Chapter 1: Not the freakiest kid on campus…

Scott's P.O.V.

"Hey, Jean, what are you reading?" I asked as I walked up to the telepath.

"The professor's thesis on the possibility of having two X-genes. It was made about a year ago, and the public doesn't know that the professor has actually met someone who does have at least two X-genes," Jean replied without looking up.

The people around us were just staring and whispering as they walked past.

"Hey, I'm not dangerous anymore, I have special glasses now," I told them.

"It isn't you they're afraid of. It's me, and also Vitae. You and I, we aren't the biggest freaks in school," Jean told me.

"Thanks for reminding me that I'm a freak. It isn't like I haven't been called that enough in my life. Also, I'm pretty sure my name is Harry if you don't want to call me by my 'code name', but like I said, I'm 'pretty sure', meaning it probably is but I have no actual evidence to back it up," a kid with black hair and sunglasses from up in the tree that Jean was resting up against said.

"You know what I mean," Jean told him.

"Yeah, I get it. It would be nice not to be the biggest freak in school every once in a while," he replied.

"What's your mutation?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Telepathy, telekinesis, ability to understand all creatures as if they were speaking English, manipulation of fire and ice, manipulation of life energy, ability to see energies, ability to see aura, double set of wings, a tail, and my entire skeleton is grafted with a natural internal metal known only as Anacites metal that only I can control. It is even stronger than the Adamantium they grafted to another mutant known as Wolverine. By 'they' I mean the scientists that experimented on me.

"My parents died, or more accurately, were killed when I was only fifteen months old, the only reason I remember my first name is because of my photographic memory. I was placed in the care of my maternal aunt and uncle, they didn't like me though. By the time I was eighteen months old, I had been sold to a mutation research facility like a slave. It is because of them that my mutation came out when I was only two years old. They didn't just stop at experimenting on me though, they tortured me in ways you could never understand, they were paedophiles, Jean has an innocence that I don't have, they pretty much took everything from me. Then the X-men rescued me and brought me here," he stated before jumping down.

"You really know how to freak out the new kids, don't you Vitae?" Jean laughed when she noticed that I had frozen up.

"Yup, but it is the hard truth. If they can't accept that some people here really do know what pain and suffering is like, then they shouldn't stick around. This place is a safe haven for people who have nowhere else to go," Vitae told her flexing his four pitch black wings.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful," I mumbled. Vitae laughed.

"Disrespectful? Nothing you said was disrespectful. I just like telling the new people the honest truth when they ask for my mutation. But what I said still stands, this school is a safe haven. We can't afford to be divided or we'll all get killed. We have to help each other with our mutations, unfortunately, for some of us, no one wants to help. For me, it is because I can literally leach the life force off of a person, burn them to a crisp with a single thought, plus much more. For Jean, it is because she reads minds, no one's thoughts are safe, apart from mine. The Anacites metal that coats my skeleton stops her from reading my mind," he told me.

"Right, well, I guess I know what you mean. I can't open my eyes without these glasses on or my eyes will shoot laser beams. I doubt anyone would want to help me with that," I mumbled.

"That's where you're wrong. I'd be happy to help you. Besides, the freakiest students stick together. If nothing else other than to have some form of friendship in a place where kids turn on each other easily," Vitae told me. He seemed to look across the lake at the tree I had destroyed.

"You did a good job chopping it up, but the way you did it only makes it easier for me to mend it," Vitae stated before reaching a hand out and slowly, the tree righted itself and became like I had never destroyed it.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Simple, I used a combination of my different skills to put the fallen down half of the tree next to the upright half, then I used manipulation of life energy to pull them back together. It isn't the first time I've had to fix that tree. Your brother destroys it on a monthly basis," he laughed.

"Really?" I asked, quite surprised.

"Yeah. Besides, at least you have a decency to leave it in two pieces rather than upwards of ten. It is kind of hard to put things back together from this distance when you can't see," he stated.

"Wait, you can't see? How do you get around without having to rely on someone then?" I asked knowing how hard it was for me to move around without someone helping me.

"My mutation allows me to sense the living energy of everything around me. Things that are alive are hotspots, things that used to be alive such as wood and fur are dull spots, and things that were never alive are dead spots. From there, every living thing has a different aura, especially people, so the more time I spend around people, the easier it is for me to tell who it is. For example, your brother Havoc is walking over here right now," Vitae told me and when I turned around I saw that my brother Alex was indeed walking over in our direction.

"Good job healing the tree, Vitae, my brother isn't annoying you, is he?" he asked.

"No, I'm just telling him how I get around thanks to the fact that my eyes have been gouged out. If he wasn't your brother, I wouldn't be telling him though. Besides, if it wasn't for you and the others, I would be dead and rotting in that facility by now, I kind of owe you," he replied without even turning his head.

"We rescued you and the other captives because it was the right thing to do, besides, I'm sure you wouldn't be dead," Alex replied.

"I know that I would be dead. I was only a few days away from dying when you found me, and I had long ago given up hope, I gave up hope when they gouged out my eyes," Vitae stated.

"I'm glad that you got rescued, Vitae, it would have been horrible having to live here without you around. I don't think I would be able to stand living here without someone who understands what it is like to be always hearing the thoughts of others. Even if you're blind, you see more about the world than anyone else," Jean told him.

~time-skip: final battle against Apocalypse~

Vitae had his hand outstretched and a light was pouring into it from Apocalypse's body. I couldn't look too closely otherwise the lasers coming from my eyes would start being aimed at him.

"Jean! You have to strike now! I can't pull on his life force for much longer without killing the professor as well! Jean, you have to strike NOW!" he yelled out. Jean rose to his cries and began her own onslaught of power onto Apocalypse, and as he crumbled into dust, I noticed that Vitae was pushing the light into the professor's body.

"Are you alright?" I asked him as I got my glasses back on.

"Drained, very much drained, but I should be fine. Controlling that much life energy was harder than I anticipated. I need a few more minutes to recuperate. So many people died here that it is hard to focus with all the life energy trying to go somewhere," he stated.

"Thank you, Vitae, for helping me," the professor panted as he came round.

"It was nothing that you should thank me for, anyone with a good head would do it," he stated. Suddenly, he clutched his head in pain.

"Get it out! Get it out!" he screamed.

"Get what out?" Moira asked, confused.

"Get it out, get it out! Get out of my head!" he continued to scream. As he writhed on the ground, his wings and tail lashing out all over the place, black smoke curled off of him. A second scream joined his as blood started to seep out of the lightning bolt scar above his left eye socket, this scream was high pitched and sounded like a nail scratching on glass. I covered my ears trying to block out the scream.

"Get out of my head!" Vitae screamed one last time before going limp and the black smoke simply burst into flames until nothing was left but ash.

"Is he going to be okay?" Moira asked.

"Yes, he will be," Jean stated, "I may not be able to read his mind, but I know that he'll come back from this. There is no way that he can't." Mystique just nodded and so did Hank.

"He's tough alright, even though he had given up on trying to survive and had given up hope for at least two years by the time we found him and rescued him from that hell hole, he still managed to come back stronger. Jean is right, he will be okay, eventually," Hank confirmed.

By the time we had arrived back at the mansion, Vitae still hadn't woken up, his skin had become ashen as well. Everyone was becoming more and more worried as time went by.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Mystique was scared and she spent all her time at Vitae's side, never leaving it other than to use the bathroom. When she needed sleep, she would simply curl up on the chair next to Vitae's bed.

Jean couldn't focus on anything, and her telekinesis was all over the place, but she was too worried about Vitae to care about her mutation. Erik had stuck around to make sure that he came out all right. Hank couldn't focus on his experiments and more than once had he blown something up because of his lack of focus. No one could focus on anything and classes had to be cancelled. The other students, even though they were distant with him before, were all worried about him, the girls were crying and the guys looked like they were close to crying as well.

My parents had visited once for Alex's funeral, and even they were concerned for Vitae's wellbeing even though they had never met him before.

One day, I was just sitting in the infirmary room, watching over Vitae alongside Mystique who was asleep, and something told me that today would be better, but I don't know why.

A small whimper made itself known and I snapped my head around to look at Vitae, just praying that he would give some sign of waking up. His fingers twitched and then his whole right arm.

"Wh-wh-what happened to me?" he mumbled as he tried to sit up.

"Easy, Vitae, easy. You passed out after screaming about wanting something to get out of your head. It has been about a month and a half since then," I told him.

"Feels like something ran over my head," he muttered. "Have I really been out of it for a month and a half?"

"Yeah, everyone on campus has been worried sick about you and no one can get any work done so classes are cancelled. Heck, Mystique hasn't left your side to do anything other than use the bathroom," I told him.

"I thought all the other students hated me?" he mumbled.

"No, apparently, they were jealous of your control, and scared of your power, but they cared about you. They didn't want to see you hurt, but they couldn't pluck up the courage to say anything," I told him.

"I can't believe it, after all this time, they did care about me," he mumbled.

After another few minutes, Vitae had drifted back to sleep. Once I was sure that he was asleep, I left the room and went to find the professor.

"Professor, Vitae woke up briefly just before," I informed him.

"That is good, much better than him having shown no signs of getting better. I shall inform the others," was the reply I got.