AN: What are your thoughts on my OC Kaia? Let me know! Please Read & Review.


Chapter Two: Familiar Places

Logan stood outside the familiar brick wall of Xavier's school, taking a deep breath. Images flashed quickly through his mind –faces-, of Charles, Scott, and of course, Jean. He let his eyelids flutter shut briefly as he pictured her eyes, a dark soulless black, melting into her familiar brown eyes, the eyes that had changed back into the ones he had fallen in love. He watched the life drain out of her, and it was all his fault.

His eyes snapped open. One eyebrow cocked, he turned to Ororo and shrugged brusquely.

"We going in or what?"

Ororo had been watching him worriedly, but upon his snappy request, she settled her features with a smile and nodded.

"Of course, Logan. Whenever you are ready."

Logan simply grunted in response and began walking, stopping mid-step and turning to face Ororo.

"Remember, if this new discovery or whatever isn't worth my time, I'm leaving." His voice bordered on menacing, which he almost felt guilty for, but Ororo simply nodded calmly. "I know."

Logan hesitated. "Kay." He muttered, and turned around again, trudging towards the place he had escaped months ago.


She was crouched mid-air, claws out, and not one of the faces who stared back at her registered shock.

She hesitated, unsure of what to do. Usually at this point, whoever was on the receiving end of her snarl/claws combination freaked out. But instead, four mutant faces looked back at her patiently. Well, one of them, the darker blue one with all the carvings, looked a bit apprehensive.

"What the hell is going on here?" She said quickly, in a low voice.

"Is she going to hurt us?" The frightened one whispered, his voice thick with a German accent. Kaia fought the urge to roll her eyes and deepened her glare.

"Can someone answer me? Where the hell am I?"

The blue furry one stepped forward diplomatically, raising his hands -or paws, Kaia mused wryly- in an offering of peace.

"Sit down, please. We'll explain everything." He gestured towards one of the couches. Kaia's eyes narrowed. "I'd rather stay standing." She straightened, and retracted her claws. The blue creature shrugged in response. "Whatever you find suits you." He responded in an even, calm tone.

"We are not here to hurt you. We are professors and mutants here at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We are a facility and school designed specifically to educate, assist and support young mutants. Behind closed doors, we are a team, working against threats to mutant-kind and gathering research. I assure you- you are perfectly safe and supported here."

Kaia blinked, and before she could help it, a short, barking laugh had escaped her mouth.

"I'm sorry, that sounds like bullshit." She said shortly. "How did you find me?" Furball, as Kaia had chosen to nickname him, looked at Prematurely Aging Girl and Whipped Boyfriend fleetingly. "Two of our older professors found you collapsed, Storm and Warren. Rogue and Bobby were with them on the journey. You had been badly injured."

Kaia stayed still, one eyebrow cocked sceptically.

"Badly injured? Yeah ri-"

"We know you can heal." The so called Rogue, the partially white haired one, intercepted. Her Southern accent immediately annoyed Kaia, who shot the younger girl a withering look.

"Well done genius, you get a gold star." She said icily. Rogue's mouth opened, but the blonde boy beside her put a warning hand on her shoulder.

"You had your claws out while you were unconscious- most likely due to the extremely potent paralytic chemical we found in your system. One unlike any particular substance any of us have ever come across… which leads us to suspect it was mutant related. Whoever had been with you fled when our X-Men arrived, and they brought you here straightaway. You're very lucky they found you when they did." Furball added, gesturing to the couple.

Kaia rolled her eyes. "Yeah thanks, now I'm in a so called school for other freaks when I could be back in the real world."

"Kaia, you need to cooperate with us. We want to help you. You don't have to stay, but at least until we're certain you're safe and protected we'd prefer you stay here. And well… we have seen someone like you before." Furball said softly. Kaia paused. "Last thing I remember is going out to a club. Having a drink. Trying, to have a good time. Next thing I know I'm here, surrounded by two blue guys and two teenagers." Her words came out like bullets. Furball paused, looking at her meaningfully.

"Do you remember anything about how the adamantium became part of you?"

Kaia's blood ran cold.

They know.

She froze, opening her mouth to come up with a sharp response but nothing came. "Hank…" The young boy murmured. Kaia's mind was still frozen. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for escape routes. But at that same moment, the door swung open, and two people walked in.


Logan walked into the Professor's old office and immediately took in his surroundings. Rogue and Bobby were standing tersely by a chair, holding hands and looking worried. Kurt looked petrified, cowering behind a chair. Hank was standing, a struggling look of calm on his face. And there was a girl, who Logan could only assume was this so called Kaia.

He looked at her quickly, taking in all of her features. She was surprisingly small, lean, built like a leopard. She had long messy black waves of hair down her back and creamy skin. Her eyes were a fierce dark brown and her striking features were twisted into an angry, hard expression.

At the sound of their arrival, her eyes snapped over to them, and met his. He had never seen such angry eyes… except in his own reflection. Her face remained controlled but he noticed the slight fear in her eyes and knew that somehow, something had gotten lost in translation and she was afraid of them. And in that moment of realization, she snapped.

She lashed out all of the sudden, stretching her body to kick the chair in front of her, sending it slamming into Hank, who caught by surprised, tumbled over. She spun in the air, and landed in a crouch, before she turned and scaled the wall as agilely as a jungle cat. Logan's head darted to look at where she was headed- the air vent, and before he could jump up and get her himself, Kurt had suddenly appeared in a flash of blackened swirls, seizing her and teleporting her back to the ground.

She immediately knocked him in the face with one elbow, sending him reeling back with a whimper, and she whirled around, facing a frozen Bobby and Rogue, a still dazed Beast, Nightcrawler and of course, Storm and himself, and with that, she snarled, and five long, metallic, sharp claws came shooting out between her knuckles with a metallic sound familiar to Logan.

His breath stopped. He felt like he was looking in some bizarre mirror. Even after seeing the snakelike woman who was Stryker's assistant back at Alkali, they weren't the same and he assumed that they were the only ones who had faced adamantium experimentation. But looking at this woman, whose claws were identical to his, he realized he wasn't so unique after all.

And just like that, he reacted. He growled, and his claws shot out. Her cold expression completely fell away, exposing utter shock and confusion in her face. In that moment, Logan realized how pretty she could be, with her face open and soft like that, but just as quickly, she covered it.

"We're not the bad guys. Looks like we're more similar than you think." He said in a quick, harsh voice. She eyed him, then paused, looking at the tag he was wearing on his neck.

"Where did you get that?" She asked in a tight voice. He didn't respond, because she did. Retracting her claws, she reached up to her neck and pulled out something that was hidden from view before. A silver dog tag necklace, stamped with the words, Wolfcub.


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