Disclaimers: The New Mutants are not mine, never will be mine. They are the property of the awesomeness that is Marvel Comics. I promise to put everything back when I'm done.

She dreams in darkness with only sound and instinct to guide her. Snuffling growls dog her steps as she shifts from wolf to girl and back again, trying to escape the faceless menace that pursues her and her companion (two-leg-pack-sister). (Pack-Sister) stops and she (wolf) can hear the twang of a bow firing an arrow, swift and lethal. Where there should have been the crash of prey falling to the hard earth, there was none. A muffled cry of pain (pack-sister! protect!) reaches her ears and she leaps to where her nose tells her the threat lies finding only empty air instead.

Laughter (bear-menace) fills her ears, frustrating her. She growls a challenge, daring him to attack her and is rewarded with a roar of pain. Her (pack-sister) had won free. Footsteps crunching in the snow let her follow (pack-sister) and she hears the twang of the bow firing for the second and, what she hopes are, the final time. A thud that shakes her to the bone tells her that she and her (pack-sister) have won the day.

She trots to her (pack-sister's) side and yipped her joy of a battle well fought. The wind blowing through her russet fur shifts, bringing to her the scent of (bear! danger!). She turns growling a warning too late for her (pack-sister) to heed. Leaping with teeth bared, she finds only cold air once more as her (pack-sister) is taken with a strike of claws and teeth. A sickening thud (crackle-crunch) reaches her lupine ears. She howls her fury, leaping at the (bear! murderer!) with fangs bared. The (bear! murderer!) slaps her out of the air with claws stained with her (pack-sister's) blood. Flying through the snow, she hits a tree, stars dancing before her eyes. Struggling to her feet, she tries to leap one more time when her vision goes white and the world turns upside down.

"Dani!" The cry echoes off the bare walls of the bedroom. Rahne Sinclair sat up in bed, sweat pouring down her back and soaking her viridian nightgown. The vestiges of dreams and the message from her telepathic rapport with Danielle Moonstar clung to her like cobwebs. Even as the import of what she felt struck her, she was already leaping to the floor, her form melting from girl to wolf. Desperate to save Dani, Rahne raced down the halls of the Mansion, howling for her teammate even as she bounded through the main doors into the howling wind and blowing snow.

The voices of her friends reached her ears but she didn't care. All that mattered was getting to Dani. A hand she recognized as Roberto's grabbed her scruff and Rahne shifted to her transitional form, halfway between wolf and girl. Rahne barely recognized her own voice as she described what she felt through her rapport with Dani. She skidded to a halt, her breath rattling loudly in her ears. Tears welled in her green eyes. "No!" she whispered the cry loud as a shout in the cold winter air. Dani's broken body lay in the thick snow, fractured breathing rattling in their ears. Scrambling to get help, the team scattered leaving Sam and Rahne by Dani's side. Sirens loud and insistent grew closer and closer in the distance, absorbing her and Dani in their klaxons, white noise in the crimson snow.