Alright, so i have had this story up for awhile but i wasn't really happy with it. So know i've taken it down tp revamp it. Here's the prolog again, revamped, and please stay tuned for the other chaps. I should have two more coming really soon.

Thanks,

Tye.


Prolog

I tried to smile, I really did. I tried to be happy, I knew that I should be happy, that I should be ecstatic for her; after all she was my sister. But I just couldn't.

If it had been anyone else, anyone in the world...even Ashlock…It wouldn't hurt so much. But it was Brennan. She chose Brennan.

Brennan, the mighty team leader; Adam's right hand man; the undefeated champion of the mutant world. He wasn't here a day when he started to take over. He wasted no time in replacing me. As soon as he joined Mutant X, I was pushed to the side.

"Are you sure Jesse should be out there? I mean, it seems like he gets into more trouble then he's useful."

I went out on less and less missions until eventually…

"I need you here; no one knows computers better then you. You're the only one who can get the information for us."

…I went out on none.

I stayed at home with my computers where I was out of the way. Good old reliable Jesse. Good old dependable Jesse. He won't mind if we keep him stuck behind a desk. He loves computers, he's great with computers. He'll only get in the way out here. Leave him behind, he won't mind. Good old reliable, dependable Jesse will do whatever is asked.

And it wasn't so bad. I mean I didn't like it, but it wasn't so bad. It wasn't the worst thing he could do. No, that came today.

Ever since I was seventeen Shalimar has been my sister, my friend, my savor, my guardian angel. It was her and me against the world, fighting for the down trodden and suppressed with a little help from Adam. Then Brennan and Emma came along.

Emma wasn't bad, not at all. She fit right in with Shal and I, and we grew as close as brother and sister in a matter of days. No Emma was the perfect addition. It was Brennan that I questioned.

Don't get me wrong, it had nothing to do with his past. I never held it against him. What right did I have? I didn't grow up like he did. I didn't have to face the same things that he did. I never once judged him based on his past. It was more like my instincts.

He was too reckless, too impulsive. He acted on his gut, and yeah that's important and it's normally a good judge of a situation, but not when it's the soul Intel that you're going on. He was to easily riled, to quick to fight. He was going to get one of us hurt someday, and he did.

Of course it was me.

He got us into a situation that I had to get us out of. It cost me dearly. I mean it's not everyday that you feel your body drifting away around you. But it was worth it in the end, for what I gained was so much more powerful then any physical strength I could have imagined.

I proved that I was strong. I proved to them that I could take the pain, I could hold it together; that I could be entrusted with their lives and not fail them. More importantly, I proved to myself that I was powerful, that I was strong. That Hillviwe wasn't a fluke.

Hillviwe is probably my crowning achievement. For once it was the mighty Brennan who needed to be saved and the weak Jesse who was the only one who could save him.

I won. I fought him and I won.

He was pumped up, doped on some steroid that gave him the advantage. He used his powers, his tricks, through everything he could at me…and I won. He tore into me, physically and mentally. Dragged every fear, every shameful emotion and thought to the surface, made me face every hidden doubt and I won. Little ol' Jesse, me; I won with out drugs, with out my powers, with out a single trick. He kicked my ass, but I brought him down.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter to anyone but me.

It didn't matter that I saved everyone's butts when that missal almost hit us. That phase that Shal oh so sweetly demand that I do, jump started a whole wave of mutating for my body. That every day since, my powers have been growing at a painful rate.

It didn't matter that I have been training, that my fighting skills and my leadership skills have improved ten full. That I have become stronger, faster, tougher, and more powerful. All that matters is that I stay out of the way. That I sit behind my computer do the stupid security checks and stay out of the way. Hell, they don't even need me for hacking anymore; Brennan's figured it out. He can do it now.

The last few months haven't just shown me how strong I was; it showed me where I stood in Mutant X. I'm unimportant. I'm replaceable. I'm not needed.

But that knowledge, though bitter, wasn't hard to learn. It's always been that way in my life. I have my uses then I get used up and I'm not needed anymore. That's my lot in life and I guess I still haven't learned to accept it; I've just gotten use to it…

Sitting here, at this table in the Kitchen of Sanctuary surrounded by my Mutant X team members celebrating, I should feel the happiest I have ever felt. But I don't. I only feel numb.

How could she?

Why him?

Since the day he got here he's been pushing me to the side; taking my place in the field, taking my place as Adam's strategist and assistant, and most recently as Sanctuary's computer geek.

But worst, so much worst, he took my place in Shalimar's life. I'm no longer the confidant, the friend she turns to or 'her guy'. I'm Jesse and just a memory, and have been for a long time now.

I know it, and she knows it. I can tell by the way she looks at me now, the way she hugs me as I take my leave. A hug that I haven't had in so long and is far past too late.

And I can tell by a quick glance at Brennan that he knows he's won. The smile on his face and the look in his eyes as he watches us gives it away. He knows he's won, that he's pushed me to the side.

I'm not needed here anymore. This is not my home anymore. I'll leave quietly tonight; slip out before they wake up in the morning. Sure they'll miss me at first, but it'll only be superficial, I'm replaceable.

Emma catches my eye and I quickly clear my mind, but I doubt it was quick enough. Her eyes our trained on me as I leave the room, I can feel them in my back, but she doesn't follow me out.

I make my way to my room for the last time and as I enter I can't keep the tears from falling. A little bit of my soul has just died…

Sanctuary is quite and dark. I walk through it like a ghost; taking a final look around at the place that I thought would be my salvation.

Everything is in order. Everything is as it should be. Well, almost.

My final walk through done, I head to the computer lab where I have one last thing to do. It took me only seconds to hack into Adam's files and pull up my records. Every single record he had on Jesse Kilmartin, I copied to a flash drive then deleted from Sanctuary's mainframe. Just like I had deleted my hard drive clean and wiped the memory with a magnet. There was no record of me to be found in Sanctuary anywhere.

With a sigh I ejected the flash drive and pull my weary bones from the chair. I'm too young to feel this old and hollow.

I made my way to the garage via the hart of Sanctuary.

The hart of Sanctuary is an intersection of all the hallways found in the mountain; basically a grand entranceway. Dead center there is an oversized circle with an X cutting through it, surrounded by four others. It's here where we all got our rings and so it's here where I'll return mine.

The small band of silver feels meaningless in my palm and I stare at it, expecting...what?

Where it once brought feelings of comfort, acceptances, happiness and peace, there is nothing. It means nothing to me any more. It's a symbol, there symbol and to hang onto it will be like hanging on to the chains of a past I want to be free of. This band of silver is nothing, it's lost its meaning…so why is it so hard to let it go?

"Good old Jessie, you got those print outs for us? We're going to need them out there? Oh, and can you get the blue prints and send them to us on the Helix? Thanks bro, we gotta go!"

I clench my fist around it and feel my arm begin to mass. The weak metal crushes under my pressure and I fell it deform. Once I'm sure I've crushed it properly I drop it to the floor, right on that oversized x. It makes a high pitched clinging sound when it hits, and I'm amazed at how I feel nothing.

I stare at it a moment, the twisted and raw metal seemingly echoing my soul, and then turn away, making my way to the garage.

My way to my mustang is loaded to its' max with the things I've deemed important enough to keep. My books, cloths, my music, and all the money I've managed to save. Latter I'll close my accounts and put my money someplace else under a different name. I'll make a new id and lose myself in the world.

The underground channels I helped to create, I've helped to operate, won't help me. I can be trace in them. I'll have to stick to the more main stream ways of disappearing. A little risky, especially with Ekhart, Ashlock, my family, and now Mutant X all hunting for me, but if I can make it to Mexico or Africa I'll be ok.

As I pull out of Sanctuary I don't know where I'm going or what I'm going to do. But for right now I just let the road take me.