Prologue
The lightening outside was bright as if god himself had come down upon the earth and had commanded havoc among his people. Thunder pounded through the empty streets that were now covering in fallen leaves, crisp from the changing of the seasons. The strange thing about all this was that not a single drop of rain fell from the sky on that evening. There weren't even clouds in the sky, only a dark haze of some sort that covered the star lit horizon like a cape.
The mansion was still that night as well. As the thunder roared and the lightening stroke, everyone was quiet, not a word spoken. No one had anything to say. It would be too painful to speak of the events long past.
The only true sound of the night was the silent footsteps of a young child, a lost soul, traveling to what she hoped would be a place of promise for the future. She shivered from the night chill; her arms felt frozen to the touch. A white mist escaped from her lips as she moved steadily along the cement path.
The sign was clear despite some pre-winter frost. "Xavier's School for gifted Youngsters." The words, inscribed into the metal, made the slightly frozen girl smile beneath the comfort of her scarf. Moving forward, she found the door and rose her cold fist to knock.
Everyone in the mansion heard the knock; it had been the only sound to echo through the halls in a very long time.
The man looked up from his book, a smile wrapped around his lips. "She's here." He whispered, closing the book in his lap. He moved forward in his wheel chair, a woman following slowly behind him. "Professor I'm not quit sure I understand…" she stopped and gazed up at the open door. It wasn't the chill from the wind that had startled her, or the lightening that hit the ground the moment the girl's eyes caught hers.
"Please… I need a place to stay. I need to…" The girl stumbled forward before falling to the ground.
"Take her to the laboratory." The man ordered. The woman took to girl up into her arms, gazing down upon the scar that marked the girl's ankle. It wasn't like a burn, or a cut, but more of a change in skin color, a birth mark. The wind blew harder into the open doorway and a soft tingle ran up to woman's arm. Snow. She looked back down at the girl and in shock realized the mark had vanished.
In haste she took the girl to the laboratory, unaware of the danger she would be taking in with her. And as the pearl white snow came tumbling down onto the roads around them, no one questioned their safety that night.