This chapter is a completely original story. It is not based on any comic.
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Professor Xavier and Wolverine were at the danger room controls, setting up a hand to hand combat match between Illyana and Kitty. Since learning about Illyana's powers Xavier had become quite interested in her abilities. He'd arranged many danger room sessions that always ended quickly because Illyana would teleport away whatever he set against her. Eventually Xavier, wanting to know more about her spells, handicapped Illyana during the sessions by not allowing her to use her mutant powers. Illyana refused to use her sorcery and in protest did not defend herself in the danger room anymore. No about of lectures or reprimands would convince her otherwise, or even to give an explanation for her behavior. Finally, Xavier had accepted that she would not use magic, but there was still one area in which he wanted to know what Illyana could do, fighting. So she and Kitty were walking into the danger room for a spar.
"I still think this is a bad idea." Wolverine said. "Kitty could get hurt."
Xavier looked at him skeptically. "You were the one who taught her how to fight."
"I taught her how to take down a bunch of goons, but you don't survive in Belasco's hell for seven years by not learning how to defend yourself, hard."
"You're not here for your opinions, Logan." Wolverine knew exactly why he was there. To get an idea of what Illyana could do she had to go all out. To get Illyana to go all out Kitty had to not hold back, and the only way to ensure that Kitty would not hold back was to have the man who taught her to fight watching her; she wouldn't want to disappoint him.
It was Kitty, Logan thought, that needed help more than Illyana. After all, she was heartbroken over Peter's breaking up with her. Why did Xavier wait till now to start worrying about Illyana?
Logan was brought out of his thoughts by the start of the match. Just as he predicted, Kitty was no match for her friend. Illyana's reflexes were astounding, almost animal like, and her technique was vicious. "Looks like she's using a variation of the Mossad form I taught Kitty." Logan said, wondering who would have taught her that. "Chuck, we've seen enough. Kitty can't win. If Illyana slips and lets Kitty get a hit in then things may get ugly."
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After their fight ended, Kitty and Illyana made their way to the kitchen, where the New Mutants were already eating breakfast. The school's junior team had been in the midst of a spirited conversation, but the room grew suddenly silent when Illyana walked in. She wasn't phased however, as this had been how every morning had gone since she told them about her powers.
Dani tried to get another conversation started. "So, you guys just come from the danger room?" Both Illyana and Kitty were still sweaty from the fight, although Illyana wasn't sure if she had sweated more while fighting or when Wolverine came up to her and demanded to know where she learned her fighting style. Avoiding his questions had proven very difficult.
The conversation moved back to what it had been before Kitty and Illyana came in, Rahne and Roberto's recent troubles controlling their emotions. The professor, still unsure of the cause, was sending them to their parents, Roberto to his mother in South America, and Rahne to her adopted mother Moira Mctaggert in Scotland.
Illyana tried to tell a joke about how she would just teleport them there herself but she couldn't be sure when they'd arrive. Both Rahne and Roberto looked at her in disgust and fear at the prospect of being teleported by her. Inwardly, Illyana chided herself. She should have known better than to try to fit in, especially with Rahne and Roberto as they were.
"What, are you anxious to get rid of us?" Roberto asked threateningly.
Illyana was now in a bind and trying to get out of the conversation. "No, I just… wanted to save you the traveling expenses and the time lost to any flight delays."
"I'd rather fly." Roberto scoffed. "The flight attendants are better on planes." Illyana was hurt, but did not respond. Roberto was just showing how his condition was affecting him. He didn't take the hint, however, and continued. "Oh, did I hurt the feelings of the big, scary sorceress?" he teased. "Maybe we don't have to be scared of you at all. You're so pathetic."
"Shut up." Illyana hissed. Roberto may not have been in full control of his actions, but he was still pissing her off.
"Or what?" He got up from his seat, transformed, and walked over to her. Illyana just raised an open hand at Roberto, who cowered in fear.
"You're the pathetic one." she said, almost to herself. She turned back to her meal, only to have Roberto's fist smash into the back of her head.
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Rahne came into Dani's room. "I just went down to the infirmary, and…Illyana's…really hurt."
"That surprises you?" Dani asked.
"Yes, actually." Rahne admitted. "I guess I never really thought of her as…human."
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Xavier had watched as Sharon Freelander had bandaged up the unconscious Illyana. He had given her and Tom Corsi jobs at the school after the demon bear transformed them into Native Americans.
Roberto's punch had cracked Illyna's skull and may have resulted in some brain damage. Xavier had confronted Roberto, who was appalled at his own actions and genuinely did not mean to do it. Both he and Rahne seemed to be trying harder to control themselves now.
However, this incident meant that Roberto and Rahne's situation was worse than he had originally thought. He would have to keep them close so he could monitor them at all times and help them as best he could.
Xavier went to his library to look through his medical books to find something that would help him diagnose their conditions. Several hours later Illyana teleported in, looking completely healthy.
"Its good to see that you're awake. I assume you used a healing spell?"
"Yes."
"Does that heal concussions."
"It should." Illyana answered, then took a deep breath. "Look, professor. I came here to tell you that I'm leaving."
That was the last thing Xavier expected her to say. "Why?"
"Because I don't belong here. I've felt it since I first came and can't deny it anymore."
"You know Roberto wasn't in his right mind, don't you?"
"Yes, but that's still the second time that I've almost been killed by one of your New Mutants." In the word your was an accusation directed at Xavier. "I don't fit in with those my own age, or even with my brother. I need to find a place where I do belong."
"If you leave," Xavier said, "then I can't help you, or protect you."
"Help and protect me?" Illyana laughed. "You've ignored me for months. It was only after you knew that I had powers that you began to give a damn about me." (Was I the only one who noticed that that's what Xavier did in the comics?) "Am I nothing but a tool to you and your New Mutants?"
Illyana's words stung Xavier, because she was right that he ignored her. First he had been mourning the apparent deaths of the X-Men and then he had been settling in the New Mutants, but that was no excuse.
"And as for protecting me," she continued, "you had your chance to do that when I was still a little kid, and you failed. Now I am beyond your protection, or anyone else's."
Xavier sighed. He couldn't win this argument. "So where will you go?"
"I don't know yet."
"You're not going back to Limbo, are you?"
"No, definitely not." That, at least, relieved Xavier.
"Will you go to your parents?"
"No?"
"Your brother, then?" Peter, who had fallen in love with an alien, had been shattered by her death. He broke up with Kitty, then felt too guilty to be around the X-Men anymore. He was currently wandering around New York, selling paintings. Illyana wondered if Xavier was implying that, like her brother, she was running away from her problems instead of facing them.
"No." she answered.
"Are you going to at least tell Kitty and Peter that you're leaving?"
"No. I'm afraid that one of them would convince me to stay." With that she teleported away.
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On her own now, Illyana considered her options. She did not want to go anywhere that the X-Men could find her.
There were a few loose ends that she had never tied up, but she was too afraid to hunt down Belasco. There were other questions, she realized, that she wanted answered. And these were questions of a mystical nature.
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Illyana teleported to a farm in Colorado. She knocked on the front door, which was opened by Dani's father. "Can I talk to you and your wife?" she asked.
Once inside Illyana went right to the point. "I want to know about the force behind the bear and what it has to do with Dani."
William Lonestar answered. "We don't even know ourselves. Whatever it was captured us, transformed us, and tortured us until we agreed to kill Dani."
"If it had that kind of power why couldn't it have attacked Dani directly?" Illyana asked. "There are forces that can only interfere in our world in such ways, but for all of them there are opposing forces on the light side. One of them should have given Dani protection." Illyana began to realize something. Protection had been given, just not to Dani.
When Dani's parents did not answer she took out the medallion she always carried with her. "What do you know about this?"
The Lonestars looked at it in shock. "We were instructed to retrieve something like that when we had killed Dani." Peg said.
Illyana put the medallion away. "I don't think you were ever told your real target. I think that you were meant to kill me."(My explanation for where the bear came from and why Illyana's armor first appeared against the bear) It had been Belasco's Elder Gods that had transformed the Lonestars, in an attempt to kill Illyana and get back their best chance to be freed. Illyana wondered when the barrier between dimensions was weak enough to allow the Elder Gods to manipulate people that much. It must have happened when Belasco almost succeeded in using her medallion to free them. He had begun the spell, but it had been interrupted by Ka-Zar of the Savage Land. The Elder Gods were furious at Belasco and banished him to Limbo. They apparently also knew that one day Illyana would defeat Belasco and took what steps they could in the brief time the barrier was weak to stop her.
Illyana was not finished just yet, however. "Did you do anything else as the bear besides try to kill Dani?"
"Yes. There were these cults of sorcerers in England. We helped one battle the other and almost wiped it out."
Two groups of sorcerers. One serving the Elder Gods, the other opposing them. It looked like Illyana might have found a place to belong after all.
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This was going to be a two-parter, but that would have made this chapter twice a long as any other, so I'm splitting it into three instead.