice was
eerie, as if it was emanating from a long distance and
immediately next to her simultaneously.  She gasped as Emma
was in inside her mind for the briefest of moments, and then
there was nothing.  Cordelia collapsed to the ground, her mind
feeling closed and empty.  Gone was the background noise of
surface thoughts and feelings which was the constant of every
telepath.  Cordelia shrieked and clasped her head.
        "What have you done to me?" she cried.
        "Burned out your power.  Not necessarily permanently,
but for a long time at the least."
        "You've taken away my life!"
        "No, Cordelia.  I have given it to you, in a sense."  Emma
smiled, or at least bared her teeth in a non-threatening manner.
"You no longer can pass through life with your mental powers
to ease the transitions.  School will require work, a job will
require production, and power will require ability.  You have
an expense account.  You can freely waste your years in
mindless hedonism, but you will never be able to threaten us
again.  Should you wish revenge, you will have to accumulate
the resources to do so.  On your own.  That is what I will give
you, Cordelia.  I will give you your life, in the fullest sense of
the word.  Hopefully, I shall not be disappointed."  Emma
turned and walked into the forest.
        "You can't...!"
        "Goodbye, Cordelia."  And Emma was gone.  Cordelia
sat and stared at the door for a long time, and finally opened it
to step out into the world, for truly the first time in her life.

***

        "How is she?"  Emma stepped into her room where
Bobby had put Jubilee.
        "I dressed her cuts, but she won't wake up."
        "Very well.  I will take it from here."
        "Not so fast, Emma.  We 'll take care of that arm."  Drake
wheeled the Sh'iar device over to her.
        "If we must."  She sighed and laid her arm in the groove.
The top closed and Emma felt her arm go numb.  The machine
made a slight humming noise as it worked.  Drake watched her
over it.
        "Where is Cordelia?"
        "I assume she is walking down the access road into town.
It is only an hour or so on foot."
        "And she isn't...?"
        "She will not be able to threaten us again," said Emma,
answering his unspoken question.
        Bobby smiled at her.  "Kinda blew your day off, huh?"
        "Well, I have had more relaxing afternoons."
        "Well, we all owe you."
        "Do you, Robert?"
        "'Course."
        "Good.  Then you can watch them tomorrow with Sean
while I complete what I had intended to do today."
        Drake paled.  "Well, I...uh..."
        Emma smiled.  "Thank you, and please tell Sean."  She
gently forced him from the room, and locked the door.  The
machine beeped twice and her arm was freed.  The gash was
now closed with extremely fine and strong stitches, and the cut
was already healing.  Emma wrapped a length of gauze around
it and sat down beside Jubilee.  Small cuts were all over her
face and neck, and her body lolled with the bonelessness of a
catatonic.  Emma reached out with her mind, and gently slid
her essence into Jubilee's mind.  Deftly, she examined the
connections, noting carefully the ones torn open and amplified
by her sister during the torture.  With swift precision, she
began rebuilding the neural structure, erecting mental shields to
replace those which had been blasted apart and reforming that
which was Jubilee.  Emma was surprised by the little damage
done to the inner core of her mental process.  Obviously,
Jubilee had more will than people credited her with.
        Emma flowed back out of her mind, leaving no trace of
her tampering.  Jubilee still lay unconscious, but her breathing
switched from the bare breaths of a catatonic to the deep
inhalations of the sleeper.  Emma smiled and leaned to make
the final test to see if Jubilee would awaken, and if her repairs
had worked.
        "You're not going to let her win, will you, Jubilation?"
        Long moment passed.  And another.  The clock sliced
time into small segments with the rhythmic ticking.  Emma
glanced at it in worry and then back to her charge.  One
bloodshot eye opened and looked straight at her.
        "'t's Jub'lee, Miz Frost."
        Emma smiled at her, and helped the young girl sit.  Jubilee
stared ahead for a moment and turned to Emma, bursting into
tears.  Emma held her close, cooing softly into her ear.  The
sobs shook Jubilee's whole body, as she poured her fears and
feelings out to Frost in a flood.  Emma held her and felt the
cries wash over her, helping to draw out the fear and pain and
anger with gentle words and feelings.

        The shadows lengthened outside and the sun dipped
below the horizon as Jubilee slept exhausted in Emma's arms.
Emma sat propped up on the headboard, occasionally shifting
to better support the dead weight of the girl's prone form.  She
looked out the window, watching the dying light of the sun
touch the trees, painting them in fire.  The velvet darkness stole
into the room, greying the white atmosphere.  Emma looked
down at her student and back out, a feeling of satisfaction
filling her.  In her mind's eye, she could see the forms of her
Hellions, for once the happy teens she had known, rather then
the pain-wracked bodies which usually tortured her dreams.
Maybe, I have finally started to pay my debts, she thought.
        Jubilee shifted and Emma smiled, content for once to
simply sit and watch the night heal the fires of the day.
Content to simply be Emma Frost, for once when it was
needed most.

FIN

Afterword

First, I never do afterwords, but in this case I think it is
necessary.  I would like to thank Lady Phoenix, who showed
me an element of Jubilee which I had missed in 'Jubilation
Phoenix.'  As well, I would like to thank Min for her works on
Emma, which have very much helped me develop Emma Frost
more and more past the White Queen.  Jelpy and Mirage get
the most helpful awards for not only holding on to my writing,
but constantly telling me that I'm better then I actually am.
And Kielle, who seems to drive my fanfiction to higher levels,
without really knowing it.  This is the end of the Emma Frost
trilogy.  I have enjoyed it immensely, but there are other tales I
wish to tell.  However, I don't think I can quite leave the White
Queen behind, so you may see a few more.  Thanks to all
everyone who was nice enough to send me feedback or just
support.  That is what drives a fanfic writer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF STORY