The young woman was lost in thought as the snow stopped falling outside her window. It was Christmas time, the home she shared with her father seemed colder then other years, even though there was a fire burning in the fire place.
The raven haired woman, dressed in an ivory wool sweater and green colored pants, headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" asked the male voice from across the room.
"Out for some fresh air." Was her quick response.
"But is freezing outside!" The man's voice turned to alarm.
"Dad, its 45 degrees, its warm." Her coat was already on when she responded.
"Don't be too long," Dad warned, "Company is coming and I want you to be here, since you missed the last dinner."
"Fine!" The door to the porch slammed shut, and a few moments later, the second door was slammed.
Curious, the father put down his book and went to the porch to check up on her. Father saw her with her gray overnight bag draped across her neck, hanging at her left side. Enraged the silver haired man ran out after her.
"Where are you going?" Catching up to her he demanded an answer.
Silence was her answer.
"No, no, no daughter of mine is running off to join them." He spun her around. The woman's brown eyes glared with rebellion, when confronted by her father. "Its not our fight."
"No, its not YOUR fight." She showed him the silver ring on her left hand.
"Let go of her." An older Emma, short, orange red hair, bundled in black leather, stood, waiting.
"No." The years had not been kind to silver haired Brennan Mulwray.
"It was her choice." Emma confirmed the fact for Brennan.
"No. I won't allow it." He called up a ball of energy to strike at Emma.
Quick thinking Emma, zapped him using her mind's energy. "Stop it Brennan."
"No, she doesn't belong with you." Brennan stumbled towards Emma, energy ball in hand.
"Daddy no, please....." The young woman stepped in front of Emma.
"Move!" Brennan readied the energy.
"Dad, listen to me, what happened to the team, was terrible, but it didn't have to happen," Hand outstreched palm out, tried to explain, " someone from our time, went into the past and changed history. Emma and I found the lab, where, this Dr. Sawyer, jumps time lines."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma, Brennan and his daughter inside the lab, and found themselves in a room which was a cross between a lab, and a junk yard. Emma and Sky explained to Brennan that this man, made a time machine.
"You're too late!" A blond hair man, with a small scar on his right cheek, saw them and stepped on a switch, opening a portal of some sorts, and jumped through to the ally on the other side.
A giant, henchman appeared, Emma and Brennan recognized him from Jesse's description of the incident that put him in a wheelchair.
"Brennan he's going in!" Emma yelled as the man leapt into the portal.
Brennan's energy blast hit the circuit breaker, causing power fluctuations, and the portal to start closing,.
"Dad! I love you," the raven haired young lady, threw herself into the portal.
"Skylar no!" Brennan tried to go after her, but the portal closed when the power went out, taking down the main computer.
~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar landed in a large puddle of water, in the mouth of an alley and saw the henchmen walking away from the landing site. "Good thing I changed clothes." She muttered, brushing off her green pants and navy shirt and black vest.
Trying to follow at a close distance, Skylar lost him, until she heard some strange noises coming from a block away.
Turning towards the noise, she froze in her tracks. Jesse, on verge of a black out, was about to get slammed into the giant's knee.
"Hey!" Skylar yelled at him.
~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse." The future Emma tried to talk to him, while looking at the damage Brennan had done to the power box. "When did your aim get so lousy Brennan? Never mind, Jesse!"
~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse!" Emma's voice startled Jesse as he was trying to move from his wheelchair to the computer stool.
"What?!" Cross and on the floor, Jesse answered her call.
"Jesse, we need your help, Brennan blew up..."
"Wait a minute, Brennan?" Jesse tried to pull himself onto the stool. "Where's Skylar?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Startled the giant dumped Jesse into the garbage container.
"You!" He moved towards her with his giant hands out stretched.
"Oh no you don't," Skylar began to build up her energy within the confines of her hands, when there was enough power she let it go.
Despite the energy, the giant kept coming, stepping back she mustered up all the energy she could, producing a ball of energy the size of a softball and let him have it. The giant was knocked four feet from where he was standing, and all indications were he was out cold or dead.
Concerned about Jesse, Skylar balanced herself on the ridge of the garbage container, to look in. "Jesse?" Shaking him, she said his name louder.
"Owww," Jesse had a glazed look in his eyes, and when he climbed out, almost fell down. Skylar caught him and he thanked her.
"We need to get you to a hospital." Skylar played dumb, putting his arm around her neck and a tight grip on Jesse's waist.
"Jesse, I..." Shalimar came around the corner and saw them. "What happened?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse...Jesse!" Future Emma became worried when she heard something go crash.
"Umm, Emma, there's something you should know....." Jesse was in shock.
"What?"
"I just stood up."
~~~~~~~~~~~
"He was attacked." Skylar repeated at Sanctuary.
"And you just happened to be there?" Adam stared at her, sitting, head down in his office.
"Yes." She said again.
"How did you just happen to be there?" Adam grilled her.
"I was tracking him." She said softly.
"Why?"
"He put a good friend of mine in a wheelchair." Head still hung, she kept answers to a minimum.
"How is he?" She lifted her head up for an answer.
"He's fine, now tell me who you are."
Silence.
~~~~~~~~~
"We'll have to keep a close eye on her." Adam told the team outside his office. "I pressed too hard."
"She's scared, that's obvious." Shalimar admitted. "Maybe I can talk to her?"
"No, let her calm down." Adam told her. "Then let me apologize."
~~~~~~~~
Wide eyed and curious, Emma had a bottle of water in hand and walked into Adam's office. "I thought you would want something to drink."
"Thank you." Skylar took the bottle and looked Emma in the eyes. Skylar knew, from that look, Emma would try something. "Isis."
"What?"
"My name is Isis." Skylar hated lying, well she wasn't totally lying.
"Emma would you excuse us." Adam asked from the doorway.
"Sure Adam," Emma excused herself and left.
"I want to apologize for my actions earlier...." Adam was cut off.
"No, please excuse me, I didn't mean to barge in on you." Smiling she lifted her head and saw his eyes and the questions that were floating around in his head. "I will answer your questions now."
~~~~~~~~~
"So?" Emma's curiosity got the best of her, when Adam met with the other team members.
"Apparently the man, that attacked Jesse, put a friend of Isis' in a wheelchair and when she tracked him here. Isis said she had heard about us, and she was hoping that she could find us to her help find him."
"How did he put her friend in a wheelchair?" asked Brennan.
"He broke my friend's back," Isis answered.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Shalimar told her.
"What do you plan to do if you see him again?" asked Jesse.
"I don't know, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."
~~~~~~~~
"Can you fix it?" Older Brennan asked future Jesse, when he arrived at the lab.
"Maybe, but you'll have to get me some parts." He told Brennan.
"Why me?
"Because you blew it up." Emma pointed out.
"Why would she do something like that?" Her father asked. "She's as stubborn as her mother...."
"More like her father." Jesse put in.
"You've been gone for a very long time Brennan," Emma gently began, "things have changed."
Cracks and pops were heard when Jesse tried to boot up the computer. "That's all she wrote, now the motherboard is fried."
"How do we get her home?" Emma posed the question.
~~~~~~~
"Ready?" Past Emma asked Adam the following day outside the banquet hall inside the hotel. "Adam, relax, just say a few words, raise your glass and its over with." She slipped her arm around his left arm, reassuring him everything would be fine.
Skylar/Isis took a deep breath and waited in the doorway, Emma and Adam had just passed through. She hoped convincing Adam to tell the team about the death threats if he spoke at this awards ceremony would be enough to deter any funny business, but her gut told her differently. Debating, she slipped on her right hand a plain, sliver ring, when it touched her skin, symbols appeared.
"Nothing here." Skylar heard Jesse link in.
"Same here." Shalimar responded.
~~~~~~~~~
Memories filled Skylar's head. When Adam died, soon after the mayor was assassinated by a New Mutant. The city was put under marshal law, any New Mutant was to be questioned, and if they resisted, the police were ordered to shoot them. Because Jesse was in a wheelchair, and Brennan had left, Shalimar had no back up, and was shot and killed by scared rookie officer.
Before Shal's death, word of a raid on a New Mutant's home, Brennan and Emma arrived to find two police officers questioning a New Mutant Feral, when the brunette didn't give them the answer they wanted, they shot her.
Brennan recognized the woman as an old flame, Alex.
Emma was alerted to the fact that someone else was in the house.
In the master bedroom, the closet had been barricaded shut. Emma could sense the person's fear as they opened the closet, there in the corner, was a baby girl, a year, maybe 2 years, next to a stuffed, white tiger toy.
"Its OK, sweetheart," Emma picked up the child and held her tight.
"Emma," Brennan walked into the room and happened to look upon a picture on the night stand. It was a picture himself and Alex, and in the corner was a picture of the raven haired baby girl.
"Did you know her Brennan?" asked Emma, peering over at the picture.
"Yeah, yeah I did." Something in him changed as he tightly held the picture frame and taking a closer look at the unframed photo of the little, he found her name on the back.
"Shhh, its OK honey." Emma tried calming the girl down, but all she did was howl louder.
"Give her to me, " Brennan took the baby from Emma and began to softly talk to her and the crying stopped.
"I wonder what her name is." Emma smiled at the girl.
"Skylar." Brennan replied. He carried her out of the house to the car, she curled up with him on the ride back to Sanctuary, when he carried her into the lab to have a check up.
Young Skylar fell asleep on Brennan's bed that night, next to her white tiger and the photo from the night stand.
"Brennan, she's your daughter." Adam told him quietly outside the door.
"I know, Alex told me before she died." He replied.
In the days that followed, they made room for her and welcomed her as part of the family. Then one day, Brennan turned in his ring and left with Skylar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sky, though a good student and a book worm, grew up to be more and more like her father was, before joining Mutant X, stealing cars, shoplifting and petty theft. The last straw was attempted murder on a police officer who, threatened her and a friend with his gun. Using her Feral powers, she put him in a hospital. Brennan ordered her not to use her Feral powers ever again. And that's how she joined the Red Ferals.
Because of the New Mutant oppression, three New Mutant gangs were formed, the Red Ferals, the Green Elementals and the Yellow Phasers. Each group consisted of New Mutants of all powers, working to stop the oppression. Using only her Elemental power, she rose quickly to the top of the Red Feral pecking order, earning her the name Isis, and helped clean up the bad blood between the three gangs, so that they would work together and not against each other.
Out one night, and needing a car for transportation of New Mutants out of the city, Skylar, tried to steal a car from a nightclub parking lot. It was no ordinary car, it was Emma's Mustang.
Energy in her hand, Skylar hesitated throwing it at her, something seemed familiar. Realizing who she was, Emma zapped her, and took her back to Sanctuary.
A few months later, Jesse and Emma had a small box waiting for her, upon opening it she was told it was her father's ring. The silver band sparkled and designs appeared, showing her DNA, when she slipped it on.
Her father would argue that the reasons she jumped in were purely selfish, Emma and Jesse would call it, part of it anyway, curiousity. She had heard stories of Adam, who he was, what kind of person he was, and Sky, couldn't help it, she was curious about Adam, about what would have happened had he not died that day.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, you OK?" Brennan put his hand on Skylar's shoulder.
"Yeah I'm just a little....." Looking into the banquet hall, she saw a waiter with blond hair, and a scar on his cheek approaching Adam.
"That's him!" Skylar started in, and was inches away when Emma saw the gun, and pulled Adam out of the line of fire as it went off. Emma caught the tail end of the bullet, grazing her right shoulder.
~~~~~~~
Skylar/Isis followed him out a side door and found Shalimar in the clutches of the Giant.
"Hey!" Skylar fired a bolt of energy at the Giant man, and he loosened his hold on Shal.
The Giant took a swing at the girls, putting a dent in the door. One more bolt of energy from Skylar's hand, forced the Giant away.
"Get inside, Emma's been shot." Jesse was heard. Shalimar opened the dented door and raced in.
"You comin," She asked Isis.
"Right behind you." Sky grabbed the door, but closed it as soon as Shal was a few steps in front of her.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Now what?" Brennan looked at the smoking computer.
"I have no idea. I can't fix it, well at least not here and not quickly." Jesse told him.
"Great! Just perfect. So she's just stuck there?" The computer wasn't the only thing smoking, Emma and Jesse noticed. "So you're telling me that the next time I see my daughter, she'll be OLD and GRAY! ?"
"Calm down Brennan, she can take care of herself Brennan." Another female's voice was heard on the other end of her ring.
"Don't tell me to calm down Shal....."Brennan stopped mid sentence.
Stunned Emma, thought out loud. "My gosh, Skylar's changed history."
"Does that mean......." Jesse started the sentence.
"Yes Jesse." Adam's voice sent chills through Emma, Brennan and Jesse's spines. "You really can't fix it Jess?"
"No Adam, but how did you......" Jesse asked.
"First things first, I'll give you the information you need to bring Diana Moller back to Sanctuary." Adam told them.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Gone?" Jesse asked in the banquet hall.
"She locked the door behind me, and when I went around the other way they were both gone." Shalimar told Adam. "She also welded the door shut."
"Shouldn't we go after them?" Emma asked.
"We don't know where they are." pointed out Brennan.
"Then lets go home. I want to treat Emma's wound right away." Adam said.
~~~~~~~~~~
"This will only hurt a little." the blond waiter told young boy with short brown hair.
"What is it Dr. Sawyer?" The boy asked.
"Something to make you stronger, like a giant." He stuck the syringe in the boy's arm. "Skylar, what took you so long?"
Skylar had squeaked out of a scuffle with the Giant, with minor bruising and a bloody jaw.
~~~~~~~~~~
Diana Moller, never aged a day. "I can do this, but I'll have to go with whoever goes, to bring them back." Diana mustered up her strength and tossed the ball into space opposite the computers.
Brennan jumped, Diana collapsed and the portal closed.
~~~~~~~~~
Diana had landed him right in front of the lab, just one problem the building was on fire. Kicking in the door, a huge flame escaped, causing future Brennan to back up.
"Skylar!" He called looking for another entrance.
"Brennan!" Past Adam, with young Diana in tow, tossed him a small fire extinguisher.
~~~~~~~~~
"Skylar!" Her father's voice seemed like a dream. She had inadvertently started the lab on fire, one of her blasts missed and hit the flammable chemicals.
"Dad!" The flames encircled her, when she saw Brennan with a fire extinguisher. "Over here!"
Brennan cleared a path and pulled her close to him. "Its empty." Brennan tossed the red canister off to one side, and throwing her over his shoulder, he jumped through the flames and out to safety.
~~~~~~~~
Outside, both father and daughter were coughing and gagging.
"How did you," cough, "find us." Brennan asked.
"Later, right now Diana is going to send you home." Adam smiled patting his friend on the back.
"Don't move, or I'll cut off her air supply." The Giant had Skylar wrapped in his huge arm her neck.
"Send me home, now!" He demanded.
Diana, opened the portal, Giant pulled Skylar through with him and it closed.
~~~~~~~~
Once through, Sky found herself on the receiving end of a beating, she tried to run away, but the Giant took hold of her hair, throwing her into the brick wall once again. Skylar tried to hit him with a bolt of energy, and like before, nothing happened. He then picked her up, raising her above his head and threw her down like a rag doll.
Brennan popped out of the sky in time to see his daughter's body go limp when it hit the concrete. Enraged, Brennan mustered up all his energy and fired it at the Giant. The Giant went down and stayed down.
"Skylar." Brennan was on his knees cradling her, she was bleeding from the mouth and nose.
"Daddy," Her face was white as a ghost.
~~~~~~~~~~
Adam ordered a blood stained Brennan out of the lab, when he brought Skylar in. "Brennan, I can't have you here, if you don't leave, I'll have to sedate you, now leave!"
Jesse and Shalimar each took an arm and dragged him out into the living room.
~~~~~~~~~~~
No longer wearing a surgical gown, Adam came to the team to deliver the news.
"Skylar." Brennan tried to make his way past Dr. Cane, but was stopped.
"Brennan, I'm sorry, " Adam put his hand on Brennan shoulder, "there is too much internal bleeding."
"No, no!" Brennan ran towards the lab, leaving Emma and the others in tears.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar, was even whiter then before, by the time Brennan reached her. "Daddy." Smiling he choked back the tears and kissed her on the forehead. " I saw Adam." Skylar managed a weak smile.
"Yes, yes you did, and Shalimar's here too......" He told her as his daughter's eyes began to close. "Sky....I love you."
Her eyes closed, the monitors began to beep, and Brennan fell to his knees, crying. The monitors turned off, and through Brennan's tears he saw Adam. Adam handed Brennan a letter written over 20 years ago, in Sky's hand writing, explaining events of the last few years, Brennan assumed that's how Adam and Diana in the past knew where to find them.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Diana please, send me back." Grief stricken after his daughter's death, Brennan tried to reason with her.
"No, Adam said no." She told him on the couch.
"Diana please, I'm begging you." Brennan tried again. "Skylar went back to undo someone else's selfish act."
"No." She got up and ran into Emma.
"Would you have been able to save her?" Emma asked.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Do it." Emma zapped Diana.
~~~~~~~~~
The Giant had just tossed Skylar like a rag doll into the wall.
"Hey!" Brennan let his energy flow into the Giant and the big man went down. Turning his attention to his child, Brennan didn't hear the Giant get up.
The Giant wrapped his huge hand around Brennan's throat and squeezed, causing Brennan to turn blue.
Seeing double and coughing up blood, Skylar, dropped to her knees, calling up all her energy and fired at the back of the Giant. Dropping Brennan, the Giant stumbled back, then came at her, as she pushed more energy out. Her father saw the blue energy, turn gold and her eyes turn feral.
"Skylar, Skylar stop!" He saw the Giant fall to his knees, "Stop!"
"I can't....." She began sobbing.
Moments later, the Giant, was nothing but a pile of ash.
"Dad..." She smiled at him between coughs of blood.
~~~~~~~~
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Adam asked Skylar, looking up from the computer screen. "Are you in any pain?"
"Yes, no and I can't sleep." Skylar, in gray sweats and burgundy tee, steadied herself on the edge of the table.
"You seemed to have slept pretty well the last two nights." Adam reminded her.
"I took some pain pills, the last two nights." She grabbed her ribs, as the pain shot through her body.
"Sky," Concerned Adam put his hand on her head, "no fever."
"You sound like my Father, break a few ribs, and look what happens." She smiled. "I guess, its being here, with everything changed, its odd. I remember being here, without you and Shal, but I don't, its like a dream or something. What about Dr. Sawyer?"
"Missing person."
Knowing that his coffee cup was empty and that something else was bothering her, he invited her to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. "You've got big day tomorrow, after all, you and your dad will be moving back in. Just answer one question."
"What?"
"Did you really give your dad all those gray hairs?"
"Yes I did," She responded proudly.
~~~~~~~~
The raven haired woman, dressed in an ivory wool sweater and green colored pants, headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" asked the male voice from across the room.
"Out for some fresh air." Was her quick response.
"But is freezing outside!" The man's voice turned to alarm.
"Dad, its 45 degrees, its warm." Her coat was already on when she responded.
"Don't be too long," Dad warned, "Company is coming and I want you to be here, since you missed the last dinner."
"Fine!" The door to the porch slammed shut, and a few moments later, the second door was slammed.
Curious, the father put down his book and went to the porch to check up on her. Father saw her with her gray overnight bag draped across her neck, hanging at her left side. Enraged the silver haired man ran out after her.
"Where are you going?" Catching up to her he demanded an answer.
Silence was her answer.
"No, no, no daughter of mine is running off to join them." He spun her around. The woman's brown eyes glared with rebellion, when confronted by her father. "Its not our fight."
"No, its not YOUR fight." She showed him the silver ring on her left hand.
"Let go of her." An older Emma, short, orange red hair, bundled in black leather, stood, waiting.
"No." The years had not been kind to silver haired Brennan Mulwray.
"It was her choice." Emma confirmed the fact for Brennan.
"No. I won't allow it." He called up a ball of energy to strike at Emma.
Quick thinking Emma, zapped him using her mind's energy. "Stop it Brennan."
"No, she doesn't belong with you." Brennan stumbled towards Emma, energy ball in hand.
"Daddy no, please....." The young woman stepped in front of Emma.
"Move!" Brennan readied the energy.
"Dad, listen to me, what happened to the team, was terrible, but it didn't have to happen," Hand outstreched palm out, tried to explain, " someone from our time, went into the past and changed history. Emma and I found the lab, where, this Dr. Sawyer, jumps time lines."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma, Brennan and his daughter inside the lab, and found themselves in a room which was a cross between a lab, and a junk yard. Emma and Sky explained to Brennan that this man, made a time machine.
"You're too late!" A blond hair man, with a small scar on his right cheek, saw them and stepped on a switch, opening a portal of some sorts, and jumped through to the ally on the other side.
A giant, henchman appeared, Emma and Brennan recognized him from Jesse's description of the incident that put him in a wheelchair.
"Brennan he's going in!" Emma yelled as the man leapt into the portal.
Brennan's energy blast hit the circuit breaker, causing power fluctuations, and the portal to start closing,.
"Dad! I love you," the raven haired young lady, threw herself into the portal.
"Skylar no!" Brennan tried to go after her, but the portal closed when the power went out, taking down the main computer.
~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar landed in a large puddle of water, in the mouth of an alley and saw the henchmen walking away from the landing site. "Good thing I changed clothes." She muttered, brushing off her green pants and navy shirt and black vest.
Trying to follow at a close distance, Skylar lost him, until she heard some strange noises coming from a block away.
Turning towards the noise, she froze in her tracks. Jesse, on verge of a black out, was about to get slammed into the giant's knee.
"Hey!" Skylar yelled at him.
~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse." The future Emma tried to talk to him, while looking at the damage Brennan had done to the power box. "When did your aim get so lousy Brennan? Never mind, Jesse!"
~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse!" Emma's voice startled Jesse as he was trying to move from his wheelchair to the computer stool.
"What?!" Cross and on the floor, Jesse answered her call.
"Jesse, we need your help, Brennan blew up..."
"Wait a minute, Brennan?" Jesse tried to pull himself onto the stool. "Where's Skylar?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Startled the giant dumped Jesse into the garbage container.
"You!" He moved towards her with his giant hands out stretched.
"Oh no you don't," Skylar began to build up her energy within the confines of her hands, when there was enough power she let it go.
Despite the energy, the giant kept coming, stepping back she mustered up all the energy she could, producing a ball of energy the size of a softball and let him have it. The giant was knocked four feet from where he was standing, and all indications were he was out cold or dead.
Concerned about Jesse, Skylar balanced herself on the ridge of the garbage container, to look in. "Jesse?" Shaking him, she said his name louder.
"Owww," Jesse had a glazed look in his eyes, and when he climbed out, almost fell down. Skylar caught him and he thanked her.
"We need to get you to a hospital." Skylar played dumb, putting his arm around her neck and a tight grip on Jesse's waist.
"Jesse, I..." Shalimar came around the corner and saw them. "What happened?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Jesse...Jesse!" Future Emma became worried when she heard something go crash.
"Umm, Emma, there's something you should know....." Jesse was in shock.
"What?"
"I just stood up."
~~~~~~~~~~~
"He was attacked." Skylar repeated at Sanctuary.
"And you just happened to be there?" Adam stared at her, sitting, head down in his office.
"Yes." She said again.
"How did you just happen to be there?" Adam grilled her.
"I was tracking him." She said softly.
"Why?"
"He put a good friend of mine in a wheelchair." Head still hung, she kept answers to a minimum.
"How is he?" She lifted her head up for an answer.
"He's fine, now tell me who you are."
Silence.
~~~~~~~~~
"We'll have to keep a close eye on her." Adam told the team outside his office. "I pressed too hard."
"She's scared, that's obvious." Shalimar admitted. "Maybe I can talk to her?"
"No, let her calm down." Adam told her. "Then let me apologize."
~~~~~~~~
Wide eyed and curious, Emma had a bottle of water in hand and walked into Adam's office. "I thought you would want something to drink."
"Thank you." Skylar took the bottle and looked Emma in the eyes. Skylar knew, from that look, Emma would try something. "Isis."
"What?"
"My name is Isis." Skylar hated lying, well she wasn't totally lying.
"Emma would you excuse us." Adam asked from the doorway.
"Sure Adam," Emma excused herself and left.
"I want to apologize for my actions earlier...." Adam was cut off.
"No, please excuse me, I didn't mean to barge in on you." Smiling she lifted her head and saw his eyes and the questions that were floating around in his head. "I will answer your questions now."
~~~~~~~~~
"So?" Emma's curiosity got the best of her, when Adam met with the other team members.
"Apparently the man, that attacked Jesse, put a friend of Isis' in a wheelchair and when she tracked him here. Isis said she had heard about us, and she was hoping that she could find us to her help find him."
"How did he put her friend in a wheelchair?" asked Brennan.
"He broke my friend's back," Isis answered.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Shalimar told her.
"What do you plan to do if you see him again?" asked Jesse.
"I don't know, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."
~~~~~~~~
"Can you fix it?" Older Brennan asked future Jesse, when he arrived at the lab.
"Maybe, but you'll have to get me some parts." He told Brennan.
"Why me?
"Because you blew it up." Emma pointed out.
"Why would she do something like that?" Her father asked. "She's as stubborn as her mother...."
"More like her father." Jesse put in.
"You've been gone for a very long time Brennan," Emma gently began, "things have changed."
Cracks and pops were heard when Jesse tried to boot up the computer. "That's all she wrote, now the motherboard is fried."
"How do we get her home?" Emma posed the question.
~~~~~~~
"Ready?" Past Emma asked Adam the following day outside the banquet hall inside the hotel. "Adam, relax, just say a few words, raise your glass and its over with." She slipped her arm around his left arm, reassuring him everything would be fine.
Skylar/Isis took a deep breath and waited in the doorway, Emma and Adam had just passed through. She hoped convincing Adam to tell the team about the death threats if he spoke at this awards ceremony would be enough to deter any funny business, but her gut told her differently. Debating, she slipped on her right hand a plain, sliver ring, when it touched her skin, symbols appeared.
"Nothing here." Skylar heard Jesse link in.
"Same here." Shalimar responded.
~~~~~~~~~
Memories filled Skylar's head. When Adam died, soon after the mayor was assassinated by a New Mutant. The city was put under marshal law, any New Mutant was to be questioned, and if they resisted, the police were ordered to shoot them. Because Jesse was in a wheelchair, and Brennan had left, Shalimar had no back up, and was shot and killed by scared rookie officer.
Before Shal's death, word of a raid on a New Mutant's home, Brennan and Emma arrived to find two police officers questioning a New Mutant Feral, when the brunette didn't give them the answer they wanted, they shot her.
Brennan recognized the woman as an old flame, Alex.
Emma was alerted to the fact that someone else was in the house.
In the master bedroom, the closet had been barricaded shut. Emma could sense the person's fear as they opened the closet, there in the corner, was a baby girl, a year, maybe 2 years, next to a stuffed, white tiger toy.
"Its OK, sweetheart," Emma picked up the child and held her tight.
"Emma," Brennan walked into the room and happened to look upon a picture on the night stand. It was a picture himself and Alex, and in the corner was a picture of the raven haired baby girl.
"Did you know her Brennan?" asked Emma, peering over at the picture.
"Yeah, yeah I did." Something in him changed as he tightly held the picture frame and taking a closer look at the unframed photo of the little, he found her name on the back.
"Shhh, its OK honey." Emma tried calming the girl down, but all she did was howl louder.
"Give her to me, " Brennan took the baby from Emma and began to softly talk to her and the crying stopped.
"I wonder what her name is." Emma smiled at the girl.
"Skylar." Brennan replied. He carried her out of the house to the car, she curled up with him on the ride back to Sanctuary, when he carried her into the lab to have a check up.
Young Skylar fell asleep on Brennan's bed that night, next to her white tiger and the photo from the night stand.
"Brennan, she's your daughter." Adam told him quietly outside the door.
"I know, Alex told me before she died." He replied.
In the days that followed, they made room for her and welcomed her as part of the family. Then one day, Brennan turned in his ring and left with Skylar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sky, though a good student and a book worm, grew up to be more and more like her father was, before joining Mutant X, stealing cars, shoplifting and petty theft. The last straw was attempted murder on a police officer who, threatened her and a friend with his gun. Using her Feral powers, she put him in a hospital. Brennan ordered her not to use her Feral powers ever again. And that's how she joined the Red Ferals.
Because of the New Mutant oppression, three New Mutant gangs were formed, the Red Ferals, the Green Elementals and the Yellow Phasers. Each group consisted of New Mutants of all powers, working to stop the oppression. Using only her Elemental power, she rose quickly to the top of the Red Feral pecking order, earning her the name Isis, and helped clean up the bad blood between the three gangs, so that they would work together and not against each other.
Out one night, and needing a car for transportation of New Mutants out of the city, Skylar, tried to steal a car from a nightclub parking lot. It was no ordinary car, it was Emma's Mustang.
Energy in her hand, Skylar hesitated throwing it at her, something seemed familiar. Realizing who she was, Emma zapped her, and took her back to Sanctuary.
A few months later, Jesse and Emma had a small box waiting for her, upon opening it she was told it was her father's ring. The silver band sparkled and designs appeared, showing her DNA, when she slipped it on.
Her father would argue that the reasons she jumped in were purely selfish, Emma and Jesse would call it, part of it anyway, curiousity. She had heard stories of Adam, who he was, what kind of person he was, and Sky, couldn't help it, she was curious about Adam, about what would have happened had he not died that day.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, you OK?" Brennan put his hand on Skylar's shoulder.
"Yeah I'm just a little....." Looking into the banquet hall, she saw a waiter with blond hair, and a scar on his cheek approaching Adam.
"That's him!" Skylar started in, and was inches away when Emma saw the gun, and pulled Adam out of the line of fire as it went off. Emma caught the tail end of the bullet, grazing her right shoulder.
~~~~~~~
Skylar/Isis followed him out a side door and found Shalimar in the clutches of the Giant.
"Hey!" Skylar fired a bolt of energy at the Giant man, and he loosened his hold on Shal.
The Giant took a swing at the girls, putting a dent in the door. One more bolt of energy from Skylar's hand, forced the Giant away.
"Get inside, Emma's been shot." Jesse was heard. Shalimar opened the dented door and raced in.
"You comin," She asked Isis.
"Right behind you." Sky grabbed the door, but closed it as soon as Shal was a few steps in front of her.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Now what?" Brennan looked at the smoking computer.
"I have no idea. I can't fix it, well at least not here and not quickly." Jesse told him.
"Great! Just perfect. So she's just stuck there?" The computer wasn't the only thing smoking, Emma and Jesse noticed. "So you're telling me that the next time I see my daughter, she'll be OLD and GRAY! ?"
"Calm down Brennan, she can take care of herself Brennan." Another female's voice was heard on the other end of her ring.
"Don't tell me to calm down Shal....."Brennan stopped mid sentence.
Stunned Emma, thought out loud. "My gosh, Skylar's changed history."
"Does that mean......." Jesse started the sentence.
"Yes Jesse." Adam's voice sent chills through Emma, Brennan and Jesse's spines. "You really can't fix it Jess?"
"No Adam, but how did you......" Jesse asked.
"First things first, I'll give you the information you need to bring Diana Moller back to Sanctuary." Adam told them.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Gone?" Jesse asked in the banquet hall.
"She locked the door behind me, and when I went around the other way they were both gone." Shalimar told Adam. "She also welded the door shut."
"Shouldn't we go after them?" Emma asked.
"We don't know where they are." pointed out Brennan.
"Then lets go home. I want to treat Emma's wound right away." Adam said.
~~~~~~~~~~
"This will only hurt a little." the blond waiter told young boy with short brown hair.
"What is it Dr. Sawyer?" The boy asked.
"Something to make you stronger, like a giant." He stuck the syringe in the boy's arm. "Skylar, what took you so long?"
Skylar had squeaked out of a scuffle with the Giant, with minor bruising and a bloody jaw.
~~~~~~~~~~
Diana Moller, never aged a day. "I can do this, but I'll have to go with whoever goes, to bring them back." Diana mustered up her strength and tossed the ball into space opposite the computers.
Brennan jumped, Diana collapsed and the portal closed.
~~~~~~~~~
Diana had landed him right in front of the lab, just one problem the building was on fire. Kicking in the door, a huge flame escaped, causing future Brennan to back up.
"Skylar!" He called looking for another entrance.
"Brennan!" Past Adam, with young Diana in tow, tossed him a small fire extinguisher.
~~~~~~~~~
"Skylar!" Her father's voice seemed like a dream. She had inadvertently started the lab on fire, one of her blasts missed and hit the flammable chemicals.
"Dad!" The flames encircled her, when she saw Brennan with a fire extinguisher. "Over here!"
Brennan cleared a path and pulled her close to him. "Its empty." Brennan tossed the red canister off to one side, and throwing her over his shoulder, he jumped through the flames and out to safety.
~~~~~~~~
Outside, both father and daughter were coughing and gagging.
"How did you," cough, "find us." Brennan asked.
"Later, right now Diana is going to send you home." Adam smiled patting his friend on the back.
"Don't move, or I'll cut off her air supply." The Giant had Skylar wrapped in his huge arm her neck.
"Send me home, now!" He demanded.
Diana, opened the portal, Giant pulled Skylar through with him and it closed.
~~~~~~~~
Once through, Sky found herself on the receiving end of a beating, she tried to run away, but the Giant took hold of her hair, throwing her into the brick wall once again. Skylar tried to hit him with a bolt of energy, and like before, nothing happened. He then picked her up, raising her above his head and threw her down like a rag doll.
Brennan popped out of the sky in time to see his daughter's body go limp when it hit the concrete. Enraged, Brennan mustered up all his energy and fired it at the Giant. The Giant went down and stayed down.
"Skylar." Brennan was on his knees cradling her, she was bleeding from the mouth and nose.
"Daddy," Her face was white as a ghost.
~~~~~~~~~~
Adam ordered a blood stained Brennan out of the lab, when he brought Skylar in. "Brennan, I can't have you here, if you don't leave, I'll have to sedate you, now leave!"
Jesse and Shalimar each took an arm and dragged him out into the living room.
~~~~~~~~~~~
No longer wearing a surgical gown, Adam came to the team to deliver the news.
"Skylar." Brennan tried to make his way past Dr. Cane, but was stopped.
"Brennan, I'm sorry, " Adam put his hand on Brennan shoulder, "there is too much internal bleeding."
"No, no!" Brennan ran towards the lab, leaving Emma and the others in tears.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Skylar, was even whiter then before, by the time Brennan reached her. "Daddy." Smiling he choked back the tears and kissed her on the forehead. " I saw Adam." Skylar managed a weak smile.
"Yes, yes you did, and Shalimar's here too......" He told her as his daughter's eyes began to close. "Sky....I love you."
Her eyes closed, the monitors began to beep, and Brennan fell to his knees, crying. The monitors turned off, and through Brennan's tears he saw Adam. Adam handed Brennan a letter written over 20 years ago, in Sky's hand writing, explaining events of the last few years, Brennan assumed that's how Adam and Diana in the past knew where to find them.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Diana please, send me back." Grief stricken after his daughter's death, Brennan tried to reason with her.
"No, Adam said no." She told him on the couch.
"Diana please, I'm begging you." Brennan tried again. "Skylar went back to undo someone else's selfish act."
"No." She got up and ran into Emma.
"Would you have been able to save her?" Emma asked.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Do it." Emma zapped Diana.
~~~~~~~~~
The Giant had just tossed Skylar like a rag doll into the wall.
"Hey!" Brennan let his energy flow into the Giant and the big man went down. Turning his attention to his child, Brennan didn't hear the Giant get up.
The Giant wrapped his huge hand around Brennan's throat and squeezed, causing Brennan to turn blue.
Seeing double and coughing up blood, Skylar, dropped to her knees, calling up all her energy and fired at the back of the Giant. Dropping Brennan, the Giant stumbled back, then came at her, as she pushed more energy out. Her father saw the blue energy, turn gold and her eyes turn feral.
"Skylar, Skylar stop!" He saw the Giant fall to his knees, "Stop!"
"I can't....." She began sobbing.
Moments later, the Giant, was nothing but a pile of ash.
"Dad..." She smiled at him between coughs of blood.
~~~~~~~~
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Adam asked Skylar, looking up from the computer screen. "Are you in any pain?"
"Yes, no and I can't sleep." Skylar, in gray sweats and burgundy tee, steadied herself on the edge of the table.
"You seemed to have slept pretty well the last two nights." Adam reminded her.
"I took some pain pills, the last two nights." She grabbed her ribs, as the pain shot through her body.
"Sky," Concerned Adam put his hand on her head, "no fever."
"You sound like my Father, break a few ribs, and look what happens." She smiled. "I guess, its being here, with everything changed, its odd. I remember being here, without you and Shal, but I don't, its like a dream or something. What about Dr. Sawyer?"
"Missing person."
Knowing that his coffee cup was empty and that something else was bothering her, he invited her to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. "You've got big day tomorrow, after all, you and your dad will be moving back in. Just answer one question."
"What?"
"Did you really give your dad all those gray hairs?"
"Yes I did," She responded proudly.
~~~~~~~~