A disgruntled looking Agent led them from the trashed recreation room to where they would be spending the night, the girls down one hallway and the boys down another. Ivory went into the room that was dedicated as hers and cleaned up from the day changing into the pajama's she'd packed and climbed into bed, not expecting to get much sleep. She'd been at the orphanage for most of her life so she was used to the sounds that came along with the old house, to a point they lulled her to sleep. At the facility everything was so quiet. That made for quite a restless night for Ivory.

Eventually sleep did come to her and she woke up some time later her internal body clock telling her that it was morning. Waking up in a new place after eleven years of being in the same exact place was slightly disorienting, it took Ivory nearly twelve seconds to remember where she was and why the walls she was surrounded by were grey and not brown.

Sighing she climbed out of bed shivering at the cold tile under her feet before treading to the bathroom to brush her teeth, freshen up and get ready for the day. She got dressed in a long-sleeved short red flowy dress with flowers on it and a pair of black over the knees boots sliding in her accessories before heading out the room to find food.

The facility seemed to come alive during the day with agents in black suits moving up and down the halls, and Ivory retreated into herself keeping her head down and heading for the recreation room where she assumed breakfast would be, a quick peed out of a window at the sun told her that it was sometime after eight am, so she hoped that the room wouldn't be too full.

Luck was on her side it seemed as she entered the room and only found one table occupied by a group of agents who looked like they were just finishing up their food. On the other side of the room a blonde head of hair caught her attention, much to her relief. A familiar face.

She filled her plant with eggs, toast a few slices of fruit, grabbing a bottle of water before making her way over to him. He looked up as she approached hearing the sound of her footsteps then had to do a slight double-take before standing up from his seat, like a gentleman.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked nervously plucking her fingers on the edge of her tray.

"Please." He responded extending a hand to the other chair at the table next to his, Ivory sat down and slowly Alex retook his own seat.

There was an awkward silence between them for a moment as they both slowly continued to eat their food, then Alex broke it by clearing his throat slightly. "So, you're powers are really cool."

"Thanks," Ivory said smiling.

"How long have you known about them?"

"Since I was seven," Ivory responded and began telling him the less grim version of how her powers manifested, "I always knew that I loved nature, inside our backyard we had this huge oak tree that I would swing from every day. And in elementary school we had this class plant, every day someone was assigned to water it, teach kids about responsibility you know?" she asked and Alex nodded, "Well needless to say no one really cared about the plant except me, I didn't wanna see it die so I just," she waved her hand in a motion similar to the one she did when she was seven, "And suddenly it was alive again."

"How did your parents feel about your gift?"

"I never knew my father, but my mom. She wasn't happy," Ivory sighed biting her lip, "She said she didn't want a freak for a daughter, so she kicked me out."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I found a better home." She said smiling, "What about you? Your gift is pretty amazing."

Alex snorted, "Yeah, if you think destruction is amazing." She looked at him in confusion and he sighed before he explained, "See Charles and Erik didn't pick me up from my home or off the street like you guys, I was in jail."

"What?" Ivory gasped surprised, that was the last thing she expected to hear from the blonde, "Why?"

Alex sighed again and was about to continue explaining but there were interrupted by the rest of the young mutants appearing from seemingly out of nowhere and joining them at the table. A cheery Raven settled in next to Ivory chirping out a 'Good morning' as she did and the others gave similar greetings with varying degrees of enthusiasm, all save for Sean who looked dead on his feet and about two seconds away from face-planting into his eggs.

"We are Charles and Erik?" Ivory asked taking a look at the group then a glance around the room.

"They left last night for Russia." Hank replied looking up slightly from his plate.

"What?" Alex questioned.

"Right after they broke up the party." Raven all but spat.

"Do you know why?" Ivory questioned the blonde. "Did Charles tell you anything before they left?"

"Not a word." Raven scoffed bitterly.

From there the group of unlikely friends went out and explored the rest of the facility before retiring back to the renovated rec room as night started to fall outside. Ivory, Raven and Angel sat and one couch talking with Hank and Sean who sat on the opposite and at the back of the room Darwin and Alex were playing on the pinball machine. The ring of the bells where Alex was beating Darwin's high score were surprising pleasant background noise.

"Come on, man. You're killing me." Darwin groaned, glancing worriedly at the rising numbers on the board.

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of free time." Alex replied, smirking as he multiplied his score.

Curiously, Ivory left the group at the couch and made her way over to the back of the room where the other two boys were, Darwin noticed her first and offered her a blinding smile which she returned. Before announcing herself to an oblivious Alex who was so focused on the game.

"Hey."

Alex visibly jumped and fumbled with the controls on the game, cursing under his breath as he did before seeming to get himself and the game back under control. "Hey." he said glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"Can we help you?" Darwin asked politely.

"Can I play?"

"Sure."

Alex must have finished up his round finalizing his high score with a smug look towards Darwin before swapping places with Ivory and letting her stand in front of the machine while he stood on the other side.

"I'll be honest, I've never actually played before." She admitted sheepishly.

"Alex can teach you." Darwin immediately said with a smirk, while Alex looked at him with wide eyes over Ivory's head.

"Really?" She asked excitedly turning to him and he schooled his features into a neutral expression right away.

"Yeah," he said before clearing his throat, "Sure."

He carefully showed her how to use the game control which were quite simply to use, resting his hands over hers only for long enough to show her what to do before removing them, while Darwin watched from the side with his arms folded over his chest and a smug grin on his face. It took Ivory a few short minutes to get the hang of the game before she was playing all by herself and rapidly moving up the scoreboard.

"That's amazing." Alex gushed while Darwin continued to watch like he was observing an experiment, "You sure you've never played this before?"

"I'm positive." Ivory giggled through another shot, that bumped her straight to second place on the board, "Yes!" She cheered and the boy's did too, before she threw her arms around Alex's neck in a quick hug then quickly realizing what she was doing and releasing him turning back to the game, "I'm in second place." she bragged, "Sorry Darwin." She added seeing as she had knocked him down to third.

"No harm."

Alex cleared his throat, "Please note who is number one."

"Havok?" Darwin questioned seeing the name on the screen before Ivory could comment.

"Guilty." Alex said shrugging confidently.

"We'll see how long that lasts." Ivory said before turning back to the game.

"Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town!" A CIA agent called from outside the window halting their conversation for a moment, "Hey, come on honey, give us a little uh-" He said flapping his arms doing a terrible and offensive impression of Angel's wings. Angel glared at him shaking her head. "No? Come on, let's see the foot," the agent jeered lifting his own foot, his companion looking ashamed. Hank got up and walked over to the window, "There it is, come on Big Foot. Let's go," Hank saluted the man mockingly, as the curtains closed. "Hey, come on. Hey!" As Hank sat back down, the room fell silent, except for the pinging of the pinball machine.

"They're just guys being stupid," Raven said trying to comfort a visibly upset Angel.

"Guys being stupid I can handle. Okay, I've handled that my whole life!" she snapped slamming her cup down on the table. "But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us." Raven added sadly reaching out to place her hand over Angel's, a distant thumping noise was suddenly heard over the sounds of the pinball machine. Everyone froze when the sound was heard again.

"What was that?" Darwin muttered straightening up from where he was leaning over the machine watching Ivory decimate Alex's high score his grin beginning to shrink, his only response was more thumps that set the entire group on edge. "Something doesn't feel right." He added moving away from the pinball machine and nudging for the other two, to join him they shared an uneasy look but followed behind him, as the other rose up from the couch moving towards the glass window that Hank had closed only moments ago, which Darwin reopened.

Outside the window there was nothing, the courtyard was empty and there was no sign of whatever had been making the thumping.

Ivory looked up towards the night sky and the full moon noticing something strange casting a shadow in front of it, it looked like silhouettes.

"Someone, please tell me what that is?" she said shakily pointing up towards the moon and the others followed her gaze before suddenly one of the silhouettes disappeared and the other came plummeting down. It landed right in front of the window and the girls screamed everyone backing away, Ivory grabbing onto Alex's sleeve, as they realized it was the body of a CIA agent.

The lights on the roof of the facility suddenly flickered on and almost immediately more bodies started dropping from the sky. Guards rushed out of the buildings, positioning themselves in front of the window. "Get back! Get back! Do not leave that room, we are under attack!" A man shouted banging on the glass.

In a flash of flames a black vapor, a red man dressed well in a suit appeared who bore striking resemblance to what Ivory assumed the devil would look like if the nuns' stories were any indications, they all screamed for the agents to turn around. And they did staring in shock at the mutant for a second before firing at him, but he'd already disappeared.

The window shattered as a bullet hit it, and then ran to duck behind the sofa. Darwin stood closest to the edge, his arms stretched out to shield everyone from the bullets since he would be the only one who could take it. Out the other window on the opposite side of the facility a tornado appeared, tearing down everything in its path including the giant sphere that was Hank's Cerebro machine.

"Stay here, my ass!" Darwin shouted taking in all the destruction happening outside, "Let's go." He yelled standing from his crouched position forcing the others to do the same. They all ran from the room into the hallway outside, they continued running down the hallway until they were blocked by more guards.

"Get back!" the agents yelled at them stopping them from going any further.

"Let us through! We can help!" Darwin pleaded but went ignored as they were pushed back some more, then an explosion rocked the facility and they had no choice but to turn back to the room they came from. Raven was in hysterics screaming and crying as the tornado continued to destroy the grounds outside and the red man used a set a blades and his forked tail to kill all the guards.

Inside the tornado a man was being whirled around before he was finally thrown through the only remaining window Raven screamed again as everyone ducked when glass rained down.

The devil man stabbed the last agent and Raven whimpered, the tornado outside finally started to die down. A good looking Spanish man adjusted his suit stepping through the hole that once was a window, and the devil man, entered from the other side. The group of them huddled closer together Raven and Ivory being pushed to the back Raven held her hand over her mouth in shock and Ivory was being pulled back by Alex's hand on her wrist.

"Wait, wait! You want the mutants?" A voice cried from outside the doors. "They're right through that door! Just let us normal people go! We're no threa-" the voice was cut off by what sounded like a gunshot, and they were all visibly disappointed and disgusted at the man's pathetic attempt at selling them out.

A man wearing a strange looking helmet with a nice suit casually walked through the door closing it behind him. "Where is the telepath?" he asked his companions.

"Not here," The devil man responded, with a heavy accent.

"Too bad," The other man smiled. "Well, at least I can taking this silly thing off," he stated, pulling the helmet off and ran his fingers through his long hair, pushing it back into place. "Good evening," he addressed the group of young mutants. "My name's Sebastian Shaw. And I am not here to hurt you." So this was the powerful mutant that they were going to be going up against, Ivory thought to herself.

"Freeze!" a single agent said from the courtyard with his gun raised.

"Azazel?" Shaw lazily ordered.

The evil, apparently named Azazel, disappeared, appearing again outside, killing the man swiftly and was back inside in about four seconds.

Shaw turned back to the group smiling, "My friends," He took another step forward, handing his helmet to the Spanish man. "There's a revolution coming, when mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice: be enslaved, or rise up to rule," His eyes traveled over the group stopping on Darwin for a moment. "Choose freely but know that if you are not with us then you are, by definition, against us. So, you can stay, fight for the people that hate and fear you. Or, you can join me, and live like kings," he looked to the boys, none of them attempting to make a move, then his gaze went to Angel, standing right in front of him. "And queens," He held his hand out to her and Angel took it with almost no hesitation.

"Angel?" Raven's voice dripped in disappointment.

"You kidding me?" Sean echoed also in disbelief.

Angel looked back, "Come on," she commanded, truly believing that they would follow her. "We don't belong here and that's nothing to be ashamed of,"

Darwin reached out to her, but Angel turned away, ignoring his hand.

"We have to do something," Raven insisted.

Darwin turned to look at Alex with a stern expression which Alex responded with a defiant look, they seemed to be having a silent conversation, then Darwin pushed Alex in the chest and Alex pushed him back then Darwin turned away.

"Stop. I'm coming with you," Darwin announced, stepping over what was left of the window. Angel smirked, clearly pleased someone else was joining them even Shaw seemed momentarily pleased.

Alex's hand slid down from Ivory's wrist to her hand squeezing once to get her attention, "Get down when I tell you." He told her seriously and she nodded.

"Good choice. So tell me about your mutation," Shaw said happily to Darwin.

"Well I adapt to survive," Darwin explained, as Alex lead them into the center of the room. "So I guess that means I'm coming with you," he finished.

Shaw nodded smiling, "I like that," he gestured for him to join Angel's side and Darwin did, taking her hand as Shaw moved to rejoin his group.

"Alex!" Darwin yelled, forming a rock solid barrier and dipping Angel to protect her. "Do it!"

"Get down!" Alex shouted, letting go of Ivory's hand and she quickly dove to the side with Raven, Hank and Sean, as Alex spun his body sending rings of energy, launching them at Shaw, Alex grinned momentarily before his face dropped as Shaw had somehow absorbed his energy.

"Protecting your fellow mutants? That's a noble gesture," Shaw said rolling his neck slightly after. Darwin got up, confused, and Angel quickly moved away from his the devil pulling her behind him and holding up his swords threateningly. "Feels good," Shaw shrugged his shoulders a little and let out a smirk. They came back out from behind the wall when it didn't sound like Shaw had been killed and watched in shock what happened next.

Darwin lunged for him aiming to throw a punch, but is quickly blocked, by Shaw's fist that looked like it had doubled in size. Shaw grabbed his mouth prying it open. "Adapt to this," Shaw whispered as he forced all of Alex's energy into Darwin's mouth. Shaw rejoined his group and they held onto each other's hands before they disappeared in a burst of red and black flames.

Darwin's body tried to find different ways to adapt, but it wasn't working. Ivory stepped up behind Alex taking his wrist as they watched Darwin turn to platinum, then rock as the plasma burnt within, the orange peeking out of the rock like lava until he turned to solid rock. Then he realized it just wasn't going to work. He turned to face the group and Alex stared back at him with a terrified expression as they all watched their new friend slowly die. Darwin looked over at Alex with black eyes, as he reached out, wordlessly and the stone started to break apart. The cracks in Darwin's form brightened, and then he exploded into only bits and pieces.

Surprisingly not every agent at the facility had been killed, they found out as a handful of agents came from seemingly out of nowhere, questioned them on what had just happened then urged them outside toward the front of the facility where they sat in silence on a set of stone benches. It was still dark out and the exhausting day had taken its toll on the young people who start to fall asleep despite the uncomfortable benches they were on.

Hank was leaning back against the stone was with his head falling back and Raven was rested up against his shoulder, both asleep. Ivory still hadn't adjusted to sleeping somewhere new, and now wouldn't get the chance too. But Sean didn't have that problem fast asleep with his head resting on her shoulder, but she didn't mind. The only person missing from their pathetic pity slumber party was Alex.

Ivory glanced around to find him sitting on a large piece of stone debris, away from the group but not too far, like he wanted to be alone but not really. Carefully lifting herself from the bench and rearranging Sean's head so that he could still rest somewhat comfortably, she made her way over to Alex.

He was looking down at his hands but looked up when she approached him, he wasn't crying but looked to be on the verge of.

"Hey," she whispered softly, "You okay?" she asked and he shook his head looking back at his fumbling fingers, "You wanna be alone?" she questioned and he shook his head again.

Ivory pulled herself up on the block beside him, she hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arm around his back.

"When I was," he paused clearing his throat leaning into her, "When I was in prison I asked them to put me in solitary confinement because of this same reason. I had a temper when I was young, and I couldn't always control it, almost killed my entire family because of it. I got into bad fight with my dad, about school or something stupid, I ran outside and," he paused again taking a breath, "It just shot out. The house caught on fire. They barely made it out. No one understood what had happened, they just knew it was my fault, so they locked me up. I begged them to put me in solitary so I couldn't hurt anyone. The one time I thought I could've done something good, I killed him."

"No you didn't." Ivory said immediately.

"You saw what happened Ivory."

"I did," she said lifting her head from his shoulder to look him in the eye, "I saw you doing what Darwin wanted. And you did the right thing. None of us could have known what was going to happen, what Shaw was capable of. It wasn't your fault, Shaw killed Darwin. Not you." She said sternly, his eyes bouncing back and forth between her multi-coloured ones, "Understand?"

Alex nodded shakily, "Yeah." He said before pulling her into a much needed hug. After a few seconds they pulled back and Ivory took his hand jumping down from the block and urging him to do the same, "C'mon." she said pulling him back towards where the others were still sleeping completely oblivious to the conversation that had just taken place, and they sat down on the uncomfortable bench resting their joined hands on the bench between them, and they just sat in silence watching the sun rise.

By the time morning had officially come neither Ivory nor Alex had slept but she did rest her head on his shoulder as exhaustion crept in. The others woke one by one and the agents that were still alive were bustling around the destroyed facility.

A familiar black car came into view coming to a stop in front of them, and the doors popped open Charles and Erik emerging from inside immediately rushing over, Agent McTaggart behind them.

"Raven!" Charles called, hurriedly making his way through the debris to pull his sister into a hug.

Erik came over to where Ivory and the boys were sitting, "Are you okay?" he questioned with concern and they nodded.

"We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately." Charles said firmly to the group.

"We're not going home," Sean protested.

"What?"

"He's not going back to prison." Ivory chimed in nodding towards Alex.

"He killed Darwin!" Alex snapped.

"All the more reason for you to leave," Charles insisted. "This is over."

Raven settled a hand on his shoulder, "Charles, Darwin is dead, and we can't even bury him," she said sadly and Alex looked down again, Ivory squeezed his hand.

Erik spoke up from the edge of the group, "We can avenge him."

Sean, Alex and Ivory looked at him with hopeful expressions at the thought.

"Erik, a word please," Charles sighed, pulling Erik out of earshot. The two had a heated discussion looking back at the group several times, before Charles sighed and turned walking back towards them. "We'll have to train," he announced. "All of us. Yes?"

"Yeah," Alex was the first to agree the others nodding.

"Well, we can't stay here," Hank pointed out. "I mean, even if they reopened the department, it's not safe," he sighed a sigh of defeat. "We've got nowhere to go,"

Charles thought for a moment before he smiled correcting Hank, "Yes, we do."

Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: Lol, yes she does.

Ivana Bocanegra: Why wait? Lol, trust me love her and Erik's relationship won't even consider veering into romantic territory, aww don't worry it won't nearly as slow as Aphrodite and Steve, that took conviction and patience that I no longer have so the burn won't be quite as slow this time around. Glad you like my explanation about the church. Bye Ivana.

Sinner2016: Thank you!

Icespirit5: Hi, happy your enjoying so far. I was scared that people wouldn't like the religious aspect I incorporated because for the most part (no shade, I'm Christian) we're not the most accepting people, so I'm happy so many of you are understanding why I chose to do it.

Alright folks, what kind of antics would you like to see Ivory and the gang get up to at the X mansion, I don't know the timeline between the time they arrive at the mansion and the beach fight on Cuba but in this story it'll be a while. Also what would you like to see happen during her training with Charles?

As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.