Cassandra sat in the front hall of the main foyer, staring at the cloaked figure leaning casually opposite her. She snorted in annoyance once again and rolled her eyes. Her gaze roamed over the dark figure, scoffing at his dark cloak and green converse sneakers barely visible where the cloak ended. Smoothing her hand over her brown skirt, she crossed her legs, drawing attention to her own attire. She could feel the cloaked figure's eyes roaming over her cream blouse, brown pencil skirt, flesh-coloured stockings and brown Mary-Jane shoes. Clicking her tongue in disgust, she stood and narrowed her eyes.

"Stop it Damien, its fucking creepy!"

The cloaked figure chuckled and pulled off his hood to reveal the face of an nineteen year old boy, with dirty blonde hair and green eyes.

"You look pretty today, Cassie." He smirked.

"And you look like an idiot. Take the cloak off, you do not look cool."

"I do so." Whined Damien.

"Pfft, whatever!"

Cassie shook her head and watched as Damien dejectedly pulled off the cloak and threw it on the chair behind him. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Why are you in charge?" he asked.

"Daughter of, not one, but two x-men, a proven genius and I'm older than you."

"I'm the son of Deadpool!" he snapped.

"My point exactly. You're just too... unpredictable."

"Still unfair." He muttered.

"And you're a brat."

"That's a bit harsh." Came a deep voice.

Cassie grinned and turned towards the door. Against the huge double doors leaned a boy of average height, with brown hair and a slim but toned body. He wore a suit with a pair of red converse. Shaking her head, Cassie folded her arms in amusement at the person before her. She walked closer and gave him a brief hug, before pulling back.

"Hey Darwin." She greeted shyly.

"Hey Cassandra." He murmured, his topaz eyes shining with affection.

Darwin was one of her best friends, and since he left to stay in New Orleans, Cassandra had missed him greatly. Spending hours at the mansion trying to avoid Damien were all she seemed to do until recently and it was good to have someone with a level head to keep her company. She had a crush on Darwin when she was a teen but then things had gone crazy when Alice had left and her crush fizzled and died as quickly as it came. Speaking of crazy, Damien pushed Cassie out of the way to clap Darwin on the back.

"Dude, sup."

"Hey Damien." Laughed Darwin, squeezing his friends shoulder.

"Good trip?" asked Cassie, taking his luggage and putting it to one side.

"Not too bad. Had a little problem at one point though."

"Oh?"

Darwin sighed and shook his head, taking off his blazer and draping over the chair Cassie had previously occupied.

"Purge. They... well-"

"Perhaps we should step into my office." Interrupted Cassie, gesturing to the open door further down the hall.

Darwin nodded, and Cassie led the way, stopping a student on the way to ask him to take Darwin's things to the guest room. As she looked back to the entrance she saw that Damien was still standing there gaping at her.

"What?" she asked.

"You have an office?" he screamed.

"Shut-up Damien."

Laughing silently, she gestured to her open door and waited until Darwin walked in, before following him in and going to stand by her desk. Darwin sat down and they waited until Damien entered and slammed the door shut, before Cassie cleared her throat.

"What happened then?" she asked Darwin.

"Purge has set up security checks at airports, forcing random people to give blood samples. I watched them take two families into custody. I wanted to do something but being just me..." he trailed off and looked away.

"It's okay; I would have done the same. We're not going to pick them off one by one, that's suicide. We're going straight to the root of the problem. The president."

"My parents told me about Cyclop's plan, I'm a little sceptic."

"Join the club." Muttered Damien.

"It's a little drastic-"

"Dangerous is the word." Corrected Damien.

"Boys! Now is not the time. We are the x-men, we save lives!"

"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, Cassie, I'm just saying maybe we should think about the consequences." Explained Darwin.

"We can't. You don't get it. The Brotherhood is dead. They're the toughest force around and they were almost wiped out within a day. Supposedly only a few members survived."

Darwin closed his eyes, his hands curling into fists. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the gold frame on Cassie's desk. Cassie followed his gaze and smiled at the picture of her, Darwin and Alice on Alice's fifth birthday, all of them covered in frosting. Cassie was three and Darwin was two, both of them were looking like angels while Alice looked like a little hellion with mud in her hair and a mischievous gleam in her eye. Cassie walked up to Darwin and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She's fine. I promise."

Darwin nodded and sighed, the tension draining from his body. Cassie picked up a file and handed it to Darwin before making some notes in her book.

"That file contains your security pass for the underground levels, your training schedule, a flash drive with all the information we have on Purge and a key to the liquor cabinet."

"Hey!" squealed Damien.

"You're nineteen, no drinking for you."

"He's twenty!"

"Close enough."

Damien groaned and shook his head. Cassie merely smirked, and headed towards the door.

"Well, I need to eat so anything else before we go?"

"Nah, I need to think and do some research about everything." Said Darwin.

Cassie nodded and looked at Damien who shook his head, gazing longingly at the folder in Darwin's hand. With a nod, Cassie waited until the boys had left her office, before locking up and heading to the kitchen. She smiled as she stepped inside and saw a petite brunette sitting at the counter with a bowl of ice-cream.

"Hey Jennette."

"Hi Miss Wagner."

"Jenny, I told you before called me Cassie."

"I know."

Cassie smiled and took an apple from the bowl in the centre before sitting next to Jennette. She glanced at the girl who had arrived about two months before after being found in a mutant lab. She was eight years old and a little shy but a very sweet and kind little girl. She had the remarkable gift of creating a pink adhesive substance that was stronger then industrial strength glue. Unlike most students, she didn't recoil at first at Cassie's light blue skin but rather found it fascinating. When Damien had started calling Cassie an 'avatar', Jennette had screamed at him and used her power to smother him in sticky pink goo. He was stuck to the floor of the main hall for three days before Hank could create a solvent to disintegrate the goo. Jean had mentioned that as Jennette grew older the strength of her goo would increase.

"Miss Wagner?"

"Yes Jenny?"

"Is everything going to be okay?"

"Of course honey, why do you ask?"

"I heard Mrs Summers tell your mother that we might have to leave the school."

"No... well... look, don't worry okay? I won't let anything happen to you. Wherever we are, okay?"

"Okay."

A/N: Review!