Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men or any related characters. I do own Dusk and Katie (girl who narrates first part of prologue), and the mutant research centers concept.
Note: This story revolves around Katie, the character who tells the first part of the prologue. She's an original character with no relations to any other lycanthropes in the comics or the show. Dusk is another original character, and her origin and the meaning of mutant research centers will be explained later. This is the prologue so might be a little weird and confusing. You'll understand it better later on in the story.
There's also some out-of-character-ness in this, so I'm sorry but please don't tell me it's out of character, because I know.
Please Review, but please, no flames.
PROLOGUE: Four Years Earlier
I opened my eyes, but saw nothing. This was wrong. Just wrong. Normally I could always see, even in the dark. Had they… blinded me?
I felt sick to the stomach at the thought, and held my hand in front of my face, trying to get some sort of perception.
I sighed with relief when the image of my hand, with its many scars, appeared in my line of vision. But if I could see that, and nothing else, where was I?
My eyes took a long time to adjust; there was almost absolutely no light. But then I realised I was in a room with pure black walls, floor and ceiling. Ah, that explained it. I shivered silently as I suddenly wondered if I was alone in the room.
"Hello?" I called out, but nothing moved. I closed my eyes and listened, but I could only hear my own breathing, and my own heartbeat. I opened them again and looked fearfully around, but there was nothing to see. I was alone.
I shivered, even though the temperature was perfectly normal. Where was I now? What were they going to do to me this time?
Suddenly, I heard something. I froze, and sat there, perfectly still, listening. Nothing. I relaxed again, when I heard a snatch of sound, like voices yelling, then an explosion. I heard someone yell "Dawn!"; people were screaming, but I could barely hear them. Everything was distant, far away. I kept listening.
A girl, louder then the other voices, yelled out to someone for help. There was a murmuring, which I wondered why I could hear when I realised: it was coming from just out side my cell. Suddenly, there was a bamphing sound, and someone appeared in the middle of the room. I stared at him. Were my eyes messed up after all or was he… Blue?
I backed up against the wall and stared at him. Was he here to hurt me? What was going on? I growled warningly.
"Sh, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you," the blue boy whispered. He had an accent; I couldn't place what it was. He held out a hand and I realised he only had three fingers on each hand. He was different, like me.
I smiled shakily, and reach out a hand. He took hold of it and smiled back.
"Okay, kid, just stay calm. I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"
Bamph!
I blinked my eyes a few times to get adjusted to the light, but a second later a girl yelled,
"Kurt! Get her out of here!"
Bamph!
"What? Where…?" We were in a… I think it was some sort of ship, like a plane or something. I'd been in one before, that time in a crate. Now I was leaning against the wall, shocked from the sudden… movement? Or…something else?
The boy held a small device up to his face.
"All clear, Dusk. She's in the jet, with the other one. Over"
A voice came back through the device, a girl's voice, the same as the one who had yelled before.
"Understood, Nightcrawler. Iceman and I will be back in a second. Dusk out."
I tried to connect the name, Nightcrawler, to the blue boy in front of me, but all I came up with was a picture of a glow-worm or something.
And this guy definitely wasn't a glow-worm.
"Hello," he said, turning to me. "My name is Kurt. What's yours?"
He seemed awkward. I was nervous. I had no idea what was going on. I responded quietly, "No entiendo..."
Right then, two other figures appeared in the plane thing. One was a boy who, impossible as it seemed, appeared to be made completely of solid ice. The other was a girl who seemed perfectly normal except she had just came out of her own shadow.
"Uh, Dusk," the boy who appeared to be called Kurt, said, "She's speaking Spanish."
The shadow-girl walked right over to me and said, "Hablas ingles?" Do you speak English?
"Un poco. Prefiero español." A little bit. I prefer Spanish.
"Como te llamas?" What's your name?
"No tengo nombre." I don't have a name.
I'd forgotten it, a long time ago. That place didn't have room for names. The shadow-girl gave Kurt a funny, almost sad look over her shoulder.
"Como te llamas?" I asked her suddenly. What's your name?
"Me llamo Dusk. Se llama," she indicated over her shoulder to Kurt, "Kurt, o Nightcrawler. Y se llama Iceman o Bobby." She indicated the other boy. She was called Dusk, Kurt was also called Nightcrawler, and the guy with the ice, who was know steadily becoming normal looking, was Bobby, also nicknamed Iceman.
I tried some English.
"Who are you?"
The girl looked startled. "You're Australian?"
I hadn't realised I had an accent. "No lo se. I don't know. I think I was… maybe."
Kurt and Dusk exchanged glances. "We should get them to the Professor." Kurt said gravely.
Dusk nodded. "I told you she'd be messed up. Who knows what the other one'll be like when he wakes up."
Iceman groaned. "We are gonna get in so much trouble."
"We'll take the blame, Bobby." Replied Kurt. He looked at me with concern, then turned to Dusk, "Can you tell her that were leaving?" She nodded, but I understood what he meant. I sat down in a seat and buckled the seat belt. Dusk nodded and took her own seat at the front of the plane. Kurt sat next to her, and, once Bobby was seated in the chair opposite mine, the plane took off.
"I cannot believe that you two did this! Risking everything on a stupid personal vendetta! I'd have thought you'd know better! And stealing the jet…"
As the Professor continued to lecture them, Dusk sat back in her seat. She knew how to handle angry adults, and rule number one was let them rant for a while before explaining/making excuses. She exchanged glances with Kurt, who also knew to let Professor Xavier calm down before getting yourself out of trouble.
Dusk knew, had always known, that she took a more extreme approach to things. But she always did it for the right reasons. While Professor X, or Wheels as she nicknamed him (Logan had come up with it first), called her hatred of so-called mutant research centres a personal vendetta, she had good reasons. That little kid, who couldn't remember where she learned English or even her own name. A year, a month, even a week later, she could've been dead. She'd live a better, happier, and a hell of a lot longer life outside than she ever could have in there. Dusk knew what she'd done was right, and knew the Professor would eventually have to agree with her.
"And you, Kurt! You should have discouraged Dusk from this course of action, not gone with her! I understand Bobby is young and eager, and easily mislead by more experienced students, but you're more experienced than Dusk is! You should have known better than to…"
Wow, thought Kurt, I don't think I've seen the Professor so mad before. But he can't be that angry, he's not calling Dusk by her real name or anything. He probably knows we did the right thing, and just wants to drill the whole "Don't do anything reckless without telling me" into us first.
He looked across at Dusk, who looked totally blank, as usual. She was obviously off in her own little world. Probably preparing one of her famous improvised monologues. If there was anyone who could get out of trouble with Professor X, it was Dusk.
He wondered idly if the kids they had rescued were okay. Also if the boy had woken up yet. Both of them had suffered from serious burns, illnesses, flesh wounds, allergic reactions, and other things he didn't want to think about. How old were they, anyway? About ten, or eleven? How could someone, anyone, do that to a child? Kurt shuddered.
The Professor had stopped yelling and looked at Dusk.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
Dusk just looked at him coldly. The she pulled down the back of her black T-shirt an inch, showing them the end of just one of her hideous scars. Professor Xavier just inhaled softly and turned away.
Dusk turned back to them.
"You think that's right?"
The Professor was silent for a moment, then replied.
"Of course not. Just I'd prefer if you'd give me a chance to deal with this issue politically instead of always doing things alone and by force."
Dusk looked at him coldly. "Political solutions have had their chance, Professor. There is no big answer. But I'm prepared to stop them, even if I have to do it one mutant at a time."
Then she got up and let the room, closing the door firmly behind her.
Charles Xavier sighed.
"She takes this so personally."
"What's not to take personally? They're torturing mutants!"
"I know, Kurt. And I'm glad she's thinking more of saving others than getting her own revenge. But she seems so obsessed with it, refuses help so often…"
"She let me help, Professor. And Iceman. She let all the X-men help if they wanted to."
The Professor looked at the ceiling.
"I hope you're right, Kurt. Also, I wonder how the two mutants you saved are going. They're both down in the medical bay. Could you please go down and check on them?"
Kurt nodded and left, leaving only the smell of brimstone behind him.
Xavier sighed again. Would the human race ever accept mutants with no strings attached?
