This fic has taken almost TWO YEARS to get up, and it has changed so much. It was originally a Pietro/OC fic, but then I fell in love with the Tabietro pairing, and Rebecca's name was originally Heather. But now, here's the first chapter of 'Seether'. I promise you a good read with in-depth emotions and some crazy humour here and there, and if it turns out I'm not delivering, let me know, but please be nice. :)

PAIRINGS: Mainly Raybecca, but also has Jott and Lancitty, and hints of Kurmanda, Tabietro, AleX23, Samara, Robrhane, Jubby, Jamie/Paige, Remy/Rogue, and maybe a little Evanda if you squint a little bit.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own X-Men: Evolution of the W.i.t.c.h. novel 'The Light of Meridian'. Okay, so I own a paperback copy, but that's it.

WORD COUNT: 3138

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2002

Rebecca drew her coat tighter around her body to keep the cold out. Why did things have to get so damn freezing in the winter? It made walking to school every morning like taking a stroll through a giant freezer, one full of icy streets backed up with slow-moving cars. Beside her, Rebecca's mirror image shivered and rubbed her hands together, trying to get warm.

Rebecca and Julia Reid were identical twin sisters. They had raven black hair, although Rebecca's had bright orange highlights, emerald green eyes, and pale complexions, made even paler by the -20°C (-4F) temperature.

Rebecca spotted her favourite restaurant up ahead and pulled on her sister's arm. "Come on," she insisted, "We can detour at Timmy's for a coffee."

"Becky, we'll be late for school." Julia had a near-perfect attendance record and high marks in all her classes, which her twin attributed to the fact that she had pretty much no social life outside of school. With her, it was always schoolwork, homework, work work, eating three meals a day, and eight hours of sleep.

Rebecca, on the other hand, barely skated by in the academic department, preferring to rehearse with her band, the Graveyard Roses. As soon as their eighteenth birthday hit, she planned on claiming her inheritance, buying a big van, and travelling across the country with her bandmates until they were discovered. In short, being a few minutes tardy wasn't on her list of worries.

"Big deal. In this cold, the bell's probably frozen solid. I need a coffee!" The girls attended Sacred Heart School of Halifax, Nova Scotia, only because it was their parents' last wish. A large part of the estate had been designated for the girls' enrolment.

Rebecca managed to pull Julia into the Tim Horton's and headed straight for the closest empty booth. The seats were hard, white plastic with dark red leather backing that was supposed to be comfortable. She practically shoved her sister right in. "Wait right here," she insisted, "I'll get the coffee."

Julia got right back up. "Fine," she relented, "But we're getting them to go."

Rebecca shrugged. They were always making compromises like that. It was beyond her how they could be related, let alone have the exact same DNA! Julia was quiet, kept to herself, and tended to do as she was told. Rebecca was the complete opposite: outspoken, outgoing, and preferred to live life her way.

She ordered the coffees and got herself a discount by flirting shamelessly with the guy at the counter. The young man gazed at her through his googly-eyed specs and broke into a sweat, which didn't help his already greasy hair and oily skin. Rebecca smirked as she handed a cup to her disgusted sister before heading out the door.

She wasn't even halfway out before someone crashed into her. Her cup, filled with the coffee she'd just paid for, fell out of her grasp. "Shit!" she cried, as the precious contents spilled onto the sidewalk. Rebecca rounded on the person responsible. "Why don't you watch where you're…" She trailed off when she realised who it was.

It was common knowledge that the new transfer students were mutants. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff distanced themselves from the other students whenever they could, and spoke to no one but the teachers and each other. Both were in the eleventh grade with Rebecca and Julia. They always had lunch off-campus, although nobody actually knew where they went. Rebecca had once overheard Pietro saying he'd run to Truro to get their food.

And it was Pietro that Rebecca was yelling at now. She wasn't all that afraid of him, but his sister was downright scary. Nobody messed with him because they feared her wrath.

"Uh, never mind." Wanda was only a few steps behind her brother, wearing her ever-present scowl. Rebecca took a few steps back, accidentally blocking the doorway and keeping everyone else from getting out.

"I told you, we're going to be late," Julia reminded her, not aware of the situation up front, "Do you mind?"

"Uh… sorry, Jules. Let's go." Julia started to move through, but stopped when she saw the Maximoffs.

Then the weirdness started. Julia's eyes grew wide with terror, the little colour in her face drained out, and she started trembling violently. Her coffee cup slipped through her fingers too, but she paid it no attention as she edged past them. Pietro glanced behind him with a confused look on his face, but there was nothing even remotely terrifying there. Something wasn't right. Julia had always been wary of the mutant twins, like everyone else, but never like this. She eventually made it a few steps away before turning around and bolting down Spring Garden Road, towards the school, ignoring the dangerous slipperiness of the icy sidewalk.

"Jules!" Rebecca called. Her twin sister didn't respond at all. She just kept running. "What was that all about?" she mumbled to herself. She hurried off after Julia, being careful not to slip on the ice.

By the time she reached the school, the final warning bell had rung. Rebecca spotted Julia across the street in the Public Gardens, crouching under a willow tree with her head in her hands. She started to cross the road, but had to wait for a car to pass. Then Julia was gone.

One second, her twin sister was there, but she vanished while the vehicle went by. Rebecca stared at the spot for a long time. It was only when a car honked at her that she realised she was standing in the middle of the road. She hopped back onto the sidewalk and headed into the school. She was probably just letting her imagination get away with her. Julia was probably in French class right now.

Or not. The first thing she noticed when she walked into the room was that her sister's desk was empty.

"Mlle Reid!" Mme Wallace's voice startled her. "Tu es en retard encore!" (You're late again!)

"Huh?" Rebecca was barely paying attention. "Oh, ouais. Je m'excuse." (Oh, yeah. Sorry.) She slid into her own desk and got out her French book.

"Et où est ta soeur?" (And where is your sister?)

"Euh, Julia… n'est sentie pas de venir aujourd'hui." (Uh, Julia… didn't feel like coming today.)

"Vraiment? Ça, c'est plus comme un de tes excuses." (Really? That's more like one of your excuses.) Mme Wallace arched an eyebrow.

"Elle est malade." (She's sick.) Rebecca came up with the story on the spot. "Ouais, elle ne sentit pas très bien hier soir, alors Meghan a décidé qu'elle doit rester en lit aujourd'hui."(Yeah, she wasn't feeling very well yesterday evening, so Meghan decided she should stay in bed today.)

If the excuse had been for herself, no one would've bought it. But Mme Wallace shrugged and checked something off on the attendance sheet.

Rebecca got the feeling that someone was staring at her. She risked a glance back and saw Wanda Maximoff sitting all the way at the back, as usual, her eyes locked on Rebecca, her expression both serious and confused.

Julia had never been so terrified in her life. She didn't stop running, she just had to get away. The image of that… ghost kept playing over and over in her head. The shadowy figure that'd emerged from behind the Maximoffs and reached a clawed hand towards her was right behind her.

Upon nearing the school, she looked over her shoulder, and saw… nothing. She slowed herself to a stop, just in front of the gate that led to the school's rear entrance and the lunch yard. Julia leaned against the metal fence for support, taking short, panicked breaths. Eventually she breathed a sigh of relief. Her mind must've been playing tricks on her.

And then she turned around.

The spectre was inches away from her nose, its glowing purple eyes staring right into hers. Julia gasped, once again overcome with terror. She dashed across the street, ignoring the fact that a car could very well hit her at any given moment, and scrambled over the fence and into the Public Gardens. A big tree was the closest thing to her, so she ran and hid behind it.

Rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet and gripping the straps of her schoolbag, she peeked around the side of the tree. She saw that the thing was gone again. Instead, her twin sister was running down the sidewalk. Julia started to stand up. She had to warn Becky.

"Lies." A chilling, disembodied voice echoed in her mind. "All lies." Julia dropped back down, clutching her head. "Come. Come to me." She opened her eyes, only to see black. She was floating in an empty void of darkness.

"What?" she gasped, twisting around in an effort to see something, anything. The Public Gardens were gone, the school was gone, the street that separated them was gone, even the snow between her boots had vanished. "Where am I?"

The entire morning passed in the haze. Rebecca paid no attention whatsoever in class, constantly worrying about Julia.

This wasn't like her sister at all. She only missed school if she was really sick. She certainly never ran off without any warning or reason. And what had scared her so badly by the Tim's? Rebecca hadn't seen Julia so frightened since the accident all those years ago.

As soon as the lunch bell rang, she gathered her stuff and headed to the back entrance to meet Austin Jones, her boyfriend of ten months. Rebecca put a smile on before sneaking up on him. He was standing by the door, his back to her, so she crept up behind him and, after silently counting to three, jumped on him. He yelped out in surprise at first, then swung her around so that they were face to face. "Boo," she whispered playfully before passionately planting her lips on his. Never mind that this was a Catholic school, and a teacher could come across them at any minute.

"Hey, babe," he greeted her as they eventually pulled apart.

"Hey, yourself." Her fake smile dropped. "Austin, can we talk? It's about Julia."

"Who?"

"Julia. My sister."

"Oh, her. What about her?"

"Today, right before school, we bumped into the Maximoffs, and-"

"The mutants?" Austin hated mutants. He'd had an older cousin who'd been a cop down in the States, Bill, who'd been killed during the rampage of the mutant called Juggernaut. "What'd they do?"

"Nothing, really. Julia just got freaked out all of a sudden and took off. I thought I saw her in the Gardens across the street, but then she vanished. I haven't seen her since. It was so weird. It was like she saw something the rest of us couldn't, and it terrified her."

"Well, you saw her in the Gardens, right? Maybe she left something there to help us find her."

"Austin, that might be something she'd do normally, but I'm telling you, she's not thinking straight. I can feel it, something's not right." She squeezed his hand tighter, trying to communicate the urgency of the situation.

"But it still wouldn't hurt to just go look. Don't worry, we'll figure this out. If nothing's there, we can call the cops and then there'll be nothing to do but wait and hope."

"Just sit and wait?"

"Yeah. I mean, what else can we do?"

Rebecca sighed. Sometimes Austin just didn't get her. Sitting and waiting wasn't her style, especially not when her sister could be in trouble.

She and Austin went over, anyway. He hopped the fence halfway and helped her up, and they both went down together. A set of footprints from another fence-jumper were visible, only half filled in with the light snowfall from second period. They led behind a large, frost-coated willow tree, and then they just stopped.

"This is exactly where Julia was when I last saw her!" Rebecca realised, "Right here, at this spot!" She spotted something lying in the snow, and picked it up. "It's her bag."

"Well, there's nothing else here," Austin stated dully, "We can go get something to eat, and then get the cops on the phone."

"Are you kidding? I can't eat when I have no damn idea where my own twin sister is!"

Rebecca had eventually won Austin over, and they'd called the police without waiting until after lunch. She'd been excused from school to come up to the station and answer some questions, then Meghan had come to pick her up.

Meghan Panner was the twins' older cousin by twelve years. She'd taken them in after their parents had died six years ago, and cared for them as if they were her own children, along with her husband, Chase, and their three-year-old daughter, Rochelle.

It was Meghan who'd called Chris Carson, Lynzi Park, and Matty Tate, Rebecca's bandmates, to inform them that rehearsal was cancelled, and why. Lynzi – Rebecca's best friend – had offered to scour the city with her numerous brothers and sisters, but Rebecca turned down the offer. She doubted Julia was in town anymore.

Now Rebecca was at home, curled up in the living room armchair. She was still in her school uniform, even though it was past midnight. Her arms were wrapped around her knees in the foetal position, and she was staring blankly into space.

She looked up when Meghan came into the room, carrying two mugs of steamy peppermint tea. Rebecca accepted one, but didn't take a sip. "You should get some sleep, Rebecca," Meghan advised her, "The police will do their job. They'll find Julia. You need your rest. You've got that field trip to the museum tomorrow after school, and if you fall asleep in class, they won't let you go."

"I don't want to go to school tomorrow."

"You've already missed enough days already, young lady, and your sister wouldn't want you to miss out on that trip for her. You know how she is. If she found you never went to school while she was gone, you'd never here the end of it."

She was right. Julia was shy, but if Rebecca ever left an assignment to the last minute, or anything like that, her twin would go on and on about her lack of prioritising ability. Rebecca usually found it annoying, but right now, she'd give anything to hear Jules's voice.

"So, what did you think of the movie, girls?" Zack Reid asked his wife, Beth, and their twin daughters as they drove home.

"I didn't like it," Rebecca stated right away, "It made no sense at all."

"Oh, come on," Mom teased, "I thought it was sweet."

"A dog gets separated from its owners for, like, an hour, everybody freaks out, dog comes back, and the freaking mayor throws a party. That's not sweet, that's just plain stupid."

"The dog was worth a billion dollars."

"So?"

She tuned out the debate between her mother and sister and went back to trying to read her favourite book, 'The Light of Meridian'. It was a little difficult, as night had fallen, and the only available light came from the streetlights the car passed. She had just reached the part where Elyon witnesses the burning of a peasant family's house when she heard her nickname, valid only within the family. "What about you, Jules?" her mother was asking, "Did you like it?"

"Huh? Oh yeah… um… not really," she answered.

"Sweetie, put the book away. You'll damage your eyes." Sighing, Julia closed her paperback novel aside before staring out the window.

"Well, I guess that was a total waste of money," Dad commented.

"Not totally," Rebecca corrected, "The popcorn was okay."

"Are you kidding?" He turned around in the driver's seat to look at her. "It tasted like-"

"LOOK OUT!" Mom shrieked.

But it was too late. Time seemed to stop for just a second as a pair of headlights glared into the vehicle. The there was a sickening 'crunch' as they collided.

It was dark for a few seconds, and silent. Then she opened her eyes. All the windows were cracked, and the inside of the car was filled with an orange haze. It took her a second to realise the engine was on fire.

The door on her sister's side was opened, and her twin was seized by a pair of arms and pulled her out. Mom and Dad were rescued as well, and she waited.

For a second, she thought nobody would come. The rest of her family was safe, but she'd been completely forgotten. The flames were getting closer and closer, until she finally screamed.

"GET ME OUT!"

Rebecca sat up in bed, gasping. She was covered in a cold sweat and her breathing was short and shallow. She curled up, hugging her knees, and started sobbing.

Mom and Dad hadn't made it. She remembered seeing the bright light, and when it'd faded, she'd been in a hospital bed. Julia had been beside her, wide awake, crying hysterically. Once Rebecca had heard the terrible truth, she'd broken down, too.

But, as she began to calm down, Rebecca realised something. She had no recollection of being rescued at all. The doctors had said she'd been flung to the side, hit her head on the window, and knocked unconscious. So where did that memory come from?

"HHHEEELLLPP!" Julia continued screaming into the blackness. The emotional pain just wouldn't stop. Over and over again, she watched it happening, unable to shut her eyes to the horror. "Please," she whimpered, "make it stop."

"I will, if only you let me into your heart." The creepy voice was back.

"What?"

"Let me into your heart, and I will remove all your suffering."

"You... you can do that?"

"Of course. I can already see all that you have been but through. Losing your family, growing up in the shadow of a talented sister, everything. I can make it all go away, but you have to let me."

"Yes," she begged, "Yes, please! I don't want this pain anymore! I'll do anything to pay you back, anything!"

Okay, so I know most of you are wondering where the hell the X-Men are, but I promise you, some are going to show up in the next chapter, along with some action. Here's a little sample:

"Let me go, both of you!" she cried. Something Ray hard and shoved him back into the jet, forcing him to let go to Rebecca. He heard her scream, and realized that Austin wasn't inside. He caught a glimpse of Rebecca right before she jumped.

Until then, Read and Review!