Author's note: This is my very first fanfic, so read and enjoy, and if at all possible please review, I really appreciate compliments as well as constructive criticism. Thanks
Disclaimer: I don't own anything X-men
Chapter 1: Return of the Past
Sadie Phillips, tired and confused, entered a house she hadn't been to in some time. It was a beautiful manor located in the country outside of New York City. It looked just as she had left it four months earlier, all except for the layer of dust that covered everything. Walking into the sitting room she pulled a sheet off the old sofa and flopped down with a sigh.
The morning she'd just had was one she wanted to try and forget, but it kept flashing through her mind, reminding her of other events she wished would stay forgotten. All she wanted at that moment was to unwind with a nice hot, relaxing bath accompanied by a strong drink. So she dragged herself off the sofa to get her drink. After a few minutes of rummaging through the liquor cabinet she discovered she already finished off the last of her ten-year-old scotch.
'Damn' she thought.
"Looks like its going to be just you and me," she said as she resigned herself to take out a large bottle of Russian vodka instead, and headed for the tub.
At some point in everybody's lives they get this gut instinct type feeling, which almost always comes with some life-altering event. This uneasy feeling then becomes replaced with the feeling of falling, and falling, and falling. It's like being in an elevator with slight motion sickness and then having the bottom drop out. For Sadie, that morning was the second time in her life that she'd had the bottom drop out from under her.
Fifteen minutes and a couple of drinks later she was finally able to relax some. Soaking in the tub and in a better state of mind, she decided she needed to face what happened that morning and try and make sense of it all.
She started off her day by waking with a start at six in the morning. Now this wasn't the strange part of her morning because she had woken up like this before, and every time she woke she couldn't remember what she had been dreaming. Instead it was that intuitive feeling; like something important was lurking around the edge of her consciousness, but just out of reach, that worried her. She tossed and turned for what seemed like ages, but was unsuccessful in her attempts to get more sleep. As she stumbled out bed to her bathroom she tried to reason that the uneasy feeling she'd had was just her nerves acting up.
'Pull yourself together' she thought as she gazed at her reflection over the sink. Staring back were a pair of vibrant green eyes which usually had a shimmer of life and energy, but at that moment were filled with worry. She splashed her face with water in an attempt to wash away the wariness she felt.
'Everything is fine. It just needs some finishing touches. Nothing to worry about' she thought as she combed out the tangles in her rich and wavy, dark brown hair that grew down to the middle of her back. She was trying to persuade herself that the presentation she had coming in a few days was nothing she couldn't handle, but then she couldn't stop thinking about how this presentation was a huge step in her career as a medical researcher. It could very well secure her a professorship at New York University. She loved teaching others just as much as making new and fascinating discoveries, but what if she got up there and everything fell apart.
"It won't," she told her reflection, 'it can't' she thought to herself. Deciding that the only way to get rid of this feeling would be to workout she headed back to her room to get ready to go to the gym. Ever since she was younger she found a sort of calming peace when she was doing any physical training, especially combat fighting. She never quite understood why she was able to reach a level of mental clarity at these times, but it was a great way for her to process her thoughts, she had even made some of her best research advancements by working out physically. After grabbing a quick bite to eat she was off to burn off her anxiety.
About three hours later she was back at her apartment building and feeling more at ease about the upcoming presentation. It wasn't until she had walked back into her place that the feeling returned. It washed over her like a wave and caught her so off-guard that she had to brace herself with the doorframe as not to loose her balance. After the initial shock of having her nerves on edge again, feeling almost like a low electrical charge was pulsing through her body, Sadie couldn't concentrate on anything, she felt dazed. She tried focusing on organizing the last bit of her presentation information, but after twenty minutes of staring at the same sheet of data and not being able to shake the weird feeling that something important was coming closer and closer to happening, she threw the paper back with the others and fled to her kitchen.
'If I can't even look at my work how am I supposed to share it with a hundred students and professors in two days,' she thought distractedly as she began to make herself a sandwich, but something began to nag at her mind. Something that was trying to tell her that the worry she felt wasn't about her presentation.
"Well if it's not the presentation then what else could it be," she questioned aloud. With no response but the stillness of her silent apartment Sadie prepared herself to enjoy her sandwich and then buckle down and get some work done. She was about to sit down to eat when it happened, she felt slightly faint as an image flashed before her eyes. What she saw made her gasp and her heart almost stop. Then, in an instant, she was streaking through her New York flat to her fire escape window, which, if she remembered, she had opened earlier on impulse on her way to the kitchen. It was without a second thought that Sadie went diving out the open window.
The image that spurred her to make a suicidal leap out her window was that of a man falling from the roof of her apartment building, and sure enough, not a moment after she soared through the opening a body of a man was falling and passed right in front of her. Because of the timing of her leap, Sadie was able to grab the man, and in a split second she had done an aerobatic maneuver that positioned the apparently unconscious man on her shoulder and enabled her to brace herself for the landing, which was quickly approaching.
Now, for any ordinary person to just suddenly leap from a five story apartment window is suicidal enough, but to also catch another falling body, that would just be insane. But luckily for Sadie, she's no ordinary person, far from it. She is what's known as a mutant. Though her plummet to earth with a body on her shoulder could even kill many mutants, it was her gift, or power, that made it seem like jumping from a low wall instead of five stories. It was a pretty hard landing, but there was no lasting damage. Well to her at least, the pavement had visible cracks left in from the impact.
After a quick glance around to check if anyone had been watching, Sadie felt relieved that they were in the alleyway and no one seemed to be around. She then sat the man down and leaned him back against a dumpster so as to get a better look at him. She started by checking to see if he was breathing, then moved on to looking over his body to check for any serious injuries, while she did this she couldn't help but notice the peculiar outfit that he had on, it was some sort of black leather jumper. 'This is strange,' she thought as she traced her finger over an X emblem on the collar. She shifted her attention to his face. 'Very ruggedly handsome,' she mused, smirking at this train of thought. He had the scruffy I-haven't-shaved-in-a-few-days look, along with quite the pair of mutton chops. Even his dark brown hair was uniquely shaped.
Sadie was so wrapped up in taking in his handsome features and wondering what on earth he had been doing to cause his fall from her roof, that she didn't notice his slight stirrings. Just as she was leaning in closely to check his head for any injuries his eyes flashed open and at the same moment he lunged at her with a guttural growl. So caught by surprise, Sadie didn't have time to react before she felt a searing pain in her abdomen. She was gasping in pain as she looked down to see what appeared to be three metal claws thrust into her stomach. As she stared in shock at this she missed the shift in emotions on the man's face.
The instant it took for him to realize that the person in front of him was not who he originally thought it was, and that in fact this person happened to be a very beautiful woman, his rage turned to fear. Everything suddenly seemed like it was moving in slow motion, and in his shock at having stabbed an innocent woman he was unable to move, all he could do was stare.
Sadie couldn't believe what had just happened. Shifting her gaze back to his face she thought, 'I saved your life,' and now he cost her a life. With that thought in mind she looked directly into his eyes and saw her fear and confusion reflected in them as the darkness closed in around her.
He could tell she was fading fast, and with that his mind finally caught up with what had happened and he withdrew his ademantium claws. As he looked into her eyes he felt helpless in their gaze, then a strange shift occurred in them and her head drooped and her body began to slump towards him. He reached out to catch her but just as he was about to grasp her shoulders her head snapped up. In an instant he was once again staring into those amazing eyes, but there was something distinctly strange about them. They were the same vibrant green as before, but the pupils had changed, they had become catlike. He was so thrown off guard by this that he failed to notice the incoming left hook with enough force that he was knocked on his side.
All Sadie wanted to do was get away from that man and that place as she took off after having given him a punch that would have cracked his skull if it weren't for the ademantium that protected him. She tore up the busy street to the parking garage where her bike was kept. She quickly grabbed her helmet and jacket and threw them on, hopped on to her BMW motorcycle and fled the city. There was only one other place she could think to go to in her mounting confusion to find comfort. It wasn't far but the sun had fallen low in the sky by the time she reached her parents house.
Sadie's mind drifted back to where she was, sitting in what used to be a hot bath. Deciding to head for bed she was just glad that she was safe in her old home, the place she grew up in since she was ten years old. It was at that age that she became a part of the Phillips' family. In fact it was them that found her dirty, cold, and alone wondering along a Canadian highway. Also, when they found her, she didn't know how she had gotten there or even who she was. So, the rest of her childhood was spent in their wonderful country manor being home schooled by her two adopted parents. She excelled in practically everything she studied, and she found she had a particular love of science, most likely due to both parents being doctors. They were the reason she chose this career path. Growing up with them, she couldn't imagine what her life would have been like without them, or even what it had been before they found her, but not anymore.
They say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes. Well, for Sadie, the moment between the darkness and her reawakening in the alley, it was only partially true. Instead of witnessing moments from throughout her life, she only saw those things she had forgotten, things she wished could have stayed forgotten. She was now faced with the truth of her childhood before she was found on the highway all those years ago. It was with this final thought in mind that she drifted off to a restless sleep filled with dreams about her past and her parents.
