Hello! I know you were wondering when I'd finish editing the 906 series, but ... this little thing took my attention a while ago, and while I've been thoroughly enjoying a few other universes ... (714, 867, 906, 907, 495, 664 ...) not to mention the Avengers/Hunger Games/DCU crossover with The Freelancer Collaboration ... Yeah, I went and did this one too.

So again ... this is a character experiment of an AU with an OC ... This was something that made me wonder for a long time ... I wrote K (906 and others) as one that more or less just fell into step with Xavier and his crew and his dream ... but ... Xavier isn't the ONLY option. This is how I saw it going down if she'd gone to Magneto instead ... though as you'll see, it wasn't a smooth transition from the word 'go'.

A word of warning: YES, many of these characters aren't going to line up with their ages as you know them in the comics. This is in the somewhat earlier days, so a lot of the tech isn't up to bleeding edge standards by any stretch of the imagination. The X-Men lineup here is sketchy, so just ... ignore what you know about early X-Men outside of general personifications. The line up is NOT the same because I need to tweak ages. Try to enjoy it for what it is, please don't try to guess where this is going because it's already written, I'm just ... finally putting it out there. No requests. No hints. Just enjoy.

Chapter 1 - Finder's Keepers

He needed to send a message to that ridiculous group, and of the options available, the most attractive was to make an example of Charles' little beast. There was no reason for him to be in that little band of star-eyed children in the first place, and he had never been anywhere close to reasonable.

And this, of course, made him the perfect option to get those stars out of Charles' disciples' eyes, make them see the reality of their situation.

With a scowl, he reached out, searching for an unreasonable amount of adamantium concentrated in one place. He wasn't surprised in the least when he found himself drawn toward a Weapon X facility in the most inhospitable reaches of northern Canada - he smirked to himself as he thought it through. Two birds with one stone. These humans will find no solace in their crimes - and no protection from the elements either.

He tore through the building, crumbling walls and destroying anything and anyone that was in his way, but when he got to the cells, he found himself taking pause. There was a familiar signature of metal - of a quantity that he was sure could only be Charles' little pet, Wolverine …

He was prepared to deal with him right there … make an example of the beast ...but he was absolutely surprised when he pulled the adamantium closer and found that it wasn't Logan, but a small, furious dark haired young woman with striking features … not to mention - the same claws that Logan had.

"Who are you?" he asked, glancing from the naked woman to the various tubes with floating fetuses and children.

But it appeared as though the woman couldn't talk - at least … not with all of the devices she had attached to her. Erik narrowed his eyes and with a slight twist of his wrist, the collar and all of the wires were plucked from her, leaving her totally frozen as Erik held her aloft. "Now. Who are you?" he asked again, his gaze locked onto her.

"I …" she swallowed hard and started to say something before she stopped and closed her eyes tightly. "I can't …"

"They conditioned you not to use your name," Erik surmised, looking more angry still as the little woman nodded minutely. "Then what do they call you, my dear?"

"K."

"Well then, K … if I set you down, what would you do?"

She paused, clearly concerned that it was a test. "I'd kill as many of them as I could," K said with almost a waver to her voice.

"Then I'll see you when you're finished," Erik said before he gently set her down and watched her turn tail to run toward the nearest soldier.

He floated a safe distance behind her - stopping any bullets that came his way as he watched the little woman destroy one group of men after another - pound for pound every bit as vicious as Wolverine - or moreso. When she was finally worn out, Erik caught her before she could fall - letting his magnetic field cradle her. "Would you care to join me in ending these shortsighted fools?"

K paused and with a flourish, Erik removed his cape and draped it over her shoulders so she could at least cover herself from the cold as he took her out of the facility, crushing it with it's own structure on the way out. By the time they'd returned to Erik's space bound haven, the woman was wiped out.

Over the next several days, he peeked into the room he'd arranged for her - always to see her simply sleeping - in nearly the same position. He wondered vaguely if this was normal for someone of her mutation, but then simply waved it off as exhaustion and relief at being out of the hands of her oppressor.

He was to be notified, of course, as soon as she woke up. In the meantime, he had a war to fight, and he had no time to waste.

When the little woman finally did wake up, Erik's people were sure to provide her with all that she required and notified him. When he found her, she was staring out of a window that overlooked the earth - the curvature plain to see - and stars beyond that. "Where are we?" she asked quietly long before Erik allowed his feet to touch the floor.

"Avalon," Erik replied. "It's my mutant sanctuary, and I'd like very much like for you to join our fight."

She nodded and he gestured for her to follow him. He wasted no time telling her his outlook on the world, and what he thought of the people trying to use mutants. Of course, telling her these things while she had no viable method of escape set the tone for how things were expected to be. But even with that in mind, it really didn't take much for him to convince her - and he hadn't expected that it would- before the pretty young feral agreed to join his fight.

He was tickled, of course. Pietro had done all of the reconnaissance at the facility he'd found her at as he destroyed it. And though his speedster son was concerned with the similarities with a certain X-Man, but Erik could finally see the usefulness.

If what was in the files was accurate, then this little woman knew all of the combat techniques and spy methods that Wolverine did - in what so far, was a much more agreeable package. He was sure that she was of the proper mindset or that she would soon be. She was still impressionable after her rescue, after all and Erik could see it. The fact that she hadn't been able to make her own choices for so long … and the fact that she was unable to even say her own name without fear … Erik knew his window wouldn't stay open for long, and he was sure to carefully press his advantage. To earn her trust and loyalty before someone else did.

"Please," Erik said as he gently put his arm across her shoulders. "Tell me about yourself."

It was only a few weeks after Erik had finally felt secure in getting K's loyalty that it was time for the his semi yearly chess match with Charles. It was the perfect opportunity to test the girl on where exactly she stood, so he chose to bring her along as his second against all of Pietro's protests. Of course, when they arrived, he was sure not to tell the X-Men what the girl was capable of - and was just as careful to tell her to keep it to herself. "Charles is an old friend," he told her as they came closer to the mansion in Westchester. "But he thinks that the people that had imprisoned you can be taught to live peacefully with our kind."

K frowned at that, and gave Erik a look that clearly read how stupid that idea sounded to her before he continued. "The purpose of these chess games has been to try and gently show him the error of his ways, so please, observe."

"Your friend is a telepath though," K said, watching him before they started toward the front door.

"He is, but he has an odd code. If you can sense him trying to reach into your thoughts - he'll stop if you make it known you caught him."

K nodded her head, keeping that in mind as the door opened even before they could knock. Cyclops paused on seeing the new face, the slight hesitation obvious.

"Considering that you were expecting me, you don't look prepared," Erik said with a smirk as he watched Scott's reaction.

Scott straightened slightly and shook his head. "I was just expecting you." He smiled lightly at K in an obvious attempt to maintain a polite introduction as he held out his hand. "Cyclops."

She looked him up and down openly then very delicately took the offered hand without returning the favor of her name. Which only had Erik smiling to himself as he led the way in.

As luck would have it, Erik was sure that Cyclops was properly wary of the girl, and incredibly uncomfortable when instead of answering any of his polite and reasonable questions, K simply ignored him or answered him with a simple raised eyebrow look that questioned his sanity.

To Erik's delight, it was clear that Charles couldn't read her well- and he was trying. But K remained stoic and aloof to anyone that they came across.

"Professor … " Scott said, really only drawing Erik and Charles' attention to himself while K seemed totally focused on the pieces on the chessboard. The bald wheelchair bound man gave him a look that spoke volumes and with a nod, Charles looked up at K.

"My dear, would you mind terribly if Erik and I had a private word?" Charles asked in a warm, kind tone.

K's gaze flicked up to meet his from the chessboard before she drew in a slow, easy breath and simply rose to her feet without looking Erik's way - almost defiantly showing them that she didn't need permission to go wherever she pleased. As soon as the door shut behind her and Scott, Charles met Erik with a hard glare.

"Where did you find her?" Charles asked at almost a hiss. "You destroyed that base in the arctic, didn't you?"

"What's wrong, old friend? Does it bother you that much to come across a mutant that you can't so easily sift through?"

"Erik … I could see enough to know what she is. You cannot lie to her."

"I haven't," Erik replied simply. "And I don't plan to. This one believes in the cause, not your naive dream."

"Have you threatened her?"

"I didn't need to. She chose to join me."

"And should she change her mind, and want to leave?"

"Then she is free to do so."

Outside of Charles' office, Scott wasted little time in trying to get the young woman to hear him out, but before he could get too far into his well rehearsed and earnest speech, K raised a hand to cut him off.

"I'm not interested," she said, the first words out of her mouth since stepping into the mansion.

"You haven't let me explain."

"And you haven't been tortured and threatened with rape by humans wanting to dominate you. I'm not interested."

Scott let out a breath and tried a different angle. "You're not the only one who's been through the wringer. I don't think anyone in our group has come this far without someone using or abusing them."

K let her expression soften as she looked up at him. "Is this the part where we're supposed to hug, and I cry, and you tell me how your uncle touched you?"

Scott was clearly taken off guard and had no idea how to reply to her, even as she arched one perfect eyebrow and waited for his response. "I…" He shook his head. "I just meant you shouldn't let the bad things people do wash out any chance of peace."

"Yeah, that's not what's going on here."

Scott turned her way and let out a breath. "It is."

"Okay," she said with a little shrug as she took a seat nearby - perfectly content and acting almost as if she owned the place. "Are you going to stand there and gape all afternoon or are you going to have a seat and babysit me properly?"

Scott stared at her for a second longer before she could actually see the shift in body language as he simply sat down across from her, arms crossed.

K smirked to herself and sat back in her chair, sure that the young man wasn't going to even attempt to engage her in conversation again.

When Erik finally left with his new … friend … it didn't take long for Scott to turn towards Charles looking frustrated at how the afternoon had gone.

"I know you're trying, professor, but I think he purposefully collects people who don't listen to … anything like reason," Scott said, shaking his head as he sat down.

Charles let out a weary sigh. "We don't know the circumstances in which he found her," he said as patiently as he could, though he was certainly feeling the same way.

Scott shook his head. "She told me," he said. "Apparently, he found her in some place torturing her, threatening rape, even… I tried to tell her most of us here have gotten flack too, but…" He gestured broadly.

"You did what you could with what you had to work with," Charles said with an encouraging sort of smirk. "It's simply hard to know where to start in a case like hers - especially when we don't know what Erik has promised her."

Scott let out a breath of frustration. "Were you able to learn anything, then?" he asked. "All I got was a complete shutdown and glare Logan would have loved to see."

Charles let out a dry chuckle. "Actually, she caught me."

Scott's eyebrows shot up, and he leaned forward. "So you didn't get anything?"

"Only that she has an intense distrust of telepaths." Charles let out a sigh. "She'll be hard to turn."

"Especially if she's going to immediately distrust two of our heaviest hitters," Scott pointed out. "You and Jean … you two are better at this than any of us."

"I think your measure is a bit off, Scott," Charles said. "But I appreciate the confidence." He shook his head as the two of them headed down the hall. "We'll just have to find out more about her before we try to reason with her." He let out a breath when they met up with Jean, too. "I believe that Erik found her near the arctic. There was a facility that was reduced to rubble not a month ago - and it certainly bears his marks. Perhaps you two can look into what was being done there and who, if any prisoners were being held there."

"Absolutely," Scott agreed with a nod, even as Jean reached out to him to get an idea of what exactly had him so clearly ready to go.

"Do you need anything from me?" Jean asked Scott, tipping her head slightly to the side as he headed out.

Scott paused and then took a second to give her a smile at the corner of his mouth. "Just a little company while we look into this mess," he said.

She smirked crookedly at him and made her way over to take his arm and lean on his shoulder a little. "Good. Extra Eyes are always good."