AN- Hey guys! This is Namuh-Flah writing the note. This is a Ruthfic. Which basically means it was my friend Ruth that wrote it. I guess it's kind of a prequel to our other fic "Mutation." It deals with the first time Rahne gets her powers and let me tell you, it's pretty damn good! Ruth's a much better writer than me, so I know that if you're enjoying "Mutation" and you're a Rahne fan, you'll love this! Anyway, thanks for reading and Ruth hopes you enjoy!
Disclaimer- We don't own X-Men Evolution. Well, I don't… but I did find Ruth plotting to kidnap Colossus. She scares me!
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It was late, and a cool breeze swept through the estate. Rahne Sinclair was sitting out on the roof of the back porch of her parents' house. The porch was unusual in the Scottish village, but had been added a couple of years ago after the Sinclair's had returned from visiting their family in America. Rahne had been left behind, disappointed and uncooperative. Years before Rahne was born, her mother had moved across the Atlantic back to Scotland with Rahne's father.
Rahne had memories of being taken across the ocean in a giant boat when she was very small. Each time they made the journey it became more clear to her that soon she would be arriving in a place where few people understood her if she spoke Scots like she did with her friends, and some people didn't even understand her altogether. Yet they called a pavement a sidewalk and expected her to understand their accents, some of which were definitely stronger than hers. Once she had thrown a tantrum, very unladylike she now knew, but something you do when you are five is not held against you your whole life.
The tantrum was before she also recalled that she would soon be seeing her cousins. It wasn't until the next visit she remembered that this strange place was home to Jean, Tabby and Kitty. The three girls always made a special effort to include her.
Jean would tell her stories about the original pilgrims who settled in America. She was an incredible story teller. Jean explained about the struggles that these people endured, from surviving the first hard years to their betrayal of the natives who had helped them so they could gain more land. Jean always pulled a disgusted expression in Rahne's memory at this point. Once she had asked Kitty why in a letter.
"We found that out for ourselves. They told us in school about the settling and things, but they avoided questions about what happened afterwards. We had to persuade our uncle Xavier to tell us that part. It is not the kind of thing to be discussed on paper Rahne, I would not know if I was telling you more than you would want to know."
This sombre Kitty had persuaded Rahne not to ask more in her next letter, rather than her words. No one could rightly accuse her of not liking Jean, but she was very much like the older siblings of some of her friends. In a word, overprotective. Kitty, on the other hand, was only one year older than her and always seemed to be on a similar plain of thought to her Scottish cousin, and the same applied to Tabby. Their letters were filled with an exuberance that seemed to nearly jump off the page, ink transformed into her living, breathing cousins.
Their letters kept the girls cousins close, even though they lived thousands of miles apart. Whenever a letter arrived from her aunt and uncle, Rahne would be given her own letter to devour. Even the few times Kitty had been too busy to write, Jean had prepared a little note for her detailing the events in their "drab and dreary lives", as Kitty described it. Rahne replied that she should try living somewhere where the weather matched the lifestyle.
At breakfast that morning a letter had been brought to the house. It had the travel markings that always covered letters from America. There was no doubt that the letter was from them, but as her father read it his expression changed, and he told Rahne to go and "get yuirself ready for school," which she knew was a politer way of saying "you are still only fourteen young lady, you are not able to understand this."
Really she had no choice but to go and collect her things and head off to the local school house, where she went once a week. Her parents thought it important to show her how fortunate she was in comparison to some others in the community. All day she was unable to pay attention, completely distracted by the letter.
"It must be serious, if Father sent me out so quickly. He couldn't have read much more than the first few lines. It was rather slim for a letter. I would be surprised if there were more than two sheets of paper in the envelope." Rahne's imagination turned out explanation after explanation for why she had been denied Kitty's usual accompanying novella. None of them were good.
So when that evening her parents had gone out onto the porch Rahne had opened the window and climbed onto the ledge that the sloping roof formed. It was a trick Kitty had suggested to her when Rahne had told the others of her parents plans. It had become a favourite place to sit and think. There was a large tree by the window that framed the starlight sky beautifully. There was something just so tranquil about the night sky that eased the thinking process. She could always articulate her feelings more clearly, if even only in her mind. And voices had a habit of drifting up to her ears from whoever was below. Everyone seemed to think that being outside offered the same kind of privacy as a room.
She had been listening for the past half an hour, and whatever it was she had expected, it wasn't anything like this. Jean and Kitty were affected with unnatural powers. She had heard rumours of young people suddenly shooting beams of light from their hands in the Western Isles, Rahne had never believed them. Anyhow, the girls' powers were more subtle. Jean could hear what anyone was thinking and Kitty was able to lose her solidity.
Rahne couldn't help but think these were the perfect powers for her cousins. Kitty's often needed a quick escape route while Jean had always wanted to know what was going on so she could stop it if necessary. And what was it they had each been provided with now!
Her parents were just discussing the last part of the letter:
"We have asked John to keep an eye on Tabitha. He however does not seem to understand the urgency of the situation. Since we do not yet know if the condition" (they had called it a condition all the way through the letter, like it was something unwholesome that shouldn't be mentioned) "is in any way inherited through family members we would urge you to do the same for Rahne."
Rahne shuddered at this. Yet another set of reasons why she should be kept practically under lock and key. Her parents' ideas of sending her to the school seemed quite flawed; they were so intent on keeping her uncorrupted that she was excluded from any other activities the girls her own age took part in. Her parents might not realise it, but Rahne had long ago worked out that wealth and decency were not always linked.
The letter continued:
"We are quite urgent to find a cure for the girls. We have inquired around America and looked into things in Canada. Our next point would be Europe, and we have heard of a reliable female scientist, Moria Mactaggart. Her work goes along the lines of accepting Mr Darwin's theories on evolution. Experts we have talked to here agree that she is a credible source of information and many have recommended her. She lives on one of the northern islands of Scotland, and we would be grateful if on our way we could stop with you for a couple of days. The girls are staying in America, but it would be delightful to see you all again."
Her parents began the same worried conversation they had been having all evening; what if Rahne is also strangely mutated? What if she already knows but is hiding it from us? Would she do that, she is such a good girl? Is she maybe too ashamed to tell us?
Unless the aching in her muscles she had had for the past month or so was a mutation Rahne could confidently say that she was boringly normal. She couldn't avoid the walk to school by thinking she was there, she could not predict when she was going to be asked a question and she most certainly could not become as thin as air to dodge the balls boys at school found so hilarious to kick at her and the other girls in the playground.
The wind started to blow harder, and Rahne suddenly noticed that the sky was a deep blue. She had been sitting out so long that dusk had almost slipped past her unnoticed. The weather had been beautiful all day, and there were no clouds covering the stars. The moon was a bright shining half circle. In the distance she could just make out a horse and cart, the collision of horses hooves with rocky road. She could smell the smoky fire burning in the grate of the main parlour.
Wait, she shouldn't be able to smell that. She shouldn't be able to hear the horse snorting as it was stopped. Everything was becoming sharper and stronger and brighter and too overwhelming for her to handle. Rahne was becoming panicked now. She opened her mouth to gasp for help but all that came out were whimpers. She couldn't make that noise! Throwing her head back she howled in fear. Howled.
Untangling herself from the heap of her clothes she somehow jumped off the roof and ran across the grassy hill. She was going so fast, the ground seemed to move effortlessly beneath her. Running she always felt gangly and awkward. Now she was long and lean and graceful. The movements were flowing. With each stride her muscles loosened themselves, stretching and lengthening, like a tangled piece of string being pulled taught and somehow coming away knot free. It wasn't until the next day she noticed this though. Now she was too frightened to even notice that she had run out of her preferred walking zone and into the shadowy woods. She ran until her limbs were screaming at her to stop, then somehow she dragged herself into the side of a tree. She lay there waiting for either sleep or a wild animal to get her, whimpering until sleep won.
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Mr and Mrs Sinclair had been on their back porch when they had heard a wolf howl. It seemed to come from right over their heads. They rushed up to see if Rahne had her window closed, but when they got there all they could find of her was her clothes scattered on the roof. She wasn't especially tall for her age, but she was big enough that a wolf wouldn't be able to drag her away. So where was she?
A search party was organised quickly among the farm labourers. They went through the fields shouting Rahne's name at the top of their voices.
Around midnight it was decided to start searching the woods. It wasn't until an hour or so after dawn that they found her. They brought her a blanket and wrapped her up and carried her home. She was shaking and crying. Some of the most avid church goers thought that she was possessed by a demon. Others thought she was insane.
"Running miles in naught but what the Lord gave her. What other explanation is there? An' her ravings! The poor bairn." The gossips of the town shook their heads and ran to tell anyone who might not have hard about it.
Her parents tried to calm her, but Rahne was distraught.
"Mama, Papa," she used the names that she hadn't used since she was six years old. "Don't let it happen again. I don't want to be it again!"
"Be what darling?"
"A wolf. I was a wolf. Don't let it happen again. Please Mama…"
The adults looked across the weeping Rahne. There was no other choice. She would have to go to America, until a cure was found.
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AN- I just thought I'd sneak this note in at the end so Ruth might not notice it. I want to apologise for not being able to update "Mutation" recently. I've been away and it's kind of embarrassing to walk around a hotel with a laptop over your head, trying to get a connection. Didn't stop me though. Let's just say I got quite a few evil glares. I've gone on a bit longer than I wanted to. I hope you enjoyed and agree with me that Ruth's a fantastic writer. Please review!