Chapter 2: Evolution Leaps Forward
"Sir, I'm picking up an electromagnetic anomaly... even bigger than that of the Phoenix... I can't seem to trace the source." Callisto, a tattooed woman of the Brotherhood of mutants responded to the man she called her master.
"Keep on it... let me know when you locate the mutant."
"You think it's a mutant?"
Magneto turned on his heel to stare his companion straight in the face. Since the fall of his most faithful sidekick Mystique, Callisto had attempted to fill her place; she was filled with too many questions, and frankly he was getting tired of it.
"That's impossible... what could be more powerful than a Class Five mutant?"
"A Class Six mutant..."
"Impossible, no one can be stronger than her. You've seen what she's capable off, who could beat her?"
"Her daughter..."
Callisto stared at him in disbelief. "I saw her die with my own eyes... there's no way she had a daughter!"
"My dear there is another world out there that you know nothing of... now have you located her yet?"
"Signal seems to be centered in Minnesota."
X X X X
This life was a lie, a masquerade she had been forced to play along with, her "mother" Winona Page being its star. Winona was a thin laced lawyer and Harvard graduate. She was surprisingly cunning, which perhaps was the only reason she was able to keep Sabrine's past secret from her for so many years.
As she stared off again, wishing the gentle voice of the woman in her head would return, her bow drifted off her cello and fell limp beside her. This was how she spent her summer nights; playing cello as her mother worked in her office, working to become worthy of Winona's respect.
"Why have you stopped?" she heard her yell from the upstairs office.
With a sigh, she found the bow beside her, tightened the frog, and continued to play Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto Number Two in E major. Outside the sun began to sink beneath the horizon as an unfamiliar scent reached her oddly-heightened sense of smell.
She dropped the bow again, and sprang to her feet with an animal's graze at the sight of a cloaked man and his female companion.
"We mean you no harm Sabrine..."
"How do you know my..."
"You're very powerful you know... and I'm not just talking of music."
"How do you mean sir?"
"That's not important now. What is important is getting you home."
"Home? What are you talking about? This is my home!"
"So many questions child... just like your mother. You look just like her."
"I don't... Winona?"
"No not Winona!"
"I... Winona!" her mother's presence in the opposite corner of the room startled her. Clearly she was unhappy, and she had no intention of finding the reason why.
"Is that anyway to speak to your mother?" she threatened, taking a step towards the young teen.
"She's not your mother Sabrine," the stranger stated in a hushed whisper, "you know she's not."
Winona stepped between her daughter and the unidentified man, steam shooting from her ears. "Who... who the hell are you? Sabrine come it's time to go..." she turned to her daughter who remained standing, "Sabrine!"
She turned her head sharply, eyes glowing a pale lavender for a brief moment before returning to their emerald state. "Don't make me."
"Fine!" she shouted loudly, before tromping up the stairs yet again, leaving Sabrine alone with the two strangers.
"Damn Homo sapiens..." Magneto muttered under his breath.
"You say you know my mother..."
"Yes, your real mother... Jean, Jean Grey."
"How... how do you?"
"Your mother is..."
"You're a mutant aren't you!"
"You catch on quite quickly..."
"What do you want?"
"So demanding! What makes you think we want something?"
Her reply was the classic don't-mess-with-me stare Jean Grey had used so often. "Sabrine, we need your help..."
Without warning, she grasped a hold of his thoughts. We need your help to save your mother. "My mother's dead you idiot!"
"No she's not... I know you know she's not... she's in the Fourth Dimension. You're the only one who can find her. You know that and it kills you that you don't know how to find her."
"Shut up! Shut up!" Tears slid silently down her cheeks. She had worked so hard to sort out the memories of her past, yet had been unsuccessful at identifying the place her mother was being held captive. "Please... tell me what I have to do." These strangers scared her, but she was willing to do whatever it took to be with her mother again.
"Come back with me, we'll train you. It's what you've always wanted isn't it? To be reunited with your mother... she loves you... it's been nine years hasn't it? Of course nine years in another dimension isn't that long, but it's still tearing you apart.
Reality hit her hard in the face. Where have I heard that voice? Her mind plunged into his without hesitation, or him realizing what was taking place. She saw Nazi prison camps, Alcatraz... Liberty Island. Liberty Island!
"You! I can't go with you! I know who you are! Magneto, Master of Magnetism, a mutant terrorist is what they call you... I don't want to be one of you... part of your Brotherhood. You're against the very things my mother stood for... against the school, the man you were once close friends with! Now leave! Get out of my house!
"Sabrine, please you're not being rational!"
"Go now..." she raised her hands, eyes glowing a fierce purple, "or I'll blow you into a million pieces."
"Sabrine!"
She lifted him slightly off the ground with her telekinesis, "Don't think I won't!"
He nodded, turning quickly with a twirl of his cape as she lowered him to the ground. He disappeared suddenly, but not before saying his parting words. "We'll meet again child."
She heard a whizz through the air, and lifted her hand to catch the object.
Dog tags.
X X X X
The X-Men Mansion
Dasha Munroe shielded her eyes from the unexpectedly blinding sunlight.
"Rise 'n shine Sunshine!" Chloe sand in a sing-song voice.
Dasha, in response, buried her head deeper into her pillow, groaning loudly at her failed attempt to block the sun's devilish rays.
"Come on Glazy-poo!" Chloe grabbed her ankles, trying to pry her off the mattress, "Dasha Munroe! It's 11:30!"
"Go away!" came a muffled reply, hidden beneath several sheets.
"Go away!" Chloe mocked in Dasha's voice.
"Ha ha you're so funny! Come one! It's Saturday!"
"Dasha! Glaze!"
"What?"
"Ororo wants to see you..."
Well that woke her up... Chloe thought watching the suddenly awake Dasha change out of her pajamas quickly.
"Come on, I'll take you to her."
The two teenagers walked down the hallway in complete silence, greeting the younger students who walked by.
"Feels like we've been here forever doesn't it?" Dasha asked.
"To think six years ago you were my servant!"
"Do you have to remind me of that everyday?"
Chloe smiled her wide innocent smile, wrapping an arm around the younger girl. "Yes I do, but you were the one who brought us here and for that I am..."
"Forever thankful?" Dasha finished, "I know."
"Well here we are... good luck..."
Dasha rolled her eyes and opened the large wooden door before her.
"Well it's about time Miss Dasha!" A beautiful African woman with short stormy hair and misty eyes smiled warmly at her pupil from across the room. Her name was Ororo Munroe, also called Storm for her ability to control the weather.
"I'm sorry Professor Munroe..."
"Professor Munroe? You're not in trouble Glaze."
"Oh... I thought..."
"No, I just wanted to talk to you... come sit down."
"Ok, shoot," Dasha flopped down in the armchair across her aunt.
"Logan and I are leaving on a mission..."
"Oh?"
"The Professor is sending us to find a mutant... we should be gone a few hours at most..."
"What kind of mutant?"
Ororo fell silent staring into the cautious eyes of her niece.
"It's her isn't it?" Ororo only nodded.
"Don't you think that's dangerous? She could kill you without even lifting a finger! Ororo honestly, think about what you're doing!"
"Despite what you may think, she is a confused child, just like you once were! She's lost and alone with more power than she can handle! If we don't bring her back, Magneto will use her power against us."
"Please Ororo... be careful."
"Always."
X X X X
The Blackbird was more than a jet; it was a stealth aircraft with complete with pitch-black paint, a sleek body, pointed nose, two immensely powerful ramjets, and a pair of sharply slanted wings. Overall the jet was equipped with enough power to put other aircrafts to shame and speed enough to outrun an enemy if needed. It was also very good in making what would be long flights, quicker than the fastest airline, which was exactly what they needed now.
"I'm sending you the coordinates of your target's location. This one may not comply as nicely as we would like, but by all means, do not resort to violence unless absolutely necessary. I'd like everyone back in one piece thank you. Good luck." The Professor's voice boomed over the loud speaker within the Blackbird. He had returned a month after being proclaimed dead, in the body of a man no one recognized. It took time to get used to his new appearance, but he soon returned to his old job of running the school.
In the right-hand pilot seat, Logan looked uneasy. Unlike Storm, whose mutant abilities gave her acute senses while flying, Logan never liked the sensation of flying... especially now, sitting in the pilot seat which was once occupied by a certain beautiful red-headed green-eyed mutant.
Storm seemed to sense his inner turmoil, giving him a small smile before making the plane come alive. Everyone at the mansion was aware of his guilt over Jean's death, and although he was the one who physically ended her life, she was the one who pleaded for him to sacrifice her. The Phoenix, her evil alter-ego, had caused havoc in Alcatraz destroying everything in her path, human or otherwise. He missed her terribly, and everyone feared he would never be the same.
"You ready for this?" she asked him gently, fearing she'd wake the animal within him.
"What do we know about the mutant?" he was all business, which was better than his usual demeanor.
"Her name's Sabrine Page, but she calls herself Nightshade. Her abilities are unknown, her power's pretty much unlimited making her a danger to the world."
"Another beast we have to cage?"
"It's not like that Logan... she has to be taught to control her power, if she doesn't have control the world could very well be in danger... she could end up like..."
"Jean?"
"I didn't mean it that way Logan..."
"So Jean's an animal now..."
"No... please don't argue with me. What happened to Jean was unfortunate, I'd hate to see the same thing happen to a young girl."
"How old is this mutant?"
"She's fourteen..."
"Fourteen?" Logan snorted, obviously unimpressed.
"Watch your back Logan, you don't know what you're dealing with..."
"Do you?"
X X X X
An hour of much awkward silence later, they had arrived in Minnesota only to find the house unoccupied. Sabrine Page was nowhere to be found.
"She couldn't have gone far..." Logan replied, sniffing the air inquisitively.
Storm glanced around looking for any sign of where the teenager may have run off. The house sat in the middle of what looked like a barren wasteland, the closest house being a mile away. A thick expanse of evergreen wood circled the back of the house, a likely place for one to run away.
"I say we start with the woods," she answered, turning to him before quickly following him down the stone path into the darkened woods.
X X X X
Sabrine was surprised how much sunlight the trees blocked as early as three in the afternoon. She found herself in great need of her night vision, one of her mutant abilities from which she got her name Nightshade. Her telepathy surrounded her in a huge field of energy as dense as the trees that entrapped her. After her recent encounter with Magneto, she took no time in quickly gathering a duffle full of absolute necessities before running off. Now more than ever, she relied on her mind's eye to keep her safe from everyone else.
She moved silently, using her telekinesis to hover slightly above the ground, the laces of her purple cross-trainers barely brushing the dirt. Several yards behind her, something passed through her telepathic range, just out of her eyesight. Using as little of her power as possible, she located the figures while keeping her emotions under control. There was no need to get worked up now.
Fearing Winona or the police were on her tail, she began the task of identifying the intruders. There were two of them; a man and woman, both clothed in identical leather uniforms with a large "X" embroidered on the collar. The woman appeared slightly taller than Sabrine herself with gray hair and a cautious demeanor. The man was clearly the threat; he had a certain animal like quality to him with bushy hair and a tall muscular stature.
They were mutants, but somehow they seemed less threatening than The Brotherhood. Digging deeper into their minds, she discovered the woman had abilities to control the weather, and the man's healing ability allowed him to sport an entire skeleton encased in an indestructible metal called adamantium. They were teachers at a place Sabrine was familiar with.
They must be her friends, her colleagues…she thought, feeling a rush of relief envelope her senses.
She realized now that they were within arm's reach of her standing uneasy behind her.
"You probe everyone's mind, or is that your way of greeting us?" the man asked, his voice gruff, yet strangely gentle.
"I'm sorry," she smiled, her eyes turning from their luminous purple state.
"Sabrine, we're here to help you, we're from…" the woman spoke sweetly.
"Xavier's School for the Gifted," Sabrine interrupted, turning to face the adults. "I know."
The woman did not falter a second, "We've come to take you home."
"I don't have a home."
"Yes you do… we can help you…"
"Please leave before one of you gets hurt."
"Sabrine we can't leave you… Magneto will come back. Next time he won't be so cooperative."
She stared at the man, her eyes intently locked on his amber gaze. He was in awe, his mouth slightly agape, taking in her appearance. Her long red hair fell to her waist in soft waves, her eyes a familiar shade of green, her long lean legs covered in a form fitting pair of black pants. It was compete déjà vu. Logan was speechless; his mind was going crazy. She was a mirage, a copied image of the woman who haunted his dreams and stole his heart. He was too bewildered to speak. Why was the world so cruel to him?
Storm watched the silent exchange, feeling the pain consume him once again. The Professor's conversation before they left simply did not do Sabrine justice. She was still hesitant to believe her best friend's energy could have allowed her to create a teenager so beautiful. It was science-fiction, the idea of another dimension where life could be given, and yet here she stood purely non-fiction.
Sabrine blinked, pulling her attention from the man, and focusing it on the ground.
"You must be Logan," she whispered, her eyes catching his once again. He seemed stunned, as if his own name was foreign to him. She smiled her mother's signature smile, which pained him and spoke almost inaudibly, "She told me you'd come back for me."