Chapter One: Haunting Eyes

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own any of the X-Men or the Brotherhood. I WISH I owned Pietro, but, alas, if wishes were fishes-So, anyways, I present this bizarre fanfic to you. ALL POEMS are my own and belong to ME. This fanfic was odd to begin, because I dreamed about it, and I know how the middle and the end go, but hey, I tried to make a beginning of this-hope it's alright.^_^ Oh, and this is going to get darker and darker, as most of my stories do, and deal with some major issues later on.^_^; And because of idiotic document formatting, I have to use dashes instead of ellipses. Sorry.^_^; ah,YES. I have edited this story a bit to keep up with the newer episodes as I catch up to the current point of the series. :feels sheepish: Oh, and this is after Wanda has been brainwashed.

******************************************************************

'Spinning around inside my mind-
No beginning and no end-
To the madness as it consumes me from within./

I hear you call-
My name from your lips-
Seems so natural and causes such pain./

I thought I knew you-
I thought I knew myself-
But I was wrong in the eternity that closed me away./

I only wanted-
What no one else ever dared-
To make you see something beyond yourself./

The world has crashed-
Around my feet as it cries-
The tears made of my blood.'

************************************************************************

The girl looked around her with a few outward signs of anxiety. She walked into the hall with slow, measured steps, the black leather boots making soft clicks against the floor tiles. A new school-new enemies, new people to hate her. Why had she thought anything would change? Nothing ever changed. Almost ironically, they didn't hate her for being a mutant- no, her powers weren't obvious at all, really. They did not even know she was one. They hated her because she was a freak, a "weirdo." Sighing, she walked into the girls' bathroom and looked in the mirror. Pale skin, large green eyes with black lids and inky eyeliner, hip-length auburn hair with more brown than red, black-painted lips, black velvet shirt-She had never considered herself "goth," really-she only dressed to match how she felt inside-black. After a quick reapplication of lipstick for the sake of feeling as if she'd come into the bathroom to actually do something, she left in search of her first class at the new school.

************************************************************************

Lunch seemed to arrive sooner than she'd expected. She managed to avoid eye contact-and thus, social interaction-and any sort of association- social or otherwise-with everyone so far. Unbeknownst to her, however, someone had noticed the "new girl" and was watching her closely. Someone who really wasn't supposed to be there at all.

************************************************************************

"Who's that? I've never seen her before. She's darker-looking that that x-geek, what's-her-face. So, do any of you know who she is?" The speaker looked around at the other members of the Brotherhood.

They blinked at each other while they took in Pietro's comments and questions, which seemed even faster than his normal speech rate.

Finally, Lance shrugged. " I think her name's Auria or something. Why? She's not really hot or anything." His own gaze was on Kitty.

Pietro rolled his eyes at Lance and continued to watch the new girl with a thoughtful expression on his face. 'Something funny about her-I know there is." After only a few seconds, however, he spoke again.

"Give it up, already, Lance, she's never going to come back to you. Come on, let's split before we are spotted-we're expelled, remember? We might as well go-Magneto told us not to hang around here too much, anyways. We should go before something happens that my father does not have planned."

"Or before you develop another little 'obsession,'" mumbled Lance under his breath. It seemed it had only been a few days since Pietro had gotten over his last little 'obsession,' and Lance was not ready to handle another one-at least his obsession stayed on one person, regardless of how futile that obsession now was. Pietro was as fickle as the wind, it seemed. Unfortunately, Pietro seemed to have forgotten that he'd been planning on leaving.

"Yo, Pietro! C'mon, let's go already, man." Toad attempted to help Lance out a little bit-though it may simply have been the fear of retribution from Magneto (or other work)-but it didn't seem to be getting through to Pietro. After a few more seconds, however, he seemed to snap out of it.

"Oh, right. We were leaving-let's go, then, come on, lunch's almost up."

And he took off for the place the Brotherhood called home, leaving a bewildered Toad, Fred and Lance behind, looking at each other with rather confused looks on their faces. Shrugging, they followed, though at a slower, more human sort of pace-after all, they weren't Quicksilver.

************************************************************************

Auria turned around slowly, her eyes narrowing-but nothing was there. Slapping her forehead, she tried to shrug it off-but she was almost positive that someone had been watching her-oh, well. It must have just been her imagination. But, for a split-second, she would have sworn up and down on the image she saw of blue eyes-but of course, she had just imagined seeing them-right? ************************************************************************

Logan looked at the Professor. He had been very quiet-more than usual, really-and seemed to be concentrating. Logan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"Charles? What is the deal here? What's going on?"

The Professor opened his eyes. "Logan-I think we have a new mutant around- but I'm not positive, just yet. We'll have to wait until something turns up- but I don't think Magneto's involved."

"Right, then." Logan cracked his knuckles. "S'long as Magneto ain't involved, I guess I won't have to hurt anything tonight."

Professor Xavier laughed and slowly Logan joined in with his own rough chuckle.

************************************************************************

Auria walked home slowly. She had no real reason to be home, anyway. They'd never know if she was late-they didn't even know when school let out!

The brunette began to get the feeling of being watched for the second time that day. Whirling around, she still saw nothing, however. Frustrated, Auria yelled, "Who ARE you? Just come OUT already!"

Suddenly, someone did come out, and was right beside her, with her arm firmly in grip by his slim, delicate-looking fingers. Auria screamed out of sheer shock, though it made her feel very stupid and 'damsel-in-distress- ish' afterwards, which was one thing she never enjoyed feeling like.

"Shh, it's not like I'm going to hurt you, after all, you aren't one of those x-geeks-you're just an interesting girl, so hello to you. My name is Pietro-Pietro Maximoff, in fact. So, what's yours?"

Her brow furrowed as she took in the torrent of information.

"Ummm-I'm Auria-Ria to my friends-or I would be-if I had any friends." Her voice trailed off as she spoke, a slight bitterness to her words. Then she looked thoughtful and turned her face up to look straight at him, eyes flashing, as she pulled her arm away. "How did you get here so fast?! And without making a sound?!"

Pietro simply grinned. "Nevermind all that, there's no need to worry you about it or anything. But seriously-Ria, right? Nice name. Where did you come from? Couldn't have been anywhere too great-I wasn't there, after all." He gave what he felt was his most charming, dashing grin.

Ria gave him a skeptical look with one brow raised, arms crossed.

"Riiiiiiiight-I'll be going now, thanks." She turned to walk away, but Pietro was in front of her, blocking her escape. He grabbed her arm and tried the smile again.

"Don't walk away so fast-I could just catch up, anways, but-C'mon, don't you want to see and explore the town, maybe catch a movie? No one better than me to do that with-come on!"

"Umm-no. Can I get by, please?" Auria tried to shove past-but Pietro was gone, suddenly. "What the-?!" Sighing and shaking her head, she walked to the rest of the way home, still feeling a bit confused.

******************************************************************

As she sat in her room waiting and sketching, trying to come up with something worthwhile, Ria remembered something-that boy had had blue eyes! The same ones she could swear she had seen before then-perhaps she hadn't imagined it after all-but how did he move so quickly? Unless-no, surely not. But it continued to weigh so heavily on her mind that she could not concentrate on her normal hobbies.

Throwing down the drawing pencils in annoyance, Ria picked up her favorite ballpoint pen and grabbed a notebook. After thinking for a few moments, she opened the book to a blank page and began to write, letting the words flow without thought.

'Swiftly down do I run,
Wait by the river for the world to come.
Darkening sky,
Night draws near.
I see in your eyes-the pain And the secrets there.

Waiting until I can wait no more,
The sun is rising now and I must be assured.
Lightening clouds,
The sun with its rays.
I see into your soul-something is there still.

Running now until the dusk,
I meet you in the moonlight.
Darkness encompasses us,
Beautiful moonlit night.
Green into blue and the world fades away into eternity.'

Glaring at the paper, the brunette slammed the notebook shut and fell back to her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The only thought that went through her head was, 'Why?' After a few hours, however, another thought found it's way in. 'What the heck did he mean by "x-geeks?" As she drifted into sleep, the blueness of the odd, speedy boy's eyes seemed to burn into her brain.

************************************************************************

Pietro zipped into the Brotherhood home just as the moon showed over the trees. His sister was waiting on him. "So, Pietro-what were you doing? Out striking out again?" She gave him a hard look that said, 'cough it up, now.' Pietro was not in the world of the obvious however.

"No, of course I didn't 'strike out' as you put it so nicely. I, in fact, how could I? I've already won her with my charm. She just doesn't know it yet." Humming happily-and very speedily-to himself, Pietro went to his room as his sister rolled her eyes and shrugged.

************************************************************************

Author's Note: I hope this was tolerable-I try very hard.^_^; It was fun to write, at any rate-AP English test which decides if I get college credit for Junior(high school) AP English class! If I make a 4 or 5, I do!(5 is the highest!) My third year in advanced English-fun. :sarcasm: Well, must really sleep now. Hope you enjoyed, PLEASE review, but do realize that this character (Ria) is a lot like me, so don't criticize to harshly, I am incredibly emotional and sensitive, alright? Thank you all for understanding. ( I would say ya'all, since I AM from Louisiana-but considering this is X-Men Evolution fanfic, I don't think I will. Rogue uses it too many times for me to hope not to confuse people.)