DISCLAIMER: Still not mine. Marie/Anna and her friends are, but the X-men are not.Josh, too... he's mine. All mine. That sounded wrong.
"Ms. Darkhölme, what exactly do you think that the purpose of this experiment would be?"
"Well, Mr. Polesky, if the goal of the current project is to isolate the specific part of one's DNA that makes them a mutant, then certainly it would be worthwhile to test non-mutants for the..."
"No. We don't have time. The government funding ceases to exist unless we have something concrete by the end of the year. We simply do not have time for secondary testing, especially testing involving human subjects. We've avoided it so far, and it is entirely unnecessary to implement it in this stage of the project."
"I'm sure that I could find a way to get extra funding if necessary... but I really do believe that the project as a whole would benefit from it."
"I agree."
"And if...huh?"
"I agree with you, but unfortunately, as I said, we do not have the time. Perhaps during phase two. If we ever get there."
"We will. Rob is working on analyzing the last batch of samples, and I'm going up to the secondary facility to retrieve the next set this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow."
"Good. I have a meeting in Washington tomorrow. I may not be back until Monday."
"Long ass meeting," She muttered under her breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing, sir. If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my work..."
He waved his hand in dismissal. "Sure. You have my cell if you need me."
She nodded and walked out of the office and towards the lab.
"Anna! How'd it go?" She turned to find Rob bounding down the hallway towards her.
"The usual. No time, no money. Going to Washington."
Rob laughed as he swiped his key card and opened the lab door. "Washington, huh?"
"Yup. Hey, you want to come with me to Westchester tonight?"
"Is this a date?"
"Don't flatter yourself."
Rob grabbed his chest theatrically. "You wound me, Anna!"
"Not as much as Gina would wound you if she thought you were going out with someone else."
"Touché."
"I have to go up to the Institute. Dr. McCoy has some samples for us. Gina is welcome to join."
"Going to visit with your posse?"
"Yeah, my posse." She pulled on a pair of gloves and walked over to her workstation. They had been testing blood and tissue samples of both mutants and non mutants, trying to figure out exactly where the line was drawn from a genetic viewpoint at least. Anna had been a part of the project since she joined with the research facility two years prior. Rob Ashley had been working with her almost the entire time, and she'd grown rather close to both him and his fiancée Gina Desmond.
"Hey A-Bomb... check this out."
She rolled her eyes at the nickname and pushed the tray of samples back on the table. She walked up to the microscope where Rob was hunched.
"What is it?"
"The DNA here... it's not human."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really. I mean, part of it is, but about half is something else. I'm not sure what."
"Maybe the sample is contaminated."
"Probably. It's one of your dear Dr. McCoy's patients."
"Let me see the sheet." She held up the printout with the information on the person from whom the sample was taken. Initials, A.M.L. age, 45 sex, female... Oh...
"Yeah, It's not human. Don't worry about it, though. Just don't use that sample."
"What? Wait a minute, what are you talking about, it isn't human? Do you know this sample?"
"Maybe."
Rob looked around the room and leaned in. "Is it one of the X-Men?"
Anna rolled her eyes. "You just want to meet them."
"Can you really blame me?"
"I can and will if you ever mention it here again."
"Ooh, touchy, touchy."
"Exactly," she replied, cracking her knuckles. He got the message, and grinned. He just loved pushing her buttons. In the time that she had been there, the X-Men had become more and more public, although few people knew of their true identities. Even fewer knew of Charles Xavier's connection to them, which was a necessity given his frequent consultations from high-ranking politicians on matters involving genetics. Most people simply saw him as an expert on mutation; some had their suspicions that he himself was a mutant. Anna had told Rob and Gina that she knew the X-Men, but that was all that she had told them. As far as her connection to the Xavier Institute, she told the truth. She had learned under Dr. Henry McCoy, one of Xavier's staff members. She left out the whole time travel thing, of course, as well as the fact that she herself was a mutant. There's only so much that people will believe.
Anna turned back to her lab station, pausing to rub her eye.
"What's wrong, Anna?"
"Nothing... my contacts are just bothering me."
"Contacts?"
"Yeah."
"I didn't know that you wore contacts."
"Oh... yeah, I do."
"Huh. You learn something new every day."
"That you do." She had given up on re-adjusting the lens and instead took the whole thing out of her eye, examining it under a nearby light. "Damn... it's cracked."
"That sucks."
"Tell me about it."
She tossed it in a trashcan with a muttered curse. Rubbing her eye, she turned to Ron.
"I've gotta get something from my office. I'll be right back."
"Uh...yeah..." He turned back to his microscope and shook his head. He could have sworn that the eye from which she took the contact was black and red. "Robbie boy, you need to get out more. You're starting to crack up."
"Are we there yet?" Gina mumbled absently. She had been asleep for about two hours. Anna smiled.
"No, sweetie, we aren't there yet. You getting hungry, have to take a piddle?"
"Shut up."
"We're going to pull over at the next rest stop. It's coming up, so you might want to wake sleeping beauty back there."
Ron had been asleep for most of the trip, snoring softly in the backseat of the car. Grunting, Gina twisted around in her seat and hit the bottom of his shoe.
"Ron. Wake up."
As she turned into the rest stop, Ron slid and hit his head on the door. He sat up quickly. "I'm up, I'm up."
Anna pulled into the parking spot farthest from the rest stop building and turned the car off. "Ok... there's something I have to tell you guys."
"Are you kidnapping us?"
"Yes. But that's not what this is about."
"That's right... avoid the issue."
Anna smiled. She had been a little bit worried about telling them about not only her being a mutant, but also about her true ties to the X-Men.
"I knew it." Gina tried to act like it was old news.
"No, you didn't."
"Okay, maybe I didn't."
"I did." Ron spoke up from the backseat.
"Oh, really? And how is that?"
"Your eyes."
Anna jerked around and faced him. "What?"
"When your contact broke, I saw your eyes."
"What is he talking about?"
Anna had been wearing sunglasses for most of the night, taking them off only when absolutely necessary. She took them off and turned to Gina, the red of her eyes glowing in the low light. Gina gasped, completely taken aback. Rob sat in the back and just smirked.
"Told you so."
Gina was still amazed. "Wow. I thought your eyes were green!"
"And white." Rob added.
"Well, my mom's eyes are. But my dad's eyes... they're like this."
"Oh. How about that sister you said you had, what color are her eyes?"
"Actually, I don't have a sister. She's my mother."
"Wow... ok... anything else you want to tell us?"
"Yes, actually. And this is something that you cannot breathe a word to Marie about."
"Your niece?"
"Sort of. It's more of a she's me kind of deal."
"Oh. That makes sense. Wait a second... no, it doesn't."
"I know, I know... but there isn't really time to explain."
"Yes there is. We still have a really really long drive ahead of us."
"Actually, now that you know all of this, we can take a much faster mode of transportation. Grab your crap and follow me."
She got out of the car and grabbed her backpack from the trunk, while the other two got out of the car.
"Anna?"
"Yes, Gina?"
"Are those new shoes?"
Anna looked down. She was wearing her battle boots. In fact, she was wearing her entire battle uniform.
"No, they're old. Really old. There is one more thing. Remember how I said that I was a reserve member of the X-Men?"
"Should I be scared about the direction in which this is turning?" Rob had finally climbed out of the car.
"Probably. There's sort of a mission. They needed the whole team out in a show of force. Don't worry though; you can wait on the jet while we go... It'll only take a minute."
"Hey Aunt Anna!" Someone yelled from across the parking lot, and all three of them turned their heads. Anna waved to the figure and turned to her friends, whispering.
"Nothing about our similarities. Nothing about my eyes."
They nodded, and watched in awe as the girl from across the parking lot took to the skies and headed in their direction.
"Anna, if she can do that, then..."
Anna just turned to them again and grinned, launching herself into the air.
A/N: Sorry for the long time no update... I was going to upload the next chapter then I realized that I hadn't done this one yet. oops. So the next one should be along shortly, but thats no reason not to review.