Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Franz Edward my llama ran away, so now I officially own nothing.
Dark shapes blurred around her vision. Whispers, mutterings, somebody taking a blood sample. She felt dead, although she knew she wasn't. She shifted slightly, and opened her eyes. The man called Beast was talking to a tall, beautiful African woman with white hair. She sat up
"Ah, how nice to see you awake, child," said the woman, her voice with a musical tilt to it. "My names is Ororo Monroe, but call me Storm. I can control the weather."
"Where the hell am I?" asked Zia groggily. It was the only question that popped into her mind, besides "And what the hell did you put me on?"
"Why, at the Xavier institute, of course. Do you not remember last night? And the drug is for your own good." Beast said, chuckling slightly.
Zia fell back into the pillow. The events of last night came crashing back. Silently checking over her body, she didn't feel anything was wrong, except, of course, that she was tired to the point of being asleep. She was on a hospital cot, wearing a light blue hospital gown.
"Alright…" she said. "So when can I blow this joint?"
"You can," Beast said, pausing with a look of disgust on his face, "blow this joint now, if you wish. My tests show me that you are healthy, except for a cracked rib. However, it will not do you any harm; you just have to heal for a couple of days."
"Here," Storm presented her with a folded pile of clothing. "I got this from your bag. We will have to take you shopping, because your clothing is about to fall apart."
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Zia went into the small bathroom and changed. She looked in the mirror. She didn't think it was possible, but she looked worse than before. Her hair was matted and knotty, there was a large band-aid on her forehead, and she had two blue-black swelling eyes. She groaned unbelievingly, then exited the medi-lab following Storm.
"You are just in time for breakfast, Zia. This will give you a chance to meet some of the X-men. However, many times they are away, completing their missions," said Storm. She then began to explain something about training, and a danger room, but Zia was preoccupied with the smell of the most delicious food she had ever smelled. Eggs, bacon, and pancakes wafted in from an ajar door.
A large kitchen filled with silver cooking utensils gleamed as two mutants chattered while they chopped food. One was a tall, muscular man with red eyes and brown hair. The second one a girl; short, had a bright yellow trench coat on, very 80's attire, and black short hair.
Suddenly, the woman was right in front of Zia, grinning broadly and shaking her hand.
"Hey, I'm Jubilee, and we're roomies, can you believe it?" she said excitedly. Zia smiled slightly and took shook her hand back.
"I'm Zia." She said. The man turned around and grinned, holding out his hand.
"Bonjur, petit, call me Remy," he said. Zia took his hand and shook it. What was with all the people here and being over-friendly? Or maybe it was just her lack of kindness toward people that was making her feel set-apart.
A man moved forward from the corner. Zia started.
"Hey, kid," he said. It was the man who had helped her that one night in the alley. He had short, wild blue-black hair and outrageous sideburns. He was short, stocky, muscular, and overall intimidating. "Name's Logan, or Wolverine. Good to see ya looking better."
Zia nodded and shook his hand. Storm and Beast were standing by, grinning.
"Well, let's go have some of that delicious smelling breakfast," said Beast, as Storm and he entered the dining room.
Suddenly, a bright blue-grey smoke puff obscured her vision, and she heard a loud BAMF, and a cherry "Hello!"
Instinctively, Zia drew out two long, sharp, curved blades and got into a fighting stance. She knew her eyes were turned a vivid electric-blue.
"Mein Gott!" said a blue furry creature with yellow eyes, falling back to the floor. He held up his hands. "I mean no harm!"
Breathing hard, and flushed with surprise and embarrassment, Zia made the knives poof into blue smoke, before vanishing.
"I..I'm..sorry.." she said, stuttering. She could feel the embarrassment on her face as the blue from her eyes faded. Why, why did she always turn beet red like that?
"Jesus, elf, ya couldn't walk the ten feet from the dining room to the kitchen?" muttered Logan. Zia noticed he hadn't backed away at all, but was looking on with a kind of amusement, smoking a cigar.
"It's okay, I'm sorry, I really am," said Zia. She held out a hand to help him up from the floor. He took it.
"My name is Kurt Wagner," he said, still a bit nervously. "But some call me Nightcrawler. As vell as elf," he added, shooting a quick frown at Logan. Logan just rolled his eyes and walked toward the dining room.
"So tell me, how you did you come across the Institute?" he asked, leading the way to the dining room." Zia just shrugged and gave him a quick mysterious look.
"Well, how'd you come across this place?" she asked. She surprised herself. She was never as…flirtatious…as this.
"Angels," said Kurt dreamily. Zia decided not to ask, and entered a large room with a table and chairs set up. She placed herself next to Logan and Rogue, the two who she felt she might be able to trust. It was just something in their eyes. She wasn't implying that the others were somehow untrustworthy, though. She just liked these two.
The table was talking and smiling at her. She was being introduced to some new faces. Angel, Psylocke, Cyclops, and Kitty all seemed nice, as well as Colossus and Bobby.
Jubilee was chattering away at her. "You'll just love it here, everyone is so nice. Although, the Danger Room exercises could be a bit less excruciating," she said, shooting a playful glare at Cyclops.
He said dutifully, "You'll be thankful for it, when we're being attacked. Or doing the attacking." Rogue winked at Zia, and grinned vivaciously.
"Oh Scott, ya'll is always on the defense mode," she drawled, "Can ya give us a lil' break today, with the newbie and ahl?" she gave him what she clearly thought was an innocent, sweet face. Remy snorted, and Rogue glared at him, her lips pursued.
"Neva mind, Scott, work that dirty Swamp Rat as hard as possible!" The table burst into laughter, Zia managed a quick polite smile. She was never one for laughing, let alone smiling.
Once the plates had been scraped, the table cleared, and the dishes done, the Professor came up to Zia and smiled.
"Now, Zia, I'm going to assign a student for you to tour the school. You will be seeing everything, including the Danger Room, where I hope for you to maybe get an exercise in. If you want it," he added. Zia nodded-she couldn't wait to vent off some of her energy.
"Kurt? Do you mind touring Zia around?" called the Professor to Kurt, who was currently walking out the door with Rogue and Colossus.
"Vhy, yes, of course," he said in his thick German accent. He walked up and smiled at Zia.
"Good, good, see you two later," said Xavier, rolling out the door and into the hallway.
Kurt spent about two hours showing her the entire mansion, including the door to Cerebro and the hidden escape doorway. They walked out into the garden and sat on the bench, watching the catfish swimming lazily around in the sun.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your injuries?" said Kurt quietly. Zia looked at him.
"My mom's boyfriend, Bo," she answered. Suddenly, the entire story came flooding out- her dreadful home life, her near-rape, and getting abused by her co-workers, friends, and family for being a mutant.
Kurt didn't speak for a long time after that. Finally, he turned to her. "All things happen for a reason, liebchen. We are sometimes just too blind to see it. Shall we go to the Danger Room?"
Zia nodded, and stood up. She had felt that the tremendous weight on her chest had been lifted slightly. They walked in silence until they entered a small room that looked like a control-base. Scott and Storm were in there, pressing buttons and pulling levers. They seemed to be controlling the large room outside, where some of the people Zia met that morning where fighting, swooshing, firing, and hitting robots.
"Child, I think we can work you in," said Storm. "Enter through the door on your right. Be prepared. I'm going to go easy on you."
Zia and Kurt entered through the door. Zia was immediately tackled by a small, yellow robot. Drawing out her blades angrily, she slashed through it easily. The next one, and next one, it all began to get routine for her. Dodge, slash, jab, jump, run. She began to laugh a little, enjoying herself.
In 60 minutes time, Storm and Scott shut off the excersise. Breathing heavily, Zia exited alongside the other X-men.
She followed Jubilee back toward their rooms, the other girl chattering away as usual. Their rooms were simple and pretty, consisting of two twin beds, two dressers with a vase of flowers on top each, and a modest bathroom. Zia couldn't be happier.
After taking a shower and getting changed into clean clothes, Zia stopped to stare out the window at the grounds. She thought, 'This isn't all that bad.'
She had no idea what was in store for her.
A/N: Hows THAT for a cliff-hanger? MUAH! Review, or I'll cry. I plan to go a LOT farther with this story. Seriously, I want it to have like, 20 chapters.