1. Prologue
Thanks to the last battle with Warhawk, a nice mutated influenza virus and too much drinking approximately a week ago, Ktelor Gilian, a genderless mutant telepath, had caught an illness so tough that even her healing powers could not defeat the illness. However, she was now happily but boringly recovering on a vacation with Professor Charles Francis Xavier, a world-renowned geneticist and the founder of the X-Men, and Lilandra Neramani, the now exiled Princess-Majestrix of the alien Shi'Ar Empire. Xavier, for once Ktelor knowing so, had been genuinely worried for the survival of his youngest X-man.
However, after Ktelor had recovered from the illness, the thing more worrying was the fact that both Xavier and Ktelor lost the telepathic linkage to the other X-Men. They did not have a clue what had happened. No one at home answered their calls.
Nevertheless, the vacation time was now over. Ktelor, Xavier and Lilandra had returned to the mansion. The place had been deserted for quite some time.
"Huh?" began Ktelor. "This place is empty... All our mail is here."
"The X-Men are really gone... Lilandra, Ktelor, wait here. I'll check the Cerebro." Xavier rolled away, leaving Lilandra and Ktelor in the entrance.
"An' I wonder who was kind enough t' put it on the kitchen table, eh!?" said Ktelor, grinning.
"Well, obviously someone's been here to do it, how else?"
"Duh."
"It's Beast", said Xavier. "He came here to find no one in the mansion, found the X-Men using the Cerebro and went to rescue them. Now I can't find any of them, even with the help of Cerebro. This is strange..."
"No kiddin', prof?!" Xavier was silent for a moment. Ktelor went through the mail. "Geeze... bills... ads... a hair magazine? For Prof. More ads... more bills... Women's magazines? For... uh... Hunting magazine? For Logan. Friggin' fishing magazine? Who likes fishin'!? More ads an' bills... Ah, science magazines. Comics. For me an' Beast. At least I get something... ...News of the new household technology? Beast reads this? Holy crap..."
"We cannot do much", said Xavier. "We don't even know if the X-Men are still alive. We can do nothing but sit around, waiting..."
"Not bad, but it's rather boring, now isn't it?"
"Who said you won't be taking your regular Danger Room sessions?"
"What? Come on..."
And so, even though the X-Men were gone, apparently fighting once again, as always, the lives of the remaining people remained approximately the same.
Days later, Ktelor, Xavier and Lilandra were having breakfast in the kitchen. The phone rang suddenly.
"Freakin' telephonemarketers", said Ktelor, grinning.
"Now now Ktelor." Xavier picked up the phone.
He talked for a few short moments.
"It was Jean... she's coming." Xavier seemed worried.
"With the others?" asked Lilandra.
"She wouldn't say." Ktelor looked at Xavier, worried. "We can still do nothing but wait... Jean will be here after a few days." Ktelor sighed.
A few days later, a sleek shield hoverjet landed on the backyard of the mansion. Lilandra went to welcome the comers while Ktelor sat inside, looking at them. They brought bad news. Beast went for a walk with Lilandra while Jean came in. She glanced sadly at Ktelor and went to meet Xavier in his office. Jean was very upset.
"You're so young, Ktelor", said Jean. "You shouldn't have to hear anything like this..." Jean went. Ktelor read Beast's thoughts as he explained to Lilandra what had happened.
The X-Men had died. They died in Antarctica, they were left under molten lava. Jean had seen it with her own eyes, she had felt them dying in her mind. There was no way they could have survived that. Scott, Logan, Ororo, Sean, Kurt, Peter... all gone.
Ktelor looked at the hoverjet. She felt empty. The X-Men had been Ktelor's only friends. Ktelor cried. She was just a kid... no more than 14 years old, and what all things she had seen! She had sometimes been left home from too dangerous missions, but she had also fought among the other X-Men, as one of them. And now... the others were gone? What would happen to her? Ktelor got up, heading for her room to cry.
Ktelor was an orphan. Her family had died in an accident that occurred while the X-Men were saving the unfortunate family from being kidnapped by Magneto. Xavier and the X-Men had before that known that Ktelor was a mutant; however, before that Ktelor had not been willing to come to Xavier's school. After the death of her family, she had basically no other choice.
However, after Ktelor had moved in to the school, she learned many new things about her powers. She was born with weak telepathy, and recently her developing had increased her powers immensely. She had also manifested two other powers, supernatural agility and a healing factor that allowed her to heal up to five times as fast as a normal child could. Xavier saw the potential in her, starting to train her to become an X-man like his other students Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Hank McCoy, Bobby Drake and Warren Worthington, and later the new students Logan, Ororo Monroe, Sean Cassidy, Kurt Wagner, Peter Rasputin and the now late John Proudstar. Due to her age, Ktelor could not take part in every fight, but every now and then she went off with the other X-Men to fight against the threats of the world that hated and feared them.
At that time, Ktelor did not mind being a superhero; she was playing the role of a normal angsty teenager, as far as "normal" could be considered. After all, Ktelor lived in a school with no family, her best and only friends were a team of older mutant superheroes and their mentor and she had almost no chance of leading a life the humans in this world would consider normal. Ktelor was not only a mutant telepath with amazing power, her genetic structure had been drastically changed, making her whole organ system to be inverted, not even mentioning that Ktelor was in fact genderless, born with no reproductive organs at all.
Ktelor would now have to grow out of her already questionable adolescence sooner than expected. The X-Men were not there to help her anymore.
Xavier was broken. What would have happened to his students, if he had just let them live their own lives? What would have happened to Ktelor? After all, it was his fault that she had to live through this... Without him, Ktelor's parents might still be alive, and Ktelor would not have to live in the mansion, or training to be a superhero. Ktelor would not have had to experience the pain of losing all her friends she had... Did Xavier really have the right to take young Ktelor's freedom and security away like this? Or those of his other students? Was there any other choice? Should Xavier found... another... team of mutants... just to be killed in another fight? What great feelings of sorrow, anger and regret were swelling in Xavier's mind! Would he ever recover from this?
Jean and Beast went off to the Muir Islands. Jean would probably stay there, studying her own new unknown powers, and never fight again. Beast was going to join the Avengers.
During the next few months, nothing really happened at the mansion. Xavier was just upset and did not speak of it to Ktelor at all. Ktelor wondered if he even spoke to Lilandra. Xavier left all the supervillains for Avengers, Spider-Man and others. He would not force Ktelor to do anything what a normal teen would not have to do.
Ktelor got used to it. She concentrated on training her powers, learning how to fly the Blackbird, reading sciences and computer technology. After all, there was nothing else she could do.
After Lilandra had come to Earth and her Empire had been saved from her insane brother D'Ken, it was thought that it would only take a few bureaucratic gestures to make her the heir to the throne. However, since she had committed treachery against the Empire, the others would not accept her as the ruler. The Shi'Ar were going to elect a new ruler, leaving Lilandra wherever she may wish to leave. Since she had nothing to keep her bound to the Shi'Ar, she decided to stay on Earth with her beloved Xavier. She then took a more active role on Earth and sometimes went to aid the other superheroes. She had her possessions transported to her new home, along with a few surprises.
One surprise was of course the technological enhancements to the Danger Room. Now the room could do far more than simple mechanics.
When the winter and Christmas came, Ktelor, Lilandra and Xavier traveled to the Muir Islands to spend the holiday. Many of Xavier's older students and a few other mutants were there: Jean Grey, Robert Drake, Hank McCoy, Warren Worthington III, Brian Braddock, Scott's little brother Alex Summers, Jamie Madrox and Lorna Dane. To Ktelor, Xavier seemed more relaxed now, and he even shared his ideas and thoughts at the Christmas table. Apparently Ktelor was, once again, the one who was told last.
"After a long, very long time of pondering, I have finally decided what I shall do. I shall form a new team of mutants, new X-Men. Even with all the risks, the mutants in this world need somebody to look after them and to speak for them." Ktelor stopped eating and looked at Xavier. The others clearly knew what was coming, and had not even started eating. "It has to do with you, Ktelor." Ktelor looked at Xavier, quite dumbfounded. She still had some food in her mouth. "My old students have their own lives to lead, and that is what they want to do. The new team of X-Men will be formed of kids, even younger than my first team, I will teach them to control their powers, and we should only fight when we absolutely have to. And Ktelor, since you not only have knowledge, but also already have experience and ability, you will be the leader of that team!"
Ktelor's eyes were big as plates. She quickly swallowed all the food still in her mouth and shouted: "What?!"
"Yes, Ktelor", said Xavier. He had a kind of a smirk on his face. "I know you better than you think, Ktelor. I prepared this all without telling you, because now you cannot decline!"
"Ooohhh, you cheesy sneaky cue ball... I'll kill ye with my fork", said Ktelor, pointing her fork at Xavier. Ktelor looked at her food and put the fork down. "Uhh..."
"Please, think about it, Ktelor." Ktelor looked at Xavier, seeing him smiling at her. "Now, I suggest we start eating. We have some magnificent dishes here..." Ktelor did not concentrate to hear the praising of the food, but thought about what Xavier had just told her.
Ktelor? A leader? Right... You could not find a more selfish or careless telepath on Earth. But leading was about all Ktelor could do in a fighting situation. She was not strong physically, and could not direct powerful amounts of energy from her body. What a mutant power telepathy was. Thanks to her agility, Ktelor would survive on a battlefield without help though.
Xavier was right. Ktelor would make a perfect leader, if she were up to it.
Ktelor, Xavier and Lilandra returned home for New Year.
"Ktelor, have you though about what I said at the Christmas table?"
"Oh yeah, I have, actually."
"Have you decided anything?"
"Uh... yeah... ...I think... I could try." Xavier smiled.
"Good, Ktelor. I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Heh heh heh."
They all ate and went to sleep.
The next day, Xavier told his plans. He would look for other mutants, mainly about the same age as Ktelor and form the new X-Men. And before he collected them, he would have to teach Ktelor many things about leading.
"And before I can do that, I should, once again, try to understand you. I did not manage two years ago, but I want to try again."
"Okay... What do ya want to hear from me now?"
"What do you think?"
"Yeah, I must've guessed. Okay... Prof, I was raised far from the civilizations. I was raised as a human being free from the common restrictions. There are some things I do have respect for, and that is privacy, individual opinions an' stuff like that. Mass opinions I couldn't really care less about. Religions and their ambiguous morals disgust me. Thinking is good, but very rare people can even do that properly. I can use my powers an' I know I have a lot to learn. I'm logical. I'm a freaking teen finding out what the heck I am."
"Who are you?"
"Me, created by my parents. I think." Xavier sat there for a moment and looked at Ktelor. "No, I don't let ya sneak in my mind. That'd be disrespecting my respect for privacy."
"Why do you then read people's minds without their permission? I know you do it. You even deep-scan them."
"But do I ever tell about it to anyone or use it otherwise to hurt them? No. Do I use it to behave more appropriately an' to gain knowledge about others? Hell yeah."
"And how about when you don't like what you're seeing?"
"Psychopaths, mad people, people dwelling in sorrow? I can use my powers to help them, can I?"
"And your respect for privacy?" Ktelor sighed.
"You still don't understand me... but we got further than last time." Ktelor smiled and walked away.
Xavier could not help thinking about what would become of Ktelor in the future. "That kid is something I've never seen before. She might just as well end up being as powerful as I am, if not even more powerful. She is completely unique, and she understands. What thinking for a 14-year-old, even a telepath!" Xavier dug up a couple of photos. They were of Ktelor. Her parents. "Or could it be her parents? They weren't mutants..." Xavier did not go any further, but looked at the photos. He would start teaching Ktelor to lead tomorrow.
Ktelor would turn fifteen on the sixteenth of January.