Riven looked over at John.

"Why do you have to fight us so much, John? All we're trying to do is prove to the rest of the world that mutants aren't ALL harmful!" she exclaimed, shaking her head as she moved down the hall towards class. John shoved her shoulder.

"You'remaking the mutant population lookin' like a bunch of pussies! It's just that simple," he snaps, shoving her out of his way. She looked at him, slightly hurt, as she moved after him to get into the classroom.

"If you don't like it here, why don't you just leave, huh? Jerk-ass…" she muttered, dropping into her seat……………

Riven sighed, looking around the plane. Logan, Storm, Nightcrawler, Jean, Bobby, Rogue, her, and John were on the X-jet, flying to Alkali Lake, to save the rest of the X-Men, Xavier, and the students who'd been captured. John sat right in front of Riven, Logan across from him, Rogue across from her, Bobby behind Rogue, Nightcrawler behind Riven, and Storm and Jean were flying the plane. She listened to them, but barely heard them as she watched them evade Army jets, and nearly crash into the forest. She was breathing heavily, and lifted her eyes, seeing Magneto below, with Mystique. She hesitated, and looked around as the plane was slowly brought to the ground.

She moved hesitantly into John's tent.

"Can we talk?" she asked, not wanting to pick a fight, but feeling it may happen. He shrugged.

"Depends…if you're gonna yell, get the fuck out," he said, shrugging again. Riven stepped in, and kneeled down just inside his tent, taking a deep breath.

"I don't like fighting with you, John…I don't like fighting with anyone like me…" He shook his head, tugging out his lighter.

"We're not like you, Riv. None of us are like each other. The only thing similar is the X gene," he said, slightly snappy. She hesitated.

"That's all I meant, John. I don't wanna fight with you tonight. I just really do wanna talk with you. I know better than anybody here that I'm not like you guys…none of us are…I just don't wanna fight. You should know by now that it takes a lot of work and prodding to get to me to fight…" He lifted his head, and looked her over. She was slightly pale, had been since he met her, and was very frail looking. She wore baggy clothes to try to hide it, but when he, her, Bobby, and Rogue got placed in make-shift X-Men uniforms, made of slacks and a zip up jacket that has a white X in the upper part of the right side of the chest, her outfit was in her true size, and he finally noticed just how small she really was. She lifted her eyes to see him, and he sighed, as they glinted from blue to green and back in the faint light.

"Not much I can tell you, Riven. I just think that it's really stupid to be in this group trying to defend mutant rights, and then just end up making us all look like sissies," he said shrugging. Riven looked at him.

"We didn't look like pussies after Ellis Island," she pointed out, faintly smiling. "That was a good story to hear…" John chuckled, remembering that it was all anyone talked about for days and days.

"That was a rarity…Riv, you should go to bed…you look like you haven't slept in weeks…" She bit her lip, but stood, moving out of the tent.

"That's because I haven't…" she mumbled, walking off towards the plane. John looked at her, confused, as she climbed the steps of the jet and curled up in one of the seats………………………

She, Bobby, Rogue, and John were ordered to stay on the plane, and Riven covered her ears with her shaky hands, looking at the floor of the plane.

"Bobby?" she asked. He looked over.

"What's up?"

"Could you talk a little softer? My head hurts…if it gets any worse, we'll be having a big problem…" Bobby pushed his lips together, and whispered softly to Rogue, so Riven's pain would pass. After a few moments, she heard John stand up, and as she lifted her eyes, she saw that Bobby and Rogue were standing too.

"Where are you goin?" John moved over, hitting the button for the stairs.

"I'm sick of this kids' table shit, I'm goin' out there," he answered, tugging on his X-jacket as he made his way over.

"John, they told us to stay here," Rogue said, moving up beside Bobby as Riven stood, too. John stopped, looking at them over his shoulder.

"You always do as you're told?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, and jogging down the steps. Riven followed him, not even looking back, and jogged up behind him.

"John, you shouldn't leave the plane…if something happens…" He looked at her.

"What's gonna happen, Riven? Huh? You gonna try to kill me?" he asked, pushing her shoulder.

"John, stop picking fights with me! I just wanna be your friend!" she snapped, rubbing her shoulder gently. They argued as they walked, until Riven gasped, clutching her head as she fell to her knees. John looked back.

"Riv? What're you do-" He was on the ground, clutching his head, covering his ears, as pain shot thru his body. Riven writhed on the ground, her eyes rolling back in her head, as she got the same feeling, knowing that it wasn't just them, it was all over the world, for all mutants around. By the time the pain went away, Riven could barely move. John struggled to get up, as she laid on the ground, moaning and twitching slightly. Not noticing, he continued up the hill, and stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down as the helicopter was started up by Magneto and Mystique. They noticed him, and he noticed them, just looking at them carefully. Riven finally managed to climb off the ground, and when she did, she watched John look down at her from the helicopter as they took off. Her heart broke, as she watched him leave, and she kneeled in the snow, struggling to push the pain out of her heart and mind…………

Riven sat up a little bit, looking around her. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes again, trying to remember when and where she was. After a moment, she did remember. Xavier and Scott were dead, and John, aka Pyro, was still a member of Magneto's brotherhood. Jean was back, but no longer herself. She was known as Phoenix, a class 5 mutant that was the most powerful of any ever known. She was sitting on the jet with Bobby, Kittie, Logan, Storm, Beast aka, Dr Hank McCoy, and Colossus, heading to Alcatraz Island. It had been converted to the center for Worthington Labs, who were continuing their work on creating the cure for the Mutant X gene. Riven had thought about what she would do if she could be cured of her mutations, but she didn't know. Riven's abilities were limited, but strong. She could hear anything and everything, said and unsaid, from the words written on paper if she couldn't see them, to the words muttered in the minds of passing people, to the phrases and sayings mouthed behind her back when she was trying to be "normal." Along with that, she could sense pain and suffering within a five mile radius, for any human and mutant. But the only thing she had that was extremely taxing on her to hide was that when she walked, she didn't touch the ground-she hovered just about 10 inches above it, and always wore a long coat or skirt to try and hide it from everyone. It hardly ever worked, and it took nearly all of her strength to move her feet to the Earth.

Before too long, as the sun faded and the moon rose in the blackened sky, the jet went undercover and came to a landing on the roof of Worthington Laboratories. Riven, as well as everyone else on board, were guised in their X-Men uniforms, and they ran off the plane, to try and stop Magneto's Brotherhood from completing their task of killing the young mutant boy who was being used as the source of "the cure." She hopped off the plane, and everyone went on a fighting spree, with Storm attacking a tattooed girl who could move about quite quickly, too quick for the naked eye and everyone else just picking one mutant after another to take them out of the war. Riven did quite a good job, if she did say so herself, at fending off the mutants, seeing as the Army men who were designated to stand about the lab with plastic guns containing needles filled with "the cure" were defenseless: one of Magneto's army had destroyed all the weapons. As the Brotherhood dwindled down to Magneto, Jean, and only a few others, one of whom Riven knew but couldn't place, Kittie hurried inside, away from the one they called Juggernaut, to resuce the young boy. Logan, Storm, Bobby, Riven, and Colossus hunkered down behind some wreckage, as Magneto threw cars into the air, and his right hand man toasted them, causing the gas tank to explode. Riven crouched a little, but looked out, unsure at first, and then amazed. Magneto's new right hand man was John. She bit her lip, as they dodge flying debris, and Logan glanced over at Bobby.

"Hey, kid…feel like fightin' an old friend?" he asked, nodding towards John. Bobby smirked, and moved out, tugging off his gloves. Magneto nodded to John, and he stopped lighting the cars, moving out to face Bobby. Logan looked at Colossus, who scooted up beside them, as John and Bobby went head to head, ice against fire, for a few moments. At first John was overpowering, then Bobby, and then John, and he backed Bobby into the ground, enveloping him in fire.

"John! Stop it!" Riven cried, climbing over the debris. Storm made a grab for her, but missed, crying out for her to stop. John glanced at her, as Bobby became encased in ice-a living, breathing ice sculpture, made out like him, and stood.

"You should've stayed in school," he said, head-butting John and knocking him to the ground.

"Bobby!" she cried, skidding to a halt at John's head and looking down at him. He was unconcious. Riven looked up as Colossus chucked Logan out from behind their hiding place, and looked over as Magneto caught him and skidded him across the ground, smirking.

"You never learn, do you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Logan looked up, struggling to breath.

"Actually………I do…" Beast leapt up from the mist behind Magneto, and cried out in effort as he slammed four cure needles into his chest, knocking him to the ground.

Before Riven knew what was happening, Jean was transforming into her Pheonix self, and an extremely powerful, and extremely deadly, burst of energy, was coming from her, killing off one Army man after another. Storm rushed over.

"Riven, hurry! We have to get out of here!"

"I'm not letting him stay here," she said, struggling to gather up John and hurry off with him. Storm helped, and they hurried over the bridge, finally arriving a safe distance away, leaving Logan behind to try and win Jean back.

Riven shuffled along with the other X-Men, while Beast carried Logan in his arms. He had to kill Jean, in order to save her, and was out of energy, so Beast offered to carry him. Colossus, Bobby, Kitty, and Jimmy, aka Leech, the young man they were using as a "cure", were all walking together near Beast, with Storm on Beast's other side to keep her eye on Logan. Riven, however, was shuffling her feet as she walked along behind them. She suddenly stopped, her eyes wide, and turned her head slightly to look back at Alcatraz Island, which sat in ruins behind them, on the opposite side of the Golden Gate Bridge. After a minute, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Colossus beside her.

"Somethin up?" he asked.

"I think John's still alive…would you come back there with me? I can't just leave him there…please?" she begged slightly. He looked back, and moved up to Storm, telling her where he and Riven were going, and took Riven's hand, moving back across the bridge and searching through the wreckage to find John. Colossus finally lifted up the remains of the one of the tanks, and looked around.

"Riven! Found him!" She ran over, and kneeled beside his bruised and bloody body, picking up one of his hands and feeling for a pulse.

"He is alive…pick him up, please…" He leaned down, picking up the unconcious man, and followed Riven back to the other X-Men, walking back up with Kitty and Bobby as they moved. Riven knew Bobby wasn't pleased, but she just couldn't look at him.

They walked quite a while before Angel and Jubilee pulled up in Storm's SUV. They all climbed into the vehicle, Logan still in Beast's lap, and John still in Colossus'. Throughout the entire ride, when Riven caught his eye, she thanked him silently for helping her out, and then looked back at her hands, or out the window. Angel finally moved from his seat and traded spots with Kitty, so she could be near Bobby and Colossus, and he could be by Riven.

"How're you doin?" he asked softly. Riven turned her head, looking up at him, and smiled, shrugging.

"I've been better, but I'm okay. I just want to go back to the mansion, go say goodnight to the Professor, and go to bed. Thanks for getting Jubilee and coming out here to get us." Angel smiled down at her, and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it…" he said, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Get some rest, I'll wake you when we get there…"

"Okay……" No sooner had Riven closed her eyes than she fell asleep.