X- Men Evolution

Destiny Magics

A/N you know, I started with the intention of updating every weekend, but it's been more like every other weekend- and this one has been three weeks! Sorry, everyone. I'll get better with updates once the summer break starts.

I should tell you that thoughts are now 'like this'. I'm sorry if the change causes confusion for anyone, but I've been trying out different ways to put them (since I didn't really like what I used in the last chapter), and I liked this way much better.

If 'this' is inside a quotation, however, it's quoting from what was said earlier.

Okay, that's enough of my boring drivel, let's get on with it!

Disclaimer: I do not own X- men: Evo.

6. Heart to Heart with a Dragon

The dragon crept into Professor Xavier's office just as the phone in it rang.

"That'll be Principal Kelly." the Professor sighed. "Hello, Dragon. One moment." He picked up the phone. "Hello? Yes, Principal Kelly. Yes… yes, I… Now… Now hold on!"

The dragon could hear what the person on the other end was saying, but she didn't like it much and forced herself to tune it out.

"Yes, I know what happened. Never mind how I know! Yes, I realize that! I beg your pardon? Yes, I know what he looks like! We are talking about a boy who has feelings just like everyone else! I expect you to show some respect for that! What? I think I know more about Kurt that you do. I assure you, Principal Kelly, of all my students, Kurt is probably the least dangerous. Yes. Very well, I'll come. Yes, I'll bring my other teachers here. I'll be seeing you. Goodbye."

Xavier hung up the phone and put his head in his hands, sighing. The he straightened. "Is there something I can do for you?" he asked.

"No, sir. I was just wondering, what's happened, exactly? The… the light patterns just told me that the mutant called Kurt is in the forest outside and he's pretty upset."

"Yes, that's probably an understatement. Kurt's hologram watch broke in the lunch room and quite a few students panicked. Wait… did you just say you know where Kurt is?"

The dragon nodded. "Everyone has a particular light pattern. If I know it, and I ask the light, they'll let me know about certain ones. I've been monitoring his, because of the coming danger. If he's inside a mile radius, I can find him."

"Good!" said the professor. "I hate to ask this of you, but… could you go and find him? Principal Kelly wants to talk to all the adults here, and I need someone to stay with Kurt and make sure he doesn't do anything… drastic."

"Drastic as in running away or something? I don't think I'd put it past him. Sure, I can do that." The dragon snapped open her wings and briefly ran her tongue along her left one. "I've wanted to talk to him anyway. He shouldn't be told what kind of danger he's in or where it's coming from, or he might do something really drastic to stop it from happening, but he should be warned that danger is coming."

"How will you tell him about the danger without telling him what it is?" the Professor asked. The dragon looked at him.

"You concentrate on this Principal Kelly person's thick skull. See if you can get through it- from what it sounded like, it'll take some time. Leave this to me. I may not have much practice talking to people, but I am good at making and taking opportunities. I'll figure something out." When Professor Xavier continued to look worried, the dragon added, "It's okay, I'll watch him until the other students find him. You talk to the thick-headed. Leave the furry one to me."

Finally Xavier nodded, and the dragon jumped into the air. Flying through the halls at a good speed, she soon landed in front of the doors of the entrance hall. She walked right underneath the door knobs, leaped up, and clamped her jaws around the left handle. She braced her paws on the doors (two paws on each door), jerked her head back to twist the knob, and pushed off with her right paws. The door opened. The dragon slithered out through the narrow gap she'd made and flew off, homing in on the light pattern of the mutant called Kurt.

Kurt sat in the dark, at the base of a tree. His head was down on his knees, his tail still and on the ground. His ears still rang with the screams and insults. 'Monster!' 'Demon!'

"Hey!" Kurt blinked. That voice hadn't been inside his head. He looked up. Then down. In front of him was a small black creature, a dragon, her head slightly lower than his knees. For a moment he was confused; then he remembered seeing her.

"Hey… aren't you…?" his voice trailed off, his mind still on what had happened at school.

"Yep. Professor Xavier introduced me last night when you and the others started dinner. I didn't stay there long, though, I'm… I'm not really used to people. You probably know what I mean, from experiences before you came here… I'm too different to really fit in."

Kurt flinched, and the screams echoed in his head again. "How do you deal vith it?" he asked desperately. "How did you deal vith zhe vay ozhers acted around you?"

The dragon gave him a sad smile. "I didn't. I ran away. And I still don't know what choice would have been worse. But I hope you're stronger than I was… for your sake. Even now, in those situations, I only know how to run… from my past… from my own appearance. When things got hard, I just left. I didn't try to fit in. Now I can't."

Kurt shivered. Closing his eyes, he could still hear the screaming. 'Freak!' 'Demon!'

"Kurt!" He opened his eyes. Wide, deep purple ones were staring back without blinking.

"Very few people vould have let you fit in if you had tried. Besides zhe ozher mutants, zhe only von who accepted zhe vay I look here vas Amanda, and she… she…" he swallowed hard. "Vell, perhaps zhis vas a sign to indicate zhat I'm not supposed to fit in. maybe I'm supposed to be alone."

"Not so, Eleven." The dragon said to him.

"Not… vait… huh? Eleven? Vhy call me zhat?" Kurt was completely baffled.

"Well, you are German, aren't you? And the others call you Elf sometimes, right? I thought I heard them."

"Yes, but… oh. Oh, I get it. Funny*." He gave the dragon a weak smile. "So… you vere saying?"

The dragon grinned. "Right. I said, 'not so'. You can't see them, so I guess you wouldn't know this, but everyone has a specific light pattern. It's sort of like a fingerprint, but not, because as the person get older it changes to tell their story. In a vague kind of way. Yours, for example, says you were adopted and you adoptive parents loved you very much… but you were raised in a village of people that did not. You have a rough, dark history."

Kurt flinched and looked away, shutting his eyes. It did nothing as images began to rise in his mind, unbidden. They vanished, however, when he felt light pressure on his knee, and he opened his eyes. The dragon had reared on her back paws and stretched up to put a paw there.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for my comment to hurt… I just wanted an example to help my point across. The part I'm getting to is that the light patterns of each person interact. The colours and the shapes of light around each person… each living thing, really… when people get close, their light reacts in certain ways. And even as a person's light pattern changes, the way it interacts with the light patterns of others do not. I've seen patterns that clash horribly; those people are enemies. I've seen light patterns that do blend but leave little impression. I've seen the pretty light patterns of best friends. I haven't seen you with Amanda, but my guess would be that she is probably in between there."

"I can't believe I'm discussing zhis." Kurt sighed. The dragon laughed. "vhat, exactly, is zhe point you're getting to, if you don't mind mien asking? I mean, my asking?"

"Of course." The dragon smiled. "there's one more interaction that light can make, where it blends with another's so beautifully that it's beyond the word og dazzling."

"Love." Kurt said, his voice monotonous.

"Yes." The dragon nodded. "And no." The dragon shook her head.

Kurt looked at her, confused. "Huh?"

"Allow me to explain it like this. You can fall in and out of love many times in your lifetime, and with many different people. Those patterns are the same as those for strong friendships. The beautiful pattern… the perfect pattern… that would be true love, Kurt. And each person has only one of those. Many people never even find their perfect match. But everyone does have one. And I've seen yours already."

"Vhat? Have you? Who?"

The dragon laughed again. "I can't tell you, Kurt. That would be cheating. And it's not right, that's not the way you find them."

Kurt sighed. "Vell, I hope I know zhem vhen I see zhem."

"You already know her."

"Vhat? But i… vouldn't I know?" Kurt looked at the dragon, a mix of confusion, sadness, and hope in his eyes.

"No, you wouldn't, not right away. Light patterns show from the start who matches who, but the feeling itself takes time, no matter what the fairy tales say. You meet them… become friends… share experiences… learn about each other… and after time you realize you feel more… realize you'd do anything for the other… know everything about them and love me just the same… and feel like everything's become perfect when you find out that they feel the same way. It comes in pieces." Kurt sighed again. "I will give you a hint, though." Kurt blinked at her, suddenly feeling more hopeful. If the hint was easy…

"Try looking closer to home. I'd never seen a perfect light pattern, ever, until I came here. I was shocked seeing not just one here, but a surprising number among the people at the institute. Four, in fact**… and something tells me the pairs aren't all here yet." Kurt let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding in yet another sigh. That told him almost nothing, except that it was another mutant at the institute. Well… actually, maybe that wasn't nothing. It just wasn't as easy as he'd hoped for.

"Vhat about you? You found yours?" he asked, curious. The dragon looked at him, blinked, and shook her head.

"Actually, I don't have a light pattern at all, not that I can see. I can think of two reasons. One is that I just can't see my own light pattern. The other, more likely one is that I don't have a match. I'm not even vaguely human shape like you are. How many other humans are shaped like this?" The dragon sighed, unfurling the re-furling her wings and moving her tail around for emphasis. "It's not easy being so different."

Kurt winced. His mind had drifted away from what had happened at school; with that last comment, however, he started remembering it.

"Don't remind me, please. Distract me."

The dragon looked back at him. "You'll have to face it sooner or later."

"I know, but… not right now. Please."

"Alright. What do you want me to do?"

"Talk to me. Tell me about… you. I know nothing about you. Vhat's your name?"

The dragon shook her head. "Don't have one."

"you don't have… a name?"

"No, not one that I remember…"

For a moment it was quit. Then…

"Vhat de you remember? Vhat vas your past like?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" asked the dragon.

"Please… tell me about you past so I can forget mine, at least for now."

"Very well." Said the dragon, and she settled into a more comfortable lying position, putting her right front paw over her left one. "My own past…"

*for those of you who are wondering, it's word play. The other mutants call Kurt Elf sometimes for his pointy ears (as most of you know). Elf is actually a German word, too. Translating from German, Elf is the number eleven.

** For people wondering what pairs I had in mind, I was thinking Kurt : Kitty, Wolverine : Storm, Jubilee : Bobby, and Rahne : Jamie… just cuz' I think that last pair would be cute together.

A/N There, that chapter took ages to type. Maybe I really should learn to type with both hands instead of just my left…

Well, anyway, brace yourself before the next chapter. The dragon's past is NOT pretty.

Also, I have turned on the anonymous reviews to try and get more (at some point I was advised to leave it off for awhile… not sure why…) because as of right now, I officially have more people who put this on story alert than I have people who have reviewed. Is it that hard to click the review button? Come on, please!