Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men.

A/N: I would just like to take this time to thank all the wonderful people who have taken the time to read and review my story. I truly appreciate your continued support after my long absence on this website, and I cannot even begin to describe how much your reviews mean to me. You have motivated me to write and post this next chapter, and I truly hope you enjoy it. Please, read and review. Thank you.

Chapter 10

Half an hour after his encounter with the media, Kurt stood silently in his bedroom watching as the news reporters began to pack up their equipment and drive away in their vans. He still held the sketch of Mischa that he had printed off the internet a few days prior and expression he wore on his face was indescribable. He felt lost, angry, and confused, but more than anything he felt scared – horrified even – for both Kiara and Mischa. Who knew where they were and what they were going through?

"Are you alright, Kurt?"

Kurt turned to see Professor Xavier standing in the doorway of his bedroom, looking grave.

"Oh, hey, Professor," Kurt said, smiling as he watched the professor wheel himself inside the room and close the door behind him. "I'm alright. I'm just worried about them." He knew he didn't have to say their names for the professor to know who he was talking about.

"As you rightly should be, Kurt," Professor Xavier said, nodding understandably. Then he caught sight of the look on Kurt's face and quickly changed the direction of the conversation. "I'm sure we'll pick up on Mischa's mutant signature again soon, though. I am certain that Kiara would never allow anything bad to happen to her."

Kurt sighed and turned his attention back to the window. He kept his eyes on the skyline as though hoping that Kiara's dark, dragon-like shape would appear suddenly on the sunlit horizon. "From what I've seen of Kiara's current state," he said, "I doubt she could stop anything bad from happening to Mischa."

"If I know Kiara Blaze as well as I think I do," Professor Xavier said, frowning, "then I think that anyone who tried to harm her daughter would have a very great reason to fear her, and you should know better than anyone what she would do to protect the ones she loves and cares about. After all, look at what she did to protect you. I think you should have more faith in her."

"I know I should, Professor," Kurt said as he turned and walked across the room. He sat down on his bed, facing the professor. "I want to have faith in Kiara, but, honestly, I'm more worried about her than anything else and a small part of me just can't help but be angry at her for keeping Mischa from me. I mean, how am I supposed to forgive her for that?"

"Only you know how to answer that, Kurt," Professor Xavier told him. "However, I believe that you will come to naturally forgive her once you have a chance to tell her how you feel."

"Yeah," Kurt said, resting his head in his hands. "If I ever get that chance."

One Week Later

Somewhere In the North Atlantic Ocean

Kiara sat silently between two enormous shipping crates in the darkness of the cargo hold of the ship called The Glaucia. Mischa was sleeping silently in her arms and she had no way of knowing what time it was or how much time it had passed since she had boarded the ship with her daughter. She felt as though they had been on the ship for weeks and that time was only getting slower with every passing day. She wondered how long it would be until they reached America.

It wasn't that Kiara wasn't grateful. She was more than grateful that Captain Alegrio had allowed them passage aboard his ship and she kept trying to think of ways to make it up to him. She had often considered volunteering to do chores, but she was too afraid to leave Mischa alone with the other crewmen. She had no idea what kind of men they were, and in the end, she just could not bring herself to trust them. So, she decided, the only thing she could do to thank Captain Alegrio was to fulfill his request and see to it that Mischa made it to her father safely.

In front of Kiara was the ancient, dog-eared sketchbook she had saved from high school. She used to spend hours drawing in it during her free time back at Father Viktor's until she had filled with pictures of Mischa, her father, and the others from the Xavier Institute. At the moment, Kiara had the sketchbook to open to very last picture she had ever drawn. It was picture of Mischa's father, looking exactly the way she remembered him, in his true form, crouching as though poised for attack in a forest clearing. She had drawn the clearing from memory, even though she had only practiced her fire-breathing abilities there a handful of times with the most memorable time being the day Bobby Drake had saved her life from a rogue buzz saw.

Kiara hadn't even looked at the sketchbook in years, though. After she had run out of space inside of it, she had wrapped it up with her old uniform and hidden it under the loose floorboard of her attic bedroom along with the rest of her things from the Institute so she would never have to look at them again. Looking at the sketchbook now only enhanced the sense of longing to be at that place once again that had nagged at her constantly from the back of her mind for the past five years. A small part of her wished that she had burned it, but the more sensible part of her felt it was important for Mischa to have with her as she grew.

"Senhorita, is this place really so bad?"

Kiara looked up to see Captain Alegrio, standing over her with a plate of food in his hands. She smiled sadly at him and said, "No, I'm just not looking forward to giving up my daughter." She turned her attention back to Mischa's sleeping form, her smile fading as she spoke.

"If you're not looking forward to it," Captain Alegrio said, setting the plate of food down at her feet, "then why don't you go live with her father as well?" He stood up, leaning against a nearby shipping crate.

Kiara laughed bitterly at the suggestion. "Mischa's father would never have me back," she said, stroking Mischa's head. "He probably hates me, and I wouldn't blame him if he did, either. He doesn't deserve to be with someone as horrible as me."

Captain Alegrio thought for a moment before he said, "Then, perhaps, you should look at it this way – yes, you are giving up your daughter, but you're doing it so that she can have a better life and be with her father, and, in the end, that's something that they're both going to eventually want to thank you for. Also, just because you're not with your daughter, that doesn't mean you will never get to see her again or that you can't remain in contact with her."

"Yeah," Kiara said, sighing. "I guess, you're right." Somehow, she severely doubted that the captain would ever understand what she was going through as a parent and as a mother.

Captain Alegrio seemed to sense what she was feeling because a moment later, he sighed heavily and said, "Senhorita, would you like to hear a story?"

"A story?" Kiara said, looking up at him. "What kind of story?"

"The story," Captain Alegrio said in a suddenly somber tone, "of Glaucia."

"Al-alright," Kiara said, even though she was uncertain if she really did want to hear the story or not. She pulled Mischa closer to her and continued to stroke her hair subconsciously.

"About ten years ago," Captain Alegrio said, sitting down on the floor of the cargo hold opposite from Kiara, "I had an eight-year-old daughter named Glaucia, who was very similar to your Mischa. She was a mutant, you see, with pale blue skin and hair and eyes the color of the night sky. My wife and I thought she was beautiful, but the people in our tiny village did not understand, so when it was time for Glaucia to go to school, we moved to Lisbon and the people there were more understanding. However, the children at her school teased her and made Glaucia very unhappy. My wife and I thought it was nothing at first. Then we discovered that Glaucia had the ability to dissolve into water and transform back into her humanoid form. The doctors called it water mimicry and told us her powers had materialized earlier than planned due to stress they believed to be caused by her school environment. My wife and I were horrified and we pulled Glaucia out of school to be home-schooled." He paused to sigh, looking somber and as though he wished he had decided not to relive the events of which he spoke. "A few weeks later, the school sent someone to see why Glaucia had not been in school. When we told them that we had decided to home-school Glaucia, they were relieved to say the least. Two years passed, and Glaucia and her abilities were accepted by everyone in the community. Then one day, my wife sent her to the grocery store to buy ingredients for Papo Secos(1) and she never came home…" His voice trailed off as he took several, deep, shuddering breaths.

"What happened to her?" Kiara asked him quietly uncertain of whether or not she really wanted to know.

"She was kidnapped," Captain Alegrio said, looking up at her. He got to his feet and began to pace. "The incident was witnessed by six people and they all said the same thing – Glaucia was taken by a group of a dozen or so men dressed in black jumpsuits with red letters on them and they had guns. The witnesses say that Glaucia attempted to fight back, but the men put a device on her that disabled her powers and they took her away in a black van with no license plates. No one knows for certain what the writing on their jumpsuits said. The witnesses are divided, although two of six witnesses claim to have seen the word M-RADD –" he spelled the letters out in the air with his index-finger as he spoke "—while the other four say that it said something similar to it." He paused in his pacing, and turned to face Kiara. "The woman, who gave you the map to my ship was my wife. Her name is Luzia, and whenever we hear about mutants on the run, she sends them to find me." He knelt down in front of her, his face inches from her own. "You may be giving up your daughter, but at least you can be certain that she's safe with her father. I don't even know where my daughter is." He stood up and walked away, leaving her alone with her sleeping daughter in the on-going darkness of the cargo hold.

1) Papo Secos - Portuguese bread rolls.