Zira packed quickly, not wanting to bring much with her anyway. As she put the last few belongings in her backpack, she heard a knock on her door frame. She looked up and saw Josh Eakin, a boy her age that she had trained with for a long time. They had been on the same team since they were old enough to begin training like X-Men, and he had stuck by her the whole time. Josh was a stout boy with brown hair and blue eyes, whose mutation allowed him to control air. Their team affectionately called him Airbender, after the popular cartoon series. Even after Zira had been removed from team training, they had come to her for tactical discussion, as well as just hanging out. As far as they were concerned, she was one of them.

"Heard you're leaving," he said.

"Yeah," Zira replied, putting her computer in her backpack. "Turns out I'm not a mutant."

"So the professor's kicking you out?" Josh asked, horrified.

"No," Zira reassured him. "I'm leaving because the professor thinks someone else can help me." Josh calmed down a little, but he still looked worried.

"We're gonna miss you, Zira," he said after a moment. Zira smiled at him.

"I'm gonna miss you guys, too," she replied. She walked towards him, throwing her backpack over her shoulder and grabbing her small duffel bag packed with some clothes and a few more personal items. Without a word, Josh handed her a small badge.

"We had Gear make these up for us," he said. Zira looked at it and grinned. Because they had decided to call themselves Alpha Squad, an A had been superimposed over the signature X of the X-Men. It was about the size of a quarter, but something felt off about the weight. She turned it over and saw a small dot with a blinking light. "It's a communicator. Squeeze it twice, and it will connect to all of us. Gear says it'll work anywhere in the world." Gear was the resident tech whiz, as being able to control technology was his mutation. He was able to rig up almost anything without much thought. Zira had no doubt of its reliability.

"Wow," she said, tears coming to her eyes. "Thanks, Josh." The boy grinned, but his eyes were glistening with tears as well. Dropping her duffel bag, Zira hugged her best friend.

"Kick some ass, Zira," Josh said softly.

"You too, Josh," Zira replied. "Give everyone else a hug for me."

"Why don't you do it yourself?" a female voice said from about 5 feet away. Zira opened her eyes and saw the rest of her team standing there, all wearing their badges.

May, a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes who was telekinetic and who bore a striking resemblance to Mark Hamill (They had already confirmed that it was coincidence). The team called her Jedi.

Sam and Sara, lithe African-American twins with black hair that was always either in locs or kept natural due to their mutation, and honey-colored eyes, who could control electricity. They picked the names Shock and Spark.

Jay, a stocky Hawaiian boy with long, curly black hair and brown eyes they called Alchemist, who could manipulate matter.

All four of them had tears in their eyes as they shared a goodbye hug with their friend.

"You take care of yourself, alright?" Sam said. "Don't let those weirdos get you down."

"Call us anytime," Jay said, pointing to his badge. Sara and May were too upset to say anything but hugged her all the same. Standing in front of all of them, she pinned the badge to her shirt and gave them a tearful smile.

"Alpha Squad for Life," Josh said. They stood in a circle and put their fists in one at a time. Zira put her fist in last, but they held the circle for a solid minute, reaffirming in their minds that they would stay friends and teammates forever, no matter what. They broke the circle just as Stephen walked into the hallway.

"Zira, are you ready?" he called. She looked at the man who was to be her new teacher, nodding as she picked her duffel bag back up.

"Hey!" Josh shouted at Stephen. "You take good care of her, alright? Or you'll be hearing from us!" Zira looked up at Stephen, waiting for his reaction...and it surprised her.

"You've got it," he said, giving a crooked grin that was similar to Zira's. The silver-haired girl took one more look at her friends.

"See you guys around," she said and followed Stephen back downstairs.

"Friends of yours?" he asked as they descended the staircase.

"My teammates," she replied.

"Charles said you had been taken off of that team," Stephen said, a little confused.

"It's different when you train for a few years together. They still included me in team discussions, since having an extra set of eyes never hurt," Zira said. Stephen nodded and didn't press the issue any further.

When they reached the Professor's office, Zira felt herself get choked up. Saying goodbye to her team was hard enough. Saying goodbye to two men who had raised her since the age of 5? Worse.

She hugged Charles first. That was the easier thing to do.

"Thank you for everything, Professor," she said. Charles chuckled.

"You are most welcome," he said. When she pulled away, he held onto her shoulders. "You will always have a home here." Zira nodded her understanding, tears springing to her eyes. Then, she turned to Logan, who seemed to be holding back tears himself. He took her in his arms for the last time in the foreseeable future. At that moment, both of them had flashbacks of the many times he had done just this.

When she was 7, waking up from a nightmare that had resulted in an incident that wrecked her room.

When she was 10, on the 5th anniversary of her mother's death.

When she was 11, and had almost killed her team, forcing her fourth reassignment to the group that would become Alpha Squad.

When she was 15, Professor Xavier had told her that she would be taken from X-Men training permanently.

There were many times in between, and many more appeared in both of their heads. By now, they were both in tears. Logan kissed Zira on the forehead and hugged her one last time.

"Take care of yourself, kid," he whispered.

"Yeah, you too, ya big softie," she replied. They pulled apart, wiping tears away. Then, Logan grabbed Stephen by his arm.

"Anything happens to her, you answer to me, you understand?" he growled.

"I would say you'd have to get behind the group from upstairs, but something tells me you mean something very different," Stephen quipped, but he took the warning seriously. He could tell that Logan was very fond of this girl, and wanted to protect her like one of his own children. After observing the mutant's healing powers, Stephen guessed that it would take a lot more than normal effort to keep this wild-looking man from keeping his promise. He then turned to his new charge. "Ready?"

"Ready," Zira replied. Stephen held up his left hand, with the first two fingers pointed up. Zira noticed a ring on those two fingers. It appeared to be made out of brass and was a long rectangle that crossed both fingers. With his right hand, he began to make a circular motion. The same orange gold circle formed in front of both of them, the picture of the front steps of a red brick building in the middle of it. Keeping the motion up, Stephen beckoned to her and walked forward into the circle. Zira turned and took one last look both at the office and at the two men smiling at her. Taking a breath, she stepped through the circle and into her new life.