Disclaimer : Stifle belongs to me. Not making any money from this.

A/Note : Wow, nearly made a distinctive boo-boo in this chapter. I'm so used to having Nightcrawler around that I almost forgot he didn't turn up til X2! Oops. Luckily I saved it in time!!

This is a direct sequel to Almost Human.

Chapter One

The great black stallion gazed reproachfully from his deep, black eyes, almost as if he knew what the mutant known as Stifle was planning on saying. Galaxy had always been intuitive, and today, when Stifle had sidled into the stables with guilt haunting her face, was no exception it seemed. Too few days had passed since their reunion, Stifle and her trusty steed. He'd lost a shoe on their mad-cap ride from Magneto's lair into New York City, and was still lame from said escapade. Brain fogged by intense fury and a cold desire for revenge, Stifle had completely failed to notice. And now she was leaving him, not knowing even whether her oldest friend and the one constant in her life would recover from what she had put him through. But Galaxy was old now; too old to ship him to England when she could guarantee him no sense of safety or security, or even her own companionship seemed cruel when he had friends of his own kind here at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

"Rogue and Kitty have promised to take care of you." Soft, gentle words that meant nothing to the beast – he was too busy nosing her pockets for mints. He went still as she laid a palm gentle between his eyes, never baulking nor moving. His breath was as gentle as ever, as steady as their relationship. Stifle managed a smile. "My dear friend." The words could not hide the emotion that did not show in her cold grey eyes. "Right through my amnesia, the torturous training from Magneto, even here, amongst the X-Men, you've been my rock… and now I must leave you again…"

Galaxy blew gently in her ear, resting his muzzle on her shoulder as she hugged him, making the ten hoop earrings in her left ear sway gently. Then, with her heart aching, Stifle turned away. The beads in her chestnut brown hair, each one at the base of a tiny plait that were all pulled together in a pony tail, clicked together as she spun on her heel and strode out of the stables. Walking away from her horse, from her truest friend, was the hardest thing Danielle Tucker had ever had to do. But with Scott Summers waiting down in the hangar for her, she had no choice but to do so. She felt cruel, heartless even, as if she was abandoning not only her horse but a brother… and also her new friends.

Professor Xavier had been the perfect host and teacher, kindly Xavier with his soft voice and gentle eyes. Guilt would ever haunt Stifle that she had come so close to killing this man, crippling and choking him with his own telepathy. She had wanted to do it, craved revenge for Magneto's capture, for the jailing of the man whom she had believed to be her father. Wanted to destroy the X-Men and everything they stood for, so that mutants might be free to life their own lives as Magneto had decreed.

But Xavier had helped her see through those deceptions, guided her through her shock and hatred of the people who had used her as a tool against the X-Men. Rational now, and with some of her true memories restored to her, Stifle saw that Magneto was no more her father than Mystique had been her friend. All the cruelty of their rigorous training had been for their own benefits, not hers, as Dell had always believed. Professor Xavier had been more fatherly to Dell in those precious few days than Magneto had ever been, despite everything she had tried to do to him, yet still she could not stay here. No, to stay was to work against everything Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was trying to teach. Xavier and his team taught acceptance of the gifts or curses that were these people's mutations. And while Stifle had easily accepted her own gift to dull the mutations of others, it had the potential to destroy that acceptance. Mutants like Cyclops, forced to wear red glasses because his sight had become laser-like energy beams that could destroy everything around him, Stifle could make him see properly, or like poor Rogue, unable to touch another, who craved contact with Stifle because she was the only one who could hug her without getting hurt. To see young Marie gazing wistfully at her, knowing that Dell could take away her mutation if only for a short time, made Stifle uncomfortable, to say the least. It was time to take that temptation away, and at last to piece together the final bits of memory that were still missing from Stifle's history.

"All set?" Cyclops asked gently when Dell climbed aboard the jet.

"Sure." Stifle shrugged, strapping herself into the co-pilot's seat. Scott opened his mouth to continue speaking, but when Stifle's head turned away, he seemed to think better of it and continued with the take-off sequence.

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Jean glanced up from her magazine as the X-Jet rose from beneath the basketball court. It hovered lazily there for several moments, the basketball court sliding back into place, before zooming off into the distance. In the blink of an eye, the Blackbird was gone. Jean turned to her companion with a frown. "But Scott, I thought you were flying Stifle over to London?"