Author's Notice: I apologize for the choppy format of my stories. It's not just that they get muddled when I upload them to , I sort of write them that way. You see, when I think up my plots I picture them as comic illustrations, with dialogue in speech bubbles. So try to picture them that way. Again, I'm sorry.

Who's Who for people unfamiliar with the x-men:

Nightcrawler-Kurt, a blue teleporter

Shadowcat-Kitty, able to phase through solid objects and walk on air

Rachel- no codename, telepathic and telekinetic

Colossus- Peter, transforms into steel

Rogue- no real name absorbs the psyche and powers of who every she touches, flying and super strength

Wolverine- Logan, not currently in the story

Jubilee- no codename, no currently in the story

Aboard the Blackbird jet on the way home from their latest mission, Kitty Pryde was feeling uneasy. She nudged her friend Rachel Summers, and asked "How long did you put her to sleep for?" She was talking about Driani, a semi-vampiress they had rescued from a mob because Cerebro had told them that she was a mutant. "She should be out for at least another ten hours. I don't think she wants to wake up. I wouldn't either if I'd been through what she just went through." Rachel glanced over at Driani. She was pretty creepy looking. She'd transformed back into a human form now, but something about her was clearly not human and it wasn't just the fangs. Then again she had every right to look like that. Some one who was clearly important to her was dead and when the villagers realized they couldn't kill her (because of Rachel's telekinetic bubble); they had destroyed the house that must have been her home. She had nowhere to go back to. Plus, she was still a vampire. Kitty: "Hey Kurt, um, what exactly are we going to do with her? You don't plan to make her a team member do you?"

Kurt: "I really am not sure yet. She is very powerful and would be an asset to the team, but judging from her behavior back there I'm not sure she's sane enough to join."

'Great, now we have a mad woman to take care of. Like the X-mansion wasn't a crazy enough place as it is.' Kitty thought to herself. Rachel turned to her. "I'm sorry but I couldn't help picking up that thought. I know that you hate vampires because of what they did to Ororo, and true, they are forces of evil, but she's still half-human and there may be hope for her. Just give her a try okay?"

Kitty: "Sure. But if she's crazy she goes right back to central Europe where she came from."

Rachel: "Deal."

"Drat. I'm still alive aren't I?" This unhappy statement was Driani's first though upon waking up. Without opening her eyes she tried to figure out where she was. 'Well, vampires don't go to heaven, and I don't feel hot so this probably isn't hell... ' Even while only semi-conscious her wry sense of humor was making wise cracks. Then her keen senses kicked in, filling her with information that her sleepy mind took a minute to process. These sheets weren't the same texture as hers, she couldn't smell the roses that were in the vase by her bed, the sounds accosting her ears were not the ones that she normally heard. Her environment wasn't familiar. Most importantly, Stephen wasn't beside her. Suddenly all the events of last night came crashing back into her consciousness. 'It doesn't matter where I am! Stephen is, is...' She couldn't even complete the thought. Her rage and grief instantly manifested themselves as a soul-piercing scream. Her eyes flew open and she went to stand up but couldn't. She was strapped down to the bed that wasn't hers. She was in what looked like a med-lab. And the only being in the room was a blue demon. Things could not be worse. Her scream emptied all the oxygen from her lungs and she passed out again. It was a relief to pass into unconsciousness and forget everything, but the realization that everything would come back when next she awoke stole away whatever peace she might have had for that split second.

"She's out cold again. She's been like this for over a week!" Kurt had been pleased when his patient had finally showed signs of life, but her screaming upon awaking did not seem like a good sign. "I just don't know what to do for her." He turned to his companions, Kitty and Rachel. The two girls were looking over the results from the tests Kurt had run on the vampire. They had confirmed that she was a mutant, and since none of them knew what vampiric blood looked like she might be a vampiress too. Whoever and whatever she was, she'd been in a self-imposed comatose state since the x-men rescued her seven days ago. The screaming episode had been that night, had she hadn't even moved since then. He'd previously thought it best to allow her to wake up on her own, but he had decided to accept Rachel's offer of psychically probing her.

Rachel sat at the foot of the unconscious girl's bed and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She concentrated, then began.

'Hello?'

She was met with a fair amount of resistant, surprising for someone who had probably not been trained by a telepath. Or had she? They knew nothing about her at all. Rachel pushed her gently, prodding around her brain for a response.

'Hello?'

'LEAVE ME ALONE!' the mental screaming hurt like an intense migraine, but through her pain Rachel continued.

'I know that you hurt a lot right now. But we are worried about you. Would you like to wake up?'

'Why are you worried about me? Do you know who I am? Who are you anyway?' these questions were posed with hostility but at least she'd stopped resisting.

The girl mentally went into Rachel's mind and began to use her memories to answer her questions. She wasn't a true telepath, Rachel could tell that her thoughts and emotions were undisturbed, the girl was only reading her memories. Rachel allowed her to search but only provided her with a fraction of the information that she was after. She told the girl her name and a little about the x-men (especially about Kurt so as not to frighten her when she awoke), then responded with a search of her own. All of this took seconds.

'Hello Driani.'

'Rachel, I need to stay like this. Just a little longer. A couple centuries maybe'

'Please? This isn't good for you. Besides, the others want to meet you.'

'Others? All right. You did save me after all. But you might want to strap me down. Once I regain consciousness, my body will probably try to morph.'

'Okay'

Gently withdrawing from Driani's mind, Rachel opened her eyes and telekinetically tightened the straps that held the girl.

Rousing herself from the depths of her slumber, Driani opened her eyes. Her conversation with the telepath had been interesting. Her normally bicameral mind split into three parts. Her intellect wanted to wake up and meet her rescuers, and eventually make a new life for herself. Driani's heart wanted to curl up and die; short of that, it would settle for driving the mind that controlled it completely insane. And then the last part, the third form, her dark side, wanted what it always wanted. To kill. She forced her intellect to take control and wake up. An onslaught of grief crushed her spirit as soon as she regained consciousness, and every instinct in her wanted to morph into third form, fight and run and scream until she was dead. She refused to let her body follow her heart and transform, because what kind of an impression was that to make on new people? But she forced her humanity to take over, keeping the other side of herself in check by telling it 'I'm curious. Wait. Then we will go crazy.' Opening her eyes, she saw that her body had disobeyed her. Her lovely blue wings grew than shrank as she became a wolf, but through sheer will power she forced herself back to human form. Snapping her eyes open, she took in her surroundings. She was in a large white room. A girl who must have been the telepath stood at the foot of her bed. Behind her were another girl and the blue demon. With one short and final shriek she was fully normal and totally in control of both her body and her vampiric nature. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you. How do you feel?" asked the demon. She would have to stop thinking of him as a demon, he was a mutant like her, or so the telepath said. "Physically, spiritually or mentally?" she quipped. The three of them looked surprised then laughed softly. She could imagine them thinking 'wow, the psycho made a joke!' "Physically, I guess you meant. I think I'm fine. I could probably get up now; I'd like to stretch. How long was I...like I was?"

Kurt: "A week. We didn't know if you'd ever recover mentally, though your body healed immediately."

Driani: "God, it didn't feel that long." 'So far, so good. Talking, not screaming. How long can I hold my self in?'

Kitty: "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but are you really a vampire?'

Kurt: "Kitty! I don't think that...she wants to talk right now. What is your name?"

Rachel: "Driani"

Driani: "No, it's all right. Kind of. I mean in the traditional sense. Not to alarm you but I do drink blood. I think that's what you meant, yes? But something kept me from fully becoming a vampiress. My body didn't die. I still have no idea why, but I don't have all the capabilities of a true vampire. Not for lack of trying though."

Kurt: "That must have had something to do with your mutation." Kitty looked as though she would be sick.

Driani: "my what?" 'Poor child. I've really freaked her out.'

Rachel: "The structure of you DNA give you certain powers that baseline humans don't have, making you a mutant."

Driani: "I've heard of that. The "mutant menace". It never affected me before."

Suddenly the irony of the situation struck Driani. Her life as she knew it was over. Her lover and sole companion was dead. And here she was, talking about genetics with these weird people who supposedly saved her. She couldn't go home and try to live without Stephen. An eternity alone would be torture. But she couldn't unleash herself in third form upon the unsuspecting world. She had to get control permanently, and get it soon. Driani looked at the three people standing above her. "Would you mind leaving me alone for a little while? I need some time to myself. "Sure. You can use the intercom here if you need us." Driani attempted to sit up then smiled a tiny little smile. "Uh, it'd help if I could get up."

They'd done better than help her get up. Driani had her own room, a cozy little place with a bed, dresser, and view of a lake outside the window, but best of all privacy. She could tell that they were nervous about having a vampire as a house guest, thinking that she'd kill them all in their sleep. Especially that Kitty girl, Driani bet she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Getting to know them all would be fun, if she had the spirit to. Right now, she still wanted to die. But she was gifted with eternal life. Driani knew what a precious gift that was; having seen so much death and suffering in her stay on earth, much of it brought by her and Stephen. With all her knowledge from traveling the world, she could no doubt help these x-men people if they wanted her to. If not she'd find some other cause to devote herself to. She shouldn't waste her life. She'd all ready spent a whole week so deep in her grief that she couldn't remain conscious. Stephen wouldn't have wanted her to stay like that on his account. He'd want her to live, and perhaps even in time love again. And that was precisely what she would do.

Author's Note: If you like my story and want to read my own comments on it, or even just my strange ramblings, check out my journal on under the user name phoenix2737. Thanks so much for reading thus far! I know it's been kind of melodramatic and boring, but it's all just a pretext for my original plot line. That gets much better I promise.