He met her on the corridors of the mansion, he was the manipulator of fire and she was the one of the only things that could stop him. He didn't plan on falling in love, he planned on being alone and gaining fame through being the top mutant, the one people feared the most yet when he first found her, his heart skipped a beat. She on the other hand, had lost everything, her parents her friends and her life, coming to the Xavier Institute was the only option she had. She hated her powers and she thought that she would always be alone, until she saw him and she knew that he was the one. Now all they had to do was tell that to each other.
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Chapter 1 – Broken Home
"John, will you get up already, you're going to be late for training."
John groaned as he threw his pillow over his head, he certainly wasn't a morning person, and his roommate Bobby Drake had been calling him for over an hour in order to get him up.
"Go away Bobby." He groaned.
"I would if Storm wouldn't bust my ass for not getting you up on time." Bobby told him, suddenly freezing John's bed making him jump up and out of bed. "There we go."
John glared at him, before he yawned and got dressed into his usual leather training suit, and he and Bobby walked down to the training arena. When they got to the door of the training area, they found Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Wolverine and Storm waiting for them, Storm holding a less than amused look.
"You're both late." She told them, and she certainly didn't sound amused.
"Yeah sorry, John found his bed far too comfy." Bobby told her, just like Bobby not to want to get into trouble for anything.
John just looked on, and when everyone looked at him he simply gave them a shrug, yet turned around when they heard a voice behind him.
"Storm, would it be possible for me to borrow a student for the day?"
The voice came from none other than Charles Xavier, a bald man who was confined to a wheelchair, yet a very powerful mutant, though no one thought that just by looking at him.
"Of course Professor." Storm nodded.
"I would like Kitty to accompany me today." He nodded to Shadowcat, who looked up.
"Oh, um, sure thing Professor." The girl now known as Kitty told him, before the girl took off her ear piece and handed it back to Storm before going to get changed once more.
As the Professor and Kitty left, the rest of the group put in their earpieces and walked into the danger room.
"Run Danger Situation 2.4" Storm commanded, and the scene around them transformed into a courtyard, littered with rubble and broken cars, as well as the occasional fires. As they all looked around, they suddenly found them under fire from a centennial, and then they all split up. Bobby and John ran in one direction, whilst Colossus and Rogue went in another and finally Wolverine and Storm went in a third. Each one used their powers in order to protect themselves from the attacks. Bobby used his power to shield him and John from getting hit, whilst Colossus used his power to stop a piece of debris from hitting him and Rogue, whilst Storm and Wolverine looked out for themselves. When the session eventually ended, John, Bobby and Rogue were walking towards the games room after changing out of their leather training suit, when they always ran into Kitty.
"Whoa, hey Kitty." Bobby smiled. "Thought you were heading out with the Professor."
"Hey, and I am, but we're going to Australia, so we have to wait a while." She told him, blushing softly.
"Where about in Australia?" John asked her.
"Um, Queensland, I think." Kitty told him.
"That's a good place; I used to go swimming off the reef there with my brothers." John mused.
"Do you want me to ask the Professor if you can go?" Kitty asked.
"Nah, I can't be bothered traipsing all the way back home thanks." John told her, walking into the games room.
"Why don't you come and play some games with us, you know, before you go and spend time in Australia." Bobby asked.
"Um, nah I'd best go and get my things together." Kitty told him, before she walked away.
Later that evening, Kitty met the Professor by the X-Jet and she found that Beast had followed them.
"Ah Hank, are you ready to go?" Professor Xavier asked.
Hank looked at him. "Go where, exactly Professor?"
"To pick up a new student." Xavier told him.
Beast looked at him. "Of course, I would love to be one of the first to meet our new student." He walked onto the jet with Kitty and as she sat in a seat, the Professor and Beast sat in the pilot seats. As the jet flew, Kitty looked at them.
"Speak your mind Kitty." The professor told her.
"I'm just wondering Professor, why you asked me to go when there are people more suited." Kitty asked. "I mean, Rogue could have come instead, or Bobby or even Jean."
"Because this girl is your age, and you and she have a few things in common." Xavier told her.
"Like what?"
"Her father is also in the army, though unlike yours, hers died during battle, her stepfather is strict catholic and won't even acknowledge her abilities and he treats her like dirt."
"I don't see how I can help her." Kitty told him.
"You can acknowledge the difficulties in her life, and show her friendship."
"Okay, but I still don't see why the others couldn't have done it." She rested back in her seat and decided to sleep the flight away.
When they eventually landed, Beast shook Kitty awake, and she grabbed her bag, walking out of the jet with him. When they were outside, Kitty noticed that they were in a field, which was surrounded by houses, yet they were all in the distance.
"Where are we?" Kitty asked.
"Queensland, Australia, if you were to walk a few minutes that way and you get to the beach that has Great Barrier Reef coming off of it." Beast told her. "Now come on, let's find this new student."
"Very well Hank, this way you two." Xavier wheeled himself out of the field, towards the houses, and they soon came to a quaint little road of houses. Xavier wheeled them down to near the end of the street, where two houses stood, one was beautifully painted and maintained, the other was just as beautiful.
"Which house is it Charles?" Beast asked.
"The one on the right." Xavier wheeled himself towards it, and with Beast's help, he got onto the veranda in his wheelchair, and rang the doorbell.
Kitty stood beside the Professor as Beast stood behind them, and they waited patiently as the door opened and a young girl stood there, she looked no older than four years old.
"Hello." Charles smiled at the girl. "My name is Charles Xavier and these are some of my friends, your parents are expecting us."
"Mummy, there are some people at the door for you." The girl shouted through the house, and a woman, who looked quite beautiful even though she was aged, answered the door. "Ah, you're the Professor that I spoke to the other day, come in." She led them into the living room.
The house itself looked spotless, and the little girl was sitting in front of the television playing with her dolls.
"Would you like anything to eat or drink?" The woman asked.
"A glass of water please." Beast asked, and Kitty asked for the same.
"If possible, could I possibly have a cup of tea?" Charles asked.
"Of course." She then looked at the little girl. "Jamie, why don't you go and get your sister."
"Okay mummy." The girl picked up her doll and walked upstairs, a few minutes later coming down again still carrying her doll.
"Where is she?"
"She's upstairs, she said that she was just finishing off her homework then she would be down."
"Alright then." The woman replied, and a few minutes later, they all heard footsteps coming down the path towards the door and the front door opened.
"Wife, I'm home." A man in a suit walked into the room, and paused at seeing Xavier, Beast and Kitty sitting there along with his wife and presumably his daughter.
"What do we have here?" He asked.
"Honey, these are the people from the Xavier Institute who have come to talk to us about our daughter." The woman told him.
"Your daughter." The man pointed out, before he looked at his wife. "Get me a beer."
The woman nodded, and got up, leaving the room and coming back with a cold beer, finding the man now in her seat, so she stood.
"Where is the little trollop anyway?" The man asked.
"She's coming downstairs shortly, just finishing her homework." The woman told him, but the man still told her to fetch her.
"And drag her down if you have to, I know that it works better." The man told her off handily.
"Don't bother wasting your energy." Came the reply, and everyone looked over at the doorway as a girl with tanned skin, and mousy brown hair stood there. She had the body of a model, from the pinched in waist to the perfectly shaped breasts, and she wore denim shorts and a vest top, her feet were bare from being in the house, and her hair had ringlets in.
"Ah, here she is the family tart." The man suddenly spoke, causing the girl to look at him with cold, dark almond coloured eyes.
"You must be Ashlyn." Xavier asked her with a comforting smile as she moved to stand in front of the group.
"Just Ash." The girl told him, giving him a small smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you...Mr…"
"Xavier, Charles Xavier." Charles held out his hand and he watched the girl take it, giving him a handshake, before he looked over at Kitty. "This is Kitty Pryde, she is one of my students, and this is Hank McCoy, one of my teachers."
"If you don't mind me asking, what do you teach Mr McCoy?" The woman asked.
"Politics." Hank told her. "It sound boring, but I try and make it as fun as possible."
The woman nodded politely. "Oh, right…"
"Could we possibly speak to Ashlyn – sorry, Ash – alone for a few moments?" Xavier asked.
"No, I'd prefer to be present; she has a habit of telling lies." The man told them, watching Ashlyn closely.
"I'm not a compulsive liar like you." Ashlyn told him, which caused the man to stand and suddenly back hand her across the face, with such force that she hit the floor.
"Joshua, please not in front of company." The woman whimpered, which caused her to be dragged from the room by the man.
As the couple left, Kitty offered the girl a hand in standing back up but Ash shook her head and stood up on her own accord. When she stood up, her hair had moved, to reveal bruises on her neck.
"Ash, what has been happening here?" Xavier asked.
Ashlyn pushed her hair back into place, hiding the bruises and she walked to where Jamie was hiding behind the sofa, silently crying. "It's alright Jamie." She picked her up into her arms, before she looked at her sister. "Jamie is his daughter, my half-sister through my mother, I noticed that he was abusive to both me and my mother within the first three weeks of their relationship, when Jamie was born he doted on her, he would never hurt her."
"Then personally, I think that it is imperative that you come to the Institute with us, tonight." East told her.
"But, I don't want to leave my mother." Ashlyn told them. "She can't handle things here on her own; she needs me and my ability."
"Then leave." Kitty told her.
"She can't, she has no were else to go, and that's why she moved here after my dad died, his savings kept me and her on our feet until she met Joseph." Ashlyn told them, putting her sister down and watched her run away, before she sat down in the armchair, and they could all hear Joseph yelling at her mother and things being thrown. Xavier, Kitty and Beast all saw how irate it was making Ashlyn to have to listen to it all.
"Ash, what is your actual gift?" Beast asked.
Ashlyn looked up at him. "I'm a shield, though right now, its strength is determined by my anger."
"Ah, that is quite interesting; I've never met anyone like you before." Beast smiled.
She smiled, back, just as her mother walked in, holding a cloth to her cheek. "Mother, what happened?" She asked as she stood up.
"Ashlyn dear, its n-nothing." Her mother stuttered.
"Heck is that nothing." She pulled the cloth away from her mother's cheek, revealing a deep cut in her cheek. "Did he do this?"
"Ashlyn, don't start any trouble." Her mother warned.
"I start trouble, mother he beats the pair of us, for the sake of all of us, leave him." Ashlyn begged.
"You know I can't, look Ashlyn just go to the Institute, make a life, excel in your gift, and don't come back here. Have a proper life." Her mother told her.
Ashlyn looked at her and nodded, before looking back at the Professor and his two guests. "I'll be back down shortly." She told them, before she looked at her little sister. "Jamie, do you want to come and help me?"
Jamie gave her a timid nod, and they left the room, going upstairs, before her mother looked at the Professor.
"I want you to promise me something Professor."
"What do you want me to promise you?" The Professor asked.
"That no matter what happens, unless it is something really necessary, you won't let her come back here, and you will give her the family that she deserves." She told him.
"I promise you, that I will do just that." Xavier promised her. "Ashlyn will be very looked after, and she will have Kitty to be there for her."
The woman nodded. "Does she get her own room?"
"She can if she wants to." He told her. "Does she prefer to be alone?"
"Yes, it's safer." She told him.
"Stop speaking, now!" Joseph shouted to her as he walked in. "I want these freaks out of this house now! And that slut isn't going anywhere!" He pointed to Ashlyn as she walked back downstairs with her bag.
"Just shut up Joseph!" Ashlyn suddenly shouted, and as he stalked over, she stood her ground and watched him suddenly stop, since she had been projecting her shield since she came downstairs with her bags. "And don't worry, I'm going, but it's not for my sake, it's for my mother. She wants to protect me and I don't know why, but if you so much as mark her skin with a scratch, I will come down on your head, so heard it will explode. Do you understand me?"
"I'm not scared of you Ashlyn." Joseph told her.
"Ashlyn baby, just go." Her mother told her, walking to her and hugging her. "I love you and I will call you sometime tonight or tomorrow, okay?"
Ashlyn looked up at her mother and nodded. "Alright…Be careful and please find your own home soon." She told her in a whisper as she hugged her, before she gained a hug from Jamie. "Be a good girl Jay, I'll see you soon." She then walked away with the Professor, Kitty and Beast. As they all got onto the jet, she looked back at her hometown, and she took a deep breath before walking into the jet and taking a seat at the very back, and she soon found Kitty joining her.
"Mind if I sit with you?"
"That's up to you." Ashlyn told her, looking at the roof of the jet as it set off. "So what is this place that we are going to?"
"It's a place where all mutants can be safe." Kitty told her. "You'll make friends pretty quick, and if you want, I'll be your friend. I already think you're pretty cool."
Ashlyn looked at her and smiled. "I'd like that."