Chapter 9: I Don't Remember Anything

Magneto smiled evilly at the looks of shock on everyone's faces. Kurt sank to his knees, shaking his head with his hands tangled in his hair.

I don't even remember having a family. Much less who my dad was. Why should they have to suffer just for rescuing me? They're all good people, all they want to do is help others, and this is what they get.

"I was sent to take her back to her father," Magneto continued. "If you hand her over to me, I'll leave peacefully. If you refuse, the consequences could be... Dire."

"If ve hand her over to you, and you give her to Sinister, she'll most likely be tortured!" Kurt shouted from his place on the ground. "What vould Sinister even vant with her anyway?"

Magneto floated back into the air. "Some time with his own daughter, perhaps? I'll give you three days to come to a decision concerning the girl. If I don't get a response within that time, I will send someone myself."

"What about Charles?" came Storm's query. "Is he unharmed?"

"Charles is unharmed," came Magneto's faint reply. "He's still in the house. He was left alone. All we did was lock him in his room."

Magneto floated away without another word, his minions following suit. Kurt was still on the ground, in what seemed to be shock. He had untangled his hands from his hair, but was still shaking his head slightly. I was still in shock from the revelation, so I can't really blame him.

According to what he told me about my being located while I was getting my wardrobe from Kitty, Professor Xavier had picked up my mutant genetics on Cerebro. Apparently, the signature I put off was super strong because a team was sent out almost immediately. The team was Storm, Wolverine, Kurt, Jean, and Rogue.

Wolverine had picked up the sent of my attackers mingled with mine and was following that scent. Kurt was the one actually following me, and was able to save me from something that was actually far worse than what we all thought.

Kitty pitched in at this point and said that there were actually two attackers (according to Rogue), because I had originally thought there were three. Kurt then explained that they were most likely followers of whomever may have wanted me, or they really just wanted to pick up someone on the street.

Kurt said he actually had to fight back really intensely before the guys took off. He then barely had time to catch me before I passed out in his arms and was out even a few hours after I first arrived. He also mentioned that I had a dirty blue backpack on that we had to pull off of me before I could be carried anywhere.

Honestly, when they rescued me, I couldn't remember anything other than the fact I had woken up in a room sort of like the infirmary at the Institute, and that I had run away out of complete fear. I had probably been on the run for quite a while by the time they found me, by the description Kitty gave of how dirty I was.

Kitty started to pill me out of the bushes when I remembered the detail about the backpack. That's what pulled me out of my daze. I needed to remember. I had to find out what was in that bag. I pulled against her grip making her stop.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a look of confusion coming over her delicate features.

"I have to find my bag," I told her. "There might be clues as to where I came form that could help us. Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, it was handed off to Rogue," she replied. "It's still in my room. We could go get it…. But we should really help them out."

"From what I can see, I don't think it would even be a good idea at all for me to go near them," I shot back. "And maybe, just maybe, there would be clues to my origin in the bag. Come on, Kitty. Please?"

Kitty sighed in defeat. "Fine. But if we get in trouble for taking off, you have to take the blame. This is your idea."

I nodded vigorously. "I'm okay with that. Let's just go!"

I took off across the lawn towards the front door. I don't think Kitty was expecting for me to run, because she didn't catch up to me until I stopped on the landing halfway up the stairs to catch my breath. She led me the rest of the way to her room, where I knew discoveries were about to be made.

oOo

The bag was indeed on Rouge's side of the room, just like Kitty said it would be. She pulled it out from underneath the foot of Rouge's bed after a minute or two with a cry of victory. I took it when she pulled it out and made another discovery almost right after opening it.

It was actually a violin case as well as a backpack, and there happened to actually be a violin inside. This discovery confused me quite a bit.

Do I play this thing, or did I just steal it because it was a bag? I don't think I even would have known it was a violin if Kitty hadn't told me what it was.

We seemed to silently agree to leave the violin alone and find out about it later. I opened the actual bag part, and found a bunch of files. Just as we were about to start opening them up all over the floor, Rouge came in.

"Prof X wants to see Lost Girl in his office," she announced.

Wow. Practically everyone has picked up that silly nickname at this point. I wonder if it'll ever go away.

She took a second look at the files all over the floor, and her face seemed to pale dramatically.

"Where exactly did all this stuff come from?" she asked in a small voice.

I exchanged a look with Kitty. "Kitty and me pulled it out of my bag. Why do you ask?"

"You might want to take that with you," was her reply. "It might help us unravel this whole mystery. Better get going. Don't wanna keep the Prof waiting."

Kitty and me hurriedly packed up all the files and followed Rogue to the Professor's office. It was exactly the way it looked when Magneto was there, except the big desk chair was gone because of the Prof's wheelchair. The Professor was sitting behind the desk now, looking very worried and careworn, even though his eyes were closed.

Kitty and I sat tentatively in the seats, waiting for any sort of response from the kindly man. He had his fingers tented in front of his face, with his elbows on the armrests of his chair, not saying a word. It felt like we were sitting there forever, just because he didn't say anything.

Finally, he spoke. Just the fact he spoke made us sigh in relief.

"So, I was informed by Logan that one of you lovely young ladies is the daughter of Sinister," he said, in a calming tone. "I promise I will let no harm come to you, as long as you tell me anything you possibly can of your past. I simply want to make sure you're not intending to harm anyone under my roof."

I shot Kitty a very alarmed look. She only shrugged in response. I took a calming breath before speaking.

"I don't remember anything at all, sir," I tell him, my voice shaking a little. "I don't even remember where I came from. I only have a few extremely vague memories of running away from somewhere. I just felt the need to run. I just feel like I should always be moving from place to place. I might even leave this place eventually, just to go somewhere else."

The elder professor looked at me steadily. I didn't feel anything but his eyes on me for a second, but then started to get a strange sensation at the back of my skull, almost as if...

I instinctively pushed back. I don't know how else to say it. I pushed back with my mind and Professor Xavier squeezed his eyes shut, almost as if he was in pain. I eased off, and he took a calming breath before opening his eyes again. Kitty gave me a really strange look I couldn't quite read. I shrugged, just because I didn't know what to do.

"Well, at least I know not to do that again," said the Professor, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. "How, exactly, did you learn to defend yourself in that fashion? To keep others out?"

I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I just did that on instinct," I replied. "What exactly did I do? I don't really understand."

He tented his fingers again. "That, young lady, was an extremely strong psi-bolt. Had you maintained it, it had the potential to have knocked me unconscious after about a minute. It was quite strong, and was evidence that you have been trained in the past."

At this explanation, Kitty's eyes got round as saucers. She was probably just as shocked as I was. I had had training to defend myself against psychics?! Nothing was making sense. At. All. I can feel a headache coming on at the information.

What can all this mean? What's gonna happen? This is too much. My head hurts with it all.

I lean forward in my chair, putting my head almost on my knees. "Is there any way nothing will happen to anyone if I just leave?" I ask quietly. "I can take all of my stuff and go. This is bringing you so much trouble. Why keep me here in the first place?"

Professor Xavier rolled his chair next to mine and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder before speaking again.

"If you stay here, child, we can protect you," he said gently. "If you simply go out into the word, and end up who knows where, they could find you, possibly torture you, and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself. We will find a way to help you, if you let us. I promise, if you stay here, nothing will happen to you."

"How do you know nothing's gonna happen to any of your charges, though?" I sniffle, starting to cry from the stress and fear. "I could get one of them hurt. Or even worse, killed. I don't want that to happen. All anyone around here has done is be kind and treated me like one of their own. I couldn't bear the thought of them getting hurt."

By this time, I'm actually on the verge of sobbing and there's actually tears dripping onto the floor. Kitty had come over to me and was rubbing my back in soothing circles. It helped a little bit, but I really just wanted to leave. I wanted to leave everything behind, and not have to worry about getting all of these wonderful people hurt.

"Can Kurt come in here?" I asked, actually starting to sob. "I want Kurt."

I felt Kitty's hand stop rubbing my back, and faintly heard the door open and close over my own crying. I tried so hard to get it under control, but that just seemed to make it worse. At some point, I slid onto the floor and leaned up against the desk. The Professor's hand didn't leave my shoulder, and he started rubbing it in a soothing motion.

I started to calm down slightly when I heard the door again. Professor Xavier stopped rubbing my shoulder and I felt a pair of strong arms encircle me, along with the scent of cinnamon and brimstone. I calmed down a bit more, knowing I was safe with Kurt, and buried myself in his chest.

He willingly pulled me closer, and took on the soothing circle action on my back that Kitty had been doing previously.

"I'm here, it's okay, you're going to be okay," he said into my ear soothingly. "Ve'll be alright. Nothing is going to happen to us. Ve'll figure it out."

With him gently saying this anthem of soothing words in my ear, and the exhaustion of crying, I drifted off to sleep in Nightcrawler's arms.

oOo

A/N: I know there's a lot of exposition in this chapter that wasn't explained in the previous chapters. That's because I didn't want to have to write a story within a story in an earlier chapter. I was still getting my ideas straight. Please don't be mad at me for this. I just wanted to wait until later in the story to explain things after Magneto showed up. Also, PLEASE review! This truly is my first story, and I REALLY want to know if it's any good or not.