Overview:  Something happened at the X-mansion to make Kitty run away.  Pietro had left the brotherhood a couple months earlier, and somehow couldn't turn her away when she asked for his help.  This is a story of betrayal, trust, despair, love and hope.  In other words, yes it's a Kietro, but there's more to this little Kietro than meets the eye.

Rated for language, some subject matter, and a few brief… "scenes" if you will.

Hope you guys like it (or somebody at least).  Feel free to review, I'll be updating a.s.a.p, regardless.

Fear and Escape

By: Bitrona

The door slammed behind her, and she ran.  She ran as fast as she could, down the driveway, across the lawn, and through the gates.  Tears streaked her face; her body hurt, and she could think of nothing but how betrayed and utterly alone she was.  The quiet, serene streets of Bayville watched her run by.  The lights from all the suburban houses shone softly, dancing in the moonlight.  The girl, however, paid no mind to any of it.  Even as the beautiful city began to fade into the distance, she showed no signs of noticing.  She was blinded by emotion, and ran into the unknown until she finally collapsed a few feet off the side of a small dirt road.  Katherine Pryde was in a state of utter distress, silently crying herself into a fitful sleep.

----

Pietro, bored as usual, was taking a nighttime jog.  Or rather, he was running around Bayville as fast as he could, for the sake of doing something.  Anything.  And so he was running.

Pietro always moved too fast for anything to keep his interest.  His entire world seemed like it was a video, with the VCR set indefinitely on fast-forward.  Although super human speed did have its occasional advantages, the never-ending boredom was taking its toll on the boy's sanity.  A person can only read through a library full of books so many times before digressing into a state of constant boredom.

"Thanks to the world for making me Quicksilver-the worlds fastest, and currently most annoyed, mutant." Pietro grumbled.  Seven years of speed was almost too much for even Pietro to handle.  Frankly, he didn't know how he managed it. Ever since his powers manifested at age eleven, the silver haired boy was always on the run.  Literally.

Tonight was no different, and Pietro was entertaining himself by running as fast as he could in one direction for as long as he could.  He reached the outskirts of Bayville, and by this time was moving so fast he could hardly see anything in front of him.  Pietro started slowing down, if only to get a bearing on his location, when all of a sudden he found himself flat on the ground… complete with a mouthful of dirt.

"Damn it!!" he sputtered.  He spat the dirt out of his mouth and looked around furiously to see what it was that caused him to trip.  About fifty feet away, he saw an unusual looking blob.  Pushing aside his anger, he started towards the shape.  'Curiosity killed the cat but nothing can catch me... so what's the harm?' he thought.  In the next second, he was crouching behind a bush eyeing the unfamiliar shape.

Suddenly, the thing moved.  It managed to turn over, and looked as if it were stretching.  'Well that's interesting...' Pietro thought impatiently.  He was already getting bored of watching the shifting blob, and it was beginning to get cold.  'Nights at Bayville are never kind to those foolish enough to wear jeans and a wife beater at midnight.'

"Like, ow..." groaned the shape.

"Shadowcat?!" Pietro whispered forcefully, standing up when he immediately recognized the voice.  "What on earth are you doing here?! I nearly killed myself when I tripped over you!  You know when you're running at the speed of sound, if you hit something you will go flying?  Yes?  Know that??" He paused unsure of why he was still whispering.  While he was trying to figure out that particular dilemma, a new thought crossed his mind.  'Why on earth is the girl here to begin with?'

Kitty attempted to sit up, but immediately fell back down.  Pietro immediately felt a pang of guilt, assuming that he had hurt her when he ran into her.  'I did run into her at the speed of sound...' He quickly rushed over to her side to help her sit up.

It was then that he noticed her dirt-covered face was streaked with what seemed to be... tears?  'She's been crying!'  "Shit, what happened to you? Why are you here? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" Pietro surprised even himself with his sudden burst of concern.

----

Quicksilver and Kitty, codename Shadowcat, were enemies.  For as long as they'd known each other, they'd hated each other.  Their leaders forced them to direct all their emotion into fighting each other.  X-men vs. Brotherhood.  Brotherhood vs. X-men.  It was the never-ending battle that Mystique threw into the face of Professor Xavier and his students.  That was the main reason Pietro left the Brotherhood.  Sure, there were other reasons.  One being the fact that Pietro had no reason to stay with the brotherhood anymore, since his father had practically disowned him.  The reason the boy joined in the first place was because Magneto had asked him to.  Then Magneto disappeared, and Mystique was suspiciously given custody over Pietro.  Even so, it was the thought of being controlled, however, that really irked him.  Being told what to do.  Being bossed around and told how to think, act, and feel.  He was damn sick of it, and so he just picked up one day and left without any intentions of ever coming back.  He had managed to gather up some money along the way, acquiring stay at various places. At the moment, he had a job as a delivery boy, and was renting a small apartment on the side of Bayville, opposite the Brotherhood boarding house.

Kitty wasn't much different.  All the other X-men had given her the impression that the Brotherhood was a group of lowlifes, run by a terrorist mutant, Mystique.  Kitty hated the Brotherhood for being the slimy scumbags that they were, and it never crossed her mind that she hadn't even talked to any of them.  Kitty only saw them when she fought with them; when her name was Shadowcat.  Kitty never sought out reason, however.  The Brotherhood was a threat to the Professor, and so they were not to be trusted, liked, or associated with.  That's the way it was.  That's the way she wanted it to be.

And because of these prejudices, Kitty was astounded when she saw who was inquiring about her well being.

----

She had just dreamed of dying.  A switch was in her right hand, steadily pressed against the skin of her wrist.  Kitty could almost feel the pain when the skin broke, and was in the middle of screaming and plunging her wrists into the warm running water when she had woken up.  When she opened her eyes, she was greeted with two pools of water. Suddenly, she realized she wanted to live.  She wanted to live very badly.  Kitty realized the pools belonged to the face of one of the Brotherhood boys, but he seemed so concerned.  She found that she wasn't afraid.  He was saying something to her… 'I have to reply' she thought, but she couldn't gather a voice to say anything.  Growing frustrated, she stared for a moment more, before remembering the reason she was running away in the first place.  She shuddered and shut her eyes as tightly as possible.

"...Help...me...."