"You were our responsibility, and we failed you," Kurt finished sadly. "The team didn't last much longer after that."
"Logan was disgusted that we couldn't go back for you," Scott said. "He was the first to leave. And with Jean pregnant, she and I both had more important commitments to keep."
Emma and Rachel both looked at their feet.
"But before Jean joined me, Xavier asked her to help him prepare… some sort of mass psychic event. She had this remarkable telepathic power, and he wasn't too far behind. Together they erased everyone's memories of mutantkind. The Brotherhood, the X-Men, all of it. And the demons were swept away with them."
"That part I've heard once or twice," Kitty kneaded her temples. "That doesn't explain how Storm and Illyana are sitting here with us today."
"I can take it from here," Ororo gestured.
"We were trapped, all of us, in Limbo. Gradually, that place began to drain and alter our powers. Hank's wit began to dull even as his claws began to sharpen. Peter… was strange ng for Illyana. His metal shell seemed to stave off the worst of it, but he became distant.
"My change was different still. My mutation gives me power over the natural elements of the world. But the natural elements of Limbo are not things such as wind and water, as they are here. Limbo is governed by mysticism and chaos. So as the weather ceased to heed my call, new forces answered. I gained control of the wild magics of Limbo.
"And as for Magneto? He went off on his own not long into our imprisonment. To find another way out, perhaps. I have not seen him for quite some time."
Storm held up her hand, and a violet crackle of energy weaved through her fingertips.
"The taint lingers still. Though we have been on Earth for some 8 years, I still can barely muster a summer squall."
"Ororo taught me to use magic to defend myself," Illyana continued. "All the energy powers I told you were part of my mutation are actually spells. My true mutant ability is teleportation, and I can't use it."
"Can't?" Kitty asked.
"Won't. My powers are connected to Limbo. I can pass freely back and forth now. But if I use it again, Belasco will be able to find me. He'll take me back there."
"Why is he so interested in you?" Armor asked what everyone was thinking.
"To finish what he started. He wants my soul."
Wolfsbane looked at Thunderbird, then at Illyana. "You sold your soul to a demon?"
"Hold your tongue, young woman," Storm boomed. "You know not of what you speak, or of what she has faced. Her soul was stolen by a demon!"
Wolfsbane immediately withdrew.
"Belasco turned a portion of my soul into a Bloodstone, an artifact of arcane power," Illyana's eyes teared.
"And after we escaped he hunted us, kept coming back for more. By the time we escaped he already had three. He needs five, to open some sort of gate to Earth. He showed me once, an amulet with a pentagram engraved on it.
"He wants me, specifically. Bloodstones can only be made from pure, innocent souls. I guess my X-Gene was so tied to Limbo that he was drawn to mine."
Here Illyana was no longer able to hold back her emotions. She began to sob with deep, heaving breaths.
"Miss Sinclair is right to fear me. I'm... corrupted. Even after the first Bloodstone had been forged, I heard a voice. It was trying to rationalize all things I was seeing, feeling. It wanted me to do things, to fall deeper into that Hell!
"And as he took more from me, the darkness kept gnawing and biting, and the whispers became shouts. In my dreams I still see that place, still hear it beckon."
"Fraulein," Kurt said softly.
"Most of my soul belongs to him. The brightest part, we separated from me and forged into a blade."
She held out her hand and a sword flashed into her grip.
"The Soulsword keeps the darkness at bay," she said. "But he wants all of me. He calls me his 'Darkchilde,' the Infernal Herald. His little monster."
Storm put her arm on the girl and allowed her to take a rest.
"When Illyana came of age and her mutant power arose, we saw an opportunity to finally escape. But her teleportation discs were unhoned, she needed to learn how they worked. They moved erratically through space and time, and at first she was unable to choose her destination. But eventually we had a breakthrough. After seven years in that nightmarish place, we found a way out. And Belasco found us. Henry and Peter volunteered to stay behind. Their sacrifice bought the two of us enough time to get out. At long last, out."
"My brother, and Doctor McCoy, they're still in there," Illyana wept. "It's all my fault!"
Kitty stood up. She looked grim - like she had just lost her best friend. Illyana hoped that expression wasn't literal in this case.
"Doesn't sound that way to me," she stated sharply. Ororo, I think she should stay here at the school with us."
Illyana stifled a whimper.
"I'm afraid I can't allow her to leave my care," Storm asserted.
"That's fine. You can both stay. Emma, take Ororo in your class. She already has the basics, and then some."
"Oh. Okay," Emma seemed startled by the hardness in Kitty's voice.
"Katherine, I appreciate your hospitality," Storm said. It sounded like she had something else to add, but left it out.
Illyana moved quickly through the halls, avoiding the eyes she knew were on her. Word of her story was spreading quickly through the school, and she wasn't used to the attention. She pushed ahead until she reached the door to her dorm.
Kitty was waiting for her inside, evidently having used her powers to invite herself in. She was looking at the scant items Illyana had decorated the room with.
"When we were roommates, that last year I was at school," the headmistress started, "I remember you used to have nightmares. You would mumble in your sleep."
"Kitty," Illyana whispered.
"I thought that you maybe had a rough family life. A violent father, something like that. I never said anything, because I didn't think I should. I'm not exactly the poster child for stable home lives myself."
She turned to face Illyana now, her face wet with tears.
"I wish I had said something. I wish I could have been there to help you. You've carried so much with you for so long."
"I'm sorry I lied," Illyana said. "I was a terrible friend."
"Illyana Rasputin," Kitty embraced the blonde, "We're both really terrible friends. But I think we can fix that now."
"You mean, we still friends?"
"Yeah," Kitty laughed, and wiped her eyes. "Don't be dumb. It's gonna take more than a few demons to wreck our friendship."
Ororo Munroe looked at the reflection in the mirror. Once there had been eyes there, eyes that had stared back at nightmare kings, alien warlords, the legions of Limbo, and everything in between. But those eyes were gone, the luster behind them long lost. She was back here, in this place where mutants found their beginnings.
And so must I begin again.
She pulled from her shoe a dagger, ornately carved with blessings of an African shaman she met long ago. In her formative years she had used it in her thievery, prying locks and frightening the occasional traveler.
She held out part of her silken white hair and, in a single swift motion, lopped it from her head.
She closed her eyes, and went about her work. Her knife flashed back and forth, until much of her once-flowing hair lay in the sink. When all was said and done, she had cut a makeshift fade into the sides of her hair. She left the middle long to hang over one side. If she was to be a student once more, she should look the part. Ororo was never much one for conformity in her youth.
Perhaps, she thought, this could even be fun. Her school days were long past her when she met Charles Xavier. She had to learn to use her powers the hard way.
She washed the remains of the old Storm down the sink, then left bathroom. Once the door shut the faucet turned back on. Then another. Then another. The rushing water sounded for anyone who could have heard it like hissing laughter...