That first proper conversation that she had with him in the first few days of his arrival kept playing in her mind. And it never failed to bring tears to her eyes.

Although she was sad that Charles had been injured from the incident at Cuba, she was also relieved that he was too busy coping with his injuries to figure out her thoughts and emotions. The sense of loss that she felt when the man she had fallen for had simply left without saying goodbye and had also taken her beloved sister with him, consumed her nearly every single day. It was a bitter betrayal which ate inside of her and left her feeling depressed. She also felt inadequate that he had left because she was not one of them. She could not alter her genetic self, and had to accept that he had his own archetypes which were a direct opposite to hers and Charles'. It frightened her as well to think that he would possibly not hesitate to kill her to achieve his ideal world where his kind ruled. She knew that Charles had forgiven him for being the partial cause to his own paralysis but she wondered if she could get over it as easily as her older brother did.

She thought back again to the last night that he had spent in her family home, and again felt betrayed and unsure about how he really felt towards her even though he had once told her that he cared for her a great deal. She was going to his room but stopped abruptly when she saw Raven exiting, in the nude and in her original blue form while holding onto a robe. She quickly averted her eyes and walked away before Raven noticed her. The whole night she spent thinking of the various explanations that could be possible but she never once attempted to speak with him about it. By the time she had decided to confront him, the entire team had left for the mission in Cuba and when they returned, he was not with them.

She remembered receiving a call from Hank before they returned, telling her to obtain certain paramedical supplies to tend to the wounded. She had recoiled in horror upon seeing Charles in a lot of pain and Hank doing his best to ease that and the blood that was flowing out from her brother's back. She also remembered vividly that she had asked about Erik's whereabouts, secretly hoping that he had not been killed in the fight, and Alex spitting out venomously that he was a traitor who had singlehandedly caused her brother's injuries, abandoned the team and left with Raven to start his own team.

Her heart broke at that instance and whatever explanations that she had conjured up the night before dissipated instantly. His final action cemented the fact that he and Raven had something going, and he probably lied to and used her all the time they had been close. She held her tears back however, and busied herself being Hank's assistant to ensure that Charles injuries were well tended to. She also could not believe that her lover had caused her older brother's physical pain and thereafter, the loss of the use of his legs.

Now that she was alone in her room, she thought back about everything that had happened and felt a huge void inside of her. She was not one that was overly dramatic but carrying on every day in the past weeks feeling alone felt exceptionally unbearable that day. She knew that Charles shared similar sentiments on the loss of his legs, Raven and his new best friend, but unlike her, he had something to look forward to, the setting up of his school for the gifted. For her, she did not feel the same drive or optimism as he did. Life really appeared meaningless then.

And so she picked up the knife that she had brought up from the kitchen and walked into the adjoining bathroom. She couldn't recall what had gone through her mind as she took the knife from the kitchen. She felt as though there was someone else moving her arms and limbs, turning on the tap to the warm water of the bathtub and lifting up her legs to step into the soothing warmth of the filled bath.

Even when she slashed both wrists with the knife before lying down and closing her eyes, she didn't know what was going on inside of her head. She felt an extremely sharp sting only when water seeped into the open wounds, and thereafter a great sense of relief that she no longer had to be alone.

...

She woke up with a start after some time, and saw that she had dozed off in the midst of her attempted suicide.

How very strange.

She felt very puzzled at the realisation that she had not died, and while the bath water was stained slightly red, there was not even a scratch on her wrists.

She took the knife again and attempted to cut herself. She felt a sharp stinging pain but what shocked her was that after what seemed like a minute, her wound slowly closed itself.

Was she one of them?

She thought again about her childhood and about what had happened previously whenever she had wounded herself before, trying to figure out if this was something that manifested only recently. Unfortunately, her mind drew a complete blank. It couldn't be that she had never fallen, or even scraped her knees when she was younger could it?

Should she tell Charles?

She decided not to. Not yet at least. She did not want him probing her mind unnecessarily and finding out about her affair with his friend. She knew that she never was that close to her own brother and she was not about to be close to him because of this. She always felt that he saw her as a child and a liability that he would have to protect out of parental duty since their parents died young. Raven on the other hand felt more like a sister to her than a reprimanding parent and would have been the first she would confide in but her sister was no longer available.

She thought about looking for Hank instead for answers. He was intelligent, well-versed on genetic mutation and may be able to provide reasonable explanations to this new found ability. Plus, he was always obliging and helpful, although slightly shy.

She found Hank easily in his laboratory and asked him her various questions about his pet topic - genetic mutation. He was excited that she was now shared similar interests in this and offered to let her read his various theses on the subject. Not once did he suspect that her abilities were surfacing now, at the older age of twenty-two, and she felt slightly guilty at how she wasn't telling him the entire truth regarding her queries. He even explained to her that the mutant X gene was so unique in every individual that nobody knew for sure when it would surface. It could be from birth, from a young age, or even older (which explained her case she thought to herself).

With this new found ability, dying was no longer a top priority in her mind. She couldn't die easily anyway, even if she tried killing herself again. She began to wonder what else it was that she could do. Did she have other powers that would be manifesting soon?