Chapter 1

Redemption

Chapter 1

Claire opened her eyes and looked around her.  The lights were dim, but that didn't hinder her.  She didn't need her eyes, not when she had her nose and her ears.  She was lying on a table and she moved her arms and legs, discovering them to be free.

"That was stupid of them," she smiled to herself rolling quietly off of the bed, landing in a crouch.  She looked around the room, her eyes adjusting, and saw that it was empty. The air had an antiseptic smell, indicating that she was most likely in the med lab.  If so that also meant that Hank would be coming by soon to check on her.


Moving quickly she slipped out of the door and moved to an indent in the hallway, listening for any signs of life nearby.  She could still hear people moving around on the floor above her, but thankfully the level of noise around her had started to diminish.

Knowing that the coast was clear she sprinted down the hallway, slamming against the wall at the top of the stairs.  She could hear someone moving around in the library to the left of the base of the stairs, she sniffed the air and identified the person as Storm.  It wouldn't be hard to sneak past her.

She had been unable to leave this place up until now.  She had been trapped here much like she had been trapped in her own body, but that was all different.  She was once again in charge, and she had decided that things were going to change.

She moved and lunged over the side of the banister, landing silently on the balls of her bare feet on the marble floor of the entrance hallway.  She froze, listening for any sign that someone had realized that something was wrong, but she heard nothing.


The X-men were not as infallible as they thought.  They were armed to the hilt to keep people out, but they were less than capable of keeping people in. She watched as Storm crossed the foyer, unaware of her presence. When she had left the room Claire waited a few moments and then walked out of the front door, closing it behind her before she escaped into the night.


She didn't know where she was going as her legs moved quickly over the ground, putting miles between herself and the Mansion.  She only knew she needed to be free of them, that ever since she had met them she hadn't been right.

After she had met them she had gone soft, and it had almost gotten her killed.  Would she have cared if Charlie had died before she had met them? No.  Would she have sacrificed herself to save him?  Hell no. 

She knew that Charles was still missing, she knew that she was the only one who knew where he was, and still she ran, taking her secret with her.  She had made the mistake of caring before, now it was time to rectify it.

Back at the mansion Hank came into the lab, balancing a cup of coffee on top of some paper work, however it all went crashing to the ground when he looked at the empty bed that Claire used to occupy.


He bounded over to the wall, hitting the alarm with a sense of dread in his chest.

In minutes Bishop and Cable, the mansion's self-declared security guards were in the lab to see what had happened.


Hank pointed to the empty bed, a fretful look on his face, "it seems that my patient has sought an early release."

Bishop made a quick sweep of the room on an off chance that she was still there, but came up empty handed just like he knew he would.  "First we will check the grounds and will fan out from there.  How much of a head start does she have?" he asked Hank.


The large blue man looked at the clock next to his desk, "Anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes I would guess. However given the fact that Claire's already heightened abilities have been jump started by Cortez I would hazard to guess she could already be halfway to New York City by now."


Cable nodded, knowing that Hank was right, he had scanned for her when the alarm had first gone off but came up empty handed.  Usually that would mean she was off the grounds, however her brainwave patterns had not been normal since Genosha and thus it had been hard to get a lock on them.  If that was the case then the only person who knew where Charles Xavier was might just have disappeared into oblivion.