Let the Games Begin

Well…all the nice stuff is pretty much over.

John was still amazed with everything that had happened a year ago. Fighting with Bobby and actually getting beaten was at the top of the list of things. Actually getting away without getting caught was another amazement. Now he sat in a motel room, one of the many he had been staying in since that night. He didn't know what to do with himself. He couldn't go back to the school, even if he wanted to. He knew he was viewed as a traitor by all of them there.

A knock on the door burst into his thoughts. He glared at the thick piece of wood. A few seconds later another knock echoed through the room.

"Go away." John called. A louder knocked echoed this time. John rolled his eyes and got up. He made his way to the door. "I told you to go…" He flung the door open and froze. He stared at the person on the other side of the door before a slow smirk formed on his face.

"Are you sure?" Ororo asked.

"Never been more sure." Logan said. They made their way through the halls and stopped in front of a room. "They were only after her, Storm. There's gotta be some reason." He knocked on the door before opening it and the two walked in. They stood in front of Grace who was sitting cross legged on her bed with a book on her lap. "Grace…"

"Hmm…" Grace said, slowly taking her eyes off the book and looking up at the two people in front of her.

"Umm…we need to run some more tests." Ororo said.

"Why?" Grace asked.

"There's a few things we need to know." Ororo said. Grace looked scared but she nonetheless nodded. A few minutes later she was sitting on the med lab table in a tank top, holding one arm out in front of her as Hank stuck a needle into her vein and withdrew some blood. It was obvious Grace was restraining herself from yanking her arm away. She looked pretty uncomfortable and awfully self-conscious as she tried to cover as much as possible with her other arm. She waited until Hank put a band-aid on her arm before she wrapped it around herself. Hank was the only one in the room with her. Logan and Ororo were outside.

"I find myself surprisingly curious as to why Logan is very interested in you." Hank said. Grace didn't say anything as she pulled her long sleeved shirt back over her head. Hank turned his attention from the machine he just dripped Grace's blood into and looked at Grace herself. "Might I ask you something?"

"What?" Grace asked, quietly. Hank came over to her and gently took one of her hands. Grace watched as he slowly slid her sleeve up somewhat to reveal the pale pink scar around her wrist.

"How did these happen?" Hank asked. Grace blinked and looked at him. For the first time since she first met him, she became very fearful of the blue man as she yanked her arm out of his loose hold and bolted out of the room.

"What was that about?" Logan asked, rushing into the room with Ororo at his side.

"Did you know she has scars?" Hank asked. Logan and Ororo looked at each other then at Hank.

"Uh…don't most people have scars?" Ororo asked.

"Not like this, Ororo." Hank said. He took her hand and slowly ran a finger around her wrist. "On both wrists…scars that circle them. Unusual in itself since they seem to wrap around like bracelets. But…when her wrists are touched, even just the slightest, she'll flinch and look somewhat pained."

"She had them clamped together." Logan said, slowly. "Back after those men showed up." He held his own wrists together in front of him. "Almost as if they were handcuffed."

"Interesting…" Hank said. He returned to the machine as results came out of it. "The scars…they looked fresh…but she's been under constant watch has she not?"

"Yes." Ororo said.

"Hmm…" Hank said. He looked at the results from the latest test. "Well…it appears that she's roughly the same age as Rogue, twenty or twenty-one at the most." He looked over everything. "That's about all that's new."

"I'm going to go find her." Logan said. He left and slowly walked around. It didn't take too much time to find her. As he walked past a window, Logan stopped and backtracked. Grace was sitting on the fountain, half turned, with her hand held out over the water. Logan made his way down the stairs and outside towards her. "Grace…"

"Hmm…" Grace hummed, slowly lifting her eyes from the water to Logan. He looked at her hand and noticed water was jumping out of the fountain at it before she moved her hand into her lap.

"You ok?" Logan asked, looking back at her face as he slowly approached her. Grace looked down to where her hands were clasped in her lap. Logan sat down next to her. He wondered if she noticed that her sleeves had ridden up to reveal her wrists. Grace made no movements. Logan put one of his hands over hers. "I know you're scared. I guess you think the best thing to do is to ignore everything and hope it'll go away." Grace made a soft noise but didn't respond in any other way. "It won't though. Grace, you have to tell us what's going on. We can help you…we want to help you. But you have to talk to us. You have to trust us."

"How can I?" Grace asked, looking up. "The last person I trusted…did this to me." She looked away from Logan. "If you were told by someone you thought loved you that you can't do what you know that you can…would you listen to them?" She looked down at where Logan's hand was still over her own.

"Is that what happened?" Logan asked, quietly.

"They didn't want to believe that I was a mutant." Grace said. "I was everything they hated in a small little package." Logan's fingers were gently moving over the scars on one wrist. "They couldn't take it…they didn't want to."

"Your parents did this to you?" Logan asked.

"No…" Grace said. "They're dead." She looked up at Logan's face with tears running down her cheeks. Logan had seen plenty of people cry but seeing it from this girl was different. Seeing her tears unhinged something in him. "People…people say things they don't mean. Good things. But when they say bad things…they almost always mean them."

"Yeah…" Logan said.

"You can't ask me to trust you guys." Grace said. "Because I just can't. I'm sorry." She dropped her gaze. Logan reached up with his free hand and wiped the tears off her cheeks.

"Don't be sorry." He said. It was somewhat unnerving to have seen Grace act like a scared little girl for the whole week and then, in a split second, she turned into a woman who was too mature for her age. "Grace…we need your help."

"With what?" Grace asked.

"You have to tell me who those people were." Logan said. Grace leaned away from him and shook her head. "Grace, it's the only way to help you. We have to know what we're up against in order to keep you safe." He was aware that his hand was still on her cheek.

"They hunt their own kind." Grace said, quietly.

"What?" Logan asked. Grace opened her mouth to say something.

"Here you are." Kurt said, popping up a few inches from them. Grace jumped and Logan grabbed at her to keep her from falling into the fountain. "Opps…sorry." Grace and Logan looked at Kurt.

"Is it walking time?" Grace asked.

"Just about." Kurt said. Grace nodded and stood up. She looked at Logan who still held her hand. She suddenly smiled a bit before stepping close to him and hugging him. Logan was caught off guard by that as his arms dropped to his sides. Grace stepped back a second later and then walked away with Kurt at her side. Logan's hand lifted to his face where he had felt Grace brush her lips against his cheek before stepping away. He didn't move for a while after that, contemplating everything that was happening.

"What was that?" Kurt asked.

"What?" Grace asked.

"Hugging Logan?" Kurt asked. "I'm surprised he didn't do anything."

"I don't know." Grace said, her face going red.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked.

"Something's out there, Kurt." Grace said. Kurt stared at her. Where had this suddenly confident persona come from? Grace looked at Kurt. "Do you trust these people?"

"They are trustworthy." Kurt said. "I have not spent enough time around them to actually trust them completely. But I would if I had to."

"And this place is safe?" Grace asked.

"I do not know." Kurt said. "All the students have means of protecting themselves in some way so depending on your point of view…" Grace nodded and looked at the ground. "Are you afraid?"

"Very." Grace said.

"Of what?" Kurt asked. Grace didn't answer. "Are you afraid of Logan?"

"No." Grace said, almost at once. She looked at Kurt. "I was…now I'm not. I…I don't know why." She looked up as a person with big white wings flew above them. Kurt looked up as well.

"That must be Warren." He said.

"Beautiful wings…" Grace said. Kurt smiled at Grace as she slowly walked, keeping her eyes on Warren. This place appeared to be good for her. He just wished that she would reach out to others instead of having them work so hard towards her.

"Poor little girl…can't find what you're missing?" The ground shook and she watched helplessly as students ran through halls, screaming and being chased by black clad people. "You think this place will keep you safe but, sweetie, you just doomed them all." She couldn't look away as, one by one, a student was grabbed and killed in some gruesome way. "You can never escape. The sooner you realize that, the better. Why doom the poor pathetic children?" She started screaming, her hands over her ears and her eyes squeezed shut. She could still see what was going on though. She could still hear the screams of the students and she hear the voice of the person taunting her. "You'll never be safe, you'll never be happy. You're mine…MINE!!"

"GRACE!!" Kurt yelled, shaking her. It was nighttime and he had been fruitlessly trying to wake up the young girl as she tossed and turned in her bed. Once she started screaming, he had tried harder but nothing worked. Students at arrived at the door but they all just stood and watched. The floor shook every so often and Kurt concluded that it must be part of her powers.

"What's going on?" Logan asked, arriving behind a frantic looking student who had gone to fetch him.

"She won't wake up." Kurt said.

"Move." Logan said, pushing Kurt out of the way and grabbing hold of Grace's shoulders. Her arms flung out, hitting him numerous times. "Grace…come on, kid, wake up." She shook her a bit. One of her hands grabbed a hold of his arm and Logan glanced down at his as her nails dug into his flesh, inevitably drawing blood. "Grace, wake up!" The floor shook more and a few of the students in the doorway yelled.

"What do we do?" Kurt asked.

"Throw some water at her." Logan said. Kurt nodded and grabbed the water bottle sitting on bedside table. He opened it and poured the water onto Grace once Logan got her sitting up. She gave one final scream that resulted in the ground shaking enough to cause some students to fall before she finally snapped her eyes open.

"Oh god…" Grace said.

"Hey, hey, breathe." Logan said, not really sure if she was crying or if it was just the water running down her face.

"He's…it's…" Grace said, rocking back and forward, her arms wrapped around herself.

"Grace, look at me." Logan said. Grace's eyes turned to look at Logan's face. "Just breathe. Take a deep breath." She reluctantly did as he said. She shivered and Kurt put a towel around her shoulders after Logan let go of her arms. "One more…there ya go."

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah." Grace said.

"You don't seem like it." Logan said. He looked at everyone piled in the doorway. "Get back to bed!" They all left and Logan closed the door. He turned back to the bed where Grace was shivering. "I guess getting her wet wasn't the best option."

"I don't think so." Kurt said. "Grace, maybe you should change."

"Alright." Grace said. She got off the bed, grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later, trying to dry her hair. No body had the chance to speak because there was another scream that didn't come from the room they were in.

"Rogue…" Logan said, opening the door and leaving quickly. Grace and Kurt looked at each other before following. They caught up to him outside of Rogue's room and all three ran inside…

Then froze. Bobby was lying unconscious a few feet on the floor in front of Rogue. Logan's eyes grew wide as he looked at Rogue who had her back pressed up against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest, and her hands held out in front of her. Her hands had begun forming ice on them and the ice had worked its way over her wrists.

"What's happening?" Rogue asked. "I just…I kissed him…and then…" Logan, Kurt and Grace all stared at her, no one was able to speak.