It had been a month since Zira arrived at Kamar Taj, and within that month….nothing. Every instructor she had said that she reminded them of Stephen, and that pissed her off to no end. They all learned very quickly that she didn't want to be compared to anyone, least of all the man that had been the subject of her loathing for years.

The only solace she found was in the library. Wong was impressed at how fast she was able to pick up languages, especially the dead ones. Zira noticed this as well, and threw herself into her independent studies. Because they had students from so many different countries, she had a lot of practice, and soon became fluent in Japanese and Hindi, with Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese becoming a close second. Her Latin and Sanskrit were flawless, and she even mastered old Scandinavian. Isioma even helped her learn Hausa.

Stephen, on the other hand, was disheartened that her magical talents hadn't progressed at all. Zira was struggling just as he did. Without the Ancient One to go to for advice, he tried to go to Wong. Wong just said to leave her be and went back to his work. His next step was one of Ziras instructors. He decided to talk to Ti'lima. An older English woman from London and a master of 30 years, she wore the sleeveless blue tunic and slacks combination as she taught combat magic. Her greying hair was braided and pinned into a low bun. She had just dismissed a class when Stephen approached.

"Concerned about the child, Stephen?" Ti'lima asked as he approached. "She isn't progressing as much as you had hoped?"

"Is it wrong to be concerned about someone put into my care?" Stephen replied.

"No. Charles Xavier wants you to help this poor girl, as should you. Her talent is there, but it is uncontrolled. She is afraid of it," Ti'lima replied, re-wrapping the bindings around her hands and wrists.

"Charles did say that there were some incidents that made her very wary," he remembered.

"She reminds me a lot of you," the older woman said.

"Don't tell her that," Stephen said wryly.

"I already have," Ti'lima said. "She almost walked out of class."

"Almost?"

"You really think I tolerate that, Stephen?" The sorcerer supreme looked at her with surprise. None of the other instructors had bothered to stop her. "I barely tolerated it with you, what makes you think I would let a child do the same? Besides, she is an adept fighter."

"She did some training at Xaviers," Stephen pointed out. "It wasn't until she was about 15 that she was removed from the training program and moved into logistics and information tech."

"That explains a lot," Ti'lima pondered. "She has a knack for finding weaknesses in her sparring partners."

"I'm at a loss, Ti'lima," Stephen admitted. "I want her to succeed, but I don't want to help her more than I should as her guardian."

"She needs to study with you," she replied. "Her mind works quickly and she picks up information quite easily. None of us struggled the way she is...except for you."

"She hasn't even mastered the basics yet," Stephen protested.

"Neither did you until you were forced to," she pointed out.

"If I did that, Charles would kill me."

"Are you certain? Or are you worried about her friends?" Ti'lima bowed to him and left to get lunch. As he stood alone in the sparring yard, he realized that Charles wanted him to help her find control. He wanted that when he first came there...so he knew what he had to do.

XXX

"Come with me," Stephen told Zira as she was cleaning up after lunch. Zira looked around for a moment, then followed him without a word. They went to an empty courtyard, and Stephen began conjuring a portal. "Follow me," he said. He led her to Mt. Everest, near the peak. His cloak blocked the wind well, but poor Zira was shivering in her uniform. "Do you have your sling ring?" he asked. Zira nodded, unable to answer. "Good. I struggled just as you did once. I was brought here and told to surrender myself to the magic I was trying so hard to control. Mastery is a give and take, Zira. It controls you as much as you control it. You have minutes before you succumb to hypothermia and shock." As he walked back to the portal, he sighed slightly and prayed that he wouldn't have to collect her body. There was a clear desperate cry as the portal closed.

Zira couldn't believe it. He had left her there, knowing full well she struggled with the sling ring portals. Frantically, she tried to imagine the courtyard and summon the orange circle. Her body was shivering so violently that she could barely make the circle with her fingers. After a few moments of trying, she grew even more frustrated and screamed into the frigid air. Then, a strange calm came over her as she remembered what he said. He had been there once too, and this had to have been his trigger. Zira took a deep breath of mountain air, willed her body to be still, and concentrated on guiding the magic, rather than commanding it. She almost felt like she was asking for permission. The portal sprang to life in front of her almost as soon as she completed the first circle. Feeling a rush of excitement, she stepped through, snow clinging to her hair and eyelashes. Stephen stood there, eyes sparkling with a mixture of relief and pride.

"You're ready," he said.

Zira walked to a meal still covered in snow. She felt almost in a daze. Isioma saw her walk in and immediately seemed concerned.

"Zira, what happened to you?" she said, worried. "Why are you covered in snow?"

"Stephen...sent me to Everest...and left me there," Zira replied, still in a little bit of a daze as Isioma led her to sit down. "He said I needed to surrender control to the magic rather than assert control."

"He LEFT you on Everest?" her friend exclaimed. "That is so dangerous! How could he do that?"

"Because it helped him," a voice said near them. The two students looked up and saw Wong. "The Ancient One did the exact same exercise with him when he was struggling, and it worked. It was a favorite exercise of hers."

"But just going there in just her uniform? Surely she could have died!" Isioma exclaimed. "He was trusted with her and he just put her life in danger like that…"

"Our lives are constantly in danger with what we study," Wong pointed out. "There is always a danger in pulling power from other dimensions. The mutants that study their powers are in danger as well, true?" Zira, who had managed to come out of her daze, nodded.

"We were put through training constantly in a room we called the Danger room. There were more than our fair share of injuries. And because I couldn't control my power, I put my team in danger when I either lost control or became unable to contribute in any way," Zira agreed.

"Danger is everywhere, Isioma," Wong said. "By training ourselves with danger, we learn to combat it in the best way possible, and save as many lives as we can." With that, he walked away. Isioma seemed a little put off by Wongs attitude.

"Did you really have to practice in danger?" she asked Zira.

"We did," Zira said. "The last one I did, I almost killed my team and leveled the mansion. Professor Xavier literally had to knock me out to save everyone."

The Danger room was set on level 7 for her team. Josh was calling out orders while dodging his own obstacles. Zira was managing to hold her own combat-wise, but she was struggling. She tried to push away one of the arms with a laser on it, but she ended up having to jump out of the way just to survive.

"Zira, come on!" Jay called, turning another arm with a buzz saw on it into a bouquet of flowers.

"I'm trying!" she called back. The twins were trying to short out the system, but were too busy dodging all of the other arms and obstacles. Zira could feel herself start panicking. Her heart started pounding and her chest started tightening. Without thinking, she dove behind a fallen part of the room for cover and covered her head.

"Zira!" Josh called out. "Zira, help us!" Every team mate was calling her name. Her breathing got faster, and in the cacophony of noise, the poor girl blacked out.

When she came to, she was in her bed, and Professor Xavier was sitting next to her.

"What happened?" she asked. Charles handed her a tablet to show her the video.

Zira suddenly stood up, her silver eyes glowing. She performed some complicated hand gestures and even muttered some words, and spell circles appeared everywhere, dismantling and destroying the various arms and dangers in the room. The problem was, she didn't stop. The circles kept going, and power started radiating away from her in bursts of silver. After a few moments, her whole body went still, her eyes stopped glowing, and she passed out.

"I had to stop you, Zira," Charles said. "I'm sorry."

Isioma looked at her with surprise as Zira recounted her story. "You've been putting your life in danger your whole life?"

"People like the X-Men and the Avengers are there to protect the world from physical threats. They train to fight those threats and put their lives on the line so others don't have to, especially threats that involve other mutants or super soldiers," Zira nodded.

"But...you're all children," Isioma said.

"The younger teams don't go on missions. Professor Xavier doesn't allow it," Zira pointed out. "We...they train to master their powers and retain the maximum amount of control. Without it, any amount of stress could trigger something like what happened to me at the hospital when my mom died. They don't all become X-men. Most of them graduate and end up going to college or just rejoining society. No one is forced to become a fighter." The Nigerian girl still didn't look convinced. "How about this? When my year-long trial is up, I'll take you to the Academy and you can see for yourself?" Isioma thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I hope you can prove me wrong, Zira," she said. "This Academy worries me greatly."