:Emma.: Emma sighed at the telepathic call. She paused in her marking. :I have a mission for you and Jean. The rest are already on the blackbird. There is a mutant in lower British Columbia somewhere that I want you to find.:

:Jean can handle it Charles, I'm busy.: she replied.

:Emma, I want you on this mission.: There was a hint of command in Professor's voice. Emma leaned back in her chair.

:What's so important that I need to go:

:The person I am talking about is the daughter of someone I know. There was a fire at her home. Two bodies were found. Her mother's and her mother's husband, her stepfather. They were both murdered. The police believe that he killed the mother and she killed him. We need to find her fast, as fast as we can. I don't know if Jean will be able to find her this time.: He informed the white queen. Emma rose from her seat.

:I'm on my way.: She closed her door and headed to the elevator.

Almost two hours later, they were finally entering the area that the Professor had narrowed it down to. Scott landed the plane in a clearing. He turned to the two telepaths.

"We're going to look on foot. If you two find anything, let us know." Scott said as he descended the hatch. Logan glared at his back before following him.

"Might as well get started." Jean said. Emma simply lowered her shields enough to scan the area slowly. Jean did the same, though beginning at the opposite side.

Scott and the rest of the team came back a few hours later, with only Logan looking unscratched. Scott shook his head.

"Nothing. You find anything?" He addressed Jean. Emma rolled her eyes. She felt Jean raise her shields once again, but she pushed just a little farther.

"Same here." Jean said softly. She sighed.

"We'll try again tomorrow." He said softly. The rest nodded.

Emma felt something on the very edge of her range. It was barely there, just enough that she knew someone was there. She couldn't tell anything about it. She looked at the others. No matter how much Charles may think of Scott and Jean, Emma though to herself, there was no way they would react well to knowing the girl murdered someone.

Emma headed down the ramp.

"Where you going?" Scott called. She turned her cool gaze to him.

"To get some air." She replied. She smirked when everyone accepted that excuse. She headed into the woods in the direction of the person she sensed.

The smirk slipped from her face as she continued on. The closer she got, the more she could feel the intense pain, one that seemed to strike a resounding cord within her.

After working her way through the bushes for another hour or so, she came to a point where she could hear the soft sound. It was barely noticeable, and even Logan would have had a hard time picking it up. The only reason Emma did was because she could hear the telepathic echoes in her mind.

She knelt down next to the collapsed figure. Only the shaking showed any of the grief that girl was experiencing. Small sobs that were more like gasps stole into the air. Emma placed a hand on the young mutant's shoulder.

The new mutant jerked away, falling onto her shoulder in her surprise. She scrambled to her feet and tried to get away, but Emma grabbed her arm just above the spikes to prevent her from escaping. The girl frantically pulled to release her arm from Emma's iron grip.

"No." The hoarse word was low and rough, the tears clearly there. Emma reached for the girl telepathically. She encountered a shield, but made her way easily past it. However, she was surprised to find no thoughts behind that shield, just a consciousness. "God damn it let me go!" the girl said a bit louder, with more panic in her voice.

"I'm not here to hurt you." Emma snapped. The girl glared at her and her eyes glowed red. She jerked her arm away violently, leaping a few feet away. Her short hair seemed to become charged, because they fluttered upwards, emphasizing the girls short horns.

"You're just like them." Emma narrowed her eyes. "You are just like them! You just want to take me away, to do stuff so I won't remember what I am, so I will look normal, but at the cost of my soul. You're just like them! Get away from me!" the air around the girl took on a red tint. "Just leave me alone!" Emma felt like the girl just suddenly disappeared from existence, even though she could see her running away. She just knelt where she was, deep in thought.

"Kid's nearly wild." A deep voice said near her. She turned her head to see Logan leaning against a tree, smoking.

"I can see that." Emma said.

"I'm not joking. What I smell of her isn't normal for humans or mutants. She's been out here for a while." He gestured to the spot where the girl disappeared. "Much too distrusting even for a new mutant."

"What did you smell?" the look he gave her was closed.

"Brimstone."

"She fled at the sight of Emma. Logan refuses to try and track her." Scott gave Logan a dirty look, and in response was flipped off.

"Jean?" The Professor turned to the other telepath. She shook her red hair, sighing.

"I can't sense her. I know I checked the area that Emma found her in earlier, but I didn't sense her then." The Professor gained a sadder expression.

"How did you know her mother?" Emma said to the man. The others remained silent, waiting for an answer.

"She was the daughter of an old friend who became very ill. When she died, she charged me with caring for her daughter. Later on in life, she turned out to be a strong telepath. She knows all about the X-Men, she helped with finding Scott actually." Scott flushed at that. "But it wasn't for her. She didn't want to be a hero, so she left. She kept in touch. A few years after she left, she fell in love, got married, and had a child. But the father of the child died in an anti-mutant riot. She raised the child alone." He paused to take a breath, and Emma could see that he was trying to decide what to tell them.

"Charles, there's more to it than that. No new mutant is that paranoid." Emma snapped.

"There is more." He agreed. "When the child was young, maybe eight or nine, her mother was taken in by the government. They preformed… experiments on her, trying to break her telepathy, trying to trap her into her own mind." His eyes met Emma's. "She shared a deep telepathic bond with her child."

It took a few moments for Jean to understand, but she let out a small sound of horror. "She was connected to her child when… Oh my god." Jean leaned into Scott's shoulder, hiding her face as she tried to regain composure.

"Whatever torture they put the mother through she felt every bit of it." Emma answered the question that Scott shot her.

"They succeeded in damaging her telepathy to a point. She could no longer communicate to just anyone, she had to know them somehow and couldn't reach farther than an average telepath at best." He sighed.

"I didn't find this out until earlier this year, when she contacted me and told me her daughter was displaying mutant traits. At the time, only her horns were showing, just starting to grow in. She stressed that her daughter would not be willing to come here, but she asked me to make sure she would be safe should anything happened." His gaze never wavered from Emma's. "She remarried two years ago, to a low key supporter of the F.O.H."

:Charles, there is something you don't want the others to know isn't there.: the slight nod was all she needed.

"He was man who died in the fire with her mother. He constantly encouraged Alex to join in on anti mutant protests, not knowing that he had married into a family of mutants."

"Why'd she married'em if she knew he was such a bastard?" Logan growled softly.

"Because he loved her and she him. Love is messy that way. And that was before she knew her daughter was an obvious mutant." His phone rang. "That, combined with a very bad day at school, caused Alex to lose everything in the space of an hour. We have to reach her before anyone else does." He reached for the phone and everyone took that as their cue to leave. Only Emma stayed behind as the Professor took the call. He hung up after a few moments.

"Charles, there is something missing from this story of yours." Emma said, resting a hand on her hip. He nodded and Emma felt the shielding going up around the room.

"Her mother has known her daughter was a mutant from early in the child's life. Her eyes would glow in emotional moments. But when they stopped recently, she thought her daughter had repressed her powers."

"Charles…" Emma said with a hint of impatience.

"She caused that fire Emma. The fire that burned down her house and that partially destroyed her school was her doing. What's more is several people never came out of that school." The Professor's shoulders slumped with exhaustion. "I've been using Cerebra ever since I found out. I can't find her anywhere. I guessed when I sent you out."

"I found her though." Emma replied, her eyes narrowing.

"The bond with her mother caused her to be telepathically unique. I only ever found her if I found her mother first. But now that her mother is gone… that bond is gone. Whatever her power is, it makes her invisible to telepaths." He gave her a pointed look. "Except you."

"Why?"

"She is rather sensitive for a non telepath. Maybe she in you she saw someone who she felt safe with." He had a small smile on.

"Until she saw me." Emma ground out.

"Until she realized she wasn't alone. She's been alone for the past two weeks, running. You caught her in a moment of pain."

"What happened at her school?"

"To hide the growing horns, she wore a hat for a while. Her mother got her a medical note for it, something about a skin condition. But the horns grew too big, so she began wearing a bandana over them. She was very good at keep it on. I am concluding someone managed to take it off. She was forced out as a mutant. They began to attack her brutally. I don't know how much damage was done. The survivors say that just as she passed out, it seemed like someone else was standing over her. They couldn't see, but they felt her mother's presence." He shook his head. "I don't know what really happened, but for some reason, Alex's power somehow unleashed, erupting as red flames all around her. Only the people who actually hurt her were killed."

"She must've been with hubby when she went to her daughter's aid." Emma murmured. Charles nodded.

"I think he was just coming home when it happened."

"So she doesn't know she killed those people."

"No, I don't think so." He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at her again. "Emma, for some reason, she let you in. It may have only been briefly, but on an instinctive level, she is letting you find her. Both Jean and I can't even sense her. Find her." He didn't ask, but there was a touch of desperation in his eyes. Emma could see that the girl's mother had been like a daughter to him, had been like Jean to him.

"I will." Emma promised before she left the Professor to his own thoughts.

"Let her be safe." He prayed under his breath.