Note: This chapter has loads of blood, so I hope you're not too sensible. This is about how Alyx got her powers in a quite painful and dramatic way. Pats poor Alyx This is not the best memory she has...

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"Alyx? Hey Alyx!"

Alyx looked up from her diary as a dark shape was calling her from the entrance door. She could barely see it, the sun was already down and the sky was coloured with orange and golden lights. It was getting dim fast.

"Yeah?" she answered back.

"It's almost 7:30, dinner will be at eight!" The girl said. "Come inside!"

"In a couple of minutes." Alyx replied and the girl went in again.

Alyx couldn't make out of who she was, maybe some of the younger students, she didn't know them all. She smiled when her stomach roared like and hungry lion and she ordered it to wait a bit more. The lights on the garden begun to light one by one as some kids ran inside the magnificent building, playing and laughing careless. That institute was more than a school where mutants could learn to control their powers. It was a home. A family for the ones that lived on the run and didn't have anywhere else to go after they realised what they were... like her.

"Friday, March 13th, 2004 – 18:08 PM

Dear dad and Gaudi,

I'm so excited!! My birthday was today and I'm now 17! Whoohoo!! Mom threw me a party... poor her! She didn't know I knew about it already. She kept all the balloons and the banners on the basement and I saw it. Anyway, I made a surprised face. But at night me and the gang will go to the city for some serious Paaaartay!!

This was also an important day for me. I had my ritual to initiate me as an adult. Mom was so proud... I trained for this for months, the way I had to dance and move. Mom danced with me as did Mike. His birthday is on the 9th, but he wanted to be initiated with me. I was a bit afraid but Carla told me I had nothing to fear, she was initiated two months ago and told me. The initiation consists on a ritual dance, the making of a tattoo and adding like a nickname to your name. She got the tattoo of a Heron and she's now Carla "HeavenHeron" Smith. Quite suits her.

So we danced, to ask the sacred spirits to protect us. As we danced two people joined in. Mom appeared dressed as a gigantic hawk and Mike's granddad as a scary bear. Those were our guardian spirits. I wished you could be there dad, but I know you were. And that along with the hawk spirit, you'll be protecting me. So, after the danced Joe made me a tattoo of a red hawk on my left shoulder and Mike got a grey bear on his right arm. It hurt so much, but then Mike took my hand and I didn't want to be weak in front of him... So we're now Alyx "RedHawk" Von Goeth and Michael "LoneBear" Rolf. I'm so proud!

I'll write again after we get from the city, because I think might have some great news then! After the ritual, Mike said he wanted to talk to me tonight. I think he knows I like him... Oh I barely can wait for tonight!!!

Love, Alyx RedHawk!

Alyx looked down the page, to a small diary entry made late that night. The pages were wrinkled, like they had been wet. Besides, among the trembling hand-written words she could she her fingerprints pressed all over the paper... in blood.

"Saturday, March 13th, 2004 – 04:45 AM

Oh dad I'm so scared... I wish so much that you could be here. It's raining so much and she's dead! Carla is dead! I'm covered in blood... and it hurts so much... I'm alone I don't know where to go, I can't go back to the reservation, I don't know where the others are...

Oh my god I need help! It hurts so much and they keep on growing out of my skin... IT HURTS!! I need to go away, I'm trying to get a bus to New York, I tried to hide the blood from my clothes. It's so cold... I'll try to call mom when I find some quiet place to rest. I must go now, the bus is here.

Protect me dad, love Alyx."

Alyx felt the need to close the diary on that instance, on that minute, but didn't. She glanced at the bright ruby-red quartz crystals on her skin. It was a part of her that she couldn't ignore or forget, especially when she could remember it so clearly....

The night had been great on a little bar in town. They had danced since they had got there and drank a bit too. She had been introduced to beer and vodka on that night, the night of her birthday. Alyx remembered she had never felt that good... or that drunk. Around three AM they had left the bar, tumbling a bit on each other, dancing and singing in the street, not because they were drunk, but because they just did that every time. They hopped into the motorbikes and cars and returned to the reservation.

She remembered she had rode with Mike on his motorbike and that he had to hold her with one hand as he drove, she was so drunk that he was afraid she might fall from the motorbike. And when they reached the reservation, instead of going home they had all ran to a lake near by, after crossing the thick woods and the dark prairie. The lake was very still and lit by the silvery moonlight and they had taken off their clothes and jumped to the lake in their underwear. Even today she was still amazed on how no one had heard them scream as they jumped or threw each other to the water.

Mike had then called her aside, right beside the waterfall. She knew he was drunk and that it was very likely that by morning he wouldn't recall what he had said to her, but she was happy to hear him, even if he wouldn't remember about it later. He had almost pined her against a tree as he spoke, leaving her uncomfortable. He did smell like beer. She remembered that while he talked, very near to her ear, he kept on playing with some locks of her long silky hair, thumbing it among his fingers. Alyx had almost melt by then. Then their drunken friends had barged in, ruining the moment, taking Mike away with a silly grin on his face.

Alyx was still hissing against her friends in mute when Carla came around, her eyes bright with excitement and holding Alyx by an arm, pulled her into the dark trees, demanding to know what Mike had told her. With her face glowing red like a traffic light, Alyx told her that Mike was trying to ask her out and possibly trying to kiss her when the others barged in. Carla had teased her, laughed and giggled about all that. And giggled even more when Alyx, feeling dizzy with all the excitement threw up all the alcohol she had drank near a tree. The others were still on the lake, now throwing mud at each other.

It had been then, feeling dizzy and trying to clean her mouth that Alyx watched a shadow running from a tree to the other. She heard footsteps too. She had called Carla's attention to it, but her friend was having a drunken laughter attack. Few moments later, the steeps became louder and louder until they came at sight.

A pack of wolves.

All of them big and dark, with glowing cold yellow eyes. The girls had screamed in fear then, but instead of running towards the lake they ran to the woods, taking different ways. Alyx had run through the dark, tripping over tree roots and sharp stones, her hands and knees wounded and bleeding from every time she fell. Tears of fear and cries for help filled her mind as she ran brushing gloomy branches and leaves that ripped her clothes and her skin as she passed, knowing that some of the wolves were following her. She didn't know for how long she had run or where she was at that moment. Her mind kept her running away from safety.

Trees whispering silently...

...Dark branches trying to hold her back...

...Owls looking at her from high above...

...The fast steeps on the dry leafs.

All that had contributed to her panic. The tears spilling from here eyes like rivers weren't helping either, making her loose her sight and therefore the track of the trail she was taking. She her throat hurt as she kept on screaming for help, calling her friend Carla. Until her screams stopped and the wind howled louder.

Alyx felt the earth among her fingers when she finely tripped and fell, her face hitting the dirt. She had remained laid on the floor for some time, breathing in eagerly, like oxygen wasn't reaching her lungs. She felt like she had been trapped inside a dark room, without being able to see or to hear. Then she moved and felt all of her body stinging and hurting. Slowly she had then sat, feeling cold and afraid, looking around. She knew she was lost. Her voice cut the deafening silence of the forest as she called Carla again... and got no answer back.

Then a terrifying scream came to her, making her blood freeze on her veins.

Carla

Bloodied, Alyx had rose and ran though the darkness following the voice, waving her arms in front of her face to keep the sharp branches away from her. The scream had only lasted a second. The next thing she knew, she had tripped and fallen again, landing on her knees. But when she looked back... what she saw, lit by the cold light of the moon, left her trully frozen and tears streamed again down her hurt and dirty cheeks. She had tripped over a blood-covered form that lay immobile. Alyx had covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, but nothing could silence the horror of that image. Carla was on the floor, countless wounds on her skin, her warm clear eyes gazing her coldly.

Barely seeing, Alyx crawled to the body and took her friend on her arms. Carla was already dead. Alyx had cried all her sorrow, holding the still warm body against her. The wolves had attacked Carla, bite marks all across her tanned skin. From far away, the sound of her friends calling came to Alyx's ears. She felt rage building in, like venom spreading across her body. She had asked why. Why it all had to happen. Why they had to get drunk. Why she and Carla had got away from the others. Why she, being a good batter and explorer, had got lost, loosing her friend from sight.

She had never felt so angry, rage boiling inside. Her eyes got suddenly bright red and she tossed Carla's body away. She was in pain, like her blood was in fact boiling, making her release a wild scream that echoed on the cold dark air. Something was happening inside of her, something painful. Something was taking over her bones, she could feel it. Among all her pain, she opened her eyes wide as the skin on her wrists started to move on its own, up and down. Something inside her skin was desperately trying to get out, and it hurt, it had hurt so much, like sharp knifes trying to pierce her skin... she had felt it too on her forehead, knees and ankles.

The sound of the others screaming her name and tumbling steeps on the ground became closer. Alyx was on her knees, hiding her face among her arms when they got to her. No one approached, trying to understand what had happened. Alyx was on the ground, kneeled, hiding her face, crying and screaming, covered in blood. Right beside her was Carla, clearly already a corpse. None of them spoke, staring at that horror show. Softly it started to rain.

Suddenly Alyx let out a loud strident scream, her arms had fall along her body and her face had rose up to the sky. Everyone saw her skin moving and, in the next second, exploding, red things springing from her forehead and wrists, blood spilling to the dark floor. Alyx remembered, she could barely take the pain, felt like throwing up and almost passed out. Blood had streamed on her arms and face, contrasting with her dark hair.

The others had stepped back in fear, asking her what she had done. What was happening to her? She couldn't speak, the pain was too much. Jason had then steeped forward, making her get up pushing her by her arms, screaming at her, asking what she had done to Carla. Elsa was hugged to Vinie, crying, yelling that Alyx was a mutant. Mike held his sister Cary away from the horrible scene, looking angrily to Alyx like she was a freak. Alyx, feeling the unbearable pain, screamed that she had done nothing to her best friend, but the others didn't believe. They were afraid of her.

Alyx was trembling as Jason held her and screamed at her. They couldn't understand how scared, how hurting she was. The screams, the confusion, the rain, the wind howling... Looking back now, the memory looked like a terrible nightmare she had had. Unfortunately it had been a real nightmare. Her friends were scared and not thinking right. They thought she had killed Carla.

What happened from there had been very fast. The whole reservation seemed to have been wakened up by the riot and now torches and flashlights started to glow among the threes, voices echoing. Alyx was still pleading to Jason and to the others to let her go, that she had not killed Carla. The confusion got to its highest peak when Jason became more violent, helped by Mike. Feeling a new wave of pain, Alyx had screamed and her hands had started to glow with a vivid red light. A jolt of some kind of light and liquid jumped from her hands and hit a tree near Mike's head. It had solidified the tree when the light hit it, turning it to stone. The tree ended up breaking in half. The others stared in panic and Jason let go of her, pale with terror. Taking the moment, as her friends were too terrified and that the reservation people were about to get to them, Alyx ran to the darkness, finding the path that would lead her out of the woods.

She had only got time to get home, pick up some clothes and some money and run away from the reservation, still hurt and stained with blood, blood that was slowly started being cleaned by the rain. She had only stopped to think on a bus stop, when she had made her last entry on her diary. She was scared and alone, hurt and with strange things growing on her body... she didn't have a place to go. While waiting for a bus to take her away from there, she noticed a wet magazine that someone had left on the bench. She had taken it and started reading a piece of news that talked about a certain institute in New York for gifted youngsters. The journalist, clearly an anti-mutant one, speculated that the institute was actually a mutant lair. She had ripped off the page that described the location of the institute and jumped into the arriving bus...

Alyx left the open diary on the table and let her had fall back, stroking absently the crystals on her forehead. That night, that memory was burned on her mind. It was the night that had changed her life, making her loose something but gain another. That was the night she had elevated herself to the superior race, a mutant with powers beyond the common human reach. Her tribe was already familiar with mutants, but feared them, so no wonder they had panicked when finding out that she was a mutant. Alyx had never returned to the reservation again... Sometimes, she wondered how her friends were. She didn't blame them, they had been scared. But from there, started her life on the institute... as a mutant.