Chapter 14: Past Shadows

It was midday before Que woke. She was disoriented at first by the sunlight streaming in through her window. Then, the previous night came flooding back to her. She couldn't remember the finer details of all that had happened, but she knew she had completely lost it. She held her head in her hands. That was so embarrassing. "What was she going to say?" she thought.

She pulled on some jeans, a shirt, and grabbed her purple hoodie from a pile of her strewn belongings in the floor. She surveyed her room, which was still a complete mess. She'd have to do something about that, but maybe after some food. Hopefully, everyone would be out and about in the snow and sunshine, so she wouldn't have to answer to anyone yet.

Of course that was not to be. As soon as she made landing on the ground floor she heard, "Good morning Que. Would you mind joining me in my study? I had some lunch brought in for you."

"Was there keeping anything from this man?" she thought as she turned toward his study. It had been quite a while since she had been in there for trouble or for tea. By November, the Professor had let her choose if and when she wanted to chat with him, and she had only gone a couple times since.

"Come in Que," the Professor called to her. She walked in and plopped down on her favorite chair. She had dubbed it her chair months earlier and the Professor knew it. He had some soup on the adjacent end table waiting for her. She sat cross legged in the chair and grabbed her soup.

"This looks awesome. Thanks," Que said, hungrily picking up her lunch.

Charles waited patiently for her, but her lack of small talk made it obvious that he would have to bring up last night.

"Que," he sighed. "You are very aware of why we are here, and you can't put it off forever. Can you please share with me what upset you so much last night?"

"I had a nightmare," she said, shrugging nonchalantly.

He gave her a stern meaningful look.

"Que, the sheer scale of the post event tells me it wasn't just any nightmare. You were having a panic attack and could have torn apart the entire east wing of the mansion. Something was different, and I think you'd feel a lot better if you shared. You don't need to carry all your burdens alone. Let me help you."

Que pursed her lips and sat her soup back down on the side table. "I can't. You wouldn't understand. You're right, it wasn't just a nightmare Professor. It was reality at one point, and it was bad. I mean really bad."

She was actually being more open than Charles had expected at first. He waited for her to continue.

"I can tell you some, but please don't think any less of me," she said solemly, worry etched on her face.

"Que, you are a part of our family here now. We all love you very much. I will not think any less of you," he assured her.

Que steeled herself and continued "Eight years ago, I was taken by a faction of an organization called The World. They were located on an old Japanese WWII base on an island out in the Pacific. Their objective was to create superhuman weapons. They brought in children from all over the world who had a capacity for high intelligence and different mutant abilities," she explained.

"There were ten of us in the facility. I was the youngest and had just turned six when they took me. They brainwashed the kids as they came in, playing on fresh emotions. I had just lost my best friend. If you take an already angry at the world kid and give them the means to destroy it, it's not hard to get them to do what you want. Plus, our abilities were kept in check with power inhibiting implants. I was there for almost six years. You have to understand. We did … I did unspeakable things," she whispered the last part.

Que pause her eyes glazing over as she drifted into her memories, rocking slightly in her chair.

"Que," the Professor said, pulling her back to reality. "You dreamt about this place last night?"

Que nodded. "They'd have us train for hours on end, hone our intellects, and try experiments on us. I have enhanced healing, reflexes, and senses as a result. "

"What was your dream about last night?" he asked.

Que turned expressionless at the question, and they sat in silence for several moments. "I can't say it, and you don't want to see it. They not only stripped away my childhood, but my humanity. I don't think I can… I can't." Que sighed and anxiously ran her hand through her hair.

"Que, if I can help you through it, then we can bare it together, but it is your decision if you want to share it with me," he responded resolutely.

Que pondered his offer for a few more silent moments. "You cannot tell anyone any of this. Not Storm, not Aasir, not anyone."

"You have my word Que. I will not share anything," Charles responded.

Que pursed her lips, but then nodded her consent.

Charles wheeled closer. "If it becomes too much at any moment, tell me, and we will stop."

He sat across from her and put his fingers on their temples connecting them. As they closed their eyes, it took Que a moment to unlock her mind and memories enough to let Charles in.

The memory came in suddenly at full force. As Que showed him the dream, he felt the pain, anger, and then anguish pass through her body with the memory. She had been right. He never imagined this was what she was holding in. When the memory ended, Charles opened his eyes.

Que was avoiding his gaze, but he could see her eyes were damp and expression guarded.

This was only a glimpse of six years Que had spent in this hell hole. What other atrocities did she experience while imprisoned there? Charles wondered.

They sat in silence together for a long while.

"I bought into what they were selling at first, and even became bent upon becoming the best there was for a while, but when I wanted out… I had stolen the data off their hard drives, implanted decoy access areas, set up memory wipe traps, and reprogrammed some of their computer systems so we could escape. They caught me, or at least they thought they had, though they had no idea what I had really done. I didn't think they'd find my decoys so quickly though or retaliate in the ways they did. After that they… well lets just say they amped up the experimentation and delayed our escape. We were there three more months before my message was fully sent, and we finally got out," Que quietly explained. "Last night my dream was extremely vivid, like I was really there, living it all over again. Then, when I woke up... I thought I saw a man standing at the edge of my bed, but it must have been my imagination. I guess that was what sent me off the deep end. I don't remember much after that, aside from you and Storm suddenly being there," she said quietly.

"Que…" the Professor paused. He wasn't sure what to say at first. This young fourteen year old that he had come to care a great deal about had been violated, in more ways than what she'd just shown him, for several years.

"I want you to know that you are safe here. We will continue to do everything in our power to make it so. What can we do to help you?" he assured her.

"I feel safer here than I have in a long time, but, if I'm being perfectly honest with you, I don't know if I'll ever be fully at ease anywhere. This may be as close as I get," Que paused and then gave a small smile. "But I could totally update your security system. I talked to Hank about it a month ago, but he said I'd have to ask you," she replied glad to slightly shift the conversation.

Charles immediately knew she had purposefully changed topics, and her past still had a big grip on her. It definitely explained some of her behavior, but he got the message and resigned himself to helping her more at another time.