"You pest! You will obey orders!"

The guard swung his fist, hitting Marigold's jaw. The hit was hard enough to knock the young girl off her feet. The six year old girl tried to keep her tears from falling as she lay on the ground, maybe if she acted like she had been knocked out she wouldn't have to follow the guards orders. She lay there for a few moments, holding her breath in fear until she felt a familiar gentle touch on her shoulder. She had fallen for the trick where they get one of the guards to pretend to be Julie, so she stayed laying, her eyes shut. "I'll take her back to her room. Next time try not to hit her so hard she passes out." That voice above her was Julie. Marigold let out a sigh of relief as the woman picked her up and carried her out of the room. Marigold didn't dare to open her eyes, or give any sign of consciousness as the woman took her to her room.

"You can't pretend to pass out every time a guard hits you, you know. They will catch on eventually." Julie whispered as she lay Marigold on her bed. "I understand that you don't enjoy this part of your training, but you must do it." Marigold opened her eyes and turned to Julie, holding her sore jaw. "I - I can't do that." the young girl said, tears gathering in her eyes again. "Survival training is apart of your curriculum now. If you keep resisting it will only get worse for you." Marigold let a few tears slip down her cheeks. "I don't want to kill the deer." She admitted, her voice broken. "You will be happy that you know how to kill and eat animals when you are on the field...I will not come to your rescue next time you try to pretend to pass out to avoid training. Do you understand twenty five?" Marigold frowned, Julie only used her number when she was upset with her or in front of any of the other doctors. "Yes Ma'am." She said. Julie sighed and walked to the door of her bedroom. "It's times like this that you remind me so much of your mother and father." Julie said, before shutting the door.

-Xavier Institute-

Marigold gasped, awakening from her dream suddenly. It hadn't been a nightmare exactly, but the memory of having to kill those poor animals for survival training. The girl sat up in her bed and shook the thoughts from her mind. Since Logan had left the Institute to try and track down Saber-tooth so that they could find Magneto. Marigold had been having more trouble sleeping, she always felt safer with Logan in the mansion. She got out of bed and prepared herself for the day. As usual she was awake before the other students. She saw Hank and Ororo dressed in their x-men uniforms in the foyer as she was making her way to the kitchen. "Marigold, why are you up so early?" Ororo asked, clearly not expecting to run into anyone at this time. "It's not that early...where are you and Hank going?" She asked, worry in her voice. "We are going to check on Logan and his mission on tracking down Saber-tooth. We haven't heard back from him recently and Cerebro can't detect him...we fear that Magneto has captured him." Hank said, knowing that it was probably better to let the young girl know what was going on then lie to her. Marigold frowned, walking over to the two adults as they got ready to leave. "Do you think Logan is okay?" She asked, everyone knew that the child and grumpy adult were very close. "I haven't seen anything take down Wolverine yet...don't worry child. We will bring him back safe and sound." Ororo said, kneeling on one knee and resting her hands on Marigold's shoulders. "I know you will." Marigold said, hugging both adults before they walked out the front door. Marigold kept her brave face on until they were out of her sights, but as soon as they were gone Marigold frowned and walked into the kitchen suddenly not as hungry as she had been before. Instead she walked over to the kitchen window and watched as Hank and Ororo drove through the front gate of the Institute. She hoped that Logan was okay.

-The Next Day, Danger Room-

"There he is!" Night-crawler called out, pointing the fake Magneto that the X-men were fighting against in the danger room session. The training had gotten a lot tougher sense the fight with the Brotherhood that was lost in the mall. The Professor said that he was training the x-men for the day that they would have to fight Magneto, but the training was harsh with Magneto being guarded by a heavy duty fighting Drone. Only a few people from the team hadn't been hit by the drone that was attacking the students with a paintball gun, Marigold being one of those few people. She stayed invisible as she watched Night-crawler and Magma (aka Amara) take on Magneto together. The drone hit Night-crawler in the chest, orange paint exploding over his chest. Magma was barely able to get away without getting hit as well. "Dang, now Night-crawlers out too. How can one Drone tag so many students?" Spike asked over the x-men's communication devices. "Where is our objective?" Cyclopes asked, keeping his focus on the mission. Taking out Magneto. "About 36 meters to the east of your location Cyclopes." Marigold said, keeping her eyes on the fake man. The Drone started attacking Jean an Scott from their vantage point and Cyclopes took out the drone with his lasers. "Thanks Scott." Jean said. "Your stalling Cyclopes. Magneto wont be sitting around waiting for you to decide on tactics." The Professors said via speakers. He was in the control room hitting the x-men team with everything he had. "Make a move or relinquish control to Jean." He said before sending in another Drone to start attacking again. "Okay, let's rush Magneto from all sides team." Scott said into the communicators. Everyone followed his command and started their attack on Magneto. Spike and Shadow-cat taking the back, while Jean and Cyclopes took the front, Magma and Marigold took the left and right sides. The remaining people on the team had Magneto surrounded. Everyone went in for the attack, but before anyone could even get close to the fake statue of Magneto they were all taken out by drones, Marigold was the only one who made it to the statue because of her shields blocking the Drones from hitting her. She made a ball shaped force field and threw it at Magneto's head. "Yes! Go Marigold!" Shadow-cat cheered, the mission had been completed, take out Magneto. But a few moments after Marigold had knocked off the statues head the whole thing exploded. Marigold was barely able to get a shield around her in time to block the explosion. "It was a dummy! we have been tracking the wrong guy the whole time." Cyclopes said with frustration. "Mission failed.I want to see everyone in the planning room now!" The Professor said before the Danger room simulation turned off. "Sorry guys, that was a total bust." Marigold said frowning as she met with the rest of the team. "That wasn't your fault, we were all after the same target...let's go meet with the Professor." Jean said as the whole team slowly made their way to the planning room. Marigold let her thoughts wonder off as she walked with the rest of her team, whenever she failed missions before coming to Xavier's Institute it always had really bad consequences.

"You have failed the training for the day 25, I feel as if we must force you to spend time in the furnace...maybe that will teach you to follow orders. You will be comfortable with killing one day soon enough."

"No! Please I'm sorry!" Marigold screamed as the child was picked up and throwing into the surgery room by two solders.

The fire was so hot on her skin, it made her numb as the metal plates were placed on her head, the electric shocks making her brain stop. She couldn't think of anything, she could only feel pain.

"Marigold, are you alright?" Marigold was pulled from her flashback, feeling Jean's hand on her shoulder. Of course Jean could feel that something was off with the young girl, but she didn't try to invade Marigold's memories. "Do-do you think the Professor is angry with us?" Marigold asked Jean. The woman frowned and held onto Marigold's hand as the two walked together to the planning room. "Even if he is upset with us...the Professor will never hurt us. Not like they did in the facility you stayed in." Jean said, being able to feel enough of Marigold's emotions to know what the girl was fearful of. Marigold nodded, feeling silly for thinking of such a thing. Or course the Professor would never hurt her, he loved his students so much. Marigold kept hold of Jean's hand as the x-men entered the planning room where the Professor was waiting for them.

"You rushed Magneto in the danger room?! Like you were going to take him by surprise?!" The Professor asked Scott, clearly upset with how the training had played out today. Scott was taking the blunt of The Professor's anger as he stood in front of the other x-men. "Professor I-" Scott tried to defend himself, "Magneto is always two steps ahead Scott, you will never take him by surprise. Never!" Marigold frowned, she did not like seeing this angry side of the Professor at all, she usually felt safe around the man, but not right now. "Excuse me Professor, but what is going on?! We know that this mission is to help find Logan, but you've never driven us this hard." Scott pointed out. "I had to see, I had to confirm my fears. It's clear to see that none of you are ready to take on Magneto." The Professor said. "I disagree." Scott said, folding his arms. "Oh do you? You couldn't even take care of the Brotherhood! How am I supposed to trust you to lead this team against Magneto when you came back from a fight with the Brotherhood and Marigold was injured?!" Marigold looked at her feet with guilt, she still couldn't remember what Mystique had attacked her with that night. Now Scott was getting yelled at because of her. "You newer students, your inexperience will jeopardize the mission." The Professor said turning his wheelchair to face the New Mutants. "I simply can't risk using you." The team looked upset with his statement as the Professor turned back to the rest of the team. "As for the rest I'm left with the need to bolster your ranks. Therefore...I'd like for you to welcome your new teammates." He said, the door to the room opening to reveal the Brotherhood. The tension in the room was thick as the Brotherhood walked in. "You v'ant us to v'ork with them?!" Kurt asked with frustration. "This is a joke right?" Marigold stood back silently as the rest of her team voiced their frustration with the Professor. The whole X-men team seemed to protest this...merger of teams. "Your not serious are you Professor? After what they did to us!" Kitty said walking up to the man. "Hey, we won, you lost, get over it." Pietro said with a smirk. "Look, I know that this isn't the ideal situation for some of you. But we need our team to be as strong as possible going up against Magneto." The Professor explained. "Why are you guys volunteering for this anyway? You don't like us as much as we don't like you." Evan asked the Brotherhood. "We got our reasons." Blob said. "Yea maybe it's 'be kind to losers' week." Toad said with a shit eating grin. "This is ridiculous...I'm out." Scott said with a frown, storming out of the room. "Scott wait!" Jean called, "Let him go, we don't have any time to waste, we need to train while you work on Cerebro...the faster that we find Wolverine using Cerebro the faster we find Magneto." The Professor told Jean. Marigold straightened up at the name of Wolverine. She knew that part of this mission was to take down Magneto, but another part of the mission was to get Wolverine back, and that was really the only part she cared about. A new determination was set in place in Marigold's heart. She would fight to the death to make sure Wolverine was okay. He had saved her before when the facility burned down, now it was her turn to save him.

-Days Later-

The X-men and Brotherhood piled into two separate x-jet's. Jean and the Professor had found Logan's location using Cerebro and the team was heading out to defeat Magneto and get Logan back. Marigold got onto the plane that Hank and Kitty were flying with the Brotherhood team, while the rest were on the other x-jet. Marigold looked out the window of the jet as they took off into the sky. Nothing felt good about this mission. Scott wasn't leading them, they were working with the Brotherhood...but Logan needed them, who knew where he was or what was happening to him? Marigold straightened up in her seat as the x-jet took off into the air. Her mission was to rescue Logan, and she was going to do just that. No matter what it took.

-Marigold's Pov-

Cerebro had led our team to some abandoned junk yard on the outskirts of New York. The team left the jet and split up, searching the grounds. "Team 2, you will find some familiar looking orbs near the loading docks...stay alert, Magneto didn't come here alone." Storm said through the communicators. Team 2, which consisted of Spike, Jean, Night-crawler, Rogue, and Marigold made their way to the loading docks, to find the orbs that Magneto had used to kidnap them some time ago. Marigold felt goosebumps raise on her skin, remembering when her and Rogue had been taken by them after fighting the Brotherhood. Night-crawler teleported to the orbs, checking over them. "Cov'firmed, the orbs are empty." Night-crawler said. "You know, I don't get this." Jean said, sounding suspicious. "Yea, they have to know we're here." Rogue said. Marigold started looking around the group, ready for some type of sneak attack. "But what do we do now? There is no sign of them." Spike said as Night-crawler teleported back to the rest of the group. Marigold spotted the playing card floating through the air towards the group, it was on fire. "Run!" Marigold shouted as more fiery cards started flying towards them. Her group split up, and Marigold covered the card closest to her in a shield, moments passed before it exploded! Luckily the explosion stayed inside the shield, but Marigold didn't have time to capture all the cards flying at the running group and soon the cards started exploding all around them! "It's a trap! Don't go to the loading docks!" Scarlett Witch said over the communicators. "A little late for that don't ya think?!" Rogue said as the team dodged the exploding cards. After that it was a full out battle, Marigold saw people fighting all around her, she tried her best to help block attacks and explosions, but these guys that Magneto had brought were stronger than anyone they had faced before. She saw Hank fighting a man made out of metal, another guy shooting fire out of his hands towards Spike and Shadow-cat, the guy with the playing cards was fighting some of the Brotherhood, it was a total bloodbath. Rain started to pour from the sky, Storm coming in to help with the fight. Marigold spotted Saber-tooth fighting and she started running after him. He was attacking Hank by the time she caught up to him and she put a shield around Saber-tooth, trapping him. Marigold took a few moments to check over Hank who was knocked out by Saber-tooth's attack. Once she was sure that he would be fine she turned back to the mutant under her shield. "Where is Wolverine?!" She shouted, getting Saber-tooth's attention. "He's...around." Saber-tooth said with a smirk. Marigold frowned, shrinking the shield that Saber-tooth was in, making it very tight and uncomfortable for the man. "I'm not playing your games. Tell me where Wolverine is or you will be crushed by my shield." She threatened. "I don't know where that freak is kid. You and your X-men team don't have the guts to kill." The shield started to grow smaller and Saber-tooth cried out in pain. "Wrong answer." Marigold said walking up to the man as he tried to break through the shield crushing him, to no avail. "I'll only ask one more time... .Wolverine?" Saber-tooth growled, before shouting in pain as the shield started to crush him even more, Saber-tooth couldn't breath from how tight it was. "Marigold!" Hank cried out, pulling her away from her shield. "What are you doing?! We are X-men! We don't kill people, not even the bad guys." He said, shaking Marigold's shoulders. The young child shook her head, suddenly feeling so dizzy. "I-I know. I don't know what came over me..." Marigold admitted, letting the shield around Saber-tooth disappear. The mutant was knocked out, falling over onto his side.

"See number twenty-five, that wasn't so hard now was it?" The guard asked as the six year old child stood over the dead deer. Tears ran down the child's face. Number twenty-five looked up to Julie, to see her smiling proudly to the child."You will come to not feel a thing when you kill twenty-five. Then you will be the perfect Winter Soldier."

"There! It's Magneto! On top of the skyscraper due north!" Storm's voice came over the communicators, both Hank and Marigold turned to the skyscraper to see both Magneto and Pietro standing on top of the building. "Are you sure you are up for this?" Hank asked the child. "I am, Logan needs us." Marigold said before the two started making their way to the skyscraper with the rest of the team.

-Magneto's Pov-

"Their coming for us, and Wanda's leading the charge." Pietro said, sounding nervous as he turned to me. "She'll just have to wait. It's time to move this along." I said, raising my arms above my head and focusing my powers. The ground started to shake, I used the metal plates under the ground to create an earthquake big enough for the ground below the x-men's feet to break, causing all of them to fall through the ground.

-Underground bunker-

The X-men and Brotherhood all slowly recovered from falling through the ground, only to see that they were surrounded by army guards pointing guns at them from all around. "Nobody move." Storm Instructed. "Huh, who wants to move?" Toad asked sarcastically. "Hold your fire!" One man called, raising his hand, the guards lowered their guns. "That must be the man in charge." Shadow-cat whispered. "I am! I am Sargent Trasks! And you mutants just fell into the wrong bunker." The ground started to shake again, the sound of foot steps filled the air. "V'hat now?!" Night-crawler asked. The foot steps got louder and louder until a giant robot walked into the bunker. "Move out!" The guy shouted, all the guards ran out of the room as the X-men and Brotherhood faced the giant robot. "What is that thing?!" Lance asked. "It's my Sentinel! And it's going to destroy all Mutants!" The man shouted as the ground shook again. The rubble lifted the team and the Sentinel above the ground, back into the junk yard. "What's happening?! NO! The machine can't go to the public!" Sargent Trask shouted. The robot started attacking the mutants in the junk yard. Shooting lasers and bombs at the group as they ran from it. Storm flew into the air and tried to shoot it down with lightening, but that only seemed to fuel the fire of the robot as it continued to attack. Marigold was using her shields to help block attacks from the robot when her eyes spotted a helicopter in the air. "Oh no, this is really not good." She said seeing that it was a News helicopter. The robot walked out of the junk yard and into the streets of New York. "Team, our top priority is protecting civilians. Shadow-cat, Night-crawler, and Rogue, focus on evacuating the people and defending them. Everyone else, attack the robot and take it down before it does too much damage." The Professor said through the communicators. "Marigold, you are to report back to the jet with me immediately." Marigold stopped fighting and with confusion said, "What?! I'm needed out here Professor! I can protect people with my shields!" Moments passed before the Professor said. "That is a direct order Marigold. Storm, make sure she gets back to the jet."

-Streets of New York-

Storm flew over the crowd, looking for Marigold. She knew why The Professor was making this call, but also understood why Marigold was so upset. The child didn't know the risk of her face being so publicly displayed. There was no time to explain to the child what was happening, but as Storm flew over the crowd looking for the girl she was blind to the robot attacks. Until it was too late and the robot hit her with a laser, knocking her down to the ground.

"Auntie O!" Spike shouted, running to the woman as she was free falling. Before Storm's body hit the ground it was caught in one of Marigold's shields. "Good catch girl!" Spike shouted as Marigold ran over to them. "Thanks, I'll get her back to the jet. You keep fighting." Marigold said, Spike agreed and ran back to fight the robot with new incentive. "Nobody attack my Auntie O and gets away with it." he cried out. Everyone else was fighting the robot as Marigold lifted the unconscious Storm in her shield and started making her way to the X-jet.

"Professor! It's getting really bad out there!" Marigold called as she came into the jet with Storm. "The fight is almost over. The robot is fighting Magneto now, we need to go." The Professor said as Marigold strapped the unconscious Storm into a seat. The young girl ran over to stand beside the Professor as he prepared for take off. "What do we do now?" Marigold asked him. The Professor turned to Marigold, taking her hand in his...

The X-Jet took off and The Professor flew into the fight. "Everyone meet on Elm street. I'm flying in to pick you all up!" the Professor said as Marigold watched Magneto fight the Robot, destroying it. The jet flew down and everyone climbed on board, some members of the team helping injured ones. "What about the others?!" Marigold asked, only seeing a handful of the team members on the ship. "We don't have time, we will have to come back for them later." The Professor said before taking off into the air. Military helicopters started following the X-Jet, "strap into a seat everyone. We are going to have to lose them." The Professor said as he flew around the air, trying to shake off the helicopters following them.

-Xavier Institute-

As the X-jet flew back to the Institute the team sat in silence, that mission had been an utter failure. Ororo woke up on the way back and Kitty was checking over her as Kurt looked out the window. He gasped and everyone went to look out the window, to see the Institute completely destroyed! Only rubble was left where the mansion used to stand. "V'hat happened?!" He asked as everyone looked on with shock. "What about...where are the students?!" Jean cried out as The Professor landed the X-jet and everyone ran onto the property. Everyone started looking around the rubble. "I don't see anyone!" Kitty called phasing through the rubble. "Bobby! Amara! Anyone?!" Everyone was calling the students names, looking for them. "We're over here!" Bobby called, him and the other students walked out of the woods surrounding the Institute, their clothes were torn, and a few of them looked worse for ware, but they were alive. Jean ran over to Scott and hugged him, he took a few moments to hug Jean back, before angerly pushed himself to the front of the students and stormed over to the Professor. "Scott was able to get us into the Cerebro room right before the whole place exploded!" Sam explained. Scott stormed over to The Professor and pulled the man from his wheelchair. "It was you! You did this!" Scott shouted, holding The Professor up with his jacket. "Scott! What are you doing?!" Kitty shouted as Kurt and Bobby tried to pull Scott off of the Professor. A shield appeared around Scott's arms, pulling him back from The Professor as he fell to the ground as Scott was forced to let him go by Marigold's shields. Everyone seemed shocked by Scott's actions, until The Professor started laughing at him, his voice slowly changing from his usual deep one, to a feminine one. The person stood on their own two feet, skin turning blue to reveal Mystique who had been hiding as the Professor. "Yes, I did do this." She said smirking as the group reacted in shock to the sudden reveal. "And things are about to get much worse, aren't they number twenty five?" Scott screamed as Marigold's shields threw him into the air. Kurt was quick to react and teleported, catching Scott and teleporting him back to the ground before he could fall. Marigold stepped forward, standing beside Mystique, her face void of any emotion. "Marigold?! What are you doing?" Rogue asked. Storm frowned as she stepped to the front of the group. "That's not Marigold right now Rogue, Mystique has awoke the Winter Soldier inside Marigold's mind...haven't you?" Storm asked, her eyes not leaving Marigold as she stood beside Mystique.

"What do we do now?" Marigold asked The Professor as she walked up to him on the Jet. He turned to Marigold, taking her hand in his..."Я знаю, ты отлично справишься." Mystique said, in The Professors body. Marigold's body went limp for a few seconds, before standing in a soldier stance. "Ready to comply."

"Why yes I did, she's no longer your tool. She's mine." The woman said, resting her hand on Marigold's shoulder. "Marigold isn't anyone's tool!" Scott shouted. "How long have you been impersonating the Professor?! Where is he?" Storm demanded, the students rallying behind her. The Brotherhood all stood around Mystique, ready to defend her. "Don't bother trying to poke the child's mind, it wont work. Marigold isn't there right now." Mystique said looking to Jean, the girl had her fingers resting on her temples. "She's blocking me somehow, I'm not picking up anything...from either of them." Jean said looking to Marigold. "Then she better stop unblocking now!" Scott said, raising his hands to his glasses, ready to hit the woman with her lasers. "You better back off if you ever want to see your Professor again!" Mystique shouted as Scott threaten an attack. Sirens began blaring in the air and everyone looked to see cop cars, helicopters, and everything else surrounding the group. One policeman shouted, "Everyone freeze!" Everyone started to run in different directions, trying to escape the police force. Scott turned back to Mystique and Marigold. "Number Twenty five, get me out of here." Scott watched in horror as Marigold took the woman's hand, the both of them turning invisible, escaping. "Scott! We must move now! We can't do anything for Marigold right now. We need to run." Storm said, grabbing Scott and snapping him out of his shock. Scott agreed, and ran away from the law with the rest of his x-men. Scott dug around his pockets until he found his communicator "X-men, meet up at our emergency point tonight." He could only hope that the other x-men got his message as he ran through the woods with Storm. "Don't worry Professor, Logan, Marigold, we're coming for you...we will always come for you."