Author's Note: Hey! I really don't have anything to say right now so hope you enjoy! Oh and I don't own shit. (a person can dream though)


It had been a week. A week since the X-Force call. A week since the fight. A week since Yukio was taken. Basically a week since anyone could sleep at night for fear of El's terror. When she first arrived, she cursed about as often as Colossus attempted to get Wade to join the X-Men and basically anyone who got within a good foot of her would get second degree burns at least. You walk by her and somehow muster up the courage to say hi you would get a glare, dare to help her up during training you got a growl, thought you would make an attempt at being her friend you were lucky if you got the cold shoulder and a harsh glance. She eventually warmed up enough to not burn people, but everything stayed the same until Yukio. The second El laid eyes on Yukio, Colossus thought they would pop out of her head, but she hid it quickly. At first she was rude and harsh to Yukio and, by extent, everyone else (more so than usual at least). But with Colossus's and Professor X's help, Yukio got to know El and they became fast friends and soon after girlfriends (which took a good week of convincing and support on Colossus's, Ororo's, Emma Frost's, and Xavier's part due to El's upbringing which was in fact part of the reason she was at the school). Now, it was pure terror. El had reverted back to her old ways, but ten times worse. Even dare to glance at her, the temperature in the room would rise twenty degrees. Not even the teachers that could get close enough to speak to her could get more than a sentence in. When she wasn't in her room or out searching for Yukio, she was in the 'garage' or one of the spare rooms working on some weird tech. She didn't eat, she didn't sleep, she never to a moment to rest which, due to her mutant abilities, had yet to have repercussions, but they were bound to happen soon.

Colossus and Ororo, El's two closest friends save Yukio and surprisingly Domino, had already made multiple attempts to reach the troubled mutant, but to no avail. Even Russel tried, but all that got him were three days in the hospital wing. Even Deadpool wouldn't make a joke of it, in fact he hadn't called since the incident. Domino had visited, but that did little to nothing. Finally, Professor Xavier had enough. He did not usually like to interfere with his students personal lives, but Negasonic had already sent thirteen students to the medical wing and four teachers (Colossus, Ororo, Emma Frost, and Cyclops), he could not sit idly by any longer. El was in one of the spare rooms again, she had just come back from a twenty-four hour search for Yukio, but nothing came of it. Xavier wheeled over to the door of the room. The nob was hot, but he didn't care. He opened the door quietly as to not startle the girl, but she noticed him all the same.

"What do you want?" El growled, eyes red from lack of sleep and tears. She was standing over a mess of a table filled with everything from nuts and bolts to half finished contraptions that either lay abandoned on the side of the desk or smash on the floor.

"I just wanted to talk," Professor Xavier said calmly, keeping his distance as to not put the teen further on edge.

"I'm fine, thanks for coming," El grunted turning back to the work table.

"You are not fine, Ellie," Xavier said softly, "I just want to help."

"If you want to help, go use your giant ass fancy fucking machine thing and find Yukio," El snapped.

"I told you, I already tried," Xavier sighed not evening giving a second thought to her language which, in any other situation, he would have scolded. He actually tried exactly fifteen times with said 'giant ass fancy fucking machine thing', but each time either something would interfere or there would be no trace of them.

"Then get off your lazy ass and look!" El cracked, whipping around.

"I regret to say I cannot," Xavier sighed seeing he was getting nowhere. Behind him, Colossus and Ororo approached. Having heard El's outburst from down the hall, then came to make sure no student was trying to reach the furious warhead.

"What do you two want?" El growled, the temperature rising slightly.

"El, calm down," Ororo said, her voice perfectly trained to hid her rising apprehension.

"Why should I! No one else goes out looking! No one else seems to care that Yukio is gone!" El practically shouts the room's temperature jumping drastically.

"I'm really sorry about this, Ellie," Charles sighs, the pain clear in his eyes, "but you simply can not go on like this." El growls and the heat in the rooms spikes, but Professor Xavier simply closes his eyes and accessing El's mind. Her defenses are up (something Charles had taught her himself), but he wasn't known as the world's strongest telepath for nothing -(yes Jean Grey is dead, sorry I was going to include her, but, well, obviously that didn't happen)-.

The temperature froze, El's eyes went wide as she felt her barriers break. She could feel the Professor's conscious enter her mind, muddling the already black waters of the young mutant's conscious.


The second Charles entered El's mind he was bombarded by tidal waves of feelings, emotion, and memories. He saw the moment Yukio was taken, he saw Yukio's admission to El, he saw some of El's most cherished moments with the cheerful mutant. Mixed with those were flashes of El back when she was basically bitching on Yukio, an occasional knife or blood would flash through the Professor's mind, but through it all, he felt her anger, her sadness, her self-hatred, her guilt. Pushing through was hard, but he didn't have to do much after a few moments. El could feel him and was quickly trying to suppress and hide everything, but she knew, he saw everything.

Charles was now sitting alone in that black abyss that was now El's mind.

"Ellie? I can not help you if you don't come out," Charles called into the dark.

"Who said I needed help! Who said I wanted help?" El challenged, refusing to form. Charles sighed.

"I know this must be hard for you El, but its not your fault," the Professor said softly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" El growled.

"Don't act like you don't know," Charles replied, "You know I felt it, your anger, fear, sadness, shame, guilt, I felt it all." El didn't respond, but Charles became mildly aware of something trying to push him out.

"You're not getting rid of me El, you may not want it, but I am here to help you," Xavier said, "I want to find Yukio, to make Erik pay for what he did, I want to make this right."

"But how are we supposed to find her, even Cerebro won't work," El whimpered. It was so soft Charles could barely hear it.

"If only I had been faster, I could have blasted him before she ever reached him," El sighed, desperately trying to keep her sobs inside, "I should have just given myself up, then she'd be here right now, safe."

"Don't say that El, she wouldn't want that," Charles said softly. There were soft cries not too far off, they were so quiet that Charles almost thought it was Ororo or Piotr speaking. Professor Xavier made his way towards the source, finding El in a crumpled ball in the middle of all the black, crying. He leaned down, placing a hand on her back, but she flinched. He nearly forgot, El was never comfortable with physical contact. He couldn't tell if it was because of her parents, the abuse, or something else entirely, but touching her might only make it worse. Charles briefly thought through his options, but sighed. Maybe if he brought her a little joy then they could calm her down. Xavier summoned a memory of Yukio embracing an upset El and reflected the feelings she felt then onto her mind. The crumpled El whimpered, but her crying slowed. Charles smiled, pulling out of El's mind.


Charles awoke to much of the same scene as before, Ororo and Colossus in the doorway behind him and El before them, but now El was on her knees with her head in her hands, forehead pressed into the ground with silent sobs wracking her body. Ororo hurriedly pushed past Xavier and knelt by El.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," El muttered through ragged breaths, tear still falling.

"What happened Professor?" Colossus asked as Ororo cradled the teen whispering soft, soothing words into her shoulder.

"I think for the sake of Ms. Phimister's privacy, I will simply say, I tried," Professor replied before addressing Ororo, "Lets bring her to my office, Cyclops and Emma are planning on meeting me there in a few minutes to discuss any findings on Yukio's whereabouts."

"Are you sure that's a good idea Professor?" Ororo asked worriedly.

"Yes," Charles nodded, turning to lead the way.


Ororo had to half carry, half support El to the Professor's office. She was shaking and still muttering to herself. Both Ororo and Colossus glanced at her every few seconds, worry and concern etched deep in their faces. It didn't take long for them to reach their destination and when the Professor opened the door Emma and Scott were already waiting. Emma gasped and rushed to El's side (she was also surprisingly close with the exploding mutant) helping Ororo bring her to a seat in the corner of the room. Both women took their place beside her, Emma trying to talk to El, quietly whispering to the teen.

"Um, Professor-" Scott said, glancing at El but Xavier gave him a hard look.

"What did you find Scott?" Charles asked, taking charge of the room with his usual persona.

"Well, nothing actually," Scott said, shame entering his voice, "but we, um, did receive something."

"Receive something?" Xavier asked both cautious and curious.

"Well, um, I don't think this is the kind of thing we should, um, discuss in front of, erm," Scott glanced back to El.

"Its about the trade, isn't it," El asked, voice broken and worn from crying. Emma nodded, concern flashing in her eyes.

"What was it?" Xavier asked. Cyclops pulled up a video on the monitor on the Professor's desk and clicked play. The video showed on the screen opposite the desk revealing it to the entire room.


'Hello X-Men," Magneto greeted with a smile, "Long time no see. I believe I have something of yours." He stepped aside revealing Yukio bound in rope chains and suspended off the ground so she didn't touch any of the walls, all of which were made of metal.

"Yukio!" El cried leaping out of her seat, held back only by Ororo and Emma on each arm.

"She was quite the handful, I must admit, but I'm not calling to talk about that," he smiled, steeping back in front of Yukio taking up the majority of the screen, "I'm hear to propose a trade. One mutant for another. I'll give you Yukio back if you send your little Negasonic to the designated location, alone. Once I receive her, I will release Yukio. I will leave her at an undetermined location for you. That is the deal I propose. You have until sunset today to answer or else I will have to play dirty and I really wouldn't want to harm any more with mutant blood. Send your answer to the included email address." With that the feed went dead and the room sat in silence for a minute. El whimpered, weakly pulling against her teachers' restraining grip. El's resitance grew as her whimpers turned to groans then to growls.

"El...," Emma pulled the younger mutant close, embracing her in a hug. El just twisted, but soon gave up and fell still again Frost.

"Could you track the call?" Xavier asked.

"No," Cyclops replied, his shame evident in his tone.

"Where's the meting place?" El asked, her voice low.

"El, I don't think-" Ororo broke in, but El wasn't having it.

"Where is the meeting place?" she demanded, her previous anger and determination returning briefly.

"I would like to have a private talk with Cyclops," Charles said calmly, "Emma, Ororo, could you please help El to her rooms? If one of you could please say with her, that would be greatly appreciated," Both women nodded before practically dragging a stone still El, half way between furious and defeated. Colossus followed closely behind.

"Now," Charles nodded to the remaining X-Men.


Both Ororo and Emma had long left when El made her escape. She was smart, only packing a few small ziplock bags of food, her wallet, and a spare change of clothes along with her phone and computer. Wearing her X-Men uniform under her casual clothes, El snuck out of the mansion, no one the wiser.


Author's Note: Okay, not too long, not too short, but got to where I wanted. Okay so warning, I gave you a brief glance of it in this chapter (by brief I mean brief), but the 'mature things' will begin to start showing up. I don't mean smut, but some dark territory. I don't know how deep I'll get into it, maybe if I think it turns out good enough I'll shove it all into a one shot, but for now just keep my notice in mind. Chapter 3 should be up soon, I already have it outlined in my head so I just need some words that preferably make sense and go well together. Oh, also, if it's just one X-Men is it X-Men or X-Man, it's X-Men right because its a title? Anyway, until next time! Review!