::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Space Needle, Seattle.

The icy winter wind cuts through Max Guevera's leather jacket, but she doesn't seem to notice. She's numb now, numb with fear and pain, and the guilt at letting her baby sister get taken by the bad guys. Soft footsteps let her know that he's here, thanks to her transgenic hearing. "What are we going to do, Alec?" she asks, not moving.

He sits down next to her, wrapping an arm around her to warm her up. "We'll find her. Maddie's not one to give up." he says softly, and she rests her head on his shoulder. "She'll be fine, baby." he assures Max, kissing her softly on the head.

"She's the only sister who I've found, Alec." she whispers, and he holds her tighter. "She's the only family I have."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted, Dorms

John pokes his best friend's shoulder lightly. "Bobby, wake up." No answer, or even movement, from the boy on the bed. "Bobby, wake up!!" he pokes him harder, then realizes what will wake up his friend. "Bobby, I know what made the teachers all have to leave the dance."

Bobby Drake sits up groggily. "What, man? I have to do two papers tomorrow to get them done before break. I need sleep." John just smiles.

"It's a girl."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Girl's room

Her eyes flutter open, and she looks around, biting her lip to distract her from the pain in her abdomen. The hospital-white walls and stainless steel of the tools on the table makes a chill run down her spine. She looks around frantically, wondering why they didn't tether her down yet. She's too weak too move much...she'll just have to wait to escape.

She sits up shakily, holding her wound in an attempt to belittle the pain. The only sound in the room is her shuddered breathing. She tries to think of the best way to escape, but her hope is nearly gone.

As a last resort, she sends up a prayer to the childhood deity of her Manticore siblings.

Please, Blue Lady, help me...please...

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Hallway, Prof. X's School for the Gifted.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Bobby asks as he and his best friend walk through the dark, deserted halls. He's curious about this girl, a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that she may stir up a bit of pandemonium at Mutant High.

"I don't know, man, but she's really hot." John tells him, smirking that patented smirk of teenage boys thinking of sex. Bobby rolls his eyes.

"Is that all you think about, John?" he asks, and John looks at him incredulously.

"Dude, you're a teenage boy, too, you know. You should be thinking about it, too. Anyway, you will be when you see this girl." he says smugly, smirk still firmly in place. Bobby sighs in annoyance.

"What if something bad's being stirred up, John? Magneto could be up to his old tricks." he says, and John shrugs.

"Nah, I don't think so. This doesn't feel like something Magneto would do. He'd suck the life-force out of you slowly or dissect you while you're still alive- he's creative like that, you know? This chick was just stabbed." John tells him dismissively, and Bobby muses.

"You sure know your torture methods, John."

"Yeah, well, food for thought."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;Girl's room, Prof. X's School for the Gifted

The echo of footsteps coming closer makes her cringe. Two pairs. That means they're starting off with the heavy torture. Otherwise there would only be one. Her heartbeat thuds in her ears, as she painfully maneuvers herself off the bed and searches for a potential weapon, ignoring the dizziness from blood rush.

As the footsteps grow closer, she grabs a pair of surgical scissors and ducks behind the room divider. She hears two people walk in, and a young sounding voice say, "Uh, she was in here before, I swear."

Another voice sighs in exasperation. "John, if I got up for nothing at three in the morning for some sadistic practical joke, I will freeze you!" Freeze him? Not much of a threat, the girl thinks, climbing on top of a table to peek over the room divider. She holds her hand to her now reopened wound, and bites back a sigh of relief to see that it's only two adolescent boys. Take your masochistic son to work day? She almost smiles at the idea, and at knowing that she could take these boys out with a well-placed roundhouse kick.

A look of curiosity passes over John's face, and the girl follows his eyes to the trail of blood on the floor from her stab wound. "Shit." she mumbles as the curtain swings back, revealing her perched on a table. She sits there, frozen, for a second.

"Um, hi..." Bobby starts, trailing off at the sight of the scissors clenched in her white knuckles. She jumps down from the table with cat-like grace. The blood from her opened injury has soaked through the sweatshirt with Xavier's School emblazoned on it.

"Look, ok," she starts, her voice shaky with desperation, "you let me leave and I'll let you live." As much as the soldier mask hides the emotion in her face, there's a fear in her eyes, a look of utter pain in her that's impossible to hide.

John raises his hands up, smirking. How could a girl this tiny be a threat? "Okay, Thumbelina, don't do anything you'll regret." he sends a charming (ok, so in his mind) smile her way, only to be greeted by a cold stare. "Okay, well, in that case, don't do anything I'll regret."

Her calculating stare gets a little less frigid, and Bobby, being the diplomat that he is, steps out in front of John, pushing him back a little. "Um, we don't want to hurt you, ok? Someone found you on the grounds, and we're just curious." he tells her, and a panicky loathing and terror comes over her face.

She drops the scissors, putting her hands on her temples. "No, not the mind games...please, please," she pleads, dropping to her knees. Her tiny, underfed body rocks back and forth, and she gazes up at them with a fear that few can comprehend. "Cut me, burn me, but don't pretend that you won't hurt me!!!" she screams as her body starts to shake violently.

See, the scientists at Manticore really thought that they had it all worked out. Genetically perfect kids, right? Wrong. When an X5 has been running on empty for a while, they can't make up the serotonin that they can't produce naturally. Or when they're hurt, or overwhelmed....basically, at all the bad times, they get seizures.

Her wispy body shudders painfully, and she curses herself for letting her enemies see her at her weakest. She tries to hold her cries in, but little whimpers keep coming out. She closes her eyes, trying to breathe through the pain.

She feels someone take her hand, and opens her eyes in fear, praying that they'll wait for the seizures to stop before starting torture. "It'll be all right...Jean's a really good doctor. She'll make it better." the boy who called himself Bobby tells her.

"T-tryp..." she sputters as another round hits her, trying to tell him the key to letting her live, "tryptop-phan." she whispers, closing her eyes and letting the blackness wash over her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::A/N

Wow, this was a long chapter!!!! I hope y'all like it!! Review and tell me if I'm doing an ok job of tying in the two stories. Sorry if the PoV's are confusing, but it's just the way i write.

Thanx and kisses to all who've reviewed- you give me warm fuzzelies inside. keep it up!

Luv

molly jeane