Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own X-Men.

Chapter 1

Occurrences in the night

Thunder boomed and lightening streaked across the sky waking up a young resident of the Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters. She glanced at the clock beside her bed and groaned; it was flashing 2:30 a.m. She rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep. But just as she got comfortable, another loud clap of thunder broke out. Deciding that she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep anytime soon, she got up and headed downstairs.

She headed for the kitchen thinking that maybe a warm glass of milk would help put her to sleep. But just as she was getting ready to pour the milk, she heard a noise coming from the rec. room. Curious, she set the milk aside and headed off in that direction.

The mansion was kind of scary at this time of night, especially when it was storming. The only light was from the occasional lightening, and that only lit up the room for a mere second or two.

Once she reached the rec. room she glanced nervously inside, looking for any sign of life. She didn't have to look very far though. There, with his back turned to her, was the last person she expected to see; well, maybe not the last, he did live here after all.

She took a tiny step toward him, and reached out to touch his shoulder. That, though, was a mistake. He turned around and grabbed her arm, a menacing look in his eyes. She froze. And before she could say anything to try to get through to him, she had been thrown into the wall.

She slid down to a sitting position and looked up at her mentor, tears in her eyes. Why is he doing this? She wondered, shaking all over. But she didn't have long to ponder, for he had grabbed her by her hair, pulling her up. He then punched her repeatedly, all over. All she could do was cry, powers forgotten. Once he finished hitting her, he threw her back against the wall.

She struggled to get up, and tried with all her might to get away before he caught her again. But with no luck, he had spotted her. He had been waiting for her to try to escape. He grabbed her by the arm again, and kneed her in the stomach, most likely breaking a few ribs. She was now panting on the ground.

Before she knew what was going on, he was beside her, ripping away at her clothes. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. So, she did the only thing she could think of: she kneed him in the balls.

She watched him fall over sideways, howling in pain. She managed to get up, and she looked down at him once more, tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe what he had just done to her; tried to do to her. She was shaking as she turned around and made a run for it. Out of the mansion, out of their lives, away from the pain.

She kept running until she reached a familiar sight. She ran up the steps and banged on the door with the last amount of energy she could gather. She leaned against the doorframe, waiting for someone to answer the door.

She heard movement and voices inside, followed by a light being turned on. The voices became louder, meaning they were getting closer. She breathed in heavily, praying that they'd let her in.

The door was opened forcefully and she saw an angry looking Scarlet Witch. But her disposition changed almost immediately as she saw the beaten up girl half standing, half leaning against the side of the house in front of her. She gasped as the girl began to fall. She caught her and then turned around and yelled at the only other awake person in the house.

"Pietro, get over here and help me." She shouted from her kneeling position in the doorway.

Pietro joined her shortly and gasped at what he saw. He leaned down and picked the girl up, bringing her into the house. He laid her down on the couch and put a blanket over her. He then went over to his sister and told her to go to bed, there was nothing else they could do for her tonight. She nodded in agreement, and headed off toward her room. Pietro took one last glance at the young, bruised girl and took off for his room. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

A/N: Ha. Okay, I didn't give names for a reason…. Uh, not really, I just thought I'd leave you all guessing. So, if you can guess who the girl is and who the mentor is, I'll give you…candy!

Also, I'll be gone for the next few days, which means I won't be back till Wed. So, I'll try to update then.