Passing the Mantle
Jul. 17th, 2015 06:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katleeptTitle: Passing the Mantle
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: X-Men, Generation X
Character/Pairing: Jubilee, Emma, mentions Scott/Emma, Scott/Jean, and Sean/Emma
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
comicdrabbles: #126: Adolescence
Warning(s): Character Death
Word Count: 655
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.
She stands at her grave, feeling again, after all these years, like a lost child caught between an actual childhood she never really got to have, a troubled adolescence, and the adult she wishes, with all her heart, she didn't have to be. She looks to the other mourners and reminds herself again that it's all up to her now.
She watches the students file by, one by one paying their respects. The few other faculty members they have are next. Bumpkin is crying so hard that her hearts rends for him. Artie and Leech are on either side of Emma's loyal servant, but she knows the boys, although they try, actually provide little comfort. Left alone again, she lets her red eyes turn back to Emma's grave and the small pile of white roses on it. Funny, but their petals are far purer than old Frostie ever was.
But she didn't get a chance to be pure, Jubilee reflects. Her childhood may have been grand, but her parents were far worse than any of the families Jubilee got shuttled through as an orphan before she ran away and started making a living for herself at the local mall. Death changes so many things, she recognizes, realizing that this is the first time she's really been able to understand Emma.
"You were right, y'know," she whispers, wondering if she'd even bother to listen to her as a ghost. "I didn't wanna grow up. I only thought I did. I think that's true for everybody, but I kinda wish I would've listened to ya, Frostie."
But she hadn't, not that she'd had a choice. The only two choices people really have are to grow up or to settle their bones down in the hard,cold ground where she's already buried way too many friends and family. That's the real problem, she thinks,wiping away a tear. It's not that Frostie's dead. It's not even that she's burying another X-Man.
It's that, with Frost's death, the mantle passes to her. She's now the oldest. She's now the leader,and everybody's gonna be looking at her to make the decisions, and either loving her or (and most likely) hating her when she does. That was one of Emma's many problems: She never made the popular decisions, but Jubilee knows, too, that in this world so full of hate and violence, she ain't likely to get to make many likeable choices. The children might learn to hate her like she and most of her classmates had hated the White Queen back in her days with Generation X, but it doesn't really matter,she tells herself. All that matters is keeping them alive,and she can't stay here for long and do that.
She looks again to Emma's name, then to the rest of the long line of graves now filling too large a part of the Xavier's estate. "Tell 'em I said hi,"she says and wonders who Emma will meet first in the beyond. Will it be Scott,who she claimed to love but whose heart really always belonged to Jean? Will the Professor be there waiting for her? Angie? Paige? Jono? Monet?
Logan's bound to be off causing havoc in Heaven, but what of the others? Ororo? Hank? Bobby? Who will be first? Maybe Sean will meet her,she thinks, knowing she always had the hots for the Irish man and he for her although he'd never admitted it while alive. "I hope you finally get to be happy,"she whispers, and she means it with all her heart as she walks away to take the mantle the fallen White Queen has left behind. "And I hope I do at least half as good with these kids as you did with us." She sheds one more tear but cries no more as she joins again those who lives, she knows, depends on her. I hope I can do this. I've gotta do this. And she starts.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: X-Men, Generation X
Character/Pairing: Jubilee, Emma, mentions Scott/Emma, Scott/Jean, and Sean/Emma
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt:
comicdrabbles: #126: AdolescenceWarning(s): Character Death
Word Count: 655
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel Comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.
She stands at her grave, feeling again, after all these years, like a lost child caught between an actual childhood she never really got to have, a troubled adolescence, and the adult she wishes, with all her heart, she didn't have to be. She looks to the other mourners and reminds herself again that it's all up to her now.
She watches the students file by, one by one paying their respects. The few other faculty members they have are next. Bumpkin is crying so hard that her hearts rends for him. Artie and Leech are on either side of Emma's loyal servant, but she knows the boys, although they try, actually provide little comfort. Left alone again, she lets her red eyes turn back to Emma's grave and the small pile of white roses on it. Funny, but their petals are far purer than old Frostie ever was.
But she didn't get a chance to be pure, Jubilee reflects. Her childhood may have been grand, but her parents were far worse than any of the families Jubilee got shuttled through as an orphan before she ran away and started making a living for herself at the local mall. Death changes so many things, she recognizes, realizing that this is the first time she's really been able to understand Emma.
"You were right, y'know," she whispers, wondering if she'd even bother to listen to her as a ghost. "I didn't wanna grow up. I only thought I did. I think that's true for everybody, but I kinda wish I would've listened to ya, Frostie."
But she hadn't, not that she'd had a choice. The only two choices people really have are to grow up or to settle their bones down in the hard,cold ground where she's already buried way too many friends and family. That's the real problem, she thinks,wiping away a tear. It's not that Frostie's dead. It's not even that she's burying another X-Man.
It's that, with Frost's death, the mantle passes to her. She's now the oldest. She's now the leader,and everybody's gonna be looking at her to make the decisions, and either loving her or (and most likely) hating her when she does. That was one of Emma's many problems: She never made the popular decisions, but Jubilee knows, too, that in this world so full of hate and violence, she ain't likely to get to make many likeable choices. The children might learn to hate her like she and most of her classmates had hated the White Queen back in her days with Generation X, but it doesn't really matter,she tells herself. All that matters is keeping them alive,and she can't stay here for long and do that.
She looks again to Emma's name, then to the rest of the long line of graves now filling too large a part of the Xavier's estate. "Tell 'em I said hi,"she says and wonders who Emma will meet first in the beyond. Will it be Scott,who she claimed to love but whose heart really always belonged to Jean? Will the Professor be there waiting for her? Angie? Paige? Jono? Monet?
Logan's bound to be off causing havoc in Heaven, but what of the others? Ororo? Hank? Bobby? Who will be first? Maybe Sean will meet her,she thinks, knowing she always had the hots for the Irish man and he for her although he'd never admitted it while alive. "I hope you finally get to be happy,"she whispers, and she means it with all her heart as she walks away to take the mantle the fallen White Queen has left behind. "And I hope I do at least half as good with these kids as you did with us." She sheds one more tear but cries no more as she joins again those who lives, she knows, depends on her. I hope I can do this. I've gotta do this. And she starts.
The End
