Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution or anything related to it. I will not profit from making this story.

Chapter 8

Magneto paced steadily around his quarters, he was not happy and it showed. His eyes were glinting as he listened to Pietro who told him about his encounter with Ava.

"Does she show any signs of losing control?" he asked in his steady voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Is she acting strange or is she looking as if she is no longer in control?" Magneto asked again.

Pietro shook his head.

"I was told that she was a very unstable mutant. I was told that she had very little control" Magneto growled to no one.

"You mean that you brought her here to go crazy?"

"My aim was to get her into the Institute where she would slowly lose control and make Charles's students act out their worse nightmares" Magneto explained.

Magneto chuckled softly as he saw Pietro's eyes widen.

"She could have gone crazy in our house making us all go insane" Pietro stuttered.

"It was part of the plan. She had to be put under considerable strain before she would get to breaking point. If we keep at it she will steadily lose control over her abilities then we will gain from Charles's downfall."

~*~

Ava sighed with relief when the training session was over. She realised then how unfit she actually was which was a sad wake up call. She reasoned, though, that after a couple of weeks at this place she would be really fit. Ava was also glad to see that the others were also exhausted.

"Don't worry. Logan's sessions are normally worse than this" a soft voice said.

It was Sam or Cannonball as they called him.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Ava asked, her face red from all the exertion and her breathing was bordering on gasping.

She shook her head as Sam laughed and walked off to shower before dinner.

Ava felt as though her legs were ready to drop off and she sunk to the ground to rest before trudging upstairs.

"You all right, kid?" a gruff voice enquired.

Ava glanced through her bangs and saw the intimidating form of Logan standing above her.

"I'm fine, sir. Just not used to all that..." she trailed off.

He nodded and waited for her to stand up.

"You need to get used to it" was his reply as she made her way to the elevator.

"Gee, really friendly advice there" she muttered under her breath.

She heard a snort of laughter and realised that Logan had heard her. She blushed deeply and waited for the door to close.

Once she was back in her room she showered and changed ready for dinner, which was beginning to make her feel nervous. She had hidden in her room the previous night because she wasn't too sure about going down to dinner with all those people but tonight she couldn't avoid it. She was hesitant to see what dinner was going to be like.

~*~

The dinning room was noisy but that wasn't unusual, as there were quite a few students there. Charles had taken his place at the head of the table and was waiting for everyone to settle down. He was surprised when everyone became very quiet so suddenly. He looked up and saw Ava standing in the doorway.

"Please, sit down Ava. You are most welcome here" he informed the girl.

Her eyes looked around the table for a spare place and ended up between Evan and Amara. Both of who smiled at her when she sat down.

"You have all met Ava Jensen, our new student" Charles said to end the silence.

He watched as they all tucked into dinner and found himself concentrating on Ava's mind. He could get any information but he could get a lot of conflicting emotions.

"Ava, how are you fitting in here?"

"It's very nice thank you" she said with a small smile.

Charles was not stupid and he could tell that she was highly uncomfortable here. He watched as she quickly ate her food then quickly excused herself.

~*~

Ava hurried out of the dinning room, aware that everyone's eyes where on her. She had felt uneasy from the moment that she stepped in there. It wasn't because she wasn't welcome it was because she was. She didn't want to fit in there because it didn't feel real. She had just entered the lounge when she heard the Professor's wheelchair enter behind her.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Ava?"

"Not really but you can read my mind so why ask?" Ava retorted, she knew that he was the greatest telepath in the world.

"I can't. You seem to have developed a mental block that I cannot penetrate."

Ava sat down very ungracefully on the nearest sofa and stared at the man.

"I couldn't have. I'm not a telepath" Ava replied, sure of herself.

She watched as the Professor studied her.

"Please, don't stare at me like that" she asked, feeling slightly ill.

Ava saw him look away immediately and she frowned, that ill feeling turned into one of fear. She saw the Institute burning and the students screaming for help, she heard familiar voices screaming for help.

"It's not real" she said, her eyes tightly closed.

"What's not real?" she vaguely heard the professor ask.

"They can't all die like that. It's not possible, you won't lose them that way" her voice became shrill.

"Ava, calm down. Nothing is happening, breathe deeply. You are in control, Ava" the professor's voice sounded in her head.

She felt her breathing slow to normal and her head began to ache. She reached up, her hands in fists, and rubbed her temple. She felt beads of sweat cooling down on her forehead and slowly opened her eyes. The Professor was not far away and his face was grave.

"I'm fine. Just a slight overload from all the sudden changes" she apologised before rushing away.

Slamming her door, she rushed over to the mirror and looked at the marking on her head. They hadn't grown but to her they seemed darker and more mysterious. She sat back on her bed and berated herself for acting so stupidly. If she was going to free her parents she had to do what Magneto said and he hadn't told her to hide in her room.

She went to the toilet then splashed some water on her face. When she felt came she went back downstairs to apologise to the professor. She couldn't find him at first so she wandered around till she came to his study; she raised her hand to knock on the door when she heard concerned voices.

"She refuses to tell me anything is wrong" she heard the professor's voice.

"Magneto must really be threatening her" she heard another voice and her eyes opened wide.

"Yes, I assume the hostages are really important to her" Jean said.

Ava peered through the slight crack in the door and saw a pair of yellow eyes staring back at her. Startled she fell backwards as the door flew open and all eyes looked in her direction.

"I guess the cat is out of the bag, professor" Ava heard Kurt's accent say.

Ava didn't know whether to scream or yell or cry. She was about to attempt all three when she just sank back to the floor.

"How did you know?" she said, dropping her fake accent.

~*~

Scott was staring at Ava in disbelief when she spoke.

"Hey, what happened to your accent?" he asked surprised.

"This is my real accent. I mean to say that I am not from around here" she babbled.

"Where exactly are you from?" Scott heard the professor ask.

"I can't...I mean..." Scott watched as Ava stuttered, her eyes were getting a scared look about them.

"You can't what, kid?" Logan growled.

Scott stood up and began to walk towards Ava and in the corner of his eye he saw Jean do the same thing. They both wanted to calm her down before she got too alarmed.

"Ava, it's okay. We won't let anything happen to you" he heard Jean say in her calming voice.

"Anything happen to me?" Ava repeated.

"That's right you are safe here" Scott put in.

"Of course I'm bloody well safe here. It's not me that I am worried about" Ava's voice began to rise.

"We can help you. Whatever Magneto has got on you we can help" Scott tried again.

He knew that the others were on guard for whatever may happen. He saw that they were all tense.

"I don't need your help. You know what, I don't give a damn about anything that goes on over here. I don't want to be here. I want to be in my own country with my own friends and I want to be in control of my powers" Ava screamed.

Scott looked from Jean to the professor, not exactly sure what to do when he felt something touch his cheek.

"I'm sorry" he heard a soft voice whisper.

He looked up and saw Jean standing in front of him but it wasn't the Jean that he knew. She looked wrong, she was acting wrong.

"Scott" Jean said in a singsong voice.

"Jean, is that you?" Scott asked and she just smiled at him.

"You got me killed Scott. You got all of us killed" she taunted.

Scott finally saw what was wrong with her. There was a large hole in her stomach and he could see her insides trying to work.

"You killed me, bro. You didn't even try to protect me."

Scott turned and saw his little brother, Alex, standing there. His eyes slack and unseeing.

"No, you're not dead. YOU'RE NOT DEAD" Scott yelled at the top of his lungs.

Everywhere he looked he saw dead team members, dead friends who were all blaming him for their death.

"I'm sorry" he began to cry uncontrollably.

Scott, Scott, concentrate on my voice. This is not real, it is just a nightmare he heard the professor's voice in his head.

Scott, we're alive Jean's voice added.

Scott looked at the dead Jean and felt his eyes roll into the back of his head.

To Be Continued...